This morning at Colossae, we opened worship with the song Everlasting God, written by Brenton Brown (and recorded by a whole host of other folks, including my favorite version by Chris Tomlin). It is a simple song based on Isaiah 40:28-31. Since I first heard the song several years ago, it has been one of my favorites. The song opens with the powerfully repetitious stanza: "Strength will rise as we wait upon the Lord. We will wait upon the Lord. We will wait upon the Lord." These words are a beautiful reminder or our need to wait patiently on the One who sustains us.
And yet today, I found it nearly impossible to sing. Not because I doubt the truth that these words express, but because of the sheer difficulty of doing what they say. I often lack the patience needed to wait, for anything. Still, some things are worth waiting for, even if it is difficult. As Tom Petty once sang, "the waiting is the hardest part."
"Everlasting God" (just so you can hear the song)
Strength will rise as we wait upon the Lord
We will wait upon the Lord
We will wait upon the Lord
Our God, You reign forever
Our hope, our Strong Deliverer
You are the everlasting God
The everlasting God
You do not faint
You won't grow weary
Our God, You reign forever
Our hope, our Strong Deliverer
You are the everlasting God
The everlasting God
You do not faint
You won't grow weary
You're the defender of the weak
You comfort those in need
You lift us up on wings like eagles
Sunday, March 14, 2010
Saturday, March 13, 2010
pruning has its place
Gardening is one of my favorite things. When the sun shines bright and life is good, gardening allows me to get outside, work with my hands, and tend to a little slice of God's remarkable creation that I have been entrusted with. And when life is tough, amidst those moments when storm clouds gather without warning and unleash their fury, gardening still allows me these same opportunities while also giving me a productive escape and time to process. (Note to self: Blog more about gardening...)
Last Saturday, my parents drove out to Newberg to help me with some yard work. I needed time to think and also a heady dose of the love and support that come from ones family. When they arrived we jumped right into the primary task at hand, pruning my plum tree. This is a task that we had tackled once before, in the spring of 2008. It was a necessity then, just as it was this year. With sucker branches exploding high into the air and the sheer density of the branches in the interior, the tree needed some attention. And with our unseasonably warm weather, tiny tight buds were forming, accentuating the need to complete the task soon.
Since moving in two and half years ago, my plum tree has steadily produced an incredible amount of delicious fruit each year. I've made plum butter (family Christmas presents in 2008) and plum crisps, while also giving away, freezing and eating a ridiculous number of fresh plums. In spite of this impressive annual yield, I know that by pruning it back, the tree will actually become more fruitful. For sure, this year's crop will be smaller in quantity, but the fruit itself should be noticeably better - larger, juicier, and more flavorful. In time, the branches that we pruned, or cut out all together, will grow back stronger and more fruitful.
For three hours my dad and I pruned sucker branches and thinned the tree's core, thoughtfully considering the tree's ideal shape and ability to produce fruit before each cut. And for three hours, my mom stood with hand clippers cutting the branches into smaller pieces for the yard debris container. For all her efforts, she even got a blister on her hand. (Is there any question where I learned to demonstrate my love for others by serving them?) In the end, the tree looked better than when we started, but it was also rather evident that a significant portion of it, even that which was fruitful, had been cut out.
The next morning, I sat alone at church distracted by life and completely oblivious to Chuck's message. I knew that I was supposed to be there, despite my own objections to going. For lack of attention, and perhaps to appear somewhat engaged, I picked up my Bible and, without thinking, opened it to John 15. The chapter begins like this:
When I opened the blinds on my bedroom window Monday morning, the sharp rays of the sun had just crested the house behind me and was illuminating the plum tree. What I saw was remarkable. In just over a day, a handful of those tiny tight buds adorning the pruned branches had fully blossomed into clean white flowers. The new growth had already begun, and the promise of a more fruitful tree was already being realized.
I can't help but think that this is the reason that I spent three hours pruning on Saturday (despite having other more pressing projects), or that I was at church on Sunday (despite my fervent objections). God spoke to me in terms that I could understand, even if I don't yet know how this truth will play out in my life. As we walk through our lives, God will sever things from us, some of which bears incredibly delightful fruit. It is not an easy process, and it can certainly involve significant sadness, anger, and fear, but he is merely pruning us so that we may "be even more fruitful." This may come in the strengthening of other fruit in our lives, or it may come as that which was pruned from us grows back even stronger to produce an even more abundant fruit than before. And perhaps both of these options can happen concurrently. I see a glimmer of hope in this truth.
Last Saturday, my parents drove out to Newberg to help me with some yard work. I needed time to think and also a heady dose of the love and support that come from ones family. When they arrived we jumped right into the primary task at hand, pruning my plum tree. This is a task that we had tackled once before, in the spring of 2008. It was a necessity then, just as it was this year. With sucker branches exploding high into the air and the sheer density of the branches in the interior, the tree needed some attention. And with our unseasonably warm weather, tiny tight buds were forming, accentuating the need to complete the task soon.
Since moving in two and half years ago, my plum tree has steadily produced an incredible amount of delicious fruit each year. I've made plum butter (family Christmas presents in 2008) and plum crisps, while also giving away, freezing and eating a ridiculous number of fresh plums. In spite of this impressive annual yield, I know that by pruning it back, the tree will actually become more fruitful. For sure, this year's crop will be smaller in quantity, but the fruit itself should be noticeably better - larger, juicier, and more flavorful. In time, the branches that we pruned, or cut out all together, will grow back stronger and more fruitful.
