Take me back to my first love

Letter from Exile 9

God’s Word: Matthew 16: 21-28

21 From that time Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised. 22 And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, saying, “Far be it from you, Lord! This shall never happen to you.” 23 But he turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a hindrance to me. For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.”

24 Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. 25 For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. 26 For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul? 27 For the Son of Man is going to come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will repay each person according to what he has done. 28 Truly, I say to you, there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom.”

 Reflection: 

I know what you are thinking. Ronnie is going to write a treatise on this passage because it is so dense.  I won’t.  Let me just focus on one verse, v26.  Let me begin with a movie illustration to help us. Note: Just because I cite a movie does NOT mean that the movie is suitable for all audiences.  Parents please do your due diligence before using a movie from one of my illustrations for your family movie night! 

One of my favorite Nicholas Cage movies ( <--those are words you don’t hear very often) is called “The Family Man.”  The plot is about a man who lost his first love.  The movie explores the consequences of success.  Jack and Kate were at an airport.  Jack was a humble guy and deeply in love with Kate.   He is about to leave for a 12 month internship.  Kate wants him to stay to build a simple life together.  Against her wishes, Jack decides to leave and he becomes outrageously successful.  But because of his success, his former life vanishes and with it, Kate.  

13 years later, Jack is living the bachelor’s life on Wall Street. Money, decadence and power.  From the audience’s perspective, he is unrecognizable to his former self.  The humble man is gone, but Jack has gained the world.  

Then one night, Christmas Eve, he meets a man (perhaps an angel?) who has the power to “rework” Jack's life (without his permission).  The next morning, Christmas day, Jack wakes up in a home that he does not recognize, and with kids he does not recognize.  But Kate was there.  Apparently, the angel changed history such that Jack is now living a humble, family life with Kate. This is the life he would have lived had he not left on the internship 13 years earlier.  

While this was a wild shock to Jack (and quite funny for the audience), he ultimately discovers a richer life than he ever had on Wall Street.  In fact, he remembers who he is.  See, every dollar and ounce of success that Jack achieved separated him from his first love.  He was seduced by success and the high life.  Jack had gained the world, but forfeited his soul.  His new family life showed him that.  Sadly, this alternate history of being with Kate did not last.  He woke up again in his king size bed in Manhattan with satin sheets...all alone.  It was all just a dream.  

Ironically, success is the occasion that leads their former life of humility to vanish--and spiritual tenderness with it. 

The movie ends on a note of hope.  On offer to Jack was a possibility of returning to his first love.  I LOVE this movie.  Why?  Because good fictional stories show us things that are really true. See, I have seen the treasures of Puerto Rico eat up many people whom I love. I think of the person who knows Christ, he/she moves to San Juan, and becomes extremely wealthy.  Ironically, success is the occasion that leads their former life of humility to vanish--and spiritual tenderness with it.  

I have seen the serviceman/servicewoman/agent who takes an assignment to San Juan and the anonymity (and pay bonus) leads them to put their spiritual life on ‘pause’.  I have seen dear Puerto Rican friends (whom I walked with in Christ) leave the island to take jobs for significant pay raises--only to never give themselves to Christian community again.  And with time, these people (who I respect so much) get what they are looking for.  They become wildly successful according to the world.  But they have forfeited their soul.  They are largely unrecognizable, just like Jack.  

Here is the good news:  While we don’t have an angel to “rework” history, we have a COVID-19 crisis.  DON’T WASTE THIS MOMENT!  God is speaking to you.  Because of this crisis, we have our success neutralized and suspended for a moment.    Somewhere along the way our treasure had shifted from the things of God to the things of this world, and this virus is exposing all of it.  But now those counterfeit treasures are taken away, for a hot minute anyway.  God is forcing us to be still and rethink who we are. 

Somewhere along the way our treasure had shifted from the things of God to the things of this world, and this virus is exposing all of it.

Have our successes turned us into a shell of who we once were, spiritually speaking?

Do you remember when you could hear God’s voice?  Do you remember when His voice used to make you feel safe? Do you remember the days when it was easier to run back into His arms?   Let the Lord take you back to your first love.  No more forfeiting.  Let’s all go back.  

Prayer:  

Father, take me back to my first love. I am begging you, my Lord, make my heart tender to your voice.  Take me back.  Amen.  

 Praying outside of ourselves:

• Pray for COVID-19 to be the surprising agent of God to bring the whole world to Christ.

• Pray God’s presence for the sick who feel like lepers, and unwanted and forgotten. 

