What If I Just Yell?

Photo: StockSnap @pixabay.com 

“Lord, teach us to pray...”—Luke 11:1

What follows was originally written a couple of years ago, yet it could very well have been written a couple of days ago. The stuff near the end that happened back then is eerily similar to what happened this week when a country that may not have been sure about prayer stopped what they were doing anyway to lift Up a young football player fighting for his life. The organic power of it all, without formality or pretense, and the amazing encouragement to millions that has come from it, seem to be on repeat as if Heaven itself is waiting, longing for us to 'get it.' Selah...

Sometimes, like the persistent widow, prayer can be fervent and repetitive in seeking resolution to a really difficult situation. It can go on for days, weeks, and longer, and while there are often increasing glimmers of hope, it can also seem the answer is taking forever. And you know that you know that God is in it. These are the prayer situations when, as in my life, two wise and respected men of God (unbeknownst that the other had said the same thing) encouraged, “This story is not over!” Keep at it. God is listening, God is at work. Don’t quit.

This is how you pray.

But then, Jesus lays out the “how to” blueprint for His disciples: “Pray like this: ‘Our Father in heaven, Your name is holy. May Your holy nation come. What You want done, may it be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us the bread we need today. Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us. ‘Do not let us be tempted, but keep us from sin. Your nation is holy. You have power and shining-greatness forever. Let it be so.’" In other words, keep it simple, don’t make a show of it, and don’t just “say” the Lord’s Prayer either, but focus in on the multiple facets of who God is in your daily routine.

Ok, so that's how you pray.

But then, there's Anna the prophetess, the widow who spent day and night serving God by praying and fasting, the one who had been so in tune with the things of God that when she heard Simeon speak into the lives of Mary and Joseph about their newborn Son—“My eyes have seen the One Who will save men from the punishment of their sins.”—she knew it was true. And so she went and told everyone who was looking for some good news that Jesus was the One they had long been waiting for.

In other words, it’s good to dedicate your life to prayer so that you can get God’s heart on a matter, and know that you know that you know, so you can tell the world the Good News. Who wouldn't want that?

And so, if you’re really serious about prayer, that's how you do it.

Except, there was that time when a situation comes out of nowhere that punches you in the gut with its potential ramifications. Everything within you says, “This is not going to end well.” Words are few. Thoughts are incoherent and spinning. There is no persistent praying, model praying, or dedicated praying. Not even close. Only a gasp, a yell of "God, help, please!" and an inner resolve that "God’s got this"—but that’s about it.

And a couple of days later, again out of nowhere, a dramatic, table-turning answer that no scheme, great idea, or modern technology could ever pull off. The only explanation: God heard, and God answered....  

After all these years in the Walk, I have come to the conclusion that I don’t know how prayer works. Just that it does. Prayer has no neat and tidy confining boxes because God in His great goodness doesn't have any either. And maybe, in all kinds of prayer, all of Heaven keeps cheering us on to stop sweating the method and simply cultivate this for every situation, big or small, in our everyday life...

“Prayer is what happens when the soul cries out to its Maker, and no matter what the words, no matter what the feelings, no matter what the method, when it happens, it is prayer.”

—Steve Brown, “Approaching God”

Seeing

“The air is distinctly fragrant with balsam and resin and mint,  every breath of it a gift we may well thank God for.”—John Muir, “My First Summer in the Sierra”

It’s cold and it’s windy but it’s beautiful out there this morning anyway, with the sunrise painting the clouds pink and yesterday’s pasty snow clinging to tree branches like a Currier and Ives holiday scene. Just maybe, this weekend is winter’s last gasp, but because this is New England and since it snowed seven inches in May last year, I doubt it. Even so, the dawn of a new season of Daylight Savings Time signals that, just as it has been forever, warmer weather is ahead eventually and spring will arrive on time…eventually. I can almost smell it all now…

…Often, after I grab my coffee first thing in the morning, I’ll do something like John Muir did—I’ll just breathe in deeply and thank God that it’s His breath in my lungs to live another day for His glory. That’s not weird, that’s “seeing” and feeling the Words on a page come alive: 

“This God is the One who gives life, breath, and everything else to people. He does not need any help from them; He has everything he needs.”

