First Reflections of 2011

     Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds,  because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance.  Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.  If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you.  But when you ask, you must believe and not doubt, because the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind.  That person should not expect to receive anything from the Lord.  Such a person is double-minded and unstable in all they do.

James 1:2-8

"God has everything to tell us and nothing to learn from us." Evelyn Underhill

As a Christian I believe that God speaks.  I believe He speaks to us and that He seeks to guide us, use us, and express His love for us.  I believe He speaks through ordinary experiences as well as extraordinary ones.  I believe He speaks through the morning paper and the holy scriptures.  I believe He speaks.  I believe His voice is powerful.  It is beautiful.  It comforts and it distresses us.


As I have posted often in recent months, I believe a big problem with this is that our lives are too noisy to hear and see God.  You see I have come to realize a couple of realities about hearing God's voice.  God is heard by people who want to hear Him.  When we want other things more than we want to hear God, or when we have made up our mind about something and want God's blessing instead of His guidance, or when we intend to use God instead of being used by Him, we are not going to hear Him well.  Indeed, the most significant distraction from hearing God is our intentions.  (see Luke 16:15; Acts 15:8; Romans 8:27)


But, we can hear Him.  If we will learn to read the signs and recognize God's current movement.  We need to learn from His historic activities, how to recognize His present movements.  We need to practice his presence in our activity for Him - as well as in reading about Him, praying to Him and/or singing about Him.  If we long for God to do miraculous things when we gather in our congregations on Sundays, we would benefit by being in tune with His supernatural activities all around us throughout the week.


God is also heard by people who obey Him.  I think we like to hear God's voice when He says, "you are forgiven."  We like to hear Him when He says, "you are loved," "you are special," "you are free," "you are gonna make it."  We are not so likely to ignore those words from God's mouth.  But I don't think we like to hear (or want to hear) Him say, "go and make disciples in your part of the ends of the earth."  I don't think we want to hear Him say, "no."  I don't think we want to hear Him say, "sell that and give what you receive to feed the needy."  I don't think we want to hear Him say anything about our money, and we're not so keen about what He wants to tell us about the way we spend our time either.  I think we seek affirmation instead of guidance and so we don't hear Him.


It is beautiful when the people of God desire to hear Him so that we can understand our lives and times and so that we can obey Him.  If we will reject the idea that there are special times for hearing God and hear in continually in the working out of our daily lives there will be a magnificent light in world illuminating God's work and words to us.  If we will trust that God's guidance is better than our best idea, our ears will be miraculously unplugged.  And if our heart will continually be in the state of asking "what do you want in this matter, in my life, in Your church?" we will indeed hear God.

NOISE - Success

Have you ever had a ringing in your ears?  It's a really irritating experience, and thankfully it is usually quite temporary.  I have read that the ringing is caused by the breaking of the small strands inside the eardrum which resonate with auditory stimulus.  It is these strands which first pick up the sound waves which are later translated in our brains into words, music, sirens, etc.  The breaking of these strands represents hearing loss.  For that reason, ringing in my ears has become considerably more irritating than it used to be.  It has always been irritating though.

Sometimes ear ringing can last for dreadfully long periods of time.  I have only experienced this on one or two occasions.  Occasions when I could measure the duration in minutes instead of seconds.  These long periods of ringing present now a more dreadful experience than mere irritation.

Sometimes distracting noise comes from inside our own head.  When we talk about spiritual noise, success is one of those distractions that comes from within.

I love success.  I love a job well-done.  I love to stand back and admire the completed task at the end of a day of painting, gardening, or organization.  The thing with success, is that in many circumstances it is quite measurable.  If we're an actor, we can measure it by movie profits and academy awards.  If we're an insurance salesman, we can measure it in contracts signed and commissions collected.  If we're counselor, we can measure it by clients served and relationships restored.  No matter who we are, we like to measure it in our paycheck, our title, our popularity, and our accumulations.  But we do like to measure it.

I have run into a couple of problems in this respect.  First, no matter what success I have already accomplished, there is always a new one laying ahead of me to which I must strive.  And second, the most important things in this world are not so easy to measure.

