Casual or On-Call?

Towards the end of school term, Laura seems to pick up casual work at the boy's school.  In Australia "casual" work means you are not under a contract and do not have regularly set hours.  After volunteering for years in the library or uniform shop, sometimes she will receive a call to come in and work for pay.  It seems Laura has become a useful person to call when school staff is sick or on leave.  She is able to slot into many roles on short notice, recently helping out in Food Tech.  Lately it has been about eight hours spread across the week and looks to increase slightly next term.  And should the school call her in to help out, I expect she will by God's grace rise to the challenge!

Being a casual worker in Australia affects pay rate, superannuation, and benefits.  If Laura was a full-time employee at the college, there would be additional security and benefits granted her.  Though Laura is often called into work, she is a casual employee.  I would not compare her situation to a doctor who is "on-call."  Some doctors, for instance, often have a strenuous schedule with regular hours which extend far beyond a typical 35 to 40 hour week.  Many also are "on-call," meaning if there is an emergency they have the responsibility to answer the call and go into work.  People who do casual work and are "on-call" both are called into work:  the casual employee only works when the call comes, and for those on-call workers have regularly scheduled hours which extend beyond full time employment.  The call means extra work on top of full-time!

I wonder:  do we Christians approach life like a casual employee of Jesus or a full-time worker who is on-call?  I have heard people say that pastors are always on-call, but I am convinced all disciples of Christ are full-time ministers and also are on-call - whether or not they are paid by a church for their labours.  I imagine there are some full-time pastors who approach their service to God like a casual employee, and there are certainly parishioners who are full-time disciples and also on-call, joyful to serve God in every capacity who never keep track of their hours.  Isn't this how we ought to be?  If we measure our service only by time, what does that prove?  Inmates in prison count hours and days too.  Those followers of Jesus who serve Him faithfully, joyfully, and continually regardless of their circumstances or recognition bring glory to God.  Every minute on earth we live by God's grace, and how good it is to respond to His grace and goodness by giving ourselves back to Him.  It is service done with the pure motive of  God's love for us, not the logging of hours (or the accumulation of blog posts!) which pleases God.

The widow put in two small mites into the Temple treasury and was deemed by Christ to have given more than the most wealthy contribution because she gave all. That is what we can give:  our all.  Let's be full-time Christians, always glad to respond to the call of Jesus Christ.  Where God calls us He will supply the strength and resources to accomplish His will.  We should be on-call with Jesus not because He needs us but because we need Him - and He's already given all of Himself!  We are going to be with God for eternity, have fellowship with God even now, and the Holy Spirit indwells us today.  Amazing, right?

Hallowing God's Name

I have been reading through Radical Prayer by Manny Mill recently, and it has been a good reminder of the importance to cultivate a lifestyle of prayer to God.  One of the points which was spot on was an explanation of what is commonly called "The Lord's Prayer," a prayer commonly recited.  This is ironic, as Jesus had just warned His disciples about vain repetition in prayer during the Sermon on the Mount!  Then Jesus said, "In this manner therefore pray, 'Our Father in heaven, hallowed be thy name.'"  Because Jesus told His disciples to follow His manner of prayer, some have interpreted this to be a "model" prayer.  I have heard different explanations of how this model should be used.  In his book, Manny Mill goes a refreshingly different direction.  He points out the words of Jesus are more than an affirmation of God's holiness, and actually are a request for God's name to be hallowed and glorified in everything.  All the requests from this point were with this in mind.

Mill quoted Dr. John Piper concerning this point in a message he delivered:  "In this petition, we hear explicitly (it may be implicit in the others, but only here is it explicit) - we hear the one specific response of the human heart that God requires of all human beings - the hallowing, reverencing, honouring, esteeming, admiring, valuing, treasuring of God's name above all things.  None of the other five requests tells us explicitly to pray for a specific human response of the heart." (Mill, Manny, Harold Smith, and Barbara Mill. Radical Prayer: The Power of Being Bold and Persistent. 77. Print.)  This explains the heart behind the prayers of Christ, that in all things God would be praised, worshiped, and reverenced.   This is the why of prayer, for God to be consecrated and above all in power and glory.  To pray for the glory of God and to hallow His name will change the way we pray and honour God through prayer like never before.  Manny shared how this realisation transformed his prayer life.  He wrote,

"When I began to fully grasp that our aim, at all times, is to hallow God's holy name, my prayer life was transformed.  Take the petition for daily bread, for example.  Previously, I would ask God to supply my family's needs, which Jesus tells us is something we should pray for.  However, I now realised that I needed to make this request more out of my concern for God's glory that for my family's actual needs.  In other words, I now ask God the Father to provide my daily bread so that I will have energy to hallow His name through prayer.  I ask for my family's provisions so that they too will be able to hallow God's name and live lives that show others the faithfulness of God.

