Skipping Stones

The most I’ve ever had is eight. I think that’s a world record…at least in our family. Growing up on a lake, the most I could ever get was five. Until one magical day.

My son had brought out the competitive spirit…and I would not be out-done. I had just celebrated Jacob’s victorious five, when I turned to find that perfect piece of rock that would give me my throne as the super stone skipping dad of all time.

Probing the ground, I refused to settle for anything less than smooth, round and flat. Then…suddenly, as if it had fallen from heaven to lay prostrate before me…was the most perfect stone I’d ever seen. Round, flat, smooth…this puppy was it.

Taking it up, I placed it perfectly between my thumb and index finger…stepped back and gave it a parallel side armed hurl that brought me my current eight skip crown.

Skipping stones…a favorite past time used to entertain many a lazy summer afternoon.

Skipping Stones…throwing a rock across a body of water hoping that it skirts the surface of the water to arrive safely on the other shore…having never been immersed by the medium that gives it life.

Skipping stones…that’s what we often do in life. Never really getting wet…we just glide across the surface. So close to the water…yet never really in it.

Every time the water touches our face…it refreshes…cools. Makes us long for more.

But remember…we’re just skipping here. We’re too busy, too late, too important to stop. So…we just keep skipping.

Some of us are better than others. With one flick of the wrist…we have immediate success. There’s one, two, three years skipped away. Other’s it’s five. Some excel…pulling ten, twenty, thirty or fifty.

Years gone by…given away…skipping.

And as we’re skipping, we tend to accept the inevitability of the lifestyle it brings. We lose track of seasons, people, family. We have few meaningful conversations with those around us. We glance at life and it’s surroundings and find apathy to be our neighbor.

We use phrases like “How time flies” or “the older you get, the quicker it goes” to explain away our lives…as if it’s just the way things are.

Or is it?

Reality, or even better – truth, is anchored only in God’s word, His Spirit and presence in our lives. Wisdom can be gained in many ways and opinions sought…but truth is not found a part from God.

So far on this journey…we’ve learned:

1. God is seeking us

2. We’re made for his presence…to hear his voice.

Skipping works against us. Yes we can get more done…yes we travel faster and farther. But surface dwelling is not how God designed us. We’re made for diving deep into the vast reaches of the unexplored.

We should examine. Question. Probe. Search. Seek.

Skipping stones means we’re skimming water. Or better yet, we’re skipping God.

Diving means we’re immersed…covered, inundated. Asking for more…going farther and deeper.

The quest brings life…literally.

Several years ago I was speaking at a conference when I ran into an old friend. We hadn’t seen each other in years. He was serving an up-start church in Georgia and I was leading worship in large church. Top of my game I thought.

We decided to have lunch, and over the course of our conversation, he asked me a familiar yet dormant question. “So Jeff, what new depths are you exploring”? It was a question I once asked of him during a simpler time when the pursuit of God was something we shared. It hit me like a ton of bricks. I felt as if someone had punched me in the stomach. I studerred and came up with a really good pastoral covering. Or in other words…I made it up. You know why? I was skipping stones. Five years in this case since last I’d seen him and there was no change, no growth, no new. No diving here. Not even a good snorkel. No foot in the water.

God whispered…the flame flickered and my heart began to race. I sensed, once again, the tender voice of the Father calling me.

Come…listen…still…shhh…

I excused myself and returned to my room pressing myself for answers with dormant questions. How could everything be so great…life be so rewarding…and I find myself so disconnected? How could I be feeling this way? Why is it all so black and white?

It was a holy ambush…and my spirit had been snared. God had my attention.

I began to take inventory…asking some pretty exhausting questions for which I may or may not have the answers. But it didn’t matter. I was on the hunt.

So, I followed the list as I had been taught, having grown up in the church:

1. Had I abandoned my quiet time…or study of the scriptures? No, I made this a daily priority of at least thirty minutes or more. Couldn’t be this.

2. Was I engaged in a small group fellowship of like believers? Yes…in fact…a little more engagement than I really wanted. But definitely engaged.

