the One Word: Jesus

It is commonly known in the Christian world that the Bible is referred to as "the word of God." And so its become a phrase we throw around to add meaning or seriousness to a request or in describing how we've spent our morning: "well, you need to do this or that-I mean, the Bible says so, and it is the word of God." or "I was just spending a few minutes in the word."

I love John 1. "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." So God is the Word, and is with the Word, and the Word is beginning to sound like some kind of entity or life, some thing more than what I might call a word in my every day life. Well, John goes on to write, "the Word became flesh and has dwelt among us." Huh?!? The Word became flesh? Suddenly, I'm thinking John must be talking about Jesus...

And he is.

Jesus is the Word. So, its like God had stuff he wanted us to hear, and so He spoke this word, and the word that came out of His mouth wasn't just some word like you or I know, the word that came out of His mouth was His very own Son, Jesus.

So I think about the "word of God" or the Bible. But the Bible is many words. Thousands of words; in fact, so many words that sometimes I start to get confused or begin to feel like I'm really missing the meaning of the words. But what if all those words that form the many sentences and thoughts that are the Bible, what if those words are really all trying just to describe one word... One Word, namely, Jesus? And that is exactly what they are doing.

Jesus IS the Word of God. God only needed to speak one word to us, and He chose to speak His Son to us, instead of preaching and trying to convince us, or sway our minds with ration and philosophy, God instead chose to speak to us a relationship. He sent Jesus. Rather, He spoke Jesus to us, and in Him (Jesus) He showed us a love that would stop at no end to love, and a freedom that communicated a release from religious burden and guilt and a rescue from a dark, sinister evil that longs to destroy us. This was God's Word.

You know, I get so worked up at times, wanting to communicate some deep truth to my friend, and really wanting them to 'get it.' And I am so sure that I'm right, and that if they just saw things my way, they'd have a clearer understanding that would really improve their quality of life or make them way more obedient and perfect. And I wonder if all those words I use, all of the arguing and manipulating and discourse are just really wasted words, empty words, just meaningless that is going to burn when judged before the throne of God.

Because if God chose to speak only one Word to us, isn't that really the only Word worth mentioning? Jesus. And I know that we, and me too, will probably wake up tomorrow morning and get into some discussion with an acquaintance over the "word of God," and will debate and and talk in circles around the meaning of one or two verses, or maybe some concept that we believe the we hold the corner market on, and we'll walk away from that conversation thinking that at least we tried to obediently and humbly show the other their faults and wrong thinking and put them on the 'better path.' And you know what? We'll be wrong. We'll have acted in pride, not humility, and we'll have spoken empty and meaningless words that all don't matter a stitch because they all fell short of describing the Jesus that truly is the Word of God.

There is only One Word for us to speak. Predestination or Free Choice? Jesus. Pre-millenial or post-millenial? Jesus. Republican/Democrat? Praying in tongues? Infant baptism? Seeker-friendly or emergent church? Can we please begin to see that all of the things we hold so dearly too and all of the things we waste our precious words on are all nothing, rubbish in fact, compared to Jesus?

God help us. Help us to know your Son, to truly hear the Word You are speaking to us. To lay ALL aside in order to know and hear Him... we need You.

Here's a quote I read once, and if you know who spoke this or wrote this, I would love to know who, but I read it on a bulletin of a church I attended a long time ago:

"Selfish love talks to people about Jesus. Self-less love talks to Jesus about people."

I think I'm really beginning to love when my first response is not to quickly speak up and set someone straight on their messed-up views, but rather when my first instinct is to drop to my knees and pray that they might know Jesus more, right where they're at right now.

The irony is how many words I just used... I probably should have just written this:

Jesus: the Son and the One Word of God.

My Oshkosh Community

Unlearning

so here is what is blowing my mind away: Jesus loves me. He's crazy about me. We talk about it a lot, we agree with it, we say it tons, we even sing it. But I don't believe it. Not usually anyways, because I guess today I'd have to say I do believe it. I really believe, with all my heart, that Jesus loves me. I cannot express to you the freedom and relief and joy that brings to my heart. Usually I live out of guilt and fear and greed, but really believing deep down that Jesus loves me is setting me free....

I have recently been feeling that the season of life I am in right now is one of 'unlearning.' Unlearning everything I thought I knew and believed about the Christian life. Unlearning the habits and behaviors that I often put my hope in or find myself relying on to subside the voices of guilt and fear in my heart and in my head. Unlearning. Unlearning church. Why is it that we all sit in pews or uncomfortable seats and face forward? Why is it that we all pay attention to one person like a lecture or being in a classroom? It certainly isn't 'holier' than any other style. But yet somehow, I think if we really thought about it, we'd feel like we were doing something wrong if we changed how we do church.

