Confession 274: A Monday Meditation

I've been reading through the book of Psalms from the book, Psalms/Now by Leslie F. Brandt.  Today's psalm, Psalm 37, seemed a good reminder after the national chaos of the past week.

Psalm 37

It's high time we stop complaining

about the dissipation of our world

or the corruption of our society.

At the same time we eye with envy

those ungodly characters

who appear to have more fun

or to be more successful than we are.

If we really trusted in God

and were truly committed to His purposes,

the world might be a great deal better off today.

GOD IS IN OUR WORLD!!

He is destined to the the source

of our joy and well-being.

He is the fulfillment of our hearts' desires.

If we dedicate our lives to Him and His will, 

He will be able to work through us,

to permeate this world's darkness with divine light.

Let's keep our cool and try to be patient.

STOP WORRYING

about the apparent hopelessness of it all.

We only contribute to this despair

by always being negative and defeatist.

GOD HAS NOT TAKEN A VACATION; HE IS HERE!!

He has His own way of dealing

with the instigators of corruption.

It will take TIME,

but the victory is ultimately God's!

Those who live within God's will

shall surely discover

that His purposes prevail,

that true joy and peace and security

come from Him.

Let us wait on God and seek daily to obey Him.

He is our salvation and our security,

and NOTHING in this world

can take that away from us.

Let us calm our hostilities,

overcome our anxieties,

and walk in peace and love.

Blessings and Peace,

Sara

Confession 273: Planting Seeds for the Harvest

Who are they who truly love and serve God?

It is they who discover and live

Within His purposes for their lives.

Psalm 24, Psalms/Now

I have to confess that I don’t always enjoy getting up and going to work in the mornings.  I’d rather linger over a cup of copy, relishing time spent in the Word, easing into the productivity of the day.  

I remember one morning in particular where I felt like my time at work could be much better spent in the confines of my own home when I noticed the look on the face of one of the teachers.  Something told me to stop.  She needed to talk, and she needed some spiritual encouragement. 

In that moment, I realized that God had placed me right there, right then to fulfill a purpose.  A few minutes earlier I had been asking myself, “Why, exactly, am I here today?”  And in that hushed conversation, God showed me why, exactly, He had put me there.

When God call us, there is something specific and meaningful He wants us to do.  It might not seem very meaningful at the time, but some days are seed planting days and some days are harvest days.  Regardless of which day you’re waking up to, I bet that God has something in mind for you to do.

Moses was called to lead the Israelites out of Egypt—a harvest day if there ever was one!!  Jeremiah was called to speak the words God would place in his mouth—lots and lots of seed planting days ahead.  Esther was called to save her people—great big harvest.  Ruth was called to love in faith—seed planting that established the line of David.

For me, most of my days seem to be of the seed planting variety.  I rarely see the “big picture” God has in mind.  However, I firmly believe that God does indeed have a master plan.  And in my prayer and Scripture time each morning, I ask God to place me smack in the middle of it.

Some days, my task is clear.  I hear God calling me to write a note of encouragement, have a conversation with a friend or co-worker, offer a hug to a struggling student, write a blog post, sponsor a mission project…. 

Other days I don’t hear anything, but I do not doubt that God is moving all the same.  It’s that prevenient grace of God moving through our lives whether we are aware of it or not.

In our task-driven, goal obsessed, results oriented, data driven culture, it’s easy to forget that God has a multitude of tasks He will call us to throughout our lives.  We focus on one big thing and strategically mark a straight shot path to achieving it.  The reality is life is much more fluid than that.  We might begin our day with one agenda and find, upon awaking, that God has drawn out a completely different one.

And even if we are focused on that one giant task/dream/plan we feel God calling us to, God’s probably not going to take us there in one straight shot. God called His people out of Egypt and into the Promised Land, but there were over 40 years of smaller tasks to be completed before that harvest came to be.  The people weren’t ready for the big harvest yet.  They needed to learn who God was.  They needed to learn to trust in God, to honor Him, to worship Him, to LOVE Him.  They needed those 40 plus years to become the people of God. 

 

In determining the big tasks God is calling us to do in our lives, we have to be open to the smaller tasks God calls us to each day.  Jesus didn’t tell Peter upon their first meeting, “You’re going to found my church in Jerusalem someday.”  Instead, he simply said, “Follow me.  Put one foot in front of the other and walk along my path.” 

Jeremiah 29:11 is one of my favorite go-to verses.  In this passage, the Lord assures the people of Israel of this:

“For I know the plans I have for you….Plans to prosper you, not to harm you.  Plans to give you hope and a future.”

It’s reassuring to me to know that God doesn’t have a plan for my life, He has PLANS!!  Moreover, those plans (note the plural) are good.  They are infused with hope that springs from the great love of an eternal God.  They are a promise carved into our souls of a prosperous future we cannot see.  But God sees it.  God knows it.  God planned it.  And God is building it.

