Living…

Tonite I had the opportunity to watch a movie with my GRACE Group. The theme of how to live life well was prevalent in the film, and it’s something I’ve been thinking about a lot lately.

Lent is a journey from death to new life – we start on Ash Wednesday, acknowledging the fragility of our lives, the ease with which we sin, the sacrifice of Christ which was necessary for our salvation. And then for 40 days we walk toward Easter – that morning when life triumphed over death. The grave was empty and the world made new. My colleague/friend/teammate Geoff is fond of saying you can’t really GET Easter unless you’ve done the full journey. You have to have Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, a long silent Saturday before you get to celebrate the Resurrection.

Slowly, I’m coming to the belief that you have to have journeyed properly through Lent. Not just giving up chocolate or swearing. Not just singing some of the hymns that are written in minor keys (goodness, the Lent section of our hymn book is a tad on the dreary side, isn’t it?). Not just acknowledged Lent with your lips.

But actually walked that whole journey. You have to have stood, slightly awkward with a smudgy cross on your forehead, aware of your sin, on Ash Wednesday. Thought, acted, prayed and read your way through the weeks of Lent. Each day with the cross looming on the horizon. Each day with the thought and question of what it all means. Taken Communion on Maundy Thursday. Wept on Good Friday. Tried – knowing it was impossible – to get back to what the disciples must have felt on that long, quiet Saturday.

Only then, can Easter Sunday really be celebrated. Because Easter is something like life. You cannot fast-forward through it to get to the parts you like. You cannot simply have a montage and a cool song to deal with all that will happen on the journey (don’t you sometimes wish life was a movie?). You cannot understand the ending unless you’ve experienced the beginning and all the (sometimes boring) bits in the middle.

Living well doesn’t happen suddenly because you wanted it to. It happens slowly, over time. It is the result of a thousand little decisions. It is the choices you make in front of others and in private. It is the meal you shared with others and all the ones you ate alone. It is the failures that lead to an eventual success. Living well is more than the sum of its parts – it is all the parts themselves put together that somehow make a good life. And if you take your eyes off the goal, it is so very easy to get lost.

Jesus said,

The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.
John 10:10 NRSV

Jesus came that we might live well. That was his purpose – to give life. And he contrasts it with the thief’s (read: enemy, Satan, evil) purpose.

During this season of Lent, may we take the time to think about how we are living. May we journey through each day with the cross looming on the horizon. May we draw closer to the One who came to give abundant life.

Advice…

Every once in a while you come across some advice that is so simple and beautiful.

I love this:

Sometimes it is really hard to let go of what was…especially when it was something good or something important. But the only way to live is to be able to let go, to have faith, to accept what is.

During the season of Lent, may you (may I!) spend some time thinking about what needs to be let go from your life, what needs to be surrendered to, and what you need to have faith in. I don’t know what is coming tomorrow, but I know Whose hand tomorrow is in.

Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.
Philippians 4:6, 7 NLT

It’s coming…

Today was one of those days – when the snow is still plentiful, but the temperature spikes upward and the sun shines, the birds sing, everything begins to melt and you just KNOW Spring is on it’s way. The promise of Spring is whispered on the breeze. It’s coming, it’s coming.

It is not here yet. The weather forecasters are saying we could get anywhere from 10 – 25cm tomorrow and it will be well below freezing on Thursday.

Still, I love days like today. Spring’s promise has been spoken, a foretaste of Spring has broken through. It’s time may not have quite come yet, but it is on it’s way. Aslan is on the move, to use the CS Lewis phrase.

I love days like today because they remind me of the promises I hold dear as a follower of Christ. God has promised that everything will be redeemed. That the world will be made new. That Christ will triumph and Heaven will win. It hasn’t happened yet, but it has been promised. It’s coming, it’s coming.

As we journey through Lent, we keep our eyes on the horizon, on the promise if Easter. The tomb will be empty. Life will triumph. The resurrection will change everything. We aren’t there yet. It isn’t time for that celebration yet. But it’s coming, it’s coming.

But we are looking forward to the new heavens and new earth he has promised, a world filled with God’s righteousness.
2 Peter 3:13 NLT

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Word LESS…

Ok, so I’m not completely wordless this evening as we continue our journey through Lent. But I am tired. It has been a long day, with much to do. So I don’t have a lot of words. A few, but not a lot.

Today we had a funeral for another pillar of our community at St. Andrew’s. Tears were shed, and when I came across this image, I thought it quite apropos:

Sometimes our days are marked by tears. In this season as we journey towards the cross, toward the way of sorrows taken by Jesus, tears seem appropriate and significant. So remember, when tearful days come your way, that Jesus wept. And that God reads our tears as if they were the most eloquent of prayers. In His presence may we find comfort and peace.

Taste and see…

So today was what we call “big Communion” at St. Andrew’s – Communion taken by the whole congregation during our worship service. (We also have “little communion” on months when big Communion is not happening – that is, communion for those who choose to take part after the proper worship service ends.)

