How does God‘s kingdom come to earth? How is the love, joy and peace Jesus exemplified deposited on earth? Our political and religious institutions are broken. We are broken. So how does anything good appear when God only finds our wounded hands to use?
Like a peach tree trying with all its might to find a way to create peaches and push them from the roots up the tree and out its leaves, I tried hard to propel joy and God‘s kingdom through my striving.
It wasn’t working
“How does a peach tree produce peaches?” I began to ponder
Peaches are born the moment the peach tree stretches down its roots and thinks, “I’d like a little more water.”
And then, with the drinking and thirst, the roots grow stronger and thicker. Ironically, the thirst of the little tree only increases the more it drinks. The little roots grow deeper and stockier, twisting around obstacles in their way but still moving down, down toward the Source.
And once that little tree drinks all the water that it is designed to drink, peaches come.
How thirsty are you?
But what happens when we live God’s way? He brings gifts into our lives, much the same way that fruit appears in an orchard—things like . . . exuberance about life . . .
So discouraged. Head in hands. I haven’t seen the sun in weeks. It’s just cloudy skies day after day. I feel stuck inside this small room that confines me.
And a glimmer of sun – Is it? Peeking through the clouds?
I go outside, for the first time in weeks, to look up at the sky and get a closer look. I shield my eyes now, for the sun shines with unstoppable radiance through the clouds. The sun reaches EVEN ME.
And I am pierced to the heart with this light that illuminates my chest and then expands upward and downward as I stand, mesmerized, as the sun peaks more and more of its light through the clouds that reluctantly part.
Is that hope I sense on the horizon, too? My heart stirs a little at the sight of something blurry, something I can’t quite bring into focus past the horizon. (Have you looked yet beyond your horizons?)
In your great love revive me . . . I see the limits to everything human, but the horizons can’t contain your commands
The sun’s rays, which are even brighter now, moments later, seem to warm me from the inside out.
Forget about what’s happened; don’t keep going over old history. Be alert, be present. I’m about to do something brand-new. It’s bursting out! Don’t you see it?
And as I rest outside now, in the sun, my wings warming in the spring air, I feel almost enough hope to flap, flap my wings, as they dry here in the sun and then . . .
Do I have the courage to try them out?
Do you?
But those who wait upon God get fresh strength. They spread their wings and soar
The Bible story pictures often portray Jesus sitting on the grass, Buddha style, with some children frolicking nearby, spewing truths that people fell over trying to catch.
Which would be true.
But Jesus also got angry.
Anger fueled by the love that erupts within our souls like a volcano sometimes contains the seeds that can eventually heal culture.
We were visiting the largest city in our region and decided to stop at the library to borrow some books for our youngest daughter’s summer reading cache. We walked in awe, looking up in wonder at the size of the magnificent building. There are so many books inside!
I felt shame when I read in the news that the Christian organization that I love had allegations of “sexual misconduct” splattered across their building.
I felt shame when I read in the news that the country that we are associated with, that is our friend, has allegations of “extortion” splattered across that beautiful landscape.
Why did I feel shame?
I am standing a bit close and am splattered a little by the mess.
“Sexual misconduct,” “extortion” and other stuff like that is wrong.
Similarly, I read Lord of the Flies this week, and when Jack stole Piggy’s glasses and purposely smashed them, that was wrong.
Jack stole Piggy’s glasses just before he and his cronies felt justified to do worse stuff.
And so, if we wonder where some parts of Christian culture and some parts of American culture are headed, check out Lord of the Flies to find out.
Thankfully, Jesus is seated on his throne, far, far above those who define themselves by His name. Thankfully, He sits far enough above us that the splatters of dirt and messes we make on Earth don’t reach His robe. His identity is not affected by what we do in His name.
HE defines US, instead.
And this is the good news.
Jesus, when He walked on Earth for thirty-three years didn’t intentionally pick up the banners to support the various political or religious quarrels of His day, and so neither will I.
Instead, I will continue to receive the love the Father so generously pours out when I stop to listen to His whispers.
Jesus’ kingdom of love is the only powerful kingdom still standing thousands of years after Jesus roamed a tiny piece of Earth for thirty-three years. This kingdom of love is the only powerful kingdom guaranteed to stand indefinitely in the future. (For example, a dozen uneducated followers in a remote unknown town have turned into almost one third of the planet who claim to follow Him.*)
Thankfully, I’ve found a leader I am always proud to serve.
And so, I can curl up next to Him, feel the comfort of His presence, and know that since I’m His child, bearing His name, I can soar on the wind of His presence into whatever turbulence I encounter in the world.
Who defines you, friend?
When the lyrics of the song below sing, “You are the peace that settles around us,” are you ready to reach down in humility and pick up this peace, friend, carrying it close to your heart? God, we pray that everyone reading these smudged, messy, and grimy words will be surprised to find a handful more of peace they can carry today.
My mouth hung open. I stared at the woman walking past me. It was not polite to stare (I know, okay!), but I forgot that my mouth was still hanging open.
I had just worked out at the gym. My muscles were getting EVEN stronger! For example, this time, I didn’t have to go to the far edge of the gym to find lighter weights than the weights set out by our instructor for the group class.
