Meditations

Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ. 1 Corinthians 11:1

“In confession the breakthrough to community takes place. Sin demands to have a man by himself. It withdraws him from the community. The more isolated a person is, the more destructive will be the power of sin over him, and the more deeply he becomes involved in it, the more disastrous is his isolation. Sin wants to remain unknown. It shuns the light. In the darkness of the unexpressed it poisons the whole being of a person. This can happen even in the midst of a pious community. In confession the light of the gospel breaks into the darkness and seclusion of the heart. The sin must be brought into the light. The unexpressed must be openly spoken and acknowledged. All that is secret and hidden is made manifest. It is a hard struggle until the sin is openly admitted.”

Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906-1945) in Life Together (New York: Harper One, 1954) 112.

As I teach on generosity and speak about what the Bible says on the handling of money, I have come to realize that the most significant things I share are not linked to theology but rather, confession. People say the testimonies help them understand the instruction. For example, when I admit that we stored up treasures on earth for years, which is the opposite location where Jesus told us to put them, my confession helps set others free from this sin. People, who are experiencing the “hard struggle” of letting go, find freedom.

When I testify to other things my family has learned about life in God’s economy, people resonate with the illustrations because our confession helps show them the way. We don’t have this all figured out, but it’s how we grow in community. Money is a topic that few people like to talk about, and I believe it is because darkness has a stronghold in many lives. Sin loses its power through confession. To grow from greed to generosity, let the light of the gospel shine on your financial situation. Confess what God is teaching you, and see what God does among you.

For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.” Jeremiah 29:11-13

Our son, Sammy, got a puppy. It’s a German Shorthair Pointer, just like our nine-year old dog, Joy St. Clare. When we asked him her name, he said, “Hope St. Teresa.” With the name, Hope, our minds went to one of his favorite Bible passages, which is today’s Scripture, Jeremiah 29:11-13. We are thankful his hope is in the Lord and that dog will be a reminder of that. Then we inquired further, “Which Teresa?” Mother Teresa and Teresa of Avila are two of our favorite saints who have inspired us through their lives and writings as followers of Jesus Christ. After telling us it was Mother Teresa, he shared this quote with us, know widely with the title, “Do it anyway!”

“People are often unreasonable, irrational, and self-centered.
Forgive them anyway.
If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives.
Be kind anyway.
If you are successful, you will win some unfaithful friends and some genuine enemies.
Succeed anyway.
If you are honest and sincere people may deceive you.
Be honest and sincere anyway.
What you spend years creating, others could destroy overnight.
Create anyway.
If you find serenity and happiness, some may be jealous.
Be happy anyway.
The good you do today, will often be forgotten.
Do good anyway.
Give the best you have, and it will never be enough.
Give your best anyway.
In the final analysis, it is between you and God.
It was never between you and them anyway.”

Mother Teresa (1910-1997) had this written on the wall of the home for children in Calcutta, India. She likely adapted it from “The Paradoxical Commandments” by Kent Keith.

No matter what anyone else says or does related to their giving, living, serving and loving.
Give, live, serve, and love generously anyway!

God shall likewise destroy thee for ever; He shall take thee away, and pluck thee out of [thy] tent, and root thee out of the land of the living. Selah. The righteous also shall see, and fear, and shall laugh at him, [saying,] Behold the man that made not God his strength, but put confidence in the abundance of his riches, [and] strengthened himself in his avarice. But as for me, I am like a green olive tree in the house of God: I will confide in the lovingkindness of God for ever and ever. I will praise Thee for ever, because Thou hast done [it]; and I will wait on Thy name, before thy godly ones, for it is good. Psalm 52:5-9

“Avarice, or greed (from the Latin averus, “greedy,” “to crave”), is the inordinate desire for riches, whether material, spiritual, or artistic. Note the word “inordinate.” It is a desire for things of this world that is out of order…The special malice of avarice, broadly speaking, lies in that it makes the getting and keeping of money and possessions an end in itself. The avaricious person does not see that these things are only valuable as a means to attain the goals for which God created him [or her]. These goods should be acquired according to a person’s needs and with due regard for the special social condition in which he finds himself [or in which she finds herself]. Goods have been given us by God to be shared for love’s sake. The avaricious person sins against this love…Greed can disguise itself as a virtue under the pretext of providing for the future, whereby a person hoards things that are not really needed for his [or her] future well-being…Generosity is the antidote to avarice.”

