Lessons From a Hay Harvest

There is something immensely gratifying about looking at a harvest of hay.  As those big round bales start filling up what was a field filled with grass, there is a feeling of un-comparable completion which comes forth from some deep place in the spirit.   The hay bales scattered across the field were once just a hope that sprang forth from looking at the brown dead looking grass of winter.  The greening of Spring came and then the spraying, the fertilizing, the looking for rain, and the hoping.  All along the journey from then to now, there was a vision of the harvest.  Today the field is full of the fruit of the dirt and the fruit of human labor.

 

It is a gift often not experienced by those in ministry, or those who seek to be in service to the Christ.  At the end of the day, sometimes at the end of a much longer period than a day, there is often no signs which indicate that the labor being offered for Christ is having any results.  Many a person has become discouraged because there was no sign that what was being done for Christ was reaping a harvest in anyone's life.  Perhaps, many of us have experienced this in our prayer life more than anyplace else.  But, the truth remains that those in ministry, or in service to Christ, often go a long time before seeing something happening which is viewed as a result of faithful labor.

 

Such is the nature of following after Jesus.  It seems that there are more among us who are plodders instead of miracle workers.  While it is easy to lose sight of the value of doing the routine mundane things of the day, this is exactly where so much of what God is doing in the world happens.  What He is doing through us is often invisible to our own eyes although it may be like a trumpet sounding in the heart of someone who is touched by what we offer.  Whatever we give to Christ is never wasted.  When we seek to do something in His name, we can count on it making a difference.

 

 

Make Hay While the Sun Shines

I have always heard the expression, "Make hay while the sun shines,"  and while I got the gist of it, I never understood it as I do now after making the move from the urban place where I worked to the farm place where I retired.  The sun is important for making hay.  It is not just in the growing, but at the moment of cutting.  The farmer who cuts hay wants at least three days of sunshine and hot weather to dry out the hay and make it ready for baling.  Rain in that drying period is not a good thing as it can cause mildew, or decrease the nutritional value of the hay for the cows during the winter.  So, it is best to make hay while the sun shines.

 

When we allow ourselves to think about the it for a moment, it is easy to realize that "making hay while the sun shines" can be a word which has value for our spiritual lives.  There are those moments when the Holy Spirit prods us, or maybe even pushes us, into some action.  At such times, hesitation can mean wasting an opportunity to be about something God would choose for us to do.  It could be in a moment of realizing that someone standing in some fast food line could use some help in paying the bill.  Or, maybe it is in seeing someone who could use a hand with some grass cutting.  Of course, we normally run into people during the course of the day who are need of someone to pray for them. 

 

We do not have to go out looking for these folks and the opportunities they present.  In fact, if it  us doing the looking, we are likely to miss most of them.   All we really need to do is to start the day with a prayer asking God to make use of us during the day for His purposes and then wait.  The Holy Spirit can be trusted to let us know that one of those "making hay while the sun shines" is upon us.  When He prods us, it is not a moment for hesitation, but for action.

Not About Me

I have spent most of my life following after Jesus.  There have been times when I have wandered away from the road He walked, but somehow by God's grace, I have managed to get my feet back in the ruts again.  I remember from those beginning days that it was my intent to be like Jesus.  I read the gospels and with the intentionality of a young disciple set out to make my life like His life.  While there was nothing wrong with the desire, it was all about me and what I thought I could do.  It took me a long time to realize how little I could really do by just being determined.

 

Such is what I have always thought to be the problem with that old spiritual classic by Charles Sheldon entitled "In His Steps."   I read it as a boy and was captivated by it.  It seemed like something I should be about as a Christian.  Much later in my middle adult years someone came up with the WWJD movement (What Would Jesus Do).  The real problem with the Sheldon book and the later movement which captured the imagination of so many young believers was the way it focused on what the individual believer could do.  Both the book and movement asked too much.  We can desire to live like Jesus, but we cannot do it just  because it is the thing to do.

 

Maybe I am the exception to this rule.  It is just that I have learned that I am not able to do alone what I often want to do for Jesus.  Like the Apostle Paul I often know what the right thing is to do, I just have trouble doing it.  I have come to believe that we can become shaped in the image of Christ, but it only happens as the Holy Spirit is allowed to direct and control from within the heart.  What we cannot do alone, the Spirit can do through and in us.  Even in those unguarded moments when we are surprised with the unexpected,  the Spirit still can direct and enable us to respond according to the heart of Christ.  The trick is to live so that He  is allowed to do it.

