Waiting upon the Lord

St. Therese of Liseux once compared herself to a rubber ball, a toy of the Child Jesus.  She said that if it pleased Him to pick her up and play with her, then it also pleased her, but if it pleased Him to ignore her and allow her to remain hidden in the corner for long periods of time, that also pleased her.

Therese's image helps us with the concept of being "servants" of Christ.  It is hard to look around at all the good being done by others and to compare what we are doing, which often looks like nothing.  But waiting upon the Lord is also service, as long as we remain attentive and receptive.  The tools hanging in my garage are extremely important to my daily work in the garden, but I do not use every tool every day.  I choose the right one for the task of the day, and I do not need to have a chorus of "Choose me, choose me" greet me when I open the garage in the morning.  I choose the one I want and need to accomplish my plan for the day. 

On the other hand, when I need a particular tool, I do not want to see that the tool has become rusty and useless; it needs to remain useful and ready no matter how long it has been since I've last used it. 

I think this is what it means to be a "servant of the Lord"---to remain ready and open to His plans for the day:  Thy kingdom come; I'm waiting to be of use to the king at His command.

Radiation

The love of God is continuous and indivisible.  It radiates from on high, through our prayer and contemplation, straight into action, as a single love for God, for mankind, and for the entire creation.
                      ---paraphrased from a reading on Prayer by Hans Urs von Balthasar

As Jesus said about the Holy Spirit in John 3, we cannot tell where the love of God comes from, or where it is going.  Once it touches us, it begins to flow through us, outward to the people and the world around us.  Far from making us want to retire from the world, the love of God propels us forward with a new kind of energy that does not come from us, but from the Spirit dwelling within us. 

We see in ourselves a new "thing;" a new compassion for others, even for those we do not know.  We experience a new kind of openness to other people, now that we are no longer afraid of being hurt.  Everything becomes "one:" our prayer, our daily tasks, our gifts, our desires and energies---all coming from God and returning to His kingdom on earth.  We receive from God everything we need for our mission---the wisdom, the practical knowledge, and the desire to accomplish what He has sent us to do. 

The love of God sends us forth; we do not go of ourselves, but from Him.  Jesus said, "As the Father has sent me, so also I send you."  And occasionally, we catch a glimpse of what that means:  we "happen" to be in the right place at the right time; we suddenly know something we did  not know we knew; we are motivated to give a gift we had no previous intention of giving.  The Spirit of God moves in us and through us to repair and reconcile the world to God.

Knowing the radiation that comes from God through us, our first and most important task of each day should be to come into contact with the Source of that love which alone has the power and energy to transform not only our own lives but the lives of those around us.

One Bird Watching

When no one listens

To the quiet trees,

When no one notices

The sun in the pool;

When no one feels

The first drop of rain,

Or sees the last star;

Or hails the first morning

Of a giant world

Where the peace begins

and rages end:

One bird sits still

Watching the work of God:

One turning leaf,

Two falling blossoms,

Ten circles upon the pond.

I know of no greater pleasure in life than to sit still and watch God at work.  He has opened my eyes to His wonders, my ears to His voice, my mouth to speak what I see and hear.  Among all women, I too am truly blessed!



What is Christianity?

And what, exactly, is Christianity at its core, but the experience of Christ being formed in us by the action of the Holy Spirit?  The experience of Mary at Nazareth is the starting place for each Christian, no matter how long we have been "in church."  At some point, the question comes..."Will you allow Me to enter?"  And from that moment, we are no longer our own.

Once I had yielded to the action of the Holy Spirit, Who can be grieved by our indifference but Who cannot be controlled by the force of our wills or our thoughts, I began immediately to fear that I would "lose" the Holy Spirit by gradually losing interest and drifting away.  I questioned the person who had originally prayed for me to receive the Spirit.  His answer reassured me:  You do not "have" the Holy Spirit; He now has you---and He's not letting go.  You may choose to walk away, but He does not leave you at the corner, saying, 'I'll be here when you return.' Instead, He goes right around the corner with us, walking all the way through all of our journeys.  And God has more options to bring us back than you can ever imagine.

