Panajachel, Guatemala

Polluted Water and Smiles

 

In September, this year I had the privilege of participating in a retreat for doctors and medical folks we serve in Pahajachel, Guatemala through *Vine International. I was asked to give the devotional to open the weekend time together. The following is the devotional I gave. A quick disclaimer, it was composed in English, translated into Spanish and finished out, then retranslated back into English. I beg your indulgence if the back and forth has made it a little glitchy. It is a little long for my usual blog, but it is what is on my mind.

 

Everyone loves a good story, am I right? What makes a good story? The narrative begins with everything going well, everyone is happy, and the future looks bright. There is usually a girl looking for her handsome prince who will take her to his castle and they will live happily ever after. But there's an awareness floating in the air that something may be about to go wrong. A villain appears in the story and sure enough, things begin to go wrong, an injustice is taking place, and the villain is trying to steal the princess. Things become desperate, but when all seems lost, a hero appears, the prince, he enters the story, fights for what is just and, with great risk and great cost to himself, corrects the injustice and saves the princess, takes her to his castle and they live happily ever after. The perfect story, right?

 

 For our devotional this morning, I would like to retell a story that is already familiar to all of us. The story begins in Genesis chapter 1. God has created the cosmos, and the text says, God looked at everything He had made and considered it to be incredibly good.

 

The beginning of this story a magnificent creation that God has just created out of nothing. When I say creation, think of the Swiss Alps, tropical beaches, Lake Atitlan, the colors and varieties of birds, the quetzal, the colors and varieties of fish, plants and flowers, beautiful sunrises, and sunsets, and then, to complete His masterpiece, He created us...humanity. It is awesome and God looked at what He had done, and said, "This is very good!"

 

Then we see God talking to Adam and Eve and saying, "I am giving you the keys of creation," so that you can enjoy it, take care of it, create in it, have dominion, and protect it.

 

Protect? Our story has begun beautifully, Adam and Eve are happy in the garden, and all is well, but they must protect it. Protect from what? Is the villain about to enter the story? (Menacing music.)

 

Revelation 12 tells us how the villain enters our story. (NIV) 7 And a war broke out in heaven: Michael and his angels fought the dragon; He and his angels in turn stood up to them, 8 but they could not overcome and there was no more room for them in heaven. 9 Thus was cast out the great dragon, that ancient serpent called the Devil and Satan who deceives the whole world. Along with his angels, he was cast down to the earth. Woe to you, O land and sea! The devil, full of fury, has descended upon you, because he knows that his time is short.

 

Do we notice where the villain, the dragon, ended up when he was cast out of the sky? To the earth, full of anger and hatred against the creator of this very good creation. He begins to do all he can to undermine and destroy all that God has created. Again, we move on to Genesis chapter 3, where we find Adam and Eve living in happiness in this beautiful creation and who appears? The dragon/snake. We already know the result. Adam and Eve failed to protect the garden. We know the story of the fall of man and its consequences. We have given the serpent the keys of the kingdom and lost our dominion over it.

 

Dr. Francis Schaeffer in his book, Genesis in Space and Time, says that the fall affected creation by 4 significant separations.

1 – God comes for a walk with Adam and Eve in the cool of the day and we see the first separation, "Adam, where are you?" Here we see the separation between man and God.

2 – The second separation is between man and himself. Hiding and covering himself with leaves, Adam is no longer sure of himself and is ashamed.

3 – Thirdly, God asks Adam, “what happened here,” and Adam's answer is: "She forced me to do it". The third separation is the separation of one from the other.

4 – The last separation is between man and nature. Loss of dominion. The work becomes hard, and man begins to damage the creation by his poor choices and lack of creativity. He begins to be party to the destruction and marring of creation instead of managing and protecting it well.

 

The first and second separations have their impact on our relationships. The second has its impact on our identity.

