Seeking milk and honey

On a recent trip as part of our vacation, I found myself cycling through the countryside.   “It is beautiful here”, I thought.   I became mentally lost in the visual spectacle and I began to forget the tension of days prior to vacation.  The gently rolling hills were covered with various shades of green.  Fields of soybeans, potatoes and alfalfa, punctuated by lines of trees marking the field limits, making for a striking contrast to the dark blue of the lake in the distant south and the light blue of the summer sky above. I look at it, inhale the scent of freshly cut alfalfa (or hay, or whatever that stuff is) and wonder at the peace and quiet.  I think about what it is to live there – a life among wide-open spaces, a life of freedom from traffic.  I find myself wishing I could – maybe one day in retirement.  I think we all look forward, on some level, to a life with such abundance and such a lack of stress.  Truly, I thought to myself, this is a land flowing with milk and honey.  

That phrase is a Biblical one, first mentioned in Exodus 3:8.  To say that the land was flowing with milk means that it was ideal for raising cows and goats, which would be full of milk on the steady and rich diet of the natural vegetation.  To say that the land was flowing with honey means that there were plenty of bees and many flowering plants/trees to feed them. Milk and honey thus suggested agricultural abundance, and agricultural abundance meant life with all the food you could eat.   Is that not a life without want?  A life we all want.

The Lord promised such a land to the Israelites – a people hungry for freedom from slavery.  He worked wonders that they might leave Egypt and sojourn to such a place.  To their dismay on their arrival, they found it filled with wicked people, some of whom were giants.  Seven nations resided there who were focused on themselves and their own gods.  They had built fortified cities and high walls.  Whether all of them were expecting God’s people to show up to claim the land is unknown – we do know that some had at least heard that they were on their way (Josh 2:8).  They had no intention of bowing the knee to the Lord.  It would take a long and bloody war to clear them out, so that God’s people could begin building a land dedicated to Him.   A land where His rule is recognized, and His laws are upheld. 

  

With no TV on my bike, and nothing but time to think, I think about that.  I am thankful that I live thousands of years later in a land that was founded on such principles.  In fact, the reality is that so many of us here in Canada were born in a place flowing with milk and honey.  We do not lack for food – rather far from it.   Why, I even have to exercise to avoid excess gain, for I do not live close enough to moderation.   Perhaps I am, like so many, too quick to forget the blessings I already have.  Sure, I have the Go train in my backyard, and the drone of the highway just beyond that.  But I also don’t have isolation, or the hard work and difficulty of maintaining a huge property, let alone a farm.  I also don’t concern myself with whether it rains or not – an hour with the garden hose and all my land is wet, and the sewer lines drain away the excess when if it rains too hard.  Is my hometown not a land flowing with milk and honey also?  Perhaps we have arrived at a sort of promised land.  There are no giants here.  Are they?

Lord knows, my neighbors are not giant in stature, and I’m not even 6ft!  Though perhaps, like many Canadians (even me) we are so in appetite and – if not careful - girth.  And, no one I know worships Baal or Molech, but most everyone I know (myself included) spends more than a few hours a week looking at our smartphones.  Our undefended city can hardly be called fortified and does not even have walls, but we all live in brick or stuccoed houses with fences.  Concern for our country largely consists of making sure the newer generations don’t mess up the CPP and our planned retirement.   I’m not saying that we’re all a bunch of wicked giants.  But if we be the people of God, we might want to take a good hard look in the mirror.   A steady diet of milk and honey can slowly change us from a hungry sojourner in a land not yet our own, to a lethargic beast that is more concerned with itself than with the Kingdom of God.

David Hearn recently wrote a piece in Momentum that called on God’s people to sacrifice financially so that the lost could be reached.  That raises some pointy questions in my mind.  Is it alright to dream about a country property when there are still thousands of unreached people groups?  Is it OK to focus on retirement planning when I know of struggling church plants here in Canada?  Perhaps.  It’s a tension I must wrestle with.  There is a very fine line between good stewardship of one’s own greater household and foolish self-indulgence.  Much discernment is called for as the day of the Lord’s reckoning approaches.  After all, He promised to come back, and we who follow Him will inherit the whole world – even the country properties and the fields of abundance. 

I am grateful that I’m even aware of the tension. 

Good morning

In a book I'm reading, Mark Batterson points out, "God couldn’t care less about protocol. If He did, Jesus would have chosen the Pharisees as His disciples. But that isn’t who Jesus honored. Jesus honored the prostitute who crashed a party at a Pharisee’s home to anoint His feet. Jesus honored the tax collector who climbed a tree in his three-piece suit just to get a glimpse of Jesus. Jesus honored the four friends who cut in line and cut a hole in someone’s ceiling to help their friend... The common denominator in each of these stories is holy desperation. People took desperate measures to get to God, and God honored them for it. Nothing has changed. God is still honoring spiritual desperadoes who crash parties and climb trees. God is still honoring those who defy protocol with their bold prayers. God is still honoring those who pray with audacity and tenacity."

