Living God's Radical Way Requires God's Transforming Power

 

Many years ago, I did this as a visual, a reminder
of the grace and forgiveness I have received that needs
to be extended to the one who hurt me.  (Maybe this
visual will help you, too.)

The three years that Jesus spent teaching and healing were filled with showing us the way of the kingdom of God.  He spoke often of the kingdom of God.  

Jesus came to show us who God is.  He told the people of that day that you can only know God and come to Him through Himself.

The way of God that Jesus spoke of and showed us was a way that was directly opposite of our human way of doing things.

The people wanted rescued from the fierce and cruel Roman rule.  They were promised a Messiah that would free them.  They had their own ideas of what and how that should look like.

They were met head on with a different way.  Jesus, the Rabbi, the Messiah, spoke -

He spoke of not retaliating, eye for eye, but whoever slaps you turn the other cheek.

If someone takes your coat, give him your cloak also.

Their custom was that if a Roman asked you to carry something for him you were only obligated to go one mile.  Jesus said, "Take it two miles".

Jesus told the people that His kingdom doesn't fight.

He said that to give is to receive.

Jesus said to love others as He has loved us.

And one of the hardest maybe and one that feels so very unjust is - to forgive.  Not once. Not seven times - but 70 x 7.  More than we will keep track of is the point, again.  And again.

(Now I am in no way advocating abuse or letting someone run over you and Jesus isn't either.  I believe this is a way that Jesus was saying - show love, grace, and compassion.)

I sit with these statements and realize an underlying theme that my heart wrestles with - the radical ways of God that Jesus lived, modeled for us, and told us to go and do likewise as He has done, is beyond my human capacity.  I must know Him and His transforming power to be able to go and do.

As I wrestled with this - feelings of unfairness and unjustness come rising to the surface.  Don't we need to do justice?  

I don't get very far as I learn of Jesus and look at the way He lived to know and to realize that no, I don't get to live with how and what I think justice should look like.  His ways are radical and don't make sense to my human way of thinking.  And isn't that the point?!  Jesus' way is opposite to the way of the human.  Jesus' way is opposite and in direct conflict to the enemy - Satan.

Jesus' way cannot be lived out, followed, or given to another human being unless He first impacts our own heart.

We absolutely will not love, forgive, or go beyond if it is up to us.  (Or am I alone in this??)  I don't think so.  We fight the 'Romans' in our lives.  We lash out to those who hurt us, giving eye for eye and even with a bit more punch.  Well, maybe we don't do it so outright.  It just may be a bit more subtle, slyly for we are Christians, aren't we?  We are only standing for truth, we might say.

As the woman taken in adultery, dragged by men of religion to be condemned.  They held the stones, ready to hurl them to the woman.  By their law they could.  They had every right to throw the stones.

But they asked Jesus what they should do to this woman. (John 8:4)

Jesus doesn't say a word but stoops.  He stoops down and touches the ground and begins to write in the dirt of the earth.

As the words take form, they persist in asking Him what to do.

Jesus rises up and straightens Himself and speaks the words, "He who is without sin among you, let him be the first to throw a stone at her."

Then Jesus stoops again and writes some more.

And slowly, but surely the leaving begins.  First the oldest one leaves and then the next one, followed by another - until -

Jesus once again straightens Himself and turns to the woman crouching before Him.  He asks her, "Woman, where are they?  Did no one condemn you?"

And she replies, "No one, Lord."

Jesus then tells her, "I do not condemn you, either.  Go.  From now on do not sin any longer."

Radical.  (Yes.)

Unfair.  (Most certainly)

We do not have recorded the words Jesus wrote in the dirt of the earth.  There are many thoughts on that.

I believe it was in some way words of grace.  Their sin mentioned along with the grace extended to them.  For in the presence of grace and remembering our receiving of it, stones are laid down.

When we hold stones of judgement, (however right they are), compassion cannot happen.  In the presence of Jesus and when we remember how we have received His mercy, grace, and forgiveness we will lay down our stones of blame, justice, and revenge.  When justice and judgement is laid down there is room for compassion.

Honestly, the only way to live the radical ways of Jesus is for His grace to impact my own heart.  I cannot give what I do not have.

This takes us to the two greatest commandments that Jesus told us.  The first is to love Him with our all of ourselves - our heart, mind, soul, and strength.  The second one is to love our neighbor as ourselves.

