a book for the next season

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contemplation and ecstasy

“When they saw the star, they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy.  And going into the house, they saw the child with Mary his mother, and they fell down and worshipped him.” (Mt. 2:10-11, ESV) 

When was the last time you rejoiced exceedingly with great joy?  When was the last time you rejoiced exceedingly with great joy simply because you were in the presence of the Lord?  These two questions made me realize something today.  They made me realize that my prayers have become far too transactional.  I rush into God’s presence, listen for a few minutes, and then start asking God to intervene in the lives of the people and in the familiar places that are near and dear to me.  Then I run off into the world, trying to help those things come to into being.

But I’ve been missing something lately.  I have not been making space and time for contemplation and ecstasy.  I have not been giving God, or myself, room for encounter.  And it is intimate encounter with God that truly transforms us.  It is contemplation and ecstasy that give us the spiritual fuel to reveal the heart of God to this broken and hurting world.  In the words of Mother Teresa of Calcutta, “It is by prayer that the soul draws directly from the heart of God the graces that the active life must distribute.”  Contemplation and ecstasy are integral to life of genuine transformation and impact.

We need to make time and space to dance with him, to listen to him, to laugh with him.  We need to sit quietly with him, to sing and to be sung to, to hold and be held, to kiss and be kissed.  Those are the encounters that give our lives the intimacy and the power to help others find that tender and intimate and transforming space with him as well.  When was the last time you just sat still and let him love you?  After all, “We love because he first loved us.” (1 John 4:19)     

soon

centuries have come and gone

darkness and groaning pervade

but hang on, dear ones

it won't be long now

the journey through the valley of weeping

will soon burst into a season of great joy

the light will come, angels will sing

and the Savior will be born

so hang on, dear ones

it won't be long now

wait for the Lord

be strong and take heart

and wait for the Lord

conversions

Walking with God is a journey, an invitation to travel from nothing to nothing.  It is a pilgrimage that takes us from nothing, only to lead us back again.  This time to a very different kind of nothing.  It is the journey from a nothing that is totally self-consumed, to a nothing that is devoid of self, because it is filled with him.  No more me.

But there are several conversions along the way.  The conversion from fear to love, from “I’m afraid I’m nothing” to “I am beloved.”  Then the conversion from beloved to our kingdom self, where God lets us know our specific place and purpose in a wonderfully unique and intimate way.  And finally, the conversion from our kingdom self back to nothing in a totally different way.  We become nothing so that he can be all.

All these conversions are necessary, and none can be left out without the whole thing going sideways.  There are no shortcuts in life with God.  In fact, each of these conversions can take decades and require patience and diligence.

Where are you in this pilgrimage?  What conversion are you in the midst of?  And how is God inviting you deeper into this Great Round Dance of Love?

ps 131

O heart, be not proud; O eyes, be not arrogant.  O ego, be dead to the world but alive to your God.  Do not be concerned with bigness or greatness.

O soul, be stilled and quieted.  Rest is the strong and loving embrace of your nurturing God.  Be weaned of need so that you can be free to love.

O hope, be in God alone, both now and forevermore.

setting the stage

the days grow short

darkness dominates

leaves have fallen

trees stand bare

the chill of winter

has taken hold

the season is ripe

for watching and waiting

this dark period is a

necessary preparation

for the coming of the light

come Lord Jesus

the dance of advent

“The Holy Spirit will come upon you and the Most High will overshadow you.  So that the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God.” (Luke 1:35) Communion, conception, incarnation, it has been the pattern of life with God from the very beginning of the Scriptures.  From the opening verses of Genesis, we see God in communion: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  Three persons, one God, living in unspeakable love, unity, and intimacy.  It is communion of the best and deepest kind.  It is from this communion that creation was conceived and then brought into being (incarnation).  God was so full of love that he simply could not contain himself, so he created.  He spoke and things came to be.  His words became flesh, so to speak, ending in the focal point of all creation—man and woman, who were created in his image.  God breathed his divine breath into human beings and invited them into the life and laughter and love of the Trinity.  The whole reason we were created was so that we could experience what the saints and poets and pilgrims have called, “The Great Round Dance of Love.”  Thus, we were created out of communion, by communion, for communion.  Which means that in life with God, everything starts with communion: deep, intimate, encounter with the God who made us for himself.

This pattern comes to life beautifully during the season of Advent, when God sends the angel Gabriel to a teenage girl in Nazareth of Galilee to tell her of how he is finally, after all the years of waiting, going to come into the world to show us how fully and deeply and passionately we are loved.  In fact, Mary is going to be the very channel through with the Son of God will be born.  She is what scholars have called the theotokos, the God Bearer. 

“How will this be,” responds Mary, “since I am a virgin.”  And the angel’s response is priceless: “The Holy Spirit will come upon you and the Most High will overshadow you.  So the one to be born will be called the Son of God.”  Did you hear that?  All of this will start with communion.  The Holy Spirit is going to come upon Mary, and the Most High is going to overshadow her.  The word overshadow in the Greek means to envelop.  It is the same word that is used to describe the intimacy and the power and the glory of what happened to the disciples later on at the Mount of Transfiguration, when the cloud of God descended upon them and the voice of God spoke to them.  Mary was going to be enveloped by the Most High.  He was going to come to her and sweep her up in his divine embrace of love and power and glory.  That’s communion!  An encounter so intimate and so passionate that it would conceive new life inside of her.  “See, I am doing a new thing!” is how Isaiah describes it.  “Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?” (Isaiah 43:19) 

You see, where life with God is concerned, communion always leads to conception.  That’s just the way it’s designed to work.  In fact, it’s what ministry is all about.  God draws us into communion that is so deep and so intimate that it creates new life in us.  Then that new life is born into the world.  It worked that way in the creation story, it worked that way at the Annunciation, and it works that way for me and you.  Thus, the beauty of the Advent season is that God wants to conceive something of himself deep within each of us, so that he might be born anew and afresh into the world through us. 

Which begs the question: What is the new and beautiful thing he is conceiving in you these days?  And how does he want that new and beautiful thing to be born into a lost and broken world in a way that will bring new life and new hope?  So, during this season, make time and space for the Holy Spirit to come upon you and the Most High to envelop you.  Allow that encounter to conceive something new and beautiful within you.  And then ask God to show you how and where and when he wants that new and beautiful thing to be born into the world.  “I am the Lord’s servant.  May it be to me as you have said.”  Come, Lord Jesus!