Now, if you read this blog regularly, you know I am continually working on my health – exercising and eating right. This has lead me to giving up wheat, sugar and processed food. I haven’t had any of that in more than 30 days now.

So when my colleague in ministry, Geoff, offered me the bread at the first of our two services this morning, I had a moment where I thought “woah, that’s not on my eating plan!” Of course, I took bread anyway, and as I ate, something rather wonderful happened. I’ll try to explain.

You see, I love bread. I absolutely love it. My Dad bakes bread. He began when he was in seminary and altered his recipe when he discovered that both of his kids were allergic to milk (a key ingredient in the store-bought bread when I was a child), so that we could have allergen-free bread. We always had Dad’s bread in the house. Bread, to me, has always tasted like home, security, family, warmth, love. In choosing to cheat on my eating plan, bread will always be my first choice. I love bread.

Communion has always been something if a mystery to me. Oh, sure, I’ve been through seminary, I can spout all the theology that surrounds it. But for much of my late teens and early twenties, I didn’t understand it at all. I took part, I respected it, I wouldn’t have ever chosen to give it up. But at the same time, I didn’t really GET it. And some of that feeling remains. I am closer to GETTING it than I ever have been before, but it remains somewhat mysterious to me. And that’s ok, because I am secure enough in my faith to know that I don’t have to understand everything that is part of my faith. I’m strong enough in my faith to allow some things to remain mysterious.

But today, when I placed the bread on my tongue during communion, I understood it a little more. You see, the bread tasted so very wonderful to me. Like love, security, home, family, warmth…like a taste of Heaven, of the most beautiful thing you could imagine. I’ve been without bread for so long, and this was good, fresh, fluffy, flavorful bread. In the liturgy surrounding communion we say, “taste and see that The Lord is good.”

And today, I understood that on a level I never have before. The thing I love about the life of faith is that it is a journey, a conversation, an on-going discovery. It’s never finished. God always has something new to show you, if your eyes are open to it.

During the journey of Lent, may your eyes be open, may you taste and see that The Lord is good.

But it was to us that God revealed these things by his Spirit. For his Spirit searches out everything and shows us God’s deep secrets. No one can know a person’s thoughts except that person’s own spirit, and no one can know God’s thoughts except God’s own Spirit. And we have received God’s Spirit (not the world’s spirit), so we can know the wonderful things God has freely given us.
1 Corinthians 2:10-12 NLT

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Times, they are a-changin’….

Tonight people in my part of the world will change their clocks forward one hour before they go to bed (or their computers and smart phones will do this automatically, in the middle of the night). I have to admit, this is a nervous time for me. I once messed the time change up so bad that I arrived at the church where I was doing pulpit supply the next morning, 10 minutes before worship. Usually, I’d be there a good hour in advance. To say it was nerve-wracking is to understate it in the extreme.

So tonight will be a somewhat restless night for me. I know this. I suffer through it when the time changes twice a year. It is not my favorite night of the year, by far.

But there is something good – no, something GREAT – about the time change. It is sign of Spring. It is a sign that though the snow and ice are still present all around us, thought the wind may still be bitter at times, Spring is coming. The time is passing. Not long, now, until plants start to bud and the world grows green again.

Though we might not see the change, looking out our windows to a world that still resembles winter, the change is happening. Even now, the world prepares for new life.

I am reminded of a verse in Isaiah:

I am about to do something new.
It is beginning to happen even now.
Don’t you see it coming?
I am going to make a way for you
to go through the desert.
I will make streams of water in the dry and empty land.
Isaiah 43:19 NIRV

The journey through Lent is like this. We journey toward new life. Even now, we are drawing towards the Empty Tomb. Even now, God is preparing an Easter Sunday for us to celebrate. That has always been God’s work, and always will be.

I pray your eyes – my eyes! – will be open to seeing the new thing God is doing, even as it begins to happen. (Please take a moment to pray for the pastor(s) in your life…we really do struggle on Time Change Sundays!)

Giving up or doing…?

Most people have heard of giving something up for Lent. This year, with the tough winter we have had there are jokes going around about giving Winter up for Lent (I wish! I hope! I pray!!!). Often people give up caffeine or chocolate or Facebook. The idea of giving something up is to participate in the suffering of Jesus. That in some small way the suffering we might experience in not having chocolate for 40 days or so, would help us remember that Jesus suffered a lot more than that for us.

It’s not necessarily a bad thing to give up something for Lent. But often people give up something that is bad for them and then binge on or at least go back to that thing once Easter has arrived. For some, I am sure, it is a helpful practice. But sometimes it seems a somewhat pointless exercise.

There is an alternative practice that is growing in popularity. Instead if giving up something for Lent, people are starting to consider doing something for Lent. Whether a spiritual practice (committing time each day to pray, have a devotional, read scriptures, commune with God, etc.) or finding acts of generosity and kindness to do each day (check out http://www.40acts.org.uk), this practice turns Lent into an active time. One in which we participate in God’s work in this world. I like that idea a whole lot.

I hope, whichever way you approach Lent, that you will use this time to grow a little closer to God. To consider all that God has given you and all that Christ has done for you. I hope this will be a season that enriches your walk of faith.

