release: 40 words in 40 days

Lent culminates in the resurrection. A place where Christians celebrate the forgiveness of sins and the release from the prison of depravity. We are new creatures because of the forgiveness extended to us.

This morning as I mapped out my world, my day. I noticed how many offenses I carried. I thought of how futile and unnecessary it is for me to carry those. It’s exhausting. It’s stressful. It’s harmful.

One of the meanings of forgiveness is release. I can let go of these offenses and my compulsion to control the outcome. When Peter asks Jesus how  many times we must forgive our brothers, Jesus replies 70 x 7. Then he tells a story about a king and an evil servant. 

The servant ran up a debt of $100,000. When the king called the debt, the servant threw himself at his feet and asked for more time to pay. The king acquiesced.  As soon as the evil servant left the room, he encountered a fellow servant who owed him $10. He seized him by the throat and demanded he pay up. When the fellow servant begged for mercy, the evil servant threw him in jail. No mercy. 

The king got wind of the injustice. He dealt with the evil servant by demanding that he pay up the $100,000 in total. Jesus said, “And that’s exactly what my Father in heaven is going to do to each one of you who doesn’t forgive unconditionally anyone who asks for mercy.” Luke 18:35

I want to bask in the mercy extended to me through Jesus. And then let it overflow to those in my life. These petty offenses pale in the light of the love given to me freely. I release them.

together: 40 words in 40 days

Baboons experience stress. 

And there are people who study this phenomenon. One of these, err, scientists wrote that type A baboons often have chronically elevated levels of stress hormones. This impacts their health negatively. Their reproductive systems don’t work all that well. They have elevated blood pressure. Wounds don’t heal quickly. All in all, they are not in great shape.

Believe it or not, baboons come in type A varieties, mediocres and slackers. The mediocre baboons experienced the least amount of harmful effects of stress. Relationships and social connections, among baboons mind you, actually counteract the stress response. The ones most likely to reach out to other baboons experienced less harmful effects of stress. 

Baboons, and I am quoting here, who need baboons are the luckiest baboons in the world. 

The bottomline: social connectedness is the most powerful antidote for stress-related disease. 

At our church, we just say “together is better.” And the baboons can tell you that.

The “data” in this post comes from Monkeyluv: And Other Essays on Our Lives as Animals by Robert Sapolsky, as quoted in Emotional Sobriety by Tian Dayton, Ph.D.

communion: 40 words in 40 days

Believers gather on Sundays to worship. We partake of communion representing the body and blood of Christ, our Savior. He commanded us to do so when he returned after his resurrection. 

Communion means sharing. It is from the Greek word meaning fellowship.

My oldest son Matthew (21) visited this weekend. He had minor surgery on Friday. All weekend I doted and nursed. And hovered. And finally asked, “do you want to be alone?” 

On Friday I had the honor and horror to sit in on the surgery. I’ve been taught that not all people appreciate gruesome detail, so I will spare you here. It was a strange surreal experience seeing the surgeon putting things where they should not belong. I kept telling myself, “He is ok. He is safe.” I tapped alternately one leg then the other. Tap. Sway. Chant. He is ok. Only weird medical-types do this. 

Today we decided to get another hour of rest and to “stream” church on our computer. Matt, Matthew and I gathered round the large screen and folded clothes. Bill Wellons preached on “The Place of the Skull.” As we snail through Luke, we have finally reached the last chapters. Jesus is on the cross. Bill paused to pound nails in wood. The sound called us to the scene. My Lord hung naked on a cross for me. His body, mutilated. He was mocked and folks sneered at him. And I am among the mockers. 

As we reached the close of the service, Bill mentioned communion. Matt shot down the stairs. I heard clanging. Matthew looked at me, “He’s getting communion.” We laughed. I love this about your dad, I said. 

He made it back up just in time. We sat among folded laundry. The dog napped in a spot of sunshine. We shared the body, the blood. 

This is communion.

genuine: 40 words in 40 days

Two times this week I’ve had the pleasure of sitting with new-ish friends and telling my story. I am reminded of the power of our testimony! The Word says that we will overcome our Enemy by the power of the blood and the word of our testimony. 

My story involves a rupturing of a false identity that I pieced together. I learned about Jesus and His Power of Forgiveness when I was ten years old. Then in college, some kind and devoted young women taught me what it meant to walk out life with Christ. 

I began to read the Word and hunger for it. Fruit showed up in my life. And I began to hide. In my pride, I patched together an external version of what I thought it looked like to be a Christian. I adorned myself with fig leaves. 

My God would not allow me to stay covered in ridiculous leaves when a robe of righteousness awaited. In an amazing show of grace, he outed me in my early twenties. I took off the mask and began to walk in brokenness. 

From time to time, I try to hide again. In performance or in self-righteousness, but God is gently forming me inside out. He is teaching what it means to take up the cross and follow Him. 

He is refining my faith to be genuine.

Pure gold put in the fire comes out of it proved pure; genuine faith put through this suffering comes out proved genuine. When Jesus wraps this all up, it's your faith, not your gold, that God will have on display as evidence of his victory. 1 Peter 1:7

worth: 40 words in 40 days

The worth of a thing is determined by the price paid. The price paid for my soul is the invaluable blood of my Savior. My God paid the price of His Only Son to ransom me.

My true worth lies in the fact that I am a child of God. No failure, no accomplishment can change our relationship.

I often try and set my own value by performing or by judging my behavior. How clean is my house? What size clothing do I wear? How good are my child's grades? This is an affront to the blood.

I was bought with a price. The dignity woven into my soul and body mirrors the dignity in my Master's body. I want to learn to honor my body like it is the sacred dwelling place that it is.

Or didn't you realize that your body is a sacred place, the place of the Holy Spirit? Don't you see that you can't live however you please, squandering what God paid such a high price for? The physical part of you is not some piece of property belonging to the spiritual part of you. God owns the whole works. So let people see God in and through your body. (1 Corinthians 6:16-20 MSG)