Author Archives: Laurel

It’s a Balancing Act

Posted on by

The biggest surprise, as we learn to find balance in our everyday lives, is how we keep coming back to the topic of doing our own Yard-work. See, that’s a word picture we use to talk about what God has given us– the circle of influence or realm of responsibility for which we will be held accountable. This is at the core of emotional and spiritual and mental health, to know where your circle ends and another person’s begins, and to invest your energy within your own Yard. The Bible calls it being a wise steward. Psychologists call it being highly effective. Whatever. We just realize that life works better when we know what is ours to do and what isn’t. But who would have thought that living a life of balance and being a good steward would turn out to be so much the same sort of thing?

We talk about schedules and which of us likes to plan and which of us tends to fly by the seat of our pants, and we laugh at each other, because we know in the end that unscheduled interruptions and unexpected circumstances are common to all. What any of us can do is work wisely and well within our circle of influence, and leave the rest in God’s capable hands. Of course that is harder than it sounds, because it is in our nature to worry about the unknown– and where does Wise Preparation end, and Trying to Control the Outcome begin? It definitely takes faith, and clear vision to live purposefully in the face of a future that is known only to Someone else. Taking one step at a time. Just doing the next thing, and trusting our Father to lead us on through the expected and the unexpected. But without the balance, we will teeter-totter between chaos and rigidity, and no heart can survive that for long.

When we talk about guarding our hearts diligently, and figuring out what to sow in order to reap the life we desire, we are right back to looking at our Yards again. The Wise King warned, “Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.” (Proverbs 4:23) Because if we are not paying attention to the attitudes and values at our core, we can hardly be surprised when our choices go in all the wrong directions, or our words wreak havoc in relationships. We certainly can’t complain about how life turns out if we have left our own hearts in disarray. In gardening terms, you can’t let dandelions and crab grass take over your Yard, and then wonder why you don’t have a lush beautiful lawn. If you want the lawn, you have to do the work of weeding and watering and mowing. Balance between work and rest means taking responsibility for how we live– thinking about our yes and our no so that busyness is interspersed with marginal spaces. It means diligently pursuing health and wholeness within. It’s really just being a good steward of the person God has made you to be. The Wise King spells it out for us: “Give careful thought to the paths for your feet and be steadfast in all your ways. Do not turn to the right or the left; keep your foot from evil.” (Proverbs 4:26)

Even when we talk about balancing faith and works, it all comes down to knowing what I am responsible for and what God is responsible for. My soul is in His hands, and my eternal destination depends entirely on what the Beloved One accomplished for me at the cross. “…it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast.” (Ephesians 2:8-9) On this my faith rests, and it has nothing to do with what I can do or earn or deserve, for He has done it and given it freely. But what I choose to do out of faith has all kinds of good results– it accomplishes much that pleases Him and serves others. If I don’t  understand what is mine to do, it gets easy to veer into keeping the rules to earn righteousness, and worrying if I have done enough for God to love me.

I see a pattern emerging, that when I am out of balance in my life, in my spirit, it is because I have forgotten to some degree what is in my Yard and what isn’t. Either I am neglecting to do what is mine to do, or I am trying to extend my reach into other people’s Yards, into things I care about but aren’t mine to fix. That fundamental lack of perspective is human in every way– it’s a function of our broken sovereignty. After all, when people who were made to rule over a planet as God’s image-bearers decide instead to scrounge up their own kingdom out of dust, confusion about their actual abilities is to be expected.