 

The last separation has to do with our loss of dominion, our lack of care, and our marring of creation and we see the consequences of these separations in our world today:

·      Beauty tarnished by ugliness

·      Order turns into chaos (both at the global and local level).

·      War instead of peace

·      Suffering instead of joy

·      Sickness instead of health

·      Shame instead of fulfillment

·      Disconnected relationships instead of connection

·      Broken families instead of healthy families

·      Scarcity instead of abundance

·      Death and decay instead of life.

·      Disease instead of health.

 

The villain's evil, as well as the effects of our bad choices, have been devastating and tragic when we look at human history. When we look at our history and reflect on its future, it seems bleak and hopeless, but our story, like every good story, has a hero. The hero of our story does not make a very spectacular entrance into the narrative. He does not appear as a mighty warrior, but as a small baby born in a stable; not as a king who arrives in the city riding a white war horse, but as a humble carpenter riding a donkey. But he comes with the power of God, a new story, good news of a new kingdom radically different from the one we are experiencing, and a personal invitation to participate in the redemption and restoration of that kingdom. He brings hope! We are invited to do this with Him.

 

The gospels tell us about our hero and how He changes the hijacked narrative of history. It begins on top of a mountain in the wilderness, Satan, that dragon who made his way into our story, offers to give Jesus back the keys to the kingdom if he will simply bow down and worship him. Jesus' answer is, “No way, it is not going to happen like that.” He sends Satan away and then we see how Jesus begins to regain dominion over creation step by step. He…

·      Cast out demons - dominion over principalities and powers in the heavens.

·      Heals the sick - mastery over disease, separation #4

·      Raises the Dead, - mastery over death, separation #4

·      Forgives sin - dominion over separation #1

·      Restores relationships - separation #2

·      Affirms new identity and purpose - (all disciples Zacchaeus), separation #2

·      Calms the seas and storms - separation #4

·      Turns water into wine - separation #4

·      Take 5 loaves and 2 fish and feed 5000 - scarcity to abundance.

·      He conquers death with his resurrection - resolving all separations.

 

What I want us to notice here is that this story is much bigger than we usually think. Is it about my salvation and yours? Yes, of course it is, but it is much more than that.  My salvation is not the end, it a means to an end.  I am “saved” so that I can participate in the kingdom that will come and is coming. It is not just about my redemption and restoration, but about the redemption and restoration of all creation. Jesus in his ministry on earth was not content with separation number 1, or even with 1 and 2, or 1, 2 and 3, but sought everything, separations 1 through 4. The whole package. In Romans 8 we are told that all creation, all creation, awaits with great expectation the redemption that comes through the children of God. Wow! How is that for the end of the story? It does not get any better than this. Our hero gets the princess, his bride, and the whole kingdom. And they, we, will live happily ever after. This is what Jesus preached.

 

Now, here is what I want you to notice about the story: we all know how the story ends, but we also know that it has not ended yet... how does that work? I can't tell you how it works, but I can tell you how it is working.

 

Do you remember the final scene before Jesus ascends to heaven? The disciples ask: “Now are you going to finish the story?” Jesus does the craziest thing. Remember that he gave us the keys to the kingdom once in the garden and we gave them to the dragon. Jesus had to take them back at the cost of his own life. The disciples say: “So, this is the end?” Jesus' answer is, “No not yet, I am leaving here for a while. And here is the really crazy part, He says, ¨I am leaving here for a while, and here, again, are the keys to the kingdom, join me in redeeming and restoring the kingdom. You continue the work I have begun, and I will complete it when I return.¨ And then He he left. He left, gone! But, He sent us His Spirit and power so that we can continue what He began in bringing the story to completion. This is the invitation that Jesus gave and is giving.

 

So how do we join Jesus in redeeming and restoring the kingdom? We do what He did. We make disciples, that is, we invite and show others how to participate in this call to redeem and restore. And He gave us authority and power to begin to redeem, restore, and reclaim His creation. We participate, we begin, and He will complete. Our job is not to complete, it is to participate and get started. He will complete. Our story is bigger than being saved from our sin; yes, personal redemption and restoration, but also much more, we are also offered again what we were given in the garden, the opportunity to exercise dominion in the kingdom.

