Uplift Life

“God did this so that they would search for God and perhaps grope for him and find him – though indeed he is not far from each one of us”
Acts 17:27

Have you ever felt like God was far away?
Like maybe you might be all alone in whatever it is you are going through?
No?  I mean, me neither.  I don’t know what I’m talking about.

But seriously, we’ve all been there.
All of us.
We’ve all had moments where we didn’t just want God to be near but we needed God to be near.
We get bad news.
We let our negative thoughts and anxiety take over.
We lose sight of where we are.
And we look around and can’t find him.

“God isn’t here,” we think.

It’s a horrible feeling, the fear, the abandonment, the aloneness.
And even though all those are completely real and valid feelings – they are not true.

You are not alone.
God has not abandoned you.
No matter how isolated you are feeling – God really is with you.
No matter where you are or what you are going through – God really is with you.

Here’s the thing about this Acts verse.
Paul is talking to the people of Athens and he’s just said that famous verse 23 – “What you have called unknown I am going to make known to you” – after seeing they even worship an “unknown God.”
And then Paul talks about our God.
Our God who made the whole world and everything in it.
Our God who gives us life and breath.
And then Paul says our verse today – so that we’d look for him and grope for him and find him, even though God is never far away from us.

Here’s what I love about this verse:
Even though God is not far away, it sometimes still FEELS that way.
This verse acknowledges this reality.  
Because why would we need to “grope” for someone who is right there?
I kind of think of this passage like those times when I’m in a dark room, feeling for the light switch.
And for just a moment when I’m in the pitch black, groping around on the wall, I sometimes wonder if I’m in the right spot.
Maybe I’m turned around. Maybe I got mixed up. Is this even the right wall?
And then I find it and click – and all is well.

So even though God is always near, sometimes God feels far away,
and sometimes we get a little lost and confused and mixed up.
We start to doubt God is where God said he’d be.
But fear not, as we start to feel around for him, we’ll find him.
Right there.
With us.
Where he’s been the whole time.

And have them make me a sanctuary, so I may dwell among them
Exodus 25: 8

מִקְדָּשׁ

Miqdash.

שָׁכַן

Shakan.

These two little Hebrew words are the focus of our uplift today.
Miqdash, meaning holy place, and shakan, meaning to abide.  

Both are lovely little words.  And they are the focus of this command from God in Exodus.
God calls us to make a sanctuary, and why?  So that there’s a place for him with us.

Oh this is simultaneously beautiful and difficult.
Because God promised to always be with us – and God IS always with us.
But sometimes in the hustle and bustle and go go go of our daily lives, we don’t always take time to create space for God.

Another way to translate shakan is settle down or reside.
When we fill up our lives, when every minute of every day is scheduled and overflowing with stuff, where exactly does God fit?
How can God settle in for the long haul if we don’t give him room?
You know how dogs do that little turning in circles thing before they lay down for awhile?
They are creating space.  Getting comfortable.  Settling in.
This is what God is asking for us to do.
No – not turn in circles until we lay down, but make space.

Make room.
Create a miqdash – a holy place.  
Yes, miqdash is often translated as sanctuary, but I want to be clear that it doesn’t have to be a church building.  It can be anywhere where you create space for God.
It can be a room in your house.
A cabin at the lake.
A tent in the wilderness.
A table in your favorite coffee place.
It can be a time of day too –
those quiet moments when the kids finally go to bed,
those first moments of light at the start of the day
No rules – but just somewhere that you have made holy, and made space.

Why?
So God can come and settle in.
Not just for a minute, but for the long haul.
Now I want to be clear, God doesn’t need you to make a space to be with you – God doesn’t need us to do anything to be with us.
God is always with us, in us and with us in every moment and every place.
But I think we need to make space to be with God.
We need to create a miqdash to notice God already there.

So this week – make space.
Find a place or a time or both and make it holy.
Create space to spend time intentional time with our God who is always there.  

Remember what it says:
“Today when you hear his voice, don’t harden your hearts as Israel did when they rebelled”
Hebrews 3:15 (NLT)

My day is filled with noise.  
From the ring on my alarm clock (which let’s be honest, I hear more than once because snooze) to getting ready while listening to the radio, to the drive, and then into my office, with music playing and conversations happening and phones ringing.  It’s just noisy.

You too?

And this is a problem … because Scripture tells us that God’s voice isn’t always that easy to hear, that instead of being loud and booming and overcoming everything around us, it’s still and small.  God is not still and small, but sometimes in order to hear what God is trying to say, we have to take time to sit and be still in order to be even a little bit close to prepared to hear what God has to say.  

And then, if we actually take the time and effort to sit and listen to God’s voice –
We don’t always want to hear what God has to say.
In fact, I’d say we often don’t want to hear what God has to say.

