The law according to Murphy: Nothing can overcome but love

The law according to Murphy: Nothing can overcome but love: I've been off the writing circuit for quite awhile now.  I seem to have less to say these days but not really.  There is so much to say....

Nothing can overcome but love

I've been off the writing circuit for quite awhile now.  I seem to have less to say these days but not really.  There is so much to say.  We live in perilous times and the world is not going to get better.  Evil is pervasive and the media leads with stories that have no hope.  But in reality what hope do we have?  Is a new president going to save us?  Would winning the lottery make the world a better place?  Could you find peace in that long sought after perfect relationship?

You can't.  You won't find what you need in a bottle or a needle.  It doesn't get sold at the local convenience store.  Hope is available and peace is attainable, but the truth is that often we don't want to pay the price.  Both come at the cost of following God, in an era where following God is not cool.  

But let's face it, we don't even fully understand what it means to be God followers.  If you watch the news being a christian might mean you say you are one.  Or it might be that you are a gun toting, anti abortion activist who wants a wall built around the nation.   You might be portrayed as someone who is ignorant or uninformed.  At the very basic level being a christian has become synonymous with being intolerant.  And well maybe they aren't so far off - all these media portrayals.  After all do we really even remember what it means to be a God follower?  Or do we just spend time telling everyone else they are wrong and we have the sole ownership of the truth?

Oops some of you almost stopped reading there.  Being the sole owner of the truth is foundational to your faith.  Your way or the highway, right.  One way to God and only one way...the way you came correct?  Except that isn't how God works.  He is personal.  There are millions of paths because there are millions of people.  He knows them all.  He wants to be in relationship with everyone of them.  And well let's face it we are suppose to be part of what draws them into His presence.  But who would want to hang out with someone who was always telling them how wrong they are?  Who wants friends who judge them as lacking and look down from their ivory towered churches to say "clean up and come in but don't dare set foot in OUR house without cleaning up."

Have you looked in the mirror lately?  You should, you are probably dirty and grungy.  You might have some sin of anger or lust or pride smeared all over your face.  It might not show up like  the sin of alcoholism or an alternative lifestyle but do you think it is any more or less disgusting to God?  It isn't.  He doesn't call us to be perfect - you do know that right.  He calls us to be forgiven.  He calls us to love.  "Greater love has no man than this, that he lay down his life for his brother."  So what are you doing to lay down your life for your brother?  For me, I'm loving him, even though he used to be my sister.  For me, I'm encouraging him to seek wholeness and peace with those around him.  For me, I'm having hard conversations about what it means to be born without the privilege of my white skin in a world where skin color matters.  For me, I'm hugging my police officers and veterans and letting them know God and I see their struggles.  For me, I'm trying to raise my children to exist side by side with other faiths so that maybe one day, they can be share that Jesus died so that their friends can find everlasting life in His arms.  I am hopefully loving the world as fiercely as God loves me.  I am practicing invitation, accepting His, and offering them to others.  God's love is fierce and all I am called to do is share it just are fiercely to the world.

Take me deeper

Well Lord, here we are safely at the end of another term.  I’m just a little sad to see this one go.  It has been such an amazing awakening for me.  I learned so much that is practical and beneficial to my everyday interactions with people you bring into my life.  My voice for you and about you has become so much clearer at work.  I’m so awed by your work in my life.  So truck by the clear pattern of seasons I can see when look back.  So hopeful I don’t see as many dry spells in my future.  Thinking about seasons always brings to mind your word in Ecclesiastes 3.  I love that you understand my need to move from one thing to the next and not stay in one place forever.   But what I really love comes after that in verses 9-15. 

What profit has the worker from that in which he labors? I have seen the God-give task with the sons of man are to be occupied.  He has made everything beautiful in its time.  Also He has put eternity in their hearts, except that no one can find out the work that God does from beginning to end.  I know that nothing is better for them than to rejoice, and to do good in their lives, and also that every man should eat and drink and enjoy the good of all his labor – it is the gift of God. I know that whatever God does it shall be forever.  Nothing can be added to it.  And nothing taken from it.  God does it, that men should fear before Him.  That which is has already been.  And what is to be has already been. And God requires an account of what is past. (NKJV)

Lord that is a text that will preach!!! You are before, during and after.  What has been always will be!  Amen.  Nothing needs to be added or subtracted because it is your perfect will.   You gave us eternity in our hearts so we would seek you and your beauty.  You make us each beautiful in your time.  And not one of us will ever know our beginning through to our end. That amazes me!  You amaze me!

