Tag Archives: Spiritual

Chapter-a-Day

The Wait

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The Wait (CaD Lk 2) – Wayfarer

Now there was a man in Jerusalem called Simeon, who was righteous and devout. He was waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was on him.
Luke 2:25 (NIV)

Here at Vander Well Manor, it’s beginning to look a little bit like Christmas. Wendy fractured her foot a few weeks ago, had surgery to repair it, and has been rolling around the house on a scooter. So, the decorations are not up yet, but there’s seasonal music playing in the kitchen each morning and boxes of toys and books and other Christmas gifts for the kids have begun to arrive daily. Our crew in Scotland is moving back to the States and will be with us, which has Yaya and Papa pretty excited for this year’s Christmas celebration.

As I looked at the latest delivery of children’s gifts on the counter yesterday, I thought about our grandson and the giddy excitement he must be feeling about Christmas. I suddenly had a nostalgic flood of memories from my own childhood. Back in the day, the Sears Christmas Wish Book catalog that arrived each year would be tattered and dog-eared as the toy section was perpetually reviewed daily. The list for Santa was endless. The anticipation of Christmas morning was excruciating.

This past Sunday, I gave a message among my local gathering of Jesus’ followers. My message was an unpacking of what’s known as the season of Advent. Among my local gathering are people of very diverse religious backgrounds, and many have no experience with or understanding of Advent. Among followers of Jesus around the world, there are those who follow a liturgical calendar in which there are seasons coinciding with key celebrations throughout the year. The season of Advent is the traditional season that leads up to the celebration of Jesus’ birth on Christmas Day.

Advent comes from the Latin word Adventus, meaning “coming or arrival.” It is a season of waiting that traditionally included an Advent calendar which counts down the days until Christmas. Advent calendars used to have little candies or pieces of chocolate for each day, helping children get a little daily fix before the main event arrives. Today, you can get Advent calendars with just about any kind of treat for each day before Christmas including different wine samples or a shot of a different brand of bourbon. Ya gotta love commercialism.

Today’s chapter is a traditional Christmas chapter. What is once again fascinating about Luke’s account is the detail he provides that you won’t find in Matthew, Mark, or John’s biographies of Jesus. As part of his investigation into Jesus’ story, tradition tells us that Luke spent time with Jesus’ mother, Mary. The first two chapters read like a recitation of what must have been Mary’s first-person account of the events surrounding Jesus’ birth.

Among those stories is a simple, but meaningful story of a man named Simeon. Simeon was a sincere believer in God, and he was waiting for God’s messiah, the savior, to arrive. God’s Spirit had assured him that he would not die until he had seen this messiah with his own eyes. Prompted and led by God’s Spirit, he goes to the courts of the Temple. The temple courts would have teeming with people like a shopping mall the week before Christmas. There among the crowd were Joseph, Mary, and 40-day-old baby Jesus. They were there to perform a traditional purification ritual prescribed in the Law of Moses.

Luke doesn’t go into details, but Simeon is led to the infant Jesus by the Spirit. That which he had been waiting for is finally fulfilled. He hold’s God’s promise, and speaks hard prophetic words to Mary. The waiting over, Simeon boldly proclaims that he is now ready to die, having seen “God’s salvation” with his own eyes.

In the quiet this morning, I can’t help but think about the stories of today’s chapter in connection to my message this past Sunday and the season of waiting that has commenced leading to Christmas. Christmas toys and Advent calendars filled with bourbon shots aside, the traditional season of Advent calls me back from the precipice of nostalgia and commercialism to something deeper, more personal, and more meaningful. Simeon provides the example.

Simeon’s wait was individual and personal. Simeon’s was connected to God’s Spirit which was both the source of the wait and its fulfillment. Once it was fulfilled, Simeon experienced a spiritual freedom, release, and satisfaction.

As a child, I remember the hangover that descended when all the presents had been opened and a few days had gone by for the newness to wear off. That’s bound to happen if my treasure is found in the Sears Wish Book. Simeon found something deeper and far more satisfying. Advent softly beckons me to join him, if I only can hear the whisper amidst Mariah Carey beckoning for the 100th time that all she wants for Christmas is me.

If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.