3. Worship weekly? Well of course…I was the worship leader.

4. Prayer? Yes…usually connected to my “quiet time”.

So…what could it be? What was God trying to tell me…what was this urging…these heart pangs that kept pressing me to look deeper. I needed an answer…a quick fix.

But an answer and a quick fix were not to be had. Nor will it ever be so in this life.

Now we see a dim reflection, as if we were looking into a mirror, but then we shall see clearly. Now I know only a part, but then I will know fully, as God has known me. I Corinthians 13:12

The truth is this: the more you seek…the more you desire. The more you find…the greater your appetite for more.

Our Spirits long to probe…to explore…to venture.

Skipping stones will deliver temporal fulfillment: a promotion, a new car, a new house, nice clothes, great vacations.

Diving will deliver eternal perspective: joy, peace, hope, faith, love.

Are these mutually exclusive? Not necessarily. The answer is found only in their pursuit.

I had compartmentalized my life. I made boxes into which all things would fit. My God box contained my spiritual life: worship, bible study, prayer, witness, church. They all fit neatly and tightly wrapped in a box, set on a shelf right next to other boxes titled family, friends, ministry, work, fun, games.

And since I was skipping stones, I never really noticed. I guess I had begun making these boxes nearly 6 years prior – when life began to become too complicated for me to keep all things straight. I’m no juggler…so I began making boxes.

I’d grab my god box and dabble in some prayer and bible study… then place it back in order to get a little bit of ministry out…before getting the next box of work and glance at my daily goals. Later I might pull down the family box, along with the friend box before going back to the work box for something I forgot. Then a quick grab of the ministry box gave need to the God box again for a hospital prayer. Arriving home gives rise to the family box for a long while, with an occasional glance into the work box and friend box. With kids in bed the fun box comes out and while getting the games box down I accidentally drop wife box.

Thus was my life. And I guess it would’ve remained so had not I dropped the stone from my hand and decided to step into the water myself.

We know why we’re here. We know that God longs to awaken the sleeper within us. Now it’s our choice. Are you listening?

Then let’s drop the stones and take the plunge!

Magnum Opus

Magnum Opus…literally translated from the original Latin means – Great Work. This term has been used countless times through generations of artists, poets, musicians to describe the pinnacle of their careers. Even less frequently to scientist, mathematicians, and Laureate seeking politicians.

To you and I, it would be our greatest life achievement…our greatest work. Something that stands ever so slightly, or grandiosely above all else as a testament in time. Something that will endure long after we’re gone.

It would be Beethoven’s 5^th, Mozart’s Requiem, Walt Disney’s Magic Kingdom, or Neil Armstrong’s “one small step”.

It would be the work, the hook of mastery by which you would hang your legacy.

For our purposes, it will be where the journey begins. For you see, every journey must have a starting point…a giant X that marks the spot from where we choose to launch. Before direction…before movement…comes a beginning.

And our beginning makes all the difference…

Having an opportunity recently to speak to a group of college students, I took a bible and opened it to the book of Genesis. I posed a very simple, yet complex question: “What is the theme of Genesis chapter one?”. There was no surprise in the unison answers – quickly offered, by the way, as if I had insulted their intellect with remedial kindergarten queries.

“Creation”…“Man”…”Woman”…”Me”.

An obvious answer, repeated a thousand times. Genesis is about creation: the world, the stars, the beast, the foul, the fish, the seas, the mountains, man, woman. Genesis is about beginnings.

And so, we start at the beginning of the Bible with the beginning of us…me and you.

Yet unfortunately…this beginning, this giant X…is where so many lose their way. Let me explain:

Genesis 1:1 – “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth”

Do you see it? Let’s try it this way.

“In the beginning God…

Yes he created. But before creation, before time was set in motion…there existed an omnipotent, omnipresent, uncreated God. But as it happens, we skip over the infinite to reach the finite…for we see ourselves in the picture.

The first chapter of the bible…the first chapter of any of it’s books…in any translation, is about God. His story.

As I made this revelation to the students…there was a quiet, mystical hush. As if everyone suddenly had a sinking “how did I miss that” feeling.

