Made Perfect In Weakness

In a culture that seems to perpetuate the constant propping up of ourselves and hiding our weaknesses, I find this text to be both challenging and life giving…

“My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”

Now, to be clear, weakness isn’t something we should be striving for. It’s just something that we all have and we should be able to freely admit it.

The greatest weakness of all is the fear of appearing weak. That’s pride to always feel the need to appear strong.

There is a way to actually live stronger. It is counter-intuitive to our culture and prideful nature, and is an unassuming pathway to discovering a new kind of strength.

This strength emerges out of an awareness of our weakness and a growing dependence on something other than ourselves.

A Humble Heart Can Help Us More Than A Proud Mind.

We try to control this situation or that person, and they just won’t do what we want them to do. We spend all kinds of energy, and that situation still will not submit to our will. Our will is not being done on earth.

How many of us have had those moments when we say,  ”I’m tired of this Lord, I give up attempting to control it, help me!” And later we realize we were given both grace and strength along-the-way; and it was not our own strength…it came from somewhere else.

God is all powerful—not us! And when we are weak, we lean more on God…discovering His strength.

Whatever the weakness, let’s humble ourselves, and pray to discover the strength that comes with acknowledging our need of God’s grace in moments of weakness. It seems God thinks he’s strong enough…

“My grace is enough; it’s all you need…”

“My strength comes into its own in your weakness.” ~ 2 Corinthians 12

Lastly, and it’s important to finish here: when we truly experience God’s grace and strength in weakness, we’ll finally be humble enough for a more meaningful use of our natural strengths—and in more than just boosting our own pride to only appear strong.

And so we are made perfect in our weakness through humility.

“He guides the humble in what is right and teaches them his way.” ~Psalm 25:9

Christmas Night Commentary

This is fascinating commentary from, Frederick Buechner [beekner], writing about Christ being born as a child:

“…those who believe in God can never in a way be sure of him again. Once they have seen him in a stable, they can never be sure to where he’ll appear, to what lengths he will go, or to what ludicrous depths of self-humiliation he will descend in his passionate pursuit to reclaim human kind.”

If God will go to these depths to reclaim his dream for humanity, then he’d do anything!

“If the holiness and this kind of power and majesty of God were present in this least auspicious of all events, then there is no place or time so lowly or earth bound, but that holiness can be present there too.”

“…and this means that we are never safe and there is no place we can hide from God, no place we are safe from his power to break into and recreate the human heart. Because, it is just where God seems most helpless that he is most strong, and it’s just where we least expect him that he comes most fully.”

This is the story of a God who never gives up on us! And every human being can find God present where they might least expect Him.

This God, our God, is the God of unending surprise!

Spirituality Is About Living

Spirituality. What is it?

Too often, Christianity has made it mostly about some other “future world” than it is about the present world we live in every day. Yet, Jesus and the scriptures, seem to offer us a spirituality of living that is for the present as much as it is for the future.

Simply put: spirituality is about living…

However, the spiritual part of living life is not to look just like Jesus as some Christians might suppose [that's rather the example of being human as God intended].

It is however, living life with an openness; gratitude; humility; & awareness; that life is given to us as a gift, and by no means of our own!

I love what Eugene Peterson says: “All the “vital signs” of botany, biology, and physiology combined hardly begin to account for life; there is no accounting for life, any life, except by the means of God’s Spirit!”

“We somewhere along the way, seem to have picked up the bad habit of trying to get life on OUR terms, without all the bother of God, the Spirit of Life!“

Isn’t life/living far more than blood pressure & pulse rate?

What about things like:

• joy & love
• faith & hope
• truth & beauty
• meaning & value

When we are living spiritually, we experience these as gifts and are made most fully alive in our growing awareness of them. Spirituality, then, is to hunger and thirst for life because we desire the Spirit of Life, which can only be given to us by God!

Vertical Focus

I really like this image for some reason.

It was named: “Vertical Focus” and I’m not sure why or who named it.

I’ve had it on my desktop for several months and often just stare at it; trying to grasp the meaning in it’s name.

Mystery creates wonder. Wonder draws us closer out of sheer curiosity, interest, and intrigue.

Perhaps it’s the mysteries of God that draws us closer even more than answers.

