Walking Mornings

It takes determination to get out of bed on a walking morning. Every other day of the week is not so difficult, but always, a walking morning struggles with me.

Perhaps it is a mind game, but life feels weightier on those mornings. I am setting about to do some work in that walking, and the burden of my neighborhood thunders down on my belly.  A murmur at my ear says, "Just sleep today, maybe tomorrow will be more fitting." As I reject that idea, another advances,  "You are wasting your time with this useless activity. You have a lot of other things to do today."

How true that feels, but I know better than to trust my feelings. Feelings often defy the truth.  They are fickle, inconsistent friends. This walking feels so unfruitful, but then, we are about unseen work, aren't we? This walking is for rough places made smooth and the crooked made straight. We are not struggling against flesh and blood, root and earth. We are about eternal business on these walks.

I tie up the laces and close the door behind me.

Where do we go today? Turn right at the corner, walk down this street.

What do I see this time around?

This neighborhood is so foreign, but I need it to become home. Home worth fighting for. These residents are a mystery, but I hope they become MY neighbors and I wish to neighbor them. These walks are transforming my eyes to see rightly.

What do you want me to lift into your hands today?

Look down. Liquor bottles, cheap and little, litter my path. Perhaps forty or fifty along the sidewalk in this two mile walk. Ah Lord, the addiction runs so deep and for so many generations. The claws go in so far... throw this mountain into the sea. Please save these families, restore the soul. Help them to fight back.

And what of those barren yards, more weed and dirt than grass? Who is neglected in that home? Lord, love them, come to them, show me how to love them well.

See those ramps for the aged and infirm? See the aging of this neighborhood? Please, Father, bring healing and joy to the shut-in. Help me to learn them, walk alongside them.

What of these flowers and trees and manicured lawns? Praise you, Father, for people who have interest in making beauty. Encourage them to be light in this community. Help them to have kind and humble hearts.

Will you lift up these churches? Come, Lord Jesus, be in our presence. Be high and lifted up in these places. Move mountains through your people.

See how graffiti smears these fences, the tokens of gang and violence? Please, please bring your peace here. Help the disenfranchised. Remove the drugs. Light a desire for a future, for a different life, for freedom.

Notice these schools? Please Lord, provide for these children. Help them to grow. Give them nurturing teachers and parents. Protect them from harm. Keep them safe. Teach them truth. Help them to know their value.

Hear those angered voices? Please, Father, destroy the violence in the home. Remove hearts of stone and make flesh. Provide for the finances, bring work to this community.

See the skin tones, tan and chocolate next to your white? Lord, the festering scar of racism runs deep and wide. Please heal the wounds of this community. Justified resentments drip from a glance. Bring forgiveness, Lord. Make me an instrument of your peace.

See your neighbors? I will make a way for you. I will show you how to love, and help you step into what you do not understand and cannot control. I will take you beyond yourself and you will see my glory in this place. You will see my goodness in the land of the living. I answer prayer.

Lord, bless my people.

And then I walk up to my front stoop, and close the door on another walking morning.

Beware the Side Effects of the Right Hand

My knee has taken on a clicking noise. Kind of like castanets, but not nearly as nice. It's one of the many signs that my body is not as resilient as it used to be. In other words, my flesh is slowly failing. I know that it will only become more apparent as I age.

And some days, my heart fails me too. Sometimes I am filled with doubts about God. Sometimes I struggle with anxious thoughts, sorrow, confusion and inconsistency. Life gives my soul an occasional beating.

Have I depressed you yet? Good. Because what I really want to talk about is JOY.

Joy in pajamas, circa 1983

Lucky for me, JOY has nothing to do with what is happening to my body or heart. It's not something I can attain for myself at all, and I have to say, you can't attain it either. It only comes one way.

(And to clear up any confusion, JOY is not about feeling happy.  JOY means peaceful, hope-filled, inner contentedness that stays with you regardless of what is happening in your life. It is much bigger and better than happiness.)

JOY is a side effect.

JOY is inevitable when you really begin to understand the state of things. Come, take a mental walk with me.

We live in a messy world.  Within ourselves we are a messy mix of good and bad motives with the consequent inconsistent behavior. Our good-will is circumstantial, and we cannot be good enough for heaven.
What does "good enough" even mean? By whose standard is that judged? Scary to think that each individual would determine it. What if your neighbor's version of "good enough" included robbing your house? No, we can't be so relative about it. We are biased, unfit judges.

