A Challenge to Millennials

Recently, someone pointed out to me that I am technically a millennial. I had a hard time understanding that, since I was born before the new millennium, but apparently I fall into the category of pre-millennial, or some such nonsense. Honestly, I have never much cared what my generation was called, because it really didn't matter. Being a pre-millennial or generation "Y" or anything else doesn't change who I am as a person, and besides which, my identity is to be found in Christ, not society's labels.

But all that aside, the practical side of me can see the use of naming generations so that you can more easily address them, and so to all the millennials out there, this post is for you.

Actually, I have noticed that this generation seems to be delighted with anything new: after all, we live in a world full of new technology, new scientific and archaeological discoveries, and new social outlets (i.e. social media). Millennials generally like to try new foods and experience new things, go new places and find new ways of doing things.

But this focus on novelty has a danger:

I read in an article some time back that stated that many millennials are rejecting their parent's antiques and family heirlooms in favor of new, modern furniture from stores like IKEA.  Wrapped up in the desire to surround themselves with the new and trendy, these young people are missing out on precious treasures --monetarily and sentimentally.

Maybe it's because I grew up surrounded by antiques and history, but that seems to me like a tragedy. Some of my most prized possessions are things that have been passed down to me from previous generations, and these items give me a way to connect with the past generations by serving as a tangible link to relatives who died long before I was born. (For example, the little hymnal from my ancestor who came across the Oregon Trail.) Some of these hand-me-down heirlooms might be from as recent a generation as my parents, but remind me of stories they or others have told; like the cherry-wood bookcase Daddy made for my Grandma in 7th grade, which was her prized possession for many years before it became mine.

But that's actually not my point. Just as some millennials reject their parent's heritage of physical belongings and miss out on something of value, many of my generation fall into the trap of rejecting their spiritual heritage, trying to make Christianity into something new, or else trying to live the Christian life in a new way. But is that Biblical?

I was struck by a passage today which in turn reminded me of another, and I thought I would share them. Both are from the period in Israel's history where their society had left its spiritual heritage and had become entrenched in idolatry. In the process of warning His people of their impending judgement and exile, God continually reached out to them, sending prophets to warn, but also to call to repentance and a promise of blessing to those who turned to the Lord.

It is in this context that we find Isaiah 58. In the first part of the chapter, God calls out the Israelites who had been claiming to worship Him, but who were doing it in their own way. They were still worshiping outwardly, but just for show. They had rejected the emphasis on holiness of previous generations and were living their lives how they pleased, all the while claiming God's promised blessing but for worship that was not based on a desire to please God.

God's response to these Israelites was to describe how He really wanted to be worshiped: not with the outward only, but with a wholehearted seeking after Him. Then comes a beautiful passage about how God promised to bless those who did turn to Him. Tucked among the descriptions of blessing is verse 12:

"And they that shall be of thee shall build the old waste places: thou shalt raise up the foundations of many generations: and thou shalt be called, The repairers of the breach, The restorer of paths to dwell in."

 Those who returned to seeking the Lord from their hearts would not be identified with doing new things or worshiping in a new way, but rather in repairing and restoring the old foundations, walls, and pathways.  This verse always reminds me of Jeremiah 6:16, which says,

"Thus saith the Lord, Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls..."

Isn't that beautiful? And yet, it is so easy to get caught up in the busyness and excitement of the "new" to the neglect of the "old paths" that bring "rest for your souls".

The heartbreaking thing about this verse is that it doesn't end there. At the end of the Lord's declaration of how to find rest are the sad words: "But they said, We will not walk therein".

As a whole, Israel had become very wicked. In fact, Jeremiah 6 describes them as being unashamed and even unable to blush for shame. --Sounds like our society, doesn't it? But the way out isn't in finding new ways to do things, or rethinking how we worship God: The way out is really just to turn around, look for the old paths, and return to how God designed Christianity to be: a reflection of Christ to the wicked world around us.

So, for the millennials reading this, or for readers of any generation, my challenge to you is simple:

"ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls"

What's the Bible All About?

Today on my way home, I was listening to a podcast, and I was struck by a statement the speaker made. She pointed out that the Bible isn't actually about us, but about God.

She pointed out that we all too often go to God's Word looking for what it says about me, when our primary purpose should be to discover what it says about God.

