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More Cell Phone Parable (And then I’m done, I promise)

Oops. Yesterday’s little parable of the cell phone has a few holes. I was reminded that the cell phone does NOT always know!

Lubec, Maine, is in the Eastern time zone. But the little town sits on a finger of land jutting out into the Atlantic and is so close to Canada that it picks up signals from Canadian towers and displays Atlantic Time instead. 

Another interesting fact I’ve just learned: on most devices, it is possible to disable the feature that automatically changes displayed time.

Thus … The Cell Phone Does NOT Always Know.

But there are parallel spiritual lessons here as well: keep your connection alive and functioning, and make certain you’re tuned in to the right tower!

As a matter of fact, this is exactly what Isaiah says after God has warned him not to think like those around him. In the midst of Judah’s trouble, people were asking mediums and spirits of the dead for advice. Isaiah warns: 

Look to God’s instructions and teachings! People who contradict his word are completely in the dark. They will go from one place to another, weary and hungry. And because they are hungry, they will rage and curse their king and their God. They will look up to heaven and down at the earth, but wherever they look, there will be trouble and anguish and dark despair. They will be thrown out into the darkness.

The wrong connection leads only to anguish and despair. That’s very clear.

If there is no tower or signal, a phone is useless. Without our connection to God through Christ, we are also useless. We can do nothing, Jesus said, if we are not connected to Him (John 15:5).

The connection He’s given us is the Holy Spirit, “who leads into all truth.” That Spirit of truth “will teach you everything and will remind you of everything I have told you.”

We remain in the Vine that produces bountifully, and the Spirit reminds us daily of Christ’s words in us and keeps on teaching us . . .

Yup, sounds like a good connection that will produce truth in our lives, will make adjustments to our attitudes so we can live according to God’s instructions, and will keep us from weariness, hunger, trouble, anguish, and dark despair.

Spirit, keep my connection strong.

*

Scripture: Isaiah 8:20-22; John 14:17,26 (all NLT)

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Living in an unseen Kingdom

We began driving on Sunday morning, just hours after Daylight Savings Time ended in Ohio. Our route took us southwest, into the Central time zone, then we turned east again. By the time I fell into bed at the motel, I didn’t care what time it was. My body just knew it was time for bed.

But in the early morning darkness, the red numbers on the clock felt false. Was that clock right? Had we changed time zones again the night before?

I flipped open my cell phone. No, we were still in Central time. The Cell Phone Knows. The town in which we spent the night was very close to the Eastern time zone, and perhaps someone with an appointment the next day had set the phone to Eastern time instead of Central. Or maybe the adjustment had never been made from Daylight Savings Time. Confusing. But I trusted my cell phone. It Knows.

That morning, less than an hour’s drive away, my cell phone flipped ahead one hour to Eastern time. That little thing receives its signals from the tower, and It Knows.

Have you ever seen a time zone? Yet our lives are regulated by those invisible borders.

“We live in a kingdom that I’ve never seen…” That’s a line from a song by Miriam Therese Winter, recorded on an LP* we had at home when we were kids. Recently, my sister found the songs available on a CD, so I’m listening to them again. And this phrase jumped out at me, because it’s what I’ve been thinking about lately.

Actually, thinking is what I’ve been thinking about.

The prophet Isaiah said, 

The LORD has given me a strong warning not to think like everyone else does. He said,
“Don’t call everything a conspiracy, like they do,
      And don’t live in dread of what frightens them.
Make the Lord of Heaven’s Armies holy in your life.
       He is the one you should fear.
He is the one who should make you tremble.
       He will keep you safe.

War is imminent; Judah is about to be invaded and the prophet has warned that they will be crushed. The picture is grim: their society is filled with evil, injustice, and corruption; the future holds only darkness, distress, and captivity.

The LORD tells Isaiah that he must not think like those around him, fearful of what they might suffer at the hands of the enemy, dreading the future. Instead, look higher than man. God is the one who holds your future. He is the one who should command fear and trembling. He alone is the one who keeps you safe. Man is nothing compared to the Lord of Heaven’s Armies.

When we think about our lives, is our thinking caught, limited, circumscribed only by what’s going on in this worldly kingdom? Today in my hometown voters are looking at a ballot with some very hot issues. How will the outcome of those votes determine how you see your life? Do these things define your life? How important to your future is the next presidential election?

Do we think like the world — believing that everything depends on this human race and what it can or cannot accomplish? Do our sights ever go higher than human actions and efforts? Do we believe that our future depends solely on what happens here at earth level?

