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.
Just finished reading another book that’s delivered richness.
It reads like a podcast transcript. When they say a conversation, they mean it. So it’s refreshing in that way.
The 22 chapters feel like episodes. They don’t necessarily connect one to the next, but they definitely weave the thread of faith and spirituality.
Rather than critique or review the book, I choose to share these quotes for your meditation:
“Love your neighbor as yourself” means be aware that you and your neighbor are one.
The Creative Meaning of Life
The answer I would give the agnostic: if you cannot see [accepting unity with God] yet, you don’t have to accept it. Wait until you experience it. It is not a dogmatic principle we want to impose on you. We only want to say that millions of people experience it. You can too. Open yourself to it.
The Epic Discovery of Self
You have a “vibe.” What do you want to transmit? Bitterness, dissatisfaction, loneliness, or understanding, warmth, and love? None of that requires any great achievement. It simply happens in the way I live my life.
A decision in favor of something is also a decision to let go of something.
“Fear not!” means “take courage, and take anxiety as it comes!”
Calling, Courage, and Fear (this chapter alone is worth checking out this book; so much to digest on the subject of anxiety and courage)
When someone says she doesn’t believe in God, I ask: which god don’t you believe in?
On the Temptation to Want to Possess the Truth
Prayer warms what is frozen and hard into living water.
We fulfill God’s will when we forgive on earth as God forgives in heaven.
The “Our Father” and God’s Trustworthiness
Many people are afraid of death because they have not lived. Unlived life is hard to let go. Those who live deliberately can also let go.
On the Mortal and the Eternal
I cannot explain why there is suffering, but I can influence how I meet it.
Suffering and Reconciliation
Humility is the appropriate attitude by which to accept oneself with one’s strengths and weaknesses.
Transformation is the result of a crisis.
Spiritual Growth
Despite all the deviations, we can say that if the church did not exist, our society would be essentially colder.
I enjoy a writer who makes you think, or at least presents something ordinary unordinarily. Barbara Brown Taylor is definitely in this category.
In this second of her books I’ve read she gives you a different approach to thinking about darkness.
One beautiful way she does this is by showing you the value of darkness in biblical stories. She says the night sky was a key player in Abraham’s decision to trust God when he was told to “count the stars.” She spends a great amount of words on Moses’ encounters with God in the dark.
The God of Moses is holy, offering no seat belts or other safety features to those who wish to climb the mountain and enter the dark cloud of divine presence. Those who go assume all risk and give up all claim to reward. Those who return say the dazzling dark inside the cloud is reward enough.
Chapter 2, The Fear of the Lord
As you can imagine, much of the book addresses the emotions that come from fearing the dark. She believes that’s actually an indicator of something going on inside of us.
Our comfort or discomfort with the outer dark is a good barometer of how we feel about the inner kind.
Chapter 3, Hampered by Brilliance
A fascinating approach to her research for the book included cave exploration. With aid from professionals, she spent time sitting in the dark in caves and exploring portions of caves that demanded she address her fears. One takeaway: new life starts in the dark.
Whether it is a seed in the ground, a baby in the womb, or Jesus in the tomb, it starts in the dark.
Chapter 6, Entering the Stone
A spiritual book about darkness is most likely not complete without a chapter on the dark night of the soul. Taylor’s coverage is exhaustive from both sides of the topic as well as from the individual to the communal. The most helpful section was her description of the difference between faith and belief. Sharing about her observations as a college professor, she gives this distinction about questions college students are asking or are being asked:
When I listen to college students talk about faith, beliefs are what interest them most: Do you believe in the virgin birth? Do you believe that Jesus died for your sins? Do you believe that only Christians go to heaven? No one asks, “On what is your heart set?” No one asks, “What powers do you most rely on? What is the hope that gives meaning to your life?” Those are questions of faith, not belief. The answers to them are not written down in any book, and they have a way of shifting in the dark.
Chapter 7, The Dark Night of the Soul
I’ve already suggested this book to a few folks-one running friend who avoids running in the early morning hours, one coaching client who feels distant from God. Whether you are struggling with physical or spiritual darkness, I’d encourage you to give this book a read. See what you learn.
On recommendation, I recently read An Altar in the World by Barbara Brown Taylor. It’s subtitled A Geography of Faith. In the spirit of that lane, rather than offer a review I’ve selected my top highlights and will offer a meditation post for each one. Here’s quote #2:
Human beings may separate things into as many piles as we wish-separating spirit from flesh, sacred from secular, church from world. But we should not be surprised when God does not recognize the distinctions we make between the two.
Chapter 1, The Practice of Waking Up to God
Taylor’s quote comes at the end of the chapter where she has offered the teaching that God can show up in any space or through any means he chooses. In that moment, we have the opportunity to erect an altar-take note and mark that spot where God revealed himself. Her biblical example is Jacob’s reaction to the ladder dream. Because he knew he had encountered God, he paused and created a marker of significance.
Makes me think of Paul David Tripp’s teaching about two-drawer living. God doesn’t instruct us to live two separate lives-one for him and one for ourselves. Everything belongs in one drawer. The challenge is to view more and more of life as an encounter with him, a journey with him, an alertness that he’s always here.