Chapter-a-Day

“Like the Rain”

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"Like the Rain" (CaD Hos 6) – Wayfarer

“Let us acknowledge the Lord;
    let us press on to acknowledge him.
As surely as the sun rises,
    he will appear;
he will come to us like the winter rains,
    like the spring rains that water the earth.”
Hosea 6:3 (NIV)

The latest census shows that 80% of Americans live in urban and suburban areas. Only 20% live in the rural areas that make up the vast majority of the map. Growing up in Iowa, one inherently learns that there is a connection between life and agriculture. When life depends on agriculture, the weather plays a major part of the days and seasons.

When I was young, there was a summer marked by severe drought. I remember that an unexpected rain shower broke out one evening near a town where the farmers and residents had gathered to pray for rain. The local television station immediately scrolled the news across the screen.

For the ancients, agriculture and the weather was more critical than it is for American farmers today. A drought means major economic hardship in the heartland, but back in Hosea’s day a drought meant famine and death. Rain was equated with the perpetuation of life itself.

Just prior to reading through these ancient prophecies of Hosea, this chapter-a-day journey trekked through Amos. The prophet Amos came just before Hosea, and his prophecies were all angry protest songs filled with judgement and condemnation for the corruption and evil that was happening in the land. I find Hosea presenting a contrasting message that is more far-sighted than Amos. Yes, there is the condemnation of evil and a calling out of the corruption, but Hosea’s vision continually sees beyond the judgement and exile to the restoration and blessing God is also promising on the other side of it.

I can’t help but wonder if Hosea’s own relationship with his promiscuous and adulterous wife, and the redemption and restoration of his marriage, provided him a larger understanding of God’s own heart.

In describing the restored relationship after the time of exile, Hosea begins by assuring his listeners that God’s love and grace will appear “as surely as the sun rises.” I was reminded of Paul’s words to Timothy: “If we are faithless, God remains faithful for he cannot disown Himself.” Hosea then provides a beautiful word picture: God comes like the rain. The water of life pours from heaven, replenishing the land from the death of winter; Giving birth to new life and the promise of an abundant harvest to come.

In the quiet this morning, I find myself appreciating Hosea’s far-sightedness to look beyond the impending drought of judgement and exile. Glancing back over my shoulder, I remember seasons of drought that have dotted my spiritual journey. I have found that drought happens spiritually just as it does in the physical world. However, with each season of drought, God has always, eventually “come to me like the rain”that replenishes, restores, and gives birth to new life.

If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.

Chapter-a-Day

The Thread

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The Thread (CaD Job 26) – Wayfarer

“And these are but the outer fringe of his works;
how faint the whisper we hear of him!
Who then can understand the thunder of his power?”
Job 26:14 (NIV)

I am surprised that I’ve never seen anyone try to stage the book of Job. 

Job and his three friends remain sitting on the ash heap where people burn their garbage. What a setting.

Job, emaciated, almost naked, and covered head-to-foot with festering sores, continues to scrape at his scabs with pieces of broken pottery. His friends, healthy, hardy, and dressed in their fine robes sit silently around him. What a visual. 

For twenty-two chapters, Job and his friends have gone back and forth in contemplation of his tragic circumstances and intense suffering. With Bill’s brief words in yesterday’s chapter, the friends appear to have nothing further to say. In today’s chapter, Job replies specifically to Bill. The Hebrew pronouns Job uses are singular rather than plural. 

It appears that Job is at the end of his patience with his friends as the conversation wanes. Job’s reply drips with bitter sarcasm:

“How you have helped the powerless!

    How you have saved the arm that is feeble!

What advice you have offered to one without wisdom!

    And what great insight you have displayed!

Who has helped you utter these words?

    And whose spirit spoke from your mouth?”

Job then proceeds to poetically contemplate God’s immense power that lies beyond human understanding. It feels as if he is talking more to himself than to his three friends. If I were directing this as a scene on stage, I would block it in such a way that it became clear Job is delivering his words to himself, to the audience like a soliloquy in Shakespeare. Why? Because he alone is privy to the depth of this insight. He sees God revealed in creation: the vastness of space, the rage of a thunderstorm, and the untamed seas. Job then recognizes that all of this is but “the outer fringe” of God’s power. He foreshadows the words of Paul who describes God as the One who can do “exceeding, abundantly, beyond all that we could ask or imagine.”

