The Simple Lifestyle

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.

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“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)

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“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

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.

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“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)

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

Wise Words for Winds of Change

“Do you have any words of wisdom?” she asked earnestly across the table. And truly, I had none. Or at least none that sounded sage enough to offer to someone I barely knew. Because in my experience there is no way to fix what she was going through, no best solution that makes it bearable. There’s only getting up every day and choosing to be thankful, choosing to set your heart and mind on God and what He wants. There’s only making the right decisions one day at a time and leaning hard on Jesus with all your wild emotions, trusting that He loves you and is working out good for you. Truly, that is all there is, and some days it feels like precious little. I managed to mumble something in the moment, but mostly what I felt was embarrassment at having no profound and encouraging words polished up and ready to go.

As I sit here almost a week later, it is sinking in that this is all any of us have, when we are facing grief or change. There is no shortcut to the other side of loss. Feelings simply must have their space, and words must be said, and you just have to face each rising difficulty as it comes. Might as well square yourself to meet it head on and push through, because the circumstances themselves won’t go away. But we are not alone in our chaos and storm, and maybe that is enough. Because this I know from experience also, that Jesus stands beside, whether we can see Him or not, and you can hear Him whispering in the dark, “Come to Me… and I will give you rest.” (Matthew 11:29) In the midst of any upheaval, we can prove the Musician-King’s words to be true for ourselves: “For You are my rock and my fortress; and for Your name’s sake You lead me and guide me…” (Psalm  31:3) It is ordinary one-day-at-a-time perseverance, and it is extraordinary mercy that holds you, until one day you find that the loss doesn’t cut quite so deep, and hope is springing up unexpectedly.

“It doesn’t sound like much to offer as “words of wisdom,” but I wish I could tell her that she is not alone, and that truly is enough.

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“Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have summoned you by name; you are Mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze.” (Isaiah 43:1-2)

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“I have heard You calling my name
I have heard the song of love that You sing
So I will let You draw me out beyond the shore
Into Your grace… Your grace.”
(You Make Me Brave, Bethel Music)

What the Birds Already Know

A watercolor of a single bird hangs on my bedroom wall, a lovely study in blues and browns floating almost without context in its frame– no leaves or world beyond, just the huddled bird perched quietly on its branch, the way they do when they settle in. I saw the canvas in the window of a gallery in the southwest, while we were on vacation, and immediately the words of Isaiah 26:3 came to mind: “You will keep in perfect peace those whose minds are steadfast, because they trust in You.” It always strikes me how in the big wide world of winds and storms and predators and limitless skies, the songbirds fly fearless: fragile creatures of bone, and feather, and beating heart that live in simple trust.

Jesus said that all His creatures can live that way, because they know the Creator and trust His care of them. Lilies and sparrows alike have everything they need under His watchful gaze. Jesus even uses their total trust as evidence that we are needlessly worried for ourselves. He lays it out there as if the logic should be self-evident, as if our lack of understanding borders on the absurd: “If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today, and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, how much more will he clothe you—you of little faith!” (Luke 12:28) 

Could it be that much of our stress and pressure and complex lives is self-inflicted and utterly unnecessary? Jesus stands firm on a simple theological truth that God is the Creator and takes care of all His creatures. Indeed, it is His job, as the Ruler of all, and the glory of His Name depends on it. That sounds so very basic and sensible, almost too simple to be true. But Jesus is reminding us of something that we actually once knew, a truth we lost long ago in the Garden: that our job was to work well for Him and be satisfied and fulfilled, and His job was to take care of us. Way back then, the Enemy planted in Eve’s heart the small fear that God had some hidden agenda, that perhaps He did not have our best interests in mind after all. That one small idea burrowed its way into the heart of us and grew the bitter fruit of mistrust, crowding out the simple dependence on the Creator that had once come naturally. And so we headed out into the world in all our blustering self-sufficiency, determined to prove we could do life on our own and maybe do it better…who knew what a weight of stress and striving and worry we were also claiming.

