Swimming by Grace

In his recent work Practice Resurrection, Eugene Peterson captures a wonderful analogy about the relationship between the believer in Christ and grace. He borrows the analogy from William Stafford's book on creative writing (William Stafford, Writing the Australian Crawl [Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press, 1978], pp. 23-25).

Stafford observed that any reasonable person who looks at water [grace], and passes a hand through it, can see that it would not hold a person up.... But swimmers [followers of Jesus] know that if they relax on the water [grace] it will prove to be miraculously buoyant; and writers [followers of Jesus] know that a succession of little strokes on the material nearest them - without any prejudgments about the specific gravity of the topic or the reasonableness of their expectations -will result in creative progress [growing up in Christ: maturity]. Writers are persons who write; swimmers [believers] are ... persons who relax in the water, let their heads go down, and reach out with ease and confidence.... Just as the swimmer [believer] does not have a succession of handholds hidden in the water, but instead simply sweeps that yielding medium and finds it hurrying him along, so the swimmer and writer [follower of Jesus] passes his attention through what is at hand, and is propelled by a medium [grace] too thin and all-pervasive for the perceptions of nonbelievers who try to stay on the bank and fathom his accomplishment. (Kindle loc. 1070)

This is helpful because most of us tend to treat grace as something of a commodity dispensed by God to the believer through faith, rather than a realm in which we live (abide) through faith. Peterson calls for a "willed passivity" in order to embrace grace. "Faith in Christ is an act of abandoning the shores of self, where we think we know where we stand and where if we just try hard enough we can be in control. Faith in Christ is a plunge into grace." (Kindle loc. 1081).

Lenten Ironing #2

Sorry, guys, this isn't too exciting so far. I ironed Honduras, two Egypts and then a shirt I didn't iron on the first go-round. This one is from a country called "Maubitius." Never heard of it. A Google search turned up "Mauritius" which makes me wonder if the tag on the shirt is misspelled. I need to do some more research.

As I was ironing this morning and thinking about how *inconvenient* this is, I found myself wondering about the lives of the people who make the shirts that I wear. I wonder what inconvenience looks like for them?

Lenten Ironing - Session #1

If my shirts look a little wrinkled over the next several weeks, here's why. I decided after Pastor Rachel's sermon series on Amos to iron my own shirts during Lent. (Usually I just drop my shirts off at the dry-cleaners and a few days later, voilà! - they're washed and neatly pressed.) I'm combining my desire to slow down during Lent with the hope of learning more about the "vulnerable" in our world. So as I iron each shirt I'll take a peek at the tag and see what country it was made in. I'll make my ironing time prayer time for each of those countries.

I decided to get started last night after the Ash Wednesday service. (If I didn't start right away I could easily let this one slide.) So here's what I discovered.

The eight shirts I ironed were made in six different countries. The green dress shirt was from Egypt. (Egypt was easy to pray for since it was in the news recently... at least until the titillating street fighting subsided.) But then came the brown shirt from Indonesia, the green striped one from Sri Lanka and the orange checkered shirt from Malaysia. I'm embarrassed to say I only know vaguely where these country are on the map. The last two countries, Korea and China, were obviously more familiar. But, I had no idea my meager wardrobe was so international!

As I pray my way through Lent, ironing and asking God for more of his heart for the world, I'll keep you posted on my blog. Perhaps you'll want to also share how God is leading you this Lenten season.

It's about the training (not the trying)

For any college basketball fan this month means “March Madness”! On March 15 sixty-eight college basketball teams will begin their quest for a National Championship. This year’s “Final Four” will be played right here in Houston.

Of course no one knows yet for sure who will be in the Final Four, but I do have a prediction. (In fact, if I were a betting man I’d be willing to put money on it!) I predict every Final Four team will know how to practice. Raw talent, strategy and a bit of ‘luck’ will come into play, but each team appearing at Houston’s Final Four will be deeply committed to rigorous practice. Relentless practice enables each player to perform naturally and easily in the field of play.

The church season of Lent is all about practice. During Lent we practice our way toward the cross and in doing so take on the life of Christ for ourselves. During Lent we practice the ‘small’ things like prayer, fasting, reading Scripture in order to become champions in Christ.

As Lent begins, we are again encouraging everyone to join a “Lent in the Living Room” group. This year’s all church study will be The Good and Beautiful Life by James Bryan Smith. This first book in a series of three introduces the concept of soul training exercises which are ways you and I practice our way into new life in Christ. To complement the Good and Beautiful Life study, we’ll be studying the book of Ephesians during worship. As we dig into the epistle we’ll see Paul untangling false narratives about our relationship with God. Ephesians invites us into a life of soul practice as we “walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which [we] have been called.” (Ephesians 4:1) Lastly, Ephesians presents a compelling view of the community in Christ called the church.

So, stretch your arms and legs, put on those warm-ups and get ready to practice! Lent begins with Ash Wednesday worship on March 9.

Facebook instead

I've decided I'm more of a Facebook guy than I am a blogger guy. I'll still keep this blog active and will post to it from time to time. When I do, I'll be sure and add a link at the bottom of my emails to let you know in case you'd like to see what I've written.

What I've realized, aside from the time involved in keeping a blog effectively updated, is that philosophically I'm more interested in sharing my person than I am my thoughts. I know those two things are closely related. But I do think one of the fascinating things about Facebook is the ability to understand more of who a person is. Obviously, it's just as easy to "pose" on Facebook as it is in real life. But Facebook at least gives the ability to share more dimensions of person's life.

Besides, in another year or two Facebook will be so 10's and we'll be on to something else. That's okay. Jesus will still be the same, right?

Fear of Life's Final Moments

Last weekend I preached on "Fear of Life's Final Moments," borrowing the title from chapter 10 of Max Lucado's book Fearless. You can find a link to the message here.

Toward the end of the message I quote from a book by longtime missionary to India, Amy Carmichael. While the quoted passage is from the Gold Chord, I also commend to your reading A Chance to Die. Amy Carmichael once described missionary life as 'a chance to die.' Elisabeth Elliot borrows that phrase for the title of her biography of Ms. Carmichael.

Earthly Good

You've heard the expression "he's so heavenly minded that he's no earthly good." Yesterday as I was praying through the third petition of the Lord's Prayer ('your will be done on earth as in heaven') a different kind of prayer came to mind: "Lord make me so very heavenly minded that I am of great earthly good."

This is what Jesus talks about when he says the kingdom of heaven is at hand. God's kingdom life is immediately available to you and me here on earth - and extends into eternity. But the kingdom life in Jesus Christ isn't some sort of private head/soul trip. Rather it's living in the cross-hairs where earthly and heavenly realities intersect. It was precisely in Jesus' heavenly mindedness that the sick were healed, the lame walked, the blind saw, the hungry fed, and prisoners were set free.