This wide-open spacious Life

2 Corinthians 6:11 Dear, dear Corinthians, I can't tell you how much I long for you to enter this wide-open, spacious life!

Wow, it's been a month! That's maybe a bit too wide open and spacious? I can see I may be coming to the end of this blog, or maybe I should just broaden it out a bit? At any rate, I am determined to see this read of The Message, Eugene Peterson's paraphrase of the Bible, through to the end, in roughly the order the original scriptures were written.

To Paul. I think to a lot of people, the Christian life looks small and restrictive. They see a lot of rules and think that it's all about self-denial, self-sacrifice, duty. In some ways, you could say they are right! What they don't see, though, is the tremendous sense of joy and freedom that arises when you decide to let go of trying to satisfy your own desires and needs and live the way Christ calls us to, reaching out to others in service and gratitude.

The thing is, spaciousness requires a certain structure; there's an architecture, if you will, to spaciousness. A pitcher, for example, is an object, but when it is empty, it is also an open space waiting to be filled. The pitcher which surrounds the space gives it structure and form, shows us how big the space is. They say that icebergs are often unimpressive in size because, though they are vast, there is rarely anything to compare them to, and that lack of comparison diminishes our perception of their size. In order to see or experience spaciousness, we need points of comparison, boundaries, some kind of scaffolding, so that we can actually perceive and experience the spaciousness that is there. The "rules" of Christianity, the call to live our lives in certain ways -- like not judging lest we be judged, and loving our enemies and feeding the hungry and clothing the poor, all the things Jesus talks about in the Gospels -- provide the structure within which we can experience the spaciousness and freedom of the Christian life. I think any spiritual path is similar in this regard. You have to do the practices, set up the structure, in order to find that experience of freedom.

What I am talking about here, of course, is spiritual freedom, not necessarily physical freedom. Freedom is not, as someone famously said, license. The person who has no structure in their lives, who sleeps and wakes whenever they will, who follows no routines, who lives, in short, a chaotic life, is not free. That person is like a leaf blowing in the wind, at the mercy of whatever whims or urgings prompt them on to the next step. Such a person is unlikely to accomplish much, or be of service to anyone, and is likely to experience life as unpredictable and unreliable, full of sadness and suffering. But once someone has a firm scaffolding in spiritual practice, an understanding of the kind of life to which Christ calls us, and is able to put in place these life-saving routines, there is a spacious freedom that arises, accompanied by such joy and gratitude in the simple act of living one's life, that is hard to describe to someone who doesn't feel it, too. These are the fruits of the spirit, and they arise spontaneously, organically, out of the disciplines of the Christian life. They are the result of grace: we can't manufacture it ourselves, but we can prepare and cultivate the soil of our souls, create the best possible conditions for its possibility, and then wait and see what happens.

Prayer: Dear God, You have shown us the path to true human freedom and fulfillment. Give me the wisdom, discipline and longing to follow the path you call us to, that I, too, may experience the joy and freedom you promise. Amen.

You pulled me from the grave

Jonah 2:6 I was as far down as a body can go, and the gates were slamming shut behind me forever--Yet you pulled me up from that grave alive, O GOD, my God!

If you know the story of Jonah, you can probably guess where this long prayer comes; you would say he is giving thanksgiving for his deliverance from the whale that swallowed him. If you thought that, though, you'd be wrong. This is the prayer Jonah prays while he is still inside the whale. It is a prayer of thanksgiving for deliverance before that deliverance happens. How many of us have that kind of faith? Not me. Right after it, God speaks to the fish and Jonah is thrown up onto the shore. So here you have this guy, a prophet, with the kind of faith that moves mountains and opens the mouths of whales, and yet he still thinks he can run away from God, can avoid the destiny God is calling him to. It's a conundrum to me. The problem with Jonah is that he doesn't want God to save the Ninevites, to whom he has been called to preach, because they are Israel's enemies, and he doesn't want them to receive the grace and mercy in which he knows that the God he worships abounds. When he's on his game, he's unstoppable; but when he goes against God, he'll do anything, go anywhere to avoid it, and when he is forced to go and preach, and the Ninevites do repent and God relents, his anger is as powerful as his faith.

