What so great about serving?

Jesus once said “If you want to be great, become a servant”.  He said this in response to two of his closest friends who were vying for a higher position than the others.  They wanted positions of power.  They wanted to be seen as great.  Jesus said, in order to be great in the eyes of heaven, you must put others before yourself.  Jesus’ statement was radically countercultural then, and it still is today. 

One of Jesus’ primary purposes for coming to the earth was to usher in a new kind of Kingdom with very different values.  He wanted to shake up the culture so to speak.  The Kingdom Jesus was promoting was not a Kingdom where you ”look out for number one” or “get all you can for yourself”.  The Kingdom Jesus outlined was a Kingdom of “look to the interests of others before your own”.  Wow!  That is a culture shift! 

Jesus eptimomized servanthood with his life.  

“Think of yourselves the way Christ Jesus thought of himself.  He had equal status with God but didn’t think so much of himself that he had to cling to the advantages of that status no matter what.  Not at all.  When the time came, he set aside the privileges of deity and took on the status of a slave, became human!  Having become human, he stayed human.  It was an incredibly humbling process.  He didn’t claim special privileges.  Instaed, he lived a selfless, obedient life and then died a selfless, obedient death–and the worst kind of death at that–crucifixion.”–Philippians 2:5-8  The Message

He didn’t think so much of himself!?  If anyone ever had reason to think a lot of themselves it was God.  But he didn’t.  In fact, he thought so little of himself, that he was free to come to the earth as a man and save us from our sin by dying on the cross in our place.  His love for us was greater than his need to hold on to his position.  He gave it up freely.   As followers of Jesus, that is our challenge as well.  We are to give up our hold on earthly status or even seeking after it in the first place.  

“Put yourself aside, and help others get ahead.  Don’t be so obsessed with getting your own advantage.  Forget yourselves long enough to lend a helping hand.”–Philippians 2:4–The Message

Put yourself aside!  That’s key to serving others as Jesus did.  Sounds simple enough, right?  Well it’s not.  In fact, it takes everything within us to even wake up to the fact that we constantly put others aside rather than ourselves.  This is called our sin nature.  We battle it everyday, but to be servant of Jesus, we have to turn it around.  We have to forget ourselves, and look to the needs of others first.  We can’t do that unless we are connected to Jesus.

Serving others is how the world knows that God is alive and active, that he cares about them.  Jesus said the two greatest commandments are to love him with all our heart, soul, and mind, and to love our neighbor as our self.  We are called to serve others.  Serving is not just about getting busy doing a lot of stuff, but about getting active doing the stuff God directs us to do.  If we are listening, he will show us all kinds of service opportunties in the circles we already find ourselves in. 

Are you listening? 

Are you following through in active service to others? 

Are you putting yourself aside so you can hear God’s voice? 

Are you thinking about the best interests of others, or how you will be perceived?

Are you helping others get ahead at the expense of your own position or status?

Are you asking God who you should serve?

 

Dave for Wellspring  © 2008

 

 

Prayer is Absurd?

“Naturally, prayer is not practical, it is absurd; we have to realize that prayer is stupid from the ordinary common-sense point of view.”  Oswald Chambers

Many probably have this view of prayer, that is, until life becomes difficult or we are faced with a sudden, significant crisis.  Chambers in the above quote from his devotional classic My Utmost for His Highest is pointing out the worldly view of prayer.  To the worldly, prayer is absurd.  And unfortunately the believer can stumble into this thought process as well.

Chambers goes on to explain what prayer is for the believer.  “‘Your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask Him.’ Then why ask? The idea of prayer is not in order to get answers from God; prayer is perfect and complete oneness with God.”  And further “Prayer is the way the life of God is nourished. Our ordinary views on prayer are not found in the New Testament. We look upon prayer as a means of getting things for ourselves. The Bible idea of prayer is that we may get to know God Himself. “

I believe this is the essence of prayer.  It is to get to know God.  It is to be with God.  The Bible speaks of a prayer life that is unceasing (I Thes. 5:17) , that is devoted (Col. 4:2), with joy (Phil 1:4) and in the Spirit (Eph. 6:18).  But how do we do those things?  My mind gets pretty occupied on things.  If I could borrow again from Oswald Chamber, he says, “If we think of prayer as the breath in our lungs and the blood from our hearts, we think rightly….Prayer is not an exercise, it is life.” 