We have chosen to make ourselves the centerpiece…the grand beginning from which all paths have their origin. We have become the starting point masked as a convenient Christian theology. Yet herein lies our greatest detour and ultimately leaves us holding an empty orthodoxy and fruitless, nonbinding religion.

Let’s instead seek out the true starting point from which our journey should begin. Let’s not skip over the “God” to get to the “created”. Let’s tune our ears to God’s spirit by choosing the path He has laid for us.

God’s Magnum Opus lies hidden in plain sight as drops of ink before us. Yet, let us not consider them as mere words penned so long ago to communicate the story of God. Instead it contains ancient revelation that brings understanding, wisdom and light.

We must see it in color:

The infant earth was but a few days old. The moon, stars, and planets perfectly formed… perfectly placed reflected the new sun as it brought both light and life to all that soaked in its radiance.

The seas teemed with life, the sky filled with perfect air, was inhabited with every sort of bird and flying creature. This newly created world was art to the one who painted it upon his celestial canvas. God had created a new world…inhabited by new creatures…in a new domain. Close, yet worlds apart from the heavenly domain of the living God. Time had been put in motion.

“…and the Lord saw that it was very good”. Genesis 1:31

God stepped back, took a deep sigh, and what he saw pleased him. The perfection of the moment was not lost on Elohim. Yet, he chose not to stop there. He could have…but he didn’t.

Maybe in that moment of sheer beauty God longed to share it. Maybe he desired one who would stand beside him…walk with him…. and understand. True beauty longs to be shared. So share he would.

Taking a smidgen of dust from the ground he forms the perfect body of the first man. This body was the ultimate accomplishment of his creation. Yet with it’s perfection, a mystery was concealed in the truth that this was nothing short of a royal storehouse. A box of human flesh that would house the greatest gift ever given…

Watch carefully…for if you blink…you’ll miss it:

“Then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and BREATHED into his nostrils the BREATH OF LIFE. Genesis 2:7

The Magnum Opus – there in the quietness of the newly formed earth. No great hoopla…no angelic orchestra…no drum roll.

God leaned over this new living creature and breathed himself into this chest of flesh. He placed himself…his breath…his spirit within the depths of man and gave man a destination found uniquely in two worlds. God placed a fraction of himself in Adam…and every Adam and Eve born since.

It’s amazing to think that the Magnum Opus was not creation…but creator. It’s not found in flesh, blood or bone. It’s not found in the capacity of our brain. No, instead it’s found deep in the hidden place of our soul. It’s the spark of God…the spirit.

I can’t help but wonder what God saw in Adam. We don’t know…but we do know he saw a little bit of himself. No…we don’t have our father’s eyes, nose, teeth…. for God is Spirit. And we are made in his image…spirit housed within flesh. Both physical and spiritual intended to live in two worlds. The body in this world…the spirit reaching for the father.

Reminds me of one of my favorite movies growing up. Remember E.T. (Extra terrestrial)? Our first loveable alien that found itself stranded on earth. Watching again recently with my 7 year old son, I was explaining why E.T. wanted to “phone home”. And during his plight…as his space ship traveled further and further from him…his “heart-light” drew darker and darker. Until, ultimately he died…but not really. The ship was coming back to get him and that little light flickered and grew. And with all happy endings, E.T. is rescued and goes home after a nice Hollywood moment.

We have that same type of ember within us. It’s a flicker…a spark that grows in radiance as the father draws near. Yet different from E.T. – we control it. Not it’s ignition, but instead it’s flame. We either respond to the spirit, or we ignore.

He didn’t create robots…but he did create us to need him. To be with him.

To walk…listen…do…be…with Him.

The Magnum Opus. That’s our starting point. As Believers, as devoted followers of Christ, we must understand our reason for existence. And we must comprehend, ever so slightly, the treasure within. And we must understand the desire…the longing, to sense the fire ignited by God’s Spirit and abiding in our lives.

You and I are made to worship. We’re made to walk with God. We’re made to love as he loves. We’re made to soar as he soars. We’re made to thrive in this world…and abide in the next.

The Magnum Opus…God’s great work. Not body…not flesh.

The Magnum Opus – without it there is no need for redemption…no grace…no mercy…no cross.

