Give-me, Give-me, Give-me

 

I was in my first year of seminary when I heard this paradigm of prayer⁠⁠. My professor told me, "Prayer isn't meant to change God, it's meant to change you."⁠⁠

What? I remember thinking he was delusional. Prayer at the time was like a vehicle to get God to do things for me or to change my circumstance. “O Lord, do this, do that, send your angels to…. (fill in the blank), help me to… (fill in the blank again)”. I mean a lot of filling in the blank – just say your request on a ready-made petition, adding your personal stuff, and throwing in the Name of Jesus at the end of it.  

I didn't realize it at the time, but my understanding of God was completely transactional. "If I lived up to my end of the bargain, then God should live up to His"⁠⁠. Quid pro quo.

⁠⁠It's been many years since that class, that morning devo and prayer with closed eyes when my beloved Professor and mentor opened my eyes. I no longer have the scarcity mindset (hopefully), but realize that God has already poured out all of heaven on my behalf⁠⁠. Already. Did I already say already?

My perception of life in this space-time continuum turned from 3D to 4D, by adding a new dimension. So, my prayers have changed. I no longer ask God to move. I thank Him for moving and I invite Him to help me see Him at work. A moving unmovable God! How cool is this paradoxical truth! 

How about your prayer life?⁠⁠ 

 

The Bread-Tree

 

God could have created a plant that would grow loaves of bread. Instead, He created wheat for us to mill and bake into bread. (Harold Kushner)

I no longer ask the young man's question: How far will I go? Experiencing pain, fighting a temptation, enduring peer pressure… how far? My questions are now those of the mature person: When it is over, what will my life have been about?

First as Dr. Martin Buber taught, life is all about meeting. We come alive only when we relate to others. Meeting others “there” where they are or “here” where we are.

Secondly, we are here to change the world with small acts of thoughtfulness done daily rather than with one great dramatic leap in results. And this “changing the world” job descriptions is the invitation to carry on God’s work.

One of the wise thoughts of Rabbi Harold Kushner is that God could have created a plant that would grow loaves of bread. Instead, He created wheat for us to mill and bake into bread. Why? So that we could be His partners in carrying out the work of creation (Genesis 2:15).

Are you and God partners in “baking” then sharing the Bread of Life with someone lately?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Crumbs and Blinders

 

Asserting that something is fake implies that there might be something that is authentic. Fake news complicating our lives matches perfectly with today’s world of 0.666 truths and ½ truths.

In Proverbs 8:8 we read that within the words of wisdom there is “nothing is twisted/perverted or crooked”. On the other hand, we like to tell things slant. I borrow that line from Emily Dickinson, but I’m not using it the way she did.

Tell all the truth but tell it slant -
Success in Circuit lies
Too bright for our infirm Delight
The Truth's superb surprise
As Lightning to the Children eased
With explanation kind
The Truth must dazzle gradually
Or every man be blind.

What Dickinson means is that in order for (already confused) people to grasp the truth it needs to come at them in doses, “a little slant”. She’s really saying something similar to what Jesus said when he told the disciples that though there was much more he’d like to say to them, they aren’t quite ready for it. Even using parables…

Bread crumbs vs Blinders. One way of telling the truth slant is meant to leave little bread crumbs so that if somebody wants to follow them all the way up to the full truth they can get there. But the other way of telling it slant is the way of blinders on a horse. Where you only want your audience to focus on a certain slice of the truth but keep them blind to the others. This is the way often employed in politics, social media, and click-bait articles – half-truth and selective-truth.

Dickinson was adamant that we must “tell the whole truth”. So was Jesus. That is the key. We must learn how to effectively “tell it slant”, not crooked! in order for people to finally grasp it all. A biblical example of this is the prophet Nathan confronting King David in his adultery. Much like the Seventh-day Adventist Christian in our culture today, he could not bluntly go up to the king and tell him that he was an adulterer. He had to do it in the form of a story. He had to “tell it slant”.

