No Small Role

What is it about days upon days of busyness that steal so much of what it means to really live? I'm always amazed at how long I can go on fumes, coasting in my most important relationships – with God, with my wife, with friends.

One of the most astounding works or results of the Cross is that the veil was torn away. Nothing separates us any longer from that most treasured and long-desired place of intimate communion with Christ. He came to seek and to save what was lost – what was lost between us and Him, what was lost in ourselves, and what was lost between each of us. He came to rescue and restore all of the lost fellowship of heart that we gave away at the Fall. It has been more than restored, but we must act on that deep work. We must appropriate it and enter into it and ask the Spirit of God to bring it into and over us daily. Otherwise, we end up living in a kind of casual agnosticism where we begin to think of the world as a disappointing but benign place to live and of God as a distant Sovereign King but not an Intimate Friend.

The Invitation of Christ has snapped me back into reality, back into the recognition that there are only two kingdoms in this world, and they are both fiercely opposed to each other, (Colossians 1:13 - For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves…) and back into the reality of our place in it. (You might call the gospel of Christ simply Reality, capital R, in line with Brennan Manning's reference to Christ Himself as "the Really Real.")

This Invitation is an invitation to watch and be confounded by the way Jesus loves, and then be broken by our call to love the same, knowing that to walk where Jesus walks is to inhabit a far more dangerous and far more glorious (and sometimes far less noticeable) role in this world than we ever dared fear or hope for. And it is a role we share.

I recently watched the new X-Men movie. I'm not a huge fan of Marvel comics and all of that, but here's something that blew me away about the story. Essentially there were two factions (or kingdoms) in the X-Men world – those who supported the mutants and those who wanted to oppress them. And you had to be on one side or the other. Those who weren't were sort of just pawns, really, or extras to make the cities fuller and seem more lifelike. They were not important characters. The movie builds to a final battle, one to end all battles. Ultimately, it came down to (no surprise here) the "good mutants" fighting the "bad mutants," but neither side fought alone. Each character had his or her skill or specialty or gifting, and each needed the gifting and call of the others in the battle. Each had their own sphere of influence and authority over certain things in the world – one could manipulate metal, one could manipulate the weather, one could manipulate fire, one could run through walls… you get the picture. To watch any one of these figures you begin to think, "Wow. I'd want that power." And then you see another one and you think, "No, I'd want that one." But then there would be another. Soon enough you begin to realize that, as glorious as each of these characters were in living out their identities, and as powerful as they could be, they are humbled by the giftings of others. The ultimate reason, you see, that each of them had these powers to begin with is because they were needed.

What a picture of our place in the Kingdom of God. Our roles are not small. And neither are they solitary. We will be taken out so quickly if we begin to think they are. Casual agnosticism is a deadly poison, and our Enemy will use the subtle erosion of busyness and distraction (the two greatest weapons used against us in our culture) to slowly euthanize us away from Reality.
"We must reawaken and learn to remain awake," warned Henry David Thoreau, and he couldn't have been more right. How? He finishes with a call away from the busyness and distraction that our modern world offers and into the hope that is the gospel: "Not by mechanical aid [or we might say by the aid of technology or entertainment or programs], but by the infinite expectation of the dawn."

The dawn is coming, sooner than most of us think, when all will be set right, when all manner of things will finally be well. Until then, we walk before the Lord in the land of the living (not the sleeping or the dead, Psalm 116:9) with our eyes firmly fixed on the Rescuing One, whose life is our light in this dark place (John 1:4).

Personal and Free?

Is it not clear to you that to go back to that old rule-keeping, peer-pleasing religion would be an abandonment of everything personal and free in my relationship with God? I refuse to do that, to repudiate God's grace. If a living relationship with God could come by rule-keeping, then Christ died unnecessarily.
-Galatians 2:21, The Message

A living relationship with God that is personal and free. A living relationship, personal and free.

We have a lot going on in the church today, a lot of ideas of what it is to live the Christian life. But here, succinctly and directly Paul states the unequivocal, central purpose for everything we proclaim as believers – why Jesus came, what we are to do with it, where we are to go from here. Everything else we may do as believers falls second to that: evangelism, church attendance or lack of it, baptism, walking in our calling, feeding the hungry, Bible study – all of it. These are all fine things, and some very necessary, but they are second to a living relationship with God. That is central. A relationship with God often results in or overflows into these other things. But these are not first.

