Walking to Emmaus Part 2

As they talked and discussed these things, Jesus himself suddenly came and began walking with them. But God kept them from recognizing him. He asked them, “What are you discussing so intently as you walk along?” They stopped short, sadness written across their faces. – Luke 24:15-17

Sadness was written across their faces. They were in retreat from a great hope. They had misunderstood God’s great plan. All their fears, disappointment and sorrows were right there for anyone to see as they walked slowly home.

What’s written all over your face every day? Have you thought about that? I have to stand up in front of classrooms full of college students every day. Most days you’d think they had each just received the news that their pet had been run over by a train. Very doom and gloom, no matter how much circus I try and drag in…I need to get a better book of jokes.

I frequently remind people that our attitudes shape our actions. That’s not hard to believe. What’s more difficult to figure out is how our actions shape our attitudes. People in the fitness world know this. If you can get people to be more physically active, they tend to feel happier. There’s a famous experiment in which people holding a warm cup reported more positive feelings in their rating of an unrelated product than those who were holding a cold drink. The temperature they felt in their hands helped to shape their attitude while forming an opinion about that product.

I’m not suggesting that this couple on the way home to Emmaus should have stopped off at Starbucks first. Actually I want to remind you of some things that you already know:

You and I walk around all day with our attitude written all over our face – what are people reading about us?
We’re not walking away from hope like these two were. Each one of us is walking in hope – does your face show it?
Sure, all of us have ups and downs and even long periods of time when the going gets dark, but if we determine to smile, laugh, move, and look at people, these actions will help to shape our attitude into one that’s more in line with the truth about us.

If you see me walking around with a scowl, just ask me if I’m on my way to Emmaus. That ought to remind me that my face looks like it’s heading in the wrong direction!

I pray that God, the source of hope, will fill you completely with joy and peace because you trust in him. Then you will overflow with confident hope through the power of the Holy Spirit. – Romans 15:13

Walking to Emmaus Part 1

That same day two of Jesus’ followers were walking to the village of Emmaus, seven miles from Jerusalem. As they walked along they were talking about everything that had happened. – Luke 24:13-14

One of these “followers” is identified later in the story as Cleopas. He may be the same man who’s wife was with Mary and the others at the foot of the cross. She may even have been one of the women who went to the tomb three days later (early this same day). So perhaps these two followers on the road back home to Emmaus have been eyewitnesses to the death and even the resurrection of Christ.

Here they are walking away from the public execution of their hope. Then, three days later his body is missing. What’s going on? There are reports that mysterious visitors were also at the tomb this morning. These two members of the inner circle are talking and trying to make sense of so much that happened so fast. Their minds, hearts and fears are in turmoil. Now, we come upon them as they’ve set off on a 2-3 hour hike back to the comfort and safety of home. What else was there to do?

Here they are like so many of us, walking down that same old path. They are running away from what they have mistaken for defeat. They are putting all the pieces together. Can you imagine what they must have been talking about, trying to figure out and wrap their faith around?

Every now and then I wake up and realize that I’m walking away from the real answers I need to find. I’m heading out to what makes sense, what seems safe, where I feel at home. I want to find my own version of the truth that fits nicely into my carefully constructed life (such as it is). My walk of faith is on autopilot, walking back to Emmaus as I’ve done a hundred times before. How many times have you walked away from the risk of faith and stayed home where dreams never do come true?

Now, as they try and piece together their dashed hope during a retreat down this familiar old road, someone comes along and joins them, and nothing will ever be the same.

“We would rather be ruined than changed
We would rather die in our dread
Than climb the cross of the moment
And let our illusions die.”
– W.H. Auden

He is Alive and Still Praying

Who then will condemn us? No one—for Christ Jesus died for us and was raised to life for us, and he is sitting in the place of honor at God’s right hand, pleading for us. – Romans 8:34

I may have stirred everyone up today. I told people in my Sunday School department that Jesus wasn’t living in their hearts. That’s not a nice thing to say on Easter Sunday.

