40

I heard a preacher say once, “In our western culture it is a form of treason to be unhappy." In fact one of the few places left in society where you can be free to express openly your pain, suffering and misery is in a therapy session after which we are encouraged to medicate until those nasty bad feelings go away... for good!
If there was ever a time and place where we need a season of Lent it is most certainly now. So I have eagerly set out on my journey of Lent this year and I have not been disappointed! (or maybe I should say I have found disappointment?)
I've believe that this season of lent has become for me a dark place. The church calendar calls the 40 days prior to resurrection, "Lenten" which comes from the Latin word meaning "40". Despite its "creative" name it is not meant to be a happy season. It is meant to commemorate the 40 days that Jesus spent fasting in the wilderness. At the end of which Jesus goes head to head with his (and our) mortal enemy Satan and defeats him with the Word of God. Lent, is meant to take us into the dark places of our lives; it is both a sober and somber time where we are encouraged to explore the parts of ourselves that we tend to hide from, ignore and even despise. The idea is that it should therefore set out a counterpoint or better a contrast to the heightened sense of joy, celebration and power that comes from the resurrection of Jesus Christ known as Easter.
Something powerful has surfaced during these darkened days. I have discovered it is OK to be sad about the things of my life that are displeasing to me. The things which I believe affect the joy of God's wonderful gift of salvation to me; the things which decrease my sense of the presence of God in my life. It is OK, not because some morbid sense of wallowing in my disparity or self pity, but rather it is a place where I find God there! He is already there. He is waiting for me to come and shine his light on these dark places, to experience his light push away darkness, to dislodge it from my soul and banish it from there.
I know it has only been a few days, well a week to be exact, since I have started my journey but it is already having this wonderfully unsettling affect upon areas of my life that normally I am complacent about.
I'm sure there will be more to come about this later as I journey along in my season of Lent. I am already anticipating with greater expectancy the glory and wonder and majesty of Jesus Christ bursting forth from darkness, from the tomb, to absolute and indescribable joy and light

Haiti and Siloam's Tower

Wow the devastation is the worst I’ve seen in my life. They are now reporting that hundreds of thousands could perish from this devastating earthquake. I saw one video of the ground bouncing like a trampoline. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UhLUMNdO8ic How horrifying and devastating to these poor people.
TV Evangelist Pat Robertson seems to think it is because of some ancestral curse, others think it is a judgment of God. Why has this happened? Or better yet, if you believe in God why would he let this happen?
Jesus taught one day about a tower that had collapsed on a bunch of people, maybe it was an earthquake that caused it, but none the less the death toll was significant. Jesus never asked why. In fact his response on the surface seems cold and callus. Do you think they were any worse than anyone else he asked? I tell you no, but all of you will likewise perish unless you repent. The presence of evil was not shocking to Jesus but what was shocking is that people somehow thought the people who died in the tower deserved it or had done something really bad for that to have happened to them. In other words there had to be some legitimate reason for it. But Jesus never concerned himself with the reason, since sin and the presence of it in this world was and is still reason enough. What Jesus concerned himself with was the necessity for repentance or death will be victorious over anyone who doesn’t repent. Then he told an interesting parable about a tree that had born no fruit for 3 years. The farmer had had enough and said cut it down but his partner said no leave it one more year, I will fertilize it and dig around it and give it special attention and see if it bears fruit. If still doesn’t produce fruit then we will cut it down. In other words God is patient with all of humanity, He desires all to repent, when these things happen it should bring us to our knees first, for as Jesus instructed, there will come an end to God's great patience with unrepentant humans.
In some ways worrying about why is like getting upset about spilt milk. We could spend an enormous amount of time figuring out how it got spilt but perhaps the better use of our time would be spent cleaning it up and consoling the one that spilt it. Haiti has experienced a terrible tragedy. Instead of worrying about the why, let’s allow it teach us to realize that life is full of evil because of sins effects on all of creation. We should let it lead us to repentance, and then let it lead us to pray, give or go and help with the clean up. Compassion is the evidence of good in the midst of such horrific evil.

holding tightly?

I've been thinking.... i know i know it is a rare commodity in this day and age and especially coming from me... but I have been thinking. It seems that at the end of something, like the end of a year or end of a decade, I find myself contemplative. I was thinking about who holds who in our christian walks? Do I hold on to the masters hand as my girls did when they were little as we walked through a crowd? Or does the master hold my hand with a promise that he will never let it go, like I did to my little girls hand determined not to lose her in the crowd. Who was holding who? I have noticed that a good number of newer christian worship songs seem to place a large amount of emphasis to what I do to maintain my relationship with my God but very little on what God has promised to do to keep me close to himself. It seems as though we live out our lives as though the relationship we have with Jesus was mostly up to us. I am as you can tell, not convinced this is the whole truth and nothing but the truth.
It would seem to me that I cannot trust myself to hold on. I cannot say with certainty that I will keep my faith, or i will never let God down, or i will never stop loving him, or only want to do what's right.... it seems that all of those things are true of God but certainty not of me. Yet I sing them to God anyway! Is it just me or is that just a whole-lot-a-proud covered up by lovely music and good intentions.
He is my strong tower, he is my rock, he is my fortress, he is my faithfulness, he is my joy, he is my love, he is my life, he is my comfort, he is my confidence, he is the one who holds me when I'm hurting, he is the one who holds me when I fall, he is the one who holds me when I stumble, he is the one who holds me when I cant find the strength to go on.... he is the one!
I've been thinking....
Happy New Year everyone!