Carolyn sends out a more or less regular “Just for You” to pastors’ wives in our ministry (Idaho Mountain Ministries). Here’s what she wrote this morning. Actually, in my present state of mind, it was “Just for Me.” 

——

Good Morning Friends,

It’s been a rather trying and troubling couple of weeks around our house and sometimes in my heart. I imagine many of you can relate. At times it is that “one more thing” that brings tears close and an undone feeling grips us.

Maybe even a little thing that becomes the proverbial straw that breaks. You know what I mean.

This morning in my quiet space, my safe place, I read a section in Dare to Journey by Charles Ringma that resonated with me. He writes,

“At a particular moment issues can appear to be so pressing that we literally panic. Problems can appear to be so demanding that they press for immediate solutions. Projects and plans can seem to require quick resolution. Present difficulties can cause us an undue amount of distress and anguish. And disappointments may appear to be so severe that we think our present ‘world’ may cave in. In the heat of the moment, things can appear in such an urgent and accentuated manner.
   

It’s important, therefore, that we learn the art of disengagement....for we frequently have knee-jerk reactions rather than make considered responses....It’s important to create a place for reflection....From the benefit of hindsight, we can begin to learn that our anxious reactions in the heat of the moment are frequently inappropriate and wide of the mark. In the place of reflection we may be able to achieve a perspective that has the wisdom of hindsight.”
The Scripture at the beginning of this essay was Lamentations 3:25-26.

The Lord is good to those who wait for him,
    to the soul who seeks him.
 It is good that one should wait quietly
    for the salvation of the Lord.

As you and I begin to practice the art of disengagement so that we can withdraw to a quiet place of reflection, seeking the One who so loves us, He can change our perspective. He can give us His wisdom and quiet rest. As we cultivate this habit of the seeking heart the results will be long-lasting, rather than a quick fix. Of course our circumstance may not change but our perspective certainly can. And we can be refreshed and strengthened to adventure on in the very place, in the very circumstances God has placed, trusting Him as we go.

After reading this essay from Ringma this morning, I was praying, including praying for you as well as for me. While praying, this short hymn came to mind.  May it bless you as it has blessed me once again.

With so much love,
Carolyn

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AHCTRKXONcA

Don't Panic

If the foundations are destroyed,

What can the righteous do?

The Lord is in His holy temple,

The Lord's throne is in heaven. —Psalm 11:3,4

“Here, have a look at this,” said Ford. He sat down on one of the mattresses and rummaged about in his satchel. Arthur prodded the mattress nervously and then sat on it himself: in fact he had very little to be nervous about, because all mattresses grown in the swamps of Sqornshellous Zeta are very thoroughly killed and dried before being put to service. Very few have ever come to life again. Ford handed the book to Arthur. “What is it?” asked Arthur. “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. It’s a sort of electronic book. It tells you everything you need to know about anything. That’s its job.” Arthur turned it over nervously in his hands. “I like the cover,” he said. “‘ Don’t Panic.’ It’s the first helpful or intelligible thing anybody’s said to me all day.” The Hitchhikers Guide to the Universe

Old timers have always thought that the world is going to hell in a hand basket, but, by golly, we may have actually arrived. Here we are, beset by a whole new set of corrupting influences, bad manners and indecent behavior, political craziness and a lack of responsible, rational, moral leadership. The foundations are crumbling! What's a body to do? 

Well, put simply (but not too simply), the answer is God. 

Look, just read His book: It tells us everything we need to know about anything. That's it's job. And what, I ask you, is the answer to our present angst? "The Lord is in His holy temple." God is seated firmly on the throne. All things are under His absolute control, even this nutty election cycle.

The prophet Habakuk knew Psalm 11 and the principle it enshrines and quoted it to himself as he watched the armies of Babylon march on Jerusalem and contemplated the the imminent death of his nation. His response? “'God is in His holy temple.’ Quiet, please" (Habakuk 2:19). [Habakuk's word for "quiet" is a sibilant, hus, the direct equivalent of the word we use to calm an anxious child: "shhhh."]

God knows what He's doing."Don't panic" is writ large on the cover and every page of his book. Trust Him. Hope in Him. Rest in Him. Shhhh. You're safe between the paws of the true Aslan (C.S. Lewis).

God is working out his purpose 

'spite of all that happens here. 

Lawless nations in commotion, 

restless like a storm-tossed ocean. 

He controls their rage and fury 

so his children need not fear. 

Let our hearts then turn to heaven 

where he bides his time in peace 

Giving him our heart's devotion 

till the present troubles cease.

David Roper

11/7/16

Tetchiness

"As we get older, we grow tetchy..." —James Wolcott

The troubles of old age can make us cranky and out of sorts, but we should never excuse these bouts of bad behavior, for they can wither the hearts of those we live with and love and spread misery all around us. We have not fulfilled our duty to those in our household until we have learned to be pleasant. 