Lot’s of fidgeting around in their plastic chairs. I was racing to get it all in before members of the choir had to leave early and everyone else needed to exit in time to get a seat for the packed Easter worship service that follows. I wish I had slowed down and let people process what they were hearing. That always works best. It may be a lot to think about if you’ve grown up singing “Since Jesus came into my heart…”

I had never noticed this before. As we were studying the life of Christ these past few years, I saw for the first time Jesus talking with Peter about His prayers and what He hoped the results would be. As I thought about this I wanted to remind my class that Jesus wasn’t living in their hearts (like our hymns might wrongly teach us) but he was still fully human, fully God and still fulfilling His mission in Heaven.

God has sent the Holy Spirit to reside in our hearts.

“If you love me, obey my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, who will never leave you. He is the Holy Spirit, who leads into all truth. The world cannot receive him, because it isn’t looking for him and doesn’t recognize him. But you know him, because he lives with you now and later will be in you. No, I will not abandon you as orphans—I will come to you.” John 14:15-18

Remembering that Jesus isn’t in my heart but instead is in heaven helps me to realize what He is doing for me there. He has ascended as victor over death and is seated at the right hand of the Father. He is preparing a place for me. He is going to return one day as the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Now he is interceding for me as He did for Peter, pleading in prayer, that my faith would not fail.

Notice that he told Peter not that he was going to pray that all of his problems would go away nor that he would be able to avoid his trials with a happy attitude. He prayed for Peter’s faith, that it would not fail. Not that Peter would necessarily feel better about himself, but that he would have the maturity and wisdom to lift up his fellow apostles. Jesus was praying for Peter and his faith so that he could use that faith for the sake of others and in so doing launch the church. Instead of sinking into self-destructive despair because of his denial, Peter becomes one of the key leaders in the birth of Christianity.

Jesus was already praying for Peter as he prepared Himself for the cross.

Therefore he is able, once and forever, to save those who come to God through him. He lives forever to intercede with God on their behalf. – Hebrews 7:25

He is alive, He has risen from the dead.

Jesus is now in Heaven and He is praying for me – He is praying for you.

Thinking and Feeling

“A fool with a heart and no sense is just as unhappy as a fool with sense and no heart.”

– Dostoyevsky

How’s it going as you balance your way through life these days? Are you happy AND wise? Do you feel a sense of balance or rather a slight car-sick nausea because something is out of whack? There are two essential dimensions to walking on the right path, wisdom and love. Without both we tip over too much.

I often leave meetings with an ache in my heart. I just had to say something very sensible. I couldn’t resist the temptation and just sit there in silence. The ache that came later was because my heart just wasn’t in it. There were other feelings like anger, frustration, or fear but not the right one that should have added balance to my cleverness and helped me be more wise.

Now that I’m in the second half of my life I’ve discovered why this balance is so important. People become jaded with all the wisdom that experience teaches and along the way can lose too much of their heart. It’s an awful feeling to keep realizing you’ve become THAT coot. The wonder has leaked out. You’re not offering any real wisdom to those around you, just one long cynical commentary. Wisdom must have heart (passion, empathy, grace) in order to be of any use, to yourself or others.

Eugene Peterson’s Message translation helps to show how real wisdom and love are intertwined in living out (practice makes perfect) our faith in community:

Real wisdom, God’s wisdom, begins with a holy life and is characterized by getting along with others. It is gentle and reasonable, overflowing with mercy and blessings, not hot one day and cold the next, not two-faced. You can develop a healthy, robust community that lives right with God and enjoy its results only if you do the hard work of getting along with each other, treating each other with dignity and honor. James 3:17-18

Feelings must have their balance as well, especially those that reflect our deepest beliefs. Without that key ingredient of “sense” people sometimes sound half-baked when they talk about a religious faith that’s mostly feelings but faith only up to your ankles.

When was the last time you sat down and thought about how someone else must be feeling. With all the social media, who has time to talk things out, to listen, to understand? Wisdom leads you to slow down, shut down and hear things. Feelings get hurt, they swell with pride, they become so fragile. Without the anchor of “sense” they can carry you off to places that you never intended to go.

Wisdom and love travel together on the same path toward heaven. If your great ideas are causing you to say things that are abrasive, egotistical, and pessimistic – just keep your big mouth shut (I’m talking to myself!). If your love for others is leading you down the road of bad decisions and hurt feelings then it’s time to grow up. The love of God is deep, mature and steady. It is eternal. It’s purpose isn’t to make you and I feel good for today. God’s love is here to transform us starting now and for eternity. That transformation only works when we are putting it into practice (maturity takes time) and pouring it out (it’s not about you).

