Perfect

I like it when someone will help me with a project. I like to work hard but a burden shared is more fun. Many of us started our Christian life enthusiastically. A shared project. An adventure. A few are still there. Too many have become just plain sour. Going it alone. Trying to be perfect. They could never convince another that a life in Christ was a good thing. Faith became work. Coal mining type work.

The difference? Some of us have turned play into a job.

Maybe you or someone you love have moved from the early stages of loving God and doing whatever came out of that to slaving for God without a job description.

God thinks this is foolish. God asks only that we love him. We do this by following his son, Jesus. God even helps by the Spirit visiting us right this moment. Think of how crazy you acted when you first fell in love. Give the same to God. Think of church and church life more as a sandbox with God encouraging you. You are loved unconditionally. God only wants what you have to give back in your own unconditionally love towards God.

How foolish can you be? After starting your Christian lives in the Spirit, why are you now trying to become perfect by your own human effort?  Galatians 3:3 (NLT)

My Prayers Were Answered

Today, a politician who was in a heated primary election, said at a press conference, "My prayers have been answered." Presumably, his opponent was saying, "Mine weren't." A freakishly fast sprinter won her gold medal today. She pointed to heaven. I assume she was thinking, "Thanks, big guy" or "Hey, the credit is all yours." Maybe the 4^th place finisher said, "God, I guess you have something else in mind."  People in Houston said, "We prayed Hurricane Ernesto would spare us and our prayers were answered." Meanwhile, flooded residents of the Yucatan were saying, "God why didn't you spare us?"

I may be in a minority but, I don't think God had a direct hand in any of those things. What would be his metric? The area with the most people praying gets the good stuff? Whoever prays the longest, or hardest, or most eloquently gets the prize? Christians or Americans get their prayers answered first? Silliness.

I believe prayer is a mystery. Prayer is so much more than cause and effect. Prayer cannot be reduced to a "to do" list for our Maker.

I believe prayer shapes us. It shapes our initiative and response. Prayer triggers resources and power we could not muster on our own. Prayer ripens over days and years. I don't believe in prayer as a meritorious endeavor. Prayer is a conversation between intimates that renews, challenges, twists and turns, but always communicates love. Prayer opens up eternity to the here and now. Prayer is oxygen for the soul.

I believe God looks down on winners and losers and says one thing, "I love you and I want you to know how much."

Will you pray today?

How Long?

How long, Lord, must I call for help,
    but you do not listen?
Or cry out to you, “Violence!”
    but you do not save?
³ Why do you make me look at injustice?
    Why do you tolerate wrongdoing?
Destruction and violence are before me;
    there is strife, and conflict abounds.
⁴ Therefore the law is paralyzed,
    and justice never prevails.
The wicked hem in the righteous,
    so that justice is perverted.  Habakkuk 1:2-4 (NIV)

My bones suffer mortal agony as my foes taunt me, saying to me all day long, “Where is your God?” Psalm 42:10 (NIV) 

Do you take God (and yourself) seriously enough to get pissed off at God? I mean, really let God have it? No eloquent prose or poetry, just “tell it like it is?”

Prayer is so much more than politely telling God what you have in the way of a “to do” list for him for the day. Prayer is honest speech and honest listening. Prayer is the crock pot of relationships. People who invest in one another can tell it like it is. The investment in one another is “no matter what.” Casual acquaintances employ a clipped politeness or flowery inflated speech (if they wish to impress.)

Not so with God. Only when we will honestly speak and honestly listen with the transforming reality of God and God’s power take hold of us and our situation. The world, our world is full of pain and grief and, I believe, God is addressing that through us, the followers of Jesus.

Go ahead; engage in a real conversation with your Maker.