Don't trust yourself until the day you die

Mt 22:34-40, Ex 22:20-26

The Almighty Father has been saying the same thing to us since the dawn of time, and Sunday’s readings reminded me of this again.  As for the title of this blog, well, as much as I’d like to take credit, it comes from-in my opinion-one of the greatest Jewish Rabbis, Rabbi Hillel (Hillel HaGadol, Hillel the Elder). Who also is famously quoted as saying, “"That which is hateful to you, do not do to your fellow. That is the whole Torah; the rest is the explanation; go and learn."  Which, if we are paying attention, is the sum up and call to action, of both our Exodus and Matthew readings.

Exodus 22: 20 begins thusly: "Do not mistreat or oppress a foreigner, for you were foreigners in Egypt.”  It almost always amuses me that God must remind us to be people we needed when we were in hardship.  In fact, all the angst that people have about why bad things happen to good people should be answered right there in this understanding.  Even when we have endured some suffering, after the suffering is over we have to be reminded to treat other people who still are suffering nicely.  Can you imagine how heartless we might be, if we had never suffered at all?  So, I would think that sometimes we endure suffering just so we aren’t insufferable.  Small price, really.  As Catholics, we are taught that there is a redemptive quality to suffering which also makes sense in this context since it seems we need to be reminded not to be neglective jerks to people in pain, which leads us to acting in the obedience of loving one another, and obedience brings us closer to holiness.  Make sense?  I hope so, but I tend to doubt it because people far better and smarter than me have been saying the same things for thousands of years and we still don’t seem to be able to get a hold on this. 

As the Exodus verses go on God gets more detailed and levels more than a couple parental threats, along with trying to make us think about our actions as they could relate to our own lives.  You shall not wrong any widow or orphan. If ever you wrong them and they cry out to me,I will surely hear their cry. My wrath will flare up, and I will kill you with the sword; then your own wives will be widows, and your  children orphans.  If we pay attention God is asking for us to protect the most vulnerable people of society at the start of this verse.  He then promises He will intercede if we do.  Then he says there will be consequences if we disobey, and tries to evoke compassion/fear by making us think about our own loved ones in the same situation. 

Continuing in Exodus: "If you lend money to one of your poor neighbors among my people, you shall not act like an extortioner toward him by demanding interest from him. If you take your neighbor's cloak as a pledge, you shall return it to him before sunset; for this cloak of his is the only covering he has for his body. What else has he to sleep in? If he cries out to me, I will hear him; for I am compassionate."  The same pattern  as the beginning of our reading.  We are told not to do this thing, reminded of compassion and holy fear, told there are potential consequences if we don’t act accordingly. It’s not nuclear-rocket-brain surgery-science, it’s very simple.  Hillel sums it up eloquently in the quote attributed to him at the beginning of my writing, which ties together with our Gospel reading.

The Pharisees (the people who are supposed to know the Torah and Law better than anyone) ask: When the Pharisees heard that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together, and one of them, a scholar of the law tested him by asking, "Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?"

Jesus replies: He said to him, "You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and the first commandment. The second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Everything that the Torah had been trying to teach is summed up in that, in the order it needed to happen.  God is love and the origin of love, if we do not place him first then we fail from the start.  We cannot begin to do the second without doing the first, it’s impossible.  The foundation of the second part must come from first loving God.  At the same time, we cannot claim we do the first thing without then doing the second.  That too is impossible.  Loving each other is/should be a natural consequence of first loving God in the way Jesus describes in his answer.  This is why they are the two greatest commandments.  Without these two things everything else is the beating of a hollow gong. 

To sum it up, and explain at last why I titled this writing the way I did, we cannot trust that we will do that every day until our very last, because that’s what it is..a daily choice.  The devil may be in the details, but God is found in this simplicity.  We cannot, apparently, learn once to love God and each other, or our scripture would be just one page with that written boldly in the center.  That’s all we’d need.  Instead, we have the whole of scripture, thousands of books of apologetics, and billions of words detailing it all out so we can make the minute by minute, action by action choice to do those two things.  And we can’t trust that we will or have until we are dead, because that is the living dynamic act of being a saint in training. 

Just some food for thought and prayer…

Here I am, Lord, send me!