By now the contrast between those who truly know their Maker, and those who do not is quite evident. Jesus says it shows up clearly in what we are chasing after.  “…Do not set your heart on what you will eat or drink; do not worry about it. For the pagan world runs after all such things, and your Father knows that you need them.” (Luke 12:29) Those who do not live trustingly in a good Father’s care run and chase and build and fret. But if we know the Father is taking care of our needs, that frees us up to pursue His Kingdom with our whole hearts, a much more rewarding endeavor in the long run. Jesus emphasizes His promise “…seek His kingdom, and these things will be given to you as well.” (Luke 12:31)

As we pursue simplicity then, we are being called back to  an understanding of ourselves as creatures under the Maker’s painstaking care. The Great One who “counts the stars  and calls them all by name” (Psalm 147:4) is fully aware of my needs for today and quite capable of providing the resources to fill them. And I can choose whether to live in trust that whatever He gives me today is enough, or to worry that He won’t provide and run around to find more. This daily minute-by-minute choice to trust is a spiritual exercise, a habit we are building, a peace and simplicity we are discovering. Every time I see that bird on his branch, I remember.

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“Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground outside your Father’s care.” (Matthew 10:29)

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“So I will call upon Your name,
And keep my eyes above the waves;
When oceans rise,
My soul will rest in Your embrace,
For I am Yours and You are mine…”
(Oceans, Hillsong)

Three Cheers for the Tortoise

I have always thought perseverance is the boring virtue. I mean, let’s face it: love is beautiful…gentleness has a soft warm glow to it…integrity is noble and strong…even patience has a certain sense of satisfaction to it. But perseverance is just ordinary. Keeping on with the everyday of what you’ve been given, and then doing it all again tomorrow. Even when it’s hard. Even when no one notices. Even when it’s not where you want to be.  Perseverance is a slow steady progress that is easy to disparage. It’s like in Aesop’s old story about the tortoise and the hare, where the fast hare is so confident in his abilities to win that he doesn’t even take the race seriously.

And really, who wants to be like the tortoise in the story? No one wants to keep plodding along slow and steady when there are others out there flashing by, to the cheers of the crowd. (And wouldn’t we all rather have life come easily, with plenty of time to play in the meadow and take naps?) Sure, the tortoise won the race, but it wasn’t even through any skill or cleverness or strength on his part. All he had to do was keep on going. Anyone could have beaten the hare with that kind of mindset. But of course that is precisely the point. Visible skill means nothing if it makes you careless. Confidence and charm are pointless if you are going to quit running in favor of indulging yourself, before you hit the finish line. In the long run the character quality of perseverance may matter more than buckets of talent and ability, and not just in results. God says it’s actually a matter of who you are becoming on the inside.

Specifically, God says dull old perseverance is a building block of our character. When life gets tough and we find that things don’t come naturally to us, we get to choose whether to run away or to face the pain and let Him use it to grow us. The Apostle Paul drew a straight line to connect our hard times and strength of character, encouraged the young believers this way: “…we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope.” (Romans 5:3-4) It is that nitty-gritty virtue of perseverance that makes the difference. “And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.” (Romans 5:5) Perseverance is the holding-on strength that takes us from the growing to the good set before us. And it comes by the Holy Spirit at work in us with His power, just like all the other virtues. I need the help, because my own determination wears out after awhile, especially when life gets difficult and complicated.

Perseverance is what makes you give grace to that person and try to communicate better, to work together, instead of walking away….even though your heart is hurting. Because healthy relationships matter.

Perseverance makes you clean up one more mess….drag yourself out of bed one more time….listen to one more story of playground drama… when what you really want is just eight solid hours of sleep, or a quiet cup of coffee on the porch. Because you know they are worth it.

Perseverance is what keeps you praying long and hard until you have God’s answer. No matter how long it takes. Because you trust His love and His power and His timing.

Perseverance pushes you to face another day of the same old thing: of errands and phone calls and workday and chores that will need to be done again tomorrow. Because these hidden acts of service laid down with love and prayer are building a home and nurturing lives that will last beyond this world.

I guess the older I get, the more I value the simple virtue of slow and steady progress. Perseverance is about focus and determination– being willing to make many small right choices over and over, because you have your eyes out ahead on a bigger goal. It’s having faith that all those smaller, more boring choices are adding up to something wonderful just because God says so. It is simple obedience in the everyday, according to Paul: “And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.” (Colossians 3:17) Hang in there and keep on going– as old Aesop the storyteller said, “slow and steady wins the race.” And this Faith-race above all, is worth winning.

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“For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, mutual affection; and to mutual affection, love. For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.” (2 Peter 1:5-8)

Of Eggs and Lambs and Waiting for Easter

I almost missed what the preacher said, right there in the middle of the music and the Lord’s Supper and my fingers already moving to play the next notes. “We don’t know how broken we are. And we don’t know how loved we are.”  It wasn’t until the next day that it sank in deep enough to feel…right through into the Humpty-Dumpty heart of me.

