Devotional

Running from Joppa

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Jonah 1:3 CEV
Instead, Jonah ran from the Lord. He went to the seaport of Joppa and found a ship that was going to Spain. So he paid his fare, then got on the ship and sailed away to escape.

Most 4:30AM runs don’t make me think of Old Testament prophets. This morning, I might as well have been boarding a boat bound for Spain.

Never mind the fact that a gradual heavier rain fell over the five miles. The connection was a familiar spirit that I’ve encountered many times over my 56 years. I’ve come to identify it as the Jonah Syndrome (JS). See if these three words sound symptomatic: frustrated, angry, and resentful.

The more I chatted and listened to myself, the more I realized I wasn’t the only one in the conversation. If I’m being honest, I told God I felt pretty justified in these emotions. He didn’t disagree; but he didn’t give freedom to let them be an excuse for any actions for the day.

That’s when I turned. Instead of getting cozy on the boat kidding myself that the approaching storm had nothing to do with me, I found myself running from Joppa, visualizing the rain symbolically washing away the potential actions produced by JS. The request became, “Replace these symptoms with patience, love, and purpose.”

Here’s what I know about Joppa-you have a choice: keep running to escape or reverse course. Thankfully, God welcomes pacing anyone running from Joppa.

Photo by Justin Aikin on Unsplash

Hurrying Is Human

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To begin his podcast episode entitled “Quiet Compounding,” Morgan Housel shared this quote by Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu: “Nature is not in a hurry, yet everything is accomplished.” Housel then added these thoughts:

So think about giant sequoias, and advanced organisms, and towering mountain ranges. Nature builds the most jaw-dropping features of the universe, and it does so silently without trying to get attention-where growth is almost never visible right now but is staggering over long periods of time

Because his podcast is about money and finances, you can imagine where he goes from there for the next six minutes (click here to listen). When I heard this, my mind went down the personal growth lane. For that matter, life in general.

Of all the thoughts available to chase, mine went toward the gift this visual offers. Along with our striving for vocational success or relationship health or spiritual depth often comes a dump truck load of impatience. The vision demands speed, the approval starts the countdown, and the comparison creates competition.

Culture loves demands, countdowns, and competition. The countercultural eternity in our hearts draws us to pause, reflect, and look up.

May we grow in our trust that what God is after in every part of our lives will be accomplished at the right time. Rushing is futile. Hurrying is human.

Photo by Patrick Mayor on Unsplash

Redeeming Conditioning

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This was the first point in yesterday morning’s sermon: You always find what you’ve been conditioned to find. I was immediately reminded of a blog post from a few years back, “We See What We Look For.”

Being conditioned is certainly a thing, a thing that many are quick to point out about others who are on the opposing side. I often wonder how much we consider our own conditioning.

For example, politically. The deeper in one gets, the more conditioned they become to seeing only one viewpoint and thus responding in defense of it. The conditioning seems impenetrable.

And unfortunately, the same seems to go for spiritually. It’s as if our identity in both of these realms cripples our ability to recognize our personal programmed perceptions and responses that leave our minds and spirits untapped.

I’ll give two examples. A few years ago I answered a question of why I believe God exists by how I believe I’ve experienced His involvement in answering prayer. Two people in the conversation immediately locked eyes and jinxed each other with their reply of, “That’s just positive manifestation.” Wall up. Dialogue over. (If this is new language to you, check out this blog post.)

This past week I was at an event where we were discussing the usage of microphones. I made a comment that I didn’t have a clue came across as judgmental. One person replied gently, “We try not to judge here.” He’s conditioned to protect against judgment; I’m a work in progress of overcoming judgment as a natural response.

May I suggest we all address conditioning in the following ways:

  1. Acknowledge you have been conditioned
  2. Consider the probability that your conditioning needs redeeming
  3. Thank God for his redeeming conditioning work
  4. Offer grace to others who find their conditioning in need of redemption

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Praise: A Well-Taken Reminder

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For the last three weeks I’ve been focused on a question, a personal spiritual dialogue that I’ve shared with a few others. The question could be stated several ways, but what I’m after is an answer that enriches/refreshes relationship with God. Here are variations of the question:

  • Which is more important, focusing on what God does for us or who He is to us?
  • In my experience in the Church, is the focus on what God does or who He is?
  • What do my prayers reflect, a focus on works or on identity?
  • How do believers achieve balance between doing for and with God versus being with and knowing God?

In ways I’ll never be able to explain, the timeliness of reading the right book at the right time surfaced again this afternoon. I recently picked it up off clearance at Books A Million.

In Chapter 4 entitled “Jesus’ Prayer of Praise,” McHenry shared that Richard Foster says adoration has two forms, praise and thanksgiving. Thanksgiving expresses appreciation for what God has done; praise acknowledges who God is.

This struck me through a simple word-praise. I have been contrasting the words adoration and thanksgiving without thought to the word praise. Accepting this teaching that they are really all the same brings some relief to my analytical brain.

That final question in the list above comes from how I’ve been approaching prayer the last three weeks. I’ve leaned more in the adoring lane than the thanking or asking lane-an effort to discipline my focus on relationship. A reminder to praise is well taken.

By the way, in this chapter McHenry shared a terrific list to help us all improve our adoration. Seemed worth sharing.

Working From not For

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This is my third and final post reflecting on Dutch Sheets’ The Pleasure of His Company. Chapter 29, “The Connection,” was the highlight for me. Maybe because he references Old Testament characters I’ve been reading about the last few weeks. But I’m pretty sure it’s because he drills down on a topic I’ve been chewing on, again, for the last two weeks. What matters more, who you are or what you do?

