The Unforced Rhythms of Grace

I think that it is probably not spiritual to be excited when I find traces of Jesus' temptations in scripture. It is a perverse thing about humans that we feel better knowing that other people are fighting against temptation, too. Today, in Matthew 11, I saw a hint of frustration in Jesus' voice. Maybe I am projecting my own emotions into the passage, but maybe not. Jesus is in the middle of a monologue about people's opinions about the messiah and about the sin of the cities and how Sodom would have repented if they had seen the signs and wonders Jesus was performing. His monologue seems to be growing in intensity verse by verse. The He abruptly ends his monologue and breaks into prayer. After his prayer, he resumes speaking....no longer angrily but tenderly. Now obviously Jesus is without sin in this passage, but I wondered if he was tempted in that moment to really, literally blast the people and had to abruptly stop to pray. I don't know....but it seems to me like a good technique to try. When I can not control my mouth any longer, maybe I should try shutting up and praying before I finish my conversations.

When Jesus was through praying, he said, "Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you'll recover your life. I'll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me -watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won't lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you'll learn to live freely and lightly." The unforced rhythms of grace.... that's a word choice that I have contemplated all day. I think that I make the religion thing too complex at times. I love how Jesus says to just walk beside him and watch him at work and learn about true religion. It's just that easy - and just that hard. I am easily distracted. Then there's also the part of me that wants God to watch me work or I assume that I know where He's going and rush ahead, totally in the wrong direction. I feel like I still need my floaties on in the pool when it comes to discovering the unforced rhythms of God's grace. But I am looking forward to a lifetime of seeking to fully understand what that looks like when lived out.

10 follows 9

In all my years of church and Bible study I had never realized that Matthew chapter 10 came right after chapter 9. Now...obviously I can count....I do teach 1st grade. What I mean is that chapter 9 closes with Jesus praying for workers for the harvest and chapter 10 opens up like this..."The prayer was no sooner prayed than it was answered. Jesus called twelve of his followers and sent them into the ripe fields." I had never connected the two passages. Shawn will probably say that he has preached on this before, but it was probably when I was tuning him out, or on bedrest, or listening to the music in my head, or daydreaming or something. Seriously, when I pray for workers for the harvest, it never occurs to me that God might answer that immediately. I need to have more faith, and be more aware of looking for God's immediate provision.

Then all of chapter 10 is like the instruction manual to the first church planters. Hello...never noticed that before either. It's like I have never read this chapter. Maybe it was missing in my other Bible. Seriously, maybe I should go check. Listen to these ministry guidelines from vs. 5-8, "Go to the lost, confused people right here in the neighborhood. Tell them that the kingdom is here. Bring health to the sick. Raise the dead. Touch the untouchables. Kick out the demons. You have been treated generously, so live generously." Dude...I don't think that matches my ministry description so well. Talk about living large and courageously and boldly and ooooh...awesome! I want to get me some of that power!!!!!

Then there's vs. 9-10, "Don't think you have to put on a fund-raising campaign before you start. You don't need a lot of equipment. You are the equipment, and all you need to keep that going is three meals a day. Travel light." How much easier would that make church? If people were our only equipment. How much less stress. Certainly adds some perspective to ministry.

OHHHH, and I love this verse, vs. 16, "STAY ALERT. THIS IS HAZARDOUS WORK I'M ASSIGNING YOU...." Definitely a different take on ministry. Not a cushy, easy, cruise ship lifestyle. But way more exciting. I love good spy movies and occasionally entertain daydreams about being a sexy, secret agent (Okay you can stop laughing now and finish the rest of the blog you silly people...it's not like you don't daydream, too).... so I guess I love the the drama in this verse and the reminder that we are on a critically important mission....maybe not a covert operation, but certainly not a safe one either.

Vs. 38-39, "If your first concern is to look after yourself, you'll never find yourself. But if you forget about yourself and look to me, you'll find both yourself and me." Many of God's principles are backwards and upside down. But this is one that I have discovered and rediscovered many times over in my life. It is only when I am emptied and filled back up with Christ that I am able to really know who I am and what my purpose is in life. When I am pursuing my own desires, I am never satisfied.

