Previously I displayed photos of Christmas decorations in a nearby park. I've seen "JOY" on street decorations and Christmas cards. I don’t recall ever seeing the extravagance of “JOYFUL” in letters so tall.

Joy is an essential part of Christmas. There are nine instances of “joy” or “rejoice” in the Christmas story (Matthew chapters 1-2 and Luke chapters 1-2). May I bring to your attention the two most extraordinary kinds of Christmas joy?

THE SHEPHERDS AND MEGAJOY

First, y’see, there were these shepherds. These were superior shepherds, outstanding in their fields. Even so, an angel knocks their socks off with a cosmic commission:

“Do not be afraid!
For behold, I bring you good tidings of
great joy
which will be
to all people!
For there is born to you this day in the city of David
a Savior, who is Christ the Lord!”
Luke 2:10-11 NKJV

The Greek language brings us the earliest report of this angel’s announcement. The highlighted words are pronounced KARAN MEGAHLAYN. “Karan” means “joy”. “Megahlayn” is translated: big , large, great, strong, loud. Mega is a root for such words as megawatt, megabyte, and megalosaur. 

If this joy was offered in the grocery produce section, its label would read: 

        JOY  ▶LARGE◀

Another way to put it: “I bring you good news of MEGAJOY which will be for all people!”

Today's headline news tends to be of limited interest: Child rescued from raccoons. Sales of partridges up 1000%. Lead poisoning afflicts bullet factory workers.

The Bethlehem angel publishes something entirely different: GOOD NEWS of MEGAJOY for ALL PEOPLE.

So the shepherds proceed to Bethlehem, “in haste”. They see, they hear, they tell. As the crazy night comes to a close, as the not-really-silent night brightens with dawn, we find the now noisy shepherds:  “The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told to them.”

Here's a way to recognize MEGAJOY:  MEGAJOY overflows.

THE MAGI AND MEGAJOY

Consider also the magi, sometimes called the wise men.  There may have been just two, maybe twenty.

Imagine crossing deserts to find a specific child somewhere in Judea, an area 70 miles long and 20 miles wide. Imagine pausing at King Herod's perilous palace for directions. Imagine knowing you are already late to the party. “Late” is an understatement. King Herod murdered babies as old as two years. 

Imagine feeling that space and time and human selfishness are all against you.

Then finally you reach the end of your starry trek: BETHLEHEM! You cry in relief. Your camels cry in relief. Joy pushes aside all your regrets and fears. This is how you feel:

Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea...,
wise men from the East came to Jerusalem, saying,
“Where is He who has been born King of the Jews?
For we have seen His star in the East
and have come to worship Him.”

 ...When they heard the king, they departed;
and behold, the star which they had seen in the East
went before them,
till it came and stood over where the young Child was.
When they saw the star,
they rejoiced with
exceedingly great joy!
Matthew 2:1-12 NKJV

By contrast with the impulsive shepherds, I envision the wise men as stoic philosopher-adventurers (like me) who had seen the human condition.  I'm thinking of old grumps, of three Scrooges. They decided to act upon their insight. I find it hard to believe that the wise men naively waltzed into infamous Herod's court. They must have been exhausted and desperate.

They persistently and faithfully pursued hope that this newborn king was worthy of worship—that this new king announced by a star would make. things. right! Night's darkness revealed Bethlehem's star.  Weariness is the background that precedes what the wise men experienced. And what they experienced was:

“exceedingly great joy”

KARAN MEGALAYN SPHODRA
JOY            GREAT       EXCEEDINGLY

In grocery-store terms, the wise men found 

JOY  ▶Extra-Large Supreme◀

Wise and weary people still seek the Savior.
When they find Him, they still experience

exceedingly great joy:

MegaJoy!

THE JOY OF WHAT?

People find joy in many things. Some write books about it. The Joy of Knitting identifies its subject, “both as a way to produce unique, stylish, handcrafted garments, and as a practice of meditative solace in a stressful world.”

What “Joy of” book might you write? 

I value simple joys. Joy tends to surprise, arising when I open my eyes to the ordinary.  

But admittedly once in a while I long for epiphany, a brush of the numinous, a confrontation with great joy; to “rest beside the weary road and hear the angels sing.” 

Ought great joy be hard to find, given that probably we know more about Jesus than did the shepherds and wise men? But have we gone and seen and told? Have we brought our gifts to the King of kings?

May you be JOYFUL. May God grant you the exceedingly-great-extra-large supreme MEGAJOY of knowing Jesus, born in Bethlehem, born of Mary, born as God promised: 

Mild he lays his glory by,
born that we no more may die,
born to raise us from the earth,
born to give us second birth.

Hark! the herald angels sing,
“Glory to the newborn King” 

Shortly before Thanksgiving I walked into a nearby public park and found elves in traditional green deploying the following message of Christmas cheer:      JOYF!

Country music lyrics occurred to me:

The elves sprinted off to consult colleagues. I trailed them. Not far away was this station:

Of course these festive figures are present to help busy families insert themselves into a Merry Christmas photo. Text it to  grandma! Point out the “JOYF”, the palm trees, and citrus trees. These clearly say, “we're holly-jolly in southern California, which is more like Bethlehem than is Falls Church, Virginia."  

Across the green, tinsilated reindeer cheerfully warned children and adults:

You better watch out, you better not cry, you better not pout—or we'll take your face!

Returning the next day, I found “JOYF” improved but still lacking. There had been a windy rainstorm in the night. The candy-cane-striped encouragement was now a little laid-back:

You may not know this:  “Joy-Fu” is a martial art like Kung-Fu.

Practitioners of Joy-Fu inflict unexpected hugs.

Karen, Betty, and Dwaine are Joy-Fu masters. Joy-Fu scriptures include these:

“Do not be grieved, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.”
– Nehemiah chapter 8

“So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love,
any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy,
complete my joy by being of the same mind,
having the same love,
being in full accord
and of one mind.”
– Philippians chapter 2

In his autobiography, Surprised by Joy, C.S. Lewis talks more about English boarding schools than about the emotion of “joy”. Still, he makes a useful observation:

Some have said that Happiness depends on what happens, but Joy does not depend on circumstances. Often Joy can be my choice. “Consider it a great joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you experience various trials, because you know that the testing of your faith produces endurance.” But that doesn't give me license to inflict my Joy on everyone, for example on mourners or on the clinically depressed. Rather, “Rejoice with those who rejoice; weep with those who weep.”

What's your history with joy? Surely you want more. I find it in traditional seasons, in unexpected situations, in boisterous gatherings, in quiet reflection, in promises of future goodness. “Rejoice in the Lord always, again I say, rejoice!”  New Testament instances and the Psalms have much to say about joy.

With the fallen “L” propped up, an honor guard of palms leads to the JOYFUL:

You shall go out with joy, and be led forth with peace;
The mountains and hills will break forth before you;
There’ll be shouts of joy, and all the trees of the field
Will clap, will clap their hands!
(From Isaiah 55)

As Advent progresses into Christmas I am posting further reports from this joyful public place.

Here is a printable page from the New Testament that can be used as a Thanksgiving responsive reading placemat, like last year's Psalm 107.

Outside my SoCal window are palm trees, fig trees, avocado trees, orange trees, lemon trees, a dozen kinds of cacti, and parrots.  Only one of these is in the attached Thanksgiving quote of Revelation chapter 7. 

For we are God's fellow workers. You are God's field, God's building.
~1 Corinthians 3

"Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you,
and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.
For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”
~Matthew 11

For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken of another day later on.
So then, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God, for whoever has entered
God's rest has also rested from his works as God did from his.
​~Hebrews 4

I enjoy Labor Day. We fire up the grill and watch something good, maybe play some games, a day to power down, enjoy family and the good things in life. I'm taken with two thoughts as we take (for the most part) a well deserved day off.

1. Sabbath is a good thing and we should practice it with more discipline than we do.

The greatest culture ever has it right on this one. It is a good thing to pause work and focus on the most important things in life on the regular. To step out of rhythm and into rest.

Yes, things happen, emergencies and necessary motion will sometimes compell us into action - and the Sabbath was made for us, not us for it, as Jesus wisely states.

At the same time, our culture places efficiency, growth, and production way above our families and our own mental health. IN the original this wasn't one of the 10 Suggestions, but it was a divine note of Command.

So take it seriously. Find some time to rest, invest in your friends and family. Invest in your connection with God and the things that sacredly surround us. Take some time to cherish... and remember.

Rest.

2. The second thing that occurs to me is that maybe (just maybe) I've been reading the passage about God's easy yoke incompletely.

Yokes came in different forms, in single, double and multiple yokes connecting horses and teams of oxen in ancient forms of agriculture.

One of the more common was the bracket fixing two oxen together allowing them to share the burden of the plow. If one was more tired, or more weak, the other could pick up the slack.

Here's the idea.

If we're working WITH God, the effort we put forward finds really interesting and effective help. He doesn't need us or our humanpower, but still chooses to make us a part of the mystery of His working. Real meaningful participation in the good works in the earth.

At the same time, He doesn't make His will or His moving dependent on our effort. Instead, He fills the sails of our ship with His presence, and the yoke of our labor with His power.

Part of the curse in the garden was that for us, work becomes grindy toil. Bleah.

But the flip side of that is that the Cross undoes the curse, making work meaningful, fruitful, and with God infused goodness, work becomes a source of incredible effect and deep seated contentment.

So work hard, work well, work with God and as much as you can, stop pulling against Him and His help.

And for a day this month, don't pull at all, just take moment to breathe and to...

​Rest.

We are working on content for a sister ministry that will shape the future of the Surge!

But the beginning point is always prayer - check out this article - but don't just read it... let the idea of prayer sink in deeply enough, to actually take a few moments to pray. 

Check it out here...


https://www.genmission.com/blog/extraordinary-prayer-e-reiss

Recently I planned a long road trip. But before I say more about that, I'll look at goals and signals that guided a long-ago traveler I respect. He influenced my current journeys. You can easily decode my highlighting system in the following quotes from Jesus and from the book of Acts. Buckle your seat belts, and let's go!

The Acts of the Apostles record Jesus' students going and making disciples as Jesus commanded. Sort of. They were inclined to stay near Jerusalem, but eventually persecution pushed them beyond Jerusalem's walls—and then only a little further, into Judea.  When the Spirit of God compelled a reluctant Peter to get up and go to "all nations", these non-Jews were conveniently in Judea. 

It took another push from the Holy Spirit to compel the church to send Saul beyond Judea, outward to "all nations".

Saul  was later given the handle, "Paul". He was a real rambler. True, Paul's journeys hit stop lights and green lights and detours, not to mention the usual shipwrecks and stonings. At each junction, well-meaning backseat drivers issued cautions: stay here, go there. Advice is nice, but Paul took guidance from his GPS: God's Powerful Spirit. The Acts of the Apostles is the full title of this history. However, inspection shows these acts were first the Acts of the Holy Spirit. When the apostles picked their next destination on this tour, the Holy Spirit often said, "No, not there."

Later in Acts 16, we find Paul and Silas stopped in Philippi. Jail does put the brakes on a trip. Then an earthquake frees them. Isn't a chain-busting earthquake a sign to go? But what do they do? They stay. They stay parked in the dark. They no go! Staying in jail results in the jailer and his family becoming disciples of Jesus. In the morning light, Paul and Silas get an honorable release.

In Acts 17, 18, and 19, Paul and his friends productively cruise all over. In Acts 20, Paul hints that the Spirit is leading him back to Jerusalem. We find that he has a vow to fulfill. Jerusalem will probably result in chains and afflictions. But Paul sees the Jerusalem waypoint with its likely chains and afflictions as on track with God's plan. 