—Acts 17:25, New Century Version

For the start of any new day, breathing that in always puts a lot of things in their right perspective. When you “see “ God, you see really well. With so much heaviness and troubles in our world and in the news, we all need that recalibration to remember that we are never alone and that He is always “God with us” and not off preoccupied with someone or something else more important.

Many people think that they can’t “see” God in the everyday, but His artistry and majesty and faithfulness and steadfastness in a crazy world can be seen in all four seasons, and in everyday life. It’s probably one reason why Jesus painted everyday pictures in words to help others better understand and “see” the God who made and loves them. Every everyday picture tells a story if only we will look for it. For instance, I remember a time driving down the highway with one contact lens in focus and the other not quite right, and somehow I knew God was trying to show me something about living well that was more than just about malfunctioning eyewear. You don’t have to be special. Anyone can “see” God in the everyday. so long as you’re looking for Him. As the young prophet Jeremiah wrote: 

“You will find Me when you seek Me, if you seek Me in earnest.”

—Jeremiah 29:13, Living Bible

I was reminded of this in a jaw-dropping sort of way one day last summer. I woke up one morning in Maine surprised to see the sun when all the forecasts were dead-on promising rain. I thought I was just doing an everyday unspiritual thing like walking the beach. My everyday thoughts were not on church things but on everyday “to do” things and on how my grumbling stomach needed breakfast. But I must have remembered John Muir and that holy breath in my lungs while taking an everyday step on the low-tide hard-pack because I decided to check my phone app for the verse of the day. You know, just to see what it says. And it was this: “The heavens are telling of the glory of God, and the expanse of heaven is declaring the work of His hands. Day after day pours forth speech, and night after night reveals knowledge.”—Psalm 19:1-2

And then I happened to look up and then out over the ocean, as I often do on an everyday kind of beach walk. I could not believe my eyes—I was “seeing” what God had just said about Himself (pictured)—the vast expanse of sea and sky, with the sun advancing on one side and storm clouds retreating slowly in the other direction. Mic drop.

And it’s just as true on a frigid Sunday in March as it was that summer day....

Our God …is…always…speaking to us in our everyday. We just need to look for Him.

Hands of God

(Photo: Quino Al @unsplash.com)

“Praise the Lord who is my rock; He trains my hands for war and gives my fingers skill for battle. He is my loving ally and my fortress, my tower of safety, my rescuer. He is my shield, and I take refuge in Him…O Lord, what are human beings that You should notice them; mere mortals You should think about them?”—Psalm 144:1-3, NLT

“These boots are made for walkin’,” as the old ‘60s song goes.

But these hands, though— they're something else.

Because hands are a really big deal to God.

After all, He’s got the whole world in His hands (amen to that!)…

“Powerful is Your arm! Strong is Your hand! Your right hand is lifted high in glorious strength.”

—Psalm 89:13

“It was My hand that laid the foundations of the earth; the palm of My right hand spread out the heavens above; I spoke and they came into being.”—Isaiah 48:13

And so…

“If I ride the morning winds to the farthest oceans, even there Your hand will guide me, Your strength will support me.”—Psalm 139: 9-10

“You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body and knit them together in my mother’s womb. Thank You for making me so wonderfully complex! It is amazing to think about. Your workmanship is marvelous—and how well I know it.”—Psalm 139:13-14

And so…

By His hands, I was made to “lift up holy hands in prayer.”—1 Timothy 2:8

And I was made to live in such a way as this: "Make it your goal to live a quiet life, minding your own business and working with your hands…Then people who are not believers will respect the way you live…”—1 Thessalonians 4:11-12

So, remember this, O my soul:

Whenever you clasp your hands in prayer, whenever you lift your hands in worship, whenever you write, whenever you grip the hand of another in fellowship, whenever you create anything with your hands, whenever you play a song or paint a landscape, whenever you applaud in encouragement, whenever you dirty your hands to grow a garden, whenever you offer a hand to someone in need—your hands are a weapon of worship created to bring glory to God...

...And sometimes, when my hands work with the strength of His hands, they fight powers of darkness and declare mysterious things of goodness in the heavenly realm that I never see.

So never think for one second that the works of my hands in His hands—a prayer, a handshake, helping someone lift a heavy load, another day at the office—don’t matter.

Little is much when God is in it, every single routine day.

May my hands serve humbly because it is His strength at work.

But let my hands also serve confidently and joyfully— say it again— because it is His strength at work.

