NorthStar Community Daily Devotional

June 17 (scroll down for June 17 - 27 entries)

Scripture focus: With the arrival of Jesus, the Messiah, that fateful dilemma is resolved. Those who enter into Christ's being-here-for-us no longer have to live under a continuous, low-lying black cloud. A new power is in operation. The Spirit of life in Christ, like a strong wind, has magnificently cleared the air, freeing you from a fated lifetime of brutal tyranny at the hands of sin and death. God went for the jugular when he sent his own Son. He didn't deal with the problem as something remote and unimportant. In his Son, Jesus, he personally took on the human condition, entered the disordered mess of struggling humanity in order to set it right once and for all. The law code, weakened as it always was by fractured human nature, could never have done that. The law always ended up being used as a Band-Aid on sin instead of a deep healing of it. And now what the law code asked for but we couldn't deliver is accomplished as we, instead of redoubling our own efforts, simply embrace what the Spirit is doing in us. Romans 8:1-4 The Message

Yesterday’s devotional concluded like this: Feedback is a good thing; listening to community is a good thing. Living in a reasonable state of calm is a good thing. Prolonged imbalance is a bad thing. Grace helps us find our way back to God, to our center, to a place where sin can no longer dominate our every waking moment.

One think to keep in mind – the brain never completely forgets what it has learned. This is physiological as much as it is about people having really great memories. Addiction is permanent. From a neurological perspective, our cells can never erase the effects of attachment.

Grace must continually flow from God to us. We can’t be healed so much as we invite healing daily from the ravages of addiction.

No matter how Michael, Pete and I resolve the issue of going to concerts in an RV, we will forever have an image implanted in our brains of me cooking on a camp stove. This is not a pretty picture.

God’s grace can free us from the continuous, low-lying black cloud of living in an RV with two dogs and a lot of friends and family, but we must continually invite the Spirit of life in Christ to blow through our cells each and every day.

 
June 18

Scripture focus: Those who think they can do it on their own end up obsessed with measuring their own moral muscle but never get around to exercising it in real life. Those who trust God's action in them find that God's Spirit is in them—living and breathing God! Obsession with self in these matters is a dead end; attention to God leads us out into the open, into a spacious, free life. Focusing on the self is the opposite of focusing on God. Anyone completely absorbed in self ignores God, ends up thinking more about self than God. That person ignores who God is and what he is doing. And God isn't pleased at being ignored. Romans 8:5-8 The Message

Unhealthy attachment to anything restricts our freedom. God creates us for a life of fullness and freedom. Jesus reminds us in the gospel of John that we were created for an abundant life. The psalmist waxes on eloquently about the goodness of God’s creation – including his design of humankind.

Scripture also recounts the struggle for us to follow God’s call. We are all desperately in need of grace.

Thomas Merton wrote, “There is a natural desire for heaven, for the fruition of God, in us.” (The Sign of Jonas, New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1953, p. 112) He argued that this natural desire is utterly useless unless it is inspired by grace. Maybe so. But I would offer up the following suggestion: our natural longing for God may itself be an expression of grace.

Either way, we are completely responsible for what we do with our longings.

What do you long for?

 
June 19

Scripture focus: But if God himself has taken up residence in your life, you can hardly be thinking more of yourself than of him. Anyone, of course, who has not welcomed this invisible but clearly present God, the Spirit of Christ, won't know what we're talking about. But for you who welcome him, in whom he dwells—even though you still experience all the limitations of sin—you yourself experience life on God's terms. It stands to reason, doesn't it, that if the alive-and-present God who raised Jesus from the dead moves into your life, he'll do the same thing in you that he did in Jesus, bringing you alive to himself? When God lives and breathes in you (and he does, as surely as he did in Jesus), you are delivered from that dead life. With his Spirit living in you, your body will be as alive as Christ's! Romans 8:9-11 The Message

If our longing for God is natural, then addiction is by definition doubly cruel.

We lose our freedom to choose AND we try to fulfill our longing for God through our own small, petty attachments.

God wants us to live a rich, purposeful life – we desire to achieve success and might be workaholics in the process.

God wants to be in a love relationship with us - we start looking for the perfect lover in human form via Craig’s list.

God wants us to experience the abundant life – we get confused and think that means we need an abundance of things to make us happy.

God wants us to lay down our life for our friends – and we end up hopelessly codependent.

God wants us to have no other gods before him, and in our efforts to love God the best we end up spiritually addicted and become spiritually abusive.

