Bury Hurry

There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love. -- 1 John 4:18

Fear has to do with punishment as regards the Lord.  In our everyday lives, fear rules much of what we do because we fear loss, injury, and harm.  Another way to think of courage is to consider the opposite state in one form of fear – a very common one – panic.  When we panic we lose our presence of mind.  We lose control.  We rush forward.  Forty thousand years ago, out on the Serengeti, if a human heard a lion cough nearby, panic had something of a place.  We might not be descended from the folks who did not feel the need to get elsewhere in a hurry, or who stood still and asked, "Whadaya reckon that was, Floyd?  Floyd?".  Nevertheless, the value of panic is very limited and narrowly applicable only to immediate physical threats.  Even then it can often do more harm than good, as we see in the aftermath of human stampedes in stadiums or on Black Friday at Wal-Mart. 

Acting deliberately requires courage, and, while it might seem paradoxical, being deliberate allows us to be decisive.  Fear, you see, has already made the decision for us.  When we act out of fear, we act without intention.  We are driven by the potential for loss or harm, and, if we are not careful, alarm-driven decisions will become our default mode and our habit. 

Many of us heading out to work in the morning are already in fear mode.  We are grabbing coffee and bags, handing off other bags to the kids who have to get their coats on and get strapped into the car seat.  We fear there might be traffic tie-ups between the house and the daycare, between the daycare and work.  We are in dread of being late to work again.  We do what other people do all day long, following the herd, afraid that we might miss out on some amazing, wonderful thing that we never enjoy because we are living in a hurry.

I believe in saving for the future, saving for a rainy day, investing wisely, working hard, and being prepared for difficulties.  If, however, I lack the ability to control my mind in courage, I will always be trying to save more, gain more, do more.  I will live in constant trepidation that I have made that wrong choice or that some great catastrophe is about to overtake me.  I will hurry through life, grabbing and snatching experiences and things while missing the meaning and significance that is available only to those live deliberately and patiently, breathing deep of the Spirit. 

Some great catastrophe may over take me.  But God is able to work all things together for my good.  Not all things are, of themselves, good.  It doesn’t matter.  My Father loves me, and, if I am willing to trust Him, He will take crippling, devastating setbacks and turn them into good in my life.  Perfect love casts out fear.     

As Paul puts it in 2 Timothy 1:7, God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control.  We are free to act with good, sound judgment, wisely, cooly, intentionally.  Our Shepherd is with us.  We are not a flock that may be stampeded over a cliff by the sound of the storm or by long shadows of the lion, the wolf, or the bear. 

 

Sighed, Be

The Lord is at hand; do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.   And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. — Philippians 4:5b-7

When we hear someone say, "The Lord is at hand", it is often followed by talk about the Second Coming of Christ.  Jesus said He would never leave us.  He says that He is the Vine, and we are the branches.  He says that, if we abide in Him, He abides in us.  That's close.  That's at hand.  It's that kind of "at hand" that Paul is talking about in his letter to the believers at Philippi.  If the Lord is near to us, so close that "in Him we live and move and have our being", if that is our reality and understanding, the implications are powerful, and we are, or should be, free from anxiety.

A co-worker and good friend of mine just IM'ed me a little while ago.  He is one of our database administrators.  I am still making the transition from Sybase to DB2, and some things still cause me problems.  He's the guy I contact if I can't figure something out.  He is at hand via email, phone or instant message. 

If we have problems and trials and quandaries in life, why do we not bring Jesus in on those difficulties? 

Paul makes a guarantee — not that gold will rain from heaven to pay off your mortgage, not that lightning will strike all of your adversaries.  He says that if we will tell our troubles to the Lord, pray and ask for help, admitting, in effect, that the solution is beyond us, our minds will be surrounded and garrisoned by the peace of God, not a peace that necessarily makes sense, rather one that goes beyond the horizon of our understanding.  The road disappears over rise.  The peace of God assures me He is as much in control of the part that I cannot see as He is the part I can see.         