I feel like I'm unlearning the religious habits that I have too. Like having a set quiet time at 8am every morning. Or using some devotional, or reading through the Bible in a year. I want to unlearn how I pray, and what I think of as proper and better prayer as opposed to simply being honest in conversation with God.

I want to unlearn because I'm so tired of sitting in groups of holy people and all of us trying to sound so smart and educated and spiritual about who God is and what He is like. I'm weary of theological conversation that attempts to justify or control our behavior. To put boundaries on our lives, or burdens on our shoulders-again, probably to make us feel like we're actually doing something for our salvation.

And here is why I am unlearning. I was reading Philippians a few days ago. Okay, now we've all read this and heard this before maybe, but let go of what you know, let go of what you think, let go of your history and your habits and really here what Paul is saying here. This hit me in a whole new way:

Watch out for those dogs, those wicked men and their evil deeds, those mutilators who say you must be circumcised to be saved. For we who worship God in the Spirit are the only ones who are truly circumcised. We put no confidence in human effort. Instead, we boast about what Christ Jesus has done for us.
Yet I could have confidence in myself if anyone could. If others have reason for confidence in their own efforts, I have even more! For I was circumcised when I was eight days old, having been born into a pure-blooded Jewish family that is a branch of the tribe of Benjamin. So I am a real Jew if there ever was one! What's more, I was a member of the Pharisees, who demand the strictest obedience to the Jewish law. And zealous? Yes, in fact, I harshly persecuted the church. And I obeyed the Jewish law so carefully that I was never accused of any fault.
I once thought all these things were so very important, but now I consider them worthless because of what Christ has done. Yes, everything else is worthless when compared with the priceless gain of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. I have discarded everything else, counting it all as garbage, so that I may have Christ and become one with him. I no longer count on my own goodness or my ability to obey God's law, but I trust Christ to save me. For God's way of making us right with himself depends on faith. As a result, I can really know Christ and experience the mighty power that raised him from the dead. I can learn what it means to suffer with him, sharing in his death, so that, somehow, I can experience the resurrection from the dead!
(Phil. 3:2-11, NLT)

We are to put NO confidence in our flesh, in what we can do in our relationship with Jesus. Instead, the full responsibility of our salvation, of our life with Christ, is on Jesus alone; and His responsibility was seen through the end when He died for us and came back to life. The Bible says that Jesus died once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring us into relationship with God.

What would it look like to unlearn? I guess in some ways it would seem that one would become more like a child. A child is what Jesus said we needed to become if we would inherit the Kingdom of Heaven. Simplistic, faith-filled, trusting, innocent... You know, when I think of it, as a child I just trusted that I was loved. My only responsibility was to love back. Children don't have lists of stuff to follow or complete or do; that's the joy of being a child. They just exist, are loved, and often just simply love in return. Is it possible that that is all Jesus had in mind for us when He told us to become like little children? I'm beginning to think so.

But I live in this world of responsibility and performance and duty. As a Christian, I feel like I am supposed to evangelize more. I need to be more disciplined. I have to be involved in 'ministry' if I truly want to be that next level Christian. I'm supposed to be involved and active in a church, 'cause that's just the healthy, important thing for me to do. Uggh. Can I just say I'm tired of all that. To me, it is all beginning to feel like religious burdens. It feels like guilt and comparison and frankly, psychotic behavior. Jesus says that my job is to love. That feels like freedom. So I want to unlearn all that I know in this life of what it means to be a Christian, and I want to be free to know love; to know that I am loved by God my Father, and that I am free to love Him back, and to love my neighbors.

I really don't know what all this stuff I'm writing about even looks like. What does it look like to just be loved and to love? What sets me apart as a Christian if I'm not crazily running around trying to save others or be more disciplined? I guess I'd have to say that right now I'm not sure. But I know that I'm tired of feeling guilty. And I know that everything I read about Jesus seems to communicate freedom to me, not guilt.

My wife and I have recently moved to Oshkosh, Wisconsin in order to plop ourselves right down in the middle of community. What I mean by that is that we have friends and family here that we were longing to share life with. What I mean by sharing life is that we want the kind of relationships with these people where we cry with them when they hurt. To be the people they call if they need us to watch their kids so they can get away for an afternoon. We wanted to share meals with these people and give our money and our time and our stuff to people in our community that have need. And actually, to receive these things from our friends when we are in need.

