Passages | Spiritual Direction | Douglas L. Mitts

Patience. Waiting.

Mon, 22 Dec 2025 05:12:24 -0600

The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance. (2 Peter 3:9 NAS95)

I’m amazed at God’s patience and love. I wonder what history looks like from His perspective. How beautiful might the painting of earth’s history look as we consider love invading to restore it to beauty. I wonder what the record of transformed lives on this planet would tell us about God’s love. What does the beauty of waiting mean as history reveals the story of God and His relationship to us?

I ponder Christmas, waiting from the announcement to Adam for the One coming to defeat the enemy of God. I don’t know how many years after Adam Jesus came, but I do know about 2,100 passed since Abraham lived. God never left us alone and without indications of His presence and involvement. Patience. Waiting.

Jesus arrives in a manger and His purpose focused on showing us the Father’s character and glory as well as the character and glory the Trinity intended us to reflect in our transformation. Patience. Waiting. Beauty. Love. Glory. Christmas coming to us and through us in Jesus.

Between advents, as we wait for the second, God invites us to partner with Him because He desires all to return to Him and His originally intended purpose for our lives. As I have walked with Jesus, and pondered Him, I’ve wondered what His interior life with the Father was like. Waiting concerns our transformation.

Transformation into glory, God’s kind of glory, takes time. Pondering Jesus’ interior life with the Father who loves like no other calls me to surrender to that love. Surrendering to it calls Christmas to life in my life. Jesus' advent to my interior and that interactive life with the Trinity fills Christmas with meaning for me. And others who watch and see.

I consider my short life and Jesus’ advent into my soul. My interior tapes from an alcoholic home, the fear of emotions I carried, the insecurities of unloveableness, the over concern about my own significance, the transformation project Jesus undertook, and my experience of that transformation in process, I cry out with gratitude for Christmas!

Patience, waiting, love transforming from Jesus adventing to us and in us. It all takes time. I want to join God in calling people's attention to the meaning of Jesus’ first advent: Christmas! Pondering 2 Peter 3:9 in conversation with God makes me wonder about the painting history will reveal of God’s glory..

For Reflection:

“In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men.…There was the true Light which, coming into the world, enlightens every man." (John 1:4, 9 NAS95)

What does the beauty of your transformation story say about God and His love?

What are the practices or habits that help you cultivate presence to God throughout your day?

Tradition or Conversation

Tue, 18 Nov 2025 05:12:24 -0600

THIS PEOPLE HONORS ME WITH THEIR LIPS, BUT THEIR HEART IS FAR AWAY FROM ME. BUT IN VAIN DO THEY WORSHIP ME, TEACHING AS DOCTRINES THE PRECEPTS OF MEN. Neglecting the commandment of God, you hold to the tradition of men. (Mark 7:6-8 NAS95)

Early in my overseas work this passage hovered in my awareness. God wanted me to ponder both what He says and what my theological culture said.

Crossing the ocean awakened me to my theological prejudices/preferences considering how my host culture saw doctrine. I had heart attachments to these preferences, even a lot of security in the theological systems that drew me into the Kingdom of God. I didn’t realize the degree to which these flowed from man’s thinking about God rather than from how God thinks about man.

Theological structures contribute much to our relationship with God, but when they become god themselves, that can cause issues and confusion. In my own way, I robbed God’s freedom by making Him fit my system, and when He didn’t, well, that scared me. It challenged my security, and even my thoughts about salvation.

God, of course, knew this. The reason the passage above hovered in my awareness concerned God’s desire to revolutionize my interaction with Him, and to learn His love.

I had relied on theological structures, those systems, as Bible. Yet, God whispered, “I’m not the box you’ve put Me in.” “I don’t conform to your ways, but I do want to show you mine. I want to lead you.” God was saying, “systematic theology does not define Me; that is not My Word.”

As I listened and reflected, God led me to see the Scriptures as a deep understanding of reality as it truly is, and as it concerns God’s love and interaction with His creation. Systematics help, but they don’t replace the Scripture, nor do they contain the depth of reality God’s story reveals.

My pondering with God continued to work on my soul and open the way to freedom and to direct experience of His love. My fears kept me in systems I preferred, but away from God’s direct involvement. I could do life without God and continue to talk about God. Yet God’s pursuit moved me from my preferred traditions and systems and turned me to the reality of which the Scriptures speak: Immanuel, God with us. Interactive relationship.

God continues to bring this theme to mind, and I still love theology, but I know now God far transcends any thought I have about Him, including my systematics. How? From the conversation the Scriptures indicate I can have with Him.

For Reflection:

“Has the LORD as much delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as in obeying the voice of the LORD?” (1 Samuel 15:22 NAS95)

What stories from your life have revealed to you a devotion to tradition or theology over God?

What ways does God initiate topics of conversation about how you perceive Him and His desire to shift your understanding to who He truly is?

Comfort: His Empowering Presence

Sat, 18 Oct 2025 05:12:24 -0500

Now may our Lord Jesus Christ Himself and God our Father, who has loved us and given us eternal comfort and good hope by grace, comfort and strengthen your hearts in every good work and word. (2 Thessalonians 2:16-17 NAS95)

As I pondered “comfort,” I had to ask myself, what actually comforts me. Yes, people can, and the support of my wife or family helps significantly in feeling comfort. Yet as I considered my relationship to life and God, something caught my attention.

“With God” and I did not know how to describe it. What caught my attention had to do with operating, functioning, with the awareness of God with me. The Bible states it as “keep in step with the Spirit” — the presence of God with me.

I had this sense that comfort actually comes from God Himself, and then He motivated me to survey my life. I have done a lot of work over the years with the concept of obedience or responsiveness to God, both in my life and assisting others.

