TBT #1 - The Glory of Obscurity

Throw Back Thursday (TBT) is when everyone takes to social media on Thursday and posts an old picture of themselves.  We're going to go a slightly different direction and use TBT to post an old blog or article you might not have read the first time go around.  

This past month, we've talked a lot about our journey with God - leaving the familiar, beginning with boldness and that awkward in between time.  The series has resonated with a few, and I realized there are people wondering if they ought to be doing something other than what they're currently doing.  It has raised questions about contentment and about purpose and more than a few questions about timing; so to help those who are more restless than ever, I give you a TBT from 2011...

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 "The Glory of Obscurity"

Between all the responsibilities you already have and the opportunities for more activity that present themselves  every day, you have an endless amount of potential - potential for significance, importance, notoriety, purpose and meaning in your life and in the lives of those around you.  You have endless potential - especially as a believer in Jesus and a servant in His Kingdom.  I believe that.  

Worship in Obscurity

Here's something else I believe - the modern church does a disservice to the Kingdom of God when we preach a Gospel of personal success and insatiable significance.  In some ways, we've created a kingdom of people who are dissatisfied with any life less than wikipedia-worthy.  Am I alone in this?  Doesn't it sometimes seem like we've lost our ability to rest in knowing we are a pleasure to God when we have faith in Him, and sometimes that faith is in believing that right now, doing what you're doing, being who you are, is the delight of your Creator.  

In 2011, Yahoo News reported that nearly 300 new species of sea creatures had been discovered in the Philippines and according to LiveScience.com another 1060 new species had been found in New Guinea only a few years prior to that.  Here we are approximately 6,000 years (if you believe in a young earth) into the life of planet Earth, and nearly 1400 species of creatures are just now debuting their unique design to the world.  For all these years, no one has seen them, documented them, photographed them nor noted their contribution to the eco-system.  For 6,000 years they have been the hidden delight of their Creator Who fashioned them, colored them, gave them purpose and watched them live and die as part of His design.  

These countless beautiful creatures left no perceivable mark on earth and yet they were a glory of their Creator.  Like a psalmist who sings to an empty room, or an artist who paints the ceiling of their own home, a sculptor who fashions clay vessels for the cupboards of their own kitchen - these creatures were visible only by Him and for 6,000 years He alone knew their value and their beauty.

I wonder if any of them struggled with living up to their potential.  Did they feel the weight of their own obscurity or simply delight in knowing they were fashioned by an infinite Creator Who smiled upon them in secret? 

What if, like these creatures, I am ordinarily obscure to humanity and infinitely delightful to my Creator?  What if no one ever remembers me past my own generation, and no one reads one word I pen in this lifetime?  Am I comfortable being a glory to God in my obscurity?  Can I sense the delight of God in my seemingly mundane existence?  Am I not still a glory to God? 

I'm not saying you shouldn't have a desire to do great things for God.  Just don't exclude what you're doing right now as something great.  Maybe He wants you to take the Gospel to an unreached people group.  Just don't rule out that the unreached people group is on the other side of your privacy fence.  You could make disciples of all nations, but you might only make disciples of the diaper-clad screamers down the hall.  Whatever God wants you to do He will not only inspire, He will also unfold.

Maybe you have felt the pressure of becoming someone important or of creating a legacy that will outlive you.  I pray that today whatever you're doing in your corner of the world - writing computer code, teaching, answering phones, fixing cars, wiping running noses, loving your family, being a kind neighbor - that you can sense the pleasure of God in who you are and in whatever you're doing in His name. Seemingly unnoticed by the world around you or forgotten by history, receive the great delight your Creator has in you, and simply live - live in your obscurity to the Glory and pleasure of God.  His glory is our greatest potential.

Waters to Ford When It's Time to Start - Part Four

You've left everything you've ever known.  You've crossed a sea when its waters parted on either side of you (and a million or so of your friends) so you could keep your Birkenstocks looking new.  You wandered through a wilderness learning how to pick up and move at a moments notice for 40 years, discovering this God who wants to be your God.  You've discovered that He's worth knowing and He's willing to make Himself known, and He's gracious enough to tell you how to please Him unlike all the other gods of your day.

... And now He wants to give you a life you could never have imagined 41 years ago - one of endless inheritance, everlasting significance, and eternal life.

