proactive

Opening Prayer: O Lord, how I long to be different.  How I long to turn from my twisted and dysfunctional patterns and habits, in order to be more whole and holy.  I long to be set free from my own self-consumed ways of being and seeing, and to become more and more like you.  I long to be more loving instead of self-centered.  I long to be more compassionate rather than competitive.  And I long to care more about your will and your work than I do about my own.  Continue, O God, to transform my heart.  Grow your grace in me and let it flow freely and effortlessly from my heart and life.  Change me from deep within. Give me more peace and less frustration.  Make me more rooted and less reactive.  Help me to be more caring and less annoyed.  O Jesus, fill me so full of your love that there will be no room in me for anything else.  —Room to Flourish by Jim Branch

Scripture: Psalm 1:1-6

Journal: What typically describes your way of being, proactive or reactive?  What does this psalm have to say about that?  How can you be planted rather than blown around?

Reflection: Well, it happened again—I reacted.  I let my fears and my anxieties and my insecurities get the best of me—and turn me into the worst possible version of myself—and I reacted.  It seems like at some point I would learn.  At some point I would stop living a reactive life and start living a more proactive one.  The kind of life Psalm 1 encourages me to live.  Oh, I do get it right from time to time, or from season to season, but I still get it wrong so often.

     When will I ever learn that I cannot stop delighting in his law and meditating on it night and day or this will be the end result?  I cannot grow tired or lazy or lax in my practice, or I will quickly turn into someone that I really do not like at all.  I will suddenly be at the mercy of the winds and waves of circumstance and emotion and be blown like chaff once again.  Maybe that’s why the psalm includes the words day and night as it talks about our meditation on the law, because the psalmist knows the relentlessly ongoing nature of this battle—the battle between being proactive and being reactive.  

     And it is never very hard to see who is winning this battle at any given moment, all you have to do is look at the fruit.  If the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control, then all I have to do is see if those things are present in my life to know whether I am living a proactive life of being planted by streams, or a reactive life of being blown like chaff. 

     Luckily, there is repentance.  Luckily, each and every minute of every day we have the opportunity to choose to return to God, to plant ourselves by the stream of Living Water.  Even after we have, once again, forgotten to do that and allowed emotion or busyness or insecurity or circumstances to blow us away.  That is the beauty of repentance.  Blessed is the man who practices it regularly.

Prayer

Closing Prayer: Turn us away, O God, from our self-centered patterns, agendas, and plans.  Turn us away from our pride and arrogance and control.  Turn us away from all of the attitudes and behaviors that ultimately lead to sin and death.  And turn us back towards you once again, our good and holy God; that we might be conformed to the image of your Son more and more each day.  Amen.  —Room to Flourish by Jim Branch

sometimes it takes an earthquake

Opening Prayer: Roll away the stone, O God, that holds us captive to darkness and despair.  Send your angel to shake things up and lead us out of bondage and into your wonderful light.  Make us all alive inside, whatever it takes.  Amen. 

Scripture: Matthew 28:1-7

Journal: How is God trying to shake you up these days?  What is he trying to accomplish?

Reflection: There was a violent earthquake, for an angel of the Lord came down from heaven and, going to the tomb, rolled back the stone and sat on it.  His appearance was like lightening, and his clothes were as white as snow.  The guards were so afraid of him that they shook and became like dead men.” (Matthew 28:2-4)

     Sometimes it takes an earthquake to roll away the stone that keeps us trapped in death and darkness and despair.  Sometimes it takes an earthquake to awaken us from our slumber and stagnation and lethargy, and send us on our way with new life and energy and direction.  Sometimes it takes an earthquake to get us out of our comfortable, safe, sheltered lives, in order to start a new fire and instill a new passion deep within us.  Sometimes it takes an earthquake to disrupt our daily, self-consumed routines and remind us that, ultimately, this life is not about us in the first place, but about God.   

     So God sends his angel from heaven to shake us up.  He sends his holy messenger to disturb and disrupt us, so that we might not be trapped in our old ways of being and seeing.  He removes the stone that holds us captive and offers us the freedom to walk out of the dark tomb into the light of his love and affection.  For God always wants more for us, but sometimes it takes an earthquake to get us there.

