Radical Truth

If we asked God to point us toward His most searing truth, in what direction would we face?

The expanse of the law of God?

The view of the downtrodden?

The hope of the afterlife?

What if He just said:

Follow Me.

We'll take it day by day.

I'll reveal Myself little by little if you stay the course.

No high horses, no soapboxes through which to beat each other up, just fellow broken sojourners experiencing each day's measure of Follow Me to see what bounty of God is uncovered, what delightful discovery is made that Radical Love (post--Apr 18th) in the pool of Radical Grace (post--Apr 19th) imparts to us as we stay the course.

Then God could show us...God.

He is going to be God with or without us. It is only ourselves that we shortchange when we sell Him as less than He Is.

I want to face the direction of Radical Truth...the searing Truth that He wants to use to penetrate my soul, freeing me to become a filter for His Radical Love and Radical Grace.

Radical Grace

Radical Love (yesterday's post) swims in the pool of Radical Grace.

Sin is birthed out of temptation that morphs into intent and most often, into action.

Once we are on the road to intent (to sin), we are in need of forgiveness.

I intend to cheat on my taxes? I need forgiveness at that point of decision.

I intend to criticize a family member without seeking to understand? I need forgiveness at that heart moment.

I intend to smear the character of a person, a place, trying to usher in God's momentum of love and grace? I need to check my intent.

How do we test our intent?

Is it disguised as a critical spirit?

Even the most religiously oriented people--especially the most religiously oriented people--can get caught up in the clever disguise of a critical spirit.

Here is a way to test our intent: Jesus, I think my measure of [this] situation represents You, but to be sure, please immerse it in Your pool of Radical Grace. Then I know I will extend Your love, not my mistaken identity with a critical spirit. While You are at it, immerse my whole being into the pool as well.

The Pharisees were right that Jesus came to do something with the Law. They assumed the worst--that He would rock their steady boat of hammering law into the little people.

Sure enough, He knocked their boat off its moorings. He set it afloat in His pool of Radical Grace, where, when it was sufficiently sunk, it would be soaked through and through with His Radical Love.

Get knocked off your moorings. Trust the pool.

Radical Love

I have been in the presence of a love-changing experience.

For several days, I was the sole recipient of the lavish attention of my two-year-old grandson, Miles.

Because I was baby-sitting, we were each other's entire love experience, and few do it better than single-minded toddlers.

We had extensive car and truck adventures, ate every meal together--regardless of his speed, climbed countless steps--one at a time, and read every word of treasured books (how do young minds recognize our attempted shortcuts?).

It is rare to enter a love experience so significant, when you are one another's complete orbit. Full attention. Riveting focus.

Isn't that what radical love means? Depth. Presence. Time.

You are each other's full measure...depth.

You treasure every moment together...presence.

You have nowhere else to be that is more important...time.

Grandchildren carry us to a place of realizing that all of the beckoning of this crazy world comes in a distant second to the vividness of moments spent together. There is simply no more important place to be.

We don't need grandchildren to experience love this radical.

You are Jesus' full measure...there is no love with greater depth than His for you.

He treasures every moment spent with you getting to know Him. There is no more profound presence than the two of you together.

Time will somehow right itself into getting everything else done if you find moments to spend in His company.

For Him, it's all about you.

Isn't that crazy? What's not to get about radical love?

May your day include immersion, at least for some moments, in the radical love of Jesus.

There is simply no more important place to be.

What Skin Will God Wear Today?

It is Wednesday after Monday's tragic Boston bombing.

On Monday, God looked like the incredible, life-saving wave that washed in seconds after blasts one and two. Americans did what Americans do so well--spring into action to rescue each other.

On Tuesday, God looked like the shoulder-to-shoulder compassion extended in Boston and around the world, comforting in grief, reminding each other of what love and goodness and selflessness look like.

God is rescue.

God is comfort in grief.

God is love and goodness and selflessness.

Today, though the landscape is forever changed, we will take tentative steps back into the skin through which we normally present God. That's what believers do--whatever characterizes us is the skin God is wearing in the eyes of onlookers.

What skin will I have Him wear today?

Will I be kind and thoughtful?

Will I be dogmatic and preachy?

Will I be quick to help, generous in spirit?

Will I be sarcastic and passive-aggressive?

Will I be full of hope, praising God?

Will I help mend hearts sent my way?

There is nothing easy about wearing skin that reflects God. It must weather bombings and work to restore hope. It must absorb a normal day's irritants and bounce back kindness and patience. It must trump reconciliation with impossible people, while holding necessary feet to the fire. It must, above all, constantly monitor how it is, with each day's effort, restoring the image of God.

And so I pray:

May I praise You, Lord, with my body, my spirit, my words, and my life. May my skin today reflect the real You.

What Will We Say When We Get There?

I can promise you that you will exit this life, this body.

Since our bodies have a Designer, no matter how hard we ignore the science, it seems we should think about that Designer.

Goodness, whatever that Designer was thinking when this whole life thing was put into motion, I'm hoping there is a point beyond this short-term gig in our human, set-to-expire bodies.

Are we a hoax? Can't be--we're way too relational, way too complex, way too fearfully and wonderfully made.

When we exit this life and this body, do we go back to someplace that was our beginning? Not the womb, not the tomb, but a place nonetheless--perhaps that will house the "us" that exists outside of our bodies? The me that makes me me, and the you that makes you you?

I often spend part of my day making these kind of travel plans. I think I am going to someplace when I exit here and I suspect I'll be face to face with Whatever or Whomever made me.

If that Whomever asks me how I spent the "bodytime" I was granted, will I stutter and stammer and complain and grouse and attempt to deflect the Gaze that probably knows everything anyway? I mean, what Designer wouldn't know everything about Its design?

These are some troubling questions. Put those into your Monday Planner.

I sort of hope this question unnerves you as much as it does me: what will I say when I get there?

Happy, troubling-question Monday.

Seasoning and Gravitational Pull

As Americans, we have perfected the shortcut.

Ready (processed) food, the (TV, music) remote control, and Google (goodbye library research know-how).

My neighbor's new washing machine has a setting that washes and dries the same load in the same machine overnight--ready and waiting in the morning, minus the personal valet.

We only use them (valets) when parking far away means too many steps for the limits we have inadvertently applied to our rigor.

It seems, however, there is no shortcut for relationship with God. We can abbreviate with each other through text and email, but God seems to be holding out for old-fashioned talking and listening. We even have to do the work of believing that He is there.

There is a payoff for this rigor.

People who allow themselves to be seasoned by much time listening and talking with God enter into the gravitational pull of His agenda. He has this uncanny way of moving us from our point A to His point B that we never saw coming. Before we know it, we have entered the arc of His making that captures us and teaches us to live life through the gifts that He gave us from the beginning.

I think God is slower than slow. Excruciatingly so. Rarely makes sense--I live surprised most of the time.

But the look back never ceases to amaze me. He continues to season change in me, keeping me in His gravitational pull, knowing me better than I know myself.

Rigor for my soul-keeping...no processed food [for thought] there.