Hard stuff

This strange journey

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Take away the dross from the silver, and the smith has material for a vessel;‭‭  Proverbs‬ ‭25:4‬ ‭ESV‬‬

This is a strange journey and one I trust is His plan for taking away the dross and making me into material worthy of shaping into a vessel. 


What that vessel will be or how long this journey is, I do not know; so daily (at the office surrounded by chaos and a gazillion minutia) and nightly (at the hotel cloaked in loneliness and quiet) I must trust him with this strange path. 

founded and established

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“On the holy mount stands the city he founded…the Most High himself will establish her. ” Psalm 87:1 and 5

Last night while traveling home I had a couple moments of feeling weak and vulnerable. At one point the plane felt like it would be rattled apart by turbulence. Another moment, a wave of tiredness came over me while I waited for the next flight from Dallas to deliver my bag.

I awoke this morning thankful for my own bed, warm sunshine in the window and homemade coffee instead of hotel coffee. In the midst of these earthly comforts, I found myself searching for something Solid and Strong. I “randomly” opened to Psalms 87 and found the words “he founded” and “himself will establish her”. These words are in reference to a city that the Lord builds, but I take comfort them, because this is the character of the God I serve in this challenging season. I know he is also founding and establishing me, all the while he holds planes together and gives me grace while I await a delayed bag at the end of a long day.

#hardfightsoftheart

This strange earthly life

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This is a strange walk, this earthly life.
One of faith and frailty, fears and
failures. You say we’re spirit,
But all we can see are hands and
Skin and bones. You call us to faith,
And hope in the Unseen.

But all we can sense is the
Seen, the heard, the tasted, and the
Touched. You give us faith, and then call
Us to trust in a future that is eternal and glorious.
But all we can feel in these earthly bodies
Are goodbyes and loss
And sacrifice and missing joy. 

You came and conquered. And then left,
Telling us you would one day return. It’s
Been a long time and too many of those
We love have left and gone to you, without a
Word, never to be seen, this side of
Our own death. Yet, you say to have hope.

Hope in the unseen. Dear Lord, we
Are earthly creatures, our physical senses
Far out-pacing the spiritual. You call
Us into the spiritual realm, in surrender,
In faith, and trust and hope. And yet we cannot
See past these hands and skin and bones.

So Lord, have mercy on our skin-bound
Souls, and our weak minds who try to
See the unseen, but are left with a
Sense that all is not as it should
Be or how it will be. Forgive us our
Frailties and our fears. Give us the 
Courage to walk like Joshua, in
Hope that what is beyond our sight is true and
More real than all we can see.

Worry

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Sitting on a bus back home
I watch the scenery pass. A field
Of round bales, a manufacturing
Plant, the Colorado River, and a
Few cows. They go by quickly, as
The scene changes from big Texas
City to Lone Star countryside.
This morning was busy, between
Customer meetings and calls to the
Vet. The seconds and minutes added
Up, but not as quickly as the items on my
To do list and the thoughts in my head.
This week has been a weird one.
My heart heavy for family, heavy
For friends, and heavy for furry friends.
It seems that worry could easily
Set in and take over any space saved
For prayer and surrender.
Rummaging through old photos last
Night in my hotel room, I came across
One of Jess lifting up a dandelion with
The threads floating off into the bright
background. It struck me that this is how
I want worry to look in my life:
Offering it up to God, watching it flit away
Into the Son’s bright grace.
It’s the offering-up part that is hard.  It
Requires that I pick the worry up, lift
It up, and let go of it. This doesn’t just
Happen, but requires exerted effort and
And willingness to do so. 
I pray that just as on that bright summer
Day on the mountain, Jess lifted up the
Dandelion to the sky and watched it melt
Away, I would offer up this worry
And watch it melt away with each mile
Adding up on this bus ride home.

A hard read and Matthew 5:17-19

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My last post was light and airy. This one is not.
 
This blog installment is by a college friend of mine and it is a long and hard read. Here’s why it was hard for me:

1) It is evidence that we live in a broken world that is far removed from God’s original design, and it is continuing on that continuum until Christ returns (Lord, please come quickly.)
2) We all need Jesus – and the most important thing about us is that we know Him, deeply. This applies to all, from any “walk” or lifestyle.
3) My head is spinning to think what this person, this human, made in the likeness of God, has suffered, not just from choices, but from experiences and abuse as a child.
4) Is it not a stretch to take the referenced Matthew 19 passage and come to the conclusion outlined in the article?
5) Sin is sin. Sin is defined by the unchanging God, not by our own changing and shifting viewpoints and experiences.
6) I do recognize the source of this article – Rachel is very far down the path of “progressive Christianity” – that said, I have a hard time “peddling backwards” to find a starting point where she stopped interpreting Scripture correctly.
7) As I pray for dear people in my own life who struggle with gender identity issues, I do pray that they first would come to know Jesus in a real way, because that would then transform all the rest. Maybe instantly, maybe over a lifetime, but the transformation would begin. (Please note that transformation is a very different word than transition, especially in this context.)
8) I listened to a sermon this morning and took comfort in this passage:

Matthew 5:17 “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. 18 For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished. 19 Therefore whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.
9) I am uncomfortable with the implications of the referenced blog post, uncomfortable with my own wrestling through it, but comforted by the words in Matthew 5 above. 
10) It is good to wrestle through all this. Even when it’s hard. 

Let’s define some basics

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Let’s define some basics.

