“For God examines every heart and sees through every motive.” – 1 Chronicles 28:9 (The Message)
What do you think God finds when examining your heart? Are there places you are afraid for God to find? Are there motives that God will love? How do you know?
I once found this story.
Two monks were returning to the monastery in the evening. It had rained and there were puddles of water on the roadsides. At one place a beautiful young woman was standing unable to walk across because of a puddle of water. The elder of the two monks went up to her lifted her and left her on the other side of the road, and continued his way to the monastery.
In the evening the younger monk came to the elder monk and said, "Sir, as monks, we cannot touch a woman?"
The elder monk answered "Yes, brother".
Then the younger monk asked again, "But then Sir, how is that you lifted that woman on the roadside?"
The elder monk smiled at him and told him " I left her on the other side of the road, but you are still carrying her."
One monk dwelled on that which is considered good, while the other monk decided to do good. I wonder if that is what it means to say that God sees through every motive. Sometimes we worry so much about what others think we fail to meet the need right in front of us. However while we may have saved face in the eyes of the world, what were we then in God’s eyes? Perhaps it is time for us to pray that God gives us the wisdom to do that which keeps our motives pure in those mighty eyes.
With hope and joy,
Garrett
Thursday, December 30, 2010
Thursday, December 23, 2010
What Child Is This
But he was wounded for our transgressions, crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the punishment that made us whole, and by his bruises we are healed. – Isaiah 53:5 (NRSV)
In Isaiah’s poem about the suffering servant Christians see images of Jesus the Christ. As we celebrate Christmas, do you celebrate the reason Jesus came? What was the reason Jesus arrived? What is it about this baby that you believe is a gift?
I once heard a story about a boy who stole comics from a library. His father found out what he did and together they went to the library, gave them back, and the father forced his son to apologize. On the way home the boy got a stern lecture.
That summer when they were on vacation the boy stole comics again, this time from a store. When the arrived home the father found them, confronted his son, and this time burned them in their fireplace. As the fire burned he gave his son a stern lecture.
A couple of months after that the boy stole comic books from a bookstore. This time the father said, “I am going to have to spank you because you keep doing this.” However the father didn’t want to hurt his son and after spanking him he told the boy to wait there for a lecture and think about what he did. The father went outside the room and closed the door. Loud enough for the boy to hear the father started crying. Not wanting his son to see him like that he went and washed up before he went in to lecture the boy.
Years later the boy’s mother recalled that the boy stole comic books and asked him if he stopped because his father had spanked him. “No,” he said, “I stopped because I heard dad crying after he left the room.”
The lesson the boy learned wasn’t in punishment, but in the realization that he hurt his father. Even at Christmas when we see that little baby, there is in his eyes the whole pain of the world that he will take. It is easy for us to just see a baby, but if that’s all we see we are no better than the Innkeeper who had no idea what was going on just outside his Inn. When we celebrate Christmas we are celebrating that God was willing to cry out loud instead of punish, and to be hurt instead of inflict pain. There is a lesson we can learn here, let us pray that we learn it.
With hope and joy,
Garrett
In Isaiah’s poem about the suffering servant Christians see images of Jesus the Christ. As we celebrate Christmas, do you celebrate the reason Jesus came? What was the reason Jesus arrived? What is it about this baby that you believe is a gift?
I once heard a story about a boy who stole comics from a library. His father found out what he did and together they went to the library, gave them back, and the father forced his son to apologize. On the way home the boy got a stern lecture.
That summer when they were on vacation the boy stole comics again, this time from a store. When the arrived home the father found them, confronted his son, and this time burned them in their fireplace. As the fire burned he gave his son a stern lecture.
A couple of months after that the boy stole comic books from a bookstore. This time the father said, “I am going to have to spank you because you keep doing this.” However the father didn’t want to hurt his son and after spanking him he told the boy to wait there for a lecture and think about what he did. The father went outside the room and closed the door. Loud enough for the boy to hear the father started crying. Not wanting his son to see him like that he went and washed up before he went in to lecture the boy.
