Serving stability

Stability sounds so inviting. But stability is a choice. Not always, and not in every situation, but by and large, we have the power to choose to create patterns of stability, consistency, and devotion. Alas, we do not. None of us ever really do. And that erks me—about myself and others. If stability is what we long for, then why do we not seek to establish stability in our everyday experiences?

Wake up. Brush teeth. Shower. Comb hair. Dress. Eat breakfast. Plan. Begin. Rush. End. Begin again.
Plus or minus a few things.

It is the “rush” that takes over. We keep pushing, keep doing, keep working. We fight with ourselves to stop. Worse yet, we don’t even fight anymore. We just keep going. I’m as guilty as anyone of becoming numb and indifferent to the push. Yet I hear the voice of those that I love reminding me that I must stop. I can’t keep pushing. I need someone greater, something bigger. That’s not to say I don’t do or plan anything, just that I find stable ways to do so. Everyday I can do a little. Every day I can work towards a goal. But I must be mindful that my life runs parallel, and sometimes perpendicular, to others. If I chart out the stability of all those tracks I would remember that my stability depends on another. And another’s stability depends on me.

I wake up. Brush teeth. Shower. Comb hair. Dress. Devotion. Eat. Plan. Begin. Rush. End. Do again.
Others wake up. Brusth teeth. Shower. Comb hair. Dress. Devotion. Eat. Plan. Begin. Rush. End. Do again.

It is that “rush” that intersects with all of time. Someone else needs us to stop or go so that they can keep pushing, doing, working. We fight to let ourselves help another. Who knew that stopping would be as much a blessing to someone as doing. I guess it all depends on which lives we want to intersect with, and what sort of stability we want to have as well as provide. 

I’m asking God for some more stability these days. Knowing full well that if I doubt he is offering that to me then I am already “unstable in all of my ways” Jms. 1:8. 

Here’s to stability. My own and for the sake of another. When I cannot find it in any other place, it is in the unchangeable God. May I be grateful for the stability offered to me by him, and faithful to practice stability for the love of another, extending grace and forgiveness when it is not always available to me.
Give thanks. Practice. Forgive. Do again.
-A life of great stability.

Run. Stop. Run.

Speaking as someone who loves to run, when I think about rest and renewal my mind slips back to a race that I participated in a couple of years ago at Medoc Mountain State Park. (Many areas in life can be related to a race.) It was very cool that October morning or at least it was until the 10-mile trail race began. The starting horn was sounded and hundreds of runners began their journey. It didn’t take long before the temperature was no longer an issue. The scene was beautiful and you couldn’t help but admire God’s beauty all around. The scenery was constantly changing and so were the challenges. At times, the path was wide with many so many runners that you had to fight for position. Other times, it was narrow and there was no one by your side. Sometimes the way was flat and easy but most of the race was difficult. Hills so steep your calves would burn. Downhill stretches that made your shins sting. 


I saw many people fall that day due to unforeseen hindrances such as slippery spots, roots, stumps, rocks and weeds. The course was literally one obstacle after another. Each obstacle had its own unique degree of difficulty but the one hardest to overcome was, without a doubt, fatigue. It was somewhere around the 6 mile marker that I started to slow down due to a light headed feeling, perhaps a drop in sugar or lack of water that was long gone. Whatever the reason, it was obviously having a negative impact on my body. It was grueling but I had been making excellent time. Up ahead, in a clearing beside a field, was a stand where you could stop for water or Gatorade. I could not afford to rest because it would hurt my overall time. Every second spent not running was costly. Although my instinct was to continue, it was overruled by my fatigue. As I stopped for Gatorade I watched many pass me by and to be honest, it discouraged me but I was determined to finish. The odd thing is that although that time counted against me, in the end it actually helped me. As I restarted my quest, I quickly caught my second wind and found a renewed energy level like I had near the beginning of the race. Many of those that passed me as I was stopped were now being caught and passed by me. I felt such a feeling of accomplishment as I crossed the finish line and was awarded with a medal around my neck. I learned a very valuable lesson that day. When it seems that you just don’t have time to stop, that is, in reality, the time that you MUST stop. The rest will give you a renewed energy to “run with endurance the race that is set before us.”   -KSB

