Living and Yearning

“If you want to build a ship, don’t summon people to buy wood, prepare tools, distribute jobs, and organize the work, rather teach people the yearning for the wide, boundless ocean”.

For too long the church has attempted to build ships (the methods of ministry) before they have adequately learned to yearn for the wide, boundless ocean ( the vision of the God's kingdom).

Dallas Willard in The Divine Conspiracy points out that Jesus' eyes envisioned a God-bathed, God-permeated world. Chapter three of Willard's classic is worth the price of the book, and is a must read for any Christian who is serious about following Jesus. There is little doubt that Jesus' craving to sail the high seas of His father's kingdom was insatiable desire that drove all that he said and did. With such a desire, building the ship sort of becomes a natural process.

Perhaps our greatest task in spiritual formation is to bring people back to that place of yearning for the wide, boundless ocean. The current problem in most churches is one of vision. I've seen folks be transformed by the power of the Holy Spirit, beginning to catch Jesus' vision of the kingdom, only to be encouraged by the church “to buy wood, prepare tools and distribute jobs”.

As a result, ship building becomes more of an obligation than a delightful joy.
We must give attention within our churches to re-imagining what God's own life is like, and then just set there for a while and bask in the reality of His vastness and goodness and justness and love.

We must recognize how indispensible this yearning. . .this ferocious desire to explore the vast, boundless ocean is. Everything begins and ends here.

So how badly are you craving it?

Why Wholeness Matters

Wholeness makes a difference. It definitely would have on the night of December 15, 1967 over the Ohio River Valley.

On this fateful night the Silver Bridge, a 2,235 foot two lane eye–bar suspension bridge plummeted in the Ohio River killing 46 individuals and wounding dozens more. Evidently after 39 years of standing strong and offer faithful travel across the river, this bridge without warning, “collapsed like a deck of cards” one onlooker commented. In the wake of the tragedy inspectors took inventory on what went wrong. There finding was astonishing.

There was no major malfunction in the beams. Rather, “The cause of failure". . .read this highlighted portion. . . "was attributed to a cleavage fracture in the lower limb of eye-bar 330 at joint C13N of the north eye-bar suspension chain in the Ohio side span." The fracture was caused from a minute crack formed during the casting of the steel eye-bar!

Over the years, stress corrosion and corrosion fatigue allowed the crack to grow, causing the failure of the entire structure. The issue was simply one of integrity and wholeness. Even though 99% of the bridge might have been good, it was NOT whole, and hence could not stand.

I think our lives are a lot like the Silver Bridge. There are tiny fault lines within. Due to pain, fear and the brokenness of our sin, our natural tendency is to live divided lives. The word integrity literally means whole, complete, integrated. To have integrity means to live our lives in a way that is consistent and without division. In essence, we are the same person no matter who we are with, what hat we are wearing or what pressures we are under.

I have found that both community and solitude are indispensible spiritual disciplines in discovering those areas where I lack integrity. Solitude gives time for soul inspection. During this quiet moments I become aware of those areas where my integrity is lacking. Community allows others to detect weakness within that I don't see myself. In my life, healthy doses of community and solitude have been essential to avoiding disaster.

"Life is the destiny you are bound to refuse until you have consented to die."

-W.H. Auden, "For the Time Being"


Take about half a day and chew on this quote. Then swallow it. Then begin digesting it. Warning: Doing so may turn your world upside down.

Of course, that's Jesus intent. His parodoxical life and death redefines everything. Our biggest hangup with parodox is not Jesus embraced it as a way of life. No, our biggest hangup is that he has called us to embrace it too.

Acts 17: 26,27 says, “From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live. God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us.”

He is not far from each one of us. The distance man’s soul and God is not far. God's hand is eternally reaching out. It stretches and lingers in the air, waiting for us to grasp on….if only we’d reach out.

Sometimes in Christian circles we use the phrase “God showed up” to describe a time when we sensed God’s presence or His spirit in our lives. Christians may use this after a significant church service or a great time of worship. Personally, I think this phrase is misleading and downright bad theology.

Scripture teaches the imminent availability of God. He’s always around. He is a God who is with us. In reality, those “God showed up” moments are really a reflection of times that we showed up to welcome a God who is available and waiting. A.W. Tozer says that God is "waiting to be wanted". God has shown through His suffering and death that he would rather die than live without us. The question is do we really want Him?

The process of spiritual formation begins when we take the time and energy to reach outward towards a God that is continually reaching towards us. After all, He really isn't far from each one of us.