Jonah Slept! Could You?

I have been studying the book of Jonah the past couple of weeks and there is a scene in the beginning of the book that has been bugging me. It takes place right after after God tells Jonah to go and launch an evangelistic campaign the likes of which the world has never seen. The assignment is to go to Nineveh and turn them towards God. Though Jonah was the Billy Graham of his generation, he refuses to go because of his hatred for the Ninevites. They are a despicable group of people who consistently break the unwritten rules of warfare by brutalizing the women and children of their enemies. Jonah's bitterness toward them is rooted in the reality that the Jews have been victimized by their brutality and Jonah wants no part of helping them.

So when God calls Jonah to go and lead the Ninevites to repentance, Jonah runs. He would rather God wipe them from the face of the earth then give them a second chance. So Jonah heads off in the other direction, for Tarshish.

You know the story: Along the way God sends a storm that's so violent that it threatens to break up the ship. The sailors surmise that their only chance of survival is to lighten the load by throwing all the cargo overboard. It was all hands on deck!

But there was one set of hands not on deck - Jonah's. Jonah 1:5 says, "But Jonah had gone below deck, where he lay down and fell into a deep sleep." I don't get that, and apparently I am not alone. The next verse states, "The captain went to him and said, 'How can you sleep?'" That's what I want to know. How could he go down there and sleep? Sleep is supposed to be the by-product of peace, found in the center of God's will. This story messes with my theological constructs and tampers with my formula.

There's a similar story in Luke 8. This time it's Jesus and his disciples in a storm of such power that they are convinced they will die. When the storm is fully raging, Jesus, like Jonah, is asleep. The disciples wake him up presumably to die with them. They can't believe he's asleep. He points out the deficiency of their faith and we are left to assume that Jesus' faith and confidence in the future is what enabled him to sleep peacefully in the midst of the storm.

When I look at those two stories, I can understand how Jesus could sleep. But when it comes to Jonah, I am with the captain. How could he?

When I project myself in that situation I just can't imagine being able to curl up and go to sleep. The disobedience; the running; the storm; the cargo; the lives of the sailors; I assume all of those factors would keep me ill at ease and therefore wide awake. But not Jonah and truth be told maybe not me either.

I've come to the conclusion that I'm not really surprised, just a bit self-righteous. The truth is, instead of judging Jonah, I need to secure a set of industrial strength tweezers to pluck the log out of my eye.

We all have the capacity to turn our backs on what God wants us to do, and then somehow "come to a peace" about our decision. I know I have done it and I feel reasonably sure that you have too. The fact is, it is amazing the things that we can "come to a peace" about that are in direct disobedience to God's commands: adultery; refusing to forgive; stealing money from God by not giving; fostering division through gossip; judging others; the list goes on and on just like our sleep.

But don't be fooled eventually storms will wake us up. Neither Jonah nor Jesus were able to sleep all the way through it. They were both awakened because of the storm. The difference was that because Jesus did not cause the storm, he overcame it and sailed right on through while Jonah was consumed by the storm as a consequence of causing it.

The lesson is not to be fooled by sleep. "Coming to a peace" about something is different from enjoying God's peace.

God help us to be honest about our choices. Wake us up before we find a way to justify our behavior and end up consumed/swallowed whole by the storms of our disobedience.

What Might God Do?

I have a book that a friend gave me called, Letters of a Modern Mystic by Frank C. Laubach. He was a missionary on the island of Mindanao in the Philippines, who labored in relative obscurity until he began an experiment with God after his 46th birthday. The book is a compilation of letters written primarily to his earthly father about his desire to live in the continual presence of his Heavenly Father. This desire to transcend the physical and be continually attentive to the spiritual is what led to him being called a Modern Mystic, and literally launched him on the road to world changing significance (check out his bio on wikipedia).

I have been reviewing his book as we get ready for the Revolution. We launch formally on 1.31.10. I can't wait. If you are serious about becoming a fully devoloping follower of Christ then you need to commit to being a part. It is going to be a fabulous experience as we lead people through the same sort of disciplines that Frank Laubach embraced as he sought to fully experience God.

As I was rereading his book the other day, I came across a prayer that he prayed that has challenged me. The heart of the prayer is this:

God, what would you put in my mind today if only I were large enough to handle it?

In other words, what would God give me if my faith was large enough to receive it? What does God see that I could see, if I truly had His perspective? What might God do with me, if I had the faith to fully cooperate?

I challenge you to open your heart to the possibilities. Make Rev. Laubach's prayer your prayer, and follow God's lead.

The Prayer of Examen

Blah Humbug: Renewing Your Spiritual Passion, is the name of the study we are in at Skycrest. The genesis of the series comes from the recognition that we are all of us prone to drifting away from an impassioned faith. While all followers have designs on a vibrant walk with Jesus, few sustain the passion necessary to completely die to self and live for Christ. The hope for the series is to identify some critical disciplines that should reinvigorate our passion.

