Messy

And they picked up what was left over of the broken pieces, twelve full baskets.  Matthew 14:20b

And they picked up what was left over of the broken pieces, seven large baskets full.  Matthew 15:37b

When Jesus miraculously fed 5000 and then 4000 people, there was a mess to be cleaned up afterward.  You would think that if Jesus could feed all these people, He could manage portion control so they got just enough and the disciples didn’t have to haul off the trash afterwards.  And I bet some people eating the free fish complained to the disciples that they would have preferred lamb and left their dirty napkins for someone to pick up after them.

Yesterday our church did a “fall festival” where we dished out about 1500 hot dogs, mountains of candy and soft drinks, and provided free entertainment at the football field at the high school.  Several folks spent most of their day hauling stuff in, hauling stuff out, and cleaning up the mess a crowd makes.  During the event itself I spent a couple hours greeting people, but mostly wiping down tables and picking up after my neighbors.  Afterward I broke a window in the door at church with a table I was carrying.  When I got home I missed a phone call from my folks about one of our cows that was trying to have a calf backwards, and found a dead calf at the barn when I went to feed this morning….at minimum several hundred dollars lost.

Anyone who thinks the call of Jesus is neat, and clean, and all smiles is wrong.  If you think Christ promises following Him will all be blue skies and sunshine, then either you haven’t read the bible seriously, lived very long, or actually interacted with real people. 

It is messy.  It just is.  And it is biblical

While You’re Waiting…

And the Lord was with Joseph, so he became a successful man.  And he was in the house of his master, the Egyptian.  So Joseph found favor in his sight, and became his personal servant; and he made him overseer over his house, and over all that he owned…..  Genesis 39:2 & 4a (NASB)

But the Lord was with Joseph and extended kindness to him, and gave him favor in the sight of the cheif jailer.  And the chief jailer committed to Joseph’s charge all the prisoners who were in the jail; so that whatever was done there, he was responsible for it.  Genesis 39:21-22 (NASB)

Following up on my last post, while Joseph was waiting 13 years to get his big break, what was he doing?  First, as a slave, his master put him in charge of his house and he learned to run a household.  Then, as a prisoner, his jailer put him in charge of a jail and he learned to run a larger “organization, ” and not the easiest bunch of folks to manage if I were to venture a guess. 

And God was WITH Joseph in slavery as he learned to run a household.  And God was WITH Joseph in prison as he learned to run a jail.  I doubt Joseph would have included slavery and prison on his plan for his life, but God used circumstances Joseph WOULD NOT have chosen to prepare Joseph for something even bigger than he would have dreamed.  While Joseph was waiting and being faithful where he was, God was making him into a man He could use.

Waiting Faithfully

Wait for the LORD and keep his way.  He will exalt you to inherit the land;   Psalm 37:34 (NIV)

I’m not a patient person…. at all.  I’m working on it, and God’s working on me, but it doesn’t come naturally.  I usually have a ”see the hill, take the hill” kind of mentality, and I become impatient with inaction.  I have to tell you, though, that God doesn’t really seem to be on my schedule.

When you type in “wait” and “Lord” on www.biblegateway.com you get 30+ references, including the one above.  What got me started down this path was reading the story of Joseph in Genesis 37 and on.  His life story really fits this verse.  He was 17 when we’re first introduced to Joseph…..a spoiled teenager from a pretty disfunctional family.  He had dreams that God gave him, and the ability to interpret dreams as well.  Pretty cool, huh? 

Of course, if you know the story, he ended up the number two man in all of Eygyt and saved his family (and thousands of others) from starvation.  But Joseph was 30 when he got his big break.  He spent 13 YEARS  of the prime of his life (between 17 and 30) waiting in slavery and prison.  That wasn’t, I’m sure, what Joseph had mapped out as a career path.  Yet he was faithful when God didn’t seem anywhere in sight.  I suspect Joseph at 30 was a different man than Joseph at 17.

Un-easy

We are pressed on every side by troubles, but we are not crushed.  We are perplexed, but not driven to despair.  We are hunted down, but never abandoned by God.  We get knocked down, but we are not destroyed.  2 Corinthians 4:8-9 (NLT)

A friend of mine that God is working on and in is having an especially hard time right now.   I don’t think it’s probably really any worse than stuff he had been through before, but I think it feels worse to him because he started trying to follow God and was kinda surprized to find out that life is still hard.  It’s almost like somehow he was led to believe that if God loved you, and you tried to love Him back, then life would be easy.  There are some Christians that, unfortunately, perpetuate this myth.

Newsflash:  It’s not easy and God never promised it would be.  In fact, I think my new word “un-easy” is a pretty accurate description of our lives here on earth.  We live in a fallen world and we have a real enemy.  We’re not living on a five-star resort.  We’re living on a battlefield.  Paul says that we’re GOING to be pressed, perplexed, hunted and knocked down.  It’s part of the gig.  But we need not be defeated in the process.  Our God reigns and we don’t have to give in and give up when life is “un-easy.”  Regardless of difficult circumstances, “It is finished.”  In Christ, we are the redeemed children of God.  We will NOT be crushed.  We will NOT despair.  We will NOT be abandoned.  And we will NOT be destroyed.  But it will be “un-easy.”

Playful But Serious

My son and I are headed to the state fair this afternoon with the kids’ show cattle.  In one of the worst movies of all time, THE BRIDGES OF MADISON COUNTRY, Clint Eastwood seduces Meryl Streep while her husband and kids are gone to the state fair.  I resent that.  And the movie portrays her betrayal as somehow a positive thing, a choice she needed to make.  We’ve already seen that Meryl’s kinda loose when she decided to shack up with Robert Redford in OUT OF AFRICA, so there’s a pattern of unfaithfulness there.  But Clint, how could you?!

