Life at the Margins

Our desire is not that others might be relieved while you are hard pressed, but that there might be equality.  At the present time, your plenty will supply what they need, so that in turn their plenty will supply what you need.  Again, the goal is equality.  As it is written:  "The one who gathered much did not have too much and the one who gather little did not have too little."  2 Corinthians 8:13-15

I would have once identified as someone at the economic margins:  single mom on welfare, living with abandonment as a family curse.  But generosity prevailed.  Others shared with me, including my family.  This included those who met my need of community and belonging.  God paved a way out for me through education, advancement and eventually wealth.  I bought my own house, provided all my children needed....and sometimes wanted.  Then through re-marriage, more stability came to our family.

I have kept my feet on both sides of the low-resource and high-resource divide.  This has caused my career to stay focused on those in need and kept me from abandoning my post.  There are skills I developed on both sides of the economic and cultural divide, and I share them liberally with people in each.  I provide access and support for people to move from the low-resource side;  I provide avenues and encouragement for people to share the wealth they have in a way that feels productive.  I love it when cultures come together, valuing each others' tenets and practices.

Having both experiences has caused for greater generosity in me to those in need, too.  I don't need it "all" when some don't have the basics.  I recognize that only God is good and his supplies to our household are enough.  I don't answer the world's cry for "more," just enough for healthy living.

"The goal is equality..."  Paul says.  

        isotes - equality, equity and fairness

        husterema - need, deficiency - in reference to poverty, want

I have come to understand what this gift of wealth, position and power is for.  This is my mantra:  "Power shared is power gained." Hoarding takes too much effort; Giving is freedom.  Positioning is stressful; joining with others shares responsibility.  While this obviously includes financial poverty, the stability I gain emotionally and spiritually can be shared, too.  If I gain, so will you...and, in turn, others will gain their needs from you.

God wants to supply all our needs, of which most are deeper and more complicated than just financial.  We are his carriers.  

Praise the Lord!

 Hallelu yah!  (Praise Yahweh)

Praise God in his sanctuary;

praise him beneath the massive sky!

Praise him for his acts of power:

praise for his greatness - in its multitude, abundance and excellence!

Praise him with the blast of trumpets 

and clashing cymbals!

Praise him with your whole body -

dancing and singing!

Everyone, everywhere, every creature with breath

(and every animal, too)

praise the Lord!

Hallelu yah!

Psalm 150

This is my favorite psalm...and it makes me think that I don't praise very well in church worship.  These actions describe how I act at football games and concerts, so I know how to praise!  We were made to praise! 

What has caused us to eliminate praise from worshiping God?

I looked up all the words translated for "praise" in the Old Testament.  They describe what our praise should look like:

rum - extol and exalt - raise up above all others.

barak - bless - kneel before, congratulate; thank

halal - praise - shine a light on; clearly reveal and make known

gush - celebrate - pour out; belch out

sabah - praise - stroke, address in a loud tone

sapar - proclaim/tell - recount; rehearse; keep a record

naba - eagerly utter

ranan - shout joyfully - cry out; ring out; sing out

t'hilla - praise - a song of adoration; especially a song of public praise

I like old hymns and some modern praise and worship songs, but very few of them do the kind of praise we are called to do before the Lord. I am ashamed to say my greatest practice of praise has been in support of my alma mater's football team.  I love when the ENTIRE crowd sings the fight song, then the football team joins in and sings the alma mater.  The fight song is sung raucously!  The alma mater is sung almost spiritually.  One calls us to the battle; one calls us together.

What would be our Christian, God-raising fight song?  Definitely think trumpets and cymbals!  Actually, songs we sang as children rise to my mind:  I'm in the Lord's Army!  Father Abraham!  I've got the Joy, Joy, Joy, down in my Heart!  These are enthusiastic!  We would have hand motions;  we would march and sing loud!

Then the ones that call us together.  Of course, Jesus Loves Me.  The B-I-B-L-E.  I've got Peace like a River...these draw us in.

