21st Century Cave

We've moved all of our stuff into a climate controlled storage unit (my parents basement) and we've moved the remainder of our belongings and ourselves into my Sister and Brother-in-law's extra rooms (their basement).  Thankfully, the MidWest has basements otherwise this move wouldn't have been possible.  We've moved here to start something.  But in order to start something you almost always have to give up something.  Among other things we've given ourselves up to live in a basement.

I think a basement is kind of a 21st-century-suburban-cave.  I'm reminded that God does some of his best works in caves.  David hid in them for years while waiting for King Saul to come to his senses. Elijah, in exhaustion took cover in one after running for his life.  Moses in the cave that was the cleft of the rock while God passed by.  All men were changed by the cave.  They entered out of humility and necessity.  They exited with courage and expectation.

All of these events point toward the ultimate cave experience...  Jesus... and his cave.  He was placed in one for 3 days.   The cave was where God's humility and power collided.  In Jesus The echoes are still being heard and will, in fact, never fade away.  The cave was the plan.  It was always the plan. Why are you running away from the cave?  The only real power in this universe is the ability to give power away.  The only real way to be God is to stop acting like you are God.

Giving

One of my favorite authors, Eugene Peterson writes in his book Run with the Horses,

"Giving is what we do best. It is the air into which we were born. It is the action that was designed into us before our birth. Giving is the way the world is. God gives himself. He for any of us. We are given away to our families, to our neighbors, to our friends, to our enemies - to the nations. Our life is for others. That is the way creation works. Some of us try desperately to hold on to ourselves, to live for ourselves. We look so bedraggled and pathetic doing it, hanging on the dead branch of a bank account for dear life, afraid to risk ourselves on the untried wings of giving. We don't think we can live generously because we have never tried. But the sooner we start the better, for we are going to have to give up our lives finally, and the longer we wait the less time we have for the soaring and swooping life of grace."

And in a seperate but related issue... world hunger crisis

Giving All

Surrendering to God is a discipline that must be exercised frequently… daily… ok, hourly. And though the years of doing this have conditioned me there are still days when it feels surprisingly counter intuitive. In those moments I am tempted to think maybe I don’t need to give too much. It’s kinda like paying taxes… we all agree in the necessity of taxes, but at the same time we all want to know how little we can get away with paying. C.S. Lewis points out that our perspective of God is similar; we desire a relationship with Him but we don't want Him to demand too much of us. And yet he doesn’t demand anything more than what He gave… all.