"For whatever does not proceed from faith is sin," says Romans 14:23 — strong words.  This classifies worry and fear right alongside hatred, lust, greed, and envy as being neck-deep in unrighteousness.  (By the way, if you are reading this and haven't figured it out already, I'm just preaching to myself.)  I always think I can figure everything out for myself.  There is no doubt that, in some ways, I'm not a complete idiot — not that being an incomplete idiot is anything to brag about — but I can solve problems sometimes.  I ought to do that.  There's a difference, though, between problem-solving and fretting.  Both might keep you awake, but the latter is driven by and based in fear; the former is a function of confidence or conviction.

The bad thing about the Lord is that He gives people freedom to be stupid.  The good thing about the Lord is that He gives all of us freedom.  I don't want to be a marionette.  I cannot ask for others to be.  Those around us can make our lives in this world more difficult through their bad choices, evil actions, and sinful behavior.  God is not going to stop that.  But what He will do, like the One and Only Grand Master Eleven-Dimensional Chess Player that He is, is make all things work together for good to those who love Him and are called according to His purpose.

Tell Him about it.  Prayer in; peace out.

Assignment: Thanksgiving

Don’t worry about anything, but in everything, through prayer and petition with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses every thought, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus – Philippians 4:6-7

I will be out this week, and I want to wish everyone a very Happy Thanksgiving. This is truly the American holy day.

As part of your Thanksgiving, I’d like to make a suggestion, a sort of assignment for us. First, get something in which to keep a journal. It can be your computer, a notepad, or the backs of some old envelopes. Next, as early as possible after you wake up in the morning, write down as many things as you can think of for which you are thankful from the day before. Try to come up with at least five.

For example, in the morning, I’m going to note that I was thankful for a quadruple expresso I had yesterday, that my wife complained very little about my driving, that I was able to find some coffee on sale at the supermarket, that I got a decent haircut, that my daughter has found a reasonably nice place to rent, that she has agreed to let me do the painting before she moves in, that I found the cheapest gasoline ($2.35) in the area right across from Arby’s, that I got an Arby’s roast beef sandwich and the curly fries were actually hot, etc.

Try to make entries in your thankfulness journal every day this week. If you feel it is beneficial, continue. It’s not something that is related solely to the holiday. It’s not something that takes a lot of time to do. Don’t try to make it spiritual. A good expresso is a joy forever – or at least a good long-lasting buzz. Just list stuff that gave you a moment of joy, of slack, of peace, of hope, whatever.

The reason we want to wait until the next morning to make our entries is because sleep allows the meaningfulness and significance of an event to soak into the subconscious and be processed. If we continue this practice and are diligent, I think we will see that God really does work all things together for good to those who love Him.

There’s Things Goin’ On That You Don’t Know

And upon a set day Herod, arrayed in royal apparel, sat upon his throne, and made an oration unto them. And the people gave a shout, saying, It is the voice of a god, and not of a man. And immediately the angel of the Lord smote him, because he gave not God the glory; and he was eaten of worms, and gave up the ghost.

But the word of God grew and multiplied. – Acts 12:21-24

No, this is not about the Barack. At least I don’t think it is.

The Apostles faced persecution in Jerusalem. It went so far that Herod imprisoned both James son of Zebedee, and Peter. He had James executed and would have killed Peter as well had not the Lord sent an angel to unlock Peter’s chains and open the gates of the prison. A body of believers was praying for Peter, as I am sure they had prayed for James. No one seemed to question the fact that James had been martyred while Peter was set free to continue his ministry for some additional years. I see nothing to indicate that anyone prayed for Herod’s death – though I would assume they prayed for his (unlikely) conversion.

The persecution that took place moved people around. Earlier attacks on those believers in Jerusalem had sent Philip to Samaria, to the Ethiopian eunuch in the desert, and finally down to Caesarea on the coast. The death of another deacon, Stephen, set in motion the events that led to the conversion of Saul of Tarsus on the road to Damascus.