You know when someone puts into words something you knew deep down, but hadn't ever verbalized?

Well, a couple years ago, I was in a dry spell spiritually. I was reading my Bible, and was even praying some, but it seemed as if my soul was numb and my heart asleep. I just couldn't get anything out of my reading, and even my favorite go-to passages didn't give me that "just read my Bible" feeling.

I knew it couldn't be a problem with God --after all, He is omnipresent and unchanging. I also knew that the answer wasn't to stop reading. I had listened to enough sermons to know that when I don't feel like reading, that is the time to read the most.

But just reading -even reading more- wasn't getting me anywhere.

I wanted to enjoy my Bible reading, and I wanted it to bring me back to that closeness I had with God, but somehow lost somewhere along the line. But how?

I finally decided to actively seek to learn what God was like. Around that time, I took a Bible doctrines class as one of my college classes, and when that was done, lo and behold, my Sunday school teacher began a series on the attributes of God. As I learned more about God's attributes and the implications of Who God really is, I began reading with an eye to what each passage said about God. I even did a study on the first time each name of God was used, and why that particular name was significant. My understanding of Who God was and how His character influenced His actions broadened my faith and helped me to internalize the importance of godly character.

But I'll be honest: the feeling I was looking for didn't return with any consistency until I began spending time in prayer before my Bible reading each day, asking God to quicken His Word and guide me into all truth. -After all, the Holy Spirit is really the key to understanding and internalizing Scripture.

But that year or so of reading and studying out of "duty" was not wasted. I have heard several speakers lately mention that Bible reading is like making deposits in a bank. Even when it seems dry, you're still building up your knowledge so that when the challenges come, you know where to turn.

For example, when I was having a particularly rough day this week, God reminded me of Romans 8:28, and I was able to remember that even that rough day was meant by God for my good and His glory. That changed my focus from self-pity to gratitude and a desire to look for what God was going to bring out of the day.

That's the amazing gift of the Holy Spirit: He is always there to bring comfort and help and conviction as needed --primarily by reminding us of what the Word of God says. The more we know, the more we can be reminded of, and the more we can focus on bringing glory to God through whatever circumstances we find ourselves in.

So, dear reader, if you're in a dry spell -keep at it! Remember that emotions are fleeting, and even when you feel that God is silent and distant, the reality of His presence and loving involvement in your life is never going to change. -And resolve to begin afresh to truly seek to know God through His Word, in prayerful dependence on His Spirit to lead the way.

"And ye shall seek Me, and find Me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart, And I will be found of you, saith the Lord..."

Jeremiah 29:13-14a

When Life Gets Busy...

The school year has fully ramped up, as have my church ministries and I am once again in the "you want me to be out past 8:00 on a schoolnight?" season of life where sleep and coffee are both highly prized commodities.

It's not just me, either. Everyone I know seems to be more busy now than they were even a week ago. --Funny how everyone tends to get overwhelmingly busy at the same time, huh?

So, how do we handle this intense busy-ness? The natural tendency is to madly rush through each day, distracted by all the things that demand your focus, trying to keep it all straight in your mind and sort out what needs to be done first. --In short, we tend to run around like the proverbial chicken with its head cut off.

To cope with the overload of demands on our time, energy, and mental focus, most of us look for ways to pare down the demands, getting rid of that which is not "urgent" or "necessary"

And for many of us, one of the first things to be pared down is time spent with God in prayer. Maybe we don't cut it out all together (although it is very common for the busy Christian to rush out the door, meaning to get their time with God in later on, and then forget altogether in the hustle and bustle of the day, waking up late the next morning only to repeat the cycle.) My temptation when overwhelmed by how much I have to do each day is to minimize or cut short my time with God.  But as I was reminded in Pastor's sermon this morning, the busier we become, the more we need to pray.

Think about it.

When you feel you are taxed beyond your limits with the busyness of life, work, ministry, family, whatever puts pressure on your time, you can go to the omnipotent God who has no limitations, and who offers you His strength for each day.

Isaiah 26:3-4 is an oft-quoted verse, but have you ever stopped to consider the last part of verse 4?

"Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee. Trust ye in the Lord for ever: for in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength."