Imbalance can show up as condemnation, and then Jesus says “…first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.” (Matthew 7:5) It can look like anxious thoughts that keep me up at night, and I can hear the Church-planter Paul’s words: “Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.” (Philippians 4:6) It can take the form of stress and inner turmoil, and the Wise King counsels, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.” (Proverbs 3:5-6) It can even show up as pressing need and very real fear, and again Jesus promises that “your Father knows what you need before you ask him…So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ ” (Matthew 6:8, 31) 

God’s Words reminds me over and over what is mine to do and what is outside of my control, brings me to my knees in worship before the rightful sovereign Ruler. He directs my attention back to my own Yard, where I will be most productive and healthy, and He promises to take care of all the things that concern me– assures me in every way possible of His love, and His goodness, and His power. When I am being a good steward of what He has given me, and praising God for all He does, that is when I finally find balance for all the aspects of my life.

~~~~~~~

“Therefore, my dear friends…continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose.” (Philippians 2:12)

~~~~~~~

“God I give You all I can today–
These scattered ashes that I hid away;
I lay them all at Your feet.
From the corners of my deepest shame,
The empty places where I’ve worn Your name.
Show me the love I say I believe.

Help me to lay it down.
Oh Lord I lay it down…
Oh let this be where I die;
My Lord with thee crucified
Be lifted high, as my Kingdom’s fall
Once and for all, once and for all.”
(Once and for All, Lauren Daigle)

 

Of Juggling and Digging for Treasure

Posted on by

I have become good at the circus act…like most women I know. Juggling, wearing of many hats, role-changes in a matter of minutes. The fact is, our busy lives pretty much require this kind of skill on a daily basis. It’s a balancing act to keep up with everyone’s schedules, switch gears between work and relationships and ministry and household tasks that simply must be done so that people have clean shirts to wear and  hot dinner on the table, and somehow keep my own person and relationships intact. But I am good with details and organizing, and sometimes it seems like I can just keep adding more in, if I organize it right….just one more small piece here and there, and if I just shift this over a bit I can fit one more thing in that spot.

With that kind of mindset, having a relationship with God can become just one more thing to fit in, another plate to keep spinning in this big juggling act.

But the satisfaction in being a Woman Who Can Juggle Many Plates is short-lived, and I heard someone say it again today, that we have learned how to “live crazy” and are working hard to teach our kids the same. When did we ever get the idea that doing more is what makes us more– that doing a lot is the same as doing well? My parents always said “If you are going to do something, do it well.” But back then it meant quality over quantity. It  meant taking your time to think it through and do it well, so that you could be satisfied with what you accomplished. No regrets. That proverb applies to projects and tasks. It applies to lives, and if I only have one of those with no chance to do it over, then it makes sense to take the time to evaluate its quality….make sure I am living well.

Jesus told His closest friends that “The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. Then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.” (Matthew 13:44) The reaction of this man in the story seems old-fashioned, somehow, and narrow-minded. My first thought is how much simpler life was back then, that this guy would sell everything for the sake of something he found in a field of dirt. But that’s not the point at all, is it?  The story is about the sheer value of knowing God, and the sensible response when you realize that fact. The man lays down his entire juggling act– trades it all in for the precious possession of a relationship with God. Get that one treasure and nothing else really matters. The Church-planter Paul said it this way “But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ…” (Philippians 3:7-9) It sounds almost too simple to be true, and calls into question the busy-ness we have come to accept as necessary.

But what if the Circus of Everyday Life is just part of the Enemy’s fog cover? What if all the urgent demands for our time and attention are not as vital as they appear? What if more isn’t better, and everything we are chasing after is nothing more than a school of red herrings? While the real treasure is buried quietly in the clay and could easily be passed over, unawares. Or worse yet, snatched up with only a passing glance and added into the spinning plates I can manage.

It’s not like you have to be a farmer digging around in the dirt to find treasure; Paul was on the road to Damascus, breathing fire and seething hatred against the new sect that claimed Jesus had risen from the dead. He was ready to kill them all, if it meant preserving the life he was used to– mind you, he was quite good at organizing thoughts and words and people. Until Jesus (aflame in His resurrected power) burst in on the traveler, and everything Paul had been doing suddenly meant nothing in light of the glory of God. He just laid it all down there in the middle of the road and it didn’t even matter that his physical eyes were blinded, because the eyes of his spirit had seen the Kingdom of Heaven and his heart was bursting full of joy. Later on he would say that God ”made His light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of God’s glory displayed in the face of Christ. But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us.” (2 Corinthians 4:6-7) It was the man in the field all over again.

