"Hashgachah Pratit"

 

My stepdaughter started college classes this week and it took me back to my own parental liberation. Mine came in stages…having returned from the highly structured and rigid basic military training and technical school, my real launching came as I loaded up my car to travel to my first duty assignment in Colorado. Having said my goodbyes, I began the trek with an avalanche of emotions, and by the time I hit the interstate, I was bawling my eyes out. “This is really it” I admitted.

We all remember the transition to supposed “adult” status post high school graduation, now knowing full well that we were far from being grown-up…and yet, perhaps the most noticeable change at that time of our lives was the drop off in parental supervision. Such is the case in my home…while my daughter still lives with us, she now lives a life of “on my own.”

Do you recall your own rite of passage, being launched into the world of self-reliance? We learned quickly then that the freedom we sought for so long didn’t feel so free, as we faced the future of self-care. When you’re out from under the protective wing of caregivers, somehow the early quest for freedom retrospectively feels a bit hasty.

As adults, we typically think fondly of childhood days spent under the supervision of our parents or caregivers. We assess those times as care-free and unencumbered. Any teenager would argue that perspective and yet, the more distance we gain from adolescence, the more we engage in “retrospective sense-making,” or reinterpreting our past to fit our current life paradigm. In any event, the aspect of being cared for or supervised is often something we long for as we face adult pressures, decisions, and expectations from others.

The Fatherhood of our God is interpreted differently with folks. And while it’s almost cliché to say that we typically relate to God the Father in similar fashion to our experience with our earthly fathers, it becomes vitally important to understand the difference between the two. On one hand, we can hide behind the effect our dad’s had on us, and project that onto our Abba…angry dad, absent dad, demanding dad…but what is the reality?

“Hashgachah pratit” is the Hebrew phrase that answers that question. It refers to God’s personal supervision of our lives. Hashgachah means “supervision” and pratit means “individual” or “particular.” There are stark implications to this understanding of Abba’s involvement in our lives. He is not distant; He is at hand. He wants to engage with us. He is interested in the minutiae of our experiences. He is not rageful, disengaged, or rigid with us, regardless of our day-to-day decisions. As one teacher put it, “God does not have a communication problem.” He is ready to speak to us, lead us, encourage us.

Consider the words of Yeshua: “Behold, I stand at the door and knock.” If we accept the fact that God is personally supervising our lives, it stands to reason that He is always standing at the door, waiting for us to open it. Truth be told, I can think of many times I purposefully shut the door in His face in order to sin intentionally and then typically kept the door shut for a period of time, acting as if He was not there…but nothing could be further from the truth. When prodigal me reopened the door, I was expecting a rod, but received an embrace.

The more we allow ourselves to be aware of His personal, intimate supervision, the more we dwell there, the more we engage with Him. “Try Me in this,” He offers. Keep the door open today haverim, and walk with the One who not only fashioned you and is intimately acquainted with you, but who also wants you to enjoy His personal supervision. Shalom!

 

For What Do You Hope?

There is a dichotomy in Christendom. ‘The Santa Claus Syndrome’ versus ‘The Husband/Wife Paradigm.’ ‘The Life of If/Then’ versus ‘The Life of What’s Next’…

‘Hope’ is one of those words we splatter around like an artist flings paint on an avant garde piece called “The Non-Objective Abstraction of Mood.”

I ‘hope’ the Bengals win the Super Bowl…I ‘hope’ I hit the Powerball…I ‘hope’ everyone likes me all the time ever in my whole life (I think you have a better chance of hitting the Powerball).

What do most Christians hope for? Were you to survey this question to believers, no doubt you would have one overwhelming response: the hope of ‘heaven.’ And if we have a primary hope of heaven, we may be guilty of ‘The Santa Claus Syndrome.’

“You better watch out, you better not cry, you better not pout, I’m telling you why…”

As children, our caregivers often threatened us with this ‘if/then’ proposition. “If you don’t behave boy, Santa will put you on the naughty list…and then you’ll have NO presents!”

Now, while most of us would attest to the complete forgiveness of sins in Yeshua, many of us still struggle and adhere to a conditional hope based on our performance. We can’t help it! We’ve been so conditioned and live in a ‘reward for good behavior’ culture. I know this from 40 years of ‘fear-faith’…perhaps the most oxymoronic notion ever. Is fear-based faith, faith at all? If our hope is contingent on our obedience, isn’t it merely unbelief in the very gospel itself?

