We find our way into the simplicity of following him as we ignore all the obligations that others can put on us live in the confidence that there’s only one thing that matters to God—that whatever we do is the fruit of a growing trust in him expressing itself in our love for others. Here are some practical hints in loving others without being gullible or exhausted by the expectations of others.
-Last year I recommended an e-novel that a friend of mine was working on. It was called Within the Walls and actually was the first book of a trilogy. You can read my review of the first book here. This trilogy chronicles the life of Emilya Hoffman Bowes Brown—technological genius, collaborator in the newest wave of “tek” enhancements to hit the market, and creator of virtual vacations. In book one Emilya finds information that leads her on a journey to a community of dissidents who have chosen to live without technology, exposed to nature and the elements—something that was supposed to be impossible.
Book two, Breaking the Silence is the story of Emilya engagement with those people living outside the technological demands of the new world and talk about things like “faith” and “soul.” That disturbs her since her training suggests that humans are just biology and electricity. Complications pile up for Emilya as she tries to deal with aspects of love and friendship that defy her carefully constructed idea of what it means to be alive. Her life-long dependence on technology is shaken and with it the hope that we can achieve perfection and happiness in the safe, sterile environment technology provides. But how much is she willing to risk, and will the protectors of the technological world find her and expose her new-found friends.
I love the tale Dr. Bennett spins as Emilya continues her journey caught between the rigid world of technology and the calling of the transcendent. This is an engaging, thought-provoking, and deeply satisfying story of one woman’s struggle to define her life. I enjoy how Dr. Bennett, a professor of communications, exposes the constant battle between the relational life we all hunger for and the desire to find safety in fitting into social norms that undermine that very hunger. The application here goes far beyond technology and relationship, to the deeper issues of religion and faith. And what’s more she throws in a bit of Jacques Ellul’s ideas and writing as part of Emilya’s unfolding story.
I hope you enjoy these books as much as I did. I look forward to how she wraps this all up in the yet-to-be-written third story in the trilogy.
Both books are available now by e-book or by printed copy, though the printed copies are in such small quantities that they are a bit pricey.
Order it from Wildflower Press
A lot has been happening in Kenya over the past few months and I want to take a moment here to give you an update. I know how easily we can be fatigued with needs from overseas, but I have appreciated the number of you who have continued to carry this on your heart and were able to help us alleviate their suffering. On my most recent trip I was asked multiple times about our friends in Kenya and how they are getting along. I am so blessed to know that others have them on their hearts and minds as well. And please, there is no guilt being offered here for people who haven’t helped financially. I know that not everyone has the margin in their lives to carry this, nor extra resource at this point to help them out. I do trust God to provide however he desires and am always overjoyed when he does. Just the other day we received a sizeable donation to help us catch up with the ongoing need there and it wasn’t even in response to any recent information. I love it when that happens because it doesn’t come from people who are motivated by anything other than what God has put on their hearts.
As to the orphaned children themselves, we’ve been given an amazing gift to help these young lives overcome the tragic death of their parents to find their way in the world. Yes, we realize God meant children to grow up in families, not institutions and have continued to encourage the Kenyans to think of this as transitional housing as they look for homes that could take in these children. Unfortunately, the area is so impoverished that families can hardly care for their own children, much less others. One family I know there has taken in 19 displaced children from the tribal violence and raising them as if they were their own. It’s just not available to all the children, so we are caring for those we can. Here is a recent picture they sent to thank the Lifestream family for being a conduit of God’s love and provision for them.
A few months ago we took an offering to help get some clothes for the children. They last about two years, but as with all our clothes, especially those you wear two or three times per week, they wear out quickly even as the children are growing out of them. We had lots of people send money to help buy the clothes, which were made by people locally and recently delivered. Here’s how some of those kids look in their new clothes:
Though the service station we helped them build as a way for them to help provide for the Living Loved Centre, it hasn’t been able to generate much income because the government closed the road for repairs shortly after completion. It has not been re-opened yet due to torrential rains that have slowed construction. They are now hoping to re-open in early January. So the service station has only been able to help with local needs and has not made anywhere close to the income projected. That has meant we have continued to carry the bulk of the financial load for the staff, provisions, and education of the children. The good news is that when the road reopens it will be a major thoroughfare that will bring in lots of traffic. They are hopeful when that time comes not only will they be able to pay the staff, finance the orphanage, but also to meet other emergency needs that arise.
One of those came this past week. A wife of one of the staff members of the Living Loved Center was in her eighth month of pregnancy when the baby died in her womb. It wasn’t discovered early enough and the infection had spread to her womb and her liver. By the time she got to the hospital she was in critical condition and despite their heroic attempts she passed away a few days later. The hospital bill for the baby and the mother totaled over $1500.00 US. In Kenya, they do not release the body until the hospital bill is paid in full. I guess that is their form of health care, because family and friends will chip in what they have to help this man het his wife’s and his baby’s body out of the morgue. They collected what they could in Kenya, and though I was amazed at what some of them were willing to give, it was not enough. We sent the remaining amount needed as soon as we heard.