70 Years and Counting

Today I am marking my 70th year.  There will not likely be a big party with pointed hats and horns.  Instead, it will surely be a day of some reflection.  70 years is an auspicious mark.  A lot of people whom I have known along the way were not blessed with so many years.  A long time ago I was made aware of how life is full of moments of letting go of good friends too soon.  One of the amazing things in my life about which I often wonder is why I have been blessed with so many years when so many good folks were given a much fewer number.

 

When I was younger and moving through the decade markers, it never really occurred to me that a particular ten year marker might be my last one.  As I contemplate life on a 70th birthday, I know 80 is not a given.  The truth is 40 or 50 was not a given.  I just lived as if it was.  Not so with this birthday.  Without being pessimistic, I know now more than ever that my days are numbered.  While I have no idea of how many sunrises are ahead, I do know that God knows.  I have lived a life of working at trusting in God and I simply pray for the wisdom to continue living in such a way as the days come and go.

 

For me trusting in God is the only things which makes sense.  There are too many things which I cannot figure, or understand.  The longer I live the more I know I do not have to know and understand things which are confounding and confusing, I only have to trust in God.  If I live to be 80 or 70 plus one day, I pray it will be as one who is looking toward the God who loves me even though I am unworthy of that love.  Ah, but He loves me still and He will love me till the day I die and then through eternity.  What a wonderful gift to realize is being given on my 70th birthday! 

Chores

Having never lived on a farm, I could not have imagined how life is so different where the words "farm" and "home" are one and the same.  One thing I have learned about are farm chores.  These are chores that must be done.  It does not matter how I feel.  It does not matter if it is hot or raining.  There simply are things that need to be done daily around here.  Making sure the cows have water is one of those things.  When we had chickens, they needed feeding, watering, and shutting up at night.  During this season the produce in the garden needs harvesting each day.  Blueberries come off at different times and there are always some to pick.

 

Of course, chores are not peculiar to a farm.  They are different from the ones done by the urban dweller, but the urban dweller has them as well.  The trash cans have to be put on the curb each week, the dish washer has to be emptied, the grass has to be cut.  These are a few of the things which are required of the urban dweller.  So, we all have some chores that require our energy.  They have different names, but they are out there for all us.  They create some order and add to the home we are seeking to create.

 

Chores are to be done in the physical world in which we live.  There are also some chores required of us in our spiritual life.   We do not call these things which need attention daily in our spiritual lives chores; instead, we call them disciplines.  Even as our chores create some order in our home, so do the spiritual chores, or disciplines, give order to our daily walk with our Father in heaven.  Whether we feel like it or not, whether our day is full of sunshine or storm clouds, these chores are important for us if we going to live our life with God to its fullest. 

The Partnership

The few peach trees here on the farm have done their thing now.  We have been partnering together now with hopes of some peaches to eat.  I did the pruning, fertilizing, and spraying and they responded with the fruit.  Of course, God was the one who did the watering.  He also provided the sunshine, wind, and pollinators.  There are no solo acts around here.  Everything done is  in partnership with the God who creates and sustains, the dirt which has the power to produce, and the trees which draw from the earth.

We often forget the partnership part of life.  And, the truth is that we are not equal partners with God, but junior partners at the very best.   Too often we live as if life truly is all about us.  We take credit for our successes, the good things that fill our lives, and even the future which is actually completely out of our control.  The only thing for which we do not take credit are the failures and the shortcomings.  They are seen as the fault of someone else.  While there is a part of us which wants to deny this tendency of ours to pat ourselves on the back too quickly, our creative design is for us to be partners with God in this life.

Where we end up going wrong is in thinking that God partners with us to do what we want to do.  Actually, the partnership enables us to live in a bigger and more significant world than the one created by the demands of a never really satisfied ego.  The bigger world is spoken of in the Sacred Word as the Kingdom.  When we choose to partner with God, we begin to understand that our life is best lived when what He wants to do with us is the driving force of our life.  As we live in this holy partnership, we find that we are always moving toward the reason for being here in the first place. 

Evening Thoughts

Evenings around here come just before the sun ceases to light up the space around me.  Usually, I am walking back toward the house after finishing what I call "evening chores,"  things like putting up tools, housing equipment, setting the electric fence around the garden, and making sure the water trough is full in the pasture.  While it might seem like a busy moment, it has really turned into a time of quiet reflection.  There are never any lights from heaven illuminating a way for my feet as day turns into night, but often there is a sense of divine presence somewhere there alongside of me.

