My friends at the meager end live as though God has only enough grace to pull them through (barely), considering the overwhelming problems He faces.  He really is stretched pretty thin, and if we don’t do some of his work for him and carry some of his burdens, He’s going to come up short.  These folk tend worry about lots of things, like the security of their jobs,  health, or pensions.  They maintain long lists of duties in the back of their minds, believing that they must keep these check lists active in case God does run short on the grace.  When they pray they ask only for small things, fearing to place too much on God’s plate.  They seem to be under siege from constant difficulties at home, work, and church.  They are anxious, confined, burdened, and often bewildered by the newest crop of problems that sprout around them.  They’re hanging on, looking forward to joy and peace in heaven.  But they are not very joyful or peaceful here.

Photo by rosevita

At the other end of the continuum are those who revel in abundant grace.  They are joyful and carefree, even though–if you corner them–they will share some of the problems and difficulties that surround them.  It seems that God is always doing special, unexpected things for them and through them. They are quick to share answers to prayer, and sometimes I wonder if they are not stretching things a bit!  Every day in an adventure, and seems predestined to include some God things.  Even when they are ill or confronted with difficult circumstances, they are still radiant, if perhaps a bit subdued.  Their lives are filled with people who like to work or just spend time with them.  When I am with them, I have a sense that they are being carried along by a tide, almost as a leaf in a rapid stream, but they don’t fear the present or the future.

I know, at least intellectually, that these friends that understand God’s grace as abundance are right.  After all, God is infinite!  His Holy Spirit in moving through the world and working in ways that we cannot imagine.  He is simultaneously engaged with 7 billion people, and doesn’t even break a sweat.  He is never hurried or frustrated.  He takes every opportunity to approach all who are open (and the amazing secret is that he arranged that openness as well!)  Yes, God is infinitely larger than this universe–and certainly this planet.  We are swimming in grace from the moment we are born until we die.  He’s everywhere, saturating the fabric of our world and our lives.

Grace, of course, is nothing other that the presence of God himself.  Grace is only a word that stands for what happens in the presence of God.  God also faces opposition.  I’m not talking about the meager grace people.  They will survive–barely.  But arrayed against God are a very large group of folk on earth who don’t know about Him, or will not surrender to the currents of grace around them, like the thirsty fish who will not open his mouth.

This is the key point: God’s grace most often comes to us through the people we meet every day and especially those we choose to build relationships with.  Meager or abundant?

Other Articles of Interest:

• Defining “Relational Theology”
• How ironic!
• Sitting at the Feet of Jesus
• Lost in Plain Sight of the Goal

Today, however, I realized how essential relationships are.  I had two providential appointments.  First, a graduate student from Chicago contacted me about questions concerning our graduate program in philosophy of history.  On a hunch I suggested that we meet and talk face to face.  He agreed.  I spend an hour on the train, then a 15-minute walk to our meeting place.  I found my contact to be a deeply committed believer at the thesis stage of his MA, fearful about now launching into doctoral studies.  For more than two hours we talked about school, worldviews, life experience, and God’s callings.  It was a Spirit-filled encounter.

Photo bybjwebbiz

When I arrived back home, the phone rang.  This was a recent graduate, frantic because of the dead ends he had  encountered looking for work.  Finances were critical.  His was the classic cry of the heart:  “Where is God in all of this?  My faith has been pushed to the breaking point!”  There was another 2 hours spent in the Bible and prayer–for him, for a job interview, for his children.  I have all their names to add to my prayer list.  He shook my hand three times before I could get to the car!

What did I accomplish today?  Nothing from my list of things that must be done.  Nothing from the list of administrative tasks that linger in the back of my mind (not unlike birds of prey waiting. . .)  But I did make new friends, established two new relationships, encouraged two of my brothers in Christ to press on towards God’s calling.   The “to-do list” seems very unimportant right now.  Mary and Martha come to my mind.  Jesus told the complaining Martha that Mary had chosen the better part.  I understand.  I think I sat as the feet of Jesus today as I listened to my new friends.

Other Articles of Interest:

• Unmeasurable Grace
• Lost in Plain Sight of the Goal
• Choose Your Model Carefully
• What are we not doing now?

Other Articles of Interest:

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Life is Good! Photo by julesinky

that an aspiring executive could save by reading only brief digests of the best-selling titles. What a vignette of our world!