Were I the enemy of your soul, this would be my preferred method of bringing you to discouragement and hopelessness. “You’ve gone too far, you are hopeless, God rejects you.”

So, in what shall we hope if not heaven? Aaron Budgen speaks to the subject of our hoping, saying, “The law was designed to show us that we have no hope apart from His mercy…if our hope is based on the basis of our repentance and obedience, we are then focused on getting into heaven.” He continues, “The best we can hope for is that He will overlook our sins and we can squeak into heaven. He may not have a mansion for us but maybe a trailer in the backyard (lol)…this thinking is a belief that God still holds our sins against us.”

I believe that Budgen is right. Rather than hoping for heaven, we do well to hope in the expectation that God will show us more of who He is. The heaven issue should already be settled in our minds based on the truth of Messiah’s death and resurrection. But we are still called to hope. It is not necessary for me to hope that my wife will marry me. That has already been accomplished. However, I do hope that our relationship will mature and grow.

Similarly, our hope in Adonai involves a relational paradigm, based on what already exists, a life filled with “What’s next Abba? Would You reveal some aspect of Your nature to me today. How will You direct my steps right now? How might I bear Your fruit today?”

Knowing our Lord is the preeminent objective in our walk. Bask in His delight of you today, dear one!

“(May) the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you will abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.” (Romans 15:13)

From the Smallest of Seeds

 

Retirement is a remarkable adventure. As a former counselor/therapist I met several men in their mid-60s who presented with significant depression. Often, when I'd ask how long the client had been depressed, he would usually respond with, "About six months or so."

"Well," asking the next obvious question, "what happened six months ago?"

"I don't know," he'd say..."well, I did retire from my job of 40 years."

Those of us who find our worth in what we do, usually struggle when we stop doing that which defined us. The social response to self-definition is usually met with a job title..."Oh I'm a butcher, a baker, a candlestick maker." A less defining response later becomes, "I'm retired," and the respondent no longer quite knows just what she/he is. Hence, depression leaps upon the retiree and forces a reexamination of the self at a time usually reserved for winding down. And while we all must answer the "who am I" question, those who find themselves known by their work/works are faced with a dilemma...either redefine the self or unretire.

I found the transition delightful, being one who loves Yeshua and seeks to walk with Him, know Him, and be known by Him. None-the-less, there can be gaps with one whose time is no longer occupied with the daily grind. Personally, there are several things that are meaningful and growth-enhancing in my retirement repertoire, however, I never would have predicted an attempt at the proverbial retiree activity...gardening. Gardening has been as difficult for me as my feeble attempts to learn Hebrew during the last few years and yet...it has also been just as meaningful.

Now, as all you green-thumbers can attest, gardening is fertile ground in which our God teaches us many things.

In my first attempt last year, I thought I could learn gardening in the same way I learned piano...through YouTube. But as all you old-hands/thumbs well know...you learn gardening through failure. Last year, in a modest 10' x 12' patch, I only harvested from three of the 12 vegetables I sowed. In between planting and harvesting, my poor underlings were subject to mildew, cut worms, cabbage caterpillars, underwatering, overwatering, lousy soil and an ole fella who learned much as he ate YouTube crow.

But in retrospect, that first year must have been orchestrated by Adonai. In everything we do, there is opportunity to learn of His character and trust in His providence. This year, of the 15 seed types/plants I sowed, 15 are thriving, many already bearing fruit. This is also Adonai's doing. Of course, the temptation to brag about what is happening in the garden this year is akin to the scene in the old Tom Hanks movie Castaway, as he marvels at his first fire which he produces from rubbing sticks together..."Look at what I have created!" he screams with passion to no one.

Atop this blog post is a picture of a tomato seed, followed by the tomato plants that have miraculously appeared in this year's same 10'x12' plot. To pretend that the furiously on-coming produce is of my doing is to miss the beauty of The Creator's Hand. First, Abba demonstrates His authorship of creation. I look at that tiny seed and am dumbfounded! How are these plants and fruit possible? How could I possibly ignore the unseen hand that causes all things to come forth at His word? Really? From that tiny seed?

Next, HaShem teaches me that He can produce much from little and here in this patch is demonstrable evidence of that truth, ala, the muster seed illustration. There is an act of faith in putting a seed in the ground. The gardener prepares the ground with that which has been discarded as useless (mulch, manure). She/he then nurtures the seed with the life-giving and sustaining substance...water. The Lord causes the sun to evoke growth and call forth that which is hidden within the seed. The gardener fertilizes, weeds, and keeps away that which would consume each plant before fruit is borne. The lesson is clear..."work with Me and what I have provided to produce a crop...a venture we can share together."