 

Today as I was walking I found myself remembering with thanksgiving similar evenings at Young Harris College.  Though a long time ago, the memories often seem as fresh as yesterday of those daily evening chapel gatherings for vespers.  As I remembered those student led end-of-the-day worship moments, I could hear songs like "Now the Day is Over" and "Day is Dying in the West" hanging out in the recesses of my memory.  For a brief moment there was a chapel bell ringing over the campus calling us to worship and the sound of voices singing.

 

I am not always sure how I got where I have been.  Some of those places I never anticipated being a place of such spiritual shaping.  I went to Young Harris College up in those North Georgia mountains for an education and got so much more.  It was place where my spiritual life started taking shape.  It was where the Holy Spirit led me into a time of figuring out what I did and not believe.  Important matters of faith were being worked out in those days and mostly I was not aware of how I was being blessed.  Those evenings with others there in the chapel were moments I sometimes fail to remember, but whenever they are, it is with gratitude to God that such a place was prepared and made ready for me and others like me who were starting out on the journey.

EKT

When God finished with creation, He forgot to start the clock.  He also failed to put together a calendar.  Humanity would much later take care of His omission, but it was not something that happened overnight.   The truth is that God never has seemed to be concerned with counting time.  We are the ones obsessed with that task, not Him.  In one of his letters to the church, Peter wrote, "But do not ignore this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years like one day."  (I Peter 3:8)

As we move past what is the longest day of the year on our way to reaching the shortest day of the year, we become mindful of the way we live in the midst of the unmarked time God has created for us.  Of course, there are numerous days which we mark as noteworthy on the calendar, but none are really any different from the one before it or after it when we start thinking about EKT (Eternal Kingdom Time)  To live by EKT is to live with the knowledge that each day is an important day in its own right.  It is important in its own right because it is a gift from God.

This gift from God we use mostly for our own purposes.  We use the gift God gives us each day to do things like earning money, accumulating more, creating security systems, and doing thousands of other ego supporting things.  What a waste!  What a misuse of the gift God has given us.  This precious gift which we have precisely defined as twenty four hours is to be used according to His purposes for us and those around us.  When we wake up and start planning what we are going to accomplish in those stretched out daylight hours, it is not enough to consult our daily planner.  We only prepare to live well each day as we consult with the Holy Spirit to see if there is anything He might have in His plans which would include us.

The High Window View

For the past few days I have been viewing the world through a third story window.  In the beginning the things seen were the expected things.  When we are up high our first inclination is to look down toward the ground.  And, so I saw and watched the cars moving about on distance roads, the smaller looking people scurrying about as they hurried toward the thing which hurried them, and the details of the landscape carefully set in place on the earth.  What I found myself seeing was interesting, but not really surprising.

 

However, after more time than would be required by most, it seemed that my eyes were opened to see things not seen.  I suddenly realized I was looking at the world with a tree top view.  At home I had often wondered what it would be like to be a squirrel or a hawk roosting on top of one of our tall pecan trees.  "What could they see?" I often wondered.  Through the window I began to see some of the world they see.  I noticed, too, how the distant horizon is no longer defined by the place where ground meets sky, but where sky meets the distant green tree line.  Morning sunrises are different in the higher places.  Even approaching rain clouds are seen in a different way.

 

The more I saw, the more amazing was the view.  My new view from the high windows also made me think about how my looking for God's presence in my life and in the world is often tainted by what I expect to see instead of according to the new unfolding possibilities which are out there if only I would take the time to cast aside old ways of looking toward the Kingdom.  A seminary prof used to tell us take a different seat each day with hopes that we might be open to a new perspective.  Maybe we need a new place to sit and a new window through which to look as we go forward in our journey toward God.

Verbage

As I think about it, I have been writing a long time now.  When I was in high school, my English teacher got me involved in essay writing at literary events.  Later when I went to my first church as pastor, I started writing a religious column for the weekly county newspaper.  It was a practice I managed to continue throughout my ministry except for the years I was in my appointment at Columbus. A few years before retirement, I started this blog.  I noticed the other day, there are over 1100 blog postings like this one hanging out there behind me. 

 

Back then in 2008, I never imagined writing that many blog postings.  In much the same manner when I started writing sermons every week back in 1971, I could not have conceived of all the verbage I would produce.  No matter how you look at it, there are a lot of words strung out behind me.  I had no idea when I was writing those essays what I was starting.  Or, maybe it is more appropriate to say, I had no idea God was preparing me for a life time of putting words together.  As a carpenter uses a hammer, words have been my choice of tools.