This whole book ends with a question. God shows Jonah that Jonah changes his mind, from pleasure to pain, just because of a small vine that grows up overnight, provides him some shade, and then dies. Then God asks Jonah, can't God change his mind, too? We never get Jonah's answer. My suspicion is that he's still royally pissed off about the whole thing, that he had to be God's instrument bringing about the salvation of people he hated. It makes me wonder, what are the ways I am standing in the way of God's purposes for me because of my hatreds, or prejudices, or fears. Jonah knew God's power, knew what God wanted of him; that's why he could pray so fearlessly in the belly of the whale, telling God he would go and do what God asked, knowing God so well that his release from the whale was a done deal even before it happened. I only have an inkling of that, and only at times. If I could really see myself where God wants me to be, and I can give thanks for that, joyfully accepting the call, what new possibilities might unfold in my life? What are the fears or prejudices that get in the way, what are the ideas I carry around about what I "should" be doing that may have nothing to do with where God is calling me? How do I get down through all the layers and connect with God's true purpose for my life?

Prayer: Dear God, I think of Thomas Merton's prayer -- I believe I am on the path you call me to, but I have no way of knowing if I truly am or not. Kindle in me a fervent desire to know and follow your will. Show me the obstacles that I myself place in the path, and teach me how to overcome them. Know that my true longing is to fulfill the destiny you have ordained for me. Amen.

A Flourishing Tree

Proverbs 11:28 A life devoted to things is a dead life, a stump; a God-shaped life is a flourishing tree.

Proverbs is just full of pithy phrases like this one, that captures the essence of the expansive joy that comes from a life centered around God. I think people's ideas about a God-centered life are all about what one has to give up -- and there is no doubt that to really engage with a spiritual path does involve a certain kind of discipline. There is a giving up of easy pleasure for a joy that is more sustaining and less self-destructive. There is the imperative to keep engaging with spiritual practices, even when they seem dry, because in the long run they keep you on the path. There is the value of persisting at a challenging task because the ultimate fulfillment proves so much more satisfying partly because of that effort and commitment.

Before I had my son, it seemed to me that all the messages about having children were about the trouble they demanded; all the things I would have to give up, like time to do whatever I wanted, or a good night's sleep; all the challenges they would provide. It wasn't until after I held him and took care of his every need that I feel madly and deeply in love with him and discovered the joy and riches of being a parent. Like the spiritual path, being a parent is deeply challenging; a kid will call into question your most basic values and understanding about what life is all about. It is also about the most rewarding and satisfying experience I can imagine, because it demands all of what I am.

In short, a life with god at its center expands and enriches your experience; put anything else there, whether pleasure or wealth or accumulation or even achievement and you've got less, a restricted life, a life that sucks itself dry, that eats its own tail, that falls back on nothing.

Prayer: Dear God, It is challenging at times to stay committed to the path I walk with You. Help me remember the rich, fulfilling life You offer in return for my faithfulness; that though the gate is narrow, the reward is expansive. Amen

God's more-than-enough

Psalm 4:5-7 Why is everyone hungry for more? "More, more," they say. "More, more." I have God's more-than-enough, more joy in one ordinary day than they get in all their shopping sprees.

The lack of satisfaction people feel in their lives, the constant hunger for more, all the addictive process we see in our society -- whether it's food, substances, sex, gambling, shopping, whatever--I believe is a spiritual problem. When Mother Theresa came to the US she saw a nation rich in material ways but suffering from spiritual poverty. The good news is that if that spiritual poverty is recognized for what it is, one can take up the spiritual path, seek and find spiritual sustenance to satisfy that gnawing hunger. I believe that's part of what Jesus meant when he said, "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." The bad news is that if that too often people don't see that as the problem and keep pursuing what hasn't satisfied them yet -- a new job, more stuff, a new partner. Sometimes, a new job or partner, the right one, can make a big difference, but usually only when we recognize the limitations of these things in providing happiness, when we see them in their proper perspective.