Lisa Brandel

The beatings will continue until moral improves-Reformation

Mark 9: 38-40

38John said to Him, “Teacher, we saw someone casting out demons in Your name, and we tried to prevent him because he was not following us.” 39But Jesus said, “Do not hinder him, for there is no one who will perform a miracle in My name, and be able soon afterward to speak evil of Me. 40“For he who is not against us is for us. 41“For whoever gives you a cup of water to drink because of your name as followers of Christ, truly I say to you, he will not lose his reward.

 The reformation is a personal topic to me, for several reasons.  The first of which is because I am a convert, and if you trace my lineage back you’ll find on one side of my family that we came to America as Quakers and our names can be found on the first Quaker church in Philadelphia. My family was a small part of the reformation.   The second is that because I have converted, people who loved me now shun me as they believe I have gone in league with the literal devil.  Nothing could be further from the truth, of course, but it’s caused me to have to love God and be more obedient to him than I am to those people who shun me.  It’s not as easy as it sounds when you don’t have much in the way of a family or support system, but obedience to my call-comfortable or not-has to be more important because Jesus said in Matthew 10: 36-38 that we are to love God more than we love the members of our own house.  That means we need to be obedient to His call more than the opinions of others.  Not always easy or comfortable, but needed if we are to live a Holy life.  All that in mind, the reformation and church divides are deeply personal to me. 

As I contemplated writing this, the above bible verse came to mind.  Before we explore it let’s talk numbers.  Right now, as you read this there are at least 50 types of “Independent Catholic” sects.  Those are groups that identify themselves as Catholic, with some kind of twist.  These are not recognized as Catholics by the Catholic church but they consider themselves practicing Catholics.  There are twenty four Eastern Rite Catholic churches, who are recognized by the Pope, but have their own leader.  They are in communion with the Roman Church, but that hasn’t always been the case.  There has been schism between the Roman and Eastern Churches before.   There are 22,000 independent Christian sects and 9,000 protestant sects give or take.  In other words, the church is shattered.  But it’s not enough that it’s shattered, we have to fight and judge each other and keep shattering.  It’s happening now even in the Roman church, where people are infighting and talking of schism.  All of it reminds me of the few concise words the Apostles speak in the first verse of my scripture reading, “There are people preaching in your name and we tried to stop them.”  The tremendous ego of the apostles cracks me up in that simple phrase.  I imagine a bunch of ticked off men pouting that only they were allowed to talk about Jesus.  It’s one of those moments that if you read it you can’t doubt that scripture was written by men with divine inspiration, because if I was an apostle I’d have been tempted to write myself a little less arrogant in that moment, but no they are Adam naked and very real. 

The problem with the shattering is that as Jesus said in Mark 3:24-25 that a house divided against itself cannot stand.  We have seen 500 years of that proof as a few factions became many became what we have today in the tens of thousands of shattered pieces.  I’ve seen and experienced a protestant church split over some problem or what amounts to a tiny doctrinal issue.  Half the church goes one way, the other founds another kind of church.  We are straining gnats out of the milk of the Gospel and swallowing entire herds of camels, and if we boil it down to the most essential reason it happens because we (individual or in small collectives) can’t imagine that anyone else might be more knowledgeable or authority than we are/do.  We are the ultimate authority over whatever matter we are wrapped around the axel about, which can be categorized as….rebellion.  Rebellion is an insidious sin, because we oft times don’t see it as that, we merely see ourselves as invincibly correct. 

Scary stuff, especially if you consider that Mark 9: 42 Jesus says, ⁴² “If anyone causes one of these little ones—those who believe in me—to stumble, it would be better for them if a large millstone were hung around their neck and they were thrown into the sea.”  So if we think we are right, and convince others we are too and they follow us we are going to be held accountable. 

I imagine Jesus knew this time was coming though because we are human, and even the men who got to walk with him directly did the same thing we are doing to each other today.  He tells us in Mark 9: 39-41 how to handle it all, and it’s no different than he tells us how to handle each other in general, because He understands something we humans don’t seem to be able to grasp-that is that you can’t fix a glass with a hammer.  So the truth is, if they are for Jesus then they are not against us, and if they aren’t against us why are we fighting them?  When we live our faith, our truth, and do so in love of God first and to act as God’s hands in the world as we are supposed to, then the truth of God attends to itself.  It is then we become obedient witnesses to others, whether they are believers or not.  We can’t keep living the “Beatings will continue until moral improves” philosophy and expect to put the glass back together. 

