Mountains Aren't the Problem

It is a new year and a time to set new goals. Not being especially ambitious I have limited myself to one goal at a time. The current goal: get all the laundry done. After the holidays there are mountains of tablecloths, napkins, sheets and towels piled in the laundry room, Naturally this is in addition to the usual dirty clothes that accumulate over the course of a week. This is a simple but worthy goal. When all the laundry is done I plan to clean the laundry room closet and pass on the things we no longer use. My laundry efforts are paying off; the mountains are shrinking to manageable proportions. Sheets and towels for the ranch are clean and neatly folded, ready for transport back to Cisco. The last couple of tablecloths are in the washer and the final sheets are tumbling dry. The floor is finally clear and now I can see the basket. This is the laondry basket that always stands between me and a perfectly clean laundry room. This basket is never empty. It doesn't hold a mountain of laundry. Instead, it is full of hills--items that are too small to make a load, items that fade and must be washed separately. These clothes don't get washed very often. They spend most of their time in the basket and all of the laundry never gets done. Sometimes it is not the mountain but the hill that is our biggest obstacle.

Exaggerated Rumors

As Mark Twain once quipped, the rumors of my death have been greatly exaggerated. I was grateful to realize that it hasn't been quite a year since my last posting--almost but not quite. I have dear friends, among them Allan Stanglin, who post faithfully. In contrast, I intend faithfully. At least once or twice a month I intend to post my latest wandering thoughts but something always overrides my intention. Generally, something meaningless--such as my wandering thoughts. Oh well, it is a new year and a time for new intentions. Anyone taking wagers on how long it will be before my next posting?

The Gift

Sunday, the man who delivered the communion devotional spoke of Christ's gift to us on the cross. At one point he asked us to imagine opening that gift with its pretty wrapping and beautiful bow. I couldn't do it, I couldn't see the gift with fancy paper and an elaborate bow.

All I could see was a humble cardboard box, tied with simple twine. The box was scarred from the sting of the whip, spattered with blood dripping from the crown of thorns. The twine was frayed and stained from a life or service to others. This great gift of salvation and new life did not come in a beautiful package. It came in a man without the trappings of beauty or majesty. Nothing in the appearance of the package was designed to attract me. Instead the package was designed to reveal the nature of God who loved all people so much that he abandoned his throne in heaven to live a sacrifical cross-focused life on this earth.

That gift in the humble cardboard box calls me to follow Jesus' example. It calls me to live in confidence that my future is secure, to trust God that one day I will live with him in glory. It calls me to share Jesus' good news, love, and compassion with my fellow human beings. It calls me to live a humble "cardboard box" life

How do you see Christ's precious gift?

Great Weekend

After a hectic week, typical of a semester drawing to a close, Bill and I spent Saturday and Sunday in Dallas. First we attended the wedding of Kathleen Kerr and Charles Blanchard. It was a lovely ceremony and such fun to see Kathleen and Chuck so excited about their new life together.

This morning we attended services at Legacy in North Richland Hills and witnessed something even greater than the love between a young husband and wife. At Legacy we saw the love of a man for his God and the power of a life lived in obedience to God's call. Allan Stanglin, the pulpit minister at Legacy, is a friend from AGST. He is a careful exegete and a gifted preacher (not to mention an excellent writer; check out The Kingdom, the Kids and the Cowboys). Allan has an energy and enthusiasm for God's word and Christ's church that is absolutely infectious.

In the fall of 2005 Allan left a successful career in broadcasting to return to school and earn a Master of Arts in Theological Studies. Immediately after graduation in May 2007, Allan began his ministry at Legacy. Today, as Allan stood in front of the congregation and the audience listened carefully, I saw a man who epitomizes the blessing that comes from trusting God, being attentive to his direction, and submissive to his call.

I pray that Allan and his family will continue to be blessed by their time at Legacy. I also pray that this congregation, that waited so patiently for the right man to join them in bringing glory to God, will grow in ways that only God can imagine and empower.

