On the Way to Wonder

During this season of campaign speeches, how interesting that we ponder James 1:19, “My dear brothers, take note of this. Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry. For man’s anger does not bring about the righteous life that God desires.” Listen, speak, anger are somehow united. Since today is September first, I laid James next to Proverbs 1. In the intro in Proverbs 1, verse 5 begins a theme in the chapter, “let the wise listen.” Verse 6 continues, “Listen, my son to your father’s instructions and do not forsake your mother’s teaching.” He personifies wisdom like a woman calling to us from the streets. If we are not listening to wisdom then we are probably not engaging with wisdom and wisdom can not help us in time of trouble.
In our noise driven world, listening requires that we unplug from social media, our music, our cell phones and take time to calm our souls so our ears tune into other sounds, perhaps music, perhaps friends, perhaps the Word. Listening takes time and so it is logical that if we are listening and pondering then we will be slower to respond rather than formulating our speech, our defense even before the other has finished a sentence.
James goes beyond listening and speaking to the content, the purpose of our communication. Being slow to anger, to me, would mean that I am listening, not to defend myself, not to hear accusations, but to understand the other. Anger often involves if not a sense of self-defense, perhaps a defense of what I think is right. How can I learn if my mind is made up at the start? How can I become wise?
As you go through today, may you listen with a heart to understand, speak with a desire to bless, and count to ten as you feel anger bubbling inside. To be angry is not the sin but what we do with it. Be slow to anger, resolving differences in the light of wisdom. Blessings.

God is not a shifting shadow, changing with each decade and each fade that grabs our attention. My friend went into eye surgery yesterday morning, practically blind, and by the afternoon could see better than she has ever seen. She could read the eye chart. As she said, “It is a miracle of God!” We rejoiced together. The eye must heal now and she will have to put eye drops in and be careful, wear an eye shield at night for a week, avoid water in the eye but she can see. What a gift. I still am rejoicing in that reality.
How much is my life like that. I believe and receive God’s help but I must live into that reality. Tomorrow we will hear Peter, after declaring Jesus is the Messiah, the son of the living God, and being affirmed by Christ that on that amount of faith, God will build his church, that Peter gets it all wrong because he thinks he can have a messiah without a cross. We want to see but learning to use the vision we are given is a journey. God does not change but we learn to understand what our vision means. I see the cruelty of people but I must learn how God wants me to respond. I feel the disappointment of immature children or husband but I must learn how to forgive and persevere. The promise of the stability and predictability of God is a great comfort in a world that debates everything and tosses like a wave of the sea driven by the winds of people whims.
As you tackle your challenges today, may you hear his voice saying, I am with you. Blessings.

In the face of trials, it is easy to despair and feel we are being punished for doing some wrong. Yesterday we heard that God does not tempt us to do evil nor is he tempted. The struggle is real but the struggle is not with God but with our own desires. We continue today with James 1:14, “but each one is tempted when by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed. Then after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin, and sin, when it is full grown, gives birth to death.”
Remember the dating dance, he-loves-me, he-loves-me-not? Or perhaps the years of study, apprenticeship, to become a something. I heard, and think it is true, that adultery does not begin in the bedroom but in the mind that starts “conceiving.” Even as I talk about faith being a journey, sin is a journey. According to James it begins with our desires for love, fame, wealth, security, popularity, prestige – for affirmation from people rather than God. I suspect it is not that obvious but a gradual way of thinking. But thinking is not sin. Anger is not sin. The operative word here is “conceive.” It is not wrong to want love or affirmation or relationship but conceiving implies those god-given desires interact with something else that results in a birth. I often speak about that little voice on our shoulder that tempts us, that whispers thought of doubt about God’s word, God’s will and God’s way. Did God really say don’t eat … that apple? God certainly wouldn’t want you to not be wise and the apple brings wisdom. God doesn’t want you being a begger, asking him about everything. There’s an easier way. The story of Eve in the garden shares the path of desire. When doubt enters…now we are back to James’ premise that “he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind.” He is unstable, caught between two forces.
Trials come and that is not necessarily a punishment. But within the trial, for sure will be the little voice, tempting us not to persevere God’s way. God is not tempting us. When we cave in to greed, lust, hate, violence, jealousy, anger, we conceive sin that leads to death, if not literally but at least socially and emotionally. I do not know where we will be tempted to despair today, to give in, but I find it comforting that those moments of exhaustion are not wrong in and of themselves but opportunities to stop and evaluate. Perhaps we are tired, worried, concerned legitimately, challenged truly but we can always choose to stop and turn to God. He is the author of every good gift and that we’ll hear tomorrow. Blessings.

