Reckless

 

Normally when I decide to share a poem with the world, I like to let the work speak for itself, but I felt I wanted to write somewhat of an introduction for this one. If it works out, I’m thinking of making this a series. We’ll see…

When I write poetry, it usually comes out of my journaling, out of the issues and questions and ideas that I’m exploring and that God is speaking to me about and showing me. Recently I’ve been reading the book Romans again. I have always loved chapter five, and especially the first 11 verses. This passage is basically the book of Romans, and really the Gospel itself, in a nutshell. It uses such powerful language throughout, and verse 8 in particular has always struck me:

“God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

This is so important because it’s saying that even before we knew Him, even before we had any hope of ever being able to return His love, He chose to sacrifice everything for us. That’s how vast His love is. And as I began to explore this idea and let God speak to me about it and write down those thoughts, this poem started to take shape.

 

***

 

You asked for our hearts
and we gave You stones

You saw us, the selves we were
through our pretense and
the selves we would never be
despite our striving

and piercing through our doubt
our accomplishment and fear
our fruitless attempts at glory
our shadow righteousness
our hatred and lust and deceit

and seeing our brokenness
our base and backward temperament
our aimless stumbling through deserts of stone
our filth and nakedness in the face of Your splendour

and knowing that from our birth
our hearts were turned against You
our eyes darkened to Your brilliance
our hands and lips given to violence
our wills bent to our own weaknesses

still

with reckless hope
You opened Your arms to
our resentment

You took our shame
our mocking voices silenced
by Your tears

the stones of our hearts
pressing You into the earth

the bread of Your body
broken by the weight of our sin

You have loved us with an everlasting love
You have drawn us with unfailing kindness

You have placed Your heart in our hands
knowing we could never hold it but for Your hands
beneath us

without thought
for Your own security

You have given us what we
cannot repay
cannot consume
cannot comprehend

out of the prudence of death, Your
reckless love
has brought us to life
without condition
without reserve
without fear

and in the perfect peace
of Your extravagance we find
there is no risk in the return;

only love remains

Words of Knowledge

New Year’s Resolution: Read More Nonfiction

“Apply your heart to instruction and your ear to words of knowledge.” –Proverbs 23:12

I read a lot. When I’m on a roll, I can read about two books a week, sometimes three. But despite my intentions (and honest efforts) in the past couple of years, the vast majority of the books I read are novels.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with fiction. I think everyone should read fiction. I love fiction, and I believe it has a lot to teach us. After all, Jesus Himself often taught through stories that, as far as I know, were fictional.

“Fiction, because it is not about somebody who actually lived in the real world, always has the possibility of being about ourselves.” –Orson Scott Card

Fiction is great. I could write about it some more, but this post isn’t about fiction. It’s about nonfiction. Specifically, my resolution to read more nonfiction in 2014.

But why? I would think the answer to that question would be pretty obvious, but just in case, I’ll explain.

Good writing about real people and places and events, about things that actually happened or are happening, has the power to not only make us better informed, but also better equipped to take on challenges that require that information to fully solve. Gaining knowledge is how we learn about the world and learn how we can make a difference in it.

“If I have… all knowledge… but have not love, I am nothing.” –1st Corinthians 13:2

Knowledge is power, but without passion, that power is useless. But some knowledge of the world paired with a love for it and its people, the love of God, make us powerful agents of the Gospel.

Here is my Reading List for the year. In addition to missions, evangelism, ministry and Christian living, it also includes books on literature, history, culture, politics and social justice. There’s even a sort-of science-y book on there. My more specific goal is to read at least one nonfiction book per month. Feel free to use my list as a guide, or make your own.

Happy reading!

Pass it On

Advent Week 4: Love

Reading: Romans 15:13, John 15:9-13, John 3:16

Love!  So many songs and stories are written about it. It’s all you need. It makes the world go ’round.  It means never having to say you’re sorry.  It will keep us together. It’s a crazy little thing.  Of course most often when the world thinks of love it thinks of romantic love.  Romantic love is a wonderful thing, but does not compare with God’s love for us.

Imagine turning yourself into an ant just to go into their little world to save them.  If you can imagine this then you can begin to imagine what Jesus did for us!  It is only because of His love that we can have love for others.  It is only because of His love that we can have hope of an eternal home in heaven.

Hope, joy, peace and love are so interwoven it is hard to separate them from each other.  We make a decision to have hope, hope fills our hearts with joy and peace.  We have so much joy that it overflows to others in acts of love.  Once we start that flow we can’t stop it, we don’t want to stop it.  When we’re giving and caring for others it perpetuates more hope which grows more joy, that joy bubbles up and overflows in more outpourings of love….and so on!  It all starts with the hope that comes from God loving us.

