Grace with a Side of Scrambled Eggs

I'm sure you have heard the phrase, "You are what you eat." It can also be said, "You are what you read, or what you watch." Whatever we spend our time doing is likely to make a big difference in our attitude. Wherever we give our attention will determine a lot of what we see.

When I took classes in photography in my twenties, I began to see scenes as though framed. I looked, and still do to some extent, for something or someone to be in the foreground to give perspective to the real subject of the picture.

Lately, we have been asking a question in staff meeting, and in other group settings around church, "Where have you seen God or God's grace recently." The more I ask, or get asked the question, I am becoming more attuned, or attentive, to see where God's grace is at work. Far too often, I have tended to go through my day with blinders on. I do not think it is intentional in the sense that I do not want to see, but I certainly find myself seeing much less. When I open out my focus, when I put out my antennae, I begin to pay closer attention. Thus I see more of God's grace at work. 

In a simple conversation about a frustrating passport issue, a possible solution was glimpsed and acted upon, and now a young girl can go back home. You might be tempted to say, "Oh, that was just coincidence." Maybe, but I think God can use even coincidence to make grace happen. A house cleaner was there to see a fall, and called the ambulance. A breakfast conversation offers clarity and grace along with the scrambled eggs.

The more I look for grace, the more grace I see. The more I look for God's "fingerprints," the more there are. Where have you see God, or God's grace at work recently?

Mathew 13:16

But blessed are your eyes, for they see, and your ears, for they hear.

She Encroached on My Space

I already had some expectations of what I would find when I first walked in to The Church of the Resurrection building on that Wednesday for the pre-sessions of the Leadership Institute. I knew that there would be large numbers of "hosts" to welcome us, and help us find our way around. I found that I had to overcome some of my tendencies towards stubbornness, which largely come when I am feeling uncomfortable, to allow the hospitality to sink in to my spirit. 

At the very first session, I came in with little extra time to settle in since our drive to Leawood from NW Kansas city was delayed by rain and traffic. I found a place to sit where I could be with others, but allow some space around me. I chatted with other attenders around me, getting out my iPad and keyboard to take notes, beginning to feel a bit more at ease when a woman came in, talking to a few others she evidently knew. She did not sit with any of them but settled herself in the seat right next to me. Throughout the morning session, she made comments to me and spoke to me of her experiences. I worked hard to overcome my annoyance at her "audacity" to encroach upon "my" space. I responded, when appropriate, to her comments. Mostly I made myself be aware of my feelings and how they could affect my relationships in ministry. It was particularly apropos to the topic of the session: "Jesus Apprentice: Learning to Do What Jesus Did."

In that workshop, Jeff Kirby spoke of a disciple as "somebody who has a growing confidence of a growing relationship with God, to share that relationship with others—with people who are resisting evil." Through the morning, I discovered the woman next to me was a recovering alcoholic, someone who was working hard to face her own powerlessness to overcome an addiction, and had found a journey towards healing and wholeness in her relationship with God and God's people. I had to ask myself: How often do we, or more to the point, I focus on our own feelings rather than be aware that everyone brings something of darkness, or at least need, in their life? What do we do in worship at Christ Crossman that acknowledges the pain and darkness that people are dealing with, while allowing the light of Jesus to offer healing through us?

1 John 1:3-4

We declare to you what we have seen and heard so that you also may have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ. We are writing these things so that our joy may be complete.

Refreshing Water

Last week, I wrote of my plan to take a Sabbath rest. I want to tell you a bit about it. I drove to the Blue Ridge of Virginia, just down the road from Graves Mountain Lodge in Syria, Virginia. The Martins graciously hosted me, allowing me time and space. I walked every day, though not in the woods because I really did not want to be mistaken for a deer by a bow and arrow hunter. I slept in. I read and I wrote. I rode through the fields late one night with Christopher. I ate jam homemade by Betty. Earle told me that the farm’s well water was tested, and it was purer than bottled water. I believe him. It tasted good and refreshing.

As I read and wrote, I thought and prayed about Christ Crossman a lot. I knew you were all in good hands, so I could relax about the details for a bit. It was the bigger picture, the vision that I prayed about. When Jen and I were at the Leadership Institute in Kansas, a theme seemed to emerge from the workshops I attended. We are called as a congregation, and as individuals, to be a bridge over which someone might walk to meet Jesus, to find light and healing in their journey. Jen spoke of being like a well where people might come to sit on the wall with Jesus and discover living water. That includes us also. We need to take time to sip at that well, refreshing and deepening our spirits within us.

I like that image. I drank deeply of the water at the farm, and I found a time of rest and renewal. I want to keep drinking deeply of the living water so that my spirit will be so full of Jesus’ Spirit that others will find a healing rest in my presence.

John 4:13-14

Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty. The water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life.”  

Sabbath Rest

A few weeks ago when we dressed as our favorite super heroes I wore an Incredibles t-shirt for Elastigirl. She can stretch her body out to stop criminals in the act, to manage her three active kids all at once, and to glide them safely to earth from a plane about to be shot out of the sky. As a mom, a wife for many years, and a pastor, I have often felt as though I was contorting my life in order to manage so many tasks at once.

The reality is that I am not Elastigirl, nor am I Superwoman. Nor are you Superman or Superwoman. We may be incredibly active and effective, but in truth, we are finite human beings.

The beauty of the first Creation story in Genesis culminates in God taking a rest on the seventh day. Each day, God saw that the work was good, but the story reminds us that even God chose to rest. And when God gave the people those ten “words” on the tablets, they were indication of how we could best be in relationship with God, with each other, and with ourselves by honoring and respecting, by keeping boundaries, and by resting.

So this weekend, I am taking Sabbath time. I will have my computer with me because I have a paper I have to write, but I will not be using it to stay connected with everybody in the world. I am going to trust God, and in doing so, I will offer myself in prayer.

Genesis 2:1-3

Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all their multitude. And on the seventh day God finished the work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all the work that he had done. So God blessed the seventh day and hallowed it, because on it God rested from all the work that he had done in creation.

Out of Hiding

Last Friday, Jen and I heard Leonard Sweet, a theologian, speak. He said a lot of things that were really deep over which I am still mulling. One in particular struck a deep chord for me. He talked about the word truth. We translate the Greek word aletheia as truth, but its root meaning is "to come out of hiding into the light." In other words, truth is about relationship. What need is there to hide unless we are hiding from someone or something?

In Genesis 3, it is clear that God is interested in relationship--God likes to walk and talk in the garden. One evening however, the two humans are hiding. It's not that God could not find them. God honored boundaries, and called for them. They are hiding because they are afraid--because they are naked. Well, they have been naked all along, but now they know their nakedness, and they are ashamed.

How often do we hide-- from God, from ourselves, from others-- because we are ashamed? That shame may take many forms, but at the root it is because others might see the real me, know my nakedness, and realize how inadequate I am.

The insight that came for me as I have reflected on this is that I, and so many others, try to hide --cover up our shame, our nakedness, and our inadequacies-- by behaviors that become addictive. Hence, we hide further in the darkness, compounding our fear of being found and seen, all because we are sure that when others see us as we are, they will shun us, and despise us. That is what we think will happen with God, too.

The truth, though, is that God seeks us, searches for us, not to shun us, but to be in loving relationship with us. The Light came into the world to bring us life, not death. Now, if only my entire being would believe it.

John 1:1-4
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.