No, there is a standard outside of us, and that standard is perfection. Heaven is a perfect place and only perfection is allowable there. Met any perfect people lately? Me neither. All that is wrong in us sticks like unscrubbable dirt. We cannot make ourselves clean, no matter how much good we do. Our presence in heaven would be like a stain on white cloth. So we are a bit stuck, or at least we would be but for this beautiful truth. Here is the beginning of JOY.

God loves us and wants us close to him. He has made a way. He does the cleaning. He does for us what we cannot do.

"My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my life and my portion forever." Psalm 73:26

"He saw that there was no man, and wondered that there was no one to intercede; then his own arm brought him salvation, and his righteousness upheld him." Isaiah 59:16 

"Now I know the Lord saves his anointed; He answers him from his holy heaven with the saving power of his right hand." Psalm 20:6 

It is the saving power of his right hand, his arm. The "right hand" is used in the Bible to mean authority, power, strength. How did he use this for our benefit? How does his right hand save us?

Isaiah tells us:

"Who has believed our message, and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?"

"Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed."53:1, 4-5

In other words, His "right hand" suffered the consequences for us, in our place, to make heaven available to us. He came as a man, Jesus Christ, to take away the sins of the world. We are saved by the power of his sacrifice. As Jesus was being condemned to die for us, they demanded, "Tell us if you are the Christ, the Son of God." And he replied:

"Yes, it is as you say. But I say to all of you: In the future you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Mighty One and coming on the clouds of heaven." Matthew 26: 64

This is where the JOY really takes hold. After he ascended into heaven, Stephen, Peter, Paul and John all talk about his being there, seated at the right hand of God.

For example, Paul tells us in Romans that Jesus is at the right hand of God interceeding (pleading) for us (8:34). It is what he promised to do seven hundred years prior in Isaiah, where it is written that he made intercession for the transgressors and bore their sin (53:12). Stephen, as he was being stoned to death, saw a vision of Jesus at the right hand, and it filled him with such peace that he asked Jesus to forgive those who were killing him (Acts 7:55-59).

I think Stephen felt peace because he knew that Jesus was for him, mediating for him, bearing the brunt of any wrong that he had committed in his lifetime.  In the face of death, he didn't have to worry, because in Jesus, Stephen was made perfect. Stephen could be with God because Jesus had stepped in to save him.

That is a cause for deep JOY. If we only accept his sacrifice for us, Jesus makes us fit for heaven, fit to live forever in the presence of God. He, the right arm of God, has made us clean. Through Jesus, it is possible to be close to this perfect, loving, creator God. It is possible to really know him and talk to him, to enjoy Him. JOY! And heaven is all about enjoying God. (This is a brilliant gift- but I'm afraid if you don't want this, you probably don't want to go to heaven either.)

What on earth can steal this JOY from you? Nothing. No bad thing you do can override your perfection in Christ Jesus. No bad thing can separate you from His loving presence. No loss or need can make your place in heaven less secure. JOY!  You have the love of God to bolster you in any misery, and his promise to turn all things to good for you. JOY! You have been given life forever with a perfect and beautiful God- no earthly happiness can come close. JOY!

JOY is a side effect of being close to God through Jesus Christ. Ingrain this in your heart and mind. Do not forget it. It is a deep treasure of your life.

"You have made known to me the path of life, you will fill me with JOY in your presence, with eternal pleasures at YOUR RIGHT HAND." Psalm 16:11

"Do not fear for I am with you. Do not anxiously look about you, for I AM your God. I will help you, surely I will strengthen, surely I will uphold you with MY RIGHTEOUS RIGHT HAND." Isaiah 41:10

Via Crucis

Hello there!
Happy Holy week to you. Sorry for leaving the sonnets up there for so long.

If you are in Denver, perhaps you'll have a chance this week (or month) to visit an art show called Via Crucis (Way of the Cross) that is being held at Now Artspace on Tennyson St. (Link:Via Crucis)

It is a modern representation of the stations of the cross and the grand opening is tomorrow night. I have created a painting for Station 14: Jesus is buried.
It's based on photos from friends that were in Haiti after the 2010 earthquake. Here is a quick preview.

Jesus is Buried, Acrylic on Canvas, 30"x40"

When I though about what it meant for Jesus' followers to bury Him that terrible friday, the words that came to mind were: devastation, catastrophe, unimaginable loss and hopelessness. They did not know that Sunday morning would dawn with the Son of glory back in their midsts. 

I felt that the survivors of the Haitian earthquake felt much the same thing. Their world had collapsed and yet, they were left behind trying to pick up the pieces. I tried to capture the varying responses to tragedy: overwhelming sorrow, despondency and shock, confused sadness, and insufficient attempts to make things better.

The proceeds of this painting will go towards the continuing work of my friends and their church to help the people of Haiti recover from this tragedy.