Like a Child | In Awe of God Playing Hide and Seek

John Rice March 1, 2024

“And Jesus said, ‘Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of God.’” Matthew 18:3

When I think of what makes a child a child, a lot of different and sometimes very contradictory things come to mind. For example, a child can be incredibly sweet and endearing, but they can also be very selfish and mean. They can show great love and give you undivided attention, but then they can turn around, totally ignore you and act as if you don’t matter at all. They can be playful and light-hearted and then, in the flash of a second, can turn and be moody and depressive.

So what was Jesus talking about when he said that to enter the kingdom of God, we must be like a child? Does he want us to be impetuous, unpredictable and lacking in self-control as children so often are? Or could it be simpler than that? Could it have less to do with our childlike personalities and more to do with his desire simply to be in a close, loving relationship with us, like a Father or a Mother? Maybe he wants to be for us like a good, good father who we recognize as our creator, our sustainer, our strength, our wisdom-giver… the one who loves us unconditionally? Does he simply want us to be dependent on him, like a little child is toward their good father or mother? I’m thinking this might be closer to the mark of what God is looking for.

Children generally love to play games, and an all-time favorite is Hide and Seek. It seems like sometimes God plays this game with us, his children. At times he seems to hide from us and other times he seeks us out. It seems we also try to hide from him at times and then at other times we seek him out.

Even as adults we are invited in the same way to look for God and to find him in sometimes the most unusual circumstances of our lives. Here are three examples, two that happened to two friends of mine and one that just recently happened to me.

Our friend, Betsy, lost her teenage son to a motorcycle accident. Wracked with grief, she held fast to the Lord but struggled with depression and a sense of hopelessness. After her son’s funeral she took home the flowers that had been displayed at the Memorial Service. One was a kind of lily that usually only blooms in the Spring. But exactly on her son’ birthday in the Fall, the lily bloomed with one large, beautiful flower. And then, after that flower had faded away, the plant did not blossom again until exactly Easter morning and this time it had three beautiful flowers. Both of these bloomings held great symbolic meaning for Betsy, who received them as a message from God that she was loved, her grief was seen and that her son was safe now and with his Heavenly Father.

I have another friend who lost his wife about three years ago. In deep grief, he went about his days doing what he needed to do with work and with others in his family, but he missed his wife terribly. One day while walking downtown with his head lowered, he noticed a dime on the sidewalk. Without thinking much about it, he leaned down and picked it up. The next day he was walking again in another part of town and, looking down, saw another dime on the sidewalk! This was interesting. It was not a penny, a nickel or a quarter, but a dime. The next day the same thing happened…and this continued to happen daily for weeks. When he was telling me about this, he was absolutely convinced that these daily dimes were secret little messages from God, saying, “I see you. I love you. You’re going to be ok. Your wife is here with me and doing well” and expressing other sentiments like this. This was a grown, middle-aged, intelligent man with a successful business who was convinced that God was spreading dimes out for him to find across the city! To me this sounds like a childlike faith in a game of “God’s Hide and Seek”.

My story is a little bit similar. This last Thanksgiving, I realized I was heading down into a funk that happens often during the winter holidays. I know it was in large part due to missing my wife, but it had also been a seasonal occurrence for many years, even before I was married. I had a wonderful holiday with my kids and grandkids, but this funk was simmering in the depths of my soul. One day when I was feeling especially discouraged, I glanced at the clock and it read 1:11. I thought nothing of it. Later that day I glanced at the clock and it read 5:55.

The next day I looked up to find 3:33. Sometime the next day I saw 4:44. I went to bed early and woke up to see 11:11. The next day I thought I’d check my email and the phone opened to show me it was 2:22. This went on till after the New Year and it actually is still happening from time to time now.

I absolutely know how crazy this might seem to people, especially non-believers, but I was convinced after the third or fourth occurrence that God was shooting me a quick little reminder that he was with me, that things would get better and be ok, that my wife was with him and doing well. So every time I see the clock show a time like that, I just smile and say “Thank you, Lord!”

Just like a little child.

About the Author

John lives in Pleasant Hill with his dog, Gunnar, and a multitude of guests who enjoy the peace and beauty of the Cascade foothills. With three children and three grandchildren all living in Oregon, he is continually blessed with their company and the good food that always accompanies their get-togethers!

Who Does God Say I Am? | A Thermometer or a Thermostat?

John Rice January 19, 2024

I’m willing to bet this could be among the strangest analogies you’ve ever heard with regard to what God has made us to be! It was so to me when I first saw it in a short reading from Brian McLaren of the Center for Action and Contemplation. But the more I thought about it, the more I appreciated the thought that Mr. McLaren was trying to convey. I’d like to do my best to break it down here in this blog entry.

There are so many scriptures where God speaks the most amazing, positive, loving things about us. If you are ever stuck in a compulsive thought cycle dwelling on your broken sinfulness, please do yourself a favor and do a scripture study of what God actually says about us. You might be surprised at how many ways God reveals his loving attitude toward us. You’ll find a lot of these scriptures in our current (and past) CitySalt blog entries. But to get to the topic of thermometers and thermostats, I’d start with Ephesians 2:10…

For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

To say we are God’s handiwork indicates that we are a creation in process, being formed, shaped and developed into someone he can use to carry out his purposes and plans on this earth. Nothing is static about God’s creation. Just look at the seasons, the movement of the solar system, the life cycle of plants, animals and humans. What are we to do with all this dynamic motion in our lives? How are we to respond to all the moving parts? Just looking at the current events in our world today, there is so much motion - but motion of the wrong kind. So much turmoil, so much destruction, so much hatred, so much fear, so much sorrow. It can be so overwhelming!

Well, here is where the thermometer analogy comes in. A thermometer simply reads the temperature in the room. It mirrors it. It absorbs it. It reflects it. In other words, it’s a pretty passive instrument. But what does a thermostat do? A thermostat can change the temperature in a room. It can adjust what’s happening around it. If you think of it in human terms, we have the power, supplied by God’s Holy Spirit, to de-escalate the tensions around us, to affect change in the negative environments, either in us or in those around us. We can be peacemakers. We can show love instead of fear and hatred. We can speak the truth in love, seasoned with grace… in a world whose natural tendency is to blame, take sides and fight.

There are certainly some ways we could get involved in problem-solving some of the large, global problems happening today. But we most definitely do have some influence in our daily lives at home, in our relationships, at work, in our neighborhood. It’s a powerful, godly thing to have compassion, to care. But if we leave it there, it’s a bit like a thermometer. If, however, we speak into it, if we show love rather than fear or hatred to someone, if we console someone or give to someone in need, as God directs us, then we are more like a thermostat…doing the good works God has prepared beforehand for us to do.

One of my favorite songs speaking to this subject is “Surely We Can Change” by the David Crowder Band. It goes like this:

And the problem is this
We were bought with a kiss
But the cheek still turned
Even when it wasn't hit
And I don't know
What to do with a love like that
And I don't know
How to be a love like that
When all the love in the world
Is right here among us
And hatred too
And so we must choose
What our hands will do

Where there is pain
Let there be grace
Where there is suffering
Bring serenity
For those afraid
Help them be brave
Where there is misery
Bring expectancy
And surely we can change
Surely we can change
Something
And the problem it seems
Is with you and me
Not the Love who came
To repair everything

And I don't know
What to do with a love like that
And I don't know
How to be a love like that
When all the love in the world
Is right here among us
And hatred too
And so we must choose
What our hands will do

Where there is pain
Let us bring grace
Where there is suffering
Bring serenity
For those afraid
Let us be brave
Where there is misery
Let us bring them relief
And surely we can change
Surely we can change
Oh surely we can change
Something
Oh, the world's about to change
The whole world's about to change

About the Author

In the Midst of Chaos | Light in the Darkness

John Rice December 1, 2023

I’ll bet if you stop and think about your life, you’d be able to identify at least a few times which could be labeled “chaotic”. I know for some people, the idea of a “few times'' would be grossly understated! I, myself, am a person who highly values stability and predictability and can get overwhelmed pretty quickly when things are out of whack. All my stress hormones activate when something happens as simple as my tractor not starting (which actually happened this week). “What am I going to do! I don’t have time for this! There’s so much I need this tractor for. I have mountains of leaves to take care of before they kill all the grass and the whole yard is a muddy mess! It’ll probably take forever to fix and be expensive too. How can I even get this thing to a repair shop? Why didn’t I learn more about engine repair? Aaargghh!!” On and on it goes...and this is all about a simple blip on the radar of life. Imagine what happens with a major one!

It seems people have been dealing with chaos since the beginning of time. And I seriously mean since the beginning of time. Looking back at the first chapter of Genesis in the Bible, we can already see a situation described as chaotic in Genesis 1:2

The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.