Today we have one of the interesting verses in the Bible, I think. “When tempted, no one should say, ‘God is tempting me.’” For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone; but each one is tempted when, by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed. (James 1:11,12)” I knew it! Every time I walk past the fridge, I would swear it calls to me, “Check me out. Something delicious is inside. It’s time to snack!” God is not tempting my will power.
Perhaps we need to look at the meaning of temptation. The dictionary defines it as “a thing or course of action that attract, the desire to do something, especially something wrong or unwise.” God is not attracted by evil and he does not try to convince us to do evil. I would read that to mean that God is always working for good, mine and the world around me. Luther would say that we are always dealing with the Devil, the world, and our own human flesh or desires. We tend to phrase that as ignorance today rather than the “devil”.
As we have focused on wisdom in Proverbs and as wisdom will come into focus in James, we learned that wisdom is something that is sought, that comes in the ability to control impulses and listen to others and take advice. Teachability. Foundational to teachability is the belief that God is working for our good and is not trying to trick us and tempt us to do evil.
Trials come and we are free to ask for wisdom but we must believe and trust that God is always working for good. Reflecting on the Ten Commandments, are the core beliefs that killing, slander, stealing, coveting do not promote and indeed undermine our lives. Taking time to remember God, remember the Sabbath, speak cleanly and honor parents as one can, promotes life. God is not attracted by evil, does not desire evil, and does not work to trick us. I find that comforting in a world with all sorts of advice and comments about how I should live my life, vote, spend money, or invest. Thank you Lord that you are the true North Star!

“Blessed is the man who perseveres under trial, because when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love him. (James 1:12)” Here again we hear the two words mentioned earlier, persevere and trials. We started James by “considering” trials joy but now we hear we will be blessed for enduring, for persevering, for hanging in there.
This makes me think of the dating game as we swapped stories at lunch Sunday about waiting for the spouse to propose or accept our proposal. I can laugh now but at the time, it was sweaty-palms. I ponder the hearts of our political candidates. Half will feel rewarded for persevering through the campaign and half will be deeply disappointed as well as their supporters. I suspect the trials that James is talking about is not the trials of achieving the goals we want, eg a spouse or a job, but rather the trial of living by principles we believe reflect our faith. Living out forgiveness or generosity, or patience is not easy. Dealing with alcoholic relatives, ungrateful children, isolation from sheltering all challenge us to doubt the “wisdom from above.” This verse says the reward is not getting what we want but the crown of life for doing what God wants. Not easy.
As a chaplain, I walked through the living room of the care center and saw a little ole man patting the hand of his little ole wife who was crying, who had lost her beauty, who used a walker and whose hands were shaking. I heard him speak into her anguish, “I will always love you. You will always be the love of my life.” He was not looking at what the world looks at but he was using the eyes of his heart. Perhaps trials force us to see with the eyes of our heart and help us learn to endure as we listen to God whisper into our prayers, “I will always love you!”

James 1:9-11 speaks to the person in humble circumstances (I think that is similar to poverty or one caught in trials) and to the rich person and compares them to a wild flower that has its moment of beauty and then fades. The humble are in a high position and the rich are in a low position. How is that so? Trials pull us into the spotlight of life, perhaps the doctor, perhaps the law, perhaps the family. Suddenly focus is on us because of our plight. It is very humbling to be so exposed. Could it be that trials focus attention on us even as a wild flower in the wilderness draws the eye by its uniqueness? Meanwhile times of richness are often times of great responsibility juggling priorities, times of decisions about alternatives, and often overwhelming like trying to decide what to eat at a buffet. The highs and lows of life come with blessings and problems. It is easy to think the opposite extreme is the place of blessing but in -fact like the wild flower, these extremes in life pass.
In college at a point of spiritual despair, I read Screwtape’s Letters by C.S. Lewis. Uncle Screwtape, a greater demon, was writing to his nephew Wormwood and giving him advice about dealing with humans. One chapter has stayed in my memory. Screwtape admonishes Wormwood — don’t you realize that humans are amphibians, undulating creatures that have highs and lows. Nothing makes their heavenly father more happy than times of despair, when the world looks devoid of God’s presence, they pray. They are learning to walk and he, God, must remove his hand so they can learn. The mountain highs are always followed by the deep valleys and through these opposites, like the wild flower, we bloom. Perhaps today is not a high or a low but the gift of routine and predictability but never forget that you are the wild flower in God’s garden, delighting him. Blessings.

