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Posts Tagged ‘wisdom’

Wisdom Eludes

Posted in Lent, tagged , , , on March 10, 2017| Leave a Comment »

Wisdom continues to elude me.

Not wanting to repeat myself, I did a small search of my previous blogs on wisdom. I’ve written a lot about wisdom, its mysteries and its manifestations. And yet, I don’t seem any closer.

True wisdom remains elusive; its profound mysteries are remote. Who can discover it?
So I turned and dedicated my heart to knowing more, to digging deeper, to searching harder for wisdom and the reasons things are as they are. I applied myself to understanding the connection between wickedness and folly, between folly and madness. [Ecclesiastes 7:24-25, The Voice]

I look but do not see, I listen but do not understand, I think but do not understand. Or, maybe I do.

The patterns of my life show a lot of impulsiveness that resulted in rather long term consequences. For instance, I accepted Mike’s proposal of marriage after a mere three days and married six months later (even though we lived most of that time 600 miles apart). What was I thinking? Granted, that marriage lasted 31 years, only due to rather fierce faith and determination that I would not divorce again.

Last week, I was part of a interview panel for an open position. One woman struck me in her responses; before every answer, she paused, perhaps three seconds, maybe longer. I don’t know if she was praying or breathing or centering down, but I sensed that moment with her. She was gathering her thoughts and focusing them.

Here was a facet of wisdom in action. Pause.

Back in my acting days, I had the opportunity to perform in a Harold Pinter play. Known for his deep silences and pauses, the role was a huge challenge for a novice actress. I don’t think I ever really understood them or what had to happen in my mind to make them work.

Nonetheless, right now, I am considering such moments as an opportunity for wisdom. She is not a flirt, but a long-term relationship. She is the still small voice. She is the one who makes connections.

Today, I breathe. I pause. I invite wisdom, yet again, to dwell within.

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Theology Revisited

Posted in Hillsong Ministry School, Ordinary Time, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on January 10, 2017| 1 Comment »

theology-cartoon

Theology is a word I have mostly avoided until starting quarter three of the Hillsong Ministry School at Restore Church, Havre de Grace. I mean, it’s not a “bad” word,  it just seems, on the front end, as being one of those words coupled with “religion,” which has gotten a pretty bad rap in recent years.

But honestly, theology is just a study of the divine, a study of God, a study of the big questions and how they impact our every day life. In some form or another, we have all grappled with some of the big questions: forgiveness, sin, justice, salvation, etc. And as we engage with others, we will be asked along the way, “why do you believe what you believe?” And if we have spent any time at all studying or searching (as in research) for the answers, we are theologians too. So, for this season, I will be embracing this idea of being capable of theological curiosity and adventure. 🙂

The biggest impact of a big topic that has impacted my life directly is my understanding of the sovereignty of God. This simple truth has sustained me through the loss of my husband and the a host of circumstances that could be perceived as negatives. From Romans 8:28, “And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.” to Isaiah 14:24, “The Lord of hosts has sworn: “As I have planned, so shall it be, and as I have purposed, so shall it stand, . . . ” God is God.

Another personal study I took upon myself was many years ago as I search for the “secret place” of God, referenced in Psalm 91. I wanted to “hear” from God and I wanted to “dwell” with God and so I went looking. And although I could not live there 24/7, I did have a taste of heaven and entered for that Holy of Holies.

If we don’t pursue understanding through study, we may actually mislead others or worse, allow ourselves to be misled. I remember, as a younger Christian worrying about teaching that could take me off the mark. For instance, I followed a very popular but conservative teacher who was adamant that theater and music when “performed” in a church service was not worship but prideful etc. Another time, I remember visiting a church that called on the congregation to imagine that a microphone stand was Satan and to laugh at it [him]. And during the heyday of charismatic movement, there were many many abuses of implied miracles like gold dust manifesting from the hands of the anointed.

