Eyes on the Prize

Some days are long.

Some weeks are like that too.

The exhaustion sets in—

Working on projects,

Staying up way too late watching Olympics,

Or maybe because life is just hard right now.

Some days we just need to remember why we live the way we do—

Faithfully persevering one moment at a time.

Pressing on toward the goal,

We keep our eyes on the prize.

I’m listening to Sara Groves today—celebrating freedom, dreaming of Jubilee, and keeping my eyes on the prize.  Join me?

“Don’t you realize that in a race everyone runs, but only one person gets the prize?  So run to win!  All athletes are disciplined in their training.  They do it to win a prize that will fade away, but we do it for an eternal prize.  So I run with purpose in every step.  I am not just shadowboxing.  I discipline my body training it to do what it should.  Otherwise, I fear that after preaching to others I myself might be disqualified.” 1 Corinthians 9:24-27 NLT

***

Grace and peace be ours in abundance as we run with purpose in every step, eyes on the prize.

Jessica :) 

What Matters Most

Jason and I have been reading through 1 Samuel as a part of our Old Testament reading lately. 

As we have read, I have been fascinated by Saul.  I find His story of fear and blessing, success and how he responds to it very relatable. 

When he is chosen as king before Israel he is a timid man—he hides and has to be drawn out from his hiding place.  Yet, the Spirit of God is upon Saul and he prophesies in one instance and is moved to defeat the Ammonites, who were threatening the people of Jabesh-gilead, in another.  The Lord leads Him and Saul gives the glory to God.

After Saul is made king, Israel and he are reminded about the importance of following the Lord and serving Him with their whole heart.  As time passes, Saul seems to forget this; he forgets that his success is a gift from God.  He begins to think Israel’s success is his own doing. 

           

Samuel confronts Saul after he hears of his disobedience to God’s word and how he sets up a monument to himself.  Saul tries to put a nice spin on what has happened, but Samuel knows the truth.  He speaks the truth in love to Saul—for Samuel truly grieves his disobedience.

He says,

“Has the Lord as much delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices

As in obeying the voice of the Lord?

Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice,

And to heed than the fat of rams.

For rebellion is as the sin of divination,

And insubordination is as iniquity and idolatry.

Because you have rejected the word of the Lord,

He has also rejected you from being king.”  1 Samuel 15:22-23 NASB

 

His words are pointed.

Samuel identifies disobedience as rebellion.  He says pride and arrogance are the same as idol worship.  Ouch.  I understand this more than I would like to admit.

He tells how God doesn’t care about religious ceremony.  He desires obedience.  He wants us to listen and to respond to Him.  He wants us to love Him with our whole heart—by doing what He says.  This is what matters most.

This stands out to me.   

I want to listen and respond in loving obedience.  This is what I want to understand.  This is what I want to relate to.

So this week…

May our desire be to seek the Lord—in Scripture, in prayer, in conversation, in each moment.

May our desire be to listen for His still small voice—the one that often encourages us in places of anxiety and challenges us to do that which we would never think to do on our own.

May our desire to be respond to Him in loving obedience—trusting Him who has shown us love.

May we recognize that the results belong to Him and give Him praise.

***

Grace and peace be ours in abundance as we seek the Lord and follow Him in loving obedience.  May we never forget that our success belongs to Him.  May we never grow tired of doing what He calls us to and giving Him the glory.

Jessica :)

A Little Rest

This weekend…

“Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest.” Mark 6:31 NIV

Find some time to slip away for a little rest with Jesus.

If you connect to God in nature, go for a walk and marvel at His handiwork.

If you prefer to read, pull out a book for a few hours and just relax.  Notice where He speaks to you.

If you like sports, go play a game, go for a run, or find the Olympics and listen for they ways He’s at work in the lives of athletes.

If you are energized and rested in the presence of people, invite a few over and enjoy their presence.  Take note of the way God works in the midst of your conversation.

Maybe you just need a holy nap, resting in the presence of God.  Go take one and be refreshed.

***

Grace and peace be ours in abundance as we seek to rest in Him.  May we find that we are refreshed and discover that we really are meant to delight in the Sabbath.

Jessica :)

P.S.  Thank you to my dear husband who took this photo about a year ago in Grand Teton National Park.  And thank you to him for letting me rest while he did the dishes last Sunday :)

New Life Bursting Forth

On Thursdays I have been sharing a little bit about what I have been learning as I read through 1 John.

1 John is a letter written to the believers in Asia Minor.  John has been giving examples of what a believer who walks with God looks like.  He has been contrasting these believers with those who say that they walk with God, but whose actions and beliefs do not support their claims.  He calls these people liars and says they walk in darkness.  John wants the believers to be able to recognize the difference between that which is true and that which is false.  He pauses in this endeavor to encourage the believers he is writing to by reminding them of the joy, the power, and the faithfulness they have received from Christ.

