Flourishing Where You Are Planted.

"From one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands.  God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us." Acts 17:26-27.

Maybe you are in a job (or lacking a job) and are dejected. Perhaps your misery stems from the relationship you are in (or not in). Or maybe it comes from relocation to a new area and having to leave your friends (or perhaps you wish you could escape your family and social circles). Then again, it is possible you feel like you are drowning in an almost inexplicable loneliness and emptiness; you have this nagging sense that your life matters not. You are depressed. You are living a life of quiet desperation.

I don't know the reasons, but I do know what it is like to feel miserable because of less than ideal circumstances. What's worse is feeling despondent when you are convinced that you are exactly where God has placed your for now.

Several years ago I worked in a place where I was miserable. I loved my job; but gloom and negativity seemed to reside in my work environment and have a stranglehold on my coworkers. I tried to overcome evil with gospel good, but it seemed like I was fighting a losing battle. For a very long time I cried every day after work. I begged God to give me another job. But he didn't right away. I couldn't understand it. I was right where God wanted me and I was obeying Jesus--so what was the problem? Was it that I just worked in really good places before? 

There is much more to this story but I don't think this is the place to flesh it out. However, I realized that if God had me there, then I was going to have to make the best of it and depend on Christ and his body to uphold me as I went to work every day (or perhaps I should say, as I entered a spiritual battle every day).  Over and over again at that time, I read the story of Joseph's life and found great comfort (I've written about that elsewhere on this site). Joseph tremendously suffered many injustices. For some reason, God didn't immediately remove him from his suffering.

But he was to be the person God called him to be within his prison cell--within captivity. This reminds me of the story of King Midas who possessed the golden touch--whatever he touched turned to gold. While in the story, this proves to be a curse, I can't help but think about how whatever Joseph's life touched prospered and what life would be like if everything and everyone touched by the lives of Jesus' followers prospered (not necessarily or even financially). It's not a direct parallel, but that's what I've been thinking about lately.

Joseph was a blessing to all those who crossed his path. And of course Jesus was although he suffered like none other and because of us! But if we are sure God has placed us where we are, isn't it to be a blessing to others and to him--sort of like Abraham the great Patriarch? Can not the power of the Holy Spirit give us the strength and love and the manna we need for each new day as we live within the Christian community?

We are blessed by God to be a blessing to others, to everything  and everyone our lives touch.

Again, though life is not free of difficulties nor unforeseen tragedies, can we not bless everything we touch with our lives because we follow Jesus? As Acts 17:26-27 tell us, God has marked out our times and places in history, the very place we find ourselves in right now (I am not talking about abusive situations) so that we would seek him and find him. And I believe this is the case so that we might be a blessing to others.

God is using these situations and circumstances we find ourselves in, hard though they may be, to make us like Jesus. He desires that we be transformed from the inside out into the image of Jesus (Romans 8:29).  And in that we can rejoice (see James 1).

Could it be that he turns this barren and depressing wilderness land we find ourselves in into an oasis? Can he not bring forth streams in the desert (Isaiah 35)? I think so. I believe so. He has done so for me innumerable times in my life, even in the situation mentioned above.

Maybe he is going to use us to cultivate a garden in the barren land we now find ourselves in--right in this very spot. As we take our cue from him and joyfully follow him (obey him) it will transpire. Perhaps we will see seeds sprout sooner than we imagined. May we ask for eyes to see!

God wants us to trust him so that we can flourish where we are planted...so that everything our lives touch is blessed. In turn, we will be blessed in ways we cannot right now imagine. Isn't interesting how God used Joseph's captivity to bless him?

With Dallas Willard I say:

"First we must accept the circusmtances we constantly find oursleves in as the place of God's kingdom and blessing. God has yet to bless anyone except where they actually are, and if we faithlessly discard situation after situation, moment after moment, as not being 'right,' we will have no place to receive his kingdom into our life. For those situations and moments are our life."

