Category: Godly living

Lent Day Six: Self-Denial

My life has been in a kind of Lent mode for quite some time. I’ve been living without some indulgences due to money crunching. Living on a budget forces us to really think about what is necessary and what can wait or not even be considered.

Interestingly, I was thinking about this on my way to work. I passed the gas station where I occasionally stopped for a tasty cappuccino. Before I knew it, I was driving by McDonald’s and I’m almost positive I heard a hazelnut iced coffee screaming out my name. But I just kept driving; and thinking as I drove. As I grew up I heard of people “giving up” chocolate or pizza for Lent. This year, Church Leaders were recommending to the faithful that they give up technology (computers, internet, and texting). I had trouble then and now making the spiritual connection between the items given up and God.

Did you give up something for Lent? Why? The purpose of giving something up is to make room for something else. Just as when we fast, we forego food to focus on God. As I thought about it I was reminded of the time when the Pharisees accused Jesus of casting out the demon by the power of Beelzebub. Through the story we’re warned of the danger of simply casting out something, in that case evil, without filling it up with something of God.

When I was in college one of my dearest friends challenged me to consider self denial. She made reference to Jesus’ instruction to the disciples to deny themselves and take up their cross (Mark 8:34). While many point to the cross as burden or pain, it has also been suggested that it is about mission and purpose. Understanding this began to help me put the pieces together.

I guess it could be about chocolate or the internet if the pursuit of those things keeps me from fulfilling my purpose. To know that, though, I believe I’m going to have to know what my mission is. Many years ago, as I began my ministry I felt directed to verse in Colossians as a guide for me as a pastor and as a person. Paul wrote: 2My purpose is that they may be encouraged in heart and united in love, so that they may have the full riches of complete understanding, in order that they may know the mystery of God, namely, Christ (Colossians 2:2).

These days, I have more time to live into what I think that verse is calling me to do and be. Each day as I reflect, I’m shone the things that I have planned that can keep me from fulfilling my purpose. If I am going to live as true follower of Christ, I’m going to have to give those things up, deny my selfish interests, and live on purpose for Christ. Personally, that’s something I have to do daily, just as Jesus invited me to do.

Do you know what your purpose, your mission is? Have you thought about what is holding you back from fulfilling your calling in Christ? Set it down and let Him fill you up!

Lent Day Five: Mindfulness

I was reading an article in a magazine about the benefits of mindfulness. Did you know:
-A study showed in 140 binge eaters mindfulness reduced binging 75%.
-Mindfulness eases anxiety by 44% and depression by 34% while increasing immunity.
-Mindfulness improves physical functioning and reduces pain.
-Mindfulness results in significant improvement in memory.
-Mindfulness strengthens relationships. (Prevention Magazine, January 2008)

Pretty impressive. Pretty good reasons to consider being mindful. What does it mean? According to dictionary.com, mindfulness is defined as: attentive, aware, or careful. I am of the opinion that this word, concept and practice, is very biblical.
Paul tells the Romans to be transformed by the renewing of their minds (12:2) and directs the Philippians to think on what is “whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy” (4:8). A quick search of “take care” brings up 117 references in the Old and New Testaments.

So it behooves us to “pay attention” in life. What have you been noticing as you race through life? What have you heard? What have you felt? There’s a current tissue commercial where a woman is going through her day with a “touch, touch, touch, touch…feel” experience. The point is we bump through life barely aware of the things we touch and that touch us. And just as the woman finally came across the best tissue and it caused her to feeeeeel something more deeply, we can come into the presence of the Almighty. Talk about feeling!

The Psalms assure us that God neither slumbers nor sleeps. David is overwhelmed by God’s attentiveness and questions in Psalm 8: who are we that you are mindful of us? Nothing happens in our lives, but God is aware. He knows when we are up all night. He knows when our job is about to phase out. He knows what the doctor just told us. He knows. And he is mindful, attentive and caring.

Today, don’t just bump mindlessly through your appointments and contacts, your shopping and banking. Yesterday, we were invited to look. Now, we are invited to be mindful of the one who is mindful of us.

