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Even the most cursory look at the books of Exodus and Numbers leaves you scratching your head as to how the Israelites lost faith in God’s provision so frequently and with such intensity. Numerous times the people turned on God and on Moses. They begged to go back to their life of slavery and abuse because traveling for what would have been a month or two was too much to ask.

Consider the incident with the fiery serpents. The people turned their backs on God. They complained about just having manna to eat and the fact that everything was taking too long. When they were forced to make a more circuitous route to arrive at the Promised Land, they grumble with such intensity that God sent fiery serpents among them. Then, like most people when confronted with judgement, they returned to God who graciously provided a means for their healing.

It is really easy to look at the Israelites and wonder what their problem was. These were the same people who had seen God do miraculous things. They are the people who could visibly see God leading them as the pillar of cloud and pillar of fire. Yet they gave evidence of their unfaithfulness at the first hint of trial. The thing is, before we condemn them, we need to consider our response to disappointment and our faithfulness. We need to keep in mind that we are not always the most thankful people.

I hate disappointment which makes sense because that is what disappointment involves. I have not suffered from a tremendous amount of disappointment, but the experiences that I have had still produce pain to this day. When I was not offered admission to the PhD program at Baylor or when I did not receive a job that I had hoped for, my first thought was not to just be thankful for what I did have. I lamented the loss of something that I could have had. Similarly, while my mouth said that God will provide something even better, my heart was producing scenarios where I would end up unsuccessful and unfulfilled for the rest of my life.

For me my manna is my fantastic wife, my beautiful daughter, plenty of money, a good education, great family, two newish cars, and not to mention eternal life and a relationship with God. God has definitely provided, but here I am trying to be unfulfilled and miserable. When you forget all of these provisions, God does begin to feel distant. Your mind begins to wonder whether you have failed some kind of test and now God can’t work with you anymore.

But, here is the truth: God has provided everything you need and more. The more would be anything that you can see around you. The “provided everything you need” is a bit harder to see, but it is just as real and more powerful than what you can see. When God allowed us to be in a relationship with Him, we received more than we should have ever had the guts to ask for. He not only knows us, but speaks promises to us such as nothing can separate us from His love and that one day we will dwell with Him in the new creation.

When I read the books of Exodus and Numbers I am not so quick to judge the Israelites now. I am sure that I would have been right there with them, complaining because my feet hurt. The truth is that we all would have, but thankfully the story continued and Israel became a mighty nation in the land that God gave them. Even when they continued to forsake Him, God still stayed true to His promises just as He will do for us.

Yesterday I had the day off so I went with Jenn and Isabel to the Birmingham Botanical Gardens. With the seasons changing and the weather becoming hot it was a perfect time to go and wander around. The gardens are really an attraction here in town that is often taken for granted. I have been there a few times, most notably our wedding reception, but this was one of the first times I came there to just walk around and enjoy the surrounding nature.

One thing about the gardens is that along a major portion of their border is a fairly busy road that sits just beyond a fence. When walking near this border you can hear cars and construction, not the sounds that you are looking for when trying to dwell in God’s creation. But, it allowed me think about things in a spiritual light as well. In some ways, this situation was the situation of Eden. Here is a perfect place where everything is beautiful and convenient. Just outside the garden, however, is a chaotic world where peacefulness and provision are pipe dreams. Isn’t this exactly what Adam and Eve discovered?

Here is another way to look at it. There are times in our lives where we are sitting in the presence of God, experiencing the thin places, when all of a sudden a metaphorical dump truck is laying metaphorical asphalt which is loud and distracting even in a metaphor. It breaks our concentration because it call attention to the outside world. Many of us try to dwell in God, but the truth is that our beautiful relationship with God is bordered by a lot of other relationships that do tend to be chaotic and distracting. Maybe it is our relationship with a person, or with a job, or with money. Maybe it is our relationship with relationships. Dwelling in God is not easy with all of the chaos that pulls us in other directions, but the goal is to keep in mind that the chaos is temporary. And one day we will be walking in a garden just like Eden with the same God who walks with us now.

Do you ever wonder what happened to honesty? I do all of the time. I have to admit that trying to wade through the lies and misleading information that I encounter everyday simply wears me out. For whatever reason, honesty has lost its foothold. It is hard to know how many times we are lied to each day, whether it is by a TV commercial or a coworker. Truth telling is simply not a value that our culture promotes.

