Have I Prayed for My Pastor Today?

Brothers, pray for us (1 Thess. 5:25, ESV).

In June, our pastor resigned at the request of the elders. At the teary, angry "family meeting" when the announcement was presented, the chairman of the elder board confessed his sin against the body. He said he let his friendship with the pastor get in the way of his responsibility as elder so that he ignored the issues involved until this was the only remedy. He confessed pride and laziness in his duties as elder to have allowed conflicts to progress so far.

In the pew I confessed my own sin in not taking seriously enough my duty to pray for our elders, pastors, deacons, and staff. Since then they have held a place on my written prayer list and I have lifted them to the Lord more often: alas, not daily, not as often as my family and close friends, but more than I had been.

In addition, I have been praying for the pastor and deacons at my parents' church, which we attended regularly when I was first trying to resume church attendance last fall but not yet ready for the longer drive and service involved at our own usual church. Their warm welcome when we visited and proximity to our home still felt like a bond of sorts. Even though it was not the best fit for our family, I wholeheartedly support their dedication to missions in our city, the nation, and around the world.

Last weekend the senior pastor of that neighborhood church lost his prolonged private battle with bipolar disorder and took his own life. His congregation is still stunned, having had no reason to expect anything wrong. They had recently celebrated the successful completion of an education building and the baptism of 5 converts to Christ from another major world religion.

There has been so much to think through in response to the grievous news, but two matters rise to the top most frequently:

• There but for the grace of God go I. There is no valor in having resisted a temptation I  never faced, so far be it from me to pass judgment on this man who was suffering intense personal anguish. It is God's mercy and not our own virtue which has kept suicide out of my own family to this point.
• Even my repentance needs repenting of. Even my renewed prayers for the pastors closest to me mainly addressed their church office. I was praying for their faithfulness to the Gospel, their financial and ethical integrity, and God's guidance in their shepherding of their churches, all of which are good and needful prayers. My prayers, however, had neglected to consider them as persons. Pastors share all the struggles we face, in addition to the burden of their responsibility to us, in addition to intensified spiritual attack in many cases. The enemy of Christ's church knows that if he strikes the shepherd, the sheep may scatter.

Today is the last day of October, which someone has designated Pastor Appreciation Month. By all means, let us send notes, gifts, and gift cards. Our pastors need encouragement and special surprises just as we all do. Most of all, though, let us pray for them and renew our commitment to do so not only this month but continually. Let us pray for their faithfulness in the stewardship God has given them; let us also pray for them as our brothers in Christ, asking the same sorts of things that we do for our friends and family (which they are). Let us first and foremost pray that they would experience for themselves the boundless grace and love of God which they proclaim to others.

Recommended Resources: 31 Days of Praying for Your Pastor, from Revive Our Hearts

                                               Praying for Your Pastor, from solidfoodmedia.com blog

If you or someone you love is struggling with depression or severe mood swings, please seek professional medical help or tell someone who can help you to the help you need. If you are actively considering doing yourself harm, I urge you please to call 911 or your local emergency number. There is no shame in seeking help; Jesus welcomes all of us just as we are.

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Quietly lifting heart and hands in thanks to the unchanging Father of lights, whose ways transcend our understanding--

For faithful pastors who serve a single congregation for decades,

For God's work through mortal men continuing even beyond their earthly lives,

For Christian love and community that withstands sin, death, and grief,

For God's grace, bigger than each and every sin, even mine,

For God's ability to use even the worst, hardest eucharisteos for good,

For the unity of the invisible body of Christ,
For the steadfast government of the Chief Shepherd of the church,

For promises of comfort to all who mourn,

For promises that the Lord will wipe away every tear from our eyes one day,

For wisdom available to us in our various needs of guidance,

For sunshine and showers all jumbled together in a week,

For yarn running out before the pattern does,

For working Saturdays,

For muddy paws (again) and cat patrol,

For stabilizing pain and better sleep,

For opportunity to celebrate with a friend how God has worked through her year with breast cancer, for her courage in not waiting until the battle is over to praise

(from the gratitude journal, still counting, #2017-2032)

Midnight Cry {Steinway Parable}

O God, be not far from me;

O my God, make haste to help me!

Psalm 70:12, ESV

Can you find the real animal here?

