our blog
May
It’s Over There . . .
There is a famous story academics like to use called The Drunkard’s Search and it goes like this. A police officer finds a rather inebriated man staring down at the ground under a street lamp muttering to himself. The officer approaches him and asks him what he’s doing. The man responds “I lost my car keys over near the alley.” The officer responds “How come you are not looking in the alley then?” To which the drunk responds, “The light’s better over here.”
I can relate . . . I tend to want to avoid struggles too. I don’t want to go into the dark, messy, unfamiliar even if that is where my keys are. I want to stay in the clean, the familiar, the safe. Even lies that are safe and familiar seem preferable to scary truths.
My word this year is “compass” and it has been helpful when I keep it in front of me to remind me to clarify where I am and where I should be. It has even been helpful in helping me reflect on how to get “there.” So, yes, I’ve identified anger issues earlier and distracting temptations earlier and in the best case scenarios I’ve brought God’s truth to these situations: Peace not strife, . . . .’that you love one another as Christ first love you . . .” “flee temptation,” “whatever is good think on these things.”
But I have also found a limitation to my word. A compass is not a golf cart. That seems obvious when you write it out . . . . many things do I guess. But for much of this year I have not truly embraced the difference. I compass doe not move me. It shows me where to move. It is critical for navigation, it has nothing to do with locomotion.
There is a story similar to The Drunkard’s Search in the book of James (1: 22-25) that also strikes a bit too close to home:
But be doers of the Word [obey the message], and not merely listeners to it, betraying yourselves [into deception by reasoning contrary to the Truth]. For if anyone only listens to the Word without obeying it and being a doer of it, he is like a man who looks carefully at his [own] natural face in a mirror; For he thoughtfully observes himself, and then goes off and promptly forgets what he was like.
But he who looks carefully into the faultless law, the [law] of liberty, and is faithful to it and perseveres in looking into it, being not a heedless listener who forgets but an active doer [who obeys], he shall be blessed in his doing (his life of obedience).
Now that I have lived about 5 months with “compass” as my word I don’t think James is getting at a clarity issue. I think he’s saying “God’s word is pretty clear here. But clarity doesn’t eliminate the struggle.”
So here’s my simple to do list for the next month: One habit. That’s it. I want to develop one habit that marks me as a doer of the word. I’ve been thinking (hoping!) that the compass would point to an epiphany that would remove the struggle to become Christlike. Kind of like an oasis mentality. Clearly, that’s not happening. The Israelites wandered for 40 years and even then, the “Promised Land” still contained struggles that help define a nation.
May
Obedience Is Harsh
Obedience seems so harsh. It sounds to us like because I said so. Who wants to hear this? The problem is that our view of the one who utters the command. If they are absent and hostile and indifferent towards our hearts, then it sounds hollow and passionless. But what if the One is the very life we are want so badly? That is a big what if. And everything hinges on this and it comes down to simply one thing—faith. Is God going to be good?
1 Samuel 15:22-23
22 But Samuel replied: “Does the LORD delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obeying the voice of the LORD? To obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed is better than the fat of rams. 23 For rebellion is like the sin of divination, and arrogance like the evil of idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the LORD, he has rejected you as king.”
What do we think God wants from us? And equally important, what do we think God has for us? If we think we are trying to bargain with God and convince Him to be merciful then we set out to do a bunch of stuff to appease Him—we seek to bring sacrifices. It is as if we are trying to convince God to be good to us because we don’t think He really will be. Instead, His commands are invitations to find Him faithful and in finding Him faithful, we will find Him good.
Rebellion is simply putting up something else as god.
Arrogance is making yourself out to be god.
As we get ready to commit ourselves to obedience, let’s get away from the passionless duty obedience. Instead, let’s see this as an invitation to find God is really God. What would that do for you? He says to obey is better than to sacrifice. You are not trying to get God to be good…you obey and discover it so.
Lord, help my unbelief. Help my skepticism. Help me to overcome so much of what has given me a false view of You. I will trust Your goodness. Lead me. Today, I will look for ways to be obedient and I will trust You to show me how. Amen.
May
Struggling with God’s Promises
I see little-to-no separation between My One Word and Biblical principles. My word is about who I want to be and it’s biblical principes that will shape me into that person. Of course, the further into the year I get, the more of a struggle it is to stay disciplined, and the further away I feel from my goal. There are a ton of commands in the Bible, and it’s impossible for any of us to always follow all of them – I can’t say that loving my neighbor as myself is standard practice for me. So, recently, I have felt the need to take the pressure off of myself by taking a step back and looking at the big picture. The Bible can start to feel like a giant rule book sometimes, but after some research I’ve come to realize that there are about five times as many promises as there are commands within it’s pages. This got me thinking that maybe the reason I feel a lack discipline isn’t because I am struggling with following God’s principles, maybe I struggle more with accepting God’s promises.
There are numerous stories in the Bible about people struggling with God’s promises, and one person in particular makes me feel much better about myself because he’s the last person you would expect to struggle in this area – Moses. Moses is a powerhouse of the Old Testament. His faith in God was great and God did great things through him because of it, but this type of faith didn’t come without struggle. God called Moses to free the Israelites in Egypt by appearing to him in a burning bush and telling him to confront Pharaoh. He explained to Moses, almost in detail, how this was going to happen so that there would be no room for doubt that he was going to have success. There was just one problem, Moses had a speach impediment, so this is the conversation that followed:
Exodus 4:10-16
“O Lord, I have never been eloquent, neither in the past nor since you have spoken to your servant. I am slow of speech and tongue.”
The Lord said to him, “Who gave man his mouth? Who makes him deaf or mute? Who gives him sight or makes him blind? Is it not I, the Lord? Now go; I will help you speak and will teach you what to say.” But Moses said, “O Lord, please send someone else to do it.”Then the Lord’s anger burned against Moses and he said, “What about your brother, Aaron the Levite? I know he can speak well. He is already on his way to meet you, and his heart will be glad when he sees you. You shall speak to him and put words in his mouth; I will help both of you speak and will teach you what to do. He will speak to the people for you, and it will be as if he were your mouth and as if you were God to him.”
Moses not only struggled to do what God was commanding him to do, he also struggled with the promise that God made to him – that he will be able to speak properly, and with authority, when the time came. God wasn’t going to change His mind about sending Moses, and I suspect He was even prepared to do a miraculous work in his life, but Moses couldn’t see past his circumstances. Instead, he was convinced that his problem was a permanent one, even after an encounter with God. So, God let’s him keep his problem and gave him Arron who would do the speaking for him.
This is not to be misinterpreted as a threat that you can, in anyway, mess up or miss out on what God has planned for you. Think of it more as encouragement to embrace your word no matter what your struggle with it may have been thus far. Know that God will fulfill his purpose for your word this year, but how you choose to respond to the promises in His word may determine how that purpose is fulfilled. Don’t let your problems, shortcomings, or struggles render you blind to what God is doing in your life. Make up your mind to embrace His promises. Use the promises of the Bible as fuel to keep you moving forward with your word.