Category Archives: Capturing Courage Daily

Everything that doesn’t fit in elsewhere lands here. A smattering of thought and action from which we take courage for each day.

A Rich Life

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passion of real workA Pastor friend of mine from Africa emailed me last night asking for prayer. With a wife in great pain due to an injured limb, and a daughter struggling with serious illness, he reached out to share more than ever before.

I know a good number of pastors from many countries and the pleas and the needs are often the same. The emails for prayer and assistance come very regularly.

With a faith that never gives up these men and women and their families toil forward doing much with so very little. I am often at a loss for words when I read about their tenacity and vision and dedication. I am often brought to my knees in the hearts and prayers as we speak on the phone. I am simply honored to stand alongside them as I journey to where they are.

As a small example these pastors walk hours to minister to those in outreaching villages, riding bikes to surrounding areas and taking weeks in leaving home to encourage fellow pastors and people in other areas and other countries.

In many, many ways it is a hand-to-mouth existence.

One man’s story of sensing the Lord directing him to Mozambique first bought a map to find out where the country was.

Then, when the time seemed right, and the need to journey pressed upon him he left his wife and children for a few weeks time. He didn’t have enough shillings to take him all the way, but determined that God would provide as he went.

And God did. Journeying to the end of his money this man found connections all set up so to speak, to welcome him, to keep him, and to wish him well on his journey. Friends of friends that he didn’t even know existed.

With food and sleep and a bit of money in his pocket he carried on his way towards Mozambique. Long story short he made it there, and made it home. All on the miraculous provisions of the Lord each and every step of the way.

This is not an uncommon story. In fact, there are a few of my colleagues in Africa that are in this very same situation right this minute. Journeying on faith and prayer and a dependance that rides everything on God showing up.

This morning when my Pastor friend replied to my response he thanked me for praying and simply said, “We are praying for a better life.”

His simple statement has stayed in my heart and mind all day long. Because it resonates my own prayers as well. My own journey is much the same as theirs. Journeying on faith and prayers and barely making it most of the time there is a certain weariness that pervades.

While there is much joy, deep happiness, and profound contentment, the stress of barely paying bills adds up over time. It is why this Pastor had not taken his wife or daughter to the hospital. The bills would be too much, at least beyond what he can pay.

I don’t know what the answer is. I don’t know what we are missing.

I do know that ministry always comes with sacrifice. I suppose it is part of what weeds out those who are up for it and those who are not. They always say, put up a ton of road-blocks and you will find out who really wants to go forward.

It is why the hurdles for those who want to become lawyers, doctors, dentists and such. The bigger the responsibility the hardier the person must be. And no better way to test how hardy and determined a person is but to put barriers to entry.

Ministry has its own unique barriers. It is not for everyone.

When the Israelites wandered in the desert for 40 years God provided for them with manna and quail. Just enough for each day. And if they tried to keep it from day to day it would rot. A profound lesson in sufficiency. That enough means that there is enough.

That we must in fact learn to settle into enough. That enough is not about having cupboards full for months on end, enough is not about having all and every duck lined up before we move forward, enough is not about securing our comfort or establishing our rights.

Enough is about having enough for today. How much food can you eat today? How many clothes can you wear today? How many pair of shoes can you wear this day?

Years back during a very rough patch of life I was starving myself so my children might eat. I learned at that time that I didn’t have to have my fridge full to have enough. In fact, all I needed was enough for the next meal. That was it. The meals after that would take care of themselves.

During another rough patch I had a mattress on the floor of a small room and that was the extent of my personal space for 9 months. I learned at that time that comfort comes from my relationship with the Lord, that my closeness with God is comfort enough, and that strength has nothing to do with how much we own or how beautiful our surroundings are.

In fact, I would wager to say that the more things we own, the more beautiful our surroundings, that the weaker we are. If our dependance is on our circumstance or our possessions or our comforts, then know that our fragility becomes pronounced in times of trouble.

