Grace and Growth

Ireland, Day 7: Getting Out

 

We spent the day today on OmeyIsland, reachable at low tide by riding (horses) across 400 yards of an exposed sandbar at lowtide. ~Or you could walk it – or you could even drive it (we found). Four of the kids took horses for a 2.5 hour ride across to the island and back. It was going well until storms swept through, drenching them. We managed to get them some extra clothing, but they were cold and soaked. But then the sun came out and they made it across. Becca and Hannah and I drove it, and walked portions of the island.

The island has only three families living on it. It used to host a monastery centuries ago; the ruins are still there.

 

We managed to find one of the “Holy Wells” on the island, of which there are hundreds across Ireland. They are ancient sites, spirings, baptized by Christians, which became well known as places of prayer and healing.

Much of the ancient world had the belief in special places, where the veil between the temporal and the eternal was thin, places where God often broke through. It was a sacramental view of creation. By the time Bec and `I walked around the bay and found it, the sun was out, and spirits were lifting.

 

We walked a graveyard also, saw the high cross put in place after the 1927 disaster where 20+ men were lost in the bay to a vicious storm. The loss left many widows, some in families with more than 10 children, and sealed the doom of a couple of the smaller towns. We managed to get back across well ahead of high tide, and returned to take our soaked kids home to hot showers and warm food and much needed naps.

 

Tomorrow four more of our children arrive from the States, so we will have a household of 11 by Friday night. We were offered a bulk deal on one of the ferry rides we are planning because we have so many! It is hard to believe that we have been here a week already.

 

Bec and `I got away to a short dinner while the kids were asleep tonight. Oysters, seafood chowder, a pint and dessert. And time to ourselves for a bit, a pinch of time in celebration of our coming anniversary on Saturday – our 28^th. “Priceless” as they say. Thank you God!

Ireland, Day 6 Settling In

We have had a busy five days since we arrived.  We are settling into a schedule: we are sleeping late in the mornings and resting well.  10 hours of sleep last night!  WooHoo! (as my Hannah would say).  Late breakfasts and morning reading, then an afternoon trip.  Usually we are back in 4 or 5 hours, and enjoy a late dinner around 7 or 8.  Dinners have been long conversations, lasting an hour and a half or more, with Bible reading and discussions. 

We are talking all these weeks about the Kingdom of God, following my Fuller weeks.  Two nights ago it was Psalm 145, and a few of us are memorizing it these weeks.  Last night we went from the beatitudes and another discussion about the kingdom of God into conversation about who we really are (spiritual creatures with physical bodies, eternal in destiny, designed to reign with God in purpose) to tattoos and diets and fashion and exercise and the stewardship of our physical bodies and why God even gave us bodies! 

Then we went down to the pubs for some local traditional music.  After that, a few phone calls, a late night snack, and bed!  It doesn’t get dark here till 10:30 or later, and it gets light around 4 AM!  Long, cool days.    I have had a recurrence of back pain on the first two days, from moving all the luggage on the way over.  After a couple of days of rest, I was better (and so thankful for that!) and able to ride bikes the last two days.

The first day Matt and I did a cross country hike/ride that was an adventure.  Every time we came to a fence, he was worried about snakes!  Ha! And this guy is flying in F-15’s!!!   Hannah thought it was hilarious (see pics).

I finished “1776” BY David McCullough and have launched into “St Patrick of Ireland” by Phillip Freeman. 

I liked 1776.  It is an inside look at the opening battles of the Revolutionary War, at their dynamics, tactics and leadership.  It gives a good snapshot of the year.  It is the first reading I have done of George Washington.  I am surprised he survived, and surprised as well at his disastrous mistakes in the early battles, leading to a string of deadly mistakes in which thousands were lost or captured.  It seems as though the turning event was the way he responded to criticism of his leadership (“indecisive”) after those defeats, reshaping his character, and keeping his most loyal critics on his central team (rather than removing them).  “He who heeds discipline shows the way to life, but whoever ignores correction leads others astray.”  Prov 10.17

Yesterday Matt and I stayed on the roads and rode about 40 KM to Roundstone.  We rode 1:20 along the coast and then stopped for an hour at a beach where two of the girls had gone, then stopped at a pub for seafood chowder lunch.  Then another hour back to Clifden through a 15 Km bog.  It is very stark and wild in it’s beauty.  Matt has his head shaved and was burnt all across the top of his head by day’s end. 

