Category Archives: following God

by

Spirituality is…Challenging

Helen Mirren as HRH Queen Elizabeth II in “The Queen”  (c) 2006, Miramax Films

Robin Janvrin:  Prime Minister, I understand how `difficult’ her behavior must seem to  you..how `unhelpful’..but try to see  it from her perspective.. (searches for right words) She’s been brought up to believe its God’s will that she is who she is.

Tony Blair:   I think we should leave God out of it.  It’s just not helpful.

There is a rise of atheism (or at least claimed atheism) in our country.  I encounter it on websites such as “Better than Faith” (an atheist site dedicated seemingly to making fun of the religious and their beliefs), on Reddit, which has an entire /subcategory for atheism, and in discussion with friends from work and the community.   The common thread all those folks seem to have is the same as Tony Blair’s line from the movie “The Queen”.  In dealing with difficult situations, they’ve chosen a life where they can simply “leave God out of it.”

Let’s face it. In the game of life sometimes it does seem like it would be easier to leave God on the sidelines, or in the stadium seats or kept in a playbook inside someone’s locker that is only opened on Sunday mornings.  It would be easier if we didn’t have to ask God such difficult questions like, “Why me? Why this? Why now?”   Its nicer to think its just all the laws of science and rules of the random universe than wrestle with a deity that created us and knows the pains and struggles we face.  It’s much less effort to believe there isn’t a God, than to try to understand in the darkness around us that there is one. 

It is always easier to claim there are no answers than to ask difficult questions.  But, it’s also emptier, unchallenged, and disencarnated.  Spirituality involves embracing the challenge of asking about the hard stuff. 

Someone has to answer for suffering children. Someone has to be responsible for the tears of sorrow a betrayed woman cries into the night. Someone should reckon with the prayers of a man who needs a job, a hope, or a dream. Someone needs to explain Hurricane Katrina, 9/11, and the Virginia Tech shooting.  Someone must respond.
You think that someone is God.
It’s highly possible that God thinks that someone is you.
Wait….What?   
How did this become a staring contest?  How did you just become responsible for the waking nightmares we on earth endure?  I mean, you aren’t responsible for having an answer for all that stuff, are you?
No.
And, yes.
Or, at least you’re responsible to seek it.
Where was God when all that was happening? God was with you.
God With Us – the Divine Partnership
It’s pretty clear from early on in the creation narrative that God is not interested in existing alone. God makes living things swiftly – trees, fish, plants, animals and finally people. With humans (certainly the most involved experiment) God shows a desire not only to be with someone, but to be chosen by someone. God doesn’t want a robot. God wants love – the kind of love only free will can grant. Chosen love.
In order to have that kind of relationship, God creates a system or pattern of being that is a divine partnership. God the creator makes us – the creative. God plants a garden and we tend it. God grows an orchard and we harvest it. God builds the car and we drive it.  Or not.  We can choose not to tend the garden, and then the weeds will overtake the food. We decide not to harvest the trees and the fruit will rot where it started. We can refuse to drive, or worse – drive without caution — and the vehicle will be more burden than blessing to the world around us.  All the while, even when we are rejecting the tasks set before us, we are still a part of the divine partnership with God. 
So when we ask where God is, the first thing to remember is that God is with us – beside us, around us, within us. God is hoping we choose to tend the garden. God is encouraging us over and over to harvest the fruit, and God is begging us to drive more carefully. God cries when we cry, and God longs like we long. But, God is determined. We started this evolutionary journey of life together and together we will continue.  God’s not likely to push us out of the car and take over, although God will sometimes provide an airbag when we go too fast and hit too hard. The all-seeing deity can be asked for a map (and family and friends who turn out to be good back-seat drivers) to guide us along our way.
Like any partnership, there are rocky times and necessary things that must happen along the way. We should always be honest with God about our needs, our expectations, our fears and our disappointments. Only in truth can we work together effectively.  We must avoid trying to do God’s job, and we must make sure we are not making God entirely responsible for doing our job.  Partnerships change and grow in time, but as long as the love remains even the toughest challenges, biggest losses or greatest disappointments can be overcome. 

Being a part of this partnership is definitely harder than simply writing God off as  far-away or a fantasy. But the life, the joy, the challenge, and the love make it the much better reality.

by

Three phrases I hate in the Christian Community

I got a question today that I answered with too many words to fit in the side-bar. (Me give a wordy answer to a short question? Impossible! :-) So I thought I’d put in here. For the Easter sermon go down to next post. Your Shepnerd.

Question: I’ve always heard the old saying “God does not give usmore than we can handle” and sometimes I want to think its true, but it got me to thinking. If He doesn’t give us more than we can handle how are things like terminal illnesses and violent crimes that result in murder figured into this? Seems like if God didn’t give us more than wecould handle then these things wouldn’t happen.

Long Answer: I have three pet peeves that people say in Christian Communities all the time.

