The Hard Way

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“…As He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct,because it is written, ‘Be holy, for I am holy.’” (1 Peter 1:15-16)

My spiritual tribe places a great deal of emphasis on holiness, the holiness of God and His provision for our own holiness.  He goes beyond suggesting it; He commands it.  Holiness in God’s people is a theme that runs throughout Scripture.  Many believe that God’s command is impossible to obey because of human limitations and the power of sin.  I’m not one of them; I don’t believe God lies.  I believe He has fully conquered sin through Jesus Christ so that faith can do more than result in the forgiveness of sins, it can also result in freedom from sin’s dominion.  We don’t have to sin.  I believe He, not us, makes a way for those who earnestly trust and seek Him.  He is not only able to save our souls, He is fully able to purify the affections of our hearts so that He becomes our first love in all things.  This said, I don’t intend this as a commentary on sanctification.

It is a commentary on what I’ve encountered on this pathway which include so many aspects of being: deep peace, joy, and the freedom to just be.  Time and time again, I sense a calm presence surrounding me, enveloping me in care, reminding me that I am highly valued, and calling me to deeper levels of faith and hope.  Time often seems to stand still in the quietness of His presence.  The quiet is a welcome friend.  Sometimes, there is an urging, a direction of some sort. The name of a person will occasionally pop-up, and I feel compelled to pray for them.  There are times when answers to questions thought about, but not actually asked suddenly enter my mind.  I’ve heard myself say more than once, “Oh, that makes sense,” in response.  

Then there are other times when I feel constrained and that’s usually when my emotional temperature is very high and anguish over something and it wants to morph into anger.  I think experiencing anguish is as much a consequence of walking the holiness road as any of the more ‘feel good’ stuff.  I think God experiences deep anguish because of deep brokenness in the world.  The deeper our relationship with Him grows, the more of that same anguish we experience. 

Isaiah referred to the yet to come Messiah as “a man of sorrows” who was “acquainted with grief” (53:3).  We see the fruition of this in Jesus’ compassion on the harassed and helpless who were “like sheep without a shepherd” (Matt. 9:36), His mourning over an unrepentant Jerusalem (Luke13:34), and His reaction to seeing the Temple converted into a shopping mall (Matt. 21:11-13).  

To this day, I wonder what He wrote in the dirt as He was confronted with the unjust treatment of a woman caught in adultery (John 8:1-12).  Her sin notwithstanding, which she acknowledged, the religious authorities sought only to hold her accountable, but not her male partner.  Rampant injustice and hypocrisy surely tore at Him. 

How can anyone who identifies with Christ and who is in Christ not become acquainted with grief as the realities and brokenness of this world are seen through the eyes of heaven’s citizens.  This is one of the things that makes the way of holiness a hard way.  Wrong is hard to coat-over, to ignore.   So many are not only missing heaven-sent opportunities; they are rejecting heaven-sent opportunities, and the impacts are significant and far-reaching.  It is heart-breaking and anguish inducing.

I think this anguish is a natural state that the holy ones of God must live through as Jesus did.  The issue becomes how to keep anguish from becoming the anger that warps the soul (Psalm 37).  I’ve been thinking about this…a lot.  I believe the answers have been given, although they might not seem obvious at first.

One way is lament, the honest and open expression of grief and mourning.  We see it in Job, in David, in Jeremiah, and in Jesus.  It is the statement of those who declare “All is not well” despite the preference of the majority to hold to the illusion that things are fine.  If all were well, why would Jesus need to return? 

Open lament is not all that popular because it creates discomfort in others who just want to feel good.  Consider the person who wants to prop-up someone mourning the loss of a loved one using clichés that imply that the grieving person’s grief shouldn’t be overwhelming or that it will pass away soon, and things will be better.  How much of that is their desire that the mourner actually suppress their grief in order to not make others uncomfortable?  

Suppression of genuine anguish may only lead to despair and/or anger.  Our anguish needs to breathe so that we can function in relative health despite the circumstances that cause the anguish.  Sometimes anguish needs the fellowship of others who have experienced that same anguish because they are the ones who share the road.  They are the ones who can best help us carry these crosses as we help them do the same.  Pain, like humans, is not meant to be borne alone.                      

