Do We Trust God Enough To Listen? (RGA2)

PROUD PARENT
Most parents brag about their kid’s athletic or academic achievements. I’m proud that my 3 ½ year old likes Mexican food. When she ate guacamole at age 2, I knew I was succeeding as a dad. The only glitch in our culinary adventures came when we hit the salsa. I ordered a "medium" corn salsa. (On my heat index a "medium" makes me sweat just a little bit.) My daughter likes corn and was sure she’d like the salsa. I explained to her (several times) that it was spicy. That I knew it LOOKED like something she liked, but that it would light her tender mouth on fire. Then I played the parental trump card: “Just trust me”, I said.

BUYING IT?
That still works on my little one. Someday it won’t. Sooner or later she’ll start questioning my wisdom. She’ll wonder if I really have her best interests at heart- or if I’m just trying to keep her from enjoying her life. You know, the same thing most of us do with God. Eventually, and for a variety of reasons, we wonder if we can really trust God and His ways. Seems like Solomon (the author of Proverbs) struggled with this too. From the beginning of his book, he offers some reasons as to why we might want to give God’s wisdom a go.

GOD IS PROACTIVE
Where can we find wisdom? One picture shows insight sequestered in temple, on a distant mountain. Go on an epic quest and you may get there someday. Solomon creates a radically different image of WISDOM. Instead of making it inaccessible, God delivers insight to the masses. He comes to us. But He didn't have to. Shouldn't this count for something? Like a woman noticing the effort a guy expends to cross a room and ask her out, maybe we should notice God's initiative and give Him a shot.

THE FINAL 10% OF THE TRUTH
In college I dated a girl none of my friends liked. Of course, none of them told me this until she dumped me. Then they told me how relieved they were. I was disappointed. Not about being dumped, but about my buddies reluctance to level with me. The courage to care more about someones welfare- than their potential rejection of us is an all too rare quality. This kind of love and truth telling smacks of Divinity. Why do I trust God's wisdom? Because He is willing to LEVEL WITH US.

GOD WANTS YOU TO BLING
Remember when hip hop artists started wearing huge pieces of jewelry dripping with diamonds and saying things like, "I got to get my bling on, yo!"? Every time I saw a celebrity rock a $100K watch, I saw a statement about blessing. The accessories were a tool to show their peers that things were going well for them. Believe it or not, "bling" didn't originate 10 years ago. It is much more ANCIENT & BIBLICAL. Why should we listen to God's wisdom? Because He wants to bless us. Not with platinum and plasma tv's, but with MORE IMPORTANT THINGS. (Note: The tree of life reference hearkens all the way back to the original paradise God created for us to enjoy.)

SAFETY PATROL
I grew up in an era before airbags, crumple zones and mandatory seat belt usage. The most important safety device in our family car was my mother's arm. If she stopped short or spotted other potential danger, she'd snap her arm across my chest. My mom didn't learn this in driver's ed. It was maternal. Instinctual. Parents naturally want to protect their children. God offers us His advice for THE SAME REASON. He wants to keep us off of the paths that lead us to destruction and on the PATHS THAT LEAD TO PEACE.

EARNING TRUST
Why should we listen to God? Honestly, all of Solomon's reasons make sense to me. But I find myself wanting more. Not just reasons, but experience. I want God to prove Himself to me. Maybe you want the same thing. If so, we're in luck. If we want to test God's wisdom, all we have to do is use it. So try this- keep reading a chapter from the book of Proverbs each day and look for the ideas that connect most with your life. Pick just one idea a day. Then use it. See for yourself if God's ways are really good for you.

Sometimes God Tells You To Get Some Rest...

Ok, I'm not sure if that's actually what happened with the cold and ice, but I hope you were able to rest just the same. Although I missed the chance to see you all, canceling on Sunday was a good reminder that Connections is about more than a weekly worship gathering.

Connections is a group of people who are trying to make a way of life with Jesus everywhere we go.

Whether we are together or apart, we are Connections Church- loving God, each other and our world.

