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Grandma broke her measuring cup the other day–one that she’s had for a long time. She had put hot tea into it (it’s one of those glass pitchers that measures up to two cups) and then, after pouring that out, had put cold water into it. You guessed correctly: it cracked down the middle! (last week was a bad week for breaking glass containers! I had done a similar thing a couple days before!)
That incident sorta connects with a quotation I found in Oswald Chambers’s writings a couple days ago:
“Wherever one’s hopes are founded, there will that person’s idea of prosperity be. And whatever the soul conceives to be prosperity will become that person’s measurement of hope.”
~ April 18 Devotions for a Deeper Life Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1986.
I didn’t even finish reading the day’s reading right away; I had to stop and ponder that statement. What do I consider prosperity? How do I measure my hope? I know what the “Sunday School” answer is. But the “Sunday School” answer gets its bad rap from the very fact that it’s pat rather than practical, easy rather than real. I have a vague notion of what I’d like the answer to be. But I wonder what the answer really is, what my life shows it to be. And I wonder what it is becoming, what God is making it into.
How do I measure success? Am I a success because I averaged 10 minutes per book that I had to write assignments in tonight? I think it’s a good average by the estimates I have heard, but will my boss think so when she arrives on Monday morning to find that there’s still a little more to do to get ready for the evening? Do I measure my success by my own estimations or by others’ opinions? or both? or neither? Not “how should I measure them?” but “how do I measure them?”
It’s got me pondering–not morbidly, but curiously; not fearfully, but interestedly.
Obviously, I’m not measuring my success by how early I get to bed at night. Maybe I ought to . . . =)
“If we cannot believe God when circumstances seem be against us, we do not believe Him at all.” – Charles Spurgeon
qtd in NBBC Alumni Update: January 28, 2008
I’ve been studying the life of Job lately. (Actually, the whole church was, and the children’s class got behind: we’re still studying that book along with the Psalms that the rest of the church is studying. We’re having a great time figuring out what each of the characters in Job is saying and getting quite an education on the behavior of people discussing things!)
If anyone had a hard time with circumstances, Job was the one. And he had so many questions for God. Questions I find that I have–sometimes even without knowing I’m wondering them.
“God, why are you punishing me? I’ve been doing my best to serve you!”
“God, if things are really truly ok between us, why these circumstances?”
“How is it considered punishment when it happens to others but not to me? It appears the same!”
“How can you still be ok with me when everyone else seems not to be? and when my world seems to be falling apart? and when I can’t tell up from down?”
Yet, before we begin the series of discussions between Job and his friends, we know the answers to some of the questions. As I say to my kids, God was really bragging on Job.
God: “Satan, see Job down there? He’s my friend. He’s such a great guy!”
Satan: “Yeah, he’s just your friend because you’ve given him everything he wants and needs and even some things he didn’t know he wanted or needed. Take all that away, and you’ll lose his friendship.”
So God let it be tested. And He had something more to brag about when Satan returned from carrying out the terrible deed of stripping from Job everything that he had.
God: “See, I told you he was my friend! You took away everything, and he’s still my friend! What a great guy!”
Satan: “Yeah, but he’s still healthy. Make him sick, put him into some real, physical pain, and he will start to curse you.”
So God allowed that, too. And still Job didn’t stop being God’s friend. And then (as an added “bonus”) Job’s friends misunderstood him. And they added misunderstanding to misunderstanding. And Job didn’t stop being God’s friend.
But He began to wonder if God was still his friend.
And I guess that when I’m under the circumstances, I begin to wonder that, too. I’m looking forward to the end of the book, looking forward to seeing how God answers some of these questions.
God rest you merry, gentlemen,
Let nothing you dismay,
Remember Christ our Saviour
Was born on Christmas Day,
To save us all from Satan’s pow’r
When we were gone astray;
O tidings of comfort and joy, comfort and joy,
O tidings of comfort and joy.
Am I the only one that finds this song ironic? It tells of rest and comfort and joy in a minor key and is sung either as a funeral dirge or as a race to the sales table (depending, of course, on who is leading the song). In fact, my favorite arrangements of this piece give the sensation of being swept off my feet and into . . . the great swell of traffic on the freeway . . . the harried atmosphere of a busy workday . . . the frenzied rush to finish things before due-dates . . . any moment but a restful moment. I don’t dislike the song. I enjoy it (especially an older arrangement on a cassette tape with the Mantovani choir we had when I was a child). I simply find it ironic. Ironic like the whole Christmas season: in what other season of the year do we rush around desperately trying to make life simple, beautiful, and peaceful?
