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.

Suffering for Others

Slaves, accept the authority of your masters with all deference, not only those who are kind and gentle but also those who are harsh. For it is to your credit if, being aware of God, you endure pain while suffering unjustly. If you endure when you are beaten for doing wrong, where is the credit in that? But if you endure when you do right and suffer for it, you have God’s approval. For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you should follow in his steps.
‘He committed no sin,
   and no deceit was found in his mouth.’
When he was abused, he did not return abuse; when he suffered, he did not threaten; but he entrusted himself to the one who judges justly. He himself bore our sins in his body on the cross, so that, free from sins, we might live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed. For you were going astray like sheep, but now you have returned to the shepherd and guardian of your souls.

I Peter 2 

The idea of suffering has always been a tough one for me to accept. I do not want to suffer. It is as simple as that. But what we are called to is even tougher than that (sadly, I am not sure that I ever really understood this before). We are CALLED to suffer unjustly FOR THE SAKE OF THE ONES WHO CAUSED THE SUFFERING IN THE FIRST PLACE.

I have always focused on the command to endure suffering even if it's unjust, that we bless those who curse us, do good to those who harm us, etc. But it is more than that. We are called to suffered as Christ did ON BEHALF OF THE ONES WHO CAUSE THE SUFFERING. In this passage I think that we are identified by Peter as those who caused the unjust suffering of Christ (He bore OUR sins in his body on the cross), and yet we are the ones who have been healed. Because he did that for us, we have returned to the one who cares for, provides for, and looks after our souls (remember that souls refer to who we are). This isn't just some sort of spiritual legal transaction on God's books. Christ being willing to suffer unjustly, his torture coming as a result of our sins, touched us in a way that caused us to return to God.

We are called to imitate Christ in this way. Suffer on behalf of others, suffer unjustly at their hands, for their benefit. We live in the hope, not that they will "get theirs" but that they will return to God precisely because of our suffering unjustly at their hands. 

Will everyone be touched and respond to our unjust suffering? If people's reaction to Christ is any indication, the answer is no, of course not. But other people's response is not what determines who we are. We are people who love those who do not love us, and that is a hard hard thing for us to do or even understand. The important thing for us to remember is that we have been called to follow him in just this way: a willingness to take on unjust abuse precisely for the sake of those who abuse us.

I saw The Vow a few days ago

I saw The Vow a few days ago with Denise and Kendall. I teased them that I now know what water boarding must feel like - sheer torture. (Ok, I know that is a terrible comment on so many levels).

But I'll admit, I enjoyed the movie. While I do think the movie was at least 30 minutes too long, I really did like the definition of "hero" that you can find in Channing Tatum's character. He is keeping his vow; he loves even when he is being rejected by the one whom he loves. He is a hero. (By the way, the movie is based on a true story).

I think that we need to teach our kids to be heroes. I have been guilty of focusing on rules - "this is what God wants, this is God's will" - without helping my kids see the big picture. God wants heroes. He has designed us to be heroes. The world needs them, and we need to be them.

When you see the kind of movie that has a strong hero or heroine, usually they are someone whose love is brave and sacrificial. At a tremendous cost to themselves, they do the right thing; they love at a price; they don't care what others think of them; they only want to do what is best for the one(s) that they love. They are heroes. And we come away from the movie somehow feeling stronger and better.

Be a hero. Look at what is going on in your life today and decide that you will be the hero. You will love even when you are not appreciated. You will be brave and faithful when others think that you are stupid and out of touch. You will work tirelessly to help others whether or not anyone notices. You will not whine or indulge in self-pity, because heroes don't do this. Instead, you will pursue others' good even when you are rejected and misunderstood. You will do this, not because of any gain for yourself but because this is what love does when love loves. You will do all this, because you are a hero, being made that way by God, in the image of your older brother.

Live the big story: it's what you're made for.

Kids

 An argument arose among them as to which one of them was the greatest. But Jesus, aware of their inner thoughts, took a little child and put it by his side, and said to them, ‘Whoever welcomes this child in my name welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me; for the least among all of you is the greatest.’  Jesus

To welcome a child means to accept a child in love. It means to see the child as a whole, not only what s/he appears to be now - childish behaviors, immature, "goofy," and learning adult games - but who s/he is as a person that will one day go to school, have a job, have children of their own,  talk politics, share Christ with you, and be revealed in glory. When you welcome a child, you welcome her/him as a person of equal dignity and respect.

Thinking about family traditions that we didn't have

You must not eat with it anything leavened. For seven days you shall eat unleavened bread with it—the bread of affliction—because you came out of the land of Egypt in great haste, so that all the days of your life you may remember the day of your departure from the land of Egypt.
                                                                                            Deuteronomy 16: 3


For a long time I had not thought about the reason why the bread for the Passover feast was unleavened. But when I read this passage a couple of days ago, I was reminded that the bread was unleavened because they were in a hurry. They couldn't wait for the bread to rise. I think the lesson is: when God saves you, move! Get out of your oppression - now! Don't wait.

Every year Hebrew families would reenact this event giving parents an opportunity to tell their children about what God had done for them, why they were eating unleavened bread, and how they escaped Egypt with their lives. Jesus saw the meaning of his own death in this event. Looking forward to his resurrection and the time of new creation before he returned as King, he told his disciples to remember their salvation in the celebration of this event.

I know that as Christians we go to church and "take the Lord's Supper" on a weekly basis to remind us what Jesus did for us, the new covenant of forgiveness that we enjoy, and the fact that we are now family in the Body of Christ. It is the celebration of our salvation, our escape from sin, and, most of all, it is the celebration of the love of our Savior, Jesus the Christ. But as good as all that is in church,  I wish I had done something more "in family" - like the Hebrew people. I think that there must have been something particularly faith-strengthening in the family celebration of salvation that teaches children and reminds parents of the truths of their salvation.

What do you think? Do you think that we Americans who are not much for traditions - especially religious family traditions - can start traditions that teach and reinforce faith?