Friday, April 17, 2015

Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness? (Daily Reflections on Prov. 21:21)

It's in our constitution that all men are created equal and are endowed by our Creator with certain unalienable rights, among them life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. There you have it, God has given me the right to live my life anyway that brings me happiness. Well, that's seems to be the interpretation by many, but I'm not sure that that was the intentions of Jefferson and the crafters of the constitution. "It's all about me and what I want" seems to have developed in more recent years. So people argue today that since I have the right to pursue what makes me happy, nothing that brings me happiness should be excluded and you don't have any right to impose your values on me.

Further more happiness or the pursuit of happiness is defined as anything that makes me happy. If it makes me happy, it shouldn't be against the law or immoral or...do you see where this is going? Cultural trends shift rapidly. In less than a generation cultural opinions can tip to polar opposites. Some chalk it up to social evolution or enlightenment. The pursuit of happiness has power.

For many the pursuit of happiness is a way to find real life. So for many the pursuit of happiness is about the pursuit of wealth, power, status, material possessions, pleasure or self gratification. People kill themselves trying to get any or all of those things. We work long hours, overextend our finances, sacrifice family or family priorities, or engage in questionable activities. Charles Swindoll has said, "we have become a generation of people who worship our work...who work at our play...and who play at our worship."

But Solomon gives us some better advice if we really want to find real life. Instead of pursuing what we think will bring us happiness and thus real life, Solomon says, "Whoever pursues righteousness and love finds life, prosperity and honor." (Prov. 21:21) If we really want to find real life, real prosperity and real honor, then we should pursue righteousness and unfailing love. It's not about self. It's about pursuing God, Godly living and Godly loving. What does that look like?

It means that our energies become centered on understanding God, His principles and practices. Hanging around a church service will help catch a glimpse of God, but we won't really understand Him until we actually dig into His Word on our own, studying and meditating upon it, closely examining His practices and ways. But pursuing righteousness and love also means employing those principles and practices in our own life. Godly living and Godly loving are simply enacting those principles and practices through the investment of our lives into others. Authors Hugh Halter, Michael Frost, Alan Hirsch, Lance Ford and others have suggested that pursuing righteousness and love is really about incarnating Jesus through our lives or in other words following the example of Jesus in serving/blessing people in practical ways. Pursing righteousness is not about trying to live a perfect sinless life. It's about letting Jesus live His life out in us.

Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs have always intrigued me. How do I get to that final level of self actualization? It isn't focusing on self, self needs, or self gratification ironically. It's actually doing exactly what Solomon says in Proverbs 21, pursuing  righteousness and love and that is spelled in pursuing God, Godly living and Godly loving.

God, I confess I find myself focusing my energies on self fulfillment or self gratification most of the time. I know that that is an empty pursuit. I know that I feel a greater fulfillment, inner peace, joy, rich, etc when I've poured myself out into others in your behalf. I have a greater sense of respect and honor from others when I humbly and genuinely serve others. I want to be more like Jesus. Empower me. Coach me through your Spirit. Keep my eyes focused on Kingdom things and not earthly or selfish things.

Friday, April 10, 2015

KEEP CALM AND... (Daily Reflections on Ex. 14:5-31)

Perhaps you've seen the signs, bumper stickers or T-shirts that depict a crown with the words, "Keep Calm And" then some other statement like, "Carry On" or "Chive On" or "Eat a Cookie". The latter part of the phrase could be almost anything and doesn't even have to make sense. In fact some I've seen border on the ridicules and even profane. Even the Christian paraphernalia marketers have gotten in on this fad. I'm sure to a stressed out world this "Keep Calm" craze is appealing. However, it drives me absolutely nuts. Perhaps because it goes against my charge ahead, Type A personality that I dislike those phrases. I also don't like the phrases, "Chill Out" or "Take a Chill Pill" either. And whoever started the phrase, "Chillax"...well, anyway where was I.

