Following Your Inner Compass

What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

In the aftermath of the January 6, 2021 storming of the Capitol, some amazing stories are emerging worthy of a Lifetime movie special. A young son calls a government agency to warn them that his dad is planning to go to Washington, D.C. for the express purpose of killing people. His father, sensing that his son was not on board with his political perspective or his plans, threatens his kid. He tells him - if you go to the authorities, I will consider you a traitor. And traitors must be killed. The son makes the call anyway. The father is subsequently arrested and faces many serious charges.

What kind of strength did it take for that boy to make that call? Today he lives in hiding, fearful for his life, dependent on the generosity of friends to provide for his needs.

I wonder what his mom thinks. I wonder how his siblings reacted to the news that he had made this call.

Someone asked him why he did it. He said he just knew it was wrong to hurt other people, no matter what you believed about their politics.

Who knows what else will come out about this story. But it seems to me that anyone who would go to such lengths must have some inner compass, deep within them, to go against the grain of his family system.

For those who find themselves in a position of having to take a stand for lovingkindness that costs them relationships, let’s pray:

I ask you, God, to strengthen all of us by your Spirit - not a brute strength but a glorious inner strength - that Christ will live in us as we open the door and invite him in. And I ask him that with both feet planted firmly in love, we’ll be able to take in with all followers of Jesus the extravagant dimensions of Christ’s love. Reach out and experience the breadth! Test its length! Plumb the depths! Rise to the heights! Live full lives, full in the fullness of God.

Ephesians 3:15-19 The Message (with some pronoun adjustments)

A Utensil for God...

When I was preparing one of our holiday meals, small though it was this year, I polished silver and got out the good china. I particularly love my china because it was my grandmother’s. Pulling it out reminds me of holidays long past, when others used these same dishes to serve me—when I didn’t have a clue about how much work went into setting a beautiful table and cooking a plethora of delicious homemade concoctions.

My guys don’t really care for the “good stuff;” they think the glasses don’t hold enough water. They don’t like how I yell and scream when they heat leftovers on the good china and cause fireworks in the microwave.

In a wealthy home some utensils are made of gold and silver, and some are made of wood and clay. The expensive utensils are used for special occasions, and the cheap ones are for everyday use. If you keep yourself pure, you will be a utensil God can use for his purpose.

Your life will be clean, and you will be ready for the master to use you for every good work.

2 Timothy 2:20-21 NIV

Once upon a time, I believed that a valuable person was one whom God made into an expensive utensil. You know, fancy. The kind of person you might rub elbows with on special occasions. My boys have provided me with a different perspective with their penchant for plain. They love the reliable glasses and dishes we use every day. Nothing fancy, but they’re clean and serviceable. They hold plenty of water and they never require the use of a fire extinguisher when microwaved.

Second Timothy doesn’t quantify the value of fancy and plain, it just says a pure utensil is one that God can use. It isn’t about how much you sparkle. Oh, I love my good china. But the thing that serves my family best is the everyday dishes. Morning, noon, and night they sustain us. As you begin your new year, would you pray about allowing God to have His way with you?

Maybe you’ve been thinking you have to be fancy or teflon coated to be useful. Maybe you think you cannot be serviceable until you become virtuous. It doesn’t really work that way. If it did, who could serve? Maybe this next year you might just notice what I suspect others already see in you - your capacity for lovingkindness. Rare is the human who did not come pre-wired for lovingkindness, seeing as how we bear the image of God and all. May you see that in yourself today!

Day 4: Made for Lovingkindness

The sixth antiphon:

O King whom all the peoples desire, You are the cornerstone which makes all one.

O come and save us whom You made from clay.

O come, Desire of nations, bind all peoples in one heart and mind.

Bid the strife and quarrels cease.

Fill all the world with heaven’s peace.

Rejoice! Rejoice! Immanuel shall come to thee, O Israel.

What if we woke up one morning and realized that we were created for lovingkindness? What if we knew in that totally immersive way of knowing that changes EVERYTHING, that every bit of strife we sow, every quarrel we engage in, is toxic to our bodies, minds and spirits?

Would we make more effort to refrain from disagreements? Would we curb our tongue and engage our helping hands? What would we do differently?

