SEEING THE EXTRAORDINARY

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  • God is Good?

    It’s a phrase we often hear, use and repeat.  My Dad would often begin worship with the phrase, and the congregation replying, “All the time,” to which he would say, “All the time,” with the congregation replying “God is good.”  It’s catchy.  It wakes people up.  It brings some sort of agreement.  Except, what do we do with the times when we suffer or we struggle?  What about the times when all seems overwhelming and God seems more distant than ever?  What do we do when we cannot see the goodness of God in the land of the living?

    For me, I often struggle with the phrase because the term “good” is attached to worldly attachments.  God is “good” when we can pay the bills or money comes in unexpectedly.  God is “good” when something works that didn’t work before.  God is “good” when I feel content and happy and everything is going my way (or at least my perception of my way).  God is “good” when I get what I want.  But that is a skewed perspective of good.

    I have been considering the scripture in Lamentations 3 which reads, “The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases, his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.”  This speaks to me of God’s goodness.  This is a scripture where I can bow my head and dig my heels in to God being good.  Why?  Because God’s goodness is not dependent on my outcomes, my wealth (or lack thereof), my health, my attitude, or my sense of fulfillment.  Instead, God is good because of his steadfast love.  He is good because of mercies from him which do not end.  God is good because his faithfulness is great.  THIS is why God is good.  

    I’ll be honest, I still struggle with the phrase and you likely won’t hear me say it on a regular basis.  I won’t quickly attribute success to God’s goodness.  I will strive not to blame my lack of control on his lack of goodness.  Instead, there is a far greater chance you will find me, like the writer of Lamentations, with my soul bowed down and simply searching for hope where there seems to be none.  

    Is God good?  My hope is in his steadfast love, his endless mercies and his great faithfulness.  So I suppose the answer is a resounding yes, regardless of where I may be this day.  

  • Listening and Loving

    Listening – it’s one of our most difficult tasks.  This is especially true when we feel like we know what’s coming.  We are a part of a conversation and we know, we just know what the other person is about to say.  If it happens to be something we disagree with, we begin preparing ourselves for battle.  We can also find ourselves deafened by our anger over what is being said.  We don’t actually hear what the other person is saying.  We decide they are wrong, we are right, and that is that.  So we stop listening.

    We can find ourselves shutting out all the voices we don’t agree with.  If something comes our way, we quickly assess whether we want to continue to hear what is being said.  If it bothers us, we can just walk away.  The problem is we never really hear.  We don’t listen to the other person or group.  We simply label them with any label that will make us feel better about what we are thinking and how wrong they are.  

    Yet, the Bible teaches us to be quick to listen.  Listening is a gift we give to someone else.  We are taking our time to simply be present and hear.  This means shutting off our own opinions for a moment, and taking ourselves out of the situation to simply pay attention to the other person.  It is challenging.  And some of us won’t make the effort.  But for those who do…what a difference it makes.  When we pay attention, we may begin to see the humanity in another person.  We may see their fear or their hurt, their pain or their anger.  We may see they are not different than us, we simply have a different view.  Different views aren’t bad, unless they become how we define ourselves completely.  Different views and opinions are beautiful unless we belittle others who do not think like us.  We can have different views and different beliefs and still love each other.  Jesus did it his entire ministry.  But, it takes the extraordinary effort to genuinely listen and to love.  

    May we find ourselves quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to anger today.  And may that spark love in us like never before.

  • Whispers of Love

    Throughout the Bible, intertwined in church history, pulsing through American history, and boiling over into today, it always seems to be – there are voices of hate who speak opinions in the name of God.  It’s as if there is a feel of representation of God, like one of the prophets.  Interestingly enough, many of those voices are “prophets” who happily call out anyone who doesn’t believe like them.  It’s always a pointing of fingers in a show of how bad “they” are.  Maybe it is so they can also feel justified in their anger.  Certainly if someone doesn’t believe exactly as we have interpreted the Bible, those are grounds for calling them out, maybe even hating them?  

    These voices are very loud.  They bounce off the walls of our hearts and minds.  They fill our sanctuaries, our offices, our shopping places and everywhere in between.  They fill our TVs and our phones.  They speak loudly.  And it seems the voices always scream hatred, or at least some twisted version of the love of God.  It can be easy to fall right in line with those voices.  They are everywhere.  And they can make everyone who believes the same feel empowered.  But ultimately, that’s what it’s about, right?  It really is all about power (with maybe some greed thrown in).  Believe like me…or else…

    There are still other voices, though.  There are voices of love which often become whispers because the others are drowning them out.  The whispers of love let those who have been harmed, removed, beat down, excluded, and shut out know there is still a safe place.  There is still love here.  It may be whispers, but those whispers are kind.  Those whispers speak words of welcome.  Those whispers remind the forgotten and the discarded there is love still here.  The shouts of hate do not always win.  The whispers of love just continue to envelope those who need it.

