The Weeping Heart of God

I am up at Potter's Inn at Aspen Ridge this week. It is a writing week for me and I've enjoyed myself by having lots of time alone, time to hike and time to read as well as, yes--- to write.  But this week, I've been struck with the image that a fellow Pilgrim took of what we are called, "The Weeping Heart."  This incredible image was captured on a simple iphone camera but shows more than we an imagine.  Do you remember how Catholics would believe and claim to actually see imagines of Mary and other saints in various locations? Well, The Weeping Heart is not making that kind of claim but how it came to be was quite by accident. Our neighbor was trimming trees and trimmed a Douglas Fur that has been standing strong near the Longing Bench on our Prayer trail for years and years.Little did he know that as he trimmed the tree, the wound left would reveal a weeping heart shape image. If you look closely at this image you can see more than just a heart and some sap running down that makes it look like the heart is weeping. You can see a faint cross in the middle of the heart--and from the cross shape flows the sap and tears.Last night this Pilgrim came over to our cabin and gave us a beautiful 8 x 10 framed copy of The Weeping Heart. I've been looking at the picture alot these past few hours and reminded again of how much this image really does communicate a spiritual truth. God's love really pours out onto us to the extent that Jesus not only weeps at the tomb of his dearly beloved friend, Lazarus but in this story, we see that God weeps. God weeps. Sit with that sentence--those two words along can arrest the heart and make us stop in our tracks.The news today is full of fear of another recession; another double dip. Jobs are few. God weeps.Two of my friends are fighting for their lives from a battle with cancer. God weeps.I struggle to live out my life--my only life and live what I believe; practicing some of what I've written about and spoken about. It's not easy. I feel alone. God weeps.I watch my three soldier sons and my one golfing son "wonder" about their future; their lives; their sense of calling. God weeps.I brought my two godsons up here for a 36 hour get away and watched their child-likeness, knowing what this old world is going to do to their precious hearts and their amazing naiveite....and know that God weeps too.You should make a point in the next few weeks to come up to the retreat, walk the Prayer Trail and sit at the Longing Bench which is where the Weeping Heart can be found. Whatever you are facing, it might be good to be reminded that God weeps with you.There's real comfort in this weeping heart of God.Blessings,  StevePhoto by Slyvia Goroski at Potter's Inn at Aspen Ridge

Rhythm vs. Balance

I've started writing for a new book, even though Soul Custody is just now appearing in stores!~  Publishers who work with a writer, make you work 1-2 years in advance of a book's release. So, my book, The Jesus Life which is the sequel to The Lazarus Life will not appear in stores until 2012 but the manuscript is actually due December 31 of THIS year. I'm carving out weeks now to do the actual writing. My shelves are lined with books/articles and clippings from things I 've read about Jesus, his life-style, his flow of life now for several years.

One of the premises of the book is that the busy life is not the abundant life. And since it is not, what does the abundant life actually look like; feel like; act like! One of the things I am discovering is the fascinating science of 'Chrono-biology'--the science of time. I've learned that bees know how to tell what time it is and what they need to do at certain times...when to make honey and when to not.

Seems like every living thing has a time and order to live life by...but humans. We refuse to follow an imprinted rhythm that I believe God has indelibly marked our souls with. In this particular chapter, I'm exploring the rhythm of life that Jesus was shaped by; lived by; did his life by. It was a daily rhythm, a weekly rhythm and an annual rhythm. All of these rhythms were repeated for 33 years in his very short life.

The Western world and the modern world has lost its cadence. We're on all the time. We live in a 24/7 world.  That just may not foster the abundant life.

What about you? Have you read any articles books that you'd refer me to or discuss with me here? I'd welcome them all!

