A Unique Encounter

This whole thing started one Sunday morning as I was spending some extended time with God out on my deck. I re-visited a question I have asked God for several years now. “Father, would you tell me a joke?”

Now, I know that sounds kind of weird, but it dawned on me one day that he really loves to have conversation with me, and over the years we have had some doozies. So the thought occurred to me to ask him to tell me a joke.

I’ve never heard Him respond to my request until this one Sunday morning. He said, “When you least expect it I will. After all, jokes work best when they catch you by surprise.”

So, with some degree of expectation, I dropped the idea from my mind and continued on in my time alone with him. It became a beautiful time together as I was listening to a Pandora channel I set up that is mostly older, classic contemporary Christian music. You know, 2^nd Chapter of Acts, Keith Green, Phil Keaggy. It was taking me back to a time when my heart was fresh from being re-born and it was so good.

In the midst of all this he said, “As you look out over your back yard, tell me what you see.” I responded, “I see leaves, green ones hanging on for life, and brown ones all over the yard.”

He said, “Every leaf that falls to the ground does so under my watchful care. I am there in the midst of every circumstance relative to that leaf falling. I operate the same way in every circumstance of your life. I am gleefully at work, causing all these things to work together for your good and my glory.”

About 20-30 minutes later, I was listening as The Coloring Song by Petra came on Pandora and there was a sense in which I felt like I was about to get surprised. I thought maybe I would hear the joke. Out of the blue I happened to look up and saw a single brown leaf seem to appear out of nowhere and drop slowly and majestically to the ground. One brown leaf. That was all. At this exact moment the words of the song were, “Brown is the color of the autumn leaves, when the winter comes to the barren leaves.”

At first I just started laughing. This was far too coincidental to be a coincidence. I was so surprised and filled with joy that the God who rules the universe would stop and take a moment to cause a single leaf to fall and simultaneously engineer the “random” programming at Pandora to play this one lyric at the exact same time.

Then there was a sense that maybe there was more to this. So I went out into the yard and picked up the leaf. As I looked at it, I could see that it seemed to represent a life. There was a central stem that had been connected to the tree, and it ran straight up the middle of the leaf. Out of this stem were branches, spreading out and covering the entire leaf.

God seemed to say to me, “Your whole life is like this. From the root of your life goes a worldwide impact. You speak to someone and they are encouraged. They move on and the impact of your words flows through them to others. It can potentially flow to the other side of the earth. But keep in mind that it flows from the essence of who you are…my beloved. Your life is an occasion…rise to it.”

It was such a good reminder that I don’t have to plant a great church, start a great ministry, or write a best-seller to have a huge impact on the world. I just have to be me, truly me, the new me that He created, and He will cause the impact that He desires.

So later that morning as I was looking at the leaf, it dawned on me that the image I saw on the leaf was the same image as the tree itself. The stem was like the tree’s trunk, with branches spreading out all over. That leaf was an image bearer of the one who brought it into existence and gave it life! In addition, as my wife pointed out, it was an oak leaf.

Just as Isaiah 61 says, we are his righteous oaks, bearing his image in this world. What a wonderful way to be reminded of this by the one who loves me so well.

I’m still waiting on the joke…

Jesus Shows Up At A Theme Park

I used to think the Christian life was primarily an exercise in sin management, similar to the old fashioned Whack-A-Mole game. You remember it, don't you? The console has 7 holes, out of which mole heads randomly pop up. Your goal is to whack them with a mallet before they go back into hiding. In the same way, I used to go through each day watching out for "sins" to pop up. When they did, I would try to shove them under the surface before anyone could see them.

The Christian journey is intended to be much more than a game of sin management. It can be compared to someone trying to enjoy a day at Universal Studios in Orlando, Florida. Imagine you are there right now. You find yourself in one of those cheap game rooms, filled with all sorts of electronic games. You have a pocket full of tokens and you’re walking around the room, looking for a good game to play. The first one you see lets you race a car on the Nurburgring in Germany. Another lets you fly an F-18 Superhornet into the heart of enemy territory and destroy a major communications facility. But then something catches your attention. It’s an old fashioned Whack-A-Mole game. This seems really lame compared to the other games in the room, but something deep inside compels you to go give it a whirl.

The next thing you know, moles are popping up everywhere and you are whacking away like a mad man. But as you’re whacking, you notice something unusual. Each mole that pops up has a name, and the names are the sins that are constantly popping up in your life. Anger, envy, pride, jealousy…they’re popping up over and over and you are trying to whack them and get them to go away. All of a sudden, you sense someone standing next to you watching. You turn and see Jesus!

At first you’re startled and say, “Jesus! What are you doing here?”

With a look of bewilderment he replies, “Watching you whack moles.”

