Call from God on my Samsung Galaxy, part 2

Every morning God calls me on my smartphone.  At 8:00 a.m. to be exact.  And He’s always on time.  It doesn’t matter if I’m traveling or in the middle of eating breakfast or fast at work catching up on emails.  He always calls.  For that I'm deeply grateful.

Sometimes if I’m in another room when God Calls, my wife calls out to me, “Steeeaaave…God’s calling.”  I’m not sure I’m totally comfortable with this however.  I mean, think about it.  If I happen to be missing God’s Call, that’s bad enough, but now I’ve also got my wife reminding me that I’m missing God’s Call!  See what I mean?

So how does it work?  My daughter’s pastor, Tammy Melchien, gave me the idea in her sermon one Sunday when she was talking about how Scott Peck (author of The Road Less Traveled) learned the difference between “praying” and “being available to God.”  You can read Scott Peck’s story in my previous post, below. 

 

After hearing and seeing that there IS a difference I decided to test it out.  So in my Quiet Time the next week, I worked it out with the Spirit, asking “when would be the best time to be available to God every day?”  We chose 8:00 a.m.  So I set a reminder on my phone to go off every morning at 8:00 a.m. and labeled it, “Time with God.” 

 

Now you might say, “wait a minute, that’s not God calling… it’s just you setting an alarm to remind yourself to pray.”  In the beginning, that’s what came across my mind sometimes too.  But after doing this for several months I’ve come to see that God is actually at work through this system.  Even though it’s a human creation, God can and does work through it.  Just like He works through all of the ideas, technology, discoveries, culture and structures that we create.  Even the printing up of a Bible on pieces of paper, using ink, and binding the pages together between two pieces of leather—is a relatively new invented technology.  And God has no trouble working through this new technology—speaking through it, even.

 

It’s reassuring to hear God Calling each morning, without fail.  It reminds me of the character of God:  God’s faithfulness, for example.  Unlike a friend who may quickly give up after a minute or two, God’s Ring never stops until I turn it off.  Or, His unfaltering love for me—He calls me just the same the very next day even after I have traveled to a breakfast meeting the previous morning and had to hit the “Dismiss” button while in the car.  (It’s unnerving to hit the “Dismiss” button when the phone message reads, “Time with God.”)

 

Read more about how to be available to God on my blog, "Call From God on my Samsung Galaxy, part 1."

Call From God on my Samsung Galaxy, part 1

M. Scott Peck, author of The Road Less Traveled, one of the best-selling books of all-time, tells a story about after he became a Christ-follower. He started going to a local convent for spiritual guidance.  A sister there asked him about time for praying – personal celebration.  

Peck said, "Oh, I pray.  I pray when I'm out walking, when I'm going to sleep at night, when I'm listening to a patient and when I don't know what else to do. I pray a lot.” 

She pressed him gently, "Do you set aside any specific times to pray?" 

"Well, no," he said, "that seems unnecessarily rigid and un-spontaneous."

She pushed back again, "Maybe so, but what I hear you saying is that you simply pray to God when you feel like it, whenever it's convenient to you.  That sounds a lot like a one-way relationship to me; as if you are willing to relate to God only on your terms.  If you love God as much as you say you do - and I suspect you do - then I think you owe it to Him to set aside some times to be available to Him whether you feel like it or not, some time that will be His and not just yours."

Peck says he found that difficult to argue with and so he set about carving time out of his life every day when he says he does “'nothing' in the world's terms other than attempt in my own inadequate way to be available to God.”   

My daughter’s pastor, Tammy Melchien, (Community Christian Church/Lincoln Square) shared this story from Scott Peck as part of her sermon one Sunday when she was talking about the difference between “praying” and “being available to God.”  Putting this into action has been a turning point in my own daily prayer life.  You can read about it in part 2 of this blog, “Call from God on my Samsung Galaxy.”

A Post-Modern Look at Jan 6

One look at the calendar this morning—it’s January 6—and I’m aware that the deep traditions of my seminary training still shape my daily perspective.  On the church calendar today is “The Epiphany of Our Lord,” one of only a handful of key dates each year like Christmas and Easter.

“Epiphany” means “to manifest,” or “to show forth.”  So January 6 has traditionally been the day when the true identity of Jesus begins to “show forth” in the world.  The traditional scripture for this day is the visit of the Magi, recorded in Matthew 2:1-12, who represent the people, cultures and nations of the world who are awakened to the fact that something new has broken in upon the world and is about to change the course of history and humankind forever.

This could be just a quaint story unless we ask “What does it mean for a 21^st century Christian to observe the Season of Epiphany in their everyday, post-modern life?”

First off, if epiphany means the “showing forth” of the nature and person of who Jesus is, then it makes sense that his followers would be doing the same.  How?  In the same way that Jesus showed himself to the world… through his good works, his kindness, his mercy, his teaching and healing and his befriending of those who have been cast aside by society.  Some examples…

·        Re-structuring your life so that you can actually interact meaningfully with the people around you… family, co-workers, neighbors.

·        Making room in your schedule for an ongoing “good work” as a Christian (otherwise, how if your life any different from anyone else around you?  In fact, even many non-Christians are engaging in “good works” these days.)

·        Learning from the lips of Jesus himself by engaging in some kind of daily quiet time, just you and God and a Bible and a paper and pen.

·        Taking time to have coffee with a friend… just to catch up on life.  Or ice-fishing (plenty of opportunity in Minnesota for that these days).  Or cook dinner together as a family.

You get the idea.

It’s interesting that each of the Gospels are written with this same flow.  Right after the birth of Jesus they jump right into his young adult years with story after story of good works, healing, teaching and befriending “sinners” as it were, i.e., the “cast offs.”  No doctrine.  No high theological treatises.  Not even much conflict with the authorities.  (That comes later.)  Just plain good works.  And lots of them.