Tag: Holy Spirit

Thick Layers

You can’t wonder why love’s wearing thin when you’re wearing a thick layer of self.- a holy experience

There are few articles of clothing I have dearly loved in my life. I guess there’s my favorite jeans that I finally retired to the goodwill bag (2 years too late, I’m afraid.) Then there’s the softest, most cuddly shirt on earth (a giant hammy down Cubs t-shirt from 1980-something), and finally the silky purple basketball warm-up my auntie gave me (and I recently returned so she could give it to her daughter).

So although Cubs is still with me, most of my favies have left me to my stiff and starchy wardrobe. Boo.

And then! Present from Jesus! I discovered the softest, gigantuan, most enveloping coat of all time!!!

It’s my brothers old Air Force-issued parka and it lives in my parents closet. How did I discover this little gem, you ask? Well,… my coat smelled like a Catholic fish-fry (literally) and I desperately needed to air out, so I went a-digging. Alas! Behold! The glory of swimming in puff and silk. Parka-coat, I love you.

In this coat, I am  impenetrable. Truly. Try to touch me (I won’t feel it), grab me (fist full of coaty), or even see me (the hood kind of eats up my entire face), and no cigar!! I am elusive. I am sheltered. I am confident I could do very bad things and get away with it.

Soooooo. Thick layers. Yep, good stuff. Except. When it’s thick layers of self. YUCK. (I’m picturing my skin just layering and layering until my whole body looks like one giant, calloused, big toe. Ewww.  I do it though. Put my self on. I hide. I protect. I introspect-to-death. I think “ME ME ME ME ME. you. MEEEEEE!” And feel good about the little “you” I threw in there.
BLECH.

Let’s be real. Selfish people sicken us. But we are never the selfish ones. “Gahh, not me! I tithe. I bake things for people. I sometimes share my favorite bag of all-natural wheat crackers. Sometimes.” The truth is it’s freaking natural for us to think about ourselves, because we think within our own minds. It’s downright unnatural to think of others first, to be self-sacrificing. Pooh. Sometimes I just want to quit this Jesus thing because nothing is easy.

But I’m glad we have a pretty rad and divine Helper. Okay, Holy Spirit, I need your help. So thanks for this verse and the reminder that you love in a self-less, vulnerable way. We can too.

“[Wake Up from Your Sleep]Watch what God does, and then you do it, like children who learn proper behavior from their parents. Mostly what God does is love you. Keep company with him and learn a life of love. Observe how Christ loved us. His love was not cautious but extravagant. He didn’t love in order to get something from us but to give everything of himself to us. Love like that.” Ephesians 5:1 MSG

peace!

Getting Schooled by the Spirit

On the way home from work tonight, I feel it.
Heaviness.

It’s easy enough to ignore it, distract myself with the radio or listening to a podcast during my forty minute commute.
But I am compelled to be silent–turn it all off and tune in.
The heaviness is still there.
I’m swallowed by it.
Thoughts of failure, rejection, worthlessness. I feel as surrounded spiritually as I do physically, cars on all sides, buildings, motion. But amidst my own prideful, self-centeredness, I hear the Spirit compelling me. Hushing my harried mind, He invites me
to be silent and learn.

Rejection or acceptance by others (humans) holds no weight on the scale of worth.
(Is 2:22)

I struggle with this. It’s not so much struggling with how people view me, how they react to me, but rather the joy or pain I find in them. I, and we, are created to be in relationship, right? Naturally we feel good when others accept us and love us well. I am struggling to believe God alone satisfies this part of humanity. He speaks again.

It’s true. I do.
Imagine a feast– all you can eat, more!–the banquet table of the lamb. When you eat from my bounty, when you feast with me, you are full and over-flowing. You are satisfied and need no more. (Is. 55)

Then what is this pleasure, this goodness that comes from those you’ve put in our lives?

Chewing Gum. It is good, flavorful, and created for your delight, but never to fill you, never to make you full. 

bubble fail

** Words in italics represent the illumination that God provided for me, not what I would consider the authoritative word of God. :}

Present to His Presence

The universe operates as an orderly system, not by impersonal laws but by the creative voice of the immanent and universal Presence, the Logos.

Tonight on my run, I stopped.
This is not good, because, you see, I am trying to train for a half marathon.
Real runners don’t stop. They pee their own britches before they stop.
Wellp.

In my defense, I was captivated.
There is nothing quite so beautiful as a fall evening–no wind, just sun– reflected and rippling on the lake, infusing with into almost unnatural hues. The lake was so still too. A lone duck drifting securely on the  surface, leaving behind a soft, misshapen V.