Rarely are spiritual things quickly achieved in increments that more in a consistently forward momentum.  But often include (and necessarily so) backtracking and side journeys.  The things that seem like struggles or curses are lessons in spiritual maturity taught in the classroom of day to day living.  What may be a setback in our career may be a leap forward in our spiritual life.  The financial misfortune can be a spiritual boost.  The physical ailment can be a spiritual vitamin boost.  What may seem to be a loss can be a gain. What seems to be a burden can be an aid.

And so in my head is this noise that tries to lead my focus to measure things in terms of immediate success. I can easily be so enamored with a promotion or a raise that I begin to focus on achieving the next one.  I can easily become so busy looking at numeric measuring tools that I am not listening to the still small voice of God leading me.

Yes, this noise in my head is such a distraction that I have missed many significant opportunities to see God and His plan clearly.  This noise in my head is powerful and destructive.  And sometimes the duration of the noise in potently long and leads me to grief.

It is said that God is looking for faithful people, not necessarily successful people.  Or that God's definition of success is not the same as ours.  Or that God doesn't need our success to accomplish His objective.  If God's greatest success, the cross, looked like an unequivocal failure, then I am probably significantly handicapped at understanding His measure of success.  I should therefor not strive for success by my own definition.

NOISE - Entertainment

So, after my last post regarding "Noise," I knew that the next thing about which the Holy Spirit was going to deal with me would be entertainment.  I even thought to myself, "I'm not going to post about that one, because then I won't ever be able to watch a movie with a friend again without feeling like I'm being hypocritical or something."  So there's a great deal of resistance in me to address this source of spiritual distraction.

Now, let me say something before I continue any further in this series of posts that reflect my personal battle against spiritual distraction.  I do not believe that a Christian is not allowed to have fun or that we are not allowed to have moments or seasons of personal enjoyment simply for the purpose of relaxation and happiness.

Moreover, when God gives any man wealth and possessions, and enables him to enjoy them, to accept his lot and be happy in his work-this is a gift of God. Ecclesiastes 5:19

The Bible teaches that the practice of "enjoyment" of things and experiences that are purchased through our income is a "gift of God."  Enjoyment is a good thing.  It can be a God thing.

I think the problem may begin with our inability to practice the contentment that we are instructed through Paul.

I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want.  (Philippians 4:12)

And it's notable that in the book of Proverbs, foolishness - when characterized as a prostitute soliciting business - uses enjoyment as her sales pitch.  Certainly enjoyment can lead us downward into foolishness and sin.

Come, let's drink deep of love till morning; let's enjoy ourselves with love. (Proverbs 7:18)

OK, now all of this was swirling in my mind after my last post.  And then, this past weekend I had a chance to hang out with a friend whom I had not seen in some time.  And in our conversation Tom began to talk about this great discipleship training ministry at his new church.  My ears initially perked up because I have always envisioned a discipleship training institute as part of the epic vision.  And as he went along, he repeated several ways and in several contexts that the course included, in ever-increasing increments, a requirement to limit the use of media in your life: ultimately attaining a limitation to 1 hour per week of all secular use of media in your life.  Media is defined to include TV, movies, music, social networking, internet surfing for entertainment sake, books, and the like.

Honestly, my skin rippled at the thought.  But then I began to ponder how much garbage goes in to my mind and spirit for the sake of entertainment.  And I think of how much profitable spiritual enrichment could be fed to my spirit if I watched fewer movies, were committed to fewer shows, found less relaxation in mindless TV, played less "bejeweled"...  (Of course, I would have to discipline myself to replace those things with truly spiritual things.)  But, because I value entertainment so highly as a source of contentment and as a personal counselor to ease my mind at the end of a stressful day, it has become noise and distraction.  It could be argued that in some areas it has become idolatry.

I have to one degree or another made entertainment a source for my personal happiness and well-being.  There is such a fine line between enjoyment and reliance.

Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. (1 Timothy 6:17)

The truth is that while it is good to enjoy the things God brings into my life, those things were not created for or necessarily intended for my enjoyment.  They are intended for God's enjoyment.  And when they distract me from my growing relationship with God, they bring God displeasure instead.  They are noise and sin for me.

Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created. (Revelation 4:11)  I use King James here because I learned a worship song as a child that quotes this verse in this language.

