When I set my television set to channel 13, I have fixed my attention on the programming from that channel. When I set my radio to the 105.3 frequency, I have fixed my hearing to that station’s music and news. When I set my thermostat, I maintain the room temperature at 70 degrees. When I set my cruise control on 62, the car travels that speed, regardless of the terrain under me (and the vehicles in front of me!!!).
When I set my eyes and attention on obtaining a goal, completing a project, or attaining an accomplishment, my energy and efforts are devoted to that end. That purpose or goal controls my choices and decisions, because I have previously made the choice to focus my energies in that direction. My mind is devoted to channel 13 and misses what is on the other channels because I’ve chosen, I’ve predetermined, what I will watch. My mind determines how I react to my environment, and helps me maintain an even keel no matter what is going on outside.
So, when Paul commands us in Colossians to set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. 2 Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things…we understand that God is calling us to choose to dial into Jesus, to focus our attentions, motivations, energies, efforts, on Him. He becomes the programming of our mind. He becomes the music and news for our day. He determines the direction and speed of our lives, regardless of the terrain or obstacles. With Him as the focus of our attention, we become thankful, peaceful, pure, and humble, like Him. When we are set on Jesus, He gives us the ability to rejoice no matter the storms around us. With Jesus as the focus of our attention, we respond to His commands, example, and warnings. When we dial into Jesus, into heaven, we will be so focused on Him that we will miss some other programming in life, but will never feel deprived…because we have died, and our life is now hidden with Christ in God. 4 When Christ, who is our life, appears, then we also will appear with Him in glory.
When it says ”You died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God,” it means that we have previously chosen to dial into Jesus. Our choice has been made. Our problem is that we are too often like an FM station that tends to drift off the frequency. Someone bumps us and we find ourselves jiggled over to a focus on our problems and pain instead of the answer to our pain, Jesus. Someone grabs our remote, and begins channel-surfing, and we flit from pleasing others to pleasing self.
And so, we take the remote in hand, and choose to re-set our mind on Jesus, on heaven!
Monday, September 28, 2009
Friday, September 18, 2009
Adventure
A person’s last words reach out and grab us because they are often the most important thing a person wants to get across. Jesus’ last words on earth, His last command, are part of the Main Thing He wants us to make the Main Thing. We call it THE GREAT COMMISSION: 19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.
The great commission is not about making decisions, not about making attenders, not about making donors or even good church members. The great commission is not about filling seats and offering bags. It is about investing your life in a few people who will invest their lives in a third spiritual generation. When Jesus truly gets inside of us, we embark on the great adventure of making disciples.
The great adventure (wrapped up in the word Go in Matthew 28:19) is not so much about changing location as it is that wherever we are located, we are involved in the adventure of shaping lives for Jesus. God is in charge of our journey, our transfer, our layoff, even the recession that forces relocation or the orders from Uncle Sam. Like the disciples in Acts 8:1, 4, He scatters us so we intersect with new lives who have never heard it before, or never heard it as presented in our life and words. God has designed us so that our lives will be just what others need to understand the good news. God has designed us to that our lives will rub off on others’ lives…and that’s the Great Commission.
God places us where we aren’t comfortable, secure, or even have the American dream—because the main thing is not about getting, it’s about giving. Jesus died take us into dangerous places to fish for men. Adventure may take many forms, but, basically, it is getting us out of our comfort zone—going to the street to serve the hungry, teaching ESL in a community center, risking your health by going to the mission field to live for a few weeks or months. Getting out of our comfort zone may risk our sanity by hanging out in a children's classroom for 90 minutes during a weekend church service. Adventure is welcoming people to the church door, or to your castle gate…letting them in, getting to know them. Now, that’s adventure.
Ask God to help us stop living life defensively, trying to keep what we’ve got. Ask God to help us see life as Adventure! It’s part of this Great Commission thing—the Main Thing!
The great commission is not about making decisions, not about making attenders, not about making donors or even good church members. The great commission is not about filling seats and offering bags. It is about investing your life in a few people who will invest their lives in a third spiritual generation. When Jesus truly gets inside of us, we embark on the great adventure of making disciples.
