Lisa notes

Hold space open for God

By LisaNotes August 15, 2014 Book quotes, Prayer 10 Comments

A story told by Brian McLaren in Naked Spirituality . . .

“I don’t know if this story about Mother Teresa is true or not, but it tells the truth whether or not it happened.

     Mother Teresa was asked by a reporter what she said to God when she prayed. She replied, ‘Mostly I just listen.’

     The reporter then asked what God said to her, ‘Mostly he just listens,‘ she replied.

     Could it be that the loving, attentive, mutual listening of the soul and the Spirit constitute the greatest expression of spirituality? . . . Holy listening holds space open between beloved and Beloved, the soul and God, and that space, like the silence in which all music happens, holds infinite possibilities.”

May we value silence.
May we treasure listening.
May we hold space open for God.

* * *

God’s good china–it’s you

By LisaNotes August 14, 2014 Grace, Guest posts 6 Comments

You’re encouraged often to be pure. To abstain from this. To avoid that. You know what not to do. And rightly so.

But why? What’s the point of maintaining purity?

Is it only about what you don’t do? What about what you should do? And what happens when you’re already impure?

Read the rest here

We’re talking today at Do Not Depart about setting a table of grace with God’s good china. Will you join me there?

I need your worship

By LisaNotes August 11, 2014 Church, Worship 39 Comments

I don’t know her name (yet). But I’d know her face anywhere.

Or even more, I’d recognize her moves.

She sits on the front row, left side, with our church on Sunday mornings. She’s a tall, graceful African-American woman, maybe early 60s.

And I love this woman even though we’ve never spoken.

Because she inspires me to better worship.

I have a different perspective these days. For years I sat face-forward on pews, seeing backs of heads only, minus one set of eyes (the song leader’s). But now I stand with a choir and look outward as we sing about Jesus.

And oh my, the things I see!

I see when a teen boy, normally coolly nonchalant, is thoroughly engaged in worship after a week at church camp.
I see one pastor close her eyes and lift her hands; another quietly bend his knees in worship.
I see both arms of a young woman raised high in praise as she beats back the darkness of day-in, day-out disabilities.

And I see this same woman on the front row, week after week.

She’s not showy, but she’s not shy. She sways and sings from somewhere deep. And if I ever feel the words drying up in me, I glance at her and remember why I’m here. For Someone bigger than me. Greater. Higher.

I get all that when I watch her worship.

And my worship revives, too.

* * *

When we worship together, we do it to give God the honor he’s due. The joy is multiplied in community. Does someone else’s worship inspire you to worship God more, too? I’d love to hear your stories.

Don’t keep carrying her

By LisaNotes August 7, 2014 Book quotes 5 Comments

This story of two Zen monks, Tanzan and Ekido, is told by Eckhart Tolle in A New Earth:

“Tanzan and Ekido were walking along a country road that had become extremely muddy after heavy rains. Near a village, they came upon a young woman who was trying to cross the road, but the mud was so deep it would have ruined the silk kimono she was wearing. Tanzan at once picked her up and carried her to the other side.

The monks walked on in silence. Five hours later, as they were approaching the lodging temple, Ekido couldn’t restrain himself any longer. ‘Why did you carry that girl across the road?’ he asked. ‘We monks are not supposed to do things like that.’

‘I put the girl down hours ago,’ said Tanzan. ‘Are you still carrying her?’”

Don’t we all carry stuff long after we should have laid it down? Stuff of our own. Stuff of others.

Whatever happened in our past, good or bad, has helped shaped us into who we are today. But today we live in the now—where God lives—and God doesn’t intend our memories of the past to become burdens into our futures.

Don’t keep carrying the girl across the road if she’s been put down hours ago. Weeks ago. Years ago. It’s time to lay her down now.

* * *

God save me from god

By LisaNotes August 6, 2014 Miscellaneous 11 Comments

We each have an image of God. And in the God we imagine, we recreate ourselves (Psalm 115:8).

The God we worship is the person we become.

If we worship a God of wrath and harshness, we become a person of wrath and harshness.
If we worship a God who is aloof and unresponsive, we become a person who is aloof and unresponsive.
But if we worship a God of grace and love, we can become a person of grace and love.

If you’ve ever been angry at a God you don’t like—at a God who hasn’t done what you think he should—read these words by Brian McLaren.

“The fact that things have gone this way—that things have ended up like this—may lead them to believe that God has failed. And so, they may punish God with fury and insult, blasphemy and invective, mockery and derision.

     Reactive believers may try to silence them. ‘Don’t talk that way!’ they’ll say. They might even threaten with damnation those who rage.

     But what they don’t see is that the god the angry are punishing deserves to be punished. Beneath or behind that failed god is another G-d, one whose higher standard exposes the false, failed god as a fraud. The rage wouldn’t exist if some vision of the true God behind the false god didn’t remain.

     Perhaps by raging against the failed image of God, it will fall, and behind it the true G-d will appear, the true G-d to whom Meister Eckhart prayed, ‘God save me from god.’”
– Brian McLaren, Naked Spirituality

The god who disappoints me is a misunderstanding of who the real God is. Because this is who the real God is . . .

God is good (Psalm 136:1)
God is light (1 John 1:5)
God is merciful (Psalm 103:8)
God is faithful (1 Corinthians 1:9)
God is creative (Colossians 1:16)
God is gracious (Psalm 145:8)
God is compassionate (Micah 7:19)
God is forgiving (Psalm 103:12)
God is love (1 John 4:8)

May my inadequate god fade away. May the true God arise.

God save me from god.

And this is eternal life, that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.
John 17:3

* * *

Let me know what you think.

Change your tone

By LisaNotes August 4, 2014 Compassion 24 Comments

He is friendly, introducing himself to me, and I to him. He asks for diapers in multiple sizes. I’m not sure how many kids he has, but I tend not to ask at Manna House. If we have it, we give it away, no questions asked.

But we only give one sack per person. And he wants more.

Sometimes you sense a scam coming on. His tone is changing. He presses in. I press back. We have to share with everyone, and if I give you extras, we won’t have enough for others, I tell him.

With a tone of my own.

He doesn’t let up. He’s begging for what he needs.

I sigh. I give in. I tell him okay, this time. But keep it quiet.

Still with my tone.

I walk to the back to get another supply for him, long enough for God to work on me.

Sometimes the Spirit breathes quickly.

I reach for another sack of diapers, smelling my own stench of stinginess.
Of ego.
Of law-keeping.

Yes, in theory, we give one helping per person, but the goal is to give love to others as God gives to us.

And God loves to overflowing.

When I beg God for something I think I need, God doesn’t answer me with a tone. Maybe he gives what I ask, maybe not, but either way, he answers with love.

I hand off the diapers to the gentleman. He looks me in the eye, gives me a genuine thank you. He says he appreciates it. Really.

I believe him. Because of his tone. I say I really do want to help, however I can.

I hope my tone shows I mean it.

Lord, have mercy.

Was I scammed out of a few extra diapers? Who cares?

What’s important is that I learn:

It’s not just what we say, but how we say it.
It’s not only our words that count, it’s also our tone.
It’s not just our love we’re representing, it’s God’s love.

May we set a tone of love.

* * *

Step 8 of my One Word 2014: Compassion is, “How we speak to one another.”

When have you used a bad tone with others? How have you learned to drop it? I’d love to hear.

sharing at Trusting Tuesdays