Emmerich Vogt in The Freedom to Love: Recovery and the Seven Deadly Sins (Minneapolis: Mill City Press, 2012) 63-67.

What we do with money not only communicates where we confide and place our trust, but also sends a message to God about whether or not we desire to make known His love. We confess that we sent God the wrong message for the first 16 years of our marriage, stockpiling money on earth “for the future” following the instructions of this world. It was not insignificant when we finally realized that wealth was “only valuable as a means to attain the goals for which God created” us, and that generosity was only antidote to avarice. Since then, over nearly 9 years, everything God has supplied beyond a three-month float we have either used for living or stored it up in heaven through giving.

In today’s Scripture, David, the psalmist, notes that while others may strengthen themselves with avarice, he resolved instead to confide in God. Regardless of what others are doing, we must join David in declaring, “But as for me…” This calls us to use any wealth God provides as a tool to make known His love. We must do this lest it worm its way into our souls and be the cause of our own destruction. We are learning that as we walk in obedience, we find ourselves like “green olive trees” that bear fruit in the house of God because of His goodness.

Jesus said to them, “The sabbath was made for man, and not man for the sabbath.” Mark 2:27

“The sabbath has been a great gift to me by slowing me down and inviting me to experience God’s rest — not just analyze it…I have received the gift of rest in Christ…The sabbath has also enabled me to learn form Jesus, to take His gentle yoke upon my shoulders rather than live in response to the world’s demands and my own unhealthy desires.

Keeping a sabbath has taught me the deep truths of God’s love as much as any faith discipline I have observed as an adult. It has shaped my heart, opening me to receive God’s gifts more fully. I stumbled into sabbath keeping…I experienced it, felt it was a gift and believed God wanted me to experience that gift every week…

When we unwrap a gift, we experience the greatest joy if we thank the giver and use the gift. Sitting around analyzing the gift — considering why the person chose it, how it reflects love or lack of love, whether we really want it or like it — keeps us from enjoying it.”

Lynne M. Baab in Sabbath Keeping: Finding Freedom in the Rhythms of Rest (Downers Grove: IVP, 2005) 10-11.

Some saints enjoy and experience gifts from God more quickly than others. Rest is something I am still learning to enjoy and experience. Perhaps you can identify with me. It’s enriching to discover that Jesus does not force us to rest from our labors; He invites us to take a break with Him. Rest is a gift! We must “unwrap” it to enjoy it!

Do you enjoy and experience this generous gift from God? Can you think of one new weekly sabbath rhythm that might enrich you for the duration of each week? 

The world of the generous gets larger and larger; the world of the stingy gets smaller and smaller. Proverbs 11:24

“The world of the generous,” Eugene Peterson translates Proverbs 11:24, “gets larger and larger: the world of the stingy gets smaller and smaller” (MSG). This is more than a principle of financial stewardship, it’s a basic truth of life. Generous people generate things. And, consequently, their worlds are more varied, surprising, colorful, fruitful. They’re richer. More abounds with them, and yet they have greater thirst and deeper capacity to take it all in. The world delights the generous but seldom overwhelms them.

Not so the stingy. Stinginess is parasitic, it chews life up and spits out bones. The stingy end up losing what they try so desperately to hold. As Jesus warned, those who store up treasure on earth discover, to late that such storage is merely composting. Or, as he warned in the parable of the talents, trying to preserve a thing intact never accomplishes even that much. Hoarding is only wasting. Keeping turns into losing. And so the world of the stingy shrinks. Skinflints, locked into a mind-set of scarcity, find that the world dwindles down to meet their withered expectations. Because they are convinced there isn’t enough, there never is.”

Mark Buchanan in The Rest of God: Restoring Your Soul by Restoring Sabbath (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2006) 83.

How would you describe your world? Is it getting larger or smaller? The paradox of the Christian faith is that we gain nothing unless we risk everything. Only when we lose our life do we find it. When we share richly, we find we abound with God’s abundance. Don’t go through life merely composting. Abandon the scarcity mind-set. Put to work what God provides, and somehow God makes everything larger and larger. We have found this to be true in our lives! And the abundance we enjoy is never for hoarding as we lose whatever we keep. Buchanan sums it up aptly when he reminds us that this is “more than a principle of financial stewardship, it’s a basic truth of life.”

