overshadowed

Opening Prayer: Thank you, Lord God, that Mary said yes to being overshadowed.  I pray that I will be brave enough and willing enough to do the same.  Amen.

Scripture: Luke 1:26-38

Journal: How are you drawn to the idea of being overshadowed by the power of the Most High?  How are you resistant to it?  What is God inviting you to?  What is your response to his invitation?

Reflection: The angel answered, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you.” (Luke 1:35)

     What an absolutely beautiful phrase: The power of the Most High will overshadow you!  It is the essence of the spiritual life; Mary shows us that.  The angel comes to her and says that the power of the Most High God will overshadow her, and her response is simply, “I am the Lord’s servant.  Let it be to me as you have said.”  She recognizes that her life is not about her, but about God.  He is the one writing the story, and a far bigger story than she can possibly imagine.  A story in which he is the focal point—his holiness, his character, his love—and she is simply the willing recipient.  We would do well to follow her lead.  

     For some reason, we continually try to make it all about us.  We are deeply resistant to the idea of being overshadowed.  And the world in which we live reinforces that resistance.  Our world encourages us to never let anyone or anything overshadow us.  Be heard!  Be seen!  Demand that those around you take notice of you!  Yet the life of the Spirit encourages the direct opposite of this.  Be last.  Be lowest.  Be least.  That is the life Jesus calls us to.  That is the life in which the work of the Spirit is on full display.

     Mary was willing to be overshadowed.  The Greek word used here is episkiazō, which means to cast shade upon, or to be enveloped in a haze of brilliance.  It is the same word used to describe what happened at the Transfiguration when the disciples were enveloped by the cloud (Luke 9:34).  Simply put, Mary was willing to disappear into God, to be completely enveloped by him.  She was willing to give up all rights and expectations and demands for herself because, ultimately, she was the Lord’s servant—his desire, his life, and his glory was what really mattered.

     What about me?  Is it the same for me?  Am I willing to be overshadowed by the power of the Most High?  Am I willing to live the overshadowed life?  Am I willing to disappear into God, that he may live his life in and through me?  Thanks be to God that Mary was willing to be overshadowed.  I pray that I will be as well.

Prayer

Closing Prayer: Yes, Father!  Yes!  And always Yes!  ~Francis de Sales

how can i be sure

Opening Prayer: Thank you, O Lord, that you are faithful and true.  Thank you that we do not have to worry over and over again if we can trust you—we can.  Help us to do so again today.  Amen.

Scripture: Luke 1:5-25

Journal: Where in your life are you asking the question: “How can I be sure of this?”  Where is God saying to you: “How can you not be?”  How is he asking you to trust him these days?  Will you?

Reflection: Zechariah asked the angel, “How can I be sure of this?  I am an old man and my wife is well along in years.” (Luke 1:18)

     It’s a good question.  After all, Zechariah and his wife, Elizabeth, were most likely well over sixty when this visitation took place.  They were both significantly past their child bearing years, so how was this even possible?  In the original language, Zechariah basically referred to himself as elderly, while, wisely, being a little kinder in the description of his wife as advanced in years.  His mama didn’t raise no fool.

     So the question (“How can I be sure of this?”) is a good one.  But a better question is: “How can you not be?”  After all, it’s an angel we’re talking about here.  That didn’t happen every day.  As a matter of fact, it hadn’t happened for over four hundred years.  So remarkable was the encounter that the scriptures described Zechariah as startled and gripped with fear.  It definitely got his full attention.  And yet, Zechariah was still slow to believe all that the angel told him.  I wonder why?  I mean, if a visit from an angel can’t convince you that God is at work, what will it take? 

     But if we are really honest, we all have to admit that Zechariah’s question is the one that lives in the depths of each of our hearts.  Even after God has proven himself trustworthy over and over again throughout the course of our lives, we still tend to doubt.  We still wonder how we can be sure that this time he will show himself to be faithful once again.

     Where is this question dwelling in your heart these days?  Where is God asking you to trust him and you are still having a hard time doing so?  How does his faithfulness in the past give you the assurance that you can trust him yet again?  Will you? 

Prayer

Closing Prayer: Help us to really trust you, O Lord, this day and every day.  Amen.

the snort

Opening Prayer: Thank you, O God, that you are constantly at work, redeeming our pain.  Thank you that one day it will be no more.  Help us to live our lives today in full knowledge of that reality.  Amen.

Scripture: John 11:32-44

Journal: How does God feel about your pain?  How is he with you in your pain?  How is he at work redeeming it?  How is he for you in your pain?  What does the knowledge of that do within you?

Reflection: All groans are not created equal; John 11:33-38 is prime evidence of that.  In John 11, Jesus finds himself in the hometown of his dear friend Lazarus.  It has been four days since his death and Jesus, and Lazarus’ sisters, are on the way to his tomb.  As expected, there is a lot of grief and sadness and mourning and pain.  And twice, as the story unfolds, we see that Jesus is deeply moved in spirit and troubled by what he sees.  

