For What Was I Created or ...

“For what was I created?” or, “For such a time as this?”

Our majority culture as well as contemporary church culture will often encourage us to explore the gifts and abilities that make us who we are and challenge us to do those things for which we are uniquely created. That is, we are told to find out who we are and the thing for which we were created. We are told that true fulfillment in life is only found in doing those things for which we have been created as if there was only one thing we could do. I have certainly espoused this philosophy, and, indeed such an approach has validity.

However, today I would ask us to consider another way of looking at these things. There are times when we need to consider whether we have been made, “for such a time as this.” In the ancient book of Esther (written in approximately 330 BCE), Mordecai asks Esther to consider if it is not “for such a time as this” that she has been made queen in the courts of King Xerxes (Esther4:14). This was the appropriate question for her and may sometimes be the question for our lives. We are placed in a world that needs truth and grace - justice and love - and there are judicious times when you or I may be the perfect person to be the expression of God’s love in our world. It is a question worth asking ourselves: “Am I here for such a time as this?”

There is But One Good

“There is but one good; that is God. Everything else is good when it looks to Him and bad when it turns from Him.”
C.S. Lewis in The Great Divorce (1945)

C.S. Lewis (1898-1963) was brilliant at saying things in ways that make sense and challenge our thoughts. The thought expressed in the previous quote is one which flows through much of my writing and is particularly evident in the novel I have written. To some who read this blog, God is someone that they have come to know and are beginning to understand. To other readers, God is a concept to which they find their minds returning again and again. Still others would say they can no longer believe in a God of any sort. Most of us believe in “good;” and “good” directs us toward something. The question that remains for each of us relates to the direction in which we are pointed. Does “good” point us toward humanity; the universe; or to God? May our hearts and minds lead us to the truth.

Tomorrow, You're Always a Day Away

How do we go about living in the present? It seems that we are always either living in the past or looking at the future. How do I stay focused on this moment right here as my fingers dance over the keyboard of my laptop computer?

Wendell Berry speaking of universities said, 

“It was preparing people from the world of the past for the world of the future, and what was missing was the world of the present, where every body was living its small, short, surprising, miserable, wonderful, blessed, damaged, only life.”

 We all too readily race ahead to tomorrow, only to find that the tomorrow to which we raced has become yesterday. Jesus of Nazareth said, 

“So don’t worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring its own worries. Today’s trouble is enough for today.” Matthew 6:34 New Living Translation.

Those are good words by which to live.

Celebrate This Heartbeat

The older I get the more precious time becomes. This morning as I was walking from my condo to my parking place, I realized I was cursing the amount of time it was taking me to get there. Minutes matter. I love life and I find that I don’t want to waste a single second; but, what does it mean to waste time?

Is down-time wasted time? When I watch a movie; when I sleep; when I make food; are these wasted moments? No, of course not! Perhaps it is those moments that we don’t enjoy that are the wasted moments. I have no trouble working hard, playing hard, or relaxing hard. I guess what I want to avoid is the moments that I do not enjoy. But even then, I realize that when I am visiting a loved one in the hospital or going through the grief of the death of a friend, I can make the most of these moments and even enjoy them at a certain level. I am remembering the memories of better times; I enjoy the sweet moments we have as life gets hard and the body hangs in the balance between this world and the next.

It comes down to this, I want to celebrate each hour; each minute; each second; each and every heartbeat. If I can live in such a way that even the moments walking from my condo to my car are celebrated, redeemed, and made significant, then my life will truly be good. It is about gratitude for each heartbeat; about choosing to enjoy moments rather than waiting for enjoyment to come. Give me a few weeks of seeking to live this way and I will let you know how it is going. In the meantime, listen to these words by Randy Stonehill.