Sometimes God seems like Curly of the Three Stooges trying to bake a cake. There is stuff going everywhere except where it’s supposed to. Water is coming out of the electrical outlets. The overhead light bulb shatters when we hit the switch. The stove is on fire. Everybody is covered in flour, and nothing is actually getting done. The difference is that after the stove finally explodes and the dust settles, the Stooges go running off to the next disaster. But when God is done, there is a beautiful and delicious seven-layer cake, decorated to perfection, sitting serenely on the table.

In God’s case, the apparent chaos is neither random nor meaningless, regardless of how we perceive it in time. Even evil can be made to serve the ultimate Good, as can be seen throughout the Bible, and in our own lives. As Joseph said so well, “You meant it for evil, but God meant it for good.”

It’s essential and sufficient to know that “all things work together for good to those who love God”. Still I ask: What about justice? When do the arrogant and abusive get what’s coming to them? What about all those people running loose who wallow in wickedness like a hog in mud? The worms are already gnawing at their brains. It’s just a matter of time.

So in the midst of all this weirdness that will finally end in perfection, what are we to do? We pray. We pray with faith and confidence, not worrying about the timing or the apparent lack of an answer. We know prayer is effective, and, moreover, we know the Lord calls on all of us to pray. What we don’t know and can’t know is how our prayers will be answered. Tell God what needs to be done but never how He should go about doing it. (That’s also good advice for wives speaking to their husbands.)

Daniel chapter ten tells of the aged prophet’s realization that the Babylonian exile was almost over for the Jews. The prophesied return and restoration was at hand. This understanding did not, however, make Daniel complacent. Instead it caused him to begin a three-week prayer vigil and near-fast. He began to intercede for the will of God to be done. Though it was prophesied, Daniel’s intercession was an element of the fulfillment. Things may be certain, but prayer is part of the certainty.

The Kingdom comes, but we must still pray … Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth … for it may be your prayer, or mine, that the Lord is waiting to hear.

Rocky Top

LORD, You are my portion and my cup of blessing; You hold my future. The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; indeed, I have a beautiful inheritance. – Psalm 16:5,6

On the television show Bonanza, the Cartwrights often traveled to California from their home in Nevada, but their trips were almost always to San Francisco. I do not remember the episode or the context, but Hoss once traveled down to southern California. He remarked on the barrenness of it, and someone asked if he had ever seen California. He replied that he had been to California many times, but he doubted that anyone would ever want to live in such an ugly place as Los Angeles. I remember the first time I left the Spring green hills of the Ozarks driving to LA. My thoughts were much like those Hoss expressed. Yet some people love the high desert or the coasts, the plains or the mountains, or even the cold, frozen north lands. I have heard people call swamp land in central Wisconsin “God’s Country”. I have heard others say the same thing about desolate plains around Midland and Odessa, Texas or places along the Gulf Coast where the mosquitoes could be mistaken for buzzards if they flew a little higher. I think they’re all crazy. Everybody knows God lives just a little northeast of Cedar Gap, Missouri. Even the devil keeps a weekend place over the border in Arkansas.

When it comes to landscapes and vistas, “home” makes up for a lot of deficiencies. In that sense, we can all understand the psalmist when he says, “I have a beautiful inheritance.”

In other realms, we may not be so inclined to think well of the heritage bequeathed to us. Many of us look back on regrettable scenes that closed doors or burned bridges. We may have reason to wish that we could live some pivotal moment again, making a different decision in a second pass. Our boundary lines may seem a little restrictive, and the ground we are left to till may seem rocky and hard.

Still, we are here. Here. And the opportunity to experience joy and peace is ours at this moment precisely because the lines are drawn as they are.

If I have regrets, sitting where I am today, they are not for me, but for the trouble and pain I may have caused someone else. Every hurt and failure that I suffered I now see as a stone of remembrance, a landmark establishing the lines of my inheritance, bringing me to this place which the Lord has given me. There are others, no doubt, with more spacious abodes where the soil is deeper and richer and better watered. Still, I have my little place with its small, but inexhaustible spring of living water, and it will produce all that I need, in abundance.