     The word used here for deeply moved (translated groan in the KJV), both in verse 33 and verse 38 of John 11, is embrimaomai.  It means to snort with anger or indignation.  It is a completely different word than the one (also translated groan) used in Romans 8:22 and Mark 7:34 (stenazō), which describes a more compassionate “groaning with.”  The word used in John 11 clearly has a bit of an angry edge to it.  I suppose that’s why Eugene Peterson (in The Message) translates John 11:33, “a deep anger welled up within him.” 

     Which raises a great question: Who or what, exactly, was Jesus angry at?  Some say that Jesus was angry at Mary for her lack of belief, but I don’t buy that for a second.  That is simply not the Jesus that I know.  A Jesus that is angry at us when we grieve the loss of a loved one is not the Jesus I see in the gospels.  In fact, Jesus was heartbroken for Mary and Martha, which is why he wept.  His anger is not at them, but at the brokenness of this fallen world.  He was not angry at Mary, he was angry for Mary, which is a whole different type of anger altogether.  This was an anger over the fact that this was not the way the it was intended to be.  And I really like that.

     That type of anger assures me that God is constantly at work making everything right once again.  He is not just sitting idly by as we wallow around in our pain.  It also shows us that he is not just with us in our suffering (which is huge in and of itself), but he is actually working for us.  Thus, each of us can rest assured that at some point he will redeem all of the pain and all of the suffering and all of the brokenness we have experienced over the course of our lifetimes.  That’s why he says to Martha: “Didn’t I tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?”  Death and suffering and brokenness and decay and pain do not have the final word, life does.  Thanks be to God!

Prayer

Closing Prayer: Thank you, O God, that death is not the end of the story, but life is.  Help me to really believe that as I navigate this fallen and broken world.  Amen.

he sighed

Opening Prayer: Forgive me, O Lord, when I think you don’t care about my pain.  The fact is that nothing could be further from the truth.  You do care—deeply.  My pain and brokenness breaks your heart and causes you to groan.  For only a brokenhearted God could know how I feel when I am broken and alone.  And only a brokenhearted God would care enough to come and enter into my brokenness, and even take it on himself, so that I might be healed.  Thank you that you are a God who cares and a God who heals.  Come and heal us all this day.  Amen.

Scripture: Mark 7:31-37

Journal: What is causing your heart and soul to groan these days?  Why?  How are you longing for Jesus to show up in the midst of that?  When Jesus looks deeply into your heart and soul, what causes him to sigh, or to groan?

Reflection:  There is so much I love about this story!  I love that there were some people who cared enough to bring their friend to Jesus.  I love that these people were so certain that Jesus could do something to help, or to heal, their friend that they begged him to place his hands on the man.  I love that somehow they thought that if Jesus just touched him, then something magical would happen.  They were right.

     And I love that Jesus took him aside, away from the crowd.  For far too long, and in the worst possible way, this man had been the center of attention everywhere he went—and not the kind of attention that is normally seen as positive.  He had been the object of points and stares and whispers.  The target of shame and disgust and scorn.  He had been seen through the eyes of judgment, the eyes of disdain, and the eyes of pity.  And now Jesus simply wanted him focused on the Eyes of Love, so he took him aside, away from the crowd.  There is a lesson to be learned here: If you want to have an intimate and healing encounter with Jesus, it is most likely to happen away from the crowd.  Our problem is that typically we play to the crowd far more than we focus on Jesus.

     I love that Jesus put his fingers in the man’s ears, and then spit and touched the man’s tongue.  Jesus identified the very areas that had brought this dear man so much pain and brokenness and ridicule, and put his hands right on those very places.  That’s how Jesus works.  He gets his healing hands of love and he places them directly on our most wounded, broken areas.

     But it is what comes next that I love the most: Jesus looked up to heaven and then he sighed.  “Okay, so what’s the big deal?” you might ask.  “So he sighed, so what?  What’s so significant about that?”  Well, I’ll tell you what is so significant about it, it wasn’t just any ordinary sigh.  This was not a bored sigh, or an indifferent sigh, or even a delighted sigh.  It was actually more of a groan, the kind of groan that is talked about in Romans 8 and 2 Corinthians 5.  A groan as in the pains of childbirth.  This wasn’t any old sigh, it was a groan that came up from the core of Jesus’ being.  It was a groan of sadness and pain and frustration; a groan that bemoaned the fact that life was not intended to be this way.  It was a groan that recognized the deep brokenness and pain of God’s once beautiful, completely whole creation.  It was the groan of a God who is heartbroken over our brokenness—a God who groans right along with us, until the day when everything will be made whole and new.

     Now that’s a God I can get excited about.  No wonder the people responded the way they did: They were overwhelmed with amazement and said, “He has done everything well.  He even makes the deaf to hear and the mute to speak.”  Thanks be to God!