Now, for my protestant brothers and sisters, who believe church unity, or one unified Christian church is the vehicle for the apocalypse and the beasts religion, let me explain something.  The enemies church isn’t going to talk about Jesus, or contrition, or grace, or agape love, or serving God by serving one another.  That church is going to preach the gospel of self, of us not needing God, of pleasure above servitude, of self-determination, and that there is no truth beyond what we create.    Summed up the foundation of that “church” system will be laid on the concept of “Do as thou wilt.”  That should sound familiar to everyone with an eye to see, as it is the pervading darkness that is creeping over the world as we waste time fighting each other. 

It’s time to call for healing.  It’s time to draw together as the Bride we are meant to be.  We cannot change what happened 500 years ago, and we can’t fix it with the same thinking we used to create the fracture.  It’s time to pray for a renewal of unity to drive out the encroaching darkness.

Just some food for thought and prayer…

Heavenly Father, you asked us to Love each other as you loved us, and we have failed.  I ask for your forgiveness for my part in that, and guidance in how to be the light the world needs for your glory and the good of all your Holy Church.  In Jesus name, Amen! 

Here I am, Lord, send me!

Lisa Brandel

Do we have faith or fear?

Luke 12:13-21

There are a few worldly describing words that, when you add the title Christian or Catholic to, don’t make sense to me.  Things like: Christian doomsday prepper, or Christian hoarder, Christian miser.  There are more, but you get the drift of where my mind is going with those.  While part of the reason those words together don’t make sense to me is found in how God handled the Exodus (nowhere does it say the Lord told His people to pack 100 days’ worth of supplies leading up to Him calling them out of bondage), and the other was a Gospel reading we had not long ago about Jesus sending his disciples out in twos. He told them pretty much to take nothing with them and let God supply their needs through the towns and people they’d be ministering to.  (Luke 10: 1-23)  In both those cases, and many other smaller cases like Lot’s family, God said, “Go and do.” Not, “Prepare, hoard, then move the hoard, gather all the things, pack 10.5 bags, gather a satchel of money, don’t forget to pack more underwear, bring your favorite abacus…”  No, none of that.  He always seems to say, “Be obedient and do as I say, your needs will be provided for.”  (Philippians 4: 19, Matthew 6: 7-8)  The heart of this understanding, I believe, is that when we are relying on ourselves and what we can provide, then we aren’t relying on God and God calls us to lean into him, in faith, at all times. 

Which brings me back to today’s Gospel reading.  Jesus tells us of a rich man who got richer as a parable warning us against greed.  Now, what is greed?  If we boil greed down to its’ essence, greed is fear.  We greed because we fear that we lack or will lack in some way, and fear is the absence of faith.  In the parable the rich man finally gets what he thinks is “enough”.  He finally doesn’t have to fear not being rich anymore, so he can retire and party (just a modern translation of what Jesus explained as “eat, drink, and be merry”).  So, he no longer fears, but he has put all his faith in his own ability.  He put all his trust in his possessions, and that along with his wealth of possessions he would also have a wealth of the rarest most valuable commodity, that being time.   Boiling it all down to the simplest parts, Jesus is telling us a story about a man leaning on himself and his own understanding, living a life in fear (which does not come from God), who gets himself the success he thinks he needs, only to be bit by the thing he didn’t ever prepare for because he was preparing for his own fear.  It’s a story about how someone replaces faith with fear, and money is just the mcguffin. 

Jesus says two sentences that haunt me in these verses.  "Take care to guard against all greed, for though one may be rich, one's life does not consist of possessions."  And “Thus will it be for the one who stores up treasure for himself but is not rich in what matters to God."

