Years ago, when I read George Harrison’s description of India, it connected to something I felt deeply about God. He said, “India is an assault on the senses.” God Himself is that to me—and then some—but definitely in a good way! I had often (and pardon me John Denver fans) lamented that the love song “You Fill Up My Senses” was so mellow and sweet because it actually expresses this for me—minus a few million watts of power! To be filled with God is to have a window open inside (in the software metaphor, not the house one) that is continually taking in the grandeur and beauty of the simple, daily processes of life and living with worshipping wonderment. From childhood, I have carried that sense of awe regarding the created world—molecule to mountain—and it has never left me. I suppose that is why, in my own creative endeavors, it is that kind of sense-assaulting moment that I seem to be going for! For instance, even the simple act of placing a group of art objects on a wall, for me becomes the creation of a mini-panorama which will richly drip inspiration for its viewers! (OK, at least some viewer…) After I have hung them all according to my inner vision, I walk away with my back turned, placing a good distance between myself and the wall, and then suddenly spin around as if to take it in visually for the first time. If the beauty of the arrangement does not meet some inner threshold value, I’m back tweaking until the effect has passed from a good idea into an inspired one! (My friend, Ben Hodgson describes this personality as “helplessly creative.”)
One day before our recent (and first) New York City adventure, in which we had only 48 hours to take in the capital of the world, a college professor we met at Jack and Trish Groblewski’s church in Pennsylvania said to us, “I’m not a big fan of the hubbub of the city, but I do recommend that you sit on the lighted steps in Times Square at night—it is a must see.” I filed the comment and thanked him, with a disclaimer flagging it as coming from someone who did NOT want to imbibe New York City through their very pores like I did! Besides that, Jack, who was giving us a ride to our NYC hotel, also gave us a very generous orientation session to the city, complete with inspirational AND realistic advice for our impossible 48-hour task! We needed nothing more but a spirit of adventure and a large supply of cash! However, when we got to Times Square, we did remember the professor’s advice and I laugh now to think that his understated endorsement for the lighted steps turned out not just to make a memory, but create a living metaphor.
We arrived in NYC mid afternoon and did a very classic thing first, seeing that our upscale air-miles-paid-for upper west side hotel was just a block away from it: we strolled through Central Park! I had dreamed about it as a little girl and even wrote a song about at the age of 8. It fully delivered! Then, after dinner at a pub on Amsterdam Avenue, where we were partaking and purchasing as much of the “vibe” as the actual food, we embarked, following Jack’s tutelage, on our first New York taxi ride. Proudly sporting our Texan naiveté, we hailed a cab, plopped in the back seat and stated, “Times Square, please!” The driver spoke back some clarifying words about our choices of intersection for drop off, but failing to understand him, we just said, “Yes.” The route he chose that provided me my Times Square first view turned out to mimic my wall arranging technique. He must have driven past Times Square on the street we were already on which was a few blocks away and then turned and approached it from the side, so that when we came upon it and I turned my head, the view would register on my senses all at once, just as if I had had my back to it and suddenly spun around! I was fully unprepared for what followed as tears began to roll down my cheeks in response. I held Paul’s hand as if I were personally being given all that I saw to be my own—without any questioning or analysis of the emotion I felt! (I think Paul may have felt it too, but I was taking up all the oxygen in the cab and there was none left for him to express his response!)
I cannot explain what this man-made festival of power, commerce and technological expression made me feel in that moment. It both overwhelmed me and called me into it. I wanted to both run away and run into the very middle! And I really thought there were probably no lumens available back home in Texas at that moment, as it seemed that all the light energy of the very planet had been pulled by the sheer force of corporate desire right into midtown New York! (And all the while, in the deep space of my heart, I was marveling at a Creator who had made such power available to man—a Creator whose generosity in sharing Himself, even unacknowledged, with those made in his image was the only thing that had facilitated this display!) I was pretty sure that I had just challenged the cab driver’s affinity for Texans if he had any, but I could not help myself nor did I care!
We exited the taxi and began to walk, taking in the Letterman theatre and stopping to post evidences of our presence there on Facebook, to which our very clever friend, Matt Summers, promptly replied, “Is this anything?” We then rounded a corner and found Times Square church and stood outside and read the poster that outlined its history: In the 60’s, David Wilkerson had walked around the Times Square area, crying out to God about the gangs, drugs and prostitution, declaring that someone must do something about it. God responded, as He often does to the person feeling the need, “How about you? You know the city!” And the rest is history. That theatre-like church, like a Mars Hill sermon declaring the altar to the unknown God, now stands amidst a place radically different—radically cleaned up—from the one that first troubled David Wilkerson! The Gospel—the one proceeding from the Creator of the lumens and the ability to harness them—had changed the place—whether or not the place knew it! Though Times Square Church is not ancient or even pretty at least from the outside, it felt as if we were honoring a beautiful holy place of the past.
After that “selah” moment, we made our way back to the center of Times Square and followed the professor’s instructions. We came upon the lighted steps from behind and at first couldn’t see the red layers inviting everyone upward. Once in front, we turned and climbed them almost the top and, though the steps were full, found a little clearing just for the two of us—and we sat! (It seems you have to sit.) And in that moment, the full force of the first viewing of Times Square began all over again. I could have sat for hours and, though I am never in want of dialogue with my husband, there was no need to speak. In all the hubbub, noise, color, and crowd, the lighted steps were an amazing island of peace—just as Central Park had been earlier in the day. I began to realize that I was sitting in a place I had only seen images of all my life: in movies, on New Year’s eve, and outside the morning shows’ studios where people from all over the world gathered with signs in an effort to get on camera. All my life, I had viewed Times Square second hand, but now I was sitting there taking it in with my own eyes and letting it be a DIRECT assault to MY senses—and it was filling them up. The distance was removed and I sat emotionally naked before a greater view of man’s mixed bag of dreams, desires and even some debauchery, than I had ever been before. Ironically, I looked to my left and one of the HD message boards—a huge one, but weren’t they all—was sporting a ticker tape of poignant inspirational quotes about facing fear and overcoming the hesitance that keeps us from really living!
Only later, on a Sunday morning, did the lighted steps moment come fully home to me, providing a “story” for my journey (and perhaps yours) that I will never forget. My husband was proclaiming, as he is gifted to do, the huge scope of redemption that Jesus purchased for us. It is, Jesus said, the Father’s good pleasure to give us the Kingdom! This is not a one-day promise reserved for the other dimension of existence we call heaven, but rather a promise for all times, for the Kingdom comes in appropriate form on both sides of that life and death line! Because He gave us the Kingdom through Jesus and the redemption He provided for us, the Kingdom is ours to interact with right now! It is ours in every time and every space! With that thought, suddenly I was back in Times Square on the lighted steps, only it was not the glaring lights of man’s arranging that I was taking in, but rather, I was realizing that there are some lighted steps for each one of us to sit on that have nothing to do with NYC!
Inside our hearts, God is guiding us to a place where he wants to simply sit us down and assault our senses with all that the Kingdom is—all that was provided for us through redemption. He wants to unroll in high definition grandeur a panorama so vast and blinding that it will take many, many sessions to take in! He wants to focus so much of his heavenly illumination energy upon our spirits that we can’t accommodate the view standing up! And in that moment, peace will inform the chaos and we too will see inspirational words scrolling through our inner world—words telling us we can be free from fear—or any other limitation that threatens to dull our zeal or sharpness! There are lighted steps in our hearts and God wants to give us sessions that assault our senses with the panorama of redemption and perhaps bring us to tears!
