Give It a Rest!

"Give it a rest!"

As a parent, I've used those words, or something similar to it on many occasions.

Maybe you've used them in a car, restaurant, or other close quarters. Maybe you've used them when someone or something was repeating a noise, a thought, a word, or an act, over, and over, and over, and over, and over, and...

Sometimes those words can be for our good too.

God told Moses, "For 6 yrs. you are to sow your fields and harvest the crops, but during the 7th yr. let the land lie unplowed and unused. Then the poor among you may get food from it, and the wild animals may eat what they leave." (Exodus 24:10)

Sabbath is good stewardship of the environment and bringing about social justice.

Then He tells Moses, "6 days do your work, but on the 7th day do not work, so that your ox and your donkey may rest and the slave born in your household, and the alien as well, may be refreshed." (Exodus 24:12)

Sabbath is good stewardship of people and equipment.

It was also interesting in Exodus when Moses went up the mountain to meet with God, Moses waited for 6 days. But on the 7th, God appeared.

Sabbath is good for worship.

And when the children of Israel left the comforts of Egypt and wandered in the desert, God provided food, 6 out of 7 days. On the 6th day, they were to save up enough for two days so they wouldn't have to gather on the sabbath. God would provide a double portion, just this 1 day of the week.

Sabbath is good for our faith.

How are you doing at giving yourself and those around you a rest? Do you treat every day just like the rest of the days? Do you take a break, change the pace, give it a rest 1 out of every 7?

Eugene Peterson wrote that as a pastor, it is easy to think our work is "SO IMPORTANT" that we neglect to rest, even though we call the church people to do it. Peterson says that the principle of "sabbath" (resting 1 out of 7), reminds him that the world was here before he was, will be here after he's gone, and will be just fine without him working that 1 day.

I've tried to put that into practice in our household. The kids each have a paper route. (3 kids, 3 routes.) And it is a 7-day-a-week job. But we make sure everyone has a day off. The girls take off Sun. morning. Noah and I go and do the route that day. Noah takes off Sat. AM. The girls get the Sun. inserts bagged, and I get up and do the routes, most Saturdays, by myself.

Sometimes it's no big deal. I'm an early riser and the peace and quiet of the morning can be refreshing for the spirit, the mind, and the body.

But there are other days when allowing them to have a sabbath isn't easy. It would be better for me if I could get one of them up.

Then I remember, "If God rested on the 7th day, the land is supposed to rest on the 7th day, and I've been commanded to let everyone under my roof rest on the 7th day, it's probably more important for them to sleep in that 1 day."

So how 'bout you? How are you doing at giving it (and yourself) a rest?

Grace & peace.

Getting Ready for God

What is the picture of God you have in your mind?

Is it of a kindly, old, bearded man, sitting in a rocker? Is it of a lovey, dovey, mushy, syrupy sweet guy, always ready with a positive word, affirming your decisions and choices? Is God just another buddy of ours we talk to when things get a little rough?

While the Bible DOES talk about God being loving ("God IS love" and "God so loved the world..."), and He does call people friends several places throughout scripture, this image, taken by itself, is a one-sided, partial picture of Who God is and what God is like. Relationship with God solely based upon this perspective is underdeveloped and only 1/2 baked.

Even Morgan Freeman's portrayal in "Bruce Almighty" dressed in casual vacation-wear, gives a fuller picture than simply All Love, All the Time.

Exodus 19 gives a different picture.

Moses and the people are getting ready to go up to the mountain and hear from God. God wants interaction with the people. (The 10 Commandments are coming, along with some other instructions, in the next chapters of the story of how we are to live. [If you read chapters 20-23, give particular attention to the place of widows, orphans, aliens, and sabbath in God's economy.])

God has recently freed the slaves from their taskmasters and led them through the Red Sea (which was parted in chapter 14). And God has some things He wants to say to His people. But before the people and God meet, God tells Moses there are some preparations that need to be made for this meeting.

- They are to set themselves apart (or consecrate themselves) from the ordinariness of life (v10)
- They are to wash themselves and their clothes (v10)
- They are to observe limits between where they will be standing and where God is going to appear (v12)
- They are to prepare themselves for the meeting (v15)
- They are to abstain from sexual relations between now and the time they meet with God (v15)

Does this mean we have to be perfect before we come to God? No. None of us is or ever will be perfect. I don't think Moses or the people would have claimed this for themselves.

