Meditating on God’s Word in a Culture of Shallow Scrolling

We hope that you enjoy this teaching from Christ Church.

This material is copyrighted and no unauthorized duplication,

redistribution, or any other use of any part is permitted without prior consent from Christ Church.

Please consider donating to this work in the San Francisco Bay Area online at ChristChurchEastBay.org.

Today's scripture reading is from Psalm 119, 97-105, and 2 Timothy 3, verses 16 and 17.

2 Timothy 3:16

A reading from the Psalms.

Oh, how I love your law! It is my meditation all the day.

Your commandment makes me wiser than my enemies, for it is ever with me.

I have more understanding than all my teachers, for your testimonies are my meditation.

I understand more than the aged, for I keep your precepts.

I hold back my feet from every evil way in order to keep your word.

I do not turn aside from your rules, for you have taught me.

How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth.

Through your precepts I get understanding, therefore I hate every false way.

Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.

The grass withers and the flowers fall.

The glory of God stands forever.

A reading from the second letter of Timothy.

All scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness,

that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.

This is the word of the Lord.

Thank you, Melissa, for that scripture reading.

Good morning.

My name is Andrew.

I'm one of the pastors here and delighted to open up God's word with you this morning.

But before we do that, let's go to him in prayer.

Father, would you give us a holy anticipation for how you would speak to us through your word, your divinely inspired word that is profitable for all things.

Give us ears to hear, we pray.

Give us a hunger for your word that we might taste the sweetness of it.

Sweeter than honey and more precious than gold.

We want to hear from your word.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.

Amen.

Alright, so earlier this week, I got to listen to a podcast that I saved all the way back in May.

It's from the Ezra Klein show with the New York Times Opinion.

And what caught my attention about this podcast episode was its title, Your Mind is Being Fracked.

Alright?

Your Mind is Being Fracked.

And you know, I didn't exactly know what fracking was or at least how it worked.

But at the same time, I was pretty sure that that statement was true of me and my mind.

That my mind was being fracked.

And so on this episode, Ezra has this historian of science come on.

His name is D. Graham Burnett.

And he's working on this book on attention.

And he's out at Princeton University.

They're having this conversation about attention and about how we started to pay attention to attention.

And how especially now, attention has become super valuable in this thing we call the attention economy.

Where our attention is being fracked.

Like, it's unnaturally, unhealthily, you know, being harvested and then monetized for, like, tons of money.

According to one data expert that I read this week, our attention every day is worth over $800, right?

In fact, there's a financial planner named Carl Richards.

He wrote for the New York Times.

And he would suggest that our attention is our most valuable asset.

Because unlike money, it's more like time, right?

You can't store it.

You either use it or you lose it.

But it's even more complex and valuable than time.

Because you can spend time on something or with someone.

But not necessarily pay attention to them.

And give them your valuable attention and time.

So Richards, he says that attention may very well be a human being's most valuable asset.

Because in many ways, it's the most in-demand and uniquely personal asset that we have to offer.

To give someone our attention is to give them our very selves in a very real sense.

And this is precisely why our minds, our attention is being fracked, right?

It's super valuable.

And I don't know exactly how that works in your life.

But totally, my mind gets fracked all the time.

My attention.

And this is how it happens.

Even for me, a pastor, a preacher.

This is how it goes on a normal week.

But specifically when I'm writing these sermons, all right?

So I'll be writing one of these sermons.

And then I'll be tired.

I'll get stuck.

Or, you know, I just kind of need a little dopamine hit.

A little escape.

So I, you know, in my weariness, I take a break from the deep work, right?

And I'll very often turn my attention to YouTube or Instagram or Facebook.

See if there's anything new or interesting to entertain me.

Give me something mindless that I can just kind of consume.

But I think we've all been there, right?

What happens?

Doom scrolling, right?

Rabbit trails into endless content punctuated by these annoying five-second ads and sponsored posts, right?

For me, I can go from a Steph Curry video to funny scenes from The Office to a comedian clip to a food vlogger.

And actually, one thing that's super unique to my algorithm is I like to watch chiropractic videos

where they crack people's backs really loud.

And then, like, they go home healed.

