Waking or Sleeping

You may know the classic hymn, "Be Thou My Vision"--the one with the first verse that ends, "Thou my  best Thought, by day or by night,/Waking or sleeping, Thy presence my light." St. Paul expressed roughly the same thought in one of the most succinct verses in Scripture--1 Thessalonians 5:17, "pray continually." 

Truly, is God the dominant Subject in your mind--to the point where even your dreams are full of godly thoughts?

I for one have a long way to go toward that ideal. When tempted to fretting and other sins of thought, nine times out of ten I either give them full indulgence or retreat into irrelevant daydreams, rather than redirecting my mind toward the Source of all comfort. The former is the old natural-feeling approach, after all; and who, being already stressed out, wants to expend yet more energy working on new thought habits? 

All the more reason not to wait for a crisis before laying the foundation of a consistent-prayer reflex.

Many have found it a good starting point to focus on God for the last waking hour of each day; instead of watching the news before bed, they gave that time over to Bible reading, quiet music, and prayer. They subsequently reported sleeping better--and finding their minds more readily tuned to God as the next day began.

Why not try sleeping on God tonight and see if you don't wake in awareness of Him tomorrow?

Lord, this day draws to an end:
Let my mind cease from its churning
And from each concern still burning--
Free my sleep from toss-and-turning;
Let me rest in You, my Friend.

Lord, the morning breaks anew:
Waking thoughts my mind are filling--
Let them not bring dread and chilling,
But let me in joy rise willing,
Freshly eager to serve You.

Lord, through night and daylight hour,
Through each day this world is turning,
Tune my ears to You in yearning:
Let my heart be always learning,
Ever strengthened by Your power.

Sing Praise to God, Who Made the Stars

Even in today's light-polluted cities, the stars still have power to make us feel small. Psalm 8:3-4 still puts it best: "When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him?" And David didn't even know that most of those stars are hundreds of times bigger than Earth and thousands of light years distant.

Even today, we try to scale down the universe to what our minds can grasp, routinely crafting science fiction that erases the difficulties of traveling faster than light and balancing the "time zones" of separate solar systems. Likewise, we frequently try to understand God by our own logic: "Why doesn't He do this/stop that/straighten these things out when any reasonable human being would if given the power?" Some people, having accepted that they can't figure God out, go to the opposite extreme and conclude He probably doesn't understand them either--or care to.

There's a Christmas fable about a man who couldn't see why God would become human until he saw a flock of birds blundering about in a snowstorm, and, unable to make them understand that shelter was nearby, found himself wishing he could become a bird and lead them there. Christmas is where we find the balance between our inability to comprehend God and His desire to have us know Him, between the Maker of vast space and the Father Who guards and guides our every step through this world.

This Advent, take time to think about the love and humility involved in God's own Incarnational step between two realities.

Sing praise to God, Who made the stars, Who rules the whole of space;

From farthest galaxy to Mars, He gives each part a place;

Down to this tiny world of ours, He holds them by His grace.

Sing praise to God, Who made the sea, the land, and all that flies;

The greatest whale, the smallest flea, He watches with His eyes;

He likewise watches you and me; and He is good and wise.

Sing praise to God, Who gives us breath, Who guards us every day,

Who will not let us live bereft, but seeks us when we stray,

Who loves us all from birth to death, and leads us in His way.

Sing praise to God, Who made all time, each moment and each year,

Who holds us by His Power divine, and calms our every fear: 

“I’m coming back,” He says, “for Mine, and I will dry each tear.”

New Every Morning

Unless you're a natural optimist and experienced achiever, the prospect of New Year's resolutions--or of "making a change" at any time of year--can start to feel like a cruel joke after age 35. "What's the use of trying again; I always fail" is a cry-of-the-heart for many who once had big dreams for building the perfect life but are now looking at their current lives in despair, thinking that if it were meant to be they'd surely have it right by now. While a toddler learning to walk will "try, try again" after a hundred or a thousand tumbles, adults are cursed with the knowledge that not everything is possible--and most of us are all too quick to turn that knowledge into the syllogism, "If something is impossible, I will fail when I try to do it. I failed when I tried to do this. Therefore, this is impossible." Instead of putting past mistakes behind us, we let them stand in front, blocking our view of future possibilities.

They are likely also blocking our view of the God of all possibility. It's not for nothing that the Bible tells us to "become like little children" and that God's eternal faithfulness is marked by mercies that are "new every morning." Probably the reason so many of us hate getting out of bed in the morning is that we have lost the ability to see the new day as truly new. We're sure that the day will only bring more of the same old miserable drudgery--and that belief quickly turns into a self-fulfilling prophecy. What little faith we have, refusing to look for new and better possibilities because we have no hope of finding any and see no point in putting ourselves to that kind of work.