We long for God, but the material world is so very present – it gets confusing.

Do you have any confused/disappointing/freedom-stealing longings?
 

June 20

Scripture focus: So don't you see that we don't owe this old do-it-yourself life one red cent. There's nothing in it for us, nothing at all. The best thing to do is give it a decent burial and get on with your new life. God's Spirit beckons. There are things to do and places to go! This resurrection life you received from God is not a timid, grave-tending life. It's adventurously expectant, greeting God with a childlike "What's next, Papa?" God's Spirit touches our spirits and confirms who we really are. We know who he is, and we know who we are: Father and children. And we know we are going to get what's coming to us—an unbelievable inheritance! We go through exactly what Christ goes through. If we go through the hard times with him, then we're certainly going to go through the good times with him! That's why I don't think there's any comparison between the present hard times and the coming good times. The created world itself can hardly wait for what's coming next. Everything in creation is being more or less held back. God reins it in until both creation and all the creatures are ready and can be released at the same moment into the glorious times ahead. Meanwhile, the joyful anticipation deepens. Romans 8:12-21 The Message

If we long for God but languish in our unhealthy attachments, what are we supposed to do?

What if...God desires love, not attachment, in his relationship to us?

What if...God wants us to love him from a position of freedom, not simply reflex because he wows us with his God-hood and overwhelms our circuitry to the point we don’t really have the freedom to choose?

What if...God actually thinks love, offered in freedom, is expressed when we turn to Him consciously and intentionally, with integrity?

What if...we can only choose God with integrity after we have chosen, painfully, to not allow our attractions to sway us to lesser gods?

What if...we must turn away before we can truly come home?

Michael, Pete and I sit down and have an honest conversation about a summer of Phishing.

* Pete confesses that he was hoping to leverage Michael’s idea so that he could see the ballparks?

* What if Michael confesses that he really doesn’t want quality time with the parental units?

* What if I confess that I took a vow to never use a camp stove and preferred hotels with room service?

* What if Ryan admitted that Phish wasn’t his kind of music and he preferred going to the ballparks with Pete?

* What if the dogs were able to tell us how badly they did not want to ride in an RV with a bunch of humans?

* What if we could tell ourselves and others the truth about what we longed for? And what if others loved us in spite of knowing the truth about our propensity to get attached to all sorts of small things?


June 21

Scripture focus: So don't you see that we don't owe this old do-it-yourself life one red cent. There's nothing in it for us, nothing at all. The best thing to do is give it a decent burial and get on with your new life. God's Spirit beckons. There are things to do and places to go! This resurrection life you received from God is not a timid, grave-tending life. It's adventurously expectant, greeting God with a childlike "What's next, Papa?" God's Spirit touches our spirits and confirms who we really are. We know who he is, and we know who we are: Father and children. And we know we are going to get what's coming to us—an unbelievable inheritance! We go through exactly what Christ goes through. If we go through the hard times with him, then we're certainly going to go through the good times with him! That's why I don't think there's any comparison between the present hard times and the coming good times. The created world itself can hardly wait for what's coming next. Everything in creation is being more or less held back. God reins it in until both creation and all the creatures are ready and can be released at the same moment into the glorious times ahead. Meanwhile, the joyful anticipation deepens. Romans 8:12-21 The Message

When we figure out who we really are, it makes sense to come home.

But don’t expect “home” to feel normal.

After years of taking our desires to places that it was never intended to go, we cannot expect “home” to feel like a cozy family gathering in its most idealized form.

So let me offer both a word of warning and encouragement.

As we grow, we must not expect growth to feel comfortable. Don’t let this confuse us. Joyful anticipation deepens, but it isn’t always pleasant.

What uncomfortable forays have you made to find your way back home, only to get side-tracked because it didn’t feel good in the moment? 


June 22

Scripture focus: So don't you see that we don't owe this old do-it-yourself life one red cent. There's nothing in it for us, nothing at all. The best thing to do is give it a decent burial and get on with your new life. God's Spirit beckons. There are things to do and places to go! This resurrection life you received from God is not a timid, grave-tending life. It's adventurously expectant, greeting God with a childlike "What's next, Papa?" God's Spirit touches our spirits and confirms who we really are. We know who he is, and we know who we are: Father and children. And we know we are going to get what's coming to us—an unbelievable inheritance! We go through exactly what Christ goes through. If we go through the hard times with him, then we're certainly going to go through the good times with him! That's why I don't think there's any comparison between the present hard times and the coming good times. The created world itself can hardly wait for what's coming next. Everything in creation is being more or less held back. God reins it in until both creation and all the creatures are ready and can be released at the same moment into the glorious times ahead. Meanwhile, the joyful anticipation deepens. Romans 8:12-21 The Message

Constance FitzGerald says, “In the process of affective redemption, desire is not suppressed or destroyed, but gradually transferred, purified, transformed, set on fire. We go through the struggles and ambiguities of human desire to integration and personal wholeness.” (FitzGerald, “Impasse and Dark Night,” p.97)

Listen – we go through struggles and ambiguities.

