Monthly Archives: June 2015

Focusing on what is most important

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We all know that to live a full and rewarding life, we need to focus on what is most important. And one of the most important is the simple expression of human kindness, even more important than what was on your agenda for the day. A recent news story from Argentina illustrates this:

 

Martin Passeri is a celebrated Argentine surfer who has five times grabbed the top prize in his country’s annual surfing championships. He was considered the favorite for winning this year’s contest too but he sacrificed it for something better: kindness.

 

You see, as the competition was about to begin, Passeri saw Nicolas Gallegos sitting in a wheelchair. Gallegos, a surfing buff, was paralyzed from the waist down at the age of 18 before he could learn to surf. Passeri asked Gallegos if he wanted to surf with him. Upon acceptance, Passeri strapped Gallegos onto his back and the two rode the first wave in together.

 

It isn’t clear whether he was disqualified or whether he took too long to help Gallegos onto the board, but the outcome was that the crowd favorite, Martin Passeri, gave up the championship for an act of human kindness.

 

When asked later, Passeri said he didn’t lose. In fact, he considered that wave the biggest triumph of his career.

 

Kindness is one of the fruits that are naturally produced from a Spirit led life.  Sometimes we’re invited to demonstrate kindness, like when someone asks you for help. Other times, we have to take our focus off our to-do list and pay attention to the needs of those around us and respond with God’s love. Often, the opportunity is fleeting, so be quick. Don’t miss the opportunity to bless and be blessed. When you see a need you can fill, do it. It may be the most important thing you do all day.

 

So, as those who have been chosen of God, holy and beloved, put on a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Colossians 3:12

 

“Prayer changes things”

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Maybe you’ve heard it said:

“Prayer changes things.”

 

In fact, the prayers of those who seek after God are powerful and effective. Sometimes they release God’s power to willfully change a particular circumstance. The sick are healed, the lost are found, the blind receive sight, sins are forgiven, the dead are raised. That’s what happened when Jesus prayed to his Heavenly Father. And that’s what happens when devoted followers of Jesus follow his example in praying, “Yet not my will but yours be done.”

 

Pray changes things…but does it change you?

 

Prayer isn’t so much about changing the mind of God as it is about changing the heart of the one who is praying.

 

The heart of prayer is in drawing near to God.

“Draw near to God and he will draw near to you.” James 4:8

 

How do you draw near to someone you love? Do you give them a chore list of things to do and then leave them to accomplish it? Of course not. Instead, you find fulfillment in the enjoyment of their presence. You take interest in what they’re thinking and their desires. You discover of ways to please them and then act on them. You commit to a lifelong relationship of love and find new ways of expressing it, even when you don’t feel like being particularly loving or when you don’t feel you have the power to carry on. Some of the closest times Marcia and I experienced during our journey with cancer was when we were in our weakest and most helpless moments.

 

Isn’t this a picture of what drawing near to God should look like? It’s only when we humbly confess how weak and helpless we are that we can really draw near to him. It’s recognizing that it isn’t our righteous efforts that bring us close to him; he was drawing us close when we weren’t even looking for him! He sent his Son, he gave us his Word, and he brought his people across our path to demonstrate his truth and grace. Maybe you didn’t realize it at the time, but now you see how God has orchestrated events and people to draw you even closer to himself.

 

We don’t see this when we’re going our own way. We let busyness and prideful ambition and other sins keep us away from him. We draw near to God not by spewing a a to-do list, but by humbling ourselves, submitting to his will, resisting selfish temptations, and seeking his presence. Then he will draw close to you. (James 4:6-8)

 

Humbly drawing near to God changes us in transformational ways. And when we are changed by his grace, we see everything around us differently through his eyes. When this happens, prayer not only changes things…

Prayer changes US!

 

Living more…with less

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Many years ago I was inspired by a book called Living More With Less. It was written in 1980 by Doris Janzen Longacre before “living green” was in vogue. Her premise is that we live “more” when we live in ways that honor God’s creation, are mindful of the plight of the poor, and in keeping each other in mind. She asserts we can live more when we live with less. Her book describes practical ways to “live simply so others can simply live.” (You can get a copy here.)

