Sunday, January 30, 2011

Spirit/Wind


A favorite image of the Spirit for me comes towards the end of the movie How To Make An American Quilt. Some folks would call it a chick flick, but not so. It is a wonderful story of how love has entered and changed the lives of several women who are part of a quilting circle. They share their stories with Finn, granddaughter and great-niece of two of the women. Finn is finishing writing her dissertation—after having abandoned a few along the way. The finished document is on the desk when a wind storm begins, blowing the pages through the window and about the town. The wind disturbs the well-laid plans and static relationships of the women. Through its power and disruption it brings about reconciliation and recommitment for several of the women.

While all metaphors and analogies fall short of the reality, I like this image of the Spirit/Wind because it reminds me that my well-laid plans are often meant for the purpose of keeping relationships and life static. When I have everything neatly arranged in a satisfactory fashion, suddenly God’s Spirit blows in through the window disrupting my neat order and plans. I am faced with God’s creating power. I am invited to enter into that whirlwind of power to allow God to stir up grace within me and about me.

Sometimes I welcome that Spirit/Wind, but sometimes, I confess, I resist it. And that is when its power is most needed to stir me from complacency or resignation, to move me towards the mystery of a future lived fully in God’s grace.

I invite you to see where God’s Spirit/Wind blows through the windows of your life to draw you out of whatever holds you in complacency or resignation, and move you into the fullness of God’s grace.


John 3:8: The wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”

Thursday, January 20, 2011

Good Thing/Bad Thing


Several years ago, we started doing a recap of our day by lifting up one good thing, and one bad or not-so-good thing. Sometimes we try to sneak by with an “oh, it was all good, or okay,” but on the whole we try to honor it. This practice helps us put voice to our experiences. It helps us to clarify them.

Usually the good thing is fairly simple and straightforward. I confess that I don’t always put a whole lot of detail into the not-so-good thing in particular. I don’t think an adolescent should have to deal with all the worries of an adult, but I do think it is good for them to be aware that adults deal with worries. I do sometimes bring up something where “I blew it.” I’m not perfect, and sometimes I cause the not-so-good thing. I need to be honest and admit it.

This practice is akin to a spiritual discipline called Examination of Conscience. Where have I loved as Christ loves? Where have I not acted in a loving way? Where have I heard God in the moments of the day? Where have I shut my ears, and my heart? Where have I seen Christ in the least of these? Where have I averted my eyes?

Good thing today? I witnessed students really wrestle with a tough predicament in one’s internship and heard as they offered genuine wisdom and insight.

Not-so-good thing today? I’m getting bogged down in details that fog my vision and make it difficult for me to see and hope clearly.

Really good thing? That even on days when I blow it, or find hope difficult, God meets me in the moments of my days, and holds me in the darkness of night, offering me healing grace.


Psalm 63:5-7
My soul is satisfied as with a rich feast, and my mouth praises you with joyful lips when I think of you on my bed, and meditate on you in the watches of the night; for you have been my help, and in the shadow of your wings I sing for joy.

Thursday, January 13, 2011

The Runaway Heart


Several years ago, a Bible study for children used a little book called The Runaway Heart. I can’t find it anymore but I think it’s a good “story” for us all. It goes something like this:

The heart was doing its work of pumping blood around the body when it looked around and thought, “I am the most important part of this body. Without me, the body can’t live. And they don’t even realize it. Look at the rest of them, thinking they are so important. I think I will just run away.”

So the heart ran away. It rolled down a hill, enjoying its freedom and thinking about how much the others would miss it when they realized it was gone. That would show them! Without eyes to see where it was going, the heart ran into a big rock and couldn’t go any further. It sat there pumping for all its might, but no blood was coming into it to be filled with oxygen and pumped out to anywhere else.

