Name:Stacy Country:United States State:Nebraska Metro:Lincoln Birthday:January 15, 1981 Gender:Female
Interests:Jesus, China, Missions, Politics, and Changing the World! Expertise:Crossing my eyes and blinking one eye at a time :) Occupation:Administrative Assistant Industry:Government
I was reading through some scripture this morning and had an interesting realization. Do you ever read a scripture and hear a scripture so many times that it just becomes old hat, but you read it again and you realize there is something in that section of scripture that always seems to get over-looked or left out.
The prime example of this to me is psalm 46:10…You know “Be still and know that I am G-D.”It is almost always left at that. It is easy to believe that is the complete verse. People use it to take comfort in all sorts of situations. But when you put it back into context and actually bother to complete the verse, it does (in some ways) change the meaning.
Psalm 46:10
"Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth."
Now, don’t get me wrong. People should take comfort because of this verse. I know I do. I take comfort because I realize that regardless of my effort or failure to exalt Him among the nations, He will be exalted among the nations. That gives me great rest as I toil and am tempted to beat myself up for not doing enough. In the context of the psalm the traditional interpretation of this verse doesn’t seem to fit well.Anyway, my point is that people may not be doing any real theological damage by misinterpreting these verses, but I feel like they are missing out on the fullness of it when that happens.
I had one of these realizations this morning…that I had been missing out on the fullness of a commonly used verse.
I’m a worrier by nature, and people have always quoted Philippinas 4: 6-7 to combat my concern:
Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to G-D. And the peace of G-D which surpasses all comprehension will guard your heart sand your minds in Christ Jesus.
OK…it’s a good verse to combat worry, I understand that. Intellectually I submit to this verse and believe it’s true. Emotionally it’s a little harder, as a worrier to be anxious for nothing. This section of scripture has two commands that are really hard to live up to on an emotional level…Rejoice in the Lord Always, and Be anxious for nothing.
But I noticed something cool this morning that I had never noticed or heard before. No one sees the need to quote this part when they tell me to be anxious for nothing. There is a small little phrase in verse 5 that changes everything for me:
The Lord is near.
Here it is in context:
Philippians 4:4-7 (New American Standard Bible)
4Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice! 5Let your gentle spirit be known to all men. The Lord is near. 6Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. 7And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
This little phrase in the middle of those commands almost reads like a therefore phrase. The Lord is near, THEREFORE be anxious for nothing.It’s hard for me to be anxious for nothing just because it’s commanded of me. But if someone says The G-D of the universe who provides all your needs, who has loved you from the foundation of time, who knitted you together in your mother’s womb, who sent his son to make a way for you to be reconciled to Him, who knows when a hair falls from your head and knows exactly which hair fell from your head, who feeds the birds and dresses the flowers of the field…That G-D is near to you, so don’t be anxious.
It seems silly that this is a fairly recent realization for me, but I’m noticing more and more that there are no commands given without the promise of his nearness, or some sort of comfort. It amazes me. G-D knows that we are intellectual beings that are also emotional. He knows that in order for us to live out his commands he must empower us to do so through his Holy Spirit. He is so good.
So friends….Be anxious for nothing, because He is near!
Continuing my series on blogging through the book Sacred Rhythms by Ruth Haley Barton.
Chapter 5 was a good one, and it was one that I particularly enjoyed because I felt like G-D had allowed me to experience some of these principles during my retreat weekend.