When I considered my own experience, I noticed whether with words or works (see the verse cited above) as I partnered with God or kept in step with His Spirit, something else occurred in me. God allowed me to sense something like comfort or affirmation as I attempted to partner. God honored the attempt and comforted me, whether or not I did it “right” or “well.”

What seemed important to God had more to do with attempting to stay with Him, listening, responding, and a form of comfort or relaxed state entered my experience. What I sensed or felt in the moment. Maybe I could say it had an encouraging “zing” in it.

I take those moments as “from God” and somehow it builds a memory that continues to influence my soul. All that works to create in me a desire to remain open and responsive to God, and the cycle that allows me to have comfort continues to build in both my words and my works. What am I noticing? Doing life with God enables me to sense the comfort of His empowering presence.

For Reflection:

“O may Your lovingkindness comfort me, according to Your word to Your servant.” (Psalm 119:76 NAS95)

What experiences have you had that help you notice God’s involvement as One who comforts?

What spiritual practices do you use to help cultivate attentiveness to God’s presence throughout your day? How do you see comfort working in them?

Transition to Kingdom Culture

Thu, 18 Sep 2025 05:12:24 -0500

From that time Jesus began to preach and say, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” (Matthew 4:17 NAS95)

This major theme of Jesus’ teaching has taken root in my interior as a place to live now, in God’s presence, interactively, preparing me for eternity. So, I see myself transitioning into Kingdom culture just as I transitioned into the lifestyle of my host culture as a missionary.

I’ve had to get used to a new way of communicating, a new way of listening, a new way of understanding, and most of all, accustomed to a different kind of person with me: Jesus.

Learning to pray or talk to God has taken much time. I started the practice even before I trusted Christ, but in Christ, I noticed God responds. However, He doesn’t respond in the way I expect — another aspect of transitioning to Kingdom Culture. It doesn’t function the way I think, so I have started picking up on the counterintuitive ways of the Kingdom.

I’ve noticed, and God has caused me to ponder very deeply, that the counterintuitive ways of the Kingdom center not only around our Triune Lord, but it reflects His nature as Love. I generally qualify it as His-kind-of-love because of its counterintuitive nature. He loves like no other and He wants me to learn that kind of love from the inside-out, so it effuses from my life.

It has taken many years of prayerfully listening to Scripture, studying it, and applying it to even begin to see God’s ongoing invitation to enter and live in this Kingdom culture, no matter where I find myself on this planet and no matter what my vocation.

As I journey into this space, putting off my ways and attempting to wear the clothes of God’s Kingdom culture, I’ve discovered many fringe benefits. More than that, the very experience of God’s presence with me (Kingdom Culture), motivates me to brag about God, invite others in, and help them live in the same Kingdom I am experiencing.

I’ve noticed God leads me in these ways, drawing my attention to them from His Word, engagement in prayer where I struggle, and reflection on what happens as a result. The transition continues, but God stirs my heart in such a way that I prefer His ways over mine, and I cannot believe the goodness I have received. I have experienced such joy in transitioning to God’s Kingdom culture that I cannot help but ecstatically reach out to include others!

For Reflection:

“They shall speak of the glory of Your kingdom And talk of Your power; to make known to the sons of men Your mighty acts and the glory of the majesty of Your kingdom. Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and Your dominion endures throughout all generations.” (Psalm 145:11-13 NAS95)

What happens when you consider adopting the way of God’s Kingdom culture like the way you entered your host culture? Which Kingdom invites deeper consideration and appropriation in your life?

How can you intentionalize more proactively the adoption of the ways of God’s Kingdom culture and His Kind of Love?

Celebrate God!

Mon, 18 Aug 2025 05:12:24 -0500

Rejoice always; (1 Thessalonians 5:16 NAS95)

I love this verse. Rejoice always! It walked into my memory somewhere in the first decade of this century and has stayed with me. I have much over which to rejoice and celebrate. Most of all I celebrate the gift our Triune Lord is to me. Everything flows from that, my life, my wife, my family, missions, Poland, Germany, GEM, churches (supporting and planted). All, at this point, I perceive as gift from God.

I didn’t necessarily start out that way as I entered the opportunities and challenges that those items I just listed presented. If I am honest, I have to say that fear and prayer went together because I had no idea of what I was doing with any of them. My head had a lot of knowledge, but my life did not have a lot of experience. Especially of full reliance on God. Yet God had me in His hands and grace. He knew my fear and prayer needed to go together, so He gently went to work, silently, behind the scenes and, if you will, behind my back (I was so unaware).

To say support raising terrified me would be an understatement. But God got me to Poland. I loved my girlfriend who became my wife, but courage to ask for her hand in marraige had to overcome fear of rejection. But God got me through it, and I’ve had a blast. Raising two kids on the mission field, born in the 90s just after Eastern Europe opened, scared me and anxiety evoked prayer. God amazingly permeated our family with grace and His presence.

I could recite a list of things as we initiated various vision-casting work, or church planting efforts, or even laying the foundation for what the spiritual life team is today. First fear, then prayer, and God soothing, permeating, suprising and filling the process with joy! Rejoice always!

Fear evoked prayer and the solicitation of God’s presence or at least that I would become present to Him (He happened to be there already). In each case of passing through the challenge or opportunity, rejoicing and celebration resulted, erupting from my heart, sometimes called gratitude, but all full of joy.

What I like celebrating most focuses on what God does. He surprises me where fear stifles me. Doing things with Him evoked a joy for which there is no other word than rejoice! Rejoicing celebrates God!