“Rest . . . Let nothing you dismay . . . Remember . . . Comfort and joy”
The Christmas season, like no other season in the year, reminds us of the important things in life: generosity, peace, love, and simplicity. We set out to make it a special time for ourselves and those around us, planning the perfect party, seeking just the right present, focusing on giving rather than on receiving. Yet, we find ourselves so tired. Somewhere in the midst of it all there is no rest–not physically, not emotionally, not spiritually. Somehow, in the midst of the focus on giving, there is little peace. And in a season that is supposed to be merry, many of us are left feeling disappinted somehow. By the end of the Christmas season, we are left wondering where in the world the “comfort and joy” could have been hiding. Did we miss them at the store? Were the malls sold out of them? Are these “tidings” no different than the sale ads we see on television and get in the mail? Maybe the comfort and joy are in limited quantities: only those who are first in line for the food at the Christmas party get them; only those willing to camp out on the steps of the stores the night before the sale can afford them.
But the God of the universe couldn’t possibly be that way, could He? Wouldn’t He have enough to go around to everyone–with more to spare? Enough rest for everyone? When He grew up, this baby proclaimed “Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” That’s a wide-open welcome. A sale that never ends. Maybe it’s like a batch of brownies: it doesn’t exactly fit the description of what we usully think of when we hear the word “cookie”; it doesn’t take a lot of work on our part; we simply bring the few ingredients we need to add and combine them with the mix (yes, I make brownies from mixes) then bake at the right temperature. Most of it’s been done for us. And around the Christmas season, I feel a little short on ingredients–time, for one! And so, maybe, having comfort and rest and joy is about bringing my few ingredients to the Chef and adding them to His mix: as simple as that! Could it really be that easy?
But are brownies allowed at this cookie party? I can only really rest when I am comfortable and when I know that things are ok between me and those around me. And that is something we are short on–the knowledge that we are “ok,” not in the sense of mediocrity, but in the sense of acceptance. Are we allowed to come as we are? Somehow nothing in life seems to be good enough or done enough. And so we burn the midnight oil to accomplish the things that we feel ought to be done. And we have trouble being comfortable enough in God’s presence to rest.
Victor Hugo is quoted as saying this: “Have courage for the great sorrows of life and patience for the small ones; and when you have laboriously accomplished your daily task, go to sleep in peace. God is awake.” Maybe I’m so busy trying to find my peace and joy and wrap it up and put it under the Christmas tree for others (and maybe a little for myself) that I won’t take the time to unwrap God’s gifts to me–the very things I am looking for. Maybe it’s time to realize that I don’t have to be perfect to be accpeted by God. I can get into my comfy clothes around him and rest. Maybe it’s time to do that this Christmas.
And have a brownie. It’s ok.
From Max Lucado’s book Traveling Light (Nashville: W Publishing Group, 2001):
“Do you feel a need for affirmation? Does your self-esteem need attention? You don’t need to drop names or show off. You need only pause at the base of the cross and be reminded of this: The maker of the stars would rather die for you than live without you. And that is a fact. So if you need to brag, brag about that.”
Lucado echoes the apostle Paul in Galatians 6:14 where he says “But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world.”
To be honest, such boasting is totally and completely unthinkable! How dare I boast that the God who made the stars should love me so very much? That’s akin to saying that Bill Gates is my best friend or that the king of Spain chats with me online every day. Yes, the Bible makes it very very clear that God’s love really is that big, but it’s really not something I can believe easily, especially since human love can’t and won’t and doesn’t fill every need.
It seems audacious to boast of God loving me so much He didn’t want to live without me. So much He would give up His very life for me. It really seems much more humble to boast about my own petty accomplishments. Deep in my heart, I realize they’re petty. In fact, that’s part of why we boast, isn’t it: to raise ourselves off of the dirt floor where the superiority of others has cast us? And so we boast, feeling that others view us as inferior, trying to give ourselves an “ego boost” (sounds like an add-in at a smoothie shop: “I’ll take an immunity boost, an energy boost, and an ego boost in mine, please.”).
Reading Lucado’s words, I realize that I’ve never really understood Paul’s ability to boast in the cross before. What kind of boasting is that? Doesn’t it sound a bit heartless to the rest of the world to tell about something that they don’t have and might never be able to obtain–a love like that? And if they could obtain it, wouldn’t it make my possession of such love less significant? I’ve wondered about how in the world the apostle John could have the presumption to call himself “the disciple Jesus loved”–didn’t that cheapen the relationship the others had with Jesus? Wasn’t that a slap in the face to them and their relationships with Him? And if I were to boast in such love, I would be sure to find out very quickly that someone else has more of His love to boast about.
And so I boast about everything else but the one true possession I have that gives value to my little life, the thing that God has reiterated over and over that no one will ever be able to take from me, the thing that He has promised is mine forever, the one thing that He has given me permission to boast about. Why don’t I boast about it?
I have to believe it first.