The role of the Holy Spirit is the same in us as it was in Mary---to form in us the Image of the Father, Who is Jesus.  There is nothing else.  Jesus said, You will do even greater works than I did, because I go to the Father.  It is always and everywhere the Spirit of Jesus living in us, expressing through each unique personality, His own love of the Father and love of mankind.  Through us, He wants to touch the world around us, to heal, to forgive, to soften the hardened heart, to reveal Truth, to establish righteousness on the earth.  Mother Teresa said, Yours are the only hands and feet Christ has to do His work on earth.  We cannot do the work; only He can do it in us.  We cannot be "good Christians;" we can only yield to the only Son Who lives in us to the glory of God.

We need every day to surrender to the power Who is willing to live in us, to take up the burdens of our life, to speak through our lips, to see through our eyes, to meet those we meet----Yes, Lord, be it done unto me according to thy word.

God Satisfies the Hungry Heart

It is at her center, where her truest children dwell, that each communion is really closest to every other in spirit, if not in doctrine.  And this suggests that at the center of each there is a something, or a Someone, who against all divergencies of belief, all differences of temperament, all memories of mutual persecution, speaks with the same voice.
                                    -- C.S. Lewis, from the Preface to Mere Christianity

Each one of us must make the same journey, that of Abraham, from idols---those things in which we first believed and trusted----to the Presence of God in our lives.  God has no grandchildren; each generation must be converted anew.  Each person has to discover for himself the love and the faithfulness of God.  Each person must discover that "God satisfies the hunger of the heart." 

And that means that we must all, in our own ways, first experience the hunger that can be satisfied only with God Himself.  In speaking to one another, as long as we are focusing on revealing how God has satisfied the hunger of our own hearts, we are drawn together by the One God, by the One Spirit.  Often, however, what we speak to one another is not a personal story, but congregational doctrine.

As long as we were---and are--- a small group of people "sharing our stories," and rejoicing in what God has done for us, how He has led us out of darkness into His marvelous light, we find unity of experience and common ground.  And people are drawn to us, because they too are hungry for what only God can give.  As the congregation grows, we encounter the same problems that plagued the first congregation:  we need organization. 

In the Acts of the Apostles, as the community shared their possessions, they quickly found that they needed "an organization."  Someone had to collect the offerings and distribute bread to the widows and orphans.  At first, the Apostles were willing and able to do so, but as the congregation grew, they found that being administrators kept them from dedication to the Word of the Lord.  So Deacons were appointed to distribute goods to the poor.  And as the congregation continued to grow, there were differences of opinion/doctrine about what was the right thing to do about Jewish laws---circumcision? dietary regulations?  They needed a board of governors to ponder the prevailing questions, and one leader to speak for the group and to promulgate their decisions.  

There has always been tension between the organizational and the prophetic church, but both are needed.  Even in the early days of Israel in the Promised Land, everyone tried to live as he saw fit, devoted to the Lord, but they quickly discovered that they needed a king---someone to gather them together for their own protection and mutual support.  The danger is always that once we have a king, a leader, a central authority, that we will put our faith in the leader and the organizational processes and forget that what brought us together in the first place was the voice of God, who satisfied our hunger. 

My own experience is that when individuals are listening to the Spirit, walking with God in their daily lives, they are drawn together by the mutual love of Christ, despite all doctrinal differences.  When church members are more devoted to their organizational processes and beliefs than they are to God, there will be division.

Richard Rohr says this:

It is not enough to say that your mother is a Christian, that your father is a Catholic.  Until you come to that moment in your own life when you choose the God you will serve, you have not been converted.  And the reason why the Scriptures do not speak to most Catholics in our own day is, quite simply, that they have never experienced this conversion.  Since they have not heard God's Word in their lives, they cannot respond to God's Word in the Bible.
                                                       --- Rohr, The Great Themes of Scripture

I know Jesus is Lord of each life, but I look around my own church and want to cry.  How many have experienced the hunger for God and been satisfied?  How many are Christians and Catholics because that's how they grew up?  Do we need a place where we can begin to share our own stories about the Voice and the Word of the Lord in our lives?

Amen--Let it be done

Each one of us, like Mary, at some point in our lives will be surprised by "the visit of an angel."  It may come as a moment of exquisite calm in the midst of crisis; it may be in the form of someone who offers to pray with us when we are in trouble; it may come as an interior voice urging us to look up and trust God.

