Two Gardens

Have you ever noticed the way some things in scripture are like bookends?  Those types of things really stand out to me and I like to investigate them to see if they really do have a purpose beyond the telling of a story. 

Today I was thinking about Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane, and when I think like this I am usually out walking and asking God to direct my thoughts, to teach me from the scriptures I am pondering.   The passage in question, from the Gospel of Mark, tells of Jesus being agonized and in prayer, to the Father over His impending torture and crucifixion.  Luke’s gospel adds insight in letting us know that the prospect of the coming events were so hard for Jesus to take in that his sweat was with drops of blood.   In no uncertain terms, the bible lets us know that what lay before Jesus was horrific.  He was soul sick. 
His friends were there to watch with Him, but they were sleepy, worn out with sorrow as Luke says.  Emotionally spent, they slept.  But Jesus prayed dropping to the ground; He begged His Father to change the course, to change the future, to rescue Him.  That is not all He prayed though.  He also prayed “Not my will, but Yours.”    Three times we are told He prayed and asked God to remove what was ahead.  Three times He begged the Father to rescue Him and three times He also prayed for the Father to have His way.

The answer that He got from His Father was that there was to be no rescue; the course and the future would stay the same.  The answer was no. The plan was to go forward and an angel was sent to strengthen Him in order that He could continue on and so He did.

There was another garden scene, eons before, where others of God’s children lived.  A lovely place with all anyone could want and need, to include friendship with God.  These two, living in the garden,  were challenged about following God; it was so easy something must be missing. They were challenged about God’s integrity, about His love for them.  Did He really give them all they could want?  Perhaps there was more, and perhaps it was easily acquired.  Without the least bit of struggle or thought, without prayer or discussion with the God Who put them there in the garden,  the two responded to the call of God on their lives by saying “Not your will, but mine.”   You were not for us, You don’t love us, You have kept something back. “Not your will, but ours.”   And so the long trek to decay began, the fracture of love, of intimacy; the destruction of purpose and being all began in a garden.   My will, not yours. 

But see how the undoing of Jesus, is the undoing of the curse. Observe how the soul deep sorrow of Jesus is the unraveling of the soul condemning guilt of all.   His choice to do the will of God, not His own will, began the rollback of decay, the fracture began to heal, and intimacy could now be mended.  In the garden where destruction came all seemed lost, so lost the two were kicked out forever, until in another garden recovery took  the shape of the Savior’s bowed head and the words, “Not My will, but Thine.”

Trust 101

I have a friend whose oldest daughter is quite close to her father.  He has been a coach for her in sporting activities and helped with her school work.  He has taught his girl much about the business he owns and she helps in the work in small ways.  So recently, when I was asked to pray for this child because her father had to be out of town, it got me to thinking.

This father will be traveling out of town during a big tournament in which his daughter is set to compete, and she will be without his presence and the support that gives. 

This  girl is understandably upset at her father missing the tournament, but she is also worried for his safety and this has affected her appetite.  This sweet child only wants her father with her.  She feels his absence strongly and it affects her physically and emotionally. 

She has to trust that he is still rooting for her and her team to win.  She has to trust that he will do all he can to return to her.  She has to trust that he thinks of her even when they are not together.  She has to learn to trust; to believe in her father’s care even when he is not there. 

 And that is the hard lesson each child of the Heavenly Father must also learn.  That though we cannot see Him, we know He is present.  That though we cannot feel Him we know He loves us.  Though He unseen, we know He is working for us to the praise of His glory.  Oh, trust…How difficult to rely on that which our senses cannot detect. We are so tied to the sensual, the visual, and the auditory.

 Yet we are called to trust in God, and this can only happen as we believe what He says and rely on it.  We hear Him and we listen and do what He says; we read His word and act upon it, fully or not so fully expecting Him to act as He has said.  Trust moves in as doubts are answered and faith is built.  As with love, trust is built up slowly, over time and through circumstances.  The process of becoming a person who trusts is not easy, it feels like a gamble to us.  It is not certain; the outcome could go either way as we see it from our vantage point. But consider the perspective of the father or the girl; he fully intends to come home after his trip.  He will follow the championship game, if even by getting text updates during the game, he will be thinking of his daughter even though he is miles away.  For him, the trust is not a gamble; trust is not even the word to use.  The

word to use is love.

Of course he cares about what she is feeling and what her activities are and the importance of the tournament to her, because he loves her.  She cannot read his mind, so relies on his presence; she relies on his spoken words.

 But this time she will learn to remember.  Remember his words of encouragement from before; remember all the games he has coached in the past and all the encouragement he has given her previously and she will learn to trust him even when he is not there in person.

And so with each of us, we remember each time God has answered our prayers. We recall what He has said in His word, what His Spirit has placed on our hearts and how He has always been there, even as He promised.

The Ant and the Child

In this moment, how can I appreciate all that is?  My mind is focused on what I hope will happen in the near future.  My ears are straining to hear the news about the change that is coming, is in fact here, I hope.  My eyes look for the signs that my hoped for future is beginning.