The only thing that lies between it and you is this... another body of water to cross.  Not as deep as the Red Sea, but deep enough.  Not as wide, but wide enough.  And this time, your enemies are not behind you, they're ahead of you on the other side.  Not as treacherous as a midnight escape, but daunting enough to give you pause.

It's go time... time to start... time for everything you've learned and all that you've experienced to come together in a life-altering endeavor.  It's not random.  It's destiny.  It's not self-promotion.  It's God-orchestrated.

You're standing on the edge of a wilderness on the banks of the Jordan River with everything God's brought you through behind you and everything He's promised you ahead.

What are you waiting for?

On a clear night in Houston, Texas in 1969, astronaut (and eventual Apollo XIII commander) Jim Lovell and his wife were moon-watching and marveling at the feat of the astronauts who had moments earlier planted their feet where no man had ever walked before - the surface of the moon.  In a perfect balance of incredulity and normalcy Lovell looked at his wife and said, "From now on, we live in a world where man has walked on the moon... and it was no miracle.  We just decided to go."

There's something about that statement that stirs me every time.  I think it's because I've spent a lot of time in my life waiting for miracles... a wonder pill, a magic potion, a knight on a white horse, a quick fix.  I don't want a plan - I need a product.  I think a lot of people are like me in that way.  I want a miracle.  I want the fairy tale.  And I don't want to undercut the rock-solid fact that God does miracles and signs and wonders. He does.  I've seen them and I know I've experienced them.  But there comes a time when all the promises of God, all the destiny ahead mean nothing without a decision to go.

The Jordan River didn't part until Israel decided to go.  They had to step into those muddy, rushing currents before they would ever experience the waters forming into walls on either side of them so that they'd cross on dry ground.  They had to start.  There would be challenges to face, enemies to conquer, destiny to claim, and in each of those things Israel would experience miracles of God... but the first few steps were no miracle.  They just decided to obey.  They just decided to go.

At some point in your journey with God, everything He's done for you and everything He's brought you through will culminate on the edge of a wilderness.  You'll know that He has so much more for you than you ever imagined.  You'll have a sense of destiny.  You'll be keenly aware of the challenges of living a new way, of the joys and responsibilities of occupying the territory He set aside for you.  You'll come upon the rushing waters of a river standing between you and everything God has for you, everything you were born for; and you'll have a decision to make.  Will you believe what He said in Isaiah 43 when He promised that the water wouldn't sweep over you?  Will you make the first step?  Will you start?  There's no miracle until you get muddy.

What are you waiting for?

Waters to Ford, But First There's a Desert - Part Three

We call her Coco - she's three & she plays soccer.
AuntLisa cheers for her... very loudly.

I have a confession to make.  I love sports and I love cheering for sports... loudly, very loudly.  I'm the fan in the stands you don't want to sit in front of.  I'm the aunt in the bleachers whom everyone looks at through the corner of their eye.  And I don't care.  I believe there is a reasonable expectation of loud cheering at a sporting event.  If you want a quiet sporting experience, nod off to golf or tennis; but don't look at me like a science project gone awry just because I yell for my babies at the top of my voice.  I have the unique perspective from the stands that allows me to see how great they are, and they might not remember that in the heat of a game.  Kids need encouragement.  People in general need encouragement - especially those who are trudging around a wilderness experience.

Israel had a hard time in that awkward state of flux between the Red Sea and the Jordan River.  They complained a lot.  They revolted a few times.  They wished they were back in Egypt more than a few times.  They got disciplined.  They got hungry.  They got grouchy and they struggled to see a bigger picture - the portrait of a God Who though silent wasn't still and though unpredictable was not unknowable.

To be honest, thousands of years after the fact as I read the account of Israel in the wilderness, I have an innate desire to cheer them on and encourage them.  Forty years between leaving Egypt and entering the Promised Land - the mere thought of that is discouraging to me yet they lived it!  Seriously, don't you just want to holler for them even this long after the fact!?!  "You can do it!  Hang in there! It gets better!"  Cheers from the cheap seats, so to speak, since we have the luxury of viewing their experience through the lens of time and scripture, but in the moment it was intensive reprogramming of the heart of God's people.

So it remains.  Not every exodus is an immediate entrance into destiny.  Not every ending is yet a beginning.  Sometimes, there's a long arduous in-between where hearts are reprogrammed so we can fully embrace the challenges and prosperity of what's coming next.  But in the thick of it, we don't always see it - the self-portrait God is painting all around us.  God had drawn Israel out of Egypt to live in their midst, to be with His people.