So, what is God calling us to this day?  To follow Him.  To trust Him.  To hope in Him.  To walk with Him.  You might not even see the seeds you’re planting today.  It doesn’t matter.  Trust that God has placed you exactly where He needs you to be.

Blessings and Peace,

Sara

Confession 272: Discerning the Call

If making meaning in our lives comes from having a sense of purpose and a task to complete, then we need to be able to figure out what that task and purpose is.  In order to do that, we have to discern our calling.  Discerning our calling is not an easy task.  However, in looking through the “call stories” provided us in Scripture, a pattern seems to emerge.  It goes like this:

1. God gets our attention—The Call

2. God has a specific request—The Task

3. We wrestle with the request—The Challenge

4. We respond to God—The Purpose

Over the next four posts, we’ll break down each of these steps in listening to God and living out His purpose for our lives.  It begins with discerning our call…

One day, Moses was taking care of the sheep and goats of his father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian, and Moses decided to lead them across the desert to Sinai, the holy mountain.  There an angel of the Lord appeared to him from a burning bush. Moses saw that the bush was on fire, but it was not burning up.  “This is strange!” he said to himself. “I’ll go over and see why the bush isn’t burning up.”

Exodus 3:1-3

I have often dreamed of walking outside and finding our front shrubbery on fire--partly because I don’t like shrubbery, and partly because I think it would be an announcement I couldn’t easily miss.  If God sets fire to your hedge and then speaks to you from within it, you’re probably going to notice!! 

I’m always struck by Moses’ response.  Instead of, “Holy cow!!  What IS that?!  Hey guys!  You gotta see this!!”  He says, “Hmm…that’s weird.  I think I’ll go check it out.” 

Obviously, God knew He needed something BIG to get the attention of Moses!

Sometimes, it is the big things in life that make us sit up and take notice of God’s presence and working in our lives.  A job loss, a personal loss, an illness, a broken relationship… 

I do not believe that God intentionally brings these things into our lives in order to get our attention.  That would be cruel.  God is not cruel, nor does He desire us to suffer. 

However, I do believe that those big, emotional, personal fires can be vehicles through which we hear and discern the voice of God.  When we are at our most vulnerable, we are more willing to turn to God for help, perspective, and meaning.

Yet more often than not, God reveals Himself quietly, through the natural ebb and flow of our daily life.  God speaks to us through His Word, while listening to praise songs, in a conversation with a friend, or the stirring of our heart through worship. 

God speaks in the “still, small voice” Elijah hears in the cave after the fire, wind and earthquake have passed. (1 Kings 19:10-14). And it’s easy to miss.

…the Lord called out Samuel’s name.

“Here I am!” Samuel answered.  Then he ran to Eli and said, “Here I am. What do you want?”

“I didn’t call you,” Eli answered. “Go back to bed.”

Samuel went back.

 Again the Lord called out Samuel’s name. Samuel got up and went to Eli. “Here I am,” he said. “What do you want?”

Eli told him, “Son, I didn’t call you. Go back to sleep.”

The Lord had not spoken to Samuel before, and Samuel did not recognize the voice. ⁸ When the Lord called out his name for the third time, Samuel went to Eli again and said, “Here I am. What do you want?”

Eli finally realized that it was the Lord who was speaking to Samuel.  So he said, “Go back and lie down! If someone speaks to you again, answer, ‘I’m listening, Lord. What do you want me to do?’”

1 Samuel 3:4-9

I love this story of Samuel’s calling.  I think it speaks so much to the quiet and subtle ways in which God calls us and our ability (or inability) to discern His voice.


In this passage, Samuel is living in the house of the Lord.  He is sleeping just feet from the altar.  His life is dedicated to the Lord’s service.  And he is absolutely ready to serve.  He is so eager to prove himself that he runs to Eli in the middle of the night prepared for whatever task he believes Eli is calling him to perform.


Samuel eagerly wanted to serve.  He lived in anticipation of purpose.

I’ve found that within most of dwells a deep desire to be of service.  We want to help others.  We want to fight for a noble cause.  We are eager to have a purpose.  But, like Samuel, we can get confused about who we are to serve.

We get caught up in the demands of our careers, our outside activities, our families, and our hobbies.  We get so involved in being busy that we cannot identify the voice of the One calling to us.  Instead of stopping and listening, really listening, we work harder, add on new projects, and exhaust ourselves trying to chase after something which has been standing before us the entire time. 

God was right in front of Samuel, but Samuel couldn’t recognize Him.  Samuel lived and worked in the House of the Lord, but he had no recognition of God’s voice.  Samuel spent his childhood working for God, but he never took the time to know God.  Thankfully, Samuel had a trusted spiritual advisor who could help him learn.

Thankfully for us, God sends those advisors our way, too.  Sometimes our spouses, parents, siblings, friends, and co-workers can see God calling to us when we can’t.  This is one of the reasons why it is so important to have strong, spiritually deep people in our lives.  And, why it’s important to cultivate our own deep spiritual roots.  Who knows but that you could be someone else’s Eli?

