Archive for August, 2021

Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates. Deuteronomy 6:5-9

“The West values itself for its ability to produce things. Priests, nuns, and lay people tend to evaluate themselves interiorly by what they produce. Priests especially do not realize that their presence is enough. I often tell priests who work in parishes that one of the best things they can ‘do’ is simply walk around their neighborhoods and be present to their people. If they don’t do something, they feel that they are wasting their lives away.”

Northumbrian Community in Celtic Daily Prayer (New York: Harper Collins, 2002) 808. Today is the last post from this precious book.

Our Scripture reminds us that God cares about our relationship with Him and illustrates how we can impact others by our presence. This flies in the face of Western and worldly thinking which values people for what they produce.

But how does this relate to generosity?

Much of giving, especially major gifts, is linked to outcomes or production. We need to jettison this thinking. It puts unnecessary pressure on God’s workers. Instead, let’s encourage faithful activities including being present with people.

Why does it matter?

How we live out our faith and dispense our generosity is as important as what we believe and support. If we are always busy and/or focused on production, we may miss the bigger story unfolding around us. Or cause others to miss it. Often I am guilty of this.

Perhaps you are too?

I’m taking a break today. I’m going fly fishing with my son, Sammy, today. I look forward to the gift of time together. Sure, I hope we catch a lot of Greenback Cutthroat trout but time together in each others’ presence will be priceless.

Dear friends, although I was very eager to write to you about the salvation we share, I felt compelled to write and urge you to contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to God’s holy people. Jude 1:3

This is Brigid who loved the poor,
and gave away all she could spare
and would have given everything
if everything was hers to share.

She gave her love to God as well,
in her community at Kildare,
all souls were welcome to feast
on simple food, ale, and love of Him
who gave unstintingly for us
His love, His heart, His dying blood.
Her utmost love was love returned.

And this is the way that Brigid lived,
the prayer that Patrick made,
the circle Ninian drew,
the life that Martin taught,
the house that love built,
the heart that John heard,
the way that God made.

Poem on the way of Brigid in Celtic Daily Prayer (New York: Harper Collins, 2002) 785-786. Soon I will be through this precious book. I pray the posts have been a blessing to you.

Let us give thanks for the privilege of serving a God who gives to us unstintingly. While I could image the meaning of this word, I looked it up.

Unstintingly means “not restricting or holding back: giving or being given freely or generously.” God gives unstintingly to us. This positions us to go and do likewise.

Think of people in your life who have inspired you by their sacrificial living, their generous giving, their timely support, or for helping you grasp the Christian life.

Pause and notice the last stanza of the poem. Each person contributed to the faith of the community in Ireland. These have contributed to you. What contribution will you make?

As I ponder, I wonder if someone would say this about me: “the meditations that Gary posted.” Candidly, I never dreamed I’d do this daily for 12 years and counting. It’s calling from God not a plan on my part.

Today I honor my sister, Heather, on her birthday. As it was said of Brigid, I would say of her “the utmost love that Heather returned” because her loving sacrifices have been many. Happy Birthday, Heather.

But I press you once more. We serve a God who gives unstintingly, and we need each other to play our part so the faith that was once for all handed down to us spreads to others. What contribution will you make?

Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before Him He endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Hebrews 12:1-2

“I give to you, my children, these final words: ‘Be at peace with one another, bound together by mutual and unfeigned love. If you do this, according to the example of the ancient fathers, God, who gives strength to the righteous, will bless you: and I, abiding with Him, shall intercede for you. Not only will God provide all things needed for this preesent life, but He shall prepare for you the blessings of eternity.”

St Columba’s last reported words of blessing in Celtic Daily Prayer (New York: Harper Collins, 2002) 767.

Columba was about to see the Lord. Notice the repeating theme in his last words of blessing. “I give to you…God who gives…not only will God provide…He shall prepare…”

Columba gives them a blessing because God gives blessing, God provides, and God prepares. And Columba adds that because he himself will be “abiding” with God, he will continue to intercede for us.

