Living Well

Forbid it, O Father, that the difficulty of living well should ever tempt me to fall into any kind of heedlessness or despair.  John Baillie, A Diary of Private Prayer, 29th Evening.

Wait.  Don't go too fast.  We are used to having it our way as credit maxed, marginless Americans.  Baillie is Scottish.  Oldschool.  King's English.  Slow reading.  Soul searching.  Read it again.  And maybe a third time.  For good measure.

Have you ever considered "the difficulty of living well"?

"Considered it?  I'm living it," you may think.  I've got too much house, too much car, & too much waistline, but not enough time & certainly not enough money.  Too personalized.  Too indebted.  Too overworked.  Too tired.  Too stressed.

We've had it our way & it is killing us.  We are gluttons in the first degree.  Suffering from the sin of too little & not enough.

Have the blessings of God in your life - your talents, your abilities, your earnings, your family, your friends, your home, your possessions, your hobbies, your leisure - tempted you to heedlessness or despair?

Are you too busy to hear God?

Are you too worried to hear God?

By whose standard are you living well?

The world's?  

Passing away.

Or God's?

Eternal.

Bigger

My youngest is trying to make sense of the world around.  Building constructs of the bigger reality he is yet to know from the smaller home/family/church/neighborhood reality he does know.  All this with just 3.5 years experience behind him.

Hurricanes were one of our many topics together this morning.  He has his very own beginning reader tornado book.  He loves it.  100% boy.  Linebacker toddler.  Rough & tumble.  Known to leave a path of destruction.  And now big brother has natural disaster book loaded with pictures.  Including hurricanes.  It spurred a previous this week JM question, "Why is everything in that book messed up?"

With his thoughts tempestuously swirling I am assailed as rapidly as gail force winds.

Are hurricanes bigger than tornadoes?

How did they get to be so big?

Why are hurricanes on the water?

What is the ocean?

Why is the ocean big?

I am trying to use things he knows to explain what he doesn't.  The world is so big & his view of it yet so small.  I wonder how, if at all, he is processing this.  His wheels continue turning out questions as fast as I can answer. Then a transition.

Can a gun stop a hurricane?

Could a bullet stop it?

Two bullets?

Some really big gun bullets?

Then the biggest hurricane stopper he could imagine.

What about a humongous, humongous puncher thing like on WIPEOUT?

No, JM, there is nothing big enough to stop a hurricane.  Nothing man can make.  Nothing man can do.  No gun. No hollercopter.  No puncher thingy.  Only God is big enough.  Only God can stop a hurricane.  That is one more reason we worship Him & pray to Him.

Strangely stymied, JM fell silent.  Calm after the storm.  Thoughts now raging within his Daddy.

I say God is bigger than anything.

Stronger than anything.

Yet, do I trust Him with everything?

How much do I do on my own because I don't think God can handle it?

Or that I do not want God to handle?

I say, "God is bigger," to my small son, but do I truly trust the Bigger God with my adult life?

Or, so small minded, have I made my own will the bigger god?

Terrifying Power

Does this photo terrify you?

I get the willies just looking at it. I wouldn't want to walk there much less ride my mountain bike. Take note that his wheels are not on the ground. And that "ground" is only a narrow ledge.

These are the Cliffs of Mohan where one false move sends you 600 feet to the Irish rocks & Atlantic waves below.

Crazies - that is riders - exult in "riding the edge." Navigating the terrifying treachery of this trail includes jumping four foot gaps & riding along four inch ledges. I question if they are riding the edge of sanity.

Terrifying.

Flashback nearly 2000 years from Irish Cliffs to dusty Nazareth. Mark 6:1-6. Jesus goes back to his hometown synagogue the first time as a Rabbi. He is initially welcomed. Miracle making, powerful preaching rock star of his day. Yet, familiarity with "the carpenter" & contempt for "Mary's son" with no mention of his earthly father allowed his hometown crowd to label & dismiss him.

Mark 6:5 offers terrifying truth, "He could not do any miracles there except lay his hands on a few sick people."

The previous chapter plus, Mark 4:35-5:43, delivers a potent story trio with one purpose: displaying Jesus' awesome power. Jesus' power over nature, 4:35-41, calming the storm. Jesus' power over evil, 5:1-20, casting out the legion of demons. And 5:21-43, Jesus' power over sickness & death. Yet, here in his own hometown we learn the power of unbelief.

Mark 6:5 is one of the boldest statements of the Gospels. It tells us something Jesus will not to.

Jesus is God in flesh. Omnipotent. He CAN do anything. Yet Jesus chooses to limit his limitless power in accordance with the faith of people.

Terrifying.

