"What's In This?"

(Photo: Joel Muniz @unsplash.com)

The couple in front of me placed their order: “I’d like the number seven sandwich special, please. What’s on it?” The server could have been a wise guy and said “it’s right on the menu, read it for yourself,” but instead did the right thing and patiently described the details. And as the couple waited for their order, they noticed at the counter a little hand-written sign, “free bibles.” One of them fanned one of  the bible’s pages like shuffling a deck of cards, thought for a second, looked at the other without saying a word—it was hard to detect body language whether positive or negative vibe—and they took their order and headed out the door.

That brief scene forced me to ask myself an important question: What would I say if that couple, or anyone, fanned a bible like a deck of cards and said, “This looks interesting. What’s in this?” I could be a halfway-helpful wise guy and say “well, you should read it for yourself.” It might be more helpful to patiently describe the highlights in just a few words to maybe pique curiosity. Except at that moment, I wouldn’t have been able to do that well. Because after all these years, I had never taken the time to summarize for myself in conversational English what the bible is all about and why it’s a huge deal. And that’s a big deal because this is a big deal:

“Always be ready to give a logical defense to anyone who asks you to account for the hope that is in you, but do it courteously and respectfully.”

—1 Peter 3:15, Amplified

So, the next morning, I started scribbling down every random thought that came to mind when trying to describe or explain the bible to myself so that maybe I could do the same to someone who is honestly curious and mostly knows only bits of pieces of scriptures taken out of context and put on people’s Instagram posts or spoken of as old-fashioned and irrelevant by modern debaters, experts and gurus.

There is so much, so much that could be said. Where to begin? I could say that the bible is more than a history book but a guidebook for living well in a world gone mad. I could say that it is an incredible and amazing love story of God’s created world from beginningless beginning to endless future. And I might say to that, “just look where we live—look all around. So beautiful. So detailed. So much symmetry that makes everything else work right day after day after day. Something like a snowflake or a sunset doesn’t just happen out of nowhere. Someone had to be behind it all, don’t you think?” And I could add that God takes it very seriously that He intended for all of us to take dominion of it all—including every tribe and tongue that He also mind-blowingly and lovingly created—with great care, stewardship, responsibility, servanthood, enthusiasm, love and compassion.

“Why is this world such a mess, then, and why do good things happen to bad people and bad things happen to good people?” A great question. I suppose I could say that “such a mess” was never God’s plan, and that the bible tells over and over again that God never forces anyone to love or obey Him, but that it’s His world and He warned that the consequences of doing life our own way would unleash evil and every form of life’s negativity. And of course, people being people, the first ones wanted to do things their way, and we’re part of that family, and so the rest is history—the results are still all around us even to this day. Frankly, some of it is hard to read about. But then there's the rest of the story!

I could say that unlike any other person we’ve known who loves us, God never gives up on us—that the bible tells over and over again that when people mess up, He patiently and longingly woos them back to Himself. Rinse, repeat. Even today. And I could say that everlasting love carries throughout the book until the climax when God sends His only Son who is actually part of His three-in-one nature (um, I have no idea how to explain that yet) to pay the price for sin and rebellion once and for all!—but again, God still doesn’t force His love on anyone. Rather, to only those who receives the gift paid by His Son, even today, there is peace and joy and an endless future far beyond life in this world. It’s all so amazing! And…

…I realize my scribbling needs more work. Because I realize that if I’m still having a hard time wrapping my own brain around all of this amazingness after all these years of reading the bible, what about that couple ordering take-out? All of this scribbling is worthwhile, though, and I’ll try to put some of it into words if someone someday asks, “hey, what’s in this?” But I think the most important thing I can say after all of that is this: Not just “read if for yourself” but first even dare ask a God you may not know or believe in (yet):

“Open my eyes to see wonderful things in Your Word. I am but a pilgrim here on earth: how I need a map—and Your commands are my chart and guide.”

—Psalm 119:18-19, Living Bible

Wait. Never mind just that couple ordering take-out. Look in the mirror…

“As we study scripture, we stand in the presence of the living God. Each time, it is as if He has handed us a letter from Himself and stays with us while we read it to hear what our answer will be.”—J.I. Packer

The Grand Whatever

 A message that helps me find my car in a crowded parking lot, and so much more...

