"What's God been doing during your 'book-fast'?"

I have been asked this question several times since my stated 2011 resolution to read less; and to practice more of what I have already read. Here is what I have been experiencing the first four weeks of the resolution...

• Less talking and commenting back; more listening to what people are actually saying in their conversations with me.
• Back to the Bible. Even though I love to read, since I pledged not to read man-written books for a year, I am finding myself in the God-written book much, much more.
• As a result of being in the God-written book more, a new and clearer understanding of God's will is developing.
• Relaxation in the work of the kingdom. Ministries seem to be finding me instead of me wondering, "What should I be doing next?"
• Simplification of life.

So, there it is: God's workings in my life in 2011 so far. May not sound very exciting or exhilarating; but for me, it is calming, refreshing, and relaxing.

Divine Frustration...Is There Such A Thing?

"...we are to grow up in all aspects into Him, even Christ, from whom the whole body, being fitted and held together by that which every joint supplies, according to the proper working of each individual part, causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love" Ephesians 4:15b and 16



Puzzles. I sure have worked and completed a few in my life. That satisfaction of finishing a puzzle began very early for me. Probably at age 7, I found myself working five hundred to thousand piece puzzles with Dad, Mom, and my sister.



For three years in the mid '60's, my family lived in West Germany. Dad was stationed outside Munich at a military hospital as a nurse. At that time, Mom and Dad felt that they did not have the means to pay for television, so we spent many evenings together playing board games or working puzzles.



What had begun for me as a simple, family-time activity during those early years, has now developed into a priceless, non-replaceable piece of my life. Sorting through and piecing together hundreds of pieces of a jigsaw puzzle has become my 'getting away from everything'-time; my meditation-time; my listening to the Spirit-time. And so, off and on for most of my life and especially for the past eleven years, I have had a puzzle 'working' in the house.



And God has not wasted a single moment of that time to accomplish His will in my life. For many, many Bible classes have been birthed during the sorting of puzzle pieces; thoughts for leading communion have developed while putting the edge pieces together; and understanding a passage of Scripture more completely happened while picking up pieces off the floor. And for the most part, who I am spiritually today has been formed both late at night and early in the morning while surveying hundreds, even thousands of puzzle pieces.



My gratitude for all of that developing and forming which God and His Spirit have done and continue to do while working puzzles cannot be expressed with human words. And God even adds another benefit. It's the spiritual applications that come to mind while putting a puzzle together.



I would like to focus on just one right now. Question:



What do you think is the greatest frustration for a puzzle worker?



Yep, you guessed it...finding out at the completion(or near completion) that there is a missing piece or pieces!!! How unexplainably frustrating; how unendingly annoying; and how unbelievably irritating that is!!!



It is then that I have been reminded of God's stated vision and hope for His Son's body the church as described in Ephesians 4. I suppose the reason why I think of these verses is because of the terminology Paul used: fitted and held together, every joint supplies, and each individual part.



(Could Paul have been a puzzle worker, too?)



So the question that comes to mind is not so much this one: "Since I as human get so frustrated and irritated over the missing pieces to a simple puzzle, how much more must God become frustrated or irritated with 'missing' parts to His Son's body, the church?"



No! But rather this one: "Does not the feeling of frustration that I have over a puzzle missing a piece fail in comparison to the frustration that God must feel when members of His Son's body(the church) are not properly working(functioning) as they were individually created to do?"

For me it's a matter of understanding the Divine nature; not God, putting on our nature.

Resolution: 2011

Two thousand three hundred fifty-three. As close as I can tell, that is the number of pages I read in books written by Christian authors in 2010. Among those books were the best: Fearless by Max Lucado, Forgotten God by Francis Chan, Radical by David Platt, and Life Together by Dietrich Bonhoeffer.

The simple yet profound messages of just those four books would take the rest of my life(and probably much longer) to implement as a lifestyle . But for me that was not enough; so I read more and more and more throughout the entire year. As a matter of fact, in December I found myself planning out and even accumulating the books I wanted to read in the coming year.

Fortunately, however, a light came on; prompted by an illustration that I had read(somewhere) in all of those pages.

Members of a football team's practice squad get to do just that...practice. They practice a whole lot as a matter of fact. Very rarely, if ever though, do they get the chance to play in the real game. But they do practice a lot though...

As I was reading through those hundreds of pages last year, I found myself visualizing(practicing) 'being in the real game'. But that was not enough...I needed more 'practice'. So, I read another 'playbook', then another, and another.

Just one more angle; one more twist; another new aspect of our spiritual walk . . .

But thanks be to God; for through His Spirit, He informed me clearly, "Lee, you have had enough practice for the time being. Go, get in the game"!

Really? Yes, really!!!

I am reminded of something Shane Claiborne realized about his walk, then shared in Irresistible Revolution. When he and his college friends began living out(on the streets of Philly) what they had been reading all along in the Scriptures, he said, "The Bible came to life for us there . . .now the words jumped off the pages"(page 48).

So, my resolution for 2011 is this: very little, if any, reading outside the lines; and a whole lot of 'living' between the goal lines!!!