The great adventure (wrapped up in the word Go in Matthew 28:19) is not so much about changing location as it is that wherever we are located, we are involved in the adventure of shaping lives for Jesus. God is in charge of our journey, our transfer, our layoff, even the recession that forces relocation or the orders from Uncle Sam. Like the disciples in Acts 8:1, 4, He scatters us so we intersect with new lives who have never heard it before, or never heard it as presented in our life and words. God has designed us so that our lives will be just what others need to understand the good news. God has designed us to that our lives will rub off on others’ lives…and that’s the Great Commission.
God places us where we aren’t comfortable, secure, or even have the American dream—because the main thing is not about getting, it’s about giving. Jesus died take us into dangerous places to fish for men. Adventure may take many forms, but, basically, it is getting us out of our comfort zone—going to the street to serve the hungry, teaching ESL in a community center, risking your health by going to the mission field to live for a few weeks or months. Getting out of our comfort zone may risk our sanity by hanging out in a children's classroom for 90 minutes during a weekend church service. Adventure is welcoming people to the church door, or to your castle gate…letting them in, getting to know them. Now, that’s adventure.
Ask God to help us stop living life defensively, trying to keep what we’ve got. Ask God to help us see life as Adventure! It’s part of this Great Commission thing—the Main Thing!
Friday, September 4, 2009
Our Kite Runner
I recently finished The Kite Runner, a gripping piece of fiction about two boys who grow up in Pre-Taliban Afghanistan. Besides grabbing and possessing your thoughts and emotions, Khaled Hosseini, the author, gives you a feel for the background for the present Afghani conflict and a window into various issues. For instance, he reveals the underside of racism and tribalism that underlies modern Afghanistan…one boy is from a privileged tribe, the other is from a hated, abused, slave class. The fact that they are best friends and playmates, unknowingly sharing more than just their country and family estate, evokes echoes of America’s racist past and present.
The core of the story, however, revolves around the relationship between the two boys: the kite flyer and the kite runner (who chases down the prized kites cut loose by his friend) and the guilt that the privileged boy carries into adulthood over standing silently by in the shadows while talibanistic thugs rape his loyal and faithful friend.
The guilt from his inaction grinds through his transition into adulthood and climaxes in an opportunity to “be good again.” The opportunity presents itself in the form of returning to Afghanistan to rescue the orphan son of his childhood friend, now in the clutches of a Taliban warlord. In the process he is beaten into a near lifeless pulp by the warlord and in the beating feels so healed from the guilt and shame of his childhood cowardice that he laughs in the midst of the beating.
This posed for me a question: Is physical suffering really a way to atone for our sins? Is taking a beating really a way to find redemption and freedom from guilt? It was for Ali, the character in the Kite Runner. And, certainly it feels that way for many who suffer in the physical wasteland of drug, alcohol, and other addictions. Sometimes the addiction is a way to drown the pain of guilt and shame. Sometimes it is a sick, sadistic, self-punishment by those who feel that they are worthless because of their guilt and shame. Sometimes people feel they deserve the self-abuse, and it is a way to “pay” for their guilt. Certainly, when our daughter went through her 10 year battle with an eating disorder, self-punishment was one peel of the onion in her addiction. Often children who feel guilt will push for a beating as a way to make themselves feel better…to pay for being bad!
But, do we need to punish ourselves or face punishment to find forgiveness, as the Kite Runner puts it, “to be good again.” Do we need to hurt to pay for our sins? For Ali, the payment for his sins nearly killed him. And, except for a dramatic rescue (which I will leave to your reading) it would have killed him. Do we need to die for our sins? How can we be good again if we die? Does self-punishment really remove guilt?
The Bible is clear that the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Guilt, shame, internal pain…all are parts of this death…but God neither wants us to stay in that pain nor pay to escape it…because we can’t pay for it ourselves. Jesus is the one who took our punishment, so we could go free. The Bible is clear…1 John 1:7 the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin. Heb. 9:14 How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God!
In fact, Jesus is our Kite Runner…the one who rescues us, saying, for you, a thousand times over.
The core of the story, however, revolves around the relationship between the two boys: the kite flyer and the kite runner (who chases down the prized kites cut loose by his friend) and the guilt that the privileged boy carries into adulthood over standing silently by in the shadows while talibanistic thugs rape his loyal and faithful friend.