Dallas Willard in The Divine Conspiracy: Rediscovering the Hidden Life in God. pp.348-349

George Mueller - A Person of Prayer and Faith and a Model For All of Us

George Mueller of Bristol is one of my favorite saints. He lived in the 1800's and was full of faith in God. His desire was to provide for the orphans around him. But how would he do it since the need was great and he didn't have money? He'd do it through prayer, not asking anyone for a penny in order to show that God provides and is completely trustworthy. He'd depend on God to nudge people. So through prayer, without ever asking for help or a handout, he provided food, shelter, and education for 10,000 orphans. God is powerful and good and works through his children. God hears our intercessions. May we be like George Mueller and seek God on behalf of those that have spiritual and physical needs so that he might provide and give us his power and wisdom to bring in as much of Christ's kingdom as we can. It is his doing not ours; we are simply vessels, like George Mueller.

Below I am going to include a little story about him from Streams in the Desert  (August 17 for those who have this devotional classic) by L.B. Cowman and edited by James Reiman. I am encouraged every time I read it. I hope you are too!

I have faith in God that it will happen just as he told me (Acts 27:25).

A number of years ago I went to America with a steamship captain who was a very devoted Christian. When we were off the coast of Newfoundland, he said to me, "The last time I sailed here, which was five weeks ago, something happened that revolutionized my Christian life. I had been on the bridge for twenty-four straight hours when George Mueller of Bristol, England, who was a passenger on board, came to me and said, 'Captian, I need to tell you that I must be in Quebec on Saturday afternoon.' 'That is impossible' I replied. 'Very well,' Mueller responded, 'if your ship cannot take me, God will find some other way, for I have never missed an engagement in fifty-seven years. Let's go down to the chartroom to pray.' "I looked at this man of God and thought to myself, 'What lunatic asylum did he escape from?' I had never encountered someone like this. 'Mr. Mueller,' I said, 'do you realize how dense the fog is?" 'No,' he replied. 'My eye is not on the dense fog but on the living God, who controls every circumstance in my life.'

"He then knelt down and prayed one of the most simple prayers I've ever heard. When he had finished, I started to pray, but he put his hand on my shoulder and told me not to pray. He said, 'First, you do not believe God will answer, and second, I BELIEVE HE HAS. Consequently, there is no need whatsoever for you to pray about it.'

"As I looked at him, he said, 'Captain, I have known my Lord fifty-seven  years, and there has never been a single day that I have failed to get an audience with the King. Get up, Captain, and open the door, and you will see that the fog is gone.' I got up, and indeed the fog was gone. And on Saturday afternoon George Mueller was in Quebec for his meeting."

Thank you O LORD for a strong reminder of your goodness and power. You are at work. Amen.

You Are a Sinner. Receive My Grace.

While Jesus was having dinner at Levi's house, many tax collectors and "sinners" were eating with him and his disciples, for there were many who followed him. When the teachers of the law who were Pharisees saw him eating with the "sinners" and tax collectors, they asked his disciples: "Why does he eat with tax collectors and 'sinners'?" On hearing this, Jesus said to them, "It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners." Mark 2:15-17.

I am very glad that Jesus ate with tax collectors and sinners. For I have learned that I am one of them. Jesus deigns to spend his time with the likes of me. God is at work in the cosmos and in my life (and in  your life, too). Like Eugene Peterson says in his new book Practicing the Resurrection, I just have to be receptive to God. I have to learn to receive. If we're under the delusion that we are holier than we are, we falsely believe that we don't need the amount of grace we do, and then we do not receive it because we do not ask for it. Of course, God does pour out a measure of grace on us even when we do not ask for it because those of us in Christ are his sons and daughters (and he even sends rain and good things to those who do not care for  him or acknowledge him). We must ask our Father for the grace to become like him. That is a prayer he answers.

How freeing it is to trust him, even when we can't understand what is going on. How I need Jesus every moment! Growing up, I was continually let down by those important to me. It's hard learning how to trust. But God is showing himself to be trustworthy. Many are the reasons that the Lord of the universe should not give me the time of day. I am a sinner. However, I am beyond grateful that his action and his love for me is not dependent on my worthiness but on his lavish love, goodness, and grace. The same is true for you this day and every day.