    I know because unknowingly, throughout my life, I have been uninvited to tables.  I have heard the phrase… “if anyone believes like that, they better not sit at my table.” The group didn’t know that meant I was no longer invited, though.  I have had the slap on the back of the group who are ready to call out the sins of others (that would be the sins of other people, not their own sins).  I have heard the snide remarks from those I love so dearly, not knowing I didn’t agree.  I have been in rooms where I was not welcome, only the voices didn’t know me.  And, understand clearly, all the voices were doing this in the name of Jesus or faith or God or Christianity.  The voices weren’t intending to do anything except make sure “those” folks knew how wrong they were and how they were going to hell and they better get their life straight, correct their beliefs and start believing the “right” way.  Of course, the right way is the way we read and interpret, right?

    My personal saving grace has been found in the whispers of love.  It is hard to hear them.  They are faint.  I’ve almost missed them, but they are there.  And they tell me there are still tables I am welcome.  Some of those whispers even speak the name of Jesus. 

    If you feel abandoned, hurt, excluded or generally beaten down, stop and listen.  There are still the whispers of love.  They will never be completely drowned out by the loudest of voices.  They are there…we are there.  You are not alone.  Welcome to the table, abandoned, forgotten, displaced. Welcome.

  • Who Do You Love?

    We are people who like things our way.  When Burger King coined the phrase, “Have it your way”, they were really speaking of the way too many of us want to live.  We complain if everything isn’t exactly how we want it to be, when we want it and where we want it.  Convenience is an expectation and accommodation a requirement.  Everything in life is supposed to be easier, focused on what I want and need.  It’s all about me.

    And that has seeped into the faith community for as long as there has been a faith community.  Church folks aren’t exempt.  And so churches are often formed around what that group of people want, how they want it and when they want it.  And if we don’t like it, we can leave.  Or we can make others leave.  It is all about us, anyway, right?

    Except these aren’t the teachings of the Bible.  If I read correctly, it is actually all about God.  My Dad always had the phrase he repeated continuously, “It’s All About Him!”  And he tried to live like this.  But it’s difficult.  We don’t always agree and with the chaos of our world, it pushes us to make sure our own areas are in our control.  People around us should be “like us”.  It feels more comfortable.  It makes for better worship?  It enables us to feel justified?  And yet, this isn’t Biblical either.  

    You know what is Biblical?  Jesus said there were 2 defining principles which should guide everything.  And we can’t talk about these enough.  He said we were to love the Lord our God with all of our heart, soul, mind and strength (with our EVERYTHING) AND to love our neighbor as ourself.  In other words, the guiding principle is love.  

    Here’s the deal for me – I can’t give love I haven’t received.  God gives us the love we then pour into others.  The issue comes when we try to give what we have not yet allowed God to pour into us.  We end up looking like those who love things, not people.  We love wealth not God.  We love control, not surrender.  We end up trying to get what we want, when we want, and how we want.  

    But church is no Burger King.  It SHOULD be focused on what God wants – and most of the time, that doesn’t look the same as what we want.  Just read the scriptures.  What Jesus taught was never what the religious folks wanted to hear.  And I dare say, it still isn’t.

    So maybe we start with the basics one more time…and again and again.  Who do we love?  

  • Not My List

    We are accustomed to be in charge. We often work diligently to put together the best guest list possible.  Who can sit at this table, who do we need to separate, who can’t tolerate the others – all decisions we make when we really start deciding who will come and who will not.  It happens often, sometimes without us even thinking about it.  We purposely don’t invite certain folks and make sure others feel welcome.  And it’s okay, it is our table and our event and our money.  So it is totally fine.  Well, it is except in our faith.

    Jesus had this incredibly unusual habit of inviting people to his table who didn’t belong.  He touched lepers (the untouchables), he hung out with those who had been forgotten, he healed a woman who had been unclean probably longer than she had been clean, he spent time with folks who were culturally irrelevant, and he listened to those who yelled his name, even though they should have no place even near him.  His disciples must have thought he lost his mind when they come back from the market and found him talking to a woman of questionable character from a rival tribe.  She was the least of people to even see, much less talk to or hang out with.  He must have been trying to ruin his reputation.  He certainly couldn’t have seen value in her.  She held no value in most people’s eyes.  And yet, this is the woman who he reveals who he is.  Check it out – he tells HER who he is.  He doesn’t do this for any of those who felt they were worthy.  SHE was the one (read John 4).

