Godgrown

Updates from February, 2012 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts

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  Mark 9:27 am on February 1, 2012 Permalink | Reply  

  The Strands in Your Web 

  We’ve all been there.

  Look back over your life and remember the last time you fully experienced passion - something that caught your heart by surprise, gave you purpose – a sense of mission and higher calling.  Put that feeling of conviction and excitement in your mind?  Okay – good, read on…

  Now, if you can, think back to the moment when that passion was first doubted.  When did you go from pure certitude to…maybe an unmet expectation, or conflicting evidence of how you understood how things should work?  When, after receiving that divine sense of calling, did you run up against someone of importance in your life who disagreed with you or even sought to stop you in your tracks?  Maybe it was a parent subtly but condescendingly pushing you away from your intended college major and into something they wanted for you.  Maybe it was a boss dismissing your dreams for the future of your business as misguided.

  How did you respond to that first bite of doubt?  That sting of original uneasiness with your own beliefs?

  Hebrews 11:24 –

   By faith Moses, when he was grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, 25choosing rather to be mistreated with the people of God than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin. 26He considered the reproach of Christ greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt, for he was looking to the reward. 27†By faith he left Egypt, not being afraid of the anger of the king, for he endured as seeing him who is invisible. 

  What happens to a person who has seen “him who is invisible?”  For Moses, it was after 40 years of shame and isolation, away from his Israelite family, exiled from Egypt — an exiled prince! — he had every right to be in the royal family, but he has a passion - he had a reason to buck the trend…

  …and it cost him all the status quo due him in life, but that made all the difference.

  He was not focused on the anger of the king, on the doubt of his Egyptian subordinates, or his Israelite brothers, sisters, cousins… He was fixed on the passion, the original passion that found him in the wilderness – he had such a sense of his own calling, of his own intimacy with that calling, that nothing and no one would stir his fear or doubt.

  We all go through life with a web of convictions – some stronger than others.  As we learn more about the world and how it works, certain strands in the web are broken, new ones are formed (i.e. as a child, we learn that we cannot fly when we jump off the stairs in a cape).  This process continues all throughout life, and its an important part of building a cohesive sense of TRUTH in the world.

  But what strands CAN’T be broken?  Are they all susceptible to pressures from the outside – from the wind and debris that inevitably blows through our fragile webs?  I feel that I want to be stronger than that – on certain things – I am learning what those things are – and resolving myself to those certain strands help me allow less important strands to be let go of – opening my heart and mind further to the truth of things.

  Its all about becoming passionate about the right strands in your web – choose wisely, and you’ll have passion your whole life long.

  
   

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  Mark 9:25 am on January 4, 2012 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: Libya, Syria   

  Stay Soft 

     I’m reading Exodus 8 alongside 2 Corinthians 3 today — In Exodus, its the story of the 10 Plagues – exhibiting the hardness of Pharoah’s heart toward letting the Israelites go – he just couldn’t see the obvious evidence right there in front of him – he couldn’t understand that it was him doing the harm to the country!  He was torturing his own people by refusing to listen to to the will of God.

  It reminds me of Libya’s recent dictator, and Syria’s current debacle where the leaders of the country were obviously insane for destroying their own nation.  It was a classic example of the leader becoming obsessed with their own power, and end up eroding that power by trying to hold on to it.  In Pharoah’s case, as in Gaddafi’s and so many others, it led to the end of their very lives.  Power has such compelling, addictive qualities, and trying to relinquish it is eternally difficult.  

  But I am reminded of a “hardness of heart” far more sinister than even Pharaoh’s or Gaddafi’s.

  In 2 Corinthians 3, The hard heart is not in a single person, but an entire nation.  What started with an ecstatic worship experience at Mt. Sinai, where Moses was so close to the glory of God that his face had to be covered with a veil, as it was shining with glory!  Such was God’s glory that the Israelites asked not to be put it it’s presence for fear that they might die.  After all, look what happened to Pharaoh!