1. “The church is God’s House” – No. God doesn’t need a house. God doesn’t need shelter. God IS shelter.

2. “God helps those who help themselves” - No. Ben Franklin said this (not the bible), and if God just wanted us to help ourselves then we wouldn’t need God, Prayer or Jesus. Throw this phrase out with last year’s almanac.

3. “God doesn’t give us more than we can handle.” No. That’s not in the bible; its a greeting card phrase people say to each other when we don’t know what to say to help them in their grief and want to brush off the issue. It’s not helpful, and damaging to people who encounter life issues they are having trouble with. Suddenly, not only do you feel victimized, you feel like you lack faith too.

First, God doesn’t GIVE us these things. Imagine you have been sent to teach someone about God. You say, “Knowing the God who made you and loves you will change your life. The relationship can provide you with insight, support, salvation, balance and joy. God will also give you cancer, make you the victim of a crime, cause a hurricane to wipe out your house, take away your job, give your son a drug habit, put your daughter in an abusive marriage, and just when you are ready for your golden years take away your spouse’s mind so they no longer remember who you are. Now, don’t you want to know God better?” Ludicrous! Yes, and so is the phrase that supports it.

Cancer happens because God designed us to be in a sustained natural world. Some genes, some bodies reacting that create great things like musical talent and pretty blue eyes. Some genes, some bodies react in ways that create cancer, or contract or spread viruses. God doesn’t give us illness, illness happens to natural bodies in a natural world.

Hurricanes happen because the water in the ocean gets too hot and the natural balance of the system is to correct it through having the heat rise, which works with the natural turning of the earth to become circular energy (short and easy explanation for a complex phenominon). Crime happens because empty and hurt people tend to hurt other people. Drugs happen because there is pain. War happens because there is evil.

It’s always been funny to me that we can accept Jesus teaching “If you ask for bread will God give you a stone? No, God will give good gifts…” but then turn around and suggest God gives you abusive lovers, arthritis and Alzheimer’s disease.

Second, not all things can be “handled”. Some things must be accepted. Some things must be endured. Some things should be challenged. Some events can be healed by a scalpel. Some events can require a healing process several years long. Some houses are lost. Some lives need rebuilt. “Handling” implies we have some kind of control. Usually, in the situation where people say this terrible phrase – we don’t.

God is not powerless but all powerful. And when God designed this natural system of life, death, rebirth – for the earth and for us -God promised to go through these things with us. God carries us. God cries with us. God heals us.

A better alternative to this phrase is Romans 8:28 “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love God and who have been called according to God’s purpose.” That doesn’t mean that all things that happen are good. God doesn’t want drunk drivers to kill children, God doesn’t want divorce, drugs or homelessness. God doesn’t think those things are good. What it does mean is that out of the situations we encounter – those we make, and those made for us by the other people on the planet and the planet itself — God can work with us to bring good things into our life and our world.

People with diseases raise awareness, research money and hope. Susan G Komen died of cancer (not good), her family created her foundation that has saved the lives of millions of women through mammograms, drugs, and research (a great good). Women who have been victimized become survivors and learn how to stand up with and heal other women. Tornados that wreck someone’s life create a whole community of effort to repair and rebuild. Does God need a tornado to create community? No. But since one is going to happen – God wants to be there too and use it for what good can come.

So my best thought is ditch the easy phrases and hold on to God’s truth.

by

Should You Really Follow Your Heart?

Lectionary Scripture: Matthew 4:1-11

Today is the first Sunday of Lent – a season to remember Christ’s sacrifice, and love for us. It’s also the start of Valentine week (so get ready to see more flower or chocolate vendors than you’re used to seeing). One of the things we hear most frequently this time of year is about the triumph of love and the idea that you should “follow your heart”.

“Just follow your heart, and do what makes you happy”. Best Selling greeting card artist, Flavia

“There is no reason not to follow your heart.” Steve Jobs, founder/CEO of Apple Computer and Pixar in a graduation address at Stanford University.

Even my buddy Napoleon Dynamite (“Vote for Pedro!”) says “Just follow your heart. That’s what I do.”

However, for all the encouragement to set sail after our emotional ideals – there is one real life example from history that always cautions me that following your heart may be the path to ruin.

Mark Anthony was a general of Julius Caesar’s army, a Tribune of the Roman senate, and a member of a triumvirate that ran Rome after Caesar’s assassination. He was a man of seemingly endless potential. When Octavian (later to become Augustus, the first Emperor of Rome) began to fight with Anthony over power and money in the triumvirate, Anthony went to Egypt, and fell in love with Queen Cleopatra VII. He soon became involved in Egyptian dress, drugs (opium), and decadence. He renounced Roman Republic values and Octavian went to war with him. Octavian was young, and Anthony the much more seasoned and wise warrior. However, at the sea battle of Actium, Anthony and Cleopatra both had ships prepared for war. Suddenly, Cleopatra broke through Octavian’s line and sailed into open water without firing a shot taking her ships with her. Anthony stood at the most monumental decision of his life. Should he fight Octavian, follow Roman discipline and preserve the triumvirate and democracy, or should he follow his heart and chase his erratic Egyptian wife?