For Reflection:

“I will rejoice and be glad in Your lovingkindness, because You have seen my affliction; You have known the troubles of my soul,” (Psalm 31:7 NAS95)

How has God’s activity in your life caused joy to erupt from your soul? How did you celebrate?

What helps you cultivate a posture receptive to joy and celebration with God?

Renewal

Mon, 21 Jul 2025 05:12:24 -0500

and put on the new self, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth. (Ephesians 4:24 NAS95)

I have no idea when I started using this verse as a daily prayer for my life. It goes back pretty far, and God continues to accent things in it because I have conversed with Him about it for so long.

Recently, He’s even shown me, and I have received it, that He’s slowly, graciously, responding to it. Not that He didn’t start answering the request when I started praying it, but that it took a while for me to notice what has taken place.

My prayer, and I quote: “make me a godly individual, one who lives in accord with the new nature which You created in me at the point of my salvation in holiness and righteousness of the truth.” I didn’t memorize the verse, but its ideas formed the prayer.

I didn’t know it, but the prayer concerned the ongoing process of renewal in my life. I had no idea what I was doing. I just wanted to live a godly life, pleasing to God. Basically, I prayed: grow me up in this new life I know nothing about even though I am talking to you about it. I had an idea of the goal. I sputtered along the way and God did His thing.

I laugh because God, on His own initiative, started saying, see this, see that, what about this, did you notice? He started pointing out His work in me that He accomplished while I was sleeping — not literally — but the awareness of His work lacked until He started pointing it out to me.

As He shared that renewal that I’d missed, my heart/interior/emotions brought me to tears. His renewal had been a hidden work, but a blessing. I didn’t earn it. He knew I wanted it, so He brought it about in my life. My contribution consisted of the desire to reflect His likeness. Have I arrived? No, but God thinks I’m making progress. And He makes me glad by what He has done.

Even receiving His words meant that growth in renewal had occurred. So much has taken place that I carry a joy and a confidence in His presence with me. It almost allows me to see Him. In crazy situations or circumstances, I know He’s doing good in me, through me, and for others around me. Even when I get it wrong that is still true. Renewal. Mind-blowing!

For Reflection:

“Let the glory of the LORD endure forever; Let the LORD be glad in His works;” (Psalm 104:31 NAS95)

How has God pointed out things that He’s done in your life that He’s proud of in you? If you haven’t done that, would you take a moment to listen to Him now?

What spiritual practices help you cultivate attentiveness to God’s initiatives in your life?

Growth in What?

Mon, 23 Jun 2025 05:12:24 -0500

but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory, both now and to the day of eternity. Amen. (2 Peter 3:18 NAS95)

When I entered the Kingdom at Jesus’ invitation to trust Him, His way of life, and His sacrificial self-giving through crucifixion on my (our) behalf, I thought simply in terms of morality and behavior. Externals. God has revolutionized this into something that I would never have imagined in my early years of walking with Jesus.

I wanted to please God. I thought I’d exchange bad behavior for good. “Just do it!” to borrow a phrase from Nike.

Not so fast. I couldn’t just do it! Will power didn’t work. Deciding I wanted to change and attempting to implement it didn’t work either, no matter the strategy. Transformation demands something other than me at work. God, at last, led me to that conclusion.

Even though I couldn’t figure it out, God kept drawing me closer and somehow allowed me to notice things. I knew in my head that the “Paraclete” came to help me, but I didn’t really grasp it at first. God’s continued influence caused me to observe Him, His invisible presence with me. Something started to happen in the conversation with Him. Actually, I grew in my awareness of His attention getting ways in my life. As this reverse prayer (God talking to me, rather than me starting it) continued to take place, different options appeared before me along with the power to choose something other than my “auto-pilot” response or behavior.

Interesting. All this added to my experiential knowledge of God. Yes, God started (or rather, continued) becoming much more real. Present like a person (not literally, but I hope you know what I mean). The word “grace” took on the meaning of empowerment, assistance from His presence with me. At the same time, something happened with my understanding of God and His advocacy for life, not just my life, but anyone connected to my life. This empowerment allowed me to grasp much more about the love of God, of Jesus, of the Spirit toward me than I had ever imagined.

Growth in what? Growth in the awareness of God’s sure presence with me. Growth in God’s ability to transform the inner workings of my soul with the power to do it. Growth in my understanding of God’s realness, goodness and love. All I needed to do was seek God and He gives Himself. “Grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.” Really!

For Reflection:

“I would have despaired unless I had believed that I would see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living. Wait for the LORD; Be strong and let your heart take courage; Yes, wait for the LORD.” (Psalm 27:13-14 NAS95)

How have you learned to recognize God’s empowering presence in your daily life?

What helps you develop your ability to recognize His initiative in your life?

Blossoming

Thu, 15 May 2025 05:12:24 -0500

“I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing.” (John 15:5 NAS95)

I have enjoyed a disciplined life with God. I don’t say spiritual disciplines because God has led me to understand He permeates everything with His presence, so life is spiritual. Another thing He has allowed me to grasp sees spiritual referring to things invisible, meaning Him, my interior, where my interaction with Him occurs.

God avails Himself to me everywhere, which is why I cited John 15:5. Even though I have had a wonderful and disciplined life with God, I have not always seen Him as available. Initially, my conceptualization had God way off outside the universe. Gradually that perception changed, and so did my understanding of abiding in Him.

I now know, just as Paul did in Acts 17, “in Him I live and move and have my being” — another way of stating abiding. Abiding produces fruit, and for a plant to flower, it must blossom. Yet, the plant does it simply by abiding.

