Follow or Come?

It struck me last night that there is a difference in following and coming.  I have heard those two words used to denote differences between saved (following Jesus) and unsaved (the invitation to come to Jesus).  However, those two words – follow and come – are both used to describe Jesus’ disciples.  Simon Peter and Andrew hear Jesus say “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.  Immediately they left their nets and followed him.”   After Jesus passes through Galilee, healing and preaching and gathering a crowd, he goes up to a mountain,and  his disciples come to him.

Transitioning from following to coming happens in less than a few paragraphs (Matthew 4:19 – 5:1).  The difference is interesting, worth exploring.

When I think about my experiences of following someone – whether in a car on the road to a destination, or whether on foot on a wooded path, following someone means that I have to keep that person (or that car) in sight.  They may drive or move much faster than I would take the journey, but I have to keep up so I don’t lose my way.  I love word meanings, and this word follow has some interesting uses.  We follow the news, we follow our favorite sports team, we follow people on Twitter – and many other things in life.  What we follow is changing and moving, dynamic, not static.  When what we follow stops moving, we stop following.

So, when following, closeness or intimacy is difficult.  I used to guide people through the streets of New York City on tours.  As a New Yorker, my stride was quite a bit faster than the tour groups I was leading, resulting in my having to slow down often to let them catch up to me.  These people followed me at a distance.  We weren’t walking side by side, getting to know each other, but I was in front, charging ahead, and they were trying to keep up with me.  It may seem, when following, the person you are trailing is just far enough ahead of you to be out of reach.  Out of earshot, out of communication range.

I don’t know if the disciples felt that Jesus was taking them on a whirlwind tour – moving and as he passed through towns and village, teaching, healing, and causing a reaction.  They followed him faithfully through all that activity.  But when he stopped and went up to the mountain for a breather, they came.

Coming means something different than following.  When I come, I go with others.  I come for a visit, I come on a trip.  Coming to someone means that the goal is not to move, but to relate.  While it is an action word, to come means that there is a destination to reach and hang out at.

From this little analysis of following and coming  I gain some insights.  There are times when Jesus is on the move, and we are to follow Him.  There are times when He wants to accomplish something, to do something through my life to bless others, and we are called to follow.  Following make take us through some uncharted wilderness, it may cause us to fight some battles we didn’t choose, it may not be the most comfortable pace – in short, we’re in the thick of it.

There are other seasons, though, when we simply come to Jesus, to relate to Him and receive His comfort.  Jesus speaks to us as he did to the people in the towns and cities, “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”  It’s time for a rest, child, you’ve been following hard and I’m stopping, and I want you to come to Me.  I will give you rest for a while.

We need to come to Jesus so that we might follow Him, and we need to follow Him that we might come to Him. Both following and coming are part of being His disciples.

If you are on this journey of faith, what season are you in today?  Following – or coming?

Chicken Soup Story

It’s easier to hear God’s voice and know you’re in His plan when “the planets align.”  That is, when parallel, unrelated events occur simultaneously and fit together so perfectly that it had to have been orchestrated, it couldn’t just happen.

I had something like that happen today.  It all started with an organic chicken sale a few days ago.  The price was so low and the chicken so organic that I bought one, and invited a friend over for a baked chicken lunch.

Of course, there was a lot of chicken – meat and bone – left over after our lunch.  So, I decided to make homemade chicken soup.  It’s not something I make every day.  In fact, I have never made it before!  I have partaken of my mom’s homemade chicken soup, many times, but even though it was always delicious, I never was curious enough to ask how she made it.  Until now.  I placed a call to my mom, she walked me through the chicken soup-making process, and I set the pot out with the chicken bone, spices, onions, and water to simmer overnight.

I wasn’t able to “finish” the soup until the next night.  I added rice and more vegetables, spices, and chicken, and the result was a delicious, steaming, bowl of chicken soup for dinner.  Yum.  There was plenty of soup, enough for two large containers.  I thought, “maybe I should give some soup away to the church”, but talked myself out of it.  It wasn’t a real meal, and besides, I could freeze it and save it for another meal for myself.