I realized that, related to the Gospel, so many are like I was before I visited Times Square—they are living through someone else’s ability to record or report the experience! They’ve heard from a pulpit, perhaps even on television, that they are “supposed” to be impressed with God and amazed by what He did in Christ. They have accepted and yearned—and maybe even dreamed about visiting in person. But God wants to remove that distance and give them a face-to-face exposure –filling up their senses in some way—or multiple ways--with Himself. The gentle advice of the professor who didn’t even love NYC was so prophetic. You MUST go to the lighted steps, he had said. Our heavenly Father promises the same fulfillment on a level a million times more intense!
Franz Kafka said, “You do not need to leave your room. Remain sitting at your table and listen. Do not even listen, simply wait, be quiet, still and solitary. The world will freely offer itself to you to be unmasked, it has no choice, it will roll in ecstasy at your feet.” I believed Kafka’s words years ago when I first heard them because I know the Holy Spirit, whom Jesus proclaimed as the One who would be a tour-guide into, not just the world, but ALL truth! I believe them today because I have lived them. You don’t have to go to Times Square to find lighted steps with a view—just go to your room and expect God to do by His Spirit what he promised to do. If you feel that your experience of God’s power and greatness and your view of redemption have been somewhat second hand, know that change is available. If the spiritual realm for you has been more a performance than a panorama, it is time for an assault on your senses. You will never be the same. A window of awe will open inside you and inform the rest of your living. Your seat awaits. Let me be the professor who not-so-calmly gives you the important travel tip!
Thursday, January 26, 2012
Saturday, December 17, 2011
Giving it Away
My computer just crashed (first time in 10 years of having a laptop!) and I went in search of the only piece of writing that I knew I hadn't backed up (thankfully I had e-mailed to a few people). When I found it, I was freshly struck by the truth that the only things you really have are the things you give away....think about it.....
So, pasted in here below are a new devotional format that I created for Tabitha Summers while she was in England making her first CD. They are each based on a very short youtube video and each limited to one page. Maybe you too find yourself in the place she was in during that week: excited about destiny, but challenged by the demands living toward that destiny daily makes! If so, take a week to breathe and walk this devotional journey, as I once again GIVE AWAY what I feared I had lost!
DAY ONE:
http://youtu.be/47LCLoidJh4
Awareness Test (55 seconds)
In labeling the right brain as the “creative” hemisphere, people might wrongly assume that one of the things it creates is disorder (like some artists they might have known)! But in fact, it is the right side of the brain that orchestrates and organizes left-brain data into a seamless and beautiful whole. Take a golf swing: It is impossible to swing a golf club well when you are consciously working on each component of the swing. The golfer must step up to the ball and clear his mind of the analysis—no matter how helpful it has been or how accurate--and instead hit the ball for the joy of doing it and love of the game! When this happens, there is actually a right-brain burst of alpha waves that calm all the activity in the left, creating a feeling of peace. (This happens in many other sports as well. All the details of training are set aside as the athlete in the starting gate releases them and reaches from a deeper and more intuitive place to actually run the race!)
Life is no different than sport in this respect. The left side of the brain definitely has a role, but when it is taking us over, we need a right brain burst---something has to orchestrate the data and remind us of the joy of living. The left side of the brain can enslave us, but God can bring a right-brain burst to set us free. When Jesus said, “Come unto me all you who are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest,” he was speaking to a nation who had become so focused on the rules of religion that they had lost the joy of knowing God. He was calling them, in a sense, to have a spiritual “right-brain burst” that would calm the nagging considerations of pleasing and performing and return them to the freedom of just relating! (Matthew 11:28-29)
The Message Bible completes those words of Jesus by saying, “Learn the unforced rhythms of grace.” There is nothing wrong with drive and determination, but it is not a very good drummer—its rhythms will mess you up and ultimately cut off the creative flow that is necessary for efficiency! Life loses its orchestration and you bog down in halting, fragmented and frustrated motion. It is then that you need to return to God and lay it all down again. Trust that if a golfer can swing, knowing that everything he’s worked on so hard will pay off--without him consciously forcing it--surely you can also rest in the big processes of God.
These devotionals are meant to bring a right-brain burst from heaven. They are meant to help you run the race from a deep place—a place where God’s reality is not just theory in the mind, but actual efficient orchestration of all things such that they WORK TOGETHER FOR GOD.
The video you watched (if you hadn’t seen it before) gave you a little right-brain burst! When you laughed at yourself for not seeing the man in the bear suit the first time, your mind was also experiencing a moment of wonder: Could it be that the world is parading before your eyes many notable things that you are missing because of your focused expectations in rehearsed directions? You were trying to count the basketball passes—you had a job to do!
Don’t let the job you have to do today obscure your vision. Don’t let focus become a blinder. Let the “moon-walking bears” sent by God be noticed and BREATHE. You’ll get the job done—MORE efficiently!
DAY TWO:
http://youtu.be/BW4LseJp728
YouTube: “Even stars and galaxies show God’s greatness” (1:47)
In December of 2010, a study by Yale astronomer Pieter van Dokkum proposed that the estimated number of stars in the universe—100,000,000,000,000,000,000,000, or 100 sextillion—needed to be tripled. Whether or not this astronomer is correct, that’s a lot of stars! With that in mind, read Isaiah 40:26 with a heart of wonder and pause to stand amazed:
Look up into the heavens. Who created all the stars? He brings them out like an
army, one after another, calling each by its name. Because of his great power and incomparable strength, not a single one is missing.
What is even more amazing is that, if we truly have the Spirit of God inside us, each of our creative endeavors is simply a retelling of the ancient story! The God who hung the stars in the sky with has chosen to dwell inside his people. Surely, surely, he knows how to bring out of them the “good works” he has already deposited inside us—each focused point of energy shall come forth in perfect placement. He knows exactly how to decorate, orchestrate, order, energize, strategize, adapt, release, mix, engineer, oversee...and the list goes on. (AND, he even knows how to do it all for an audience: consider the constellations decorating the sky!)
The universe has never stopped expanding because creation is an open-ended process. The energies of God flow through his people and take shape and form, translating themselves into the outflow of men and women’s hearts.
Lose yourself in God’s vast orchestration and take joy in the fact that this current initiative is being summoned forth BY HIM. You—and the relationships that have rallied around you—are a part of an intricately beautiful wisdom that has been at work from time immemorial. Your life and projects are a part of a display of power that is God showing off who HE is! You are proclaiming the Creator by participating in the creative release that He began!
Take a deep breath and revisit the last sentence of the Scripture, now applying it in the here and now, since you now know that you are personally cooperating with the expansion the universe(!): BECAUSE OF HIS GREAT POWER AND INCOMPARABLE STRENGTH, NOT A SINGLE ONE OF THE MELODIES, MEANINGS OR EVEN SUBTLETIES OF THE “STARS” YOU ARE BIRTHING WILL BE MISSING! He has already called each one of them by name!