God’s interaction with me shifted from head to head-heart as my conversation with Him slowly moved from static to dynamic. In other words, I started to see His initiative in life and what it stirred within me. Abiding moved from a concept into the real. God is with me. Always. God’s Spirit (invisible) leads me (I’m not perfect at this), and the outcomes amaze me.

I’ve seen God touch hearts of individuals, call them into His Kingdom. I’ve seen disciples mature into multipliers of disciples. I’ve experienced anxiety decreasing and courage increasing. I’ve also noticed becoming less reactive to situations that used to trigger me. As these things have happened, my awareness has allowed me to think, maybe this points to fruit, to blossoming in life, to living into God’s design as an image-bearer.

At one level all I have oriented my life to is pursuing/seeking God. Yet now it appears God has pursued me, worked to transform me in such a way that His life permeates mine, and visibly so now. Am I perfect? No. Do I still get triggered at times? Yes. Yet signs of blossoming, signatures of God’s presence with me regularly surprise me when they show up.

The Bible calls it fruit. I call it God’s presence and love cultivating me so I begin to resemble His character rather than mine. Fruitfulness. Abiding, seeing God interacting with me, enables me to blossom as a person. I’m grateful.

For Reflection:

“In the days to come Jacob will take root, Israel will blossom and sprout, and they will fill the whole world with fruit.” (Isaiah 27:6 NAS95)

How are you growing in the noticing the abiding presence of God in your life?

What helps you cultivate and abiding relationship with God that bears fruit?

Resurrection

Mon, 14 Apr 2025 05:12:24 -0500

But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you. (Romans 8:11 NAS95)

In this Easter season, resurrection declares victory not only for Jesus, but for us well. New life, a different kind of life, qualitatively different from my ways before trusting Jesus, has entered.

It has taken me a long time to understand and come to grips with the reality of which this verse speaks. Recently, the Spirit quickened my heart to memorize it, so I did. As I have walked with Jesus, I have noted the Spirit really brings life like I have never known to my mortal body. My heart gets quickened when my thoughts or actions tempt or behave contrary to love.

Oh, that’s a big one! Talk about a renovation happening in my heart. Love has an entirely different meaning for me now. God has punctuated this as a part of resurrection. Living resurrection, means loving or at least learning to love as God does from God. Granted, I don’t have infinite resources to love as God does, but His kind of love now challenges me to imitate considering people as image-bearers, persons whom God values, whether I like them or not.

As such, I’ve learned God’s love enjoys variety, difference, and seeks to build community with all. Out goes my self-centeredness, my judgement of others, and in comes my openness to what God wants by intertwining, even if for just a moment, my life with another in relationship or friendship. How does God want me to perceive this person? What is His love shaping? How is He inviting me to respond to Him and this person I see?

So, this new life of the Spirit in me beckons a new perspective, a new way of looking at all of life. God invites me to engage with Him in what He desires with anything I encounter in my day. As my awareness of this has increased, my understanding of His love for me, for others, and what results in life clarifies new life.

Resurrection means the new life I live now revolves around God and His perspective on life, not mine. As I’ve grown, I have noticed His Spirit rearranging my heart to form new habits in my mortal body that deal with my interior orientation around me rather than God. Very different. Resurrection, after all, means new life. The Spirit simply leads into God’s kind of love and living from that perspective. Life like Jesus!

For Reflection:

“and put on the new self, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth.” (Ephesians 4:24 NAS95)

How does God speak to you about living in light of the new life imparted to you in Jesus?

How do you cultivate your life with God so that you are interacting with Him as you engage with others?

Interacting with God

Mon, 17 Mar 2025 05:12:24 -0500

This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent. (John 17:3 NAS95)

Yes, I take this as a promise to know, interactively, the living and true God through Jesus Christ. From my perspective, this verse points to not only a promise, but interaction with the only true God who is and is revealed in Jesus Christ as the promise.

God awakened me to this verse in August of 1980, and I did not expect it nor ask for it.

I had no idea of the journey God would take me on because of that one interaction, one of many more to come. All I was doing was reading through the Bible in a year, and when I came upon John 17:3, something happened that has no explanation to this date. John 17:3 was emblazoned my interior in such a way that God would use this verse to shape the rest of my life. When whatever happened occurred, I had this verse memorized without memorizing it.

Little did I know that God would take me on a journey, to seminary, to Poland, to Germany, and for all those years reveal to me what it means to interact with Him. What it means to know and recognize those interactions from Him — a mind-boggling and mind-blowing-to-this-day experience of His presence — astounds me. Ecstatic love chasing me! Am I privileged? Am I special? By no means! We are all invited to this party!

As I write these words, I carry deep awareness of a life that has experienced so many things to awaken me to my own interior, to God’s presence with me, and how self-giving and humble God is.

In my moments of pain, or maybe even periods of distress, God has elicited from me conversation, conversation that moved to authenticity, honesty, transparency both emotionally and circumstantially. He kept showing up in sorrow and joy. I wish I could tell the stories.

Through it all His loving hand surgically reshaped and continues to reshape my soul so I can experience, know (as a fact, as reality) Him personally, as love. Not know about it. Know Him through Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit. Each reshaping transforms and expands my capacity to know and experience God and the goodness that He is. Am I without pain? No. However, I am with Him and He is with me. Eternal life, the promise of knowing the only true God and Jesus Christ whom He has sent!

For Reflection:

“So let us know, let us press on to know the LORD. His going forth is as certain as the dawn; And He will come to us like the rain, Like the spring rain watering the earth.” (Hosea 6:3 NAS95)

What are the memories you can recall from your interactive experience of God?

What are you noticing of how God is interacting with you currently? How is He shaping your journey with Him?

