The Courses We Set

A friend was telling me about a recent trip. We were both amused at how the GPS tended to set the course. We both had stories of courses gone awry.


Then, just the other day, as I was reading Psalm 26, I stumbled across the best GPS (Growth Positioning System) for our faith journey. Here is the Jewish Study Bible translation for Psalm 26 verses 2-3:

Probe me, O Lord, and try me, test my heart and mind; for my eyes are on your steadfast love; I have set my course by it.

The translation inspired me to begin considering those things that set my courses in life, those directions, goals, values, and commitments that I set my heart and mind upon. Over the years those objects of my course have shifted. New objects have taken their place. What guided my course twenty years ago is not exactly what guides my course today.

One certainty over the courses of our lives is this: Though we may experience many changes, the steadfast love of God can be trusted to be stable and secure.

The book of Lamentations was written out of the experience of the nation of Israel losing everything and being taken into exile. It is written to guide the community toward resources for dealing with pain and loss. Here is its profound theme found in the third chapter, verses 22-23:

The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases, his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning, great is your faithfulness.

As these verses rattle around in my mind and heart, I hear the voice of my GPS, ”Recalculating!”

The courses we set for our lives by are worth pondering.

The Scent of Obedience

If you had to identify a scent to the word "obedience," what would the scent be?  Ok, I know that is an odd question, but sometimes it helps to stretch our imaginations a bit when it comes to words like obedience, words and perspectives that bring with them so much baggage. 

Well my preparation for Sunday's sermon on the passage from 1 John 5:1-7 has pressed me outside my comfort zones of thought.  1 John 5:1-7 is about obedience, learning to love God by keeping his commandments,  carrying out what God asks. These commands, the writer says, are not burdensome.
"Not burdensome!?"  Doesn't smell like the scent of obedience I am most familiar with.

I have grown up on a diet of obedience governed by Webster Dictionary's definition for obey: to comply with the orders of; to yield submission to; to be ruled by.  Ah, the scent of domination and the smell of oppression.  Toe the line or sit down.  When I say "jump!", you ask, "How high?"

Needless to say the very idea of obedience, raises red flags in our minds and hearts.  Too bad.  For as someone has said, "You can have obedience without faith; but you can't have faith without obedience."
Maybe one of the reasons faith communities struggle in our culture is that the core of faith calls for obedience and we treat the very idea with resistance and avoidance.  We perceive obedience as a threat to freedom and a free exercise of will. (How we perceive freedom is also a topic for future consideration)

Yet from a biblical perspective obedience means "to listen".  To listen, to pay attention to, to give our attention to someone or something.  The biblical command to Israel was "Hear, O Israel..."
 ( Deuteronomy 6)

The scent of obedience as listening, giving attention to God through keeping the commands to love God and others is a fresh breeze and an invigorating smell.  Could I possibly be most free when I am choosing to live a life that listens for God as I love God and neighbor?

Try this scent.  It comes from Henri Nouwen's book, Letters to Marc about Jesus:
      What counts is being attentive at all times to the voice of God's love inviting us to obey,
      that is, to make a generous response. (pg.83)

I think my journey is going to be a bit different as I ponder these fresh scents of obedience in carrying out God's commands.  What about you?

Prayer Challenge

Dallas Willard says that prayer is the conversation we have with God about what we're doing together.
He tells of going to a workshop led by Agnes Sanford.  Sanford asks participants to engage in the following exercise over the three day workshop:

            "I want you to choose something that you are going to pray for for the next three days.
             It doesn't matter what it is:something that you're concerned about, and you want to
             take up with God for three days."

When I read Agnes Sandord's challenge many concerns rolled through my head: concerns of my family, a variety of national situations, concerns among the members of the congregation I serve as a pastor, the two wars we are presently fighting, the devestating oil spill in the Gulf, anxieties over the future and my own personal concerns for the future, the nature of my leadership for the congregation, my need to develop a richer and more fulfilling prayer life in general.

To pick one of these does not mean I cease to pray for the rest of these concerns.  But as I pondered the concerns on my plate, I became aware that the deepest need I have is to trust that God is present and active in these situations already.  Complicating this need is the way I go about my prayer life.  I do it on the run except for a brief time when I sit in silence.

In other words, my issue to talk over with God is our hit and miss communications and brief conversaton times.  My prayer life is like passing a friend in the school hall way and waving.  Not much depth to the conversation at all.

So what about you?  How would you describe your conversaton moments with God over the things you are doing together?