How difficult is humility?
June 3, 2013
Humility, Idols, Uncategorized, Zephaniah Humility 2 Comments
So many counter-intuitive truths in the Bible:
-It is better to go to a house of mourning than to a house of feasting (Eccl 7:2)
-If someone takes your tunic, give him your shirt also (Luke 6:29)
-Happy are the poor in spirit for they have the Kingdom of Heaven (Matt 5:3)
-God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble (James 4:6)
As Tullian Tchividjian, pastor of Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church puts it, the way up is down.
I’ve been thinking a lot about humility these days. The brain is funny (and so again is the Holy Spirit as He works with the brain and our seeing). Once your brain widens the filter to notice something, you start seeing that very same something all over the place.
My friend and I have been reading a book that including a chapter on humility and submitting to God. Another friend gifted me with a book about purposefully humbling one’s heart when God sends suffering. “Father, are You trying to communicate something to me?”
Earlier in the week, I ran across this two-word sound byte from God’s Word:
“ …..seek humility……” (Zeph 2:3) – it’s just a bit of Zephaniah’s advice to the people of Judah in around 625 BC.
Why would anyone CHOOSE to seek humility?
- Only to avoid having the God of the Universe as your enemy
- Only to avoid falling
- Only to get more grace
God is so pragmatic. He WANTS us to seek rewards. He WANTS us to count the cost. He purposefully offers incentives. We are stupid when we don’t do what is in our own best interests.
**
God always seems to illustrate His commands with real-life examples. Just last week He gave me a ring-side seat to witness the payoff for humility through my husband’s vocational life. Mike just retired from 32 years of government service. He has fought hard to make a difference on a daily basis. But divine providence, aka God, has constrained him most of those years. In fact, I would say that Mike has enjoyed only about 2 years of government work. One year involved him researching, writing and then presenting a briefing multiple times to senior leaders. This cutting-edge intelligence analysis focused on the Soviet military’s tech threat in the 80s. Mike loved that work. The job that followed was equally satisfying. After some schooling at the Army’s intelligence center and school, he taught current doctrine to successive classes of senior leaders. The other jobs wearied him. Right-brained, intuitive introverts who like to think don’t find their home in bureaucracies.
Why would God keep him in jobs that frustrated him? In hindsight, I can see the rich blessings that have come from this L-O-N-G vocational desert.
- He has been protected from the danger of work becoming an idol.
- Safe from the siren’s lure of ‘work harder to climb the ladder’, Mike has had the time to invest in his sons. Present for ball games, swim events, theater performances and parents’ nights at school, Mike communicated to Graham and Wes that he loved them and cared about what they were doing.
- Long hours of rich dinner-time discussions, background music playing, exposed the boys to conversation, argumentation and the world of music. The daily dinner hour provided a relaxed forum for all of us to practice the art of reason and articulating our beliefs.
- Working for the government guaranteed Mike both the means for periodically taking a couple of hours off to catch games, but also time for family vacations. God blessed us through my dad who was financially able to share trips with us. We travelled to Europe, Alaska, and the Caribbean and Viet Nam Veteran reunions with Pop. Thankfully, Mike had vacation days to be with us.
- No chance of a swelled head. Not seeing much fruit for his labor kept Mike pressing in to God, crying out to Him. We both prayed hard, day after day, to understand why he was so stymied in his vocational desires.
All those circumstances humbled Mike. Hence his (and my) surprise at the accolades he received from multiple sources in the weeks leading up to and the day of his retirement ceremony. Colleagues and supervisors started gifting him and taking him to lunch as his last day drew closer. Then at his official ceremony, the speeches by his two big bosses affirmed him by detailing his unique contributions. There was also a short movie prepared by our son Graham that included all sorts of family photos and video messages from Mike’s mom, favorite cousin Terry, son Wes who is deployed and his dear brother, Steve. From the perspective of time, the overview of Mike’s life let him (as well as others) see that his life since age 18 HAS been rich. Friends and family who travelled to witness/share his retirement also gave testimony to his contributions. The cards, presents and remarks were all pure gift. This was evidence of the impact that Michael has unknowingly made these past years.