DAY THREE:
http://youtu.be/AFVac_XzxZA
YouTube: The incredible beauty in the life of cells (3:07)
Isn’t it amazing that even the work of researchers studying what happens when cells “go wrong” cannot help but create a display of intense beauty—the beauty that is present in everything that bears the fingerprint of God! Cells (and you have 50 to 100 trillion of them in your body) are little “storehouses” of the essence of YOU! Each one contains approximately SIX FEET of DNA that is unique to you, coiled up in extraordinarily tight fashion. Every cell is a literal treasure chest of “you-ness”, waiting to be summoned forth for service!
In Matthew 13:52, Jesus was explained the Kingdom by saying:
"That is why every scribe who has been trained for the kingdom of heaven is like the master of a household who brings both new and old things out of his treasure chest."
God (the same One who summons forth the stars on a large scale) knows how to summon forth every bit of potential that is in each one of us. He has created each compartment of our spirits to house the very things that are needed for us to fulfill our destiny. Though at moments we might feel empty, nothing could be farther from the truth. We are packed with tightly wound spiritual DNA—full of living information about who we are meant to be! It will actually require all of eternity to fully express our individual identities. In a real sense, the odyssey of discovery through which we unravel the spiritual “code” inside us IS the fulfillment of our destiny!
You are a treasure chest of things both old and new. In you (each one of you), all experiences are processed as preparation, according to the information in your spiritual DNA! In the grand scheme of things, every single challenge encountered only serves to summon forth strengths and skills from the storehouse of heaven’s resources inside of us! We were built to activate and release a host of Kingdom traits!
How do we know when the Kingdom DNA has been expressed? Because the end result is always and forever BEAUTY—subtle tones and colors and shadings and contrasting splashes of blinding light, but always and forever, BEAUTY. When Watson and Crick were attempting to construct the first-ever model of DNA, they ruled out several proposals because they simply weren’t BEAUTIFUL and they just knew—even though they weren’t believers—that this amazing molecule of life HAD to be BEAUTIFUL! They were right!
Beauty is in your DNA—reject what isn’t beautiful because it just can’t be God’s fingerprint! Wait for the beauty to fully manifest. Even amidst dysfunction, beauty shines through untainted—it has to: it’s in our genes!
DAY FOUR:
http://youtu.be/IcevP5tkWH0
YouTube: Cell Journey Deep Inside (1:44)
Each of the 50 trillion cells in your body is carrying on life constantly! This video shows the constant activity in just one cell, and it actually happens at this rapid rate. Whenever we feel that “nothing is happening” for us, we should remember that even on a cellular level (much more so on an invisible spiritual level), a whole host of processes are literally working for our good!
Proverbs 4:23 says, “Watch over your heart with all diligence, for from it flow the springs of life.” Though most people focus on the command in the first part of the verse, “watch over your heart,” the second part of the verse actually carries the energy of grace to fulfill the command! Out of your heart are flowing springs of life! There are constant processes at work inside you, facilitating life and destiny! The life of God inside you is not stagnant or lacking movement EVER! God in you—every part of you—is dynamic and full of energy. Things are happening, even when you are at rest! Springs of life are on the move and they are available in every moment!
Notice that the word “springs” is plural. Imagine the variety of springs on earth. Some are high in the mountains and some are surprises in the desert. Some are in a well-tended garden and others are waiting to be discovered in wilderness. There are many kinds of springs in you and they flow with different strengths and at different times. They blend their waters into one glorious mixture but still retain the characteristics they took on from their various sources. The rushing water of the springs inside you carries dissolved minerals from its subterranean journey, giving a unique flavor to your particular flow! Every rocky place you have experienced has only served to add texture to your life.
Springs imply energy from another place. Fatigue is not a factor when the springs of life flow. Some springs come from a whole different geography, travelling hundreds of miles to contribute their stream. Heaven’s springs are in you, flowing forth, each carrying its own energy and climate. WATCH as they simply erupt and flow forth from your heart!
DAY FIVE:
http://youtu.be/DQus4je7Jw4
YouTube: Tabernacle _Animated (1:10)
Exodus 30:18 Make a bronze basin, with its bronze stand, for washing. Place it between the Tent of Meeting and the altar, and put water in it.
Exodus 38:8 They made the bronze basin and its bronze stand from the mirrors of the women who served at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting.
Every part of the Moses’ tabernacle in the wilderness portrayed Christ in some way. And now the reality that the symbolism pointed to lives in us, since we have become his dwelling place. The basin for washing was a picture of the grace that not only removes sin, but also cleanses the identity from the desires and memories association with human dysfunction. As the priests entering the tabernacle paused to wash at the basin, they were looking ahead in time to the continual cleansing of being that would freely flow from Christ.
It was no accident that the basin was made of the brass mirrors donated by the women who served. Christ is not just an addition to our identity: He engulfs that very identity with Himself, rendering it unrecognizable apart from him, blending it into the very grace that he gives. And all of this happens as we experience him through living worship. The cleansing of our sin is only the beginning; the REDEMPTION of our very IDENTITY is the real goal of the presence of God!
Our identity thrives on a continual washing in the realities of heaven. I can’t help but think that Bono’s faith along these lines must have informed his lyric writing when he wrote the bridge to the song Walk On. After singing, “You’ve got to leave it behind,” he lists the categories of things that can be left behind:
All that you fashion
All that you make
All that you build
All that you break
All that you measure
All that you feel
All this you can leave behind
All that you reason
All that you sense
All that you speak
All you dress-up
All that you scheme...
We need to see our identity--both the “good” and even the self-perceived “bad” of it—lost in the basin of grace. In the place of worship, we can let the notion of our separateness from Him be just a distant memory. Turning in our mirrors to become a basin for others’ cleansing is MINISTRY…..
DAY SIX:
http://youtu.be/R_w4HYXuo9M
YouTube: How to Turn a Sphere Inside Out (1:38)
Romans 12:2 “Do not be conformed any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind….”
The word “transform” in Romans 12:2 is a door into a huge room of truth. It does imply metamorphosis like the butterfly, but there is so much more! The Greek roots of the word “transform” mean literally to CHANGE FORM IN KEEPING WITH AN INNER REALITY, AS AN AFTER-EFFECT OF BEING IN SOME ENVIRONMENT! The verb comes from a noun that means AN OUTWARD EXPRESSION THAT EMBODIES AN ESSENTIAL INNER SUBSTANCE SO THAT THE FORM TAKEN IS IN COMPLETE HARMONY WITH THE INNER ESSENCE! It is not just finally changing into something useful or worthy! True transformation from God is about manifesting the real YOU (which is in every way beautiful).
God is clearly up to just one thing in all our lives: INSIDE-OUTING us so that our inner essence—the expression of HIS creativity—is on display! But, like the mathematicians that know how to inside-out a sphere, he does not cheat! He doesn’t abuse us or break us or force us in any way. Moment by moment, he leads us in a deeper understanding of who we really are so that what we end up giving to the world is an authentic expression of Him in us! The process may stretch us, but will never break us, and if we know that the goal at the end of the road is the giving away of ourselves in complete freedom, then we can endure the intricate twistings and turnings and rejoice in the beauty of his realm of ultimate order!