Lord Jesus, have mercy on me, a sinner.

Perception of Time/Waiting - Kathleen Norris

Our perception of time is subject to technological revision, and increased speed has generally translated into subtle diminishment of our capacity to appreciate our immediate surroundings. In his 1849 essay, "The English Mail Coach," Thomas DeQuincey noted that while the new, high-speed coaches of his day offered much faster travel than had been thought possible a few years before, they also distanced passengers from the countryside. The simple pleasures available to the stroller or wanderer on horseback--the scent of wild roses, a glimpse of a fox with her kits, an exchange of greetings with other travelers or laborers resting from their labors in a field of sweet smelling, newly-mown hay, -- had been traded for increased efficiency . . . .

Waiting seems at odds with progress, and we seldom ask whether it might have a purpose in and of itself. Etymology helps us here, for when we look up the word wait  we are instructed to see vigor. Waiting, then, is not passive but a vigilant and watchful activity designed to keep us aware of what is really going on. Isaiah evokes this radical waiting as a source of vitality: "Those who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength,/they shall mount up with wings like eagles" (Isaiah 40:31). Such waiting is meant to engender a lively hope rooted in the physical as well as the psyche. It is in an action "hop" contained within the word. To hope is to make a leap, to jump from where you are to someplace better. If you can imagine it, and dare to take that leap, you can go there--no matter how hopeless your situation may appear.

From Acedia and Me: A Marriage, Monks, and A Writer's Life pp. 220-221.

You Are Blessed When . . .

You're blessed when you're at the end of your rope. With less of you there is more of God and his rule. You're blessed when you feel you've lost what is most dear to you. Only then can you be embraced by the One most dear to you. You're blessed when you're content with just who you are—no more, no less. That's the moment you find yourselves proud owners of everything that can't be bought. You're blessed when you've worked up a good appetite for God. He's food and drink in the best meal you'll ever eat. You're blessed when you care. At the moment of being 'care-full,' you find yourselves cared for. You're blessed when you get your inside world—your mind and heart—put right. Then you can see God in the outside world. You're blessed when you can show people how to cooperate instead of compete or fight. That's when you discover who you really are, and your place in God's family. You're blessed when your commitment to God provokes persecution. The persecution drives you even deeper into God's kingdom. Not only that—count yourselves blessed every time people put you down or throw you out or speak lies about you to discredit me. What it means is that the truth is too close for comfort and they are uncomfortable. You can be glad when that happens—give a cheer, even!—for though they don't like it, I do! And all heaven applauds. And know that you are in good company. My prophets and witnesses have always gotten into this kind of trouble.

a paraphrase of Matthew 5: 3-12 (Eugene Peterson's paraphrase the Message Bible)

Grateful Indebtedness

"I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me." Galatians 2:20

Last night I finished watching the movie Ben-Hur for the first time. Watching it, I was reminded of the goodness and beauty of God. God is continually moving me and others from death to life. As eternal life bubbles forth within me, as God is in the process of redeeming me and all of his children, and all of creation, his goodness manifests itself even in a fallen world. At the end of the movie, I found myself ovewhelmed with thanksgiving and praise and remembering yet again my debt to God--a debt that I cannot pay. His sacrifice on my part, on our part, should engender eternal gratitude, if we could but glimpse even a few of the implications of the cross and resurrection--if we could but glimpse even a few of the implications of his life within us. Last night I did again.

When we meditate on all he has done and continues to do for us, on the gifts he has given us (even creation), we are compelled to lay our lives down for him just as he did for us. We are compelled to adore him. Any kind of anemic Christianity that is manifest in our lives or in the world is due to our blindness. It is because we do not see. For truly, if we gaze upon him--meditate on him and his goodness and his wonderful works--on his name, we will truly see and understand that his attributes and love defy the imagination. We can only comprehend little but the little we comprehend overwhelms us.