You and I cannot give what we do not own.  Unless God's grace, mercy, love, and forgiveness grip my heart I will cast stones and compassion will not take place.

If you wrestle with this way, you are not alone.  I have.  I will admit to that.  It is not my way naturally.  As Jesus wrestled in Gethsemane to do the way of God, you and I have our own 'Gethsemane' moments of wrestling to do the will and way of God.

This is where the power of the resurrection enables us.  Because of Jesus, when we choose Him, we find our way through the garden of Gethsemane and as we face the 'Judas' in our own stories- the ones who hurt us'.

When we love and forgive we are showing who God is.  The only way possible to love and forgive and offer grace is first of all to know God.  It's more than knowing about Him.  It's knowing Him deep within.  It's understanding what Jesus has given to us personally and allowing it to change us. Then and only then do we have something to offer to each other.  Through that understanding, Jesus' transforming power enables us to live His radical ways.

The Weight of Death and the Power of Life

 

This week - after Holy Week that held both praise and criticism, worship and cries of death, promises and broken promises, the grave and resurrection - we may find ourselves continuing to feel both the weight of death in so many ways and also the power of life because of the resurrection.

Holy Week reminds us of a time and place and happenings in the life of Jesus.  It invites us to think of more than of eggs and bunnies and chocolate.  It invites us to remember the One who came and the reason why He came - Immanuel.

Holy Week holds both joy and grief.  Both celebration and crucifixion.  Both life and death.  Both those who chose Jesus and those who rejected Him.  It holds space for the tomb and the bursting forth from the tomb.  It holds glorious resurrection - the conquering of death - the power of life!

To truly know the power of life we will also know deeply the weight of death and weakness and silent Saturday's of waiting and wondering.

This hard reality holds a mystery of the ways of God that are so opposite of our human thinking.  That to give is to gain and to serve is great.  That to know loss we can know the gain of something more important.

We know physical graves of loved ones we laid them in.  Mourning the loss of who they are to us.  We know the 'graves' of buried dreams, of loss that laid us low, and of disappointments and rejections that pierce our hearts.

But the life of Jesus, His resurrection from the grave holds the torch of hope for us all as we stand at those graves and weep.  It gives us a way through, a path to see beyond the grave that stands before us.  

It offers us the truth that the grave is not the end of the story, it does not have the last say.  Jesus does!

His power is greater than the power of the world.  His Spirit is greater than the spirit of the world.  And that - that gets me so excited because He wants to infuse me with that same power and strength to rise above the grief and weight of death.

In those moments when the weight of death overwhelms our heart and soul, He comes alongside us and says, "I will be with you.  I am with you."  

He is our Advocate, our High Priest, the One who knows the weight of death but also rose in the power of life.  The grave opened to show us He was not in there.

To know the Resurrection Sunday, we will also know the weight of the grave of Friday and the silence of Saturday.

To those who are in the Friday and Saturday's of life - it's okay.  The disciples also wondered in those hours, they too struggled to understand what all was happening as the One who they believed was their Master and Saviour was laid in the tomb.  The women went to honour Him that Sunday morning.  They went, in their grief, to honour Him.

As they stood at the empty grave, more grief of "Where is He?" echoed and bounced around in their hearts.

An angel spoke words of life - "He is not here, He is risen.  Behold, this is the place He laid.  Go. Go and tell... and remember - remember what He told you".  

The disciples went and in Mark 16:8 it says they went with trembling and astonishment.  Amazement and fear.  They had nothing to say and yet fear stayed with them.

Mary stayed.  She stayed by the tomb weeping, weeping with the unanswered questions she held in her heart.  She didn't know where Jesus was, even if He would be in this tomb at least she would know, something would make sense.   But this?  This doesn't.

As she turns around a man asks her why she is weeping. 

Oh, the care of Jesus when we don't even recognize Him in our grief.  I weep with the sheer magnitude of this truth.

She, thinking it to be the gardener, pleads with him to inform her of where Jesus may be.  Her heart was in turmoil - until.  Until the Master spoke her name - and then she knew.  

Mary then goes and tells.  No, she announces, "I have seen the Lord."  Announcing isn't just saying it, it gives the picture of loudly saying, declaring, and with emotion.

Jesus speaks your name and mine.  In our grief, Jesus comes, holding out His nail-scarred hands to offer us His life, light, and truth of who He is.  And when, we too, see the Lord, we leave changed, embolden and declaring the ways of the Lord.  I have seen the Lord!