Vs. 40. "We are intimately linked in this harvest work." I know that this is talking about our relationship to Christ. And it is a beautiful truth that when we are on mission for Christ we enjoy an amazing intimacy with Him. However, I have also found this to be true about my relationships with people on the launch team. It is as we have gone into "harvest work", aka, "missions" together that our relationships have become so amazing. The people that have walked with us on this journey have very much become part of my family. I can't believe that I never knew that the Bible talked about this relationship growth that occurs when you are involved together in ministry.

Anyway, this is the most a passage of scripture has spoken to me in a long time. I condensed, edited, and cut out several other points due to the length of the blog. You'll just have to read this chapter for yourself. I love the way the Bible is eternally new. That no matter how many times I read a passage, I never have it all figured out. There is always so much more to learn and apply. God is cool like that.

Matthew 9:18-26 ... Story is that a local official finds Jesus to say his daughter has died, can Jesus come heal her and bring her back from the dead. So Jesus immediately abandons what he is doing to go with this official. On his way he is interrupted by a woman who has been hemorrhaging for 12 years. She slips through the crowd, touches the hem of his robe, and is healed . . . at the risk of public embarrassment.... the risk of making an entire crowd unclean according to Jewish law....at the risk of being seen as forward...touching a Jewish male in public....at the risk of ridicule....at the risk of failure....maybe it wouldn't work....at the risk of anger from the crowd and from Jesus. So what does Jesus say? "Courage, daughter. You took a risk of faith, and now you're well." Then Jesus continues on his merry way, heals the dead daughter, some blind men, casts out some evil spirits, etc.

I just loved the way Jesus commended her for taking a risk of faith. Wow. It has been in my biggest moments of the greatest risks in my faith where God has shown up in amazing ways. Yet, still I struggle with taking big risks. I want to chase the Lion in a pit on a snowy day!!!! (reference to Mark Batterson's awesome book) Somehow I spend way too much time on the mundane and the safe. I am done with safe.

A Sticky Situation

I was mercilessly attacked tonight by soft drinks. It began innocently enough. My family was eating pizza for supper in my classroom. Because apparently we live there now. Abby bumped the pizza box which bumped my just poured glass of Dr. Pepper, which dumped upside down all over me, my chair, and the floor. So now I am sticky and wet. Baby wipes helped slightly with the sticky, but I was still wet and we were soon departing to go to the football game. I had the bright idea that I would run down to the restroom and blow dry my jeans - I couldn't go to the game looking like I had peed all over myself - seriously!

So imagine with me if you will, I am on my way to dry myself, when the school librarian enters the scene. She spots the full extent of the damage, and laughs hysterically and offers to go get her camera to make photos of the damage. I declined, and pursued my efforts of drying off my sticky self. It was as I was standing precariously on one foot with my other leg shoved up into the hand dryer mounted on the wall, that I realized she might be serious since she has disappeared from the hall. I immediately abandoned my quest for dryness and simply waddled back to class, determined to endure the stickiness for the remainder of the evening.

So, in case you wondered, after Dr. Pepper dries, it is no longer terribly sticky. Therefore, I was still able to attend and enjoy the football game. Until the third quarter. That was when I borrowed Katie's red gatorade. I went to take a small sip, completely missed and poured most of the bottle on and down my shirt. Now being red, wet, and sticky it was time to depart. (Did I mention that Katie also was soaked at the game by an exploding Dr. Pepper and had to purchase a new shirt?)

Oh, but no.....It's still not over. On the way home, I was very thirsty. Seeing as how most of my attempts at drinking this afternoon did not work out well for me. I grabbed a Dr. Pepper, twisted the cap, and - you guessed it - the darn (edited at shawn's request) thing exploded all over me in the car! What are the chances! Shawn at this point is about to burst from his efforts to restrain his laughter. Torn between his desire to laugh at an impossibly funny situation and to stay out of the doghouse for laughing at me being in a really sticky situation. I really thought for a moment that he might pass out from holding his breath trying not to laugh. It finally got the better of him, and we both laughed.

