Saturday, March 16, 2024

St. Patrick's Shield

One scene in the classic Disney cartoon version of Robin Hood showed a cemetery surrounding Friar Tuck's church.  While watching the film, our then-four-year-old granddaughter asked, "Why are all those rocks there?"

I realized that she was referring to the gravestones, an unfamiliar sight for any church built in the past fifty years.  I hesitated for a moment as I formulated my answer.

"Those are the faithful ones," I replied.  "The church is surrounded by God's faithful people."

 A few days later I said something about celebrating St. Patrick's Day.  "Who's dat?" asked our small grandson.

And I realized it is not that the stories of the faithful are few and far between, but remain untold.  These are real people.  Look how God used these ordinary faithful people in extraordinary ways.  This is what being used by God looks like.

Tell these stories of God's faithfulness to your children and grandchildren that they may not fade into dust.

I will open my mouth in a parable;
I will utter dark sayings from of old,
things that we have heard and known,
that our fathers have told us.
We will not hide them from their children,
but tell to the coming generation
the glorious deeds of the LORD,
                     and His might,
and the wonders which He has wrought.
                               Psalm 78. 2-4

Today is St. Patrick's Day, and while the rivers will be running green in Chicago, the true story of Patrick stands in sharp contrast to what is typically celebrated on this holiday.  The story of Patrick is always a profound reminder to me of what God can do through His faithful ones.  He lived from 387 to 461 AD.  Patrick did not flee from the barbarians, but allowed God's grace to transform a culture and literally change the world. 

We celebrate today not green beer and leprechauns, but one man’s radical obedience to God, and through whom God used to change the course of history.

This humble ordinary man knew that he did not have super powers but stood beneath a shield.  Centuries ago, he left behind a prayer that revealed that his strength was not his own, but in God.  

Let the words of St. Patrick's ancient text surround and challenge you on this holy-day.  May we bind ourselves to Christ and carry the same shield.


I bind unto myself today
The strong name of the Trinity,
By invocation of the same,
The Three in One,
      and One in Three.

I bind this day to me for ever,
By power of faith,
      Christ's incarnation;
His baptism in the Jordan River;
His death on the cross
       for my salvation.
His bursting from the spiced tomb;
His riding up the heav'nly way;
His coming at the day of doom;
I bind unto myself today.

I bind unto myself today
The power of God
            to hold and lead,
His eye to watch,
            His might to stay,
His ear to hearken to my need;
The wisdom of my God to teach,
His hand to guide,
             His shield to ward,
The word of God to give me speech,
His heav'nly host to be my guard.

Against all Satan's spells and wiles,
Against false words of heresy,
Against the knowledge that defiles,
Against the heart's idolatry,
Against the wizard's evil craft,
Against the death-wound and the burning,
The choking wave, the poison'd shaft,
Protect me, Christ, till thy returning.

Christ be with me, Christ within me,
Christ behind me, Christ before me,
Christ beside me, Christ to win me,
Christ to comfort and restore me,
Christ beneath me, Christ above me,
Christ in quiet, Christ in danger,
Christ in hearts of all that love me,
Christ in mouth of friend and stranger.

I bind unto myself the name,
The strong name of the Trinity,
By invocation of the same,
The Three in One, and One in Three,
Of whom all nature hath creation,
Eternal Father, Spirit, Word.
Praise to the Lord of my salvation:
Salvation is of Christ the Lord.

 


Friday, March 15, 2024

The Grand Invasion

Ta-da!  Spring is invading from the ground up with a million shades of fresh green, not all at once lest we don't appreciate the resurrection of the land, or lest we forget how despairing the winter we just experienced.

Spring is the visible manifestation of God's promise to us, "Behold, I make all things new." (Revelation 21. 5)  We are awed by this glimpse of what hope looks like.   Winter does not last forever.  We recognize deep inside that this restoration is what God has been bringing into our lives all along, even through the frigid darkness of winter.

Yet God need not transform the entire landscape at once for us to have hope.   He does it one tiny glimpse at a time, a wildflower in the gravel at the side of the road, a glimmer that catches our eyes, a touch of green, a burst of color, or the celebration of a single tree in the forest. 