According to the Brown-Driver-Briggs Lexicon, the words “without form” and “void” are translations of the Hebrew words tohu and bohu. Tohu and bohu are often paired together in the Old Testament and portray a “place of chaos, formlessness, emptiness, a wasteland.”

The universe itself was described as chaotic before the Lord took action and brought some order to it. It’s interesting to think of the Holy Spirit hovering over it all, going to and fro, as if taking time to develop the best plan for establishing and developing the planet Earth and the whole universe beyond. What strikes me most is what the Lord does as the very first step: He turns the light on!! How wonderful is that? Think about it…when things are chaotic around you, one of the first things you need is some clarity to see what’s going on. Clarity may not be the total solution to bring order out of chaos, but it certainly is a major necessity if we want to best understand the situation we’re in, so that we can take a step to bring whatever order is in our power to do so.

After God turns the light on, the most amazing universe begins to take shape. The Creation is so awesome as it unfolds, that we can easily forget it all began with light to see with. This theme of light shining in the darkness continues throughout the Bible as a symbol of clarity, wisdom and understanding, safety and goodness. There are far too many scriptures about light to mention here, but here are a few of them:

Exodus 13 God gave a pillar of fire to give light at night for the escaping Israelite slaves.

Psalm 4:6 Let the light of your face shine upon us!

Psalm 27:1 The Lord is my light and my salvation.

Psalm 119:105 Your word is a lamp unto my feet and a light for my path.

Isaiah 2:5 Let us walk in the light of the Lord!

Isaiah 60:19 The Lord will be your everlasting light.

The highlight of all the passages about light is that Jesus Christ himself is called the Light of the World!

John 1:4 In Him was life and that life was the light of the world.

What do we need to move from chaos to peace? We need clarity, understanding and wisdom… we need Jesus!! Even in the smallest things (like my tractor that wouldn’t work), it helps to start with turning on the light with a prayer to the one who knows all things. Quite literally I asked the Lord in my frustration what I could do to resolve my tractor situation. Sitting with that a while and running through a bunch of options that kept hitting dead ends, the thought came to me that maybe there was a mobile repairman who could come help me out. I googled “mobile small engine repair” and found a couple. I contacted one who immediately came out from Veneta on his Harley and who got my tractor running in less than 30 minutes! And not only was that a huge burden off my shoulders, but now I knew someone who could help in the future if I need him (and I surely will). In faith, I believe Jesus gave me the idea of a mobile repairman.

I know it may seem a little silly to apply the concept of light in the darkness, clarity out of chaos, to fixing a tractor that had gone kaput, but to me it confirms the notion that there is nothing too small or insignificant for Jesus to help us with. And at the same time, imagine how he can help with the major disruptions of our lives! We’ll certainly have both big and small moments of chaos throughout our lives. How reassuring to have a connection to the Light Himself as we make our way through to the other side.

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Joyous Lament | A Look into Joyous Lamenting

John Rice September 22, 2023

It seems to me we humans are practically geniuses when it comes to avoiding pain, sorrow or suffering. Some of us seek out drugs, alcohol, food or sex to avoid our pain and then run the risk of becoming addicted to our “drug of choice”.

But there are so many other, more subtle ways of avoiding pain that may go more easily unnoticed, until something in our lives breaks down and brings it all to our attention or to the attention of our friends and family. One of these things might be working to the point of neglecting everything else, a condition known as “workaholism”. One way might be buying things, a condition we could call “shopping therapy”. Another might be sports and games which we move toward whenever we have free time. And one very common way we try to avoid pain is by denying it altogether! This may be the most subtle of all our tactics. It’s a bit of a mental game we play which can pose as a very spiritual practice.

We Christians are especially good at this one. When we are hurting, we’ve learned to say “Oh, it’s nothing. I’m fine.” Quickly turning from the suffering or pain, we jump ahead to the declarations, “God is good! I have faith! I’m not really sick or hurt or grieving or lonely or angry, etc.”

It seems to me that while we certainly do want to claim God’s power to heal, His goodness and our faith in Him, we would do well to first acknowledge the truth of the matter and submit to what our bodies and souls are trying to tell us! My wife used to say, “Our bodies never lie.” I think she was so right about that. What is that tightness around our shoulders really about? What is that gnawing sensation in our stomachs really trying to tell us? Why am I sweating when it’s not hot out? Why do I look the other way when I see a troubling scene? The answer is not always obvious and sometimes we might not get an answer until after the fact, but at the very least we can tell God about it!

This is where some of God’s people can help us. The people who wrote the Psalms understood very well the importance of being honest with God. They understood that God was OK with our honesty. Didn’t Jesus say, “The truth will set us free?” I think one of my favorite examples of honesty in the Bible is from the writer of Lamentations 3:19-24:

I remember my affliction and my wandering, the bitterness and the gall. I well remember them and my soul is downcast within me.

Only then does the writer say:

Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope: Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for His compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness. I say to myself, “The Lord is my portion; therefore I will wait for Him.”

This is such a good example to me of the importance of being open and honest with God, while still remembering His goodness, love, faithfulness and power to work in our lives. And the result of this is a kind of deep joy and peace. This is why we can call our troubles “joyous lamenting”.

One practice I’ve been taught for helping me not avoid my negative feelings is called the Welcoming Prayer. It’s simply that when we recognize fear, hurt, grief, anger or any hard or negative feeling, we don’t push it out of our consciousness and seek some kind of salve to dull it. Instead, we acknowledge it and then say “Welcome, grief! Welcome, anger! Welcome, hurt!” We welcome it into our deepest soul, where then God can deal with it and show us how best to deal with it.

I know this Welcoming Prayer sounds a bit crazy:), but try it! You may just find yourself experiencing the healthy joy of the Lord sooner than you would have thought. The power of the negative feeling is overwhelmed and diminished, but not denied, knowing that God is actively involved… and He knows best how to work in any situation. This opens wide the door for “joyous lament”!

About the Author

The Joy of Being Human | A Holy Human Triangle

John Rice August 4, 2023

An older, wiser man once told me that for a human to be healthy, happy and whole, he or she needed to exercise a triangle of work, rest and play. Interestingly, as I reflected on my personality and habits at the time, I was pretty decent at work, so-so at rest and terrible at play! I was told more than once during those days that I was a serious soul that needed to lighten up!

Looking back at the wise man’s words, I really appreciate the emphasis that he put on the balance of work, rest and play. Too much of one or two of those made for a wobbly life that could very easily lead to some kind of breakdown. Believe it or not, trying to introduce more play into my life was a bit awkward and intimidating. It was like a foreign concept. I still avoid board games like the plague (very weird, I know). I think it’s because I feel caught, just sitting there doing nothing productive. But I did learn to develop some other, more physical activities of play like swimming, paddle boarding, tennis, cycling. Sometimes I can even enjoy playing cards, chess or backgammon. What a breakthrough!

I wonder if Jesus lived a life with this healthy triangle. Certainly we know he worked. Think of all that teaching, healing, and casting out of demons. He seemed to know how to rest by going out “backpacking” on mountains alone to be with God. But did he play? There are not too many examples of him playing that I can think of, but we can surmise from his love and inclusion of children, that he knew how to play. I have also seen some movie interpretations of his life where he is occasionally very playful with his mother and friends. I can imagine those interpretations hit close to home! His interactions with the more legalistic Pharisees have the background message, “Lighten up! Enjoy being human! Laws were made for the benefit of mankind, not simply to trap him into rules, duties and obligations which often lead to either pride (for being good at them) or guilt (for being bad at them).”

Jesus went to weddings. He went to dinner parties. He appreciated and commented on the beauty of nature, of the goodness of Creation. I can imagine he was a person we would really enjoy hanging out with. He is our friend after all. If he noticed us getting too “religious,” he might even encourage us to “lighten up” and enjoy life a bit more!

The prophet Nehemiah wrote, “Go and enjoy choice food and sweet drinks, and send some to those who have nothing prepared. This day is holy to the Lord. Do not grieve, for the JOY of the Lord is our strength!” Nehemiah 8:10

Do you work? Do you rest? Do you play? Do you need to “lighten up?” Is there a balance of these things in your life? Maybe you can think of other things that are helpful to live a healthy, happy and whole life! It seems so easy to focus on the negative things of life, the suffering, the hurt, the injustice. How might our lives be different if we focused on the joy of being human, the appreciation of this amazing planet we live on, loved by God and by other people…with opportunities to love them back!

About the Author

In His Image | Who are We? The Roots of Our Identity

John Rice May 19, 2023

I remember a number of years ago when I left my habitual morning quiet time earlier than usual because I had so much to do that day. I walked up to the tractor port to get on the tractor and start some major mowing I needed to get done. I felt bad, and a little guilty, for ditching God so fast…and for something so mundane as mowing! You see, some years prior to that morning I had learned how important it was to spend time with God first thing in the morning. I felt bad about my priorities and also that, having messed up that morning, I would now have to wait until the next morning to do better.