Apparently, there's a name for people like me.

I'm a crack addict, apparently.

But all this is to say, you know, Instagram and YouTube managed to capture my attention for way longer than I care to admit.

So, oftentimes, I'm like, oh, shoot, where did that 25, 45 minutes just go?

It's like, oh, man, my mind got fracked again.

YouTube paid a content creator, you know, X amount of dollars to capture my attention.

And I unwittingly paid for that content with my attention.

But the thing is, was it an exchange that benefited me nearly as much as, you know, the CEO of YouTube?

Did it make me a richer person, a healthier person, a wiser person, a more deeply rooted person,

the person that God made me to be?

Probably not.

Usually, usually not.

Unless I'm, like, re-watching one of Jonathan's sermons.

Then it's, like, all good, right?

In truth, in this attention economy, we're often swindled.

We're literally paying our attention to someone or something else for things of lesser value than what our attention is truly worth.

So, the question I want us to consider this morning is, what is our attention worth?

And not just what's it worth to Meta or, you know, some other big tech company,

but what's it worth to you?

And even more importantly, what's our attention worth to God?

I want us to pay attention to our attention today, all right?

Now, if you're new today, you know that we've been going through this series in the Psalms on the holy habits,

these holy habits of grace, the spiritual disciplines that Christians have been practicing for thousands of years

to help them commune with God and be formed into the deeply rooted, flourishing people that God intended them to be.

And the particular holy habit that we're going to be talking about today is the spiritual discipline of meditation.

Meditation.

Now, in case you missed the very first sermon in this series, Jonathan opened this series up from Psalm chapter 1.

Psalms 1 · chapter mention

And by the way, our kids and our youth are going to be memorizing Psalm chapter 1,

Psalms 1 · chapter mention

so we would ask that everyone participate in that.

Let's memorize Psalm 1 together.

Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the ungodly or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of mockers,

but his delight is in the law of the Lord.

And then what does it say?

That he makes a lot of interesting observations, that he tries to memorize it, that he tries to read it every day.

No, on this law, it says he meditates day and night.

See, what the Psalms teach is that foundational to a blessed life, foundational to a rooted life,

foundational to a flourishing life full of transcendent wisdom and vibrant fruitfulness.

If you want to be like a tree planted by streams of water yielding fruit in season with leaves that do not wither,

it's not enough to just not walk in the counsel of the wicked, to not stand in the way of sinners,

to not sit in the seat of mockers.

It's not even enough to just read your Bible or study your Bible or memorize your Bible every day.

No, we will not become large, flourishing evergreens unless we meditate on the words of God.

Unless we meditate on the words of God.

But now, what does that even mean?

To meditate on the law of the Lord.

Well, if I could put it simply and put two words into your heads to help you understand what meditation is,

I'd say that meditation is about attention and maintenance.

Those are the two words I want in your head.

Attention and maintenance.

So let's start with attention.

Now, I want to briefly distinguish between Christian meditation

and what many of us understand as transcendental meditation or mindfulness practices.

And if you want a more complete discussion of that,

I would highly recommend this article in the Journal of Biblical Counseling called,

or by Joanna Jackson.

Highly recommend it.

I could send that to you if you're interested in that.

But let me just start by saying,

I'm not here to bash on the yogis out there,

or to bash on you mindfulness enthusiasts.

It is entirely fine and even appropriate to,

you know, in our fast-paced society,

take a moment to stop and breathe and slow yourself down,

take some time to collect your wits and to be present to the moment.

But what sets the Christian discipline of meditation apart from other forms of mindfulness and meditation,

what sets it apart from New Age spirituality and Buddhism and medieval mysticism,

is that in Christian meditation,

our aim is not simply to empty our minds and consciousness,

but to fill them with the words and works of God.

Christian meditation is full of content.

It's meant to be an encounter with a person,

with God,

and with His promises,

and with what He's revealed to us.

Contrary to many Eastern versions of meditation,

words aren't the problem,

an active mind isn't the problem,

our attention isn't meant to be turned completely inward,

toward our deepest, innermost, individualistic self and body,

or to some void called the present.

That's not the ultimate goal.

