An Energetic Start!

Dear Faith Family,  

After nearly six weeks of repeating preparatory backstories and rejoicing in praiseworthy origins, we sped things up on Sunday. Taking our cue from Mark's gospel account, we jumped right into Jesus' revelatory light: "The good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, begins here."

The urgent energy of Mark's opening lines quickened by the brevity of his unavailing of Jesus' identity and purpose. The way prepared, the preparer silenced, the Son affirmed and amplified. What took Matthew some eighty verses and Luke closer to a hundred eighty verses to get to, Mark gets to in just thirteen. And what exactly is Mark in such a hurry to get to? Well, the "good news," of course!

Matching Mark's urgent energy (or perhaps its source) is Jesus' inaugural utterances, the first words of the Word become flesh and dwelling among us:

"Times up!
God's kingdom is here.
Repent and believe the good news." 

Three urgent, energy-packed sentences that re-created the world as we know it. Words that not only launched a life of ministry that led to a death and resurrection that forever changed history's course, but words that are continuing in their creative power to change us. Urgent, energy-packed words that might launch us with similar energy into a new year if we take the time to let them. 

So I invite you to ask the Spirit to reveal to you what Jesus saw as He spoke and continues to speak these world-remaking words. What did Jesus see that He wanted us to see in the true light of His words and life that followed? Ask. Listen. And let His light guide you into our days ahead. 

But, perhaps the words are too familiar to hit our ears with the same energy that Mark scribed them. If that's so, and you're not alone if it is, then let me encourage you first to listen to Sunday's message (whether for the first time or a second!). Then: Ask, Listen, and let His light enlighten. 

Praying for ears to hear and eyes to see so that we might be ones this year who are, as Jesus said, "blessed...for they see...for they hear [what] many prophets and righteous people longed to see...and to hear..." (Matt. 13:16-17)

 Love you, faith family! 

Welcome to Epiphany!

Dear Faith Family,  

Today officially begins the season of Epiphany. Once again, as we enter a new year together, Epiphanytide provides our faith family an opportunity to shine a fresh light on the grace and truth of God with us and God for us, God in us and His light shining through us to neighbor, co-worker, friend, and family.

Being a pastor/teacher, this is a season I get really excited about! For me, some of the most enlightening scriptures have been the stories Jesus tells about life with God, more commonly known as parables of the kingdom. Starting this Sunday, we'll spend the first month or so of 2023 immersing ourselves in the Kingdom Epiphanies found in some of Jesus' most profound stories told with intent! Each week, expecting to be enlightened, to see with greater clarity and amazement and conviction and application the nature of the King, His kingdom, and our place within, on earth, in Dallas, as it is in heaven! 

As enthused and expectant as I am for our time together in Jesus' parables, the glory of Jesus' person and work is that, in dozens of ways, each new day on life's road offers us little epiphanies, glimpses of the revelation of the grace and truth of God with us. Yet these epiphanies often rush by like images from a train window. 

For a brief time, I worked for an organization in England, and my only modes of transportation were feet and trains. While I enjoyed walking, I loved taking the train!

Observing the world through the window of a train is a paradoxical wonder. On the one hand, you are moving so quickly that life seems to be passing like a blur but at the same time, freed from the responsibility of movement, you have these extended and detailed glimpses of life in the world that you'd otherwise miss.

In many ways, this is how you and I traverse our days. Going here and there at such speed that any vision of the landscape we inhabit feels obscured and short-lived. And yet, like passengers on the train, we have both the leisure and the window from which to be enlightened to the wonder all around.

In her poem "Rocky Moutain Railroad, Epiphany," Luci Shaw aptly captures the experience of our daily travel through life in a way I think is most helpful. See if you agree, as we picture ourselves together looking out on the world from the train with...

The steel rails paralleling the river as we penetrate
ranges of pleated slopes and crests -- all too complicated
for capture in a net of words. In this showing, the train window

is a lens for an alternate reality -- the sky lifts and the light forms
shadows of unstudied intricacy. The multiple colors of snow
in the dimpled fresh fall. Boulders like white breasts. Edges

blunted with snow. My open-window mind is too little for
this landscape. I long for each sweep of view to toss off
a sliver, imbed it in my brain so that it will flash

and flash again its unrepeatable views. Inches. Angles.
Niches. Two eagles. A black crow. Skeletal twigs' notched
chalices for snow. Reaches of peak above peak beyond peak

Next to the track the low sun burns the silver birches into
brass candles. And always the flow of the companion river's cord of silk links the valleys together with the probability

of continuing revelation. I mind-freeze for the future this day's worth of disclosure. Through the glass the epiphanies reel me in, absorbed, enlightened.

As we travel through life with Jesus, the question is not if we will experience "continuing revelation...too complicated to capture in a net of words" but how our "too little...open-window" minds can retain even "a sliver" of the "unrepeatable views." The real question is, "how can we live from" such revelations in the ordinary, "draw from them, return to them," letting these little epiphanies shape and (re)shape our lives?

Our faith history has an answer for that: The Prayer of Examen. We spent a good portion of the end of 2022 immersing ourselves in the prayer and its foundational psalm (Psalm 139). Let's take what we started before, and keep it going in the year ahead. No need for something new, maybe just something more often! 

May the few moments a day of opening yourself to God with us reel us into the little epiphanies that fill our lives and allow us to become epiphanies to others.

Praying that 2023 will be a year of clear sight and faithful following. Love you, faith family! God bless.

A New Year's Tradition!

Dear Faith Family,  

Today is the first day of the new year. And so it is time to turn the calendar for 2023 is officially here!

And yet, as is often the case, the calendar's turning is no guarantee that change is coming or for good. Indeed, many wondrous and beautiful things in the year behind us were worth celebrating and praising. Still, we cannot deny that there has also been loss, sickness, strife, and all the ills plaguing our human condition. I suspect the same can be said for many past years and will be repeated in years ahead.

So what are we to do? As our brother Peter reminded us in his second letter, rather than judge the past and predict the future by the tally of wins and losses, we are to be caught up in "a living hope."  We are to live as ones who "count the patience of our Father as salvation," living "at peace" amind the mixture of praises and laments—knowing that at the turn of each year, of each day truly, we awake afresh into the certainty of sin and death's final days. So, with confident hope, we can ring out the old that is passing away and ring in the new that will be forever. 

And so, that is what we will do, ring out the old and ring in the new! And will do so through what has become a tradition for our faith family, praying together this poem by Alfred Lord Tennyson. A poem that can be prayed over and over until the new that is Christ in us, through us, and for us and neighbor is all that is left. 

Love you, faith family! Happy New Year and God bless. 

In Memoriam CVI | Alfred Lord Tennyson

Ring out, wild bells, to the wild sky, 
The flying cloud, the frosty light:
The year is dying in the night; 
Ring out, wild bells, and let him die. 

Ring out the old, ring in the new, 
Ring, happy bells, across the snow: 
The year is going, let him go; 
Ring out the false, ring in the true. 