When my mother died, my brother and I came to know that we could not live and continue down a path of strife and quarrels. We gave up. We ceased our efforts to be heard and known. Our bodies felt like they were covered with third degree burns, cinged to the bone from the flames of a constant battle for love and mutual respect. He and I agreed that a raised voice was almost more than we could bear. Any raised voice. An angry voice was more hurtful than a Virginia loss to a rival team in basketball in the first round of the NCAA tournament. Yes. That bad.

There will be tough, tough decisions that will need to be made in order to cease our strife and quarrels. Relationships may need to end in the traditional way we think of them. We may need to learn to love from afar.

But love is the thing. It’s just really, really hard to know how to love at times.

God is making all one. He is saving us whom he made from clay. We do not have to save, or change, or expect things from others. But we are also given this great gift, which only we can open and use. We are given the gift of self-respect and dignity. We are not required to suffer for the wrong reasons - out of a sense of loyalty, or dependence. Where lovingkindness cannot thrive, we are given the opportunity to bid farewell to strife and quarrels.

As we anticipate the coming of Christ, consider what you might have to withdraw from in order to live in a land that is welcoming to the Lord.

Day 14: The Story of Joseph

The birth of Jesus took place like this. His mother, Mary, was engaged to be married to Joseph. Before they came to the marriage bed Joseph discovered she was pregnant. (It was by the Holy Spirit, but he didn’t know that.) Joseph, chagrined but noble, determined to take care of things quietly so Mary would not be disgraced.

While he was trying to figure a way out, he had a dream. God’s angel spoke in the dream: “Joseph, son of David, don’t hesitate to get married. Mary’s pregnancy is Spirit-conceived. God’s Holy Spirit has made her pregnant. She will bring a son to birth, and when she does, you, Joseph, will name him Jesus – ‘God saves’ – because he will save his people from their sins.” This would bring the prophet’s embryonic sermon to full term: Watch for this – a virgin will get pregnant and bear a son.

They will name him Immanuel (Hebrew for ‘God is with us’).

Isaiah 7

Then Joseph woke up. He did exactly what God’s angel commanded in the dream: He married Mary. But he did not consummate the marriage until she had the baby. He named the baby Jesus.

Matthew 1:18-25, The Message

What did it take for Joseph to do EXACTLY what God’s angel commanded? It’s a fantastic story, so long as it keeps its distance from us! But God refuses to keep his distance. He moves in on us - gently, lovingly, graciously and mercifully. But he moves in nonetheless.

He gives and he asks. His giving is not dependent upon us answering all his questions, “YES!” because he gives out of a wellspring of lovingkindness. I find this incentivizing in a world that often feels like love is conditional.

Joseph was an ordinary guy asked to do an extraordinary thing. Most of us will never be asked to do something so extraordinary. So with the pressure off - what would you be willing to do as an expression of loving (attitude) kindness (action)?

Day 14: The Story of Joseph

The birth of Jesus took place like this. His mother, Mary, was engaged to be married to Joseph. Before they came to the marriage bed Joseph discovered she was pregnant. (It was by the Holy Spirit, but he didn’t know that.) Joseph, chagrined but noble, determined to take care of things quietly so Mary would not be disgraced.

While he was trying to figure a way out, he had a dream. God’s angel spoke in the dream: “Joseph, son of David, don’t hesitate to get married. Mary’s pregnancy is Spirit-conceived. God’s Holy Spirit has made her pregnant. She will bring a son to birth, and when she does, you, Joseph, will name him Jesus – ‘God saves’ – because he will save his people from their sins.” This would bring the prophet’s embryonic sermon to full term: Watch for this – a virgin will get pregnant and bear a son.

They will name him Immanuel (Hebrew for ‘God is with us’).

Isaiah 7

Then Joseph woke up. He did exactly what God’s angel commanded in the dream: He married Mary. But he did not consummate the marriage until she had the baby. He named the baby Jesus.

Matthew 1:18-25, The Message

What did it take for Joseph to do EXACTLY what God’s angel commanded? It’s a fantastic story, so long as it keeps its distance from us! But God refuses to keep his distance. He moves in on us - gently, lovingly, graciously and mercifully. But he moves in nonetheless.

He gives and he asks. His giving is not dependent upon us answering all his questions, “YES!” because he gives out of a wellspring of lovingkindness. I find this incentivizing in a world that often feels like love is conditional.

Joseph was an ordinary guy asked to do an extraordinary thing. Most of us will never be asked to do something so extraordinary. So with the pressure off - what would you be willing to do as an expression of loving (attitude) kindness (action)?