The faith factor

As June Hunt concludes Chapter 11 of How to Forgive, she discusses the faith factor as it relates to dealing with suffering.  Ms. Hunt states that whether we succeed in turning blame and bitterness into healing and hope “depends on our willingness to exercise our faith in God, to trust Him, even when we must draw upon every ounce of energy and hold on to the thinnest of threads.”

June notes that sometimes we need to take the apostle Paul’s comforting words of Romans 8:28 by faith:

“We know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.”

It is possible we may never understand God’s higher purpose for our suffering or get to see our pain bear fruit.  As the author points out, that’s easy enough to say when you’re at a safe difference from suffering.  In other words, it’s easier to recite Romans 8:28 than to apply it.

Ms. Hunt emphasizes the importance of our attitude toward God when we’re in the midst of suffering:

“Blaming God for our suffering looks back and focuses on our pain.  Trusting God looks forward and focuses on His plan.”

Diamonds, the hardest know natural substance in the world, take years of intense pressure and high temperatures for the carbon to transform itself into a beautiful, valued gem.  Similarly, the Master Jeweler preplanned how He will use the heat and pressure of injustice in your life- unless the rugged rocks of resentment in your heart interfere with His handiwork, stalling the process of transformation.  June adds:

“As you dig deep to remove those rocks and hand them to the Redeemer, He will cut and craft them into dazzling diamonds.  They then become a shining testimony of His purpose through pain- no longer do they remain diamonds in the rough.”

Today’s question: How does the faith factor support your response to the pain and suffering of your vocation loss?  Please share.

Tomorrow’s blog: “Forgiving ourselves”

The faith factor

Innocent as doves

“Be . . . as innocent as doves.”- Matthew 10:16

“What the world needs is not simply isolated outward deeds but transformed character from within.”- John Ortberg

John Ortberg concludes Chapter 6 of All the Places to Go by discussing the final dimension of wholehearted threshold crossing: “Be . . . innocent as doves.”  Pastor Ortberg observes that doves are to the bird world what sheep are to the animal world.  Doves are considered quite innocent.

John emphasizes that we must allow God to work on our character.  The main thing we take into the world is who we are, not the things we do.  The author reports that when author and teacher Brennan Manning was ordained a priest, he was given this blessing, focusing on the innocence of a child:

“May your expectations all be frustrated,

May all your plans be thwarted,

May all of your desires be withered into nothingness,

That you may experience the powerlessness and poverty of a child and can sing and dance in the love of God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.”

Pastor Ortberg notes that on the third day Jesus went through the final open door that led to death’s defeat and the triumph of hope.  While none of the Gospel writer recorded how Jesus crossed that threshold, John believes Jesus didn’t limp or trudge wearily.  John thinks Jesus hopped, and may be hopping still!

Today’s question: Following your vocation loss, how is your character being transformed from within?  Please share.

Tomorrow’s blog: “The truth about you”

 

 

 

Innocent as doves

Braced for the future

“Therefore, as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.”- Colossians 2:6-7

“The man who moves a mountain begins by carrying away small stones.”- Confucius

My freshman year at Luther High School South in Chicago brought new academic as well as orthodontic challenges.  Throughout my grade school years my front teeth angled outward so severely that using them to bite an apple was futile.  Additionally, after my remaining baby teeth were pulled, a 1/4″- 1/2″ gap existed between my upper/lower canines and molars.  Incremental tightenings during the next several years straightened my front teeth and eliminated the gap (finished product on display in senior picture).  The change was so dramatic that my orthodontist once took my before/after molds to an orthodontic convention.  I vividly remember the day my braces came off and I was fitted with a retainer.  On my way home I made one purchase at the neighborhood IGA- a pack of Adam’s Sour Orange gum!

Those small, imperceptible adjustments transformed the alignment of my teeth, anchoring them in place.  I was braced for the future through consistent application of orthodontic techniques.  As Proverbs 21:5 (The Message) states: “Careful planning puts you ahead in the long run; hurry and scurry puts you farther behind.”

