The Prayer

“I asked God for strength that I might achieve. “I was made weak that I might learn humbly to obey. “I asked for health that I might do greater things. “I was given infirmity that I might do better things. “I asked for riches that I might be happy. “I was given poverty that I might be wise. “I asked for power that I might have the praise of men. “I was given weakness that I might feel the need of God. “I asked for all things that I might enjoy life. “I was given life that I might enjoy all things. “I got nothing that I asked for, but everything I had hoped for. “Almost despite myself, my unspoken prayers were answered. “I am, among all men, most richly blessed.”

I am, among men, most richly blessed… if only because of You, Lord. Amen.

I wish him all the best as he starts what has to be one of the most stressful jobs in the south.  So much has changed in my house over the last year, but Auburn football never seems to change, it is timeless.  September rolls around and Tiger Walk strolls down the street 2 hours before kickoff, the band plays marching around the stadium 90 minutes before kickoff, the eagle flies from the rafters and the game is under way.

Last year I spent the entire football season shooting each game, painstakingly documenting each event through photography, this year I am going to watch the games as a fan and nothing else.  I am looking forward to it, next year looks like it might take us even farther away from the football season so we will enjoy each game (just please Lord don’t make it toooooo hot).

To see the photography from Auburn’s 2008 football season you can click on the link here for football.  See you at Jordan Hare.

Auburn Football vs Louisiana Monroe

The photo I shot below was taken on a beach in Orange County California several months ago.  It was almost deserted except for a few surfers and after a long day of work it was a great place to worship and pray while I watched the beauty of God’s day come to an end (other photos from that afternoon of worship are posted in Pacific Coast Sunset in OC // Friday Feet).

I just finished one of the best small books I have read recently called Spiritual Life by Westerhoff, and in his book he explains 6 different ways we go about learning to live a life of spiritual discipline.  Silence and solitude, preparation, writing, reading, and several others are all ways we can experience God’s presence, and in turn grow in our spiritual relationship with Him.  I for one am excited to be able to worship the God who made this sunset, it was an afternoon between me and His presence that I won’t soon forget.

If you would like to read my extended comments on this topic I have made them available in this short essay called Spiritual Formation, Learning to Live a Life of Discipline in a pdf download.  I have a long way to go, but love knowing that I can worship our Lord anywhere, anytime, and he hears my prayer, and he hears yours as well.

Link to pdf Download.

Batterson walks through, in very practical ways, how we go about chasing after the Holy Spirit (as Celtic Christians called Him, An Geadh-Glas, or the Wild Goose), or our lack there-of.  Often we go through life from one routine to the next and our spiritual life becomes, to us, boring.  As Batterson explains, God never meant the Christian life to be mundane and boring.  It is dangerous, bold, exciting, and adventurous… when we learn to depend on Him and follow the Holy Spirit instead of our own selfish ambitions.

As I have mentioned in my blog many times in the past, I have never thought God intended our life to be the pursuit of a good 9-5 job, a nice house with a two-car garage (and two cars to go in the driveway because we can’t get them in the garage), a 401k, and early retirement so we can play golf until we are called home to heaven.  An over exaggeration perhaps, that might be “the American dream”, but I don’t think it is God’s dream for us (or at least not for me).  Batterson brings this home and sums it up like this:

Quit living as if the purpose of life is to arrive safely at death

Set God-Sized Goals

Pursue God-ordained passions

Don’t let fear dictate your decisions

Don’t take the easy way out

As I read through each chapter it became aware to me that Batterson has been following me around without me knowing it, and I appreciate him writing a book just for me.  What a great reminder it was to read about living boldly for Christ and not getting stuck into a routine of ineffectiveness.

The book was a quick read, easy to understand, and applies to a great many Believers in the U.S. today.  It was probably written more for the layman or pastor but anyone interested in following the Holy Spirit, wherever it leads, can’t go wrong with Wild Goose Chase.

We went up to Virginia to visit the campus of Liberty University where I am currently working on my MDiv (Master of Divinity) at Liberty Theological Seminary.  I have the option to take a language track in Greek and Hebrew, which will take about a year or more to finish, but must be completed on campus.  So we went up to Lynchburg to see what our living options might be when it comes time to take those classes.

Up to this point every class I have taken has been through their distance learning program and although that is the easiest path to take, it might not be the best path to take.  The language track will open up some opportunities for post-graduate work, but more importantly I hope it will benefit whatever ministry I am a part of when I finish my masters.