I think this is another way of saying that the spiritual life is not about some esoteric or exotic level of achievement that is available only to the highly evolved or theologically sophisticated. Ask any committed 12-Stepper, and they'll tell you that the spiritual life is precisely for all of us ordinary folks, helping us live the real lives that we have. I can't say that I've attained the level of spiritual enlightenment where every moment is unmitigated joy, but I can say that when I engage in my spiritual practices and cultivate the spiritual perspective and understanding of life, my heart is filled with peace and joy and I greet each day as a sacred adventure rather than as an ordeal that I have to somehow get through.

Prayer: Dear God, I've been away for a bit and have let go of some of the practices that nurture me in my relationship with You. Let me take this time to re-invigorate my spiritual life and to draw closer to Your plan for me. Amen.

Make yourselves holy

Leviticus 11:44 Make yourselves holy for I am holy.

This seems such a good subject for Lent: what does it mean to be holy? The holiness code, found in Leviticus, is a catalog of all the things that are holy and unholy, from seafood and certain animals to insects to skin diseases and sexual behaviors. The implication is that some things, some actions, have an inherent holiness to them. But that doesn't seem to apply to people, because whether they are holy or profane depends, in Leviticus, on what they do. So there is also a list of all the things that people are to do to be holy, including washing and cleaning themselves, anointing with oil and making all kinds of sacrifices. Most of these are things we no longer observe.

God calls us to be holy, and these Old Testament codes are the path of the Law, one way to becoming holy. Holy means wholeness and also often refers to being set apart. God set apart the children of Israel from the other nations to be a holy people unto God, God's chosen; all the codes that are listed are some of the ways that the early Israelites kept themselves apart from the peoples around them. God wants us all to be set apart for God in some way. We do that with our rituals and traditions, like those illustrated here. Reading scripture, setting aside this time to write about it, these are acts of setting apart. Setting apart time in my day, days in my week, seasons in my year to especially attend to the things of God are also acts which support holiness; Sabbath time is one such practice, as are the disciplines of the season of Lent. These things become holy because we as a community set them apart, and because I create the space for them in my life, space when I am more open to God's presence and movement in my life, when I can listen without distraction to God's call. When that is planted in me, when it becomes part of my daily rhythms, I think it does become infectious like some of the skin diseases described by the Priestly writer here. It infects those I meet, and infects the world in ways I don't even know about, but ultimately that is the reason for holiness: to set us apart so that we might draw others to God.

Prayer: Dear God, I try to be faithful with my time and my intentions. Let me not be concerned with the outcomes--that is Your work. Let me be faithful and let that be enough. Amen.

A homesick soul

Deuteronomy 28:66 God will give you a restless heart, longing eyes, a homesick soul. You will live in constant jeopardy, terrified of every shadow, never knowing what you'll meet around the next corner.

Moses is on the plain speaking to the Israelites; here he is describing what will happen if they fail to follow God and God's commandments. This struck me as a perfect description of what life is like without the foundation of faith, of God, at least what it was like for me and many others I meet. The restless heart is looking for rest in God, the eyes longing for a vision of God, the soul looking for a home. It is to be beset with fear and worry about the future, about what comes next – and goodness knows, even with faith it is easy to be taken over by fear. But fear and faith are mutually exclusive, they can’t occupy the same space. Where I have faith, fear does not enter; where fear takes over, faith is hard to find. That is why the practices of faith are so important.

Deuteronomy 28:9 God will form you as a holy people to Him, just as He promised you, if you keep the commandments of God, your God, and live the way He has shown you.

Here Moses is describing the blessings that will come as long as the Israelites remain faithful to God. And it is precisely in the practices of faith – prayer and meditation, reading scripture, service to others, being in community, and following the commandments to love God and our neighbor with all that we have and all that we are – that over time forms us into the holy likeness of God, a loving and compassionate presence toward all creation. Just as the water crashing on the rocks gradually softens their sharp angles and eventually pounds them into sand, so these practices slowly, gradually, inch by inch change us, mold us, open our hearts in compassion to the world around us. And therein lies true fulfillment. It is all preparation for the indwelling of the Holy Spirit which enables us to live out our calling. The paradox is that when I am truly emptied of myself, and filled only with God, then and only then do I become the fullness of all that I am and can be.