During this middle of my earthly live moment, you are bringing out in my heart this desire to see eternity in all those around me. Standing on an oil rig in the middle of the Gulf of Mexico, talking about how Jesus is all you need and when you think there can’t possibly be enough Jesus to cover you – just fall into Him and find out how deep His water flows.  That’s eternity in the moment.  Or talking with your teenage son who prefers home devotions to Sunday school because you can learn about the love of God for the whole world from a conversation.  That the end of the story I’ll never see – eternity in his heart! Or my Hindu “work daughter”, who doesn’t even know what a chaplain is or does but wants to hear me talk about you every time she comes into my office. That is the whole of your gospel written in my soul.  I’ve tasted and seen that you are good.  You are writing on my heart fresh and new the stories of old. My story – Your glory!! There is nothing in my life but your beauty.  Nothing in this moment but rejoicing.  The labors of my heart and hand are seen by you and are your gift to me so I can eat and sing and dance.  There were tears and loss and mourning and ashes but now there is joy and praise and shouting. I deserve to down into the pit but you have lifted me up to your right hand and called me daughter. You’ve crowned me princess.  I am yours!

What response can I have to this love but pure joy?  What was meant to destroy me has made me whole. So Lord, help me to take this term full of growth and preparation and allow it to be the foundation for this life of misisonal living.  When I grow weary Lord give me wings. When I wander from your path Lord call my name. When my joy becomes sorrow comfort me that I may comfort others in due season. Lord for all the questions I’ve asked and the plans I’ve arranged help me surrender to your way.  Call me out of the routine daily moments – call out to me from the deep – so that I can wade into your ocean farther than my feet can carry me to where I can walk on the water with you!

Perseverance

The Message sums up the need for continuing with faithfulness in the spiritual disciplines so well for me.  It reads in Galatians 6:7-10 like this: "Don't be misled: No one makes a fool of God. What a person plants, he will harvest.  The person who plants selfishness, ignoring the needs of others - ignoring God! - harvests a crop of weeds.  All he'll have to show for his life is weeds! But the one who plants in response to God, letting God's Spirit do the growth work in him, harvest a crop of real life, eternal life. So let's not allow ourselves to get fatigued doing good.  At the right time we will harvest a good crop if  we don't give up, or quit.  Right now, therefore, every time we get the chance, let us work for the benefit of all, starting with the people closest to us in the community of faith."  

If we want to harvest godliness we have to put in the work.  We can't expect to harvest great impact in the eternal kingdom when we are consumed by the natural. I am starting a missions organization in Houston and we are focused on helping people understand that SOME day is never going to get here.  You can't wait to begin when life is convenient or easy.  You can't put off the discipline till next week while you are too busy this week.  Life gets more busy not less.

While this seems so simple it is hard to live out.  After all things that belong to the temporal realm have to be done.  My house needs to be clean, my children fed and clothed, and God gave me a job that he expects me to do as unto him.  So where do you start to build your life around spiritual disciplines.  You start where you are.  With one thing a day.  You don't have to be good at everything all at once.  To someone not involved in any spiritual discipline some is more than nothing.  Just like physical exercise you have to start moving. It really can be simple - A verse of the day in your email or on your smart phone.  A prayer time instead of a water cooler chat.  God is willing to take what we are able to scrimp together and turn it into power and beauty.  The widow gave her two mites even though it was all she had.  If all you have is your commute - then pray the whole way.  If all you have is your lunch hour - then isolate yourself and spend time alone with God at that moment.  Read his word instead of the news website, work with worship on your radio, or keep some note cards at your desk and drop him a line everyday.  

But be ready to realize that the more of God you put in your heart, the more godliness in your life, the harder it will be to keep it up.  Satan doesn't want you to plant and harvest.  He doesn't want you to build up the saints around you.  He doesn't want prayer happening in the workplace or family unit.  And you are going to get tired.  But you have to continue to be steady.  Even if you step back, or slow down, even if you only get two minutes instead of twenty or an hour, keep pressing in.  Don't let your fatigue capture you joy or your victory.  "Be confident of this very thing, that he who began a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ." (Phil 1:6, NKJV).

I have to be honest being disciplined in my spiritual life has been hit and miss for me since I became a mom but God is  putting a light in my life that is new and fresh.  I am finding that my life goes better when my lunch hour is spent with my bible or a Christian book.  My work is smoother when the other believers at my job meet for 5 minutes of prayer over the building each day.  There are so many ways to integrate God into our daily routine.  And in reality I think that is what he wants anyway.  A quiet time each morning or night is great but not if you compartmentalize that time with God away from the rest of your life.  My life is to be a direct reflection of Him.  If  I only get his light at one point each day I grow dim in my reflection.  But when I carry Him with me everywhere, then I can create a reflection worthy of his glory.  And after all that is what I am all about - my story for his glory.   