Before you go to bed tonight, why not get out the concordance and look up all the times the Bible uses the word "new"? Pick four or five verses that speak of new life in God, meditate on them thoroughly, and pray that they will be on your mind when you awaken.

Then see if getting up tomorrow isn't a little easier. 

Lord, give me, just for today,

The strength to resist temptation,

Pure joy in my vocation,

A heart filled with satisfaction—

Be with me each step of the way:

Give me strength not to dread circumstances,

Nor to dwell on my own plans or actions,

But to take every moment that happens

As a gift from Your hand, I pray.

Moment by Moment

A lot of us wish that, when Paul said "in all things God works for the good of those who love him" (Rom. 8:28), he had included a schedule for that program! Some of us wait a lifetime to see things work out for our good; others fail to recognize the good until long after it arrives. Impatient souls that we are, we just want the pain and frustration to stop.

We should remember that "in all things" also means "constantly." God doesn't leave us to struggle on our own for years until the time comes for Him to do something; He is active in every moment of our lives, guiding our circumstances toward the end He sees from the beginning. When He seems silent, He is busy watching and listening and planning, protecting and shaping us in ways we may never understand this side of eternity.

Any psychologist will confirm that much of human frustration is due to an unwillingness to live life one moment at a time, bit by bit. Why should we be surprised that the all-wise God tends toward the slow-and-steady route? 

Moment by moment our Father is working,

Bringing new mercies the dawn of each day,

God our Provider, our perfect Sustainer—

Perfect His wisdom and flawless His way.

Oh, our beloved Lord! Holy forever,

Moment by moment He shapes and He guides,

Gives us all things for our joy and our pleasure,

All that we need and far more yet besides!

Moment by moment our Father is working,

Weaving our lives in a plan yet unseen;

God our great Master and perfect Protector,

Lord of all things that will be and have been.

Oh, our beloved Lord! Holy forever,

Moment by moment He shapes and He guides,

Working all things to our good and our blessing,

Giving redemption and more yet besides!

Moment by moment our Father is working,

Drawing all things to the ultimate End;

God our great King and eternal Sustainer,

Perfect Redeemer and Heavenly Friend!

Oh, our beloved Lord! Holy forever,

Moment by moment He shapes and He guides,
Making for us a great World that's eternal,
And endless Life where all goodness abides!

He Came for Us

"Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death--even death on a cross! Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father" (Phil. 2:5-11).

While Paul cites Christ as an example of humility for us to follow, the above verses are also worth contemplating in connection with what Christ has done for us. In fact, it pays to read the Bible as a whole with the mindset that appreciating God's work is even more important than learning what work He has for us. If you're anything like me, you have days when trying to live the Christian life feels like an exercise in misery. It's not that we'd rather be living in sin; it's just that the battle seems endless to the point of utter futility. Psychologists tell us that when human beings feel trapped in "treadmill" work--same monotonous duties day after day and no real sense of purpose or progress--they will resort to anything, even suicide, to escape. For those of us with perfectionist tendencies, the Christian walk often feels like that treadmill: however much progress we make, it's rarely fast, obvious, or anywhere close to the ideal; and we find ourselves constantly looking at the remaining distance in exhausted despair, feeling we haven't a chance anyway. Perfectionists are so addicted to "finishing" and "completeness" that we find it almost impossible to rest short of the goal, or to understand how Paul could say "Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect... straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal" one minute and "I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances" the next. (Phil. 3:12-14; 4:11.)

The enslaving conviction that it's really up to us--the very thing Jesus endured humiliation and crucifixion to free us from--is an idea that dies so hard as to make literal crucifixion look like the quick chop of a guillotine. And avoiding the temptation by abstaining from work is rarely an option.

While actually breaking the temptation's power is the Holy Spirit's work, we can cooperate with Him by remembering that spiritual growth is slow-but-steady progress. And that God is patient and loving; having the end in mind, He doesn't expect us to get it right every time starting now.

And that Christ came to do the hardest work for our sakes--and will come again to finally free us from the burden of the curse.

He came for us:

Came from the matchless palaces of Heaven

To Earth's cold night, into a shabby stall;

The Son of God, the Hope of sins forgiven,

The Holy Lamb, the Precious Life of All:

He came for us.

He came for us:

Down from His timeless throne where angels worship

To human scorn, to die a cruel death,

To bear our pain, to dare a life of hardship,

To buy our freedom with His final breath:

He came for us.

He'll come for us:

Someday when this world's strife and toils are over,

When days of Earth have run their final course,

Our God, our Lord and ever-holy Savior

Will take us home to our eternal Source:

He'll come for us.