Ring out the grief that saps the mind
For those that here we see no more; 
Ring out the feud of rich and poor, 
Ring in redress to all mankind. 

Ring out a slowly dying cause, 
And ancient forms of party strife; 
Ring in the nobler modes of life, 
With sweeter manners, purer laws. 

Ring out the want, the care, the sin,
The faithless coldness of the times; 
Ring out, ring out my mournful rhymes 
But ring the fuller minstrel in. 

Ring out false pride in place and blood, 
The civic slander and the spite; 
Ring in the love of truth and right, 
Ring in the common love of good. 

Ring out old shapes of foul disease; 
Ring out the narrowing lust of gold; 
Ring out the thousand wars of old; 
Ring in the thousand years of peace. 

Ring in the valiant man and free, 
The larger heart, the kindlier hand; 
Ring out the darkness of the land, 
Ring in the Christ that is to be. 

Keeping The Party Going!

Dear Faith Family,  

yesterday officially began the "Twelve Days of Christmas." That's right, the twelve days start on Christmas, not lead up to it! 

The process of connecting the feast of Christmas (December 25th) to the feast of Epiphany (January 6th) began in the fourth century and eventually, all the days between the two special days on the church calendar were "proclaimed sacred and festive." That means the celebration doesn't stop after the presents are opened! 

While culturally, in the words of Gabe Huck, "We take our Christmas with lots of sugar. And we take it in a day," the Church over the last fifteen-hundred-plus years has kept the party going well into the New Year!

So why not join in?! Why not keep your tree and decorations up a bit longer, until the end of the twelve days, January 6th? Why not plan a couple more special activities with friends, family, and kids? Why not keep the Christmas carols ringing and Christmas prayers praying for a few more days? 

That last one, keeping the Christmas prayers praying, I can help you with! 

Starting with the sonnet below, I'll share a poem to pray each of the Twelve Days of Christmas via our Collective Prayers.  I won't send a push notification every day, but just a few times to remind you to keep the party going! After all, as Bobby Gross contends, "If Advent is a season of waiting, Christmas is a season of wonder"! 

May our wonder grow exponentially as we take the time to behold the gift of Christmas and are drawn into His marvelous mystery! 

Love you, faith family! God bless! 

O Sapientia | Malcome Guite 

I cannot think unless I have been thought, 
Nor can I speak unless I have been spoken; 
I cannot teach except as I am taught, 
Or break the bread except as I am broken. 
O Mind behind the mind through which I seek, 
O Light within the light by which I see, 
O Word beneath the words with which I speak, 
O founding, unfound Wisdom, finding me, 
O sounding Song whose depth is sounding me, 
O Memory of time, reminding me, 
My Ground of Being, always grounding me, 
My Maker's bounding line, defining me: 
You've Come, hidden Wisdom, come with all you bring, 
You've Come to me now, disguised as everything. 

The Wait Is Nearly Over!

Dear Faith Family,  

Well, the wait is nearly over! In just a few hours, the world will awaken to the glory of long-awaited desires. A day that is sure in its arrival no matter the weather or temperature of our hearts, for it is the day in which Heaven has answered earth! 

So, on this eve of Christmas' arrival, I invite us to pray and ponder one more poem together. Letting the words show us something more than just another day on the calendar and another gift under the tree. 

Love you, faith family! Merry Christmas, and God bless!

Christmas Eve | Christina Rossetti

Christmas hath darkness
Brighter than the blazing noon,
Christmas hath a chillness
Warmer than the heat of June, 
Christmas has a beauty
Lovelier than the world can show: 
For Christmas bringeth Jesus, 
Brought for us so low. 

Earth, strike up your music, 
Birds that sing and bells that ring; 
Heaven hath answering music
For all Angels soon to sing:
Earth, put on your whitest
Bridal robe of spotless snow:
For Christmas bringeth Jesus,
Brought for us so low.  

Advent's Home Stretch!

Dear Faith Family,  

It's hard to believe that we are on Advent's home stretch! Kids get out of school in just a couple of days, then, before you know it, the morning that has garnered so much of our attention, efforts, and even anxiousness over the last month will finally be here! And then, on that morning of mornings, most will be up early in the middle of a half-groggy haze while a frantic tearing into the treasures built up under our trees ends in the living room covered in paper and ribbon shrapnel. All this before we splurge on sweets and family staples as we move from one gathering to the next. The thought of it all rises in me a mixture of elation and angst!

While much of life seems too swift, it is even more true of the final sprint to Christmas morn. As in every good story and song, the pace quickens, building to the crescendo, which is why I want to invite you to join me in an Advent practice we started a few years ago. A habit meant to help us do what we've been doing all month: slow down and step into the depth of the flow of these last days before Christmas rather than be swept up by them. 

In the first centuries after Christ's resurrection, our faith forerunners developed a custom of praying seven great prayers to call afresh on Jesus to "come." These prayers are prayed without our customary designations for Christ; instead, they address Jesus by titles found in the Old Testament, especially in Isaiah: "O Wisdom!" "O Root of Jesse!" "O Emmanuel!" etc.

They called these prayers the "O Antiphons," for they are sung as much as prayed. Seven brief songs calling us into the quickening anticipation of our salvation needed and provided. Priest and poet, Malcome Guite, explains their design and aid for you and me this way,

"Each antiphone begins with the invocation 'O' and then calls on Christ, although never by name. The mysterious titles and emblems given him from the pages of the Old Testament touch our deepest needs and intuitions; then each antiphon prays the great Advent verb, Veni, 'Come!'

There is, I think, both wisdom and humility in this strange abstention from the name of Christ in a Christian prayer. Of course, these prayers are composed AD...but in a sense, Advent itself is always BC! The whole purpose of Advent is to be for a moment fully and consciously Before Christ...Whoever compiled these prayers was able, imaginatively, to write 'BC,' perhaps saying to themselves: 'If I hadn't heard of Christ, and didn't know the name of Jesus, I would still long for a savior. I would still need someone to come. Who would I need? I would need a gift of Wisdom, I would need a Light, a King, a Root, a Key, a Flame.' And poring over the pages of the Old Testament, they would find all these things promised in the coming of Christ. By calling on Christ using each of these seven several gifts and prophecies, we learn afresh the meaning of a perhaps too familiar name.

It might be a good Advent exercise, and paradoxically an aid to sharing the faith, if for a season we didn't rush in our conversation to refer to the known name, the predigested knowledge, the formulae of our faith, but waited alongside our non-Christian neighbors, who are, of course, living 'BC.'  We should perhaps count ourselves among the people who walk in darkness but look for a marvelous light." 

The O Antiphones officially begin on Saturday (17th) and will carry us through the 23rd. We'll post them in our Collective Prayers and send a push reminder daily via the app. 

But in the few days between, take a moment and consider Guite's exhortation to ponder afresh "Who do you need to come this Christmas?" and "Who is my friend...my family member...my neighbor needing to arrive?" and find in Jesus' arrival your need met. 

Love you, faith family! Merry Christmas and God bless. 

Starting Again!

