Tozer and a Thirst

“O God, I have tasted Thy goodness, and it has both satisfied me and made me thirsty for more, I am painfully conscious of my need for further grace. I am ashamed of my lack of desire. O God, the Triune God, I want to want Thee; I long to be filled with longing; I thirst to be made more thirsty still.” – A.W. Tozer The Pursuit of God

all week I have fought this prayer. Especially, “I want to want Thee, I long to be filled with longing; I thirst to be made more thirsty still,” for why would I want to want Him more or “to be made more thirsty still” when it would only produce longings and not satisfy them.

After a conversation with my friend, Ashley, a new way to understand Tozer’s prayer began to take shape. In the midst of our conversation, about John Mayor’s desire to play more secondary markets, she went on a tangent about some of her frustrations with American Christianity. Stemming from her experience in the music industry she noted how Christianity has made its own separate world or bubble from which it can safely enjoy “music.” This led us to discuss how American Christianity attempts to play it safe by creating a bubble. It is from this bubble that everything must be experienced, from church to music to books to movies. It seems there’s a subtle pressure for our faith to find itself within this bubble and when it doesn’t then we have awkward/wrong faith or at best win the questioning gazes of those from within the bubble. “We’ve forgotten how to be in the world,” she commented as we talked about what it means to be in the world but not of it. I don’t think the bubble is something Jesus is too proud of.

Should we get so mad at the darkness for being dark, or at the light for not shining in the darkness?

I have permanent ink within my skin, primarily secular music fills my iTunes, and I drink beer. I mention these things because (especially while I was in a conservative Bible college) these were the things the Christian bubble didn’t permit our faith to come in contact with. My longing for the goodness of God has led me down a path to find beauty and truth in places I’ve long been told it doesn’t exists. And on this path I learned a few things: it takes great skill to draw and engrave art within the human skin, music robbed of creativity and excellence isn’t worth listening to, and hops taste good. But even greater than this I’ve learned to long for God’s goodness and pursue it.

To allow fear to keep us from pursuing the goodness of God will leave us in a place far worse than the one outside the bubble. “A thirst to be made more thirsty still” will yield great fruit when fear is pushed aside and we chase after the water. All Souls is a community where I’ve been encouraged to chase after the water and have found faith, hope, and love.

So tonight I can finally pray, after wrestling all week, as Tozer once prayed: “…O God, the Triune God, I want to want Thee; I long to be filled with longing; I thirst to be made more thirsty still…”

More on Mary: This is my Son in Whom I Am Well-Pleased

Sorry about the earlier duplicate post. Also, in the earlier post, when I wrote that Jesus was half-God and half-man, I should have written that he was fully God and fully man. Wars have been fought over such hair-splitting so I need to be more careful :-).

As I "mulled" over (a little Christmas levity) Mary's role this morning, I thought of the verse from Mark 1 describing Jesus' baptism and the voice of God exclaiming, "This is my son in whom I am well-pleased." To me, that verse indicates two things: 1) That Mary was a good mother because Jesus hadn't done anything yet to prove his power, but God was pleased with him anyway 2) That parents need to affirm a child's worth even before she/he "does" anything.

I assume that Joseph had a little to do with the fact that Jesus turned out okay. But the poor guy doesn't get much press in the Bible. We hear about him in the first few chapters of the gospels, and then he disappears. We see him for the last time when the twelve-year-old Jesus gets left behind in Jerusalem, and his parents finally find him in the temple. However, it is Mary who addresses Jesus. Some may think less of Mary because she seems worried about Jesus and his disappearing act, but again I admire her attention to the important details of mothering. What was she to do? Leave her insubordinate twelve-year-0ld boy alone in a strange city? One time I lost my two-year-old son in a mall at Christmas three days after my daughter was born. She had come two weeks early, and I had just handed in my grades less than a week before and had not done my Christmas shopping. So I put the newborn in the snugli front carrier and David in the stroller and off we went to the Johnson City mall. However, I was light-headed and not paying attention to my son and he slipped away one time when I let him out of the stroller. Finally I found him chatting with a nice saleswoman. She patted my hand and said, "Honey, maybe you should go home." I was very happy to find David, but I was also irritated that I hadn't gotten my shopping done.

Mary, on the other hand, let her son "sass" her, still pondering his precocious actions in her heart. Sometimes, I should have been more like Mary--taking time to appreciate the way my kids broke up mundane routines.

