The Beacon

The difference between immorality and immortality is Jesus on the cross, a “t”. If we accept Jesus Christ, who died on the cross for our sins, we become immortal, transformed from immoral to immortal. We repent of our sins–our immoral lives–and accept the love of God, shown to us in the sacrifice of His son. Recognizing Jesus’ self-denying act on the cross opens the door to immortality, putting the “t” in immortality, and forever changes our lives.

-Doug

Tribes,
islands swept across the ocean
Invisible roots
            isolated
            surrounded by the frothing sea.

The breath
moves across the surface
            stirring, lifting up the water
a wave
travels across the vastness
propelled by the urging air
            carrying, being
power
to be manifested on a distant shore
encountering the gentle slope beneath,
engaging
the floor of the sea,
gives, dies to itself
upon the shore,
to be followed by another.

Endlessly lapping there, waking the shore
shaping a new, evolving edge,
            cresting, white, speaking
into the air with its breath and releasing
power
builds, nudges
the slumbering being
defining a new boundary
an awareness of
something.

The wave,
Brought to life out of the infinite ocean
to meet the slumbering island,
awakening it to the presence of
the deep that lies so close, to be known
must be plumbed, yet is bottomless, unfathomable.

Awakened, the island seeks,
the water,
            its depths
            seemingly distant,
            guarded by its surface
            glimmering, reflecting,
            wavering
ready to yield its contents,
a treasure, hidden deep,
free, waiting
            for the one who plunges
            face first with eyes opened,
illuminated.

The treasure, there since eternity,
awaits each shore, and faithful,
waves
continue insistently
to come, by the power of the wind
that blows and blows, unseen,
relentlessly delivering its transforming power
to every shore.

Ultimately, the islands disappear,
become one, an archipelago,
connected
at their roots
laid down and shaped by eons
of the sea’s caressing and wrath,
now awakened, whole
alive at last.

The power, stirred up by the breath,
traveling endlessly,
barely a ripple on the surface,
but deep, unstoppable and full of potential,
with purpose.

“Give and it will be given to you. A good measure pressed down, shaken together, and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.” (Luke 6:38).

Generosity is about giving. It is a fruit of love, an act of kindness. If we imagine ourselves as a river, with the flowing water coming from the springs of God’s love, we can perceive generosity as the predictable and regular “running over” that comes from God’s lavish blessings. When we are overfilled with God’s love, we reach flood stage, where we cannot retain His goodness within our banks, and inevitably the good gifts of God overflow into the surrounding plains, enriching the lives of others.

We can not be generous if we are not filled by God’s gifts. If we give only out of our limited resources, we will be stingy, holding back to ensure we have enough for ourselves. If we give with the intent to have someone indebted to us, if it is just a deposit on the balance sheet, something to be withdrawn at a future point, then it is not a gift. And generosity is only about gifts and giving. It is having a heart for others and wanting others to receive good things. The Father is the giver of all good gifts, so we can only give good gifts if we have received them from God.

Generosity is the opposite of selfishness. If we are not generous, then we are selfish. There is nothing in between. If we are not generous, then we are self-centered, greedy, wanting to keep and hold onto whatever we have, hoarding things for ourselves. Even to hoard our love for our self rather than offering love to others. What happens to us if we hoard up the gifts given to us?

We can see the contrasting consequences of generosity versus greediness in a comparison of the Sea of Galilee and the Dead Sea, the very waters and shores where Jesus taught and showed us how to live our lives for others. These two seas are connected by the Jordan River, and separated by only 60 miles. Despite their proximity and water connection, they are dramatically different. The Jordan River flows into the north end of the Sea of Galilee, and out of the southern end. The Sea of Galilee teems with aquatic life and supports a productive commercial fishery that yields tons of fish every year. The Jordan River flows out of the Sea of Galilee south and into the Dead Sea. The Dead Sea has no outlet; the water does not flow out, but only evaporates, concentrating its salts to the point that no plants or fish are able to live in it. Thus, we see why the Dead Sea is so named. It receives waters from a rich, unending source, but it hoards its waters, yielding nothing. The Dead Sea is stagnant, unproductive, and useless.

As evidenced by the Dead Sea, those who are not generous lack life and goodness. But let’s look at a couple of verses about the virtue of being generous. In 1 Timothy 6:18-19, Paul says, “Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share. In this way they will lay up treasures for themselves as a firm foundation for the coming age, so that they may take hold of the life that is truly life.” Proverbs 22:9 says, “A generous man will himself be blessed, for he shares his food with the poor.”

These verses provide an important reminder that the generous person not only blesses those to whom she gives, but she herself is blessed in the giving. Although it would be considered selfish to give simply to be blessed yourself, God in His wisdom blesses generous people as a reward for their unselfishness.

May God’s goodness be seen in your generosity. Next month we will examine goodness as a fruit of love.

Doug

“But while he was still a long way off, he saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him.” (From the parable of the prodigal son, Luke 15:20).

