Better to abandon your quest for interpersonal justice and focus on what you can control – your forgiveness of others. -Seth Barnes

May God be merciful to us and bless us, show us the light of His countenance and come to us. Let Your ways be known upon earth, Your saving health among all nations. Psalm 67:1-2

 It has become somewhat of a cliché, God Bless America. Even a political spat point. But indeed, may He show us the light of His countenance. May we know His ways.

Blessed Lord, who caused all holy Scriptures to be written for our learning: Grant me so to hear them, read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them, that I may embrace and ever hold fast the blessed hope of everlasting life, which you have given us in our Savior Jesus Christ; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

And may we embrace Scripture. And take it seriously, outside of the platitudes. And meditate upon it. And digest it. And let it work into our soul deeply. May His ways be known upon earth, His saving health among all nations.

The earth. All nations.

His ways.

The us is a lot bigger.

Jesus declared publicly: If anyone hears my words and does not keep them faithfully, it is not I who shall judge such a person, since I have come not to judge the world, but to save the world.

Let me be about His business.  

And once again, Seth Barnes had a good word. A guy with his boots on and in the trenches. And he reminds me that cannot fret about others. But me, me I can keep His words, and keep them faithfully. And as He did not come to judge the world, so then neither shall I.

Rather, let me be about His business.  

The steady rhythm of the surf.

God be merciful and gracious to us and bless us and cause His face to shine upon us and among us—Selah [pause, and calmly think of that]!—That Your way may be known upon earth, Your saving power (Your deliverances and Your salvation) among all nations. Psalm 67:1-2

Jesus taught us, saying: ‘I give you a new commandment: love one another; you must love one another just as I have loved you. It is by your love for one another, that everyone will recognize you as my disciples.’ John 13:34–35

And so the people sang, with stringed instruments this prayer to the merciful and gracious God, shine Your face upon us and among us that Your way may be known upon earth.

And God, the merciful and gracious God, so loved this world that He sent His only beloved Son, Jesus, who taught us saying, “Love one another. You must love one another, just as I have loved you.”

This the way of God that was known upon earth.

And I walked down Newport Beach this morning. There really isn’t a dawn on the coast of Southern California but rather a seamless and solid bright white light across the sky. And it was just me and the surfers in their black shiny seal suits crashing through the waves.

Walking. And yes I picked up a few pieces of trash because I am my father’s daughter. And thinking of Jesus and how He loved.

And he didn’t protect or explain himself as he stood silently before Pilate. Even to himself, inside his head with defensive conversations. He could have told that old Pilate a thing or two, but He didn’t.

And He reached out to Zacchaeus hiding in the tree, and invited him to join him. Guess what. Zacchaeus’s name means pure and innocent in Hebrew. And only Jesus could see him, who he really was.

And as they spat at Him, He asked His Father to forgive them for they knew not what they were doing. Because He did not come to condemn the world, but that the world, through Him, might be saved.

And again and again, Jesus stopped and looked and invited, “Come and follow me.” And when He broke the bread loaves and the two fishes to feed the hungry crowds, after giving thanks He gave them to His followers to serve. And all were satisfied.

So as Nicole and I drive the rumbling Uncle Ted Cadillac across salt flats and up along Highway One to San Francisco I intend to continue this conversation with Jesus. How have You loved me?

That I might love, just as You have loved me.

And in all I do direct me to the fulfilling of Your purpose; through Jesus Christ my Lord. Amen.

Oft hope is born when all is forlorn.

May God be merciful to us and bless us, show us the light of His countenance and come to us. Let your ways be known upon earth, your saving health among all nations. Psalm 67:1-2

Something is afoot in the universe; Someone filled with transcendent brightness, wisdom, ingenuity, and power and goodness is about. In the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary, somewhere deep down a Voice whispers, “All is well and all will be well.” –Brennan Manning

A life of significance.

Jesus did not come so that we could have small tidy safe pleasantness. It wasn’t about a comfortable hobbit hole with six meals a day if we are lucky.

My readings this morning included a quote by Larry Crabb: I’ve been a follower of Jesus for more than 50 years, and my testimony is that I’m disillusioned. What I have understood to be a distinctly Christ-centered, biblically-informed approach to living does not seem to be transforming me the way I was encouraged to believe it would…I’m appalled, after all these years, at how untransformed I remain.

Brian Rice describes his “functional atheism,” believing in God, but acting as if everything was pretty much up to him. Or his phase as an Evangelical Deist, one who lives as though once the Creator God had designed the world and its operating principles, He pretty much stepped back, and the business of the day is to make sure one understood and followed as much as possible, the operating principles that God installed in His universe. If you did, then things would tend to work out for you.

Interestingly enough, this is almost word for word how the Muslim Chinese kid described Christianity in his Odyssey essay yesterday. He has been going to Desert Christian for five months now, and there was no talk of the person of Christ, or joy or power or peace or transformation or restoration. Nothing but following operating principles as much as possible in order to get to heaven, so hence he saw no real difference between Islam and Christianity. They are the same thing as far as he could tell, serving a powerful kind God with lots of good works and hoping it is enough not to go to hell.

Nicole has been sharing her Christian mystic books with me, and while their stories are more than a little quirky, and far beyond my comfort parameters, there is no confusing their priorities nor that they have experienced God outside of the Self masquerading as a relationship with the Almighty.

I long to know this Other, the Someone filled with transcendent brightness, wisdom, ingenuity, and power and goodness and what He is about.

Even so, come, Lord Jesus!