Only be careful, and watch yourselves closely so that you do not forget the things your eyes have seen or let them fade from your heart as long as you live. Teach them to your children and to their children after them. Deuteronomy 4:9

“Our generosity, or lack thereof also serves as a witness to our children and grandchildren. Many of us intentionally work to train our kids about giving and generosity, and this is a good thing, but we know that children grow up to demonstrate more of what they caught from us versus what they were actually taught.”

Mike Slaughter in The Christian Wallet: Spending, Giving, and Living with a Conscience (Louisville: WJKP, 2016) 81.

Our generosity is a witness. How we handle money testifies to what we believe. It’s a sobering and powerful idea that we must be careful to demonstrate a consistent example of faithful discipleship for our children. We do this by simply living how we want our children to live. For them to follow in our footsteps, our walk must be consistent with our talk.

The key here is to abandon our pride! Rather than trying to “have it all together” for our children (whether they are young or grown) we must, with childlike faith, talk about what we are learning about the various facets of giving through the journey of life. This invites them, regardless of their age, to join us in the journey of living with humility and generosity.

Frankly, I believe our grown children, Samuel David and Sophie Victoria, are loving, kind, and generous because their mother (and my dear wife), Jenni, whose birthday we celebrate today, consistently sets a loving, kind, and generous example. Happy birthday, Jenni! We love you and celebrate how Christ shines in and through how you live, give, serve, and love!

While He was reclining at the table with them, He took bread, spoke a blessing and broke it, and gave it to them. Then their eyes were opened and they recognized Jesus – and He disappeared from their sight. Luke 24:30-31

“Human beings are made for communion. If there’s no communion; we close up on ourselves; we are unable to communicate; to to enter into the flow of life. It is as if there is no irrigation, no circulation of life. A child abandoned at birth closes up in sadness and depression and becomes incapable of reacting or communicating. For a child, this communion is vital, the to and fro of love, wherein each one gives and receives. Sometimes I hear psychologists say that children are incapable of loving and that love only grows and deepens later as we grow in our gift of self and become more generous and altruistic.

But children do love, though not with a love that is generosity, only with a love that is trust, a love which is a communion of hearts. Trust is already a gift of self. We adults have often grown in generosity but have lost this basic trust – a trust in God, a trust in others, a trust in ourselves. We have been hurt or manipulated in the past and are afraid of being hurt again if we put too much trust in others.

Instead we put up our defense mechanisms and become independent and self-sufficient. Children are not self-sufficient. They need others to cover them up at night if they are cold. They are dependent on others for everything and can only cry out in their need. Their cry is in itself a sign of trust; trust that someone will come and answer their cry, that someone is there who wants them to be well and happy.

When a mother hears her child’s cry she knows how to interpret it – whether it is a sign that he is hungry or frightened or in pain – because she loves and knows her child. We…have to learn how to interpret the cry of our people especially when they are non verbal; their only language is their facial expression, their gesture or sometimes their violence. We need to understand what they are asking for, who they are refusing, and where there is pain.”

Jean Vanier in Befriending the Stranger (New York: Paulist Press, 2005) 118-119.

Does your generosity include trust?

Vanier keenly notes that we as adults tend to lose that childlike trust and dependence, exchanging it for defense mechanisms and independence because we have been burned in the past. We think we know better, and so we actually isolate ourselves from the very communion we and others need most. We become blind to Christ who is with us and at work around us.

Do you know how to interpret the cries of the people around you? And why does this matter?

To live, give, serve, and love friend and stranger, enemy or neighbor, we must drop our defense mechanisms, abandon independence that isolates us, and embrace trust in God and others. If we do this, we will experience communion with God and others. And our eyes will be opened to recognize Jesus who is with us and at work around us and through us.

He told them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and planted in his field. Though it is the smallest of all seeds, yet when it grows, it is the largest of garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds come and perch in its branches.” Matthew 13:31-32

“How different our life would be if we could but believe that every little act of faithfulness, every gesture of love, every word of forgiveness, every little bit of joy and peace will multiply and multiply…Imagine your kindness to your friends and your generosity to the poor are little mustard seeds that will become strong trees in which many birds can build their nests…Imagine that you’re trusting that every little movement of love you make will ripple out into ever new and wider circles…You and I would dance for joy were we to know that we, little people, are chosen, blessed, and broken to become the bread that will multiply itself in the giving.”

Henri Nouwen (1932-1996) in Life of the Beloved (New York: Crossroad, 1992) 123-124.