It is a supreme mystery why God uses flawed men and women to do the work of His hands with their imperfect hands and hearts…but He does! So...

"Take my life and let it be consecrated to Thee;

Take my moments and my days, let them flow in ceaseless praise;

Take my hands and let them move at the impulse of Thy love;

Take my feet [because, yes, these boots are made for walkin’] and let them be swift and beautiful for Thee.”

Parable of the Faithful Usher

(Photo: Karl Fredrickson @unsplash.com)

"... Possess a greater concern for what matters to others instead of your own interests.—Philippians 2:4, Passion Translation

There is a Love story out there that’s always waiting to happen. Not the boy meets girl kind, but the one in which one preoccupied self meets another preoccupied self, and God shows up with the thunderous cheers and applause of heaven. It’s a Love story that doesn't make the headlines of social media or the society pages of the local newspaper. In fact, while it is happening, the two parties don’t even realize that it is Love, only a wonderfully strange, undefinable sense that whatever it is is right and very good, and not of this world.

Around here, those kind of Love stories waiting to happen can be especially difficult. There will always be the one preoccupied self who though not hard-hearted or cold is so focused on what needs to be done on their “to do” list that they seldom look up until it’s done.

Just about everyone, at one time or another, has owned that t-shirt.

But then, the other preoccupied self is so private, so not wanting to bother anyone with their troubles and worries big or small, that they think it a sign of strength and New England ruggedness to keep it to themselves.

Quietly, and deep inside, though, are a thousand letters they’ve started writing with shaking hands and both a shaky and screaming voice to God wondering out loud, “does anybody really care…really? I mean, everyone’s got their own life to worry about.”

Just about everyone, at one time or another, has owned that t-shirt, too.

But even around here, the idea of the two coming together is not so far-fetched. Consider, the Parable of the Faithful Usher… 

….There once was a faithful usher, a servant of the church, who loved God much. He was always very busy trying to do good, doing lots of church stuff. For several months, the usher made it a point to go greet and shake the hand of someone new, someone visiting, and a particular man who always seemed lost in his thoughts or disconnected in some fashion. The faithful usher observed that the man mostly kept to himself but still seemed to enjoy being at church. For months, the faithful usher would smile and say “good morning!”, and for months the seemingly disconnected man quietly responded, "thank you, good morning to you, too." Then the faithful usher would go on with his ushering, and whatever else it was he felt he had to do and see to help keep the church running smoothly. But then one week, when the faithful usher said the same “Good morning, and how are you?,” the Love story-in-the-making greeting dance took on a different flavor. The seemingly disconnected man replied, "Are you just being friendly or do you really want to know?" The faithful usher smiled, but he was also set back on his heels, because the disconnected man was right—and he wondered if, just maybe, it was Jesus in disguise asking: "are you too preoccupied with your own little world to hear what is weighing down and preoccupying the world of a brother? You've got time to listen and to be there. Will you?” And the faithful usher gladly stopped being busy doing good and did something much better—he took time and listened, he cared, he prayed on the spot... and as he left, somewhere angels were singing. Real Love was in the air everywhere....

“As He saw many people, He had loving-pity on them. They were troubled and were walking around everywhere. They were like sheep without a shepherd.”—Matthew 9:36, New Life Version

The Parable of the Faithful Usher is a Love story Jesus is always wanting to bring about, if only we will pay attention…and follow through. He alone is the Light of the world, but His light was always meant to shine brightest through all who believe in His name and seek to follow. It’s not just any kind of Light, either. It’s the kind of Light where our Sunday-best worship is supposed to have “feet on” and not left behind as we head out the door. It’s the kind of Light where the most effective ministry methods aren’t always preaching, programs, or about being busy doing church “stuff." And especially, it’s not about waiting for the perfect moment and mood.

"Do you really want to know?"

Sometimes, in His footsteps, the Light we need most for a Love story that really matters is to be willing take a few minutes to listen (and be slow to offer advice), pray, and let God take it from there.