If I were to ask you, “What is the central reason you are here on earth?” what would you say? Or, maybe, “What does God want from you?” What would your response be? Think on that for a bit.

Don’t rush too quickly to the answers you’ve been given. Let yourself dream a bit. What do you hope the answer to that question would be?

Into Battle

Oswald Chambers once said that if you want to learn how to pray, read the Psalms. I tend to agree. You’ll find there those who really are the passionate and violent at heart, a quality that Jesus said you would need if you were to grasp ahold of the Kingdom (Matthew 11:12).

This morning I was praying a request that’s become commonplace for me, but so crucial, that I would be given intercessors – men and women who would be drawn to pray for my wife and I. It’s so, so vital for us at this point in our lives. With that in mind, I thought I’d stir up a bit of what Christ is leading us into praying for our lives together and for his Kingdom come through us. This is how we often pray for our friends, because it is how we need to be prayed for by them.

That we would enter into full work of the Cross (Gal. 2:20; Col. 2:13-15), the Resurrection (Rom. 5:17; 6:5-11), and the Ascension (Matt. 28:18; Eph. 2:4-6, 1 Jn. 4:4) of Jesus.

That the Holy Spirit to be so near to us, our very present and wonderful Counselor, Comforter, Strength and Guide (John 14:16, Acts 9:31, Eph. 1:13, John 15:16, John 16:13).

That we would have the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, that we would know God better (Eph. 1:17) and that we would keep in step with the Spirit (Gal. 5:25). We want that we would walk in the fullness of the giftings given us (Eph. 4:8, Eph. 1:3) and that we would be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power (Eph. 6:10-18).

In the same authority as heirs, we summon angels on our behalf (these "Mighty One" as the Psalms portray them, Psalm 103:20) to serve as ministering ones of for us (Heb. 1:14). Remember that it only took two of these glorious creatures to destroy all of Sodom and Gomorrah (Gen. 19). Ask for them over us.

Don't buy into the lie that we're supposed to be bleary-eyed and listless, so we should just endure whatever comes to us with smiles. Some hardship is given us so that our hope and love may deepen and our reliance on Christ may grow, yes (Romans 5:3-5, 2 Cor 1:9). But, sadly, some we endure for no other reason than we haven't taken our place yet in Christ or that others haven't been raised to pray for us. Don't glory in that. Rather, pray. Without ceasing, pray.

I want life for my family and friends. More life, more and more life (John 10:10). I want all our brokenness redeemed and our hearts restored, all blindness healed, freedom proclaimed for the prisoners, and the Good News given to us each. (Acts 16:40, Isaiah 61:1, Luke 4:18-19). I want this. Want it with me, and beat the ground with your desire (John 1:38, 2 Kings 13:18-19).

Paul had his own intercessors, raising the shield of faith and sword of the Spirit on his behalf. He talks about his time in Asia and how some great oppression had him in despair and the grip of death. In his letter to the church in Corinth, he recalls this time, finishing with "On him we have set our hope that he will continue to deliver us, as you help us by your prayers..." (found in 2 Cor. 1:8-11).

The Living God has raised up intercessors for us. We are they. One day we'll see that fully. One day we will strip our sleeves and bare our scars and say, "this I took in service of the King in that great battle..." The hits we take for others are for the glory of Jesus, and one day we will share in all of that. That's the invitation. In the meantime, we fight past what we can see, one in spirit, contending as one man for the faith (Phil. 1:27).

And we offer Christ our gratitude for your faith (and with it, vision), for your hope (and from it, courage) and for your love (and though it, passion) - 1 Corinthians 13:13.

Peering through the Veil

God has intrigued me.

This weekend God asked me what kind of man I wanted to become. The answer was immediate, as if it were waiting right inside my voice box and couldn’t wait to jump out. I gave it to Him, a response that was passionate and bursting with desire the way a fully-ripened grape does between your teeth.

And He smiled. And He held it for several breathless seconds. Understand, I had just let me heart out, I mean, I had just exposed a very personal and very passionate longing, an aching longing that I have. I laid it out there for Him. Now what would He do with it?