What is fascinating about Job’s beautiful description of God’s power that lies beyond imagination is that back in chapter 11 his friend Z accused Job of being unable to fathom the mysteries of God. In ten verses, Job has proved Z wrong. It is fitting that we don’t hear from Z again. In his painful cries out to God, Job may not even recognize that his suffering is giving him depths of clarity and insight to the divine that his friends will never fathom. There are spiritual insights learned amidst suffering that cannot be learned by any other means. This is why suffering is a requisite for spiritual maturity. This is why I believe Job’s is speaking to himself; He is speaking to me.

Throughout Job’s story, if I am willing to see it, I am witness to his spiritual maturation. His friends, confident in their status, education, and false sense of security, remain unchanged.

When I was a young man, I thought I had things figured out. Then life happened. Moral failure, financial failure, and divorce were among the many things that sobered me up to just how little I actually knew. Job’s suffering was perpetrated by the evil one. My suffering has largely been perpetrated by my own poor choices. Nevertheless, along my spiritual journey, suffering through the consequences of my own actions, I have humbly realized that all that I know is but the “outer fringe.” God is exceeding, abundantly beyond all that I can imagine. I am the bleeding woman simply trying to reach out with my finger to make contact with that single piece of thread dangling off the hem at the bottom of Jesus’ robe. I feel Job reaching for it, as well.

And, just that touch changes everything.

If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.

Chapter-a-Day

The Growth Gradient

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The Growth Gradient (CaD Job 14) – Wayfarer

“If only you would hide me in the grave
    and conceal me till your anger has passed!”
Job 14:13 (NIV)

Our neighbor has a willow tree that sits the edge of our properties. I can see it from our patio door. A few summers ago he got out his trimmer and literally cut off every branch so that just the bare trunk was left. Then he walked away. It looked so strange, and I wondered why he didn’t cut the whole tree down as I thought he was doing. Lo and behold, the tree quickly sprouted new branches full of limb and life. It was fascinating to watch.

In today’s chapter, Job continues his discourse of despair. He feels hopeless in his pain and suffering. He can’t envision any end to his suffering other than death itself, which for Job has a depressing finality of its own. Job even uses the metaphor of my neighbor’s willow tree:

“At least there is hope for a tree:
    If it is cut down, it will sprout again,
    and its new shoots will not fail.
Its roots may grow old in the ground
    and its stump die in the soil,
yet at the scent of water it will bud
    and put forth shoots like a plant.”

One of the things that I’m observing about Job as I read his thoughts anew, is the fact that he is a binary thinker. God is the unjust perpetrator of his suffering, period, end of sentence. Things are black and white to Job and he sees no gradient in between. Along my life journey, I’ve observed that human beings like things simplified into binaries. Red or blue, right or left, for or against, black or white. I believe reducing complex issues into simple binaries is one of the reasons our culture is currently so polarized.

As I contemplated Job’s use of the tree metaphor in the quiet this morning, I remembered that Jesus riffed off the same metaphor:

“I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful.”

In Job’s mind, he is a flower that quickly fades and is no more. In his hopelessness he dismisses the notion that he is like the tree. He wishes he was like the tree. “If only,” he says. Jesus’ words hearken back to Job. In his black-and-white thinking, Job is blinded to the spiritual gradient of growth that lies between. “You are the tree, Job. You just can’t see it.”

I have observed in my spiritual journey that suffering is, just as Jesus described, part of a spiritual pruning process that can lead to an abundant flourishing of wisdom and spiritual fruit. I have also observed that I, like Job, often respond to suffering with a “Can’t we just get this over with?” mentality. A third observation I’ve made is that, unlike the modern educational system, in God’s spiritual education system I don’t get to move up to the next grade until I’ve learned the lessons of the grade I’m in. I’ve known individuals who appear to have been in spiritual kindergarten their entire lives.

In the quiet this morning, my mind goes back to Job. His simple binary perspective blinds him from seeing that his struggle with his suffering is part of the process of spiritual maturity. The gentleman who designed the landscaping around our house told Wendy and me not to go overboard with watering our young shrubs, and not to be worried if they don’t look very healthy for a season. “They need to struggle,” he told us. “It’s the only way they will put down deep roots that are essential for life.”

If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.

