Jason's Blog

Stories really matter.  I think Darryl Tippens puts this well:

“A good story affects our values, identity, and minds in ways that a list of bare facts never can.  One could say that it is the storytellers in any culture who have the greatest influence on the direction of a a culture, not the legislators, government leaders, or scholars” (Pilgrim Heart: The Way of Jesus in Everyday Life (Leafwood, 2006):  179).

This comment explains, of course, why television and movie producers have such power—as well as the Internet in all of its varied content.

What are the false stories that we hear today?  I think James Bryan Smith makes brilliant observations on these throughout Good and Beautiful Life.  I only wish that these false narratives had been compiled as a list by the editors!  I had to cull them out one by one.

False Ideas About God

• God is good, you are bad, try harder.
• God is an angry judge and He would send us to hell; except His son Jesus stepped in and took the punishment for us.
• God is not trustworthy.  He does not have our best interests at heart.
• God might not even care about sin at all.

False Ideas About Human Nature

• If you do well you will be blessed if you sin, you will be punished.
• You are only as valuable as what you produce.
• We change by our willpower.
• We work our way to God.
• Strength is found in domination and control.
• I am a sinner and can never change.
• Being overcomitted and busy is normal and to be expected.

Do all of these seem like false ideas to you?  Many of them are very popular.

Girl from Kujama, Nigeria (photograph by Trevor Irwin)

Today, I want to review an easy spiritual discipline that can really help put things in perspective—the practice of lifting up our eyes.

It is easy to walk through life with your head down.  With your eyes on the ground, you can stay on task, focus on what is in front of you, and tune out almost everything else.  And if you do that for long, you will develop the bad habit of not really seeing the world as it truly is.

“I lift my eyes to you,” writes the Psalmist (Psalm 123:1).

Have you done that today?  Have you stopped and looked up to see the throne of our loving Father?  Or has your nose been right at the grindstone?

You need to make the choice and stop.  Breathe normally, but lift your eyes to the throne of heaven.  It may feel unusual to think about praying with your eyes wide open, but when you enter a quiet moment like this, you will begin to see God’s world around you.  If you feel distracted come back to the phrase, “I lift my eyes to you.”  Stay here for 5 minutes.

Lift your eyes and see what happens to your soul.

It has been quite a hot summer, hasn’t it?

When I was a kid, I loved hot weather. I played outside all day even through the heat-wave of the 1980’s and never seemed to flinch. It seems the only reason I came inside was to get a glass of water. As fast as I could swallow, I was off again.

Of course, Jesus grew up in a desert land where water was scarce. There were no fountains in Nazareth, and it took a lot more sweat and effort to get a glass to drink back then.

Things changed some when the Roman soldiers brought their technology to the big cities like Jerusalem. But out in the country, things were as they always had been—people relied on rain, and rivers, and wells. Water was precious.

In this hot, certainly unbearable world, Jesus said some amazing words:
What an amazing claim!

Jesus is not making a get-well promise. He is not saying that you’ll never be thirsty if you go to church. Jesus never said that life would be easy. However, he is saying that life only makes sense when we listen to His voice and His voice alone.

So strive to make Jesus a priority this week. Every other water supply will run dry. If you listen to anybody other than Jesus, you will find only disappointment.

Why not try living water?

How do you make a pickle? This is not a question that I usually ask because I really I don’t like pickles. But I do understand the process.

Step #1 – find a cucumber.Step #2 – get a brine and vinegar solution together.

Step #3 – get the cucumber in the mixture.

Step #4 Wait.

“If we dip the cucumber in the solution and quickly pull it out, all we will have is a baptized cucumber. In order for it to become a pickle, it needs to soak in the brine for six weeks or so.  Slowly and imperceptibly, the solution works its way into the cucumber, changing it to a pickle.”

I have just finished James Bryan Smith’s The Good and Beautiful God (IVP, 2009).  The last chapter has this brilliant analogy about the spiritual life and the need for long term spiritual growth.

Do we really think that transformation will come to our lives without really soaking in Jesus?

Don’t we need to stay in his presence and immerse ourselves in His teachings and ideas to bring lasting renewal.

Two scriptures come to mind immediately -

• Mark 4:26-29  He also said, “This is what the kingdom of God is like. A man scatters seed on the ground.   Night and day, whether he sleeps or gets up, the seed sprouts and grows, though he does not know how.  All by itself the soil produces grain– first the stalk, then the head, then the full kernel in the head.   As soon as the grain is ripe, he puts the sickle to it, because the harvest has come.“

• John 15:4  “Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.”

Great and Beautiful God is an easy read that will challenge you to grow spiritually.  What I like most about the book is that it is accessible. You will not find a lot of technical jargon here. In its place a lot of practical “soul training” exercises. These are simple, everyday practices that will get you rethinking your priorities and ideals about God.

Reading this book would be better with a small group of friends. There are plenty of discussion questions that go along with each chapter as well.

May you soak in Jesus today – staying longer than you thought you might in His presence.  May your heart be open to the challenges that He will bring your way.  May you be a blessing to someone else because the light of the world has saturated your soul.