I love this picture. As death is all around us. Those who die in Christ are more alive than ever, and they are interceding for us in the great cloud of witnesses cheering us on to run the race marked out for us.

And we must remember that we can be generous in living, giving, serving, and loving because God has been generous and continues to be generous to us.

In light of this, let us richly spread peace, “mutual and unfeigned love,” and blessing today!

“Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” Matthew 22:36-40

“St Brendan once asked Ita what were the three works most pleasing to God, and the three works most displeasing to Him. St Ita answered, ‘Three things that please God most are true faith in God with a pure heart, a simple life with a grateful spirit, and generosity inspired by charity. The three things that most displease God are a mouth that hates people, a heart harboring resentment, and a confidence in wealth.’ St Brendan and all who were there, hearing that opinion, glorified God in His chosen one.”

St Brendan and St Ita in Celtic Daily Prayer (New York: Harper Collins, 2002) 766.

Consider the simplicity of St Brendan’s question and the content of St Ita’s answer. Having faith in God with purity, living simply with gratitude, and extending grace-filled generosity to others pleases God. These three reflect loving God and loving our neighbor.

And on the flip side, what displeases God are a mouth that hates people, a heart that harbors resentment, and faith in wealth. These sound like three defining traits of the world around us. They reveal a lack of care for others and failure to trust in God.

God, reveal any impurity to our faith, teach us to live simply and generously. Cause your love to flow from our hearts and lips as we trust you rather than wealth to sustain us. In your mercy hear our prayer and work by your Spirit so our lives please you we ask in the name of Jesus. Amen.

The grace of the Lord Jesus be with God’s people. Amen. Revelation 22:21

“Ciaran founded the monastery of Clonmacnois on the banks of the Shannon River in late 544. Less than a year later on 9 September 545, he died unexpectedly at the age of 33.

Ciaran went to the island of Aran to commune with Enda. Both of them saw the same vision of a great fruitful tree growing beside a stream in the middle of Ireland. The tree protected the entire island. Its fruit crossed the sea that surrounded Ireland and the birds of the world came to carry off some of that fruit.

Ciaran turned to Enda and told him what he had seen. Enda, in turn, said to him: ‘The great tree is you, Ciaran, for you are great in the eyes of God and of all humankind. All of Ireland will be sheltered by the grace that is in you, and many people will be fed by your fasting and prayer. Go in the name of God to the centre of Ireland, and found your church on the banks of a stream.'”

Ciaran of Clonmacnois (512-545) and “The Vision of the Great Tree” from Wisdom of the Celtic Saints by E.C. Sellner as recounted in Celtic Daily Prayer (New York: Harper Collins, 2002) 765-766.

I love that the final verse in the New Testament is simply a prayer that the grace of the Lord will be with all of God’s people.

When the grace of God was on Ciaran, he accomplished the vision God gave to him and to his mentor, Enda: to establish a place where people would be sheltered by grace and fed by fasting and prayer. He built it, then passed into the presence of God. His short life was not a waste. He did his part.

What about each of us? What vision has God given you? How might you be a shelter of grace for others and feed them with fasting and prayer in the time given you?

This is a powerful word picture. Our generous service can shelter people from the storms of life by grace. Our sacrifices in fasting and prayer can impact countless lives. Through these spiritual practices, they are fed with what they need and that which will satisfy them.

What would it look like for you to discern your vision with a mentor and then go after it? Your generosity could reach levels only known by God.

Then Jesus said to His disciples, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. Matthew 16:24

“As church and state in the Roman empire got married after the toleration edict in 312, heroic virtue was exchanged for compromise with the world, and the inevitable result was insipid mediocrity. Men and women, finding no challenge in the cities, began to flock to the Egyptian and other deserts. This was a bold encounter with the realities of existence, a challenge to all accepted norms in society, a facing of the shadow side of the human personality, and ultimately confrontation with objective evil.

