Don't Die in Haran

Terah took his son Abram, his grandson Lot son of Haran, and his daughter-in-law Sarai, the wife of his son Abram, and together they set out from Ur of the Chaldeans to go to Canaan. But when they came to Haran, they settled there. Terah lived 205 years, and he died in Haran.

The LORD had said to Abram, "Leave your country, your people and your father's household and go to the land I will show you. I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you."

So Abram left, as the LORD had told him; and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he set out from Haran. He took his wife Sarai, his nephew Lot, all the possessions they had accumulated and the people they had acquired in Haran, and they set out for the land of Canaan, and they arrived there.

- Gen 11:31-12:5, NIV

I can remember what it felt like back in the days that Jan and I were dating, engaged and preparing to be married. There was so much life ahead of us, so much promise of what we would have together, so much anticipation of how deep our love would go, even as we would grow old together. For me, I don’t think I ever felt so much alive and in tune with the best part of what I understood to be me.

By the time of our wedding, my thoughts were something like, “this is going to be a great life, and I’m going to do some great things because the sun is shining so bright on the path ahead. My life is gonna count for something!” I wasn’t even sure what the something was yet, but somehow I knew there was all of this potential for greatness ahead, and it was all going to start with the love between my bride and me.

But something happened not too long after the honeymoon. I think they call it life. And without exception, it comes calling… to all of us. And when it does, you start to find out some things about the real you. And they might leave you feeling just a little shaken about the “you” you’ve come to know.

Life definitely surprised us both. Pretty soon, romance between us had given way to other interests. The intimate conversations evaporated, as stuff that had to be done seemed to multiply. There were these demands from work and bills to pay and other distractions and pursuits that just seemed more interesting - or important. And something very slowly started to die. Before long, I think I just kind of figured that this was just what happens. Things were OK. They were nice. It was just the way life was.

And so I settled. Just like Terah did on his journey with his family. You read that too, right? Where the scripture says, “they set out from Ur of the Chaldeans to go to Canaan”. But Terah never made the destination! He got partway there, maybe halfway. And then life happened. And, “when they came to Haran, they settled there.” We’re not told why. Maybe the land was “nice” or “comfortable”. Or maybe Terah was too “tired”. Maybe he just got caught up in the local camel races and got distracted. Who knows?

But, whatever the reason, we know the journey ended. Because he settled somewhere short of his destiny (and we know it was his destiny because Abram was told to go exactly where his father failed to reach).

The scripture that follows is possibly one of the saddest in the Old Testament: “Terah lived 205 years, and he died in Haran.” Did you catch that? He lived more than twice as long as any of us will, and he died exactly where he settled… short of his destiny! I wonder if he had finished his journey if we might be talking about the “blessing of Terah” today instead of the “blessing of Abraham”!

Why do we settle? How do we constantly end up short of our journey? How is that we lose sight of what really matters when “life happens”? And why do so many of us experience life and death in Haran?

Maybe because we’re not really living anymore.

Maybe because we’ve lost heart.

I think the answer might be found in the way God deals with Abram. In the chapters of Genesis that follow, we see God relentlessly pursuing Abram and bringing one experience and one word after another to confirm His promise to the man Whom he called His friend. And He does something extraordinary in that process. He changes Abram’s name to Abraham. He gives Abraham his true identity. And with it, his purpose. His calling. His destiny.

And Abraham does something extraordinary. He believes God when there’s no hope. He stands. He remains.

And reaches his destiny.

Fast-forward back to Jan and me. For too long, life had mostly just been happening. And we had spent far too many years in Haran. But, over the past couple years especially, God has helped both of us find our hearts again, and find one another again as well. And He has healed so much in my heart in particular that I am changed more than I can even explain. And slowly, but most certainly coming alive again.

And the point of this is that within that healed heart is my true identity; my essence; who I really am, and what I’m really here to do. And that simply changes everything. So as for our family, we’re packed and getting back on the road. The one that leads to Canaan. To the future and the hope in our hearts. To our destiny.

