Not "It" but Him

I drove to our church prayer meeting wondering what I should pray for. No current crises in my life, I had the leisure to be philosophical.

What the church in America really needs, I thought, is more realistic faith. Faith to understand the promises of God don't mean we'll always have a happy ending in this life. Faith that understands we will have real problems in our lives that really hurt -- but that God is with us when they hurt. That's what I decide to ask prayer for.

At the meeting our leader read a devotion that took this thought to a new level: Himself by A. B. Simpson.

I often hear people say, "I wish I could get hold of Divine Healing, but I cannot." Sometimes they say, "I have got it." If I ask them, "What have you got?" the answer is sometimes, "I have got the blessing", sometimes it is, "I have got the theory"; sometimes it is, "I have got the healing"; sometimes, "I have got the sanctification." But I thank God we have been taught that it is not the blessing, it is not the healing, it is not the sanctification, it is not the thing, it is not the it that you want, but it is something better. It is "the Christ"; it is Himself. 

Yes! The great mystery is Christ in us, the hope of glory. Jesus is the "Yes" to all the promises of God. The Christian life is about being with him, him being with us and us being with him.

But how quickly we forget and think of an "it". If only I had this, if only I knew this, if only I could do this, then I'd be happy, content and at peace. But he gives joy, contentment and peace, they don't come from our circumstances.

Prayer is not like calling the help desk

I call the help desk when the product or the documentation fails. It should just work without me needing to ask how.

But our life in God is not supposed to "just work" without us asking for help. Our life in God is our life with God, with our Abba Father, our elder brother who laid down his life for us, and the Spirit living in us.  The best part, the key part of this life is the relationship. We're supposed to call him, praise him, interact with him, tell him where we are, listen to his responses. In short, we should be with him.

God exists and cares for me, shouldn't that be enough?

O my soul, how quickly you lose sight that the Maker of all things has chosen you, has adopted you as his son, and plans to truly do you well.

Why then are you so eager to dream of earthly fame, why do you so crave recognition?

Oh Lord, thanks that you have mercy on my silly heart. Thanks for continuing to remind me that you are there and reward those who keep on seeking you.

This came from a quote from Thomas a Kempis' Imitation of Christ:

A man who loves You and recognizes Your benefits, therefore, should be gladdened by nothing so much as by Your will, by the good pleasure of Your eternal decree. With this he should be so contented and consoled that he would wish to be the least as others wish to be the greatest; that he would be as peaceful and satisfied in the last place as in the first, and as willing to be despised, unknown and forgotten, as to be honored by others and to have more fame than they. He should prefer Your will and the love of Your honor to all else, and it should comfort him more than all the benefits which have been, or will be, given him (3:22).

Was Jesus an extrovert?

Of course, I'm tempted to respond. But then I wonder.  I've just read Susan Cain's book Quiet: the Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking, where she says that our culture has idealized extroverts since the mid 1800s. She thinks the evangelical church does this more than the general culture.

If you don't love Jesus out loud, then it must not be real love. It's not enough to forge your own spiritual connection to the divine; it must be displayed publicly.

So I wonder, what does Scripture say? Jesus spoke to large multitudes frequently, something (humanly speaking) no introvert would ever do. But he also went away by himself to pray for hours at a time, something no extrovert would do.

Maybe the fully divine and fully human Son of God has all the strengths of both extroverts and introverts.

Work, a curse or a blessing?

Is needing to work a result of the Fall? I don't think so. I have thought for years now that when God made humankind in his image (Gen 1:26), in the context it means we should be creative and make things. God has been making all kinds of things all through the chapter. When he says he will make us in his image, isn't being creative a huge part of it? Adam was placed in the garden to cultivate it. When the Fall came, the work of cultivating the ground became much more difficult, but the role of cultivating was there before the Fall.

The problem is like a lot of people, I really act like work is a curse. I really like being entertained. I spent a good while last night listening to old song parodies from the 60's. Now I can say that I was celebrating the creativity God gave to Allan Sherman, but really I was being passive. I suppose I should remember Romans 7:24. Who will deliver me from all the rotten things about being me? Jesus Christ.

Remembering

I saw God once. I saw the Father looking at me, his eyes full of compassion. He didn't need to say anything, I knew he was with me. I knew the gift of his presence, coming down from on high, undiluted, undiminished, far beyond "just enough." The lavishness startled me, I thought it was more than I needed that day. And perhaps it was, but the memory has sustained me for several years. So God had more in mind than just that moment, but moments yet to come.

How did I see? By the eyes of faith, by remembering the promise that all good gifts come from above. I took my best memory of compassion from a fellow pilgrim, and recast it. That was good, but merely an echo of God's compassion. Not one moment that can never be repeated, but an ongoing reality of God inviting me to lay my heart before him, God already knowing the labyrinth of my feelings and not rejecting me for the mess but loving me in the mess.

Last week I saw and I celebrated with friends who held to the promises, who prayed and sang to God with us, the great Emmanuel, in their time of loss. I celebrated the new Covenant, that God gave us more than insight and rules how we should live, he came down and lived among us, so that he can circulate his life to us.

Hard promises

Ann Voskamp writes about hard thanksgivings, giving thanks for all things, even sufferings. As Jesus did, giving thanks for the bread as he broke it and passed it to his disciples, knowing his body would soon be broken for them.

It came to me today there are hard promises in Scripture as well. For instance, "Blessed are they who mourn, for they will be comforted." Lord, I don't want to mourn, I'd much rather be happy, happy, happy, all the day long. But if I really believed the promise that God will comfort, I won't be afraid to mourn.