I am thankful to you O Christ becasue you loved me and gave yourself for me. May I be a joyful bondservant. I ask you that I might serve others, but how can I serve others if I do not serve you first? It is you who call the shots, not me. May I learn to obey you and in so doing serve others.

Dear reader, may we meditate on God's love and beauty and grace. It will create in us a sense of grateful indebtedness that compels us to humbly serve him with every ounce of our being.

World Christianity

10-12 inches of snow have blanketed the landscape around me. I peer out of my home office window and see that it is steadily falling. The little branches of the bush outside of my window are icicles with snow on top. Students are ecstatic because class has been canceled. I live on and work on a university campus. That's why I know about the students. In fact, I can hear them outside in the lounge and they're playing ping-pong and pool--gabbing about how much homework they have to do and how glad they are that classes are canceled so they can do it. As I returned home, I saw two guys off to the hills with their plastic blue sleds. They're taking full advantage of the snow and canceled classes. Now, my 2 1/2 year-old daughter is napping. So, I can post.

(I started this post earlier today and then had to stop. It is now nearly midnight).

This morning I heard a speaker discuss what we've known to be happening. Christianity has turned global and has turned away from its Western center. The new centers of Christian influence are now Africa, Latin America, and Asia. While orthodox doctrines remain the same, western theology will not dominate. It is a global Christianity of which North America is a part. Unfortunately, North Americans have been slow to embrace this reality and slow to appreciate the contributions made by non-western theologians.

I have studied this to some extent and I have a few thoughts on it. Those of us in the west cannot be arrogant or conceited enough to think that our way of doing things is the best. No. We have to converse with our brothers and sisters throughout the world about following Christ. This doesn't mean that we can't discern and can't disagree. But it does mean that our voice is not the sole nor loudest nor domineering voice in the conversation of what it means to follow Christ (Here again, I don't mean the basic tenets of the faith). But we have enjoyed such a status for so long that we think our way is the only way and the best way. And I imagine so do others from other countries and nations.

But the point is, we cannot marginalize our non-western brothers and sisters by ignoring them. We have to think of world Christianity, global Christianity--listen to and ponder the words and ideas and theology of non-Western brothers and sisters, just like they've done with us. We are not superior to them, neither are they to us.

I think of one of my favorite verses in Scripture: "From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live. God did this so men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each of us" (Acts 17:26-27).

I was born in the latter half of the twentieth century and now live in the first half of the twenty-first. It is no historical accident that I was born at this time. I was born in the U.S. God determined that I was to be born in this time and place to be a disiciple, to bring honor to his name. And it is the same with you, wherever you are, whoever you are around. God has put us around certain people at this point in history in the country we live in so that we might seek him. Are you pointing others to him with your life and words no matter where you are? Whether it be in an isolated place, in the country, in the city or even in academia?

Paul was speaking on Mars Hill in Athens when he said this. He was in the midst of the people--proclaiming through words the gospel, the truth of the God who created us and who saves us. He was telling them how they could move from life to death.

Which reminds me of one last thought before I try and sleep. We are ever moving towards life or death wherever we are. Do our thoughts, our decisions, our behavior indicate that we are moving towards life? If so, those around us will see the life of Christ in us. We radiate God's life, God's light (Like Moses did  after spending time with God in the wilderness mountain top . . . God is light, in him there is no darkness at all) without even trying. But if our thoughts are darkness and we do not deal with them, that will become evident to those around us because it will be what is in our souls.

My prayer is that I would never bring shame to God's name. And I sit in wide-eyed wonder, awed, that he has appointed me to live in this time and place that I might find him and passionately and lovingly direct others to him.

Maybe you will get a sense of that mystery and beauty too and remember that he has placed all of us throughout the earth in different times to know him and make him known.

