50

March, 2008

What do the following have in common with me: Rogers Heights Christian Reformed Church, AARP, Caroline Kennedy, the Mackinac Bridge, and the biblical Year of Jubilee?

We’re all celebrating 50 years!

One outcome of such a milestone lands me in this reflective mode. I notice in my job search how the options have narrowed over the decades. I realize I’m no longer middle-aged (unless I live to 100). As I attend more funerals than weddings in recent months, I find myself reevaluating life. I’m rethinking things.

A number of authors contribute to my unease—David Bryant, Terry Teykl, Dutch Sheets, Brennen Manning, A.W. Tozer, Cheryl Sacks, Dallas Willard, Peter Wagner, Daniel Henderson, Rhonda Hughey, and Dr. Dale Fife.

In Fife’s The Secret Place, Passionately Pursuing His Presence, he challenges that God did not create Adam because He needed a gardener. He created Adam to walk with Him--to commune with Him, to hang out with Him. The garden was Adam’s assignment, not his purpose.

Being in God’s presence changes us. Transforms us. Transforms communities.

Rhonda Hughey says when the manifest presence of Jesus is absent in the church, “we turn instead to programs, methods, organizations, and an assortment of activities to occupy our time and attention” (Desperate for His Presence, God’s Design to Transform your Life and your City). Ouch!

Many of these authors propose we have an appetite problem too. They suggest we pray that God increase our hunger and thirst for the things that attract His presence. For example, what if we prayed, “Lord, increase in me a hunger for holiness; Lord, increase in me a hunger for purity”?

God promises, You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you (Jeremiah 29:13-14).

So what would attract more of His presence? Self effort, disunity, and gossip? Humility, love, and brokenness? What is the evidence of God’s presence in my life, in your life, in our church, in our community?

I wonder what it will be 50 years from now?