Years later the boy’s mother recalled that the boy stole comic books and asked him if he stopped because his father had spanked him. “No,” he said, “I stopped because I heard dad crying after he left the room.”
The lesson the boy learned wasn’t in punishment, but in the realization that he hurt his father. Even at Christmas when we see that little baby, there is in his eyes the whole pain of the world that he will take. It is easy for us to just see a baby, but if that’s all we see we are no better than the Innkeeper who had no idea what was going on just outside his Inn. When we celebrate Christmas we are celebrating that God was willing to cry out loud instead of punish, and to be hurt instead of inflict pain. There is a lesson we can learn here, let us pray that we learn it.
With hope and joy,
Garrett
Tuesday, December 14, 2010
Made in God's Nature
God spoke: "Let us make human beings in our image, make them reflecting our nature, so they can be responsible for the fish in the sea, the birds in the air, the cattle, and, yes, Earth itself, and every animal that moves on the face of Earth."
God created human beings; he created them godlike, reflecting God's nature.
He created them male and female. – Genesis 1:26-27 (The Message)
What does it mean to be made in the image of God? What is God’s nature like? What then should our nature be like? What all are we responsible for?
This is a story I have heard before.
Word spread across the countryside about the wise Holy Man who lived in a small house atop the mountain. A man from the village decided to make the long and difficult journey to visit him. When he arrived at the house, he saw an old servant inside who greeted him at the door. "I would like to see the wise Holy Man," he said to the servant. The servant smiled and led him inside. As they walked through the house, the man from the village looked eagerly around the house, anticipating his encounter with the Holy Man. Before he knew it, he had been led to the back door and escorted outside. He stopped and turned to the servant, "But I want to see the Holy Man!"
"You already have," said the old man. "Everyone you may meet in life, even if they appear plain and insignificant... see each of them as a wise Holy Man. If you do this, then whatever problem you brought here today will be solved."
While I don’t know that all our problems will be solved if we saw each other as wise holy people, it might help. God is wise and holy, and God makes us in that image and in that nature. Even if we aren’t quite wise and holy as is, somewhere such things exist within us. The Talmud says, “From beginning to end God’s law teaches kindness.” Maybe it is in kindness we can begin to see each other as wise holy people, to see ourselves as wise holy people. And maybe in seeing that God will come and make sure that what we see is so.
With hope and joy,
Garrett
What does it mean to be made in the image of God? What is God’s nature like? What then should our nature be like? What all are we responsible for?
This is a story I have heard before.
Word spread across the countryside about the wise Holy Man who lived in a small house atop the mountain. A man from the village decided to make the long and difficult journey to visit him. When he arrived at the house, he saw an old servant inside who greeted him at the door. "I would like to see the wise Holy Man," he said to the servant. The servant smiled and led him inside. As they walked through the house, the man from the village looked eagerly around the house, anticipating his encounter with the Holy Man. Before he knew it, he had been led to the back door and escorted outside. He stopped and turned to the servant, "But I want to see the Holy Man!"
"You already have," said the old man. "Everyone you may meet in life, even if they appear plain and insignificant... see each of them as a wise Holy Man. If you do this, then whatever problem you brought here today will be solved."
While I don’t know that all our problems will be solved if we saw each other as wise holy people, it might help. God is wise and holy, and God makes us in that image and in that nature. Even if we aren’t quite wise and holy as is, somewhere such things exist within us. The Talmud says, “From beginning to end God’s law teaches kindness.” Maybe it is in kindness we can begin to see each other as wise holy people, to see ourselves as wise holy people. And maybe in seeing that God will come and make sure that what we see is so.
With hope and joy,
Garrett
Thursday, December 2, 2010
Minister's Minute from December Issue of the Journal of Hope and Joy
Advent is the beginning of a new church year. It generally starts right after Thanksgiving. So while the world awaits a new year in January, here we sit as the church already immersed in a new year, and I think it is good we remember that. It is also good we remember that our new year always starts us off in the spirit of preparation.
