Practicing the Presence of God

“Be still and know that I am God.”

Psalm 46:10a

These words were part of the prayer at the end of the devotion I read this morning.  “I pray that I may try to practice the presence of God.”  I read that and I wondered, what does that mean?  All day I have been asking myself that question. What does it mean to “practice the presence of God?”  A number of answers have come to mind.

Am I asking God to remind me all day long that He is always watching?  He always knows what I am doing, where I am, what I am thinking.  Mom used to tell me, “Always remember Wayne, whenever you think you are getting away with something – you aren’t.  There is always someone who sees you…” That statement is very true.  If no one else sees, God always sees.  How would it change our behavior if we were more mindful of that?  If we remembered that God is always present would it cause us to stop and think before saying or doing something we shouldn’t?  I hope so.

Or what about those moments when I am stressed or worried or fearful?  What would “practicing the presence of God” mean at times like that?   That’s a prayer worth praying. “Lord, when I am stressed or worried or fearful, at those moments remind me that I am not alone.  Bring peace to my troubled heart by reminding me that you are present.  You are with me.   You can handle what ever it is that has me worried and stress.  Speak to me at those moments, as you do here in Psalm 46 – “Be still and know that I am God.”  Let your presence breath peace into my soul. 

It also seems to me that “practicing the presence of God” means that when I don’t know how to handle a certain situation, I can seek out His help.  When I don’t know what decision to make, He is there.  I can turn to Him. I can ask Him.  After all He has invited me to do that.  “Ask it shall be given.  Seek and you will find.  Knock and the door will be opened to you… for which of you, if your son asks him for bread will give him a stone?  Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent. If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask Him?”

Certainly, “practicing the presence of God” means taking advantage of the times, the places and the means where He has promised to be present.  When someone stops by to visit you, you don’t ignore them.  You spend time with them.  You talk with and listen to them.  Do the same with God.  He promises that when two or three gather together in His name, He is there with us.  He is present when we worship.  In Holy Communion, He gives us Himself to eat and drink.  He listens when we pray.  He speaks to us through His Word.  Practice His presence by regular worship… by coming to His table… by talking to Him daily in prayer… Be a “Mary” and daily sit quietly at the feet of Jesus – pray, read, listen. 

Our God has said to us, “Be still and know that I am God.”   Jesus has invited us, “Come to me all who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.”  Take time every chance you get to recognize Him, to sit at His feet and listen to Him, to be renewed and fed at His table, to bring Him your joys and your needs in prayer.  Practice the presence of God every day… His presence changes everything… changes  you.  Amen. 

Who's in the Driver's Seat?

Ephesians 1:20–23 (ESV)

²⁰ that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, ²¹ far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come. ²² And he put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church, ²³ which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.

I know that this is a theme I have come back to a couple or times over the years, but I think that right now is a good time to return to this question – “Who is in the driver’s seat?”  When we look at this world… when you and I look at our lives – who’s in control?  Who is in charge?  Who is driving the car?

I don’t know how you are, but I tend to like to be the one driving.  I think it’s a control issue.  My kids have a love/hate relationship with me driving or not driving.  When I am driving, they think I am too slow… to cautious.  When they are driving, I make them crazy by bracing, grabbing on to handles, or slamming on imaginary brakes at the slightest hint of danger or of driving too fast or of driving to close.  You might say that I have “control issues.”

For me and I am betting for most of you, those control issues extend well beyond driving the car.  Most of us like to believe that we are in the driver’s seat of our lives.  We make our plans.  We like life better when people see and do things our way.  Our preference is for things to work out the way we want them to work out.  When that doesn’t happen, we pout… we get irritated… we worry.  Why?  Because we’re not in control. 

This COVID 19 pandemic has been an ongoing reminder that you and I are just kidding ourselves if we think we are in control.  How many of you have suddenly not been able to go see your doctor?  Have any of you had vacation plans changed or cancelled?  Lost jobs?  Not been able to go to church? Had to have someone else pick up your groceries?  Been at the mercy of your children telling you whether or not you are allowed to leave the house?  Watched helplessly as your savings and investments shrink or even disappear?

Now you understand the question for today’s blog.  Who is in the driver’s seat?  Is it the President?  Dr. Fauci?  The CDC?  Your governor?  Some local judge or health official you have never heard of?  Your kids?  The devil?  The truth is, it’s certainly not you or me.  COVID 19 has made that clear. 
But I would also tell you, its not any of those other groups I mentioned either.  Who then?

