Learning to Lean

 

Here’s a message I just sent to a young friend I am corresponding with through a mentoring website I belong to that is sponsored by Power to Change.  It’s a message we all need to remind ourselves of right now, when it seems like the world is spinning out of control and we are uneasy with the uncertainty of it all. We want to do something to fix the mess around us but we don’t know where to begin, it all seems so impossible.

 

So I said to my young friend,

 

I feel sympathy for you in your striving.  I have always been a striver too--and have struggled with perfectionism. Now I am older and wiser and more at peace with just living from day-to-day.  The “need” to “do,” especially for God’s eternal Kingdom, still pushes at me, but more and more I realize that all I have to do is relax into His sovereignty and not worry so much.

 

A few years back I ran into a meme that changed my life.  It says:

 

All we need to do, as Christians, is to be

RESTFULLY AVAILABLE and INSTANTLY OBEDIENT.

 

I love that.  Especially the restful part.  The more I am able to relax into Jesus the more freedom I see Him having to do His Kingdom work through me.  Now I pretty much go through life just flying by the seat of my pants, knowing that it's His wings I am flying on!  And it's a wonderfully peaceful and joyful way to live. 

 

I think it's easier to come to this way of living when you're older.  The pressure to perform (my own pressure on myself!) has sort of passed away and I can just live from day to day, trying to walk in the pace of the Spirit instead of sprinting off like there is some kind of finish line I have to cross before the end of my days.

 

A friend once sent me a card with a picture on the front of a little girl and a big rock.  She has her hands up on the side of the rock and it looks like she's holding it up to keep it from falling over, but you realize, when you look at it, how ridiculous that is, because the rock is way bigger than she is and it is obviously holding her up. 

 

That kind of symbolizes my approach to following Jesus for most of my life.  In the past I have been very busy helping Him make sure everyone is doing what they should do and things in this world are going His way.  Now, in my old age, I am just happy to lean on the rock instead of trying to help God keep it in place!

 

But it takes time for us to learn to lean.  And God is not in a hurry.  He grows our faith, even as we struggle to help Him do His work!  He is leading us to a good place--a place of rest and a simple enjoyment of walking day-by-day with Him.  I have begun to experience this joy more and more, but I am sure it will grow deeper and sweeter as He continues to lead me away from the struggle to total trust in His ultimate sovereignty.

 

We, who want to follow Jesus, are all on this journey. And it’s a good one. It's a journey to complete trust in a loving, powerful and sovereign God.

On Peace and Pleasure

You will make known to me the path of life.

In Your presence is fullness of joy.

In Your right hand there are pleasures forever.  

Psalm 16:11 (NAS)

Last Sunday I came home from a week-long trip to Florida and the Bahamas.  I thank God for the good things He has created for our pleasure:

white, sandy beaches, seagulls flying, dolphins playing in the waves, good food on the cruise ship, interesting people to meet. 

So many good gifts He delights to give us. 

And so sweet that He delights in our enjoyment!

He loves to watch us enjoying things. 

He begs us to throw ourselves onto His mercy and goodness,

to abandon ourselves to joy! 

He is so good. 

But the best blessings on this trip, besides the reality of His loving presence with me as I enjoyed the sand and sea, were my two girls.  I had so much fun being with them.  I am so proud of them--the way they think and act and speak.

It wasn't all pure delight. There were some eye-rolling moments. We don't always share the same idea of what constitutes pleasure.  Adri would not let me feed the seagulls so I could get their picture flying over us.  And I nixed her suggestion that we get matching tattoos to commemorate our trip. But we love each other, and it was pure fun for me to be with both my girls. 

I loved watching them enjoy the sand and sea and food and new friends, and in that way I was enjoying what God loves to watch.  He delights in our abandonment to healthy pleasures. 

I HATE how Satan has distorted those pleasures.  We gave him permission to do that.  Our great fruit-tasting experiment destroyed our ability to enjoy.  It bound us, instead, to fear and pain and despair.  But I praise God for solving that problem through Jesus' death and resurrection! 

I LOVE being able to connect with my Creator, through Jesus, and so to have those Eden-pleasures restored to me, even in this dark, sin-cursed world. 

On the plane ride home Adri became faint and needed some care.  The cabin crew were sweet and helpful, and the emergency room nurse and his fiance--Good Samaritan passengers on the flight--were as well.  But it was eye opening to watch them minister to her.  The young woman engaged to the nurse shared the anti-anxiety medication she carries with her on airplanes.  And when I told the flight attendant that prayer was my anti-anxiety medication he said,  "That works for some people," but he carries medication for himself too.

I remember my struggle with anxiety as a young woman,

being overwhelmed with a panic I could not control,

finding it impossible to resist being afraid of invisible evils that seemed to surround me. 