 

What does participation look like? Here are some examples.

 

One day I, a dentist in my earlier life, had a patient, Sarah, in my clinic. She said with joy and appreciation, "Doctor, you gave me my smile back, my whole life has changed and I can't thank you enough." We had been given the opportunity to share in the beauty and joy of her healthy smile.

 

Here is Sarah’s story. Her husband was the president of one of our city's banks and she was embarrassed to be seen in public with him because her smile was so bad. When she showed up for her initial consultation, she was missing most of her front teeth, had an ugly and ill-fitting partial denture, and visible black cavities on her remaining teeth. She was so embarrassed by her appearance that she only spoke with her hand covering her mouth. I do not believe that God's original creation was people with ugly, embarrassing smiles and unhealthy teeth. Sarah came to our office with disease and ugliness that was not what God intended for her. Sarah left our office with a beautiful smile and healthy teeth and no longer held her hand in front of her mouth when talking. She felt comfortable in public again. Will the resurrection be an improvement for her? Absolutely. The resurrection will bring the culmination of her smile and her health, but it is the culmination of a process in which God allowed me to take part. That is significant and it makes my work meaningful. It made me smile too. God loves smiles!

 

Dr. Israel in Guatemala had just completed his new hospital on the shore of beautiful Lake Atitlan. Lake Atitlan lies in the high lands of Guatemala. Tall volcanic mountains overlook the, knock your eyes out blue water, the colorful ferries that ply the waters, and lush garden that surround it. Sadly, despite its beauty the water has been polluted by the sewage from all the towns and businesses that surround the lake. It is illegal to allow raw sewage or pollutants to be emptied untreated into the lake, but no one pays attention to the law and the government does little to enforce the it. In the first place, Dr Israel is very environmentally conscious, he was born and raised on this lake and wants to protect it; in the second place he feels bound to obey the law of the land even if it is not cost effective or convenient. One day as he was showing us his new hospital, he was asked what he does to purify his dirty water before it reaches the lake. Humbly he showed us the purification plant that he has installed to ensure that all the water from his hospital that travels the few hundred feet and trickles into the lake is pure. His hospital is probably the only one on the lake that does that. Will it make a significant difference in the purity of Lake Atitlan? Sadly not, but guess what, it is the beginning of a process, and a participation in what Jesus will complete when He returns. We participate and begin, and Jesus is going to complete. Lake Atitlan will be pure again in the kingdom. I can envision the final purifying process when Jesus returns, the pure water from Dr. Israel’s hospital the beginning of the purifying of the rest of the lake and it becoming pristine again. Thank you, Dr Israel for your faithfulness.

 

God loves beauty, Dr. Gabby, one of the Guatemalan doctors, was telling us about the aesthetic treatments she is learning to do for people disfigured in various ways. That is the work of the kingdom. The enemy likes marked and disfigured faces. Jesus prefers beautiful faces like the ones He created in the first place.

 

Beauty is the work of the kingdom, whether it is fixing smiles, facial treatments, art, or simply picking up trash. The enemy hates it because it undoes the marring of creation that he is about. That alone should make us smile.

 

God loves beauty, order, peace, joy, health, good relationships, pristine water, happy marriages, a clean environment, art and music. Everything is important to Him; recreating these is a participation in the coming of the kingdom.

 

We take part in what He is already doing, Jesus completes it. Jesus has promised to make all things new, not all new things at His return. We can participate... that is his invitation. This is the Story we live in, this is the magnificence of His creation, His love, His grace to us. Are we in?

 

 

*Vine International is a ministry that collects, ships by container, and then distributes free medical supplies, wheelchairs, medicines, and food to indigenous medical providers in Guatemala who serve the poor. It is worth a look at their website.  https://vineinternational.org

 

PS:  I’d love your comment bellow and follow if you'd like. Thanks.

