How to begin a spiritual life?

I am starting to read Eugene Peterson's The Wisdom of Each Other, and tonight I saw this:

..the phrasing is askew: you don't begin the spiritual life, the Holy Spirit does. ...

So the question is not primarily "What do I do?" but rather "What has the Holy Spirit been doing in me all these years of my noncooperation and what is He doing still?"

from page 32

See why it struck me? It was something I was writing about the other day, something I heard in church the other week. It's not what I do, but what the Spirit is doing in me, and I'm not resisting.

Doubts and Remembrance

Have you ever had doubts -- when you felt you weren't sure whether God cared, or even if he was actually there? You aren't alone, because I know of at least two others with doubts. One wrote a psalm:

Has his unfailing love vanished forever?
Has his promise failed for all time?

Psalm 77.8

Now that's what I call "doubt." I mean, that's pretty severe; it's practically a contradiction in itself.

And who's the other one with doubts? It was me, as if you didn't know. I found great comfort in this particular psalm, and I actually memorized verses 10-12 once:

Then I thought, "To this I will appeal:
the years of the right hand of the Most High."
I will remember the deeds of the Lord;
yes, I will remember your miracles of long ago.
I will meditate on all your works
and consider all your mighty deeds.

Psalm 77.10-12

Because this is the thing that gets me out of the valley when I'm in doubt: I remember the things he's done in my life, how he rescued me from the dumb and dangerous things I did when I was in high school. And afterwards too.

And how he's been teaching me throughout my life -- whether I learned well from that is another issue -- and how he's brought blessings into my life, one after the other: a church family - it's not perfect, but it's good; a career - ditto; the right mix of challenges and annoyances and setbacks and encouragements that I can have joy and gratitude in my life, but I also have to lean on him because, like everyone, I have struggles, doubts, difficulties.

And when those come, I have to remember to remember.

May God help us to remember what we need to.

Where you should have your next party

Recently I had a milestone birthday celebration, which was held at Suraj Restaurant in Redwood City, on El Camino near Woodside Road. They put on a terrific spread - everything was wonderful. Here's how it works.

First, you need to plan on at least 50 people to get his banquet room. It is a really nice room, too; it accommodated 80 with no problem. If we wanted to have dancing then, well, let's just say that not everyone could dance at the same time in there.

If you have more like 50 people, they can put the buffet inside the room, but if you have a lot more (which we did), it's just outside the double door.

Anyway, the boss suggests a menu - appetizers, salad, entrees, and mango ice cream. Soft drinks and coffee are included in the price. I wanted to tweak the menu; the result is below.

There were appetizers - some kind of chicken, and mixed vegetable pakoras. For the main part of the meal, there was salad (iceberg lettuce), naan bread, rice, navrattan korma, dahl curry, saag paneer, I think another chicken curry, lamb vindaloo, cucumber raita. Mango ice cream was brought to the tables afterward.

We brought a cake and they provided a cake server, paper plates, and plastic forks.

At one point, I started introducing the groups of people to each other (standing on a chair), and the manager brought a microphone to me with a long cord. That was a freebie. One of my friends noticed a complete entertainment system. Sure enough, when I asked to use the CD changer, he said that was fine. So the accompaniment CD for Jenny's song and the dance CDs for Sheri's dances were played through his stereo system. Very nice.

I noticed a DVD player, a projector, and a screen, too. He might charge extra for those, but anyway there they are.

Speaking of charge, how much was it? The bar bill was about $140 (guests had to walk from the banquet room to the bar). About 85 said they'd come, a few sent late regrets, and a few just didn't show. I told the restauranteur 80 so that's what they charged me for: $20 a head including the use of the room from for four hours. Total bill: Under $1750. Terrific food, great facilities, friendly service, and it didn't cost an arm and a leg.

Sign me up!

Here is something that always stirs up my feelings when I read it. From Colossians chapter 1:

For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you and asking God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all spiritual wisdom and understanding. And we pray this so that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and may please him in every way, bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you might have great endurance and patience, and joyfully giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the kingdom of light.

from Colossians 1.9-12

I mean, it sounds great! How would it be if I knew in my heart how God looked at things, if I had spiritual wisdom, if I pleased God in every way, and all that? Wouldn't that be great?

So I wonder why Paul prays that for these Colossians? And what does that mean to me? Here's how I look at it. This being in the Holy Bible, and Paul being an Apostle and all, this prayer of his might represent the kind of stuff God wanted for them. Because it sometimes seems like when God wants to do something, he moves someone to pray for it, then he acts. In response, sort of.