Chapter-a-Day

The Spiritual “To Do” List

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The Spiritual "To Do" List (CaD Php 2) – Wayfarer

Do everything without grumbling or arguing, so that you may become blameless and pure, “children of God without fault in a warped and crooked generation.”
Philippians 2:14-15 (NIV)

Wendy and I use an app that has become part of the fabric of our lives. The app was purchased by Microsoft a few years ago and is being incorporated into their suite of software. It’s call “To Do” and it’s an ingeniously simple way for having, organizing, assigning, and sharing tasks in multiple lists. We have lists for all of our major weekly supply stops. When we use the last of something, we immediately pull up the app and put it on the list. There are lists for specific stores, lists for personal projects, and lists for projects that need to get done around the house, the garage, the yard, and the lake.

In yesterday’s chapter, Paul began his letter to Jesus’ followers in Philippi by reminding them that we are all “works in progress” as we navigate this earthly journey in an effort to follow in Jesus’ footsteps and live as He prescribed and exemplified. As I opened up to today’s chapter in the quiet this morning, that word picture was still resonating within me. I have an app with a list of things I need to accomplish for our home maintenance and improvements. What about a list of things I need to do in my spiritual maintenance and improvements?

Paul once told the believers in Corinth that we are “temples of the Holy Spirit who is in us.” As I read and meditated on today’s chapter, I thought about the never ending, top-to-bottom, spiritual DIY renovation project of my life as a disciple of Jesus and a temple of God’s Spirit. I read the chapter as if Paul was acting as my spiritual renovation foreman informing me and instructing me on the spiritual improvements that need to be made to my life, my temple.

There were a number of tasks to go on my task list, chief among them was shoring up the foundation of my core motives. My foundation has cracks caused by my own selfish ambitions and self-focus. The remedy starts with applying a base coat of humility, then layer on top of it the valuing of others, their interests, and their needs before my own. Paul then refers me back to how Jesus did it as an example to follow. “If you don’t get the foundation of humility and an ‘others first’ focus laid down,” I heard Paul saying to me, “then everything you layer on top of it will be unstable. Eventually, you’re going to have to dig down and fix the foundation anyway, so do it right the first time. And, the longer you wait to deal with the foundation, the harder everything is going to be to dig down in there and get it corrected. Save yourself a lot of time, energy, and headaches. Get the foundational motivations right and everything else will be a lot easier and more stable in the long run.”

Speaking of the “others first” focus, Paul next went on to point out that my exterior lights weren’t working. These are the lights that shine in the darkness. They help others in my neighborhood find their way by helping them see, providing a reference-point as they are trying navigate, and also give them a destination if and when they need assistance.

Unscrewing one of the exterior lights, he showed me that the wiring had this dirty, greasy, corrosive smudge all over the connections. “This,” Paul informed me, “is the natural by-product of a critical spirit. This builds up on the exterior light system when the exhaust system of your conversations, blurts, phone calls, tweets, and Facebook posts is filled with excessive complaints, gripes, grumbling, criticism, negative rants, mean tweets, snarky replies, name calling, and the like. It short-circuits the exterior light system. The light can’t shine for others until you clean up the exhaust coming out of your mind, mouth, and social media. I guarantee that if you clean up all that smudge that’s coming out of you, your exterior lights will ‘shine like stars in the sky’ for everyone to see!”

So, in the quiet this morning, I’m entering my day with a couple of spiritual maintenance and renovation tasks on the personal “temple” To Do list.

If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.

Chapter-a-Day

“Wait for It”

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"Wait for It" (CaD Mal 4) – Wayfarer

But for you who revere my name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its rays. And you will go out and frolic like well-fed calves.
Malachi 4:2 (NIV)

My vocational career has been spent surveying customers for various clients around the world. One of the fascinating trends I’ve seen over the years is how customer expectations have changed since the advent of the internet age and the proliferation of cell phones. In the wake of Big Tech, time-related dimensions of service have become bigger drivers of customer satisfaction. In general, we are more impatient. We want faster answers. We don’t like to wait.

Wendy and I often muse how much we appreciate having information at our fingertips. We’ve kind of become Jeopardy! geeks and sometimes the answers prompt more questions about things we didn’t know. The other night, Wendy didn’t have her phone next to her as we were watching, so she simply lifted her Apple watch to mouth and asked Siri a question. Her watch immediately and audibly provided her with the trivial answer.

