You are currently browsing the Bruce Smith weblog archives for March, 2010.
24. March 2010 by BruceSmith.
Spiritual Autopsy Series finale: A tall drink of water
Before we begin, or as your read, click on the following link, and get a sense of the story you are about to read, brought into our contemporary times. Perhaps, listen now, then read, and then listen and view it again. God bless you and speak to you, and transform you as you dive in.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q49BbfgJbto&feature=related
John 4
Jesus Talks With a Samaritan Woman
1The Pharisees heard that Jesus was gaining and baptizing more disciples than John, 2although in fact it was not Jesus who baptized, but his disciples. 3When the Lord learned of this, he left Judea and went back once more to Galilee.
4Now he had to go through Samaria. 5So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph. 6Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about the sixth hour.
7When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Will you give me a drink?” 8(His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.)
9The Samaritan woman said to him, “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?” (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.[a])
10Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.”
11“Sir,” the woman said, “you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? 12Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his flocks and herds?”
13Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, 14but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”
15The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.”
16He told her, “Go, call your husband and come back.”
17“I have no husband,” she replied.
Jesus said to her, “You are right when you say you have no husband. 18The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true.”
19“Sir,” the woman said, “I can see that you are a prophet. 20Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.”
21Jesus declared, “Believe me, woman, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. 22You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. 24God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth.”
25The woman said, “I know that Messiah” (called Christ) “is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.”
26Then Jesus declared, “I who speak to you am he.”
The Disciples Rejoin Jesus
27Just then his disciples returned and were surprised to find him talking with a woman. But no one asked, “What do you want?” or “Why are you talking with her?”
28Then, leaving her water jar, the woman went back to the town and said to the people, 29“Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Christ[b]?” 30They came out of the town and made their way toward him.
31Meanwhile his disciples urged him, “Rabbi, eat something.”
32But he said to them, “I have food to eat that you know nothing about.”
33Then his disciples said to each other, “Could someone have brought him food?”
34“My food,” said Jesus, “is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work. 35Do you not say, ‘Four months more and then the harvest’? I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest. 36Even now the reaper draws his wages, even now he harvests the crop for eternal life, so that the sower and the reaper may be glad together. 37Thus the saying ‘One sows and another reaps’ is true. 38I sent you to reap what you have not worked for. Others have done the hard work, and you have reaped the benefits of their labor.”
Many Samaritans Believe
39Many of the Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, “He told me everything I ever did.” 40So when the Samaritans came to him, they urged him to stay with them, and he stayed two days. 41And because of his words many more became believers.
42They said to the woman, “We no longer believe just because of what you said; now we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this man really is the Savior of the world.”
I took the time to give you the entire passage because it is rich and much more powerful than my own verbose insufficiency; that goes without saying. So, why did I say that? I don’t know. We move on.
This series has been about death, spiritual death. More, it has been about the passages in life which we take and that lead us headlong to a death of the soul. We have looked in many a place as we have traveled this broken road together, and we have found ourselves, myself included, all too often, stranded there on the roadside, battered, beaten, and bruised. Here in this final installment we see the culmination of our journey and we find the source of our healing. Our journey, leaving us weary, thirsty, and parched of soul, has us searching for a drink. Lost in the desert, all the mirages have proved insufficient, and we need a tall drink of water or we will die.
For all who have attempted to find life in relationships, sex, pleasure, success, money, notoriety, vengeance, self-help, self-denial, and anything else, and have, yet, found themselves utterly dry and weary, empty and calloused, Jesus’ encounter with the woman at the well stands as the beacon upon a hillside, the lighthouse upon the shoreline. For those lost in a dry and weary land of the soul, Jesus is that tall glass of water you desperately need.
Note first that Jesus places Himself within the scene of this woman’s life. The scene does not unfold in some air-conditioned, comfortable, and otherwise “safe” tabernacle. He meets her on the road of real life. He is there in our lives today, wherever we may be. He is not scared to venture into the darkest of places we may find ourselves in. He is looking, and calling us out, and He longs to sit down and chat with us amidst the fray.
Also, note that He meets her at her point of need. She has need of water, she is working her butt off to provide for daily life, and it is clear she has deep relational, emotional, and spiritual needs. Jesus uses the tangible need for water, for provision, to address the deeper needs in her life. Previously, it is clear, she has only paid attention to urgent felt needs and desires. Jesus is heaven bent on waking her up to more. He is dead set, life set, on removing the scales from her eyes.
