Promises

After these things the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision, “Do not be afraid, Abram, I am your shield; your reward shall be very great.” But Abram said, “O Lord God, what will you give me, for I continue childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?” And Abram said, “You have given me no offspring, and so a slave born in my house is to be my heir.” But the word of the Lord came to him, “This man shall not be your heir; no one but your very own issue shall be your heir.” He brought him outside and said, “Look toward heaven and count the stars, if you are able to count them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your descendants be.” And he believed the Lord; and the Lord reckoned it to him as righteousness.  Genesis 15:1-6

First a confession...I realize I skipped over chapter 14 where Abram has his Braveheart moment and says, "They will never take our freedom!!!"  Chapter 14 reminds us wars and battles have been a part of our human culture since our begins and that truth breaks my heart.  But other than those two thoughts, I feel a bit like Forest Gump, "That's all I have to say about that."  So rather than my shortest blog post ever, I decided to spend some time with chapter 15 in two posts.

First, I want to deal with the passage above...then in the next post move onto the the rest of the verses in chapter 15.  What I love about these six verses is Abram is finally finding his voice with God.  Remember, when God initially said, "Go" to Abram, he had no response.  He just packed up everything he owned and started wandering aimlessly.  But now, when God comes to tell Abram that everything is going to be fine and dandy...Abram offers a protest.

"Look God," Abram essentially says, "I have left my home, my feet are sore, life is not exactly working out hunky dory around here...I could use a little help...and by the way that child you promised still has yet to materialize."  How incredibly honest!  I have to say I admire Abram.  On the other hand, I am not sure I could do that.  Somewhere along the line, I was taught my conversations with God needed to be controlled by my "company manners".  You know, the way your parents would tell you to act when company was coming over.  You had to put on a nice shirt, wash your hair AND behind your ears AND sit there as the boring adults talked about boring things and not make a peep.  And in some ways the church has often re-enforced this message.  On Sunday mornings we still practice company manners.  We put on our nice shirt, wash our hair AND behind our ears AND sit there as some boring pastor...okay wait that got a little too close to home.

I know people crave authenticity in worship and want to be honest, but at first it can feel like we are swimming against a strong current telling us otherwise...don't say that to God.  Many churches today are interested in giving us a "Spiritual High" and Sunday mornings seem to be about us all acting like "shiny happy people holding hands" (to quote the REM song of my youth).  But let's face it...some Sundays we don't feel like that.  I don't want to say, "Yeah God!  You are so awesome and great."  I want to say, "Why God?  Why is life so hard?  When is this stress gonna exit my shoulders and stop causing my stomach to hurt?  What am I supposed to do?"  

Like Abram in those times...I long for/crave God's reassurance and to be steeped in God's promise.  And the truth is in that moment of struggle/wrestling, I also need to be reminded that it was NOT the next morning when Sarai found out she was pregnant.  It will still be CHAPTERS before we get to that.  God's promises don't play according to our timelines or deadlines.  God's time moves in ways that are slower.  And I think for us to hear God's still speaking voice we need to slow down to God's pace...not expect God to keep up with us.  God moves at a savory pace.  

Recently, I was at our local gardens.  The great thing about wandering around a garden is you have to take your time.  Every inch...every millimeter... holds more wonder than you can ever fully take in.  So, I went slow, trying to soak in the smells of fragrance and sights of color.  Just on the other side of the wall cars were zooming past, hurrying to get somewhere...inside the walls I was trying to soak in the beauty of creation and God's handiwork.  What if church was more like a garden?  What if our call in church is not to be as LOUD as possible, but as quiet and slow and aware and awake as possible?  What would worship look like in that kind of setting?  

What if that kind of worship...slow...aware...and awake...is how we are called to live our life from the rising of the sun to the moment the twinkling stars shine forth?  I think then we might be open to the traces of God's grace in our lives too...and the movement of God's promises as well.

blessings ~