Compassion is sympathetic suffering. Compassion is more than sympathy; compassion moves us to action. The Charter for Compassion, a worldwide movement, says, “Compassion impels us to work tirelessly to alleviate the suffering of our fellow creatures, to dethrone ourselves from the center of our world and put another there, and to honor the inviolable sanctity of every single human being, treating everybody, without exception, with absolute justice, equity and respect.”

God is the Father of compassion (2 Corinthians 1:3) and He has given us the gift of compassion. Although all of us are born with the capacity for compassion, it must be cultivated for human beings to survive and thrive. It must be taught and practiced in our families and communities.

“The principle of compassion lies at the heart of all religious, ethical and spiritual traditions, calling us always to treat all others as we wish to be treated ourselves.” (Charter for Compassion). Here we begin to understand the root of compassion. It is that we are all one, and what happens to one of us, happens to all of us. In life, we are all in it together. Compassion is acknowledgment that you and I are not separate. What you feel, I feel. What I experience, you experience. That is why we speak of humanity, representing all people as one. We are all human. Not plural, but singular. We are one.

Our compassion reflects our acceptance of our own weakness and brokenness and its presence in others. Compassion grows from our love for ourselves in the midst of our sin and elicits forgiveness, mercy, patience, and gentleness toward others.

Compassion motivated Jesus to heal the sick, the blind, and the deaf, to feed the hungry, to cast out demons from the possessed, even to bless the wedding host and guests when he turned water into wine. Everywhere he went, Jesus saw wrecked, harmed, and helpless people and he had compassion on them. “When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.” (Matthew 9:36).

Love manifests compassion. In Colossians 3:12-14, Paul says that we are to clothe ourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience, and “over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.” Love is over all. It creates and perpetuates.

In one of the most heart-rending stories of the gospels, Jesus told of the compassion of the father for his son who had been lost, but now had been found (Luke 15:11-32). Only love such as this father had for his son can motivate such selfless compassion. Read and meditate on this story and soak in God’s love for us.

In and through Christ,

Doug

Have you ever noticed the similarities in the kinds of people who live in towns at the end of a long peninsula or island chain where the road ends? Places like Key West at the end of the Overseas Highway, Provincetown at the tip of Cape Cod, or Homer, Alaska, at the end of the Kenai Peninsula. These places tend to attract eccentric and artistic people who are seeking something. Perhaps remoteness, tranquility, natural beauty. Perhaps they are trying to get away from everybody else, from the “mainstream” people and traditional way of life. Perhaps they could be characterized as extreme people who go to the extreme, to the end of the road, because they feel that that is where they belong.

These examples of dead-end places illustrate some characteristics of one-way living. There seems to be two ends and only one way between them. There don’t appear to be any other options and so it usually means that people stick to one end or the other, and they don’t much care to associate with the people at the other end. This is the conundrum of dualistic thinking. A common illustration of dualistic perspective is seeing everything as black or white; in this mode, we ignore that there are more than a hundred shades of gray in between.

We live in a dualistic society. It’s been that way in the Western Hemisphere for centuries. We see almost everything as having two sides. We view things as good or bad, right or wrong, black or white, safe or threatening, possible or impossible. We tend to categorize each other as normal or abnormal, winner or loser, liberal or conservative, Democrat or Republican, citizen or foreigner. We are not very open to other perspectives or the possibility of a spectrum of categories or options.

If we live in a polarized world, it is because most of us have moved to one of the poles and refuse to have our view compromised. When there are two opposing sides, there will always be opposition. We will always find ourselves in one-on-one conflict. We are not interested in living on the equator because then we would have to accept or sympathize with everyone’s view. This predicament seems to have infected the religious as well as the secular.

The healing that we need to overcome our current state of affairs will require a retreat from this pattern of dualistic thinking. It’s natural to think that our faith traditions require judging everything as good or evil, sinful or virtuous, sacred or secular. However, Jesus himself gives us the power to overcome dualisms. We see examples of non-dualistic consciousness throughout the gospel message.

Jesus, the Man-God, exemplified the union between seemingly incompatible opposites, being both human and divine, holding together both the sacred and the secular. It seems that Jesus came to facilitate the transition between the legalistic Old Testament era and the love-first New Testament times, as demonstrated in his response to almost every challenge or accusation from the Pharisees and other religious leaders. Jesus was always saying things that turned our categories on their head: “The first shall be last and the last shall be first,” “Blessed are those who are persecuted,” and “Love your enemies and be good to them.” Paul also destroyed our dualisms, such as when he said, “There is neither Jew nor Gentile…”(Romans 10:12).

We should open our minds, re-examine our assumptions and “separation” way of thinking, and dispense with our dichotomous classification system. Instead of relying on our antiquated “either/or” way of seeing, which always leads to division and conflict, we need to adopt a “both/and” perspective. We can’t have open minds if we don’t have open eyes. Only with a transformed and unified consciousness will we be able to reconcile the differences between us and accept all as belonging to Christ, whom “through all things were made” (John 1:3).

