What follows is a somewhat dated article ( because of a Heath Ledger reference) by Benji Nolot that I finally got around to reading today and realized it was timely - the very thing I was craving in my own heart. I wouldn't be passing it on though if I didn't believe it was timely for all of us as a community of prayer and a challenge to the House of Prayer.
As a member of the Body of Christ and a House of Prayer, it is particularly tempting to wrestle with circumstances and then carve out prayers that appear loving and corrective but are in fact a choice criticism of what is wrong with the world and the church. Frankly, figuring out what is wrong with me, you, the church, the world, etc. is easy squeezy and terribly afflicting to my soul and everyone else's. It doesn't take much to jump into that task at all but I find it is incredibly destructive and food for anxiety. Don't worry about God not finding out about how crappy we all are. According to the vision in "Zechariah 3", Satan stands right next to us and does a bang up job. (But check out God's response. It's worth the read and unbelievably merciful and kind - ah Jesus - thank You for You. )
However, taking off someone's grave clothes and filthy garments; figuring out what is right and beautiful in the bloody, smelly mess of humanity - which includes my own stench by the way; hungering and thirsting for righteousness - especially my own expression of that in Christ; getting up off my tushy and championing true justice; calling forth that which is not as though it was; looking for Jesus in those around us and the circumstances we are wading through . . . THAT'S the challenge. Love is the HARDER task - and yet somehow the most joy filled. It is MUCH harder than the Law - which btw is impossible - just an fyi. Yet Jesus raised the bar by loving us and calling us to Love. AGGGHHH - OH to actually be a lover for a living in spirit and truth. God help us all.
Last week, as I was wrestling with the church and myself , I started "praying" (if that's what you want to call it - I would call it complaining to God) and it seemed like I received a challenge from the Holy Spirit. He basically chastened me for focusing my attention and vision on the church and not on Him and His Great Beauty. "Be Christ centered" was the challenge. "Don't look at the Church at all. Look at ME." Now I know that my prayers for life and the church are immediately changed into declarations of Beauty every time I look at Him and wrestle for His perspective. Still, it is like turning a dinosaur to get me to do it. It is why Mike Bickle is using the "apostolic prayers" to pray blessing over the church and we are trying to steer all those who pray in "the House" to use them as our prayer focus. They are remarkably encouraging and strangely not critical.
My final thought in this vein is a quick lesson the Lord hi-lighted for me yesterday. As I was watching my nieces and nephew for the day, I was repeatedly confronted with the annoying density of one of the neighborhood kids who was a friend of theirs. He was terribly annoying and persistent in trying to do things that were clearly stated as off limits or tattling over whether my nephew said someone they knew was "sitting in a tree, k-i-s-s-i-n-g."Like I care. Anyway . . . . I was sitting on the porch watching him coast by on a scooter and thinking "Lord, that kid is a bit weird, dense and really kind of wacky" when suddenly my five year old nephew followed - speeding by on his bike wearing cowboy boots, speedo swimming goggles over his eyes and a funky baseball cap. He was the epitome of weird, dense wackiness and I laughed, because he looked ridiculous and ABSOLUTELY beautiful to me. I had nothin' but love for the boy and I got the Lord's point of view like a sweet smack in the head. So, read on . . .
Prophets of Beauty
Recently, in the course of conversation, a friend said to me, “we (as people in general) have an obsession with bad news.” I had never consciously acknowledged that before, but I immediately recognized it to be true. Just a few days later I was catching up with some folks I hadn’t seen in a while. As I inquired about mutual acquaintances, every response was colored with negative reports. Had I not been pondering my obsession with bad news, I may not have even noticed these responses as being anything other than normal. I realized how conditioned we are to draw attention to misfortunes, disappointments, failures, and trials. We are curiously attentive to the sensational news that more often than not concerns tragedy, loss and pain.
Our culture serves as a continual reminder of how fallen we are. Last week I was at the gym when I saw a television set flash an urgent news message reporting the death of young actor Heath Ledger, which turned out to be drug related. I noticed that the songs played overhead are often of musicians who have either committed suicide or died from a drug overdose. Driving down the highway I was drawn to a massive billboard advertising a reward for a wanted criminal, his face displayed largely across the entire billboard. It seems that everywhere I look images are flooding my mind with darkness.
The voices of this world are loud and many. They come through emails, media, co-workers, family and friends. I feel a constant demand beckoning me to take notice of the latest story of child abduction, rape, or murder. I feel the pressure to give my attention to hear about what tragic thing most recently occurred, what shocking news that must be heard. These are more than distant voices – they are invasive. I have personally lost three friends to the tragic devastation of drugs and alcohol. Through prayer, I have felt the pain and desperation of those trapped in sex slavery. Even the alarm system on our home reminds me of the danger present just around the corner. I find myself living in a culture where I am tempted to be suspicious of everyone and trust no one. All of these things paint an awful picture of an ugly, fallen world – a world where my preoccupation with original sin causes me to forget original beauty.
