McMahon Life

The practice of silence is incredibly powerful.  I thought I would re-post this blog (from about a month ago) to remind us, and even help us.

In stillness we allow the world to blur out of our focus

Every Sunday at the Pursuit Project 2 junior high students sit in silence for 10 minutes learning to hear God.  Sometimes we hear God speak, sometimes we don’t.  I wanted to take time today and invite you, as you read this, to join us in the experience of silence.

Turn your phone on silent.

Turn off your music.

Close your door.

Find a comfortable position to sit in and begin to breath deeply.

Silence is about more than just listening for the Spirit to speak.  It is about that, but is is also about simply learning to be.  Breathe.
It reminds us that our value comes not from what we do, but from being children of God.  In that being lies our peace. Breathe.

In silence we allow the peace of God to be present within us, to overtake our spirit, to still our souls.  In that peace we experience His presence, we experience tranquility, we experience rest. Breathe.
It is from a place of inner peace that we experience external peace in our lives.  And it is in a place of silence, of stillness where that inner peace is realized. Breathe.

Jesus doesn’t talk just so that we can hear His voice, but to invite us to a deeper place of relationship with Him. Breathe.

We are going to do a little exercise of experiencing and listening to Jesus called “The Meeting Place”.  Please join me.  Each step is marked by a reminder to “breathe”.  Take as long as you need between steps.  The point is not to rush through, but to create space for God to speak to us. Breathe.

……………………………

As you breathe, take yourself in your mind to your favorite peaceful place. The ocean, a forest, a favorite Bible story.  Stay there.
Breathe. Look around.  What do you see there?
Breathe. Invite Jesus to join you in that place.  Do you see Him coming?
Breathe. How does He look at you?  How does He greet you?
Breathe. Ask Him what He would like to say to you.  What does He say?
Breathe. What  would you like to say to Him?  Share that with Him.
Breathe. Jesus is our healer.  By his wounds we are healed.  Notice the wounds in His hands from the nails of the cross. As Him to place His hands on any part of you that He would like to heal.
Breathe. Jesus’ position toward you is that of love.  Do you hear Him tell you of His love for you?  Stop and listen for a moment.
Breathe. Thank Him for meeting you here.  Share anything else you would like to tell Him.
Breathe.

…………………………………………………

Did you experience God?  I hope so.  Did Jesus meet you in your meeting place?  Sometimes He does, and it’s beautiful, sometimes He doesn’t.  Let us not become discouraged, but let us continue to create space in our lives where we can sit with and listen to Jesus.  For He is our peace.

Thank you for joining me in this today.

Loving is easy when we feel good.  But when about when we don’t?  What about when we have been stabbed in the back?  What about when our hearts have been ripped out?  How do we love in that context?  How do we even forgive, which, if we are honest, must come before we are really able to love anyway?

I am reminded of a teaching Jesus gave in Luke chapter 6.  He speaks of loving “sinners” and “enemies.”  Jesus said,

“If you only love those who love you, why should you get credit for that?  Even sinners love those who love them!  And if you do good only to those who do good to you, why should you get credit?  Even sinners do that much!  And if you lend money only to those who can repay you, why should you get credit?  Even sinners will lend to other sinners for a full return.
Love your enemies! Do good to them.  Lend to them without expecting to be repaid.  Then your reward from heaven will be very great, and you will truly be acting as children of the Most High, for he is kind to those who are unthankful and wicked.  You must be compassionate, just as your Father is compassionate.”
- Luke 6:32-36 (bold and italics added)

While we may not be prone to label friends and family who betray us – who hurt us, who take our love and stomp on it – as enemies, in that moment that is how they function.  Isn’t it?  They become the last people in the world we want to reach out and embrace, the last people in the world we want to share generously with.  Because if we do we fail to protect ourselves.  ”You must be compassionate, just as your Father is compassionate.”  How? HOw? HOW?

How do we forgive when there has been no change?  I think often we would be much more willing to forgive if the person who hurt us changed, repented, or at least recognized their mistake.  But Jesus is saying that that’s how the world functions – that is not the way the Kingdom functions.

I think many of us often claim we are walking in love toward our enemies, and even that we have forgiven them; but let us remember the words of James,

What good is it, dear brothers and sisters, if you say you have faith but don’t show it by our actions?  Can that kind of faith save anyone?
- James 2:14

So we can recognize that just as faith is known by your actions, so is faith, so is love.  So if we think we have forgiven, if we think we are walking in love, let us closely examine our behavior toward that individual.  And I’m not sure that, “I haven’t killed him yet” counts as walking in either forgiveness or love!

So how do we do it?  How do we forgive those who have hurt us deeply?  How do we walk in forgiveness and walk in love?

If I can be honest, I’m not sure that I know.  I am trying.  I want to.  But it’s hard, isn’t it?  I don’t know exactly how, all I can do is walk.  And as I walk I can look back and describe a little of the path I walked.

• I wake up every morning.  That is a start.  And I pray for that person. That God will bless them.  That is perhaps the hardest prayer (that God would bless someone who hurt me deeply).
• I recognize that I hurt, and that I hurt deeply, but I do not allow my hurt to determine the way that I function.  This is not to say do not take time and space to find healing and restoration.  It is simply to say that how we feel toward an individual cannot dictate how we act toward them.
• I choose to be a friend. A friend cares about their friends.  I choose to care for the person who has hurt me.  Sometimes this is really super duper hard. I know. I do it anyway.  Sometimes I have to stop for a while because my caring turns into me wishing I could change the situation.  That’s not what it’s about – it’s just about me caring enough to want what is best for that person (and what is best is always the presence of God, because God’s presence changes everything).

I don’t know if that is forgiveness.  I don’t know if that is love.  I know that love and forgiveness toward those who hurt us are two of the hardest things in the world.  It’s as if all the beauty that we built up was destroyed and stomped on, and now we are asked to play with the ashes instead.  Yes.  Perhaps it is.  But isn’t our God one who can create beauty even from the ashes?

I must hold onto that hope – that my God is the greatest; that my love always wins.  Maybe that’s why Jesus made such a big deal of forgiveness.  Perhaps more than any other single thing the way followers of Jesus forgive set us apart from the culture of anger, or betrayal, and of holding grudges.

Let us seek to forgive, even when we don’t know what that means.
Let us seek to love, even when everything in us is telling us to hate.  Because not everything in us is saying that – the Spirit is alive, and it is the love of the Spirit that will flow out of us to transform the world (and the people) around us.