April 1, 2009
2 Peter 2:4-10a
They give the way of truth a bad name. They’re only out for themselves. They’ll say anything, ANYTHING, that sounds good to exploit you. They won’t, of course, get by with it. They’ll come to a bad end, for God has never just stood by and let that kind of thing go on. God didn’t let the rebel angels off the hook, but jailed them in hell till Judgment Day. Neither did he let the ancient ungodly world off. He wiped it out with a flood, rescuing only eight people—Noah, the sole voice of righteousness, was one of them. God decreed destruction for the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. A mound of ashes was all that was left—grim warning to anyone bent on an ungodly life. But that good man Lot, driven nearly out of his mind by the sexual filth and perversity, was rescued. Surrounded by moral rot day after day, that righteous man was in constant torment. So God knows how to rescue the godly from evil trials. And he knows how to hold the feet of the wicked to the fire until Judgment Day.
Like most of you, I was blessed to grow up in a Christian home, to have parents that had/have spiritual relationships with God and to have been taught by my parents and Sunday School teachers, etc. about what it means to have a relationship with God. I’ve spent years having words like trust, faith and obedience swirl about me. I made my confession of faith at an early age and spent most of my . . . okay, all of my last 29 years as a Christian believing that I trusted God. Yet, I would look at my life and see one that seemed to be harder for me than most other people. Was I suffering more? Was I wired in some way to make like more difficult than it need be? What was the deal? I felt like life with God was a wrestling match. Since the beginning of this year, God has been “chasing me down with faith.” In fact, up until last week, the words have been, “Trust me, Blythe, and be.” I kept thinking in these last months, “God, that is what I’m doing! Could you just stop being a broken record?!” I can only imagine what God must have been thinking in response!
Then on Thursday of last week, I got out of the bed, turned on the light and began to speak the following words out loud, “Okay, God let’s lay it all on the table. I don’t trust you and I never have. I’ve always wanted to trust you. I’ve spent 37 years trying to figure out how. I am willing and you have to know that! But, I don’t get it! If you would just give me some sort of step method, then I’ll be all over it but apparently step methods are not your style! So even though, I have every amount of evidence to the contrary—a home, a car that gets me where I need to go, food to eat, animals for companionship—every possible message to indicate your sure provisions for me—I still don’t trust you. So I’m telling you today that if you want me to trust you, you are going to have to make it happen within me because I’m done trying to figure it out.”
What strikes me about this passage is that Peter is trying to communicate that as human beings we are presented with a choice—the choice to make our own decisions or the choice to trust that God knows better than we do and to look to God for instruction. He wants the people to understand that God is involved in our lives and will be to the degree that we will allow him. He wants the people to understand that even if they fail to discern the wily ways of the false teachers, that God will have the last say. He uses examples from the Hebrew Bible of the “watchers”—those angels that had sexual relations with human women in Genesis 6:1-4 and were then sentenced to the lowest place of Hades. He references Noah and Lot for whom God had a better way than the corruption that surrounded them and honored them in their righteousness. Noah and Lot and others like them throughout history learned to let go of their way, surrender to God and in so doing they found a new freedom and blessing.
In those early morning hours of last Thursday, for the first time in my life, I felt what I’d like to think was a similar freedom and blessing—a peace and a newfound sense of wholeness. Will it last? That remains to be seen—I am human and hold a strong proclivity toward claiming my own way. But at least for a few days, I have gotten the experience of joining many of you, my teachers, in experiencing the freedom that exists in letting go and trusting God.
It is a sensation that I wish for all of us and while of course it irks me that it took me this long to experience, I can only be grateful that I have learned a new lesson and prayerful that I will stick to it. I know not where you stand in your journey to trust and surrender but I hope for many such mountaintop experiences for you! Amen.
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
Discerning Truth
March 25, 2009
2 Peter 2:1-3
“But there were also lying prophets among the people then, just as there will be lying religious teachers among you. They’ll smuggle in destructive divisions, pitting you against each other—biting the hand of the One who gave them a chance to have their lives back! They’ve put themselves on a fast downhill slide to destruction, but not before they recruit a crowd of mixed-up followers who can’t tell right from wrong.”
