Asked & Answered

Isaish 58, verse 3 says, in part,

“…why have we humbled ourselves and You have not listened?”

Is that even possible? To humble oneself and look for acknowledgement? Humility is not an action, but rather an attribute. Humility is within what we do, it is the heartbeat of our words. It is an attribute, a reflection of Christ in us ~ working His purpose thru us. Humility is the Grace that covers our actions, the Mercy that moves us to action for others.

We cannot be humble apart from God. So, by definition, He “notices” ~ and if we’re asking, we have our answer. His promise to us, when we do humble ourselves and yield to His purpose follows in verses 8 on…”then you will call and the Lord will answer, you will cry for help and He will say: Here am I.”

Humility lives in the “Here am I”, not the “look at me”. This passage in Isaiah 58 is wonderful in the Message version! (pasted below) It cuts to the point. It shows us that what we do, even/or especially the “pretty stuff” isn’t the point. Our heart, our purpose is to walk wholly with God…not dressed up for the part of child of the King. When we truly seek after God with all we’ve got, our full focus on His desire for our every moment, then we aren’t even able to see our own self. That is humility, when we live fully immersed in the “Here am I”.

There is a phrase used often, "meditate on something". I see now how we can think on, about and around, and yet, still miss the core of its meaning. As in prayer, we can talk "to" the Lord, but not be with Him. It is like throwing our words, actions, hopes and desires heavenward, but not truly "entering Your courts with praise"....sitting with Him to seek and to find His desires for us. Forgive me Lord for all the talking toward You and help me to sit with You and hear YOUR heart.

Isaiah 58 The Message

Your Prayers Won’t Get Off the Ground

^1-3 “Shout! A full-throated shout!
    Hold nothing back—a trumpet-blast shout!
Tell my people what’s wrong with their lives,
    face my family Jacob with their sins!
They’re busy, busy, busy at worship,
    and love studying all about me.
To all appearances they’re a nation of right-living people—
    law-abiding, God-honoring.
They ask me, ‘What’s the right thing to do?’
    and love having me on their side.
But they also complain,
    ‘Why do we fast and you don’t look our way?
    Why do we humble ourselves and you don’t even notice?’

^3-5 “Well, here’s why:

“The bottom line on your ‘fast days’ is profit.
    You drive your employees much too hard.
You fast, but at the same time you bicker and fight.
    You fast, but you swing a mean fist.
The kind of fasting you do
    won’t get your prayers off the ground.
Do you think this is the kind of fast day I’m after:
    a day to show off humility?
To put on a pious long face
    and parade around solemnly in black?
Do you call that fasting,
    a fast day that I, God, would like?

^6-9 “This is the kind of fast day I’m after:
    to break the chains of injustice,
    get rid of exploitation in the workplace,
    free the oppressed,
    cancel debts.
What I’m interested in seeing you do is:
    sharing your food with the hungry,
    inviting the homeless poor into your homes,
    putting clothes on the shivering ill-clad,
    being available to your own families.
Do this and the lights will turn on,
    and your lives will turn around at once.
Your righteousness will pave your way.
    The God of glory will secure your passage.
Then when you pray, God will answer.
    You’ll call out for help and I’ll say, ‘Here I am.’

A Full Life in the Emptiest of Places

^9-12 “If you get rid of unfair practices,
    quit blaming victims,
    quit gossiping about other people’s sins,
If you are generous with the hungry
    and start giving yourselves to the down-and-out,
Your lives will begin to glow in the darkness,
    your shadowed lives will be bathed in sunlight.
I will always show you where to go.
    I’ll give you a full life in the emptiest of places—
    firm muscles, strong bones.
You’ll be like a well-watered garden,
    a gurgling spring that never runs dry.
You’ll use the old rubble of past lives to build anew,
    rebuild the foundations from out of your past.
You’ll be known as those who can fix anything,
    restore old ruins, rebuild and renovate,
    make the community livable again.

^13-14 “If you watch your step on the Sabbath
    and don’t use my holy day for personal advantage,
If you treat the Sabbath as a day of joy,
    God’s holy day as a celebration,
If you honor it by refusing ‘business as usual,’
    making money, running here and there—
Then you’ll be free to enjoy God!
    Oh, I’ll make you ride high and soar above it all.
I’ll make you feast on the inheritance of your ancestor Jacob.”
    Yes! God says so!

 See? God says so!

Labyrinth Time

I took the scripture from my devotional with me to walk the labyrinth yesterday….first cool morning in months! It was lovely outside, with a little breeze and lots of happy, chirping birds. As I walked, I was trying to concentrate and read some of 2 Samuel that I had brought with me, but ya know, I hadn’t cleaned up all the sheaths yet and I got distracted. It wasn’t till I walked in and saw all these bamboo stalks on the ground that I figured out the “bigger” problem. I heard myself say out loud, “We need more labyrinth time”…

In my time of need I called upon the Eternal One;
        I called to my True God for help.
    He heard my voice from His temple,
        and my cry came to His ears.

II Samuel 22:7 ~ The Voice Version

…and we all need labyrinth time! Life gets messy, no doubt, so we need that set apart space to navigate from. The oasis of “be still and know” time, set aside in our day, each day is where our steps are made firm and sure.

Just like our labyrinth becomes a mess, we don’t notice it at first, but it happens over time. There is, of course, just the regular stuff…leaves and a few branches falling from the constant breeze we have here, but life has its storms that sneak up on us. The Labyrinth’s “storm” looks like a few cute squirrels who have decided to eat away at the new bamboo and because I wasn’t out here every day, I had no idea! They have been chewing off the tops about 20 feet up in the air and then eating the exposed parts. Sound familiar?  Like our lives, we can just wander around in the same ‘ole paths, looking at the same ‘ole mess and never notice what’s being eaten away at.

God hears us when we call out, but that’s the catch, isn’t it? We have to call Him…and more often than a 911 call in emergencies.  Goodness knows, in this world we call, text and skpye with the whole planet! I, the non-theologian person, have a thought here. I think the key is in our distracted, messy, busy, work/play-aholic attitude we’ve lost the desire for the stillness...real, Holy Stillness.

Please don’t get me wrong…we seek Him, but so many of the times, He’s just in the midst of the list of things to do. 

Our world revolves around the immediate need, but our God is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow ~ no matter our time Zone, He is in our “immediate”! Our Labyrinth time is what pushes the world back and brings Glory into the moment!

I was soooo thankful for the reminder this morning of more labyrinth time and as I was walking back out of the labyrinth, I began picking up some of the bamboo sticks and this was the last of the Scripture I read….

So You are great, O Eternal Lord. No one else like You exists, and there is no god greater than You, as we should know from everything we have heard.

II Samuel 7:22 ~ The Voice Version

“As we should know…” Wow! I had to laugh! Maybe a little more "labyrinth time" and stillness and I could know and hear more….and again, I was thankful and began to leave. As I walked to the edge of the fence and lifted my right hand toward the fence, this is what the bamboo looked like in my hand.

Really! I didn’t stage this. For some, this might not seem like a big deal, but to me….even the sticks, the stuff in our hands can be made to speak of Jesus! We don’t have to put our own efforts to it, time with our Lord invites Him into our “immediate”.

May the favor of the Lord our God rest on us;
    establish the work of our hands for us—
    yes, establish the work of our hands.

Psalm 90:17 ~ NIV