Who Are You Becoming?*

In college, I took a semester off and worked at the Louisiana World's fair in New Orleans. My first day of work was Ash Wednesday.  I arrived at the office a few minutes early, but even after start time, no one was there.  I was confused, so in my naiveté I asked, "where is everyone?” They said, “It’s Ash Wednesday.” I thought, “oh maybe they were very religious and just wanted to kick the beginning of the Lenten season off right, having some extra morning devotion.” I quickly learned, however, that everyone had apparently really indulged in the fatness of Marti Gras. I noticed the longer I stayed in that city, the more I not only began to accept this destructive overindulgence, but I indiscriminately embraced the behaviors that devalued others and myself and harmed my relationship with God.  It was a city with great fun, food, music, culture,  but foolishness came easy for me there.  At first I lived in Kenner a little drive from the city. Then I moved into New Orleans. Then some the not so good values of Crescent City moved into me and I became less like the person God intended me to be. God helped me realize I needed to get out of that town and get parts of that town out of me. (No offense to New Orleanians, I loved the food, fun, music, and culture of your great historic city, but in my weakness, I was too easily drawn to become someone God didn’t intend for me to become. My denomination has a seminary there, but at the time I was not drawn that direction. As a matter of fact I was running from God’s call on my life. Also, my apologies if this sounds moralistic or judgmental of others, that is not my intention.)

They say you become like those around you.  In the Bible, we learn about Lot, the nephew of Abraham. Abraham, though far from perfect, kept seeking God and was blessed.  Lot on the other hand kept drifting further from God. At first, he and his family lived on the plain outside of the wicked city called Sodom. Then Lot is living inside the city accepting the city’s behaviors as normal. Then just before God is about to destroy the city, Lot is sitting at the city gate where the leaders sit. He had become just like the worst of those in the city, even offering his own daughters to wicked men.  In God’s grace He sent angels to rescue Lot and his family from the coming judgement He would bring on Sodom and sister city Gomorrah. Lot was about to change his mind about getting away from the evil city, but God’s messengers insisted.  Genesis 19:16 says, “When he (Lot) hesitated, the men grasped his hand and the hands of his wife and of his two daughters and led them safely out of the city, for the LORD was merciful to them.”  God’s plan is always to rescue, but we gotta accept being rescued. We also read that the angels had warned Lot's family not to look back, but Lot’s wife couldn’t resist and she infamously became a pillar of salt, an icon of the consequences of continued and deepening disobedience.  Who are you becoming like?  When we run toward God and away from evil, we begin to act more like God’s children, but when we are drawn toward evil, we become someone God never intended us to be.

Hang in there people! God is glad to be with us! I’m praying for us all! 

Don't Go It Alone!*

 Don’t go it alone?  My sweet bride and I were blessed to go to Maui for our honeymoon. A friend told us about an inexpensive condo in Kaanapali. We had a marvelous time snorkeling, biking, and enjoying the beauty of “paradise,” and I was trying to figure out how a husband is supposed to act around this beautiful human I had espoused.  We were told we needed to drive the road to Hana to fully enjoy Maui, so we turned in our standard rent car, got a convertible for the day, put the top down, and started driving. At the time the map wasn’t very helpful to me and audio and video guides weren’t around at the time. Besides, I was a man and wanted to impress my new bride. The manly conventional wisdom of the time was, for a man to ask for help or use a map was a sign of weakness. (Turns out it would have been much wiser to get some conventional help by asking someone.) Our destination was the “Seven Sacred Pools.” We started driving and saw beautiful ocean scenes, cliffs, flowers… it was amazing. I stopped at a place that I thought perhaps was a trail to the Seven Sacred Pools. Anita and I parked, jumped out and started hiking. Anita, said maybe we should ask someone, "this doesn’t look right." And I was like, “no, here’s the trailhead, let’s go.”  The further we walked the darker it got in the jungle canopy of the bamboo thicket. I was kinda proud of myself, blazing the trail for my new bride, when she finally spoke up behind me saying, “Bill, I don’t think this is the right trail.” I turned around ready to convince her that the pools must be just up ahead, when I saw her lovely lily white legs covered in black dots… On closer observation, they were mosquitoes, dozens of them sucking the blood out of my sweet new wife. I started swatting them, which didn’t really help because she then had red swat marks on top of white bite welts... So, I quickly said, “You are right, dear. This must not be the trail. Let’s go back.” As we emerged from the deep jungle, Anita, covered in bites and swat marks, was not to be shaken, so we kept driving.  We finally found the beautiful Seven Sacred Pools clearly marked with a big sign and we jumped in the water for a moment before driving back. We had been warned “don’t drive the curvy road in the dark!” Fortunately, I did heed that warning and we returned to the hotel without further incident. In my pride and confusion about how a husband who belongs to Jesus really acts, I pretended to know where I was going, when I had never been there before.  I thought I was supposed to figure this out “all by myself.” 

The good news is that in our spiritual life we don’t have to go it alone.  As a matter of fact we can’t. If we decide to go it alone or try “conventional spiritual wisdom” we end up on a dark trail somewhere, leading ourselves and the ones we love the wrong direction, and putting us all in harm’s way.  Jesus knows that we can be like this, so he tells his disciples (and us):“And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever — the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you.” (John 14:16–17) He reminds them: “...when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come.” (John 16:13) Sometimes we need to be reminded that God will never leave us to figure it out all by ourselves. Often the Spirit will speak to us through more mature Jesus-belongers, who have "been there and done that." They can help us know which way to go. Immanuel, “God with us,” says, the Spirit will be with us, and in us, to guide us. 

Hang in there people. God is glad to be with us. I’m praying for us all.