C.S. Lewis On Leaving It To God

Lewis says, "Now we in a sense, cannot discover our failure to keep God's law except by trying our very hardest (and then failing). Unless we really try, whatever we say there will always be at the back of our minds the idea that if we try harder next time we shall succeed in being completely good. Thus, in one sense, the road back to God is a road of moral effort, or trying harder and harder. But in another sense it is not trying that is ever going to bring us home. All this trying leads to the vital moment at which you turn to God and say, 'You must do this, I can't.'"

Lewis goes on to say, "It is the change from being confident in our own efforts to the state in which we despair of doing anything for ourselves and leave it to God. I know the words 'leave it to God' can be misunderstood but they must stay for the moment. The sense in which a Christian leaves it to God is that he puts all his trust in Christ: trusts that Christ will somehow share with him the perfect human obedience which he carried out from his birth to crucifixion: that Christ will make the man more like Himself and, in a sense, make good his deficiences."

Lewis continues, " . . . handing everything over to Christ does not, of course, mean that you stop trying. To trust him means, of course, trying to do all He says. There would be no sense in saying that you trusted a person if you would not take his advice. Thus if you have really handed yourself over to Him, it must follow that you are trying to obey Him. But trying in a new way, a less worried way. Not doing these things in order to be saved, but because He has  begun to save you already. Not hoping to get to Heaven as a reward for your actions, but inevitably wanting to act in a certain way because a first faint gleam of Heaven is already inside you . . . . A serious moral effort is the only thing that will bring you to the point where you throw in the sponge. Faith in Christ is the only thing to save you from despair at that point: and out of that Faith in Him good actions must inevitably come."

In the Chapter Christian Behavior from Mere Christianity pp. 128-129.

Good things to ponder from Lewis. We need more people like him in this age!

How Do We Respond When Forced To Trust? How Do We Respond To Other's Bad News?

"Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done." Luke 22:42


One of the things that wrankles me and that I desperately do not want to be guilty of is offering a trite Christian platitude when someone is suffering or when someone has received bad news. I don't want to be like Job's friends, although I am sure I have been guilty of that.

Today I learned of another friend who lost his job. His wife is one of my best friends. I tried to offer a word of hope through e-mail, but I know the rug has been pulled out from under them and they are flying through the air uncertain of when and how they will land and scared that they might be injured in the process. Is offering a word of hope trite and inconsiderate? Not necessarily. It depends what is said, how it is said, and when it is said.

I've been poor by American standards most of my life. I know what it is like not to have food, not to have heat, and receive nothing for Christmas. Believe me, I know even then I was rich compared to most of the world. But it seemed like the continual crises my family endured were crises of not having money.

And so most of my life, I've been on my knees crying out to God for financial provision. And boy has he pulled some doozies of provision. I mean whoppers. Does that mean that I always had Christmas gifts and was never cold in the dead of winter? No. But God financially provided through others and once even through my own mistake with the IRS, a mistake that was to me and Shawn's advantage, a mistake that the IRS caught on our taxes. I guess we overpaid (I had filled out the form). The fact that someone at the IRS did their job and refunded us the money a few days before we had to move, when we were sweating bullets and trying to trust God and figure out how we were going to pay for gas to drive up to New York, wondering how we were going to have groceries for the first few weeks since I didn't have a job and Shawn's university stipend wouldn't kick in for a month, was amazing. It was God. He provided the money we needed to move to New York after we had put down all our money for a deposit and our first month's rent. And I could go on. Really, I could recount his wonderous provisions, the list continues to grow.

I'd like to say to my friend, God is going to show you he is trustworthy through this. I am not sure that now is the time though. Because is that really what she wants to hear? It's only in looking back that I recount God's faithfulness. It was hard for me to trust in the midst of difficulties. Sometimes I did better than others. But God was definitely faithful.

Honestly, how often do we want to learn such lessons of trust? We'd rather that God left our spouses with us, that our children didn't die, that we didn't lose the job, that our child did not rebel, that our family member  was not mentally ill. Of course! Jesus sweat tears of blood and asked the Father to remove the cup of the cross from him. But in the end, he bowed to the Father's will. And I don't think God allows these things merely to teach us lessons. We have a supernatural enemy. And suffeirng and difficulty are part of the fall, the problem of evil, painful and seemingly illogical.

