Looking at Flowers: Seeing beyond Darwin's Box

I look at the meadow

And stare at the flowers

Better dressed than any girl

On her wedding day. 

                                Jon Foreman

Once when  I was talking with a handful of friends, I said that it seemed to me that God was a hedonist who had purposefuly made a world that we could delight in. The world was filled to the brim with beauty, and we were made to enjoy its pleasures. God could have restricted colors to shades of grey; everything could have tasted to us like mashed potatoes. One of my friends looked at me strangely. He dismissed my thoughts with a scientific explanation of how we discern the colors we see and disciminate the flavors we taste. 

I understood his perspective but felt like his perspective was limited by his training. If I see things the way that Jesus sees things, when I see another dimension to their physical reality. When I look at the flowers I see their beauty as an expression of God's love. There is a scientific explanation for how the flowers came to have the form and coloration that they have and a scientific explanation for how we perceive that form and coloration. But any explanation that ignores Jesus point of view, doesn't take into account the most significant reality of all: there is a creator of our world who loves it very much and has filled it with beauty, a beauty designed (among other things) for our enjoyment. 

When the light comes on: reflections on Ephesians 1, the Academy, and breaking out of the box

I pray that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation as you come to know him, so that, with the eyes of your heart enlightened, you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance among the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power for us who believe, according to the working of his great power. God put this power to work in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the age to come. And he has put all things under his feet and has made him the head over all things for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all. Ephesians 1

The Academy compresses all life to social relations, social knowledge, and physical processes. There is nothing outside of their tightly constructed box. Any attempt to suggest that something exists outside the box cannot be tolerated.

Years ago I met something outside the box. I had been told that something existed outside the box - this was information handed down for generations by people I could trust. In fact, they said, reality that could not be measured by weight or length or isotopes was everywhere. The time finally came when I understood clearly what these people were talking about when they claimed that the world was more than a self-contained, no-exit death trap.

Being still, listening, I heard. My eyes were opened, I was enveloped in life, and my heart went electric with song.

Someone's prayer was answered. 

Somethings can only be known through revelation; without revelation there is no wisdom.

Identity

Identity has been a huge issue in contemporary culture. Maybe it also was in first century Roman culture:

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, just as he chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless before him in love. He destined us for adoption as his children through Jesus Christ, according to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace that he freely bestowed on us in the Beloved.In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace that he lavished on us. With all wisdom and insight he has made known to us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure that he set forth in Christ, as a plan for the fullness of time, to gather up all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth. In Christ we have also obtained an inheritance,having been destined according to the purpose of him who accomplishes all things according to his counsel and will, so that we, who were the first to set our hope on Christ, might live for the praise of his glory. In him you also, when you had heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and had believed in him, were marked with the seal of the promised Holy Spirit; this is the pledge of our inheritance towards redemption as God’s own people, to the praise of his glory.  (The apostle Paul as recorded in Ephesians 1)

We know from sociological studies of these times that the first Christians were most often poor, alienated, and powerless. Paul tells them that, the fact is, they are blessed - just as Jesus told the crowds that followed him that they were blessed. Paul clearly says that their blessedness is spiritual. Their spiritual blessing is profoundly real. Their identity is completely different from what they had always believed. These followers of Jesus have been adopted by God because of Jesus the Christ. So now they are holy and blameless. They have redemption and forgiveness. And they can expect more. They have an inheritance - certainly something that they would have never have had from a physical father.

So, this is now my new identity: holy, blameless, redeemed, forgiven, and adopted into God's family. God is my father, a father who loves me completely, and Jesus is my older brother who is responsible for my new identity, my amazing good fortune. Being adopted I have a share in the inheritance. No matter what happens to me or how I am viewed by others or how I even view myself, the truth is I am blessed - blessed beyond all expectations.

Let it sink in.

Do not be afraid

 ‘So have no fear of them; for nothing is covered up that will not be uncovered, and nothing secret that will not become known. What I say to you in the dark, tell in the light; and what you hear whispered, proclaim from the housetops. Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell. Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground unperceived by your Father. And even the hairs of your head are all counted. So do not be afraid; you are of more value than many sparrows.

                                                                                                             Matthew 10

I boldfaced typed the last sentence of Jesus' discourse because I think that everything he said before has to be seen in light of his final point. 

Here is the incredible good news: do not be afraid.

It is amazing how many times that "urging" is made and how hard it is for it to sink into my life: do not be afraid.

We have no comprehension of how valuable we are to God. We let ourselves become so caught up in secrets, in fears, in protecting ourselves. 

Just stop it.

Remember how much you are loved as inexplicable as it is. What Jesus came to tell us was that because we have this father who loves us so much, we have nothing to fear.

