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This is a delightful follow-up to what I wrote in the previous blog. I appreciate David’s heart here for that which God desires, and to stay far away from that which God does not. Again, as a performance standard, it probably isn’t too helpful, but as a way to live in his freedom, these are some awesome thoughts.

Taken from Psalm 101 in The Message (Emphasis mine):

My theme song is God’s love and justice, and I’m singing it right to you, God.
I’m finding my way down the road of right living, but how long before you show up?
I’m doing the very best I can, and I’m doing it at home, where it counts.
I refuse to take a second look at corrupting people and degrading things.
I reject made-in-Canaan gods, stay clear of contamination.
The crooked in heart keep their distance; I refuse to shake hands with those who plan evil.
I put a gag on the gossip who bad-mouths his neighbor;
I can’t stand arrogance.
But I have my eye on salt-of-the-earth people—they’re the ones I want working with me;
Men and women on the straight and narrow—these are the ones I want at my side.
But no one who traffics in lies gets a job with me; I have no patience with liars.
I’ve rounded up all the wicked like cattle and herded them right out of the country.
I purged God’s city of all who make a business of evil.

Reading though Les Miserables (see previous blog post) got me thinking a lot about character, love and redemption. People often wonder how it is that God speaks to me. Certainly he inserts thoughts into my mind, or nudges my heart in directions he wants me to go, but there’s something larger going on behind the scenes. As Jesus sets me increasingly free to live inside his love and care for me, it changes the way I treat others. The grid through which I respond to people changes. Instead of being focused on my needs, either maximizing my benefit or minimizing any potential pain, I’m able to see them and care about them for who they are. This allows me to think in a clearer space where his nudgings and insights are not so hard to notice.

By no means do I attain all of this in every situation, but these statements describe how I’m learning to live inside his love for me. Please don’t think of these as a set of obligations to follow, but as the space that defines the freedom Jesus invites you to live in. Obligation will not produce this. Only by learning to live loved will we be free enough to sense his heart in our unfolding circumstances and be able to treat people with honor and grace.

• Be yourself, no more and no less. Pretense is not your friend and deceit darkens your own soul.
• Let your yes be yes and your no be no. Follow through on your word, even if you regret giving it.
• Put relationships above things. Be kind and gracious to everyone, especially those you don’t think deserve it.
• Live at the intersection of authenticity and compassion. You don’t owe everyone all you know, but make sure that what you do share is honest while it also gives grace to the hearer. Remember character is measured by how you treat people with kindness when you’re absolutely sure they are in the wrong.
• Unless people are harassing or abusing you, you are better off hearing them out and working through their pain rather than cutting them off to protect yourself. Only those who want to hide in the darkness, cast aside relationships just because they become difficult. The best relationships are won through difficulties and misunderstandings.

It makes life so much easier when you treat people kindly, honor your own words, and trust that God is bigger than any mistake you can make. That’s a list of the things I’ve been thinking about. Feel free to add to it if you have other simple statements of what it’s like to live in God’s love toward others.

I finished reading the novel Les Miserables by Victor Hugo this week. It was fourteen hundred pages long, but it relates one of the greatest stories of redemption told in literature. I’ll warn you, it was a bit of work at times. There are pages and pages of deviations from the story to fill in the backstory of France’s penal system, the revolution, the Waterlook campaign by Napoleon, and even a tour of the sewer system. The story does bog down a bit when he gets into all that detail, but they are worth getting through to mine the amazing story of Jean ValJean and Cosette and how grace works beneath the surface of lives, even over years, to finally shine like the sun. This was particularly touching in this season of my life.

I’ve heard about the story, play, and movie for years, of course. I watched the movie a number of years ago, but didn’t fall in love with the story until I saw a YouTube video a while back of Susan Boyle singing “I Dreamed a Dream.” The words of that song haunted me and so I read the full lyrics on-line about being used by others, abandoned, and living with disappointed hopes in this age. Then Sara and I got to see the play this summer while we were in London and the full story suddenly had more meaning. When we returned home we rented the movie again and watched it. Over the last month I have been reading the book to immerse myself in the story. Surprisingly my daughter had decided to read it at the same time, so we have enjoyed talking through it together. She finished the book last night, I this morning.