Be wise and remember how God is transforming you into his image so that you can demonstrate his heart to someone else.

“The purpose of life is to be defeated by greater and greater things.” ― Rainer Maria Rilke

Believing is Seeing

Pity me that the heart
is slow to learn
what the swift mind
beholds at every turn

– Edna St. Vincent Milay

When you’re looking at the world and all its traffic racing past you every day, how do you tend to see things? What shapes your “definition of the situation” as you navigate through all of those opportunities and obstacles? What do you see when you get a glance of that mirror deep in your own heart? Is this who you thought you were going to be at this point in your life?

At the end of the day, are you being transformed – even your perceptions and all that excess baggage buried deep in the basement?

Your eye is a lamp that provides light for your body. When your eye is good, your whole body is filled with light. But when your eye is bad, your whole body is filled with darkness. And if the light you think you have is actually darkness, how deep that darkness is! – Matthew 6:22-23

One clue to the state of your transformation is your eyesight. Our perception of reality is connected to how we think and feel. Attitudes shape perceptions. Perceptions shape attitudes. It’s usually easy to figure out how someone sees and thinks by listening to what comes out of their mouth. Have you spent much time listening to yourself lately? Real transformation effects the whole you.

…let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. – Romans 12:2

I thought I would get there one day. That I’d finally cross all the bridges and arrive in that vast field of dreams. I’d be there having learned the hard lessons and would be wise. What a bitter revelation now, to see that field so very far away, almost beyond reach. Transformation never stops, it keeps on working, rooting out all the stubborn holdouts that cling to this life. I guess it’s a good sign, that this essential work is still happening in my hardheaded soul. But of course, my pride is bruised and my ego is not a happy camper. I still need to be saved, just about every single day, usually from myself.

“Prayer and love are learned in the hour when prayer becomes impossible and the heart has turned to stone.” ― Thomas Merton

Where is Jesus When You Need Him?

“The loneliest moment in someone’s life is when they are watching their whole world fall apart, and all they can do is stare blankly.” ― F. Scott Fitzgerald

We can’t live very long and avoid the disasters that await around the corners. Sometimes they hit us quick and leave before we can even get our breath. Some catastrophes seem to hang on and take up residence.

I think I can face almost anything when I have someone else right there beside me. It’s brutal when I have to walk that road all alone. I have read about the lives of others and experienced for myself times when I’ve felt like I’ve even been left alone by God. I think most people feel like this at times. This is when we get to push out on our faith and see how well it floats.

“Faith is the confidence that what we hope for will actually happen; it gives us assurance about things we cannot see.” – Hebrews 11:1

Sometimes my faith starts to sink because I’m too often looking at the world around me, the situations I’ve stumbled into, the tribulation that fell on my head and I’m seeing it all with the eyes of my heart and not the eyes of my soul. Then I read an encounter like this and I’m ready to pick up that shield again…

“Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift each of you like wheat. But I have pleaded in prayer for you, Simon, that your faith should not fail. So when you have repented and turned to me again, strengthen your brothers.” Peter said, “Lord, I am ready to go to prison with you, and even to die with you.” But Jesus said, “Peter, let me tell you something. Before the rooster crows tomorrow morning, you will deny three times that you even know me.” – Luke 22:31-34

We spend so much attention on the failure of Peter. Perhaps because it sounds so familiar. We have so much hope, yet our flesh is still so weak.

But look at what Jesus told his friend he had been doing for him. Pleading in prayer for him. Praying for his faith to withstand the bitter and heartbreaking experience of personal failure. Peter will soon commit an act of betrayl he can’t even imagine at this point in time. He will publicly turn his back on his dearest friend.

Where is Jesus when we need him, when we falter and fail? When everything we thought we could count on was ripped away? Even when we lose every drop of faith we ever had and walk away into the cold night? Where is he? He is pleading in prayer.

He lives forever to intercede with God on their behalf. – Hebrews 7:25

Circumstances being what they are…

Be thankful in all circumstances,
for this is God’s will for you who belong to Christ Jesus. I Thessalonians 5:18

Had lunch with a great friend. Always a safe place to unload. Spent too much time crying over spilt milk. In hindsight, there is so much more to be thankful about. We have great jobs. (I have another dear friend right now trying to figure out where to step next after his job disappeared.) We have loving families. We have treasures here on earth and in heaven. We have so very much. We even have difficulties that provide opportunities…

Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles of any kind come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy. For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing. James 1:2-4

So let it grow! I’m going to start canning it when the spring gets here.