It’s easy to have joy and peace at Christmas time.  It’s easy to show love in this season of giving.  Wouldn’t it be amazing to live like this all year?  When we take a meal to a new mom, when we are patient with our 2 year old (or teenager) or when we smile at the grumpy grocery store checker we are showing love.  Every time we reach outside our own little world we show love, we show Jesus.  The baby in the manger was just the beginning of the most beautiful love story ever written.  “For God so loved the world he gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.”  This is it.  This is why we love others.  We can’t help but share it.  There was a song in the 70s comparing God’s love to a spark:  “It only takes a spark to get a fire going and soon all those around will warm up in its glowing, that’s how it is with God’s love, once you experience it, you spread his love to everyone, you want to pass it on.”

We hope you’ve been encouraged this advent season.  We wish you all God’s hope, joy, peace and love….be sure to pass it on!

A Mother’s Love

Advent Week 4: Love

Reading: Luke 1:26-56; 2:1-19

“God so loved the world that he gave his only Son…”

You are fourteen years old, or maybe only twelve or thirteen. You live in a tiny little village on the outskirts of your nation, a nation which in turn is considered the outskirts of a powerful and cruel empire that has oppressed your people for generations. Ostracized for your strange customs and worship of only one God called Yahweh, your people are the misfits of this empire. So, you live a quiet life, do your chores, obey your parents and keep your head down, as you must to survive. You know that soon you will marry and have children, who will in turn marry and have children of their own. This is all you expect from your life, and it is not a bad life, but Yahweh has other plans…

What must Mary think when God interrupts her life with the news that she will give birth to the Messiah? What can possibly sustain this young girl on the hard journey she has ahead of her? In his Gospel, Luke only gives us a few words from the angel to Mary. The angel tells her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you” (Luke 1:35).

In the moment that the Holy Spirit comes upon her, God’s presence and power are so tangible to Mary that she cannot deny His love. It is this love that is her strength, that carries her to Bethlehem, keeps her whole and comforts her. And when she gives birth to her son, it is by the love of God in her that she loves the baby in her arms. This love is so great, in fact, that she is overwhelmed: “Mary treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart” (Luke 2:19).

Mary ponders in her heart because she can’t speak. She has no words for the miracle that she holds to her heart. She holds close, clinging to the physical presence of her Lord and God because she is overcome by His light and His love. She worships through her wonder. She worships through her love.

His mother Mary, in her maiden bliss,
Worshipped the beloved with a mother’s kiss.

(Christina Rosetti, “In the Bleak Midwinter”)

Mary responds to the love of God with wonder and worship, and then in her own expression of that love toward God and toward others. This is to be our response, too. God so loved us, that He sent His Son into the world. He became like us so we might become like Him, and He is love.

“There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear… We love because he first loved us.” –1st John 4:18-19

A Tale of Two Dinners

“And he took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them, saying, ‘This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.’” –Luke 22:19

On the night before His crucifixion, Jesus instituted an ordinance which we now call the Lord’s Supper, or Communion. In many churches and denominations, Communion is observed every Sunday; in others, it is taken on special occasions. Some use bread and wine, while others use crackers or wafers and grape juice. In all its forms, Communion reminds us of Jesus’ sacrifice for our salvation. The bread and the wine are symbols of His body and blood, broken and shed out of love for us.

Today, we continue to keep the ordinance of the Lord’s Supper to remember and honor this love, but in the early Church, the Lord’s Supper was a full meal, not just bread and wine. Ancient Christians worked and ate and worshiped together continually, living in community. Luke observes in Acts chapter 2 that “they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.”

Gatherings of believers took place in homes and included generous meals. According to Jon Zens, “On a fixed day, generally the first day of the week, the Christians assembled, each bringing what he could as a contribution to the feast: fish, poultry, joints of meat, cheese, milk, honey, fruit, wine and bread.” This was Sunday Dinner, and all your friends, relatives and neighbors were invited.

Does that sound familiar? On Thanksgiving, many of us gather together with family and friends, each bringing a contribution to the feast. Even in gatherings of those who are non-religious, Thanksgiving is also a time when we reflect on the blessings and good things in our lives, expressing gratitude for what we have, and sometimes even providing gifts of food for those who are not as blessed as ourselves. This is the very essence of the Lord’s Supper!

When Jesus broke the bread and poured the wine on that last night before He died, He was offering us a tangible reminder of a spiritual Truth: His relentless, sacrificial love for us. The natural overflow of that love was in the unity of His followers, both in ancient times and today. He was also offering us a way to express that unity: the sharing of a meal and the company of our spiritual family.

This Thanksgiving, as we gather to the feast with those we love, let us acknowledge the One who gave His body for our bread,  the One who deserves all our thanks, and the One who invites us to feast on His love.