Here in the middle of Lent, with the cross set before us, we are taking time to face our own sin. Our self-indulgence, our lack of love, our pride, our vain ambition for things that are passing away. And maybe the worst part of our sorrow, in the most honest quiet moments, is the dim realization that no matter how much we can look at our brokenness, God sees more. Not just a matter of what we can know, but a matter of moral capacity…how much we are able to fathom, to feel, to bear in our spirits. He is the only One who understands just how diseased we are– the bone-deep fragility of men and women afflicted with sin. We are without excuse, without remedy, without hope even on our best days, although most of us have learned to cover up nicely, or at least distract ourselves from what we cannot put together again.

The Prophet Isaiah puts it out there in livestock terms: “We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way…” (Isaiah 53:6) We may not have much personal experience with sheep, but anyone who has ever tried to shepherd a group of more than five children on an outing can grasp the general idea. I think it’s safe to assume that sheep are never fully aware of their path, or where it is leading them, or just how dangerous it is for them to be out there alone. I heard someone say once that “It’s not that sheep are stupid…it’s just that they are completely defenseless.” Indeed.

I have no defenses against the selfishness and death that eat away at my life, nor any defense in the face of the standards that I can’t measure up to. But Isaiah finishes his thought...”and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.”  My sin-disease and personal culpability laid fully on Someone Else big enough to bear both– on Jesus, the One Isaiah said was “like a lamb that is led to the slaughter.” (Isaiah 53:7)

In this middle-gray land of March, halfway between death and life, there is also time to hear the Love that calls us. And isn’t that what we all need here, when we are looking death in the face?…To see beyond its wretched ugliness and finality, into the eyes of the Beloved One, who carries our death on His own shoulders, lays it into the ground, and leaves it there? “Surely he took up our pain and bore our suffering…” (Isaiah 53:4) Here in the middle of Lent, the only way we will even be able to face the rubble inside, is if we can also see Love’s glorious broken body standing in the middle of it.  “But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on Him, and by His wounds we are healed.” (Isaiah 53:5)

And I have no defense against Love like this.

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“We are His portion and He is our prize,
Drawn to redemption by the grace in His eyes–
If grace is an ocean, we’re all sinking.
So heaven meets earth like an unforeseen kiss,
And my heart turns violently inside of my chest.
I don’t have time to maintain these regrets
when I think about the way
He loves us…
Oh how He loves us.”
(How He Loves, John Mark McMillan)

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“Forty days, I am reflecting on my cross, my sins….Looking hard for release from this messy body of death. And there is Jesus. Jesus with a crown of thorns. Jesus bent low, God carrying my rotting mess, Grace doing what I cannot do, and I cannot ascend to God but He will descend to me….

Jesus will have to do everything. He will have to accomplish it all. I am ashes and I am dust and I am in dire need and Lent has given me clear eyes to see my sin and I am the one broken under all this skin.” (Ann VosKamp)

 

 

Take Heart

As the sun warms and life quickens, here in early Spring…as the icy hold of death is cracked loose, slips away like a dark dream in the face of bright dawn arising…as we turn our faces toward Resurrection Day, there is this Word for all those holding onto hope:

“Look up into the heavens. Who created all the stars? He brings them out like an army, one after another, calling each by its name. Because of His great power and incomparable strength, not a single one is missing….how can you say the Lord does not see your troubles?…how can you say God ignores your rights? Have you never heard? Have you never understood? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of all the earth. He never grows weak or weary. No one can measure the depths of His understanding….He will feed His flock like a shepherd. He will carry the lambs in His arms, holding them close to His heart. He will gently lead the mother sheep with their young.” (Isaiah 40:26-28, 11)

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“Courage is what is elemental to living — composed of two parts fierce hope, and one part wild believing.
It’s hope that can create a quake that cracks all despair.
It’s hope that stands in your dark with a lamp lit with prayers.
And it isn’t the likelihood of your hope that sustains you, but the object of your hope that sustains you.
We lay our hope, full and tender, into the depths of Him.”
(Ann Voskamp)

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“All this pain
I wonder if I’ll ever find my way
I wonder if my life could really change at all
All this earth
Could all that is lost ever be found
Could a garden come up from this ground at all
You make beautiful things
You make beautiful things out of the dust”
(Beautiful Things, Gungor)

Content to Be Broken

I got this photo, awhile back, of a Japanese bowl that has clearly been broken at some point in the past, and the pieces put back together. But instead of using crazy glue, like I would have done, in hopes that the cracks would be unnoticeable, this has been mended with gold and lacquer so that the shining veins encircle the bowl like a vine growing. I’m still trying to get my head around it.

