Whine and Cheese

Apparently, I whine when I get sick. “My nose is stuffy!” “I can’t breathe!” “My throat hurts!” “I don’t feel good!” and other bits of relevant information.  My wife considers that whining,  I prefer to look at it as giving her a status update on the progress of my illness.  It seems perfectly reasonable to me.  She needs this kind of information in order to administer the right medicine.  (And I don’t believe that saying, “Stop whining” is medicinal).  OK, so maybe whining isn’t the best or most effective way to deal with life events. Still, there is a legitimate need to express what is going on in our lives to others who care about us.  It is natural and necessary to experience what we are feeling and express it in a genuine and mature way.  Ignoring or denying our emotional state is unproductive.

One of the things I love about the Bible is that it shows people how we really are.  This is especially true of King David.  He was so human, so normal, so open about how he felt and so willing to express it directly to God.  I love that the Scriptures let people be portrayed as real, feeling human beings. 

I was reading through David’s Psalms and came across Psalm 13.  In these 6 short verses, David captures the intensity, frustration and bewilderment of our human lives and our relationship with God.  Here is how he starts:

¹ How long, O LORD? Will you forget me forever?
  How long will you hide your face from me?
² How long must I wrestle with my thoughts
  and every day have sorrow in my heart?
  How long will my enemy triumph over me?

³ Look on me and answer, O LORD my God.
  Give light to my eyes, or I will sleep in death;
⁴ my enemy will say, “I have overcome him,”
  and my foes will rejoice when I fall.

Have we not often felt this way? Feeling abandoned by God, our prayers unheard and unanswered.  We feel like we are in a sound-proof, windowless room yelling at the top of our lungs for God to hear us!  We know He’s out there, or at least, we think He is.  Where are you? What’s taking so long?  Are You mad at me?  What did I do wrong?  We cry in anguish or despair or bitterness.  It seems like our enemies – spiritual, relational, emotional – are beating us up and are winning.  This is life as we are experiencing it.  What is remarkable to me is that we find this in Scripture expressed by a godly man.  It reminds me that God does not minimize my human-ness.  He allows for my pain to be shown and He is not offended or angered by it.  The fact that I can, like David, wail before God is in itself comforting. 

Yet it doesn’t end there.  The next verse completely revolutionizes our human experience.  David changes gears with one simple word… “but.” This word changes everything.  It means that despite everything just said, there is a different reality about to be revealed.  It says that we don’t have to be stuck in the muck.  What a great word – but.  It offers hope and promise of something radically different than what I may be experiencing now. “But” picks us up, slaps us in the face and compels us to look in a different direction. 

And here is what that “but” points us to.

⁵ But I trust in your unfailing love;
  my heart rejoices in your salvation.
⁶ I will sing to the LORD,
  for he has been good to me.

Here is the magnificent counterpoint to everything that life can throw at us.  What can stand up against his unfailing love?  What can overcome his salvation?  What could possibly be more powerful than his goodness to me?  Nothing!  When life seems to be chewing us up; when we just want to cry “Uncle” because we’ve had enough, we can remind ourselves to trust – His unfailing love will see us through, rejoice – His salvation gives us hope, sing – He has a history of being good to us.  I know this sounds so cliché and such a pat Christian answer, but it works.  It works because it is grounded in what is TRUE, not what we feel is true.  It works because it redirects us from ourselves to Him.  I didn’t say this was easy or instantaneous.  I did say that it works.

So when you feel compelled to whine about “whatever,” go ahead get it out of your system, BUT then remember to trust, rejoice and sing.  I can guarantee that that “whatever” won’t seem so overwhelming anymore.

Fear of Heights and Stormy Weather

I have to admit at the outset that I am terribly afraid of heights.  I don’t like climbing ladders.  I don’t like being on roofs.  I don’t even like being near windows in tall buildings.  A few years ago, I visited the Space Needle in Seattle, Washington.  To get to the observation deck you had to take a glass elevator (the floor was glass also) and ride on the outside of the tower all the way to the top! Who came up with THAT idea?  I couldn’t look out or down.  I just looked straight ahead at the elevator door until we reached the top.  I tell you this not to embarrass myself – although I just did – but to let you know that I understand what it feels like to leave the comfort of what we know, of what is secure.  I am perfectly content with my feet firmly planted on the ground.  There is no good reason to “rock the boat” and climb anything.  Which brings me to this story about the Apostle Peter found in the Gospel of Matthew:

Immediately he made the disciples get into the boat and go before him to the other side, while he dismissed the crowds.  And after he had dismissed the crowds, he went up on the mountain by himself to pray. When evening came, he was there alone, but the boat by this time was a long way from the land, beaten by the waves, for the wind was against them.  And in the fourth watch of the night he came to them, walking on the sea.  But when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were terrified, and said, “It is a ghost!” and they cried out in fear.  But immediately Jesus spoke to them, saying, “Take heart; it is I. Do not be afraid.”  And Peter answered him, “Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water.” He said, “Come.” So Peter got out of the boat and walked on the water and came to Jesus.  (Matthew 14:22-29)

So I’m not exactly sure everything that is going on here, but one thing is very clear – Peter is crazy!  They are in a boat in the middle of the lake, fighting a storm and what they think is a ghost shows up next to them on top of the water.  My first reaction would not be, “Hey, I should go out there and join him.”  No, I think I’ll stay in the comfort of my boat, such as it is.  Sure it may be a little rocky, a little wet and unstable, but at least I know I’m reasonably safe.  Boats are where people belong, secure, not out ON the water.  “Stay in the boat,” our brains scream at us!

Peter, I think, had a different motivation.  If this really was Jesus out there on the water, then Peter wanted to experience everything the Lord had for him.  Peter didn’t want to miss any opportunity to follow or be with Jesus.  If Jesus was there, then Peter was going to be there.  If Jesus was walking on water, as unlikely as that should be, then Peter was going to walk on water.  Peter was willing to risk everything to live the fullness of life with Jesus.  And stepping out of the boat into the storm was certainly a risk, a big risk; after all he could drown, but was a risk worth taking to be with Jesus.

Here’s what we need to think about.  Most of us would likely stay in the boat – like the other eleven disciples.  That is the reasonable thing to do.  Most of us would listen to our inner voice telling us to stay in the boat.  I understand.  It makes sense and it is scary out there on the water in the midst of our life storms.  Many of us have built “boats” in our attempt to be safe or at least have some semblance of safety in our lives.  But we’ve built those boats out of the planks of fear, anger, frustration, pain, self-effort, self-protection or control.  We’ve convinced ourselves that as long as we stay in the boat, the storm won’t get to us.  However, remember that Jesus is not in the boat!  He is out there in the middle of the storm telling us that it is safe to go to Him.  He is not some illusion, some nice idea or some good but misguided teacher.  No, He is real and He is really God.  And being on the water, in the storm with Jesus is better than trying to live in our boats and just get by.

Getting out of our boats may seem terrifying, just like climbing a ladder is for me.  But getting out of the boat doesn’t have to be traumatic or dramatic.  I think it starts with simply recognizing that our boat isn’t such a good place to be – it’s not as safe, secure or reliable as we would like to believe.  Life with Jesus is much better, more fulfilling than floundering about in our self-made rowboat.   When He calls us out to Him, we can, like Peter, risk everything to be with Him.  When He calls us out to Him, we respond by letting go of all those things we think will protect us and stay focused on Him – who He is and what He is saying to us.  I can’t promise it will be easy.  The storms will still come and they will be frightening, but think about the adrenaline rush, the adventure, of walking above and through the storm with Jesus.  Now that is a risk worth taking.

Cloudy with a Chance of Fire

When my wife and I got married, we went to Arizona on our honeymoon.  We flew into Phoenix and drove north through the Arizona desert to the Grand Canyon.  It was a very nice trip, but that is not the point of this post.  During that long drive through the desert, my thoughts turned to the ancient Israelite’s journey through the desert after leaving Egypt.  I was thinking about the way God showed up for them in the desert by providing the pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night and I imagined what an intensely reassuring experience it would have been.  Here is the passage from the book of Exodus that describes this.

And the Lord went before them by day in a pillar of cloud to lead them along the way, and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light, that they might travel by day and by night.  The pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night did not depart from before the people. (Exodus 13:21-22)

Can you imagine getting up every morning, stepping outside your tent and seeing the enormous pillar of cloud dominating the horizon?  Then as the sun starts to set, the cloud begins to glow red and orange and soon becomes a pillar of fire, giving you the light you need to live effectively in the midst of darkness.  You go to sleep knowing that your great God is there, present, watching over you and your family.  They experienced this wonder every day of every year for forty years!  Each day they would know that their God was with them, protecting, providing and piloting them into His promise for them – without fail, without wavering.  The only thing they had to do was follow – simply get up and go with their God wherever He was going.  Just follow and trust Him.

