Archive for July, 2007

4th of July and Other Transformations at Pearl Lane

July 24, 2007 at 6:29 pm · Filed under Adventures, Discipleship

This past Spring Mary Hinkle was meditating on Luke 14:12-14:    

Then Jesus said to his host, “When you give a luncheon or dinner, do not invite your friends, your brothers or relatives, or your rich neighbors; if you do, they may invite you back and so you will be repaid. But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed. Although they cannot repay you, you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.” 

On Memorial Day, she and her husband, Tom, had a cookout on the spur of the moment and invited some friends from Open Table.  “We had really good fellowship and a fun evening out on the deck, but I kept thinking, ‘I wish we had some of my new Spanish-speaking friends from Pearl Lane here.’”  She shared the thought with Tom and then again later as the 4th of July was approaching.  She writes, “It didn’t seem likely that at this point in time we could expect people I’d only met (the parents), to come to our home – and how would we get them all here – but we could offer hospitality where they live. I could picture how much fun the kids would have at a party.  At the same time we were discussing the fact of “hunger” among some of the families living at Pearl Lane who found it difficult to make ends meet in the summer with their children out of school (where lunches and breakfasts are provided during the school year).  Next thing I knew, Tom had stopped by the store and bought a portable grill for the cookout.  There was no backing out!” 

[Side note:  Someone at Open Table had met a woman who is part of an FDA program to feed kids during the summer.  She talked with Mary.  Mary talked with the FDA person, and it looks like we will be able to get a couple of meals a day delivered to families at Pearl Lane through the summer.  Is God cool or what!  Pray that we get the paper work completed soon.]Back to the story Mary brought in some other folks to help, they printed invitations in Spanish and English and she and the kids from the reading program distributed them around the apartment complex.  They gave invitations to the women in the ESL class, and invited folks from Open Table.  “We took a wild guess at what kind of response we’d get and planned for 100 people.  I think we probably had around 75 – 80 people, as 100 hotdogs were consumed, along with potato salad, chips, carrots, watermelon, cookies, and Popsicles.” About a dozen people from Open Table participated.  “For some it was their first exposure to Pearl Lane.  Some had met the kids at VBS and now saw where they live…  We had about 25 of our regular kids (who attended the After School Program), their siblings and several mothers and two dads.  Two of the women from the English class came.  We had about 12 new people from the complex we had never met before, and two Cambodian women.”   Mary said, “It was the first time for some of the moms to come down to the center where their children attend programs.   They had fun looking at all the pictures of their kids we had displayed.   Mary, Will, Todd and Ralph played games and soccer with the kids.  We had bubbles and sidewalk chalk.  It was a very fun afternoon – a lot of work, but very worthwhile in building relationships.” 

To recap:  reading Bible, meditating, living life, integrating different relationships in hospitality and love…  Taking a risk, moving quick, planning on the fly, working as a team, guessing at numbers, getting help from the neighborhood kids… Taking the leap, having a great day…   

Mary is just one of many who embody our core practices of generosity, hospitality, forgiveness and risk taking.  We walked into Pearl Lane as strangers among strangers.  In time, with sacrifice and commitment, Mary made friends and fell in love.  It’s not charity, it’s not pity.  It’s friendship.   

We’ll try to get pictures up on the web site (which is currently under re-construction).  If you come by Open Table you can see them in the café.   

One of the things I love about risks like this is that they are fertile mediums for creativity.  They are already talking about back to school parties, movie nights, etc.  Love is amazing.   Thank you, Lord, for calling us out of ourselves and into the wild, unpredictable, scary world of loving strangers and aliens.  They are your instruments, your blessings, in changing us.  Amen.   

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Hints and Habits of Prayer

July 19, 2007 at 1:05 pm · Filed under Discipleship, Musings

Let’s talk about prayer. George A. Buttrick wrote a book simply called Prayer (Abingdon-Cokesbury, 1977).  What I love about his writing is how it takes me off-guard on some points and guides my emotions not just my mind.  Here are a couple of excerpts:

“Prayer is friendship with God.  Friendship is not formal, but it is not formless:  it has its cultivation, its behavior, its obligations, even its disciplines; and the casual mind destroys it.” 

