bothered

Opening Prayer: Lord Jesus, give me a heart of compassion this day; one that sees people the way you see them and loves people the way you love them.  Amen.

Scripture: John 11:1-44

Journal: Where do you see pain within or around you?  How do you think God feels about it?  How does he want you to feel about it?  What do you think he wants you to do about it?

Reflection: It is hard to read John 11 and not get the impression—especially when you study the words carefully—that Jesus was bothered.  Oh sure, he was heartbroken.  He was moved to tears by all of the pain and suffering he witnessed around him, especially the sorrow of his dear friends, Mary and Martha.  I believe it was the tears of these beloved sisters than moved him to tears himself.  

     But there is something more going on here.  Jesus was bothered.  You can especially see it in John’s use of the words “deeply moved” in verses 33 and 38.  On the surface they look like nothing but sadness and sorrow, but underneath they communicate much more.  The word used here in the Greek is embrimaomai, which literally means “to snort in indignation.”  Jesus was indignant.  He was not pleased.  He was frustrated.  Or, at the very least, he was really, really bothered.  He was bothered to see his friends in great pain.  And he was bothered again when the some of the onlookers said, “Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man also have kept this man from dying?”

     I guess the real question is: What, exactly, was Jesus bothered by?  Was he bothered by the lack of faith being exhibited around him?  Was he bothered by the way it caused those around him to question the goodness of his heart?  Or was he bothered by the fact that it didn’t have to be this way?  This (a world of death and suffering) was never his intention in the first place.  And, who knows, maybe it was all of the above.  All we do know is that Jesus was bothered.  And you know what?  I’m glad.  Something deep within me wants a God who is bothered by death and suffering and sorrow and pain.  I think that being bothered is a necessary component of compassion.

     You see, compassion is not just pity, or even empathy.  Compassion is to be lovingly bothered.  It is to love someone enough to be deeply affected by their hurt and pain, but also to be bothered enough to do something about it.  To enter in somehow.  Compassion is love in action.  And it is the “bothered” part that keeps us from merely being heartbroken for someone, and moves us to action.  Compassion, as in this case for Jesus, hates the effects of the fall, and moves in the direction of trying to reverse them (with God’s help) whenever possible.  It is not merely being grieved about the world, but also being willing to do something about it.  Jesus was filled with compassion, and wants us to be as well.  What are you bothered about these days?  How has it moved you to  loving action?

Prayer

Closing Prayer: Lord Jesus, forgive me when I am not bothered by what I see around me and within me.  Thank you that you were bothered; bothered enough to get involved in offering people the healing and the wholeness they desperately needed.  Help me to do the same.  Amen.

from leading to being led

Opening Prayer: Dear Lord Jesus, I am still so divided.  I truly want to follow you, but I also want to follow my own desires and lend an ear to the voices that speak about prestige, success, popularity, pleasure, power, and influence.  Help me to become deaf to those voices and more attentive to your voice, which calls me to choose the narrow road to life.  I know this will be a very hard road for me.  The choice for your way has to be made every moment of my life.  I have to choose thoughts that are your thoughts, words that are your words, and actions that are your actions.  There are no times and places without choices.  And I know how deeply I resist choosing you.  Please, Lord, be with me at every moment and in every place.  Give me the strength and courage to live my life faithfully, so that I will be able to taste with joy the new life which you have prepared for me.  Amen. (The Road to Daybreak by Henri J.M. Nouwen)

Scripture: John 21:18-19

Journal: Where is Jesus leading you these days?  What is he asking of you?  Where might you be running ahead rather than following him?

Reflection: There is a shift that is necessary in the life of faith.  It is a subtle shift, yet an enormous one.  It typically comes when we have a few years under our belts; when we have seen the limited results of our own efforts.  When we begin to realize that all of the stuff we have been doing in our lives, may not have yielded the fruit, or the results, we had hoped.  When we begin to tire of running around in a million different directions, aimlessly trying to do a million-and–one good things.  

     It is the shift from endless activity, to dependent passivity.  It is the shift from trying to control things, to a willingness to surrender and let go of our own plans and agendas.  It is the shift from initiating to responding, from anticipating to participating, from doing to being.  It is the shift from dressing yourself and going where you want, to stretching out your hands and being led to a place you would rather not go.  It is the shift from leading to being led; and it is a hard one indeed.  

     For the call of Jesus to “Follow me!” does not involve us running ahead of him, but staying behind him.  It does not involve us running around doing a bunch of our own good stuff, but actually stopping to listen to him, so that we can do his stuff.  The only question is: Are we willing to do that?  Will we allow ourselves to be led by him, even if it be to places we’d rather not go?  After all, if we are truly following him, he is the one choosing both the route and the destination, not us.