From Fuller to Ireland

After 4 days back in Sewickley – time to catch my breath, see some friends and pack our bags – it was time to leave for Ireland. Becca is exhausted by all the tasks of the Pittsburgh fellows. But as we leave the fifth fellow has signed on for the fall, and will be working with our Student Ministries. We think a sixth fellow will complete the team for next year. Three great young men and three great young women to be with us for the year – a promising start to a great program!

We arrived in Shannon after an all night crossing. Tired, but glad to be here, we managed to get all 4 girls (Hannah, Susannah, friend Kayla Perkins and daughter-in-law Abi) into a couple of rentals and take off for a day of touring. Driving on the left side of the road with the stick shift on the left is tricky! It was the job of my front seat passenger to always say to me, “Think left, Dad!”  Not something I easily do!

Ireland by all reports has enjoyed an economic miracle with it’s membership in the European Union. Signs of new construction are all over the countryside. New homes in small tracks are going up in almost every village. They are modest in size (compared to many American suburbs) and designed to fit the surrounding housing – but definitely with modern standards of living. The tourist business seems to be booming, with European and American visitors in abundance.  Ireland has rolled out a warm welcome welcome - ‘fielte’ as they say in Irish.

We moved north along the coast, stopping at long abandoned castles and church ruins and roadside village pubs. We saw the Cliffs of Moher (see pics), and drove down a narrow side road to discover a seaside castle. We stayed in a B&B Ballyvaughn for the night and walked along the village harbor. We visited an ancient (5000+ years) gravesite and the ruins of a 1000 year old abby (see pics).

The castles and the churches are monuments to an older time, their voices fading in the land, long lost in the rush to modernity. It is sobering to see old church ruins filled with gravestones inside and out, inhabited only by the faithful dead, a symbol of what has happened to the Christian heritage of the European nations – and a sober warning for believers in America

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Fuller Day Thirteen: Looking Back

I think this has been the most significant spiritual retreat I can remember. What has happened so far?

· I have had the opportunity to gather with 30 colleagues from all over the world – Canada, Australia, Ethiopia, Germany, Taiwan, and all over America, all across the Protestant evangelical family of churches and traditions. We have pastors, church planters, seminary profs, denominational overseers and worship leaders among our group. Our fellowship has been honest and open and very encouraging.

· We have had two full weeks of time – which has given me time to think deeply about issues of discipleship and the theological foundation underneath. We have had time to probe the deepest questions and challenges of personal and pastoral spirituality. We have had time to seek the face of God in a fresh way under the guidance of a remarkable man.

· We have been sitting with a master. Dallas Willard – with the very able assistance of Jim Smith and Jan Johnson, are a team of depth, experience, knowledge and wisdom about the Christian spiritual life.

· We have been pushed to be more deeply biblical about our faith and ministries. We have probed passage after passage of scripture, Old and New Testaments, looking frequently at the original language, often at the theological context. In particular the Biblical theme of the Kingdom of God has been a worldview shift for almost all of us, certainly for me.

· We have had time to probe our own spirituality with great honesty. Its strengths and weaknesses. We have looked with open eyes at our lives and ministries. God has met us there.

· We have had the great favor of this retreat center, giving us a time apart from the demands and pressures of spiritual life. Surrounded by images and statues of the Passion of Jesus championed by those who built and host this Retreat Center, we study and think and pray in a place built for it.

· I have had the hills of the San Gabriels, rising 4000 feet, the foothills of the Sierra Madres (I think!). I have spent about two hours each day climbing these hills, sometimes moving fast, but much more often moving in a leisurely pace, looking, thinking, praying, listening, breathing. The hills are alive with the voice of the Kingdom, as Jesus taught. I have recovered in them a measure of strength and health that I am so grateful for.

· We have had the chance to put into practice what we are learning. A day of silence and many more meals in silence this week; multiple times of solitude in the hills; immersion in large tracks of scripture and the study of the “Masters”; memorization of Colossians 3 and soaking in the Sermon on the Mount and 2 Cor 1-6; prayer in season and out; celebration!!!; good spiritual direction from people who know how to do it; the discipline of our desires… It is a long list.

 

Fuller Day Twelve: Prayer II

"In prayer there is often resistance (Luke 11.7) – the judge who won’t get up - Why is this so? People can’t be shifted around easily because God respects human freedom. It takes time to move them. So stay with it.  Be ‘shameless in prayer.’ Ask, seek, knock.

