catching his breath

People often use the phrase “the powers that be” to name the cause of tragic realities believed to be outside of human control. These forces, whoever or whatever they are, dominate our lives. We see the carnage and wreckage within our world and acknowledge that some sort of darkness is spinning things out of control. These powers or forces seek to sweep us away into their agenda, into their kingdom.

Whether political, economical or spiritual, forces try to dominate us, to rule us. It is in this reality that we find common ground with the young church in Colossae. Paul writes these new Christians a letter encouraging them to realize they lack nothing with Jesus. They need to resist the powers that attempt to gain control over them. He assures that Jesus has disarmed the powers and so the Colossians can experience freedom from the dominion of darkness. They are free to follow Jesus and defy the rule of darkness seeking control of their lives.

He grounds his admonition in the reality of King Jesus, the victor over the dark rule. It is under his reign that true life emerges, and within his dominion that captives break free. Paul’s message then to the Colossians? And us? Give “thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of his people in the kingdom of light. For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves” (1:12-13).

pressure can’t hurt what’s already collapsed,
welcome to the enigmatic euphoria of busted eardrums.
stroke the keyboard, position your tongue, attack;
destroy me? you can set my ashes on fire.

unveil the exposed secrets, run yesterday’s news.
conquer the ruins and claim your victory,
shout curses to the silence of laughing ghosts,
stab them with your knives; they still laugh.

inject Novocain into the numbness of my face,
position your thumbs and pluck out my glass eyes.
rip off the clothes the emperor gave me and
burn them with the ashes.

I encourage you to click the link below and read Doug Young’s latest blog post.

He reminds us of a crucial leadership reality that often escapes the notice of church leaders. Thanks Doug.

Here it is.

Hope has refreshed my world like needed rain. It’s not that hope doesn’t always exist, it’s that we can become distracted by the lies of its death and lose sight of it. In many ways I’d lost sight of it…until a meeting yesterday. A new friend showed me a passage in Romans that never really stuck until he read it to me through his years of experiencing it in ministry.

“He [Abraham] is our father in the sight of God–the God who gives life to the dead and calls into being things that were not” (Romans 4:17). Our God brings dead things to life. He brings to reality the impossible. It’s the reality that launched the story of Israel. It’s the reality that gave energy to Abraham’s first step away from home. And it still moves God’s co-workers to embrace the risky and nonsensical trust that God is going to take over and bring to life the lifeless.

My friend encouraged me to pray for things I couldn’t dream of happening. Not as a challenge to God but as an invitation to him. He pushed me to believe that if I ask God to show up I’d soon be watching things unfold that can’t really happen. He’s lived it. He’s seen it. And he’s got pictures and t-shirts to prove it. It blew me away.

As we were coordinating the meeting, Terry asked me to call him the night before we were supposed to meet and make sure that he hadn’t caught the flu. Thankfully, he didn’t have the flu and we got together. But he did have a case of something else, an incurable and contagious belief that God can make dead things alive and through his power orchestrate the impossible into reality. It consumed his entire being and seemed to jump off and onto whoever went near.

I didn’t get away unscathed. God exposed me to a carrier. And I now have a case of believing the impossible. I can’t wait to watch what happens.

I’m always on the look out for artistic expressions of the gospel story. This takes me to Peter Rollins blog a lot. He didn’t disappoint today by featuring the artist Kseniya Simonova, winner of Ukraine’s Got Talent.

I can’t help thinking how her incredible talent would be a tremendous way of drawing people into the heart of God and life’s deeper realities. It did it to me.

Check her out on You Tube. Here’s a video to get you started.

Few biblical ideas nag at us more than the one contained in passages that hint at our potential perfection. Jesus said, “Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” For real? Is he kidding? It’s easy to struggle under the weight of this statement, knowing who we really are. We know, through simple observation, that many who profess Jesus as Lord don’t necessarily live up to what that means. Us included.

Yet, we must wrestle with this tension. Perhaps many have given up any pursuit of reflecting the divine image that Jesus anticipated in his followers. Some abandon the goals of transformation and settle for a grace that happens later, after we die, maybe. But biblical writers clearly state the intention of discipleship. “And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit” (2 Corinthians 3:18).

Biblical salvation, then, takes on a broader scope and speaks to a deeper reality of change in our lives than does the reduction of salvation to the initial moment of forgiveness. Pondering the idea of living as a new creation can leave us skeptical. Does Jesus really seek to remake us, radically and completely changing us into fully reflecting God’s image? Yes.