Everyone recognizes the need to stay under control or calm in those heated moments of stress or intensity or high pressure, but very few actually do it. Oh it's easy to stay calm lounging at the beach or viewing the majesty of a serene mountain lake. But staying calm behind the wheel in a driving rainstorm during heavy rush hour traffic in a strange city when you don't really know where you are going is a different story. Under those circumstances you find yourself yelling at the inanimate feminine GPS voice on your navigation device.

We live in a high pressure, high stress world. Time demands, business demands, parenting demands, financial demands, relational demands, personal demands compound upon each other stretching us to our limits. Even getting everyone out the door and on time in the morning can become such an ordeal that we get to work in an already frenzied state of mind. Too often we find ourselves either reaching for a couple extra shots of caffeine to keep us going at a high level of efficiency or reaching for glass of wine or some other alcoholic beverage or our medicine cabinet to calm us down.

Reading through Exodus 14 I was reminded of the stress and oppressive  circumstances facing the children of Israel who were in slavery in Egypt. They were crying out for deliverance, but when it came it seemed to them a much worse fate. I'm sure as they initially headed out of Egypt with the chariots on their tales they felt like they had gone out of the proverbial frying pan into the fire. I don't have to speculate about this because the text says they were screaming at Moses, 10 As Pharaoh approached, the people of Israel looked up and panicked when they saw the Egyptians overtaking them. They cried out to the Lord, 11 and they said to Moses, “Why did you bring us out here to die in the wilderness? Weren’t there enough graves for us in Egypt? What have you done to us? Why did you make us leave Egypt? 12 Didn’t we tell you this would happen while we were still in Egypt? We said, ‘Leave us alone! Let us be slaves to the Egyptians. It’s better to be a slave in Egypt than a corpse in the wilderness!’”

We've all been there. Just when we thought things or the pressure couldn't get any worse, something else happens to make our lives or our situation seem hopelessly impossible. That's when we crack, break down, cry out, blurt out in anger or fall into deep depression. Verse 10 says it, "they looked up and panicked." And their response was typical, "can't we just go back to being miserable." That is ultimately what the Israelites were saying to Moses.

If I were one of the Israelites that day, I probably would have found myself on the side that wanted to strangle Moses. As I often said, "Oh ME of little faith." Sometimes even following God seems like you've gone from the frying pan into the fire. And our immediate response is almost always, "how am I going to solve this or get out of this." We start analyzing things from our abilities or resources or perspective. We may cry out, but we do so in panic mode, still trying figure out how to get ourselves out of our difficult situation.

It's in those hopelessly impossible situations that God often does His best work or His glory is best seen anyway. Looking closely again to what happen intrigues me. Moses tells them to stop freaking out. Don't be afraid of this massive, well trained army bearing down on you. I know easier said then done. Fear is a crippling. It refocuses your attention so much on the potential harm that you can't think, act, or often reason properly. It even causes us to take our attention off of God. 

Moses goes on to tell the people to just stand still and watch. Watch what? Watch God begin to do His thing. It must have been weird for the Israelites to watch that pillar of fire that had been before them raise up, drift overhead and then settle in between them and the Egyptian army. The Israelites weren't out of danger but now they had a glimmer of hope.

The New Living Translation says in verse 14 that Moses said, "The Lord himself will fight for you. Just stay calm." There it is, "stay calm." I can hear the Israelites now, "Yeah Right." However, the NIV says, "be still" and New American Standard Bible  says "while you keep silent."  I might not have been so diplomatic if I were Moses. I would have more likely said something like, "Shut up and stop your whining." But I confess that Moses was probably more Godly than I am. The point is that when you are in panic mode and just gibbering you really can't see that God is actually working. You have to be still for a moment, cease your striving as Ps. 46:10 says and know that He is God. When we are so freaked out by our circumstance, we have a tendency to squeeze out the voice of God or see Him moving.

So under this extremely tense situation, Moses has said, dump the fear, slow your motor down and watch for God to do His thing. Then God tells both Moses and the people to do something strange. He tells them to get moving! Moving? Where? Away from the Egyptians means moving toward the Red Sea and there are no boats there. Here's the deal, God is telling the people to move away from the trouble and go forward from where they are. God also told Moses to hold up his staff over the water and a way would be provided. 

