Thomas Merton, the American monk, pointed out that we may spend our whole life climbing the ladder of success, only to find when we get to the top that our ladder is leaning against the wrong wall.
Richard Rohr, “Falling Upward”
Blog
What I’ve Been Reading – April 2, 2022
- The good news of your God-given limits – Acton Institute PowerBlog– “McGever argues that the basic problem with the productivity genre is not that it doesn’t adequately account for our limits. It’s that productivity authors “fail to account for theological anthropology—or to put it simply, they don’t consider what it means for human beings to be created by a Creator.”
- The Centrality of Communication in the Missionary Task – OutreachMagazine.com – “Evangelism is the most basic and radical ministry possible to a human being. This is true not because the spiritual is more important than the physical, but because the eternal is more important than the temporal.”
- Arianna Huffington On Cancel Culture and the Need for Redemption – “But true change at the systemic level has to be accompanied by change at the personal level. As Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn put it, “the line separating good and evil passes not through states, nor between classes, nor between political parties either — but right through every human heart.” Dr. King knew that, which is why he had made it clear that to change society, “you’ve got to change the heart.”
- How Suffering Can Save Us All – Warrior Poet Supply Co – “Our primitive selves see suffering as a threat to our survival. But really, comfort, not suffering, is what’s causing us to crumble and melt like snowflakes. The right kinds of suffering, though, make us tough as nails—physically and spiritually. The right kinds of suffering can save us all.”
“Falling Upward” – A Book and a Life
I recently started reading Falling Upward: A Spirituality for the Two Halves of Life by Richard Rohr. The first paragraph of Chapter 1 leads me to believe that I am going to enjoy this book immensely:
The first half of my life probably lasted until I was 36. I grew up, traveled and experienced the cultures of Europe, studied and obtained several degrees, married, had a daughter, taught in a college, and worked in churches. Each of these experiences gave me the knowledge to build an identity, or as Rohr calls it, the “container.”
The second half of my life continued from age 36 until age 63 when I served as a missionary on a university campus. Working with students from a variety of countries with varying educational degrees and helping them discover who they are in Christ allowed me to discover the contents of that “container.” The container was filled with the knowledge and experiences I had acquired, but it was bathed in what we now call Spiritual Formation, my life in God, and imparted through the relationships I formed with students.
But at age 63, I moved into a season of life that I would add to Rohr’s levels as a third: pouring out the contents of the container. As an intern director working with college graduates who have been called by God into vocational ministry, I spend each day helping them build their own identity and giving them maps so they can discover what content they are meant to hold.
It has been a life of “falling upward”, or as Rohr writes moving from “the first half of life…discovering the script” and into the second half “actually writing it and owning it”.
My Weekly Reading – February 25, 2022
Each week I post some of the articles I found interesting and links to books I am reading.
Articles
Insights From Keller on Contextualizing
What Your Church Needs More Than Productivity – OutreachMagazine.com
The Best Mentors Ask These 8 Questions
Single-tasking: A neuroscientist’s guide to doing one thing at a time
What more communication means at work
Books
Practice Resurrection by Eugene Peterson
Reflection on the Psalms by C.S. Lewis
Covenant Relationship
"So shall you know that I have sent this command to you, that my covenant with Levi may stand, says the LORD of hosts. My covenant with him was one of life and peace, and I gave them to him. It was a covenant of fear, and he feared me. He stood in awe of my name. True instruction was in his mouth, and no wrong was found on his lips. He walked with me in peace and uprightness, and he turned many from iniquity. For the lips of a priest should guard knowledge, and people should seek instruction from his mouth, for he is the messenger of the LORD of hosts." Malachi 2:4-7 ESV
It can be interesting to lead people as a pastor. Sometimes so interesting that we get caught up in the day-to-day activities of sermon prep, administration, counseling, etc., and lose track that we serve God in a covenant of life, a covenant of peace, a covenant of wonder, and holy fear. We can lose sight of the fact that we stand in awe of the very name of God, the covenant creator, and forget our fellowship with Him.