At Capturing Courage we receive request after request for financial provision for pastors themselves, for their ministries, for their church buildings, for their orphanages and schools, for their own children’s schooling, for their travel and transportation needs.

At Capturing Courage we say no to all of these requests. Partly because we know we are not equipped or called to fill even a portion of these request. But mostly because we know that none of these things will save us or them. None of these things will make any of us stronger. In fact, sometimes just the opposite.

It will be strength in some ways to be sure, but it will be strength from the outside in, which we all know, isn’t any real strength at all.

Rather, strength from the inside out is true strength. Inside out strength is what sustains us through difficulty. And this is what we are imparting by the grace of God around the world. Simple camaraderie and generous encouragements, just even knowing someone is there, is often all we need, ever.

We only ever need to get through one day at a time.

I may be thousands and thousands of miles away from my pastor friend for whom I prayed today, and yet across the expanse comes the very clear pictures and vision and prophetic knowing to my heart and mind. God directs how to minister even when oceans separate.

With all of its difficulties the life that I and my colleagues around the world are choosing is in fact an incredible privilege. To lose our life means that we are finding it. And it is richer than anything I had ever imagined.

What’s The Fight About?

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the body of ChristAre we fighting with people. Are we fighting against people.

What if there was another completely different vantage point. What if we might fight for people.

Fighting with people has us choosing sides, using either/or language and sometimes blindly acquiescing in ways that are not beneficial to anyone.

Fighting against people also polarizes and separates, creating divides and a conquer and a take all kind of thinking. No one wins.

And often, with each of these options on opposing ends of a continuum we bounce back and forth between fight with and fighting against.

Sometimes we are fighting with and sometimes we are fighting against. Bi-polar in our positions we are not stable people, our life manner cannot be counted on, we swing from one way to the other depending on who we are with, depending on what buttons they are pushing in us, and depending on our frame of mind on any given day.

Might I suggest this is a crazy way to be in the world. And yet, how else might we do this?

Well, in contrast to either of these two ends of a continuum the servant-leader (and anyone can be one of these) brings those two opposite ends of the continuum up and around joining the two polarities, creating something brand new.

Instead of with or against, we have for. Fighting for others is a much different entity.

It is a place whereby we are in fact for people. We hold ourselves in honor to others, we give benefit of the doubt while simultaneously giving push back.

Fighting for others requires that we bring a lot more of us to the table, than fighting with or against ever does.

Fighting for requires that we have the best interest of those we are serving at heart. It requires a bigger picture kind of thinking, a life that seeks to be part of the solution and not part of the problem, and that quite simply breathes life instead of death.

It doesn’t mean we won’t disagree; we will.

Yet fighting for is a strong place. It does not require acquiescence, it does not create false fronts, and because of this only in fighting for can we engage true unity.

Fighting with or against are both passive states that masquerade as action, they look alive and meaningful, but its all a ruse.

It is so much easier after all to take a polarized position than to truly enter into the dirty messes of reality and invest in listening, and humility, and seeing things differently than we have ever seen them before.

Only in fighting for do we really engage all the difficulties and the uncountable realities, only in fighting for are we part of the solution, and only in fighting for are we able to truly serve those around us.

The Heart of Our Work

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P1230297 compressedThere are a lot of missions organizations out there. I just discovered a site that has some dozen different trips to choose to be part of this year.

When I look at these sites and these missions organizations I know that Capturing Courage is not the same, is quite unique, yet I’ve had a hard time articulating the difference.

Released into the international aspect of our ministry 1 1/2 years ago it only took a couple of months to know that we were not going to be taking ‘teams’ overseas in any way.

Let me try to explain why.

For starters, we stay with the people. Jesus told his disciples to enter the towns, stay with whom will keep you and eat what they feed you. This is what we do. In each place where we go we stay with a family. We are not looking for nice per se, need no hotels, just simple and safe.

Doing this enters us into immediate interdependence. Sure I may be there to pray over and train and to facilitate an intimate encounter with the Lord, but I am dependent on those who keep me. In this we are mutually coming under each others leading and guiding.