I am sure that it has always been a problem. Consider Adam and Eve. From the beginning people were trying to spin their situation to avoid consequences with “the serpent made me do it” or the woman gave it to me so I thought well who am I to say no. It just seems that the quantity of lies must have gone up. Maybe it is because it is the information age and with information comes misinformation.

I understand that people or companies have agendas and will often do what promotes that agenda. It is simply sad that we have to walk through life always asking if what we read or hear is true. Will this cereal really help me be healthy or has the FDA simply not started monitoring the use of this word. Or, is this car dealer really going to lose money if he sells this car at the price on the paper or am I getting ripped off (you are getting ripped off). It is like walking in a mine field of dishonesty.

Another thing that is sad is that we can so easily be drawn into and see no implications for our faith. Christians sell bad products or cheat people and the excuse is that well this is just the job. Question: should our standard of behavior really be the world around us? Isn’t there a pretty good amount of material in the Bible about not conforming to the world around us? You know who wished that they hadn’t followed the customs of the surrounding people? The Israelites as God led them into exile after they refused to stop worshipping the gods of the other nations.

Why did God tell people not to bear false witness? It’s because it simply demolishes relationships. If you cannot trust someone, why be around them? Lying completely destroys a relationship because it says to the person lied to that he or she is not valuable or respected. Lying impacts people significantly, making them unable or unwilling to trust other people.

Truth-telling has become counter-cultural, but, honestly, isn’t that what Christians are called to be?

I admit that I find myself questioning things more often than just accepting them right away. It is not that I am cynical, I just like to understand and investigate things before subscribing to them. I think that a lot of people in my generation are the exact same way. Here’s the thing, with the amount of information available to us in this present age, we often discover that there is more to the story that what we have been told.

Maybe this is simply a result of getting older. As we get older, things make more sense to us and our worldview expands. We start to question media reports or commercial claims. We begin to seek out the background to the historical narratives that we are all familiar with. With all of the information and lines of communication out there, it is nearly impossible to be naive unless you really want to. And if you choose naivety, then you are choosing to live in a fabricated world that you can design with your own preconceived notions and predispositions.

Our approach to our faith works the same way. Many people would tell you that it is not safe to question parts of your faith. To some degree they are correct. If you cannot agree with the Nicene Creed and the Apostles’ Creed, then it is hard to see how you could be considered a Christian. Don’t question those kinds of things. Don’t question your faith, but ask questions about your faith. It is good to ask questions about the elements of our faith and about the Bible. Our faith is rich, deep, and complex, and it deserves that attention.

Maybe your question deals with doctrine or church practices. For example, maybe you ask why people attend church rather than worship by themselves. Well, first ask yourself if your concern is not just sleeping in on Sunday. Then, go to the sources and read the Bible. Read about how the people of God have always been a community. Read about the gatherings in Acts or the temple worship in Leviticus. Then consider the benefits of attending a church and belonging to a community where you edify others and others edify you. Consider the benefit of learning about God in the midst of other people, sharing what you learned and listening to them. Remember also to ask God if attending church is what He wants or not. It is not wrong to ask the question, but it is wrong to not to seek and be open to the answer.

It is also not wrong to ask questions about the Bible. The Bible is not something that anyone ever completely understands. Passages in the Bible are often complex and have important contexts. Consider the story of Noah. Growing up the story is all about animals, rain, and a big boat. Upon further review it is a story of the judgment of God, the faithfulness of God to his promises to Adam, and to God’s mercy and provision. Sadly, it is also a story of man’s moral failings despite having seen God’s mercy and power. The Bible that God gave to us to read requires investigation and attention. If we do not ask questions and seek answers, we have made ourselves interpreters who cannot speak the language that we are trying to interpret.

Here’s the thing, our faith is something that takes humility, work, and petition. This is why people of my generation appreciate people who are not afraid to speak and write about the complexities of our faith. People appreciate people like Donald Miller or Margaret Feinberg because they come across as real people working through their faith like the rest of us. They don’t try to act as if they are all-knowing or all-holy. They struggle, think, and live. The truth is that everyone appreciates the truth. If a passage in the Bible is complicated, tell me about it anyway. Don’t try to gloss over difficulties or ascribe some roundabout explanation for a verse that has a few different interpretations. In the same way, don’t just tell me one possibility is the answer as if there are other possibilities that are just as reasonable.

