A View From The Sycamore Tree: More Like Love in 2017

Thursday, January 5, 2017

More Like Love in 2017

I'm re-reading Herman Melville's classic work, "Moby Dick," for the first time in almost 30 years. I was pierced in the early pages as Melville paints a verbal portrait of the story of Jonah - telling how the son of Amittai set out in "willful disobedience to the command of God" ... because he didn't like the command of God!

God's command was for Jonah to go and preach the gospel of redeeming grace to his enemies - to warn them of the impending danger that hearkened at their heels - in order that they might be saved from it.

Boiled down to the barest bones it was a command for Jonah to go and love his enemies as much as he loved himself. But, the command to love those he loathed was distasteful to Jonah (as it is to us) - so distasteful that he set out to sea in the absolute opposite direction of obedience.

Jonah willfully disobeyed the command of God because it conflicted with his own personal likes and lusts. God's commands often do ... because by nature we're pretty stinkin' selfish (I know I am!). If honest, we're often selfish even in our acts of supposed selfless service - we do them because they make us feel good inside or because (theological horror of horrors) we might errantly think they could possibly produce some kind of "cosmic karma" that will boomerang back around to our own benefit one day. (That's another post for another time!)

You know, what God (through His Word) tells me to do in truly loving YOU often gets in the way of what I want to do in supposedly "loving" ME!

All of those "one another" commands:

be at peace with one another
love one another
give preference to one another
build up one another
accept one another
admonish one another
serve one another
speak truth to one another
be kind to one another
forgive one another as Christ has forgiven you
bear with one another...

...those things don't come easily, take extreme effort, and mean that I have to lay myself aside!

That's hard!

Mr. Melville writes:

"All the things that God would have us do are hard for us to do
- remember that - and hence,
He more often commands us than seeks to persuade us.

If we would obey God, we must disobey ourselves;

and it is in this disobeying of ourselves,

wherein the hardness of actually obeying God consists."

This year, by Christ's grace and the Holy Spirit's power, I'm asking God to help me do this hard thing. I'm asking Him to help me slay the "white whale" of selfishness that resides in my soul - or at least to get a harpoon plunged deeply into its heart that I might begin to love Him and others - even "enemy" others - a little bit more like He has has loved me.

In the process I'm praying that I might begin to see the "hardway" of obeying God as the one true sanctifying highway to becoming who He has called me to be.

This year I want to begin to look a little more like love ... true love ... Biblical love ... God's (often hard) definition of love. (Not the world's counterfeit copy.)

I want to learn to love Him with all of my heart, and soul, and mind, and strength.

In my actions towards others I want to be:

patient,
kind,
not jealous,
not boastful or proud,
not behaving in an unbecoming way,
not seeking my own way,
not keeping a record of wrongs,
not rejoicing in unrighteousness but rejoicing in Truth.
I want to strive to bear all things,
believe all things,
hope all things,
endure all things,
and not fail in the things of this hard task of holy love (1 Corinthians 13).

But the truth is - I'm gonna fail. (Doggone it, I already have failed - at least in thought ... OK in word and deed as well ... since I started typing this text!!)

Thankfully Jesus never fails. He has lived the perfect life of perfect love that I am incapable of. That's why He came - to do for us what we couldn't do for ourselves in His life, death, and resurrection.

Christ has loved me with an everlasting love, and in Him alone will I find sufficient strength to love ... really love... others in the same way.

May 2017 find all of us looking a little more like our Savior's love - because we're leaning more on the Savior's love!

By grace,
Lori

PS - This song by Ben Rector has been on my daughter's play list for weeks. I'm kinda diggin' her taste in tunes.

2 comments:

AmberJanuary 5, 2017 at 1:30 PM
"May 2017 find us looking more like our Savior's love because we're leaning more on our Savior's love." This is an excellent challenge. Thanks Lori!
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Katherine JohnsonJanuary 5, 2017 at 4:51 PM
Lori - I really needed to read this. Now I really need to do it! With you, I'm thankful for Jesus the author and perfecter of our faith!
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Here We Go!

This is a blog about the goodness and grace of God, even amidst the angst of autism.

