Month: March 2020

The Seeking of God’s Guidance

In seasons of change, worry, or opportunity, there is always a need to seek God’s guidance. But what assurance is there we are discerning rightly? Read on for insights from the writings of Dr. Paul Tournier.

The real obstacles to faith are generally very simple.

They are the spite, fear, covetousness, or pride we are unwilling to confess.

Dr. Paul Tournier, The Person Reborn, “Life Under the Guidance of The Spirit”, p. 169

The main thing for us in this world is not being sure about what God’s will is, but seeking it sincerely and following what we do understand of it.

Tournier, p. 169

Many people would like to be sure of God’s guidance before trusting it. They are unwilling to take the risk of making a mistake.

In my experience they have always waited indefinitely.

p. 169
Monastery at St. Anne’s Church, Jerusalem

But even our mistakes teach us to distinguish the Spirit’s guidance more clearly, when we really want to see it.

Every event takes on a fresh significance, for we are no longer concerned only with whether it is to our advantage or not, but with what God is saying to us through it.

Tournier, p. 170

Nothing is more futile than to argue endlessly about whether, on some occasion in the past, one has made a mistake or not. …the seeking of God’s guidance is, despite all our mistakes, the surest rule of life.

p. 170
Neglected trail, Tiberius

Then my friend exclaimed, “I am like Lot’s wife. My life is petrified because I keep looking back. I turn that problem over and over in my mind, uselessly, without ever discovering whether I did right or not. My life is no longer an adventure, because my faith is shaken and I am not looking for God’s guidance anymore. I want to start going forward again.”

Tournier, p. 170

We all find it difficult to understand God’s guidance, because we lack imagination.

We are prisoners of our prejudices.

We find it hard to understand the detours along which God takes us, and it is only afterward that we see that we had to go that way.

p. 170
Valley of Hinnom, Jerusalem

…in our lives we should doubtlessly never know the joy of a really fruitful inspiration if we were not ready to follow many others which do not bear the fruits we expect of them.

Thus, amid many uncertainties, we learn the patience of faith.

A person’s life is never changed in the way we should have imagined.

Dr. Paul Tournier, The Person Reborn, “Life Under the Guidance of The Spirit”, p. 171

One must be honest and never pretend to have a solution, never fall victim to one’s own powers of suggestion.

“I had realized that I could not do anything by myself, and had clutched at the idea that God would act for me and that all that was left for me to do was to see how he would set about it.”

“The attitude we are able to take to our personal problems is in the end more important than their solution.”

Tournier, p. 171

God grants what he commands.

His intervention is also seen in those sudden, unexpected experiences, at times of utter despair, when all at once the mind is filled with the absolute certainty of God’s love, even though there has been no recent mention made of it.

It is like an unexpected signpost upon an uncertain road.

Dr. Paul Tournier, The Person Reborn, “Life Under the Guidance of The Spirit”, p. 172

Pray or Panic

“What Jesus invites us to imitate is his own desire, the spirit that directs him toward the goal on which his intention is fixed: to resemble God the Father as much as possible.”

Rene Girard, I Saw Satan Fall Like Lightening

Standing on the Mount of Olives in the Garden of Gethsemane, I was struck by the historical reliability and faithful tradition that this is the place where Jesus withdrew in preparation for the coming darkness on the night he was betrayed and handed over to the mob.

He prayed, he didn’t panic.

The stony ground upon which Jesus prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane, surrounded now by the Basilica of the Agony (also known as the Church of All Nations).

Prayer and panic are postures. They are responsive attitudes, often to crisis and pandemonium. They are embodied actions of your spirit.

Jesus often walked up to the Garden of Gethsemane on the Mount of Olives to rest, reflect, and pray. It was a safe place to recover from the hardships of his life and mission, as well as a way to prepare for heading back out into the crowds.

  • 2,000 year old olive tree

Prayer is not a replacement for planning and preparation. Like prudence, it is a virtuous element we employ in our habits and daily rhythms to be at least partially ready for the chaos that will always emerge in our world.

What’s the alternative to paranoia and panic?

When pandemics roil up over us, when pandemonium gets whipped up by gossip, fear-mongering, and ignorance, what can you do in the midst of it? How do you resist the magnetic pull of the crowds to absorb the anxiety of infection and death?

Prayer is not magic incantations. Prayer has no real power within itself. For imitators of Christ, we believe that it is God the Father who embodies the real energy to hold all things together.

When we pray instead of panic, we put forth energy to align our spirit, mind and body to the faithful presence of our Lord.

When our OnPrinciple team was in Jerusalem, we spent time in the Church of All Nations near the rocky ground where Jesus knelt and prayed.

  • Church of All Nations
  • aka: Basilica of the Agony
  • altar by “stony ground”

From there we traversed up to the Lion’s Gate in the Old City, pausing to reflect where the first Christian martyr, Stephen, was stoned with chunks of rocks by a mob whipped up into a frenzied panic by the Pharisee Saul.

  • OnPrinciple team
  • Lion’s Gate
  • Bethesda pool ruins

What did Stephen do when surrounded by the crowd? He knelt on the stony street and prayed, looking up to the heavens, profoundly sensing the real presence of Christ.

It reminded me that it takes preparation to resist the urge to panic in the face of the fear-laced crowds.

From there we walked to the ancient ruins of the Bethesda pool, where Jesus met a man who had been crippled for over three decades. It was humbling to pause by the pool and reflect on the healing power that flowed from the Lord.

It’s interesting to note that the man wanted to be healed. C.S. Lewis observes in his book Mere Christianity, that there are people who don’t want to get well, they’ve gotten so used to their situation and circumstances.