He had been the pastor of the church for a long time and people loved him so it was really hard to palate the day we started noticing changes in him. His sermons had always been so eloquent and so spiritually on target that as a congregant, you found your head bobbing constantly in agreement. And then, all of a sudden the sermons took a turn. We would listen and there would be something we disagreed with. With each week that passed, the sermon would hold more that was contrary to our beliefs such that I began to find my head shaking rather than bobbing.
Ministers tend to have their fans and have their opponents. It’s true of just about every minister that I know. Even so, rarely are there total factions unless there is something more deep-seated-ly wrong. In this case, this preacher had his faction that absolutely refused to think he could or would do anything wrong. As the weeks passed, it became painfully evident that this beloved preacher was having an affair with the children’s minister. More and more information was leaked out. Many of the staff members had to sign affidavits. He became physically impaired by his unwillingness to admit his wrongdoing. Though there were abundant witnesses to the error of his ways, this married man and preacher of God’s word, refused to resign and refused to admit his sin. After being pressed by the deacons about seven times, he finally relented and resigned but still wouldn’t admit his failure. In so doing, his sin ate at him—literally—he died from liver failure weeks later.
Peter wanted the people to understand the importance of truth-telling and the importance of discernment. The false teachers were talking a good game and getting their support from people who failed to discern what was true and what was right. They listened to the message because it sounded good but they failed to see the true spirit of speakers. With naiveté they trusted. They failed to see the destructiveness that was being created by the teachers because they were wooed.
It is easy for us to study the scripture and pursue that study as an intellectual exercise. Academics do this every day. But the life of a Christian, is one in which the intellectual study translates to living out the principles. Of course, we are all at different places along the journey but if we assume that everyone is just at a different place and everyone’s motives are pure that makes us very trusting and sometimes remarkably naïve. The challenge for us, to which Peter calls us, is to trust others but to practice a discernment of knowing who to trust and who not to trust, of looking for the truth tellers by being able to examine the true spirit of the persons, and when we find a spirit lacking to do two things: pray for them and seek to minister to them. This won’t always be successful. Some people just don’t want to know the truth of God. Some people will not avail themselves to the Spirit of God and much as it may pain us, even Jesus had to wipe the dust from his feet in the towns that wouldn’t receive the message of truth.
It pains me to think that my former minister whom I admired for his care and teaching of me, would begin to teach such falsities so as to make himself look better. It pains me that he was unable to take responsibility for his failures and then find forgiveness. It pains me that he died such a tragic death. Life didn’t have to go that way for him.
Life didn’t have to be so troublesome for the people of Peter’s day and it doesn’t have to be for us. Our charge is to give ourselves to the Spirit, practice discernment and share the truth of God as we know it and then trust that the Spirit can redeem us, others and the situations of our lives. May we indeed allow the Spirit to work! Amen.
2 Peter 2:1-3
“But there were also lying prophets among the people then, just as there will be lying religious teachers among you. They’ll smuggle in destructive divisions, pitting you against each other—biting the hand of the One who gave them a chance to have their lives back! They’ve put themselves on a fast downhill slide to destruction, but not before they recruit a crowd of mixed-up followers who can’t tell right from wrong.”
He had been the pastor of the church for a long time and people loved him so it was really hard to palate the day we started noticing changes in him. His sermons had always been so eloquent and so spiritually on target that as a congregant, you found your head bobbing constantly in agreement. And then, all of a sudden the sermons took a turn. We would listen and there would be something we disagreed with. With each week that passed, the sermon would hold more that was contrary to our beliefs such that I began to find my head shaking rather than bobbing.
Ministers tend to have their fans and have their opponents. It’s true of just about every minister that I know. Even so, rarely are there total factions unless there is something more deep-seated-ly wrong. In this case, this preacher had his faction that absolutely refused to think he could or would do anything wrong. As the weeks passed, it became painfully evident that this beloved preacher was having an affair with the children’s minister. More and more information was leaked out. Many of the staff members had to sign affidavits. He became physically impaired by his unwillingness to admit his wrongdoing. Though there were abundant witnesses to the error of his ways, this married man and preacher of God’s word, refused to resign and refused to admit his sin. After being pressed by the deacons about seven times, he finally relented and resigned but still wouldn’t admit his failure. In so doing, his sin ate at him—literally—he died from liver failure weeks later.
