Our resources or His?

"Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God."
-Paul, in 2 Corinthians 1

I love this verse of Scripture and the passage it comes from. It reminds me of the illustration (well-worn, but still excellent) of a pitcher of water. If you simply pour out the water that is in the pitcher, the pitcher is soon empty and the water ceases to flow. But if the pitcher is located under a faucet with an endless supply of water, the pitcher remains full while still flowing into whatever is around and under it.

I can't put a number on the times in my life that I've tried to do something-- a day of work, a difficult task, a relationship-- on my own resources. Maybe I last a few hours, maybe even a few days if I'm particularly well-rested at the start. But inevitably, and generally sooner than I anticipate, I find my resources have been tapped out. I'm emotionally, mentally, and physically drained, and I have nothing worthwhile left to give.

But God is the faucet to our small pitcher. If we locate ourselves near Him, under Him, in the refreshing flow of His comfort and strength, we ourselves are filled even as we pour out into others. Rather than draining our finite resources, we tap into His infinite resources and reap blessing even while we bless those around us. What a better way to live!

Straining toward what is ahead

"Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus."
Paul, in Philippians 3

There is a balance between healthy reflection and unhealthy obsession. If we don't examine our pasts and learn from our mistakes, we are fools. But if we spend our whole lives obsessing over our mistakes, we are fools. So we acknowledge our imperfections, incorporate our newly-found wisdom into our approaching decisions, place our identity firmly in the life, death, and resurrection of Christ, and press on. Always forward, always upward, always heavenward to Christ.

That I may know Christ and be found in Him

"Whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may know Christ and be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ-- the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith. I want to know Christ and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in His sufferings, becoming like Him in His death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead."
Paul, in Philippians 3

...that I may know Christ and be found in Him...

This week has been a hard one. Reflection, dissatisfaction, unfulfilled expectations, loneliness, feeling lost and adrift and lacking a sense of direction for my life. There have been some tears and some hours of crying out to God. But at the bottom of it all is this: the desire of my heart is to be found in Christ. I love Paul's language here-- to know Him, to be found in Him, the power, the fellowship, the surpassing greatness. This is all I want.

I am at the end of myself and, I hope, the beginning of Him.

Joy as a lifestyle

"Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus."

We quote Paul's words from the fourth chapter of Philippians all the time. But I'm struggling to live it today. Joy is a choice, not a feeling. It is a lifestyle, not an emotion. Paul writes these words in chains, in isolation, suffering for the Gospel. Are your circumstances worse?

Rejoice in the Lord at all times.

Trustworthy

"Neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow... Each one should be careful how he builds. For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ."
Paul, in 1 Corinthians 3:7,11

Is there any experience so earth-shattering as trusting someone and having that trust betrayed? Especially when that person is a leader, a mentor, someone you look up to and aspire to be like. You put your confidence in that person and start to build parts of your life on that foundation of trust, so that when the foundation crumbles the rest comes tumbling down as well. Is anyone truly trustworthy? "There is no one righteous, not even one." (Romans 3:10) But trust is necessary-- in ministry, in friendship, in marriage and families-- so how do we walk that line?

Let us put our confidence in the only One who is trustworthy. If we follow anyone, let it be Him. Let us weigh every decision, every relationship, every step against His Word and His guidance. And He, in turn, will show us where to stand, where to lean, where to walk. If we build anything in this life, let it be on the foundation that is the solid rock of Christ, the one foundation that will never be shaken and cannot be moved. If we trust in Him first and foremost, we have a firm place to stand and build all other things. When the sand shifts, as it always will, we will still find ourselves on the Rock.

On Christ the solid rock I stand, all other ground is sinking sand.

Renewed thinking

"What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun." Ecclesiastes 1:9

"He who was seated on the throne said, 'I am making everything new!'" Revelation 21:5

"Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind." Romans 12:2

There is hope, there is life, there is joy.

Heart's ease

"Prayer is heart's ease to a gracious soul. Prayer will smooth the countenance; it should do so. None will long remain miserable, who use aright the privilege of going to the mercy-seat of a reconciled God in Christ Jesus."
-Matthew Henry, in his commentary on 1 Samuel

I wrote yesterday of times where the brokenness in the world seems much more prevalent than the redeemed. This is true often enough, but we are also called to praise the Lord at all times, not just acknowledging His existence but rejoicing in Him. Before we raise our arguments against this, contending that our situation is different, that surely our circumstances exclude us from the group who are required to rejoice, let's remember that these words were written by men whose trials most likely outweigh ours by a long shot.

Do we believe God is on the throne? Do we believe He is good? Do we believe He hears us when we pray? Then let us pray, leave our burdens at His feet, and continue on with the command He has given us. Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: rejoice!