It is always more comfortable to live in a faith that we can construct. I am always wary of anyone who acts as if they have everything figured out. People who have no more questions about God are people who may not know the God that I worship. People who think that they completely understand the entire Bible must have some kind of child friendly Bible that has removed the details and the intricacies. My hope is that I am never satisfied with my knowledge of God and His word. I hope that I never take for granted the fact that God wants me to grow in my knowledge of Him.

Something that I think we take for granted sometimes is the power of place. There are places that we have been in our lives that are full of meaning and memories. I can think of several places from my past that evoke not just fond memories but powerful emotions of identity and formation. Glorieta, New Mexico is one such place. I love Glorieta. I spent many summer weeks at a conference center there. Some of my favorite life experiences occurred there when I was a teenager. For me it is a spiritual place, the kind that I hope to someday take a pilgrimage to. The conference center at Ridgecrest, North Carolina is another such place. Again, the place is so loaded with meaning for me that just thinking about the place makes me wonder what I need to do to go there as soon as possible.

Places evoke remembrances that take us back and enable us to relive our past. Events occur in places whether it at a college or a high school or a backyard. We think of these places to revisit a different time in our lives. Most of the time, and for good reason, we tend to revisit places that give us positive emotions, choosing to remember the good over the bad. Good for us.

Tonight I am sitting in a hotel Nashville. I am here on business, taking a class that will enable me to serve as a director for larger disaster relief operations. I come back home to Nashville every now and then, mostly for Titans games. Now that mom and dad live in Birmingham there is nothing that draws me here regularly. But every time I make the drive up here, my heart starts to beat faster and for some reason I long to drive past my old house and high school. It is not that I absolutely loved every minute in Nashville. It’s just home. It is where I grew up and where I started my journey into becoming a grown up. I learned a lot of life lessons here. I feel comfortable here. All the while I realize that if I moved back here, I doubt it would feel the same as before.

Reading the stories of the Israelites in the Old Testament also speaks to me about the power of place. Think about the way they named places (Bethel: “the house of God” or Peniel “face of God”). Places for the Israelites were supposed to bring memories and emotions. The places became reminders of times when God saved them, provided for them, or judged them. Sometimes the place would continually be a site for events in Israel’s history. Jerusalem is a place for Abraham where he is blessed by Melchizedek and a place for David where he will build the city that will house the temple of the Lord. Hebron is another important place that the Israelites could look upon and recall the history of their people from Abraham to that present day.

The power of place is something that we can all draw from. These places help us to understand how we came to be who we are and who we were. I wonder what the Hebrew is for “the place where I met my future wife” or “here I first saw my daughter.”

About a week and a half ago I began reading through the Bible. The idea is to start at Genesis and read through to Revelation. In a very real way, I felt God calling me to do this. While I have read most of the Bible, I cannot say that I have read every verse in the Bible, especially from beginning to end. As of this morning, I have made it through the book of Ruth, and I have to say that I have no idea why I did not do this before now.

I have already learned so much from this exercise. Again and again I am able to see God’s sovereign hand over the course of every event from the provision of Adam to the establishment of Ruth in the line of David. I have acquired a fresh appreciation for the covenants of God and the character of God. I have been able to see myself in the people of Israel who, despite having seen the wonders of God, take every opportunity to turn from Him or take His word for granted. I have been empowered by the stories of faith and the stories of deliverance. I have been challenged by the holiness of God that is presented so clearly in Leviticus and Deuteronomy.

Reading the Bible in this way has also allowed me to have fuller appreciation for the stories that I felt that I knew so well. For so many of us who grew up in church, we never think that there is a need to dig deeper into passages about Noah or Moses or about the tabernacle. The truth is that there is so much more to these stories that we need understand. Just because we know the events, we seldom know the entire context or the theology that these events represent. For me the key has been to read with questions, asking why this or that happened. I also try to appreciate what the passages mean for me spiritually. On a practical level, I have found that it helps if you underline key verses or passages. It helps me to focus on the reading.

My hope is that every Christian can come to the point that they have a desire to do this. I know that there are passages that intimidate or seem burdensome to read, but even these passages are present for a reason. The intricate details of the tabernacle’s construction help us to understand the perfection that God required in order to dwell among the people. The genealogies demonstrate the course of God’s plan and how the nations of the world came to be. My prayer is that God will put a desire in your heart to read the Bible, God’s word and the story of our salvation, so that you will come to a greater knowledge of Him who has given you life.