I could use the lightest weights that were ALREADY placed there for the group class INSTEAD of locating even lighter ones!
My muscles were growing, and that’s why I was there! My ego was growing, too! “Look how strong I am getting!” I thought proudly, appreciating my thin little arms with increasing pride.
At the end of the class, as we were putting the weights away, I wiped my brow after picking up and putting away a hefty 10-pound weight.
And that’s when my mouth fell open.
I tried to keep it closed, but I would need both hands to do so, and I didn’t want to drop the weight I was carrying on my foot.
That older woman was carrying 50-pound weights in EACH arm as she helped re-stack the weights.
(!)
I instantly remembered the stories relatives told me of my strapping great-uncle. He was over 6 feet tall, built like a farmer (He was a farmer!) and threw 100-pound sacks of potatoes. “Wow!” I had thought, the day I heard this story.
That same day, I played another game of Candy Crush on my iPad while finishing my ice cream bowl, hoping I could be strong like that!
And so, this year, I joined a gym and began pumping 5-pound weights with full energy and gusto! “Wha-hooo!” I thought, imagining myself pumping 6-pound weights in another six months or so and maybe eventually moving up to 10 pounds in EACH ARM one day!
It turned out that my vision was too small.
Like in a lot of areas of life, during various seasons.
And so, why should we go to the gym if it’s not solely to work out?
We place ourselves next to others who have a vision for themselves that is greater than the vision we have for ourselves. And seeing another get stronger helps me to have faith that one day, with patience and persistence, I can get a bit stronger, too. Stronger than I ever thought I could be, actually.
Am I willing to pay the price of a bit of sweat?
“One of the standards we ask of our male patients is that they can carry half their body weight in each hand (so full body weight in total) for at least one minute, and for our female patients, we push for 75 percent of that weight.”
This goal is not only for the 0.00001% elite but is something that antiaging physicians like Peter Attia recommend that ALL of us who can (barring injuries and ill health) strive to work towards.
I didn’t even know this was possible for someone my age.
And on a not unrelated theme, who do you know, friend, who:
– Seeks to listen to the whispers from God,
– Obeys and is following Him on a journey of adventure,
Are you willing to pay the price of their lunch?Can you meet with them to have your vision expanded as you listen to them for what is spiritually possible in your life, too?
May you become all that God intended for you, friend.
As the song below plays, consider asking God, can you please recall to my mind or introduce me to someone with an inspiring spiritual vision for their life? What nudges do you sense from God, friend?
You use steel to sharpen steel, and one friend sharpens another.
Last time, we talked about offering to God those hints of angst that have no words.
For example, while floating in the hot springs pool and minding my own business, I randomly asked God the meaning of life.
“What did it all mean, God?” I found my soul exclaiming, revealing the angst within, if only to my thoughts and to God.
I got no answer.
So, I kept floating and enjoying my life and my family. I forgot I had even asked the question. But I received my answer later that night.
That night, when it was dark, I found myself floating on my back outside in that lonely hot springs pool. As I floated, my eyes gazed heavenward at the wondrous starry display above me. It was calm and quiet, and I was floating – Who knows where?
I found I was wondering if this floating feeling:
this slightly disembodied feeling of resting on the water,
this wandering feeling of the wind moving me somewhere (Where?),
this wondrous, expansive feeling of the starry night just above me . . .
. . . if this was – perhaps?- what it would feel like to be close to death, to be in that “not-quite-here” but “not-quite-there-yet” expanse?
I remembered feeling something like this once before when I had nearly finished my degree.
I had to decide WHERE to move to next, to begin my job. I felt like a fish in a directionless fishbowl. Where WOULD I go? And did it matter? Indeed, I could move to the same hometown I grew up in, to my parents, but that wasn’t a given, necessarily, nor even a necessary possibility given employment prospects.
I had no roots to tie me or to pull me.
“Which way do fish in fishbowls travel?” my heart frequently wondered in that season.
Luckily, I married and gravitated to his world, so I didn’t have to think too long of this angst, but that . . . unattached . . . feeling surfaced now and then.
Like all of us, I had been a fish in a fishbowl that generally gravitated toward people I loved. In this way, I was like a small magnet in a fishbowl that would gravitate to a magnet on the side of the bowl. But what if these people are torn from me, like a kid moving out or on, or another relative or friend suddenly moving on or passing on?
Then what?
And that’s when I realized that there is one who is holding me even now, helping me float on my back like my dad did when I was a child. He has always been holding me. Even in the waters of the womb, He held me.
. . you formed me in my mother’s womb . . . Body and soul, I am marvelously made!
And I suddenly understood what it means to be grounded, to have a foundation.
And the people we gravitate towards?
We are attracted to those we love and those who love us – that’s all.
We receive and give love where we can because we are held in the arms of love.
Love for and from others are magnets that we drift towards.
Your love, God, is the trunk that grounds us.
. . the younger son . . . undisciplined and dissipated . . . had gone through all his money . . . He said, ‘All those farmhands working for my father sit down to three meals a day, and here I am starving to death. I’m going back to my father. . .”
When he was still a long way off, his father saw him. [His father’s] heart pounding, [his father] ran out, embraced him, and kissed him.
Restoring Life 