Wednesday, July 19, 2017
First Things: Betterment vs Detriment
Last night, as Ian and I were driving home from visiting a friend downriver, we were talking about the HBO Documentary Tickle. If you haven't seen it, I strongly recommend it. It's seriously messed up and completely fascinating.
Without spoiling too much of the movie, it ends up centering around someone who has a tremendous amount of wealth and time and uses that very poorly.
And it struck me, almost to the point of tears, that to do such a thing with the valuable resources and time you are given seems to be to be more "sinful" than the poor person who turns to drugs or crime.
I'm sure that in some ways the socio-psychological conditions by which both the wealthy person and the poor person choose to waste their resources are similar... but for the person who has much to offer the world - to squander that wealth is far more reprehensible that the person without.
It sits with me then, that we have an obligation to be wise with what we have been given. To use the little or vast resources that we have at our disposal for betterment and not detriment. Do we use our words to build up or to tear down? Do we use our time to improve or to complain? Do we spend our energy celebrating another person or belittling them?
When I look at the legacies those who have gone before us left, the legacies of those who used their time, money, and efforts to tear down are rarely celebrated - perhaps in circles for a season, but then they are gone, tucked away as a part of history we learn to not repeat. But those who enrich the world, who stand as a force for positive change, their legacies last both in physical memorials of statues, statutes, laws and books - but in the hearts of lives changed for good.
We have a choice every day as to how we will spend our valuable resources.
For betterment or for detriment.
Without spoiling too much of the movie, it ends up centering around someone who has a tremendous amount of wealth and time and uses that very poorly.
And it struck me, almost to the point of tears, that to do such a thing with the valuable resources and time you are given seems to be to be more "sinful" than the poor person who turns to drugs or crime.
I'm sure that in some ways the socio-psychological conditions by which both the wealthy person and the poor person choose to waste their resources are similar... but for the person who has much to offer the world - to squander that wealth is far more reprehensible that the person without.
It sits with me then, that we have an obligation to be wise with what we have been given. To use the little or vast resources that we have at our disposal for betterment and not detriment. Do we use our words to build up or to tear down? Do we use our time to improve or to complain? Do we spend our energy celebrating another person or belittling them?
When I look at the legacies those who have gone before us left, the legacies of those who used their time, money, and efforts to tear down are rarely celebrated - perhaps in circles for a season, but then they are gone, tucked away as a part of history we learn to not repeat. But those who enrich the world, who stand as a force for positive change, their legacies last both in physical memorials of statues, statutes, laws and books - but in the hearts of lives changed for good.
We have a choice every day as to how we will spend our valuable resources.
For betterment or for detriment.
Labels: Christian living, life choices, love, positivity
Sunday, May 21, 2017
God Is
Today I'm thinking about the concept of what God Is. my morning devotional took me to Numbers where we learn that God is forgiving while also not letting the guilty go unpunished.
The Lord is slow to anger, abounding in love and forgiving sin and rebellion. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished.
Numbers 14:18
It seems contradictory, but what do we really WANT God to be?
Think about it.
There are times you want a forgiving God. Times we want a loving God, times we want a God who makes sure that evil people get what they deserve, and times we want a merciful, healing God.
The truth is that we want God to be all things when we need him to be.
But when we only want our way we don't want to hear from him.
God truly IS all things. Every emotional state, every action state, every being of mankind exists within who God is. It gives him unending patience when we need to learn a lesson, and unfathomable grace when we keep failing. But he also has judgement when we need to see our wrongs, and truth to stand up for us when we are wronged.
The lesson for us to humbly learn is how to distinguish when we are facing his truth when we've wronged someone and being able to listen to God's voice we we may not want to hear it.
God is all things even when we just want him to be one.
Sunday, May 07, 2017
Love is a current
Today, my quiet time took me to the stories of The Last Supper.
I read through the four accounts and got stuck on Luke and John's account.
