24/7: 7am – Glorified Commute

You see all different types on the metro – the white-collared and blue-collared workers, the grandparents and the students, newspaper readers and kindle users, veteran commuters and “newbie” tourists. People come from different backgrounds and are headed toward different destinations…many with their iPods in and their phones out – engaged in their own little world. But yesterday, one man wasn’t…

Early in the morning, as I found a seat in the already-packed metro, I sat across the aisle from an older, heavy-set woman. She didn’t look destitute, but she certainly didn’t seem terribly “high-class.” She kept on talking to the lady behind her (whom she obviously didn’t personally know) about how she had fallen near the escalators and how worried she was about a scrape. Maybe it’s just a pet-peeve of mine, but personally, I tend to have little patience with random people on the metro talking to me – especially about their personal lives. Honestly, I felt worse for the woman having to listen than the woman who had supposedly fallen.

When we arrived at our first stop, a middle-aged military officer in full camouflage boarded and joined the “listening” woman in her seat. I felt bad for him…wondering if he knew what he had gotten himself into. Sure enough, right after he sat down, the woman started telling him how she had fallen and how she was worried she wouldn’t make it to work. I expected him to ignore her or at the very least gently subdue her and put her off. However, to my surprise, the man responded, not with annoyance, but with genuine sympathy and respect toward the woman. He listened to her, addresser her as “ma’am,” and to my complete surprise, promised to make sure she got to work. Sure enough, fifteen minutes later, the man got off at the woman’s stop (which was clearly not his own), took her by the arm, and, presumably, guided her to her place of work.

I found this brief encounter to be so convicting. In the city, I am surrounded by a culture of self-advancement and self-absorption that is so easy to be sucked into. When I’m on the metro, I watch people scramble for seats instead of deferring to the person next to them. They put in their earbuds and seem to forget about the world around them. On the escalators and on the street, people quickly walk to their offices without giving a second thought or glance to the homeless people or even to the other businessmen and women they are passing by. And yet, for just one morning, a man put aside what was easy and convenient for himself. He went out of his way to love his neighbor and to count someone else as more significant than himself.

Ever since I started my internship, I’ve been thinking about 24/7 – about how I could be glorifying God throughout my day, and even at 7am on my daily commute. This man gave me my answer: by being considerate of others and by not falling prey to the self-absorption around me. On some days, that might mean giving up my seat. On others, it might mean letting someone else board the crowded car before I do. On some other days, it might simply mean smiling and greeting someone, or being a listening ear…even if I’m tired and bored. As Christians, we are not called to be self-absorbed commuters. We are called to be different – to lay down our lives for our neighbors. And that starts with even the smallest areas of life…like riding the metro.

24/7: Learning to Glorify God All Day, Every Day (Series Introduction)
24/7: 6am — Wait in Expectation (24/7 Part I)

24/7: 6am — Wait in Expectation

Maybe it’s just me, but the world seems so much bleaker at 6am. It’s usually dark outside — sometimes cold and rainy — and I’m often sleepy and drowsy with a day of work and classes ahead of me. Every once in awhile — like on my birthday or Christmas — I wake up with an excited sense of anticipation for the events of the day ahead; but more frequently, I only anticipate the daily routine of homework and classes. Nothing particularly exciting…nothing particularly special…

When I get up in the morning and start to pray, my prayers can fall into a usual routine too. “Heavenly Father, give me strength to make it through today, bless my friends and my family, and help me to grow to be more like You.” Of course, my prayers vary from time to time. If I have a test that day, I might pray that God will help me to do well; or, if one of my friends is sick, I might ask for healing. However, the point is, often times praying — and my prayers themselves — can become a part of my dry, everyday, non-exciting routine. But…does this really glorify God?

In some ways, we could say that yes, it does. Simply by virtue of praying, I am glorifying God by humbly expressing my dependence on Him and my belief that He can both hear me and provide for me. By both expressing my helplessness and by acknowledging who God is, I am already glorifying Him.

However, I think I too often stop short of glorifying God to the extent that I can through my prayers. By allowing my prayer time and my prayers to become dry and routine, I fundamentally reduce God’s glory in my own eyes and deny myself the oportunity to see God’s power at work in my life and in the lives of those around me.

See, routine prayers say a lot about what I believe. As Matthew 12:34 says, “For out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks.” First, routine prayers often tend to be very general. It’s as though I believe God is either uninterested in the specifics of my life or He isn’t able to handle anything more than the basics of my life. It is almost as if these prayers need to help God out. As long as I pray broadly, God will be able to answer that prayer in some way or form. It’s almost a safety net to keep me from being disappointed by an distant or weak God. But we don’t serve a weak God, and to pray in such a way makes God small in our eyes.

