Going Around the Mountain Again.......

If you have hung out with me for very long you will hear me say, "you go on around that mountain and I'll wait for you here at the Stuckie's exit when you get back". What I mean by that was "look, I already know the pitfalls, the outcome, the result so I would rather not spend my time going through that again." I really didn't mean that I wouldn't be there with you to share my experiences, pray with you. But if you just didn't want to listen to those who have learned the lesson already then I would rather not go on that fieldtrip again. Do you understand what I mean? Finally after all these years I would rather learn in the classroom of other's experience than on a field trip of my own.

I have asked the Lord, "why don't you ever just let me go where everything is already worked out, the plan is in place and everyone is already doing what I need to be doing. That way the unknown is known and I don't have to wonder if I am doing it right. Lord, help me understand why I am always building and rebuilding. Show me what this is all about."

I have ready Isaiah 58 many times. It is highlighted in my bible so I know it has encouraged me many times. But today I saw a new thing. Isn't that just like the Lord? Always building and rebuilding? When I read it in the Message Bible it poured fresh on my heart.


 ^1-3 "Shout! A full-throated shout! Hold nothing back—a trumpet-blast shout!
Tell my people what's wrong with their lives,
   face my family Jacob with their sins!
They're busy, busy, busy at worship,
   and love studying all about me.
To all appearances they're a nation of right-living people—
   law-abiding, God-honoring.
They ask me, 'What's the right thing to do?'
   and love having me on their side.
But they also complain,
   'Why do we fast and you don't look our way?
   Why do we humble ourselves and you don't even notice?'

 ^3-5"Well, here's why:

   "The bottom line on your 'fast days' is profit.
   You drive your employees much too hard.
You fast, but at the same time you bicker and fight.
   You fast, but you swing a mean fist.
The kind of fasting you do
   won't get your prayers off the ground.
Do you think this is the kind of fast day I'm after:
   a day to show off humility?
To put on a pious long face
   and parade around solemnly in black?
Do you call that fasting,
   a fast day that I, God, would like?

 ^6-9"This is the kind of fast day I'm after:
   to break the chains of injustice,
   get rid of exploitation in the workplace,
   free the oppressed,
   cancel debts.
What I'm interested in seeing you do is:
   sharing your food with the hungry,
   inviting the homeless poor into your homes,
   putting clothes on the shivering ill-clad,
   being available to your own families.
Do this and the lights will turn on,
   and your lives will turn around at once.
Your righteousness will pave your way.
   The God of glory will secure your passage.
Then when you pray, God will answer.
   You'll call out for help and I'll say, 'Here I am.'  ^9-12"If you get rid of unfair practices,
   quit blaming victims,
   quit gossiping about other people's sins,
If you are generous with the hungry
   and start giving yourselves to the down-and-out,
Your lives will begin to glow in the darkness,
   your shadowed lives will be bathed in sunlight.
I will always show you where to go.
   I'll give you a full life in the emptiest of places—
   firm muscles, strong bones.
You'll be like a well-watered garden,
   a gurgling spring that never runs dry.
You'll use the old rubble of past lives to build anew,
   rebuild the foundations from out of your past.
You'll be known as those who can fix anything,
   restore old ruins, rebuild and renovate,
   make the community livable again.

 ^13-14"If you watch your step on the Sabbath
   and don't use my holy day for personal advantage,
If you treat the Sabbath as a day of joy,
   God's holy day as a celebration,
If you honor it by refusing 'business as usual,'
   making money, running here and there—
Then you'll be free to enjoy God!
   Oh, I'll make you ride high and soar above it all.
I'll make you feast on the inheritance of your ancestor Jacob."
   Yes! God says so! (Isaiah 58, The Message)



Questions answered, He has called each of us to refuse business as usual. To shout a full throated shout of all that is wrong. Help others not go on a Field trip since we have already passed the test in the classroom. To build from the ruins, to make our communities liveable again. To enjoy God and share that joy with those "down and out". You know them, the ones about to "go around that mountain" you just came off of.

In order to build from ruins one has to have seen a finished product before. Able to recycle useable materials and destroy the materials too weak and unfit to use in building. In renovation, you have to replace the worn out materials and bring updated and more effective ideas and materials. Restoration, you have to have seen it before; to know its history, its meaning, To lovingly bring it back to the original thing God intended it to be.

Wow, you will use the rubble of the past to build anew. You'll be known as those who can fix anything, restore old ruins, rebuild and renovate, make the community livable again. Not just going through the motions, following others lead, following and action plan already in place but doing the work and "refusing business as usual". Then he wraps up with the promise if I do my part....Free to enjoy God. Ride high, soar above and feast on the inheritance.
Lord, I want your inheritance.....Now, where's my hammer......