Dealing with defeat and Identifying Exhaustion

Everybody knows exhaustion.  Sometimes it goes by another name-- Overwhelmed. Overworked. Underpaid. Burned out. And so on.  Perhaps you’ve known her?   Exhaustion knows no stranger and has become a disease that we deal with and operate under as the “norm.”  I’ve yet to figure out why it is that we settle for a life without rest, and therefore, less than our best.  The answer is unfailing, “we do what we have to do.”

We have to work. We have to finish what we have overcommitted to doing.  We have to do what someone else won’t.  We have to finish what we know we do better than anyone else.  We have to attend one more event, finish one more task, and do one more thing to ensure success.  Sound familiar?  I’ve seen it in the overtime hours on the job, in an obsession with perfect parenting, in a quest to make more money, and even in the desire to see ministries developed and souls saved.  We do what we think we have to do.

Dare I say, that though the work ethic is commendable, we are guilty of idolatry.  God himself created and participated in rest and we certainly cannot accomplish more than he.  From the beginning of time God is found to create, build, form, and intentionally design his creation, but at the end of it all he rests.  He stops. He simply exists in the midst of all that he has done. 

Honestly, it seems like a brilliant idea.  I mean, what would be the point of creating all sorts of wonderful people and things if you never had a moment to be with them, to celebrate them, or to love and nurture what has been created?  God created in his love and he rested in his love—A testament to his power in that he can still be at work in the world just by existing with her.

If I told you that doing less would accomplish more, would you take the break?  Well, it’s true.  I’m not just talking about physically doing less tasks, but mentally and spiritually as well.  No, this isn’t an opportunity to quit your early morning  prayer time and put the bible on the shelf for a while.  It is however, a call to slow down and spend some time just existing among the work and people in your life.  Just for a moment, stop.  Stop running your kids around to every extra circular to make sure they have strong “character development”, and spend some time with them.  Teaching, talking, and laughing together.  God’s character in you will shine through.  Stop working overtime to pay for extra amenities and take the time to enjoy what you already have.  Stop reading more self-help books and praying as many words as possible, and telling everyone to tell you what you need to do or how to do it.  Instead, just be silent for a while.  Listen.  Listen for the work of God already present in your life, and give thanks. 

When you stop and rest you are free to enjoy all that you’ve already been given and you discover the real reason you feel defeated and exhausted in the first place.  Many times our defeat and exhaustion is rooted in our disconnect from purpose.  If we rest, then we reconnect with our motivation and purpose for faith, family, and everyday pursuits.  When it comes time to work again we can live the abundant life that Jesus promised, and avoid perpetual exhaustion.  Be encouraged this week--- you can know and identify what it is that is wearing you down in any part of your life.  It begins with the practice of rest so we might, “Be still and know that he is God.”   

EB

Contact

One the most necessary components of rest is contact. 

Litters of newborn animals rest in the comfort of their packs.   Infants are found resting in the arms of their mothers.  Airports are full of loved one finding rest in the embrace of one another before the commencement of a long journey.  Husbands and wives find rest in the embrace of their spouse before they say goodnight.  Many parents will remember those late nights in which their sick child could find no relief in cough suppressants or pain relievers, but these same children were finally lulled fast to sleep as they lay in the arms of mom or dad.  Rest requires contact.

This is a primal aspect of rest.  It is a component of rest that has dwelt with us from infancy, and though we often go to great ends to suppress it as adults, it is a component of rest that remains with us still today.  Human beings crave contact.  We crave human interaction and human touch.  We long to be held and to be stabilized by others around us.  We long for rest, but we realize that true rest cannot arise without security, and security is not offered apart from the embrace of another.  Thus, true rest requires not just any kind of contact, but more specifically it requires secure contact.

