The Road Goes Ever On and On

What I learned at Camp

The past two weeks have definitely been outside my normal routine.  We just got back from our annual vacation at Hilton Head, and the week before that I volunteered to be a speaker/counselor at a youth camp.  Although it is hard to get back to normal after either event, the camp definitely had a more profound impact.

Yes, vacations are nice, but when you are able to give  yourself away and see positive results, it can change your life.  I met so many wonderful kids at the  youth camp.  Don't let the media tell you that kids don't want anything to do with adults.  The hunger for adult approval and masculine attention were evident.  The pull I felt from kids to interact with them surprised me.  How could they want to include a bald, overweight, 42 year old father of three in their circle of relationships?  Yet they long for positive adult friendships.

I could tell so many stories, but I'll share just one.  A  young lady I'll call Arwen was a counselor at the camp. After I spoke Sunday morning, I was standing in the lunch line as Arwen was serving and began a friendly conversation.  Arwen is 19, less than half my age, but has a good head on her shoulders.  She is also strikingly beautiful and smart.  But as I got to know her, I felt a prompting and asked about her dad.  I could see the change in her countenance.

She lives in the deep south, and her dad took a job in the upper midwest.  She misses him.  When I asked about this further, I could see the pain as she wondered how her dad could leave her and her mother for months because he wanted to get out of debt.  It struck me like a hammer blow.

How could any father choose to leave a daughter like this?  Outside of military service, I can't really think of one.  I related to the dilemma because I've debated some serious moves to improve our financial situation.  My kids aren't even driving yet, and if Arwen, a high-school graduate, has a hard time understanding her dad's decision, how can I choose to leave my kids?  I prayed with Arwen and we talked further about dealing with anger, disappointment, your parent's struggling marriage and loving them even when they make decisions youdon't understand.  I wish it were a happy-ever-after ending, but I'm not sure what the future holds for Arwen and her family.

Life isn't easy, and unfortunately the decisions we make as parents and adults are extremely demanding.  But when it comes to pouring myself into my kids or into my career, my kids are going to get the lion's share of me.  I went to youth camp to pour into kids, but somehow God gave me more than I gave away.  Funny how he does that. 

You Just Don't Get Me

"Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven" - Matthew 5:10

We have come to the end of the road.  Jesus, the original maverick (sorry, McCain), again pitches conventional wisdom on its head and ends not with "they lived happily ever after", but has to go and mention the "P" word, persecution.

The ending IS happy, in that we are now identified with God and His kingdom.  The unfortunate part is that those whose lives are not shaped by kingdom values will not understand us, even fear us and ultimately persecute us.

There are many reasons, and I won't claim to know them all.  Some may hate us because they have chosen at some point along the beatitudes road to leave it, and our lives convict them.  Others may be totally unfamiliar with the road, and persecute us because they do not understand our passion and love for God, that nothing else in this world can satisfy us.  Others simply want to rid the world of boundaries, including the ones we live within; our insistence that we are meant to live in loving obedience to the Father galls them.

The reasons are many and the bottom line is to not come unglued when persecution comes.  It will.  But at the end of the road, a kingdom without walls or ceiling, a kingdom without boundaries, a kingdom infused with the presence of our beloved is ours.  Will we suffer in the short term for this?

The Family Business

"Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be sons of God" - Matthew 5:9

Near the end of the beatitudes, we come to the end of a long journey.  From acknowledging our poverty before God, we finally arrive at a place where we resemble Him.  After going through the process, we do the work of the Father.

Notice we aren't known primarily as peaceful; we make peace in the world.  That takes guts.  UN Peacekeepers don't usually do tours of duty in the Bahamas, they travel to war zones and make peace. 

As peacemakers, our lives reflect the heart of our Father God who gave everything to bring shalom (wholeness, peace, and well-being) to our lives.  We walk as Jesus walked, inviting others to walk the same journey we are traveling.  As we walk, we are still destitute on our own, we still mourn, we suffer, we hunger and thirst, but ultimately we are involved in the family business, i.e., seeing people made whole in a loving relationship to their Father.

The primary example of Jesus was a life lived in total obedience to the Father.  At the end of the beatitudes road, our lives will be known by the same characteristic.  The result is peace within and the ability to share it with others by our living example.

 

Purity = Focus

"Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God."

When I was growing up, the common interpretation of this verse would have a lot to do with your outward appearance.  Hairstyle and clothes for the men generally made you look like a narcotics agent.  Things were more strict for the women; you had to look like your husband's mother in order to reflect purity; that meant prairie dresses past the knee and your hair bunched on top of your head in what was called a "beehive."  Not only your appearance, but your conversation, interests and pursuits had to strictly adhere with approved "Christian" topics.  It made for a very plain, vanilla, and to a kid, a very boring culture.  I don't want to stereotype or make caricatures out of some very loving, giving, and yes, holy people; there are also good memories of a vibrant church community, but the  legalism left a bitter aftertaste. 

Holiness, or purity, had a lot to do with how you presented yourself in accordance with the approved conservative agenda.  How pointless it all seems now.  Jesus's words to the pharisees, that outside they were nicely tended gravesites, but inside full of dead men's bones is most revealing.  Purity doesn't have a lot to do with your appearance; it is all about the heart.

And purity here seems to mean focus.  Is God your one and only hope?  Or do you trust in a lot of things to make life work, like income, career, possessions, etc.?  By the time a person has walked through the beatitudes and arrived here, they realize nothing in themselves makes them acceptable to God.  They have given up and mourned the loss of finding fulfillment in anything other than  God, and he is the focus of their life.  And that pretty much defines  purity of heart; there isn't room for much else in the passions of your heart than for God alone. 

It isn't a legalistic decision, that in order to find God you must forsake everything else.  No, it is more of a desperate cry of the heart, that nothing else satisfies, so those things do not dictate the course of your life.  Instead of holiness from the outside in, trying to look holy in order to be holy, it is from the inside out; your purity of heart dictates the course of your life.  And when your life asks, seeks and knocks for God, you are given the promise that you will find him (Matthew 7:7).