Here and Now

My devotional reading this morning was Matthew 5:1-12 , the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount, the Beatitudes. It's certainly a strong opening for this section of the Gospel, for this series of teachings. Everything Jesus says here seems so... upside down. Dictionary.com com says beatitude is "supreme blessedness" or "exalted happiness." These pronounced blessings certainly get our attention, right? Blessed are... the poor in spirit, those who mourn, the meek, those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, the merciful, the pure in heart, the peacemakers, the persecuted...  I get the pure in heart and the peacemakers - maybe those who hunger and thirst for righteousness - but the rest? Not likely feeling "supreme[ly] blessed" or happy to the point of exaltation. We've mourned - it doesn't feel good, it doesn't feel blessed - meek and poor in spirit? Maybe... but it's hard to feel blessed when you are persecuted.  And, of course, Jesu...

Jon Acuff wrote a bit about bravery that I saw this morning.  I thought I'd add my thoughts... Bravery is being afraid and doing it anyway. That's my definition. Yes, we can bravely do the wrong thing. Too many qualifiers and adjectives and the point gets lost. The point is, bravery is not about not being afraid, it's about doing the right thing anyway.  And it seems like it's pretty uncommon. There's a reason that there are only about 3500 people who have ever been awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor, and less than twenty (okay, 19) who have received it more than once. I often think of firefighters and police officers who literally run toward the things that sane people run away from - not just because "it's their job" and not because they have no fear - but because bravery is knowing its scary, but doing it anyway... I personally knew two police officers who died in the line of duty.* I know former volunteer firefighters who fight PTSD ...

Four years ago I posted this picture: And I wrote that someday soon this would no longer be true at the Beatty household. I realize that sometime in the last four years, boxes just became boxes... I might cry a little today... Oh - the title of this post is from a Brian Regan bit - I'd link the video but Blogger changed all my settings and dumped all my video links... sigh...

One more brief Yancey quote from his book Prayer : "If prayer stands as the place where God and human beings meet, then I must learn about prayer. Most of my struggles in the Christian life circle around the same two themes: why God doesn't act the way we want God to, and why I don't act the way God wants me to. Prayer is the precise point where those themes converge." Just wanted to record this note on what prayer, fundamentally, is: the place where God and human beings meet...

Philip Yancey writes in his book Prayer: Does It Make Any Difference? "I write about prayer as a pilgrim, not an expert... I investigate the topic of prayer as a pilgrim, strolling about, staring at the monuments, asking questions, mulling things over, testing the waters..." (pages 16&17) I get it. I don't approach too many things in this faith journey as an expert - except my own story, my own failures and mis-steps, my own redemption. THAT I know well. The inner workings of God's heart, the mechanics of grace, the depth of the Holy Spirit and a million other topics, I'm no expert. I'm a pilgrim like everyone else. This life of faith is a Pilgrimage. We journey. We wander. I love the image of "strolling about, staring at the monuments." This prayer thing is no exact science - it's a travelogue of where we are, where we've been, and what God is doing, where God is leading, how God is providing.

This week we are praying another Dangerous Prayer: Break Me. Nobody likes to be broken - nobody wants to be broken. There was a movie a year or two ago called Unbroken about a guy captured during World War 2 whose faith kept him strong - unbreakable** - in the face of physical and psychological torture from his captors. But here's the thing - I think you only come to those unbreakable places if you first come to be broken - not psychologically or physically per se - but in spirit. Someone observed once that sometimes we have to come to a place where all we have is God to realize all we need is God. ** Not to be confused with M. Night Shyamalam's movie Unbreakable which, while not terrible, is kind of a hot mess of plot and characterization -- maybe trying a bit too hard...