Fellowship doesn’t stay at the surface. It goes much deeper.

Because I’ve gone by myself on all of my trips thus far, I’ve entered into relationship with those I’ve been privileged to be with. There is no other Canadian nearby, the easy comforts of a persons familiarity are not right at hand, and this forces real dynamics between myself and those I am with.

Our primary goal is building relationships. In fact, our entire ministry is dependent on the relationships we build. No relationships, no ministry.

Investing in each other has us looking ahead together in each other. I’m not sure how that can completely be done in a team setting. Can you imagine moving six or more people through a crowded city street, or onto a taxi, or via boda-boda’s into the villages and to sit with the elderly. I can’t.

Which brings me to the other thing that is different. We move as they move. Capturing Courage uses the same transit that our hosts use. In fact, our hosts are the ones arranging all the transportation.

We are entering into their worlds. We are not bringing ours with us, rather we do life and our time there in the same way they do. This is our goal.

The world over we have this prevailing idea that more is better. But I am convinced that less gets the job done far more. With less of us we connect more. With less of us we fit in better. With less of us the conversations are richer.

It is similar to years back when I would take my kids to Science World. Here in Vancouver we have a science playground of sorts where an entire day can easily be had. And there was a marked difference in the ways we could spend a day at Science World.

When I and just my five kids went, we found that we took our time. We went from area to area at our own speed and pace. We delved deep into the areas that struck us that day. My interactions were with my children, each one in turn and as we conversed together.

Every so often we had this ‘great idea’ to go with another family. Another mom and her kids would join us, and it was never as good a day. For all of a sudden I’m talking with this other mom more than with my own children. The conversation that did happen with my children was brought down to the level of giving instructions, issuing warnings, calling and commanding.

Sure I loved visiting with my friend, but all in all, these were far less superior days. The quality cannot even be compared.

Instead of moving at our own pace and entering into deep discussion and learning that was not rushed, we instead gave way to being in sync, organizing the children’s needs (who needed to go to the bathroom now?) with our conversation about planning and strategy and other such sundry details.

As much as I loved the idea of going with another family it was just never what we imagined it to be.

And I am pretty sure that moving a team through a foreign land would amount to the same. All the shuttling, strategizing, planning, organizing, timing, checking in, double checking, and more and more, certainly is not what we at CCI are called to do.

We must think very carefully about what the actual goal and the job is that we are taking on.

For instance, get a job in women’s fashion at a local department store as a ‘customer relationship manager’ and you will be folding and hanging clothing all day long. Is that really the job you wanted?

If a missions organization wants to pay thousands of dollars (actually charge you thousands of dollars) to move a team through airports, and in vans and through villages, care-taking the team, managing the team, providing for the team, solving problems within the team, ensuring the team has something to do, maintaining equilibrium within the team, and so on, then go for it.

But maybe we don’t want to call it missions so much as a grand team experience. Lets get real.

My niece recently said to me that when she did a missions trip to Mexico a few years back, that she never once interacted with a local Mexican person. So, I may be new to this scene, but there is something about this that is not okay. In fact, there is something about this that is very bad.

Having said all that, there is an organization based out of South Africa and they explicitly say, we do missions trips so that western youth might see other world realities. This is great. They are sure of their mandate and are stating it explicitly. Way to go for them. Because here the goal is to manage a team, grow a team, develop individuals to work within that team. This is honest. This is clarity.

It is hard to find clarity in anything we do in life. Even more so the rather nebulous arena of ‘helping’. What exactly might that be anyway! Well at CCI we enter into relationships and into life, into interdependency and mutual blessings.

There is nothing so grand as walking out of an international airport completely dependent on one person to be there to receive you. Nothing so amazing as to put one’s safety and care into another’s hands and guiding, “You lead the way, I’ll follow.” Little else compares to humbly receiving and sinking into the one family bed that has been prepared for you as your recover from your flight.