How about you? The journey unfolds before each of us. Will you allow God to do what He did for Abraham as He brings you deep into the territory of your own heart? There is truth to be found there by His Spirit as there is nowhere else. But we all have to be open to the experiences He gives us as life happens around us, and as He brings meaning into all of the moments of our lives where we are looking to Him. Will you focus on Him as the interpreter of your life and of the significance of what is going on in your own heart? Will you ask Him for the truth of His heart in every step you take? And will you trust and respond from your heart to what He reveals to you?

If so, you will start to uncover some things that will ignite you, strengthen you, bring you alive from your heart. Because it’s only there that your identity and your purpose and your destiny will be revealed. And it’s only there that you can find the power and courage to fulfill it!

After all, life will happen. It always does. The question is, will you live it in Haran… or Canaan?

Live Courageous!

A Place Most Real

A time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth.

- John 4:23-24, NIV

As I have continued to seek God on a deeper understanding of prayer, I found myself meditating on this particular scripture. And I think it was God-directed because He seems to be pulling out all the stops these days to get me to see how real and accessible His kingdom is.

That is, if you look in the right place.

When you pray - when you worship - do you look in the right place? Moreover, do you actually go to that place? Because I think this is what Jesus is driving at in these verses... that you actually have to transcend the limitations of your mind/soul if you want to really connect with God!

Let me explain it like this: Jesus, in talking with Nicodemus in John 3, made some bold statements about being born "from above", and born "of the Spirit". He then went on to talk about those that were born of the spirit being like the wind, in that people can see the effects of the wind around them but can't tell where it came from or where it's going. And He said that everyone born of the Spirit would be like that... like the wind. In other words, they're not going to be operating in a linear, logical, predictable way of life. They're going to be flowing in an unseen dimension!

And then here He is in the next chapter of John telling us that God is in fact, a Spirit (of course the Father of all spirits!), and that He is seeking out people that will worship Him in spirit and in truth. Add to this some significant scripture in 1 Corinthians where Paul tells us that the natural (the word is actually soulical) man - the man of the mind - cannot understand the things of God but that the spiritual man understands all things, and you have the picture I believe God wants us to see: that we're not going to have true interaction with God in the space between our ears, so to speak.

So, enough theology already. God is Spirit... not consisting of anything of the substance of this natural realm. He exists in a different realm, in a different place, in a different form. He insists we worship Him (and, by implication, know Him) in exactly that realm of the spirit, and that we do so in truth (which literally means uncovering and making manifest the reality of something). And we know we can do this because as believers, we are born of that exact same substance - of the spirit. And we are spiritual beings!!!

Now move this into your prayer experience, and I think that's exactly what we start to have - experiences! Not a list of stuff we have to get through. Not a carefully-worded petition that will all go for naught if we don't get the words right. Not even a beautifully constructed and poetic flow of words about just how wonderful the Lord is.

No... we're not connecting with God in a life-changing way, or in a Kingdom manifesting way until we are there, with God, in a place of raw truth, in the realm that He exists in, as spirit-beings connecting heart-to-heart with the Father of our true selves.

It isn't just that we get to the place of real worship and prayer and communion here. It's more that we discover the reality of our lives in Jesus here. This is home. This is real. This is who we are. This is the essence of our very beings and our very purpose. And this is the place where we ask. Where we humble our hearts before our God and Father and where He truly, really, actually, experientially meets with us. Where we become one with Him. Where whatever we ask, He does because we are now in the place where His will and His ways and His heart reign. Where, you might say, His story is being told and we find our places in it.

And you already know where that place is and how to get there if you've really begun to authentically live from your heart. Because this realm is found right there - in the deep place of your very own heart!

It is this very place we must become acquainted with. It is this very place we must learn to love. And it is this very place where we will find our lives and our true hearts. And find Jesus. Really. Face to face. Heart to heart. It's time to get used to it and allow the life of the spirit to become something not weird, not imaginary (although our imaginations are a key gateway to that place), and not just "conjured up". Because once you go there, you can be sure what you're seeing, hearing, touching, smelling, etc is very real. More real than the chair you're sitting in right now!