I have had my own questions and wrestlings that include confusion and wondering where Jesus is.  My pain doesn't always end with the good news of "He is risen" and so I'm left with what to do when life doesn't make sense.  I don't believe I am alone in this for I have heard cries of the same.  Our enemy wants us to believe the grave is the end, that Friday wins.

But guess what?  IT DOESN'T! 

Jesus is our Hope, our Peace and He tells us, "It is I".  He invited Thomas, as he wrestled with all that had happened - to "Reach here...".  "Reach here and put your finger, and see My hands; reach here your hand, and put it in My side; and be not unbelieving, but believing."  John 20:26-27

Jesus was so tender with their grief, their questions, understanding their confusion and in His gentleness He comforted them, reminding them, and bringing evidence of who He is.

And so it is for you and I today.  In our moments of grief, questions, the pain, and when His ways don't make sense - He comes.  He invites us to reach for Him.  He speaks our name.  He comes and is here with gentleness and the power of life that is greater than the weight of death.

When Life Looks and Feels Mundane - Brown and Bare - There Just May Be Life Within

 

I mentioned in my previous post how March can get a bad rap known to be...  Brown.  Drab.  Mud. Bare. 

Yes, it is all true and in this season, we long for warmth and color.

Let's continue on this journey to see what is within and the possibilities that lie within the soil and trees. I'm continuing to invite you to look beyond and maybe if you think of the tree for who and what it is - it just may shift your thoughts about this season of not yet - the in between of winter and the warm spring air.

You see, sometimes I find it quite real and true of myself and relate with the bare, brown, and mundane landscape of the March season. 

What you see across the landscape is the brown and bareness of the trees, as they stand in the mundane, common, and with vulnerability.  The trees and ground are void of the color of the sharp green grass, the yellow daffodils, the green that fills the branches of the trees, the various colors of the flowers that will eventually shoot forth and grace us with their beauty.

But let's stop for a moment and pause.  What you see of the tree and the ground is really what creates the space for all that beauty.  As the tree stands, stripped and bare of visible color and life, it stands vulnerable with life within.

I remember vividly a long season that I passed through the typical four seasons and stayed in the one that found me bare and void of visible productivity.  As I was taking a walk one afternoon and the sun was gracing the brown and the bare trees, the thought flashed through my mind - 'it's beautiful.'

Wait.  What?  Brown and bare = beautiful; no way!

Life is more than the fruit, the leaves, and the color.  Life is really what is within.  For the fruit, the leaves, and the color only happen as a result of what is within.  If the tree is dead within, no visible life will happen without or at least not for very long and most certainly won't withstand a wind storm.

This spoke to me and I saw the bare and brown of the landscape as beautiful in its own way for it truly holds the truest of life.

I, too, find myself in seasons and times that leave me stripped and bare.  But like the tree as it puts its roots down, resting and replenishing itself for the coming spring and summer's growth; I too, am called to put my roots down in Jesus, learning more of who He is.

He is Life and wants me to know Him as the Abundant Life.

Life within matters more than visible life without.  As the sun's rays warm the earth we see the stirrings of that life come to the surface.

The maple trees are tapped as the sun's warming rays stir the life within.  Sap is turned into syrup which we enjoy on our pancakes.  Grass starts to turn green.  The trees take on the hue of the emerging colour of leaves.  The new shoots of green that burst forth as spring daffodils, forsythia, lilacs, snowdrops and more start to color the landscape is invigorating.

In the mundane, the normal, the bareness creates a space to appreciate all this emerging life that laid silent within the earth and trees. 

To know color and the beauty of flowers we must know the season of rest and life within.  If there was always production, always a giving, when would we and nature ever rest and replenish?

So, as the white winter gives way to muddy March and the cold winds that still blow - stay.  Stay and remember the season of growth cannot be hurried and there is something right now that grows us, within, if we train our eyes to see life.  

Maybe God is inviting you to sit in this season of bare, mundane, and vulnerability to learn more of who are in Him without any external validation.

Maybe He is inviting you to understand the life within that is stirring, unseen but oh so alive, just waiting for the warmth of spring to stir it to something more - the birthing of life without.

Come Out - Loose Him and Live

 

Life.  Sometimes I wonder if we really understand what living and life really is.

Let me take a moment and let's travel dusty roads to look back over the paths Jesus walked and the life giving He demonstrated and lived.

As He broke bread and told us to remember this - He gave thanks; all while knowing what He was about to walk through.