And really, isn’t that how this treasure comes to us, in earthen flesh? A miraculous Baby in a dirty manger….the Son of God walking these fields and laying His head down at night….a  perfect Lamb dying on a hillside….a Body buried in a rocky cave for only a little while….until one morning it wasn’t. The treasure of the Kingdom of Heaven hidden in plain sight, and maybe it’s not so much a matter of digging around to find it, as it is opening our eyes to finally see what is truly valuable.

Maybe rushing around in this balancing circus-act is actually as crazy as it feels sometimes, and giving up everything we possess to gain Christ and His righteousness is the most perfectly sane and reasonable choice on earth. It’s worth considering.

~~~~~~~

“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.” (Matthew 5:6)

~~~~~~~

“Busy is a choice. Stress is a choice. Joy is a choice. You get to choose. Choose well.” (Ann VosKamp)

Winds of Change

Posted on by

Sometimes you just feel stuck, in so many ways. When you are trying to pursue the good and do what is right, but old ways keep hanging on, and sometimes you wonder if you are really making a difference or growing at all. When your heart feels like it’s broken, and you know life isn’t easy for anyone, and none of us get to choose our own crosses, but who can show you how to carry this one? When what comes next seems impossible to face, but there’s no other way to go except forward. We all get stuck sometimes, when life isn’t what we want it to be and we wish we were somewhere else.

But no matter how much it feels like standing still on the inside, the currents of time and change are carrying us through day after day on the outside, and before we know it the landscape is beginning to look different, and we are awakening to new perspectives. It’s like when you were a child on a long road trip and falling asleep somewhere on the endless winding highway, only to wake up hours later in a whole different state. Setting us in time might be just one more Divine mercy, because as much as we wish we could hold onto the precious moments, there are far too many moments that would destroy us if they lasted beyond their God-given limits. Indeed, this is how God holds out hope to us– He points us forward, always, opening our eyes to what is ahead. “See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.” (Isaiah 43:19) But His work is more like the  gradual nurturing and nudging of a gardener than the radical renovating of a construction crew. Jesus described the Holy Spirit like the wind that moves invisibly around us– we can see and feel its effects here and there, and only if we are watching for it.

For everyone who feels stuck in whatever circumstance or in feelings that just won’t go away, Jesus’ beloved disciple John reminds us tenderly that we are in process, and the happy ending is yet to come: “Beloved, we are now children of God, and what we will be has not yet been revealed. We know that when Christ appears, we will be like Him, for we will see Him as He is.” (1 John 2:28) As real as our experience is in this river of Time, we are constantly being reminded that there is an unseen realm as well, that operates by different principles– and someday we will be able to step easily out of this current, with eyes wide open, onto the banks of a new land. This is our hope, anchored in Christ’s sacrifice of blood and in the love of the Father that moved heaven and earth to reach us before we drowned. The Church-Planter Paul frequently reminded the early believers of the reality of this hope, because he knew how easy it is to get discouraged here. “For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.” (2 Corinthians 4:17-18)

So hang in there, and keep your eyes open for what God is going to do for you. There is truly only one thing that never changes: “The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; His mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness.” (Lamentations 3:22-23)  Everything else is in constant slow process under God’s watchful eyes.

~~~~~~~

“So we’re not giving up. How could we! Even though on the outside it often looks like things are falling apart on us, on the inside, where God is making new life, not a day goes by without his unfolding grace. These hard times are small potatoes compared to the coming good times, the lavish celebration prepared for us. There’s far more here than meets the eye. The things we see now are here today, gone tomorrow. But the things we can’t see now will last forever.” (2 Corinthians 4:18, The Message)

