Out of curiosity I just was cruising through church pictures after the earthquake in Haiti. This church in Port-au-prince seems to be doing it right. The courtyard is full of refugee tents. The church may be damaged, but the courtyard is full of the love of Christ. This makes me happy. Very, very happy.
Isaiah 58: 9-12 (NRSV)
My brothers and sisters my heart aches, as does yours for Haiti and the precious children that we have almost certainly lost in this tragedy. There is no simple platitude or statement that can explain it away or calm a sickened heart. Many Pastors and Evangelists have hit the air waves to try and explain why this happened or why God would allow such a tragedy. Anything they say is but hearsay and their attempt to speak for God. No one speaks for God, except for God.
While praying for Haiti God keeps giving me the words from Isaiah “repairer of the breach.” The only times these words appear together are in Isaiah 58. As I look at the context of the words it is saying that those who fast, who turn their hearts towards the afflicted and those in need that “The Lord will guide you continually and satisfy your needs in parched places.” If ever there is a land that is parched it is Haiti. If ever there is a land that the Lord will guide Compassion International in it is Haiti. These words give me hope. I hope because I know that Compassion Haiti is led by godly men and women and that God has a promise to keep.
I am watching the Southern skies and I am waiting for the sky to light up because there is a light that is rising in the darkness, and it is the Church in Haiti. If ever there is a time for hope, the time is now. If ever there is a time to look away from despair and anticipate what God is doing, now is that time.
In Nehemiah we see the story of a man whose heart was broken for his people and who confessed, repented and fasted for his nation. In doing so he found great favor with the king, was given permission to go and rebuild Jerusalem and God was with him as he made some pretty audacious requests of the King. He was not a noble, nor was he a man of station. He was a food taster for the king. However, God used his humbled and repentant heart to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem, and in only 52 days. (Neh 6:15)
God is on the move in Haiti. God is using Nehemiah’s in all kinds of places. We may not see everything, we may be frustrated in our attempts to get good information, but God is in charge of it all. As we move from confusion and despair let’s make a conscious effort to be Nehemiah’s in our walk and move from mourning to laughing, from sorrow to joy. The pain we see in this life is only a temporary event. Joy truly does come in the morning.
~Selah~
Recently I attended a wedding for a young lady I have served with while doing missions work. It was a wonderful wedding full of fun little surprises. As a consummate people watcher and lover of the little things in life something caught my attention that I want to share about.
When the couple said their vows they also asked for a congregational covenant. Basically they asked those of us in the congregation to affirm our commitment to bringing them up through their marriage as a congregation and enter into a covenant to be there to advise them, to love them, and to remind them when they are being bone headed. I have not attended a lot of weddings, but I honestly can say that is the first I have seen of that. I liked it; I liked it a lot actually. Marriage is an act performed in front of a community of believers for this very reason. It is so that there will be people to hold you accountable and to inspire you towards holiness in your marriage. God does not need the big ceremony, people do.
The way we responded to the covenant was with a simple “we will” spoken as a congregation. Most of us said it, and then a young boy probably about 3 years old behind me was about ½ a second out of time with the rest of the congregation. He said “we will” in just enough different of a tone and timing that those of us around him could hear him very well. It was cute, but also a good reminder that not only is a church, your neighbors, your co-workers watching, but the eyes of children, and one day your children, will be watching you as well.
In Matthew 18:6 Jesus was straight and to the point and as serious as a heart attack when he said these words:
“But whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to stumble, it would be better for him to have a heavy millstone hung around his neck, and to be drowned in the depth of the sea.” (ESV)
There is so much of what we do as adults, and in the name of Christ cause little ones to stumble. It is incumbent upon those of us who bear then name and the mark of the covenant with Jesus to act and behave in such a manner that glorifies him. Marriage is one of those things that we can glorify him in, and in the process grow deeper and deeper in our understanding of him. Poor marriages are being watched whether we choose to believe it or not. Little eyes are always watching, even if you do not have children. Your nieces and nephews, your neighborhood children, the kids in Church can all see right to the heart of things. It is only when we “grow up” that we lose some of that discernment.
When I was a young man I remember my mother being prevailed upon by the Pastor to lead a Sunday school class. My mom was a mature woman of God and would have done wonderfully, especially since she would not be teaching my class. He asked regularly for about a year. Finally she responded that she just did not want the responsibility of leading young children. I thought that was a little odd then, but today I understand. In some ways it is those who lead the little children that will be held at a higher degree of responsibility then the rest of us.