• Pray for the well, that they would love the sick and have deep compassion.

What does faithfulness look like right now?

Letter from Exile 5

God’s Word: Psalm 118:25-29

25 Save us, we pray, O Lord!

    O Lord, we pray, give us success!

26 Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!

    We bless you from the house of the Lord.

27 The Lord is God,

    and he has made his light to shine upon us.

Bind the festal sacrifice with cords,

    up to the horns of the altar!

28 You are my God, and I will give thanks to you;

    you are my God; I will extol you.

29 Oh give thanks to the Lord, for he is good;

    for his steadfast love endures forever!

 Reflection: 

The very first verse of our reading spoke the exact words in my heart.  “Save us!”  Now, let’s back up.  Let’s not hear what the psalmist is NOT saying.  He is not saying, “Lord, my health is the single most important thing, so preserve me!”  He is not saying,  “Lord, you are my cosmic vending machine, you are my personal doctor, so do me a solid!”  Not at all!  The psalmist is asking for protection because he was saved FOR something.  And so are we. 

Health is not an end unto itself.  Earlier in the same psalm the writer reflects on a situation that he is going through and says, “The Lord has disciplined me severely, but he has not given me over to death. Open to me the gates of righteousness that I may enter through them.”  Do you notice it?  God provided protection, SO THAT, the psalmist may walk into the gates of righteousness.

What are “gates of righteousness”?  Well, I am not precisely sure what to do with the poetic language, but it does not mean that we need to do 10 quiet times so that God loves us.  It does not mean that if you read this devotional, God will love you more. Nope.

Nourish your dependence on the Lord so deeply, that it actually shapes your choices.  Don’t let your faith stay stuck on paper.  Work it out in your life.

Here is what it means on the most basic level:  Be sensitive to the Lord especially in this weird time. Walk with Him. Don’t waste your circumstances.  Let the Lord search you.  If you are still the same person when the stay at home order is lifted than you were when it began, then you have not walked through the gates of righteousness.  Nourish your dependence on the Lord so deeply, that it actually shapes your choices.  Don’t let your faith stay stuck on paper.  Work it out in your life.  

Try this: with every action you do today (even the most mundane), ask this question: “What would faithfulness to God look like right now?”  Open your computer and ask: “What would faithfulness look like?”  Talk to your kids.  Look at your grocery bill.  Clean out your fridge.  Look at your bank account online. Play a board game.  Wash your car.  Read a book.  Do all of these things, and ask: “What would faithfulness look like?” 

With every action you do today ask this question:  “What would faithfulness to God look like right now?” 

In the 1500’s, the bubonic plague ravished Europe.  Some estimate that it killed up to half the population. In the middle of the crisis, the great Reformer Martin Luther asked himself the same question that is before us.  What does faithfulness look like right now?  Here is what he wrote: 

“I shall ask God mercifully to protect us. Then I shall fumigate, help purify the air, administer medicine, and take it. I shall avoid places and persons where my presence is not needed in order not to become contaminated and thus perchance infect and pollute others, and so cause their death as a result of my negligence. If God should wish to take me, he will surely find me and I have done what he has expected of me and so I am not responsible for either my own death or the death of others. If my neighbor needs me, however, I shall not avoid place or person, but will go freely.”  --Martin Luther, 1527

Yes, Luther desired to be saved. But why? He knows that he was saved FOR something.  Do you?  Let’s walk through the gates of righteousness together.  Let’s not waste a single opportunity to change, serve, and grow in Christ.  

Prayer:  

Dear Lord, my great Refuge, I come to you humbly to ask you to make my legs strong to walk through your gates.  Make my hands hardened to serve you and your people with endurance.  Make my heart soft so that the Spirit changes me.  Lord, I confess that there is so much selfish inertia in my life that wants to keep me stuck.  Would your Spirit work in me?  Shine your light in my heart so that I can see things that I need to surrender to you.  God, use COVID-19 as discipline to turn over to you every square inch of my soul.  Don’t let me keep ANYTHING from you!  Hide me in your care.  In Christ I pray, Amen.  

 Praying outside of ourselves:

• Pray for researchers to quickly and skillfully find a cure or vaccine that could mitigate the suffering. 

• Pray for the true Church to be strengthened to serve others.  

• Pray for the elderly who cannot have any visitors and feel particularly lonely.  

• Pray for stock markets to bounce back so that workers can work, and givers can give abundantly.

• Give thanks to God for the people who have recovered from COVID-19.