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Faith Life

Sabbath Quiet: To Live Wide Awake

Grant to me, O Lord, to know what I ought to know, to love what I ought to love, to praise what delights Thee most, to value what is precious in they sight, to hate what is offensive to Thee. ~Thomas à Kempis

Wide Awake

Awake my soul. A voice urges you to consider, Is this the life I was made for? Is this as far as I go? What if there is more to the ocean than the shallows I’ve mastered? What if there is more to me than I’ve allowed to grow? What if there’s more to God than the safe one I’ve fashioned?

Listen to that voice when you hear it.

“Perhaps somewhere in the subterranean chambers of your life you have heard the call to deeper, fuller living. Perhaps you have become weary of frothy experiences and shallow teaching. Every now and then you have caught glimpses, hints of something more than you have known. Inwardly you have longed to launch into the deep.”

~Richard Foster in Celebration of Discipline

Awake My Soul

Awake, my soul, and with the sun
Thy daily stage of duty run;
Shake off dull sloth, and joyful rise
To pay thy morning sacrifice.

Redeem thy mis-spent moments past,
And live this day as if thy last;
Improve thy talent with due care;
For the great day thyself prepare.

Let all thy converse be sincere,
Thy conscience as the noonday clear;
Think how all-seeing God thy ways
And all thy secret thoughts surveys.

Lord, I my vows to thee renew;
Scatter my sins as morning dew;
Guard my first springs of thought and will,
And with thyself my spirit fill.

Direct, control, suggest, this day,
All I design, or do, or say;
That all my powers, with all their might,
In thy sole glory may unite.

Praise God from whom all blessing flow;
Praise him, all creatures here below;
Praise him above, ye heavenly host;
Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.

~ Thomas Ken (1637-1711)

Where are you half-asleep to God and to life?

Photograph by Melanie Hunt
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Jeff Reed And The Estuarial Way Of Jesus

God is the perfect poet. ~Robert Browning

If a plan can succeed without God, it wasn’t his plan in the first place.

But we forget that.

We read, for example, “Love your enemies.” Experts that we are, we think, “That’s impossible. Only a show of force, only a strong defense–or clever offense–will keep my enemy from destroying me.”

So, we look for the loop-hole.

  • Jesus didn’t mean that literally.
  • Jesus didn’t last long, did he?
  • Jesus gives us an impossible ideal so we will appreciate his grace.

You doubt me? How many of us have an index card with the words, Love my enemy today taped to our bathroom mirrors? Or, sticky-note reminders on the back door,

  • Take up my cross on the way to school
  • Die to self in the big meeting this afternoon
  • Overcome evil with good during evening commute 

Few, if any. Common sense says it’s not possible to obey.

Jesus And The Estuary

Jeff Reed, a poet friend, has written a series of  21 poems entitled Estuarial. The overall premise: when wildly different elements collide, (like fresh and sea water in an estuary), an unlikely community (rather than the chaos we expect) often emerges.

But our culture is hostile to unity. The pull is ever stronger to stay divided. We ignore the promise Jesus made, Blessed are the peacemakers,  for they will be called children of God. 

But Jesus meant it. When, despite divergent cross-currents, one person reaches to another, God will provide the peace. Jeff’s poems dip a toe in this truth: God’s children will be recognized in the estuaries.

Jeff has graciously shared three of the poems. Savor them–you’ll see more with each reading.

The Plumber to the Shoe Salesman

Do you know the world
is leaking? Can’t you tell it
by the squeaking of

your tennis shoes upon
the hardwood floors that will
be ruined by this wet?

I cannot keep up.
If I move faster
I arrive at next

before the last is fixed
and find the following flood
swallowing up my span.

Have you waders that float?
I need to walk on water
or find someone who can.

The Arborist to the Soccer Mom

Each one has a Latin
name which I cannot
pronounce as I should.

But I know how to grow them–
good soil, sun and shade,
deft with the pruning blade,

though I cannot predict
all the coming contours–
which limbs need attention

when and where to cut–
until the time’s at hand
on the way to tall,

always watching, tense
at sudden sprints of wind,
at each inevitable fall.