We cannot help but notice, third, that this woman is not one a Jew would typically address or interact with in public. Jews did not associate with Samaritans, let alone men with women. But even as Jesus was breaking custom, which would have offended many, those closest to Him realized ( and remained silent as they watched ) that something significant was taking place here. They realized God was working in this exchange. This was holy ground. It was not longer about food, drink, daily life. A holy intervention was underway.
Notice also the critical nature of Jesus’ profound interaction with this worldly woman. Jesus, who represents in Himself, complete and utter goodness, has thrown Himself into the life of a woman who lived with little regard for goodness and purity. He does not beat around the bush, and He goes straight to her heart, her emotional, relational, and spiritual heart. A broken and misguided heart to say the least.
First off, He gets her to realize that standing before her is one who loved her like no one ever had. She had not taken time to notice this apparently. It seems as though her typical lenses were still on and she was probably wondering where this interaction was going. “Here’s another jerk.” “I wonder if he’s single?” …or something like that was probably underway in her mind. It could not have been any more different. He was noticing her for sure. But this time, someone, some One was really seeing her.
Second, He calls her to realize that He sees and knows her in the most intimate of ways, spiritually. He knows her more intimately than all the men she had given herself to, and more than the one she was presently living with. And despite knowing her, and her rejection of His ways, He loved her. He loved her purely. Though she had given herself away to be ravished by many, Jesus was intent on ravishing her soul and bringing her life and healing. This used up and given out gal, undetected by her, was about to be made new! This guy only had one agenda! A perfect agenda.
What must this woman have seen to have awoken her so unexpectedly and marvelously to the reality of truth? My guess is the heart of Christ came through in the eyes, words, and touch of the living God, right there, sitting next to the well. Unlike any man she had ever encountered, this man was different. He was discerning, loving, leading, and calling her to a much bigger way of life. He was really engaging her. He was loving her. She was being truly loved for the first time. And this love captured her. She wanted more. She was captivated and longing to give her heart away, in all the right ways, for the first time in her life. I cannot help but think how different her life must have looked in the days, weeks, months, years following this interaction.
Lastly, we must notice that this woman, who no doubt hid her life from most people in the past, even her “closest friends”, went away from the well telling all who would listen that this Man told her everything about herself, and in doing so, loved and healed her at the same time. In the past I am sure, the truth about her caused shame, produced anger, hindered her from relational and spiritual vitality, and forced her into a kind of living slavery, soul death. But now, the truth telling of God about who she was, enabled her to see it clearly, name it, tell it, own it, and yet, run headlong toward goodness for the very first time. Now, all the waters she had drunk before, the stolen and filthy waters of the world, were seen for what they were, and she longed for a true, living, life-giving, tall glass of water, the healing waters of a living God which spring up into eternal life and healing.
As the account unfolds, we see a woman, clearly known by the community for her past, calling others to taste and see that the Lord is good. This has to be so, for the account tells us that in seeing, literally seeing it in her countenance and life, it registered with onlookers, and they went in pursuit of the One who could bring about such a transformation. Immediately upon knowing Christ, apparently, this woman’s entire presence and way of interacting was transformed. She was living the reality of scripture which reads, “Be transformed by the renewing of your minds”. The Man at the well, the One who offers living water, is the only One who can accomplish that kind of transformation.
If we are to escape soul death, we must long for that tall glass of water offered us even today. Drink it in. Ask God to dunk you in that pool of life. Ask Him to raise you up into newness of life. Allow Him to speak the truth about yourself to you, and drink in His love which heals and restores your heart, mind, emotions, personality, and soul. The tangible reality of His love is powerful and real enough to literally change you, even the deepest and darkest and most broken parts of you. You must be willing to throw yourself into that well.
Bruce Smith
optimuslife.org
soulstormsite.com
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17. March 2010 by BruceSmith.
blog.optimuschoice.com Death by Bait
It was the first lie, the original lie, the lie that changed everything, and still does. It was and is the lie which is the foundation of all death of any sort, and certainly of spiritual death. The lie is subtle, seemingly innocuous, but make no mistake, it is vulgar, deadly, and grotesque. It is real, it is really present, always looking for the next player to take the bait.
