Barefoot

“We must pay more careful attention, therefore, to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away.”  Hebrews 2:1

Whether in stillness or in movement, I think God wants us to be deliberate in what we do.  This requires a focus – an intensity – about our actions.  This occurred to me the other day while I was doing my chores.  Specifically, scooping up the dog mess in our back yard.  Barefoot.  Now normally, I would be out there with shoes on, moving quickly along on my business of getting rid of “dog business” and not worrying too much about where I was stepping.  But doing this chore barefoot suddenly gave a whole new importance to making sure I didn’t miss anything!  It was not a good time for ADHD to kick in.  I guarantee that I picked up every bit of doggie-doo in that yard.  I was focused, intent, deliberate.  Because it made a difference to me.  Any neglect or daydreaming could result in direct unpleasantness happening to my feet.

So I got to thinking about this.  What if I applied the same philosophy in my spiritual life?  What if I went about in the world with focus and intent, knowing that if I lose my focus, I could end up “stepping in it” so to speak?  After all, the world is full of evil, pain, and suffering.  One wrong step, and that stuff could be on me.  What if I were focused and deliberate in the words that I choose to use?  The thoughts I choose to think?  The places I choose to look?  Reminds me of a song from Sunday School:

O be careful little eyes what you see

O be careful little eyes what you see

There's a Father up above

And He's looking down in love

So, be careful little eyes what you see

O be careful little ears what you hear….

O be careful little hands what you do….

O be careful little feet where you go…

O be careful little mouth what you say…

Even in our stillness we need to be focused and deliberate.  Otherwise, we’re just daydreaming and wasting time.  Let’s look at the day we tend to associate with “stillness”, the Sabbath day.  In the 10 commandments, God tells us to “Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy”.  There are two parts to this – memory and action.  We are to remember the Sabbath day.  It is a time of reflection, of memorial.  That sounds pretty focused to me.  We remember it by making it holy.  Literally, we are to “set it apart” from the other days.  Now, unfortunately, we often do that by watching more football on Sunday than on other days, or going golfing, or just sleeping in.  Nice things, but more often than not, they are things that don’t really help us in being still before the Lord and “remembering”.  What about that other time we associate with stillness?  “Quiet time”.  Ahh, yes.  The time that we so often spend listening to music, or telling God what’s on our mind.  When was the last time you actually just sat still in the presence of the Lord, waiting upon Him?  I gotta tell you, I find that very difficult to do.  My daydreaming kicks in overtime!  It seems like quiet time is the perfect time to “take my shoes off” in the presence of the Lord and become focused.

One last thought.  Fortunately, I survived my barefoot expedition in the backyard without any soilage.  But that doesn’t always happen when I go out in the real world.  Sometimes my eyes do wander.  Sometimes I say the wrong thing.  Sometimes I act without thinking.  That’s where that second part of the song comes in:  “There’s a Father up above and He’s looking down in….Love”.  Not anger.  Not hatred.  Not disgust.  Love.  And it is His love that washes me clean from all the doo-doo I step in.

God bless,

John

Watch where you're going

In mountain biking, you learn a simple rule, very quickly.  You will go in the direction you are looking.  You generally learn this rule the hard way – there is a rock in the trail.  You want to avoid it.  You keep looking at it.  You hit it.  Gradually you learn that if you look to the side of the rock, you’ll go by it.  You can use this to your advantage – say you want to run over a mud puddle.  Look at it, you’ll hit it.  Or maybe you want to keep a straight line over a narrow bridge.  Watch your line, and you’ll keep on it.

It seems to me that this applies in how we live out our lives, as well.  Whatever we focus on, we can be sure we’re going to “hit it”.  If we focus on things we shouldn’t be focusing on – sex/lust, money/greed, self/pride – then we can be sure that they will take up major parts of our lives, and they will ultimately change not just our behaviors, but our very character.  I don’t remember who said it (I think I heard Chuck Swindoll talking about it), but the thought goes something like “whatever it is that we think about all the time, we will do.  Whatever we do all the time, we will become”.  Some of us are, perhaps, a little “stronger” in this personality type.  Cynthia Tobias talks about the “concrete random” personality style.  When faced with a broken machine and a sign saying “Please do not attempt to fix the machine, the repair company has been called”, the concrete random person tries to fix the machine.  I know for me a “no trespassing” sign is sure to make me want to see what’s on the other side of the fence.  A big red button with a warning sign is a big temptation to push.