This is normal.

What is not normal:

* Never feeling bad
* Never having doubts
* Never going through trials
* Having an easy life
* Always being happy

I’m asking: is it possible that God’s Spirit touches our spirits and confirms who we really are and we have missed the message of hope and the dream of a calling because we thought it would feel good?
 

June 23

Scripture focus: So don't you see that we don't owe this old do-it-yourself life one red cent. There's nothing in it for us, nothing at all. The best thing to do is give it a decent burial and get on with your new life. God's Spirit beckons. There are things to do and places to go! This resurrection life you received from God is not a timid, grave-tending life. It's adventurously expectant, greeting God with a childlike "What's next, Papa?" God's Spirit touches our spirits and confirms who we really are. We know who he is, and we know who we are: Father and children. And we know we are going to get what's coming to us—an unbelievable inheritance! We go through exactly what Christ goes through. If we go through the hard times with him, then we're certainly going to go through the good times with him! That's why I don't think there's any comparison between the present hard times and the coming good times. The created world itself can hardly wait for what's coming next. Everything in creation is being more or less held back. God reins it in until both creation and all the creatures are ready and can be released at the same moment into the glorious times ahead. Meanwhile, the joyful anticipation deepens. Romans 8:12-21 The Message

Finding our way back home is good news and painful news.

It is good news in that it is a homecoming; it is liberation from slavery; it enables love.

It is painful news in that it is just plain hard; it requires relinquishment; we must let go; we must take risks; we must endure losses that are both real and painful.

May we find our way back home.
 

June 24

Scripture focus: So don't you see that we don't owe this old do-it-yourself life one red cent. There's nothing in it for us, nothing at all. The best thing to do is give it a decent burial and get on with your new life. God's Spirit beckons. There are things to do and places to go! This resurrection life you received from God is not a timid, grave-tending life. It's adventurously expectant, greeting God with a childlike "What's next, Papa?" God's Spirit touches our spirits and confirms who we really are. We know who he is, and we know who we are: Father and children. And we know we are going to get what's coming to us—an unbelievable inheritance! We go through exactly what Christ goes through. If we go through the hard times with him, then we're certainly going to go through the good times with him! That's why I don't think there's any comparison between the present hard times and the coming good times. The created world itself can hardly wait for what's coming next. Everything in creation is being more or less held back. God reins it in until both creation and all the creatures are ready and can be released at the same moment into the glorious times ahead. Meanwhile, the joyful anticipation deepens. Romans 8:12-21 The Message

One of our most difficult concepts to wrestle with is our addiction to our own self-image.

We decide early in our life certain “things” about what it means to be holy, accepted, pleasing, successful, good, bad – whatever we decide to hook our self-image to in an attempt to win approval and status.

This causes us to pose, posture and encourages the development of a false self.

This image can become addicting.

“What’s next, Papa?” ...is a better question than “How does my halo shine today?”

What idealized view of holiness has thrown you off track? 


June 25

Scripture focus: All around us we observe a pregnant creation. The difficult times of pain throughout the world are simply birth pangs. But it's not only around us; it's within us. The Spirit of God is arousing us within. We're also feeling the birth pangs. These sterile and barren bodies of ours are yearning for full deliverance. That is why waiting does not diminish us, any more than waiting diminishes a pregnant mother. We are enlarged in the waiting. We, of course, don't see what is enlarging us. But the longer we wait, the larger we become, and the more joyful our expectancy. Meanwhile, the moment we get tired in the waiting, God's Spirit is right alongside helping us along. If we don't know how or what to pray, it doesn't matter. He does our praying in and for us, making prayer out of our wordless sighs, our aching groans. He knows us far better than we know ourselves, knows our pregnant condition, and keeps us present before God. That's why we can be so sure that every detail in our lives of love for God is worked into something good. Romans 8:22-28 The Message

According to Dr. Gerald May, M. D. ("Addiction and Grace") the opposite of attachment and addiction from a neurological perspective is flexibility. He describes it as a willingness to cling less and accept more surprises in life. He claims that this freedom is a sign of a brain that is willing to register sensation rather than having to be so quick to cling, attach, adapt, habituate.

