God at work

It amazes how God responds when we least expect it – even when we have asked nothing of him, or when we have not felt that it was right or proper to ask. Two examples have flown high on my radar this week. One seems next to trivial, though for my wife and I it is very significant, and the other is large when viewed from a human perspective, but they both reveal God’s grace.

First the trivial appearing: My wife and I moved into ministry, leaving behind a two bedroom small apartment and trading up to a huge four bedroom parsonage. We’ve spread out nicely and really enjoy all of the space, but I digress. After getting all of our stuff unpacked and placed where we wanted it, we really started thinking about being able to decorate our own space for the first time. (Within the vision of the Trustees, of course.) And, since we moved in August, we were thinking pretty quickly towards Christmas. (Okay, so the August to Christmas jump may be a little much, but we made it.) We decided we really wanted to get a Christmas tree that was larger than the one we used in our apartment. That was a 4′ tree that fit on an end table in our living room in our apartment. It was perfect for that space, but would be dwarfed by the room that we are putting our tree in here in the parsonage. So we got all excited about getting a larger tree and started dreams of decorations racing through our heads.

As reality set in, we finally set ourselves up on a budget. We had one of those before moving to New Jersey, but we actually started sticking to one here. And we realized around the middle of October that it just didn’t make much sense for us to splurge on a tree and more decorations just because. We decided to wait until after the holidays when the trees would go half (or more) off, and get one then. We would just use our small tree this year, and it would be fine. We didn’t give it another thought.

Then, Wednesday night at our Thanksgiving service, the organist came up to me and out of nowhere asked if we might want to use her 6.5′ artificial tree (we have always used artificial trees in our families, if you were wondering about buying one half off after Christmas). And I just went, “What? Are you kidding me?” Honestly, I hadn’t even thought about asking God for a new tree. I mean, it doesn’t have so much to do with the real meaning of Christmas, even if it is how we celebrate here. Yet God provided. Like I said, it may seem trivial, but I can only attribute it to God looking out for us in ways we wouldn’t even think to ask him for. And I am very grateful.

The more magnanimous one came this week at church. The church has been wanting for a while to add a new addition to their sanctuary and update and expand their educational space. Over the course of the last year they came to realize that they really needed to start with adding another minister to the mix (previously the church only had one full time pastor, all the other jobs being filled by part-time volunteers). Mind you, the church averages close to 200 in weekly attendance. Many churches I know of would have at least two full time staff, not to mention some additional part-time staff. I digress again. Basically, that’s why I’m here. And that is a whole other working of God, but I’ll save that for another time.

Many in the church were not confident that the church could financially undertake the full-time support of another minister and his family, especially with the background dream of this new building. But they stepped out in faith, and the necessary money has been there each month on average, and the church is very excited to see that. So now everyone is gearing back up for the building effort. The Trustees have a particular dollar figure in mind that they want on hand before starting the building. Up to this point, the building fund has about half of that figure. This week, God provided an anonymous donor who gave the entire original amount desired – so we are instantaneously at 150% of what they were hoping to have on hand to start the building.

I love seeing God work. And I love that I am at a point where my eyes are open, and I am recognizing Him when He works.

On Empathy

Today I picked up Sen. Barack Obama’s book The Audacity of Hope. I found this section in the chapter called “Values” that I thought was simply profound:

It was in my relationship with my grandfather that I think I first internalized the full meaning of empathy. Because my mother’s work took her overseas, I often lived with my grandparents during my high school years, and without a father present in the house, my grandfather bore the brunt of much of my adolescent rebellion. He himiself was not always easy to get along with; he was at once warmhearted and quick to anger, and in part bercause his career had not been particularly successful, his feelings could also be easily bruised. By the time I was sixteen we were arguing all the time, usually ab out me failing to abide by what I considered to be an endless series of petty and arbitrary rules – filling up the gas tank whenever I borrowed his car, say, or making sure that I rinsed out the milk carton before I put it in the garbage.

With a certain talent for rhetoric, as well as an absolute certainty about the merits of my own views, I found that I could generally win these arguments, in the narrow sense of leaving my grandfather flustered, angry, and sounding unreasonable. But at some point, perhaps in my senior year, such victories started to feel less satisfying. I started thinking about the struggles and disappointments he had seen in his life. I started to appreciate his need to feel respected in his own home. I realized that abiding by his rules would cost me little, but to him it would mean a lot. I recognized that sometimes he really did have a point, and that in insisting on getting my own way all the time, without regard to his feelings or needs, I was in some way diminishing myself.

There’s nothing extraordinary about such an awakening, of course; in one form or another it is what we all must go through if we are to grow up. And yet I find myself returning again and again to my mother’s simple principle – “How would that make you feel?” – as a guidepost for my politics.