All of a sudden, jealousy pops up and you quickly turn to whack it. Then anger and pride. And again…bam! Bam! Then lust pops up. You shout, “Jesus, don’t look!” BAM!

Jesus just shakes his head and says, “Why are you doing that?”

With shame written all over your face you say, “Well, I don’t want you to see these things. I know how displeased you are when you see all this.”

Jesus starts to grin, and gives you a big “I’ve got this covered” wink. He walks around to the back of the game, reaches down, and unplugs it. He turns back to you and says, “That should take care of that. Now what do you want to do?”

You are simply dumbfounded and say, “Is that all there is to it?”

He says, “Well, no, not completely. I know how these machines work and sometimes, even with the power turned off, the moles still pop up. It’s what Paul referred to in Romans as the deeds of the flesh. You see, your flesh has died, but the deeds of the flesh still pop up every now and then. It’s just like when a person’s body twitches, or even sits up after they have died. Reminds me of that Ray Stevens song…I ain’t sittin’ up with the dead no more since the dead started sittin’ up too!”

He starts singing that tune, snapping his fingers in rhythm, and you say, “Jesus! Stop! This isn’t funny!”

He replies, “Oh. Sorry. Sometimes I just get carried away with humor. Back to business. Now what I want to know is why you are spending your time here, whacking moles, when you and I could be out riding the Hulk together? Did you know that thing launches you up at over 40 miles an hour, and then you go screaming along the track, upside down and rightside up, until you almost black out? Man is it fun…sure beats whacking moles!”

You are just stunned. “Are you for real? I’m standing here trying to deal with all the sin in my life and you just want to go out and have fun? Incredible!”

And he looks you straight in the face, and with tears in his eyes, and an incredibly gentle smile on his face, he says, “My child, I’ve already dealt with the sins in your life. And if they still pop up every now and then, you and I can deal with that together. But I came to do more than just deal with your sin. I came to give you life. I want to see your heart come alive. Nothing would bring me more joy than for the rest of the day, you and I go enjoy all these wonderful rides together. How about it, can you leave the moles behind and just come enjoy the day with me?”

And that is the invitation to you and me. He doesn’t say to just ignore your sins. But he does say it is by walking with Him, walking in His Spirit, that we will put to death the deeds of the flesh. His laws have been written on a new heart that has been deeply planted within us. His greatest longing and His loving invitation is to walk in fellowship with him. The last thing he wants is for us to be so pre-occupied in sin management, whacking the moles, that we miss the joy of simple intimacy with him. 

The Circle of Love

I referred to this idea in an earlier post. The whole point of this circle is to graphically show what is central to walking in relationship with our Father. Everything starts with His love for us. When we experience His love, we respond with our love for Him. Our love for Him is directly proportional to our experience of His love for us.

When we respond to Him in love, the natural result is obedience from the heart. Or, said another way, genuine love will always manifest itself with actions. This is a far cry from the outward obedience we may exhibit at times, the kind the Pharisees were masters at. It is the same obedience I demonstrate to my wife because of my love for her. It is not to gain her approval, but is an outward response of my inward love for her.

As we continue in obedience, we continue to experience His love, which starts the cycle all over again. The problem is that most of us either start out or dwell somewhere other than at the 12 o'clock position. We try hard to love God, or we try to obey Him, generally out of a sense of duty, or fear, or even guilt. And we land at the 3, 6 or 9 o'clock positions in hopes of experiencing His love. This is a performance based Christianity. Even loving Him can be performance based, if it doesn't originate with His love for us.

The wonderful invitation of the Gospel is to come find and live in the Father's love (His affection and delight) for us. If we find ourselves living in an area of disobedience, the key is not to try to change our ways and start living obediently again. How many times I've done that, crying out to God, "Okay, this time I mean it. I'm not going down that path again. I am going to obey!" And then I fall again.

And the whole time He is saying, "John, if you only knew how much I love you. If you only knew what a treasure and delight you are to Me. I know you failed...I knew you would. But My love for you has not changed. Won't you please just come sit on my lap, rest your head on My chest and live in My love for you? You'll see that your life will change from the inside out when you truly enjoy living out of My love for you."

Now THAT is freedom, and THAT is learning to live loved!

Seeking Andrea

Sometime back in the 1990s, while our family was attending church, I was working at a sign-up table in the hallway while the rest of the family was in Sunday school. Our habit each Sunday was that the two boys, who were older, would leave their classes, meet up somewhere and go get my daughter Andrea, who was too young to make her way back to my Sunday School class on her own. The plan this particular Sunday was that after the three of them came to our class, Pam would bring them all to where I was working the sign-up table.