Does this mean we come to God based upon what we do and how thoroughly we have prepared? No. Relationship with God is based upon the fact that God created us, sees our need, hears our cries, and is responding. Again, Moses & the Hebrew children were responding to a God who had liberated them from a 430-year-old curse.

So what DOES it mean? It means that God is unlike anyone else you or I know.

It means God deserves the very best, most heartfelt praise, and whole-hearted devotion we can give Him.

It means if we are willing to take the Person of God seriously, there will be a bit of weightiness and a measure of trembling and seriousness and awe in our interactions with him.

It means that when we have the opportunity to meet with God, we have a chance to be with One unlike anyone else we will ever interact with.

What kind of preparations might you feel led to make prior to your next meeting with God?

For some of us the issue is simply clearing time in our schedule. We can get so cluttered with tasks, responsibilities, rides to games or concerts or meetings for good things, that we forget to take time for the Best.

For others of us the issue may be turning off the music, shutting off the dvd or the tv, and finding a little quiet time by ourselves, away from the computer screen.

For others of us, it may be listening to that still, small voice inside us, telling us to send a card to the family member, make a phone call to a friend, stop by for a visit with that irritating person, or willingly forgive the one who wronged us. Funny how so often God shows up as an unexpected 3rd party in our meetings with other people.

Maybe your preparation is going back and reading a verse or a chapter or a book of the Bible. How long has it been? What might explode off the page, jump start your spirit, or cause your heart to swell?

From my experience, anything you are asked to do, any sacrifice you are called to make, will be dwarfed in comparison to God's presence and arrival at that meeting.

Grace & peace.

Do You Know?

Ever feel like THIS is NOT the way life should be?

Ever feel like AFTER ALL YOU'VE DONE, AFTER ALL YOU'VE GIVEN, you deserve better than
THIS!?

I bet that's how the Hebrew people were feeling in Exodus 1. Think of all they and their
foretfathers had been through. Abraham and the promises and his faithful following,
Jacob's wrestling with God, Joseph kicked out of the family, sold as a slave, falsely
imprisoned, and all the dreams, and finally rescuing the country and moving the family to
Egypt.

Whew! That's enough, isn't it? Time for a rest, right?

"Then a new king, who did not know about Joseph, came to power in Egypt." (1:8)

You get the feeling we're in for a whole new series of events. And you'd be right. Because
now the Hebrew people are slaves. The Hebrews were "oppressed" and "forced labor" for
foreigners. Their taskmasters "worked them ruthlessly". And at one point, Pharoah orders
all of the boy babies to be slaughtered. An attempt to wipe the Hebrews off the face of the
earth, end their culture, write them out of the story.

The thought comes to the mind of the reader: doesn't anyone remember history? Doesn't
anyone remember the previous chapter to this story? Doesn't anyone remember how God
intervened? How the Hebrews were used to SAVE the country, the ancestors of the very
people who are now mistreating us? Doesn't anyone remember Joseph?

No. Not this king. "The new king...did not know about Joseph."

It's like chugging up the next huge hill on a rollercoaster when you were sure the first one
was IT...the hill to be feared, with the huge drop-off, taking your breath away. You pull into
the station, thinking the ride is complete. But now the ride starts up again and you're going
down a whole new set of tracks with bigger challenges than you had faced before.

It's the life of the People of Faith, God's people.

Seems like a bit of a bummer. Seems like a devotional for a Monday.

But even in a story like this, there is a glimmer of hope.

Don't miss them at the beginning of this story. They aren't royalty. They aren't rich people.
They aren't powerful.

They're nurses, midwives really. They help deliver the babies. They refuse to give into the
king's genocidal plan because "they feared God".

I wonder, WHY did they fear God? Could it be that someone had told them the story about
Joseph? Could it be that someone told them that when a famine was coming, it was the God
of the Hebrews who had given them warning?

Maybe so. However they found out, they had some history with God, knew God had a
history with them, and they did what was right.

The king didn't know about Joseph. But the midwives did.

How 'bout you?

Grace & Peace.