Lent Day Four: Here’s Looking At You

When I worked at Curves, one of the first things we would do with new members (after we orient them to the whole program) is complete a figure analysis. Basically, we would have them mount the dreaded weight determiner and grab the tape measure to find out the sum total of their girth. Did that sound ominous? It was supposed to. The dread that most of those women feel in that moment is colossal. They had spent so much time and energy avoiding the truth, that it was a very scary and humbling task to meet it—and in the presence of another person, yet!

Perhaps you’ve never thought of it this way, but it’s very easy to not see what you don’t look at. How many of you read your food labels? Before you sign off on something, do you read all the fine print? The list could go on and on of things external, but what about things within? On the one hand, we could consider all the health signals that we’ve ignored, the doctor’s visits we’ve postponed because we didn’t want to hear what they had to say. Then there’s the stuff of spirit and emotions that we’ve opted not look at either. The AA people understand the importance of that honest self-inventory. What about relationships that we’ve ignored?

James invites us to the mirror: 22 But don’t just listen to God’s word. You must do what it says. Otherwise, you are only fooling yourselves. 23 For if you listen to the word and don’t obey, it is like glancing at your face in a mirror. 24 You see yourself, walk away, and forget what you look like. 25 But if you look carefully into the perfect law that sets you free, and if you do what it says and don’t forget what you heard, then God will bless you for doing it. (James 1:22-25)

So here’s your homework. Yes, homework. Carve out a few minutes from your very hectic schedule—that busyness is part of the problem. We stay busy to avoid having to give ourselves—and God more than a passing glance. You could sit at a table with pen and paper or you could stand in front of a full-length mirror. Do what works for you. But do this: ask God what you need to see. Ask for his forgiveness at avoiding, denying, and running. Stay long enough to hear his answers. Let him tell you how wonderful you are and how much he loves you. Then commit to giving him more than a passing glance.

Take that kind of time and you won’t forget it—or regret it.

Lent Day Three: How Long?

 

Hab. 3:2 O Lord, I have heard of your reknown, and I stand in awe, O Lord, of your work. In our own time revive it; in our own time make it known; in wrath may you remember mercy.

Many years ago, on a Saturday night, I turned to my husband and asked if he would bring a step ladder to church the next morning because I needed it for my sermon. The odd look he gave me was only momentary, he was used to my unusual requests when it came to sermons.

I was preaching from Habakkuk, the part where he went up into his prayer tower and asked God, “How long?” I used the ladder as my prayer tower and I asked God, “How long?”

I don’t always need a tower, or a ladder to ask that of God. Lately, each time I drive by a gas station I ask. I’ve found myself asking as my heart is breaking over the strained relationship between father and daughter. I ask as I listen to my friend tell me of her heartache over her very ill and aging parent. How long, God? How long will this go on? How long must I endure this? How long do they have to suffer? How long will they remain stubborn and separated? How long? How long?

I have never really understood the timing of God. I know that He is neither early or late. Mary and Martha probably didn’t think that when they finally saw Jesus show up four days after Lazarus had died. Four days. Really Jesus? Is that how much you cared? You couldn’t have come sooner? Can’t you hear their questions? Perhaps you’ve asked questions like they did.

Jesus is unphased by their questioning. That gives me hope. Jesus didn’t scold them. Maybe that means, like Mary and Martha, like Habakkuk, it’s okay for me to ask all my “how longs” as well. Maybe in the asking I’ll come to the place where Habakkuk arrived. He had seen God work and knew that the plan was happening according to God’s timing, and that timing was just right.

I have never been any good at waiting. I get impatient. I want it now, whatever the latest “it” might be. What I have learned, painfully at times, is that right now is not always the best time, and what I want is not always God’s best for me. One look through the Old Testament should convince me of that. Just look at all the tragic stories that come from rushing God’s timing and plan.

So maybe this Lenten season is the time to wait. Don’t make any major purchases, or any long term commitments. Instead of giving into our spontaneity and compulsive nature, we should seek to get in tune with God’s timing. Afterall, according to Habakkuk, it’s a pretty awesome thing!