And still, with all these steps in this joint effort, I have no true concept of the miracle that takes place...how something dead becomes alive and then produces fruit. There are many parallels between the plant and our life in Messiah. For instance, the world wants to disable our growth in Messiah...our growth in producing fruit. Just like the mildew, the cutworm, the starvation of the seed, and yes, the evil cabbage caterpillar (lol), the world and the adversary want to steal what has been sown. And, if I allow the seed to be planted and then ignore what He has planted, failing to cultivate that which has been entrusted, I can expect the results similar to what my garden looked like last year. Crippled, diseased, eaten away, with sporadic fruit that would not have otherwise produced lest the grace of God.

Haverim, as in our gardens, let us not let anything fall to the ground. I no longer want to allow myself to entertain diseased worldly offerings or starve that which has been planted by the Holy One...or forget the potential fruit-bearing gifts lying dormant, lest they rot away due to neglectful cultivation. Rather, as I am learning this year from our God, let us nurture, be vigilant and pay attention to the way He would choose to produce fruit in our lives...but all the while trusting Him implicitly in that fruit's outcome.

What has Adonai taught you as a gardener?

 But Do You Like Me?

Many of us are YouTube perusers, often to the detriment of “what we ought to be doing…” If you imbibe that medium, your feed quickly indicates your interests: gardening, Messianic music, running and health, Monty Python sketches…oh wait, that’s my YouTube feed! 

Recently, I’ve been watching NDE videos (near death experiences), accounts of people who died and were then resuscitated. While there’s no shortage of viewpoints regarding those experiences, they are fascinating accounts of people encountering the afterlife. One I watched today recounted the well-know story of Howard Storm, an avowed atheist who died and found himself in hell. In the midst of the horrors he suffered, Storm quickly abandoned his arrogance and denial of HaShem, crying out, “Jesus please save me!” (Keep in mind that Storm is still alive, so this should not be considered a second chance after death.)

And then, Jesus did…

Storm describes how Yeshua was holding him, tightly, comforting him, and his first realization was that Yeshua liked him…a lot! In the clip, he choked up as he said, “Matter of fact, I’m His favorite person in the whole universe! I have to add,” he then says chuckling, “you are too!”

While I am very suspicious of NDE accounts, it got me to thinking…does our Creator like us?

There is a kind of perfunctory love of which we are all familiar. Our parents might remind us, for instance, that they loved us during our adolescence and then quickly add, “But I can’t say that I liked you much!”

We can fall into the trap of making that distinction when assuming how God loves/likes us. Recently, the author of the book “Gentile and Lowly,” Dane Ortlund, put it this way…”I think our tendency is to construct a view of God that unwittingly is an earth-to-heaven view rather than a heaven-to-earth view.”

In other words, we project our experience of love onto God, with a less than perfect understanding of His commitment to us as individuals.

We are hardwired to think of ourselves according to the law still…stuck in the “how am I doing Lord” mentality, believing that He evaluates us according to our performance.

Does HaShem merely tolerate us, or is He truly glad to be with us? I suspect most all of us can cognitively acknowledge the latter, all            the while treating His presence as if He is the parent of our adolescent selves. It is understandable after all, to see our heavenly Abba leading with the “disappointment card.”

“Why can’t you be more like your brother!” might be an echo from our youth.

What does it mean to be liked? There have been occasions when my wife will list the ways she likes me, which frankly, carries greater meaning than “I love you.” There’s no guessing about it, her comments are specific. She likes me!

God’s love can become so diminished when we water it down with our concept of parental love, or even “well, He loves everybody.” But His love is so far beyond our imaginings that it’s difficult with the filters we see through, to accept the fact, the truth, that He even likes us!

Those who rehearse this truth are more likely to relate to Yeshua beyond a performance-based, relationally conditional assumption.

I love this Ortlund quote during a recent interview: “Jesus is the single most accessible and approachable person in the universe. You don't have to go through security to get to him. You don't have to work your way up into a hearing before him. He is gentle and lowly in heart, which really is a fulfillment of what the Old Testament says about God himself. In places like Isaiah 57:15 God will say, “I dwell in the high and holy place, and also with him who is of a contrite and lowly spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly.” So already we have these glorious hints and teachings in the Old Testament about God being accessible while holy, which Jesus is the tangible incarnation and concrete reality of.”

