Spiritual Gifts

“That’s a come-along. Papa’s used one before.” So said Robin to our daughter as I was using a come-along to tighten the zipline we were installing in our yard. But as I told Robin later, I had never used one before. I just knew what a come-along was and the general principle that it worked by. In this particular case I had made a loop in the cable and attached one end to the come-along, with the other end of the come-along anchored on the trailer hitch of our van, which I had asked Robin to park in the yard. The end result was the zip line being tightened enough for the children and adults to use it.

That recent episode got me to thinking a bit about my work history and spiritual gifts. Since graduating from high school I have had three basic jobs. The US Navy trained me as an electrician, work I did for four years in the Navy and then two more years for a burglar alarm company. In college I majored in occupational therapy. After graduation I worked in that career for 27 years in a rehabilitation/acute care hospital. Late in my health care career I went to seminary on a part-time basis and have now served as a pastor for the past seven years.

On first glance those three vocations would not seem to have anything in common, except perhaps the fact that at one point in time they have each been the vocation I identified myself with. “What do you do for a living?” “I’m a pastor.” But as I thought about them for a bit I found something common to each of them. They all involve “fixing things.” They all involve having an understanding of how things work, how they are not working at a particular time, and how to get them working again, if not as originally designed then to work again in a way that is functional. They all require, either explicitly or implicitly, a measure of mechanical aptitude. Looking back I can see that as I trained in these three different vocations that whole idea of understanding how things worked was present, whether it was stated in those terms or not.

Earlier in my life of faith in Jesus I’ve taken spiritual gift inventories. These are questionnaires that help a person understand what kinds of things that might be gifted in, things that they could then use as they love and serve the Lord. I’ve done them at least twice, with the same basic results each time. Nothing really emerged as a particular gift. No pronounced inclination toward teaching, or caregiving, or what have you. I don’t even recall what the various categories were. I only remember that the assessments were quite unhelpful for me, as far as giving any kind of clarity to what I may be good at in serving the Lord. Mechanical aptitude was certainly not on the list.

Mechanical aptitude was not on the list, but it has come in handy here on the reservation many times, in many ways. A few were obvious, such as the washing machine that broke Sunday evening and the window blind that broke last night. The blind was repaired, and  the washing machine is being replaced.

A less obvious way happened yesterday while I was out running. A man in a pickup who I have talked with here a number of times stopped me to ask “What is the deal about Abraham and Sarah?” That is a question where the answer could go in a lot of different directions! He told me that a friend of his said something about Abraham and Sarah, and so he thought to ask me to explain. With the gears spinning in my head I landed on this:

“Abraham was a man who believed there was a God. He knew that God wasn’t a tree, or a water bottle, or any other kind of object. He knew that there was a God who existed, a God who couldn’t be physically seen, and who he knew he had to worship. He knew that this God set the terms of the relationship between man and God. Man did not set the terms.”

I said a little bit more, said a prayer with him, and we went on our separate ways. I pray that the next time this man and I talk that the Lord shows me the next piece to share with him, as the Lord uses me in His service. Who would ever think that mechanical aptitude was a spiritual gift? Not me, at least not until recently.

God gives spiritual gifts to all of His children, but as I have looked a bit in my own life I think that some of those gifts have fallen outside of the things we might traditionally expect. 

What kind of things, perhaps even unexpected things, has the Lord given you that you can use to serve Him? May you come to understand your own gifts, and use them to God’s glory. Amen.

Piling On

As many of our friends know nearly three years ago two boys were added to our household. Two brothers, ages 2 and 4 at the time, in foster care and in need of a new placement. One September evening Robin and I took them in and we haven’t looked back.

The boys are now 5 and 7. They play well together and also have a great relationship with our daughter, age 13. But they are boys, and brothers, and sometimes their play is best described as rambunctious. They'll climb on each other, occasionally “wrestling,” a form of play that sometimes becomes a bit more aggressive on the part of whomever is on top. They have three older brothers and I can imagine that if all five were together, and the play took the shape I’m describing, it would look like one of those times in a football game when the player is tackled but the defenders continue to pile on.

That kind of pile was the picture that came to mind as I was reading from Psalm 18, in verses 17-18, which read:

“He rescued me from my strong enemy
    and from those who hated me,
    for they were too mighty for me.
They confronted me in the day of my calamity,”

“They confronted me in the day of my calamity” is another way of saying “things were bad and I was struggling, and they jumped on me some more, to make it all even worse.”

We can have days like that, or even seasons of life. Things are hard, life seems dark, and yet things get harder, the darkness gets deeper. But for God’s people, that is never the end of the story, or even the chapter or page in the book of our life. In the last half of verse 18 the psalmist speaks from the truth of his lived experience, saying:

“but the Lord was my support.”

Things were bad, and seeming to get worse, but the Lord was present, providing his strength to the one he loved.

The Psalms were written nearly 3,000 years ago but the truth that they speak to God’s children has never changed. The next time you feel as if life is piling on you remember that it is the Lord who is your support. In all things. At all times. In all ways. Amen.

Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version® (ESV®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Faithful Living In Dangerous Times

Friday I went for a run early, leaving the house just as the sun was coming up. It was a beautiful morning and as I ran past a sign that tells us what the current fire danger I noticed that it was “High.”  High is probably the most common warning we see, sitting right in the middle of the warnings, above Low and Medium and below Very High and Extreme.  A few hours later, still before noon, I went past the sign again and noticed the warning had been raised to Very High.

