perplexing attration-following the Rider

Can you picture Jesus riding a Harley?
Not much in the way of a muffler.
No helmet.
Powerful engine.
A neighborhood presence.
At ease with so many.
At odds with so many others.
A person free from societal norms.
A person in tune and bound by the heart cries of even the lowliest.
Unworried about so many details of life.
Attentive to details that concern marginalized souls.

Jeff Jacobson, in his book "So I Go Now-Following After the Jesus of Our Day", writes about his own experience with Jesus in these modern times and how he's experienced His presence in the world.

This book is paradoxical for me. It was compelling enough to make me devour its contents between weekends with many "ahah" moments of agreement or wonder and yet it also had me slogging along trying figure out what on earth the author was saying and where he was going (the latter was the case more often than not). Maybe my struggle was tied somewhat to the idea that this work is one of poetry (as described by another person) and poetry is not always an interest for me-at least not an easy read. Poetry takes time to absorb. Maybe that's why Scripture is not always easy. So much is poetic-thus requiring meditation and time to digest. I figure I'll have to work my way through this volume at a slower pace next time to catch on to more.

However, my very attraction and struggle with this book about Jesus seems to strangely resemble the followers of Jesus in His day (2000 years ago) and their attempts to make heads or tails of Him. They were most certainly drawn to Him, and yet they couldn't seem to get Him all figured out. Maybe that's part of what keeps us attracted to Him. He's mysterious. It's through little epiphanies here and there-sometimes clustered together and other times, more often than not, spread thin throughout our lives such that we can almost forget them from one to the next-that we grow to understand who Jesus is and what He's up to.

Maybe the title of this book is really where it's at? I can't understand much of what He's up to, so I just go following after Him. When He invites me to climb aboard His Harley for a ride-I have a choice to make!

The safety of my minivan.

Or

The freedom and joy of riding who knows where with the Rider!
(This analogy borrowed from the book)

Oh yes, in spite of my struggle to grasp much of this piece of literature, I definitely recommend it and I'll probably scribble more about it later.

beautiful buoyancy

Swimming is slowly on the up and up for me (Note-I took a swimming lesson a while back as mentioned in a previous post and am trying get better at the basics of swimming). I can now make it from one end of the pool to the other without stopping and am starting to get the breathing thing figured out.

One of my favorite parts of swimming is having my head in or under the water. I love the feeling of being totally enveloped by an atmosphere that gently holds me up in a full body hug of sorts. It's like being in a different world. I only wish I could breathe water like a fish and stay down for extended periods of time. During the front crawl, when my face is submerged and my eyes are liberated by the snazzy little swimmer's goggles, I get to study such things as the pool tiles, lines & stripes, and other bodies that happen to move through my field of vision.

Water has a very gracious quality about it-that of equal buoyancy for all. Now, I will admit that some folks do experience floating better than others and certainly some people can swim very well while others can't at all. However, I watch underwater as bodies that struggle to move and are bound by the relentless pull of gravity on land are magically liberated to be able to move gracefully underwater. Even their appearance takes on a special degree of beauty irregardless of whether the bodies are old or young, strong or fragile, heavy or thin, wrinkled or smooth, etc. The water seems to equally support, love, and beautify all living beings that enter it's hug irregardless of how they appear on land.

An author from the 19th century once commented on how the earth is surrounded by an atmosphere of God's grace as real as the air we breathe. I wonder if sometimes I just need the right God given goggles to see others within this atmosphere? Wouldn't it be neat if, when looking through the eyes of God's gracious favor, I noticed less the gravitational pull of sin on people and more the beautifying grace of God's favor that buoys people up and allows even the most unattractive, by human standards, to move with graceful beauty not naturally their own?

sabbath-part 5-getting out of egypt

Mark Buchanan has a chapter entitled, "We're Not in Egypt Anymore". Egypt was that place were Israel was oppressed. A place loaded with demanding taskmasters. Pharaoh's hungry empire was never done seeking to achieve new levels of accomplishment and development. Pharaoh's drive for wealth and power was, in part, built upon the backs of people like the Hebrews. It was from that enviornment that God rescued His people and gave them Sabbath rest. No longer did they have taskmasters breathing down their necks and whipping them to submission.

I feel that so much of our modern society is mentally driven to build our own little empires. We feverishly press on 24/7 to achieve success. Maybe Sabbath rest is a time to leave the Egyptian empire. To ignore the taskmasters.

That academic assignment is not done.
You've got 4 people to call.
Those bills aren't paid.
The house needs cleaning.
The car needs repairing.
The boss wants this job done yesterday.
You get the point, and you know better than anyone who your taskmasters are.

When it's time for each of us to take a Sabbath rest, may we be able to say to our taskmasters (maybe not always to a real person but just in our hearts), "In the name of the Lord, I command you to leave me alone. In fact, I'm leaving your presence for now".

sabbath-part 4-a time to waste

Well, I don't really mean waste as you'll soon see.
Sabbath is a time to play.
A time to do things simply for the joy of doing them.
Jesus once said to become as little children in order to be able to enter Kingdom life. I wonder if that in part means to be able to play like a little child. Play involves trust. You can't play if you've got the weight of heavy responsibilities weighing you down. Children can play carefree because they inherently trust that someone else is providing for their needs. It can be observed in some children how fast they "grow up" when for some reason they have to carry extra responsibility say in the case of a delinquent parent or the loss of a parent. I read a quote that went something like, "you don't stop playing when you grow old, you grow old because you stop playing"!

