Month: April 2021

Finding our place

Years ago when I was a young woman I had a discussion with a youth minister. I was concerned with some changes in the choice of music at the church. The move was toward new contemporary worship songs. I didn’t actually have an issue with the new music. I have always loved music of all types and genres. I was upset with the attitude to the old music. There was a philosophy that suggested we needed to upgrade. The old-fashioned music was out of touch, ‘unrelatable’, old and dusty. I didn’t see it this way. At the time I loved the old hymns and even now I still do.

I had an instinctual reaction to this shift. At the time I was offended musically. I thought it narrow-minded, ignoring music of such an incredible quality. Some of these old hymns were written by brilliant people, both the music and lyrics. This didn’t mean I couldn’t see brilliance in some new music. I thought it arrogant to shove the old music out the door.

I realize now there was a greater danger in this. This attitude toward music signified a much bigger problem. In the early 1990s churches started to worry about being relevant. We needed to be cooler, more hip to the culture. The music needed to be updated. The topics of discussion needed to be updated. We needed cool “full service” Sunday school programs and coffee shops and lots of palaver.

And yet humans are as they ever were. There is nothing new under the sun.

I have come to understand that this was a kind of human vanity, a desire to be a “kingdom builder.” When in the past it was enough to be a part of the kingdom. This attitude sought to bring glory to God by being more culturally recognizable. This on the surface is an excellent goal. But somewhere in that process we felt we needed to help God be more approachable. Yikes!!

I see now the vanity in this. We were the centre of this movement (I say we, because I got swept up in it too). God doesn’t actually need our help. He can use the willing and the unwilling. He can use the Christian and the non-christian. He can use blessings, and He can use suffering to bring people to Him.

These old hymns have in them the suffering of centuries. They recognize our shared humanity (as do many of the new songs). We don’t need to improve on the past, we need to take our place in it. This is God’s story, not ours.

The light of the moon

God is like the sun; blazing, bright and overpowering. Moses hid his face when he approached the burning bush. Our humanity, our sin, keeps us from being able to understand God. Just as the heat and furious power of the sun prevents us from fully understanding it. Yet we live by His light. Everything we have is because of the sun and its warm rays.

He sent His own son to earth as a man. Jesus crossed the bridge between man and God. He showed us, in terms we can understand, what God is. He was the human example, a reflection of God. In the same way the moon reflects the sun. The moon does not have its own light, but rather that of the sun. But we can stare at the moon in a way that we can’t look directly at the sun.

Like the moon, Jesus was a reflection of God. The light belongs to God, but in taking a lesser, human form he gave us a version of the light that we can examine and study and understand.

John 14: 6 – 7 Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life.
No one comes to the Father except through me.
If you really know me, you will know my Father as well.
From now on, you do know him and have seen him.”

The tide is turning

I was listening to G.K. Chesterton’s “Orthodoxy.” There was a line that jumped out at me. “The poet only asks to get his head into the heavens. It is the logician who seeks to get the heavens into his head. And it is his head that splits.” This simple line struck me as so profound.

I have been trying to make sense of our world. And when I try to do that I can work my way into a terrible state; angry, frustrated, scared, and tired. My head begins to ache with the effort. If I choose to look for God’s hand in the world, rather than rationalize, I am more contented.

And when I look for God’s hand I see it. People are standing up and speaking truth. Leaders are beginning to rise and other brave souls are starting to support them publicly. The pendulum is starting to swing back. Light is starting to push back against the darkness. It is happening.

God is moving.

We can’t guess what form it will take, and we can’t predict what will happen. But I see it… I see it happening. I hear the rumblings. People are coalescing. They are aligning themselves with God and they are growing in strength. Every day a bit louder. The rumbling is increasing. Men of power and influence cannot hear it, they can’t see it. A hurricane is coming their way, and they can’t see it, they are blind. But I see it and I know it’s coming. For now, it’s a small cloud on the horizon.

Take heart the tide is turning.

1 Kings 18: 44 The seventh time the servant reported,
“A cloud as small as a man’s hand is rising from the sea.”
So Elijah said, “Go and tell Ahab, ‘Hitch up your chariot
and go down before the rain stops you.'”

Only a glimpse

Moses was born for a task. From his very birth he was set apart for this task. He was protected from the infanticide of the Egyptian Pharaoh. All his life experiences were designed for the unique part he would play in history of the Israelite people. He fulfilled the most extraordinary exodus, with the help of God.

But Moses didn’t cross into the promised land. He did all the work but didn’t get to take part in the reward. I always felt this was rather unfair.