Prayer

Closing Prayer: Lord Jesus, give me the courage and the faith to truly follow you, wherever it may lead, whatever it might cost.  Let me give myself fully to your care and your control.  For your glory.  Amen.

dwell in the land

Opening Prayer: O Lord, I am so prone to worry and fret and struggle, when you offer me a much better alternative—trust and enjoyment and delight.  Help me to live the way you desire me to live today, rather than the way I usually do.  In your name and by your power I pray.  Amen.

Scripture: Psalm 37:3-4

Journal: Where are worry, fret, and frustration getting the best of you?  How will you begin to trust, enjoy, and delight instead?

Reflection: Trust in the Lord and do good; dwell in the land and enjoy safe pasture.  Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart.  (Psalm 37:3-4)

     The land that we are in, is the land that we are in; there is not much we can do to change it.  What we can change is how we choose to dwell in that land.  We can fret and worry and brood and be frustrated, or we can trust and enjoy and delight and commit.  We can try, in futility, to change (or fight) our circumstances, or we can embrace them and change our mindset instead.
     The words of this ancient prayer are our invitation to do just that.  Eugene Peterson says that, "The Psalms train us in the conversation with God that is prayer."  They help us to become all that God desires us to be.  So if we take these words and bury them deep in our hearts and souls, and utter them often from our lips, they will begin to take shape and produce fruit within us.  They will actually begin to do what they say.
     In them we will begin to hear the whisper of the One who made us saying: "Stop fretting and simply enjoy the place where I have put you.  You cannot escape it, you might as well embrace it.  Delight in me, as I delight in you.  Trust me with all that is on your plate and all that is in your heart.  I will carry it so that you don't have to.  Calm and quiet your soul, even in the midst of the chaos, and find your rest in me."

Prayer

Closing Prayer: Believe in the Eternal, and do what is good—live in the land He provides; roam, and rest in God’s faithfulness. Take great joy in the Eternal! His gifts are coming, and they are all your heart desires! (Psalm 37:3-4, The Voice)

shame

Opening Prayer: To you, O Lord, I lift up my soul; in you I trust, O my God.  Do not let me be put to shame, nor let my enemies triumph over me.  No one whose hope is in you, O Lord, will ever be put to shame. (Psalm 25:1-3, NIV)  

Scripture: Psalm 25:1-3

Journal: How are shame and self-contempt affecting your life these days?  How do you fight them?  How successful has that been?  How do the words of this ancient prayer offer you help and hope?

Reflection: Make no mistake about it, the battle against shame and self-contempt is never-ending.  Their continual assault on our hearts and souls will never stop, at least this side of heaven.  Because shame and self-contempt are two of the main weapons the enemy uses to triumph over those of us who struggle through life on a regular basis.  The reason they are so effective is that, to a large degree, they are unrecognized.  Somehow the enemy has convinced us that the voices we hear, telling us how miserable and worthless we are, come from ourselves rather than from him.  What a brilliant strategy—to turn us against ourselves.  Which then leads to further shame and self-contempt.  It is a never-ending downward spiral.

     That’s why I find so much comfort in the first few verses of Psalm 25.  The words of this ancient prayer give me hope that this battle can—and will—be won.  They also give me help in the fighting of this battle.  The words of Psalm 25 give me weapons to use when I feel overwhelmed, beaten up, and defeated.  They empower me when it feels like I am at the mercy of forces far greater and more powerful than I.

     All I have to do is use them—by praying them.  All I have to do is recognize the strategy of the enemy, lift my soul to the Lord, and trust in him rather than trusting in myself, or the world around me to tell me who I am and what I am worth.  To you, O Lord, I lift up my soul.  In you I trust, O my God.  When I lift my soul to the Lord, and trust only in my God, then shame and self-contempt begin to lose their grip on me.  Then I am free to be the person that God created me to be.  Thanks be to God!

Prayer

Closing Prayer:  Help us, O Lord, to lift our souls to you.  Help us, this day, to walk in the truth of your love rather than the lies of the enemy.  Amen.

being and doing

Opening Prayer: O Lord, my God, I get so busy doing all of the things that I “need” to do every day, that sometimes I lose touch with who you have called me to be.  Help me, O Lord, to only do that which helps me to become more and more who you want me to be.  Amen.

Scripture: Psalm 37:3-8

Journal: What is the tension between doing and being in your life right now?  Are the things that you are doing on a daily basis helping you be who God made you to be?

Reflection: By far the most frequent question I am asked in the course of my dealings with people and their souls is: “What can I do to be more connected and intimate with God?”  It is always a bit of a tricky question, because they are really asking is: “How can I do my way into being?”  And as soon as we start down the road to doing, it is almost impossible to then find ourselves in the land of being on any kind of consistent basis.  

