Seeking to Understand

Today (30th June, 2017)… not unlike any other day the world turns. The news tells of pain, sorrow, hate and war. A world truly lost if we want to listen. I hear a quote on the radio:

“Seek first to understand, then to be understood” - Steven Covey.

Is it possible to understand the news of today?

Cardinal George Pell (high ranking Catholic in the Vatican) is charged with sex offences.

Germany makes same-sex marriage legal.

Trump bans people from 6 Muslim countries from entering USA.

People are being killed in India because they were found carrying beef, as the cow is more scared than a person’s life.

The Gulf crisis grows as Qatar is cut off by many countries and no-one seems to be able to understand each other.

More than 10,000 people were rescued last week from rickety boats that set off from Libya. At least 60 have drowned.

This year marks 16 years of unrelenting war in Afghanistan between the US backed government and the Taliban. Will Afghanistan ever find peace? 

A little closer to home today for me: A funeral for a 19 year old who was decapitated violently as a passenger while driving with his mate at 150km in a 60 zone. 1200 people weep over the loss of someone so young and vital at the Tops Conference Centre. How do we understand this loss? We drop off a car to a sweet girl who turns 16 tomorrow, and lost her dad 3 weeks ago. As she gets her dad’s car on her birthday, it is hard to understand the mixed emotions she will feel tomorrow. We meet with a corrupt Government system which has taken take 2 children from their mother, and pitted the family against each other. No-one one is listening to each other. We must sit and listen to the twisted lies that are made to serve an injustice for this family. We seek to understand but feel helpless. All this as I prepare for camp next week where we serve and love 37 children from abuse and dysfunctional families. Children who desperately need to be understood. 

And that was today, June 30th, 2017. It is a heavy day, not unlike many other days lately if you seek to “understand” what is going on in the world and in our own worlds. 

Is anyone really seeking to understand? It seems that mostly people want to speak and be understood, without ever really listening to anyone else. It seems that the right to speak and have the freedom to your own opinions and beliefs is the ONLY thing that matters. It’s a “radical individualism” that surges through society all over the world, from the top down, and I wonder where it will stop?

In some ways it has always been there, since the Garden of Eden. It is the flaw of humanity. I just wonder if God cries, wondering if humanity will ever get it? It doesn't work! And yet I feel we are becoming more and more vitriolic about our right to “radical Individualism” as each day goes by.  

In this time and always, God seeks to bring peace, self-sacrificing love, hope. He longs for us all to seek understanding, His understanding, which sees the world and the way we are to live in such an opposite way to the way we live today. As the last words God speaks in the Old Testament and the first words of the New testament attest …God longs to see the “hearts of the parents turn to their children and the hearts of the children to their parents” (Mal 4:6 / Luke 1:17). To turn our hearts toward each other is to try to understand before we demand to be understood. It is an  other-centred approach, a heart turned towards the good of others, rather than what I can get for myself. Imagine a world where we lived in this way!  Surely it would make the news of today better.  

Lord, I want to live my life in a way that “seeks first to understand, then to be understood.” I believe that your truth is the best place to start. Help me seek to understand that first and then seek to take the time to understand others that I may be able to bring hope, love and peace to a hurting world. 

A Weekend with Jesus

“No, Jesus, I do not captivate you? I can’t believe that. I know you love me, you died for me, but to be captivated by you …no not possible". 

Am I the only one who has a hard time believing that? These were the lies I believed for a long time. I spent a weekend with Jesus at Captivating Retreat in Colorado Springs over a month ago. I went on an Individual journey, alongside 450 other woman aged between 17 and 90 years. God is so good. For 4 days, Jesus, worked hard, He pursued me.  Have you ever been pursued by Jesus? I am sure you have, but like me you may have simply not acknowledged it or really let it penetrate your heart. 

Ps 23:6 “Surely your goodness and unfailing love will pursue me all the days of my life.” 

