Posted in Adoption Journey, Different Moments, Different Scriptures

Oh, be quiet Larry…

Posted on by Wick

I remember back in late high school or early college:  There was this short Christian classic on sale or clearance or something and I wanted to get it.  A small part actually wanting to be the kind of person to read such books, and a larger part wanting to seem to be the kind of person to read such books, I snagged it.  I read through it a bit.  I smiled.  I even understood a few sentences.

In college, it was mentioned here and there.  I knew the topic vaguely, and smiled and nodded whenever someone mentioned it in conversation.  Yes, that is quite a good book.  Yes, I do so enjoy practicing the presence of God, just like Brother Lawrence did in “Practicing the Presence of God”.  Whether doing the dishes (as he did) or other menial tasks that my day to day existence brings me, I love the fact that Christ always offers to be very near.  God truly is with us, closer than we often realize.

I was a bit surprised then, when reading the book more closely for my current course on Spiritual Formation, to find so larrymuch in the book I didn’t like.  When the author writes Brother Lawrence (let’s call him Larry) to tell him of a friend who loses a close friend to death, Larry tells him to advise his friend to use these moments to his advantage.  “What a great opportunity to give the part of your heart previously given to your friend back to God where it belongs!”, he seems to say.  Or when the author himself is aging and enduring intense suffering of some sort, Larry refuses to pray his suffering would be taken away.  Instead, Larry insists on praying that God would strengthen the author to endure the suffering that is most likely God’s way of refining his heart and soul.  No, I do not like this guy much at all.  I don’t think I would have written him as much as the author seemed to.  A man who neurotically spent at least 10 years of his life anxious that he shouldn’t be distracted in thought or feeling by anything that might take God’s place, finally ending up with peace (albeit alone, and without much pleasure it would seem beyond the “presence of God”).  No, I do not like this guy much at all.

Yet…I can appreciate his heart.  A heart that yearns for the presence of God so much that everything else – even the extremely important things in life – melt away.  An experience of God’s presence, even in suffering alone, that gives him a sense of complete and udder wholeness that so many empty people in our world are hungry for.

I’ll admit, wrestling with his message comes at a poignant time.  Last week was the final week of Lent.  The season of preparing for Easter.  It was also a week of waiting for an important update in terms of our adoption.  This journey that has taken over 3 years, it finally feels like our boat has spotted land.  So it takes a bit of humility to confess that I, a pastor who was allowed to even baptize several people this morning, was distracted most of my week by checking my e-mail for an update that never came.  That dotting my week of anticipating the resurrection of Jesus Christ, I was experiencing the brokenness of a human whose heart is not at complete peace in this broken world.

Part of me realizes that’s probably okay.   Jesus was certainly not often “at peace” in this world.  Another part of me realizes, there’s something to all this stuff Larry was talking about.

But before you or I go out and leave our family, secluding ourselves in monasteries away from our spouses and children, aiming to live like Larry and push away anything that threatens to occupy a place in our hearts – I don’t think that is required.   But we can be reminded in powerful ways, the truths found in Scriptures like 1 Corinthians 15.  That Jesus died and was resurrected.  The truth of this powerful statement impacts us as individuals, and puts every anxious thought, every deep-seated need/emotion, and every well-intentioned prayer in a wonderfully redemptive context.

The Truth of a resurrected Jesus Christ releases us from serving the state of our situations.  Even though there are times (like this past week, and probably again in the future) we don’t want to hear it, the words of Brother Lawrence come as important reminders: Even really important and good things are not “foundational” the way Christ and His resurrection are.  We can have Peace, even in the midst of needing peace.  That is something the world considers foolish.   That is something scripture considers faith.

That is something my daughters need from their father.  Something my wife needs from her husband.  And so, not as an individual but as a family – we work to shape our heart to seek pleasure only in the things that please God.  We seek to walk with Him as the center of our being.  We confess that this is not an easy road, and we sometimes lose focus.  But we return to this walk and practice – together.

(and really really pray that our boat would draw a big step closer to “land” this week) 🙂

Posted in Uncategorized

Prayer of a Pray-er

Posted on by Wick

A prayer from a pray-er
A being who prays, who often strays from that which he knows is more than breathing
More that receiving blessings and offering praise, in ways that are more than life
To a man who is dying, with every breath, a bit of death
But when received, a bit more like life, and life abundant
We are reminded that this is not un-natural, a foreign concept or wheels in need of training
But like framing a picture in need of reference we accept as more than preference
This activity meant to be our very mode of being
Which is freeing.
When I don’t have to carve out an hour, and drown out the power of noise
The colorful toys that speak to a life lived with young children
Who are not distractions to, but allow fuller expressions of – prayer. From this pray-er.
My wife and my life do not require a retreat from, but diving in full presence of God into.
It’s true, and God invites me and you to partner in ways we don’t understand.
Why does God need a man? As God calls, through the halls of time we see signs through
Noah, and Moses, and Jonah, all men unnecessary but made powerfully vital as the tidal waves of God’s moving in our midst began to crash the shores of humanity.

It’s insanity. But that’s God.