I ask the Spirit to take us beyond that. Your life, child of God, is part of something much more than the country, state, community and culture in which you live your earthly life.

Jesus said His kingdom is now here. It is not something we wait for, something we hope will arrive someday. We are a part of that kingdom now. Can we see beyond what’s going on in our society and our government to glimpse the kingdom in which we live as people chosen and adopted by the Lord of the universe?

Just as surely as King David and Jesus’ mother, Mary, and the apostle Paul are part of God’s story, so are we. We are living out the history of the kingdom of God right now. Can we catch that perspective?

Can we stop thinking like the world around us and ask God to give us a glimpse of His thoughts? Do we think about living out our lives in this unseen kingdom? After all, that is where your true life lies.   

I want to be like my cell phone, so tuned in to my tower that my thinking is aligned with His kingdom, no matter what the rest of the world is saying or thinking.

Scripture: Isaiah 8:11-14 (NLT)

* Joy is like the Rain, by the Medical Mission Sisters, www.medicalmissionsisters.org

　

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Come into His presence without . . .

A guest post today from Kathy. Her questions have me thinking about making some changes myself.  Add your own ending to the above title once you’ve read her thoughts.

 

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When she picked up the phone and answered my call, I said, “I hope I didn’t wake you.” 

Her response was, “Even worse.  You’re interrupting my Bible reading.”
I pictured a teasing smile on her face.
 
I have gone back to her comment a number of times since that morning, asking myself some questions, WITHOUT a teasing smile on my own face.
 
Why do I allow phone calls or other “pressing” details of life to interrupt my conversations with the Father?
 
Why do I even take my cell phone along to my place of quiet, when my desire is to spend those precious beginning moments of the day with my Savior?  The One who has given His life in my place?  The One who knows me and loves me more than anyone in my life?
 
After all, I do have voice mail. What message is so important that I let it disrupt preparing myself to listen to HIS message for me, for that particular day?
 
I know that I can have constant communication with Him as I navigate each hour of the day and night. He is always available.  But there is something luxurious and special to me about a time and a place set apart for reading, praying, listening, journaling.
 
For me, neglecting to take a block of time set apart with God and depending instead on little messages from Him through other means is like snacking and eating fast food for a period of time.  After a while, I crave a solid, healthy meal.  I need and want that block of time.
 
Without the phone.  Without other voices.  Without the laundry or the kitchen calling me.

 
Just stillness.
 
Hmmmm.  Such a privilege.

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New Day Hope

A simple lesson this weekend opened my eyes. I was a guest at my sister’s house on Friday night, and the next morning I overslept.

Sleeping late on Saturday might sound like a fine thing, but it’s not a good plan if you have a meeting first thing in the morning. I was running late from the moment I opened my eyes.

Another big disappointment was that I missed dawn. Morning light is one of my favorite things; and as I snuggled in the night before, I realized that I had never slept at this house and had no idea what the first touch of morning looked like in their end of the valley. ‘Good,’ I thought. ‘I’ll get to see how a new day comes here.’

I’ve never spent much time analyzing why I enjoy morning light … maybe because it means a fresh start. Maybe because it symbolizes hope. Maybe because I’m rested and renewed and don’t have too much clutter in my head at that time of the day, so it is easier for me to see and appreciate the beauty.

But I overslept and completely missed the first rays of light.

As I was racing around, getting ready for the meeting, I thought about missing the dawn; and I wondered, Why not look for God’s new kindnesses every day with such eagerness?

The faithful love of the LORD never ends!
    His mercies never cease.
Great is his faithfulness;
    His mercies begin afresh each morning.

Just as surely as the sun comes up every morning, so God’s faithful love works for the good of His children. In every event of the day, He is present. The NIV says that his compassions never fail.

This may be a familiar Scripture to you. But do you realize it comes after a long description of the awful time Jeremiah (the writer) is experiencing? Twenty verses begin this chapter, all describing this awful time, bitter beyond words. He will never forget the suffering, the darkness, the sorrow of this period of his life.

And yet he says, I still dare to hope when I remember… He remembers that God’s kindness and compassion come afresh every morning and

The LORD is good to those who depend on him,
    to those who search for him.

In the middle of darkness and suffering, that’s hope!

