A Walk on Holy Ground

My husband and I were riding the public bus in Rome and overhead a conversation between an older Italian couple behind us. The woman was talking rapidly in Italian, obviously with some emotion. Her husband listened, nodded occasionally, and never said a word. After a few minutes, she paused, then said, “No bigga’ deal!” She rode in silence the rest of the way to their stop. While she was talking, she seemed to think her topic was important, but once she had unloaded on her quietly supportive husband, she concluded that it (whatever it was!) was “no bigga deal.”

I could not help applying that story to my life. How many times do I get flustered over things that are really not important: Like when I hit all the traffic lights on red or when I have a cold or when our Bible study group is coming and I want the house to be perfectly clean? Issues like these are truly are “no bigga deal”. Sometimes I have to remind myself.

There are other things in all of our lives, though, that are more significant: financial setbacks, job stresses, people who hurt or offend, health concerns, kids in trouble, and so on. These are big things. Too big for us as humans to handle. So, our recourse is to go to God. We pray and, to the best of our ability, we put these situations in His hands asking for wisdom, comfort, and strength. And as we leave our prayer time, I can almost hear Him whisper. “Trust Me. I have it covered. From where I sit, this is no bigga deal!”

“So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light and momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.” (2 Cor. 4:16-18)

I read this quote recently from St. John Climacus, “Try not to talk excessively in your prayer . . . Talkative prayer frequently distracts the mind and deludes it, whereas brevity makes for concentration.” Talkative prayer? Most of the time, when I am praying, I am talking. While I know that my prayers should allow time for God to respond or to direct, I still find that my prayers can be rather wordy. It is as if I think I need to explain everything to Him just in case He wouldn’t understand my requests and the seriousness of them.

Then I look at what we call the Lord’s Prayer – just a few words covering some very important topics. What about the prayer of the thief on the cross? It was pretty short, but obviously effective. The tax collector’s prayer simply asking for God’s mercy also met with a rousing response from Heaven. He went home forgiven.

The mystics call us to love stillness, to learn to quiet our hearts before God, and to simply entrust into His care the prayers of our heart. Maybe it is as simple as saying in our time of prayer the name of the one we want to pray for and then trusting Him to do what is best for that person. Maybe it is a simple as stating in few words a situation that troubles us and then letting God take it from us to respond as He knows best.Maybe it is letting go of our control of how we think He should answer.

The bottom line, I think, is trust. Do we trust Him enough so that we can simply tell Him our request without making a case for what we want to have done? If we do, we can learn to be silent before Him and to modify our prayers so that our words are few. Our focus can then be on being with Him, hearing Him speak to our hearts, and offering our worship and praise.

Then, in case I wasn’t really understanding this, the Holy Spirit seemed to highlight this verse as I was reading this week: “The kingdom of God is not a matter of talk, but of power” (1 Corinthians 4:20). I am convinced now that I talk too much – with others and in prayer. I want to learn the difficult practice of silence so that I can experience the power of the kingdom of God.

“The Lord is in His holy temple; let all the earth be silent before him” (Habakkuk 2:20).

When my granddaughter was two and a half, I took her on a stroller walk to the local library where she heard a story, participated in wiggle-time songs, and made a chameleon craft using multi-colored tissue paper. Then, dressed in her little pink jacket, she cheerfully took her chameleon in her hand and ran with bouncing blond curls toward the stroller saying to no one in particular, “This is a great day!”

How long has it been since you’ve said, “This is a great day!”? In recent months, many have lost jobs. Some of you have had to give up your homes. I know of others who have faced, or who have family members facing, difficult health issues. And of some who are dealing with marital problems and even divorce. Life is tough!

In light of that, it might help to think of how to handle the difficulties in life in a way that leads eventually to the childlike joy we all long for. Paul’s understanding of the role of suffering in our life has helped me a lot through the years. He says, “Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death.” (2 Corinthians 7:10).

Someone once told me that “godly sorrow” describes pain that we permit God to use. Instead of protesting our circumstances, we accept what has happened and invite God to work in the middle of it. The result of that attitude, Paul says, leads to salvation and leaves no regret. Look at your situation. Wouldn’t you like to get to the other side of it and experience joy instead of regret? Wouldn’t you like to look back and see the hand of God in bringing you through it, in saving you from it? The way we get there is by permitting God to use our pain.

The alternative, according to Paul, is “worldly sorrow” which is pain that we decide to handle ourselves. The result of that plan? Death. Protesting the pain or using all our human resources to fight it or fix it will lead us to rebellion and despair and will separate us from God.

We must not deny our pain, but we must allow God to reach us in it and lead us through it. There is no hope for those who will not yield to God. On the other hand, there is immeasurable joy for those who follow Him, leading holy, God-fearing lives even (maybe especially) when it’s tough. When we trust Him to work in our pain, the time will come when we turn around to see where we have been and find ourselves saying, “This is a great day!”

Imagine you know a little girl and you want to buy her a special Christmas gift. You shop for the cutest, cuddliest baby doll you can find. You put it in a box and wrap it in beautiful paper and tie it with a bow.