 

While I am sure a lot of those words have failed to communicate, I also believe that what we do for God is never a wasted effort.  As I remember the Matthew passage about folks doing a lot of good things like giving water to the thirsty and caring for the sick, I am reminded good things can be done for the wrong reasons which gives no pleasure to Christ.  I know there have been times when I have read what I have written too many times for the sake of patting myself on the back, but my prayer is that some of those words which have been a part of my ministry have been useful to God for whatever purposes He had in mind.  Pleasing Him is what matters.  This is true of writing as well as anything else we set out to do in His name.

Out of Step

Not too long ago I heard a preacher preaching about the way the church was treated in the good old days.  As it was put, there was a time when the church had clout in the world, but no longer.  The example used to point out the loss of clout was the way the recreation department scheduled ballgames and practices on Sunday morning.  In the good old days, such would never be done.  But, this is not that day.  It is another day. 

 

I am not sure the preacher had it right.  The reason such things happens is because people in the church let it happen.  Whenever there is a schedule conflict between the recreation department's schedule and the church's schedule, it is a no- brainer for most folks.  No self respecting parent would ever consider not allowing their child to show up for a game.  If it is in conflict with something happening at the church, the church seldom wins.  Maybe seldom is too strong a word.  Maybe never is the better word. 

 

If the church has lost its clout, it has nothing to do with another community endeavor encroaching on its schedule, but the willingness of the folks in the church to acquiesce.  After a little grumbling such is what usually happens.  Maybe it is the fault of those of us who are preachers and spiritual leaders.  Maybe we have been preaching a gospel message that is compromised by a desire to tickle ears and entertain listeners.  Maybe we have forgotten to sound the message that Jesus calls us to make hard choices that cause us to be out of step with the community and the world. 

Inheritance

Somewhere along the way, I came upon a way to extend my morning devotional throughout the day.  Actually, it is no big thing I learned from reading some great book.  Matter of fact, it is such an ordinary thing, I imagine it is something done by the millions and I am just now getting around to discovering it.  I have been called a slow learner from time to time.  So, what I have finally gotten around to doing is carrying some word, or verse, or idea into the day so that it becomes a daily mantra I go back to again and again.  Maybe another way of looking at it is to say that I take something with me from my devotional time to chew on as I go about my day.

 

Today I have been chewing on the word "inheritance."  The Word tells us we are joint heirs with Christ.  It tells us there is an inheritance into which we are born.  It is a word that has meaning for all of us as we have all inherited things from those who have gone before us.  But, my thoughts have not really gone to the physical things inherited, but to the way we inherit a genetic make-up which makes us like our fathers and mothers.  To some degree or another, we bear their image.  In different ways we often manifest some of their characteristics or traits.

 

So, here we are as children of God, heirs with Christ to the things of the Kingdom.  Today I have found myself wondering how it is that I bear markings that cause people to see Jesus.  I wonder if the traits and characteristics that define Him define me.  Does my spiritual DNA bear any resemblance to the One whom I seek to follow?  I wonder, too, if I have inherited more at my spiritual birth than I allow to be seen.  Am I making a secret out of the fact that I belong to Jesus?  I keep wondering if those who see me see the One who dwells within me and if they know I am His.

A Word for Servants

It is not always easy hanging in there doing what we know to be the right thing.  While we may not want to say that the word "Quit" is in our vocabulary, the truth is we are well acquainted with it.  Knowing what God wants us to do does not always equate into doing it.  The Apostle Paul wrote to the Galatian Christians, "So let us not grow weary in doing what is right, for we will reap at harvest time, if we do not give up."  (Galatians 6:9)  When we start out doing the right thing, it is hard to imagine quitting and giving up, but it happens.

 

In some circles of ministry it is called "burn out."  It is not a term that is hard to define.  When the work before us starts feeling like an unmovable brick wall and our head is the battering ram, we are likely to see ourselves walking away even though it was something we never intended to happen.  Serving Christ and doing what we know to be the right thing takes many forms, but all of them have within them the ability to destroy our determination and send us turning away in frustration and defeat.  One of the reasons we give up on some task to which we have been called is often related to the fact that we get so focused on the task itself that we forget Who it is that sent us. 

 

Looking back is to realize that there were too many moments of trying to do God's work without God being involved.  There were times when it was all about me, my determination, my energy, and my ego.  When we forget to keep our heart and eyes focused on the sending Christ, we are candidates for a frustration that will result in our quitting.  We will grow weary in doing what is right no matter how noble the task unless we stay focused on the One who said, "Go."  He intended for the Holy Spirit to provide the energy for the task and when He gets pushed into the background, the service to which we are called is going to be left undone.