God is the goal of meditation.

Psalm 46,

God says to us,

Be still,

and know that I am God.

The goal is communion and conversation with God,

centered on the words that He's provided to us in the Scriptures.

Christian meditation is bringing our attention to the revealed words of God,

filling our minds and our hearts for the purpose of being with Him.

See, because in a very real sense,

God's words are His presence.

God is present to us in His words to us.

That's what the psalmist says here in verse 97,

Oh, how I love your law.

I meditate on it all day long.

Your commands are always with me.

Your commands are always with me.

He's not simply in love with God's law,

because, oh, these are such great rules.

These are such great truths and statements.

No, he loves them because this is the voice of God in His ears

as he reads the Scriptures.

God's voice in His head is God's presence in His heart.

When Christians take up the practice of meditation,

we are giving attention to God's Word,

giving our attention to His very presence with us through those words.

The holy habit of meditation is giving our attention to God,

particularly by giving our attention to what He's revealed about Himself and His heart.

And very practically, this starts with just reading the Bible.

Just read the Bible.

And if that is something that you're not in the habit of practicing,

we want to encourage that to you as your first step toward this holy habit of Christian meditation.

And if you want to know where to start,

look at the back of your liturgies.

We have a Bible reading plan for everyone to jump right into.

It's super simple.

But the thing is, though, don't just read it like you might read your news feed

or any other literary work.

I mean, yes, you want to understand it,

but the difference between our approach to the Bible

versus every other human work has to do with what Melissa read in 2 Timothy 3.

This is not just any literary work.

It is God-breathed.

It is from God.

We call it God's Word.

We don't need to turn off our brains when we read it,

but we definitely need to encounter it,

not just as any literary work.

We can bring our questions to it,

but we want to make sure that we encounter it the way God intended.

We come to the Scriptures not seeking to just fill our minds with mere knowledge

or as judges trying to decide whether or not we agree with this

or as researchers seeking to objectify the Scriptures

and just rationally and empirically understand it.

The Bible is not a cadaver to dissect.

Unlike, you know, Beowulf or the Odyssey or the Cat in the Hat,

we are meant to have a relationship with the Bible,

with the Scriptures, just as Jesus did.

It's the living and active Word of God

and His very voice graciously coming to be present with us.

So we don't just read it,

and we don't even just study it,

though we do both,

but we meditate upon it.

Like Jonathan said a couple weeks ago,

like a dog on a bone,

like a child with a lollipop.

We linger, right?

We linger with it.

We savor it.

Focus on the flavors.

Notice its richness in every word.

For example,

the Lord is my shepherd.

The Lord is my shepherd.

The one and only, right?

The Lord is my shepherd.

The I am.

Yahweh is my shepherd.

The Lord is my shepherd.

He's mine, and I am His.

The God of the universe says,

I can call Him my own.

The Lord is my shepherd,

my guide,

my protector,

my healer,

the one who feeds me,

the one who pursues me,

the crazy, one-of-a-kind shepherd

who lays his life down for a sheep.

What kind of shepherd does that?

This is what it is to meditate and linger upon

and savor God's Word.

It's to give it tons of attention

and to understand it deeper and deeper

and the way it connects with the rest of Scripture

and displays the heart of God

and the person of Christ.

Like, wow.

The Lord is my shepherd in Christ

who said I am the good shepherd.

And then we apply it to our lives as well

and we pray it into our heads

and into our hearts

and out into our hands

like, Lord,

help me to be so convinced

that You are my shepherd

and that in and through Christ

You will prepare a table before me

and my cup will overflow.

Convince me so much of those truths

that I might abundantly

and generously live toward others

because I so believe

that I have a good shepherd

and I shall not want.

Thank you, Jesus.

That is the practice of meditation.

To meditate on God's Word

is to let the teabag of Scripture

steep long and deep

into the water of our hearts and minds

so that our hearts and minds

turn the color of God's heart

and God's mind

and our lives carry out

the aroma of Christ.

And one way of really letting

that teabag steep

is not just through reading Scripture a lot

but memorizing it.

Hiding it in our hearts.

