Opening Our Space

A few days ago, I listened to a person describe their drinking problem. 

Their story was similar to other stories I have heard.  She said, “It started a little at time, but it increased over a short period of time.”  As she shared out of deep emotion, the following comment caught my ear:  “My drinking became more than “binge” moments.  It became a state of mind that sent ripples through the other parts of my life.  My binges weakened me in ways that I was not fully cognizant of at least initially.  I slowly lost the capacity for thinking about things that really mattered.  Things that used to get me attention – good things – lost their attraction.  I became rather dim-witted.  I was functional but mostly not present.  Though not “under the influence” all the time, I was sedated in spirit to any real sense of God’s presence in my life.” 

Her words jogged my memory about an article written by Dr. Keith Ablow entitled “America is Drunk.”  The article underscores the growing reality of how intoxicated people are becoming with everything from boos and drugs to celebrity culture to our total immersion in the surreal.  He makes the eye-popping comment that an increasing number of Americans are choosing to be “non-present” for large segments of their life. 

Deeper into the article he lays bare the real issue with these various forms of drunkenness:

“The fact that we are doing this as a culture is the single most ominous psychological trend we have ever faced.  I am not exaggerating.  Unchecked, it will literally create an absentee nation, unable to summon real vision to confront real threats, unable to summon real courage to defeat real enemies.” 

He continues, “Because drunks have no capacity to tolerate suffering or to see the future clearly or to summon extraordinary creativity from deep inside themselves or to stand up and double down with courage that resonates as so completely real, so entirely sober, that our adversaries buckle at their knees….See when you drug yourself five to ten percent of your life, that experience (or rather non-experience) can contaminate the rest of your life, too.  Because suppressing your truth – including your anxiety and your resolve – for one day in 7 days is enough to tip the balance of your thinking away from introspection, away from insight and away from real involvement with others and the world around you.” 

I think most people are familiar with Paul’s words in 2 Corinthians 6:14-18.  But, we miss the trailing comments Paul makes in 2 Corinthians 7:1-2. 

The English Standard Version reads:  Since we have these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of body and spirit, bringing holiness to completion in the fear of God

The Message puts it this way:  With promises like this to pull us on, dear friends, let’s make a clean break with everything that defiles or distracts us, both within and without. Let’s make our entire lives fit and holy temples for the worship of God.

At first glance the text reminds us that our bodies are mobile temples of the Holy Spirit.  But it says a lot more!  Paul makes the point that God is present and working in our lives not simply because we have been baptized into Christ, but because we are opening space in our lives for Him to work. 

We can claim God’s gifts and promises but not separate ourselves for His purposes in the world. 

Our lives can fill up with all sorts of things.   While we may not get up in the morning thinking about pursuing sin, neither do we get up thinking about what it means to be an instrument of righteousness.  We essentially function in a “non-present” kind of existence.  And, Sunday morning assembly becomes the only “space” we have available for God.    

We can live our lives “drunk” on a lot of things:  self-medicating, experiences, money, travel, the surreal in any of its many forms.  The idea of temple can become nothing more than a place we go once a week – similar to what Old Testament Jews thought about spirituality shortly before God handed them over to the Babylonians.    

“Cleanse ourselves from every defilement of body and spirit.” 

I think Paul’s words remind us that living in the Spirit is much more than a touch-feely sort of thing or an hour and fifteen minute assembly experience on Sundays.  Walking in the Spirit is about giving ourselves over to the struggle to reach for “clarity and focus” and, evaluating what space we have available for Christ.  Is there something that has me distracted?  What is it exactly that has us in its power?  What do we need to clean out…in our behavior, actions, or spirit that has us in a perpetual state of sedation to the things of God? 

I think it was David who said in Psalm 139:23-24:

   “Search me, O God, and know my heart!
    Try me and know my thoughts!
    And see if there be any grievous way in me,
    and lead me in the way everlasting

O Father, help us to live in a greater cognizance of your presence and calling.  May our lives be your instruments for the manifestation of your reign in the earth.  Help us to clean out what needs to be cleaned out.  Awaken us from our sleep.  Give us the strength to live in the struggle that is holiness.  Our spirit is willing but our flesh is weak.  Increase our faith.  Amen.

Randy Daugherty

Stephenville, Texas

Legacy...Beware of the Fleas!

I recently spoke on the topic of spiritual legacy.  The idea of leaving behind a legacy may strike us as something only the powerful and important should think about.  Not true.  Legacy is everybody’s word and everybody’s experience.  People leave them.  Families leave them.  Generations leave them.  The list goes on and on.  We all leave behind something.  The pressing question is what exactly will we leave behind? 

Gary Vaynerchuck says it so beautifully:  “Please think about your legacy because you’re writing it every day.” 