~~~~~~~

“The cross you’ve been given — is always God’s kindest decision. The cross you carry — is carrying you toward who you are meant to be.” (Ann VosKamp)

 

A Mother’s Super-Power

Posted on by

The world is a scary place, maybe for mothers most of all. Whether we are sending our baby girl off to preschool for the first time, or releasing our young men to pursue their dreams, our hearts race on ahead of them, and we are profoundly aware of all the ways the world will hurt and confound them…how swiftly and irrevocably tragedy can fall. Any mother can tell you, we would face lions to keep safe the ones we love. And any mother can tell you, we know there are so many giants out there that our growing-up children will have to face alone. This is the particular strength and vulnerability of a mother’s heart.

But we are not alone with our fears and we are far from helpless, because the God who made us designed our hearts to look like His, to mirror the nurturing care He has for all His creation. Jesus reminds us that His Father God feeds all the little songbirds; He watches when they fly and when they fall. The same Creator who tells Job that He keeps track of when the wild goats give birth, describes Himself as “a bear robbed of her cubs” to the prophet Hosea. He appeals to a mother’s love as the highest standard, to help us understand how He feels: “Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has borne? Though she may forget, I will not forget you!” (Isaiah 49:15) It is one of the most intimate and passionate promises in the Scriptures.

Perhaps this is one reason that many women become such warriors in their prayers: expressing their hearts to God’s in that shared intensity for the needs and well-being of others, a common language of love. Women like this are affirming Paul’s conviction that “neither death nor life…nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8:38-39) Although our children will certainly face monsters in this world…of bigotry, of injustice, of violence, of harsh words and harder consequences, of war and disease and heartbreak…yet we understand God’s heart and we say with Paul, “if God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but gave Him up for us all—how will He not also, along with Him, graciously give us all things?” (Romans 8:31-32) All the monstrous evil in this world is overcome with the blood of the Lamb, God’s own fierce sacrifice of love for us, and nothing has the power to destroy us in the shadow of His Cross.

So we can stand firm on truth in the midst of a frightening world, and be who God made us to be. We can teach our children to know their Creator and follow His ways, so that they have a foundation on which to build. We can show them how to live with integrity, how to walk in faith, and how to serve in love. We can pray with them and for them in Jesus’ mighty Name and claim His protection over them.

And we can rest our hearts in knowing that He loves our children even more than we do, and He is at work in their lives as He has been in our own. We can trust His love and faithfulness to follow them all the days of their lives. This we can do, as mothers, and take captive every fear.

~~~~~~~

“The LORD is my light and my salvation– whom shall I fear? The LORD is the stronghold of my life– of whom shall I be afraid?… Though an army besiege me, my heart will not fear; though war break out against me, even then I will be confident.” (Psalm 27:1, 3)

~~~~~~~

“Peace be still, You are near
There’s nowhere we can go
That You won’t shine redemption’s light
Our guilt withdrawn
As You rise, we come alive
The grave has lost, the old is gone
And You’re making all things new
You are making all things new
You are making all things new
And we are free”
(All Things New, Elevation)

Speaking from the Heart

Posted on by

As we explore the topic of silence, it is inevitable that we talk about the words we speak. Not only does practicing silence require us to speak less and listen more, but it also gets at the heart of the matter– specifically the heart that is in us. We are seeing more and more how listening to God is a heart-stillness, a heart-readiness, a heart-focus, rather than an outer condition or environment. At some point it seems reasonable to turn that inside out, and look at how our changing inner hearts will affect the words that come out of us.

It’s pretty straightforward cause and effect, that a heart tuned toward Self will produce words that promote your welfare and your concerns…and the more one’s heart is consumed with God, the more your words start to reflect His beauty, His nature, His concerns. Similarly, when you are filled with thankfulness for His blessings, it’s much harder to complain on the outside. When your heart longs for more of His beauty and goodness, the words to make yourself the center of attention just don’t even seem to matter any more. This connection between heart and words is predictable enough to be plotted on a graph. And we laughed ruefully as a group, about the mathematics of words…how a greater volume of words leads to increased potential for the wrong ones coming out, and for useless chatter…and how we women are good at using words. (Sobering when you realize that in terms of sheer verbal potential, women are twice as likely as men to let their tongues get into trouble.)

