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Pitching Your Tent on Dung

March 31, 2010 in Christian Life, Jesus with 6 Comments

Over Spring Break our family went camping at the entrance of Carlsbad Caverns National Park. We met some friends from Dallas and camped for a few days. Our friends got there the day before us. They selected a site that was perfect.

It wasn’t primitive camping. It was a facility set up with multiple tent camping sites. There were bathrooms, showers and even BBQ grills at each respective site. It was a nice place to be sure.

The weather wasn’t great for a delightful camping experience, at least at first. It was cold, rainy, and of course, windy. After a day, though, the weather greatly improved. The wind subsided, the rain ceased, and the skies opened up most majestically. In, too, came the campers. By Tuesday evening, the campsites were nearly full.

Later that night, a rather large group showed up and pitched an enormous tent- in the dark mind you- right in the center of all of us. Unfortunately for them, this wasn’t exactly a tent site. It was a place where horses could be tied off. There were, hyperbolically speaking, tons of left over hay and horse dung all over the place and that group slept right on top of it.

Now give the guys a break. It was dark and the lighting was rather poor, so it was difficult to tell what was on the ground beneath them. But that is what happens when you’re operating in the dark, you often do things you wouldn’t normally do if you could really see.

I think that is why Jesus, John, and Paul spoke so frequently about the light and darkness contrast. They spoke of the power of light, the doom of walking in darkness, and the miseries of darkened eye-site. Bad things tend to happen in the dark, things a lot worse than pitching your tent on top of a bunch of horse manure.

Walking in darkness, though, is not an uneasy thing to find yourself doing. Those who walk without Jesus are doing it now and don’t even know it. Some even effort to walk with Jesus but it is as if they are hiding him with a quilt, or even worse, a straight-jacket. It’s as if he’s the delusional friend they are trying to control lest he make them do irrational things. But he’s hidden to be sure.

Jesus is to be put on, though (Galatians 3:26-27; Colossians 3:3-4). He is to be worn by us. And when he is, he actually makes his way inside us and dwells there. His light radiates in and through us so that we do not walk in darkness, but instead walk in truth, because he is truth (John 14:6).

I’ve tried walking with Jesus in futile, unproductive ways. It has made a laughing-stock of him and has often hurt his cause. It was walking in a way of darkness. I cannot contain or restrain Jesus. The man who could not be contained in a tomb definitely cannot be contained by me! Approaching Jesus this way isn’t much different than unknowingly pitching your tent on dung.

Thoughts on the Pain of Jesus

February 10, 2010 in Jesus with 2 Comments

Early this morning, Tisha and I read through Matthew 26 as a part of our daily bible reading and devotional time. When we were done, we discussed the events surrounding the betrayal, denial and desertion of Jesus, all of which were predicted by him prior to His prayer at Gethsemane. Jesus’ frustration with Peter, James, and John not being able to stay awake and pray with him, apparently, was so that they wouldn’t “enter into temptation” (v. 35). Temptation from what? Or temptation to do what? Could some of his prayer, and the agony that accompanied it, have been for the disciples, that they, especially Peter, not succumb to what he’s already predicted? Interesting enough, the last thing he says before Judas and his contingent arrived was, “Sleep and take your rest later on. See, the hour is at hand, and the Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners” (Matthew 26:45).

The pains of Jesus in the garden had to have been numerous, but I wonder how much of “the cup” that Jesus prayed for God to remove was oriented around bypassing the betrayal, denial, and desertion by those he loved? I’m not suggesting that the agony with which he prayed wasn’t, in any way, about the death process he would experience. But I am saying that the context that Matthew paints seems to be aligned around his three predictions of betrayal by Judas (vv. 14-16), denial by Peter (vv. 30-35), and desertion by the others (v. 31). In fact, that is precisely Jesus’ concern in Matthew 26:45.

It had to have been tough for someone who loved so much to have experienced such betrayal. Think about Peter’s firm affirmation that there is no way in the world that he would deny Jesus (v. 35). It’s a grave warning to all of us: We should be very careful with our confidence.