The Word of God somehow at some time becomes "incarnate" in our flesh, in our lives, and from that moment, everything changes.  The Christ of God begins to grow in us as He did in Mary; He takes on our flesh and our life; He begins to live and to act in our homes and in our culture through us.  We do not understand how this happens exactly, but at some moment, we become open to the action of the Holy Spirit hovering over our chaos and emptiness, and we say, "Yes." 

When we finally know that we are helpless, the Spirit of God takes over.  As long as we remain "weak" and dependent on God's action in our lives, He has the freedom to re-order events, to bring the light of truth and grace to us.  When we decide that we are "strong" and independent, as did Adam and Eve in the garden, He allows us to live out the consequences of our decisions and actions.  But when we can do nothing but "be still and know that I am God," He comes like a mighty wind to change the face of the earth.

The Word of God is always with us, always among us, always powerful to act among us----but we are not always ready to receive it, to let Him "be God" in us. Christ eternally comes to the earth to make all things new again, but how many Marys will He find to allow Him to take flesh in us?  How many of us can say, "Be it done unto me according to Thy Word"?

God's People

You will be my people and I will be your God (Ez. 36:28)

Several times in the Old Testament, God makes the statement "You will be my people and I will be your God." 

This language is that of a formal, binding covenant, such as a marriage oath. I do not refer to a marriage "contract," because a contract is a legal arrangement, forging customers in the agreement:  you get this; I get that.  A marriage oath is much more; it forms a indissolvable union---we are part of one another.  In fact, Genesis 2:23-24 puts it this way:

This is now bone of my bones

and flesh of my flesh;

she shall be called 'woman'

for she was taken out of man.

For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh.

The words "one flesh" in Hebrew actually mean a "new creation," or a new species---something that has never before existed on earth. 

When God says, "You shall be my people, and I shall be your God," He is not talking about a legal arrangement, but about a spiritual reality-- a new creation, a new species on earth.  We are bone of His bone and flesh of His flesh, for we are taken out of Him, born of Him, according to John I: 12-13.  For this reason, Jesus left His "father and mother," His ancestral home in heaven, to be united to us, His wife, His bride, so that we could become one flesh, one body, an indissolvable union, a new species.

When children make a blood covenant, they are saying that forever after, they belong to one another.  Whoever attacks one attacks the other; whoever does good to the one does good to the other.  When Saul was attacking the early church, Jesus stood before him:  Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me? 

The covenant had been sealed in blood;  there was no difference between attacking Christ and attacking the members of His body. 

At one time, perhaps even today in primitive areas, it was the custom for tribal chiefs to send their sons to a neighboring tribe as part of a covenant agreement.  Thereafter, each tribe was covenanted to protect the other, for in doing so they would be protecting their own flesh.  God has sent the human race His own son as a seal upon His promise---You shall be my people, and I shall be your God.  We now come to Him sealed in the blood, the life, of the lamb of God.  We no longer belong to the world of corruption and evil, but to the land of peace and rest carved out by the Son of God.  We are blessed indeed! 

The Shepherd and Guardian of our Souls

For you were all like sheep going astray, but now you have returned to the Shepherd and Guardian of your souls ( I Peter 2:25).

We cannot see ourselves as we are; we cannot see what we will be in the future.  If we could truly see who we are at this moment, we would undoubtedly lose hope that we could be any different.  If we could see what God has planned for us in the future, we would despair of "making it come true," for what God has in mind for us is nothing we can achieve by our own efforts.

God does not ask us to improve ourselves; he is not interested in horses that can jump better or further, as C.S. Lewis points out in Mere Christianity.  He is interested in changing us into an altogether new kind of creature, one that we cannot now imagine.

Most of who we now are has been handed down to us from others; we are conscious of and in control of only a small part of our personalities.  We are either too timid or too forward, too sensitive or too insensitive, and so on.  Even if we are capable at this moment of recognizing our own flaws, it sometimes takes years of therapy and "working at it" to change ourselves.

Fortunately, God's plan is much better.  He only asks us to recognize that we are essentially flawed, that we fail to get it right most of the time.  As Paul says in Romans 7, "the very thing I determine in my mind to do is the very thing I fail to do, and the very thing I determine not to do is what I end up doing after all." 