Prayer

Closing Prayer: I stand amazed, Lord Jesus, that you care enough about my pain to groan.  I stand amazed that you care enough about my pain to reach out your healing hands of love and touch the most broken places in my heart and life.  Touch me with those hands today, that I might offer your healing touch to others in my life and world who desperately need to know you care.  Amen.

no pain, no gain

Opening Prayer: If pain and suffering and brokenness and sadness are what it takes to make me more like you, O God, then so be it.  Just give me the courage and the strength and the grace and the wisdom to not run away from them, but to embrace them and receive them, and whatever you are doing within me as a result.  Just have mercy on me, O Lord, and that will be enough.  Amen.

Scripture: Romans 8:18-27

Journal: How does your pain offer God space to deepen and expand and arouse and grow your soul?  How has that happened recently?  How will you try to embrace your pain, and what God is doing through it, rather than trying to avoid it?  

Reflection: Simone Weil once said: “There are two things that pierce the human heart.  One is beauty.  The other is affliction.”  If you are like me, you are ready, willing, and able to sign up for the beauty part right here and right now, but not so sure you are up for the affliction part.  I mean, what kind of person would wish, or welcome, pain upon themselves, right? 

     Somehow we need to get over the notion that pain is some kind of cosmic accident that is always bad and should be avoided at all costs.  This way of thinking hinders our growth and maturity in significant ways, because pain always has intent.  God subjected us to this kind of a life in order that we might be liberated from bondage to decay and be brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God.  Pain has purpose.  Somehow it is through affliction that we come to know real love, and it is through bondage that we come to know true freedom.  God uses our pain and sadness to deepen and widen us, so that we might be able to receive even more of him.  Thus, avoiding pain is avoiding God, and embracing pain is embracing what God is trying to do in and then through us.

     The crazy thing is that God actually uses our pain and our unmet longing to arouse and expand us within.  Just listen to the words of Eugene Peterson: “All around us we observe a pregnant creation.  The difficult times of pain throughout the world are simply birth pangs.  But it is not only around us; it is within us.  The Spirit of God is arousing us within.  We’re also feeling the birth pangs.  These sterile and barren bodies of ours are yearning for full deliverance.  That is why waiting does not diminish us, any more than it diminishes a pregnant mother.  We are enlarged in the waiting.  We, of course, don’t see what is enlarging us.  But the longer we wait, the larger we become, and the more joyful our expectancy.” (The Message) 

     So help us, O God, to stop running.  Give us the grace and the courage to stop trying to avoid and escape pain and suffering and brokenness at every opportunity.  Help us to actually embrace it, so that we will receive the gifts that it has to offer—becoming more like you in the process.

Prayer

Closing Prayer: Help us, O God, to stop running.  Give us the grace and the courage to stop trying to avoid and escape pain and suffering and brokenness at every opportunity.  Help us to actually embrace it, so that we will receive the gifts that it has to offer—becoming more like you in the process.  Amen.

voices

Opening Prayer: Lord God, help us listen to your voice, for your words offer life and healing and wholeness.  Amen.

Scripture: Proverbs 4:20-22

Journal: What voices are the loudest within you these days?  What are these voices saying?  What are they producing in you?  Are they from God?  What does God want to say to you today?  How would listening to his words, and believing the truth, affect the way you live?  Which voices will determine your life today?  

Reflection: So much of life is determined by the voices we listen to.  If we listen to the voices of fear and anxiety and insecurity, then we are always in turmoil and chaos.  Never at peace or at rest, at least not for very long anyway.  We live our lives at the mercy of the opinions and attitudes and responses of others.  Thus, our well-being is determined by opinions and surroundings and circumstances.  We are blown to and fro by the winds.  

     If we listen to the voices of shame and condemnation and self-contempt, we are likely to live out of a deep sense of sadness and depression and despair, which beats us up and wears us down and robs us of the energy and the life that God desires for his people.

     But if we listen to the Voice of Love, we are given a whole new set of possibilities.  When we pay attention to the Voice of the One who loves us like no other, the One whose great affection is wilder and more passionate than we dare dream about, then we are able to live in the joy and the freedom of people who have nothing to prove and nothing to lose.  If we pay attention to that voice—to His Voice—then the lesser voices will eventually lose their power over us.  That is how true and lasting change takes place.

     So, my son, my daughter, pay attention to what I say; listen closely to my words.  Do not let them out of your sight, keep them in your heart; for they are life to those who find them and health to one’s whole being.

Prayer

Closing Prayer: Forgive me, O God, when I allow other voices to determine my life, rather than yours.  For when I live at the mercy of the lies, I can never know the truth which sets me free.  Amen.

Get ready for Advent

Just wanted to remind you that if you (or any of your friends, family, or coworkers) are looking for a companion to journey with you through the seasons of Advent and Christmas, you might want to try Watch and Wait.  It is available on Amazon.