Another way to live with grief, a way which cannot be overstated, is worship, the kind which Jesus referenced, “…in spirit and truth” (John 4:23-34).  Sincere worship redirects our focus onto God who not only sees our anguish; He enters into it with us.  Perhaps it is actually we who are drawn to enter into His anguish over the brokenness He so clearly sees.  This is a fellowship of unity of the highest order.  Whether we are drawn to Him or He to us, His perfect holiness is able to keep us from despair, from hopelessness, from anger, from self-immolation and allows us to keep moving toward Him with expectations of hope.    

Worship of the Holy and life in the Holy is the protective that keeps us afloat in the painful waters of life.  He is the corrective who will sweep away all anguish away.  In the interim, our spiritual equilibrium often requires our lament and our worship of the Most High God just because this road can be hard.

“…keeps me in the valley,

hides me from the rain…” *

* From “Our God is Awesome” by Charles Jenkins on Kingdom Business 4, 2012.  Lyrics © Kobalt Music Publishing, Ltd. 

© Byron L. Hannon.  All rights reserved unless otherwise noted.                           

It Takes More Than A Notion

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As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you. (Psalm 42:1)

For years I’ve heard my wife say, in response to something that requires consideration, “It takes more than a notion.”  By this, she means whatever the issue is, it’s not something that can or should be brushed aside easily.  She’s been saying this for as long as I can remember and we’re closing in on five decades of marriage.  Many of us have favorite sayings that others notice even when we don’t.  

I’m at a stage of life where I have more time to meditate and reflect than ever.  One of these reflections is the increased prevalence of spiritual egalitarianism that is expressed in three ways I’m sensitive to: (1) religious pluralism which posits that all religious expression is of equal spiritual value; (2) the mixing of elements from different religious belief systems (syncretism); and (3) the amalgamation of orthodox Christian doctrines with a range of social and/or political doctrines so that Christian faith is joined to whatever “good” the social or political stance defines as “good.”  

This latter case seems to be expressing itself in the church more and more.  I’ll leave it to you to imagine your own examples, although I can think of a few.  The stated or implied justification is almost always what is viewed as right and just in human eyes (although the subjectivity of all of these eyes leads to different and often conflicting conclusions about what is right and just).     

I want to state clearly that I am not voicing an opinion about the alleged superiority of “the good old days” when this issue wasn’t nearly as prevalent or obvious.  As a close friend once said, “The good old days weren’t so good for some people!” Furthermore, I say unequivocally that I have strong concerns and feelings about the injustice and a lack of righteousness that is so easily sways us and which seeks to overwhelm all of us.  The doctrine of holiness to which I subscribe has no room for the unrighteousness of injustice.  

I do want to say that we who consider ourselves Christians need to be very, very careful about making any social or political doctrine equal in importance to Christ whereby we wind-up sacrificing our reliance on Him or our obedience to Him for the sake of what we prefer.  To do so calls into question His Lordship in our lives.  Consideration of this takes more than a notion.  

“Seek first the kingdom of God…” (Matthew 6:33) is both a command and a life-ordering principle for those who are serious about following Him, not just calling themselves by His name.  I don’t think any of us can legitimately seek the kingdom without seeking the King.  Deep and consistent care is needed to avoid seeking anything, loving anything, preferring anything as vigorously (or more vigorously) than we seek after, love, prefer Him.  

It’s a tall order for sure and it is costly because it bumps up against so many things we prefer…and it is offensive to many because of that very same reason.   I am reminded of how offensive Jesus was to those who would not receive Him on His terms.  At the end of the proverbial day, I have to ask myself, do I trust Him even when I’d rather trust myself?  I’m not interested in going back to someone’s idea of “the good old days.”  Likewise, I’m not interested in any “good new days” that deconstructs the Christ of the Bible to fit a social or political agenda.  

My own prayer is this: Lord, wean me from all that the world loves and that You despise.  Take me deeper behind the open veil. 

It will take more than a notion. 

© Byron L. Hannon, 2022.  All rights reserved except as otherwise noted.                                 

A Particularly Bad Estrangement

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“Then many will fall away…” (Matthew 24:10)

I always thought the word estrangement connoted a separation between persons due to some unresolved tension or anger in that relationship.  I’ve come to find out that estrangement is possible without any evident relational tension.  To be estranged from someone is to be made a stranger to them, tension or not. 