The Magnum Opus is not me or you. It’s God…His Spirit…in us…in all of us!

Brought to life only one-way…His presence…His voice…His word.

It’s your spiritual ears tuned only to His voice. And it takes only a whisper to ignite and burn.

How long has it been for you? How long will it be?

The moment is now…allow god to stir the embers of His breath within you. Only he can ignite them…and only you can allow Him access.

Whispers

There are times when I feel overwhelmed!

And today is one of those days. In fact, when I think about it, overwhelmed is the way I live. That is, when I think about it.

Problem is, I don’t think about it much. I just accept it as a part of life. Yet in the midst of this overspent state, I can’t help feeling that someone, somewhere is trying to reach me.

I go for a morning jog and process the needs of the day. What goals should I set for today?

What calls do I need to return?

To what letters do I need to respond?

Email…the great abyss…the black hole that swallows all light…along with my limited time.

A glimpse at the morning paper brings more. I’m use to it, so I overlook the thousands of ads ingeniously mastered by creative marketing teams from New York to L.A. – with me in mind no less.

You need this…you need that.

Massive clearance…you can’t afford to miss this!

Zero percent financing…for a limited time.

Come now…don’t miss out.

The morning commute brings cries for attention!

The radio blasts news…stay tuned…weather, traffic. latest gossip…

More ads…more invitations to come and dine at the table of want.

Yes indeed…someone somewhere is trying to reach me...

I sit in the stillness of a quite early morning office. I know it won’t last long.

Phone rings…they’ve found me!

Cell phone chirps an incoming text…email sounds the arrival of another message adding to the pile.

Again a text arrives. “Where are you?”

“Hiding”…

Sound familiar? Have the extreme demands and pace of your life got you looking for escape? Has your daily schedule bound you hostage to the lifestyle of urgency? Are you weary? Have you attained so much only to find yourself needing more?

Finding this world a little LOUD?

Is it clamoring, begging, barking for your attention?

Me too!

but do I have news for you...

Someone somewhere is trying to reach you.

That’s right…

From the moment your day began God has been whispering your name.

Gently, quietly, lovingly…

Like a Father whispers his blessing in the ear of his newborn…God has been seeking you out.

He’s calling even now.

And He’s offering you something.

Something far greater than all this world can afford. Something more wonderful than you can imagine…farther, higher, greater.

He offers…Himself.

The One who is uncreated…untethured by time…unequalled…unparallel… has chosen to conceal His treasure within temporal jars of clay. The Creator God (Elohim) saved His most mysterious act for an unsuspicious moment that echoes still.

Reach up…and place your hand on the heart that pounds life within your chest. Take a deep breath…and ponder the possibility that right there, in the hidden depths of your physical being…is housed a treasure so priceless, so precious to ignite a war between heaven and hell for it’s attention…possession…redemption.

God has hidden Himself in you…so that you can be hidden in Him.

A tiny spark lies dormant within the depths of your soul. It longs to be awakened and to explore. To live. To reach…to touch…the face of God.

Amazingly enough…you won’t have to reach far.

He’s right here.

But the journey…will be far reaching.

It begins now…should you choose. God is speaking in many ways easily accessible to us. Problem is…we’re not listening. The lives we’ve chosen have ambushed our ability to see and hear our creator. Our schedules have relegated Him and our choices have made him irrelevant. Enough time has been spent aboard vehicles of our own making….transporting us to distant lands of weariness, hopelessness, and ultimate emptiness.

But he’s never stopped calling…inviting…offering.

Having a hard time hearing Him? Wandering if he’s still there?

Let me assure you…or better yet, let Him assure you –

The Lord god is in your midst, a mighty one who will save;

He will rejoice over you with gladness; he will quiet you with his love;

He will exult over you with singing

Zephaniah 3:17

Feeling overwhelmed? Things a little loud? I’ve got news for you –

God is in your midst…and He’s calling you by name.

Let’s answer…let’s explore.

Let’s delve deep…and ask the hard questions that birth the quest for God.

Let’s start at the beginning…and find our way back to God.

There’s a whisper on the wind