Instead, we should let the specificity of our prayers be a testament to the awesome power and ability of our God to do anything and everything. Instead of praying simply for spiritual growth, pray for specific manifestations of grace — increased patience, service, and sensitivity. Instead of just praying for strength for the day, pray for specific parts of the day — wisdom and grace for certain conversations, perseverance and productivity for papers, safety for travels. By doing this, we glorify God by acknowledging His greatness.

Praying specifically and earnestly glorifies God in another way too: by opening our eyes to answered prayers. The danger of routine praying is the same as waking up to the routine day I described earlier — you don’t expect anything new or exciting to happen. But this is fundamentally different from the way that David prayed in Psalm 5. In this Psalm, David says, “In the morning, I lay my request before God and wait in expectation.” David doesn’t lay his request before God and then move on with the rest of his day completely forgetting what he prayed about that morning. He waits in expectation — anticipating answer to prayer, looking for them throughout the day.

By praying specifically, we provide ourselves with the opportunity to see God at work. Sure, it’s neat when we pray every day that God would direct our steps in our life and then one day we get the opportunity to start a new job. But doesn’t it fill you with so much more  awe when you are specifically asking God about whether you should pursue an internship for the next semester and then that very day an email comes asking you to apply for an internship at an organization? It is so obviously a work of God and an answer to prayer. It causes us to praise and thank God because we specifically see God’s hand at work. It builds our faith for future prayers. All these things glorify God.

So, although prayer in and of itself glorifies God, it holds the potential to do so much more than we often let it. Our prayers can be so much greater, more exciting, more fulfilling, and more God glorifying if we simply take the time to pray genuinely  and specifically, and then wait in expectation.

24/7: Learning to Glorify God All Day, Every Day (Series Introduction)

24/7: Learning to Glorify God All Day, Every Day

The Westminster Catechism states that the purpose of life is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever. In the Bible, 1 Corinthians 10:31 commands us, “So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.” Of course, that sounds great and is definitely a goal we want to pursue. But, I know in my own life, this is something that seems good in theory, but when I get into my day — between classes and commutes, lectures and lines in the cafeteria, sports and socializing — I’m not always sure what it looks like to glorify God through everything that I do.

That is what this series is going to explore. The Bible tells us that our calling as Christians is to glorify God, but this series will explore how we can do that practically hour to hour and day by day…24/7 living for Him.

Hungry for Hope

I always cringe a bit when I come across verses in Psalms like Psalm 1:2, “But his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on His law he mediates day and night.” Love of, and devotion to, God’s word is a consistent theme in Psalms. I feel a bit guilty when I read these verses because, while I read my Bible pretty consistently, my love of Scripture is nowhere near this level of passion. I always wonder how David and the other psalmists did it…how could they generate such excitement for the Scriptures — the law no less! — to be meditating on it day and night? Part of it definitely came from a genuine love for God and a desire to know Him better. But I think there was something else driving their passion as well. The psalms are songs of desperation as much as they are songs of praise. The psalmists often were starving…not physically, but they were hungry for hope.

When God created mankind, He did some amazing things with the way the human body works. One of those things was He developed self-preservation instincts in the human brain. Because of this, when people are literally starving, the thing that dominates their waking and sleeping thoughts is food and how to find food. Psychologically, these thoughts haunt them until their hunger is satisfied.

I think it works the same way with hope. When people are desperate and spiritually needy, the search for hope and the source of hope dominates their thinking. For those who have no source of hope, this search is, well…hopeless, and leads them to despair as they feel the resounding emptiness of the hope that the world offers. But for Christians, being hungry for hope leads us to the one place we know we can find it: the Scriptures.

The Scriptures remind those who have lost their hope that there is a God who cares for His children, who works things for their good, who can work miracles, who has preserved His people for generations, and who has solved our greatest problem. This is what drives the psalmists, in the same way that a person hungry for food “meditates” on food day and night, so too do those who are hungry for hope.

I know in my life, the times that I have felt the most needy have likewise been the times of the greatest spiritual growth in my life because I have been driven to study and “dwell” in the Scriptures. This realization has caused me to begin a new (intense) Bible reading plan to start this new year. If I want hope in the year ahead, I want to cultivate a passion for my source of hope…God’s Word.

For other ideas of Bible reading plans, an excellent helpful article can be found here. 