One night last summer, I “heard” it while going through the usual routine of checking doors, shutting off lights and loading up the coffee maker for the next morning before heading to bed. I wasn’t feeling particularly “spiritual.” I heard it not as a voice but as a strong impression in my mind while on my way from one task to another, accompanied by the quiet music I often play to wind down the day.

“Psalm 27.”

Really? This psalm was very familiar to me, or so I thought. The strong impression would have been easy to ignore. As a worship leader, I had hung onto this psalm often. In times of stress when the world is pressing in with its demands, I had rested in its calming assurance. And once while on a weekend retreat, it surpassed all the planned programs that were to come when I stood in a breezy forest alone and read it aloud: “The one thing I want from God, the thing I seek most of all, is the privilege of meditating in his Temple, living in his presence every day of my life, delighting in his incomparable perfections and glory. There I’ll be when troubles come. He will hide me. He will set me on a high rock …” (vs. 4-8, Living). 

And it even helps me find my car in a crowded parking lot.

This year was a time for a new license plate. I had pretty much memorized the old one and so a wave of panic rushed over me when driving into a crowded parking lot for the first time: “Wait. How am I going to find my car?” But then I noticed that my new plate carried a familiar theme: P2749…how could I not forget Psalm 27:4-9? Coincidence, or God’s sense of humor for daily living? You decide.

But back to that summer night impression. After all of Psalm 27’s familiarity, what possible new insight amidst the very familiar was there to see? …But when you pick up your Bible and it just happens to open exactly to Psalm 27, you get a bit of a chill and you pay attention. You stop saying, “I know this already, I’ve got this, I’ve heard it all before.” Instead, you find yourself humbly asking for eyes to see and ears to hear. PS2749, as it turns out, was more than a license plate, because I found myself pausing at verse 8: “My heart says of You, ‘seek His face.’ Your face, Lord, will seek.”

 

While I always loved the thought of it, this verse had given me pause many times before, because we are told that no one can actually see God’s holy face and live to tell about it. What’s with that? I figured that maybe now was the time for a little digging, and one study translation jumped off the page: 

“Seek My face—require My presence as Your greatest need.” 

It turns out that ancient Israel often equated God’s face not with His actual face-face but as a type-and-shadow of His awesome presence that brings unmatched light and hope to every day, every place we go, in every situation we face.

Translation: God is much bigger than just an hour and a half on Sunday morning.

It happened again last night while getting ready for bed—a different psalm this time, Psalm 86, but as I reflected back on that summer night, it carried the same reinforcing message: “Teach me Your ways, O Lord, that I may live according to your truth! Grant me purity of heart, so that I may honor You.” (Psalm 86:11-12, NLT). The Living Bible version added living-this-Walk exclamation mark: “Tell me where You want me to go and I will go there. May every fiber of my being unite in reverence to Your name.” 

Like that summer night in the midst of the seemingly familiar, here was God again dropping the same encouraging (and apparently very important) reminder that while He is always present, whenever I seek to be intentional in thinking about Him even when surrounded by distractions, I will see and hear Him through the noise and get His perspective for every situation, and in every conversation and in every opportunity to be salt and light to someone.

It was a reminder that my ideas of God and my faith and my worship are never to be confined to place or buildings or Sundays but to be grounded in this grand “whatever,” for whenever and wherever:

“Whatever is true, whatever is honorable and worthy of respect, whatever is right and confirmed by God’s word, whatever is pure and wholesome, whatever is lovely and brings peace, whatever is admirable and of good repute; if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think continually on these things—center your mind on them, and implant them in your heart.” (Philippians 4:8, Amplified)

Every day, to be His face-seeker. Every day, to “require My presence as Your greatest need.”

“God does not want us to merely believe in Him, He does not intend that we simply use our wits to get by, to barely survive until we are finally ushered in to Heaven. God wants to be actively involved in our lives each day.”—Henry Blackaby

What's Good?

Remembering some very important words from a warmer day...

Really, who feels like doing anything at 5:45 a.m.? But if you want to run in a favorite place, you have to get there early in the summer before it gets too hot. Still, I was tired of the hour, of the humidity that saps all energy, from the week of brain drain, and especially from hearing endless bad news. (Even if you minimize TV and radio, there’s always someone on social media eager to remind you how bad things are.) But running is good for all of that because it is about moving forward, one foot in front of the other, in all kinds of weather.