Recognizing that we are sinners, that we are flawed at the core, is at first a cause for grief:  unhappy man that I am, who will redeem me from this body of death? (Rom. 7:24).  But for those who know Jesus Christ, the grief turns immediately to joy.  God has provided a way out through the death of Jesus, who has crucified our old man and has given us a new creation, in His image and likeness.  We are no longer like horses that need to be trained, but more like winged creatures who can fly (Lewis' images).

Peter says that Jesus is the "Shepherd and Guardian of our souls."  I love that image, for it frees us from having to gaze at our navals until we reach perfection.  Rather, gazing at Him who shepherds and guards us, we "are transformed into His likeness with ever-increasing glory" (2 Cor. 3:18).  If we can bring our flawed personalities to Jesus, He can do in us and for us what we cannot even imagine. We need to trust ourselves to His guardianship, like dumb sheep who can neither defend themselves nor find pasture for their souls.

More on Nehemiah

When Nehemiah had surveyed the walls of Jerusalem and noted what needed to be re-built, he called together the group of people who would do the work and said, "Come, let us start rebuilding."  Immediately, they were attacked, mocked and ridiculed by those who had no part in the work:  What do you think you are doing? they said; what are they building? ---if even a fox climbed up on it, he would break down their wall of stones. 

Nehemiah's answer was this:  The God of heaven will give us success...but you will have no share in Jerusalem nor any claim or right to it.

What follows is a rather boring list of who-built-what.  Here's a small sample:

Eliashib the high priest and his fellow priests went to work and rebuilt the Sheep Gate.  They dedicated it and set its door in place, building as far as the Tower of the Hundred, which they dedicated, and as far as the Tower of Hananel.  The men of Jericho built the adjoining section, and Zaccur son of Imri built next to them.

The Fish Gate was rebuilt by the sons of Hassenaah......and the list continues for an entire chapter (chapter 3). 

Now the list looks as tedious as the earlier geneaologies of the Old Testament---until we realize that what we are reading is God's record of how each one of us rebuilds the broken-down walls of the church, God's people.  The Holy Spirit / Nehemiah takes notice of what needs to be done to repair the damage; He calls together those who will do the work, encourages them, repels the attacks and ridicule of Satan, and provides the supplies which he has obtained from the king/God.  Finally, he carefully records who-did-what.  Nothing we do for the kingdom of God goes without notice---the Holy Spirit knows even a cup of cold water (or glass of wine) given in His name. 

In the process of re-building the walls, the people had to endure the laughter of their enemies at their feeble efforts, the discouragement of constant attacks from the outside, weariness, exhaustion, disbelief, discouragement:  the people in Judah said, "The strength of the laborers is giving out, and there is so much rubble that we cannot rebuild the wall."  Also our enemies said, "Before they know it or see us, we will be right there among them and will kill them and put an end to their work."  Then the Jews who lived near them (the enemies) came and told us ten times over, "Wherever you turn, they will attack us."

Nehemiah's answer to the attacks and to the discouragement was to station some of the people at the lowest parts of the wall, with "swords, spears, and bows."  And he said to the people, "The work is extensive and spread out, and we are widely separated from each other along the wall.  Whenever you hear the sound of the trumpet, join us there.  Our God will fight for us!"

The entire book of Nehemiah is a wonderful portrait of the church, directed by the inspiration and gifts of the Holy Spirit, who calls together the people who will do the work of repairing the broken-down walls that are supposed to ensure safety in the church.  Though the work is extensive and discouraging, though we are widely separated from one another, yet "at the sound of the trumpet," we come together for worship and to strengthen and encourage one another in the assigned tasks.  We draw strength from knowing that "God will fight for us," and from the encouragement of the Holy Spirit, who directs the work. 

It's a book worth reading!

God's Field

Each morning, I grab my first cup of coffee and head outside to check my garden.  Each plant gets my attention as I assess its health and overall appearance.  Does it look like it's thriving?  Is it beginning to wilt a little?  Does it like its present location, or is it asking to be moved?  Does it need to be moved to the nursery where I'll give it extra care until it re-gains its strength? 

