Devotions for the Rest of Us #4

Matt. 21: 8Most of the crowd spread their cloaks on the road, and others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. 9And the crowds that went before him and that followed him were shouting, "Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!" 10 And when he entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred up, saying, "Who is this?" 11And the crowds said, "This is the prophet Jesus, from Nazareth of Galilee."

Palm Sunday we walked about with palm leaves and followed a donkey to the church. It was very sweet and a tradition at our church. The children love it and it is thought provoking. This is where you moan and say "oh no, she's thinking again." What would it have been to be part of the crowd? Think about it. There were a lot of crowds mentioned in the Bible, seems they were always around. But there are two crowds that I'm specifically thinking about: the crowd that waved Jesus in and the crowd that cried for his death. What happened in between that changed the way the crowd thought.

Now, I know and understand what had to be. That's not the part that intrigues me. I think that in the first crowd we found people who saw the compassion of Jesus, these are the people that have been hearing him teach, people that have seen the miracles. Maybe they haven't understood the teaching, but they see something they want. A realness that is not there with the religious teachers of the day. The second crowd was stirred by the religious leaders. It was very deliberate in wanting to see Jesus dead. They didn't understand the teachings nor did they want understanding. They had a problem and wanted to be rid of it. So you lie to the crowd, you persuade them, and you get them to do what you want.

In thinking about the first crowd, what does that mean for us today? You see, the modern day church is much like that crowd. We have real believers, but we also have people that are just hanging on, they see something they like, but they aren't "all in." They recognize truth, but it's not the same as being part of the truth. But when it gets hard, then we see that the "truth" is not in them. Today I was reading Facebook and saw this from one of my friends, "Why do people claim to be this "perfect Christian" but in real life they are a horrible person?" She went on to say that it made no sense to her. Of course it makes no sense, how could it? We can't know the hearts of those around us, we can only go by what we see. Yet what we see may not be the best way to look either.

Then there is one of my favorite parts of the story in regards to how people responded. Joseph of Arimathea, a rich man, a secret believer. I can imagine that he probably watched the crowds, maybe even wishing that he could be part of it. That he could wave the branches, that he too could spread his coat out for Jesus. But he had so much to lose. A secret believer. But then after the crucifixion, he went to Pilate and asked for the body to bury it. Imagine what that cost him. He was now "all in."

And then there was the angry crowd. They wanted Jesus dead. But how much of it was people and how much of it was the religious leaders stirring the crowd? And how much of it was human nature confronted with truth? I suspect much of it goes to the latter.

I've thought about this all week, which crowd would I have been in. While I hope in some ways I would have welcomed Jesus in I fear I would have been more than willing to place him on that cross. And not because that was what had to happen. We all have to face that ourselves, that it was us, rather me, that put him on that cross. And now we have to keep coming back to that in order to live the way He taught. So in going back to what my friend wrote, here is my reply.... I'm sorry. All I can say is keep your eyes on Jesus and hope that you recognize that we are so human, and filled with human nature. I'm trying to keep my eyes off the crowd and on Jesus, but it's so much easier to follow that crowd.

Devotions for the Rest of Us #3

Matthew 11 At that time Jesus declared, "I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children; 26yes, Father, for such was your gracious will. 27 All things have been handed over to me by my Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him. 28 Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 29Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light."

This week I've been hearing over and over "Come to me all who labor and find rest for your soul." My mind doesn't have scripture as readily memorized as some do, but today I sought out the word to see what God was trying to tell me. In the meantime, I've been pondering, what is rest, and what is labor?

In reading the whole passage I found more questions (as I'm prone to do). What is being childlike? You would think I would know this one. I've been a child, raised three of them, and work with tons of them. There are everywhere!!! But you know Jesus had a point to this, since he referred to it more than once in his teaching. So as I sat here this morning, I've been reviewing children, what are they like? What endears us to them? Why do we protect them so? You will have different answers than I do, but of course they are cute and cuddly, they are innocent, they climb in our laps for us to hold, they trust us, they are honest in what they say.

Wonder where Jesus was going with this? Do I trust him enough to totally TRUST him, do I go to him for comfort (usually Ben and Jerry's but I'm working on that one), do I want to sit and play with him, spend time with him? I'm bombing out here. You all know I would rather sit and read a novel than do just about anything, and I'm not very trusting. When the kids were little I remember sitting in the floor playing with them, stacking blocks, playing cars, all those little things. How do we translate that to our relationship to Jesus? I don't know. I'm thinking this is part of the walk that I don't understand. I know it's more that just getting a few minutes in prayer, but really how do we translate having that friendship thing? That just being together that we do with our friends. Some of the most meaningful time you will ever have with a friend is when you are just together, you don't have to always fill the air with the sound of talking, it's just being together. Did I just answer my question?

