God at the Center

Wonder is defined as astonishment at something awesomely mysterious or new to one’s experience. I love that each season of Advent is filled with wonder as we anticipate once again the mystery of Jesus’ coming.

I remember a moment of Christmas wonder the year of my sixth birthday. My seventy-two year old grandmother lived in a tiny house where only the living room had heat.  She was a very content, joyful lady but all her life she had lived on the edge of poverty. On cold days her bedroom felt just like a walk in refrigerator. In the bedroom sat her trunk, her prized possession where she kept all her treasures.

Just before Christmas that year she must have felt that I crossed some major maturity milestone because that was the year she sent me by myself into that chilly room to open up the treasure chest, her trunk. The moment I entered the room and felt the chill I also experienced the sweet scent of wonder. I still live in that moment at times. It was filled with mystery and awe.

As I opened the trunk I immediately saw the source of that sweet scent. The trunk was filled with oranges, apples, nuts and candy.  My grandmother had sent me to this place to find my Christmas present. She had also invited me to choose a piece of fruit and a hand full of nuts and candy to enjoy – but the true gift I received that day was the experience. Somehow I knew that my grandmother treasured her relationship with me and sent me on this mysterious adventure as part of the gift.

Today, that experience still fills my heart with wonder and her trunk now sits in my own bedroom as a treasured reminder.

Wonder is an experience of Christmas I never want to miss. It is something I want to share this year with my family, especially my six year old grandson, Joshua.

My hope for you is that you too will experience wonder this Advent season – something awesomely mysterious and new, something that draws you closer to the treasure of life found in Jesus.

Galatians 6:2 says,  “reach out to those who are oppressed. Share their burdens, and so complete Christ’s law.”

People loved Jesus because he unburdened them.

Since reading this verse a few days ago I’ve been evaluating my own burden factor. Do I lighten more burdens than I create? I’ve definitely been noticing more people who are carrying burdens since I read this and I hope I can unburden someone today.

How about you?

As I sit outside this morning and see the deep blue sky filled with raindrops and listen to the singing birds in the trees I’m thinking about the glory of God.  God’s hands created everything I see and feel right now and therefore a trace of his glory has been left behind for me to find. I’m wondering why I allow so many moments to pass by without looking for it.

What is God’s glory if it’s not God’s presence and God’s grace made visible?

Last week Ron and I were at Disneyworld, where people from all over the world came to have fun and make some great memories with their family and friends. We heard languages and saw faces from cultures and countries we could not always identify, even though we were competing to do just that.  It was fascinating to just sit together and watch all the people go about their day.  Of course, now I’m wondering how much it cost us to sit on that bench for 30 minutes!

A busy street in Epcot might not be the first place you would think to look for the glory of God.  But, looking around and noticing myself, my husband, and all the diversity of people and their unique faces…I could make it out. I was overwhelmed by noticing God’s glory right there in that place!

It reminded me of Paul’s words in Romans 8:17-18

Now if we are children, then we are heirs – heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory. I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.

Holy God, in this day, help me slow down and recognize your glory in all your people and in all you have created. And humble my spirit so that your glory becomes more visible in me.

As my husband Ron and I walked into the Magic Kingdom yesterday we saw the words: Let the Memories Begin!  It’s been the marketing campaign for Disney Theme Parks since September 2010. Disney hopes some of our best memories will be made within their sparkling gates.

I’m really looking forward to the next three days at St Luke’s United Methodist Church in Orlando as Executive Pastors and other second chair leaders from the top 100 United Methodist Churches in the U.S. gather to learn from Disney executives and network with one another. The opportunity to experience the excellence of Disney and then immediately hear how top leaders guide the organization is an intriguing opportunity.

I believe the Disney theme is even more relevant in the church. I’m already thinking about how we can help growing Christians create more great memories that will motivate them to keep moving on their journey of spiritual growth. If you have a great memory that has helped you keep growing I would love to hear about it.

Sunday afternoon we celebrated and confirmed the decisions of 95 young people to profess faith in Jesus. As I prayed and laid my hand on each one, I thought about what it means to be “born again” and wondered how they might come to understand that moment.  Ever since Jesus spoke the words “born again” human beings have been struggling to fully comprehend what that means.

In John 3 we know that a man named Nicodemus came to ask Jesus a question under the cover of darkness. Nicodemus was a Pharisee, a teacher of God’s law and an influential religious leader. Jesus already knew what was on Nicodemus’ mind and gave him the answer up front. “Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again.” Nicodemus was confused by this answer so Jesus explained further, “Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit.” 

To be born again is to invite the Spirit of God to breathe life into my spirit as I profess faith in Jesus. I might remember this as a single moment in time or as a period of growth in my understanding of faith in Jesus. And just as my parents created a plan to help me grow and flourish after I was born, I need to create a plan to help my spirit grow and flourish in the way God hopes for me.

I’m really excited that this fall we’re launching the Journey, a pathway of teaching and resources that can help all of us, including our 95 Confirmands, create a plan to grow and flourish as we love God, love others and serve the world.

In this moment, as I breathe in and out, may the Spirit of God breathe new life into my spirit as I prepare to take my next step.

“Yet even now, says the Lord, repent and return to me with all your heart” Joel 2:13

Today is Ash Wednesday, the day the Church takes its first steps into the Lenten season, a journey toward deeper devotion to God. This journey calls us to stop whatever it is we’re doing that is distracting us from growing in our love for God so that we can enter more intentionally into the disciplines of prayer, self-examination and repentance. But these disciplines – as significant as they are in themselves – are not ends in themselves. They are a means to an end and that end is that I would return to God with all my heart.

