Imagine a church where people come to learn to work on their issues to the point where their unchurched colleagues ask them “What is happening? “Why are you less anxious than you used to be?” And their families ask them, “Why are you different than you used to be?, and “How can I learn to flourish like you?” And what if the individuals and families in your church felt a growing, burning desire to help their anxious friends and relatives learn how to connect with God, to learn to optimize their capacity for creativity, beauty, and relationships? To me, that sounds like a church planter’s dream. Maybe it’s your dream.
The world is full of anxious people wanting to find peace and wanting to do their part to create loving, thriving families. They want to learn to flourish now.
Christianity is interesting in that it is a trade of sorts. We give up our right to judge, despise, and manipulate people, and God gives us access to the Tree of Life. Often the price of loving everyone is too steep, especially when everything is going well. It is easy for our identity to be wrapped up in our sense of justice. But when the pain gets strong enough, we get desperate for relief, which is a good place to start. God often uses pain to move us from our comfort zones to something way better.
Jesus Offers Beauty for Ashes
Jesus said He fulfilled the Isaiah 61 prophecy (Lk 4:18-21).
The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is upon me,
for the LORD has anointed me
to bring good news to the poor.
He has sent me to comfort the brokenhearted
and to proclaim that captives will be released
and prisoners will be freed. …
he will give a crown of beauty for ashes,
a joyous blessing instead of mourning,
festive praise instead of despair.
In their righteousness, they will be like great oaks
that the LORD has planted for his own glory (NLT, Is 61:1-3).
Jesus ushered in Humanity 2.0. God’s plan has been unfolding since Adam and Eve were expelled from the Garden. Did you know that Jesus called Abel a prophet? Abel was the first prophet. He chose the Tree of Life.
“For this reason also the wisdom of God said, ‘I will send to them prophets and apostles, and some of them they will kill and some they will persecute, so that the blood of all the prophets, shed since the foundation of the world, may be charged against this generation, from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah…” (NASB, Lk 11:49-51a).
The whole Old Testament is about Jesus.
“Now He said to them, ‘These are My words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things which are written about Me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.’ Then He opened their minds to understand the Scriptures” (Lk 24:44-45).
Jesus continued from the Luke 11 scripture quoted above…
“Woe to you lawyers! For you have taken away the key of knowledge; you yourselves did not enter, and you hindered those who were entering.” (Lk 11:52).
QUESTION: What did the lawyers not enter?
The idea is that Jesus, who was God Himself, came to earth to show people how to spend time with God the Father and then live in a new reality.
Spending quality time with God is like entering the Garden of Eden to be refreshed at the Tree of Life and to drink enough Living Water to refresh all the people you influence.
“Jesus answered and said to her, ‘Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again; but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never thirst; but the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life’” (Jn 4:13-14).
The lawyers knew about getting into the Garden to the Tree of Life. They had the key to knowledge. Why wouldn’t they go in if they were that close? The story’s context was that they preferred to stand in judgment over Jesus for not being ceremoniously clean. He hadn’t washed his hands before lunch (Lk 11:37-38). The lawyers appeared holy. They correctly even tithed from the mint leaves that grew on the bushes by their homes (v. 42). But Luke makes sure his readers don’t miss how Jesus was correct in His evaluation of the lawyer’s character issues. The masks came off. “After He spoke, the scribes and the Pharisees began to be very hostile…” (v. 23).
Church-planting?
The church leaders in Jesus’ day had drifted into following rules as a way to God’s presence. Tithing mint was a good thing, but the requirements to eat at the Tree of Life are more stringent.
How can we help others experience the Tree of Life? How can we engage people in a way so their unchurched community wants in? And in a way that they feel empowered to help their people?
The way forward is not by trying harder but by trying differently. Hard work doesn’t get people into the Kingdom any more today than in Jesus’ time. Although doing nothing is not helpful either. The challenge is in learning to do the right things.
I learned to prioritize time with God as my first activity every day.
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Centering Prayer
For me, Centering Prayer has been a game-changer. I spend 30 minutes every morning quietly with God, often at the Tree of Life. Spending time with Jesus means bringing every thought captive to Him. God gave us a great brain. It wants to race around helping us get the most out of life. During Centering Prayer we take control of it and teach it to focus on God. We do not listen to the Accuser, the Victim, the Manipulator, or the Over-Achiever that wants to build a Tower of Babel. Instead, we sit with God, under the Tree of Life and look around at all the other good trees in the Garden. The first command to humans was to enjoy the fruit of all those other good trees except that one that is in a hole surrounded by slippery slopes. When we learn to stay away from that one, the rest are available. Our brain, of course, wants to help us, so we ask for God’s help, by His Holy Spirit, to help us carve new neural pathways. It’s hard work and takes supernational help. The old thought highways are so familiar and comfortable. The problem is, we don’t want those destinations. We want to live as fully equipped humans 2.0, actively waiting for Jesus’ return.
I also continued my normal daily spiritual activities like:
- reading the Bible each year,
- asking for impossible things like 1,000 churches and the jail crowd,
- and opportunities to be God’s person to serve my people, all of them,
- practicing gratefulness by speaking grateful words out loud many times per day,
- expecting God to actively direct my steps,
- enjoying everything as much as possible,
- including, for me, studying.
The impossible dreams, for me, serve as a magnetic North on my compass. God can change that whenever He chooses, but until then I have a direction and I know how I’ll spend my discretional time, thoughts, and creative energy.
For Centering Prayer to work, we cannot have bitterness, unforgiveness, or negative triggers. When they come, we acknowledge them, repent, ask forgiveness, and expect God will show us how to love everyone as we love Him. This leads to a whole new capacity for flourishing in all seasons.
Flourishing is superior to well-being because people can flourish even in times of chaos. During the pandemic season, some people flourished. I flourished.
NOTE: If you are too busy for a significant time with God every morning, acknowledge it. Keep it in mind. Ask God to do whatever it takes so you have live 2.0. Tell Him that no matter what, you’re in. Repeat the prayer until it becomes real in your spirit. Give it some time, and see what happens. The path will likely be unexpected and have painful stretches, but in the end, by playing the long game, you will never regret your prayer and commitment.
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