A Father to Cry With

It is not uncommon for people to tell me when I’m struggling with difficulties or trials to “trust God” because He will work it all out for my good even if I can’t see it yet. It’s a good reminder and I know it’s true because the Bible guarantees that God “works all things together for the good of those who love Him and are called according to His purposes.” However, sometimes I want — I need — something more than just that reassurance of future hope. I know that I have a sovereign God, but sometimes I need to be reminded that He is also my loving Father.

I find it very easy to imagine God as….not unsympathetic, but almost unfeeling toward the pain that I experience. I know that God loves me, but I can easily picture Him as more distant — seeing my pain, but (although He cares) not particularly hurting with me because of His omniscient confidence that all will end well.

But….is this how a true, good father would behave toward his hurting child? Even if the father knew that everything would be okay — for example, if a father knew his child’s broken leg would set and heal properly — would he be distant and content with just that knowledge? Or, is it more likely that he will still ache with and for his child and the pain his child must endure before the healing? Obviously, a good father would do the latter. In the same way, I believe God also aches for his children when they are hurting, since He cares even more for His children than any earthly father could (Matthew 7:11).

John 11:35 has often been reduced to a bit of trivia in Christian circles. “What is the shortest verse in the Bible?” Answer: “Jesus wept.” But I think we often miss the context and significance of that verse. That verse is found in the chapter where Lazarus dies and Jesus returns to raise Lazarus from the dead. Jesus knew that everything would “work out.” He even told Martha, Lazarus’ sister, that “Your brother will rise again.” However, when Mary, Lazarus’ other sister, came to see Jesus and Jesus saw her weeping, the Bible says that “He was deeply moved in spirit and troubled” and then…”Jesus wept.”

Jesus mourned alongside Mary and the other mourners. His omniscience did not keep Him from keenly feeling and experiencing the pain of His little children. In the same way, God is not distant or unfeeling toward any of His children in pain now. Instead, as a loving Father, He is “near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in Spirit.” (Psalm 34:18)

Hanging On

I think that one of the most poignant scenes in the Lord of the Rings occurs at the end of the Return of the King. The ring has finally been cast into the sea of lava in Mount Doom and Frodo dangles over the lava at the edge of the cliff, clinging with all his might to a jagged rock. He looks down as the most important object in life — the reason for his year-long journey — sinks and dissolves in the fire beneath him. Then he looks up at Sam, offering him a hand. He looks back at the ring. For a moment, it looks like he will let go…that he will follow the ring to a fiery end.

It’s that moment that always stands out to me. Frodo thought — even just for a moment — of letting go. What was going through his mind as he watched the most valuable thing in life dissolve beneath him? What could he do? He couldn’t get it back. He was faced with only two options: cling to the cliff or let go and sink below.

Recently, though, I feel like I’ve been able to understand Frodo just a bit more. Over the past couple of weeks, I’ve watched as God has taken certain things that I have invested in and cherished in my life — just like the ring for Frodo — and has dropped them into the fires of “Mount Doom.” Some days, I feel just like Frodo…like I’m just “holding on.”

But like Frodo, I’m also faced with a decision. No, it’s not a choice between life and death, but it is a choice between hope and despair. When these trials entered my life, I couldn’t get rid of them. I couldn’t just “fix” them anymore than Frodo could prevent the ring from dissolving. But that leaves me with only two options: cling or let go.

But unlike Frodo, I’m not clinging to a rock made out of granite and dirt, I’m clinging to the Rock, my Salvation. When I lose the things that matter most to me in life, I can sink into the waves of despair or I can cling to the promises of God. I can cling to the promise that God loves me, that He will never give me more than I can bear, that He works all things together for the good of those who love Him and are called according to His purposes, that He knows the plans He has for me — plans to prosper me and not to harm me, to give me a hope and a future. These are the only sure things I can cling to, and in times of trial, these promises are what is keeping me from sinking.

I think that sometimes God gives us trials just to shake our foundation — to show us that what we’ve built our life upon can just disappear. But when we lose our footing and we need something to grab onto to keep us from sinking, He intends that we cling to Him — to that solid Rock — and His loving and everlasting promises. After all, what other option do we have?

How’s Life?

As I sat in a corner booth of my college’s dining hall, hunched over a 2-inch binder full of Supreme Court cases to memorize, I glanced up to see a friend of mine slip into the booth across from me. “How’s life treating you?” she asked as she sat down. How was I supposed to answer that? I had three midterms and a paper coming up within hours of each other this week and I was sick….how did she think life was treating me? As I bit back complaints about my exhaustion, busyness, and sickness, it occurred to me that I was looking at this question from the wrong perspective. My outlook shouldn’t have been, “How is life treating me?” Life is busy, chaotic, and far from perfect. But that’s not what matters. A better way to view this question was, “How is God treating me?”

