the power of God

Continuing "God pulls"...

God is not waiting for us to be good. We do not have strength enough for that. We have the strength to say no to goodness, but not the strength to become good. God is not waiting for that. What God is waiting for is our surrender.

To surrender is to stop fighting. This is what God is waiting for, for us to stop fighting. God is waiting for us to let ourselves be pulled. It requires no effort on our part. It requires strength to resist, to keep fighting, but surrender is effortless. A release. The power that will change our lives and change the things around us is not our power but the power of God. The power of love.

Love is the power of God. It is love that pulls us to God and to the good life that we long for. And it is love that pulls us together with the other people who love. It is the power of love that changes people and things for the better. It is the power of love that breaks every chain. It is the power of love that drives out every fear. Because the power of love is the power of God. The power of people is nothing compared to this power, the threats and the lies of the crowds, they are nothing compared to the power of love.

And all that is necessary to experience this power is surrender.

Continued...

in chains

Continuing "God pulls"...

Everywhere we look we see people in chains. But God made us to be free.

We have given up our freedom, and the people around us despise it and trample it. But God respects the freedom we were granted. God will not pull us against our will. There is no power on earth that could hold us if God pulled us free, but God will not pull us if we do not wish it. So we remain in chains, held back from the life we long for.

We resist God's pull because we are proud and easily deceived. If we could break our own chains, we would do it. We try, again and again. We enslave others, thinking that somehow makes us more free. Yet we remain in bondage, to money, to people, to fear. Our problem is not that we are too weak, but too strong. We cling so strongly to the little control we have, the little lives we have built for ourselves, so these are easily used to threaten and coerce us. While God waits for us, lamenting as Jesus did, "How often have I desired to gather you together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing!"

It would take no effort of ours to break free, for God would do it for us. We do not need to change our circumstances. We do not need to change all the people around us. We only need to change our own mind—God will do the rest. But we don't believe that. Instead we put all our effort into denying our situation, insisting it is better than it is, constantly working to convince ourselves that we are not in chains. And the people around us are very willing to help us in that effort.

While God waits.

Continued...

 

Ecce Homo (Honoré Daumier, 1850)

God is pulling

Continuing "God pulls"...

That's because God is pulling us. Like the gravity that inexplicably holds us to the earth, and keeps our planet from hurtling away from the sun, like the nuclear force that holds together each and every atom of the universe, God is holding each of us. And we are being pulled toward God. Not physically but spiritually, with a force more powerful than that of atoms or stars. God is pulling each one of us.

God is not just calling out to us, from afar, as is sometimes our impression. God is close, touching us, pulling us. Not just urging us to do better, either. If we are to move, to change, we won't be the ones who make it happen. God is the one who moves us, God is the one who changes us. God provides both the inspiration and the energy, the power, for any good change or action or word. God is not just calling, God is pulling.

Jesus said, "When I am lifted up, I will draw all people to myself." And this is what is happening now. Each of us is being drawn towards God, whether we are aware of it or not. Perhaps at moments we feel it, as a deep longing, or a twinge of conscience, or a flicker of light in our darkest moment. But whether we sense it or not, God is always pulling, with every breath we take. Constantly. Relentlessly.

But not irresistibly.

Continued...

we cannot will what we cannot see

I've planned a long series of entries for this year, that I'm calling "God pulls." Here's the first, an introduction:

 

We cannot will what we cannot see. We cannot attempt what we cannot even imagine. And we cannot choose what we know is impossible.

But still we long for it. In the depths of our soul we desire a good that we do not see, a truly good way of living that we don't see anywhere around us, except maybe in brief glimpses. And those soon fade. So, in any moment, if we try to do good we find that we can't even imagine how true goodness in that situation might look. We've heard stories of Jesus' inspiring life, and read what he taught, but trying to follow that in any real sense seems utterly impossible. Because it is impossible for us; he even said so. "No one is good but God alone," Jesus said.

Yet still we long for it.

Continued...

In Jerusalem
the count goes on; the king waits
asleep in the straw

(previous Christmas haikus here)

gobbler's revenge

 We enjoyed seeing our friend Al Tauber today. Here's a Thanksgiving gift from him, a little late:

perfect love casts out fear

 "Perfect love casts out fear."

I've often thought of that biblical line in fearful times. And this year seems to be an especially fearful time, with the deadly pandemic, the related severe economic downturn, and a bitter national political battle on top of it. I guess I used to think that verse meant that if we focused on loving others, it would push out our fears for ourselves. Maybe that's true, but then love for others in distress can also stir fear for them. And lately I've been seeking for a deeper answer to the fears so prevalent around us.

It seems to me that only the love of God can cast out all fear. To love God is to love the one who cannot be threatened or lost or taken from us. It is loving the one who will never turn on us or let us down. But loving God can sometimes seem amorphous or intangible, more like an idea than a hug. Lately I've been trying to understand the reality of God more through the reality of the good things that come from God. God is not merely a conceptual "good." God is the source and sustainer of all that is good and right and beautiful in our world, all that we delight in and are inspired by every day of our lives. To affirm and embrace and participate in the real good we see around us is to love God. But there's even more in that. A few words after "perfect love casts out fear," John wrote, "we love because he first loved us." Thus the love we have for God, for all that is good and right and beautiful because it is from God, this love is evidence that God loves us. The love we have for God is the love that is from God, for us, in us. And to be loved by God, the almighty, eternal God, should be enough to cast out any fear.

So often we respond to fear with "fight or flight." And usually that leads to the desperate pursuit of power, in order to more effectively protect ourselves or destroy our enemies. But Jesus showed us how to dissipate fear with love. People could see the love of God in Jesus casting out his fear, and that showed them something beautiful that they could love. So that they might have God's love in them also.

psalm 146

Do not put your trust in princes, 

in human beings, who cannot save. 

When their spirit departs, they return to the ground; 

on that very day their plans come to nothing. 

 

Blessed are those whose help is the God of Jacob, 

whose hope is in the LORD their God. 

 

He is the Maker of heaven and earth, 

the sea, and everything in them— 

he remains faithful forever. 

 

 He upholds the cause of the oppressed 

 and gives food to the hungry. 

The LORD sets prisoners free, 

the LORD gives sight to the blind, 

the LORD lifts up those who are bowed down, 

the LORD loves the righteous. 

The LORD watches over the foreigner 

and sustains the fatherless and the widow, 

but the way of the wicked he brings to ruin. 

 

The LORD reigns forever, 

your God, O Zion, for all generations.