We all have those people in our lives with whom we were once close, but the passage of time combined with differences in our circumstances reveals a distance between us that didn’t exist before.  Although we were once close, that closeness reflects a past that no longer exists.  In a sense, we have become strangers to one another.

Among my recent burning questions have been: 

Are we seeing increased estrangement between God and many who once considered themselves committed Christians?  

Are people who once claimed the faith becoming strangers to the One they once worshipped?  

Has time and the evolution (or devolution) of perspectives and values created a chasm in which a communion once shared no longer exists?  

Has God become more of a concept for consideration rather than a person with whom we have vibrant relational union”?

We’ve yet to see all of the long-term societal impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic, but there is some data that suggests that pre-pandemic church attendance (which was already in decline) has dropped by roughly 30% without the expectation of recovery as a result of the gathering and masking restrictions most communities and churches implemented.  A colleague recently shared research he saw that projected that drop to be around 40% for people age 40 and younger.  And although most churches have reopened, the discipline of purposely being in a shared communal space with other believers has been abandoned by some.  

From the time I first began thinking about this issue, the Hebrews passage (10:24-25) has been like a blinking neon sign in my mind’s eye: “And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.”

Quite a few have adopted a stay-at-home and watch the service virtually mentality.  I’m glad that technology is available to help people stay engaged in the message and ministry of the gospel of Jesus Christ, but I remain concerned about the long-term impact on needed fellowship.  More technological and relational creativity is needed in the Church to help people remain connected in light of this need.  The Church needs people with these skillsets to help the rest of us seek connection and remain connected.  This may very well be a new way of serving in the church. 

Without this innovation, estrangement is inevitable because healthy Christian faith has never been vertical alone; it is also very horizontal.  It is a spiritual oxymoron to claim to love God and not love our brother or sister…and it’s hard to love in a giving and sharing way if relational connections are broken.   We will be strangers to one another.  

If gathering in the same physical space is problematic, solutions are needed to help sustain these critical horizontal relationships among the faithful.   Otherwise, virtual church participation could fall prey to the same kind of channel surfing many of us engage in because of our short attention spans and tendency to become bored with watching what is on TV.  Watching a church worship service becomes just one more viewing option that is discardable.  Then, increasingly, we will be strangers to God and to each other.   We will have fallen away.

Even effective implementation of this kind of innovation won’t impact those who once did but no longer practice participatory engagement, in-person or virtual.  The question must be asked of them, is this clear evidence that you are estranged from both the body of Christ and from Christ Himself?  You don’t have to be angry at anyone; you’ve just become strangers.            

A common cliché is “God forbid.”  I don’t think God is going to forbid this.  I think He’s going to let it play out…let us exercise our own free choice.  This onus is on us.  May we forbid it.

© Byron L. Hannon, 2022.  All rights reserve to text content unless otherwise noted.     

Navigating Animus

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We’re living in a day of heightened animus, meaning heightened ill-will that can be spiteful and malevolent.  It’s the base word for animosity and we see it expressed broadly and individually, in our social and political discourse and in one-on-one interactions, whether associated with Covid protocols, the 2020 Presidential election, the assault on the Capitol on January 6, 2020, responses to Black Lives Matter protests, views on the 2nd amendment, or in road-rage incidents (These examples are limited to the U.S.  The list would be unwieldly if examples from other nations were included).  

I don’t think this heightened animus is ex nihilo (from or out of nothing).  I think it’s like the spaghetti sauce commercial of a few year ago; “it’s in there”; it’s been in all of us all along.  It just needs to a catalyst to set it in motion.  The potential for animus is in all of us and we have seen flashes of it across history, sometimes in striking and horrifying ways.  What makes animus especially relevant to me now is that there have been so many catalysts for animosity operating across a broad front in a relatively compressed timeframe.  We are being buffeted by it.  Buttons are being pushed all over the place and one of the results is the outward expressions of latent anger, resentment, and bias.  These expressions are presented as both emotional reactions and in what is represented as justified, reasoned responses.  Even in the latter case, animus is often detectable in these well-worded, seemingly calm discourses.  

If you’ve been reading me for any length of time, you know that I believe all things seen are influenced by things not seen.  I don’t mean this in a platonic way involving unseen, non-personal influences.  I believe there are spiritual realms, spiritual personalities, and spiritual hierarchies which/who influence human thinking, human behavior and human affairs.  