Peter wanted the people to understand the importance of truth-telling and the importance of discernment. The false teachers were talking a good game and getting their support from people who failed to discern what was true and what was right. They listened to the message because it sounded good but they failed to see the true spirit of speakers. With naiveté they trusted. They failed to see the destructiveness that was being created by the teachers because they were wooed.
It is easy for us to study the scripture and pursue that study as an intellectual exercise. Academics do this every day. But the life of a Christian, is one in which the intellectual study translates to living out the principles. Of course, we are all at different places along the journey but if we assume that everyone is just at a different place and everyone’s motives are pure that makes us very trusting and sometimes remarkably naïve. The challenge for us, to which Peter calls us, is to trust others but to practice a discernment of knowing who to trust and who not to trust, of looking for the truth tellers by being able to examine the true spirit of the persons, and when we find a spirit lacking to do two things: pray for them and seek to minister to them. This won’t always be successful. Some people just don’t want to know the truth of God. Some people will not avail themselves to the Spirit of God and much as it may pain us, even Jesus had to wipe the dust from his feet in the towns that wouldn’t receive the message of truth.
It pains me to think that my former minister whom I admired for his care and teaching of me, would begin to teach such falsities so as to make himself look better. It pains me that he was unable to take responsibility for his failures and then find forgiveness. It pains me that he died such a tragic death. Life didn’t have to go that way for him.
Life didn’t have to be so troublesome for the people of Peter’s day and it doesn’t have to be for us. Our charge is to give ourselves to the Spirit, practice discernment and share the truth of God as we know it and then trust that the Spirit can redeem us, others and the situations of our lives. May we indeed allow the Spirit to work! Amen.
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
Hearing God's Voice
March 18, 2009
2 Peter 2:19-21
“We couldn’t be more sure of what we saw and heard—God’s glory, God’s voice. The prophetic Word was confirmed to us. You’ll do well to keep focusing on it. It’s the one light you have in a dark time as you wait for daybreak and the rising of the Morning Star in your hearts. The main thing to keep in mind here is that no prophecy of Scripture is a matter of private opinion. And why? Because it’s not something concocted in the human heart. Prophecy resulted when the Holy Spirit prompted men and women to speak God’s Word.”
I entered the hospital room of a most lovely man and knew immediately that there was something different about him—something deep, something spiritual. He began to tell me the story of his life—of his 63 year marriage, of his wife and how he missed her. She had died a year prior and he told me of the week before she died. She was not well. It was clear that very nearly she would pass and as he sat by her bed, he heard the voice of God. It came quickly, clearly, unmistakably. It wasn’t something he made up. It wasn’t wishful thinking on his part. It was completely other than him. The voice said to him, “She will pass on Sunday.” He proceeded to tell others about it having to convince him that he was right. But why should they believe him? It was an odd thing and none of us really knows when our time or someone else’s might be. Right? Yet, he knew. So on Sunday afternoon, he called the family to him and they kept vigil as her breathing became more shallow, as the end neared and as the prophecy given the man came to fruition.
This Scripture isn’t that different from the man’s experience. Those who have heard and experienced the clear Word of God as prophecy know beyond a shadow of a doubt that they could not have made up what they heard. They know the words have come fast and deliberately in ways that leave their mouths gaping. They know that the message is always an answer that they have needed and sometimes the contemplation of how that answer might come to fruition seems completely impossible to our way of thinking. But the one who has heard the word has within them an unwavering faith beyond what anyone else can imagine.
It would have been easy for the false to teachers to rationalize what they had been told about the return of Christ and therefore mislead others. But Peter knew what God had told them and he knew that when something comes from the Spirit of God, those who are spiritual people can see its truth. Those who are not spiritual will rationalize it away. The voice of God was unmistakable. So the people should not be wooed away from the truth. They should listen to the Spirit. They should know the true hearts of the people who are speaking the prophecies and the true hearts of those who seek to sway others from the truth.