While mowing I suddenly had a revelation! Just because I left my quiet time didn’t mean I had left God or that He had left me. He was with me every bit as much on the tractor as he was with me in the quiet little office chair. Now I know what you’re thinking: that is the most obvious thing you’ve ever heard. And it seems that way to me nowadays too. But I became aware how compartmentalized I was with my spiritual life. God was only present when I asked Him to be present and when I was doing something “religious,” like sitting in a chair with my Bible open? Whaaat? God is THAT stingy with His presence?

Then the words of Michael W. Smith’s song came to mind, “This is the air I breathe, this is the air I breathe, Your holy presence living in me.” Those thoughts took me to Genesis 2:7, “Then the Lord God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.” So if God breathed life into all mankind, and, last I checked, I was still breathing, He must be continuously breathing His life into me, and that would mean anywhere and everywhere I found myself, He is with me! This opened up a whole new freedom for me. This helped break down the compartmentalization I had lived with all my Christian life.

We read in Deuteronomy 31:8 that God told Moses, “The Lord himself goes before you and will be with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged.”

And then in 1 Corinthians 3:16, “Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in your midst” – midst meaning in your heart, in your lungs, in your belly, in your gut, in your head, in your feet…in short, all over inside us! We are completely filled with our amazing God.

Doesn’t that make you wonder about us, about our identity? Who are we then? Well, we all know we are not perfect and we are not all-powerful; we didn’t call the Creation into being (If you don’t know this, we might suggest a good psychiatrist for you.) But even in our imperfection and our finite abilities, to know that the Lord God has given us life and breath and lives with us always, must say to us that we are incredibly blessed by the One (who CAN do all things) choosing to live within us, filling us up with every spiritual blessing in Christ (Ephesians 1:3).

In Genesis 1:27 and 31, it reads “God created mankind in His own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female He created them …God saw all that He had made, and it was very good.”

Certainly we all mess up and sin, and we need to look into submitting our unwise behaviors and thoughts to God so they can be transformed into the good things He intended, but how about starting from the awareness of our deepest self, our roots, which are very good and made in God’s image? With that perspective, sin loses its place as our primary concern. Our primary concerns then can be praising this amazingly gracious God who loves us so much as to fill us up with Him!

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Trusting Our Mysterious God | Mysterious God, Mysterious Bible

John Rice March 10, 2023

I’m guessing it doesn’t come as much of a surprise to you when I say that there is a lot of mystery surrounding God. If God is truly God, the one who created the entire universe, then He is hugely bigger, wiser, stronger, more creative and more capable than we are or could ever be. Am I right about that? How could we possibly understand everything about Him: how He thinks, how He creates, what He plans, why He does what He does, how He breathes life into His creation? There are so many mysteries… and yet, in an amazing act of love toward us, He has given us at least SOME idea of who He is. He does this in three ways: the Bible, our experience of Him and what other believers throughout the ages share about their experiences with Him. With these three things, some common themes come to the surface and give us a bit of clarity about this great God of ours.

The question is often asked: if the Bible is the inspired word of God, why is the Old Testament so different from the New Testament? In some ways they seem to present a different God altogether. In the Old Testament books like Joshua and Judges, God can be seen as a punishing, vindictive, even blood-thirsty warrior and judge intent on wiping out pagan unbelievers. Sometimes not just the warriors of those nations, but even the women, children and animals. How could this be the same God that Jesus presents in the New Testament as the God of love who would ask us to even love our enemies? To turn and give the other cheek to one who slaps us? To be a peacemaker who will inherit the kingdom of God?

How about this possible explanation of why the two written Testaments of the Bible seem to present such different descriptions of God: Could it be that we have an over-zealous understanding of what it means that the Bible is “inspired by God?” What is inspiration and what does it mean when applied to the writing of the Bible? It is clearly stated in 2 Timothy 3:16-17 that “All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.” Since the New Testament hadn’t even been written at the time Paul is writing this letter to Timothy, he must be referring to the Old Testament. Aiyaiyai! Does this mean God really is the punishing, killing Warrior God?

But wait. Jesus spent much of his teaching time in correcting, or reinterpreting what was said in the Old Testament. Remember in Matthew 5 when he says multiple times “You have heard it said, but I say…” It’s not just “do not murder,” it’s “do not even be angry with a brother or sister.” It’s not just “do not commit adultery,” it’s “do not even look with lust on a woman.” It’s not “an eye for an eye and tooth for a tooth,” it’s “do not resist an evil person. Turn to him the other cheek.” And it’s not just “love your neighbor and hate your enemy,” it’s “Love your enemy and pray for those who persecute you.”

Is Jesus saying that the Old Testament was not inspired? Or might he have been saying to read the inspired Old Testament like stories with a deeper, symbolic meaning, not necessarily a literal one. Maybe he was saying not to take all Scripture at face value, but rather as parables like he used a lot in his teaching. Remember how his disciples would get confused because Jesus taught in parables so often? Did he like to use parables because God truly IS so mysterious, and literal words don’t help us understand Him as much as pictures in our souls do and/or the inner witness of the Holy Spirit’s presence?

We humans are interpreting all the time. We can’t help it. It’s how we make sense of what we’re seeing, hearing, and experiencing. It’s not surprising that the writers of the Old Testament were writing what they understood. They were experiencing God in the middle of a culture of warfare, a time of kill or be killed. They were living in a time when child sacrifice was rampant in their part of the world. They knew they were set apart by a different kind of God, a good God, a powerful God. They knew they were special. They told their stories about God around their campfires as they moved around the deserts, mountains and valleys of the Middle East. They interpreted what happened to them as best they knew how from their worldview. And then eventually these stories were written down for us to read… thousands of years later in a very different culture!

What this shows us is that the people in Jesus’ time and before him had the propensity for misinterpreting the Scripture, just as all of us do. They were often missing the point. Sometimes we miss the point. So what is the point?

I believe it is summed up beautifully and succinctly in 1 John 4:16 “God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them.” And in John 15:12 “My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you.” And in John 15:14 “You are my friends if you do what I command.”

Jesus is the Way, the Truth and the Life. I’d put all my money on following HIS interpretation of Scripture and of the corresponding witness of the Holy Spirit that promises to lead us into all Truth. May my interpretation of Scripture, Old and New, always be submitted before these deep truths: God is Love! God loves me! God loves you! And God loves all that He has created!

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Fruits of the Spirit | Joy

John Rice January 13, 2023

One of the most wonderfully surprising scriptures I’ve come across is this one in the book of Nehemiah:

Nehemiah 8:9-12
Nehemiah, the governor, and Ezra, the priest and scribe, and the Levites who were instructing the people said to them all, “This day is sacred to the Lord your God. Do not mourn or weep.” For all the people had been weeping as they listened to the words of the Law.

Nehemiah said, “Go and enjoy choice food and sweet drinks, and send some to those who have nothing prepared. This day is sacred to our Lord. Do not grieve, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.”

The Levites calmed all the people, saying, “Be still, for this is a sacred day. Do not grieve.”

Then all the people went away to eat and drink, to send portions of food and to celebrate with great joy, because now they understood the words that had been made known to them.

Were you a little surprised by something too? For a little context, many of the Israelites, especially the wealthy, the educated and those skilled in the trades, were taken as slaves to Babylon in 586 BCE. The “less useful” people were left in Judea where Jerusalem lay. Life was extremely harsh for the Judeans under the Babylonians (You might remember the story of Daniel and the lion’s den and fiery furnace).

Over time, Babylonia was conquered by the Persians, who treated the Israelite captives much better than the Babylonians had. The king of the Persians, Artaxerxes, even allowed the Jews who wanted to return to the the land of their ancestors, to do so. The governor of the region of Judea was Nehemiah. The priest during this time was Ezra. Nehemiah learns that the walls of Jerusalem were crumbling and, after much prayer, asked King Artaxerxes if he could go back and rebuild the walls. Amazingly, Artaxerxes agreed! The walls were rebuilt with a lot of resistance from the neighboring Samaritans who hated and feared the Jews. But the Jews succeeded and the city was safe to live in again, or at least safer. To celebrate this great moment, all the Jews gathered in one place and the priest Ezra read from the Bible in the presence of all the people. They began crying with tears of sorrow and shame, understanding that they had been taken away captive as a consequence of their ignoring and disobeying their God.

Wallowing in this sense of remorse and guilt, you might have expected the priest and the governor to have exacted some punishments or acts of contrition from the people: possibly fasting from food, wearing burlap and/or pouring ashes over their heads, as was the custom. But what did the leaders instruct the people to do? Go eat, go drink, be joyful…and be sure to share with those who don’t have anything! And to top it off, they taught the people that the joy of the Lord is their strength!

