LOSS IS JUST EXCHANGE

For by him all things were created in heaven and on earth,, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities - all things were created through him and for him Colossians 1:16 ESV 

The first law of thermodynamics, also called the law of conservation of energy, simply put, is that energy is neither created nor destroyed.

Thermo:  heat

Dynamics:  Physics. The branch of mechanics that deals with the motion and equilibrium of systems under the action of forces, usually from outside the system

Please do not assume that I am suggesting that it is virtuous to give for the purpose of being blessed. Too many others are (wrongly) espousing that idea. That is equivalent to the Pharisaical practice of broadcasting their alms-giving for recognition. By pouring out I imply more of a sacrificial act, something that, on our human side, is difficult, sometimes painful. Yet in our spiritual nature this kind of giving is joyous, and it results in blessings both inward and outward. Still, our humanness is relentless in its pursuit of happiness. At the core, the striving for happiness is self-centered, dependent upon getting something from the world that creates an emotion. This is an exchange of sorts. “What can I engage in to feel happy?”

Some give their bodies for immoral or addictive pleasures. On the lighter side we will engage in anything else that might be pursued to maintain a feeling of happiness. Most of which are not effective. It is cliché to list them – things such as fortune, fame, achievement, philanthropy. The hope of gain from experiences.

Happiness comes from gain, Joy comes from loss

“What in the world are you talking about?” There was a saying I once heard regarding pastoral ministry which went something like “Lord, you keep him holy, we'll keep him poor.” It has been thought over the centuries by some, that poverty and lack made one more holy and fit for service. Okay, not loving the world or the things that are in the world is certainly virtuous. However, giving away everything to gain one ounce of holiness will not work. Holiness is a result of God in us living through us.

I briefly explored the concept of joy in another blog www.missjanetm.wordpress.com, in a post entitled A Cup of Joy? Happiness is a noun, something passive, dependent on receiving something. Joy is a noun as well. The conclusion was that joy as referenced Biblically is a word (Gr: chara) that is better translated rejoice. Rejoice is a verb, an action. What does anyone have to rejoice about? The one who is surrendered to God has much, and it has to do with living in a perpetual state of grace.

Can you see how joy comes from an exchange?

First we exchange our insistence of running our own life, and living with many failures due to our nature as humans, for falling upon the eternal strength of God who created us and seeking to do his will above ours. Literally exchanging our life for his. Jesus demonstrated this to us on the eve of his barbaric murder when he said (as a man) “Father, if you are willing please take this cup of suffering away from me” and then (as a man submitted to God) “Yet I want your will to be done, not mine.”

After that initial exchange, life becomes a series of exchanges. Loss is not really loss in God's economy.

Loss: detriment, or deprivation from failure to keep, have, or get.

We expend so much energy in striving to get, have, and keep in order to be happy. Then loss comes and deprives us.

What if we are always prepared to lose for the sake of bowing to God, and to obtain joy in exchange? Are we able to welcome loss, knowing that the exchange is so superior to the loss, that we will rejoice in spite of pain? That is a secret of which many are unaware, including those who follow Him. That is what prevents us from wailing “why, God?”

Pouring Out

We do not easily give up. It is in our nature to fight for our lives, defend our own, and cling to that which is in our possession. But our new nature, His nature, is to give, give up, pour out. And we can practice this new virtue if we welcome the small opportunities. Giving to others in need, while yet in need ourselves is one example of pouring out.

See the widow at Zarephath.

...there was no rainfall anywhere in the land. Then the Lord said to Elijah, “Go and live in the village of Zaraphath, near the city of Sidon. I have instructed a widow there to feed you.”

So he went to Zaraphath. As he arrived at the gates of the village, he saw a widow gathering sticks, and he asked her, “Would you please bring me a little water in a cup?” As she was going to get it, he called to her, “Bring me a bite of bread, too.”

But she said, “I swear by the Lord your God that I don't have a single piece of bread in the house. And I have only a handful of flour left in the jar and a little cooking oil in the bottom of the jug. I was just gathering a few sticks to cook this last meal, and then my son and I will die.”