Memories

Today I found an email in the inbox from an old clergy friend whom I have not heard from in years.  While it was a nice catching up note, it brought back some memories of times we shared together in another era of both of our lives.  Whenever I think about a serious bout of laughter, I always remember a round of golf we played.  Along the course, something happened and uncontrollable laughter burst out from both of us.  It was like a long playing record!  I am grateful we were created with the capacity to remember.  While some things may be hard to remember, the good memories surely outweigh the bad ones.

 

We may not think about it as we go along our faith walk, but it is littered with things that make memoires.  All of us can look back at some of the difficult hours in our life, hours when it seemed that the darkness would surely overtake us, and remember how God showed up in some unexpected way.  And, there are those memories of worship and memories of times when we were overwhelmed with an awareness of the goodness of God.  Those memories of God showing up in our lives are always treasures that have sustaining and strengthening power.

 

As we read the Scripture, we find the Word of God calling us to remember.  The Hebrews were called to remember their deliverance from Egypt.  There are places in the Psalms that seem like someone has opened a scrapbook that called people to remember God as their helper.  Jesus told stories and parables that helped those who followed Him to more easily remember the divine truths He was teaching.   Those things we remember about God are things which encourage us as we go forward.  As we run into the uncertainties and the difficulties of living, it is good to remember how God has been in those places with us in the past. 

Hope

Anyone who has lived long enough to weather a crisis or two knows that sometimes we stand in the dark places with little more than hope that the light is coming.  It is not always a rational thing to live with hope.  There are moments when logic and reality stare us in the face so hard that we are tempted to forsake the hope that stirs within the human heart.  Still, we hope.  Even the most skeptical of us sometimes hope for a better day.  Regardless of the circumstances, we cling to hope like a person hanging to a piece of floating driftwood in the middle of the ocean.

 

In the letter the Apostle Paul wrote to the Roman Christians, we hear the Word of God saying, "Now hope that is seen is not hope.  For who hopes for what is seen?  For if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience."  (Romans 8:24-25)  Hope always carries us into the realm of what is out yonder just beyond our reach.  Toward it we move.  It is what keeps us from being overwhelmed by the flood of despair which sometimes swirls around us trying to suck us under. 

 

What most of us realize is that we could not really live without hope.  When we marry, we hope the person we marry will still love us when we are old and empty of our youthful vitality.  When we are sick, we hope for a cure.  When we are facing our death, we hope in the life to come.  Perhaps, the really hard thing is waiting for the thing for which we hope with patience.  As we listen to what the Word of God is declaring, it becomes obvious that the waiting with patience part is a Word about remembering to Whom we have given our life and trusting in the Hands that hold us. 

Time for Everything

Around here on the farm nothing happens in a hurry.  Everything happens slowly.  The hay which sustains the cows through the winter takes months to grow and bale.  It takes nine months for a cow to birth a calf.  It takes another two years before the newborn calf becomes a calf producer. The pecan trees that dump a crop of nuts on the ground in October are first seen setting midst the early Spring foliage.  And as anyone who has ever planted anything knows, no seed brings a harvest in the morning.  Everything takes time.  There is nothing which can be done to hurry anything.  As the Word says, "For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven..."  (Ecclesiastes 3:1)

 

There are lessons to be learned by watching what is around us.  The problem is that we live our lives as if every moment is on the interstate.  Slow is not our favorite word.  When someone in front of us is talking and having trouble collecting their thoughts or saying what is obvious, we want to hurry them.  We try to help them finish.  We do not always have time to do the listening required in the moment.  There is something about us that becomes very impatient with those who do not operate at the rapid pace of our living.  Even in those moments when an automobile accident occurs causing our plans to be put on hold for a brief time, we moan and groan instead of offering prayers of concern for someone who is in obvious trouble.

 

We sometimes forget that life is lived one day at a time.  No, life is lived one minute at a time.  No, life is lived one second at a time.  Time is not a thing of great concern to God, only to us.  He has created us in an orderly planned world where everything has its season and its place.  We only add to the stress of our own journey through this life by bucking against the divine program.  Slowing down and paying attention to the present moment and the people in it may be something we have to learn to do, but it is worth the effort.   

The Call

When I was ordained back in 1973, it was to serve within the bounds of the South Georgia Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church.  As I recall there were ten or twelve who were a part of the ordination class that year.  Getting a picture from the past is the only way to be accurate, but memory reminds me it was a good group.  I am told at the past session of this same Annual Conference that none were ordained.  None.  It makes me sad to think that there are no new clergy entering our church to serve as pastors and preachers.

