And Now For Something Really Scary

Today is Halloween and I just had my first kids dressed in scary constumes to my door.  These little globlins and monsters still looked cute.  But there are scary things happening in the world right now that simply seems out of people's control.  People are scared about the upcoming Presidential election and who is going to win.  Whoever wins, I pray for God's best for them and the nation as well as all nations around the globe.  Today I went to the local jail to visit someone who is locked away from society for a non-violent crime.  This young man seemed to have a peace about him as he was trusting God and Jail is not a scary place when God is there among even the least and the forgotten.
People have been watching there TV sets viewing the terrible destruction on the East Coast by a devastating hurricane.  Watching people screaming and fleeing their homes in terror as either fire or water was sweeping through their neighborhood leaving a huge path of destruction that will cost billions to replace and repair.  People are scared about the economy and the future yet there is a wonderful peace and sense of joy that goes before me as I know God who holds the future for us.  Maybe even some people are scared of God.  Scared of hell and judgement or think that God is somehow mad at them.  As I have been reading the book of Job, here is a man who lost everything and still put his trust in God.  I wonder if we lost everything, homes, security, lifesavings, insurances, water, power, and the like, is God enough?  Or is our personal happiness and success and prosperity all tied up with the things God has given to us rather than in God?  For Job, the one thing he could not stand was God not being with him in his adversity.  All Job wanted in the end was God.  What do you want in the end?

The Substance of Symbols

The Christian faith has traded the politics of Jesus for the politics of the world.  We don't believe in the church in more but we do believe our political leaders can do more for change than anything else in this world.  So it's becoming more difficult to see where American Christians faith ends and their politics begin.  We have traded our spiritual birthright for a pottage of political stew.  People can believe for example that the Presidential elections will have huge ramifications on our society for ill or for good.  At the end of the day, we believe the political pundits, spin-doctors, and talking political heads that if we just elect one more "right" political leader, a better America is not far behind.

When it comes to the politics of our day, empty symbols and style mean more than substance.  And yet God's Word is filled with symbols that are full of substance if we only had eyes to see.  How is it we seem to not appreciate paradox, hyperbole, and poetry anymore?  One of my favorite Christian poets is T. S. Eliot, listen to his words from his "Four Quartets."

In order to posses what you do not posses,
You must go by the way of dispossession,
In order to arrive at what you are not
You must go through the way in which you are not.
And what you do not know is the only thing you know.

Can you hear it?  Not with your physical ears but with your spiritual heart.  Do you sense the blazing holiness of God and your own little significance in light of God's?  Do you taste God's goodness and feel his presence?  We prefer style and looks over substance and reality.  It makes no demands on our lives.  But when we truly understand the substance of God's symbols on our lives, then nothing can remain the same!

Dangers of Christian Discipleship

"God is not a divine slot maching that gives our the coins of grace when the right numbers appear"
- Stephen Rossetti


1.  One danger of Christian discipleship is confusing magic with God's power.  Magic is about our controlling God or making spiritual things happen.  God's power is about His grace and His control, not ours.  We are totally in God's debt and not the other way around.  When we think of magic, think about magicians for example who controls the illusion.  But Christian discipleship abandons all human control and surrenders oneself to the "Holy Other."

2.Another danger of Christian discipleship is as one makes progress, one begins to think more highly of oneself and more judgmental of others.  Spiritual egotism and pride can creep in where we condemn other Christians for not having the same kind of commitment or devotion that we have.  Our delight must be on fulfilling God's will and not getting our way.  Christian discipleship is never about God owing us or needing us.  It is all about our need and total desire for God.

3.  A third danger of Christian discipleship is to have misconceptions about the Christian life or God.  When we believe God has to answer our prayers or bad things do not happen to faithful disciples will always disappoint and may even cause some people to abandon their spiritual life with God all together.  Radical discipleship takes radical faith.  We must learn to trust God no matter what the circumstances or no matter how dark the night.  Even when our life is touched by evil, we know that not even this, can separate us from God's love and that God may yet bring some good out of a very terrible or bad situation.

4.  Lastly, Christian discipleship is not something we arrive at but are always on a journey.  We are more learners than teachers.  We are on a journey on downward mobility to the poor the least and not on an upward journey of worldly success and affluence.  Ultimately, the way of Christian discipleship is not about the intellect for knowledge "puffs up" but it is about humility, the more we know we don't know, and the way of the heart that has reasons that our mind will never fully understand.

Surprised by God

"The wind blows where it wills, and you can hear the sound it makes, but you do not know where it comes from or where it is goes; so it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit (John 3:8)

If there is something the church needs to recapture again is a child-like faith.  A sense of wonder, mystrey, and beauty.  A child-like delight and a rapturous joy that surprises us at every turn.  I love surprises and its a part of my very being and indentity.  Watching and expecting around every corner is Gof who wants to surprise and delight us.  This life of joyful surprise is elusive for so many today.  Some people don't even like surprises anymore because they are so used to being in control and managaing their circumstances.  Is it no wonder that joy seems so elusive to so many?

God delights in us and wants us to delight in Him.  Unless we begin to live our lives in such a way to receive his grace, listen to wind of the Spirit, we will miss many opportunties of delight and wonder.  God wants to surprise us and give us the wonderful gift of His presence.  This gift cannot be earned or controlled.  It can only be received by child-like faith.

I like the picture above because the face shows a kind of child-like wonder and looking towards God who is full of surprises.  The girl in the picture also strikingly looks like my youngest daughter who just turned twenty one.  She called me this weekend and is engaged.  Life is full of surprises and many twists and turns.  I am happy for the love and joy my daughter has found in a wonderful Christian man whose name is Raphael.  May God continue to fill them both with the love, wonder, and the beauty of God.  And may God take them on this incredible journey together as they experience the many surprising manifestations of God!