Lent Day Two: A Servant’s Heart

Philippians 2:7 …he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant…

Would you serve on the building committee? Would you serve at the funeral luncheon? How many times have you been asked to serve? But have you ever thought about what it means to be a servant?

I’m a well educated woman. I do have three masters degrees and thousands of hours of training beyond them. I have many years of experience in my fields, and even some pretty significant recognition. But as the Apostle Paul describes his own pedigree, it’s all pretty much dung compared to knowing Christ. And I would add, and serving Him.

Currently I spend most of my days tending to the needs of an eighty-eight year old woman with dementia. I also care for her cats, her dog, her house, and I feed the birds. Then I come home and pretend to take care of my own house before my six year old grandson comes over and destroys it again. I color, draw, play games inside and out, feed, supervise bathing, and feed some more. I take my own dogs out to potty and for an occasional walk. I sing in the choir at church and I teach whenever I’m able. I give friends rides. I pray and I pray and I pray.  And to the complete surprise of many of my friends, I absolutely love my life.

As I took the dogs out this morning for their after breakfast potty break, I was soaking in the crispness of the air and the beauty of the sun peeking though the clouds. It felt so good to be right there in that moment. And as I closed my eyes to imprint the beauty in my mind, I felt that niggle that comes from the Spirit. Reminding me how many years ago I had knelt at an altar and prayed that God would give me a servant’s heart. At the time I was living a very arrogant Christian life: pious on the outside and self-reliant and self-serving on the inside. Oddly, I don’t think I wanted things to change as much as I wanted God to keep blessing the productive and successful way life was going. Perhaps that’s true on the surface, but something much deeper was working in me.

Through a series of very poor choices and a boat-load of self-reliance, I found my life looking a bit like Humpty Dumpty after the fall: broken into irreparable pieces. I could no longer rely on my pedigree. I had no experience of how to “be” or “do” life as it was coming at me. I was at the end of my rope and the knot was coming loose and the strands were raveling. Yet even there I found God’s grace.

Many people have commented that I’m not the same person I was ten years ago. Most of their comments come because I’m less the extroverted cheerleader and more comfortable with taking the introverted sideline role. The role of a servant.

I believe that God’s answer to my request for a servant’s heart involved the remaking of my heart and the reshaping of my mind. One of my favorite stories is that of a man who wants to be a monk, so he joins a monastery At this monastery there is no talking except once a year when the monks can say two words. The first year the new monk chose to say, “Bed hard.” The second year after tolerating a year of slop and gruel at mealtime chose to say, “Food bad.” The third year after suffering with a rash from his burlapesque robe he shared, “Clothes itch.” After that he was called into the head monk’s office where he was asked to leave. He asked why and was told that it was because of his attitude: all he did was complain.

Things have been getting progressively worse for my lady and I know that in the not too distant future I will need to secure new employment. That’s not easy for me, or anyone in this economy. I look in the paper and online for jobs, and I find myself praying and weeping. I want another job where I can serve. The old Tina would have been looking for some position in management or leadership. God would have to be very clear in His leadership back into that arena. My heart has been so tenderized, I’m not sure I could survive in that world any more. I’m not sure I want to.

I don’t know where this transformation will take me. What I do know is that I have an excellent model to follow; I won’t be complaining about serving; and the God who has brought me to this place will go with me wherever He leads. 

How about you?  How will you serve along this journey to the cross? 

Lent Day One: How Low Can You Go?

Psalm 95:6 O Come, let us worship and bow down. Let us kneel before the Lord our God our maker.

 I love the movie, “The King and I”–the Yul Brynner version (Jodie Foster’s was a close second). Reading today’s text I was reminded of the scene where he keeps making Anna position herself lower than the king. While it is somewhat of a game, there is a powerful lesson to be learned. Proud people don’t bow well.

I think that as we enter Lent it will be good for us to start with the proper position. It is one thing to get the physical practice down, but I think we need to examine how we bow our hearts, and to whom; how we bow our minds, and to whom.

If this journey is going to truly prepare us for the greatest gift ever given, then we have to be able to receive. If we are bowing to self, to others, or if we are hardened to the wooing of the Spirit, then we won’t be able to receive.