Impressions from Greif

Mon, 17 Feb 2025 05:12:24 -0600

My soul weeps because of grief; Strengthen me according to Your word. (Psalm 119:28 NAS95)

I called on Sunday and the phone just played a message. I called again on Monday, again, no answer. Then, late in the day, my younger brother called. Dad had passed away.

Two weeks earlier my dad had called, we chatted, and he said, “I don’t think I am going to be here much longer.” I put that thought aside, and said, “Dad, you have great genes, you’ve got a while yet.” We chatted a bit more and then said good-bye. Little did I know that would be the last time we spoke.

My wife had been in the US to help our daughter move, and while there, they visited my dad. She returned in late August, and she reported that my dad had been different, and she didn’t expect him to live much longer. I put that thought aside too. Denial of reality on my part, but God knew I needed to know. She reminded me again after the call I had had with my dad.

Nonetheless, I found myself, with my wife on a plane back to Texas to officiate the funeral. I asked God, will I grieve? I had a great relationship with my dad and when we (my family) traveled to the US for home ministry assignments, we spent a lot of time with him. Yet I carried this question because most of my life prior to graduating college carried the color of his alcoholism. The question had a real space in my life regarding my dad. God knew it too.

I remember reviewing my dad’s life, writing the memorial, and creating the slide show. Tears of grief came. Even the moments clouded by the alcoholism contributed to the tears. God let me know I needed to grieve, to let go, and to realize my dad was also a gift. Whether all the moments were beautiful or not, they were all gift, and God used them to shape me, even before I trusted in Jesus.

I had to pause and hold tears back as I shared at the memorial. Greif gave me a gift of healing and answered my question: Yes, you’ll grieve your dad. You need to. God opened that door for blessing and gratitude to arrive. Blessing for the gift of my dad and gratitude for how God infused that relationship with significance because of Christ’s work in me. Necessary impressions from grief.

For Reflection:

“I said to the LORD, “You are my Lord; I have no good besides You.”” (Psalm 16:2 NAS95)

How did God meet you in grief over a loved one?

What gifts, once grief had its way through your soul, did God open your eyes to?

Stillness

Thu, 23 Jan 2025 05:12:24 -0600

Jesus Himself was in the stern, asleep on the cushion (Mark 4:38 NAS95)

I like stillness, especially on the inside of my soul. Stillness on the inside means presence to the love of God in circumstance and attentiveness to Him. When chaos swirls around me, stillness on the inside often disappears. Fear creeps in and I find myself forgetting God, zeroing in on me and the external chaos becomes internal. I fail to remember God is for me (Rom. 8:31). I forget the depth of love shown me through Jesus’ life.

My conversations with God around stillness started with silence. I noticed that silence didn’t mean stillness. I couldn’t confuse these two words as synonyms. I also noticed as I deepened the practice of silence, that stillness on the outside, didn’t mean stillness on the inside. I noticed I could be occupied by many things, rather than one thing: presence to God who accompanies me everywhere, even when I am sitting still.

God whet my appetite for stillness on the inside. I wanted to imitate Jesus asleep in the middle of a storm on a boat completely trusting Himself into His Father’s care. The boat in the storm bouncing on the wavey sea, pounded by rain, with wind blowing hard painted a great picture of my soul in many life circumstances where I could feel threatened. I realized I behave more like the disciples in that boat than Jesus. And Jesus loved the disciples then as well as me now.

God started hinting at spiritual disciplines that might help me grow in stillness, even in adverse circumstances. He let me know disciplines take time for their fruit to bear witness to interior transformation. I endured. After a few years practicing certain disciplines, stillness started remining in my soul even when things felt threatening. Patience grew. Irritability dissipated. Security in God’s present love started taking up residence.

Perfection in stillness didn’t arrive, but presence to God in the mess did improve. I noticed stillness remained even as I encountered the temptation to anxiety.

Circumstances don’t have to determine my soul state. Freedom to choose presence to God and conversation with Him started entering regularly and stillness lingered. Chaos collapsed into stillness on the noisy boat of life due to God nurturing trust in His love in my soul.

God continues to shape my life, so stillness transcends chaos as He draws my attention to His love and presence with me in the now.

For Reflection:

“Meditate in your heart upon your bed, and be still. Selah”

What is your normal state of soul regarding interior stillness?

What spiritual practices nurture a state of stillness and presence to God for you?

Christmas: Healing a Broken World

Mon, 23 Dec 2024 05:12:24 -0600

From his abundance we have all received one gracious blessing after another.…No one has ever seen God. But the unique One, who is himself God, is near to the Father’s heart. He has revealed God to us.” (John 1:16-18 NLT-SE

I cite a reason for celebrating Christmas and for the arrival of Jesus on our planet in the first century. I wonder if you think it odd to consider this verse at Christmas?

I often put Christmas and the cross together in this season. Jesus came so my relationship with the Triune Lord could be restored to fullness. Christmas and the cross display a generous love, and a deep revelation of both God and who I am as an image-bearer in the Kingdom.

I live amidst a world of unimaginable brokenness in human relationships, conflicts in politics, and difficulties among nations. Image-bearing gets lost in the mess and deeply distorted. At a micro level, my life and its dailiness, I see pain and brokenness I cannot fix. How do you heal this stuff? Yes, the cross. Yes, reconnection to God through Jesus.

God continues speaking to me about Christmas as showing me that the Christlike life has a pattern to follow. Jesus shows me that pattern. God has had my meditations repeatedly return to Genesis 1 and 2 as I read the Gospels and look at Jesus’ life. He reveals God and He also reveals what bearing God’s image means. Jesus did this in a fallen world perfectly! This speaks deeply to my soul, especially as I consider God having made me in His image. I must pause. And listen. And follow. Jesus.