Thunk. "Eeyowww!"

Heart pounding, I jolt awake. Steinway, that's Steinway's cry. Feeling my way through the bed linens at my feet where he was, where he should be, I can't find that 3-month old ball of fur.

My eyes adjust to the reading light and I scan the daybed. The whimpering seems to be coming from inside, no, under something. Is he under the bed?

Kneeling, I raise the dust ruffle to search, but I need a flashlight to locate him, against the wall behind the milk crates full of books and out-of-season clothes.

"Shhh, shhh. Hey, baby. It's okay. I'm here. Just come on out now. It's all right. It's me. You're going to be all right."

Still he whimpers, too scared and disoriented to come to my voice.

One box slides out, two. I reach under the bed to scoop him out, but he's just that wee bit too far for me to do more than brush his fur with my fingertips.

Three boxes slide out, four. Crawling under the bed, still talking to him, trying to soothe, I gather him in the crook of my arm and back out.

"Poor little fellow. That must have been frightening to fall off the bed in your sleep. It's okay now. I've got you. There, there, you're safe now."

Sitting amidst the boxes, we rock, I coo, he settles down at last. We nestle back into the bed and sleep, him breathing ragged against my chest.

If I respond so quickly to the midnight cry of my puppy, how can I expect that God would do any less for me, His blood-bought child? When I feel like I'm in that scary, under the bed darkness at 2 a.m., sometimes the essence of faith is to cry to Him and wait for Him to come and comfort with His presence. When His Spirit comes alongside, the darkness becomes a tabernacle full of Him, my cries the incense prayers.

We are poorest when we think we have it made and on the brink of true riches when we realize our helplessness and cry out to Jesus knowing His very name is Savior.

If this finds you feeling alone and helpless in the darkness of affliction, dear Crumble, call out to God. May He draw very near to you and give you peace, the assurance of His nearness and promises to all who are His children through faith in Christ Jesus. Even if your circumstances do not change, may you know with confidence that your Father from whom darkness flees is under the bed with you.

The eyes of the LORD are towards the righteous

and his ears towards their cry.

When the righteous cry for help, the LORD hears

and delivers them out of all their troubles.

The Lord is near to the broken-hearted

and saves the crushed in spirit.

The LORD is near to all who call on him,

to all who call on him in truth.

Psalms 34:15, 17-18; 145:18, ESV

Pondering faith today with the folks at Ann's and Emily's:

When Pain Comes...

Pain is not something most people like.  That is why we run from it as fast as we can.  That is also why we aren’t free.  Jesus hardly ever goes to those places where we run.  When pain comes (or when we fear that it will come), don’t run away.  Run to it, and you will find you have run into the arms of Jesus.  In other words, buck up, face it, embrace it, and know that you and Jesus can deal with it.  Then you will laugh and dance in the freedom and the reality of God’s sufficiency and the power that becomes awesome in your weakness (Steve Brown, A Scandalous Freedom).

 Blessing the Lord for all His gifts once again:
~Spending time in Jesus' company in the Gospels for my morning reading
~Several portions of days with zero back-hip-foot pain
~Sinus check-up showing no bacterial infection as a result of this cold
~Substitute ENT was exceedingly kind and gentle
~Highest lupus pain week in months
~Discouraging realization that improved coping with activities of daily life is from lots of added pain medication and not from actual healing of underlying problem
~Sacrifices of praise
~Texted prayer requests
~Waves of anxiety driving me to the Savior
~Piano keys beneath my fingers
~Peace and protection while Allen traveled for a family funeral
~Time for each of us with our respective parents
~Trying on my English major hat again for Jane Eyre movie
~Waking up to wet windows and almost 2" needed rain in the gauge
~Grieving with those who grieve at neighborhood church where pastor unexpectedly passed away over the weekend
(from the gratitude journal, #1976-1990)

The Book That Made Your World by Vishal Mangalwadi {Book Review}

"Rome's collapse meant that Europe lost its soul--the source of its civilizational authority--and descended into the 'Dark Ages.' The Bible was the power that revived Europe. Europeans became so enthralled with God's Word that they rejected their sacred myths to hear God's Word, study it, internalize it, speak it, and promote it to build the modern world. At the dawn of the twenty-first century, the West is again losing its soul. Will it relapse into a new dark age or humble itself before the Word of the Almighty God?" (Vishal Mangalwadi, Appendix, The Book That Made Your World, Kindle edition).

