Search for the LORD and His strength; continually seek His
face. Psalm 105:4
So although I am not reading quite as
much as I had imagined on this thus far very loosely defined sabbatical, I did
begin Keep Your Love On by Danny Silk
that focuses on helping people build, strengthen and heal their relational
connections in their family, in their work, with the guy walking down the
street. And the foundation that Silk
builds upon is the idea of choice, based on God’s love for us, for me, in that
He chose me. He chose to love me while I was still a squirming distracted
sinner doing my best to hide from His gaze.
“I choose you.” This
is the foundation of true, lasting relationships. It is the foundation for
God’s relationship with you. As Jesus declared to His disciples, “You did not
choose Me, but I chose you...” Jesus chose you in the most difficult of
circumstances. He chose you while you were in sin, while you were His enemy.
You can be sure that His end of relationship with you does not depend upon your
choice, but entirely upon His choice.
If all our relationships are based solely on our natural
impulse to return liking for liking, then we’re going to have problems. Liking
is a conditional state—it changes.
For example, when people get married,
their vows are all about what they are going to do. “I will love you. I will protect you. I will serve you. I will be
faithful to you, no matter what.
In order to be able to make and keep commitments like
this—commitments to enduring, intimate relationships—you need to be a certain
kind of person. You need to be a powerful person. Powerful people take
responsibility for their lives and powerful people choose who they want to be
with, what they are going to pursue in life, and how they are going to go after
it.
And I sure know that all of this power
does not come from within.
Search for the LORD and His strength;
continually seek His face.
And
I wrote the chorus from the closing song at church last night on my wrist with
a fine line blue marker, so I wouldn’t forget my prayer: Illuminate the way.
And
the sermon was an introduction to the book of Philippians, strong on historical
details about two battles between Brutus and Octavius for all of us Julius Caesar teacher types and photos
of ancient churches, but certainly not the traditional three-point sermon. But
one point was enough this week’s meditation: Peace is the fruit of God’s grace.
And the Julius Caesar reference reminded me about the last
time I was in New York City and Dre took me to a production in the Dumbo set in
a women’s prison which quite honestly and without a doubt the most amazing
artistic anything I have ever witnessed. And this week I head back to New York
City for a quick
pick-up-Uncle-Jim-who-isn’t-doing-so-well-and-bring-him-back-to-Tucson visit.
And even though I am aware that New York City can be a lonely place to live,
somehow it is a place that always reminds me of This Choice that The
Everlasting God has made.
And this is what I wrote, just a year
ago:
And the point of all this, besides
writing it down before it floats out of my mind, is that I saw thousands and
thousands of faces in just a few short days. Nameless to me. Neither here nor
there. A quick glimpse and gone.
Yet I basked each step of the way in
the peaceful declaration of He is Mine.
She is Mine. And the oft-repeated line of the essays, well there were
several...Am I better than my worst moment? being one of them. But
another is the truth, There but for the grace of God go I.
And as I bumped into loved ones all
over these islands, I was reminded of our made-in-the-image-of-Godness.
And knowingness. As in the number of hairs on my head knowingness. Each and
every soul. Even the ones with stories recorded in this book of abject
brokenness. We are all broken. We are all wretched.
And who am I to accuse? God himself
declares us not guilty! Who, then, will condemn them? Not Christ Jesus, who
died for us while we were yet sinners?
Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ
our Lord! Because of Him we have the hope that the creation itself will be
set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the
children of God.
When we let this freedom ring, when we
let it ring from every tenement and every hamlet, from every state and every
city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black
men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able
to join hands and sing in the words of the old spiritual, "Free at last,
free at last. Thank God Almighty, we are free at last."
And
as I get ready for NYC and do laundry and write down phone numbers and
addresses and make carpooling arrangements for Jin Chang and rides to the
airport for me, my prayer is May I be filled with Your strength. A powerful
person.
And
last week I watched Nicole teach her new class at a neighborhood middle school,
a Language Arts class of exceptional education kids that has pretty much made a
long string of substitute teachers feel powerless.
But
man, I watched Nicole step into her class with power. And Silk pretty much
describes her classroom management style: Powerful
people do not try to control other people. They know it doesn’t work, and that
it’s not their job. Their job is to control themselves.
As a result, they are
able to consciously and deliberately create the environment they want to live
in. They don’t try to get people to respect them; they create a respectful
environment by showing respect. They deliberately set the standard for how they
expect to be treated by they way they treat others. As they consistently act in
responsible, respectful, and loving ways, it becomes clear that the only people
who can get close to them are those who know how to respect, be responsible,
and love well.
And
when I modeled a little lesson plan on sensory language with paper folded into
four boxes (with both a hotdog and hamburger fold) filled with specific setting
details, at the very end I had the kiddos fold the paper back up into quarters
and then fold the middle corner down into a triangle and then open it up again
so that there was a little diamond right in the center of the graphic organizer.
And I gave a little talk explaining about how all of the sensory specific
details of what things looked like and sounded like and smelled like fit
together to create a mood or tone.
And
they were told to write a word in the center to describe the mood of their
Language Arts class.
And
every one of those kiddos, in each one of the classes, after a year of hapless
substitute teachers and worksheets and only one week of Nicole and her paints
and silks and lit candles, wrote words like “Happy,” and “Calm” and “Peaceful,”
in the center of their papers.
Thus,
dear LORD, my prayer for today, for this week, for ever, May I continually seek
Your face, and may I likewise bring this peace as I bask in Your strength and
Your grace each step of the way.
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