Jeff Manion devotes Chapter 14 of The Land Between to the concept of incremental growth, defined as the “kind of gradual growth [that] often occurs as a result of a consistent spiritual diet accompanied by a responsive heart.”  Such gradual growth is capable of producing powerful life changes.  Incremental growth:

1.  works to fend off spiritual drift

2.  steadily aligns our hearts with God’s heart

3.  enables us to respond to God’s transformational work with trust and cooperation forged through daily obedience

When the crashing waves of vocation loss threaten to sweep us away, these gradual changes in our faith sustain and transform us, as Pastor Manion writes:

“It is in saying yes to God again and again when little seems at stake that we prepare our hearts to say yes to God when everything is at stake.  In this way, steady, incremental growth prepares the heart for extreme disruption- not just to weather these seasons but, in the midst of them, to be transformed.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JzqhUYaAI78

 

 

 

Braced for the future

Point-blank questions

When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, he asked him, “Do you want to get well?”- John 5:6

Mark Batterson begins Chapter 11 (“Self-Fulfilling Prophecies”) of The Grave Robber by reporting that, in November of 2004, a group of elite medical researchers met at Rockefeller University in New York City.  They ultimately determined that most of our health problems are caused by factors under our control.

Most of our major health problems, Pastor Batterson notes, could be solved by making a few minor changes.  However, a wish or a whim won’t result in lasting change.  We have to want to change.  Mark offers his working definition of want: “the sanctified desire and matching discipline to do what needs to be done, no matter how hard it is or how long it takes.”

Jesus elevated formulating the right question to an art form.  Some of Jesus’ most poignant ones are the point-blank questions.  One was the catalyst for His third miracle.  Jesus didn’t assume the invalid really wanted to get well.  Only someone who wants help truly can be helped.

Mark points out that it’s easy for us to become accustomed to our crutches.  Our situation won’t change if we keep sitting on our security blanket, choosing safety over transformation.  Yet, every blessing from God comes with the responsibility to steward that blessing.

Today’s question: Following your vocation loss, what crutches or security blankets do you need to throw away?  Please share.

Tomorrow’s blog: “The law of requisite variety”

Point-blank questions

Holy confidence

“Are not two sparrows sold for a penny?  Yet not one of them will fall to the ground outside your Father’s care.  And even the very hairs of your head are numbered.  So don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.”- Matthew 10:29-31

“My concern is not whether God is on our side; my greatest concern is to be on God’s side.”- Abraham Lincoln

As Mark Batterson concludes Chapter 7 of The Grave Robber, he states that Ethiopia has a long history of Christianity because Philip unquestioningly obeyed God, encountering an Ethiopian eunuch on a desert road.   God only told Philip to take a specific road- not what would happen or why he was heading toward Gaza.

Pastor Batterson states that’s where most of us get stuck, because we want God to reveal the second step before we take the first.  To take that step of faith, we need holy confidence.  In ancient Israel, a sparrow was the cheapest ticket item in the food market.  The Father’s concern for such little birds shows He cares about every minute detail of His creation.

Mark emphasizes we’re born on a cosmic battlefield between good and evil.  Reality is defined by our reaction to adversity, as Mark notes:

“You cannot control your circumstances, but you can live with holy confidence, knowing all things work together for good to those who love God and are called according to His purposes.”

Our hurt can become someone else’s healing, our worst day transformed into our best day.

Today’s question: What Scriptures of Christian authors have strengthened your holy confidence in God?  Please share.

Tomorrow’s blog: “God Speed”

Holy confidence

One nudge

In Chapter 6 (“One Nudge”) of The Grave Robber, Mark Batterson observes that in most instances we miss the miracle that is right at our fingertips because we’re too close to the situation.  Most miracles are initiated by a nudge, most effectively from someone with whom we have a relationship of trust.  Yet, it’s easier to believe God for a miracle for others than it is to believe God for a miracle for ourselves.  We need a nudge from a fellow believer.

Mark adds that, whatever situation we find ourselves in, God has us exactly where He wants us- even if it’s not where we want to be.  Mark cautions us not to “look for the exit before you look for an opportunity.”  God is setting the stage for us.  So when the Holy Spirit give us a nudge, we need to obey it.  If we don’t, we’ll never know what we missed.  If we do obey, the Wild Goose chase begins.  Pastor Batterson notes that Celtic Christians called the Holy Spirit An Geadh-Glas, or “Wild Goose.”