“Did God really say…?” Seems, upon first glance, a sincere question. But if you look closely, you cannot help but acknowledge the dark reality behind the deceit. As the serpent came to Eve, the first one to take the bait which leads to death, he came knowing that the thing which would kill had to contain the allure of self-serving doubt. Doubt, doubting God, specifically, opens the door to Pandoras box. The doubt spoken of, in reality, is a questioning of God’s intentions for us. Once we begin to question that all his precepts, boundaries, and desires are for us, we have taken the bait which will hook us and lead to the dismemberment of our soul. It shows up, in tangible form, in every manner of our lives. As we question God with regard to our desires, intentions, families, relationships, finances, pleasure pursuits, life missions, romances, and more, we open our lives to a score of dangerous realities.
The bait for Eve, and then for Adam, was presented to them in the form of a question. Behind the question was the unspoken maxim, wrapped up in another question, perhaps rhetorical, “Are you not the master of your own soul?…Don’t you make the rules for your own life?” The enemy appealed to the human craving, despite all God offers us, to make our claim upon our own lives. “I am the measure of all things!” Our soul cries out. “This is about me!” The difficulty with this worldview, and make no mistake, it is a worldview, is that it abandons the biblical reality and teaching on the Sovereignty of God. All the world, all the universe, all of us, are His. We exist for His pleasure, not the other way around. The real kicker we all fail to miss, so often, is that His pleasure is to bring us meaning, fulfillment, and joy. In our own grab for the control of our lives, our pleasure, our relationships, our passions, our addictions, our own escape plans for our past pain, we derail the good plan He has crafted for us. It shows up in so many ways.
Where does it show up? Where is this soul death evident? Its in the rage of a man or woman, railing against everyone in their lives. Its found in the pursuit of a broken heart looking for healing in yet another miserable relationship outside of God’s agenda. Its is also found in the lives of young people seeking to find meaning, fun, and belonging in social arenas which promote, glorify, if not worship, all that is in opposition to God’s call. The enemy presents the lie to worn out parents who refuse to engage children needing a deep sense of security, and who, instead, send them off to their rooms or the television for parenting. The enemy offers us the lie as he presents options galore, appealing for our time, in order to distract us from worship, prayer, thoughtfulness, and deep intimacy with God. The enemy brings the lie to our doorstep through friendships and other relationships which offer us nothing of value, and which only lead us deeper into distraction, illicit pleasure, or shallow gossip and worldliness filled banter. The bait is everywhere. It lurks in the boardroom, the bedroom, on the playground, on the radio, the billboards, the trading pits, and yes, even in our churches. The bait is ever present.
How do we escape death by the bait? Fundamentally, it begins in the chief end of our heart’s desire. The battle against the bait is won and lost in our understanding of what life is all about and who we are living for. The Westminster Confession suggests that the chief end of man is to know God and to enjoy Him forever. This flies in the face of just about every conversation and suggestion you will meet on a daily basis. And it’s an assertion that the darkness lurking in you craves. Everyone around us seems convinced that its about “me”. Its easier to take to bait and let yourself go, isn’t it. For the short term. In the end, all things being known, actually, its much harder to go the way of self. That always, at some point, ends badly. Very badly. Those that try it very long can be locked into a pattern so deep and twisted that it effects every human, mental, emotional, and even unconscious reality or relationship they know. And the spiritual reality is even more depressing.
The only escape from the trap of the bait is to flee before you see it. Stop lurking around the tree God warned you about and focus your attention on the playground He has left open to you. A fundamental choice to embrace God’s call for fully devoted followership and joyous pursuit of Him is the only option which protects us against this most grotesque death. The riches of intimacy with Him, the rewards of Christ-based marriage, the profound sense of rest resulting from God-inspired goals and pursuits, the sense of soul-enriching purpose found in raising kids in the light of God’s truth, the deep and abiding strength which comes from Godly friendships, and so much more is there for our benefit it we will pursue it. The quality of life offered by God is worlds away from the decay we see around us every day.
Soul neglect and an ignorance of spiritual truths will not help us when the enemy has his hands around our throats and is dragging us and our families into a murderous hell with him. The bait is held at bay as we pursue Him and His word. If you doubt that enemy is real, the bait is deadly, and that the is the end result is the darkening of your heart to God’s truth, you had better reconsider before its too late. Read the stats. As teen suicides, drunk driving deaths, divorce rates, criminal justice realities, bios of pleasure seeking and self-serving “celebs”, front page news, wars, disease, racism, spousal abuse, relational illness of all sorts, and so many other present day realities demonstrate, what the scriptures say is true, “The enemy wanders about, always lurking, looking, for those whom he may devour…his quest is to steal, kill, and destroy, like a roving lion.”