The caption described the custom originating in the 15th century, and the legend accompanying it of the ruler (sometimes an emperor, sometimes a general) whose favorite bowl was dropped by a careless servant. But whatever mix of practicality and artistry inspired kintsukuroi, it is the philosophy behind the pottery that sticks with me. When household objects show the wear of age and use, and even when they crack right open, they are not discarded as useless. In the hands of the Japanese artists, mending makes them whole and beautiful, and stronger than before. I can appreciate that perspective, because most of my home is furnished in handed-down furniture and antiques. But when it comes to my own life, it definitely doesn’t seem it should be that way. Some days my life feels like it’s nothing but cracked refuse– shabby and worn and ordinary, and beyond usefulness. All I can see are the cracks, and if I could mend them quickly and never think about them again, I would be perfectly happy with that. Spotlight them in gold? Yeah, right.

But there is that old pottery piece in the picture, and the gold looks like a living river of light running through. I would not be the first to see the spiritual symbolism in kintsukuroi pottery. The parallel is clear between clay pottery and people, between gold and the power of the Cross, between human artists and the Creator. What takes my breath is the reasoning: that cracks and chips aren’t flaws…brokenness isn’t failure…aging and imperfections are not loss. Their marks are history and meaning and time spent. They are a visible proof of presence in this world, the result of fragile pottery impacting its environment in some small way. All these losses, the bangs and dents that I tend to mourn in life, seen as beautiful simply because they are life. “They are not something to conceal or be ashamed of because they remind us what it means to be human.” The simple caption almost makes me weep. To be human means to be flawed, and bound to break, and longing for wholeness in this very temporary life. And I know that the only reason the broken even could be beautiful is because the Creator picks up the pieces and mends it with His own hands. The cracks are an opportunity for something more than clay to enter in and change the way things are…all these flaws visibly filled in by His own shining glory.

It is exactly what Paul was talking about in his own life when he said “Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities.” (2 Corinthians 12:9b-10) If you look up content in the dictionary, it does not only mean to satisfy or fulfill. It also means to hold in, to contain, to limit oneself in desires. And I can see how Paul’s joy over his brokenness has more to do with what he wants than what he has. When you can say in complete honesty “I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.” (Philippians 3:8) then you will treasure anything that brings Christ near, even the hard things that batter and press. Narrow down your human desires and dreams to this one thing, and it is easier to be fulfilled: “…that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and may share His sufferings, becoming like Him in his death.” (Philippians 3:10) This is the proper use for a fragile piece of pottery: to show the marks of a real and ordinary life, and all its flaws to be made beautiful by the Great Artist. I can hear Jesus promising the crowds following Him: “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.” (Matthew 5:6)

As one writer noted of the kintsukuroi bowl from legend: “One might almost say the true life of the bowl … began the moment it was dropped.” (Christy Bartlett, A Tearoom View of Mended Ceramics) And here I sit, the pieces of my life held up to You, with amazing grace flowing down all around.

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“We now have this light shining in our hearts, but we ourselves are like fragile clay jars containing this great treasure. This makes it clear that our great power is from God, not from ourselves.” (2 Corinthians 4:7)

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“All these pieces,
Broken and scattered,
In mercy gathered,
Mended and whole.
Empty handed,
But not forsaken,
I’ve been set free,
I’ve been set free.

Amazing grace,
How sweet the sound,
That saved a wretch like me.
I once was lost,
But now I’m found,
Was blind but now I see.

Oh I can see it now…
Oh I can see the love in Your eyes–
Laying Yourself down,
Raising up the broken to life…”
(Broken Vessels, Hillsong)

Faith, Hope, Love

We chose matching Mother-Daughter necklaces the Summer before she got married. It was my pre-wedding gift to her, as a token of our special relationship through the years: a silver heart with Faith, Hope, Love engraved on it. I liked it because it captured the faith-storms we had weathered together, and the closeness we shared because of it. She liked it because she said it expressed the essence of the gospel that could transcend any cultural boundaries. Faith in Christ Jesus for salvation; the Hope of the resurrection; Love lived out to others. It surprised me at the time, because I had never thought of those three qualities in such a way, but the idea slowly took root.