It comes to one thing

I have held a lot of beliefs in my life.  Things that I knew to be true.  Things that were absolute and indisputable.  Things that I would argue with anyone who would listen.  They were things I had adopted from my parents, my teachers, my church.  They were foundational or so I thought.  Over the course of my maturation into adult, parent and independent thinker most of these arguments have been watered down to mute tones of grey.  Where black and white once stood in sharp contrast to each other they are now mottled together.

But to say that they have become gray is only half true. For me these truths, or at least most of them, continue to be firmly rooted in who I am and how I live.  So in reality they have become two sided coins. The coin facing the world is grey tones of neutrality while the one facing me is stark black and white.  I created this coin to prevent others from being offended by my words.  But in reality I believe.  I am not ashamed that I believe.  I am praying daily that God helps my unbelief.  And I am tired of living with eggshells under my feet.  When did it become hate filled to believe in something?  When did it become wrong to call sin what it is?  When did it make me mean spirited and cold hearted and a hatemonger to believe that God wants me to live in a certain way?

I have boiled it all down to one thing for me and my house.  It comes to one question - who do you say Jesus is? and what are you going to do about that? Okay so that is two questions. But really I don't care if you call him Allah or Yawheh or any other name. I don't care if you worship different than me? I don't care if you believe everything I believe.  I care about this one thing - who do you say Jesus is? So in essence it comes down to one thing -  Who do you say He is - and if you want to talk about that with me be prepared to hear what I believe and not the muddled grey version. I will speak the life giving truth that is my heart and it doesn't mean I won't listen to your heart as a matter of fact I hope you will give me your one thing - your true black and white or gray or purple and orange.  Just let me be me and I will let you be you and in the end we will determine who each of us say Jesus is and still be able to leave the table happy and in harmony.

Shh I need to hear Him

Silence is not easy to come by in my world. It is so busy and loud.  Have you ever lived with boys - they don't do quiet.  I mean they sleep and that is quiet but otherwise we rock. Balls bouncing, computers beeping and the dryer always tumbling.  Add in three dogs and a busy street that promotes those deep growls and howls of protecting the house and it can be overwhelming.  Did I mention in work in a field that is almost exclusively men and by default requires hearing protection.  Life is full of noise. It can drown out everything.  If you aren't careful it can make quiet so very uncomfortable. 

But in reality, I cherish my quiet times.  I get them at 430 every morning as the dogs chew rawhide and I spend time in the Word.  I get them at 10 every evening when I sit and journal through my day and ask God to prepare me to sleep and do it all again the next day.  Those times are good and the quiet is sanity and peace but I don't do real silence.  I remember growing up and my dad would disappear for a day.  You may remember that I am a pastor's kid so my dad being home often was one of the perks or at least he was across the street at the church and we could go find him.  But every once in a while he would just be gone.  In my childhood, I couldn't understand how anyone would want to go to the mountains alone and be quiet for a whole day.  (Did I mention my dad's theme song for me was "You talk too much.").  But as I have grown I have learned that times of peace and stillness that have no noise are precious.  

When I met my husband Tom he was preparing for a marathon.  I asked him once what he thought about during his 12 and 15 mile runs.  He said he didn't think, he just listened.  What craziness.  How could one just listen?  and What could you possibly hear over the beat of your heart in your chest?  I didn't get it.  Silence is tough for me but it is so necessary.  We hear so much in our world that sounds so good and so like God but when you stop to really let it have space and time it just isn't Him.  The idea of space is used a lot by our circle of friends.  They will say things like give that some space in your life Angela.  See what God might have for you there.  And I am having to practice this. It can be uncomfortable but rewarding.  I recently spent about two hours just sitting in my office.  My computer was off, there was no praise music on Pandora in the background. It was just me.  Surprisingly, I didn't fall asleep.  I didn't get bored or lose my mind. I heard maybe for the first time ever, I really heard. I'm not ready to share what I heard but I am sure as I give it space to breathe God will cement it for me and I can share it but for now it is the sweet whispers of my Father in the midst of the daily rush.  And you know what I can't wait to sit again and listen. I want to be able to hear His voice and know it it him like I know the cries and laughs of my boys.  You can't identify those voice you aren't listening for and you may find you think that voice is God when it isn't. So I am going to practice quiet and space and listening.  I need a little quiet so shh please I am busy listening.