"Ministry...is simply loving the person in front of you. It's about stopping for the one and being the very fragrance of Jesus."—Heidi Baker

(Originally published August 19, 2018)

You Can Take It With You

(Photo: Anna Earl @unsplash.com)

Not every little kid’s experience is the same, but when it was Sunday morning back in the day and I knew the family would be going to church, I kind of looked forward to it. Even though I didn’t understand most of it and was bored by a lot of it, there was something that felt…good. It might have helped that there was always juice and cookies afterwards. Or that sweet old ladies would sneak pieces of candy into my hand during the sermon. Or that I just loved to hear a bunch of people singing. The best part, of course, was always when it was over, and being with family and enjoying Sunday dinners.

Fast forward many decades, and though I now “get” what going to church is all about and love being there for many better reasons than juice and candy, when it’s all over is no longer the best part. In fact, it’s a weird part. It has nothing to do with the fact that family has moved on or “graduated” and with it the Sunday dinners. Instead, there’s this strange emptiness that happens each time when I head out the church doors toward home. “That’s it? It’s over?”

Of course, the answer is "No, and no." But maybe it’s because it can be too easy to compartmentalize Sunday mornings into what the sermon was all about or to the 20 minutes or so of singing. And that is definitely part of it, but I think Jesus would be the first to say that it’s far from the complete picture. I was reminded of that this week when re-reading a social media post written earlier this summer by my coffee-loving friend and fellow worship leader Daniel Miller, who lives in southern Connecticut with his beautiful family. He doesn't just live there. He worships there beyond music and Sunday mornings. It’s been a reminder that while “going to church” is indeed something to look forward to, Sunday mornings are meant to be a launching pad and not a destination.

You can take it with you...

“Yesterday was a special day.

I did a simple thing but it gave me joy.

Serving coffee to people I love.

First with my church community and then at an anniversary celebration with my childhood church.

Lots of happy and caffeinated people.

Some I just met, others have known me for my whole life.

It’s strange but the feeling of satisfaction from serving iced coffee on a hot day was on par with the feeling of preaching or leading worship.

I think that’s the point. It’s a type of offering.

Connecting the things we do regularly to the way we were designed and then looking up in worship.

There is something about seeing all of life as a cohesive and uninterrupted song.

Sometimes I pick up on this subtle melody, and other times the sound is muffled by my frantic activity, seeking to prove myself, unaware of the unforced rhythms of Grace playing around me.

And then there are moments like yesterday, where the cacophony becomes a distinct melody.

I hear it on the face of the person serving coffee with a smile.

It’s present as the young mom is excited we have oat milk as an option.

When a person takes a sip and has a smirk on their face afterward.

As someone takes an extra cup home to enjoy afterward.

But oh that’s so silly Daniel. Theologizing about coffee.

Isn’t that the point of worship?

Orienting our whole lives to see God at work so we can then begin to proclaim his worth?

If I can’t see Jesus at work in the grinding, brewing and serving then how can I see him on Monday morning when I don’t want to get out of bed?

Or the 3rd trip to the grocery store, when I’m already tired from the week because I forgot to get bread.

Worship is training our senses to see God in the everyday, not just Sunday.

It’s more mundane than it is extraordinary.

Sometimes it sounds like a low hum in the background, but the ability to hear and see God at work and then respond is not too far from any one of us.”

“So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for Him.”—Romans 12:1, Message

 

Traveling Music

On a backroad, Harrisville, New Hampshire

This is my Father’s world...and no one else’s (no matter what it may look like).

This life is a gift, and not my own…how will I live it?

This journey is wild and long and sometimes confusing...but the Good Shepherd always knows the way.

And this journey is a hymn...and it has traveling music:

“’Tis so sweet to trust in Jesus."

And even today, He’s scouting out the landscape, guiding, seeking the best of everything, making provision and providing rest.

Just remember to keep singing that hymn.

And don't forget... He also leads from behind.

Because even while out in front, He always has my back, especially when I’m distracted.

Thank God!

He is like two guard dogs named Goodness and Mercy.

Protecting. Barking encouragement or warning. Reigning in my wandering. Full of unconditional love.

And whether in front or in back, always intentional, never passive:

“Surely Your goodness and unfailing love will pursue me all the days of my life” (Psalm 23:6, NLT)

Pursue—“to follow close upon, go with, attend.”

Attend—“to be present.”

Where I go, there He is.

Not sometimes, but always, not used to be or might be someday, but today and right now:

“The Lord IS my shepherd…I have everything I need.” (Psalm 23:1)

Just remember to keep singing that hymn.