Prayer

Closing Prayer: Thank you Lord Jesus, that you are alive.  And because of that we can be too.  Thanks be to God!

do not hold on to me

Opening Prayer: Risen Jesus, no one saw it coming, but Your march out of the tomb has changed everything. This day leaves me breathless with wonder—death is conquered, hope lives, salvation is here! Give me profound delight as I enjoy Your resurrection life and deep devotion as I follow Your resurrection way. Christ is risen, hallelujah! Amen. ~The Heidelberg Catechism

Scripture: John 20:10-18

Journal: What do you need to let go of these days, in order that you may take hold of the resurrected Jesus?

Reflection: “Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet returned to the Father.” (John 20:17)

     I don’t know about you, but I’m not a big fan of change.  I mean, I eat the same breakfast every day.  And when I am in town, I spend my time with Jesus in the exact same spot.  I do my best writing when I am at my dining room table.  And when I have to travel I can’t wait to get back home to my normal routine.

     So needless to say, when my dad passed away last week it was a bit of a jolt.  It had been a long, hard year for him and he was ready to go, but once he was gone it was a bit disorienting.  One day you have parents and the next day they are both gone.  And as glad as I am that they are with Jesus—and finally alive and free—it is a bit strange looking ahead to life without them.  One of our friends called it “the second empty nest.”  And that’s exactly what it feels like.  I will miss my parents immensely, but at the same time it also opens the future to certain possibilities that were just not available during the past couple of years as I had to help care for them.  So while it is disorienting and frightening, it is also leaves me curious and hopeful.  What does God have in store for this next season of life?

     It feels a little like swinging on a trapeze bar.  You enjoy the security and the stability and the safety and the comfort of the bar you are currently holding onto, but in order to experience the trapeze the way it was meant to be experienced you must, at some point, let go of the bar you are holding onto and take hold of a bar that has not yet come into view.  It is impossible to take hold of the new if you are unwilling to let go of the old.  And that can be incredibly scary, because for an instant you are hanging in midair.  

     I’m guessing that’s kind of how Mary and the disciples felt at the death and resurrection of Jesus.  In fact, as Jesus appeared to Mary outside the empty tomb he had to tell her not to hold on to him.  In some ways she was going to have to let go of what she knew of Jesus up to that point in order to take hold of the Jesus she did not yet know.  And that had to be both terrifying and exhilarating.  “Mary, let go of the me you have grown comfortable and familiar with, so that you can take hold of a me that is bigger and more glorious than you ever dared dream of.”

     You see, in the spiritual life we must constantly be willing to let go of the old, in order to take hold of the new.  We can’t grasp the new bar until we are willing to let go of the old one.  Or, as Jesus once reminded us, we can’t put new wine in old wineskins.  Our old ways of being and seeing cannot contain the new life of the Spirit that God desires to pour into us.  So in order to fully embrace the new, we must first be willing to fully let go of the old.  That’s what the resurrection is all about.  The only question is, are we willing?

Prayer

Closing Prayer: Jesus, I keep trying to hold on to you, and not in a positive way.  I try to keep you familiar and manageable and comfortable, rather than allowing you to be wild and uncontrollable and free to do whatever you may want to do in my life.  Lord Jesus, help me not to hold on to you, but help me to let you be all that you desire to be in my life and world.  Come, Lord Jesus.  Amen.

the empty tomb

Opening Prayer: Thank you that the tomb is empty, Lord Jesus.  You are no longer there.  Death could not contain nor defeat you.  You are forever breaking out of the tiny boxes we try to put you in.  Thanks be to God!

Scripture: John 20:1-9

Journal: How does the empty tomb challenge you today?  How does it offer you hope?

Reflection: I have to admit that during Eastertide I often rush right past the empty tomb in order to get to the resurrection appearances of Jesus.  But when I do so, I miss the opportunity to be both amazed and confounded by exactly what Mary and the disciples discovered as they arrived at the tomb early on that first Easter morning.  Just imagine what must have been going on within them as they tried to understand and explain and come to terms with what had just taken place.  And even though Jesus had been telling them about it all along, the reality of what had just happened was far beyond their wildest dreams or best explanations.

     You see, the empty tomb shows us that God is forever busting out of the tiny boxes we try to put him in.  He cannot be confined or contained.  He will not be controlled or manipulated.  He refuses to be captured or tamed or domesticated.  He is always wild and free and alive.  We never quite know how or where or when he might show up next, so we have to be awake and alert and attentive.  He might show up in the way, or at a time, we least expect it.