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

But we don't even need those visible reminders.  We have His word on that.  He hears my voice.  He redeems my soul in safety from the battle that I wage... Psalm 55. 18  Everyone struggles with something.  God brings His light to the shadows.  He brings spring to our winters.

God unveils full color where we only saw dismal shades of black and white.  


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

An arborist once told me that it is the slow soak of the winter snow and rain that nourishes the trees and strengthens them.  Winter is actually the life-giving season.  Winter is designed for the deepening of roots.  Even our own souls becoming stronger in trusting Him.

Darkness is pushed back to reveal the hope that has sustained us all through the bitter winter, even in a barren and abandoned landscape, which turns out not so bleak at all.

 The silence of the snow is not His absence, but a deeper dimension of His Presence, His whisper to us, "Come deeper with Me,"  the passage from one season to the next.  It is not the end of the world after all.  Something new bursts forth, that which only God can do.

And He starts with the tiniest wildflowers, the evidence of His majesty.

Remember not the former things,
nor consider the things of old.
Behold, I am doing a new thing;
now it springs forth,
      do you not perceive it?
I will make a way in the wilderness
      and rivers in the desert.
The wild beasts will honor me,
the wolves and the ostriches;
for I give water in the wilderness,
     rivers in the desert,
to give drink to My chosen people,
the people whom I formed for Myself
that they might declare My praise.

                         Isaiah 43. 18-21

Friday, March 8, 2024

The Ripening of Prayer


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Last week, I was walking past some dead-looking garden beds, barren and desolate, covered in old leaves crumbled by the harshness of winter.  Those patches of ground appeared far from redeeming.  But then I noticed tiny little labels, not just wishes for what the gardener wants to come forth, not just where seeds were planted, but signs of hope, seeing beyond what it looks like now, and grasping what is yet to emerge.  Something is growing there.  We just cannot see it yet. And often it surprises us what comes out of our efforts, even in what we so carefully label, even in what we don't realize we have planted..

Yesterday I ran through what appeared the deadness of trees and the ravages of winter.   But I could not outrun what was happening there in that wilderness.  Moment by moment, the landscape was changing, like a tsunami wave of green. Spring is invading.  And suddenly, before my eyes, the bleakness is being redeemed.

Behold I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?  I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.  Isaiah 43. 19

This beauty was maturing, waiting just below the surface, ready to burst forth in celebration.  We are so unaware of what God is up to.  That which God is bringing forth is already in motion.

We pray and see nothing.  But nothing is just our myopic vision in it. And God says, "Now watch this."

Whereas we were anxious for this renewal back in cold January, the results are just not the same when we try to hurry God up.  God says, "Wait."  We tap our feet.  We need not think of it as waiting.  There is neither too early nor too late in God's Kingdom.  He is the Creator of time.  He is not restricted by it.

When we pray, we bring our concerns, joys, worries, and wonders before the Lord.  Let those things sit and absorb.  They are not lying fallow in impossible rock-hard soil.  God brings all things into being in His time.  It is not that God is late, too busy, or flagrantly ignoring us.  We are the ones not ready yet.  The situation may not have ripened.  Our hearts may have not matured enough yet.

When God responds, "Wait on Me," there are profound, life-changing reasons for it. And it is not all about us.

I felt an urgency to write this blog today, because even by tomorrow, even by this afternoon, even by the time you might read this, the world will look so different.  The landscape is unfolding by the minute every day.  The seasons are constantly changing.  And so are our seasons.  How much we miss, a billion details of God's goodness of which we are oblivious.

Our long-awaited spring is not coming.  It is already here.  Next is already in motion, right around the corner and right under our very feet.  All through winter, God was preparing His creation for the grand re-opening, nurturing roots far below our radar.  And all through what has appeared as a black and white ordinary time in our lives, God is preparing, nurturing and strengthening us for what is and what is to come. His goodness is ripening all over us.