While this belief flies in the face of cold, hard acceptance of beliefs which conflates spirituality with ignorant superstition and which elevates human reason above all else, I could not be a Christian if I didn’t believe as I do.  After all, God is spirit (John 4:24).   And while I believe God’s cry for us is unity in Him throughout His creation, made possible through the death and resurrection of His Son, Jesus Christ, I believe the desire of the adversary, the one we call Satan (literally, Accuser) is division. “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life and have it abundantly” (Jesus speaking in John 10:10).

Animus has an aim.  It is disunity, confusion, and chaos in the form of division, discord, factions, and, left unchecked, hatred.  Not only are we seeing more occasions where these things are manifest, we are also seeing how some may actually encourage animus between people and groups and manipulate it for gain.  It reminds me of the avatar for the first Godfather film in which a disembodied hand is holding a set of puppet strings.1 Whatever part of this is intentional, it is sin.

Try as we might (and humanity has been trying for a long, long time), we have proven totally incapable in our own strength of effectively combating animus run amok.  For example, how many years passed between the end of “the war to end all wars” (World War I) and the beginning of World War II?  It was only 21 years, just enough time to raise the next generation of soldiers.   I’m sorely tempted to cite other examples, but I won’t; I think the point is clear.  We don’t seem to be able to help ourselves despite vast increases in knowledge and technological gains, pleas, slogans, protests, expert testimonies, a myriad of books and articles, political action committees and so forth and so on (Anyone want to make an argument about the dominating power of inbred sin?).      

The challenge for people of good will (that is, those whos’ good will are not restricted to selected people or groups) is to navigate through the animus that can so easily penetrate our souls, to keep it external to us and not internal.  Of course, we can and should speak and act against it at every opportunity while being careful not to be trapped by any animosity hidden in the force of our words and actions.  For me, that carefulness is nurtured by my devotional life.  In 2 Corinthians 12:9, the Lord says to a beleaguered Paul, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is made perfect in [your] weakness…” Humanity, on the whole, is spiritually weak, although pride and spiritual blindness keeps us from recognizing our weakness.  Like the writer of Psalm 91:14, I want to set my love wholly on God and trust that His grace will me guide me through these all-too-common rough waters.          

1 The Godfather released by Paramount Pictures (March 1972).  Directed by Francis Ford Coppola based on the novel written by Mario Puzo, published in 1969.    

© Byron L. Hannon, 2022.  All rights reserved to text content unless other

An Observation

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“After that whole generation had been gathered to their ancestors, another generation grew up who knew neither the Lord nor what He had done for Israel.” (Judges 2:10)

When my children were young, they would occasionally say to me, “How do you know that?”  Typically, I answered glibly, “I’m your father; I know everything.”  Of course, they came to realize the fallacy of this boast as they grew older and as far as I know, they never held it against me.  I like to think that despite not knowing everything, I have grown knowledge over the years and, hopefully, in wisdom…and I think I’m as observant as I’ve ever been.

One of those observations, or should I say range of observations, is in the intersection of Scripture and everyday life and its patterns and trends.  In the millennia that have passed since the settling of the canon of Scripture, innumerable societal changes have occurred in every phase of life.  Kingdoms and nations have risen and fallen and risen and fallen again; hierarchies and class structures have morphed; structures of philosophies and religious beliefs have heavily influenced thought and behavior; wars and brutality have consumed populations; growth in science and technology has steadily marched forward (but still is not the panacea so often promised); the desire for monetary wealth and consumption is a guiding hunger for many; and the poor remain with us.   Perhaps the Teacher of Ecclesiastes (Solomon?) was right: “What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun” (Ecclesiastes 1:9).     

There is a proverb (22:6, NIV) that says, “Start children off on the way they should go, and even when they are old they will not turn from it.”  I’ve never believed that this is a formulaic promise as much as it is a principle.  Still, children pointed toward a healthy direction in life and given continual support in that direction are more likely to independently buy-in to parental instruction when they are of an age to make adult-level assessments about what is good, better, and best than if they are never taught and left to their own devices.  This proverbial idea is the same as what Moses instructed in the Shema (Deut. 6:4-9), i.e., the importance of teaching children the way and will of GOD so that when they are older, their knowledge of GOD will be their internal motivator.  