He spoke. “Will you trust me to take you there?”

My mouth dropped. Literally, I mean. I was in the car and it just dropped and I laughed out loud. “Really? You want to take me there, Father?” His silence was a serious silence. I started thinking about how this changes everything. All that I’m going through and will suddenly, in that light, has an incredible weight to it. It is both designed to form me more into that man, and assaulted to keep me from becoming that man.

I am coming into that age as a son that I am better able to see as God points out things heading this way on the far horizon. My 3-year-old nephew and I were up on the 5th floor of a building yesterday, and I was trying to get him to see a little car driving by. I kept pointing and describing the car and he kept looking at a spot on the window. I am now better able to follow God’s finger and focus on those things He delights in pointing out to me.

Suddenly, the rest of the weekend I am full of hope. And hope, as Napoleon Bonaparte reminds us, gives nourishment to courage. I am entering with courage and even excitement into places that would otherwise strike fear into the heart of the most valiant warrior: a loved one’s hospitalization and extreme illness, building a relationship with another one I love that I had always missed out on, entering more deeply into the heart of my wife and dreaming together for our marriage. Whatever else may or may not happen, I am walking with Christ through these events, and through these events He is speaking to me and He is training me to become that man that I long to become – one that walks well in the Kingdom of God alongside Christ, who loves well, and who has the character of heart that I poured out to Him that day in the car.

What are those desires that burst forth from my heart? Oh, you don’t get to know those. At least, not yet. They are far too personal for me to say right now. I believe it was George MacDonald that said that often for the saints experiences with Christ are too personal to put words to. “Compared to His love,” said Thomas Aquinas, “all my words are straw.” So they are, for now, between the Lover of my Soul and me. But I imagine those who know me well can guess them. Oswald Chambers had, "Character in a saint means the disposition of Jesus Christ persistently manifested."

Continuing the Conversation

These are the golden sessions, when our slippers are on, our feet spread out toward the blaze, and our drinks at our elbows, when the whole world – and something beyond the world – opens itself to our minds as we talk, and no one has any claim on or any responsibility for another, but all are free men and equals, as if we had first met an hour ago, while at the same time, an affection, mellowed by the years unfolds us. Life, natural life, has no better gift than friendship. Who could have deserved it?
-C.S. Lewis

In an effort to capture that sense of wonder in peering into that something beyond the world that Lewis refers to here, and in a desire to continue the conversation begun so long ago in the depths of eternity past and that we are invited to participate in now, I want to share a bit of where I find myself to be this day.

Show me your ways, O Lord, teach me your paths… -Psalm 25:4

I am living right now in one of the most painful and one of the most dangerous times of my life because I know what my calling is – that is to say, I have some familiarity with that great mystery of my heart's presence and place in the Great Drama that is unfolding even now… I know what I am made to do and how I am to walk with God and even where, in a sense, it will be or at least what it will look some time from now to be walking with God. But, I am not currently living in my calling, at least not fully. I mean, I am living in this mystery, but there is so much more to it, and for possibly the first time in my walk with God, I see some of the more that is out there.

This discrepancy between the life I am living and the life I am called to, or at least the life that is offered, is the source of much discontent. It raises some concerns and certainly some questions. Am I not walking there because I am not yet ready? Because I am not walking with God well? Have I made a bad decision or series of decisions that is keeping me from that? Have I gotten lost somehow?

You have made known to me the path of life… -Psalm 16:11

These questions, and of course the confusion from the Evil One and his slew of Lying Tongues as they pounce on that like some wild hyenas on a carcass to shred and tear with their own interpretations and deceit, most accurate describe where I find my heart this morning.

Righteousness goes before him and prepares the way for his steps. –Psalm 85:13

In a sense, I feel like Ebenezer Scrooge peering in through the glass on the outside of the dance hall looking into his life prompted by the ghost of Christmas past, with the crucial difference that I am not looking into my past, but into a sort of future, a kind of what-could-be if I walk with God well, a peering further along on this path of life, and it is really exciting, and that the prompting is not coming from a ghost of Christmas but from the Spirit himself that gave us Christmas, the Spirit of God.

God has intrigued me.