As with most stories, the book is so much richer than can be put into a movie or a play. Only a book allows you to get in the mind of the characters and their internal struggles. The poignant closing scenes of the relationship between Jean ValJean, Marius, and Cosette undid me. Here’s a man that was so hungry he stole some bread as a young man and served 19 years in prison for it. He gets out only to steal again from a bishop, but instead of demanding justice the bishop shows grace to Jean by his personal generosity. His act of loving sacrifice weaves its way into the fiber of Jean’s being. He becomes a different person and learns to love others and show grace to them even at great personal cost to himself.

His loving is often tragic, because his first thought is not to protect himself and thus he gets used, abused, and tormented even by the people he treats with grace. Rather than defend himself, he simply keeps loving even when it costs him most dearly. He is misunderstood and doesn’t try to clear the record. He forsakes his own personal happiness to ensure it for others. And because people only want to use him, they take advantage of his graciousness and miss who he really is.

What I love about this story is that while it is true that those you love the most will often lie about you and misuse you for their own gain, loving them anyway puts grace into the world to counteract all the selfishness already there. In the end, love changes lives and calls into question the way people live in their own self-interest. Grace is worth sharing, even when the objects of that grace don’t understand it. In the end love wins—not everyone, of course, but enough to make it glorious all the same.

The law is a cruel taskmaster, often used by those who wish to exploit others to make themselves feel important. It often weighs heaviest on the most marginalized in society and is used to dehumanize them. But love is the anti-matter to law! Love is the more powerful. It has the power to transform people and lift them out of their misery. Live by law and you become mean and empty; live by love and even when painful a greater purpose transforms your being.

In a note to the Italian publisher Victor Hugo wrote about the universal application of his story. Here are some excerpts:

The sores of the human race, those great sores, which cover the globe, do not halt at the red or blue lines traced upon the map. In every place where man is ignorant and despairing, in every place where woman is sold for bread, wherever the child suffers for lack of the book which should instruct him and of the hearth which should warm him, the book of Les Miserables knocks at the door and says: “Open to me, I come for you.”

At the hour of civilization through which we are now passing, and which is still so sombre, the miserable’s name is Man; he is agonizing in all climes, and he is groaning in all languages. Your Italy is no more exempt from the evil than is our France… Like us, you have prejudices, superstitions, tyrannies, fanaticisms, blind laws lending assistance to ignorant customs. Have you not indigent persons? Glance below. Have you not parasites? Glance up. Does not that hideous balance, whose two scales, pauperism and parasitism, so mournfully preserve their mutual equilibrium, oscillate before you as it does before us? What is the amount of truth that springs from your laws, and what amount of justice springs from your tribunals? …This book, Les Miserables, is no less your mirror than ours certain men, certain castes, rise in revolt against this book,– I understand that. Mirrors, those revealers of the truth, are hated; that does not prevent them from being of use.

As for myself, I have written for all, with a profound love for my own country, but without being engrossed by France more than by any other nation. In proportion as I advance in life, I grow more simple, and I become more and more patriotic for humanity… Whether we be Italians or Frenchmen, misery concerns us all. Ever since history has been written, ever since philosophy has meditated, misery has been the garment of the human race; the moment has at length arrived for tearing off that rag, and for replacing… the sinister fragment of the past with the grand purple robe of the dawn.

The law can so easily be manipulated by the wealthy and abused by those who lie without conscience. Into the misery of our world, God speaks his love in the language of grace. Only those who are truly changed by that reality become a light in the world, treasure all of their relationships, and offer hope to those who are lost in the darkness.

After reading this book, I want even more to be that simple light, a voice of grace, to the next person I meet today. There is nothing more real, more significant, or more transforming than love freely offered, especially when it costs us something.

I am often asked if I know of a retreat or a workshop that will help people find the joy of living loved and connect with the Father, especially for those whose father’s betrayed or abused them in some way. They have never had a flesh and blood example of a loving, trustworthy father in their own lives.