This flexibility is uncomfortable and exciting. We might need to grieve the loss of our familiar chains.

Our black lab, Max, loves his kennel. Who would think that a cage could be a comfort? A few nights ago we had a terrible storm. We have discovered that even if he runs into his kennel, unless the door is closed, he doesn’t feel safe. The feeling of freedom creates a great deal of anxiety for him when he feels threatened by a storm. The other night during the storm, Max was locked in his kennel and by all appearances seemed calm as a cucumber. We make sure Max is always firmly locked into his kennel on nights when storms are predicted.

Max is completely incapable of reasoning. He has a thing about storms. They freak him out. Shutting him in his kennel puts him at perfect peace. But that doesn’t change the fact that the dog is locked in a box. This doesn’t bother Max.

Being locked in a box should bother us. We are humans, created for deliverance as surely as we are prone to end up in bondage. I pray that we will find our way out of the limits of our own understanding, so that we might arrive in spacious places, where we can join God in living the life he intended for us.

As I have observed my dog under the influence of anxiety, it has occurred to me that we humans aren’t that different from Max. When under stress, we run to that which comforts because it is familiar – even if it is in the form of a cage. Max is very honest with his emotional expressions – we humans are sometimes a bit more...convoluted. It is easy to see in Max his anxiety or his peace. He pants when anxious; he is calm and loving at peace; when he is afraid, he runs off to his kennel; when he feels protective or senses danger, he barks and his hair stands up along his spine.

How willing are we to express our emotions with honesty?

How willing are we to choose to cling less and believe more?


June 26

Scripture focus: God knew what he was doing from the very beginning. He decided from the outset to shape the lives of those who love him along the same lines as the life of his Son. The Son stands first in the line of humanity he restored. We see the original and intended shape of our lives there in him. After God made that decision of what his children should be like, he followed it up by calling people by name. After he called them by name, he set them on a solid basis with himself. And then, after getting them established, he stayed with them to the end, gloriously completing what he had begun. Romans 8:29-30 The Message

Growing up in our salvation will require us to find our security apart from our own brain patterns.

We will experience a greater degree of dependency on the unexplainable mercy of God.

It is possible to spend a lifetime seeking satisfaction in places that will never fulfill our longing for God.

May God help us experience a transformation of desire as we recognize our deepest and truest longings are for Him.


June 27

Scripture focus: So, what do you think? With God on our side like this, how can we lose? If God didn't hesitate to put everything on the line for us, embracing our condition and exposing himself to the worst by sending his own Son, is there anything else he wouldn't gladly and freely do for us? And who would dare tangle with God by messing with one of God's chosen? Who would dare even to point a finger? The One who died for us—who was raised to life for us!—is in the presence of God at this very moment sticking up for us. Do you think anyone is going to be able to drive a wedge between us and Christ's love for us? There is no way! Not trouble, not hard times, not hatred, not hunger, not homelessness, not bullying threats, not backstabbing, not even the worst sins listed in Scripture:
They kill us in cold blood because they hate you.
We're sitting ducks; they pick us off one by one.
None of this fazes us because Jesus loves us. I'm absolutely convinced that nothing—nothing living or dead, angelic or demonic, today or tomorrow, high or low, thinkable or unthinkable—absolutely nothing can get between us and God's love because of the way that Jesus our Master has embraced us. Romans 8:31-39 The Message

Jesus, at this very moment, sits in the heavenly realm and is busy about the business of sticking up for us. This is awesome news. While Jesus is busy advocating for us, we’re on earth experiencing trouble, hard times, hatred, hunger, homelessness, bullying, backstabbing, killing and more.

Is this what we thought the life of a disciple would look like?

Surely victory means something different in the kingdom of God than it does to us on earth. In this world, victory usually includes endorsements, trophies and adoring fans. Not so in the kingdom of God.

It is impossible to figure out a way to adapt to the kingdom of God.

It is impossible to bottle freedom or contain love.

If we are going to become “entirely ready” to have God remove our defects of character, we must wrestle with what it means to become entirely willing to trust God.

What is it that you most trust? Would an alien observing your life see your trust in how you live?



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