“Truth in Breadcrumbs” but not “Truth with Blinders”. Got that?

 

Parrotland

 

I stumbled upon an interesting and quite hilarious historical anecdote. President Andrew Jackson was a bird lover. One of his favorite birds was his parrot, Pol. When Jackson died his parrot was in attendance at the funeral. But shortly after it had to be removed because it disturbed everyone with its crude language. Here is how the pastor who preached the funeral tells the story:

“Before the sermon and while the crowd was gathering, a wicked parrot that was a household pet got excited and commenced swearing so loud and long as to disturb the people and had to be carried from the house.”

Don’t blame the parrot. They only mimic the sounds they hear. Andrew Jackson is known as one of the most rugged and uncouth presidents in our history. He fought duels, once beat a would-be assassin half to death with his walking stick, and on his deathbed listed not killing Henry Clay as one of his biggest regrets. Jackson was a crazy dude, so I’m not shocked that his parrot was booted out of his funeral for too many expletives.

I’m going to be clichéd here and turn this into a bit of a sermon illustration. I’ve been to several funerals and have never heard a cussing bird. But what I have heard is quite a good deal of lying. What I mean is that anytime someone dies almost all their flaws are hidden and their good points are highlighted. That’s not necessarily a bad thing but it’s not an accurate depiction of humanity. So, I’m picture them attempting to have a celebration of the life of Andrew Jackson. I’m picturing some talking about all the good things he had done, all of his accomplishments, his love for… surely someone or something. And all of a sudden the whole thing is interrupted by reality. Jackson’s swearing bird. A perfect representation of the real Andrew Jackson.

When we stand before God, we aren’t going to be standing on the well wishes or good times we’ve had with our buddies. We don’t get to ride on some accomplishments, the things we’ve done, or the people we know. We will be judged based on reality. The preacher can lie and say what a good chap Jackson was to make people feel better. But if you bring the family parrot to your funeral, we’ll all know who you actually were.

Allow the Dove to shape your character (John 1:32) before the parrot takes over.

 

The Stockdale Paradox

 

The Stockdale Paradox is named after admiral Jim Stockdale, a US military officer held captive for 8 years during the Vietnam War. He was tortured and never had much reason to believe he would survive the prison camp. And yet, as Stockdale told one journalist, he never lost faith during his ordeal: “I never doubted not only that I would get out, but also that I would prevail in the end and turn the experience into the defining event of my life, which, in retrospect, I would not trade.”

Then comes the paradox: While Stockdale had remarkable faith in the unknowable, he noted that it was always the least optimistic of his prison-mates who failed to make it out of there alive. “They were the ones who said, ‘We’re going to be out by Christmas.’ And Christmas would come, and Christmas would go. Then they’d say, ‘We’re going to be out by Easter.’ And Easter would come, and Easter would go. And then Thanksgiving, and then it would be Christmas again. And they died of a broken heart.”

They failed to confront the reality of their situation. They preferred the ostrich approach, sticking their heads in the sand and hoping for the difficulties to go away. That self-delusion might have made it easier on them in the short-term, but when they were eventually forced to face reality, they couldn’t handle it.

Jim Stockdale approached adversity with a very different mindset. He accepted the reality of his situation. He knew he was in inferno but he stepped up and did everything he could to lift his and other prisoners’ morale. He created a tapping code so they could communicate with each other and helped them deal with torture. His heroism was portrayed in “Missing in Action”, a movie with Chuck Norris.

Stockdale Paradox: You must retain faith that you will prevail in the end, regardless of the difficulties. And at the same time, you must confront the most brutal facts of your current reality, whatever they might be. Don’t lie to yourself for fear of short-term embarrassment or discomfort, because such deception will only come back to defeat you in the end. Always look at the broader picture 

Do you know that the Stockdale Paradox can be applied to eschatology as well? Matthew 24:13. Let me know your conclusion.