This embrace may be gentle and reassuring.  It may be compassionate and warm.  It may be strong and steadfast, but it will always be a form of touch that breeds the solace necessary to find rest.  Contact in and of itself is a neutral force, neither wholly positive nor negative.   But when this neutral force is coupled with feelings of safety and security, real rest is possible. 

This is precisely the type of rest Jesus desired to offer the inhabitants of Jerusalem in the 23^rd chapter of Matthew.  In this passage, Jesus stands over the city of Jerusalem overcome with sadness.  His deepest desire is to offer rest.  He stands ready to provide the secure contact that is needed to find meaningful spiritual rest.  It is for this reason that he says in verse 37, “How often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings!” Within His touch is the security and safety that provides spiritual renewal and rest.  Taking up the analogy of the mother hen, Jesus becomes the safe point of contact that assures rest.  We must come in contact with Him if we desire to find meaningful renewal.  We must touch Him and the things He loves, and He must touch us with His transformational power. 

The image Jesus offered as he stood over the city that day is really an image of the contact he made with humanity as he lay dying on the cross.  This image of a hen gathering her brood is a maternal image of protection.  Outside forces and storms may bear down on this mother. Disaster may strike at her very heart, but as she gathers her children under her wings, she creates a protective barrier that shields her young from all harm.  This image recently came alive to me as I read an apocryphal story of a hen and her chicks in western Canada.  As so often happens in the North Woods, a forest fire came blowing through a small town and destroyed everything in it path.  After the blaze died down and the embers cooled, one of the farmers in the community went out to assess the damage.  Everything was gone: his crops, his land, his livestock, even his hens.  As he continued to assess the damage, he came across one of these lonely bird burned to death in the middle of the yard.  At first, he was unsure of what he was looking at, but after further inspection he realized that this was the mother hen who had recently given birth to three new chicks.  In former days, he loved watched these harmless creatures fumble along behind their mother, completely carefree and naïve.  It was such a shame.  If this mother hen had not survived the fire, then there was surely no way that these innocent chicks could have survived such a horrific event.  But as he continued to prod the deceased animal, he turned the hen over only to discover three chirping baby chicks resting safely in the embrace of their mother’s wings.  Their mother had taken on the full force of the storm.  She had stood against the fire and was overcome, but through her death her helpless brood of young chicks were saved. 

From the cross, as Jesus lay facing the greatest storm of his life, we remember the words He spoke while standing over the city of Jerusalem.  Hung between heaven and earth, stretched out between the wrath of God and the sin of the human race, we remember these words.  Nailed to a rugged cross, Jesus creates the opportunity for secure contact that we need.  He creates a line of contact between God and humanity that had long been severed.  In this moment, we remember his words: “How often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings!”  He longs to offer this secure touch, this protective contact.  He longs to give us rest from the devastating effects of sin in this world and in our lives.  He desires this so much, that like the hen in Western Canada, he is willing to die in the flames to save the lives of His creation. 

We human beings need to rest, but we can only find rest in contact with a being that offers ultimate security.  That being is Christ.  Christ has always promised us rest.  He has gone to great lengths to secure that resting place for us.  But will we find our position under his wing?  You see the end of verse 37 is far more devastating than the beginning.  In the beginning, we find Christ’s deep desire to offer humanity a resting place in the security of his embrace, but in the end we find the human refusal to rest.  Listen again to Jesus’ words, “How often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing.”  The rest that comes through secure contact is not a rest that is forced, but rather freely offered to all who come to be touched. 

Are you ready to rest?

sib

Let the Praise Go Up

Praise and worship has always been affirmed as a way in which we experience God’s rest and renewal in our lives.  There is just something about singing a “new song” with joy in our hearts that leaves us feeling energized and excited about God’s work.

“Let the Veil down, let the praise go up.

 Let the Veil down, let the praise go up.

Let the veil down, we’re in the presence of the Lord.”