In His hand,

Doug

“My religion is kindness. The only religion is kindness.” The Dalai Lama

If we focus our religion on doctrinal beliefs and not on living out our faith, our Christianity is not very Christlike. Jesus did not send us into the world to make believers, but to make disciples (Matthew 28:18-20). God’s love for us is manifested in the kindness we show to others. Kindness is doing good things that bring happiness to others.

Kindness changes us and kindness changes others. In showing kindness, you are taking the goodness that God put it you and giving it to others.  Being kind is fulfilling the command “Look not to your own interest, but to the interests of others.”

Let us examine the ask the questions of who, why, and how to show kindness?

Who do we show kindness? Our spouses and children? Our families and friends? Of, course. Jesus tells us even the pagans are good to people who love them (Matthew 5:46-47).  Who we show kindness reflects our motivations. If we want to act out of love, be obedient to Jesus’ command, then we need to remember who Jesus came to serve. In Luke 4:18-19, Jesus said “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because He has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” Thus, we are to show kindness to the poor, the prisoners, the blind, and the oppressed. And we are to interpret these categories broadly.

Why do we show kindness? Many people may express kindness, but that does not mean that the kindness is manifested by love. Kindness may be used to obtain favor, to create an obligation by another. Kindness that is not motivated by love is not reflecting the gospel. In fact, Jesus told us that when we are kind only to others who we know can repay our goodness, we have not done his will. “If you love those who love you, what reward will you get?” (Matthew 5:46). It is when we give to those who cannot repay us that our kindness is honoring Him. “He who oppresses the poor shows contempt for their Maker, but whoever is kind to the needy honors God.” (Proverbs 14:31)

How do we show kindness? Kindness is an act, but the first and easiest kindness you can express to someone is a smile. Mother Theresa said “We shall never know all the good that a simple smile will do.” It is my nature to smile at people I know or someone I want to meet. But I have to intentionally make myself smile at strangers or people who intimidate me by their appearance or actions. Showing kindness to people who we do not know or like requires us to be intentional about giving of the goodness that God has created in each of us. I challenge you to begin smiling at everyone you see, even passers by who may not look at you. If each of us would smile at a stranger everyday, I believe our community would become a better place.

In and through Christ,

Doug

So it’s another new year. We look forward to the new year with anticipation and hope. We think of all the good that we would like to have happen to us in this coming year. We might be ambitious and self-motivated to set some new goals for the new year and resolve to invest ourselves in striving for these goals. You might put your faith in God to work and ask Him to bless you and help you achieve your new goals.

Isn’t this how most of us go to God in prayer? We ask God to do things for us, to bless our plans. I think we need to turn that approach on its head, like President John F. Kennedy did in his famous admonition, “Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country.” And so each of us should ask God, “What can I do for you, Lord? What do you want me to do, my Lord?”

We need to be audacious in asking God what He wants us to do for Him. Like George Bailey asking his new girlfriend, Mary, in the movie, “It’s a Wonderful Life”: “What is it you want, Mary? What do you want? You want the moon? Just say the word and I’ll throw a lasso around it and pull it down.” We need to be prepared to do big things, because God is big and He thinks big. Sometimes He may give us a big opportunity, but it may seem small to us because we can’t begin to imagine what He has in store. As 1 Corinthians 2:9 says, “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no mind has conceived the things God has prepared for those who love him.” We may have always thought of these “things” God has prepared for us as rewards, as things He will do for us, but instead might they be the things He has in store for us to do?

We need to be devoted to giving our life away. We have to give our life away. It’s not ours to keep. We are given the abundant life Jesus told us He came to give us when we tell Him we are ready to give it away. Jesus fills us with His love until it overflows and we can’t do anything but give it away by giving our lives back to Him for His use.

So as we enter this new year, ask not what can God do for me but what can I do for God. To make it more specific, ask not what can my church do for me but what can I do for my church. Seek God’s leading, ask Him what He has in store for you, and, whether it seems small or large to you, know that anything God prepares for you to do will have eternal consequences beyond anything you can imagine. And so, let God prepare you to give your all, and be prepared to lasso the moon.

Disturb us, Lord, when
We are too well pleased with ourselves,
When our dreams have come true
Because we have dreamed too little,
When we arrived safely
Because we sailed too close to the shore.
Disturb us, Lord, when
With the abundance of things we possess
We have lost our thirst
For the waters of life;
Having fallen in love with this life,
We have ceased to dream of eternity
And in our efforts to build a new earth,
We have allowed our vision
Of the new Heaven to dim.
Disturb us, Lord, to dare more boldly,
To venture on wider seas
Where storms will show your mastery;
Where losing sight of land,
We shall find the stars.
We ask You to push back
The horizons of our hopes;
And to push into the future
In strength, courage, hope, and love.

~Attributed to Sir Francis Drake, 1540-1596~ (Various modern religious sources cite this as a prayer by Sir Francis Drake, but there is very little historical evidence of his authoring any prayers.)