But over the years God has led me so deeply into relationship with Him that I no longer need medication. 

He has shown me that there is nothing to fear. 

He has proven, over and over, that my trust in His loving care of me is justified. 

He has anchored my joy in eternity.

The struggle against fear is more intense in today's world. The threats are now global, and our amazing technology makes sticking our heads in the sand impossible. 

But the cure for that fear is the same. 

Just as real and powerful as ever. 

I pray that those sweet people we met on the plane will find the deep peace that comes from knowing God--the peace that rests deeper, and lasts longer, than the peace medication provides.

He is so good!

I love being able to rest in that reality. 

I love being able to enjoy the good gifts He surrounds me with here on earth,

I love anticipating the pleasures that will be in His right hand, forevermore!

Thank You, Lord, for making known to us the path of life.

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An Intriguing God

I love to think about Him.

He is as complex as a multi-faceted jewel and as simple as the word

"love."

He is ancient, without beginning, eternally existing,

yet He is as fresh as the dew in the morning.

He is all-powerful and gentle.

He is as fathomless as the far reaches of the universe,

but He stoops to speak into the hearts of children. 

He is the Author of life

who stepped from eternity into time to die a mortal's death,

for us.

White as snow, yet He reaches into the deepest cesspool of the human heart

to redeem and restore.

He is complete and whole in Himself, but He yearns for friendship with His creatures.

He is intensely and overwhelmingly awesome. 

People fall to the ground at His feet. 

Yet He loves laughter and light-hearted pleasure.

He created joy.

My heart floods with joy when I think about Him.

You have made known to me the paths of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence.  
Acts 2:28

Like the Wind

Your Word, Lord, is eternal; it stands firm in the heavens. Your faithfulness continues through all generations; you established the earth, and it endures.  

Psalm 119: 89-90

I don't believe in "magic," but something a little like magic sometimes seems to happen to me when I meditate on passages in the Bible. 

I say "sometimes" because it doesn't always happen.  Many times when I read the Bible I don't "feel" the "magic." 

And I say "seems" to happen because what happens is so subtle, so internal, so apparently outside of the realm of reason that I'm never quite sure where it comes from or even what it's doing.  

As I write those words, I'm reminded of what Jesus said to Nicodemus about the Holy Spirit: "The wind blows wherever it pleases.  You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going.  So it is with everyone born of the Spirit."

What if it's the sweet wind of the Spirit that's wafting through my heart when I "feel" that "magic" while reading God's Word?

Psalm 119 works this kind of magic on my spirit.  When I take the time to meditate on this worship song, the sense that my mind is untwisting and my heart is re-orienting toward God is so strong it's almost tangible.  Without fail, when I go to this Psalm, I come away with a renewed sense of what is right and a deeper longing to share the Psalmist's love for his God.

This experience is something so subjective I find it hard to write about.   I'd like to give a specific example of a particular verse and explain just how it affects me, but I can't.  I guess some things of God are so deep--so spiritual--that they're beyond verbal description.

Sometimes I think it would be nice if I could capture the Spirit of God, put Him in a box, or pin Him down to a display board where I could study Him at my leisure, make notes, and write up a research report on "the topic." 

But, no, that wouldn't be so nice.  If I could do that, I would be God and He would not be.  And that would be a tragedy beyond imagining.

Some of my favorite verses in Psalm 119

I have hidden your word in my heart

    that I might not sin against you. (vs. 11)

Open my eyes that I may see wonderful things in your law. (vs. 18)

I run in the path of your commands, 

    for you have set my heart free. (vs. 32)

Am I alone in my experience of this spiritual phenomenon?  

Have you experienced anything like it? 

What are your favorite verses in this Psalm?

I'd love to hear your comments on this topic.

Matthew Henry's commentary on Psalm 119 makes for a good study of the Psalm. 

In researching for this post, I also found a great site on Bible study in general.  

Check out Got Questions? 

The Joy of Rightness

The rightness of God is what makes him worthy of praise and worship.  

Yes, he is powerful, wise and inconceivably great.  Those are all awesome attributes.  But it's his rightness, his righteousness, that makes him worthy.

We love rightness.  And we know, instinctively, what foundational rightness is.  We may be confused about the specifics.  The influence of our godless culture has marred our perception of righteousness in many of the details of ethics and morality.  But we still understand the essential rightness of love, not hate; of peace, not war; of charity, not greed; of humility, not hubris.  

We know what makes the good guy good, and the bad guy bad.

Rightness is good, and God is the essence of rightness.  He is always, completely, amazingly, wonderfully right and good in every way.

And worship of God solely for his rightness is pure, unadulterated joy.