 

I was thinking about this yesterday when reading about “income inequality” in the USA. I was reflecting on our observations in Bolivia where world poverty reports list 45% of people there living on $2 or less a day. In fact, much of the world lives on less than $1 per day. We read about it in the news – children going without food and medicine, no access to clean water, no hope for sustainable living – and yet such news is quickly shoved aside. After all, we live busy lives and what could we do about such things anyway?

 

We could live more simply so others could simply live.

 

We went on an experiment in living more simply, first by choice and later by conscription to a situation. What we found is that there is often more in less. For example, if you enjoy an income of $30,000 and you find a way to live well on $25,000 you have $5,000 more, not less than you had before. If you live on $50,000 and live on $40,000 you have $10,000 more. If you live on $100,000… well you get the picture. People think they can’t afford to tithe or give to others. They think they couldn’t possibly live on any less than what they have. But we can and maybe we should if we are really interested in Jesus’s commands to look after the needs of the poor. We all have more available to share when we live with less.

 

Living with less doesn’t mean living with nothing or even living less. It means living well with a clean conscience, celebrating what you have that you value most. There’s no inherent value in living a minimalist life-style as a goal in itself. But living with less can help you – and others – live more. Buying less things means having less things to store, less space to store it, less to insure, less to break, and less to worry about. Living with less not only provides more savings, but also more enjoyment of what you have, more awareness of the simple things, more of the beauty around us. Making more money doesn’t always allow us to live more. But living more with less might. Living more with less contributes less to filling the landfill and more to filling our lives with the best God really intended – for us and for others in need.

 

I know this sounds crazy and maybe impossible. We’re conditioned to follow the pattern of this world in always wanting more. Having more makes us happy – we think – until we tire of what we have and yearn to replace it with something better, something more. Too often more is less and less is more. By renewing our mind, there is a transformational power to live more, even with less…especially with less.

 

What would living more with less look like for you? Imagine how it would simplify your life and fill it with more satisfaction and meaning.

Here’s to living more – with less!

 

Praying for more

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What things are on your prayer list today? More peace? More safety? More provision of goods? More strength or healing? More escape from fear? More relief from sorrow? God delights in hearing all our needs and desires. He longs to answer them with the satisfaction we find in being fully his, set apart from the patterns of the world, and enjoying more of the rich rewards of living in his presence.

 

Paul prays for his dear friends (Colossians 1:3-14), giving us a model for how we might reach beyond our normal lists of prayer requests and pray “more” for our friends and ourselves. It is a prayer not only for the fulfillment of needs but for the fulfillment of great hope. As I personalize this as my prayer for you readers, you could also personalize it for those you lift in prayer:

 

“Thank you God, for faith and love and hope you give. Thank you for increased understanding of your grace in all its truth, and for the gospel to continue to grow and bear fruit in my life and in others. Fill us with the knowledge of your will through your wisdom and understanding that exceeds our own.

I ask this SO THAT we may live lives worthy of you, pleasing to you, bearing your fruit in every good work, growing in your knowledge, and strengthened with your power; SO THAT we can have great endurance and patience and joyfully give thanks for your rescuing us FROM darkness TO your kingdom, where we enjoy the forgiveness of sins.”

 

May your day be filled with the prayer of more:

More of God’s love.

More of God’s power.

More of Him in your life.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The desires of your heart

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Do you find yourself pondering how “unfair” life is or growing tired of waiting for answers? Psalm 37 is a good read. It contrasts the ways of “evil” with those of “goodness.” And it speaks about the fulfillment of your greatest desires:

“Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart.” (V 4)

 

What is it you most want? What does your heart really long for? Can these really be yours to enjoy? What’s “the catch?”

 

God does indeed offer us the desires of our heart WHEN:
We delight in him.
We commit our way to him.
We trust in him.
We wait patiently for him.
We stop worrying and fretting.
(Psalm 37:1-8)

 

We know what it means to delight in things. There’s that sense of pride of ownership and accomplishment when we attain something we’ve longed for. There’s the joy of beholding and enjoying the fruits of our labors. There’s the sense of strength and satisfaction that all is well when we are safe, comfortable, and surrounded by friends.

 

Can your delight in the Lord compete with all this? Could, would, and do you delight in the Lord in the absence of all this? When the total of all you’ve lost seems to outweigh all that remains, does your delight in the Lord shift the balance to the delight in his goodness?