CS Lewis, ‘Work and Prayer’ from ‘God in the Dock’. Read it! “Two powers of creative influence in the world are given to us, prayer and work.” This is why the Apostles said, “We will turn this responsibility over to them and will give our attention to prayer and the ministry of the word.” Acts 6.3-4

"The hardest things of all to pray for are conversions. Because they involve human freedom. And people. And human networks. God will honor human freedom. He created it.  Compared to conversions, dealing with demons is easy ("Do not rejoice that the demons are subjest to you, but rejoice in this, that your names are written in the Book of Life")  So stay with your prayer.

"We should not try and minister without prayer for the things we are doing. Specificity is crucial. Focus on what you want to ask God to do. Push your thought towards its wholeness. Hold it under God and see it whole. You must be specific about what you want. Enlist others in the prayer cause on a regular basis. The main prayers in your church should be carried by others. God has people ready to go in this, often older saints. Stick to it, don’t quit.

"Why is prayer so hard for pastors? Churches and pastors have expectations for task competency.  We think the only way things get done is by the direct activity of the pastor. So our busyness becomes an indication of our effectiveness. And we cannot stop for prayer. We do not think of prayer as a way of accomplishing objectives. We don’t understand the theology of prayer, its reality or its power.

"If you have a request, just bring it to God. No performance, any more than if you were ordering a hamburger. Eliminate ceremony from your prayers, even when you are praying in ceremony. Just talk to God in a natural way. You should always stay with your requests until God gives you something better to do."

 

 

Fuller Day Twelve: Prayer I

Here's a photo of me with Dallas Willard.

Well, today things came together about prayer that opened a door for me. Those who know me well know that I have too long found prayer difficult. Actually, what I have found difficult is the regular practice of intercessory prayer. I often pray in my mind during the course of a day. And I have loved times of personal prayer with people in ministry. But regular, scheduled times of personal prayer have been difficult for me. So I was looking forward – even praying about today as we started into the Discipline of Prayer.

I would like to post a few times on prayer, so for this one I will just throw out a few of DW’s comments on prayer…

Prayer

Here is DW’s definition, worth careful thought: “To stay in action with God by asking and waiting. Prayer is talking to God about what we are now doing together.”

“You have to learn to pray; you watch Jesus and ask for his help (Luke 11). He gives them some words to say, but each of them is a doorway into a room.

“When you pray, you address Someone. You look at them and speak to them, confident that they are near and that they will hear.

Prayer is request. It is fundamentally asking. The request is a great power of the Kingdom. It starts with large asks, and then comes to personal asks. Give us what we need for today. And the energy to complete your tasks for this day. You are standing on forgiveness ground and asking. “Don’t put us through trouble.”  So ‘do not be anxious… but in everything present your requests to God…” (Phil 4.6) “give him no rest…” (Isa 62.6-7)

“Pray without ceasing” Well, we know how to worry without ceasing! When we are in love we can “think of him/her without ceasing.” It is the same mechanism.

Prayer is action. It is a Kingdom power.  A useful analogy to prayer is power steering. If you don’t turn the wheel, the wheel won’t turn. But if you do, with a little force and consistency, the whole car turns.

 

Fuller Day Twelve: Study, Worship and Celebration

We had a shorter day today – hurray! Finished by 3 PM, and no evening session. I felt much better this morning after taking last night off as well. I got our for another walk this afternoon, climbing up into the hills all the way to the Foundations (50 minutes or so) and then felt strong enough to jog back down. I have not jogged that long in years, ever since beginning to bike 3 years ago. But my lungs and back felt good, and my knees gave me no problem. That was marked improvement over just the past two weeks. This was my 11th climb. I have been losing weight, gaining strength, and my back has felt better. All the way up and down I was working on memorizing Colossians 3.1-17. I have about half of it down.

 

After dinner I am back at Beantown (photo left), writing and blogging and thinking, and waiting for 5 friends who are walking over to get some ice cream next door.

 

Yesterday and today we have launched into the…Disciplines of Engagement

What are they? They are disciplines designed to reconnect us with the kingdom of the heavens. Briefly I want to note three (Study, Worship and Celebration), and make more comments in a later post about out discussion of Prayer, which was astounding.

