Maybe This Is What Exile Feels Like?

This Is Part I of III; Here’s the Second Part, and Here’s the Third Part

Context Matters

EXILE TRILOGY EPISODE I

The other day I was talking with a friend, (via FaceTime of course, #SocialDistancing), and they shared with me how much they love that verse from Jeremiah. You know the one. It’s about how God has plans to bless us. And I love that verse… It was one of the first verses I memorized when I was a teenager. It goes like this: 

For I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord… ummmm… 

On second thought, let’s look it up. My memory isn’t what it was, haha! 

“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.”

— Jeremiah 29:11 (NIV)

There is so much to enjoy about this verse: 

• God has plans!

• God has plans for me!

• God’s plans for me sound awesome!

Yay God! I love Him! He’s so good to me. 

But it’s important to understand this verse in its context… and the context was exile. Here’s the far less famous verse 10:

“This is what the Lord says: “You will be in Babylon for seventy years…”

— Jeremiah 29:10 (NIV)

God’s people had just become slaves! Jerusalem had just been conquered! Things were dark… Here’s my paraphrase of what God is saying here. 

“I know it’s bad. I know it’s dark. It might even get worse than what you’re experiencing right now. And in fact, it’s gonnu be bad and dark for a while. It might even feel like I’ve left you. But the truth is, I am here. I am with you and have I got plans for you…!“

I have misunderstood and misused verse 11 like it was some sort of blank check blessing. As if it were some sort of God insurance— my life won’t have anything bad happen in it, because it says so right here in the Good Book! Of course, that was immature thinking. I have difficulties in life, and my life doesn’t reflect this out-of-context promise.

And that’s why verse 10 is so important— and that’s why verse 10 is giving me hope today. Verse 10 tells us that yes it’s dark, but there is a future. Even though we are under a stay at home order trying to not catch COVID-19, I can hold onto the promises of God. Even though there may be difficult days ahead for all of us, God has plans. There is a future. We have hope.

Photo by John Salvino on Unsplash

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Tune in tomorrow for the second episode of my exile trilogy!

Thoughts on Psalm 67

May God be merciful and bless us.

May his face smile with favor on us.

The other day we had a guest speaker during our Zoom staff meeting. David Hamilton of YWAM Kona shared about Psalm 67 and it was wonderful. David is a genius who has such wonderful insight into the scripture. He inspired me to take a deeper look at this seven-verse Psalm. 

This is a song. It’s meant to be sung, and it’s meant to have instrumentation. We don’t know who the author is. Many Psalms are attributed to David, but we’re not sure who wrote this one. It appears that the psalmist may have been going through a rough time. Here’s the first line:

1 May God be merciful and bless us.

    May his face smile with favor on us. 

He’s first asking for mercy and blessing. And that seems so important to me too in these coronavirus days. This first line echoes the famous Benediction prayer found in Numbers 6:24-26. It’s likely that the author and the audience would have been very familiar with these words, and that familiarity may have even offered some comfort in difficult times. We don’t know the psalmist’s context and why they’re asking for mercy and blessing. But certainly, this is universal. We all face times when we need God’s favor. And perhaps, like few other times in history, it seems the whole earth is in need of God’s mercy today. 

Selah

I don’t think anyone knows exactly for sure what selah means. It appears to be a musical instruction. It’s sometimes translated as ‘interlude’ or ‘pause’. It could be an instruction to lift up our hands or even our voices. Selah very well may mean to pause, to meditate, to consider, to have space to reflect. There seems to be some meaning here. The psalmist places it after just one verse, and after a familiar phrasing of the Benediction. Perhaps the intent is to have those participating to more deeply reflect on this familiar prayer and receive comfort in the interlude. 

2 May your ways be known throughout the earth,

    your saving power among people everywhere.

3 May the nations praise you, O God.

    Yes, may all the nations praise you.

4 Let the whole world sing for joy,

    because you govern the nations with justice

    and guide the people of the whole world.  

After asking for blessing and favor, and after an important pause, the psalmist shifts our focus. We go straight to the nations, and the YWAMer in me responds to this, haha! It’s no longer about us or our need, it’s about God’s saving power among people everywhere. Yes, we need help, but let’s move on from that. May the whole earth know God’s salvation. 