And we realize God does not just toss our prayers aside, or ignore our pleas, or forget our words.  He does not just hear our prayers.  God listens. And He acts.  Although it may feel like we never see an outcome, God is still working on it.  His timing is not our own. It is not for us to make sense of it, nor to see the end wrapped up with a bow, but perhaps gradually grasp the next step in God’s grander narrative.  

In his deeply thoughtful book The Sound of Life’s Unspeakable Beauty, author and German luthier Martin Schleske writes about the character and response of the Almighty: 

We need a greater respect for God and God’s timing to withstand the danger of asking only about the immediate usefulness of things and allowing nothing to ripen and mature.”

God redeems each situation, difficulty, and patches of hard ground, in extraordinary and supernatural ways we don’t always realize, but …the seed sprouts and grows, we know not how.  Mark 4. 27


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And suddenly, we catch a glimpse of His wonders.

Holy, holy, holy, is the LORD of hosts; the whole earth is full of His glory!  Isaiah 6. 3


Tuesday, February 27, 2024

Super-Glue or Post It Notes?

 

In 1968, chemist Spencer Silver focused on developing an ultra-strong adhesive for use in airplane construction.  He failed at that attempt, and instead created a pressure sensitive adhesive weak enough to pull on and off repeatedly without tearing paper.

Six years later, Arthur Fry, a chemical engineer also at 3M, used that weak adhesive to keep bookmarks from falling out of his hymnal when he sang in the church choir.  Eventually the company became convinced of its universal use.  By 1980, the adhesive was used on tiny pieces of paper, marketed as Post It Notes.  They stick, but not too much, both movable and removable.

 200+ Free Post-It Notes & Post It Images - Pixabay

By definition, Post It Notes are not designed to last forever, but serve as a reminder, flagging a thought, a page, or an appointment.  But over time, its short-lived adhesive is just that:  a temporary fix.   Sadly Post It Notes are how most of us view prayer.  We just stick a prayer on a request or a situation, like a casual “I’ll pray for you!” We pray, and sometimes we don’t.   We consider prayer with a temporary stickiness, lasting awhile perhaps, until it falls off our radar.

But long after we think our prayer post-it-notes are lost, or blown away in the wind, or no longer applicable, God does not forget.  Little do we realize, but our prayers have an ultra-strong adhesive quality.  God brings His supernatural strength and His enduring grip to it.  Prayer has no past tense, but vibrant in the context of a much bigger narrative, a super-glue resistance.  God works much deeper than abridged singular outcomes.  Only eternal ones.

The past, present and future are inexplicable and inextricable, because God is not limited by time. When we do pray, prayers stick.

This past week, I received a text from an excited friend that her son just received a new job nearby.  I had nearly forgotten that we had prayed for him, now many months ago.

But God didn’t.

Prayers stick, even far beyond our lifetimes.  Would we pray differently if we realized that?  Do we believe if we prayed, it would make an eternal difference?  Praying is always a long game. We just don’t grasp the enormity of it.

A godly Dutch watchmaker in 1844 started a prayer meeting dedicated to pray for the well-being of the Jewish community in his town.  Exactly one hundred years later, in 1944, Corrie ten Boom and her family were arrested and imprisoned for saving hundreds of Jewish lives and hiding Jews in their home. That man who committed to praying was Corrie’s grandfather Willem who died in 1891,the year before she was born. Little did he know how profoundly his prayer would impact his immediate family, his community, and the unfolding of an ongoing story.

The strength of prayer is not found in our own trying harder or praying more, but in God’s response to our coming before Him.  It is in the act of praying that our hearts are changed, but not God’s.  “Not my will but Yours.”  When we pray, we realize that the super-glue of prayer does not belong to us, but His strong hold on us, as God “gives us a secure hold within His holy place.”  Ezra 9. 8

Praying is not about answers after all, but the deepening of our relationship with Him and knowing His tenacious hold on us.  The psalmist recognizes “Nevertheless I am continually with You; You hold my right hand.  Psalm 73. 23

God doesn’t forget.  He never does.  Our prayers are precious to Him.

….and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints.  Revelation 5. 8

And God makes sure they stick.