When I mentally rephrased my friend’s question this way, my whole attitude and perspective on my life drastically shifted. I went from thinking about all the things wrong or hard in my life, to thinking about how many things were undeservedly right in my life?

How is God treating me?

He is treating me with love. He, a holy and just God, is viewing me, a rebellious sinner, through the lens of the righteousness of His Son because He loved me enough to send His son to die for me!

He is treating me with undeserved grace. I am attending a strong Christian college where I can devote myself to studying the things I love. He has surrounded me with caring friends and a loving family. He has given me generally good health, a wonderful church, and a range of opportunities. What did I do to deserve such favor? Nothing. Yet God is gracious and gives these things to me.

He is treating me with faithfulness. Before my tests, I knew that He would grant me the strength that I needed to study. During the tests, I knew He would faithfully give me remembrance. After the tests, I knew that He would grant me rest. And no matter what happened in each test, I knew that He would still be there for me when I cried to Him in prayer.

How has God been treating me? He has been treating me with goodness, kindness, and mercy.

It was with this realization that my perspective was drastically reordered. All those problems that I had to complain about earlier seemed pretty petty all of a sudden. Really, I realized, life can’t treat me that badly, because God is that good.

Lessons from Sunrise: Light to My Path

Of my college routine, one of my favorite parts is my daily morning walk. I like these walks not so much for the exercise, but because every single morning, I get to watch the sun rise. Sunrise is an amazing time of day — the slight chill in the air, the fading moon, the lightening sky, and the reflection of the sun on the lake. But here’s an interesting thing about sunrise: in order for me to get to appreciate the sunrise, I have to walk in the darkness first. I have to wake up before the sun and start my walk in darkness…and only then can I appreciate the coming sunlight.

If you’ve lived for any amount of time, you have probably encountered some trial or difficulty at some point — your own personal time of darkness. Perhaps this took the form of an illness, a family member or friend’s death, a pattern of sin, financial trouble, relational conflict, or just day-to-day difficulties. Have you ever wondered why you had to walk through this time of trouble?

I certainly have. Over the past couple of months, amidst some great times and tremendous blessings, I’ve still had to walk through some periods of darkness. Again and again, I’ve asked God why. If God loves me — really loves me — why would He have me experience this darkness? If God is powerful — really powerful — why couldn’t he just keep me having a perfectly easy, comfortable, contented life?

At the moment, I don’t really know all the reasons why. Maybe someday in heaven I will see God’s full purpose. However, I think one reason God gave me the darkness was so that I would fall in love with the light that God has provided for my walk through life.

Psalm 119:105 says, “Your word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path.” God has provided a light to guide us on the darkest paths in life! But here’s the thing: a light doesn’t do too much good in full sunlight. The light is still there, but we’re less likely to use a light or appreciate the light during the day. We need the darkness to appreciate the light.

In the same way, I think periods of darkness in our lives help us to fall in love again with God’s word. I know that as I’ve walked through my struggles, God’s word has daily become sweeter and more and more encouraging to me. I crave God’s word because it gives me a solid foundation — a real grounding in a situation that seems insecure and shaky. Verses that I used to just skim over take on whole new meaning…and all because I am able to apply these verses to the trial that I am walking through.

I haven’t enjoyed these trials, but I am becoming increasingly thankful for them. God has been using these difficulties to draw me closer to Himself. His light is shining brightly, and I can see it all the more clearly because of the darkness….just like the sunrise.

Waste of Worry

As a perfectionist, I spend a considerable amount of time worrying about achieving certain set standards for myself. This is seen most clearly in my school work. There’s an essay due next week…will I get it done in time? There’s a test tomorrow…am I prepared adequately? I haven’t finished all of my reading assignment…will I look uninformed when my professor calls on me in class? There are endless worries and concerns, and once one assignment is finished, another worry is there to take its place.

I was particularly struck by this endless cycle of worry when I was reading through some of my old diary entries. Again and again, I read about my worries about biology tests, literature papers, and geometry problems. I worried about getting my work done and about getting good grades. Something that stood out to me as I read these entries, though, was how small and insignificant these assignments and grades now seem in hindsight and how much time I spent worrying about something that was here and gone.