Everlasting strength. strength that never ends, that never fails, that is never exhausted. Through God we have access to this strength. Ephesians 3:16 indicates that God does strengthen believers with His might.

So how do we access this strength?

Look back at Isaiah 26:3

"Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on Thee: because he trusteth in Thee."

The way to access peace in the midst of our busy-ness is to stay our minds on the Lord --to talk with Him in prayer and to read about Him in His word. When we take the time to stay our minds on Him, He helps us trust in Him, and notice why the "perfect peace"-filled individual is trusting God -"for in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength". Ephesians 3:14-19 also ties God's act of strengthening to closeness to and knowledge of God on the part of the believer.

So working backwards, to get God's strength, we must trust that it is everlasting- that it is enough (and more!) for our day. And if we trust that God's strength is greater than our own, we will take the time to seek His strength by staying our minds on Him.

In other words, you have to be willing to put aside what you think is urgent and take time for God, trusting Him to enable you to get everything accomplished in your day.

I think it was Martin Luther who remarked to a friend that he had so much to do that day, he had to spend an extra hour in prayer. --That's the mindset we need if we are to live our busy lives empowered by God's limitless strength.

"He who runs from God in the morning will scarcely find Him the rest of the day" 

-John Bunyan

When God's Will Gets Confusing...

It's Thursday night, and I should be asleep.

I was actually excited to be going to bed only a little bit later than I should have been, with a busy Friday of teaching ahead of me, full of exhausted little ones and the need for lots of energy and patience, topped by a busy afternoon and evening. But between being just a little too warm, there being a little more noise than normal in the house, and not being as exhausted as I had thought, (hmm...  and maybe just a little too much caffeine as well...) I just couldn't sleep. That's ok, I thought, At least I'm resting. But then my mind ramped up with ideas for how I could be spending this time that I wasn't spending sleeping... then a text came in from a friend with a burden, and I began praying as well as trying to sleep. All the while, thoughts for this post kept occurring, and I was trying to mentally file them away for later and get the rest that I was sure I needed.

Finally, I gave up trying to sleep, yielded to what I finally admitted was the Holy Spirit's prompting to get up and write this blog post, turned on the light, and got out my laptop.

That was when I saw the spider.

With a heavy sigh, I grabbed a tissue, moved a stool over to where the spider was, and climbed aboard. What am I doing, Lord? I wondered. I'm supposed to be sleeping, getting rest for the busy day of ministry You have called me to, but here I am, standing on tiptoe, precariously trying to kill a spider in the middle of the night, completely wide awake.

(for all you non-teachers out there, 10:30 on a Thursday night is, practically speaking, the middle of the night. Once school starts, my bedtime closely resembles that of my seven-year-old students whenever possible. 4:45 comes ridiculously quickly during the school year.)

I took a breath, and reached for the spider, which promptly performed evasive maneuvers, dropping out of sight behind some furniture. Now I am really awake.

Then my friend texted again, this time having received some very sad news. I knew that was partly why God allowed me to be awake right then, so I could be there for her and pray for her.

*       *       *

Sometimes God's will for us seems confusing. Sometimes we can think we have it all figured out and begin to expect things to go the way we have figured they should go, getting annoyed when God has other plans. (Like being awake at 11:00 writing a blog post on a school night...)

And yet, who are we to be annoyed at anything God plans? He knows and wants the very best for us, and when there are difficulties or God redirects us, they are always for our best good --even when (especially when) those unexpected turns of providence go against our view of what is "good" for us. (Like a good night's sleep before a challenging day.)

Even when you are surrendered to God's will for your life, it can be confusing trying to sort out the details of what God wants you to do. For example, my parents and I were cleaning out the garage last weekend and I suddenly found myself staring down at several boxes of my toys from childhood... you know, the special ones you save to pass along to the next generation.

When I packed those boxes before our move almost ten years ago, my impatient 20-year-old self never would have imagined that I would be opening them again at 30, with the odd task of deciding what to pass along to nieces and what to keep --whether to keep-- any for that "someday", "if I ever have kids".

But there I sat, pulling out toys, each one bringing so many memories to the surface, enjoying seeing them, but determined to be ruthlessly realistic, determined to keep only the ones that were the most special, that I would want to stay in the family regardless, asking God whether or not I should even keep any of it, or if I should try to pass all of it along.