“God is great, and therefore He will be sought; God is good, therefore He will be
found.” - Author Unknown
qtd in NBBC Alumni Update 10-15-2007
“Dissonance is a passing thing. Dissonance drives us to the next chord.”
~Brett Habing
Northland Baptist Bible College Concert Choir director
(aack! I have no date for this quotation! I do know that it must have been said in the spring semester of 2001)
Oh, God of dust and rainbows, help us see
That without dust the rainbow would not be.
by Langston Hughes
A friend of mine who writes poetry managed to put into words the indescribable–how it feels to know a certain type of pain and the hope of not forgetting. I couldn’t have said it better.
“Criticism is a part of the ordinary faculty of man: but in the spiritual domain nothing is accomplished by criticism. The effect of criticism is a dividing up of the powers of the one criticized; the Holy Ghost is the only One in the true position to criticize, [sic] He alone is able to show what is wrong without hurting and wounding. It is impossible to enter into communion with God when you are in a critical temper; it makes you hard and vindictive and cruel, and leaves you with the flattering unction that you are a superior person. . . . Beware of anything that puts you in the superior person’s place.”
~Oswald Chambers. “The Uncritical Temper” June 17 My Utmost For His Highest
Chambers goes on to explain that we have no reason to feel superior because of the flaws we have in ourselves and because of the circumstances in the lives of others that we do not know about. I want that uncritical spirit he speaks of! Criticism sends back razor-edged fingers into my own heart saying “you’re just like that person!” and I begin to despair of myself.
I appreciate Chambers’ statement about criticism dividing up the powers of the one being criticized–that’s often how I feel when criticized, especially when I then begin to criticize myself to try to determine the amount of truth in the criticism and what to do about it. I begin to feel heavier and heavier in spirit as though I am carrying a weight that is unbearable yet inexorable. It is almost impossible for me to imagine Jesus Christ’s Holy Spirit being able to criticize me without wounding me; yet I have felt and heard His gentleness in my own life over and over again. And with His “Chriticism” comes the power and joy of knowing what to do in that moment to begin to change–no burden, no weight, just a certain peaceful energy. I’d like to help the Holy Spirit give that to others.
My sister put into words–simple, crystal-clear words, poetic in their jagged beauty–what God’s love is: What is love? I’ve thought of it like this before, but it was her words that said it best. A fresh restatement of I John 4:9 “Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation of our sin.”
Wow.
*misty eyes*
“Even though it is easy to fall into a rut of negativism, as a believer I have no excuse. Our God is on the throne, and nothing escapes or surprises Him.”
–Michael Miller, missionary to Bolivia (e-mail November 17, 2006, <m.miller@baptistpioneermission.org> 
Sometimes our ideas of what faith is get as scrambled as the title of this post. We hear about faith in ourselves or faith in mankind or faith in our friends, and sometimes just plain faith by itself (on rye, hold the mustard?). Sometimes it seems elusive and we try to hold onto it as though it’s a good luck charm that we can put in our pockets to ward off disaster. But how to define what it really is? how to describe it? that’s not so easy! There’s an indefinable quality to faith just as there is to breathing–we breathe without thinking about what the action is: we just do it.
However, for some of us, exercising faith is like learning to ice-skate: it takes work and effort and perhaps can be done better if we understand what it is that we are trying to do (besides merely staying upright) and how that is best to be accomplished.
A friend of mine has been scrutinizing faith lately and God has been putting that puzzle together a little more for him. Take the time to read and ponder his thoughts and the verses God has given him about faith (the Word and Faith).
Here’s a thought on faith that I’m currently pondering:
“Faith is deliberate confidence in the character of God whose ways you may not understand at the time.” –Oswald Chambers (qtd in NBBC Alumni Update for November 13, 2006)
II Timothy 1:12 supports this concept, too: knowing God unscrambles our faith
Do I know Him? Do you?
"Let a man set his heart only on doing the will of God and he is instantly free. No one can hinder him." — A. W. Tozer
qtd in NBBC Alumni Update for June 5, 2006
yes, but how does one go about keeping one's heart at the right setting? I find that my settings are broken and keep moving, like a radio whose knobs are bumped just off of the station's frequency, mixing the station's broadcast with static or other nearby stations.
"When I was young I was sure of everything; in a few years, having been mistaken a thousand times, I was not half so sure of most things as I was before; at present, I am hardly sure of anything but what God has revealed to me." - John Wesley
qtd in NBBC ALUMNI UPDATE FOR MAY 1, 2006
“Many have puzzled themselves about the origin of evil. I am content to observe that there is evil, and that there is a way to escape from it, and with this I begin and end.” — John Newton
qtd in NBBC ALUMNI UPDATE FOR APRIL 17, 2006
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