I tell you, love your enemies.

Help and give without expecting a return.

You’ll never—I promise—regret it.

Live out this God-created identity the way our Father lives toward us, generously and graciously, even when we’re at our worst.

Our Father is kind; you be kind.

Don’t pick on people, jump on their failures, criticize their faults—unless, of course, you want the same treatment.

Don’t condemn those who are down; that hardness can boomerang.

Be easy on people; you’ll find life a lot easier.

Give away your life; you’ll find life given back, but not merely given back—given back with bonus and blessing.


Giving, not getting, is the way.


Generosity begets generosity.



Luke 6:37-38 The Message

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God and I seem to work well when I’m in action.  Or maybe it’s just obedience that He blesses (yes).  Either way, as I’m just doing the thang, He is speaking to me. 

But not without some “hiccups.”

First, our microwave is broken.  Bleh.  While we could go buy a new one, it’s not a super convenient time with some upcoming expenses.  And besides, didn’t I want this to pinch?  Smile.  So this makes my morning oatmeal a bit of a challenge.  And reheating coffee.  It’s not even hard – just do it on the stovetop.  But since it’s inconvenient – and I can quickly get addicted to convenience – it’s a stretch for me.  I told my Fall Avoidance class next thing they know I’ll be down at the river washing our clothes.

Second, one of my girls called this morning asking what she could do to help.  I told her to make sure to ask if I’m getting too legalistic in my heart with this. 

She goes, “Are you worried more about being legalistic in this or in cheating?”

(Don’t you love how a well-timed question can often do so much more than a litany of advice?)

I thought for a bit and realized it’s the second.  I told her that since I’m in a season with not much parenting help, I start to feel like I deserve things.  Dan’s been gone all day and has class tonight.  I deserve to not cook and eat out instead.

Is that sometimes a wonderful thing?  To eat out when you’ve had a long parenting day?  Of course.  But you know how you can know something in your heart?  I know right now I need to be obeying in this.

And finally, some wisdom from my man on his way out the door:  “Remember, don’t completely overhaul everything.  You’ll make everyone, and yourself, crazy.  We’re just trying to create some new habits.”

Man, he knows me so well.

(I think living with an all-or-stinking-nothing person for almost 12 years has qualified him for some sort of medal.)

But anyway, I should tell you something about me: I’m not a big fan of behavior modification.  I know that it is necessary.  I understand the psychology behind it.  But I’m a much bigger fan of talking through what’s behind behavior and understanding people’s motives.

About a month ago I was at a training for work at our gym.  (We have to do 15 Continuing Education credits every two years to stay certified.)  The trainer was a-mazing.  She was talking about her work in coaching and holistic health and totally had me.  Then she goes, “And, folks, the bottom line is we’re in the business of behavior modification.”

Something died inside me.

Okay, not really. 

But it is hard for me to feel like the main thing I’m doing is habit training.  But God’s been working on this area.  Showing me some balance.  How that’s a good thing.  And our pastor is so great at reminding us faithfulness in daily tasks is worship to Him. 

Last week he said, “When God is first in our lives, every single thing we do has meaning.”

Thank You, Jesus.

Parenting and homemaking has taught me this, too.  And I read this interesting book about daily life being worship before God in the repetition. 

Even just walking outside this morning checking on the growing garden with my boy is worship.

So it is okay with me if this spending fast turns into new habit formation.  That’s where the rubber meets the road on what we say we believe anyway.

Okay, there’s more. 

God is so….smart. 

This morning I was ready for Isaiah 58 in my daily reading.  Isaiah 58.  About true fasting.

Let’s hear verses 6-12 in the Message version:

This is the kind of fast day I’m after:

To break the chains of injustice,

Get rid of exploitation in the workplace,

Free the oppressed,

Cancel debts.

What I’m interested in seeing you do is:

Sharing your food with the hungry,

Inviting the homeless poor into your homes,

Putting clothes on the shivering ill-clad,

Being available to your own families…

If you get rid of unfair practices,
    quit blaming victims,
    quit gossiping about other people’s sins,

If you are generous with the hungry
    and start giving yourselves to the down-and-out,

Your lives will begin to glow in the darkness,
    your shadowed lives will be bathed in sunlight.

I will always show you where to go.
    I’ll give you a full life in the emptiest of places—
    firm muscles, strong bones.

You’ll be like a well-watered garden,
    a gurgling spring that never runs dry.”



Here’s the thing He won’t let me get away from:  Loving the King means loving the Kingdom. 

I cannot get away from the idea of joining Him where He is at work.

Of advancing the Kingdom.