“Did you see what I just did?” she marveled at me.

Instant answers. Immediate gratification. Endless distraction.

Welcome to the 21st century.

For a disciple of Jesus, this trend represents a tremendous challenge. The spiritual journey as a follower of Jesus is fraught with waiting. Spiritual growth is an organic process that requires time for roots to dig deep in the Spirit, for growth to take place, and for fruit to emerge. Faith is “the assurance of what we hope for” which, by its very nature, means it’s out there and I have yet to fully take hold of it but believe with hope that I will. Paul put it this way in his letter to the followers of Jesus in Phillipi:

Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.

Press on. Persevere. Reach. Strain. Those are the elements of the Spirit journey. It becomes an even greater challenge in an age when the expectation and normal human experience is immediate information and satisfaction right from your wristwatch.

One of the most fascinating things about the prophetic works of Malachi is its placement in the great story. Malachi was the last of the ancient prophets. His book was placed at the end of the prophets. Malachi was prophesying around 430 B.C. The next book in the Great Story is Matthew‘s biography of Jesus four hundred years later.

Today’s brief chapter is a set-up to the wait that is coming.

Revere my name. Remember the Law of Moses. Watch for Elijah.

A big Day is coming.

Wait for it.

In the quiet this morning, I spent some time looking back at my own spiritual journey. There have been so many time when I had to wait for promises to be fulfilled, prayers to be answered, and waypoints on the journey to be reached. The waiting, in turn, required praying, keeping the faith, hoping, pressing on, and developing patience. And, that’s the point. God’s goal for me is spiritual maturity, and that never happens in an instant.

If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.

Chapter-a-Day

Oh! The Places You’ll Go!

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Oh! The Places You'll Go! (CaD Jer 29) – Wayfarer

This is what the Lord says: “When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will come to you and fulfill my good promise to bring you back to this place.”
Jeremiah 29:10 (NIV)

It is mid-May. Yesterday was Mother’s Day. I believe that Mother’s Day weekend is the most popular weekend for colleges and universities to hold their graduation commencements. Social media was wall-to-wall young people in their caps and gowns this weekend. And, we’re not even close to being done. The coming weekends will be chock full of high school commencements, and there are exponentially more school graduates than college graduates. Punch bowls are getting pulled out of storage. White sheet cakes are being made en masse. Millions of greeting cards are being sold.

On Saturday morning, Wendy and I made a trip to her family’s gathering. She played for me a commencement address by writer and humorist, David Sedaris, who was receiving an honorary degree from a university. We laughed all the way to her parent’s house. It was a humorous take on the genre of speeches that millions of graduates will hear this month. Young people full of hope and optimism preparing to launch on their respective life paths with a fresh copy of Dr. Seuss’ Oh the Places You’ll Go tucked under their arm. That’s another thing you can plan on every May: the return of Dr. Seuss to the summit of the New York Times’ bestseller list.

I can guarantee you that a good percentage of graduates will receive at least one card of congratulations with a verse from today’s chapter. It’s the verse after the verse I quoted at the top of the post/podcast:

“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”

This is a verse that is tailor made for a graduation card, a calendar, a daily planner, a personal journal, a wall plaque, or any number of gifts and trinkets. Somewhere, I’m sure there’s a well-worn frisbee with that verse inspiring the dog who’s retrieving it for millionth time.

But here’s the thing…

Jeremiah’s words were not intended for young people crossing an educational finish line with a lifetime of hope and opportunity ahead of them. His words were addressed to a people who’d been ripped from their homes, bound (some were likely even been led with a ring through their nose), and drug hundreds of miles to a foreign land. Among them was a young man named Daniel, who certainly would have read Jeremiah’s words from today’s chapter. He was among those for whom they were intended. Daniel may have been the age of many people graduating this month when Jeremiah’s letter arrived, but “Oh! The places you’ll go!” in his young aspirations did not include the city of Babylon in the service of a mad-king. Yet, that’s where he found himself looking at enrollment in the school of hard-knocks and a lifetime of servitude. Jeremiah’s letter promised Daniel and his fellow exiles redemption and return in seventy years. Imagine how that promise sank in. Daniel knew the odds were against him being among those returning. Subsequent generations would enjoy that promise. He was looking at a life-sentence of exile.

