Sacred Mundane: The Blog

Overwhelm (vr-hwlm, -wlm): To weigh upon overpoweringly.

We talked yesterday about gaining weight. That is, about letting the weight of the gospel settle heavy in our hearts and burden us with a love for people, immortal people who are on their way to one of two eternal destinations. We help people along, everyday, toward one destination or the other.

But while this weight is good, I mentioned that to me, for the first week or so that I was back from the UK, it felt overwhelming.  The burden weighed on me overpoweringly.

I sat with a friend and asked candidly, “Tell me exactly how we are to be broken, affected, burdened by the reality that a sea of people around us and among us are destined for eternal separation from God and yet somehow not be weighted down?” How?

I look at the world and want to yell, “How are you so LIGHT?”  I must have gained a million pounds because this weight overwhelms. It weighs upon overpoweringly.

And when we’re overpowered there’s just one place to go:

The One who can never be overpowered.

“When my heart is overwhelmed: Lead me to the rock that is higher than I.” Psalm 61:2

There is no doubt about it: The reality of this fallen world and the billions of people who do not know Christ is crushing. It is one thing to talk about the goodness of God in the midst of temporal suffering such as disease and physical death (which is horrible, I’m not pretending it’s not), but what of the real tragedy of our world? The tragedy that there is eternal suffering which is horrific beyond our wildest imaginations and yet more common than the cold?

Yes, that is overwhelming. But you know what overwhelms even that? What engulfs even the crushing weight of fallen man?

The love and power and glory and goodness of God.

A frantic sense of panic over the world will not lead them to Christ. Even a horizontal love for our unsaved family members will not win them to Christ (though it’s a start!). The only thing that will truly propel us forward into reaching the world for Christ will be becoming overwhelmed by the goodness and glory of God.

When He overwhelms us nothing else will.

So we can pray and seek and plead with God for the salvation of our neighbors. We can trust that God is powerful enough to open the perfect door for us to share His love. We can pray and seek and give so that the gospel can go forward in the farthest corners of the globe, and rest in knowing that God is able to draw His people to Himself. Yes, there is an enormous weight of responsibility laid on our shoulders as believers — we have been entrusted with the glorious Great Commission of Jesus Christ.

And yet His burden, weighty as it is, proves light (Matt. 11:30).

As we gain weight we find our hearts set free: The weightier our lives the lighter we become — loosed from the shackles of man-pleasing and pleasure-seeking — set free to unashamedly carry Christ’s gospel to a world of immortal souls.

When He overwhelms us nothing else will.

Can you feel it?

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{Perhaps you’d even share with us how He’s overwhelmed your soul today? And perhaps you’d even tell someone about His love for the very first time? Thanks for reading — your life is beautiful because He’s in it…}

I gained two pounds in England.

Just two pounds physically, nothing overwhelming. But the real weight I carried home was overwhelming.

Crushing.

2.83 BILLION unreached people have never heard the name of Jesus. I stared at the old world globe in our study, showed Dutch the 10-40 window. Shook my head, at a loss for words.  Sat on my front porch, stared across the street at our many neighbors who, as far as I know, do not know Christ. I began dreaming at night about one set of neighbors in particular, a same-sex couple who God so loved that He gave His only son.  Faces of family members wouldn’t leave my mind, and neither would these words from CS Lewis:

It may be possible for each to think too much of his own potential glory hereafter; it is hardly possible for him to think too often or too deeply about that of his neighbor. The load, or weight, or burden of my neighbor’s glory should be laid daily on my back, a load so heavy that only humility can carry it, and the backs of the proud will be broken.

It is a serious thing to live in a society of possible gods and goddesses, to remember that the dullest and most uninteresting person you talk to may one day be a creature which, if you saw it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship, or else a horror and a corruption such as you now meet, if at all, only in a nightmare.

All day long we are, in some degree, helping each other to one or other of these destinations. It is in the light of these overwhelming possibilities, it is with the awe and circumspection proper to them, that we should conduct all our dealings with one another, all friendships, all loves, all play, all politics. There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilization–these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub, and exploit–immortal horrors or everlasting splendors.

This does not mean that we are to be perpetually solemn. We must play. But our merriment must be of that kind (and it is, in fact, the merriest kind) which exists between people who have, from the outset, taken each other seriously–no flippancy, no superiority, no presumption. And our charity must be real and costly love, with deep feeling for the sins in spite of which we love the sinner–no mere tolerance or indulgence which parodies love as flippancy parodies merriment. Next to the Blessed Sacrament itself, your neighbor is the holiest object presented to your senses. (Weight of Glory)

Perhaps, then, gaining a little weight isn’t a bad thing? So long as we know where to roll it? ALL the weight belongs on the One who already bore our sins on the cross. No weight could ever compare to the weight of our sins … except for the even greater weight of love which held Him to the cross. Because of His finished work there is no weight which permanently should rest on our shoulders.