I was just asked that this morning. What I wrote back is something I’d want to say to so many others who struggle with the same thing. They look for a resource to help them find a breakthrough, not even realizing the greatest resource in the world is already in them.

“No, I don’t have any retreats or seminars to recommend to you. To be honest I don’t have much confidence in any formatted ministry to hold what various people might need to make the next step in their lives. God’s Spirit is the best guide I know to help people unlock the broken places in their hearts and free them to know him. So look to him as the primary source of the liberty you seek. See what he leads you to do.

And it may be that he will lead you to one of the best resources God has on the planet—brothers and sisters in whom his life has taken shape. Like “John” in the So You Don’t Want to Go To Church Anymore, they come alongside people who need help with a mixture of questions, encouragement, prayer and love that magnifies God’s reality in the human heart and invites people into freedom. They don’t have a formula to follow here, but are listening with you as the Spirit makes his unique process known that will overturn the darkness in your life and help you learn to trust the Father who will never betray you.

I have no doubt Father has some near you, though you may not even know them yet. Ask God to help you cross the path of one of his “elders” in the family who can help you through this. They will most likely not be a pastor or counselor, but just an older, wiser, brother or sister who enjoy a real walk with God, is at peace in himself or herself, and has a heart to help others who have gotten stuck on their journey.

I got a ringside seat behind the scenes to watch this little movie grow up. I’ve known producers Bobby and Kevin Downes for years and watched them craft this Karen Kingsbury novel into a first-rate motion picture as an indie production. It has been well-received at film festivals and opens this weekend to the general public in selected cities around the U.S. and you can get all the details and watch a preview here.

My part was incredibly small, but I did have the chance to read and comment on various editions of the script and got to view and give my input to various versions through the editing process. We had some great times talking about what might make the story and its presentation more compelling. Though I’ve never read a Karen Kingsbury novel, I found the story in this movie very compelling. What do you do when the troubled birth parents want their child back after he had already been adopted out to a childless couple? This is every adoptive parents’ nightmare, and the story is told in the backdrop of dealing with how to trust God in the face of our fears and the temptation to resort to our own efforts to protect what we love most. It’s quite a dilemma and the story and the movie are well-crafted.

Academy Award winner Mira Sorvino has the lead along with Berry Pepper, and Kate Levering. This is a compelling story and one many of you might find of interest. I haven’t seen the final version, but I enjoyed how it was shaping up in the incredible process of filmmaking. The Downes brothers do a great job of avoiding the Christian cliches and plastic answers that make many faith-based films too one-dimensional and superficial for my liking. I think you will appreciate the craft here and the passion with which they tell this story.

I received this email yesterday and I found my heart not only cringing at the pain my sister has endured, but also overwhelmed with joy that even in such desperate circumstances she has come to discover that her Father had not abandoned her, but was with her as the redeemer in the midst of such ugly circumstances.

Our flesh wants to blame God for the painful things that happen to us, but Scripture is clear: God is not the cause of devastation in our world; sin is! He is engaged in that pain to bring redemption to all involved and lead us into his light and freedom. I’m so glad my sister has found her way into that light and writes of it to encourage others. The journey has truly taken hold of our hearts when we can see the hand of a loving God even a the most devastating moments of our lives.

I just got done listening to the Folly of Judging Motives for the second time. I realized I’ve been judging people and dehumanizing them all my life in order to protect myself. Father has some work to do.

That’s not what caused me to write to you, though. I was writing because something you said toward the end really struck me. You talked about people who have not known God as being loving in their lives and asked how they learn to “live loved”. I’d like to share some thoughts. I was so badly abused as a child that it’s a miracle I lived through it, much less that I can function in society. I was molested, raped, beaten, and forced to participate in an occultic religion that was very anti-God. My perception of God was not good. I thought He just sat on His throne watching, indifferent about the pain around me.

