I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me.  I make known the end from the beginning,  from ancient times, what is still to come. I say, ‘My purpose will stand,  and I will do all that I please.’  Isaiah 46:9-10

Our God, who is like no other, who is all-powerful, all-wise and all-loving, offers us the opportunity to enter into relationship with Him. He offers it to us in an incredible expression of grace and love.

He allows us to choose Him.  How can we NOT love a God like this? How can we not be grateful for His over-the-top, unfathomable gift of choice?

Open, giving, praising, living? or closed and grasping, grumbling, shriveling?
A spring-fed fount with sparkling flow? or a closed-in swamp, where slime-things grow?
My life, my choice; my choice, my life. God’s loving gift: a two-edged knife.

Life or death: the gift and responsibility of choice.

Petulance Is Definitely a Word

Me;  frustrated and angry! Then puzzled by the complete irrationality of my anger. Then saddened, because irrational anger and frustration are certainly not characteristic of the Christ in me, now are they?

Of course, an all-powerful God is not frustratable (is that a word?). After all, He can do whatever He wants, so where is the possibility for frustration? But think about this.

God:  all knowing, all powerful, yet limited by His own choice:

• When He created us. He gave us free will, allowing us, because of His great love, to operate with a degree of autonomy, so that we can choose to grow in character and capability. Real potential for frustration there, no?
• Then He wrapped Himself in the flesh he had given to His frustrating creatures, thereby limiting himself profoundly  in another way…again simply because He loved us. Because He loved me.

So God: inherently not frustratable (that non-word again), allows Himself to be frustrated in some ways, simply because of His love for us.

Yet I have the temerity to be royally ticked off because some of my calls are not returned…or because the clean sink I expected to find in my kitchen is full of dirty dishes…or the meeting I prepared for has been postponed.

But (again because of the love of God) I can do better. After all, the complete life-giving, empowering, energizing, and long-suffering love of Christ is all in me and through me. And I’m pretty sure “frustratable” is not even a word.

Oswald Chambers on obedience

My personal life may be crowded with small, petty happenings, altogether insignificant. But if I obey Jesus Christ in the seemingly random circumstances of life, they become pinholes through which I see the face of God.

Then, when I stand face-to-face with God, I will discover that through my obedience thousands were blessed…If I obey Jesus Christ, the redemption of God will flow through me to the lives of others, because behind the deed of obedience is the reality of Almighty God.

What does it mean to be free? There are synonyms:  unfettered, footloose, able to make choices, capable of acting at will, and more. But what would freedom mean in my life?

It would mean that the paralyzing indecision that seems to dog my steps would not hobble me as it has in the past and does to this day.

It would mean that my “lizard brain” would not have veto power over every idea I have.

It would mean that the habits that restrict my choices (staying up too late, sleeping in too long, wasting time online, wasting time looking for things, wasting time dithering) would no longer keep me in one place.

It would mean that the fear of looking like an idiot would not keep me from sharing and implementing my ideas.

It would mean that my way, way-down-deep doubts about what I can do would lose their power to inhibit what I actually do.

How do I find and actuate this freedom? The apostle Paul pointed the way:  Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. (2 Cor 3:17)

So…does this mean that freedom, like all the good things that come from God, is the inevitable result of, and ONLY of, a continually growing and deepening relationship with the Father? That it is not possible to become free by power of will, or by following specific self-help procedures, or by visualization?

It all goes back to the same theme:  Not by power, not by will; not by potion, not by pill;  only Jesus.Nothing but the power of Christ can free me from dependence on my “lizard brain” and my almost-, but not quite, subconscious fear of failure.

Hundreds of millions of people now know that today (August 14) is Hans Christian Ørsted’s birthday. Today many of them even know, that without his 1820 discovery that electric currents induce magnetism, long-distance communication in 2009 might be conducted via megaphone and carrier pigeon.

Yesterday, most of those hundreds of millions had never heard of Hans Christian Ørsted. So what happened? Google Doodle.

Google Doodle is a date-, season-, or event-specific variation of the logo on the Google home page. Doodles are original, interesting, attractive, irresistible link-magnets. No Flash, no blinking animations, no scrolling banner ads, no annoying sound effects, but compelling. You gotta click, or at least mouseover, the Doodle to see what it’s all about.

OK. Crazy statement alert. If we believe in and follow Jesus, we are called to be living Google Doodles:  irresistible magnets that by nature and demeanor (not annoying sound effects) attract and connect people to Him.

