We Don't Need No More Troubles

"War: We Don't Need No More Troubles" is more than a song title, it's the cry of the human heart. We want to be at rest. Enough fighting. Enough hurting. Enough hatred. Enough bitterness. Enough killing. Give us peace!

We sing about peace; we hope and pray for peace; we promote peace, but for every baby step we take forward, we take a giant step backwards.

Chasing peace is like running in circles. We work up a sweat but make no progress. So, we run faster. Only to cover the same ground over and over and over again.

God accused prophets and priests of offering false peace --"They dress the wound of my people as though it were not serious. 'Peace, peace,' they say, when there is no peace." (Jeremiah 6:14). A false promise. A counterfeit offer. Pretense instead of substance.

Can we achieve peace apart from the Prince of Peace?

Is lasting peace the product of the human spirit or the God of Peace?

Human history indicates we've failed at achieving a sustaining peace. Sure, we catch a glimpse of peace, but a sustaining peace stays out of our reach.

Only when the Prince of Peace reigns in our souls can we experience lasting peace and "pass his peace" on to one another.

Standeth God Within the Shadows

What does this mean: "Standeth God within the shadows"? Is God really an absentee landlord only glancing our way from time to time. Disinterested. Out of touch. Out of reach. A curious onlooker who won't be bothered to get involved.

Has God deserted us? Or has he made a strategic retreat to provide us the opportunity to prove our loyalty to him? Maybe God is out of sight but not out of touch.

There is a reason we're not hauled into heaven and put in a kindergarten next to the throne room. We've been forced into freedom. We are under God's eye but not his thumb. We're not treated like helpless infants but like growing adolescents.

We're not orphans: "The Friend, the Holy Spirit whom the Father will send at my request, will make everything plain to you. He will remind you of all the things I have told you. I'm leaving you well and whole. That's my parting gift to you. Peace. I don't leave you the way you're used to being left--feeling abandoned, bereft. So, don't be upset. Don't be distraught" (John 14:25-27).

We have the gift of God's Spirit. He is here. Now. Within. We don't have to search for him, shout for him to come, or beg for his attention. The Spirit is closer than our breath. He lives within us at the spiritual center of who we are.

What a magnificent gift!

We're not alone anymore. We don't have to figure everything out for ourselves; we have the Spirit's counsel. We don't have to live in the puny energy of human nature; we are empowered by His presence, graced by His gifts, and changed by His character.

Sure, at times it seems as if God "standeth within the shadows" but even there he is only a prayer away.

"Two men went to the temple to pray." With that Jesus told a simple but profound life-story. His story began with what the two men had in common: a desire to stand in the presence of God.

That's a good thing. Not a common thing, but a good thing. It's good to pray; it's good to go to Papa-God's House to pray.

But their similarity ends there.

One man prays out of desperation. He can't even look heavenward. The other man prays with arrogant confidence. His prayer is a recital of his spiritual accomplishments. The desperate man doesn't feel worthy to be there. The arrogant man feels it is his duty to be there.

What motivates you to pray?

Suffering

"Even though Jesus was the Son of God, he learned obedience by what he suffered" (Hebrews 5:8). Not one of my favorite verses. Why? Because it seems to imply that if Jesus learned to obey God through suffering, then I have to learn to obey God the same way. I don't want to suffer. I don't like pain. There's got to be another way.

What kind of suffering produces obedience? Jesus wasn't sick. He enjoyed good health. So he didn't suffer from migraines, arthritis, cancer, heart disease, kidney disease or a multitude of other physical ailments that cause pain. He wasn't mentally ill. So Jesus didn't suffer the emotional pain of schizophrenia, manic depression, paranoia, or a thousand other psychoses.

Therefore, it's fair to conclude that the suffering that produces obedience isn't the general physical and/or emotional sufferings of humankind. Then how did Jesus suffer? He was misunderstood, rejected, mocked, ridiculed, ignored, slandered, cast aside by society. Ultimately, Jesus was tortured then murdered by crucifixion. He suffered for righteousness sake, for the sake of the Papa's kingdom, and in obedience to Papa's will. As a lamb led to the slaughter, so Jesus suffered these indignities and death itself willingly, without resistance.