Over time, as the Israelites who first received the covenant of God, died-off and syncretism (a mixture of components from different belief systems) became prominent in subsequent generations, a time came when it could be said of Israel a“generation grew up who knew neither the Lord nor what He had done for Israel.”  Those who had been called to be a nation of priests had become as common as every other people.  Is this not where we are now…again?  Perhaps my eyes and ears deceive me, but I don’t think so.  

It seems to me that many have attached enough other things to their Christian faith that their lives don’t look a lot like the mind of Christ Paul speaks about in his letter to the Philippians, but some self-created syncretistic thing.  Here are some indicative red-flags:   

  1. Selecting those portions of Scripture we like and mentally discarding those we don’t, preferring some alternative thinking that aligns with our personal preferences and comfort.  
  2. Conflating (bringing together; fusing) the spiritual and the political into a pseudo-unified whole in a confusing attempt to make Christ’s kingdom be of this world (when Jesus was explicit in saying His kingdom is not of this world). 
  3. Continually employing carnal weapons to combat spiritual problems, repeatedly proving Einstein’s maxim about insanity.  
  4. Using human arguments to justify biases and other unholy attitudes (and actions) even while singing “O Come All Ye Faithful” and “Joy to the World” (I originally drafted this just before Christmas).  

These symptoms are indicative of contemporary golden calves attempting to stand as equals alongside the Most High GOD whom we may also claim.  Wherever this is prevalent, it’s no wonder children are growing up not knowing the GOD of the Bible nor the Christ who bore their sins and who offers the way, the truth, and the life: they are neither tasting the salt nor are they seeing the light. 

Perhaps an old calling that is still timely: “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near.”

© Byron L. Hannon, 2022.  All rights reserved unless otherwise noted.                

The World’s Glow Globe

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I am an unapologetic Dune1 fan.  This fandom is not new; I have been into Dune since the 1984 movie premiered.  Though not a science fiction fan per se, I’ve read the entire Dune book series.

One small piece of technology in the Dune world is something called a glow globe, a suspensor- buoyed, self-powered illumination device that provides light in darkened spaces.  It’s essentially a personal, self-operating ball of light.  If you had one, it would anticipate your movements and correspond them to yours, preceding you so that as you walked in the dark, a lighted pathway would be provided.  With your glow globe, you would never walk in the dark.  

There are many dark scenes in the Dune, reflecting the story’s overall tone, at least initially.  Consequently, several scenes take place in darkened locations and glow globes provide light to the principal characters as they walk in and through these spaces.

Ironically, glow globe is the first thing I thought about yesterday when I read, “Then Jesus spoke to them again, saying, “I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness but have the light of life” (John 8:12).  He is the eternal glow globe available to any and all.  

There is one key difference.  In the Dune narrative, glow globes go where you wish to go.  Jesus, on the other hand, is only light for those who follow Him.  The other option is to walk in darkness…including when darkness masquerades as light.

“If we say that we have fellowship with Him while we are walking in darkness, we lie and do not do what is true; but if we walk in the light as He Himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin.” (1 John 1:6,7)

1 Dune is the first in a series of science fiction books written by Frank Herbert first published in 1965.  It is the basis of two movies (1984 and 2021) and a television miniseries (2000).  

© Byron L. Hannon, 2022.  All rights reserved to text content unless otherwise noted.      

Counting My Blessings

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This is my first post in several months, something those of you who read me regularly know.  This sabbatical from writing was unplanned initially.  One week, it just occurred to me that I didn’t have anything fresh to say, so rather than write something just for the sake of posting it, I rested.  This was after writing continuously for three and a half years, with the exception of missing a week here and there.  In the second week of not having anything to write, I gave myself permission to take a break, to refresh without having an end date in mind.  Quite frankly, I’m not sure if I will post much beyond this, although I hope to.

Today, however, I felt the need to share the experience of counting my blessings.  Some of you may know that old hymn by the same name and I believe it to be a worthwhile and easy discipline for any season.  As I was washing up the dishes left from the night before in the quiet of the early morning and, shortly after, as I settled into an easy chair with my Bible, other devotional reading and my journal for the purpose of meeting with GOD, it was impressed upon me how deeply blessed I am.  It was as if a gentle wave of awareness came over me.  I just sat in the quiet reflecting, taking it all in.   Then, I began to say, “Thank You” repeatedly to the One who sent the wave, the One from whom all blessings flow.  The psalmist said, “Taste and see that the Lord is good” (Psalm 34:8) and I have tasted and it is so good.  

