"Be Here Now"

Won't you be glad when COVID-19 is over?  I'll bet you have plenty of ideas for the things you want to do when this pandemic is done.  Personally, I have some travel plans that are on hold until we get through this mess.  I can't wait to go back to Virginia and visit family and friends--but those plans may very well be delayed.  That doesn't stop me from thinking about the good times I'll have when life is back to normal, though.  I want to go hiking and camping and kayaking.  I want to go to church and be with people I care about.  Yep--that'll be the day!

In Jeremiah 29:11 (NIV), God speaks these words through the prophet, to people who are desperate for better days:  

For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.

Many people have adopted this as their "life verse," a sort of guiding principle for their lives.  This is a great verse, and definitely worthy of being treated as such.  It reminds us that no matter how bad things get, or how discouraged we may become, God has a good future planned for us.

But let's read that verse in context of God's other word for struggling people.  In verses 4-7 (NIV), God says:

This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says to all those I carried into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon:  “Build houses and settle down; plant gardens and eat what they produce. Marry and have sons and daughters; find wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage, so that they too may have sons and daughters. Increase in number there; do not decrease. Also, seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper.” 

These words remind us not to focus so much on the future that we forget the present.  In the poignant words of Ram Dass, we are reminded to "be here now."  These three simple words encapsulate what God was telling the people of Israel.  They may long for the future, and God may promise a brighter day--but God's people are meant to "be here now."  

So, if you're feeling anxious about the present, remember that the future will be brighter.  But today, settle down.  Invest yourself in those around you.  Find something constructive to do. Seek other people's prospertity--be helpful to others.  Remember to pray for your enemies and your neighbors alike.  Practice mindfulness--be present in the present moment.  While you have faith that tomorrow will be a brighter day, don't forget to "be here now."

"God is Broken"

"God must be broken," someone once told me.  "What kind of God would allow so much suffering in this world?"

I nodded in agreement.  "A broken God," I answered.

As of now, COVID-19 has claimed at least 164,391 lives worldwide, not to mention the "collateral damage" of the disease.  Some of the peripheral pain caused by this strain of Coronavirus is:

• Mental health crises brought on by isolation, financial hardship
• Increased suicide rate
• Massive unemployment
• Rise in domestic violence
• Educational plans put on hold or destroyed
• Decrease in access to public health services, leading to exacerbated health situations, even death

You could probably add your own story of hardship to the list above.  In times like these, many people express feelings of doubt.  They ask, "Can a good God be all-powerful?  Can an all-powerful God be good?"  I'm going to let theologians who are more qualified than myself answer this question--I'm sure you'll Google the answer.  Instead, I want to answer my friend who said, "God must be broken."

Yes, indeed--God is broken.  

God's heart is broken by the brokenness of this world.  God weeps with those who weep.   When you go through sorrow or fear or heartbreak or disappointment, God feels that pain right along with you.  God never intended it to be this way--but God does want to heal your hurt.

God's body was broken by the brokenness of this world.  When Jesus died on the cross, it was because this cruel world couldn't abide someone so loving, so gracious, so wise, and so healing to continue to draw breath.  Yes, it's true that "hurt people hurt people," and the hurting world put Jesus on the cross.  Because of this, God knows first hand the suffering and pain caused by the brokenness of the world.  

God's mind was even broken by the brokenness of the world.  The state of creation is so fallen, so fractured, so failed that in an instant it broke the mind of God.  On the cross, Jesus felt so ripped apart that he spoke the unthinkable: "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"  Divine Jesus felt torn from the Trinity, like the curtian of the Temple that was shredded from top to bottom.

Yes, God is broken--and yet, God lives.

It takes a broken God to know the suffering of a shattered world.  But it takes a risen God to declare triumph over the pain.  That's what Easter was all about--Jesus announcing that even though the pain is real, there is hope and remaking.  And it's good news that even though Jesus is risen, he still bears the scars.

When Jesus appeared to the disciples, Thomas missed the event.  In his doubt, he told them that they'd fallen to mass hysteria.  He wouldn't believe it, he said, until he saw and touched Jesus' scars.  Then, a week later, Jesus appeared again.  This time, Thomas was there.  Trembling as Jesus let him touch the places where the nails and spear had been, Thomas declared, "My Lord, and my God!"  

