"This is the crisis we're in: God-light streamed into the world, but men and women everywhere ran for the darkness. They went for the darkness because they were not really interested in pleasing God. Everyone who makes a practice of doing evil, addicted to denial and illusion, hates God-light and won't come near it, fearing a painful exposure. But anyone working and living in truth and reality welcomes God-light so the work can be seen for the God-work it is." – John 3:19-21 (The Message)
Have you ever felt that you ran for the darkness? What is it like to run for the darkness? Are there evil things you do in secrecy? Would you do some things if others knew that you did them? What is it like to please God? What does it mean to live in truth? What “God-work” is being done through your life?
Yesterday my son kept climbing up onto the fireplace in our house. At 11 months old it is not a safe place for him with all the sharp bricks, so we tell him to get down. My wife kept saying, “Langston, get down!” However he just turned and smiled. “Langston, feet on the ground,” she would say to his smiling face as he kept right on.
Knowing that sometimes a stern voice works better, I stopped what I was doing and looked at him and with a stern, loud voice said, “Langston get down NOW!” His face turned upside down in sadness and he got down. As I started back with what I was doing, he moved back toward the fireplace, looking at me to make sure I wasn’t watching. He thought if I wasn’t watching he could climb up. I looked back at him and he stopped, waiting for me to look away. With no eyes to watch him he believed he could do wrong.
When we do things we know are wrong, we often forget that God is always watching. Many people try to hide from God (see Adam and Eve after they ate the forbidden fruit) after doing wrong. When we do things in secret believing no one sees we are in fact running from the God-light, from Jesus, since we fear the painful exposure of our sins. Today let us run toward God and work and live in truth so that others can see God in us, and the light pour from us! No more secrets to hide, nothing more to be ashamed of, only the pleasing life of one who wants to follow Christ.
With hope and joy,
Garrett
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
A Unescapable Love
For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. – Romans 8:38-39 (NRSV)
Why do you think Paul was convinced like he was? What is life like when you are convinced this is true? Have you been unconvinced before? Why? What was happening? Where was God’s love?
A question that has been asked of me several times goes something like this, “Can God still love me after everything I’ve done?” It seems like a simple “yes” cannot solve the actual quandary going on within the individual asking the question however. Perhaps the question arrives from the inability to love one’s self when we collapse under the weight of our own sin. Those moments of self-realization that enable us to discover we are not the people we should be sometimes become moments when we cease to love ourselves and thereby wonder if God can actually love us if we cannot love ourselves.
I once had a conversation with a mother about an unruly child. Her child had been in and out of jail, did not treat her particularly well, and had broken her heart several times. I asked her why she kept him in her life and she responded, “Because I love him, he is my son, there is nothing he can do to make me stop loving him.” I think I only understood this after I first held my son.
If this is a mother’s love for her son how much greater is God’s love for us? There is no answer to such a question, but it does seem that when we ask the question, “Can God still love me after everything I’ve done?” the only way we can respond is with a simple “yes.” There is no explanation about why God would still love; it is just how God is.
When Paul thought of the cross of his Christ he could not help but write those words of conviction about how nothing can separate us from the love of God. There displayed upon an instrument of torture was God’s love willing to suffer for the beloved, for you, for us, no matter how unlovable we think we are. For no matter who we are, in God’s eyes we are still the most precious bundle of joy ever created, and nothing can separate us from that!
With hope and joy,
Garrett
Why do you think Paul was convinced like he was? What is life like when you are convinced this is true? Have you been unconvinced before? Why? What was happening? Where was God’s love?
A question that has been asked of me several times goes something like this, “Can God still love me after everything I’ve done?” It seems like a simple “yes” cannot solve the actual quandary going on within the individual asking the question however. Perhaps the question arrives from the inability to love one’s self when we collapse under the weight of our own sin. Those moments of self-realization that enable us to discover we are not the people we should be sometimes become moments when we cease to love ourselves and thereby wonder if God can actually love us if we cannot love ourselves.
I once had a conversation with a mother about an unruly child. Her child had been in and out of jail, did not treat her particularly well, and had broken her heart several times. I asked her why she kept him in her life and she responded, “Because I love him, he is my son, there is nothing he can do to make me stop loving him.” I think I only understood this after I first held my son.
If this is a mother’s love for her son how much greater is God’s love for us? There is no answer to such a question, but it does seem that when we ask the question, “Can God still love me after everything I’ve done?” the only way we can respond is with a simple “yes.” There is no explanation about why God would still love; it is just how God is.
When Paul thought of the cross of his Christ he could not help but write those words of conviction about how nothing can separate us from the love of God. There displayed upon an instrument of torture was God’s love willing to suffer for the beloved, for you, for us, no matter how unlovable we think we are. For no matter who we are, in God’s eyes we are still the most precious bundle of joy ever created, and nothing can separate us from that!
With hope and joy,
Garrett
Minister's Minute from the October Issue of the Journal of Hope and Joy
“Wherever you go Jesus is already there, and wherever Jesus is you are already home,” a friend and mentor told me before Melinda and I left to come to Georgia. And maybe she was right, maybe wherever Jesus is I am already home, and maybe Jesus is everywhere, it is something he claimed to his disciples after all. You know the place he makes the claim, there at the end of Matthew after Easter telling the disciples before he leaves for good that he will be with them until the end of time… or the end of the ages, or something similar depending on the translation you prefer.