Like Israel, our wildernesses are where God proves that even though He may be silent, He is not still.  He is at work regardless of how quiet and motionless the landscape may seem.  And though God is unpredictable, He is knowable.  For the first time in their history, He was living among them.  Even at that, they never knew when God would move or why or to where; but He wanted them to trust Him. For forty years He provided in unusual ways, did unpredictable things, and created a people for Himself that would trust Him, follow Him and love Him.

I hope it doesn't take me 40 years to figure that out.  I am looking for my Jordan - that unknown entrance to a promise that everything behind me will make sense.  In the meantime, He provides for me, leads in unpredictable ways and is reforming in me a will to trust, follow and love Him.  (Seems my will to do so had gotten a bit flabby around the middle and could use some cardio.)  He's reprogramming my heart for the challenge and prosperity of the next adventure together.

And I'm sure I'm not alone in this.  Surely, there are readers waiting for life to make sense again, waiting for the next adventure that reveals the path they're on to be a runway instead of a dead end.  Is that you?  I'm cheering for you!  I'm the loudmouth in the stands reminding you how strong you are, how faithful God is, how safe you are in trusting your future to Him.  You can do it!  Hang in there!  It gets better!

Waters to Ford When It's Time to Leave - Part Two

Fishing trips when I was a girl were epic adventures.  We would load up and head to the Old Stone Creek Bridge - this dirt road bridge over the Goose Creek in southeast Kansas where my family spent many holidays.  We'd picnic there and sunbathe on the sandbar while my dad and brothers fished, and we'd occasionally float to the deeper, shadier waters on the other side of the bridge.  This handmade edifice that predated all of us by decades if not a century still stands stalwart in the Kansas Flint Hills.

We'd plan these outings for days - talk about it a lot, start gathering supplies on the front porch and in the kitchen. "Don't eat that! It's for the picnic!"  Dad would drag out his fishing poles and check the lines, organize his lures, find his prized antique minnow bucket.  Then on the morning of the trip, we'd wake at an unforgivable hour, throw on swim suits and shorts and stumble bleary-eyed to the car that dad had already loaded.  If it wasn't in the car by the time he shut the trunk, you either didn't need it or would have to do without, because when it was time to go, it was time to go and we weren't coming back until there were sunburns on our noses and fish in our ice chest.

There have been times in my life when I felt a grand exit was imminent.  Much like our family fishing trips, there was a run-up to it.  There was talk about it, a general plan for it, a meticulous preparation for it; and though the exact time may not have been known, it's in the mist up ahead like a turn in the road on a foggy night.  When it's time to go, it's time to go and there's no looking back.

Israel knew this exit strategy as well.  They experienced it when it was time to leave Egypt.  There was a run-up, a chatter about it, a brief gathering of spoils and a hasty departure - one that led them straight to an impassible sea.  It must have been a pretty devastating moment as an Israelite... to leave everything you've known, everything your people have known for centuries, only to be met with what seemed to be certain disaster.  But we can learn a lot about how to move on from where we are from how Israel exited Egypt.

First of all, when it's time to go, go.  Go. Go. Go. Don't dawdle or saunter - get to steppin'.  And once you do, don't look back.  Don't keep one foot in Egypt and by all means don't leave your heart there.  Pick up and go when God finally says it's time.

Second, plunder Egypt.  Grab everything of value that you can possibly grab with both hands and claim it as yours.  Every success, every honor, every skill you learned, every joy and accomplishment, everything that made it worth being there - grab it and take it with you as you go.  It will sustain you in the wilderness.  It will become part of your tabernacle with God, a place for His presence.

This is probably a good place to remind you that I'm not advocating taking actually things.  No stealing of office supplies in the name of Jesus.  We're talking metaphorically, friends.  Leave every thing that doesn't belong to you.

But here's what we do - we take our garbage with us. Regardless of what we're leaving (a relationship, a job, a church, or a city), we tend to treasure our hurts, our injustices, our tears, our sweat and broken promises and betrayed loyalties.  Every little thing that we think gives us reason to leave is usually what fills the pockets of our minds and steamer trunks of our hearts.  But why?  There's no value in them.  They can do nothing for us.  They give no life, nor joy, nor strength when staring at the drab surroundings of wilderness living.  Leave these in Egypt, but plunder what was good.  With palpable uncertainty between a Sea and a river, between Egypt and a promised land, whatever you take with you of value will be life and joy and peace and beauty when you're surrounded by miles of sand and uncertainty.