But Elijah said to her, “Don't be afraid! Go ahead and do just what you've said, but make a little bread for me first. Then use what's left to prepare a meal for yourself and your son. For this is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: There will always be flour and olive oil left in your containers until the time when the Lord sends rain and the crops grow again!”

So she did as Elijah said, and she and Elijah and her family continued to eat for many days.

There was always enough flour and olive oil left in the containers, just as the Lord had promised through Elijah. 1 Kings 17:7-16 NLT

Joy is resting in the assurance that whatever loss we suffer, God will fill the void, salve the pain, bring forth good in our lives and others', and sometimes enlighten us to a greater purpose behind the loss.

King David, while in the wilderness, in the midst of battle with the detachment occupying the town of Bethlehem, rashly longed for the good water from the well near the gate at Bethlehem. His men, eager to please their beloved leader, forced their way through and brought some of that water back to him. As he often did, David realized his foolishness.

But he refused to drink it. Instead, he poured it out as an offering to the Lord. “The Lord forbid that I should drink this!” he exclaimed. “This water is as precious as the blood of these men who risked their lives to bring it to me.” 2 Samuel 23:16-17 NLT

What is your experience? Has God ever asked you to do the “impossible”? Did you stiff-arm him? Or did you yield, only to be surprised at how it all turned out? May I challenge you to pour out an offering to the Lord?

God is Light

I have loosely applied the concept of the first law of thermodynamics, and the equation of relativity to the human spiritual experience when the relationship with God asks us to let go. Remember that speed of light squared in the equation? The energy is equal to the mass multiplied by the speed of light squared. Literally, the speed of light squared makes it possible to turn energy to mass or mass to energy. God is that very light. It is he who created, and nothing more can be created, only converted or exchanged. Leave your losses with him; he will convert them to good.

Jesus said, "Truly I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or farms, for My sake and for the gospel's sake, but that he will receive a hundred times as much now in the present age, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and farms, along with persecutions; and in the age to come, eternal life. Mark 10: 29-30 NASB

Blog Reboot

Update:  I began this blog a couple years ago, and have been away from it as a result of some life upheavals. During the past nine months my writing has been focused on a book. The book is a slice-of-life memoir highlighting my move from a metropolis to the north woods.  To say it is simply an account of contrast of cultures is to understate it.   Woven into the tale is the same theme that has been the focus here - the wondrous work of growth through drastic change. Having no computer internet service is proving difficult, as I am using the finger tap keyboard of a Galaxy S 3 MINI! However, I have decided to bring some of that writing to the blog. Again, this is all about being poured out as an offering, and being deeply blessed as a result. So welcome back, and look for frequent posts again.

Water to Share

Let my every day be a dawn graciously

sweeping down the hillside in the still –

sweet not just to thee but to all

who fall upon my path. Let

drink who will as my

face turned

up and

warmed,

as cup

I lift to

see you

fill, and

cool, clear, living water spill

©Janet McDonald

In the course of writing this blog the role of dark nights of the soul in the working out one’s own salvation with fear and trembling has become clearer to me.  For me to desire to give out of nothing takes painful strokes of the potter’s knife as I spin upon his wheel.  As that fine wordsmith Bob Dylan says:

      When you got nothing, you got nothing to lose

      You're invisible now, you got no secrets to conceal.

That’s right; the widow gave her last coin.  Another widow in the days of the prophets gave the last of her food to God’s prophet, knowing it would mean death to her and her son.  Jesus told the rich man that he needed to give away all that he had in order to follow him.  These things are foreign to the human soul.  It is one thing to give from abundance – quite another to give from lack – and another thing still to give from a state of nothing.

It takes a deep confidence that God will surely supply.  This is so much different from head knowledge and the platitudes we become accustomed to repeating as part of our “Christianese” jargon.  As implied in the Dylan song, God strips away and we become “invisible”, transparent, concealing no secret desires for our own glory.

The dark nights when we struggle will give way to the clear, cool, living water that not only will refresh us, but others.

I AM AN ALABASTER FLASK

Out of ink-black caverns of despair

You lifted me,

Made me step as on air

Into a vast meadow of light.

And here in your house we stand,

I with lifted hands,

Remembering.

Before my eye, back-visions fly,

Of the creature that was me.

