Remembering to give thanks

If you're like me, there has been more than one occasion when something you have spent considerable time praying for comes to fruition, but it is not until some time later you remember to give thanks for the very thing for which you so passionately sought the Lord.

Today... it has been raining off and on with steady frequency and some sessions with considerable volume in some cloud bursts. Several months ago we were under an official "drought" condition and I was among many I know who were persistent in asking God to "send His rain."

Over the past several months God has been faithful in bringing the rain on this land and we are very close to being "officially" out of the drought. Though I've been thankful with each storm we've seen, it struck me with a greater sense of urgency today to give thanks.

God is good, all the time, rain or shine.

Listening for Silence

There is an old adage that proclaims, "Silence is golden" and to a large extent I believe it.

Sitting in a movie theater and having to endure "whispering" on the part of conversational viewers sitting nearby is always such an irritation. Or in the same context, having some clueless person not only allow their cellphone to ring aloud, but to answer that same phone ought to be grounds for expulsion or worse. "Silence is golden" when one is on the receiving end of the noise. But what about on the other end? As the noise producer, when is silence "golden?"

Have you ever known someone who simply talks "too much?" It is one thing to be aware of someones propensity toward verbosity, but to be self-differentiated enough to know when one is speaking too much themselves is quite another thing. That takes some real discipline and self-awareness.

What is it that drives one to speak more than necessary? Too often it is a function of a person simply loving the sound of their own voice a little too much. A subtle function of pride allows us to believe our words are simply that important that we must be heard. And yet, some of the most wise and helpful communicators I have experienced in my life have been people who were humble enough to appreciate that "silence is golden." They speak only when necessary and have the compelling ability to allow me to "talk my way" through things without monopolizing the dialogue. The biblical author James once wrote, "My dear brothers, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry..." (James 1:19).

I'm trying to better listen for my own silence and hoping that an increased desire for the humility of Christ will result in my silence being "golden" for those around me as well.

"He was oppressed and afflicted,
yet he did not open his mouth;
he was led like a lamb to the slaughter,
and as a sheep before her shearer is silent,
so he did not open his mouth."
(Is. 53:7)

What Do You Expect? Part 2

A couple of days ago, while sitting in S'Bucks for a planning meeting, I watched what was obviously a female "mentor" of four teenage girls. During the entire time I was in my meeting, they were in their meeting and occasionally they would capture my attention with giggles and laughter. Having given a large chunk of my life to the development of teenagers, the "mentor-Mom" had my honor as she was giving up her time and energy to lead these young women closer to Jesus (I saw the "mentor-Mom" had her Bible, a discussion guide book and the all-to-familiar look of a teen worker/volunteer).

Impressed by the girl's attentiveness to their leader's leading, I noticed they were about to pray close to the time my meeting was wrapping up. As they began to bow their heads for the prayer, one of the girls spotted a teenage boy approaching the door. While all the girls initially bowed their heads, slowly... one-by-one... each girl eventually left the attention of their leader's prayer and watched the boy walking into S'Bucks. They all recovered the "prayer posture" just about the time the leader said her "Amen." All's well that ends well, I guess! Or maybe not...

That image has stayed with me over the past couple days and I've been wondering "what did those teen girls expect from that moment of prayer?" I know the powerful draw of a "cute guy" for a 16 year-old-girl (I currently have one of those girls living in my own house), but is it powerful enough to take a young woman away from a conversation with the Creator of the universe? Perhaps. But maybe the girls are not altogether to blame. The issue may rest with the rest of us who have led them. Have we taught them to expect and anticipate being in the presence of God?

What do we really "expect" when we pray, when we worship or when we read Scripture? Do we really expect to be in the presence of the Almighty God? Do we really expect an encounter that may change our lives? If we do expect it, do we "anticipate" something will, in fact, happen as a result of being with God? My hunch is we are not as assured or as cognizant of it as we could be.

I know in the life of a 16-year-old girl, the attention of a teen boy can be the highlight of the day. But when I think of eternal life and the power of knowing God, I have to think we who are older need to take the responsibility for this one. For a teen girl to "diss" a boy for a moment of prayer, she's going to have to believe in the power of what she's doing and maybe we've simply not modeled expectation enough for them.

What do you think?

What Do You Expect?

Several years ago, while sitting in the top row of an arena filled with over 16,000 adoring fans of a particular professional sports team, it struck me like a lightning bolt, I was in a "worship service!" While it wasn't your traditional "church service," it was still categorically worship. This professional event, for which people spent considerable amounts of money to attend, was the "worship" of the masses. Win or lose, people still came and paid (literally) homage to something (and in many cases someone) beyond themselves. 16,000 people were exalting an entity that was "bigger" than they ever will be. Few of those 16,000 knew any of the players personally, and yet they let their emotions soar in praise as they would call players by name. All 15,999 (I was too long gone in thought at this point to really actively participate) chanted mantras repetitively with expert precision, "Beat L.A." or "Aaaaaiiiir-ball...aaaaaiiiir-ball." It was an amazing thing to witness from my perspective, so high in the rafters of the "sanctuary."

