Where our enemy cries

Not that I have too many enemies but there are a few people with which I have had some disagreements of late.  This quote from Brennan Manning helps me to see I need to adjust where I am looking.

“The heartfelt compassion that hastens forgiveness matures when we discover where our enemy cries.” 69

Praying Psalm 131

I am always challenged when I read and pray through Psalm 131 and this week has been no exception.  After some reflection on this personally and with a group, I ask, what was the Psalmist saying as he prayed this Psalm?  That he had no pride in his life?  I don’t think so.  But maybe he was praying

I declare that

• God is in control, I am not!
• Life is all about God, not about me!
• Any strengths that I possess come as a gift of God

I am committed to

• Consider others as more important than myself
• Unseen acts of service
• Listening, believing and obeying what God has to say to me
• Listen to God speaking to me through my brothers and sisters
• Submit myself to God’s correction and rebuke
• Waiting on God before I respond or act
• Be slow to speak, slow to anger and quick to listen
• Allow myself to be transformed by love
• Cease striving, relax and rest in God
• Christ being centered in my life
• Humble myself before You God
• Be content with God’s provision
• Delight in submitting to your authority
• Yield up my rights to God
• Seek to value the needs of others over my own
• Submit my life, my plans, my ambitions, my relationships, my dreams, opportunities, schedule, etc to God
• Actively look for ways God’s goodness is expressed in my life and in the lives of others
• Embrace my areas of weakness
• Humbly use any strengths God has given for His glory

I refuse to

• Be seduced by power and pride
• Compare myself to others
• Look down on others
• Consider myself as more important than others
• Give up
• Allow anyone or anything control of my life except the Spirit of God
• Respond defensively to the suggestions or criticisms of others.
• live with a controlling, judgmental attitude.

I confess

• My total absolute need for God
• How desperate and dependent upon God that I am
• Jesus is Lord
• How easily I forget God and how quickly I seek to act independently of God and others.
• How wrong it is to compete with others for honor and position

A friend fighting for his life

Just finished a skype call with one of our oldest and dearest friends, Linda,  about her husband Don who is fighting for his life.  He had a heart attack on the tennis court following 100% blockage of his heart.  He survived and made it through by-pass surgery but now  a week later, is suffering from a variety of complications.  Don and Linda allowed us into their lives when we were new Seminary students almost 30 years ago and we have one of those relationships in which we grant grace to one another to be ourselves whenever we see each other.  Lord Jesus who wept before the tomb of Lazarus with love and compassion,  lift up your eyes this morning and touch my dear brother and bring him back to full recovery.  Give sufficient grace for the fear and anxiety for the family and all of us who love Don as a brother.  Lord, I really don’t want to get an email saying my brother has gone to be home with you. Please show mercy this day.

Thanks for any out there who would pray together with us for Don.

The power of listening

Do you think the Lord is trying to teach me about listening?  Last week, the theme of the conference I attended was “Listening to God and to Others.”   A few days before that I finished reading Doubt by Os Guinness and his chapter on listening to others who doubt had the most impact on me.  There were the themes of “listening” to our context or to our culture in The Tipping Point and Culture Making, two books I recently finished. And finally, someone sent me a list, “10 ways to be a better listener.”  Here are a few comments on listening to those in doubt from Guinness’ book, Doubt.

• Listening “is an expression of love in a form which is uniquely appropriate to the doubter.” 151
• Listening ‘helps us avoid being “reactionary.”  If we do not listen to other people but only react to what they are saying, we will be guilty both of not taking them seriously and of missing the point.” 152
• There is a deeply concealed impatience, if not open arrogance, in the attitude characterized by instant replies and irrelevant judgements.  Sometimes such answers are rude, sometimes they are completely wrong, but simply because we are looked to for an answer, we feel ourselves in a position of power where we need not stop to listen.  Actually we may not have listened to another person at all, only to our own echo.” 152
• “People lose interest if not hope when they know they are not being listened to.” 153
• “Listening is the first great part of remedying doubt.  . . Listen then with everything you have–with love, with acceptance, with concentration and with stillness, without impatience or inquisitiveness.  This is the listening that in saying little conveys much. 155-56′

Dealing with doubt

Finally finished up Doubt by Os Guinness.  Guinness is not an easy read but well worth the investment of the time.   This is a book that I started reading one day at a library more than ten years ago.  When I got home, I found a second-hand copy since it was published in 1976.  However, I just noticed that it was also published with the title In Two Minds. Still available from second hand re-sellers.