“I look behind me and You’re there, then up ahead and You’re there, too—Your reassuring presence, coming and going. This is too much, too wonderful—I can’t take it all in!”

Psalm 139:5

Encounter

 

(Photo: Lukasz Szmigiel @unsplash.com)

“Then they began to understand the effect Jesus had on them simply by spending time with Him.”—Acts 4:13, Passion

One day this week, when the morning air became cool and refreshing, I took my coffee and Bible and notebook out onto the porch, listening to the birds and watching the sun ascend over the woods. It was like camping. A perfect setting for a God moment.

And there were definitely some. Except before long, I became strangely restless. It wasn’t like I wasn’t sensing God out there on the porch and someplace else instead, but I still felt drawn like a magnet back to my usual morning encounter spot inside. And when I went there, it felt like home, and for some reason, I could see and hear better there.

What’s with that? Isn’t God everywhere? Aren’t prayers in the car just as powerful as prayers in church? Aren’t the scriptures read on the porch and those in that special place the same, yesterday, today, and forever?

“He spent His days in the Temple teaching, but His nights out on the mountain called Olives.” (Luke 21:37)

In the middle of the week on His way to the Cross, Jesus didn’t just teach during the day, He also taught us about the special places of encounter by His actions every evening. The gospels indicate that though Jesus prayed everywhere, the Mount of Olives was His “go-to” place to get away, to connect, to refuel. During this final week, the Mount of Olives was home base. It’s also where He descended from on the joyful Palm Sunday processional, where He prayed in agony and would be betrayed, where He ascended into Heaven after His resurrection, and where He will return at His second coming.

For sure, “Make your life a prayer,” as one translation puts 1 Thessalonians 5:17. And "...you, the Church, are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwells permanently in you, collectively and individually" (1 Corinthians 3:16), so most definitely, pray and minister to others “as you go” (Matthew 10:7-8), not just at church. But if Jesus had a Mount of Olives place for regularly connecting with God, to pray, to listen, to praise, to rest, maybe there's a good reason why that familiar spot inside proved better than the porch the other day. Being disciples means following Jesus all the way, including into finding those places where we know we regularly are able to encounter God in a mysterious yet special, deep, eye- and heart-opening way—a woodland trail, a woodworking shop away from it all, a window seat at the kitchen table...wherever.

Because the Mount of Olives places in our lives are not just beautiful, or peaceful, or energizing; they are, as they were for Jesus our Lord and Savior, sacred places of Encounter. And those places have been designed just for us, before we were in our mother’s womb, when God knew just how we would be wired...to best connect with Him every day.

And that, after all, is what really matters.

“The most powerful thing that can happen in the place of prayer is that you yourself become the prayer. You leave able as Jesus' hands and feet on earth. This is what it means to pray continually, to see with the eyes of Jesus and to hear with His ears with every waking moment.”—Brennan Manning

Inner Circle Joy

(Photo: dreamstime.com)

Dear brothers and sisters, pattern your lives after mine, and learn from those who follow our example.—Philippians 3:17, NLT

Reading Romans 16 is not unlike attending your child’s school awards ceremony and clapping for a bunch of people you know nothing about. It can be a little awkward: “I don’t know who these people are, but ‘yay for them’ anyway.” For the first 16 verses, the Apostle Paul encourages the fledgling gathering of believers in Rome, who like us,  “are beloved of God … called to be saints (God’s people) and set apart for a sanctified life; that is, set apart for God and His purpose,” to be sure to “greet” a whole lot of folks who they apparently know or have at least heard of, but who are total strangers to us.

But maybe they shouldn’t be.

These are mostly everyday people, with no special qualifications other than that they all seem to not just talk a good game, but consistently (not perfectly) walk the talk. These are men and women whose lives are marked not just by good deeds but by:

Faithfulness in both sunny and rainy seasons

Perseverance when everything inside screams to quit

Integrity even when compromise is everywhere

Hard work, very hard work, whatever it looks like, for the sake of spreading Good News

For being family to one another...encouraging, building up, loving

For random acts of hospitality

And, especially, whose very lives have been “tested and approved in Christ.”