You know, all the people I've ever known

who seem to me the godliest,

the nearest to Christ,

the most rooted,

the most self-controlled,

unflappable,

like non-anxious presence

kinds of people,

they've all been people

who are devoted

to memorizing Scripture.

I want to tell you about

one of my seminary professors,

one of my favorite ones.

I TA'd for him

and I even did a one-credit thing

for him where I memorized Scripture

and he gave me a credit for it

and it was like super hard.

His name's Dr. Vern Poitras

and he has memorized more Scripture

than anyone I've ever known

and he's probably the smartest person

I've ever met too.

He's got two PhDs,

one in math from Harvard

and then he decided to do another one

in New Testament, right?

Incredibly humble guy,

very modest

and just evidently near to God.

Now, as legend has it,

at Westminster Seminary,

there was a day

when Dr. Poitras was eating his lunch

over his Bible,

just whispering over his Bible

with his lunch by himself

and another one of our professors goes,

hey, Dr. Poitras,

what you doing?

Dr. Poitras goes,

I'm just memorizing Habakkuk.

Oh, you think that's the funny part?

All right.

So, the other professor's like,

oh, why Habakkuk?

Dr. Poitras goes,

well, it was the next one.

It was the next one.

Apparently, Dr. Poitras has memorized

the entire New Testament,

the entirety of the Psalms,

the second half of Isaiah,

Ecclesiastes,

the Song of Solomon,

all the minor prophets,

Ruth,

and several other portions

of the Old Testament.

It's pretty incredible, right?

And it wasn't just for show,

it's because Dr. Poitras,

he's the one who taught me

that God's word

is God's presence.

Dr. Poitras believes

in the power and presence of God

in the scriptures,

in the word of God.

When we memorize the scriptures,

when we memorize the word of God,

this powerful personal force

that said,

let there be light

and made it so,

that power

is stored in our minds

and in our hearts

and it becomes ready

for our lips

to bring encouragement

to ourselves

when we need it

and also comfort

and blessing to others

when they need it.

And I can think of

no better example of this

than in our church

in the life of one of our elders,

Brian Lee.

I asked him earlier

if I could share

about how this worked out for him,

but, you know,

on the day Isaac,

his firstborn high school son,

passed away

almost three years ago now.

He and Sam were at the hospital

and Isaac's siblings,

Julia and Jack,

were on the way

to say their last goodbyes.

And as they were on their way over,

you know,

Brian thought to himself

as a dad,

like,

man,

what words could I possibly have

in a moment like this?

What could I possibly say

to Julia and Jack

when they arrive?

But, you know,

at the same time,

you know what came to him?

Well,

at that,

in the couple months before,

several men in our church

had been memorizing

John chapter 14 through 17.

John 14 · chapter mention

It's Jesus' upper room discourse,

his last words to his disciples

before he goes to the cross.

So as he's thinking,

what are the words I'm gonna say?

What comes to him

are Jesus' very first words

from that discourse.

John chapter 14, verse 1,

John 14:1

let not your hearts be troubled.

Believe in God.

Believe also in me.

In my Father's house,

there are many rooms.

If it were not so,

would I have told you

that I go to prepare a place

for you?

And if I go

and prepare a place

for you,

I will come again

and will take you to myself

that where I am,

you may be also.

And you know

the way

to where

I am going.

And that is the power

of the word of God.

See,

holy habits

are not some weird

Christian hobbies,

just these religious practices

that Christians like to take up

so they can consider themselves

holy

and better than other people.

Now,

the holy habits

are how we give our attention

to the speaking God

who wants to be powerfully present

with us

in every circumstance.

He's the only one

who can ground

us

and empower us

as we experience

this power

in His words.

We experience this power

when we meditate

upon His powerful words,

when we give Him

and His words

our utmost attention.

We get to enjoy

His nearness

and we get to be a blessing

and a comfort

to those around us.

And see,

this is why

our attention

is so valuable,

so precious.

Our attention

is so valuable

because it shapes

the people

we are becoming.

We become

what we behold

or we become

what we are beholden to.

When we gaze upon the Lord,

we become more like Him.

And now,

this is where I want to talk

about meditation

as maintenance.