I mean every woman wants to be pursued, loved, chased after, fought for. It is in every love story. I am a “Rom-Com” queen, I should know. My DVD collection proves that. But this weekend it was no soppy, fluffy, smarmy pursuing of my heart. On this weekend it was like being in a 10 round boxing match. Every input session was like a round in the ring, and when the bell would go for a break, I would catch my breath and then the next round would begin. By round 6 I was starting to feel numb and my eyes were bulging from all the tears.  Doesn't sound like fun or very romantic, but Jesus was pursing my heart and I was fighting with all I had to NOT surrender. Why do we do that?  Why do we hold onto our hurts and our woundings? Why do we wear them like badges? Why do they keep coming back to us over and over again, when we thought we had dealt with them a long time ago?  

Well, as in all love stories there was another player in the ring, who was also doing all he could to sabotage me, to keep me stuck, to hold me back, to reinforce the lies I have believed about myself for a long time. I had never really given him as much credit as he deserved all these years. But this weekend I saw him for the snake he was, for the plans he made, to break my heart and take me out of the ring a long time ago.  I wrote a letter to my enemy that weekend and as I spoke that out loud, I broke the agreements I had made with him a long time ago, and by round 7 it was just me and Jesus in the ring, together. 

I also wrote a letter to my baby girl, making sure she knew how precious she was, as I had seen for the first time the power of the wrong beliefs in my life and how much it had bound me up for many years. Jesus doesn't want that for anyone, especially my baby girl. I finished the letter by saying “you have captivated my heart.” As I wrote it out, I cried with such deep love and devotion for my child and the deep longing that she might know how much I love her and how much Jesus loves her. I couldn't wait to return home to give it to her. But, I kept reading the letter over and over again and crying every time I read that final line. The love I felt, I can’t describe. Only a parent knows the feeling of that kind of love for a child. In that moment Jesus pursued me again and said, “You know that’s how I feel about you…don't you?”

I quickly answered: 

“No, Jesus, I do not captivate you? I can’t believe that. I know you love me, you died for me, but to be captivated by you, no not possible". 

He continued to pursue me. Like in a movie, like in a story, the music intensifies, the scene slows down, the sun sets softly, the scene is intense and the pursuing feels too much to bear. I can’t describe it well enough, but as round 8 finished I knew that my life would never be the same again. 

When you spend time in the presence of Jesus, it only takes a moment and something shifts. In that place of surrender you see His deep, unfailing love that ransoms your heart and captures your soul. It is better than any love scene I have watched, better than a novel I can’t put down, even better than the love of a man (yes I know, hard to believe). 

I know Jesus is captivated my me. And He is captivated by you too.  The question is, what will it take for you to believe it?  I can only say that those four days were a special time which I will never forget. Months later I know I am still being transformed from one weekend with Jesus and according to Ps 23:6 this will continue for the rest of my days. 

Ps 23:6 “Surely your goodness and unfailing love will pursue me all the days of my life.”

http://www.thetops.com.au/captivating

Let the little children come to me!

Recently I sat in a Church service and the children were brought to the front to have a “children's talk.” Today the pastor was teaching on "let the children come to me for such is the kingdom of God.” 

My husband leans over to me and says, “They are speaking your language,” while looking at me with the smile that says, “see, this is not that bad.”  While I honour their intent, it was one of the most difficult things I have endured for a long time.  

Let me try to relive this for you…..

The children sit on the stage looking at the adults. There is a glass window behind them with Jesus holding his hands out drawing all His children unto Him. 

The talk begins for the kids and the adults are watching the kids who are now on show for all.  I see many adults begin to look at their watch or read their bulletin to pass the time while the “Children's talk” is on. The children are sitting very still and look a little uncomfortable as they are staring out at a whole lot of adults. The leader is lovely and tries to talk to them, to engage them and tell them how Jesus never told the children to go away and that he said we ALL needed to become like children to enter the kingdom.  The kids are quiet and still and the teacher is having trouble getting them to respond.  A whole lot of adults looking at you, can be scary. When one child finally does answer in a natural way, there was a laugh that rang through the congregation because her     answer was “so cute.” 

