Contentment. Not my middle name. In fact, I find myself constantly looking around the corner for change and newness. I am an unsettled person, yet I long to find joy and peace in the present. I often fool myself into believing that those blessings are just around the corner, and that I will experience them when I am finally situatied in the right circumstances.
I have a feeling contentment was not part of Apostle Paul's identity either. He was a mover and a shaker. He was a get-it-done guy. Passion and drive make contentment difficult to experience. "I have learned to be content" (Phil 4:11b) is Paul's confession of faith. "I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation" (Phil 4:12b). And the secret is this: "I can do all this through him who gives me strength" (Phil 4:13).
The "all things" to be done through the strength of Jesus is not my list of desired accomplishments or my agenda for success (even successful ministry). Instead, the gift of strength is for contentment. At least for those like Paul and like me who have to strong-arm our restlessness into contentment.
I am glad to know I am in good company. I am even happier to know that there is hope for my restless condition. I look forward to contentment. Ah! Alas! The moment is NOW!
Friday, June 27, 2008
Thursday, June 26, 2008
Power of God
There is no mistaking the omnipotent power of God described in Isaiah 40:12-31. God is the one who holds the waters of the earth in the hollow of God's hand and the dust of the earth in a basket. God is the One who rules on high and rules supreme over all.
The first reading for reflection in A Guide to Prayer for Ministers and Other Servants, week 34, is a quote from Prayer by Simon Tugwell. He writes, "It is assumed that if God is omnipotent he can do anything; but this is not strictly true . . . he has chosen to work in such a way that we can interfere, and interfere very drastically, with his creation." This is evidenced in the story of Abraham, Sarah, and Hagar from Genesis 16, 21. Sarah and Abraham "interfered very drastically" with God's purposes. Instead of allowing God room to make them the parents of the many nations who would be blessed to be a blessing for all nations, they took matters into their own hands. In their impatience and lack of faith (or perhaps ignorance and lack of understanding), they attempted to help God out by using Hagar as a means to accomplishing their own desire to be blessed by God.
And while God did not stop them from interfering, neither did God step aside and allow their interference to thwart God's ultimate purposes of redemption. God's omnipotent power is revealed as the power to create, in this case, the power to create an alternative, imaginative resolution to the mess our kind had made. God does not force or coerce or fight. In fact, "God makes wars to cease to the ends of the earth; God breaks the bow and shatters the spear, God burns the shields with fire" (Ps. 46:9 NIV). Instead, God creates. God imagines an alternative reality.
This is the sort of power of God that I need to help bring about alternative realities to the world in which I live. I need the creative imagination of God to discover redemptive pathways of guidance and discipline for my young boys as they are growing. I find that fighting and yelling and using force is what comes most naturally to me. I can get away with bullying them into my design for their living because I am yet bigger and smarter than they. And yet I find that weilding this kind of power leaves me empty and wanting. And it does not lead to redemptive relationships. In fact, I see my faltering tactics on display before me as my children reenact my powerplays on each other. And I am grieved.
It is the more resistant soil of creation and imagination that needs to be cultivated in me. This is the power of God for reconciliation, redemption, hope. This is the imago dei I long to be reflected in my life as God's child.
The first reading for reflection in A Guide to Prayer for Ministers and Other Servants, week 34, is a quote from Prayer by Simon Tugwell. He writes, "It is assumed that if God is omnipotent he can do anything; but this is not strictly true . . . he has chosen to work in such a way that we can interfere, and interfere very drastically, with his creation." This is evidenced in the story of Abraham, Sarah, and Hagar from Genesis 16, 21. Sarah and Abraham "interfered very drastically" with God's purposes. Instead of allowing God room to make them the parents of the many nations who would be blessed to be a blessing for all nations, they took matters into their own hands. In their impatience and lack of faith (or perhaps ignorance and lack of understanding), they attempted to help God out by using Hagar as a means to accomplishing their own desire to be blessed by God.
And while God did not stop them from interfering, neither did God step aside and allow their interference to thwart God's ultimate purposes of redemption. God's omnipotent power is revealed as the power to create, in this case, the power to create an alternative, imaginative resolution to the mess our kind had made. God does not force or coerce or fight. In fact, "God makes wars to cease to the ends of the earth; God breaks the bow and shatters the spear, God burns the shields with fire" (Ps. 46:9 NIV). Instead, God creates. God imagines an alternative reality.
This is the sort of power of God that I need to help bring about alternative realities to the world in which I live. I need the creative imagination of God to discover redemptive pathways of guidance and discipline for my young boys as they are growing. I find that fighting and yelling and using force is what comes most naturally to me. I can get away with bullying them into my design for their living because I am yet bigger and smarter than they. And yet I find that weilding this kind of power leaves me empty and wanting. And it does not lead to redemptive relationships. In fact, I see my faltering tactics on display before me as my children reenact my powerplays on each other. And I am grieved.
It is the more resistant soil of creation and imagination that needs to be cultivated in me. This is the power of God for reconciliation, redemption, hope. This is the imago dei I long to be reflected in my life as God's child.
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