Now,

maybe the reason

you don't read the Bible

or memorize it

and certainly don't

meditate upon it

or really practice

any spiritual disciplines

at all

is because

maybe you feel like

doing so

would just be fake

and inauthentic

to your shallow

or virtually non-existent

relationship with God.

And if that's you this morning,

one thing I want you to hear

is that even if you don't feel

like you have a relationship

with God

or aren't sure

if you could have

a relationship with God,

He wants you to know

that He has a relationship

with you

and He would love

to have more

of your attention.

Even if you don't

consider yourself

a Christian

this morning,

you're invited

into this practice

of meditation,

of drawing your attention

to this God

you're not even sure

that you can believe in.

See,

in this psalm,

meditation isn't just

something for super Christians.

I know it can seem

that way

with all the enthusiasm

that Melissa read

Psalm verse 97,

but actually,

if you follow this psalm

from verse 97 onward,

you can find

a sequence,

a progression,

a transforming effect

that's happening

in the heart and mind

and in the hands

of the psalmist

as he practices meditation.

So first,

what you see

in verses 97 and 99

is like the sustained meditation.

It's like the more

the psalmist meditates,

the more he experiences

the presence of God

and the wisdom of God.

In verse 98

and then in verse 99,

the more surprising insight

he discovers about life,

insight that his teachers

could never even offer him.

And then with that,

his life is changed.

He finds himself

gladly obeying

because of the wisdom

and insight

that he's discovered

in the law of the Lord.

Verse 100,

I have more understanding

than the elders

for I obey your precepts.

And not only is it

his life that's changed

for the better,

but his heart

and his desires

are changed as well.

He wants to obey.

Verse 101,

I have kept my feet

from every evil path

so that I might obey your word.

He even wants to be

in the presence of God.

He doesn't want to depart

from God in his words,

but sees himself

as having been

personally taught

and guided by God.

Verse 102,

I have not departed

from your laws

for you yourself

have taught me.

This sequence

that began with meditation

leads to further delight

in God's words.

Verse 103,

how sweet are your words

to my taste,

sweeter than honey

in my mouth.

In this sequence,

he grows in love

with God

and with what God says.

And he grows in hatred

toward the things

that lead away

from this amazing God.

God.

Verse 104,

I gain understanding

from your precepts,

therefore I hate

every wrong path.

And I point out

this sequence to you

to indicate that meditation

is a holy habit

that helps us maintain

and develop

and nurture

a proper and rightful

relationship with God.

When we practice

Christian meditation

of the scriptures,

we are tending

to our relationship

with God.

We are nurturing

our communion

with God

and we are growing

in it like a gardener

ever tending to

and developing

his garden.

Meditation isn't

something we graduate

from.

It's a daily habit

God calls us into

that continually

shapes us

and makes us more

like the one

we are beholding.

Blessed is the man

whose delight

is in the law

of the Lord

and on his law

he meditates

day and night

and he is like a tree

ever growing

and reaching

toward heaven

on high.

Meditation

is the practice

of maintenance

that guides

and preserves

the process

of who we are

becoming.

This is why

in his book

that I referenced

a couple weeks ago

The Common Rule

pick it up

if you haven't

already

just in early

he commends

a rule of life

in which we

modern western people

start our days

with scriptures

before phone.

Scripture before phone

is one of his

common rule of life

principles.

He writes this

who am I

and who am I

becoming

these are the

questions

our morning

routines

are inevitably

asking and

answering for us

but no words

except the words

of scripture

can bear the weight

of a response

to these questions.

The story of scripture

is clear.

We do not know

who we are

apart from the God

who made us

and we do not know

who we are becoming

apart from the God

who is renewing us.

Early would remind us

that we are made

in the image of God

meaning that we are

all like mirrors.

That's what it means

to be a human

to be a mirror

created to reflect

everything about God.

We are our truest selves

when we are reflecting

the image of this God

who is way bigger than us

but the problem

is sin, right?

When we chose

to give our attention

to other less worthy

things

the image of God

was broken.

It was broken.

We became like

broken shards of glass

broken human beings

who have forgotten

who we are

and what we were made

for.