The Hair Stylist to the Highway Patrolman

The license on my wall
testifies that I
am to make beautiful

the messes that I meet.
That keeps me going.
Were I only to snip

the snarled and wash away
the oil and grime and quit
before the shaping, I

would despair. For hair
will insist on breaking
outside the boundaries set,

drunk on its freedom to frazzle,
reckless in the thrill of
fleeing the barrette.

Photograph by Melanie Hunt
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Searching For Treasure

I have learned that the most important difference between people is between those for whom life is a quest and those for whom it is not. ~ Walter Percy

treasure map

The dawn is a mere hint as I force myself from beneath warm covers and stand under a hot shower long enough to convince my brain I mean it.

The coffee maker hisses with one touch of a button. I light the fire and my work day begins. If I’m going to write, it’s pointless to waffle, to list my excuses to the rising sun.

Commit or quit.

Eight days into the new year, I have obeyed. Eight days better than nothing, I am launched on a journey. I am, like Bilbo Baggins, off on an adventure, and my map is still unfolding. The treasure I seek? The only goal worth pursuing: To draw close to the Father, respond gladly to the Spirit, and more truly resemble the Son.

For some reason, God is using my own typing to remind me of the way.

Your conversion, however, may take a different shape.

Where Your Treasure Is

To become a Christian is not to arrive (“I’ve made it!”) but to set out (I’ve found the path!) on a journey to discover the treasure every molecule of you was made for–to love God and enjoy him forever.

Inevitably, we turn aside to run toward a mirage. My glittering illusion is called Independence. Self-sufficiency. A dark, twisted way where I am the guide.

But I’ve turned around…again.  So will you, if you realize:

  • Your only true love, your only true friend, your only true king,
  • The only relief for your thirst,
  • The only sate for your hunger,
  • The only source of the joy you are missing,
  • The only provider for your need,
  • The only treasure worth seeking,

is God.

No, of course you don’t believe it. Your eyes are distracted by other offers. All you’re asked to do is turn and, forsaking other paths, walk toward your Treasure. He will show you  the way.

Have you been looking for treasure where it can’t be found? How is God converting you?

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Prayer Changes The Scenery

The eternal and essential truth–until we love a thing in all its ugliness we cannot make it beautiful. ~G.K. Chesterton.

prayer spot

The View From Above

Beauty is seldom left alone.

Even here, on this crisp December day, San Francisco Bay grandeur arrayed below, I notice broken booze bottles and evidence of furtive, illegal acts at my feet. The sad truth grips me–there is no vista in this world untouched by human hubris and shame. There is litter on Mt. Everest, plastic floating on the furthest reaches of the sea.

I’m struggling inside for the cause of beauty.

The streets below, laid out in a precise grid, could tell a thousand tales of heartache and cruelty, of windows opening on empty futures.

I can’t pretend.

Truth, beauty and goodness must be examined in their context, un-cheapened by shallow sentiment or denial, or I refuse to believe they exist at all.

I pace in silence, begging God to fit me with new lenses to see what can’t be seen. How grace can exist side by side with the foul and emerge unsullied. How love and hatred can boil in the same stew and love still remain pure. How joy can live under the same roof with pain and still refuse to be silenced.

Prayer Makes Beauty

Do you pray? Do you sit, closed eyes peering through the malodorous vapor of ill-winds and poisonous lies and refuse to blink until your vision is restored?

Do you watch, alert for the first hint of light, and listen for the gentle song of Love that permeates the universe beyond the noise? Are you the one, in the early morning hours, lifting your head, sniffing for a scent, reaching to touch treasures just beyond your grasp?

Do you refuse to believe that what you can see is all there is? Have you held tight the hope that something higher, something powerful, someone with unstoppable purpose is wending his way through our years, our fears and tears?

Have you lifted the ugliness of the world–the people, the painful, the pitiful–to God in prayer, convinced that beauty will prevail, that goodness will never be snuffed out by evil?

If your answer is yes, thank you. You are saving the world. You are saving me.