The below is discrimination (not an exhaustive list): 

  • Women in the middle east (predominantly there, but elsewhere in the world as well): no voting rights, can’t drive, have to walk behind their husbands, can’t show their skin, can’t determine who they can marry. This should not be and we all should grieve this, especially Christians.
  • Unborn children: may or may not make it out of the womb with their life. This is 1 in 4 babies in the US, more like 1 in 2.5 in other parts of the world. This should not be and we all should grieve this, especially Christians.
  • Africans during the 18th and 19th century: rounded up like cattle and hauled across the ocean and treated worse than any animal.  Praise God that this is a thing of the past. 
  • Human trafficking: right in our very city, children (for the most part) are being kidnapped and forced into sexual slavery. This should not be and we all should grieve this, especially Christians.
  • Homosexuals in middle eastern countries with predominantly Islamic influence: killed, imprisoned, tortured for their sexual choices. This should not be and we all should grieve this, especially Christians. 
  • Christians in non-Christian parts of the world: dying for beliefs they live by.  This should not be and we all should grieve this, especially Christians.
  • “Grieve this”: take action in whatever manner you can to fight it – give money to causes fighting these grievances, join those causes vocationally,  pray for rescue and justice.

The below is not:

  •  Me and my Neighbor (heterosexual and homosexual): stand for any belief we want to. Eat, drive, and shop wherever we want to, wear whatever we want to, own our own business or work any job we want to (within reason), get health insurance (but not for our boyfriend or girlfriend) (assuming this is part of your compensation package or you can afford to buy your own), shack up with whoever we want to, drink and smoke whatever we want to (for the most part), follow whatever religion or lack thereof that we want to, have however many kids we want to (for the most part), boycott and protest who/whatever we want to. And none of this will get us thrown in jail or killed.

Further thoughts on my letter to Steve Jobs

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 1) I think my letter was lacking in grace and, consequently, love. How would my tone have changed if I were standing in front of Mr. Jobs appealing to him in person? Would he have heard any love? Would he have seen grace? Or would my words have been a “clanging gong”?

2) As I was reading through Romans 8 (versus 31 – 39), I found myself reading and re-reading verse 36 – “For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.” This passage that talks about God’s position being one where He will never leave or lose us and our position as sheep losing life. Verse 36 is not a pleasant verse for me and I must admit that I too often gloss over it when reading this (favorite) passage.

I am a Christian. I follow a “King who died for His enemies and forgave his foes”. He also cleaned out the temple and challenged the Samaritan woman at the well. As His follower I need to be ready to show that same kind of love and truth, albeit at the level of a fallen human. Can I simultaneously challenge people, including Mr. Jobs, on their reasoning and positions and show the love and grace that God extends?

I would challenge my fellow Christians to wrestle with ideas and stand up for truth while applying a large dose of humility and love (of which my letter lacked).  I would also challenge them to never lose sight of the fact that we are “sheep heading for slaughter” who are never out of the Hands of our loving, seeing Father.

My letter to Mr. Jobs

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 Mr. Jobs,

I am writing this from my MacBook Pro which I love very much. I recently purchased it and it is a joy to use. Your product line is stellar and worthy of commendation.

However, your intolerant stance on applications that can and cannot be added into your universe of Apple ingenuity is not so stellar.

You are of the mind that you are standing for tolerance by limiting applications of certain “cultural and or ethnic” (such as the Manhattan Declaration), but, using basic logic, your “tolerant” stance immediately makes you intolerant of whomever your are standing up against. You are not tolerant after all.

Are you also limiting iPhone applications of other “cultural or ethnic” groups whose basic religious beliefs is make to war and kill those who would oppose their religious beliefs? The religion you are currently targeting is a following whose King died for His enemies and forgave his foes. Consider whom your tolerance or intolerance is against and reconsider being a bit more open-minded to all “cultural or ethnic” entities who desire to use your stellar products.

Sincerely,
Krista McCaleb

Theology of Death

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Continuing the thought in this post, what is your “Theology of Death”?

Death is something we were never designed to deal with. It was not in God’s original plan and is the result of the curse brought about by sin. The entire earth is affected by it and it permeates every layer of life, including the non-physical. 

As Christians, our theology needs to be proactive, prepared ahead of time, not reactionary. We must think ahead of time what our reaction to trouble and death will be, what God will expect from us, and what God has promised us.

Some thoughts on this:

  • This world is broken and there is ugliness all around. But God is the Great Healer and He is on the move. 
  • Revelation is true and He will return and make all things new. 
  • God delights in the death of His saints (Psalm 116:15). This verse seems somewhat contradictory, but it points to the reality that He delights when we are in fellowship with Him and what better place to be in fellowship than directly in His presence? 
  • Death is a stark reality – one that we cannot avoid. 
  • We will never fully understand death and it will always be a “familiar stranger”. 
  • When our work is done, He will take us home to be with Him. In this, we should find comfort. “I am immortal until God’s work for me is done. The Lord reigns.” Henry Martyn
  • We know not when our death will be, so even in this we must trust in Him. 

That word trust is key here. Trust that He knows what He is doing in every layer of our lives and the lives of everyone around us. Trust that His timing is perfect and purposeful. Trust that He is redeeming all the ugliness in this broken world.

Since death is and will be a stark reality in all of our lives, we must think ahead of time what our theology of death is. Let us wrestle with it now so that when we face it in our lives or the lives of those around us, we can stand on the foundation of our theology and trust in God.

Suggested resource: Beauty Will Rise CD by Steven Curtis Chapman