What a Great Bike Ride

I love riding my bike.  I probably enjoy it too much.  It is rarely at the expense of my family as most of my rides begin and end before my family wakes up.  Over the past few years I have been able to amass some mileage that previously seemed unattainable to me.  But discipline and desire can really go a long way.  Of course there are certain days where I find it easier to ride than others.  And then there are routes that I find easier to ride than others.  You could say at times my desire to ride into the wind is not met with the least bit of excitement, neither the steep climb in front of me is always tops on my list of things to do. 

I love when I can go screaming down the hill at a pace that terrifies my wife to think about.  I love when on a flat stretch of road and test the heart and lungs and get my speed up really high.  There is something incredibly exciting about hitting speeds whereby when you catch up to another rider he can hardly hear you say hi (though I say hi every time) because you are moving so quickly. 

Of course I'd be foolish to ignore how necessary the cross-wind or head-wind, or monstrous (well, in Midwest terminology) climb in front of me are.  There is a great degree of strengthening that goes in in both the physical realm as well as in my psyche when I face these "undesirables."  When I realize my legs and lungs and heart are all working together and getting stronger as I face these it encourages me to enjoy the difficulty of it.  Further, my psyche changes entirely when I consider that I couldn't know what fast actually is of a downhill descent or of a flat section of road, if not for the polar opposites.  

And so church planting takes us through stages, pockets, hills, flats, descents...that are marked by a certain attitude and gravitation toward what is desirable and what we could go without.  But we are deceived if we cannot see that there is a great measure of purpose to all we endure, and our perspective is broadened and narrowed in other regards through it all.  But as I mature in my experience to labor in all of this I learn to enjoy it all, knowing that it is all for my good, God's glory, and the joy of others.  And so in that I hold on tightly, with anticipation for what is around the bend of this winding, uphill, downhill, flat, dark, bright, wet, dry, cold, and hot ride I am on. 

The Cause of our Wanderings

"...God caused me to wander from my father's house..." - Genesis 20:13

This is both a comforting and troubling word.  We are comforted in the sense of God as the cause of something.  But how troubling to consider that even as God leads him away from the house of his father, Abraham is merely wandering.  Shouldn't there be some point to all of this?  Isn't there a more direct route, a quicker plan rather than to just wander?  Surely if ever one had a map, God is that one, but in this story we look and say, "He forgot to get him the map I guess."  It all seems so counter-intuitive  to what the great "cause" of God would be.  But our hope is this: since God caused Abraham to go out of his father's house, even in his wandering, there is purpose.  We may not see it, believe it, but God does not cause something merely to happen without considering, knowing, and planning its outcome.  And so too in this story.  He delighted even in all that He was doing as the cause not only of what we determine made sense, but even in things like wandering, which seems to make no sense.  

This is not only the story of Abraham, but too of a church planter, and indeed of all Christians.  Press on, even in your God-caused wanderings. 

Praying and Working

They may seem a bit juxtaposed to one another, but prayer and working are quite unified the deeper we look.  For years I was of the mindset that if I really believed God I would pray more and do less.  Lately I have been convinced though just how much more united these aspects of our Christian life/ministry really are.  If any of us ever believes our work is more powerful than prayer, we are every bit clueless and/or arrogant.  But then there is that danger that we almost stand secluded in a rather monastic way of life, earnestly seeking God in prayer, but then doing nothing else by way of "works."  Do we then really believe?  I have almost bought the lie that if I was to engage in work, I was somehow diminishing the work of God, the faith in Him that through prayer I had been so intently offering up. 

But note: God everywhere delights to use people, even the people praying, for things before them that only He can do.  To show the magnificence of His power, might, ability, He includes them even in and as a part of an answer to what they ask.  Moses seeks the face of God for deliverance of his people, and God uses him. David constantly pleads with the Lord for the deliverance of his people, and God uses Him.  Paul prayed for the eyes of people to be opened to the reality of who Christ is, and so he proclaimed the gospel.  And over and over again this is the refrain in Scripture.  

Prayer and work are only at odds with one another when our work is done apart from prayer, or an attitude of faith.  We are prone to this far too often.  And at the same time, prayer is at odds with works when our attitude of prayer is so seemingly pious, but we aren't really engaged in faith because we are unwilling to do any bit of sacrifice, hard work, because we esteem ourselves "too spiritual" for such tasks.  It is these who view prayer as more spiritual or at a higher level than such menial tasks.

Prayer and work come together where we realize God's delight has always been to involve humans to do what for us is impossible.  Our efforts to work and labor for the gospel is evidence we really believe God is at work, and delights to involve us in this work that we are equally burdened to pray about.  And so we need to increasingly see it as His aim to call our hearts to know Him intimately in the sacrifice of prayer, but that His answer to such prayers likely involves our activity in a means that calls us out of the quiet place, into the chaos of the world around us, where through us, He does what is impossible and makes Christ known.