Monday, April 22, 2013

Although sometimes it comes with room service


Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto Thy name give glory, for Thy mercy, and for Thy truth's sake. Psalm 115:1

I believe that there is only one truly courageous thing that each one of us can do with our lives: to love unconditionally. Going into the hard places, entering into the sorrow.  On the other side of sorrow is wisdom, and more sorrow, and joy. -Katie Davis 

Traveling is always good for my soul.  I am ripped out of my small world and small concerns into the Big Perspective.  He is always so much Present in my soul when my structures and rhythms and people are not there to hold me up.  There is no rushing onto the next thing.   

Heather wrote that Saturday Dustin planted a honey mesquite in the side yard for Everette to climb on and put in a ton of irrigation so that we can beautify the area...Evie and I mostly just swung on the hammock together and watched the finches....I kinda feel guilty not being productive since obviously she doesn't NEED me to sit there as she sleeps, but my, I just got so much pleasure from not doing anything but kiss her little wrinkles.  :)  

That’s pretty much what I took away from reading Kisses for Katie on the plane over here, basically a story told by a wealthy young Nashville thing who discovered that she was unable to walk by anyone without kissing the little wrinkles.  And she just happened to be in Uganda.

And I am reading yet another book on prayer and it’s really about lingering: Learning to pray doesn’t offer you a less busy life.  It offers you a less busy heart.

We keep forgetting that God is a person. We don’t learn to love someone without it changing us. That is just the nature of love that reflects the heart of God.  The second person of the Trinity now has a scarred body.  The Trinity is different because of love.

As you develop your relationship with your Heavenly Father, you will change.You will discover nests of cynicism, pride and self-will in your heart.  You will be unmasked. None of us like being exposed.  We have an allergic reaction to dependency, but this is the state of the heart most necessary for prayer.  A needy heart is a praying heart.  Dependency is the heartbeat of prayer. So when it starts getting uncomfortable, don’t pull back from God.  He is just starting to work. Be patient.

The sky is fading into lighter shades of grey rising over the tiled rooftops of Bogotá.  My tiny balcony overlooks a brick courtyard full of darting black swallows. The traffic is starting to rumble up again.  But my heart is at rest.

I do not know what it will look like, as I consider The place God calls us to is the place where your deep gladness and the world's deep hunger meet. This articulates nicely the theme I suggested for the May Vineyard devotional, and I received Dana Mahan’s submission just a few moments ago.  And how can I but smile at his leading verse: But Moses said, ‘Pardon your servant Lord.  Please send someone else.’ Exodus 4:13 

He goes on to detail his general reaction to this place where God has called him: Not an easy word to translate, Eish.  If you combine Lord Have Mercy, with For Crying Out Loud, or maybe You Have To Be Kidding Me, then you get close to what people mean when they say Eish.  You might shake your head and roll your eyes at the same time to complete the expression.

What a perfect term to capture what Moses must have felt when he received his calling from God.  I wonder if there is some similar word in Hebrew, some turn of phrase he might have muttered under his breath when he ran out of excuses and allowed providence a foothold.

And while it is true that on the surface Dana’s calling is not what he had originally hoped for–absolutely lacking in any sort of glory whatsoever, I suspect Dana has found that sweet spot.  

Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto Thy name give glory, for Thy mercy, and for Thy truth's sake. Psalm 115:1

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