Here are some titles I found on the Web: The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership: Follow Them and People Will Follow You by John Maxwell; The Four Factors of Effective Leadership by David Rendell and Daniel Ford; and Creating Magic: 10 Common Sense Leadership Strategies from a Life at Disney by Lee Cockerell.  I can buy the books, or buy audio CD’s for some of them, or download them to a Kindle.  I can probably find digests of them as well. How about a book entitled Ten Easy Steps to Spiritual and Emotional Maturity. Do you think that would sell?  Would you order one?

The book, of course, would be a fraud.  Years ago,  as a young(ish) pastor with a freshly-minted doctoral degree, I was talking with a veteran missionary from Africa.  Thinking he could give me a dynamite idea about disciple-making in the local congregation, I asked him, “What kind of programs do you use on the mission field to help make disciples of new converts?”  (Oh, so green!)  He paused a moment, then looked me straight in the eye.  His answer stunned me.  “We dare not use any program or material at all.  If we do, our converts will complete the program and assume that they have learned all they ever need to know.  We have to be careful never to leave any hint of the idea that there is an end to the process of becoming like Jesus.”

My friend’s warning has remained with me over the years, and deeply influenced my thinking as I wrote Walking Together: Relationships that Transform.  Throughout the book I laid out questions to be discussed, ideas to be digested, and areas of life to be examined.  But there is no schedule, no 13-week segments, no 2-year study plan–and never a certificate of completion.  The question continues to nag at me, however.  What if the absence of a flow chart to completion is a deal breaker?  Will anybody buy a book that is an open-ended invitation to a life-long commitment to building relationships with others who will walk with us for indefinite periods of time?  Am I suggesting a way of life that does not make sense to our hurried, agenda-driven culture?

One Step at a Time: Photo by kconnors

Of course, we all know that relationship-building is such an open-ended life.  Marriage is the great test case of that kind of commitment, but we are failing miserably at that.  But there is no other way to have open, honest, and formative relationships with anyone, God included, if we will not take the open-ended path.

Okay, which would you buy:  Ten Easy Steps to Spiritual and Emotional Maturity or Walking Together for the Rest of your Life? I’d love to hear your responses and your suggestions on communicating the difference to friends today.

Other Articles of Interest:

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Photo by mconnors

would mean that something would be shoved off my plate onto the floor.  I have a cell phone, but don’t publish the number.  I know how to text, but I don’t.  Neither do I tweet (or follow those who do).  What is driving this mad dash to connect with people electronically?

Is this a substitute for real relationships? I’ve written in earlier posts about the decline in close friendships over then past thirty years.  Today nearly a third of the population has no person outside the immediate family that could be described as a close friend. The question is: is this dearth of face-to-face relationships the cause or the result of electronic communication explosion?

There are good reasons to believe that it is a cause.  First, it is far easier to remain in control of the image one projects when communication is electronic.  We know the horror stories about predators who surf the web looking for willing victims because it is easy to disguise one’s self in that environment.  The recipient knows no more about a contact than the predator wants to reveal.  Less threatening, but not much less problematic is the spread of Internet support groups for all kinds of life problems: divorce, drug abuse, grief, and unemployment.  While such groups do provide a place to be heard, there is still the problem of honesty: so much can be hidden, misrepresented, or fabricated about one’s problems–and many of the clues that face-to-face conversation reveals (such as body language) are hidden.  Who is going to tell the hard truth when it is so easy to create scenarios that make one look good?  Then there is online dating–but I’ll leave that one alone.

There is also good reason to believe that this explosion of electronic communication is fueled by a desperate need to be connected.  But why resort to indirect communication?  Could it be that something else is going on in modern culture that hinders the development of close friendships?  I think there is.  The pace of life for American teenagers in incredible: school, extracurricular activities in sports, music, volunteer work, part time jobs, maybe church and church activities, plus pressure to do well in order to “make the grade” to a prestigious college.  For young adults there

Photo by phaewilk

is the pressure of two-career families, commuting, children, daycare, school and community activities, maybe some church activities on top.  Perhaps there simply is no time to sit down and visit face-to-face with our friends.  Maybe we have bought the badly flawed idea that “busy” proves we are competent, valuable, responsible, organized, and hip.