Agabus and the Tyres (a good name for a rock band) agree with Paul: that the Holy Spirit says going to Jerusalem will result in chains and captivity and maybe death. The conflict comes in interpreting how to respond to that. Instead of looking at those likely results, Paul looks back in time, and looks forward beyond chains: to Jesus' previous calling and to God's commission, "to finish my course and the ministry which I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify solemnly of the gospel of God’s grace.”

Look at Paul's subsequent letters. They each cite—perhaps several times and at length—God's historic assignment to Paul. For example, Paul writes:

Chains that bind you need not be made of iron. Let's return to Acts 20:22-23. Paul says:

“And now, behold, bound by the Spirit, I am on my way to Jerusalem, not knowing what will happen to me there, except that the Holy Spirit solemnly testifies to me in every city, saying that chains and afflictions await me. But I do not consider my life of any account as dear to myself, so that I may finish my course and the ministry which I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify solemnly of the gospel of God’s grace.”

Paul agrees, that in his future he will be bound by chains. But now he is bound by the Holy Spirit and by God's assignment to him.  Are chains a problem, a stop sign? In Peter's Jerusalem prison, in that Philippian jail, God has already proven to break chains. Chains can be an obstacle or an opportunity.

What binds you? What binds me?

There are of course relentless responsibilities of life: gravity, brushing your teeth, paying taxes, obeying traffic rules. You and I didn't choose these, but physics, biology, government, and society impose them on us. 

Some bindings you and I have accepted willingly: marriage, family, religion, contracts, non-disclosure agreements, subscriptions, pet ownership, .... Well, maybe you had the illusion of choice--or the illusion that God predestines. See Martin Luther, The Bondage of the Will. 

However the relationship arose, imposed or voluntary, you probably sense responsibility.  You might be happy with your commitment, you might regret it.  But the question remains: who pulls your strings?

You can guess my age by the above YouTube selections, if not by the Bible version. A problem I've recognized among people my age is fierce independence: Those people say: I've had health problems, but those were fixed. I won't need help from others!  I've got no strings to hold me down! Nothing's gonna stop us now. That's what they say in Fantasyland. Independence is what we want. However, signs are of more and more chains involving physicians and medicines and dwindling wealth and mobility.

The New Testament contains around a thousand imperatives for those committed to Christ. These include, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and might." And: "Love your neighbor as yourself." There is,"Seek first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness."

Driving directions are found also in commended actions, such as Peter's confession, "You are the Christ, the son of the Living God." and the humility of the man who prayed, "Lord, have mercy on me a sinner." The right way can be in admirable attitudes: "Blessed are the meek..."

That's not all. Virtues are exhibited in parables: The good Samaritan, the Prodigal Son, the man who built his house upon rock.  There are fruits of the Spirit and gifts of the Spirit. And that's just the New Testament.

The New Testament mentions a few imperatives that may be culturally conditioned: “Greet each other with a holy kiss.” That's cause to study and wisely prioritize.  A Jewish writer considered these thousand-plus New Testament commands, and remarked: “I find it intriguing that someone has attempted to formulate a Halakhah for Christians.” Biblical bulk is why in recent postings I've urged distilling out a few portable personal principles: a thoughtfully-chosen, tested Swiss Army Knife of life.

Do I go to Jerusalem or turn elsewhere? Chains given by his enemies did not persuade Paul. Nor did tears and fears of his friends. Paul listened; but what decided the matter was in the domain of personal principle: his commitment to his commission, the leading of the Holy Spirit, and his trust in the One who conquered death and came to set captives free.

I hope you enjoy most commitments you have made! I accept gladly—ok, mostly gladly— commitments I've made. I aim to be a promise keeper and honor those bindings, those vows: My commitment to Christ first of all; my resolution to do kindness and get discernment; non-disclosure agreements, apartment leases, other contracts and promises; and, despite release by my partner, my multi-strand marriage binding. I recently gained the unsought opportunity to renew some of those strands. This has risks and costs emotionally and financially, and to the sands in my hourglass. Yet, happily, I thank God and pray for wisdom and resources. 

I go bound. 

Goodbye, Virginia. Hello, California.  Regarding essentials, I possess no less and no more than ever.  Parts of where I've been have stayed with me and will persist.

I believe this is my 95th entry on the Surge Blog.  Hey, Martin Luther! I hope to add a few more entries. We will see.

The following dramatic goodbye song from 1995 speaks for me. Andrea Bocelli, the blind tenor here, was the first to perform this. There's a sad English translation that makes it sound like two people are separating forever. In the original Italian, clearly, repeatedly, there are two people going away together to a new place. An adequate translation follows below.

Con Te Partirò (I Will Leave With You) 
Francesco Sartori (music) and Lucio Quarantotto (lyrics)

When I'm alone and I dream of the horizon and words fail.
Yes, I know there's no light in a room when the sun is missing.
If you're not there with me, with me, up at the windows. 
Show everyone my heart that you lit.
Hold inside me the light that you met on the street.
I'll leave with you.

Countries I've never seen and lived with you
Now, yes, I'll live them. I'll leave with you
on ships across seas
that, I know: No, no, they no longer exist.
I'll live them with you.

When you're far away I dream on the horizon and words fail.
And I know that you're with me, with me.
You, my moon, you're here with me.
My sun, you're here with me
With me, with me, with me I'll leave with you!

Countries I've never, never seen and lived with you,
Now I'll live them. I'll leave with you.
On ships across seas that, I know: No, no, they no longer exist
With you I'll relive them, I'll leave with you.
On ships across seas that, I know: No, no, they no longer exist.
With you I'll relive them, I'll leave with you.
I'll leave with you, I with you.

​The Declaration of Independence


​I endeavor to re-read the Declaration of Independence every fourth of July. It is one of those seminal documents that is as good as you remember it being. So many things that we take for granted, representation with taxation, trial jury by our peers, the idea that each of us is created equal and endowed with foundational rights… all of these things were not a given in the civilizations of the world to that point.

America pulled from the greatest political thinking of the ages and added a bit of their own, to make something new, and something extraordinary in the new nation.

In Virginia, there is an area called “Colonial Williamsburg” where historical recreation is done in a makeshift township. You can talk to the blacksmith as he works the forge. You can sit in on a hearing for local jurisprudence in the church. You get a sense of how things were in the beginning of our Republic and the issues of the Declaration are much closer at hand. 

One of the presenters collected the letters of James Madison, and with a team of writers, this professional actor put together a speech of Madison’s own words, producing a coherent vision of America, highlighting the core values that bind us together. I have to say, at the end of that, I was ready to put out some lawn signs for the framer of our Constitution and the primary author of the Bill of Rights. His words were glorious, they were clear, they were surprisingly relevant to our current political climate and above all, they were good.

God send us a James Madison, with brilliance and balance, with compassion and a singular vision of political clarity to cut through all the noise!

Jumping back to the Declaration, I encourage you to read it. It will go faster than you think.

And as you do, consider the idea of an America where the heart of our government is service  to its people. That the institutions of the Executive, Legislative, and Judicial were framed and formed to create an environment for human flourishing to remove impediments of injustice and the lack of opportunities that arise when we are something less than free. When we don’t have the ability to choose a path forward and give it a crazy amount of focus and attention. When our systems stop accelerating these ideals, or worse, actively stand in their way, those systems need to be altered or abolished.

So we did. 

America isn’t perfect, and you could even make the argument that we might have jumped the gun on a number of foundational things: the Revolutionary War, our handling of slavery (or refusing to handle the issue of slavery) resulting in a devastating Civil War, the horrible relocation of indigineous tribes. You could go down the list… for all of our greatness and success, and generosity that we have extended to the world, in many ways past and present, America is a mixed bag. We are both the pinnacle of human civilization and capable of incredibly selfish and terrible things.

But the ideological starting point is a good one. Everyone, created equal. There are foundational rights of human dignity and worth, tied to Imago Dei, leading to the inescapable conclusion that life is precious, we are born to a magnificent purpose, and we can’t step into God’s best unless we are free. Free to do what we “ought” to do, free to be who we are created to be.

Take a moment and consider where we are in the tapestry of history. What part do we play in the world today to freely bless this generation? What do we turn away from to become a light in this time? How do we become a society that shines, as individuals, and as a nation, into the earth in a way that illuminates goodness to the end of the age?

Can we re-affirm the self-evidence truths and speak them anew? Can we step into the things that our forefathers saw as God working a new thing in our world? 

Can we declare independence from anything that would hold us and our families back from God’s plan for us?

“The gospel is this: We are more sinful and flawed in ourselves than we ever dared believe, yet at the very same time we are more loved and accepted in Jesus Christ than we ever dared hope.” ~Tim Keller


If the Gospel is an open question for you, you probably have 100 problems, 1000 questions, 5 objections, it might be a long list.  What I’d like to suggest is a radical idea. Clear all of that off the table for a minute and ask 1 question.

Did Jesus really rise from the dead? 

Because if He did, He can answer any question, solve any problem, quiet any objection. And for everyone who hears this, this is VERY good news. The world is filled with reasons not to go, it’s too cold, there’s no rain, the soil is bad. But I want to challenge you. Make the trip, see for yourself. Taste and see that the Lord is good. Think deeply about these stories that have come down to us to help us. Have a piece of fish, and let that blow your mind!

Know that the Resurrection is not just for Jesus, but it’s for us as well. When He opened that door, He opened it for all of us - His power can restore us, right here, right now, today. And on that final day, all the ones who have passed away will rise again and stand in the presence of God, Who is both loving and holy. And we’ll give an account of what we did with the Gifts He has given us.

Here's a recent message from the Surge, exploring this idea, and below is a single section, pulled from that message!

_______________________________

I'm not Aquinas (just in case anyone was wondering), but a simplified form of his question / objection format might be useful here.

Question: Could the Resurrection be based on a Hallucination? We know sometimes people hallucinate things that can seem very real...

Such experiences are not uncommon among people who have suffered a traumatic loss or who are under extreme emotional stress or psychological stress. Were the disciples in extreme stress?

Surely.

Jesus, who they thought was the Son of God, the Messiah, the One Who was going to literally fix the broken world, just got arrested and executed. Very horribly, and very publicly. Of course they were freaked out!

Now can you have a group of people who thought they saw something they didn’t actually see? Sure. David Copperfield makes good money doing this 150 times a year.

Objection:
But there are two reasons I don’t find this compelling.  My first objection would be that the post Resurrections sightings were too spread out. This idea becomes much less believable if you have to say that Mary hallucinated, THEN Peter hallucinated, THEN the guys on the Road to Emmaus hallucinated, followed by 10 disciples in a room, THEN another hallucination by 7 disciples on the beach, THEN another hallucination of 500 people at once - all having similar, sometimes individual, sometimes shared hallucinations that all are consistent and pointing the same direction.

Luke 24:40-43

40 When he had said this, he showed them his hands and feet. 41 And while they still did not believe it because of joy and amazement, he asked them, “Do you have anything here to eat?” 42 They gave him a piece of broiled fish, 43 and he took it and ate it in their presence.

My second objection is that hallucinations don’t eat fish As reality checks go, that’s pretty good. And it was really after the snack that they all relaxed and were able to accept this amazing event.

This may be an idea worth developing... Snack Theology anyone?

When I was a kid, I watched a cow jump up and finally get over, an eight foot fence. I could walk you through it, a highly amusing sequence of events.

But on the face of it, that is a ridiculous story. Cows don't jump well. They certainly don't make Olympic level leaps, and yet... and yet... it happened.

What would I give as evidence?

- There are still multiple people who are alive, who were there that day, who witnessed it
- It was a type of cow (a charolais) that is notorious for being weirdly athletic and panicky at a younger age
- We might look for pieces of the corral, with scratches and hoof marks on the top of one of the sections
- I saw it with my own eyes, and can answer detailed questions about the events of the day

When we talk about the idea of believing something like the Resurrection, we have to agree on what level of evidence is reasonable to justify such an incredible state of belief. While we might say some "sciency" things about the Passion, that isn't going to be our best approach. Like my flying cow story, I can't recreate the experiment or have it peer reviewed in a repetitive, replicated, lab controlled, duly recorded, falsifiable experiment. We have to turn to other means of investigation and deciding up or down.

