Prerequisite or Evidence?

Friday 7/26/2013 8:45 AM

This week my theme has focused on the beatitudes.  Usually when I read them I am overwhelmed with a sense of inadequacy, an inability to live out any of them in a meaningful way on a regular basis.  Today I read this excerpt from A Pattern for Life, by Archibald Hunter.  “The Beatitudes are not so much ethics of obedience as ethics of grace.  They imply God as a gracious giver and man as a humble receiver.  They do not mean: you must do these things in order to deserve and win the divine approval.  Rather do they say: God gives his blessedness to those who claim no merit for themselves but, knowing their own heart’s needs, are content to rest wholly on the mercy of God.”  I wonder how long it will take before I realize fully that my obedience to God and his ways is not a prerequisite for his grace in my life; it is the evidence of his grace in my life.

Self-Similarity

Saturday 7/13/2013 6:15 AM

My psalm for the week is Psalm 104.  In it the writer describes God and his creation.  It seems that everything has its place.  Water goes to valleys, flowing through the mountains on its way and quenching the thirst of living things.  Birds live in the skies and nest in trees; grass and plants are food for men and animals; storks live in junipers, goats in high mountains, and the hyrax in the crags.  Some animals prowl in the darkness, others are active during the day, some live on land, others in water.  God sustains everything.

The other day I was sitting on my back patio and I noticed a dead bug.  There were two different sized ants that were taking pieces of the bug away, I assumed to their respective nests.  As I looked I saw an extremely small bug, like a mite, that was also feeding on the bug’s corpse.  I thought immediately of the nursery rhyme Fleas, also known as The Siphonaptera.

Big fleas have little fleas,

Upon their backs to bite ’em,

And little fleas have lesser fleas,

and so, ad infinitum.

And the great fleas, themselves, in turn

Have greater fleas to go on;

While these again have greater still,

And greater still, and so on.

Lewis F. Richardson adapted the poem to describe fractal wind patterns:

Big whorls have little whorls

That feed on their velocity;

And little whorls have lesser whorls

And so on to viscosity.

I have often noticed that nature contains an incredibly large number of examples of self-similarity.  Broccoli and cauliflower florets break off into smaller versions of themselves.  The angle at which the branches grow from the trunk of a tree are the same for the same species of tree so that if the branches were cut off and placed in the ground they would look like smaller versions of the tree.  Both large and small mountains in a mountain range will often have the same shape.  Clouds in the sky are similar for each cloud group.  Galaxies and snails have different sizes but the same shape.  It is almost like things come in families, similar to the members in the family but different from other families.

The variety of both living and non-living things is nearly uncountable but God made it so that each thing would have its own niche in which to live and thrive.  His handiwork is on display regardless of the scale from which we observe it.  How cool is that?

God is Greater

Tuesday 7/9/2013 6:26 AM

My devotional theme for the week is consciousness.  The readings for the week focus on the mind and its ability to come to God.  Abraham Heschel writes about prayer and its prerequisites in his book Man’s Quest for God.  “(Prayer) depends upon the total spiritual situation of man and upon a mind within which God is at home.  Of course, if our lives are too barren to bring forth the spirit of worship; if all our thoughts and anxieties do not contain enough spiritual substance to be distilled into prayer, an inner transformation is a matter of emergency. … One cannot pray unless he has faith in his own ability to accost the infinite, merciful, eternal God.”  I’m afraid that deep within my heart I often doubt my faith in my own ability to accost God.  My mind is too often distracted with thoughts and anxieties so that there is little or no room for God.

When faced with the reality that, on my own, I seem to be unable to begin or maintain a conversation with God it is easy to become discouraged.  This morning my assigned reading brought me hope.  1 John 3:19-20 reads, “This is how we know that we belong to the truth and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence: If our hearts condemn us, we know that God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything.”  Thankfully God is not bound by my finite ability to maintain relationship.  His abilities far surpass mine and, in his grace, he has made it possible in spite of my feeble inadequacies.  What is impossible for me is possible for God.  Thank God for his grace.