Noise - Internet Social Networking

Well, this is certainly not an original thought... but one that is currently necessary in my spiritual journey. Our lives are full of noise.  Not necessarily auditory stimulus, but a variety of input that clutters up our heart.  (In the Jewish mind, the heart is the center of the being and includes the elements of our mind, emotions, soul, and will.  It is this definition that I am referencing.)  It has been referred to as noise, because all of this clutter has the net effect of deafening us to God's still small voice.  That is significant because as Christ followers, we are specifically instructed to keep in step with the Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23), as we follow His voice (John 10:27).

OK?

So, I am determining to examine the noise in my life.  I am going to look at the things that distract and why they are so charming to me and so tempt me into comfortable distance from God.  This exercise may not be helpful to you.  I hope that it is though.

I can get very engrossed in facebook.  I never got into myspace.  It just seemed like e-clubbing and had no lure for me.  But the simplicity of shooting out some thoughts or updates to a select group of friends and family who may like to engage in an on-going conversation seemed much more legitimate to me.  And when I bought into the idea that I could keep in contact with friends and relatives who are far off, I was sold.  Truthfully, there is some real benefit in those areas.  I really know several of my cousins much better because of our facebook connection.  I have found a college friend with whom I had a very significant connection during that era of my life, and who I could not get a hold of by other means even though I had tried.  I am aware of the goings on in some of my high school friends lives and even get a chance to have light discussion of some of those goings on.

But here's the noisy part.  Sometimes, I get caught up.  I'll sign on to just "check my facebook."  And before I know it, I'll be commenting on dozens of my friends posts.  And then, after commenting I'll refresh the page to see if any new posts show up on my home page.  And then I'll go back through all of my comments to see if any re-comments have been posted.  And if none have, I'll read any messages that are in my message box to waste some time and then I'll look back through my comments to make sure that my jokes were funny to my friend and their friends too.  And there's no responsive comment, I'll just break down and send them a message with the joke that I already posted as a comment.  And then I'll notice someone who commented on the same post who either looks familiar to me or whose comment intrigued me and I'll go to their profile to see if I really know them...  And before I realize it, I have spent an hour posting and researching unnecessary and insignificant pithy little remarks.  And I have eventually run out.

And then sometimes I log on to facebook just to post something from my own life.  And the more I think about this, the more noisy this practice seems to me.  I mean seriously, I rarely post some significant accomplishment or earth-changing event.  I sometimes share developments in my kid's lives. And occasionally I post something that relates to my ministry or that reflects God to the facebook world.  But most often my posts go something like this:  "stuck in line at WalMart... guess I'll catch up on Linday Lohan."  Or how about this one, "LOST tonight - can't wait to see Smokey bite the dust!"  Now what is the real purpose of such posts?

I can't help but remember how in my youth I walked through the world as if I always had an audience.  I thought everyone around me was somehow so interested in my life that they watched my every move.  Of course then, it was all based on some kind of low self-esteem and an intense anxiety that I was always doomed to mess up somehow.  But, why to I think anyone cares what I am watching on TV or that I am standing in line at the local branch of the world's discount czar.  I mean is there some kind of narcissism going on here?  Why would I think that 687 friends really want to know that kind of minutia?  Do I like deluding myself into the belief that I really am the star of my own movie?  I think of the worship song (the title of which I can't remember at the moment) that talks about the importance of an 'audience of One.'  Living for God alone!!!

Now, just one more tangent before I conclude.  What's up with facebook on the cell phone?  Not only do we (I) allow it to eat up too much time at home and work, now I can actually tune out of my real and personal conversations to rudely dismiss the people who I am physically with to play to my audience via the cell phone.  How ridiculous!  How absurd!  Just more proof that there is some kind of imbalance in the whole thing.

Noise!  If just the fancy of the current trend or if truly a self-obsession that borders on idolatry, this kind of obsessive use of internet social networking is a problem.  I'm not saying that all internet social networking is idolatry or sin.  I'm saying that to one extent or another we have a new source of noise in our lives that has varying degrees of potential to drown out the voice of God.

Perhaps a internet fast would be revelatory to us all!
Perhaps creating a strictly enforced social networking 'diet' which allowed us no more than a cumulative time of 45 minutes/day!
Perhaps giving it up all together!

I am fully aware that blogging is one of these venues to which I am referring and my use of it for this subject may seem somehow hypocritical.  We'll all have to judge that for ourselves.  But here is my first installment of "noise."  What are your thoughts?