It seems to me we can learn so much about our God from this story. How often do we sink into guilt and shame because of our wrongdoing? We might even feel it is the right thing to do, if we are to be humble people. But the wisdom from this story reminds us that sinking into an introspective funk is not helpful to us or to those around us. Instead, this wisdom seems to say, “Yes, you’ve done wrong. Yes, you need to change your ways. But turn to the Lord who is ever-forgiving and ever-loving and demonstrate your love back to him by rejoicing in his goodness and looking how to serve other people who don’t have as much as you do.” Wow! How awesome that is, and “just like God” to focus on the good and to see how we might help others. God seems truly committed to getting us out of our heads and egos, and into the goodness of the universe around us.

Have you ever experienced that when you’re suffering from shame, you feel weakened? Conflicted? Self-conscious? Lacking in clarity and confidence? I sure have. So I’m thankful to be reminded that it’s the JOY of the Lord that gives us strength. I’m thankful for the advice to confess my sin honestly, but then to get up, stand up, celebrate God’s goodness and live life alongside other folks whom he loves so much. Not to mention…..eat some good food and drink some good drinks! Thank you, Lord!

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Truth in Love | Responding in Truth and Love

John Rice November 4, 2022

Whoever said that being a Christian made life easier?! I’m not sure what “Christian life” they’re talking about, but it’s been my experience that walking with Jesus and seeking to follow His teachings has been anything but easy! It has certainly been better… just not easier. One example of this is trying to follow Paul’s exhortation to speak the truth in love. It seems so often that I can either speak the truth without the right spirit of love and respect for the other person, or I can act “lovingly” but hide the truth.

While I recognize these kinds of difficult commands can best be accomplished by the overflow of God’s love in us and through us, I have also found a few helpful tips along the way through the teachings of good counselors, who have learned to work with people to help resolve their relationship difficulties. I’d like to offer one of those tips here. It’s known as the “STOP Process” and was introduced to me by Carolyn Rexius, the founding director of CAFA (Christians As Family Advocates).

How the “STOP Process” might help us in speaking the truth in love is that it trains us to thoughtfully respond rather than hastily react to someone who rubs us the wrong way. Here’s how it works: when we experience the brunt of someone’s anger, criticism, or otherwise negative attitude, we learn to slow down and examine the situation before reacting with defensiveness or a counter-attack. When our emotions are triggered and we are tempted to react quickly, if we follow these few steps we may well be able to respond out of love and respect.

The “S” literally stands for “STOP”. Take some time before reacting or saying anything. Picture a STOP sign in your mind. Take 10 deep breaths and ask yourself a question or two. This brings the situation out of your fight or flight brain and into your thinking brain. The two don’t work well together!

The “T” stands for “Take Time to Identify Your Feelings.” Why is it that you’re reacting with such strong emotion to what was said or done? Be honest.

The “O” stands for “Opt to Give Yourself and the Other Person the Benefit of the Doubt.” What might the other person have been going through that has them stressed or angry before they even encountered you? What are you going through? Realize you also might be especially tired, hungry or stressed from other aspects of your life that make this current situation seem worse than it is.

The “P” stands for “Process the Event from a Place of Self-value, with Openness, Curiosity, Humility and Compassion.” After all this thinking brain work (which is also the part of the brain where our compassion and spirituality resides), we are much more likely to let go of our defensiveness and be able to respond to the other person from a place of reason and thoughtfulness, which has the effect of de-escalating the rough emotions all around.

As I’ve mentioned, this is not necessarily an easy process, but it does become easier and more automatic over time and with practice. The Lord always helps us when we attempt to follow his ways. There are numerous scriptures we can turn to as well:

Proverbs 4:23
Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.

Romans 12:2
Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is – his good, pleasing and perfect will.

Proverbs 23:7
For as a man thinketh in his heart, so is he.

Galatians 5:22
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.

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Ephesians 4 | Grieving the Holy Spirit

John Rice August 12, 2022

Ephesians 4:30 NKJV
And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.

The idea that God is Three-in-One and One-in-Three will most likely always be a mystery to me …and I’m guessing to many other people as well. It’s a little helpful when I consider how much bigger God is than we humans are and, because of that, He doesn’t easily fit into the logical boxes we construct to try and understand things. To be honest, I’m glad I can’t completely understand God! If I could, I’m not sure He would be such a big God. And even though I know He is much more than a Father, Son and Holy Spirit, these familiar names are helpful to me to get some kind of idea of what He’s like.

Toward the end of Ephesians 4, which speaks mostly about keeping unity in the Body of Christ, Paul makes an interesting command. He says, “Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God.”

What? The Holy Spirit of God can grieve? How is that possible? And we have the power to grieve the Holy Spirit? Oh no! That sounds like something we should really look into. Surely no one really sets out to grieve the Holy Spirit. But if we can, then apparently sometimes we do, and if that is true, then what does it mean, how do we do it and how can we not do it?

Before looking into this, there are a couple of other commands in the Bible that seem related to how we can affect the Spirit of God: do not quench the Holy Spirit (1Thessalonians 5:19) and do not blaspheme the Holy Spirit (Mark 3:29). So we can grieve, quench and blaspheme the Holy Spirit. I think these are topics we would do well to look into.

To grieve someone means to cause them sorrow. An online definition of the word I found on helpguide.org states, “Grieving is the natural response to loss.” If the Holy Spirit is responding to a loss of some kind, what kind of loss is it? I’m thinking it’s most likely a loss of closeness to us or a rift between us in some way. Could it be that the Holy Spirit loves nothing more than to be close and connected to us? God expresses His love for his creation when He says in Genesis 2, He created light and it was good; He created the earth and all its natural movements and He called it good; He created light and oceans and animals and humans; and He called them all very good. God is love and He loves all His creation.

Throughout the Old and New Testaments we see God’s love at work in various ways: He provides for us, He liberates us, He teaches us, He guides us and He warns us of dangers to us and to those around us. It’s no wonder He is often represented as the good father (though He could also be, and sometimes is, represented as the good mother.) So if God loves us so much, it would make sense that He would grieve over anything that would disrupt our relationship with Him.

In Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, he mentions some of the things that can grieve God’s Spirit: being ignorant of God and having a hard heart, being greedy, impure in thought and deed, lying, allowing our anger to go unchecked, stealing, speaking ungraciously, holding bitterness, squabbling or fighting, slandering, and acting maliciously in any way.

And why does God hate these things? Because in practicing these things we disrupt our relationships with other people…the very people He loves! And in doing so, we injure our own souls as well. This is the opposite of what the Spirit wants for us. So He grieves. But He doesn’t just say to not do these things. He also shows us the ways that please Him: speak the truth in love, build up one another, grow in Jesus, be renewed in your mind, be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another. Be imitators of God, live in love. This is our new self, mirroring God’s love back to Him, as well as to others and to ourselves.

I mentioned that the Bible also notes that we can quench the Holy Spirit. In 1Thessalonians 5:14-22, Paul admonishes us to encourage the faint-hearted, help the weak and be patient. He says not to repay evil for evil, but always seek to do good to one another and to all. He exhorts us to rejoice always, to pray without ceasing and to give thanks in all circumstances. Hold fast to what is good. Do not quench the Holy Spirit.

The ideas of quenching and grieving are really very similar, but they offer different images: grieving is to cause sorrow to someone; quenching is a word used when talking about putting out a fire. The Bible often refers to the Holy Spirit as fire. Remember the “tongues of fire” appearing over the disciples at Pentecost in Acts 2? Or the burning bush that spoke to Moses in the desert in Exodus 3? The Spirit is like a fire in our souls, giving us warmth and energy that never burns out. Apparently Paul is wanting to say that, although we can never diminish the Holy Spirit Himself, we can certainly diminish the fire within our souls by making ourselves insensitive to the grace and power of the Spirit that is within us.

It seems to me, the most serious of all admonitions in the Bible is Jesus warning that “anyone who speaks a word against (blasphemes) the Son of Man will be forgiven, but anyone who blasphemes the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, in this age or in the age to come.” (Matthew 12:32) What can this mean? How very sobering! Commentators have said that the difference between “blaspheming” as mentioned by Jesus in Matthew and “grieving or quenching” as mentioned by Paul, is that Jesus is referring to someone who forever and ever despises the Spirit of God, despises all things good, and set their hearts to do evil constantly. Grieving and quenching are simply the results of our ignorance or weak humanity, but with someone whose true desire is to follow God and be like God, in other words, a person directed by love.

