Bring God In

This is God’s Message, the God who made earth, made it livable and lasting, known everywhere as God: ‘Call to me and I will answer you. I’ll tell you marvelous and wondrous things that you could never figure out on your own.’ (Jeremiah 33:2-3)

Why does God, the one who made all things and knows all things, require us to ask for whatever it is we need or want? To be required to ask when he knows already seems kind of foolish on the surface, but if you stop to consider what "asking" entails, you may come to a revelation of the true purpose of asking. Asking requires us to humble ourselves, not to mention allowing for time to bring a clarification of our wants and needs. Have you ever sought one thing, only to find when you received it the "thing" did not do for you whatever you hoped it would? I realized just how much I didn't really need what I asked for - it was just something to "fill space" in my life, but that "space" really should have been occupied by something else (or someone else).

Asking is a process - not a one-time thing, but a developmental process. To truly understand what is behind our "asking", we have to understand the process. We have a want or a need. The difference is that one of these is sort of like icing on a cake. Cake alone is good but put the icing on it and it is great. A need is like the cake - it provides what will bring satisfaction. The want is like the icing - it provides that little bit of "wow" into our lives which we long for in some way. It involves knowing the difference between the two. As long as we are confused as to the difference between a want and a need, we will constantly be asking for our wants rather than our needs. A steady diet of icing will only put us on sugar-overload!

Although there may be a little "high" from having the want met, it is short-lived and soon we are "let down" by it. What we need is what will sustain us for the long-haul. Asking requires us to be humble enough to actually ask. Some of us will do almost anything in our own effort BEFORE we ask for help! It isn't until we have failed to bring about something that we humble ourselves enough to ask. God wants us to learn to rely upon another, not just ourselves. Too many of us start out thinking we cannot be "dependent" upon anyone for our "success" in life. In time, God will bring all of us to the same conclusion - life lived "independent" of his care and protection is just not life lived to its fullest!

We must put into words whatever it is we need. We often have a hard time articulating what it is we need. We just cannot find the words to express it - or we just plain don't know. Just because we don't know how to put into words what we have need of doesn't mean God doesn't need to hear from us - he provides the Holy Spirit to "utter those inner needs" directly into the ear of our heavenly Father. It calls for us to be open to hearing. It is much easier to speak about what we need and then so very hard to be quiet long enough to actually hear how it is God might plan for us to have that need met! Part of asking is being quiet - putting the need out there and then resting in our position of humble waiting. Waiting is not the strongest suit for many of us - me included. This process of waiting and listening is difficult and requires more of us than the actual "asking" does in the first place! It is the part of the process where we get clarity and begin to see God at work in our lives. Apart from hearing, we have just "us" in the picture! Hearing allows God to be "brought in"! Just sayin!

Stop for the snail

"Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever." 

(Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi) 

I may not have originated these words, but they are something that really resonate in my heart - especially as I get older and recognize that I am not in the beginning of my lifetime any longer, but rather the end of the course. I live for today - because God never assures me I will have tomorrow here on this earth. I learn for an eternity - because God has assured me I will learn at his feet for all of eternity. There are certain things worth learning - such things make us stronger, giving us depth and breadth that might otherwise be undiscovered in our lives.

I ask him to strengthen you by his Spirit—not a brute strength but a glorious inner strength—that Christ will live in you as you open the door and invite him in. And I ask him that with both feet planted firmly on love, you’ll be able to take in with all followers of Jesus the extravagant dimensions of Christ’s love. Reach out and experience the breadth! Test its length! Plumb the depths! Rise to the heights! Live full lives, full in the fullness of God. (Ephesians 3:16-19)

Have you ever looked at an individual, considered what they "appear" to be like on the outside, and then made an "estimate" of their strength, ability, or aptitude? If I see a guy who is muscular, with a great set of biceps bulging and six-pack firm abdomen, I think he must have spent a lot of time developing his strength. If I see a busy man in a business suit stop to help a small child explore the wonder of a snail crossing the sidewalk, I see a totally different kind of strength! There is much to be said about the difference between the outward "appearance" of strength and the inner assurance of strength. I think this might be what God had in mind in giving us these words today. It is what is on the inside that makes the man, not the display of what we see on the outside. Brute strength is good if you need to open a stubbornly sealed jar of pickles, but inner strength is even more awesome when you see it manifest in the ability to sense the opportunities that otherwise would be wasted if passed by. Brute strength is the result of consistent work-outs. Don't get me wrong, there is nothing bad about a good physique or a "tight" body, but if it is our ultimate goal, we miss something more valuable than rippled muscles and tight abs. Inner strength is "learned" in the 'gym of life' - not as a result of "working out" in the gym, but in "working out" at the feet of Jesus. We have a "personal trainer" of sorts, better known as the Holy Spirit, just for the purpose of helping to develop this inner strength.