I love this everyday reminder of whose I am and who I am.  He is Lord Almighty, but he is also “friend.”  (John 15:15)  It disarms my religiosity and the walls of formalism I construct to protect myself when I start to think about prayer as “hanging out with my friend.”  It is easier for me to spend time relaxing with and talking with a friend.  I need and want deeper friendship. 

Buttrick goes on to teach “hints” about prayer.  He has four large movements in prayer: 

Thanksgiving (“We deliberately need to call to mind the joys of our journey”…These need to be specific:  “this friendship, this threat overpassed, this signal grace.”)

Confession (Buttrick focuses this on our confession to our wronging the Lord by looking at specific facts.  “I confess this sharp judgment, this jealousy, this cowardice, this bondage of dark habit, this part in the world’s evil.”)

Intercession (“Genuine love sees faces, not a mass…  Pray for those who despitefully use you… Worship is in vain if we are embittered… Bless so-and-so whom I foolishly regard as an enemy.  Bless So-and-so whom I have wronged.  Keep them in Thy favor.  Banish my bitterness.”)

Petition (“It comes last not because it is most important, but because it needs the safeguard of earlier prayer… Petition is defended against [a selfish mind] if first we give thanks, confess our sins, and pray for our neighbors.  Then the petition can have free course.”). 

He writes:“The intervals of these four prayers should be filled by meditation. After thanksgiving we should contemplate God’s abounding goodness, and await his word concerning his own gifts.  After confession we should adore the pardoning Love made known in Christ, and listen for his guidance.  After intercession we should pause to see the world’s need as Christ saw it from the cross.  After petition we should wait again to meditate upon the Will.“Prayer is listening as well as speaking, receiving as well as asking; and its deepest mood is friendship held in reverence.  So the daily prayer should end as it begins – in adoration…  The word “Amen” is not idle:  it means “So let it be.”  It is our resolve to live faithfully in the direction of our prayers, and our act of faith in God’s power.” 

I think that one of the things we discover from experienced saints like Buttrick (and we could look at the writings of hundreds of men and women throughout the history of the church and find similar guidance) is that quality prayer does take quality time.  It doesn’t easily fit into a minimal time slot. 

 This is not to say that you shouldn’t pray in whatever time or circumstances you are in.  Rather, if we are seeking to be transformed, to break the powers of our culture and its hold over us and in us, to be disciples in every aspect of our lives and thoughts; then it will take some extended time with our Lord.  In Acts 4:13 the leadership in Jerusalem is astonished at Peter and John’s boldness.  The text says, “And they recognized that they had been with Jesus.”  The same holds true for us.  Time spent with him effects us and changes us in noticable ways. 

The other aspect of Buttrick’s advice that is especially significant is that he guides us into some forgotten Christ-like attitudes that are very foreign to contemporary people.  His advice on praying against bitterness and for perceived “enemies” is one of the forgotten paths of freedom. 

So schedule a date with the Lord.  If you are busy parent like me, then work out a deal with your spouse to give them some time away while you watch the roost (then switch).  Many people say they want a more intimate, pure, and powerful walk with the Lord.  For this to come to pass we all need to be like our spiritual fathers and mothers in the faith who were noted for having spent time with Jesus.   

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A New Blog to Check Out

July 13, 2007 at 8:36 pm · Filed under Uncategorized

My friend Rusty Pritchard has a new blog.  You can see the link on this page.  Rusty is a great guy.  He loves the Lord,  his wife and his kids, is humble, has a Ph.D. in econmics, and works for the Evangelical Environmental Network.  He understands many of the complex issues facing God’s creation and our care of it.  You can check it out by clicking the link on the blogroll list on the right side of the main page.  

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It’s easy to say

July 13, 2007 at 8:04 pm · Filed under Discipleship

It’s easy to say, “Don’t get caught in the rat race.  Settle down, relax, simplify, be calm with God.”  Words in an age of information overload can always seem cheap and easy.  The question is how?  How do you actually make the shift, the change?  There are a couple of things in this regard. 

First, we have to always understand that living life with God is not our idea.  When the Lord declared you “not guilty” because of Christ’s blood, he made a definitive break in your sin nature.  The break is not complete until sin and death are completely defeated at either our death or his return (1 Co 15:26), but the break is definite and the new life of the Spirit is ours (Rom 6:17-18, Col 3:9, Heb 9:3).  It is the Spirit who calls forth to the Father from within us (Gal 4:6).     