The Bible remains the foundation (having stood the test of time) for any study and from it, we can build our understanding and confirm our faith. I like the idea of the Canon of Scripture being translated as a “measuring rod.” That makes a lot of sense. But in order for the Bible to be a successful measuring rod, there must be understanding and, I think, wisdom. The tendency by many is to cherry pick the Bible for the parts that support an intention and discount the rest. This is flawed theology. But one thing I have learned with certainty from my lead pastor, Jess Bousa, the bible must be read in the light of the culture in which it was written. It will never be true for our culture if it was not true for them. On the other hand, there were cultural biases for them, that cannot be overlayed our own, like dietary laws, punishments, and medical assessments, just to name a few. We must be willing to reason together.

In the end, we must embrace and acknowledge the power, existence, and revelation that comes through the Presence of the Holy Spirit, all of which will/should align with the Bible. Let us take care not to blast and judge others before we have searched diligently for common ground first.

The Bible is a tool for personal study, personal revelation, and, like an onion, has layers within it. What we learn at first blush is different than what we learn after multiple readings, corroborating commentary, and preaching/teaching. It’s a living, breathing process.

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Number Our Days

Posted in Grief, Lectionary, Ordinary Time, Praying the Psalms, tagged , , , , , , , on October 10, 2015| 1 Comment »

rainbow in havTeach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom. [Psalm 90:12, NIV]
Teach us to realize the brevity of life, so that we may grow in wisdom. [Psalm 90:12, Living Translation]

Get it? Pay attention. That’s the beginning of wisdom. Our lives are flying by and most of the time, we are missing it. I know I have allowed time to flee without marking its passing. The reason I know this? Because I remember so little. The days fly and the memories with them.

I cannot tell you the number of times, while hanging out with old friends, one of them will say, “Remember when we–” and he or she tells the story. I play along, but sadly, I really don’t remember. A part of me even thinks, was that me in the story? It’s a loss for the event might have been a source of growing and learning. Instead, it drifted into the ether of time.

Yesterday, I was blessed with a coincidental moment of witnessing a most amazing rainbow. The weather gave no warning of its appearance, but I just happened to be outside with the dogs for their morning duties in the back yard. I ran back into the house and got a shot or two off and I was glad I managed to capture it. If only my mind with use more due diligence for other moments.

It’s a rather futile sorrow, that which has been lost to memory. I know that. But I cannot help but think that God has brought this verse to me today for a specific reason. Count the time. Mark it. Live fully. Embrace the moment and take a picture with the mind. Be in it.

Today is my birthday. And like all birthdays that come to us as we move into our senior years, I am reminded of the brevity of life but encouraged by what can still happen. It has been a year of losses but also a year of renewal and re-invention.

Let the morning bring me word of your unfailing love,
    for I have put my trust in you.
Show me the way I should go,
    for to you I entrust my life. [Psalm 143:8, NIV]

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Wisdom Building

Posted in Eastertide, Lectionary, tagged , , , , , on April 15, 2015| Leave a Comment »

house in groundI find the acquisition and/or practice of wisdom a great mystery. We are told throughout the Proverbs and elsewhere in scripture that we can ask for wisdom and it will be granted. In this way, it is a gift. And yet, clearly, wisdom is also wrapped up in experience and the ability to translate understanding into application.

Wisdom built her house; . . .
 “Come, eat my food,
    and drink the wine I have mixed.
Abandon your simplistic ways and live;
    walk in the way of understanding.” [Proverbs 9:1, 5-6, CEB]

gardenI have asked for wisdom but I confess, I don’t have the patience to wade through its giving. I am unwilling to accept that the process of gaining wisdom may be more similar to building a house or cultivating a garden. Both take time. And energy. And persistence. Both take the gifts of God (materials and weather) as well as the participation and knowledge of the builder.

Wisdom may be a gift but it is useless until it is unwrapped and used. And only in its use, does wisdom flourish.