     But maybe Psalm 37 provides some insight.  Psalm 37 tells us that we have to find things to do that actually help us to be. We have to find things to do that have a being quality about them.  For instance, “Dwell in the land and enjoy safe pasture.”  Or, “Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart.”  And finally, “Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him.”  When is the last time you tried to dwell, or enjoy, or delight, or be still, or wait?  All of those are things to do that strangely enough involve non-doing.  It is the collision of doing and being, because how can I truly enjoy God, or delight in him, if I never hold still long enough to give him my full attention.  I guess that’s why they call these spiritual practices, because they help us practice (do) a way of life that encourages us to live (be) at attention. 

Prayer

Closing Prayer: Help me, O Lord, to dwell and enjoy and delight and be still in you today. For that will make me more and more who you have called me to be.

determine

Opening Prayer:  Forgive me, O God, when I allow my circumstances, or the conditions of my life, to determine me.  You want way more for me than that.  Your love is really better than life.  And you, the God of all creation, are my help.  Let those be the things that determine how I live.  Amen.

Scripture: Psalm 63

Journal: What are your conditions these days?  How are they determining the quality of your life?  What if your life with God did that?  Fill in the blank: Because Your love is better than life________________.  Because You are my help_______________.

Reflection: Where you are is never meant to determine you; it is who you are (or rather Whose you are) that counts.  Who you are anchors you to something—or Someone—greater and keeps you from living at the mercy of your circumstances.  Circumstances matter, but they should never determine the quality of your life.

     Just look at the psalm for today.  David is in the Desert of Judah, a dry and weary land where there is no water, but the quality of his life is not determined by that.  The quality of his life is determined by the God who is far greater than his circumstances.  The quality of his life—and therefore his behavior—is rooted in two wonderful statements about his God.  “Because your love is better than life” and “Because you are my help.”  These two things determine how David sees his life and how he will respond as a result.

     Because your love is better than life: my lips will glorify you, I will praise you as long as I live, in your name I will lift up my hands, my soul will be satisfied as with the richest of foods, with singing lips my mouth will praise you, on my bed I will remember you, and I think about you through the watches of the night.  And because you are my help: I sing in the shadow of your wings, my soul clings to you, your right hand upholds me, they who seek my life will be destroyed, they will go down to the depths of the earth, they will be given over to the sword, the king will rejoice in God, all who swear by God’s name will praise him, and the mouths of liars will be silenced.  

     David’s life is not determined by his circumstances or conditions, but by who his God is, and who he is in God.  May it always be the same for us.  May we, as David did, earnestly seek God, regardless of where we are, regardless of what surrounds us, regardless of what lies within us.  God’s loves is better than life.  And God, the Almighty God, is our help. 

Prayer

Closing Prayer: O God, you are my God, earnestly I seek you.

getting ready

Opening Prayer: O Lord, my God, as I come to you in this hour I realize that I am not ready to pray.  My heart and my mind are still so full of noise and distractions.  Settle me, O God.  Calm my mind and still my soul.  Plant me by the stream and let me become still and quiet and aware of your love and your presence.  Then I will be ready to be with you.  Then I will have fully arrived to this time and place.  Then my soul will finally be at home and at rest.  Help me to be still and know that you are God.  Amen.

Scripture: Psalm 1

Journal: How does Psalm 1 prepare you to pray?  How does it help you to pray?  What words or images are most helpful for you?  Why?

Reflection: The text that teaches us to pray (the Psalms) doesn’t begin with prayer.  We are not ready.  We are wrapped up in ourselves.  We are knocked around by the world.  The ways in which we are used to going about our business, using the language, dealing with our neighbors, and thinking about God don’t exactly disqualify us from prayer, but neither do they help much.

     The nonpraying world is a pushing, shoving, demanding world. Voices within and without harass, insisting that we look at this picture, read this headline, listen to this appeal, feel this guilt, touch this charm.  It is asking too much that we move from this high-stimulus world into the quiet concentrations of prayer without an adequate transition.  

     The nonpraying world is also an intimidating world.  We wake each day to a world noisy with braggadocio, violent with guns, arrogant with money.  What use is prayer in the face of governments, armies, and millionaires?  What motivation can we muster to pray when all the obvious power is already allocated to heads of state and barons of industry?

     In prayer we intend to leave the world of anxieties and enter a world of wonder.  We decide to leave an ego-centered world and enter a God-centered world.  We will to leave a world of problems and enter a world of mystery.  But it is not easy.  We are used to anxieties, egos, and problems: we are not used to wonder, God, and mystery. (Answering God by Eugene Peterson)

Prayer

Closing Prayer: Be still my soul, the Lord is on thy side.  Bear patiently the cross of grief or pain.  Leave to thy God to order and provide.  In every age he faithful will remain.  Be still my soul thy best, thy heavenly friend.  Through thorny ways lead to a joyful end.