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Matzah, Maror, Kharoset and a Lazy-Boy

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In the midst of the sights, sounds and smells of Pesach (Passover) a young child stands to recite the Ma Nishtanah:

Why is this night different from all other nights?

  • On all other nights we can eat bread or matzoh. On this night why do we eat only matzoh?
  • On all other nights we can eat all kinds of vegetables. On this night why do we eat only bitter herbs?
  • On all other nights we do not dip our vegetables even once. On this night why do we dip them twice?
  • On all other nights we  eat our meals sitting or reclining. On this night why do we eat only reclining?

Four questions that really serve to answer the bigger question, “Why is this night so different from all other nights?”

As the questions are explained, a growing sense of thankfulness to God is ignited.

The four questions also serve as four paths to connect with God.

Humility is the first step on the path towards God.

Matzoh is not an elaborate or fancy bread. It is thin, looks somewhat strange and has no leaven in it. In haste the Children of Israel made their bread and were ready for God’s escape plan. The larger image here ,though, is of purity. In the Bible, leaven is a metaphor for sin. If we want to journey deeper with God, we start by admitting who we are and seek to become who we are meant to be. This is a humbling journey that reveals the darkness that resides within us. The good news is  that God longs to heal and restore and remove all the effects of sin in our lives.

Most of our energies are spent trying to gather attention, move up in the ranks, get noticed and find success. We want to be on the New York Times best seller list and have a video that goes viral. We want the biggest house, the nicest cars, the most lavish vacations and designer clothes. But the God-hungry long for holiness.

As leaven works through an entire batch of dough, sin affects the totality of our spirituality. When we begin to remove all the leavened (sinful) areas of our life, humility is a natural by-product.. Now we know that we are not “all that” ask God to do His cleansing work in us.

What things are you still trying to control?

What secret sin is robbing you of peace?

What hurt, habit or hang-up is tripping up your efforts to live a godly life?

In humility, we acknowledge our desperate need for God and seek to remove anything in our life that gets between us. This leads to the hard part of the path.

 

Brokenness is the hardest part of the path.

Maror. The bitter herbs are a reminder that the path is often hard, even as life was hard for the Children of Israel. Forced into slavery making bricks to build treasure cities for Pharoah. We make our horseradish sauce from this root, and when you eat a glob of it, you will cry some real tears!

What do you do when life goes sideways on you? How do you handle the sudden loss of a spouse, friend or job?

No one is exempt from pain and struggle. In fact, those fraternal twins are part of God’s process to expand your joy. That probably seems like a strange statement, but it is true. Without resistance muscles cannot grow. Without adversity your virtues are only theories. Without pain you will never know joy. Tears flow in life as a way for your heart to speak about the reality of life, love and loss. If you never cry, you have probably never loved.

Most of the people I know try to avoid pain at all cost…and that is why few people know God. The entrance to His presence is found in humility and brokenness. When you live in a culture that leans towards narcissism over humility and pretending to be someone you are not instead of brokenness, it is hard to know God.

God already knows all your secrets…and He loves you anyway.

God already knows how you will handle that stressful situation at work next week…and He loves you anyway.

God knows you just blew it with your daughter today…and He loves you anyway.

When you allow God to love you as you are, raw, naked and broken, you will begin to understand grace and know what real love is.

 

Presence is the surprise viewpoint along the path.

Kharoset. we have already dipped the Karpas into saltwater once. This reminds us that life (greens) is mixed with tears (saltwater). next we dip a second time  by taking some matzoh with maror and kharoset. The kharoset is a sweet mixture of apples, honey, nuts and wine. The sweet taste mixed with the bitter herb and the matzoh is surprisingly good.

Have you noticed that the good times seem to come with the bad times?

Beauty and pain ride twin rails of reality.

In the same day you might lose a father and welcome a new son.

All of these emotions are present in you at the same time. I think of a long, steep hike. Your muscles are tired, You are thirsty and out of breath, You might even be feeling the burn! Then, out of nowhere, you come upon a stunning view.

Even though your body is screaming your eyes are feeding your soul as you take in the beauty. It is in this moment that you realize that you are always surrounded by beauty, but sometimes it is obscured by the path we travel.

The most bitter of circumstances can be sweetened when we have the presence of God.

Humility and brokenness remove the veil that keeps you from seeing God.

He is always with you.

You are never alone.

This awareness transforms the brokenness in your life and infuses it with His living presence. There is still pain, but it is made sweeter, and you experience the goodness of God even in a dark time.