I read the first sentence with the understanding that all greed is fear, and the seed of that fear is our own will, with the reminder at the end that our life is more than the sum of those parts.  The second sentence I read with the understanding that when we live like that, and we do not live in the abundance and gratitude that faith provide, that we get exactly what we can get-not what God wants for us.  It’s haunting to me, to realize that in every genre of my life, money, health, love, companionship, and everything in between this applies.  In all things, we should stop hoarding and preparing, and walk in faith because God does not change and he will provide for us when the time comes.  He gives us what we need, when we need it, at the perfect time. Not a moment before, and not a moment late.  Believing and living that out, gives us a better relationship with all that is in the scope of our world, whether it’s people, places, or things.  If we can practice this, we can be free as Jesus promised.  Imagine your world without fear. 

Just some food for thought and prayer…

Heavenly Father, I thank you for all that you have provided for me and ask that I have the right heart about it all.  Allow me to walk in faith and not fear so I may be obedient and reap the true treasure of Your promises.  In Jesus name, Amen! 

Here I am, Lord, send me,

lisa brandel

Don't hold it against them

 2 Timothy 4:16-17

At my first defense no one appeared on my behalf,

but everyone deserted me.

May it not be held against them!

But the Lord stood by me and gave me strength,

so that through me the proclamation might be completed

and all the Gentiles might hear it.

I’ve worked with the grieving, the dying, and the addicted, and so when I was reading the daily mass readings today the above passage stood out to me in a big way for many reason I’ll write here.  In my opinion, 2 Timothy-the last of St. Pauls Epistles- is probably one of his more important letters.  We tend to save what we think is most important for the last.  Before you leave the babysitter, you remind them where the emergency contacts are, and before you leave for a long trip or some surgery you tend to try to say the most important things you want the people to remember.  As I read this letter, I see a lot of that reflected in St. Paul’s writings.  He seems to be summing up the life and body of work he’s done in Christ, while leaving as many instructions for the church he is leaving behind as he can, the ones he feels are the most important for people to know and remember.  He’s doing what Jesus did before his ascension when he gives the instruction in John 13: 33-34 33 “Little children, I am with you only a little while longer. You will look for Me, and as I said to the Jews, so now I say to you: ‘Where I am going, you cannot come.’ 34A new commandment I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so also you must love one another. 35By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you love one another.”…

That’s how I see this last letter.  It’s the love letter goodbye, written with a lot of mindful heart.  So, as I read the verses we are discussing today I began to, not only personalize it, but overlay it in the lives I’ve been privileged to be a part.  I see St. Paul’s situation isn’t unique and very applicable to our lives.  While not many of us will know the privilege of being put to literal trial for our faith, as he was, we are and we do go through trials.  We have that we can apply/overlay as we contemplate this scripture.  The people Paul is referring to, the ones that did not stand with him, are likely people he considered family in Christ.  They are people he likely healed, taught, nurtured, brought the Gospel, and helped in every way. Again, even though we likely don’t have literal disciples, we have those kinds of people in our lives.  They are people we invest in, people we love.   In the same vein as Paul, those people sometimes vanish when we go through our trails.  (This understanding of mine comes from the aforementioned people I have worked with. Many times, I’ve seen at critical moments the people in need watch their friends and family vanish when things got hard.  The reasons varied, some can’t, some are too hurt and scared by the pain, but there is always a fear based reason.)   I see this is a common theme of people’s lives, one that sows seeds of bitterness and discontent, which are not from God.  It can cause us to falter in our own walk with God. 

The way I read the next verse it’s like St. Paul doesn’t even take a breath before he asks the Almighty  and the people reading the letter what at times seems unthinkable, and does so vehemently. “May it not be against them!”  He’s not asking God to judge them according to their deeds.  He’s not asking for the Church to disown them.  He’s very strongly crying out that what they did, and what they did not do, not be held against them.  A role model portrayal of Jesus’s teaching that we forgive seven times seventy times!  More than that, I get the feeling that he didn’t have to forgive it because he wasn’t offended by it at all.  He was more saying it, not for himself, but as a plea to God and the people around him.  “Don’t hold them accountable for what they have done.”   That does two things, one it puts no barriers between him and God. Then it also puts no barriers between him and the people.  His witness is all the more powerful!  He has taught them these lessons, and shown them in his life how they apply. 