Sometimes I like to say that things are particular to our generation simply to explain away something that I like or do or think. This is perhaps one of those times, but my experience suggests otherwise. In my circles of relationships, I am surrounded by a number of people who have grown up in Christian homes. Some of the homes have been nominally Christian, while others have been one step past devout. What is so common, however, is that while growing up, many of these friends of mine came to view Christianity as a burden or as irrelevant to their lives. I have to admit that there have certainly been times when I would definitely fall into this camp.

The image that comes to mind is the pink offering envelope. I don’t know what color yours was, but maybe it still invokes the feeling of works righteousness in you as it does me. This envelope had a place for “read Bible everyday” or “prayed everyday,” and it asked how many times we witnessed. I am sure that this envelope was meant for good, but for me it was serious hindrance to my faith. I came to see church as a set of motions and rules. Do this and this and do not do this and you will find favor with God. This could not be anything further from the truth.

The truth is that God is full of grace and mercy, and no matter how many times we go to church in a week, we will not be able to earn it. Not understanding this led me to have some difficult views of God. It also effected how I worshiped, how I prayed, and how I approached the Bible. It also, unfortunately, made me suspicious and loathing of really religious people. My response was to avoid, not to rebel, but to avoid. If only reading the Bible or praying on a semi-daily basis was not good enough, what was the point?

Though I have come to understand the grace and mercy of God, the spiritual habits that developed in my past have caused me great difficulty in how I have come to practice better habits. Part of me hoped that seminary would repair these practices, but there I read the Bible differently. I had to read, and I had to read so that I could pass a test. It was not often worshipful or spiritual. Sometimes it was, but in the end I would be more upset for forgetting the outline of Romans on a test than for praising God for the message that is presented in that outline.

It got better though. It got better once I left the world of seminary and the Christian university. It got better when I was not surrounded by praying and reading and worshiping. I realized how much I missed it, how much I needed it. I have prayed for some time that God instill in me the desire to read his word and to speak with him. Gradually it became stronger and stronger. Quite honestly, it took one of the lowest points of my life where I had to sit in the moment and decide if I truly believed in God’s love and grace or if I would turn away. I am thankful for the fact that I could not leave God, and He has drawn near to me in a way that to understand it, you would have to experience it yourself. He has given me a desire to talk to him all day long. He has made my heart yearn for the Bible and its teachings. I honestly cannot wait to get a chance to read more of his word. I praise God that this is my experience and my joy. These tests of faith are painful, but they also contain so much healing and renewal for our souls. They make us realize that our faith is not about rules but about grace and love. I thank God for answering my prayer to give me these desires, not for my righteousness but for my joy.

Have you ever wondered why we put so much emphasis on a person’s call to ministry? Why don’t we ever talk about a call to be a teacher or a lawyer? After all, it is the same God who calls chefs that calls ministers. As someone who has been called to ministry, I have a few theories about this.

One reason is that the Bible is full of instances where God has specifically called out a person to the lead the people or to serve Him. We see this in the examples of Abraham, Moses, Aaron, David, Samuel, Isaiah, Noah, Nehemiah, the disciples, Paul, etc. These people are specifically called by God to do His work. The understanding is that by His grace, God gives these people special abilities or performs miracles while they lead. In some ways we continue this tradition by hoping to identify the person who has been called of the Lord with the expectation that He will give them the ability to lead and to shepherd His people.

Another reason for emphasizing a call to ministry is that a minister/pastor/preacher has a special relationship to the holy and the eternal. From the beginning of the priesthood in Exodus, God calls the priests to be set apart from the people. They avoid unclean things in a special way so as to have the ability to continue their work for the Lord. Even the New Testament makes special mention of the fact that ministers will be held to higher standards. On a very common sense level, ministers need to hold higher standards as examples of righteousness and Godly wisdom. Who would listen to an abusive pastor speak about God’s unfailing love for humanity?