Prayer

Closing Prayer: The tomb could not contain you, Lord Jesus, and neither can we.  Forgive us when we try.  Be wild and free and alive in our lives today.  Amen.

who am i?

Opening Prayer: Lord, thank you that my identity can never be achieved, but it can only be bestowed.  And it can only be bestowed by the One who made me.  Show me who you are, O Lord, that I might know who you made me to be.  Amen.

Scripture: Exodus 3:11-15

Journal: Who are you?  How do you try to answer that question?  Who or what do you typically look to in order to obtain your identity?  Who does God say you are?

Reflection: Who am I? All of life, it seems, is a continual journey to find the answer to that question.  It is the force that drives us and the conundrum that plagues us.  Ever since the Fall, when we became disconnected from the only One who can really give us the answer to our deepest questions of meaning and purpose, we have struggled to come to terms with our true identity.  Who are we?  And what makes us worth loving?  We spend our whole lives trying to answer those questions.  The problem is that we seek an answer in places that can never fully provide one.  We look to the world to tell us who we are, rather than looking to our God.  And the truth is that our identity can never be achieved or manufactured or constructed, it can only be bestowed.  And it can only be bestowed by the One who made us, by the One who dreamt us into being.

     But instead of listening to the Voice of Love, we listen to so many other voices.  We listen to the voices of our world and our culture who tell us that we are what we do, we are how we look, or we are what we've got.  We listen to the voices of our anxiety and insecurity and fear.  Or we listen to the voices of our pride and our arrogance and our adequacy.  All of which lead us on a wild goose chase, for none of these voices can tell us what we most deeply long to hear.  None of these things can satisfy the deepest longings of our souls.  So we spend our days trying to become somebody, rather than simply enjoying the fact that (in Christ) we already are somebody. We spend our lives trying to make a name for ourselves, when God has already given us a name, one that he has chosen especially for us.  We work and we sweat and we perform. We measure and we compare and we compete.  We fret and we toil and we strain.  We read books and take tests and go to workshops.  We listen to speakers and webinars and podcasts.  We are so thirsty to know who we really are that we will believe anyone who seems to have a compelling answer.  We are bound and determined to find an identity, even if we have to beg, borrow, or steal one.  But the truth remains that only God can tell us who we really are.  No person, nor number, nor acronym can do that.  At best they can only describe what we have become as a result of the pain and heartbreak of living in this broken world.  They can help us identify the fig leaves that have worked for us thus far as we have attempted to hide our nakedness and our fear and our shame. 

     For example, contrary to popular belief, you are not a number.  Your enneagram number is not who you are.  It is what you have become.  It is just another "coat against the cold," to borrow a phrase from Frederick Buechner.  It is just another "dragon skin," (to borrow an image from C. S. Lewis) that must be peeled away and discarded.  In the words of the creator of the enneagram himself (Oscar Ichazo), the nine personality types are merely "ego fixations and aberrations."  They are what we have become as a result of living in a fallen world.  Only God can tell us who we really are.  Only Aslan can cut through all of the layers of the fake and the false to get down to what is real and true.  Don't get me wrong, the enneagram can be incredibly helpful in "taking off the old self and its practices" (Col. 3:9), but only Jesus can give you a new (true) self to become.

     Moses was an Israelite who was born and raised in Egypt.  We are not told a lot about his family.  We do not know if he ever knew his father, and we do not know exactly how long he knew his mother.  The one thing we do know is that the daughter of Pharaoh was the one who named him and raised him.  In fact, she named him Moses because he was drawn out of the water.  But in Egyptian, the name Moses simply meant son of.  As in, son of no one, son of someone, son of anyone.  You fill in the blank.  So Moses grew up not knowing who he really was.  Thus, it was certainly no mistake that when he came to the burning bush and God told him that he was sending him to deliver the Israelites, Moses' first question was "Who am I?"  for he really didn't know.

     And God answered that question in such an amazing way.  He answered it not by telling Moses who Moses was, he answered it by telling Moses who God was--I am.  He did that because we can only know who we are if we first know who God is.  Who I am depends solely on the great I Am.  Our being is derived from his, not vice versa.  Any attempt to know our own identity apart from God is fruitless.  I can only know who I am in relation to knowing who he is.  So the more I get to know God, there more likely I am to know my truest and best self, the one made in his image.

