Our Hearts and the Word of God

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“So it is no surprise that Jewish teaching includes frequent reminders of the importance of a broken-open heart, as in this Hasidic tale: A disciple asks the rebbe: “Why does Torah tell us to ‘place these words upon your hearts’? Why does it not tell us to place these holy words in our hearts?” The rebbe answers: “It is because as we are, our hearts are closed, and we cannot place the holy words in our hearts. So we place them on top of our hearts. And there they stay until, one day, the heart breaks and the words fall in.”38”

― Parker J. Palmer, Healing the Heart of Democracy: The Courage to Create a Politics Worthy of the Human Spirit

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My Greatest Embarrassment as a Christian

A CONFESSION

I am going to step out on a limb here and talk about one of my biggest embarrassments as a Christian.

It can be summed up in a word that militant atheists like Richard Dawkins and Dan Dennet use to slam Christians.

It is the term "Sheeple."

You know, as in "Sheep People."

Our haters take an image that is used throughout Christian and Hebrew holy scriptures to ridicule our characters. They see "Sheeple" as mindless, blind followers of a faith that is just a front for power hungry manipulators.

CAUGHT CHEWING THE CHRISTIAN CUD

"Sheeple" line up at the feeding trough and bleat helplessly until someone comes to feed them.

"Sheeple" wander around directionless, guided only by their most basic needs, depending on a nonexistent Deity to show them where to go and what to do.

"Sheeple" moan pitifully when the pastures are not green and the Shepherd didn't show up or the fodder was not to their liking.

"Sheeple" can't do anything on their own. Their lives are run by fear and superstition and ignorance. They need someone to tell them what to do , where to go, what to think.

"Sheeple" abandon their own, moving on to the next clump of green grass while their fellows who have been caught in danger and mired in muck bleat helplessly for someone to come extricate them from their circumstances.

WHEN THIS SHOE FITS . . . GO BAREFOOT

Why am I embarrassed? Not because some blowhards who make their living off of intellectual bullying call me names.

I become embarrassed because far too often, the shoe fits. 

In far too many cases that term "Sheeple" is a perfect description of the attitudes and actions of those of us who call ourselves "Christian."

When was the last time you picked up a Bible to learn something about the God you worship?

When was the last time you stepped up to actually do something that you know Christ wants you to do but that was inconvenient, or made you uncomfortable, or that you were afraid you might fail at?

On the other hand, when was the last time you complained because the worship service didn't "feed" you, or the church's ministry wasn't "dynamic" enough or God forbid, the people you worship with don't suit your taste?

Or the last time you shunned someone who doesn't believe what you believe or live the way that you live? Or because their choices made you uncomfortable?

When was the last time you passed up a fellow church member, let alone a child of God who was unknown to you, because you were too busy or afraid, didn't care for the circumstances, or didn't like the other Christians you would have to work with in order to HELP SOMEBODY??

I AM NOT ASHAMED OF THE GOSPEL

Listen, I am not ashamed of the fact that I am God's lamb. I am a sheep of his pasture. Dawkins and Dennet will never understand how the term applies to me.

But they sure understand how, far too often, I don't live up to the Lamb's vision of me, of how often I live down to the Hater in Chief, the Devil's, estimation of me.

I want to be Christ's lamb, I want to be a member of his fold, to be protected and loved and nurtured by a gentle Shepherd who says to me, "come unto me all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest."

Washing Feet of a Homeless Woman
Photo Credit: Mark Grace

I REFUSE TO BE SHOVED INTO SOMEONE ELSE'S STEREO-TYPE

But I also want to be a member of God's Chosen Generation, A Priest of the Lamb, a warrior fully clothed in the armor of God, a leading citizen in that Holy Nation, a one-percenter among the people of this world- not merely of the US of A- but a unique, fully called and completely actualized Child of the Christ who showed me what the abundant, royal life is all about.

I do NOT want to be counted among those whose sum and substance was to only ever graze contentedly in green pastures and lounge by still waters while somebody else did the work.  I don't want to be the one who constantly criticized the work of other Christians and bleated helplessly about how we should be doing better while doing NOTHING to live UP to God's calling on my own life.

When Christ comes back, I know that I will not be able to say that I lived a perfect life.

I just don't want the Alpha and the Omega to wrap his arms around me while I bleat helpless excuses about why I was not able to have done better. I want to hear my Savior say to me, "Well done thy good and faithful servant."

What about you? What embarrasses you about being a Christian?  And what is your personal vision of the kind of stereotype busting follower of Christ that you want to be?  Leave a comment!

A Blessing For Your Weekend: Water for the Thirsty

"And they did all drink the same spiritual drink: for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them: and that Rock was Christ." I Corinthians 10:4"
Photo Credit: Mark Grace

COME THOU FOUNT OF EVERY BLESSING

What a curious set of images St. Paul offers to us in this verse of scripture- a rock that follows God's children and gives them water, water that is somehow alive with the forces of spiritual life.