And as I rounded the first corner, the early morning sun shone in my face, and a cool breeze came from the side. Along with it, two simple words that needed to come out of my mouth:

“Thank You.”

And though I couldn’t recall where it came from at the time, these words came to mind:

"In every situation, no matter what the circumstances, be thankful and continually give thanks to God; for this is the will of God for you in Christ Jesus."

—1 Thessalonians 5:18, Amplified

In every situation.

Not for every situation.

In the midst of them.

Simply because that’s where He always is.

So, I stopped thinking about how tired I was and put God’s Word to the test. I stopped dwelling on what's wrong and started speaking what's good. I started thanking Him for the sunrise and the cool breeze and every little thing I could remember from the past week...The smell of the coffee. The ripple of the river. The many good people who crossed my path, helped or said something encouraging. A good night’s sleep. Safe travels. Family. Faithful dogs I’ve owned and those I can smile at and pat as they walk by. A great game. A beaten deadline. Breathing. Running. Music. Someone’s jaw-dropping photos. Laughter that breaks the tension. The four seasons of New England, even endless winter. The sound of rain on the roof and the sight of the daily morning-glory horizon cresting the mountain.

And especially, Jesus, yesterday today and forever, full of grace and truth (whether I “feel” it or not). The timelessness of the Word. Promises I can stand on. Faith, even the mustard seed kind. Hope….

And before I realized it, I had come to the end of my run, forgetting how I got from there to here. More than that, I was once again back to that simple place I needed to be in the first place: grateful for His unfailing love and faithfulness in every situation, that never, ever quits. All the cares and weariness were back in their rightful place: out of my hands and into His. Which makes it easier to pray for the hard stuff. ...“If You can do all of this and so much more, if You can make heaven and earth with just one word, then surely you can do anything."

“Ah, Lord God! It is You who have made the heavens and the earth by Your great power and by Your outstretched arm! Nothing is too hard for You.”—Jeremiah 32:17

It's good to be reminded that this Journey is not always as super-spiritual as we try to make it, but, rather, it is life to the full — just as He promised —in the midst of all of its circumstances, and through them. He is in it all. It just takes two words to get the right perspective back…

“If the only prayer you ever say in your entire life is 'thank you,' it will be enough.”

—Meister Eckhart

Simply Dynamite

DAN ANDERSON/CNN.COM

“And now the Word of the Lord is ringing out from you to people everywhere, even beyond Macedonia and Achaia, for wherever we go we find people telling us about your faith in God.”—1 Thessalonians 1:8

Here is one of those drive-right-past-it, mind-blowing verses....But think about: No email, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram cell phone videos, or satellite TV, and yet the life-changing power of God through a bunch of no-name regular folks who chose to daily abide in Christ spread like wildfire to distant places beyond their imagination. It defies logic and all of our techno-modern sensibilities. How could this possibly happen?

All we know from a verse a bit earlier is that these everyday, multi-generational men and women were known not for any of the things we tend to think of that make for an influential church today. For one, they knew that getting friends and neighbors to "come to church!" sounded great but wasn't always practical. Instead, they seemed to follow in these footsteps:

"Andrew then went to find his brother Peter and told him, 'We have found the Messiah!' And he brought Peter to meet Jesus." (John 1:41-42, Living)

They brought the Church with them by simply and obediently and lovingly and regularly lighting three sticks of supernatural dynamite:

• Spirit-empowered, prayer-fueled, everyday works, talents and abilities produced by their faith in Christ
• A steady heartbeat of everyday servanthood, rooted in a deep and abiding love for Christ
• Endurance to stay the course in this crazy world, to swim upstream against all trends and odds, inspired by hope and trust in Christ … and His promised return.

The moral of this story might be that Good News does indeed travel quickly, that a person or group of people who are abandoned to God is an incomparable power, and that we don't have to over-complicate our witness efforts but just be salt and light where people are. But surely, this was just a great story about the early Church. Just a one-shot moment in time. But then there's this...

“Even if it was written in Scripture long ago, you can be sure it’s written for us. God wants the combination of his steady, constant calling and warm, personal counsel in Scripture to come to characterize us, keeping us alert for whatever He will do next.”—Romans 15:4, The Message

Selah....

(Adapted from journal entry, August 17, 2014)