On the Edge

Standing
    on the edge,
    pausing,
    the next step
    is eternity.
Waiting
    for a word
    to go, to come
    to enter the land
    now seen dimly.
Listening
    for voices,
    familiar ones,
    encouraging,
    full of hope.
Lingering
    and longing
    to touch again
    those souls
    loved before.

(Hebrews 12:1)

Here and There

Somewhere
    between
      here and there
    is a veil.
Sometimes thin
    enough
       to hear
       soft voices
       whispering
    back and forth.
And sometimes thick,
     impossible
       to penetrate,
       or know
       what or Who
   waits beyond.

(Hebrews 12:1)

Fix It

Broken things need fixing.  But, fixing broken things is not always something we are eager to do.  While the obvious response to broken things is to fix them, there are other alternatives.  One, we can ignore the brokenness.  We can go ahead as if nothing is broken.  We can choose to work around the brokenness with an "I'll get by" attitude.  Or, we can choose to be satisfied with less than the best which can be done.  Fixing something may require some effort or expense and we may not be willing to expend either so we just use what is broken even though it is broken.

 

I learned all this the other day from a broken lawn mower.  Every time I got it out to cut grass, I had to spend an inordinate amount of time getting it running.  I finally took it to the shop and now the issues created by the brokenness are gone.  But, broken lawn mowers are nothing compared to broken relationships.  We learn to live with that kind of brokenness in our lives and no good springs forth from it.  Fixing broken relationships can be costly.  It may cost some time.  It may require us to cease counting who is right and who is wrong.  However, the biggest cost comes clothed in our ego.  There is the real problem that has to be fixed when there is a broken relationship.

 

Jesus had little time and energy to exert on broken relationships.  His attitude was simple.  "If it is broke, fix it.  Don't think about who is at fault, just fix it."  This may be a rough rendering of Matthew 5:23-24, but it gets at the core of what Jesus was teaching in this part of the Sermon on the Mount.  When we read those Words of His closely, we realize that fixing a broken relationship has nothing to do with determining blame.  As far as He is concerned, if a relationship is seen as broken, we are to fix it.

Loss and Grief

Walking forward when walking forward means walking with loss is not easy walking.  Yet, as much as we would choose to avoid any kind of loss in our life, it is inevitable.  When we think about loss, the first thing we think about is the loss experienced through the death of someone we love.  This is truly a hard loss which is often compounded when it comes unexpectedly, or in a way which seems to go against the grain of what seems to be normal in the fabric of life.

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Of course, life shaking loss comes disguised in what might appear as some benign circumstance.  But, benign hardly describes the kind of loss experienced when  marriage partners end a life of being together.  And sometimes loss in families comes not through divorce, but through the wayward rebellion of a child.  As one who spent a lifetime of moving from one place to another, it has become obvious that loss and grief can even  accompany geographic changes.  No one is really immune to loss.  Some may not count it as such and not really deal with it as a grief making event in life.  Not paying attention to the loss does not take away its impact on our lives.  Somewhere along the way the grief of losing what is regarded as a person or thing of value will surface.

 

Those who expect life to be easy should seek residency on another planet.  The Word of God which points us to many realities of life does not offer easy.  What it does point us toward is a faithful God whose heart was surely broken by the loss of life seen on Calvary.  What it does point us toward is the reality that the world, as broken as it may seem, is still under the control of the Almighty One who first spun it on its axis.  In the midst of loss, it often seems this God whose essence is love has left us, but there is always a resounding "No!" throughout Scripture.  Whatever life brings, God is with us.

Dust on the Bible

I remember growing up with one Bible.  It was black and had a zipper that went around its outer edges.  Inside the words of Jesus were in red print and every now and again was a picture of some great Biblical moment such as David slaying Goliath. Later on I inherited a small brown Gideon Bible my father carried with him to the Pacific during World War II.  Some years after his death, my Mother married a Methodist preacher who gave me the modern rendering of the Word known as the Phillips translation.  It was the Bible I carried with me to college and it served me for a long time in those early believer days.

 

Much later the Bibles starting piling up around me.  It seemed appropriate for a someone who aspired to be a good preacher to have different versions and translations in order to better understand what the Word was saying.  I even picked up a Greek Bible along the way.   There was a time I could read some from it, but that time was long ago.  As the years and decades passed I found myself still surrounded by different Bibles; however, the New Revised Standard Bible became my mainstay.

 

Of course, the important thing about a Bible is reading it.  Having a lot of different ones may impress some folks if impressing folks is the name of the game being played.  When I was growing up there was a song going around which had the line, "Get that dust off the Bible and redeem your poor soul."  An unused Bible is a waste.  The  Bible was not written to become the basis for a collection, or even the object of intensive study.  The Bible came into existence for us to read to the point that its truths were reflected spontaneously in our living.  So, read the Word.  And, then, read the Word some more. 

A Place

If we do not have a place to meet God, it is not likely to happen during the course of the day.  Oh, I know God can be encountered on the fly, at any moment, but it is also true that intentionality is an important part of a spiritual life that has the possibility of maturity.  The gospels tell us that Peter, James, and John only had one mountain top experience in which heavenly glory unexpectedly broke in their midst.  The rest of the time is it safe to assume that their lives were mostly ordinary and full of the mundane.

 

While I would never even think of discounting those extraordinary moments of unexpected holy encounter, my own life has been filled with more ordinary days in which I sensed the presence of God than days when His power was so evident that I was knocked off my feet and onto my knees.  Our spiritual life is not built on casual unexpected moments, but on moments in which we intentionally put ourselves in position to experience and know the presence of God. 

 

One of those things which is always necessary is a place set aside for holy encounters.  It may not be a place used exclusively for such moments as our living arrangements may not allow for such luxury, but it needs to be a place where we go when we are reading the Word or entering into a time of prayer with the Father.  More important than it being filled with cushioning is that it is a place that has become for us a place filled with holy expectations.  Even as we go into a sanctuary on Sunday with the expectation of worship, so do we need a place in our home where we go with expectations of being able to draw aside to nurture our soul. 

Not an "Invitation Only" Event

The circles in which I run do not have too many "Invitation Only" events.  Oh, there have been a few along the way, but mostly, whoever is doing the event is happy to see whoever might show up in attendance.  The exceptions have been things like weddings, birthday parties, and once upon a time there was a funeral that was "Invitation Only."  The reason I remember the funeral has to do with the fact that I was not invited.  But, that is all in the past and a part of a history that got straightened out at a later date.

 

I am thankful for John 3:16 which says, "For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him..."  If you are like me, you love that word "whoever."  When it comes to the cross, are we not all glad it was an all inclusive event?  Everyone, you, me, everyone is invited to be blessed and delivered by the event of the cross.  The invitation to experience the salvation of God and life in the Kingdom was given that day and everyone got it.  Some may not want it, but it came hand delivered, nonetheless.

How grateful I am that no one is excluded from the Kingdom.  If some were destined to be left off the invitation list, I am sure I would be at the top of the list.  What has made the difference in my life is the grace and mercy offered by God through the cross.  What happened on Cavalry so long ago was a mysterious sequence of events which has the power to penetrate the darkness present in any heart.  No sin is beyond its reaching.  When we kneel before the cross, we hear the invitation to come ever so clearly and we know it is not just for someone else.  It is for you and me and everyone who kneels there alongside of us.