No God doesn't allow evil and suffering just to teach us a lesson. I am not sure why he does. His ways are inexplicable. But somehow, he can use our tragedy and pain to form us. He forms us in the wilderness.

The Expansive and Consuming Love of God - Even in Death

"and to know this love surpasses knowledge--that you may be filled to the fullness of God." Ephesians 3:19

Have you tasted and savored the love that surpasses knowledge? Imagine that you are standing on the shore, gazing at the beautiful blue-green ocean. The water is clean and crystal clear. You're compelled to enter. So you step forward, delicately dipping your foot into the water in an effort to test the temperature. Suddenly, you find yourself waist-deep. You continue forward until the water is up to your shoulders. Will you go any further? You tremble at the thought. If you proceed, you could easily drown. Who will rescue when you're alone?

While you may not risk going deeper into the ocean for fear of drowning, drowning in the waters of God's love leads to life. Merely standing on shore, gazing at the beautiful water, is like the beginning of the Christian life. Yet every time you exchange some of your ways for his ways, you step deeper into the ocean of his love. The deeper you go in, the more you see and experience him, the more alive you become. This is truth, you become more alive in him as you continually die to yourself (John 11:24-26, Galatians 2:20). When in faith you surrender everything to him so that you no longer claim anything as your own, the waters of his love will sweep you away. You will never touch bottom again.

When you allow yourself to drown in him then you will be rooted and established and filled with the fullness of God (Ephesians 3:17b-19). You will not care where the currents of his love take you because you will know, in an experiential way, that his love surpasses knowledge. You'll remember his words to Joshua now meant for you, "Be strong and courageous.  Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go" (Joshua 1:9). You will trust, even if wherever means you're whisked into a hurricane. For everywhere his currents send you in the ocean of his love leads your soul to partake in his fullness. You'll realize how deeply in love you are when you can say like Job, "though he slay me I will trust him" (Job 13:15).

You will eventually learn to trust him even as you see the ocean currents ushering you through physical death into thre rest of life, eternal life. The culmination of your faith will be when you confidently say at death, "Death has been swallowed up in victory. 'Where, O death, is your victory?' Where, O death, is your sting?'" (I Corinthians 15:54-55) and then step onto the shores of the Promised Land.

I wrote this six or seven years ago, but could not share it on the radio or post it because of the 2004 tsunami. The metaphor was just too much. But, I share it today.

Faithful and True

"I saw heaven standing open and there before me was a white horse, whose rider is called Faithful and True. With justice he judges and makes war. His eyes are like blazing fire, and on his head are many crowns. He has a name written on him that no one knows but he himself. He is dressed in a robe dipped in blood, and his name is the Word of God. The armies of heaven were following him, riding on white horses and dressed in fine linen, white and clean. Out of his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations. 'He will rule them with an iron scepter.' He treads the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God Almighty. On his robe and on his thigh he has this name written: KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS." Revelation 19:11-16


Is God faithful when he seems unfaithful to you -- that is, when you've loved him and obeyed him to your utmost yet your entire world still falls apart (like Job's did)? In that instance is he true, that is, is he who he claims to be in the Bible?


Most of us would quickly reply, "Why of course he is!" But when our world actually falls apart, when what we never dreamed would happen happens, do we treat God like he is faithful and true or does our faith fall apart with our world?


If you are committed to following Christ a time will come when he strips everything away, maybe all at once. At that moment will you say with Job, "though he slay me I will trust him" (because you know he is faithful and true even though your circumstances seemingly contradict what you believe about his faithfulness and goodness to you)?


It is difficult to honestly declare that God is faithful and true when our world falls apart. But God wants to bring us to the point where we know and feel he is faithful and true despite the onslaught of slaying circumstances. More than anything, God wants us to trust that he is who he says he is.

God tests our trust.