Discerning those small nudges is the first key to experiencing the miraculous.  For the wedding couple at Cana, the third day of their wedding had to be the defining moment of their lives.  When they  reminisced about their wedding reception, Jesus’ miracle of turning their water into wind jogged not only their memory, but also their faith.  That is what miracles do.

Today’s question: During your desert, transformational journey, what nudges have you received from the Holy Spirit?  Please share.

Tomorrow’s blog: “Divine appointments”

One nudge

Lost within Your beauty

“. . . you have put off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator.”- Colossians 3:9-10

“You are never too old to set another goal or to dream another dream.”- C. S. Lewis

Opened in 1925, the Crystal Garden in Victoria, British Columbia, was modeled after other ‘glass palaces’ of that era.  A multi-purpose amusement center where all levels of society mingled, the Crystal Garden offered the largest salt water swimming pool in the British Empire, an art gallery, two full ballrooms, and a restaurant among its amenities.  By 1971, however, the Crystal Garden closed, the last remnant of a bygone age.  Nine years later it reopened, transformed into a conservation center and tropical garden that was home to numerous species of birds, including these striking hyacinth macaws, the largest parrots in the world.  In 2009, the Crystal Garden was repurposed as an extension of the Victoria Conference Centre.

The Crystal Garden has embraced revisioning and revitalization multiple times throughout its ninety-year existence- growth essential to maintaining its viability.  “The possibility of transformation,” John Ortberg writes, “is the essence of hope.”  To our limited vision, it appears that nothing can grow in the desert landscape of our vocation loss.  Author Jeff Manion counters that viewpoint by stating that desert soil has the greatest potential for producing life-altering faith.  The Land Between is the ideal climate for spiritual growth.

Our vocation is not the foundation of our identity.  C. S. Lewis states that we truly become ourselves when we let God take us over.  It is only when we give ourselves us to God that we begin to have a real personality of our own.  This is achieved not through a static existence, but through spiritual growth.  John Ortberg observes that all living creatures require change, adaptation, and challenge.  Spiritual growth is not a part of life.  Rather, every moment of life is an opportunity to learn from our Lord- to be lost within Your beauty:

“But to grow spiritually means to live increasingly as Jesus would do in our unique place- to perceive what Jesus would perceive if he looked through our eyes, to think what he would think, to feel what he would feel, and therefore to do what he would do.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g1diyWXT59Q

 

 

Lost within Your beauty

Ready to be offered

“We cannot see God’s plan when we can see only our pain.”- Sara Horn

Sara Horn concludes Chapter 2 of How Can I Possibly Forgive? by stating that when Joseph chose to let go of the difficult circumstances that brought him to Egypt, he was able to see God’s plan.  Joseph grabbed on and trusted God with everything he had.

When we are intentional in our focus on what God wants with us and how He wants to use us, we don’t worry so much about what offends us or how small slights or hurtful words affect us.  Oswald Chambers writes in My Utmost for His Highest about painting a picture of ourselves on the altar, which means:

” . . . burning and purification and insulation for one purpose only, the destruction of every affinity that God has not started and of every attachment that is not an attachment in God.  You do not destroy it, God does. . . . After this way of fire, there is nothing that oppresses or depresses.  When the crisis arises you realize things cannot touch you as they used to do.”

As we come to believe this and trust that God has us in His hand and is with us, we can wake up each day “ready to be offered.”

Today’s question: What defines your thinking at this time, God’s plan or your plan?  Please share.

Tomorrow’s blog: “Seasons of rumble”

Ready to be offered

We all, like sheep

“We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. “- Isaiah 53:6 (NIV)

“Not until we are lost do we begin to understand ourselves.”- Henry David Thoreau

During my pre-downsizing, elementary teaching days at Ebenezer and Northwest Lutheran Schools in Milwaukee, no respectable Mr. Henning classroom was complete without he requisite class pet- typically a golden hamster.  One year my choice of living environment was a plastic mansion, complete with tubes and assorted attachments, including a penthouse sleeping area.  Not content with living in the lap of hamster luxury, our hamster chewed his way to “freedom.”  Reasoning that, sooner or later, hunger would override adventure, I strategically placed cups of food around the school.  When the class hamster took the bait several days later, he was embraced (aka ‘captured’) by his benefactor and returned to the classroom fold.