Of allowing the new heart He forms in His people to get out there and be a shining beacon in much, much darkness.


But this is coming from someone who – in my flesh – can rush around trying to anxiously please if I feel someone is demanding certain behavior or punishment is at stake.


But “there is no fear in love.  But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment.  The one who fears is not made perfect in love.”  (1 John 4:18)


So I need to be careful with my heart.  And maybe your heart, too.  You, reading this. 


So we’ll just have to remember this about it all:

It’s about Him. 

We align with Him. 

We seek to obey Someone Who can never love us more or less than He does right this minute as we stand covered in the blood of the Spotless Lamb.


It really is such freedom. 


Let’s stay in this place.

 

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Okay, let’s do some “why?” stuff:

One of my favorite books on fasting is Hunger for God by John Piper.  Not favorite as in, hey what a fun read.  Nuh uh.  Favorite as in oh my word this is convicting. 

I can’t find my copy, so I can’t check my memory on this quote.  But the story he told was about when he and his future wife were first dating, he was away from her one summer while working at a camp.  When he would get a letter from her, he would completely skip lunch to read the letter instead.  He didn’t think about it, it’s just that he wanted to feel close to her more than he wanted food.

Fasting is like that.  In Matthew 9:14-15, Jesus is asked about why his disciples don’t fast.  He answers:

“How can the guests of the bridegroom mourn while he is with them?  The time will come when the bridegroom will be taken from them; then they will fast.”

Our Bridegroom is gone for now, but He’s coming back.  Until then, as we long to be with Him and feel close to Him, we give up some of the world’s pleasures.

But, as Piper points out, that’s not the whole story.  Usually, instead of longing for His return and completely wanting to give up any earthly pleasure to feel close to Him, we instead find other little pleasures with which to fill our souls.

And when that’s the case, fasting becomes a useful tool to reawaken our heart for Him. 

So that’s where we are.  Usually, the things we fast from (media, excessive time with people, food) are perfectly wonderful things.  We just need to concentrate, so we give them up for a time.
 

That’s how I’m looking at this spending fast.  Nothing wrong with eating out.  Not a problem to have treats.  Just going to set them aside – again – and re-read what I learned around this time last year from The 7 Experiment.  I remember being challenged in the purpose of our finances and perspective on how we should live.

I want to revisit that.  Join me?

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Okay, friends.

It’s happening.

I’m gonna do that spending fast. 

If you’ve read this blog for more than two minutes, you know that follow through is not my strong suit.

And my resident Follow-Through-er (aka family responsible person) is swamped right now.

So I’ve enlisted some reinforcement.

Their assignment (should they choose to accept it) is to shoot adrenaline into my soul when I want to slack off.

Also, they will be the people I call when everyone is whining and I’m inside my head and just want to give in to a treat or eating out or something. 

The conversation will probably go something like this:

Me: I wanna quit.

Them: No.

Me: But I have rights.

Them: No you don’t

Me:  But this is hard.

Them: We can do hard things

Me: Okay. 

Them: Plus you’ll have to confess on your blog if you blow it and you hate to disappoint people.

Me: Shut your mouth.

We love each other.

I can’t prove my motives are perfectly pure.  And that I’m not serving my Performance/Approval/Acceptance Idol.  I guess I can just give you my word that I’m committed to getting down each morning and asking Him to help me do it for His glory, my good, and from a standpoint of obedience out of love.

Besides, Tim Keller says,

“If you wait until your motives are pure and unselfish before you do something, you will wait forever.”

My parameters are still a little unclear.  I know the boys and I need to not eat out right now.  Or get something superfluous at the grocery store.  Or the Target store.  Or the Kwik Shop store.  Not sure how long.  I want this to pinch.  Again, not so I can feel righteous.  That’s silly.  But so I can go to Him in that pinch and say, “This hurts.  This little convenience clearly owned me a bit.  Help me and be Enough for me.”

I know this will not interfere with my man leading our family.  (Which is a saintly way of saying, if Dan says let’s eat out, I’m on board!)

Our actual convo this morning:

Me: I’m gonna do that spending fast finally.  But it won’t affect your decisions.  Just when I’m in charge during the day or when you’re gone in the evenings. 

Him:  Are you expecting this to be something I disagree with?

Hmmm….it’s time, friends.

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Okay.  Have chatted with my people.

Have thought and prayed through the difference between wanting to earn favor with God and, as our pastor says, “working hard.”

Effort, not earning.

As usual, one of my peeps reminded me of “living in the tension.”

And the importance of the motives of my heart.

I talked about abiding in the Vine last time, so I think we’ll start there again.  John always helps me stay in the motivation of love.

