Soma

My apologies for not blogging for a couple of weeks.  As sometimes happens, the wave of life crashed and this was one of the proverbial balls that got dropped.  I’ve been spending lots of time studying for class (writing a large paper at the moment), developing the equipping class, buying a house (I’m looking forward to eventually blogging about the process), lots of counseling, and turning to God for a calmed and quieted soul in the midst.

I’m posting because, well, it doesn’t look like things are going to change any time soon.  I’ve got 10 days to finish this paper and then I’m out of town for a week of school in Louisville.  Back for a day before flying out to CO for my brother’s wedding and an extra week of family vacation.  If all goes as planned, we’ll be moving the week after we return from vacation…so…things aren’t going to change on the SOMA blog until at least mid-August.

I will, however, try to point you to cool stuff I’ve read or seen, just sans-comments for the next couple of months.  Starting with this from C.S. Lewis:

That is why we must not be surprised if we are in for a rough time.  When a man turns to Christ ans seems to be getting on pretty well (in the sense that some of his bad habits are now corrected), he often feels that it would now be natural if things went fairly smoothly.  WHen troubles come along - illnesses, money troubles, new kinds of temptation - he is dissapointed.  These things, he feels, might have been necessary to rouse him and make him repent in his bad old days; but why now?  Because God is forcing him on, or up, to a higher level:  putting him in situations where he will have to be very much braver, or more patient, or more loving, than he ever dreamed of being before.  It seems to us all unnecesarry: but that is because we have not yet had the slightest notion of the tremendous thing He means to make of us.

In his comment on my last post, Matt asked some really good quesitons.  “Any ideas on what it means to ‘have calmed and quieted my soul’?” and “Is this only supposed to be an-every-once-in-a-while thing, or is supposed to be more continual, and if so, how?”

The short answer to the second question is, “This is NOT supposed to be an every-once-in-a-while thing.”  David’s calmed and quieted soul does not simply describe what his heart is like when he takes “time out.”  It does not describe what his heart is like during his “quiet time.”  It describes what his heart is like (and what ours can be like) throughout the day regardless of the situation.

Now, this is not an easy or instantanious thing.  It takes grace empowered repentance, focus, and choice.  It takes place in the context of our relationship with God.  When God, the peace giver, is there when we go to work, when we go to school, when we come home, when we hear bad news, we remember that the sovereign Creator of the universe who intimately loves us is with us and in complete control.  If you’d like we can keep flushing out the practical implications of that this week, just let me know.  But to start off, one great step towards this kind of constant calmed and quieted soul begins (as all growth does) with repentance…repentance of the anti-psalm.  Here is the “anti-psalm” as written by David Powlison in his discussion on this Psalm a great book of his.

Self,

My heart is proud (I’m absorbed in myself), and my eyes are haughty (I look down on other people), and I chase after things too great and too difficult for me.

So of course I’m noisy and restless inside; it comes naturally, like a hungry infant fussing on his mother’s lap, like a hungry infant, I’m restless with my demands and worries.

I scatter my hopes onto anything and everybody all the time.

Lots of studying this week.  Between research for a paper on the Puritains’ understanding of the conscience (more on that later), the development of this Sunday’s equipping class, and prepping a sermon for Sunday my head has been in the books quite a lot.  Not that I’m complaining…I am inoridnantly blessed to be freed up to do what I do.

However, the numerous topics bouncing around in my head combined with other life situations that demand time and energy made me a bit scattered and (dare I say) stressed.  That is, until I was reminded of the sweet short truth of Psalm 131.  It reminded me of how many things I worry about and think about that are not in control, and it reminded me that my refuge is not in figuring it all out, but in the One who has it all figured out.  A sweet reminder, so needed that I printed it out and put in on my bulletin board next to my desk.

Whether you’re in finals, in the throws of a normal busy work week, or in the midst of a personal or family mess…I hope these words are refresshing to your soul as well:

O Lord, my heart is not lifted up;
my eyes are not raised too high;
I do not occupy myself with things
too great and too marvelous for me.
But I have calmed and quieted my soul,
like a weaned child with its mother;
like a weaned child is my soul within me.

O Israel, hope in the Lord
from this time forth and forevermore.

Psalm 131

This cartoon has been linked to a lot over the past week, but if you haven’t seen it I think that it’s important to take the 30 seconds to check out.

I fear that, not only in our culture but also in the church, our addiction to entertainment may have far more lasting affects than we realize (or want to realize).  Just because you don’t watch “a lot” doesn’t mean it impacts your worldview, relaxation, or habitual actions any less.

Definitely worth a read.

HT: TC