Hearing the Music

A Trellis to Grow On

Wild roses can be beautiful. However, without stakes or a more formal trellis to get them off the ground and help display their beauty, you may never see them. The idea of the trellis is often used to talk about an ancient Christian spiritual discipline called the "Rule of Life". The term rule is often confusing because we think of it in terms of a law; something that you can't break or you will be in trouble. But the term is used more akin to a ruler, an edge by which you draw a straight line or an instrument used to measure. So a rule of life for the Christian is a trellis that helps us abide in Christ and display more beautifully the fruit which his love is producing in us. Practically, it is an intentional, conscious plan to keep God at the center of everything we do.*

As we say goodbye to 2022 and turn the corner into 2023, it is a good time to take spiritual inventory and work on our trellis for the upcoming year. Here are 5 steps that can provide a springboard for you in forming that intentional, conscious plan:

1. Write down everything you currently do (or hope to do) that nurtures your spirit and fills you with delight (e.g. people, places, activities). Think more broadly beyond such activities as prayer, going to church, worship, and Bible reading. Your list may include gardening, walking the dog, being in nature, talking with close friends, cooking, painting, hobbies, or any number of other possibilities.
2. Write down the activities you need to avoid, limit, or eliminate that pull you away from remaining anchored in Christ. This refers to avoiding certain things that impact your spirit negatively such as overly romantic or violent movies, excessive social media involvement, commitments that take you beyond your limits, gossip sessions, etc ...
3. What are the challenging “have to’s” in the next 3-6 months of your life that will impact your rhythms? (e.g. caring for aging parents, a special needs child, a demanding season at work, moving, health issues ...)
4. Write out a Rule of Life (i.e. specific goals) incorporating major areas such as prayer, rest, work, relationships, etc .... Ask God what He is inviting you to focus on as you consider your next 3-6 months?
5. Take a step back and consider the following questions:
   • What do you think will be your biggest challenge?
   • What is the one thing you sense the Holy Spirit directing you to start doing now? 
   • What might be one thing you want to stop doing? 
   • Is there someone you can invite to encourage you in making these changes?

I do hope that some of you will be challenged to work on a rule. If you are having trouble getting started, feel free to ask a friend to journey with you. If you are not sure what a finished product might look like, I would be delighted to offer any advice or encouragement I can as well!

A final word. Let this be a joyful invitation from your Heavenly Father to rest in and celebrate the work He is already doing in your life. Spiritual disciplines (such as a Rule of Life) are means of grace by which God can nourish us. Ultimately a "Rule" should help you to experience the love of God more! If it becomes a legalistic way of earning points with God or impressing others, it should be scrapped. The compassionate heart of God is truly unmatched. Like Jonah, we may run far and break every "Rule" but God will still be intent on inviting us deeper.

* Rule of Life definition along with the 5 developmental steps adapted from the work of Peter Scazzero.

Here are some additional notes on the Rule of Life from our recent Adult Institute class, Communion with God.

Photo by Brittney Strange on Unsplash

Beware of Me When I Am Right

As we continue to journey with Jonah this week, I am reminded of Jack Miller's learned lesson, "Beware of me when I am right." Miller knew his soul well enough, had discovered his own (sinful) propensity to such a degree, that when he found himself insisting on his way, his correctness, or his rights -- he knew to be on guard. Perhaps there are some readers for whom this is not a challenge, but many, like Miller, recognize this warning signal that we are headed in a bad direction. As we have seen, a part of Jonah's struggle was the surety he had that Nineveh should be destroyed. He was locked into that way of seeing, and though YHWH had a larger, grander plan, Jonah couldn't see it. "Beware of me when I am right!"

The opposite of insisting on our rightness would be to acknowledge our limits, namely, that we are not omniscient (all knowing). This acknowledgement also comes with an invitation to freely admit that we could be, or even are, wrong. Adele Calhoun puts it this way in her book Invitations from God:

Jesus' invitation to take the log out of our own eye opens a door for transformation and healing. Owning our own faults, blind spots and failures in the presence of a God who already knows us can be a freeing thing. God doesn't love us more when we are right than when we are wrong. God's love for us isn't dependent on right answers or perfect doctrine or never failing at anything. The good news is that I don't need to be afraid of being wrong. Jesus's death on the cross  undoes the lies that tell me I am lovable only when I am right.

Hallelujah! This is indeed good news. It is a heavy burden to always have to be right, to have to defend, demonstrate and display one's superiority, or simply one's competence. Jonah was invited to see the world through God's eyes rather than his own. Jesus says take the log out of your eye, come to me and I will give you rest.  

Photo by Markus Winkler on Unsplash

Body Life

This past Wednesday we held our annual congregational meeting. We read from 1 Corinthians 12:12-31, a passage that talks about the church of Christ as his body. As such, we assessed together the health of our body as we looked back over the previous year. A year that definitely had its challenges still coming out of COVID, staff departures, etc... As well as noting the opportunities we have in the coming year, continued growth of our membership (spiritually and otherwise), the maturing of Campus Outreach and the full moving of their leadership to GR, and the hope that Gracehill would particularize and CC would begin work on a new daughter plant. Like any living organism, threats and opportunities abound. What will be key is staying connected to our Life-Source and Head, the Lord Jesus Christ, and continuing to cherish and uphold each member of the body. 

I recently came across an article by a woman named Kate Bowler, who at a relatively young age had been diagnosed with stage IV colon cancer. She has a number of good things to say about our mortality and how grappling with it paradoxically promotes a deeper vibrancy. But she also has the following to say about the power of community coming together to embrace our struggles: There is a tremendous opportunity here, now, for Christians to develop language and foster community around empathy, courage, and hope in the midst of this fear of our own vulnerability. Our neighbors are expressing an aching desire to feel less alone, needing language for the pain they’ve experienced, searching for meaning and someone to tell them the truth. They are hungry for honesty in the age of shellacked social media influencers. They are desperate for a thicker kind of hope that can withstand their circumstances and embolden them to preach the truth of our resurrected Lord whose future kingdom will have no tears and no pain and no Instagram at all. What a gift it is to belong to the body of Christ. And in the spirit of Christmas, what a gift to share!

This week we will turn again to Jonah. Having already observed that we are objects of God's pursuit in the midst of a weary and violent world, this week we will examine our greatest obstacles to a flourishing relationship with our Pursuer. As we consider this, we will keep in mind how Jesus is the greater Jonah.