Day 24: Wild wild country

January 9, 2019 — Leave a comment

Exodus 22-24; Psalm 24

The Israelites were in Egypt under oppression with rules created by the Pharaoh. Here they are in the wilderness and God sends them commandments and a way of living. Being in the wilderness without boundaries and direction would not have been freedom. God needed to be so specific on relational and moral issues as if the Israelites didn’t know these things. His specificities with animals and money and people reveal an intimate God who knows what our daily dealings are like. God cares about those day to day things because those all connect to the 10 commandments which in turn connect to loving God and trusting God.

But I can’t imagine life in the wilderness like this. Was this better than being in Egypt? Free but not sure what the next day would look like? Is freedom and faith better than living in a society where I know what each moment will look like? If yes, then why do we often live in the latter? We choose pain over the potential of fulfillment/disappointment. We choose settling over the potential of loss/gain. We choose knowing over possibility. Is it the control? Is it fear? I’m trying to figure this out so I choose the scary hope over the unhappy secure!

Day 23: Rules, Rules, Rules

January 8, 2019 — Leave a comment

Exodus 19-21; Psalm 23

Here comes the rules. Rules are a imperfect manifestation of wisdom and social justice and goodness. It’s a way of making sense of a less tangible sense of holiness and right way of living. It’s an asymptote to living for God. If we follow all the rules but without consent and knowing the heart behind them, it’s not love. It feels like prison and a system of trying not to cross the line. I’m not saying rules are bad. If you look at the rules and commandments and understand this helps us prioritize God before self, this helps us trust our provision, this teaches relational goodness, and you agree with the foundation of these said commandments, then you’re not following out of obligation but rather living according to a good way. So don’t fall pray to a need to follow 10 commandments and 52 other ones to be a “person of God.” What do the commandments say about God, you and people? How does each commandment help us live in just relationship with God, others and ourselves? Because when Jesus comes he revamps these rules, not by abolishing them but actually by revealing the impossible-like heart of God’s way. Do not lust? Damn that covers a lot of ground and makes us really think through our ideas of intimacy, relationship and love. Forgive fully? Damn that makes us rethink reparations, revenge, Grace, mercy and endurance. Those ideas are big and broad and require wisdom and freedom and a continual conversation with God. I can follow rules; now living a life where each moment is surrendered to God’s wisdom and freedom? That requires faith.

Day 22: EMO Woe

January 7, 2019 — Leave a comment

Exodus 16-18; Psalm 22

There are days that you are given the double portion in order to have a day of rest. We are given abundance in order to allocate well and plan for the future. That is as much a part of the story as trusting God for daily manna. We need to both trust daily, and take just as much as one needs daily, not more and not less, while being prepared for days when we cannot work and toil. Do we toil sometimes and never enjoy the fruits of our labor on rest days? Let rest exist. Let hard work exist. Let daily trust exist. Let interdependence exist.

Psalm 22 is super emo and desperate sounding. It’s often how I feel inside but I’m afraid to be that open about it. How can one be truthful with how one feels without feeling needy? As I’m typing this I’m in an emo mood. When you’re self-conscious about coming off too desperate or needy, you second guess asking every show of emotion. Or at least I do. Then I just become a bottled up bitter mess. So how can I be present in my feelings such as being forsaken and abandoned without making others eye roll? Do I need to care? Or is it presenting where you’re at in a certain place without needing anything from a human listener? I mean the best thing anyone can do when you’re so stuck and entrenched in your feelings is just listen. Because as you listen, you help unravel the blinders around me and pull me out of my woe is me. I never want to be in my woe is me phase but sometimes I’m there and your clarifying questions and care can help pull me back to the surface.