Today we don’t have a literal pillar of cloud or fire we can see out our window, but we have something better – we have very specific promises that Jesus made to us to be with us, to guide us, to give us the Holy Spirit as a permanent, personal Divine presence.  Here is what Jesus said,

“And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you…he will teach you all things…he will guide you into all the truth.” (John 14:15-17)

Jesus also said about Himself, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” (John 8:12)

The pillar of cloud and fire – the presence of God in my life.  Think about this.  Jesus is promising us that we can be assured that we will never be alone, that His Spirit will be present in our lives, teaching and guiding us every day of every year for all of our years!  He is telling us that we don’t need to be stumbling around and falling in the darkness of the world around us.  This is my assurance that Christ Himself is piloting my life through the desert of this world – His Holy Spirit.  I only need to be willing to follow, to get up and go where He goes.

Listen.  LISTEN!  This is too important to miss.  When the darkness of this world threatens to engulf us, when we lay down at night wondering, worrying, stressing, fearful of what will happen tomorrow, stop and say to Him, “Jesus, you PROMISED… YOU PROMISED!”  Then look, look for His answer.  Look to see where He is going, what He is doing.  Listen to the whispering of the Holy Spirit in your heart.  I don’t know what that will look like in your life.  I don’t know how He will show up, but I do know that the pillar of cloud and fire – God’s presence – is right there in your heart and, yes, you can see it.  It looks just like Jesus.

Seeking Shelter

When my kids were younger, we used to go camping every summer; we would go to a different Michigan state park along the Lake Michigan lakeshore. I remember it as a good experience: setting up camp, cooking over the fire (and the propane-powered stove), sitting by the fire, and exploring the state park.  (I liked to pretend we were early settlers seeing the forest for the first time.  My kids thought it was lame and didn’t go along with my adventure).  What I didn’t like was when it rained.  We would have to scramble to get everything under cover and then hunker down in our big tent while the storm passed.  The worst part was trying to keep from dragging mud into the tent.  Good memories.  But as I sat in our waterproof and tarp-covered tent, I felt safe, protected and secure, sheltered by the tent.  I knew the rain couldn’t get in and we could weather this storm.  I knew the tent would hold because I had experienced it before and I was glad we had a place to seek refuge.

This is the experience David describes in Psalm 91.

He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will abide in the shadow of the Almighty. I will say to the Lord, “My refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.”  (Psalm 91:1, 2)

This is such a beautiful picture of who the Lord is to us and what a great privilege it is to be able to run to Him and find shelter when the storms of life come roaring into our lives.  Many times over the last several months I have had to seek shelter from the fears, doubt and despair that accompany my medical diagnosis.  I have, many times, run under His covering to find solace, comfort and reassurance there in His shelter.  It is the place where I hunker down and stay put – the Psalmist says “dwell” and “abide” – it’s the same idea.  There, I find rest and peace knowing that He will, in fact, protect me; He speaks to the storm brewing in my heart and it ceases; He speaks just the right words to set my heart at ease.  He actually become a refuge – a safe haven – and I can trust Him because I have experienced it before.

The key, of course, is this idea of dwelling.  We must take the time to develop the practice – to spend time with Him.  It is sitting in His presence and reflecting on His character, His promises and His grace.  It is sitting in wonder at Jesus and His choice to sacrifice all so that we could dwell in His presence.  It is listening quietly to His whisperings of tenderness and His proclamation of His goodness.  It is a quality of heart that we cultivate over time.  This is not something we can experience as we rush over a cup of coffee on our way out the door or a prayer said in the car on our commute to work.  It is the slow roil of our spirit longing for our heart’s desire.

This practice of dwelling is not a mystery, only achievable by the cloistered monk.  It is the joyful birthright of every Christian, and the Psalmist reveals the secret to learning the art of dwelling: “I will say to the Lord.”  We must confess our need for Him; we must state with our mouths the truth of who He is; we must yield to the reality that we are not capable to keep our hearts in check.  We need a refuge; we need a defender and a shelter, and we cannot do that for ourselves.  When we say to the Lord, “You are my refuge.  You are my fortress.  You alone I trust,” we change the atmosphere around us and we posture our hearts to enjoy all He has declared for us.