As we embark on this new year with its many possibilities and opportunities, I am deeply grateful for the love that has been there from the beginning before I was in my mother’s womb, for my parents who are gone but not lost, for my wife and life mate whose only other name besides her given one could be Grace, for my children with their distinct personalities, gifts and passions,  for my family in all of their iterations, for my dear friends and colleagues who make life so interesting, for all of those who have poured some portion of their lives into mine over the course of many decades, for the privileges I have been granted and the experiences I have had, and certainly for the love of GOD that I know and treasure because of Jesus Christ.

May this new year bring you and yours an abundance of joy and hope. 

                                     Chorus:

Count your blessings, name them one by one,

Count your blessings, see what God has done!
Count your blessings, name them one by one,
Count your many blessings, see what God has done.1

1 “Count Your Blessings by Johnson Oatman, Jr. (1897).  Copyright in the Public Domain.    

© Byron L. Hannon, 2022.  All rights reserved to text content unless otherwise noted. 

9.11.01 and Now

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“GOD opposes the proud but favors the humble.” (Proverbs 3:34)

   Like most who were adults on September 11, 2001, I remember exactly where I was, what I was doing, and the sequence of events that constituted my day that day.  The horrific manner in which so many lives were lost was an incomparable experience for most of my generation and younger generations old enough to be aware of what had taken place. The physical and psychological boundaries of this nation had been penetrated.

Not surprisingly, houses of worship all over the nation were packed the following weekend as people mourned, sought comfort and, perhaps, confronted their own mortality.  Like most funeral and memorial services (and these gatherings were memorial services in the truest sense), the one-time visitors to these worship houses ceased attending once their immediate needs were met and places of worship settled back into their normal routines.

Annual anniversary remembrances have become the norm and here we are, 20 years later, having just done the same.  History, the good and the bad, needs to be remembered.  The people who died,  the spouses and children who suddenly experienced the loss of a wife, a husband, a mom, a dad, the first responders who sacrificed themselves, and those who subsequently died or have become incapacitated because of injuries or related illnesses should be remembered, not just in ceremonies but in tangible, material support for the survivors.

And…we need to be careful to not dirty-up the history by mythologizing it.  Myths can be an incredibly attractive ways of viewing the past, using rose-colored glasses to see only the positive and to hide/avoid the negative about ourselves and only the negative about others.  A result is self-aggrandizement.  The myths of a nation can have the same effect so that acknowledging and thinking only about the good-feeling parts of history can lead to over-inflated national pride and an attitude of hegemony rather than humility.  Hiding what we do not wish to see is nothing but a form of repression which will eventually bear its dangerous thorns.

As we remember history, let’s remember it in a way that is fair and true, and toss the rose-colored glasses away.  Our future depends on it.     

For it was GOD who created all nations. He determined when they should rise and fall and their boundaries (Acts 17:26).

© Byron L. Hannon, 2021.  All rights reserved to text content unless otherwise noted. 

A Great Labor

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“Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me” (Jesus speaking, Matthew 16:24)

Today is Labor Day (in the U.S.), a holiday honoring the American labor movement and the works and contributions of laborers to the development and achievements of the nation.  The monuments of blue-collar labor are visible in the homes we live in, the food we eat, the streets and highways we drive on, the bridges we cross, the buildings many of us work in, and on and on.  

Physical labor is hard.  It demands strength, stamina, the mental toughness to keep at it over long periods of time, and the commitment to do the job well.  Relatively few do this work…but we are all dependent on those who do.    

Carrying a cross is blue-collar spiritual work.  This teaching by Jesus confronts the fallacy of “cheap” grace as it He explicitly identifies the chief demand on anyone who is sincere about committing to Him.  The cross is to be carried on one’s back more than it is a gold chain around one’s neck.  To carry it requires moral strength, spiritual stamina, the mental toughness to keep at it over a lifetime, and a commitment to doing the job well which is to glorify Him before all of heaven and earth.   

The cross is an instrument of death and love: death of self and self-rule and love for GOD and others (whether they know Him or not).  It is a constant reminder of the sacrificial life into which we have entered.  Facing the cross, therefore, is not be a one-time conversion experience; the Holy Spirit will always draw the committed back and then back again to be reminded that we are not our own, that we have been bought with a price (1 Corinthians 6:20).  We face the cross over and over again and carry it so that the remnants of self can be crucified and to continually recommit to the job of being living sacrifices (Romans 12:1). 

