iPhone or iBible?

Friday 12/30/2011 6:55 AM

Yesterday I got a new smart phone.  I used my previous cell phone to simply make phone calls but the new phone has all kinds of capabilities, many of which I will never know how to use.  I spent hours reading through the user’s guide and playing with the phone to try to get everything synced with my computer and get all my preferences chosen.

This morning I am distracted by the newness of everything as I sit down for my devotions.  I am texting Andy about Ryan, Kate and the kids who are coming in later this morning.  I am checking their flights to see if they are on time or not and texting Kate to see how things are going.  I remembered that I haven’t set up my voice mail message yet so I was wondering how to do that.  And so it went.

Not surprisingly, when I opened my devotional material it directed me to Deuteronomy 11:18, “Fix these words of mine in your hearts and minds; tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads.”  I immediately thought about the eagerness with which I read my user’s guide for my phone and played with the different functions.  Then I thought about the reticence I often experience when I sit down for devotions and the discipline it requires for me to do it on a regular basis.  I hope this excitement with the newness wears off soon so that I am not so distracted during my devotional time.

The passage quoted above continues with these words, “Teach them to your children, talking about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.”  I would like my children and grandchildren to see my excitement and my enthusiasm as I walk with God and explore the depths of his love.  There is a distinct possibility that they might see my excitement and enthusiasm for my new technological gadget instead.  I pray that it will not be so.

Poofy Bangs and Contrails

Thursday 12/29/2011 7:36 AM

I left my house for my run this morning a little later than usual and the sun, still below the horizon, was painting a long line of cirrus clouds with its yellow-pink-orange-red palette.  The clouds could be described as linear in shape but there were wisps and tufts projecting from the sides like the poofy bangs of a 1980’s hairdo, providing infinite variety within the cloud formation.  After noting the beautiful colors and patterns I began my run.

Not surprisingly, my mind was soon occupied by mathematics.  I began contemplating how to estimate the time of sunrise and figured that I could determine that time if I knew the altitude of the clouds.  A little trigonometry could help determine the angle of the sun below the horizon and, since the earth turns fifteen degrees per hour, some simple math could reveal the time it would cross the horizon.  I continued running with my back to the cloud formation until I got to my turn around point.  When I ran back toward home I saw that a commercial jet that was traveling parallel to the line of clouds, spewing its contrail in a straight line.  I noted the difference of the jet-made contrail and the line of clouds. In contrast to the clouds, the contrail was perfectly straight with no variance, like line of recruits marching for a drill sergeant in boot camp.

I then thought about the differences between mathematics and physics.  In mathematics points are infinitely small with no dimension while in physics there must always be some extremely small dimension where quantum effects must be considered.  In mathematics, when teaching students to work ‘real world’ problems that involve falling objects you ignore the effects of friction, air resistance, wind speed, etc., and all constants are considered to be either one or zero to simplify calculations.  For example, instead of considering my weight to be 245 pounds I would simply change units and say that my weight is 1 Hugen.  Of course, in the real ‘real world’ those forces of friction, wind speed, units of measure, etc. must be factored in or the calculations are incorrect.  This led me to think about the differences between my way of thinking and God’s way of thinking.  I like things to fit neatly into boxes, marching in lockstep to a given set of simple rules.  In my world, people who do good things would always have good things happen to them and people who do bad things would have bad things happen to them.  If a branch fell out of a tree it would always land on a bad person, never on a good person.  In reality, good things happen to bad people and bad things happen to good people with what seems to be equal probability.  I want the world to be like math but it more like physics.  I want the world to act like a jet contrail in a nice, straight row but it is more like a cloud with arbitrary wisps and tufts that can’t be contained.  Isaiah 55:8-9 remind me of the truth about God.  “‘For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,’ declares the Lord.  ‘As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.’”  I want God to behave by my rules but he acts in ways that are totally foreign to me and leave me scratching my head in wonder.