Dear Faith Family,  

Sunday officially sparked the beginning of the Advent season! It's here once more, a special time of the year in which the anticipation of something wonderful and new fills our hearts, catches our sight, echoes in our ears, and swims in our dreams. It is truly one of my favorite seasons, and I don't think I'm alone in that sentiment!

One of the things that makes Advent so remarkable, at least to me, is the assured expectation it engenders. Having gone through the cycle (more than!) a few times, I know that everything which makes this time of year special--traditions and songs, liturgy and lights, meals with family and friends, giving and receiving, etc.--is sure to be experienced again (though perhaps in new ways).

While there may be a surprise or two waiting under a tree somewhere, and, admittedly, in some years, the special things are made harder through loss or fraying relations. Nevertheless, the certainty of what has been and what will be, ensures the satisfaction of anticipation.

And what is true of this season, is also true of our lives with God. What has been--Christ has come!--and what will be--Christ will come again!--ensures Christ is with us in this and every season. Little advents are taking place all around us, if only we pay attention!

"Faith," says Fredrick Buechner, "is a way of paying attention." Perhaps there is no season more favorable to faith than Advent. In all the special things that make up Advent our attention and our faith are drawn to the wonderful and ever-new reality of life with Jesus. For Advent "calls us to a posture of alertness...watchful and ready...for the signs of hope...waiting for the light of Christ," as Bobby Gross reminds us.

"Faith," too, says Buechner, "is waiting." Waiting not in passivity but letting our hearts and heads and hands be consumed by "the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things unseen." Like no other time of year, we are attentive to the truth that Jesus has come, born of woman, swaddled under the expanse of angels singing. And that he will return, as the Lamb slain and risen, King of kings, arriving once more to complete what he started in us and the world. All the while calling attention to the truth that he has never once left us, and we can expect that he never will.

So, this Advent, let us join together in asking our Father to see in the signs of the season the faithfulness of his presence and the assurance of his working in us and in the world. 

May we be watchful and ready, actively waiting to hear him speak to us through the words of others and to speak through us to them. Open to him revealing himself in the face of someone in need and caring for us in the kindness of friends. Expectant for him to move us when we gather to worship and stir us through song and silence. Anticipating the Spirit's still small voice throughout another cycle of this special season.

As the psalmist said, let us "Be still before the Lord," God With Us, "and wait patiently for him...feeding on his faithfulness." (Psalm 37:7,3)

Love you, faith family! God bless. 

Happy Thanksgiving!

Dear Faith Family,  

I know it's a few hours early, but Happy Thanksgiving! Wherever you find yourself, know that you are known and loved and are a significant part for what the Pace family is giving thanks. 

As you take a moment today or tomorrow to consider the graces of your life, I invite you to share the prayer below adapted from John Ballie. Love you, faith family! God bless.

Father and Maker of all things, whose creative power made the first ray of light, and who looked on the world's first morning and saw that it was good, We praise you for the light and life of another day and another year. 

We praise you for the life that stirs within us; 
We praise you for the bright and beautiful world around us; 
We praise you for the work you have given us to do; 
for all you have reverently made us to be;
We praise you for our friends, our family, and our communities of faith;
We praise you for all the graces great and small, of life in Your life. 

Father, you are everlasting Grace; give us tender hearts today toward all those who, in the light of another day, are less joyful than we. 

Those in whom the pulse of life grows weak--physically, spiritually, body and soul; 
Those blind to the light of your life in them; 
The overworked, who have no choice but to strive; 
The bereaved, whose hearts and homes are desolate; 
Let your grace pour over them. 

Father of Light that never fades, let us open to you our hearts, that all our lives might be filled with the radiance of your presence. Let the Spirit of Jesus, whose life is the light of all people, rule within our hearts as long as we call this day, 'Today.' Amen. 

The Messy Particulars

Dear Faith Family,  

It's been one of those weeks for the Pace family! While nothing catastrophic has occurred, few things have been easy, and even less has gone to plan. And it's only Wednesday!

When we prayed our Collective Prayer of commitment last week, giving ourselves over to the will and way of our Father in the week ahead, I certainly wouldn't have chosen the messy details of the week's particulars. And based on several conversations, I know I am not the only one who would have chosen differently! That is, if there really was a choice in the details, but there wasn't.  

The truth is, in a committed life of joy, the messy particulars of giving ourselves away to a cause (a kingdom) and a calling (a vocation) are often not a matter of choice. In truth, the committed life is actually lived in the messy details of life with others in membership, in belonging to others, and others belonging to us. In truth, our belonging often has little to do with choice. Whether by birth or by proximity, (re)birth or divine orchestration, "each of us is [both] made by...[and] made as-a set of unique associations with unique persons, places, and things." 

The apostle Paul labels our God-fashioned, Spirit-animated life with Him and others a membership:

"we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others." (Rom. 12:5)

In another letter, Paul would say that we don't get to choose who is in or out, needed or not needed in this membership, not even for ourselves (1 Cor. 12:14-26). Paul said all are needed, all of us in our varied "set-apartness," our God-crafted grace endowments, services, and energizing operations come together for "the common good," His good for all manifesting through our commitment to His will and way in the messy particulars of each other's lives (1 Cor. 12:4-7). When any member is cut off, lost, or not living into the truth of who and whose they are, the whole of the membership suffers (1 Cor. 12:26). 

While it would be easy--at least I am prone to think--to live committed to cause and calling in isolation, in a non-interdependent web of associations, the truth is, the very thing I am set apart for is what I am set apart into. In light of this truth, Paul says the "more excellent way" of living together is not merely to desire to be who we are made to be, but to do so in the messy particulars of love (1 Cor. 12:27-31). 

While the common use of 1 Corinthians 13 at weddings may lead us to assume it is reserved for the sacred commitment of marriage, Paul’s insertion of the familiar “The Way of Love” chapter follows his description of the membership and our responsibility for one another; the messy particulars were the cause and our calling manifest.

So, faith family, this week, let's read and meditate on Paul's words below, allowing the Spirit examen us in the particulars of our commitment to Him. 

Love you, faith family! God bless. 

————————————————————————————————————————————————————_

1 CORINTHIANS 13 | The Way of Love

If I speak with human eloquence and angelic ecstasy but don’t love, I’m nothing but the creaking of a rusty gate.

If I speak God’s Word with power, revealing all his mysteries and making everything plain as day, and if I have faith that says to a mountain, “Jump,” and it jumps, but I don’t love, I’m nothing.

If I give everything I own to the poor and even go to the stake to be burned as a martyr, but I don’t love, I’ve gotten nowhere.

So, no matter what I say, what I believe, and what I do, I’m bankrupt without love.

Love never gives up. Love cares more for others than for self. Love doesn’t want what is not its to possess. Love doesn’t strut, doesn’t have a swelled head, doesn’t force itself on others, isn’t always “me first,” doesn’t fly off the handle, doesn’t keep score of the sins of others, doesn’t revel when others grovel, but takes pleasure in the flowering of truth.

Love creates a covering of protection, a shield from the elements of daily living.