As a follower of Christ I don’t ever want to get to the point in my walk where I am unwilling to get out of my comfort zone and take bold steps.  I have found the older we get, the easier it is to live in a state of routine and forget that we are to live boldly for Christ, and sometimes that means giving up the easy path for a more challenging one.  I think sometimes we can stay chained to our safe routines for so long that we don’t even know how to escape if we wanted to, and faith is supposed to be anything but routine.

A lot has changed in my family since 1994 when Deborah took this photo at our house in Homewood, Alabama, Blazer is not with us, neither is my hair, but some how I added a few pounds and our routine will change once again.

I am looking forward to spending at least one full day on the quiet beach reading a book.  Till then, meet Ebby.  I did just cut the grass but she is still a little shorter than the grass is tall.

Miller takes a self deprecating approach to his life as a Christian and, although he is not a theologian, he is as real and genuine as it gets.  He takes the philosophies of growing up as a modern evangelical, that which many of us in the southern bible belt are all too familiar with, and turns it on its head.  Miller shows us that there really are orthodox believers, [that is: those who want to hold fast to the teachings of Jesus regardless of denominational affiliations (even those of grace and love)], that live outside of the belt that runs from Texas to Alabama to South Carolina. [We really do know that Christians exist outside of the belt but sometimes we think we are the important ones (especially if you are in the buckle part of the belt) since we hold up the faith's pants.]

Jesus Was Not a Democrat or a Republican

Who knew.  One of the best reminders I took away from Blue Like Jazz is that Jesus was not a Democrat or a Republican (or a liberal or conservative for that matter).  If we truly want to follow Jesus’ teachings, we have to follow Him fully, not necessarily some party affiliation.  It doesn’t mean we shouldn’t have opinions one way or the other, but if we seriously look at what scripture says, there are certainly issues that go against (and for) both party affiliations.  Jesus taught unconditional love, something that seems almost impossible for us evangelicals to actually live out, every day.

After the first few chapters I almost put the book down thinking Miller was going to just spew a political agenda, but that was really the point.  Jesus didn’t have a political agenda during His earthly ministry, he was interested in our salvation, not our politics.  I connected with Miller because his background growing up was similar to mine, but that’s where it ended, and it was very refreshing to read a totally and completely different perspective on what it means to be a Christian, not just an evangelical.

Notables in the Text

I try never to read a book any more without a pen handy to underline and take notes with.  This book wasn’t a huge notation text but there were several things that caught my attention.  One was the story Miller told about buying an extension cord at The Home Depot in the money section.  That story was worth buying the book right there.  Others that caught my eye were:

1. many of the students hated the very idea of God, and yet they cared about people more than I did
2. [Jesus] didn’t show partiality, which every human does… and neither should we
3. the tricky thing about life, really, [is] that the things we want most will kill us
4. the undercurrent running through culture is not giving people value based upon what they believe and what they are doing to aid society… [it] is deciding their value based upon whether or not they are cool
5. what I believe is not what I say I believe; what I believe is what I do
6. no drug is so powerful as the drug of self-[addiction]

There were many more but that is a good start.  Blue Like Jazz is certainly well worth the time, and if you grew up in the southern bible belt surrounded by the evangelical machine it is a must read.  I am now looking forward to reading some of Miller’s other books as well.  Next up is Wild Goose Chase by Mark Batterson, but this one will be read on the beaches of North Carolina (yeah), so it might take a little longer to finish.

By the time of Pachomius around A.D. 320 there were so many hermits living in the desert and caves that Pachomius said we can do this together in one community of hermits (about 100 at the time) with rules to guide our life [as monks], and he started a monastery. As we know from the time of St. Francis, more and more monasteries were being formed and they would eventually have to seek out the Pope for approval of their “Rule”. For the Pachomius monastery, he determined that they would have three rules for living. First, poverty, designed to break the chains that bound people to their possessions, second chastity, to cure you of the sin of lust there would be no contact with the opposite sex, and three obedience, to overcome the self will of the mind. In other words, simplicity of living was the call for a monk.

Present Day Principles for us Non-Monks

Most subsequent monasteries would have their own Rule, which each resident was to follow, and many were adjustments to the original three Pachomius had made back in A.D. 320. If we look at these three principles for non-monastic life in modern 21st century life, we can see that they still apply, much like scripture written two thousand years ago still applies to our lives today.

Vow of Poverty

First, poverty (as a means of obtaining a status of being poor) is something in the 21st century that is almost impossible for one to truly attain, if living in American. Even the poorest citizens of our country have more possessions and benefits from modern times than any other country or time in history. The world (and America) of course has not be able to “rid” society of poor, and Jesus even said that we would always have the poor among us (Matt 26:11, Mark 14:7, John 12:8), so even though it goes against everything that is capitalism, there are many things we can gain from applying this principle in our lives today.