A few of my regular readers of this blog are soon to have children. First congratulations, and second, make sure your spiritual house is in order because children are a megaphone that will either magnify the good things about you, or magnify the bad. When they affirm them bad in you I hope you listen, God is talking.
Awaken As The Beloved
We awaken in Christ’s body
as Christ awakens our bodies,
and my poor hand is Christ. He enters
my foot, and is infinitely me.
I move my hand, and wonderfully
my hand becomes Christ, becomes all of Him
(for God is indivisibly
whole, seamless in His Godhood).
I move my foot, and at once
he appears like a flash of lightning.
Do my words seem blasphemous? – Then
open your heart to Him
and let yourself receive the one
who is opening to you so deeply.
For if we genuinely love Him,
we wake up inside Christ’s body
where all our body, all over,
every most hidden part of it,
is realized in joy as Him,
and He makes us, utterly, real,
and everything that is hurt, everything
that seemed to us dark, harsh, shameful,
maimed, ugly, irreparably
damaged, is in Him transformed
and recognized as whole, as lovely,
as radiant in His light
we awaken as the Beloved
in every last part of our body.
As this New Year gets a start I love listening to the pundits, the preachers, and just regular Joes at the coffee shop discuss this previous year and how they feel about the upcoming year. I have always been one who is inclined to people watching, but I am ever more so at New Years. What fascinates me so much is that at the beginning of a new year everyone is an optimist. Sure there are some who are not, but for the most part no matter how damaging of situation they have been in a person looks to the future with hope. Sometimes it is cynical, as in “well this year sucked. Lost my job, lost my wife, she took the dog so what could be worse?” But most of it is people doing the introspection for the last year and then deciding that the next year will be better. Karma will be on their side, the cosmos must owe them something because of the string of bad years.
One thing that I believe sets American’s apart from so many other nationalities is our audacious hope. When the writers of the Declaration of Independence sat down to begin what would be one of the greatest subversions in history, they had hope. I believe hope was inculcated into our national D.N.A. the moment those men set the pen to parchment. I am glad to see that it has not left. Times are tough for sure. People are losing jobs, losing cars, losing savings and retirement like crazy. More and more people are becoming bereft of the things that traditionally are seen as indicators of stability and safety. I am no exception to this, and boy it hurts, for awhile anyway.
The book of Lamentations is a great view of what happens when it all goes wrong. When God judges your sin, when the car is repossessed, your wife is drug through the streets and raped, when your children are sold into slavery and your fields are burned to the ground and turned into the Kings vineyard. Yet, in the midst of all of this there is Jeremiah reminding his people to hope:
“I’ll never forget the trouble, the utter lostness, the taste of ashes, and the poison I’ve swallowed.
I remember it all –oh, how well I remember, the feeling of hitting the bottom.
But there’s one thing I remember. And remembering I keep a grip on hope.
God’s loyal love couldn’t have run out, his merciful love couldn’t have dried up.
They are created new every morning. How great your faithfulness!”
Lam 3: 19-24 (msg)
America, we have an incurable and insatiable optimism and hope. Guess where it comes from? It is built into who you are by your creator and it is a gift. Optimism is a gift. We have been given the gift of foresight, hindsight, and the ability to reason rationally in the present with these things in mind. What sets us apart from animals is we are given these gifts, and we are given the ability to choose them over all else in times of great stress, trouble and pain. We do not have to fall back on doing what we have always done and wishing for another outcome. That is how animals go extinct. Some variable changes and they do not have the ability to cope. We have the ability to cope because we have hope. A hope that comes from a living and active God. Our trials are only for a time. Our time in the wilderness is for a season, and our Joy truly does come in the morning when God and his mercy and love are renewed upon us.
America, let’s turn our faces toward our heavenly father this year, let’s turn our minds towards the hope that is in us. I want to be like the church in 1 Thessalonians when Paul first speaks to them:
“Every time we think of you, we thank God for you. Day and night you’re in our prayers as we call to mind your work of faith, your labor of love,
And your patience of hope in following our Master, Jesus Christ, before God our Father. It is clear to us, friends, that God not only loves you very much
But also has put his hand on you for something special. When the Message we preached came to you, it wasn’t just words.
Something happened in you. The Holy Spirit put steel in your convictions”
1 Thess 1:2 (msg, bold mine)
We are set apart by God. We are his workmanship and he has a plan and a purpose for us. Let’s all commit to look for it in 2010. Let’s let the steel in our convictions become evident before all this year and let’s watch and see what the Lord will do. I, for one, am excited to see it.
~Selah~
##Update## I saw this from Bono and found it fascinating and very hope filled. He believes this next century is going to be great, I agree.
