What is it all about?

With summer here, I get an opportunity to catch up on some reading that I often neglect during the school year.  It's a different pace of work.  Right now I'm reading this book, Wisdom Chaser, by Nathan Foster (Richard Foster's son) and loving it.  Well worth the read for anybody!  Reading in the park today, this line popped into my head: "Don't aspire to live a great, impressive life.  Labor to live a significant life."  It brought my reading to a standstill - it's not a new idea for me but it went deeper this time.

I think that I (we) live in bondage to our accomplishments for the most part.  It's how we define ourselves.  It's amazing how subtly I can slip into a conversation my improved running times, my plans for a 220 mile hike this summer, that I bake a lot of my own bread, etc.  I am very aware of my accomplishments.  How do I overcome my bondage to accomplishments? 

Working with college students, I see (and live) a constant invitation to define success through my list of accomplishments and greatness.  In my relationships with these students, I feel so tempted to one-up them so I have some semblance of authority.  I know - that's not where my authority comes from.  It comes from Jesus.  I know that, but do I live it?  If I'm honest with myself, most days I don't.  But that's not how Jesus invites me to live and I don't want students to live that either.  I don't want them to learn that their influence comes from their accomplishments.  I want them to know that everything they are comes from their relationship with Jesus.  How can I teach that if I don't live it myself?

I think this is part of Jesus' response to our bondage to an achievement driven lifestyle:

Blessed are the poor in Spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.
Blessed are the meek, for the will inherit the earth.
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.
Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.
Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.
Blessed are the peacemakers, for the will be called children of God.
Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you
and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me.
Rejoice and be glad!


Simple thoughts for a beautiful summer day.  I hope it continues to go deeper in my heart. 

scriptureprayer

I just finished reading Eugene Peterson's "A Long Obedience in the Same Direction." Awesome book that I'm sorry I took so long to read.  Below is a quote from the Epilogue in the newest edition which summarized and affirms for me some of the things I have been learning this year working with students:

"The second conviction was that my primary pastoral work had to do with Scripture and prayer.  I was neither capable nor competent to form Christ in another person, to shape a life of discipleship in man, woman or child.  That is supernatural work, and I am not supernatural.  Mine was the more modest work of Scripture and prayer - helping people listen to God speak to them from the Scriptures and then joining them in answering God as personally and honestly as we could in lives of prayer.  This turned out to be slow work.  From time to time, impatient with the slowness, I would try out ways of going about my work that promised quicker results.  But after a while it always seemed to be more like meddling in these people's lives than helping them attend to God...Scripture and prayer are not two separate entities,  My pastoral act was to fuse them into a  single act: scriptureprayer, or prayerscripture."

I don't know about you but I am so tempted by the "quicker" ways, the new ideas.  But time and again I reach a point where I realize that I'm actually trying to make this mine own thing, rather than let it be God's.  This past year has been all about exposing to students to Scripture and seeing what happens.  I remember when we started on this course, there was one particular student who grew up in the church, had the "answers" to everything but didn't love the Bible.  She was a sophomore this year and clearly said to me in the beginning "I don't want to lead a Bible study - I'm just not excited about it."  I remember praying "Jesus, I want to see her love your word!"  Just last week we were sitting and debriefing the year together and one of the things she noted is that the Bible has come alive to her in ways that it never had before.  WOOT!  I managed to maintain my composure but inside I was bursting with joy because God had answered my prayers!  She's even leading a Bible study next year.  

Scriptureprayer.  God has already given us what we need.  Let's learn how to hold it out to people and let them be transformed by the Holy Spirit.  I won't be with these students forever.  My hope is that they leave this place with a love for God's Word and for prayer.  Those are things they can take with them for the rest of their lives - and it will have a much more profound impact than if they were to take me everywhere with them!

Do you see?

Do you see?
Among the brokenness of humanity
with our distorted and twisted reality
there is a need for supernatural divinity
I see you, you see me
but in our limited 
vision
we only see a tree
halfway
I'm limping but at least I can walk
is not part of my theology
Do you see?
Not really.
But I want to see!
Not in part but fully,
like the sunrise of a new day 
breaking
through eternal darkness
not just for me
but for we
because this was never meant to be
just me
So come redefine, rework, renew my reality
so that I can see
clearly
I will not give into
"Be all you can be"
without letting that be defined by the
man,
God,
King,
JC.
I will stand against the force of the river 
carrying me 
to the sea
to that place of blended, forgotten
"I accept without thinking and ignore the pain" 
serenity
I am asking the world now,
Do you see?