The Blessing of Being Blessed

 

“So, how’s work going? Pandemic anemic?” he asked scanning me from head to shoes.

“Definitely feeling blessed. Last year was the best year yet. And it looks like this year will be just as busy.” The words rolled off my tongue without a second thought. Like "how-do-you-do? I’m-fine-thank-you” or placing my usual order at Taco Bell: “A-seven-layer-burrito-please-no-sour-cream”... 

I’ve noticed a trend among Christians, myself included, and it troubles me. Our rote response to material windfalls is to call ourselves blessed. Like the “amen” at the end of a prayer.

- “This new car is such a blessing.”

- “The dress is expensive but I 've got a 50% discount, what a blessing”.

- “Finally closed on the house. Feeling blessed.”

- “Just got back from a mission trip, realizing how blessed we are here in this country.”

On the surface, the phrase seems harmless. Faithful even. Why wouldn’t I want to give God the glory for everything I have? Isn’t that the right thing to do? As I reflected on my “feeling blessed” comment, two thoughts came to mind.

First, when I say that my material fortune is the result of God’s blessing, it reduces The Almighty to some sort of wish-granting fairy who spends his days bestowing cars, mall sales and cash upon His followers. I can’t help but draw parallels to how I handed out sweets to my own kid when she followed my directions and chose to use the toilet rather than waste another diaper. But God is not a behavioral psychologist.

Second, calling myself blessed only because I still busy is just plain wrong. For starters, it can be offensive to the hundreds of millions of Christians in the world who live on less than $1 “blessing” per day. 

Nowhere in Scripture are we promised worldly ease in return for our pledge of faith. In fact, some of the most devout saints from the Bible died penniless, receiving a one-way ticket to prison or death. They are exceptions like Abraham, Job (oh, after such a trial) or David (hmm, good to be a king), but the rest of the heroes of faith are on the other end of the equation.

If we’re looking for the definition of blessing, Jesus spells it out clearly in Matthew 5: Blessed are the poor in spirit… blessed are those who mourn… who hunger and thirst after righteousness, etc. 

My blessing is this. I know a God who gives hope to the hopeless. I know a God who loves the unlovable. I know a God who comforts the sorrowful. And I know a God who sent His only Son to die for a sinner like me. THIS is the blessing, And for this blessing, may our response always be, “Lord, use me.”

 

 

Go and Languish No More

 

Talking about a collective trauma. A pandemic, civic unrest, increasing polarization, inflation. We have had a difficult couple of years.

I heard a word the other day to perfectly describe where many of us are today pandemic-2021 - languishing. We aren’t all in the deepest pits of depression but we are most certainly not thriving. We’re somewhere in between those and probably leaning more towards the depressed side of the equation. We’ve become indifferent.

We are collectively traumatized and it’s killing us because we’ve never been taught how to grieve together, how to lament together, or even how to really truly praise together. Psychologist Adam Grant is correct that we might not even notice that we are languishing:

“Part of the danger is that when you’re languishing, you might not notice the dulling of delight or the dwindling of drive. You don’t catch yourself slipping slowly into solitude; you’re indifferent to your indifference. When you can’t see your own suffering, you don’t seek help or even do much to help yourself”

All that trauma will go somewhere. That pain, frustration, and disappointment is going to find a landing spot. It may wreck marriages, it may destroy friendships. It may create discontent within church family. Trauma has a tendency to run away from healing, especially if we have not cultivated the discipline of lament. Those who are experts on dealing with trauma tell us that there are two big things that need to happen for healing:

I need to tell my story safely to another human.

I need to tell my story to God.

Can you think of a better place for this to happen than in our church? Is there a better story than the Gospel? We must be at the front of the line in listening to other people’s stories and pain and then hoping and helping to reframe our collective trauma which only Christ can understand it.

We need also to tell our stories. We need to give our vent to the Lord, sharing our frustrations. Our languishing hearts. We must cast all our cares upon Him. 

\Jesus heals every languishing heart. Mine and yours included.