So, all that to say that (like most days) our church is happening in about 50 different locations today. As for next weekend, hopefully the weather will cooperate. We'll pick up our teaching conversation right where we left off- asking ourselves if we really trust God's advice. In the meantime, keep reading a chapter a day in Proverbs. And maybe use the slower pace of this Sunday to reflect on some proverbs that grabbed you last week, or catch up if you've fallen behind.

Blessings,
Fred

Do We Think We Need God's Advice? (RGA1)

UBIQUITOUS
It's everywhere. I'm not talking about oxygen, the constant presidential election updates, or Britney Spears sightings. Advice. Advice is everywhere. Oprah, pundits, bloggers, parents, pastors- everyone is happy to tell us how to live our lives. What we need isn't more advice, but really good advice. Now, where to find it?
LIKE DARK CHOCOLATE
Researchers recently announced that dark chocolate is good for you. Something about antioxidants that lower high blood pressure. Works for me. Always one to follow doc's orders, I ate some the other night. Trying to choose between two packages, I checked the % of cocoa in the chocolate. A higher concentration is darker (and healthier?). Wisdom works the same way. Although we find good advice in lots of places, God has concentrated a high % of wisdom in the Old Testament book of Proverbs. Why? Because the PRIMARY AUTHOR (Solomon) ASKED GOD FOR IT.

GRAB IT, GET IT, LIVE IT
As the beneficiary of so much insight, Solomon decides to pass it on. But in the vein of truth telling, he tells us that wisdom isn't just about gathering knowledge or regurgitating information. Really good advice is MEANT TO BE USED. Comprehension doesn't equal wisdom. Action does. Wisdom is meant to leak out in our walking around lives. Or we haven't grasped it at all. Not that this is easy. Note Solomon's language about the "discipline of wise behavior".

BE HONEST FOR A SEC
Bully for God that he's willing to pass on good advice, but a question lingers in my mind.

Do we really think we NEED God's advice?

The truthful answer for me is no. I appreciate God's wisdom. I love that it is available to me. I like knowing where to find it. But my life reveals that I don't think I need it. Most days I can (and do) take or leave it. And unless you scour the scriptures daily- you probably can too. Asking if we think we need God's wisdom probably prompts a couple of gut-level responses.

I CAN FIGURE IT OUT FOR MYSELF
Most of us would concede that God knows more about most things than we do- except when it comes to our lives. God knows best for the universe, but WE KNOW WHAT IS BEST FOR US. Or at least we can figure it out. God did give most of us functioning brains after all, right? In a sense we're right about this, but the key to figuring life out is learning to ask advice. None of us knows everything. To think we do reveals our STUPIDITY. The real reason I can't figure everything out for myself is that wisdom doesn't start with me- or any other human. WISDOM BEGINS WITH GOD. (Remember, Solomon experienced this personally.)

I CAN JUST MAKE IT UP AS I GO
I've done a bit of driving in my new city lately. I usually have a pretty strong sense of direction, but I've come to appreciate my wife's GPS unit. (Thanks for the loan Jen.) Without fail, it has brought me to the destinations I have hoped for. At times I've doubted it, wanting to follow my internal compass instead. Each time I've been wrong. My own sense of direction hasn't always taken me to the destinations I've really wanted to go. Not in my car. Not in my life. Solomon knew THIS. Although spontaneity is a beautiful thing, and our instincts sometimes prove right- they aren't foolproof. Our hearts, souls, relationships and futures are far too valuable to just trust to chance, cultural trends, or the body chemicals that swing our emotions. We need better advice than that.

TOE IN THE WATER
So how do we begin receiving God's wisdom? With an acknowledgment that WE NEED IT. And a willingness to try it for ourselves. How else can we begin to trust God- unless we listen to and try His advice for ourselves? Trust has to be earned, right? So here's a suggestion. (Call it a challenge if it is more likely to make you participate. Not "chicken" are you?) Start reading a chapter from the book of Proverbs each day. Since Proverbs is topical, you don't need to start at the beginning or know much about the Bible at all. Just read the chapter that corresponds with the day of the month. Start ingesting wisdom and see where it leaks out in your daily life.