Prayer: Dear God, I thank you for the gift of Your practices, the call that invited me into this life and the many small and subtle ways You continue to form my heart. Let me know the joy of total surrender to Your will that I may fulfill the plan you have laid out for me. Amen.

Love him with all you've got

Deuteronomy 6:5 Love God, your God, with your whole heart; love him with all that’s in you; love him with all you’ve got.

I had a very difficult week-end, full of stress and the feeling that things had backslid terribly. I was feeling discouraged, depressed, hopeless, futile, anxious and despairing about my situation. Then this verse arrested me and made me think.

If I am really trying to do what is described here, is there room for anything else? If this is my plan for the day, all my anxieties fall into place; none of them is about this and yet this is what’s important. So can I let go of the circumstances that call forth despair and hopelessness and just focus on God and how I can love God with everything that I have and everything that I am? If I attend to God, perhaps I don’t need to attend to anything else.

So I asked myself, how will I love and worship God today? And the answer came: by caring for myself, caring for my partner and my family; by using gentleness and kindness instead of anger and judgment, compassion instead of hate, for myself as well as for others; by holding fast to my goal and God’s promise in the face of doubt and fear and lack of progress; by moving forward even when the pace is painfully slow; by rejoicing in all my blessings and working to manifest God’s peace and beauty in my physical surroundings; by loving life, creation and all whom I meet; by holding it all reverently, being present with it all using an open and compassionate heart; by being present; by being.

Prayer: Dear God, You fill my life with unending joy and peace if I can only stay open to You. Bring my attention to Your will for my life so that everything else sits in proper perspective to the overpowering awe of Your Presence. Amen.

A towering, badly built wall

Isaiah 30:12-13 Therefore, The Holy of Israel says this: “Because you scorn this Message, preferring to live by injustice and shape your lives on lies, this perverse way of life will be like a towering, badly built wall that slowly, slowly tilts and shifts and then one day, without warning, collapses—

The prophets of old tell us over and over that a society built on injustice cannot survive. It has always made sense to me that I am concretely better off in a society where poor people have enough to eat and a place to live, where their children can get a good education, not just because of the ways these problems might “inconvenience” me by having to confront them in my everyday life (like seeing homeless people living on the street), but because the fabric of a society is stronger if its citizens basic needs are met. There are more human resources to deal with crises and natural disasters, there is more human capital for the running of the society and more brain power to address unmet needs and other problems that will continue to exist. We’re not going to get rid of inequality – even Jesus said “the poor will always be with you”, but the level of inequality is increasing steadily. Worldwide, the richest 1% owns 40% of the wealth (Everything Must Change, Brian McLaren). In the United States, the top 1% earn 20.3% of society’s income, a level bested only by the 21.1% in 1928, and we know what happened the next year. Can we stop this trend in that has already led to the greatest inequality in the U.S. since the Gilded Age, an age of robber barons and monopolies (if I have my historical eras correct)?

Interdisciplinary research is starting to look at not just the causes of inequality, but also some of the effects. It is pretty well documented that poverty and racism contribute to the poor health of African Americans, through such effects as high blood pressure, higher rates of illnesses such as diabetes and poorer outcomes with diseases such as cancer. What is surprising and interesting in this new research, which I read about in the Harvard Magazine (July – August, 2008), is that they are finding that even the well off in societies with gross inequalities between rich and poor also affects the health of the rich, giving them shorter lifespans than they might have enjoyed in a society with a lower level of inequality. And of course, there are the other, more political effects, of instability and, in many countries, armed conflict. But it seems to me, a more basic question is, “What kind of country/community do I want to live in?” God intended the Israelites to be a model community for the world, to show other nations how to care for their sick and disadvantaged, their “widows and orphans”. Because of their failure, God calls out judgment upon them. If I am called to the Christian path, I cannot ignore the call to address such egregious inequality not just in my personal life, but at a systemic level. How to do that is something each person must decide, but that God calls us there is undeniable.

Prayer: Dear God, You are opening my heart to the injustices of the world. Open my eyes also to ways to address these injustices, through my personal decision making and my participation in the larger political and economic structures of our society. Give me the courage to be a prophetic voice calling attention to the needs of those at the lower rungs of our socio-economic ladder, and to stand with my brothers and sisters in pain and need against the forces that oppress them. Amen.

