But What of the Heart?

Last night I treated myself to a lecture at one of the local Universities about the different reactions of three women to receiving what they believed to be 'sanctification'. Two of them had the same reaction, being drawn closer to ministering to the disenfranchised, and one went the legalistic ballistic supremacy route.

The place of the Holy Spirit working in our lives continues to be the most controversial aspect of faith. Our very huge God, who knows the number of hairs on our heads and says there are plans to prosper us and not to harm us ,speaks to us and in our hearts ,which are so finite without the Spirit ,we bumble along translating into action.

That translation continues the challenge of incarnational living. Let me give you an example.

Years ago I began doing work with a boy who had epilepsy. I was just coming off of a vocational situation which had ended dramatically. I was feeling lots of self condemnation and inadequacy.

As the beginning days of my new situation and duties began I heard a phrase over and over again: first do no harm.

'Lord, ' I cried out in self recrimination. ' I've told you a thousand times how sorry I am for the controversy I brought to that situation . The phrase continued. 'First Do No Harm'.

The epileptic boy was being placed on the ketogenic diet and I was doing my best to weigh and measure the oils and fats when , I can't remember how , but I discovered there was a movie about the development and the use of the diet which can, under certain circumstances, heal epilepsy. It's title?

'First Do No Harm. '

My assumption that the Spirit would  condemn  me in the same way my own wounded heart would condemn me couldn't have been more wrong.

Know that God loves us more than we love ourselves.
Love,
Deborah

A Month of Faith

I have been, this past month, so aware of the schism between the concrete and the eternal world.

Walking by sight just seems so much more successful this side of heaven. And yet, walking by Faith just seems so much more meaningful.

Which do we go for: success or meaning? Well...go figure, it turns out meaning is where it's at. Success is a crap shoot in a journey where the substitute concept is called 'blessings'.

Walking by faith is so confusing though. I've developed this thing called , 'The Circle of Church Culture'. It's a graph that describes the possibilities of 'heavenly minded and externally defined' intersecting with how one reacts to life's realities. On the one side you can just kinda freeze. On the other side, you can fight or flee. It show the effect of love on all quadrants.

We are constantly in the cross hairs of life and love , the now and the not yet.--- or if it's your theological bent, the already happened and we're just catching up.

The point is to keep the consideration going. Keep things fluid. Ask the question and then when you have your answer, ask it again because the question remains.

We grow because we reconsider. That's what leads us to healing and wholeness.
Love,
Deborah

Holy Week 2013

By the end of Sunday , Easter, you will be exhausted beyond what you might have imagined Jesus felt on the cross. And you will descend not into hell for three days, but into complete rest and restoration and whatever renews you.

Ah...tradition. We follow the story that is deep on so many levels. Entering into the parts of ourselves that still need to grow through the empathic engagement of the narrative that fills us with both meaning and mystery.

Know that I am praying for all clergy leaders who are walking in front of their congregations this week as they lead them to the reaffirmation of our history of redemption.

"They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength" Isaiah said. I offer one encouragement. Remember to wait. Dashing ahead or walking in a rut will not be a place of waiting.

Let the Lord carry you this week that the story might be his and nothing else.
Blessings and Cheer....and
Love,
Deborah

The Real Question

Putting it simply this week...I'm thinking of two poets I saw recently, both slam poets, one not from a Christian tradition and one from a Christian tradition.

The difference in language and vocabulary, descriptors and verbs just made me think......

Can we be real enough once we have crossed over to church culture? Do we so lose our edge that we forget what despair and fear and hopelessness sound like? They have a different emphasis you know.

And if we can't, then how shall those who know the true slice of the negative, the evil that has not been assuaged by spiritual mentholatum, engage with us enough to hear the next verse of hope or redemption?

If redemption, and knowing redemption change the very nature of our connection to the history that gripped us frozen can we speak of 'before' enough to invite people to 'after'?

Moreso from the pulpit. Do you make a point of remembering when you were lost? Can you at least call to mind and heart what it felt like so that 'free' is a contrast instead of an alternative?