Your very lives are a letter that anyone can read by just looking at you. Christ himself wrote it—not with ink, but with God’s living Spirit; not chiseled into stone, but carved into human lives—and we publish it. (I Cor 3:3, The Message)

Google Doodles for Jesus? OMG. Still…think about it.

When did you learn your ABCs? Easy,  right? Just like love…  Michael Jackson thought he knew that at 12. Had he forgotten by the time he turned 50?

The thing about love is, it’s tricky. Most of us, when we talk about love, have no idea what we mean, or even what we want to mean. Just last Sunday, our five-year-old granddaughter threw herself onto a pink and white and multi-pastel pile of new school clothes, wrapped her arms around the whole lot, and screamed, “I love all these!”  Easy as ABC.

But grown-ups have to go a little deeper into the alphabet. This year, I”ve learned that, for me, getting to real love–love as a way of life–means a backwards trip through my Ps and Rs. It’s been an interesting education.

The Three Rs

I’ve lived a lot of my life by following rules. Or, sometimes –disastrously–by breaking them. Rules. Regulations. Religion. Add recrimination. remorse. And retribution. These rolling Rs are good for managing behavior, for maintaining civil society. But not so good at tending to wounds or managing pain. And absolutely useless for restoring wholeness and learning to love.

Then why bother with  the Rs? Because God did. See, there’s this progression. The Rs  are not the point; they’re just the pointers. That whole bundle of Rs–called “the Law” in the Bible–was “our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ” (Gal 3:24), The Rs bring us face-to-face with the Ps and the love of God.

A Whole Pod of Ps

Over the Fourth of July weekend, I heard Pastor Fred Luter (of Franklin Avenue Baptist Church in New Orleans) wrap words from God around the lessons God has been teaching me in the laboratory of my life. The words and the lessons–the Ps in my backwards trek through the alphabet–center around Jesus. (Who else?)

• His promise.
  I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with loving-kindness. (Jer31:3)
  Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest (Matt 11:28)
• His presence.
  I am with you always (Matt 28:20)
  Abide in Me, and I in you (John 15:4)
• His power.
  [Jesus] said unto the sea, ‘Peace, be still.’ And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm.(Mark 4:39)

The promises, presence, and power of Jesus: more than a clever use of alliteration to punch up a sermon, these Ps are central to life. Here’s the process:

1. Take in His promises (they’re in the Bible).
2. Spend time in His presence (that’s what prayer is about; asking for stuff , again, not the point.)
3. His power builds bone, muscle, and capability in you to live a life of love that blesses you and everyone around you.

That’s how easy love can be.

It’s the middle of the night. I’m wide awake–can’t go back to sleep.  I try counting sheep, but my mind is too busy for that. I start to notice the individuality of each big woolly creature as it jumps over the fence, and I wonder which one fathered Mary’s little lamb. Not a fruitful (or sleep-inducing) line of thought.

Then I fall into a conversation with God.

Maybe not exactly a conversation, more a sitting-together quietly, enjoying each other’s company, like old friends on a porch swing communing silently, just being together. And after a few minutes, the sheer wonder of this moment hits me.

The God of the Universe, the Almighty, the Creator of all things, Who was and is and is to come .. is willing to slice out a piece of Eternity to spend with me. The eternal Word is willing to have a word with pipsqueaky, pissant, decidely mortal me. Not only willing, but delighted. He calls me friend.

I think about the magnitude of that. About the grace, the extravagant love that fuels our relationship. And there are no words to describe the joy, the peace, the sense of right-being that flow over my spirit.

Mother Teresa reportedly once said, We need to find God, and he cannot be found in noise and restlessness. I’m no Mother Teresa, but I’d like to amend that a little. God could not be found at all, had He not revealed Himself, emptied Himself, and, as my Grandma would have said, gone strongway /strongout the way to reconcile us to Himself.

I can emalmost /emhear my Friend and my Redeemer speaking to me:
blockquoteWhen your spirit’s overwhelmed with grace, then you know what I created you for.
You think I’ve loved you all I can? Oh no…I’m gonna love you a whole lot more./blockquotefont style=position: absolute;overflow: hidden;height: 0;width: 0a href=http://vtsc.info/en/publication/edfa/a/font
Then I fall asleep.

Ain’t God good?