Out of that covenant relationship, we learn how to instruct in God’s truth as we walk with Him in peace and uprightness as we serve as His messenger.
The covenant relationship comes first. The instruction comes out of that relationship. And then it repeats. Constantly. Continually.
Seek God first. Everything else will be added.
Articles I Read – February 11, 2022
Monday Musings – Covenants & Communion
2 Kings 4:17 And Jehoiada made a covenant between the LORD and the king and people, that they should be the LORD’s people, and also between the king and the people. (ESV)
Joash was seven years old when he began to rule Judah. He was in no position to know how to rule. What seven-year-old is ready for that responsibility? So Jehoiada the priest stood in a position to help Joash learn how to lead, and he did so by starting with covenants.
That’s what priests did in the Old Testament. They worked in the world of covenants.
A covenant is “an agreement between two contracting parties, originally sealed with blood; a bond, or a law; a permanent religious dispensation. (COVENANT – JewishEncyclopedia.com)
As leaders living out our faith in Christ, we also work in the world of covenants.
Covenants are not communication.
Covenants are communion.
The task of living out God’s covenant given to us through Jesus Christ is not communication but communion — “the healing and restoration and creation of love relationships between God and his fighting children and our fought-over creation.” (The Contemplative Pastor, Eugene Peterson). It is loving God and loving others.
What are some of the ways we keep covenant before people?
As men and women of the covenant, we teach how to be the Lord’s people.
We remind people of not only God’s obligation in the covenant but our obligations as well.
We help identify the idols, the strongholds in life that need to be torn down.
We live in communion
— Photo by Robert Lukeman on Unsplash
The Larger World
[A note to my readers. During this time of “shelter-in-place” I thought I would write a series of devotionals aimed for those in vocational ministry. I recently re-read Eugene Peterson’s book “Working the Angles” and thought that this would be a great time to refocus on my ministry priorities. There is some good stuff in there for those who are not in vocational ministry, but it is geared particularly to those who are. –jd–]
- Read
John 20:30-31 “Jesus worked many other miracles for his disciples, and not all of them are written in this book. But these are written so that you will put your faith in Jesus as the Messiah and the Son of God. If you have faith in him, you will have true life.”
- Meditate
I remember taking my first seminary class on the writings of John. It was an eye-opening experience as we experienced his Gospel and Epistles together. But one passage stuck out to me more than any other—John’s reason for writing his Gospel.
John wrote his Gospel because he was trying to connect his readers with a larger world. Yes, Jesus did miracles, so many that John selectively chose those he would include. But what he chose to include he chose for one reason and one reason only.
Jesus is the Son of God, and faith in him brings true life.
It is the message in a bottle. You thought this was life. You are surrounded by others just like you. You wake, go to school or work, toil in your labor, come home, sleep, and do it all over again.
One day, walking on a beach, you discover a bottle washed up on the shore. It has a message inside which you quickly extract and read.
“Help is on the way.”
What help? Why do I need help? I’m like everyone else? We’re okay.
But that simple message in a bottle begins to stir something in your mind. A question forms—“What if I am not okay?”. You begin to wonder if this life is all there is.
Scripture is that message in a bottle that tells you this life is not all there is, and that help is on the way. And as we read it, we connect to that true life through faith in Jesus Christ.
- Pray
Father, I need help. Help my faith to grow so that I may experience the fulness of life you have prepared for me. As I read your word, list that desire to grow, to realize I need your help to grow, rise up in me. Amen.
- Contemplate
1. Meditate on John 20:30-31 today. What does it mean to have “true life” in Christ?
2. Grab a concordance and look up all the times John uses the word “life” in his Gospel. Take a few minutes and read those passages today.
(This devotional series is based on my notes from “Working the Angles” by Eugene Peterson)