Poet Hannah More wrote this:

Since trifles make the sum of human things,

And half our misery from our foibles springs;

Since life's best joys consist in peace and ease,

And though but few can serve, yet all can please;

Oh, let the ungentle spirit learn from hence,

A small unkindness is a great offense.

Ancient Greek philosophers had a word for the virtue that corrects our unpleasantness—praus, a term that suggests a kind, patient demeanor. A soul at rest. It was considered the “queen of the virtues” for it governed and blessed all the rest. The author of the book of James, who understood the classical use of the word, describes the consummate good life as deeds done “in the gentleness [prautes] of wisdom.” 

Praus has the power to be kind and considerate in the face of pain or disruption. It is willing to accept limitations and ailments without taking out our aggravation on others. It shows gratitude for the smallest service rendered and tolerance for those who do not serve us well. It puts up with bothersome people—especially noisy, boisterous little people, for kindness to children is a crowning mark of a good and gentle soul. It speaks softly in the face of provocation. It is silent, for calm, unruffled silence is often the most eloquent response to unkind words.

Jesus was (and is) “gentle [praus] and humble in heart” (Matthew 11:29). If we ask Him, He will, in time, create His likeness in us. “From tones that jar the heart of another, from words that make it ache… from such, He (Jesus) was born to deliver us” (George MacDonald).

David Roper

10/24/16

INTJ

“Be sympathetic” (1 Peter 3:8).

The "Myers-Briggs Type Indicator" is a personality test designed to measure personality traits and the ways by which people relate to the world. According to their metric system I’m an I-N-T-J: an introverted, intuitive, thinking, judging person. That’s a fair appraisal of my personality, I suppose, though I must admit, after all these years, I don’t know myself very well.  

There's an upside to my personality type, but the downside is that I-N-T-Js tend to be detached, dispassionate and uncaring, in which case it’s easy for me to excuse my lack of compassion by saying, "That’s just me,” and settle for something less than that which God has in mind for me.

The nub of the matter lies here: I am not just an I-N-T-J; I am a S-I-N-N-E-R, and much oF my personality is still unconverted. Myers-Briggs makes no moral judgments, but I must do so. My indifference to pain and suffering is sin and very much unlike Jesus who was said, on many occasions, to be “filled with compassion” (Matthew 9:35 et. al.). I don’t want to be like me; want to be like Him!

That’s a tall order. Can a leopard change his spots? You bet! Nothing is too hard for the Lord.

Change doesn’t necessarily come about easily or quickly; it may take place gradually over the course of many years, but God is determined to make new men and women of all of us if we keep asking for His help. John Donne said, “God is the alchemist who has wit (wisdom), and whose spark makes good things of bad.”

Hence my prayer: “And me? I’m a mess. I’m nothing and have nothing: make something of me. You can do it; you’ve got what it takes…” (Psalm 40:17, The Message)

David Roper

10/20/16

Rain

“You visit the earth and water it; you greatly enrich it;

the river of God is full of water.” —Psalm 65:9

 Camas Prairie, Idaho, photo by Josh Roper

Creation is a signpost pointing to God, but tragically, many people only look at the sign. C. S. Lewis observed that the modern world conditions us to a “doglike” state of mind. If, for example, you point at your dog’s food dish and say “eat,” he will stare at your finger, confusing the sign with the thing signified.

David saw rain as a sign that points us to God's eternal love for growing things. Rain is God "visiting the earth" to water and enrich it (65:9).

Showers sweep across the plowed ground, "watering its furrows, settling its ridges, softening the clods of dirt, blessing it with growth." Rain is God, "walking" through the earth like Johnny Appleseed (a US pioneer apple farmer and folk hero), leaving behind His bounty: "The paths on which He walks overflow with goodness" (65:10, 11).

Here's a dimension of truth you may have lost. It’s a vision, a perspective, a way of looking at things. It’s the capacity to see through things to what’s behind them rather than just at them.

Rain reveals the hand of God if we have eyes to see it. The little hills, the pastures, the valleys take in God's love and "shout for joy!" (v. 13).

So can we!

David Roper

The Numbers Game

“My people have a law never to speak of sizes or numbers to you…. You do not understand and it makes you do reverence to nothings and pass by what is really great.”

Oyarsa, an angel in C. S. Lewis’ Out of the Silent Planet.

I recently heard someone say of a mutual friend, “He’s called to greatness,” by which he meant a crowded church, a large budget, a high profile work. I couldn’t help but wonder, what makes us think that God’s call is always upward mobile?