When Paul says “greet” these folks, he’s implying a whole lot more than “Tell ‘em ‘hi’ for me.” The Greek word implies a very intimate greeting—to hug, to kiss with honor, to embrace. That may all sound rather uncomfortable if you’re not a particularly greeting-demonstrative person, but God chose a strong word for a very good reason:

In this journey on the Great Adventure, with deceptions, lies, and temptations lurking around every corner 24/7, it’s vital that we find and walk with those who have lived like the just-a-regular-guy saints in that Romans 16 list. And not only to find them and walk with them, but to go a bold step further and “embrace” them into a very tight circle of joyful influencers. Not at the exclusion of all others, but as Solomon penned many hundreds of years earlier—perhaps pointing to that early gathering of believers in Rome as well as to we who are called to be salt and light today—

"Walk with the wise and become wise;
    associate with fools and get in trouble."—Proverbs 13:20, NLT

“Show me your friends and I will tell you who you are."

(Author unknown)

[ADAPTED FROM 4-10-16]

Football, Mom and the 'It'

(Photo: Charismanews.com)

"I was glad when they said to me, 'Let us go to the house of the Lord!' And now, here we are, standing inside your gates, O Jerusalem." (Psalm 122:1, New Living Translation)

Among the many things the pandemic has revealed is something God has been trying to get through to us believers for centuries: worship of the living God is not confined to a sometimes closed or quasi-opened building. We are all mobile temples who carry His presence in us and with us wherever we go. We were meant to worship God at any time, anywhere. But at the same time, God also designed the purposeful gathering of His family in a particular location to be something akin to a stick of dynamite. It's "where the tribes go up"— different people from different neighborhoods, backgrounds, and interests with one common purpose, to...

...Worship the Lord who alone gives us life and breath and everything else we need.

Whether spaced apart and with masks on now or shoulder to shoulder once more when the pandemic passes, sparks of goodness and encouragement and faith-building occur when iron sharpens iron, elbows rub elbows, and completely different people who may never hang out with one another on a regular basis are of one mind about the incredible, daily reality of the living God working in their lives. It’s what happens when the dynamite Spirit of the living God swoops in and galvanizes it all, refreshing and re-energizing a bunch of imperfect people to go out the door and be the Church again for another week, wherever that may be.

If we’re not careful, though, doing all of that every Sunday can become routine and begin to feel like you’re going through the motions. Good. Not bad. But mostly feeling like you’re doing your Christian thing. Life gets messy and can preoccupy.  And then, “Oh look, here comes another Monday… “And sometimes, you’re reminded that it also means dealing with, well, people, and the idea of avoiding that can sound really appealing.

And so God invented football! And Super Bowl Sunday is a good day to be awakened and even humbled a bit….

Because millions of people really love football. They can't wait for Sunday. They think about "it" all week long, even in the midst of their daily stresses and routine. "It" keeps them going until that hour on Sunday afternoon when they can either enter the building with thousands of others or enter it vicariously through a 48-inch flat screen. The "it" of the game may mean one thing to one fan and another thing to someone else, but whatever "it" is, "it" has captivated their collective attention, stirred their expectancy and anticipation, and they cannot wait.

Whenever the whole idea of gathering in a building or joining the tribe online on any given Sunday feels a bit routine, it is good to think of the expectancy of the football fan. Better than that, unlike football, it is good to know that there is one very definable and powerful "it" that believers can always cling to and that should jolt alive any ho-hum Sunday into a day of worship expectancy and anticipation:

The cross and the empty tomb.

Even though none of us may ever fully understand the mystery of it all in this lifetime, when worship/church routine tries to creep in, all we have to do is look to the cross once more. That's “it!" Because through that cross, and Jesus' final gasping words on behalf of all who would believe — “It is finished! — something more amazing than the best football game ever played took place: the veil of separation between us and God was ripped open once and for all. Not only that, we are no longer destined for an eternity of death because the Savior of the world didn’t stay in the tomb but rose to life again and went back Home to be with His Father. And to this very day, He continues to intercede for us as we go on our daily journey.

This grandest of all “it” means we can regularly and always be in God's presence in every situation, and can approach Him with boldness and confidence. Every single minute of every single day... the God who always says "Yes" to His own promises, the God who has and still does the impossible, for Whom nothing is too difficult, and Who is the God of all comfort and wisdom.