Gifts and Giving

Saturday 7/6/2013 5:57 AM

This morning I read 2 Corinthians 9:6-15, a passage that was very meaningful to me when Jaci and I were the recipients of a generous gift toward our tuition bill at a time we were in need.  I remember writing a thank you note to the anonymous donor quoting verses 12-13, “This service that you perform is not only supplying the needs of the Lord’s people but is also overflowing in many expressions of thanks to God.  Because of the service by which you have proved yourselves, others will praise God for the obedience that accompanies your confession of the gospel of Christ, and for your generosity in sharing with them and with everyone else.”  Since we never knew who had given the money toward our tuition we saw it as a direct gift from God and thanked God profusely for the gift and for the obedience of the person through whom the gift was channeled.

Jaci and I support various ministries through regular giving.  We have the funds withdrawn from our account each month so, while the funds are regularly distributed, we are not physically handing over cash or a check to the ministry to whom we are giving.  I pray for the ministries to which we give and those I know who are involved in the ministries but, other than my giving and prayers, I have no part in the ministry.

Today I read a quote from The Message of the Sermon on the Mount, by John Stott, in which he describes the thoughts of the heart when someone is in the act of giving.  He writes, “There are three possibilities.  Either we are seeking the praise of men, or we preserve our anonymity but are quietly congratulating ourselves, or we are desirous of the approval of our divine Father alone.”  When I thought about my own giving it seems that it does not fit into any of the categories.  While I receive regular emails confirming my gift has been received and thanking me for supporting the ministry, I am not motivated by that praise.  I do not maintain anonymity nor am I actively pursuing God’s approval.  I think my main motivation in giving is that I have been on the receiving end of the gift numerous times in my life and, now that I am able, I want to be able to bless others the way I have been blessed.  Hopefully those on the receiving end of the gift will thank God for his care.

Me, Myself and I

Tuesday 7/2/2013 7:04 AM

When I was a child my mom used to quote The Tea Party, by Jessica Nelson North.

I had a little tea party

This afternoon at three.

‘Twas very small-

Three guests in all-

Just I, myself and me!

Myself ate all the sandwiches,

While I drank up the tea;

‘Twas also I who ate the pie

And passed the cake to me.

I have always enjoyed the poem and now, at my age, I have an image of one of my granddaughters passing around cups, enjoying tea with imaginary friends.

That cute image becomes more sobering when I consider the culture in which I live and willingly participate.  It bombards me with messages of individualism and reminds me to always ask, “What’s in it for me?”  Those who lead extravagant lifestyles are held up as role models and television shows about acquiring bigger and better houses, faster cars, and more of everything are prolific.  One is taught to go to school so you can get a good job that pays a lot of money and will ensure your success.  Unfortunately this leads to a society of looking out for oneself and relying on no one but oneself.  Beyoncé sings a song Me, Myself and I that sums it up well, “Me, myself and I, that’s all I got in the end.  That’s what I found out and it ain’t no need to cry.  I took a vow that from now on I’m gonna be my own best friend.”

This is a stark contrast to the simple reminder from my devotional material this morning, with the theme of generosity.  “Our prayers should be freeing us from our self-centeredness and opening us up to others.”  God’s desire is that people have meaningful relationships with him and with each other.  He describes the church as a body, dependent upon its members.  In God’s economy there is no room for selfish individualism; he wants interdependent community.

It is difficult to swim against the stream of individualism that runs so deeply in our culture.  Unfortunately Christians today are often the ones preaching that God wants to bless us with wealth and material goods, describing them as “blessings.”  God makes clear that he blesses us so that we can be a blessing to others.  I am not to be a cistern, collecting the blessings of God for myself, saving them up for a rainy day.  I am to be a canal, bringing the fresh water of God’s grace to a thirsty world.  Lord, help me to open me, myself and I to others.