Wait

After the resurrection, I was wondering what the disciples must have been feeling before Christ appeared to each of them.  Of course, they had been discouraged, feeling rather hopeless when Christ was crucified.  It seemed the end of a dream.  There was no way they could fully comprehend what Jesus had taught them and told them to expect.  But, then He appeared to several of them and the sparks of hope were fanned into flames.  Now, Lord, will you establish your kingdom?  Give us our orders, Lord.  What's next?  Jesus' response didn't do much to support their enthusiasm.  Wait.  What?  Wait.

Jeanette Bakke, in her book, "Holy Invitations," cites several factors that can influence discernment.  One that I find particularly troubling is having the "willingness to accept an answer of wait."  She writes:  "It is difficult to wait for God and difficult to wait with integrity for our own process of development.  We may be tempted to settle for what is at hand or force an alternative rather than wait when life as we have known it begins to unravel or we are in transition."

When we fail to wait for the Lord, when we get too far ahead of Him, we are doomed to failure.  Bakke warns us of thinking that we have enough of an idea of what God is trying to accomplish and taking over as opposed to continuing to follow the Holy Spirit's lead.  She states, "unless we ask God to help us set priorities, order our lives, and guide us moment by moment, how can we hope for our actions to grow from God's intentions rather than from seemingly good ideas of our own?"

We need to remember that He who began a good work in us, will be faithful to complete it.  There may be times when it seems God is taking a break, when He seems to have relaxed and we are in danger of missing a deadline, when it appears that our plans are about to fail, when what we had hoped for isn't going to happen, but God is never too late, He is always on time.

"Wait for the gift my Father promised," Jesus told them.  What was that gift, none other than the power of the Holy Spirit, that same Spirit which enabled Christ to perform miracles, that raised Christ from the dead, that empowered the disciples to build the church, that works in you and me today.  We must wait until that Spirit leads us, trust that God has a plan, one that we need to follow.

Godspeed, Phil

Power to Change

What are you afraid of?  I'm not afraid of anything.  Ha!  Just kidding. I don't think there is a person on earth that isn't afraid of something.  There are numerous listings of fears if you want to do the search on the web.  One of my favorites is hexakosioihexikontahexiphobia, the fear of the number 666.  Weird.  One fear I think we all have in common is metathesiophobia, the fear of change.  Yes, there is a word for it.  There are similar fears--neophobia--the fear of the new; cainophobia--the fear of newness; allagiphobia--the fear of things getting worse.  All describe the same thing to a certain extent.

I have a patient I have worked with for almost a year that won't change.  Some might say "can't," but, I believe anyone can change.  Christian psychiatrists, Minirth & Meier, wrote a book entitled, "Happiness is a Choice."  Well, change is a choice as well.  Why won't my patient change?  A good friend of mine is a recovering alcoholic.  In 12-step programs, they like to say a person has to hit bottom before they decide to change.  His response to that is, "You can put down the shovel anytime."  What he is saying is a person has to get to the place where they want to change.  That is their bottom.  They have to want the change.  However, they have to want to so bad, they are willing to confront their fear of change.

The other day, I asked this patient what he was afraid of, why he wouldn't change.  Each time he gave me an answer, I asked him again, "What are you afraid of?"  Though it seemed redundant, the point I was trying to make was that, ultimately, we choose not to change because we allow our fears to dominate our thinking.  We give in to them without challenging them and asking ourselves, "What am I really afraid of anyway?"

Paul told Timothy, "The Spirit God gave us does not make us timid (fearful), but gives us power, love,  and self-discipline (II Tim. 1:7)."  Our fears are not of God, they are man-made.  Change can happen because God has given us the power we need to make that change.  We have to decide it is a priority, that we really do want to change, and that we are willing to confront whatever it is we are afraid of in order for that change to occur.  We don't have to do this alone.  We can listen to the Holy Spirit whose role it is to convict us of what needs to change in us.  Then, He will make it all possible.