Oh God, you are an awesome God and I am blessed to be a witness to your work and power in the world.

Celebration

Celebration is at the heart of the way of Christ. He entered the world on a high note of jubilation: "I bring you good news of great joy," cried the angel,"which shall come to all the people" (Luke 2:10). He left the world bequeathing his joy to the disciples: "These things I have spoken to you that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full" (John 15:11). Richard Foster, Celebration of Discipline

Celebration is one of the spiritual disciplines. It is hard to imagine that Christians need to discipline themselves to celebrate but we do. We need to truly celebrate our release from the captivity of sin. We need to truly celebrate that our eyes are no longer blind to sin. We need to celebrate that we live free from the oppressive fear of death. We need to celebrate that, as Christians, we are never alone, never without family, and never without hope. Whatever your Thanksgiving Day looks like, I pray that it reflects the discipline of celebration. I pray that it is bathed in the certainty of your hope, annointed with the blessings of family and empowered with the presence of the One who gives us cause for celebration.

What a Pleasure

We've been living in a whirlwind of activity since my last post. Several days were spent in preparations. Then, on November 2, Brandon and his girlfriend, Jana, arrived from Berlin. Since then it has been a challenge to keep up with their hectic schedule, attend class and fit in a few hours of study. They leave today for Denver where Brandon will attend a company meeting and Jana will see another part of the US. Although it has been much too short we have enjoyed their visit. What a pleasure it is to spend time with our adult children. Although I sometimes wax nostalgic about the days when Ryan and Brandon were babies, or toddlers, or on rare occasions teenagers, I find my greatest pleasure is spending time with my adult sons. They have grown to be strong, responsible and hard-working men and Mom and Dad couldn't be more proud. I pray that we continue to grow in love and respect for one another. May your family be blessed as ours has been.

Devotion

In the introduction to The Devout Life, Frances de Sales (1567-1622) makes the following observations about devotion.

…everyone paints devotion according to his own passions and fancies. Someone given to fasting thinks himself very devout if he fasts although his heart may be filled with hatred. Much concerned with sobriety, he doesn’t care to wet his tongue with wine or even water but won’t hesitate to drink deep of his neighbor’s blood by detraction and gossip.

Another person thinks himself devout because he daily recites a vast number of prayers, but after saying them he utters the most disagreeable, arrogant, and harmful words at home and among the neighbors. Another gladly takes a coin out of his purse and gives it to the poor, but he cannot extract kindness from his heart to forgive his enemies.

Another forgives his enemies but never pays his creditors unless compelled to do so by force of law. All these individuals are usually considered to be devout, but they are no means such. Saul’s servants searched for David in his house but David’s wife, Michal, had put a statue on his bed, covering it with David’s clothes, and thus led them to think it was David himself who was lying there sick and sleeping. In the same manner, many persons clothe themselves with certain outward actions connected with holy devotion, and the world believes that they are truly devout and spiritual whereas they are in fact nothing but copies and phantoms of devotion.

de Sales saw a devout life as one that is lived in two dimensions. The vertical dimension is the all consuming love of God. This love creates in us such a desire to be with God that we eagerly engage in the spiritual disciplines in order to draw closer to him. A life lived well in the vertical dimension overflows into the horizontal dimension of love and service for others.

When God spoke the ten commandments four of them concerned devotion to God and six of them concerned living a life that honored and cared for others. When we put God first, truly loving him as our only God, wholeheartedly respecting his name and his institutions then we are able to genuinely love, honor, and respect our fellow human beings. True devotion to God is expressed in love and service to others.

Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen:

to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke,

to set the oppressed free and break every yoke?

Is it not to share your food with the hungry

and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter—

when you see the naked, to clothe him,

and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood? Isaiah 58:6-7

This week may each of us show our love for God through acts of selfless service to others. May God create in each of us a deeper longing for true devotion to Him.

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I have no idea why this post is single spaced. I've tried and tried to correct it but it has a mind of its own. My apologies but I give up!!!