Yea! I get to blog a bit. A scene from Chariots of Fire comes to mind when Eric Liddell shares that when he runs he feels "the pleasure of God". I know something of that when I express through the written word. So yea, I get to blog.
One side comment before launching forward....by writing infrequently, I have little to no recall of things I may have already said in an earlier post. Like the comment about Liddell and what he said. I know I have thought that before and now I suspect I may have well said it here, on 500' Flyby before. Not that big of a deal except I am really wanting not to become one of those old duffers who tells the same stories every time you see them, blissfully unaware they have so shared the same thing before. Lord, please spare me from this.
Sometimes it can seem like there is no end in sight for certain of life's struggles, no reprieve from battling the same stuff, falling through the same old trap doors into the primordial ooze of your own making. But then, without any special fanfare, a breakthrough of sorts. It was unexpected and comes along with a strong tendency of mine to minimize lest I overrate it. But doggone it, when a bit of a corner seems to have been turned it's only right to declare it. And so I will.
Without summarizing the concept or discipline, several authors have written about practicing the presence of God (PPOG) on a moment by moment basis. Brother Lawrence may be the most well known name in this regard. His approach is detailed in his book, so cleverly entitled The Practice of the Presence of God. I read it many years ago (and am spending time in it again). I remember being impressed by the austerity of his living in a monastery, the simplicity of his work (which he hated) of washing dishes. I have this affinity with all things austere, simple yet severe.
But for me, the special thing that Father has recently been bringing me to is in part special for how He did it. It started from just one line (OK, maybe two or three) in a book that had been recommended to me by several friends well over a year ago. One of those funny, as in odd, traits of mine is to not do or see or read anything that is being touted too much. I'm the guy who doubles back and sees a wildly popular movie maybe a year after it has long faded from the public eye. How quirky of me (and it would be fun/good to explore what's behind that someday).
Anyhow, some dear friends gifted me a $50 Barnes and Noble gift card as a sort of farewell for a ministry leadership position I felt led to step down from. Well, one of my purchases was this book that had been recommended so enthusiastically so long ago. I loved the book but there was this line on page 106 that just had this light switch kind of an effect on me. It went something like "....you have learned to measure your stability by your circumstances and by your ability to see how things will work out months in advance." Bam, that was for me...it was me, it nailed me!
In the book, the character asks if that is so wrong. The wise sage states that he wouldn't say it's so wrong but "...it's not going to help you walk in this kingdom. When we're looking to the future, we're not listening to Father. The greatest freedom God can give you is to trust his ability to take care of you each day."
Not an overly complex thought but the rightness of it for me, at that moment, kind of rocked my world. I was left in no doubt that I was being specifically guided into this arena, at this time. No accident...divine appointment. You see, for years I have struggled with a vicious cycle of ups and downs that were all so circumstantially based. My permission to be joyful was linked to the quality of my circumstances. To make matters even worse, there was a related lie from the pit of hell that I had unwittingly bought into. It was a linear, causality type of outlook that concluded "good things happening to me, God is pleased with me. Bad things happening, God is torqued with me." Intellectually, I could argue against such thinking with no problem. But emotionally, practically, my life was lived out under the effect of this lie.
Having a pastor who has talked frequently about living in the moment with God has kept this 'PPOG' mindset at least somewhat on my radar (yet never quite embraced until now). The passages from the book had caused me to see the reality of the stronghold that I found myself in. A bondage consisting of looking to circumstances as the source (or block) of my peace/joy index. Closely related, a diabolical habit of trying to control the future while simultaneously feeling lousy about much of the past. Now there is a formula bound to produce a chronic malaise if ever there was one.
For me, it's difficult to speak or even write about this 'practicing the presence'. On one hand, it sounds so zen-like and new age. On the other, it is so simple, so basic that it starts having the feel of 'everything you ever needed to know you learned in kindergarten'. Painfully Christianity 101. Here I am into this faith walk for 35 years and I am just now appreciating how vital it is for me to surrender to God. Perhaps I should be applying to become the new poster child for the Society of Slow Learners.
All self-deprecating humor aside, by living in the moment, knowing that I couldn't be more loved by my Father than I am right now, knowing that He intends life for me and life abundantly, knowing that He desires nothing more than to be invited into each moment and, in so doing, to transform the mundane into the sacred is, for me, an extremely potent paradigm (that's one quarter into the jar for horribly overused words and very long sentences). By collapsing all analysis of the past, by surrendering all speculation concerning the future I am left with the moment. And right there, in the now, stands Jesus, knocking at my heart's door, passionately wanting to be invited into the present to do life together. When I authentically walk with this as my truth, I am so shielded from so much of what used to take me out. If a deal falls through at work, I don't run ahead into the future to project what all this is going to mean for me. I have the moment, only the moment, and Father is in it with me.
Running up ahead, speculating, is one of the ways I have done life since youth. For crying out loud, I can remember sitting in the back seat on the way to the Dr's office, knowing full well I was going to be getting a penicillin shot (they didn't call him 'Penicillin Pete' for nothing). As I anticipated the pain of what was going to happen, I would sit there pinching my arm, rehearsing and preparing, seeking a way to manage the future. It's stuff like that which has followed me into adult life in a more sophisticated yet lame attempt to manage the fallout of life. When I am trying to arrange for the details of my own happy life I am by definition not trusting Father to do so. I guess it's safe to say that if I find myself mentally dwelling in either the past or the future I am not where I am meant to be....present to the now in surrender and trust to my Abba.
It is a bit shocking when I look under my own hood to check for transformation progress. Of course I'm not suggesting that is a good thing for us to be about doing on a regular basis. Nonetheless, it is only natural to think about it every so often. What I have seen with fresh eyes is the truth that what I profess to believe does not necessarily have any correlation with how I live my life. I have seen my double mindedness. On one hand , I give vigorous intellectual assent to what Jesus taught and philosophically embrace it on every level. Yet there seems to be a separate compartment from which I actually live out so pathetically many aspects of my life. Looked at from this vantage point, I see myself living as though there really isn't an all-caring, all-loving Father in whom I can trust. Instead there are only my frantic efforts to provide for myself and to suck what I need out of the marrow of those around me. Mmmmm, harsh but more true than not. I believe that bringing my beliefs and how I live my life into alignment is possible. However, I suspect that this will only be possible to the degree Father has been given my full surrender and trust thus giving Him the freedom to align me from the inside out.
Yikes, this has grown quite long. Perhaps blog-length is just not sufficient to wrestle with producing the words of what this is and what all it is meant to mean for how I do life moving forward from here. The wicked witch had it sort of right..."Surrender Dorothy" is not a bad thing to do when one is surrendering to the Creator of the universe. The peace and joy that is reportedly associated with what I have for years professed to believe has been elusive at best. There is little to none of it when I am busy trying to choreograph the details of life into a nice Santiago dance. Surrender and dependence, on one hand so un-American sounding, so politically incorrect. But in the Kingdom economy, things operate in such profoundly different patterns. In a Kingdom where "When I am weak, then I am strong" is true, only a close walk with the King of the dome will suffice.
Surrender brings freedom and dependence allows for the byproduct of joy. No child concentrates on joy...it just comes along for the ride in the process of trusting that father means only well. My Father is like that...be that child Santiago....be that child.