I know each one by name, and I also know its strength and weaknesses.  I know whether it likes the sun or needs more shade.  I know how tall it will grow, and so have selected just the right spot where it can grow to its full potential. 

I like to think of God the Father as the Master Gardener who each days reviews our current situation---He sees when we are failing in strength and sends someone or something to boost our reserves.  He sees when we are thriving and need only His gaze of sunshine to continue doing so.  He knows exactly when we need to be moved from our current location, not only for our health, but also for the health of other plants around us.

In the Book of Nehemiah, the Holy Spirit is pictured as one of the Israelite captives in Babylon, who is grieving over the situation of his people in Jerusalem.  [The name Nehemiah comes from the same Hebrew root as "Noah," and it means "comfort."  In the New Testament, Jesus calls the Holy Spirit "The Comforter."]  When a messenger from Jerusalem comes to report to Nehemiah, the cup-bearer to the king of Babylon, he says this:

Those who survived the exile and are back in the province are in great trouble and disgrace.  The wall of Jerusalem is broken down and its gates have been burned with fire.

In other words, the Jewish remnant that survived were extremely vulnerable to being once again over-run by their enemies; they had no defense.  Nehemiah is so grieved that, after praying, he courageously asks the king to send him back to Jerusalem so that he can rebuild and fortify its walls.  He goes further to ask whether he can request timber and other resources from the king's supplies. 

When Nehemiah arrives, he first does a survey by night so that the enemies of Jerusalem will not realize what he is up to.  He notices all the broken-down places in the walls and the gates which have been destroyed by fire.  When he is ready to begin re-building, he at last speaks to the officials and people, motivating them to take up the work he assigns to each one, and providing supplies for the task.  Some are appointed to guard the others while they work, so that they will have nothing to fear once they lay down their weapons.

The Book of Nehemiah is a wonderful story of how the Holy Spirit hovers over us, grieving over our broken-down walls, and silently begins the task of re-building our personalities.  In I Corinthians 3:9, Paul says, "you are God's field, God's building."  If I watch so carefully over the health of my garden, can God do any less watching over His field, His building?

no more posts until May 16

Hope

HOPE is the thing with feathers

That perches in the soul,

And sings the tune without the words,

And never stops at all,

And sweetest in the gale is heard;

And sore must be the storm

That could abash the little bird

That kept so many warm.

I ’ve heard it in the chillest land,

And on the strangest sea;

Yet, never, in extremity,

It asked a crumb of me.
(Emily Dickinson)

When I am afraid, I will trust in you. In God, whose word I praise,

In God I trust; I will not be afraid.

What can mortal man do to Me? (Ps. 56: 3-4)

One of my students once observed that the one thing man cannot live without is hope.  She knew people who had no faith, but she thought that without hope, we could not continue to live.  I think she is right.  Hope keeps us going in the direst circumstances.  Richard Rohr comments: The only real issue in life is the steadfast love of God.  And the only real difference in people is between those who can believe this and those who cannot [The Great Themes of Scripture, p.12]

God's faithfulness is the only thing that we can truly hope/trust in.  Without that, we are forced to rely on our own resources, our own strength; anyone who has lived beyond the age of 24 probably has come to the realization of his/her own limited strength and resources.  In our emptiness, in our helplessness, we turn to God, whose love is both powerful and inexhaustible.  There is a wonderful phrase in Is. 29:14, whose meaning is hard to translate into English:

... very well, then, I shall have to go on being prodigal of prodigious prodigies with these people."

This phrase follows the Lord's lament through Isaiah:

This people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.  Their worship of me is made up only of rules taught by men. (Is. 29:13).

God's answer to man's lack of trust and hope in Him is to keep on doing wondrous things for them.  Some translations say that He wants to astound his people with wondrous deeds.  He wants us to have more hope, not less. 

Ancient Judaism was the only forward-looking religion, because God gave the people "a hope and a future" (Jer. 29:11).  Most of the Eastern philosophies and religions held that "there was nothing new under the sun," that history simply repeated itself in a circular pattern.  The famous Tale of Gengi, by a Japanese author from the 11th century, is a very long book in which nothing ever happens, except that the title character lives through a series of repetitive events, perhaps growing wiser with each repetition. 

