Why God Doesn’t Talk to You

Recenly, I knocked out Dallas Willard’s Hearing God and The Practice of the Presence of God by Brother Lawrence.  Both books deal with communicating with God, and have a lot of insight on the barriers and benefits to it.

Willard suggests that rather than asking the question, “Why doesn’t God talk to me?” we should ask the question “Why should God talk to me?”  As he always does, Willard breaks these mystical concepts into clear relational processes.  We never ask the question, why would a stranger, who I have no interaction with talk to me?  Rather, we will here from God, as we do life with him in the kingdom.

Although I have some struggles with the image of piety that Brother Lawrence projects, he offers an excellent example of how to do life with God.  He spent much of his life in a kitchen.  He would start his time there with prayer, asking God to be with him as he made omelets.  Afterward, he would review his day, what went well, what did not, and share that with God.

Maybe God just wants to be treated like everyone else who is a major part of your life.

Tags: 40 Books in 2010, Dallas Willard, Hearing God, prayer, The Practice of the Presence of God, Willard

Camp Review

I’m back in Austin after a great week with the crew from Wildside at Daybreak Camp in northern California.  It was great to be in the mountains, hang out with old friends and make some new ones, and talk about our Shepherd.

The theme of the camp was Epic, and it is modeled after the book Hinds Feet on High Places.  Each morning, the campers would visit an “altar,” where I shared a portion of the allegory, and they had a time of prayer and reflection.  In the evening, they revisited a changed altar, and I shared about some corresponding topics from scripture.  (That’s me speaking in the “Valley of Humiliation.”)

We talked about pride, loneliness, peacemaking, giving up your burdens, dying to self, and being a new creation.  May sound heavy for middle schoolers, but the kids handled it well.

Props to the directors for an incredibly imaginative Camp, and letting me be a small part of it.

Hope vs. Reality

Although I don’t often feel sorry for myself on the blog, I have to say that it’s been a rough year.  Make that year and a half.

Intrinsic in faith is living with a few assumptions:

1) There’s more going on than what I see and feel.

2) Things will get better, eventually.

3) When they do, I will see the dark times as a short, forgettable moment before the fun began.

Over a year ago I started marking any verse in my Bible that promised hope.  Faith tells me that these represent the reality of how things really are, and someday will be.

“The Lord is close to the brokenhearted, and saves those who are crushed in spirit.

The righteous may have many troubles, but the Lord delivers from them all;

He protects their bones, not one will be broken.” Psalm 34:19-20

“I was young and now I am old, yet I have never seen the righteous forsaken or their children begging bread.” Psalm 37:25

“When my spirit grows faint within me, it is you who watch over my way” Psalm 142:3

What promises do you hold on to in the meantime?

What Are Hinds Feet?

Much of the time I spent reading Hinds’ Feet on High Places, I wasn’t exactly sure what a Hind was and why there feet were so special.  The book is an allegorical tale in the tradition of Paul Bunyan, and provides a simple  but meaningful visual aid for understanding the process of sanctification.

The book tells the story of Much Afraid, who lives in the Valley of Humiliation and serves the Chief Shepherd.  She is invited by the Shepherd to follow him to the High Places where she will be given a new name, and strong, nimble feet like the feet of a female deer (hind.)

Along the way Much Afraid is kept company by two companions, Sorrow and Suffering.  She is forced to go through many detours.  On each side trip, she finds herself struggling against he evil relatives, including Pride, Resentment and Craven Fear.  Every time the Shepherd saves her and she creates a small altar on which she sacrifices what is holding her back: self will, pride, etc.

The best part is that the book does not end with Much Afraid’s transformation.  Having been given the Hinds Feet, she looks back into the Valley of Humiliation, and sees her relatives with pity.  She returns home with a new sense of mission, imagining what her family would look like if they, too could be transformed.

Hinds’ Feet provides a much needed understanding of how God changes people.  It is not a story about getting to Heaven, but a story about how to become more like our Chief Shepherd.  The book has reminded me that life is journey, and, if done at his leading, each sacrifice made along the way serves to shape and form us into the image of Christ.

Tags: 40 Books in 2010, Hannah Hurnard, Hinds Feet on High Places

I Don’t Get the World Cup

I’m not really a sports guy. I’ll attempt to play almost anything, and enjoy an occasional day at the ballpark.  But I can think of a million things I’d rather do than spend two hours watching a game.

Not surprisingly, I’m even less interested than the average American in the world’s most popular tournament.

The other day at work, I witnessed two friends watching a game.  One was clueless, and asked a series of questions about how the tournament worked and the rules of the game.  Now, he has something new that he enjoys, and the bond between them has grown.

My attitude is a far cry from that of Jesus, who was born poor and spent thirty years as an average Jew and manual laborer.  This earned him the credibility for three years of meaningful ministry.

I might not get the World Cup, but I do claim to care about my co-workers and neighbors.  Doing so means learning to express interest in what they love and care about join them in that, and celebrate with them.

Tags: futball, Incarnational, mission, Missional, soccer, world cup