A third reason, and one I offer only partially in jest, is that to be a minister requires one to endure some fairly painful experiences. Ministering to people is a great privilege, but it is a privilege that welcomes criticism and interpersonal hardship. The responsibility of shepherding people who often go astray can be burdensome and draining. Ministry is not a job field, it truly is a lifestyle, one that has no real work hours or job description. A minister is a speaker, a counselor, an executive, a planner, a bookkeeper, a student, a supervisor, a janitor, a development officer, and much more. He or she must have a clear calling if they are to participate in this lifestyle. While I am honored and so thankful for my ministerial calling, all I need to do is to look to my pastor father who works 60 to 80 hours a week to see that my path will not be an easy one. Without a calling from God who enables us to understand and appreciate our calling, it would be easy to turn aside and follow a different path.

I think that part of the reason that it is so hard to be hired by a church is that ministry is serious business. After all, we are talking about people’s souls and their faith. Interviewing and pursuing church jobs has been a difficult experience for me, basically because I never anticipated how complicated it can be. One of the pitfalls has been the experience factor or the we would hire you, but you have not logged enough paid ministry hours factor. There is also the factor of the perfect match. When interviewing for a church job, many of the people have an ideal candidate in mind; sometimes one committee can have three different people who each have a diametrically opposed ideal candidate. Then there is the fact that ministry skills are hard to define. You need to be a great speaker, a good counselor, understand budgets, be the right age, have the right theology and training, have the right passion, and be willing to work for what the church is offering. At times it would seem that if God did not ordain people to have these jobs, most would go unfilled.

I look forward to the time when my ministerial lifestyle will begin its next stage. It is reassuring that God has a place prepared for me, and that He has called me to His service.

Most Christians, even the most devout, will enter a time of tested faith. Typically this testing is the result of a traumatic experience or a significant disappointment. Perhaps it is the death of a loved one or a major financial event. I have lately found myself in a period of testing, but it did not spring out of a major drama or disaster. Instead it has come from waiting. Just waiting.

Waiting is much more painful than I ever imagined. Dramatic and traumatic events at least have a process where they end and then you begin recovery, however slow, but waiting is waiting. It is undefined and indeterminately long. There are several kinds of waiting. For me, it has been waiting on my vocation to take shape. Understand, it is more than waiting for a job or even a better job; it is about vocation.

I know that I am called to a career in ministry, but God’s answer to me for over a year now has been to keep waiting. I have been close to several opportunities, final two candidates and all of that, but here I am still waiting. In some ways it has been a good experience. It has strengthened my resolve to work with a church. When I begin thinking about a different path, my heart calls me back to the place where I am meant to be.

It also makes me thankful that it has given me another experience that I can use to relate with other people. A lot of people are waiting on a lot of things. Some are waiting on children. Some are waiting for a husband or wife. Others are waiting on test results or for healing. And still others are just waiting to be happy. We all wait for something, but that does not make it much easier. The good news is that God is waiting with us. Eventually what we are waiting for may arrive. We also might just start waiting for something different, or we may realize that we already have what we thought we were waiting for. I don’t know, but I do know that there is a reason that faith and hope are usually mentioned with love. Because God loves us, we can know that he will provide and he will be there while we wait.

The concept of thin places has always been a powerful one for me. I first heard about the idea from an Irish monk who was lecturing at Beeson while I was there. He explained that thin places were places in nature that the Irish believed the spiritual world and our world to be especially linked. The concept actually arose out of pre-Christian Irish culture, but the Christians easily adapted the idea as a way to talk about feeling the presence of God and the eternal.

I think that this concept holds special significance for me because I believe that if we strive to develop an awareness for the holy and the spiritual, we will actually find thin places everywhere. Maybe sometimes we find them in nature, but they can also be found while listening to a song or viewing a piece of art. I also think that these “places” can be events like a sharing a meal with good friends or watching your daughter play. If we seek these things and appreciate them, it is then that we feel God nearer than we ever thought possible.

One more example of this thin places concept can be found in the experience of thousands of teenagers and mission trip participants. We always talk about the fact that while were on a mission trip or at church camp we felt God presence so strongly. I think that it is because for us these were our thin places. The picture that serves as the background for this blog’s title comes from one such place for me–the top of a mountain in Guatemala. Jenn and I were there spending a week working with an orphanage called Eagle’s Nest. A former presidential resort, the orphanage overlooked Lake Atitlan and its majectic volcanoes. In this place the beauty of mercy and love intersected with the beauty of creation and wonder. It is no wonder that God felt very near that week. My hope is that we will all find these thin places in our lives everyday.