The guilt from his inaction grinds through his transition into adulthood and climaxes in an opportunity to “be good again.” The opportunity presents itself in the form of returning to Afghanistan to rescue the orphan son of his childhood friend, now in the clutches of a Taliban warlord. In the process he is beaten into a near lifeless pulp by the warlord and in the beating feels so healed from the guilt and shame of his childhood cowardice that he laughs in the midst of the beating.
This posed for me a question: Is physical suffering really a way to atone for our sins? Is taking a beating really a way to find redemption and freedom from guilt? It was for Ali, the character in the Kite Runner. And, certainly it feels that way for many who suffer in the physical wasteland of drug, alcohol, and other addictions. Sometimes the addiction is a way to drown the pain of guilt and shame. Sometimes it is a sick, sadistic, self-punishment by those who feel that they are worthless because of their guilt and shame. Sometimes people feel they deserve the self-abuse, and it is a way to “pay” for their guilt. Certainly, when our daughter went through her 10 year battle with an eating disorder, self-punishment was one peel of the onion in her addiction. Often children who feel guilt will push for a beating as a way to make themselves feel better…to pay for being bad!
But, do we need to punish ourselves or face punishment to find forgiveness, as the Kite Runner puts it, “to be good again.” Do we need to hurt to pay for our sins? For Ali, the payment for his sins nearly killed him. And, except for a dramatic rescue (which I will leave to your reading) it would have killed him. Do we need to die for our sins? How can we be good again if we die? Does self-punishment really remove guilt?
The Bible is clear that the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Guilt, shame, internal pain…all are parts of this death…but God neither wants us to stay in that pain nor pay to escape it…because we can’t pay for it ourselves. Jesus is the one who took our punishment, so we could go free. The Bible is clear…1 John 1:7 the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin. Heb. 9:14 How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God!
In fact, Jesus is our Kite Runner…the one who rescues us, saying, for you, a thousand times over.
Friday, August 28, 2009
Almighty For You
For 13 years Abram was convinced Ishmael was God’s way! Until God breaks in…. When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the LORD appeared to him and said, "I am God Almighty; walk before me and be blameless. Genesis 17:1
God’s redirection for Abram’s life started by revealing a new aspect of His character. Knowing God as the Almighty is a great comfort when He calls us to new steps of obedience, particularly when they are difficult and painful steps.
This is the Bible’s first use of the name El Shaddai, the Almighty, The Most Powerful. El Shaddai combines words meaning who and enough to remind Abram, and us, that we are dealing with The God who is enough.
This Almighty, however, wasn’t distant, but up close and personal. It was a name that said, “I am the “Can Do God”, I am Almighty for you. I am Almighty to love you, care for you, choose you, protect you, prosper you, challenge you. I am Almighty to solve the difficulties that you seem to think you are having in your walk of faith. I am the Almighty who can enable you to obey when it is difficult. God says I’m sufficient, when you are weak, frail, and fearful.
Whenever God’s servants are hard-pressed and needing reassurance, God appears as the Almighty…The God of the impossible, the God beyond our wildest dreams, able to work in us way beyond what we would ask or expect, and even beyond nature.
And, when we get a new view of the God of the Impossible, when our life intersects with Him, He will radically change our lives.
Most mornings Carol will tell me about the name of God that she is focusing on for that day. El Elyon, El Shaddai, Jehovah Nissei, Each of God’s names focus on some aspect of His character. Each name calls us to trust Him in a new way in this daily, on-going walk of faith. It is a great practice…getting a new view of God for every day.
How are you experiencing God today? How is He appearing to you? Sometimes He appears to me as provider, sometimes as challenger, rebuker, or comforter. Sometimes He appears as angry father because I’ve messed up and hurt myself, but other times as a loving father, Almighty, all sufficient, all knowing, all forgiving.
The key is…the God who assigns us difficult tasks, Who calls us to walk the road of the cross, Who calls us to turn our backs on the deadends in which we have invested years of our lives, this God is sufficient to be what we need. We can trust the Almighty enough to follow Him.
And, that’s what turned Abram into an Abraham.
God’s redirection for Abram’s life started by revealing a new aspect of His character. Knowing God as the Almighty is a great comfort when He calls us to new steps of obedience, particularly when they are difficult and painful steps.
This is the Bible’s first use of the name El Shaddai, the Almighty, The Most Powerful. El Shaddai combines words meaning who and enough to remind Abram, and us, that we are dealing with The God who is enough.