I wrote this in June, when I was trying to get back in touch with this practice:

Isaiah 2:3 He’ll show us the way he works so we can live the way we’re made.

The Message

I love this idea: that God’s ways fit the way we are made; that learning to live by God’s laws is to put ourselves in the flow of life, rather than taking ourselves out of it or trying to live by some artificial set of rules. Of course, our ego, our desires, often work at cross purposes to the ways of the Divine, but that’s not because those ways don’t work for us. As anyone who has ever gotten into a mess because of the call of desire – whether it’s shopping, or love, addiction or just the determination to show that I know what I’m doing and I can fix my life myself and follow my own bullheadedness – ego often sets us up for self-defeat. I think that is what is meant by “pride goeth before a fall”. It’s not that we shouldn’t feel good about who we are and what we are able to do, but it’s the lack of perspective, that we rely too heavily on what we can accomplish ourselves, and leave God and others out of the equation.

I was listening to Sidney Poitier talk about his life the other night, and he was so intent on pointing out that there were many times in his life where he came that close to disaster, to ending up like so many other young, African American men either dead or in jail, that he could not credit himself fully with his success. He was aware that luck, or providence, or outside spiritual forces (forces was the word he used) had for some reason saved him from the potential results of his own behavior.

So I have been gone for a while, away from this practice, and I can see again the need. It helps me stay focused, centered, grounded in the idea of God, and what that means in my life. It reminds me that I am not the center of things, and that only by allying myself with the Divine Other will I find my true core, discover my purpose, and fulfill my deepest hopes and longings.

Prayer: Dear God, Sometimes I forget how deeply ingrained you are in my very being. Help me remember, take the time, create the space to feel Your Divine Presence, to follow the practices that bring me into Your Ways. Amen

They don't act like it

Hosea 8:2 Predictably, Israel cries out, “My God! We know you!” But they don’t act like it.

We all know people who profess to be “Christian”, but they don’t act like it. They’re mean, spiteful and judgmental. They hate their enemies and aren’t too crazy about their neighbors. They’re out for themselves, oblivious to the needs and experience of those around them. They’re the kind of Christians that give Christianity a bad name.

But then I have to ask, ‘What do people see when they look at me in the world?’ Do they see someone who is passionate about living out Christ’s call or someone who’s just as caught up in the pettiness of life as anyone else? I’d guess that what they see in large part depends on my mood that day. My rector likes to tell stories about moments when she is just about to unload all her annoyance and irritation on some service person or other, and they say something like, “Oh, I know you! You’re the rector at that church…” Then she has to think before she descends to hate and vitriol. It reminds her of who she is, of whose she is, and she chooses to address the situation differently. I wear a cross around my neck. Mostly it’s a witness to who I am, but I think also it’s a reminder that if I am to embody Christ in the world, I need to be accountable. That cross helps me; it lets other people see who I am trying to be, and as such it keeps me honest.

Prayer: Dear God, Help me remember whose I am when I walk around in the world, and that my purpose in life is to be Your Presence to others. Amen.

*I am off to a week in Mississippi working on houses for Katrina relief. Don't know if I'll be able to post while I am there -- it's a busy week! I'll be back the following week.

God put a mark on Cain

Genesis 4:15 God told him,“No. Anyone who kills Cain will pay for it seven times over.” God put a mark on Cain to protect him so that no one who met him would kill him.

God preserves Cain. The “mark of Cain”, which did identify him as a murderer, was actually a protection. Life has barely begun and it is already marked by tragedy. The human family is just one generation old and already we have murder, fratricide. Eve is not mentioned here, but in effect she lost both sons with one blow: Abel dead, Cain driven away. How painful, too, for God, to see this little experiment already going so badly awry. God is angry (not as angry, perhaps, as he gets later, when a lot of smiting happens) but also hurt, distressed. There is just God and this one little family, and Cain, out of spite and jealousy, has murdered his brother Abel. Even so, God protects him from being killed by the other people he might meet (other people?! There are other people on earth?! Where did they come from? Ah, the mystery of scripture…)

So what does this mean to me? As a Christian, the mark of Cain is replaced by the cross at baptism, when I was marked and sealed as one of Christ’s own, forever. This mark of Cain was God’s way of saying, “This is my man, despite what he’s done, so leave him alone.” The mark of Christ is less protection (though it does have that aspect) than a call to live into my baptismal covenant. Cain never promised anything to God, but God loved him and wanted to protect him anyway. Baptism calls me to respond to God’s saving love and grace in the way I live my life. And what does that mean but to live a life with God in the center of it, rather than my own needs, desires, and, as in Cain’s case, passions?