If you have found yourself, after honest evaluation, caught in the snare of soul death, and you realize you have taken the bait in one of more arenas in your life, TURN! Turning is the biblical definition of repentance. Repentance, rather than penance, is the biblical path toward a thriving soul. In biblical language, repentance, is a turning from one activity, pattern, way of living, and moving in the exact opposite direction toward something brand new. If you wish to stave off soul death, you must be moving in God’s direction for living. Has soul death darkened the reality of your child rearing? Go the other way. Has it taken you captive in your relational world? Go the other direction. Have you taken the bait of soul neglect? Throw yourself into a regular pattern of learning who God is and what He is about (small groups, study, worship, music that enlivens your soul…). Are all of your relationship characterized by attachments to those who are the walking dead spiritually speaking? Make a decided move to find Godly, mature, and alive people to spend your time with.
What we must know is that soul death can be cured. While we still have breath in these mortal bodies, God extends His hand, as He did to Lazarus, and longs to call us forth from the grave. When we hear His voice we must respond, stand up, even with grave clothes still around us, and walk toward Him to find newness of life.
For those who have come to faith late in life or who may have found themselves in patterns of soul death early on as a result of spiritual neglect, pleasure addiction, deep woundedness, or other life realities, you must be aware that your turn, your repentance, your healing could use an extra measure of aggression in terms of how you deal with the past. As has been said before, “The only difference between a grave and rut is the depth.” Some have merely lost focus for a bit and gotten off course, and have to this point not encountered deep disasters of soul or otherwise. A word of caution, don’t minimize your situation. That rut can quickly become a grave. Let me say it again, no distraction, no sin pattern can be ignored. Deal with it. Go the other way, before you are in a grave. For those who now find themselves in a graveyard situation; get after it. Healing and hope is available. Your deeply flawed choice have landed you there, and you will have to be even more aggressive in your turn away from the old way of life. Why? The enemy will provide you with old bait and new bait, and a world of distractions to keep you in that cell. He longs to keep you with him. This is no joke. He wants to completely devour you, your kids, your spouse, all you are connected to. Run for your life to a new way of living.
Had Eve, and Adam, taken the bait more seriously “in the beginning”, we would all be much better off. One little lie. One hint calling God’s intentions and ability into question. Now look where we are! Do you think it could be any different for you if you question His call for living a life totally based upon His principles? Do you think ignoring your kids embrace of the bait is going to go well for them? Do you think the bait of love outside His calling will heal you? It won’t. Move away from the bait. Run. Into His arms and His new path.
Bruce Smith
optimuslife.org
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6. March 2010 by BruceSmith.
Finding Your Muchness
Where do you go to figure out who you are? In a world full of options, far too many to list, and far too diverse, this becomes a question of paramount importance for every living adventurer. If you have paid attention (and if you’ve seen the movie), its the question resounding in the heart of Alice in Tim Burton’s new take on the classic Alice in Wonderland. The recent movie, a new look at a classic story, is grappling with a question for the ages. Have you found your “muchness”?
Reality TV, the FaceBook phenomenon, and other social networking platforms, for observant participants, can be quite a study in our modern day search for our “muchness”. If you are connected to a decent amount of “friends”on FaceBook, or if you have access to those who have not blocked their life from outsiders, its worth doing a little research project of your own to find out where and how people in our culture are searching for their own muchness. Parents, if you want to know where your own kids are on this search, brace yourself, do your homework, and take a look at their social networking lives. You may be in for a wake-up call. Its an education for anyone truly looking for social, societal, and spiritual insight.
Now, you say, “But we are not to judge a book by its cover, and we are not to look on outward appearance!” And to some extent this is true. But the reality is, just as on network TV, the world of music entertainment, the movie screen, and any other cultural outlet open to observation, the themes that are clearly evident and on display for the world to see tell much about our lives, and the lives of others around us. Entertainment industry analysts will tell you that ratings grow as resonance heightens within a demographic audience. That is to say, people watch what they like, aspire to, identify with, and in some real sense, embrace.
Before you jump to conclusions here and think I am suggesting that we can or should evaluate people’s lives based on outward appearance only, I am not. Nor am I espousing some moral police program for evaluating the lives of others. That being said, remember the oft quoted truism, “Your life may be the only Gospel some people ever read.” What are the adventures we are living telling others about who we are, what our compass is, and who our God is? Take a look at your own adventure pics, entertainment expenses, social scene, calendar, friendship networks, and bank statement if you really want to know what your life is about and what it may be telling others about your own muchness.