This Almighty, however, wasn’t distant, but up close and personal. It was a name that said, “I am the “Can Do God”, I am Almighty for you. I am Almighty to love you, care for you, choose you, protect you, prosper you, challenge you. I am Almighty to solve the difficulties that you seem to think you are having in your walk of faith. I am the Almighty who can enable you to obey when it is difficult. God says I’m sufficient, when you are weak, frail, and fearful.
Whenever God’s servants are hard-pressed and needing reassurance, God appears as the Almighty…The God of the impossible, the God beyond our wildest dreams, able to work in us way beyond what we would ask or expect, and even beyond nature.
And, when we get a new view of the God of the Impossible, when our life intersects with Him, He will radically change our lives.
Most mornings Carol will tell me about the name of God that she is focusing on for that day. El Elyon, El Shaddai, Jehovah Nissei, Each of God’s names focus on some aspect of His character. Each name calls us to trust Him in a new way in this daily, on-going walk of faith. It is a great practice…getting a new view of God for every day.
How are you experiencing God today? How is He appearing to you? Sometimes He appears to me as provider, sometimes as challenger, rebuker, or comforter. Sometimes He appears as angry father because I’ve messed up and hurt myself, but other times as a loving father, Almighty, all sufficient, all knowing, all forgiving.
The key is…the God who assigns us difficult tasks, Who calls us to walk the road of the cross, Who calls us to turn our backs on the deadends in which we have invested years of our lives, this God is sufficient to be what we need. We can trust the Almighty enough to follow Him.
And, that’s what turned Abram into an Abraham.
Saturday, August 22, 2009
When God and You Intersect
Like Abraham in Genesis 17, we learn that our walk of faith is not just an event, not just something that happens when we are 9 or 29, but an ongoing experience of God’s presence and promises that radically alters our character and behaviors.
Genesis 17 begins with When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the LORD appeared to him and said, "I am God Almighty; walk before me and be blameless. Genesis 17:1
This was Abram’s fourth intersection with God. When he met with God, God got loose in his life. God changed his name from Abram to Abraham-- Your name will no longer be Abram, but Abraham. His life went from being about an Exalted Father to being about a Father of nations, from being about himself to being about those who followed him. When we experience God’s presence, He gets loose in our lives and begins to work in us what He wants. Like Abraham, we have choices to make to install the new changes or to keep working with an obsolete, outdated operating system that will no longer be supported. For Abraham, the choice was to take on the sign of the covenant, circumcision, cut into his body. For us, the choice is to take on the sign that marks us as belonging to Jesus…the sign of love that is cut into our heart and works itself out into behaviors with others.
Bottom line: When we grow in our relationship with God we will experience changes.
So, the obvious question is: What has changed in my life, in my marriage, in my parenting, in my job? Because, if nothing changes, maybe I'm not meeting with God. I'm just reading my Bible!
Genesis 17 begins with When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the LORD appeared to him and said, "I am God Almighty; walk before me and be blameless. Genesis 17:1
This was Abram’s fourth intersection with God. When he met with God, God got loose in his life. God changed his name from Abram to Abraham-- Your name will no longer be Abram, but Abraham. His life went from being about an Exalted Father to being about a Father of nations, from being about himself to being about those who followed him. When we experience God’s presence, He gets loose in our lives and begins to work in us what He wants. Like Abraham, we have choices to make to install the new changes or to keep working with an obsolete, outdated operating system that will no longer be supported. For Abraham, the choice was to take on the sign of the covenant, circumcision, cut into his body. For us, the choice is to take on the sign that marks us as belonging to Jesus…the sign of love that is cut into our heart and works itself out into behaviors with others.
Bottom line: When we grow in our relationship with God we will experience changes.
So, the obvious question is: What has changed in my life, in my marriage, in my parenting, in my job? Because, if nothing changes, maybe I'm not meeting with God. I'm just reading my Bible!
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
Ride Your Problems
Carol and I took in the Village Theater Musical Showboat. It was a delightful drift through the 1890’s when river boats provided entertainment on the Mississippi. You would probably recognize songs like “Old Man River” and “Can’t Help Lovin’ dat Man.”
Besides the beautiful songs, terrific staging, and talented actors, the story line floated you a couple messages.