This caused the children to shut down even more,  but to be fair,  I was aware of the love and warmth that was evident in the room despite the strained process that is going on. 

And then after talking about “letting the children come to me, do not turn them away” …the children are asked to leave the room to go to Sunday School. 

Am I the only one in the room who can see the irony in this?

I know in this context, in this traditional setting, it makes sense. It is how “Church” has been done for a long time.  

“One day children were brought to Jesus in the hope that he would lay hands on them and pray over them. The disciples shooed them off. But Jesus intervened: “Let the children alone, don’t prevent them from coming to me. God’s kingdom is made up of people like these. After laying hands on them, he left.” (Matthew 19:13-15)

This passage is highlighting how the disciples continued to misunderstand Jesus and here I felt I watched it being played out yet again.

The service continues….

Luke18:17 "anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child, will never enter it" 

The Pastor begins to preach on this passage, while the children are elsewhere, taken away so the adults could learn more about being like a child so they can enter the kingdom. (sorry if I sound sarcastic)

He says….. “In the disciples’ minds the children were not important and important people don't hang out with children”

Not sure if anyone else could see the hypocrisy in the room.  Like a “frog in the kettle” here we are sitting in the comfortable, quiet, ordered space, listening to a well-spoken and passionate message, learning that we should be like the children we have just sent away to another room.

The Pastor continues to say, “Jesus says, what the world thinks is important is not what I care about. I care about the powerless and those that are like children. Jesus is constantly going sideways of his culture.”  

The congregation sits in silent agreement.

While I agree, the Pastor is saying that we must value children in this culture, in this setting, but somehow it feels like the actions this morning didn't match what was being said. God sees children as the people they are and He values them. Let them come and do not stop them, Jesus says.  The church should be a place where children are welcomed in and where they meet Jesus, but the cost of that is huge for the Traditional church. 

What are we saying to kids when we send them out? What are we saying to adults if we keep making it comfortable enough for them so they learn and they never have a chance to see what it is like for a child? They never get to learn from kids what it is like to have a “child-like” faith in order to enter the Kingdom when we gather at the church, because we are very rarely together!

He continues on saying, “Camps are great, and a place where kids get to go away and learn about Jesus and then bring it back home”

And while true, I am dying inside, feeling like he gets it, but then doesn’t. It is so wonderful to have a Pastor speaking about children, but what he is saying is only part of the truth. Our language is so tricky. Our western culture is set up to send kids away to learn and encounter Jesus at Camp, Sunday school or Kids Klub, but it is only part of the truth and what we are called to do. 

Then his final challenge to us all 

“Do you talk to them at the coffee break?Is it awkward ? We all feel awkward, but we have to reach out and take time to share the love with kids. It is not easy. It feels like you are all talking a different language. Sometimes it feels like we are watching cats being herded, but that's why we have a children's message, because we want them to know they are welcome. Don’t be the grumpy old church person. Even if it just a smile,  we are put on this earth to lead them and love them.”

This is his final plea to the adults in the room. His great encouragement. At this point, I am really struggling, but I look around the room and everyone is smiling and happy. 

So often the Church is missing the point on so many levels. I suppose we are still like the disciples all these years later…..clueless. I don't know where to start to unpack the experience of that morning, only to say I walked away from that morning feeling sad. 

What does it truly mean to welcome the children? To not hinder them? To love each other as if we are all the children of God? To see the family of God as one big family that needs to learn to love, live and grow together? When we get together as Christians, what did Jesus intend when he said: 

 Let the children alone, don’t prevent them from coming to me. God’s kingdom is made up of people like these.” (Matthew 19:13-15)

"anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child, will never enter it” (Luke 18)

We must be challenged to consider what that should look like today if we followed Jesus example?