It is easy for us, especially if we have not experienced the voice of God speaking to us, to think that such a word is just wishful thinking. It is easy for us to rationalize it away. But then we depend so much on ourselves rather than on God, so how can we really know what it is like for those who depend so fully on God. Maybe it is not for us to judge as the false teachers were doing or for us to reinterpret what we think God may be doing. Maybe it is for us to pray that God will speak to us that we might hear the voice and know Truth experientially.
It was obvious that the man in the hospital room found a great deal of peace when he let go of needing to prove that he was right in what he heard. God proved that for him in the fulfillment of the prophecy and gave him an added hope that God indeed was at work in tangible ways in his life. What peace might just be ours if we allowed God to work that way in our lives! May we do just that! May we find peace! Amen.
2 Peter 2:19-21
“We couldn’t be more sure of what we saw and heard—God’s glory, God’s voice. The prophetic Word was confirmed to us. You’ll do well to keep focusing on it. It’s the one light you have in a dark time as you wait for daybreak and the rising of the Morning Star in your hearts. The main thing to keep in mind here is that no prophecy of Scripture is a matter of private opinion. And why? Because it’s not something concocted in the human heart. Prophecy resulted when the Holy Spirit prompted men and women to speak God’s Word.”
I entered the hospital room of a most lovely man and knew immediately that there was something different about him—something deep, something spiritual. He began to tell me the story of his life—of his 63 year marriage, of his wife and how he missed her. She had died a year prior and he told me of the week before she died. She was not well. It was clear that very nearly she would pass and as he sat by her bed, he heard the voice of God. It came quickly, clearly, unmistakably. It wasn’t something he made up. It wasn’t wishful thinking on his part. It was completely other than him. The voice said to him, “She will pass on Sunday.” He proceeded to tell others about it having to convince him that he was right. But why should they believe him? It was an odd thing and none of us really knows when our time or someone else’s might be. Right? Yet, he knew. So on Sunday afternoon, he called the family to him and they kept vigil as her breathing became more shallow, as the end neared and as the prophecy given the man came to fruition.
This Scripture isn’t that different from the man’s experience. Those who have heard and experienced the clear Word of God as prophecy know beyond a shadow of a doubt that they could not have made up what they heard. They know the words have come fast and deliberately in ways that leave their mouths gaping. They know that the message is always an answer that they have needed and sometimes the contemplation of how that answer might come to fruition seems completely impossible to our way of thinking. But the one who has heard the word has within them an unwavering faith beyond what anyone else can imagine.
It would have been easy for the false to teachers to rationalize what they had been told about the return of Christ and therefore mislead others. But Peter knew what God had told them and he knew that when something comes from the Spirit of God, those who are spiritual people can see its truth. Those who are not spiritual will rationalize it away. The voice of God was unmistakable. So the people should not be wooed away from the truth. They should listen to the Spirit. They should know the true hearts of the people who are speaking the prophecies and the true hearts of those who seek to sway others from the truth.
It is easy for us, especially if we have not experienced the voice of God speaking to us, to think that such a word is just wishful thinking. It is easy for us to rationalize it away. But then we depend so much on ourselves rather than on God, so how can we really know what it is like for those who depend so fully on God. Maybe it is not for us to judge as the false teachers were doing or for us to reinterpret what we think God may be doing. Maybe it is for us to pray that God will speak to us that we might hear the voice and know Truth experientially.
It was obvious that the man in the hospital room found a great deal of peace when he let go of needing to prove that he was right in what he heard. God proved that for him in the fulfillment of the prophecy and gave him an added hope that God indeed was at work in tangible ways in his life. What peace might just be ours if we allowed God to work that way in our lives! May we do just that! May we find peace! Amen.
Monday, March 9, 2009
Crazy, Unwavering Faith
March 11, 2009
2 Peter 1:16-18
“We weren’t, you know, just wishing on a star when we laid the facts out before you regarding the powerful return of our Master, Jesus Christ. We were there for the preview! We saw it with our own eyes: Jesus resplendent with light from God the Father as the voice of Majestic Glory spoke: ‘This is my Son, marked by my love, focus of all my delight.’ We were there on the holy mountain with him. We heard the voice out of heaven with our very own ears.”