To extend the analogy, there are those who want to panic, who want to be swept away by the pandemonium.

Our OnPrinciple team spent time at the Mount and Pool as part of a longer journey towards engaging in adaptive leadership practices. Each generation inherits and also adds to the complexity of their life, often adding sorrow to sorrow.

For adaptive leaders who want to bring healing to these complex and uncharted situations, to bring peace to the pandemonium, wisdom to the panic, let us can learn from our Lord and his season in Jerusalem.

Christians are called to take responsibility for the welfare of their community. When pandemics spread across the globe, followers of Christ have a duty to imitate the Lord, of leading, praying, preparing, and putting into practice actions that heal, protect, and care in a responsible way.

In the remarkable book by an Indiana Mennonite Christian theologian Alan Krieder, The Patient Ferment of the Early Church: The Improbable Rise of Christianity in the Roman Empire, he chronicles actions and beliefs of Christ followers in the first three centuries, particularly in how they cared for the sick and poor amidst plagues and pandemics.

In seeking to imitate Christ our Lord, in reflecting upon his choices there in the Garden that evening, he chose to pray, not panic. May we prepare for chaos like him, in imitation of our Father in heaven.

Jesus went out as usual to the Mount of Olives…knelt down and prayed: “Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done.”

An angel from heaven appeared to him and strengthened him. And being in anguish, he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the stony ground.

the Gospel according to Luke the physician, 22.39-44 [NIV]

Why the Walls Still Fall at the Jericho Y

Jerichoyentrance 2

Peter Nasir, General Secretary for the East Jerusalem YMCA hosted our OnPrinciple team at the Jericho YMCA Vocational Center and explained in stark terms why and how they live out God’s calling:

“We work with youth whose back is to a cliff.”

onprinciple jericho ymca leaders meeting (3)
Peter Nasir standing between four of his fellow Y leaders.

“If we don’t care for them, they are gone.”

There are still walls in and around Jericho. For too many youth and adult men, they are prison walls. Too many families are hemmed in by refugee walls. Border walls loom ominously, protected by barbed-wire walls and guard towers.

“We are in the business of selling hope; we keep kids out of prison. Youth choose violence out of revenge, despair and hate.”

Peter pointed out to us the unending anxiety that undergirds Palestinians regarding their displacement from their homes, villages, fields and land.

The YMCA in Jericho seeks to bring down the walls of despair that imprison Palestinian youth, subverting the foundations of injustice that support those walls with the gospel of Christ Jesus.

This gospel is embodied through a safe place with wise and loving mentors, practical training in vocational trades that can equip youth to care for their families and take responsibility for their own welfare, as well as forge friendships that support a new hope and justice.

“Palestinians want skills, not relief; we want your friendship.”

jerichoymcapeternasir
Peter Nasir sharing with Jared of Washington and John of North Carolina

As a minority people in the Holy Land, Palestinians face complicated and dire circumstances. Palestinian Christians are a smaller minority amongst their people, yet they play a crucial role amidst the violent conflict as peace-makers.

The YMCA is a place where Palestinian Muslims and Christians can come together to build up hope, skills, wisdom, and aspirations for justice using non-violent, constructive means.

Jerichoymcasign

The Y has a special, highly respected, much-needed role in Jericho. In 1948 when Palestinians were driven out of Jerusalem and other major communities, it included Palestinian Christian leaders and staff at the Jerusalem International YMCA.

jerichoymcahistory2

They were thrust into dangerous, chaotic, desperate situations amongst their displaced people, whereupon they immediately began to put their Y mission into practice, organizing efforts to love, care and serve. Many Palestinians were sent to Jordan, thus going through Jericho, which is where Peter Nasir’s father concentrated his YMCA work.

It goes on today.

The experiences in Jericho with the Y caused me to reflect deeper about the youth in my own community who have their backs to a cliff. What is our Y doing for them? What can we learn from our fellow Palestinian YMCA leaders?

For me, I was struck by their clarity and resoluteness, how they grounded their Y work in the Christian mission, specifically for Peter it is the gospel of Jesus Christ. I was inspired by how they welcome and serve all the Christian and Muslim youth in their community that came to them.

What will be the motivation for our YMCA to come alongside youth with their backs to the wall?

onprinciple jericho ymca young men
Mike Bussey, former CEO of Jerusalem International YMCA with Jericho YMCA youth

Youth are driven to the cliff’s edge by violence, anxiety, vengefulness, despair, hate. What will motivate us to meet them in the darkness? To stay with them as long as it takes?

Jerichoycomputerclass
Jericho YMCA youth in a computer information technology class

Where does the light come from that we are seeking to bring to their place on the cliff?

From whence comes our strength, perseverance, loving-kindness, wisdom?

For Christians who engage in this kind of youth work, it becomes clear how much we must draw upon the strong, uniting, merciful Spirit of Christ, who calls us to such work, equips us for it, and sustains us.

Jerichosycamoretree
A 1,500 year old sycamore tree in Jericho.

Our visit with the Jericho YMCA ended with a devotion next to a sycamore tree, much like the one Zacchaeus climbed to see Jesus. This sacred place reminds us that Jesus sees us where we are; he sees us when we come looking for him.

And like this tree-climbing sinner, when we are seen by Jesus, we too are sent with a mission to embody the good news. We are sent to make right what we have wronged, to be generous with our resources, and to add light where there is darkness.

As little Christ’s, when we see youth with their back to the cliff, may they see Christ in us and respond to the invitation to a life of hope, meaning, justice, and peace. And may the YMCA continue to be a space where new life takes root, for all.

Jerichoymcawoodsign
Living Y sign in the Jericho facility