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Prayer is a great mystery and often seems very one-sided. Stop to contemplate the act of prayer and you will be astounded by the apparent need of all cultures to pray to something or someone greater than mankind. Even the pagan religions involve prayer and sacrifice showing the undeniable connection the inner man has with the desire to connect with something all-powerful.

Christians pray for all sorts of reasons, but many fail to understand the connection with God the act represents. Remember when David sinned so greatly with Bathsheba? Murder and adultery after so much history of God saving him from death, elevating him to king, and declaring that the Messiah would come from his lineage. One would think David had fallen as far as humanly possible and separate himself so far from God that there would be no turning back. But, prayer brought him back.

“Be gracious to me, O God, according to Your loving kindness; According to the greatness of Your compassion blot out my transgressions.” Psalm 51:1

The truth of this direct connection is prayer. Speak from the heart and with sincerity and He will hear you and restore you.

Look through history and consider those who have achieved much power without enough mercy and grace. They tend to exercise that power abruptly and their justice is not appreciated (even if they are fair). Now, consider those who were overflowing with mercy and love, but had no power. That might be tougher, because history tends to record the powerful and influential.

So, we can conclude that one needs power along with mercy and grace to get the broadest influence of those attitudes. Of course, this is exactly what God has given to us. He has infused us with the power of the Holy Spirit and the love and grace displayed by Jesus.

Given these tools, though, we should know enough about human nature to be terrified that we will wield them poorly. That’s why God adds to the mixture the ability to manage them both.

“For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and self-discipline.” 2 Timothy 1:7

I hear Paul reminding me that the power of God is in us. The love of God is in us. And He has endowed us with the ability to exercise self-discipline in knowing how to balance them. He has given us the tools to spread the good news far and wide. It is simply up to us to get out of the way and let Him work.

Is it just me, or is the idea of showing solidarity with the poor or the homeless by spending a night with them kind of a condescending gesture? What exactly does that do when a celebrity camps out on a heating grate for the night? How many hungry people are fed when someone who is used to night clubs decides to hang out in Africa for a week?

Now, to be sure, some of those folks bring money and support actual effort. Points to them. But, there are those who seem to think that standing on a soap box and giving a speech to the cameras is their contribution. Uh, yeah. Get over yourself.

You help the hungry by buying, preparing, delivering, or serving food to them. You help the poor by donating time, money, and staple needs to them. A rousing speech or long talk with those in dire straits fades away pretty quickly.

“Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth.” 1 John 3:18

What actions are you taking to love others? And, are you doing it for the right reasons? Is there truth in your motivation and your message?

John is describing an obligation that you personally have. This is not the job of the church organization or government. This is your job. This is my job. What have I done? What have you done?

Consider all the arguments that different faiths have to make to elevate their prophets, angels, etc. to form a lineage to God and the authority they believe He has given to them. As Christians, we need no intermediation to have a personal relationship with God. The Old Testament tells us that Moses conversed with God often in the tent of meeting. So often, in fact, that it must have seemed that someone could have said, “Let’s just ask Moses to ask God at the Wednesday morning staff meeting.” After all…

“O LORD, You have searched me and known me.
You know when I sit down and when I rise up;
You understand my thought from afar.
You scrutinize my path and my lying down,
And are intimately acquainted with all my ways.
Even before there is a word on my tongue,
Behold, O LORD, You know it all.
You have enclosed me behind and before,
And laid Your hand upon me.” Psalm 139:1-5

He is so close.

I can’t count the number of times I’ve been in a meeting with senior management trying to explain intricate problems or describe technology decisions. Sometimes, I’m lucky enough to have another engineer across the table who can speak the same technical shorthand and I can get my point across with all of the nuances. Frequently, though, there is no such knowledge and I know that the details of my discussion are lost. In those situations, I am expected to present an executive summary.

I have to boil the issue down to laymen’s terms and present alternatives or decisions in equally easy-to-approach language. The goal here is to allow the very busy executive to issue the decision with the least amount of time investment as possible. He wants to satisfy the requirement with the least amount of effort. It may be efficient, but it can also be lazy.

I don’t think that’s what the Pharisees were asking here, but I know many new Christians take this approach to walking with Christ:

“‘Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?’” Matthew 22:36

The Pharisee thought he knew the answer and was testing Jesus to see what He would say. But, the new Christian may ask the same question as a way to get the executive summary of a walk with Jesus. “Boil it down for me. What’s the one thing I need to really worry about?” The implication is that all of the other things can be ignored.

“Jesus replied: ‘”Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.” This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”‘” Matthew 22:37-38

Oh. That’s all.

Jesus boiled it down, all right. He summarizes the entire goal of the Christian life by telling us to love God with everything we have and to love our neighbor as ourselves. That may be summarized into a couple of sentences, but it doesn’t remove any of the responsibility. It doesn’t make the requirement any less.

If you find yourself justifying behavior because you’re doing good on the “big stuff”, cut it out. Love God and love your neighbor. Everything flows from that.

Why do we all believe that John Wilkes Booth assassinated President Lincoln? Don’t worry, this isn’t a trick question. We believe this because a large crowd of people heard the shot and watched him jump from Lincoln’s box to the stage. We believe this because those people told other people who then reported it in the newspaper and wrote it down in the history books. We believe it because it would have been easy to find witnesses disagreeing with the claim if it weren’t true.