We all crave a life of adventure, and we all want to know we matter. Few would argue with this. Too seldom, however, do we actually pursue the kind of adventure story that betrays our desire to live out the quest according to God’s plan for “muchness”. Parents, what kind of adventure are your kids seeing lived out in your life? Is it one of passionate pursuit of Christ-likeness? Do they see a humble, loving, nurturing, tender, vibrant, consistent, joyous, holy, honest, and courageous pursuit of God in your daily life, your weekend excursions, your relationships, your work, your goals, and your encouragement to them? Are you able to coach them toward what Godliness looks like? Teens, what are your muchness pictures and adventures telling the world about you? Is every adventure, every adventure pic, every adventure story about the last party, fling, thrill? Can your friends, and outsiders, see a difference in you? Could anyone looking in on your outer life get a sense of who you are inside? What does your inner muchness look like?
We all need to be reminded that our outward reality points to an inner truth. This is a biblical principle. “From the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks”. What are you talking about? What’s your muchness conversation about? Anything remotely resembling biblical muchness? “If anything is pure, holy, good, right…think (and talk) about these things”. Are you a rumor mill, or is the beauty of Christ-centered talk what people hear when you speak?
Along the way, like Alice, we will all encounter many interesting twists and turns in our lives. There will be crossroads where we must decide how to find and pursue our muchness, again and again. In reality, every day, our lives are filled with these opportunities. Its the millions of little moments and choices which define our ultimate muchness, actually. Will I go on that date, will I go there, will I say that, will I give in to that thought, will I watch that, will I strike back, will I pursue the scriptures today, will I worship when times are tough, will I be true to His call when things are good and I’m not in a bind, will I …?
What Alice in Wonderland makes us aware of is the reality and draw of adventure in our lives. We crave it. We must all have it actually. Its not if we will live an adventure, its about the quality and nature of our adventure. Our muchness is all about our heart, our soul. Are you at a crossroads? Have you been defying the muchness to which God has called you? Are you ready to consider again, perhaps for the first time, a full embrace of the muchness of God? Are you ready to do relationships, work, missions, fun, money, and all of life with a passion for the muchness of Christ?
We all need to be reminded at times that we need to get our muchness back. We all need to be hit with the reality at various moments in our lives, that we have not taken the right route to the land of muchness. When we find that our own inner map-quest has led us astray and sent us throttling along a dangerous road to nothingness, we have a choice. As the story illustrates, “Which way shall I go from here?” “Well, that all depends upon where you are going?” If you are not sure where you are going and where you are called by God to go, then most any road will get you to that land of nowhere. Its not a place you want to be. When God calls it changes everything, literally and profoundly. His muchness touches thoughts, words, deeds, motivations, human interaction, life pursuits, mate choices, child-rearing, sexuality, emotions, …
Life lived to the full is found in pursuing our God given quest for muchness. As we throw ourselves into that adventure an entirely new world full of color, characters, drama, passion, purpose, meaning, and hope unfolds. The life God has for us, lived out, will call all the onlookers to marvel at the work of Christ in us, and will compel others to find their own muchness in Him. There is no other adventure big enough to satisfy our souls. Anything aside from the biblical model for muchness is a distraction, a detour from the best God has for us. Any many, if not most, certainly most, of the characters you encounter along the way will steer you away from a truly Christ-centered quest. “Wide is the road, and many who are on it, that leads to destruction”. If you’ve taken those detours in the past you know that only pain, confusion, pettiness, and misery awaits. If you’ve ever taken God up on his muchness, you know what the scriptures say is true, nothing in all of creation compares. Indeed, we close with the scriptural version of the account of muchness, “No eyes has seen, no ear has heard, nor mind conceived, what God has prepared for those who love Him.” Amen and amen.
Looking for adventure? Find you muchness yet? Need your muchness back? Its all in Him.
Bruce Smith
optimuslife.org
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3. March 2010 by BruceSmith.
Beautifully Dead. Wonderfully Alive. A Story that might have happened.
Spiritual Autopsies, the series continued.
The coroner entered the room. This cadaver, dressed in white, somehow seemed strangely beautiful, almost alive, yet, dead, and yet again, maybe not. He had never encountered such deadly beauty before. What was it about this one that was eating at him so? He looked, he thought, he looked again, he could not take his eyes away. There was something missing from this story, but he was not sure just what exactly. She lay there. Clearly dead, or at least dying, maybe dying to be alive? It seemed as though she were telling a story and crying out to live at the same time. Beautiful. Deadly. Dead. Beautiful. But how? What would he put on the report?