“As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. 

Now remain in my live. 

If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed the Father’s commands and remain in his love.

I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.

My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you.

Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends

You are my friends if you do what I command.

I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business.  Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you.

You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit – fruit that will last.

Then the Father will give you whatever you ask in my name. 

This is my command: Love each other.”

John 15:9-17

Why is love so hard?  Why is genuine community such a struggle?  Why do we treat strangers nicer than the people in our homes sometimes?  Why do we so desperately want to be known and yet fight with everything we have to show only the “good” side of our still-sinful-this-side-of-heaven hearts?

Anyway, even though Jesus is talking to His intimate friends in this passage and says He no longer calls them servants, I don’t think that means we get to throw away the stewardship parables.

Know what I mean?

But I think for my purposes and scars, I should stick to a friend motivation. 

Did you know that right before John 15, the last line is “Come now, let us leave”?

And they were going to the Mount of Olives?

Don’t you think there were probably vines around them as He talked through how His Father was the Vine and we are the branches?

Isn’t He wonderful?

There’s a lot in the above passage we could pull out and hammer on.  But taken as a whole it is seamless.  There is talk about obeying His commands.  But it is in the context of loving each other.  We are told we can bear fruit, but it’s because He chose us and it’s for His glory.

And He’s already gotten all the way down to the ground to show them “the full extend of his love” (John 13:1) and “the most excellent way” (1 Cor. 12:31b).

From there we can handle Him talking about pruning us: yes, He cuts, but it’s so we are ever more fruitful. 

And obeying His commands: yes, we obey, but it’s because He loves us as much as the Father loves Him.  And because obedience is for our joy.

Now my heart can hear about how money shouldn’t be of primary importance.  Or how this world cannot fulfill me.  Or that heaven is my home.  Or that what I make is probably not mostly for me.

I can do that because He is Love. 

He doesn’t need “my” money.

But, if I’ll cooperate, He’ll show me how to honor Him in handling money and the absolute thrill that only giving can provide.

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https://www.intentionalkingdomliving.com/304/

I have deep conviction about something in that last post.  So I deleted it.  I’m gonna pray and talk through some stuff. 

Am not intending to be confusing! 

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In case you’re wondering if I’m ever gonna do that spending fast, the answer is…

I dunno.

It’s that time in the school year.  Where you can’t go 5 minutes without (two!)  (different!) field trip fees, school music program stuff, Field Day t-shirts, No More Bullying t-shirts, class pictures, and other ways to sell your soul to the school.  (Have I mentioned that we’re only in Kindergarten?)

I’m not complaining.  Except I am.  But I really am happy to give to our child’s school and his activities.  It’s just…not ideal for a spending fast. 

Then there’s that thing where my husband is a teacher and is immersed in these same activities, only in a completely different school and capacity. 

So, as with most things, this might be something that goes down better when he’s more flexible in the summer and we can do it as a team.  Or: I can have a wonderful, spontaneous, inspired idea….and he can be the one that actually executes it!  Welcome to our marriage.

But that shan’t be a reason we can’t plow ahead on here with money stuff.  We will press on more regularly.  For now, here’s a Tim Keller quote I found on Pinterest:

“Money isn’t an idol.  It just shows you where your idols are.”

Thought-provoking, huh?

More soon!

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One day when Heaven is filled with His praises

One day when sin was as black as could be

Jesus came forth to be born of a virgin

Dwelt among men, my example is He

Word became flesh and the light shined among us

His glory revealed

Living, He loved me

Dying, He saved me

Buried, He carried my sins far away

Rising, He justified freely forever

One day He’s coming

Oh glorious day, oh glorious day!

One day they led Him up Calvary’s mountain

One day they nailed Him to die on a tree

Suffering anguish, despised and rejected

Bearing our sins, my Redeemer is He

Hands that healed nations, stretched out on a tree

And took the nails for me

One day the grave could conceal Him no longer

One day the stone rolled away from the door

Then He arose, over death He had conquered

Now He’s ascended, my Lord evermore

Death could not hold Him, the grave could not keep Him

From rising again

Rising again!!

One day the trumpet will sound for His coming

One day the skies with His glories will shine

Wonderful day, my Beloved One, bringing

My Savior, Jesus, is mine!

Living, He loved me

Dying, He saved me

Buried, He carried my sins far away

Rising, He justified freely forever

One day He’s coming

Oh glorious day, oh glorious day!

Oh, glorious day!

Oh, glorious day

Casting Crowns, Glorious Day

And if you want some chills this Easter morning….

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VXp6xcY5IqU

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