The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective. James 5:16

May God bless you with beauty this New Year. I am spending a few days away from my blog–see you next week!

 

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Sabbath Quiet: At The End Of The Day

If we wish to hide from the penetrating gaze of holy love, it is because we know it falls on what is unholy and unloving within us. ~Marjorie Thompson

End of the day

At The End Of The Day

The end must always inform the beginning. How can God be worthy of next year’s dreams if he can’t be trusted with the past year’s failure?

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. (1 John 1:9)

A Confession

Father, I confess,

I have been greedy, ever wanting more. More things, more blessings–my eyes stray to the plates of others and I miss what you have, with care and intention, placed on mine.

I have been self-righteous and smug about the sin of others, quick to lament the wickedness of the world, but angry when my own sin is held to the light.

I have rushed to judgment, quick to assume the worst of you, of life, of others, and have been slow to listen and understand.

I have let others think for me, preferring contentious commentary over prayer and wise discernment.

I have let others give for me, preferring the ease of writing a check to the demands of walking with someone in need.

I have hardened my heart in self-protection, dreading hurt more than I  fear a broken relationship.

Arrogant and entitled, I have lived as if my needs matter most.

Shallow and short-sighted, I have sought cosmetic fixes and avoided deep change.

Lazy and comfort-loving, I have buried my talents and gifts and left the darkness around me unchallenged.

Forgive me, Father and re-make me in your image,

In Jesus name, Amen.

And You?

What do you need to lay before God at the end of the day, the end of this year? What sins have held you in their deadly grip? Confess and be set free.

“Most merciful God,

we confess that we have sinned against you in thought, word, and deed, by what we have done, and by what we have left undone.

We have not loved you with our whole heart; we have not loved our neighbors as ourselves.

We are truly sorry and we humbly repent.

For the sake of your Son Jesus Christ, have mercy on us and forgive us; that we may delight in your will, and walk in your ways, to the glory of your Name.

Amen.”

~Book of Common Prayer

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Twelfth Gift Of Advent: Rejoice In Hope

I believe that God really has dived down into the bottom of creation, and has come up bringing the whole redeemed nature on his shoulders. ~C.S. Lewis

Rejoice In Glorious Hope

Rejoice, the Lord is King! Your Lord and King adore;
Rejoice, give thanks and sing, and triumph evermore;
Lift up your heart, lift up your voice;
Rejoice, again I say, rejoice!

Jesus, the Savior, reigns, the God of truth and love
When He had purged our stains He took His seat above:
Lift up your heart, lift up your voice:
Rejoice, again I say, rejoice!

His kingdom cannot fail, He rules o’er earth and heaven,
The keys of death and hell are to our Jesus given;
Lift up your heart, lift up your voice;
Rejoice, again I say, rejoice!

He sits at God’s right hand till all His foes submit,
And bow to His command, and fall beneath His feet:
Lift up your heart, lift up your voice:
Rejoice, again I say, rejoice!

He all His foes shall quell, shall all our sins destroy,
And every bosom swell with pure seraphic joy;
Lift up your heart, lift up your voice,
Rejoice, again I say, rejoice!

Rejoice in glorious hope! Jesus the Judge shall come,
And take His servants up to their eternal home.
We soon shall hear th’archangel’s voice;
The trump of God shall sound, rejoice!

~Charles Wesley (1707-1788)

Every Reason To Hope

The King becomes a pauper so he will know first-hand the hard paths we travel,

The Savior whose only weapon is self-giving love,

The Judge who lays down his life for the accused, has come.

Like a teacher handing us the answers to the test as we walk into class, like a doctor discovering the cure before revealing his diagnosis, Christ has defeated every reason for despair and now invites us to anchor our hope in him.

Lift up your heart. Lift up your voice. Join in the glad song of  hope.

Which of Charles Wesley’s promises will you claim today?

Photograph, Yosemite, by Melanie Hunt


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Eleventh Gift Of Advent: God Is With Us

Joy to the world, the Lord is come, let earth receive her king. Let every heart prepare him room, and heaven and nature sing.

