Lindsay Willis

a big life principle

Eugene Peterson writes in commentary on 2 Corinthians 6:11-13:

When I center my life on myself, my freedom diminishes and the life I live in constricted, anxious, fenced in.  But when I set God at the center of my life, I realize vast freedoms and spontaneities in an open and expansive existence.

Me = small and insignificant life

Jesus + Others = big and significant life

when's the last time you had a check up?

In our SOAP reading this week, Ephesians 5:15-17, stood out to me.  In the MESSAGE BIBLE it reads:

"Watch your step.  Use your head.  Make the most of every chance you get.  These are desperate times! Don't live carelessly, unthinkingly.  Make sure you understand what the Master wants."

Eugene Peterson, who authored the MESSAGE interpretation of the Bible, writes in his notes on this passage:

I once had an automobile that began to develop all kinds of strange noises.  It became more and more difficult to start, and sometimes I would have to ask a friend to give me a push.  Clouds of black smoke belched from the exhaust.  And the motor sounded terrible

 

In spite of this evidence that something wasn’t quite right, I delayed taking the car to a mechanic. Why?  I know I would have to have it repaired, and once one thing was repaired, the whole thing would have to be repaired…and that would cost me a lot of money.  Meanwhile, it was still getting me where I wanted to go.  So I ignored the problem.  I refused to tamper with anything for fear that I’d have to overhaul everything.  You can guess the result.  There came a day when the car wouldn’t run.  So much was wrong that it wasn’t worth fixing, and I had to junk it.

 

I thought of that car when I read Paul’s sentence, “Don’t live carelessly, unthinkingly.”  Which is how I sometimes live, neglecting not only my car but my life.  Why do I resist self-examination?  A big reason is that I fear if I look too closely at my life, I’ll see too much that has to be done, and I don’t want to take the trouble or pay the price to fix it.  Meanwhile, I’m functioning.  I’m getting on OK.

 

But Paul knew something we don’t: that the life we’re examining is essentially good.  That our existence is God’s creation.  That no matter how many things our examination turns up, scrapping the life within us isn’t an option.  God created this life, He has entered into it, He has provided the means for saving it, and He is redeeming it. 

 

And that’s where the car analogy breaks down.  Many cars aren’t worth repairing and some are impossible to repair.  But there’s no life that isn’t worth repairing, no life that is impossible to redeem.

 

This means that I can pay close attention to my life without anxiety or apprehension.  It doesn’t make any difference if I turn up a lot of broken stuff.  God is ready to deal with all of them, item by item, in love and grace.

listening to....?

Who or what are you listening to?

Who or what are you paying attention to?

What are you allowing to penetrate deep into your heart?

Here is a thought from Proverbs 4:20-23:

    My child, pay attention to what I say.

Listen carefully to MY words.

Don’t lose sight of them.

Let them penetrate deep into your heart,

for they bring life to those who find them,

and healing to their whole body.

Guard your heart above all else,

for it determines the course of your life.

praying for a big life

That probably sounds pretty arrogant...but it is a Scriptural prayer.  Look at the prayer Paul prayed in Ephesians 3:16-20 (this was our SOAP chapter for yesterday):

I ask him to strengthen you by his Spirit—not a brute strength but a glorious inner strength— that Christ will live in you as you open the door and invite him in. And I ask him that with both feet planted firmly on love, you’ll be able to take in with all Christians the extravagant dimensions of Christ’s love. Reach out and experience the breadth! Test its length! Plumb the depths! Rise to the heights! Live full lives, full in the fullness of God.

Notice the words there:  "extravagant dimensions, experience the breadth, test its length, plumb the depths of His love."  That is a BIG life.  it is not BIG in the way the world may define BIG, but it is so much BIGGER than what "they" have in mind.  Our God has a BIG life for each of us.  It is BIG enough to encompass the hurting, the lonely, the sick, the less privileged, those "different" from us, to our neighbors, our co-workers, our friends, our relatives, to anyone God brings across our path.

Notice though that we have to open the door to that life. Remember in Revelation that Jesus stands at the door and knocks?  He doesn't kick the door down and barge in on us.  He stands and knocks, waiting for us to open it. 

The problem is that living a BIG life in God can be inconvenient of uncomfortable for us.  Even more, it means that life is so big we no longer feel in control of it.  And we don't like that.

