be: 40 words in 40 days

“Be still and know that I am God.”- Psalm 46:10

“Be.” What does that mean? The focus is not on doing. It is on who I am inside. Who am I? The scary thing about being is that you have to face the question, “who am I?” In “doing”, we are satisfied with being defined by what we do. Sometimes we use the things we do to avoid the question of who we are. “Who am I” looks beyond the tasks, the image, the roles and gets at the very soul. 

When we cease to be defined by what we do, we have to face the darkness of our own souls – the insecurities, the sin, the addictions, the compulsions. 

Our identity in Christ is the key to our conundrum. In Beloved, Henri Nouwen writes

 “Being the Beloved is the origin and the fulfillment of the life of the Spirit. Becoming the Beloved means letting the truth of our Belovedness become enfleshed in everything we think, say or do. As long as ‘being the Beloved’ is little more than a beautiful thought or a lofty idea that hangs above my life to keep me from becoming depressed, nothing really changes. What is required is to become the Beloved in the commonplaces of my daily existence and, bit by bit, to close the gap that exists between what I know myself to be and the countless specific realities of everyday life. Becoming the Beloved is pulling the truth revealed to me from above down into the ordinariness of what I am.”

I want to wrap up who I am - my “be”- in belovedness.

free

In case you didn’t notice, yesterday I did not post a word. It was a horrible day with a lethal combination of bad luck and exhaustion. The final blow included unloading the car in a driving deluge.

Sam’s injuries included hitting his eye on the window of the car, a busted lip compliments of his brother, and nearly piercing his own ear with one of my earrings. The giant loop had a clip on the back. Sam placed the earring on his lobe and closed it. He nearly had a piercing by the time I removed the earring. 

Last night when I realized I had not posted a word, I lay horizontal in my comfy bed. Dynamite would not have moved me. Hence the word free, I am free to choose not to do something. 

I am free to choose who to worship. The young man pictured above made an impression on my soul. He participated in a native dance exhibition when we visited Peru. He danced before the Lord with all his heart and all his might. He will live in my memory as a perfect picture of free.

If Lent teaches us anything, it is that we need Jesus. His death gave me freedom. I cannot earn His love, deserve His forgiveness, or merit His grace. 

If the Son of Man makes you free, you will be free indeed. John 8:36

clean: 40 words in 40 days

This morning I unfurled clean, white sheets across our bed. The smell of laundry detergent mixed with slightly musty wafted up to my nostrils. The nearly wrinkle-free, spotless sheet reminded me of what it means to be forgiven.

On this day I’ve mused clean. What does it look like for God to pour His infinite love into a finite vessel. He removes my sin as far as the east is from the west. What if I loved that way? Lived that way?

A clean start. A clean bill of health. A clean slate. I am given these and more. 

For now a sleepy seven-year-old boy sleeps in that white haven. Tomorrow I will start over. Clean.

aroma: 40 words in 40 days

Few things are as primal to us humans as the sense of smell. 

Scientists and psychologists alike are fascinated by the link of smell to memory and emotion. Smells evoke memory faster and stronger than our other senses. Just the other day I smelled shampoo and went down memory lane to the summer camp of my childhood. I could recall every detail of that dark concrete block musty shower. 

While at the summer camp, I smelled the aroma of Christ. I asked the director, Heno Head, what was different about the people there. He shared the gospel with me. At 10 years of age, I bowed my knee to Christ. I wanted what they had. They were a pleasing aroma.

Several times the New Testament refers to a fragrant offering. In 2 Corinthians, believers are called the aroma of Christ and fragrance of life. The Greek word is linked all the way back to the sacrifices of the temple. When the priests offered up the lamb or other meat, the burning of it produced a smell like your best charcoal grills. I’ve not often thought about what smell would have been about the temple. 

When we were in Paris, we visited Notre Dame Cathedral. Priests walked the aisle with enormous censers. The fragrant smoke rising to the ceiling symbolized our prayers rising to heaven. 

My online lexicon states that aroma in the Greek is related to the ancient notion that God smells and is pleased with the odor of sacrifices. Is God pleased with my aroma? Because of Christ, yes. 

Today I will muse the aroma I am emitting. Is it the fragrance of life? Is it the smell of death? 

penitence: 40 words in 40 days

penitence |ˈpenitns|

noun

the action of feeling or showing sorrow and regret for having done wrong; repentance: a public display of penitence.

Unless you are a monk, penitence is not a popular word. Today we suffer from shame-phobias. It is easy to confuse penitence with shame. Even though we don’t hear enough about it, penitence is vital to a growing relationship with Christ.

Lent is to remind us of the place we occupy in Christ. Forgiven. Redeemed. To experience the fullness of this forgiveness, confession is key. To experience the richness of living as The Redeemed, penitence is paramount. 

On Ash Wednesday, we read a Penitential Litany:

Most holy and merciful Father:
We confess to you and to one another,
and to the whole communion of saints
in heaven and on earth,
that we have sinned by our own fault
in thought, word, and deed;
by what we have done, and by what we have left undone.

The process looks like this. I sin. I feel guilt or shame. I ask for forgiveness and receive it. I apply the blood of Christ. I move forward in grace. 

I realize that my life is not marked by this process. I go weeks without confessing my sins to the Lord. And I sin every single day multiple times a day, sometimes a minute.

Reading those words on Ash Wednesday among the fellowship of believers moved me to thirst for more penitence in my life.