Prayer: Dear God, You have called me and blessed me. Let me view this day as an opportunity to step into the life you call me to, centered on your word and your peace. Amen.

David knew for sure

1Chronicles 14:2 Then David knew for sure that God had confirmed him as king over Israel, because of the rising reputation that God was giving his kingdom for the benefit of his people Israel.

So here is David. He was anointed by Samuel as a young shepherd boy, too young to fight in the battles. He went to Saul, played for him, was betrayed by him, fought him, lived in exile for years, gradually built around him a huge force of skilled warriors and only came back to his native land when Saul and Jonathan had been killed. Then he became king over Judah, reigning in Hebron for 7 years, before he became king over all Israel. And only now, as he witnesses how he is viewed by the surrounding kings – King Hiram of Tyre has sent an envoy offering cedar, lumber, masons and carpenters to build him a royal palace – is he sure that God wanted him to be king.

Two thoughts come to mind in response to this. The first is: Wow, he did all that and he wasn’t even sure?! I don’t know about you, but I usually want my directives from God to be a lot clearer than that. “How do I know I’m on the right road?” usually means “Show me what’s going to happen.” But if we knew, if we were sure where everything was going, we wouldn’t need faith and trust in God, would we? We also might race ahead of ourselves, rushing to get to the “result” we think God wants, and not experience the road we are actually traveling on. David acted, he didn’t wait until he was sure, but he dealt with each situation as it came up, never getting ahead of himself. He knew if God wanted him to be king, God would bring it about in God’s own time; he refuses several opportunities to kill Saul and make it happen. When the Spirit nudges me in new directions, it just gives me hints of what the very next step might be – which may include taking no step at all, because maybe it is just time to stand still and be where I am. Then I start to get responses, synchronicities that start to inform my path, let me know that I’m headed right for now.

That brings me to the second thought, that our call is not just between us and God. It doesn’t mean just following what I have in my heart and mind and spirit. If it is a path that God has ordained for me, I will also receive confirmation from the community around me, in the form of support, positive reflections, encouragement, and perhaps witnessing the positive impact of whatever it is I am doing in people’s lives. It is this knitting together between the personal and the communal out of which true vocation comes. Too often, I think, we expect young people in our culture to go off into a closet and “figure out what they want to do” with their lives, or tell them what they should do. But that figuring out is really to become part of a conversation between them and the world around them. Where are their gifts encouraged and supported? Where does their “deep gladness meet the world’s deep hunger”? (Frederick Buechner) At that intersection, we find our life’s fulfillment.

Prayer: Dear God, You have blessed me with many gifts, skills and abilities. Be with me and guide me as I move into a new period of my life. Teach me to listen subtly to your call, but not to wait for it. Help me discern Your Presence in all that I do, that You may guide my feet to your path. Amen

God gave him what he asked.

1Chronicles 4:10 Jabez prayed to the God of Israel: “Bless me, O bless me! Give me land, large tracts of land. And provide your personal protection—don’t let evil hurt me.” God gave him what he asked.

All right, I couldn’t resist stopping and commenting on the Prayer of Jabez. I know someone’s written a book on it – how you, too, can pray for a big estate and a fancy car, and God will provide! It’s the same idea as the Secret – the law of attraction, which says if you think about a BMW you’ll attract a BMW – but better not let in any thoughts about a VW bug! (Worse, maybe you’ll attract it when you’re crossing the street!) And there are other versions of what I would call a Gospel of Prosperity. There’s nothing wrong with prosperity; in fact, it is a great blessing all who enjoy it need to be thankful for. The principles behind these ideas are true – but this take on what the Gospel, prayer, God are all about is just 100% wrong. In the same way that some Pharisees of Jesus’ time took the Law of Moses and made it into a measuring stick to beat others up with and ensure they came out on top, this use of spirit, while accurate, completely misses the point.