Love is easily and willingly persuaded by faith.

Love actively waits for God's fulfillment.

Love bears bravely and calmly all the ups and downs of life together. 

Love never dies. Inspired speech will be over some day; praying in tongues will end; understanding will reach its limit. We know only a portion of the truth, and what we say about God is always incomplete. But when the Complete arrives, our incompletes will be canceled.

When I was an infant at my mother’s breast, I gurgled and cooed like any infant. When I grew up, I left those infant ways for good. We don’t yet see things clearly. We’re squinting in a fog, peering through a mist. But it won’t be long before the weather clears and the sun shines bright! We’ll see it all then, see it all as clearly as God sees us, knowing him directly just as he knows us!

But for right now, until that completeness, we have three things to do to lead us toward that consummation: Trust steadily in God, hope joyously, love extravagantly. And the best of the three is love.

What Do You Really Want?

Dear Faith Family,  

I have a defect, well, probably several, if I am being honest! But one, in particular, has my attention at the moment. Here it is: I have a hard time knowing what I want, really even admitting that I want anything.

Whenever someone asks me what I want, whether it be for dinner, for Christmas, for the future, etc., it causes a glitch in my system. My mind immediately begins to spin through all the things I should want while simultaneously trying to weigh the advantages and disadvantages of each. Most of the time, especially for the more mundane desires, I respond with an "I don't know." or "I don't care." But in truth, my mind just couldn't settle, and the only thing left spinning was the colorful umbrella! For the more critical desires, all I am able to articulate are vague generalities or half-truths--not that they are untrue, though they are incomplete pictures in some way. 

I think the defect stems from something in my history and in my heart that has told me that desires are bad. I don't think anyone has actually said those words to me. Rather a mixture of certain personality dispositions and doctrinal emphasis throughout the years has made wanting, and especially expressing wishes, feel wrong. 

Hopefully, you don't share my defect! Because the truth is, while there is plenty of personal, historical, and scriptural evidence to condemn unfettered desires, there is just as much to suggest that being "awake and alive" to our enmeshed desires is actually one of the ways we unearth our vocation, that calling on our life for which God has "reverently set us apart."

For instance, the psalmist says living responsibly and vulnerable within the faithfulness of God allows us to receive what our souls yearn for, 

Trust in the LORD and do good. Dwell in the land and befriend faithfulness. Delight yourself (literally, "be soft, delicate") in the LORD, and He will give you the desires of your heart.

(Psalm 37:3-4) 

It seems like the good life God wants us to live, is a life in which we live out our desires in Him. Which sounds a lot like what Jesus said to his disciples the night before he gave his life for them, 

If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish (i.e., desire), and it will be done for you. 

(John 15:7) 

So faith family, as those (like me) trying to live responsibly, I invite you to join me in also "being soft" before the Lord, letting Him examen our desires through the practice below. Trusting that He is "carefully working in you both to desire and to do that thing which you desire." (Phil. 2:13)

Love you, faith family! 

____________________________________________________________

EXAMEN | DEEP DESIRES

"The people who make the wisest vocation decisions are the people who live their lives every day with their desires awake and alive…They are ones that see their desires, confront their desires, and understand what they truly yearn for."
(David Brooks)

Step 1 | Quiet Your Heart

Take three deep breaths, breathing in the Spirit of Truth. Breathe out any fear, anxiety, or arrogance that would keep you from receiving what you need most—the light ofGod’s exhaustive and freeing knowledge of you—preparing yourself to be guided to all truth in the depths of your life within His life.

Step 2 | Open Your Soul

If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea...
[If my desires move me too swiftly, or if they feel unteathered]
even there Your hand shall lead me, and Your right hand shall hold me.
If I say, 'Surely the darkness shall cover me, and the light about be night,'
[If I say, 'My desires feel covered by the dark, or they are hidden from me,]
even the darkness is not dark to You, the night is bright as the day, for darkness is as light to you.
(Psalm 139:9-12)

Dietrich Bonhoeffer once commented, "It is remarkable that I am never quite clear about the motives for any of my decisions." Nailing down the desires that move our acting in the world can feel like trying to catch the wind or find our bearing on an endless sea (v. 9). Yet, says the psalmist, even there, in the swell of our emotions, the Spirit is leading us, His hand guarding and holding us steady (v. 10). Trusting that God has you and your desires, ask the Spirit to search the depths of your soul to help you see what is darkened by fear or pride or abandonment or wounds or sin: revealing the true light of what you long for (v. 11-12).

Please look at these questions, ask them of the Spirit, listen to the still, small voice, and write down what you hear/see.

• What am I motivated to do, keep doing, and get better at for decades?

• What have I truly loved thus far in my life?

• What has uplifted my soul, dominated and delighted it simultaneously?

• What tension or problem arouses great waves of moral, spiritual, and relational energy in me?

Allow yourself to rest in your responses for a moment, finding the friendship of God's faithfulness a safe place for your soul to dwell. Let the Father examen you as you consider the things you wrote down, allowing the Spirit to lead you, showing you if there is something more to what you want. Again, write down what you hear.

Step 3 | Trust in the LORD and Do Good

Read Psalm 37:3-11

Often, we move from identifying what we want directly to attaining what we want. But the psalmist tells us our first step is to trust and do good, to live today and feed on the faithfulness of God, finding safe pasture in life with Him. Then, when our hearts are delighted in the reality of our life wholly enmeshed in His, can we receive from Him what we desire most.

So, rather than writing out the next steps for getting what you want, write out what good you can do today for the people and in the roles and responsibilities already before you, letting your desires rest in the safe pasture of God’s faithfulness.

Step 4 | Commit

Commit your way to the LORD; trust in him, and he will act. He will bring forth your righteousness as the light
(Psalm 37:5-6a)

Write out a commitment to the LORD as a prayer of gratitude, trust, and expectation of receiving what He desires to give you.

Where Jesus Desires You To Be

Dear Faith Family,  

Have you ever found that following Jesus--listening to, trusting in, and responding to his voice--has led you to places you didn't necessarily want to be? Say, from the energy of being at the center of his movement to being in the center of a storm? Or perhaps from a place of confident ministry into a place of seemingly endless opposition? Or maybe even from a place "out there" to the place "right here"? If so, as Dylan enlightened us on Sunday, you are in good company! (see Mark 4:35-5:20)

Opening ourselves to God's knowledge of us and wholly committing ourselves to be led into the full fruitfulness of that knowledge in the course of our daily living does not always take us where we expect or even desire (at least not immediately). But doing so does put us exactly where Jesus desires us to be. 

In his “High Priestly Prayer” found in John 17, Jesus prayed for you and me, and we,

Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world.

What Jesus desires for you, me, and we; is for us to be with him where he is, where he is active and living and working. And being with him, seeing the beauty of his life, the light of life and love calming the storm, silencing the opposition, and commissioning us to be a part of His kingdom come and will done in our lives and the lives of those around us. 

So this week, because we desire what Jesus desires for us, let us pray for strength, the courage, and the compassion required to be with and see Jesus wherever he leads.