Study

"To bring an objective order of truth into your mind and your life."  Like all the disciplines, study enables you to do something that you can’t otherwise do. We talked about the importance of study of Christ, of the Bible, of nature, history, and individuals…

"One who will not learn how to handle the Bible for himself is not an evangelical Christian." Bonhoeffer

We have had special sessions in the use of the Bible in imaginative study, memorization and meditation (all of us here already have spent years in exegetical study of Scripture). We were especially encouraged to study, along with the Bible, the masters of the spiritual life: Kempis, Law, Wesley, Theresa of Avila and others of that quality. “These, under the Bible, constitute the basic knowledge of life in God. Master them.”  “I would not pastor a church without a bible memory program.”  DW

“You have to use reason well in study. You use it to understand what is true.  Then it will enable you to act. Otherwise you just wander around in the minefield of human opinions, gathering what you will. Ideas govern human life.”  DW

Worship and Celebration

Worship is "Ascribing worth to God."  “Worship should be regular in times (discipline/habit) but woven into the regular fabric of our lives from moment to moment, in the heart and flowing out. Issues of style are secondary to the issue of worship. When we make style primary, it becomes a matter of “our kingdom.”

“Often we have worship problems that look like ‘eating disorders’. We go long stretches without worship, come to worship with clear expectations of ‘our style’ and an ‘over the top’ experience. We become worship critics week after week (‘How did the service go?’, etc.), a sure sign we are running our own kingdom. It is a ‘consumerist approach’ to the faith. We are there as consumers of religious goods and services, and will go where the goods and services best ‘meet our needs’. This is different than being there as an apprentice of Jesus and a worshipper of God. 

Celebration is worship, with a particular note in it. We are personally rejoicing in what he has done for me and for mine."Pay attention to the great biblical passages of celebration: The Song of Miriam (Exo 15) – celebrating Kingdom inversion, David dancing, Deborah in Judges 5. Jesus’ first miracle was in aid of a celebration. Appointed feast times in Israel. We need feast days. Only solitude and silence rival the resistance people have to celebration. We need more celebration. Celebration is the antidote to despair."

We need times when we simply enjoy God’s favor to us in the world. (Deu 14.22ff; Ecc 5.18-20; 2.24; 3.12ff) “You shall eat the tithe of your grain, your new wine, your oil and the first born of your flock so that you may learn to fear the Lord always” Live too far away? God says change your tithe in for money and spend it for whatsoever you heart desires!  Ha!!! Because he is so good, so wonderful, so precious. Celebrate God!

"Pleasure is a very bad master but a very good servant."

Fuller Day Ten: Secrecy and Sacrifice

Secrecy

"The practice of not letting your good deeds be known." Matt 6.1-18

“What is at issue here is doing religious things to impress people. Remember that you act before a Trinitarian audience. It teaches us to be content without human approval, and that our business with God is not filtered through others.

“You can become addicted to approval. Envy and jealousy – both forms of anger – dissipate when we stand before an audience of one. Can you keep your course without human approval?

“This discipline helps us to stop competition. “Let each consider others better than ourselves.” Because we know that we could do better in our own lives… it should not be hard to want others to do better and celebrate when they do. When we get relief from the need for approval, we are able to release this. We must live well, having only God’s approval and no one else’s.

Sacrifice
“To surrender that which is necessary, e.g. our money or food, or to accept with joy the loss of what is necessary, to practice the sufficiency of God."

“This discipline is more the receiving of losses that are imposed upon us in faith and joy than the act of choosing loss. In smaller things it can be actively practiced and should be, preparing us for moments when the moment is imposed upon us.

Job said, “Though he slay me, yet will I trust him..”

Some of the biblical incidents of sacrifice…

•  Even to the laying down of our lives. Joh 15.13-14

•  To learn peace and joy in the midst of disaster Psa 138.7-8

•  Loss of property  Heb 10.34

•  The widow and Elijah  1 Ki 17.12-13

“We have to live and believe and practice this long before the moment of testing comes. Or we will explode in anger and lawsuits and self-destruct.”

 

 

Fuller Day Ten: Chastity

Chastity

“To refrain from sexual acts, thought and desires, as a way of accustoming oneself to freedom from domination from sex."

Job 31.7-11; Mat 5.27-28; 19.3-12; 1 Thess 4.1-7

We had long discussions about sexuality, about the interrelationship of thoughts, inclinations and actions, about the crisis in sexuality sweeping the culture and the churches, and about the power of God to deliver people from sexual temptation and addiction. Some notes:

“You have to understand the dynamics of desire. Porn almost always involves degradation. It destroys women. Why do we “need” this? We have to believe that there is something better than this, and it is available in the kingdom. It is genuine love and honor. Genuine will to the good of another person.  Love is not ‘desire’. Desire does not usually consider the good of the object of desire.