So the only solution

is for us

to redirect

our attention

to give our attention

to our creator

once again

and to maintain

our daily rhythm

and habit

of turning ourselves

toward him

that we might reflect him

as the best version

of ourselves.

He continues to write

we become

what or who we reflect

which is to say

we become

what we pay attention to.

We can't become

ourselves

by ourselves

the way we discover

ourselves

is by staring

at someone else.

When we turn

our eyes

toward Jesus

only there

do we finally see

the kind of person

we were made

to be like.

We are children

of the king

perfectly loved

not because

that's just who we are

but because that's

who he is making us into.

Our most true

sense of identity

is found

only in the story

only in the scriptures

which tell of

who we are becoming

and the story

is found

in the words

of the Bible.

We can become

ourselves

only by gazing

on that story.

Every morning

there are other stories

competing for our identity.

The common rule habit

of scripture before phone

is intended

to cultivate

the habit

of resisting

those stories

and embracing

the true story.

So the holy habits

particularly

this holy habit

of meditation

is what keeps us

rooted.

rooted in God

and rooted

in God's story.

The holy habits

are practices

given to us

by God

in order that

we might give him

our utmost attention

and maintain

a regular rhythm

of communing

with him

hearing his voice

and enjoying

his presence.

Now I want to say

one last thing

about maintenance.

You know I think

for a lot of us

we hesitate

to take up

these holy habits

because it's hard

for us to believe

that they're worth

our time.

Right?

Honestly.

Doesn't meditation

feel more like

a privilege

than a priority?

Doesn't it feel

more costly

to not finish

the laundry

or the dishes

or to meet

our work deadlines

than to miss

our daily time

of meditation

in the word of God?

It doesn't seem

costly to skip

meditation, right?

Does it really

form me

that much better

when I

spend time

meditating

on the words

of scripture?

I think if we're

all honest

with ourselves

spending time

with God

and in his word

can seem

like a drag

and unfruitful

and worst of all

unproductive,

right?

And even when we

try to meditate

on the scriptures

we don't always

feel like a tree

being nourished

by a fresh river,

right?

Maybe we feel

like we're still

waiting for that season

we're supposedly

supposed to bear fruit

but it hasn't

come yet.

Maybe the idea

of meditating

on the Bible

seems even contrary

to our vision

of what it means

to be a fruitful

and healthy tree.

If that describes

you just like

it often describes

me, the question

for us I think

is what if

our vision

of a flourishing

fruitful tree

is wrong,

is off?

