French Press Questions on a Beautiful Judean Morning...

It's Thursday morning. The coffee shop conversation of last night is still steeping in my mind like the coffee grounds swirling in the French press this morning.  We talked about disciplines--that great American topic--exercise and eating right and getting out of bed early.  How does God perceive our stumbling efforts to DO good and make ourselves feel better about ourselves? As the moon climbed high over Nappanee, we discussed that our disciplines are often an effort to find life. 

That's when I look again at my coffee mug, full of chocolate brown and a frosting of lighter foam. Under the word FAITH, it says, "Jesus looked at them and said, 'With man this is impossible but with God all things are possible.' " Matthew 19:26

In what context did Jesus say that? I turn my Bible open to Matthew. Yes, he was responding to the young man who came to Jesus with a question.  How odd! It was just the question that, 2000 years later, we were discussing last night in the coffee shop.

"What good deed must I do to have eternal life?" 

Jesus questions him a little and we find that this is an immaculate young man.  I have no doubt that he got up before the sun rose over Judea and worked out every morning and never ate chocolate chip cookies sandwiched with frosting.

Jesus let him feel good about this for about half a second, then asked him to give up his French press and his iPad and his new job and start walking on dusty roads where crowds of sick people reach out for Jesus and there's no Internet service.

For perhaps the first time in his life, this young guy is less than immaculate. He's very troubled by the turn in a conversation that he thought he had under control.  He really did want to follow Jesus' recommendations... but this? His social status was his identity!

The scary thing? That was Jesus' point. Jesus is just that good at reading hearts, that he can find where we have placed our identity and customize his instructions to dismantle it.  He can find the one thing that we are getting life from, and ask us to abandon it. For this man, it is possessions. For someone else, it might be education. For another person, it could even be working out and eating right, could it not?!

As the man walks away, Jesus points out to his disciples that the handsome young man is a frightening prototype:  People who have achieved a lot on their own don't enter the kingdom often. They've created their own world, and it works well.  They don't need to join another kingdom. They've taken all the right classes and associated with all the right people. They're too busy working out and acing college exams and updating their electronics and making French press in front of the fireplace.

This bothered the disciples, just as it bothers me thousands of years later.  He was a great young man with so much potential!  Surely he could be a Christian?

That's where the verse encircling my French press comes next in the passage: with God, this is possible.  Not with man--no one is able to choose life on their own, and the more things we have to give up in life, the less we are able to choose it.  But with God....In fact, we have no proof that the young man did not follow Jesus in the end.  For all we know, it was the Apostle Paul.  Okay, probably not.  But we don't know.

Like our stories, the young man's story in Scripture is unfinished. But Jesus' words cut through the fog to us as well as to him:  We can't follow Jesus if our source of life is wrapped in any possession, talent, or even discipline.  There is no good deed I must do.  Like our friend across the centuries, we ask the wrong questions over our steaming French press.

But it is possible to have them answered right anyway....with God.

Kidneys and Quilts

The lady calls from the kidney donor center and wonders if I'm still interested in donating a kidney. Even though I just took a job that I won't be able to escape easily....yes, I'll look at the information.  I think I want to do this, sometime. I ask her if it's possible to be too old to donate a kidney and she laughs and says, "Sixty-five. Eighteen to sixty-five."

It's time for lighter blankets because it's summer outside so I put the quilt on the bed, made of all the little pieces that used to be my mom's wardrobe. I think about how that is the best kind of life to live....the life that breaks into many pieces and blesses people beyond it's own lifetime. 

I wonder if being used by God to bless others isn't the greatest rush possible in this world, and maybe it goes on after this world. To allow our wardrobes, our possessions, our lives, to be cut in pieces and rearranged for the good of someone else.

I sense this, but I have not lived it.  I have instead demanded from others and snapped when threatened and whined when hurt.  I want to live it...or, on the days that I don't even want to live it, Lord help me to want to want to. Help me to cross the barriers between knowing in my heart that this is the highest joy and living it with my hands and words...and kidney, if God permits. :)

One Released Prisoner to Another

Twice in the last six months, I got to watch someone get released from prison.

There were differences:

• One was a prison of steel and concrete, the other a prison of guilt and sin.  
• One was released by the decision of Elkhart County Judge Shoemaker, the other by the work of Jesus Christ on the cross. 
• One was released to house arrest, the other was given a full pardon. 

There were similarities:

• They both had been desiring this release for some time. 
• They both had a happy mother/grandmother to rejoice over their release.  
• They both were excited about doing better, about living differently. 
• They both left many friends behind in prison. 

An odd thing happens when you watch someone's release from prison. First, you don't care a bit about their past sins, you just want them to be free. Second, you want so badly for them to stay out of that prison forever. Third, you envision how life would be for them if they made all the right choices.

They don't, of course, always make all the right choices.

You remind yourself that God is the great Prison-breaker, and he will continue to seek.

But you realize that, for the privilege of getting to watch their release, you will now:
....grieve when they struggle
...think of ways to help them but remind yourself that God is their only true help
...wish you could just make everything right.
...try to find the balance between being there for them and putting pressure on them. 

Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stay true to the Lord. I love you and long to see you... (Philippians)

And then the big thought: if we as humans (released prisoners ourselves) can care so much for other released prisoners, how much more must Jesus care about each one of us who he has released? How much must he hate it when we choose things that will take us back to prison! How much must he want to release our whole life, and not just pieces of our lives!

May the Bastilles crumble...