God DOES give more grace to the humbled. And this MORE exceeds what one ‘might’ lose by not trying to ‘make it.
Seek humility? Doesn’t sound like fun, but who are we to know best? As Graham was saying last night in a moment of shared reflection, “It’s exhausting trying to make a name. How do you know when you’ve done enough?” But the humble way, which involves serving others and putting others first, turns out to be easiest. As we start to go lower, God gives us help and praises us for our stumbling, impure efforts in that direction. Like an encouraging parent applauding his little one taking that first step, our heavenly Father praises us for all our faltering steps toward self-imposed humility.
It’s not rocket science figuring out what we have to do to earn God’s highest praise: “Well done, good and faithful servant!”
Snacks for the Weekend 31 May/ 1 June 2013
May 31, 2013
1. Using President Lincoln as an example, Mike Metzger shows us the value of memorization – Outsourcing our Memories
2. I loved this real-life example of how the Gospel helps with those crazy mornings which tempt us to feel sorry for ourselves –
How the Gospel gives hope in the midst of chaos
3. Here’s a quote that gave me pause – Christianity was never meant to be a list of principles to which we conform our behavior; it is living reconciled to God in active communion with him every day. Many believers, however, miss this incredible facet of our relationship with him. Thinking God has given us guiding principles to live by, we grow accustomed to living days or weeks without ever listening to hear what Father has on his heart for us. We make decisions by listing pros and cons, instead of sitting down for any extended period to ask that he make his desires known to us.
Wayne Jacobson
4. What do you say to someone who uses some chapters in Acts to argue that the early Church practiced and taught socialism? – Sell all you have and give to the poor?
5. Final quote for a restful weekend – Our job in this life is not to go off on our own and get busy, busy, busy, work, work, work, trying in vain to produce fruit. Trying to love people on our own will lead to a life of frustration. Our responsibility is not to produce the fruit of the Spirit on our own. Our responsibility is to have a relationship to Jesus Christ and to let God use us. It is a life yielded to Christ. It is a life of rest.
J. Delany
Abiding in Christ, Chapter 7, Used by Permission.
“Incoming! Take Cover!” aka Not My Thoughts
May 26, 2013
Anxiety, Colossians, Control, Fear, James, Peace, Uncategorized Anxiety, Fear, Hope, Remembering, Thoughts, Worry 1 Comment
You want to know what I am worrying about?
- · The expectations of my new school OF ME and the time I will have to devote at Carolina Day School (what if I don’t have enough ‘maria-time’??????)
- · Our shower basin will get so ‘grodily’ mildewed in the next two weeks that the buyer won’t want to close on our house
- · That something else will break in our house and the buyer won’t want to close on our house
- · That one or more of our kids/ grandkids will die
- · The future illnesses/deaths of our cats and end-of-life decisions
My husband thinks I don’t fight the temptation/sin of worry. I asked him this morning, “Why do you think I write about worry, fear and anxiety so much?” Isn’t it obvious that I’m trying to fight them? To get a biblical handle on how to frame them properly?
Here is how the Lord has been helping me through His living Word and via the writings of other Christians.
Several times in Scripture God affirms that He resists the proud BUT gives MORE grace to the humble (for example – James 4:6). As I’ve been memorizing some verses in James around this particular truth, I’m coming to realize that Pride presents itself in 2 different forms:
1. Well, at least I don’t do XYZ like Joe/Jill!!!! (and the many smug versions of this kind of ‘put-down’ comparisons)
2. What if XYZ doesn’t happen like the way I want it to? (and the many anxious versions of how I want life to turn out)
What’s God’s solution? First off, He communicates that these attitudes are demonic/ satanic/ out of the pit of hell. They are NOT my thoughts. They are an attack.
Just knowing that those fears I listed above originate outside of me gives me HUGE relief! I can relax in God’s assessment and then accept and use His provision of rescue. Here’s what the half-brother of Jesus counsels:
First – submit to God – turn toward Him and accept His truth of what is happening.