So, the next time you pray, expect to end up somewhere other than where you are when you begin. Look for God in the spirit by looking for Jesus there. And then intentionally, really, passionately go there. With all your heart. It is, according to Jesus, the only place you'll find Him.

Live Courageous!

The Ache of Goodness

God saw all that he had made, and it was very good.

- Gen 1:31, NIV

I was working on some stock photos for a brochure a couple of days ago, and was coming across some pretty amazing images. I was in search of a particular kind of forest scene - one that was actually a little foreboding - and in the process I saw probably hundreds of pictures of autumn in the forest.

Now fall has always been somewhat mesmerizing for me. I get caught up in the colors and the crispness of the air and the blueness of the sky... and that incredible smell of leaves. I often go to the park and walk the trails, praying, thinking, contemplating my surroundings and just becoming immersed in the experience. But something else always seems to accompany this encounter with beauty, and if I could find a word to capture it, I might say that it's a feeling of profound sadness... it's an ache.

And with all of this, of course, come the memories. Times from so many years ago when I could actually enjoy this sort of thing - playing football among the leaves with my buddies or maybe driving around with my mom and dad checking out all the parks at peak color - without the weight that I seem to just always feel pressing on my shoulders. The worries. The questions about what has become of life and where the hopes and promises went. The disappointments. The stuff out of order and unfinished. You know. The Ache.

I've been perplexed about all of this for a long time now. I am really, truly learning how to respond to the rhythms of my heart and I'm so thankful to God for bringing me to this awareness. But I never could understand why every exposure to some kind of beautiful or joyful moment that would resonate in my heart has always seemed to be accompanied by this... Ache.

That is, until last night.

I found a tape of a three-year old message from a BCC Saturday night. I was curious because there was no title information on the label. And so I played it. And I think I got an answer about the Ache.

What I was preaching about on this tape was one of two messages I have done over the years on innocence. What I didn't preach about was the Ache. But I discovered something about it through the tape. Its source. Its power. Its persistence. And I think I know now why stuff that is truly good and pure and beautiful brings pain at some level of our hearts sometimes.

We Ache because we grieve. You see, something was forever lost to our natural lives all the way back in Genesis 3. We lost God. The garden. The Tree of Life. Our lives. Our hearts. We lost our innocence. And every reflection of that kind of beauty, that kind of goodness, that kind of purity and wholeness and holiness (and this is so visible in creation!) reminds our broken places of what we have lost. We have lost the very essence of the goodness of who we were made to be. And that can touch at the deepest levels of our souls.

And so we mourn. We Ache.

But God is saying something here. Whispering deeper than the pain in our hearts. Reminding us to see what He does. He sees us new. And whole. And pure. And good. And righteous. And innocent. No, it's not our inherent goodness, but the goodness and beauty and wholeness and purity He brings about in us in Jesus.

But it's not just a way God "sees" us. It's true. It's real. It's who we are... pure, whole, good - beautiful! And yet we would struggle at some level to believe this. Life becomes so cold, so dark, so ugly... so full of pain. And God says He loves us, and it's so hard to get that.

Isn't it?

I mean, every kind of love most of us have ever known has come with those conditions. Those qualifiers. Those stipulations. And now we have God who just says He loves us. period. That He is love. Period. And it's so hard to believe it. To really fall in love with Him. To respond to that love in purity... or goodness... or innocence.

And so, we ache. And we'll keep aching when we encounter beauty until we accept the beauty of God... of us... of our lives and our hearts.

My prayer for all of us who hunger and thirst for righteousness(and goodness and beauty and wholeness) to come alive in us is that of Paul, when he prayed in Ephesians 3 that we would know the love of Christ that passes knowledge; that we would be filled up with the fullness of God. Because in that fullness there is all that is good and pure and beautiful.

And only in that fullness is there no more Ache.

Jesus, help us know your love in such reality that there is nothing in us but the fullness of You; of Your love!

Live Courageous!