Christmas shows me my brokenness and need as well as my potential displayed in Jesus. No, I am not saying I can be God, but like Jesus (in whom the fullness of Deity dwells, Col. 2:9) and as Paul prays, there is room for filling me with the fullness of God (Eph. 3:19). Healing to wholeness today in God’s Kingdom by imitating Jesus from the inside-out holds out hope for me now. God hints, “I designed you that way.” Brokenness in transformation by imitating Jesus.

I’m hearing, in gentleness through the Spirit, through the life of Jesus, I have potential for a much richer experience of God and His love. Restoration, healing, at least in part, of image-bearing, through the whispers of God in my life and the revelation of God in Jesus, allows me to hope both for now and for eternity.

As imitating Jesus from the inside-out transforms my soul, a desire to invite others share the healing power of Christmas grows stronger!

For Reflection:

“The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside quiet waters. He restores my soul;” (Psalm 23:1-3 NAS95)

What do you think about your potential as an image-bearer imitating Jesus from the inside-out?

How are you cultivating your relationship with God so that your beliefs align with Jesus’?

Pausing to Worship

Wed, 20 Nov 2024 05:12:24 -0600

You’re the one, GOD, you alone; You made the heavens, the heavens of heavens, and all angels; The earth and everything on it, the seas and everything in them; You keep them all alive; heaven’s angels worship you! (Nehemiah 9:6 MESSAGE)

I went for a walk to commune, to listen, to hear what sort of conversation God might desire with me. My path belonged to mountains, but with a gentle uphill slope. My agenda had little in it, but I did stir a few themes with God. And listened.

The first thing God brought my attention to, as I turned around to take in the valley, drew me to the rich colors of Autum in the mountains, gentle blends of desert tans, browns and some greens. Then silently I worshiped. I saw beauty, and that pointed me God, His creativity, and His reminder that no matter the season, the colors mix and match reflecting astounding majesty and evoking a heart full of amazement. Gratitude welled up inside me and a loud wow! rumbled in my soul.

God loves to show off His creation to me. In the midst of nature, I am reminded of His presence. He anchors me in His love.

During the walk, I ran into a person returning to our conference site. We chatted about God’s wonderful artistry, and how creation reflects community and mutual support in its own ecosystem. Our hearts returned to worship and thanks because of the level of detail and care with which God made all things. God’s love for all He has made echoed vibrantly as we talked.

As God and I continued our chat, I ran into another person, a stranger. We exchanged a kind greeting and continued on our ways.

As I descended back to the center, I ran back into that stranger. God nudged — ask about His walk? I responded and asked, “what does all this evoke in you” (motioning to the vista of mountains)? He paused, then said, “what a wonderful Creator we have.”

Worship.

The brief seconds of worship allowed us to draw near. We met, learned of each other, and I discovered another person God continues to pursue. He had wandered but God never lost sight of him and called him back. His name is Tim. God loves him too. In gratitude we both went on our ways.

What conversation did God stir on that walk? Amazement at His creation. I noticed when I and others are amazed at God, we draw near to each other. I know I heard the conversation God desired with me. My listening led to worship.

For Reflection:

“Who will not fear, O Lord, and glorify Your name? For You alone are holy; For ALL THE NATIONS WILL COME AND WORSHIP BEFORE YOU, FOR YOUR RIGHTEOUS ACTS HAVE BEEN REVEALED.” (Revelation 15:4 NAS95)

When have you found yourself worshiping amid daily life?

In what ways does God break in and evoke worship in your life with Him?

Paused by Surprise

Mon, 21 Oct 2024 05:12:24 -0500

God be gracious to us and bless us, and cause His face to shine upon us — Selah. (Psalm 67:1 NAS95)

Selah simply means pause, and it calls us to attend to what has gone before. Here I need to weigh God’s graciousness and kindness — His face, countenance, with a broad smile shining my direction.

I felt like, or should I say I was very surprised by the pause God gave me, as I considered how He gave it to me.

One day in July of this year, as I exercised on our elliptical, and as usual, I listened to something by Dallas Willard as I did. God caused me to pause so I drifted away from the talk by Willard and my attention turned toward Him. My mind had turned to what I needed to prepare for sharing with aspiring spiritual directors in the upcoming month of September. I had been pondering that on and off with God for a while, but as I ran on the elliptical, God gave me the outlines — Selah — His face shone upon me.

After I cleaned up, I sat in front of my computer and put those outlines on cyber paper, believing God knew best, and thanking Him for it. Prayers had gone before this time and many came after, but I had to submit the outlines in early August, well before I delivered them in person.

God continued engage me with the topics, but the outlines came out of that pause, that interruption that surprised me in the middle of a Willard talk while I was running on our elliptical.

I could not have asked for what happened as I shared. Of course, the week offered a lot of time for those participating in the training to be present to God, but nonetheless, God moved, touched lives, and transformed hearts. I felt carried almost as if God prayed the talks through me. I can’t explain it. The experience lingered too. Gratitude swelled up in my heart in ways I couldn’t imagine.

A person asked to bow to worship God. We worshiped in the middle of it all. Yes, I was surprised by a pause. I was surprised by God’s face shining on all present. I learned. Listen when God asks you to pause. He has more in store when we do that. All I had to do was pause and attend to what had gone before, and after, the blessing of the full surprise gave me pause again in September.

For Reflection:

“Trust in the LORD with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight.” (Proverbs 3:5-6 NAS95)

When have you experienced God asking you to pause and pay attention?

How are you cultivating your ear to hear when God calls for a pause?