God is love. His love never fails. We are the ones who can distance ourselves from Him and His love by our thoughts, attitudes and behaviors. Thankfully, knowledge of this reality is mentioned in the Bible all the way through by the Prophets, in the Psalms and Proverbs, by the Apostles and by Jesus Himself. Love gives wisdom and knowledge. Love warns. Love forgives when we mess up “seventy times seven times.” And Love gives us the power and strength to live a life that builds up, instead of diminishes, our relationship with our good God. Thank you, Jesus!

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Unity | Invitation to Community

John Rice April 22, 2022

There are a lot of lonely people in the world. And I’m not just talking about the intense loneliness many people experienced during the recent time of Pandemic shut-down and isolation. I’m talking about the existential loneliness experienced by many of us every day – by not feeling connected, not being understood, not being accepted, not being loved. Loneliness is a powerfully devastating state which can lead to insecurity, fear, anxiety, stress, depression, antisocial behavior and a host of physical, mental and emotional illnesses. Studies show that many youths join dangerous street gangs simply because they are lonely and are offered a community to belong to. Spiritually speaking, loneliness can pervert a person’s view of God and rob their lives of any meaning.

You may remember one of the Beatles’ songs, “Eleanor Rigby”. The lyrics go like this:

Ah, look at all the lonely people
Ah, look at all the lonely people
Eleanor Rigby
Picks up the rice in the church where a wedding has been
Lives in a dream
Waits at the window
Wearing the face that she keeps in a jar by the door
Who is it for?

All the lonely people
Where do they all come from?
All the lonely people
Where do they all belong?

Father McKenzie
Writing the words of a sermon that no one will hear
No one comes near
Look at him working
Darning his socks in the night when there's nobody there
What does he care?

All the lonely people
Where do they all come from?
All the lonely people
Where do they all belong?

Ah, look at all the lonely people
Ah, look at all the lonely people

Eleanor Rigby
Died in the church and was buried along with her name
Nobody came
Father McKenzie
Wiping the dirt from his hands as he walks from the grave
No one was saved

All the lonely people (ah, look at all the lonely people)
Where do they all come from?
All the lonely people (ah, look at all the lonely people)
Where do they all belong?

Sorry for the depressing song! But I think it paints a good picture of a world full of lonely people.

I recently returned from a CitySalt Staff Retreat where we spent a good portion of our weekend just sharing our life stories with one another. That proved to be a rich time, and even though we didn’t get as much practical work done as was planned on the agenda, it seemed somehow more important. We came away more like a team, more like a community, rather than just a group of individuals with ideas.

One thing shared during the retreat really caught my attention. Talking about the Church at large and the way Christian culture has developed over the centuries, it was mentioned that often a person must first Believe (all the right things), then secondly Become (more like the predominant Christian culture around them), and finally then they are allowed to Belong (to the community).

It was pointed out that this is exactly backwards!

If a person is first invited to Belong (just because Christ loves them), then they will start to Become more like Jesus (as God’s love and the Holy Spirit work in their lives) and then Belief will more likely flow naturally, as the person experiences the goodness and love of the Lord through the community.

Isn’t that a fantastic way to look at it!

And what is then our charge as individuals and as a church? Practicing hospitality and extending invitations of belonging to our community, are sacred practices. Think of how Jesus invited everyone he met to come to him, spend time with him, follow him: lepers, prostitutes, tax-collectors, and those demon-possessed were included. He even invited the most resistant class of all, the Pharisees who opposed him and were trying to destroy him (think Nicodemus in John 3).

John 3:16
For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

Jesus is inclusive, not exclusive.

Hebrews 13:2
Do not forget to show hospitality to strangers, for by so doing some people have shown hospitality to angels without knowing it.

One of the most poignant instances of Jesus’ invitation to belong is found in John 14:1-3. Speaking to his followers, he says:

My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.

What an invitation! How personal and relational this is! Can you sense the emotion, the love, that Jesus is expressing with these words?

We all have a fundamental need to belong to a family, a group, a community. Loneliness and isolation are not healthy places to live. If we can do anything at all to help those suffering in that way, even as small an act as giving them a drink when they’re thirsty, Jesus says we are “giving a drink of water” to Jesus himself! He identifies that closely with the suffering of the lonely and the outcast! (See Matthew 25:35-40.)

It seems to me that we can best follow Jesus’ call to love our neighbor by hearing our neighbor’s story, respecting their story, and wherever they may be on life’s path, inviting them into our fellowship to whatever degree is possible. That alone just might be enough to awaken a hunger and thirst for more, a hunger and thirst for Him who truly can satisfy our longing for connection and our need for belonging.

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Rhema | Listening for the Living Word

John Rice December 31, 2021

In our current blog series, all of the blog writers are looking at the concept of “rhema,” a Greek word meaning “the living word of God.” I really like the definition given by the pastor and author, Bill Hamon. He states "A rhema is an inspired Word birthed within your own spirit, a whisper from the Holy Spirit like the still, small voice that spoke to Elijah in the cave. It is a divinely inspired impression upon your soul, a flash of thought or a creative idea from God. It is conceived in your spirit, but birthed into your natural understanding by divine illumination. A true rhema carries with it a deep inner assurance and witness of the Spirit."[1]

I was privileged to experience the “living word” of God as a fairly young follower of Jesus. At that time I was an extreme loner, going days without speaking to anyone, a “rock and an island” as the old Simon and Garfunkel song went. But meeting Jesus was a genuine life-changer for me . I wanted to know Him better and better, so I spent a good bit of time reading the Bible. One day I was reading Matthew 22:36-40:

Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”

Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’

To my great surprise, when I read the last verse, it was as if a neon light was flashing to get my attention (figuratively, not literally, I’d better add). But at the same time, a thought came into my head like a voice from outside, asking me “How can you love your neighbor if you are never with him?”

This was not a thought I generated. I was happy to love my neighbor (as if I really had a clue what that entailed) from the solitude of my own little quiet world. This voiced question was challenging me to join the human race, to start moving within the circles of other people, to establish relationships. I was not to be a “rock and an island” anymore. That’s the message I got that day. Though it was encouraging me out of my comfort zone, it rang true, like a witness in my spirit of THE Spirit. I believe it was God and the very fact that He would communicate something to me was truly awesome. I knew He cared, like a good Father.

Over the years I have had a few more of these experiences, but what I’d like to share now is that I’ve learned a way to encourage God’s living word to us. It’s called “Lectio divina” which is Latin for “sacred reading.” The Latin name reflects how old this type of Scriptural reading is (from the 6th century), but it continues today to be a blessing in our personal relationships with God. A short description of the practice speaks of taking just a few verses of the Bible, reading them several times very slowly, while asking God to show you what He’d like you to see. When you’ve settled on a word, phrase or concept, you meditate on it, thinking of everything you can that is related to it. Then you speak to God about it. You listen for Him, you share your thoughts, you listen, you pray, back and forth like a real conversation. It’s often at this point where you understand why you were supposed to stop and focus on this particular verse and what, if anything, you are to do about it. Then finally, you just sit quietly in the Presence of God for a bit, like you would in the presence of a good friend, where nothing is required, nothing is judged, just enjoying each other’s company.

To close, I’ll share a quick “sacred reading” from the other day. I was reading John 15:1-4:

“I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.

I felt I was to focus on the phrase that is in bold above. I began to recognize some things I was doing out of habit that weren’t helpful in my desire to abide in Jesus. They weren’t especially bad things, only distracting things that subtly bumped me off center. My prayer was then to ask Jesus to go ahead and prune those things from me and show me how I’m supposed to participate!

God is so good. He wants relationship with us more than any perfection in our behavior. He wants our participation and seems to honor even our stumbling attempts at it. He truly wants to transform us from the inside out to be more like Him, when we’ll experience ever greater freedom and love.

1. Bill Hamon (1987). Prophets and Personal Prophecy: God's Prophetic Voice Today Volume 1. Shippensburg, PA: Destiny Image Publishers, Inc.

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Cycles | Kintsugi

John Rice August 27, 2021

Have you ever experienced a season of goodness long enough that you started taking it for granted? Or that you started to believe that maybe if you kept living an exemplary life, it never would have to be interrupted?

I used to think life was supposed to be something always within my comfort zone, something kind of easy peasy, with just a bit of challenge thrown in to be interesting. If life happened to throw me a major curve ball, it was certainly from the devil.

Whether it is the devil on the other end of the imperfections, disruptions or catastrophes of our lives, I can’t say for sure, but one thing I do know is that life is full of good and bad, easy and difficult, joy and sorrow - and no one is exempt. Sometimes our own choices lead us down the wrong path and we end up injured, addicted or broken in some way.

Have you ever gotten trapped in an unhealthy habit which you felt powerless to escape from? I have. And I know many people who have as well. In those entanglements, people often have to “hit bottom” before they will finally reach out to find the help and resources they need to get free. And often when we think we (or someone we know) has hit bottom, we haven’t quite yet, and have to fall even deeper before we hit it. This is such a hard thing to experience for ourselves or watch happen to someone we love. It is really like a series of small deaths: a death of dreams and expectations, a death of our belief in rational solutions and spiritual platitudes, a death in believing that we are better than this.

