Gateway to silence.

Gateway to silence: Guide me on the further journey.

Open my lips, O Lord, and my mouth shall proclaim your praise. Had you desired it, I would have offered sacrifice, but you take no delight in burnt offerings. The sacrifice of God is a troubled spirit; and a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise. Psalm 51:16–18

It seems we don't really believe what the cross teaches us--that the pattern of death and resurrection is true for us too, that we must die in a foundational way or any talk of "rebirth" makes no sense. I don't know anything else that's strong enough to force you and me to let go of our ego. Somehow our game has to fall apart. However we've defined ourselves as successful, moral, better than, right, good, on top of it, number one . . . has to fail. It just has to. –Richard Rohr

Holy Ghost, with love divine,

Shine upon this heart of mine:

Chase the shades of night away,

Turn my darkness into day.

Holy Ghost, with power divine,

Cleanse this guilty heart of mine:

Bid my many woes depart,

Heal my wounded, bleeding heart.

Holy Spirit, all divine,

Dwell within this heart of mine:

Cast down every idol throne,

Reign supreme—and reign alone. -A. Reed

Lord, take my heart, for I cannot give it to You. And when you have it, keep it. For I would not take it from You. François Fénelon

We are ditching the pounding sun today, our poor old skin fried yesterday as we walked up and down and all around the countryside with the vague hope that perhaps a bus would pass us by. Smearing sunscreen again and again just didn’t cut it. And it’s a good thing, to sit here quietly overlooking the Adrian Sea, reflecting.

Guide me on the further journey.

And I review my faint Sunday School memory of those maps whose importance I never particularly understood: the first missionary journey of Paul, the second missionary journey of Paul, the third missionary journey of Paul and the journey to Rome; but it seemed really important to Mrs. Wetmore, my Sunday School teacher with the flannel graphs.

Maybe because it reminds us that Paul was a real person, beyond his mythical properties. On his second missionary journey he sailed these very seas. He walked these same stony mountains. Rested under these same saltcedars in respite from this same sun. Drank this same sour wine.

His journey. And I read Thessalonians. And Corinthians. And it seems that Paul too was on a journey, a deepening of His understanding of the Spirit’s guidance and truth. Reign supreme—and reign alone.

Make us strong and courageous, God, to do the new thing, because You are not the God of I was but You are the God I am and You are doing a new thing and that thing is unfolding right now in us will unfold in thousands of places around the world as we walk out our doors and into dangerous lives.

Make us daily pray for character greater than our calling and for a humility great than our work. –Ann Voskamp

And the Joy Dare today was to give thanksgiving for three things about my dad. And yesterday, after I popped into a laundry mat to inquire about washing our oft-worn clothes, I told Mary Anne another story about my parents, how they used to own and run a laundrymat. And how my mother and father washed and folded the clothes of strangers to support their family while they printed Bible lessons in a bunch of different languages and missionary newsletters. My father the valedictorian of Vanderbilt chemical engineering program who was the Navel officer and rocket scientist who worked with NASA and my mother the marketing major from Syracuse University who was the beautiful Bohemian in San Francisco that worked for C&H Sugar.

Humility. I thank my mom and dad for humility lived and breathed day in and day out. For driving up to the Grand Canyon to meet five dirty college students climbing out over the rim and drive them to a hotel room that they rented just so they could take showers and be taken out to dinner before they got into the car to drive all the way to Santa Barbara that night and fall asleep in the sun on the beach. (That was the last time I was sunburned, so I kinda remembered that story yesterday.)

Humility. All those Saturdays hauling a trailer loaded up with flour and beans and boxes of donated shoes behind the blue Chrysler station wagon across the Tijuana border. With four little kids. Saturday after Saturday chasing cockroaches out of pantries, sort of scrubbing out latrines and kneeling in the dirty dust fitting shoes onto very dirty dusty feet.

And as I seek His guidance on this journey, I echo Peter, To Whom shall I go? You have the words of life. Seth Barnes wrote a meditation today entitled, “Say Yes to God.” And it all begins with saying YES. Yes to going on a journey with Jesus that has its roots in Matthew 10. Yes to choosing to travel with a group of people who are as messy as we are. Yes to choosing to go through the pain so that we can walk in freedom. And yes to setting the captives free. We need to know that this YES in our spirits has some steel in it. Our lives go by so quickly. What else are we going to do but follow our Creator?

Guide me on the further journey.

Do I make my plans according to the flesh, ready to say, “Yes, yes” and “No, no” at the same time? As surely as God is faithful, our word to you has not been Yes and No.  For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, whom we proclaimed among you, was not Yes and No, but in Him it is always Yes. For all the promises of God find their Yes in Him. That is why it is through him that we utter our Amen to God for His glory. 2 Corinthians 1:17-20

Guide me on the further journey.

Yes and Amen.

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.  

Exaltation of larks, murder of crows, parliament of owls

Anyone who does not gather in with Me throws away. Matthew 12:30

There is no neutral. No floating with the jetsam. He would rather spew out of His mouth than settle for lukewarm.