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I’m Asking

Posted in Lent, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , on February 22, 2015| 1 Comment »

askgodIn the same way, you have sorrow now; but I will see you again, and you will be overjoyed. No one takes away your joy. In that day, you won’t ask me anything. I assure you that the Father will give you whatever you ask in my name. Up to now, you have asked nothing in my name. Ask and you will receive so that your joy will be complete. [John 16:22-24, CEB]

Won’t ask, ask, not asked, ask. What a strange passage with its combination of not asking and asking. Here’s my simple take on this: in the day of Christ’s return, we will not need to ask (we will get it), but until then, we can, not only ask, but ask with the name of Jesus as our co-requestor. Before Jesus, humans could not invoke His name or His consciousness, but now, we can.

I have had an additional bit of a revelation through the writings of Oswald Chambers on this matter.

We hear it said that a person’s life will suffer if he doesn’t pray, but I question that. What will suffer is the life of the Son of God in him, which is nourished not by food, but by prayer. When a person is born again from above, the life of the Son of God is born in him, and he can either starve or nourish that life. . . . To say that “prayer changes things” is not as close to the truth as saying, “Prayer changes me and then I change things.” God has established things so that prayer, on the basis of redemption, changes the way a person looks at things. Prayer is not a matter of changing things externally, but one of working miracles in a person’s inner nature. –Oswald Chambers [My Utmost for His Highest, Aug 28 entry]

In the days of “blab it and grab it” teachings, this selected verse in John was often used to encourage people to pray, in faith, for anything, including a new car, a job, a mate, etc. All was possible, as long as we believed and prayed this scripture. But now I see, most clearly, what is offered–a life within, one completely surrounded by the grace, mercy, and love of Jesus through the Holy Spirit (for it was the Spirit that given to us at His resurrection). How different the ask becomes then. What would God withhold? Nothing.

  • Create in me a clean heart, O God. [Psalm 51:10]
  • Answer me when I call to you, my righteous God. Give me relief from my distress; have mercy on me and hear my prayer. [Psalm 4:1]
  • Teach me your way, Lord, that I may rely on your faithfulness; give me an undivided heart, that I may fear your name. [Psalm 86:11]
  • Give me understanding, so that I may keep your law and obey it with all my heart. [Psalm 119:34]
  • Lord my God, I called to you for help, and you healed me. [Psalm 30:2]

All for the asking.

To participate in an ongoing 2015 Lenten devotional, download the PDF here.

 

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Advice

Posted in Ordinary Time, tagged , , , , on June 24, 2014| Leave a Comment »

adviceIf you ask for advice, you still have to decide whose advice you will take. And if the advice is contrary, you are no better off than you were in the first place. Choose our counselors wisely.

[Israelites spoke to Rehoboam, Solomon’s son] Your father put a heavy yoke on us, but now lighten the harsh labor and the heavy yoke he put on us, and we will serve you.” . . . Then King Rehoboam consulted the elders who had served his father Solomon  . . . They replied, “If you will be kind to these people and please them and give them a favorable answer, they will always be your servants.”  But Rehoboam rejected the advice the elders gave him and consulted the young men who had grown up with him and were serving him. [I Chronicles 10:4, 6a, 7-8]

I can be terrible about making decisions, particularly decisions that affect others and not just me. I ask lots and lots of questions of people I know, supervisors and neighbors and friends and family, and often, every answer is different. I end up with information overload. And yet, Proverbs 15:22 states, “Plans fail for lack of counsel, but with many advisers they succeed.” So, it’s not the amount of advice that is the problem, but the counselors themselves.

Who do I trust and why? My tendency might be to get frustrated and cast off all the advice and all the counselors and simply go my own way. Or, perhaps I’m kidding myself and I know which way I want to go and I’m simply asking enough people to get the one advice that matches my own private decision.

But there are some hints in the story of Rehoboam and his advisers. First of all, the first advisers were older and had already spent many years advising King Solomon. He was, overall, a very successful king. And secondly, the key to their advice was that responding their way would create loyalty and good will. Rehoboam was too young to realize how powerful loyalty can be. He wanted to appear strong and believed in the power of fear over the power of love and grace.

Leadership by fear is probably the worst kind.