I now no longer expect life to always be easy and happy, though thankfully sometimes it is. I know we will all experience “small deaths” while we are living on this earth. But I’ve seen enough of these that I’ve learned a very important truth: God’s grace is always deeper than we could ever fall. Hitting bottom is really falling into His hands, though it might not feel like that at the time. As we let God help us recover, we also can notice an amazing consequence: He fills in the broken areas of our lives with His “Gold Glue”.

In Colossians 1:17 it is written,
Jesus is before all things and in Him all things hold together.

He holds all things together and certainly that includes us and all our broken pieces! An ancient Japanese technique illustrates this well for us. It is called kintsugi and it is a practice used to restore broken pottery. Kintsugi is founded on the principle that just because something is broken does not mean it should be thrown away. Rather, it should be honored for its life and beauty by restoring it to wholeness through applying a glue filled with gold flakes. The effect is stunning. Though one will always be able to see where the piece of pottery was once broken, it now serves the purpose it was intended for with streaks of gold that “hold all things together” and now shines with an interesting and exceptional beauty.

Jesus is before all things and after all things, the Alpha and Omega. He holds all things together during our life here on earth, during our transition to the after-life, and in the heavenlies as well! There is nowhere that His grace is not present.

Isaiah states it so beautifully in Chapter 61:
God has sent me to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners…..and to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of joy instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair.

To God, absolutely no one is a “throw away.” Not only does God restore, repair and honor His broken people, sometimes He even allows us to participate with Him in this work by helping others we know who are experiencing brokenness of some kind. This all sounds like pure gold to me!!

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Guarding Your Soul

John Rice September 18, 2020

Introduction:

This blog post was originally posted in the summer of 2016.

This morning I woke up so thankful for the rain. I did a search on our CitySalt website for ‘thanksgiving’ and ran across this 2016 post. It is so relevant for today, I am reposting it.

Hebrews 13:8
Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.

Enjoy! ~Darla Beardsley

John’s post…

From time to time over the course of the last 15 years I’ve dealt with low back issues. When I’ve done too much of the wrong thing my back will “go out”. To me that means I’ll feel spasms like electric shocks whenever I move just slightly the wrong way. It means I can’t stay in one position for very long, I can’t do my normal work routine, I can barely get in and out of a car, I have to be very careful when sitting down, laying down or getting up from either of those positions. I can’t go out and play. I get grumpy and self-focused and depressed. I absolutely hate it. In so many ways and for so many reasons, I hate it. Did I say “I hate it”? Well, I really do hate it.

I have learned over the years that with the help of good chiropractors, physical therapists and exercise trainers, there are a number of things I can do to help myself out of this bad place. I can ice, I can stretch, I can do certain exercises, I can get laser treatments, I can walk and walk and walk. I can learn to guard my low back by better engaging my transverse abdominals (muscles that wrap around your body below the navel which act like a belt supporting your back). I can also protect my back by keeping good posture, holding my head in line with my back, and using my glutes instead of my low back muscles for stability. I have to be very aware of how I’m moving, but if I’m careful, I can still function fairly well until my back muscles finally relax and get back to normal. I am so thankful for what I’ve learned over the years and especially for the knowledgable people who have helped me so much.

So I was reading in Philippians this morning and I was reminded of how God, as a good and perfect Father (and as The Great Physician, as well) gives us such wonderful instruction and advice for living well. In Philippians He tells us not how we can guard our backs, but how we can guard our souls:

The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Wow! He tells us that His peace is what guards our hearts and minds, our souls, and He even tells us what part we have to play in getting that peace. He gives us strategies for guarding and protecting our souls. I love that! There is something we can do. We need to realize first and foremost that He is near us. He has promised never to leave us. Then, rather than worrying and being anxious about things, which we are all inclined to do, He tells us to talk to Him instead.

Bring to Him our concerns and troubles, pray about them, ask Him for what we need and above all, bathe all of these prayers and requests in a pool of gratitude. To me it’s interesting and significant that the little phrase “with thanksgiving” sits right in the middle of this whole section, set off by commas, as if to say this is the key. The key to peace and the key to being free from anxiety.

I read this quote somewhere once which is inspired by Matthew 11:28-30:

Rest is not the absence of labor, hardship or suffering...
It is the absence of guilt, worry, anxiety and lack of meaning.

Fortunately we are not just victims of our mental, physical and emotional states, being passively carried down a stream in which we don’t want to float. God dignifies us with an invitation to participate with Him in such way that we can, at least in some ways, influence the course and outcome of our journey.

Living in a world where there are so many things to worry and be anxious about, it is reassuring that God knows our human tendencies and rather than judge us for our ignorance, foolishness or sin, invites us to let Him take the heavy load and gives us in its place a light load, easy to carry, full of gratitude, peace and grace.

Philippians 4:6-7
The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Joshua 1:5
I will never leave you nor forsake you.

Matthew 11:28-30
“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

Emotional Well-Being | Jesus’ Emotional Health

John Rice July 24, 2020

When our kids were very young but old enough to go to Sunday School, a fellow parent shared that they had taught their child that if he was ever asked a question, any question, by his teacher during a Sunday School lesson, to just shout out “Jesus!” and his answer would most often hit the bullseye. We laughed about that together and in thinking back, there is some profound truth in that! It seems Jesus really can be found as some kind of answer to most any question.

In thinking about the topic of “Emotional Health” for this devotional series, I wanted to go back and look at how Jesus experienced and expressed emotions in Scripture, thinking there should be some good clues for how we should also deal with our emotions. Below are some thoughts.

As recorded in “Psychology Today”, most psychologists would agree there are six basic emotions: happiness, sadness, fear, anger, disgust and surprise. There are many variations and nuances within each of those emotions, but those are the six category headings.

I found Jesus experiencing each of these six emotions in the Gospels, though usually the name for the emotion was not explicitly mentioned.

In John 2, Jesus seemed like he must have been happy at the wedding feast in Cana by 1) turning the ceremonial water for washing into delicious wine for drinking to keep the wedding party going, and 2) he may well have been joking with and teasing his mother when she told Jesus, “They have no more wine.” He replies, “Dear woman, why do you involve me? My time has not yet come.” Then Mary turns and tells the servants to do whatever Jesus tells them to do, apparently knowing Jesus was just teasing her and would truly do something about the wine problem! This possible interpretation was first mentioned by Randi in a sermon awhile back. We don’t know for sure what this exchange was about, but I like this possible explanation because it’s a rare example of Jesus’ levity and playfulness, which would be fitting for him to have had.

Jesus expressed his sadness in John 11:35. At the death of his friend Lazarus. Lazarus’ sister, Mary, came to Jesus weeping, together with many others, and Jesus too was filled with emotion. The shortest verse in the Bible is this: Jesus wept.

In Matthew 26:38-39 Jesus is in Gethsemane with his disciples, he is praying to His Father, because he knows what is about to happen. The Scripture says, “He fell with His face to the ground and prayed, ‘My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as You will.’” Jesus had just said that his soul was overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. I think it’s safe to say that it wasn’t just sorrow but also fear that he was experiencing, since he had asked his disciples to keep watch like bodyguards while he prayed.

The well-known temple scene in Matthew 21:12-13 is when Jesus enters and overturns the tables of the money changers and proclaims, “It is written, ‘My house will be called a house of prayer, but you are making it a den of robbers!’” He is angry that these people are making profit in a sacred space meant to be consecrated for the meeting between God and His people.

Jesus is disgusted at the hypocrisy of the Pharisees when he calls out the “seven woes” in Matthew 23. No other group of people were called out by Jesus for their duplicity like these religious leaders, who paraded around arrogantly as if they were holy, put difficult requirements on the common people, and yet did not even fulfill these requirements themselves.

The last basic emotion is surprise. Jesus expresses surprise in Matthew 8:10 when talking with the Roman centurion, who has asked Jesus to come heal his paralyzed servant. Jesus agrees to go, but the centurion discloses his faith when he tells Jesus he doesn’t need to go anywhere to heal. He can do it right where he is by just saying the word. When Jesus heard this, “he was astonished and said to those following him, “I tell you the truth, I have not found anyone in Israel with such great faith!”

So, what can we take away from looking at Jesus’ emotions and how he expressed them? One thing is certain: he didn’t stoically try to hide them or suppress them. Since we believe Jesus never sinned, we can then also say it is not a sin to feel emotions.

Many of us grow up with the idea that some emotions are good and some are bad. We often try to ignore, minimize or deny the ones we think are unacceptable. But doing this usually leads to all kinds of problems, and sometimes physical ailments. We have been created with emotions and they serve a good purpose. They lift us, they lower us, they warn us, they connect us to others, they prepare our bodies to physically respond to a stimulus that could save our lives. They set in motion a chain of chemical reactions that can energize us or calm us.