Death Cab for Cutie’s song Soul Meets Body contains the amazing line, “I still believe it’s true that there are roads left in both of our shoes…” What makes that line so amazing is this: In God’s view of things the paths of our lives aren’t really inanimate things stretching out before us, beckoning us to embark. Instead, the roads of our journey are actually inside of us, waiting to come out! Isaiah 26:12 says, “LORD, thou wilt ordain peace for us: for thou also hast wrought all our works in us.” Our future is waiting to emerge from within! As we are inside-outed by God’s Spirit, our destiny unfolds. The Kingdom of heaven is within….
(You might want to watch the video again with this all in mind. The sphere is you and, by the way, the process of inside-outing you will change the world—but that’s just a glorious side-effect!)
DAY SEVEN:
http://youtu.be/GtiSCBXbHAg
YouTube: Cymatic experiement (2:05)
Cymatics is the study of “visible sound”. The beautiful wave patterns displayed by the sand in this video are generated solely by the frequency of the sound being emitted. The sand is self-organizing according to the standing waves patterns created by the vibrations. You are watching sound energy literally organize matter! The information in the pitch (the wavelength of the frequency) is being translated into a visual form!
This simple experiment provides a great metaphor for our relationship with God. There are really only two “requirements” for flowing with Him:
1. Don’t resist the organizing force of His orchestration! (Release the desire to set up patterns of our own or to take charge of the other pieces involved: imagine a grain of sand in the experiment nervously running around trying to help the patterns emerge!)
2. Hear the frequency of heaven and welcome its energy! (This is just living a life of responsive worship.)
God’s universe is one of both extreme order and beauty and our lives will ultimately reflect that when we rest in Him and simply tune in. The chaos with which we are all too familiar is simply a perception we experience in the moments in which we are temporarily unable to see the pattern, and the lack of a pattern is just evidence that the frequency (energy) is increasing!
In Genesis, we read that God created the universe with his WORDS! In a sense, the world around us is just “visible sound”, still vibrating to the patterns that God generated with His voice! He SAID, “Let there be light….” And there WAS light. And there still is, because when God speaks, the vibrations continue throughout the ages.
In Psalm 51 in the Message Bible, David prays, “Shape a Genesis week from the chaos of my life.” The voice of the Lord is inside you today saying, “Let there be light” and calling for that light to be divided from the darkness. The sound of heaven is organizing your energies and even your thoughts (which are just biochemical events, really) according to his patterns of beauty! You cannot fail and you cannot fall. You are simply responding to the creative sound of His voice. And you are becoming “visible sound” for others who have never heard Him! He is acting on you in unseen ways in every moment.
So, pasted in here below are a new devotional format that I created for Tabitha Summers while she was in England making her first CD. They are each based on a very short youtube video and each limited to one page. Maybe you too find yourself in the place she was in during that week: excited about destiny, but challenged by the demands living toward that destiny daily makes! If so, take a week to breathe and walk this devotional journey, as I once again GIVE AWAY what I feared I had lost!
DAY ONE:
http://youtu.be/47LCLoidJh4
Awareness Test (55 seconds)
In labeling the right brain as the “creative” hemisphere, people might wrongly assume that one of the things it creates is disorder (like some artists they might have known)! But in fact, it is the right side of the brain that orchestrates and organizes left-brain data into a seamless and beautiful whole. Take a golf swing: It is impossible to swing a golf club well when you are consciously working on each component of the swing. The golfer must step up to the ball and clear his mind of the analysis—no matter how helpful it has been or how accurate--and instead hit the ball for the joy of doing it and love of the game! When this happens, there is actually a right-brain burst of alpha waves that calm all the activity in the left, creating a feeling of peace. (This happens in many other sports as well. All the details of training are set aside as the athlete in the starting gate releases them and reaches from a deeper and more intuitive place to actually run the race!)
Life is no different than sport in this respect. The left side of the brain definitely has a role, but when it is taking us over, we need a right brain burst---something has to orchestrate the data and remind us of the joy of living. The left side of the brain can enslave us, but God can bring a right-brain burst to set us free. When Jesus said, “Come unto me all you who are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest,” he was speaking to a nation who had become so focused on the rules of religion that they had lost the joy of knowing God. He was calling them, in a sense, to have a spiritual “right-brain burst” that would calm the nagging considerations of pleasing and performing and return them to the freedom of just relating! (Matthew 11:28-29)
The Message Bible completes those words of Jesus by saying, “Learn the unforced rhythms of grace.” There is nothing wrong with drive and determination, but it is not a very good drummer—its rhythms will mess you up and ultimately cut off the creative flow that is necessary for efficiency! Life loses its orchestration and you bog down in halting, fragmented and frustrated motion. It is then that you need to return to God and lay it all down again. Trust that if a golfer can swing, knowing that everything he’s worked on so hard will pay off--without him consciously forcing it--surely you can also rest in the big processes of God.
These devotionals are meant to bring a right-brain burst from heaven. They are meant to help you run the race from a deep place—a place where God’s reality is not just theory in the mind, but actual efficient orchestration of all things such that they WORK TOGETHER FOR GOD.
The video you watched (if you hadn’t seen it before) gave you a little right-brain burst! When you laughed at yourself for not seeing the man in the bear suit the first time, your mind was also experiencing a moment of wonder: Could it be that the world is parading before your eyes many notable things that you are missing because of your focused expectations in rehearsed directions? You were trying to count the basketball passes—you had a job to do!
Don’t let the job you have to do today obscure your vision. Don’t let focus become a blinder. Let the “moon-walking bears” sent by God be noticed and BREATHE. You’ll get the job done—MORE efficiently!
DAY TWO:
http://youtu.be/BW4LseJp728
YouTube: “Even stars and galaxies show God’s greatness” (1:47)
In December of 2010, a study by Yale astronomer Pieter van Dokkum proposed that the estimated number of stars in the universe—100,000,000,000,000,000,000,000, or 100 sextillion—needed to be tripled. Whether or not this astronomer is correct, that’s a lot of stars! With that in mind, read Isaiah 40:26 with a heart of wonder and pause to stand amazed:
Look up into the heavens. Who created all the stars? He brings them out like an
army, one after another, calling each by its name. Because of his great power and incomparable strength, not a single one is missing.
What is even more amazing is that, if we truly have the Spirit of God inside us, each of our creative endeavors is simply a retelling of the ancient story! The God who hung the stars in the sky with has chosen to dwell inside his people. Surely, surely, he knows how to bring out of them the “good works” he has already deposited inside us—each focused point of energy shall come forth in perfect placement. He knows exactly how to decorate, orchestrate, order, energize, strategize, adapt, release, mix, engineer, oversee...and the list goes on. (AND, he even knows how to do it all for an audience: consider the constellations decorating the sky!)
The universe has never stopped expanding because creation is an open-ended process. The energies of God flow through his people and take shape and form, translating themselves into the outflow of men and women’s hearts.
Lose yourself in God’s vast orchestration and take joy in the fact that this current initiative is being summoned forth BY HIM. You—and the relationships that have rallied around you—are a part of an intricately beautiful wisdom that has been at work from time immemorial. Your life and projects are a part of a display of power that is God showing off who HE is! You are proclaiming the Creator by participating in the creative release that He began!