Luke records a heated argument that broke out among the disciples when Jesus talked about one of them betraying him. Jesus stops the argument when it turns to who was the greatest. In Luke 22:25-28 Jesus explains that we should not seek power to hold over others or to BE served, but rather to serve each other. The sentimate is even stronger in John's account.
In John 13:34 Jesus gives us this:
"A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another."
I don't have much more to add to this today - right now. All I know is that I often lack this kind of love. I yearn for it. I am too prideful, I am too selfish, I want too much recognition, I want to be too right - to get it right.
But...
Love is subtle
Love is humble
Love is in the rough patches
Love is in the shadows
Love is a current
that moves us where we need to go.
I read through the four accounts and got stuck on Luke and John's account.
Luke records a heated argument that broke out among the disciples when Jesus talked about one of them betraying him. Jesus stops the argument when it turns to who was the greatest. In Luke 22:25-28 Jesus explains that we should not seek power to hold over others or to BE served, but rather to serve each other. The sentimate is even stronger in John's account.
In John 13:34 Jesus gives us this:
"A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another."
I don't have much more to add to this today - right now. All I know is that I often lack this kind of love. I yearn for it. I am too prideful, I am too selfish, I want too much recognition, I want to be too right - to get it right.
But...
Love is subtle
Love is humble
Love is in the rough patches
Love is in the shadows
Love is a current
that moves us where we need to go.
Wednesday, September 07, 2016
That is a crazy amount of faith
Today I read about Ishmael &; Isaac in Genesis 16 & 17. By today's standards these stories are so strange.
First of all, they have a bunch of slaves. Hagar, who is a slave to Abraham's wife Sara (or Sarai), is GIVEN by Sara to Abraham so that she can get pregnant and by default, Sara will have a son. But then Sara becomes jealous of Hagar and beats her.
WHAT?
Hagar flees getting beaten (because... duh), and God comes to her and says... look, you have to go back to the lady who beats you. I'm going to make sure that she doesn't beat you anymore and I'm going to bless your son. He's going to be the head of many nations, his descendants are going to be super numerous. But... by the way, he's going to be kind of an ass and he's always going to be fighting with everyone.
HUH?
And then God tells Abraham, 13 years later, that Sara is going to have a baby to him, he'll name him Isaac and through the child God will made a covenant with mankind and build him into many nations... oh and cut off the skin at the end of your penis. Do it to yourself and all the men in your family and all the slaves and workers on your lands. K byyyye.
AAAAAA!
And Abraham goes and does it.
Now... If I were a member of Abraham's tribe and this 100 year old man came to me and was like.. hey, so God and I were talking and he told me we have to do this thing and if you don't then I have to send you away... I'd be like... Yeah, which way to the next tribe, CRAZY PERSON!?
But somehow Abraham convinced them all, or just forced them, to do it. The next month in that village had to be known for the rest of time as the month of terrible pain and no sex. There were no anti-infection medicines back then by the way... and probably less than perfect knives, so several of the men probably died from skin infections that started with their penis. That's NOT a pretty picture.
This is the faith Abraham had. This is a tremendous amount of ridiculous faith.
I feel like God would like me to get up when my alarm goes off in the morning... and I have a hard time with that. And I have millennia of recorded history and records of God working in the lives of people who trust him.
Abraham had probably a memory's worth of stories from his father in law and of course his visions of meeting with God, and he did these remarkable things and convinced others to join him. That is a crazy amount of faith.
First of all, they have a bunch of slaves. Hagar, who is a slave to Abraham's wife Sara (or Sarai), is GIVEN by Sara to Abraham so that she can get pregnant and by default, Sara will have a son. But then Sara becomes jealous of Hagar and beats her.
WHAT?
Hagar flees getting beaten (because... duh), and God comes to her and says... look, you have to go back to the lady who beats you. I'm going to make sure that she doesn't beat you anymore and I'm going to bless your son. He's going to be the head of many nations, his descendants are going to be super numerous. But... by the way, he's going to be kind of an ass and he's always going to be fighting with everyone.