But looking at the math does make you consider the words you speak in a day and how you will spend them…makes you take a long look at what is inside of you. Jesus put it in more agrarian terms when he said a tree is known by the fruit it produces. “No good tree bears bad fruit, nor does a bad tree bear good fruit.” (Luke 6:43) But His point is the same, that words and actions grow out of the soil of a person’s heart. It may take awhile to look past the showy leaves and bright colors, but the proof is always in the quality of the fruit.

James borrows the analogy and adds the idea of a water well, mocking the idea that you can draw both good and bad water out of the same place. We all understand how what is inside is eventually going to bubble up into our speech, even if we are trying very hard to keep our mouths shut. So rather than figuring out ways to guard our tongues, it seems like we would do better to guard our hearts– and then here we are, back to the value of cultivating silence before God. When the insides are silent and resting in His presence, that kind of thing can’t help but show up on the outside. And it’s starting to sound a lot like what Paul was encouraging us to do: “Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise.” (Philippians 4:8)  A heart that is focused on Him and full of praise for who He is, is going to overflow into words that are “helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.” (Ephesians 4:28) 

Lord, help us to keep putting these things into practice in our everyday lives, “and let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up.” (Galatians 6:9)

~~~~~~~

“Simply to refrain from talking, without a heart listening to God , is not silence.” (Richard Foster)

~~~~~~~

“A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in a setting of silver.” (Proverbs 25:11)

 

In The Silence

Posted on by

You would think silence would be an easy thing to practice. I mean, really…is it even something you can Do? Or is it more of a Not-Doing? And yet it is oddly difficult to choose silence, and do it repeatedly, consistently. We tend to consider it a moment of happenstance, however welcome it may come, or maybe something to pursue every now and then if we are unusually overwhelmed by normal life. My brother-in-law flees to the woods and the mountains periodically in his year, deliberately exchanging his busy people-oriented life for the peace and quiet of nature for a week or two to re-charge his emotional batteries. Several mothers I know would probably settle for a half hour alone anywhere, for any purpose, even locked in the bathroom…and even that is no guarantee of actual silence. As a regular spiritual practice, it seems rather foreign to us (or maybe a little too mystical) and we wonder how exactly one goes about such a thing and why it matters.

The late author/professor Dallas Willard suggests that we practice silence in two ways: by evading noise and intrusive sounds (whether traffic, or Pandora radio, or alarms, or kitchen appliances) and by avoiding talk. Not that any of these are bad things, but they do distract and clutter our minds and spirits with constant noise that requires us to multi-task just to function. Because we are surrounded by such noise from birth, we are hardly even aware of it as a stressor. Our ears and brains have grown accustomed to filtering out what we deem unnecessary and focusing on whatever we need in the moment, and often partially focusing on several things at once. It doesn’t feel like hard work at all– it feels like normalcy. And therein lies the subtle misdirection of our energies, so that normal everyday surroundings claim more and more of our attention, our brains grow used to the constant distractions….and silence becomes more and more an occasional oddity.

It shouldn’t be surprising then, that we rarely sink into the contemplative awareness that lets us examine our hearts and connect with God meaningfully. I wonder how many of us Christ-followers are withering away on the inside from chronic neglect of the spirit while we chase after the tyranny of the urgent on the outside? So our challenge this week is to try out silence, like a new dress in a clothing store– just trying on ten minutes a day of retreating and listening to the quiet, turning our attention towards our Heavenly Father.

It may be harder than it seems, to create that small respite from the noise. Now that I am looking for the silence, I am discovering how loud my world actually is, and how hard it is to pull away from the constant input, even if it is only the quiet noise of written words. For me, silence won’t happen on its own, and if I don’t intentionally step off the merry-go-round to grow this healthy habit I will just keep whirling around in the familiar sensory overload.

