A Sheep Looks Up

The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.

He makes me lie down in green pastures.

He leads me beside still waters.

He restores my soul.

He leads me in paths of righteousness

for his name's sake.

Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,  

I will fear no evil,

for you are with me;

your rod and your staff,

they comfort me.

You prepare a table before me

in the presence of my enemies;

you anoint my head with oil;

my cup overflows.

Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me

all the days of my life,

and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord

forever.  – Psalm 23

Father, I know that You are leading and guiding me according to Your wisdom, righteousness and Your perfect will.  

By Your merciful love, You provide me with all that I need.

Your way leads me to those places and circumstances where provision is abundant.

You offer me a constant source of refreshing, restoration, and peace.

You recreate my inner being so that I may walk uprightly before You and bring honor to Your Name.

Even in the darkest times in my life, in suffering and confusion, I need not be afraid.  You will always be beside me, comforting, protecting, instructing, and correcting me by Your Spirit and Your Truth.

You are not ashamed to be seen as my Benefactor and True Friend.  You lift me up while those who hate us look on and acknowledge me as one in covenant and communion with You.  You fill me with the Spirit so that my words and actions flow out of Your own heart.

Your infinite goodness and everlasting mercy will follow after me like wise and faithful servants as long as I walk upon this earth, that I might find my way at last to Your eternal dwelling place where I will remain in Your presence forever.

Thank You.

Tender Grass

I saw more clearly than ever that the first great and primary business to which I ought to attend every day was to have my soul happy in the Lord.  The first thing to be concerned about was not how much I might serve the Lord, how I might glorify the Lord, but how I might get my soul into a happy state and how my inner man may be nourished ….  I saw that the most important thing I had to do was to give myself to reading of the Word of God and meditation on it. – George Müller (as quoted in John Piper’s Desiring God)

I will never forget a conversation with a therapist about a boy who was a resident in the facility where I briefly worked.  I had giving him a series of tests, the results of which looked normal.  As the therapist and I discussed the tests, I remarked that the boy did not seem to have any real issues that would require being confined.   She replied, “Just one.  He’s German Catholic.”  The therapist was, too.  

The idea that Christianity is a religion of sacrifice, suffering, and misery is fairly wide-spread – especially, it seems sometimes, among Christians.  Some Christians try to get out of this with a gospel of health, wealth, happiness, and positive thinking.  Bad things are simply not accepted.  Anything bad that happens is a result of a “bad confession”.  Frankly my wife gets into this mode now and then and tells me that if I would not call a piece of equipment “junk” (or worse, depending on how long I’ve tried to make it function) I would not have so much trouble with it.  I am not responsible for Microsoft Windows being a crap OS or Italian steel being Fra-Jah-LEE or HP building obnoxious, temperamental  boxes -- let alone all the other ills and spills of the world. 

If I reject that approach, is the only course left just to sing:  “Doom, despair and agony on me/ Deep, dark depression excessive misery/ If it weren’t for bad luck, I’d have no luck at all/ Doom, despair and agony on me”?  That’s the reason that Piper wrote his book promoting what he calls Christian Hedonism – the idea that a Christian’s very purpose is to be happy – wherein he explores our beliefs about God’s sovereignty, about conversion, love, worship, Scripture, prayer, money, marriage, etc.   I think I’ve mentioned this book before.  Actually Piper starts out pretty well, but he gets really pedestrian throughout most of the text. 

No publisher is going to pay a writer for a couple of quotes from Jonathan Edwards, Luther, and Müller tied together with a couple thousand word essay.  But it would have been a much better book. 

That’s one of the problems with way too much evangelical discourse.  The writers and speakers feel compelled to make it relatable in a context.  They think they have to go into detailed explanations of how to “honor God” in your marriage and with your money and on your job.  Why can’t you just tell me what you know about God (ah, that might be the rub), shut up, and I’ll figure out the rest.   What’s the matter?  You all think you’d be out of a job if you couldn’t tell sheep how to eat grass?  A shepherd’s job is not to teach sheep how to be sheep.  It is to lead them up to higher, better pastures and protect them from the wolves. 

Anyway, as Müller points out, our job, as sheep is to be happy sheep, and we find that happiness in Christ, the Logos – often as we are led to feed upon and reflect upon His word. 

Know that the Lord, he is God!  It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture. – Psalm 100:3

Psalms 23 (Young’s Literal Translation)

Jehovah is my shepherd, I do not lack,

In pastures of tender grass He causeth me to lie down,

By quiet waters He doth lead me.

My soul He refresheth,

He leadeth me in paths of righteousness,

For His name's sake,

Also--when I walk in a valley of death-shade,

I fear no evil, for Thou art with me,

Thy rod and Thy staff--they comfort me.

Thou arrangest before me a table,

Over-against my adversaries,

Thou hast anointed with oil my head,

My cup is full!

Only--goodness and kindness pursue me,

All the days of my life,

And my dwelling is in the house of Jehovah,

For a length of days!

Honey and Chicken

A person who is full tramples on a honeycomb, but to a hungry person, any bitter thing is sweet — Proverbs 27:7

Jesus told us if we will hunger and thirst after righteousness, we will be filled. The requisite to being filled is to be empty. It is the essence of any Zen practice. As long as we think we have the answers, the answer will remain elusive to us. We may nibble around the corners, like the Hobbits toward the end of Bilbo's birthday feast, but we'll be picky and selective about what we are nibbling.

On an outdoor forum I used to frequent, one poster had for his signature line, "Hunger is the best sauce." I have a particular aversion to chicken. I have no real idea why that is. All I know is that the smell of chicken frying or baking, though appealing to most people, is almost nauseating to me. I think I could eat chicken if I couldn't smell it. Early one summer I hired on with a crew to haul hay at two cents a bale. I made $48.00 that day between about 8:00am and 11:00pm. Mom's breakfast kept me going until the shadows were long in the hollows. At last we paused for supper. It was fried chicken. I almost wept. Fortunately they had a few beans as well, but it was a mighty small serving. Knowing it would be hours yet before I got anything else to eat, I managed to not breathe and choke down most of a drumstick. I was hungry.

All of us have bitter, negative experiences from time to time. If our hearts are longing for truth, we will find the presence of God, even in the midst of unpleasantness. To the hungry heart, there is as much nourishment in the bitter as in the sweet. The Shepherd's Psalm talks about the Lord preparing a table for me in the presence of my enemies. It is the communion with Him that satisfies us. It is the Lord Himself Who satisfies my longing and renews my strength when I am under pressure and in the midst of trials. Bitter, sweet, rich, or plain, it doesn't matter if we "recognize the body [of Christ]" in that which comes to us.

The person who is full of self and self-satisfied will show disdain for all the gifts of God. They may ignore God, reject God, or demand that He conform to their requirements. They may call themselves Christians and run from church to church, event to event, claiming to seek the very truth they trample underfoot. For those obsessed with critiquing the music, the order of service, and the preaching, the problem is likely that they are not really hungry enough. When I am too full of flesh, I will not appreciate manna.

Like the Prodigal, I may need to recognize that I could have something better than husks and hog-slop. It may look like a long, empty road home. I may dread the humiliation of admitting that I am not all I thought I was. At the end, though, I will find my Father watching, waiting, and ready with all that is Good to fill the empty heart.