Prayer

Closing Prayer: O Lord, the great I Am, show me who you are, so that it might help me know who you made me to be.  For you made me, you dreamt me into being, you made me in your image, and you are the only One who can tell me who I truly am.

palm sunday 2019

Opening Prayer: 

O Jesus
as holy week begins
i find myself
anxious and afraid
of all that will
be required of me
in the days ahead

help me
Lord Jesus
to not just focus
on the dying
but also on
the being raised
to new life

help me to
always remember
that in the end
life wins

—Seasons by Jim Branch

Scripture: Luke 19:28-44

Journal: How is Jesus calling you to follow him during this Holy Week?

Reflection: Jesus rode into Jerusalem fully knowing all that awaited him there.  Thus, we too must endure the pain of the cross, in order to experience the joy of the resurrection.  

     Thank you, Lord Jesus, for riding into Jerusalem—fully knowing all that awaited you there.  Help us, this week, to follow you all the way to the cross, and then on to the empty tomb, that we too may die and be raised to new life.

Prayer

Closing Prayer: By the passion of Your Divine Son, You caused an instrument of shameful death to be for us the means of life; Grant us so to glory in the cross of Christ, that we may gladly suffer shame and loss for the sake of Your Son.  Amen. —Venite by Robert Benson

tired of waiting

Opening Prayer: O Lord, I do not wait like a watchman waiting for the morning very often.  Usually I wait like a prisoner being held captive.  And I know that is not what either of us want.  Forgive me, O Lord, but at this point it is all I can muster on my own.  So teach me to wait.  Help me to wait.  Give me the strength and the power and the courage and the patience to wait, until you are finally ready to come and deliver me from my waiting—forever.  Come, Lord Jesus!

Scripture: Psalm 130:5-6

Journal: How and where are you tired of waiting?  What will you do?  What do you want to say to God?  What do you think he wants to say to you?

Reflection: Okay Lord, let’s be honest.  I am tired of waiting.  So, so tired.  I have waited and waited and waited, until I’m not sure I can wait anymore.  Yet I have to.  I have no other option.  So if you want me to wait some more, you are going to have to give me the ability to do so.  Otherwise, I will just grow bitter and frustrated, dark and depressed.  And I don’t want that any more than you do.  I want to be able to wait like a watchman waiting for the morning, I really do.  And for a time I was able to do that, but I am simply not able to anymore.  I don’t have it in me.  I need your help.  Have mercy on me, O Lord.  Meet me in the midst of this long, long season of waiting.  And if you are not yet going to give me any resolution, at least give me yourself. 

Prayer

Closing Prayer: I pray to God—my life a prayer—and wait for what he’ll say and do. My life’s on the line before God, my Lord, waiting and watching till morning, waiting and watching till morning. O Israel, wait and watch for God—with God’s arrival comes love, with God’s arrival comes generous redemption. (Psalm 130:5-8, The Message)

home again

Opening Prayer: O Abba, thank you that you love me like no other.  Thank you that you long for me to come home again to you.  Thank you that you want nothing more than to bring me into the fullness and joy of your house today.  Help me to come home to you, whatever that may look like.  Amen.

Scripture: Luke 15:20

Journal: How do you need to come home to God today?

Reflection: But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him. (Luke 15:20)

     O God, how do you see me when I am still a long way off?  When my heart is fearful and consumed with the worries and cares of this life?  Are you heartbroken, longing for me to turn and come home to you, so that you can give me the peace and the comfort I so desperately need?  Are you filled with compassion for me, leaping from the front porch and running through the fields to wrap your arms of love and care around me, and bring me into the joy and delight of your house once again?  Are you so full of affection for me that you can’t keep your hands from my hair or your lips from my cheeks?  

     O Father, it is so easy to get lost in this life, so easy to lose track of who I am and whose I am.  In the midst of the brokenness and the pain of this world, it is easy to lose track of your care and your provision.  It is easy to start believing that I am alone and it is all up to me.  O Father, even this day I know I will get lost again amidst the flurry of activity.  Circumstances and chaos will rear their ugly heads and sweep over me, and I will forget your love and your care.  O God, when that happens today, please come and find me.  When I am still a long way off, leave the comfort of your house and come running to me.  Wrap your arms of love and mercy around me and, once again, bring me home.  Allow me to come and rest in the warmth and safety of your loving embrace.  For you are my home.