The key is we have to be willing to listen.  And part of listening is knowing just exactly WHO we are listening to. 

I can’t tell you if God is calling you to something or not.  God speaks to each of us in His own way and in His own time.   

I hear God speak to me as I read His Word.  I hear Him as He places His thoughts in my mind during times of prayer.   

Others hear Him speak through music and worship.  Some hear Him speak through teachers, pastors and Spiritual leaders.  For others, God comes with great and dramatic bush burning flare.  There’s no rhyme, although there’s always a reason. 

So listen for God as He seeks to speak with you today.   

Be still and listen.

Blessings and Peace,

Sara

Confession 271: Making Meaning

Have you ever had one of those moments when you asked yourself, “What am I doing with my life?” 

I mean really sat down, looked around you, assessed the situation, added it all up and wondered, “What am I doing with my life?”

What do I do in my daily routines that is meaningful, that is lasting, that makes a difference?  

Am I using my time, my talents, my opportunities to glorify God?  

Or, am I just slogging through, going through the motions, knocking off one day at a time?

What am I doing with my life?

If you’ve ever asked yourself this question, consider yourself in good company.  King Solomon, at the height of his power and glory, found himself at a loss to answer the same question.  Looking around at his kingdom, his wealth, his success he declared:

Nothing makes sense!
Everything is nonsense.
    I have seen it all—
    nothing makes sense!

What is there to show
for all of our hard work
    here on this earth?
People come, and people go,
but still the world
    never changes.

 The sun comes up,
    the sun goes down;
it hurries right back
    to where it started from.
 The wind blows south,
    the wind blows north;
round and round it blows
    over and over again.
 All rivers empty into the sea,
    but it never spills over;
one by one the rivers return
    to their source.

 All of life is far more boring
    than words could ever say.
Our eyes and our ears
are never satisfied
    with what we see and hear.
 

Everything that happens
    has happened before;
nothing is new,
    nothing under the sun.
 

Someone might say,
    “Here is something new!”
But it happened before,
    long before we were born.
 

No one who lived in the past
    is remembered anymore,
and everyone yet to be born
    will be forgotten too.

Ecclesiastes 1:2-11

Can you imagine?  Solomon had everything, I mean EVERYTHING he ever wanted or could ever want.  And yet, there was no meaning for him in any of it.  He considered his life BORING. 

Solomon, who was commissioned by God to build the Holy Temple, to create a dwelling place for the Most High, couldn’t find any MEANING in his life!!  

Although blessed on the outside, on the inside Solomon felt empty and lost.  He had wealth.  He had power.  He had prestige.  He had authority.  He had a harem of 800 women.  

And yet, he stood upon the parapets of his castle and declared all life to be meaningless nonsense.

I think many of us living in America today can relate to the emptiness, the aimlessness, the apathy Solomon felt.  Our lives seem so blessed on the outside.  

We’re good at making ourselves look good—the right clothes, car, house, spouse, shoes, food, bags, make-up, activity participation, vacations, schools….the list goes on and on.

Yet underneath, just how content are we?  And in our most quiet and closed moments, how many of us are whispering “My life is just meaningless nonsense!” 

When we spend our time and energy searching for meaning outside of ourselves, we are destined to be let down.  Everything in life is impermanent, including our bodies.  

Yet, if we dig down deep into the very fabric of who we are (a child of God) and what we were created to do (glorify Him), then life becomes a vast sea of meaningful opportunities in which we can sink ourselves.

It’s all about clarifying our purpose.

I recently heard author and speaker Donald Miller enumerate on finding meaning in life.  His definition of a meaningful life, shaped by psychoanalyst Victor Frankel, follows:

“People find meaning in life from working on a challenging project with other people that will save many lives.”

Did you get that? 

Challenge+Community+Saved Lives=Meaning

As I look at that definition of a meaningful life, one thing comes to my mind—THE CHURCH.  

This is what we, as Christ’s body, are created and called to do.  We work together, as a community of believers, to do difficult tasks that will save many lives.  And by “save many lives”, I mean to literally save many lives. 

The “saving” of souls is the byproduct of saved lives.  Jesus wasn’t going around Judea handing out spiritual tracts on salvation.  Instead, he was literally placing his hands on those in desperate need and healing them.  To me, there’s a fundamental lesson on Christianity there.

And so, as The Church, we are called to engage in life saving ministries.  

We work together, as a community, to bring hope to the hopeless, to bring healing to the sick, to bring food to the hungry, to bring clothes to the naked, to bring freedom to the imprisoned, to bring justice to the oppressed.  And in doing these challenging tasks, we find meaning in our lives.  

We look at the world around us and see infinite opportunity and possibility. 

We are able to stand upon the front steps of our homes and look around us with a sense of purpose, knowing that God created us and placed us right here, right now, to make a difference in someone’s life. 

What am I doing with my life?

Blessings and Peace,

Sara