There is something compelling about worship. Transcending form, worship is more about function and is something of a natural expression of the "created" for the "Creator." Worship can be suppressed with minimal effort but this does not reduce the reality that one day "every knee will bow and every tongue will confess" the reality that calls all of humanity to worship the Creator.

What is interesting to me is the quantifiable difference between "worshiping the profane" and "worshiping the Divine." While I can be as guilty as the next guy of rooting (I'd like to think not quite worshiping) my favorite team or athlete, no matter how hard I chant, or yell or sing or "praise" my favorite team, there is nothing substantive that changes in my life as a result of that experience. I am, in no direct way, transformed by the contemporary "worship" of the "arena mass." I may walk away pleased if my team wins, but I'm not changed (especially for the better). The guy who walked into the arena is the same guy who walks out of the arena (okay, I may be a pound or two heavier from all the junk food I've eaten and $100 or more poorer from all the money I've spent -- but other than that, my life remains unchanged).

Coming into the presence of the Divine is to be changed, transformed, to experience a metamorphosis. To worship "the King, all glorious above and gratefully sing His wonderful love" means as a result of His exaltation and glorification, I, a worshiper, am different as a direct result of the worship experience.

This is an important distinction from your "garden variety" (Madison Square Garden perhaps being one possibility) worship experience. There are numerous examples of people coming into the presence of the Divine and being changed. Are we one of them when we worship?

If we worship, but aren't changed, what is the reason? Maybe it has something to do with what we expect going into the experience?

More on that tomorrow...

The Death of Humility

It was there in the beginning. But somehow along the way, it was lost. Like the mysteriously disappearing sock in the dryer, you put them both in there, but somehow only one returns! My drawer holds many of those and why I don't just throw them in the trash continues bewilder me. Maybe I'm waiting for some sort of redemption from beyond the sock world? Perhaps one of them will come wandering home like a lost puppy?

The very nature of being "created beings" elicits a response of humility. How can the "pot" tell the "potter" what it's intended purpose will be? Total and unabated reliance and dependence upon God was what the first man and woman must have enjoyed. God made the earth and the heavens and everything found in and upon them. It was perfection created and personified in the glory of God's presence. The crowning jewel of God's creative nature came forth in the form of dust and breath. Man became a created being in the very image of God. They would walk together in the cool of day, until one day only one of them showed up for the walk.

Among all the creatures of the earth, there was none suitable enough to be man's partner for life. And from man's own side, God tore a place in Adam's flesh, took out a rib and fashioned an even more outstanding creature (from the guy's point of view anyway!). She was "bone of bone and flesh of flesh." Imagine man's exuberance in feeling the pain but finally realizing the gain! For this reason future men would (and continue to) leave their parents and be united to a wife and they will become one flesh.

Together they were in the Garden. Everything could have remained so good, so right... but happy endings are not easily found, even in the Garden of Eden. "Made in the image of God" apparently wasn't sufficient. Man and woman simply desired more... more knowledge and more wisdom... more "like God" and less dependence and reliance upon Him. The Serpent said, "You will not surely die," and to a certain degree the crafty snake was correct. While man and woman didn't physically cease to be, something definitive died that day. The spiritual breath ran out at the end of innocence and with it, humility in its tracks.

Humility plays itself out in utter dependence upon God. But things changed that day. The "pains of childbirth increased" (guys know nothing about that kind of pain -- though I've heard gall stones are a good role play) and the men assumed provider responsibilities for the family that are sometimes debated even to this day. The guys went to work... "painfully toiling" in order to eat, sweating from the brow and eventually "returning to the dust" minus the breathing part.

Hoping that other sock might be found, several "singles" lie in wait in my second dresser drawer. Redemption for those seems hopeless at this point (some I've had for years). The redemption of humility is a much more certain find. The One through whom all was Created came back in the form of "breathing dust" to show us the way back to humility. He was in very nature God, yet He didn't consider equality with God to be something He should hold onto. Instead, He considered Himself "nothing" and took the very nature of a servant and though He looked like any other "Adam," He did what most "Adam's" can't (or won't) do and became obedient to death, even death on the cross. In this act alone, He redeemed humility and showed the rest of us how it is done.

Because of this, we was lifted up by the only One who could lift Him up and was given the name that one day will be bowed to by every "Adam" and "Eve" who have ever lived. To the glory of the Father, the "death of humility" will become the "redemption of humility" and some day things will be like they were in the very beginning.