Father, we confess that stepping into the unknown, even with you, is a bit disconcerting. Our hearts long to trust you, so help our unbelief, especially when the way ancient and everlasting is anything but smooth sailing.

Jesus, thank you that your desire is for us to join you in your glorious life. A life that has given us our lives, freeing us to live and move and have our being. A life lived in the clarity of your knowledge. Help us to see that what has been given to us, you desire for all, and are presently working towards your desire today.

Holy Spirit, strengthen our inner being, so that Jesus might dwell in our hearts and we might know the vastness of his love for us. In your loving strength, let us share the heart of our Father for those in our lives whom you are leading us to. And let us speak of the goodness of your Son to all who will hear. 

Let our words and our actions and our affections be yours, cultivating your life in those we see today. In Jesus we live and with Jesus we pray. Amen.

Love you, faith family! 

Loving Well

Dear Faith Family,  

I assume that you want to love well. That you desire what is really good for those persons, places, professions, and even passions to which you've given your affection. And I assume this is true of you even if, like myself, your actions and attitudes don't always seem to align with your aspirations. 

If I am honest, often the misses in my loving--those times when I really am acting out of love but the result is anything but "really good"--aren't for lack of right desire, but a matter of a missed perception. 

Maybe you are different, but I typically have an idea or picture in mind of what is really good for the lives and things I am a part of, especially when compelled by love to get involved within their happenings. Yet I run into issues when I'm primarily looking for what is good and yet unaware of what is true in the lives and things I love. 

"to love others well," says Thomas Merton, "we must first love the truth." And the "truth I must love...is God Himself, living in them. I must seek the life of the Spirit of God breathing in them."

It's not enough for me to want what is really good for those lives and things I love; I must seek and find the only good Himself (Lk. 18:19) present and active. When I am first aware of Love Himself (1 Jn. 4:16) already loving, I can truly love well. 

This shift of perspective from desiring what is good to seeing what is true, is subtle. Yet it sets us up to love with reverent humility and bold effectiveness. In a word, to be meek, and an inherited of all that is God's (Ps. 37:11 & Matt. 5:5).

But how do you make the shift, and make it natural? 

Several hundred years ago, the anchoress, Julian of Norwich, found herself in a similar situation as you and me. She wanted to love well, but knew to do so; she needed to be aware of some One else's love already active. So Julian came up with an "eye exercise" to help her more naturally shift perspective. 

I look at God.
I look at who/what I love.
I keep looking at God.

Her first motion was to look at the One in whose life and love both herself and who/what she loved exists. Only when her eyes had adjusted to the light of that Truth did her gaze turn to the need of the beloved, who was now seen as already enmeshed in God's activities and affection. Then, Julian could love well, knowing if and how to act or speak...or not. 

Maybe an "eye exercise" seems silly to you. I know it did to me at first. But think what could be different for those you love if you took the time to love what is good for them and what is true in them. 

To help you and me get the heart of the exercise, I've included a brief prayer with each movement. Try it this week. When love compels you to enter into the happenings of others, stop for just a moment, seek and find the Truth already shining, and follow Him in loving well. 

I LOOK AT GOD

Father, You hem us in. We have nowhere to go from Your presence. You have formed and written us into Your life. 

I LOOK AT WHO/WHAT I LOVE

Jesus, that which is made, is life in You--from You and through You and to You. 

I KEEP LOOKING AT GOD

Holy Spirit, lead me into Your life and love. I will follow, and love as You love. 

May we come to know and to believe the love that God has for us and his love is perfected in us as we love one another.

I love you, faith family! God bless!

Don't Forget What Comes Second

Dear Faith Family,  

Several weeks ago, we started down the road of trying to answer the question all humans ask (and re-ask): Who am and what am I for? We've discovered (I hope!) that at the heart of our universal question is what we love, for who/what we are willing to give ourselves away. 

Discovering that we know ourselves by first giving ourselves away to God and His desires--loving God with all our hearts, souls, minds, and strength--is certainly not a new revelation! The truth that we are created to desire what God desires, and to seek His desire (will) above all else, has deep roots in our stories and The Story of scripture. This "great and first commandment," as Jesus called it in Matthew 22:37-38, has been one that most of us have heard and sought to follow from the beginning of our faith. 

And so, as we discovered last week, living in the light of who God knows and has crafted us to be and become is a heart issue. When our hearts are calibrated to His heart for us and His world, we are free to follow our hearts to our question's answer. Still, as John, the beloved friend and follower of Jesus, said, there is something new in this old truth that we need to pay attention to. 

Beloved, I am writing you no new commandment, but an old commandment that you had from the beginning…At the same time, it is a new commandment that I am writing to you, which is true in Jesus and in you, because the darkness is passing away and the true light is already shining.
(1 John 2:7-8)

Already, the darkness that keeps God’s intimately crafted knowledge of us is fading as the true light of what God desires for us and through us shines in the world. “Christ in you, the hope of glory” (Col. 1:27), as the apostle Paul put it, adds a new dimension to the old command, for “it is God who is at work within us both to desire and to work for what He desires” (Phil. 2:13). But, John says, there is a way that we remain blind even in the fading dark: when our hearts are against one whose God’s heart is for.

…because the darkness is passing away and the true light is already shining. Whoever says he is in the light and hates his brother is still in the darkness. Whoever loves his brother abides in the light, and in him there is no cause for stumbling. But whoever hates his brother is in the darkness and walks in the darkness, and does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes.
(1 John 2:8b-11)

What often keeps us from living in the clarity of who we are and what we are for is not a heart that doesn’t desire what God desires, but a heart that, as the “old commandment” forbade, hangs onto a grudge, acting on ill will towards our siblings rather than loving a neighbor (see Leviticus 19:17-18). Perhaps that is why Jesus quickly connected the great first command with "a second like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself" (Matt. 22:39). 

It is not enough to love God, to desire to do what He wants. It is our beginning and our end, absolutely. But, as Jesus said, we are also made to love what/who God loves. If we miss this, we'll find that we stumble or get lost in finding the answer to the question.

So, this week faith family, let us go one step further and join together in asking God to know our hearts toward those in our lives, and lead us in the clarity of His love for them.

Father, we come to You because our sins are forgiven for Jesus’ sake, and we are called Your children because of His love for us.

Father, we come to You because we desire what You desire and want nothing more than to live the fullness of Your life in us.

Father, search us and know our hearts. Show us if there is any violence or animosity, any bitterness or apathy towards those in our lives (even the ones we fail to see).

Father, create in us pure hearts, and let the love of Jesus lead us to see clearly the way before us.

Because Jesus lives and is pressing back the darkness already, we pray. Amen.

Love you, faith family! 

Getting Back to the Heart of The Question

Dear Faith Family,  

To know that I've been knit together, reverently set apart, exhaustively known, as Psalm 139 proclaims, is undoubtedly a wondrous truth and inspiring praise!

For you formed my inward parts;
you knitted me together in my mother's womb.

I praise you, for I am fearfully set apart,
and wonderfully made.

