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.

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.