This is where the planets started aligning.  I had no sooner put the soup into the containers, intending to freeze one, that an email arrived from my church, marked urgent.  Someone had been in the hospital and was in need of a meal.  I read further.  She couldn’t have anything but soft food.  Chicken soup would be ideal.

At that moment, I knew.  My soup was not going into the freezer, it was going to the church.  God somehow had this person in mind when I carefully simmered my soup overnight, stirring in the spices and vegetables and rice.  I had no idea my soup would be needed.  But He did.

What did God teach me?  That God is still working all things together for those who love Him.  Using all things for His purpose.  Even chicken soup.  Even me. On a day when nothing seemed right and everything seemed fragmented, this “coincidence” renewed my hope.

His lessons don’t always present as neatly as a package tied up in a bow.  But when it does, my heart overflows with gratitude to my God, who cares for the minute details, right down to what ingredients we put in our soup.

No wonder the Chicken Soup for the Soul book became a best-seller…

A ‘journey’ of clicks to thoughts about Lent

Following links around the internet isn’t always a pointless search.

Here’s how I found this great material.  I wonder, is the journey important anymore?  Or just the destination?

If it is…I joined Twitter.  Then I looked up and followed Cornerstone University (because they have an online ESL program that I’m interested in.)  They posted a tweet that showed up on my twitter page that took me to a facebook page called “CU Chapel Profile.”

What did I find when I got there?  These fresh insights on fasting and feasting, words that blessed my day.  I love this and hope I can follow it’s direction. (There was no indication that this is proprietary material, but if it is, my sincere apologies to the author.)

Fast from judging others;
Feast on Christ dwelling them.

Fast from fear of illness;
Feast on the healing power of God.

Fast from words that pollute;
Feast on speech that purifies.

Fast from discontent;
Feast on gratitude.

Fast from anger;
Feast on patience.

Fast from pessimism;
Feast on optimism.

Fast from negatives;
Feast on alternatives.

Fast from bitterness;
Feast on forgiveness.

Fast from self-concern;
Feast on compassion.

Fast from suspicion;
Feast on truth.

Fast from gossip;
Feast on purposeful silence.

Fast from problems that overwhelm;
Feast on prayer that sustains.

Fast from worry;
Feast on faith.

What about…tomorrow?

“The next moment is as much beyond our grasp, and as much in God’s care, as that a hundred years away. Care for the next minute is just as foolish as care for a day in the next thousand years. In neither can we do anything, in both God is doing everything.” – C.S. Lewis

One of Jesus’ commands that, at first glance, seems comforting is found in Matthew 6.  In fact, it is the same passage that “consider the lilies” comes from.  A couple of years ago, when I started this blog, these words brought me a lot of comfort.  Newly unemployed, I was able to grab on to the words ” do not be anxious for your life” and “do not be anxious about tomorrow” to keep my panic at the insecurity of unemployment at bay.  God, after all, promised to provide for me.

This worked for me like a tonic.  So, why, now that I am consciously taking a look at these words two years later, am I finding so little comfort in them?  The words haven’t changed.  What has changed is how I feel about these words after all this time has gone by.

The difference between listening to Jesus the first time, and listening to him the thousandth time, is a huge chasm.  In other words, the first time the words “do not be anxious for your life” seeped into my life and got a grip on me, it was revelation.  An oasis of calm had quelled my anxious, swirling thoughts about what the future would mean without my job.  That calm remained with me throughout the year, as I consistently referred back to this chapter and Jesus’ words.

My circumstances are so much better than two years ago.  I have been through a year of financial success.  So, why, now, is it harder to obey the words “do not be anxious for your life?”  What happened to the faith that leapt up in my heart when I read those words?

I liken it to the difference between a 5K runner and a marathon runner.  I am (and probably always will be) a 5K runner.   3.1 miles is just fine for me.  I can manage to run entire race.  However, after 5K is over, I spent.  I am certainly not ready for another 23 miles, I haven’t prepared, trained, built up the endurance or put on the attitude that will take me the rest of the distance.

The “do not be anxious for your life” command seems so much more fitting for a 5K run than for a marathon.