So much that I thought was such a big deal predictably seems to vanish after a while. I’m always left with me. Why don’t I just stop worrying (and complaining) about everyone else and just keep cleaning the windows in my own glass house?

You can’t do your real life with automatic thinking. You have to be awake to eternity. Always take the time to reflect on your circumstances, even while having a conversation over lunch, and ask yourself…

What really matters?
Who am I becoming?
What am I communicating to others?

There’s always something to be thankful for. You just have to wake up and think about what you’re thinking about.

“Life is grace. Sleep is forgiveness. The night absolves. Darkness wipes the slate clean, not spotless to be sure, but clean enough for another day’s chalking.” – Frederick Buechner

Hey! Start posting comments, it’s easy now. It helps others. It helps me.

Who Am I?

Sometimes you have days, weeks, months (even years?) when you feel like an outsider, as if you woke up in a strange place and didn’t belong anymore. It passes. But when those periods of time last too long, doubts start to creep in. You wonder if you’re on the right road, if you’re making the right decisions, if your life is turning out as it should. As I think about all of this, I am reminded of some “handles” that I often grab hold of to keep me steady when I’m feeling so uncertain about everything.

Do you remember the book, play and then film, Les Miserables? There’s a great song in the play sung by the lead character who has been redeemed to start a brand new life. But he’s dogged by shadows from his past who want to remind him of his guilt and drag him back.

Who am I?
Can I condemn this man to slavery
Pretend I do not feel his agony
This innocent who bears my face
Who goes to judgement in my place
Who am I?
Can I conceal myself for evermore?
Pretend I’m not the man I was before?
And must my name until I die
Be no more than an alibi?
Must I lie?
How can I ever face my fellow men?
How can I ever face myself again?
My soul belongs to God, I know
I made that bargain long ago
He gave me hope when hope was gone
He gave me strength to journey on

Who am I? Who am I?
I am Jean Valjean!

I had a great friend who used to remind me of this scripture: So now there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus. And because you belong to him, the power of the life-giving Spirit has freed you from the power of sin that leads to death. – Romans 8:1-2

What a wonderful truth to repeat over and over again. Especially when the road is lonely, dark and you begin to doubt. One thing that I don’t have to fear is any punishment from God because of all my mistakes. I’m not on the outside of God’s forgiveness.

Remind yourself again and again that you’re free. Forever free.

Over the years, I have come to realize that the greatest trap in our life is not success, popularity, or power, but self-rejection. Success, popularity, and power can indeed present a great temptation, but their seductive quality often comes from the way they are part of the much larger temptation to self-rejection. When we have come to believe in the voices that call us worthless and unlovable, then success, popularity, and power are easily perceived as attractive solutions. The real trap, however, is self-rejection. As soon as someone accuses me or criticizes me, as soon as I am rejected, left alone, or abandoned, I find myself thinking, “Well, that proves once again that I am a nobody.” … [My dark side says,] I am no good… I deserve to be pushed aside, forgotten, rejected, and abandoned. Self-rejection is the greatest enemy of the spiritual life because it contradicts the sacred voice that calls us the “Beloved.” Being the Beloved constitutes the core truth of our existence.
― Henri J.M. Nouwen

I’m always inspired when I read Henri Nouwen. He keeps my mind and spirit from wandering off into the brush. When you feel like an outsider within your world, and sometimes it’s not your imagination you really are on the outside, it always helps to keep this truth clearly in front of you: See how very much our Father loves us, for he calls us his children, and that is what we are! – I John 3:1

No matter how much rejection you feel (real or imagined), you’re never going to be rejected by your Heavenly Father. You’re his child forever.

Today you may be on a dark and lonely part of your journey. It may last a long time. But what’s also true is that you are free and you are God’s child. These truths are a part of your identity now and no one can steal them from you. Another great friend gave me a third great handle, endure…

Faith and Fatalism

Americans like explanations. It’s an important part of our pragmatic culture.