HUH?
And then God tells Abraham, 13 years later, that Sara is going to have a baby to him, he'll name him Isaac and through the child God will made a covenant with mankind and build him into many nations... oh and cut off the skin at the end of your penis. Do it to yourself and all the men in your family and all the slaves and workers on your lands. K byyyye.
AAAAAA!
And Abraham goes and does it.
Now... If I were a member of Abraham's tribe and this 100 year old man came to me and was like.. hey, so God and I were talking and he told me we have to do this thing and if you don't then I have to send you away... I'd be like... Yeah, which way to the next tribe, CRAZY PERSON!?
But somehow Abraham convinced them all, or just forced them, to do it. The next month in that village had to be known for the rest of time as the month of terrible pain and no sex. There were no anti-infection medicines back then by the way... and probably less than perfect knives, so several of the men probably died from skin infections that started with their penis. That's NOT a pretty picture.
This is the faith Abraham had. This is a tremendous amount of ridiculous faith.
I feel like God would like me to get up when my alarm goes off in the morning... and I have a hard time with that. And I have millennia of recorded history and records of God working in the lives of people who trust him.
Abraham had probably a memory's worth of stories from his father in law and of course his visions of meeting with God, and he did these remarkable things and convinced others to join him. That is a crazy amount of faith.
Saturday, August 27, 2016
A lesson in self worth from Pharaoh
Today I landed in Exodus.
In Chapter five Moses and Aaron go to Pharaoh, asking him to allow the Hebrews a break from their work to go make sacrifices and worship God in the desert. Of course it doesn't go well.
"Moses and Aaron, why are you taking the people away from their labor? Get back to your work! Look, the people of the land are now numerous, and you are stopping them from working." vss4-5
As a result, Pharaoh stopped supplying the Hebrews with straw for making bricks and told them that they had to gather their own straw, but make the same amount of bricks. So instead of just denying their request, he upped their workload to an unreasonable level and then beat them when they didn't satisfy it.
Pharoah told his overseers that the reason the Hebrews said "let us go and sacrifice to our God," was because they were lazy and didn't want to work. The quote attributed to him in vs 9 is "Make the work harder for the people so that they keep working and pay no attention to lies."
In response to the actions of Pharaoh, and getting beat, the Hebrews turned on Moses and Aaron - blaming them for the ridiculous demands of Pharaoh. And in turn, Moses went to God and essentially blamed God for letting this happen to the people.
In light of today's political climate I find this passage fascinating. Christians and Jews should be able to see the plight of the worker in this story, in the whole of the Pharaoh/Hebrews story. It is not only a story about the Lord leading the people out of Egypt, it is a moral tale for labor and self worth.
The Hebrews did not deserve to be treated in such a way for asking to be allowed to worship their God. Pharoah turned their words against them and instead spread lies about them to his staff, and turned the reasons for their request into "lies" ... in essence he told his people that when the Hebrews said they want to worship, what they're really saying is they want to be lazy.... He took their honest and true need (worship) and turned it into a "lie" to fit his own agenda.
Instead of standing up for themselves, the Hebrews turned against the ones who were asking for what was right. Instead of demanding fair treatment, they sided with Pharaoh against Moses and Aaron. Essentially Pharaoh's plan worked, the Hebrews forgot the moral correctness of their cause, believed Pharoah's lie that they were lazy, and turned against the ones who stood up for them.
They forgot their own worth because the one who had power over them overpowered their self will.
In turn, Moses and Aaron turned to God and blamed him for what happened.
Of course, God, being a good God knew what was happening and wanted to save his people.. he eventually did it in grand fashion. We know the story. But had they united to stand up for themselves, to not believe the lies about them, and to believe they deserved what they were asking for - perhaps the story would have been different?
We need to believe in our worth.