And every day I get to choose to embrace the golden sunrise and the Santa Catalina glints or to fix my eyes on the certainly pitted roads and just try to maneuver through the maze.

Seth Barnes, a friend from Wheaton who is in it for the long haul pilgrimage, a guy who is always just one step ahead of us in small business loans, Adventures in Missions, Listening Prayer and he even did a second Camino this summer, mulls over the lie of safety. Of faux-control. 

The Mideast is turmoil. Death is in the air. And yet, on Lesvos and around the world, the Kingdom is advancing.

It's what Jesus promised us. He said, "In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33)

Consider this - if you are not experiencing trouble, if you are not experiencing deep testing, then perhaps you are irrelevant.

No, it's not safe. Jesus is not safe. Neither does he want those of us who follow him to be safe. He said, "the kingdom of God suffers violence and the violent take it by force." When my eyes snap open in the morning, he wants hell to say, "Oh no, he's awake again!"

I love that we get to play a part in this great drama playing out on a global stage. It is awesome to bring hope and freedom to those who have lost theirs. It can be simultaneously awesome and terrifying.

Where are you on this issue? Has safety become an idol for you? Do you feel the same privilege and exhilaration in serving the King as he wages war on an enemy bent on stealing, killing and destroying?

It kinda puts my morning dreads in pitiful perspective.

No murmuring.

Let me set forth with joy and hope and most of all, a heart of giving thanks, of seeing His goodness. May I be counted worthy to pick up my cross and follow Him into the rising up.

Because the needy are oppressed, and the poor cry out in misery, I will rise up,” says the LORD, “And give them the help they long for. Psalm 12:5

Vulnerability destroys the lie that you are alone and cannot be healed. Seth Barnes

Satan is the Father of Lies and he cannot tell the truth- Jesus

He stilled the storm to a whisper and quieted the waves of the sea. Then they were glad because of the calm, and He brought them to the harbor they were bound for. Let them give thanks to the LORD for His mercy and the wonders He does for His children. Psalm 107:31

This is my go-to verse for a number of folks on my fixed-prayer list. If you know me, you can be assured that I have prayed this blessing over your life one time or another, or almost daily.

And last night I shared a butternut salad and pizza Bianca with someone who struggles with liturgical worship. But not me. This same old, same old verse washed fresh splashes of peace over my soul. Again. New every morning, like I have never experienced His sweet goodness before.

The Lord is my shepherd and nothing is wanting to me. In green pastures He has settled me.

And just moments ago, where high waves of sorrow and doubt and weariness were crashing, a calm stillness settled around me, in gentleness.

It is comforting to know that my Lord and Savior went for these early morning walks by Himself. Maybe even He needed a readjustment of vision after long, long days with the crowds.

I hate those who have a divided heart.

The refrain for this morning’s Office is this, a clear reminder of what He hates, those with a divided heart.

But because this is the God who heard His dying Son’s plea “to forgive them for they know not what they do,” I understand that His hatred burns against the divided heart itself, the heart tangled up in lies and blindness and small perspective.

Because I hate it too. Man, yesterday was moment after moment of staring fast-talking and fast-blinking middle school students in the eye and listen to their crazy, tangled, misbegotten and yes, even stupid, lies. The less I believed them, the more emphatically they clung to them, repeating them over and over, louder and louder, making no sense whatsoever, pointing fingers in all directions except theirs.

I hate it. But this hatred is so because I love this crazy, tangled, misbegotten kid, and I am like, “Dude, can’t we move on to the joy and satisfaction of life and learning? How long are you going to fight the pretty-good-time I have planned for you?”

I hate those who have a divided heart.

And that divided heart is the Church as well. And sometimes I get tangled up in the Accuser’s web of deeply dug boundary lines and century-ancient block walls. And more of that rippling joy swelled up from a letter from the Bordens in Africa, the reminder that His Spirit is alive and well, pulsing through His body here all over the earth. They had joined seven hundred others who were part of the 24-7 prayer meeting in Vienna last week…a taste of heaven.

Count Zinzendorf, the founder of the Moravians' 24-7 prayer movement, claimed the motto: "In essentials, unity; in non-essentials, liberty; and in all things, love."

24-7 is uniquely powerful in its unwavering commitment to go out from prayer – to change the world by demonstrating God's love in word and deed. They started the next epoch of 24-7 by offering clothes that had been brought from around the world for Syrian refugees who are coming in their thousands to Austria. Just as in Jesus' prayer in John 17, the love experienced in unity cannot but flow outwards to a world in need of God's grace.

I encourage you to try praying with some people who might pray differently from you. And then maybe try it 24-7 for a couple of days... In St Francis of Assisi's words, and the theme of the Vienna gathering:

"Now, let us begin."

Now let me begin. A new day. New every morning. Great is Thy faithfulness.

A new day. Again.

Again.