I was not sure I believed her though, my friend and mentor that is, when she told me that. It is not that I did not believe her with my mind, that part of me that tells me things are a certain way and I should believe them. I believed it that way, which is to say I said that I believed it, and maybe even convinced myself that I believed it, but did not necessarily live like I believed such an incredible statement, “Wherever you go Jesus is already there, and wherever Jesus is you are already home.” There is a difference between claiming to “believe” something, and living like that belief is foundational, true, absolute, and thereby and finally freeing. And the thing is while she told me this and I said I believed it I did not live like I believed it, which is to say her words did not comfort me the way they could have, because I did not discover the freedom in them. It is easy to say “I believe,” it is completely different to believe.
However nearly two years later in this little thing I like to call an experiment of faith, I have grown to believe her words and in believing them I have been freed by them. Like any belief though it was something I had to grow into, something I had to discover for myself, something that blossomed within me, and we all know that flowers take time to blossom. I discovered her words to be true when just recently Melinda and Langston were both sick and not in church on one Sunday and two people came over with food later in the day (vegetarian for Melinda of course). In the hearts of those people Jesus burned bright and I knew with them and because of them I was at a place called home. I discovered her words to be true when our first Christmas here after we had only been in town for 3 weeks and still had no furniture in our house, we had invitations to Christmas Eve with one family, and Christmas day with another. At both places we were able to be ourselves, which is to say like no “normal” minister and chaplain, and felt loved with a love that came from Christ burning in the hearts of those around us. With them and because of them I was at a place called home. I discover her words to be true when people come into my study and share with me how their lives are changing because they feel God in their lives. I discover her words to be true when people invite me into their lives, not because I am anyone very special, but because in me they have discovered Jesus or so I am told. If that is true then thanks be to God! To hear such things allows me to know that with me others have found a place called home, much as I have found a place called home with them. That is a blessing I can live into, that is a freedom I now enjoy.
As I write this I am in California. Yesterday Melinda and I took Langston to a chapel service at the seminary we attended. We saw old friends who were surprised to see us but as always delighted to see us as well. The chaplain of the seminary came up to me and hugged me. I told him I was sorry for showing up unannounced, and he told me, “Never be sorry for coming home.” He was right, Jesus was there, and wherever Jesus is I am already home. Jesus is within me and so many others I meet, so yes it is true I am home wherever I am. What blessed assurance is such a truth. Later in the day I had coffee with my friend who told me these words, and I thanked her that finally they bless me as they do. With her I was at a place called home. I hope and pray that I may continue to become a person who others might find a place called home when they are around… I hope you who read this may become such a person for someone who is looking for a home, who is looking for Jesus, who is looking for you.
Riding the wave of the Holy Spirit,
Garrett
I was not sure I believed her though, my friend and mentor that is, when she told me that. It is not that I did not believe her with my mind, that part of me that tells me things are a certain way and I should believe them. I believed it that way, which is to say I said that I believed it, and maybe even convinced myself that I believed it, but did not necessarily live like I believed such an incredible statement, “Wherever you go Jesus is already there, and wherever Jesus is you are already home.” There is a difference between claiming to “believe” something, and living like that belief is foundational, true, absolute, and thereby and finally freeing. And the thing is while she told me this and I said I believed it I did not live like I believed it, which is to say her words did not comfort me the way they could have, because I did not discover the freedom in them. It is easy to say “I believe,” it is completely different to believe.
However nearly two years later in this little thing I like to call an experiment of faith, I have grown to believe her words and in believing them I have been freed by them. Like any belief though it was something I had to grow into, something I had to discover for myself, something that blossomed within me, and we all know that flowers take time to blossom. I discovered her words to be true when just recently Melinda and Langston were both sick and not in church on one Sunday and two people came over with food later in the day (vegetarian for Melinda of course). In the hearts of those people Jesus burned bright and I knew with them and because of them I was at a place called home. I discovered her words to be true when our first Christmas here after we had only been in town for 3 weeks and still had no furniture in our house, we had invitations to Christmas Eve with one family, and Christmas day with another. At both places we were able to be ourselves, which is to say like no “normal” minister and chaplain, and felt loved with a love that came from Christ burning in the hearts of those around us. With them and because of them I was at a place called home. I discover her words to be true when people come into my study and share with me how their lives are changing because they feel God in their lives. I discover her words to be true when people invite me into their lives, not because I am anyone very special, but because in me they have discovered Jesus or so I am told. If that is true then thanks be to God! To hear such things allows me to know that with me others have found a place called home, much as I have found a place called home with them. That is a blessing I can live into, that is a freedom I now enjoy.
As I write this I am in California. Yesterday Melinda and I took Langston to a chapel service at the seminary we attended. We saw old friends who were surprised to see us but as always delighted to see us as well. The chaplain of the seminary came up to me and hugged me. I told him I was sorry for showing up unannounced, and he told me, “Never be sorry for coming home.” He was right, Jesus was there, and wherever Jesus is I am already home. Jesus is within me and so many others I meet, so yes it is true I am home wherever I am. What blessed assurance is such a truth. Later in the day I had coffee with my friend who told me these words, and I thanked her that finally they bless me as they do. With her I was at a place called home. I hope and pray that I may continue to become a person who others might find a place called home when they are around… I hope you who read this may become such a person for someone who is looking for a home, who is looking for Jesus, who is looking for you.
Riding the wave of the Holy Spirit,
Garrett
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