Ready, set, bow…worship…kneel.

Just Like Us

This morning I woke up REALLY early: the alarm time was 3:43AM! And wasn’t one of those glance at the alarm and roll over moments.  I was WIDE awake.  So I got up.  That gave me a few moments to chat with Hub before he headed out for work–I like doing that.  Still awake, I grabbed my Greek study materials and started working on my translation and study of Mark.  I’ll be meeting with my friend this morning.  We’re covering Mark 4:10-41.

One of the things that jumped out at me came close to the end of the chapter.  Jesus and the disciples loaded into a boat and headed across the lake.  At first there were other boats going along with them, but then a violent squall comes up.  The other boats turn back, but the disciples decide to continue into the storm.  They make the decision to head on–why?  Jesus is asleep below deck and obviously sleeping quite soundly because the storm doesn’t wake him.  But then the storm gets to be too much for the disciples and they wake Jesus frantically and rebuke him, “Don’t you even care that we’re about to perish?”  AKA: What’s up with you? This is the time for one of your little miracles.  Wake up and save us you sleeping slug! 

How like us weak and fear-filled humans! Instead of using the wisdom and discernment that is available to us we arrogantly head on into the storms of life thinking that we can somehow weather the storm, but when we are badly battered we rebuke God for not protecting us.  What?  There was no reason to keep going into the storm when it would have been more prudent to turn back.  I know in my own life, God provided godly individuals to direct me away from the impendinding doom but I thought that I was stronger than the storm and would be okay.  The result was disasterous.  And I, too, found myself asking why God let me do that, didn’t He care that my life was in shambles?  How ridiculous.

When Jesus shook off his sleepiness, he stepped up and commanded the wind and waves to muzzle it!  And the wind and waves IMMEDIATELY calm themselves.  This was no natural and gradual slow coming calm.  This was a hit-a-brick-wall-stop-it-right-now occurance, a miracle showing of Jesus’ power and dominion.  So while the disciples rebuked Jesus, Jesus rebuked the storm.

So what can be learned from this?  How do we apply this to our life?  Can we?  The way I see it, we need to really be sure that we’re being directed to head into the storm and not just arrogantly proceeding.  It’s not enough to take Jesus into a storm, we have to trust that if he’s with us we’ll be ok.  And if we have headed in on our own strength, we shouldn’t be blaming God for our situation.  But even if it is our own doings that get us in a mess, we can turn to Him and know that he can and will bring us peace.

Faith doesn’t call us to foolishness, it enables us to trust the one who is ultimately in control.

I Have Everything I Need

What can you live without?

I was cleaning my house today and I remembered a conversation I had with my grandson not too long ago. He asked me, “Mema, why do you have so much?” I looked around the room we were sitting in and his question made a lot of sense, especially thinking about his own home which my daughter decorates using a sparse mentality. My house tells the tale of multiple collections. You can quickly see the things we not only like, but value.

I have always had a lot of stuff. I remember one spring when my dad picked me up from college. He loaded my boxes into the car while I went off to sing with the college choir at Bacheloreate. While I was singing Dad was driving and he ended up having a flat tire which resulted in him unpacking the trunk to get to the spare. Needless to say for a long time I heard about how much stuff I had and it was never a positive thing.

This was not always the case. There was a period of time when I had very little. I was issued a blanket, two sheets, and two towels. I had one uniform at a time. I was also issued a coffee cup, a stubby toothbrush, and a nineteen cent black short comb. I had to purchase soap, shampoo, and toothpaste from the commisary from money left for me by my husband. I could have three bras, three pairs of underwear, and three pairs of socks—they all had to be white.

I was in jail for sixty days. Not long by comparison to some sentences, but near an eternity for me. My life was run on the schedule of others. I slept when I was told. I ate what I was given. I had to ask permission to go through doors. I could see my husband twice a week for fifteen minutes each visit.

I learned I don’t need very much at all.