Hmmmmm..... I have to think on this more. I think it is key in telling our stories so that they are as real as those recorded about Jesus' encounter with 'lost' are the model rather than the inspiration.

Love,
Deborah

Thanksgiving

Yesterday I was feeling particularly isolated and discouraged. It happens to the best of optimists and faith filled people yasure.  There are some things that are in place this holiday season that for whichever reason have left me wanting. I've felt like I was lacking and let down by the lack in others.

I know it will pass. That's the good news. That's resurrection power, for which I am thankful.

My Bible is right on the bed and I had been reading in Jeremiah 31/32 about restoration and taking it in my soul ever day is a time of restoration for us spiritual types, or ought to be. Otherwise we have to rely on the outer structure of service to maintain our frame and that makes us ingenuous. Nobody wants to be an ingenuous shepherd.

All of you are about to kick into hyper drive. Now this particular season of advent that follows so quickly on the second helpings of Thanksgiving is more about coordinating the lay celebration efforts: choir directors, children's ministers, deacons.  So the peacemaker and encourager side of  faith shepherding is the paramount drain. Unlike the other Lent...grand Lent...which is when we are setting the example This advent is about tell, and the big Lent is about show.

More than ever I encourage you to dig deep into the release of your heart to the Lord. Surrender to the incarnation. Make the telling of the birth come out of Thanksgiving for what God has done in your life.

Well...that is what Jesus mandated us to do right?  That's the good news. You can go to seminary and pass all your exams and get a position and still need Jesus. What we have to tell people is that no matter where , who , or what...we need Jesus, every hour.

That's why the first part of any good prayer is Thanksgiving. We remember what God has already done.

So...what got it right for me? What got me back on track?  I was cooking a meal to take to a woman I don't know whose son died about a month ago and is so grief stricken she can't go back to work yet, and while I was cooking I was praying for this couple who just experienced the death of a their second child. Let me make that more clear. They had two children. One died about ten years ago, the other died last week.

When I can't find the words to pray for a loss that big, I remember to thank God that my burden, that which is making me cry or cry out is not that....whatever it is.

People are looking to you for the example of walking in faith. As you enter this season that is so heavy on telling, remember to let your surrender show. It will shine like the stars in the heavens. That is your greatest gift; your ability to surrender.  I give thanks for your desire to surrender and pray it will increase.

Or at least that's what I told myself. And what words did I finally find to say as I dropped off the meal? My heart is with you. I fyou can say that genuinely to anyone who crosses your path, then you have been touched by God and can give thanks. And I did. And it was good.

Love,
Deborah

Watch Your Mouth

We are entering that time of the liturgical year = from Christmas through   Easter = when our worship, traditions and relationships are more scripted than at other time. It can feel very very good to move into the familiar rejoicing, to retell the story that gives us such comfort.

Pull yourself back and freshen it all a bit. Make a point of using different language this year. Take the old verses and litanies and say them from your heart as if you were a new believer unfamiliar with any tried and true expression. Take comfort from Jesus coming....again...as a baby. Participate in Jesus being born again. Say it like you don't know what lies ahead. Be a shepherd not a priest. Be Mary, be Joseph not the angels in the sky who were in on the whole thing and even understood Glory in all it's hallelujahness.

That feeling one has when one dares to ride a new carnival ride should prevade us all. Remember not the Hope...remember the birth of days that are yet to be in delivered in a way that is going to radicalize your entire definition and prescription of and for living.

You're in charge. You can do it. A smile grows on my face with the Joy of imagining all of you in front of your congregations speaking as if in tongues because your being is embracing it all for the first time....again. Since we know all research shows that faith is caught not taught, think where you will lead your congregations in their own faith walk as they observe and absorb your example! Oh it's just a gift from God thinking about the possibilites. Give yourself that gift this advent.

Love,
Deborah

So what IS alive?

If the church is dead, what is alive is the Body of Christ. That is imperishable.

How does the Body of Christ walk?  How does the Body of Christ talk? Think? Feel? Laugh? Eat?

What if we replaced the church with the Body of Christ?

Just think on that. Church....dead...Body of Christ...alive...
Ah....sweet freedom and joy....
Love,
Deborah