CELEBRATE THIS HEARTBEAT

(Listen while you read)

I'm gonna celebrate this heartbeat

Cause it just might be my last

Everyday is a gift from the Lord on high

And they all go by so fast

I'm not shy, I won't hide

The happy way I feel inside

There's a love light shining down on me

And it's true, I can't lie

There is more to life than meets the eye

So I want to live each moment faithfully, yeah

I'm gonna celebrate this heartbeat

Cause it just might be my last

Everyday is a gift from the Lord on high

and they all go by so fast

So many people drifting in a dream

I only want to live the real thing

I'm gonna celebrate this heartbeat

And keep movin' on

Look toward tomorrow cause the past is gone

If I laugh, it's no crime

I've got great news on my mind

It's a hope that never fades way

Now I don't understand

All the mysteries of the master plan

But I'm sure the Master does

So that's okay, yeah

I'm gonna celebrate this heartbeat

Cause it just might be my last

Everyday is a gift from the Lord on high

And they all go by so fast

So many people drifting in the night

(Lonely people in the night)

I'm gonna keep the Morning Star in sight, alright

Celebrate this heartbeat and keep movin' on

Look toward tomorrow cause the past is gone

This world is in so much trouble

All of the sadness can break you down

But if you're ever going to change it

You must show them the love you've found

Hey now, everyday is a gift from the Lord on high

And they all go by so fast

So many people drifting in a dream

(Find the life that love can bring)

I only want to live the real thing

I'm gonna celebrate this heartbeat

And keep movin' on

Look toward tomorrow cause

The past is gone

I said the past is gone

Yeah, you know the past is gone

Oh yeah, oh, the past is gone

Movin' on

Written By Randy Stonehill

© Copyright 1984 by Stonehillian Music & Word Music (a division of Word, Inc.) (ASCAP)

Winter is Coming

"A Hazy Shade of Winter" (listen to it here) was written by Paul Simon in the early sixties and appears on Simon & Garfunkel's fourth studio album, Bookends (1968). The song is a metaphor for a life which draws upon the transition from fall to winter. It speaks of a person who once had great hope, but as time goes on, hope is slowly transitioning to uncertainty. There is a haze through which the writer cannot see clearly. He listens to the Salvation Army Band for inspiration but it is unclear if this gives him any peace. Ultimately, he rejects the message of salvation and turns back to his vodka and lime while reading his collection of incomplete rhymes. It is a mid-life crisis song in which the singer wonders if he has accomplished anything in his life and longs for something more; he longs to be remembered. He recognizes that it should be the springtime of his life, but the patch of snow on the ground tells him that winter is coming.

Hazy Shade of Winter 

Time, time time, see what's become of me

While I looked around for my possibilities

I was so hard to please

But look around

The leaves are brown

And the sky is a hazy shade of winter

Hear the Salvation Army band

Down by the riverside, there's bound to be a better ride

Than what you've got planned

Carry your cup in your hand

And look around you

Leaves are brown, now

And the sky is a hazy shade of winter

Hang on to your hopes, my friend

That's an easy thing to say

But if your hopes should pass away

Simply pretend that you can build them again

Look around

The grass is high

The fields are ripe

It's the springtime of my life

Seasons change with the scenery

Weaving time in a tapestry

Won't you stop and remember me

At any convenient time?

Funny how my memory skips while looking over manuscripts

Of unpublished rhyme

Drinking my vodka and lime 

I look around

Leaves are brown, now

And the sky is a hazy shade of winter

Look around

Leaves are brown

There's a patch of snow on the ground

Look around

Leaves are brown

There's a patch of snow on the ground

Look around

Leaves are brown

There's a patch of snow on the ground

Words and music written by Paul Simon; published by Universal Music Publishing Group ©.

How We Spend Our Days

“How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives.” - Annie Dillard, The Writing Life

“How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives; and how we spend our lives, of course, determines the person we become.” - Keith Shields, Thirst

If I spend my days writing, I will become a writer. If I spend my days leading, I will become a leader. If I spend my days painting, I will become a painter. If I spend my days wasting time on frivolous pursuits, I will become a waster of time.