     Overtime, however, the hardness of heart creeps in like plaque, undoing the raw, beautiful experiences that brought us to the convictions we hold to today.  The hardness of heart in Israelites case feels more like the ebb and flow of the ocean on the rocks – at first it’s effects are imperceptible, but overtime, it’s power over stone is undeniable.

     In my life, the “hardness” I experience looks more like the Israelites’ picture of the problem, rather than Pharaoh’s.  It is the slow erosion of previous joyful worship experiences, of my earliest convictions, and sense of orientation.  It amounts to a casual walk through the woods- where the paths continue to wind and turn; at first the journey is light and enjoyable, but soon becomes a frightening, disorienting maze without end.

  So!   Hold on to your heart.  Hold on to hope!  Cynicism and doubt are a relentless downpour in our world.  Check your sources of input – do you watch nothing but the news?  Do you read anything but doom-and-gloom?  Then pick up a book of poems!  Pick up the Gospels!     Keeping your heart soft is possibly the most important task on earth, and its a daily habit.

  

  Mark W, and Jay Abels are discussing. Toggle Comments

   
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    Jay Abels 12:33 pm on February 1, 2012 Permalink

    Have you ever wondered why we always call them “The 10 Plagues”?   In the biblical text, they are more often referred to as marvels and wonders.  I think we may identify more with the Egyptian slave holders than we do with the slaves that God freed through the wonders that he did in Egypt.

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    Mark W 1:27 pm on February 1, 2012 Permalink

    Wow, very true!

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  Mark 10:40 am on January 2, 2012 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: Book of Common Prayer   

  A Breakfast of Words 

  I LOVE breakfast – it is absolutely an essential part to my day.  Eating a simple breakfast of fried eggs each morning gives me lean proteins and nutrients I’ll need to stay feeling full and energized all morning.  Oh, and don’t forget the piping hot, dark coffee.  Yes, a morning with coffee and eggs is a morning that proceeds a beautiful day.  Breakfast… I guess that’s why they call it that - you are “breaking” your “fast” — it is the longest distance between meals each day – from 6pm to 6am – its a full 12 hours of fasting!  Don’t you want something GREAT to break the fast and begin the day afresh?

  What goes into your mouth is important, but Jesus says that what comes out of your mouth is even more important.  In fact, the words you speak, not your diet, are what make you healthy.  Just look:

  “What goes into a man’s mouth does not make him ‘unclean,’ but what comes out of his mouth, that is what makes him ‘unclean.’” — (Mt. 15:11)

  What is the FIRST thing OUT of your mouth each morning?  Can you even remember?

  Think about it for just a minute.  Each and every night you close your mouth, and you live in silence for many hours.  In all the rush and noise of this world, you make it a daily habit to spend close to a 1/3 of each day in utter darkness and silence.  Kinda beautiful, eh?

  But what breaks that “fasting” from words?  How do you greet the new day?  Is it with blessing or cursing?

  Why not start this new year with a resolution to have a “Breakfast of Words” – give yourself a simple phrase or sentence to greet each new day.

  I had noticed that my days were starting off on the wrong foot – and I came to believe it was the mindset in which I was approaching my days – if the first things that roll through my mind or off my tongue are, “Shoot – I’ve forgot to call that guy yesterday,” or “I feel groggy and awful,” imagine how the rest of my days went!  I had enough - I was sick and tired of feeling sick and tired.

  Since then, I’ve been doing a little “holy experiment” trying it out, and I’ve lived to tell the tale.  And I’ve got to say – its GREAT!

  Each morning, I’ll say this as my eggs are cooking:

  “Glory to the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit – as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be forever, AMEN.”

  I don’t know about you but if you say that, even if you begin without “feeling like it” – by the end, you just might have a slight smile on your face.  You remember that no matter how you might feel, or what might be going on in your life, a regular diet of these words (or something like them) will change your day.  And if you can change your day, you can change your week, month, year…even your life.

  Its the simple things like this that make the biggest difference.  New Years Resolutions don’t have to be BIG – they just have to be consistent.  

  Take a daily “Breakfast of Words” – start your day’s dialogue in a place of joy, centering, and purpose.  And see what happens!