I saw the two boys coming, giggling and saying, "Andrea is lost!" Then I looked up and saw the expression on Pam's face and immediately went into crisis mode. Pam informed me that while the boys were walking Andrea to class, she got lost in the crowd and they could not locate her anywhere. Pam had informed the deacons, who had a communication system using walkie-talkies, and the whole group of deacons throughout the church were searching for Andrea.

You can imagine all the thoughts going through my head. Someone kidnapped her, or she just got lost and wandered off into the new construction area and is now hurt. All I knew was that I had to find her, and there was nothing and no one who could distract me. I even thought that if the pastor of the church were to stop me to talk I would have responded, "Not now, my daughter is lost and all I can do is search for her". I walked through the halls, ignoring everyone, eyes focused only on finding my daughter, my precious, lost daughter. Nothing else mattered at this point.

After walking the entire circumference of the church, I made it back to the sign-up table and was informed that the deacons had found her. Someone realized she was lost and graciously took her back to her Sunday School class. In just a few moments she and Pam came walking up to the sign-up table. I could tell by the look on her face that she felt a little guilty, thinking she might be in trouble. But all I could do was pick her up and hold her close in my arms, and just love her. I was so grateful that my daughter was found!

As I pondered the events of that morning, I was reminded of God's call on us to seek after Him with all our heart. And it became a picture to me of how we are to cast aside all distractions and set our heart on seeking Him, above all other things.

But then one day, as I was driving to work, again pondering this whole idea of seeking Him, it was as if God said to me, "John, you have missed the most important point here! What you need to realize is, this is the way I have been seeking you! You are just like your lost daughter, and I am constantly seeking after you. Nothing ever distracts Me in this. My love for you drives Me to chase after your heart 24/7. I am never NOT seeking after you. You are that much of a treasure to me. You are the one lost sheep out of the man's flock of 100. You are the woman's lost coin. You are the prodigal son and I sit on the porch every moment of every day, looking for the first sign of your return. You have no idea of the depth of My intense love for you."

I was overcome as I sat in traffic, waiting for the light to turn green. The God of the universe, the creator of all that exists loves me and seeks after me! Wow! All I can do is respond with love and gratitude. I even tend to come back to him like Andrea did me, with feelings of guilt, hoping He won't be mad. And His only response is to wrap His loving arms around me and hold me close to Himself, and just love me.

This is from Ephesians 3:14-19, in The Message:
"My response is to get down on my knees before the Father, this magnificent Father who parcels out all heaven and earth. I ask him to strengthen you by his Spirit—not a brute strength but a glorious inner strength—that Christ will live in you as you open the door and invite him in. And I ask him that with both feet planted firmly on love, you'll be able to take in with all followers of Jesus the extravagant dimensions of Christ's love. Reach out and experience the breadth! Test its length! Plumb the depths! Rise to the heights! Live full lives, full in the fullness of God."

Who Are You?

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One of my favorite songs from the classic rock era is “Who Are You” by The Who. Apart from being a great rock classic, it asks a very important question. And most Christians, especially men, are constantly trying to answer this question themselves without coming to grips with the truth of who they truly are. We are constantly trying to define ourselves by what we do, how successful we are, how our family looks, or even what ministry we are leading or what title/position we hold in our church or ministry. And we miss the joy and freedom that comes from knowing who we really are. As Brennan Manning says, we are Abba's child. We are the beloved of the Creator of the universe. We are loved. This truth needs to sink in and take root in our hearts. When it becomes a core conviction of your life, it has a powerful effect.

Look at Jesus. Just after His baptism, His Father made a public pronouncement of His identity. He said, "This is My beloved son, in whom I am well pleased". Jesus, after hearing this Himself, and after being affirmed publicly by His Father, went into the wilderness for His 40 day fast where He was tempted by the devil. And, of course, Satan's main line of attack was on Jesus' identity. "If you are the son of God..." was the constant badgering. But because Jesus knew who He was, He could stand up to the temptation and walk in freedom.

In John 13:3-5, we see the importance of knowing your identity again in the life of Jesus.

"Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into His hands, and that He had come forth from God, and was going back to God, rose from supper, and laid aside His garments; and taking a towel, He girded Himself about. Then He poured water into the basin, and began to wash the disciples' feet, and to wipe them with the towel with which He was girded."

Jesus was free to stoop at the disciples' feet and serve them, in order to teach them the importance of serving others, because He knew His true identity. He knew His place in the Father's heart and He knew His role in the kingdom. He wasn't self-absorbed in creating his own identity, living for the affirmation and praise of other people. He knew the truth and in that truth He was free indeed.

