Change of Plans?

For surely I know the plans I have for you, says the LORD, plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a future with hope. Then when you call upon me and come and pray to me, I will hear you. When you search for me, you will find me; if you seek me with all your heart.

Jeremiah 29:11-13

Jeremiah wrote these promises to people who were devastated physically and spiritually. After repeated warnings by prophets to turn from their sins and return to God, Israel had been crushed militarily by Babylon. The people who heard his words had been taken as captive exiles to a strange country. If God had let them lose the land given to them as a sign of their divine covenant with their Lord, had God abandoned them? Had they run out of chances to make a new beginning?

No, the prophet assures them, they will be in captivity for the foreseeable future, but God will bring their nation into a good future. God’s plan for Israel to be the divine instrument to reconcile all the peoples of the world to God remains. God is with them in their exile, hearing them and speaking through prophets to remind them of God’s faithfulness and love.

Sometimes as we pursue what we understand as God’s will for our lives – a career, a field of study or a significant relationship – something closes down that path. Or the path may be right, but it is far harder than we expected. We may feel exiled from the life we expected. Then this Word of God from Jeremiah speaks to us as well. God’s plan to use us in the world remains, perhaps on the same path, perhaps on a new one. When we search after God, the path will become clearer. God hears the prayers of our hearts and is at work, even now, to bring a good future. 

God's peace,

Katie

Memories of Conquerors

Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will hardship, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.                                                                                                                              Romans 8:35, 37-39

The Sunday after the terrorist attacks twelve years ago today, my church posted in the entryway notes and art children’s had produced in response. One of the most moving showed the Risen Christ over the Twin Towers as they were attacked.

We were struggling to grasp the fact that so many people had spent literally years planning and preparing to do such evil to people they didn’t know. Yet this drawing proclaimed that their murderous hatred could not separate us from Christ. Christ was there. His face was seen in those who laid down their lives for others, countless others who worked tirelessly searching through the wreckage and the untold numbers who sheltered and fed them, not for days but for weeks.

Only rarely did vengeful hatred find a voice to remind us that, while nothing outside us can separate us from the love of Christ, we can separate ourselves when we let anger, no matter how seemingly justifiable, take root within us. John’s first letter, 4:16, reminds us, “God is love, and those who abide in God abide in God, and God abides in them.” Memories of those who offered themselves for others remind us that it is through letting Christ’s love empower us that we are “more than conquerors.”

God's peace,

Katie

No Worries?

Matthew 6:25 - 26 Jesus said, “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?”

Taken on their own, these words can seem a command by Jesus to relax and pay no attention to such everyday concerns as lunch, laundry, a bank account that needs an infusion, or a project that is 20% of a grade. But aren’t these things to which we must attend?

Jesus’ opening word, “Therefore,” points us back to the preceding verse, where he says, “No one can serve two masters; for a slave will either hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.”

When we center our lives on our material wants (as opposed to needs) or getting ahead to gain the security of more possessions in the future, those desires take over our minds and lives. Worry about them can so consume us that we forget our fundamental identity as children of God – people who, as Jesus says, are of great value to our heavenly Father. Living day-by-day in relationship with God allows us to attend to our responsibilities – in school, at work, in friendships or as we tend to our day-to-day needs – in the peace and joy that are gifts from God.

We cannot serve two masters; therefore Jesus calls us to entrust our lives daily to him.

God's peace,

Katie

Christ's Peace

John 14:26 - 27 The Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything, and remind you of all that I have said to you. Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid. 

A new beginning, any change really, troubles our hearts and gives fear an entryway. What if this happens or that doesn’t happen? What if I can’t meet someone else’s standards or my own?

When changes challenge us, the world offers ways to respond – fear, defensiveness, anger, shame and surrender among them. Jesus promises that the Holy Spirit will remind us of all Christ has said to us, including a pledge that we will have peace as we let the Spirit move in us.

This Peace of Christ is not just the absence of struggle or upset. Christ’s Peace, if we will receive it, calms our hearts and replaces fear with hope for what God will bring forth. A few verses later, Jesus tells those who follow him, “Remain in me, and I will remain in you.” 

Attentive Waiters

Isaiah 40:28 - 31 Have you not known? Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable. He gives power to the faint, and strengthens the powerless. Even youths will faint and be weary, and the young will fall exhausted; but those who wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.

Recently at a special celebration dinner, we had an ace waiter. When we said we were not in a hurry, he heard us and didn’t rush. But he paid such close attention that he seemed to appear just at the moments we were ready to order a new course or make some other request.

A skilled waiter may show us what scripture means by “waiting upon the Lord.” We often wait passively for God to “do something” so clear that we can’t miss it. We may periodically offer prayers reminding God of our difficulties. What if, instead, we waited as attentively as a skilled restaurant waiter, listening for what God is saying in scripture, in the voices of wise people and as we pray, and looking for ways God is at work to open up new possibilities?

Beginning a new journey can be exhilarating and draining at the same time. Isaiah’s prescription for exhaustion is to “wait upon the Lord.” If we wait attentively, we may hear God’s Word of peace, blessing us for how hard we have tried, or a Word of healing. We may feel God’s strength and peace flowing into us. God promises to renew and revive us to continue our journeys if we are attentive “waiters.”

The Spirit's Rule

Galatians 5:22 – 23  . . . the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.

In the Christian spiritual tradition, a “rule of life” outlines the things one seeks to do, and perhaps tries to avoid, in order to become more Christ-like. Some people observe regular prayer disciplines, receive communion frequently, commit to some form of service to others, or do some combination of these and other practices. Faithful disciples realize that if they don’t make room in their lives for spiritual growth, other things will move in line ahead of it.

While this scripture is not so much an outline of activities as a list of qualities, it has become my rule. It’s not that I try hard to display these qualities, doing my best, for example, to look patient when I am not. Rather, this scripture has become my yardstick. When these traits flow from me naturally, it is evidence the Holy Spirit is at work transforming me. When they do not, I need to adjust what I am doing to make room for the Spirit’s movement – perhaps spending more time in prayer or scripture study, praying for people with whom I am impatient, or asking God to help me see how the world looks through another’s eyes. Does this work? Yes, but my growth would be much greater if I were more faithful in applying the yardstick.

For each of us, some of these qualities are more of a challenge than others. I do pretty well with patience, for example, until I have to wait for just about anything. Which of these traits sometimes elude you? How could you open your heart to the Spirit’s work to transform you?

Running Faithfully

Hebrews 12:1-2 Since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and the sin that clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith, who for the sake of the joy that was set before him endured the cross, disregarding its shame, and has taken his seat at the right hand of the throne of God.

The beginning of a school year or any major project can feel overwhelming or seem deceptively easy. Looking at a whole syllabus, the readings and projects seem impossible. But when many of the deadlines aren’t immediate, it is easy to put off tasks until the load is overwhelming. If learning is part of God’s call on our lives, pursuing it well is part of being faithful to God. (As a pastor, learning is a never-ending part of God’s call for me.)

The writer to the Hebrews compares discipleship to running a race – with perseverance or, in other translations, “patience.” Serious runners know that they must pay attention to two places – the ground in front of them, so that they don’t trip, and the finish line, which is what pulls them forward. In every aspect of following Christ, there are tasks for each day and the goal that pulls us forward – to be one with Christ.

This scripture also reminds us that we are surrounded by witnesses in heaven and on earth who have run the race with excellence. Who are the witnesses that inspire you? Who has been for you what you want to be for others? Keeping a roster of saints can be helpful in molding our own lives. Borrowing from Godly examples is a way to keep our focus on the goal ahead of us and the ground at our feet.  

God's peace,

Katie