And, in the quiet this morning, I can’t help but think that this contrasting reality is perhaps a more honest and truthful message for any graduate who is a follower of Jesus to hear in preparation for the rest of their life journey. It’s certainly more sobering, and not as entertaining as the words of David Sedaris that Wendy and I listened to this weekend. My life journey as a disciple of Jesus has confirmed for me the truth of Jeremiah’s promise. God does have a plan and purpose for me. But, the plans and purpose God has for me are ultimately not about my earthly success or my prosperity, security, safety, or comfort, though all of those things may certainly be experienced along the way. Rather, God’s purpose and plans are about my life of exile and captivity in a temporal, fallen world. They are about my spiritual maturity, my obedience to the One whom I follow, and my increasing measure of sacrificial love and generosity to others all the days of my exile. The purpose, I’ve discovered, is really about my bit part in a story that is ultimately not about me.

I doubt many graduates will hear this. Oh, the places we want to go don’t include the failures, difficulties, setbacks, losses, mistakes, broken dreams, divorce decrees, terminal illnesses, tragic deaths, or the painful consequences of our own poor choices. Nevertheless, those are the requisite pathways to the plans and purposes God has for His children like Daniel, like me.

Of course, like the false prophets that Jeremiah addresses in today’s chapter, there are far more popular messages to echo that are far more enjoyable to hear by mass audiences.

“Wear sunscreen,” for example.

If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.

Chapter-a-Day

The Shepherd & the Hired Hand

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The Shepherd & the Hired Hand (CaD Jer 23) – Wayfarer

“Woe to the shepherds who are destroying and scattering the sheep of my pasture!” declares the Lord.
Jeremiah 23:1 (NIV)

A couple of weeks ago, I gave a message among my local gathering of Jesus followers in which I mentioned that things are more connected than we realize. The text of that message was Jesus’ statement, “I am the Bread of Life” and I talked about how that metaphor is connected to the entire Great Story from Genesis through Revelation. I’m preparing this week for another message this Sunday around Jesus’ statement, “I am the Gate,” and wouldn’t you know it, Jeremiah’s prophetic message in today’s chapter connects directly to Jesus’ statement made over 500 years later. I love synchronicity!

In Jeremiah’s day, God’s people were led civically by the Kings, but most of them were poor leaders as detailed in the books of 1 Kings and 2 Kings. In today’s chapter, God through Jeremiah considers the monarch to be the “shepherd” of His people, His flock. But, rather than protect, guide, and lead the flock well, God says that they scattered them, refused to care for them, and actually drove them away.

Likewise, in Jeremiah’s day, God’s people were led religiously by the priests and the prophets. There were a ton of these, by the way. If you were born a direct male descendant of Aaron (back in Moses’ day) you were a priest. Over 1000 years, the number of direct male descendants was quite large. Being a prophet was also a professional gig, and every pagan cult and idol had their prophets, as well. At the time of Jeremiah, God’s Temple in Jerusalem had become a religious bazaar, with altars and shrines to all sorts of deities along with their priests and prophets. Many of God’s priests (sons of Aaron) and prophets played both sides.

Jeremiah’s message in today’s chapter is a message specifically to these three groups of leaders: kings, priests, and prophets – who were supposed to be “good shepherds” of God’s flock, but they weren’t. God through Jeremiah declared in today’s chapter:

“Both prophet and priest are godless;
Even in my temple I find their wickedness.”

Fast forward just over 500 years and Jesus is standing before the same group of religious leaders from His own generation, and He tells them:

“Very truly I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep. All who have come before me are thieves and robbers.”

Jesus continued:

“I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. The hired hand is not the shepherd and does not own the sheep. So when he sees the wolf coming, he abandons the sheep and runs away. Then the wolf attacks the flock and scatters it. The man runs away because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep.”

Jesus uses the same metaphor that God used through Jeremiah in today’s chapter. The kings, prophets, and priests should have been good shepherds of the Good Shepherd, but they were nothing more than hired hands who allowed the wolf into the pasture. Jesus metaphorically accuses the descendants of those prophets and priests of being and doing the same thing. Nothing had changed.