He goes on in the last part of the verse to give God the Glory.  He claims no part of the power it took to get through his trials.  He points to the victory.  Not his victory done by his power, he gives God all the credit.  People will fail us, but God never does.  But when people fail us, the greatest witness we can give is to allow God to work through us to accomplish whatever trail we face and still be able to love those people as God loves and forgives us.  Asking God not to hold someone’s sin against them is what Jesus said when he cried out, “Forgive them, Father, they know not what they do.” St. Stephen said the same as they stoned him in Acts, he and Paul were following Jesus, and so should we. 

Just some food for thought and prayer…

Heavenly Father, We praise you and offer thanks giving for never failing us even in our darkest hour. We ask that nothing be held against those who fail us, as we have surely failed others before.  In Jesus name, Amen!!

Here I am, Lord, send me!

Lisa Brandel

Legally perfect, spiritually bankrupt

Luke 11:37-41

After Jesus had spoken,

a Pharisee invited him to dine at his home.

He entered and reclined at table to eat.

The Pharisee was amazed to see

that he did not observe the prescribed washing before the meal.

The Lord said to him, "Oh you Pharisees!

Although you cleanse the outside of the cup and the dish,

inside you are filled with plunder and evil.

You fools!

Did not the maker of the outside also make the inside?

But as to what is within, give alms,

and behold, everything will be clean for you."

Today’s Gospel reading really spoke to me today, because we argue a lot about liturgical perfection these days.  I’d even consider myself a “Trad Cat” (traditional Catholic for those who don’t know) and yet as I read this Gospel and connect it with a dozen other scriptures something major hits me that I’d like to share.

We can/could have the absolutely perfect Mass liturgy, and be completely on point about every prayer, and still not please God.  You see, The Pharisees were liturgically on point.  They made the perfect sacrifices, they wore all the bells and whistles in their vestments, they observed every law, yet time and time again Jesus pretty much calls them dumb.  Why?  Well as we read on in Luke 11 Jesus lists off all these things they do….they tithe their mint and herbs to mathematic perfection, they hold places of honor,  and they impose the law on others.  All of these things they do, but do not, apparently, lift a finger to really help anyone.  They sit in judgement patting each other on the back about how they are doing everything correctly and other people are less because they don’t.  Jesus in this chapter is ripping these guys for that.  He’s basically saying none of it is pleasing to Him if you don’t love your brother and help lift them up.  In fact, Jesus in verse 44 He calls them “Unseen graves” or “Hollow tombs”.   Which to the Pharisees was a complete insult double slap in the face.  According to Numbers 19:16 contact with a grave made one ritually unclean.  In essence, Jesus was saying not only were they unclean they were causing the people around them to be unclean by contact with them!  WOW!  That had to leave a mark.  If Jesus had said that to me I’d been reduced to tears on my face before him begging forgiveness.  Think about that.  Imagine Jesus saying your name and then saying that not only were the works you do “in the name of the Lord” sinful to God, but your very presence causes others to sin too.  That makes me sick at my stomach to imagine. 

Time and time again, Jesus tried to teach them and us that God is love, and love is a choice we need to make every day for everyone.  We can get so wrapped up in liturgical perfection we forget that.  Love is embracing other people in their imperfections, helping them carry the burden, and lifting them up.  It’s not that how we conduct our worship isn’t important.  It’s that when you are so worried whether or not you’ve tithed to mathematic perfection, whether or not Ms. Smith is wearing the right mantilla, or how deep you and the person next to you genuflects over and above doing the next right thing for your neighbor that we are at risk of becoming pharisaical. 

Isiah 42: 3-4 comes to mind when we enforce or snipe at each other about these things that are pettier than loving each other.  In these verses we are given a description of the gentle care of justice.  “He shall not break a bruised reed or snuff a smoldering wick.”   We can’t know the struggle of another person’s heart, of their spiritual walk with the Almighty.  The Pharisees didn’t care about the hearts of those who were believers under them.  They cared if people were tithing to the mathematical nth degree for their own glory, and so they could look down on those who could not do that.  So, we need to examine our own hearts in these matters.  Are the rules and laws of our worship more important than the people who worship with us? Do we deny people hugs and comfort for a false sense/appearance of piety and “cleanness”?  Are we empty tombs that chase people out church and service to God, causing them to sin, by the faux piety of our presence?  If we are, and if we do, then we need to check ourselves because He wouldn’t be happy.  These things are important, not because I said they were, because Jesus taught that they were. 