It’s more suitable for a year than for 90+ years.  It’s an easy maxim to have floating in my brain on a Sunday, not a crazy Monday. It’s a nice phrase to get one’s attention, momentarily, or to help through a crisis spot, but to practice this over a lifetime?  Really?

Does Jesus expect us to never be anxious about the future?  To continue, day after day, to not be anxious for tomorrow?  We fight this attitude, as there is just too much to worry about.  The news media feeds our anxieties by broadcasting alarming scenarios of how our lives could end up – or end.  Insurance companies thrive because of worry about what the future might bring.  Fear of tomorrow keeps many people stuck and unable to move outside the confines of a small cubicle.  For some, walking outside the door is a big event. What will happen to our society, our country, our world can cause concerns that keep us awake at night.  I know, I have been there.  I am still there at times.  Anxious, afraid, and paralyzed by the dread of tomorrow.  Where will my life take me?  My worries push me to imagine the worst scenarios.

Jesus doesn’t beat around the bush and pretend to understand my anxious attitude.  He gives it to us straight.  “Do not be anxious for your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? ²⁶  Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?”

That last question is rhetorical, by the way.  Take it or leave it, if I am convinced I am valuable to my heavenly Father – more valuable than the birds of the air – my confidence that I will be taken care of by my heavenly Father will quell my anxieties and still my cares.  That helps for the moment.  For the long haul, the word always matters.

What I need to sustain me for a lifetime is the knowledge that the steadfast love of the LORD never ceases, His mercies never end, even when the sunset disappears over the horizon or the calendar ticks off a new year.  There is never a point along the lifespan where God gives up because a person ages out of the system.  He doesn’t decide to leave to focus on a younger life with more years ahead.

All that I have commanded you

The room was very quiet when the guest speaker, Dr. Chris Mitchell from Wheaton College, started to unpack what the Great Commission is about.  Matthew, in verse 20, wrote that Jesus told his disciples to teach the nations to “observe all that I have commanded you.“

It is ironic that Dr. Mitchell was “preaching to the choir.”  Namely, a group of church-going evangelicals, me included, who have listened to countless sermons, read the Bible through, and studied it for years, and were in a class about missions. Yet, I think we all got the obvious point.  Do we know what Jesus has commanded us to do?  Can we name some?

I interpreted my own blank slate and lack of response to his question as a challenge.  I need these words of Jesus to be “right there,” right on top of my mind.  “The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life.” (John 6:63b)  I listen to a lot of things each day, and some days what Jesus has commanded gets a very low priority among newsfeeds, emails, twitter posts, phone calls, facebook posts, and all the other noisy attention-getters in our immediate world.

If we pay more attention and look closer at what He actually said, Jesus’ words will cause an emotional reaction.  Jesus speaks authoritatively and imperatively, he gets attention.  In a world of grey areas, room for debate, and relativism, His style can come across as confrontational.  I think we need to be confronted head-on with the truth.  To look at a statement and wrestle with it – did He really meant that? The answer might be a surprise.  Some of Jesus’ words delight.  Some of them hurt.  Jesus’ words catch people off guard and cause them to make choices, similar to the rich young ruler who left Jesus, very sad at what Jesus had said.

I’m doing these posts because I recognize how casual and familiar I can get with what Jesus said.  I can gloss over His words and not really think about them.  So, expect to see more blog posts that parse into some of these life-giving and spirit-giving words.   When Jesus uses an imperative verb, what does He say?  What does He mean?  What does it mean today, and how do I follow His words?

Comments and blog discussions would be great as these start rolling!

Who Can Compare?

Buying a big ticket item, like a car or a house, can take a long time.  It’s a huge decision, with impact on where we live and what we drive for years, or even decades, so rightfully, we choose carefully.

Bringing home the best

For some, buying a small ticket item, like a pair of gloves or a pocketbook, takes a long time.  I remember trips to the mall with my friends in my youth, when I was “learning the ropes” of shopping.  Buying a sweater could literally take hours, because I walked through all the stores to see what was there, and then compared the sweaters one to another before making a decision to purchase.