Case in point: Sunday after church I had three hours to kill before attending an event in another town. I decided to google a new place to eat, try something different. I ended up at Blu’ Island Bistro. When I pulled in the parking lot, I wasn’t quite sure. But I said to myself, “Trust the reviews.”
It’s not a big place, but it has charm. I immediately felt it when I walked through the door. And here’s the thing: IT NEVER STOPPED.
Besides the quick seating, the perfect plate portion, the excellent tacos, and almost just right sweet tea, no one, and I mean no one, lacked joy. Not a customer. Not an employee. Everyone seemed happy to be there. I literally said to myself, “I should tell my pastor that I found the restaurant that feels like church.”
I stopped counting how many servers checked on me. I believe it was six. That’s a little crazy. And I don’t mean annoying crazy. I mean “thank you for your care” crazy.
I didn’t just encounter God between 10:00 and 11:00AM Sunday morning. I encountered him at the restaurant, then at the beach, then at the ice cream shop, and then at the event. How? I was looking for him. And the altar I erected? I gave the restaurant a Google review, I’m posting this blog, and I thanked God for putting everything in one pile.
On recommendation, I recently read An Altar in the World by Barbara Brown Taylor. It’s subtitled A Geography of Faith. In the spirit of that lane, rather than offer a review I’ve selected my top highlights and will offer a meditation post for each one. Here’s quote #1:
Faith sometimes looks like a blunt refusal to stop speaking into the divine silence.
Chapter 10, The Practice of Feeling Pain
In the face of betrayal, keep speaking.
In the face of confusion, keep speaking.
In the face of loss, keep speaking.
When fear says, “No one cares,” refuse to listen.
When doubt says, “No one’s listening,” refuse to isolate.
When impatience says, “No one’s responding,” refuse to self-muzzle.
There is a time to be blunt.
There is a time to be persistent.
There is a time to be verbose.
If God is silent, might it be because he wants to keep hearing from you?
If God is silent, might it be because he’s respecting your need to process?
If God is silent, might it be because he’s taking a moment to appreciate your faith?
Last month I came across the work of Dr. Lisa Miller, unaware of her connection to the national institute that accredits the counseling center where I work. Quickly I was up to speed and got a copy of her book The Awakened Brain.
I started reading it during the downtime of Hurricane Idalia, finishing it today. Here is one statistic from the introduction that gives reason for Miller’s work:
A study of more than 67,000 college students across 108 institutions in the United States published in 2019 found that 20% reported that they had engaged in self-harm such as cutting, 24% reported suicidal ideation, and 9% had attempted suicide.
Introduction: Anything Can Be Shown
She defines the awakened brain in the introduction to give you some sense of the foundation she is going to build for this way of approaching life.
The awakened brain is the neural circuitry that allows us to see the world more fully and thus enhance our individual, societal, and global well-being…The awakened brain includes a set of innate perceptual capacities that exist in every person through which we experience love and connection, unity, and a sense of guidance from and dialogue with life.
Introduction: Anything Can Be Shown
In chapter four she makes an interesting observation about heredity and environment. Through research, she’s determined that spirituality isn’t solely determined by environment. A person isn’t limited only by the spiritual environment of their early years; in fact, we are born with spiritual awareness. That is good news for everyone.
A person’s degree of spirituality is determined 29% by heredity and 71% by environment…People at greater risk for mental illness due to their developmental stage actually have the most to gain from spirituality.
Chapter 4, Two Sides of the Same Coin
Woven throughout the book are compelling stories of spiritual journeys, including her own. These stories, including clients as well as business and national leaders, illustrate the transformation of lives who live responding to what life is showing them, particularly when they lean in to spirituality.
What I was witnessing was less that we heal when we impose a more positive meaning on the world, and more that we shift toward health when somehow, and usually through struggle, a bigger meaning is revealed to us…feeling better isn’t just a matter of creating new thoughts, of replacing unhappy ones with happier ones; it’s also about noticing and aligning ourselves with whatever life is showing us.
Chapter 7, When Inner and Outer Align
Admittedly, Dr. Miller’s work has not been easy in the scientific community. In many ways she is countercultural, somewhat blazing a trail to question if the way of American living has been wrong for many years.
We make our best decisions when we integrate our heads, hearts, and life’s guidance, learning to tune into our choices and hurdles as part of our spiritual path…We discover that we are seekers rather than makers of our path.
Chapter 9, The Castle and The Wave
Having lived many years in achieving mode and wondering how to step back from it, chapter 12 gave language to my struggle that is lifegiving. It may not ring true to everyone, but the clearness Dr. Miller makes between the two modes of awareness is my main takeaway from the book. I believe it’s the usage of the two words achieving and awakened.
We all have two modes of awareness available to us at all times: achieving awareness and awakened awareness…Achieving awareness is the perception that our purpose is to organize and control our lives…When we engage our awakened awareness, we make use of different parts of our brain, and we literally see more, integrating information from multiple sources of perception. Instead of seeing ourselves as independent makers of our path, we perceive ourselves as seekers of our path.
