Keeping the Faith

I have crossed many thresholds in my life. None of these personal experiences have ever been rooted in comfort. Yet the nature of this discomfort has always strengthened my resolve. The greatest disservice that I could do to myself is to not learn from the time I spend in the liminal space between what was and what will be.

One of my personal experiences of moving through this liminal space was my coming out as a gay man at the age of 18. My coming out was rooted in shame and fear, which became an established premise in how I approached my experience of the world. Those feelings were a result of my coming of age in the 1980s, during the height of the AIDS crisis.

In retrospect, I can now see the value of the experience, and how it informs my present experience of life. The value for me is the capacity to move through feelings of discomfort with ease and grace.

How do we as a society move through the current threshold we are crossing with ease and grace? It’s a question I have been posing to myself, and therefore to my spiritual community for the past several weeks.

The collective consciousness of this country is currently deeply engaged in an extended period of living in this liminal space. The inconveniences of the pandemic, the discomfort of addressing systemic racism in our societal structures, and the ease with which many can disassociate have reached a boiling point. We are collectively living in anticipation for what will be but have not yet let go of what was. It’s a collective rite of passage.

This rite of passage may be that we are collectively living a coming out story as a society.

We are living a challenging identity of having been less than that which our society once promised and moving toward being a greater expression of humanity. On the other side of threshold is a shift toward something. What that something is, that is entirely up to us.

We can decide if we will shift toward a better world. Will we be the ones who welcome a new world, or will we be the ones who fight it? Will we be the ones who choose to express more love, light, life, kindness and compassion? Will we live in progress, or be rooted in a regressive consciousness of fear, which leads to distrust, and the destructive behavior we are witnessing?

We have the capacity to create a more just and equitable world if we decide to. It will take the collective to address the systemic changes required for such a world. For each of us the call is to live in action.

We can move through this threshold and emerge on the other side a better version of what we once were. Do you have the willingness to do what it takes?

I was recently inspired by the question, “What is your verb?” Who you are is God in form, what you do is the activity of the Divine. How will you choose to act today?

Leave behind that which no longer serves you (irrespective of the comfort it may have once brought). Lead with love in your heart, and gracefully move through this threshold with all of us. Emerge as a better version of yourself, rooted in compassion.

Decide today to stand up.

Decide today to step out.

Decide today to contribute to the collective breath the world needs.

You are the starting point from which our collective life gets better.

Often in the aftermath of tragedy, we hear or read statements from politicians all over the spectrum who will say or tweet, “Thoughts and prayers.” Whether it is a school shooting or another police killing of an unarmed black person, this has become so common a response that it seems cliché. We may note that after all of the “thoughts and prayers,” not much changes, which also has many wondering if prayer is helpful or useful at all.

So what is prayer meant to do? Many understand that God knows what we need before we even ask (Jesus said so, according to Matthew 6:8). If God already knows what people need, why do we then pray for them? Do we imagine that God stopped paying attention and that our prayers awaken God to action? Is prayer about the squeaky wheel getting the grease?

What about when God does not come through with what we prayed for or about?

We asked for healing and the person is still gravely ill. We asked for the marriage to thrive and the couple divorces. We asked for the lynchings to stop and then the next day we hear of another one. Did we not pray enough? Did we pray with the wrong words? I do not believe that is the case.

There is often great misunderstanding about why we are called and invited to pray for others (traditionally called intercessory prayer).

Here is an understanding of such prayer from Ruth Haley Barton that I find helpful, “Intercessory prayer is not primarily thinking that I know what someone else needs and trying to wrestle it from God. Rather, it is being present to God on another’s behalf, listening for the prayer of the Holy Spirit that is already being prayed for that person … and being willing to join God in that prayer,” (p. 146 “Strengthening the Soul of Your Leadership”).

When we pray with this understanding, then we are not praying first and foremost to change others or a situation. Instead, we are seeking to hear God’s desire for that person or situation.