What is labor? Do we labor to walk in this world? I do, I don't understand a lot of what I see in the ER. I don't understand how people can be mean, cruel, or just stupid. You see people who are ruled by selfishness. But we see it everywhere. The boss that puts you in a bad place, takes credit for your work, the co-worker that is difficult, the neighbor that dumps on you, our families.... Then we react to those things, sometimes we get it right and sometimes we don't. It's wearing to us. If everyone around us was kind and gentle, maybe this world wouldn't be so hard. But I know no matter where we go, there are things that just aren't perfect. There is no job, no family, no relationship that doesn't test our ability to walk out our commitment to the Lord.

Then of course, you will find rest for your souls. I want that. In our walk with the Lord there are things and times that we fall. Some fall harder than others. Some get up and continue, some stay in that place. I had ten years that I was very angry at God. In those years I know that I hurt people, my family, and most of all destroyed what faith I had in God. And myself. It's been hard for me to forgive myself since I repented. I keep coming back to the same thing and it's me that is doing it (I'm sure that the enemy of my soul is feeding all he can into my self focus). I saw someone that hurt me in the past recently, and it stirred up all kinds of memories, it was very difficult. I resorted to old habits to help the pain, drank some wine, broke out Eric Clapton, then Nirvana.... didn't really work well. Today as I read this passage, I realized what the Lord has been saying to me: rest from the past, rest from the knowledge of my sin, rest from the pain, rest from memories, rest from hurt, rest from whatever is there that you need rest from. Total rest. It's there for us. He is gentle and lowly in heart, his burden is light. It's ours that is heavy, throw it off. My burden is heavy and when I pick it back up after he has taken it off, then I don't have his rest.

So faithful has the Lord been to show me through the week about his rest. Years ago, before I ever became a Christian that was my desire, to find rest for my mind. Now to walk it out.

Devotions for the Rest of Us #2

9"This, then, is how you should pray:
" 'Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,
10your kingdom come,
your will be done
on earth as it is in heaven.
11Give us today our daily bread.
12Forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
13And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from the evil one.[a]' 14For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. 15But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.

This morning I was praying for my son about a job interview he had Sunday. We only want this if it's what God wants and it reminded me of praying "your will be done on earth as it is in heaven." What does that really mean?

Can you imagine if everything we did followed the pattern of your kingdom come, your will be done here as it is done in heaven? This is a teaching prayer, we don't just recite it, we should be able to live it. So how does that happen?

Of course you can find wonderful teaching on this, my claim here is not to be a great teacher, it's that I have all these questions that I think we all have.... how in the heck to I do it???

This week a nurse I work with lost her daughter in a horrible accident. The husband now will be a single parent to a 4year old and a 1 year old. As co-workers we have all been stunned, you would think working in the ER we would be prepared for this, but honestly, we don't see it as much as you would think (thank you Jesus) and of course, this is someone we know. The response has been very emotional and very real. But the thing that has touched me is that we are reaching out to each other. It's one time that people are talking about "the Lord" in a very real way. And it gives a good chance to open a door about where we are "in the Lord."

This weekend I worked at my old job and as I was walking to lunch I passed a room, looked in and saw a physician I know. His mother was a patient there. I stopped and spoke with him for some time. His comment was how kind everyone had been. He doesn't know my name, but I'm a familiar face to him. It was the stopping and checking, the interaction. He opened up to me in a way that people never do unless they are very needy of love and kindness. It was very much a chance to minister God's love to someone in a way that would be received like no other time.

How many times do we have to make the choice to be kind, to be generous, to be an extension of what Jesus has done in and for us? It's those daily choices that make us like him, that carry out his kingdom, that bring his will to our lives. If we don't do the little kindness, we won't have a chance to do the big things. Evaluate what kingdom living is... what would it mean if his will was done by all?

The other thing about these times is that we are okay with being who we are. We are truly honest with where we are. That's the thing that is so difficult for us. For me. I want to look good to people, so I don't tell you what I think or did unless it makes me look good. We all do this, but what if we were real. Then the question becomes will we accept one another, will we help each other, and will we grow to be like Jesus or accept status quo? The best example I can give of this is one day a couple of weeks ago I was involved in a conversation about something another nurse did. I thought I was saying something positive but later that day one of my friends said that he had been disappointed that I had been involved in the conversation, he thought better of me and that we should be kinder to that nurse. Regardless of what I thought I was saying, being involved was wrong unless I had stood up for her. I felt like I had been slapped! It was a very gentle reminder that I had failed to be the person I should have been. And now I'm trying, note trying to be more generous about who I am and who I represent.

So my thinking is that it's the little things that sometimes show best who we are as Christians. We need to walk gently, make small decisions to be kind, to give grace to those around us... then we can do the big things that we are asked to do. Like toddlers learning to walk, little steps before we run.