Many of my thoughts are already living there, planning how it will proceed, what it will look like and how it will unfold, how to prepare for it, what I need to do to be ready.

After all, there was that promise, indication, feeling, sense that God was doing this leading, this new thing.  I should be like the ant of Proverbs chapter 6.  Nothing slows down the ant, even the lack of a leader does not stymie his efforts to provide for himself. The ant will be ready for whatever happens in the time ahead!

  Preparing for the future I am hoping will come; I am always looking forward, beyond the horizon.  And, believe me, that is a difficult sight to see, because anything beyond the horizon is not visible to me, the angle of sight does not allow it.  Yet, I strain to make it out, to discern its shape, as if my seeing causes it to happen. 

How then to focus on the moment in which I can see without straining;  that present time in which I do not have to strain to hear?  In Jen Wilkin’s book None Like Him, she cites Psalm 131 as a beginning.

My heart is not proud, Lord,
    my eyes are not haughty;
I do not concern myself with great matters
    or things too wonderful for me.
² But I have calmed and quieted myself,
    I am like a weaned child with its mother;
    like a weaned child I am content.

³ Israel, put your hope in the Lord
    both now and forevermore.

Having all it needs met; the child in her mother’s arms rests content.  The mother is protecting, leading and caring for the young child.  The need to see what is ahead is dispensed with as it is the responsibility of the mother, not the child. 

But note also that the speaker of the psalm has worked to calm and quiet himself.  This is the beginning of being in the present moment.  Being aware of the need to calm down, to quiet oneself, to focus on who is leading you, who is carrying you, who is caring for you; therein lays the source of the contentment: Contentment like that of a fully satisfied and loved child. 

 What a different picture than that of the ant, gathering, trekking back and forth, carrying the needed food.  The image of the ant is appropriate for teaching the lesson of the value of work, the responsibility to provide, but not for the idea of racing to the next thing.  Even the ant is aware of the need of the moment.

Living in the present, in the given moment of my existence is going to be a behavior I will have to learn.  I think the child in her mother’s arms is the place to start, being aware of all that is here in this moment and savoring it to the full, and being aware that the One who leads me will do so at the perfect time.  Meanwhile, let me rest, content.

The Remedy for a Chaffed Soul

There are certain people that I just don’t care for.  And I don’t care for them because in the past they have upset me or hurt someone I do care for.  So I just don’t like them.  I didn’t think of them often but when I did, the stomach churning and simmering resentment surged. These people had hurt me or someone I cared for, had bad mouthed someone I love.  And even though that person had long since forgiven the offense, I held it close and kept it in my mind and heart.   Like a secret prize, I protected it, hidden away.
 

And then the light of the Words of God broke through; Mark 11:25 “…and whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone, so that your Father also who is in heaven may forgive your trespass.”  I fully expected to be forgiven by God for my sins, because He has promised that to us in 1John “…if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” 

And even though I knew that harboring unforgiveness was wrong, it did feel justified.  As self appointed protector of those I love, I was not going to put up with any betrayal or bad mouthing.  Even if I could not stop the actions of the others, I could hold them in contempt.  And I did! For years, I harbored the grudges.  Held the feelings close, disliked anything about the people, and did not want to see or interact with them.  Basically slandering them to myself, feeding the feeling of betrayal, I let the anger simmer. 

Like a chaffing of the soul, I stayed irritated with them, there could be no softening.  But the balm of the truth faced me down and showed me the soothing remedy.  Beginning with small prayers, I prayed for these betrayers.  Prayers for God’s blessing on their lives, for His leading and healing for them turned out to be healing for me as well.  And a faithful Father led me to the place to ask forgiveness of Him for keeping their sin alive in my heart, long after He had buried it.  He led me there through the action of forgiving these others for the offense I had held to so tightly.  They never knew, still do not, but I spoke the words of forgiving about them, and so set myself free.

God was not ignoring the sin of the others, and He was not ignoring my attempts to exact justice, a justice that only He is worthy to exact.  Placing the offense to me in His capable hands and emptying my sin stained hands of it was like feeling the relief of ointment on a chapped hand, the soothing of oil, covering the sore spots on my skin.  Giving up to God what is His and ending the self made position of protector of loved ones left me to be healed, to be forgiven, to be free of the weight and the soreness in my soul.

I did not want to be left with unforgiveness; I did not want to miss out on the fullness of what God had for me; I did not want to risk joy for the sake of imagined human retribution.  And in His infinite grace, God led me to that place. 

GO!

Mat 28:19-20 “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the

name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all

that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age."

This last command, given by Jesus to His followers, told them to GO.   To go and to  

make disciples.   The going had a purpose and it had an endpoint.   In thinking about

this, I thought that the command to go is different in tone from the idea of leaving.  To go

is forceful, pointed, urgent.  It is directed toward a goal or an end.  We have been told to

go to a place, a destination and once there to serve; teaching and baptizing.  There is a

reason for us to go.  We have a purpose to be fulfilled.    The command to go does not

give a follower of Jesus the option to stay.