And yet, perhaps CS Lewis’ words are timely for us today? Perhaps he’s throwing us a lifeline from the sea of triviality which threatens to drown us each day?

Perhaps God wants us to be weighty but never overwhelmed…{More on that tomorrow}

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{Who might benefit from you gaining a bit of weight today? What immortal souls will you encounter and how can you help them along their journey to eternal glory? We affect all we meet in one way or another… Thank you for reading and God bless your day with glorious weight.}

[Continuing our study of Psalm 27. We looked at confidence and the fear of man last week…thanks for joining us today.]

One thing I have asked of the LORD, this will I seek after: that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to gaze on the beauty of the LORD … v.4

Of all the evildoers, adversaries and foes that we face, the greatest true danger is  losing our vision of the Lord.

What is danger if it is not primarily distraction?

In Psalm 27 verse 4, David turns from proclaiming his confidence in the One True God to proclaiming his single-minded vision. He refuses to give those enemies any more poetic presence, turning his gaze instead to His great and glorious God.

The best way to defeat our foes is by starving them of attention.

Haven’t you found this to be true? Most often the battle is fought in our minds. Will we dwell on the looming darkness, impending doom, the what-ifs and maybes and unknowns? Or will be dwell in the presence of the LORD, seeking the one thing that fuels our holy fire.

Perhaps the greatest danger believers face today is subtle enemy of distraction. Even as I finished typing that sentence I had several split-second thought-darts shoot through my mind, “I should check my email. I wonder what’s on Facebook. Ooh that bread in the oven smells good.” Hardly a moment goes by that isn’t threatened by the enemy of distraction. But mastering our distractions and disciplining our minds and hearts after God is the key to a steadfast and resolute vision — to a single-minded life.

Let’s look at 4 ways we develop godly Vision:

1. Attention. God speaks to us in a whisper oftentimes. And if we’re not careful our lives can be so busy, so loud, so busied and harried and crowded that we don’t stand a chance of hearing His beautiful whisper. Living the attentive life includes both narrowing our gaze and whittling our life down to the essentials and broadening our scope of vision enough look, see, notice.

Notice when a bush is burning.

When God was giving Moses His epic commissioning to deliver His people, He revealed Himself in a burning bush. Not a voice. A bush. Exodus 3:3-4 reads,

“Moses said, ‘I will turn aside to see this great sight, why the bush is not burned.’  When the LORD saw that he turned aside to see, God called to him out of the bush, “Moses, Moses!’ and he said, “Here I am.”

God spoke audibly when He saw that Moses looked, noticed, turned aside. When He saw evidence that Moses knew how to see.

Do we?  I wonder what God might want to speak …

2. Authenticity. If we want a real vision we must be real people. Sadly, because many of us still lack the confidence of knowing who we are in Christ, we’re still living a life of veneer, a thin, shiny, fake surface that covers up the real stuff beneath.  Our friendships take place online, who we are communicated in a few facebook sentences. A flattering profile picture replaces our real face (finger pointing at myself here). But our Savior — who bled and died and carries His scars for all eternity — redeemed the real us, the blemished and beautiful people He calls His own. It is the authentic, the “clear at center,” the pure in heart who will see God.

3. Adoration. Similarly, we cannot fake a true and vibrant relationship with Christ. Mary sat at Jesus’ feet not because she thought she ought, but because she adored Him. She wanted to be at His feet. David wants to be in God’s presence, dwelling in His temple. Because at the end of the day we  do what want. To transform our vision we must allow God to transform our desires. We must learn to enjoy God, to like God, to engage with God so often that we begin to crave His presence. When He becomes our vision, life’s vision falls into place.

4. Action. David says one thing he asks of the LORD, and that he will seek after. This is no passive vision!  There is an asking, waiting, and seeking. A time to wait in stillness and a time to move forward in confidence with whatever God has shown. This is a beautiful balance of waiting and pursuing, resting and acting. Nearness to God is the only way we know this beautiful balance. There is no recipe, no diagram to follow. Like the pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night, we simply learn to see Him. He then shows us the way to go. We act, by faith, with our eyes on Him.

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In what ways have your “enemies” distracted you from that holy gaze at the greatness of Your God? They don’t deserve any more attention, amen? Let’s fix our eyes instead on our glorious God. Thank you for reading…