Comparing cars, comparing houses, comparing pocketbooks.  Don’t get me wrong, I like shopping, I like comparing and deciding and bringing home a good item.  It doesn’t really matter what the item is, having many options to compare is what we expect in the USA.  Culturally and socially, we like it.  We expect, based on our experience that there are more than enough options to get exactly what we want, whether it be one of 500,000 apps for an iPhone, or one of 100 stores in which to find the perfect winter coat – down to the size, style, color, and shade of color!

Even in designing a blog such as this, there are innumerable choices for design, color, menus, and fonts.  Choices that did not come out of my head, but are just “there,” ready to be looked at and decided upon.  Someone designs these options, and I, in turn, get the chance to shop around, exercise my ability to compare and contrast, and to get the best.

Our thought process fuels much of media and entertainment, politics and sports.  It is interesting to read reviews – people’s opinions – about movies, books, and music, to make it easier to compare and decide which movies, books and music we want to spend our time on.

It makes sense to compare political candidates.  Whether Newt Gingrich, Mitt Romney, or Barack Obama is our next president is important to the future of our nation, and we all know this.  By watching debates, reading articles, reviewing their records,  it becomes clear that one of these presidential candidates is who we want in the leadership role – or don’t – for the next four years.

Comparing, evaluating, sifting through evidence – that is how we are taught to make decisions and to arrive at conclusions.  The direction of culture and availability of choices makes it easier and easier for us to compare and decide.  If we suddenly lost our ability to compare and contrast, to decide between options, we would be less than human, reduced to robots.  Someone who has “run out of options” is in a place none of us envy.

So, by the same standards, there appear to be many, many choices when it comes to choosing God. Some go about their search for a higher power by beginning with their mind’s ability to sift through the options to arrive at the “perfect deity.”  Man Seeks God: My Flirtations with the Divine by Eric Weiner is a roadmap for anyone who wants to try out these different approaches to find God, whoever God may be.  I can see why this is appealing to many, as it makes sense to comparison shop to find the best option for us – it how we make decisions in less significant areas of life. So why not with God?

The answer is simple, so simple that it is easy to miss.

If God is someone we can compare to another, getting a rating depending on my preferences, desires, or the mood I happen to be in, can He be the ultimate being, powerful and true, behind all processes of nature and science, capable of anything at anytime, anywhere?

The true God is so outstanding, so above all comparison, that our ability to compare and make choices means next to nothing.  God is, and there is none like Him.

God is outside the realm of comparison and outside the limits of the human mind.  And that is disconcerting.  For if we cannot pick our God out of a menu of options, then our position is not one of choosing, but in submitting to His choices.

We all instinctively know this, it is written into our DNA.  Yet, how often are we fooled into thinking that we can pick and choose whatever deity fits our preferences.

As the prophet Isaiah, speaking to the nation of Israel, expressed,

To whom then will you liken God?
Or what likeness will you compare with Him? Isaiah 40:18 ESV

To whom then will you compare me,
that I should be like him? says the Holy One.
Lift up your eyes on high and see:
who created these?
He who brings out their host by number,
calling them all by name,
by the greatness of his might,
and because he is strong in power
not one is missing.  Isaiah 40:25, 26 ESV

Coming Out of the Dark

A freak snowstorm hit my area in October, and thousands of people were in the dark – for days.  The lights and power were non-existent in my home for four days, the nights were dark and cold, and it looked like it would stay this way for many more days.

When the lights came back on, it was more than exciting – it was exhilirating, energizing, euphoric.  My strong reaction to the lights coming on surprised me.

The lack of light, the darkness, had created in me a ravenous hunger for light!

When the lights came back on, I felt like dancing.  The normal experience of enjoying light and heat, after having been plunged into darkness, now seemed like an occasion to celebrate.

The short span of darker days that happens in certain time zones between November and December also spans celebrations and customs when the light “returns” on the solstice in December.  After a spat of darkness, we look forward with anticipation to lengthier days, even if that means a minute more of sunlight each day.