Last week

one of our members

Jonathan Chang

you might know

him as the

Jonathan of

Jonathan and

Carlene

he suggested

that I check

out this

local Oakland

atheist artist

and author

her name is

Jenny Odell

and he said

he thought

there would

be a lot

of overlap

between what

Jonathan and

I have been

preaching

and the last

two books

that she's written

so I listened

this week

on Audible

to her

New York Times

bestseller

it's titled

How to Do

Nothing

Resisting the

Attention Economy

and I was super

thankful for the

recommendation

thank you

Jonathan

now first

you might think

that this would

just be another

book you know

critiquing the

attention economy

warning us

about the dangers

of it

another book

about maybe

self-care

and how to

fight

you know

the hustle

culture

but what made

Jenny's book

stand out to me

was that she

wasn't simply

offering the same

critique or

life advice

that you'd find

in all these

other books

she's not

anti-technology

and she's

actually quite

annoyed at how

self-care and

mindfulness have

become

commercialized

and most

importantly

she is also

very critical

of the way

self-care and

Sabbath have been

promoted for

the sake of

more productivity

and more

optimization

for Jenny

O'Dell her

commendation to

us to do

nothing more

is not for the

sake of making

us more efficient

and productive

and optimized

but actually

she commends

to us to do

nothing as an

act of resistance

against a culture

that's all about

shallow attention

and just hooked on

continually churning

out new product

after new product

after new product

she writes

beyond self-care

the practice

of doing nothing

has something

broader to offer

us an antidote

to the rhetoric

of growth

she says

look around

everywhere else

in the organic

health

biological

ecological

world

when we see

things that grow

unchecked

we consider those

things as

cancerous

right

or as parasitic

yet we inhabit

a culture

that privileges

novelty and growth

over the cyclical

and the regenerative

our very idea

of productivity

is premised

on the idea

of producing

something new

whereas we do

not tend to see

maintenance

and care

as productive

in the same way

and this has really

stuck with me

this idea that

care and maintenance

should be valued

just as much

if not more

than novelty

and mere production

completing new tasks

making more new products

downloading more new

information

consuming more

new content

more and more

I think the picture

of the tree

in Psalm 1

the blessed person

who meditates

on the law

of the Lord

day and night

and who is like

a tree

planted by

a river

I don't think

it's a picture

of someone

who is

making it

their primary

their number one

priority

to produce more

no fruit

is just a natural

byproduct

of health

I think Psalm 1

is a picture

of a tree

that's simply

focused

on being a healthy

tree

on deepening

its roots

into the river

maintaining

its relationship

with that stream

and the fruit

doesn't come

immediately

or even

all the time

right

no the promise

is just that

it eventually

comes

in season

perhaps

even in a season

a long way off

and yet

in God's

perfect timing

and my question

for us

is what if

that's the kind

of tree

God wants us

to be

as we devote

ourselves

to meditation

upon his words

with seemingly

little to show

for it sometimes

what if

for a time

we are called

to be rejected

trees

seen by

everybody else

as unproductive

and unfruitful

and ugly

and useless

because we're not

rooted in workaholism

and in anxious

hustling

but because we're

rooted in Christ

in her book

Jenny points

to this 500 year old

tree in Oakland

it's called

old survivor

it's the last

remaining

old growth

tree

it's the only

pre gold rush

tree that the

loggers didn't

cut down

because one

it was too

hard to get

to

it was on

a steep

little hill

it was a lot

shorter than

the other

redwoods

so they're

like we don't

really need

to get that

one

and also

it had

like a

strange

twisted shape

that made

it less

attractive

and less

valuable

for timber

and yet

there it

stands today

as the only

one left

it's the

old

survivor

precisely

because

it was just

being a tree

and yet deemed

useless

by the

industrial

impulse

toward

productivity

and to me

this is a

picture of

the narrow

way of

Jesus

where the

stone

the builders

rejected

has become

the chief

cornerstone

and for us

who have

eyes to see

it is

marvelous

in our

eyes

right

for the

word of the

cross

is folly

to those

who are

perishing

but to

those

of us

who are

being

saved

it is

what

it's

the

power

of

God

and this

power

is for

us

if we

will

meditate

upon his

words

and believe

him

when he

says

man shall

not live

by bread

alone

but by

every word

that comes

from the

mouth

of God

and has

he not

shown us

the power

and truth

of these

words

in his

living

and in

his dying

and in

his living

again

in every

circumstance

in joy

and in

sorrow

he was

always

meditating

upon the

words

of his

father

day

and

night

this

is the

God

we are

called

to give

our

attention

to

this

is the

kind

of

God

who

is

worthy

of

our

utmost

attention

he

is

the

vine

of

life

who

invites

us

to

abide

in

him

as

his

life

giving

words

abide

in

us

so

let's

be

that

kind

of

people

let's

be

those

kinds

of

trees

better

yet

let's

be

a

garden

here

in

the

east

bay

for

the

glory

of

God

and

for

the

good

of

our

neighbors

let's

pray

Lord

make us

like

that

kind

of

a

tree

would

you

save

us

from

superficial

understandings

of

productivity

and

usefulness

and

worth

and

value

would

you

give

us

the

mind

and

eyes

of

Christ

and

would

you

do

that

in

us

as

we

meditate

upon

your

word

would

you

shape

our

minds

and

shape

our

hearts

and

shape

our

lives

after

the

pattern

of

Jesus

he

is

the

ultimate

tree

of

someone

even

though

he

was

one

who

died

and

was

cursed

upon

a

tree

he

rose

again

to

show

us

that

we

can

trust

in

your

word

we

can

love

your

word

we

can

dedicate

ourselves

to

it

and

even

though

we

may

die

we

will

rise

again

just

like

our

savior

in

him

we

pray

amen