Tag Archives: love

Embracing Joy

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This week has been very busy. I cannot say that I’ve been continually joyful. I have, though, been reflecting on joy a lot this week and realized that joy is not automatic, nor is it something we muster up from inside us. Joy is an outward expression, and we express it when the opportunity meets us, that is if our hearts are open to recognize and embrace it.

joy shining throughTake the story of the shepherds in Luke 2:8-20. They receive the message from a band of angels that Messiah has been born in Bethlehem. They hurry off to investigate and discover that it is true. It’s at that point that they are full of joy and proclaim Jesus’ birth to anyone who will listen to them.

The shepherds did not have to respond the way they did. They could have taken one look at Jesus lying in the manger and said that there is no way the promised king from David’s family would come into the world like that. But, in that moment they chose to believe that hope of Messiah would be fulfilled through the life of that baby.

Joy is the recognition, embrace, and reveling in the moment when faith, hope, and love converge and intersect our lives. It may not seem that grandiose, but even in the simple things we can receive a gift of love, the stirring of faith, and the realization of hope, which can only be expressed outwardly with joy.

May our hearts be open to the opportunities to find joy, especially in this most joyous of times, Christmas!

Grace and peace,
Brook

Embracing Peace at Advent

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While preparing this week’s newsletter I started singing Christmastime Is Here from A Charlie Brown Christmas. The first verse goes like this:

Christmas time is here
Happiness and cheer
Fun for all that children call
Their favorite time of the year

open handsAs I get older I seem to have become somewhat of a humbug. When I start thinking about the Christmas season a list of negative things immediately forms in my mind. I won’t bother you with the details, but suffice it to say, it’s a lot of mental and emotional work sorting through it all to get down to the good stuff. Sad to say, peace is one of the last things I think of when it comes to Christmas.

As I dig down deeper into the idea of peace, I realize that I’m dealing with a misconception of what peace really is. To quote J. Oswald Sanders, “Peace is not the absence of trouble, but the presence of God.” Sanders is getting at a misunderstanding that peace is primarily circumstantial and dependent upon the lack of conflict. His solution, though, is one of presence. Presence requires openness. In order to receive God’s presence, we need to let go of our need for control and open up to the reality that God’s presence brings companionship and resourcefulness. Saying yes to God means that we are not alone and that solutions to what is stressing us are made available.

Peace is the product of making space. We can make space in time, place, and relationships, and space provides avenues of potential. Making space in our schedule allows us to breathe and connect with God and people and to become agents of peace in the process. Making space in the place we live allows us to be open to relationship and provides a place to be that agent of peace. Making space is our hearts allows us to be open relationally, to be Jesus in our world, loving God by loving others.

So, back to the song “Christmastime Is Here,” peace comes when we make space to experience all the wonder and beauty that surrounds us as we celebrate the birth of Jesus with those who are close to us in proximity and in heart.

“Glory to God in heaven, and on earth peace among those whom he favors.” (Luke 2:14 CEB)

May you experience the favor of God’s peace as you open up to the presence of God and those who come close to you this Christmas season.

Grace and peace,
Brook

Embracing Peace from earlier this year.

Embracing Goodness

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Last Sunday at VLC we were honored to have Josh Pinkston share with us a message of a spirituality of presence. The key phrase in his talk was “The kingdom of God is within you.” (Luke 17:21) Though I wholeheartedly embrace this concept, I admit it is difficult for me to envision it in my life. The main reason is that I have a hard time seeing the good in me, others, and the world around me.

I read a devotional from Richard Rohr a few days ago that addresses this difficulty.

We are not so at home with the resurrected form of things, despite a yearly springtime, healings in our bodies, the ten thousand forms of newness in every event and every life. The death side of things grabs our imagination and fascinates us as fear and negativity always do, I am sad to say. We have to be taught how to look for anything infinite, positive, or good, which for some reason is much more difficult.

We have spent centuries of philosophy trying to solve “the problem of evil,” yet I believe the much more confounding and astounding issue is “the problem of good.” How do we account for so much gratuitous and sheer goodness in this world? Tackling this problem would achieve much better results.

This is something I have been meditating on quite a bit lately, particularly on reducing blame, alienation, and separation.

Embracing goodness enables us to turn toward others instead of against or away from them, something Jesus seemed to be really good at. This will always be a work in progress, but I trust that if we take Jesus at his word and follow his example we can begin to see and connect with the kingdom of God in those around us.