When I played football my running back coach always told me look for the hole and run to daylight. He was basically saying let your blockers do their job. Don't watch what they're doing or zero in on your opponents. Watch for the open opportunities and run hard and fast toward those. I soon discovered that if I stayed in the backfield and tried to juke the oncoming tacklers I was tackled in the backfield and found myself on the bench. But when I did what the coach told me, I always picked up positive yards.

When the people did just what God told them to do and let Him do His thing, they were not only saved, delivered, rescued, they saw a miracle of God. He totally destroyed the Egyptian army before their very eyes and not a single arrow was flung, spear tossed or sword drawn. In fact, not a single person in the Israelite camp were harmed. Amazing! God smashed the world's most powerful army of its day with simply His breath.

God, I need to feel your breath upon me and around me right now. I seem to get so caught up in all the stressors and pressures of life that I find myself in panic mode all too often. Help me put aside my fears, to slow my motor down long enough to see Your hand at work. I don't want to be a whiner, Lord. I want to simply follow your path. Show me the open path so that I can run to daylight, your daylight. I want to see your glory and bring you glory through my life.

Friday, April 3, 2015

Passing on Values (Daily Reflections on Prov. 23:15-18)

Becoming a grandfather has caused me to do a little reflecting. Images of my girls when they were little pop into my mind frequently. I begin to question how well I did as a parent really investing in my kids and did I portray Godly values consistently before them. I just thank God for their mother that my girls have grown to be Godly women. 

Reading through Proverbs, one gets the sense that Solomon is almost writing to his own kid. He refers often to "young man/men" or even "my son." It's like Solomon tried to write down things that would help his son keep on the right path, do the right things and be an outstanding young man. If only Rehoboam had read and adhered to the writings of his wise father. I wonder if Israel would have split into two kingdoms. I wonder if idol worship would have crept into both kingdoms or even if the people would have had to suffer through captivity. We will never know because apparently either Rehoboam never read or decided not to adhere to his father's teaching.

There is another possibility. It has been said that in parenting, especially regarding values and practices, more is caught than taught. Looking at the lifestyle and practices of Solomon at the end of his life, one will see a quite different Solomon than when he assumed the throne and wrote those words of wisdom. Unfortunately Solomon himself did not adhere to his own words at the end of his life. It is no doubt that Rehoboam simply adopted many of the patterns and practices of his dad's latter life. 

The old adage, "Practice what you preach." has great relevancy when it comes to parenting or even discipling someone. It is true that more is caught than taught. If your lifestyle or daily practices do not match what you proclaim, then you are not just a hypocrite, you proclaim your actual beliefs. Just because you say you belief something, doesn't mean that you actually belief it. Your actions do speak louder than words and reveal the truth about you. 

As a parent, I pass on the values that I live and practice, not what I spout. And just because I show up at church on a somewhat regular basis, does not mean that I'm living the values that Jesus taught and I verbally espouse. Wow! That's a heavy load to think about. It is important to teach your kids Godly principles and truths. But it is also another thing to live them. It is easy to say that we should care for others, the poor, widows and orphans, sick, naked, etc. But if we as a family never spend anytime actually helping people, then we have just told our kids that Jesus didn't mean that we should help people in need. If we spend all our time on us and never spend time giving to others, then we have told our kids that life is all about us. If we never reach out to unchurch, unsaved neighbors in genuine friendship like Jesus did, then we tell our kids that eternal for others and loving our neighbors are unimportant.

Maybe it's time to do a little reflecting on our own. Take a hard look at your life. Are you reflecting the values that you really want to pass on? Are you demonstrating to your kids what it means to live a Godly life? A Godly life not a perfect life. Are you really pursing God with everything you've got and relying on the Holy Spirit to guide you daily?

God, even though my girls are now young women, I want to reflect your glory, your principles, your truths in my life even more. I want them and my son-in-laws and now my grandchild to catch the value of serving you and being faithful until death from me. I am asking your Holy Spirit to continually mold me after your will. Thanks for forgiving my imperfections and tendencies to drift from you. Thanks for continually restoring me. Give me your wisdom as a parent.