Employers and those in positions of power need to believe in the worth of their employees and those under their watch. In Biblical terms this story tells us that in the end Pharaoh and those who oppressed the Hebrews received punishment from God for their actions. But in some ways, the Hebrews also didn't get what they could have had either... their own refusals to stand up to Pharaoh didn't work out so well for them as they roamed in the desert for a generation.
How much better is this world when we truly care for one another... when we don't devalue ourselves for the benefit of another, and when we don't overvalue ourselves at the expense of another.
As this political season moves on, let us remember Pharaoh's words "Make the work harder for the people so that they keep working and pay no attention to lies." When you are in a position where you feel obligated to continue doing something you hate, or pressured into working longer hours to avoid losing something... consider the reason you feel that way and honestly ask if there are lies you are believing as truths that keep you in such a state. The realization may surprise and free you.
In Chapter five Moses and Aaron go to Pharaoh, asking him to allow the Hebrews a break from their work to go make sacrifices and worship God in the desert. Of course it doesn't go well.
"Moses and Aaron, why are you taking the people away from their labor? Get back to your work! Look, the people of the land are now numerous, and you are stopping them from working." vss4-5
As a result, Pharaoh stopped supplying the Hebrews with straw for making bricks and told them that they had to gather their own straw, but make the same amount of bricks. So instead of just denying their request, he upped their workload to an unreasonable level and then beat them when they didn't satisfy it.
Pharoah told his overseers that the reason the Hebrews said "let us go and sacrifice to our God," was because they were lazy and didn't want to work. The quote attributed to him in vs 9 is "Make the work harder for the people so that they keep working and pay no attention to lies."
In response to the actions of Pharaoh, and getting beat, the Hebrews turned on Moses and Aaron - blaming them for the ridiculous demands of Pharaoh. And in turn, Moses went to God and essentially blamed God for letting this happen to the people.
In light of today's political climate I find this passage fascinating. Christians and Jews should be able to see the plight of the worker in this story, in the whole of the Pharaoh/Hebrews story. It is not only a story about the Lord leading the people out of Egypt, it is a moral tale for labor and self worth.
The Hebrews did not deserve to be treated in such a way for asking to be allowed to worship their God. Pharoah turned their words against them and instead spread lies about them to his staff, and turned the reasons for their request into "lies" ... in essence he told his people that when the Hebrews said they want to worship, what they're really saying is they want to be lazy.... He took their honest and true need (worship) and turned it into a "lie" to fit his own agenda.
Instead of standing up for themselves, the Hebrews turned against the ones who were asking for what was right. Instead of demanding fair treatment, they sided with Pharaoh against Moses and Aaron. Essentially Pharaoh's plan worked, the Hebrews forgot the moral correctness of their cause, believed Pharoah's lie that they were lazy, and turned against the ones who stood up for them.
They forgot their own worth because the one who had power over them overpowered their self will.
In turn, Moses and Aaron turned to God and blamed him for what happened.
Of course, God, being a good God knew what was happening and wanted to save his people.. he eventually did it in grand fashion. We know the story. But had they united to stand up for themselves, to not believe the lies about them, and to believe they deserved what they were asking for - perhaps the story would have been different?
We need to believe in our worth.
Employers and those in positions of power need to believe in the worth of their employees and those under their watch. In Biblical terms this story tells us that in the end Pharaoh and those who oppressed the Hebrews received punishment from God for their actions. But in some ways, the Hebrews also didn't get what they could have had either... their own refusals to stand up to Pharaoh didn't work out so well for them as they roamed in the desert for a generation.
How much better is this world when we truly care for one another... when we don't devalue ourselves for the benefit of another, and when we don't overvalue ourselves at the expense of another.
As this political season moves on, let us remember Pharaoh's words "Make the work harder for the people so that they keep working and pay no attention to lies." When you are in a position where you feel obligated to continue doing something you hate, or pressured into working longer hours to avoid losing something... consider the reason you feel that way and honestly ask if there are lies you are believing as truths that keep you in such a state. The realization may surprise and free you.