When a Brother Dies... A Lament is in Order

by Stephen W. SmithThis morning, I met with a small group of men, all in their early 30's who had attended one of our Transformation of a Man's Heart retreats two years ago. These dear brothers made a covenant at the retreat to meet together once a week on Friday morning at 7am until 8:30am. So, for the past two years, this small band of brothers has met faithfully, sharing their hearts, trying to speak words of courage into one another about life, work, raising small children, marriage and praying together.I was called by one of the men in the group and heard the shocking story that one of the brothers had died from complications from what was supposed to be an ordinary, surgical procedure. He did not survive the surgery. His untimely death brought shock and disbelief to this courageous but shaken band of brothers. As I sat in their midst this morning and saw their tears and felt their grief, I was struck at how sacred it is when small groups of men and women come together. Lives get interwoven; stories are shared and companionship is built. What began as men as separate islands, now converged as a strong continent of sacred fellowship, a holy huddle who pledged to do life together over cinamon crisp bagels and dark roast coffee at a near by coffee shop which became "church" for them each time that gathered.They belonged to each other. They did life together. They played, camped, joked and touched the Holy of Holies together. It is such a remarkable bond to witness. Every time I am priviledged to witness the church of two or three that JEsus spoke about and described, I am humbled to witness the power of His presence; the sacredness of how space between wooden chairs gets smaller and smaller and the hearts of men are bonded forever.I'm pausing today, giving thanks for all the small groups that I have ever been a apart of in my life journey. I've had the opportunity to bury--to take to the grave some of my small group friends. It's no easy task.It reminds me of the story in Mark 2 where we see four strong men lowering their dearly loved friend into the waiting arms of Jesus. These fellows would not let roof tiles stand in their way. They busied themselves by removing the tiles from the roof, then quickly made a roped blanket where they could lower their friend into the presence of Jesus.Tonight, these four men will perform that task all over again at their dear brother's Memorial Service here in Colorado Springs. With tear-stained ropes of prayer, they will stand together in solidarity yet with hearts broken to find the words to speak to honor this small group member--this brother of the heart.The widow, and their  three "surviving" small children will simply try to survive; try to endure; try to understand such unfathomable loss. She and the children will need these men for many years to come.Life is fragile. Give thanks to the few, the very few that stand with us in life to make it all worth it.My prayers are with you four strong men. I am for you.I am for every small group who seeks to live the Gospel out in our ordinary, every day lives. I think Jesus is for us too in doing this.

Being Mad as Hell About the Value of My Life

by Stephen W. SmithSeems like a rather bold headline from a former preacher doesn't it? But today, I've been working on another chapter for a forthcoming book titled, "The Jesus Life".  I've been sitting here wondering how the message of Jesus--about all the life he promised to give us has gotten to terribly screwed up and furthermore, who is really responsible for messing up the message of Jesus.I wrote some paragraphs in the manuscript about how Jesus saved his furious wrath for the most religious right of his day--the Pharisees who took control of the truth, withheld it from thirsty men and women and morphed it into long lists of rules and regulations.  As I just sat for a while thinking about this, I got mad...angry. I said to myself, "I"m mad as hell can can't take this anymore."  I was feeling a surge of passion, adrenalin and in my old Baptist world, what is known as "Holy Ghost power."So, as I sat here, I remembered where those lines, for me, became indelibly imprinted on my soul. It was through the words of a frustrated news anchor in a movie called, NETWORK.I googled the entire lines and they are worthy of posting here. But what I'm thinking about is encouraging people across America standing up in their Sunday morning worship services and shouting these lines out as the call to worship--of course--, "I'm mad as hell and can't take it anymore!"Now, before you actually do that, do you think you're preacher would listen to you; to us?  Read these words and I'll edit out one blasphemy for you.  ]But what I think is this...until we get mad as hell, about how we've been duped and perhaps doped into a life that is not possibly the LIFE that JEsus promised we may never really find or experience the life he came to let us live... I'm sure my editor will not let this go in the book, but as I've said, you'll read my book first here then the real thing has to wait until 2012 to come out. Yes, that long!Now, here's the quote from Network when Howard Beal, the network reporter who gets fired up:I don't have to tell you things are bad. Everybody knows things are bad. It's a depression. Everybody's out of work or scared of losing their job. The dollar buys a nickel's work, banks are going bust, shopkeepers keep a gun under the counter. Punks are running wild in the street and there's nobody anywhere who seems to know what to do, and there's no end to it. We know the air is unfit to breathe and our food is unfit to eat, and we sit watching our TV's while some local newscaster tells us that today we had fifteen homicides and sixty-three violent crimes, as if that's the way it's supposed to be. We know things are bad - worse than bad. They're crazy. It's like everything everywhere is going crazy, so we don't go out anymore. We sit in the house, and slowly the world we are living in is getting smaller, and all we say is, 'Please, at least leave us alone in our living rooms. Let me have my toaster and my TV and my steel-belted radials and I won't say anything. Just leave us alone.' Well, I'm not gonna leave you alone. I want you to get mad! I don't want you to protest. I don't want you to riot - I don't want you to write to your congressman because I wouldn't know what to tell you to write. I don't know what to do about the depression and the inflation and the Russians and the crime in the street. All I know is that first you've got to get mad. You've got to say, 'I'm a HUMAN BEING, GodXXXXit! My life has VALUE!' So I want you to get up now. I want all of you to get up out of your chairs. I want you to get up right now and go to the window. Open it, and stick your head out, and yell, 'I'M AS MAD AS HELL, AND I'M NOT GOING TO TAKE THIS ANYMORE!' I want you to get up right now, sit up, go to your windows, open them and stick your head out and yell - 'I'm as mad as hell and I'm not going to take this anymore!' Things have got to change. But first, you've gotta get mad!... You've got to say, 'I'm as mad as hell, and I'm not going to take this anymore!' Then we'll figure out what to do about the depression and the inflation and the oil crisis. But first get up out of your chairs, open the window, stick your head out, and yell, and say it: "I'M AS MAD AS HELL, AND I'M NOT GOING TO TAKE THIS ANYMORE!"My questions (and this is Steve) is how would the pastors/preachers in America react if we all did this--THIS coming Sunday? I'm not saying get mad about what Howard Beale got fired up about. I'm talking about getting mad--feeling the anger over why so many of us are not living the abundant life and has this message been hijacked by the men in robes who want to promote church rather than tell us how to really live?[I'd love your comments and feedback. Maybe I'm off here. Or feeling uneasy about the Chinese lunch I thought I enjoyed a bit ago.]