For Guinness, doubt is not a bad thing.  In fact, he says, “But if ours is an examined faith, we should be unafraid to doubt.  If doubt is eventually justified, we were believing what clearly was not worth believing.  But if doubt is answered, our faith has grown stronger still.” 11  Doubt is not the same as unbelief; “Doubt is a state of mind in suspension between faith and unbelief. . .”  19  That said, doubt needs to be resolved.  Says the author, “if faith does not resolve doubt, doubt will resolve faith.” 147

Guinness examines in detail, a chapter at a time, what he calls, five categories of doubt: Doubt from ingratitude, Doubt from a faulty view of God, Doubt from a weak foundation, Doubt from a lack of commitment, Doubt from lack of growth, Doubt from unruly emotions and Doubt from fearing to believe (due to scars from old wounds)  I appreciated his last two doubts; perhaps because these are where my doubts most often come.

In each chapter he presents some suggestions for resolving these doubts.  However in the third part of the book, he offers general principles to help those with doubts.  Listening is the foundation for all help we can give to those in doubt, followed by discerning, speaking and warning. The chapter on listening deserves a post of its own.

Finally, Guinness closes with two chapters that deal with Two Difficult Doubts.  One is the challenge to our faith when we do not understand what God is doing–when we are in darkness and must “suspend judgment.”  In the other, there is the temptation to doubt our calling when we are forced to wait.  In one, “faith stays true to God by not doing what it is tempted to do” and in the other “faith stays true to God by doing what it is tempted not to.” 223

Dealing with the imposter: the false self

Started to re-read Brennan Mannings Abbas Child after a friend recently returned it to me and I discovered that I had never gone thru and marked it up!  In his early chapters Manning is talking about self-hatred and what he calls the imposter or false self (selves).  Where do these false selves come from?  They seem to come from a self-protective front or persona that we take on to protect us from the pain of rejection or abandonment.  But, I disagree with Mannings assessment that we need to accept those false selves since that is not who I really am.  I want to believe the truth about my real identity in Christ.  However, I do need to recognize the various false selves I have created and project to protect the pain inside.  I wrote in his book, “Don’t deny them, recognize false images but realize that is not who I really am. Even as I write this, I am asking myself if there is any biblical basis for this idea of false selves.  I know Benner wrote about it in his spiritual formation trilogy as have many others.   Ok, here are some of my more prominent false selves?  From Manning, What are the voices that tell me I am unloved or unaccepted, that tempt me to reject myself?  “Self-rejection is the greatest enemy of the spiritual life,” says Manning on p. 24.  I am not sure about that –seems pride is a greater problem to me–but it is a problem that needs to be addressed!  ok, some for me

Performer: This is the one who says that I am only valuable based on my accomplishments or I am only okay if others like me.  Of course I know that I am accepted as I am by God without doing anything.   God loves me regardless.  Genuine friendships are gifts and it is okay to want to be liked but whenever that becomes my controlling motivation we have a problem.  Seems like a need for respect drives this for me.  Again, it is ok to want to produce, to have a work of my hands BUT I must realize that I am loved and accepted even if I should be unable to do anything and second, as the Psalmist requests of God, “Establish the work of our hands.”  God causes the growth even tho we are the ones who sow!!

A few other false selves  I came up with yesterday when I was journaling: Competent David, Knowledgeable David, Rescuing David, Curious David–not bad but when I need to know and resort to interrogating and compulsively have to know….not good.  Controlling–get my way but I think, there is a really a trust issue here related to competence?   Can I trust other people to do a job well and if they don’t will I look bad?

This seems like a negative post but I am in a coffee shop and looking over my journal from yesterday so I am not so focused.  I have come a long way over the past years–thank you Lord.  I am grateful for an increasing freedom to be my true self in Christ but I guess it still is a daily battle to reflect on who I am, to wait before God, in His love and acceptance and out of that fullness, love others.