 

I cannot help but think one word.  "Why?"  Why were none ordained?  Has God quit calling people to preach and to serve the church?  Is the famine of the Word being proclaimed really so pronounced? (Amos 8:11) Are young people not listening anymore?  Are preachers who fill the pulpit failing to speak words which enable people to hear God calling?  Are the potential preachers and pastors hearing a call to a more lucrative and easier life style?  Is the church becoming so irrelevant that no one wants to invest their lives serving the Christ through its ministry?  What is happening?  Is the empty altar of ordination temporary, or does it point to a trend? 

 

I must confess.  I am better at asking questions than providing answers.  I have my own thoughts which somehow originate in the way the church and its preachers have lost a sense of urgency about the message of the gospel.  Too many times the message being proclaimed is weakened down by attempts to be attractive and acceptable instead of convicting and invitational.  Too many times the call of God to preach and pastor is weakened by presenting it in an either or fashion.  Maybe we have become afraid to sound the Word of God in these day.  I am convinced God still desires to call young men and women to ministry within the church, but the medium for the message has become too confused. 

Call to Pray

Anyone who believes in the power of prayer does not find it strange to pray prayers of blessings, or prayers of intercession at strange moments for some of the people who suddenly show up in their personal space.  Military planes often fly over our house and I often look toward the sky and pray for those who are piloting the plane.  I also know some folks who pray when they see an emergency vehicle speeding through traffic on its way to trouble.  There are thousands of things happening around us which are interpreted as a call to pray by different people.

 

Sometimes we stay too glued to our prayer list.  We pray for the same people in the same way at the same time each day.  And while I am always grateful to know that someone is calling my name before the Father in their daily prayers, I also know we can make our prayers so routine that they end up being a meaningless religious exercise.  Trying to find ways to be a little creative in our praying should be understood as a good thing.  We can be creative in choosing the objects of our prayers and we can be creative in the way we pray. 

 

We are such creatures of habit.  What should always be remembered is that there is no model of prayer that is absolute and excludes any other.  When such happens we may actually be making a god out of the way we pray instead of seeking God through our prayers.  Arriving at the right way to pray is not something that ever really happens.  As long as we seek to enter into a personal intimate relationship with God, we will be forever finding that there are many ways of making that relationship into something which is powerfully alive. 

Praying on the Go

We do all kinds of praying.  Some of our prayers are long and wordy.  They must surely wear out the ears of God.  Others are so short, they likely do not even get God's attention.  And, of course, there are those prayers that are structured in ritual like fashion.  They may even require printed words to pray.  Of course, sometimes we pray on the go.  I was reminded of this today as I was walking to our parked car out in the middle of a parking area.  As I walked I heard short sentence prayers being uttered from my mouth and lifted toward heaven. 

 

In the midst of that brief moment, I found myself suddenly aware of divine presence  There was nothing about my surroundings which would have suggested I was about to enter into a holy moment, but such is how the spontaneous prayer was experienced.  As brief as the words were, they brought me into a time of holy presence as surely as if I had been praying for hours.  And while I have never been a big fan of prayers on the go because they can become a substitute for intentional devoted time with God, they can still be moments of unexpected grace.

 

Of course, there is nothing sacred about long and wordy prayers.  The length of the prayers prayed does not mean they are more likely to be heard by God.  The prayers most likely to be heard as effective praying are those which come from the heart.  Prayers of desperation such as one of the thieves on the cross offered come to mind.  And, as we read the narrative of Jesus, we keep running into prayers that are no longer than "Lord, have mercy."   Maybe part of praying without ceasing includes those prayers we pray in the prayer closet as well as those prayers on the go.

The Figuring Post

A good story teller always leaves the listener with something to chew on after the telling is done.  We all have our favorite story tellers.  Two of mine are Flannery O'Connor and Wendell Berry.  Jesus was also a pretty good story teller.  If His listeners had seats on which to sit, they surely would have been sitting on the edge. His stories and parables often seem to come spontaneously from things of the present moment and it is easy to see people leaving shaking their heads and talking among themselves.  An old Episcopalian priest friend often said that the unwritten word at the end of the parables and stories of Jesus was, "Go figure."

 

I think my friend had it right.  We do not simply walk away from a story like the Parable of the Prodigal Son.  We start second guessing the ending, or more likely, we spend time looking for ourselves.  Any serious reading of the gospels brings us an awareness that Jesus wants us to put on our thinking cap as we delve into His teachings through stories and parables.  Thinking is good for the soul.  One word of caution I often have given to people who were seekers was "Don't let someone else do your thinking."  There are always some people perceived as spirtual leaders who want to control others by telling them how to think.  Beware.