This is the suffering that produces obedience. Think of it this way. When I'm sick I go see my doctor. He examines me, makes a diagnosis, prescribes medicine, treatment, or a procedure of some sort. I follow his instructions and I'm healthy again. This course of action is generally accepted in our country. There is no reproach attached to seeking medical advice when one is sick.

However, when I follow the Great Physician, Jesus Christ, I attach myself to one who was "despised, rejected" by humankind. My relationship with him makes me an object of suspicion, rejection, even persecution. He warned us: "I've told you these things to prepare you for rough times ahead. They are going to throw you out of the meeting places. There will even come a time when anyone who kills you will think he's doing God a favor. They will do these things because they never really understood he Father. I've told you these things so that when the time comes and they start in on you, you'll be well warned and ready for them" (John 16:1-3).

It is to this suffering the writer of Hebrews speaks. It is this kind of suffering that produces obedience to God. Will I remain obedient when pressured to defect? When persecution comes when I obey God or man?

To willingly suffer on account of the Word and for the sake of righteousness is how Jesus suffered. This is the suffering that teaches obedience.

One Heavy Load

"I believe that guilt is some of our heaviest baggage. It weighs us down even more than bad luck, sorrows or worries, because there's always the sting of self-reproach connected with it, because it's something that we could help." -- Walter Trobisch.

Guilt sneaks up on us suddenly and then accuses us. It smothers our souls like a dense, noxious fog. We can't breathe. We feel trapped. Our load gets heavier and heavier.

There is only one way to get rid of this heavy load and to chase the suffocating fog away. It is the way of forgiveness. Forgiveness comes from God but it flows in all directions. When we're guilty we must ask for forgiveness: "I'm guilty. I ask for your forgiveness." When others offend us and ask for our forgiveness we must be ready to offer it. It's not easy to forgive completely from the heart. But this kind of forgiveness is necessary to complete the cycle of forgiveness: "Forgive us our trespasses as we have forgiven those who trespass against us."

Jesus not only offers us life, he is Life. And he not only offers us forgiveness, he is Forgiveness. Living in forgiveness allows us to leave our baggage behind. We don't have to pull our heavy load of guilt around any longer. Leave your baggage behind! Forgive. Accept forgiveness. Live in forgiveness. Ask for forgiveness when you offend. Offer forgiveness when you're offended. Forgive yourself on the basis of Papa-God's forgiveness.

Live free.

"May kindness and peace be yours from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness. Jesus was the first to conquer death, and his is the ruler of all earthly kings. Christ loves us, and by his blood he set us free from our sins. He lets us rule as kings and serve God his Father as priests. To him be glory and power for ever and ever! Amen." (Revelation 1:5-6)

The Offense

"And blessed is he who does not take offense at Me" (Matthew 11:6). The word 'offense' means "a stumbling-block, impediment, to see in another what I disapprove of."

Jesus understood that he offended a lot of people--especially the religious crowd. He didn't fit their notion of God.

Who Jesus was, what he said, what he did, how he lived, who he associated with--offended their religious mantra.

Jesus offended their traditions, cozy rituals, God-in-a-box theology, manipulative-control over others, their love affair with money and power. The Offense exposed their hypocrisy, confronted their disobedience, and unraveled their neatly packaged lives.

We've adopted their habits. We try our best to remove the offense from Christianity. We put God back in a box. A highly sophisticated box. But a box nevertheless.

We practice a compatible, bendable Christianity without the possibility of an offense. We preach soft, sweet, self-empowering messages that pretend to represent Christ. We make Jesus reasonable, miracles rational, faith universal, the atonement ritual, sin a mistake, and the Godhead symbolic.

We've figured God out and recreated Christ. We've traded his offense for community, his narrow road for a six lane interstate, his one way for many ways, his moral integrity for moral compromise.