The next morning, I sat alone at church distracted by life and completely oblivious to Chuck's message. I knew that I was supposed to be there, despite my own objections to going. For lack of attention, and perhaps to appear somewhat engaged, I picked up my Bible and, without thinking, opened it to John 15. The chapter begins like this:
"I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful."
I can't help but think that this is the reason that I spent three hours pruning on Saturday (despite having other more pressing projects), or that I was at church on Sunday (despite my fervent objections). God spoke to me in terms that I could understand, even if I don't yet know how this truth will play out in my life. As we walk through our lives, God will sever things from us, some of which bears incredibly delightful fruit. It is not an easy process, and it can certainly involve significant sadness, anger, and fear, but he is merely pruning us so that we may "be even more fruitful." This may come in the strengthening of other fruit in our lives, or it may come as that which was pruned from us grows back even stronger to produce an even more abundant fruit than before. And perhaps both of these options can happen concurrently. I see a glimmer of hope in this truth.
Sunday, March 7, 2010
more lessons from Oswald
"The things we try to avoid and fight against - tribulation, suffering, and persecution - are the very things that produce abundant joy in us. 'We are more than conquerors through Him' 'in all these things'; not in spite of them, but in the midst of them. A saint doesn't know the joy of the Lord in spite of tribulation, but because of it." -Oswald Chambers
Today's devotion from My Utmost For His Highest
is titled "The Source of Abundant Joy" and is based on Paul's words in Romans 8. This familiar passage contains amazing truth of God's love. Two particular verses stood out this morning:28 "And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose."
32 "He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all - how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?"
These two verses vibrantly express the source of our abundant joy as believers in Christ. I know this to be true, in my mind. I wish my heart and my soul could understand and accept it as well. Because, I could use some joy right now; even if it doesn't come in abundance.
Saturday, March 6, 2010
lessons from Oswald
Lately, I've been trying to read Oswald Chambers' classic devotional My Utmost For His Highest
on a more frequent basis. While his thoughts are pretty much right on from day to day, every so often it seems that his words, originally published in 1935, were written with me in mind for that specific day. Today's short devotion was one of them. I hope that it encourages you as it did me...
Taking the Next Step
"...in much patience, in tribulations, in needs, in distresses" (2 Corinthians 6:4)
"When you have no vision from God, no enthusiasm left in your life, and no one watching and encouraging you, it requires the grace of Almighty God to take the next step in your devotion to Him, in the reading and studying of His Word, in your family life, or in your duty to Him. It takes much more of the grace of God, and a much greater awareness of drawing upon Him, to take that next step, than it does to preach the Gospel.
"Every Christian must experience the essence of the incarnation by bringing the next step down into flesh-and-blood reality and by working it out with his hands. We lost interest and give up when we have no vision, no encouragement, and no improvement, but only experience our everyday life with it trivial tasks. The thing that really testifies for God and for people of God in the long run is steady perseverance, even when the work cannot be seen by others And the only way to live an undefeated life is to live looking to God. Ask God to keep the eyes of your spirit open to the risen Christ, and it will be impossible for drudgery to discourage you. Never allow yourself to think that some tasks are beneath your dignity or too insignificant for you to do, and remind yourself of the example of Christ in John 13:1-17."
This also reminded me of a great quote by Martin Luther King, Jr. - "If a man is called to be a streetsweeper, he should sweep streets even as Michelangelo painted, or Beethoven composed music, or Shakespeare wrote poetry. He should sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will pause to say, here lived a great streetsweeper who did his job well."
on a more frequent basis. While his thoughts are pretty much right on from day to day, every so often it seems that his words, originally published in 1935, were written with me in mind for that specific day. Today's short devotion was one of them. I hope that it encourages you as it did me...Taking the Next Step
"...in much patience, in tribulations, in needs, in distresses" (2 Corinthians 6:4)
"When you have no vision from God, no enthusiasm left in your life, and no one watching and encouraging you, it requires the grace of Almighty God to take the next step in your devotion to Him, in the reading and studying of His Word, in your family life, or in your duty to Him. It takes much more of the grace of God, and a much greater awareness of drawing upon Him, to take that next step, than it does to preach the Gospel.
"Every Christian must experience the essence of the incarnation by bringing the next step down into flesh-and-blood reality and by working it out with his hands. We lost interest and give up when we have no vision, no encouragement, and no improvement, but only experience our everyday life with it trivial tasks. The thing that really testifies for God and for people of God in the long run is steady perseverance, even when the work cannot be seen by others And the only way to live an undefeated life is to live looking to God. Ask God to keep the eyes of your spirit open to the risen Christ, and it will be impossible for drudgery to discourage you. Never allow yourself to think that some tasks are beneath your dignity or too insignificant for you to do, and remind yourself of the example of Christ in John 13:1-17."
This also reminded me of a great quote by Martin Luther King, Jr. - "If a man is called to be a streetsweeper, he should sweep streets even as Michelangelo painted, or Beethoven composed music, or Shakespeare wrote poetry. He should sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will pause to say, here lived a great streetsweeper who did his job well."
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