And of course when you start looking for silence it doesn’t take you long to realize that outer silence does not guarantee inner stillness. You can find quiet places and still have the inner roar of thoughts and emotions. But the silence is a place to start. Not for His sake (as if He requires the silence to speak to us), but for ours, so we are in a place where we can hear Him. Because God is always with us and His Spirit is always speaking to His own, if we have ears to hear. Jesus said “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.” (John 10:27) It’s as much a heart issue as it is an ears issue; what you actually hear often depends on what you value…what you are seeking. Those who are serious about following the Good Shepherd want to catch His every word, will drop everything to listen to Him….don’t care about normal as much as they care about growing closer to Him. I suspect that as we train ourselves to be still and listen in God’s presence, we will discover great riches in the silence. And in the silence we will be able to agree with David, “The Lord is my shepherd, I have all that I need. He lets me rest in green meadows; he leads me beside peaceful streams.” (Psalm 23:1-2)

~~~~~~~

“Our habits unclothe us — they expose our wounds, our insecurities, our idols, our addictions — or our hopes, our dreams, our prayers. Our habits are us. The patterns of our lives reveal the form of our souls….You change your life when you change what you do everyday.” (Ann VosKamp)

~~~~~~~

“For the word of God is alive and powerful. It is sharper than the sharpest two-edged sword, cutting between soul and spirit, between joint and marrow. It exposes our innermost thoughts and desires.” (Hebrews 4:12)

Carried

Posted on by

For the days when the weight of this world seem too heavy to bear, and you wonder if you are going to make it, remember that He is big enough to carry us all. The brokenness of our sin and disease….the heart-wounds and empty places of our lives….all the peoples of the world crying out for deliverance….there is the Cross at the center of our human existence, the sacrifice of our Savior answering with His own flesh and blood: “I am the Way and the Truth and the Life.” (John 14:6)

On days like this He is the only place to run. “The name of the Lord is a strong tower; the righteous man runs into it and is safe.” (Proverbs 18:10)

~~~~~~~

“Take this fainted heart
Take these tainted hands
Wash me in Your love
Come like grace again
Even when my strength is lost I’ll praise You
Even when I have no song I’ll praise You
Even when it’s hard to find the words
Louder then I’ll sing Your praise
I will only sing Your praise…”
(Praise Song, Hillsong United)

~~~~~~~

“Give all your worries and cares to God, for He cares about you. Stay alert! Watch out for your great enemy, the devil. He prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour. Stand firm against him, and be strong in your faith. Remember that your family of believers all over the world is going through the same kind of suffering you are.”
(1 Peter 5:7-9)

Keeping It Simple

Posted on by

Feeling thankful this week for the wise words from other pilgrims on this Faith-journey, and how they inspire and challenge us. When you read their words from long ago and are amazed at how much you resonate with their spiritual experiences, there is a certain sense of soul-satisfaction– a relief that you are not alone. That is also the best part of being in a small group, of course. The encouragement and prayers of brothers and sisters in Christ accomplish for me far more than my own solitary efforts could ever manage.

But I also see how comparing ourselves with others becomes one more way we complicate our walk with Christ. Somehow we get the idea that if we can’t pray or teach or give or send cards like someone else, we are not doing well as a Christian; maybe God prefers people who dress a certain way or like to read the Christian best-sellers. Surely there is some kind of point system to all this, and surely we could be doing better. That feeling of not measuring up can be downright paralyzing. After all, how do we know how much is enough, to feel close to God and have that abundant Christian life we truly desire? And here we are– just ordinary women who often fall asleep in the middle of our prayer lists at night.