 

Each one of us is exactly the person God has made us to be.  We are individually shaped and influenced by our experiences and circumstances.  We are also shaped by the way God is choosing to interact with us through the presence of the Holy Spirit.  What is obvious and significant to one of us may not be so to another.  The important thing is learning to be in the presence of God as we read those teachings of Jesus on the way to the "Figuring Post."

Battle With a Bulldozer

It always makes me sad to see a church closing, or biting the dust.  In a nearby town an old brick church on a street corner is losing a battle with a bulldozer.  Every time the front end shovel raises in the air, another part of the wall comes tumbling down.  It is such a sad sight.  Once it was a proud and prominent Primitive Baptist Church.  And then more recently it became a church with one of those wordy contemporary sounding names.  It took more than one breath to say its whole name.  But, it was still a church where people praised God in worship and offered prayers toward heaven.

 

Soon it will just be a bare corner and not long afterwards, something else will likely spring from the ground and people will forget that a church once graced that place.  I can intellectually understand how such a thing happens.  Everything, including our institutions, are in a constant state of change.  But, I keep thinking, not so much of the building as the people from the past who worshipped there. They no doubt had great expectations for their church.  They prayed and believed it would have an unending impact on the community around them.  They knew the blessings of God and were filled with hope for days to come.  They never considered that one day a bulldozer would come.

 

Despite all those holy expectations, the day of demise has come.  Somehow though, what has transpired there will not be forgotten by the God who was worshipped through the decades. It would not be a surprise if some of the prayers prayed in that place are still being remembered and used as building blocks for Kingdom enterprises.  Ministry done in the name of Jesus has a way of reaching into distant places and even though great spans of time in ways no one could ever imagine.  Maybe the building is gone, but count me as one who continues to believe that seed planted for the Kingdom of God will grow a harvest long after anyone goes looking for it. 

70 Years and Reflecting

As one who is approaching seventy years later this month, I find myself doing more than my share of reflection about things that are behind me.  It is not that I live in the past.  Instead, there seems to be more days in the rear view mirror than I can see out ahead of me.  And so, while I consciously seek to live with an attentiveness to the present, I am guilty of peering into that rear view mirror from time to time and thinking about what I see.  Maybe it has to do with getting older, or, maybe it just has to do with being human.

 

Lately, I have found myself thinking about my high school English classes and my teacher, Mrs. Evans.  At the time learning about words, sentence structure, and writing was just a discipline required to get the sought after diploma.  Only later in life have I realized I was getting tools for my trade.  My hours in that classroom was not just for learning how to work with words, but a time of preparation for a life I had not yet planned to enter.  God had a bigger view than just a boy passing English classes.  He was preparing me for a work I could not yet see.  As I sat there learning, I never imagined myself spending a life time writing words and speaking them from behind a pulpit.

It is that way for all of us.  If we look carefully at what is upon us in the moment, we are likely to see some ways that God has prepared us for the challenge of the hour.  When He calls us to a task, or leads us down a road that measures us beyond measure, we can be assured that somewhere before we could envision what was ahead He was getting us ready.  God never hurries.  Look at the story of Abraham.  Or, think about the years Elijah waited for it to rain.  Nine months is what it took for Mary to have the Son who would be Savior.  This God who does not hurry uses what seems to be the insignificant moments of our life to get us ready for what He knows is ahead. 

Leading

It is hard to read the Scripture and come to the conclusion that life is lived apart from the leading of God.  Now, some find the idea of life being directed by God to be a bit far fetched.  For them life is determined by human choices.  Things like education, marriage, career, birth location, and the circumstances of life are the things that direct how life is lived.  However, it seems much more far fetched to consider life without God being actively involved in how we live.

 

When we look at the Word, the first wanderer we run into is that old Hebrew known as Abram.  God leads him all over the Middle East.  He takes him from Hebron into Israel and down to Egypt and back again.  Along the way Abram becomes Abraham.  And, in a like manner young Joseph and Mary find themselves being directed by God to leave their homeland and go as refugees into Egypt and then later back home again.  As we read about the record of the early church, we see disciples being led to Jerusalem to wait for the Spirit and then after they got so comfortable in Jerusalem that leaving was impossible, the Spirit compelled the new Apostles to scatter into the world. 

 

To read the Biblical record is to see that God's hand was upon the lives of people who are no different than you and me.  It was not mere coincidence that directed their journeys.  And neither does mere coincidence have directing power on ours.  God uses those things which are a part of our lives to move us into the circumstances which are a part of His plan for us.  Everything about our life is but a useful tool in His hand to speed us on our way.  Being open at every corner for the leading hand of God not only makes sense, but also enables us to stay in step with what God in doing in our lives.

