Category: Faith

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Lessons Learned From a Cat

Keith Giles at subversive1 has a guest post written by his wife Wendy titled Lessons Learned from Tiger. The post is about their cat Tiger, and the lessons she learned from caring for him after he was injured in a fight. I think the lessons she learned are lessons that we all can take to heart in our lives, especially in our relationships with others and with God. God spoke to me through these lessons. Maybe there is something here for you as well.

  • Feeling trapped can make you destructive.
  • Sometimes help can look a lot like punishment.
  • We can mistake family for strangers because of smell/appearance.
  • It’s hard to eat and drink on your own when you’re wearing the “cone of shame.”
  • That’s when you step in and feed them by hand.
  • Medicine that’s hidden in food goes down more easily.
  • The treatment against infection is sometimes painful.
  • The one stuck outside wants desperately to be inside. The one inside desperately wants to be outside.
  • We can’t always see the big picture.
  • Two weeks seems like an eternity.
  • It’s awful to not be able to scratch your own itch, and such a relief when someone comes to help.
  • It’s easier when you don’t fight it.
  • Wounds require a great deal of care to heal properly.
  • Fighting can be quite costly and painful.

She goes on to list four more lessons that she found “much more touching and beautiful.”

  • God didn’t set a limit on how much He was willing to pay for my sake.
  • He understand the groaning of my heart which are much too deep for words.
  • He is patient and attentive to detail in caring for my needs which continue throughout my life, and not just two weeks.
  • He is compassionate even when I am frustrating.
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Letting Go Part 2

I think I must be hardheaded or something. It seems that God had to slow me down a bit more in order to teach me that I am not the one in charge here. A week ago, I lifted a box containing softball uniforms and felt something pop in my lower abdomen where I had hernia surgery about 12 years ago. I went to the doctor on Friday and was informed that it was a strain. Needless to say, I was relieved. Unfortunately the story doesn’t end there.

On Monday, I was informed by the personnel office of the school district that I was not supposed to work for two weeks. The doctor had written on the report that I was not allowed to do any heavy lifting, bending, stooping, etc. for two weeks. I figured it wouldn’t be a problem because I don’t do any of those things in my job. Unfortunately, because I work in special ed., there is the slight (read miniscule) possibility that I might have to do something like that. So, I was sent home until I was cleared by the doctor to come back. Normally, I wouldn’t complain too loudly about a two week vacation in March, except for the fact that I also am not allowed to coach my softball team during that time. There is another teacher in the school who was able to step in and take the team, along with my two assistants, and I am grateful for that.

The hard part for me is letting go of the team for two weeks. There are all kinds of scenarios that I can come up with while I am not there. I went to the game on Tuesday to show my support for the girls, and it was hard to sit and watch. Between that and being at home without being able to do a whole lot, it’s hard. I’m able to do a bit of work around the house and in the yard, but it’s not quite the same as doing what I get paid to do. I’ve had to slow down at a time when I’m usually pretty busy, and my temptation is to complain about it and then waste the time. I’m trying to relax and listen to the voice of my Shepherd in all of this, and trust his will. It’s not an easy thing to do, but hopefully I will learn more about letting my Father lead me and show me what he wants me to do.

There is definitely on good thing in all this. I get to watch all of the NCAA Tournament. 🙂

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Grace and Self-Righteousness

One of the things God is teaching me is that any righteousness I might have comes from him alone. If I think that I am better than anyone else, then I am greatly mistaken.

Frank Viola has a post titled A Farewell to Self Righteousness, that is a reminder that no one’s sins are really worse than mine and that we are all in desperate need of God’s grace.

Here are a couple of quotes from the post, but you really need to read the whole thing for yourself:

Now let’s put a modern Christian in that room with Jesus, Mary Magdalene, and the Pharisees. A self-righteous Christian, mind you.

“Um [cough] … Lord Jesus, did she ask You to forgive her? I didn’t hear her say she was sorry for living as a prostitute. How do we know if she has really repented, Lord? Do You mind if I interrogate her for a bit, please?”

Such is the spirit of a Pharisee. And we have not so learned Jesus Christ.

If Mary of Magdala could love her Lord and enjoy His presence boldly, flagrantly, extravagantly, shamelessly, and without inhibition, then so can you. And so can I.

Therefore, the next time you feel condemnation over your past, please remember this one thing: The first person to lay eyes upon the resurrected Lord was a former prostitute.

It’s easy for us to look at what other people do and judge them, especially if we feel they have wronged us. Many times we are kept from extravagantly loving Jesus because we look at others rather than allowing the Spirit to show us where we have sinned, and just how much grace the Father has given us.

