In the Drivers Seat.

A few days back, I was driving around on my way to pick up some people from the Airport. It occurred to me that I have two different driving styles.

Firstly, there is the way I drive when I'm on my own. Secondly, there's the way I drive with passengers. In fact, there's a third variation, which depends on who the passengers are.

It all got me thinking back to something I wrote in a book a few years back. The book covered some events in my life when I had broken my neck in a cycling accident. I was going through a fair amount of soul searching, when I had this conversation with myself.

“What would your day look like if you spent it in Joel’s company? (Joel is a senior pastor at Hillsong church. I say senior but he’s younger than me.) I realized, that the way I was living, my actions and conversation would be radically altered. Not that I was living a sin filled life, or that my speech was particularly profane, it just wasn’t what it could be. I, wasn’t who I could be.

Then this happened. (I’ll try to write it so you get the two simultaneous thoughts that ran through my head.)
 
It would be almost as if God was with you . . .    (You idiot God is with you)   . . . the whole day."        

(Excerpt from "I am Broken" by Leo Sandy. Available as an e-book on Kindle, iTunes, Kobo and Nook.)

Which brings me to ask. Where have we placed God? Where do we see him?
Is God remote, a disembodied spirit? Do we think of him as only being in heaven, sitting on a throne?
Do we really believe that he has a vital interest in our day to day waking life?

Because it seems as though a lot of us live with exactly these kinds of misconceptions.

Philosophical thinking would have us reduce God to an idea, nothing more than an abstract notion.
A set of noble ideals to aspire to. Certainly not a personal God that seeks after relationship, dialogue and involvement.

It's kind of like how we drive our cars when we can "see" that Police Car. But once it's gone, the law becomes reduced to an abstract ideal. We know the law exists, but because we don't see the agents of enforcement in our presence. It gets cast aside.

Wait. Am I suggesting that we don't consider God to be present, and that we have cast him aside from our conscious thinking? In many ways, yes.

My analogy of the police car serves us well here. Because we tend to forget the presence of the law, when we forget the presence of the agent.

I believe we've settled into a reductionist compartment view of God. God is in heaven. Jesus is up there too, because he ascended and took up residence in the throne room. As for Holy Spirit, well, where and what is he?

The Holy Spirit is God. In totality. It's a concept that our finite minds have trouble grasping, because we think in terms of solid objects. When we think of spirit, our thinking has been reduced by fairy tales and genies and such like, one thing in one place. Take it out of the bottle and put it back again.

But the Holy Spirit fills the whole earth.

Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence?
If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.
If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea,
even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast. Psalm 139:7-10 NIV 2011.

David understood this idea of an all encompassing, ever present God. He knew, that God was always there. God is infinite and complete. It matters not wether we refer to him as; God, Father, Son, Holy Spirit. The name doesn't change the fact.

I think another part of the problem is with how we read a verse in Ephesians.

". . .the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption . . ."
Ephesians 1: 13b-14a. NIV 2011

That verse, when misread, becomes completely reductionist. We reduce the Holy Spirit to a "bit" of God. The KJV uses the word "earnest", which means a down payment.

Here's the problem. You can't cut God into pieces. God is infinite, without beginning or end.
Even if you were able to separate something infinite into component parts, each part would still be infinite. Because that is its inherent nature. (Now while you get your head around that, let me assure you. I have checked this with a friend, whose has degrees in Mathematics. He says this is correct.)

Too many Christians I fear live their lives from exactly this viewpoint. They have a "bit" of God. They have a "bit" of his power, a "bit" of grace. When we have a small view of God, (and it is entirely possible to know God is infinite and still hold him in a small view) then other things take the centre of our view. God gets pushed out to the periphery, he becomes a fleeting shadow.

We are not meant to live out our Christian lives as if God is only present some of the time. Only accessing His presence when we need it, or when we remember. God is meant to be fully seen, not just glimpsed at. This is why, when I had that moment with God, I realised that I was living "in part". I can't only live as a Christian among Christians.
We must live our lives in the fullness of the present, presence of God.

So, (if you will excuse me quoting from "The Cars") Who's going to drive you home tonight?

Lighting the Way

We're supposed to let our light shine for all to see right?

 A light in the darkness, a guiding light, a light that shines more and more until the final day.

But I wonder, how many of us check our alignment, to make sure our light shines correctly?


I find driving at night a bit more difficult than it used to be, and more hazardous.

It used to be simple. Driving on the left hand side of the road at night, you look to the left when there is oncoming traffic. (If you happen to be reading this in a country that drives on the right hand side of the road, then obviously you would look to the right). You turn your eyes away from the oncoming glare, in doing so you retain your night vision. And there's that handy mirror that you flick up to dim the light from following vehicles. But it's not that simple anymore. There is an increasing number of vehicles on the road, mostly 4WD's, SUV's, people movers, that all have their lights set up high in the bodywork.  Now those oncoming and following lights are at eye level. Add to this, the proliferation of brighter types of lights, halogen, LED and the like. Driving conditions become have blindingly hazardous.