It isn’t easy watching people you love suffer under such extraordinary conditions in a country so far away. But keeping them in my heart and before you has been a blessing to me. It widens my perspective about our own needs and struggles and sets them in a wider context that is helpful to gain perspective. Thanks again for those who also hold these children in their hearts and for those who give what they can to help these young lives.
As always, every dollar you send goes to the students themselves, we do not (nor do they) take out any administrative or money transfer fees. If you would like to be part of this to support these brothers and sisters and see the gospel grow in this part of Africa, please see our Sharing With the World page at Lifestream. You can either donate with a credit card there, or you can mail a check to Lifestream Ministries • 1560 Newbury Rd Ste 1 • Newbury Park, CA 91320. Or if you prefer, we can take your donation over the phone at (805) 498-7774.
Faith is not a tool we’re supposed to produce to manipulate God to do what we want. God wins us into faith by showing us who he is and how he is working in our lives. The more we grow to trust him the less we’ll react to trouble by trying to save ourselves and then we’ll be able to embrace how God is working in our circumstances.
I know this blog has been relatively quiet this fall. That’s because I’m spending the bulk of my time working on my next book, Finding Church: What If There Really Is Something More? This book is bringing together so many threads that have been dear to my heart over the past 40 years. It’s the stuff I wish someone had told me when I was twenty, before I ran off trying to create manmade versions of a reality that can only exist in him. Right now, it’s got nineteen chapters, and I’ve jsut completed chapter six. It’s called “First Place In Everything,” and I’m going to include some excerpts below because I just can’t wait until it’s all done. I’m now working on seven and hope to make a major dent in it before I head out to Ft. Worth, Texas for the weekend. That will probably be my last out-of-state trip this year, though it looks like I may be headed for a few days in San Diego in November.
I love the time I’m getting to write this fall, but interestingly enough I find myself missing the conversations that
So, here is a couple of excerpts from Chapter 6:
Now the mystery is revealed. He is fashioning a new society under Jesus himself, not only in his work on the cross that sets us free but also by engaging our lives every day so that we can learn to live the way God always meant us to live. Only he can show us the way to live without the debilitating effects of shame, and without the need to put our desires above those of others. By living freely in him we discover who God really made us to be and can live in a way that reflects his character to others around us. As he is, so we get to be in the world.
…So when Paul declares that as the firstborn of the new creation, Jesus would get first place in all things, he meant that as the defining reality of the church. The church does not exist where people fight for power or where we focus on our programs, doctrines, and activities and reduce Jesus to a figurehead. The church takes expression in the world as people who are learning to relate to and follow him, and share that journey by the laying down of their lives for a greater kingdom, instead of seeking their own gain.
Where Jesus is the focus, where his word is the motivation, where his voice is obeyed, the church takes shape. If it’s God’s stated goal to bring all things together under one head, why haven’t our Christian institutions been a part of that process? Perhaps Jesus said it best, “There shall be one flock and one shepherd.” (John 10:16). The reason we don’t have one flock today is because we have hundreds of thousands of would-be shepherds leading people to follow their mission, vision, or program. Unless Jesus is supreme in all things, we will divide the body based on human preferences and desires.
That’s why the institutional answers here are not easy. Once we institutionalize God’s work, a host of factors come into play that make it difficult to let Jesus have first place. There is no system humanity can design that can’t immediately be taken advantage of by those who seek to lead it, and those who seek to benefit from it either from its income or its program. Letting Jesus have first place in everything can only begin in one place—the human heart.
It’s the space where God’s purpose unfolds in the hearts of willing children who are discovering what it means to live in him. We give him first place by actually following the Lamb wherever he goes. And “the church” follows him not by following leaders who figure out what he wants and tells the rest of us what to do, but where each person is learning to follow him as the expression of the new creation. That begins inside a relationship where people are learning to live in his love, be shaped by it, and then live in that world loving others as well.
Letting him have first place isn’t a decision you can make once for the rest of your life. It is a continuous challenge in a hundred decisions made day after day as you learn how differently his desires are from your own. The new creation is not some sort of spiritual Disneyland where your every dream comes true. It’s where Jesus’ every word and desire comes true. You grow into the freedom of wanting his will most of all and learning to live inside it with him in joy and thankfulness.
You do not learn to live this life in Jesus by wrapping your head around a different set of principles. You actually grow to understand this life as you respond to the Spirit guiding you into his truth. Over time the draw of the Spirit will become more powerful than the pull of the world or our religious training. Then, instead of seeking certainty, we will be at rest with him in our uncertainties.
Listen to this…. I mean really listen. There is so much wisdom in these few words:
“The rush and pressure of modern life are a form, perhaps the most common form, of contemporary violence. To allow oneself to be carried away by a multitude of conflicting concerns, to surrender to too many demands, to commit oneself to too many projects, to want to help everyone in everything is to succumb to violence.” Thomas Merton
I think that means we have to learn how to say, “No, I’m sorry but that’s not for me,” as often as we need to, even to things we might enjoy and to people we love.