Nothing like receiving the jug of water that has been warmed for you that you might bathe. Nothing like falling asleep to the low sounds of the family conversing from bed to bed as they settle for the night. Nothing like your host following to the toilet (a pit toilet/outhouse) to stand guard since it is now dark outside.

It is these intimate adventures through life that bond us to each other. And it is out of these types of dependent interactions whereby we settle into each other, acknowledge each other and can then turn together looking forward committing to the future together.

At CCI it will never be about ‘here let us come help you’. Rather it is all about ‘we see the amazing strength and passion of your life, we see the work you are doing day in and day out, unceasingly and with great faithfulness, how might we encourage you?’

It’s as simple and profound as that.

At Capturing Courage we are simply finding friends we never knew, family we hadn’t yet met, and colleagues we are simply privileged to enter into the work alongside.

If you want to support this work head over to Love Global

The Gospel in Chairs

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Today I share a video that is fresh out, and that I happened across a few weeks ago.

Take the time and watch the whole way through. I’m pretty sure you will be blessed.

Go in the grace and love of God today!

International Women’s Day

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P1230558 compressedOn this International Women’s Day it seems right to post an old paraphrase that I once did of Proverbs 31 – May this bless you today.

An Excellent Femininity:

The Proverbs 31 Woman Paraphrased

 

An excellent femininity who can find?

SHE has more dimensions than any precious jewel.

The heart of her husband trusts in her,

she invests in her man’s prosperity.

Perceiving what is good for him (and while refusing harm),

she fully engages—

good is her investment in their years together.

With a ready spirit and an honest and enterprising heart she does not turn from the challenges of what she wants.

Because of this her world is large and she gleans from numerous resources for the benefit of her family.

Actively engaging her own needs and the needs of her family, she rises to meet each day with gladness and an eager spirit;

extending without prejudice a “welcome to the day”

to those about her.

Taking calculated risks her decision making finds profit

enabling her to invest yet again in more of her tomorrows.

She is strong in her inner self, her body too is strong, and in this her self respect is evident.
Rightly understanding what she has to bring to the table

as valuable, she offers it boldly.

When life is hard and all is ‘night’ she continues on

in the light of her God.

She is okay with menial tasks; it doesn’t have to be all about drama. She is not so overworked that she is not aware of,

nor unable to reach out to needs of others; her life has margin.

Hardships to come do not frighten her, for she

dresses her household in the blood of Christ daily in her prayers.

Refusing the temptation to neglect her own being, she cares for herself as diligently as anyone else;

And in her bearing and dress it’s clear she’s a daughter of The King.

Her husband, having his own something to offer

and in the bounty of her respect and respite freely offered him,

courageously takes his rightful place of influence.

She is not afraid of the marketplace, for knowing she has something worthy to offer confidently finds her place among it;

the marketplace is richer for her essence.

Her presence speaks of strength and dignity and from

an inner serenity with past and present

she delights to consider what her future holds for her.

Her mouth dispenses wisdom, her words, her spirit, and her manner model kindness and graciousness.

She is not lazy, but sacrifices and prioritizes in the care of her home and those in it.

Her children grow and one day thank her.

Her husband loves her.

The mere form of femininity is a lie, but a woman who risks to shine in all she is created to be by her God will have substance

worthy of praise.

Give her the fruit of her hands,

and may her reputation be known by all.

A Bigger Church

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P1340113 compressedGenerally speaking, as a body of people, the church is afraid. Battered back and forth by our own ideals of making a difference in this world with a compulsive need for theological certainty and stamped permission slips we’ve lost our edge.

We go toward certainty and permission, and then swing wide the other way. It doesn’t take too long to figure out that we can’t have it both ways. At least not at the start. For anything worth doing first requires guts and a certain ‘leave off the unexplainable parts’ in order to get a job done.

The need for psychological certainty is a living death for the church. Fear based ministry ends up being no ministry at all.

For we and everyone in the world are living messy lives. If the outside looks good all we have to do is dig a bit under the surface and we find all sorts of relics and dead bones and living fears. If we are afraid our aim becomes to stay safe and become certain.