As we go, it turns out that rules of evidence related to facts / criminal justice are a great path to consider. By that standard, we could verify the cow story in a way that would satisfy a jury and a court of law. And it may not surprise you to note, that a number of very bright scholars through history have become believers in this kind of investigation into the Resurrection. 

Over four blog posts, I'll try to briefly outline the strongest arguments against the Resurrection, and (also briefly) I will explain why there is a coherent and often compelling alternative.

First up is the Misidentification Theory: This one says that the people who claimed to have seen Jesus after his death could have mistaken someone else for him. This explanation is supported by the fact that the appearances of Jesus occurred in the early morning or at night, when visibility was poor. According to this theory, the individuals who encountered the person they believed to be Jesus were not intentionally deceiving others, but rather were mistaken in their identification. The events surrounding Jesus' death and burial were chaotic and traumatic, which may have led to confusion and mistaken identity.

The problem here is that there were numerous encounters, with hundreds of people and it becomes implausibly that they all made the same mistake. But let’s take a look at the encounter’s Jesus has after Easter:

Interactions Jesus had with people after the resurrection:

Mary Magdalene: John 20:11-18
Other women: Matthew 28:9-10

Interesting here is that in Roman society at this time in history, women did not have equal legal status under Roman law. So they couldn’t vote, or hold, public office, or testify in court. In every account, Jesus appears first to the women. Many historians are fascinated by this because it’s unusual in historical terms. The only reason to add this to the account was because it’s what actually happened.

Peter: Luke 24:34, 1 Corinthians 15:5
Two disciples on the road to Emmaus: Luke 24:13-32

Ten apostles (excluding Thomas): Luke 24:36-43, John 20:19-23
Eleven apostles (including Thomas): John 20:24-29

Seven apostles by the Sea of Galilee: John 21:1-25
Eleven apostles on a mountain in Galilee: Matthew 28:16-20

James (Jesus' brother): 1 Corinthians 15:7

Five hundred people at once: 1 Corinthians 15:6

Paul: Acts 9:1-9, 1 Corinthians 15:8-9, Galatians 1:11-17

It is hard to believe that people who lived with Jesus for years, his closest friends and family members, would buy into a doppelganger sighting that they agreed with unwavering force was the risen Christ. It was a single sighting in the fog, at night, that might have been... instead there is account, after account, after account. 

We see people talking with Him, walking with Him, eating with Him, touching Him, sometimes in extended periods of time with clear interaction and recognition. We see a lot of different occasions of very different people meeting Jesus, in a variety of context - and all of them coming to the same conclusion.

He is Christ, and He is risen.

For the complete message outlining this idea, check out:

Resurrection One

Sometime in my youth a preacher suggested personalizing Biblical promises and commands.  Thus:

“God so loved Greg that he gave his only begotten son…” and,
“Greg shalt have no other Gods before me….”
 
When I was older—like, ten minutes later—it occurred to me that personalizing the Bible could be abused.  I found 1 Samuel 15. I could personalize it! “Now, Greg, go and smite Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and spare them not; but slay both man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and ass.”

I did not know any Amalekites, but I had suspicions about a local bully.
 
I was reminded of Bible personalization when I was looking for birthday cards and found this one:

I used to have no trouble treating Philippians 1:6 as yet another promise to me, especially if I kept the whole sentence:

“He who began a good work in Greg will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.”
 
Hold up your hand if you feel this verse encourages you individually to trust that God is completing you, as a master carpenter would complete a construction project.
 
Stretch your hand even higher if this verse assures you that God’s work in you personally won’t stop until heaven.

OK, that’s fine. Individual growth does happen, thanks to God's work and Spirit evidenced in virtues such as I cited in recent posts. You know, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, smiting. But here’s my thesis:
 
Individual growth is not what this verse promises, at least not directly.
 
This verse invites me not to a solitary hike, not to pilgrim’s progress. It calls me to get on the bus.

Philippians 1:6 is about the church. It assures church perseverance!  The good work God has done among us, God will complete. Growth in number of members is not excluded, but saying Philippians 1:6 is about headcount overlooks qualitative good ways in which God works in a group, invisible and highly visible community virtues such as love, joy, peace, patience, generosity, wise counsel, and more. Can a community be peaceful and encouraging? Yes it can.
 
Of course, growth as a community comes from God working on individuals. Church growth tends both to benefit from individual spiritual growth and lead to individual personal growth. Yes indeedy. But just as it would have been inappropriate for me to go off on my own and smack Amalekites, Philippians 1:6 is not so much a personal promise as a corporate encouragement: Church, our God will complete his work among you. That God will bring peace and generosity to a community is exponentially more astonishing than the claim that God will bring peace and generosity to me. It must be something in the water, right? If in Moses' time one first-born died, that's the breaks.  If all the first-borns die... that's a scary miracle.  Similarly, sometimes a person matures. That's pleasantly remarkable. If a community matures... now that's a scary miracle. It was by such a corporate miracle that the early church grew.

There are two ways I aim to prove that, “He who began a good work in you,” refers to the church: by context and by grammar.

Read the opening of Philippians. Imagine that a messenger such as Timothy or Epaphroditus or a local leader such as Liddie or Jay Lorr is presenting this letter. Does the epistle to the Philippians ever address some individual? Or is this a letter to the group?

Philippians chapter 1 verses 1-7

Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus,

To all the saints in Christ Jesus who are at Philippi, with the overseers and deacons:
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
I thank my God in all my remembrance of you,
always in every prayer of mine for you all making my prayer with joy,
because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now.
And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in  you  will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ. It is right for me to feel this way about you all, because I hold you in my heart, for you are all partakers with me of grace…

You can easily scan through the four chapters of Philippians. Paul speaks collectively to "brothers", "brothers and sisters". "saints", "every saint". "children of God" and so on.

That was context. Now grammar.

A long time ago, a teacher asked me to name three pronouns.  I said, "What? Who? Me?"

As painful as English grammar can be, pretty much all other languages each have more complex grammars. The Greek language has two distinct word families that translate to the one English pronoun "you".

1. For one singular sensation, individual “you”, Greek has a whole word family pronounced sue.  This is the pronoun recorded in Matthew 16:18 when Jesus says, "You are Peter," Sue ei Petros.  Philippians has exactly one verse containing a singular sue:
 
   Philippians 4:3
       Yes, I ask you also, true companion,
       help these women,…

2. The other 36 occurrences of English "you" in Philippians come from the Greek word family pronounced who-mays. Grammatically, this references a collective such as an army or political party. John the Baptist uses this plural who-mays "you" twice when he trash-talks the Pharisees and Sadducees: "YOU bunch of snakes! Who warned YOU to run from the coming judgment?" 

Like apparently all languages except English, the Spanish language distinguishes between singular and plural "you". Below is what Wadmar tells me is the most-used Español Bible translation, highlighting the “you” words. 

• The quotes from Philippians 1 are plural "you". 
• The quote from Philippians 4:3 is the solitary singular "you" in Philippians.

Filipenses 1:6-7 Reina-Valera 1960 (plural “you” vosotros)
estando persuadido de esto, que el que comenzó en vosotros la buena obra, la perfeccionará hasta el día de Jesucristo; 
como me es justo sentir esto de todos vosotros, por cuanto os tengo en el corazón; y en mis prisiones, y en la defensa y confirmación del evangelio, todos vosotros sois participantes conmigo de la gracia.
 
Filipenses 4:3 Reina-Valera 1960 (singular “you” ti)
Asimismo te ruego también a ti, compañero fiel, que ayudes a estas…
 
For up-to-date Español contemporáneo everywhere outside Spain:
 
Filipenses 1:6-7 Reina Valera Contemporánea 2011  (plural “you” ustedes)
Estoy persuadido de que el que comenzó en ustedes la buena obra, la perfeccionará hasta el día de Jesucristo.
Es justo que yo sienta esto por todos ustedes, porque los llevo en el corazón. Tanto en mis prisiones como en la defensa y confirmación del evangelio, todos ustedes participan conmigo de la gracia.
 
Filipenses 4:3 Reina Valera Contemporánea 2011  (singular “you” ti)
También a ti, mi compañero fiel, te ruego que ayudes a éstas …

I suspect many English translations ignore the difference between singular "you" and plural "you" because:

(a) Tradition!
(b) Let context reign. Same-sentence singular context such as “you are Peter” and plural “you bunch of snakes” should be obvious. Larger scope such as the greetings in Philippians, Ephesians, etc., simply requires alertness from readers. Never mind birthday cards, one-verse devotions, and its-all-about-me.
(c) When your translation credo is word-for-word, then Greek "en" otherwise maps cleanly to English "in". That means we must add a word, changing "you" to "you all", or "all of you".
(d) We come to Christ as individuals. Whatever benefits the church tends to occur by individual growth or result in individual growth. Still, if we take Philippians 1:6 as about a work of God on our team and in our team, that makes a difference.

The majority of conversion episodes recorded in the book of Acts involve presentation to a group, simultaneous individual responses within that group, and thus instant congregation with a memorable shared history. In the cases of Cornelius and the Philippian jailor there was a distinct individual conversion immediately followed by group conversion. Generally, it's hard in Acts to separate the new Christian individual from the new Christian congregation.

In any case, few English Bible translations clearly distinguish source plural “you” from singular “you”.

• The 1901 ASV and 1994 KJ21 follow the 1611 KJV in using "ye" for singular (Phil 4:3) and "you" for plural (Phil 1:6, etc.). However, many KJV users perceive thee/thy/thine as a respectful singular pronoun ("After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name."). Similarly, you/your is perceived as a familiar singular pronoun, maybe because "except a man be born again" is followed by, "ye must be born again".
  
• The 1982 NKJV uses "you" for both singular and plural.
  
• The CSB and NET relegate plural “among you” to a footnote.* 
• The PNT uses inline brackets: “in [among] you....” 
• The NRSVA and VOICE use “among you”.

    * but who reads footnotes?

The prize for most nearly consistent word-by-word attention to Greek and Hebrew second person plural and some other nuances goes to https://yallversion.com. Singular "you" Sue remains "you" and plural "you" who-mays becomes “y'all”! I've found some omissions but not nearly as many as other English language translations.

Philippians chapter 1, Y'all Version:
 
¹ Paul and Timothy, servants of Jesus Christ, to all the saints in Christ Jesus who are at Philippi, with the overseers and deacons: ² Grace and peace to y’all from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
 
³ I thank my God every time I remember y’all. ⁴ In every prayer for all y’all, I always pray with joy,  ⁵ because of y’all’s partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, ⁶ being confident of this very thing, that ʜᴇ who began a good work in y’all will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ. ⁷ It is right for me to think this way about all y’all, because I have y’all in my heart, since both in my chains and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel, all y’all are partakers of grace with me. ⁸ For God is my witness, how I long for y’all in the affection of Christ Jesus.

Philippians chapter 4, Y'all Version:
¹ Therefore, my beloved siblings whom I long for, my joy and crown, y’all stand firm in the Lord in this way, my beloved.
² I urge Euodia, and I urge Syntyche, to think the same way in the Lord.
³ Yes, true partner, I ask you to help these women who have struggled together with me in the gospel, along with Clement and the rest of my fellow workers, whose names are in the book of life.
⁴ Y’all rejoice in the Lord always! Again I will say, “Rejoice y’all!”

Footnote: Would you be surprised the Y'All Version comes from a Dallas Theological Seminary guy?

Reading a singular "you" when there's really a Greek plural "you" makes a big difference in Luke 17:21. The KJV and at least two dozen other versions have Jesus say,

   "For behold, the Kingdom of God is within you."