And it’s odd, His ways, the rules he plays by, we cannot deny he seems to depend on us, and we see it revealed not as dependence but as allowing transcendence, inviting us to participate in the divine,
a crime against the Holy, and fully allowed out of love, even though He’s enough to do it on His own, his throne is placed in our midst, and we often miss out on this gift, because we’re busy.

Busy with our own lists, we insist that our work is good, but if we could be honest we’d confess a bit more of our mess, because at best? Our cupboards are empty. And so we ask, we seek, we knock on behalf of a world in need, not out of greed, but out of desperation, not simply our nation but for all creation, we pray – Jesus come.

We find that he has, he is, he will, and the Kingdom spills through such partnerships of prayer as we’ve described, and gates are open wide for those who are willing to join, and see the flipped coin has landed, we’ve been branded as citizens of His reign and rule, and the pool is being filled with waters of His presence, and we the water walkers, the prayer talkers, the God stalkers, are called not to leave this world for moments of the monastic, but still as drastic, we’re called to live as prayers speaking prayers, layers of Kingdom coming on earth as it is in Heaven.

And here are the yeast that leavens the dough that bakes in ovens known as Free Methodist, here in the form of a list:

Number One, Embracing All, hearing the call to unity we recognize neighors are less about location and more about all of humanity carrying God into all creation.

Number Two, more than what we do is who we are, Discipling Deeply beyond gold stars and answers filled in blanks, but lives transformed and giving thanks.

Number Three, cultivating health, a wealth of transformation both in bodies and the body of Christ, he’s paid a price to do so much more than save us from hell, but has come to make us well.

Number Four, we exist for more than those who’ve come through our doors and so we pour ourselves out toward Developing Leaders, who will continue to strive as we hit

Number Five, a multiplication of ministries, not so that we find our names in books of history, but for increased presence of a Kingdom that sticks, and mixes well with

Number Six, much more than a fix for the locals, but bursting out in every direction, nation, language, and inflection. This movement is unfurled and hurled out into the world. And as it goes, it sows seed for

Number Seven, in which we honor the fruitfulness and celebrate what has grown, by the grace of God alone, yet worth celebrating still, and for more fruit we await

Number Eight, which sees this movement returning to cities once abandoned, taking stands, hand-to-hand in, demanding justice for the oppressed and speaking for those who no longer have a voice, through no choice of their own, and we cannot do this alone…

And so, Number Nine we are aligned together, and partner strong, a song incomplete as a solo, but as the chorus will build, and fill the concert halls of all creation, tearing down walls of mere decoration and years of jubilation arrive not because of what we’ve done or provided, but because of who we’ve turned to…

Who we respond to. The God who walks in the garden and asks, not out of ignorance but out of desire, a spoken Word of something higher asking, calling out to humanity who should be abiding but remains in hiding, “Pray-er, where are you?”

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Heroes.

Posted on by Wick

Superman, of course.  The X-Men (Wolverine specifically).  Even “Gizmo-Duck” was inspiring.  These days I might even add BT Roberts, or NT Wright…or someone else with letters as a name.  For whatever reason, I’ve always been a big fan of the hero. Especially if they were “Super” in some way.  Whether they had the power to swoop in at the last moment and save the day, or simply existed in a way that somehow always worked out for them and finished on top, I wanted to be in their club.  Even in college, I had several friends who loved the comic-book hero thing.  One friend in particular, who celebrated “X-Men Comic Book Day” whenever the newest edition arrived in his mailbox (props to Phil).

So when the recent movie “Big Hero 6” finally came out on DVD, I obviously felt a connection to Fred.  Fred’s that character who gets to hang out with all the nerdy tech-scientists because he loves the stuff, but has no idea what they’re talking about most of the time.  He’s constantly imagining new “out of the box” things, and creating back-stories for the team when they actually do begin acting like Super-Heroes.  I’m convinced most of us need a “Fred” in our lives.  Someone who we allow close enough to be a part of, and speak into our lives, and yet it’s someone who sees everything from a different vantage point.  This can help us be accountable in ways we might not otherwise recognize, and it also allows for imaginative “leaps” that our neuro-pathways wouldn’t normally jump to.  Spouses (mine wife, in particular) are pretty great for this.  You might even say it’s a Biblical concept (Psalm 27:17).

Not to mention, he’s just flat out entertaining.  I had to smile when my kids latched on to his character naturally and memorized a song he made up as the team was heading into their first “official” mission as a team of super-heroes.  He’s obviously geeked out that all of his dreams are becoming real and wants to make it even cooler in his imagination.  Let’s all confess, we’ve had moments like this in our own existence.  When you do something you love, and it seems to be working out exactly the way you’d planned, and you start to imagine yourself as the character in some larger “over-arching” story where this matters even more than you realized…..no?

Well, then just laugh at me and my girls in this video….then go find yourself a Fred, if you don’t already have one.  If you do, buy that guy an invisible sandwich today just to let him know how special he is to you…

And of course, if you saw the movie, you realized that Stan Lee is Fred’s dad (even before seeing the clip after the credits).  That was pretty cool.   Although my kids were obviously confused…”Dad, who’s Stanley?”  Someday kids…someday. 🙂