Ready when you are

In the Gospel of Luke chapter 11, we read the account of the disciples asking Jesus for instruction on how to pray and Jesus teaching to them what we call the Lord's Prayer (vv.1-4). As I've been teaching on this for the last 7 weeks at Emmaus Road Church, one of the more curious things I've noticed about this request is when it takes place.

By this point, the disciples had been with Jesus for many months. So why hadn't Jesus taught them this already? If you or I were in charge of a movement that we hoped would change the world, don't you think we'd start by teaching our followers the fundamentals, like how to really pray to God? Of course we would. But Jesus didn't. Why not?

Simply put, I think Jesus recognized that the disciples weren't ready. So instead of forcing something upon them they could not really apprehend, Jesus simply modeled it for them until they were ready. One writer puts it this way,

"Jesus simply prayed. He just prayed and prayed until [the disciples] eventually asked, 'How do you do it?' By way of answer, He said, 'Try this.' It was so important He didn't insist they learn to pray until they themselves perceived they were missing something."

After reading that, I grasped just a little more fully what the point is of much of our frustration when it comes to life--especially our spiritual life. By not answering our flippant requests, the ones we usually offer Him as we're falling asleep or when we're in some desperate situation, God creates in us a dissatisfaction, a longing for something more and something greater. In this way, he weeds out all things trivial in order that what is fundamental and true can grow tall and strong until we recognize it as that which we most truly and desperately need.

It's not that God's unwilling, it's simply that we're not ready. In fact, God is always ready, but most than that, He's ready when you are.

Back to School

My son Oscar cried himself to sleep tonight because he starts 1st grade tomorrow. He's not scared or anything, he just doesn't like to have to do "work and stuff." I wish life were that simple.

Edie then called me to her room and said, "Dad, I'm not so sure I like school anymore because Oscar doesn't like it." Empathy through and through.

We prayed a special prayer with each of them tonight--for them, their peers, their teachers, and the staff for this school year.

They grow up too fast.

Happy Birthday and the Problem of Evil

So I turn 34 today (I've outlived Jesus--I don't know if that's good or bad), and I spent the morning (well, 6:30-8:00) unlike any birthday I can remember--walking, jogging, and praying.

I say I was praying, but it was a bit of a one-way conversation with me doing most of the talking . . . er, complaining. I get that way sometimes, and I've found that long walks in places of solitude and silence lend themselves better to really getting at the heart of the issue. If we're truly honest, a lot of our praying closely resembles someone feeding a dog table scraps: We're occupied with whatever it is we're doing, not wanting to be bothered, but we feel guilty enough to toss a bone or two God's way every now and then. That's where I started off this morning, but with time (and the opportunity to pray aloud) what's gnawing at my gut usually makes it's way into the dialogue (or is it diatribe?).

I usually pray for my family at some point, for physical safety and spiritual protection, and that's when the "Problem of Evil" reared it's head again. I may pray that my children and wife will never have to experience some horrific act of violence and evil, and, although God may indeed protect my family, what about the thousands, perhaps millions of others who do suffer such atrocities? What about those who suffered in the genocide in Rwanda, or who languish in North Korean prison camps, or the children and women in brothels like those in Svey Pak, Cambodia that I read about recently in Christianity Today or even in those right here in Toledo? Why do they have to suffer when we pray for an end to evil? As a parent who loves my children immensely, and would never knowingly allow them to experience something so terrible, how can God, who is supposed to be "Love" itself, let people suffer the way they do?

The answer usually given is that in order for real love to exist, humans must have free will; we need the freedom to chose to love or not to love God. Well, this morning I said a big fat "Screw You!" to free will. Why not just give us limited free will--I think we could still love God just as much if the only things we weren't free to do were those sickening acts of violence toward others, particularly children, which we too often hear about. I mean, if you think about it, we already have limited free will anyway. I may wish to, but I can't just jump out of my window and fly away. There are physical laws in place that limit my freedom. More to the point, according to the Bible, I don't even have the freedom to reject God and ever truly be happy. So what would be the dectraction to free will if we added one more limiting factor: No violence toward others, or at least children?

So then, I began to question God's existence, as I think all of us must do from time to time if we're to be honest with ourselves and our experience of life. The "Problem of Evil" summed up states the following: We say God is all loving and all powerful. Yet if evil continues to exist, then God must either not be all loving--else how could He allow it to continue--or He's not all powerful, because if He were all loving and all powerful then He certainly would do something about it.

Now, sorry to disappoint you here, but I don't claim to have an answer to this--I don't think anyone does. Still, as I was having it out with God this morning, a thought occured to me which is helping me make some peace with it--at least for now.

I began to realize that rather than turn me away from God, the problem of evil actually ought to strengthen my belief in Him. Evil in the world does at least one thing well--it proves how truly messed up we human beings are when left to our own devices, when we do what we want to do instead of what God desires for us. Evil highlights our deep, infinite need for God. It demonstrates in visceral ways our utter lostness apart from Him and His laws.