So now I am going to bed, still thirsty. This could be a cheesy horror flick ....revenge of the soft drinks.....

Bloody Sabbath

New issue of Paste! Yeah! This is a highlight of my month!

This one's focus is on violence in music and media. One of the first articles that I've had time to read is "Sabbath, Bloody Sabbath." This article certainly took a genre of music - gospel - that I am very familiar with and looked at it through new eyes. It is really interesting to look at religion through the eyes of others. This author proposed that gospel music is arguably one of the most violent forms of music, if the lyrics are contemplated at length and by an unchurched, literal audience. For example:

"Are you washed in the blood." "There's power in the blood." "Nothing but the blood" "Alas, and did my Savior bleed." etc.

Now as believers, we understand the symbolic implications involved. I had never honestly, deeply considered how an unchurched audience could interpret our "blood songs." How's this for an answer, "Obviously, it's symbolism, but there's something kinda creepy about hundreds of people singing about blood and suffering." Or how about, "it's a trip to see these words."

This article spends time comparing gospel music to heavy metal's violent words and tries to draw some parallels between the two as far as the symbolism involved. I'm not sure that I can agree that heavy metal bands with really violent lyrics are trying to symbolically move people to a better place in their lives in quite the same way that gospel music does.

One heavy metal band, when interviewed, said they were considering turning to the Bible for inspiration for more violent songs. I somehow don't think that God's intention of including violence in the Bible, especially in some of those Old Testament stories that are so gory, was so that violence would be glorified. I think the difference in the bloody lyrics of gospel music and the bloody lyrics of other music is in the purpose of the music. Who is being glorified?

However, it was very interesting to read this perspective on gospel music. It is certainly food for thought as we consider what songs to use to reach an unchurched population. I don't know that we should give up all the "bloody" songs, but maybe we should think about how they can be interpreted and make sure that our audience understands the symbolism.

Very interesting lyrical comparisons in this article as well.... In some instances trying to distinguish between gospel and metal was impossible for me until I saw the name of the band.

Food for thought.....

pursue life

Matthew 8:22, "First things first. Your business is life, not death. Follow me. Pursue life." This is in an account of Jesus addressing people who expressed an interest in following him half-heartedly or when it would be convenient. But here's what I noticed.



Pursue life...... Follow me....... I would say that I try to pursue life passionately. Actually, sometimes I find myself in over my head in my pursuit. But there is a qualifier to the passionate pursuit - following Christ. So my thoughts today have been thinking through what I am passionately pursuing that does not involve following Christ. I came up with some ideas, but they are mostly things that need doing and doing well. There is some sin that I tend to passionately pursue as well that I could definitely stand to give up. But, I can't figure out the solution to all the stuff that has to get done in life.



Overwhelmed - that's the number one descriptive word among women that I know. Overwhelmed by the tyranny of the urgent that crowds out the ability to passionately pursue the life God created them to live. So where's the solution? I'm pretty sure that overwhelmed is not a spiritual gift and that God did not create us to live a life characterized by being overwhelmed.

So, I don't have any answers today....just more questions.

Sin and Poop

God makes the weirdest connections in my head. Lately we have been occasionally trying to potty train Abby, the two year old. She will not poop in the potty, denies having gone in her diaper, runs and hides. Because she is our fourth child, we know that this is a normal phase of potty training and find it very amusing. So tonight I smelled the tell-tale odor of a used diaper. I asked, "Abby did you poop?" Her reply was an emphatic, loud, "NO!" as she took off running in the opposite direction.

So as I was in hot pursuit of the fastest toddler on two feet, God made an interesting connection for me. "No matter how hard you try to hide your sin, no matter where you run to, or how much you deny the action, it will reek. Sin is a stench to God that cannot be hid or denied or run away from. It can only be confessed, removed, and cleansed." Much like poop in a toddler's diaper.