SURVIVAL GUIDE FOR LIFE: Get in on the 60.60experiment

"Trust in the LORD with all your heart, 

and do not lean on your own understanding.

In all you ways  acknowledge Him 

and He will make straight your paths.

Be not wise in your own eyes;

Fear the LORD and turn away from evil.

It will be healing to your flesh,

and refreshment to your bones"

                      -Proverbs 3:5-8

  I know, I know....you've read/heard these verses before, maybe they are even your favorite, or you quoted em like they were. 

  One of the rants building up inside me- How come we, as Christ followers, are so quick to spew scripture or scripture-esk sayings at anyone who asks for 'an answer'? Yet we use it in such a way as to completely disassociate them and disengage ourselves from any deeper or challenging conversation? Christ followers need to be well...more like Christ...'ready to give an answer' that engages those who live desperate lives away from God, for a whole pile of reasons, in such a way that causes them to lean in to know more. 

   BUT right now that is not the topic of this post/rant. I know I have heard the above verses more then a hundred times quoted as life verses or as a terse reminder of how to 'get over' what ever problem I might be having with knowing the will of God in any given situation. This time however, as we thought about on Sunday Night- at PAXnorth in the Park (yeah that's right, we decided to have PAXworship at a Park right in the midst of our most 'dangerous' neighbourhood- I guess I'll have to post on that experience as well this week.) These verses are not meant for quick repeat without first some deep reflection/meditation of what you are really asking people to consider.

 "Trust in the Lord with all your heart" : This is a theme that weaves it's way from Adam-to Noah-to Abraham- to Moses- to David- to Solomon- to Isaiah- to Christ- to Paul- to the Church and anyone who has claimed to be a follower of Jehovah, God in between. Love=Trust. "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind and with all your strength" This kind of love is a total vulnerable, opening of heart and life kind of trust. The kind of Love that God demonstrated in sending His Son to this earth- God coming down to make himself vulnerable to man, being tested in every way, yet without sin, taking on our abuse, our sin, our punishment of offense on the cross. We can love/trust Him completely because He first loved us.  

   The only other option to trusting in God is trusting in self; "Lean not on your own understanding"  That is a limited option at best- it means living out of only what you have perceived of yourself. Maybe a perception that you have carried over from a hurtful past or the lies of others, or out of what you think everyone would like you to be. One of the major problems with leaning on our own understanding has got to be the flux factor. Opinions of who I am, or am supposed to be, or what I wish I could be changes from year to year, season to season, setting to setting, and person to person- and that's only looking at it from the inside out. Imagine what that would mean if I really tried to live up to everybody else's 'understanding'? 

   "In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will direct your paths."  This is bigger then you can really grab hold of in a quick read. In ALL YOUR WAYS acknowledge Him... We have challenged PAXnorth to engage in this verse deeper then merely quoting, knowing and throwing it out as a way to cope with the latest unforeseen event in our lives.

   I heard of a church who came up with a great idea to practice the "in all your ways" part of acknowledging God in their everyday life. They set up a 60.60 Experiment.

Every 60 minutes for 60 days take time to stop and reflect on the fact that God is here. We are in his presence, He is engaged in our lives. 

   This is a huge challenge. How will 'practicing the presence of God' cause the daily intentions and decisions of my heart and life to be changed?- TRY IT! Then tell us at PAXnorth60.60 Experiment. 

  Just a word of caution: If you truly engage in this 'acknowledging of God in all your ways' - it will begin to give you strength from the inside out and heal many of the scars, wounds broken down walls in your life that perhaps you have held on to for years. RE-read the last few verses of the above passage.

  Eagerly waiting to see what happens when we actually put into life these powerful verses? Me to! 