God Is With Us, Emmanuel

Do not be afraid; for see–I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people: to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ, the Lord.

Luke 2:10-11

“Truly wondrous is the whole chronicle of the nativity. For this day the ancient slavery is ended, the devil confounded, the demons take to flight, the power of death is broken.

For this day paradise is unlocked, the curse taken away, sin is removed, error driven out, truth has been brought back, the speech of kindliness diffused and spread on every side–a heavenly way of life has been implanted on the earth, angels communicate with men without fear, and we now hold speech with angels.

Why is this? Because God is now on earth, and man in heaven; on every side all things commingle. He has come on earth, while being fully in heaven; and while complete in heaven, he is without diminution on earth.

Though he was God, he became man, not denying himself to be God. Though being the unchanging Word, he became flesh that he might dwell among us.

To Him, then, who out of confusion has wrought a clear path; to Christ, to the Father, and to the Holy Spirit, we offer all praise, now and forever. Amen.”

~St. John Chrysostom 347-407

God is with us! Look for him in the joy and in the shadows. Take the hand of Jesus and let him lead you on a different road than the world around you travels. He is your Christmas, your every day gift. 

Photograph courtesy of Kulla Kyrka, Enköping, Sweden
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Tenth Gift of Advent: A Lullaby Of Grace

This will be our reply to violence: to make music more intensely, more beautifully, more devotedly than ever before. ~Leonard Bernstein

A lullaby of grace

Grace was the last thing on my mind as I hurried up the red-carpeted stairs. I slipped, breathless, into my first balcony seat–the Davies Symphony Hall ushers follow a precise schedule.

The instruments were warming; the choir, black-clad backs straight and formal, waited for their cue to stand. I tried to relax. Handel’s Messiah, performed by the finest of San Francisco musicians, never fails to stir me to wonder. But this was the day after Friday, December 14, and Connecticut was on my mind.

Huddled in a cloud of hurt and anger for families I have never met, I let the soaring scriptures wash over me. The melodies and lyrics follow a well-worn path in my memory– but the words refused to take root as I sang along inside.

Grace Or Condemnation

A question:

At the heart of all things do you see cold-eyed judgment or a bent toward mercy? As a sound track to life do you hear a cacophony of criticism, or a lullaby of grace? In your view, does Offended Sovereign or Passionate Savior best describe God? Which is reflected in your response to tragedy?

Listen For The Amen

The Messiah ends with a glimpse from John’s vision in Revelation 5. John weeps bitterly–there is no one worthy in heaven or earth to open the scroll–no one who has earned the right to speak into our misery, to help us understand an incomprehensible God. The scroll of understanding is sealed to our finite minds.

But John is comforted: there is one worthy to unseal it. The choir sings, “Worthy, is the lamb that was slain, and hath redeemed us to God by his blood…”

My Messiah score concludes with six pages of “Amen.” From forte to fortissimo–loud to very loud–an emphatic end to the oratorio. I’ve heard the closing section many times, but never as I heard it that night. In the middle of the amens, the conductor surprised me–he signaled piano, soft. A sweet lullaby-like amen emerged from the strings. Not bombastic, not triumphant, but tender. Was this a poignant nod to the slain children and their grieving families? The bows of the violins seemed to weep.

Then, a sudden return to loud, bold, certain. A pause, then every voice joined as one–the final, “Amen, Amen!”

I remembered, and my heart softened–the word “amen” means “Yes!” Jesus Christ is God’s emphatic “yes” to this world, his plan to redeem a beloved, broken, world. If you listen, you will hear it, a tender lullaby of grace.

How will you add your voice to God’s “yes” to the world this Christmas?

 

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Ninth Gift Of Advent: The Perfect Time

The hopes and fears of all the years are met in thee tonight.

Time is up. According to the Mayan calendar, today. And judging by dwindling shopping days, this week. The years slip by faster with every auld lang sang–where have they gone?  Why is time wasted?

But God announces with a shout of joy, “It is time.”