As he reached for his investigative tools he was struck with a thought. Its the eyes! No, its the face. No its the expression. Hoping to pull his eyes away, he was suddenly taken in, and the story came to him, almost as if she were telling it herself.
In her eyes, which had not fully closed, the coroner saw glorious pools, deep, brooding, intoxicating, sorrowful, yet bright. They told part of the story. In those eyes, like he had rarely seen before, and had at once seen many times over, he found a tragic tale. The eyes were telling him of how she came to die. The death she spoke of, however, was clearly more than her recent demise. This was a death which began a long long time ago.
As he looked deeper in her eyes with his penlight he began to see it vividly. This glorious specimen had been hurt long ago, as a child even. The death began long ago. The traces of her tears were still evident well behind the veil of death covering over those lovely pools. The eyes were telling this coroner of the rejection, beatings, confusion, pain, anger, resentment, self-protection, and longing. It was all clearly there.
After investigating the eyes, it was the mouth which caught him next. The mouth, pursed open as if beginning to scream, yet reflecting an attempted discipline to hold something back. He noticed the lips still had color. They were ravishing, and nearly made him touch them. He licked his own lips as he thought how they must have tasted when fully alive. He was taken aback when he noticed they had been altered. Tragic he thought, “they are so perfect”. He reached out to touch them again, and it struck him, part of this beauty’s death was her insecurity and longing to be seen. He began to cry, but caught himself, remembering he was a professional.
The eyes had told him part of the story, the lips had revealed another part of the drama, but it was the position of her head which struck him like a boulder rolling down the side of a mountain slope careening into a car unexpectedly. Her eyes, fixed toward him, were positioned so softly and timidly, while the head was slightly turned away as if trying to escape the scene. She was hiding, and yet hoping, all together in one movement. What was she hiding from he thought? What was she hoping for? So much was untold here. Then it happened. In a moment, as he pulled the sheet back and revealed her hands, the picture unfolded in a wave of truth and overwhelming revelation. The hands told the rest of the story. Her left hand and the right. They each portrayed a different side of her, and they both told the truth. Her right hand was clinched so tightly the nails were burrowing into her flesh. The right was still fighting, still holding on to something, many things. She was going to the grave with this fight, this much was clear. But the left hand. Oh, what a different story this hand was telling. Supple, soft, gentle, and at the beginning of a movement upward. It looked as if this hand was starting its submissive offering to the heavens. The left was trying to undo the fight on the other side. The left was attempting to allow the pains swimming within those beautiful brown pools to escape once and for all. The left hand clearly wanted to let the pains go. Had there been more time, perhaps, the left hand may have proved strong enough to actually save her, he thought.
As the coroner took all of this in, his soft cry became a violent sobbing battle. Her left hand could have been her way to redemption, he thought. If only… he sobbed. He was undone. Never had he been so drawn, so captivated by his vocation. Without thinking, he took her left hand, and he began to pray,
Oh, God! Did this one have to die?! She was, is, so beautiful. Why? Why? Why? This one, so beautifully dead, yet so nearly alive, a hand away, she was so close. I know she appears gone, I know its too late. But, I am asking you, YOU, to make a way back for her. Was the story of Lazarus real?! Was it? What about the woman at the well? Did she really find life, and healing from her life of abuse, promiscuity, and pain? Did she?! Well, if so, if those things really happened, and if you still change things, then change THIS!
This is not fair! She is a remarkable creature. She died in a fight for her life. I see it in her eyes, God. She was lost in a prior life, and yet, moving toward a new one! I ask you now, in the name of your Son, who raised Lazarus himself, raise this one. Raise her now. I am tired of seeing death win. I am sick of it! YOU take her left hand now, and lift her up. DO IT!! I SAID DO IT! Please.
Oh, God, my Father. I have seen you move in the lives of so many. This one did not have to go. I still see signs of life there. Don’t allow this gift of remarkable beauty to be stolen. The enemy has stolen too many already. Raise her up, heal, restore, right here, right now, on this table, while I am standing here. And when she gets up, make the fight be gone. Make her right hand like her left. Raise them both in sweet softness and in the strength of great joy toward you. Then move them toward your purposes. I don’t know why, God, but I am begging you to do this.