Wonderous are your works...

I was...intricately woven in the depths of the earth.

Your eyes saw my unformed substance;
in your book were written, every one of them,
the days that were formed for me,
when as yet there was none of them. 

(Psalm 139:14-16) 

Yet the awe of faith's insight is not merely in the enormity of such knowledge, as vast at it may be. Nor is it only in the grandeur of its completion, as wonderful as it will be. The awe of God's forming is also in the uniqueness of its graces. 

I don't know about you, but I tend to associate grace with negatives. Grace, as I am prone to describe it to others, is not receiving the just consequences for our wrong/sinful actions. Or, perhaps grace kept us from the felt realities of evil: tragedy or failure or want. While both statements are true, in truth, grace is simply unmerited favor. Approval and goodwill extended not on the basis of action or inaction (positively or negatively) but received from the heart of another. Grace is a kindness enacted, a goodness bestowed simply from the goodness of the giver.

Now think about grace and Psalm 139 for a moment. If God purposefully and adorningly crafted every molecular element of our potential and did so long before someone could realize (earn or merit) their potential, then it is not a stretch to say that our very being is the product of grace. The uniqueness of our features--both internal and external--are bestowed upon us as kindness, a goodness from the Giver of life. And our hearts, the longings and loves that lead us, graced by Another's heart. 

When we realize that what we essentially, fundamentally desire in and out of life is "a spiritual instinct" of God's grace in us, that's when we can wholly commit to God's desires, giving ourselves away to His will and ways. And while we chatted on Sunday about our hearts certainly having maturing to do, knowing that "our heart is after God's own heart" is how we'll begin to answer The Better Question. 

So, my friends, I am praying for you and invite you to pray with and for me that we'd experience the blessedness of His strength in and for us, whose hearts are the highways to God's dwelling: His kingdom come and will done on earth as it is in heaven (Ps. 84:5). And, that we’d listen to the One who knows our hearts,

The Friend, the Holy Spirit whom the Father has sent at Jesus’ request, making everything plain to us, reminding us of all the things Jesus has spoken to us that has left us well and whole…and at Peace. (Jn. 14:26-27)

Love you, faith family! 

A New Day's Blessing

Dear Faith Family,  

We have a morning ritual of sorts in our house, at least on school day mornings. Before we jet off on our separate ways, I hug each child, kissing their forehead and saying: "Love you, buddy/sweet girl. Listen to your teachers. Be kind to others. And do your best." They then pile into the car, Deedra leading them in prayer as they go full speed into a day where they, Lord willing, hold to at least one or two of the things spoken over them! 

In this little rite each morning, my desire is for Cohen and Lily to enter their day knowing through a loving embrace, not just what is expected, but what is possible. Yes, I want them to know that respectfulness, kindness, and diligence is the standard they are held to because they have within them the potential to be such a person. I want them to know what they are capable of doing (really, who they are capable of being) especially when the strictness of a teacher, the snootiness of a fellow student, or the subtle tug to settle makes their possible feel impossible.

I think when the apostle Paul, filled with the Spirit of Truth, wrote "...from God [it] was given to me for you, to make the word of God fully known...which is Christ in you, the hope of glory," it was our Father's way of letting us know not just what is expected of us, but what is possible for us--even when we feel such glorious living is impossible. In Paul's words, I hear our Father sending us off into our day, saying,

"I love you. I am with you (Jesus in you!), and I am for you. So you can do your best, my best for you." 

So my friends, may you receive our Father's new day blessing this morning. And may we do our best, in wonder and humility, being all that is possible for us, for God is with us, and God is for us, to His good pleasure. 

Love you, faith family! 

But So It Is.

Dear Faith Family,  

Getting to know ourselves in and through others, even the Other, is not our preferred method of self-discovery. We'd often prefer self-reflection to an external evaluation if we are honest. If we control our narrative, so we reason, then at least we know where we stand.

The problem, however, is, as Richard Foster pointed out, "If the examination is solely a self-examination, we will always end up with excessive praise or blame." The stories we tell ourselves are rarely the whole truth and nothing but the truth. Which is why we so need the help of God, as the psalmist so enthusiastically declares! 

Search me, O God and know my heart! 
Examine me and know my disquieting thoughts, 
And see if there is any grievous way in me, 
and lead me in the way ancient and everlasting. 

(Psalm 139: 23-24) 

But here is the thing, exams always seem to raise our anxiety, no matter who administrates them. That is unless we are sure of the outcome. 

What if we were certain that God's exhaustive knowledge of us would reveal nothing less than His delight and the promise of pleasing Him? It seems to me that only such faith could explain the unabashed excitement of the psalmist before God. The unanxious plea for exposing revelation has to be rooted in some assurance of what God will find. Right?

So what does the psalmist know? Why his self-assessment may not always be spot on, what the psalmist's "soul knows very well" in God's abiding knowledge of him, is that even amongst the disquieting thoughts and grievous ways, God will reveal one who is "fearfully set apart" (Psalm 139:14). 

Imagine the richness of such a life. Confidence and courage would energize one so certain of who they are and what they are for, something grand and possible. Such a person could genuinely give themselves away without fear, naivete, or trying to prove something. Can you imagine what would be possible in your life if you too possessed such hope?

The apostle Paul says we don't have to wonder about if, though we will surely have some growing it to do: 

God chose to make known how great...are the riches of...Christ in you, the hope of glory...that we may present everyone mature in Christ. (Colossians 1:27,29) 

The inescapable truth of faith in the gospel is that no matter our history or habits when our hearts are exposed, what is found in us is Jesus. What is uncovered is "God at work in us, to will and to work for his good pleasure" (Phil. 2:13). For, in the words of C.S. Lewis, 

"The promise of glory is the promise, almost incredible and only possible by the work of Christ, that some of us, that any of us who really chooses, shall actually survive that examination, shall find approval, shall please God. To please God...to be a real ingredient in the divine happiness...to be loved by God, not merely pitied, but delighted in as an artist delights in his work or a father in a son--it seems impossible, a weight or burden of glory which our thoughts can hardly sustain. But so it is." 

So this week, my friends, because the hope of glory is so assured, let us, like the psalmist, unanxiously plea for a life lived richly in who God knows us to be and who we are becoming in Jesus. 

Father, give us wise minds and spirits attuned to Your will. With hearts attuned to Yours, let us acquire a thorough understanding of the ways You work. May we live well for the Master, making Him proud as we work hard in Your creation. Father, as we learn more and more how You work, let that knowledge shape how we do our work.

Grant us the strength to strive with hope for the long haul—not a grim strength of gritted teeth, but the glory-strength that Jesus gives. Your strength endures the unendurable and spills into joy.

Thank You, Father, for making us strong enough to take part in everything bright and beautiful that You have for us.

In Jesus, our hope of glory, we pray. Amen.

Love you, faith family! God bless. 

Remember That!

Dear Faith Family,  

Last week I suggested a better question for getting to genuine identification is: To what/whom have you given yourself away? When we have an answer to this question of commitment--to what/whom is our heart bound--we'll truly know someone, even ourselves. 