Even more, as my former philosophy professor, Dr. Truesdale once wrote, "The Christian faith has no adequate rational "justification" or "solution" for the problem of evil. But it does have a more-than-adequate response." (If God is God, Then Why?, p. 107).

He goes on:
What sort of God do we meet in the Cross? None other than the God who suffers with us. The Cross guarantees that God is present with us. He doesn't stand safely aloof. In Christ we meet the eternal God, who so radically identifies with a suffering world that He takes the world's evil upon himself. Not just the sins of the world, but the unfathomable abyss of evil. In Christ, God radically identifies with human brokenness. He suffers the heinous death of His only begotten Son (p. 108).

I think I understand how the problem of evil could turn people away from God, but I think it only can when people fail to recognize that evil results from people choosing to do whatever it is they want to do and fail to yeild to the will of God.

Like I said, it still doesn't explain how evil can exist when we believe that God is all loving and all powerful, but it does at least point us to the One who ultimately has the answer to that question.

Well, here's to my 34th.

Prayer of St. Anselm

O Lord our God, give us grace to desire you with a whole heart,
that so desiring you we may seek you and find you;
and so finding you, may love you;

and loving you, may hate those sins from which you have redeemed us,

for Jesus Christ’s sake.
Amen.

--St. Anselm, 1033-1109

Active Waiting

How do you "Wait on God"?

Is it like waiting on a train? Does it imply sitting around listening for a heavenly phone to ring with God on the other line telling us what to do? Are we to wait patiently or impatiently? Are we allowed to be frustrated in the waiting process? And while we're at it, how do we know we're not missing the very thing we've been waiting for?

The Old Testament prophet Isaiah said, "the LORD longs to be gracious to you; he rises to show you compassion. For the LORD is a God of justice. Blessed are all who wait for him!" (30:18).

The enitre context of chapter 30 is a declaration of suffering which has come upon the Israelites, God's own people, for their disobedience in forging their own path. "They say to the seers, 'See no more visions!' and to the prophets, 'Give us no more visions of what is right! Tell us pleasant things, prophesy illusions. Leave this way, get off this path, and stop confronting us with the Holy One of Israel!' (vv. 10-11). As one reads through the implacations against them in Isaiah, it becomes apparent that they concerned themselves more with short term prosperity than with longterm integrity. They demonstrated the antithesis of waiting on God.

The Hebrew word for "wait" most often used in the scriptures has an active meaning. It typically connotes endurance: "In waiting for God the Hebrew was in tense anticipation, full of hope, and willing to endure till God should come" (The Interpreter's Dictionary of the Bible, 796). One waits in trouble. One waits through suffering. One waits even in prosperity. But all the while, one waits actively.

How then should we wait?

This question weighs on my mind these days. I'm in a position where there is a lot of freedom, a lot of free time with which I can do what I want. Planting a new church that is a month along and as of yet has no gathering body, means that there are few immediate or pressing tasks which require my time. If I wanted, I could likely spend my days sitting here at my desk reading the news, organizing things, or doing any number of trivialities, and I could blame it on the fact that I'm "waiting on God" to build His church here through us.

But if I take the Biblical meaning of waiting on God, that is I wait actively, then I can't just sit in my office and do nothing and expect a church to miraculously appear. No, I must be involved in doing.

Now that doing doesn't mean I do my own thing, which is precisely what the Israelites were guilty of. Instead, I get busy doing God's work--reaching out to people with love and hope, meeting them where they are, utilizing the resources and gifts God's given me and my family for His purposes and Kingdom here on earth.

Just before He ascended to heaven, Jesus told His disciples to wait for Him in Jerusalem. Had they chosen to wait like the Israelites or like I often do, they probably would have just returned to Jerusalem, returned to their jobs and families and tucked Jesus' command away in the corner of their minds. That's not what they did.

"Then they worshiped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy. And they stayed continually at the temple, praising God" (Luke 24:53). It is likely that this is the place where they were when the Holy Spirit descended upon them with power 50 days later during Pentecost. They were actively waiting on God. Had they not waited in this way, how might things have been different?

And so I'm trying to learn how to wait on God by doing what I sense He's leading me to do. As I read His word and pray, as I listen throughout the day, as I keep my spiritual antenna tuned to His voice and leading, I'm trying simply to follow what I believe He's saying. I'm using my best judgment in discerning what He'd have me to do. Some of these efforts may be met with little success. Others may produce outward fruit. All of them lead to a heart willing to do whatever it is He asks of me.

It's not easy. It's not always clear or simple. In fact, sometimes I may not much feel like waiting on God at all. I certainly don't profess to be perfect at this waiting thing. But by I believe that waiting is the only faithful response to what God has shown us through His word and through the accumulative experiences of Christians throughout history.

So, I'll wait.