God help us to extend to others the same grace that God has shown us.

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Letting Go

During one of the preliminary races before the Daytona 500, Danica Patrick found herself heading into the wall. Just before she hit, Patrick took her hands off the steering wheel. It was a smart move, and possibly kept her wrists from being broken. Her Indy Car experience may have contributed to the action, as she also covered her head with her hands like she was in an open wheel car. If I had been in that situation, I would have held on to that wheel with every ounce of my strength, trying to keep control of the car. The results would have been painful.

I am learning just how much I hate letting go of control in my life. As a recovering perfectionist, I want everything to turn out right. Of course, “right” means what I want. So, in order to make sure that things turn out right, I try to be in control. At the very least, I attempt to keep my hand in what is going on. Now, this method works pretty well when you’re coaching, at least until the players get into the games. Then, the illusion of control sometimes quickly disappears. When you’re dealing with people, especially in discipleship, trying to control another person doesn’t work. Actually, trying to be the one in charge doesn’t really work in most areas of our lives.

One of the things God is teaching me is that my control of my life and the lives of others is ultimately an illusion. God is the one in control. Now, don’t get me wrong. I’m not advocating a fuzzy “let go and let God” thinking. Nor am I saying that we bear no responsibility for our actions and the consequences of those actions. I do believe that there is much of our lives that is simply out of our control.

This not a reason for despair, however. For the follower of Jesus, the fact that we are ultimately not in control is actually comforting and freeing. Much of the time we worry about making sure that we say and do just the right thing so our efforts will be “successful.” If we are listening to our Shepherd and doing what he wants us to do, we can rest and leave the results up to him. We must remember that we cannot fix anyone, we cannot heal, but God can. We can be privileged to be the vessels through which God channels that healing, but even that is out of our control. We must remember that it is not up to us to make things happen. It is simply our calling to be faithful to what Jesus calls us to do.

God helps us to hear his voice, to be about doing what he calls us to do, and to leave the results in his hands.

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Who Do You Love?

I heard a couple of things recently that made me think. I know that can be dangerous, and it sometimes gets me in trouble, but I thought anyway. The first was a statement by an individual that he wasn’t indebted to anyone. The second was a Facebook post to the effect that if you want a world where true love is possible, you must allow each person to freely choose who to love. While I can understand the sentiment behind both statements, I believe that they are anti-thetical to the way a follower of Jesus should see things.

The statement about not being in debt to anyone is directly contradicted by Paul’s admonition in Romans 13:8 to owe nothing to anyone except love. Alan Knox has a good post on this here. As those who are loved by the Father and indwelt by his Spirit, we do have one debt. We owe love to our fellow believers, our brothers and sisters.

In Alan’s post, he states that, “I can’t choose who to love.” That leads me to the second statement. As followers of the one who gave his life for us, we have only one choice, to love. Anything else is disobedience to our Master. In John 15, Jesus tells us that his command is to love each other as he has loved us. Since our Savior’s love led him to lay down his life for us, we are to do the same for our brothers and sisters. Doesn’t sound like freely choosing who to love, does it? Jesus also states that the second greatest commandment is to love our neighbor. He then goes on to state that our neighbor is anyone who we come in contact with. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus takes the whole idea of love to the extreme when he tells us to even love our enemies! Sounds to me like he leaves us with no choice. In John 13:35, Jesus says that the world will know that we belong to him because of our love.

There is entirely too much pain and suffering in this world, much of it caused by a lack of love. Unfortunately, this is also true among those who claim to follow the King who founded his kingdom on sacrificial love. Those who are not followers of Jesus know that we are supposed to be different. Many of them also know that the main thing that is supposed to distinguish us is love. Is it any wonder they look at the church and feel that we have nothing to offer them?

Brothers and sisters, we have a debt. It is to love. We have no choice. We are to love everyone who crosses our path. Anything else is blatant disobedience to our Lord and Master.

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Trust

This is something that I’m constantly having to be reminded of:

“Above all, trust in the slow work of God. We are, quite naturally, impatient in everything to reach the end without delay. We should like to skip the intermediate stages, we are impatient of being on the way to something unknown, something new. And yet, it is the law of all progress that it is made by passing through some stages of instability . . . and that it may take a very long time.”

Pierre Teilhard de Chardin
The Making of a Mind: Letters from a Soldier-Priest.

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Which Jesus?

A few years ago Todd Agnew wrote a son in which he asked the question, “Which Jesus do you follow?” It’s a good question.