When life rains on me or even when it is sunny, my heart will steadfastly and stubbornly stay put in His shelter, not daring to venture out on my own.  But, the great thing about His shelter is that I can take it wherever I go and stay transfixed by His presence.  So let the storms come…I have a sure covering.

The Living God

My wife and I visited Nashville, Tennessee this summer.  At the end of our week there we visited one of the local attractions.  In Nashville there is a full size replica of the Parthenon – the classical Greek temple of Athena in Athens.  Apparently this replica was built to celebrate a Tennessee centennial celebration in the late 1890’s.  This replica Parthenon was truly imposing and impressive.  It was beautiful.  Inside the Parthenon was a forty foot statue of the goddess Athena arrayed in her armor with sword and shield beside her and the goddess Nike ready to crown her with victory.  Athena’s bright blue eyes stared out into her temple.  As I walked around this temple and gazed at Athena, I asked her some questions.  I asked her if she saw me.  I asked her if she had anything to say to me.  She didn’t say anything.  She didn’t look at me.  She just kept staring outward.  There was no life in her eyes.  She was, after all, just a statue.

This experience in the replica Parthenon was even more striking because of what we had experienced during the prior week.  You see, we were in Nashville for a conference hosted by Global Awakening.  It was a week of inspiring worship, challenging teachings and encouraging prayer times.  But more than that, throughout the week I heard God speak to me.  He spoke intimately, personally and deeply.  He touched wounded places and brought healing.  He affirmed who I was.  He knew me by name and He saw me.  I experienced the LIVING God!

And that is the difference between a beautiful, plaster-cast goddess and The Lord Almighty.  So maybe folks today aren’t worshiping Athena, but many, many people turn to the idols of this world – the shiny things, the causes, the power or fame, the possessions – for comfort, meaning or comfort.  “Does anyone SEE ME?” they cry out.  “Does anyone know ME?”  That is what we want, to count.  And yet just like that lifeless statue of Athena in Nashville, these idols are just as dead, lifeless and impotent.

The living God knows us.  He said to Israel and He says to us today, “Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine (Isa 43:1).  He also says,” Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you (Jer 1:5).

So instead of pursuing the Athena’s of this world – the unmoving, unresponsive, unseeing idols – remember that there is a real, living God poised to respond to your deepest cry.  One who can speak into the secret places of your life to bring comfort and wholeness.  One who knows you by name.

So as beautiful the replica Parthenon is, I would much rather spend time in the temple of the Living God and have a conversation with Him.

Dealing with Despair

Humans are generally terrible at dealing with difficulties, adversity, sorrow, trials or illness. We tend to whine, mope and feel sorry for ourselves when things don’t seem to be going our way. But God understands and He has placed in Scripture a fail-safe way for us to transcend difficult circumstances, rise above the adversity and refocus on what is truly important. He doesn’t ask us to grit our teeth and go on. He doesn’t ask us to pull ourselves up. He doesn’t even ask us to put on a smile and pretend it doesn’t hurt. In Psalm 13: 1-6, He gives us a template for dealing with difficult times.

How long, O Lord? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me? How long must I take counsel in my soul and have sorrow in my heart all the day?    How long shall my enemy be exalted over me?

Consider and answer me, O Lord my God; light up my eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death, lest my enemy say, “I have prevailed over him,” lest my foes rejoice because I am shaken.

But I have trusted in your steadfast love; my heart shall rejoice in your salvation. I will sing to the Lord, because he has dealt bountifully with me.

Like David, we are an impatient people! We could endure almost anything if we knew how long it would last, but not knowing the future leads us into despair and our entire perspective on life goes dark.

We accuse God of forgetting us. He doesn’t, of course, but it feels to us like he does. We accuse God of turning His back to us. “He has abandoned me (and we add the melodramatic) – FOREVER!” “Where are You?” we cry. So we “take counsel” in our souls. In other words, we get inside our own heads, park there and go around and round and round which only leads to more depression and anxiety. We are convinced that we have been left on our own and we start to try to figure out our own solutions.