When I was twenty-three years old and newly married, I worked as a day laborer for a time.  In the middle of June's blazing summer heat, I found myself working on the roof of the county courthouse in Hamilton, Texas. 

The courthouse was built in 1887 and though I am not sure how many times its flat surface had been tarred by the time we set to work on it, I vividly remember that the work of stripping those older layers was brutal.  The first three days on the job saw me vomiting up my breakfast before lunch arrived.

To make matters worse, one of the roof's layers consisted of pitch. Pitch can be made from petroleum or from plants, but it has some characteristics that are distinct from tar.

For one thing, as it dries it does so in more of a solid form than does tar, which tends to retain its flexibility.  With age, pitch becomes brittle.  

When we peeled the layer of pitch off of that roof, it produced a fine dust that settled in the pores of our skin and burned with an exquisite pain.  The heat of the sun roasted us and the resin dust from that pitch made it seem as though we were being broiled from the inside out.  

Photo Credit: David R. Tribble

SPIRITUAL WATER TO MEET OUR SPIRITUAL NEEDS

I remember dragging myself home and laying a wash cloth on my face to ease the burning that persisted long after I had escaped the noon day heat.  My eyelids peeled as though they had been scorched by the sun, though I wore sunglasses.

When I read St. Paul's description of the living water that springs from the Rock, I think about what it felt like to to take a drink of cold water after working just a little while in the heat of that summer sun. At such moments, I could feel the water being absorbed into the dehydrated cells of my body.  

I learned to pay attention to my need for water before I endangered health by depriving myself of something I could not live without.

You may also have had that kind of experience at some time in your life, when thirst was more than just vague discomfort but had become an urgent physical need.  

Paul's curious imagery in I Corinthians 10:4 serves to remind us that the Rock from which we receive our spiritual life-or-death nourishment isn't like earth's natural springs.  This rock follows us wherever we go.  

Too many times we let ourselves get into spiritual danger because we do not tend to our spiritual needs, even though God has already made sure that we have what we need close at hand.

So the thing I wonder today is, what would it take for us to turn to the One who has been following us all along, and to regularly slake our thirst and to renew our lives with His living water?

Blessings,
Mark

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Have Mercy Monday: Beating the Heat

Iglesia Bill Harrod Girl's Auxiliary @ G.A. Camp
Photo Credit: Victoria Brown

DOG DAYS OF SUMMER

No, this isn't a story about a Dallas Mavericks win over Miami.  It is about a phenomenon that takes place every summer, right in the teeth of the dog days of Texas heat when Mary Diaz takes young women from Iglesia Bill Harrod to G.A. camp, as she did just this past week.

Can you imagine this group braving 106 degree weather to go to a church camp?  Just at the time when most of us are taking refuge in air conditioned homes and the most common topic of conversation at work is about how hot it will be on a given day, Mary is taking pre-teens to Mount Lebanon Baptist Encampment.

Mary does it every year.  And every year she brings all the girls back safe and sound, with new determination to deepen their young spiritual lives. . . . 

SENSELESS

Jeffrey Phelps / Associated Press / August 5, 2012 

I am not writing today to "make sense" of anything that happened at the Sikh Temple in Wisconsin.  There are far too many people who are rushing to "make sense" of that event and every other one like it.

I happen to distrust most of those individuals . . . not because I dislike them or oppose them but simply because I distrust this fetish we in the West have developed for "making sense" of everything that happens immediately after it happens.

SITTING IN SILENCE
Job's friends were wise enough to sit in silence for seven days with Job after he lost everything.  And in the end they still didn't get the analysis right.

A Role Model To Remember

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The heat was insufferable, even for the Rio Grande Valley in the dead of summer. Raw sunlight and oppressive humidity combined to drive the heat index into a range that can only be described as brutal. 

It was there in the grip of a mid-summer day that I found Hermano Masa standing near a mulberry tree. Against all expectations, he was not sheltering in the scanty shade but standing in the full glare of the sun. His forehead glistened with sweat; his shirt was dark with it. His face was full of fear. 

This was the first time we had seen one another since the previous Christmas. I was delighted to find him at Cone Oasis, where I was working as a volunteer River Missionary for the summer. Though I had only known him for a week that Christmas, it felt as though I was greeting a long-lost friend. 

Can We Really Know God?

I was raised with the promise that I could know God as surely as I know the loved ones and friends who fill my days with such fleshy, palpable joy.  

Photo Credit: Mark Grace

It was not until I was in my thirties that this entitlement was challenged.  Sure, I had heard my friends from the emerging church crowd speak passionately about "living the questions."  I understood that perfectly. I did not understand, however, and still have trouble understanding why one would turn away from the parts of Scripture that are easily understood to live in a no-person's land, contemplating the things we will never comprehend until Christ returns.  It seemed like a lot of navel gazing to me, an excuse to live vaguely and ineffectually.