I think it’s good to have a shift in focus here. It’s too easy to meditate on our own need in these times. I am under a stay at home order, where I can get stuck focusing only on my immediate needs. So it’s healthy for me and good for me to remember the needs in the wider world. I can shift my focus from myself to what is in God’s heart— that the whole earth would be drawn to him and know him.

Selah

Here again, the author calls for a pause, for a meditation on this. Perhaps it allows those participating to let their own focuses shift toward God’s great global agenda. Perhaps here is an invitation for us too to lift our hands and our voices and ask that God be made famous in all the nations— especially as so many are in such need.

5 May the nations praise you, O God.

    Yes, may all the nations praise you.

6 Then the earth will yield its harvests,

    and God, our God, will richly bless us.

Verses 5 echoes verses 3, and this repetition reinforces the sweet message of this song. Verse six seems to celebrate a hope for a good future. 

7 Yes, God will bless us,

   and people all over the world will fear him.

Verse seven assures us that God will do what we are hoping for— that he will bless us like we asked in the first verse. This nicely bookends the song with a reference to the first lines. 

My takeaway from Psalm 67 is this. I’m not to ignore my own need. It’s right to be realistic and to acknowledge that I need God’s help. However, I’m not supposed to stop there. Reflection on my own need and reaching out to God reminds me to consider and connect with his purposes. Of course, I can ask him to help me, but it’s good for me to turn my attention to God’s ongoing global agenda. Even in the midst of a stay-at-home order, even in a social distancing world, I am to experience something more expansive that connects me to the wider world. 

Image via NASA

I Love to Sing… In the car. By Myself. With the Volume Waaaaay up…

If it’s loud enough… I can nail every note of Bon Jovi’s Living on a Prayer up in here!

(Photo by Daniel von Appen on Unsplash)

I also love my church— because when it’s time to worship, they turn the music up enough so I can’t hear me. Which is also nice for the people around me. But for the last three weeks, with the stay at home order in place, we’ve been ‘going’ to online church. And I’m realizing it’s hard for me to worship remotely. 

So this is where I find myself struggling. Instead of participating, I just watch online worship. Even with the words on screen I am hesitant. I don’t want to hear me sing. So I mostly just mumble-hum along. I am a spectator. 

This is not who I want to be. Apparently, so much of my worship has been conditional. If there’s the big sound, if there’s the social comfort of a crowd all singing too, then I’ll pour my heart out to God in song. Sadly, it feels like I need all that and my spectator-worship just doesn’t move me or express what I want to express. 

Which reminded of this: 

“It’s who you are and the way you live that count before God. Your worship must engage your spirit in the pursuit of truth. That’s the kind of people the Father is out looking for: those who are simply and honestly themselves before him in their worship. God is sheer being itself—Spirit. Those who worship him must do it out of their very being, their spirits, their true selves, in adoration.” —John 4:23-24 (The Message)

I’m feeling convicted. I need to get over myself and learn how to truly worship God even by myself. I want to worship more truly. So here’s my plan, I’m going to create time in my corona-altered schedule for private, personal worship, probably on my walks. I intend for it to go like this:

Thanksgiving – I’m going to make a list in my mind of everything I can think of that I can be thankful for, big, small, trivial, and meaningful. 

Praise – From that place of gratitude, I’m going to make a list in my mind of who God is and what God is like. I’m going to focus on his character and nature. 

Worship – I’ll then transition into a more free form time of telling God what I think of him and how he makes me feel. 

Transcendence – I know there’s something beyond the singing, beyond the worship. But I don’t know how to put words to it. But my goal will be to experience that presence of God in that transcendent way. I’ve felt it before, on the beach watching waves roll in at sunset, in the room when my kids were born, and yes, while singing in church. I’m hoping to touch that sense of being with God, when I’m by myself. 

So how about you? Do you find yourself struggling to worship in this COVID-19 season? What are you doing to break through? 

I Admit It. I Binge Watched that Tiger King Show on Netflix

You’d think this might be a show about tigers… but it’s not, definitely not.