A Prayer

Have you confessed to God all the known sins of your heart?  Have you confessed even the secret sins that are known only by you?  Are you ready for the Holy Spirit to take complete control of your inner being?  Are you ready to sacrifice now and forever the demands of ego so that the Holy Spirit has full authority in your life?  Are you fed up with spiritual mediocrity and a spiritual life empty of power?  Are you truly hungry for God?  Do you desire a walk with God that is filled with more intimacy than ever experienced in the past?  Do you want your heart to belong completely to God?

 

If the answer to all of these questions is "yes"  then the prayer David prayed long centuries ago is a prayer to be prayed in these very moments  "Create in me a clean heart, O God, and put a new and right spirit within me."  (Psalms 51:10)  Remember in these moments of praying something else written by the Psalmist, "The sacrifice acceptable to God is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, You will not despise."  (Psalms 51:17)  Know that what you are about in this praying is a response to God's Word which invites all of us "to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God..."  (Romans 12:1) 

 

Believe as you believed when you said "yes" to Jesus and accepted Him as your Savior.  Know that even as faith was then the only right response to God's grace, so is it in this moment of praying. Pray in faith that God would indeed sanctify and purify your heart so that you are cleansed and made completely whole.  Know that this work of the heart is not something you can do through any ritual or words.  God is the only One who can bring purity to your heart.  Believe.  Believe that this is true and trust Him to accomplish now this work of grace in you. 

A Spiritual Opportunity

After we start following Jesus, we are apt to run out from under the umbrella of His presence.  And, in the same manner we are likely to find ourselves trying to drink from a stream that has run dry.  While we are never as aware of it as we might be, what keeps us going forward in our spiritual journey is a remembrance of our commitment to Jesus, the songs of faith which was for us like a marching band, our determination to be faithful, and what seemed to be an inexhaustible spiritual energy.  But, like an engine that comes to the moment of depending on fumes, we start to sputter and soon find ourselves at a spiritual standstill.

 

It is not an uncommon part of the journey of faith.  The danger is that we might give up, figuring that somehow we got misled.  Or, it is possible that we might somehow do a re-boot and fill our lives with the same things again.  But, as we know if we want different results at the end, something different must be put in at the beginning.  While this may be seen by some as a dangerous moment in the spiritual journey, it is also a moment of spiritual opportunity.  The old timers spoke of it as a "crisis experience" which had the potential to propel the believer into a deeper, more dependent walk with God.  It can be a moment of choosing to go back and do things like they used to be done, or it can be a moment for seeking the life of holiness and heart purity.

 

What is also true is the reality that we may be one who has walked as a follower of Jesus for decades and never really felt like we were satisfied with where we were on the journey.  Of course, there is a sense in which we should never be satisfied, but it is also true that our spiritual life can be one of such mediocrity that we find ourselves hoping and longing for something more.  To read the gospels and the book of Acts is to be shown that there is something more for those who will only put themselves under the power and authority of the Holy Spirit. 

Misconception

I remember that Tuesday afternoon trip to the altar at Asbury College.  What was to become known as the Asbury Revival had broken out in our midst at the morning 10:00 o'clock chapel service. Like hundreds of others, I had been glued to my seat.  The call to give myself wholly to God finally became so strong that I pulled myself from my spectator perch and became a participant.  Perhaps, a hungry seeker is a better word.  Nonetheless, I went to kneel once again at an altar seeking after God who was calling and revealing Himself as He had for such a long time.

 

When I left the altar, I knew then, and continue to know even now that a significant work of grace had taken place in my heart.  Back then I thought I was done.  I thought the moment had such far reaching power into the days ahead that my spiritual shortfalls were over.  Surely, responding to God's call to live a holy life would take care of all that was ahead.  But, as I have often been, I was wrong.  It set me on a course of life which has sustained me through the years, but not one which has protected me from straying from it.  Fortunately, the mercy I found that day at the altar has been even more abundant in the years which have followed.

 

To live and walk by the Spirit, as we are called to live by the Word in Galatians, is not an end, but a life long event.  As is the case with any walk, the possibility for stumbling is always present.  But, this Holy Spirit who dwells within us is quick to point out where we have missed the mark, sometimes before we do, but most assuredly afterwards.  The Spirit convicts us of the sin in our life so that we can do something about it before it takes root and starts to have power over us once again.  As the Word tells us, we choose the power to which we will submit our lives.   It is either the power of sin, or the power of the Holy Spirit.