I am believing that you will remove the fight in her which brought this beautiful life down. I am believing that you will bring ever increasing light in those marvelous eyes, and that the brooding waters would yield once and for all to tenderness and mercy. I am believing that glance would lose its shame and look life and love square in the eye with the strength of grace and relational peace. And I am believing that those lips, those luminous lips, will soften ever more, will awaken, and will offer the world life and love that is sweeter than honey from the comb.
At that moment, without even realizing it, the coroner leaned over her and threaded the fingers of his right hand through the fingers on her left, bent down softly, hovering over her and breathing deeply, and using his left hand forced open the fingers on her right. He paused to look at the cuts in the palm of her right hand left there by her nails. Having opened each finger and gently caressing each wound, he placed his left hand under her head, stroking her hair gently, and then raising her torso upward, he kissed her. He kissed her.
Losing consciousness, having never been caught up like this before, the coroner kissed her, and as he did he simply prayed again, “Bring life. New, beautiful, clean, restored, vibrant, joyous, tender, and true. Just bring her life, the life she was beginning to reach for.” He repeated this simple prayer for what seemed like hours, the tears never slowing. And when he “awoke” from this place of longing, he awoke to find himself in the arms of a radiant woman, weeping along with him; her new dress, white and flowing, soiled with tears of joy.
Its just a story right? But what if God is in the business of bringing us to life abundantly as the scriptures tell us. Do we believe its real? Does He still heal? Does He involve Himself in our drama? Does He use us? Does He hear our prayers? Does He sometimes grant us answers to those things we long for? These are important questions for each of us to answer.
There are those around us everyday who need people to stand in the gap and bang on the doors of heaven for their sake. Some of us need people as impassioned as the coroner in the story. Some of us need to be the coroner in the story. And some of us need to realize we are the ones in need of newness. Maybe its not spiritual newness in terms of needing salvation. But perhaps its newness of understanding into our past, how it affects our present. Or perhaps we need newness in our desires, our relating patterns, our personalities, our social life, our thought life, our motivations. Sometimes, the death which the enemy of our souls sends our way is allowed in and allowed to take up space all too easily. Left alone, ignored, or not taken seriously, the death trap of the enemy can over take us.
Wherever it may be in us or in those around us, may we allow ourselves to see the full picture, and passionately pursue life and healing in every case. And may we, like the coroner in the story above, “wake up” to the reality of overwhelming joy.
Grace and Peace,
Bruce Smith
optimuslife.org
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1. March 2010 by BruceSmith.
Spiritual Autopsies, The Series continued
Death by After Shock, Living in the land of Tremors
As anyone who has been watching the news lately is aware, our world is shaking, literally shaking, as our planet’s tectonic plates converge with violence. The aftermath of the earthquakes in Haiti and now Chile is difficult to watch. The tragedy which has unfolded leaves one squeamish in a tangible sense. Bodies lying, decaying on rubble strewn streets, tales of the stench in the air, children dismembered. The site is gruesome. Do doubt, far more gruesome for those witnessing it and living in it firsthand.
It is difficult not to be moved by compassion unless one’s heart is totally calloused and hardened, when viewing such sites in our world. Seeing this kind of life-shaking thing unfold, something inside most of us screams, “Those poor people!”, “How can I help?!”, “I want to help!”, “Let’s rescue them!”
This being so, and because this news is fresh in our minds, I think its an apt metaphor for our series on Spiritual Autopsies. Why? Look around you. Have you not seen the very same thing, in a spiritual, emotional, relational, and psychological sense in the people you have known?
All around us everyday people are living beneath the rubble of victimization, violence, abuse, demoralization, and inner quaking. In a spiritual sense, many have had no choice but to endure the victimization they have experienced. They need someone to come along side of them and bring the hopeful resurrection power of the gospel to their lives. Many others, perhaps still impacted by the pain of their past, have chosen to live amongst the tumbling ruins of life. These are those people who have seen the difficulties of life, and have chosen to live amidst the death and decay, rather than embrace the rescue which has been extended to them.
Perhaps you have seen these quake victims around you. Perhaps you are one of them yourself. Broken by the tumbling world around them, these spiritually dead ones have made a conscious decision to remain in the epicenter of the pain despite being offered help and healing. Its a tough thing to witness. It breaks your heart through and through.
The girl who was abandoned or abused by a parent or loved one, the spouse broken in two by the shaking of infidelity, the man or woman living in the aftermath of a broken lifelong dream. The profiles are endless, but the story of these living dead is the same. The way out from under the rubble is to acknowledge that we live in a shaking world, and that bad things do happen, but then to make a decided run from the area of disaster toward a new way of living.