The first is a story about love and marriage. There are 5 marriages depicted in the play: The owner of the showboat, the lead actor and actress, the comedy dance team, the African-American workers, and the owners’ daughter who marries the flashy and talented riverboat “gentleman.” Every marriage has its problems: The owner puts up with his domineering and demanding wife. The lead actor and actress have to run when the local police discover that she is mixed-race and come to arrest her…only to see their marriage dissolve in Chicago. The comedy dance team with running ad-hominem banter, cracking jokes at each other’s expense, surprisingly stick together and eventually make it big in Hollywood. The young lovers are married, much to the dismay of the riverboat owner’s wife and the delight of the riverboat owner. They wind up in Chicago where the gambler loses his shirt and deserts the love of his life and their child. The only marriage that seems to be solid and encouraging is that of the African American couple, because she “can’t help lovin dat man”. What do you learn? Every marriage has problems and challenges. Every marriage, even with the most auspicious beginning, faces extreme challenges and problems. Marriages stick together in spite of the problems and fall apart because of the problems. Marriages that last find ways to deal with the irritations and annoyances introduced by the partner, and their deep loyalty binds them together in spite of the pressures that threaten to pull them apart. The challenges serve to either melt them together or split them apart. Love is painful but powerful. It is even sometimes very sad. But, true love holds even the most painful marriage together. Marriage is an institution where two imperfect people struggle together through many difficulties to forge a union that withstands the tests of life.
The second lesson is about life. Life goes on and you can’t stop it any more than you can stop the Mississippi. The young couple marry, go to Chicago, have a child, and raise the child. The story ends with the child back at the showboat and falling in love, thus the cycle starts all over again. Life is like the Mississippi, Old Man River, who just keeps rolling along…through good and bad, through problems and pain and joy, celebration and challenge. You can’t stop it. You can only ride it out. Likewise, we can’t escape the problems, but we can ride on them. Apply what Paul says in 2 Corinthians 4 to your marriage, and ride on the problem to God’s grace.… 2CO 4:7 But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. 8 We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; 9 persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. 10 We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body.
And, in 2 Corinthians 12….he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. 10 That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
Besides the beautiful songs, terrific staging, and talented actors, the story line floated you a couple messages.
The first is a story about love and marriage. There are 5 marriages depicted in the play: The owner of the showboat, the lead actor and actress, the comedy dance team, the African-American workers, and the owners’ daughter who marries the flashy and talented riverboat “gentleman.” Every marriage has its problems: The owner puts up with his domineering and demanding wife. The lead actor and actress have to run when the local police discover that she is mixed-race and come to arrest her…only to see their marriage dissolve in Chicago. The comedy dance team with running ad-hominem banter, cracking jokes at each other’s expense, surprisingly stick together and eventually make it big in Hollywood. The young lovers are married, much to the dismay of the riverboat owner’s wife and the delight of the riverboat owner. They wind up in Chicago where the gambler loses his shirt and deserts the love of his life and their child. The only marriage that seems to be solid and encouraging is that of the African American couple, because she “can’t help lovin dat man”. What do you learn? Every marriage has problems and challenges. Every marriage, even with the most auspicious beginning, faces extreme challenges and problems. Marriages stick together in spite of the problems and fall apart because of the problems. Marriages that last find ways to deal with the irritations and annoyances introduced by the partner, and their deep loyalty binds them together in spite of the pressures that threaten to pull them apart. The challenges serve to either melt them together or split them apart. Love is painful but powerful. It is even sometimes very sad. But, true love holds even the most painful marriage together. Marriage is an institution where two imperfect people struggle together through many difficulties to forge a union that withstands the tests of life.
The second lesson is about life. Life goes on and you can’t stop it any more than you can stop the Mississippi. The young couple marry, go to Chicago, have a child, and raise the child. The story ends with the child back at the showboat and falling in love, thus the cycle starts all over again. Life is like the Mississippi, Old Man River, who just keeps rolling along…through good and bad, through problems and pain and joy, celebration and challenge. You can’t stop it. You can only ride it out. Likewise, we can’t escape the problems, but we can ride on them. Apply what Paul says in 2 Corinthians 4 to your marriage, and ride on the problem to God’s grace.… 2CO 4:7 But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. 8 We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; 9 persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. 10 We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body.