Can the mysteries of God [those wonders purely emanating out of God's spirit and all he's created] inspire us even more than some thing explained ?

I’m convinced that I should stop “helping God across the road like some little old lady” in the hopes that I could somehow bring him nearer to others with my words of explanation.

The mystery and wonder of the God of ALL creation is most compelling all by Himself.

God of wonder, surprise us and draw us with the wonder of all that you are!

God-Sized Desire

Albert Einstein–who was not a follower of Christ–felt the wonder of Jesus in a way some who do (follow Christ), unfortunately, do not. After reading the Gospels, He reflected:

I am a Jew, but I am enthralled by the luminous figure of the Nazarene….No man can read the Gospels without feeling the actual presence of Jesus. His personality pulsates in every word.

I desire to experience the reading of the Gospels in that way. I’m just wondering why my experience with the “luminous” Jesus of the Gospels can some times seem less “pulsating” then Albert’s experience.

Most of us have a sense of a God-shaped hole in our hearts that can only be filled by God’s actual presence in our lives. But, shouldn’t we have a God-sized desire to fill it? Do you ever feel like you don’t desire God enough?

I just realized that I somehow think that a “desire for God” must originate out of what I create myself. I often feel like I should desire God more but don’t quite know what I’m to do about it. Then, I’m reminded:

The desire for God comes from God.

We don’t have to somehow muster up our own manufactured desire. We can rest in whatever measure of desire God has given us at the moment, and simply ask God to reveal himself; in our lives, and in the ways that open our hearts to an increased desire of His person and life-giving presence.

Also, a God-shaped hole can only be filled by God himself. So, I’m learning that I can’t cram any image of God into his spot. I must trust that he desires to fill the spot that he obviously reserved for himself, even more than I desire it filled!

“Continue seeking God with seriousness. Unless He wanted you, you would not be wanting Him”-C.S.Lewis

“ I will give them a heart to know me, that I am the LORD. They will be my people, and I will be their God, for they will return to me with all their heart.” Jeremiah 24: 7

Our Source: Publix?

Last summer [2007] Debbie, the girls, and myself began talking about how much our lives seem so far removed from much of what God has created–LIKE AIR; after all, we live, work, and go to school in environments that have our air conditioned through machines.

It led to a brutally hot camping trip in the middle of last summer’s heat wave; not the experience we had envisioned while dreaming it up in our 70 degree conditioned air. Nonetheless, that camping adventure did produce an increased awareness of just how disconnected we truly are from even the simple miracle of a seed growing; our source often seemed more like Publix then it did our maker.

Desiring to close-the-gap and disconnection of God being the main source of our lives, over the winter months we purchased some Earth Boxes www.earthbox.com and began to anticipate the miracle of seed, time, and harvest. Here are some of our first fruits: Banana Hot Peppers. They are a daily reminder to us that God is indeed our source!

Singers of the Human Spirit

It’s no secret that U2 is my favorite band. Their music has always had a way of inspiring me at a deeper place; it’s more then just great music or entertainment. Bono, U2′s lead singer, translates lyrically for me how I want to see the world. With U2 there is always hope, transcendence, depth, and redemption.

Sometimes Christianity has been often more inclined to see the darkness in humanity rather then seek out the good. The belief that humanity has fallen so far from God’s original intent, often causes us to forget that humanity is made in the image of God.

Bono inspires me because he doesn’t seem to be distracted in this. He carefully and passionately looks for the good; I love that! Bono, had these words to say about Billy Graham [another on my list of most inspiring people], Bono says…

“At a time when religion seems so often to get in the way of God’s work–with its shopping mall sales pitch and its bumpersticker reductionism–I give thanks just for the sanity of Billy Graham, for that clear, empathetic voice…part poet, part preacher–a singer of the human spirit.”

Bono & Billy G, Singers of the Human Spirit. Make anyone else wanna’ sing? Me too!

Is It Any Wonder…

Take a few moments to stop and look–perhaps even from how God sees it–at this amazingly beautiful floating blue ball we call earth.

Is it any wonder that God absolutely loves all that He’s created, including us? No wonder He’s so commited to redeeming it all.

The Earth Is The Lord’s And Everything In It!