Well today is Ascension Day, the day (40 days after Easter) when we celebrate the ascension of Jesus back into heaven.  This is the day Jesus returned to His Father, triumphant over sin, death and Satan.  This is the day he led into captivity the enemies of God.  This is the day that Jesus who is both God and man, took up His power and began to reign.  That’s the meaning of the passage from Ephesians 1. God raised Jesus from the dead and at His Ascension “seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places,  far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come.”   At the Ascension God took Jesus, who is both God and Man, and placed Him in the driver’s seat.

That’s good news for all sorts of reasons.  He is God – He can handle the job.  Jesus is also man.  He has been tempted in every way as we are and yet was without sin. Jesus knows our trials, understands our troubles.  He has compassion and mercy towards us because He has walked in our shoes.  He has conquered and defeated every enemy by His life, death and resurrection.  Afraid of the virus?  Worried about your job?  Fearful of the new normal?  Fretting because you aren’t in control?  Don’t be.  Jesus is in control.  God has taken  the One who loves you so much that He gave up His life for you and placed Him in the driver’s seat.   The lamb of God who was slain for you and yet is alive is seated on the throne.  God has “put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church, “ to you and me.  From that driver’s seat Jesus says to you and me, “Fear not, I am the first and the last, and the living one. I died, and behold I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of Death and Hades.”  Don’t worry,” Jesus says, “I’m driving.” Amen. 

Run Your Race!

“Let us run with endurance the race set before us…”

Hebrews 12:1b

I don’t like to run.  I never have. When I was a kid, and I had to run any kind of race for gym class, I was very quickly winded and out of breath.  While some speak of a “runner’s high” I know of no such experience. I am not a runner.  Of course, I don’t need to tell any of you that.  One look at my body and its obvious, I am not a runner.  So when I talk and write in this blog today about “running your race” you could, with great justification, ask, “What does he know about running?”  Let me just defend myself that I bring a different perspective to running a race.  I bring the perspective of someone who finds “running” to be difficult.

That all said, right now it feels like we are in a particularly tough part of the race.  At times, right now it may feel like we are having to run uphill and against the wind.  This COVID 19 shut down was supposed to last 2 weeks.  We are in week 8 or 9.  I just read an article online that in Illinois churches may not be allowed to open for a year or more.  (Glad I live in Texas.) The economy we were told was going to come “roaring back” stronger than ever.  The reality is that people are still losing their jobs.  The markets are still mostly down.  The truth is, we don’t know what’s going to happen. We don’t know when we will reach the top of this hill and be able, at last, to run downhill for a while.

At times like this, when life seems to be a wearing, tiresome race… when you find yourself wearing out – how do you keep going. Yet that is what the writer of Hebrews tells us to do.   He writes, “run with endurance.”  Grind it out.  Keep going.  “How do you do that?”  That’s something I think we can learn from real runners.  Dr. Ferry, my former boss, loves to run.  He has run in the Boston Marathon. One day, sitting in his office, we were talking about these words from Hebrews 12.  He shared with me that one of the keys to successfully running a marathon is take and drink water every time its offered to you.  If  you wait till you are thirsty to take a drink it’s already too late.  You will dehydrate.  You won’t finish the race.  In a long race you need to drink water every time its offered.  It’s the same in the race of faith.  God, in His love, has provided regular, weekly, even daily watering stations along the way – places where He invites us to drink the living water of His grace.  We call them = churches, worship, Bible studies, small groups, Word and Sacrament.  At each of these opportunities He holds out to us the soul renewing, faith sustaining power of His Holy Spirit.  How do we run with endurance the race marked out for us?  By drinking the water of life every time He offers it to us. This is especially true right now as we run uphill, against the wind, in this particularly tough part of the race.

Of course there is the other question - “Why should you keep running?” That’s what I thought in every race I ever entered.  Why should I run?  After all, there was no way I was ever going to win.  Perhaps, that is how we feel in life’s race.  There’s no way you or I will ever win.  Is there?   Well let me share a story with you. “In 1981 Bill Broadhurst entered the Pepsi Challenge 10,000-meter race in Omaha, Nebraska. Surgery ten years earlier for an aneurysm in his brain had left him paralyzed on his left side. But on that misty July morning, he stood with twelve hundred lithe men and women at the starting line. The gun sounded, and the crowd surged ahead. Bill threw his stiff left leg forward and pivoted on it as his foot hit the ground. His slow plop-plop-plop rhythm seemed to mock him as the pack raced into the distance. Sweat rolled down his face and pain pierced his ankle, but he kept going. Some of the runners completed the race in about thirty minutes, but it was two hours and twenty-nine minutes until Bill reached the finish line. A man approached from a small group of remaining bystanders. Though exhausted, Bill recognized him from pictures in the newspaper. It was Bill Rodgers, the famous marathon runner, who then draped his newly won Boston Marathon medal around Bill’s neck.” (from “Disciplines of a Godly Man” by R. Kent Hugh). 