Grace and peace,
Brook

Embracing Peace

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This last Wednesday, August 28, 2013, marked the the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington where Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered his now iconic “I Have A Dream” speech. For me the most memorable part of the speech is his dream that young children of every color will hold hands and play together. It is a beautiful dream with implications far beyond the issues of racial equality, as important as those are. I would like to apply his dream to the gospel.

This week I read this Twitter post by Jonathan Martin.

“The gospel is so bent towards the outsiders, the very moment we get too secure being gospel insiders we start to resist the gospel itself.” (August 23, 2013)

Martin_Luther_King_-_March_on_WashingtonDr. Martin Luther King, Jr. saw that when the children of different races came together to play, they didn’t see one another as outsiders, but rather together as one. The gospel, the good news of Jesus Christ, is a message that God is near. It is a message of relationship and inclusion into the people of God. The Apostle Paul refers to it in Ephesians 6:15 as the “gospel of peace” for which we must be ready to carry with us wherever we go.

We will always be tempted to accentuate our differences to the exclusion of others. May we not resist the gospel in this way, but as agents of the gospel of peace, let’s pursue peace to the inclusion of others, who will then no longer be other.

“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.” Matthew 5:9

Grace and peace,
Brook

Embracing Proximity, Part 3: Fellowship

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We need each other. In fact, we were made to need each other. From the opening passages of the Bible, “It is not good for the man to be alone,” to the Psalms, “Look at how good and pleasing it is when families live together as one!” to the letters in the New Testament “Submit to each other out of respect for Christ.” Proximity to one another is God’s intention for humanity.

I pray you find time this weekend to increase your proximity to those you love.

Grace and peace,
Brook

Preparing a Place

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We are just about finished preparing for our service trip to Guatemala. I will be taking my two eldest children with me. I am excited for the opportunity and humbled by their willingness to go serve people who live in extreme poverty in a developing country. The phrase, “a child will lead them,” is truer than you know.

As the three of us we going out to run errands last night, the thought came to me that we are not the only ones preparing for this trip. Jesus is too.

Antigua, Guatemala

Antigua, Guatemala

“Don’t be troubled. Trust in God. Trust also in me. My Father’s house has room to spare. If that weren’t the case, would I have told you that I’m going to prepare a place for you? When I go to prepare a place for you, I will return and take you to be with me so that where I am you will be too. You know the way to the place I’m going.” (John 14:1-4, CEB)

Jesus was not only preparing an eternal home for his followers, but a place among the communities of the world. The Father’s house, the family of God, spans the globe as much as it spans eternity. Just as Jesus is preparing our hearts for this service trip, I trust that he is preparing hearts in the communities that we will be serving in. As a friend said to me this morning, “Jesus is already there and is waiting with a warm welcome.”

This is as true across the street as it is across the globe. Jesus is preparing a place for you.

Grace and peace,
Brook

Grace in Communion

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Lately I’ve been meditating on Communion (also known as the Lord’s Table and the Eucharist). In fact, it’s been intersecting me on a regular basis for the last few weeks through reading, listening, and just thinking. At VLC we’ve been talking about grace for the last month or so, and thus my thoughts about Communion are infused with grace. Below is a thought stream on grace in Communion.

On a Thursday Jesus established the Lord’s Table, knowing that the next day, Friday, would be the worst day of his life. He was able to do this because his faith was firmly rooted in the hope that on Sunday everything would be made right again.

Bread and Wine by Anna Tikhomirova

Bread and Wine by Anna Tikhomirova

The grace in Communion for us today is that Jesus is inviting us into his Friday. Jesus will take everything that has brought us to Friday and stay with us as we process toward Sunday.

The grace in Communion is that it is not to practiced alone. The grace in the bread is that through Jesus’ broken body we are brought into his unified body. The grace in the cup is that we now stand as a people who are adopted, redeemed, and justified.

We, God’s people, are a grace. At times we can stand with those who are facing a Friday, embodying the hope of Sunday. At other times we are walking through the hell of a Friday and need the grace of people who will love us, remain with us, and even help us bear the cross with us and for us, embodying the hope of Sunday. That is grace in Communion.

I pray that as you practice Communion you will also experience God’s grace through the symbols and through God’s people.