Follow Me

Among the first recorded words of Jesus are, "Follow Me." Follow Him, and He will make you a fisher of human souls. Follow Him, and He will show you true peace. Follow Him, and He will give you the riches of the Heavenly Kingdom.

"Follow," as used here, encompasses virtually every English meaning of the word: follow the path and don't wander off; stay behind the Leader and don't run ahead or lag far back; follow instructions and don't try to invent your own way. The original Greek also carries the sense of "accompany" or "assist." When we follow Jesus, we are more than His subjects; we are His companions, right-hand people, and friends. 

Many of us want to follow Him but wonder why the path never seems clear. Often it's because we have our stubborn minds made up to follow only at our own speed and on our own terms. While relatively few of us flatly refuse to obey clear instructions, many of us are all too willing to listen with half an ear if we suspect God may tell us anything we don't want to know. Or, conversely, we nag Him to provide instructions in detailed long-term format so we aren't distracted from the important work by the nuisance of keeping in constant touch with Him. We don't really want Jesus to be our Leader; we want Him to be our daily planner who organizes our own preferred duties, our front guard who goes before us while we choose path and pace.   

If, as a child, you ever lost Mom in a public place, you have some idea of the results that attitude can serve up.

Of course, unlike that frantic mother, Jesus knows exactly where we are even when we're lost. He simply waits for us to call to Him, in sincerity and repentance, to show us the way back to the path. Often, we can't see His leading clearly because we don't yet feel lost enough to know the desperate earnestness of seeking Him wholeheartedly.

But as God told the Israelite exiles (in Jer. 29:13) who became lost when they stopped following Him: "You will seek me and find me [and My plan for you] when you seek me with all your heart."

He Who called His first disciples
Where the lake in sunlight basked,
Still does call us where we labor:
"Follow Me, and find your task."

He Who called the weak and weary
To a "load" that meant release,
Still is calling us to trust Him:
"Follow Me, and walk in peace."

He Who called the ones reluctant
To abandon earthly care,
Calls us still to full surrender:
"Follow Me to Heaven's share."

Lord, You led the way through suffering,
On through death, to life again:
May we find the faith to answer,
"We will follow to the end."

Clutter's Children

"The sleep of a laborer is sweet, whether he eats little or much, but the abundance of a rich man permits him no sleep" (Ecc. 5:12).

"Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal" (Mt. 6:19).

"Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; a man’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.... [A] certain rich man... thought to himself... 'You have plenty of good things laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.' But God said to him, ‘You fool!'" (Lk. 12:16-17, 19-20).

Everyone knows about those who are rich, famous--and totally miserable. Everyone pays lip service to the idea that money can't buy happiness. And nearly everyone is secretly confident of being the exception to the rule.

But it's not only money and possessions that weigh us down with the stress of longing for more, with worry about what we might not get, with hostility toward others who might have designs on what's "ours." Perhaps even more people clutter their time with overload, fueled by longing for a sense of importance and success, and by fear of missing out. Shortage of adequate vacation time and bitter resentment of interruptions have driven many to hospitals or worse.

Jesus said, "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.... For my yoke is easy and my burden is light" (Mt. 11:28-30). An irresistible offer--until we realize that our own self-imposed burdens have to be removed to make room for His. Give up our rights to control our own money? Preposterous! Trade work time for quiet time? The road to poverty! Yield up our carefully planned schedules? Why, that's unnatural!

It is unnatural to give up what we hold. As with the child who traps his hand in the candy jar by grabbing too big a fistful, instinct tells us to struggle and scream, to smash what imprisons us and "our" possessions, to find any alternative to letting go of a coveted thing that we finally have in our grasp. This instinct is the manifestation of what the Bible calls our "flesh"--that insidious, all-pervasive, "me first" aspect of human nature that infected our universal gene pool at the Fall.

God is waiting to restore our spiritual health. But don't blame the Doctor if you insist on writing your own alternative prescription. 

Clutter is the father of Anger:

With each moment a task assigned,

You will hate every interruption

For invading your precious time.

Clutter is the mother of Anguish:

With “to do” as an endless snare,

You will fret at each thing that stalls you

Till you sink into black despair.

Clutter is begetter of Illness:

When all life is a pile of “more,”

Endless effort dragging the burden

Strains your heart and health to the core.

Clutter is the bearer of Misery,

And of Pain and the Way of Death:

Yet it draws us all to its clutches

Almost from the first earthly breath.

Jesus is the Bearer of Burdens,

The Begetter of Hope and Peace:

Let Him cleanse your life of all clutter
And wash you in His sweet release!