This day has often been reduced to the question: “What am I giving up for Lent?”  This is a good question, but it can only take us so far. The real question for today is: “How will I find ways to return to God with all my heart?” And this leads to an even deeper question: “Where in my life have I grown away from God and what are the practices and decisions that will help me find my way back to him?”

Yet even now, says the Lord, return to me with all your heart.  These are such intimate, vulnerable and compassionate words spoken by the King of the Universe to me - not only on this day - but on every day.

What could keep me from him?

I really do know where to go to connect with God in an intimate and soul-restoring way even though my Google Maps app can’t find that place.

Over the past few weeks my life has felt out of rhythm with crazy ice days, an out-of-town conference, an out-of-town anniversary celebration – the list can go on and on but it doesn’t matter. I know how easy it is to create justification for being too busy for a relationship. 

And even though I pray and read and reflect on Scripture every day, these disciplines can become busyness instead of intimacy with God. I can “do” all these things and still not go to “that place” to connect with God in an intimate and soul-restoring way.

What I want to do every day is experience those good disciplines in that place where God holds my small, dried up, hurting, empty soul in his very own hands and breathes life back into me. I love this place. Everything changes here. My breathing changes, the tension in my body relaxes, the hopelessness I may have felt before transforms into a sense that “everything is going to be alright” because God is here. This is a place where I intuitively know how to praise God.

But to go here requires a deeper investment from me. I have to intentionally shut out the world and find time and solitude so that I can dive in and meet with God more intimately.  

Today, in that place, God is waiting to tell me something. He knows how much my soul needs to hear these words from his very own lips.

… may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love really is. May you experience the love of Christ, though it is so great you will never fully understand it. Then you will be filled with the fullness of life and power that comes from God. Now glory be to God! By his mighty power at work within us, he is able to accomplish infinitely more than we would ever dare to ask or hope. Ephesians 3:18-20  NLT

It wasn’t really until 1991 that I came to clearly understand how much my husband, Ron, loves me. I’m not sure why after fifteen years of marriage I was still unsure.

We know that emotional needs and expressions of love are most often experienced very differently between a husband and wife. As the author Gary Chapman says in his book The Five Love Languages, husbands and wives don’t always speak the same love language.

I still had this little doubt in my mind about how deeply Ron loved me. It was a gap that existed, not in his faithfulness, but in my understanding of his love.

I’ll never forget, in 1991 Ron and I saw Kevin Costner in the movie Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves. It’s funny how sometimes a movie moment can interpret something from real life that hasn’t been clearly understood before.

Toward the end of the movie Robin Hood (Kevin Costner) says to Maid Marian, “I would die for you.” Of course, that line was written so that I would fall in love with Kevin Costner. But that’s not what happened. Instead, I turned to Ron and asked with a really shaky voice and tears welling up in my eyes, “Would you die for me?” He pulled me closer and put his arms around me and said, “Of course I would die for you. I would give my life to protect yours in a heart beat because I love you so much.”

And there it was. Those words from Ron helped me understand what was already a reality.

I felt assured of the deepest love Ron has to offer.

Not long after I read this verse, Romans 5:6-8:

 6 You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. 7 Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. 8 But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

And I wept.

Because I felt assured of the deepest love God has to offer.

There is a story in the Gospel of Luke about a man who was covered with leprosy.  When he met up with Jesus he humbly bowed down with his face to the ground and said, “Lord, if you choose you can make me clean.”  Jesus never refused to heal anyone who asked.  So Jesus stretched out his hand to the man and said, “I do choose. Be made clean.”  The man was healed. Because of this Jesus gained many new followers and by the end of the story, Luke says, “…Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed.”

Because I’m a bit of an extravert I don’t like lonely places. If I am alone, I feel a need to have music playing or something random on TV so that I don’t feel like I’m alone.

But I have a need to be in a lonely place with God.  It is when I am alone with God that I have the deepest and most profound experience of God’s presence with me. Here, there is no competition for my attention except what is roaming around in my own head. Eventually I can clear away the clutter and be with God completely. Alone with God, I can bow down with my face to the ground to praise him and ask him to fix me up once again and restore me for a new day, or even a new year.

 I am here alone with God now, beginning a brand new day and brand new year as I say, “Lord, if you choose you can make me clean.”   I only hear the clock ticking with my ears but with my heart I hear God’s Spirit speaking to my soul, “I do choose. Be made clean.”

 God is Big Enough

In seven days time it will be Christmas.

About this time yesterday the imminence of Christmas made me feel a bit anxious. I still had a lot of preparations still undone. So I sat down and wrote out a detailed list of what I needed to do then set out on a six hour errand and shopping trek. Ever so often I would sit in my car and check items off my list. As the number of checked off items grew larger my anxiety about preparations diminished more and more.

Toward the end of the day I evaluated what I had left to do which somehow led me to spend some time thinking about Advent. Since it is a whole season of preparation for the coming of the Christ Child I reflected on how I was doing there. I asked myself, “What have I done so far to prepare for Jesus?”  I have a pretty good handle on the material preparations but what about the preparations of my soul for the coming of the King? How am I doing with that? Where is my list for that?

So I’m reflecting on Isaiah 61 today. These prophetic words of Isaiah speak of who Jesus will be and what he will do. It lists actions that please God.  

¹ The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me,
because the LORD has anointed me
to preach good news to the poor.
He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,
to proclaim freedom for the captives
and release from darkness for the prisoners, 
to proclaim the year of the LORD’s favor…

These words do not make me feel anxious but hopeful.

Still, I am undone, I am unprepared to receive a King and perhaps for me to recognize this is really the point of Advent.  But Jesus will be fully prepared, full of grace, good news, healing, freedom and light.  

And so today I say, ”Come, Lord Jesus. I am unprepared for you. Please bring me your peace.”