• Many of the principles in this chapter are taken from the story of Elijah in 1 Kings 19. This takes place after the spiritual high he experienced when G-D consumed the sacrifice, then Jezebel puts a hit out on his life and he ran like crazy. He winds up exhausted and discouraged in the wilderness. He falls asleep under a broom tree. • In this chapter Barton discusses the spiritual discipline of caring for the physical body. This is not a discipline that is typically associated with spiritual disciplines like prayer and scripture reading, but the others are not possible without this one. • She discusses how when Elijah falls asleep from exhaustion that an Angel of the Lord comes and wakes him up and tells him to eat and drink, and he does. Then the amazing thing is Elijah rolls over and goes back to bed. The text does not say that the Angel of the Lord shook him again and said…You’ve slept long enough get up man”. The text implies that he left him to sleep for a while, and then came back a second time to wake him up. This time the Angel of the Lord says, "Get up and eat, for the journey is too much for you." And strengthened by that food, he got up and traveled for 40 days and nights, and got back on track with G-D’s plan. • Essentially what Elijah was experiencing was burn out. We’ve all been there, some of us more aware of it than others. I think it’s important to note that it’s apparent that G-D knew he needed to rest, and he needed good food and water to strengthen him, after all, G-D made Elijah. • But many of us are guilty of neglecting our body, thinking it’s so temporal that it’s not worth spending time on when there are spiritual matters to attend to. And believe me, I am mostly describing myself here, because I’m more guilty of this than most. • I feel like I have to learn this lesson over and over and over. As soon as I start to feel healthy again I tend to run my body into the ground. I am sitting here still dealing with issues with my voice. I sprained my ankle severely and was considering putting off physical therapy for it, when a good friend intervened in that poor plan. When I get busy the first things to go are healthy options because I don’t take time to cook, and I cut out exercise because it takes time and energy, even though both of those things would actually help my energy levels. I really am a failure in so many ways, but thankfully G-D gives me an enormous amount of grace and helps to heal my body even when I’m being foolish. • Here are a few quotes from the chapter that I absolutely loved.
“The spiritual discipline of honoring the body helps us find our way between the excesses of a culture that glorifies and objectifies the body and the excesses of Christian tradition that have often denigrated and ignored the body. As we become more intentional about finding this middle way, we will be surprised by the spontaneous combustion that comes when aspects of ourselves that were always meant to exist as an integrated whole finally come together in a way that produces great joy and vitality.”
“Most times, our body is the first to know if we are overcommitted, stressed, uneasy or joyful, and when we need to attend to something that is causing us pain or disease.” [This is why listening to our body is so critical]
“If I experience a particular activity as being inordinately draining, I begin to consider very carefully how much of myself G-D wants me to give to that. On the other hand, if I feel particularly energized by a certain person or activity, I can pay attention to how G-D may be leading me to incorporate more of that into my life”
“Moments of physical activity and exercise can become prayers of gratitude and moments of consecration. Eating food that we enjoy and is healthful for us can be the occasion of experiencing G-D’s care for us, reminding us of our dependency on Him and of His faithfulness to care for our needs. By scheduling at least some of our meals at times when we can eat slowly and prayerfully, we can make mealtimes occasions of true communion and gratitude.” (I love this one because while I was on my retreat, I worked out 4 times and it just felt great, and my heart was over-whelmed with gratitude that I was free and able to move like that. When I was 100 lbs heavier I could not and I felt like a prisoner).
So the over all point here is that G-D wants us to care for our bodies because it’s directly connected to our souls. We are whole beings, not compartmentalized so we must thing of spiritual disciplines as the things we do to care for our entire being, so our entire being can experience life with G-D to the fullest!