A few minutes later into my run I looked up and there were other contrails of jets that were passing high overhead.  I noticed that the older contrails were beginning to slowly change their shape.  Instead of a being in a nice straight line they were being affected by the jet stream and were being slowly distorted so that they eventually looked more like the clouds, with small wisps and tufts.  The Bible reminds me that God is always at work, molding us into the image of Christ.  Ezekiel 36:25-27 says, “I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols.  I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.  And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws.”  My cold heart and I want to goosestep with other Christians in unity so that others will be attracted to our nice, predictable, one-dimensional, linear lives.  God wants us to have hearts of flesh that thrive in a multidimensional world with its unpredictable wisps and tufts that defy explanation.  Then he paints us with his grace palette and we reflect his glory rather than our own, so that others are given hope that their disheveled, wispy, tufted lives can become beautiful with the grace of God.  I pray that my grace-colored wisps and tufts will point others to the God of all grace.

No Peace in Inbox

Tuesday 12/27/2011 4:26 AM

In the middle of the night the voice in my dream said, “There is no peace in inbox.”  When I woke from the dream I remember thinking about the absurdity of that statement and I wondered how something so inane would make it into my dream.  I thought I had misunderstood so I translated it as “There is know peace in inbox.” but the absurdity became even worse.  I decided to forget about it and I went back to sleep but when I woke this morning, there it was again, “There is no peace in inbox.”

There are times I will dream something that is reinforced when I sit down for my devotional time and I wondered if that would happen today.  I couldn’t imagine any possible connection between that phrase and what God would be trying to tell me but I’ve been surprised before so I sat down with eager expectation to see what he would say.  I read my assigned scriptures and devotional readings listening for what God wanted to tell me and, as my small group would say, “… crickets.”  There was nothing.  Not only were the passages silent about the statement from my dream, they didn’t even seem to be connected by a common theme.  I started to wonder why the author of my devotional book had grouped them together in the first place.  Or perhaps it was a mistake and the passage from Philemon was supposed to be from Philippians or Nehemiah was supposed to be Jeremiah.

My relationship with God goes through cycles.  There are times when I sense his presence deeply, when I am assured of his love for me and for the world.  During those times it seems that God speaks directly to the relevant issues of my life and my faith is made stronger.  At other times I question if my faith is real and I doubt that God exists or, if he does exist, that he has no interest in what is transpiring in the world in which I live.  Those times are usually precipitated by an event or events that defy rational explanation, times that cause non-Christians to ask, “How could a loving God permit that to happen?”  It is during those times that my faith is tested.  Perhaps I am moving from a time of faith building to a time of faith testing.

I recognize that I have a tendency to overanalyze things so I finally decided to end my devotions and call it a day when the Lord reminded me of 1 Corinthians 13:1-2, “If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.  If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.”  His message to me was simple.  He said, “It doesn’t matter how much insight you have or how eloquently you can speak, if you do not have love for the people you meet on a daily basis, the only message they will hear from your lips and from your life will be as absurd as, ‘There is no peace in inbox.’  Love more.”

Poinsettias

Sunday 12/25/2011 3:51 AM

Last night we had our annual Christmas Eve service.  Before the service began a fellow church member walked up to me and said that it was good to see the poinsettias.  It struck me a little strange until he said that he didn’t mean the flowers or all the people dressed in red, he was referring to those who only come out at Christmas.  I chuckled a bit at the clever analogy but I later reflected on what he said.  I wondered about my own fervor for God and for his kingdom.  Do I declare God’s praise and display his love, grace and mercy to everyone I meet or, like a poinsettia, do I only do those things occasionally, when it is expedient for me to do so or when I feel someone is deserving?  Do I put on a showy display during the holidays for all to see and then go into hibernation for the remainder of the year?

This morning my assigned scripture reinforces these thoughts.  Psalm 145 describes the greatness of God and his wonderful works in this way, (italics mine), “The Lord is good to all; he has compassion on all he has made. … The Lord is trustworthy in all he promises and faithful in all he does.  The Lord upholds all who fall and lifts up all who are bowed down.  The eyes of all look to you, and you give them their food at the proper time.  You open your hand and satisfy the desires of every living thing.  The Lord is righteous in all his ways and faithful in all he does.  The Lord is near to all who call on him, to all who call on him in truth. … The Lord watches over all who love him….”  God is not a poinsettia.  He is an evergreen.  He is liberal and indiscriminant with his love for all who want it and even with those who don’t.

