Inspirations

I am now officially NOT a fan of the movie, Invictus! I admit that, apart from the appalling rugby scenes and the absence of humorous banter (which I know to be common among South Africans), I did enjoy the movie. Then I read the book!

This morning I sat in bed in a Lagos hotel and finished the chapter where the SA rugby team learned to sing the new national anthem (which the author fails to point out is a hymn written by a Methodist minister). The movie showed the captain, Francois Pienaar, asking his team to learn the national anthem in Xhosa, and them objecting strongly. The reality was quite different. Why did Hollywood miss this part?

Anne Munnik was about to wrap up the lessons when the team’s three largest players, Kobus Wiese, Hannes Strydom, and Balie Swart, made a request: could they sing the song one more time, just the three of the? “I said, ‘Of curse!’ And then they began, like three giant choirboys, softly at first, rising, rising to the high notes. They sang it so, so beautifully! The other players just stood there with the mouths open. No laughing, no jokes! They just stood and stared.”

For the big men, singing this song had the power of an epiphany. “That was my innocent ignorance shattered!” Wiese exclaimed. “When I learnt the words of that song, doors opened for me. Ever since then, when I hear a whole group of black people sing “Nkosi Sikele,’ it’s like, sunning man. It’s so beautiful.”

Truth  has a way of shattering our innocent ignorance. Hollywood has a way of twisting things to make them look good or the story sell. I am of the school that truth is better than fiction. One ounce of truth dispels a ton of error. The things I see each day–the heroics of marketplace people doing the right things for the right reasons–do not sit well with Hollywood’s spin on bad business, but they sit right with me. When will we see the real story of the redemptive work of business in a movie?

There is no question that we all need comfort from time to time. How we get it is the question. It seems that there are several options:

• We find our own comfort in whatever… food, distractions, you name it.
• We let God comfort us.
• We stay worried.

This last week or so I have been thinking about how God comforts us. First, I want to point out that God may not be as committed to us being “comfortable” as us being comforted. I like being comfortable: Bruce Wilkinson postulates that we are more susceptible to sin when we are feeling uncomfortable. So, he says, we need to ask the Spirit to comfort us.

A friend emailed me today: he has had all sorts of things go wrong in his life, to the point of wondering whether God has left him in the lurch. Then, after months, he had a close encounter with God who reminded him that he had prayed one of those “do whatever you think it takes, God” prayers some time ago. The answer was not success or great forward progress, but difficulty and intimacy.

We all want hugs: few of us allow God to do whatever it takes to put us in the spot where we need hugs. Let’s face it: we want to be comfortable more than we want (to be in a spot where we need) the Comforter.

When the earth goes topsy-turvy
And nobody knows which end is up,
I nail it all down,
I put everything in place again.   GOD

God made this observation in Psalm 75. Pity he is not running for office, or sorting out the healthcare malaise, or the budget mess. What if we had Godspan instead of Greenspan? Would the world be in this sorry state? The answer is, “Of course not,” not if God were running government, or healthcare, or the economy. The problem, however, is that God is a delegator, and mankind has taken the assignment without the Source, or better stated, the Source out of the assignment. We create policies that are bereft of Power. We design systems–and many churches do this too–that are designed to run without God.

Then things go topsy-turvy, pear-shaped, farce about ace… or whatever your colloquialism is. We don’t know which end us up. Life is hardly “nailed down.”

Perhaps it is time to invite God to “put everything in place again.”

Even the non football fans have probably been watching the day-after advertisements, which were generally not very exciting. But isn’t it great that the saints won!?
Actually, I don’t give a rip who wins the Super Bowl (ever since Joe Montana retired, or the Young guy who replaced him) but I do like the parallel: in the end the underdog, the saints… we win.
This morning I read about an epic future event in history where there was a battle of mammoth proportions, and the good guys were losing, until…

“until the Ancient of Days came and pronounced judgment in favor of the saints”

Some days, make that most days, I need the Ancient of Days to pronounce things in my favor. I need it now, but if I don’t get favor today I still know that tomorrow could be different. If not tomorrow, then certainly in eternity there will be a ruling in favor of the saints.

