Christ, the Lawnmower

Jesus told us that we would do even greater things than He did (John 14:12). Hard to believe. I have never healed the lame or raised the dead. But something struck me today; the three dead people He raised are dead again. The blind He healed can no longer see. He was like a huge lawnmower cutting an impressive swath across the historical record. It got our attention, and now He’s gone and the grass is still growing. 

Here I am learning to be a Christian (a “little Christ”), but I don’t feel like a lawnmower. I can’t cut 1,000 blades of grass in one second. I’m but an ant with a tiny saw, and it takes me 10 seconds to cut one single blade. Not very impressive.

But do the math. If there are a million blades to cut, it will take the Lawnmower over 16 minutes to cut them. But if there are a million ants sent into the lawn, the whole thing will be cut in 10 seconds.

And one further point, parts of Israel were blessed by the compassion of Jesus for about three years. But for over 2,000 years the world has benefited from the charity of unsung Christians in all corners of the globe. A multitude of feeble little Christians today continue to bring the love of Christ to the whole world.

What God Isn't

A friend is carrying a heavy burden right now, and I have sympathized sharing tales from my own times of disappointment. And it dawns on me that the testimonies we share in public are the things we believe that God is (all nice things, of course.) But in private, and in loss, we share what we have discovered He isn’t. Generally those words are more encouraging to the grieving, and more helpful to our growth in faith.

Is it possible that He sometimes withholds Himself from us so that we can learn to be a better support to each other?

What's in a Name!

An ancient story comes to life with new meaning when we look at the names that were involved. 

Orpah means “neck,” “girl with a full mane,” or “rain cloud.” Some take these images to mean “stubborn.” Ruth means “friend,” “companion,” or “vision of beauty.” Both pledge to stay with Naomi which means “pleasantness.” However, in the face of bitter disappointment and searing logic, Stubborn turns back while Friendship stays firm. And it creates a story of unparalleled beauty.

Isn’t it the same with us? Crisis and logic can twist us around and steal our vision. Our friendship with God is the stabilizing factor in our lives, and it puts the starch in our moral commitments. Stability and starch are necessary if we are to bring our Vision of Beauty to life on this earth.

In short, Pleasantness is fragile. It needs an unreasonable Friend.

Microscope Vs. Radar

My son once said that the rational mind is a wonderful servant, but a horrible master. There are things in our world that cannot be measured or logically outlined yet which make a huge difference to outcomes. Whether you think of those things as angels or psychological quirks, something puts a twist in the cause/effect chain of human life. All faculties must be used in charting our reality as best we can.

It struck me that examining the material of the physical world is like using a microscope. I can bring a relatively small object under the close scrutiny of my eye and conscious observation. It helps me get familiar with the subject. But to see the big picture takes a different instrument. I was going to say, a telescope since it helps bring the horizon closer. Now on further thought, I’d say “radar.” A radar helps us see 360. It gives us an awareness of what is around us. But like the radar, our faith, intuition, emotional intelligence, etc. may alert us to a "blip," but they do not provide the details and clarity of the microscope. Still, national defense would suffer if we limited ourselves to the clarity of the microscope.

To be fully attentive means to use each instrument available, and history has proven that faith has been a great complement to accurate perception and social action.

Personal Congruence: A Work of the Spirit

“He has made us competent as ministers of a new covenant—not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life” (2 Corinthians 3:6). 

Our confidence comes from having been made competent (See 2 Corinthians 3:4-5). But our competence is not from fulfilling the letter of the Law while our spirit yearns for something else. Instead, His Spirit fills us, wins our spirit, and brings our deepest desires into congruence with the way He designed His universe. It has always been about becoming compatible with all that is holy, beautiful, and sustainable. 

Praise God that His Spirit seeps down into our smallest cells and begins reconstructing our DNA. What bubbles back up to the surface is a body that obeys, a heart that wants to, and a mind that has quit looking for excuses. Oh, the joy of unity within oneself and towards God!

Signed, Sealed, and About to Be Delivered

“You show that you are a letter from Christ, … written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts” (2 Corinthians 3:3). 

The Word of God lives in this world. It is not flat like ink on paper, but is deep and powerful like the Spirit that first wrote life into existence. It is not brittle like granite, rather it is breathing and moving and able to reproduce like the flesh into which it is written. 

We are the letter from God. We need to be in the mailbox with the flag up!

Unconditional Hate

Reading in Amos this morning I saw “Hate evil, love good; maintain justice in the courts. Perhaps the Lord God Almighty will have mercy on the remnant of Joseph” (Amos 5:15). “Makes ya feel like a rousing Crusade or an invigorating Inquest, don’t it?” 

“Well, no. This is the age of Christian love, and Jesus taught us to love our enemies. After all, this isn’t even about how to treat our enemies. It says ‘hate evil’ not ‘hate people you think are evil’.” 

Still hate is a sensitive subject. We try to suppress hatred. We wish it would disappear from the face of the earth, but then we ourselves feel it, either at certain times or towards snakes and spiders, or perhaps certain medical procedures. Perhaps Amos is appealing to that deep human emotion to show how far we should run from distorting justice in order to advance our own interests or those of our buddies.

Jesus, Lover of our souls, also used shocking language when He commanded us to hate our fathers and mothers (Luke 14:26). No one believes the Holy One was promoting domestic violence or even the end of “unconditional love.” Rather He was saying dramatically that we should not allow their pleadings to turn us from our pursuit of God’s will in our own lives.

Unconditional love (agape) means that our hearts stay inclined towards a person regardless of what they do. Perhaps there is an appropriate unconditional hate that means our heart stays averse to things that dishonor God and break down society regardless of who promotes those things and regardless of how they may benefit us.