Getting an Alignment

Have you ever checked your tires only to discover a kind of wear pattern that looks like big scoops taken out of the sides? Or maybe one side looks new but the other side looks bald?

You need to remember to have an alignment done.

You see, if your tires are out of alignment, they start to fight against the direction of the car. They start to stutter and shimmy, or they are turned in or out and, thus, they end up ruining your nice new steel-belted radials.

Think of your relationship with God a little bit like a new set of tires. If you stay properly aligned, your relationship will hum along as it was intended. But get a little bit out of alignment and you will begin to show signs of wear and tear.

What do I mean by alignment? The most basic truth we should understand is that He's God and I'm not. That is, He is the Creator of all things. I am one of his created things. When I fail to remember that in any way, I start to go out of alignment.

This is what happened to Satan. He was the highest being who was created to worship God and to lead all of God's creation in worship. He is called helel (shining one) in Isa. 14:12, from which the Latin translation, Lucifer (morning star) comes. In Eze. 28:14, God said that he was ordained as a "guardian cherub." But at some point, he got "out of alignment." Isaiah prophesies about his downfall. He begins to think of himself more highly than he ought to think. "You said in your heart, 'I will ascend to the heavens; I will raise my throne above the stars of God; I will sit enthroned on the mount of assembly, on the utmost heights of Mount Zaphon. I will ascend above the tops of the clouds; I will make myself LIKE THE MOST HIGH'" (Isa. 14:13-14).

This is the original sin. Satan became conceited and deceived in a desire to be worshipped like God was worshipped. He was out of alignment because he forgot that "He's God and I'm not."

And so Isaiah tragically records: "But [instead], you are brought down to the realm of the dead, to the depths of the pit" (Isa. 14:15).

Mankind's fall was similar. The temptation in the Garden of Eden was for Adam and Eve to take over God's job. "Sure God, you said that we were not to eat the fruit of this tree. But we aren't sure you have our best interests in mind. Therefore, we think we know better than You what is best for us. We will take the steering wheel from here on out and begin to run our own lives." (Perhaps I should have said, "ruin our own lives?")

Christian conversion in many ways is merely the re-aligment of our lives to match God's intention for all of His creation. When I become a Christian, as the old "Four Spiritual Laws" tract said, I am getting off of the throne of my own life and putting Jesus on the throne. It is getting the ultimate cosmic alignment job.

Worship is also alignment. It is the spiritual discipline that makes me place myself in proper alignment relative to my Lord. He's God and I'm not. Therefore, I worship Him.

This is what the Spiritual Disciplines of the Christian life are all about. They are the regular rhythms of spiritual discipline that keep our lives in proper alignment. Daily devotion and prayer time with God. A plan for regular reading through the Bible. Other regular activities like prayer, silence, solitude, journaling, and faith gatherings: small groups and the larger church celebrations.

But most of all: worship. You see worship is proper alignment with the Creator of the Universe.

How's your alignment? Need an adjustment? Just begin to worship and see what happens.

Redigging Wells

I live in a semi-arid region of the country--Southern California. With no big river or lake nearby to supply fresh water, and with historically rapid population growth, water rights have had to be acquired in far-reaching places like the Owens Valley and the Colorado River, hundreds of miles away, and the water has had to be moved from there to SoCal in great aqueducts, often through pumping stations over mountains. (For movie buffs, this is the underlying reality that fuels the plot of Chinatown).

But a lot of people, even in SoCal, are not aware that the northern area of Orange County, California, is served by one of the largest managed aquifer systems in the U.S.. That means that there are a series of ponds that capture rain and river runoff into "percolation" ponds that feed into deep underground aquifers. Then there are roughly 400 wells throughout the area to draw water from those underground lakes.

Wells were a very important source of water in the semi-arid herding region of southern Canaan during the time of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. And we are told that Abraham dug significant wells to water his flocks. Perhaps the most famous is Beer Sheba (which means "the well of seven" or "the well of the oath").

When his son, Isaac, returned to the same areas to graze his flocks, he found that the wells that had been dug by his father had been blocked up by Abimelech and his men.

"So all the wells that his father's servants had dug during the time of his father Abraham, the Philistines stopped up, filling them with earth" (Gen. 26: 15).


Have you ever spent time growing in your prayer life and your spiritual life, only to go through a transformation and find later that those wells of spiritual discipline have been stopped up?

And so, Isaac started to dig the wells again for himself. At first he encountered a lot of opposition from his enemies, the Philistines. Thus he names the early wells Esek (dispute) and Sitnah (quarrel). But after a while, his efforts went uncontested. The next well is named "Rehoboth" meaning "wide places." You can almost hear Isaac sigh loudly, "Ahh, at last, elbow room!"