Name your fear.  Ask yourself if you are really ready to change.  Ask yourself what you are afraid of, and ask that same question each time you give an answer, until you get to the place you realize there really is nothing to fear.  I find it helpful to pray this prayer of Reinhold Niebuhr:

"God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change; the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference."--Reinhold Niebuhr

 

More Lessons from the Elliptical

Have you ever been to the gym and witnessed a guy bench-pressing about 500 lbs., but weighing almost as much?  Okay, I may have exaggerated somewhat.  But, while these guys are building massive muscles from the navel up, their midsection hasn't been properly trained.  While I haven't lost a lot of weight, I have learned a few things while exercising on my elliptical.  If I want to lose weight, I have to control my eating as well.  Physical exercise just isn't enough.  Okay, so this isn't rocket science, it is a fitting analogy to our growing in spiritual discernment.

Apparently, Timothy was spending too much time in the gym and Paul had to tell him to back off.  He wrote this, "Train yourself to be godly.  For physical training is of some value, but godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come (I Tim. 4:7-8)."  How does this apply to us and to discernment?

I recently was feeling a form of spiritual dryness.  What could be wrong?  I was reading the Scriptures faithfully, fasting regularly, reading other Christian literature, hanging out with other Christians, and serving. What was missing?  I wasn't making time to be alone with God and my prayer life was growing stale as a result.  Even when I was spending time with God and praying, I was too tired and had difficulty focusing, because I was getting up faithfully and exercising.  I was physically wearing myself out and it was affecting my ability to be discerning.

It is frustrating because I am continually telling others how important it is to avoid being distracted, and here I was again, finding myself focusing on something other than God.  I had often appreciated working out before my devotional time, because it made me more alert when I did spend that time with the Lord.  However, it had become the end instead of the means.

Jeanette Bakke, in her book, "Holy Invitations," writes, "When good actions such as worship, Bible study, or service are detached from our prayer, they can become dead.  We have many ideas about how to continue what God has begun in us and can easily slip into taking charge of our spiritual nurture and development instead of seeking the Holy Spirit's way...unless we ask God to help us set priorities, order our lives, and guide us moment by moment, how can we hope for our actions to grow from God's intentions rather than from seemingly good ideas of our own?"

Godspeed, Phil

Get Fit!

In an effort to get into better shape, I started using an elliptical about a month ago.  The piece of equipment that I use has settings on it for what you want to get out of it.  There are a number of decisions to make that I find strangely similar to the decisions we need to make about our spiritual fitness.

There is, first of all, the decision whether to do things my own way or choose one of the fitness programs available--Toning, Endurance, or Fitness.  I think most of us know how difficult it is to get into shape doing it on our own.  That is true in the development of our faith as well.  It helps to use a program, a Bible study, a devotional guide, a reading plan, or something.  Otherwise, we make very little progress and give up as soon as there is something more alluring to do with our time.

So, I chose a program.  Now, I think I am ready for the Performance setting.  So, I dial that up, only to find out that it involves the highest settings on levels of resistance, speed, and inclination.  It's also 30 minutes long and I don't plan to spend that much time, so I look at the other options.  I probably need to work on endurance, so I choose that.  I quickly find out I don't have what it takes to endure.  Apparently, I need to focus on toning.

Often, in my faith walk, I find myself focusing most of my attention on performing.  Recently, I have been developing a new ministry and been quite anxious to start offering the ministry; only to find God calling me back to toning.  When we are called, sometimes God has to work on us to prepare us to be the instruments He is able to use, to accomplish what He wants to accomplish.

We shouldn't get in too big a hurry to start performing, whether that be performing a ministry, starting a new program, or preaching a sermon.  The majority of our time needs to be devoted to allowing God to tone our spiritual muscles, to get us into shape for what He has in mind for us to do.  The actual performance may only be a small portion of what we actually do.  But, if we want it to accomplish God's purpose, we have to allow Him this opportunity to do what He does best.

"...until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ (Eph. 4:13)."

Godspeed, Phil, just another doulos