Learning Beauty

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. (Genesis 1:1) The worms, the sprickets, the naked mole rats --all manner of critters who are either so ugly they evoke some sort of pity causing us to be tender toward them, or they make our skin crawl. He created trees which, in this season, are more fiery and more impressive than those earlier days of the year when their leaves were plump and variegated with chlorophyll, their very life's blood. He created sky and sea, hill and vale, winter chills and summer heat. He created the smell of jasmine and gardenia and peat and sulfur. He created daylight by which we work and darkness by which we were meant to sleep. He created our unruly hair (which we may think for certain came as a result of The Fall) and our T-Rex arms. He created pitch-perfect voices and those that crackle and screech like a murder of angry crows. He created fingers that obey when we put brush to canvas and those that, in their fierce rebellion are perfectly adept at whizzing over a keyboard as they enter data. And He said it was good. When it came to mankind, God said His creation was very good. 

What I'm repenting of today, however, is why I have done Him such a disservice, such a dishonor by not noticing. Never mind how I've critiqued every square inch of my body. Never mind how I grumbled at my tiny children's inability to do things for themselves --Mom, can you get my ball out of the tree? --just as I'd sat down for the first time that day. Never mind how I've avoided talking to the friendly chatterbox who hangs out by the coffee station. Never mind that I have resented His choices in how He has created or developed the people and things around me --that's a whole different level of offense for a whole different article --but I am guilty of simply not noticing. I am guilty of not even seeing the beauty in the faces of those He has created, of not breathing in deeply the crisp autumn air, of not resting beneath a tree in summer, of not whispering Amazing! as the sun begins to set in a sky that makes Crayola green with envy. Of being so busy, so familiar, so critical, and so wrapped up in myself, I walk past the many gifts He's given again and again without so much as a single nod. A dull grey sky today? Yawn. And yet, we are without excuse. There is goodness in everything He has made. He said so.

Annie Dillard, in her book, Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, strives to understand the song of birds:

Sometimes birdsong seems just like the garbled speech of infants.  There is a certain age at which a child looks at you in all earnestness and delivers a long, pleased speech in all the true inflections of spoken English, but with not one recognizable syllable. There is no way you can tell the child that if language had been a melody, he had mastered it and done well, but that since it was in fact a sense, he had botched it utterly.

Today I watched and heard a wren, a sparrow, and the mockingbird singing. My brain started to trill why why why, what is the meaning meaning meaning? It's not that they know something we don't; we know much more than they do, and surely they don't even know why they sing. No; we have been as usual asking the wrong question. It does not matter a hoot what the mockingbird on the chimney is singing. ... The real question is: Why is it beautiful? 

It's beautiful because it is a gift, straight from the imagination and nature of an infinite God. It is beautiful because He made this world and all He placed in it for His glory and for our benefit. We have been tasked with the responsibility of tending and keeping this world; of living in it; we are not mere property managers, but witnesses of the very personality of God as revealed in His creation. We must steward the beauty and wonder of it in addition to simply guarding against abuse, for beauty and wonder are in the Creator's nature. Today I am challenged to stop my foolish, self-centered bustling --those things I think are so relevant (like the garbled speech of a child delivered with passion but lacking real meaning) --and learn the beauty of the people and the world around me by looking for our Father's character in it.   

Midweek: Steps Five, Six, and Seven

Our dog sheds. A lot! My husband vacuums. A lot! It really is a symbiotic relationship. He likes to vacuum, and Luci provides the motivation. There's just one additional component. Each time my husband vacuums --or at least most of the time --I am apprised of his plunder (voluntarily or no) as he empties the canister. I just vacuumed yesterday and --did you see (displaying the container for my benefit) --do you see how much hair is in here?! Since yesterday! It's half-full! How is this even possible?! The second time he says "see" it is punctuated that I might actually look up from what I'm doing and see. I acknowledge his offense, and he is then free to dump the spoils of his labor.

Step Five: I admitted to God, to myself, and to another human being the exact nature of my wrongs. 

Step Six: I was entirely ready to have God remove all the wrongs of my past life.

Step Seven: I humbly asked Him to remove these wrongs.

All those things we explored, the results of our searching and fearless moral inventory; the answers we sought as we identified the wrongs we suffered, the wrongs we committed in our past life --these things we have collected and collated, the things we have admitted and recognized as being detrimental to us, these must be unloaded.