This is a great and wonderful labor.  Thank you to all who have borne it in days past.  May those who bear it now find rest and glory in Him.  For everyone else, the invitation to join is still there.                   

© Byron L. Hannon, 2021.  All rights reserved to text content unless otherwise noted.    

Why I Pray

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“…But I give myself to prayer…” (Psalm 109:4)

There was a time I didn’t pray.  I saw no need for it and thought that, at best, it was a ritualistic act performed by religious people of whom I was not.  Then, some things happened ((I’ll skip the numerous details) and I was converted.  That’s when I began to pray.  Most of the time, I did it out of a sense of duty, although I believed it was important.  The truth is, I didn’t rank prayer highest on the list of “spiritual” things I enjoyed doing or participating in.  A lot of the time, it felt like work.  It occasionally still feels that way, but more times than not, now, I pray because I experience a deep need to pray…to seek beyond myself to satisfy the hungers of my soul.  

Dwight L. Moody (19th century American evangelist) was speaking to a group of children in Scotland.  To get their attention, he asked them a question, “What is prayer?”  He was expecting the kind of simple answers children might give, but one little boy said this, “Prayer is an offering up of our desires unto God for things agreeable to His will, in the name of Christ, with confession of our sins and thankful acknowledgement of His mercies.”*

It was an extraordinary answer for one so young and suggests his parents took seriously the admonition, “Train up a child in the way they should go; when they are old they will not depart from it” (Proverbs 22:6).  Reading this account last week caused me to think more about my reasons for praying.  Here are a few:

  • I pray because I believe that GOD is who He says He is.  I believe He is Creator, morally perfect, transcendent (beyond the limits of experience and knowledge), eminent (perceivable) and personal.  
  • I pray because GOD has done and is doing for me, through Jesus Christ, what I could not and cannot do for myself: given me a new life free from the stain of sin, proven sufficient for my weaknesses, given me freedom from the fear of death, and a conviction that even after the death of my body, the redeemed me will live on in the risen Christ.  
  • I pray because prayer sensitizes me to awareness of GOD, His presence, His love, His peace, His will, His words.  As mystical as it may sound, I commonly experience all of this.  It’s not enough for me to become acquainted with Him from a distance; I want to be acquainted with Him in the same way that many, many table conversations intimately acquaint me with those on the other side of the same table.  The more we talk, the more aware and appreciative I become of who they are.
  • I pray because I am confident that reliance on self and human wisdom apart from GOD is both vain and deceitful.  Jesus was right; life’s lasting fruitfulness is found only in Him; apart from Him, we can do nothing (John 15:5).  Prayer opens my inner vision to the reality and depth of my poverty and smallness and the great privilege offered me to freely share in His great riches. 
  • I pray because there are still times when I am morally wrong and need to repent of those things (reverse course and turn towards GOD) and confess them to be free from the guilt.  He freely and mercifully offers forgiveness and I receive it, gratefully.  
  • I pray because there are spiritual and material needs all around me and I have an obligation to approach GOD on behalf of those who have those needs that they too might share in His riches.  GOD has shown me His love, mercy and grace and encourages, even challenges me to do the same for as many others as I can.  Prayer is one way I do that.             

Some may say they look to other means to experience some of what I have shared, things like meditation or therapy. I think meditation can be good.  It is even better when it opens us up to the realization that we need more than we can self-generate.  And I definitely don’t have an axe to grind against therapy.  I have recommended therapy to former parishoners from time to time and have utilized it myself after experiencing a family trauma and the need to make a major life decision.  Two of my children are therapists and the work they do is valuable.  Even with that, I don’t believe we can separate emotional health from spiritual health and actually be healthy.  That is an unfortunate dichotomy rooted in human but not godly wisdom.  They are two sides of the same coin (life).       

Seeking GOD’s presence for the pure sake of being with Him, expressing thanks, petitioning Him for the things I need and desire, and interceding for others is something to which I now look forward.

I pray because GOD is no longer a part of my life; He is my life.  

* Found in Deep Fire, Daily Challenges for a Burning Heart, Harold Vaughn (ed.). p.237.

© Byron L. Hannon, 2021.  All rights reserved except when otherwise noted.