A couple more say, "the Kingdom of God is inside you."

However, the "you" in the Greek source is genitive plural: ὑμῶν, pronounced who-moan. Thus, I'm with two dozen or more English translations that render this verse,

   "The kingdom of God is among you", or "the kingdom of God is in your midst."

Hey, the context of Luke 17:21 has Jesus addressing multiple Pharisees. I don't think Jesus is claiming that the kingdom of God is within a "white-washed tomb."

The plural pronoun makes me side with the Y'All version. I find "Empire" a little strange, but can live with it.

 “ When you are a Bear of Very Little Brain, and you Think of Things, you find  sometimes that a Thing which seemed very Thingish inside you is quite different when it gets out into the open and has other people looking at it.”

 A.J. Milne, The House at Pooh Corner (1928) ch 6.

Puritan preacher Jonathan Edwards was 19 in late 1722 when he began journaling for a year his personal to-do list. Entries include:

You can read all seventy of Edwards’ resolutions here. A modern language version is here.

I admire Edwards’ desire for excellence but question the mechanism. As a bear of very little brain, I’d probably miss the moment to act while pondering which of my seventy resolutions applied.

Jesus observed of the teachers of the law and the Pharisees, “they make strict rules and try to force people to obey them, but they are unwilling to help those who struggle under the weight of their rules.”

The Hebrew Bible offered 613 commands. King David highlighted eleven in Psalm 15. Isaiah 33 identifies six. Two virtues, wisdom and respect for the Almighty, drive the Proverbs.  Micah 6 spotlights three life practices: “He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?” Isaiah 56 identifies two life rules: “Preserve justice and do what is right.” Amos 5 compressed the Law into one aspiration given by God: “Seek Me and live!”

Meanwhile, over in Greece, the Stoics and later Plato and Aristotle identified four ethical elements: justice, wisdom, fortitude, and temperance. They considered justice as the virtue that best benefits society. To these Church authorities added faith, hope, and love, for a total of seven “cardinal virtues”.

Elsewhere in a world not-fictional-enough, what is best in life was debated:

Outside Christianity, one finds similar reductions of life principles. The five Confucian Ideals are: Rén (仁) compassion with generosity; Yì (義) honesty with lawfulness; Lǐ  (理) respect in relationships and worship; Zhì (智)  wisdom with knowledge; and Xìn (信) faithful integrity. More links: Buddhist ideals….  Islamic Character…. “The only Hindu value of note is ahimsa (non-violence) and all moral issues can be effectively explored though it.”

In stark contrast to the Barbarian, Greek, Roman, and other proposed virtues, you surely already know that Jesus and his followers repeatedly spotlight one virtue, unselfish love.

It's diabolically indicating that the English language and several other modern languages have lost a single noun and a single verb to name unselfish love. The Hebrew Bible uses אהבה  (love, pronounced ah-hah-vah) and חֶסֶד (loving-kindness, pronounced khes-ed).  The Greek Bible has ἀγάπη (pronounced ah-gah-pay).  Agape is “the greatest of these” (1 Corinthians 13). Unfortunately, in English the word “love” can apply to ice cream or to a romantic interest or patriotism; to a passing infatuation or to a lifetime of faithfulness. So Christians are apt to say “agape love” rather than the ambiguous “love”.

Jesus prioritized ἀγάπη: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”

This can be stated less colorfully:

Love God with everything you have.

The giving of everything is demonstrated in the ensuing story of the Good Samaritan.

I am a bear with very little brain. My governance consists of two resolutions of two words each.

I start with a less ambiguous form of “love”: kindness. This carries a sense of gentle unselfishness; but fierce kindness exists too.  "Be kind" is too passive for my purposes. English lacks an unambiguous verb form of “kindness”, but that’s easy to fix: “Do kindness.”

As a farm boy, I tried to be kind to abandoned baby birds, forsaken bunnies, injured possums, and exploited turtles. I left many small corpses behind in the process. Thus experience tells me, kindness without discernment is not kindness. So, I add a rule 2. Here are my rules:

1. Do kindness.
   
2. Get discernment.

I am not proud that these two lack Christian orientation. But this serves. For example, every time I visit a physician these days, I am asked a wellness question like, what did you accomplish this week?  The assistants and MDs are pleasantly intrigued by these two goals and my adventures in their pursuit.

These two are both preamble and implementation for guiding scriptures, including the following:

The pursuit of discernment requires humility and... SCIENCE!  I have continuing ignorance, biases, and need to learn. Per Socrates: “I do not think I know.” Or better, per Jeremiah:

This is the start of the book of First Samuel.

There was a certain man of Ramathaim-zophim of the hill country of Ephraim whose name was Elkanah the son of Jeroham, son of Elihu, son of Tohu, son of Zuph, an Ephrathite. 2 He had two wives. The name of the one was Hannah, and the name of the other, Peninnah. And Peninnah had children, but Hannah had no children.

3 Now this man used to go up year by year from his city to worship and to sacrifice to the Lord of hosts at Shiloh, where the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, were priests of the Lord. 4 On the day when Elkanah sacrificed, he would give portions to Peninnah his wife and to all her sons and daughters. 5 But to Hannah he gave a double portion, because he loved her, though the Lord had closed her womb. 6 And her rival used to provoke her grievously to irritate her, because the Lord had closed her womb. 7 So it went on year by year. As often as she went up to the house of the Lord, she used to provoke her. Therefore Hannah wept and would not eat. 8 And Elkanah, her husband, said to her, “Hannah, why do you weep? And why do you not eat? And why is your heart sad? Am I not more to you than ten sons?”

9 After they had eaten and drunk in Shiloh, Hannah rose. Now Eli the priest was sitting on the seat beside the doorpost of the temple of the Lord. 10 She was deeply distressed and prayed to the Lord and wept bitterly. 11 And she vowed a vow and said, “O Lord of hosts, if you will indeed look on the affliction of your servant and remember me and not forget your servant, but will give to your servant a son, then I will give him to the Lord all the days of his life, and no razor shall touch his head.”

12 As she continued praying before the Lord, Eli observed her mouth. 13 Hannah was speaking in her heart; only her lips moved, and her voice was not heard. Therefore Eli took her to be a drunken woman. 14 And Eli said to her, “How long will you go on being drunk? Put your wine away from you.” 15 But Hannah answered, “No, my lord, I am a woman troubled in spirit. I have drunk neither wine nor strong drink, but I have been pouring out my soul before the Lord. 16 Do not regard your servant as a worthless woman, for all along I have been speaking out of my great anxiety and vexation.” 17 Then Eli answered, “Go in peace, and the God of Israel grant your petition that you have made to him.” 18 And she said, “Let your servant find favor in your eyes.” Then the woman went her way and ate, and her face was no longer sad.

19 They rose early in the morning and worshiped before the Lord; then they went back to their house at Ramah. And Elkanah knew Hannah his wife, and the Lord remembered her. 20 And in due time Hannah conceived and bore a son, and she called his name Samuel, for she said, “I have asked for him from the Lord.”

21 The man Elkanah and all his house went up to offer to the Lord the yearly sacrifice and to pay his vow. 22 But Hannah did not go up, for she said to her husband, “As soon as the child is weaned, I will bring him, so that he may appear in the presence of the Lord and dwell there forever.” 23 Elkanah her husband said to her, “Do what seems best to you; wait until you have weaned him; only, may the Lord establish his word.” So the woman remained and nursed her son until she weaned him. 24 And when she had weaned him, she took him up with her, along with a three-year-old bull, an ephah of flour, and a skin of wine, and she brought him to the house of the Lord at Shiloh. And the child was young. 25 Then they slaughtered the bull, and they brought the child to Eli. 26 And she said, “Oh, my lord! As you live, my lord, I am the woman who was standing here in your presence, praying to the Lord. 27 For this child I prayed, and the Lord has granted me my petition that I made to him. 28 Therefore I have lent him to the Lord. As long as he lives, he is lent to the Lord.”

And he worshiped the Lord there.

__________________________________________

Ok, welcome to the inner working of my mind.

First, I’m reminded of the passage that says, don’t be drunk with wine, but be filled with the Spirit. Check. 

The disciples in Acts 2, were also perceived as hammered. Peter has to tell the crowd that no, not alcohol, but the burden and influence of the Holy Spirit was the cause of their clearly being under an Influence. In the same way Hannah in her “all in” prayer was more concerned with connection than with decorum. God give us all of us that heart to pray. Raw. Real. Passionate. Effective.

Second, the critical path of parenthood is temporary. If you don’t release your kids back to God at some point, that will be incredibly controlling and toxic. So on one hand, Hannah giving Samuel back to God seems extraordinary, and on the other, we should all follow in her footsteps.

Third, I’m fascinated by Hannah’s motive here. This was part honest desire, part ego, part cultural importance, part a seeking to get away from humiliation in a less than ideal family situation, and part God breathed burden / prophetic desire to press into calling.

Fourth, it’s cool how God uses prayer that seems local to become a means by which He draws us into a global Mosaic and His purpose in the earth.

Fifth, don’t miss, “the Lord of Hosts” here. This is the compound name, Jehovah-Saboath and appears in verses 3 and 11. It means the Lord of Armies, both heavenly and, in some sense, earthly and speaks to God as Powerful, Commanding and Sovereign. In Hannah’s prayer, she isn’t just praying to the intimate God of Covenant in His relationship with Israel. She is also making her personal appeal to the King, to the Commander in Chief, to the One Who is in Charge of Everything.


The character of Samuel is a towering figure in the story of the Hebrew Bible. He is at the nexus of so many high level historical and spiritual junctions.

He was the last Judge, and the first to hold the formal mantle of Prophet. He brought anointing to Kings, and spoke truth to power. He stood before a shepherd boy and spoke God’s word and calling over a young David. In, what was no doubt a surprise move to the charlatan medium, God even allowed him to speak His word from beyond the grave thundering judgment and ghostly visage. Hearing the voice of God as a child, he responded, being lent to the Lord for His purpose in an extraordinary generation.

Hannah’s prayer was heartfelt, as mentioned before, and I can’t help but wonder if she knew that something was afoot beyond her own personal stake in this. That if, on some level, she knew that this child of promise was going to be something of a World Historical Individual. That nations would change trajectory at his word… that this unborn child’s destiny was of such weight and purpose that Hannah couldn’t help but be a bit overwhelmed.

Prophet. Child. Judge. The one who calls the next generation into service.

Remind you of anyone?

Hannah’s prayer and beautiful outshining of a miraculous child point us directly to the advent of Christ. In the ashes of her sorrow, the Lord remembers her and brings forth a miracle of creation to bring God’s will to earth in His purpose and through the heartbeat of a divinely purposed baby. Like our Messiah, Samuel was a surprising outshining from the God of Angel Armies. He came, not as a warrior (though he wasn’t shy to use a sword when God directed him to)… but as a teacher, a prophet and connector of God’s word and will.

That the answer to Hannah’s prayer to Jehovah-Saboath came as a baby, is just beautiful, almost beyond description. That she had the heart and wisdom and selfless sensitivity to calling to give her child back to God is beyond extraordinary. That God’s general for the hour was a little boy who stood to say, “yes Lord” in the middle of the night is just fun and cool.

Here’s the question.

Can we pray in such a way as to be the vehicle of our own answered prayers? To carry the baby we ask for? Do we have the courage and commitment to truth in God our Father to give those dreams back to God? Do we have the will to surrender our own desires and major pieces of life back to heaven to use as He will? Can we call with all of our heart to the Lord of Hosts and celebrate the answer in the form of the vulnerability of the start of a new generation of leadership?

Can we pray like this hero of the faith?

In the DMM cycle (Disciple Making Movement) one of the key pieces of movement worldwide is an upgrade to extraordinary prayer.

If I’m honest at all, I'm just not there yet.