Fear, anxiety and smugness are ALL SIN! Father and Big Brother Jesus both command in numerous places: Fear Not……Do Not Be Anxious……Repent & Rest…. Confidently Rely on God…Thank God in ALL Circumstances…Take Shelter in God, Not in Men
Second – resist the Devil – copy Jesus who used the living word – “It is written…”, when He was attacked by Satan.
Of course, the Bible is realistic. These plaguing and demoralizing attacks will pop up again. Even Jesus knew that His victory over Satan in the desert was just one of more to come. Why should we expect anything less?
I have come to understand that FEAR/PRIDE are really one and the same. Just as a coin has two faces, this sinful posture reflects the 2-sided family flaw we inherited from our first parents, Adam & Eve. Both responses flow out of our human bent to think we know what is best for us.
Here’s my version of one of those situations above:
Our Virginia house had better ‘close’ with no problems on 12 June so we can move into our Carolina house on 14 June.
That’s pride – thinking I know what is best for Mike & Maria.
Fear flows out from that, “ What if it doesn’t go according to our plan?” And since I have lived in the world long enough to know that I can’t control everything, worries set in.
What to do?
I’m learning to imitate mature Christians: I speak God’s truth back to myself. Here are some examples.
· God sees all the circumstances. (I don’t!)
· He knows what is best. (Not me!)
· He won’t withhold any good thing from me -Ps 84:11. (Really!)
· I can trust Him to know and give me what is good for me.
· All things work together for my good. (Rom 8:28)
· God is truly in control and plans/controls/ordains/directs/allows all things that happen.
· Who am I to think I would understand God’s ways and what is best?
I will close with a very helpful reflection that I read this weekend. Here’s the link to the whole post (it’s definitely worth reading! ) Countering our negative assessments
The author wrote –
-
Nothing bad can happen unless there is something more than Christ that you want.
-
So the Worst Case Scenario — is only a possible scenario if you want something more than Christ.
Each time I remind myself of that reality, I exhale and relax. That’s right – I DO HAVE Christ! And once you HAVE Christ (‘Christ in me, the hope of glory’ – where hope means assurance/expectation/guarantee/promise – Colossians 1:27) all else pales, because all else is just temporary.
Snacks for the weekend 24/25 May 2013
May 25, 2013
1. So many friends whose husbands need jobs. So many friends whose teenage sons need purpose. Good news: Nothing is impossible for God An amplified conversation between Abraham & Sarah
2. How God uses our messed-up families to bless us. Don’t despair!!! – Hope when there is no harmony
3. Resources for raising children to know and love God – Cultivating a desire for God in children
4. Help to fight the ‘neggies’ – those cynical, negative, nothing-is-going-right moods – About that infamous glass and what is in it!
5. The power of the Bible in the life of a former atheistic radical feminist lesbian – Rosaria Butterfield
What do you mean by ‘good’ ?
May 20, 2013
Anxiety, suffering, Uncategorized Anxiety, Christian Growth, Suffering 2 Comments
No GOOD thing does He withhold from those who walk UPRIGHTLY. Psalm 84:11b
I’ve often volunteered that my favorite attribute of God is His sovereignty; that He is in control of everything that happens in creation. What a lot of food for thought, this divine characteristic provides….. I continue to work out the implications of God being the controller of all that happens.
One book my friend and I studied this fall centered on the fact that we, as humans, are terrible controllers of our own lives. The only antidote to anxiety is to hand back over to God ALL that concerns us. HE is the happy ruler; we are miserable at TRYing to run our lives and those of others. (1 Tim 6:15… He…. is the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords)
Now if God is controlling everything, then there are ‘no maverick molecules’, no unguided dust particles spinning haphazardly beyond the care of God. And even though this world is filled with both evil and good, we finite humans often mis-evaluate what seems evil and good to us. Infinite God who created the universe, He alone is the ultimately arbiter and definer of good and evil.