Stay with the Jerk?

"Better to have loved and lost than stay living with the jerk!!"

Better to have loved and lost than to have stayed with the jerk!

So said the bumper sticker.

Of course the original saying comes from Tennyson:

"'Tis better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all."

But the "update" got me thinking, "is there someone specific the driver was referring to? Is this their way of sticking it to their ex?"

There's an interesting story about a brother that had a chance to stick it to his siblings. He had every reason to. They had made fun of him. They had stolen one of his most precious items, given to him by their father. The other brothers had kicked "the favorite son" out of the family.

If anyone had a right to stick it to someone, it was this 1 brother, Joseph, the favorite. If anyone should have been glad to get the jerks out of their life, it should have been him.

And here was his chance. There was a famine back home. Times were bad.

So the brothers had all traveled a great distance to the place where there was plenty of food. When they arrived, they went to see "The Man", the authority who had the power to grant food or deny food; the ability to extend life or to take it from their entire family.

The Man...was Joseph.

The scene was set perfectly. The brothers didn't even know it was him. The years had made him unrecognizable to them. What would he do? How would he get back at them? After seeing all the injustice, you're just about giddy for him to pounce on them.

But Joseph didn't do that. He played it cool. He didn't tell them who he was. Not at first.

But he didn't make it easy on them either. He accuses the brothers of being spies. He sends 8 of the 9 half-brothers that are there home to bring back the 1 full brother to "prove their story", (when in reality he probably just wants to see his brother Benjamin with his own eyes). And he keeps 1 of the brothers as ransom to make sure they return.

At the climactic scene in the whole story, (you REALLY need to read the whole account in Genesis chapters 36, 39-45 because time doesn't allow me to tell you about great scenes like the brothers bowing low, begging for mercy and food to the one they've wronged, and they don't even know it!!) he is ready to reveal his true identity to them, and, you hope, STICK IT TO THEM. This is what he says:

"I am Joseph!!" Alright. Here it comes...

"Is my father still alive?" Well, that's natural. He wants to know his dad is doing. But get ready for payback!

"...Don't be angry at what you did to me for God did it. He sent me hear ahead of you to preserve your lives...to keep you and your families alive."

WHAT?! No retribution? No vengeance? No punishment for all the picking on him, kicking him out of the family and making him go through all this pain? (I mean, he didn't speak Egyptian very well! [A.L.W.])

And what's all this "God did it" stuff about anyway??

The Hebrews of the Old Testament had this irritating habit of seeing God behind nearly EVERYTHING. The sun comes out or the rain falls and God causes it. Children are born or a couple is infertile and God is working behind it. Nations rise or nations fall and it is directly linked to divine will.

Now, I'm not saying that everything you experience is directly caused by God. (Even Scripture would argue against that idea when it says "the rain falls on the just and the unjust"; some stuff JUST HAPPENS.)

But I AM saying that maybe there is something going on, Someone at work, behind the scenes, just past our normal ability to see and hear, and it might be worth our while to investigate further.

Joseph did. And what he saw told him that God was at work in the midst of all the injustice he had experienced, all the punishement he had unfairly taken, all the time of separation from his father, all the pain intentionally caused by is brothers. That in all of that, God had not forgotten him, and was actually USING it to benefit those around him.

Joseph saw something else too. He saw that forgiveness on his part would save his father and all of his father's sons. He saw that returning kindness to them would provide life and healing that vindictiveness could never give.

Now, I have to tell you, something within me wants that type of forgiveness when I mess up. Something in me cries out for people to be that gracious and wise when I drop the ball, step on it, and lose it. And I'm guesssing something within you feels the same way.

So what will you do? Will you be willing to love and lose? Or will you stick it to the jerk?

Grace & peace.