Grace and peace,
Brook

On Remembering: Embracing New Life Through Past Faithfulness

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“Bread and Wine,” Albert York, 1966

“Bread and Wine,” Albert York, 1966

This coming Monday is Memorial Day. It is a day in which we remember those who have died in active military service. Jesus reminded us that “No one has greater love than to give up one’s life for one’s friends.” (John 15:13) I am grateful for those sacrifices, just as I am grateful for Jesus’ sacrificial death for the salvation of the world.

I was listening to an interview about Communion recently where a definition of “remember” was offered as not reliving the past, in our minds or otherwise, but rather to breathe new life into the present by embracing the past faithfulness of others and walking out that same faithfulness in our own lives today.

Jesus prefaced his statement above with, “This is my commandment: love each other just as I have loved you.” (John 15:12) As Christians we are to live lives shaped by the cross of Christ. Our remembrance of him should not simply be a retelling of his death and resurrection, but an embracing of his faithfulness by loving others as Jesus loves us and as we ourselves would want to be loved.

Just as it would dishonor Jesus by living our “saved” lives only for ourselves, it also dishonors those who have died for our country if we don’t find a way to share the love. May our devotion to the commonwealth of God bleed over into our “American” lives by loving our neighbor as ourself.

Grace and peace,
Brook

Embracing Inconvenience: Because There Is Never a Good Time to Follow Jesus

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Just this last Sunday, missionaries to Guatemala, Shawn & Damaris Smith visited us at VLC. They are directors of a missions organization called “Now Is The Time.” Their by line is “Because there is never a good time to go.” As you can imagine, their invitations to serve with them for a week in Guatemala have been turned down with the reason, “It’s just not a good time for me to go.” In all fairness, at times this is a legitimate answer. But let’s face it, how often have we turned down opportunities to __________ (you fill in the blank) with the response, “It’s just not a good time for me…” I know I’ve done it more times than I care to admit.

I’m not just talking about short term missions trips. Opportunities come our way constantly, either as invitations from people or directives from the Holy Spirit. It is almost criminal the number of times I’ve brushed off an invitation with the excuse, “I’ll pray about it,” or just ignored the leading of Jesus, pretending to not hear and not see. In the name of inconvenience I’ve turned off my heart and separated myself from the life flow of God that comes through service.

When I first thought about embracing inconvenience, three passages of scripture came to mind: 1) the Sermon on the Mount where Jesus taught to turn the other cheek, relinquish our coat as well as our shirt, and go the second mile ; 2) the story of the good Samaritan where the priest and the Levite refuse to be inconvenienced by the injured man; and 3) James’ teaching about faith and works, saying one has faith but doing nothing to show it.

Of course the story of the Good Samaritan is the classic text illustrating how someone chose to be inconvenienced for the sake of someone else’s well being. He didn’t have to. The priest and the Levite walked by without rendering aid. Somehow, the Samaritan man valued the injured man’s life enough to take time to do what was in his power to do. I think that is all we are asked to do, as well.

So my encouragement is to not only be open to the possibility to serve, but also to purposefully as the Lord if and how we are to help when we see a need. Jesus may say “Go ahead and lend a hand,” or he may say, “I have someone else to help out here.” But in the asking, we must be willing to be inconvenienced. For it is in the giving, we receive. It is through blessing, we are blessed. It is in the laying down of our lives that life flows back to us.

I pray God’s grace on you as you choose to be inconvenienced for the glory of God and the benefit of others.

Grace and peace,
Brook

1) Matthew 5:38-42
2) Luke 10:25-37
3) James 2:14-18

Embracing Diversity: On Becoming Us

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There is a great paradox in this life. We are all the same, and we are not all the same. This realization came out in the conversation following the talk I gave last Sunday at VLC. We were exploring the “us and them” perspective and came to the understanding that when I see someone as a them it’s generally because there is some junk in my life I need to deal with. This junk makes me want to build a wall between me and the other person. If I allow God to help me work through this junk so that I can see the other person for who they are then this person can become an us to me.

 

Diversity and difference are two sides of the same coin. Diversity includes. Difference excludes. Diversity allows for a multiplicity of voices and perspectives. Difference only allows the voices and perspectives that align with the dominant view of the greater whole.

 

In his letters the Apostle Paul spends a significant amount of energy helping the churches to work through this paradox, (Romans 12; 1 Corinthians 12; Colossians 3:12-17; Ephesians 2:11-22; this is not exhaustive) especially as grew and spread across the known world. What I take from this is that we are to develop diversity, by working through our junk, within the household of faith so that we can offer more points of access into the family of faith.

 

Grace and peace,
Brook