Did you see 60 minutes this past weekend? I sat down to watch it in the middle of one particular story but I got enough of the gist of it. A Caucasian woman had been attacked by an African American man and when she was brought to view the line up of suspects, she was asked which one was the perpetrator. She selected a man not realizing that it was possible that the actual assailant was not even in the line up. So the woman’s choice was influenced by assuming that she could trust the authorities and based on the assumption of their suggestion that the suspect was one of the people in the line up. She just had to pick the right one. With that done, she helped to put an innocent man behind bars.
It has been the assumption that eyewitness testimony is somewhat faulty and not to be trusted. Had the woman been told that the person was not in the line up she would have known to say that none of the men met the description and the true perpetrator could have been sought out. Instead he went forward to hurt more people. The suggestion of the story was that there really is more validity to the eyewitness account than we have given credit in the past.
Peter would be glad to hear this. By the time we reach this part of the letter, we are arriving at the body of the letter (the meat of it.) Here we realize that false teachers have been suggesting that this idea that Jesus would return was just a myth. Peter speaks in response to affirm that there were three eyewitnesses (Peter, James and John) who saw the transfiguration of Jesus and who heard the voice of God. They knew the promise and though it had not happened yet, there was no reason to doubt that Jesus would return.
Some years ago, a friend of mine tried very hard to have a baby and it just wasn’t happening. She knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that God was calling her to be a mother. It wasn’t just “wishing on a star” as The Message passage mentions above. This was something God had told her. She had heard it. She was the eyewitness to the promise. Yet weeks turned to months and then the months to years and there was no baby. It would have been easy for her to be discouraged, to give up, to think she had misheard the promise, to even fail to believe in God. But, in her gut was an unwavering knowledge. God had given her this promised and she would not doubt it. Then out of the blue, one day when she least expected it, she discovered that she was pregnant!
Peter knew that the parousia (the return of Jesus) would be the same way. The people were being called to believe a promise that they could not see, to have unwavering faith toward something that the false teachers could reason away as a myth. But one day, when they least expected it, Jesus would return!
How many of us have been like the false teacher and reasoned away God’s promises or callings for us because they don’t make sense by human logic? How many of us feel like crazy people knowing that God has given us promises to which we must be unwavering in our faith in spite of their nonsensical nature by human standards? How many of us have been willing to take the risk to claim that unwavering faith and thereby claim spirit logic? It must be one of the most difficult things in the world to claim. When all about you are saying you are crazy, when you can’t even see how God’s promise can be fulfilled and yet you press forward toward that promise! Imagine the emotion and wonder when it actually is fulfilled! Imagine the peace! That is what Peter wanted the people to understand. They must be crazy and unwavering in their faith that Jesus would return. They must trust completely so that one day they would revel in a remarkable moment of peace and fulfillment of the promise.
Whatever God’s promises are for you, may you hold to them with unwavering certainty that they will be fulfilled in God’s time! Amen.
2 Peter 1:16-18
“We weren’t, you know, just wishing on a star when we laid the facts out before you regarding the powerful return of our Master, Jesus Christ. We were there for the preview! We saw it with our own eyes: Jesus resplendent with light from God the Father as the voice of Majestic Glory spoke: ‘This is my Son, marked by my love, focus of all my delight.’ We were there on the holy mountain with him. We heard the voice out of heaven with our very own ears.”
Did you see 60 minutes this past weekend? I sat down to watch it in the middle of one particular story but I got enough of the gist of it. A Caucasian woman had been attacked by an African American man and when she was brought to view the line up of suspects, she was asked which one was the perpetrator. She selected a man not realizing that it was possible that the actual assailant was not even in the line up. So the woman’s choice was influenced by assuming that she could trust the authorities and based on the assumption of their suggestion that the suspect was one of the people in the line up. She just had to pick the right one. With that done, she helped to put an innocent man behind bars.