But David knows better, even though he feels alone and abandoned he reaches out to the God he knows is there and the turnaround begins.  David starts to realize that He needs God’s wisdom and perspective. He understands that “taking counsel with himself”, staying inside his own head, will never get him out of his doldrums. He understands that without God’s insight, without God showing up, he will likely just give up either emotionally, physically or spiritually.

Here is where David shows us how to win the victory over despair. “But” is a powerful word. It is a declaration that we will not be held captive by our situation; a declaration that we are choosing a different reality, that we will not be defined by our circumstances. David makes the declaration that he will ground his life, not on his own feelings or self-counsel, but on the foundational, unmovable truths of God’s character. “But I have trusted in your steadfast love.”

This is God’s basic character – Love. I can trust that God will always be true to Himself in His dealings with me. I can expect that God will continue to act according to His Love towards me expressed in Christ Jesus. Trust is a choice, a deposit of faith into the treasury of God’s love. The present circumstances do not change who God is nor do they block the eternal flow of His love, mercy, goodness, compassion, patience toward me. I can bank on that.

And while trust is a function of the mind, rejoicing is an act of the heart. Rejoicing isn’t about being happy. It isn’t putting a good face on and going around saying “Praise the Lord.” Rejoicing is grounding our heart, our deep down core, firmly on God’s present and future deliverance. Not only can we be sure and rejoice in our eventual heavenly home, but we can know that God will not abandon us to the present troubles – He rescues us here and now.

When our focus is on God’s eternal Love and his saving work, we can’t help but express that outwardly through our mouths or body. Our whole being rises up and overflows in worship to Him. Some of might even sing out loud. We remember how He has dealt with us. We look at our lives and see His hand guiding our moments. We recognize that what we thought were seemingly insignificant moments or random happenings were actually His acting to bring us closer to Him.

And we are breathless, humbled and joyful.

This Psalm reflects the arc that our life takes as we live our lives through any troubles. We move from complaining and despair, to crying to God in prayer for help, to a reaffirmation of our relationship with the Father; a relationship not based on trusting our own strength or wisdom, not based on our own goodness or righteousness but a relationship wholly grounded on His love and grace. As we move through the difficulties of life, if we will remember to Trust, Rejoice and Sing, we will be able to say with absolute confidence: It is well with my soul.

The Other Eleven

Some stories in the Bible are so familiar that it is easy just to skim over them and not really think that there is much else to learn. For me, one of those stories is when Peter walks on water. It is found in the Gospel of Matthew:

Immediately he made the disciples get into the boat and go before him to the other side, while he dismissed the crowds. And after he had dismissed the crowds, he went up on the mountain by himself to pray. When evening came, he was there alone, but the boat by this time was a long way from the land, beaten by the waves, for the wind was against them. And in the fourth watch of the night he came to them, walking on the sea. But when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were terrified, and said, “It is a ghost!” and they cried out in fear. But immediately Jesus spoke to them, saying, “Take heart; it is I. Do not be afraid.” And Peter answered him, “Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water.” He said, “Come.” So Peter got out of the boat and walked on the water and came to Jesus. But when he saw the wind, he was afraid, and beginning to sink he cried out, “Lord, save me.” Jesus immediately reached out his hand and took hold of him, saying to him, “O you of little faith, why did you doubt?” And when they got into the boat, the wind ceased. (Matthew 14:22-32)

 So picture this scene in your mind. The disciples are in a boat struggling with a storm that came up suddenly. Then, out of the crashing waves and foamy sea, a figure appears, coming towards them. Any reasonable person would do what the disciples did – panic! Clearly this is some sort of supernatural entity, a ghost, in other words. What else could it be? Real people do not just walk on water. So they scream, call Jesus a ghost and cower in fear.

Most sermons that I’ve heard on this passage focus on Peter. Peter gets out of the boat!  Peter walks on water. Peter starts to sink. Jesus rescues Peter. Peter, Peter, Peter, blah, blah, blah. Let me just say that I am NOT Peter. I am still in the boat with the other eleven watching Peter’s adventure. I can imagine the thoughts and feelings running through their minds. “I’m not going out there! Maybe I should have? Is Jesus going to be mad at me, disappointed with me for not stepping out? I should have recognized Him? How could I not have recognized Him? What kind of idiot am I? What kind of disciple am I? I’m a failure. I missed a chance to show Jesus my faith in Him.” On and on it goes believing they’d “missed it.”