I’m blessed to have a faithful wife, one that would show Mr. Eastwood the door, not because she’s married to Mr. Wonderful, but because she loves and honors her Father, the King in her obediance and faithfulness.  In contrast…..

This is the way of an adulterous woman: she eats and wipes her mouth, and says, “I have done no wrong.”  Proverbs 30:20 (NASB)

Ruined

“Woe to me!” I cried. “I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the LORD Almighty.”   Isaiah 6:5 (NIV)

Was at the Catalyst Conference in Atlanta Thursday and Friday of last week and I’m slowly recovering.  It’s two days of pretty intense teaching on leadership and what God is doing in and with His church.  The worship time is incredible.  Being around 12,000 youngish Christians is invigorating.  Hearing from smart guys like Jim Collins, Dave Ramsey, and Seth Godin stretches my thinking.  But I am just blow away with the heart and spirit God has put in some of the guys that spoke there.  Some are more charismatic speakers than others, but what is common to them is that you can tell they are “all in,” that God has overwhelmed their lives, that He has ruined them in the best possible way.  They are professionals in that they get their income from the churches and parachurch organizations they lead, but there’s no inkling of “they do this for the money” or “it’s just a job like any other.”  I think it’s because they have “seen” God and they’ll never be the same.  I know I ultimately don’t follow men, but Christ, but there are men so gripped by God I’m at least gonna listen real close when they speak and pay attention to what they do.  I’d encourage you to do the same when you run across them.

God, thanks for ruining guys like Andy Stanley, Craig Groeschel, Matt Chandler, Steven Furtick, and Franklin Graham…oh yeah, and Franklin’s dad was pretty messed up by You as well   Please ruin some more of us that are way too comfortable in our Christianity.  Blow us away with all You are.  Capture our hearts and our lives.

Sleepless

Do not love sleep, lest you become poor; open your eyes and you will be satisfied with food.  Proverbs 20:13 (NASB)

I THINK the authors intent with this verse is to remind me not to be lazy and sleep my life away, but instead to open my eyes, get my rear out of bed and get to work to feed myself.  In general, I wouldn’t consider myself a lazy person, so this admonition is one I don’t often need to hear.  And God has blessed me with the ability to sleep almost every night of my life. 

There are, however, some rare occasions when I anticipate something so much it’s hard to sleep: the night before an important (to me) cattle show when I have to get started early…..or like this morning, when a group of us are leaving early to head down to the Catalyst Conference in Atlanta.  I set my alarm for 4:30, but woke up a little after 3 and tossed and turned untilabout 4 before I decided to just get on up.  After I finish writing for you good folks, I’m gonna shower and get ready, but sleep is over for me for the night. 

I don’t know what the stock market or economy is gonna do, so I may be poorer than when I went to bed last night anyway, but my eyes are open this morning looking for God today.  He’s the One that satisfies.  I’m sleepless anticipating how He might choose to show Himself today as a bunch of young (I’ll be among the oldest at 46) Christians gather in His name.  I bet all those young whippersnappers are still sleeping like rocks at this hour

Abominations

A malicious man disguises himself with his lips, but in his heart he harbors deceit.  Though his speech is charming, do not believe him, for seven abominations fill his heart.  Proverbs 26:24-25 (NIV)

Don’t get to use the word “abomination” very often.  Sounds kinda harsh and judgemental, doesn’t it?  When I read this verse, several men pop immediately into my mind who I think put on a good front, even a Godly one sometimes, yet I think I’ve seen good evidence that they have some real serious heart issues.  In fact, it seems pretty obvious to me.

On the other hand, just about the LAST person I like to think about having nasty, cruddy, disgusting stuff in their heart is ME.  Yet part of the process of pursuing God is discovering, regularly and painfully, the junk that is still lodged in my heart.  It’s probably obvious to others, but I’m oblivious.   It’s like, “what IS that and where did THAT come from?”

And finding the “abominations” still lurking around inside me is just the beginning.  I still need to kill them.  They don’t die easily and they inflict pain when I mess with them.  It is easier to let sleeping dogs lie, but in the end they bite us if we don’t deal with them.

Hope

The Lord’s lovingkindnesses indeed never cease, for His compassions never fail.  They are new every morning; great is Thy faithfulness.  “The Lord is my portion,” says my soul, “therefore I have hope in Him.”  Lamentations 3:22-24 (NASB)

This reassuring verse has a lot more impact when you read it in context.  The book of Lamentations is the prophet Jeremiah’s extended scream of agony after the invading Babylonian armies conquered and destroyed the Jerusalem and basically the entire Jewish nation.  Jeremiah tells how everything he loves has been wiped out, down to the graphic details of seige, starvation, rape, and death.  Everything on earth that he held dear is gone, yet he writes of God’s love and faithfulness. 

This just dwarfs my tiny faith in comparison, and reminds me that whatever the circumstance my hope ultimately has to be in God Himself….nothing less.

Home Alone?

Be dressed for service and keep your lamps burning, as though you were waiting for your master to return from the wedding feast.  Then you will be ready to open the door and let him in the moment he arrives and knocks.  Luke 12:35-36 (NLT)

Do you think God ever kinda leaves us to navigate things on our own sometimes?  Do we all experience stretches of time it just seems like God might have withdrawn a bit?  I don’t know for sure; just asking.

There’s no doubt that sometimes there’s separation from God because of sin, and that we need to guard against that diligently.  But this little parable, and others like it that Jesus told, seem to indicate that sometimes, maybe, we’re left to just grit it out, do what we know we should be doing, and remain faithful…..even though God seems to be away dealing with something else in His creation.

What do you think?  What’s been your experience?