Thinking back to just my second semester of my freshman year, I wrote eight essays (and six journalism articles), took twelve tests, and wrote 137 pages and 35,371 words for assignments. I spent an accumulation of hours worrying over each assignment. But now it’s all over. The grades are in, the due dates passed, and the transcript updated. Honestly, I couldn’t tell you at this point (just a few months later), what I got on most of my tests and papers. Those assignments and grades all blur together — they are all just drops in the bucket. I spent an awful lot of time worrying about something that was here and gone.

I think this is something that we all fall into too often. We spend time and energy — we preoccupy our minds — worrying about the inconsequential things in life. Jesus tells us to “not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy.” I think this applies to more than just investing in material objects. I think Jesus is also telling us not to invest in anything that is solely worldly.

Let’s look at it this way: just as passing time will destroy our material possessions (so it would be a waste to treasure and invest in those things), passing time also causes our trials and concerns to fade. Spending time worrying about those trials is essentially “treasuring” and investing time and energy in something that is temporal. What a waste of such precious and God-given resources!

Not only am I investing in something that will fade away, but also I’m not doing anything of value in even human and worldly terms! I can’t even make anything better from my investment in worrying. Essentially, worrying does absolutely nothing productive. As Jesus said, “Can any of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?” So I am not only spending extra time and energy on something that will quickly come and go, but I am pouring this energy into a useless pursuit. It is as if I am trying to collect something as useless as sand in a bucket with a hole. I not only waste my time shoveling sand…I end up with an empty bucket.

But how would our lives be different if we stopped worrying? What would happen if we invested our time and energy in something that was actually effective and productive?

God has given us a set amount of time and energy in each of our lives. We choose how to invest that time and energy. We could spend these resources on worry and end up with an empty bucket and a few remaining grains of sand or we can spend that time studying Scripture, investing in people (who have eternal souls), or pursuing vocations for the glory of God. It’s impossible to do both – to worry and to lead fruitful lives for the kingdom.  Maybe that’s why Jesus told his disciples not to worry, fret, or fear so often in the gospels.  The answer is simple, and it’s always the same: trust in the God who is all-powerful, all-wise, and all-good.

Such a Time as This

With the start of the school year just around the corner, many of us are finding our circumstances around us changing. Instead of lounging on the beach, we’ll be sitting in class. Instead of hanging out with friends, we’ll be meeting for study groups. Instead of pleasure reading, we’ll be reading textbooks. Moving back into the daily grind can be challenging and I won’t be surprised if in the next few weeks, I find myself wishing I could be outside doing something fun instead of sitting at my desk studying. However, as we move into our new routines and new schedules, I think it’s very important that we remember to ask ourselves a question: whether or not we’re happy in our circumstances, is it possible that God has put us into these situations for such a time as this?

One of my favorite stories in the Bible is the story of Esther. I love it not only for the bravery Esther showed, the irony of the plot, and the faith displayed by Mordecai, but because it shows how God sovereignly places people in just the right places in order to accomplish His will.

Esther was not living in the most favorable circumstances imaginable. True, she was queen (which is a lot more comfortable than being a slave), but she was an orphan queen in a foreign land, married to a man with a large harem.  She was snatched from her people, and was living under a false pretense (she told no one she was a Jew). She could not come to her husband without fearing for her life. She would have had every right to question God’s plan for her life — especially after being approached by her cousin Mordecai about petitioning the king for the life of her people (a life-threatening task). Yet God placed her in these circumstances for a specific purpose: to preserve the lives of the Jews in Persia. As Mordecai said to her, “And who knows but that you have come to a royal position for such a time as this?” (Esther 4:14b)

God had orchestrated the events of Esther’s life in order to ensure that His purposes would be accomplished. But this isn’t something that God reserves only for Bible times or only for “important people’s” accomplishing extraordinary feats (like preserving a race of people). God still puts us in situations and circumstances for specific purposes in order to accomplish His will.

I have been personally reminded of this as I’ve just arrived back at college. Although the road was not always clear, God has orchestrated events in my life to bring me to this place.  Because this is where He – in His sovereignty and wisdom – has placed me, then I need to be on the lookout for what He wants me to accomplish for Him while I am here. Who has He placed in my life that He wants me to reach out to? What struggles have I been surrounded with that I need to use to grow in my faith? What tasks or activities would He like for me to do and how would he like to use these things in my life and the lives of my friends?

As this new semester is beginning, we need to remember that God has placed us wherever we are for such a time as this. We just need to ask ourselves why, and then, like Esther, be faithful to boldly step out and act upon what God has called us to do.