Even though I claim that God is at work, transforming me into the image of His Son (like it says in the Bible) I don’t feel that much like Jesus (especially in the evenings). This is what I mean…

It is 5:00 pm. By maintaining a near aerobic-mental pace, I have remained faithfully tethered to my electronic leash, I have done my level best to keep pace with emails, phone calls and texts. I’m smoked but I made it back to my castle (every man’s home don’t you know). For now, I have escaped my active-cooperation with my digital slave drivers. But, in turning on the TV, I’ve just handed the leash over to my passive masters. Meanwhile in Jesus’ life …

He has made the disciples get into the boat and go ahead of Him to the other side, while He sent the crowds away. (adapted from Matthew 14:22)

The influence of gravity (my arch nemesis), has been mostly illiminated as I plop down onto the couch. (I do not have an easy chair-throne – that belongs to the queen of the realm). Pressing down on the clutch I shift gears from 4th straight into neutral (Cabernet will do) .

After He had sent the crowds away, He went up on the mountain by Himself to pray; (Matthew 14:23)

The upstream creeks of advertising and the streams of entertainment have all merged into the Sudden Link River. (Perhaps your river is the Cox or the Dish River.) A virtual Niagra of digital flotsam is backed up just behind that 47 inch flat screen dam. With remote(s) in hand I will choose which channel I will open. (Yes, even without a throne, with scepter(s) in hand, I remain the Lord of this castle.)

Yes…let’s see…shall I go with our family-dam’s default setting – the Fox News Channel? No, I cannot endure the recycled soundbites of the painted talking heads and the dismal future they portend. Hmm…maybe The Walking Dead? No…that sounds creepy (and familiar) and anyway, we are approaching the theme of Holiness in the Blue Book here in a few weeks. It would be nice to arrive there with some semblance of a clear conscience.

I’m scouring the menu for something that would not defile me – something that would perhaps edify? Well…better go with the some British flavored mystery then. The Brits have maintained better taste than us as to what they dump into the river (and their accents are interesting aren’t they?). Foil’s War it is. Oh no…I’ve watched the last episode!

…and when it was evening, He was there alone. (Matthew 14:23)

Alone? That’s scary, but make no question about it, that is where our digital Lords are leading us. As a culture and as family members we are rarely fully present to each other. Those holding the leash are yanking our attention back to Face Book, Twitter and only God knows what other social media. (Social? What a joke.)

From whence shall our salvation come?

What did alone mean to Jesus? To even begin imagining what this looks like we will have to envision a human being completely untethered – one being fully present to another. In our text alone must mean; without the company of other people, because Jesus was never alone until that moment when He asked His Father why He had forsaken Him.

I believe there is a channel that is yet to be fully-opened between heaven and earth. I’m not speaking of a physical portal. (However, I did have a guy show me one in North Carolina. I privately hiked up there later but was not beamed up or into.) The channel I am referring to is our hearts – also known as the sanctuary of the Holy Spirit – God’s dwelling place on earth. Our salvation, which I think of as the flow of God’s life (not a one time event at an alter) is backed up behind the dam of our own hearts. It is fair to ask, “Why then have we seen such a tiny dribble of life compared to the Book of Acts? To be sure, this is a big part of the mystery. Is the reason dispensational? The time is not yet full? Perhaps. No doubt God controls the bigger valve. Isn’t it possible though, that none of our teachers were taught of this reservoir in seminary or in their traditions?

Within a mystery (a place where we do not have all the answers), it is also fair to ask if we have not overlooked what valves are accessible to us – the ones we are responsible for. If we did not have valves then it would have been unnecessary for Solomon to counsel us;

Keep and guard your heart with all vigilance…for out of it (the heart) flow the springs of life. (adapted from Proverbs 4:23 AMP)

I have come to think of this space of just being alone, present to God, as the wild frontier of the modern techno-tethered heart. Few are daring to go there. (I testify; there are valves and plumbing in this space.)

I sponsored a retreat a few years ago, inviting some friends and acquaintances from a local church to come to my safe-place in the country and simply be present to each other and to God. It was enlightening. I was told by most of the men afterward that the time was healing and empowering although they did not actually know why. However, one man could not (or would not – I don’t know), untether himself. The entire time others were speaking, his eyes were glued to his device. I love and revere this person but I believe he missed out on that “where two or three are gathered in His Name” flow-of-life that was present, yet which no one could quantify.

I have been using the mornings (often before the sun rises) since 2011, to explore this frontier of being alone – face-to-face with God. Don’t let me mislead you. This is the same smoked-soul that stumbled into his bed (due to time and gravity typically not Cabernet) the night before. My times with God are not what I would call (at least by outward experience) mystical happenings. However by charismatic standards, they are pedestrian to be sure. But something redemptive has been underway in my heart. MwM is essentially this story.

The word discipline is out of vogue in many branches of the family because of what is perceived as its inevitable intrusion upon grace. Some of us once practiced a spirituality that coopted discipline as a part of a formula: a saved person + discipline = holiness. False. Since the math on this did not work out, most backed away from discipline altogether. I found myself (for reasons, I explain elsewhere In The Middle With Mystery) moving back toward discipline, yet accompanied this time, I believe, by grace-Himself.

Without really intending it, my face-to-face meetings with God became a habit, which I pray will continue. (In the event they do do not; God remains the strength of my heart.) Discipline is no longer a part of someone else’s equation. It is simply my grace-empowered habit. It is one of the simple ways I watch over my heart. Whatever diligence I have applied here has been provided by God Himself and the thing that has emerged in this new frontier is the sweetest thing that I have known in 40 years (in spite of what a sad spectacle evening-Rob has become.)

Father, given Who You are, what You can do and where You live, I cannot help but pray that You would help us to access the grace within our own hearts, helping us to see that the truer meaning of salvation is not just awaiting us in the next life; it is dammed-up in our hearts, awaiting its release into the desolate (and smoked) places of this one. May You challenge and win the battle for our digitally-ensnared hearts, making room for Yourself and the others around us who need each other’s presence. May we rediscover the reality of Christ in us and the unstoppable power of two or three gathered in Your Name. Amen.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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