Take a deep breath and revisit the last sentence of the Scripture, now applying it in the here and now, since you now know that you are personally cooperating with the expansion the universe(!): BECAUSE OF HIS GREAT POWER AND INCOMPARABLE STRENGTH, NOT A SINGLE ONE OF THE MELODIES, MEANINGS OR EVEN SUBTLETIES OF THE “STARS” YOU ARE BIRTHING WILL BE MISSING! He has already called each one of them by name!
DAY THREE:
http://youtu.be/AFVac_XzxZA
YouTube: The incredible beauty in the life of cells (3:07)
Isn’t it amazing that even the work of researchers studying what happens when cells “go wrong” cannot help but create a display of intense beauty—the beauty that is present in everything that bears the fingerprint of God! Cells (and you have 50 to 100 trillion of them in your body) are little “storehouses” of the essence of YOU! Each one contains approximately SIX FEET of DNA that is unique to you, coiled up in extraordinarily tight fashion. Every cell is a literal treasure chest of “you-ness”, waiting to be summoned forth for service!
In Matthew 13:52, Jesus was explained the Kingdom by saying:
"That is why every scribe who has been trained for the kingdom of heaven is like the master of a household who brings both new and old things out of his treasure chest."
God (the same One who summons forth the stars on a large scale) knows how to summon forth every bit of potential that is in each one of us. He has created each compartment of our spirits to house the very things that are needed for us to fulfill our destiny. Though at moments we might feel empty, nothing could be farther from the truth. We are packed with tightly wound spiritual DNA—full of living information about who we are meant to be! It will actually require all of eternity to fully express our individual identities. In a real sense, the odyssey of discovery through which we unravel the spiritual “code” inside us IS the fulfillment of our destiny!
You are a treasure chest of things both old and new. In you (each one of you), all experiences are processed as preparation, according to the information in your spiritual DNA! In the grand scheme of things, every single challenge encountered only serves to summon forth strengths and skills from the storehouse of heaven’s resources inside of us! We were built to activate and release a host of Kingdom traits!
How do we know when the Kingdom DNA has been expressed? Because the end result is always and forever BEAUTY—subtle tones and colors and shadings and contrasting splashes of blinding light, but always and forever, BEAUTY. When Watson and Crick were attempting to construct the first-ever model of DNA, they ruled out several proposals because they simply weren’t BEAUTIFUL and they just knew—even though they weren’t believers—that this amazing molecule of life HAD to be BEAUTIFUL! They were right!
Beauty is in your DNA—reject what isn’t beautiful because it just can’t be God’s fingerprint! Wait for the beauty to fully manifest. Even amidst dysfunction, beauty shines through untainted—it has to: it’s in our genes!
DAY FOUR:
http://youtu.be/IcevP5tkWH0
YouTube: Cell Journey Deep Inside (1:44)
Each of the 50 trillion cells in your body is carrying on life constantly! This video shows the constant activity in just one cell, and it actually happens at this rapid rate. Whenever we feel that “nothing is happening” for us, we should remember that even on a cellular level (much more so on an invisible spiritual level), a whole host of processes are literally working for our good!
Proverbs 4:23 says, “Watch over your heart with all diligence, for from it flow the springs of life.” Though most people focus on the command in the first part of the verse, “watch over your heart,” the second part of the verse actually carries the energy of grace to fulfill the command! Out of your heart are flowing springs of life! There are constant processes at work inside you, facilitating life and destiny! The life of God inside you is not stagnant or lacking movement EVER! God in you—every part of you—is dynamic and full of energy. Things are happening, even when you are at rest! Springs of life are on the move and they are available in every moment!
Notice that the word “springs” is plural. Imagine the variety of springs on earth. Some are high in the mountains and some are surprises in the desert. Some are in a well-tended garden and others are waiting to be discovered in wilderness. There are many kinds of springs in you and they flow with different strengths and at different times. They blend their waters into one glorious mixture but still retain the characteristics they took on from their various sources. The rushing water of the springs inside you carries dissolved minerals from its subterranean journey, giving a unique flavor to your particular flow! Every rocky place you have experienced has only served to add texture to your life.
Springs imply energy from another place. Fatigue is not a factor when the springs of life flow. Some springs come from a whole different geography, travelling hundreds of miles to contribute their stream. Heaven’s springs are in you, flowing forth, each carrying its own energy and climate. WATCH as they simply erupt and flow forth from your heart!
DAY FIVE:
http://youtu.be/DQus4je7Jw4
YouTube: Tabernacle _Animated (1:10)
Exodus 30:18 Make a bronze basin, with its bronze stand, for washing. Place it between the Tent of Meeting and the altar, and put water in it.
Exodus 38:8 They made the bronze basin and its bronze stand from the mirrors of the women who served at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting.
Every part of the Moses’ tabernacle in the wilderness portrayed Christ in some way. And now the reality that the symbolism pointed to lives in us, since we have become his dwelling place. The basin for washing was a picture of the grace that not only removes sin, but also cleanses the identity from the desires and memories association with human dysfunction. As the priests entering the tabernacle paused to wash at the basin, they were looking ahead in time to the continual cleansing of being that would freely flow from Christ.
It was no accident that the basin was made of the brass mirrors donated by the women who served. Christ is not just an addition to our identity: He engulfs that very identity with Himself, rendering it unrecognizable apart from him, blending it into the very grace that he gives. And all of this happens as we experience him through living worship. The cleansing of our sin is only the beginning; the REDEMPTION of our very IDENTITY is the real goal of the presence of God!
Our identity thrives on a continual washing in the realities of heaven. I can’t help but think that Bono’s faith along these lines must have informed his lyric writing when he wrote the bridge to the song Walk On. After singing, “You’ve got to leave it behind,” he lists the categories of things that can be left behind:
All that you fashion
All that you make
All that you build
All that you break
All that you measure
All that you feel
All this you can leave behind
All that you reason
All that you sense
All that you speak
All you dress-up
All that you scheme...
We need to see our identity--both the “good” and even the self-perceived “bad” of it—lost in the basin of grace. In the place of worship, we can let the notion of our separateness from Him be just a distant memory. Turning in our mirrors to become a basin for others’ cleansing is MINISTRY…..
DAY SIX:
http://youtu.be/R_w4HYXuo9M
YouTube: How to Turn a Sphere Inside Out (1:38)
Romans 12:2 “Do not be conformed any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind….”
The word “transform” in Romans 12:2 is a door into a huge room of truth. It does imply metamorphosis like the butterfly, but there is so much more! The Greek roots of the word “transform” mean literally to CHANGE FORM IN KEEPING WITH AN INNER REALITY, AS AN AFTER-EFFECT OF BEING IN SOME ENVIRONMENT! The verb comes from a noun that means AN OUTWARD EXPRESSION THAT EMBODIES AN ESSENTIAL INNER SUBSTANCE SO THAT THE FORM TAKEN IS IN COMPLETE HARMONY WITH THE INNER ESSENCE! It is not just finally changing into something useful or worthy! True transformation from God is about manifesting the real YOU (which is in every way beautiful).
God is clearly up to just one thing in all our lives: INSIDE-OUTING us so that our inner essence—the expression of HIS creativity—is on display! But, like the mathematicians that know how to inside-out a sphere, he does not cheat! He doesn’t abuse us or break us or force us in any way. Moment by moment, he leads us in a deeper understanding of who we really are so that what we end up giving to the world is an authentic expression of Him in us! The process may stretch us, but will never break us, and if we know that the goal at the end of the road is the giving away of ourselves in complete freedom, then we can endure the intricate twistings and turnings and rejoice in the beauty of his realm of ultimate order!