When I pray, I often first ask God to reveal to me what is needed for the situation. And I ask how God may be calling me to be a gift to those for whom I am praying, how God may want me to be part of God’s answer to the prayer. I am not petitioning a reluctant God to take care of something apart from me; rather I am seeking to participate in God’s healing, justice and love that God is already offering. Such prayer leads to action!

God invites us to get in on God’s work, to be part of God’s healing, love, and justice. Praying for others is one way we get started.

The turmoil around the globe and in our country has reminded me of who God is.

There is only one God. And He exists in three persons, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. And this one God, in three persons is eternal. Has no beginning and no end. No one or no thing created Him, He is the Uncreated Creator of all.

He is incomprehensible. We cannot fully comprehend who He is and fully understand all of His ways, but in His goodness and love, He has seen fit to allow us to truly know Him.

He is unchanging, immutable.

He is infinite in all things, existence, attributes and perfections. He’s almighty. Perfectly wise. He is just and fair. Good. And all that is good flows from Him.

And because He has created all things, He is sovereign over all things. He didn’t create, wind it up and leave it alone. Fend for yourselves. No, according to His word, He rules and governs all created things according to His holy and righteous will.

In Isaiah 46:9-11, our God known by the personal name, Yahweh, speaks and says: “I am God, and no one is like me. I declare the end from the beginning, and from long ago what is not yet done, saying: my plan will take place, and I will do all my will. I call a bird of prey from the east, a man for my purpose from a far country. Yes, I have spoken; so I will also bring it about.”

Psalm 135:6 gloriously proclaims: “The Lord does whatever he pleases in heaven and on earth, in the seas and all the depths.”

In Matthew 10, Jesus brings his disciples together and gives them instructions before He sends them out. And he predicts persecutions and troubles for them. He says I’m sending you out like sheep among wolves. But then reminds them with comforting words in verses 29-31, “Aren’t two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them falls to the ground without your Father’s consent. But even the hairs of your head have all been counted. So don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.”

Even Paul, in his letter to the Christians in Ephesus, gives a reminder about our God who is carrying out His glorious plan. He writes in chapter 1, verse 11, “In him we have also received an inheritance, because we were predestined according to the plan of the one who works out everything in agreement with the purpose of his will.”

Is God surprised? Not one bit. Has our circumstances and current events gained the upper hand on God, catching Him off guard, leaving Him scrambling on how to proceed next? Not one bit.

This is our God who was not even caught off guard from the entrance of sin into the world. For the Son was given over to be crucified for sinners, according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God as it says in Acts. Or, as Peter writes, Jesus the Messiah, God the Son in the flesh, was foreknown before the foundation of the world.

The Cross of Christ for sin was under the control and according to the purpose of God. If such an act — the perfect sacrifice for sin — was under His control, certainly our national predicament is not beyond His power and purpose.

God is in control. And that isn’t just some Christian cliché. It’s to be the reality in which we live in this world.

He rules and He governs according to His holy and righteous will. Nothing happens in His creation without His appointment.

This may baffle and confused us. Maybe it causes more questions to flood our minds, questions that we aren’t capable of fully answering because God isn’t like us, He’s infinite and perfect.

But God has spoken to us in His Word. Throughout the testimony of scripture, it’s shown that He is in control. In light of this infallible truth, we have great cause for unimaginable comfort in times like this.

Because God is in control, I can rest my head on my pillow each night in supreme comfort and peace. We can live our lives without anxiety, worry and fear. If God wasn’t in control then that would be cause for alarm.

Friends, God has given such glorious promises to those who trust in Him. Jeremiah 17:7-9 assures us that, “The person who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence indeed is the Lord, is blessed. He will be like a tree planted by water: it sends its roots out toward a stream, it doesn’t fear when heat comes, and its foliage remains green. It will not worry in a year of drought or cease producing fruit.”

Trust in Him. Hope in Him. Find your peace and consolation in Him and Him alone. He alone is in control of all things.

But my prayer is that our trust and hope and peace would be more than just theology that resides in our minds, but that our theology — the truth of God as seen in His Word — would dictate our lives and our response to life’s circumstances.