The Desert Fathers were essentially solitaries, expressing their love for their neighbors by total self-oblation to God, by continuous prayer, and by handcraft work for the poor. Their lives reveal an extraordinary humility, gentleness, tenderness, sensitivity, and compassion . . . and a firm grasp of Bible teaching seems to have been based on the principle that you don’t ignore what you don’t like.”

Martin Reith in Celtic Spirituality as cited in in Celtic Daily Prayer (New York: Harper Collins, 2002) 755.

Those who ignore what they don’t like in the Scriptures don’t follow Jesus but rather their own preferences. If that sounds shocking, perhaps ask yourself if it is true about you.

Our Lord Jesus Christ bids us to come and die. He challenges us to trust that the life He offers is better than anything we can contrive. But do we really live like we believe Him.

In the USA, I grew up in a context where there was little challenge to my faith. Now, the greatest challenge comes not from outsiders but rather comfortable Christians.

They don’t want to talk about the ‘radical’ aspects of the faith, which in their view, don’t relate to everyone. It seems like they ignore what they don’t like.

Today I want to honor a friend I saw this weekend, Travis Shelton. He speaks openly and boldly about the challenging financial aspects of the faith, and he coaches people to live differently.

People are listening to his voice crying out in the desert. Many log into his podcast. When we align our faith and finances, Travis would say with the Desert Fathers, we find freedom!

Our mouths were filled with laughter, our tongues with songs of joy. Then it was said among the nations, “The LORD has done great things for them.” Psalm 126:2

“There has probably never been a time in history when the majority of people were seriously seeking God. Our Bible sets before us the idea that God may use a minority to serve the majority. It is because of the faithfulness of the few, not the many, that the Christian faith has come down the ages to us and we have the chance to know God in this way. It has always been so. If God has called us and we want to respond to Him, then we must be faithful to our own vision, whatever the many think. But we must do it with open hearts and open arms, not safeguarding our fewness, our specialness. And we must do it in healthy laughter directed at ourselves, because really it is so ridiculous to think that God has chosen us for anything at all, even though it is true.”

Kate Tristram in Celtic Daily Prayer (New York: Harper Collins, 2002) 732.

Sweet meetings in Seattle. Deeply spiritual and profoundly strategic.

Funny to think that a group of eight have helped launch a mission sending gateway that has mobilized dozens of Chinese and Mongolians for Christian mission.

Yesterday was a full day, but the dinner at the end was filled with laughter.

Personally, as my season of service has drawn to a close, I can’t believe God gave me the opportunity to do this work with such a great group of people.

Maybe you have experienced a similar feeling at the end of a time of service?

As I reflect, I need open hands and open arms because this work has never been mine. It belongs to the LORD. All our work belongs to Him.

All we can do is sigh to realize the gift that it is to be on God’s team.

News of this reached the church in Jerusalem, and they sent Barnabas to Antioch. When he arrived and saw what the grace of God had done, he was glad and encouraged them all to remain true to the Lord with all their hearts. He was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and faith, and a great number of people were brought to the Lord. Acts 11:22-24

“By far the greatest thing a man can do for his city is to be a good man. Simply to live there as a good man, as a Christian man of action and practical citizen, is the first and highest contribution anyone can make to its salvation. Let a city be a Sodom or a Gomorrah, and if there be but ten righteous men in it, if will be saved. Simple, old-fashioned Christianity did mighty work for the world in that it produced good men. It is goodness that tells, goodness first and goodness last. Good men even with small views are immeasurably more important to the world than small men with great views.”

Finan in Celtic Daily Prayer (New York: Harper Collins, 2002) 707.

I’m in Seattle at meetings with good men (and good women). They are encouragers like Barnabas. I like how Finan describes good men as people who bring about salvation for cities.

It’s a cool picture, and happens not because of their power but their humility. They don’t save it with their strength but rather their discipline to follow God’s standards.