If faith trusts and relies on God’s word as TRUE truth, then I, who have been given divine faith as a child of God CHOOSE to believe and take Him at His word. Following from that premise is this: I WILL accept that whatever comes into my life is meant for my good, as defined by God.
· But what if that so-called ‘good’ contains pain and suffering?
· How can we call rape and cancer and earthquakes ‘good’?
· Can we really believe a ‘loving’ God would purposefully send suffering?
These are all legitimate questions and I, limited in scope, can’t presume to understand all. But I DO trust what God has said in His word and what He has shown me in my life and what I have learned from the lives of other Christians.
I’m not going to make a verse-by-verse defense of this view, for I believe that if we study God’s word without the presupposition of, “ My God would never….” we’ll see how God used/ allowed/ ordained what He hates, i.e. evil.
We find in many places verses like (paraphrase) “You, my brothers, meant it (my sale into slavery) for evil, but God meant it for good, that many people would be saved” Genesis 50:20
The comforting truth that softens the sting of future suffering is that God has planned plenty of grace to accompany each and every event that comes into our lives. I call it: pre-positioned stockpiles of grace. Another way to say it is that each ‘pain’ comes ‘pre-loaded’ with grace.
Here are a couple of questions to consider:
· Do we really think that we know what is good for us, our spouse or our children/grandchildren?
· Haven’t you ever said something like, “Well, I would never have chosen XYZ, but I am so grateful for what I have gained/learned”?
What kinds of good could God intend from the suffering that He allows/ sends/ ordains?
Since God is the ultimate creative God, many are the possibilities. Firstly, let’s look at God’s will for our lives: that we be sanctified (1 Thess 4:3). It makes sense that if God wants to burn off worldly dross and fit us out to enjoy heaven with Him, that He will arrange circumstances that grow us more like Jesus. He has to wean us off of worldly pleasures, leaving space to grow our appetites for heavenly, holy things.
If we have been living on candy all our lives, taking our candy away will seem cruel. As a friend told my daughter-in-law who has suffered strep throat multiple times this spring:
“God loves you enough…… to work on you, to give you hard things”
Each morning and multiple times through the day when I fear those HARD THINGS, I talk to Maria and exhort myself:
· Have faith in God’s future grace.
· Don’t preview all the possible ‘what-ifs’! God is your Papa. He is taking care of that.
· Don’t hold your breath. BREATHE! You don’t have to keep it all together. You’re just a child. That’s His job.
· Just trust and obey.
· He’s got it all covered and thought out. Manna for the day. Grace for the day. Mercies for the day.
· Rest in His provision.
· Be outward focused. Who around you needs a hand, is discouraged?
One last thought about God’s promise in Psalm 84:11: that last word uprightly (Strong’s Hebrew #8549 – Tamiym) means integral/together or whole. The parallel idea in the NT is found when Jesus teaches us to stop worrying about all the different concerns in our lives. Remember when Jesus is teaching in the hills? He exhorts His hearers NOT to be anxious. ‘Anxious’ in Greek is the word merimnao (Strongs Greek 3308). Etymologically derived from merizo = “to divide;” and nous = “mind”, it pictures very scattered-brained folk. So when we are anxious or worried, we are NOT integral, we are divided into different pieces. We even say things like, “I was torn apart…I’m so divided…..I’m meeting myself coming and going”
God calls us to be whole, integral and upright. And when we are, by the power of the Holy Spirit, then the promise is for us that NO GOOD THING is withheld from us. The ONLY way to be in our right mind, to be one, is to focus on Him, on the Kingdom, on our inheritance/treasure in heaven, on His promises of future grace.
Father, unless you help us, we will buzz around fragmented and frazzled. Pull us together, give us strength to rely on You, to put all our eggs in Your basket.