Survival Handbook: Proverbs Edition

WORST CASE SCENARIO: How do you fend off a shark attack? There is some great advice for surviving almost anything on this site…you can get a book to guide you through the possible worst case shopping scenarios! O.K. admittedly some advice may be more useful than others.
Proverbs is a great book for understanding how we end up in some of life’s worst case scenarios. This Book is not for the faint of heart, it pulls no punches. The wise Seer refuses to gloss over our intentions and outcomes of such topics as anger, laziness, lust, refusing to discipline ourselves or our kids and many, many everyday scenarios we see lived out in our world.
On Thursday afternoon I have the privilege of hanging out with some guys who know the raw end of living out of the consequences of life, at the largest men’s shelter in the Maritimes. Some consequences are of our own making, many are outflows from other people’s decisions. Either way many of us are neck deep in trying to deal with the open wounds and soul sized vacuum that have left their imprint in our very core. It is so hard to make clear decisions in your everyday life when you are starting from the place of scars and vacuums.
Proverbs 1:2-6 tells us the purpose of proverbs is to know, to perceive, to receive, to gain discernment, discretion, increase learning, indeed a guide book for life.
Questions like: How do I deal with this deep loneliness? How do I move beyond the “if only’s” of life? How do I deal with the defeat? How come I feel empty with the things that used to and should bring me joy? How do I move out of powerlessness? How do I know God is real and cares? These were just some of the questions that were asked to me today by some of the hardest of guys. Where do you start to give an answer that is not just some kind of mere religious god-smack?
You might not like the answer:
“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom; the fool despises wisdom and instruction.” – Proverbs 1:7;28,29; 9:10
Don’t be fooled this is not religious spewing- it is the rationalized, meditated, statement of truth from a Wise Sage.
You cannot hope to address and understand your life in deeper wisdom without:

1. A HUMBLE, self recognition that you don’t hold all the answers. We don’t make decisions out of a vacuum- we make decisions out of beliefs. Islam, Christianity, Agnosticism and Atheism are all beliefs. In fact they are all Theological beliefs because they are a formed opinion about God, like I said earlier, some wisdom is better then others. First step to any sort of wisdom is a humble recognition that my own opinion based upon the evidences that I have accumulated are exactly that. No wisdom can be gained until there is the beginning of an awe filled reverence that there might be more then my own opinion based upon the evidences I have accumulated - “The fear”


2. A RECOGNITION, of God. A self recognition that I don’t hold all the answers is not enough to understanding wisdom. The fact that I can admit that I am lacking in understanding or incomplete in evidence for knowing the deeper purposes of life, left on my own does not complete our Rational self. If there is no Architect there is no reason for being. If this is all just a blind, happen stance, of irrational forces, and this long line of unthinking evolution finally spat us out on top of the food chain with the ability to think and reason, than a logical question would be, for what? It could be then said that in a world that is so highly irrational there would be no true deeper knowledge or meaning beyond our immediate needs and wants, our mere existence, no true wisdom (to say nothing of a lack of argument for good government, morals or justice). A recognition of God moves us into the beginnings of deeper wisdom. There is a Reason, a Logic, a Designer, which leads us to a pursuit of knowing.


3. 
   
   An UNDERSTANDING of a Personal God. The word that the Sage uses is LORD, referring to the name that God used in speaking of himself when He revealed his identity to Moses. Let me shorten this statement: there is a God who has revealed himself to His Creation, personally for a reason, this is the message of the Bible. “Christ the power of God, and the Wisdom of God.”- 1 Cor.1:24
   God reveals Himself to us to highest degree in Jesus.
   
   The foundation of wisdom is an awe-filled humbling of ourselves to the truth that there is a God who wants us to know- To know answers for living well, for making healthy decisions, to move beyond and through scars and vacuums of our lives but most of all to know Him. This is not mere spiritual platitude, which also can be said for the rest of Proverbs. It will take work on our part to stop, read, think, re-read and to look below the surface of these passages to gain wisdom.
   Welcome to the pursuit of gaining useable everyday Wisdom. Here’s to moving beyond mere survival to a deeper living.