Finally, when you're crossing a Red Sea of departure,  know this - you're not going to die.  With dust under your feet and walls of water on either side, know that God is with you.  That was His promise in Isaiah 43 - "When you pass through the waters, I will be with you."  Go with God and get on with your life.  Don't be afraid.  He's got your back... literally.  When the Egyptian army pursued the Israelites, God protected them.  Every Israelite made it across the Red Sea unscathed, and not one Egyptian who tried to keep them from going survived.

Here's what I'm currently wrestling with in my corner of the internet -

Leaving the past and moving on when God said it's time to move on, will not kill me;

But there are things that need to die in those waters I'm crossing.  

All the soldiers of Egypt that kept me serving lesser gods of comfort and familiarity, of status and pride and the miserable need for approval - they all need to drown.  All the emissaries of Pharaoh that try to lure me back and try to tell me I won't be happy anywhere else or that I'm not equipped for any other life, everything that says "stay" when I know it's time to go - they all need to drive their chariots into watery graves.  I will not survive a wilderness or embrace a promised land while they live.

So I guess, my kind readers, my question tonight is, "is there a 'go' in your future?"  Do you sense the run up of a looming exit?  What needs to go with you?  What needs to stay? And if you're leaving someplace so comfortable and familiar, what part of the past needs to be swallowed up in the Sea behind you?  Wherever you are, whatever your answers, leave a comment.  

Waters to Ford - Part One

My entire college marketing class can be boiled down to one statement - "Know Your Audience".  Sure the class was two days a week for an entire semester.  Yes, we watched Zig Ziglar videos every Wednesday.  And the instructor could never remember my name and called my friend Juanita by the name Rodriga (is that even a name?) for 18 weeks, but the greatest takeaway was this - know who you're talking to before you start talking.  Know your audience.  Know what makes them think, what they love, what they do, how they live.  You will go far in your communication the more you know those with whom you are communicating.

I've since learned an equally important truth - when it comes to reading someone else's messages, know their audience.  Knowing who was meant to receive a message is vital to understanding the message at all.  This is never more true than when interpreting the Bible.

The Scriptures were written by Jews, for Jews, meticulously preserved by Jews and the second testament is no exception.  Even writers who were not Jewish were following a Jewish Rabbi in a Jewish belief system.  If we read the Bible through the eyes of a non-Jewish person, we will miss or misinterpret most of what is being said.  We will be at risk of what my friend Phil in Texas calls "gentilizing the Bible" - making it say what it doesn't say and mean what it doesn't mean.

In recent months, this truth has been brought to mind on occasion - most notably when meditating on Isaiah 43:1-2 -

"...When you pass through the waters, I will be with you and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you..."

Comforting words regardless of the audience, but read them again as a BC-era practicing Jew.  What would those words mean to you then?  On the heels of Passover last month, these words would again remind you of two very important times in the history of Israel - the day you left Egypt, and the day you entered the Promised Land.  Two very distinct moments in time when your journey of following after God left a high-water mark on your life.  Two crossings, two purposes, two means, two defining moments in life - exiting and entering.

Israel isn't alone in these historical moments.  We each have in our past or our present those moments when we find ourselves on the shores of deep waters with nowhere to go but through them.  We're either leaving a familiar past or embracing a unknown future, and it's not always at the same time.  Sometimes, as with Israel, there's a convoluted, awkward, laborious wilderness in between that begs to be navigated and must be endured.  Certainly, sometimes our leaving the past and embracing the future happens at the same river-crossing - to those people, I affectionately blow raspberries.  That's never been my experience, but if that's you, I'm happy for you... mostly.

Personally, I find myself out of Egypt wondering how long before I find a Jordan to cross into my future.  I left my job more than 6 months ago and find myself in a convoluted, awkward, laborious wilderness in between jobs.  But I also find confidence in a promise like "...When you pass through the waters, I will be with you and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you...".  We'll break down this verse in a couple of more posts.  

How about you?  Anyone else called to leave someplace familiar?  Anyone else embracing something new?  Anyone else with me in the awkward in between?  Leave a comment and let's start talking.