In the quiet this morning, I find myself meditating on something I written before in these posts. Times change, technology changes, culture changes, but one thing that doesn’t change is the human condition. Fast forward 2,000 years from Jesus and here I am, preparing to stand before God’s flock in a few days to talk about these connections. The same reality faces me that faced the prophets and priests of Jeremiah’s day, of Jesus’ day. Will I be a good shepherd of the Good Shepherd, or am I just a hired hand making a buck and putting in my time?

Jude found the latter among Jesus’ followers when he wrote about those who “are blemishes at your love feasts, eating with you without the slightest qualm—shepherds who feed only themselves.”

Likewise, Peter addressed those who led Jesus’ followers in his day: “Be shepherds of God’s flock that is under your care, watching over them—not because you must, but because you are willing, as God wants you to be; not pursuing dishonest gain, but eager to serve; not lording it over those entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock.”

I pray that I may always shepherd well.

If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.

Chapter-a-Day

The Man of Constant Sorrow

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The Man of Constant Sorrow (CaD Jer 20) – Wayfarer

Why did I ever come out of the womb
    to see trouble and sorrow
    and to end my days in shame?
Jeremiah 20:18 (NIV)

(Note: This is a good soundtrack for today’s chapter. It was going through my head as I read and wrote today’s post. 😉)

There is painting of Jeremiah by Rembrandt that hangs in the master bedroom at the lake. Jeremiah sits in a cave outside the city of Jerusalem, which is burning in the background outside the cave. It is just as he had predicted for decades. Jeremiah, and old man at this point, is isolated and alone. His head rests in his hand, his elbow propped on a copy of God’s Word. His prophetic words have all come true. He alone stood and proclaimed the truth when no one wanted to hear it. He was cancelled by the culture of his day. They mocked him, tortured him, beat him, and imprisoned him yet he refused to be silenced. Rembrandt captures the prophet in his “Aha!” moment, but there is no joy for Jeremiah in being right. There is only sorrow for his people who are being slaughtered and sent into exile. Perhaps he hears their cries and screams in the distance. It is out of this melancholy that Jeremiah will pen his Lamentations.

Jeremiah is known to history as “the weeping prophet.” One of the distinctive aspects of his prophetic writings is his David-like willingness to sing the blues. Six times in the first twenty chapters, Jeremiah has interrupted his prophetic message to the masses to issue his personal lament and complaint to the Almighty. The lament in today’s chapter (verses 7-18) is his longest and arguably most bitter. He complains about the bitter consequences of what God has called him to do, like being beaten and placed the stocks at the beginning of the chapter. He expresses his desire to quit his prophetic proclamations and walk away, but his inability to do so. He depressively expresses his wish that he’d never been born.

Jeremiah’s unabashed melancholy and willingness to express his raw emotions resonates deeply with me. I was recently introduced to a diagram that describes six stages in the path of spiritual formation and maturity. Between the third and fourth stages there is a line, a “wall.” It was explained to me that most people “hit the wall” after the third stage and revert back to the first stage. They are unable or unwilling to progress to the fourth stage that is essential in progressing to spiritual maturity. That fourth stage is labeled the “Inner Journey.”

I’ve contemplated this long and hard since it was introduced to me. I have observed that it is quiet common for individuals to refuse any kind of “inner journey.” I find it ironic that the Fourth Step of the Twelve Steps parallels the fourth stage of the diagram I’ve just described: “We made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.” The inner journey requires that I search my own motives, emotions, weaknesses, indulgences, reactions, and pain-points. I observed many for whom this inner-journey should be avoided at all cost. Yet, I find that Socrates had it right: “The unexamined life is not worth living.”

In the quiet this morning, I find in Jeremiah (and David before him) an unashamed willingness to freely express his deepest and darkest feelings of despair, rage, and disappointment. I find in Jeremiah’s lament the childlike sense of safety to throw an unbridled tantrum before an understanding and patient parent who sees the tantrum for the momentary meltdown it is in the context of broader and more mature knowledge. Along my life journey, I have personally discovered that it is ultimately a healthy thing when I vent and express my emotions, even the dark ones, in productive ways rather than stuff them inside and ignore them until they begin to corrode my soul and negatively affect my life from the inside out.

If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.