It just sat there beating, flub-flub, flub-flub. As it sat, it wished that it could see where it was, or hear any sounds. It wished it had the lungs close by for company. It wished it had hands to feel its pulse beat. It wished it had a voice to call for help, but it just sat there beating, feeling lonely, and to tell the truth a whole lot silly for having run away in the first place.

Suddenly gentle hands came and picked up the runaway heart, cleaning off the dirt, and placed it back where it belonged. The heart flubbed for joy; blood was flowing through it again. It was back in the body, doing it’s important work so that the rest of the parts of the body could do what they did best.

Each part of the body has its function. Each function is important. Without each part, the whole body would not be able to do its work well. As Paul tells us, that is the case with the Body of Christ as well. Each of us in the church has a gift, a function. They are all important, vital even. It doesn’t matter if that part is big and flashy, or small and behind the scenes. It takes all the parts to make the whole Body!

I give thanks for all of you and the work you do to make the whole body of Christ Crossman function. I give thanks that Christ Crossman is a part of the whole Body of Christ, serving in our place. I give thanks for Dulin, and Galloway, and Calloway and Mt Olivet and all the other parts of the Body of Christ for doing their work for the Body in their own place.

What is the work, the gift you are called to do in the Body?

Thursday, January 6, 2011

Mindfulness


I’ve been thinking about mindfulness. This has been vital in how I have been able to get my weight more under control. I have to think about what I will be eating, not only as I eat but as I plan my day. When I get lax about it, then it becomes easier for me to pick up food on the run. That’s when I get into trouble. And over the Christmas to New Year’s time frame, there were all kinds of goodies sitting around that just kept calling to me. So it’s back to mindfulness.

It’s not just in relation to food that this is important for me. There are so many areas of my life that get out of control when I am not mindful about them. I tend to be an “out of sight, out of mind” kind of person. If something is out of my view for any length of time, it is very easy for me to forget about it. I “lose” things this way, only to be rediscovered later often when I no longer need them or have already replaced them. This happens to me even in my relationship with God. I get so busy that I “forget” to take time to strengthen the relationship so other things begin to take precedence in actual practice.

Well aware of this tendency, God through Moses asked the people to “recite [these words] to your children and talk about them when you are at home and when you are away, when you lie down and when you rise. Bind them as a sign on your hand, fix them as an emblem on your forehead, and write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.” [Deut. 6:7-9]

So to help us remember, every morning Maxwell and I read the Upper Room devotional at breakfast. What are some of the ways that you seek to be mindful about your relationship with God?



Deuteronomy 6:4-6
Hear, O Israel: The Lord is our God, the Lord alone. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might. Keep these words that I am commanding you today in your heart.

Saturday, January 1, 2011

The Grass Withers


A friend of mine mused recently whether 2010 has just been a colossal waste of time. Several other friends immediately reminded him of what he has accomplished this year—the renovation of what was almost a decrepit house into a wonderful, sturdy beautiful home for his daughter and her family—and of the time he has had with his two young grandsons. He said he wasn’t thinking of it personally but in terms of civilization.

I think about this year and in some ways I know what he was talking about. We have witnessed quite a lot that is disturbing. The list would vary depending what side of the aisle one occupies politically, but there has been enough disturbing news to fill many lists. And on the personal side, I look at the pile of medical reports and insurance forms that indicates a bit of our journey this year. It can be almost enough to make me cry, “Do over!” or “Let’s get to 2011 fast!”

I would prefer to look back at a year and tally up all that has been wonderful—there has been joy, for sure: watching Aaliyah grow and seeing my sons mature not the least among them. As I look back, I do see the joy, I see the blossoms, but I also have become ever more aware of what Isaiah wrote, that the “constancy of people is like the flower of the field.” It withers; it fades. If I am to build my happiness, my contentment there, I will be surely disappointed. Isaiah goes on to say, “The grass withers, the flower fades; but the word of our God will stand forever.” This is a guiding principle. Here I can put my trust and hope. “On Christ the solid rock I stand; all other ground is sinking sand.”

Where do you put your trust and hope?