I saw that praying for God to keep me from temptation and to deliver me from the evil one was not so much about my avoiding the painful consequences of sin as it was that God's name would be glorified through the testimony of my transferred life.  How can I come into His presence to hallow his name in prayer if I am involved in sin?  How can I testify to others of His transforming power if I give in to the sinful temptations around me?  I can't.  Therefore, I pray that God will deliver me from temptations and keep me from sinning in order that I may glorify Him in all that I do." (ibid. 79-80.)

Might this insight transform your prayer life too, that our requests would be made to hallow God's name and make Him look awesome rather than just asking for ourselves?  He is already awesome beyond compare, and as He heard and answered the prayers of Jesus Christ so He will respond to all who desire and seek to hallow God's name.  Our motive for praying is as important - perhaps even more important - than the words we use or our specific requests because God knows us and what we need even before we ask Him!  God is looking and listening for those praying in the Holy Spirit whose motives are aligned with His will.  God will see His name hallowed without our help, but what a gracious blessing we are invited to join with Him to that end.

God Lifts Us Up

Yesterday marked the opening day for the National Football League regular season.  After my sons arrived home from school in the afternoon, we watched the San Diego Chargers lose a game in overtime to the division rival Kansas City Chiefs.  It was more than just a tough loss to a division foe on the road, but far worse than that was our best receiver went down in the first half with a torn ACL.  Having endured that injury myself, I know it will be a long and painful road back for Keenan Allen.

Health is a precarious thing, especially for gridiron players.  There have been at least five or six season-ending injuries for Charger's starting players on offense by the end of the first game!  Players work offseason and training camp to be fit to play in the NFL, and to see it all over in an instant was hard to watch.  Number 13 was firing on all cylinders in the game and was unstoppable.  Move after move, catch after catch, he rose from the turf triumphant, celebrating each first down.  After a spectacular grab he placed his hand to his ear, having silenced the crowd.  He was letting the Kansas City players hear all about it too, charged up over a fast 21-3 advantage.  But suddenly, shockingly, there he was curled up on the ground.  No one had tackled him.  He simply was running and untouched fell to the ground as if a sniper took out his right knee.  For Keenan Allen, one of the best in the business, his game and 2016 season came to a end with six receptions.

My heart went out to the man as I watched him sob uncontrollably as he was carted off the field.  He couldn't hide his disappointment, and he was man enough not to attempt to hide his broken heart behind a stoic facade and a "thumbs up" as the game resumed.  I couldn't help notice the difference between the confident strut after catching a pass and the broken man hauled off the field, his jersey soaked with tears.  It was a contrast as stark as night and day.  I have seen the same thing in MMA fighters who all talk a big game before the fight.  Listening to all the trash talking makes it sound like neither combatant could possibly lose.  But within a matter of seconds, minutes, or a round or two, one of them is bloodied, tapping out, or unconscious on the canvas.  Champions fall.  Dreams are dashed.  Plans change abruptly without warning.  A knee ligament which has been strong for decades suddenly fails.  What then?  How will we respond when it happens to us?

All strength and success of men comes to an end, yet God's divine strength and resources are without limit.  We will fail others, and our health may fail us, but in all things we are more than conquerors through faith in Jesus Christ.  Life if more than games, health, and winning.  Those who humbly place their faith in Christ have new life and love nothing can ever separate us from.  God reminded His people in Isaiah 40:28-31:  "Have you not known? Have you not heard? The everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth, neither faints nor is weary. His understanding is unsearchable. ²⁹  He gives power to the weak, and to those who have no might He increases strength. ³⁰  Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall, ³¹  but those who wait on the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint."  Keeping your chin up is sometimes impossible, but the LORD is the lifter of our heads.  In looking to God we find ourselves miraculously sustained and can rejoice even when these bodies fail.  When our bodies let us down, God lifts us up.