…

I believe a stronger sense of empathy would tilt the balance of our current politics in favor of those people who are struggling in this society. After all, if they are like us, then their struggles are our own. If we fail to helpl, we diminish ourselves.

If you look at the book yourself, you can find this excerpt on pages 66-68.

Barack Obama, The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream (New York: Crown Publishers, 2006). ISBN: 978-0-307-23769-9.

Chapter 1

Sometimes, I have constructive and helpful things to say or add to a conversation.  Today is not one of those times.  If I were simply to comment here on all the ways I found Chapter 1 helpful, I’d basically have to reproduce the whole chapter.  And while that sounds simple enough, it would be a breech of copyright law.

So, by way of commenting on Chapter 1, which I have now read three times, all I can say is: “Read it yourself.”

Re: On Belief

Wow.  What a post, and what a question.   I started a comment, then it just got longer and longer.  So I decided to give it a full post.

For my own part, I’m coming to see that “faith” and “belief” are two different things – though I don’t think I can separate them.  To me, belief is what I’ve come to understand and accept about God.  It’s not just knowledge, but how our whole experience leads us to God.  This is not the same for any two people, because our lives are different.  We each come to our own conclusions and beliefs about God, and come to an acceptance of his Fact (much like we come to an acceptance of the reality of the death of a loved one… the Fact hasn’t changed, but our perception does).

But it isn’t belief that saves me.  It’s not knowledge, not even orthodoxy.  James says, “even the demons believe.”  The Gospels are a study in evolving understanding – people coming to terms with who Jesus was.  The disciples had a harder time getting it than a woman who reached through the crowd to touch the hem of Jesus’ garment.  But of all the people struggling to believe and understand, it was the demons who never had that problem – at nearly every encounter, they immediately call out his name and identify him as Son of God.

But that didn’t save them.

No, to me, it’s faith that saves us.  And faith is how we REACT to what we know and experience.  I may know that the fire is hot.  But it’s only in reacting to that knowledge that I am saved from being burned (sorry for the overused illustration).  I may know certain things about God, but it’s ACTING on what I know that is harder – and that leads to salvation.

The faith that saves is knowing that Jesus died for our sins – and acting on that knowledge by following what he said (not just talking about it). The faith that saves is knowing that God is powerful enough to provide – and acting on that knowledge by trying to live non-anxious lives and trusting in him to give us what we need.  The faith that saves is knowing that God loves the poor – and acting on that knowledge by giving of what we have, no matter how little, to help those in need.

I said I can’t separate the two, and I can’t.  Beacause to me, if we TRULY believe something, then we’ll act on it. I know this sounds like works-based theology.  I solve that in my own mind by saying it’s not – for it’s in the acting on our belief that we find God strengthening us, and thus again it is God doing the “work” and not us.  But to me, it’s the only way I can reconcile the dual ideas of belief and works in Scripture.  In the end, my thoughts are just straw anyway.

Our watchful God

So the Democrats (at least when I checked earlier today) have control in at least one chamber of Congress. The other chamber may be decided as well, but I have not looked to find out. As probably many other Americans did, I presume, I treated this election as a referendum on the actions of the government currently in place and tended to vote for change in the government – which does not mean straight party ticket one way or another. I do not hold to the view of many of those in other places I have lived where one particular party is blessed by God, and thus is the only way to vote. Power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely, and lengthy power corrupts almost imperceptibly. I am all for new faces, new ideas, and renewed zeal for truth, transparency, and honesty. Not that I really think that will happen, but I am all for it.

The devotional I have been reading this week has suggested reading through 1 Thessalonians, and the passage for today was from the second chapter, verses 10-16 (though I started reading at verse 8). It was comforting and terrifying to read that God watches and sees what goes on, and that “his anger catch[es] up with them at last.” We have read story after story in the papers, in the blogosphere, and seen stories on TV of God’s wrath catching up to people that we think are above reproach and of the highest honor. It is comforting that corruption does not last forever. That, as my pastor who is preaching through Revelation has been reminding us, God wins in the end – and there is no doubt in that victory. That is comforting. And it is terrifying. Because I am a minister. I am just as likely to become the one who has to one day describe himself as the “liar and deceiver” because I have become so caught up in the cult of my personality that I cannot face the mirror and see who I really am. I cannot have others helping me because I am afraid that they will spread it on and suddenly everyone will know. As ardently opposed to the idea as I am here, now, sitting in my chair, I am no different from any of the others whose past caught up with them. I just haven’t had a chance to live a “past” yet that could catch up to me.

God watches. You’d think that would be enough to stop someone who believes in a just and good God who promises judgment. It is my prayer for you that God would surround you by those who will keep you honest, keep you on the right and narrow path, keep you from harming yourself or others. That you would know that those who love you and care for you are there to help you through the difficulties, the temptations, and the struggles of life. That we do not face this alone. That God is watching.

Will you pray for me, too?