A Village of Servants

Now at the dedication of the wall of Jerusalem they sought out the Levites in all their places, to bring them to Jerusalem to celebrate the dedication with gladness, both with thanksgivings and singing, with cymbals and stringed instruments and harps. And the sons of the singers gathered together from the countryside around Jerusalem, from the villages of the Netophathites, from the house of Gilgal, and from the fields of Geba and Azmaveth; for the singers had built themselves villages all around Jerusalem.

~Nehemiah 12:27-29

Where do you live? Did you carefully choose your school district? Did you choose the community with the lowest crime rate or the best community events calendar? Are you minutes from work, or do you have a lengthy commute? Why did you choose to live where you live?

Our youngest and I had this discussion the other day. I'd expressed how little I like the area in which we live. Sure, our neighborhood is fine; I love our neighbors. But it's the congestion, it's the not having fields for him to safely roam and explore, it's the heavy air. "Why don't we move?" he asked. Because this is where God has us for now; He's not called us to anything elsewhere, so we serve Him here. 

When Jerusalem's city walls were rebuilt and it was time to dedicate them to the Lord, a great celebration took place. Those known to be singers had built themselves their own little community around the city. Matthew Poole's commentary says: That they might be near at hand for the service of God, and of his house. No messenger would have to travel far and wide to gather those willing and equipped to sing for the Lord, they all lived in the same neighborhood nearby. They chose to live where they could most readily serve the Lord. People are people, and I'm sure the altos didn't always agree with the tenors at the HOA meetings. Maybe the lead soprano allowed her dog to bark at all hours of the day or night. The contralto never picks up her trashcans, the baritone might grumble to his wife. Despite all the issues that come with life in community, their highest priority was service to our God; and they positioned their homes, their wives, their children in the place that allowed them to do that best.

We were placed in our home long ago, before we really served the Lord. We did not choose the place that allowed us to serve Him best, but by His grace, He has used us here (more of a Jeremiah 29:5-14 situation, I guess 😉). Whatever the circumstances, though, the Lord God uses those whose hearts reside in a place prepared to serve Him, those who want to know how best to be His ambassadors above all else. With hearts truly yielded to Him, we can be a village of servants wherever we are. 

 

Midweek: Step Four

So, here's where the rubber meets the road, as they say, Step Four of Walking the Twelve Steps with Jesus Christ:

I made a searching and fearless moral inventory of myself, seeking to identify the wrongs of my past life.

Let's talk about "wrongs." Wrongs as we experience them are negative, hurtful events that happen in the process of living. We are wronged. We wrong others. They are identified by pain and discomfort in our spirit. Wrongs, I'm going to say, more narrowly, more biblically defined are any behavior toward another person which results in the breaking of the love relationship; any behavior contrary to God's command to love one another. I feel the first definition; I have felt it for years. The second, narrower, more biblically based definition calls me to move past what I have felt, to think about what I have inflicted (perhaps in response to what I have felt), and to point my life toward Jesus Christ. And that is the backbone of recovery and the backbone of the Gospel: here is your condition; here is something better. Saved from sin to more. Of course, there are some steps in between, some specifics, but in a nutshell, we cannot move toward who we were created to be without realizing we're not there yet, and there is no point in moving from where we are without realizing there is more we were meant to be.

Don't get me wrong, this is not a "best self" talk. This is not about looking yourself in the mirror each morning and doing affirmations about your great teeth or your business acumen. This is not about careful monitoring of your "path to happiness" or eliminating scads of people who impede your "mental wellness." Sidenote: if you've had to eliminate scads, it might not be them --just sayin'. This is not something quantitative or self-directed. This is giving your self into the care of your Creator, your Father (if you claim the blood of Jesus over your will and your life) that His Spirit might work to make you holy, more like the "you" He designed you to be, more like the "you" before you were wronged, more like the "you" before you wronged others, more like the "you" that would have been had you not been born into sin. It's a process, but it's His process. We can allow it; we can obey Him in corroboration with it; but we cannot do it through our own efforts.

Step Four tells us that part of this process is wading through the ugly and uncomfortable. Something of an irony, really, because it's usually the ugly and uncomfortable that cause us to seek out and adopt addictive behaviors in the first place. So now, here we are, face-to-face with them, staring them down by the power of the Holy Spirit, and saying, "God, will You please take these?" We ask forgiveness from Him where there is need. We ask Him for peace and healing where we are broken. And we ask Him, from this point forward, to guide us in life as we live it so that we do not find ourselves in the same place again. Here is where we are/were; here is where, by Your grace, I want to be. It may sound like, "I betrayed my spouse; I want to be a trustworthy partner." Or "I have allowed this pain to control me for so long; I want to obey only You, God." It's a tough step and, perhaps, the one that may take the longest; but it is a turning point, the place where past meets future in the present. This is the point at which we link the lessons of the past, God's forgiveness and healing of our past, with the Hope of our present and future, Jesus Christ, and the empowerment of His Holy Spirit. 

What's Best Is the Only True God

Google the best way to get to Kroger or the best way to cook Lima beans, and you're liable to come up with at least a dozen different answers. Do you want to avoid tolls or wear and tear on your brakes? Do you like your veggies al dente or super buttery? "Best" seems to be a matter of opinion. Was it always this way? "Best" seemed pretty cut-and-dried in the past. The blue ribbon went to the best pie in the county; a single team was awarded the honor of being the best team in the league. But with the world's population and its opinions expanding well into the billions, the removal of distance and obstacles via the internet, and, I think, the inclination for us to mollify those who may not be the best but sure gave it the effort, Best is a lot more difficult to pinpoint. Look at the latest controversy over awards shows. Do we recognize the artist who lives a life more in keeping with the essence of the art? Do we recognize the artist with the greatest number of downloads? Do we recognize the artist whose work had the greatest impact for good? What determines and defines "Best"?

Best can get a little more complicated when we factor in those things which certainly don't feel the best or, maybe, don't start out to be very good at all. Time goes by, and we come to know that traffic delay kept us from walking in on our friends as they frantically put the last joyous details of our party in place. Surprise! Best. The nearby hospital that closes down, taking its abortion business with it. Best. Our dysfunctional upbringing that prepares us to adopt a great kid with a desire to shed her dysfunctional beginnings. Best.

But Best and all of its subjectivity is not the same as "Only." In fact, "Only" is probably much more difficult to identify in today's world. Did I mention the world's population in the billions? 

John 17:3 says:

And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.

God, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, is the Only true God. Not the best, the Only. He possesses an exclusivity no one or no thing can possess. All are free to deny it --like denying my blackberry pie deserves the blue ribbon or denying a layoff "worked out for the best." We are free to say there are many paths to heaven or utopia or whatever, that God is not the only one worthy of our worship. Denying He is Only, however, does not make it any less true; it does not make God any less Only. Scripture says every knee will bow, every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. If that's true, and I believe it is, we will know for sure. One day we will come to the realization that God is God and there is no other. He is Only. It is His Only-ness that makes Him the Best: He is superlative and exclusive, greatest and without rival, Best in His category and Only in His category.

And for us, it is best we worship Him only. No matter how you like your lima beans.