Jesus, however, I did not view the same way as God the Father. He actually held children in His lap, which was one of my favorite stories. Jesus captured my heart at 5-1/2 years old. I never thought things were God’s fault, per se, but He certainly could have intervened. I often felt that I wasn’t “good enough” for God, so I deserved whatever happened to me. I’m 45 now and would say it’s been within the last few years that I’ve been really learning that God loves me without conditions.

A number of things have helped me in my journey. I’ve asked God many times to help me see things in the past the way He does, or I’ve asked Him where He was in those ugly times. As I’ve walked the healing path, He’s been very faithful to me and has answered my questions in beautiful ways. I’ve been allowed to see that I wasn’t alone during those years even if it felt that way. When you find yourself crossing paths with someone in deep pain who’s looking for God’s love, encourage them to ask God to show Himself to them. Also let them know that a sister who understands their pain wants to encourage them not to give up, not to give in to the numbing cold of hopelessness. God will be faithful, and He will draw them to Him.

I wouldn’t trade anything I’ve been through for an “easier” life. My relationship with Him is so sweet and precious. There are times when I don’t feel like I can go any further, but He always gives me what I need. His blessings have far outweighed the pain and suffering I’ve been through. If He will do that for me, He will do that for them. No matter how dark the skies or intense the storm, there is a rainbow somewhere. Sometimes you find it easily and other times you have to look for a while, but it is there.

This is not an intellectual pursuit where the mind can rationalize reasons that God would “allow” such circumstances in our lives. I don’t think there are any rationalizations for that. This is the God-given revelation that he was there and working for our good even in the midst of the nightmare someone else was creating. The only place to find that is where our sister did, in a growing engagement with the Father of all love, who can win this place in your heart.

It may not be as important for you to sort that out in the events of your past, but it is what we need in the painful circumstances we each face today. He is bigger than our pain, and able to work through the tragic realities of our fallen culture to bring triumph out of tragedy, and even make his love known beyond someone else’s failings and selfishness. His work in us doesn’t excuse the actions of others to hurt us, but it does set us free who have been made their victims.

Some of the people I met at the conference in Dallas recently wrote me an email last week. They have recently left a more traditional structure and are involved with a group of people desiring to experience more relational body life. In the email they shared an interesting observation that gets to the crux of how we participate in the unfolding work of God in the world:

We are trained professionally to plan, organize, strategize, evaluate, implement, and re-evaluate, but we have been learning through various experiences that when we rest in Him, He generally brings forth something miraculous. When we let something die, He brings new life. It’s humbling and freeing, all at the same time.

I think the challenge for those of us who have been so trained is to learn how not to grab hold of Jesus’ working around us and try to control it. Real elders in this family help facilitate what he is doing rather than trying to shape it to their liking as many people will press them to do. It is fine line to be sure, but when we live loved there is nothing in us that wants to control Jesus’ work or his gifts. However, where we live in our fears there is all kinds of internal and external pressure to do so.

The essence of the new covenant is that we cease from our labors and live in his unfolding purpose and work. That’s what Hebrews 3 and 4 are all about. I find that that it does not take less wisdom or work to do so; it’s just a different kind of work. It is much harder to live in the moment and respond to what Father does than it is to strike out with our own best wisdom and best efforts when we’re driven by the fear that he is not doing anything, or at least isn’t doing what we want him to do.

The latter leads to exhaustion and only shallow fruitfulness and actually takes us down side trails where it is easy to lose sight of what he’s doing and our prayers beg him to bless what we are doing in his name. Responding to his work in each moment will not only lead to enduring fruitfulness and fulfillment, it will also keep us in the frame of heart that makes it easier to see and follow him.

The freedom in following Jesus comes from no longer trying to get him to do what we want, but to revel in his desires and his working.

Phone calls and emails over the last few days have made me very much aware of all the pain that is in the world and how our only hope is to navigate our difficult circumstances inside the love of a powerful and gracious Father.

Whatever you are facing today, no matter how difficult or tragic, it is so much smaller than the One who loves you and who is at work even in the pain to dislodge you from a false confidence in your own capabilities and invite you to a deeper place inside his grace and power.