As we wrestle with implementing basic good habits for spiritual health, let’s not get off-course by setting up impossible standards for ourselves. No matter how many hours you’ve heard so-and-so spends in her prayer closet (before dawn, no less!), or how many times another one has read through the Bible…no matter whether you feel heart-hungry or ready-to-give-up…let’s not forget that all God asks of you is that you choose His way right this moment. Just make the effort and show up, expecting Him to meet you. He will not let you down. Whether you read one verse or fifty. Whether you pray with your eyes closed or open, indoors or outdoors, in stillness or in chaos. Whether you feel His presence or not. “Trust in him at all times, you people; pour out your hearts to him, for God is our refuge.” (Psalm 62:8) The testimony of millions of saints who have gone before us stands as a reminder (maybe even a challenge) that there is nothing in life that is more vital to our inner health and well-being than time with our loving Father. Just do it. Any way that works for you. Today, and again tomorrow, and over and over again, until it is a lifestyle.

Ours is the choosing to spend time with Him; His is the fruit that will grow from our actions. Sometimes the choice comes out of our desperate need; sometimes only out of obedience. Regardless, it is better than not showing up at all. He will not fail to speak to us if our hearts are ready to listen. There is no magic formula for success in the Christian life. There is just real life and a real God who wants to be right there in the middle of it. Don’t let anyone complicate this matter for you.

~~~~~~~

“Whoever has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me. The one who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love them and show myself to them.” (John 14:21)

~~~~~~~

“Most important though is…our deciding on some time and duration and sticking to it, at least for a trial period of a few weeks.  This means that once we’ve decided to do it, we treat it like brushing our teeth: it is just something we “do,” without agonizing over it each time.  Brushing our teeth, once it’s a habit, is very simple.  So is prayer time.  If we leave open a crack for “re-deciding” every day, then it becomes complicated. We’ve undercut the very simplicity that prayer time can reveal.”  (Tilden H. Edwards)

The Simple Lifestyle

Posted on by

We have been carefully avoiding concrete measurements and formulas, in our discussions of simplicity, mostly because we do not want to obscure the very real internal issues at stake. It would be far too easy to get distracted by controversial details and completely misunderstand what practicing simplicity means in our lives. Not to mention that coming up with one visible standard to lay across all our backs (to make sure we are measuring up) is nothing more than forging chains of man-made expectations; Jesus warned us about our hypocritical tendency to tie other people up into tidy bundles.

So let’s revisit the truths we’ve been distilling, drop by drop, gaze into that quiet pool of clear water and breathe deep, let it sink in where the Holy Spirit can make His own connections to life. Simplicity is trusting God for life itself. It is total dependence on His provision and the resulting freedom from anxiety and fear. It is a focus of heart and mind and life on the “pearl of great price” that we Christ-followers have discovered in the Kingdom of Heaven, seeing everything else falling into new perspectives because of that focus.

And let’s not overlook the fact that at some point these truths are going to have to push their way into the Everyday, both in large and small ways. Perhaps even in some startling life-upheaval ways. Otherwise simplicity is just one more nice idea. But that is between your heart and God’s Spirit. We are babes at this, so we stand and lurch forward a few steps, maybe even take off at a tip-toe run across new wide open spaces, only to lose our balance and fall flat a moment later. It’s all in a day’s growth. He will show us where we need to change, and how much is enough. That’s why we use the phrase spiritual practice or spiritual discipline (training) when we talk about learning these new habits.

It is perhaps encouraging to remember that this does not come naturally to us– mistrust comes naturally…wanting to control my own world comes naturally…following my emotions comes naturally. These are the old-way habits I am trying to unlearn. Only the Spirit of God living in me can open my eyes to how beautiful a simple dependence on my Creator can be. It takes His divine power at work in my heart to shift my viewpoint to realize how unnecessarily I complicate my life with worries, how I get tangled up with rationalization and desire for others’ approval and wanting things. Only Jesus’ grace will cover the mistakes I make and give me the courage to try again. And His strong arms will guide me and protect me as I go on.