Also, I'd say that Mary's example of going back to find her son proved to be an influence as Jesus formulated his parable of the lost sheep. Mary was like the good shepherd who went back to find the one lost sheep. And because of Mary's influence, 18 years later, God was able to say, "This is my son in whom I am well-pleased."

Mary: Taking care of Details

Since David's blog is so well-written, I'm a little intimidated to do much here! But I'm going to dash this off anyway--and I'm in too much of a hurry as always so it may be messy and
even a little confusing, just the way my life seems to be most of the time.

Last night at small group, someone mentioned that it would be nice to slow down at Advent, but I find that my life always gets more complicated at this time of year, especially when I'm teaching. I have to turn in grades, write polite emails to students explaining why they got that B instead of an A, and find the "best" gift for each child in my family. I'd love to slow down--maybe take a trip to the Bahamas or something, but then I'd have to pack, get the tickets, etc. etc. What I really want is for someone to take care of all the details.

Mary took care of the details before Jesus was ready to take on his ministry. She took off
3 months just to ponder what God had told her--she spent time with Elizabeth as they discussed this important event in Mary's life. That's an important lesson we can learn from her. Slow down and take in God's message.

The other thing that Mary did was to raise Jesus. You can see what a great job she did by the way he turned out! Okay, okay, I know he was half God, but he was also half human and the human side of him was surely influenced by his mother. He cared a great deal about social issues, the poor, the defenseless. I can only hope that I've caused my children to care about those less fortunate.

Last, Mary was there during his time of greatest sorrow and pain. She stayed with him as he died. It's sometimes difficult to watch our kids go through such hard times, but Mary patiently stayed by his side. She didn't tell him what to do; she just suffered with him.

I must "run" off now to do some errands, more shopping. I hope to slow down soon.
Just some thoughts I'd leave with you. Peace! Deborah

(More) Thoughts on Advent

In the reading for December 7 entitled The Penitential Season (pp. 102-106 in Watch for the Light: Readings for Advent and Christmas, Orbis Books, 2001), William Stringfellow begins with the following:

"We live now, in the United States, in a culture so profoundly pagan that Advent is no longer noticed, much less observed. The commercial acceleration of seasons, whereby the promotion of Christmas begins even before there is an opportunity to enjoy Halloween, is superficially, a reason for the vanishment of Advent. But a more significant cause is that the churches have become so utterly secularized that they no longer remember the topic of Advent. This situation cannot be blamed merely upon... the electronic preachers and talkers, or the other assorted peddlers of religion that so clutter the ethos of this society, any more than it can be said, simplistically, to be mainly the fault of American merchandising and consumerism."

I was introduced to Advent in my graduate studies years when my wife and I joined the Methodist Church in Michigan. Having been "raised" as a Southern Baptist, I had no idea of what Advent meant, for the church of my youth did not recognize the season nor do they today. So over the years since, I have "celebrated" this season and the Christmastide season and even though it has been 30 years since that time, I still find its remembrance helpful in my walk.

The meaning and emphasis during Advent changes every year. As I struggled this year in how I would remember and live during this Advent, one of my daughters related the subject of the sermon this past First Sunday of Advent at her Indiana church. The topic was Advent and Fasting, two topics that I had failed to see any relationship. (I had always thought Lent equals Fasting.) However, a Google search quickly revealed that fasting had been a common practice during Advent in the early church and there were many churches today, primarily Greek Orthodox, that still practice this tradition.

Last year, when I wrote, I felt the call to "rise up and follow". Yet, this year, perhaps I will have to look further into tradition as I seem am repeatedly directed to a different reaction during this Advent. Recent articles (Christianity Today and the Palm Beach Post) seem to further reinforce these feelings. Stringfellow went on to discuss the first Advent and how John the Baptist is considered a primary Advent figure and his message was repentance. He further writes concerning on how we now are in the second Advent and asks how we should act knowing that sometime, Jesus comes back as the judge. I think, as followers of Christ, we all recognize that there is something so unChristian about Christmas. Perhaps the voices which cry against our holiday celebrations during this time are valid.

David G

Online Resources for Advent

Dear beloved worshipping community,

Here are a couple of online resources for your private or family devotions during this Advent and Christmas season.

for individuals, families, or small groups:
Prayers and Customs of Advent and Christmas
http://www.cptryon.org/prayer/adx/index.html


for a personal prayer and meditation guide with reflective music and images:
http://www.sacredspace.ie/
Be sure to click on the link to "Advent Reflections"

Blessings on your personal Advent worship pilgrimage,
Travetta