In contrast to the ancient cultures around them, the Jews always believed that they were moving forward to a Promised Land.  In the desert, they learned to rely on God alone, whose providence proved true.  His love gave them the security to finally let go of their "slavery" mentality, the courage to be "insecure" and to head toward the future.  Judaism and Christianity began with the journey of Abraham, who because of his hope and trust in God, was able to leave behind everything that represented security and to go where he knew not, into a land of foreign men and foreign tongue.  There, he discovered the providence and care of a loving God. 

Many of us experinced the loving providence of God after Katrina, through the kindness and mercy of both friends and strangers.  After I was rescued from the shelter (where the providence of God had already met my needs), I wound up in Natchez, Mississippi.  There I wandered into a bookstore and picked up the book Abraham by Bruce Feiler.  In those first, "wandering around days" after Katrina, I read the following words:

The bottom line is is you're too comfortable, or too secure, or too into having control, then you won't be willing to trust  God.

And the Bible says, "I want you to have total trust in me, Abraham. You're not going to know where your next meal is coming from.  You're not going to know where your next home is. If you're going to be in covenant with me, you have to trust me with every cell in your body.  And if you do that, I will bless you"  (p. 48-49).

Strange that I should find this book just after losing two homes and not knowing where my next meal (or home, or clothes) would come from.  But everything I needed for the next 18 months was provided just at the moment I needed it!  God kept doing "prodigious prodigies" at every turn---more than I could ever have asked or imagined!

Maybe one reason for the terrible times the U.S. seems to be going through at the moment is to help us recover and reclaim a sense of God's providence when we have lost all of our own resources.  We have little else in which to hope right now--but God will not fail those who look to Him.



Now I Know the Real God!

Many years ago, while teaching foreign students at Delgado, a young mother from Taiwan confessed to me that she was being blackmailed by a Texas lawyer who was holding her papers and threatening to expose her if she did not pay blackmail money to him.  She had come to the U. S. on a temporary visa, but her children loved the high schools they were attending and did not want to return home.  She fled Texas from fear of the lawyer and enrolled her children in N.O. schools; she was attending Delgado to learn English. 

During the conversation, she told me, "I pray and pray to your Jesus, but he doesn't do anything!"  "Maybe this is his answer," I replied.  "I know a lawyer you can trust; he might be able to help you."  She was so grateful she asked if she could come to church with me, and then she wanted to join a bible study I was leading.

Since she cleaned houses in the evening, she came to her first bible study at 9:00 pm, just as we were preparing to leave.  But she had come so far, and I could not let her leave right away.  So, I went through the first chapter of Genesis with her, and then we went to the first chapter of John.  Right away, she "got it."  "How can I receive this Jesus," she asked?  I told her she just had to ask for Him to come into her heart.  "I cannot;" she replied, "there is too much crime in me."  "Yes," I said, "that's why he came---to take away the crime." 

Then she willingly knelt on the floor while we prayed.  Suddenly she jumped up, crying and shouting, "Now I know the real God!"   She told us that all her life, she had visited the Buddhist temples, lighting over a hundred candles before the idols, but she had never known the "real" God.  "How could I have not known these were idols?" she asked.  She was more "on fire" with the Presence of God than anyone I had ever seen, and the light of understanding was all over her. 

She went home that night and told her son and daughter about the "real" God, and prayed with them to receive Jesus.  She called her husband in Taiwan; immediately he sensed the change in her because she was not crying as usual.  "How can I know this real God," he asked?  "Ask for Jesus to come into your heart," she told him---"and buy a bible."

Later that year, her son began a bible study group in his high school.  Her husband was reading the bible in Taiwan.  She was reading the bible.  I have never before or since experienced the reality of Pentecost exactly the way it happened that night with a young mother from Taiwan.  Glory be to God!

Restoration

When I was a small child, my grandfather, a master carpenter, made for me a small-scale chest of drawers and a matching cedar chest.  Both were incomparable treasures, works of art.  Over the years, however, one of the drawers somehow got lost or broken, and the cedar chest took on major cracks in the wood from being played with so much.  After my grandfather died, and as I grew older and more appreciative, I had much regret about not taking better care of the beautiful things my grandfather had so lovingly fashioned.