Christmas morning comes and you hand the box to the little girl. She oohs and aahs over the pretty paper then runs off to play. In another scenario, she might take the box, open it, smile at the doll, and take it in her arms. You smile. But after a few minutes, she gently puts the doll under the Christmas tree and, again, runs off to play.

The best scenario? She takes the box, opens it eagerly, takes the baby doll in her arms and carries it everywhere. A few months later her mom tells you that this doll is the little girl’s constant companion. When they go to the playground, the doll comes along. When the little girl is tucked into bed, the baby doll is tucked in with her. The doll goes to preschool, to church, and to the grocery store. As the giver of the gift, you smile – this is exactly as you had hoped it would be.

What does Emmanuel mean? God with us. When God sent His Son to earth, it was His intention to have Him be with us. It was the greatest of all gifts. Many look into the manger at Christmas time, comment on the beauty of the scene, and go on about their business. Others actually embrace Jesus as Lord and Savior, but tend to leave Him “under the tree” as life draws them away. Many of us fall into that category all too often.

What would make the Giver most happy? If we take His gift with us where ever we go and in whatever we are doing. This is really the story of Christmas. Jesus came to be with us! He wants to be with us. God the Father wants us to be with Him – for now and for eternity. It’s not just about a baby in a manger. And it’s not just about having our sins forgiven, as important as that is. It is about being with God. And we don’t have to wait for heaven for that to happen. If we take Jesus with us as the little girl took the baby doll, we develop relationship with Him. It would be rude, wouldn’t it, to have Jesus here and not to talk to Him? So we talk. We tell Him what we are thinking about, ask Him for guidance on decisions we are making, ask Him to bless us as only He can, let Him know that we are totally dependent on Him not just for eternity, but for the every day, too.

In some of Jesus’ final instructions to His disciples, he concluded with, “I am with you always, to the end of the age.”(Mt. 18:20). Emmanuel, God with us. God is still with us! We simply need to embrace Him.

When we think about Jesus’ teaching, we have to be amazed. Here was a wandering rabbi with no place to call home,  walking around Palestine saying things like “I am the light of the world,” or “If I am lifted up, I will draw all men unto me,” or “No one comes to the Father except through me.” Why would Jesus say these outrageous things? He said them because they are true. He came to tell us the truth about who God is and He did so clearly and boldly. But there are those who want to label Him as a megalomaniac for making such seemingly ridiculous claims.

Then, let’s look at His actions.There was nothing ego-centric about His behavior. He socialized with the religious elite and with the worst of sinners. He chose lowly fishermen and even women to be among His closest friends. He healed the blind beggars. He touched dirty lepers. He gave His time gently and lovingly even when He was tired or hungry. He was patient with His disciples when they failed to understand His teaching or failed to stand with Him when He needed them most. He was never moody, grumpy, or impatient, yet He dealt honestly and boldly with those who abused others.

Here is the way John Stott summarizes Jesus’ personality, “Above all, he was unselfish. Nothing is more striking than this. Although believing himself to be divine . . . he was never pompous. There was no touch of self-importance with Jesus. He was humble.

“It is this paradox which is so baffling, this combination of the self-centeredness of his teaching and the un-self-centeredness of his behaviour. . . He exhibited both the greatest self-esteem and the greatest self-sacrifice. He knew himself to be the Lord of all, but he became their servant.”*

In this Christmas season, as we think of Jesus, as holy, all-powerful God, giving Himself in humble service and unselfish sacrifice, what can we do but worship? And, as we do, we trust His power to change us, little by little, until we see ourselves becoming like Him. He is exactly what He has in mind for us to be.

*Stott, John R. W. Basic Christianity (William B. Eerdmans Publishing: Grand Rapids, MI), pp. 43-44

There is a new exhibition of Degas paintings that just opened in Washington D.C. Ballet dancers are the main theme of the exhibition with the painting entitled “Dancers at the Barre” a centerpiece. The two ballet dancers in this painting are stretching at the ballet bar as they prepare for their dance practice.

Then, as one NPR commentator noted, you look at most of the 30 paintings in the exhibit and realize that they are all of dancers preparing to dance. They are stretching, rehearsing, practicing moves, and working out, but not performing. Every painting reflects commitment, struggle, persistence, and effort. They are going through all the disciplines required to be great dancers, but we never see them perform.

Thinking about “Dancers at the Barre” made me think about spiritual disciplines. If growing our relationship with God is important to us, it, too, requires commitment, struggle, persistence, and effort. We have to pray, study, meditate, serve, worship, and spend time in solitude and we have to do these things every day even when it is painful or hard and we want to quit.

Some day there will be a performance for Degas’ ballet dancers and those who have persisted in their daily practice will be ready. They will glide and pirouette and grace the stage with beauty. And the audience will applaud the witness to their lives of sacrifice.

Someday there will be a performance for us as Christians, too. It will be in part here on earth. If we live a life in touch with the Spirit, we will be ready for our debut – to resist temptation, to give our all to a needy brother, to provide wise counsel -  ready to dance wherever God has placed us.

