Category: Spiritual Formation

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Tending to our Souls

You looked for much, and behold, it came to little. And when you brought it home, I blew it away. Why? declares the Lord of hosts. Because of my house that lies in ruins, while each of you busies himself with his own house. (Haggai 1:9 ESV)

Haggai is one of my favorite books in the Bible. The message is so simple – put your own things aside and take care of God’s house. If we place this in context, Haggai is address the Israelites who have given in to the world around them. Nehemiah had been commissioned to go and rebuild temple in Jerusalem. The project started out well but soon the world around them was distracting them, suppressing them, and generally causing them to loose focus on their mission, their purpose. As the Israelites gave into the world, they began to focus on their own needs, wants, and desires. This then leads to the conditions described in the earlier verses of Haggai where the prophet describes the futility of the life they are living.

What agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God; as God said, “I will make my dwelling among them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. (2 Corinthians 6:16 ESV)

The question I need to be asking myself today is how am I being distracted by the world around me? You see as Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians “We (I) are the temple of the living God.” How am I doing at building and maintaining God’s temple within me? I’m teaching a class this summer call Soul Care: tending to the heart, body, and mind where the students are focusing on this very question. I find it interesting how many are glad that they can take the time to focus on their soul rather than the business of life around them. It only strengthened my belief that we, just like the Israelites that Haggai addressed are busy with the world and our own lives that we are neglecting to focus on building God’s temple by tending to our soul.

As the story continues to unfold in Haggai, we see the Lord producing a drought on the land until the people come together, refocus their attention on God and begin once again the build the God’s temple. The world around them notice this and try once again to stop the work, but God’s people have a renewed focus on getting the work done. I know in my life when I neglect the work I need to put into tending to my soul that I also feel like I am in a spiritual drought and life seem a bit futile. It is not until I refocus my attention on God that the drought turns into a refreshing rain that nourishes my soul and the work resume on soul, God’s temple within me.

The question I pose is a simple one – How is your soul care going? Is the work on God’s temple moving forward or has is come to a stop? Are you in a drought or are you experiencing a refreshing rain?

If you would like to talk about your soul let me know.

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But God…

Trust GOD from the bottom of your heart; don’t try to figure out everything on your own. Listen for GOD ’s voice in everything you do, everywhere you go; he’s the one who will keep you on track. Don’t assume that you know it all. (Proverbs 3:5-6 MSG)

So here I am walking down my life path and according to my map there is a fork in the road ahead where I will be making a decision to go right or left. It’s not that one path is better than the other, but they are quite different paths. I would be comfortable going either direction but I do have a preferred path. My map has been projecting this fork for months and there has been a growing sense of what I call “content anticipation.” The day arrives and when I get to the fork I find that one of the paths has been closed, in fact the path was never actually constructed. The sign read upon further review the construction of this path has been delayed indefinitely. So the fork has simply turned into a slight veering to the side around the closed path.

I want to argue with God about the closed path – “You see God MY MAP says that at this point in my journey there will be a choice to be made about which path to take!” To this complaint God simply steers me to the above verse. “Trust me” God says, “don’t worry about your map rather just listen to me and I will direct you on your journey. You see Scott you don’t have the full picture, but don’t worry I will keep you on the right path. What you need to do is keep listening.”

BUT! But? But. “Trust God from the bottom of your heart; don’t try to figure out everything on your own. Listen for God’s voice in everything you do, everywhere you go…” Trust – an easy word to say but a hard one to live out. So I guess I have two choices – I can sit down by the side of the road, complain to God, mope, twiddle my thumbs, and wait or I can shrug my shoulders, take a deep breath, and refocus on the path I am on – waiting, listening, and pondering what the future may hold. My choice is to quit relying so much on “my map” and instead lean in a little closer to hear that “still small voice” of God to see what lies ahead.

How do you handle life when it seems you’ve been thrown an unexpected twist? I know that most of these twists and turns are merely a small inconvenience but others are a major shock – the unexpected loss of a loved one, a broken relationship, or the loss of a job. These things can cause real pain, real grief, real emotional issues – we need to acknowledge these feelings and emotions, we need to work through them (with the help of others, if needed). You need to know that it’s also alright to let God know how you feel. He want to know about our hurts and pains, our disappointments and struggles. But when the time is right, after the shock and rawness of our emotions has subsided, we also need to ask God “What’s next? Where is this new path going to take me?” You see there is a promise that can be found in Provers 3:5-6 – “…he’s the one who will keep you on track…” It might not be the track you were expecting but we can trust that God will be with us as we travel down this new road.

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Not Only Love Much But Well

So this is my prayer: that your love will flourish and that you will not only love much but well. (Philippians 1:9 MSG)

Last week I wrote about how this verse along with another are a couple of reasons that I have had a joyful marriage for the last 32 years – not only loving much but loving well. I have been coming back to this verse for the last week or so and pondering the phase “that you will not only love much but well.” As I’ve shared these verses in a number of devotionals this past week I have been drawn to the idea of loving well. As Christ-followers “love” should be a key part of our DNA. My fear is that our concept of love has been diluted by the over use of the word “love” itself.

Last week I wrote about how this verse along with another are a couple of reasons that I have had a joyful marriage for the last 32 years – not only loving much but loving well. I have been coming back to this verse for the last week or so and pondering the phase “that you will not only love much but well.” As I’ve shared these verses in a number of devotionals this past week I have been drawn to the idea of loving well. As Christ-followers “love” should be a key part of our DNA. My fear is that our concept of love has been diluted by the over use of the word “love” itself.

In some ways, at least with some words, I think the english langue is to vague. I love pizza, I love my iPad, I love my house, I love my spouse, and I love my kids. It’s the same word but context gives it a different meaning (at least I hope it does) in each of these cases. I love my spouse differently than I love my kids, thought they are all loved differently than how I love my iPad, house, or pizza.

Jesus, in response to a question from a religious leader about “What is the greatest commandment?” responded:

Jesus said, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your passion and prayer and intelligence.’ This is the most important, the first on any list. But there is a second to set alongside it: ‘Love others as well as you love yourself.’ These two commands are pegs; everything in God’s Law and the Prophets hangs from them.” (Matthew 22:37-40 MSG)

Love God with all you have and love others as yourself. That’s it. Go do it. Love a lot, but not only that love well. Really, this is what I have been dwelling on. How do I love God well? How do I love others well? You see I don’t think it is as much about the quantity of love we give (as long as we are giving some) as it is about the quality of love we give. Shallow meaningless “love” heaped upon God or others is not what Jesus or Paul was talking about.

Love that is given in order to get something is not loving well. Love that is conditional is not loving well. Love that is given out of some sort of obligation is not loving well. Loving well looks sacrificial, honest, humble, honoring, and boundless. Loving well means spending time with the other, listening to the other, just being with the other. In 1 John 4 we see that the love we give is in response to the fact that “he (God) first loved us.”

There are two questions I want you to reflect on and if you want respond to:

      How are you at fulfilling the commands for Matthew 22 about loving God and loving others?
      How do you go about loving God and loving others well?