One day, another master carpenter saw my ruined chest of drawers---the cedar chest was hidden away---and offered to repair the damage for me.  I couldn't believe that someone could replace a missing drawer and make it look like the original, fashioned over 50 years ago.  But when my friend returned the chest of drawers, I could not tell the original from the repaired section.  Even the finish was perfectly matched.  Now, as an adult, I could appreciate the finished piece and could now give it the care it deserved.  I was so grateful that my "sins" of ignorance, neglect and abuse were no longer evident, and I vowed to take better care of my grandfather's gift.

Our lives are like the wonderful pieces of furniture so carefully fashioned by a loving God.  In our ignorance and lack of experience, appreciation, we often ruin or neglect the gifts given to us.  But there is a Master Carpenter sent to us, One who can lovingly restore what we have ruined.  Without Him, we have no hope of restoration; forever, we are forced to gaze on our mistakes and sinful negligence.  But if we are willing to hand over the ruins and trust the Carpenter to do what He knows to be best, we will find missing pieces restored and returned to us, even better than before.  And because of our regret, because we have mourned what we allowed to be destroyed, we receive what is returned to us with joy and appreciation, vowing not to let it get away from us this time. 

Knowing About God or Knowing God?

Think about a time when you had heard about someone and then later on got to know that person.  Maybe it was a "strict" or "mean" teacher by reputation that later turned out to be the best teacher you ever had.  The difference between hearing or knowing about someone and actually knowing that person is enormous.

Unfortunately, many people know about the Bible but don't really know the Bible, just as they know about God, but don't really know God.  To "know" in Biblical terms means "to experience," to "taste."  It is never "knowing about" but always first-hand experience, a deep-down truth that cannot be shaken. 

In the 4th chapter of John, when Jesus meets the woman at the well, she had heard about the Messiah, the one who was to come, but after her conversation with the One whose love transformed her, she knew (had experienced) Jesus Himself.  In the same way, the villagers who came out to meet Jesus because of her testimony said, We no longer believe just because of what you said; now we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this man really is the Savior of the world.

If we take what people "say" about God as the truth, we are so missing the experience of knowing, experiencing, tasting God Himself.  And this experience is necessary to know the "real" God.  When people first begin to experience the real God, not just the God they have heard about all their lives, they become fanatic; they cannot help it.  They are like the woman at the well who left her water jar to run into the village to tell her neighbors about the Messiah. At the risk of "turning people off," they must share their experience with others.

Every story in the Gospel is about someone who experienced first-hand the dynamic and active love of God given to them in the person of Jesus Christ---the father whose daughter was healed, the woman caught in adultery, Nicodemus, the couple at Cana, etc.  All of these people had heard about God all their lives; now they met Him in a personal encounter, and they would never be the same again.

When someone who "knows about" God or "knows about" the Bible is facing a crisis of fear and "happens" to open the Bible to Is. 43 and reads

Fear not, for I have redeemed you;

I have called you by name; you are mine.

When you pass through the waters,

I will be with you;

and when you pass through the rivers,

they will not sweep over you.

When you walk through the fire,

you will not be burned;

the flames will not set you ablaze.

For I am the Lord, your God,

the Holy One of Israel, your Savior,

the chances are that that person has begun to really know the God Who reveals His love and care through the words of Scripture.  And that "knowing" has little to do with what that person has heard about God; for the first time, maybe, that person has encountered the living God who knows us and who speaks to us in a personal way.

The great St. Augustine had heard "about" God all the years of his life from his mother Monica, and as a learned man of his time, had studied Scripture in Greek and Latin, but none of all this "knowledge" had penetrated his soul until one day he heard a child playing and singing the garden: Tolle lege! Tolle lege! (Take up and read! Take up and read!)  Augustine could not remember any childhood game with any such words.  He took up Paul's epistles and began reading words that spoke directly to him at the moment.  Cut to the heart, he at once knew the God speaking directly to him through the Scriptures, and he cried out:

Too late have I loved Thee, O Beauty so ancient and so new, too late have I loved Thee!  Thou wast with me, and I was not with Thee.  I was abroad, running after those beauties which Thou hast made; those things which could have no being but in Thee kept me away from Thee.  Thou hast called, Thou hast cried out, and hast pierced my deafness.  Thou hast enlightened, Thou hast shone forth, and my blindness is dispelled.  I have tasted Thee, and am hungry of Thee.  Thou hast touched me, and I am afire with the desire of thy embraces.