 

Written Into A Story

Written Into A Story

A morning prayer

 

Psalm 139:15 My frame was not hidden from you,

when I was being made in secret,

intricately woven in the depths of the earth.

16 Your eyes saw my unformed substance;

in your book were written, every one of them,

the days that were formed for me,

when as yet there was none of them.

 

 

I love this picture, You have written, are writing, The Story. The mystery of how it has been written and is now being written are above my pay grade.

 

Psalm 56:8 You have kept count of my wanderings;

put my tears in your bottle.

Are they not in your book?

This I know, that God is for me.

 

In A Severe Mercy , Sheldon Van Auken talks about C.S. Lewis describing our story being in God’s hands like Dickens book Great Expectations, finished in God’s hands, complete, yet for us still unfinished, on page 232 or 35, or where ever I find myself. We cannot see the book or ourselves yet complete, but we are complete and being completed as the story unfolds held in the authors’s hand.

 

The wonder and the mystery...only You are God and You are for me. 

Thank You, Amen!

 

Wait In Silence

Psalm 62:5  

For God alone, O my soul, wait in silence,

 What does it mean to wait in silence?  

It is an emptying of selfish desire, but not a lack of desire.

Letting go of personal agenda, but not listlessness.

Releasing self reliance, but not being  abandoned.

It is not hurry, but patience.

Relief from anxiousness about the how or whats of life, 

but a quiet confidence to move.

Not just a quieting of fear, but a deepening trust.

Not so much analysis, as openness. 

Not directionless, but direction.

Not despair, but hope. 

 

 5 For God alone, O my soul, wait in silence,

for my hope is from him.

6 He only is my rock and my salvation,

my fortress; I shall not be shaken.

7 On God rests my salvation and my glory;

my mighty rock, my refuge is God.

 

3/20/2024 Muddy Water

 

 

 

                                 I saw a new heaven and a new earth,

           coming down out of heaven from God,

                                  Rev 21:1

     

It has been years since I made a blog post and I am not sure why.  Mostly I think it is because I have wondered who I am writing to and if anyone really reads these things that come out of my mind.  A friend the other day commented that she missed reading my posts and I feel an urge to write again for my own benefit if not for anyone else’s.  Robert Benson in his book, Dancing on the Head of a Pin, notes that the most important thing in writing a book is to know who your jury is.  Who are you writing to?  I am not writing a book, but I am writing, so for lack of a particular jury, I have decided to write to my children and grandchildren. Not because I even think they will read my musings, but because it at least gives me an audience in my mind. If you run across these musings and want to listen in, you are welcome to read along.  If you do, feel free to “follow” and/or drop me a comment letting me know you are there.  

 

So, I was driving home this morning after breakfast with one of my grands, delightful time, by the way.  My route home on Virtue Rd (Knox County), not our Virtue Rd, the other one (Loudon County).  There is one in each county very close together, but not connected. My neighbor claims that there are some pizza delivery folks driving around out there in no man’s land still trying to find the correct Virtue Rd address.  But, I digress.  The road leads by a small stream engorged by muddy water due to the hard rains last night and this morning and running down into Fort Loudon Lake.  I began to wonder…will streams and rivers in the kingdom that Jesus talks so much about ever be muddy?

 

Let me digress again here for just a moment.  I just ran a search in the gospels on the word heaven.  In general, and mostly, please don’t nit pick me here, in the gospels when the word heaven is used it is speaking of where God dwells, not our destination when we die.  Our destination when we die is where Jesus refers to as the kingdom and the kingdom will be down here, not in heaven where God dwells.  Not the down here as we know it, but the new heavens and the new earth, redeemed and restored to creation’s intent in the garden.  Jesus’s promised return is to the earth where we will “rule” with Him as he intended from the beginning of the story. How cool is that!