But, despite the confusion of working to stay surrendered to God's present will for me while trying to be open to whatever the future might hold, not knowing what that might be or how to plan, the task of sorting and deciding was much less difficult than I had expected. And in the process, God allowed me to find a specific toy that sparked an idea which grew into a little story that I am now hoping to have my artist sister illustrate for me and turn into a children's picture book. --All because of that confusing process of unboxing, sorting, purging, and re-boxing.

I don't know yet what will come of that story, or of those freshly re-packed boxes full of memories, but I do know that when God's will gets confusing, the best --the only truly helpful thing-- is to take our eyes off our expectations or ideas of what God's will is or should be, and to submit to His good and perfect plan for that moment...and for all the moments after.

--Even at a quarter 'till midnight on a school night.

Getting God's Heart for Difficult People

School began last week, and I had wanted to post this particular blog post before I met my thirteen God-given charges for the schoolyear, but time got away from me and now here I am, one week in, writing about difficult people.

To be clear, I'm not writing because of any specific student. As I contemplated some of the challenges and difficulties I would be facing this year, God brought along a speaker at Family Camp that spoke on exactly what the students I was getting would need. (It never ceases to amaze me how God does that for me!) Because I went into the schoolyear with tools from God's Word and a renewed sense of purpose and the importance of walking in the Spirit every moment, things have gone better than I had thought they would these first weeks.

As I prepared for the schoolyear, though, I began thinking back over past years and past non-school related difficulties with people around me and I realized that the key to dealing with difficult people is to have the same heart God does for them.

When I think about God having to deal with difficult people, I think of the Old Testament example of God's dealings with the nation of Israel. He delivered them in a miraculous way from slavery in Egypt, provided for their needs in the desert, and showed Himself strong on their behalf so many times, and yet they were still selfish, distrusting, disobedient, and unfaithful. But God still loved them, and sent prophets time and time again to turn their hearts back to Himself.  Even though He had to bring judgement upon their sin, He never gave up, and never forsook them.

God's heart cries out for the difficult ones. Jesus wept over Jerusalem, saying,

 "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not!"

Nehemiah puts it this way:

"Yet many years didst Thou forbear them, and testifiedst against them by Thy Spirit in Thy prophets: yet would they not give ear: therefore gavest Thou them into the hand of the people of the lands. Nevertheless for Thy great mercies' sake Thou didst not utterly consume them, nor forsake them; for Thou art a gracious and merciful God"  

(Nehemiah 9:30-31)

This passage is preceded by a summary of Israel's cycle from blessing to falling into sin, to judgement, to crying out to God, and then to His blessing again. The final straw, as it were, was the continual rejection of God's warnings, which required God in His perfect justice to bring judgement which removed the people from the land for seventy years. Nehemiah is referring to this, and to the amazing and miraculous way God allowed for their return when their "time out", so to speak, was over.

In reading through the pre-exile prophets, one cannot but be struck with the heart of love behind the warnings of judgement. God could have brought instant judgement, especially since He knew whether or not the people would have repented, but he chose instead to demonstrate His unfailing love over and over again before finally bringing the promised judgement. The focus behind the judgement is that God's people would know that He is God. Then they would be His people, and He would be their God, just as He had planned all along. That is what God desires for the difficult ones: for them to be brought back into relationship with Him as He designed them to be.

Here's where it gets practical: God's love is unconditional, and ours ought to be, too. That doesn't mean we should never say things others find unpleasant, but we should say them from a heart of love, and for the purpose of bringing that person back in line with God's Word.

I am writing this as much for me as for you. It is easy for me to be patient first thing in the morning, but when the same person does the same thing for the millionth time (or at least, it seems like the millionth...) it is easy to give in to the flesh, throw up my hands, and give up. Those are usually the moments when God wants to use me to show love to that person in a powerful way that only He can empower me to do, and if I give in to frustration or anger or irritation, that person will not see God's love in me.

God's goal is to restore, to build. As His representative, I must have His heart of restoration, forgiveness, and love towards others, even when they are difficult. When God prompts it, I must say the hard things, take the hard stand, but always with a heart of love and a desire to see God work to bring that person back to where He desires them to be.

So who is the difficult person God wants you to show His love to today? Ask Him to give you His heart for them. He will, and it will make all the difference!