There Is More To This Than I Thought . . .

Then I began to pray.  Rather, I was invited into a style of prayer that actually focused on God's presence with me, in the moment.  Bit by bit I dropped the chatter and began to attempt to listen to God. After all, God was there, right there, waiting for me just as He always had been.  Easy peasy, nice and breezy.  

Except for the fact that it wasn't so easy.  As a matter of fact it was really difficult.  All kinds of thoughts and disturbing emotions assailed me, not once or twice but every. Single. Time. I tried to pray in this way . . .

I found that I had a natural talent for obsessing about anything but God.  

How could that be?  Wasn't I the kid who thought about God all the time?  Hadn't I grown up with the  blessed assurance that Jesus was mine, all mine?

Eventually I found a small book entitled, THE CLOUD OF UNKOWING and I began to develop a new awareness of God's presence in my life, one that wasn't as easily controlled by me as I had believed for so long.

Seeking Genuine Encounter, Risking Change

That discovery has become shockingly important to me on so many different fronts.  Here are just a few:

1. I developed a much sharper awareness of the difference between MY voice and God's voice.
2. I am less tempted to offer platitudes about how easy it is to know God, and much more empathetic and respectful about the obstacles others face when they talk about trying to know God.
3. I am no longer satisfied with certain counterfeit experiences- for instance, getting high on emotion, anger and jealousy misinterpreted as passion for God, substituting mindless chatter for real prayer.
4. I found an increased ability to engage in daily activities consciously and prayerfully.
5. When counseling with folks, I often ask them to take five minutes a day to silently seek God, then to come back and talk to me about it.  This simple exercise has become a foundation for my practice of brief pastoral counseling and has opened up profoundly healing conversations.

Below I've included an excerpt from the book.  The first version is my attempt to render the Middle English into something a little more intelligible to contemporary readers.  Below that you will find the original text, or at least, I believe, Evelyn Underhill's translation of the original Middle English, still a challenge to read.

Prayer and THE CLOUD OF UNKNOWING 

Chapter 3
"Do not stop, but work until you are ready.  Because the first time that you attempt to meet God in this kind of prayer you will find darkness, and a cloud of unknowing.  You will know nothing except that you will feel  a passionate desire for God.  Try as you might, this darkness and this cloud will stand between you and your God.  It prevents you from seeing Him clearly with only your reason.  Neither will it allow you to feel Him in the sweetness of love in your desire for Him.

"So resolve to live as long as you can in this darkness, crying more and more for the One you love.  If you expect to ever see Him, you must be prepared to live constantly in this cloud of darkness. If you apply yourself to practice hard in the way that I have described here, I am confident that in God's mercy you will come to know Him."

Original Text

"Let not, therefore, but travail therein till thou feel list. For at the first time when thou dost it, thou findest but a darkness; and as it were a cloud of unknowing, thou knowest not what, saving that thou feelest in thy will a naked intent unto God. This darkness and this cloud is, howsoever thou dost, betwixt thee and thy God, and letteth thee that thou mayest neither see Him clearly by light of understanding in thy reason, nor feel Him in sweetness of love in thine affection." p. 73

"And therefore shape thee to bide in this darkness as long as thou mayest, evermore crying after Him that thou lovest. For if ever thou shalt feel Him or see Him, as it may be here, it behoveth always to be in this cloud in this darkness. And if thou wilt busily travail as I bid thee, I trust in His mercy that thou shalt come thereto." p. 74

 Now I must tell you that I am no great shakes at contemplative prayer- I continue to be inconsistent, distractable, and I still talk too much to God just like I tend to talk too much in general.  But I am not about to give up this quest.  At least now I understand what the fog is all about.

What about you? What spiritual and prayer practices have become important in your life?

Humility & Self-Knowledge: Essentials for Disciples

Maui Rainforest Path
Photo Credit: Mark Grace

"I do not know if I have explained this clearly: self-knowledge is so important that, even if you were raised right up to the heavens, I should like you never to relax your cultivation of it; so long as we are on this earth, nothing matters more to us than humility. And so I repeat that it is a very good thing -- excellent, indeed -- to begin by entering the room where humility is acquired rather than by flying off to the other rooms. For that is the way to make progress, and, if we have a safe, level road to walk along, why should we desire wings to fly? Let us rather try to get the greatest possible profit out of walking. As I see it, we shall never succeed in knowing ourselves unless we seek to know God: let us think of His greatness and then come back to our own baseness; by looking at His purity we shall see our foulness; by meditating upon His humility, we shall see how far we are from being humble."  

Teresa of Avila

From  THE INTERIOR CASTLE 

Rules for Self-Discovery:

1. What we want most;

2. What we think about most; 

3. How we use our money; 

4. What we do with our leisure time; 

5. The company we enjoy; 

6. Who and what we admire; 

7. What we laugh at.

― A.W. Tozer

Thanks to Good Reads for the Quote!

http://tinyurl.com/7nbv889