In The Book That Made Your World, Vishal Mangalwadi argues that all the hallmark movements and achievements of Western civilization in the last millennium emerged from a worldview based on the Bible. He presents his case by means of a thematic history of ideas interspersed with contrasting tales from the history of his native India (hence "your" in the title) and his personal experiences there. Though as heavily annotated as a history book, this is not an academic enterprise but a call to the Western world to realize and return to the source of the values we hold dear.

In Dr. Mangalwadi's view, the widespread signs of cultural, political, and fiscal distress in Europe and the United States indicate the failure of secularization's attempts to maintain the fruits of a Biblical worldview without the theological foundation.

From his vantage point as an Eastern beneficiary of Western institutions and endeavors, he sees what we have taken for granted and acts as a sighted guide through our history. He describes the birth of modern technology in medieval monasteries, the Reformation and its attendant emphases on standard national languages and universal literacy, modern medicine and hospitals, and democratic ideals. All these and more he attributes to Christians seeking to glorify God by living according to biblical truth and to non-Christians whose basic presuppositions had likewise been shaped by the Christian Scriptures. The Bible's view of God, humanity, and the physical world contrast sharply with the fundamentals of other world religions. In Dr. Mangalwadi's view that explains why significant scientific and mathematical discoveries which occurred much earlier in China, Persia, or India never impacted those cultures as a whole in the way the same discoveries impacted Europe.

This perspective on history intrigues me. Despite my familiarity with the idea that worldview shapes culture and that Western culture was shaped by a Judeo-Christian worldview which has been rejected in recent decades, much of this historical detail surprised and delighted me. My public school education neglected to mention that Luther established the principles of modern German, uniting the various dialects in his Bible translation. A similar phenomenon occurred centuries later in India, with modern Urdu and Hindi developed by Bible translators and promoted by colonial governors in need of a common language for judicial and administrative use. Likewise, I had never before encountered the concept that, while John Locke heavily influenced America's Founding Fathers, Locke's ideas in turn found their genesis in the earlier writings of English Puritans. This makes sense, since the Mayflower Compact predated the Enlightenment philosopher, but I had never heard the correlation pointed out before (and supported with Puritan primary source material).

The contrasting anecdotes and historical detail from India's history unsettle me. That so many in the author's homeland reject proffered improvement to even material circumstances, not to mention spiritual, is hard for me to comprehend. If the cultural analysis here is correct, nothing but another Great Awakening will stop the West from progressing down the same path.

The book seems to extend hope that if we in Europe and North America return to the old ways, the truth in the Book that made our world, we can halt or reverse the damage that has already been done to our institutions and culture overall. I agree with the author that the Bible is God's breathed-out revelation of Himself to our humanity, that Western culture is in crisis because of our rejection of the Bible and the God who gave it, and that we need a prophetic call to return to it. I am less confident that such a return would restore Western culture to flourishing health, but that would make it no less right a course of action. Being made by God's book is an end in itself, not just a means to an end.

All in all, The Book That Made Your World provides a fascinating historical survey and illuminating cultural perspective. It remains to be seen whether Dr. Mangalwadi's challenge is heard or heeded by those who don't already share his convictions. May God grant that it would be.


Disclosure of material connection: Through their BookSneeze®.com blogger review program, Thomas Nelson Publishers provided me a complimentary copy of this book in exchange for an honest (not necessarily positive) review. The opinions expressed are my own.




Sharing in community with Laura, Michelle, and Jen today...

Sermon on the Sofa {a repost from the archives}

"Consider the ravens, for they neither sow nor reap; they have no storeroom nor barn, and yet God feeds them; how much more valuable you are than the birds!" (Luke 12:24, NASB).

Consider the canine of the couch,
How he sleeps:
Stretched out under the wing of the girl he loves,
Head pillowed on her belly,
Does he fret or worry
Over his next meal,

Next walk,
Next vaccine?

Feel the rhythm of his sleeping breath
As he leans in.
For him there is no next,
Only now;
And now is good.

Consider him:
Lean into your Master,
Your Father,
Your rest.
He knows the now and the next.
Fret not.