Prayer more than any other discipline is to be more of who we are than what we do.  It is the most basic and most direct way into the holy of holies, the heart of God.  Life without prayer is life without God.  So, these are the things I would suggest to deepen your prayer life:

• Make your life an offering to God and a confession of your need for Him.  Do not think of prayer as a few minutes here and there but that your entire life is a prayer to Him.  As Brother Lawrence said, practice the presence of the Lord.
• Do make time to quiet your heart to listen, to be still, that you may be able to discern His voice. Sit with the scriptures daily and listen.
• This is not contrary to the first point, but do make specific times, appointments with God each day to share your heart, to intercede for others, to pray for the body of Christ.  Decide now the times during the day you choose and even set your alarm.

Prayer is such an expansive topic and this just scratches the surface (just as I am just barely scratching the surface in prayer), but lets be diligent and not lose heart in this endeavor.  The real absurdity is living life without prayer.

Blessings, Scott for Wellpsring Copyright 2008

 

A dreamer at heart

“May the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight.”  Psalm 19:14

What comes to mind when you hear the word “Meditation”?  Perhaps images of Buddhist disciples kneeling over, with heads bowed, chanting a familiar refrain over and over, or perhaps you think of a monk who secludes himself for days, maybe weeks at a time.  Maybe it’s the image of a fortune teller seeking to channel spirits from the past, or maybe, none of the above come to mind when you think of meditation.  Here is a simple definition to consider:

Meditation:  A long ardent gaze at God, his work, and his word.

I like that.  A long ardent gaze at God.  God has blessed me with a unique ability to meditate.  From as long ago as I can remember, my mind has always tended to drift, to contemplate, to gaze.  It’s what I do.  Each night after dinner when I was a kid, I would spend time gazing out the window to our backyard, looking at the grass, the bird feeder, the sky, our neighbors beagle.  It didn’t really matter what, as long as I was gazing I was happy.  In school, the favorite comment that teachers put on my report card was  “He needs to apply himself more”.  What does that mean?  After a while, I realized this dreaming ability of mine was a personality trait rather than an exception, because I kept getting this very same comment from teachers year after year.  In Jr. High School, one teacher finally put it quite simply  “he spends a lot of time looking out the window”.  Thanks for being honest, at least I can understand what that means.  When my teachers said I didn’t apply myself, I guess what they really meant was that my focus was on things other than the current classroom “task”.  Okay, so what’s so wrong with that?  Being a dreamer hasn’t always made life easy.   

“He needs to speak more forcefully, not procrastinate so much.”

“Why is he so quiet?”

“Why does he move so slow?” 

“Doesn’t he have anything to say?”

“Is he conceited?”

“He needs to be more talkative” 

I have pretty much heard all those tunes over and over my whole life, mostly as though they were not helpful in leading a successful existence.  But it’s okay, I am a counselor (surprise surprise) so I have worked through most of that stuff, but I digress.  For all my attempts to go against the grain of my meditative tendencies, my true nature always brings me back to what is core in my heart, which means, before long, you will find me “looking out the window”again.

Meditation is a lost art.  We live in a world that demands a focus on completing tasks.  The faster the better, or so it seems.  There is no room to be contemplative in that kind of world.  Meditation has been substitued for drivenness.  Meditation and drivenness are opposities and I am afraid that in many people’s lives, drivenness is winning out, at great cost to us and our relationship with Jesus. 

Christian meditation isn’t so much about emptying ourselves so we are void of anything.  That is the eastern perspective on meditation, which believes that their is nothing good in us, so we must purge ourselves of everything.  Christian meditation rather, relies on the belief that we have a God who loves us beyond measure, and that he desperately wants us to experience how much.  We meditate believing that God wants to fill us up, and he will if we’ll just spend time with him.  Why would we want to bypass that!? 

When is that last time you enjoyed a sunset?  I didn’t say the last time you saw one.  When did you enjoy one?!  What about a tree swaying in the wind?  Or the clouds in the sky?  Laughter of children on a playground? 

God has so much that he wants us to know, to feel, and to experience.  Are we available to soak it all in? 

Getting started with meditation:

1)  Pick one of your favorite verses from the bible.  Take a week and spend time pondering the full meaning of what God’s message is in that verse.  Ask God to show you how that verse applies to your life in the midst of your weekly routines.  Pay attention to what he shows you.  Move on to other verses as God leads you.

2)  Experiment with a more deliberate pace of reading the bible.  Slow down, and allow yourself the freedom to stop and consider words or phrases that strike you or cause you to question.  Ask God to speak to you regarding his unique message to you in the moment.

3)  Consider the activity of your week.  Meditate on the details and ask God to show you his purposes in your plans and circumstances.

 

Dave for Wellspring  © 2008