God never promised us psychological certainty. In fact “lean not on your own understanding” directly implies that we will not have it all figured out.

Yet how often have we made love and service to people take a back seat to ‘our own understanding’. Unless all the ducks are lined up we hold back. And in that holding back, in that idolatry of ducks-in-a-row, how many potentially mighty acts of God have been aborted.

According to Daniel Goleman author of Emotional Intelligence and Primal Leadership, one of the key traits of both emotional intelligence and resonant leaders is the ability to walk with mixed emotions and to hold ambiguity well.

According to this, we the church have traditionally been pretty low on the emotional intelligence scale.

My own journey of emotional healing and into emotional intelligence required me to give up my own “best understandings”. God has upset my ‘box’ of paradigms so many times that, thank God, I have finally figured it out that I don’t have God figured out.

How does the Church who claims the upper-hand on the knowledge of God reach for emotional intelligence, leave off our ‘best understanding’ and embrace ambiguity? And why should we?

The reasons are plain.

It is the emotionally intelligent ones who are leading the way. The ability to walk transparent, to examine oneself with good humor and frank understanding, to manage ones feelings and to lead others on a path of similar self discovery and humility is the work done by emotionally intelligent leaders.

Whether they know Christ or not.

Emotional intelligence trumps every other kind of intelligence. It is the kind of internal savvy that cannot be manufactured or controlled. Who we are shows up in our emotional intelligence, and our emotional intelligence interprets what we intellectually know to everyone around us.

Have it intellectually correct but without emotional intelligence and we are simply offensive. The content may be spot-on but without the highway of emotional intelligence the message dies before leaving the gate.

For in any group or group of groups, there are those who are the designated leaders, and then there are the ones that are the true influencers, the ones that people are paying attention to.

That one is always the most emotionally intelligent.

On the world stage, the church is generally not leading in emotional intelligence. Do I dare say that we are not okay with ambiguity. Might it be that we are not all that good at self-examination. Do we know how to learn from others who are not the same as us? How deeply afraid are we?

The only way I know to save the Church from itself is the same process that any one of us can employ to save ourselves from ourselves, and that is to get out there and get our hands dirty.

Entering into something bigger than us automatically strips us of pride and self-sufficiency, immediately challenges our primary assumptions, and brings us face to face with our own ugly arrogance.

We won’t have it all figured out, God shows up differently than how we might like, and in this we are loosed from fear and the need for psychological certainty. For when we let down our guard we find God in the smack-dab middle of all we don’t know. Such a blessed relief.

We are not called to know it all or to have God all figured out. It is not an intellectually-led discussion. We are in fact invited into relationship first and foremost, and relationships require emotions, and uncertainty, risking and listening and a whole host of other things.

Fear, paranoia, hunkered in, closed systems, big sticks, little self awareness, talking first before we listen, is all the work of the enemy.

God’s world is much bigger than that. May the Church be bigger than that too.

God Forbid

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capturing courage international, living outrageous lives, going after the gold, not settling, go for more, more service, more love, take a risk, live a life bigger than you, make a difference, go after your calling, invest in your dreams, respond to God's call for you, refuse less-than living, make some changes, I ran across someone yesterday using the verse, “I must be less and he must be more” to justify not going after anything more than what they already have, to merely settle, and silence the whispers that say, ‘there is more’.

To the person stuck with self at the center this is the kind of theology we get.

To those hunkered in right and wrong, good and bad kind of thinking, theology gets skewed.

“I must be less and he must be more” becomes about doing less, when it is rather an injunction to living bigger than ourselves.

I less and God more means that our lives are poured out on behalf of others.

I less and God more means that the decision we make do not revolve around our comfort or our safety, whether physically or psychologically.

Refusing to go after that ‘more’ that God calls each of us to, is choosing psychological safety. And it is death. A living death.

Because we are in fact made for so much more.