Understanding my appetite for light on this physical plane helps me to grasp the implications of God and His ability and willingness to bring light into the darkness of life.  The darkness of my life, the places that I can’t see or function.  Like the psalmist, I can say,

For it is you who light my lamp; the LORD my God lightens my darkness. Psalm 18:28 (ESV)

 

I have to look deeper to gauge my reaction to the LORD turning on the lights in my life.  Do I feel euphoric, like I did after my lamps came on after the utility company restored our power lines?

Or, is it true of me that… the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil.  John 3:19

Lord, may I walk in the light and allow Your light to penetrate my darkness.  Keep me anticipating the light, and never choosing my darkness over your light.  Amen.

The floods recede

Not even 30 days ago, a now-famous hurricane named Irene turned into a tropical storm and left behind a lot of water.  So much water that little brooks turned into raging rivers, and rivers burst out of their normal boundaries.  The water levels advanced, furiously, to the point of swallowing fields and farms, burying roads, and slamming into covered bridges that had stood intact for a century.

a flood in Vermont after Irene

I saw firsthand some of the flood’s effects in my area – scenes of an athletic field transformed into a lake several feet deep, several miles of a paved river walk submerged under water, a road completely impassable, a large hose sucking water out of a school building.  The landscape was totally transformed, sculpted into a new, if temporary, water clogged flood zone.

Amazingly, after only a week, the waters found their way back into their established banks, pulled by some unseen force of gravity from the land they had previously enveloped.  This happened.  We expected this to happen.  If the flood had remained permanently, we would not understand it – it would appear that something was drastically wrong.  The floods recede, they always recede.  Whether it takes a week or a month, eventually the land returns and the waters return to where they belong.

The story of the great worldwide flood is embedded in ancient literature, and especially in the Holy Bible.  The astronomically-proportioned flood that turned the whole earth into an ocean, as related in Genesis, was sent by God to pronounce judgement on the human race, who were wicked.  As Genesis relates, “Every intention of the thoughts of (man’s) heart was only evil continually.” Genesis 6:5

So, the rains came.  Forty straight days.  Click here for the rest of the story. Only Noah and his household, plus the animals in the ark, were preserved from the tremendous waters that engulfed the mountains, killed every person and living thing on the earth, and remained for 150 days.

The story, however, does not end here.  The LORD could have ended it here.  But He chose not to.  The waters eventually recede.

And God made a wind blow over the earth, and the waters subsided. The fountains of the deep and the windows of the heavens were closed, the rain from the heavens was restrained, and the waters receded from the earth continually. At the end of 150 days the waters had abated.  Genesis 8:1-3.

And our floods, eventually, disappear, too.  Noah may have been surprised when land appeared again, but we aren’t.  It is universally expected that the waters will recede.

In the flood’s aftermath, though, there is a reminder of where the waters have been.  A ruined crop of potatoes.  A moldy basement.  A destroyed bridge.  A ruined home.  Or the gray filmy residue hovering on grass, trees and vegetation, marking the progressive rise of dirty water as it claims more territory.

I liken floods, in the figurative sense, to the situations and events that, like rising water, threaten, and do, overwhelm our lives.  The analogy carries so well. Just as the residents of New Orleans scurried to the third floor or roof of their homes, helplessly witnessing the water engulfing their streets and houses, we can try to get out of harm’s way as a flood hits our life.  Yet, it doesn’t change the sense of helplessness and vulnerability we feel in the midst of it.

Also, in a flood, water goes where it is not supposed to.  It’s interesting to observe a river overflow its banks, but there is a sense of the wrongness of this happening.  Similarly, in life, there is that “this is wrong” when tragedy, or injustice, or unexplained illness or death occurs, flooding our senses with angst and despair.  Recently, I have seen seen the flood waters of illness and disease engulf the lives of two friends and their families, and the pain and disorientation it is causing them.

And finally, if we follow this analogy through, the flood waters recede.  It will not always be a flood zone in our lives.

God has made an ancient covenant which He honors to this day.  I will remember my covenant that is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh. And the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh. Genesis 9:15

So we, like Noah and every living thing, will not be destroyed, it is God’s promise.  We can expect to regain a sighting of land and find our bearings after a flood sweeps through our lives.  The waters will recede.  They will leave a mark behind, but they will recede.