The mystery of Christmas is not only portrayed in pageants, but in the dusty pages of Israel’s history. For our ancient ancestors, the evidence seemed clear–God had abandoned them. At the mercy of cruel empires, in exile or their lands occupied, the cry to God that he remember his promise was met with confusing silence.

But looking back the view is stunning–God was waiting for the time to be ripe.

The Perfect Time

  • 600 B.C. The temple in Jerusalem, center of Jewish worship, was destroyed. God’s people were scattered  all over the ancient world. By necessity, study of the Torah replaced the temple as the centerpiece of Jewish piety. Which meant the good news of Christ was eventually carried to people already fluent in the promises of scripture that foretold his coming.
  • About 400 years before Christ, Alexander the Great commanded the Greek language be the common tongue for all cultures. Greek philosophy and a Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible were widely shared. The seed was thus planted in obscure places–the possibility of one universal God instead of local gods of wood and stone.
  • Around 300 years before Christ, the Roman Empire introduced Pax Romana, uniting its vast empire through common laws, freedom of religious expression, and a system of roads. Ideas and information, including the message of Jesus Christ, were enabled to spread fast and far.
  • Unrest and desperation plagued the ancient world. A majority of the population in the first century Mediterranean world were impoverished and in bondage of some sort. The longing for freedom and deliverance, for good news and a reason to hope, was palatable. The time was ripe, as God well knew.

When the fullness of time had come, God sent his son…(Galatians 4:4). 

Have people changed? Not much. Dreams of freedom, the search for hope, prayers for light in the darkness haunt our hearts too. And, like the ancients, we may believe God has forgotten.

To celebrate Advent is to learn to anticipate. Not look to a Mayan ending, but to a glorious answer to our longings and prayers. The same God the ancients waited for is at work in our world, despite the way it seems. From heaven’s perspective, time doesn’t slip away, it allows God’s plan to ripen. When all the pieces are in place, he will act.

Will you trust him?

I invite you to watch this video and remember: Good news comes with perfect timing.

Photograph, Canadian Rockies, courtesy of Melanie Hunt
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Eighth Gift of Advent: Comfort Or Discomfort, As Needed

If you look for truth, you may find comfort in the end; if you look for comfort you will not get either comfort or truth only soft soap and wishful thinking to begin, and in the end, despair. ~C.S. Lewis

Words of comfort appeared so quickly. I was surprised, for none occurred to me.

Little children gunned down like tin cans at target practice, and before even one heartbeat of silence, we searched for something to say, for words to ease the pain and grief. But comfort eluded us.

Maybe, for those of us not directly affected, it will not be comfort we receive, but conviction.

The conviction we all share the blame. That God holds us all accountable when collectively we lose our way. Do we have the courage to speak the obvious out loud? This was not a mysterious, random act of evil. The killing of those innocents was the inevitable outcome of what we in America have chosen to love.

We love violence, and view those who get in our way as disposable. If movies, television shows, video games and political rhetoric reflect the state of our nation, we practice a dark religion where the satisfying answer to any problem is a blast of selfish, unchecked power. The answer to violence is more violence. The answer to fear is preventative attack. The answer to every slight offense is to go for the jugular.

In every arena, we have become a nation where our “rights” are given pride of place. The attitude is deeply imbedded, even among Christians. The “right” to hold on to what we’ve gotten, the “right” to have what we want cheaply and without inconvenience, the “right” to say and do anything that occurs to us, without interference. Freedom has been badly re-defined as being answerable to no one, and the ongoing debt we owe to one another is dismissed.

Jesus came, abandoning all comfort.

The irony of Advent: God, who could have chosen a blast of unchecked power, came to us emptied of his rights. The first song he heard was a lullaby, not a militant soundtrack. His only weapon, undefeatable love. His only strategy–to rescue us from our deadly dance with evil, and empower us to overcome evil with good.

God has not forsaken us, his heartbreak for Newtown and his anger at what they endure is far greater than our own. He is a God of both comfort in sorrow and discomfort in our failure. And he asks each one of us, every day. When will you lay down your rights for my sake? How will you overcome evil with good?

 1 John 3:16-17   Philippians 2:1-11  Romans 12:21

 

 

 


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