Somewhere the winds of the ages carry the sound of a lone voice in the wilderness which proclaimed, “I am the voice of one crying out in the wilderness, make straight the way of the Lord.” We have heard this voice before, we have heard this shout before. It comes back to us every Advent as surely as the colder weather of the winter months. It comes back to us because for some reason or another we seem to need to hear it again.
From one year to the next so much of life changes. I looked at pictures of myself from when I first arrived to Georgia three years ago. I look older now, because three years is three years even if three years isn’t that long. As I think of what the three years has brought with it there appears a constant stream of change. New friends and family have been found. Some friends and family have been lost to the sands of time that will eventually take us all. I have a child now, he just turned two.
A year passes by, and we wonder how it went by so quickly, yet as we examine that year we also wonder how so much happened, how so much occurred and so much changed. At some point last year we considered why we were preparing our hearts for Jesus again. “Haven’t I already done this?” many of us thought in some form or another. And while the answer is, “Yes, I have already done this,” perhaps we do it again because we need to.
In this last year, as life changed, as people entered our lives and people left, as we grew a little older, and hopefully just a bit wiser, we get to a point where we realize we are not quite the same people we were last year. Our experiences mold us, if ever so slightly, so we become someone different even as we are the same. So then we get to Advent and that voice from the Baptizer hits our ears again. Those familiar scriptures are read aloud again. The candles are lit in order again.
And we sit where we sat the year before needing to have Jesus again, because the truth is sometimes a year takes us back into the wilderness. Perhaps our wilderness is grief. Hospital rooms are wildernesses for many. Then again maybe it is unemployment, or psychological torment, or just something as simple as monotony. Maybe our days all mesh together and there is nothing about us that feels special or unique at all, that’s a wilderness for sure. So we sit in our little wildernesses and John’s voice is heard again, and wouldn’t you know it? We need to prepare ourselves to receive Jesus again because we need Jesus again.
Perhaps people come to church more during this time of year because somewhere deep inside of each of us is that hope that we will receive Jesus again. That life, if but for a moment, will be peaceful, hopeful, and have a bit of joy in the midst of our wildernesses. Well at least I hope that is what we will all receive, because God knows we can all use a little bit of that. And maybe that is why the church begins her year a little earlier than the rest of the world, where Christmas is toward the beginning as opposed to at the end. It is a good way to start. So let us come together once more in the spirit of preparation, hoping that we will receive Jesus once more, and thereby start another year that will change us as best we can.
Riding the Wave of the Holy Spirit,
Garrett
Somewhere the winds of the ages carry the sound of a lone voice in the wilderness which proclaimed, “I am the voice of one crying out in the wilderness, make straight the way of the Lord.” We have heard this voice before, we have heard this shout before. It comes back to us every Advent as surely as the colder weather of the winter months. It comes back to us because for some reason or another we seem to need to hear it again.
From one year to the next so much of life changes. I looked at pictures of myself from when I first arrived to Georgia three years ago. I look older now, because three years is three years even if three years isn’t that long. As I think of what the three years has brought with it there appears a constant stream of change. New friends and family have been found. Some friends and family have been lost to the sands of time that will eventually take us all. I have a child now, he just turned two.
A year passes by, and we wonder how it went by so quickly, yet as we examine that year we also wonder how so much happened, how so much occurred and so much changed. At some point last year we considered why we were preparing our hearts for Jesus again. “Haven’t I already done this?” many of us thought in some form or another. And while the answer is, “Yes, I have already done this,” perhaps we do it again because we need to.
In this last year, as life changed, as people entered our lives and people left, as we grew a little older, and hopefully just a bit wiser, we get to a point where we realize we are not quite the same people we were last year. Our experiences mold us, if ever so slightly, so we become someone different even as we are the same. So then we get to Advent and that voice from the Baptizer hits our ears again. Those familiar scriptures are read aloud again. The candles are lit in order again.