One of the things that we must do is to revisit the significant connections with God that have been dug in the past and rediscover what we may have forgotten. Perhaps you have kept a journal. (If not, I encourage you to start now.) How often do you go back and read what you've written?

Finally Isaac swears an oath of peace with Abimelech and his commander, Phicol;
"That day, Isaac's servants came and told him, 'We've found water!' He called it Shibah (the oath), and to this day the name of the town has been Beersheba (well of the oath)" (Gen. 26: 32-33).

The goal of digging the wells of spiritual connection with God is that we would be able to occupy the land that God is giving us. Figuratively, that means, that we grasp hold of the victories and the promises that God has given us and hold onto it. Rather than wandering away and allowing the enemy to steal that from us.

It does not mean that we have to live in the past. But it means that, as we move forward, we don't lose the richness of what God has already done in us.

Do you have an old well that has been stopped up in your life? Is it time to dig it up again?

Prayer Power

I would love to claim that I have mastered the art of prayer. But, alas, I must confess that I suffer from a somewhat erratic prayer life.

Don't get me wrong. I am a pray-er and I am constantly working on becoming a better pray-er. But I often fall short of the kind of prayer life that I desire. Can you relate?

That is why Matt. 26: 41 has been a difficult one for me to read without feeling a twinge of guilt. "Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak."

If you take a step back and look at the entire flow of the chapter, Matthew 26, you will see three major characters dominating the storyline: Jesus, Judas and Peter. In one way, each represents a kind of pray-er.

Jesus is the obedient Son who watches and prays. He is honest about his struggles with his Father. He asks if the trial can be removed. But he ends up accepting God's will , even if it means suffering. In other words, Jesus is not satisfied until he has prayed to a conclusion--understanding God's will and finding the strength to obey.

Judas is the person of the flesh. He sees the priceless ointment wasted and it triggers his greed. He decides to cut his losses. He has always been in it for himself: "God's will be damned! I'll at least make some money off the whole sorry mess." There's no sign that he cares what God thinks about his course of action. Only afterwards does he feel remorse. But there's a big difference between remorse and repentance.

Peter is the well-intentioned but undisciplined believer. He wants to follow Jesus, but he is powerless to do it. Maybe because of his prayer-less-ness. But also because of his lack of the Holy Spirit. Jesus is the truly empowered one of the three. And he has to finish his work in order to make the Holy Spirit available to all believers.  The proof? The massive change in Peter after Pentecost.

I can relate to Peter. Can you? The call to all of us is clear: "Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak."

I don't believe that this should be a discouraging word. Instead, it is a word of instruction. Don't be surprised when your human nature, motivated by our fallen fleshly appetites, is actively resisting your best of intentions in the spirit.

Paul confessed a similar struggle in Romans 7.

The answer lies in what happened at Pentecost. The Holy Spirit has been given so that we have a source of power to draw on. Because the flesh is weak and because Jesus knows that our flesh is weak, he has given us a power that can surpass the weakness of our fallen nature.

So, if you want to grow in prayer, begin by asking to be filled with the Spirit.

The Labyrinth and Pilgrimage

The labyrinth has an interesting history. It was first mentioned in Greek mythology as the elaborate maze built by Daedalus for King Minos of Crete to keep the Minotaur imprisoned.

But since the middle ages, the labyrinth has been used in Christian formation, not as a puzzle to be solved, but as a substitute for going on a pilgrimage.

The Christian labyrinth is constructed as a single path that winds inevitably to the center and then must be retraced to exit. The disciple who follows the path, uses it as a way to quiet the mind so that he or she can focus on God.

I don't know about you, but I often use walking as a way of focusing my mind so that I can pray without being distracted. When I am sitting still, I find my mind wandering because of noises and my active thought life. But when I walk, I find the distractions focused into simply taking one step after another. And if I walk with my hands clasped behind my back, it naturally slows my pace so that, rather than going for a hike, I am going for a stroll. Now I begin to take in my surroundings--flowers, birds and the gentle breeze--in a way that makes me feel more connected to God and myself.

Pilgrimages have been used for ages to help us focus on our journey with God. I highly recommend the recent film, The Way, starring Martin Sheen and produced, written and directed by his son, Emilio Estevez. In the film, Sheen's character decides to complete his deceased son's pilgrimage on "El Camino de Santiago", also known as "The Way of St. James"--an ancient pilgrimage trail across the Pyrenees Mountains and the northern part of Spain, about 500 miles long, ending at the Cathedral de Santiago.

The New Testament is full of exhortations to walk in the Spirit, to walk in the light, to stop walking in the old ways, etc.

We are all on a journey--of faith, of discipleship and of mission. Why not spend a little time on a deliberate stroll with God as a way of focusing on your life's journey with Him?