And yet we do the same thing. We are so quick to beat ourselves up when we think we don’t have enough faith, or we aren’t “doing enough” for Jesus. We so easily disqualify ourselves and we throw up our hands and give up. Well here’s the rest of the story. After Peter and Jesus get into the boat, “those in the boat worshiped him, saying, ‘Truly you are the Son of God’” (Matt 14:33). The other eleven worshiped Him. They made Him the focus of their hearts and minds and did not wallow in self-pity. They recognized who He was and responded appropriately.

And let me remind you of one other thing. The other eleven in that boat were still sent out by Jesus to preach the Kingdom. The other eleven saw the resurrected Christ. The other eleven received the power of the Holy Spirit. The other eleven went out from Jerusalem and changed the world. They didn’t miss anything.

So, I want to encourage you today as you read this. If you are thinking that you’ve missed “God’s plan for your life.” (Play dramatic music here). If you think your faith isn’t strong enough or you’re too afraid or you can’t see how God could ever use you, remember that regardless of our weaknesses, our screw-ups, our lack of faith, Jesus is still the Son of God. That never changes. Just worship Him. He still loves you very much and hasn’t given up on you. You and the other eleven are in the same boat.

On Being the Lost Sheep

For some reason the Pharisees liked to hang out with Jesus and criticize everything He did. You would think after a while they would just learn to ignore Him. But they didn’t and Jesus took every opportunity to try to set them straight. This is the situation we read about in Luke 15:1-7. The Pharisees are complaining that Jesus hangs out with folks they considered “sinners.” Certainly these were people no self-respecting rabbi would associate with. So Jesus tells a parable that demonstrates His heart toward those very sinners – the lost sheep. But understand that the “lost” in this parable are still Jews. They are still covenant people. Jesus is not talking about Gentiles or unbelievers. He is talking to us – his people – and He is revealing His heart towards us when we get lost too.

Now the tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to hear him. And the Pharisees and the scribes grumbled, saying, “This man receives sinners and eats with them.” So he told them this parable: “What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the open country, and go after the one that is lost, until he finds it? And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing. And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and his neighbors, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.’ Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.

 First of all, notice that the entire flock has 100 sheep and the lost one belongs to that flock. It is not an outsider. It is one of the hundred! And even though this sheep may stray, it is not kicked out of the flock. It is not rejected. When He calls us to salvation and we respond in faith, we are counted among His flock. This means that we always belong to Christ. To me this is greatly encouraging – I know that I will always be His. It gives me great peace and comfort that once I am His, He will never kick me out of “His flock.” It establishes a relationship with Him that is stable not fearful.

But see also that it is possible, even within that stable relationship, even being part of the 100, to stray, to sin, to lose our way in being the kind of sheep He wants us to be. Being lost, sinning, in whatever form this may take – big or small, once or many times – does not automatically mean we are no longer His sheep. We may feel unworthy or condemned or ashamed, but that is us projecting those feeling unto God. That is not His heart toward us. I know that He does not reject me simply by looking at the shepherd’s response to the lost sheep – He goes looking for it! Jesus initiates the search. The individual was important. He didn’t content himself with just keeping the 99 and forgetting the one. No, Jesus perseveres in the search for the lost sheep. And He doesn’t give up until He finds it. Understand that Jesus will never give up on you! No matter how far you think you’ve strayed. How much you think you’ve disappointed Him. How ashamed or guilt-ridden you are.  He does not give up until He finds you wherever you are.

Not only does He search for us, when He finds us He then carries us back to the flock – back home to be with Him again. The sheep is lost and does not know how to come back. It would be lost forever if not for the shepherd’s action. Jesus carries the sheep back. The sheep is helpless to come back to the fold by its own power. We kid ourselves if we think we have the power within ourselves to “get our act together” or to “clean ourselves up.” We think we can do it ourselves and find our own way back to the fold. The only thing we can do by ourselves is get ourselves lost. We need Jesus by the work of the Holy Spirit to show us the way back and carry us there. Again, this is terribly encouraging to me! Not only does He search and find me but He also restores me. It is His work from beginning to end.