So, do not be afraid.

Don't be afraid of secrets, of those who you think are plotting against you, of your own secrets, of people figuring out who you are, even of being harmed in some way by those who hate you.

The God who notices the birds, loves you with all of his big, incredible heart. Do not be afraid.

The inevitable result of Idol worship

The word of the Lord came to me: You, mortal, will you judge, will you judge the bloody city? Then declare to it all its abominable deeds. You shall say, Thus says the Lord God: A city! Shedding blood within itself; its time has come; making its idols, defiling itself. You have become guilty by the blood that you have shed, and defiled by the idols that you have made; you have brought your day near, the appointed time of your years has come. Therefore I have made you a disgrace before the nations, and a mockery to all the countries. Those who are near and those who are far from you will mock you, you infamous one, full of tumult.

 The princes of Israel in you, every one according to his power, have been bent on shedding blood. Father and mother are treated with contempt in you; the alien residing within you suffers extortion; the orphan and the widow are wronged in you. You have despised my holy things, and profaned my sabbaths. In you are those who slander to shed blood, those in you who eat upon the mountains, who commit lewdness in your midst.In you they uncover their fathers’ nakedness; in you they violate women in their menstrual periods. One commits abomination with his neighbour’s wife; another lewdly defiles his daughter-in-law; another in you defiles his sister, his father’s daughter. In you, they take bribes to shed blood; you take both advance interest and accrued interest, and make gain of your neighbours by extortion; and you have forgotten me, says the LordGod.

 See, I strike my hands together at the dishonest gain you have made, and at the blood that has been shed within you. Can your courage endure, or can your hands remain strong in the days when I shall deal with you? I the Lord have spoken, and I will do it. I will scatter you among the nations and disperse you through the countries, and I will purge your filthiness out of you. And I shall be profaned through you in the sight of the nations; and you shall know that I am the Lord.

                                                                                Ezekiel 22

Idol worship, blood shed, greed, violence with the objective of material gain, all of it seems to be part of the same package. Denounced in the strongest possible terms. The inevitable result of idol worship may be the defacing of the human image. Everyone becomes an object to manipulate. How much worse when we who wear the name of Christ, who profess to worship God, secretly worship idols like Israel in the wilderness, leading us to this same violence, treating others less than human. We who trust in God trust him to give us what we need. We see our mission as taking care of creation, most especially, others who bear God's image. Therefore, there is no thought of our own gain, and if we follow the steps of Jesus, there is no thought of our own security, but rather our thought is to love, to look after the interest of others to the point and at the point of our own self sacrifice.

Trust Him and love. It's the design of the universe.

The most needed, most ignored, most trivialized, most misunderstood, least well-known teaching of Jesus?

We live our lives collecting things. Cataloging things. Desiring things. Protecting things. Hoarding things. Coveting things. It is as if we believed that things provide pleasure. And security. 

Possibly the only thing that we don't believe is that things will provide meaning for our lives. At least, I have never heard anyone claim that things give us significance. But doesn't what we pursue, indicate what we believe about our lives? In other words, doesn't what we build our lives around indicate what we think provides meaning and significance?

Jesus tells a story that has as its punch line: "The who dies with the most toys, still dies" (Luke 12:13-21). In his story the rich man does not understand that his life is something other than the pursuit of and the enjoyment of the things he has collected, and he does not really understand the significance of the fact that those things cannot provide him security against the greatest enemy, death. What is tragic about this story is not that the man dies. This is everyone's tragedy. What is tragic about the story is that the rich man never learned what life is all about, what life consists of. 

Someone might argue that according to the story the man is "only" hoarding up food. Food is necessary to our survival, right? To have ample food means to secure ourselves, right? 

Jesus' point is that the physical life that food promises is momentary at best. And his greater point is that storing of this treasure for oneself is not being rich toward God. In keeping with Jesus' other teachings, Jesus is calling for sharing crops with the poor not giving more money to the temple and priest as a religious act. What awaits the rich man at the end is not an angry God but the lostness of an man who has wasted his life.

"Life does not consist in the abundance of possessions."

Do you ever find yourself praying the prayer, "God, please, please, please, help me?"

Do you ever find yourself praying the prayer, "God, please, please, please, help me?" Or its other-centered cousin, "God, please, please, please, help them" (or him or her)?

Our hearts are often in a good place when we pray in this way. We are begging the Lord for his mercy - a practice that has a long history among God's people.

But if we find ourselves praying in this way the majority of the time, it may not indicate what we would like to think - that we are just humble beggars who are leaning heavily on God's grace and mercy. Rather, this mantra may indicate that we have made God into some sort of genie-in-a-bottle that we call on only in desperation and, then, more out of habit than faith.