Yesterday we examined what Gordon MacDonald calls the remembrance principle. Activating this principle is a key to inflaming spiritual passion because remembering well keeps us grounded in the truth of God's unchanging work on our behalf. When we fail to remember the steadfast truth of God, we invite our fickle, ever-changing circumstances to guide our decision making.

To help us establish a routine of remembrance, God established the Sabbath day, exhorting us to keep it holy or make it different. The idea is that as we rest from our work, we should reflect on and celebrate the good work of God. The fruit of this exercise is increased faith and confidence in the way of God, accompanied by a renewed determination to live for him.

What I've discovered along the way is that I not only need to observe the Sabbath weekly, I need to practice Sabbath moments daily. I have to carve out times in my day where I remember that God is for me. I need to discipline myself to consider the omnipresence of God so I can submit to and enjoy the power of God.

In researching ways to establish the discipline of daily Sabbath moments, I discovered the Prayer of Examen. In the first half of the 16th century, Saint Ignatius of Loyola, taught his disciples to conclude their day with what he called the Prayer of Examen. It's a prayer of examination whereby you recall the events and activities of your day and through the process of remembering, evaluate your relational harmony to God.

St. Ignatius' idea was that participants would take time each night to work through the exercises in an attempt to learn to better facilitate the presence of God in their lives. While there are many renditions of the prayer, we tailored it to present three basic steps to achieve the daily Sabbath discipline:

1. Confess your place in God. Utilize Psalm 103:1-5 to recount the benefits of being a child of God. As you read through those verses, pause to celebrate the goodness of God and acknowledge your need for God.
2. Ask yourself two sets of questions:
   a. Where did I feel the most alive, most hopeful, most in the presence of God today?
   b. Where did I feel the darkest, most despairing, most removed from God today?
3. Celebrate the mercies of God that are new every morning. Ask for strength and guidance to continually live in the presence of God tomorrow.

All three steps need to be followed to stay anchored in truth and impassioned for God. We have to remember what he did for us. We must be able to identify those times and places when we sensed his presence or even realized our distance. Noting the reasons for each will enable us to more consistently place ourselves in blessable positions. Finally when we fail, we must remember that according to God's grace and mercy, every new day gives us the opportunity to follow him.

Will you join me for the next week in daily praying the Prayer of Examen? I pray as you discipline yourself to enjoy a daily Sabbath, your passion will be renewed like the eagle's.

Can I Change the Past?

It is a beautiful Thanksgiving morning. I am sitting on the porch of a condo in St. Augustine watching the waves roll in and reading a book that reminds me that I can't change the past. Believe me when I say there are some parts of the past I would change if I could. Some of the closets that I mindlessly frequent have skeletons that pop up and scare me to shame.

As I ponder the possibility of an altered past, it occurs to me that there are other scenes from days gone by that I play over and over again that I would not alter. There are good days, God-centered days that remind me of the possibilities of life with God. Those are the regret free days for which I am offering thanks today.

In the midst of these musings a thought occurs to me: you can change the past if you live for God in the present because TODAY IS TOMORROW'S YESTERDAY.

Happy thanks living!

Our Faith Story in Song

Last Monday I started studying the Song of Ascent Psalms. These are Psalms 120-134. They were sung as pilgrims journeyed to Jerusalem for festivals. I didn't get very far because I got stuck on Psalm 126. It was like reading a very cryptic biography of my life. I'm still stuck. Like the weather, I have been thinking about it off and on since. Here's what it says.

Psalm 126
1When the LORD brought back the captives to Zion, we were like men who dreamed. 2 Our mouths were filled with laughter, our tongues with songs of joy. Then it was said among the nations, "The LORD has done great things for them." 3 The LORD has done great things for us, and we are filled with joy.

4 Restore our fortunes, O LORD, like streams in the Negev. 5 Those who sow in tears will reap with songs of joy. 6 He who goes out weeping, carrying seed to sow, will return with songs of joy, carrying sheaves with him.

When we experience God we are living the dream. Giddy with excitement about stepping into His story, we are morphed into a fountain of praise to God. The sheer force of our exuberance moves mountains of doubt in those around us and causes even the most skeptical to note the work and blessing of God in our lives.

But after the victory parade we move into our next assignment. It's another faith challenge that is likely greater than the one before. Why? Because when we persevere in the little assignments, God gives us greater more demanding assignments--heavier lifting required.

Our fortunes seem to turn and the streams of abundance dry up and are replaced by a steady stream of tears. The presence of tears can trigger the loss of heart which always ends in a wandering from purpose and could lead to a failure to complete the assignment.

But this is not true for those who obediently push through in faith. They go out weeping but they still go, and they are carrying their seed. The impetus to carry on comes from the lessons learned while living the dream. Sowing in tears ends with reaping in joy and a bountiful harvest for those who persevere in faith.