Will keep reading Manning and try to come back to interact with his thoughts.  Interesting that he is not clicking so much with me this time around. Appreciate any comments.

The value of facebook

There must be hundreds of articles and scholarly articles on Facebook and the whole social networking scene.  Here are two that my wife passed on to me that you may want to look over.

Interesting article about how those in middle age and older are beginning to see the value of involvement in Facebook.

And another article which is attempting to show that involvement in Facebook combats our narcissistic tendencies.  Says Richard Clark, “In other words, Facebook destroys my tendency to focus on myself exclusively and forces me to focus outwardly.”

I keep telling others (and myself) to remember that Facebook is a tool to stay connected with others and is of neutral value.  In fact, it (and similar networks) looks like they are the best way to stay connected with anyone 30 and under!  But, is Facebook (Twitter etc) a problem when it becomes the exclusive way to be connected?  Or is that an exaggeration.  With our newer missionaries, facebook, twitter and skype has allowed them to be in almost daily contact with the home countries and I am not convinced that is the best for their adjustments.  Or maybe I am just an old goat.  I know I look like one right now!

Where grace and the cross meet

As I have discovered, there is a large body of literature out there on the relationship between faith and wellness.  So, it is no surprise to hear about a book, “How God Changes Your Brain.”   Michael Gerson describes in his review of the book by Andrew Newberg how religious practices like prayer and meditation “actually alter the neural connections of the brain,” leading to a more healthy emotional or inner life.  But if this is the only reason for our faith, something is wrong.  Gerson writes,

But if this is what spirituality is all about, it isn’t about very much. Mature faith sometimes involves self-sacrifice, not self-actualization; anguish, not comfort. If the primary goal of religion is escape or contentment, there are other, even more practical methods to consider. “I didn’t go to religion to make me happy,” said C.S. Lewis, “I always knew a bottle of port would do that.”

In his book, Culture Making, Andy Crouch talks about the calling of Christians to be cultural creators and cultivators.   But that creativity must go through the cross.

But our callings do mean that we will find ourselves at the places of pain, offering new creation in the midst of brokenness forsakenness.  We cannot expect to be in those places without being touched and even broken by their pain.  . . . So where are we called to create culture?  At the intersection of grace and cross. 262

Faith often lead us to a healthier inner life, but it is a life that we then give away to others. . . May this be true of me, may this be true of me.

Beauty that we can respect

The following youtube video of Susan Boyle singing “I dreamed a dream” has been viewed close to 30 million times and has an amazing 150,000 comments so likely there is nothing new for most of you.  But, my wife sent me a link to an article by Colette Douglas in which she analyzes why so many (yes, including me) were surprised when she began to sing in a reaction that she described as “rude and cruel and arrogant.”   More biting words from Douglas,

Not only do you have to be physically appealing to deserve fame; it seems you now have to be good-looking to merit everyday common respect. If, like Susan (and like millions more), you are plump, middle-aged and too poor or too unworldly to follow fashion or have a good hairdresser, you are a non-person.

In Douglas’ article we learn some of Susan Boyle’s story, about how she was a care giver for her mother until recently.   As I think about this story, 1 Peter 3 comes to mind in which wives are said to be able to win over their husbands “without words by the behavior of their wives.” Specifically, what makes a difference says Peter, is their “inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and a quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God’s sight.”

As I write this, I am listening to Shawn McDonald’s “Hallelujah” which is a song in which he sings about the “Be Attitudes” of Mtt 5.  Quite moving.  I would love to hear Susan Boyle sing this song.  Forgive me Father for judging by the outward appearance–I should know better.

And in case you are not among the 30 million who have watched the video of Susan singing, here it is.

Necessary conditions for cultural change

Did a book summary last week on the book Tipping Point–you can see the full book summary here.

Question of the book: How does a movement begin? Or an epidemic or a fad or an idea?