The abundance that Jesus talks about is a spiritual abundance. It’s not about having more stuff; it’s about having faith in the face of disaster, knowing that somehow God will see you through. Jesus spoke of being in the world but not of it. Using these spiritual principles purely for material gain is adopting the world’s values of materialism and wealth as your own; it is trusting in stuff that is not God. There’s a reason Jesus said it was hard to impossible for a rich person to enter heaven; I believe it’s because when you’re rich, it’s really hard not to think that your riches are the source of your security, instead of God. Then they become the center of your life. Where your treasure is, there your heart will be, too. Jesus calls us to seek spiritual treasure, so that we can face changes of fortune with equanimity, resting in the Presence of the One Unchangeable Immoveable Eternal Dynamic in all creation: God.

Prayer: Dear God, You have blessed me with prosperity; let it not be a stumbling block in my journey to You. Let me be grateful for your bounty, yet ever mindful that the only Source of true prosperity lies in You. Amen.

What's important

1Kings 6:11-12 The word of God came to Solomon saying, “About this Temple you are building—what’s important is that you live the way I’ve set out for you and do what I tell you, following my instructions carefully and obediently.

Solomon guilds this amazing and elaborate temple to be a fit dwelling place for God in the bosom of Israel, David’s city, Jerusalem. It’s lined with polished cedar, full of gold, bronze and silver ornaments and carvings of cedar and olive wood. It must have been magnificent! What a glorious tribute to God! But then, a few verses later, Solomon builds a palace, including a Hall of Justice, which is even bigger! So, already it feels like something is going amiss.

Here is the clue: The temple is great, God appreciates all the work and care and cost that has gone into it, but it is not the main thing. “What’s important is that you live the way I’ve set out for you and do what I tell you.” What parent can’t identify? It’s wonderful to get gifts from our children, but what we care about is how they are living their lives. Are they holding to the values that make life meaningful? God wants us to live holy, sacred lives not because it makes God look good, but because God cares about our well being. God wants us to follow God’s path not because God wants obedience for the sake of obedience—the “because I said so” school, which might be suitable for a toddler, but not for a 20 year old—but because God understands so much more than we do, and knows that this path is the way to lead a life of true fulfillment.

Prayer: Dear God, I forget sometimes that You are calling me to a better way, and let distractions and the call of the culture pull me off track. Help me keep in mind what is most important, the call to follow You, to live a life with You in the center of it, and help me take steps every day to live out that call. Amen.

My first post

1Peter 4:8

"Above all love each other deeply because love covers over a multitude of sins"

Love each other deeply, that means fully with everything you've got. I think I have always thought of this as meaning when you love someone a lot you don't notice their faults because your love them so much, your love covers over their faults. That is, love invites you to accept them fully, faults and all. Or, as in the love is blind idea, gets you to ignore them. But I wonder if what Peter is referring to here is the redemptive work of love; that is, as I love another person deeply, with all I have, it calls out of me my best self. The actual work of love, of caring for another human being leads me away from my own faults, invites me away from a me-centered view of the universe, and so calls me into a better life. And further on that theme, when my life is weighed in the balance, the love I have carried, the love I have born for others in my life, and the actions I have taken to enact that love will weigh more heavily in the scales than a multitude of my sins. And if sin is that which keeps us apart from God, and if God is love, then the very act of loving draws us toward a closer intimacy with God without room for the splitting apart of sin.
And I want to include a bigger chunk of Peter's epistle here, because it seems to me as good a recipe for Christian discipleship as any given in the Bible.

1Peter4:8-11a

Above all, love each other deeply because love covers over a multitude of sins. Offer hospitality to one another without grumbling. Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God's grace in its various forms. If you speak, you should do so as one who speaks the very words of God. If you serve, you should do so with the strength that God provides, so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ.

Prayer: Dear God, Teach me to love others as you love me, with full acceptance of who they are, that they may see, through me, your all encompassing love which is available to all. Amen