So ... how did this whole thing start?

Well, I said I'd never do this but obviously here I am. After being challenged, encouraged, goaded and double dog dared, several years ago I began to blog.

Near the end of 2008, I found myself with renewed passion for God's Word, Kingdom, and people and I was stirred, through nothing other than the simple means of grace, to a hunger and thirsting for righteousness unlike any other time in my 20+ years as a Christian.

During that period, I began typing out the things that were striking me the most in my quiet time each morning. Honestly, I started because I wanted to have a written record that I could pass along to my children one day - lettered Ebenezers reminding them of how much their Mom loves God and His Word.

While doing that I found myself so excited on certain days that I began to email my musings to some of my girl friends, hoping to encourage them even as Christ was encouraging me. Many of those gals challenged me to put these things online in a blog form so others could have access to them. That's how this site started.

Now, to shoot really straight with you, that personal "revival" of mine has pendumatically ebbed and flowed over the course of the days, months and years since 2008. For a prolonged period after that initial renewing surge I actually found myself in an utterly antithetical place. God, in His wisdom, was pleased to grant me a substantial season in the dark dungeon of "doubting castle" - those days were some of the hardest of my life post-Jesus but were providentially ordained days ultimately used for my good and for my God's glory.

"Through many dangers, toils, and snares I have already come" by nothing but the amazing grace of an amazing God.

I've learned that even in the midst of the darkest of days there's just something about the light of God's Word that is powerful. The Scripture has been an anchor for me in the storm surge of life. Even when my eyes have seemed to be rather veiled and my vision somewhat dimmed, there has still been a re-focusing force that has risen when I have gazed long and hard upon the Word of God. Thus, even as a saint who struggles, I continue to write of my God, my Redeemer, His promises, and His truth.

I'm not always very regular at posting here because there are many more important duties in my life right now than blog uploads - ie. being wife, mom, housekeeper, cook, taxi service, chief bottle washer, and laundry lady - along with that music thing I do as a side gig! But, as time allows I'll be cutting and pasting from Joshua and Elizabeth's future journal gift and sharing some of it with you as well.

Thanks for stopping by!

Who's Doing This?

Lori Sealy is daily amazed at the grace of God in her life. Adopted as an infant and raised in an evangelical church, she rebelled against the things of Christ during high school and considered herself an atheist. Upon entering college, the God who ordains our steps ordained that her path would cross with several students who loved Christ and loved His Word. During that first year of college, she set out to destroy the faith of these young Christians. They set out to pray for her salvation.

Knowing that "faith comes through hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ," six college students daily confronted her sin and challenged her with the truths of God's glorious Word. Their obedience in proclaiming the good news of the gospel of Christ bore fruit in August of 1988 when by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, she was adopted for the second time in her life - this time into the family of God.

Lori is now the wife of Phillip Sealy. They live in Sylva, North Carolina where Phillip has been called to plant a new church for the Presbyterian Church of America (PCA) - Redeemer Church Sylva. The Sealys have two children Joshua (14) and Elizabeth (12). Lori and Joshua both live with autism.

In her spare time (what little there is) Lori masquerades as a part-time songwriter/singer and performs on a limited monthly basis. Lori's newest CD, "The Strife is Over," has recently released. Hard copies of it, along with her last release "Begone Unbelief", are available through CD Baby and Lori's own website. Digital downloads are available through iTunes, Google Play, and Amazon mp3!

Be sure to visit http://www.lorisealy.com/ to learn more!

Why the Sycamore Tree?

Zaccheus, the wee little man, wanted to see Jesus and so he climbed into the sycamore tree in order to get a good look. Lori, the wee little wife and mom, longs to see Jesus as well. I realize that the place where I will catch a true glimpse of Him is in the pages of His Word.

The Bible is my sycamore tree and I find myself longing more and more to climb up into its branches that I might see Christ more clearly. This blog is simply a record of what God is teaching me as I spend time in "the tree" of His glorious Word. If anyone reads it I'll be amazed; if anyone profits from it I'll be humbled; and if anything good is found in it Soli Deo Gloria!