Death Cab for Cutie’s song Soul Meets Body contains the amazing line, “I still believe it’s true that there are roads left in both of our shoes…” What makes that line so amazing is this: In God’s view of things the paths of our lives aren’t really inanimate things stretching out before us, beckoning us to embark. Instead, the roads of our journey are actually inside of us, waiting to come out! Isaiah 26:12 says, “LORD, thou wilt ordain peace for us: for thou also hast wrought all our works in us.” Our future is waiting to emerge from within! As we are inside-outed by God’s Spirit, our destiny unfolds. The Kingdom of heaven is within….
(You might want to watch the video again with this all in mind. The sphere is you and, by the way, the process of inside-outing you will change the world—but that’s just a glorious side-effect!)
DAY SEVEN:
http://youtu.be/GtiSCBXbHAg
YouTube: Cymatic experiement (2:05)
Cymatics is the study of “visible sound”. The beautiful wave patterns displayed by the sand in this video are generated solely by the frequency of the sound being emitted. The sand is self-organizing according to the standing waves patterns created by the vibrations. You are watching sound energy literally organize matter! The information in the pitch (the wavelength of the frequency) is being translated into a visual form!
This simple experiment provides a great metaphor for our relationship with God. There are really only two “requirements” for flowing with Him:
1. Don’t resist the organizing force of His orchestration! (Release the desire to set up patterns of our own or to take charge of the other pieces involved: imagine a grain of sand in the experiment nervously running around trying to help the patterns emerge!)
2. Hear the frequency of heaven and welcome its energy! (This is just living a life of responsive worship.)
God’s universe is one of both extreme order and beauty and our lives will ultimately reflect that when we rest in Him and simply tune in. The chaos with which we are all too familiar is simply a perception we experience in the moments in which we are temporarily unable to see the pattern, and the lack of a pattern is just evidence that the frequency (energy) is increasing!
In Genesis, we read that God created the universe with his WORDS! In a sense, the world around us is just “visible sound”, still vibrating to the patterns that God generated with His voice! He SAID, “Let there be light….” And there WAS light. And there still is, because when God speaks, the vibrations continue throughout the ages.
In Psalm 51 in the Message Bible, David prays, “Shape a Genesis week from the chaos of my life.” The voice of the Lord is inside you today saying, “Let there be light” and calling for that light to be divided from the darkness. The sound of heaven is organizing your energies and even your thoughts (which are just biochemical events, really) according to his patterns of beauty! You cannot fail and you cannot fall. You are simply responding to the creative sound of His voice. And you are becoming “visible sound” for others who have never heard Him! He is acting on you in unseen ways in every moment.
Tuesday, November 22, 2011
"How Was Your Trip?" (An Answer)
The journey to Wellspring on the outskirts of Kampala, Uganda is a long one. For us starting from Texas, it meant 18 hours of flight time via London, navigating the netherworld that is immigration in Entebbe, and a two-hour car ride from the airport ending in a session of midnight honking outside the ministry center gate as we waited for it to be opened for us! Herbert and Eve and all the Wellspring staff are the most amazing hosts, but they must share along with the rest of their nation the frustrations of frequent and unpredictable power outages. By candlelight we found our room and fell into our beds.
Wellspring is not remote in location—certainly there are places in the African bush that are far more remote in terms of being cut off from civilization—but it is remote in terms of ease of accessibility. We in the west who like to talk about being “intentional” need only take a car ride of any kind through the streets of Entebbe and Kampala to sample a new level of intentionality displayed by each and every driver! The amount of focused determination necessary to get somewhere through the traffic would be enough to accomplish a dozen goals in our lives and churches which offered a “normal” amount of resistance! (It was no surprise that even in Heathrow airport on the way home, conversations could be overheard between several nationalities, the topic of which was the Kampala traffic!)
Once at the Wellspring complex, however, perched as it is with a view of life in the valley below (a valley that only a few decades ago was bush), one finds an oasis of peace—a little city of Kingdom development, fully functioning and moving in the opposite spirit of the chaos outside. There is a small hospital, a not-so-small primary school, a fully-functioning cafeteria and dormitories, conference center, offices to support micro-enterprise and housing developments, and also a church which is bustling with activity. In my life, I don’t know that I have ever seen such a footprint of the Kingdom—and I live with my eyes searching for such things! (I declared upon our return to our church which we very purposely named, “The Abbey,” that I had just come from an African Abbey: so much more than a Sunday morning!)
We had come to Wellspring to speak at their annual pastors’ conference—their 7th such event. Having learned through experience that God delights in joining his people across cultures, we knew that the relationships formed with the African pastors and leaders on the trip would be rich—and it certainly was. (I feel I carry them in my heart now.) What we did not realize, however, was that God was doing something that would transcend our bonds with Africa. The six members of the ministry team that had been assembled by Herbert and Eve (directors of Wellspring) were appointed for a purpose beyond the ones we could have imagined.
The web of relationships among the team included so many “coincidences”. Phil Moore from England was one of the first people that we had connected with 15 years ago when we first travelled to the U.K. He and his church had taken us in and loved and cared for us, but we had lost touch with him as the years had gone on. Our good friend, Andy Read, had completed a year as C.E.O. of Links International and it was a joy to travel with him doing Links business, moving our relationship beyond just visiting each other’s houses and churches. And then there were Mike and Beryl Godward, the founders of Wellspring (and doers of many other exploits) who now lead Links International in South Africa. We had only run across them briefly over the years, but had always longed to hear their stories and know them better—amazingly in them we discovered a mutual desire towards us!
We ministered all day (literally—many sessions) at the Pastor’s conference. Unlike an ordinary conference where you simply come with a message and deliver it, we all noticed that we were, like bike racers on the same team, drafting off of each other’s wind! I fled to my room more than once to alter my prepared message, having caught fresh inspiration from someone else on the team in the previous session! Though we came from diverse starting points, never has a conference been so thoroughly “whole”—it was one big teachable moment with several players involved—an epic unfolding that consumed our individuality!
At the end of the day—when everything shuts down because there may or may not be power—we found a way each night to be together for fellowship, joined the second part of the week by our son Joe and Billy Wells from San Marcos—two of the next generation who have begun to work with Links USA. Whether it was gathered with all the African leaders at the home of Herbert and Eve for a meal, dancing, singing, including the national anthems of every nation represented (and the University of Texas fight song—sorry—Billy kept saying that Texas was once its own nation!), or just the team hanging out together at the home of Holly who oversees the Wellspring educational initiatives, we couldn’t get enough time together.
The Kingdom is both present as well as “waiting to emerge” at all times, but there are those moments when the invisible reality of Kingdom just SHOWS UP like a STORM! We seem to live for those moments. On the last night of the conference, in our fellowship at Holly’s house, we had one. What began as just sharing turned into revelation and we realized God Himself had joined in the chat-time with a loud voice and a mighty hand! Suddenly we knew we were sitting in a miracle: Through all it took to get there, God had assembled us in Holly’s living room to testify once again to us that this Kingdom is built through relationships and that it will never be any stronger on earth than the relationships that carry it! From diverse places, backgrounds and experiences, we sat as one sensing the reality of God’s strategies and networking for the nations. IT WAS SO REAL! Words couldn’t express it and yet we all tried. Tears flowed. Hearts merged.