Knowing who we truly are, in the service, affection, and betterment of something more than ourselves is what every human yearns for. It's why our souls are never satisfied even with the best of things. No matter what we gain, if our efforts and accumulations terminate on us, we are left wanting something more. 

While our better question gets us to our ultimate end, it is not where we start. The ironic and frustrating paradox of this pursuit is that we can not give ourselves away, commit ourselves wholeheartedly to something or someone, without knowing what we are giving: our heart. And we cannot know the heart of who we are except through being known. Or, once again paraphrasing Merton, 

"Our deep longing to discover who we truly are, and to live out the fulfillment of our discovery in the love of others and God comes through first discovering that we cannot find ourselves in ourselves alone; we must find ourselves in and through others...the Other." 

Good thing the Other already knows and is glad to share His knowledge. At least that is what Psalm 139:1 proclaims: 

O LORD, you have searched me
and known me! 

We cannot answer the better question alone. In fact, it's not even a question that starts with self-knowledge, but rather the One who knows us. And His knowledge is not merely a designer's knowledge of his apparatus, but knowledge from presence. His knowing of us comes from His ever being with us.

You hem me in, behind and before, 
and lay your hand upon me. (v. 5) 

To know we are known—crafted and pursued—so intricately and intimately is actually, as the psalmist says, "too wonderful for me to take in!" Which is why we are encouraged through Psalm 139 to regularly ask for an examination: 

Search me, O God 
and know my heart! 
Examine me and 
know my disquieting thoughts, 
And see if there is any grievous way 
in me, 
and lead me in the way ancient
and everlasting. 
(v. 23-24) 

So this week, my friends, I encourage you to do two things. First, remember who knows you truly, by praying this prayer. 

Father, you investigate my life;
you get all the facts firsthand.
I’m an open book to you;
even from a distance, you know what I’m thinking.
You know when I leave and when I get back;
I’m never out of your sight.
You know everything I’m going to say
before I start the first sentence.
I look behind me and you’re there,
then up ahead and you’re there, too—
your reassuring presence, coming and going.
This is too much, too wonderful—
I can’t take it all in!

And second, remember that He knows you because He is with you by setting aside a few moments to work through the exercise below. 

Love you, faith family! God bless. 

__________________________________________________________________________________________

REMEMBERING WHAT'S KNOWN

PREPARATION

Set aside 10-20 minutes of relative quiet. Have your bible open to Psalm 139, a journal/paper, and a pen.

PRACTICE

The first part of Psalm 139 is about remembering what is true, that God has searched us and knows us! What we are seeking is not something new, but something known. The following exercise is designed to help us recognize this truth by remembering God's knowledge of us at a particular moment in our lives.

Step 1 | Confess & Read

Confess what you have experienced, but sometimes forget:

"O LORD, you have searched me and known me!"

Now read Psalm 139:2-12

Step 2 | Choose A Memory 

The psalmist recognizes God's knowledge of him in three different "places."

• When God knew what you needed before you could ask/act (v. 2-5).

• When God was present at the "heights" of life (v. 8-10).

• When God was present in the "lows" of life (v. 11-12).

Which "place" is the Holy Spirit drawing you to? Don't try and force it. Give yourself a minute for a memory to come to mind.

Step 3 | Remember 

Now read the verses that correspond with the "place" you remember God was with you. Then let the details of the memory in that place come into full view in your mind. Give yourselves a couple of minutes to remember.

Step 4 | Reflect

Now, with the memory coming to the forefront, consider the following questions:

• What were the circumstances (what, when, where, with who)?

• What made you aware that God was with you?

• How would you describe what you felt after you knew God knew you?

Write down your answers.

Step 5 | Pray & Share 

Finally, use the following prayer to lead you into a time of gratitude and wonder in God's knowledge of you:

"Father, you investigate my life; you get all the facts firsthand! I am an open book to you..."

Then, share what you remembered with a friend, co-worker, spouse, or neighbor. Write down their name and ask the Spirit for the courage and opportunity to share your story. Remember that it's through the stories of others that we often recognize our own!

A Better Question

Dear Faith Family,  

What answer would you give to someone who asked you to describe what questions you'd ask to know someone, even yourself, truly? Would your questions start with the general list: Where did you grow up? What schools did you attend? Where do you work? What are your hobbies? What is your favorite...? These aren't bad questions, but they don't quite get to the core of what we are after, the true self of the one we are examining. 

Maybe then, we'd go a bit deeper and ask more intimate questions like What are your greatest accomplishments and strengths? What are your weaknesses and biggest disappointments? 

These questions get us closer, but the person we are looking for is more than what they achieve or fail to achieve. And while limitations are a part of every one of us, they only shape how we live, not who we are. 

So then, what question could we ask to truly know someone, even ourselves? Well, the poet, scholar, and Trappist Monk, Thomas Merton, helps us get a little closer. Modernizing his lead-in, here is what Merton contends, 

“If you want to identify me, ask me not where I grew up nor where I live, or about my Instagram timeline, or even my daily habits, but ask me what I am living for, in detail, ask me what I think is keeping me from living fully for the thing I want to live for.”

The question Merton says identifies him is a question of commitment: To what/who have you given yourself away, specifically? Merton knows we cannot settle for a passing passion in this examination. What or who we give ourselves away is detailed, for to be truly given away is to be wholly committed, handed over, abandoned. 

When we can answer this question, we'll truly know another, even ourselves. 

Merton's better question can be intimidating, even overwhelming, especially if we are uncertain of what we are actually giving our life for or are nervous about what is keeping us from doing so. Graciously, the question of our commitment is not one we have (or even can) answer alone. 

Over the next several weeks, we'll look for our individual answers together, and Lord willing, (re)discover a committed life...of joy. But this week, I encourage you to start where we'll start on Sunday, getting to know ourselves in God's knowledge of us through Psalm 139, asking our Father in Jesus' name for that which we desire, 

Father, in the name of—with the heart of and wholly committed to— Jesus, and in the Spirit of Jesus, we ask; Search us! Know our hearts! Examine us and know our disquieting thoughts! See if there is any way in which we grieve Your heart and hurt others as well as ourselves. And by your Spirit of Truth, lead us in the way ancient and everlasting! Amen.

Love you, faith family! God bless my friends. 

May God Give You JOY!

Dear Faith Family,

It takes courage, and indeed faith, to step out into the world as heralds of Jesus' coming and kingdom. This is undoubtedly true if the world you step into has pre-conditioned misgivings about the reality you speak. 

On Sunday, we conclude our journey with Jesus and his band of followers through the land of Samaria. Samaria, if you remember, was a normatively secular but religiously familiar place, even if apprehensively so. A place a lot like our land today.

