Dusty Gravel Roads

You were moving forward untroubled and at peace on a long road of smooth pavement. All of a sudden, you entered a rough gravel stretch. It’s raw, noisy, and uncomfortable. Slow down and steady your grip on the wheel. Smooth pavement is returning in just a few more miles. Don’t let the gravel road experience throw you. It’s only a challenging section of road on your life journey. You are still moving forward. Soon, the cloud of dusty memories will be seen in your rearview mirror when you finally hit the smooth pavement once again.

The Gritty Side of Life

When I am in the mood for the gritty side of life – the side of life that is unvarnished, real and gutsy, I set my Pandora app to the music of Lucinda Williams, Willie Nelson, Kathy Mattea, and others who sing from the soul. These artists create songs about people living in the margins of life where pain and loss are real and in your face. This margin place is where Jesus did some of His best work with those rejected and marginalized by the religious establishment. 

Those trapped in a religious spirit cannot go there because they think they will be stained by something their religious detergent can’t scrub off. To sing or express how we really feel about a life-struggle is evidence for them that our faith is somehow in jeopardy. It doesn’t take much Bible reading to discover this sound expressed in David’s psalms or the life of Job and others.

Our spirituality is the healthiest when it looks freshly sanded and rough, not smooth, varnished, and all together. Somewhere in this gritty side of life, hope must be present, or our song will become just another hopeless dirge. Hope is expressed in its clearest form when heard in the deep and painful trough of life’s margins. It is there where our best music is played because our songs of hope have become the most distinct and beautiful when sung in a place of despair.

The Fire of God is Announcing a Change of Seasons

When the fire of God’s Spirit begins to burn to announce a new season, the first response by those not aware of how the Spirit works might be less than joyful. In fact, some may consider it distasteful and even unpleasant, but there is a reason for that response.

This morning, I turned on our gas stove for the first time. It is a stove that looks like a log burning stove except that it runs on gas. It happens each fall, a musty, kind of funky smell fills the room the first hour of burning after several months of inactivity. The smell comes because of dust that gets in the stove’s system over the summer and is burned off with the first fire of fall.

As believers, we can accumulate the dust of spiritual inactivity when we live for long seasons of time without a personal encounter with God’s Spirit. These encounters heat up our life, relationships, and the environment in which we live.  The accumulated dust of our inactivity can create an unpleasant disruption and reaction until the Spirit can fully have His way in those situations. 

Don’t run when the Spirit's fire begins to burn. Stay put until the Lord says otherwise. Choose to look beyond what is taking place in the natural realm. When the fire comes, it will burn away the inactivity of the previous season, preparing us for something new, warm, and inviting. This will be our announcement that a new season has arrived. Whoever runs from these encounters will end up out in the cold spiritually. Those who remain have learned the burning and our resulting reaction will always take place as an announcement that a new season in the Spirit has arrived. 

The Dispersed Ones

Between the Day of Pentecost mentioned in Acts 2 and the persecution noted in Acts 8, a span of 3-4 years had transpired. During those years, the Church gathered around Solomon’s Collonade. It was a beautiful time of sharing resources, feeding the poor, and seeing signs, wonders, and miracles taking place. The Church was being added to daily. In all that goodness, there was a problem. The Church was not dispersing into the cultures beyond the familiarity of Jerusalem. The fulfillment of the Great Commission mentioned in Matthew 28 was in jeopardy of being stalled. That all changed when the persecution of Acts 8 happened, and a scattering took place.

Every new season in Church history will experience a moment of dispersal, either physical or theological. We can struggle with the idea of being scattered away from what is familiar, especially when we might be experiencing a good season like the gathering of the first generation of believers around Solomon’s Collonade. 

We are in a moment of dispersal within the Church. This dispersal can appear confusing to some who do not understand the Great Commission and the ever-expanding nature of God’s Kingdom on Earth. It is too easy for us to remain in a good place at the expense of the best. If you are being dispersed, do not fear what is taking place. God could be repositioning your physical life or challenging a point of your theology to increase your effectiveness in God’s Kingdom. If you allow God to have His way, He will show you the way.

The Embalming Fluid of the Spirit

I had a funny thing happen last night. Jan and I were asked to be part of a prayer team to pray over pastors at a conference in Bend, Oregon. Each of us on the prayer team was handed a small tin of anointing balm infused with frankincense and myrrh. The balm was a solid paste-like substance more convenient than oil that can be a bit messy when applying it to someone’s forehead. For any legalists reading this, the balm is actually an oil, just a solid version.

Jan and I had already prayed for several individuals when I said to the next person in line waiting to receive prayer, “I want to anoint you with this embalming fluid.” I had no idea what I said. The woman looked at me with a wry smile, and then I realized what I had said. We all broke out in laughter at my slip of the tongue. Then Jan said, “Where there is death, there is a resurrection.” 

That evening a lot of resurrection life was taking place during worship, from the conference speakers and in the prayer lines that wrapped around the front of the stage. There was a fourth Person with us when I tripped over my language. He was laughing with us. There are times when laughter is evidence that healing is taking place.

Rest

God is in charge of the outcome of our faithfulness. The clearest evidence that we trust God is seen when, after doing all we can, we choose to rest in God’s faithfulness. 

Discernment in a Dark Place

This week, Jan and I were out of town for a conference. A comfortable room in a nice hotel was provided for us. If you travel, you may have experienced what I am about to share. I awakened at night and rolled over to check the time on the illuminated digital clock as I do at home. Instead of my familiar clock, I saw nothing but darkness. The illuminated clock was on Jan’s side of the bed, out of sight. It took a couple of seconds for me to realize what was happening. I remembered I was in a hotel, not at home. Then I recalled that before going to bed, I placed my iPhone on the nightstand. I reached over and quickly found out the correct time. All was well. I went back to sleep. 

I like to know the time and season in which I am living. This is not always clear, especially in a transition from one season to the next. While our hotel room was dark and unfamiliar, it did not affect the reality or accuracy of time. Somewhere in the room, a clock was telling the right time. My wristwatch was out there in the darkness doing the same along with my iPhone. The problem was with me. I was not sure where I was. I needed to gather my thoughts in the darkness to discern my location before I could determine the correct time.

If you cannot make sense of the current season of your life and it all feels a bit dark and unfamiliar, stop and take a moment to grab your spiritual bearings. Somewhere in your situation, the correct time is being displayed. At some point, you will awaken enough to make sense of your surroundings, even in a dark place where all your familiar bearings are no longer visible. God will be faithful to speak to you in the darkness. In these dark places is where your faith can shine the brightest as you move forward toward the substance of things not yet seen.