I think Sabbath is time, with God's permission, to lay aside the burdens of life's responsibilities to play. A time to do things that don't carry a lot of justification for their purpose other than they're enjoyable to do. (Now don't get me wrong-I'm not trying indicate doing absolutely anything that feels good even if it's harmful)

In play we can hear our hearts better. In play we have to slow down and release our burdens to truly play. Play brings healing to a harried heart. Like children, we can learn through play! Through play we can appreciate the beauty of God's gifts in deeper, more satisfying ways.

Play may be very different from person to person. But let's play!

sabbath-part 3-its enemies

Yes the Sabbath has enemies. 2 key ones, in fact.

Busyness

Legalism

Busyness, the modern motto of being successful. Have you ever noticed, when greeting someone, how the answer to "how are you doing?" is often "busy"? Busyness invades our lives like a disease. The person who can multi-task is a role model. The busier we are for ever increasing lengths of time seems to make us feel as though our footprint on this planet is justified. And yet, life is well laden with examples of the need for balance between work and rest. Heart pumping rhythms, breath taking rhythms, sleep/work cycles, seasons, etc. all point to the need to cease busyness in order to prepare for renewed work. The mental state of busyness is one of the big challenges for the modern mindset to truly enter a Sabbath rest. I read a story, in a book on the Sabbath this morning (I'll talk more about this book in upcoming posts, however, the title is Sabbath, by Wayne Muller), about a doctor. He described how as a busy young physician, learning to function for long hours with little sleep was part of the learning curve. When meeting with clients and seeking to understand their concerns and problems, he would often order up loads of tests to determine what their situation was. He discovered after a while, if he would take a rest (a walk or something away from his busyness), he would come back renewed and actually able to listen to his patients and discern what their problems were. Then he might order up a specific test simply to confirm his hunches. More often then not, his discernments were bang on! What a powerful lesson.

Now, the other insidious enemy of Sabbath rest is legalism. Mark Buchanan felt that this was not so much of a problem nowadays as it was for the Jews of old. That may be true for many faith traditions, but it's a very profound insight for the faith movement (Seventh-day Adventists) that I'm a part of! Like the Jewish leaders of old that Jesus was often butting heads with (in love), it's easy to get so focused on what is/isn't permissible to engage in during Sabbath hours. I've experienced conversations about such topics and heard funny stories about how extreme such conversations can become. I think legalism, in the case of Sabbath, is focusing on some particular technical aspect of something and making it a rule for all thus robbing the concept of it's true creative beauty.

I can't help but wonder what it would be like if my denomination was known more for proclaiming the rich beauties of Sabbath mentality and how that can enrich one's life no matter what their situation is? What if we were known as a movement that helped people figure out how to take Sabbath rests, given the uniqueness of their circumstances, and gave them the confidence to do so, rather than being so focused on which day is the correct day? (Granted, I am making some blanket observations here that are not true for all as I know that many in my denomination do have a deep love for and balanced perspective on what Sabbath is all about) True, the Biblical Sabbath day has beautiful symbolism, but without a broader perspective on Sabbath rest it can become a burden. What if, when Sabbath was mentioned, the heart instantly thought of all the great opportunities of what can happen as opposed to all the things that can't happen? I think that Seventh-day Adventists are blessed with their historical interest in Sabbath and could use that as a platform to be an even greater blessing to the world than we've been to date.

May we learn to free Sabbath rest of it's enemies and in so doing find renewal for the God given responsibilities of life.

sabbath-part 2-a time to let go

No, I haven't been raptured. Life has been absorbing my attention in other areas and I guess maybe I've needed a break from this blog for a bit. But I am looking forward to writing some more, especially about my growing interest in the concept of Sabbath largley sparked by Mark Buchanan's The Rest of God.

Mark talks a fair bit about Sabbath being firstly a state mind before being something you do or don't do. It's a releasing of the "have to's" of life, trusting them to God, and focusing on things that the working life doesn't make allowances for. Mark identifies what he calls the Sabbath's Golden Rule, "Cease from what is necessary, embrace that which gives life".

I find that perspective so refreshing. I know I have enjoyed Sabbath in my life, but it's so easily become clouded with a focus on what I can't do on that day! A time to stop! And yet the sense I'm getting recently is that it's more about releasing the burdens of life (because God will take care of them) and embracing the beauties of life. I'm also becoming more convinced that the application of Sabbath is different for each person as we each have different "work" in life. Releasing burdens and embracing life for one may be entirely different for another. For instance, the burden of work for one person might be yard work, while that very same activity may be a delightful rest from the pressures of life for another. Going to church for some (such as a pastor or other person with leadership responsibilities) may be heavily laden with "oughts" while it may be a rejuvenating sanctuary for others. Shopping, for many, may be a time that occupies the mind with financial pressures, consumer cravings, and the needs of life, while for another a relaxing window shopping excursion with a friend (with a stop along the way at the coffee/smoothie shop) may bring great healing to a usually harried heart.

The Sabbath command to rest from carrying our "ought to" burdens is given in spite of the needs still present. In spite of the unfinished projects. In spite of people still clamoring for our attention. Sabbath is not something to prepare for by getting everything accomplished so much as it is letting the unaccomplished things go for a space in time. It's God given permission to focus on soul nourishment.

It's in the letting go of the myriads of unfinished "oughts" that we can truly discover the God given beauties of life where ever they may found (a friend, an activity, a food, etc.).