I binged watch the Tiger King show on Netflix. It was like a multi-episode slow motion car crash. I could. not. look. away. These characters can’t be real, can they? I don’t watch a lot of tv usually, but I just couldn’t help myself, and besides, I wanted to take my mind off the pandemic.

Then yesterday, came across this amazing quote by Dahlia Lithwick. She wrote an article titled, “How to Spend the Time”. (Link below)

“Suddenly, you are thinking about your time in a different way. Filling the days is not the chief concern. Time is not an empty thing to load up, so much as a precious thing to be doled out …”

— Dahlia Lithwick via Dave Pell's Nextdraft

Oh my gosh. 

I’ve been doing two things with my time that haven’t been helping me. First, I’ve been reading tons of stuff about COVID-19. I read how viruses spread. I read about what a corona virus is. I watched a video about soap. I read about why people hoard toilet paper. I watched a video about those spring break kids in Florida who didn’t practice social distancing. I suppose some of this reading is worthwhile; it’s good to be informed. But I think I was reading so I could feel like I had some sort of control over this situation. Turns out the more I read, the more anxious I got. On more than one occasion during this quarantine, I’ve woken up absurdly early (think 2:00ish and 3:00ish) and haven’t been able to get back to sleep. Overindulging information resulted in anxiety.

Second, I’ve found myself watching more Netflix and scrolling through more Instagram. Now a little entertainment and a little social media are fine, right? But I realized that I was watching twice as much tv than my normal. I was watching to numb myself from the underlying anxiety. Thus Tiger King. 

Now I’m not calling a media fast or canceling our Netflix subscription, (pretty sure the fam would string me up if I did!), but I have made some changes. 

1. I’m recognizing better when I’m seeking control

2. I’m recognizing better when I’m seeking to numb

3. I’m reading more Bible and less news

4. I’m praying more and watching less Netflix

5. I’m attempting healthy portions of nutrient-rich food

6. I’m walking or going for a jog daily

7. I’m giving myself and my fam more grace

How are you spending your time?

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How to Spend the Time by Dahlia Lithwick on Slate

Via Dave Pell’s Nextdraft

So I'm Blogging Again…

Photo by Sergi Kabrera on Unsplash

In the last week, keep finding myself at the keyboard trying to write my thoughts. Apparently, all this COVID-19 stuff has created a need in me to process . So I guess I’m blogging again. I’ll be posting some things here while I’m feeling the need. I do hope you enjoy. Feel free to connect through the comments or by using the Contact Us page.

Here we go…

Wooden on Leadership

I'm reading this book with the group of Mission Adventures leaders from our San Antonio del Mar (TJ) and Ensenada campuses. We've divided up the book into ten weekly chunks that we're reading and commenting on using Slack. So far we're two weeks into this, and I'm loving it.

If you don't know who Coach Wooden is, here's the short version: He won a whole bunch of basket ball games and championships while coaching at UCLA. He was a man of principle and of faith. He developed a system for coaching that really has turned out to be a system for life.

Here's my favorite quote so far: 

"A leader creates belief—in the leader's philosophy, in the organization, and in the mission."

Ten Things that Require Zero Talent

1. Being on time
2. Work hard
3. Effort
4. Body language
5. Energy
6. Attitude
7. Passion
8. Being coach able
9. Doing extra
10. Being Prepared

In the last few weeks I've been asked to speak at a couple of different YWAM bases to the staff that are running their Mission Adventures ministries. I talked about things like what it means to be on staff, how to minister to teenage students, and how to be partners with youth workers and pastors. I talked about the history of Mission Adventures and shared some stories from the early days.

And it seemed to me that the people I was talking to were super eager to know what to do, how to do it, and why it should get done. I mean they were very conscientious about wanting to do a good job, and it was clear that they wanted to help bless and encourage the students and their leaders.

Of course, both Kay Charlotte and I have lots to say about the why, how, and what of leading Mission Adventures. But I came across this list on Instagram during some downtime, and I realized that much of what we had been encouraging the staff to do was summarized pretty well here. And it turns out, this isn't exactly Mission Adventures specific. If you want to make a difference, or be a great employee, or an amazing boss or leader, this is some great encouragement!