Contentment in God is not about ensuring our comfort. Its about giving our comfort away and finding in the midst of less that we are at home none-the-less.

Oswald Chambers put it best, “Let us pray lest we seek merely for peace and not to and for God himself.”

God forbid that we should use his word to live safer lives.

Sally is My Friend…

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P1080807 compressed“Sally is my friend.

You wouldn’t believe how amazing Sally is.

Last week Sally was hilarious.

The week before that she was something else.

Have you met Sally?

You really should meet Sally!

Sally is wonderful.

Last year Sally did some amazing things.

Next week I’m having dinner at Sally’s house.

Wanna come?

Sally would love to meet you.

Sally’s house is so great. 

I’m sure you will like Sally’s house.

Oh wait, I’ve another story about Sally…

Then there is this one,

Oh and the day that Sally…

Did I mention that Sally is my friend?”

I don’t know about you, but I now have no interest in meeting Sally whatsoever. In fact, I just might want to run as far and as fast in the opposite direction as I can.

Imagine if this was the same conversation every time you met this person. Imagine…

And how many times do we as Christians act in this same manner about God. And have we really thought about the effects and the true impact on those in earshot.

Are we able to talk about our experiences, our emotions, our realities, our hurts and losses, pains and sadness, bringing God stories only into the mix as the grand intersection that he is.

Or are we turning people away and then basking in a false sense of persecution when they don’t want to hear it. We are the problem, but we label them the problem.

It’s not okay.

Retelling verses after verses as though we have no thought of our own, no way to express God’s goodness but through what we have memorized, is not okay.

The living active word is in the intersection where our messy beat-up lives meet the living God.

Out of this place comes testimony, not rhetoric.

Out of this place comes brokenness, not platitudes.

Out of this place comes an understanding and a grace that does not speak at others, ever.

Rather, we salt things graciously (too much salt and the food is ruined after all).

Don’t ruin the amazing works of our Lord and Savior by turning people away.

Pride of this sort won’t go over with the King of Kings.

 

A New Normal

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the glory of GodIt is a sunshiny day on the west coast of Canada. Something that we do not always have, so when we do we must comment on it!

There are a lot of things going through my heart and mind this morning. The communications have been many this week from various parts of the world. I’ve still to respond to a gentleman from India today.

Playing on the world stage is interesting to say the least. I always knew I wanted a bigger sand-box to play in, and it appears that I’m in it.

But like with any game the bigger the stage the different our thinking must be. My own thinking has gone through many shifts. Once afraid and suspicious of many things today I am simply worn out by the fear of others. There simply is not time or space for fear.

There are things we leave behind any time we step out beyond our normal. Ways of thinking, the lenses by which we see the world, the expectations we carry with us.

Sometimes I have no idea how I have moved beyond the person I once was, yet move I have, glory be to God!

All this to say, if you are wanting to live and play a bigger game, work hard on your paradigms and the lenses by which you see the world.

Different lenses, different world.

No matter what change you might be looking for, it can only come about by you changing your thinking, by you shedding your fears, and by you doing the hard inner work to stretch farther than you ever imagined possible.

Thing is though, your new normal is just waiting for you. Will you take hold?

Don’t Let the Bed-Bugs Bite

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time to say 'no'

Spiritual Authority rather is the influence that we carry within us to make a difference in this world and in the lives of others. It is the assignment or calling that would have us entering into something bigger than ourselves.

Spiritual Authority rests on the knowing of our position in Jesus, it is about confidence of who God is and who we are made to be. But let me tell you a story.

I was in Uganda for almost another week. Visiting another area found me in yet another beautiful woman’s home. Nice space, good bed, hospitality and gracious warmth, all wrapped around me in comfort.

Until I woke in the middle of the second night to find numerous bedbugs. On the bed and on my mosquito netting both inside and out.

So with my flashlight and my kleenex (I’m really glad I had experience with lice years earlier, it somehow prepared me) I scringed them all in my tissues. And then tried to go back to sleep.