At a certain point in my life I dreamed of becoming a traveling singer-songwriter who made his living as an entertainer. I spent some time writing songs, singing, and even entertaining. Yet, I spent much more time working as a Lab Scientist in a Molecular Diagnostic Lab, studying theology at Regent College, being a father to my children, and being a husband to my wife. In that time, I became a Lab Scientist, a student, a father, and a husband (occasionally I got the order of these wrong). I did not become a professional entertainer. How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives; and how we spend our lives, of course, determines the person we become.

Today is the day to take a one or two hour meditative break. Get away to a quiet place, alone with your thoughts, and make some decisions about how you want to spend your days, how you want to spend your life, and the person you want to become. One or two hours may not be enough. Perhaps you will need to take two or three days away at a retreat centre in quiet meditation, deep thinking, and active listening to your mind and spirit. Retreats of this nature work best when guided by the ancient words of scripture and the companioning words of others who have been in a similar place. Annie Dillard spent a full year in quiet contemplation on the banks of Tinker Creek, meditating, exploring, and writing about what she saw. In the process, she became an influential writer and penned Pilgrim at Tinker Creek.

Who will you become? Time moves on at a constant pace; but feels ever more rapid. The way we spend our hours, will be the way we spend our days, will be the way we spend our lives, and will determine who we are. Will we be unintentional or intentional about the person we become?

Contributing a Verse

Apple has released a 90 second commercial that features a Walt Whitman poem and narration by Robin Williams. The end of the poem asks the question, "What good . . . [is] me, [is] life?" The answer given is, "That you are here—that life exists and identity, That the powerful play goes on, and you may contribute a verse." (Watch the commercial here.)

O Me! O Life!
(Walt Whitman)
Oh me! Oh life! of the questions of these recurring,
Of the endless trains of the faithless, of cities fill’d with the foolish,
Of myself forever reproaching myself, (for who more foolish than I, and who more faithless?)
Of eyes that vainly crave the light, of the objects mean, of the struggle ever renew’d,
Of the poor results of all, of the plodding and sordid crowds I see around me,
Of the empty and useless years of the rest, with the rest me intertwined,
The question, O me! so sad, recurring—What good amid these, O me, O life?
                                       Answer.
That you are here—that life exists and identity,
That the powerful play goes on, and you may contribute a verse.
- Leaves of Grass (1892)

Whitman can be given credit that there is a kernel of truth in what he said. Every one of us indeed gets to contribute a verse to the great poem of the universe; but, is that a sufficient answer? If life is a play in which I exist, have individuality, and can contribute a verse, who is the audience to whom I play? Is it enough to contribute to something that, in the end, does not have a purpose? Another poetic work says,

So God created human beings in his own image.
    In the image of God he created them;
    male and female he created them.
Then God blessed them and said, “Be fruitful and multiply. Fill the earth and govern it. Reign over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, and all the animals that scurry along the ground.” Genesis 1:27, 28 (New Living Translation).

Psalm 23:6 (in the King James Version for those who, like me, memorized it in this poetic way) says,

The Lord is my shepherd;
I shall not want.
He makes me to lie down in green pastures;
He leads me beside the still waters.
He restores my soul;
He leads me in the paths of righteousness
For His name’s sake.
Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil;
For You are with me;
Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.
You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies;
You anoint my head with oil;
My cup runs over.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me
All the days of my life;
And I will dwell in the house of the Lord
Forever.

Taken together these last two poems suggest that men and women who view God as Lord and shepherd over humankind will look after life on earth and then live with God forever. That is a verse worth contributing. Let those who have ears, hear, and choose the path of life.

Purpose and a Relationship with God

Mark 1:35 says, "Before daybreak the next morning, Jesus got up and went out to an isolated place to pray."
Mark 6:46 says, "After telling everyone good-bye, he went up into the hills by himself to pray."
Mark 14:32-42 gives us the account of Jesus spending the entire night in deep prayer.

Those who read this blog regularly will recognize that sometimes I speak as a science enthusiast and sometimes as a pastor. This will be a pastoral post.

Our purpose in life will flow out of our relationship with God. In order to do great things, we must first have a deep relationship with our Lord. In order to serve this world our senses must be finely tuned to Jesus. This requires that we constantly pay attention to the Spirit of God and avoid other things which crowd out our sense of God. My language here is intentionally Trinitarian.

