A nugget - atone

I subscribe to a vocabulary newsletter that sends out a word each week day. Lots of fun and unusual words come through.

Today's word was "atone." It's a word we hear in Christian teaching and sermons. Christ's death atoned for our sins. His resurrection completed the work of atonement. But have you really thought about how much is packed in that one word?

Here it is:

ETYMOLOGY:
From the contraction of the phrase "at one" meaning "to be in harmony".

Because Christ died for us, we can be "at one" and "in harmony" with God.

Wow.

I know the plans...

One of the popular verses among Christians right now is Jeremiah 29:11:

"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."

This a great thought. They are comforting words. They are written on graduation plaques, sympathy cards, passed from friend to friend during difficult times, prayed over others and cherished during troubling circumstances.

Can I suggest that many people read it this way? "Let me share the plans I have for you," says the LORD, "plans to make you prosperous without a care in the world, plans to give you hope for the future."

It's not quite the same thing, is it? A speaker I heard this weekend reminded us that God says "I know the plans ..." God knows His plan. We might not always get to see it. But as we learn to trust in His plan, whether He shares it or not, we will have hope. Not hope like we're standing with our fingers crossed or tossing a penny into a wishing well, but hope that is an expectation, a confidence. And we can have the confidence that He is working for our best, not for our convenience. Our hope, our trust, our confidence must be firmly rooted in the Plan Maker or our future will look bleak indeed.

Can I also make another suggestion? We can't hold this verse up as a promise of God without reading the rest of the passage. God was writing specifically to the nation of Israel that was living in exile.

What do I see? I see some expectations that God had for the people who needed to be assured of His plan for their lives.

"Build houses and settle down; plant gardens and eat what they produce. Marry and have sons and daughters; find wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage, so that they too may have sons and daughters. Increase in number there; do not decrease. Also, seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the LORD for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper." (Jeremiah 29: 5-7)

Go ahead, He says, participate in family and community life. Pray for your city and work for peace. But then He reminds them of the most important part - without a relationship, without knowing the God who held their days, without knowing His word and His voice for themselves, they could not have the same hope for their future. They would be deceived by the voices around them. Just as we can be deceived if we not go straight to the source ourselves.

"Yes, this is what the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, says: "Do not let the prophets and diviners among you deceive you. Do not listen to the dreams you encourage them to have. They are prophesying lies to you in my name. I have not sent them," declares the LORD. " (Jeremiah 29: 8-9)

But here's the best part of the Jeremiah 29 promise:

"Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you," declares the LORD..." (Jeremiah 29:12-14a, emphasis mine)

What difference does it make? The Amplified Version calls it "hope for your final outcome." And that's when I remember God's plan to "prosper" me. His plan is for me to spend eternity with Him - in a mansion, no less! So I'll trust the Plan Maker to know what's best for me and hold my expectation in Him.

Not sure you have that expectation? Here's a great place to learn more about God's plan to give you the hope and the future that He planned for you.

God's priority

I saw a great thought today:

“The quickest way to the front of God's line today is to let someone else in front of you.”
-Rachel Olsen, Proverbs 31 Ministries

I had a chance to practice this thought yesterday. Let me be quick to admit, I didn't pass the test with flying colors. I did the right thing but my attitude was not that of Christ. It still isn't. It still rankles that I had to give up something I wanted to let someone else be "first." I don't want it to bother me but my reaction has been surprisingly strong (and childish).

Is there a lesson in that? Maybe. I'm glad the God I serve doesn't have the same attitude I do. I'm so grateful he gave up everything in order to put me first. And it wasn't just me. Everyone I meet, He put first. Every person that has been or will be born he put first. So how can I still hold so tightly to my "rights"? I think I need to let go of my own importance - my own self-centeredness - and practice His perspective instead.

Good thing He's there to help with that, too.

"If anyone wants to be first, he must be the very last, and the servant of all."

- Mark 9:35

Christianity and gymnastics

I was watching a gymnastics class last week and had a lesson brought home to me.

I am always, of course, amazed at what these girls (and boys) can do. I have never been that flexible and probably never will be. Gymnasts can bend and roll and balance and stretch in marvelous ways.

But during practice I noticed some of the girls having trouble with the skills they were practicing. They couldn't quite get their cartwheels up straight, or they couldn't quite flip themselves up and over the bar. Or they'd get half way around and get stuck upside down.

The problem, I realized, was one of commitment. Now don't get me wrong. These girls are committed to gymnastics. They show up week after week and do the drills and the stretches. They do their best to follow their coaches' instructions. They are committed to their sport.

But some of them don't seem to understand that to fully accomplish their skills, they need to throw themselves into the movement. They need speed. They need to abandon themselves to the forces controlling their bodies.

Do they understand centrifugal force and gravity and range of motion? I doubt it. But the bold and the fearless master their skills quickly while the timid girls simply don't build up the momentum to carry them through the skill. And so they struggle, trying to do it themselves, within the boundaries of what they are comfortable with and don't take advantage of the possibilities available to them. They actually make it harder with their reservations about committing to their flights across the mats, around the bars and through the air.

How many Christians are guilty of the same thing? We go to church every Sunday. We have our times of Bible reading and prayer. We give to the needy or help our neighbors. But somehow we feel we are struggling in our faith or in our impact for God's kingdom.

Is it possible that it's our reservations that are holding us back? We're worried that God will ask us to do something that goes too fast or where we can't see the end result or that will feel "out of control". So we hang back, not fully committing to whatever God is asking us to do. We stay in our comfort zone and the limits of what we understand. And because we do, we never experience the thrill of achieving great things for God.

Maybe its time to abandon ourselves to God's way. It may feel like we're on our heads instead of our heels sometimes but when we trust ourselves to God's plan, we'll be able to do "more than we ask or imagine." It's time to commit, not just to the sport, but to the possibilities.