 

So back to the muddy steam.  Why is a stream muddy when it rains?  Is a muddy stream a normal occurrence when the rain falls on the earth or is mud in the water and the muddiness a result of erosion and the undoing of normal vegetation, soil care, and the water cycle?  Should we expect to see mud in the water, is this another result of the fall or, in the kingdom, will the waters run clear and pure even with the heavy rains? Will there even be “heavy” rains in the kingdom or is a heavy rain due to a water cycle, a climate change caused by the fall?  What does a restored earth look like when the cycles of life and the interrelationships of the systems and people sync the way God intended and created them in the beginning?  

 

Understand that all that is written above, to me ends with a big question mark not a period.  I am not making a statement about what it will all look like or how it will be accomplished.  I am asking a question, a question from a position of wonder (How?) and wonder (Wow!) that God as God can work all this out and we get to participate and watch as he does His thing.

 

The final question comes because He, Jesus has invited us to participate in the restoration that is happening as I write.  What does that look like and how am I participating in the building of a kingdom that, according to Jesus, is already present and is going to be completed?  I wonder? (How and wow!)

 

Maybe I am just out of my mind, but I was wondering.

 

 

9/16/20 The Rules In Football 1 Kings 8:58

The Rules In Football

1 Kings 8:58

“...that he may incline our hearts to him,”

To be inclined, is to lean toward.  What a pleasant thought, for my heart to lean in Your direction.  I want that, where ever there is opportunity to lean I want to lean in Your direction. 

The rest of the sentence says”... to walk in all his ways and to keep his commandments, his statutes, and his rules, which he commanded our fathers.”

I am ashamed to admit that my first inclination is to buck up against the rules/commandments part of the sentence.  I guess I just want it to be about desire, choosing, having my say.  But the question is, what am I choosing, what is it I desire?  Isn’t this just the point, do I desire Your ways or something else, do I desire You for who You are? Is this not what the rules, commands, and statutes are offering?  One cannot desire You and reject Your ways.  Your ways are the very expression of who You are.

When I was a kid, I loved football, and in spite of my small size had dreams of playing college or even pro football.  We lived in Honduras so there was no live football to see, but every Sunday afternoon I could be found huddled by the short wave radio listening to the weekly broadcast of the game of the week on AFRTS, the Armed Forces Radio and Television network.  For what ever reason they seemed to favor the New York Giants and whoever they played that week so the Giants became my favorite team.  I was a Y. A. Tittle and Frank Gifford fan, but also knew the name and stats on every player on the team.  I read books and talked football with my Dad to learn all I could about football. This dream, desire, drove me to learning all the rules and more importantly to playing by the rules even on the sandlot with my friends.  I did not try to make the game into my version of the game or create my own rules.  I did not because I wanted to be a football player, not something else.  The rules of the game were not a burden imposed on the game.  The game of football, as it is played, are defined and summed up in the rules.  No rules, no game, just chaos.  I can no more play football using the rules of baseball than I can follow Jesus and be inclined to my own or someone else’s rules.

Genesis 1 tells us that God moved over the face of the chaos and imprinted on it order, rules.  The laws of nature and the definition of right relationships define creation as an expression of who You are.  The core of relationship is desire, but the object of our desire is defined and shaped by rules.  When I know the rules and they become embedded in me, when I don’t have to think about them anymore because they have become habit and instinct, it frees me up to play with abandon and even joy.  This is the sense I get when I read Psalm 119 where the Psalmist raptures about his love of the laws and precepts of the Lord.  This is the rest described in v. 56 of this passage , “ “Blessed be the LORD who has given rest to his people Israel, according to all that he promised.”

Morning prayers says it like this, “Incline our hearts to keep Your ways, grant that having cheerfully done Your will this day we may when night comes rejoice and give you thanks. 

LHM/CHM

8/5/20 - Psalm 36: The Depths of a Depraved Heart

 

Psalm 36:1-4

 

Transgression speaks to the wicked

deep in his heart;

there is no fear of God

before his eyes.

