truth

Crash Course

/ JJS / 1 Comment

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Today’s readings (click below to open in new tab/window):
Psalms 15; 147:1-11, Hosea 13:1-3, Acts 27:9-26, Luke 9:1-17

Imagine you are a sailor on the Mediterranean sea two thousand years ago. Your crew has been charged with transporting a prisoner from Jerusalem to stand trial before the Emperor in Rome. It’s almost winter, and many ships have already docked to wait out the angry weather until spring. Your captain though is eager to complete this voyage and sets sail. The prisoner has the nerve to suggest a delay. He is probably none too eager to meet his fate, you think. Trusting in your captain, the idols you’ve tucked into your bunk, and the value of your cargo, you set sail with the rest of the crew.

And then it turns out the prisoner was right. The swells are impossible to navigate. The ship stops a few times, makes reinforcements, but eventually finds itself helpless before the mighty wind. The crew curses as they throw cargo overboard and watch their profits sink. Then, in desperation, they toss over the tackle. The prisoner, damn his eyes, calmly tells everyone they will survive, but they’re going to have to run the ship aground. And you know he’s right.

The truth made Paul unpopular. No one likes the guy telling them they have to crash to survive. We especially don’t like him when he’s right. Once in a while we take a brave step out of the box and deliver the unpopular message, but more often than we are Paul, we are the sailor – or Pharisee – grumbling and ignoring that guy so we have more time to listen to the guy who tells us what we want to hear … even as things fall apart around us.

The truth is, sometimes you have to crash your ship – or throw profit overboard, or abandon your ideology, or wreck your comfort – to save your life. God doesn’t set out to ruin you, but if you’ve stubbornly stuck to the foolish course, the disaster may have to play out before you can move on. God will wait as long as it takes to find your safe harbor. The truth, however difficult, is your guiding star.

Comfort: When you decide to correct course, no matter difficult, we are drawing nearer to God.

Challenge: Plan a an hour of solitude each week to meditate on the direction your life is taking. Perhaps keep a notebook or journal of what you’d like to correct, how you might do it, what difficulties you might encounter, and your progress. End each session with a prayer of thanks to God for being with you.

Prayer: Thank you, God, for second, third, and fourth chances. Guide my steps so they might always lead me toward you. Amen.

Discussion: What efforts have you made to improve yourself?

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Addicted to Answers

/ JJS / 1 Comment

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Today’s readings (click below to open in new tab/window):
Psalms 12; 146, Job 12:1, 13:3-17, 21-27, Acts 12:1-17, John 8:33-47

Are you addicted to answers?

Plenty of answer-pushers are itching to sell them to you: evangelists promoting books and videos, self-help gurus offering weekend seminars, politicians telling you who to blame, and television doctors who just happen to own stock in the current miracle herb. Answers are tempting. They help us cope with life by providing a quick, if false, sense of security. Answers are different than truth, which is acquired through work, discernment, study, and a willingness to tackle the messy and often unanswerable questions of life.

Job’s friends were answer addicts. They clung to the answers which gave them comfort despite evidence before their very eyes (the ruination of a just man) even though in the long run these answers were doing them real theological and spiritual damage. Job’s mind, however, was clear. He would wrestle with the unpleasant truth, even if it meant taking on God:

I will take my flesh in my teeth, and put my life in my hand. See, he will kill me; I have no hope; but I will defend my ways to his face.

Such powerful words. Job tells his friends that in the end their flattery of God will not save but destroy them. He, on the other hand, will confront God with the truth even though it is harsh.

We want things to make sense. After all, we are genetically wired to detect patterns and impose order on the world. We want to blame vaccines for autism, foreigners for economic woes, and cartoons for real world violence. We want to understand the reasons behind people’s actions. But the truth is, the world is complex, confusing, and in many ways incomprehensible.

And that’s okay.

Our own relationship with God should be as personal and trusting as was Job’s. We don’t need answer-pushers mediating that relationship for us. Great spiritual teachers do not hand out answers, they teach us to how to seek truth. Sometimes that truth is: only God has the answers. Better to say: “I don’t know but I will trust God” than be made a liar by false comforts.

Comfort: It can be truly freeing to admit: “I don’t know.”

Challenge: This week meditate on some ideas that you take for granted.

Prayer: God of truth, I will trust you at all times and under all circumstances. Amen.

Discussion: Has anyone ever tried to sell you false answers?

Join the discussion! If you enjoyed this post, feel free to join an extended discussion as part of the C+C Facebook group. You’ll be notified of new posts through FB, and have the opportunity to share your thoughts with some lovely people. Or feel free to comment here on WordPress, or even re-blog – the more the merrier!