So, the best advice in the face of a difficult decision? The paradoxical – what is best for the people the decision is affecting. That is the key. And of course, seek God’s counsel first. But I know too well, how hard it is to “hear God’s voice.” But if we pray before we ask a human counselor, we may discover the wisdom of God is speaking.

And I have to smile, just this week, my pastor said, “Two patients don’t equal a doctor.” Be sure that the advisor you seek has some counseling cred (experience).

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Samson’s Secret

Posted in Lent, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on April 12, 2014| 1 Comment »

Painting by Solomon Joseph Solomon (1860-1927)

Painting by Solomon Joseph Solomon (1860-1927)

Samson had everything he needed to serve and lead. He was called from childhood, from the day he was born. He was a Nazirite: dedicated to God. But these gifts made him prideful. He lost sight of the true source of his strength.

“Samson fell in love with a woman named Delilah. The rulers of the Philistines confronted her and said to her, ‘Seduce him and find out what gives him such great strength and what we can do to overpower him.’ . . . “ [CEB, Judges 16:4-7a]

Did Samson make a mistake falling in love with the “wrong” woman? Apparently women were his weakness even more than his hair.

Delilah wasn’t the first time a woman betrayed him. Read Judges 14 where his Philistine wife [unnamed] beguiled him for the answer to a wedding riddle and told her relatives. That treachery ended badly with Samson taking revenge both in killing thirty random Philistine men and later destroying a number of his enemies’ fields and crops. The Philistines feared and hated Samson. And yet for the next twenty years, he continued to win victories with his strength alone.

Then Delilah, yet another Philistine woman, came into the picture. Her village elders offered her great sums of money for the secret of Samson’s strength. And so she double crossed Samson. Why couldn’t he see what she was doing? Why couldn’t he remember how it went the first time? Did he actually trust Delilah? I don’t think so. Pride consumed him. He could not imagine that God would allow him to be defeated. That lesson came hard when he was taken, blinded, and put to labor in prison, reduced to a stock animal grinding grain. He told Delilah the “secret” of his strength. But really, the secret was the hand of God. The hair was a symbol of the covenant.

Do I know the real secret? Or I have I fallen into Samson’s folly?

God has given us all gifts, strengths, and abilities. Certainly, God has given much to me but I take most of it for granted: my comfortable life, my health, my stage presence, my writing, my adopted children, my energy, my passion and enthusiasm, my long-standing marriage, my home, my job, my church; the list goes on and on. I am too comfortable I think. My gifts have become a norm like Samson’s long hair. As a result, I have lost my vision and gratitude for them and their purpose in my life.

“Much will be demanded from everyone who has been given much, and from the one who has been entrusted with much, even more will be asked.” [Luke 12:48b]

Art by Cheryl Ward

Art by Cheryl Ward

Forgive me O God, for I have sinned in my plenty, fearful of less, but holding on too tightly to the cornucopia.

I remember, back in the high days of the Toronto Blessing (1994) when people were “catching the fire” and manifesting all kinds of strange behaviors (of course, lives were changed as well – I have no bone to pick with that revival experience), one of the popular phrases/prayers was to say, “more” Lord. They were asking for more of God, I know, but looking back, it also feels a bit narcissistic: give “me” more, touch my life, etc.  I suppose the ideal would be that God would give me more so that I might give others more. But I don’t see myself following through on such an arrangement. At least, not so far. There was a time I longed to be used of God in some miraculous way, as a conduit for healing or prophesying or wisdom . But I’m thinking, for the few who gained great popularity in those arenas, most of them went the way of Samson. With great power comes great temptation.

No, I don’t want that either.

I just want to be true to the Presence of God in me, to hold my hands and heart open, to speak truth, to forgive freely, to look and listen without comparing people to myself or to one another, to accept now with gratitude and pray for tomorrow with confident anticipation because God is sovereign. I don’t need to wait for my hair to grow long or my days to number into the seventies or eighties. Samson didn’t need to wait either. It just took him that long to figure it out.

Let this reveal have legs, Lord, and roots. Nourish my soul with your Breath. Today and always.

 

 

 

 

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