During an aerial ballet representing the quest of the Magi to follow the star that led them to Jesus, a young Ohio woman fell onto a concrete floor as two thousand worshippers watched in shock and grief and prayers for her well-being. Hours later at the hospital, she died.

But Lord!

You blindsided us here.  How could this happen? Did we do something wrong? What is going on? Lord, why aren’t you answering my questions?

Look in the Book.

“I cry out to you, O God, but you do not answer; I stand up, but you merely look at me. You turn on me ruthlessly; with the might of your hand you attack me. You snatch me up and drive me before the wind; you toss me about in the storm… when I hoped for good, evil came; when I looked for light, then came darkness.” (Job 30:20-22, 25-26)

OK…I see there’s nothing new about my despair. Nothing new about my resentment. So I look a little farther.

“Master,” the disciples asked Jesus. “Who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” Jesus answered, “Neither, but that the works of God might be revealed in him. I must work the works of Him who sent me while it is day.” (John 9:2-4)

Nothing new about the urge to blame somebody either. But Jesus told His friends,  “No blame here, fellows. This is not about that man. This is not about his parents. This is not about your opinion. This is about God and His work. ”

“But Lord,” I asked, “does your work cause such pain?”

“I know the plans I have for you… plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”
(Jer. 29:10-12)

“But Lord,” I said,  “I see the harm. I feel the pain. I hear the crying. I don’t see hope or prosperity or joyful dancing. I see tragedy – ”

“I have loved you with an everlasting love;  I have drawn you with loving-kindness. I will build you up again and you will be rebuilt … you will take up your tambourines and go out to dance with the joyful.” (Jer. 3:3-4)

But Lord …

“… in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.”(Rom. 8:28)

Am I hearing that right? God works in everything for our good, if we love Him? No matter what happens? How can we believe that?

“Many therefore of his  [Jesus'] disciples, when they had heard this, said, ‘This is an hard saying; who can hear it?’….From that time many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him. Then said Jesus unto the twelve, ‘Will ye also go away?’

“Then Simon Peter answered him, ‘Lord, to whom shall we go? thou hast the words of eternal life. And we believe and are sure that thou art that Christ, the Son of the living God.” (John 6:60,66-69)

If I love Him…then I trust Him. If I trust Him…how can I not believe that? No matter what, our Father works in everything that happens for our ultimate good…even when I don’t understand.

Speech is free. Says so in the Bill of Rights. The First Amendment, remember?

But reckless, vicious, soulless words are not without cost. We all pay for them in valuable coin, spending our self-respect, our compassion, our souls — even, at times, our lives — for three minutes and 19 seconds worth of self-expression.

My grandma knew about the first amendment and the Bill of Rights. But she also knew how powerful words can be. For my brother and me, speech was NOT free; speech was a privilege and a responsibility. When Grandma said, “Watch your mouth!” we understood that every inappropriate word carried a price tag.

Things seem to be different in the 21st century. Children mouth obscenities and their parents call it play. Teenagers spit out hatred of self and others; sociologists call it gangsta rap. Adults produce images of depravity and debauchery; critics call it call social commentary.

But we are shocked by unexpected and random outbursts of crime and immorality. We wonder why our children are killing each other. We are puzzled by the lack of civility and common courtesy in daily discourse.

Grandma knew that words can shape character, that language can touch hearts, that what we say becomes what we are.

We do live in a country where speech is free. Yeah. Free from restraint. Free of respect for each other. Free of responsibility. But that freedom ain’t free.

We all pay for it. Isn’t the price too high?

[tags]freedom, obscenity, First Amendment[/tags]

Is life fair? Maybe so, maybe not. But when you take the long view…things tend to work out.

I’ve watched folks doin’ dirt and keepin’ their hands clean.
I’ve seen good folks hurt while praise gets heaped on folks who’re mean.
I’ve looked at folks climb to the top by trompin’ others down.
And then I’ve wondered, “Lord, O Lord, when does it come back ’round?”

I’ve heard mommas curse the kids they carried in their wombs.
I’ve seen kids whose evil drove their mommas to cold tombs.
I’ve talked to folks in desp’rate need whose blood kin let them down.
And then I’ve wondered, “Lord, O Lord, when does it come back ’round?”

But when I see the soft, sweet smile that lights a gen’rous face;
When I share the peace of folks who thank God for His grace;
When I’m helped and then I help folks get up off the ground;
Jesus tells me, “Look here, child! Love always comes back ’round.”