I often notice that when we don’t know the reason why we often spit out some sort of fatalistic explanation. It doesn’t hold much theological water, but it makes us feel better in the midst of those storms of uncertainty.

“This just must be what God meant to happen.”
“Somehow it’s all going to work out in the end.”
“I trust that all these things that are happening to me are God’s will”

There are lots of problems with this kind of thinking and believing. Let me just present you with a few examples from the Bible that challenge us to be actively engaged in our life of faith and might perhaps help us understand why things don’t always work out the way we hoped…

James 5:16 – Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and produces wonderful results. Seeking forgiveness and praying for others produces results. It changes the way things are. Our spiritual activity can alter the course of our lives.

Mark 6:5-6 – And because of their unbelief, he couldn’t do any miracles among them except to place his hands on a few sick people and heal them. And he was amazed at their unbelief. Jesus is ministering in his own hometown and he can’t do what he wants to do – perform miracles, change people’s lives, show people how much God loves them. Why? Because they don’t believe. Our lack of faith can prevent God’s plans from happening.

Luke 18:1 – One day Jesus told his disciples a story to show that they should always pray and never give up. This is the story about the persistent widow who badgered a mean and heathen judge day and night for justice. He finally gave in just because she was bothering him. Jesus says, So don’t you think God will surely give justice to his chosen people who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off? I tell you, he will grant justice to them quickly! He concludes by warning that he fears he will return to earth and find that not many will have kept the faith. Justice comes as a result of our persistence. We are persistent because we have faith. We have faith because we put it to use by being persistent (??).

The Christian faith is not a fatalistic experience at all. Jesus taught that we are to be fully engaged in bringing about transformation in our own lives and in the lives of everyone around us. It happens because we have faith, faith that acts. And maybe it doesn’t happen, not because that’s the way it was meant to be…but because we didn’t have the faith.

If you’re praying for rain, then why aren’t you taking an umbrella with you each day?

What good is it, dear brothers and sisters, if you say you have faith but don’t show it by your actions? – James 2:14

The Angry Man

And “don’t sin by letting anger control you.” Don’t let the sun go down while you are still angry, for anger gives a foothold to the devil. – Ephesians 4:26-27

“You have heard that our ancestors were told, ‘You must not murder. If you commit murder, you are subject to judgment.’ But I say, if you are even angry with someone, you are subject to judgment! If you call someone an idiot, you are in danger of being brought before the court. And if you curse someone, you are in danger of the fires of hell.” – Matthew 5:21-23 (Jesus teaching from the Sermon on the Mount)

I’m in big trouble.

Seems like I’m mad all the time. From messed up bowl games to diseases that strike out of nowhere, and so very much in between, I seem to be walking around perpetually mad. Half the time I feel like I’m wearing a target on my back. I’m grumbling to myself, chewing people out in my imagination like a Walter Mitty off his rocker.

You’ve heard all the advice before, haven’t you?

Don’t let your situation define you.

Don’t give other people the power to control the way you feel.

Move forward and leave all the misery behind you.

Other people’s opinions shouldn’t matter so much.

I’m trying to live by faith and not by sight but it sure seems hard most days.

Suffering produces lots of good stuff. (Romans 5, James 1)
I’m not supposed be so upset and worried but instead I ought to be praying. (Philippians 4)
As long as I’m living here in this world, I’m going to experience tribulation (and have cause to be angry!), but I can have peace when I rest my soul in the truth of what Jesus has said, done and continues to do. (John 16)

I don’t honestly think I’m going to transform and become some docile nun who never raises his voice above a whisper when someone keeps throwing rocks at me. But what I do think is that the angry man that I have become can be saved. He can be transformed, one grumble at a time, maybe, but he’s not beyond belief. He’s still being tamed, still trying to fade away.

When all is working out for you and your ducks are all in their row, bills are paid, everyone is health, no one is mad at you, you’re not making any mistakes and all your relationships are healthy – there’s really no need for faith. Faith is what you have to pull out when the boat starts to sink, people start throwing stuff at you, you get locked in a dungeon and the grim reaper starts to peer in the window. Faith never really gets going until you’ve got nothing else to lean on. Sometimes the trials and tribulations of this terrible world are an opportunity waiting, a chance to put it all into practice, to see if it really works – this born again life of ours.

The Invisible Man

For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known. I Corinthians 13:12