So when we slide back into old ways we will get back up on our feet, with the Spirit’s help, and follow after Jesus with our baby steps, and keep on putting these truths into practice, until someday we can look back and see how far we have come, just like any child growing up under a parent’s loving watchful care. The important thing is that we practice this new habit of simplicity over and over again, knowing it is for our own spiritual health…keep listening and obeying. Life is much simpler when we do.

~~~~~~~

“Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with Me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.”
(Jesus in Matthew 11:29-30, The Message)

~~~~~~~

“At every moment,God’s Will produces what is needful for the task at hand, and the simple soul, instructed by faith, finds everything as it should be and wants neither more nor less than whatever it has.” (Jean-Pierre de Caussade)

It’s Simple, Really

Posted on by

Things get complicated as soon as we start talking about simplifying. Bring up the very idea of simplicity in life and people start looking for formulas and measuring sticks. We want to know how much we have to give up and still be able to claim the label of simplicity…or maybe, more accurately, how much we can hang onto. And are we talking just about quantity or are we addressing quality as well? Because maybe we could just downsize with a big yard sale, or start shopping at the Dollar Store. And do we really need to apply this to our calendars and being able to say no? (Now everyone’s feeling quite nervous, because isn’t our love measured by how much we are willing to do for our families?) It doesn’t even help to put simplicity in terms of an attitude or perspective. It’s just too foreign a concept for most of us twenty-first century consumers to wrap our heads around– and yet it is something we long for, on some level, so what are we missing, here? Maybe in our looking for answers we are making it more complicated than it really is.

The very freedom and abundance we prize has saddled us with complexity. If you have found yourself standing in the hair care aisle looking for the right product, you understand the difficulty, here. To most of us freedom means options…and options mean choices…and choices mean time and comparisons and evaluation. Abundance ensures freedom. All of which keeps us focused on what we want and the means to getting what we want, which tends to be a time-consuming business.

But what if we have it all backwards? What if all the judicious comparing of products and value and quality that makes us feel well-informed and in control are actually symptoms of lives thrown wildly off-balance? What if true freedom means ignoring all the distracting options to get to what matters most, so you can make the best choices? What if we are not even meant to be consumers, but beloved children instead? What if we are working hard to make our own lives very complicated and stressful, when all along we were meant to find our purpose in peace and simplicity?

Jesus implied as much when He warned His followers, “No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other.” (Matthew 6:24) Trying to hang onto too many different things brings only conflict and turmoil– apparently we only have room for one thing at the center of our hearts. So simplicity is not about how much you have, or how much money you make, or even about how busy you are. It’s about what drives you, what you are focusing on– or to enter into Jesus’ word picture, who we are devoted to. Big-Brother James says clearly that God wants that heart’s focus to be on Himself and Him alone: “God is passionate that the spirit He has placed within us should be faithful to Him.” (James 4:5) Simplicity is trusting in God alone because I have learned that there is no one else like Him, and nothing else that can satisfy. It is total dependence on Him that results in thankfulness for all the ways He provides for me. Lose that focus, and life gets complicated very quickly with all sorts of worries, and fears, and wants, and things we try to hold onto.

Simply put, the more single your focus, the more simple your life is. Repeatedly James urges us to see the benefits: “A double minded man is unstable in all his ways.” (James 1:8) So here we are, back to talking about desiring the Kingdom of God first and more than anything else in life. When your heart has that single purpose, everything else begins to fall into perspective and serve that heart’s desire. Not simple in the sense of easy (these are new spiritual habits we are building, after all) but a simple perspective and uncomplicated results. I have a feeling it is what we have been longing for all along.

~~~~~~~

“This is what the Sovereign LORD, the Holy One of Israel, says: ‘In repentance and rest is your salvation, in quietness and trust is your strength….'” (Isaiah 30:15)

~~~~~~~

“Thou hast formed us for Thyself, and our hearts are restless till they find rest in Thee.” (Augustine, Confessions (Book 1)