Augustine was later to write his Confessions, not an autobiography nor a confession of sin, but essentially a book of reflections on the wonder of God's goodness to him, a confession of praise rather than a confession of sin.  His later commentaries on Scripture were written as meditations on God revealing Himself and His goodness through the words of scripture, rather than as scholarly treatises "about" the Bible.

As we read Scripture, let us pray for the hovering Spirit of God to open our minds and hearts to a real encounter with the living God who wants more than we want to reveal Himself to us.  He will never be satisfied with our hearing about Him; He wants us to hear Him speaking to us.  He will never be satisfied with our knowing about Him; He wants us know Him.  He is waiting even now for our hearts to open to the real God, to a real experience with the God Who loves us in a real and personal way.

The Vine, The Source

I am the vine; you are the branches.  No one can produce fruit unless he remains on the vine.  Without me, you can do nothing.

Every one of us wants our life to be meaningful, to produce "fruit that will last," in the words of Jesus.  We strive to be "good," but the problem is that by ourselves, we cannot always tell what is good and what is not.  There are rules and guidelines, but even they must at time be broken and side-stepped.   And there are times when our best efforts are ineffective. 

There is only One Person who embodied the wisdom, righteousness, and holiness of God, only One who can establish on earth the kingdom of God's Presence---and that is the Christ.  Fortunately, He made His Presence available to each one of us through the power of the Holy Spirit.  What we cannot do of ourselves, He is willing to do in us.  All He asks is that we remain in Him---these are the new "rules," if you will:  Remain in Me, and you will bear fruit that will last. 

The question each one of us must ask ourselves is not, "What should I do?" but only, "How do I remain in Jesus?"

The Miracle

My neighbor, dying of cancer, was worried about Boots, the Great Dane that had been her only companion for about seven years.  Boots was truly the "gentle giant," sleeping in my neighbor's bed with her, waiting daily on the sofa for her owner's return from work every afternoon.  Boots had known only one owner, who lavished care upon her; what would happen to her now?  How many people would take in a dog her size?  How many people could afford to feed and care for a Great Dane?  How many people had room enough in their beds for an over-sized dog?

As the cancer progressed, Mary Lyn was more concerned; she did not want Boots to be taken by the rescue society---but I could not promised to care for a Great Dane, especially with three cats of my own.  My daughter and I prayed, asking for a solution from God.  "When the time is right," my daughter said, "the door will open." 

Weeks later, she attended a retirement party for one of her co-workers, and she "happened" to be sitting at the same table with a woman from another office who mentioned that she was looking for a Great Dane to calm her own young and rambunctious Great Dane.  It seems that her own dog was chewing and destroying the house during the day while everyone was away at work or school.  She thought another, more settled, dog might be the answer. 

If that's not a miracle, I don't know what is:

• How often do you find someone actually looking for a Great Dane?
• How much of a coincidence can it be that my daughter should sit at the same table with someone looking for a Great Dane?

It turns out --- of course---that Boots was the perfect, gentle, match that the lady was looking for.  It turns out that she is willing to spend whatever it takes to feed and care for Boots, including minor surgery to remove a tumor on Boots' foot.  At first, Boots was depressed at being separated from her only owner, but the young puppy pulled her into a kind of joyful participation in life that Boots had never known.  During the day, the two dogs snuggle together on the sofa; at night, they sleep in the owner's bed.  The younger dog has ceased destroying the house, and Boots is content with her new life.

Only God can work such a miracle!

The Wisdom of a Child

While visiting my 8-year-old grandchild, I noticed a poem taped to the wall of her bedroom, one she had written herself after reading The Secret Garden.  I was so impressed by its depth that I asked if I could copy it:

The Garden

King of earth, love to God.

The garden grows with trust.

King of all, beauty too grows.

The garden is trusted in Him,

for beauty goes in Him.

It is amazing to me how God reveals Himself even --- maybe, especially--- to little children.  My granddaughter told me that when the sun shines through the clouds, with rays coming down to earth, it seems to say that God is here, is with us.  I wonder how many adults have kept the heart and wisdom of a child.