I love this reminder from I Peter 3:22 in the language of THE MESSAGE:

Jesus has the last word on everything and everyone, from angles to armies. He’s standing right alongside God and what he says goes!

Jesus may not have the last word on it today, but he will! Our lives are not at the mercy of the flesh of others, or even the capricious events of a fallen world. We live at times in the middle of a chapter, before his work is revealed and life rises out of the darkness. But it is a gift to live there too, not by well-worked biblical strategies for dealing with crises, but by taking each moment as it comes and following whatever light he puts to your path.

Sometimes it is simply enduring in the unfolding circumstance, until his glory comes!

I love the thoughts and words here by a man who lived deeply a journey into life and faith in Jesus Christ:

“As long as we continue to live as if we are what we do, what we have, and what other people think about us, we will remain filled with judgments, opinions, evaluations, and condemnations. We will remain addicted to putting people and things in their “right” place.”

“I know that I have to move from speaking about Jesus to letting him speak within me, from thinking about Jesus to letting him think within me, from acting for and with Jesus to letting him act through me. I know the only way for me to see the world is to see it through his eyes.”

“To live a spiritual life we must first find the courage to enter into the desert of our loneliness and to change it by gentle and persistent efforts into a garden of solitude. The movement from loneliness to solitude, however, is the beginning of any spiritual life because it it is the movement from the restless senses to the restful spirit,l from the outward-reaching cravings to the inward-reaching search, from the fearful clinging to the fearless play.”

“You don’t think your way into a new kind of living. You live your way into a new kind of thinking.”

Source: Good Reads

I thought others of you might enjoy looking over a recent email exchange I had with a brother this week:

From him:

I have been studying and studying God’s word and different interpretations of certain areas of the bible, and it seems that there are so many different opinions on things that I feel like my head is going to explode trying to figure out what is right. Some say speaking in tongues is real, others say it doesn’t exist now. Some say hell isnt eternal, some say it is, and some say that the words Gehenna, Sheol, and Hades paint a totally different picture than what we have been taught. The book of james sure does talk a lot about works, but Paul talks all about grace. I feel so confused because I have a passion for righteousness and truth, but it seems like I have no idea about anything anymore. I feel as if there is no sure way to know the right answer about certain topics like these. I feel like I dont have the answers anymore for those I witness too. I was wondering if you could give me some insight on how to rest in Him. I feel overwhelmed with trying to learn the truth.

My response: Yes, trying to learn the truth can be overwhelming… Better yet, spend time just getting to know the Truth. Inside a relationship with Jesus all these things sort out. That’s why Jesus warned us against getting caught up in doctrines and speculations. I find it best for people to just start with the simplest stories of Jesus and learning what he says about his Father and how we can live in him. All the other things are just principles and doctrines that men have argued about for centuries and none of them has one thing to do with waking up tomorrow, knowing his love and loving those he puts before us….

Him again:

Yes, this helps me very much. Sometimes I get caught up in the wrong things. I am just the type of person who tries his hardest in everything that I do, and its hard to not try to figure out what’s right and then do it to the best of my ability. I just want so bad to hear his voice and to be able to love others the way he did. I guess you would say that I am a perfectionist. I will try to rest in his love for me and let it pour out onto others. Thank you very much.

I loved this exchange because of how easily he embraces a different way of seeing all of this. It isn’t easy. The intellect wants to be in charge and sort out truth on its own best understandings. But Scripture is an invitation into knowing him and when we grow in trust in who he is, we’ll begin to see the truth that really is truth. Even at that we’ll only know bits and pieces. We’re all just scratching the surface of knowing him, but knowing him our hearts will even be content in what we don’t yet understand.

Jesus warned us that truth sorts out in a relationship with the Truth, Jesus himself. If we don’t know him and the security of our love in him, we will twist the Scriptures into doctrines that seem true to the intellect, but are not the real truth. Following them will only lead us further away from knowing hi. Only by knowing him and growing in him can we discover the truth behind the simplest things Scripture teaches. But that is a life-long process, not an overnight phenomenon.

Relax! Enjoy the journey with him alongside.