And, in 2 Corinthians 12….he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. 10 That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
Saturday, August 1, 2009
Lean Into the Mountain
A week ago, Carol and I drove to the top of Steptoe Butte outside Colfax. I could say it was the high point of our 1325 mile trip across Oregon and Washington. At least, it was the white knucklist point! Steptoe Butte is a 1000 foot mountain with a narrow, one lane road with two-way traffic winding to the top. I call it white knuckle driving because there is no guardrail. And, you would roll a long ways before you stopped. So, even though I enjoyed Carol in my lap (because the edge was on her side of the car), I tried to steer away from the edge and as close as possible to the mountain.
I first realized I was White Knuckle about edges and heights in 1967 when I made a mid August assault on Mt. Hood. At a certain place, I found myself trying to step back into the mountain. Years later, when our son was about 10, I found myself on the higher part of my rough one night trying to finish a Christmas light project. I was on my stomach, finger nails dug into the shakes, shaking. Matt called out, “Dad, what’s wrong?” I answered, “I’m freaked!” I was clinging to the roof for dear life.
You'd think I'd have sense enough to avoid high places with such physiologically white knuckle reactions! Noooo! Not me! Not many years later we took a family road trip to Edmonton. We drove through Glacier Park on the way up, with an emphasis on that last word, “up”. As we drove up the valley, admiring the mountains and trees, we saw the sheer rock face of the mountain in front of us. Suddenly I saw light reflecting off glass…there were cars on that rock face! That was the “Going to the Sun Highway”…that winds up across the face of the sheer cliff with only 1 foot rock guardrails between you and eternity! White Knuckle! I leaned into the mountain.
Steptoe Butte had no guardrails! Hence: White Knuckle! I leaned into the mountain, trying to stay as close to the mountain and as far from ledge as possible.
Likewise, I find that leaning into the mountain is a good picture when it comes to avoiding the ledges and edges of life, from falling into temptation and crashing my life and my family and my friends into oblivion by some mis-step. The Message version of I Corinthians 10:13 says, No test or temptation that comes your way is beyond the course of what others have had to face. All you need to remember is that God will never let you down; he'll never let you be pushed past your limit; he'll always be there to help you come through it.
God’s way of escape isn’t just to avoid edges and ledges. It is to stick as close to the mountain as possible. That’s the idea God told Abraham in Genesis 17, "I am God Almighty; walk before me and be blameless. (NIV)….It is only by sticking close to Almighty God that we can walk blamelessly before Him.
Lean into God, and you’ll stay away from the edges of life.
I first realized I was White Knuckle about edges and heights in 1967 when I made a mid August assault on Mt. Hood. At a certain place, I found myself trying to step back into the mountain. Years later, when our son was about 10, I found myself on the higher part of my rough one night trying to finish a Christmas light project. I was on my stomach, finger nails dug into the shakes, shaking. Matt called out, “Dad, what’s wrong?” I answered, “I’m freaked!” I was clinging to the roof for dear life.
You'd think I'd have sense enough to avoid high places with such physiologically white knuckle reactions! Noooo! Not me! Not many years later we took a family road trip to Edmonton. We drove through Glacier Park on the way up, with an emphasis on that last word, “up”. As we drove up the valley, admiring the mountains and trees, we saw the sheer rock face of the mountain in front of us. Suddenly I saw light reflecting off glass…there were cars on that rock face! That was the “Going to the Sun Highway”…that winds up across the face of the sheer cliff with only 1 foot rock guardrails between you and eternity! White Knuckle! I leaned into the mountain.
Steptoe Butte had no guardrails! Hence: White Knuckle! I leaned into the mountain, trying to stay as close to the mountain and as far from ledge as possible.
Likewise, I find that leaning into the mountain is a good picture when it comes to avoiding the ledges and edges of life, from falling into temptation and crashing my life and my family and my friends into oblivion by some mis-step. The Message version of I Corinthians 10:13 says, No test or temptation that comes your way is beyond the course of what others have had to face. All you need to remember is that God will never let you down; he'll never let you be pushed past your limit; he'll always be there to help you come through it.
God’s way of escape isn’t just to avoid edges and ledges. It is to stick as close to the mountain as possible. That’s the idea God told Abraham in Genesis 17, "I am God Almighty; walk before me and be blameless. (NIV)….It is only by sticking close to Almighty God that we can walk blamelessly before Him.
Lean into God, and you’ll stay away from the edges of life.
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