The writer of the book of Hebrews knew our propensity to harden our hearts against Jesus.
And comparing it to when the Israelites did it in their wanderings in the wilderness was a good move, because those hearing it the first time knew exactly what was being referenced.

Over and over again, God would call to the Israelites, and the Scriptures have story upon story of them hardening their hearts.  It’s a phrase that we don’t really use anymore, but it means to be stubborn, or to become obstinate.  
(Maybe we should bring this phrase back!)
They would hear God’s call, but they’d turn away.
They’d ignore it.
They’d do the opposite.

The author of Hebrews reminds us that when we hear God’s call, listen.
Take heart.
Don’t get stubborn and stuck in old ways of living.
I know, I know – we don’t like change.
Ignoring God is easier.
Doing what we’ve always done is smoother.
But not better.
God’s voice usually brings change, but that change is new life, love and grace.
Why would we want to harden our hearts to that?

Lastly, my favorite part of this verse is a teeny tiny Hebrew word: ἐάν (pronounced ay-ahn). It can be translated “if” which a lot of translations use, but the translation I used today instead translates it in another perfectly acceptable way – “when.”

So there’s a promise here too – not just that God’s voice brings us new life, but that God’s voice is always speaking.
It says “today – when you hear God’s voice….”
Not if, when.
God’s voice is there, always breaking in, always speaking those words of grace and love and life.
So today, when you finally take the time to sit and listen – don’t ignore it.
Don’t become stubborn.
Don’t harden your heart.

Listen to what God has already spoken to you and for you.
Listen.

“Am I a God near by, says the Lord, and not a God far off?
Who can hide in secret places so that I cannot see them? Says the Lord.
Do I not fill heaven and earth? Says the Lord”
Jeremiah 23:23-24

Today we see our God is a God of rhetorical questions.
God is bluntly and not at all subtly reminding the people of Israel that when things get bad, that doesn’t mean God isn’t there.
Oh this is hard.
Because sometimes when things are bad we go there.
We think God isn’t with us anymore.
That God being with us means things are going our way.
And all these bad things mean that God must have lost track of us for a little bit.
Or maybe we’ve believed in this God up in heaven, kind of watching things roll around here, and stepping in now and again when he feels like it.

Ick.

ICK ICK ICK

That does not sound like a loving God.
That is not the God who speaks to us today through this verse.
The Israelites were in exile.  
They were struggling.
And things were bad.  Really bad.
So bad that they began to doubt God.
To lose their faith that God was with them, and that God would continue to take care of them and sustain them.  
They started to wonder of God even loved them anymore.
Been there.
Maybe you’re there now.
If you are – you’re in good and plentiful company.  

And then God spoke to them –

Aren’t I a nearby God?  Right?  Not a far away one?  
Is there anyplace I cannot see you?
Aren’t I able to be anywhere and everywhere?
It’s one big epic mic drop from God.
BOOM.

There is nothing God cannot do, there is nothing God cannot see, there is nowhere God cannot be.
Say that out loud. It’s a big promise that needs to be spoken and heard:
There is nothing God cannot do,
there is nothing God cannot see,
there is nowhere God cannot be.

We have a BIG God.

No matter what our problems are, no matter how bad things seem, God does not and will not leave you alone.
Our God is a nearby God.
I just love that phrase: “a nearby God”
The Hebrew word is קָרוֹב (qarowb)
And it means to be near, at hand, and (my favorite) next to.
God isn’t somewhere else, watching and waiting, God is here, with you, next to you.
God is here.

We have a nearby God.
And that nearby God isn’t small.
We have a big, nearby God.
And that big nearby God isn’t unaware of what you are going through and dealing with.
We have a knowing, big, nearby God.
What a promise.
There is nothing God cannot do,
there is nothing God cannot see,
there is nowhere God cannot be.

Oh God you are my God, earnestly I seek you;
my soul thirsts for you, my body longs for you, in a dry and weary land.
Psalm 63:1

It’s pretty unusual for the late summer to be this green around here.
It almost always gets brown and crunchy and dry.
And often, at this time in the summer, my soul kind of feels that same way.

Dry. Parched. Tired.

Summer is a different kind of busy, with weddings and travels and things to do and people to see… it doesn’t have that same quiet darkness of winter.  
So we go go go go until we are dry and weary.
Have you felt this way lately?
Or maybe you feel ok, but the land around you is looking a bit bleak.
It’s easy to get disenchanted with the dry and weary world around us.
I’ve been there too.
But this psalm reminds us that God is the source of life and nourishment in those times where we are feeling kind of brown and crunchy.  

Think of a time when you’ve been thirsty,
I mean really thirsty…
Now remember how amazingly good it felt to take a big drink of water.
Remember?
Well, that’s what our soul feels like when we drink in God.
When we reconnect ourselves to the well that does not run dry.
This psalm reminds the readers that it is possible to reconnect to God – the living water.
In verse 4 it says “I will lift up my hands”
When we are thirsty, feeling dry and empty, we hold out those empty hands and God will pour love and grace and new life upon them.
This living water is always there, always available.. You don’t need a hose or a faucet.  
Just open your hands.  