Spinning the Gospel

Every Christmas and Easter a tendency comes out in the church. We want to find a new way to preach the old stories, to unearth a new facet of the Gospel, to find a new angle on the life, death, and resurrection of Christ. We figure people have heard it all before. What will bring them to church and to faith if we can't find a new edge?

Martin Luther, when asked by members of his congregation why he insisted on preaching the Gospel every week, responded that he preached the Gospel every week because every week they forgot it. He would move on to something else when he saw evidence that they had truly received the Gospel and were living accordingly.

Paul wrote, in his letter to the Romans, "I am not ashamed of the Gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes..." In his letter (with Timothy) to the Philippians, he wrote, "I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord... I want to know Christ and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in His sufferings."

The Gospel is enough. We don't need to spin it or twist it or find a new way to present it. May the truth be spoken, may it fall on ready hearts, and may God be glorified in our representation of Jesus now as He was in Jesus' life, death, and resurrection 2000 years ago.

Inwardly renewed

Health problems have been a part of my life for a little over a decade at this point. I won’t go into the specifics here—that’s not the point of this—but suffice it to say that I’m not dying (or getting significantly worse) and I’m also not getting better. Feeling entirely well is more remarkable for me than feeling unwell, and I spend a lot of time being generally achy and exhausted. Some days are better than others, and today is one of the others.

But today has also been a day of feeling closer to God than I had in a long time. I’ve been able to feel His presence and just to rest in it, to seek His guidance for my future and His comfort for some of the things I am facing in the present. Days like this are so sweet, and I would take a lifetime filled with physical pain and sweet communion with God over a healthy, self-sufficient one any day. I love the book of 2 Corinthians because of the way Paul speaks into situations like mine:

“Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.”
From 2 Corinthians 4

“Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take [the thorn in my flesh] away from me. But He said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me… For when I am weak, then I am strong.”
From 2 Corinthians 12

Paul's struggles were considerably rougher than mine, but even he looks on them as light and momentary troubles in view of eternity and the inexpressible greatness of knowing Jesus Christ.

What I want to do

This passage came to mind today as I thought back over the past couple of weeks and tried to come up with something encouraging to write:

"I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do... I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out... for what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing... In my inner being I delight in God's law; but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members. What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God—through Jesus Christ our Lord!"
Paul, in Romans 7

It's been a pretty lazy, selfish week or two, if I'm honest about it. And the funny thing, as I was discussing with a friend on the phone a few days ago, is that selfishness doesn't tend to actually get us the results we want. We want joy, fulfillment, peace, purpose, and comfort, but we turn from the Source of every good thing and try to meet those needs elsewhere. It's selfish because it does not seek first to glorify God, but it's also futile, leaving us bitter and unsatisfied. The truly self-serving choice would be to take up our crosses and seek God's kingdom first, losing our lives for a short while and thereby gaining every worthwhile thing in this life and the next.

I take comfort that Paul expressed my very feelings so very well. If a man used so mightily by God struggled with these same things, God is truly able to redeem any life. I rest in His grace.

Inwardly renewed

If you are on Facebook, you have probably noticed the flood of Myers-Briggs test results being posted and discussed of late. While, as my brother pointed out, there is probably some amount of confirmation bias at play, I am consistently amused to find how accurate the descriptions can be (I'm an ISFJ, for anyone wondering).

The most interesting aspect of these tests is, for me, to see how the results change (or stay the same) over time. Through junior high and high school, I was a strongly expressed extravert, thriving on attention and the energy found in large groups of people. Over the past four years, I've made a solid shift in the opposite direction, now registering as a fairly solid introvert. Where before I would have sought out big events and placed myself squarely in the center of the action, I now gravitate toward the side of the room and really prefer to spend my time conversing with one or two loved ones or simply watching the goings-on.

This has happened for a number of reasons: God's healing of my depression means I'm no longer afraid to be alone or silent, the increasing manifestations of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome make it easier for me to maintain a slow and steady pace in life, perhaps I've simply matured out of some of my need for attention...

Where I used to find my energy in the affirmation of the masses, in laughter and music and action, I find that these things now sap my energy and leave me exhausted. I find strength in quietness, joy in listening and observing, rest in the confidence that I am loved--first by God, and second by a great number of people--without needing to earn it. Possibly my favorite passage in all of Scripture is in 2 Corinthians 4, where Paul writes, "Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal."

Being sick is frustrating. The past six months have left my body broken and weak. But if Paul can say of his troubles, which are beyond comparison with mine, that they are light and momentary in view of the eternal glory toward which we strive, then I stand with him in rejoicing as my spirit is renewed. It is a truth that I have only been able to learn through struggle, and it is indeed both glorious and true.