And we sit where we sat the year before needing to have Jesus again, because the truth is sometimes a year takes us back into the wilderness. Perhaps our wilderness is grief. Hospital rooms are wildernesses for many. Then again maybe it is unemployment, or psychological torment, or just something as simple as monotony. Maybe our days all mesh together and there is nothing about us that feels special or unique at all, that’s a wilderness for sure. So we sit in our little wildernesses and John’s voice is heard again, and wouldn’t you know it? We need to prepare ourselves to receive Jesus again because we need Jesus again.
Perhaps people come to church more during this time of year because somewhere deep inside of each of us is that hope that we will receive Jesus again. That life, if but for a moment, will be peaceful, hopeful, and have a bit of joy in the midst of our wildernesses. Well at least I hope that is what we will all receive, because God knows we can all use a little bit of that. And maybe that is why the church begins her year a little earlier than the rest of the world, where Christmas is toward the beginning as opposed to at the end. It is a good way to start. So let us come together once more in the spirit of preparation, hoping that we will receive Jesus once more, and thereby start another year that will change us as best we can.
Riding the Wave of the Holy Spirit,
Garrett
What Will We Give?
“But me—who am I, and who are these my people, that we should presume to be giving something to you? Everything comes from you; all we're doing is giving back what we've been given from your generous hand.” – 1 Chronicles 29:14 (The Message)
What has God given you? King David spoke these words do they still ring true? Who are we that we should presume to give something to God? What have you given back to God? What will you give back?
On Monday I went to visit with a family. It was a good visit. We shared family stories, we caught up, we laughed, it was nice. At one point someone broke in, “Hey Garrett, I think I really have to tell you this, I think God wants me to tell you this.”
“Alright,” I responded.
“I am going to be talking to teens about stewardship and that they can give their time if they have nothing else.”
“That’s a good idea,” I said.
“Well you know that time can mean as an acronym? It can mean Things Individuals Might Experience. When we give our time others might experience things they wouldn’t otherwise.” The man went on to tell me of a time when he was in his early 20s and went to visit his grandmother for a week. And together they made a quilt. It was something his grandmother loved to do, and it was a special time she cherished with her grandson. Many years later his grandmother has passed away, but it is something he cherishes still. A thing that he might not have experienced had he not given his time to someone he loved.
Sometimes giving something to others is giving something to God. One time I was leading a children’s sermon and asked the children what God looked like. This rambunctious little boy raised his hand up high and said, “God looks like me.” “Why do you say that?” I asked. “Because God lives in me,” he said with assurance of a sage much older than he was then or is now. He was right, God lives in him, and me, and you. When we give our time, we give things individuals might experience. And truly one such individual is always God. What will we give?
With hope and joy,
Garrett
What has God given you? King David spoke these words do they still ring true? Who are we that we should presume to give something to God? What have you given back to God? What will you give back?
On Monday I went to visit with a family. It was a good visit. We shared family stories, we caught up, we laughed, it was nice. At one point someone broke in, “Hey Garrett, I think I really have to tell you this, I think God wants me to tell you this.”
“Alright,” I responded.
“I am going to be talking to teens about stewardship and that they can give their time if they have nothing else.”
“That’s a good idea,” I said.
“Well you know that time can mean as an acronym? It can mean Things Individuals Might Experience. When we give our time others might experience things they wouldn’t otherwise.” The man went on to tell me of a time when he was in his early 20s and went to visit his grandmother for a week. And together they made a quilt. It was something his grandmother loved to do, and it was a special time she cherished with her grandson. Many years later his grandmother has passed away, but it is something he cherishes still. A thing that he might not have experienced had he not given his time to someone he loved.
Sometimes giving something to others is giving something to God. One time I was leading a children’s sermon and asked the children what God looked like. This rambunctious little boy raised his hand up high and said, “God looks like me.” “Why do you say that?” I asked. “Because God lives in me,” he said with assurance of a sage much older than he was then or is now. He was right, God lives in him, and me, and you. When we give our time, we give things individuals might experience. And truly one such individual is always God. What will we give?
With hope and joy,
Garrett
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)