Samaritans had a history of faith in Yahweh. A history of being a people connected to His-story, expectant and dependent upon God. Yet, for various reasons—their choices, political alignments, environmental circumstances, cultural pressures, religious snobbery—they had little space for the "old" faith of the regions founding. While they still wanted very similar things to their Jewish neighbors and ancestors—wholeness and peace and prosperity—the means of achieving their dreams and the relation of such desires to God differed. It would be safe to say that, as is true in our day, amongst the Samaritans was a spectrum of faith and spirituality, ranging from the apathetic to the aggravated, most choosing a more pragmatic view of faith, if any at all. No wonder they were not automatically receptive to Jesus' entrance into their lives (Lk. 9:52-53)

Still, it was into a world much like ours that Jesus sent seventy-two of his courageous faithful to proclaim in word and deed the nearness of God's kingdom (Lk. 10:1-11). These brave and obedient ones went into the world as heralds of a vision they could only imagine, but returned to Jesus as ones who had seen the world beyond their imagination, 

"The seventy-two returned to Jesus with joy, saying, 'Lord, even the demons are subject to us in your name!'" (Lk. 10:17) 

Jesus' response to his friends and disciples' fantastical adventure was, "Now you see it! Now you see what I see, the enemy and his end...Satan falling like lightning from heaven." (Lk. 10:18). And while a glimpse behind the curtain of the battles victorious end is a tremendous encouragement in our daily labors, Jesus says that's not the true seat of sustaining joy.

"Nevertheless, do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice [find joy in] that your names are written in heaven." (Lk. 10:20)

What sustains your heralding in the Samaritan land we call Dallas is that your life--your words and actions in courageous faith--are written into The Story of the world. The true story continues to be told and experienced through your life as long as we call this moment "Today." Your daily living is not random. Your choices are not benign. Your role is not unnecessary. Your life matters because you are a part of something more.

So my friends, today, with the words of S.D. Smith, I bless you. I bless you as those whose courage and faith to herald Jesus' kingdom has you squarely in the midst of the Story still unfolding in and through you:

May the Ancient Author bless and keep you.
May the Holy Hero be your rescuer forever.
May the Story find you,
through every painful passage,
at home with him in the end.
May you delight in his love
and exalt in his victory then.
May you always aspire to live
as a character you admire.
May you know the delight of discovering
that the Story isn't mainly about you.
May you know and love the truth
and be brave to obey it.
May you make a hard dart at the darkness
with whatever light you bring,
reflecting, like the moon, a light far brighter than you own.
May God give you joy!

Love you, faith family! 

Prayers From YOUR Cross

Dear Faith Family,

There is no arguing that the most recognizable symbol of our faith is the cross, and rightfully so. For it was there that, in the words of the author of Hebrews, "Christ...offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins..." therefore "there is no longer an offering for sin...brothers and sisters...we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus..." (10:12,18-19). Yet, there is more to Jesus' cross than its gracious finished work. 

Remember Jesus' invitation at the beginning of his Samaritan travels? Speaking to both the miraculously feed crowd, and his ever-stumbling yet maturing disciples, Jesus said, 

"If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me." (Luke 9:23) 

Jesus expects us to wind up in a similar spot to where he was always going (see Luke 9:21-22 & 18:31-33). But why? If our daily crosses are not about sacrifices for sin like Jesus', then what are they for? 

We sang a song on Sunday called Scandal of Grace. The lyrics proclaim what is finished, and what more there is to Jesus' cross, 

Death, where is your sting?
Your power is as dead as my sin
The cross has taught me to live
And mercy, my heart now to sing

Jesus, on his cross, teaches us how to live on our crosses.

On our crosses, like Jesus, we learn we live free in the agony of a world of broken relationships and evils, because we are not abandoned to them. On our daily crosses, we learn to speak and act upon that freedom by extending forgiveness and compassion to our crucifiers, and opening relationship, hope, and purpose to the guilty but listening. On our crosses, we learn who we truly are and for what we truly live. And we learn all this, through Jesus' words from his cross as we pray them with him. 

So this week, as women and men who I know to be more than willing to take up your cross daily to follow Jesus, actively allow your cross to teach you to live. When led by the Spirit to deny self--your self-absorption, self-pity, self-fulfillment, self-entitlement, self-doubt, self-ambition--whether in the most intimate of relationships or the most common of office expectations--pray on your cross as Jesus taught you to pray from his cross. The exercise below will help you do so. 

May we who "share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that...we may attain the resurrection from the dead." 

Love you, faith family! God bless. 

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PRAYING FROM YOUR CROSS

Preparation:

First, remember. Remember that, unlike Jesus, "your cross" is not payment for your sin. Jesus' cross was that. Remember that, like Jesus, we deny self for the salvation of another/others. Second, ask. Ask, "What am I denying?" Name what you are giving and ask, "Who am I giving this up for?" 

Four Prayers:

Read the comments after the prayer, then slowly pray the prayer with Jesus. Repeat for all four prayers. 

#1 My God, My God, why have you forsaken me? 

Denying self for the sake of another, usually when being wronged by another, is not easy. It is also not something you do alone. Enter the real agony of self-denying, but not actual abandonment. Remember that Jesus' first prayer is Psalm 22. And while he only voices the first words of the psalm, the entire psalm is hidden in Jesus' heart.

"For he has NOT despised or abhorred the affliction of the afflicted, and he has NOT hidden his face from him, but has heard, when he cried to him...even the one who could not keep himself alive." (22:24,29) 

Often we get stuck here. We only feel the agony of denying self, but never the community and kingdom that joins us, and into which we become a part in our suffering for something more than ourselves. While we must not deny the difficulty, we must also not deny the truth that our cross is for something more and something larger than us. 

If you find yourself stuck here, maybe spend some time praying Psalm 22, the entire psalm, before moving on. 

#2 "Father, forgive them for they know not what they do." 

When you realize that you are not abandoned on your cross, but joined in and to something more than you, you recognize that you are willfully dying. You sacrifice in freedom, not as an unavoidable conclusion. Freely dying allows us to freely forgive "them" (whoever might be leading to your denying of self) and exercise empathy "for they know not what they do." On your cross, you see more clearly what "they" are caught up in and what binds them. 

But it is not enough to feel compassion. Jesus' brother reminds us that we are called to do something with the compassion that our freely denied self allows us.

"So speak and act as those who are to be judged by the law of liberty...Mercy triumphs over judgment." (James 2:12-13)

When and how can you speak and act upon the compassion and mercy of a willing sacrifice? 

#3 "Truly I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise." 

Remember that in denying self for the sake/salvation of another, you are joining in God's Kingdom coming. You are a participant in His good purposes and actions and a witness to life with Him. Praying with Jesus the truth of where you will be when death [even the mini-self deaths] is done, allows you to have ears to hear and eyes to see those who are looking and listening for that hope. And, to respond to them! 

Who is positively responding to your self-denying, and how can you invite them into your life with God? 

#4 "Father, into your hands I commit my spirit!" 

Finally, you pray your conviction. Not abandonment by God, but abandonment to God's providence and grace even on the cross. In praying this prayer with Jesus, you realize that you were made for this dying so that another might live, and that you, in turn, are living for something more. A more in which you are known, loved, competent, and called--losing yourself, only to find who and whose you truly are (Lk. 9:24).