Key idea of the book “Ideas and products and messages and behaviors spread just like viruses do.” 7

Three main ideas in the book

1. Good ideas are contagious: a small number of people can bring about a change that impacts many
2. Little changes can bring big effects
3. Once the critical factors are in place, epidemics happen very quickly. Change happens not gradually but in one dramatic moment or at a tipping point

Synonyms for tipping point: critical mass, threshold, boiling point 12

Tipping points start when

¨ The influence of special people (connectors, mavens and persuaders) are involved

¨ You are able to make the content of your message “sticky”

¨ You are able to discover small changes in the context that get things started

Just finished Culture Making by Andy Crouch today; a book in which he helps us understand how we can impact our culture.  In commenting on Gladwell’s book, Crouch says, Gladwell has discovered three “necessary conditions for cultural success. But they are not sufficient.” 196 In other words, when we try to introduce a “cultural good” (to use Crouch’s words) Gladwell may have discovered common factors in all cultural successes (“necessary conditions”) but we cannot guarantee success (sufficient conditions)–especially when we are talking about a large scale cultural change. Should brings humility and dependency on grace for those of us who would seek to be involved in bringing about cultural changes in our world.

In fact, Crouch says that there is no way we can guarantee the success of a cultural good on a large scale.

Following the four circles

Found a new way of talking about the good news of Christianity.  Check out James Choung’s website, Tell It Slant where you can find a CT article about his new book and I found a 3 min you tube clip in which he shares a presentation of the four circles

No more fear of death

Insightful post by Piper on a conversation that may have taken place one Easter morning.

Makes me think of one of my favorite passages in Hebrews 2

14 Because God’s children are human beings—made of flesh and blood—the Son also became flesh and blood. For only as a human being could he die, and only by dying could he break the power of the devil, who had* the power of death.15 Only in this way could he set free all who have lived their lives as slaves to the fear of dying.  (New Living)

Committment to pray

Great story about some American POWs who were committed to pray, no matter what it cost them.  Thanks to my wife for this link.

Post Lenten Retreat Thoughts

It is impossible to record all the ways God was at work over our three days of silent retreat.  I am not sure I want to do so–some of it was not to be shared–you know between God and me.  I also suspect that God was at work in some hidden yet significant ways that I may never be aware.  But, I am also reluctant to “lose” some of what I learned and am learning blogging helps me to pull things together.  I am not sure how helpful this will be for others but you are welcome to join me on this journey with the Spirit.

In writing this, I am torn, not knowing where to begin and as I do so, I begin to feel the pressure of the time–not wanting to stay up too late.  But over the past three days, I don’t think I ever felt the pressure of time even though we followed a schedule.  Ok, I admit that once or twice during one of our hour-long communal silence periods, I did look at my watch.   We had four of these and I am not sure what I was “worried” about.   We met in the “prayer room” for our communal silences and our retreat director made it clear that we could leave any time we wanted if it wasn’t working for us.  Some of us sat on the floor with cushions (I brought my two comfy pillows)  and others sat on a bench around the back of the room.   In the front of the room was a cross and some candles.  The cross was “clothed” appropriately for each day.

We entered these communal silences from various points in the retreat.  I think my favorite was following our “Tenebrae” service or “the service of shadows. ” After some reflective readings, singing of Taize songs and periods of silence, we moved from the shadow of betrayal to the shadow of death. After the Scripture for each shadow event was read, one candle was extinguished until the room was dark.  Then, we sat together in the room for our one hour communal silence before retiring to our rooms for the night.  I am grateful for the silence of our house just now for it helps me remember those communal silences and the fullness they created in me and which remains.

Since the retreat ran from Thursday noon to Sunday noon, we obviously did more than just sat around in silence!  We shared in a service together each day using lenten liturgical meditations prepared by our retreat director.  Each morning and afternoon we had a personal time of silence (2-3 hours at a time) and were given reflection questions to use during our personal time if we so wanted.  I used the prepared questions and it was a rich time alone with God, reading my Bible, praying and journaling.  We took all our meals together in silence until we broke the silence following our easter sunrise service.   There were a few brief conversations going on from time to time but they were quiet and respectful in honoring the gift of silence that we were giving to one another.   As we retired for bed, we were also given a sheet for compline reflection and to use in our examen.  Truly a beautifully woven tapestry of silence, contemplation and reflection.