That’s not really his intention, but that’s where it goes. And, for the record, he doesn’t really give you an answer. Here are my four highlights for illustration:

  • “At times, the most spiritual thing we can do is the most natural and practical. Work is practical yet very spiritual; feeding hungry people is, as well; nurturing our children is practical, time-consuming, tiring-and very spiritual. Keepin’ it simple is sometimes keepin’ it spiritual.”
  • “To be holy doesn’t mean being separate ‘from sin,’ but rather ‘unto God’…Holiness isn’t sinlessness.”
  • “…strength lies not in the perfection of my outward performance but the connection of my inward heart.”
  • “There’s a vast difference between performing for acceptance and performing from acceptance.“

There’s a noticeable difference when a relationship has shifted to from away from for. Sometimes others can see it better than you; sometimes not. If you’re really not sure, the best person to check in with is your Creator. He knows what it means to live from illustrated by instructing Moses to tell everyone, “I AM sent me.”

Go with what He tells you. If He says your offering brings him pleasure, that’s all you need. You’re in good company.

Photo by Jon Tyson on Unsplash

God’s Nature: Lording or Loving?

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Sheets continues in the next chapter of The Pleasure of His Company to dig into aspects of our relationship with God. He zeros in on a belief that God’s nature is misunderstood. A misunderstanding of God’s nature would certainly explain why worship can lack passion, be endured, or even resisted.

I don’t believe the problem with most believers’ worship is hypocrisy or insincerity. I think the majority is trying to honor God by giving Him His dues and fulfilling their obligation to Him as the Creator. I doubt if most of them understand, or have even heard, that God is a lover as well as a Lord. And it wasn’t his lording nature that prompted him to create us-He could have made a few billions more angels had that been His desire. It was his loving nature. God is a Father at heart.

Chapter 2, “The Seeker”

This morning I got to talk with a guy at church for the first time and found out he works for a local, family-owned business. Between their six locations, they have over 800 employees. Describing being employed there he said, “You work hard, but it’s like family. We have a hard time finding good employees, but we continue to grow and I love working there.”

He’s describing a work place that isn’t only about lording. We all pretty well can tell the difference between lording and loving. If you come from a faith setting that focuses more on a lording view of God’s nature, it’s probably long overdue for your relationship to take a shift and consider his loving nature.

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The Worshiper’s Reward

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Dutch Sheets begins his book The Pleasure of His Company by focusing on God as a Person. From the outset, he emphasizes the opportunity we have to experience intimate relationship with God.

The last paragraph of the chapter focuses on what worship is about from the position of the God being worshipped, in this case through the avenue of singing.

When we worship, He is captivated by the singer, not the song. Our company is what He longs for.

Chapter 1, “The Person”

This is good news for all worshipers. Some worshipers can sing the song flawlessly yet miss the joy of God’s company. Some worshipers have no shot at “being in the pocket” yet enjoy the freedom of God’s presence. Sheets called these worshipers enlightened.

They know that when they approach Him, He responds; and the pleasure of His company becomes their reward. Make it yours.

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Love As Being

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When you lose your ability to care, you lose the thing that makes you human: your heart. –John Sowers, chapter 24 “Love As Being,” Say All the Unspoken Things

At first read, I thought to myself, “I’ve had heartless moments, even a heartless season. How did that happen?”

To be fair to myself, the moments and seasons that come to mind weren’t complete loses of caring. They’re better described as misdirected, distracted, or too much in the weeds that I forgot the big picture. And by big picture, I’m thinking more about all the relationships in a setting versus a select one or two.

So how did that happen?

Selfishness. There was a moment I upstaged some dear friends. I was so caught up in my own story that I lost sight of their story. Thankfully, they didn’t lose their heart.

Demanding Justice. There was a season I was determined to right a wrong. No one asked me to; no one gave me permission. Thankfully, that season came to an end before I lost heart.

Abusing Power. There was a moment I carved a wound with a hasty decision. In that moment, I chose perfection over mercy. Thankfully, that scar reminds me what power can do to my heart.

The chapter title of Sowers’ quote is worth noting. The less I care about doing and more about being the more loving I am.

Thanks for saying the things, John Sowers.

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Becomer’s Whispers

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‭Did something a few weeks ago that I haven’t done in a while. Went to an actual bookstore. It was for work, but how does a reader go in a bookstore and not make a personal purchase?

So on my running trip two weeks ago, one of the books made the trip. I’m 15 chapters in.

Chapter 14 is entitled “Whispers.” This paragraph starter got my attention:

There is a verse in Psalms that says, “God whispers to those who trust him.”

Made me want to look it up. Couldn’t find it. Then I checked the chapter notes.

Psalm 25:14, author’s paraphrase

I respect that.

Next I opened my Bible app to compare various translations of this verse. Here are three that come close to Sowers’ paraphrase:

  • Psalms 25:14 ERV‬
    [14] The Lord tells his secrets to his followers. He teaches them about his agreement.
  • ‭Psalms 25:14 TPT‬
    [14] There’s a private place reserved for the devoted lovers of Yahweh, where they sit near him and receive the revelation-secrets of his promises.
  • ‭Psalms 25:14 MSG‬
    [14] God-friendship is for God-worshipers; They are the ones he confides in.

Chapter 14 is in Part 4 of the book entitled “Becoming.” These verses’ images encourage me to be becoming.

Tall Order God

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In a recent interview, a pastoral candidate described what he was hoping for as “a tall order.” I replied, “I’m pretty sure God can handle tall orders.” Not that He’s obligated to any human’s orders, but He’s more than capable to fill them.

You got a current tall order?

  • Selling a house
  • Repairing a relationship
  • Getting out of debt
  • Forgiving yourself

Whatever it is, consider these talking points in your prayers the rest of this week:

  • Recall and thank God for filling your previous tall orders
  • Align your will with His
  • Ask him to do it again

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