Up to this point in 1 John I have been writing about a paragraph at a time.  For the next three weeks, rather than one really long post, I am going to explore one verse at a time.  I put all three here so that you can read the verse in context. 

“Do not love the world or anything in the world.  If you love the world, love for the Father is not in you.  For everything in the world—the cravings of sinful people, the lust of their eyes and their boasting about what they have and do—comes not from the Father but from the world.  The world and its desires pass away, but whoever does the will of God lives forever.”  1 John 2:15-17 TNIV

 

In this section, John resumes his use of contrasting language.

“Do not love the world or anything in the world.  If you love the world, love for the Father is not in you.”

When I read verse 15, I pause, because it seems like the language is rather strong.

Love the world or anything in the world?  What is so wrong with that?

I love the beauty of the created world.  Something about mountains and lakes and canyons and wildflowers just fills me with such joy and awe.  I love it.  I love sitting beside friends and laughing with them.  I love hearing them tell a good story.  I love watching the way they grow and change.  I love them.  I love curling up with a good book.  I love getting caught up in a story or following the fresh ideas that inspire me to think or change.  I love these things and consider them gifts from a good God.  Am I wrong for loving them?

I admit there are also things in the world that I definitely do not love.  I do not love the political stand-offs that it seems like I hear about all the time on the radio.  I do not love watching the ways we pillage the earth in seemingly unsustainable ways.  I do not love the physical and spiritual poverty that I see all over the world.  I do not love the brokenness of this place.

So what is John trying to say?  Is he trying to say all of these things are bad?  Or is there something I am missing?

These questions lead me to explore the Greek words.

It is not a surprise to find the word for love here is agapaō (verb) in the first instance, agapē (noun) in the second.  This is the word that is used in the New Testament "to describe the attitude of God towards his Son, the human race, and those who believe in Christ."  This love is the kind that seeks the welfare of all.  It works no ill to any and seeks opportunity to do good (VINES Expository Dictionary).

The word that is really helpful is the word for world.  It is kosmos.  There are a number of different definitions for the word.  The one that makes the most sense for the context here is “the present condition of human affairs in alienation and opposition to God” (VINES Expository Dictionary).

It seems to me this definition captures the contrasting language that John has been using throughout the letter.  It is also helpful for understanding what John is trying to say.

It isn’t wrong to care for the beautiful gifts from God in this world.  It is the fallen condition of the world that I should not love.  It is the things that draw me away from love for God that I should not love.  It is the things that stand opposed to Him that I should not care for.  It is when I love these things that love for the Father is not in me.

I think The Message translates this idea well: “Love of the world squeezes out love for God.”

I don’t ever want to become numb to the brokenness of the world.  I don’t want to love the brokenness.  I don’t want to seek opportunity for its good. 

When I first read this verse I really think I don’t love the world.  I don’t love the brokenness.  I think it is an honest thought at the moment.  On some level, I believe this is true.  Yet, the more I reflect, I realize that this is not always true of me.  At least some of my actions suggest that I do love the world.  I hear of things like the wildfires in the west and the shooting in Aurora, CO and I find that I’m not as upset as I should be.  I read the headlines on the gossip magazines as I wait in line at the store, too often, and find myself greedily eating up the tragedy in the lives of the famous on the covers.  Too often, I choose to catch up on the television show I enjoy over spending time reading and talking, for just a few minutes in God’s Word, with my husband.  These sorts of things are not true all the time, nor even most of the time, but enough to make me see it is easy for the love of the world to squeeze out love for God.  And this is not even an exhaustive list! 

Truly, love for both the world and God cannot coexist.  We love one at a time—either God or the world.

What I really want is to let my love for the Father to give me the proper lens to understand and respond to the brokenness.  I want to respond to Him.  I want to love like Him in the midst of a broken place.  I want to bring His grace and peace into places that really need them. 

Instead of the love of the world that squeezes out the love for God, I want the love of God which fills up and pours out on the brokenness of the world.  Because truly that is what a broken world needs.  It needs the water that pours out over the cracked cement and causes new life to burst forth in the midst of brokenness, bearing hope. 

He can do that in me.  He can do that in us.

Let’s leave behind the love of the world.  Let’s respond to the love of God. 

***

Grace and peace be ours in abundance as we choose to love God, leaving love for the world behind.  May we discover that in God’s love we better serve a broken world than we do by loving the brokenness in it.  May we live joyously allowing God to fill us up and pour out of us causing new life to burst forth from brokenness.

Jessica :)

P.S.  A link to VINE's Expository Dictionary online is here if you would like to look up the words for yourself.

