I want to share some
insights in this blog that have been inspired from reading his book that I am
presently working through. I find myself
highlighting thoughts, takeaways that I keep going back to and rereading
because I really want to let it sink in much like the Word of God. He has distilled truths from the Father that
are so pertinent for the season that I find myself in and I know many others
are in.
A statement that
really opens up his purpose for writing is,
In a broken and fallen world, we really only
have two choices: mature friendship with God or radical disillusionment. He goes on to say, authentic Christianity majors on a powerful
display of God’s presence, often through his people, in a world that is
radically broken.
The first discipline I
want to reflect on is the discipline of
selflessness and learning to live beyond yourself. It is the art of checking our “hurry” at the
door and learning to be fully present in the moment with others. It is
inviting the Holy Spirit to take the lead in all of our conversations and
everything we do. It is the rhythm of
learning to live by God’s agenda and releasing my “own” agenda.
Philippians 2:3,4
challenges us to look not only to our own interests, but to the interests of
others. It is the ability to lavish God’s
love on others, the kind of empathy that is deeply rooted and invested in the
health and well-being of others without the attitude of “adding up the cost” or
somehow to derive attention to self in the process.
The discipline of waiting continues the
journey into a depth of relationship with the LORD that learns to trust Him
above all else, above what I’m seeing with my own eyes, above my own timeline,
above my expectations. Can I really
trust God that He is pursuing my children and my family harder and more deeply
than I ever could? Can I believe that?
Can I learn to have the long-term view that He is working all things out
together for my good? If we don’t have
this question settled in our heart then waiting can be debilitating and suck
our soul dry. The discipline of waiting
is marked by hope in God ( I spoke about this last month). Paul also speaks about the Christian life as
a type of “groaning in anticipation”.
Insert song here…Man
of Your Word by Maverick City (my current favorite worship playlist!)
Faithful obedience over time weakens temptation’s
allure. As we begin to find new ways to
deal with stress or insecurity or other “sin triggers” in our lives.
The hope is that we
learn to live without the sin which has often served to be that “spiritual
narcotic” in our life. Christian classics speak of a soul sadness, that being
the pursuit of a character trait that we have yet to fully possess. There
are certainly stories of those who are miraculously delivered from sin sickness
or addiction, but the ongoing story of strength is found in that moment by moment,
daily leaning on the power of His abiding presence.
If you’re called to love, you’re called to
wait. There is no love without patience,
without waiting. Waiting is the oxygen
of love, it is the virtue that gives love its sustaining power.
Waiting also can mean
we move into a place of recreation, sport, pursuing physical health instead of
soul-numbing activities like constantly scrolling news or a social media app on
our phone. I have often met with God on
a bike run, a run, a swim where I am totally captivated by the LORD of creation
and my mind is cleared of the fog of negativity and messages that only fed
fear.
The discipline of suffering isn’t one that
is championed or spoken about too often and on this subject Gary Thomas hits
the mark when he says,
This is a fallen world
and terrible things happen in a fallen world.
We dishonor our suffering sisters and brothers when we try to explain
all of this away. The truth is that we
are called to suffer with them, not as some think we are called to do- to try
to cure them of their suffering. Paul tells us to ‘carry each other’s burdens’
not to try to explain the burden away in Galatians 6:2.
On the subject of pursuing
holiness in the context of suffering, there is what the early classic Christian
writers spoke of that is known as the ‘desert
of detachment’. This subject really
resonated with me. The desert is the
place where I go to learn to live without whatever I thought I needed to “get
me by”. It is the place without my ‘coping
mechanism, that self- justifying behavior that I has been my “go to.” A coping
mechanism is an immediate sinful behavior I have used as a way to either protect
myself or fulfill my own need. It is
where I have gone to in the place of allowing God to meet me in what is my deepest
place of need. You fill in the blank as
to what that need is, the need to be safe, to be in control, to be liked or the
need to be right. We need to understand that often sin is taking a God given
desire and choosing to short-circuit the process and meeting that need without
Him.
However, the place I
need to go is the desert of detachment where I learn to wait on God and trust
Him.
Can I in that place
trust God to really meet my needs, can I truly believe that His unfailing love
is better than life itself?
Just learning to stop
myself from sinning is not the end goal.
It is the desert of detachment that I trust my Father to richly meet me
in a profound way and here’s the lesson, there will often be a dip before there
is a rise, it’s not automatic. It takes
time to really see how He fills that need.
When resistance to sin becomes painful – when we
honestly think that we can’t survive without that drink, that relationship,
that way of coping – will we embrace the suffering, endure the spiritual
torment, and remain faithful to God, or will we collapse, once again, into the
soft prison of our addictions?
I know that the winter
is coming and that can be a very difficult and challenging season for many
people. My prayer is that you and I will
wait on God like we never have before and experience the oasis that is His
profound presence in the middle of a desert or dark night of our soul.