If my husband was to vacuum day after day without purging the repository of its collected debris, the vacuum would clog and would be rendered unable to do its job. Build-up would occur. The vacuum might eventually break altogether. It certainly would be unable to receive anything else.

The garbage we accumulate as we live in a fallen world, even the wrongs we have committed toward others must be addressed. Once addressed, they must be dumped. The anger that builds in response to abuse, the shame that takes root in response to the betrayal of a friend --these are things we must confess. Yes, I allowed this to hold me in bitterness. Yes, I did that in order to score. And admission is liberating, but we must be liberated even further by submitting to the liberation of the cross, Jesus Christ, the Power greater than ourselves. We must submit these wrongs to the standard of a perfect, holy God, a standard we can never hope to meet by our own efforts; but a standard that has been met by our Savior, Jesus Christ. We claim the blood of Jesus over these things, knowing He has purchased our forgiveness by His own body. We speak these wrongs aloud that we might be emptied of them and prepared to receive all God has intended for us. We expose our dirt to the Light of the World, Jesus, asking that we be forgiven and made new; and we ask others to pray for us and hold us accountable in our wrongs and the obsessive behaviors which resulted. We want to remain clean and free to receive the newness of life in Jesus as we submit to the work of the Holy Spirit to the glory of the Father. 

Collecting Luci's daily flotsam and jetsam is important. We don't want to live in that, suffering from allergies and finding fur in everything from our towels to our tomato soup. But we don't --or, rather, my husband doesn't go around collecting in order to preserve it for posterity. It's acknowledged, contained, and discarded, a byproduct of life. As are the wrongs that occur in this world. But stand back, pay attention, See!, when we are made empty of our grief, our fear, our rage, our resentment --the byproducts of life --and we partner with Jesus and a trusted confidant, we will be filled with fullness of joy and have life in abundance!

        

Praying for Revival

Have you heard all the talk about a revival? I've heard it for years, and on some level, it wearies me. True, the winds have definitely shifted, and there are lines being drawn (Not always a good thing). It is becoming clearer who stands for what, and those hidden or asleep are beginning to come into the light. But the talk of revival shouldn't be something we just stand back and appreciate like a work of art. It should embolden each of us to do more, to say more. Jesus didn't sit on the sidelines, and neither should we. We can't host a Superbowl party and brag how it helped our team win. 

In his book, Why Revival Tarries, Leonard Ravenhill said:

Poverty-stricken as the Church is today in many things, she is most stricken here, in the place of prayer. We have many organizers, but few agonizers; many players and payers, few pray-ers; many singers, few clingers; lots of pastors, few wrestlers; many fears, few tears; much fashion, little passion; many interferers, few intercessors; many writers, but few fighters. Failing here, we fail everywhere.

The two prerequisites to successful Christian living are vision and passion, both of which are born in and maintained by prayer. The ministry of preaching is open to few; the ministry of prayer—the highest ministry of all human offices—is open to all.

Revival begins in each of us. If your life is lacking in vision, chances are, it's lacking in prayer. If your worship is lacking passion, chances are, your life is lacking in prayer. Prayer is not only open to but required of every Christian servant. In prayer revival starts. It is as simple as that! No need to set up a tent or pass out flyers. No need to take Bible courses or get yourself a street corner and a megaphone. Revival is labor-intensive, but not always in a visible way. Revival happens in our prayer closets, in the silence and depth of our hearts. Because, when revival occurs, it occurs in us first. Only then can we take our newness of life wherever we go. Only then can we honestly, straightforwardly share our newness of life with the masses. If I am truly filled to overflow with the mercy of God, I will treat others with mercy. If I am truly filled to overflow with the joy of the Holy Spirit, those around me will be bathed in it. If we want to fill our churches, we have to fill our lives with the practice of prayer. That our hearts would be made pure. That our behavior would not be contrived, not summoned up at the sight of a Pride parade or a teen wearing a pentagram; but that our behavior would truly reflect the fullness and compassion in our hearts. That we would surrender regularly to the Holy Spirit's examination and conviction. That those who hear (or see) our message will be made ready in advance to receive Jesus. That those who resist the message, their rejection would not last longer than their life. That those who attempt test what is in us will discover integrity.  

Revival's most effective tool is prayer. Because, yes, God through our prayers reforms and revives circumstances; but, most of all, prayer reforms and revives us.