But I’ve been thinking about how to get there, both personally, and in terms of influencing the movement that we sense is coming. The questions I have currently are… how does this work practically? How can we support and create environments for prayer that are useful, conducive, and grounded in ways that will inspire God’s people?

This seems to me to be the kind of thing we can’t manufacture through cleverness or the ultimate marketing scheme. God will create the burden and urgency and direction of this kind of prayer.

It also seems to me to be the kind of thing we can have if we really want it. That we see the train, get on board, and soon enough we are on the bullet trip of a lifetime. 

So, how do we get started? 

I wish I had a recipe for this that was more clear. Lord, help my unbelief. Teach me to pray. Call us to where You want us to be. Spark this work in us.

As is often the case with me, I start at the beginning inside my head… and ask God to engage as Teacher.

Father, teach me how to pray - and how to catalyze prayer in others. 

Ok, cool. So here’s what I have so far.

1. Closet

I am a huge believer in free will. That may annoy my more hardcore reformed friends, but my best understanding is that while God is clearly sovereign, we are also clearly free. Insert <mystery> token here for the deep magic of paradoxical biblical truth.

Considering prayer, it is both a problem and an elegant solution, when paired with the idea of free will.

The problem is: why pray at all? Doesn’t God already know what we really need? Doesn’t He know what I will ask for even before I ask? Doesn’t He know that I’ll ask with bad motive, or in the wrong way, or get busy and forget to ask at all?

Yes. He knows all of that.

Yet with the idea of freedom in play, He also doesn’t seem to force His character or will on me. That isn’t to say that He doesn’t protect us, or work around us, or put His Hands on the scale to redeem us from our worst moments. I believe God is active, but all of the “around the edges” pieces of Jesus dealing with His disciples point to the idea of freedom and responsibility.  He is often frustrated with their lack of progress and faith, questioning honestly why they don’t see what He is seeing, or calling them from "earnest emotional response" to "in the moment" action.

​We too are disciples, and not so very different. We too are somehow able to grow in faith, with direct participation. This expectation points to freedom, and engagement on our part. 

We get to play. And practicing in good faith results in progress, while it remains an option for the Rich Young Ruler to walk away. When Jesus expresses a direct connection regarding the level of our faith, to what we believe and what we do... When He calls us out for a lack of faith, it assumes that we could have chosen (by some means) to do better. That "better" is available.

The solution is this: prayer is a principle means by which we align our will to God's.

If our spiritual maturing is a journey, AND if God is careful not to override our free will (even for our own good)… then can we give God permission to accelerate us in prayer? Can we take a leap of faith and go all in?

I think prayer is one way of giving God our full throated assent to move us (and in us), while maintaining the mystery of our freedom.

Clearly, God can do what He wants. And that will be just and good. But if one of the things He wants is for us to be free… then prayer becomes amazing.

It gives God our direct agreement, and freedom to mess with us, to correct us, to guide us, to empower us, and with prayer charged and running, just how much more effective can we be? Could prayer can help us learn the lesson the easy way, instead of the hard way? To actively participate in what God is doing, first and foremost in the trembling of our own salvation?

This is the kind of prayer that starts with gratitude, and the hallowing of His Name. With awe and correct perspective, (think Job at the end of the book) we can step into David's heart of 1) being laser focused on problem at hand, then 2) lifting his vision UP. To see God as best as we can see Him - and doesn’t that just change everything?

It is in the Closet that we re-align, that we say with Him, “not my will but Yours be done,” and we give God complete freedom to lead us wherever He wants us to go. In the Closet we set down our grocery list and align ourselves with Him and the glory of His will on the earth.

2. Corporate

We’ve been talking a lot about the pronouns in the Lord’s prayer. That, interestingly, they are all plural. Our Father… give us daily bread… lead us away from evil… That even in the Closet, we are still a part of the larger Body of Christ and even our solo prayer has a Corporate element.

Even more, when we get together physically, His word says that He is right there with us. There’s something deeply held in the community of believers, especially when we pray. Jesus leads His embryonic church to the Upper Room and they start to pray, together. In one accord, and in one place. This can’t be overstated. 

The power and connection we find in this mode is one of the most incredible gifts that He gives. It unites us, and our demographic, political, economic, and ethnic tribalism all melt in these moments. Who cares what (insert attribute here) you are in the presence of Almighty God? What difference doesn’t dim and fail to matter in the extraordinary unity of His Love and His Presence? These collective experiences, draw us, encourage us, inspire us, connect us, and lead us to what’s next.

There is no better inclusion than the singularity of mission shared by the redeemed. We are saved from, and to. What other details matter in the face of that glorious purpose?

God give us the vision to pray together, in the ways that are pleasing to You.

3. Canister

There is a wonderful story making the rounds about a canister found in the ruins of a Russian prison. We found, and pulled this version from Grok AI.

​_______________________________________

The Story: The Stones of Sukhanovka

In the dark years of Stalin’s reign, when the Soviet regime sought to erase the old Russia and its faith, countless churches were torn apart. Their golden domes were toppled, their icons burned, and their stones re-purposed for the machinery of the state. One such church, a small but cherished sanctuary near Vidnoye, just south of Moscow, met this fate in the late 1930s. Its walls, built of sturdy granite and limestone, were dismantled by order of the NKVD, the Soviet secret police. The stones weren’t discarded—they were too valuable for that. Instead, they were hauled to a nearby site, a former monastery called Ekaterinskaia Pustyn’, which the NKVD had transformed into Sukhanovka, a brutal special-regime prison for “enemies of the people.”

The prisoners at Sukhanovka—political dissidents, clergy, and others deemed dangerous—were forced into grueling labor. Among their tasks was to handle these very stones, once sacred, now reduced to raw material for prison walls and utilitarian structures. But not all the prisoners accepted this desecration quietly. A small group of believers, including a few Orthodox priests who had survived arrest, saw the stones differently. To them, these were not mere rocks but fragments of a holy past, stained with the prayers of generations. In secret, they whispered among themselves, making a pact born of faith and defiance.
One night, under the dim glow of a flickering lamp in their cramped cell, they acted. A monk named Father Alexei, whose hands still bore the calluses of swinging a censer rather than a pickaxe, scratched a message onto a scrap of paper torn from a smuggled Bible page. The note read: “These stones were once a house of God, torn apart by the hands of men. We pray that the Lord, in His mercy, will one day gather them again to sing His praise.” They sealed the note inside a rusted metal canister, perhaps an old tobacco tin scavenged from a guard’s refuse, and buried it among the stones they were stacking for a new prison barracks. As they worked, they prayed silently, entrusting their hope to God amid the despair of Sukhanovka, a place Alexander Solzhenitsyn would later call “the most terrible prison the MGB had.”

Years passed, and the Soviet Union crumbled. By 1992, the tides of history shifted. The Russian Orthodox Church, battered but enduring, began reclaiming what had been stolen. Sukhanovka, no longer a prison, was returned to its monastic roots. The barracks and walls, built with those pilfered stones, stood as grim reminders of the past. That year, as monks and volunteers began the slow work of restoring the site, they decided to erect a new church on the grounds—a symbol of resurrection over ruin.

During the construction, a laborer pried loose a stone from an old prison wall and heard a faint clatter. Beneath it lay the canister, dented and corroded but intact. Inside was Father Alexei’s note, its ink faded but legible. The discovery stunned the workers. The stones they were using, they realized, were the very ones taken from the church decades before—now being returned to their sacred purpose, just as the prisoners had prayed. Word spread, and the story took on a life of its own: a testament to faith’s quiet triumph over oppression. The new church, completed with those same stones, became a place of pilgrimage, its walls whispering a tale of divine providence fulfilled.

__________________________________


Thinking about the Canister, it seems to me that this kind of prayer is sublime and too often left for the moment of extremis, when it should be more intentional and purposive for us. This is a prayer for redemption in the face of injustice. A selfless prayer note, Canister filled time bomb for God to unleash His will and work in future context. A heavenly pay-it-forward blessing to the next generation.

In this case, it blesses the Christians who found the Canister, with it’s heartfelt prayer and prophetic purpose. It also blesses us, when we hear about it and are moved to know that God has a greater purpose than we see.

This is the prayer of Moses in the desert.

It is the prayer of Jeremiah in the burned stones of the ruined city.

It is Daniel, and later John, filling up Canisters with inspired scrolls, to us in hope, about chapters yet to come.

And it is the prayer of Jesus in the upper room. In John 17, our Savior was asking for an outpouring, and unity that He didn’t get to see, until He was on the other side of the Cross.

This isn’t denial or wishful thinking. It is not a stubborn refusing to acknowledge reality while hoping beyond hope that the heavenly pie in the sky is real in some metaphorical attempt to make ourselves feel better.

No.

This is the evidence of things unseen. The participation of God’s work in the earth, speaking in such a way as to draw our will into His, while trusting His timing, even when that outshining is not yet.

The question is this: what does God want in broken circumstances? What is His will that is beyond us or our ability to do it? What does He want for the next chapter, or perhaps even the next generation? What prayer should we pray, or what book should we write… to bless the ones to come?

Even in a state of hunger, sometimes we can selflessly meal prep in unbelievable ways. 

There is something deeply true and good about this idea of prayer. So set your heart… and prayer put a note into a Canister of faith.

4. Command

Sometimes prayer takes on something of an extraordinary voice.

Your sins are forgiven.

Hey you! Yes, you. Get up and walk.

God, I'm doing my utmost to obey your instructions. Please send fire from heaven... now.

Peace, be still (to the storms of nature itself).


Sometimes prayer is less like a feckless pleading, and more like Alexander deploying generals into the fray. 


Now, don’t misread my intent here. I’m not a name it claim it, blab it grab it, health, wealth, and ease, theologian.

But I do think that Father talks to us very directly in His word about a gospel divorced from heavenly power (and says with conviction to avoid this). If Jesus isn't just our Savior, but is also our Model for life and ministry, then this has some interesting possibilities attached. If, when He said, “even greater things will you do…” He wasn’t just speaking metaphorically, then we should ask what that looks like, and how to get there.

James tells us to call for elders, to pray over the sick, and then to pray in faith. There’s a longer story here (as James points us to Elijah as to how all of this works), but I think the short version is that this order matters. We pray “over” to align and ask what God is doing.

If through agreement and discernment, or through a supernatural outpouring of faith, we find that God is shining out in power, then we pray in faith, with boldness. That word for prayer in “prayer of faith” could be translated “vow.”

The vow of faith.

We see this when Jesus, or the prophets, or the disciples, or Paul, speak out in miraculous power - and then it happens - literally, physically, in the material world. The Red Sea parts, the child comes back to life, the blind eyes are opened and start to see. Obviously we can’t manufacture that, it is 100% dependent on the Holy Spirit and God moving. But God does lead us here sometimes, and miracles (both biblically and in the stories we hear today) come through His people and prayer.

This kind of prayer should be engaged in with care, and often with counsel. This isn’t witchcraft, or us "manifesting" what we want, but rather aligning our hearts and voices with the manifestation of God… to hear, then to bind on earth and trust in God to bind. Or release on earth, and with God, participate in that releasing in the mystery of His will.

Ask God what He wants to do here. Ask Him to build up your level of trust and faith to pray these kinds of “big prayers.” Then buckle your seat belt and get ready for the ride of your life.

Closet.

Corporate.

Canister.

Command.

​Let's go!

To review: (1) God enables my pursuit of virtues. (2) God equips believers with virtues including hope, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and forgiveness. (3) I pursue these virtues and gain experience and discernment. (4) People of like mind—the church—help me discover and deploy one or two specialized aptitudes which help the group serve people. Specialty virtues include seeing things from God's point of view, serving, teaching, giving, organizing, and mercy. These are just examples. God enables other spiritual gifts as he wishes.