Day 21: How to read without discarding God

January 6, 2019 — Leave a comment

Exodus 13-15; Psalm 21

I don’t like this God of war. I’m not sure how to receive all that he does here. Unless, one I discard this story, which Bible people say you can’t. You can’t just pick and choose stories in the Bible because in essence you are creating the God that fits YOU. And how much can we really trust ourselves? There should be a level of discomfort when we make ourselves better, more in line with wholeness, goodness, compassion, kindness, all the above that God is from the beginning. So this God of war and God who hardens the Egyptians are really messing with me. I either have to take this story or throw away the God. Can I interpret this story in light of God’s character? A God of war that fits into a God of compassion… Can this tale be a metaphor? Does it remind us how prisons and past lifestyles grip us and don’t want to let us go? Does it tell us to keep signs of how God has freed us? What have we been freed from? What’s a sign of that, that we can bring up time and time again so we don’t lose sight of that redemptive God? Does it also show us how quickly we forget all that God has done for us? How quickly we see the power of God and go back to complaining about the little things and doubting?

Seeing this more as a metaphor of God’s power and love instead of taking it so literally help me make sense of it. It still doesn’t sit 100% well with me. Is that because the wars and revenge of my current world really suck? I’m part of the oppressive nation. In my current world, we are the Egyptians.

Day 20: The discomfort of God’s judgment

January 5, 2019 — Leave a comment

Exodus 10-12; Psalm 20

I may never fully understand how God could kill all the firstborn of Egypt. How could he murder all those people, regardless of they were evil or not? How could he cause such sorrow and suffering? Is this how vindication and justice look — unfair and cruel? How do I reconcile the God I believe to hold (kind, forgiving, gracious, patient) with this God who kills children and adult? It’s a sign that calls people to repentance. Is that enough? So we sacrifice a few for the many? Was there no other option? Hm. Maybe this was the only option to free the oppressed? Revenge on the oppressors’ children? I don’t know. It’s part like this in the Bible that make my head hurt and I want to discard God’s actions. If he is good, how can this section be good as well? Someone help me understand!

Of course this all points to Jesus, God’s firstborn. He allows for him to die for the sake of us all. His sacrifice covers any judgment we might have received from God. This aspect of Jesus also seems grueling and hard for me. How can I take from this sacrificial love? Is it literal? Yea… But I think Jesus fulfills more than a blood sacrifice so God no longer condemns us to hell — it’s rather the depths and lengths that God would go to remind us of his love. Kill his son? Hold to his holiness while bridging us imperfect to him? Jesus both holy and able to be with the imperfect. May we be like that!! May whatever we touch also turn good and feel a surge of power and life!

Day 19: Freedom & Slavery

January 4, 2019 — Leave a comment

Exodus 7-9; Psalm 19

The Pharaoh put his people’s life in danger because of his damn ego. Was it that important to him to keep an enslaved people that hated him? He didn’t believe the signs of Moses and Aaron because he saw the same signs done by his people. So even when his own team of slytherin couldn’t reproduce the same plagues, he remained stubborn?

In what areas of our heart have we chosen our own ego and proud over the goodness of things and people in our responsibility? In what areas do we question the God of the gospels by pointing to results from other sources? How have we lessened the power of God by crowding our space with lesser powers that do in fact bring about miracles? How can we tell which is of God and which is not?

PS Aaron and Moses are in the 80s. It’s never too late to do the thing your life was made for.

I desire for the power of the Scriptures that Psalm 19 exclaims. I want to see the the Grace, compassion, righteousness (not self-righteousness) exude from me as I choose God over the ways of this world that are only for my happiness. Help me to decipher areas in my heart that are selfish and may the Word of God continue to lead, guide, and shape me into a defiant and radical woman of freedom.

The contrast of slavery in Egypt and the freedom from the Scripture. Where am I trapped and don’t know it? Where am I freer than I allow myself? Where am I hardened and need to be softened? Where am I not owning the choices and paths that are good?

Day 18: God hardens & softens

January 3, 2019 — Leave a comment

Exodus 4-6; Psalm 18

I’ve always found God hardening the Pharaoh’s heart harsh and unfair. Did God choose to eliminate this man to save other people? Does God already destine some people to be evil and die? Does God sacrifice the one for the many? Well, he does do that last one with Jesus. But Jesus came back to life; will the Pharaoh come back to life? Hm. Maybe. We don’t know from this passage what happens to the Pharaoh after the Israelites escape. All we know is that at this point in time, his heart was hardened.