Back in 1985 we visited good friends in Chile. There we learned an expression, “He’s on the wrong bus!’ which meant, he does not have a good grasp of the facts. When you are living a life that seems to be beyond the edge you will probably find yourself asking, “Am I on the right bus?” If you answer in the affirmative, then a second question comes up: “Am I peddling fast enough?” It seems to me that I exited 2009 feeling like I was peddling a bus.

Yesterday, however, Lyn and I had a real treat. We were visiting Bethel church in Redding and asked for an appointment with the prayer team. I had no real agenda, just an awareness that there is lots on our plates, more than we can handle humanly. A group of nine folks gathered to pray for us, bless us, encourage us. Among the many encouragements that we heard were the twin themes: rest, and proceed.

Even when I am on the right bus, there is a little temptation to peddle when the bus looks low on gas. The peddles don’t do anything, of course, but the effort makes me feel better. “At least I was sweating when we ran out of gas.” If you don’t like buses, how about boats? Some centuries ago 13 people were in a boat in a torrid storm, and one of them was not only abstaining from rowing, he was asleep!

Today I drove past a sign on a gas station that asked, “How many successful lazy people do you know?” We seem to know that there is a distinction between lazy people and resting people. Have you noticed that busy people like nothing more than busy people? Lazy people irk them; busy people please them, but resting people trouble them. It takes focus to rest. Both the lazy and the busy will create detours for the resters. It takes faith to rest. The responsible will call you to action, to faithless to resignation. The faithful will call you to first rest, then stand, then walk into your destiny. Rest and proceed.

Last night I had a dream of an earlier time when my kids were young. I remember, in the dream, cuddling with my kids and enjoying them as three and six-year olds. Then today when I woke up and went back to Psalm 65, believing there was another nugget there, I found it: “you choose and bring near.” As a dad I would not have children and then not want to be near them. The older they get the more I simultaneously enjoy them now and I miss their younger days. It is unthinkable that I, an imperfect father, would choose to have children, but also choose to have them far away. Any good parent knows this.

So I wrote a devotional titled “You choose and bring near” — what a privilege it is to bask in the wonder of being both chosen, and drawn near by our Father. By the way, the devotional will appear soon at http://repurposing.biz/devotions (Past devotionals are there too.)

Last night we had a prayer time with friends, soberly thankful for 2009. The phrase came to mind, “He has been with us thus far…” — not with any sense that he would not be with us further, but that we should celebrate the presence of God, not taking it for granted.

I then went back to Psalm 65 which seems to climax with “You crown the year with your bounty.” I pondered the rest of the psalm which seems to fall in three parts:

Part 1: “Praise awaits you…” Imagine a room full of people praising, awaiting the entrace of their God. God hears our prayers, forgives our transgressions, chooses us, brings us near to himself, and fills us with the good things of his temple. And all of this even before Jesus dies, rises again and fills us with his Spirit!

Part 2: Amazing statements about God, “the hope of all the ends of the earth” who has power, strength and reach. We flounder because we do not contemplate God “who stilled…the turmoil of the nations.” Let’s face it, whole nations are in turmoil, and God is the only answer.

Part 3: His care, his overflowing provision, his intentional caring: “You care…enrich…provide…for so you have ordained it.” When God ordains to act on our behalf, it is downhill from there.

So we go into 2010 shouting and singing for joy, expecting God’s favor, draped in his grace and walking as an ambassador of the Hope of all the ends of the earth. What can be better than that?

“You crown the year with your bounty, and your carts overflow with abundance.” Psalm 65:11

Here we sit a few days away from the year end and some of us are still asking, particularly in this economic climate, ‘God, where is the bounty?’  Several questions come to mind: (1) can we expect that God will do an instant fix of a year of sowing and reaping?, and (2) are we looking for the wrong bounty?

As to the latter, however the bank manager sees the year, I will walk away from 2009 with a right standing with the Almighty God, creator of heaven and earth. “When we were overwhelmed by sins, you forgave our transgressions…we are filled with the good things of your house.” (Ps 65:3-4) He does indeed crown the year with his bounty.