 

Delighting in the Lord comes from knowing for sure in whom we have believed and being fully persuaded that he will keep that which we’ve committed to him until the last day (2 Timothy 2:12). We always obey what we’re fully persuaded to believe. If we don’t follow the Lord, it’s because we aren’t fully persuaded it’s worth the cost or the effort. If we do follow him, it’s because we know that all the suffering, loss, sorrow, and hardship is worth it in the end; that his promises are both true and fulfilling. Who can’t commit to such a promise?

 

Delighting in the Lord comes from trusting in him, confident he will accomplish what he desires in us, that he will complete what he has begun. Maybe it’s hard for you to trust God when there are so many unanswered prayers. But trusting comes from being still before our great God and waiting patiently for him to reveal his plan and his blessings. We can’t delight in the Lord when we worry and fret about our circumstances because worry is the opposite of trust. Worry leads to regret and regret feeds bitterness; bitterness leads to anger and anger to wrath and all kinds of evil. And none of this leads to peace.

 

Isn’t peace the greatest desire of your heart? Peace with yourself. Peace with others. Peace from your struggle to be well. Peace to enjoy life. Peace to understand and fulfill your purpose in life. Peace with God, the fulfillment of our deepest desire, to know him more and to fully enjoy his presence.

 

Delight today in God’s generous love, his amazing grace, his tender mercy, his awesome power, his faithful promise, his perfect plan, his patience in long suffering, his lasting goodness, his endless joy, his offer to bring you into his family, and his eternal inheritance. Grow your delight in the Lord by committing, by trusting, by being quiet before him, by waiting patiently, by giving thanks often, and by resting in his presence.

 

And in your moments of meekness and delight, enjoy great peace from all your struggles!

 

Your new house

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Do you remember the excitement you once had in moving to a new house? There is the joyful anticipation of exploring new possibilities and making improvements. You know to repair the roof before decorating the inside. You change the locks to make it secure and clean the windows so you can enjoy a proper view of the world outside. We added an addition to our very first house that made it into a different house entirely. It’s quite a lot of work and it takes a long time if you do it yourself. But when you step back, you realize it’s worth it to create something better than you started with.

 

Remodeling a house is a metaphor for what God does when we ask Jesus to be the Lord of our life. Our bodies are God’s “temple” and are designed to be pleasing to him. When we invite Jesus into our lives (our house), he starts fixing things. He secures the roof over our heads to protect us. He has us clean the windows so we can see the world clearly through his eyes. He has us replace the books and magazines we read and the movies we watch. He might even tinker with some of our possessions and hobbies that we prize too much. He might have us expand the living and dining areas to make room for us to invite others into our home. The more he lives in our home, the more changes there are. C.S. Lewis observes: “You thought you were going to be made into a decent little cottage: but He is building a palace.”

 

God always has in mind something quite better than what we imagine for ourselves!

 

John 14:2-3 is a familiar passage to many of us:

“My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.”

 

It tells of our true home, our heavenly home that he is preparing for us, and also the time when he will return for us. But there is another place he is busy preparing for us. It is his present place within us, the core of our life and being. At our invitation, Jesus is remodeling our “house.” He has on fact, already “come back” in the person of his Spirit who has made his home in us.

 

When I built a long patio area with an extended roof, I consulted an engineer so I would know how to design the load bearing beam. I could have built it according to a cheaper and inferior design. But I knew this cross beam had to support the weight of the roof and whatever loads it must bear during the snowy winter months, so I followed the designer’s “blueprint.” We certainly can build our life house according to our own choosing and our own comforts. But Jesus sends his Spirit who knows the blueprint for how our life is best designed. He provides the “cross” beam that carries our heaviest loads. He takes the shabbiest of shacks and converts them into masterpiece palaces that offer some reflection of the grandeur of his nature.

 

There are times when the remodeling of our lives is inconvenient, even tiresome and painful. Sometimes we feel like giving up. Truthfully, the job will not be fully completed until we move into our permanent home in heaven. But the remodeling process is why we are here. It is our purpose to be built up according to his plan and used according to his purpose and for his goodness. Today is a good day to look around your “house” and ask the master designer what is next on the remodeling list. Submit to his plan and enjoy the benefits of his design for you.