Cliche's. Gotta love um.

As creative, imaginative beings, plunked down in the middle of a tiny planet in an unlimited universe there is so much to learn, wisdom to be mined and fallacies to be debunked. This world is full of things to be amazed by.  There are mysteries to explore, and truths to discover.

I did a brief stint in elementary/secondary education.  Several factors were involved in the decision I made to walk away but in all honesty, one thing would have kept me in the game. Curiosity.   I didn't try to force students to be curious about the things that fascinate me.  But the flint from my wonder-starter was worn smooth in just a couple short years by futile efforts to spark curiosity, imagination, creativity, and wonder.

I am sitting next to a seven and a half pound wonder-filled creative being who's desire to learn has yet to be euthanized. My prayer is for that desire to never cease and that I would be one who helps nurture its existence.

The Bible* instructs us how, when, and where to best educate our littles; when you are in your homes, when you travel down the road, when you are going to sleep, and when you are awake. I take that to mean anytime you are with a child - and don't have an audience you are trying to impress - it is a great time to talk with them about the wonders that make up their world.

I think it's interesting that the word 'talk' is used rather than 'teach' in this verse.  Talking is comfortable and congenial.  Talking is an organic way of learning many things.  Teaching is formal and demanding. Teaching requires cooperation between teacher and learner if it is to be successful.  It is formal method of learning.  This is not to say it is not effective or necessary.  It simply means that is the student and teacher must, at some level, agree to the process.

Any number of agreements can be employed: respect, desire, fear, awe, gratitude, satisfaction, adoration, appreciation, and desperation are a few that spring to mind.  Without agreement, there is little, if any, learning taking place.  Defenses are fortified by ensuing ignorance? Yes. But imaginative, inspiring, creative exchange of ideas and information? Not so much.

Curiosity killed the cat? Perhaps.  But killing curiosity is catatonic.  Fan the flame of curiosity if you are fortunate enough to locate an ember.

*Deut. 6:7

A Place to Belong

In 1982 the television show Cheers was launched. Here I sit, 35 years later, with the show’s theme song running through my head.  I also remember the 35 year past tirade of an angry preacher (who had recently been reassigned by the denomination’s HQ to our little parish) warning the tiny congregation to not be enticed by an empty desire for a place where your name is known, and people are glad to see you. 

REALLY?!?  Granted the details are fuzzy this far out, but the realization of how incredulous his statements felt are as strong today as they were then. 

Even though I was new to the ‘church game’ my young heart knew better than to believe what spewed from that pulpit that day. I’ve since learned authentic truths like ‘people don’t do well when isolated’ must be sacrificed to make room for religious dogma; something I’d been introduced to back then and had begun developing an increased tolerance for. So, I tried to make myself believe the angry man. One of my professors used to say, “this Gospel is so simple you need help to screw it up”.  Let’s just say angry preacher was all too eager to help. 

Thankfully the Spirit of God continues instructing, teaching, and counseling in spite of our insistence on listening to people who have no business trying to lead people to a God they have yet to meet, via a path they've never traversed. 

Today, I am a card carrying member of our local golf course.  It doesn’t matter that I am a poor golfer. Being a good golfer wasn’t a membership requirement.  Paying the fee and following the rules is all it takes to qualify. Membership insures a place I belong, where they are glad to see me, and the computer knows my name. All of us ‘members’ have the same troubles. We are bested by a little ball and a hole in the ground. And I am fairly certain, we are happy to have a place where we can say we belong.

God knows humanity’s need for a place to belong.  It’s not a design flaw. He’s made a place for members of the human race to belong. He calls it His church. Jesus paid your membership fee. Solid members might not know your name but they know the Father loves you. They might not understand your struggle but should respect you in it.  And they might get it wrong sometimes, but established members can communicate how valuable you are in this club. Cheers!

Big Accomplishments

Who doesn’t want to save big and sacrifice nothing?  But doesn’t  it seem as though the game has become to see how little we can invest and still demand the rights of the fully vested? As if how little one can get by with is the goal.  I’d like my clothes to look great but I’m not too keen on ironing.  I want to enjoy a clean house without ever having to get out the mop.  And why can’t the results of 30 minutes in the kitchen wow like a gourmet’s meal? I own my wardrobe, house, and those kitchen appliances.  I think that should be an adequate investment to insure an optimum return.