When we take away from Christianity the possibility of offense, when we remove God's righteous judgment on sin and unrepentant sinners, when we annul the necessity of repentance and the call to Christ-like holiness, when we promote what's left as a viable religion, we've not only deceived ourselves, we've deceived our world. We've become peddlers of echos signifying nothing.

Take away the Offense and we'd be more honest to lock the church doors, or better, sell the property and turn it into an amusement park.

No offense... no Christ.

No Christ...no God.

No God...no hope.

It's our call.

Busy, Busy, Busy!

It's not uncommon for someone to answer the question, "How are you doing?" with "I'm busy!" And if prodded, the same person rattles off a list of activities, demands, deadlines, chores, tasks, and projects that require his or her full attention.

"I hardly have time to breathe," often follows their recital of the 'things-I-have-to-do' list.

Sometimes they exaggerate their schedule or, at least, its importance in the grand scheme of things. Sometimes not. Either way, the question remains unanswered.

The question is "How are you doing?" not "What are you doing?" Their response tells me something about how they see life.

To the busy-person, life equals activity. And the cliche becomes a rule: "time is money." They "buy" and "save" time, so that they can "spend" it as they wish. They try to make up for "lost" time by "stealing" more. They even talk of "investing" their time.

Time-driven people use other people as a means to extend their own time. "Will you watch my child while I .....?" "Can you be at my kid's school activity while I ...." "I have to leave early because ...." "I can only stay a few minutes, I have to ..." "Sorry I haven't talked to you in weeks, but you have no idea how busy I am."

Busy Bees ignore the foundation of human personhood and spiritual life that both are fundamentally relational. We humans are made to live in communion with Papa-God and our fellow travelers. But busy-people who regard only the task and the clock end up building distorted relationships--with God and others.

For them, life is activity. They push as much into the time they have as possible. They do more, consume more, work more, attend more meetings, tackle more deadlines. Do they have the time to find out what's going on with someone else or to let someone in on what's going on inside of them? No. They're too busy!

Busy-people seldom spend unhurried time ('Sabbath-rest-time') with God or family members. They're the "elder son" in the story of the prodigal. They do the right thing, manage the family business, work hard, and fill every empty moment with something urgent. Their personal calenders are crammed with "must-do," "have-to-do," or "ought-to-do" activities. It makes them feel needed and important.

Yet busy-people ignore what is most important--Papa-God and family members. All Papa wants is for them to stop by on our way to work and have a cup of coffee with him. Check in from time to time. Talk. Laugh. Share the stuff of life. But substantive relationships seldom make an appearance on the busy-person's calendar.

Why?

Busy-people are preoccupied with their own importance and mastered by their own schedules. They exchange the lasting for the temporal, the depths for the shallows, real gold for fools gold. achievements for relationships, and saddest of all, rushed moments for sacred moments.

If a quality life equals a full calendar, busy-people graduate magna-cum-laude. If a quality life equals substantive relationships with God and others, busy-people fail miserably.

Which is it?

Off Balance

Do you ever feel like God enjoys keeping us off balance?

It has to do with expectations. We all have them. And if we've lived longer than a day or two, we've discovered that life doesn't always match up to our expectations. Things don't turn out like we thought they would.

Relationships birthed in the sheer enjoyment of just being together, hanging out, talking, playing a common sport or sharing a common hobby dwindle to a quick text, a short email, and a Christmas card.

Marriages begun in passion, spending big chunks of time together, talking, sharing life-experiences sink to a few grunts, begrudging signs of affection, and more silence than communication.

Careers blasted off like rockets sputter to an abrupt halt. Dreams vanish in a thick fog of just-trying-to-get-by. It almost makes us not want to hope.

But the reverse is also true. Life can be flooded with unexpected blessing in an instant. It's the surprise of good things. Remember Abraham and Sara? They settled for a life without children. No giggles, baby-talk, first steps. No heritage. Then God showed up and announced, "It's a boy!"

God likes to keep us off balance.

"We humans keep brainstorming options and plans, but God's purpose prevails" (Proverbs 19:21). While we're planning our next step, God is busy redesigning the map.

Enjoy the ride. No telling what's around the next corner!