Coming Soon- "Come to Bethlehem"

Guide Me

It's fitting that lately I have been contemplating action, and in receiving a new breath prayer this morning it too is regarding action. It is, "Teacher, guide me in your ways". I imagine myself in a field, lying on my back and desperate for something...something only half known that leaves an empty stillness within. I start to hear movement through the grass, and I prop myself up on my elbows as I peer over the tall grass to where I see it swaying. A man is walking toward me. I begin to rise as I realize that it is Him. The Son of Man. I Am. That's it, I realize. That is the longing- it's for Him. I peer up at him from my 5-foot frame and say Teacher. He smiles at me and recognizes the name. That is what I need- a teacher. I reach out and grab his hand in mine. It is much larger than my own, and warm to the touch. I am desperate in my plea: Guide me in your ways. "I am", he says. He must know my longing, for he takes me then and holds me. I am my beloved's, and he is mine. Suddenly I am beautiful. Suddenly I am strong. The ache is no more, the emptiness filled. And I realize that the only action I am called to is just to follow, and to be willing to be led.

Peace Like a River

Rivers don't always rush through lush, green, well grooves paths. Sometimes they have to carve their own way, and for a season they bring life into their surrounding areas. During the seasons of African desert flooding this is the case. For the months of September though the late winter months the rains come and dried out beds spring to new life from the currents of water that find their way down through the barren land. Lands that seem almost hopeless suddenly find new birth and fresh life.
The Spirit can bring peace in such a way as this. Out of harsh, dry, desolate places new life can suddenly come rushing forward. It's usually right when we are to the brink of hopelessness, wondering when life will ever feel full or vibrant again that we are suddenly brought back to life. God knows.
He knows the cycles of our lives. He knows when peace seems like a relished treasure of the past that we no-longer can even hope for. He knows when we have reached exhaustion- when we have even reached our breaking point. And just when life as we know it starts to crumble and dry up, He fills it. The dried out wasteland of our heart has thirsted for peace for so long, and suddenly it's there. At first it's a trickle that we notice and lap up hungrily, not even believing that it's there. Then more of His love and peace begin to rush in. God fills up the hollowed up cracks and crevices and starts to drench us in His mercy. And then- at long last then- we are so flooded with His abundance that we don't even remember being thirsty. The Spirit has flooded us with peace- that beautiful peace like a river.

To Burn

There is a story told among Eastern Orthodox and Monastic circles about the story of Abba Lot. The story goes like this: "Abba Lot went to see Abba Joseph and said to him, ‘Abba as far as I can I say my little office, I fast a little, I pray and meditate, I live in peace and as far as I can, I purify my thoughts. What else can I do?’ then the old man stood up and stretched his hands towards heaven. His fingers became like ten lamps of fire and he said to him, ‘If you will, you can become all flame.’"

It's not only a beautiful vision, to become all aflame, but it's a beautiful idea. John Wesley's conversion story tells of how his heart was "strangely warmed". The Christian faith is full of metaphors linking faith to fire and warmth- the idea that our passion for Christ will become so inflamed within our hearts that the sensation will be like burning. It is my conviction that this is our heart's deepest longing.

I often think about the phenomenon that takes place when I quickly pass my finger through a flame...I don't feel any pain. I feel the heat maybe (depending on the size of the flame), but if I move my finger through the flame very quickly then I can avoid injury or burn. It's as if I never touched the fire. Perhaps that is how our spiritual lives are in relation to the time spent with our Father. We are like Father Lot; we pray and read scripture and go to church, and yet we thirst for more. Our lives feel somehow untouched and cold. So I ask this question: are we treating God like a chore? Is He something to check off of our list at the end of the day? Morning prayers? Check. Pray before meals? Check. Tithe? Check. Read scripture at the end of the day? Check. You get the picture. So God gets a check, but during our day we are doing something else, too...we are being friends, husband, wives, daughters, sons, siblings, and parents. We are growing closer to our loved ones by spending time with them. Often I lay in bed on a Sunday night after spending a significant time with my husband and I think to myself, "I am so in love with Joel". I love him more and more as I spend more time growing closer to him- learning more about him and his heart. So what happens then if I use this principle in my relationship with God? What happens if I spend more and more time with my Lord and my Savior- my Father and my Friend? The hope is that I begin to love him more; I begin to cherish his heart more.

Spend time doing whatever it is that brings you closer to God, whether that be taking a walk, reading his word, playing sports, practicing yoga, meditating, or taking a candlelit bath. Be still in his presence. Allow your heart to be strangely warmed by his love for you. And at last, be all aflame.