Pausing in Silence

Thu, 19 Sep 2024 05:12:24 -0500

Tremble and do not sin; when you are on your beds, search your hearts and be silent. (Psalm 4:4 NIV11)

I need silence if I want to listen, especially to listen well and carefully. I’ve noticed over the years that silence allows me to take in more than I see and hear. Silence opens my heart to presence, to God’s presence, to God’s speech. I don’t necessarily have to be on my bed, but my mouth needs to be closed, and my externals quieted to ambient sounds.

In those spaces, I have learned something richer than words emerge, whether I am with God or with a person. Much of my work in the Kingdom includes pausing in silence. I have seen mountains moved (figuratively speaking) because God’s overtures seep into the soul with clarity, mine and others’ souls. I’ve experienced it myself.

The first time that I recall happened on a silent retreat. That retreat opened me to the necessity of the silence that occurs in slowness. I noticed God’s speech.

A gentle breeze. A chirping bird. The crackling leaves under my feet. Evoking memories of spaces, places, pains and hurts, joys and laughter, the stuff of life where God worked in me even though then, when the memories first took place, I did not notice.

I learned I meet God in the deep and deep calls forth to deep in those spaces, and something changes. Continents of soul shift, refreshing water flows in and life takes on a different shape, a different meaning.

I started to notice pausing in silence allows the work of God to emerge. I might see a change. An invitation to join God might arise. By joining, I enter His power and love.

A couple of weeks ago, I had a not so good, terrible, very bad day. My mouth got in the way of love, and things with my wife appeared bleak, a situation of my own making. That evening, I paused in silence. God had prodded all day, but I did not listen. I paused in a long silence at night where I sit to commune with God. Silence drew me to love, then to reevaluation, then to admission and self-revealing conversation with my Father. A pause in silence with no words, but much speech.

The next morning, forgiveness and reconciliation occurred naturally and with ease because it occurred in the presence of His Love and power. I’m grateful for pausing in silence.

For Reflection:

“The LORD will fight for you while you keep silent.” (Exodus 14:14 NAS95)

In what ways do you practice pausing in silence? What do you notice when you do?

What expectation do you have of God engaging with you from His initiative in your day? What helps you become aware of His engaging you?

Jubilee in Sabbath

Mon, 19 Aug 2024 05:12:24 -0500

Consecrate the fiftieth year and proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee for you; each of you is to return to your family property and to your own clan. (Leviticus 25:10 NIV11)

Sabbath day, Sabbath year, Jubilee all foreshadow our rest in Jesus, and the restoration of all things. While I don’t practice Jubilee, and I am not sure Israel did either, the concept speaks to me about renewal, restoration, return. In that context God has been generating a silent conversation with me. One that continues to root more deeply in these most recent years.

I find it hard to believe God’s love, and in particular, that He truly does love me. Specifically, me. I know I can come off sounding self-centered, but God clearly works in a way to wrap me around Him instead of self in learning His love.

I mentioned a while back that God shared with me that He desires that I perceive Him as love. The day we had that conversation has left an indelible mark on my soul. I learned that my receiving God as love, the very definer of love, and understanding Him in that way held deep significance for Him. Of course I speak in human terms, nonetheless, God indicated He desired that from me.

Relaxation of soul started shaping my life. Sabbath, in other words, started, happening. Rest entered as a more frequent space in my soul. Jubilee, rejoicing in small things, became more common. Seeing God’s hand and involvement reshaping my heart around how I perceived Him felt very refreshing. God restoring all things.

Sabbath and Jubilee occurring in my soul speak of the new creation taking place because of God’s work so I can perceive Him as He actually is. Transformation of my internalized image of God means transformation of my life experience. Rest and renewal, Sabbath and Jubilee, become realities as God brings my internalized picture of Him more in focus with who He actually is.

He loves. He is love.

My schedule changes through external circumstances and I see God at work understanding my day better than me. An interruption happens, and I discover a gift in the middle of it. Having to wait (for whatever reason) but not wanting to becomes a space to receive His goodness.

Jesus’ re-imaging of God in my soul allows rest to enter, and that renewal increases the experience of joy from all of life’s happenings. Jubilee in Sabbath!

For Reflection:

“But may all who seek you rejoice and be glad in you; may those who long for your saving help always say, “The LORD is great!” (Psalm 70:4 NIV11)

How is God reshaping the image of Him you carry in your soul?

What spiritual practices foster your enjoyment of God and allow you to more easily see His engagement with you?

Retreat Pauses

Wed, 17 Jul 2024 05:12:24 -0500

Moses used to take the tent and pitch it outside the camp, a good distance from the camp…Whenever Moses entered the tent…the LORD would speak with Moses…Thus the LORD used to speak to Moses face to face, just as a man speaks to his friend.” (Exodus 33:7-11 NAS95)

Retreats. Pauses. Slowing. Stilling. Being with. God started me on a pattern of retreats, pauses from normal life and activity, early in my Christian life. Probably when I started, I wanted just to be super spiritual and brag. Please laugh! In my early days, I really didn’t think about transformation, nor would I have confessed wanting to brag about taking retreats.

God had a different idea with leading me to take retreats with Him. Initially, I just filled my time with spiritual activity. I did a lot of verbal praying, tons of reading the Bible. I did very little listening or reflecting.

Listening and reflecting requires a much slower interior than I had in those early days. My mind and heart swirled with the crazy mix of things revolving around my life at the time. My parents’ divorce filled my mind and emotions with chaos and the desire to avoid the anxiety they produced. I wonder what would have happened if I’d just shared that stuff with God rather than told Him what to do about it?