Some of us spend time daily reading the Bible and praying. Another necessity is solitude. We will benefit from taking time to get away from distractions. Might I suggest that on a weekly basis you leave your electronics behind and spend a few minutes in a quiet place. Once or twice a year plan a retreat in which you work hard at listening to God. Our goal is to determine our unique place in the work to which God is calling us. Our goal is to determine where we are at, right now, and then determine how we can get to the place to which Jesus is calling us.

Unlived Things

No one lives his life.
Disguised since childhood,
haphazardly assembled
from voices and fears and little pleasures,
we come of age as masks.
Our true face never speaks
Somewhere there must be storehouses
Where all these lives are laid away
like suits of armor or old carriages
or clothes hanging limply on the walls.
All paths lead there,
to the repository of unlived things.

–Rainer Maria Rilke*


*As quoted at Empire Remixed

True Religion

I had coffee with a friend yesterday. He lamented that it seemed to him that many people rally under the Christian banner but then argue and disagree about a lot of small things. I agreed. It would be nice if we could create a place where people could enter into community and agree to be about the business of the important things of God. Perhaps we could work on the things upon which we agree and ignore some of the small things for a while. Once we got the big rocks in place then we could consider the placement of the pebbles. What might that look like? A few passages from the Bible come to mind.

I passed on to you what was most important and what had also been passed on to me. Christ died for our sins, just as the Scriptures said. He was buried, and he was raised from the dead on the third day, just as the Scriptures said. He was seen by Peter and then by the Twelve. After that, he was seen by more than 500 of his followers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have died. Then he was seen by James and later by all the apostles. - 1 Corinthians 15: 3-7 (New Living Translation - NLT)

Understand this, my dear brothers and sisters: You must all be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to get angry. Human anger does not produce the righteousness God desires. So get rid of all the filth and evil in your lives, and humbly accept the word God has planted in your hearts, for it has the power to save your souls.
But don’t just listen to God’s word. You must do what it says. Otherwise, you are only fooling yourselves. For if you listen to the word and don’t obey, it is like glancing at your face in a mirror. You see yourself, walk away, and forget what you look like. But if you look carefully into the perfect law that sets you free, and if you do what it says and don’t forget what you heard, then God will bless you for doing it.
If you claim to be religious but don’t control your tongue, you are fooling yourself, and your religion is worthless. Pure and genuine religion in the sight of God the Father means caring for orphans and widows in their distress and refusing to let the world corrupt you. - James 1: 19-27. (NLT)

No, O people, the Lord has told you what is good, and this is what he requires of you: to do what is right, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God. Micah 6:8. (NLT)

It seems to me that there is enough in those few verses to keep a community busy for a long time. What do you think? What are some of the big rocks with which we might start?

God Knew Us

Before it ever crossed our minds that God might be important, God singled us out as important. Before we were formed in the womb, God knew us. We are known before we know.
This realization has a practical result: no longer do we run here and there. Our lives are not puzzles to be figured out. Rather, we come to God, who knows us and reveals to us the truth of our lives. The fundamental mistake is to begin with ourselves and not God. God is the center from which all life develops. If we use our ego as the center from which to plot the geometry of our lives, we will live eccentrically.
All wise reflection corroborates Scripture here. We enter a world we didn’t create. We grow into a life already provided for us. We arrive in a complex of relationships with other wills and destinies that are already in full operation before we are introduced. If we are going to live appropriately, we must be aware that we are living in the middle of a story that was begun and will be concluded by another. And this other is God.
My identity does not begin when I begin to understand myself. There is something previous to what I think about myself, and it is what God thinks of me. That means that everything I think and feel is by nature a response, and the one to whom I respond is God. I never speak the first word. I never make the first move.

- Eugene H. Peterson, Run With the Horses (Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 1983), p. 38.

Jeremiah 1:5 I knew you before I formed you in your mother’s womb. Before you were born I set you apart and appointed you as my prophet to the nations.