“You cannot standoff sexual desire directly. You will get stuck on it. It will obsess you. The principle of indirection (redirecting our energies elsewhere) is critical. Joy and love in life generally are to be cultivated as a bulwark against domination by sexual experiences.   

“The discipline of chastity is refraining from sexual thought, feeling and action. You need to practice turning away from them sufficiently so that they do not dominate you. So that you no longer get angry or sick if you do not get what you want. We have to turn to other and better things. This is where love comes in. “Love God and do what you will” Augustine. If I love God I will see a man or a woman in a different way. I won’t want to use them.

“Temptation always announces itself before it arrives.  So we act then. There are certain cues that alert you to the possibility of lusting. You then use those cues to love instead of lust. Temptations always come to us in a process. They do not jump us like a shot out of a pistol. Respond early with love. But the fact is we love temptation and titillation. Give serious thought to why this is so in your life.  When people fall into lust or fornication, they have been on the conveyer belt for some time. Jump off early.

“The best discipline for sexual temptation is a happy marriage.  Genuine happiness in a marriage is a Kingdom power. But you still have to be wise.  Invest in relationships that they may be good and strong.

“It is important to turn away from sex in marriage for a season so that we can deal with each other on some other basis than sex, discover that you are more than a sexual being.

There is tremendous sexual significance in the face and eyes. They are the doorways to intimacy. They are the invitation. “Looks” have many significances. In many marriages, this dies. You have to have times when you look deeply into someone’s soul and treasure their face. “The lord make his face to shine upon you… lift up his countenance upon you…” = look right at you.

The practice of the other disciplines is primary in handling sexual temptation. If you ignore all the rest of the desires and just deal with sexual temptation, you will have a hard go of it.

 

Fuller Day Nine: Fasting and Simplicity

The weekend was slow and restful. Lots of time for thinking, visiting around the area, calls home, and local worship. Lots of time to walk the grounds and look at the statues and gardens.  I got up the mountain again on Sunday with a friend from Canada, Sid.  Sunday night I had a talk with Dallas, told him of my hopes to put together a prototype support structure for clergy that would feature honest fellowship, warm and supportive relationships, a focus on our faith, our families and our ministries, the disciplines and a  Kingdom of Godworldview. We had been talking about the widespread lack of support structures for Christian leaders. He put his hand on my arm and stopped me and looked me clearly in the eye and said, “God is speaking to you in this.”

I awoke Monday morning and felt refreshed and ready for the second week. We spent most of the day Monday and Tuesday on the last of the Disciplines of Abstinence: fasting, simplicity, chastity, sacrifice and secrecy.

Tonight (Tuesday) I have taken the night off and come over to a small town - Sierra Madre.  I stumbled into a coffee bar (Beantown) that has wireless internet and holed up here to catch up on my posts - and to get some time away.  About 30 minutes ago a mandolin player took a corner stage and is giving a concert to a crowd. The crowd is about 30 people, young and old and in between, playing scrabble, eating dessert, listening, chatting.  A wonderful gift this evening.

More comments from my notes…

Fasting

“To refrain in significant degree from food, and perhaps all pleasant drink.”  It needs to proceed to the point until we have a genuine experience of deprivation. Because we often find our happiness, our sufficiency, and pride in food. Much of our sense of well being is tied to eating. But deprivation is not the point of fasting. Fasting is the affirmation and experience of the resources of another world, God’s Kingdom. (Deut 8.1-6; Matt 4.4; John 4.32-34) When you learn to fast, you draw on the immediate supply and power of God. Fasting is used by God to shape his people, teaching them to depend upon him from day to day. He provides the food.

Simplicity

"To refrain from indulgence of appearance, or sensuality or security." Often dealt with in terms of sobriety or temperance. When we don’t practice this we fall victim to living by our feelings. These train us to be comfortable without stimulation or gratification of our desires.

Prov 21.17; 23.4; 25.28; 1 Tim 5.6; 6.7-11, 17-19; 2 Tim 3.4

Poverty is neither a discipline or a virtue, though it may be used well. Remember to not be shabby, stingy, small, mean. Especially in family life and in raising kids. Kids are often told that frugality is godly, and are not given tools to negotiate their culture. Sometimes you should get them the best and say, “This is God, too.” God is not poor. Jesus was not poor: he raised funds, supported a ministry and a ministry team. And Jesus had enough to employ a full time embezzler as his treasurer.