Actually, on Thursday morning,  I was thinking about not going–thinking I would just stay home and have my own personal retreat.   Good choice to go.  As one of my fellow retreatants said, “It is different to be silent alone and silent together with others.  It is different when you share silence joined together with others who have a hunger for God.”  I hope to write more later in the week about a few of the good gifts God gave over the four days and write as well about the darkness of the descent on Saturday.

Another prayer for holy week

Jesus said, “I am the good shepherd” in Jn 10:11.  Reading Psalm 23 this week.  This morning using the New Living translation, I personalized each line which led to some useful meditation.  Maybe some will find it helpful.

The LORD is my shepherd
YOU are my shepherd

I have all that I need
I have all that I need

He lets me rest in green meadows
YOU let me rest

He leads me besides peaceful streams
YOU lead me

He renews my strength
YOU renew my strength

He guides me along right paths
YOU guide me

bringing honor to his name
YOU allow me to bring honor to YOUR name

Even when I walk thru the darkest valley, I will not be afraid
I will not be afraid

for you are close beside me
YOU are close beside me

Your rod and your staff protect and comfort me
YOU protect and comfort me

You prepare a feast for me in the presence of  my enemies
YOU prepare a feast for me

You honor me by anointing my head with oil
YOU honor me

My cup overflows with blessings
I overflow with blessings

Surely your goodness and unfailing love will pursue me all the days of my life
YOUR goodness and unfailing love pursue me

I will live in the house of the LORD forever
I will live with YOU forever

Jesus said, “I am the good shepherd” in Jn 10:11. When taken with 1 Pet 2:24 and 5:4, it seems appropriate to pray this Psalm this holy week. Thanks to Peter C. Craige.

Forgiveness lies at the heart of our civilization

My wife pointed me to a long, complicated (for me) and wide ranging article by Roger Scruton, ” Forgiveness and Irony” in City Mag. Scruton is warning about an abandonment in today’s western cultures of our Christian roots.  Forgiveness and irony are two “gifts that we have received from our Judeo-Christian tradition.”  I dont quite understand what he means by irony but a few of his comments on forgiveness are worth quoting.  Scruton writes

The first of these gifts is forgiveness. By living in a spirit of forgiveness, we not only uphold the core value of citizenship but also find the path to social membership that we need. Happiness does not come from the pursuit of pleasure, nor is it guaranteed by freedom. It comes from sacrifice: that is the great message that all the memorable works of our culture convey. The message has been lost in the noise of repudiation, but we can hear it once again if we devote our energies to retrieving it. And in the Judeo-Christian tradition, the primary act of sacrifice is forgiveness. The one who forgives sacrifices resentment and thereby renounces something that had been dear to his heart.

The West’s democratic inheritance stems, I would argue, from the habit of forgiveness. To forgive the other is to grant him, in your heart, the freedom to be. It is therefore to acknowledge the individual as sovereign over his life and free to do both right and wrong. A society that makes permanent room for forgiveness therefore tends automatically in a democratic direction, since it is a society in which the voice of the other is heard in all decisions that affect him. Irony—the recognition and acceptance of otherness—amplifies this democratic tendency and also helps thwart the mediocrity and conformity that are the downsides of a democratic culture.

Forgiveness and irony lie at the heart of our civilization. They are what we have to be most proud of, and our principal means to disarm our enemies.

What do I/we support?

Here is another tough critique of the church in America–actually, this is a critique that could be leveled on the church in the Philippines and in many other places I suspect.  Remember the old saying, “I don’t smoke, I don’t chew, I don’t go with girls who do!”  In talking with a Catholic here one day about evangelicals or “born agains”, the peson said, I know, “You don’t go to church, you don’t believe in images and you don’t believe in Mary.”  Well, following are two excerpts from “What are we For?” by Robert Lynn on the Breakpoint website.

I fear that in America, the evangelical church is largely known for what it is against. Its image in the culture is one that seems negative and angry. The result is that the culture seems to be quite clear about what we’re against but seems to have little understanding of what we are for. Is it the case that we have failed to adequately explain the Gospel to our culture—to define and explain what it means to live positively in God’s world? And so a question I put to myself and to you, to my church and your church: Do those around us see us and see our churches as merely being against something or do they also see us as being for something?