I am reminded of my mom in her golden years, when walking and standing too long were painful and slow. It would take her forever to get from the car to her seat in church each Sunday, but nothing was going to stop her. And when the songs of praise and worship began, she wanted to be helped to her feet so she could grab the chair in front of her with one hand and have the other free for expressing her love for Jesus…

"Jesus paid it all, all to Him I owe”…it’s more than a great song to sing, it’s a battle cry to follow the lead of the endlessly passionate football fan (and my mom)  and always be eager to worship with our very lives, both together and one-on-one, every single Sunday and especially all the Mondays-through-Saturdays to come. 

"Salvation is not mainly the forgiveness of sins, but mainly the fellowship of Jesus. Forgiveness gets everything out of the way so this can happen. If this fellowship is not all-satisfying, there is no great salvation. If Christ is gloomy, or evenly calmly stoical, eternity will be a long, long sigh." —John Piper

Three Words for the Road Ahead

 “The point of your life is to point to Him.”—Francis Chan

“What Would Jesus Do?” often sounds heroic — too heroic, in fact, for just a WWJD wrist band. It can also be subject to “but what if?” hypothetical situations, and suggest a sense of keeping a safe distance, of observing rather than engaging in His first call to every disciple: “Follow Me.”

But “What Did Jesus Do?” gives you something you can wrap your arms around, something tangible, something you can model, something that can deepen the greatest relationship of them all and help eliminate a lifestyle built on someone else’s quotes and bumper sticker slogans. And not only that, as 2020 has taught us, the very idea of WDJD can cut to the heart of what really matters faster and better than a million good ideas, books, programs, the latest and greatest worship songs, and the implication that everything happens on Sunday morning in a building. 

So, what did Jesus do? A lot of things; so many, in fact, that the disciple whom He loved wrote: “There are so many other things Jesus did. If they were all written down, each of them, one by one, I can’t imagine a world big enough to hold such a library of books.” (John 21:25, The Message)

But here’s one, maybe a little less obvious than others, to carry into the new year:

“Each day, Jesus was teaching at the temple, and each evening, He went out to spend the night on the hill called the Mount of Olives…” —Luke 21:37

Each day. Each evening… What Jesus did was give us the blueprint for cultivating good habits that will help point our lives to His, both before we head out the door and after a long day. They are things we know but quickly forget — regular healthy rhythms in the Father’s presence that will buffet a world filled with the pressure of people demands, conflicting messages, and non-stop noise, and will build our faith, strengthen our resolve on the Journey, and brighten our reflection to those around us.

Some days, some evenings, the cultivating is like plowing through soft soil, and is refreshing if not powerful. Many days and evenings, though, the cultivating feels like plowing through rocks. Life happens. But WDJD says, in so many words...

 “...Forward, never give up, fix your gaze steadily on Me just as I looked to My Father, for lo, I am with you always.”

Each day. Each evening.

And don’t forget the WDJD importance of place. Jesus had a go-to place called Mount of Olives — a place to get away, to reconnect, to refuel. It’s a reminder that cultivating good habits in the new year also means tapping into those places where you know you regularly meet God in a special way — a mountain trail, a roaring ocean or still lake waters, a woodworking shop, a favorite chair in a quiet room. The Mount of Olives places in our lives are not just beautiful, or peaceful, or energizing, they are sacred places of Encounter. This year, like Jesus did, I want to be more intentional about not taking these sacred spaces lightly, because they have been designed for me — for us — before time began when God knew just how each of us would be wired to best connect with Him.

There's much more to living in the land of What Did Jesus Do, and a lot of it is challenging to the sensibilities if not costly. But the longer I walk this highway, the more I realize that the simplicity of regular rhythms of Presence and places of Encounter are what God uses to carry us through even the craziest of times. It's a simplicity that needs continual recalibrating, but it is where the foundation of all that really matters can be found. Words from Martin Luther drive the point home:

“What more would you know? What more do you need, if indeed you know Christ, if you walk by faith in God, and by love to your neighbor, doing to him as Christ has done to you? This is indeed the whole Scripture in its biggest form: That no more words or books are necessary, but only life and action.”

Thursday night, when the calendar moves forward to a clean slate, my list of “the point of your life” goals and resolutions will probably be short. Behind them will be an anthem of just three words, but a weighty theme song for every 24/7 ahead…

...Give me Jesus.

Traditional Spiritual; sung by Danny Gokey, from the album "Christmas Is Here"

[Updated from 12-31-17]