Category: Soul direction

“I used to rule the world; seas would rise when I gave the word. Now in the morning I sleep alone, sweep the streets I used to own.”

Viva la Vida by Coldplay

They thought the world was theirs. They struggled, rose, and reigned. They paved, proved, and played. Enjoyed the good old days. They were young and sure to have their way…

They fought and won, had a son, grew cold to pain; morals down the drain

Going after their own gain, peace, and prosperity at another’s disdain

Some did well, sent the evil to hell; brought back some sensibility

Lifted up those in captivity. Honored the One who had fidelity

Most pushed it too far and wept seeing the scar,

Of senseless devotion to wood, wind, and stone

Instead of the Maker who was God alone

The kings of Israel; each given a paragraph of what summed up their life and memory

Myriad years fly by in a reading and all we know of them is a summary,

That gives the gist of what their lives consist

Evil, good, pretty good, bad; some started right but finished wrong

Few started and finished well. Then they were gone

And the text moves on to the next who hopefully went back to the Source with remorse,

And then believed in Him who gave them the choice

A paragraph. Your life in a paragraph. Plopped on a page. That’s all they’ll know of your stage

Whose lead are you following? How clued-in are you to what time is swallowing?

What will your paragraph say?

“For David had done what was right in the eyes of the LORD and had not failed to keep any of the LORD’s commands all the days of his life—except in the case of Uriah…”

1 Kings 15:5 NIV

“In everything he followed the ways of his father Asa and did not stray from them; he did what was right in the eyes of the LORD…”

1 Kings 22:43 NIV

“He did evil in the eyes of the LORD, because he followed the ways of his father and mother and of Jeroboam…”

1 Kings 22:52 NIV

“He followed the ways of the house of Ahab and did evil in the eyes of the LORD…”

2 Kings 8:27 NIV

“He did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, just as his father Uzziah had done.”

2 Kings 15:34 NIV

Rev 14:13 “…their deeds follow them…”

“I beseech you, remember this, that life on earth is a bewilderment and an enigma for which there is no solution, a long piece of irony unless beyond the grave there lie fields for nobler work for which we are being trained here.”

MacLaren on Rev 7:9

My soul was recently “grasshopper-ed” by looking at someone else’s work and comparing it to mine. I know better and came to my senses eventually but not without a bit of a fixation on the giant of “I should be doing more…”

As I sensed the condemning nature of that thought I clued into the deceit and lure to do more for God than He is asking of me and thus to detach from the Vine. Not a good prospect. Though I found that this led to some healthy reflection and self-examination where I let Him “test the attitude of my heart” (Jeremiah 12:3); where I got some clarity, received His love, and walked in faith in what I believe He is asking of me, trusting His redirection if I’m off. A joyous, freer, spacious place it was, trusting Him for His work of multiplying and using the bit I bring. This allowed more prayer, thought, and planning into what He has asked of me. Instead of pulling away diminished or rushing in with hubris, the giant was reduced in the fear of God.

The Israelites felt like “grasshoppers” when they encountered the people in the promised land. Their souls were diminished. (Numbers 13:33)

Of course, it was impossible for them to do it on their own yet they were acting like it would all be up to them. Their choice deeply disheartened God, along with Moses, Caleb, and Joshua. (Numbers 14:11) The people’s hope was in the wrong place.

I think they had misplaced assumptions as we often do: (Numbers 14)

• That life in the new land would be easy
• That God wasn’t really FOR them
• The illusion that life before was better. (Romanticizing the past)
• That our kids (the vulnerable ones) would suffer if they obeyed
• That the land wasn’t good for them, but rather full of dangers
• That they knew better than God and so didn’t heed Him

Then when they were rebuked and told that they’d have to wait 40 years, they wept and  swung the pendulum, deciding they would go, but on their own. They didn’t heed God’s warning. They were quickly defeated.

God rewarded the few who believed and feared God over the giants but they had to wait a long time.

How has your soul been tempted to grasshopper-ing?

How will you overcome your wrong assumptions?

