UPLFTMNT » Meditations

Life Rhythm

zane — Sat, 31 Dec 2011 17:21:35 +0000

So many people want balance in their lives. How often have you heard someone say he or she was looking for more balance? Maybe you’ve said it too. When our lives get overly busy or chaotic, we think they’re off kilter. We want things to go back to being more balanced: just enough busy-ness, just enough leisure, just right.

I do think that kind of balance is possible, that we can organize our lives with just the right amount of work, just the right amount of time with family, everything in its place. But I also wonder (and I admit I’m speculating because I don’t think I’ve ever accomplished that kind of balance) if along with balance comes ennui, a special kind of misery associated with tediousness. I could be wrong; maybe people who have life-balance are content and happy. And that’s cool.

But I don’t think God calls us to contentment. I don’t think He promises balance. There are too many Biblical examples of God interrupting His people’s lives, calling us away from balanced lives to serve, and to do something amazing for Him and His glory.

Does that mean we should give in to chaos though? I don’t think so – God may call us to something to difficult, but He promises to take care of us. In Psalm 30, the Bible says that, “weeping may last through the night, but joy comes with the morning.” We will face suffering, but we will also rejoice in His providence at the healing of that pain. We shouldn’t be discouraged by disorder.

God gives us ups and downs in our lives, and I feel like we should embrace them. The choice between the boredom of balance and the craziness of chaos is a false dichotomy. We shouldn’t let work or pleasure take over our lives, but we also shouldn’t seek sameness. I think we should strive for rhythm: a life rhythm that allows for tempo changes, lulls and crescendos. I believe we need to order our lives without trying to exert a level of control that rejects God’s great disruptions. We should seek a four-to-the-floor beat, knowing that He may shift the time signature. And that change only makes our lives more musical.

Who Are God’s People?

zane — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 18:36:09 +0000

We sometimes want to choose who God calls us to love and to serve.

For example, many of us say that poor people are poor because of their own bad choices, so they don’t deserve our help. Now, first of all, this largely isn’t true. But secondly, and more importantly, God calls us to love the poor no matter what. He doesn’t say “love the poor unless they made bad decisions.”

Similarly, he calls us to love immigrants. He doesn’t say love the immigrant, but only if he has his paperwork in order.

Leviticus 19:33-34 (The Message) says:

When a foreigner lives with you in your land, don’t take advantage of him. Treat the foreigner the same as a native. Love him like one of your own. Remember that you were once foreigners in Egypt. I am God, your God.

Why do we struggle with that? Why do we make our love conditional?

Universal Love – The Great Commandment (part two)

zane — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 14:16:27 +0000

If you are to love your neighbor as yourself, who is your neighbor? This is of course what the Parable of the Good Samaritan is all about, and it’s fascinating to me. Christ says we are to love everyone without regard for race, nationality or any other trait or characteristic. That’s powerful, isn’t it?

Your neighbor could be very different from you – different gender, different race. She might be an immigrant. She might be gay. She might be someone you don’t get along with. But none of that matters because this love is universal, and all-inclusive.

“Universal Love” is the name of a classic Jungle track by 4hero, and it has one verse:

Every star in the sky
tells us how and shows us why
we must all give a Universal Love…

We must all give a universal love including everyone, and without discrimination for anyone.

The Great Commandment (part one)

zane — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 20:31:44 +0000

I got married a week ago to the love of my life, and thus I’ve been thinking a lot about love lately. In fact, I’ve only recently come to understand that loving each other is the most important thing we can do in life, second only to loving God. The idea seems simple, but the more I think about it, the more I realize how big that concept is.

Just imagine if the Great Commandment was your life’s mission statement, and you evaluated everything you did, all your major life-decisions, on these verses:

Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” (Matthew 22:37-40)

How would you live? If you knew that the most important things you could do today were loving God and loving your neighbor, what would you do? It’s deeper than it seems, right? I really like how the senior pastor at my church paraphrases that commandment, “Love God, and love like God.” Maybe you already do this. I know I fall short. But I want to put that commandment at the center of my life.

One of my favorite songs from last year is by Jazzanova, with Phonte on vocals, and it’s called, “Look What You’re Doin’ to Me.” Towards the end of the song, Phonte sings:

There is love for all God’s children
We all breathe in the same sun
We all sleep under the stars at night
We know that we are one
And you’re the one for me

Maybe Phonte’s interpretation of the Great Commandment is, “love God, and love God’s children.” And maybe he’s saying in the last line, “I’m going to display this love most in how I love you (my wife).” I like that.

The Great Commandment seems simple, but I think it’s really huge. And I’m no theologian, but I think that placing these verses at the centers of our lives would be life-changing. Are you already doing this? If so, I’d really like to hear from you…

Leisure

zane — Sun, 26 Apr 2009 14:19:55 +0000

Photo by Vicki & Chuck Rogers

God calls us to have leisure. In Psalm 46:10 He says, “Be still, and know that I am God.” In his book, Leisure: The Basis of Culture, Josef Pieper says this can also be interpreted to mean, “Have leisure, and know that I am God.” For those of us who work fifty or sixty hours a week, this is a welcomed message.

But how do we define leisure? Pieper describes it as:

…a form of silence, of that silence which is the prerequisite of the apprehension of reality: only the silent hear and those who do not remain silent do not hear. Silence, as it is used in this context, does not mean “dumbness” or “noiselessness”; it means more nearly that the soul’s power to “answer” to the reality of the world is left undisturbed. For leisure is a receptive attitude of mind, a contemplative attitude, and it is not only the occasion but also the capacity for steeping oneself in the whole of creation.”

So leisure, in this sense, doesn’t mean mindlessly chilling in front of the TV. It means being still, listening for God’s word for you, and meditating on it. Pieper says, “It is in these silent and receptive moments that the soul of man is sometimes visited by an awareness of what holds the world together.”

Take a break from work; take time away from the world, and listen for what God has to say to you.