The strength of the inner man comes in looking first at where we plant our feet. If you have ever been in any athletics, you might have heard your coach tell you to "plant your feet". With this simple instruction, you are being urged to get a "stance" that will aid you in having the "base" or "foundation" upon which to build a solid hit, send a carefully calculated pass, or hit some mark down the course. Some believe having both feet solidly placed means you are not willing to try anything new - the meaning of having your feet solidly planted on the ground in scripture is quite different, though. God tells us to plant our feet firmly on love - not human love, but the love of God that permeates us with the vastness of his grace. Where we "plant" our feet is as important as having them planted. It is in planting them solidly in his love where we begin to have the inner strength of our being expanded. We begin to experience the vastness of his love by getting to know the breadth of that love. Maybe this is best expressed in the promise from scripture: As far as east is from west—that’s how far God has removed our sin from us. (Psalm 103:12 CEB) Now that is some "breadth", isn't it? Think on it - as far as the east is from the west - this is how far God's love expands, for his love is the basis of our sin being removed! We need to test its length. Part of experiencing something is to "test" it. In other words, you see if it endures, holds up under pressure. Explore the "lasting power" of God's love - it endures when nothing else does. If this is not enough, he reminds us to plumb the depth and rise to the heights of his love. His love is found both in the deepest sorrows of our soul and in the soaring "wins" of the mountain-top experiences. 

You know, it will take me an eternity to understand God's love fully. What I see and understand about his love only scratches the surface right now. My "finite" understanding is ever expanding, but I know it is limited by what I can see today, understand with my mind today, and interpret with my emotion in the here and now. In eternity, I will continue to learn at his feet. How about you? We need to truly learn to live for today - not letting the opportunities pass us by. The very "snail" we stop to observe could be the thing that leads us to the next great step in our lives! Just sayin!

Observe to Hear

Are you a story-teller? If so, what type of stories do you relish telling? I like to hear stories, even enjoy reading them. I also like to observe stories - yes, you read that right - observation is a huge part of interpreting the story. We observe and then we form conclusions as a result of what we observe. For example, we see a person standing in a take-out line who is probably a little poorly dressed, maybe even with clothing overly soiled, and we tell ourselves a story that they are likely homeless. If you observe them a little while longer, you may notice they get into a fancy pick-up truck just outside in the parking lot, ladders and tools in the bed of the truck. What you observed in the take-out line didn't match the story you now are telling yourself, did it? You observed the person who was clad in dirty attire was really a workman, probably going home after an extremely hard work day. Observation is often key to understanding the stories we not only tell ourselves, but those that are told to us!

The heavens declare the glory of God, and the skies announce what his hands have made. Day after day they tell the story; night after night they tell it again. (Psalm 19:1-2)

There is one story we will never grow weary of observing - the story of God's creative and sustaining power all around us. I delight in just sitting in the backyard when the weather is nice and listening to the birds. I observe them coming to my feeders, some more aggressive than others to obtain their fair share at the feeder. Others just simply perch on the sideline, waiting their turn, or bob along the ground just under the feeder, picking up the cast offs from those feeding above. I also observe the tiny insects crawling along the walkway, working their way through the soil in the garden, or creeping along the smooth edge of a leaf. Nothing compares to being out in the country, observing the wide open sky and taking in all the brilliance of the stars strewn across the expanse. You don't see that many stars when you live in the city, but get out away from the lights and wow! God's majesty is certainly declared in the skies!

We might not appreciate the stories we observe as much as we really need to, though. There is just something about taking time to slow down enough to 'observe' what God has created that helps us connect a little closer to him. In those moments of slowing down and really paying attention, we are able to listen to the things God desires to tell us. I enjoyed a day of fishing last week, best friend next to me. As I stood their on the shoreline of the river, I enjoyed the robin hunting insects, fish drifting in and out of view, and even the silent 'whispers' of the tree leaves above. The tall grass gently swaying in the breeze and the myriad of butterflies adorned in all manner of brilliant color both caught my eye more than one time. The story of his creation was all around me, as was the story of his constant attention to care for and provide for all he has created. We observe God working in so many ways, but we sometimes miss the story he is trying to tell us in what we observe.

It is dangerous for us to jump to conclusions when God is telling us his story, just as it was silly of us to assume the man in the take-out line was homeless. God might just be asking us to observe for a while, so we get the entirety of the story he is attempting to tell us! Just sayin!