I think the idea of a legacy stands on the shoulders of a related idea, namely, that our desire to leave behind something that blesses other people is predicated on the fact that we have been imprinted on by other people.  Do you have a list of such people?

Some “imprinting” happens on a public stage that is known to others.  I suspect most of it happens in more private settings. In these special moments, and possibly several of them strung out over time, these special people imprint on our lives in ways that change us forever.  In fact, it’s impossible for us to tell our life story without going through a list of names, mostly unknown to other people. Why?  Because they mean “the world” to us.  Whether it came in the form of a note, a word of encouragement, a rebuttal at the right time, or a help of some kind, we know that our place of strength, opportunity, and who we are as human beings is in large part due to the “touches” from this special group of people.

The apostle Paul met a lot of people.  He traveled with several people throughout his ministry.  But, none “imprinted” on his life more than Priscilla and Aquilla.

He first met them in Corinth (Acts 18), soon after Claudius’ decree ordering all Jews to leave the city for a time.  They shared the same trade – tent making.  And, a friendship and partnership soon ensued.  One of the remarkable signatures of their lives was that they were not people who had jobs who happened to be Christians; they were Christians who happened to have jobs. 

Two things stand out about their lives:

1.)    Their primary purpose was to see the kingdom strengthened and advanced.  They took what they knew about the gospel and shared it as they had opportunity.  It was this dynamic couple that talked with Apollos, the impressive Alexandrian Jew, and taught him the way of the Lord more perfectly (Acts 18:24-28).  How many people did Apollos touch?

2.)    They contributed to the growth of the kingdom every place they lived.  When they are mentioned in the New Testament there is usually a reference to “the church that is in their house” (Romans 16:2-5; 1 Corinthians 16:19).  They lived in three major cities:  Rome, Corinth and Ephesus.  Read the record in Acts (18 – 20) to see some of events and circumstances they served in.  Paul says they “risked their lives for his sake” and that “all the churches of the Gentiles are grateful for their contribution to the kingdom!”  The Roman church was bogged down in skirmishes when Paul wrote his letter to them.  Priscilla and Aquilla were serving in the middle of the reassimiliation of Jewish Christians with their Gentile counterparts.  They witnessed the powerful ministry done in the city of Ephesus along with the rioting and trials that followed.  They saw Paul’s heart and anguish as he waited for word from emissaries about the status of congregations.  They were never considered “move-ins”, “newby’s” or people from “the city or the country.”  No.  They were Christians who served in partnership with the Lord Jesus Christ with all the rights and privileges that came with that relationship.  And, they took it on the road everywhere. 

Contrast this to a conversation I had a while back with a friend.  He, like a lot of us, has grown tired of the malaise in churches, the petty disputes, the myopic vision, political wrangling about things that are beneath us and the gospel, and a hundred other things that could be mentioned.  Consequently, he has become, well, in a word….bitter and gripy.  Most anybody reading this can identify with both the emotion and the reality of what my friend feels and sees.  What we don’t realize, especially when you factor in a herd mentality, is the immobilizing force that “bitter and gripy” can become in our lives and in our congregations.  It takes on the form of a dog with fleas – scratching becomes our mission!  

We had a good conversation.  We always do.  I shared with him some of my ministry concerns, some things I have seen over the years – some not so good – and what it was that gave me hope for today and any tomorrows God should choose to give us.  I suggested that we need to meditate on the lives of people like Priscilla and Aquilla.  “Why?” he asked.  “Because they didn’t stand around and scratch all the time, bemoan all the ills of “whatever” all the time, lose themselves in bitterness and fall into the delusion that “gripy” is a fruit of the Spirit.”  Someone reminded me years ago that we don’t have the privilege of dismissing ourselves from kingdom work because it isn’t to our liking, or the circumstances don’t suit us, people are hard to work with, or because we have some arrogant illusion of a better way of life that the people we are serving with just don’t get but we do but which – and here’s the irony! – we don’t want to go create in the power of the Spirit and with a sense of adventure.  No, deep down we had simply rather scratch and howl than serve and do…where we are. 

As adults we all need this message.  We need to pass it on to our children, too.  One of the best ways to pass it on is to embody the spirit of a “builder” that was true of Priscilla and Aquilla.  We can build with our words, our attitude and our effort.  If we choose the route of “bitterness and gripy” our kids will grow up with the same batch of fleas.  And, fleas have never blessed a single family, country or congregation.

“Please think about your legacy because you’re writing it every day.”  Vaynerchuck is right.  What will we write.  It’s exciting to think about.  It’s more exciting to see it.  

Father, help us see as we need to see that we might be who you need us to be in every moment for you. Fill our hearts with your grace and the power of your Spirit so that we might serve you with zeal everyday.  Amen.

Randy Daugherty

Stephenville, Texas