So that's what we are doing, and its been really cool because it seems that God has been working in all these other people's hearts and leading them to this place where they want the same things we do. So every week we get together and share dinner and talk and laugh and tell dirty jokes and then after dinner and the dishes are clean, and after the little kids have kinda fallen asleep, we take turns sharing the things that are on our hearts... hurts or thoughts, or things we're confused about. And then we just pray for each other. And its really cool because when I think of Jesus' words in Matthew that His final command is for us to love one another and that when we do that, the whole world will know we are His disciples because we're loving one another, this kind of community is what I picture.

This community that we are sharing in is actually quite scary for me. Mainly because most nights we get together, right before we head over to our friend's house, I find myself really not wanting to go. I either feel too tired or grumpy or feeling like I just want to be alone. Its also scary because these people are getting the chance to see me. I mean the real me. Not the me that I would be at church, you know, like saying all the right things, and using cool Christian words like 'quiet time' and 'evangelising' and 'God spoke to me this weekend' or 'I just feel like God has put this calling on my life.' And I'm not trying to offend anyone that talks like that, and to be honest, I sometimes talk like that, but in my relationships with people I don't talk like that. And so these people in my community here see the me that doesn't talk like that. Instead they hear me say that I'm really angry and somebody, or see the non-verbal reaction I have when someone says something I think is stupid. And that is scary.

Its scary because they might choose to judge me, or make fun of me, or ask me not to be a part of their community. And then I remember that really, that's only been my experience within the walls of what I think of when I say the word church. In real life we get mad at each other and we say stupid things that hurt feelings, and it is all really okay, because that's when we really have the opportunity to learn how to respond in love to each other. And that is really what Beth and I were saying we were longing for when we talked about intentional community a year ago.

This idea of sharing life with our friends and family is new to me. I'm just learning as I go, and really we all are. We've never done anything like this and so we are infants. And I guess that means that I'm not really unlearning, I'm just learning. But so often our learning is completely marred by what we've already learned in the past. I guess that is why I want to unlearn. I don't want my previous learning to affect what I should be learning now, mainly because this is all so new and I know a lot of people that would say it isn't all that Christian at all because we aren't a part of a church (proper) and we don't sing, and we talk dirty before we pray. But I don't care. I'm loved by God, I'm loved by these people, and we are pushing one another toward loving Him and others more, so I'm convinced we are right where Jesus wants us to be. And the best part? The best part is that He is in our midst every time we gather together. When we break our bread and drink out of our cups, we are truly doing it while remembering Jesus. And I think that is cool.

Summer Adventures

Springtime Changes

It has certainly been awhile, but finally it is time to update this blog with the new changes in my life; Beth's and my life. It has been a very busy spring with lots of craziness, but alas, life keeps tickin' and we keep rollin' and Jesus just keeps on leading us. It is all very exciting....

I think the last time I 'updated' it was just about Christmas time. Christmas time... wow. It was in early January that I approached our interim pastor at church to be frank and honest about some feelings I was having. Beth and I had been really feeling a moving in our hearts that was yearning for a deep, authentic community. The kind of community where you share life with one another-you know, baby-sit kids, cook for one another and eat together, watch dogs, or share shopping bills. The kind of community where you know each other so well that you hurt together and cry together, share burdens. Where you pray for one another and hold each other to a higher standard of living. Beth and I were longing in January to be known and accepted, simply for who we were, no expectations, no guilt. The problem is that community comes around only once in a great while. We have experienced it in two places: Oshkosh, Wisconsin and Colorado Springs, Colorado.

So there we were, really feeling this deep stirring for this community thing, but being and working and living in a place where we didn't feel known, didn't feel accepted except for what we were doing or how we performed, and longing for something deeper. So I talked with our pastor to communicate this and let him know upfront what I was feeling-especially knowing that staff evaluations were coming up... and... the church was beginning a study to see what options existed for keeping current staff in relationship to their ever decreasing budget.

February rolled around and again I talked with our interim-I was going to join Beth for a vacation trip to Wisconsin, and had the opportunity to apply for a couple of residence life jobs at UW schools nearby Oshkosh. I told the pastor about this, and he let me know that he was pretty sure a reduction in staff was iminent and that I should for sure go ahead and see what opportunities might be available. So the middle of February, Beth and I headed to the homeland of Wisconsin.Interviews went well. Well one did, in Stevens Point. They offered a second interview so I flew back out, two weeks later in March. This interview went extremely well, and a week later they offered the job.