Sounds kind of ridiculous doesn’t it?

Fact is all that wishing doesn’t fill hearts with peace or lives with purpose.  So I plug in the iron, dig out the mop, and read a recipe or two and put a little more of me into the equation.  The result - satisfaction.  I stand a little taller, head a little higher.  I am a little more confident and feel a little more valuable and bring more to the game that is my life.

Look in the rear-view mirror of your life.  Aren’t the most satisfying chapters all written around the things that required significant investment, sacrifice and plain old hard work?  Things we chose to invest - not a token nod or few dollars - but our lives: heart, soul and body into?  There is an emotional high that comes from this powerful combination of valued accomplishment and fulfillment of purpose, a high deeper than satisfaction. It is a heart-felt contentment that only comes from an all-in commitment.

No one in history has ever demonstrated this more successfully and completely than Jesus.  His all-in-nothing-held-back commitment to the purpose of His earthly existence is what gives us reason to celebrate.   His life has made it possible for us to live all-in, no longer held back by past failures. It was for freedom that Christ has made us free.  Why? Because it is Our Father’s insatiable need to show His insatiable love that this game of life is all about.

His will was expressed so completely by the life, death, burial and resurrection of Jesus, Who is The Way because He alone made The Way for us to be able to know the contentment and peace of God’s presence in our lives.  

If you haven’t already, do yourself (and the lives of all you touch) an enormous service. Commit to bring more of you into everything you do. Receive, accept and honor His Truth  and the Power of God’s Spirit.  Doing so activates the life of purpose and fulfillment we all long for and life begins  the transformation from what we have been known and recognized for to becoming more and more like our Heavenly Father: people who, like our Dad, are full of mercy, compassion, kindness, patience, understanding, and love.  It’s a win/win proposition.  

Our Lord gets a maximum return on His investment, and you’ll enjoy a maximum return on yours!

Rocking Chair Reflections

A paradox.  “Labor to enter that rest…” Hebrews 4:11

So, I am enjoying a temporary gig lately. I get to hang out with the most recent addition to the family tree while his mom is checking off the last few items on her to-do-to-graduate-with-a-degree-in-music-education list.  Little Fighter has beefed up to 6.5 lbs. And among his current favorites is waiting until the shouldered burp cloth has been abandoned before urping a spectacular offering.  

Much of the day is spent sitting in a rocking chair, relishing the honor.  The voice I used to have for singing to my own littles has been m.i.a. for the better part of a decade, and since warbling isn’t what I hope to be remembered for, the communication is limited to whispers, smiles and a silent willing him to know how valuable and precious his life is.

My responsibilities are few: feed, burp, change, rinse, and repeat.  

Some days my efforts are less than stellar.  I’ve yet to distinguish the hungry cry from the need to burp or change the diaper cry.  And about the time I think I have a handle on which is which Little Fighter schools me.  Those are the days that rest eludes us.

It was sometime in the middle of week #2 that I started to connect some dots.  This temporary gig is exactly like my usual one.  The correlation is clear.  Teaching is feeding.  Counseling involves the other stuff.  Feeding is fun.  Feeding makes you feel like a hero.  Burping isn’t fun.  Burping makes you feel like a villain.  Changing isn’t fun.  Necessary, yes. Fun, no.  

Little Fighter is usually pretty sure hunger is what he is feeling and that a bottle will cure his ills.  Whenever I’m duped into believing him, and waylay the efforts to coax a reluctant burp at reasonable intervals - well let’s just say the evidence is irrefutable.  The solution isn’t to pack in more.

Grown-ups aren’t much different.  Most complaints are flavored with a hint of feed me, give me something that will ease the discomfort I feel.  But very often the problem is that room must be made for the new.  The Bible calls it repentance.

For example: if I was taught (fed) the idea (and chose to believe it) that my salvation in Christ was contingent on my ability to live a sin-free existence (which I was and did), when the teaching that the cross of Christ didn’t need any help from me in bolster The Lord’s sacrifice was introduced to me I was incapable of reconciling the two concepts.  Room either had to be made by expelling the former or I would be forced to reject the latter.  