I’ve heard it taught that it’s not the emotions that are bad, but our expression of them could be. Anger is a good example: anger can give us the energy we need to right a wrong. But it can also destroy if it goes unchecked and dominates without the good boundaries of reason and empathy.

It seems wise to learn to understand why we feel the way we do. This way we can know ourselves better and manage our reactions to people and events. Our emotions aren’t in control, but they also aren’t denied.

And one thing I’ve learned is not to fear emotions. This is how the Lord helped me see this. I had a dream one time that I was a big iceberg right off the beach at Bandon. My family was playing on the beach along with many other people. All of a sudden, me, the iceberg, started to melt and I was terrified that the tsunami-type waters resulting from my meltdown would flood the beach and kill my family. Well, the melting waters barely added much of a ripple and everyone was fine and continued playing! Because of what I was going through at the time, this dream was easy to interpret. My frozen emotions were coming alive and I needn’t worry that they would harm anybody. They weren’t dangerous.

The take-away for me is to let our emotions do their work in us within the boundaries of our God-given reason. Maybe this is part of loving God with all our heart, soul and strength and loving ourselves and loving our neighbors at the same time.

Genesis 1:27
So God created man in his own image,
in the image of God he created him;
male and female he created them.

Philippians 2:6-7
Though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

Matthew 22:37-40
Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”

About the Author

John has been an essential component to the life and development of CitySalt since 2004 and, presently, serves as an associate pastor with a focus on prayer, discipleship and spiritual direction in addition to being a regular part of the teaching team. He enjoys the outdoors, water sports, music, reading and especially spending time with his wonderful family and chocolate lab, Gunnar.

Common Ground – Practicing P.L.A.C.E.

John Rice May 15, 2020

One of the first things I learned as a child was to make distinctions: a boy is not a girl, white is not black, ugly is not beautiful, healthy is not sick, fat is not thin, Christian is not Jewish or Muslim, American is not Russian or Japanese….and, of course… Texas is not like anywhere else!

To be sure, it’s a pretty common thing to learn about something by learning about its opposite, or if not opposite, at least something different. We like to contrast things. It helps bring things into clarity.

As I got older, though, I realized that these dualistic contrasts were not always helpful and could be sometimes downright harmful. And why is that? Well, I think it is because it’s all too simple, and to keep it simple and easy to understand, you have to do a lot of generalizing and stereotyping to make things (and people) fit into little boxes with clear rigid sides. This way we have a sense of some kind of tidy control over our categories. We can file them away in alphabetical order on the shelves in our mental library. We can even do this with God, or at least our ideas about God.

The problem, as I see it now in my life, is that life isn’t so tidy, predictable, able to be categorized. And when we only think dualistically, we tend to judge “the other” as something not as good as the thing we are, or the thing we understand best. I guess that’s a piece of human nature. We tend to judge and fear things that are unfamiliar to us.

This is not very helpful when we want to live out Jesus’ mandate to love God and to love other people as we love ourselves…. even our enemies! How do we do that well, if we are suspicious and fearful of people even a little different from ourselves?

It might help us if we did some “exchanging”. We could practice P.L.A.C.E. (patience, listening, awareness, curiosity, empathy).

Maybe we could exchange our impatience for patience. Maybe we could quit talking so much about ourselves and our opinions and do a lot more listening and asking questions. Maybe we could exchange our judgement for curiosity about “the other”. Maybe we could look for ways to be empathetic rather than critical. Maybe we could exchange our fear for a new kind of courage that allows us to stay put in unfamiliar or uncomfortable circles.

I read in the teachings of a very wise man that it usually takes either great love or great suffering for our little neat boxes to be expanded, to be transformed. When we experience deep, healthy love (human or godly) or we experience great pain and suffering, our horizons open up in a way they couldn’t otherwise. Isn’t this a mystery? Maybe this is what Jesus was getting at when he said, “Blessed are the poor in Spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”

Suffering is bound to happen to us if we are human. It is common to the human condition in this imperfect world, so no one escapes it. But it seems to me that living a life of love might be more of a choice. We get to choose whether to love God or love other people. We can choose to just live a life “looking out for #1”. Some people are energized by anger and power over others. But at what cost? As Jesus put it, they would gain the whole world but lose their souls.

There are actions that bring life and there are actions that bring death. It seems to me that being more open, accepting, including, helping, loving… and just plain walking alongside people of any persuasion (whether racial, social, economic, sexual, religious, national, etc.) is life-giving to us and to them. The contrary to this brings a kind of death energy. And I have a strong feeling that walking alongside “the other” will expose more commonalities than differences among us. We are, after all, nothing more or less than ….human …created in the image of a most loving God.

Matthew 22:37-40
Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself. All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.

Matthew 5:3-4
Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are those that mourn, for they shall be comforted.

Matthew 16:26
What good will it be for a man is he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul?

About the Author

Reflection on Sunday’s Sermon | The Who

John Rice January 11, 2019

Despite the title, this is not a story about that band from the 60’s and 70’s. Instead it’s a look inside what has developed in my understanding since Randi preached at church last Sunday on the New Testament letter to Titus, presumed by some to have been written by Paul.

Randi not only described the details of this short epistle, but “zoomed out” to highlight a principle that is exceedingly important for all of us. The principle is that we are not just to look at the “what” we are encouraged to do. We would do well to look beyond the “what” to the “why”. Why are we doing something or encouraged to do something? This brings much more depth and meaning to the situation. If we understand the “why” of our actions, the “whats” are almost incidental. Not that the “whats” are unimportant, but they are not the chief point; they are secondary.

But that’s not all. Randi then pointed out that beyond the “why” is an even greater reality. It is the “who”. In Titus, as truly everywhere in the Bible, the “who” beyond the “what” and “why” is God, the One who loves us, empowers us and trains us up in the way we should go.

For a few minutes of reflection on this during the service, Randi encouraged us to try and discern where we might be looking at the “whats” in our lives without seeing the “whys” or the “who”.

As I was contemplating this, I became aware that oftentimes I did see a “who”… but it wasn’t God. It was me. Good ol’ me, myself and I. In a moment of sweet conviction, I realized how self-referential I am. I became aware suddenly of how much I want to take control, or stay in control, of things in my life. Do I really look to God to follow Him and be transformed by Him or do I most often just want Him to bless me…….just as I am.

All of this has made me more aware of how I approach God and how I approach the reading of Scripture. Do I come to Him (or it) full of self-importance and an ego at the center of its own universe or do I come to Him humbly, with an open mind and heart, ready to receive what He, the “Greater Who”, the “Greatest Who”, would want to give me or teach me or encourage me to do?

I look forward to the day when I more automatically see God in, behind, beneath, above or around all things, including the Scriptures. I am beginning to see that God’s admonition to “die to the self” means more than just stopping or starting certain behaviors (the what), and even more than knowing the reason why it would be good to stop or start those behaviors. I believe Jesus wants us to see Him, first and foremost, in everything, as the giver of living water, the healer, the lover of our souls, the Creator of new creations, the One in whom we live and breathe and have our being.

Acts 17:28
‘For in him we live and move and have our being.’

2 Corinthians 5:17
“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!”

Romans 12:2
Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.

Matthew 16:25
For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it.

Ephesians 4:22-24
You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.

About the Author

Seeing the Other | With New Eyes

John Rice May 18, 2018

In the last year I have entered what seems like a whole different world. It is a world of “The Other.” It has been strange, unpredictable, unsettling, frightening, full of emotional earthquakes, beyond all reason, eye-opening, anger-stirring, empathy-producing …and a stimulus for many, many questions that most often don’t have answers. I’m talking about the world of mental illness.

I saw a man wandering stark halls with very short, jerky but determined steps, as if he had some important place to go. He was bent slightly forward at the waist and stared straight ahead with intense blue eyes. I don’t think I ever saw him blink. He wandered into the room where we were sitting, came right up to me within a foot of my face and just stared, stared and stared right at me. Awkwardly, I said, “hello.” He said nothing in response, there was not the slightest change in his face or posture. There was no sense that he really saw me, though his eyes were open wide. Then the caregiver came and took him away.

I saw a man who was quite bent over and held his head at an angle, looking up. He walked up and down the hall, trying every door handle. I was sure he was trying to get in to steal something. I never saw him go in a room.

I saw a woman locked in a room with terrified eyes like a caged wild animal. She had been physically combative with staff and security and was ready to fight off any other living soul that came near her. She perceived everyone as a threatening enemy. She kind of clawed at the walls and then cowered in a corner.