I turned it down.

I don't know. It wasn't like I felt that God was telling us what to do, I prayed a lot, but didn't feel a leading in any direction. Except that Beth and I had had this longing for community. Now I have some very best friends in Seattle, about an hour from Anacortes where we were living, but you know how often I saw each of them? About once a year. Stevens Point is about an hour from Oshkosh. And our desire is to share life with our friends and our family. An hour just wasn't close enough, so call me crazy, but no job for Greg-just the hope of finding some purpose in life and a home in Oshkosh.

Well, time went by, and life moved on. March 15 was a big day. The church council was confronted with the options of what to do to balance staffing and budgeting. And here was the decision-although not without much disagreement that is lasting even to today. Matt and I, the two full-time associate pastors were given the 'option' of keeping our positions but on a part-time basis (15 hours a week, $20 an hour) or taking a severance package and terminating employment effective May 1st. I wasn't surprised by the decision or the outcome, but the quickness of the timing was very shocking to me. It didn't take Beth and I long to come to our decision about what to do. It was kinda the final straw that helped make the decision for us, so starting March 22 we began making plans for a re-directed future.

Only one thing remained as a part of our job in Anacortes, and that was our church's mission trip to Nicaragua. We were so excited to join the team that was going, so we couldn't leave the church without finishing with this trip. And it was good. Two weeks of living in a resort, a mountain village without a bathroom, speaking spanish solamente and eating a TON of rice and beans. Not to mention sharing some really good times with some dear friends from our church. Enjoy some pics:

When we got home from Nicaragua we didn't have much time left in A-town. We found some renters for our basement apartment at the Cranes' house and that meant we could leave Washington around May 15 and save quite a bit of money in rent. So we did. But we had one trip to take care of first-the Oregon coast was a destination we had long been hoping to see, and since we only had about two weeks before we moved, we left the very next day after coming home from Nicaragua. What an amazing and beautiful trip-and we needed it for the processing of all that had happened to us over the past two or three months....



And so one week after getting home from Oregon, we packed up all our crap and moved eastward to Colorado. And here we are. We're living here (in my parent's basement) for the summer and we'll be working at Cross Bearing Adventures. (This is our Colorado community and we love our family here) And then in August we'll be heading to Wisconsin to find out what our next chapter is-all we know for sure right now is that we'll be living in community; sharing life and relationships with friends and family. Baby-sitting, watching dogs, crying over hurts, praying for one another, cooking and eating-relationships and suffering... and laughing and enjoying life together. Yup, that is where we are headed. And it is a great thing.

Values Modification

what looks like failure is success/and what looks like poverty is riches/when what is true looks more like a knife/it looks like you're killing me but you're saving my life

chorus: but i give myself to what looks like love/and i sell myself for what feels like love/and i pay to get what is not love/and all just because i see things upside down

what looks like weakness can do anything/and what looks like foolishness is understanding/when what is powerful has not come to fight/it looks like you're going to war/but you lay down your life/chorus/

what looks like torture is a time to rejoice/what sounds like thunder is a comforting voice/when what is beautiful looks broken and crushed/and i say i don't know you but you say its finished/when what is beautiful looks broken and crushed/and i say i don't know you but you say its finished

(Derek Webb "what is not love" from the album: i see things upside down)

The words of this song have been echoing in my ears as of late. It is striking to me the difference between the values that Christ holds up for us in direct relation and opposition to the values that the world around us holds. For instance, in Matthew 5, Jesus says, “Blessed are the poor in Spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven.” I suspect that most of us in the world would say, “blessed are the wealthy, for they are the ones that have power in this world.”

Jesus says, “blessed are those of you who mourn, for you will be comforted.” We tend to say, “find happiness at any cost-even if it means numbing your soul.”

Jesus says, “blessed are you when you are persecuted for my name sake, for the Kingdom of Heaven is yours.” I think most often, we do anything we can to protect our image, our reputation; we fight to prove that our opinion or point of view is right and worthy.

Jesus says, “blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.” The world says, “pursue wealth, adventure and stuff, for this is what is important.”

Jesus says, “blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons and daughters of God.” By our very lives we condemn ourselves through our gossip and slander and angry talk toward one another, our plotting and conniving, our arguing and dissension.

