Is there a better, more formative, way we can address pain in our lives, especially the inner pain we all want to flee? Yes, but we have to ensure we approach pain with a healthy and biblical image of God.
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"Thou shalt not murder" is one of the Ten Commandments, and none of us likely have issue with obeying it. We say, "It's a command. One of the big ten. Of course I'll obey it."
When's the last time you took a Sabbath? Better put, is your commitment to honour the Sabbath as strong as your commitment to not murder? If not, how come? They are both big ten commands.
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I understand there are times we need to be disciplined to do the things that bring us wellness, and being disciplined can take effort, but I had noticed I was finding less enthusiasm regarding my wellness routines. France offered me a chance to step away for a couple of weeks, so I did a couple of drastic things.
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What's your opinion on silence? Do you like it? Dislike it? Yearn for it? Avoid it?
If you were to ask me this question last month, I would have quickly said, "I love it and want more of it in my life." That response would make sense. I live in an urban centre, have a teenager in the house, and am often in meetings with people. I don't have a lot of silence in my life, so of course I'd want more of it.
So yes, it makes sense. Unfortunately, if I'm being honest with myself, it's not true.
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Why do you go to church?
If you were to ask followers of Jesus this question today, many would say, "To worship God," or something similar. What's interesting about this response is they are completely missing the point of church.
It was God's intention from the beginning of time to partner and co-create with his Creation. We read in Genesis 1 that humanity was given the task of stewarding the earth, and God gave them "every seed-bearing plant and all the fruit trees" for food. God provided the food, but humanity would need to gather the food for themselves. An angel wasn't going to drop off a food-basket at Adam and Eve's doorstep every morning.
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Do you tend to assume the best or the worst about people and situations? If you receive a text that is open to interpretation, depending on the tone, do you lean more toward a negative interpretation? If something happens, do you predict the most catastrophic outcome of the circumstance? Do you keep worrying terrible things will happen to loved ones? Psychologists have a term for this: awfulizing.
So how do we stop doing it?
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If you were ask followers of Jesus this question today, many would say, "In heaven." Ask the natural follow-up question of where heaven is, and you'll likely get a shrug of the shoulders or a finger pointing to the sky. This means, of course, when these same followers of Jesus begin to pray, they are directing their prayers to God who is "up there... somewhere" or "out there... somewhere."
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Have you ever come to an end of a chapter of life and hit a wall of waiting? It's a weird in-between place where you've finished reading the last page of your current chapter, but God has not flipped the page to the next one. Why does he make us wait?
Because God shapes us through waiting.
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Given the choice between a real, tangible experience with God or an experience with gluttony, anger, pornography, drunkenness, promiscuity, or whatever sin you care to name, would I not always choose the tangible experience with God? Ah, but therein lies the rub. Not every experience with God is tangible.
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Jesus is truth not because he's the correct answer to a math equation, but because, as he says in John 17, he fully reveals the Father to us. There is nothing hidden or obscured in him. When we look at Jesus, we see God. We can rely on him to accurately portray God's heart and character.
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Spiritual maturity is measured in part by a high level of uncertainty tolerance. I know we sometimes think that the more mature follower of Jesus is the one who has the unshakeable certainty about God. Unshakeable faith in God (because we know his loving character) is good. Unshakeable certainty about God (because we have him all figured out) is not.
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Always being served by others is un-Christlike and unloving. However, avoiding being served by others is also un-Christlike and unloving. It may be hard for servant-hearted people to allow themselves to be served, but avoiding it robs another person the opportunity to obey Jesus by serving you.
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These three Good Friday responses are crucial if we want to experience the Easter Sunday resurrection of life and hope. In fact, we may find that if we follow this path, we can experience life and hope while we're still in the valley, because even in the valley of suffering, God prepares a table for us to experience his goodness. If you flee that valley, you will miss that table.
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Many of us, myself included, struggle with trusting ourselves to hear God correctly. "Will I hear him right?" "What if I miss his leading?" and so on.
However, let me challenge you with this thought: perhaps the root of not trusting ourselves to hear God is actually another way of not trusting God.
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When was the last time you asked or invited God to be with you as you approached a certain situation, conversation, or activity? How many times have you heard a preacher talk about "inviting Jesus into your heart"?
It's time to stop.
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When the disciples asked Jesus to teach them to pray, he didn't reply, "Just pray as you feel led." He said, "Pray like this..." and then gave them the Lord's Prayer (Matthew 6). He gave them words and a format.
There are times I am tongue-tied in prayer, when I cannot articulate the thought in my mind or the groaning in my heart. When I feel like this, sometimes I pray in tongues, and sometimes I read the prayers of the saints.
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There are times God has commanded his followers to do very strange things, and none of it made sense at the time. God had a purpose for his instructions, but each one of his followers had to decide to trust God's instructions even when they didn't understand the purpose behind them.
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There are many ways a small change in heart and action on our part can be used to incarnate Isaiah 61 in our world. In other words, there are many ways to pray for and work for beauty, justice, and peace around us.
To what change might God be inviting you?
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The rise of Facebook and other social media means many of us are overloaded with acquaintances. We follow along and try to stay in touch with hundreds or thousands of people, and are affected by the events of their lives. Because we are overloaded and relationally drained, we may have many, many shallow friendships with acquaintances, but very few deep, meaningful relationships.
The result is crisis.
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