And the greatest dance of all will be when we worship around God’s great throne in Heaven. Oh, how we want to be spiritually ready for that grand eternal dance! And the only way to be ready is to live lives of spiritual discipline today. It will be worth all the effort when we dance for an audience of One and receive His coveted applause!

“Let them praise His name with dancing and make music to Him with tambourine and harp. For the Lord takes delight in His people; He crowns the humble with salvation.” (Psalm 149:3-4)

Back in my journalism days, I remember seeing news stories with the letters HTK written at the bottom. Later, when those stories were laid out on the page, there was a blank area where, before the print run, the headline would be placed. In the meantime, the HTK promised “Head To Come”.  A writer with expertise in headlines, would read each story, determine its most important point, and then come up with a headline that expressed that understanding.

This morning, I read these verses, “For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience. (Romans 8:22-25).

Today the concept of “firstfruits of the Spirit” in that passage stopped me short. In agriculture the firstfruits always mean that there is more to come. The more, according to these verses is our adoption, our redemption. It is what will be the culmination of all of the stories of our lives. Then I realized that the Holy Spirit is our promise that there is a HTK, that there is more to be written before our stories are complete. As we live in this crazy world, groaning inwardly as the verse says, we wait for the headlines, the words that will make sense of all that we go through.

I can almost see the stories of my life written on a page with blank spaces where the headlines eventually will be. The Spirit is the guarantee that we will someday understand situations that confuse us now. God Himself will show us the “why’s” we long to have answered. The headlines will come and, when they do, the meaning, purpose, and consequences of all that has happened in us, to us, and through us will be made clear and our stories will be complete. In the meantime, the Holy Spirit assures us that there is more than what we see today.  He is the firstfruits of the all important HTK!

Have you ever thought of what it would be like to be a Muslim? Scripted prayers five times a day, a journey to Mecca sometime during your lifetime, fasting for one month out of every year, and, if you are a woman, severe restrictions on what you can wear, where you can go, and who you can talk to. Looking on from the outside, the religion of Islam seems like an enormous burden to carry.

It makes me glad that I am a Christian. The One I follow says, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” Jesus doesn’t give me a list of things to do to measure up to His standards. Instead, He invites me to walk with Him. He doesn’t simply give me advice on how to live, He shows me how. He is already in the yoke and is waiting for me to join Him.

Farmers tell us that oxen are teamed so that there is one that is strong and one that is weaker. That way, the strong one can do most of the labor while the weak one simple supports. It is easy to tell who the strong one is in Jesus’ invitation. He has already done the hard work and invites me simply to walk alongside Him, to learn of His humble and gentle heart, and to participate in the fruit of His labor. Now, it’s true that, when I get into the yoke with Jesus, it means leaving behind all other “yokes” – I can’t have allegiance to family, career, finances, country, or any other person or thing that rivals my all-out commitment to Jesus Himself. Once I am in the yoke, He steers.

But, letting Jesus steer doesn’t make life harder, it makes it so much easier! Does the burden you are carrying seem heavy? If it’s weighted down with “do’s” and “don’ts” and ritual and demands, it is not from Jesus. His burden is light. We need to see where our heavy load is coming from. If it is from expectations of others or if it is from our own desire to work for God’s approval, it will be a big burden and one that we are not designed to carry. If our burden is from Jesus Who is yoked with us and walking right beside us, it will not hurt us, it will not lead us down the wrong path, and it will not be heavy.

Religion makes demands. Jesus issues an invitation. There’s a big difference. And it has to do with who is carrying the weight. If it is Jesus, then my burden is light. If I am trying to carry everything myself, it is a burden I am too weak to bear.  Religion is heavy. Getting into the yoke with Jesus is not!

I have started a new job and I love it! But, I will admit that there are times when it gives me anxious thoughts and unexpected worries. Early one morning when I was stressing over some upcoming deadline, I was reading about Saul in I Samuel. He had been chosen by God to be the first king of Israel. He was humble and felt unworthy of the task, but he knew that God had blessed him with this responsibility and had called him to bless others. But, amazingly, it was only a few chapters after his anointing that Saul was already off track. He had became proud, arrogant, and unteachable. He was king, after all!

As I pondered poor old Saul, these words came into my mind: Do not make idols of My blessings.

That quiet command hit me between the eyes. God had blessed me with a job I love and an opportunity to be a blessing to others. What am I doing when I allow that blessing to create anxiety in me? I am making it an idol! I am worshiping the job instead of God who gave it to me. Just like Saul!

Then I thought of other blessings that can become idols if I let them: children, grandchildren, spouse, marriage, health, bank account, talents, schedules, and the list goes on. I love these blessings, but don’t want them to become idols. How will I know if that is happening?  I believe a test would be to ask how these blessings are affecting me. If any one of them causes worry, stress, envy, pride, or irritability, I have given that blessing an inappropriate place in my life. God’s blessings will always result in good things such as love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self-control. If those are not the fruits of my blessing, I can be pretty sure I have made it an idol. I have given it more authority in my life than I give God.

God’s gifts to me are wonderful. I value them, enjoy them, and ask for more! But I want always to remember to serve the Giver and not the gift. I want to treat God’s blessings as blessings and God as God. That’s the way He wants it!