So next time you take a drink of water to quench your thirst – remember God’s love and grace are doing that very same thing for your soul.
Take a big drink.
How?
Read your Bible.
Pray.
Connect with someone in your community.

Drink up!

“Those who trust in the Lord are like Mount Zion, which cannot be moved, but abides forever.”
Psalm 125:1

I had almost forgotten this lovely start to Psalm 125, and then it came up in my own personal devotions and it’s been stuck in my head ever since.
Man oh man is this verse tricky to sing.
Because trusting in God can be so difficult sometimes.
When I cannot see what’s next, and don’t know what the future holds.
But when I do – oh baby – that’s the good stuff.
It’s our trust in God that makes us like a mountain, the psalmist says.
It’s not our health.
Our political views.
Our financial stability.
Our looks or physical attributes.
Our amount of faith or what we believe.
It’s our trust.
Those who trust are like Mt Zion.

Since I’ve never been to Jerusalem and looked out from the city toward the real Mount Zion, I often substitute the image of Mount Rainier in my head when I hear this verse.

I’ve been to the west coast a few times in my life,  (I actually took this picture from nearby Crystal Mountain) and every time I see Mt Rainier, I have the same two thoughts:
1. It’s gorgeous
2. It just seems to come up out of nowhere.

It’s this giant mountain, beastly huge and beautiful and standing tall and strong and solid, and unlike in the Rockies or Tetons or even the Alps – there aren’t really a lot of other mountains around it.  It’s just there. Rising above all the stuff around it and looking so strong and solid.

Another thing about mountains, is that their shape is untippable.
Larger on the bottom, their base is stable, and no matter what comes, rains or winds or storms or even avalanches, they don’t knock it over.
And that’s what this song says we are like when we trust in God.

Whew.

I know.
It’s super hard to trust sometimes.
When the world seems like one giant chaos machine.
When we keep getting bad news.
When it seems like the hits just keep on coming.
When our fear and anxiety seem to be overtaking us.
But when you feel that way, just picture the mountain.
When you trust God – that’s you.
Strong.
Steady.
Stable.
Unmoveable.
So even in the midst of storms and chaos, you can stand strong.

**And if you need to rock out to this psalm, the way it was intended: here you go.

“It is the Lord who goes before you. He will be with you; he will not fail you or forsake you. Do not fear or be dismayed.”
Deuteronomy 31:8

Yeesh the world seems so broken lately.
It makes it so difficult to turn on the tv or open up any kind of social media.
Because if it’s not one thing it’s another.
Hate here.
Violence there.
Protests here.
Rallies there.
And no matter which side of any issue you are on, the message is clear:
Fear.
Be afraid.
Everything is going to pot and you should be terrified.

But the message of scripture is even more clear:
Do not be afraid.
Have no fear.
Fear not.
Over and over again, the Bible tells us that there is something more than fear.

In this passage from Deuteronomy, Joshua is reminded just who is in control.
Things might get bad – in fact, they probably will get worse.
But God is the alpha and Omega.
The beginning and the end.
And the bad things, the hate and violence and the fear do not have the final word.  
God does.
God has the final word.
And what is it?
Do not fear – God is with you.

In the midst of chaos, in the midst of grief and anger and hate and fear, God is there.
God has joined us in the middle of it all.
And it is there, right in the thick of it, where God begins to create new life.
New beginnings.
Healing.
Peace.

Earlier this week, a local pastor posted this poem to her congregation and I wanted to share it with all of you to end the uplift this week.  It’s just lovely and it’s an incredible reminder of God’s grace and blessings in all of our rough days and weeks, no matter what is happening.

Blessing When the World is Ending

Look, the world is always ending somewhere.

Somewhere the sun has come crashing down.
Somewhere it has gone completely dark.

Somewhere it has ended
with the gun,
the knife,
the fist.

Somewhere it has ended
with the slammed door,
the shattered hope.

Somewhere it has ended
with the utter quiet that follows the news
from the phone,
the television,
the hospital room.

Somewhere it has ended
with a tenderness that will break your heart.

But, listen,
this blessing means to be anything but morose.
It has not come to cause despair.
It is simply here because there is nothing a blessing is better suited for than an ending,
nothing that cries out more for a blessing than when a world is falling apart.

This blessing
will not fix you,
will not mend you,
will not give you false comfort;
it will not talk to you about one door opening when another one closes.
It will simply sit itself beside you among the shards
and gently turn your face toward the direction from which the light will come,
gathering itself about you as the world begins again.

—Jan Richardson
from Circle of Grace

God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work he had done in creation. Genesis 2:3

Rest.