The Idea of Freedom

I have been going through a pile of papers, from the early nineties, at the request of my sister.  As I have sorted through the many “contracts” of weekly work from first, second and third grades, I remember the years in Mrs. Wilson’s classroom fondly. 

I find landform cards that I created from blue and green construction paper, long ago.  I had properly shaped the isthmus and straight, the lake and the island.  I got the peninsula, which I shaped just like Florida, just right.  However, I had a bit of trouble with the gulf; in mine, the shape similar to the Gulf of Mexico is made of green paper, symbolizing land, and the shoreline of the southern states is blue paper, symbolizing water.  I laugh.

I smile as I see evidence of my once horrible handwriting on a map of Australia.  In neat cursive, on the side of the map, I see a note from my teacher: “Cannot read.  Redo neatly, please.”  I point it out to my mother who is sitting nearby and reminisce about the days when she, herself, used to make me re-write my homework.  

It is fun to remember these things.  Yet, it is something else that I find in the pile that makes me pause to think—the school discipline plan.  It’s an odd thing to have found, but being from a teaching background, I am curious to see what it says.

I read the first line:

“To let the child do as he likes when he has not yet developed any powers of control, is to betray the idea of freedom.”   -Maria Montessori

 

I wonder if these words are true. 

I find the thought fascinating, but I’m having a hard time wrapping my mind around it.

I begin to wrestle in my mind to try to make sense of it all.

If these words are true, wouldn’t it also be true to say more generally “To let the [person] do as he likes when he has not yet developed any powers of control is to betray the idea of freedom”?  I wonder.

Perhaps it could be true, for a country which prides itself on its freedom, to say  “To let the [government] do as [it] likes when [it] has not yet developed any powers of control is to betray the idea of freedom”?  I wonder.

Is there something in the context of a classroom that doesn’t allow the concept to transfer to other spheres of life like this?  Or could it be that truth is truth?  I wonder.

I begin to wonder how this all fits into the parameters of the way God made us. 

I think about how we were given rules to live by in the garden.  We were given a choice to trust God and follow these instructions or not.  Prior to the fall of man, it seems like there was tremendous freedom within His boundaries. 

It seems to me, it is in breaking the rules and facing the consequences of disobedience that freedom is lost. 

Is this why God gives Israel a Law to live by? For as they are obedient to the covenant He makes with them, they live in freedom.  It is when they are disobedient that they live in bondage.

Is this why, as followers of Christ, we are called to surrender to Him and remain in Him?  Is it because we live according to the Spirit we find freedom?  Doesn’t Paul say this?

“For the Lord is the Spirit, and wherever the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.  […]  And the Lord—who is the Spirit—makes us more and more like him as we are changed into his glorious image.”  2 Corinthians 3:17-18 NLT

 

It is here, in the midst of His guidance, not mine, I feel the most free.  I think it is because when I live according to the Spirit, I live as I was made to live.

It seems to make sense.  When people live within the boundaries God sets for them they are free.  Really free. 

This makes sense on an individual level.  I wonder if it makes sense in a bigger way. 

When we talk about freedom in our country do we mean living within the boundaries?  Or do we think of freedom as the means by which we push the boundaries?  I really do wonder.

  

For if truth is truth and it is freedom we’re after, shouldn’t the boundaries we seek to live by really be God’s?  How would that really work? 

Are the principles from one person to many persons really the same? 

God gives us a choice to recognize Him or not.  He gives us a choice to live within His boundaries or not.  He never forces Himself or His rules upon us.  Instead, God is patient.

All along the way—from the garden, through Israel’s kingdom, to our daily choice to live by the Spirit as individuals or as a country—God lets us choose.  He doesn’t force anything upon us, like we try to do to one another.  He lets us choose that which will bring freedom or not. 

He lets us live joyously in the midst of freedom and he lets us discover the bitterness of making choices that lead to bondage.  He walks faithfully with the free and he waits for those in bondage to come repentant and find real freedom in Him.  While there are boundaries, I wonder if His freedom is different than ours.  Different and better. 

It makes me wonder.  If we lived in His freedom would we find that we were more peaceful and more passionate people?  Would we find that we were more loving and more grateful?  Would we find that life was more full and abundant than we ever imagined?  I think so.  

These thoughts race through my mind. 

And I wonder, curious, what do you think freedom is?  What do you think Maria Montessori is trying to say?  Do her words have any bearing on life beyond the classroom?  I’d love to know what you think.

***

Grace and peace be ours in abundance as we discover true freedom in Christ.  May we find, within His boundaries, freedom is fuller than we could ever imagine.

Jessica :) 

P.S.  Thank you to my dear husband who took these photos while we were walking on the Freedom Trail in Boston quite a few years ago.