God's people have long pursued these virtues.  Some do so with simple openness to God's direction. Some people are more systematic. Thus, the Wesleys’ 22 questions urge a person to ask of themselves daily probing questions: Can I be trusted? Am I enjoying prayer? Am I humble? Do I obey God in all things? Benjamin Franklin’s autobiography included his secular self-improvement program concerning 13 virtues, focusing on just one virtue per week. Other personal constitutions have been published, several since 1989 based on Covey’s 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.

We mentioned Covey but did not list his 7 habits. They are:  Be proactive (take responsibility).... Begin with the end in mind (have a plan and vision).... Put first things first (Prioritize).... Think win-win (Seek mutual benefit).... Seek first to understand, then to be understood (Listen with empathy).... Synergize (Value diverse opinions).... Sharpen the saw (Seek continuous improvement)....

Personal constitutions are essentially a list of virtues or desirable practices. New Year's Resolutions are another such a list.

The Single Question of Highly Effective Saints

We now turn to a Christian personal constitution that is not a list of questions, virtues, habits, or resolutions. I find in it some issues. Still in its way it can touch every situation of life. Millions have followed it daily since Iñigo (aka Ignatius) from the town of Loyola in Spain, first published it in 1522: This is The Examen.

With Ignatian Examen, I would take time once or twice a day to read scripture and pray, focusing gratitude and dependence on God for direction. These alone are worthy activities.

Next, I iterate through my memory of events in my life since the previous Examen. An event can be an experience, my thoughts, my feelings, or my action: admiring the sunrise, worrying about a conversation, eating breakfast, something I read.

I review each event for a few seconds with a single yes or no question:
 
          Did this event move me closer to God? 

Of course to answer this, I need a sense of what God wants.

• What does God want? That’s why Examen starts with scripture and asking for Holy Spirit’s insight.
• For the illiterate, Ignatius allowed that “Teachings of the Church” (and its leaders) and parents might substitute.
  
• Examen groups I’ve visited meet with experienced Spiritual Directors (aka Givers) to discuss what “closer to God” can mean and to encourage one another.  
• Awareness Examen requires that I not linger in reflection on each event, but move on like a farmer counting many cows or chickens while alert for individual health problems.
  
• Particular Examen is the kind of meticulous review exemplified by the Wesley 22 questions or the Franklin 13 virtues.
  

After my review of my events, I wrap up with prayer to God. I can log discoveries and resolutions.

Elegant, right? No 110 rules, 22 questions, 13 virtues, or 7 habits.

Though simple, there are weaknesses in the Ignatian Examen. As I review recent events, I may overlook the significance of some events or over-value other events. What feels like a humbling downer for my pride might be a step toward God’s way. I might judge illogically: by immediate effects, not considering likely consequences.  I might obsess over defects that God is already forgiving and healing. What seems like an opportunity to serve may be over-reaching. What seems like punishment may be opportunity.

Ignatius recognized such issues! His original book on Examin is 150 pages long. In his “Second Week” instructions Ignatian identified supporting activities before and after the central review.

1. Read God’s word in quiet.
2. Having prayed that the Holy Spirit will help me, Receive God’s Holy Spirit. Psalm 139 is such a request: “Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my thoughts. See if there is any evil in me, and guide me in the way everlasting.” So is Romans 8: “In certain ways we are weak, but the Spirit is here to help us. For example, when we don't know what to pray for, the Spirit prays for us in ways that cannot be put into words.”
3. Review each event (my experience, thoughts, feelings, and actions) since the previous Examen. Don’t dwell on perceived success or failure. Instead, consider God’s activity in, around, and through me. Most important, decide: Did this event move me closer to God? Relish events that blessed me. Thank God. Repent of shortcomings or failures that the review found. Request God’s forgiveness and help with these needs.
4. Resolve to live righteously in concrete ways by God’s grace.
5. Recite a closing prayer such as “Our Father”.

Jesuit teachers call the above typically daily steps the Awareness Examen. If emphasizing thoughts and feelings (instead of experiences and actions), this is Consciousness Examen. If focused on a particular virtue or habit, this is Particular Examen. If focused on identifying and dumping sins, this is General Examen of Conscience and is a recommended preliminary to Confession.

In his Spiritual Exercises for the Second Week, Ignatius considered several complications and how to avoid them. These tend to involve feelings. The Second Week comments address my puzzlements that I do not find clearly covered by scripture, by the teachings of the Church, or by the counsel of wise believers. Who should I marry? What work should I pursue? Where is my hairbrush?

A more controversial activity associated with Ignatian Examen is Imaginative Prayer.

This begins as above: Read scriptures and pray. Additionally ask that the Holy Spirit work through my imagination. We want to turn up imagination of the senses: sight, hearing, touch, taste, smell…  Memory works through connections, and the idea is to enhance scripture memory and insight via sensory connections, even just imagined ones. Thus, selected scripture could be a gospel event or stories in which I might have participated had I been there: Jesus being born. Jesus healing the lame, feeding the crowd, celebrating Passover,… these contain sensory impressions waiting to be enhanced. Imagine chatting with other Judean spectators, hearing of their anxiety and fatigue before Jesus gave them bread and fish. Imagine being the blind man who fumbled his accustomed route in darkness until Jesus gave him sight.

Having mastered these safe imaginations, you can level up to Examen Contemplation and Examen Colloquy.  In these you can in your mind approach Jesus on the cross and ask him how he can forgive—and he answers you. He tells you how you can forgive. Or buzz by a TARDIS on your way to creation and ask Father God about quarks or hell or raising children. Prompted by Psalm 139, ask God about his creation of you.  Discover that God loves you. Certainly, ask something of a saint—Mary the mother of Jesus is always popular. What are those things she hid in her heart? How did Jesus act at funerals?

Of course, the problem is not asking questions. The problem is not fanfic and Mary Sue. The problem is imagining a reply from Jesus, God, or Mary. Does that reply come from the Almighty or from my hopes or fears? From the Holy Spirit, or from the tempter? Holy Holodecks, I could fantasize Jesus confirming my stupid desires: Verily, Robin Hood, do rob that bank; just give some to the poor. Safeguards against wayward imagination are the Examen's prescribed use of the Biblical precedent, the "Teachings of the Church", and Spiritual Directors. Modern advisors such Google, "AI", and social media can bring you trustworthy sources. opinions... or lies.

Toward the end of Spiritual Exercises, under the heading Greater Discernment of Spirits (p 169 in the pdf), Ignatius deals with many possible insights discovered in Examen. His advice is to recheck your current position and especially your current trajectory. The first rule: continuing in serious sin is bad, even if you feel good about it. “In the persons who go from mortal sin to mortal sin,… the enemy commonly proposes to them apparent pleasures… The good spirit uses the opposite method, pricking them and biting their consciences through the process of reason.”

Compare with the third rule: “the evil angel enters the devout soul with good and holy ambitions; but then little by little he aims at drawing the soul to his covert deceits and perverse intentions.” In other words, “It’s a trap!”

In many Psalms, David and others requested justice or vengeance. Jesus gives us even more confidence to come to God (Hebrews 4:15-16). But there’s such a thing as presumptuous prayer (Psalm 19). So be extremely careful with imagined directives.

"The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?" (Jeremiah 17)

Seek external confirmation. I’m not a 100% cessationist; but I know that words from God tend to be on his initiative and through his means, confirmed by his miracles to certify his truths in his time.

Supporting Ignatian Examen, there is a sizable stack of devotion books, Apps, and web sites . They offer preparatory scriptures, canned prayers, suggested music, discussion prompts, and other customizations for students, athletes, business people, mothers, fathers, etc. You just bring your experiences, thoughts, feelings, and action. Most I’ve seen are decidedly Roman Catholic. Jesuit retreat centers sponsor weekends or longer retreats saturated in Ignatian Examen. Practically all weekend you will be in silence except for chapel prayers and singing. Can’t go to a retreat? Some monasteries and churches offer Ignatian groups via Zoom.  Several non-Catholic church groups conduct spiritual direction retreats that are mostly Ignatian Examen but basically Biblical. There have been secular outfits that claim connection with Christian spirituality, but watch out: “It’s a trap!”

At its heart, the Ignatian Examen shines a flashlight on each of my events today, and asks, “Did this event move me closer to God?”  Other Christian contemplative methods tend to add a few more questions. They are not hard to find.  Here is one such Examen core from a Franciscan community:

• If I truly wanted to live God’s dream for humanity, or to live and act as Jesus did, What must/should I do in response to this text?
• How would it change my life? 
• Is it possible for me to respond at this time of my life?
• Is there anything I can do, right now, which would begin my journey of response to this text?

The Seven Spiritual Weapons of Saint Catherine of Bologna

A method of Christian spiritual growth might not use questions. Instead, it can spotlight values or goals or “Life Verses”. These are a little like Franklin pursing his 13 favored secular virtues.

Catherine was an inspiring painter and musician in Bolagna, Italy. No introspective wimp she. From about 1463, she lists her weapons of integrity and progress.

George Washington

Toward the end of February the US Senate performs a Senate activity repeated every year since 1893. It is a 45-minute reading of George Washington’s Farewell Address.  This document is way longer than many personal constitutions.  Nevertheless, it quite conveys the ideals and advice of a respected leader practicing what he preached. What advice would you leave for people you love?

Please don’t take as representative of President Washington's values his widely-circulated “110 Rules of Civility” (more compactly here). As a teenager he simply copied these rules from a century-old textbook. Quite likely this was a school assignment, possibly a penmanship exercise. If you know teenage boys, you know they generally need such rules as number 4, “In the Presence of Others Sing not to yourself with a humming Noise, nor Drum with your Fingers or Feet.” Or number 107, “If others talk at Table be attentive but talk not with Meat in your Mouth.”

Though longish, read Washington’s Farewell Address. It is worthwhile, even as an annual reflection. You might skip his warnings about foreign entanglements, cautions about political parties, concerns about government debt, and so on—if you dare.

Thomas Jefferson

The third US President wrote several short notes to youngsters summarizing his principles and practices. Here is the earliest and longest, titled “A Dozen Canons of Conduct in Life”. He sent this to his granddaughter instead of the expected two-dollar bill with his picture on it.

Items with * were omitted in later versions sent to other young people. TJ took rule number 5 quite seriously.

These slightly cryptic maxims trace to Greek philosophers. For example, the Stoic named Epictetus wrote, “Every event has two handles, one by which it can be carried, and one by which it cannot. If your brother does you wrong, don’t seize upon his wrong, because this is the handle incapable of lifting…”.
 
Besides quoting Stoics and Epicureans—in Greek, French, and English!—Jefferson famously distilled a collection of Jesus’ words. However, he omitting from his harmony of the gospels anything supernatural: Claims of deity, angels, miracles, and the resurrection? Gone. Jefferson explained his super-condensed Bibles—he made two—in an 1813 letter to John Adams:
 
“We must reduce our volume to the simple evangelists, select, even from them, the very words only of Jesus, …. There will be found remaining the most sublime and benevolent code of morals which has ever been offered to man. I have performed this operation for my own use, by cutting verse by verse out of the printed book, and arranging the matter which is evidently his, and which is as easily distinguishable as diamonds in a dunghill.”  
 
I repudiate Jefferson’s abuse of indigenous people and slaves, and reject his deism, “having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power.”  Still, I do admire that Jefferson’s personal constitution was just Jesus’ words: nothing more, nothing less. Whereas US Senators hear Washington’s words every February, US Presidents—really, everybody—would do well to give as much attention to Jesus’ words as did President Thomas Jefferson.

Benjamin Franklin

Benjamin Franklin published a strikingly systematic yet humane set of resolutions. And that’s not all!  Regarding these resolutions, he set up a simple system for his own performance evaluation.