I always thought it curious how Paul plucks those particular qualities out of thin air and establishes them as eternal bedrock (although he, of all people, should be qualified to see them in the Spirit’s light): “Three things will last forever—faith, hope, and love—and the greatest of these is love.” (1 Corinthians 13:13) There are many worthwhile qualities to cultivate, and while these three are admirable, why are they the best? But my daughter’s observation about the gospel stirred my curiosity; what if that were the reason Paul chose those three concepts? What if he were distilling the basic principles of their faith in Christ into an easily remembered creed for the young churches? His insistence to the Galatians that since Christ has come all their debating about the merits of circumcision mean nothing, leaps off the page: “The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.” (Galatians 5:6) Faith in Jesus as the Way, the Truth, and the Life is the only way to salvation, and love is the proof and tangible manifestation of a person saved from sin and death. Hope for the future is implied as the motivation for their transformation. Everything else is just details.

I began to pay attention to how often Faith, Hope, and Love show up as related themes, especially in Paul’s writing, and the scrap paper I was using soon filled up. To Paul, this was clearly the essence of Christianity, and a well-recognized message in the early church. Scholars in the modern world often call these the theological virtues (as opposed to moral virtues which any man can cultivate and exercise) because they come only from God. Faith, hope, and love are purely a gift of God’s grace. To the early church they were the new guidelines for living as Christ-followers, in sharp contrast to the Law the Jews had followed for centuries.

From a practical perspective, Paul’s repeated theme reminds me of the values we often repeat in our own Church Family, the familiar phrases that call us back into focus, reinforce why we are here, help us do the hard things. We put our trust in a real and powerful God, and live out that faith with our choices in the everyday, even when it is hard and lonely. We build relationships as real people who refuse to wear masks, willing to lay up grace and kindness because God first loved us. We do this because of our hope– in the Christ who promised to come back for us, in the eternal Home that waits for us, in the resurrection of this faltering clay body. All of us wear Faith, Hope, Love around our necks and bind them to our hearts– it is what makes us who we are.

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“Always be humble and gentle. Be patient with each other, making allowance for each other’s faults because of your love. Make every effort to keep yourselves united in the Spirit, binding yourselves together with peace. For there is one body and one Spirit, just as you have been called to one glorious hope for the future. There is one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all, in all, and living through all.”
(Ephesians 4:2-6)

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“You can do this thing — because you were made to do hard and holy things.
You are always enough — because You have Jesus and He is always enough.
You don’t have to get it perfect — you just have to get back up and keep going.”
(Ann VosKamo)

The Most Important Holiday

Here at the brink of Easter the world teeters on the brink between death and life: fuzzy baby animals and pastel colors rioting everywhere against the matted brown remnants of Winter. And a person could feel overwhelmed at the rubble of brokenness, at all the things that don’t work right in this world. There isn’t one of us who hasn’t felt the weight of Adam’s curse in ways large and small, and maybe that’s why we plunge so eagerly into the glut of the calendar holidays,  to forget just for awhile the aches and pains, the way relationships can get so tricky, the masks we wear and the walls we hide behind, all the little distractions that tangle around the feet of those who run. But here just before Easter Sunday, if you have eyes to see, life and death hang in the balance.

And here at Easter is the crux of the matter– all the Earth’s history and future summed up, condensed into one wrenching weekend. The world that was spoken into existence by God’s Word and broken by man’s rebellion lives in feverish denial of its sickness and in dread of death to come. The eternal living Word that entered our world dies at its hands (carrying all of its brokenness on His shoulders), and then just walks out of it again. And God’s creation groans and heaves in the cataclysm. “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.” (2 Corinthians 5:17) Here at the cross, life and death lay at Jesus’ feet. Jesus is living proof that there is nothing that God’s love and forgiveness cannot accomplish for us.

Easter is the one holiday we need to remember all year. Death is not the same terrible enemy. And Life is not the same futile effort. Now all of God’s promises to us are coming true in Jesus. Now there is always Hope. “I…pray that you will understand the incredible greatness of God’s power for us who believe him. This is the same mighty power that raised Christ from the dead and seated him in the place of honor at God’s right hand in the heavenly realms.” (Ephesians 1:19-20)

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“‘Dry bones, hear the word of the Lord! This is what the Sovereign Lord says to these bones: I will make breath enter you, and you will come to life.  I will attach tendons to you and make flesh come upon you and cover you with skin; I will put breath in you, and you will come to life. Then you will know that I am the Lord.’” (Ezekiel 37:4-6)

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“Great is Your faithfulness, oh God;
You wrestle with the sinner’s heart.
You lead us by still waters and to mercy,
And nothing can keep us apart.
So remember Your people,
Remember Your children,
Remember Your promise, oh God…
Your grace is enough for me.”
(Matt Maher)