He followed his heart. He left the battle, and joined Cleopatra on her ship. 20,000 men and the battle were lost. When Anthony and Cleopatra arrived in Alexandria a few days later, Octavian and his men were already there. Anthony killed himself (as a Roman nobleman was supposed to do when defeated), and Cleopatra followed him by killing herself 3 days later when her attempt to seduce Octavian failed. Octavian dismantled the Republic, and become the first Emperor of Rome.

Mark Anthony’s heart journey cost Rome democracy, cost both Rome and Egypt their leaders, ended both the Hellenistic Age and the Ptolemaic Dynasty and left Egypt in Roman hands for 300 years. Wonder what would have happened if he had just done his duty?

Approximately 59 years after the Battle of Actium where Anthony followed his heart, Tiberius the son of Augustus (It was Augustus who appointed Herod the Governor of Judea and demanded all the world should be taxed which drew a young Galilean couple to Bethlehem for an adventure on a starry night) was Emperor of Rome, and a young Jewish Rabbi went out into the wilderness to fast and pray for 40 days.

Follow Your Discipline

Imagine 40 days without food. Imagine 40 days without people. The bible tells us that Satan showed up, an expected guest to this fasting ritual, and tempts Jesus. At first, the devil forgets the “follow your heart” idea – it being so sentimental and modern – and goes for the easy shot. Follow your stomach. Satan encourages Jesus to turn stone into bread. Jesus has a choice. Follow the discipline of his fast and devotion, or follow his heart in its human desire for food.

Jesus follows the discipline. In our lives – discipline is an important part of being the people God desires us to be. For all the impetuous power of love and passion, there is nothing more reliable and sustainable than discipline. The Lenten season, discover what being a disciplined Christian means to you. Sometimes it will mean making the decision to “stay the course” God has set you upon. Sometimes it will mean refusing to take the easy way out a solution, and working in the way God wants you to work. Sometimes it means forgiving those we would rather hold a grudge against. Sometimes it means saying “No” to power, and “Yes” to service. Always it means doing it God’s way.

Follow Your Faith

The devil then realizes that Jesus has a physical strength and discipline that can’t be tempted. So he tries another tactic – empirical evidence. Nothing is more powerful than being able to prove a point with a real life demonstration. If Jesus were to throw himself off a cliff and God saved him, it would prove this “humanity” and “vulnerability” of Christ was just a sham and the deity of Jesus would be clear. That’s what the devil would want people to believe – that we can’t be like Jesus or relate to his message, because he was “special” and “protected”. For Jesus – he would get unqualified evidence that what he thought about God was right – and God would protect him. Jesus again stands at the crossroad of decision. He can follow his faith and know God would protect him without testing it or he can follow his human need “just to be sure” and test God.

Jesus follows his faith. The bible reminds us in Hebrews that “Faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things UNSEEN.” Jesus doesn’t need to see God save him from an ill-advised cliff jump. He knows God loves him. He knows God is there for him and his mission is not finished. He knows it so well, he won’t offend God by testing. In our human and vulnerable state – we often want to test God. “God, if you’re there – I’m going to go out on this limb and see if you catch me” we say as we make unwise and bad choices. We jump off life’s cliffs with bad decisions, ego trips, selfish choices and we wait to see if God is going to catch us. This Lenten season, learn to know God is there without having to push God up against a wall to believe it. Have faith in the God who is with you. Have faith in the guidance you are given. Don’t test God. Trust God.

Follow Your Love

So the devil gives it one more try – the dumbest one if you think about it. He takes Jesus to a hill and shows him the entire world and promises him that the devil can give it to him. The devil’s flaw in this reasoning is that he thinks Jesus wants the stuff – the kingdoms, the palaces, and the power. But Jesus isn’t a stuff kind of guy. Jesus didn’t come because God so loved the stuff of the world. Jesus came because God so loved the people of the world. So not only did Jesus not love this power trip, Jesus loved God. Jesus has a choice. He can follow his love for God and the children of God, or he can follow the shallow lonely path of greed.

Jesus follows his love. Jesus tells the devil his job is worship God and serve God. The Miriam-Webster dictionary defines worship this way:
Worship (verb) – to adore with great respect, honor and devotion. In other words – to love. The Lenten season, put away the need for things, for power or for position. Put away your need to be smarter than someone, better than someone or more beautiful than someone. Give up the desire to be first and become a servant. Love God. Love God’s people.

If Mark Anthony had the discipline to do his duty, the faith in Cleopatra not to chase her, and remembered his first love – the Roman Republic – that Jewish Rabbi who died for our sins in the ultimate act of love would have been born into a much different world.

When you are looking for what you need to follow – follow God.