Consistently throughout His life, Jesus has showed us that our values are to be directly opposite of the values the world holds up. Derek’s song above is correct: what looks like poverty is riches. What looks like foolishness is understanding.

If we, not as ‘congregational members,’ but “a chosen and royal priesthood, called by God,” are to have any impact on our community around us, we MUST lay aside all that the world holds dear, and embrace with all of our lives the values that Jesus lived out.

I struggle with this often, and it is not good, but when we see ministry as an investment, or we are ‘shareholders’ in the events and relationships happening around us, we reduce our love relationship with Christ-our unique chosen ness and priesthood, to nothing more than a contractual agreement. It grieves me that this is the kind of language we often use when discussing our ministries or our giving or our events. Jesus chose us for so much more… a royal priesthood. Shareholders and investments sound so ‘businessy.’ Community, children, the body of Christ? Now those are words and ideas that I can get behind with all of my heart. A passionate, romantic, loving relationship with Jesus….

What the world holds up as important cannot and will not attract the world. All we have at our disposal is love. Love often looks like failure, often takes on the shape of poverty and brokenness. To say otherwise is to slap Jesus and His death on the cross in the face. Jesus was wounded for our transgressions, broken and crushed for our sins. To live in a way that pursues power or wealth; to live life seeking arguments and control is oppressive, and directly in contradiction to God’s Word, Jesus. We have nothing this world needs or wants, save for the infinite mercy and love beyond all reason of Jesus our Lord, and of our Heavenly Father.

We are the Bride of Christ. And though not perfect, we are a lovely bride. Jesus, our groom, is coming for us, bursting with anticipation. And love will prepare our hearts for the incredible things He has in store for us. We must throw off the values we live by that copy the world around us, and we must take on a new set of values, a new mind and a new heart, the kind of values that Christ lives out even still in our lives.

My prayer and deepest hope for you Anacortes First Baptist Church, is that you would throw off everything and anything that so easily entangles you, and run with perseverance the race that God has set out for you. I pray that we will trade in the language and values of big business for the poverty and brokenness and mercy and meekness that Jesus longs for us to take on.

Pursue Him in Jesus’ name-Amen.

Stillness of Heart

Be Still and Know that I Am God.
Psalm 46

Stillness. Man, that isn't something this world seems to come by naturally. Maybe in some cultures, but certainly not our western, commercially-driven, consumer society. No, rather, our world-all cultures really, the human heart; we all seem to be driven by noise. I think noise is the opposite of stillness. Noise shows up in an awful lot of ways: anxious thoughts, busy schedules, music and commercials and other background sounds continuously playing and vying for attention, even words-empty, meaningless words that quickly seek to fill awkward moments of silence when it does arrive.

Noise is our natural bent. And yet the writer in Psalm 46 speaks the very Words of God, "Be still, and know that I Am God." Be still. Stillness of heart, I have to say, is the very internal struggle that I have continued to fight for most of my life. What I write, even when I participate in meaningless conversation, pursuits that I passionately devote myself to, all stem from this inner struggle of finding stillness, of learning to be still. Stillness in my heart. And I believe that that is what God is asking from us throughout His written Word (and spoken through the life of Jesus). Physical stillness is an outword expression that can beget a life of inner stillness... stillness of heart.

When I think of stillness or contemplation I immediately think of the story in the Bible where Jesus goes to visit His very good friends, sisters Mary and Martha. Martha is expecting company and so is very busy bustling around the kitchen in an effort to make sure everything is just right. Mary sits at Jesus' feet and listens to Him as He teaches, possibly shares a story or two from the day; but mainly she's just sitting-being-in stillness. This is not the place for the typical conversation that comes up, discussing the need and differences and benefits between the "active" and the "contemplative" life. It just is amuzing to me how hard it is for us to ever sit and be still. And especially if that stillness is an effort to know that He is God.

This truly is the core of what I've been struggling with over the past few months. In some ways, working in a church makes for an even tougher struggle in being still, I think because the opportunity to 'do' is around constantly, and frankly, people expect some type of 'do' and get a little frustrated when there is not a 'do' that is producing in an efficient manner. Stillness does not provide effiency it seems. I'm reading this great book entitled "Contemplative Youth Ministry" by Mark Yaconelli, and he borrows some awesome quotes that have sparked some of my thinking. Maybe this will further explain my previous idea of effiency and what I am desperately longing for in a lifestyle:

Religion is not our concern; it is God's concern. The sooner we stop thinking we are the energetic operators of religion and discover that God is at work... so much the sooner do we discover that our task is to call people to be still and know, listen, hearken in quiet invitation to the subtle promptings of the Divine. Our task is to encourage others first to let go, to cease striving, to give over this fevered effort of the self-sufficient religionist trying to please an external deity. I am persuaded that religious people do not with sufficient seriousness count on God as an active factor in the affairs of the world. "Behold, I stand at the door and knock," but too many well-intentioned people are so preoccupied with the clatter of effort to do something for God that they don't hear Him asking that He might do something through them.
-Thomas Kelly, A Testament of Devotion

I am currently in Colorado, my home, for the Christmas season. My wife and I were very much looking forward to spending a few days at home with my parents, but the funny thing is how you always plan vacation time in a way that gets you back to your routine so you don't miss too many beats. Well, unlike many winters of drout that Colorado has had, this year God delivered snow. A lot of snow. We were supposed to fly out of DIA this evening, but because of road conditions and many cancelled flights, there was just no way of heading home. We changed our flight for the Monday following this weekend. We've been snowed in for two days. Two more days to go. I thought tonight I was beginning to go a little stir crazy, but then something happened-I lost desire to read, I lost my desire to watch tv-even sleep. I just laid on my bed, looking around my old room that I grew up in, and simply got lost in thought. But not just daydreaming. I mean, I was very aware of an inner stillness that was taking place in me.

I was aware of something else too. Sadness. Sorrow. Its almost as if the closer my heart got to truly being still (and knowing that He is God) the more sorrow set in. Now the idea of sorrow sounds bleak and distasteful initially. And I must admit my first thought was to pick up a magazine or grab a computer and do some emailing. But instead I just sat there. The sorrow didn't necessarily subside, but it wasn't unpleasant. I don't know really how to describe it-I was just there, with this kind of sad feeling, but with a very real sense of joy at the same time. And so this is what I'm wondering; maybe stillness of heart comes by way of sorrow, or a kind of suffering. And even more, maybe that is why we are creatures of busyness and noise-the idea of sorrow and suffering is repulsive.

But sorrow and suffering are of most importance and vitality to our lives. Hinds feet in High Places is an amazing book by Hannah Hunard. It is an allegorical story about a girl, Much Afraid, who after much encouragement decides to journey to the High Places. She is given two companions to act as guides for her, and there names are Sorrow and Suffering. They are not pleasant companions at the beginning of Much Afraid's journey, but by the end she cannot imagine traveling without their welcome company.

I believe that Hunard found out a secret truth-one however that Christ lived in all His years-that we cannot truly live and love without embracing sorrow and suffering. And I'm thinking that we can't embrace them if we aren't willing to slow down, to be still, to hurt, to know.... Remember? Relationship and suffering go hand in hand. If we want to love people and give to them, we are going to have to experience sorrow. It is out of sorrow and suffering and silence and stillness that we can love. Because we cannot love if we don't know God. The apostle John tells us that. And God asks us to be still and know Him. Sorrow, stillness, silence, suffering, love.

The more we receive in silent prayer, the more we can give in our active life. We need silence to be able to touch souls. The essential thing is not what we say, but what God says to us and through us. All our words will be useless unless they come from within. Words which do not give the Light of Christ increase the darkness.
-Mother Teresa of Calcutta

Maybe the knee-jerk reaction then is to turn away from love and from others. Or maybe the more typical response is to simply 'try harder' in our efforts to love by spending more time doing and not being. I mean, we run in an economy of effiency, right? Who has time for sorrow and suffering and silence and stillness? We've got work to do. But do not run. I think God is saying that to us now, "Do not run my child. Be still. Embrace the sorrow for there you will find Me. Trust Me, sit with Me, be with Me. And then you will know My love and you will be My love to others. Be still and know that I Am God.

"Henri Nouwen in his book, The Inner Voice of Love, writes,

You will discover that the more love you can take in and hold on to, the less fearful you will become. You will speak more simply, more directly, and more freely about what is important to you, without fear of other people's reactions. You will also use fewer words, trusting that you communicate your true self even when you do not speak much. The more you come to know yourself-spirit, mind, and body-as truly loved, the freer you will be to proclaim the good news. That is the freedom of the children of God.

And so it is. Do not fear, do not run. Have faith, trust your Father as a child and cling to Him in stillness and wonder and silence. He carries our sorrows and suffering and changes them into love; love that He longs to live through us to the world around us. It is anti-culture, opposite of our society, but it is what our world most needs-Jesus-stillness of heart. Amen.