In the first century, some folks followed Jesus because they thought he was the one who was going to overthrow the Romans and restore the glory of Israel. Today, some follow a Jesus who is either going to bring America back to God (with their help, of course), or one who will bring social justice and equality to America. In the first century, some followed Jesus because they saw in him a good teacher. Today, there are many who follow a Jesus who said good things, and who left us a good moral example to follow.

When Jesus was here on earth, there were some who followed him because he rattled the cages of the religious elite. Today, there are those who follow a Jesus who is anti-anything except a free-lance expression of faith. When Jesus walked in physical form, there were many (perhaps the largest number) who followed him because he fed them, he healed them, he took care of them. It seems like the many folks who follow Jesus today follow a Jesus who will give them whatever they want, as long as they have enough faith to say it and then claim it. Some of those blatantly tell others that God wants them to be wealthy, healthy, good looking, successful, etc., and all they have to do is speak it into existence. Others will start out with the teaching that Jesus has accomplished it all and we live by God’s grace and not our own efforts. That is a good teaching, by the way. We are saved, and we do live by God’s grace and Jesus’ finished work. But then these teacher go on to say that because of Jesus finished work, we can now claim anything we want. It may be a successful business, a nice car or house, younger looking features, good health, lots of money, or just a life without any problems. They teach that we can speak these things into existence, and that if there is anything that goes goofy in life, it has to be the work of satan along with a lack of faith.

Now, I will be the first to say that God does bless people with wealth, health, etc. There have certainly been many wealthy and successful followers of Christ through the centuries. If you take a careful look at Jesus’ call to follow him though, you’ll find that he deliberately makes it difficult for those who are with him for what they can get. In fact, many of them leave him when they realize he’s not what they thought. Some of them turned against him and called for his death. Jesus call to follow him is an invitation to lose our life, to die. As C.S. Lewis said, God doesn’t want to simply move in and renovate the house. He wants to tear the house down and rebuild it. Jesus said that those who would find their life must lose it. He also said that the greatest love was to lay down our lives for our friends, as he did for us.

Following Jesus means dying. Dying to our old way of thinking and living. Dying to the things of this world. Dying to our own desires and wishes. The Psalmist says that if we delight in the Lord, he will give us the desires of our heart. I believe that means if we delight in God, he will give us more of what we delight in – himself. When you think about it, God is all we need. Anything else is just dessert.

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Out of the Cave, Into the…

Some of you have read my recent post about finding myself in a cave. I’m now out of the cave, although still not far from the entrance. I now find myself in the middle of a thicket, sort of like a stand of rhododendron or mountain laurel, so thick that you cannot see out of it. It is still somewhat dark, and the direction I should take is unclear. I see many paths out, but don’t know yet which one to take.

There is the path that would take me back into the church world I left a few years ago. Next to it is the path that would take me to the land of the mega-church. Here I could find a place to hide and lick my wounds. One path seems to go in circles, and looks as if it would leave me no better off. Yet another way out continues in the search for community. That is the path that interests me the most, and the way that I have learned most about in the last couple of days.

You see, I have learned something about community, and about myself. I think I’m beginning to learn why I spent time in the dark cave. Anyone who knows me will tell you that I am a pretty laid back individual, but that when I am passionate about something, I tend to go all out. As I learned more and more about the God’s desire for his children to live as brothers and sisters because of Christ, I became more and more passionate with living in community. Dietrich Bonhoeffer said, “The person who loves their dream of community will destroy community, but the person who loves those around them will create community.” As I look back on the past year, and my desire to have and fight for community, I realize I inadvertently pushed it too hard and may have been part of the cause of its destruction. I know that my heart was good, but I think I may have wanted community so badly that I didn’t see the problems that it was causing. Even though I tried to sacrificially love those around me, I think that I didn’t leave room for God to work, thinking that as long as we spent enough time together, growth and maturity would automatically happen.

I now realize that community is something that has to happen naturally, as God’s people learn to love one another. It is something that cannot be forced, and the Holy Spirit must be the one to form it rather than humans whose motives can be tainted by our own needs. I also realize that a particular form of community may not last as long as I think, and that I need to be willing to let it go when it is time. For those of you reading this who have been on the receiving end of my misguided efforts, I am sorry. I put the ideal of community ahead of my brothers and sisters. I was wrong.

As to what is next in this journey along the back roads, only God knows. I know that Jan and I still desire to share our lives with some fellow Christ-followers. I also know that it may not take any form that we expect. It may be in a regular gathering. It may take place in just getting together with one or two who share our desire. What I also know is that I want it to be something that happens as Christ’s Spirit moves, not when I think it should happen.

I’m learning to trust my Father. As I leave the thicket, I want to be hear my Shepherd’s voice and follow him wherever he leads, whenever he leads, and to whatever he leads. I would appreciate your prayers.