I’m not quite sure what it is about this song that excites me.  Perhaps it is the realization that there is no veil that separates me from God any longer.  The song tends to make me feel like I’m singing about some kind of wall I’ve built up.  You know the walls, right? For some of us they are walls of frustration.  Or walls of disappointment.  Or walls of shame.  For others there are walls of religion, or pride, or insecurity.  Whatever the walls may be in our lives that need to come down, the separation that the song sings about is the Old Testament use of the veil in the temple that separated the outer court of the temple from the inner court (holy of holies) where God’s presence was.  Only the priests were allowed there.  That is until Jesus’ death, of course.  On that occasion the temple veil was torn and humanity was granted full access to God the Father through the person of Jesus the son.  Good news for everyone, and certainly something worth praising God for.  For some of us waiting to experience God’s rest and renewal, we must first give ourselves permission to get in God’s presence.  NO, you aren’t perfect.  No one is.  However, if Jesus can make a way for us to have contact with God, giving his own life, then our excuses about not being good enough just aren’t, well, good enough. J

Okay, so you’re ready to get in God’s presence because you’ve “Let the veil down”, but once you’ve experienced God’s renewal, there is a whole new understanding for what it means to “Let the Praise Go up.”  Praise is an act of the heart and the body.  It happens when we exclaim “Amen!” and when we open our arms and our mouths in adoration of God.  But let’s be honest here.  Praise doesn’t end there.  In fact, in that stage, praise is just getting started.  Praise and worship isn’t an action of music, but a commitment of one’s life.  The bottom line is that if we are getting in God’s presence and praising him, then we are also entering the presence of others and demonstrating our love for God.  So be encouraged this morning, that if you want to open yourselves up to God’s renewing power then all you have to do is worship him.  Be reminded that praise and worship happens with our lives even more than it does with our words.  Some of us will worship by letting go of resentment.  Others will extend forgiveness.  Another will say “I’m sorry” and someone needs to make a point to say “I love you.”  This is the hard part of praise.  But when you’ve done it, then you’ve torn down the veil we all keep putting back up.  Then you will have let Jesus work have effect in your life.  Then you will be praising God, and finding yourself in his presence where there is peace, strength, hope, rest, and renewal for a weary soul.

Resting in the Lord

      Have you ever been through stressful times in life when there just seems to be no peace?  What about  Extreme Stress; you can't sleepwell, eating habits are disturbed, you feel under the weight of the world,  at times you feel like your heart is racing and  you can't even breathe?  Can you say PANIC ATTACK?

      When I am going through  a stressful time in life, I have to sometimes pick myself up by the neck and shake my own self to remind my spirit that God is always in control.  I had to come to the conclusion years ago that the Word of God is true, regardless of what I see around me. His Word is full of promises and tells me that I am the apple of His eye, that He is my strength, and that the Holy Spirit is a Comforter and a Guide.  The Word tells us that He leads us beside still waters....That IS His will for us, but if we get out of the peaceful 'lane' on our highway of life, then the still waters are hard to find!  When that happens, we have to find out where we went off the road so we won't do it again, then ask God for directions to get back to Peace.

     When I am anxious and disturbed, I am learning to check the atmosphere in which I am currently living.  What is going on in my life?  Am I involved in too many activities? ( Even worthwhile activities can wear us down if we don't use wisdom).  Is my family running in too many directions, making our household chaotic?  Have I made some mistakes in life that are causing anxiety at this time?  Am I possibly the victim of a spiritual attack by the enemy?  Satan's job description is to "kill, steal and destroy".  He knows that he will never get most of us to actually worship him.  But he will attempt to throw temptations in our path....things that look good and worthwhile...but things that keep us too busy for proper rest and relaxation that is required for our bodies to function properly.  If he can get us to 'bite'  at these things, then he has a chance to 'steal' our peace and chip away at family foundations as well as time and energy for God's work.  

     So, if you're living with constant stress, check out the atmosphere of your home.  Ask God to help you to do what is required to establish a peaceful environment there.  Talk to a godly trusted friend or pastoral staff to gain some clarity.   Then take some time to read His Word and remind yourself of all of His wonderful promises to His children.  Even when a storm is raging in your life, you really CAN rest, SAFE in His arms.

-Mike Carswell