This continued for the nights I remained there. I tried all sorts of things. I laid a mat I had been given on top of my mattress. I then tucked my mosquito netting under the mat (as opposed to around the edges of the bed), then laid myself on top of the mat. This set-up made a figure 8 of sorts that they would have to navigate in order to get to me.

Well, navigate it they did. Bed-bugs are smart. We settled into a routine of sorts. Sleep fitfully, wake up to dispose of bed bugs, sleep fitfully, then wake to dispose of more, each night until morning came.

Long story short, I made it out alive (and lived to tell about it), and managed to not bring one bed-bug home with me. Phew!

Three months later and I am heading to Uganda again. To the same home. For three weeks this time.

Back to the bed-bugs.

But the Lord had been speaking more and more to me about my spiritual authority. My confidence was increasing all the time, and the anointing and level of authority had been increased as well.

And we were praying. My prayer team and I silenced those bed-bugs all the way from Canada, weeks before I was to be there again.

We really didn’t know what we were doing per se. We just prayed a bit.

Upon my arrival in Uganda and settling straight away into this same home and same bed found me that first night setting the stage.

I got into bed and spoke out loud, “I declare myself covered in the name and the blood of my Lord Jesus Christ, and say to all bed-bugs ‘be still’ – insert praying in tongues here- Amen.”

No bedbugs. Days went by, a few weeks went by. Not one bedbug.

I was thinking, wow that is amazing. What did they do? How did they get rid of them?

We all know how impossible it is to get rid of bedbugs.

Until one night that I was woken in a nightmare and demonic attack. Three times I was woken, and the third time there were three bedbugs. One I had flicked off myself, killing it as I severed its head from its body, and two others clinging on the inside of my mosquito netting.

(sorry for the graphic detail)

There lay the one dead one, and there were the two on the netting, and I simply spoke to them in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ that they were to ‘be still’ (meaning not to get to me) and simply went back to sleep.

I never saw them again.

In all of this, the only element that changed from trip one to trip two was the power of prayer and the increased confidence that I carried, knowing that I could command these critters and they had to listen.

Not because of me, but because of who my God is.

And it made all the difference.

This is spiritual authority. Knowing who God is, understanding that ‘he who is in us is greater than he who is in the world’ and with the confidence to stand in that truth, to declare from that truth, and to rest in that truth.

Now imagine this same knowing, this same confidence, this same declaration made on behalf of the broken hearted. Imagine this same advocated for those who have no voice. Imagine angels released to heal, hope infused in the hopeless, freedom where before there was bondage. Imagine.

This is spiritual authority. It is first the place where we meet the living God ourselves. We find sufficiency and grace and healing and love and hope. We find confidence and our voice.

And then we bring this knowing to bear upon this world. We learn to advocate the love of God on behalf of others in powerful and effective ways. This is Spiritual Authority at its best. And this is what I am teaching.

To the bed-bugs, and to everything else that has ever gone wrong in this world, we say, “You will NOT bite. Your authority is cancelled here.”

God reigns.

Mona Lisa

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P1200321 compressedLike any great artist God has created the world we live in, all of nature and animals, the wonders of the deep, the beauty of the galaxies, and you and I.

All of it is magnificent. (and that is an understatement)

In the process of this artistry God poured all of his/her (God is both male and female, many languages have no personal pronouns designating gender, the English language is sadly constrained in this) into the masterpiece.

All of God’s goodness, all of his hopes and dreams, all of passion and ecstasy, all of dance and worship, all of grace and sufficiency, of wealth of soul and spirit, of rich relationships, community and communion has been poured into this Masterpiece.

The principles and the spiritual laws and the ways the universe works and holds together is based on who God is. Every single thing we can observe about nature and science reflects God.

Like any great art piece, if we look long enough and observed deep enough we would see the handiwork of the master. We would come to recognize the heart of the one who painted and sculpted and composed.

We spot a Monet and we know it is a Monet. We take in a Rembrandt and we know that it is a Rembrandt. Mozart is Mozart and Vivaldi is Vivaldi. Each artist has a unique style and heart and feel to their work.