Perspective!

Christianity is far more than a belief system or a tradition which governs behaviour:  it is a complete transformation of the person from within by the indwelling power of God.  A person born again through faith in Jesus is empowered to live life from a new perspective.  Instead of self being our central point of focus, a love for God and others governs our thoughts, attitudes, words, and deeds.  Things we naturally used to do without thinking brings conviction from the Holy Spirit.  We have an new desire to feed on the truth of the Bible and our spiritual appetites change.  The transformation God works within us is both immediate and continual.  We are born again as new creations in Christ yet there is a path to maturity we must intentionally embrace through obedience to God.

Hagar the Egyptian is a wonderful example of God's grace.  Though she was a Gentile, God revealed Himself to her and spoke kindly to her.  After she ran away from Sarai the LORD told her to return to her mistress.  He told her the baby she carried should be named Ishmael which means, "God will hear."  She was so impacted by the divine interaction she called the spring of water where she met with the Angel of the LORD "You are the God who sees" (Genesis 16:13).  All God said came to pass.  The fact her son was named according to the word of the Angel of the LORD suggests she believed His promise to multiply her seed beyond count.  When Ishmael was a teen, they experienced a great trial.  One morning Abraham gave her some bread and water and sent them away for good.  Though God had commanded Abraham to do so, it must have been a frightful proposition for Hagar and Ishmael to be sent away.  Where could they go?  They ended up wandering in the wilderness until their water ran out.

About 17 years earlier, Hagar had been personally met by the God who hears and sees.  Yet in her desperate circumstance it seems she forgot about Him.  She was so consumed in grief for her dying son she did not even think to pray.  She placed her son under a shrub as he cried because of thirst, and she moved a distance away from Ishmael because she couldn't bear the though of watching him die.  She sobbed loudly.  Now this is a terrible situation to think about, much less experience.  Though Hagar forgot about God, He graciously heard and saw her plight.  Genesis 21:17-19 reads, "And God heard the voice of the lad. Then the angel of God called to Hagar out of heaven, and said to her, "What ails you, Hagar? Fear not, for God has heard the voice of the lad where he is. ¹⁸  Arise, lift up the lad and hold him with your hand, for I will make him a great nation." ¹⁹  Then God opened her eyes, and she saw a well of water. And she went and filled the skin with water, and gave the lad a drink."  Blinded by fear, Hagar forgot the God who would never forget her.  God graciously opened her eyes and she saw a well of water nearby, and both she and her son were saved.

Think about God's initial question.  How might you have responded in Hagar's situation if someone asked, "What ails you?"  In bitterness and anger I might have answered with shock:  "What ails me?  Are you serious?  I've just been sent away from my home for good, I don't know where I am in this wilderness, I don't know where I am going, we are out of water, my son is dying, and all hope is lost!  You have no idea what I'm going through.  Shows what you know asking me, 'What ails you?'"  That sort of answer reveals a need for a change of perspective.  It was not just anyone asking the question, but the God who hears and sees.  In light of God's grace, goodness, and power, Hagar's perceived problems were not a problem.  Wasn't God the One who created life, caused Hagar to conceive Ishmael, and knew their needs?  Hadn't He given her the promise that He would make of Ishmael a great nation?  If Hagar would have remembered the God who sees and hears, recalled to mind the promises He had made concerning her son, and trusted God rather than despair, nothing could have ailed Hagar - even lost in a wilderness without water.

For those who trust in God, remembering who God is and all He has done brings refreshment to our souls like water to a those parched in a dry land.  As blood-bought children of the Most High God, we do not need to be afraid.  We have assurance of great promises through God's Word.  We have access through the Holy Spirit to the Living God who loves us and does everything.  Psalm 46:1-5 provides this God-centred perspective:  "God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. ²  Therefore we will not fear, even though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea; ³  Though its waters roar and be troubled, though the mountains shake with its swelling. Selah ⁴  There is a river whose streams shall make glad the city of God, the holy place of the tabernacle of the Most High. ⁵  God is in the midst of her, she shall not be moved; God shall help her, just at the break of dawn."  It may seem God delays to help us, but in His wisdom He refines our faith.  Your world might be torn apart, but God will hold you together.  Tears may flow during the night, but joy comes in the morning.  Just at the break of dawn God will send help according to His promise for He has said, "I will never leave or forsake you."