I saw a very clean-cut man with perfectly oiled and combed hair and neat clothing. He sat staring for hours at a television screen which was only displaying the titles of songs being played on that music channel. But there was no music, or sound of any kind coming from the TV. Once I saw him doing a kind of jogging routine, barely moving his feet but steadily, if extremely slowly, moving down the sidewalk.

I saw a woman pace the halls back and forth, never saying a word, with a constant look of subtle suspicion on her face. It was not fear, but just a look as if she were a spy in a strange and dangerous foreign land.

I saw a very unkempt and dirty man walking the halls, yelling obscenities and indeterminate gibberish at no one in particular. He sounded angry and looked dangerous even though you couldn’t tell what he was saying.

I saw a woman in a wheelchair who could never find the bathroom, though she had lived in this house for years.

I saw a woman with way too much makeup, applied in the wrong places like a child who couldn’t paint within the lines. She raced up and down the halls.

I saw a man always sitting in the same chair, away by himself but where he could see everyone else. He had the kindest smile on his face and always waved when you passed by. He told me one day, “You gotta do your best every day. You gotta keep a positive attitude.” He could barely walk.

At first I was very unnerved by these people. For sure there was some behavior I don’t even want to write about here. These are the kind of people who, if I saw them coming down the street, I might cross to the other side or at least keep my head down or eyes fixed straight ahead so as not to engage them. They were too unpredictable. What would I say? What could I say? Would they have a sinister motive if they confronted me? Their conditions raised in me so many thoughts…and sometimes subtle, sometimes not so subtle, judgements against them.

I am ashamed of this now.

And why? What has changed in me? This is hard for me to understand and explain, but I do know one thing that has made a deep impact:

I learned that the man who stared at me with the unseeing, piercing, crystal blue eyes was a professional soccer player from Europe in his youth. He sustained brain damage from hitting so many headers in the hundreds of soccer games he played.

I learned that the bent over man checking door handles was a former “fix it” guy who still went through the motions of trying to see how something worked mechanically.

I learned that the silent suspicion-filled woman was actually Russian and couldn’t speak any English. She was doubly isolated in a silent world.

The unkempt man shouting obscenities had been a poor farmer who fell off a tall piece of machinery he was working on, and fell to the ground, landing on his head. He had been living at this house where I met him for 4 years and I was told he would never hurt a fly. And he loved animals.

The woman in the wheelchair has cancer as well as dementia.

And one of these people is my wife.

Everyone has a story. Everyone has a history. Everyone has a family. A childhood. A series of experiences, some good, some bad. I think most people have experienced some kind of trauma or loss in their lives, certainly some more than others. Good things happen to bad people. Bad things happen to good people. Why is this? Can we really know, this side of heaven? With so few answers to these kind of questions, how do we proceed? How do we view “The Other”? How do we interact with them? How do we deal with all the uncertainties?

I don’t know. All I can say is I have been reduced to a kind of compassion I’ve never experienced before. I have learned that if I just look at a person’s outward appearance and behavior, I will see them as objects to defend myself against. If I learn some of their story, I can get at least a bit of a glimpse into their humanness and relate to them there. I no longer see them quite so much as “The Other.”

1 Corinthians 13:12
For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

Matthew 7:1-2
Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.

Matthew 5:3-4
Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.

About the Author

John has been an essential component to the life and development of CitySalt since 2004 and, presently, serves as an associate pastor with a focus on prayer, discipleship and spiritual direction in addition to being a regular part of the teaching team. He and his wife, Laura, have been married since 1977 and enjoy their family of three children and three grandchildren.

Perfection or Nothing

John Rice November 3, 2017

Devotional originally posted September 21, 2016.

Many years ago someone said to me, “If you expect either perfection or nothing, you’ll get nothing.” I think I understood the meaning of this in a vague sort of way, thought it sounded wise, and then banked it somewhere in my subconscious.

This idea has been brought back to me recently with different words that have really caught my attention. Someone said, “If you’re always looking for the ideal in life, you can’t be really living in the moment. You will always be dissatisfied.”

Although I don’t think of myself as a perfectionist, I do know myself to be always looking for the ideal, the best, the greatest, the number one, the most beautiful, the first-class, the most famous, the smartest, the way things SHOULD be. I think this comes from somehow being taught never to settle, never to give up, to set my sights high, to strive, strive, strive. And I have expected this from others too.

There are certainly some good points to trying our best and setting good standards, but for myself I’ve realized that if I am extreme in this way, I am always unhappy with real life. I can’t fully enjoy life, I can’t experience the real moment I’m living in and I can’t fully appreciate the people around me. I even have a hard time with my relationship with God. This is because I’m wanting every connection with Him to be the best, better than the last, electric, dynamic, life-changing. So, in reality, how often does a human experience those moments with God? Probably only once in a great while. And that’s probably a good thing, because otherwise we’d find it extremely hard to live in this often mundane, everyday kind of world, with all its imperfections.

If I think about it, my way of thinking has been very covetous, to use a Biblical word. I always want something I don’t have, or want to be someone I’m not, or want others to be someone they’re not….and then I live with either a low-grade or high-grade sense of dissatisfaction and fail to see the goodness and grace of what IS.

So with God’s help, I’m trying to find the right balance in my life: not expecting too much and not expecting too little. No perfection, and no nothing. I’m open to starting to see the beauty of God’s goodness and grace in all the regular, day-to-day little happenings. This even reminds me of the many places in Scripture where God’s people were often drawn to their captors (Egyptians, Assyrians and Babylonians) because of the rich, beautiful and exciting things those cultures offered, but at the same time ignoring the quiet waters of the Promised Land which God had given them for their sustenance and pleasure. Like me, the Israelites wanted the exciting wealthy, cool and hip - the happening place and culture of the powerful. They got bored with the gentle, quiet waters of everyday Israel, though that’s where the Lord’s goodness and presence were strongest.

God’s goodness is everywhere. His glory is all over creation; His image is somewhere to be found in all humans, however buried it may be. How much better to allow ourselves to be amazed at His presence day-to-day in the mundane, rather than to be craning our necks for something more, always something more.

Isaiah 8:6 (NLT)
“My care for the people of Judah is like the gently flowing waters of Shiloah, but they have rejected it. They are rejoicing over what will happen to King Rezin and King Pekah.

Psalms 16:11 (NLT)
You will show me the way of life,
granting me the joy of your presence
and the pleasures of living with you forever.

Matthew 7:9-11 (NLT)
“You parents—if your children ask for a loaf of bread, do you give them a stone instead? Or if they ask for a fish, do you give them a snake? Of course not! So if you sinful people know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give good gifts to those who ask him.

"Hide and Seek"

John Rice August 25, 2017

Devotional originally posted February 16, 2017

Psalm 19:1-4 NIV
The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of His hands. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they reveal knowledge. They have no speech, they use no words; no sound is heard from them. Yet their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world.

Romans 1:20 NIV
For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities---His eternal power and divine nature---have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.

These two Scriptures seem to state clearly that God’s existence, and even His glory, is proclaimed every day and night by His creation for all to see. The heavens declare His glory; the skies proclaim the work of His hands; the creation speaks of His eternal power and divine nature. I can certainly personally attest to the truth of these Scriptures as I settle in to watch the sunrise, something I try to do most mornings of the year. Being a nature lover, the ocean, the mountains, the deserts, rivers, trees and plants and animals of all kinds speak to me of the amazing creativity and awesome wisdom and power of God. And I know this revelation is meant for all mankind.

But I also notice in Scripture that there are many references to the mystery of God and to things of God that are hidden.

Colossians 2:2-3 NIV
My goal is that they may be encouraged in heart and united in love, so that they may have the full riches of complete understanding, in order that they may know the mystery of God, namely, Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.

Matthew 13:44-46 NIV
The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field.

Apparently, some things of God are out in the open for everyone to see, while other things are hidden away, enticing us to look for them like buried treasure. Is there a difference between the two types of things? If so, what is the difference?

Maybe God likes to play hide and seek! What I mean is, there are ways in which He seems to shout out, “Here I am!” and there are other ways He seems to go quiet. Could it be that He is looking for people who will look for Him? He seems to like it that people are willing to drop what they’re doing and focus on Him. I think this is why He made the Sabbath day so special and called it holy. This is a time to drop all the normal, everyday activities and pursuits to give time and space to seek Him out. He asks us to go into our “prayer closets” and talk with Him.

Maybe God’s overt expression is for humanity as a whole, but the secret hidden mysteries are to be revealed to each individual as he or she meets alone with their Father.

I don’t think I will ever tire of watching the sunrise. But I want more. I believe God wants more too. The question and the challenge is this: am I willing to sell what I have to buy the field with the treasure in it? Am I willing to let go of my agenda for a time to seek out His? Sometimes I find this easy to do, more often I find it difficult, but I do know that either way, God is already right there with me.

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