As adults, I think we need to be more deliberate in our praising.  Sorry, choir leaders and worship leaders, sometimes we drone on in long-winded, low-affect, not-God-focused songs.  I personally feel a revamp on my praising.

What about a crowd chant.  One side of the pews do one part; the other side responds.  I've actually done that in church (and the football stadium).

Hallelu  yah!

The Wealthy

Tell the wealthy:  In regard to this season of life, don't become arrogant and don't put your hope in your wealth, which can be uncertain (name all the ways), but rather put your hope in God, who abundantly provides us with all things for our enjoy enjoyment.

Here's how:  

• do good (work good, do well, act right)
• be rich (abundant, use your resources) in good deeds (your business, any labor)
• be generous (ready to distribute)
• be ready and willing to share (liberally).

In this way, the wealthy will lay up treasure (Paul's compounding of words to exaggerate meaning - amass/reserve) for themselves a good foundation (first principles/underpinnings) for the basis of actions that demonstrate what you care about and will build toward your expectations.  Then you will have life indeed!  1 Timothy 6:17-19 

Our pursuit of wealth is misplaced, of course, we would say, but in America, in a culture of wealth - accumulation, it is difficult for us to be separate ourselves from it.  Yet Paul tells Timothy, let's reconfigure what the pursuit is.  Truly, we could all agree that our pursuit is the good life, the God life, a happy life... but our culture has taught us all the wrong ways to define it.  We measure the God-blessed life as one of (material) blessing.

I think the original language deserves exploration for this "life."  The word used is "Zoe."  It has literal and figurative meanings when used in the Bible.  Most of all, it means to possess vitality:  the energy for what life brings.  This means that life is full of meaning, passion and pursuit by for the essential and immediate needs (i.e. food) and an ethical pursuit.  What if I pursued ethical standards as energetically as I pursued a good steak or an abundance of my favorite dessert?

To really pursue an ethical life is to get a full understanding of the "why" of life and to filtrate and prioritize values.  Too often we have a set of values that are thin and wavering.  Sometimes we have to exercise prioritizing values which come into conflict with each other.  How does that happen?  I say I value my family and my career...and it is the easiest example to demonstrate values which can come into conflict.  Prioritizing says I know which one leads.

Zoe can also mean life that is real and genuine, especially in devotion to God.  My life's meaning comes from a relationship with God that is lived:  when belief is translated into action and love into loyalty for God.  And not lazily.  A Zoe life is an active and vigorous pursuit of devotion and demonstration of the Triune God.

English translations often translate Zoe into "heaven" or "eternal life."  The original, not so much.  To have the "good" life now, fully is to enhance the "good" for all - those in need, those in our family, the community of believers - and to give as if your life depended on it...because it does!

Now

 Yet, a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks.  God is spirit and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.  John 4:23, 24

Now - nyn - in the present moment, in the presence of

This is Jesus' lesson for the woman at the well.  She and her culture had misplaced their object of worship to a place and not a person.  Do we do the same?  Do we cause our object of worship to be a place, like our church, or even something that might seem worship-center, like in nature?  Jesus' lesson is that worship takes place in the heart and in relationship with God.

How do we translate Jesus' statement to ourselves?  Does only the moment matter?  Does only our focus matter?  I want to see NOW as the moment where I understand/plug into the full weight of glory, full of meaning and full of gratitude for having the presence (Spirit of God) with me now.  

I want to find ways to be aware of God NOW - in traffic, in front of my computer, cooking at the stove, in exercise.  I want to capture that essence in the here and now!  The world may careen down its path to some end.  I want to bask in the sense of God's presence now and take in the experience of now.

Can I mentally sit still?

Can I take it in?

Can I love it and bask in it?

My head is ringing.  The list for today is long.  Someone wants to eat.  How can my spirit find the "space" for my soul to connect with the Spirit and her true nature that is calling me towards the Triune God in every situation?

In heaven will there be no passage of time?  Will only the moment matter?  I am going to seek to make this moment be filled with the weight of glory and full of meaning, mostly because it means so much to God.

Amen.