George MacDonald wrote in a letter to his father in 1847: “Perhaps the best thing for me would be a quiet country charge—small enough to enable me to attend thoroughly to all the pastoral duties, and intelligent enough to urge me to use my intellect and holy enough to make us advance each other in holiness. Ambition points to the metropolis—but is not ambition a terrible thing for a motive to the ministry?”

Are there not people in small communities who need to be taught and loved? Why wouldn’t God send some of his best workers to labor an entire lifetime in a small place? He’s not willing that any should perish. Is it not true that when difficulties mount and numbers are scarce a deeper a more lasting work may accrue?

Small churches make up about 80% of all churches here in Idaho. Most number 100 or less. Small is the rule, not the exception. It seems it’s always been that way. Paul, when he wrote to the Romans, mentioned four house churches, small enough to fit in someone's home. Their effectiveness was not hindered by their size.

Think of Jesus’ ministry: it started large—5,000 people or more—and grew smaller every day. “Many left him,” we’re told, a state of affairs that would throw most of us into panic.

Our culture equates size with success. Bigger is better. It takes a strong person to resist that craze, especially if he or she is laboring in a small place. As Piglet says, “Its hard to be brave, especially when you’re Very Small.”

It’s not that numbers don’t matter. The Apostles counted the Church in round numbers. There’s a whole book in the Old Testament that bears that name. Numbers represent unique individuals with eternal needs. We should work and pray for many to enter the kingdom, but we shouldn’t use numbers as a basis for esteem. We should treat them with the attitude of John the Baptist who mused as his congregation dwindled away, “A man can only receive what he has been given from heaven.”

John’s sense of worth did not come from his followers, but from the One whom he followed: “The friend (John) who attends the bridegroom waits and listens for him, and is full of joy when he hears the bridegroom’s voice. That joy is mine.”

Our Lord does not call us to find joy in the amount of work we do, or the number of people who are a part of that work, but in doing our work—whatever it is—for his sake. Serving him in a small place is not a stepping–stone to greatness. It is greatness. Jesus himself set the example: Nazareth was a little place, and so was Galilee.

DHR

Taking Flight 

A coward will remain, Sir,

Until the fight is done;

But an immortal hero

Will take his hat, and run!

—Emily Dickinson

Some years ago I spent part of a Christmas vacation with our son Josh, who was then a commercial crab fisherman, living in a one–room log cabin in Girdwood, Alaska. 

One very cold morning I was getting dressed, standing as close to the wood-burning stove as possible, while Josh went outside to shovel snow off his driveway. His dog followed him. 

A few moments later I heard Josh shout at the dog and I looked out of the front door to see both of them sprinting for the cabin, hotly pursued by an outraged cow moose whose calf the dog had been pestering. Josh and the dog tumbled through the door and into the cabin in a wild flurry of ice and snow with the aggrieved mother hot on their heels! Fortunately, she skidded to a halt just outside the cabin door. 

In certain situations, it's best to take one's hat and run.

Apropos of which Paul writes: "Flee youthful lusts; but pursue righteousness, faith, love, peace with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart. Avoid foolish and ignorant disputes, knowing that they generate strife" (2Timothy 2:22,23).

Verse twenty-two is often quoted vis-a-vis sexual temptation, but the passion of which Paul writes has nothing to do with sex. In context, the text refers to flight from what Paul calls, "quarreling over words (14), "irreverent babble" (vs. 16), and foolish, ignorant controversies" (vs. 23), which things, he warns, "do no good, but only ruin the hearers" (vs. 14). 

Paul is saying something quite striking: We can teach the Bible in such a way that it produces ruin. 

The "youthful passions" to which Paul refers and from which we must flee are the inclinations of youthful (immature) teachers to dissect and debate the intricacies of a biblical text, and go no further. It is teaching that "circles 'round the head," but never pierces the heart. Not only does no good; it does great harm, producing a crop of quarrelsome, restive, contentious and competitive parishioners—devoid of love. [It's worth noting that Milton found the Devils in hell eternally out of sorts with one another, arguing about, "Providence, Foreknowledge, Will, and Fate—Fixed fate, free will, foreknowledge absolute, and found no end, in wandering mazes lost."  "Vain wisdom all," he contended (Milton, Paradise Lost: 2.ii.558-190)].

To quote Augustine, “A man who knows that he owns a tree and thanks You for the use he has of it, even though he does not know its exact height or the width of its spread, is better than another who measures it and counts all its branches, but neither knows nor loves its Creator.” Truth, when acquired, should lead us to love God and seek God-likeness. Put another way, the goal of our teaching is not knowledge, per se—that’s gnosticism—but "righteousness, faith, love, and peace" (vs. 22). 

Our hearers may go away understanding the grammar, syntax, historical-cultural background and theology of a biblical text, but if their hearts are untouched by love we have contributed to their ruin. 

From such we must "take our hat and run."

David Roper

10/6/16