Do-it-Yourself Transformation

I've noticed that one of the aspects of American spirituality is our rugged independence. This sense of independence must have been in-bred in Americans since the revolutionary days in our stubborn resistance to be a colony and to belong to anything other than ourselves. That kind of attitude seems to have crept in, down through the centuries to so many people today. We want to do everything--ourselves. Even Jesus.This do-it- yourself attitude means that even though so many of us are well versed in the idea and notion of community, we will simply not engage in the values of community when it comes to Jesus. We will drop out of our a small group--ourselves--without asking. We will try to grow spiritually--ourselves without asking for the help of others who are wise, more mature.We will even try to change--transform ourselves. We will not ask for help. We don't think we need it. We can do it ourselves or else, well--forget  about changing. Do-it-yourself spirituality also creeps into our thinking about church. Perhaps this is way more people are leaving the church than going to church. 80% of all American churches are declining. We can "do" Jesus alone. Many of think that we can heal--alone. Grow--alone. Do most anything alone.The problem is, we can't "do" Jesus alone. It takes the "two or three" that Jesus spoke about. He's present most assuredly in community. Yes, he's present when we're alone but his abiding promise of "togetherness" is when we meet, face to face in community. I need you. You need me. And when we meet Jesus shows up.If we are going to change, we need each other. That's the bottom line.Up at our retreat, we have a bench called, "Companionship." This particular bench rests in a native grove of Aspen Trees. No Aspen stands alone. They always grow in community. That's the place our souls need to be--in a grove of other Aspen like people to grow, thrive and transform.Steve

The Jesus Life is Not the Church Life or Religious Life!

by Stephen W. SmithThe Jesus Life is not a religious life. It's not the church life either. Let me explain.The population of the world at present, over 6.6 billion people, practice one of the five great religions  found in the world today: Buddhism Christianity Hinduism Judaism and Islam. There are other religions found across the world but these five comprise the most adherents. Within each of these religions there are many sub-divisions and sects.Christianity, for example has three major branches within Christian beliefs: Roman Catholics, Protestants and Orthodox. The protestant branch holds over 250 different denominations, which vary in certain beliefs and practices. Protestants do not agree on various forms of baptism, views about communion or the Eucharist, church polity and more. Fights, schisms and splits among particular groups continue to this day where battle lines, doctrinal purity and politics all make fodder for the fire in the heated debates over who is really right.Drive across the landscape of America on a typical Sunday morning and you’ll find small, medium, large, mega and multi-site congregations who are gathered together to ask the Lord’s blessing.  But what is true is this: despite the efforts to evangelize; publicity to grow, programs to train and techniques to sustain, 80% of churches in America are declining. Something is wrong.Key findings in the a nationwide survey, conducted in August, 2009 revealed that people in America, age 18-29 are giving up on the church:•65% rarely or never pray with others, and 38% almost never pray by themselves either.•65% rarely or never attend worship services.•67% don't read the Bible or sacred texts.One researcher said, "We have dumbed down what it means to be part of the church so much that it means almost nothing, even to people who already say they are part of the church," [1]Something is wrong with religion in America. We may not be getting what we signed up for and we are looking for something else. More are turning away from the church than are entering the front doors.Try Harder!All major world religions contain various aspects of people trying to do what they are told to do. It is this “trying” that best differentiates the Jesus Life from other major religions. No doubt many of us who are Christians have tried, then tried harder and then signed up again for more classes and seminars and bought more books promising that if we “try this” then we can finally…Enough already! While religions offer programs, tips and techniques on how to try harder,  follow the rules more passionately,  become better or finally achieve a certain level, the Jesus life I am describing here is not about trying harder.Read Paul’s words to the followers of Jesus in a place called, Colosse, “My counsel for you is simple and straight forward; Just go ahead with what you’ve been given. You received Christ Jesus, the Master; now live him. [Emphasis NOT mine]. Live him. Live him? What in the world does that mean? Paul goes on to explain, “You’re deeply rooted in him. You’re well constructed upon him. You know your way around the faith. Now do what you’ve been taught. Schools out; quit studying the subject and start living it [Emphasis NOT mine.]The real call for those who follow Jesus is to live the life we were called to live and continue living it throughout our lives.On one of my more recent decisions and efforts to lose weight, I joined the Y, again. I was determined this time. Motivated by an ever-expanding waist line, I felt like everything had come together for me to have victory. I bought new shoes, shorts and several T-shirts and started on a supervised regimen, even with a Trainer who weighed me; motivated me and said he was “there for me.” After four weeks of working 30 minutes on the treadmill, the tendons in my ankle began to hurt and ache. I began to take anti-inflammatory, over the counter drugs to help me push through to reach my goal. The pain got so unbearable, I quit going to the gym and finally went to see an Orthopedic specialist to diagnosis what was going on. I had worked my muscles in my feet so much that “severe tendonitis” was what the doctor told me. I had to rest,  keep off my feet as much as possible and take an even prescribed drug which would work better than what I was able to take on my own. Sometimes, our best efforts result in pain and more loss—not of weight but of desire to try again. We give up.The life we want seems so out of reach that we settle down, sit down and resign ourselves that this may just be as good as it gets.I'd welcome your comments. This is new writing for a new book to be published in 2012. All Rights Reserved!