Just some food for thought and prayer.

Heavenly Father, forgive me if I have placed law above love.  I ask you now that you give me a new heart, one that pleases you, by loving those you have given to me to love.  In Jesus name, Amen

Here I am, Lord, send me!

Lisa Brandel

Busy does not make us Holy

Lk 10:38-42

In line with my earlier post about the narrow path to true virtue, we have this passage.  This passage is important to the understanding that what we think is important on the path of holiness isn’t always important.  Busy doesn’t make holy, all the time.  In fact, busy can be a distraction away from real holiness, an excuse or shield against doing the real right thing.  In other words, busy can become a look at me and all these really cool things I AM DOING!  It’s something we use like a royal robe, when really it’s rags.  Let’s explore this…

Jesus comes to Mary and Martha’s house and Martha (ok, in my head she looks like Martha Stewart) decides this is the time to put on the dog and pony show.  She goes into super host mode.  Mary on the other hand sits at the Lord’s feet to listen and take in what He is saying.  Martha doesn’t even have it spiritually together enough to have her heart in the right place.  Not only is she ignoring the chance of a life time to sit and listen to the Master speak, she is complaining that Mary isn’t helping her.  What does that tell us?  Well, it tells us Martha is focused on the things of this world, she thinks that her will and want supersedes what is actually happening.  And what is happening is that (even if at the time they don’t recognize him as Christ) a Master Rabbi has come to teach, and not just the men.  In her defense, it wasn’t super common that a Rabbi put emphasis on women learning like that, but in my mind, I think it makes it more astonishing that she didn’t notice that not only were the men welcome to learn but He wanted the women to hear too.  She probably didn’t think of that….because she was busy. 

This is an eloquently simple story with many layers that apply to us now.  It’s something we can overlay on almost any of the stories of the bible.  Imagine how different the Good Samaritan story would be if the Samaritan had his face in an Iphone, too busy to even notice the beaten man on the side of the road.  Think about what it may have looked like had Moses told God that he had waaaaay too many heard to manage to take time and talk to Pharaoh.  Take your time and think how different one of your favorite books or passages in the scripture might have been had whoever in them had been too busy to do the real right thing.  Peter might have been too busy fishing to follow Jesus.  There are so many ways this could be different.  In fact, you have the ultimate example of churchy busy in the Pharisees.  They were busy in the temples, doing all the stuff you can imagine any modern pastor doing, and in control.  That’s what busy work is on one layer, busy equals we are in control.  This is OUR plan.  This is what WE want to do.  This is what WE want done.  Busy, busy, busy.

Martha assigned the hostess responsibilities to herself because she was focusing on what she thought was important, she wanted in control and we see this by her desire to have Mary be in that control too. 

There is a lot of take away here.  Sometimes we put ourselves in places of honor or service not because it’s God’s will, but because we THINK it’s the important thing.  Sometimes we work so hard at doing what we are doing that we completely blank out on what really needs our attention.  We use busy as a shield against real spiritual need, growth, learning, and service so later we can have an excuse to why we didn’t do XYZ thing and feel completely justified doing it…because we were busy. 

The modern society has made busy an artform.  If you ask someone to do something they will likely give you a list of reasons they can’t. “Kids have soccer practice, then I have to do this that and the other, and watch TV, and blah blah blah.”  Busy.  Even people who serve the Church do it, sometimes especially them..”I have a finance committee meeting, then a meeting for the KOC and I have to do blah blah blah for the church.”  It’s more insidious when we are busy with the Church sometimes, because that gives us the illusion of Mary when we are really just Martha in church clothes.  The problem is when we get wrapped up like that we are potentially putting barriers up between us and what God really wants us to be doing. 

I’ve heard so many times, “I’m too busy to pray the rosary.”  “I’d help this person, but I’m so busy.”  “I’d love to (fill in the blank with your thing) but I’m so busy.”  The truth is, if you are too busy to do that kind of thing, you are too busy.  God wants us working for Him in his kingdom, we can’t be couch potatoes, but we do have to seek and find, every day His will for how we spend the currency of our time.   If we are too busy being busy to be mindful of the opportunities to love and minister and learn, then we are too busy.