This takes us back to the original premise for this blog. What does it look like to live loved? To live your life knowing you are the beloved and knowing that every moment of every day, you are loved by the Father? As I ponder this in light of my own life, I realize that when hope seems to fade for something I am seeking from the Father, or when my life circumstances go in the wrong direction, I am so often hit with the thought, "God doesn't love me...or God doesn't seem to care...or even, God, who/where are you?" But I am learning to count certain things as true. I'm learning to trust Him when He says He loves me. This can be a very difficult road to travel, but as I am learning, it is well worth it.

If I can walk into every encounter with another human being, knowing I am loved, knowing I am my Father's beloved child, I will be free to love and serve them without any personal agenda of my own. I won't need affirmation or praise, I won't need to be thanked, and I won't even need to see success from my efforts. Now that's freedom!

John, the disciple whom Jesus loves

The Apostle John intrigues me. I was reading his gospel one day and kept noticing he referred to himself several times in the third person, and he used a phrase that at first bothered me. He referred to himself as “the disciple whom Jesus loved”. At first I thought, "how arrogant". You know, “well there are these eleven disciples…those guys over there…and then there is me, the one He loves”. But I started doing some research on John in my Bible software and discovered some things I had never seen before.

Throughout the other gospels, there is continual mention of the inner three disciples, those closest to Jesus. It usually went like this: Peter, James, the son of Zebedee, and John his brother. Peter always gets first billing. He was the star! James always comes next (except for two times), and is also identified as the son of Zebedee. Oh, and then there is John. I see an identity crisis in the making here! Even being one of the three people closest to Jesus, he could have seen himself the way others had so often described him..."oh, and also John". Always the last one mentioned.

Of every reference to the disciple John in the four gospels, only once is he mentioned without reference to Peter and James, and only twice was he not mentioned last in the list. In every other reference, he was mentioned last, and not even as the son of his father, but simply as James’ brother. It may be well to also note that these three were partners in a fishing business, and even there John seems to be the last guy on the list.

So I’m thinking this guy probably struggles with his own significance. He could have been one of those people who have such strong needs for affirmation that they are constantly seeking the approval of others. And yet, you really don’t see this in his writings. What you see is a level of humility that is demonstrated in his lack of ever referring to himself directly. He always refers to himself in the third person, and often describes himself as the disciple whom Jesus loved. That is quite an identity to latch onto! He somehow got past all the identity issues thrust upon him from his life circumstances and found himself to be one who is loved by Jesus. He didn't refer to himself as one of the inner three, or the son of Zebedee, or even the brother of James. He was simply a disciple whom Jesus loved. That’s all he needed to be. That identity provided him all the security and significance he needed.

I would love to know what happened to John that brought him to grips with this identity.

Learning to live loved involves learning to trust the good heart of your Father. He stated very clearly through Jeremiah, "For I know the plans that I have for you, plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope". When Paul was encouraging Timothy to join him in suffering for the sake of the gospel, he said, "for I know whom I have believed and I am convinced that He is able to guard what I have entrusted to Him until that day". Paul not only knew the love of his Father, but also His power. He was able to trust His good heart in doing what was best.

Last night I was watching a documentary on the life of Keith Green. Now for all you youngsters out there, Keith Green was one of the forerunners of contemporary Christian music. He came to Christ in the early '70s as part of a marvelous move of God's Spirit commonly referred to as "the Jesus movement". He was one of the most powerful voices of the gospel in those days and his legacy still lives on today.

In the documentary, much time is given to his pre-Christ days. He ran away from home at age 15, was caught up in the free sex and drugs of the day, and by most accounts was living about as far away from Jesus as he could. As I watched the documentary, I couldn't help thinking how painful those days must have been for his parents and those who loved him. But I also kept catching myself thinking, "This is amazing how eventually he came to Christ and had a powerful impact in advancing the kingdom all over the world". It didn't bother me much to see the videos of his early days because "I knew the end of the story".

I wonder how much peace and joy we miss when we focus on the negative circumstances in our life instead of trusting the good heart of our Father to intervene in our situations. He knows the end of the story, and He is not frightened by the things He sees going on today. In fact, I think He takes delight in watching our current events because He knows what victories are coming our way. It's kind of like watching a rerun of your favorite football team when the opposing team scores a touchdown to go ahead with less than a minute in the game. Since it's a rerun, you know the outcome of the game, so even though you see the opposing fans falling all over themselves with delight, you are inwardly excited because you know what is coming next.

Now, we may not know the specifics of what is coming next in our lives, but we do know the heart of our Father, and we also know He is in control, and will cause all things to work together for good to those who love Him and who are called according to His purposes. So looking at whatever is causing distress in your heart today, you can lift your eyes above it and wrap yourself in the eternal, unquenchable, and penetrating love of your Father and press on.

Live loved!