Mark 6:6 reports of Jesus, "And he was amazed at their lack of faith." The only other time Jesus is said to be amazed in the Bible is by the faith of the Centurion who believed Jesus could heal his sick servant from a distance by word alone (Luke 7:9). Yet, the LACK of faith in his hometown amazes him.

What about you?

What do you think God can't do?

He can't change me. I'll have this habit forever.

He can't change them. They will always be that way.

He can't change the situation. I shouldn't even pray about it.

Do you realize that your lack of faith may be THE very reason he has not changed "it" whatever it is?

Terrifying.

You have power to stop the very thing that you need. You hold the keys to terrifying power. The power of unbelief.

Confess. Repent. Ask for faith.

May we live by faith fearing only of the holiness of God with no fear of our own faithlessness.

Why Bother?

A caffè latte is an espresso made with steamed milk, topped by foamed milk. The latte is the most popular espresso drink. As such, the latte has lots of jargonized options.

Some folks avoid coffee houses due to cost. Others due to spousal promises of caffeine avoidance. But some folks, like me, avoid them for fear of the vocabulary. You gotta speak coffeese.

One such coffeese named latte came to mind while reading this morning. But I wasn't drinking one. Nor was I dreaming of one in caffeine withdrawals. I was reading, remember?

It is called a "Why Bother." A decaf, sugar free, nonfat latte.

Yes. Why bother? You just removed all the best reasons for drinking it! The caffeine, sugar & fat. All gone. What have you got left?

Why Bother latte? Because you can.

Why bother Jesus? Because he can.

Mark 4:35-5:43 is a potent story trio with one purpose: displaying Jesus' awesome power. Jesus' power over nature, 4:35-41, calming the storm. Jesus' power over evil, 5:1-20, casting out the legion of demons. And, here in 5:21-43, Jesus' power over sickness & death.

Jairus, a synagogue ruler with a dying daughter, falls down pleading before Jesus. "Please come & put your hands on her so that she will be healed." I am a Daddy who loves his little girl. I've got welly eyes & a lumpy throat as I feel this.

Jesus went with Jairus. Jairus hoped in Jesus.

But then, a woman, a woman with an issue of blood catches Jesus' attention along the way. The woman is healed. But Jairus' daughter dies.

Bad news bearers ask, "Why bother the teacher any more?," in verse 35.

Why bother?

Dead is dead.

Dead is final.

Jesus might have healed her while alive.

Now she is dead.

Jesus can not have that sort of power.

Why bother?

But. Thanks be to God, Jesus is more powerful than earthly anything even faithless anyones.

Goes verse 36, "Ignoring what they said, Jesus told the synagogue ruler, 'Don't be afraid. Just believe.'" The little girl was raised from the dead.

Why bother?

Because Jesus can.

Pigsworth

Dawn follows the once stormy then miraculously calm night of my last post. Jesus has crossed the Sea of Galilee west to east for his first mission into Gentile territory. Reference Mark 5:1-20. Immediately upon landing he is confronted by a demon possessed man. So violent was this man, he’d been known to cut himself & shriek uncontrollably. So strong that chains & fetters couldn’t hold him. So problematic he’d been driven to live among the dead in cave tombs rather than in town or a village.

Jesus asked him, "What is your name?"

 "My name is Legion," he replied, "for we are many."

Legion. That was 6000+ Roman soldiers. This man was possessed by more demons than could be counted.

Demons, speaking through the man, ask Jesus to be merciful enough to allow them to be sent into a herd of pigs nearby. About 2000 of them. Jesus allows this. Then, explainable only by the desire to cause harm to some incarnate being, the demons rush the pigs down the steep bank to drown.

Herdsmen run to spread the news. The returning crowd sees the restored man sitting calmly & clothed. “They were afraid,” Mark 5:15 states. They ask Jesus to leave their region.

Formerly fearful of the formerly fearsome demon possessed man. Now fearful of The Man possessing the power to cast out demons.

Their fear is stated.

Their care is not.

It may appear that they cared more for the pigs than they did for their newly freed neighbor. I was just about to write about that. But. The Bible makes no statement of it & we can not know what they were thinking. We can know what we would be thinking.

If those were my pigs & that frightening fella & some Jewish miracle worker from across the Sea had caused it, I know who I’d be mad at. I’d think my first reaction would be anger. My pigs. My property. Gone. And for what? The chain-breaking menace? The shrieking nuisance? So this Jewish preacher guy could display some crazy power?

If so…

I’d need to ask the forgiveness of the Jewish Preacher with crazy power. I care more for pigs than a person. Yes, the financial loss is real, but the restored man is, well, unreal. And does it make a difference whether it’s two pigs of 2000? Just mine or my friends’ too? Or should the soul of another person be worth much more to me. A man is free. Clothed. Peaceful. A miracle has occurred.

What legions haunt the souls I know? What habits possess? What sins control?

Who has power to cast them out? What is that worth?