We know their actions caused significant trauma. Judas took his own life. John actually reflects upon the effects Peter’s denial had upon him (John 21:15-23). Read it for yourself. It’s not as apparent in the English, but in the Greek we see that Peter couldn’t so much bring himself to say that he loved Jesus with agape love. Jesus asked him, the first two times, if he loved him with agape, but all Peter can muster is that he loved him with phileo love. Ouch. Peter, apparently, was devastated to the core. I’m inclined to think that Jesus, seeing it coming, was as pained by what Peter would do as Peter was after he did it.

I know there is a lot that is going on that the text simply doesn’t reveal. But this has stuck with me since this morning. At the moment, I am thinking about my friends. I am thinking about the pain I might have caused some of them. I am letting go, though, of the pain other friends might have caused me. Thank you God for opening my eyes to all this!

More reflections on getting lost

January 27, 2010 in Jesus with 6 Comments

Getting lost in Jesus helps us to see people and situations as he saw them and continues to see them. In my pursuit of “getting lost,” God has brought before me situations and people who demand I approach them from his posture. Getting lost in Jesus is what makes it possible!

Personal conflict, sexual addiction, disease and death, all demand the sight of One who doesn’t ignore, but instead pastors. He is the “chief Shepherd” (1 Peter 5:4), and while his pattern for pastoring is to guide “the elders” among the church (1 Peter 5:1), who among God’s people, as His disciples, shouldn’t possess the heart that feels and moves like a shepherd? Do we get passes from operating with the heart of Jesus because we aren’t a certain age? I don’t think so. His heart, eyes, hands, and words served to mitigate the suffering of those who’s lives were, for whatever reason, turned upside down.

Last week I saw a woman console another that, too me, resembled Jesus. It was almost as if I saw Jesus as the one doing the consoling. It was a powerful moment. I think Colossians 3:3-4 is coming together in ways I’d before never recognized. Could this be an indication that I’m getting lost?

Time to Journal the Converging Process

December 21, 2009 in Christian Life, Faith, Jesus with 0 Comments

I’m convinced Christ is looking for my life to converge with his (Colossians 3:3-4), but I’m not necessarily certain about the “hows” of this process. I do know that the transformation process itself, though, isn’t totally a self-help project. He is at work, doing something to facilitate “being transformed into the same image from glory to glory.” I know this because “this is from the Lord who is the Spirit” (2 Corinthians 3:18).

It’s time I get lost; I need to get lost in him. “For you have died, and your life is hidden with the Messiah in God” (Colossians 3:3, HCSB).

This blog really hasn’t been about a guy “converging with Christ…” I’d like to think that it was, but it’s just not so. But all of that is about to change.

For a number of reasons, some of which are deeply personal, I’ve decided to journal on a daily basis. I want to chronicle my own conscientious effort to take my faith in Jesus seriously and get lost in him. I believe it will happen, and I plan to journal about it.

I’d love for you to join me. Let’s get lost together!

The Light of the World

December 6, 2009 in Christian Life, Jesus with 0 Comments

I am the light of the world. Jesus. John 8:12

Jesus uttered these words shortly after the feast of tabernacles, a Jewish high holy day commemorating Israel’s dwelling in tents at Kadesh-Barnea. During tabernacles, oil lamps were set up all over the city. The Mishnah suggests that the lights radiated throughout the entirety of Jerusalem. The holy hill was lit up for all to see and remember.

I am the light of the world. Jesus was sending a message. Tabernacles was his backdrop, but he was the focus. He was the light of the world. Oil lamps couldn’t light up a covenant people like he could. Oil lamps couldn’t light up a covenant people like he would.

John had earlier penned, “The true light, which enlightens everyone,  was coming into the world” (John 1:9). Jesus enlightens. Jesus illuminates. His presence overcomes darkness, for he is the light of the world.
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