The Magical City

There was a poor man who left his village, weary of his life, longing for a place where he could escape all the struggles of this earth.  He set out in search of a magical city--the heavenly city of his dreams, where all things would be perfect.  He walked all day and by dusk found himself in a forest, where he decided to spend the night.  Eating the crust of bread he had brought, he said his prayers and, just before going to sleep, placed his shoes in the center of the path, pointing them in the direction he would continue the next morning.  Little did he imagine that while he slept, a practical joker would come along and turn his shoes around, pointing them back in the direction from which he had come.  The next morning, in all the innocence of folly, he got up, gave thanks to the Lord for the day, and started on his way again in the direction that his shoes pointed.  For a second time he walked all day, and toward evening finally saw the magical city in the distance.  It wasn't as large as he had expected.  As he got closer, it looked curiously familiar.  But he pressed on, found a street much like his own, knocked on a familiar door, greeted the family he found there -- and lived joyfully from that day on in the city of his dreams.  This old Hebrew story reminds us so clearly that there is no perfect place on this earth or mountain top to escape to ... but that Jesus lives with us where we are at. 

The Baby Changed Everything

There is a wonderful story by Bret Harte called THE LUCK OF ROARING CAMP.  Roaring camp was supposed to be the meanest, toughest mining town in all the west.  More murders, more thefts---it was a terrible place inhabited entirely by men, and one woman who tried to serve them all.  Her name was Cherokee Sal.  She died while giving birth to a baby.  Well, the men took the baby, and they put her in a box with some old rags under her.  When they looked at her, they decided that didn't look right, so they sent one of the men eighty miles to buy a rosewood cradle.  He brought it back, and they put the rags and the baby in the rosewood cradle.  And the rags didn't look right there.  So they sent another of their number to Sacramento, and he came back with some beautiful silk and lace blankets.  And they put the baby, wrapped around with those blankets into the cradle.  It looked fine until someone happened to notice that the floor was so filthy.  So these hardened, tough men got down on their hands and knees, and with their hardened and callused hands they scrubbed that floor until it was very clean.  Of course, what that did was to make the walls and the ceiling and the dirty windows without curtains look absolutely terrible.  So they washed down the walls and the ceiling, and they put curtains on the windows.  And now things were beginning to look as they thought they should.  But of course, they had to give up a lot of their fighting, because the baby slept a lot, and babies can't sleep during a brawl.  So the whole temperature of the Roaring Camp seemed to go down.  They used to take her out and set her by the entrance to the mine in her rosewood cradle so they could see her when they came up. Then somebody noticed what a dirty place that was, so they planted flowers, and they made a very nice garden there.  It looked quite beautiful.  And they would bring her, oh, shiny little stones and things they would find in the mine.  But when they would put their hands down next to hers. their hands looked so dirty.  Pretty soon the general store was all sold out of soap and shaving gear and perfume and those kinds of things...for you see, the baby changed everything.

Those of us who have had the gift of a baby know the changes that can bring, but nothing like the changes Bethlehem's baby brought to our world and lives.  For when that baby comes into your life, he slips into every crack and crevice.  He touches every part of our lives.  He washes us clean and makes us new.  He reaches down deep and draws us close to our Heavenly Father.  For from the manger is fashioned a cross of punishment for sin--ours.  That cute little baby of Bethlehem died one day 33 years later--and that changed everything.

Silence

“Without the practice of silence…. spiritual disciplines will become objects we employ in an attempt to produce our own transformation or in an attempt to manipulate God to bring about the changes we have decided are needed, or in an attempt to impress (and thereby control) others with our spirituality.  The practice of silence is the radical reversal of our cultural tendencies.  Silence is bringing ourselves to a point of relinquishing to God our control of our relationship with God.  Silence is a reversal of the whole possessing, controlling, grasping dynamic of trying to maintain control of our own existence.  Silence is the inner act of” letting it go.” 

Through prayer “God will gradually awaken us to the multiple layers of controlling, grasping ‘noise’ in our lives: the defensive postures by which we justify our control of people and circumstances; the attack dynamics by which we extend and maintain our possession and control of others and our world; the indulgent habits by which we grasp things and others for ourselves; the manipulative practices by which we inflict our will on the world; and especially the ways in which we attempt to use God to support and justify these structures.”

(Robert Mulholland, “Invitation To A Journey,” InterVarsity Press, Downers Grove, Illinois, 1993, pp. 136-137)

Questions

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The older I get the more questions I have.  I’ve noticed that children go through a time when they drive their parents nuts with “why” questions.   Teenagers can’t figure out why they have all the answers and their parents don’t have any.  College graduates enter the work world sure of their answers, at least that’s the image they portray.  I remember I left the seminary with all the answers to questions no one was asking.  It didn’t take long for all of those answers to be tested.