God is in the process of molding me into the image of Christ so that I too will be an evergreen witness of his grace, love and mercy rather than merely a seasonal, poinsettia bloomer.  I pray that David’s prayer at the beginning of Psalm 145 will be mine, (italics included).  “I will exalt you, my God and my King; I will praise your name for ever and ever.  Every day I will praise you and extol your name for ever and ever.”

Sunday Best

Saturday 12/24/2011 6:02 AM

Tonight we have a Christmas Eve service in our church.  The choir is singing and we have been told to wear “festive clothing” for the service.  After the service we are having everyone over to our house for our annual family celebration.  A family friend plans to come over to join as after the service but does not want to go to church with us.  She thinks that God would reject her because of all the wrong things she has done in her life.

That idea of having to be good enough to come to meet God runs deep in our human bones.  We are either too frightened to come before God at all or else we feel that we need to put on our “Sunday-go-to-meet’n” clothes if we are to be accepted.

This morning I read three different passages of scripture as part of my devotional time.  The first was from 1 Samuel 3, the story of God’s first meeting with Samuel.  Verses 3-4 say, “The lamp of God had not yet gone out, and Samuel was lying down in the house of the Lord, where the ark of God was.  Then the Lord called Samuel.”  There were a couple of things that caught my attention.  It says the lamp of God had not yet gone out, implying that it usually did go out.  According to the instructions God had given Moses in Exodus 27 the lamp was to never go out so Samuel and the other priests were disobedient in that regard.  Samuel was also lying down in the house of the Lord, where the ark of God was.  The ark was to be kept in the holy of holies and the high priest was the only one who was supposed to enter, and then, only once a year.  That means that either the ark was not in its prescribed place or Samuel was sleeping in the holy of holies.  Either case implies further disobedience.  In spite of their disobedience, God comes to speak with Samuel.  A second passage was Acts 9, the story of Saul’s conversion on the road to Damascus.  Saul was breathing out murderous threats against the Lord’s disciples, having them arrested and, in some cases, overseeing and consenting to their death.  In spite of his aggressive persecution God comes to him on the road.  Finally, I read Psalm 22:24, “For he has not despised or scorned the suffering of the afflicted one; he has not hidden his face from him but has listened to his cry for help.”

I like to think that God wants to associate with nice people, those who have their act together and don’t have all kinds of baggage in their lives.  In truth, God comes to those who are scorned and afflicted in the world, to those who actively persecute and belittle him and to those who live as if God didn’t even exist.  Those are the people God likes to hang around with and have meaningful conversations with.

I spend too much of my life trying to get my ducks in a row, trying to give God, and others, the impression that I have it all together.  God wants to meet me just the way I am.  In spite of my duplicity he comes to me with grace and whispers his love and mercy into my ear.  Oh for the grace to hear him clearly.

Head v. Heart

Tuesday 12/20/2011 7:26 AM

This morning I am in Dana Point, enjoying a couple of days away with Jaci.  I went for my morning run and came back in time to enjoy a sunrise while standing on the top of a cliff outside our hotel overlooking the Dana Point Harbor.  Before sitting down for my devotional time I read a pamphlet describing the Dana Point Headlands, where I hope to hike later today, and I went online to read the news from last night.  I enjoy reading very much and I do what I can to stay informed on the latest happenings in the world and the latest theories in math, science and the other disciplines.

My life with God is very much the same.  I enjoy reading my Bible and other materials so that I can stay up to date on what God desires for my life and what he may want from me.  My devotional reading today suggests an alternative to this intellectual pursuit of God.  “For those of you who go into the poustinia, this is the essence of it: to fold the wings of your intellect.  In the civilization of the West everything is sifted through your heads.  You are so intellectual, so full of knowledge of all kinds.  The poustinia brings you into contact first and foremost with solitude.  Secondly, it brings you in contact with God.  Even if you don’t feel anything at all, the fact remains that you have come to have a date with God, a very special rendezvous.”

I am currently enjoying two days of solitude with Jaci, away from the hustle and bustle that characterizes our daily routine.  This allows us to focus on each other completely and to enjoy each other’s company uninhibited by the busyness that too often accompanies our life together.  If my relationship with God is to grow and to flourish I need the same kind of solitude with him.  I need to put my intellectual pursuit of God on the sidelines and lay my head on God’s chest so I can listen to his heartbeat in silence and enjoy his company.