It’s a good feeling to wrap up a board commitment and pass the baton to good people. Their mighty work, I pray, will build upon our founding service and bless many.

As our being precedes our doing, Finan is right on to say that the first and best contribution we can make is to “be” a good person where God has planted us. Let’s do it.

“In everything I did, I showed you that by this kind of hard work we must help the weak, remembering the words the Lord Jesus himself said: ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’” Acts 20:35

“Be respectful to the worthy, merciful to the poor. It is no sin to have wealth, but it is sinful to be attracted to wealth. It is the love of money, not money itself, which is the root of all evil.

Aidan, diring one Easter with King Oswald, was himself ill at east with the feast set before them. Just then a servant arrived to say that many poor people had arrived at the castle asking for alms.

Oswald with a wave of his arm ordered their own meal to be taken away and fed to the people outside, and the silver plate broken and distributed between them.

Aiden was so overcome that he exclaimed, ‘May the hand that did this never perish.’ Any society or civilization may best be judged by the way it treats its weakest members.”

Aiden and King Oswald as recounted in Celtic Daily Prayer (New York: Harper Collins, 2002) 676-677.

What an amazing scene! The king not only distributed the feast to the poor seeking alms, he has his servants break up the silver plate to resource those in need.

It is vital to understand alms as going to the destitute, that is, people who could not help themselves, but whom we get to assist to demonstrate our Christian faith.

Two elements of this scene touch me. Oswald sacrificed his meal and converted a costly asset into aid for people in crisis. Imagine the impact on Aidan and others looking on.

Today I fly to Seattle to complete nearly seven years of service as a founding member of board that mobilizes Christian workers to serve as missionaries from Asia to the world.

I sit around a table with people like Oswald. They could feast in self indulgence, but instead they sacrifice and convert their wealth into eternal riches through giving.

Their living and giving inspires me. Let’s all resolve together to see the basic necessities and the wealth we possess as tools for showing God’s love to the needy.

Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Philippians 4:5

“Be gentle in generosity, untiring in love, just in all things. Bede speaks of Bishop Colman and his predecessors, Aidan and Finan: The sole concern of the teachers of those days was to serve God, not the world, and to feed the soul, not the belly. The religious habit, therefore, was held in great respect at that time, so that whenever a cleric or monk appeared he was welcomed gladly by everyone as a servant of God. Even if one was discovered passing on the roads they would run up to him and bow their heads, and were glad to be signed with the cross by his hand or blessed by his lips; and they paid close heed to such men’s exhortations. On the Lord’s Day they gathered eagerly in the church or monasteries, not to get food for their bodies but to listen to the Word of God; and if a priest came by chance to their village the people at once came together, eager to receive from him the word of life. The priests and clerics themselves visited the villages for no other reason than to preach, baptize, visit the sick and, in sum, to care for the souls…”

The Venerable Bede on Colman, Aidan, and Finan of Lindisfarne in Celtic Daily Prayer (New York: Harper Collins, 2002) 675-676.

There is wisdom in following in the footsteps of these saints.

We must “be gentle in generosity, untiring in love, just in all things.” We must be people who “serve God, not the world, and to feed the soul, not the belly” so that we remain fruitful in all things. And we must be people who “care for the souls” of people by giving them the “word of life.”

Let’s pause and remember the setting.

Colman, Aidan, and Finan lived in the 500s-600s, when the people did not have Bibles. They were living conduits to dispense the Word that was being copied by monks by hand. So “attending church” in those days was getting the bread of life to feed the soul and not just fellowship.

Common folk did not have Bibles in those days.

In present day if you want to pursue this way of service, I recently endorsed a great book. Stewardship for the Care of Souls by Nathan Meador and Heath R. Curtis. Nathan is a friend and Daily Meditations reader. Consider Nathan and Heath as modeling how to care for souls like Colman, Aidan, and Finan.

Check it out.