While he didn’t get to enter the promised land, God gave him a view from atop the mountain. But God still has work for him to do, he is to encourage Joshua. His final role is as a mentor. Joshua will take over the final stage and help the people of God enter and inhabit the promised land.

It occurred to me this morning that this is far from unfair or unusual. This is pretty typical of life. We rarely ever get to see a project from start to finish and enjoy the reward. A baker makes the most beautiful cakes, but sells them to others who will get the joy of eating them. A builder builds a house for someone else to live in. And those are rare jobs. Most of us do our little part of a much bigger puzzle. Each important in our own way, but one cog in a big operation.

Moses wanted to go into the promised land. He desired to see the work of God completed. But this task was too much for an old man. A younger man of strength, courage and faith was required. God knew this. Moses had done his part. He had completed his task. God gave him a view of the land from afar.

We don’t always see and enjoy the fruits of our labour. It is enough to know that we are useful to God and that we have done our part, however small.

Deuteronomy 3: 27-28 “Go up to the top of Pisgah and look west and north and south and east. Look at the land with your own eyes, since you are not going to cross this Jordan. But commission Joshua, and encourage and strengthen him, for he will lead this people across and will cause them to inherit the land that you will see.”

Take courage in His love

Some days I feel down in the mouth. I feel upset and nothing goes my way. The little problems are mountains. What should I do when I feel this way?

I can replace my own negative and myopic self talk with scriptures. I can fill my head with the glory of God. Doing this doesn’t make me less pathetic or sinful, it just ensures I remember that I am loved.

Sometimes we all need to remember this. The worst of humans have access to God’s grace. Even when we are sure of our failures and certain of our hopelessness God can reach us. Because our place in his kingdom is not a product of our goodness but His holiness. God loves me not because I am lovable but because He is love.

When your inner voice tells you that you are unworthy say back, “Yes, but God is worthy.”

When your inner voice says you are a failure reply, “Yes, but God is not.”

When your inner voice reminds you how unlovable you are answer, “So true, but God IS love.”

Romans 5:8 But God demonstrates his own love for us in this:
While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Judging a book by it’s cover

In grade nine my son decided to join the school wrestling team. I was able to attend a couple of the school matches. It was so great to see all these kids mixing it up on the mats.

My son had three matches. When his second match came up, I worked my way closer to where he was wrestling. Standing with him on the mat was a little guy, easily a foot shorter than my boy. I shook my head in confusion. I thought they were matched by weight. There was no way this boy was in the same weight class as my son. I felt sorry for the boy and hoped Gavin would go easy on him.

The match began and after a putting up a few seconds of fight, my son was on the mat. The smaller boy having skillfully taken him down. I was flabbergasted.

My son worked his way towards me smiling. I looked at him in surprise and said, “I thought for sure you’d win that match!”

He laughed and said, “No way! That kid is from my school. They allow him to wrestle above his weight class cause he’s so good. I knew I wouldn’t beat him. I was happy I lasted as long as I did.”

Gavin had information I didn’t have. He knew more about his competitor than I did. I was looking at the surface. Like the Israelite people when they picked Saul as their king, God saw something the people didn’t see. Or Saul’s army when they feared Goliath, David in his sureness of God’s goodness saw something they wouldn’t see.

It is almost impossible to be aware of our own blind spots. That is why it’s important that we continue to humble ourselves before God and allow him to show us where we err. We need to continue to turn to Him for wisdom.

Psalm 25: 4-5 Show me your ways, Lord, teach me your paths. Guide me in your truth and teach me, for you are God my Savior, and my hope is in you all day long.

Thinking of Easter

For most of my life it has been assumed that Christians are on the back foot.

The messages of my life thus far have been; take your faith and keep it out of the public square. Christian perspectives were relegated to matters of church and family; until that also became a problem. Now even having Christian values within your church or in the walls of your own home is frowned upon.

But if we take the message of Easter seriously, we should take courage. The battle is won! It’s over. I don’t need to apologize for my beliefs because I am on the side of the victor. Does this mean I personally am always right? Of course not. I am human, I need to grow and learn and gain wisdom. But I do not need to feel shame about the God I serve.

That is the primary message of Easter for me.

Be brave!

Be true!

Step up and take on the mantle of Christ!

BE COUNTED!

Romans 8: 37-39 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through
Him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life,
neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers,
neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to
separate us from the of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Thinking about Jesus

There are three topics of discussion I have bumped into over the last few weeks.
First, concerns about freedom; what it means, what it looks like. Second, the idea of truth. Is truth just subjective or is it something more? Third, who can we believe, who and what can we trust?

These are all huge discussions encompassing many of the contrasting views rampant in our society. My thoughts led me to develop a little Venn diagram.