What is one of a plethora of reasons we believe Jesus rose from the dead?

“For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Peter, and then to the Twelve. After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep.” 1 Corinthians 15:3-6

Many people saw Him crucified. Many people saw Him risen. It would have been easy to find witnesses that could point to His body or deny that the events had occurred if they had not. The Pharisees had to come up with an alternative explanation for the empty tomb because they could not deny that it was empty.

There are far too many reasons to have confidence in these accounts and far too little reason to discount them.

I’m beginning to think that the only thing more dangerous to my spiritual walk than being busy, is being busy with stuff I love. I find myself in a situation now where I have too much work and all of it is for projects I’m really enjoying. I’m learning new things and expanding my skill set by the day. I’m also playing with new toys and pushing for deadlines. These are all the things I love about my line of work.

But, the temptation to cut short my time with family and my time with God is creeping back in. Fortunately, the Holy Spirit is helping me spot it right away. And, fortunately, lessons learned in the past are being called to mind so I don’t forget the consequences of neglecting these relationships.

When you lose your bearings, hang on to your anchor, your rock:

“Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against the house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock.” Matthew 7:24-25

It is never a good idea to stray from the Rock. It’s Murphy’s Law that this is precisely when the storms will come.

Stay close to the Rock. Don’t be enticed away, no matter how good it looks. Anything without God as the anchor is not worth your time.

Watching the skiers in the Olympics, you hear the term “fearless” over and over. At first, they all seem crazy to be heading down a hill that steep, that fast, but if you watch a few, you can see what the announcers mean. There are those who seem timid and are taking the safe path through the course and there are those that seem to be leaning forward and pushing with everything they have regardless of safety. They seem to want a medal so badly that they have no fear of the dangers of the course.

Is fearless just a lack of common sense? Is it extreme confidence? Is it courage to the point of insanity?

I don’t remember this verse sinking in before, but it did yesterday:

“There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.” 1 John 4:18

We can be fearless in living a life of love. We can follow His love and have no fear of punishment. We know He has taken that for us. We are forgiven and restored. Hell is the righteous punishment for our rebellion. We have been rescued from that sentence. We will not be punished for our sin.

Back up a verse to get this reinforcement:

“In this way, love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment, because in this world we are like him.” 1 John 4:17

Be fearless with His love.

There is prestige in having been there. Our society has placed attendance at major events as an achievement in itself. Think of how many baby-boomers claim to have been at Woodstock. How big a deal is it to go to the World Series or the Super Bowl? How many times do we ooh and ahh when we hear a story from someone who can say, “I was there.” Heck, being at the big events turned into a running gag in the movie “Forrest Gump”

If you try to look at it objectively, there isn’t any real value to being at the event if you weren’t a principal player. What difference does it make to the course of history if I watched the winning touchdown on TV or in person? Sure the emotion is more dramatic, but does it have any tangible effect on my life?

But in most religions (including Judaism), location is important. You visit shrines or holy sites out of the sincere belief that you can get closer to whatever deity or force you believe in. The temple in Jerusalem was where God resided and there was a real, tangible value to the getting closer to God.

Then, He turned all that on its head:

“For where two or three have gathered in My name, I am there in their midst.” Matthew 18:20

“But if Christ is in you, your body is dead because of sin, yet your spirit is alive because of righteousness.” Romans 8:10

“To them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.” Colossians 1:27

Christ lives within us. He is in our midst when we gather. You can’t get on a plane to fly closer to God. You can’t climb a mountain to get closer to God. He is right here with you and me right now.

The distance is crossed by His love and mercy when we are humble enough to accept it.

I have been a regular watcher of NBA basketball this year which hasn’t been the case for some time. As a result, my wife is watching more with me and creating some funny situations. It used to be that she would scold me for getting upset or yelling at the TV. Now that she watches more, she’s the one getting annoyed with the referees and quizzing me about whether teams can appeal bad calls.

It’s also given me opportunity to start discussing some of the unwritten rules. All sports have them, but you don’t learn them until you observe for a while. There’s the fact that if there is any doubt about who caused the foul, the superstar will get the benefit of the doubt. There’s the fact that if you play physical defense, you’ll get away with more by the night’s end. There are also some gentlemanly rules about not running up the score and not showing up an opponent.

These unwritten rules grow out of a need by the players to police themselves and keep the games somewhat civil. They know the things they can let go and the things they have to hold other accountable for.

This is not a bad attitude about life. While we can certainly point to all of the times when others have crossed the letter of the Law and impacted us, you will find that you have few friends if you bring them all to light. After a while it just sounds like the kids in the backseat screaming, “He’s touching me!”

“He who covers over an offense promotes love, but whoever repeats the matter separates close friends.” Proverbs 17:9

This is not license to ignore the Law, but to recognize that forgiveness can build better relationships than judgement. And, really, who are we to deny forgiveness after what we’ve received from God?

“Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.” Ephesians 4:32

Don’t look for opportunities to accuse and condemn. Forgive and embrace.

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