Those words challenge my prayer life.  I sit on my stone patio, looking at the morning sunbeams making patterns through the trees on the neatly cut grass.  I sip my dark roast coffee and adjust my reclining patio chair ever so slightly so the light hits my iPad just right.  I think about how desperate I am.  Not very much, I reckon.  It's hard to be desperate when you're comfortable.  My neighbor starts up his lawn mower.  I hate it when he disturbs my morning like that.

The morning news is that a medical center in Liberia was looted.  It was being used as a quarantine for Ebola victims.  The looters carried away blood stained mattresses and pillows with vomit on them.   It's not hard to imagine what the consequences of that will be.  People in Iraq, Iran and Syria continue to flee to already overcrowded refugee camps in neighbouring states in the face of the horrors being committed by ISIS (Islamic State of Iraq and Syria).  Hamas shoots people in the legs for failing to obey curfew, as they continue their war on Israel.   Polish logistic companies are going bankrupt in the aftermath of Russia's ban on EU produce.  Unrest continues to plague a Midwestern US city in the aftermath of a police shooting.

Will I yawn and go about my day, or will I stop and pray for those who are so very desperate?  Will I just read about it and do nothing, or will I join them in their desperation - crying out to God for relief, for justice, for mercy, for restoration, reconciliation and healing?   Will I ask the Spirit of God to fill me with holy passion for His Kingdom come, or will I let my mind wander on?  

In the quietness of a Monday morning in the suburbs and without a sound reaching the street, I make one of many of life's little decisions.

When the mind wanders - thinking while cycling

I'm still not as focused as I'd like to be, so I need to apply conscious effort in my thinking.   I find this comes to the forefront most acutely when I'm engaged in an activity that doesn't take my full concentration - especially if that activity takes hour after hour.  Without any prompt, my mind goes from what I meant to think about on to other things.   To make the most of my time then, I find it useful to purpose to occupy my mind proactively with profitable thoughts.  After all, the Word says, "Be very careful, then, how you live—not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil." 

Recently having spent more than two weeks cycling all day, I chose the other day to consider what my thoughts actually are.  In essence, I thought about what I've been thinking about, as I ride kilometre after kilometre .

I know when I chose to join Love In Motion, I determined I would spend much of the time praying.  After all, the Word says, "Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus."

As I thought about it, I realized that I do spend some of my time in prayer.  I pray for the missionaries I know,  I pray for the churches I know, the pastors I know, the ministry leaders and elders I know.  I pray for my wife, for my kids, for my neighbours, for my city and country.  For other LIM riders, for my small group and all manner of people and things.  Sometimes I sing in my head.  After all, the Word says, "I will exalt you, my God the King; I will praise your name for ever and ever.  Every day I will praise you and extol your name for ever and ever."  Now I'm not very musical, so I only sing in my head, and I don't do even do that well.  But it helps brighten my day and cheers my mood as I fill my mind with worship. 

Praying and singing sounds great, and I know that if I could do that during all the time I'm riding, I would be a better man.  I do try, and for part of the time I succeed.  But the more I thought about it, the more I realized that mostly - for most of my time - my mind just wanders.  I dream.

It's not that dreaming is bad in itself.  It's a form of thinking, and thinking isn't bad in itself.  Nevertheless, thinking has to be redeemed.  If my thinking is not sanctified thinking, it is not merely a waste of time, but inappropriate use of a gift that God has given and so a form of idolatry.  It is for that reason that Paul said, "whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things."  Prayer and worship sanctify my mind - they make my purposeful thinking holy.   But what then of my dreaming?  Can my dreaming be made holy?

Mark Batterson once said, "At some point, most of us stop living out of imagination and start living out of memory. Instead of creating the future, we start repeating the past. Instead of living by faith, we live by logic....As we age, either imagination overtakes memory or memory overtakes imagination." What he means by that is that our dreams can be, ought to be, key for us.  They can fuel our prayers and can fuel our lives.  If I spend time dreaming of the day my kids all know and serve the Lord, if I let my mind wonder about what Christmas will be like then, about what family holidays will be like then, about family mission trips and all these kinds of things - why then, it is only natural to pray that into reality.  His Kingdom will come, and His will will be done.  

If I dream of the day that my friends are on fire for Christ's mission, then it's only natural for me to be sensitive to the Spirit's leading in helping them in that direction. 

I can choose to dream of the day that LIM is not one, but three rides;  one family ride consisting of day or two day events organized by local Alliance churches and involving their broader communities, one consisting of a 3 or 4 month tour, cycling only 50-75km a day to allow prayer and healing ministry in every town we stay in, and one "amazing race" style, where elite teams compete in not only cycling, but community building events.  All of them fundraising, and not for 3/4 million, but 5 or even 10 million.   If I dream of the day the marginalized and rejected find hope in Christ, find forgiveness in Christ, find purpose and meaning in Christ, then not only is my participation in Love In Motion useful, but even the monotonous hours spent cycling are profitable.

My thinking can either be pointless conjecture and unprofitable sin, or it can be speaking to God and worship.  My  dreams can either be mindless wandering and a waste of precious time, or they can be holy prompts to prayer and action.   The choice is mine to make.   May the Lord grant that even the wandering of my minds be made holy and useful.  Amen.