To live, or rather to die, amidst the chaos and carnage of inner quaking is to continue in the same patterns which brought the very disaster in the first place. For some its a continuation of relating patterns which can only bring division and strife. For others its to embrace the catastrophic pursuit of fun at every turn and to ignore the unfolding of wounds which result from that approach. Still others refuse to see the impending quake which is sure to come if they start on an all out pleasure trail early in life or early on in the aftermath of mistreatment or failure. Whatever the day to day realities are, the result is the same. Life in the land of ongoing tremors only breeds more brokenness.
Part of this death story is that the walking wounded refuse to see our groaning world for what it is. They refuse to admit that the pathways of this world’s fun house are littered with debris. For them, the falling rubble of life lived in nightclubs, immoral relationships, anger, bitterness, self-absorbing focus, and the like, is ignored despite their dysfunction, pain, and ongoing loss. All the while, God sends His rescue team to comb through the chaos and offer help. Too often the wounded only hide from and disregard the rescue effort. This is born out in research conducted studying those that are being rescued from the sex slave industry. Too accustomed to the gross abuse and misery, they cannot imagine a different life beyond the twisted “care” of a pimp. Satan seeks to pimp us all out to one form of imprisonment or another. We have to see it.
The scriptures tell us in Romans 8:22 that we live in a world that is groaning, longing for the day when things are set right. We are also told in Romans 8:37 and following, that those called by God, and in His hand, can face anything this world brings and yet come out full of life, health, joy, peace, and with the fruit of the Spirit (God’s character) defining us.
Death by aftershock, then, remains a choice for each of us. Are we, as secular psychologists suggest, doomed to a life of miserable and broken interaction, if we have endured a tough past? Are we, based upon our past lifestyle, unable to change our stripes after decades of behavior patterns?
The answer to these questions, from a biblical perspective, is a resounding “NO!”
We are not doomed to repeat the failures and mistakes and patterns of the past. We do not have to carry our brokenness with us. We can flee the scene and run toward the light of newness. We can do pleasure differently. We can have more enduring and enriching friendships. We can experience the kind of love only God offers us. We can lead others toward the same.
The greatest problem for many is not the desire to get out from under the rubble. Rather, its the moment by moment desire and commitment required to make it out and far away. For most, really, the desire is there, yet only one foot makes it over the rubble and into the new world. Too many who crave a new way are still drawn back to the old broken way of life. They stand straddling the perimeter between life and death, past and future. If this is you, you must know that your only hope of escape is to stop looking back, stop dragging your feet, and to get moving like never before toward the life God has for you. If you are spending your time with others who are straddling the perimeter with you, you are asking for more of the same. Again, your way out is to grab onto those who are fleeing the scene, at all costs, and run with them to safety and shelter.
You may be damaged so severely that you need a spiritual medic. Find one. You may be so entrapped in patterns of the past that you need a mentor to help you find a disciplined pattern of newness. Get one. You may need to educate yourself on what life really could look like on the other side if you have never seen it in all its glory. Find someone to help you get it done.
Death by aftershock is a gruesome reality in our world. Can you imagine being in Haiti or Chile yourself, and being rocked by the earthquake? Can you see yourself trapped beneath the rubble for days, what seems like years? Can you then see loving, courageous, and devoted people coming for your rescue? What would you do?
Maybe this very thing is happening for you now. Maybe this is exactly where your life is and you have not fully owned it. Can you, again, envision, on CNN tonight, a scene where rescue workers are feverishly attempting to rescue victims beneath the rubble, victims dismembered, bleeding, gasping for breath? And yet, as the rescuers get within arms reach, the victims look them in the face, smile, and turn away to die with each other. Is there a more horrifying scene than to see others minimize the desperation they are really dealing with?
Sadly, many in our world live this very scene day in and day out. They actively embrace a life filled with tremors. One aftershock after the other, never learning or moving on. They actually, by daily choices, pursuits, relationships, patterns, choose to run headlong into the rubble to die a slow and painful death. There is a rescue. There is a hope. New life is out there. What, in God’s name, are you waiting for? Are you thriving in the land of aftershocks? Do you really think things are going to get better where you are, how you are? Wake up from your death. Run from the trap. Find healing from the pain. The groaning which overwhelms you is your soul crying out for newness. He is extending you a rescue plan.
Will you take it?
Bruce Smith
optimuslife.org
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