Great sailors

A good friend of mine said to me last weekend, "Mike, great sailors are not made by staying in the harbor. Great sailors are made by sailing the seas."

True. One of my fears in life is drowning or being caught in the middle of the ocean with no land in sight. One of my favorite Magnum P.I. shows from the 80s was when Tom Selleck's character was kayaking on the ocean by himself and he tipped over. He got caught alone in the ocean, boat gone, and was forced to tread water for hours on end until he was rescued. I remember watching with fear and amazement...both never wanting that to be me and rooting this fictional character on to survive the ordeal. When I think about my ancestors who ventured in the 19th century away from their safe lives in England to come to America, I am amazed. They spent weeks on the high seas sailing across the Atlantic for weeks. It was a perilous and exciting journey. A new life awaited them, but they had to get across the sea...sickness, storms, and the doldrums were all were present realities to make their crossing difficult. I just can't imagine being on the seas, for weeks on end, with no land in sight. Water, water everywhere...and what a thrill it would have been to see land on the horizon.

Is this true for me, for us in our lives? Don't we shove off in life from our old ways, our old ideas, our old life...setting sail for a new life? That we must experience the difficult transition too between old and new? But it is precisely that transition that makes the new life taste even sweeter?

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Answered prayer

From Psalm 18...
"In my distress I called upon the Lord;
to my God I cried for help.
From his temple he heard my voice,
and my cry to him reached his ears.

Then the earth reeled and rocked;
the foundations also of the mountains trembled
and quaked because he was angry.
Smoke went up from his nostrils,
and devouring fire from his mouth..."
--verses 6-8

Now that's answer to prayer! One prayer of distress causes the earth to shake and the rousing of God's anger. Honestly, over the course of my life praying I have never expected God to react in anger. Pity? Yes. Compassion? Certainly. Power? Most definately. But anger that mimics that of a dragon (smoke from nostrils and fire from the mouth)? No. Never. I don't know if I could ever pray in such a way to hope God would respond in this way...not in anger toward me but in anger toward others. Maybe it's because I'm afraid of the power of God. Then again, maybe I have a limited view of God too and don't allow God to be God.

A good friend of mine showed me her family crest from Scotland. Two words circled the flying eagle..."Dread God." Can we dread God in a healthy way? Is it possible to have a healthy fear of God? How does a healthy fear translate into prayer? If you, the reader, has thoughts, please share them.

But here's the deal for me. Upon further reflection on the verses from Psalm 18, what I love about them is the reassurance that God wants to defend his people. He cares to hear from us. He wants to hear the despair, the fears, frustrations, and hurts we experience in life, and in his compassion and power, God wants to do something. I'm reminded of Paul's words to the Roman church, "If God is for us, who is against us?" God is for us. He wants the best for us. He is our defender, our protector, our deliverer, our redeemer...the lover of our souls.

There is a place for nice, logical, peaceful prayers...but there is also a time when we cry out to God sometimes at the top of our lungs at the difficulties we face...and we hope and trust that the God for us, will respond...sometimes in powerful and dramatic ways as seen in Psalm 18. Literally? Maybe not. Powerfully? Definately.

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Prayer for vision

My God thank you for the physical sight to see both light and darkness around me. Thank you too for insight that comes with the vision to tell the difference. I know that my perception of reality, my vision, determines my ability to respond to life, and that the greater my vision, he more fully alive and fully human I can be.

Still I confess that sometimes the smallness of my vision limits my perception of myself, my neighbors, and the world, so that I treat others as less than human and not fully alive--personally, politically, economically, and socially...

I need the vision that Jesus gives, that sees no difference between sacred and secular, sexual identity and personhood, ethnic group and worth, economic position and dignity, education and value.

I need the vision to ask the hard questions and to change my attitude and structures of society where I can. Because of the sensitivity of sight you give, enable me to stand in awe and wonder at life and its possibilities. Help me kneel in humility to worship you and not myself. Lord, hear me as I say, "Let my eyes be opened." Amen
--From Visions of a World Hungry by Thomas G. Pettepiece

slow to anger

Been on vacation and haven't had the opportunity to make an entry in my blog.

This morning I read Psalm 145 and got stuck on verse eight, "The Lord...is slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love." Hmmm...I thought. The words reverberated deep inside me. "Do you believe this Mike?" the Lord seemed to ask. "Yes and no," was my reply. I want to believe that the Lord is SLOW to anger and ABOUNDING in steadfast love. I want to believe that the words written are not a doctrinal statement made by a professional theologian of long ago, but a statement of experience with the living God. The writer of the psalm experienced God's love and slow anger it seems. It's as if I was meeting someone for the first time and the other person introducing me to this new friend would say, "This is Joe, he is a great guy...slow to anger and loving."

I want to believe that God's anger is slow and love abundant, but deep down, honestly, I have a hard time rooting it in my heart. I've experienced God's grace, divine patience with me, and guidance. Yep. I believe God is more gracious to me and to all of us than we can ever ask or deserve. He loves us, "for who we are, not as we should be because we'll never be as we should be," but there is a nagging reality that keeps me from embracing Psalm 145:8; my experience with people in this life.

There have been important people in my life and others I have met that have been the verse in the psalm. They are the antiPsalm 145:8. My experience with some people that they are "Quick to anger and lacking in steadfast love." It's troubling to be around people like this. Reality is that before we root ourselves in the Scriptures, our conception of God is formed lots of times by the people around us in a good or bad way. Growing up, I experienced quick anger and little love. It imprinted me and became, for a long time, the lense through which I viewed God. While those lenses don't fit for me any longer, I realize this morning that they are still a lense I choose to look at God through. I lay my experience, however wrong it was, over the truth of the Scripture. I can choose today who to believe...the ancient writer of the psalm whose experience with God was slow anger and abundant love, or my experience as a child and adult with imperfect human beings who did not mimic God's heart and character to me. They were conterfeit gods. I think I will choose the psalm writer today.

One of the ancient disciplines of the Christian church is to allow God to direct us to a word or phrase from scripture and let it spin over and over in our hearts and minds. I compare it to an animal chewing on its cud all day. Today, I will chew on Psalm 145:8, "The Lord is...slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love." allowing the truth of the statement permeate my being.

Thanks for reading.