Jeff Manion describes the Land Between as a metaphor for the undesired transitions we experience in life, a middle ground where we can be transformed and established in our connection to God.  Discouragement comes with the territory, as Pastor Manion explains:

“Traveling through the Land Between, we often have to battle discouragement.  Sometimes deep discouragement.  The wilderness is a place where even the most hopeful must fend off feelings of impatience, futility, or despair.”

The issue isn’t that we have those feelings, but what we do once we have acknowledged them.  While we may not have control over our circumstances, we do have control over our reactions.  We will choose something: our way- depression, seething rage, revenge, retail therapy- or God’s way.

During this transitional time, we need to recognize that our souls are very vulnerable and that there is a fine line between honesty and complaint.  While complaint is turning away from God, candidly pouring out our heart to God is turning toward God.  Jeff Manion expresses the honest cry of the overwhelmed: “I can’t take this anymore.  It’s too heavy for me.”

That’s precisely where we need to be.  As we trust God, we develop perseverance and our faith will grow.  Max Lucado offers these words of encouragement:

“Don’t see your struggle as an interruption to life, but as preparation for life.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dNmWgQp1_iE

 

 

 

 

 

We all, like sheep

Benefit of the doubt

Today Sara Horn concludes her study of the Seven Habits of Highly Forgiving People in Chapter 2 of How Can I Possibly Forgive?.

4.  A highly forgiving person lives by the Golden Rule.  By reminding ourselves that we fail God daily and need His forgiveness, we become cognizant of our need to offer that same grace to others.

5.  A highly forgiving person meets with God regularly through prayer and Bible study.  We can make time for prayer and Bible study when we first make time with God a priority.  Sara emphasizes that highly forgiving people apply Romans 12:2 on a daily basis: “Do not be conformed to this age, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may discern what is the good, pleasing, and perfect will of God.”

6.  A highly forgiving person offers the benefit of the doubt to others when their actions are harmful or disappointing.  Sara points out that the temptation is to always assume the worst.  As we offer the benefit of the doubt to others, we remind ourselves that every one of us is human and mistakes can happen.

7.  A highly forgiving person consistently prays for other people.  When we pray for other people, especially those who rub us the wrong way, we are (1) bringing someone else before our heavenly Father and (2) softening our hearts towards people and situations.

Today’s question: Which of the Seven Habits of Highly Forgiven People have you already incorporated into your Christian walk?  Which habits still need work?  Please share.

Tomorrow’s blog: “The battle is not yours”

 

Benefit of the doubt

Joyful confidence in God

As John Ortberg concludes Chapter 16 of Soul Keeping, he notes that Walter Brueggeman speaks of “psalms of disorientation.”  The are psalms in which the soul is disoriented, God appears to be absent, and darkness is winning.  The psalmist vents and boils over at God rather than demonstrating a polite piety- an honest faith.

John speaks of his own darkest time some years ago, when his greatest disappointment was deep and unfixable.  He questioned his calling.  John contacted Dallas Willard, eager for his answer.  Dallas responded:

“This will be a test of your joyful confidence in God.”

Pastor Ortberg cites nineteenth-century writer Frederick Ferber (Growth in Holiness, 1854), who described the patience that leads to joyful confidence:

“In the spiritual life God chooses to try our patience first of all by His slowness.  He is slow; we are swift and precipitate (rushing headlong or rapidly onward).  It is because we are but for a time, and He has been for eternity. . . . Wait and He will come.  He never comes to those who do not wait.  He does not go their road.  When He comes, go with Him, but go slowly; fall a little behind; when He quickens His pace, be sure of it, before you quicken yours.  But when He slackens, slacken at once; and do not be slow only, but silent, very silent, for He is God.”

As John concludes, “the soul is a ship that needs an anchor.”

Today’s question: How have you developed joyful confidence in God following your vocation loss?  Please share.

Tomorrow’s blog: “Dealing with conflict”

Joyful confidence in God