Then, if the above represents God's will for the Colossians, it might represent God's will for you and me, but first I think we need to check out whether there are any important similarities or differences between them and us.

So... what do we know about these folks? Well, you may have noticed that Paul started this off with "For this reason..." For what reason? [B]ecause we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and the love you have for all the saints (Colossians 1.4).

That sure sounds familiar. It's something that -- I was going to say "strive for," but if I said that I'd have it wrong, wouldn't I? It's the direction the Spirit wants to take us, and so we should try not to resist His promptings in that direction.

So to have faith, not doubt, in the Lord Jesus Christ, and to love, not be indifferent toward, our brothers and sisters in Christ. May the Lord help me, and you, to move in that direction.

What weapon, what tool?

Today's reading, from the first chapter of Jeremiah, records his commission from the Lord:

"See, today I appoint you over nations and kingdoms to uproot and tear down, to destroy and overthrow, to build and to plant."

Jeremiah 1.10

Sounds pretty intense. What kind of weapons, what kind of tools or equipment did he give Jeremiah to accomplish all this? A Superman™ suit and X-ray vision? 29th century technology?

Nope. See what he says in verse 9: Then the Lord reached out his hand and touched my mouth and said to me, "Now, I have put my words in your mouth."

I find this astonishing. I can hold in my hand the Holy Bible, sixty-six books. I have several of them in my house. And these are the words that have the power to uproot and tear down nations and kingdoms.

I've heard more than one sermon pointing out that God created light and land and life by speaking them into existence, and that we are made in his image. So the power of speech is a huge responsibility - it holds the possibility of great blessings, and it can cause a ton of trouble. It can uproot and tear down, it can destroy and overthow nations and kingdoms.

Or it can build and plant -- nations and kingdoms. Or a marriage, a friendship, a family.

Rituals, or changed hearts? Gee, I wonder...

There seems to be a sort of religious impulse in humanity - an impulse to build places of worship and a desire for ritual. God is not always happy about these, and in Isaiah chapter 66 he talks about the temple without a lot of fondness. He's made heaven and earth, he says...

"All these things my hand has made
and so all these things are mine," declares the Lord.
"But this is the one to whom I will look:
He that is humble and contrite in spirit
and who trembles at my word."

Isaiah 66.2

He then goes on to say that he doesn't like the animal sacrifices (which he instituted himself in Leviticus) any more.

What he seems to be after now is not so much buildings and rituals but a transformation of our hearts. Speaking for myself, there's a part of me that, as Donald Miller says in Blue Like Jazz, prefers a sort of vending-machine god. I do this and that, to make him happy, then check that off the list and go on my way.

Which I guess is why God talks so much about this in the Bible. He says again and again that empty ritual is just that; that a relationship, a change in our hearts, is what he's after, and is the thing that will make us better.

And who is adequate for that? Boy, do I need help! And the good news, as always, is that God is here, as he says - this is the one to whom he will look (the NIV has "esteem"). Not to the mighty, not to the great, but to the humble, to the one who trembles at His word.

Self Talk

"Every day in every way I'm feeling better and better." That's not in the Bible, but this one is:

Surely God is good to Israel, to those who are pure in heart

Psalm 73.1

This guy knows, sort of, that this is the way it's supposed to be. It's what God promised. It's what he wants to believe.

But then he goes on and 'fesses up: he sees the wicked prospering; they are rich and well-groomed and have plenty to eat. They don't have troubles like other people do. They order everybody around and act like they're God or something (which reminds me of a book I heard of but have never read: The Difference Between God and Larry Ellison).

This really bothers him:

Surely in vain have I kept my heart pure;
in vain have I washed my hands in innocence.
...
When I tried to understand all this,
it was oppressive to me
till I entered the sanctuary of God;
then I understood their final destiny.

Psalm 73.13,16-17

He goes to the Temple and then he understands that justice will eventually be done. He turns his eyes toward God, and he becomes wiser by doing that.

So what does that mean to me, today?

Here's my take on it: if we look only at the way the world is going, we are left with perplexity and despair, because so often it seems God isn't doing what he says he's about.

That is, we have to look at the world and see it, but then we have to look at God, too. Not because he'll answer all our questions, but because by turning to him, fixing our eyes on him, we'll develop a more balanced perspective. We'll remember his character, his goodness and mercy, and we'll remember that things are not totally out of control.

Which will help us to trust him more, and to be saner people. Kinder and more compassionate people. Amen?