It has been a fairly dry year. Rain has been infrequent and the last storm I recall, about two weeks ago, was torrential. It rained really hard, with lots of debris washed down the street. Not the kind of rain that soaks into the ground and makes much of a difference. A rating of Very High means we won’t be able to get a permit to have a fire in our firepit, even if we have a garden hose ready, right next to the fire. Two years ago we were on Very High nearly the entire summer and couldn’t even grill outside.

The change in the fire danger rating reminded me of the world that we live in, particularly as seen from a Christian worldview. To my eye nothing outside my window looks any different, but the fire danger has changed nonetheless. In a similar way opposition to the good news of the Lord Jesus is increasing in the world. It may not be evident where you are living, but it is happening nonetheless. For Christians, the times always carry a measure of danger.

This opposition is not new, nor should it be unexpected. Jesus faced it himself, in a manner that was ultimately more violent that anything we will likely ever deal with. He also warned of it, of the conflict his followers would face as they went the way that he was calling them to, rather than the ways of the world.

Last night during our family devotions I read from Psalm 2, which says this in verses 1 through 6:

Why do the nations rage
    and the peoples plot in vain?
The kings of the earth set themselves,
    and the rulers take counsel together,
    against the Lord and against his Anointed, saying,
“Let us burst their bonds apart
    and cast away their cords from us.”

He who sits in the heavens laughs;
    the Lord holds them in derision.
Then he will speak to them in his wrath,
    and terrify them in his fury, saying,
“As for me, I have set my King
    on Zion, my holy hill.”

Resistance to God is, sadly, nearly as old as creation itself. But it is also an exercise that is ultimately futile by all those who practice it. God’s King, the Lord Jesus, sits on his throne, and he will never be moved. He will never fail. He will never let go of all those whom are his children. All of those statements come directly from God’s Word in the Bible, and they will never fail.

You may be living in a place where the danger, because of your faith, is increasing. Fear not, for the Lord is holding you securely.

You may be living in a time or place where all seems to be peaceful. If that is the case then my encouragement to you is that you continue to stay close to the Lord Jesus and what we are taught in the Bible. For living by faith in a fallen world will inevitably bring conflict with the ways that the world celebrates.

Seen or unseen, the danger is present, but so are the promises of God to hold his children as his own, forever. Amen.

Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version® (ESV®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Tremble, Or Worship?

Psalm 114 is pretty short, just eight verses. In my Bible the heading of this psalm is "Tremble at the Presence of the Lord."  The last two verses say:

"Tremble, O earth, at the presence of the Lord,
    at the presence of the God of Jacob,
 who turns the rock into a pool of water,
    the flint into a spring of water."

I was reading it and wondering what it all meant. Tremble at God's presence? I understand that, if we are thinking about how powerful, mighty and completely different God is from us. But if the Bible is all about God, and more specifically all about Jesus, in one way or another, where is that connection in this psalm, especially the last two lines? Is there something besides simply a picture of what God can accomplish through his power?

So I gave the last two lines more thought, and began to understand something. Rock into water. Flint into water. An object that is clearly one thing being transformed into something completely different. A sinner, lost under the judgment of God, transformed into someone who has received God's grace. A sinner who hates God, transformed into a person who still sins but who has also tasted God's mercy and loves God as a result.

As I said, I understand the reasons why the psalm might lead a person to tremble before the Lord, but I can also see worship as an equal, and perhaps more precious, response. May you know the Lord's transforming power in your heart and life. Amen.

Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version® (ESV®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

The Long View

When Robin and I have the opportunity to tell the story of how we met and married we always include the part about meeting with a counselor. Our courtship was a whirlwind and so we thought it wise to meet with an outsider to make sure we weren't being carried away with our emotions. We met with a counselor two or three times, and on one of those meetings he gave us feedback based on a pre-marriage assessment we had taken.

The report based on the assessment was overwhelming positive for our long-term success as a married couple, with one exception. The assessment suggested that we might have trouble in our marriage over the raising of children. The markers in the assessment suggested that raising children together was something Robin and I would have to be very deliberate and intentional about, lest our marriage crash on the rocks as a result.

We laughed! Between us we had four adult children at the time, all of whom were living on their own and likely never to return to the nest. As you likely know, the "joke" was on us. The Lord had plans that were quite different. About one-and-one-half years after the wedding we took one granddaughter in for the long haul, completing her adoption a year later. And then almost three years ago we took two brothers in here on the reservation for foster care. For the last three years we have raised the three children as siblings, and we don't foresee the boys going anywhere else in the near future. And as for the pre-marriage assessment's prediction? Parenting together has been a joy. Robin and I both agree on that.

The kids are a delight. Every day they each do things that make us smile and laugh. We marvel at the richness they add to our life together.

They are sweet kids but they are also children in every sense that word carries. They do things well. They struggle. They learn quickly and easily. They learn with great reluctance, at times even resistance. They play well together, and they tease and fight. They obey Momma and Papa, and they disobey Momma and Papa. Two steps forward. One, maybe two or three steps back.

Those moments and days with the backwards steps are the times we need to remember all the things these kids have already been through. To remember all of the progress that they have already made. Those are the times we have to keep the long view in mind. The particular moment might be hard, and the future may be uncertain, but we can look back and see the great distance we have already traveled. For Robin and I that helps us press on together through the present moment.

But we don't press on alone. We go forward with the Lord Jesus. Always. Another part of our courtship story is that we prayed together on our first date. And we have done so nearly every day since.

We are two people, joined together in the Lord, and traveling together for as long as He wills, serving in the things that He would reveal to us, until that day when He calls us to be home, with Him. Part of being a Christian is living with the long view of life. In the present moment the Lord is leading you, perhaps through great challenge, to a place of great glory. Amen.