He gave thanks before breaking the bread and then it was passed to over 5,000 hungry people.

The kernel of wheat must die before giving birth to more kernels.

Jesus died, giving His life so that we may have life.  These are just a few...

Really.  Paradoxical to my way of thinking.  This is not the way I picture life coming and being given.  But it is the way of Jesus; upside down to we humans who strive after perfect as we were created to be in the beginning.  We plant, not even thinking of the seed that needs to die to produce the flowers and veggies we look forward to enjoying.

Lazarus laid in the grave for four days.  He was stinking by now and bound.  His sisters, Marry and Martha were grieving, after all they sent a message to Jesus to come and the road was empty of the visible presence of Jesus as Lazarus took his last breath.

As Martha met Jesus when He came, her words held the question, the wondering, the disappointment.  The words that followed also held her hope and belief in who Jesus is.

Jesus spoke to her that He is the Resurrection and the Life and she responded with, "Yes, Lord, I have believed that You are the Christ, the Son of God, even He who comes into the world." John 11:27 (italics added)

Jesus paused at the tomb of Lazarus after he laid there for four days and lifted His eyes toward His Father, and gave thanks.  He gave thanks that He hears.  But first the instructions Jesus gave were to remove the stone and Martha who had just declared to believe Jesus; struggled to understand, declaring that by now there will be a stench!

Jesus reminds her, "Did I not say - to you - if you believe you will see the glory of God?"  As Jesus paused, He looked up and gave thanks.  He gives thanks knowing that His Father hears.  He gave thanks because of what God would do for the benefit of the people.  He wanted them to really know who He is and we learn that through the experience. 

God hears our cries - right at the entrance of our graves.

Broken pieces.  Brokenness given to Jesus gives way to the birthing of life; deep within our souls and that's what matters the most.  It's the fullest healing and sometimes it simply doesn't look like we thought it would.

And that remains a mystery, but one I'm learning to lean into when the next hard comes.  I may be like Martha and still say something practical like 'there will be a stench'; but I'm learning to trust the Giver of Life and the One who gave His life with thanks so that I may have eternal life; the fullness of life.

And so, I stop, look up and give thanks.  Thanks giving is thanks living.

Maybe for you, this season of thanksgiving is brutal.  Maybe life simply doesn't make sense and the road to your house remains 'empty' of the presence of Jesus.  Let's just sit 'together' for a moment and let's remember - He is here.  Jesus knew about Mary and Martha and Lazarus' last breath.  He hasn't forgotten you and like Jesus said, " Let us go..." He will come and He does come.  In your pain He just may not be visible.  That is okay - but I breathe a prayer that you may rise with faith like Martha did; choosing to still believe and some day, give thanks for who He is.

Scatter Seeds, Scatter - Good Things

 

Fall is a time, as it gives way to winter, that seeds from many plants and flowers scatter.  You see them blowing in the wind, birds come to eat of their fare and spread them.

They lie dormant in the many dark and cold days and nights of winter until spring comes and the warmth of the sun stirs them to life.

Spring is a time of planting seeds and what we plant grows.  What we plant takes root.  What laid quiet and dormant becomes visible.

Be intentional with what you scatter, what seeds you sow as you go about your day.  For what you plant, what you sow, what you leave behind will at some point become visible.

What do you want to bear fruit?  What legacy do you want to follow you?  What words would you like said about you?

Scatter seeds of kindness.

Sow the seeds of love and grace.

Plant goodness and truth.

Give comfort where tears and pain are.  

Give a hug, share a smile, lean in towards the one you want to walk away from.

Rejoice in the victory of another and the gift they bring to the world.

Share Jesus, the One who is Life, for that is the best gift you can give to anyone. 

We all want kindness and care.  We thrive when someone sees beyond the dead branches of our actions to tend with care and bring to life the good that lies within.  Fight comparison and take care of the root of feeling threatened by the blooming and planting of another.

Leave seeds in unexpected places.  Give them to someone you would not normally seek out.  Leave the seeds wherever you go.

We control the results with what we plant with our actions today.  We're not entirely in control of the results, just like a garden, I plant flowers, vegetables and the weeds come in as well.  But the result is still vastly different if I let the weeds go or pull them out...  what we do makes a difference!

The key is... spend time with the Gardener and it will make all the difference in the seeds you sow and plant.  Don't focus so much on the seeds, but in spending time in the garden with the Gardener.  He'll tell you many things.