It’s not something we’re really good at.
One of the reasons I decided to write this week’s Uplift ahead of time is so that I could actually rest.  Take time to disconnect, to stop the work I’ve been doing.

It’s rare that we do this.

I was at a conference earlier this year and a speaker there reminded us that Sabbath was a weekly practice in the early church that we have somehow gotten away from, and she said that she felt cheated.  Of all the practices in the early church to have gotten away from, the one we might possibly need the most is Sabbath.
And it’s the one commandment we kind of brush off quickly – we breeze by it, when by its very definition it’s asking us to dwell there.

How often do you rest?
I mean really really rest?
In this culture we place value on people by their productivity.
We believe rest is for the sick or for babies and elderly.
People who can’t contribute or produce.
Maybe you read that and think that’s not you, but this is how our culture operates.
And let’s be honest, Sabbath is definitely countercultural.

So what does Sabbath look like?  
What does it mean to “observe the Sabbath?”

I think most of us assume that Sabbath means we do nothing.
Literally nothing.
And I don’t know about you, but that does not sound awesome.
At all.
In fact, sitting doing nothing makes me want to crawl out of my skin.
So you can imagine how happy I was to learn that Sabbath doesn’t mean you do nothing, but instead means you do nothing out of obligation.
Sabbath means you only do things that give you life.
Things that remind you of who you are and whose you are.
So Sabbath looks different for everyone.
For some people cooking is a CHORE and they will happily hand that task over to someone else for the day –
But for others, like myself, cooking for people I love is one of the ways I show I love them, and I often find myself wanting to cook and bake when I have more time.  

Sabbath.  

Sabbath is about saying yes to the things that remind you of you.
Sitting and doing nothing?  No thanks.
Doing things that help me be more who I was created to be?  Yes please.

So try it.
Take a full day.
From sleep to sleep.
And do only things that bring you life.
Do only things that help you be you.
Rest.
Relax.
Cook.
Read.
Bake.
Be in nature.
Meditate.
Nap.
Snuggle.
Watch a movie.
Skip rocks.
Go on an adventure.

Then let me know what you experienced.  #teamupliftsabbath

And for those of you who say you don’t need it, or that you have too much to do –
Listen –
Even GOD, the creator of the universe, took a day off.
And last I checked, even though you’re all pretty awesome,
none of you are quite at the level of God.

So if God can take a day off, then so can you.

All your crazy will still be there when you get back.
But I promise, PROMISE, you’ll be better equipped to handle it.

I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace.  In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world. – John 16:33

Oh are we in the middle of it.
Like me, you probably went to bed with a heavy heart about the state of our country and our city last night.
And then, like me, you woke up this morning to more bad news, to another tragic event, more unnecessary death and violence.
And you might have started to wonder – will things ever get better?
Is this the way things are now?
And I know, I KNOW that’s an easy place to go.
Things right now seem so hopeless, and the thing about hopelessness is that it can leave us feeling powerless and impotent.  

Jesus knew things weren’t going to be sunshine and roses forever.
In fact, he told his disciples to “take heart” just moments before his arrest and execution.
Take heart.
The Greek word there means “have courage” or “be courageous.”
Yeah. He KNEW how bad life could get.
And he knew that the easiest response is hopelessness.

And then Jesus gives us this: νενίκηκα τὸν κόσμον
I have conquered the world.

(If you want to try saying it, it’s nen-i-ke-ka tone ko-smone)

Kosmon- where we get our word cosmos.
And nenikeka from the root nikao – which means to subdue, overcome, conquer.  

Jesus essentially says, the world can be a hard place, but I have conquered the world.
Anything the world can throw at you – I am bigger.
Any hatred or violence or despair – I have subdued it.

I need this today.
I need this so badly.
Because the world seems bleak.
It seems pretty dark.
But Jesus said this to his disciples and then was arrested and killed and in doing so showed us what conquering actually looks like.
It doesn’t look like violence.
It doesn’t look like hate.
It looks like love that will go further than any of those things.

And for why?
For whom?

For you.
For me.
For us.
For all of us.

Today, preacher, author, and New Testament Scholar Dr Eric Barreto said: “What if the opposite of violence isn’t peace as much as it is a radical love that cannot bear the taking of life because the taking of life is a denial of whom God has said we are?”

No matter what we believe, what we look like, or who we support – we are all children of God – and that means something.
Something undeniable.
We are children of God.
And with love – radical love – God has overcome hate.
With love – radical love – God has subdued violence.

“In this world you will have trouble – but take heart, I have overcome the world.”

So today I encourage you to do more than pray for peace, and do more than fall prey to hopelessness.
Trust that the radical love of God has overcome all the darkness the world has to offer, and then jump in.  Be a peaceMAKER.
Share, show, be the radical love of God to everyone around you.
Break the cycle.
Overcome.