Blue Spruce

Friday 7/15/2016 5:00 AM

I am sitting on the deck at my daughter’s house in Michigan, enjoying the early morning hours after my run. In the back of their yard are four pine trees. I believe they are blue spruce. When they first moved here ten years ago the trees were so dense one could see nothing through them. Over the years the trees have grown and thinned out so that one can now see squirrels and birds in the inner branches of the tree and blue sky on the other side. I’m not sure if they are suffering from some sort of disease or if the thinning of the foliage is a natural consequence of aging.

My life seems to mirror the lives of those trees. When I was younger I was concerned about what others may think of me or of my actions. I put up a nice façade but gave few people a view of what I was feeling or thinking about things. When I turned thirty-eight I began sharing my thoughts with a small group of men every Friday morning and over the years I shared more and more intimate details of my life. After a few years of that I began sharing more openly with the broader Christian community, sharing my failures and frustrations, my hopes and my disappointments. I found that my life resonated with many others, that we all have a common experience; the only difference is in the details.

Too often in the Christian community we want others to think we have it all together. We spruce up our lives, put on a happy face, and pretend everything is wonderful when inside we are full of broken branches and dead twigs. People in the world need to see real people experiencing real emotions, not little happy robots saying, “Praise God! Hallelujah!” all the time.

Brennan Manning says it well in the book Reflections for Ragamuffins. “What the world longs for from the Christian religion is the witness of men and women daring enough to be different, humble enough to make mistakes, wild enough to be burned in the fire of love, real enough to make others see how unreal they are.” We like to spruce ourselves up, making our lives look as if we have it all together. God wants mature blue spruce trees, with our broken interior lives open for all to see and with room for the light of his healing love to shine through.

Boldness

Monday 7/4/2016 5:41 AM

Last Saturday one of my nieces posted a comment on Facebook noting that Garrison Keillor made his last appearance on A Prairie Home Companion. She noted that, in addition to being an entertainer, “he has also been an instigator and provocateur for the plight of humanity.” In the same post she acknowledged the death of Elie Wiesel, about whom the same could be said. She queried, “Who will stand in those gaps?” and her husband, who is also wise, responded, “You!”

I’m quite certain Garrison Keillor and Elie Wiesel did not sit down one day and say, “I think I will become an instigator and provocateur for the plight of humanity.” They simply saw the injustices that are rampant in our world and responded in a way that was consistent with their own gifts and talents. People were drawn to the truth of their message, the humility with which it was delivered, and the consistency with which they lived their lives.

The theme of my devotions this week is boldness. The scriptures I have read over the past couple of days include the prayers of the disciples after having been arrested by the religious authorities of their day and being told to remain silent about Jesus. After being released from custody they met together to pray for boldness to speak the truth and then went out and spoke. Today people who speak out against racial discrimination, social injustices, corporate greed, and the like are often castigated by the established church community and are labeled as socialists, communists, etc. I wonder how the church has wandered so far from the gospel Jesus preached, which included compassion for the poor, justice for the oppressed, and acceptance for the alien. Of course, I shouldn’t be surprised, since it seems the organized religion of Jesus’ day had done the same. It was against that hypocrisy that Jesus was the most vocal.

My reading also included this excerpt from Spiritual Preparation for Christian Leadership, by E. Glenn Hinson. “The church and the world need saints. They need saints more than they need more canny politicians, more brilliant scientists, more grossly overpaid executives and entrepreneurs, more clever entertainers and talk-show hosts. Are there any on the horizon now that Mother Teresa is no longer with us, either of the extraordinary or of the ordinary kind? I think there are. Maybe I should say that there are saints ‘aborning’ by God’s grace. There are those whose lives have been irradiated by God’s grace, who seek not to be safe but to be faithful, who have learned how to get along in adversity, who are joyful, who are dream filled, and above all, who are prayerful. That is what the church and the world need most. It begins with you.”

I see the injustices that are so evident in our world but I feel overwhelmed and completely inadequate to “stand in the gap.” After all, who would pay attention to a math teacher in an insignificant school buried in metropolitan Los Angeles County? I try to speak the truth and to live consistently, with humility, but my voice gets lost in the cacophony of the LA culture. E. Glenn Hinson suggests that I need to be faithful, learn how to get along in adversity, be joyful, and to be dream filled and prayerful. That is my goal but it seems to have little, if no, effect. I have a feeling my niece feels the same way. She needs to hear the same message I did today, “It begins with you.”