This thorough attention to virtues doesn’t compensate for Franklin’s promotion of daylight saving time. Or his wishy-washy deism. Still, compared to the other personal constitutions, individual agendas, resolutions, and maxims of his era, I see Franklin’s as clearer, more doable, and more adaptable to my use. Here's his list:

Here is Franklin’s own enjoyable explanation of his motivations and the development process.
http://www.ushistory.org/franklin/autobiography/page38.htm

Franklin included humility, chastity, and perhaps some other virtues because people told him that he was not good at them! He was particularly keen to not just admire virtue, but to do virtue. His approach was intentional—not accidental—daily practice and streamlined daily self-evaluation. So as not to confuse himself, he resolved to focus on just one virtue per week. With 13 virtues on the list, that’s 13 weeks before starting over. 13 weeks times 4 is 52 weeks. See what he did there?

Here’s a clearer presentation of his calendar: 
     https://blogs.library.unt.edu/untdocsblog/2014/01/17/11/

This report and encouragement comes from a fellow who followed Franklin’s Plan for a decade.

Virtuous To-Do Lists

Question: Are there virtues that you would add to Franklin’s list?  Would you trim any?

My priorities would be kindness (or agape) and discernment replacing silence and moderation.

Really, what’s worse than a silent ax-murderer, if not a moderate silent ax-murderer?

Consider Hebrews 11, "Without faith it is impossible to please God."

Consider Matthew 6, "If you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive, ...."

Franklin’s list of virtues reminds me of several New Testament lists:

Galatians chapter 5    (ESV)
“The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.

Colossians chapter 3
“Put on then, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive.

Romans chapter 12
“We all have different gifts … prophecy … serving … teaching … encouraging others … giving to others … leading … showing mercy.

2 Peter chapter 1
“May grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness,…

For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

I have talked to Christians who objected to the idea of becoming a better Christian. I would not call them lazy. They languidly pointed out that Christ Jesus has already done all that can be done to please God.  Moreover, God has already programmed each person’s future. Service may come. If they need preparation or discernment, God will provide. They cite Ephesians 2: “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” (More) They sit back and enjoy the ride on the train from St. Augustine to Calvinville.

Those, ahem, determined believers are rare. Few Christians are completely passive. God calls us holy and saints. Most of us want to match such titles with improved thought, feelings, and action.

So it was with college students John Wesley (1703-1791), his brother Charles, and some friends. They formed a club that advanced the following 22 yes or no questions to track daily their lifelong pursuit of holiness.  Tally how well you do on these 22 questions. I’ve rephrased some so that answers of “yes” are always desirable. 22 “yes” answers puts you close to Jesus.

I find this is a tough list. What else would you consider?  How about, "Have I been generous? Have I encouraged anyone? Have I forgiven? Have I gone the second mile? ..." Lists like these bug me. They easily spotlight my errors, fumbles, and opportunities missed.

It's also possible to compose a list where I get an A+. Consider the story of “The Good Samaritan” in Luke chapter 10.  The two jerks who passed by the injured man could congratulate themselves: Yes! I preserved my ritual purity and journeyed on to fulfill my appointed godly duties. Yay me. Jesus asked concerning the three passers-by, “which was the neighbor?” Jesus did not hesitate to ask clear but challenging questions.

A scorecard like the above can be a private record or used as the Wesleys did in accountable and more nearly objective review. Wesley's use was in a small group. Wesley's journal notes how the of these and subsequent coworkers helped him. The Moses of Methodists John Wesley later published four amendments that also can present as yes or no questions.

A. Am I absolutely open and unreserved with all I should converse with?

B. Do I labor in continual seriousness, not willingly indulging myself in any the least levity of behavior, or in laughter; no not for a moment.

C. Do I speak no word that does not tend to the glory of God; in particular, do I not talk of worldly things?

D. Do I take no pleasure which does not to the glory of God; thanking God every moment for all I do take, rejecting every sort and degree of it which I feel I cannot so thank Him in and for?
 
Wot, no lafs?
 
Jesuits use “spiritual exercises” to grow; we’ll see some of that subsequently. Of course, Methodists use methods. Historically, the main method has been discipleship in the form of a weekly small group meeting. The leader would begin by asking an open-ended question, “How is it with your soul?” There would be Bible study, and review of the General Rule of Discipleship evidenced in acts of compassion, justice, worship, and devotion. The small group enhances self-examination and is inclined to compassionately critique, encourage, and assist.

Footnote 1: Already noted in the New Testament is tension over faith vs works, determinism vs free-will, original sin vs responsibility, and more... These surface in Pelagianism and continue today.

Footnote 2: In the above screed I have focused on the Christian denomination, "Methodist". My focus will move on to look at lowercase "m" "methodists". That "methodist" is one who lives life life and pursues personal development via conscious rules of conduct and of personal evaluation: a method. The goals and evaluations that interest me must be more objective than, "if it feels good, do it" or, "go with your gut". The above unstructured 22 questions form such a method. It explicitly and implicitly accepted certain values, goals, and practices. The Stoic Enchirodon, the Ignatian Examen, and The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People are other such methods. I aim to touch on a few more methods of Christian personal growth.

Should you write a “Personal Constitution”? This is a potentially rewarding—and potentially obsessive—practice of listing your values, ambitions, and practices.  On first pass such a list will be inaccurate—too conceited, too modest, just ignorant.  After several passes and amendments, my own list became too wordy.  It remained useless until I boiled it down to two primary practices of two words each.
 
“A doctor who treats himself has a fool for a patient” (Dr. William Osler). “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit." (Philippians 2) Start quietly, but don't finish your personal constitution in isolation. Instead, consider that sharing and refining personal constitutions can help the individuals involved and the community of Christ! Decades ago, around once a year, believers I knew shared perceptions concerning one another.  I remember being completely surprised at good things and deplorable things other people saw in me. Such confrontation encouraged us to discern and to develop “the better angels of our nature.” Here in February—between New Year resolutions, reviewing finances and taxes, spring cleaning, and daily news involving the national constitution—right now is as good a time as any to begin. Effort now is an investment that can grow to help you and others rationally face life’s persistent questions.

In a previous post I cautioned concerning psych self-assessments and the Christianized versions, Spiritual Gifts Inventories. Too often these quizzes are not used as collaborative tools to build coworker communities. In isolation they become mirrors to confirm vanity, self-loathing, or sloth.

“Personal Constitution” is the term Peter Covey floated in his 1989 business-oriented best-seller, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.  The practice of forming such a mission statement, credo, prime directive, philosophy, or rule of life is far from new. In subsequent posts I'll link to diverse personal constitutions from such eminents as Socrates, Confucius, George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, Jonathan Edwards, the Wesley brothers, Ignatius of Loyola, and others.

Besides constructing your motto, be aware of Biblical statements of purpose, including:

• “As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” Joshua
• “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work.” Jesus. Also: “Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness.” And: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.”
• “For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.” Paul. Also: “My purpose is to finish my course and the ministry I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of God’s grace.”

• “All I know is that I used to be blind, but now I can see!” That guy in John chapter 9

I advocate putting in both introspection and discussion with friends that will lead to you recognizing your values, ambitions, and principles; finding perhaps your “Life Verse”, and certainly your individual spiritual gift or gifts. Again! Your spiritual gift is not so much an ability given you. Your spiritual gift is you yourself given to the church. Thus, discovery is not just a matter of pondering and conversing. Discovery includes introspection, extrospection, patiently doing, sometimes failing, and persisting in faith, hope, and love. I urge that such efforts to consolidate your values, goals, and practices do not displace your compassion, attention, and gratitude. Keep on appreciating God and the specific principles he has given his people. “Your word is a light for my feet and a light on my path.” (Psalm 119)

Several families were visiting at my house for a Christmastime Bible Study. The study was not in English. I took my usual role as child wrangler. The most respected gift, I think, is to give one’s self.

The kids—mostly talkative five-year-olds—ran to the Christmas tree. They were closely inspecting its decorations. “Kan zhi-ge! ”  “Look at these!”

One girl exclaimed, “Uncle Greg, we make these lights! We make these lights!”
 
I asked, “Do you have a Christmas tree at home?”

 She calmed down. “Little tree,” she murmured. “we do not make lights for it. Not our lights.”
 
Crouching down, I pressed, “How did you make these lights on this tree in my house?”
 
She looked at me. She exhaled. She spoke slowly so I could understand. I don't recall the exact words. The explanation went something like this:
 
We make these lights where we live in Taiwan.
We make little lights at my house.
Not here. At my house in Taiwan.
Every day, we make little lights.
We do not keep little lights. We sell them.
 
Then I understood. In Taiwan, her family assembled Christmas light strings in their apartment.

These five-year-olds were concerned about how my lights were spaced. Were bulbs solid color or blotchy? Could light strings join end-to-end? Which is better, blink or not blink? Which is better, blue or white?

The young Quality Assurance team finally approved my tree's workmanship and presentation. 
 
Since then, when I visit local stores—even if not intending to buy—I scrutinize Christmas decorations for sale. From where did they come? Taiwan, People’s Republic of China, Viet Nam, India, Mexico, the Czech Republic…? I wonder, did they come from children's hands or from automation?  What does it profit a kitchen-based factory when I buy fifty of their lights for two dollars?  When I ask adult visitors about Halloween items, they thoroughly dislike the uglies.  But they are intrigued by Christmas stuff. They ask, why do people with so many trees buy a plastic tree? Why buy so much sparkly stuff? What if you do not have snow? What’s with the old man in red clothes? Is he a Buddha? Is the baby his grandson? Do the animals eat the baby? Do Americans really eat bread with every meal?

What do the workers infer about the buyers of their product, whether cute lights or big books?  What things might I buy that would stir the producer’s interest in God’s kingdom?  The answer is above.

The inspectors swarmed off to use the carpeted stairs as a toboggan run. I grabbed big plush animals to stand guard with me at the bottom of the stairs.

When the kids tired, we played with my “Made in China” nativity set. We talked about the star, the people, and the animals. We learned about the best gift: the child, the gift that is too wonderful for words.

It's rare that I get quite so emotional as I did with the attached video. This may have to do with visiting this year so many American civil war battlefields near my northern Virginia location.

The song, "I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day" uses an 1863 poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.

Longfellow was a Harvard professor who had toured Europe apparently to learn to translate eight languages. He left academe, becoming a versatile, lyrics-slinging poet/rockstar.

Here was a man who had lost first wife Mary to miscarriage and second wife Frances to a fire that scarred his own face and body.  Here was a dedicated abolitionist and pacifist whose son joined the Union Army. Said son took a bullet to the spine, and now in December 1863 was back home in Massachusetts being nursed to health by his father.  Here was a man who on December 25, 1863 wrote the following verses mixing pain and resolve.

1.  I heard the bells on Christmas Day
Their old, familiar carols play,
and wild and sweet
The words repeat
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

2.  And thought how, as the day had come,
The belfries of all Christendom
Had rolled along
The unbroken song
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

3.  Till ringing, singing on its way,
The world revolved from night to day,
A voice, a chime,
A chant sublime
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

[Verses 4 & 5 are omitted from most recent presentations.]

4. Then from each black, accursed mouth
The cannon thundered in the South,
And with the sound
The carols drowned
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

5.  It was as if an earthquake rent
The hearth-stones of a continent,
And made forlorn
The households born
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

6.  And in despair I bowed my head;
"There is no peace on earth," I said;
"For hate is strong,
And mocks the song
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!"

7.  Then pealed the bells more loud and deep:
"God is not dead, nor doth He sleep;
The Wrong shall fail,
The Right prevail,
With peace on earth, good-will to men.

Where I stood was mud the day before. Now that farm road was frozen hard as iron. I pondered:
 
“The TV bosses let a kid quote the Bible for a minute. Maybe there's hope for this world!”

This nostalgic moment is easy for me to pinpoint. I was waiting for the school bus at 7:45 a.m., Friday, December 10, 1965. Many others also were reflecting on the previous evening’s premiere of A Charlie Brown Christmas.