I think this has been the story of my past, and I pray it will be the story of my future. What about you?

In Keeping with Repentance

I really appreciate Parker Palmer's book, Let Your Life Speak. One of the book's big ideas is this: if you will listen carefully to what you have to say, you might actually learn something. His theory is that we learn valuable lessons in life that go unnoticed. But when tested by our circumstances and challenged in our conversations, these lessons are revealed as we articulate positions and values influenced by our experiences.

As a teacher who is entrusted with--and hopefully empowered for--the sacred chore of exposing the life changing truth of God's love, there are times I find myself listening with interest to what I am saying. There are segments of some talks that are completely unplanned and I choose to trust that the tangent is providing exactly what someone in the room needs to hear from God. At times those detours are for other people and at times they are for me.

This past week I found myself traveling down one of those roads less traveled that I think was for me. I can't get it out of my mind. The topic was repentance and I kept quoting John the Baptist from Matthew 3:8, "Produce fruit in keeping with repentance." The surprise element that was occurring to me as I verbally processed this truth was the "keeping" portion of the command. I had never consciously thought about keeping with repentance.

In my mind I had relegated repentance to what happened on our own personal road to Damascus. We see the bright light of God's truth and we place our faith in Jesus for the forgiveness of our sins and the eternal justification our souls. It's the one-time turnaround from the broad road whose destiny is destruction, and the subsequent repositioning of our lives on the narrow road which leads to life. Most of my conscious thinking in regards to repentance has been this once-in-a-lifetime turn to the truth of God's love, grace, and mercy.

However, John's teaching at this point is clearly about the repentance of sanctification, not justification. There are times in our lives where we get disoriented on the narrow way and we find ourselves lapsing into what we know best, broad-road living in the flesh. This was the state of our being prior to the moment of our conversion. Broad-road living is all about looking out for number one and when we are stricken with vertigo of the faith, we go back to what we know best and lose our way.

JB's message is that when we struggle with those bouts of vertigo we must examine the expected fruit of our decision-making. Will it be fruit that is in keeping with the narrow road of justifying repentance? Or will it be the rotten, self-destructive fruit of the broad road? The very clear meaning of his exhortation is that there are times in our lives that call for re-repentance; literally turning back around and getting reoriented on the narrow road. This re-turning is in keeping with repentance. As a matter of fact, the re-turning or re-repentance of sanctification, is proof of the life changing repentance of justification.

Paul summed it up this way as he defended his own preaching to King Agrippa in Acts 26:20, "First to those in Damascus, then to those in Jerusalem and in all Judea, and to the Gentiles also, I preached that they should repent and turn to God and prove their repentance by their deeds."

Slow down and let your life speak today, or better yet, let your fruit speak. Are your deeds proof of your repentance? In keeping with repentance, do you need to re-turn to the narrow way that leads to life eternal and life abundant?

The Modern Day Pharisee

For weeks now I have been reading the four gospels, studying about the life of Jesus. Even though this is very familiar territory for me, I have still been consistently amazed by his interaction with the Pharisees. I won't bore you by reintroducing the biblical Pharisee, but suffice it to say that Jesus had them in his cross hairs until they put him on the cross.

Reading about those caustic exchanges spelled out in scripture always makes me wonder if I'm a Pharisee. Would Jesus have the same problems with my spirituality that he did with theirs? What about yours? As followers of Jesus, we need to entertain the notion that we might be modern day Pharisees.

Here's my litmus test for Pharisaism: If your spiritual privilege becomes another's predicament; you're a Pharisee. When my privilege becomes your predicament, I'm doing the work of a Pharisee.

In his diatribe against those do-gooders Jesus said, "They tie up heavy loads and put them on men's shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to lift a finger to move them." (Matthew 23:4)

The "heavy loads" to which Jesus refers are the rules and rituals of righteousness that the Pharisees lived by. Living up to those standards proved to be a full-time job and yet they placed those same expectations on people who couldn't afford to devote their lives to rule keeping. So instead of helping people connect with God's mercy and love, they were loading them down with guilt and condemnation. So their unique privileges in life were putting the people in a very difficult predicament.

Modern day Pharisees do the same thing. I was in a worship service one evening where the Pastor told the congregation that he spent four hours a day reading and studying scripture. He went on to imply that if we were serious about our relationship with God we would do the same thing! I wanted to stand up and OBJECT in hopes that the statement would be stricken from the records of our minds. Studying the scripture for four hours a day was his job and his privilege; making it my predicament was Pharisaical.

Most people who have substantive walks with God enjoy certain privileges. They have been graced with unique passions, gifts, talents, or resources that are fruitful for their walk. Each of those privileges are wonderful gifts from God that should be explored and celebrated, but never assigned!

When my privilege becomes your assignment and therefore your predicament, I have become a Pharisee by tying a heavy load on your back and doing nothing to remove it.