I had been trying to listen to God for the last three miles.  Praying and then waiting, and then suddenly coming to a conscious realization that I was thinking about something else again. Ugh.

Father, I just ask for voice, for your presence.

Then I had a realization (thank you Jesus). I’ve been praying the wrong prayer entirely. I need to ask to be more present to Him. He’s the unchanging One, the always present.

Some truth came to mind. In Him all things live and move and have their being.  My mind rested on each of these concepts, and I thought of the duck– how securely she lived, moved, and existed on and in the lake. How I, and all of creation, are upheld, hemmed in, and literally unable to remove ourselves from His presence.
… if I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there your hand shall lead me, your right hand shall uphold me.

Whether we skate the surface of His presence, nearly unaware, or dive in deep, it can not change His permanant presence. I hope this brings you great comfort, great joy, and great desire to be present to Him as He is to you.

Check these bible passages out, yo! Psalm 139 (the whole thing, but especially vs. 7-10) Acts 17: 27-28; Colossians 1:17

True Humanity

This is how we know we are in Him [God the Father] Whoever claims to live in Him must walk as Jesus did. 1 John 2:6

I read this and stopped.
You see, Jesus walked on water. This is a problem, because… I can’t.

Before I get too far into this, I just want to say–

1. This is me thinking on paper and
2. I don’t have it all figured out. (I don’t plan on that happening any time soon, either.)

Back to walking like Jesus.
So, I’m almost positive 1 John 2:6 is not meant to be taken quite that literally. In other translations this verse says “walk in the same manner” and stuff like that. So, it’s about life and our “walk” of life.

But it STILL rocks me. Because Jesus “walked” so radically–did some very very unconventional, darn near impossible things. I mean, the guy rose people from the dead. So even if I don’t take 1 John 3:6 literally, I need to take His life’s work seriously and put it up next to the arch of my own life.

This is the part where everyone’s Sunday school self begins to shout at them, but Jesus is God! And then we all feel better about ourselves because we’re not and so the pressure to live like the God-man suddenly melts away and we’re back to our average, everyday, walking-down-cement-side walks.

And yet, Jesus, (now this blows my mind) tells His buddies, “whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do, and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father.” (John 14:12)

There’s lots of argument about what this means. I don’t fully know. BUT, I do think, looking at the surrounding context, Jesus is making a point: I’m human, you’re human. You can do what I have done. It’s possible.

It’s possible.

How? Well– surrounding context–Go to the Father. That’s what Jesus did. I wish I knew the number of times he said “…The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own authority, but the Father who dwells in me does his works.” (John 14:10)
 

It’s not really amazing that Jesus is God. He’s always been God.
What’s amazing is that Jesus is human.  That he was fully human and yet lived a perfect, powerful life. How? Through the power of the Holy Spirit at the feet of the Father.

He was submissive, humble, and willing. He, as God, did not consider equality with God a thing to be grasped. He was humble and human. Yet, he did not let living in His human husk for thirty years stop Him from living a radical, divine life. He asked the Father, believed, and obeyed.

He became humanity not just to die for us as the perfect substitute, but to show us what true humanity is.

The Curse of Knowledge

Picture this: Two groups of people. One group, the “tappers” have to tap out a tune using only their knuckles on a hard surface. “Listeners” listen to the taps and try to decipher which song it is out of a well-known list of twenty-five.

Tappers predicted Listeners had about %50 chance of guessing their song. The results: 3 out of 120 listeners guessed the song right. *

Imagine the frustration of the tappers—the song was so obvious, so easy! Yes, for them it was. Yet they were playing the song in the heads! All the listeners heard were raps on a table that sounded like nothing more than Morris code.

It’s called the “curse of knowledge” and it’s not a new idea. But! I think it’s something we often overlook when it comes to sharing our beliefs. We’ve been served knowledge, fed ideologies and eaten our own share of information for years. It makes sense to us, and eventually we forget what it was like to have a lack of that knowledge. So when we spit it back out: green-gray  mess.

I’m fond of a man named Jesus. He had a crazy-vast amount of knowledge and wisdom, yet it wasn’t His brilliance that made Him stand out. It was His ability to spread an idea** which set Him apart.  He did it with story, simplicity, concrete examples, credibility (integrity) and element of surprise that shocked the world. Ironically, His approaches are now widely used as marketing techniques and by social media gurus.

My point is this: If we want to do it (be a good teacher, share our story, start–or even carry on a movement) we’ve got to do it right! We’ve got to make ourselves memorable, spreadable, understandable. We’ve got to do it like Jesus did!

 

* This is a real study conducted by a woman named Elizabeth Newton at Stanford. Super fascinating. Check it out!

* *People need a Savior to reconcile them to God, and He would die for them to be that Savior