Point #1:  The cards are stacked in our favor.

Now, the life we live is not passive.  The believer has definite enemies against living the way of the Lord.  The classic description of these enemies are the World system we live in that is based in on materialism, consumption, comfort, violence, etc.; the Devil (the spiritual forces of wickedness); and our own natures shaped by our selfishness, self-interest, and immaturity.   

Point #2:  It’s a battle.  It’s not disembodied ease, which is why I’m writing this! 

How do we “fight the good fight?”  We fight on two fronts.  We fight by our positive growth and maturity in understanding and living with the Lord.  We fight by taking off old habits, reflexes, and attitudes based not on God’s word, but on the appetites and ways of the world/flesh/devil. 

Point #3:  We grow by what we do and don’t do.

Now, if you’re like me you’ve just hit your “Argh!”  Being able to describe a process doesn’t help you to do it.  However, it is important to understand the reality of the process so that we don’t have false expectations which get dashed and add to our struggles and disappointments.  If we think things are effortless and easy we give up too soon.  If we think things are all heartache and tragedy then we don’t see the peace and rest when it presents itself.  If we think we will reach a state of perfection in this life, then we perceive troubles and failures which are not actually there.  If we don’t know that a definitive action occured which broke the power of sin in our lives, then we just let the tremendous forces of the world around us and our old nature drag us about.  

So while we need to have a big picture to avoid errors and false expectations; we can’t be content to merely describe something. The million dollar question is, “How do we actually live with God?”  

For me, the starting point has nothing to do with setting up the perfect aesthetics, the perfect balance in the conditions of living, the perfect practice of contemplation and transcendence.  These ideas are foreign to my experience (but oh so seductive).  We don’t go deeper with the Lord by getting our life in order so that we can go deeper with Him.  We go deeper with him right where we are.  As we go deeper with Him then our life “gets in order.”  

Step #1:  Ask the Ever-present God of the Universe for help  

He can do what we can’t.  Call out to him.  Be dependent upon him.  In fact your discontent is probably from Him in order to be more dependent upon him.  You don’t have to call out with a plan in mind or solutions you have come up.  Call out to get his help.  He’ll give you the way. 

How do you know if you are hearing accurately or being deceived?  Great quesiton. 

Step #2:  Go where He can be found 

One of my three daily confessions (I write them on page 1 of every new journal I begin) is “You are with me today.  You are never a part from me.  Disconnection is an illusion.”  Sometimes this connection is in the distant background of my mind and experience.  Other times it is an obvious reality.  Our connection moves from the background to the foreground of conscious experience through Word (the Bible), Prayer (real, honest talking and listening to Him), and Community (the people has put in our lives as a community of faith).  These three working together are how we know we are not deceiving ourselves and doing things according to our preference vs. his will.   

God is never more present than in his Word, the Bible.  Meet with him there.

God is never more present than in conversation with him.  Talk with him.

God is never more present than in the midst of his body, his people.  Spend time with them. 

I should add that this last point on community is not just within the walls of the local church, but being with him in the world.  Our relationship is based on following him.  We have to go where he is.  He is very specific in Matthew 25 (and many other places) that he is with the least, the oppressed, and the lost.  If you’re trying to find him in the midst of a secure-suburban-enclave or a fast-track-to-success-career, then you will likely only find a hint and shadow his Presence. This is why short-term summer missions, outreach efforts, and other opportunities which get us out of ourselves spoil our satisfaction with our ordinary lives.  We tap into real life because we are finally following Him where He is. 

Now is the point where I usually get the high-school-lawyer question, “If God is everywhere, how can you say he isn’t with me wherever I am?”  To which I reply, I never said he wasn’t with you.  I said that you are not with him.  As such, you’ll only get “hints and shadows.”  He promised that he will never abandon you.  He isn’t the issue, we are.  We walk away from him through distraction, forgetfulness, immaturity or rebellion.  Fortunately, he calls us back to relationship, to closeness. But to be sure we are not abandoning him we have to do what he clearly says in his Word to do. The way to get in touch, close, and intimate is not to do things my way, but his way. 

Next time, I’ll talk a little bit more about having conversation with God.  But let’s start our transformation by calling out to him and going to him where he says he can be found.    

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