Chapter 12, The Two Modes of Awareness
Dr. Miller, of Jewish faith, does not use the language of the New Testament. I suggest she paints a clear picture of the difference between Paul’s teaching regarding walking in the flesh and walking in the spirit. Flesh walkers live for themselves; spirit walkers have their eyes open to the world, ready to put themselves aside for others.
Through awakened attention, we open up more channels of perception. We learn not only to notice but also to draw meaning from what shows up in our lives. We see more, and we’re better able to use what we see.
Chapter 14, Awakened Attention
If you are a believer who questions the place of science in your faith, I encourage you to read this book. If you are an academic who questions the place of spirituality in your life, I encourage you to read this book. Allow Dr. Miller to challenge your brain and your faith. What’s the worst that can happen?
Currently I’m going through a YouVersion reading plan for James 1. The first four days of ten have pretty much focused on this verse:
For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow.
James 1:3 NLT
Reading this the other day, it struck me to get specific. For instance, when faith in one area of life is tested it has a chance to grow. To flesh that out, here are ten additions where growth can be experienced by faith testing.
When your faith in your spouse is tested, your endurance as a vow-keeping partner has a chance to grow.
When your faith in your boss is tested, your endurance as a loyal employee has a chance to grow.
When your faith in your children is tested, your endurance as a loving parent has a chance to grow.
When your faith in your parents is tested, your endurance as an honoring child has a chance to grow.
When your faith in your government is tested, your endurance as a contributing citizen has a chance to grow.
When your faith in your company is tested, your endurance as a committed team player has a chance to grow.
When your faith in your church is tested, your endurance as a kingdom-minded citizen has a chance to grow.
When your faith in your investments is tested, your endurance as a focused treasurer has a chance to grow.
When your faith in your friend is tested, your endurance as a reliable presence has a chance to grow.
When your faith in your God is tested, your endurance as an image bearer has a chance to grow.
Last March I posted a blog referencing Makoto Fujimura. He’s become a staple for me to follow-podcast episodes, videos, books, etc. A few months ago I started reading his book Silence and Beauty, where he goes in depth to analyze the book I mentioned in the previous blog post and its place in Japanese art and history. I finished reading it on a plane ride Saturday.
I’m glad I took my time reading this book. The slower read allowed for his words and thoughts to breathe and to sink. What I enjoyed most about this form of Fujimura’s art was how he chose to build toward the ending. His final chapter, Mission Beyond the Waves, overflowed with images and challenges that perfectly summarized his message of silence and beauty.
The image that most caught my attention was his imagery and symbolism of falling cherry blossoms. “In Japan of old, cherry blossoms are considered most beautiful when they are falling.” He penned that following this quote by former archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams:
Our voyages are all about loss and death. At the moment of our death, which could be any moment, how is my mortality to be made fruitful in the life of another? How may my loss and my suffering become a Word to others? The ultimate question that any of us, or any art, can ask is this: “How may I die generously?”
Meditation on Death
If indeed cherry blossoms are most beautiful when they fall, they are most beautiful when they are broken and completely sacrificed. Fujimura’s challenge is for us all to be generous. Generosity in our faith and in our acts “can be a sacramental act to bridge the divide and brokenness created in society.”
What generous act are you prompted to complete? How can your faith assist you? What beauty is coming when you offer your creations?
You know that moment when you read something for the umpteenth time and it feels like the first? That happened to me reading the first three verses of Mark 16. Here they are:
When the Sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices so that they might go to anoint Jesus’ body. Very early on the first day of the week, just after sunrise, they were on their way to the tomb and they asked each other, “Who will roll the stone away from the entrance of the tomb?”
Even though I’d read this multiple times, something jumped out at me clear as day. That something was the order of events.
It wasn’t the first thing on these three ladies’ minds to ask themselves about the stone in the way. No, they bought the spices, set their alarms (although I have a sense they didn’t really need to), and were already headed to the tomb to tend to Jesus’ body before they really pondered exactly how they were going to get in.
I found that very telling. Many times we let the impossible keep us from preparing for it. These ladies didn’t worry about that. Why?
I believe it was because they were so focused on serving Jesus. Literally. The stone in the way didn’t deter them from buying the spices. They could have said, “Uh, what’s the point of spending money on something that I might not be able to use. I’ll just pray about it and hope that stone gets out of the way somehow.”
Instead they bought them, got up early, and headed for the tomb. It seems they had so much faith they were going to get to tend to Jesus that their attitude was, “Somehow, we don’t know how, but somehow that stone will not keep us from getting to him.”
I have a sneaky feeling their question wasn’t one of doubt but one of wonderment. Just how was God going to help them.
It seems that God often does his best work when we let him deal with the impossible while we deal with the possible. They did everything they could to be ready to serve. What did God do? He made sure the obstacle in their way was removed.
The Lesson: Act despite the stone. Avoid letting the impossible paralyze you from living an active life of faith. These ladies would have seriously kicked themselves had they let the question come first.
What they would have missed. I’m thankful for their example of not letting the question of the impossible stifle their actions of faith.
John Gregory 