Over repeated retreats, God’s great love engaged me around listening, or at least desiring to do that. Then it moved to noticing, looking at what God might be stirring in my heart. Later, listening, noticing, looking for God took a different shape. He made me aware of stirrings in my heart as a part of my conversation with Him.

Slowly I recognized the gentleness of His presence and interaction. I noticed He initiates. I noticed I needed the space and time on retreat. Space to pause and allow my heart to be distilled with God and before God. I started sensing that on retreat, pausing from life as normal, God and I were meeting face to face. Stress, anxiety, strong emotions abated in His presence. I simply related my state of soul. He heard. He received me. He interacted and stilled the currents wreaking havoc on the shores of my soul.

A growing lifestyle began emerging. A sense of withness arose out of retreats, not just on retreats. Pausing on retreats exercised the muscle of my awareness of God’s presence always with me. I learned relational presence from God. He taught me. Retreat pauses allowed His presence to be noticed in my normal life. Interesting.

Retreats. Pauses. Slowing. Stilling. Being with. Face to face with God. A friend.

For Reflection:

“You are my hiding place; You preserve me from trouble; You surround me with songs of deliverance. Selah.” (Psalm 32:7 NAS95)

How often do you make time for a retreat to simply be with God?

What happens when you make known to God the distillings of your heart and soul?

Spirit in the Inner Man

Mon, 17 Jun 2024 05:12:24 -0500

“that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man,” (Ephesians 3:16 NAS95)

God has shown me that Paul writes this out of his lived experience with God. That’s right, his lived experience. I long to see the nuances of my heart as Paul saw his own. He carried an awareness that God strengthened him in his inner man through the Holy Spirit. Paul could make that distinction — how subtle!

Maybe I need to say precise. As God kept me pondering how Paul could write this, I realized that God wanted me to see the same nuances. God wants me to see that living in the power of the Spirit’s presence in my inner man — where that quiet conversation or interaction occurs — my life would reflect Jesus and His kind of love (Eph. 3:17). Hmm?

Today that conversation still has its place, but much more development in attentiveness to the Spirit has occurred. Now I am getting to know the nuances of my interior. Other powers like affections or habits or attachments of heart that can distract me from God and can overcome me quite easily. Yet I have the option of listening and surrendering to the Spirit.

One of those powers concerns hearing strong emotions. In general, I want to mute powerful emotional expression in those close to me. This flows from being raised in an alcoholic home where emotions literally raged (both positive and negative). I carry an innate automatic fear of all of them. Yet God through His Spirit has been strengthening me to hear Him and stay in step with His kind of love.

I notice a silent voice saying to me, that’s not you, but another’s way of expressing their emotion. I love you and that other person. My wife has a much higher volume setting for her emotional expression, and it usually draws people in toward her. Unfortunately, until I started obeying the Spirit’s silent whispers, I often worked to mute my wife’s emotions. She felt unheard or discounted and unloved. Now I can surrender and rest because the Spirit strengthens me toward this habit of listening to Him over those other forces, even amid my wife’s strong emotions. I’m learning I don’t need to mute her emotions. I need to attend to the Spirit’s presence in me who loves.

All this occurs in my inner man. His kind of love expressing itself through listening to the Spirit.

For Reflection:

“Teach me to do Your will, For You are my God; Let Your good Spirit lead me on level ground.” (Psalm 143:10 NAS95)

How skilled are you at listening to the Spirit in your inner man and surrendering?

What inner heart motivations or commitments create resistance to the Spirit’s silent speech?

Reality is Worship

Sat, 18 May 2024 05:12:24 -0500

God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth. (John 4:24 NAS95)

I have struggled with worship most of my life as a follower of Jesus. I can’t sing. I can’t play any instrument. Hey, I can’t even hum a right note, much less carry a tune. I’m so bad at worship that people gave me not so subtle hints about my amazing voice. I get the point.

However, this struggle, especially when I heard sermons on worship, became a conversation with God. He initiated it, not me. I lived under the cloud of worship defined as music, and the conversation with God brought a clarity that surprised me with its simplicity.

Others may cringe at the word God used to distill worship’s essence: obedience. Yes, I did write that: obedience to God’s presence with me. Responsiveness to God’s interaction.

I remember distinctly a leader in our organization quoting 1 Samuel 15:22-23 and that passage sunk deep in my soul. God had already been speaking to me about worship, but this hit me like a lead balloon.

What made it so poignant concerned the personal nature of it. God spoke in first person and He spoke of His voice — the identifiable component to relationship. “Has the LORD as much delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as in obeying the voice of the LORD?” That italicized phrase cut my heart to the quick. Do I recognize God’s interactions, and then do I respond with yeses?

Over time that accumulated other passages: “in Him I live and move and have my being” (Acts 17:28), which meant God is local to me. So recognizing God’s interaction and responding with yes because He desires mine and everyone else’s good has tremendous benefit! And it is worship.

Reality: God with me. Reality: God interacts with me. Reality: God desires best. “God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.” Real interaction with Absolute Truth, Who is a Person and personal with me. Reality is worship, living in the presence of God who is Spirit, and from that basis of truth.

My world turned upside down, or better, right-side up, and responding to God’s personal presence with me became the understanding of worship for me. Yes, I can’t sing, but giving God’s interaction appropriate weight in my life by responding with “yes” acknowledges His real worth, and that is worship!

I am grateful to God for engaging me with this conversation.

For Reflection:

“Ascribe to the LORD the glory due to His name; Worship the LORD in holy array.” (Psalm 29:2 NAS95)

What happens in your heart and sense of life when you respond positively to God’s leading?

What are some of the simple ways you regularly honor God through obedience?