If you want to read more about how evangelicals are seen today, read

Unchristian: What a new generation really thinks about Christianity…and why it matters

by David Kinnaman and Gabe Lyons.  David Mays gives a summary of the book on his website. Here are the concluding words from UnChristian, courtesy of David Mays.

9 From UnChristian to Christian

How will we respond? (205)  Four suggestions:

· Respond with the right perspective (like Jesus.  He considered the below-the-surface issues.)

· Connect with people.  Jesus influenced people through relationships and friendships.

· Be creative.  Jesus attracted people in creative ways and connected with the heart.  Look for new stories, parables and ways of communicating.

· Serve people.  Cultivate deep concern and sensitivity to outsiders.  Learn to listen.

· Life a lifestyle of compassion.

Afterward

“Putting the needs of others above your own, loving your neighbor, doing good to those who would do evil to you, exercising humility, suffering with those less fortunate, and doing it all with a pure heart is nearly impossible.  But it is Jesus’s model and call.” (225)

“The perceptions of outsiders will change only when Christians strive to represent the heart of God in every relationship and situation.” (226)

Back to the Robert Lyon’s article on the Breakpoint website

We are not simply against lies, we are for truth; we are not simply against evil, we are for goodness; we are not simply against ugliness, we are for beauty. And why? Because we love and worship One who is True, Good, and Beautiful. And this One who is True and Good and Beautiful is the Triune God who calls us to be for the world because He is for the world.

Hot vocanic link

Here is a hot link to a spanish video of the eruption of Llaima in Chile. Just for my wife.  Thanks to Eric at Eruptions.  Check out at his website for info on the eruption of Redoubt in Alaska and future ones around the world.

Praying for “grace”

We had a week’s vacation at the end of March and I did nothing except sleep, do some exercise, and read Philip Yancey’s book,  Prayer: Does It Make Any Difference.

Grace is one of the things Yancey says we should pray for.  How about these words from page 280

Grace descends as the gentle rain from heaven.  It does not divide, does not rank.  It floats like a cloud high in the sky, and the thirsty pray for it as desert nomads pray for rain.

Prayer for grace offers the chance for a deep healing, or at least a way to cope with what cannot be fixed.

“Ritalinization” of the evangelical church

Here is a link to some fine writing by John over at Jesus the radical preacher on the ritalinization of the evangelical church.

“Social stigma” has produced the ’secret service’ Christian…no one knows but God.

“Feeling lifeless” has produced the stimulate me on Sunday morning Christian. That’s the church’s job.

“Alienated from peers” has produced the tribal units–Calvinists don’t like open theists, KJVers don’t like TNIVers, Vineyard experiencers shy away from the dogma-driven, “feed me, feed me” whiners populate most pews and a myriad of other ghetto Christian groups exist in blissful isolation from the others.

Worth reading the comments connected to John’s post–there is some energy generated there.

Found the music of Jon Foreman last night.  I think the solo music of this Switchfoot member is more my style- mellow but words that connect.  Downloaded  “Instead of  a show” last night in which he calls the church out with a reference to Amos.

I hate all your show and pretense
the hypocrisy of your praise
the hypocrisy of your festivals
I hate all your show

Away with your noisy worship
Away with your noisy hymns
I stop up my ears when your singing ‘em
I hate all your show

Instead let there be a flood of justice
An endless procession of righteous living, living
Instead let there be a flood of justice
Instead of a show

Similar message to earlier post of John I mentioned at Jesus the Radical pastor

Evangelicalism in America is a “market” or an entertainment industry. God and Jesus and the Bible are products and worship services are shows.  If I’m in the market for a solemn,  sacred spirituality, I can go to the Episcopal service. If I’m shopping for the latest feel good, spiritual high, I can buy a ticket to the charismatic service. If I just want “the facts, M’am, just the facts,” I can go to a good Bible-teaching church. If I want Starbucks and brie, I can go to the emerging church. Get it? Isn’t it great to be an American Christian?  But it’s all Ritalin* for the soul. Just keep calm.

All that said, and as frustrated I get with the local church, I am still committed to the local church, imperfect as it is. God is at work and how easy it is to keep focused on all the things that need to change or that are wrong.  And, I need to be willing to continue to allow my imperfections to be seen so others will find the church a safe place as well.  Let it start here Lord.