Creeping, plotting, hiding, rotting

In the decay of my own way.

Abba, Father, you are mine!

Love Divine You made me shine.

The river in my heart invades my eyes.

My voice flees.

To sing becomes a task.

I am an alabaster flask.

Your

gentleness has broken me.

The ointment flows upon Your feet.

I am nothing more than wretch redeemed

And You are more than infinitely sweet.

©Janet McDonald

Give Until It Hurts

Why should we give when we receive nothing in return? 

The world sees giving as a means to gain.  Only fools would keep giving when the only profit is pain.  And pain is exactly what results sometimes even when giving is done to bring healing, truth, or warning.  The world is set upon a course of self-destruction disguised as self-discovery.  Sadly, and contrary to popular belief, the only thing to discover at the core of the human soul is basically selfishness.  Maslow called it self-actualizing. It is known by other names as well.  Think of words we use to refer to human potential: self-help, true to yourself, independent spirit, empowerment, high achiever, driven, take no enemies, self-starter...   So, we are left with the original question – why give with no return if our underlying drive is gain? 

Giving seems pleasing as long as it is convenient.  We may have the means, the time, and the resources.  But let the need impose on our emotional stasis, our well-planned and over-filled time, and it is, at the least, a bother.  Of course the decent human being will find avenues of benevolence from time to time, as it fills a need to feel “good”.  But don’t let the demands get too frequent, or impose on us.  We don’t like to be victims in America.   It appears that no part of life remains sacred. The decline of manners, the phenomenon of “road rage” (a term coined in 1988), and bullying characterize the fabric of our culture.  We have a sense of entitlement nurtured by a nanny government, litigation madness, and the drive for success.  We voyeuristically watch those who appear on television confronting one another and fighting over immoral and amoral lifestyles, laughing as they make fools of themselves

.

Returning to the question of selfless giving, we find a biblical principle has been spoken that to hold tightly to one’s own life leads to loss while the giving away of one’s life brings great gain.  If you practice giving long enough you will come to a point when pain seems the only reward for you.  I am acquainted with such darkness.  It feels like a vat of snakes, or a raft drifting in the dark ocean in the blackness of night.  I have given until my soul feels like the parched throat of a desert wanderer.   I have been so depleted that tears awake me every morning, and the agony of grief threatens to steal my very sanity.  Why can’t you rescue yourself after a lifetime of rescuing others?

Jesus said “Give and you will receive. Your gift will return to you in full—pressed down, shaken together to make room for more, running over, and poured into your lap. The amount you give will determine the amount you get back” Luke 6:38 NLT

It is at times of depletion that the only thing to do is to go up to the mountain alone – or to go to the other side of the sea.  You cry out for help.  You think to yourself “how can this be?”  Thoughts tempt you to stop caring, stop giving.  So you wait.

 

We wait because deep down we can’t deny that the Lord will surely come and fulfill his promises.  And when he does, healing will give way to renewed strength. Maybe he will send a person to sit on the ground with me as did Job’s friends.  Maybe he will come in the night as I sleep and lift me up in his arms.

I will rise up on wings like an eagle.

© Janet McDonald

Extravagance

Must be a Woe

Must be a Woe —
A loss or so —
To bend the eye
Best Beauty's way —

But — once aslant
It notes Delight
As difficult
As Stalactite

A Common Bliss
Were had for less —
The price — is
Even as the Grace —

Our lord — thought no
Extravagance
To pay — a Cross —

Emily Dickinson

Extravagance can be defined in various ways. It is a condition of excessiveness, lavishness. It is generally considered negative, the opposite of prudence:

1.  A condition of going or being beyond what is needed, desired, or  appropriate
2.  Excessive or imprudent expenditure
3. Something costly and unnecessary

Extravagance - a word for this generation. Distracted by the famously extravagant, we bestow worth to egocentric lives by our attention. Our children know all their names.

Moral apathy: the extravagance of self-indulgence. People roaming about, spending rudeness, demanding attention. Road bullies, verbal polluters, noisy narcissists. No material abundance required.

'But Mary...her extravagance was spent on Someone else.  Would you "waste" a year's income worth of anything on anyone?

© Janet McDonald