And to not lose hope, we must accept that this transformation emerges in a convergence of God’s empowering grace and our focused effort (2 Peter 1:3, 10). To invite this convergence we intentionally engage spiritual exercises that put us in position to receive his power and life, participating “in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in this world” as we compile the quality of life discussed by Peter to the point we “never stumble” (see 2 Peter 1:10).

A caterpillar isn’t really a caterpillar but a butterfly. But it will never become its actual self by jumping off of tree limbs attempting to fly, trying hard enough to change color and shape or reading a becoming your inner butterfly self-help book. The transformation requires a power outside of the caterpillar’s own resources. This doesn’t mean the caterpillar sits back and waits. It crawls to the right places. It builds. It prepares. It works into shape a cocoon. And in the convergence of effort and natural forces a butterfly emerges.

For moments, I escape darkness. But brief moments. No complaint. The somber melancholy I slouch into has incubated my deepest thoughts; periods of intense doubt and searching and chains break.

God provides an illuminating darkness and so I’ve learned to accept it–ironically happily. Shadow lifted, I peer afresh, squinting at life with new eyes. Suppressive manipulations hold no power. I’ve wandered alone for too long to purchase security in others.

Can’t buy me. Can’t control me. I function on despair so what can you steal from me that the loss of it won’t feed me? Take what I possess and enrich me.

The darker it gets the more I see.

God,

Deep inside I’m moved to believe you really don’t care. It hurts to admit that but sometimes when I’ve asked for you to show up… crickets. I know. I know. Your timetable, your ways. I get it. You are bringing about new creation, right? I hope so, that’s all the answer I have for my decay.

Could you weep for me? Or is that the rain today? I’ll take that.

It’s probably me. But you made me. You have me headlong in this ministry and I’m not quitting. Will you help? I trust you. I ultimately do.

But I needed to get that off my chest. I’m still here because I know you’re still here working in front of my blindness.

Josh

This video moves me every time I watch it. This is as kingdom of God as it gets.

Enjoy.

Brad Paisley: “Welcome to the Future.”

(if you haven’t read part 1 and 2, scroll down and catch up)

Next, it is important to critique some of our basic assumptions about Bible study. Jeremy Berg (blogs at jeremyberg.wordpress.com; look for the post “The Dark Side of Personal Application”) has offered some insightful warnings about Bible application. He states, “Instead of ‘applying the Bible to our lives’ (which again assumes we are the fixed center point and the Word is just a holy ointment to be applied to our souls) let’s instead try to ‘apply ourselves to the Bible.’  Put narratively, let’s not give God a convenient place within our own story; but rather find ourselves swept up in God’s much larger Story!” Following his advice would revolutionize our study of Scripture and our relationship to it.

David, instead of placing himself over Scripture, placed himself within it. He writes in the Psalms “Direct my footsteps according to your word; let no sin rule over me. Redeem me from human oppression, that I may obey your precepts.” David expresses an obvious craving to jump into what God is all about, not take and force God’s word to the ground as if to defeat it; rather he seeks to live in it, follow it and step into its transforming power. I understand we’re walking a fine line, but think deeply about the possibility of a person opening up the Bible looking for specific answers to personal questions (“What must I do to be saved?”) and failing to get caught up in the flow of God’s larger story.

It’s a matter of having to grasp the Bible or having been grasped by it. This difference in approach can lead to illuminating consequences, altering the way a person lives within the story of Scripture and discovers the realities of salvation, holistically. This subtle shift allows God’s word to work on a person rather than a person working on God’s word. “For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart” (Hebrews 4:12).

As a final reflection, consider a few thoughts by Dietrich Bonhoeffer as he pondered entering into the story of the Bible (phrasing selected by Scot McKnight from Bonhoeffer’s book Life Together; blog.beliefnet.com/jesuscreed).

It is not that God’s help and presence must still be proved in our life; rather God’s presence and help have been demonstrated for us in the life of Jesus Christ. It is in fact more important for us to know what God did to Israel in God’s son Jesus Christ, than to discover what God intends for us today. The fact that Jesus died is more important than the fact that I will die. And the fact that Jesus Christ was raised from the dead is the sole ground of my hope that I, too, will be raised on the day of judgment.

I find salvation not in my life story, but only in the story of Jesus Christ. Only those who allow themselves to be found in Jesus Christ…. are with God and God with them.