Snacks for the week – 15 May 2013
May 15, 2013
1. The best commencement address I have ever heard – Eric Metaxas –
2. How God calls us to trust Him instead of worry – written for moms, but applicable to us all – Antidote to Worrry
3. This 7 minute audio describes the impact on John Piper while reading CS Lewis’ journey to Christ via glimpses of Joy. He also explains why God designed us to be most satisfied when we give praise to God. About joy, praise and Christ
4. A sobering thought from Grace Quotes (a ministry of Grace Tabernacle Bible Church/ Randy Smith – Pastor) :
The evangelical church’s chief strategies to end abortion have been to put pressure on abortion clinics and on elected officials. There is nothing wrong with these strategies; however, one strategy that has not been used or adopted widely is that of protesting those churches that support the ghastly murder of unborn babies. It is time for Christians to give prophetic criticism to the church, specifically to those churches that support abortion on demand or remain silent on this major issue…[and] when the church is silent in the midst of a holocaust, she ceases to be a real church.
R.C. Sproul
The Voice of the Church, April 2013, Tabletalk, p. 27. Used by Permission.
5. Audio advice to moms for how to raise boys – John Piper’s thoughts – audio
The sin of fear – the illogic of fear
May 12, 2013
1 Peter, Fear, suffering, Uncategorized Fear, Logic Leave a comment
Fear! What would it be like to live with NO FEAR whatsoever (except for the helpful internal-adrenaline- provision in case of real saber-tooth tiger threats)?
I asked my 8th grade Logic class on Thursday – “What is the absolute worst act of evil ever committed in the history of the world?”
The fifth student’s answer was correct! – the murder of the son of God.
But if THAT crime was planned by God before the creation of the universe, and it was meant for our good, then what does logic say about all the lesser horrid acts/ disasters/ mistakes and problems?
Those Roman logicians called this the ‘a fortiori’ argument – reasoning from the greater to the lesser.
I think this logic is the answer to my very-well-practiced groove of fear and anxiety. A good friend knows that I struggle with the sin of unbelief when I fear for the road safety of my kids. (She has her own inner battles of unbelief and fear – just not this particular one).
In a further aside, since it is Mother’s Day, I will tell you, that this FEAR ABOUT ROAD SAFETY is the one negative bad habit I learned from my mother. Kids DO absorb our outlook and patterns of thinking and reacting.
Here’s how this thinking goes:
· God is sovereign over every molecule in the universe
· God planned the crucifixion for His good purposes
· Good came out of it then and keeps ensuing
· The lesser bad stuff I could potentially fear is also planned by God for my/our ultimate good (this doesn’t make evil/mistakes/ calamities any less grievous or painful when they happen)
· Eventual good for me and others is the purpose of everything that happens
· What God means for good comes WITH His loving care and control of every detail
· Therefore, if God promises that He will withhold NO good thing from me, then what happens, no matter HOW it comes packaged, is meant to be the vehicle of good. (I DO NOT mean that cruelty, disabilities and disease, theft, floods, indifference or my own sin, and a thousand other bad things are good in themselves)
Do I know and understand all the purposes of God? No, that is risible to even think a human would or could? But there are plenty of verses in the Bible to assure me that God is good and trustworthy AND in control of everything.
Pastor and teacher Dr. R.C. Sproul has said, “There is no maverick molecule if God is sovereign.” If He cannot control the tiniest bits of the universe, then we cannot trust Him to keep His word. The Lord vowed to bring Abraham’s sons out of Egypt (Gen. 15:12–16), but if Joseph was not the object of his father’s favoritism, his brothers would not have envied him. If they had not envied him, they would not have sold him to the Ishmaelites, Israel would not have gone into Egypt, and God could not have kept His promise to the patriarch (37–50).
So back to my fears: I’m starting to think through the irrationality of fearing anything. Fear and anxiety come from the mistaken double notion that
a) I can control anything
b) I know what is best for me and you.
In the next few days and weeks as God supplies me with plenty of practice in which to ‘test-ride’ this truth, I’ll collect some thoughts and write about them soon.
What about you? How do YOU deal with the sin of fear and worry?
1 Peter 4:19
So then, those who suffer according to God’s will should commit themselves to their faithful Creator and continue to do good.
