RESCUE

The Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials...
-- 2 Peter 2:9

My son and I just returned from a guys trip to Rocky Mountain National Park. One of our adventures was rafting the Poudre River. The river level was down a bit, being late summer. However, there were still several Class IV rapids along the route.

Another product of the late season water level? Rocks! Rocks normally safely under the water were exposed. They were route-changers. To my flat-land, still-pond mind, they were raft-eaters. Paddle-breakers. Trip-enders.

There were six people in our boat: Three from Amarillo (more flat-landers - one of whom apparently liked to swim through some of the rapids rather than stay in the raft), my son and me, and one other. It was this one other that made all the difference.

His name was Guide - though I think that is not what was on his birth certificate. And his job matched his name. Guide knew the river. He knew the rocks. He knew the rapids and the eddys. And Guide knew the route through the turbulence.

Guide told us our job was to 1) Listen to his commands; 2) Paddle hard; 3) Work together; and 4) Stay in the boat. However, Guide said that someone would more than likely leave the boat somewhere along the way. The word he used was ejected.

Prior to hitting the water, Guide walked us through the process of rescuing the ejected. Depending on where we were in the river, Guide might do the rescuing himself; or Guide might position the raft to have someone else do the rescue. Either way, the swimmer became a rafter once again at Guide's direction and positioning of the boat.

Today there will turbulent rapids. Guide knows the route.
Today there will be rocks. Guide knows each one.
Today some will be ejected. Guide has a rescue plan.

Listen to his voice... Paddle hard... Work together... Stay in the boat.

God, you are my Guide.

For now...
D

WINNING!

The caption on the photo read:

Winners focus on winning... losers focus on winners!

But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind, 

and straining forward to what lies ahead, 

I press on toward the goal for the prize 

of the upward call of God...

-- Philippians 3:13-14

For now...
D

(Photo from Imgur)

EVERYTHING...

His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness...
-- 2 Peter 1:3

We have everything we need.

That is a simple statement, but a hard truth to comprehend.

As I write, I am sitting on the couch in my air-conditioned house, drinking coffee. I am about to head to an air-conditioned church and sit in a padded chair - and drink more coffee. Most who read this will be in similar comfort. My point: I've never known extreme poverty or the desperation of searching for a meal. I can only imagine how foreign the statement, we have everything we need, might sound to a family who is being evicted, having just buried a father, or to a mother combing scraps in the Matamoros Mexico dump to feed to her toddler (which I've seen).

Trite answers don't work. And American Christianity seems to often boil down to triteness and self-focus. I'll take it a step further (since it's my blog), trite and self-serving Christianity is not Christianity. And in my Christian journey, I am often guilty of "unchristianess." (Again, my blog, I can invent words.)

When we read Peter's words above, we often miss some important depth.
His divine power - Whose power? God's. (As in, "God's, period!" Not yours, not mine.)
...has granted - past tense, with continuing and ongoing results. (It's a Greek grammatical tense thing.)
...to us - This promise is given to the community of faith. And though it has individual impact, it is us, not me. (More on this in a moment.)
...all things - we have everything we need (keep reading).
...life and godliness - to live as God intends for us, (for our calling and purpose.)

This statement may sound trite, but it is true: We have everything we need in Christ. 

I have often heard it said that God will never allow me to face more than I can bear. I struggle with the statement, though the fact that I am alive and well (and writing), sings the melody of its truth. That stated, I'd like to amend the platitude: God will never allow us to face more than we can bear... together and through his strength and presence.

The Christian life is a life lived in community with others from whom and with whom we share strengths, weaknesses, joys and pain. And it is a body (Paul's analogy) that is completely interconnected drawing its strength and power from Christ.

So, with all these concepts in mind I can confidently state: We have everything we need.

I, for one, tend to want more... to look for more. A blog post I wrote in davidmstanleykineticlife.blogspot.com quotes Bono from U2, whose lyric cries, But I still haven't found what I'm looking for. 

But here is a truth I've learned and am learning: The real and worthy search in this life is not about looking for more. The worthwhile search is not the constant desire for something else, something other. The better journey is one that leads us to deeper understanding of WHO IS this one who provides, and who he has made us to be for ourselves and others.

That for which you search is not out there somewhere. It is instead found in a God who is a whisper away.

Keep searching... deeper.

God, I have everything I need... in you.

For now...
D

THE ARROGANT ANXIOUS

...casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you. 

-- 1 Peter 5:7

Here is an uncomfortable modus ponens.* (Yes, I do remember something from my junior year Logics course.) Think of it as a word equation of implications.

Anxiety = Lack of trust

Lack of trust = Belief we are in control

Believing we are in control = Arrogance

Therefore, if we are Anxious, 

it is due to our Arrogance. 

Ouch.

Choose to apply (or not) my experience with anxiety:
When I am anxious, I project into the future. Though I am in the here and now, my thoughts are in the there and then. And in some way I feel that I can change it; that I can be there/then... that I have power in the future.

But I don't.

In fact, anxiety is not only fruitless, it is also counterproductive. When I attempt to live in the future, I am robbed of life in the present; which, in reality, is the only place I have the power to live. (And I am not negating the importance of preparing in the now for the then - this is also a scriptural principle).

It is no coincidence that just before writing, casting all your anxieties upon him..., Peter writes:

Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God...

-- 1 Peter 5:6 

Humbling ourselves precedes - or is at least an element of - true faith. God is not bound by your past. By the way, neither are you. And God is the only one who knows the future.

So here is another logical equation:
If God cares for us (and he does)...
And if God is the only one who knows the future (and he is)...
And if this God who cares deeply and knows all, is completely powerful (and he is)...
Then I can trust him.
Wait... allow me to rephrase:

I must trust him.

I have always had a distaste for Christian cliches, (you know, bumper-sticker theologies). One of these is LET GO, AND LET GOD. Cliche or not, there is truth to the idea. Faith is a letting go; a total dependence; a leaning on God.

God, help me to let go, and to lean on you... my arrogance has made me anxious.

For now...
D

*Disclaimer: I vaguely remember my Logics concepts. I take no responsibility for the misuse of Modus Ponens -- after all, it made my point.