Or maybe I was taught that God’s wrath and disappointment in me is all I had to look forward to in the future. Then, when learning that God’s wrath was satiated in the Cross, I have another choice to make.  Will I continue believing that God is angry and full of wrath or will I expel that idea and make room for the truth that Jesus took all judgement and in so doing, redeemed me from the laws that govern sin and death?  

This concept isn’t reserved for spiritual things.   When I expelled the idea that my value, worth, happiness, and purpose wasn’t the responsibility of anyone else but mine, room was made in my heart to explore the truth and justice that define my authentic self.  

Trust me, it’s a messy prospect, not everyone can stomach the process.  Nor should they be expected to.  Sometimes Little Fighter acts as if I am torturing him when the pain he feels is being caused by something that must be expelled.  I can either silence his complaints by trying to feed him more, or patiently pat his back until he baptizes me with the legitimate source of his discomfort.  The choice is mine. It’s going to come out sooner or later.  The less I’ve let him eat between times makes a big difference in how much clean-up is involved.

Someone is having a struggle in the resting department.  That’s my battle cry.  Bottle warmed? Check. Burp cloth?  Check.  Fresh pamper? Check.  

What if the cross really did change everything

For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes. Romans 10:4 

   I recently read a passionately written article declaring that the cross, “ended the need for temple sacrifice”, but went on to say that salvation is contingent upon maintaining the practice and observance of Jewish feasts, traditions and holidays.    

  It took a few days to get past the judgmental attitude that tries to color my perspective at times.  For some reason my heart wouldn’t let me chalk this argument off by saying something like, “their attitude is so ugly, I’m not going to give their comments another thought”.  No.  For some reason, that just didn’t fly this time.   

  I found myself exploring the beliefs that may have fueled this person’s zealous

adherence to a system, a structure or institution while – judging from their own words – remaining indifferent to the human beings for which those things were intended to bless.  This human tendency is one Jesus addressed often.   In Mark 2:27 He says, “The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath”; and in Matthew 23:23-24, “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you pay tithe of mint and anise and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faith. These you ought to have done, without leaving the others undone.  Blind guides, who strain out a gnat and swallow a camel!”   This attitude has been around for a very long time. 

The aha moment  

  After boiling the article’s argument down to the bare bones, I finally realized what makes this idea so distasteful to me.  By insisting that the observance of types, shadows and models are necessary for salvation, those things are elevated to the same status as our Lord and His accomplishing of them.  Essentially saying the only thing Jesus accomplished on that horrible cross was the abolishment of a messy – yet adequate – system of dealing with the sin of mankind.  Somehow, if the only purpose of Jesus’ sacrifice was to spare the lives of countless lambs, goats, doves and cattle, force Temple workers to find other means of employment and streamline the sacrificial system, then his purpose is grossly diminished and our need for Him greatly undervalued.  

  Romans 10:4 tells us that Jesus Christ fulfilled the laws necessary for us to be made righteous.  Jesus did that, not me.  It is not Jesus’ sacrifice plus my observation of Jewish ritual that qualifies and ensures my salvation.  It is our failure and inability that qualified us and His righteous, self-sacrifice that insures our salvation. The only effort required of us is to believe His effort was enough, that His sacrifice was great enough to forgive our failures as well as our self-righteous compulsion to add our efforts to His accomplishment. 

  When humanity fell from the place of grace 6,000 years ago, Satan became the ruling dictator of this planet.  Sin ushered in the reign of terror by which the wicked one governed. We can easily see that sin and disobedience had the power to alter everything, but have we comprehended the power of Christ’s righteous, perfected, obedience? 

  Today, my mind pursues this question: What if the cross of Christ changed everything?  Suppose His blood is powerful enough to change the course, which had been set by sin?  And, because sin had been the impetus used to change human nature, governments, laws, physics, perspectives, purposes, future, the earth, atmosphere, universe, life and destiny; what might possibly happen if we begin to believe that the Lord, Jesus Christ, has effected changes far greater than sin? 

  I am convinced that Jesus, by His righteous obedience, ushered in a power so superior in its ability to accomplish than what we have been able or willing to comprehend.   The power of the cross of Christ and the blood of His sacrifice so completely exceeds the power of the fall.  What can I do?  Believe that the cross really did change everything and begin to walk in that reality.  Let’s start by taking this truth into our lives one decision- making step at a time.