We have made being poor like a disease, where the cure is to buy more stuff, collect more possessions, and generally consume more and more. Of course one can be materially rich and spiritually poor and they don’t have a correlation with each other. We cannot obtain spiritual riches by physical possessions and we cannot generally obtain material possessions if we are poor by means of becoming spiritually rich (though there are what seem to be obvious exceptions to this, I would suggest that materials means obtained via a spiritual source does not increase the spiritual richness of your life).

Choosing a life that is guarded to the consumerism and materialism of our culture is important. Every possession is an expression of our witness to others and we can’t (and probably shouldn’t) always explain in great detail why we have or don’t have this or that, we either do or don’t, and that is the instantaneous judgment of society. To understand this is principle is to make our witness as effective as possible to those we influence the most, consciously or unconsciously.

Vow of Chastity

Second was that of chastity. If you watch the news much it doesn’t take long to see that there are those who are still fighting [to remove] the chastity of today’s Priest (thought they weren’t always celibate). This principle is more than saying Catholic clergy should not marry, it deals with one of the most accepted and destructive forces in our 21st century lives today, lust.

The word lust appears over 30 times in modern translations and James puts it this way: “Then when lust has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and when sin is accomplished, it brings forth death.” (James 1:15) For Pachomius to deal with this most dangerous of sins he attempted to remove all temptations from his monastery, but one of the biggest issues with lust is that it is an internal sin, committed in the heart of those who Believe against God Himself.

Today these temptations are a way of life. This is how we sell products to consumers, it consumes the Internet, it is all over the news, and evidence of its destruction is everywhere. Is this relevant today and how does this principle help us since we are not all going to just choose not to be married (nor does the Bible tell us not to marry)? It is probably the most relevant of moral issues today. Ignoring lust is a victory for Sin. Understanding our own weaknesses is important. We can look at lust as something that will not sneak up on us, something that we can defeat and overcome; not of our own accord but only with God’s help can we master lust.

Vow of Obedience

Obedience is something else that is talked about throughout scripture, and one of the three Pachomius felt was most important in living a pure life devoted to Jesus. This principle was primarily to fend off ourselves from ourselves, to overcome the self-will of the mind.

Where is obedience in our culture today, does it even still exist? Pachomius wanted his monks to be obedient to the monastery, knowing that, although they (we) might not understand everything but in being committed to obedience they would in turn be obedient to the One who saves (Romans 6:16).

Obedience is another tough principle today when we are dominated and controlled by no one but ourselves. We are (basically) free to live how we want, choose the career we want, live, eat, sleep, and travel any way we want. This may not be the case in North Korea but here in America we can basically be obedient to our self-interests without regards to the betterment of society as a whole. Scripture tells us this is no way to think or live and although we may think we don’t affect anyone but ourselves, inevitably our actions of obedience or disobedience often affect an unknown chain reaction of people, for positive or negative.

Sometimes our Americanized version of missions is to see who is “called to missions” then send them on a sort of mission vacation to a vaguely understood culture, and see what kind of impact can be made.  This might be an exaggerated cynical statement, but those of us who profess Jesus as their Savior are called to a worldwide missionary life.  We are certainly not all called to China like Biscuet but we are called to be missional.

I happen to be reading a passage in a book last night that put this in context.  I am about half way through God’s Passion for His Glory by John Piper which is written in two parts; the first part is a biography on Jonathan Edwards, the second part is The End for Which God Created the World by Edwards himself.  Many don’t associate Edwards with missions but he spent many years working directly with Native American Indians in the 18th century.  In speaking about Edwards, Piper talks about privatism in religion and says:

The worst form [of privatism] is with evangelicals who think they are publicly- and socially- minded when the have no passion for missions of perishing people wihtout the gospel that alone can give eternal life, and without a saving knowledge of the Light of the world who can transform their culture.  So the first message of Jonathan Edwards to modern evangelicals about our public lives is: Don’t limit your passion for justice and peace to such a limited concern as the church-saturated landscape of American culture.

Lift up your eyes to the real crisis of our day: namely, several thousand cultures still unpenetrated by the gospel, who can’t even dream of the blessings we want to restore.

No graphic that I have seen more emphasizes this as the one below from the IMB called You are the Light of the World.  I first saw this in poster form in bslash’s office one day and it has stuck with me since that day.  The dark places in the world, even 2,000 years after Matthew 28:19 was spoken, are large, and on every continent.  Biscuet pointed out today that we, as American’s, can no longer take the Message effectively to a Moslem nation, but we can invest in people who can, like the people in China, but before we can make a huge step (like living in China or Hong Kong), we must be willing to take many many smaller steps and be open to following our Leader, Jesus.