 “These things were written for our instruction…” 1 Corinthians 10:11

Noticing a slip into laziness and a lean toward unhealthy withdrawal, I did some self-examination and recognized the danger. I could float and be fine.  Is that what I wanted?

In some moments – YES.  But when I thought more deeply – NO.

How could I channel anxious, scattered energy toward an intention that innovates in this situation rather than just maintains or goes backward? Anxious thoughts can be a good springboard to creative thinking.

BE AWARE OF YOUR THOUGHTS

“…know my anxious thoughts” Psalm 139:23

I do believe there are times when maintaining is all we can muster!  I have certainly been there. But right now, I’m  called to more, to stepping up, out of comfort into a new normal.  So, I ask God to awaken me to the thoughts that are ruling me today.

                    INNOVATE YOUR SOUL

“Behold, I’m doing a new thing….”  Isaiah 43:19

God is always doing new things.  Are we joining Him?

I think of the “disciplined distinctiveness” of the Rechabites.  Who are they?

They were an Israelite family group that had taken on an identity due to a discipline their forefather had passed down to them.  They were so distinctive holding firmly to his ways.   It could have become a legalistic stance, but it became a wonderful call to “disciplined distinctiveness”, as Eugene Peterson called it in his book Run with the Horses. God was using the example of the Rechabites to call His people to deep and careful observation of His Word.

 “Will you not receive instruction by listening to My words?” Jeremiah 35:13

(like that family took instruction from their father?)

The particular discipline was not the point, rather the fact that they held strongly to something they had committed to.  Like when Daniel was so resolved to not eat defiled food.  It distinguished him.  It wasn’t merely the outward act but rather the inner resolve he was strengthened to uphold for God’s purposes.  It set him apart.

Where does your soul need innovation?

What new thing does God want to work in you?

What area of life comes to mind?

With all the talk of resilience in this unprecedented time, what priority in your life needs to be innovated for greater resilience?

TAKE A STEP

(This is where the difference is made:  In the time that you sit, settle, chase away distraction, write things down if you need to to clear your mind.  Then sit, incline your heart Godward and let Him speak.  He’s waiting.  Isaiah 30:18)

The step I’m taking is a mental tweaking, redirecting my level of engagement with others, to be more active and helpful rather than just getting by with a low relational attention.  This kind of step will take awareness and practice, but will expand my heart and my reach.

“…because of practice…their senses are trained to discern….”  Heb. 5:14

What soul practice is God prompting you to innovate?

When finally realizing lies in our lives that we have lived by and their affect on us, we realize how deceived we can become.  This song is a powerful declaration of coming out of that shadow into truth:

http://music.theohhellos.com/track/dear-wormwood

I love CS Lewis’s portrayal and exposure of our enemy in Screwtape Letters.  I especially liked these words in the song:

But now I understand you and I will not be part of your designs

I know who I am now

and all that you’ve made of me

I know who you are now

I named you my enemy

I know who I am now

I know who I want to be

I want to be whole again

“…we are not unaware of his schemes…” 

2 Cor. 2:11

How subtly our enemy comes and infiltrates our thinking.  That’s why we need to be aware of his schemes, alert to what’s going on in our souls so we can stand against the lies and face what we’re reacting to and why.   I’m amazed how he still tries so hard to bring us down…and amazed at how easily at times I’m caught off guard.

A counselor friend of ours says, “Life gets steeper”.  I was kind of hoping for some slackening on the road into the later years, some ease and maybe a ride up the hill :).

But as we face our own limits, difficult conversations, messiness in our world, I think that keeping ourselves engaged in the basics of caring for our souls is what will help keep us from giving up or crashing and burning.

Reading the account of the 12 spies bringing back news of the land to the Israelites brought this despairing feeling they must have had after realizing they just bought 40 more years in the wilderness because of a scheme against them that they fell for.  If they had only seen the crafty poison they were being infected with, keeping them from what they really wanted, they would have saved a lot of time and regret.  They were duped by the unfavorable circumstances that God often orchestrates so He can show Himself strong as we move forward with Him. They chose to go back to the familiar, to ignore all that they had seen of extraordinary care and power, and to reject where God was taking them.