Over the background brain jazz of “Christmastime is Here” and “Linus and Lucy”,  I reconsidered the words of Linus and Luke: “And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the fields…”. 

Commercials urging “Winston tastes good like a cigarette should” and “See the USA in your Chevrolet” had given way to "Glory to God in the highest!" Scary scenes from Selma and Viet Nam were for a while displaced by "Peace on earth, good will to men.” And by a blue blanket.

Most of the Peanuts kids—kids like me—knew well the Christmas biz. As Lucy confided, “We all know that Christmas is a big commercial racket! It's run by a big eastern syndicate you know!” She urged, “Get the biggest aluminum tree you can find, Charlie Brown, maybe painted pink!”

For me, the compelling character in Peanuts was not Charlie Brown, though I felt his pain. Snoopy was more flamboyant than anyone I knew.  I was a Linus fan. Later I learned that Linus was not always the brave evangelist who could calmly summon, “Lights, please.”  Linus had been forgetful, anxious, and odd. For example, rewind to December 21, 1958.

A running gag especially in December was that Linus had stage fright. Lucy continued to encourage Linus in her persuasive way.

I appreciate Linus' compassion. The other kids relentlessly dismiss and ridicule Charlie Brown. Linus is to Charlie a merciful, supportive, frank, and insightful friend.

Linus is unembarrassed about his security blanket.  In A Charley Brown Christmas, this versatile blanket serves as tow rope, slingshot, head covering, hiding place, and potentially a sport coat. Concerning Linus' attachment to his blanket, in 2015 Jason Soroski published a profound observation now echoed at over fifty websites:

There is a second blanket drop! Linus selflessly gives his prized blanket to restore the little limp Christmas tree. What do you think becomes of the blanket?

Walk with me in the starry night with Charlie Brown, Linus, Lucy, and all others who would go. We will purpose our security for kindness.  We will trade cold tinsel for warm treasure. 

Footnote 1:  Linus steps up.

   1952 ... 1953 ... 1954 ... 1955 ... 1956 ... 1957 ... 1958
    ... 1959 ... 1960 ... 1961 ... 1962 ... 1963 ... 1964 ... 1965
       ... “Every now and then I say the right thing”

Footnote 2:  Linus steps back.
   Other Peanuts characters took much of Linus' role as sage and poet, even slinging a T.S. Eliot reference in one of the following Christmas strips.

  "Begat" ... "House of Bread" ... "Abiding" ...  "Attention" ... "I hate shopping" ...
     "Warned in a Dream" ... "Calling Bird" ...
         "Hark, Harold Angel" ... "Hockey Stick!" ...
            "Joe Handel" ... "Gabriel" ...
               "Sheep" ... "Moo! Whatever!"

Footnote 3: More Peanuts.

   Peanuts for Christ ...
       Peanuts Wiki on A Charlie Brown Christmas ...
            Charles Schulz' Spiritual Walk

Christmas is almost here!

The hustle, bustle, and general good cheer of the season can leave me empty of the reason that I celebrate Christmas in the first place. Don’t get me wrong, I love all the glitz, glitter, gifts, and all things Christmas, but I can easily forget that this winter holiday is bigger than red, green, and gold. It’s about the coming of Jesus to earth as a baby. The Messiah. The bringer of hope and good news.

This is why I embraced the season of Advent years ago. Advent allows me to focus on what is important during the Christmas season. I like the way BibleProject.com put the big idea of Advent, it’s a time when “communities remember and celebrate the arrival of Jesus and join together in the hope of his ultimate return.”

Hope  Peace  Joy  Love

Each week of Advent has a theme. I haven’t traditionally been good about following the theme. I’ve let life get in the way. But this year, I am looking forward to exploring the theme together with you. In the first two weeks, our focus is remembrance and anticipation of Christ's return.

The first week of Advent focuses on Hope. I’ll post some scriptures for us to reflect on. Link a video or two. And maybe even a worship song to round out the week. At home during meals, I will light the first candle of my Advent wreath which has a place of honor on my table.

The second week is Peace. I will again post some supporting items and Bible readings that will support the theme of peace. I will light the first and second candles on the advent wreath.

Week three we shift our focus to remembering Christ’s first coming. The Joy that comes with a new beginning. The joy of the shepherds. The joy we have in knowing Christ and accepting His gift of salvation. I will be lighting the first, second, and third candles of the Advent wreath.

In the last week of Advent leading up to Christmas day, the theme is Love. “For God so loved the world, that He gave…” This week I want to focus on God’s love for us through Scripture, song, and reflection. I will be lighting all four candles on the Advent Wreath.
I will light the Christ candle on Christmas Day in the middle of my Advent wreath. I usually have a big pillar candle there and can let it burn most of the day reminding me that the light of the world was born this day.

Merry Christmas friend. I look forward to sharing this journey through Advent with you.

P.S.
​
I love how the Advent candles end up at different heights in a spiral. The Fibonacci spiral wrapping around the center Christ candle in my advent wreath on my dining room table brings me joy! The perfection of a spiral points to the perfection of Christ’s birth and life, perfectly balanced and eternal.

In the aftermath of the election I’ve seen a series of posts, videos and other content actively displaying a sense of despair and deeply felt emotional response. In response to this, I’ve seen a fair amount of mocking snark, and condescension.

It seems like a lot of this engagement is only separating people further in a landscape that is already deeply divided.

My goal here isn’t to preach or fix, nor is it to chide or correct, but only to offer thoughts on possible paths forward. The reality is we all experience disappointment in big ways and small, and if that isn’t you this week, it will be you soon enough. So here we go, use if useful!

How to Find Hope in Disappointment:

1) Focus on What You Can Control

I love the band Switchfoot, not just for their incredible talent and sonic, but for the way they turn the problems of their songs back to local responsibility. They almost always frame an issue we all would agree is an issue, then they hold up a mirror and address themselves as the real problem and changing themselves as the way to move forward. It’s an interesting, surprising and for my money, healthy approach.

Are you in control of elections? Political parties? Swing vote on any big issue of the day? Yeah, me either. But just because you don’t hold levers of power doesn’t mean you can’t do something deeply meaningful. If you have the means, adjust your budget to be generous for the cause(s) you care about. If you don’t, look to give in other ways. Your favorite organization would likely benefit greatly from your expertise or simple hours as a volunteer.

Do something good! It’s an incredible strategy for re-directing focus on how bad “they” are to acting in a healthy and helpful spirit. Even if “they” are quite bad, we’re not in control of “them” - but we are in control of us upgrading our personal impact in a good way. My mirror agrees that I can do better.

2) Turn Disappointment into Opportunity
​
I remember my high school baseball team with incredible fondness. What a great group of talented guys. They taught me lessons that will shape me forever.

One thing in particular was our beautiful response to striking out. I don’t remember who started this, but instead of cursing and throwing a helmet in disappointment, we started running back to the dugout and giving a detailed description of the pitch that got us. 

The team would crowd around for a detailed scouting report in real time. 

The result? 

Around the 4th inning or so, our collective intel allowed us to clobber the poor guy on the mound. Even the strike outs became a handy tool that helped us win.

So let your disappointments take you to school. Learn. What can you do better? The things that hit us badly, can improve us, and propel us in positive directions if we engage in a certain way.

A while ago, I reported how after knee surgery I had trouble walking down stairs. My physical therapy consisted mostly of stretches performed several times  per day. I realized from these that I could improve a skill not just by repeating the process (like walking down stairs a lot), but also by preparation (like quadriceps stretches and leg lifts while on my back or leaning on a tree).  I picked prayer as a discipline to improve. A prayer stretch would be something that is not prayer that improves prayer.

Humility was my first choice for a prayer stretch. Why? That's the best way to pray for the first time: “God, have mercy on me a sinner.” Subsequently: “Humility is not thinking less of yourself, it's thinking of yourself less.” (Rick Warren). “If you meet a really humble man, ... probably all you will think about him is that he seemed a cheerful, intelligent chap who took a real interest in what you said to him.... He will not be thinking about humility: he will not be thinking about himself at all.” (C.S. Lewis)  That kind of humility helped my frequency of prayer and emotional transparency before God. It continues to be a preparation for prayer. That kind of humility certainly helps relationships!

Likewise, stretches of Forgiveness and Thankfulness have become part of my prelude to prayer.

A little thought will convince you that no virtue stands alone. Virtues support other virtues.

Recently I have been reviewing the Lord's Prayer. The line "your will be done" is a commitment first to learn what God wants; and then to make it so, ideally with other people. 

Though narrower in scope, I find the line, "Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors" to be the most challenging in the Lord's Prayer.  Isn't this a contract? Immediately after the Lord's Prayer Jesus underscores the logical penalty: "If you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses."  This same ominous warning is repeated to close the story of the unjust servant in Matthew 18:21-35.

Something to consider:  How does the Lord's Prayer differ from my prayers? What do my prayers add? And especially, what in the Lord's Prayer do my prayers omit?

1. The first half of the Lord's Prayer is about what God wants. Is mine?
2. Are these pronouns in the Lord's Prayer?  I, my, me. As was and remains the custom of formal Jewish prayers it is "Our Father", "Give us", "Forgive us", "As we forgive", "Lead us", "Deliver us". Even when you are in your closet, the Lord's prayer is about community.
3. Does the Lord's Prayer mention the sick, family, friends, enemies, leaders, the unsaved, or other groups?
4. Does the Lord's prayer consider life beyond today?
5. Does the Lord's prayer end, "In Jesus' Name, amen" ??
6. Does my prayer commit me to anything, like doing God's will, forwarding his kingdom, forgiving people, or following his lead?

Don't panic. Probably all points in your prayer are modeled by other outstanding Biblical prayers and principles. Here is a list. I suspect what Jesus selected to include in this model prayer are God's priorities that his followers tend then and his followers now tend to omit, and should add to daily prayers.

My knee is better, my prayers are better. I need to work on, among other things, forgiveness.  Ha, forgiveness is easy, except when it involves people. Forgiving a Christian brother or sister can involve confrontation and an escalation procedure, per Matthew 18. The hope in confrontation is to stimulate repentance. But what if the offender is not known? How do I handle a hit-and-run? Do I mutter, "I forgive whoever it was scratched my car--the scabiferous rat." Do I stew forever?  How about when I'm afflicted by a group of disagreeable people, a greedy corporation, a whole other nation that has missiles pointed at me? 

Forgiveness takes both humility and confidence. The strength to forgive doesn't come easy. Here I offer a batch of "forgiveness stretches". Some of these simply broaden my perspective and get above the fog of resentment.

Five Stretches for Better Forgiveness

Forgiveness means “canceling a debt”.

Forgiveness does not mean:

• that the offense was insignificant;
• that confrontation is unnecessary;
• that the offender need not: apologize, repent, turn around, and do better;
• that all consequences are erased even if everyone desires that.

Stretch #1: Love!

• “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.” Matthew 5:44
• “Without love… I am nothing.” 1 Corinthians 13
• “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God.” 1 John 4
• “Love covers a multitude of sins.” 1 Peter 4

Love: Have compassion. Do kindness.
Inasmuch as I practice unconditional compassion and kindness, then decisions about forgiveness are not complicated. Forgiveness can be reflexive rather than calculated.

 Stretch #2: Discern!

“And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more with knowledge and all discernment…” Philippians 1:9-11

“If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God…” James 1

Stretch #3: Rejoice!

“Rejoice in the Lord always; again I say, rejoice! Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” Philippians chapter 4

“Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.” Matthew chapter 5

“Not forgiving is like drinking rat poison,
and then waiting around for the rat to die.”
- author Anne Lamott

“While physical training has some value,
training in holy living
is useful for everything.

It has promise for this life now
and the life to come.” 1 Timothy 4


What are your Spiritual Stretches?