    In other words, Jesus begins to open wide his invite list.  He even tells stories about inviting the poor and wounded, sick and desperate to the table.  He pushes all the cultural norms to sit with those who had never sat this close to a religious person before.  And if we are honest, the religious folks were extremely uncomfortable.  They had decided already who was in and who was out.  They had a list of rules and things people had to do and none of those people had done them.  They hadn’t completed any of the things that were required or said the right things or even signed the right agreements.  And yet…And yet…and yet…these are the people Jesus offers an invitation.  

    Jesus’ list is one we are not in charge of (thankfully).  We don’t decide who is in and who is out.  And we also don’t decide who is worthy based on a list of criteria we have put together.  Jesus defies all of this.  And if we really take a moment, we should be grateful as well.  We might find we didn’t deserve to be at the table even if we did everything we thought was required.  We got the invitation because of Jesus’ love, not our worthiness.  And it just might be, the people we have decided are “those” people…these are the ones Jesus has a special place of honor at his table.  It isn’t our invitation list.  It is his.  And maybe, we become grateful for simply being invited.

  • The Stones I Carry

    Can you hear it, almost feel what it’s like? Can you smell the air filled with pride?  The stones, they hit the dirt with such a force the dust envelops them.  Stones can hurt, even kill if put into the hands of the angry.  They can be hurled with such force as to cause damage with anything they come in contact.  One little stone can wreak havoc.  And yet, many of them are thrown around as if they are nothing.  But they are something.  

    The stone throwers, they are everywhere.  It seems so easy to identify them.  They are the ones with an agenda, looking to take out anyone who may not agree or threaten a sense of being right.  Stones are thrown with words or actions.  And the force behind them is so intense.  It’s easier to throw stones if everyone around throws stones too.  It feels therapeutic.  It certainly can feel justified.  “They” deserve it, right?  “They” aren’t doing the right thing or living the right way or saying the right words.  Just throw the stones already. 

    Jesus was faced with this situation.  Those around likely held those stones so tightly in their hands they could feel the edges bore down into their skin.  They were justified.  It was the law, after all.  Everyone would agree.  This woman deserved it.  It was right and it would show others what was right.  And yet, Jesus didn’t hold a stone in his hand at all.  And when pushed for a response, he simply said to the crowd…you who have no sin cast the first stone.   (John 8)

    That’s the problem with stone throwing.  It’s always directed at someone else without a mirror to reflect our own issues.  It’s much easier to point out what we don’t like in other people.  We can feel justified when “they” don’t get things “right”.  We can quickly forget we don’t have the right to do this.  And while we can certainly point out the stone throwers, I would dare say we may feel a stone in our own hand, just waiting for the right opportunity or the right person or the right cause.  

    But have we forgotten?  Have we forgotten we are a sinner?  Have we forgotten we don’t have any right to even hold a stone much less throw it?  Maybe, just maybe, it helps if we start looking at ourselves, who we are, and how we love, rather than at others.  Maybe we start taking a deep dive inwards and checking ourselves according to the standards of Jesus rather than making others meet our standards.  Maybe we start to realize we simply need Jesus to forgive us and love us.  Maybe that’s where it starts, with a mirror and some time with Jesus.  

  • The Power

    It’s almost as if the earth shakes beneath me.  The whole room moves for just a moment, but long enough to get my attention.  There is no denying the power, it is electric.  As we approach summer, the hot and humid weather ushers in thunderstorms.  Most any day can be interrupted by the rush of a storm.  Today is no different.  Yet, today, it feels as if the thunder is erupting from where I sit.  The rumble, followed by a series of hard rain showers,  reminds me of the power our earth holds.  Circumstances change in an instant.  

    Our life can change in an instant, too.  One moment, it seems as if everything is moving along so well.  The next moment, a storm of difficulties seem to wash away all of our plans.  The rumble of disruptions can derail us.  What felt like a great plan falls apart way quicker than it took to compose it.  What do we do when the power of the storm seems to overwhelm us?  How do we adjust to the unpredictability of life?  

    Today, I’m thankful for shelter – a strong roof and a solid foundation which protects me, in some way, from the harshness of the storm.  In life, we have those shelters, too.  We have our faith, which reminds us of how we are never alone and just how much we are loved.  Our faith shows us we are children of God and despite the storms, we are held by almighty arms which will never let us go.  This is a strong foundation.  This is the peace which allows us to sit through the rumble of the thunder without fear.  This is the comfort that even when all else collapses, we are held.  