Holy Arguments

/ JJS / Leave a comment

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Today’s readings (click below to open in new tab/window):
Psalms 122; 149, Job 9:1, 10:1-9, 16-22, Acts 11:1-18, John 8:12-20

Great spiritual teachers are famous for telling us to seek truth, wisdom, and connection to God in silence. Unfortunately for most of us, actual spiritual silence can be really hard to achieve, especially when we are upset. Sometimes we first need to clear our heads by venting our anger and negativity. Even anger at God needs to be expressed. Job knew this to be necessary when he said: “I will give free utterance to my complaint.”

Job accuses God of setting him up with a great life so his fall will be even harder. Do we ever feel like God has set us up to fail? Or like God is testing us? A popular cliché says “God never gives you more than you can handle.” Job would disagree. With its framing narrative of a wager between God and Ha’Satan, the Book of Job can easily be misunderstood to promote the theology of a God who is constantly testing us, a God who virtually hunts us, “bold as a lion.” Rather, it is a poetic exploration of our relationship with God and suffering. Anyone who has never felt angry or let down by God is a member of a very small club. Job expresses the feelings we all share when we suffer.

Arguing with God has a long tradition among the faithful. Israel (Jacob) literally wrestled with God, and a nation was named for him. Every year during the Jewish High Holy Days from Rosh Hashanah to Yom Kippur (the Day of Atonement), people of great faith are held accountable for their actions of the past year – and they also hold God accountable. Only by speaking our most difficult truths can we fully express our faithfulness. God already knows what is in our hearts, so doing this is a matter of showing trust in a God who is loving and great enough to handle whatever we have to dish out.

We think of arguments as negative events, but they are inevitable when we are building any deep relationship. Sometimes an argument is a sign that a relationship is worth fighting for.

Comfort: God accepts our whole hearts, not just the happy parts.

Challenge: Find and read some articles on having healthy arguments.

Prayer: God of truth, I open my whole heart to you. Amen.

Discussion: When have you argued with God?

Join the discussion! If you enjoyed this post, feel free to join an extended discussion as part of the C+C Facebook group. You’ll be notified of new posts through FB, and have the opportunity to share your thoughts with some lovely people. Or feel free to comment here on WordPress, or even re-blog – the more the merrier!

Staring at the Son

/ JJS / 3 Comments

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Today’s readings (click below to open in new tab/window):
Psalms 130; 148, Job 2:1-13, Acts 9:1-9, John 6:27-40

Children instinctively avoid looking directly at the sun. In response to the painful brightness, they squint and close their eyes and turn their heads. Only during an eclipse do people need reminding how dangerous it can be to stare directly at it. The sun itself shines steadily. Our perception of its intensity is indirect, depending on atmospheric conditions. Out of self-preservation we respond accordingly.

Saul’s persecution of Christians was a response to the atmosphere around him. He was a faithful and (self-described) blameless Jew who sought to serve the Lord. To him, Christians were dark clouds threatening the safety and standing of the Jewish people within the Roman empire. He was not a poorly motivated cartoon villain like the Christian-haters often portrayed in Christian entertainment. He loved the Lord, and believed he was defending His faith and His people.

Then Saul saw the Son in all his glory.

On the road to Damascus, Jesus appeared to him in a flash of light and spoke so all nearby could hear. Saul asked who was speaking, and Jesus identified himself and told Saul to go into the city to await further instructions. Saul was struck blind, and remained so for three days.

Saul had been instinctively avoiding the overwhelming truth of Jesus. Finally forced to accept it, his world turned upside down. Saul was committed to the truth, but it took a miracle to help him understand the truth was more than he already knew.

Most people are committed to what they believe is the truth. Normally we are disinclined to seek truth where we don’t want to find it, especially if it will upend our reality. Christ asked: “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?” Those we seek to reach often feel persecuted by Christians. So as the body of Christ, how do we shine brightly enough to reach people on their own roads? First we let go of the shadow of a false division between “us and them.” Then we let Christ’s love shine through until the people we meet can’t help but draw their own conclusions about its truth.

Comfort: A life lived in pursuit of Christ is a light in the darkness.

Challenge: When fellow believers choose to vilify rather than love, speak up.

Prayer: God of Mercy, may Christ’s light shine through me so others may know your love. Amen.

Discussion: In your experience, what are the most and least effective forms of evangelism?

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Invitation: I Can See Clearly Now

/ JJS / Leave a comment

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Lately I’ve been thinking a lot about my eyes. Design-wise they aren’t so great. I am very near-sighted. I’m fortunate that my vision is easily corrected with glasses or contacts, but without corrective lenses my adult vision has landed somewhere between 20/220 and 20/240. Legal blindness is 20/200 in the better eye. I can’t read normal print more than about 6 inches from my face, and headlines are a strain at arm’s length. Since eyeglasses weren’t invented until the latter half of the 13th century, I am grateful to have been born afterward. In the 12th century, despite a pretty capable brain, my options would have been quite limited by my visual impairment. My potential – maybe my understanding of the world – would probably never have exceeded the length of my arm. Ironically, my inability to see would have rendered others unable to see me for who I truly was. Continue reading →