Humility, Brokenness and Presence reveal the path that you are on, and it is called freedom.

 

Freedom is not a destination, it’s a lifestyle.

Why do we recline tonight? The child asks. In the Exodus story, they ate standing up, ready to go because they were slaves. Slaves stand, free men and women recline in comfort. When you have experienced deliverance from slavery, a Lazy-boy is what you need!

Humility is the movement when we choose to actually leave Egypt (slavery, bondage).

Brokenness is the parting of the Red Sea. Only God can bring you through it.

Presence is God’s  sustaining power as you travel through the wilderness…but freedom…freedom is when you enter the Land of Promise.

Practicing His presence means that anyplace where you are is a promised land because God is there with you…freedom.

Practicing His presence sets you free to experience His grace and mercy in every moment…freedom.

Practicing His presence is a lifestyle of humility, brokenness…freedom.

Wherever God’s presence is…His power is there as well…freedom.

The power that created the universe is right there with you.

The power that rose Christ from the dead is right there with you.

The power that holds the universe together is right there with you.

The power to forgive and give you a fresh start is right there with you.

The power to free you from anything that disrupts the shalom of God in your life is right there with you.

So, why is this night so different?

This night reminds me that God is with me…For me…and leading me into greater expressions and experiences of His presence.

 

 

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RE:LENT

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Every year I have many people ask me “What is the purpose of Lent?” Why do we emphasize or practice something that isn’t found in the Bible?” What are the origins of Lent” and  “isn’t it Catholic?” If you did not grow up in a main-line church (Catholic, Lutheran, Presbyterian, Methodist etc.) then Lent might be foreign to you. However, if you did grow up in one of those denominations, you see Lent as a 40 day focus on repentance, and removing the things that distract us from living a God-centric life.

Another way to put it is that Lent is a 40 day retreat that helps us realign with God. I don’t know about you, but I need as many opportunities as possible to realign my heart with the heart of God.

The Biblical connections would be the 40 day period that Moses encountered God on Mt. Sinai as well as the 40 days that Jesus fasted in the desert and was tempted by Satan. In light of the latter, that is why fasting has been a traditional part of the Lenten journey.

We miss the power of Lent, though, when we simply think we need to give up chocolate or something we like for forty days because it’s Lent…This misses the point and is a waste of good chocolate. When we desire to draw near to God, we ask His Spirit to reveal those things which continually negotiate for His attention and we choose to reprioritize that thing in our life so that God is first. Perhaps you do have an issue with food. Food is fuel, nothing more, nothing less. So if food is used for comfort, or dealing with stress or any other way to medicate your life, then food would be a good thing to fast from. There are, however, many things that get lodged into first place leaving God in the dust.

What is it for you? Sports? Movies? Alcohol? Sex? Power? Leisure? Bad Religion?

Or maybe it’s more subtle like, stress, anger, manipulation, blaming, negativity, hatred, self-hatred, fear, excuses, arrogance or even judging.

All of these things carry something that we like, even though on the outside we would think it wrong, but somewhere there is a pay-off, and that is why we keep doing them.

Yet, when we continue to live this way, unrepentantly, these things become the gods we worship, and they are vicious gods.

Lent is a season in the church that helps us as individuals, and as a community, rid ourselves of the sins that entangle, ensnare and sabotage our spiritual growth, and that is powerful.

As life is always a two way movement of sorts, Lent, for me, is also a time of “adding to” not merely subtracting from.

What do you need to add into your spiritual journey this year?

How about Grace-giving, compassion, meditation, prayer, reading life-giving books, forgiveness, compliments, positive words to others, pursuing justice for the marginalized and oppressed, being a conduit of love to every person you come into contact with. Teresa of Calcutta said it well:

“As Lent is the time for greater love, listen to Jesus’ thirst…’Repent and believe’ Jesus tells us. What are we to repent?  Our indifference, our hardness of heart.  What are we to believe?  Jesus thirsts even now, in your heart and in the poor — He knows your weakness. He wants only your love, wants only the chance to love you.”  

I think that the most beautiful moment of Lent happens when you do your soul work, realize that there is much shadow still inside of you, and yet experience the overwhelming and irrational love and grace of God. This kind of love knocks us off of our feet, makes our head dizzy and confounds the wisest in the world. This leaves us astonished, as Brennan Manning noted:

“We should be astonished at the goodness of God, stunned that He should bother to call us by name, our mouths wide open at His love, bewildered that at this very moment we are standing on holy ground.” 