That’s why you keep running.  That’s what God has in store for you and me.  There is no way you and I will ever win this race.  However, our Savior Jesus already has won it.  On the day, when you or I finally complete this race and cross the finish line, He’ll be there waiting for us.  He will take the crown of life, the one He already won and set it on your head and mine.  You and I may not be runners… but by faith we run after one who is – Jesus who already won the race for us. Amen

The Blame Game

Ecclesiastes 7:20 (ESV)

Surely there is not a righteous man on earth who does good and never sins.

Let me begin by apologizing. I am sorry that you haven’t seen any devotions from me this week. The truth is, I have been sick.  I am reluctant to mention that because the first question people ask is this one, “Did you have COVID 19?”  No, I didn’t.  I was just sick.  Of course, inevitably comes the second, or perhaps third question – “How did you get sick?” “Where did you ‘catch’ it?”  At least that is the one I always ask myself – “How did I get this?”  I was thinking about that this morning and realized that this question is a “blame” question.  This question asks, “Whose fault is this?”  Ask this question and I have started playing the “blame game.”

Have you ever thought about how often we play this game?  Casting blame, finding fault seems to be the sport of our time.  You hear it all the time on the news, especially right now – whose to blame for this virus?  Whole governments are pointing the finger at one another.  Its this country or that one?  Who is at fault for the economy?  Its this party or that one… it’s the president or the congress… the governors.  Don’t misunderstand me.  I know that part of finding a vaccine for the virus is knowing how and where it started. 

However, this isn’t the only place we play this game.  We do it in our daily lives.  Couples in marriage trouble spend a lot of time in counseling… or in divorce proceedings finding fault… pointing the finger at… blaming one another.  How much time is spent in the business world… in a church… on any staff finding fault with each other? Isn’t this what lawsuits are all about – finding someone to blame and making them pay for it?

Ask yourself, why do we do this?  For me, far too often its to avoid my own responsibility in a matter.  Taking responsibility can be very hard to do. While we lived in Germany, my nice camera was stolen out of my office at the church, while I was in the sanctuary leading Sunday worship.  Terrible, right?  Who could be so brazen?  Well the church’s insurance would not pay anything on the theft.  Why?  Because in Germany I was considered at fault because I didn’t lock the door to my office that day.  Please know that I wasn’t pleased with that.  I still believe the insurance should have paid something.  However, I must also admit that, at least in part, I was at fault too. I should not have left the door to my office unlocked.  I never left it unlocked again.

A politician once asked, “Imagine how much we could accomplish together if we weren’t so worried about who got the credit?”  Change that a little bit - Imagine what good could happen if we weren’t so concerned about blaming each other?”  The truth is that in life there is almost always plenty of blame to go around.  Even if I am not wrong in one situation, I have been wrong in a dozen others.  Solomon is correct in Ecclesiastes 7 – “Surely there is not a righteous man on earth who does good and never sins.”

Imagine what the world would be like… imagine what God would do if each of us gave up finding fault… if instead we each took responsibility.  God makes a great promise about this.  “If we confess our sins, God is faithful and just and will forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”  But shouldn’t we pay for our wrongs?  Yes.  But that is the wonderful thing about our God – In Jesus He already has paid for our wrongs.  By the death of Jesus, God Himself bore the punishment for all our faults.  We are free to take responsibility for our wrongs without fear of God’s anger. 

Oh, there may be some temporary costs.  You may have to pay someone back for something you did, or apologize or lost a job.  But as far as your relationship with God – You are forgiven.  You are free eternally.  What’s more there are also great benefits for this life.  When couples in a marriage stop placing blame, each start taking responsibility for their own wrongs – healing can begin in that marriage.  Right now, it would seem to me, that far more important than blaming each other for this virus, is that together we all take responsibility for finding a cure or a vaccine.  I could go on… but you get my point.  Imagine what could happen if we all stopped playing the blame game and started taking responsibility.