Proverbs 22 and Psalm 22 were my first stop Biblically this morning so my mind went to James 1:4, “Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.” Psalm 22 is famous because Jesus quoted the first verses from the cross, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me…” The psalm continues with graphic pictures of that sense of abandonment and really what trials look like. For thirty one verses the psalmist works through describing his trial. Hence the role of perseverance from James 1:4.
Perseverance is also translated as enduring a trial or having patience in hard times, not just looking for the quick fix. The Message that expands the though in modern language talks about the feeling of being attacked on all sides so we wonder what going on but that forces faith “into the open and shows its true colors.”
So what helps me keep going when I want to quit? Part of it may be a stubbornness and fear of being called a quitter. There are others experiencing the same trial and I don’t want to be weak. Part may be the assurance that there is an answer so I don’t want to jump to the answer book until I have truly struggled with the problem. I think of the children’s song, “Going on a Lion Hunt, can’t go round it, can’t go over it, can’t go under it, guess I have to go through it.” In the song, the child meets a lion and must reverse the song to get home. James assures us that as we go through trials and don’t give up, we become more mature, more complete, less lacking, stronger. James does not offer financial or physical rewards but character building. Hard times while seeming random at the time, do serve a purpose.
I don’t know what challenges you are facing today but I find it comforting that I am not alone as God walks with me. He has walked through terrible times too. And while painful, trials are making us stronger. Lord, help me to perseverance and see your hand in my circumstances.

“The brother in humble circumstances ought to take pride in his high position. But the one who is rich should take pride in his low position, because he will pass away like a wild flower. (James 1:9, 10)” Poverty hurts. Having lived and worked in a former famine relief camp on the frontier of Kenya, having a line of people at the door searching for food was no fun. We watched children playing toss with the bodies of baby goats that died during the night. How to preach “love” when the congregation sat with eyes sinking into their head? That was a hard time in our lives but it was also a growing time. In the face of famine, people shared resources such as they were, and communication channels among neighbors and friends worked. My first Christmas, my dear friend, Ndirison, gave me a small Christmas tree made from discarded soda bottle tops covered with bit of pieces of green cloth and sewed together with bits of yarn ends to form a tree, complete with a tassel top and fringe on the bottom. Those friends chose an elder to “donate” a cow that was cooked in a barrel at Christmas and pieces were brought to my family, the rich Americans.
Humble circumstances do not mean loss of love or concern for the other nor lack of faith in a God who will carry them til tomorrow. Here in America, no one has knocked on my door begging for a bit of sugar to chase away the headache of withdrawal. No neighbor checks on me in the morning because they heard the baby crying in the night, “Are you OK?” This verse reminds me of the temporariness of life and life’s problems. We are like wild flowers that bloom in the desert and bring beauty and testify of life when everything around us is brown and dry. Poverty and riches are fleeting but relationships with friends and God sustain us forever.
These verses follow the promise of wisdom. Let us not just praise God when all goes well as we think it should but let us be faithful during the dry times too and be like that wild flower that brings joy for a season. Blessings for your day.

“But when he asks, he must believe and not doubt, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. (James 1:6)” But! There always seems to be a “but,” a conditional clause that qualifies the promise or perhaps clarifies the promise, in this case the gift of wisdom. Wisdom and Belief are twin sisters. We cannot have one without the other. Wait, I had twins, twin boys. They were not alike. I thought one was more adventuresome like Esau in the Bible and the other was more like Jacob, the twin, who was quieter and gentler. If I disciplined Esau, he hit Jacob. Our ability to absorb wisdom is dependent on our ability to believe the source of wisdom. I find myself listening to all the pie-in-the-sky political promises these days and realize I am not a believer. So perhaps a question for us today is, What helps us believe? There are multiple answers: I have seen it work in others lives, I have read about it from a reliable source, I am afraid of the consequences of not obeying, or….fill in your response. The testimony of friends, the stories in the Bible, and the consequences drive me to open my heart and mind.
It is also true that when we waffle among experts, for example all the medical experts giving perspectives on how to deal with Corona today, we are like waves tossed in the ocean. Some people wear masks, some don’t. We can gather at stores but not at churches. How long does the virus live in the air, on a surface, under what temperatures? My mind is boggled and I feel like a wave tossed by the wind. Because of doubt I take ownership and wisdom rests in me.
Solid dos and don’ts are more definitive but arouse a stubborn streak in me. The ten-commandments have generated how many qualifying explanatory sub-commandments that feel restrictive and again obedience seems to rest in my will. It is true, wisdom is only accessed through her twin sister, belief. It is only as I believe that I step into a situation, trust the source ie God, and grow in wisdom. I do not know where you are being challenged to find wisdom today – political choices? Medical choices? Moral choices? Financial choices? Self proclaimed experts will seek to guide us but this verse reminds me that the ultimate trustworthy and truthful guide is God but I must believe and not doubt as he speaks into my life today. Blessings as you seek to listen!