Grace and Peace…

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Wounds and Scars

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The following piece by Amy Carmichael has long been a challenging favorite of mine.

It is real…
It is earthy…
It speaks of the truth that wounds and scars are a part of life…

Not something to run away from…
Not something to turn us into victims…
Not the end of the journey…

Rather, it’s the beginning of the journey.

What wounds do you have that you have tried to cover, to fix, to identify you?

In my book Sacred Space I wrote a chapter called Sacred Wounds. The big idea of the chapter is how God longs to take our wounds and redeem them in order to become restorative for others…yet, if we leave them unattended, they turn into bitter wounds and we become victims… and victims never realize the power of wounds and realized in scars when redeemed.

Hast Thou No Scar 

by Amy Carmichael

Hast thou no scar?
No hidden scar on foot, or side, or hand?
I hear thee sung as mighty in the land,
I hear them hail thy bright ascendant star,
Hast thou no scar?

Hast thou no wound?
Yet, I was wounded by the archers, spent.
Leaned me against the tree to die, and rent
By ravening beasts that compassed me, I swooned:
Hast thou no wound?

No wound? No scar?
Yet as the Master shall the servant be,
And pierced are the feet that follow Me;
But thine are whole. Can he have followed far
Who has no wound nor scar?

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Realign for a successful 2014

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The ability to convert ideas to things is the secret to outward success.
~Henry Ward Beecher

If you don’t know where you are going, you’ll end up someplace else.
~Yogi Berra

Our plans miscarry because they have no aim. When a man does not know what harbor he is making for, no wind is the right wind.  ~Seneca

Goals are dreams with deadlines.  ~Diana Scharf Hunt

Guess what? January is just a breath away. As the calendar turn us yet again into another year, there is a natural sense, hard-wired into us, to reset our souls, realign our priorities and establish goals to accomplish our dreams.

There are so many different lists of questions out there that have been written to help you successfully launch into 2014. The following questions I think are the top 10!  Read through the questions, and then write out answers your answers.  After you have answered the questions, the next step will be to prioritize them and set some short-term and long-term goals in order to measure progress and see movement toward the direction you are going.

1. What area of your life is most in need a change this year?

2. What is one thing you can do to dramatically improve your relationship with God this year?

3. What would happen if your best dream came true? What is your best dream?

4.  What is the single biggest time-waster in your life, and what will you do about it this year?

5.  What positive habit would you most like to establish this year?

6. Where will you commit and invest your time and talent this year?

7. What book(s) will you read this year (outside of the Bible) to enrich your life?

8. What area of doctrine/theology/spirituality do you want to study for better understanding this year?

9. What one thing can you do this year that will leave a positive and lasting legacy for your family and community?

10. What one thing do you most regret about last year, and what will you do about it this year?

Persistence allows you to keep taking action even when you don’t feel motivated to do so, and therefore you keep accumulating results. Persistence will ultimately provide its own motivation. If you simply keep taking action, you’ll eventually get results, and results can be very motivating.”

A friend of mine also sent me a great article with many more great questions to start off the year with: Take a look here http://www.crosswalk.com/special-coverage/happy-new-year/ten-questions-to-ask-at-the-start-of-a-new-year-11643580.html

After you have finished answering these questions, it is critical that you create a “next step” of what you will do to make your answer become a reality. Dreams and goals are great, but if they are absent an action plan they generally never see lift-off. As you create actionable steps employ someone you can share your list with and ask them to keep you accountable to doing what you know you need to do.

The choices and decisions you make today -will- determine your life experience and outcome in the next 5-10 years. So carefully answer the questions and establish a plan to accomplish the goals you have made.

Bonus Questions for those who dare!

1. Ask your spouse,

  • What is it like having me as a husband/wife?
  • What can I do differently this year to improve our marriage?”

2. Ask your kids, “What is it like having me for a mom/dad?

  • What is it like having me for a mom/dad?
  • What can I do this year to be a better parent?

3. Ask your co-workers,

  • What one thing can I do differently this year that will make the most positive impact for our company?
  • What is it like to work with me?

4. Ask your pastor,

  • What is the greatest need our church has that I can help with?
  • Where should I be plugging in at church to become the person God created me to be?

Here’s a final thought on persistence from Zig Ziglar:

“Persistence is the ability to maintain actions regardless of your feelings. You press on even when you feel like quitting. When you work on any big goal your motivation will wax and wane like the waves hitting the shore. Sometimes you’ll feel motivated, sometimes you won’t. But it’s not your motivation that creates results – it’s your action.