There is another way of praying for ourselves and others that I am learning. It is helping me to grow in wisdom, love, and - just maybe - in favor with God and man. This other way is the way that Jesus taught us to pray.

Here is what I am beginning to understand: When someone is dying of cancer or who is completely distraught about their children's welfare or about relationships going badly or you-name-it, the first things that I need to pray for them are: 1. That they know God as their father; 2. That from deep within they count God as holy; 3. That without restraint or constraint they allow his will to be done in their lives.

Then it is time for 4. That God meet their specific urgent need as we best understand it.

After number four, 5. That they forgive all who have harmed them, and 6. That they not be destroyed, that they be preserved, be rescued from what would crush them.

I am finding that when I pray for others and myself in this way, I love the other person even more, that I am caring more about their welfare than I did before.

And I am beginning to see the world and understand our lives a little more from God's perspective.

I may be something of a broken record when it comes to this message, but I want to remind you of it because it seems so important to our lives as new creations.

Old and alone?

“Then you will say in your heart,
“Who has borne me these?
I was bereaved and barren,
exiled and put away—
so who has reared these?
I was left all alone—
where then have these come from?”
Isaiah 49: 22

God's beautiful promise to Judah is that her exile is not forever, that her exile does not mean that she is forgotten and unloved, and that as a nation she is not on the brink of about extinction.

But I think that these words are not just meant for the the Judah of the 8th century B.C. They can, and are even meant to, comfort those of us who are growing older and now feel alone. For those who believe their children are gone; who believe in their loneliness that it is as if their children had died or never been born.

God promises that the day is coming when Judah looks around and says, "Where have all these come from?" We will do the same. Children will be united with parents and parents with children and grandchildren. We are not alone.

But there's more. It's not just about a physical family.

I think that the promise for us is that through the grace of our God, we, who believe that our lives have, in the end, been meaningless, that we have helped no one, that we have been completely useless, will find that, to our great surprise, we have countless spiritual children. The time is coming when we will all be scampering about, full of joy at our reunion, at last realizing just what we have meant to each other and what we have meant to Him and what He means to us.

And we will know that we are not barren, neither are we bereaved.

The goal

With all my focus on doing well in school, doing well on the job, eating healthy, staying informed, etc., there are some things that I need to remember:

The goal is not:
1. To live long
2. To be the best student
3. To be the best teacher
4. To make the best grades
5. To know everything
6. To have all the answers
7. To be we'll respected
8. To get a certain job.
9. To make a certain kind of impact on people
10. To not be wasteful
11. To be safe
12. To be respectable
13. To have a good reputation
14. To make the most frugal use of money

The goal is:
To love the Lord our God with all my heart, soul, mind and strength and to love all others as I love myself. Everything bends to this.

Since this is my goal, I need to focus on God and others and not on all the things that I think that I need to do or learn or how I must position myself to "be a good servant." As to what I need to love Him and others, He will take care of all necessary arrangements. I must trust Him.

This is all a lesson that is very hard for me to learn, but I am so thankful that this is where He is taking us. He reigns and He will work this miracle within us - even in me!

Memorization, pt. 2

My method for memorization has been to memorize one verse at a time. Say it, and write it. Each day, I tack on a new verse, saying it and writing it along with the previous verses that I have already memorized. Recently, I memorized Colossians 1:1-17, because the first part of that passage has always seemed so mysterious, foundational, and strengthening to me: Our lives are "hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is our life is revealed, then we also will be revealed with him in glory." Being hidden in Christ, then revealed, is such an intriguing idea to me. I doubt that I really understand it. It sounds mystical, but it may not be.

I am beginning to work on a passage beginning with Eph. 1:16. It is about what Paul prays for the Ephesians. I want to use it to help extend my prayer life.

Memorizing Scripture

Like most kids that were "brought up in church," I memorized scriptures. In fact, in the fifth grade I memorized the Sermon on the Mount - three chapters worth!

Later on, however, when I had fallen in love with the God who loves me, I was not a fan of memorizing scripture. There are so many versions that I liked reading - which one would I use for memorization? Wouldn't I get confused by the different wordings of the different versions that I was reading? Isn't it the meaning, not the exact wording, that counts? Doesn't memorization lead to just spitting out a string of words that are known "by rote"? Wouldn't memorization take me away from life and actually lead to pride?

I'm changing my mind.

I started a few months ago memorizing scriptures. Instead of dulling my heart with "rote" mindlessness, the doing of it has had the effect of making me see familiar passages in a new way. Meanings and connections have emerged that I had not really noticed before. Instead of creating distance between me and God through pride, I feel closer to him, humbled and made quiet by his wisdom and love that comes through freshly in the words that are being planted and nourished in my heart.