It has been the assumption that eyewitness testimony is somewhat faulty and not to be trusted. Had the woman been told that the person was not in the line up she would have known to say that none of the men met the description and the true perpetrator could have been sought out. Instead he went forward to hurt more people. The suggestion of the story was that there really is more validity to the eyewitness account than we have given credit in the past.
Peter would be glad to hear this. By the time we reach this part of the letter, we are arriving at the body of the letter (the meat of it.) Here we realize that false teachers have been suggesting that this idea that Jesus would return was just a myth. Peter speaks in response to affirm that there were three eyewitnesses (Peter, James and John) who saw the transfiguration of Jesus and who heard the voice of God. They knew the promise and though it had not happened yet, there was no reason to doubt that Jesus would return.
Some years ago, a friend of mine tried very hard to have a baby and it just wasn’t happening. She knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that God was calling her to be a mother. It wasn’t just “wishing on a star” as The Message passage mentions above. This was something God had told her. She had heard it. She was the eyewitness to the promise. Yet weeks turned to months and then the months to years and there was no baby. It would have been easy for her to be discouraged, to give up, to think she had misheard the promise, to even fail to believe in God. But, in her gut was an unwavering knowledge. God had given her this promised and she would not doubt it. Then out of the blue, one day when she least expected it, she discovered that she was pregnant!
Peter knew that the parousia (the return of Jesus) would be the same way. The people were being called to believe a promise that they could not see, to have unwavering faith toward something that the false teachers could reason away as a myth. But one day, when they least expected it, Jesus would return!
How many of us have been like the false teacher and reasoned away God’s promises or callings for us because they don’t make sense by human logic? How many of us feel like crazy people knowing that God has given us promises to which we must be unwavering in our faith in spite of their nonsensical nature by human standards? How many of us have been willing to take the risk to claim that unwavering faith and thereby claim spirit logic? It must be one of the most difficult things in the world to claim. When all about you are saying you are crazy, when you can’t even see how God’s promise can be fulfilled and yet you press forward toward that promise! Imagine the emotion and wonder when it actually is fulfilled! Imagine the peace! That is what Peter wanted the people to understand. They must be crazy and unwavering in their faith that Jesus would return. They must trust completely so that one day they would revel in a remarkable moment of peace and fulfillment of the promise.
Whatever God’s promises are for you, may you hold to them with unwavering certainty that they will be fulfilled in God’s time! Amen.
Monday, March 2, 2009
Equal to the task
2 Peter 1:12-15
"Because the stakes are so high, even though you're up-to-date on all this truth and practice it inside and out, I'm not going to let up for a minute in calling you attention before it. This is the post to which I've been assigned--keeping you alert with frequent reminders--and I'm sticking to it as long as I live. I know that I'm to die soon; the Master has made that quite clear to me. And so I am especially eager that you have all this down in blackand whiteso that after I die, you'll have it for ready reference."
It happened when I learned my first crochet stitch. We were at the beach, I begged my mother to teach me, got terribly annoyed, was persistent in my practice and then came that moment that I got it, it was natural to me. It happened when I learned to knit. My friend, Lia, taught a class. Everyone in the class marveled at how bad I was. Outside of class I practiced over and over until suddenly there was that breakthrough moment and I came to learn the meditative pace of knitting. It started happening with motorcycling. I took a class. I dropped the motorcycle about three times, my hands were cramped, my blood sugar dropping when I decided that my learning curve simply creates danger in this particular situation. I would work on letting that one go!
Do you see the pattern? My learning goes something like this: Someone is kind enough to show me the basics, I do it horribly, I get frustrated and annoyed with myself and others, I keep pushing myself because I'm bent on getting it and then AHA! breakthrough happens and I have learned. This method feels more to me like being self-taught because it takes so much effort on my part to learn.
Peter considered himself a self-taught Christian. Christ gave him the basics but it was only through his errant ways and through trial and error that he came to the place where he got it. And he got it as a personal experience. It was not handed to him by someone outside of himself. He did not seek guidance from an external force. He learned from Christ to seek guidance from God directly.