Prayer

Closing Prayer: At that time I will gather you; at that time I will bring you home. I will give you honor and praise among all the peoples of the earth when I restore your fortunes before your very eyes,” says the Lord. (Zephaniah 3:20, NIV)

pursued

Opening Prayer: Surely goodness and love will follow me all of the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. (Psalm 23:6, NIV)

Scripture: Psalm 23:6

Journal: What difference could it make in your heart and soul to fully realize that God is the one who is continually pursuing you?  What difference could it make in the way you live your life?

Reflection: Surely goodness and love will follow me all of the days of my life. (Psalm 23:6) It is so easy to skim right over this line, if we are not careful, and miss the beauty and the mystery and depths and the truth of what is actually being said.  So often we fall into the trap of believing that we are the ones pursuing an elusive God, rather than realizing that it is actually he who is pursuing us.  And this one realization can make all of the difference in the world.  It can make a difference in how we see God, how we feel about him, how we think he feels about us, and, thus, how we relate to him.

     If we think that we are the pursuers and God is the pursued, we are likely to live our lives in anger and frustration and despair and doubt and uncertainty, due to our perception that, no matter how hard we try, God often seems either extraordinarily distant, or absent altogether.  He doesn’t often show up in the ways we want or need (or think we need) or demand.  So that either means that he does not care, or that we are doing something wrong.  Both of which create distance between us, rather than the intimacy both we and God long for.

     But what if God is actually the pursuer, and we are the pursued?  What does that tell us about his heart?  And what does it tell us about our worth and value?  And how does it change the way we see him and relate to him?  My guess is that it makes an enormous difference.  For when we truly see ourselves as the Sought After (Isaiah 62:12), it does something deep and beautiful in our hearts.  It draws us and woos toward the One who made us fearfully and wonderfully, and loves us so much that he cannot possibly stay away from us, but promises to pursue us to the ends of the earth.  I suppose that’s why so many saints and pilgrims of old have called him the Hound of Heaven.  For he is the One relentlessly in pursuit of us.  As Thomas Kelly once said: “The Hound of Heaven is on our track, the God of Love is wooing us to His Holy Life.”

     Which brings us to our verse in the psalm: “Surely goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life.” (Psalm 23:6)  The word translated here as follow, is the Hebrew word radaph, which means to run after, chase after, or pursue earnestly.  In fact, in 1 Samuel 26:20 it is translated, to hunt: “As one hunts for a partridge in the mountains.”  Thus, the God of goodness and love pursues us, his beloved.  He runs after us, chases after us, and tracks us down all the days of our lives.  We are no longer the hunter—looking and searching all over for the elusive God—but the hunted.  God is pursuing us with his unfailing, relentless love and care.  And he will not stop until we have been completely captured by him—until we have been seized by the power of the Great Affection.  Thanks be to God!

Prayer

Closing Prayer: O God, thank you that you relentlessly pursue us with you abundant love and infinite goodness.  Help us to be open this day to the many ways you will come to us and speak to us.  Open our eyes and our ears that we might see you and hear you.  And give us hearts willing to follow you wherever you may lead.  In the name of Jesus we pray.  Amen.

waiting

Opening Prayer: Forgive us in our waiting, O Lord, when we get frustrated or impatient and try to speed up the process.  Waiting takes time to accomplish its full work in us.  Help us, therefore, to open our hands and our hearts and simply wait for you in patience.  Amen.

Scripture: Psalm 130:5-6

Journal: Where does God have you waiting these days?  How are you reacting to that?  What do you still need to let go of in order to truly wait for the Lord?

Reflection: I wait for the Lord, my soul waits, and in his word I put my hope.  My soul waits for the Lord more than watchmen wait for the morning, more than watchmen wait for the morning. (Psalm 130:5-6, NIV)
     It is a strange tension, this waiting for the Lord.  After all, waiting—in general—tends to fill us with uncertainty and anxiety.  When we are faced with the unknown, we typically respond by grasping for that which is old and familiar.  We reach out for order and control in whatever ways are at our disposal.  Which is counter-productive to the waiting process.  The whole point of waiting for the Lord, it seems, is to get us to finally let go of control, rather than grasping for it.  It requires us to open our hands and our hearts to whatever God might be up to—whatever he might want to give and wherever he might want to lead.  And that requires trust.

Prayer

Closing Prayer: O Lord, help us to open our hearts and empty our hands, that we might wait for you fully and freely.  Amen.