Rooted

There is another thing that I have noticed about the wind. It moves us. It changes landscapes. It whistles through trees and houses. It has the ability to leave us unsettled. Sometimes this movement of change comes from the Spirit. We are stable, unsuspecting, and strong...and one day that all changes. God comes in to our lives in the form of chaos to evoke something in our hearts whether it be vulnerability, fear or excitement. He wants our dependence on him to deepen as our souls make their way into a desert of unknowing. We fear and we lack, and so we rely.
Of course this ability to depend on God in the midst of our metaphoric storms demands that we first have the roots of real faith. I don't think we even know what that looks like until we come into the wasteland. I think I have it, but do I really? Do I honestly trust that God holds me in the palm of his hand, wanting only good for my life? My heart and my soul cry "Yes!", and still sometimes my head shakes out a regrettable "no".
There is a paradox to the gaining of faith. In all my years of walking with God I have heard, read, and known that faith comes with knowing God. We come to know God by reading his word, praying, living in community, and doing good works for our fellow (wo)man. And yet sometimes this very act of disciplining ourselves to grow closer to God is what takes us into the desert. As we learn to meditate on God we begin to lose the gilded facade of self. Suddenly we are lost, not knowing which is up or down or what God even wants with our fragile, dependent selves. We want to scream "I hate this place!" And yet this place- this void- is exactly where God wants us. Our roots grab onto something substantial when we are here. We don't know how it happens, or how we even make it to the other side, but all of a sudden we find ourselves trees in a new season. And we are so beautiful. We are strong.

Wind

Jesus tells Nicodemus that the Wind blows where it chooses and that you don't know from where it comes or where it goes...you can only hear the sound of it. Then he says that this is true for all who have been born of the Spirit. Wind. Spirit. Holy Ghost. Ruach. (Hebrew). Do we know when we have been touched by the Spirit? Do we even know what that would look like?
I think most of us would equate anything to do with the Holy Spirit with a Pentecostal experience. Maybe you have experienced something like that, whether it be the laying on of hands to receive the gift of tongues or some sort of miraculous healing. Still, that's not really what I'm interested in talking about. The experience of the Spirit shouldn't be a one-time thing, nor should it have to look frightening and foreign. I dread to think that people stay away from the idea of the Holy Spirit because they think it has to look like a Benny Hinn conference. It doesn't! The third party of the Trinity is and can be exactly what YOU need it to be- for healing, for peace, for patience, for strength, for love.
Imagine a spring evening. You're walking on a path somewhere distant and slightly remote from city or suburban life. You close your eyes and feel the last bit of the sun's warmth on the bridge of your nose and across your cheeks. Suddenly a slight breeze. Your hair picks up at the tendrils. Your shirt ripples across your back and gives you chills. The sweet scent of warmed earth wafts up to your nose. Tension releases. A smile plays on the corners of your mouth. "The Wind", you think to yourself. Yes; the Wind. The Spirit.

The Four Elements of Faith

If God the Creator brought into existence the earth and all of her glory, then why do we fear a spirituality that has anything to do with "tree-hugging" or creation-serving? Isn't care for the earth just good stewardship of what man and woman were given care over? What I am afraid that our churches are doing through our teaching is simplifying God down to only one or two aspects of his nature. God is Lord, Provider, Savior, Almighty, Redeemer,...and Creator! But I don't think we get good, solid preaching on what it means to humanity that God is the Creator.

Meditate if you will on what it means to you to have a creative God. First things that come to my mind: God values beauty, color, and variety! There is genius expressed in the workings of our human bodies and in the bodies of the animals. God loves when WE create. And there is something else: When the 7 days of creating were over, God took nothing away. Nothing that he created is bad- every living thing is PRECIOUS in his site. Every part of the created order was intentional. We are precious, the animals are precious, the green earth is precious.

Spiritual literature, poetry, prayer, and song are all entrenched with earth symbolism. The Holy Spirit in the Hebrew language shares the word with "wind" (ruach). The Holy Spirit is also given as a tongue of fire. We are baptized in water, our faith is rooted, Jesus is the vine, etc. For now simply reflect on what these symbols mean to you and stay tuned for a series built around the 4 elements of Earth, Air, Fire, and Water. My prayer is that something unique will be revealed to each of us and that our understanding of God's character will become a little but clearer.

Peace, and God Bless