We realized as we sat there in the “remote” safe harbor that is the Wellspring zone, that each of us had every reason not to have been together and yet God had drawn us! And we realized that for some of us, there was a destiny to be together than had taken years upon years to emerge! It was as if the camera zoomed out and we could see the big picture in which God had been constantly working and shaping, nurturing seeds that to us had gone dormant during the years that had brought us to this point—during our lifetimes. Those of us connected with the journey of Links International (and it was all of us in the room) have experienced highs and lows, loves and losses, victories and questions, and yet we still believe there is a cause and we are more than ever devoted to each other!
Links International was founded on relationships and it is that relational mindset—which is the Kingdom mindset—that is the revolution waiting to fully engulf the face of missions as we know it. Here we sat experiencing the very essence of what Links is all about: we sat declaring with tears the value of each relationship in that room, thankful that through doubts, challenges, or simply “busy-ness”, we had managed to have enough sensitivity to heed the call and come and partake! In a real Kingdom way, we “fell in love with each other” all over again—not for any natural reason but for the burning sense that God had ordained that TOGETHER we would walk! There, in a place that that seemed inaccessible, and in an assembly that seemed on some level impossible, heaven found complete ACCESS to earth via a few gathered hearts with no veil or defensiveness. As we wept, we began to feel the right-brain burst that is Jesus echoing his words, “With me, all things are POSSIBLE!”
I told someone before I left for the trip that Africa has always had the wonderful effect of stripping me down to basics, showing me the things that I have let become far too complicated. It dulls my delusions of grandeur and grounds ambition in a sense of what is really vital. I suppose you call this perspective, but it is way more exciting than that word tends to sound. I feel I’ve been re-calibrated—like the best of all inner chiropractic adjustments—a realignment that will generate health throughout the rest of the body in time to come! All things really ARE possible, but not because I strive to do all things right! All things are possible because we live in a Kingdom of relationships, chief of which is the one with the glorious God-head, but beyond that includes strategically placed networking of people in real-time dynamic situations!
Lest you think that this is all theory, however, or even all just for the good of the far-away nations, let me share one last very personal thing. In God’s great economy, what helps the nations in the macro is the same thing that revolutionizes the individual in the very deep-hearted “micro”. There is always an individual application.
You see, I’m that girl who always says too much, shares too much, tells it all and lets it out—there is an unexplainable drive in me to express. (My dear husband is often praised as the “saint of saneness” at my side.) But inside, I am also a constant student of human behavior and I have made it my life’s project to decode the effect I seem to have on the world, so as to finally come up with a rule of thumb of when to speak and when to keep silent. I still have not found one but I keep doing the research!
On one evening of our international relational festival of fellowship, over a lovely meal, I began to talk about my childhood and personal life prior to Christianity. I seldom do this. However, I had lost myself in the enjoyment of a Kingdom moment and a sense of temporary but very real “family” had been created in the dinner conversation. Suddenly, Andy Read said, “You should put this on a podcast,” and to my surprise, everyone at the table agreed. I am being honest when I admit that never in my life had I experienced anything but embarrassment about my checkered and unusual bohemian past. I tell people with shame that I was simply “raised by my culture” and I tell it only to justify my passion FOR culture! But I NEVER thought any of it was interesting, or even remotely acceptable! And I don’t think I ever consciously realized I felt such shame until that moment!
Something changed in me in that very moment when a group of friends listened with fascinated interest AND ACCEPTANCE to my little life story—not just the story of who I am in Christ in theory, but the story of the somewhat ridiculous set of circumstances on earth into which the seeds of redemption fell! I had a real and genuine moment of honest ACCEPTANCE at that table that ranks up there with the most extreme “Toronto” or “carpet times” ever experienced. God used these relationships to be family for me, supplying a missing piece, and I will never be the same. I saw myself in the mirror of the group in a way I had never seen myself before—I wasn’t “strange”: I was “interesting”—and that made all the difference in a deep place inside—a place that had formerly been untouched! As He did with the geography of Wellspring, God was again showing me how able He is to ACCESS THE INACCESSIBLE!! It didn’t take hours and counseling, just a moment of complete transparency when I had lost my filters combined with an environment of GRACE that was tangible (not just theological).
All my posturing, packaging and careful self-presentation is unnecessary when I know that God has POSITIONED me where he wants me. God took me to Uganda to remind me of that. There is hope for us all: God has a relational positioning for every one of us—one which will demonstrate the health of family where it has not been known before. As the church comes to more and more look like the Kingdom (less and less like a corporate business model), the grace of acceptance will become tangible more than theological just as it did for me. And if God can orchestrate the details to assemble us as He did in a postmodern African Abbey, then certainly He can move all the pieces necessary to re-calibrate anything else in all our lives that stands in need of adjustment. Many people have asked me in the 48 hours since I have been back, “How was your trip?” See….it’s a big Kingdom answer…..Let’s just say that along with Toto, I really must say, “I BLESS THE RAINS DOWN IN AFRICA…..”! (http://www.lyrics007.com/Toto%20Lyrics/Africa%20Lyrics.html)
Wellspring is not remote in location—certainly there are places in the African bush that are far more remote in terms of being cut off from civilization—but it is remote in terms of ease of accessibility. We in the west who like to talk about being “intentional” need only take a car ride of any kind through the streets of Entebbe and Kampala to sample a new level of intentionality displayed by each and every driver! The amount of focused determination necessary to get somewhere through the traffic would be enough to accomplish a dozen goals in our lives and churches which offered a “normal” amount of resistance! (It was no surprise that even in Heathrow airport on the way home, conversations could be overheard between several nationalities, the topic of which was the Kampala traffic!)
Once at the Wellspring complex, however, perched as it is with a view of life in the valley below (a valley that only a few decades ago was bush), one finds an oasis of peace—a little city of Kingdom development, fully functioning and moving in the opposite spirit of the chaos outside. There is a small hospital, a not-so-small primary school, a fully-functioning cafeteria and dormitories, conference center, offices to support micro-enterprise and housing developments, and also a church which is bustling with activity. In my life, I don’t know that I have ever seen such a footprint of the Kingdom—and I live with my eyes searching for such things! (I declared upon our return to our church which we very purposely named, “The Abbey,” that I had just come from an African Abbey: so much more than a Sunday morning!)
We had come to Wellspring to speak at their annual pastors’ conference—their 7th such event. Having learned through experience that God delights in joining his people across cultures, we knew that the relationships formed with the African pastors and leaders on the trip would be rich—and it certainly was. (I feel I carry them in my heart now.) What we did not realize, however, was that God was doing something that would transcend our bonds with Africa. The six members of the ministry team that had been assembled by Herbert and Eve (directors of Wellspring) were appointed for a purpose beyond the ones we could have imagined.