    My prayer is today you feel the protection from the storm, even when it floods your plans.  I pray you feel the comfort of arms extended wide, even when an embrace seems so unlikely.  I pray you feel the peace despite the turmoil which rages all around you.  And I pray you hear your privileged name, Child of the Most High God.  May it begin with me.  Amen. 

  • Highest and Best

    I’ve spent way too much of my life trying to be what everyone expected of me.  I would strive to fit the “mold” of whatever I was doing.  If I am a preacher, I need to look, act, talk…be a preacher.  If I am a baker, this is what bakers do…  If I am a father or husband or friend or whatever…there is a list of what is expected.  The trouble is – I am not ever going to fit the description of any of those things completely.  Here’s the deal – I can only be Brad.  Sometimes that is good.  Sometimes…not so much.  I speak before I think and often say things that are better left unsaid.  If my mouth doesn’t say it, my face definitely will.  I am quiet and loud at the same time. And I throw myself completely into my work and I am extremely dedicated.  

    I’ve learned that as long as I try to fit into someone else’s description, I will not ever do it well – at least not in the long term.  It isn’t sustainable.  I am Brad… not anyone else.  I will never be a minister like Jerry or a gardener like Gabe or a baker like Duff or a father/husband like Mr Cleaver.   And I have to live unapologetically as Brad.  Except, I feel like I should apologize for being Brad most of the time.  It can be a bit much sometimes.  

    So I guess I’m just trying to encourage myself and you… just be you.  The worlds needs you to just be you – your absolute best version of yourself.  I often use the phrase, “highest and best”.  What if we just gave that?  I won’t always but I can sure try.  And If I am the highest and best version of Brad – that has to be enough – it is, after all, all I have to give.  

  • I Opened the Window Today

    I opened the windows today.  It doesn’t sound like such a big deal.  It really doesn’t take that much effort.  But the winter seems to have drug on longer than usual.  The darkness and the cold have blanketed so much of our lives recently.  It is hard to keep going when life feels so heavy.  And it has felt overwhelmingly heavy. There is hope, still.  There really is hope, even when it feels buried and destroyed.  Even when it can’t be felt, it is there.  It might be faint but it doesn’t completely get drown out by the news or the events or circumstances.  It cannot be completely crushed, though I’m sure it has been blown into a million pieces at times.  

    So today, I opened the windows.  It was finally warm enough to do so.  The birds are singing just as they have been taught.  They are proclaiming the goodness of creation regardless of the circumstances.  And so should we.  Except that’s hard sometimes.  I open the windows because being shut up too long begins to feel drab and harmful.  It begins to eat away at me, one nibble at a time.  It becomes a stale and defeating feeling.  But with the windows open, fresh air begins to creep in and hope seems a little more vivid than before.  

    It may not last long and that’s okay.  It may only be for a moment, and that may be all that is needed.  Hope only needs to show up in a glimpse to reignite the spark – it keeps the flames of life going.  Life is hard.  Days can feel begrudgingly brutal.  All can feel dark.  So, maybe we just open the windows a little.  Just crack them a bit.  Maybe a little hope might seep in and console our hearts.  Maybe our spirits get renewed.  Maybe, just maybe, we begin to live again.  

  • Coming Alive (Devotion 2.9)

    Many of the phrases I have studied in the Bible and have heard most of my life come alive when I am in God’s creation.  Studying something on paper is good.  Hearing someone explain how it works is positive.  But having the opportunity to experience it, having the whole page come alive right before your eyes is life changing.  

    For the past few months, I have tried to be very intentional about getting outside as much as possible.  This has been exceptionally challenging given that I am not a fan of heat.  That is probably the ultimate understatement.  Me and heat are not friends at all.  I’m always hot anyway, so then being outside in the blanket of humidity, I am done.  When the sun is up, unless I am under an umbrella on the beach, I am not where I would want to be.  All this to say, what a time to pick to be intentional about being outside.

    It has worked out though.  I have enjoyed some of the most amazing sights and been reminded of just how alive and present God is in his good creation.  It has been powerful.  Today was no exception.  I watched a stream meander through the marshlands and was reminded of Psalm 1, “Happy are those who do not follow the advice of the wicked…they are like trees planted by streams of water…”  Psalm 78, “He made streams come out of the rock, and caused waters to flow down like rivers.  As I walked the paths of the trail, I thought of Proverbs 12, “in the path of righteousness there is LIFE…” And of course, Psalm 23, “He leads me in the right paths…” 

    God’s Word has a way of coming alive right before us when we pay close attention.  Sometimes we have to squint to see it.  Often we must stop talking.  Rarely do we notice if we are on our phones.  But when we pay attention, paths of righteousness and streams of mercy seem to come out of nowhere.  May it be so for you today.