Snacks for the Weekend – 11/12 May 2013
May 11, 2013
Good news for my friends and family! I’m abandoning the deluge of ‘interesting and helpful’ forwards. I’ve decided to follow Ann Voskamp and others’ pattern of collecting a few quotes, soundbites & essays and inserting them into a once-a-week blog post.
The hyperlink comes first that you can click on and then the description follows. Bon appétit!
The link to this page brings you to a resource of audio interviews with various authors. The 20 minute interview of 8 May 2013 provided me with insights about the ascension of Jesus that freed me to rest. You can listen on-line, download or subscribe to future podcasts in iTunes.
A healing way to think about miscarriages
The above post shares the thoughts and theology of a young Christian mom. Helpful for anyone trying to find some light after the ‘untimely’ death of a loved one.
How longings and glimpses of joy are proof of ‘The Best is Yet to Come’
Here is a 7 minute reflection by Pastor John Piper about how CS Lewis influenced him. Click on the arrow at top left OR on the squiggly sound waves to start the audio.
How to make our kids self-reliant
This fascinating essay talks about the downside of trying to protect our kids from every eventuality. We rob them of practice in self-reliance.
Prayers, Fears and Promises
May 1, 2013
Faith, Fear, Prayer, Uncategorized Armor of God, Faith, Fear, Prayer, The Word 4 Comments
“Bzzzzz,” vibrated my phone in the middle of Senior Theses presentations last night. A student was defending her claim about the on-going effects of the French Revolution, when I glanced over to see the name of the Middle School principal who interviewed me 6 weeks ago in Asheville, NC. However, since I was one of 2 judges, I couldn’t satisfy my curiosity at that moment.
By the time I WAS free; the civilized deadline for calling future bosses had come and gone. But patience has its rewards and the news was good this morning. I got the job! So thank you for your prayers. I will be teaching French to Middle-Schoolers in the fall.
Now don’t you feel encouraged? – You, the Church? I know that when I have prayed persistently and over a long period of time, my faith is strengthened upon learning how God has met the need of a brother or sister. Answered prayer makes me want to pray all the more! My unbelief is diminished and light expands to push back the dark corners of doubt.
On a side note, God DOES have a sense of humor. In our private prayers about this job, Mike and I had specifically asked God to provide me with a French job with a salary range of between X and Y. And the offer was X! (not a penny over). I think Mike was a bit disappointed at first. Who doesn’t hope for more? But I can picture God smiling, having arranged the sure way to keep our hope in HIM, the owner and provider of ALL our resources, and not in cash flow.
Despite this great news, I confess that I still struggle with fears and what ifs.
I know – you’re surprised!
You’d think that with this answered prayer, coming on the heels of last week’s offer on our current house (thank you, Father!), I’d not fear or worry about anything!
It’s true – I have to daily engage in the uphill hand- to- hand combat for faith. My French 4 girls and I have been translating a list of 10 Truths/Reminders about God. A young American pastor, Matt Reagan, compiled them in college when he realized that each morning he woke up having forgotten about God.
Demonic alchemy happens in the night and faith evaporates when that alarm goes off. We have to RE-MEMBER / RE-CONSTRUCT our faith-foundation all over again. It’s like putting on one’s defensive knight’s armor, piece by piece to engage the day.
Hence, my daily pondering of which promises/ truths encourage me the most: When the dark clouds of fear start rolling in, I push back firmly with the brilliant rays of God’s truths. Here are just 3 of those dailies:
· No good thing does God withhold from those whose way is upright (Ps 84:11)
· The Lord is with me, I will not fear; what can man do to me? (Psalm 118:6)
· God works all things for my good because I have been called by Him and I love Him (Romans 8:32)
Join with me and let’s undertake this challenge together: think about what daily spiritual vitamins protect you, feed you, strengthen you, empower you and share them. Let’s not be anemic, starving Christians, for want of the power available in God’s word.
For the word of God is alive and full of power.
PS: The French translate Jesus/the Logos in John 1 as ‘the verb’. Can’t you just picture active, coursing super-natural power?
Reflections on God's Word 
Readers’ Comments