Even though Jesus was resurrected, he still kept the scars.  This was so he could show broken Thomas that he was broken, too.  Rather than asking Thomas to exercise some great faith, Jesus met his friend right where was--in his pain and doubt and shattered spirit.  Jesus said, "You know--I'm broken, too.  Here, touch my brokenness, and let's be broken together for a while."  Then, this sharing of pain brought relief, from which sprouted faith.

I wonder--during this time of COVID-19, has your faith been shaken or shattered?  Have you suffered hardship, loss, grief, or dispair?  Have you thought that God must be broken?  Well--you're right.  God was broken, and is broken still.  But in that brokenness, God knows your pain.  God shares your pain--but offers you promise.  The resurrection is real.  Just like Jesus' broken body was remade, you can be put back together as well.  Jesus doesn't ask that much of you--he meets you right where you are.  Even if you're not ready to say, "My Lord and my God," Jesus simply says, "Look--touch--see.  This is my body, broken for you."

Jesus' Goldilocks Prayer

The Lord's Prayer is all about praying like Goldilocks.  Yes, you heard that right.  In the story of Goldilocks and the Three Bears, Goldilocks tries out one chair and declares it's too big.  Then she tests another chair and finds it's too small.  Finally, she settles into a third chair and says it's "just right."  Next, she tries some "too hot" porridge, some "too cold" porridge, and settles on some "just right" porridge (I don't know how ANY porridge could be "just right").  Lastly, she finds one bed to be "too hard," another "too soft," and the final one to be "just right."  Goldilocks, for all her breaking-and-entering, trespassing, and food-stealing faults, knows the value of moderation and contentment. 

"”Somebody has been at my porridge, and has eaten it all up!”" From English Fairy Tales (1918) by Flora Annie Steel, illustrated by Arthur Rackham (link to page / title).

Our Buddhist friends talk a lot about non-attachment.  A more positive way of saying this is contemntent.  This is found in taking the Middle Path through life--one of moderation, one that's neither too hot, too cold, but "just right."  Jesus' Goldilocks Prayer gives an example of this very thing.  In a nutshell, the Lord's Prayer is about letting go.  It's about surrender.  It's about not striving for too much, nor settling for too little, but finding that sweet spot of peace in yourself, and with God.

This little prayer, found in Matthew 6 (NKJV), bookends with verses 9 and 13b: "Our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your name...for Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever.  Amen."  In essence, these phrases say, "It's not all about me."  This is echoed by another statement of contetment, a reminder that it's not all about me: "Your kingdom come.  Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven (v.10)."  By remembering that God, or Higher Power, is in charge, and we are not, we allow ourselves to detach from everything else that may be concerning us.  We bookend our time of prayer with the idea that anything we ask for is beyond our ability to control.  And when we realize we can't control it, we can let it go.  It becomes aboug God's kingdom, power, glory, and purpose, not mine.  It becomes less about what I want, and more about Ultimate Love. About Goodness.  About "Just Right."

"Give us this day our daily bread (v. 11)" is neither a plea for divine help during a time of austerity and fasting, nor is it a request for God to bless with prosperity and privilege.  It is a Goldilocks prayer of "just enough, just for today."  This kind of prayer is an exercise to build inner contentment, because it asks for neither hot nor cold, but "just right."

The prayer continues in verse 12, "And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors."  I could do (and have done) a whole teaching on just this phrase.  For now, I will simply point out that this verse speaks again of contentment.  Contentment with things as they are, even if I have been damaged by someone else.  Lack of attachment to the feelings of hurt that I've been nurturing--replaced, instead, with a sense of balance that says, "As I've been forgiven, so I will forgive."  Again, not too hot (anger) and not too cold (revenge is a dish best served cold, or so says Khan Soonien Singh).  Instead, this simple prayer is one of peace

The final phrase in verse 13 is also one of balance.  "And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one."  Put differently, you might say, "Don't lead me into too much pleasure, or too much pain either."  Again, this prayer offers a way of balance--a Middle Way between extremes.  

In astronomy, The Goldilocks Zone refers to the habitable area around a planet where the temperature is not too hot and not too cold, for liquid water to exist.  This makes the planet potentially habitable.  In life, each of us needs to find our own Goldilocks Zone, where things aren't too hard or too soft, too big or too small, too hot or too cold.  We need a zone that's livable, in moderation, in balance, in harmony.  To find this kind of contentment spot, Jesus recommends the Goldilocks Prayer (more commonly known as the Lord's Prayer).  I hope you'll find that it's "just right."

I wish you peace.