But the story gets even better. When Jesus searches for us and finds us and restores us, He is not upset, peeved or annoyed. No, He rejoices. It gives Him great joy to have us with Him again. Why? Because a sinner has repented and been restored. Yes, the sheep needs to repent, but repentance is simply asking Jesus, our shepherd, to carry us back. It is not feeling sorry. It is not vowing never to stray again. It is not pulling ourselves out of whatever situation we’ve gotten ourselves into. Repentance is admitting that we are lost and we are not strong enough to find our way back. And when we do, not only is He happy but heaven breaks out into a party – noise makers and all!

This story, this parable, is simply a way for Jesus to let you know how precious and important you are to Him. You are His and will always be His. And even when you are not perfect – especially when you are not perfect – you can know that He has not and will not reject you.  Ask Him to carry you back. There is a party in heaven waiting to happen.

Living by Bread Alone

Humans are hungry creatures. There is, of course, the most basic and necessary hunger for food. After all we need to survive, yet there are so many other things we hunger for – companionship, recognition, love, fame, wealth, significance, acceptance.   You can probably name any human endeavor and I am sure someone hungers for it. Some of these, to be sure, are natural and good to hunger for, but sometimes those natural desires turn ugly and we become captive to that hunger leading to brokenness and destruction. Hunger is a powerful motivator, but when satisfying that hunger becomes the focus of our lives we begin to lose perspective on the things in life that are truly important.

Believe it or not Jesus dealt with this very thing – needing to keep the proper perspective on life when a very basic hunger threatened to side track Him.  We read about it in the Gospel of Matthew.

Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. And after fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. And the tempter came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.” But he answered, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’ “ (Matthew 4:1-4)

So Jesus had already spent 40 days fasting then became hungry. (I probably would have been hungry at the end of day one). And the devil made his pitch, “turn these stones to bread, you know YOU can!” The devil was trying to get Jesus to focus on satisfying His immediate need. He was trying to get Jesus to focus on His own resources to satisfy His need. He was trying to get Jesus to redefine what is important in life – the here and now. But is that what life is really about? Is it only about feeding our hungers?

Jesus answers with a resounding, NO! Jesus says that there is more to life than bread. There is more to life than the physical needs of our bodies or even the hunger in our broken souls. Jesus says that life is bigger than that. There is a greater hunger – a spiritual hunger – that humans need filled; a hunger that can only be satisfied by God. Listen again to what He says, “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word…of God.” Putting it differently Jesus says Man shall live by every word of God.  If you want to live fully, to be wholly alive as you were meant to be, then you need a connection to the Father.

The devil makes the same pitch to us today. He tries to define for us what is important. Why not spend our resources to fulfil our wants? Why not spend our days on satisfying self? Why not focus on ME, right now? Nothing else is more important, right? And he tries to blind us to our need for God because he knows that that is where we truly find our satisfaction, where real life starts.

“…every word that comes from the mouth of God” doesn’t just mean reading the Bible, but it means maintaining a dynamic, present-moment relationship with our Father. A relationship in which His words become life-giving, nurturing and heartening; a relationship in which we hear His words of affirmation, wisdom, acceptance and love; a relationship in which we hear and stand on the promises He has made. Every word! Every moment! That is how life was meant to be lived. That is what He wants for us and has possible for us through Christ – a life that is more than bread alone.

Hide and Seek

First, I just want to give credit to my son for this little gem that I about to pass on to you. He shared it at church a couple of weeks ago and I found it so encouraging I just had to write it down.

You remember as a small child playing Hide and Seek? You would hide in some easy-to-find place so that you COULD be found.   The joy was in being found, letting out a delighted squeal and giggle when you were found. The object of the game was not to hide and remain hidden, but to hide so that you could be found. And that somehow deepened the relationship between the “hider” and the “seeker.”

Our Father likes to play Hide and Seek with us. Only He is the hider and we are the seekers.   He hides so that we will be motivated to seek Him, all the time anticipating the moment, the joy-filled moment, of our finding Him again and again. He hides in plain sight and then invites us to seek with the promise that He will be found.

You will seek me and find me. When you seek me with all your heart, (Jeremiah 29:13)

Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. (Matthew 7:7)

Yes, He sometimes hides from us, not to punish us, not in anger or disappointment, but to draw us in. He wants us to be looking for Him constantly around every corner, in every conversation, in every circumstance, in every moment. He is there and He is just waiting to be found. Seek!