[1] http://www.usatoday.com/news/religion/2010-04-27-1Amillfaith27_ST_N.htm. Accessed April 28, 2010.

The Jesus Life is not the American Life!

by Stephen W. SmithThe Jesus Life is not the American life.  Perhaps every people group, in trying to understand God and the truth of the Scriptures might ere in making Jesus apart of their own culture. It’s not just Americans who do this. Recently when travelling to Ethiopia, I discovered some artwork drawn by Ethiopians showing their version of “The Last Supper.” Jesus, along with all twelve of the disciples were Ethiopian, bronzed skin with distinct Ethiopian facial features. The single loaf of flat bread was placed on a brightly woven and multi-colored flat basket, not the silver or gold trays I was use to seeing as a Southern Baptist boy raised in North Carolina. Seeing Jesus as a dark skin man, made me stop and think. Sometimes, thinking is good for us, you know.Re-Thinking JesusLet's face it. It's hard to re-think Jesus; to let Jesus return to who he really was; be the man God made him to be. Perhaps we've made Jesus into our own image; made him fit a culture that isn't really him.  This is how many missionaries got into trouble by exporting their American and European ways--their music--their customs--their lifestyles and called it the Jesus way which would lead the heathen to the Jesus life--they hoped. There are countless sad stories about this evangelism of culture in the name of sharing the Good News.Every culture around the world may import and export their own values, rituals and traditions—their way of doing life and faith into a blended, homogenized view of how Jesus looks, acts and lived. Christian art, down through the ages has typically viewed Jesus as a white man, with long, straight dark hair. He looks a lot like John, my editor. when I spend time with my editor, it's like spending time with JEsus cause John has the right hair; right demeanor; the right everything in many ways. But John is not Jesus. My mind has formed a trench where I have made up an image of what I think Jesus looked like and probably acted like but how do I know the Jesus that really live; that really taught; that really died and rose again offering me life?As we have been reminded here, Jesus was not a North American or European. He was a Jew. He would have had a distinct Jewish look, making him look normal, ordinary and usual. His Jewishness would have permeated in everything he did: customs, food, rituals and traditions.  Jesus would not have celebrated the American Easter nor would he have opened gifts at Christmas. He would not recognize Santa Claus, Rudolph and its doubtful he would have ever been ‘dreamin’ of a white Christmas.’If I am to find the Jesus life, I must first find the Jesus who really lived. I  need to re-think Jesus from my American, German or Spanish ways. Only then can I have my best shot at living the Jesus Life--which is simply not the American life nor does the Jesus life have anything to do with the American dream or even the American constitution. Jesus preceded it all. Jesus was before Abraham Lincoln, before George Washington and before Christopher Columbus. I need, no, we need to go all the way back to find the Jesus who really was so that we can hear the Jesus who really has a message for us today--not just for the Jews in his own space and time in the first century but for right here, right now and in the right way.I'm afraid we have super-sized our image of Jesus to make him into something he is not. In doing so, we have perhaps cut his tongue out so that we can't hear his words penetrating into a sex obsessed, money driven, church worshipping--not God worshipping community of followers. Oh, we need such help these days. May the help come before it's too late. I need the Jesus life. How about you?To be continued.... I'd welcome your comments!