Hope After The Holidays

Christmas is over. 2008 is here. And hope comes with it. New years have this funny habit of making us reflect. We look back at last year and forward to next year. We dare to hope. We think about changes we'd like to see happen- in our bodies, bank accounts, souls, careers, relationships, communities. Hoping isn't the hard part. Resolutions are everywhere right now. Keeping our hopes alive is the challenging work.

6 WEEKS TO THE SAME OLD YOU
How long does it take hope to waver? For expert analysis, I turned to my friend Frank. Frank owns a gym. He knows a thing or two about people who are full of hope, yet call it quits. According to Frank, most new gym memberships begin in January. Fueled by hope, people work out with a vengeance. How long does it last? About six weeks. By mid-February, the gym isn't nearly so crowded. By spring break, it is empty. Sound familiar? How do we break this cycle?

A LITTLE OLD SCHOOL HELP
We aren't the first to struggle to keep our hopes alive. Anyone with dreams has walked this road. A few even exceeded. Like Mary & Joseph. Most of us forget about them after 12/25. Hanging with Mary & Joe a little beyond the stable finds they've got plenty to teach us about sustaining hope. As we catch up with them in LUKE 2:21-24, they are 6 weeks into this new adventure of parenting the Hope of the world. About the time most of us surrender. But not them.

KEEP HOPE ALIVE BY MOVING FORWARD AFTER THE EXCITEMENT FADES
Why do we bail on our goals after 40 days? They aren't new anymore. Hope doesn't sparkle as brightly in the light of the ordinary. And don't Mary & Joe know it. 6 weeks of broken sleep, constant nursing and a dozen diapers a day rubs the shine off of parenthood pretty quickly. Yet Mary & Joe keep going. They stick with God's plan. Gracing their child with the name the angel provided nearly a year ago. Showing up at the Temple to honor the God-Father of their baby. If we want to see our hopes become reality, we'll need to do the same. When your new diet, savings plan, friendship, hobby, or spiritual practice becomes routine- and it will- push on.

KEEP HOPE ALIVE BY HOPING FOR THE RIGHT THINGS
Hope is a slippery thing. Although we start out with a clear goal, it often devolves into something else. A dream of health becomes a quest for a six pack, financial responsibility becomes a lust for wealth, friendship with God slides into self-righteous moral perfection. Keeping hope alive requires focus. When Mary & Joe go to the temple, they meet a guy who knows a thing or two about focused hope. SIMEON kept his hope alive by holding on to the promises God made to him. Although my goals for 2008 didn't come to me in a heavenly vision, I'm finding myself praying through them. Wondering if they fit with God's agenda for my life and His Kingdom. If we want to keep our dreams alive, we need to hope for the right things. How do we know what "the right things" are? We can ask ourselves- do our dreams come from God, or somewhere or someone else? Would Jesus smile and nod as He reads our list of resolutions? If not, I've got some re-thinking to do.

KEEP HOPE ALIVE BY EXPECTING TO WAIT
After encountering Simeon, Mary & Joe bump into someone else with a lesson to teach them (and us) about hope- ANNA. By conservative estimates, Anna is 107 years old- and very patient. She has dreams of her own, and is willing to wait for them. Unfortunately, patience and hope are joined at the hip. If we are to sustain our dreams, we'd better be prepared to wait. Maybe we can borrow one of Anna's secrets here. She knew that waiting doesn't mean inactivity. She is hoping to see her people set free- so she prays, fasts, worships DAILY. We can't make most of our goals happen today, but we can take small steps. Join the gym. Open the 401K. Read the scriptures. Knock on new neighbor's door. Patience and consistent activity can keep the flames of hope burning an awfully long time.

HAPPY NEW YEAR
So...Happy 2008. I hope your (and my) hopes come to pass. When we get bored, let's remember Mary & Joe and keep going. When we get distracted, let's think of Simeon and refocus. When we get impatient, let's envision Anna and be patient and busy. Ok, enough inspiration for now. I've gotta run to the gym.