The web of relationships among the team included so many “coincidences”. Phil Moore from England was one of the first people that we had connected with 15 years ago when we first travelled to the U.K. He and his church had taken us in and loved and cared for us, but we had lost touch with him as the years had gone on. Our good friend, Andy Read, had completed a year as C.E.O. of Links International and it was a joy to travel with him doing Links business, moving our relationship beyond just visiting each other’s houses and churches. And then there were Mike and Beryl Godward, the founders of Wellspring (and doers of many other exploits) who now lead Links International in South Africa. We had only run across them briefly over the years, but had always longed to hear their stories and know them better—amazingly in them we discovered a mutual desire towards us!
We ministered all day (literally—many sessions) at the Pastor’s conference. Unlike an ordinary conference where you simply come with a message and deliver it, we all noticed that we were, like bike racers on the same team, drafting off of each other’s wind! I fled to my room more than once to alter my prepared message, having caught fresh inspiration from someone else on the team in the previous session! Though we came from diverse starting points, never has a conference been so thoroughly “whole”—it was one big teachable moment with several players involved—an epic unfolding that consumed our individuality!
At the end of the day—when everything shuts down because there may or may not be power—we found a way each night to be together for fellowship, joined the second part of the week by our son Joe and Billy Wells from San Marcos—two of the next generation who have begun to work with Links USA. Whether it was gathered with all the African leaders at the home of Herbert and Eve for a meal, dancing, singing, including the national anthems of every nation represented (and the University of Texas fight song—sorry—Billy kept saying that Texas was once its own nation!), or just the team hanging out together at the home of Holly who oversees the Wellspring educational initiatives, we couldn’t get enough time together.
The Kingdom is both present as well as “waiting to emerge” at all times, but there are those moments when the invisible reality of Kingdom just SHOWS UP like a STORM! We seem to live for those moments. On the last night of the conference, in our fellowship at Holly’s house, we had one. What began as just sharing turned into revelation and we realized God Himself had joined in the chat-time with a loud voice and a mighty hand! Suddenly we knew we were sitting in a miracle: Through all it took to get there, God had assembled us in Holly’s living room to testify once again to us that this Kingdom is built through relationships and that it will never be any stronger on earth than the relationships that carry it! From diverse places, backgrounds and experiences, we sat as one sensing the reality of God’s strategies and networking for the nations. IT WAS SO REAL! Words couldn’t express it and yet we all tried. Tears flowed. Hearts merged.
We realized as we sat there in the “remote” safe harbor that is the Wellspring zone, that each of us had every reason not to have been together and yet God had drawn us! And we realized that for some of us, there was a destiny to be together than had taken years upon years to emerge! It was as if the camera zoomed out and we could see the big picture in which God had been constantly working and shaping, nurturing seeds that to us had gone dormant during the years that had brought us to this point—during our lifetimes. Those of us connected with the journey of Links International (and it was all of us in the room) have experienced highs and lows, loves and losses, victories and questions, and yet we still believe there is a cause and we are more than ever devoted to each other!
Links International was founded on relationships and it is that relational mindset—which is the Kingdom mindset—that is the revolution waiting to fully engulf the face of missions as we know it. Here we sat experiencing the very essence of what Links is all about: we sat declaring with tears the value of each relationship in that room, thankful that through doubts, challenges, or simply “busy-ness”, we had managed to have enough sensitivity to heed the call and come and partake! In a real Kingdom way, we “fell in love with each other” all over again—not for any natural reason but for the burning sense that God had ordained that TOGETHER we would walk! There, in a place that that seemed inaccessible, and in an assembly that seemed on some level impossible, heaven found complete ACCESS to earth via a few gathered hearts with no veil or defensiveness. As we wept, we began to feel the right-brain burst that is Jesus echoing his words, “With me, all things are POSSIBLE!”
I told someone before I left for the trip that Africa has always had the wonderful effect of stripping me down to basics, showing me the things that I have let become far too complicated. It dulls my delusions of grandeur and grounds ambition in a sense of what is really vital. I suppose you call this perspective, but it is way more exciting than that word tends to sound. I feel I’ve been re-calibrated—like the best of all inner chiropractic adjustments—a realignment that will generate health throughout the rest of the body in time to come! All things really ARE possible, but not because I strive to do all things right! All things are possible because we live in a Kingdom of relationships, chief of which is the one with the glorious God-head, but beyond that includes strategically placed networking of people in real-time dynamic situations!
Lest you think that this is all theory, however, or even all just for the good of the far-away nations, let me share one last very personal thing. In God’s great economy, what helps the nations in the macro is the same thing that revolutionizes the individual in the very deep-hearted “micro”. There is always an individual application.
You see, I’m that girl who always says too much, shares too much, tells it all and lets it out—there is an unexplainable drive in me to express. (My dear husband is often praised as the “saint of saneness” at my side.) But inside, I am also a constant student of human behavior and I have made it my life’s project to decode the effect I seem to have on the world, so as to finally come up with a rule of thumb of when to speak and when to keep silent. I still have not found one but I keep doing the research!
On one evening of our international relational festival of fellowship, over a lovely meal, I began to talk about my childhood and personal life prior to Christianity. I seldom do this. However, I had lost myself in the enjoyment of a Kingdom moment and a sense of temporary but very real “family” had been created in the dinner conversation. Suddenly, Andy Read said, “You should put this on a podcast,” and to my surprise, everyone at the table agreed. I am being honest when I admit that never in my life had I experienced anything but embarrassment about my checkered and unusual bohemian past. I tell people with shame that I was simply “raised by my culture” and I tell it only to justify my passion FOR culture! But I NEVER thought any of it was interesting, or even remotely acceptable! And I don’t think I ever consciously realized I felt such shame until that moment!
Something changed in me in that very moment when a group of friends listened with fascinated interest AND ACCEPTANCE to my little life story—not just the story of who I am in Christ in theory, but the story of the somewhat ridiculous set of circumstances on earth into which the seeds of redemption fell! I had a real and genuine moment of honest ACCEPTANCE at that table that ranks up there with the most extreme “Toronto” or “carpet times” ever experienced. God used these relationships to be family for me, supplying a missing piece, and I will never be the same. I saw myself in the mirror of the group in a way I had never seen myself before—I wasn’t “strange”: I was “interesting”—and that made all the difference in a deep place inside—a place that had formerly been untouched! As He did with the geography of Wellspring, God was again showing me how able He is to ACCESS THE INACCESSIBLE!! It didn’t take hours and counseling, just a moment of complete transparency when I had lost my filters combined with an environment of GRACE that was tangible (not just theological).
All my posturing, packaging and careful self-presentation is unnecessary when I know that God has POSITIONED me where he wants me. God took me to Uganda to remind me of that. There is hope for us all: God has a relational positioning for every one of us—one which will demonstrate the health of family where it has not been known before. As the church comes to more and more look like the Kingdom (less and less like a corporate business model), the grace of acceptance will become tangible more than theological just as it did for me. And if God can orchestrate the details to assemble us as He did in a postmodern African Abbey, then certainly He can move all the pieces necessary to re-calibrate anything else in all our lives that stands in need of adjustment. Many people have asked me in the 48 hours since I have been back, “How was your trip?” See….it’s a big Kingdom answer…..Let’s just say that along with Toto, I really must say, “I BLESS THE RAINS DOWN IN AFRICA…..”! (http://www.lyrics007.com/Toto%20Lyrics/Africa%20Lyrics.html)
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