As he writes, he now is old in age and cognizant of impending death. Maybe like many of our elders who find themselves in the same situation Peter is determined to pass on what he's learned so as to save other generations from at least a bit of the angst he's known in his growing. He makes clear that he has every confidence in these people whom he will soon leave behind. But even as he writes such words he has to know that each one will have to learn his same lessons on their own terms. Each one will have to depend on their own relationships with Christ to guide them. Each one will have to commit to trust God, to listening to his direction in their own unique ways and to learning obedience in all things. What Peter knows in his gut is that they are equal to the task.
Are we? Are we equal to the task? Recently, I have witnessed the crazy learning curve in my spiritual life. God has made promises to me. Instead of believing I wind up being like Gideon (see the book of Judges) who will not allow himself to believe the promises that God gives him and wants a sign and then just one more sign and on and on! I am left again and again with the question from God, "When will you trust me? God knows that I am equal to the task of having faith enough to claim his promises. But I spend so much time worried about what others will think that it paralyzes me from really acting and prevents me from claiming joy that comes from total trust.
I don't know to what God may be calling you, but I do know that like me, when God looks at you he sees someone who is equal to the task of the calling set before you. I pray that you will not be like the Gideonesque me, but that you will step forward in confidence as Peter admonishes. In so doing, may you find the freedom that comes in such confident faith. Amen.
"Because the stakes are so high, even though you're up-to-date on all this truth and practice it inside and out, I'm not going to let up for a minute in calling you attention before it. This is the post to which I've been assigned--keeping you alert with frequent reminders--and I'm sticking to it as long as I live. I know that I'm to die soon; the Master has made that quite clear to me. And so I am especially eager that you have all this down in blackand whiteso that after I die, you'll have it for ready reference."
It happened when I learned my first crochet stitch. We were at the beach, I begged my mother to teach me, got terribly annoyed, was persistent in my practice and then came that moment that I got it, it was natural to me. It happened when I learned to knit. My friend, Lia, taught a class. Everyone in the class marveled at how bad I was. Outside of class I practiced over and over until suddenly there was that breakthrough moment and I came to learn the meditative pace of knitting. It started happening with motorcycling. I took a class. I dropped the motorcycle about three times, my hands were cramped, my blood sugar dropping when I decided that my learning curve simply creates danger in this particular situation. I would work on letting that one go!
Do you see the pattern? My learning goes something like this: Someone is kind enough to show me the basics, I do it horribly, I get frustrated and annoyed with myself and others, I keep pushing myself because I'm bent on getting it and then AHA! breakthrough happens and I have learned. This method feels more to me like being self-taught because it takes so much effort on my part to learn.
Peter considered himself a self-taught Christian. Christ gave him the basics but it was only through his errant ways and through trial and error that he came to the place where he got it. And he got it as a personal experience. It was not handed to him by someone outside of himself. He did not seek guidance from an external force. He learned from Christ to seek guidance from God directly.
As he writes, he now is old in age and cognizant of impending death. Maybe like many of our elders who find themselves in the same situation Peter is determined to pass on what he's learned so as to save other generations from at least a bit of the angst he's known in his growing. He makes clear that he has every confidence in these people whom he will soon leave behind. But even as he writes such words he has to know that each one will have to learn his same lessons on their own terms. Each one will have to depend on their own relationships with Christ to guide them. Each one will have to commit to trust God, to listening to his direction in their own unique ways and to learning obedience in all things. What Peter knows in his gut is that they are equal to the task.
Are we? Are we equal to the task? Recently, I have witnessed the crazy learning curve in my spiritual life. God has made promises to me. Instead of believing I wind up being like Gideon (see the book of Judges) who will not allow himself to believe the promises that God gives him and wants a sign and then just one more sign and on and on! I am left again and again with the question from God, "When will you trust me? God knows that I am equal to the task of having faith enough to claim his promises. But I spend so much time worried about what others will think that it paralyzes me from really acting and prevents me from claiming joy that comes from total trust.
I don't know to what God may be calling you, but I do know that like me, when God looks at you he sees someone who is equal to the task of the calling set before you. I pray that you will not be like the Gideonesque me, but that you will step forward in confidence as Peter admonishes. In so doing, may you find the freedom that comes in such confident faith. Amen.
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