But it's not just the lights or the cars themselves.
A lot of cars have their lights badly adjusted. A car used to get inspected periodically, and the light adjustment was checked. Now it seems sufficient if the lights just work. It doesn't seem to matter if one of the lights is permanently aimed into the eyes of an oncoming driver on full beam.

Then there are the increasing numbers of cars I see without any lights on at all. It seems that we live in such a well illuminated driving environment, that some drivers are unaware that their own lights cannot be seen.

They simply assume (or so it seems) that if they can see, then they are also seen. But I do appreciate how easy it is to do this. Coming out of late night shopping centres with their well lit carparks, it's easy to forget. Then we plunge onto darkened roads, and the lights still aren't on.

I wonder how many Christians go through life like this?

In Matthew 5:16, Jesus said. "Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in Heaven."  (KJV)

I want to draw your attention to this little word, "so". It means, "in this way".

It 's the manner in which you allow your light to shine.

The purpose of the light is to bring glory to God.

The light should never be directed at ourselves.
It should never be hidden, or left off.
It should never, ever, be allowed to shine in such a way that it causes offence.
It should never annoy or distract.

But I know, it's so easy some times. we step out of our brightly lit church environment, and we assume our own light is visible. Sometimes we act in a moment of zeal or perhaps immaturity, but we cause offence or distract. Sometimes we caught up in passion and excitement and forget, it's not about us.

A friend of mine, Lyn Packer, recently wrote on her prophetic encouragement page that "we must disappear, so He can appear."

We teach our children to sing "this little light of mine" but the problem is, it's not our light, not really.

The Apostle Paul said "I know that in me there is no good thing".

We don't actually have a light we were drawn from darkness into light.

We have received light that has been given to us, we are not the source of the light.
It has been entrusted to us.

We must "walk worthy of the one who has called us".

It is our responsibility, to ensure that the light that shines from us, is properly directed, lighting the path so that others may follow.

The road, more or less, travelled.

I love driving. Particularly, I love driving in the country. Something I have spent many days doing with my father. Driving around the North Island of New Zealand, delivering machinery as part of his business. I'm not so fond of city traffic, especially after working as a courier for a few years, but I can tolerate it. I prefer the open, uncongested country roads.

We have friends that live in Mudgee. A country town about four hours drive to the north west of Sydney, Australia. Long weekends and holidays are a ready excuse to escape the city. So it was, that last Easter, we packed the car and headed for wide open spaces. The trip itself turned sour when we passed through The Blue Mountains. This was when the weather closed in and the traffic went crazy. Low cloud, rain and narrow roads with too few passing lanes. Seemingly endless road works and speed restrictions, coupled with impatient, incompetent drivers turned a four hour drive into six.

Even after the congestion cleared into a short stretch of wider double-lane roads, things did not improve much. I always seemed to be following those drivers that get nervous above certain speeds. 80 in 100 zones, 40 in a 50. Nearing Mudgee my patience was all but eroded and I was now making the most of every passing opportunity. Safely and legally of course. I was just sick of following traffic. I wanted clear space around me. That was when I passed one car too many, a white Holden Commodore. One that I speculated may well have been a Plain Clothes patrol car. So past I went. Half a click later, the lights came on. Blue and Red lights. All I could think was "Double Demerit points".

So the start to the weekend wasn't so great.

But it did get better, the weather remained in a state of flux, between sunshine and rain. Great food, drink and the company of friends. We opened a bottle of French Champagne to celebrate our 25th Wedding Anniversary.


Then there is the road home, a road we are all on in these lives of ours.

We left Mudgee on the Monday afternoon in mediocre weather, raining a bit but trying to clear. We had spectacular views of cloud capped mountain tops and idyllic countryside.

It was in that first hour of the journey
that the breathe was sucked out of my body.
 We were passing through the region of
 Capertee when everything seemed to stand
 still, just for a moment, at 100kmh.

The sun was low in the west and suddenly broke through the clouds. All around the landscape was radiant. The trees lit up in many hues of iridescent green. Greens so bright they were almost painful to look at. To the east, the sky was very different. Black with heavy cloud that towered up to the heavens. Cloud so dark it was gunmetal blue. Contrasted against the imposing sky, this brilliance of green washed the land.

Moments later we plunged into heavy fog and low lying cloud. Visibility was down to a bare 50 metres. Wipers and fog lights on, speed reduced, proceeding with caution, wishing I was back in sun-drenched lands again.

This is our journey home. We yearn for heavenly vistas, washed in light. Colours beyond our imagination. How we long for them. We see a brief glimpse, a taste of eternity, we want to stay there. We'd rather not face the darkening storm. To feel the lash of wind and rain. We'd rather not pass through fog banks, where the path is obscured and uncertainty creeps in. We crave the light. But the light is not behind, it is ahead. It is our journey, our aim. It is the road we travel.

The road that leads us home.