Month: March 2018

Today is a good day for wonder.

It is Good Friday and the start of our four day weekend.  All my children will be home so I am washing sheets, making beds and tending a batch of chilli on the stove.  My hands are busy but my mind is thoughtful.

I have celebrated 40 Easters as a Christian.  I know the story inside and out, forward and backwards.  I have taught many, many Easter lessons in Sunday school using props and crafts and DVD’s and have read the Biblical account with my own children over and over again.

But there is a danger in familiarity.  The danger is that I can lose the wonder of it all.

And if I lose the wonder, what is next?  Will I lose my gratefulness?  My humility?  My love?

Wonder is the child-like reaction I had when I first heard the story. I was eight years old, sitting in Sunday school class that a friend had invited me to. It was all pretty old-fashioned and simple and a frog puppet shared words of light and life to me. I couldn’t believe how good that news was and I couldn’t say yes quick enough.

Wonder stirs worship and obedience.  Wonder keeps me from cynicism and staleness.

A Christian life that cultivates wonder is one that is growing and sincere.  Wonder keeps me from just going through the motions of faith.  Wonder is a gift.

But it can dissipate.  We can lose it before we even realize it and first love can become ordinary.  So, special celebrations like Easter are an opportunity to stir up wonder, love and gratefulness again.

We can use these holidays to display the truth and beauty of what we believe.

We can intentionally put praise and gratefulness at the core of our weekend with Church services or local walks of witness.  Spending time with other Christians is so important because wonder is contagious.  

We can look at Easter from a fresh perspective.  My family and I love to watch the movie, ‘Risen’ at Easter time and last year we attended a live performance of the passion of Jesus that was wonderful.  Every time we see the gospel from a new angle we have the chance to remember the wonder of it.

And we can pray.  We can make it the cry of our hearts that we will never take for granted the glorious good news that Easter celebrates.  We can pray that we would be people who never, ever get over the wonder of knowing God.

What does the ‘careful living’ described in Ephesians 5.15-17 look like?

Is it an overly cautious, tentative kind of life?  Does being careful feel like trying to negotiate a tightrope, always afraid to put a foot wrong?

I don’t think so.

I think that living carefully looks like freedom.

There is a passage in Matthew where Jesus describes this.

‘Are you tired?  Worn out?  Burned out on religion?  Come to me.  Get away with me and you’ll recover your life.  I’ll show you how to take a real rest.  Walk with me and work with me – watch how I do it.  Learn the unforced rhythms of grace.  I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you.  Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.’    Matthew 11.28-30 The Message

So it is closeness to God that needs our carefulness.

And closeness with our Father always brings freedom.

It is that freedom that Adam and Eve forfeited when they listened to the serpent.  He whispered to them that sonship was slavery.  When they believed it they took their first steps of independence away from God.

And those independent steps walked them right out of Eden’s rest.

Jesus says when we walk with Him, our steps are free and light.  There is no tightrope, only grace upon grace.

But don’t think for a minute that these joyful, carefree steps aren’t risky.

Jesus-following steps are bold steps.  They are walking-on-water steps.  They are get-out-of-the boat steps.  They are steps that trample right over darkness to bring in the light.

Because a life that keeps company with God will always become a life of dangerous obedience.   When we walk with Him, we become like Him.

This kind of carefulness changes the world.

There are three verses nestled in Ephesians chapter 5 that I have come to love.

‘See then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise, redeeming the time because the days are evil.  Therefore do not be unwise, but understand what the will of the Lord is.’ Ephesians 5:15-17

There is something about this passage that speaks to me.  It’s an invitation to a kind of living in this chaotic world that I know I need.  It is a life I know I was made for.

The word circumspectly in the Greek has the meaning of walking with precision and exactness.  Other versions of the Bible translate this verse as ‘be careful how you live’ or ‘be careful how you walk.’

I call it ‘living carefully’.

Now I know in 2018 we are constantly being offered different ways of living our lives.  The media sells us the idea that accomplishment and acquisition will bring us fulfilment. The latest lifestyle bestsellers insist mindfulness and simplicity are the only way to real contentment.  We are told we need to slow down and be in the moment while we are simultaneously encouraged to multitask and improve our time management.  Do more, do less.  Buy more, buy less.  And so often contentment seems just out of reach.

Ephesians 5 shows us another way.  It is a careful way, a wise way.

Instead of chasing productivity we can discover purpose.

Instead of just efficiency, we can have fruitfulness.

Instead of mindfulness, God offers us the mind of Christ.

And instead of living for photo opportunities, God invites each of us into a life full of supernatural, world-changing opportunities.

If that invitation appeals to you, join me as I dig into these verses over the next few weeks and find out what it means to really live carefully,  how to do it and why we should want to.