There really are only a few questions that matter in the total scheme of life.  “Where did I come from?’  “Who am I?”  “Who is God?”  and  “Where am I going?”  Every philosophy and religion tries to answer these.  All come up short because there is only One who has the answers, and that is Jesus.  He is the “way, the truth, and the life.”  He tells us that we are “beloved children of a loving God, who made us and will take us to be with Himself one day.”  That’s it!  These things are sure.  So my questions may multiply as the length of my life shortens, but the answers that really matter are rock solid and will take me straight into eternity with Him. 

The Value Of Suffering

A man found a cocoon hanging on a branch.  One day a small opening appeared.  He sat and watched the butterfly for several hours as it struggled to force its body  through that little hole.  Then it seemed to stop making any progress.  It appeared as if it had gotten as far as it could, and it could go no further.  So the man decided to help the butterfly.  He took a pair of scissors and snipped  off the remaining bit of the  cocoon.  The butterfly then emerged easily.  But it had a swollen body and small, shriveled wings.

The man continued to watch the butterfly because he expected that, at any moment, the wings would enlarge and  expand to be able to  support  the body, which would contract in time.  Neither happened!  In fact, the butterfly spent the rest of its life crawling around with a swollen body and shriveled wings.  It never was able to fly.

What the man, in his kindness and haste, did not understand was that the restricting cocoon and the struggle required for the butterfly to get through the tiny opening were God's way of forcing fluid from the body of the butterfly into its wings so that it would be ready for flight once it achieved its freedom from the cocoon. Sometimes struggles are exactly what we need in our lives.  If God allowed us to go through our lives without  any  obstacles, it would cripple us.  We would not be as strong as what we could have been.  We could never fly!

St. Paul writes: …We boast in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.”  (Romans 5:3-5 NRSV)

The Peace Child

Don Richardson talks about working as an American missionary with certain tribes in Eastern New Guinea who are at war with each other in his book, "The Peace Child."  In that culture the great heroes are those who best practice treachery.  To trick your enemy is the ultimate feat.  They fatter their enemies with friendship and then slaughter them.  Nearby villages are lulled into believing that peace is desired and after a period of time to honor this new friendship a feast is given.  People are invited from the tribes with which they are at war to come to the feast and when they arrive they are informed that they are to be the meal.  And after eating them the cannibals with great delight tell the story over and over again of how they tricked their enemies into trusting them.  Richardson had a special problem taking the Gospel story to them.  For them Judas was the hero.  As they heard the story they admired Judas, because he tricked them all.  Richardson after trying to get through to them, finally in great discouragement, told them he was going to leave.   He couldn't help them and was very discouraged about their continued fighting.  Since he was a missionary doctor his antibiotics had helped many.  They didn't want to lose him.  So in a panic the hostile tribes decided once more to seek a truce.  But their problem was how to convince Richardson and each other that this truce was not just another example of treachery.  When you've lied so often, no one knows when you are telling the truth.  So in order to communicate to Richardson their honesty, their good will, they did something incredible.  One of the tribesmen went to his wife. who had a baby not yet a year old.  He took the baby, lifted it up over his head and walked across the battlefield to the other village.  He handed his baby to the other tribe and said, "This baby is now your baby.  And as long as you raise this baby and take care of it, it will be a sign between the two of us that our peace is genuine.”  This act of self-sacrifice by this leader convinced the other villagers that this was a truce that they could trust.  The celebrations began and it was agreed that the child would carry the name of the other village and it served as a bond between the two villages from that day on.  This child was known as the "peace child."  Now Richardson knew he could share the Gospel.  So he told them the story of one who was sent from the heavens to this hostile world, sent as a peace child to bring about a truce.  He was one whom God lifted upon on a cross for our peace.  And as long as we believe in the gift of this peace child God has made peace with us.

Reason or Experience

When we are dealing with spirituality and faith, we may struggle with the tension between an intellectual and experiential relationship with God.  On the one hand, we may emphasize reason and intellect to the exclusion of religious experience.  Doctrine, its pursuit and preservation, is all that really matters.  Because of the excesses in fundamentalist and non-denominational groups, we may become suspicious of the charismatic gifts of the Holy Spirit.  This results in a faith which is distant, lacking passion, and ineffective in our lives today.  On the other hand, we may withdraw from the contemplative dimension.  In this case, meditation and the “signs of the kingdom” (e.g. healing, miraculous gifts of the Spirit) are considered time bound to the New Testament era and maybe even to be feared.  In the process we lose the deep, mystical awareness of the presence of God in our lives.  Faith becomes a set of doctrines we give assent to and not a life transforming relationship.  In reality, we are called to give our whole selves – physical, emotional, spiritual, intellectual – to the Lord and our relationship with Him.  It is by His promised Spirit that we live as the disciples of Jesus.