For he flatters himself in his own eyes

that his iniquity cannot be found out and hated.

The words of his mouth are trouble and deceit;

he has ceased to act wisely and do good.

He plots trouble while on his bed;

he sets himself in a way that is not good;

he does not reject evil.

 

These verses shed light on how depraved the desires of the heart can become. Repeated rejection of God’s invitation, absolute determination to do my will and not God’s, to live for me and not for Him, distorts the heart (Desires) into something completely other than what was intended or created.  My assumption is that there comes a point of no return, where God agrees to finally give one what one desires, no presence. Because we are derived beings, our life comes from God, achieving that final desire results in death. Without an object an image ceases to exist...this is the end of hell, annihilation, ceasing to exist.  This too is God’s grace, there is a limit to the horror of marred image that God will allow one to endure.

 

To those who would say, but God is so judgmental. I would respond, absolutely!  He is unbending in His requirement for holiness to permit presence.  At the same time He consistently remains invitational, “whosever will may come.”  It is His judgement that provides the washing, the clean up in us of what is not holy, so we become holy and fit for presence.  His judgement is never intended for separation, it is always intended for reconciliation.  It results in separation only when we identify and desire most closely with what is not holy and are therefore consumed along with it.

 

There is great comfort and grace in the next verses of the Psalm.  Note the steadfast love, faithfulness, man and beast saved, refuge, abundance, the river of delights, the fountain of life, and the light, all offered to those who will come.  Invitation always abounds.  Grace is always given and life comes when we submit to the King.

 

Psalm 36:5-10

Your steadfast love, O LORD, extends to the heavens,

your faithfulness to the clouds.

Your righteousness is like the mountains of God;

your judgments are like the great deep;

man and beast you save, O LORD.

How precious is your steadfast love, O God!

The children of mankind take refuge in the shadow of your wings.

They feast on the abundance of your house,

and you give them drink from the river of your delights.

For with you is the fountain of life;

in your light do we see light.

Oh, continue your steadfast love to those who know you,

and your righteousness to the upright of heart!

 

Invitation to presence and community abounds, but it is not forced on anyone.  My arrogance and self will can hold out, but it does have it’s consequences, death.

 

 

Psalm 36:11-12

Let not the foot of arrogance come upon me,

nor the hand of the wicked drive me away.

There the evildoers lie fallen;

they are thrust down, unable to rise.

 

Lord have mercy! Christ have mercy!

 

7-10-20 Sojourn? Psalm 15:1-2

Sojourn?

Psalm 15:1-2

O LORD, who shall sojourn in your tent?

Who shall dwell on your holy hill?

He who walks blamelessly and does what is right

and speaks truth in his heart;

What does it mean to “sojourn” or to walk blamelessly?

1 John 1:7, “Walk in the light as You are in the light and we will have fellowship with one another.” (Zech. 8:16; Eph. 4:25; [John 1:47; Col. 3:9]

This verse for me has given perspective to what makes relationships, unity, healthy body life, something realized, not just aspired to or talked about.  It makes evident the glaring weakness in so many of my relationships...the unwillingness to speak the truth, or in many cases the poor communication skills relative to speaking the truth in love.

It becomes more clear every day that good relating takes time, examen, (What are my deepest desires, what am I after? Self knowledge.) structure that enables, as well communication skills both in listening well and expressing my own feelings, intentions, desires, etc.

If the order of the universe is relational, and I believe it is, it would seem that I would be very intentional about certain things in every corner of my circle of influence:
- Time, making space for these things.
- Examen, not navel gazing, but open honest presence with You and others so that I begin to see who I and they really are?
- Structure that enables and encourages  the deepening of relationships.
- Expectation, is this another word for hope? Not, "I hope, wish, this could happen," but hope as trust and expectation of fellowship if we are faithful?  Because it is the order of the universe and the order of the universe is grounded in the Trinity, The One.  Is this not what You mean when You say, "believe, follow?"