• I am finally continuing my series on the chapters of the book Sacred Rhythms by Ruth Haley Barton • Just like spiritual disciplines, countless books have been written on prayer, and I’ve read many of them. • As a reminder, Barton approaches the disciplines through the lens of our desires and not obligation or achieving holiness. • It’s no different when she discusses the discipline of prayer. • A few years ago I experienced something in the area of prayer, that I really struggled to put into words. On the second page of this chapter she described exactly what I experienced. Let me share the two paragraphs that summed up what I experienced. • “…But there comes a time when prayer just doesn’t work as it used to. Our intellectual considerations of the mystery of G-D and our wordy responses no longer feel very satifsfying. For a while we may try to work harder at prayer the way we have always known it, or we may try to find a better method, but no matter how much effort we put into it or how faithful we are, nothing happens. While we have surely experienced times of dryness before, they always seemed to pass, and experiences of intimacy with G-D would return. But this time is different. This time we seem to have no control over what does or does not happen in our life with G-D. This is very traumatic for the tender soul and may send us spiraling into doubt about our spirituality, wondering if we have completely lost our way. As times goes by, we may even become angry at G-D for not making himself known to us in ways that are as “knowable” as they were before-especially since we are trying so hard to be faithful. Confusion and questions about how to connect with G-D set in, and the emptiness seems too much to bear. We wonder if we have somehow fallen off the spiritual path. There has to be more to the spiritual life than this! the soul cries out in deep disillusionment. The ability to pray eludes us, and for the first time we know—really know—that we do not know how to pray as we ought.” • As I stated, a few years ago I experienced this very phenomenon and it was brutal. I tried to spend more and more time in prayer to try to get my groove back, so to speak. I would try and avoid praying in public because I just felt like I had no words and it was terrifying to me. I loved Jesus dearly, but just didn’t know what to say anymore. • As I started learning what it meant to rest in G-D and be confident in His goodness regardless of what I was “feeling”, I stopped laboring in my prayer and just sought G-D because I wanted his nearness. When I did that, I found that what needed to be developed was my listening in prayer and not my ability to tell Him what I and others needed Him to do. • This is exactly where Barton goes with the chapter when she writes: “ Prayer means letting G-D’s creative love touch the most hidden places of our being and prayer means listening with attentive, undivided hearts to the inner movement of the Spirit of Jesus, even when that Spirit leads us to places we would rather not go.” • One of the tough things to swallow in this chapter is the idea that in order to grow in prayer, we have to be willing to let G-D set the agenda in prayer. In theory we all agree with this idea, in practice we shy away from this. • See, if G-D gets to set the agenda, He might not want to talk about what I’m worried about! What if He wants to talk about my sin that I’m not willing to let go of? What if I don’t get to ask Him to help that person I work with to quit being a jerk?…. You see where I’m going with this? The fact is, that most of us have been trained and have learned that praying is asking G-D to give us things, change our circumstances, meet our needs, or provide for others in some way. None of those things are wrong necessarily, but we often don’t find prayer very satisfying because we aren’t really interacting with our Maker, we’re just submitting our requests. • Our Father longs to interact with us. The fact is that He loves us dearly. Our concern that if we let Him set the agenda, we won’t like what happens is unfounded, and shows that deep down we don’t believe He is good. • The fact is that He loves us enough to bring up what is truly plaguing us, because He knows deep down we long to be free. I also can say, from experience when we interact and we choose to listen, He invites us to share our concerns with him. Just as an earthy father notices when his child is scared or worried and will ask “what’s the problem”, our Heavenly Father who knows the depth of our hearts will invite us to share what concerns us. • One of the things she suggests is to develop what is called a “breath prayer”. This is a short prayer that can be said with the rhythm of our breath. The examples she uses are “Jesus, I love you” or “Lord have mercy on me”. These short prayers can be said to refocus our mind or when we are over-whelmed and don’t know what to pray for ourselves or for others. • This is should be very personal to you and G-D, the idea is to promote intimacy. It may take you a long time to determine what your breath prayer should be. As you sit in the presence of G-D, it will generally come out of your deepest desire. • I found this to be a very important concept that I took from the book. I find when I am getting over-whelmed or I’m about to choose fear instead of trust that I can often pray my breath prayer and will instantly be refocused and reminded of WHO controls my life! I also find my breath prayer very powerful when I am facing temptation. • Finally the last thing I wanted to hit on from this chapter is what about intercession? Don’t we have to set the agenda if we are to properly intercede for people? I can’t use simple little prayers when I’m praying specifically for people can I? • I love Barton’s thoughts on intercession. I will just share this paragraph on intercession and because she sums it up so well: o “Intercessory prayer is not primarily about believing we know what someone else needs and then trying to tell G-D what the answer is. It is not about wrestling some result from G-D. Intercessory prayer is more about recognizing that we do not know how to pray for others—or ourselves for that matter—but the holy Spirit knows. Since we understand that the Holy Spirit is already interceding for us before the throne of grace, we can bring a name or a need, express it simply and in the silence experience our own groaning and the Holy Spirit’s groaning for that person. We can listen for the prayer that is already being prayed for that person before the throne of grace, and without struggling hard to put things into words, we can enter into G-D’s caring love for that person and wait with them and for them in G-D’s presence. This is a wonderful way to release our burdens to G-D”
• I just have to say that learning this has freed me so much. I am guilty of picking up people’s burdens and trying to carry them myself until they are resolved. I am learning that our Father is far more in tune and aware of the need than I am even able to express to Him, so I can take rest and comfort in that, as I enter into caring for those I am interceding for!
