The Silent Force

It is a beautiful, verdant tree, its towering trunk and ample branches providing welcome shade from the Texas heat. However, at some point in its lifetime this tree had suffered a lightening strike that caused an internal split in the tree’s trunk. In an effort to reinforce it, someone had placed a sturdy metal band around the trunk. I was surprised when my daughter walked into the house one day holding this metal band in her hand. “What happened?” I asked her, “Were you pulling on that?” I started to admonish. “No,” she replied, “It was just open.” I went out to evaluate the situation and try to determine what strange force had popped open a metal band, and the conclusion I gathered surprised me. It was not caused by vandalism or curious children, but by the growth of the tree. Despite its scars, its weakness, its internal damage, the tree had continued to grow and its own growth and weight had broken the band that held it.

Sometimes we look at people and it is obvious that there are issues holding their lives in a bind. Samson was one of these people. Despite being called of God to accomplish a great mission as a judge and deliverer of the Israelites, he was held in chains by his own desires. This weakness eventually caught up with him and he found himself a depowered captive. However, the enemies forgot that as his hair grew, his power grew. This oversight allowed Samson to break the fetters of his oppressors and achieve his greatest victory ever.

As humans, we all wrestle with things that hold us down, but we must remember that every human also has the power to grow. As we become more honest with ourselves, more aware of God, more educated about our situation and more dedicated to making small, everyday changes, we begin to grow. Although slow, unseen and not very glamorous, growth has the power to break the restraints that hold us back. 

Finding Our Joy

"If you call the Sabbath a delight and the Lord 's holy day honorable, and if you honor it by not going your own way and not doing as you please or speaking idle words,

then you will find your joy in the Lord,...."  Isaiah 58:13-14

We live in a caffeine world. There never seem to be enough new coffees or energy drinks to counteract our constant, collective lethargy. Burnout, exhaustion and fatigue are all too common in our everyday lives. Not only are our bodies tired, but the contentment in our spirits has been extinguished. Are we really toiling beyond reason in our convenience filled world? Is life really so much more stressful than it was for those who went before us? Where did our strength go? Who stole our joy?

In the Old Testament, the Sabbath day of rest and reflection was not optional; it was an unbending commandment from God for His people. The Cross has freed us from keeping the Law and the New Testament does not repeat the command to keep the Sabbath, so in the Christian world it has been reverently displayed in the Museum of Times Bygone and relegated to the ranks of the studious. However, maybe we have exercised our spiritual liberty to the point that our bulging muscles inhibit us from grasping what we desperately need- rest with purpose. Not mindless couch potatoing or constant pleasure seeking, but sacred times dedicated to mindful reflection, deliberate leisure, true human connection and inward stillness. The purpose of the Sabbath was to refresh, recharge and refocus by renewing our God focus, a time to lay down our agendas and pick up God's agenda, to exhale stress and inhale peace and to perceive the divine though confined to the earthly. The principle of the Sabbath was the principle of remembering that we find our joy when we lose ourselves in the rest of a loving God.

Sowing Esther Style

“..If I perish, I perish.” Esther 4:16

 Picture retrieved from:

http://www.sierraclubgreenhome.com/cms/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/seeds.jpg

“Send in your faith seed!” Such seems to be the ubiquitous cry of the televangelist. No, he’s not talking about flower seeds, or vegetable seeds or even grains of mustard, we all know he’s referring to the stuff found in wallets! The Christian church in North America has thoroughly embraced the belief of fast blessings. The idea prevails that if we give $10 to the cause of Christ, we are guaranteed $100 back, or $1,000 or maybe even $10,000 depending on our faith. The Kingdom of God has become the new and improved Wall Street for believers. If we are willing to give, we are sure to get back! Does God bless those who give in faith? Most definitely, but giving with the thought of getting a quick return is not exactly faith giving.

Esther found herself being asked to sow a seed. It was not a financial seed, but it was definitely a faith seed. To go in uninvited before the king in order to intercede for her people was to invite instant death. God was asking Esther for a faith investment that had no guaranteed returns, no visible safety nets and no promises of glory. She knew it could mean complete disaster for her, but she battled through her short-sightedness until she was able to say those words of ultimate faith, “If I perish, I perish!” No reward, no guarantee, no victory in sight but a willingness to lay it all down for the sake of the Cause. It is when believers are willing to sow in Esther’s style that faith begins to really prevail, that the church can flourish even in times of scarcity and persecution, and what was sown in the unseen starts to produce the visible.

The White Elephant

The White Elephant

Someone gives you a kind, heartfelt gift and although you appreciate the gesture of the giver, sometimes the gift itself is not as easy to appreciate. You look at it and ask yourself, "To what event would I wear this awful tie? Where can I discreetly put this hideous knick knack? What am I going to do with yet another obscure kitchen gadget?" These are typical responses to things we don't really want yet somehow we find it difficult to get rid of them for whatever reason. These are our white elephants.

One of the biggest white elephants of all is pain. Something happens and suddenly we find ourselves holding a memory that we would like to dispose of yet somehow we can't. We look around our lives and try to figure out what to do with it. Should we put it on a shelf where we will constantly remember it? Should we take it out back and bury it? Should we alter it and wear it with pride? Pain does not dissolve on its own so we have to find a place for it in our psyche. Sometimes we decide to place it on the shelf of self-guilt and allow self-loathing to take control. Sometimes we plunk it in the knife drawer and seethe with a constant desire for revenge. Sometimes we shove it into the attic with forgotten things and wonder why our home is always filled with such an odd odor. Sometimes we put it in the front yard as an everlasting monument and take comfort in the sympathetic gazes of passersby. Whatever our decision, white elephants are not easy to hide. Speaking of hiding, perhaps the best place for our pain is in the closet, not hidden behind coats and golf clubs, but covered in the grace, mercy and blood of a Savior, because whatever we bolt down in our prayer closet can't stomp on us any longer.