Labels: Christian living, labor, political power, self worth
Tuesday, August 16, 2016
Light in the darkness
Darkness.
I'm a fan of the TV Show Supernatural. In the 2015-16 Season Sam, Dean, and really the rest of the world - God himself included, found themselves battling "The Darkness." In the first season of the Netflix series "Stranger Things," a land of cold and shadows comes into play - darkness. In Game Of Thrones we consistently hear "the night is dark and full of terrors." Our fictional stories are obsessessed with darkness. Evil happens in the dark... what horror movie takes place mostly at Brunch?
Why?
Sight. We cannot see far in the dark. Without a source of light we can't see at all.
My daily devotional for today took me to John 1: 1-8.
"In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it." vss 4-5
"The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world." vs 9
Christ was/is the light that came into the world to shine in the darkness. And we see from verse four that the light was life, the light of all mankind.
In my last entry I talked about LIFE... LIFE is at work in YOU.
Today, that LIFE is the LIGHT of the world.
The light that overcomes the darkness is not only in you, but AT WORK in you.
The light at work in you helps all of us see our way in the dark. Like friends moving through a dark forest clutching onto each other behind the person holding a flashlight, we hold onto one another as we move through our lives. Sometimes you shine the light, sometimes you see by the light of others and sometimes you're just holding on as someone leads you with their light.
We have within us the light that overcomes darkness, and that light is life at work in us.
I'm a fan of the TV Show Supernatural. In the 2015-16 Season Sam, Dean, and really the rest of the world - God himself included, found themselves battling "The Darkness." In the first season of the Netflix series "Stranger Things," a land of cold and shadows comes into play - darkness. In Game Of Thrones we consistently hear "the night is dark and full of terrors." Our fictional stories are obsessessed with darkness. Evil happens in the dark... what horror movie takes place mostly at Brunch?
Why?
Sight. We cannot see far in the dark. Without a source of light we can't see at all.
My daily devotional for today took me to John 1: 1-8.
"In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it." vss 4-5
"The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world." vs 9
Christ was/is the light that came into the world to shine in the darkness. And we see from verse four that the light was life, the light of all mankind.
In my last entry I talked about LIFE... LIFE is at work in YOU.
Today, that LIFE is the LIGHT of the world.
The light that overcomes the darkness is not only in you, but AT WORK in you.
The light at work in you helps all of us see our way in the dark. Like friends moving through a dark forest clutching onto each other behind the person holding a flashlight, we hold onto one another as we move through our lives. Sometimes you shine the light, sometimes you see by the light of others and sometimes you're just holding on as someone leads you with their light.
We have within us the light that overcomes darkness, and that light is life at work in us.
Labels: Bible Study, Christian living, encouragement, faith, Light in the dark, The darkness
Wednesday, August 10, 2016
LIFE is at work in YOU
Yesterday, my daily devotional took me to 2 Corinthians 4. I'm going to take a few verses from there...
"For God, who said, 'Let light shine out of darkness,' made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of God's glory displayed in the face of Christ." 4:6
"But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed." 4:7-9
"Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal." 4:16-18
2 Corinthians 4:12b says "life is at work in you."
God's light resides in our hearts... he has placed HIS treasure in these jars of clay.. Our focus must not be on things that are seen, but rather things that are unseen - our hearts, our souls, God's light in the world.
LIFE is at work in YOU.
Though chaos and political strife rage around us let us not forget that LOVE shines in the darkness, God's Love broke through the darkness and overcame death to live in our hearts and in the world.
LIFE is at work in YOU.
Be the hand of God's love in the world. Allow love to renew you every day. The power of God's love to transform a life is yours.
LIFE is at work in YOU.
Labels: Bible Study, Christian living, encouragement, faith, God's Love, love