After my meditation about mustard seeds a few days ago, my friend, Bobby Thomas of the Arkansas Baptist Foundation, alerted me to the Mustard Seed App. Check it out. It helps stewards round up purchases to the nearest dollar and then deploys the funds to the charities of your choice. Not only do you multiply the impact of small gifts, but you make math easier in your budgeting.

We are having a young family over tonight for supper. Micah and Kari Kohls and their three daughters, Kinley, Claire, Lainey (or three little mustard seeds). I think I first met Micah at a National Christian Foundation Colorado luncheon a while back. Micah reads these daily posts and we are looking forward to meeting his family. He often sends me little emails filled with kindness.

When we grasp how multiplication happens in giving, we realize that we are the little mustard seeds. In today’s Scripture we discover that we only grow in to large trees when we are planted. We have to go into the ground and die first, which requires the belief and imagination Nouwen so eloquently captures. What are you waiting for? People can’t perch in your branches until you let the Master Gardener sow you like a little mustard seed.

You keep track of all my sorrows. You have collected all my tears in your bottle. You have recorded each one in your book. Psalm 56:8

“All the temporal things that we tend to build our lives upon – the accumulation of wealth, material things, health, popularity, status, career success, and the like – fade into the background to a place of lesser gravity and significance. In their stead comes an awareness of things that really matter: things like love, conversation, laughter, eye contact, holding hands to the very end, the treasuring of every moment, and tear ducts – the release valve that our weeping God created to help us exhale our grief. Tears are our stake in the ground, our tender yet tenacious protest against things like death, mourning, sorrow, and pain – things that we know intuitively are not supposed to be.”

Scott Sauls in Befriend: Create Belonging in an Age of Judgment, Isolation, and Fear (Carol Stream: Tyndale, 2016) 101-102.

Pastor James Hoxworth at Bridgeway Community Church preached on lament from Psalms in his sermon this past Sunday (“Good Grief” dated 23 July 2017). The generous compassion of “our weeping God” struck me. He not only knows our pain and sorrow so much that He collects our tears in bottle, but He gives us the ability to “exhale our grief” through our tear ducts. What a gift that is to each of us!

Undoubtedly there are things that make you cry, such as the suffering of a loved one or pain that you endure personally. When we suffer physical, emotional, relational or other difficulties our minds become keenly aware of what really matters. This heightens my resolve to use the resources God has entrusted to us minimally for temporal things in order to maximize our bandwidth to minister generously to the brokenhearted.

The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life [zōēn] and have it abundantly. John 10:10

“An ordinary simple Christian kneels down to say his prayers. He is trying to get into touch with God. But if he is a Christian he knows that what is prompting him to pray is also God: God, so to speak, inside him. But he also knows that all his real knowledge of God comes through Christ, the Man who was God — that Christ is standing beside him, helping him to pray, praying for him. You see what is happening. God is the thing to which he is praying—the goal he is trying to reach. God is also the thing inside him which is pushing him on—the motive power. God is also the road or bridge along which he is being pushed to that goal. So that the whole threefold life of the three-personal Being is actually going on in that ordinary little bedroom where an ordinary man is saying his prayers. The man is being caught up into the higher kinds of life—what I called Zoe or spiritual life: he is being pulled into God, by God, while still remaining himself.”

C.S. Lewis in Mere Christianity (San Francisco: Harper Collins, 2001) 163.

I chose this excerpt from Mere Christianity, a must-read, classic book, for today’s meditation because I got to visit Cañon City, Colorado, this weekend with my wife. Cañon City is the home of the highest suspension bridge in the USA (pictured above). It towers about 1,000 feet above the Arkansas River. We are celebrating 25 years of marriage this year with 25 dates and visiting the park and walking across it marked special date #15 for the year. It was also a treat to ride the train through the canyon with our neighbors, Ken and Carol Sharp, with whom we laugh, play games, and encourage each other on the spiritual journey.

This grand bridge reminds me of God’s generosity to us. He reveals Himself to us. He bridges the chasm we could never cross. He even works within us to move us toward abundant life [zōēn]. As we begin this new week, join me in thanking God for His generosity toward us. Father in heaven, we thank you that you are the bridge between us and abundant life. Teach us about you daily through your Word and by your Holy Spirit at work within us. Draw us to yourself. Cause our lives to exhibit your love and generosity so that others are drawn to you too. Hear our prayer in the name of Jesus. Amen.