Just some food for thought and prayer…

Father, I come to you today asking you how I should spend my time.  Grant me the ears to hear the opportunities I would miss. Grant me the heart of obedience that will allow me to act on those opportunities.  May I never be too busy to do what is truly Your Will.  In Jesus name, Amen!

Here I am, Lord, send me!

Lisa Brandel

Turn my eyes from worthless things

Phil 4:6-9

We live in interesting times.  Fear and conflict are the order of the day.  Class against class. Race against race.  Random and senseless acts of violence.  Conflict within the Church. Conflict against the Church.  We are bombarded with 24/7 365 fear coverage (media), and we can share with the world our outrage, anger, fear, wrath, hate, and judgement with a simple click of the button.  We can, without looking people in the eyes, decry them heretics, hate-mongers, idiots, and anything our fear creates for us to say.  We voluntarily share and re-share messages of people that we can’t stand, handing over to them the power of reach and fame. We do so in the name of outrage and to allow us to tell anyone who will listen how wrong we think they are, but what we are really doing is spreading them like a virulent cancer.  And in all this, we have no peace.  Why?  It’s not of God. 

We claim we want peace in our lives and in our lands.  We have hundreds of kinds of pills dedicated to alleviate our anxiety and depression, and self-medicate with food, sex, more TV, and a myriad of other distractions.  And still, we know no peace.  It’s a hamster wheel of disillusion and emptiness.  Why?  None of it is of God. 

The question this raises to me is simple.  Do we want peace within ourselves and do we want to change the world?  My answer is irrevocably, YES!  If your answer is yes too, then I have some fantastic news for you.  We can and we start by paying attention to the reading. 

Brothers and sisters:

Have no anxiety at all, but in everything,

by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving,

make your requests known to God.

Then the peace of God that surpasses all understanding

will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.

Finally, brothers and sisters,

whatever is true, whatever is honorable,

whatever is just, whatever is pure,

whatever is lovely, whatever is gracious,

if there is any excellence

and if there is anything worthy of praise,

think about these things.

Keep on doing what you have learned and received

and heard and seen in me.

Then the God of peace will be with you  

First things first, we unplug from fear.  The very first lines tell us the foundational step we need to take to build our house of peace.  Be anxious for nothing, have no anxiety, and it tells us what to plug into that space instead: thanksgiving.  This isn’t a one off theme told to us only in this scripture either, there are at least 100 verses that tell us, “Fear not!” or “Be not afraid!” specifically.   When we expand that to phrases like “being anxious”  or “worry” then we have more than 365 verses.  I’m sensing a theme, and that theme is the understanding that fear doesn’t come from Him.  God doesn’t just love as a verb, He IS love and the origin of all love.  Perfect love (God) drives out all fear. (1 John 4:18) Paul tells us in Phillipians to plug thankfulness into our prayers, that’s faith.  The circumstances that make us fearful show us where we are lacking in faith (the faith that God will/does/can work all things for our good. Romans 8: 28)  So when we understand that, we can replace fear with faith and our anxiety with thanksgiving.  That brings peace the world cannot take.

That’s just the foundational step though, isn’t it?  It’s HUGE, don’t get me wrong.  Doing that in everyday life, in every genre, no matter what is a huge leap forward in our spiritual walk.  Then Paul takes it another level or two higher.  He gives us instructions about what to dwell on every day.  He is helping us build the rest of this house of peace.  He is telling us to seek these things that are of God.  Whatever is GOOD, TRUE, HONERABLE, PRAISEWORTHY, PURE, LOVELY, GRACIOUS…think on THESE things.  Pay attention to those things, and then he gives us a commission.  Because once we’ve changed our minds, it only stands to reason that our actions follow suit. 

Do what you have learned, because not only does practice make perfect within you, the practice becomes like a river of blessing flowing out from you to everyone else.  We see that in Paul’s example, and every other saint that adopted this as their way of life.  Because it is a way of life.  It’s making the choice to do this and be this every minute of every day about everything you face. 

The more we do this, the more we can share the peace of God with the world, and slowly but surely-one by one-we steal power from the fear, evil, lies, and wrong doing that kept us bound and gagged in the first place.  When we make the commitment to follow him, we cease being slaves of sin, and now we have to stop acting like we still have those chains. 

Just some food for thought and prayer.