Dear friends, you always followed my instructions when I was with you. And now that I am away, it is even more important. Work hard to show the results of your salvation, obeying God with deep reverence and fear. For God is working in you, giving you the desire and the power to do what pleases him.
Philippians 2:12, 13 NLT

Dust…

Today is Ash Wednesday, the beginning if the Season of Lent. Today our faces turn toward the cross. We begin the journey to Easter. We had an Ash Wednesday service at the church this evening. And all day my friends on Facebook (many of whom are clergy) have been referencing this day and all that it means.

I was struck by the phrase “you are dust and to dust you shall return” today. My community of faith had traveled through some difficult days recently. A number of the pillars of our congregation have passed away. Indeed, yesterday we received news of the sudden death of one of our dearest Elders – a man who was beloved in our community.

The reality is, our days are numbered. We are dust and to dust we shall return. But for the Christian, death is no final thing. We will return to dust, but that is merely a translation from this temporary existence to the eternal life for which we were created.

Our time here is short, and the question must be (to quote Gandalf, who is usually worth quoting), “…what will we do with the time that is given to us?” I hope I am using the time given to me wisely. I hope you are trying to use your time wisely.

We are dust, and to dust we shall return. But before we do, what if we constantly looked for opportunities to be a little more generous, a little more loving, a little more kind. What of our days were spent looking for ways to build others up, to bring joy to those in despair, to touch one more life in a way that leaves that person better than you found them.

I think that would be a life well-lived, a life Jesus would approve of, no matter the actual number of days.

So we have not stopped praying for you since we first heard about you. We ask God to give you complete knowledge of his will and to give you spiritual wisdom and understanding. Then the way you live will always honor and please the Lord, and your lives will produce every kind of good fruit. All the while, you will grow as you learn to know God better and better.
Colossians 1:9, 10 NLT

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I am, you are…

I came across this on Facebook recently. It was one of those days when things weren’t going right, and I needed something to let me know it’s all going to be okay.

You know days like this? They start when you get out of bed and knock over the glass on your bedside table…spilling water and shattered glass everywhere. Then you find you are running late and no matter how hard you try to rush, you fall further and further behind. When you try to get a bit of grocery shopping, you discover you left the list at home and though you try to remember it all, you aren’t able to do so and you know you’ll have to find time to make another trip to the store. Someone makes a remark, and it’s the kind of thing that would normally slide right off your back, but this time it digs beneath your skin and you feel the sting of it hours, or even days, later. The dog bites, the bee stings, and you’re feeling sad.

Instead of thinking of brown paper packages tied up with strings on days like that…I want to remember whose I am. Because at the end of the day, when everything is a mess, if I belong to God – who is peace, joy, strength, comfort, creator, and all the other things that God is revealed to be in the Bible – then the forgotten groceries, the shattered glass, the cutting remark, the bee sting…they all lose their power over me. The power rests instead with the One who created it all, who sent His Son to lay down his life that I (and you!) would be able to be with him forever. I am His. And in that I find my true identity, my true rest, my true hope.

So whether you’ve had one of those days, or whether everything has been just fine – be encouraged my friends. You are HIS. Nothing can ever change that.

When I think of all this, I fall to my knees and pray to the Father, the Creator of everything in heaven and on earth. I pray that from his glorious, unlimited resources he will empower you with inner strength through his Spirit. Then Christ will make his home in your hearts as you trust in him. Your roots will grow down into God’s love and keep you strong. And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is. May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God. Ephesians 3:14-19 NLT

Coming back…

As those of you who follow this blog know, I go quiet every once in a while. Often this is because I’ve hit a really busy patch in life with my congregation, or in life in general. In busy times it is tough to find the time to write a blog entry.

Sometimes it is because I just don’t have anything to say. It’s sometimes tough to come up with something to write about…and busy-ness plays into that as well.

Sometimes it’s just because for one reason or another I don’t want to share what I am going through. Maybe this is best defined as “still processing” – those times when I am still thinking through, still working out, still trying to understand or just plan slogging along to get to a better day.

This winter has been a tough one, and I haven’t wanted to share my bitter, grumbly, bad-mood-ed thoughts through my blog. Partially because after a while, that just gets boring. (I’ve said more than enough about it on Facebook!) And partially because I believe I am called to live differently than that. I am called – as all Christians are – to a life of hope and a life of love. And it’s hard to invest in hope and love when you are grumpy all the time.

But I’ve turned a corner. I am sure the Olympics have something to do with it – I am always happier when the Olympics are on. I love the stories and the spirit of the games. I know there are a lot of politics involved too, but at the heart of it, the games are about ordinary people trying to accomplish the extraordinary. And I like that.

So with a shift in my attitude has come a shift in my desire to blog. It’s like I’ve refocused. Over the past several days I’ve found myself thinking about blog posts I’d like to write. I’ve also been thinking of writing regularly as a Lenten discipline.

So, I am back. And glad to be here. Let’s see what the next several weeks have to offer!

And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.
Romans 12:2 NKJV