So how does this relate to living the Christian life (and specifically to being still)?  How often have you heard that the Bible is a big list of “don’ts”?  Don’t do this, don’t do that.  Well, that’s true, there are a lot of don’ts in the Bible.  On the other hand, there are also a whole lot of “do’s”.  Do love your neighbor as yourself.  Do love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength.  Do care for the widows and the orphans.  So how much time do we spend focusing on all the don’ts, and how much time don’t we spend focusing on all the do’s?  And what is the result of that?  Fallen, judgmental Christians who lack joy and love and are focused on others only to the extent that they can persecute them in order to feel better about themselves.  It seems to me that if we focused on the “do’s” of the Bible, we would be spending so much time bringing the Kingdom of Heaven about here and now that we wouldn’t have time to do the “don’ts” anyway.  Talk about  a change in worldview.  And not just a change in worldview, but a change in world behavior and, ultimately a change in world character.  Ultimately, the only thing we need to focus on is God.  Peter learned that the hard way.  As soon as he took his eyes off of Jesus, and focused on the hazards in his way, he hit the hazards in a big way.  This is where being still comes in.  If I’m focused on God, then I can be still because I’m not focused on all the hazards and turmoil around me.  If I focus on stress, I become stressed.  If I become stressed, I lose faith, and try to act on my own.  If I focus on God, I have the peace that passes all understanding.  If I have peace, then I have faith, and I can let God act.

God bless,

John

Drowning

Well, it’s been a very hectic week.  Just when we thought we might actually have some quiet time, my mother-in-law fell on Halloween night and broke her arm.  We spent all night in the ER, only to have them give us some pain pills, a splint, and send us home.  Now, mom is 80-something.  We brought her down to our area 2 years ago and put her in an assisted living facility so we could better help her during times just like this.  And that’s what we’ve spent the last week doing, my wife and I trading off day and night shift, taking mom to the bathroom, helping her stand up, transporting her to meals and to the doctor, etc.  Now, don’t get me wrong.  I love my mother-in-law, and not just because I love my wife.  And I believe that what I am doing is blessed by God.  I believe it gives my mother-in-law a chance to see God’s grace and love. 

And I believe it gives me the same chance.  Because it’s been a very hectic week.  I spent much of last night (in-between trips with mom to the bathroom) praying.  I started out lamenting the fact that all I had hoped for was a little peace, and feeling put upon by God that I wasn’t getting that.  The image I put forward to God in my prayers was that I was drowning.  God answered back…..  In my (very) early days, I was a lifeguard.  During lifeguard training, they teach you how to deal with people who are drowning.  Drowning people usually are pretty darn active.  They’re thrashing in the water.  They’re trying (literally) to grab you and stand on you to stay afloat.  This generally doesn’t help the life-saving process.  So they teach us how to keep the person still and quiet.  They teach us how to subdue the person thrashing around.  When we begin carrying them to shore, if they thrash, we roll them underwater to get them to calm down again.  In other words, we want them to be still.

My thought to God’s reply was “Wow, God, really?”  And he answered back…..also during that training they teach you that if you are alone in the water, you will quickly get tired and drown if you try to swim like you normally would.  Instead, they teach you the “dead man’s float”.  It involves….being still.  Using as little energy as possible, you can stay afloat – and even travel long distances – in the water over a long period of time.

So I finally accepted the fact that, in the midst of “drowning” in life’s circumstances (whatever it is that the world is throwing at me at the time), I need to be still.  It is then that God can approach me in the water, rescue me, and carry me to safety.  He is right beside me the whole time, if I quit thrashing around long enough to realize it.  It also occurred to me that, like most training, once you have mastered something at a simple level, you learn to do it at a more complex level.  It is easy to be still in the shallow end.  But then you move on to the deep end of the pool and master the disciplines there.

God bless,

John