So it is with God. We and this world are his living masterpiece. Invited to live out the masters heart in full color and joy and dance and satisfaction we are fashioned to give evidence of God.

But we have mucked with the masterpiece. We’ve not been respectful of the artist. Missing the heart of the artist, even in this world, can be easy to do. Many of the ‘great’ artists were not so great in their day. Only with time did the genius with which they create come to be truly appreciated.

The numerous and untold ways that we have mucked with God’s masterpiece range from violent acts against humanity all the way to the violent thoughts of our hearts. From overt acts to covert acts and to intentions of the heart we have been disrespectful of the Master Artist and his creation. From sins of commission to sins of omission to sins of the heart we have been exceptionally disrespectful.

Imagine if you will, that you are setting out a family dinner. It is summer, you are gathered outside. The sun is shining, the burgers are on the grill, the salads are plentiful, the sauces and chili and mustard and relish and ketchup are all at hand.

There are beverages, soda pop, beer, kool-aid, coffee, tea, wine, maybe even some homemade slushies.

It is going to be a great feast.

But before we all set down to eat, one of us pulls out a tablecloth (picnic tables need tablecloths after all). It is something that Uncle Ben* (not his real name) found.

It is the Mona Lisa. Imagine, if you will (and if it were really big enough for this) that we are using the Mona Lisa as our tablecloth.  Not knowing its value, not knowing its worth, ignorant of its beauty and importance we set our cups and plates and stemware and silverware on her.

We gather around. Henry is seated at her one shoulder, Joey is round the other side flanked by the toddlers. Grandpa Joe who likes to take his teeth out during dinner is at the head of the table. The baby in her highchair even has a place. With Martha on the corner, getting up and down to serve the food, that spot becomes the most frayed.

And every meal we gather and eat and laugh and make merry, and in it all, though we do not know it, we are profoundly and deeply offensive. Not because making merry is bad, but because we are making common what is in fact a masterpiece.

Picnics are fun, they are also messy. With glasses spilled, ketchup dropping, mustard staining, baby’s throwing up, with the sun beating down, with sudden windstorms and maybe even rain, with forks jammed through the cloth by bored teens and initials scratched in the surface by a love struck ones… with hot pots set on its surface, candle wax dropping, cream and sugar spilled, pepper smearing… there is profound disrespect for the artwork and for the artist.

We don’t even know what we are doing.

And this is exactly what we have done with God’s art work. We kill, we lie, we lust, we covet, we hate, we despise, we gossip, we destroy, our hearts become toxic, we come with hidden agenda’s, we reach across the table to fix another’s table manners only to spill our own drink … And we don’t really get what we are doing.

Like those picnicking on the Mona Lisa we have no clue. It is only by the grace of God that we come to any understanding at all. Our hearts cannot perceive it. We have sat at our Mona Lisa tablecloth for too long. The picnic has been had.

It is the gospel story what comes next. God in his heartbroken and battered state, with disillusionment and grief, with full knowledge of the loss rises up to fight for us and for creation, for beauty and restoration. God sends a part of himself to cover the damage.

Jesus spreads himself out as our tablecloth over that table. The Mona Lisa is still there, the damage has been done, but God rises above the hurt to say, “Never mind, I will take care of it.”

We must eat, we must gather as before, but this time, for those who are aware of the deep insult to the heart of God, we accept and receive Jesus as the covering. It is in him we eat.

Jesus spreads himself out, covering over the offense done, making a new way, carrying the stains and the smears and the messes of our ketchup and relish and mustard. He says, “I’ll be the tablecloth, I’ll cover over your offense, come, sit and eat.”

And in this grace, as we accept deep contrition into our beings, we find companionship and community around the table as before yet even better. For this time it is in respect and honor of our creator, of the Master Artist and of the masterpiece sitting next to us. We recognize that we’ve been spoiling a great work of art and we are sorry.

And God replies, “I know, I’ve got it covered.”