Heavenly Father, I thank you for all the circumstances of my life as I believe you will work all things for good, in love, to guide me to your plan.  May I be obedient at every step, by your Grace, looking for Your hand in all things.  In Jesus name, Amen! 

Here I am, Lord, send me!

Lisa Brandel 

Take me where I'm not-excuses for miles

Luke 9:57-62

We tend to be a people of “Take me where I’m not.”  I’ve used that phrase in my grief writing so much, that when my followers there see me write it they understand. So, let me do that for you now, and seeing it through the lens of the scripture will follow. 

The way we tend to think of happiness or contentment is “take me where I’m not”.  In other words, we are going to accomplish great things when we get to a space we don’t inhabit now.  You’ll write that book you always wanted to write when you retire.  You’ll be relaxed and happy when you are on vacation.  You’ll be a more content person when you find that someone to marry.   You’ll be happier, less stress, when you find a better job.  There are many, many problems with this thinking.  Not the least of which is, that where ever you go…you bring yourself.  If you didn’t have before, the scenery may change but you won’t.  If you didn’t have the dedication to do whatever it is you think you want to do, one tiny step at a time, when you said it was what you wanted-then you won’t when the scenery changes either.  It really is that simple.  If you want/need/desire to be or do something, then now is where you start and not in some mythical time or space that may or may not come.  The funny thing about realizing this is that, understanding it-putting it into practice-we begin to see what it is we REALLY want and what we simply like dreaming about.  This is what I see when I see our Gospel reading today.

A man, like you or me, sees in Jesus all that he believes he would like to be and do.  That’s not hard to understand.  From his perspective, and limited understanding, He had people who followed him, ladies that followed and supported him with their means, and He inspired in people so many great things.  The guy thinks Jesus had it made.  I can extrapolate this from how Jesus answers him.  Jesus tears that thinking to shreds saying: Jesus answered him,

"Foxes have dens and birds of the sky have nests,

but the Son of Man has nowhere to rest his head."

And to another he said, "Follow me."

The man was playing a game of take me where I’m not, and like any of us who are in love with the idea of change, but not willing or wanting to effect real change…out comes the excuses.  To put it into modern lingo, “Sure I’ll do that as soon as I __________”  You fill it in with your personal reasons. 

There are thousands of books with hundreds of thousands of words in them about what it takes to be successful in any venue you’d like to pick, whether it’s writing a book or serving in a ministry and all the things between.  Yet, Jesus tells them the only truth you need to know for, not only success in following him, but life itself.  Jesus answered him, "No one who sets a hand to the plow

and looks to what was left behind is fit for the Kingdom of God."

I know that may seem like a grand claim from me, given the simplicity of that sentence, but I don’t think I’m over stating it at all.  Jesus spoke truth, and truth is universal in its’ application.  When we are talking about our spiritual life, in this scripture, we understand that once we make the commitment to follow him (putting our hand to the plow), that we cannot then look around for other things to worship or have faith in and still be fit for the kingdom.  Jesus was telling us, in his answer to the excuse giving men, that very thing.  In my meditations, I have played out how this might have gone had the men simply answered “Yes, Lord.”  I think, had they been faithful like that, Jesus may well have healed the person’s father, and then dropped by the other man’s house where his whole family would have been redeemed. That is, of course, purely my speculation, but given the nature of Jesus and His love, I don’t think is off mark given the nature of Jesus and the fate of people/families who approached him with such faith.  Single-mindedly, with faith, looking forward to The Almighty, move forward, the rest will fall into place.

The second application as far as success goes, I hope by this point is as apparent to you as it is to me.  Set aside your excuses, and your take me where I’m not thinking, and don’t look back as you put your hand to the plow.  If we do this, first to Jesus, and then with all the little things in our lives that we think we’ll be happy when we do…we cannot fail.  The interesting thing about that is, what we think is going to make us happy, or what we should do, may very well change drastically when our eyes are on a more eternal prize. 

Just some food for thought and prayer…

Heavenly Father, my hand is on the plow and my heart looks forward only to you.  There is nothing I hold above you.  You alone are my measure of success, happiness, love, and hope. Bless my humble path with your will.  In Jesus name, Amen. 

Here I am, Lord, send me,

Lisa Brandel