No more missing socks.

"Humble yourselves before the Lord,
and he will lift you up."
(James 4:10)

Falling Off the Planet

A little less than a week ago, my entire cyber-existence came to a screeching halt. While watching the NBA playoffs on the big screen and tracking stats and stuff on my laptop, something went seriously, tragically and terminally wrong. The very heart of my laptop stopped with a DNR toe-tag attached. The Dell was terminally phased.

While realizing this is an everyday occurrence in the life of most people exposed to the marvels of technology, fortunately for me this was the first time I've ever experienced the demise of a hard-drive. Coming on as suddenly as it did caused me to realize how "quickly life can change!" In the "twinkling of an eye" all can be right with the world and then suddenly all is wrong! One would think given my penchant for motorcycling, I would have a stronger awareness of such vulnerability.

Here I sit, nearly a week later after having fallen off the electronic planet. Cut-off from cyber-existence, the first 48 hours were the worst. I was like an addict craving his next hit. Sitting in my office I would turn to my side desk to send an email or Google search something and find myself reaching for a phantom computer. My connection to the outside world as vacant and void. I am here to testify it was downright horrible! "Am I that addicted and dependent on technology?" I queried. Painfully the reply was affirmative. But if I am so addicted, everyone else with whom I communicate frequently must be equally so! But that doesn't make it right.

I had to do some writing shortly after the disk's "funeral" and realized the patterned behavior of typing words rather than hand writing them has secretly crept into my creative process. Like a cold-turkey smoker leaving cigarettes behind, I found it difficult to find words using an old fashioned pen and paper. it was as if my mind has attached itself to the ends of my fingers. Has the sound of clicking keys and the glow of an LCD screen become that much a part of my creative landscape that it is difficult to create without it? Interesting, isn't it?

Through this electronic sabbatical, I also learned a fine lesson in the art of backing up documentation. Thanks to our excellent Minister of Technology and the computer support contractors working with our ministry group, all of my important data was saved. I did lose my list of "Favorites," but it was coming time to clear those out anyway. I'll consider the occasion a "Spring Cleaning" of sorts.

Many lessons learned in the past week to pass along: 1) Sometimes it is healthy to disengage from technology (my wife actually enjoyed spending time with me without a laptop sitting between us); 2) Human communication is actually enhanced when you have to get up, walk across the floor and talk face-to-face with someone; 3) If data is important enough to you, you'll make sure it is appropriately and intentionally backed up. If you don't back it up, it probably isn't that important to you; and finally, 4) Give thanks for the technology available to us. This is an increasingly amazing time to be alive.

Addicted or not, it is nice to be back on the planet!

Underdogs

Laptop literally sitting on lap, I'm watching game five of the 2007 NBA playoffs featuring the Dallas Mavericks playing against the Golden State Warriors. With 8 minutes left, the score is tied 97-97 in what could be the last game of the season for the Mavs. What has made this series so amazing to watch is the alleged "distance" between these two teams. The Mavs are the #1 seed in the bracket having the best regular season record in franchise history, the Warriors are the #8 seed who made the playoffs on the last night of the regular season. Never before has a #1 seed lost a series to the #8 seed in the NBA playoffs history. It could happen tonight. At this second, the Warriors are now up by two points.

There is the usual Hollywood-type drama in tonight's game... former Mavs coach (Don Nelson) now facing his former assistant coach Avery Johnson. A list of well known Mav players facing a roster of relatively "unknown" Warrior players. A team that hasn't won a playoff series since something like the 1960's (the Warriors) going up against the team that only lost in the NBA finals last season (Dallas Mavericks). All that drama is there, of course. Warriors are now up by six points with less than four minutes remaining. It is getting tense and I'm tempted to just close the lid on this laptop.

What I realize watching the seconds peel off the clock is that I am the Golden State Warriors -- we all are really -- we are all "underdogs."

I love rooting for the underdog, though because of my current residency and having so many die-hard Maverick fans for friends, I'm inclined to want to see them win (though I quietly really pull for the Phoenix Suns). However, it is not unusual for me to root for the underdog in sporting events where I have no vested emotional interest because I relate to the underdog.

In the faith journey of all Christians, we have to see ourselves as the underdog. Considering our addictive tendency toward sin, our perpetual penchant to do the very thing we don't want to do and not do the very thing we ought to do (see what Paul has to say about it in Romans 7) we have to see that left to ourselves alone we are underdogs. We have no business shooting "lights out" in what is the most amazing "game" of history. But that is the difference Jesus makes. He is Light shining in the darkness where darkness should be winning!

Favorite and underdog, together, Jesus Christ gives the believer in Him the victory.

Do you know what the score is? No matter what the score board may say, Christ keeps his people in the game and we live to play again.

"I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world."
John 16:33