In a recent meeting with a worship team from IHOP I reported an answer to our prayers for a town called Svay Pak in Cambodia. Fourteen young girls were rescued from traffickers shortly after two weeks of intense intercession. They now have an opportunity to be placed in a Christian recovery home to live and receive restorative ministry. This home has been very successful in their efforts because, by their own admonition, they recognize that Christ is the true healer. I began to share with our worship team, “…imagine where these girls will be under this type of care in 6 months, a year from now…” I was suddenly overcome with emotion and had to stop, tears welling up in my eyes. A very foreign emotion powerfully struck my heart – the feeling of beauty. I felt the beauty of God shine on me, the understanding of His ability to restore, His desire to give beauty for ashes, His pleasure in turning our mourning into dancing, our sorrow into joy. All the testimonies I had heard about the lives of so many young girls who have been rescued from sex slavery and restored through Christ began to flood my mind. I actually believed they could laugh again, dream again, dance, play, and just be children. I realized that I had become overwhelmed with evil, and that the experience of beauty had become totally foreign.
While heaven weeps, heaven also rejoices – continually. Because somewhere, somebody is finally surrendering their life to God, someone is experiencing the Father’s embrace for the first time, a young woman is being rescued from a brothel, someone’s innocence is being restored, a child is being born, a mother is nursing. In a world drowned in darkness, I must continually fix my eyes upon the Father who is ever bent over humanity with His arms open, patiently waiting and inviting us, His broken children, into His eternal embrace. He is the Father who has felt evil more deeply than we ever could, who has lost more children, cried more tears, and suffered more tragedy. He sees everything – nothing is kept secret from Him. Yet His beauty surrounds Him. He continually expresses Himself in hope, forgiveness, love, patience, care, compassion, tenderness, freedom, and life. He is “the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning.” He invites me to enter into His beauty, to be transformed by His glory, to embody His nature. Yet, I find it much easier to become cynical, a prophet of doom.
Henri Nouwen accurately defined the condition I am so tempted to embrace, “Cynics seek darkness wherever they go. They point always to approaching dangers, impure motives, and hidden schemes. They call trust naïve, care romantic, and forgiveness sentimental…They consider themselves realists who see reality for what it truly is and who are not deceived by ‘escapist emotions.’ But in belittling God’s joy, their darkness only calls forth more darkness.” As a prophet of doom “I try so hard in so many ways to convince others of how evil the evil really is. How intense the judgment will really be.”
We are not called to deny the darkness, but we are also not called to live in it, “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.” Overcoming evil with good challenges me to step beyond my propensity to be a prophet of doom, to becoming a prophet of beauty. While Isaiah fiercely confronted the social evils of his time, he was nevertheless a prophet of beauty. He dared to describe God as a Bridegroom rejoicing over His bride, as a Mother who will never forget Her child, and a Redeemer whose love drove Him to die an innocent death for the sake of the guilty. He saw the zeal of God to overcome evil by the power of His Spirit. He saw the God whose glory shines brightest in the midst of deep darkness.
Jesus was a prophet of beauty. Rather than find curious fascination in untimely death, He raised the dead. Rather than bemoan the plight of the hungry, He multiplied food for them. Rather than relegate issues of social justice to Human Rights organizations, He healed the brokenhearted, set the captives free, and delivered all who were oppressed by the devil. In the hour of His greatest crisis when He may have been tempted to turn cynical, to curse rather than bless, He cried out, “Father forgive them, they know not what they do.” He pointed the way home for all of humanity. Yes, He wept, but He also hoped, believed, and called forth beauty in the midst of darkness.
To be a prophet of beauty is first and foremost to see beauty. I am not called to be curiously fascinated by darkness – I am called to overcome it. I am not called to exploit this world – I am called to save it. A prophet of beauty sees the light in the midst of darkness and dares to trust that that light is true and speaks greater volumes than the darkness that surrounds it. A prophet of beauty moves from suspicion, despair, and “realism,” to faith, hope, and love – moves from intercession to restoration. There are many prophets of doom, but few prophets of beauty. Moses asked God to show him His glory. The Lord then made His “goodness” pass before him. David said he would have “lost heart” had he not seen “the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.” I am asking God to show me His beauty in all of its manifestations, that I might also become a prophet of beauty – one who is sustained not by self-righteous zeal and heroism but a fascination with the glory of God which empowers me to see beyond the ashes to the beauty, beyond the mourning to the dancing, beyond the sorrow to the joy.
Benji Nolot, 3/13/2008
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