Actions and Truth

WEDNESDAY 3.5.08 - 1 JOHN 3:16-18
This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for one another. If any one of you has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need but has no pity on them, how can the love of God be in you? Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth.

READ. "Not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth." Apparently, according to the way I read this sentence, the truth is much less a concept to be debated and figured out, spoken and taught than it is a way of life to be lived out.

Man, it's as if this is hearkening back to Jesus' words: "I am the way, the truth, and the life." It makes me think that maybe Jesus was saying something like this: "The way that I do things here on earth is the way you should go about doing things as well, for this way of action is the truth, and the truth is that is all about how you live, what you do...that is life!"

Whatever it is, actions and truth seem to be tied together. I've said for years that if you want to know what you really believe, look at how you live. If you really believe something you'll be doing it. If you are not doing it, you don't really believe it. That thought that I just spout off because it makes sense to me, maybe it actually has grounding here in the Scripture, Lord.

THINK. So the question then becomes what do I believe? Who am I laying my life down for? Where am I giving up something because I see people in need?

Well, I know that I give of myself to my tennis team. I just made out our spring schedule and it involves me going out of my way to make them better tennis players, while I spend most of my days in school preparing the tennis devotionals for next year. I'm giving a big part of myself to them right now, perhaps because I believe that my hard work will be rewarded.

I do give some of my time to Exodus Community. I mean, I can say that without a doubt, if there was a need in Sparky, I would immediately fill that need if I could. And I think that has played out in my actions, so it is the truth. Outside the Sparky group I certainly have to fight with myself and my selfishness a bit more, but I could probably meet a spoken need. Unspoken needs that I might see but haven't been verbalized, these are the ones that I tend to push to the side. I have an excuse not to meet them, because whoever is found needing isn't expressing the need so maybe they don't really want me to interfere, maybe they don't really need help, maybe I'm seeing things wrong, etc.

Interesting to go back to the verse and read where it says: "If any one of you... sees a brother or sister in need..." Sees. Not hears from them that they need something, but if we perceive the need, then we should have pity. Pity? This is all about action, then what is an emotion doing thrown in here? So, I went to look this up in Greek, wouldn't you know that it is splagchnon? Joel taught about this just a little while ago, it is from the root word for bowels. This is deep in your gut pain for your brother or sister. A pain that would have to be answered by doing something.

How many people am I feeling it in the gut for and changing what I do? Not enough. And I don't mean to beat on myself. I need that to change Lord. I have to be willing to be broken, uncomfortable, then poured out. The joy that I have been receiving through this fast will fill me up again. That is to say, You will fill me up again.

There's always more questions. What about time with my family? What do I actually do? And you think about why I prayed for wisdom yesterday! You give wisdom generously, so I pray for that discernment, that creativity to see needs and then know how to best proceed. I want to do things Your way, but I want to act.

PRAY. Lord, help me (and the rest of our community) to committ to being servants. We do such a good job of serivng one another, of caring for one another, let us extend our reach. Not for the sake of growth at the church, I don't want to make it sound like that is the point. Not at all. Because we're supposed to be a people who reaches out and serves. A people who do not make judgments but instead come underneath others to support them, a people who feel it in their guts for the widow and the orphan, a people moving and active according to the leading of Your Holy Spirit. That's who we want to be. Lead us there. Lead me there.

We thank You for the blessing that You are to us. This verse says "if one of you has material possessions" and I have all I need. You are a blessing. I want to act in blessing because of that. I love You Lord, Lord who is making life clearer and also more confusing by the day. I need Your wisdom to do Your will.

LIVE. Okay, so a theme was started yesterday that I think can continue over to today as far as how I live. I said yesterday that I want to practice what we preach, be the type of person who does what we say we want to do. Okay then, I'm going back to the beginning of Exodus somehow throughout the day here and looking at what we've said we want to be. I don't know how long this will take, but doing a general look back might really help me find a way forward.

The Desparate Stress

Texts:
- Psalms 109-112
- Luke 19-20
- Mark 2

Lord, often times when I come to You lately, I feel an ache within my body. It's familiar. It's the same one that I get when I can't finish a poem in a way that sounds right, the one that I got when a paper was due in 30 minutes at college and I couldn't get the right last paragraph, the one that I get when class starts in 5 minutes and I have no idea what I'm going to teach. It's stress. I cannot believe it, but I've been coming to You and instead of rest I've been feeling stressed.

I know why too. I've been feeling like every time we get together I MUST walk away with something new. I've gotten so used to You amazing me, that I expect it and I'm beginning to think that I have something to do with it. If a text doesn't come to life immediately I'm re-reading and thinking, "There's got to be something here I can make a connection with, I just need to try harder." I'm trying to do it all, I'm coming to Your word hoping that I can find something. All this emphasis on I hasn't even really worked, it's just thrown me into the desparate stress.

It's just so easy to forget that You are the one who really opens Scripture to me, You are the one who makes the connections fly off the page, that has brilliant insight marked brightly for me to see. You are the one that I need to seek with excitement and wonder. That's hard to do with a heart full of stress and a mind bogged down by what needs to be done.

Lord, simply open up some Scripture for me today in a way that makes me praise. I have found that You are good for the past several days, but those realizations have come from events other than revelation from Scripture. I would love that to continue, for that is mighty good reason to praise as well, but I still want to see You in Your word.

I praise You, Lord God of word and deed, continue to bring Your word and deed together in my life and before my eyes and ears.

Give Me My Breath Back

I kind of feel like a zombie for the past two days. My loss of motivation is gone, but in its place is really nothing. I constantly feel like the wind has been knocked out of me and not very much is helping get my breath back.

Lord, these are the down times when I cry out to You. Remember our relationship, remember how You've called me, and lead me back there. Give me a bit of my normal excitement for life, a bit of the optimism that has been what normal attitude, my love for those around me, my humor, my creativity, give them all back to me. I feel like I've been drained of many of Your good gifts with one punch.

Although, maybe there's reason for it too. Maybe I'm to suffer like Job...the hard thing is that I don't even know what's going on and why. I just want to breathe again with ease and peace. It's not that much different than what I said yesterday Lord. My body feels like it is trying to close up shop and just take a nap for a day or so, but my spirit wants to be alive and get even less sleep because of the exciting things that I have the opportunity to be involved with. Bless my spirit, energize my flesh.

My hope is in You.