Yet time and again in Scripture, Jesus invites us to live the BIG life He intended.  Look at Paul's prayer for us in 2 Corinthians 6:11-13:

Dear, dear Corinthians, I can’t tell you how much I long for you to enter this wide-open, spacious life. We didn’t fence you in. The smallness you feel comes from within you. Your lives aren’t small, but you’re living them in a small way. I’m speaking as plainly as I can and with great affection. Open up your lives. Live openly and expansively!

Will you dare pray and ask Jesus to show you how to live this BIG life?  Will you open the door to the BIG life God has for you?

under His influence...or our own?

During my three decades of living out my faith in Jesus, the phrases used to described people who claimed to have faith in Him have changed: from "saved", to "born again", to "Christian", to "believer", to "Christ follower".  And it will probably change again. 

No matter what "label" we put on this relationship with Jesus, it really comes down to who is calling the shots every day, and every moment of the day, in our lives:  me or Jesus? 

It is sooooooooooo easy to call my own shots.  We Americans especially like to believe that we can control our own destiny and lives through the choices that WE make based on OUR INTELLIGENCE or SAVVY or COMMON SENSE.

That is why it is hard to truly follow Jesus or to live a Christian life or to put whatever name on it you want. 

The real question is whose influence am I yielding to:  the culture around us, my own "intelligence", or Jesus Himself?

Jesus said He only did what he saw the Father doing....clearly He lived out His life under the influence of the Father.

That must become our only goal if we are to truly be a follower of Christ.  This prayer from Isaiah 50:4-5 is a starting place:

Heavenly Father, Sovereign LORD, give me Your  words of wisdom,

so that I know how to comfort the weary.

Morning by morning please waken me

and open my understanding to Your will.

    Heavenly Father,  Sovereign LORD, speak to me,

and  I will listen.  I will obey;  I will  not rebel or turn away.

praying scripturally accurate prayers

I believe that our amazing God is more interested in WHO WE ARE BECOMING rather than in what we have accomplished.  Our culture emphasizes the latter, while I believe God focuses on the former.

Praying prayers like this passage from Provers 2:1-11 from the New Living Translation will help us live in the tension of BECOMING and DOING:

1  Father today, I choose to listen to what You say,

and treasure Your commands.

2  I tune my ears to wisdom,

and concentrate on understanding.

3   I cry out for insight,

and ask for understanding.

 4   I search for them as I would for silver;

seek them like hidden treasures.

 5  Then You will cause me to understand what it means to fear You, my LORD,

and I will gain knowledge of You, Father God.

 6   For You, my LORD, grant wisdom!

From Your mouth come knowledge and understanding.

7   You  grant a treasure of common sense to the honest.

You are a shield to those who walk with integrity.

8 You guard the paths of the just

and protect those who are faithful to You.

9 Then I will understand what is right, just, and fair,

and I will find the right way to go.

10 For wisdom will enter my heart,

and knowledge will fill me with joy.

11 Wise choices will watch over me.

Understanding will keep me safe.

what are we praying for?

In my devotionals this morning, I stopped to think about what we pray for.  I reflected on things I pray for family and friends, things that I am asked to pray for as part of my pastoral role, or at the services on weekends.  And I realize that a lot of what I find I am praying for is "to make life easy" for those for which I am praying. 

And then I stopped and asked myself:  are we praying for the best things?  Or should we be praying differently? 

I wrote something in my journal (I journal on my computer and I put this in the footer of my journal so I see it every day) that helps explain what God is stirring in my heart today:

Why do we pray more about getting out of situations than we pray before we ever get into the situation in the first place?

Maybe we would be better off praying for things like this (from Colossians 1:9-14 in THE MESSAGE BIBLE:)

I haven’t stopped praying for you, asking God to give you wise minds and spirits attuned to his will, and so acquire a thorough understanding of the ways in which God works. I pray that you’ll live well for the Master, making him proud of you as you work hard in his (Kingdom). As you learn more and more how God works, you will learn how to do your work. I pray that you’ll have the strength to stick it out over the long haul—not the grim strength of gritting your teeth but the glory-strength God gives. It is strength that endures the unendurable and spills over into joy, thanking the Father who makes us strong enough to take part in everything bright and beautiful that he has for us.  I pray that you will realize that  God rescued us from dead-end alleys and dark dungeons and that He’s set us up in the kingdom of the Son he loves so much, the Son who got us out of the pit we were in, got rid of the sins we were doomed to keep repeating.