Today, as you tend your garden, or go for a walk, or read the word…consider the truth of God’s “like” for you. Tis a necessary ingredient for accepting His friendship. Shalom, haverim!

Vapor Life

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_a-1q00Mf6Q        "Sunny Side of the Street"

In Cincinnati from the late 1940s to the mid-1950s, there was no band more renowned than the Jimmy James Orchestra. If you clicked on the link above, you’re listening to a popular recording of the day by that band called Sunny Side of the Street. Jimmy James and his orchestra hosted thousands of followers each week at various locations in and around Cincinnati…he and his band performed throughout the United States; he had his own radio show on WLW radio in Cincinnati and Jimmy and his swing band was recognized as the best band in the region by the national broadcasting company, NBC.

Self-taught on the clarinet and saxophone, at age 15 he quit school to travel nationally and abroad with the Hal Kemp Orchestra. And in World War II, his job in the Army in Europe was to entertain the troops with his big band swing style. If you’re listening, that’s him playing clarinet…oh, he was gifted… Jimmy James. I know a lot about him. Jimmy James is my grandfather.

And now…a man who was a household name in greater Cincinnati is almost completely forgotten. He died in 1972 at age 64. His grave is unvisited…his name has vanished into obscurity. My Pawpaw was greatly gifted in his craft and made the most of it in this world. But as far as I know, all of his investments were in this life, all of his energy, all of his hope, all of his passion, was in his music.

Like so many people in this world, their investment is in this temporal life…everything they do is only focused on this world. When Pawpaw died, his marriage was horribly embittered, he was severely alcoholic, and his fame had eroded…only 64. There was zero evidence that he ever considered the lordship of our Messiah Yeshua…so all of his investment was spent by the time he died. Now he is in eternity, perhaps in She’ol, awaiting the great white throne judgement… I’ve stood on Pawpaw’s grave and pleaded with Adonai to have mercy on him…but my grandfather spent all his earthly investment here, with probably no eternal investment whatsoever.

Listen to this emphasis throughout Scripture about the extent of our earthly lives:

“Now listen, you who say, ‘today or tomorrow we will go to such-and-such a city, stay there a year trading and make a profit!’ You don’t even know if you will be alive tomorrow! For all you are is a mist that appears for a little while and then disappears.” (James 4:13-14)

“There was a man whose land was very productive. He debated with himself, ‘what should I do? I haven’t enough room for all my crops.’ Then he said, ‘this is what i will do: I’ll tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and I’ll store all my wheat and other goods there. Then I’ll say to myself, “you’re a lucky man! You have a big supply of goods laid up that will last many years. Start taking it easy! Eat! Drink! Enjoy yourself!”’ But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night you will die! And the things you prepared — whose will they be?’” (Luke 12:17-20)

“Adonai, what are mere mortals, that you notice them at all; humans, that you think about them? Man is like a puff of wind, his days like a fleeting shadow. (Ps 144:3-4)

“Make me grasp, Adonai, what my end must be, what it means that my days are numbered; let me know what a transient creature I am. You have made my days like handbreadths; for You, the length of my life is like nothing…yes, everyone is merely a puff of wind.” (Ps 39:5-6)

We who are in Yeshua have the freedom to rest in Him. We look toward the hope of our future with Him. This article is not about telling you to get busy. Neither is it about evangelism. Rather, let us all be mindful of how transitory this vapor life is. Holy Spirit, give us all a mind to think of You constantly and include You in all we do. Thank You that we have made our investment in You, the author of our lives and perfecter of our faith.

I often think about God's offer to Shlomo (Solomon)...to ask for his heart's desire. We know how wonderful his response was in that instance. But I also wonder what we would ask at this time in our lives, should Adonai offer it as He did Shlomo. I would ask for a constant awareness of His presence. The Lord has given us so much to enjoy and we are a grateful people. However, in my partaking of what He's given, I would like to think of Him and enjoy Him in the process much more than I do now. This is a great trap of the world...to fix our eyes inwardly or anyplace other than the Father.

So, I'd like to ask you in this moment now, to consider what one thing you would ask of the Father in the remaining 'mist' of our lives. Perhaps you'll have a discussion with Him about it. Perhaps you'll share it with the group in the comments below. 😊 We have the encouragement in Scripture to ask for our heart's desire. We are encouraged to ask and keep asking. So...ask!

Shalom, haverim!