So each time when I read Psalm 23, I am reminded anew that I have everything that I need when I allow my life to be led by the Great Shepherd. Everything I need. I can ask for what I want and what I think I need, but if I don’t have it—then I must not need it.

This week I thought I killed my laptop (thankfully not) and I was told that the SD card in my phone containing two years worth of pictures of my inquisitive little grandson was kaput. I had to come once again face to face with the question: what do I really need? I don’t have a list. What I do have is renewed sense of peace that comes from the assurance that the one who knows me best and loves me most will supply my every need.

 

Pray First: Fervent

When was the last time you used the word fervent in a sentence? I can’t remember either. So when I was looking for verses about prayer and rediscovered our verse in James, it should probably come as no surprise that I got stuck on that word. What does it mean? What does it mean to pray fervently?

As is my pattern, I went to dictionary.com to look up this unused and unfamiliar word. There I found that to be fervent is to mean imassioned, passionate, or ardent. That definition, of course, led me off to quickly find out what ardent means. Ardent is defined as intensely devoted, eager, or enthusiastic; zealous. Each word defined the other.

Initially I wondered if the intensity that was being described was to define the action of praying. As if something about the way I pray would bring about more positive results. I’ve heard stirring prayers in different worship settings that have left me feeling that perhaps my prayers weren’t “good enough.” Perhaps I just needed to get louder, pace around, and wave my arms at the heavens. Afterall, isn’t that a more accurate portrayal of Jesus’ intensity in the garden. He was so intent in his praying that he sweat drops of blood. That sounds pretty fervent to me.

All this thinking about fervent prayer reminded me of a very special thing that happened at a church I attended back in the 90’s. My primaray “assigned” ministry was chaplain at an agency that worked with out of home placed kids, but I was also a part of a pastoral team at my church. Our beloved pastor was going through a very rough time with the ravages of cancer. In our congregation there were three persons who had served as senior pastors, myself included, so we had been directed by the district leadership and the local board to divide up the pastoral duties to cover for our ailing pastor.

This was a very emotional time for our church, but it also turned into a very dynamic time of spiritual growth and maturity. No place was this more obvious than in our times of prayer. You want to talk about fervent? Our intense prayers for our pastor and his family spilled over into earnest prayers for our congregation. Then I happened to be covering in the office and I noticed that this experience didn’t stop at the walls of the church or its parking lot. Calls started coming in from individuals in the community who had heard that we were a “praying church” and they wanted add their concerns to our prayers. Members of the congregation were stopped at the grocery or Walmart by friends and acquaintances and asked to pray for needs and situations.

One Sunday worship as we were preparing for the congregational prayer time we stopped and reflected on this. The congregation had always wanted to make an impact in the community. Now they had. So what would they do with it? We chose to keep praying.

So where was the passion and intensity in our prayers? It wasn’t about noise or motion, it was about a deep desire to reach the heart of God with the things that mattered to our hearts. That’s what I’m hoping to find again. It’ll be exciting to see what else will be affected in my life because of this commitment to Pray First this year…but I will be ardently seeking to find out!

It’s Christmas!

Well, the waiting is over.  When you awoke this morning what did you feel?  Excitement? Relief? Exhaustion? Anything? For some, this morning could bring a huge let down, disappointment over long hoped for items not found.  Sadness over things lost.  Emptiness.

The one true way to be sure to not be let down, it to have come into this day realizing that the greatest gift has been given.  It’s a gift that always fits, is always in style, never wears out, and won’t ever break.  The gift of God, Emmanuel with us.  God coming into our existance.  I love the way Paul put it to the Philippians:

5You must have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had.

6 Though he was God,[a]
he did not think of equality with God
as something to cling to.
7 Instead, he gave up his divine privileges[b];
he took the humble position of a slave[c]
and was born as a human being.
When he appeared in human form,[d]
8 he humbled himself in obedience to God
and died a criminal’s death on a cross.

9 Therefore, God elevated him to the place of highest honor
and gave him the name above all other names,
10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.

That kind of love gives the perfect gift.  I hope that you have recieved it.  I pray that it will fill you life with all the joy that you can hold.  It can.  He will.

Many blessings to you this holy day. 

 

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