Psalm 107 is another of my favorites. The writer talks about wandering, lost, suffering, rebellious people who are saved when they cry out to God. Four hopeless situations are described, and in every case, the LORD rescues those souls who have been so helpless. Each story ends with

Let them praise the LORD for his great love
    and for the wonderful things he has done for them.

Read chapter 107 sometime, and see if one of the rescue stories is also your story.

For the children of God, the wonderful stories happen every day. Every morning, as surely as the sun rises and marches across the sky, God is working in your life and mine, in ways both small and gigantic, in quiet touches and spectacular power. I want to watch eagerly for those wonderful things, to recognize His care, to thank Him for what He is doing.

Psalm 107 ends with

Those who are wise will take all this to heart;
    they will see in our history the faithful love of the LORD.

If you remember, this is one of the cases God had against Judah: “They don’t pay attention to what I’m doing. They forget about who cares for them.”

I do not want to forget. I want to pay attention. 

Spirit, wake me up! I do not want to be sleeping and miss all the wonderful things God does today.

*

Scripture: Lamentations 3:21-23, 25; from Psalm 107. (All NLT)

Photograph: Ethel Miller

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Coming Back From Exile

It was only a weekend retreat in a neighboring state. Still, I felt relief as I unlocked my door and knew I was finally home. But instead of the dark apartment I expected, a fire crackled in the woodstove and an arrangement of bright fall flowers from my mom’s beds brightened the kitchen table. No one else was there, but I knew Mom and Dad had stopped by and created this welcome home. That was over twenty years ago, and I am still warmed by the memory.

More recently, I returned from an extended trip to find Welcome Home notes in colored chalk all over the sidewalk leading to my door. Works of art by my family. We all sat in my living room to catch up, and I savored the simple joy of being with loved ones.

A few days ago, I read about an Ethiopian taxi driver who has been in the United States for eleven years. He longs to go back to his homeland, but he left looking for political asylum and cannot go back until changes in the government make it safe to do so. What must it feel like to know you cannot go home?

Scriptures contain many metaphors for the human wandering that takes us away from God the Father. One description I found in chapter 5 of Isaiah has stayed with me:

So my people will go into exile far away because they do not know me.

The opening chapters of Isaiah contain warnings of terrible judgment that will come on God’s people because they’ve rejected the Lord and turned their backs on Him. God’s wrath will punish Judah and Jerusalem, and God recounts His case against the very people He had chosen as His own.

But it is impossible to read these chapters and not see our own society today. Here’s just a sample:

* They have despised the Holy One of Israel (1:4)
*  they have made alliances with pagans (2:6)
*  The people worship things they have made with their own hands (2:8)
*  they speak out against the Lord and refuse to obey him. They provoke him   to his face (3:8)
*  They display their sin like the people of Sodom and don’t even try to hide it. (3:9)
*  they never think about the Lord or notice what he is doing. (5:12)
*  What sorrow for those who say that evil is good and good is evil,
     that dark is light and light is dark,
     that bitter is sweet and sweet is bitter   (5:20)

And so, says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, His people will go into exile far away, because they do not know me.

Exile. Absence from your home country. Absence from home. This was a warning for Judah, but I hear a warning for us today. Do we send ourselves into exile, are we far from the presence of the One who loves us, because we, too, forget who has chosen and cared for us?

We go into self-imposed exile when we do so many of those things Judah was doing:

*  We worship things made with our own abilities and our own successes

*  We call evil things good and good things evil. In other words, we test good and evil by our own standards, not by God’s

*  We are guilty of ignoring what God is doing and of not acknowledging God at work

*  We ally ourselves with pagan culture and sin openly.

*  We willfully refuse to obey God in something

All of these things send us into exile, take us away from the presence of God. We live a long way off from home, far from the Father who has chosen us as His children.

Read again what God says:

So my people will go into exile far away because they do not know me.

Perhaps we have a tendency to wander, to live in exile, because we do not know the Father? Perhaps, the more we learn to know Him, the closer to home we come?

No human loved one — spouse, child, parent, or friend — wants to be taken for granted. But we are guilty of doing just that. Do you take your Heavenly Father for granted?

Paul says in Colossians that the antidote to all these things that lead to wandering and exile is learning to know your Creator.

Put on your new nature, and be renewed as you learn to know your Creator and become like him.  (Col 3:10)

Earlier in Colossians, we’re told, All the while, you will grow as you learn to know God better and better.  (Col 1:10)

Learning to know the Father changes us, makes us new people, makes us more like Him.

And brings us back from living in exile.

*

Scriptures from the New Living Translation