Chapter-a-Day

Learning the Lesson (or Not)

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Then the Lord said to me: “Even if Moses and Samuel were to stand before me, my heart would not go out to this people. Send them away from my presence! Let them go!”
Jeremiah 15:1 (NIV)

I was really struggling with my current waypoint on this life journey. I knew where God had led me and was continuing to lead me but I didn’t want it. At least, I was afraid of it for all sorts of reasons. I wanted to run away.

One Sunday morning we were among our local gathering of Jesus’ followers. Every week there are people available to pray with and over those whoever needs it. I thought about going up for prayer, but was fighting with myself internally about doing so. Then, ironically, Wendy leaned over and whispered in my ear that she thought I should go up for prayer.

As my spiritual sister was praying over me, her hand on my heart, she suddenly just stopped praying. She was quiet and said nothing for a long moment. She then told me that, in her mind’s eye, she had been given an image of me as a little boy. “It’s like the first day of school and you know you need to go. You know it’s the right place for you to be, but you’re anxious and afraid and don’t want to be there. Father God just wants you to take His hand. He will walk with you where you need to go.”

I began to weep.

You see, what she didn’t know is that when I was a child, on the first day of school, my mom had to take me kicking and screaming into my kindergarten class. In fact, a few minutes into the class I got up, ran out the door and ran all the way home to plead with my mom not to make me go. My kindergarten teacher ran down the sidewalk after me. She was wearing heels. I got the “Walk” sign at the traffic light on the corner. Of course, mom drug me right back to school kicking, screaming, and crying. I recall her having to do so several times in those first weeks.

When I told my dear sister this, and why I was crying, we then shed a few tears together and a hug.

Here I am over 50 years later and I’m spiritually still having to learn the same lesson that I had to physically learn when I was five years old.

The story of God’s relationship with the Hebrew people is, in itself, a word picture of spiritual lessons like the one I just described.

God delivered the Hebrew people from being slaves in Egypt. Working through Moses, God pursued, delivered, provided for and then made a covenant with the Hebrew tribes to be in relationship with them just like a husband and wife make a covenant to be in relationship with one another.

Fast forward about 800 years and the marriage between God and the Hebrews is on the rocks. She’s a serial adulterer constantly breaking covenant and chasing after other gods.

In today’s chapter, God begins with the statement that even if Moses were to stand before Him to plead for the Hebrew people, it wouldn’t not change His mind. He then says “Let them go!”

What did God through Moses repeatedly tell Pharaoh?

“Let my people go!”

Later in the chapter, God says, “I will enslave you to your enemies in a land you do not know.”

The Hebrews had not spiritually learned the lesson that God was trying to physically teach them in their infancy as a nation. God physically freed them from slavery in Egypt only to have the Hebrews spiritually give themselves over to be slaves of sin and idolatry. The consequences? Back to physical slavery in Babylon to learn the lesson that wasn’t learned 800 years earlier.

In the quiet this morning, I’m reminded of an observation I’ve repeatedly made along my spiritual journey. God doesn’t work like the American educational system in which you keep moving up a grade whether or not you actually learned anything during the school year. In God’s Kingdom system, I have to actually learn the lesson before I get to move up to the next level of spiritual maturity. Jesus expressed frustration with His disciples regularly. “Where is your faith?” He would ask along with “Why are you so afraid?” When those same disciples couldn’t drive the demon out of a boy, Jesus responded, “You unbelieving and perverse generation. How long shall I stay with you? How long shall I put up with you?”

When Paul wrote the believers in Corinth he complained that they should have spiritually matured to eating solid food, but they were spiritually still bottle feeding on milk. It’s possible, he implies, for people to remain spiritual babes sucking on the bottle and never graduate to solid food.

It’s possible for the Hebrews to have never learned the spiritual lessons of God’s very real deliverance, protection, and provision during the Exodus.

It’s possible for me to have not learned the very real lesson of kindergarten and to be spiritually afraid and anxious of where I know I need to go and am being led by God’s hand.

In the quiet this morning, I enter this Good Friday mindful of Jesus going where He needed to go, led by the Father’s hand. I’m equally mindful of the reality that it is possible for me to be freed and delivered from my enslavement to sin, only to willingly allow myself to be enslaved once more. And God will let me enslave myself just as He let the Hebrews enslave themselves, if I fail to learn the lesson.

If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.