On the other hand, to leave is not a command, it is a decision one makes.  It is almost

passive in its action.  One can leave or not, can leave even if there is no reason to leave or

purpose to be achieved.  One can also leave with or without a command to go.  Leaving is

not a command; it is a response, a reaction.  And to leave is much less forceful in tone

than to go.

Jesus did not tell us to leave, He told us to go.  Our response then, must be to go.  To Go

is defined as the active movement of traveling from one place to another.  But we don’t

go flippantly or lazily, we go with the expectation of serving the kingdom.  We go to let

the world know that there is a King and He does rule.  We go to let the world know that

this current world is not all there is.  The Kingdom of God is among us and is coming in

fullness and we all need to be ready for it.  We go to teach others about the Kingdom of

God and the culture and laws of the coming kingdom.  We are ambassadors.  Living in a

foreign land, but keeping the customs of home, of the kingdom.  As ambassadors, we

continually remember our kingdom, and promote it as we are going out and about. 

And we live by the rules and laws and ethics of our home, where the King lives.  In going,

we carry our home with us, and we show the world what it is like to live in the kingdom.

Our speech, our actions and our attitudes all teach what the King has commanded.  We

look like people from a different place, act like people with a different ethic, speak with

the accent of one whose language is the language of the king. 

And so we go.   Perhaps we go to another land, and spread the news of the kingdom

there.  Maybe we go to a new city and let the people living there know that the king is

coming soon.   Or, we simply go across the street and tell our neighbor about the king

who loves them and has been searching for them and has invited them to come .

The Grace of Rest

Grace in the time of rest

Where I live, people are always busy; busy preparing for the next storm, the next party, the next day.  People are proud of their work ethic, and proud of their accomplishments.  They work hard, they are reliable, they get the job done, whatever the job is.

How then can rest be a good thing, a good practice to do?  After all, any found time is useful for catching up and getting a head start on the next day’s work, or project, or meal.

It was realizing the hard work many of the people I know are doing that I  was also  thinking of how I would explain the idea of a Sabbath rest to a very busy friend who is not at all involved with God.  Since the idea comes from Him and my friend is unfamiliar with His ways and ideas, how could I explain that rest from regular work is a command, a rule, if you will, from the Creator of the world?

If rest is good, then how can one maintain their work record, work ethic? 

But in my thoughts an idea came flying into the picture. That thought was  the idea of grace, of undeserved favor.  Is the idea of a day of rest in part a reminder that all we are and all we have comes from the grace of the Creator? 

1Co 4:7 ‘…What do you have that you did not receive? If then you received it, why do you   boast as if you did not receive it? “

Our abilities, our thoughts, our jobs and our lives have all been given to us as a gift from

 The Creator, we did not engender them, we use them, and we hone them and train

ourselves in the use of them, but they are gifts, given freely.

In much the same way a parent cares for a child and does not expect the child to perform

adult tasks, the Creator, the Father, cares for His created ones by mandating a rest, a

time when the gifts He has given can be put down, put aside and we can rest.  The future

is not dependant on our abilities or our effort,  just as providing for a family is not the

work of the children.  Our responsibility lies in using the gifts as given for the work set

 before us.  The end goal is not to get ahead, but to get nearer to the Creator.  Even as  the

 parents provide and the children are provided for.  We can seek to get ahead, but only at

 the cost of our  health and our  soul. It is the Creator that runs the universe, not us.  It is

 His story to unfold, not ours to write.  Finding our place in the story and in the universe

 allows us to both  receive and use these gifts and to put them aside and rest.

 God provides and we are the recipients.  Rest comes as one reminder that all we have is

a gift, freely given by the gracious favor of the Creator.  It is time to rest in His grace.

Goodbye

 People are leaving.  Children are leaving home for college or new jobs.  Husbands are leaving wives for younger women.  Employees are leaving jobs for better situations.  Friends are leaving the area, moving to new places.  And people are leaving church to go and join another worshipping community, or none at all. 

 Leaving is hard, often more so for the one who is left behind.  The suddenly single spouse who has been tossed aside must feel used and worthless.  The questions that arise out of that situation are not unlike those that are asked by the people that remain behind when someone leaves a church.  It is similar to a divorce.  A relationship is ending.  No matter that everyone involved lives in the same area.  The relationship will change because as part of a local community of worship, the main focus and deep friendships should be within that community. 
 We are called to be built up, as a building for the Lord’s purposes.  If we are connected as building blocks we cannot have divided interests and foci.  That division of focus would only weaken each community; the new one and the previous one. 

 We are also told that as the builder, God places each believer where that person is needed and can use the gifts God has given.  God directs each of His followers to the body where He wants them.  And He places them there for as long as He determines.  Often, though, we followers become independent agents deciding when to leave a church, and often we leave for reasons which are not directed by God.   When we do that, we go AWOL.  We leave a hole in the wall God was building.  We leave the church lacking our gift and service for the Kingdom. 

  Those left behind must pick up the slack we leave behind.  They also suffer from the relationship which has been changed.   

So pray and listen before deciding to leave the body where God has placed you.  It is God’s call, not our own.  He is the Head of the Body.  We need to listen and obey.