How the enemy wants to escort us off the narrow road by his enticements to a better life elsewhere, an easier way, an answer to a demand.

How refreshing is Caleb’s voice saying, ‘No, let’s go into this land, we are able to overcome it! It is a good land.  The Lord will bring us in…’ (Numbers 13:30; 14:7) But unfortunately the crowd overtook and made the decision.  Such a sad scene, when they were all so ready to settle after being in the wilderness for about 2 years.

How can you clue in to the schemes against you?

What appeal is trying to lure you away from courage?

 “These things happened to them as an example, but they were written down for our instruction.” 

1 Cor. 10:11

Elizabeth, Mother of John – Forerunner of Jesus

The angel said to Mary, “…behold, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son.”  Luke 1:36

Living under Roman oppression in her own land, being called, pegged as “barren”, Elizabeth stuck to the truth she knew, fulfilling the God given requirements of the time. After centuries of her people not hearing much from God, she still believed the ancient holy prophets’ words and carried on with worship, despite major disappointment in her life. I’d call that soul grit.

“And they were both righteous before God, walking blamelessly…”

Luke 1:6

And seeming a bit late, a beam of Son came, rebelling against what the world around was telling her, and re-named her. Like a cloud-covered dusk sneaking in light in the nick of time, Elizabeth’s womb awakens to its Maker’s curious bidding all but too late. Weary-of-hoping, settling-for-being-less in other’s eyes, she herself is startled to the reality of something new in her. Past her time and beyond any relevance of her day, she receives a joyful honor that only a few understood.

“your prayer has been heard, and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you shall call his name John. And you will have joy and gladness, and many will rejoice at his birth, for he will be great before the Lord.”  Luke1:13,-15

God seems to like to do things like that in our later years: surprise us with newness. I’m seeing it especially in those who take notice of His stirrings, who resist the pull from truth and the lure to complacency. I see it in those who risk indulging in faith. He infuses with a wink things in us we’d given up dreaming about, when we feel used up and irrelevant, like Moses after near fatal failure and a lot of years. God’s timing seems so off.  

Mary was too young;

Elizabeth was too old. Moses was way out of date. But God who is beyond time bestows on time a gravity that deeply effects eternity. What will I do with my later years?

I’m noticing some newness going on in me and working on resisting the pull to complacency. And wait, I think I see a burning bush!

How are you attuning to receive the new He wants to conceive in you?

Jesus scorned shame. He hated it.

Because it hinders, muffles, binds, squeezes and keeps from truth and growth. It tried to take him but he didn’t let it.

“…Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.” Hebrews 12:2

It’s like that annoying parasitic weed I often found in my little garden trying to subtly make it’s choking way

around my plants. Shame bids us away from community, away from acceptance, forgiveness and joy to bow under its power of self-disdain and regret. The path in my soul to the shame room was pretty well worn, visited too many times…though I noticed a few weeks ago as I was making my way there again, that the path had some foliage growing on it; parts of it were becoming overgrown, especially the second part heading into the door. I’m spending less and less time there.

See, I’m learning to catch myself on the way there and make a U turn! I was heading there after I didn’t get a response I thought I should and feeling the inward pull to withdraw into the lies of “I don’t matter” and “They don’t want you” and instead I said, “No, that’s actually not true. I do matter. I’m not going there today.” Shame was wooing me and I called its bluff! Wow. I felt myself do a 180 toward truth

and get right back in the conversation, letting go of the inner pull…and with joy at that! We have power over the imposter of shame. We don’t have to go to the shame room. We can scorn it, just like Jesus did!

Now that’s freeing.

Dr. Thompson in Soul of Shame says “To be human is to be infected with this phenomenon we call shame. …many of us carry shame less publicly often outside the view of even some of our closest friends…common scenarios carry the burden of shame in ways that we work hard to cover up. And our coping strategies have become so automatic that we may be completely unaware of its presence and activity.”

Do you find yourself at times on your way to the shame room?

What keeps you there?

Have you tried a U turn lately?