  • Did God tell Moses this to give him a heads up and lessen the blow when the Pharaoh refuses to listen? God hardened the Pharaoh’s heart. Was this more of a premonition or a psychic reading of the future? If God is holy, good and true, what does it mean that he hardened someone’s heart? What if hardening one’s heart isn’t actually evil, but a state a heart might need to go to in order to find healing at the end? What if the hardening allows for the greatest softening later?
  • Often we approach hard scriptures in the Bible and either dismiss them or say, well God knows best. Clearly we can interpret in ways that protect where we stand. How can we see The Bible as a way to affirm God’s unfailing and relentless love, while remembering each story and statue must be placed in the context of redemption? The goal is redemption and touching Jesus to experience the wholeness we are created in.

    • Day 17: Forget me not

    January 2, 2019 — 1 Comment

    Exodus 1-3; Psalm 17

    God heard Israel’s cry for help from slavery and he remembered his covenant. I mean I don’t think God forgot; as if he had turned away, was listening to some other kind of music and Israel’s crying suddenly jolted back to his original plan. God doesn’t forget and his timing is perfect. So in light of his unchanging qualities, how can we see this? This was the ripe time to take his next action. The people were so aware of their oppressed reality. It’s hard to get people to change when they don’t know they need the change. You can’t pull people out when they don’t realize they’re stuck in a bad way. God remembered. He didn’t forget. He simply brought it back to the forefront so that he could share exactly what Moses needed to hear. God doesn’t forget. He always has the best plan, the original plan at hand. It’s that he knows the best time to strike. He did here with the right person: someone who had a blemished past, who needed refuge, who straddles two cultures, not really belonging in either fully. He was the unexpected bridge who could be an instrument because clearly the good and miracles out of him were not from him. They are from above. How can I get to a state of humble desperation? What unexpected circles have I had access to and can now have positive influence?

    A little bit of the Psalm. I love the last bit about how David will behold God and in return he will be excited about his likeness. You know how couples or owners and dogs end up looking alike? The thing we hold, admire, keep close the most is the thing we become and when we look in the mirror hopefully we’re excited. When you behold a kind, compassionate, powerful God, hopefully you become more like that. God may I behold you and be more and more excited by the person I see in the mirror.

    Day 16: Present now and hope looking ahead

    January 1, 2019 — Leave a comment

    Genesis 48-50; Psalm 16

    Thank you God for your plans that are greater than mine. Help me to be present to today and the people around me, but help me to also see how today is a speck of your greater plan. Help me to have perspective for this new year.

    Judah eventually leads to Jesus. Who would have known? God’s plans are not rational like we like to think life is. I mean shouldn’t Joseph be the hero? He was at this time, but Jesus comes from Judah the lion.

    Help me to see that you are a refuge that will not abandon me but for me to abandon all else for. Help me to trust your inheritance of greater purpose and redemption are better than all the material wealth of this world. Help me to be like Joseph, understanding and not vindictive. Help me to lead with kindness and forgiveness in 2019. 2019 will you be a year of Defiant gospel living. Help me to hold to the goodness of God and not be swayed by the judgments of man. Ciao 2018!

    Day 15: Freely roam in rootedness

    December 31, 2018 — Leave a comment

    Genesis 46-47; Psalm 15

    It’s hard to read Joseph’s current wealth and loyalty to the Pharaoh and not think about the Israelites future slavery. Joseph sets up the structures for the Egyptians to hate the Israelites and for the Pharaoh to have utmost power. But he didn’t know. He was both a person in God’s redemption to presently save his people and to set up a future that enslaves them. What structures am I laying down now that will bite me in the ass later? Where do I think I’m so clever and impervious to failure? I don’t think Joesph knew he was doing wrong, but I wonder if he thought very long term.

    To sojourn in God’s tent is to be rooted so nothing of this world can pull you away from his love. To be free in God’s world is to have the range to act like you are already enough. Freedom, grounded-ness, movement and stability are two sides of the same coin.