• Solitude and Silence is the first rhythm she discusses in the book (Sacred Rhythms). This was my favorite chapter, maybe because it was the most challenging chapter for me. It made me uncomfortable in so many ways, but it was because she was hitting on exactly where I strugge. • If you are in an introvert, chances are, you’ve mastered this discipline. • I am an extreme extrovert. I absolutely thrive on interacting with people. So, I’ve always tended to avoid solitude because a sense of loneliness can over-take me quickly. • The thing I had to believe and come to terms with was that I was not entering true solitude because in that solitude and silence, I was going to be able to meet and hear my maker. • The major purpose of this discipline is to disconnect from our over-stimulating patterns in our lives (email, tv, cell phones, ipods, crackberries, our pace, calendars, children, family, people, co-workers…you get the picture) so we can settle in and be refreshed by our maker, who knows and understands what we truly need and long for. o She puts it this way: • “Solitude is an opportunity to interrupt this cycle by turning off the noise and stimulation of our lives so that we can hear our loneliness and our longing calling us deeper into the only relationship that can satisfy our longing.”
• When she said so that we can hear our loneliness, I cringed. As an extrovert that’s the last thing I want to come face-to-face with. • I started to warm up to the idea of solitude and silence, but she absolutely convinced me when I read the next couple of quotes, that identified exactly why I felt so empty and exhausted: • Most of us are far more tired than we know at the soul level” o After discussing a story where Jesus is trying to get the disciples to stop ministering for a bit and go spend some time in solitude she says this: • “Jesus knows how quickly our passions, even the most noble, can wear us out if we’re not careful. I think he also understands that the sources of our exhaustion are many and complex and often we are completely unaware of how they are taking their toll.”
• She nailed it on the head for me. I spent a long time serving in areas of ministry that I was most passionate about, with this strange belief that because it was something G-D was passionate about that he’d just supply and endless amount of energy for me to do so. I also started working a couple of extra jobs to pay down my debt more quickly so, I could pursue what I’m most passionate about. • My passions are all good things that G-D has totally called me to, but I desperately needed to rest and spend time away from those things. Jesus knew that and practiced it in his own ministry. He modeled it for his disciples. I, like the disciples, can be very slow on the uptake sometimes though. • I hate to admit it but I had reached burnout about 8 months ago and the recovery process has been slow and painful. I told a dear friend at one point that I did not want to end up hating the things I was most passionate about (missions, serving the poor, etc.).
Where I go from here? • G-D has called us to rest, and particularly to rest in him. I’m trying to learn that. • Since this was the most challenging aspect for me, I went to Amazon Marketplace (my new favorite place for books) and found a super cheap copy of Invitation to Solitude and Silence, By Ruth Haley Barton (who also wrote Sacred Rhythms). I will work my way through this book and see what G-D teaches me. • Finally, and this one if my favorite. In fact, it sort of amuses me. G-D has a great sense of humor and impeccable timing. • As some of you know (or have read on my blog) I have been losing my voice since march. I finally went to an Ear, Nose and Throat specialist. After many horrible scopes put up my nose and down my throat to look at my vocal chords, they realized that I have 3 nodules on my vocal chords. • Because I’ve had symptoms since March, and it’s now July, they were concerned that the nodules had hardened and I could do permanent damage if we don’t take care of them. • So, I have been put on 2 weeks of very intensive voice rest. Which means no talking unless absolutely necessary and I have warmed up my vocal chords (which entails doing silly exercises, like I’m preparing to sing an aria). • I also have to do an additional 4 weeks of voice rest, that’s not quite as intensive. I can speak for a few hours a day, but I need to warm up my vocal chords and rest as much as I can. • So, 6 weeks of relative silence (and by default a sort of solitude because it’s hard to communicate too much writing notes). • Ha, Ha, Ha. G-D really does have a sense of humor, but He also really loves me!
