Stiff-necked People

We got 10 inches of wet, heavy snow on Wednesday night.  It fell quickly, creating a nightmare commute for thousands of people heading home just as snow was falling fast and furious.  But it also created a beautiful, snow-frosted world.  The wet snow clung to trees and shrubs and powerlines and signs: it covered everything - so beautiful!  The weight of the snow took a toll, though.

My trees used to look a lot like these.

My bent and broken trees!

In front of my house, we have a hedge of Arbor Vitae trees.   Perhaps I should say we "had" a hedge of Arbor Vitae trees.  All that wet heavy snow clung to their evergreen leaves, and bent the poor dears over so far their "heads" were touching the snow!  Some couldn't take the weight and snapped.  I spent Thursday morning shaking snow off of the bent trunks, hoping they might recover eventually.

Driving around later, I noticed how all the plants of every sort were either bent or broken by the heavy snow.  Those that were stiffer snapped, but those with more supple trunks or branches merely bent.  All those bent-over trees and plants seemed to be in a posture of prayer.  And I got to thinking about people...

Throughout the Old Testament, God's people Israel are referred to as "stiff-necked people."  “'I have seen these people,' the LORD said to Moses, 'and they are a stiff-necked people.'" (Exodus 32:9)  They are rebellious and refuse to obey God or trust God.  They are stubborn in their sinfulness.  Does that remind you of anyone you know?  Yourself, perhaps?  I know I am more stiff-necked than I wish.  The less attentive I am to God, the more stiff-necked I seem to become!  And being stiff-necked is a problem.  Remember my poor trees...

When a weight of troubles descend, we will either bend or break under them, depending on our relationship with God.  The yielding and obedient - those who strive to love the Lord their God with all their heart and mind and soul - can bend.  In fact, they willingly bend in prayer and thanksgiving to God.  Because even in the most extreme and difficult of circumstances, we can always thank God that he loves us no matter what.

The stiff-necked, however, will break.  The stiff-necked turn away from God and try to handle things themselves, their own way, apart from God.  And sooner or later the load becomes too great to bear, and they snap.

Of course, at the end of time, we all must bow to the Lordship of Jesus Christ.  All people - those who are Christ followers, and those who are not - will be faced with the weighty truth that Jesus Christ is Lord.  Will you be among the bent or among the broken on that day?

At the name of Jesus every knee should bow, 

   in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 

and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, 

   to the glory of God the Father.  -Philippians 2:10-11

Keeping in Touch

I had vivid dreams this morning – you know those really bizarre ones that you wake up trying to make sense of, even as you scratch your head thinking “where the heck did THAT come from?”  Some dream scenes I remember: “The Office” characters putting on an elaborate party for me (including the gift of a tiny diorama); then the party wound up at a beach-like location and we were swimming; then there were obstacles and a competition much like the big balls in “Winter Wipeout”; then I was at church and had just spent a bunch of time cleaning up and arranging the church social hall for some event, only to have someone else swoop in and decide to rearrange my efforts.  Just your typically weird dream sequences….

alone in a crowd?

But the strangest part – if you can believe anything might be stranger than those dreams! – was that I woke with not just the crazy dream scenes in mind, but this sentence as well: “Why am I so lonely when there are people all around me?” 

The words were extraordinarily vivid – unforgettable.  But oddly, the idea of loneliness was not related to the goofy dreams.  I suppose that’s the reason the words were so striking.  “Why am I so lonely when there are people all around me?”  What is that supposed to mean?

So I’ve been thinking about those words today, scratching my head and trying to figure out where the heck THAT came from.  I haven’t been noticeably lonely of late.  I’m strongly introverted, so it doesn’t take much interaction with people to meet my social needs.  I also have a handful of close personal relationships wherein I know and am known.  If I’m not lonely for people, then who am I lonely for?

Aha!  I am lonely for God!  When personal relationship with God is missing, you can find yourself lonely even in the midst of the most satisfying relationships with other people.  When quiet time to pray and meditate and simply “be,” consciously aware of existing in the presence of God, when that time gets pushed aside, a dissatisfied loneliness creeps into your heart. 

If you have known intimacy with God, then you might figure out what’s going on.  As soon as I realized those vivid words could only be speaking of a loneliness for God, then I immediately recalled that I have been remiss in finding quiet time with God these past couple of weeks.  And because the weeks before that had felt very close to our Father, why should I feel anything other than loneliness at His absence?

Of course, God is always with us, so it’s not like God went anywhere.  It’s sort of like two people going out for a lunch date, and one person winds up sitting and waiting while the other person takes call after call on their cell phone, turns aside to greet a passing acquaintance, wanders off to track down a waiter, checks email on the Blackberry, etc., etc.  God is the one patiently waiting for our attention to return to him. 

If you’ve never had an intimate relationship with God, then you may not even know what’s wrong.  The vague sense that something is missing goes unsatisfied by the things of the world with which you try to satisfy yourself.  “Why am I so lonely when there are people all around me?” you think.  The loneliness is a lack of God - and only God will satisfy.

And with that said, I simply must stop writing for you now - I miss God!  I’m going to log off and spend some time in God’s presence – praying, reading scripture, pondering the amazing truth that God could have any interest whatever in hearing from little ol’ me – astounding….  

Frankly, My Dear...

I’ve always loved “Gone with the Wind.”   It’s an amazing movie and a great story.  I love watching Scarlet’s antics, and for as many times as I’ve seen the story, I still find myself urging her to get over her foolish infatuation with Ashley and to see Rhett for the good and desirable man that he is.  And I am always disturbed that when she FINALLY can see Rhett for who he is – when she finally realizes that he’s the man she should have been pursuing all along – it’s then that Rhett has had enough.  

"Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn."

Just when Scarlet finally realizes she loves him, Rhett no longer cares – he no longer loves her, his patience has run out, her callous disregard has hurt his heart one too many times.  "Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn."   It just kills me every time.

I realized that our romance with God has much in common with the story of Scarlett and Rhett.  We, fickle people, are like Scarlett.  We run after all sorts of inappropriate lovers, sometimes for reasons we think are love, sometimes for purely self-serving motives to keep pain (or the bill-collector) at bay. 

We have our Charles Hamiltons that we use to mask our disappointments and keep our desired lover close.  We have our Frank Kennedys that we cling to for expediency – for support, for money, to keep us out of the poor house.  And of course we have our Ashley Wilkes, the lover we place on a pedestal, the one we long for most earnestly, and yet who is so dreadfully wrong for us.  These mis-guided loves represent all the idols we chase after in life: power, money, sex, status – you name it!

And all the while we’re chasing about after these other lovers, Rhett Butler – God – is pursuing us.  Gently.  Patiently.  Biding His time.  Laughing at our foolishness and loving us anyway.  Confident that eventually we’ll come to our senses, that eventually we’ll realize our folly and turn to Him at last. 

The notable difference, of course, is that God, unlike Rhett, will never give up on us.  Rhett is just a man, after all, and reaches a point where the continued hurt and rejection is just too painful to bear.  But there is NOTHING we can do to alienate God.  No matter how misguided, how foolish, how selfish, how hurtful we behave toward God, He is always there waiting for us to finally figure out that He’s the one we should have been pursuing all along.:

All day long I have held out my hands 
   to an obstinate people, 
who walk in ways not good, 
   pursuing their own imaginations— 

                                         (Isaiah 65:2)

To consider the amount of hurt and pain that God must surely endure in order to wait for us to quit our foolish infatuations and turn to Him at last – well, I find it quite astonishing.  Even the extraordinary Rhett Butler reached the end of his patience, but not God.  Think about it!