Gritty Integrity

Not too many people have had the run of undeserved misfortunes Joseph had:

- Selected as the favorite by his dad, among all his brothers
- Mom dies while giving birth to a younger brother
- Teased and admonished by family because of his dreams
- Sold by brothers into slavery
- Falsely accused by his boss' wife of hitting on her
- Left to rot in prison

But not too many people are able to maintain their integrity in the midst of such persecution:

- His boss "gave Joseph complete administrative responsibility over everything he owned. With Joseph there, he didn't have a worry in the world, except to decide what he wanted to eat!" (Gen. 39:6a)

- Likewise, "the chief jailer had no more worries after (Joseph came under his charge), because Joseph took care of everything. The LORD was with him, making everything run smoothly and successfully." (Gen. 39:23)

- And again, "Joseph was put in charge of all Egypt. And Pharaoh said to Joseph, 'I am the king, but no one will move a hand or a foot in the entire land of Egypt without your approval.'" (Gen. 41:43b-44)

What a lesson for us when things go bad. Will you follow Joseph's example and do what is right, give your best effort, and earn the trust of others, when things are at their worst in your life?

Grace & peace.

Who Will Hear You?

When was the last time you were DESPERATE? So desperate that you had nowhere to turn and no one to help you?

When was the last time you were in such despair that the ONLY thing you could do was cry or yell "HELP!"?

Imagine a family that is broken up. Imagine this family has a father who has had children by two women. Imagine how much those women DON'T get along. Imagine being the woman that has to leave the home with your little boy, and it becomes easy to imagine despair (Where will I go?), rejection (The father that was supposed to protect us is nowhere to be found), fear (How will I feed my boy?).

The woman, the mother, has a name. It is Hagar. Her son is Ishmael. The father is Abraham. Yes, THAT Abraham, the father of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.

As the mother is crying and lost in the wilderness, something happens. Or, put more correctly, Someone happens to come on the scene.

"Hagar...where have you come from and where are you going?" It's the voice of God.

Hagar and God begin a conversation and before it is all over, Hagar goes from being all alone to having a Friend. She now calls this Friend, "the God Who sees me".

One interaction. One conversation. A woman, (a servant woman), of desperation goes from being all alone to providing us with one of the most amazing names for God in all of scripture.

What would you call God today?

Do you know Him as "the God who sees me"?

Grace & peace.

Have You Ever Read the Bible?

Most of us have formed SOME kind of opinion about the Bible: THE Word of God, or "just a collection of stories," or "written by people".

But beyond that I wonder: Have you ever READ it? I don't mean cracked a Bible and randomly read a sentence or two and then put it away.

I mean REALLY read it.

If not, I invite you on a journey. Begin to read it. Throughout the year I'll be leaving bread crumbs on my journey, little pieces of where I'm reading.

Now I know that New Year's Resolutions are a dirty word to many of us skeptics. A recent survey by John C. Norcross from Univ. of Scranton in PA found that by Feb. 1, about 1/3 of those who set resolutions had failed.

But wouldn't it be great to reach the end of the year and arrive at the summit of this task together?

Here are a couple of suggestions that might be helpful:

- If you're new to the Bible, get an easy-to-read-translation, something that's been written AFTER 1960. Maybe even a paraphrase for your first reading. (A translation attempts word for word communication, while a paraphrase puts it into the words of the author, trying to explain how they see this going along.)

- Don't get discouraged if you get bogged down or lose interest. That's why we're doing the Buddy System. I'll keep leaving those bread crumbs throughout the year, and maybe we'll separate at places on the trail, only to hook-up again at other places. Maybe you'll skip a day or two, occasionally. That's ok. If you slack off a little, allow yourself to jump back in as the rhythym of your life finds interest in a new book. We won't beat you up at all.

- Consider alternative forms of "reading". Maybe hearing it on cd is good for you. I have a friend who types parts of the Bible as she finds the activity helps to stimulate the brain and comprehension. One of my kids has started doing the same thing.

- Learn to live with questions. Sometimes reading the Bible will raise more Q's than answers. That's ok. Would you really want to hear from a God who could be figured out by you or me in ONE READING?!

- Finally, and this is key, whisper a little prayer before beginning. Ask for God to give you a return on your investment of time and energy. Say something like, "I'm not sure how this is going to work out, but I ask you to meet me on the journey" or "Would you show up along the way and every once in awhile surprise me with your Presence?"

You'll be amazed how such a commitment and request on your part will result in God's Spirit responding.

This week I'll be in Genesis. "In the beginning God created..."

What does God want to create in you and your reading?

Several times in chapter 1 we notice God reflects upon His creation: "God saw that it was good."

May God be creating good in your life.

Grace & peace.