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Tell me about Jesus

I’m not really a fan of small talk. I know my personality type has a lot to answer for here, but as an INFJ, I would rather just skip the small talk, and talk instead about what really matters. Don’t get me wrong, I can talk about the weather just like anyone who has lived for any length of time in this southern city at the bottom of the world. I know that social norms dictate small talk as a safe and comfortable place to converse, I get that many would much rather stay there than delve into meaning and depth of connection.

But if I had a choice, and if I thought anyone would respond with even a little enthusiasm, this would be the question I would ask: Tell me about Jesus, please? Not just about what you know of him or what you have read about him, but tell me about him. What does he say to you, and how does he say it? What does he look like? Can you describe him for me? How have you found him?

Perhaps, you know nothing of this Jesus and these questions strike you as being profoundly odd, if so please continue reading, I hope what follows brings you a little clarity, perhaps you might also like to read this.

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Lament: an invitation

In these times of the coronavirus crisis, I’m finding myself drawn to the practice of lament.

A lament is a passionate expression of grief, often in a creative form, like a poem or song. It is an honest, unfiltered, intense offering of hard, painful thought and emotion to God. It is clearly something that a reader of the Bible like myself should be no stranger to. After all, the whole book of Lamentations is a series of laments about the destruction of Jerusalem. It is estimated that two thirds of the Psalms are laments.

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Longing for God and the Gift of the Desert

For many years I longed for God. I wanted to know him, to see him, for a depth of relationship that was neither superficial nor non-existent. But while this was the longing and cry of my heart, my experience was far different. Despite my efforts, God seemed remote. I would read my Bible, I would pray, but the times that God appeared to draw near were rare. For me, this was my reality for more than fifteen years.

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A prayer for these times

Last year I stumbled across the term “crafted prayer” in a refreshingly short and invaluable book by Graham Cooke, entitled the same. In it, Graham discusses the riches found in praying prayers that are not just found in the spur of the moment but rather prayers that are deliberately and carefully crafted before the throne of God. These are prayers that we can pray over and over again. And thus bringing a depth to our prayers that may, perhaps, be lacking otherwise.

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The call of the cross

Perhaps your heart echoes mine; you too long to live your life speaking to God face to face, as a friend, like Moses (see the previous post). And yet maybe you feel overwhelmed and do not know where to begin. Take heart, we are not left to stumble in the dark. We do not have a God who lets his children loose on the world and then watches them from afar in some sort of macabre comedy, to which the only ending is death. In contrast, we have a God who entered and enters in. Who is not far away, but rather is closer than our breath.

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