Rest and Simplicity

Drummer audition joke: The band leader asks the drummer, "Can you play a samba pattern with your bass drum?" The drummer obliges with a boom...b-boom samba pattern.

The leader then asks, "can you add a Mozambique cowbell pattern along with that with your right hand?" The drummer thinks, "No problem," and obliges with his best effort.

He is then told, "Now add a 2-3 clave with your left foot on the hi-hat.” He struggles a bit but gets it happening.

Next he hears, "Now add a cascara pattern on the snare with your left hand." Years of studying polyrhythms, practicing independence, and listening to world music finally come to fruition and the relieved drummer finds he can easily play the whole pattern.

Pleased with himself, he asks the band leader, "So, do I get the job?”

"No," says the bandleader "that's why we fired the last guy!"

----------

This is a reminder to me to not let my mind be “led astray from the simplicity that is in Christ” (2 Cor 11:3)! Remember when Martha was busy running all around in an effort to serve her houseguest (Jesus), all the while complaining that her sister Mary wasn’t helping her? And what was so important that Mary couldn’t come help her sister? Can you believe this – Mary had the gall to be sitting “at the Lord's feet listening to what He said" (Luke 10:39). Come on, Mary! Martha's busy over there banging out all these wonderful drum patterns for Jesus, and all you’re doing is sitting there listening to Him! Get with it!

Jesus, of course, saw it differently. Martha was actually the one who needed to get with the program. Her problem is perhaps similar to the one the Ephesians had years later, when they had patiently persevered and labored much – all for Jesus’ sake – and yet they had left their first love, Jesus. Luke describes Martha’s problem by saying that she was "distracted with much serving" (Luke 10:40). Martha was busy serving Jesus, but Mary was the one who was actually doing what Jesus wanted her to do! Jesus tells Martha, “Only one thing is needed, and Mary has chosen that good part, which will not be taken away from her.”

This story doesn't sit well with the busy, performance-oriented Christian - and I readily admit how that statement is an indictment on much of my own life. I sure can preach “sitting at the feet of Jesus,” but do I always walk the walk? (Or would that be “sit the sit?”). Describing His own service, Jesus said, "the words that I speak to you, I do not speak on my own authority, but the Father who dwells in Me does the works" (John 14:10). His service came not from a focus on performing for His Father, but from knowing His Father. There's a huge difference! In the same way, how many of us busy “Marthas” would do well to stop and consider if we're letting our service for Him get in the way of knowing Him? Countless times I’ve been in the homes of friends who were so busy serving their guests that they essentially spent the entire evening ignoring their guests! I don’t knock on my friends’ doors, and ask if I can come in, so that I can have them serve me. I want to come in so I can spend time with them. I want to know them, and them to know me. I’m convinced that God’s purpose in creating mankind was not to create a bunch of weary, worn out servants, but rather that we may “know Him, or rather be known by Him” (Gal 4:9).

Are we focused on knowing the Person, Jesus, or are we focused on our performance for Him? Are we focused on keeping our various agendas and systems in place (for His sake, of course), or are we at the feet of Jesus, listening to what He has to say? To stop, and wait, in this fast-paced world is a challenge, I know. But what if we end up actually hearing what He says – and what if we find that it’s not what the Marthas in our lives expect of us?

Can you imagine truly serving God with constantly renewed strength? Can you envision yourself soaring through the sky like an eagle? Can you imagine running and not getting tired??? Walking and not becoming weary? Can you grasp the idea of serving the Lord in a constant state of rest? This is the life of "those who wait on the Lord" (Isaiah 40:31).

The Fertile Soil of Grace

My parents live in the southeastern part of Missouri, and the six-hour drive to see them is filled with all kinds of scenery. We pass through a lot of ‘grape’ country – with lots of billboard signs for wineries and lots of grape farms. Lots and lots of grape farms. Did I mention all the grape farms that we see?

What’s so cool about making this drive at various times of the year is that we can see the grapes and grape vines in their various (and natural) stages of growth – from complete dormancy to full bloom, and everything in between. We see them during times of fertilizing and times of pruning, times of planting and times of harvesting. There are many stages that are necessary to produce the final product (the grape, raisin, wine, grape juice, etc).

I think it’s the same with our life in the Vine (Christ). Are we always being pruned? Are we always in full bloom? Is our “fruit” always being harvested? Can we sometimes just rest in the “dormant” times of our lives? Let me get more to the point with that last question. Why do we find it so hard to simply rest in and enjoy the fact that life in the Vine sometimes means natural periods of dormancy? Does the branch cease to be a part of the vine during the dormant times and during the times of fertilizing and pruning?

Modern church culture tends to put quite an emphasis on the end product – bearing fruit. We have such a “do, do, do” (“bear fruit, bear fruit, bear fruit”) attitude all the time! We feel guilty (or we make others feel guilty) if no tasty, juicy fruit is not only on the branch, but on the plate right here and right now. Don’t get me wrong - we all want to bear fruit! It’s a branch’s natural desire to bear the fruit of the vine from which it gets its life. But “natural” means a whole process is involved – not just an end result.

I once heard someone talking about a certain section of scripture from the Psalms:

“The righteous shall flourish like a palm tree, he shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon.
Those who are planted in the house of the LORD shall flourish in the courts of our God.
They shall still bear fruit in old age; They shall be fresh and flourishing.” (Ps 92:12-14)

This person said that he had recently learned something about palm trees. He said that palm trees don’t bear fruit during their first ten years. The tree spends that time growing its roots deeper and deeper into the soil, becoming more and more firmly established in the fertile soil from which it draws nutrients and life. I was truly taken by this person’s beautiful description of the leaves and branches: If you look at a palm tree, it’s as if it’s standing there with its leaves and branches spread out, simply looking upward in a “Godward Gaze.”

There is praise in this picture, and no pressure. There is an expectation of great things to come, but no superficial or obligatory timeline in which these things must happen. There is true faith in this picture, assurance of things hoped for but not yet seen. There is true Life in this picture. Life that says, “rest in Me and you will bear fruit.”

The soil in this picture, to me, is a representation of grace. Grace is the fertile soil in which real life and godly nutrition for the Christian are found. It takes time for our roots to become firmly established in the fertile soil of grace. And notice that the above verse doesn’t say we’ll be like dandelions. Dandelions sure do grow to maturity quickly - but where’s the substance? The Psalmist says we’ll grow like a cedar in Lebanon - a tree that Ezekiel 31 describes this way: “fine branches… high stature… thick boughs… its height was exalted… its boughs were multiplied.” A cedar doesn’t exactly pop up overnight.

“Grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.” This is a lifetime process. Don’t rush it. Don’t contaminate the soil with legalism. Enjoy the journey!