If the communication explosion is the result of our lifestyles and mistaken beliefs about what is valuable, isn’t it time to reorganize our lives around relationships that promote reality, honesty, integrity, and full(er) self disclosure?  What if we deliberately scheduled into our lives an hour a day to talk face-to-face with a friend, neighbor, shut-in, child, colleague, spouse, or beggar?

Other Articles of Interest:

• Paul wrote in plural; we read in singular
• Why are we so ignorant about spiritual growth?
• How ironic!

Image by manicmorff

It was my first semester, and I felt like a lost child.  That morning in chapel the President had spoken on a topic that I cannot remember, but he had raised a question in my mind that I wanted to ask him.  At lunch I was sitting by myself.  I looked up and saw the President walking across the dining hall toward the faculty dining room, and I realized that he would come within a few yards of me.  I jumped up and intercepted him in the middle of the room.  I spoke his name, and he turned to look at me.  I introduced myself, stated my question, and listen intently as he responded–briefly but thoughtfully.  I was aware–keenly aware–that from the time I spoke his name, I was the only person on earth so far as he was concerned.  I understood that he valued me and my questions, and affirmed by his attention that I was important.

The transaction may not have taken more than 2 minutes–I don’t know.  But as I returned to my seat I looked back to see a large group of men in business suits following the President.  It was the members of the Board of Trustees!  Wow!  He had taken 2 minutes of his time away from VIP’s to listen and respond to me.  At that moment I promised myself that I was going to be that kind of person: he had his doctorate in ancient Semitic languages, was president of a nationally-recognized college, yet included me fully in his world for the time it took him to answer my question.

That was not my only interaction with him.  We became personally acquainted and even traveled together on a couple of occasions.  In years since I have sought his counsel on major issues in my life, and he found ways to help me fund research for my doctorate.  I am not like him in many ways because he is a natural people-oriented person while I am an introvert.  But I have chosen to rearrange my priorities to put people that enter my life ahead of deadlines and schedules.

We never know who might make the same decision about us, do we?  I often think about the students in my classes and office.  In what ways are they molded by their interaction with me?  We must understand–and remember–that formative relationships grow from 2-minute episodes.  The work that I now do, including this blog, is deliberately focused on interacting with as many people as possible: a student, a colleague, a neighbor, a cashier, a stranger on the street, that crosses my path.  Who knows which of those short episodes will help mold a life.  And the longer term relationships?  Those also mold me!

Choose your models carefully.

Other Articles of Interest:

• Sitting at the Feet of Jesus
• How ironic!

Image by twocentsmore

I’ll leave you to read the book if you want to.  It is an impressive integration of religious, cultural, and political history—with a few questionable linkages and generalizations.  But I was much more intrigued by what she did NOT say.  She did not explain this flow of history that produces a sea change every 500 years, and nowhere in the book does she use the word “sin” or “evil.”

There have been many explanations of causes or forces that “move” history: trade and commerce, powerful ideas, conflict between social or economic classes.  Some Christians are comfortable with “providential” history, seeing nations operating as agents of divine favor or judgment.  But Tickle makes no explanation whatsoever.  It could be that she, as a postmodern thinker, is simply uninterested in the great “meta-narratives” that ascribe to this or that great force the power to order human society over eons of time. Or perhaps her purpose was to describe “what” was happening, not to explain “why.”  But I find the gap a bit disturbing.

It seems in Tickle’s analysis the church is carried from crisis to crisis by this current, whatever it is, and simply molds itself to, or is molded by, the demands of the changing intellectual environment.  The Church (the body of believers in the world) has little impact on, or resistance to, the tide.

Here lies Tickle’s second omission: I believe that this tide can best be described as a moral conflict.  The abundant grace of God confronts human moral twistedness; the creative image of God in humanity is at war with the human will to power; and the redemptive plan of God at odds with human self-centeredness.  If I am right, the Church is not merely carried through history by a benign force, adapting itself to ever-changing circumstances, periodically changing clothes to keep in fashion.

What is missing from Tickle’s book is an understanding that the Church by the grace of God stands opposed to dark forces that seek to dominate the culture-shaping institutions of our world.  The Church is the bulwark that God raises to curb the sometimes overpowering evil pouring from the human heart.  The Church is God’s work in this world.  It is true that the story of Christianity in this world is usually not a very pretty one—but we (faulty, weak, short-sighted, and morally compromised) are the improbable tools that God has chosen to use in this continuing conflict.  He will win, no thanks to us. He presently—and ultimately—controls the current.

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