I see that same thing reflected in these words Jesus spoke to the disciples: “Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace.” (Matthew 11, The Message)
Religious performance will exahust you as it leaves you frustrated. Learning to live in the Father’s affection will set you at ease and lead to fruitfulness and an inner fulfillment that no busyness can produce.
Few of us really live in the moment, where God is most easily seen. At times we live in the past by our regrets or by trying to recapture some past experience with him. Sometimes we live absorbed in the future with anxieties about what might happen, or trying to fulfill the plans and hopes we have. God is best seen in the present, where he is making himself known in the very things that impact you today.
Sara and I are having another incredible time on this trip to the UK. We spent a couple of days out on the westend of London with some new friends and some we’ve met before. Then we drove up to Scotland, stopping in two different places in northern England to gather with people who wanted to spend some time with us. Now we are spending a few days in Scotland—our first time. We are in St. Andrews and enjoying a wonderful break just with each other, though tonight we’re off to meet some more folks on this journey and see what Father might have for us together. It should be fun.
I am always so inspired by the journey people take to be true to the Spirit within them when it moves them beyond the expectations and even demands of others. For no other reason than that they sense something too deeply inside to ignore, they make choices that even their closest friends and family can’t understand. And even when they are judged wrongly, or encouraged to get back in line, they continue to follow the leading within. Even if it takes them to lonely places for a season they continue to follow. It’s just unbelievably amazing to me.
But one of the hardest realities I deal with are those who want to be on such a journey and can’t find the traihead. They hear about a relationship with Jesus that is alive and vital, want it for themselves, but go year after year feeling ignored, isolated, and abandoned. Yes I’d love to give them three things to do that are guaranteed to work every time, but I know of no such things. I know finding our way into a meaningful relationship with Jesus is a work he does as we learn to relax in him. But the latter part isn’t easy for us. Our expectations and demands get in the way and the more we focus on what we don’t have and try to blame ourselves, the easier it is to miss the gifts he has given. It’s like trying to go to sleep in the middle of the night when sleep won’t come. The more we try to find sleep the more it elludes us. The more we panic about that as time passes, the more difficult it becomes to relax.
It is hard to tell people to be patient because I’m sure it sounds like a cop-out. But relationship with him is not something we control, nor is it something we have to earn. But there’s something that has to happen in us as God untangles what sin and religion have twisted in us that opens the door to the part of our hearts that recognizes him and responds to him. Unfortunately that can take a long time for some. I honestly don’t know why, but I know people get discouraged and feel as if God is either not real or doesn’t care about them. But that isn’t true. He’s no less present with them even if they can’t see it yet. Many think they are so damaged they will never see and the harder they try the more it seems to ellude them.
How I wish everyone could just embrace that reality with a few quick steps, but it isn’t so. I think God is content just to get there with us in this life, whether it takes a year or two, a decade or two, or even a lifetime. He just wants to win the day and show us he is bigger than all that this life could throw at us to separate us from him. That’s why this email touched me so deeply. I’ve corresponded with this sister before, as she alludes to, in the throes of pain and the feeling that somehow she would be passed by. This has gone on for years, but finally the light has dawned in her heart. I am so thrilled for her, and I hope it encourages somd of you who are in the same part of the journey she was in. God will make himself known to you. Don’t miss the last sentence of her letter. It is a profound truth, and one hard-won for her.
Over the last 5 years I’ve emailed you a few times in total angst about a very painful past. The messages I’ve heard from you in you’re replies and through your podcast and books; has been patience. WHAT AN AWESOME DAY IT HAS BEEN! I GET IT NOW!
(So she wrote a letter to God to express her joy and gratitude. Here it is:) I’ve begged and I’ve pleaded and bargained and fought tirelessly and wearily against you! I’ve half heartily and doubtfully prayed for you to reveal yourself to me. I see parts of you this morning and I am in total awe…..there are no words. I’m driving with my sunroof down. One arm on the steering wheel and one outstretched to feel even more of you. Tears stream down my face. I turned off the Christian radio station that I longingly listen to daily in attempts to force feed me into believing in you. Longing to feel and trust the words sung so beautifully. I can’t even describe in words my feelings. My thoughts of your greatness are beyond the most beautiful melodies.
We call you him, he, and you, but wow! “You” are so much more than that! “You”” ARE everything! You are everywhere I look. The rocks, trees, birds, people,dogs. Even the darn, little creepy bugs! Please keep revealing yourself to me! I pray to you, not so that you will know me, but that I may know you. If this is the beginning and only a glimpse of what is to be reconciled in me I am nervous and as excited as I’ve ever been. You well know my anxious spirit but I remain calm in you right now. My father….I won’t even say Heavenly. Father because you are here with me… Oh my ABBA! I got a glimpse of you today and I hear the birds singing the notes you have woven together just for them, just for this moment.
In all the business of trying to find you…. I couldn’t see you were already there.
Jesus invites us into a kingdom that thrives in love. Learning to live in the reality of his love for us and sharing that love with others, leads us away from the tyranny of always having to have our own way. Then instead of seeking what we want, we can lay down our lives for others and see more clearly how he makes himself known in the world