THE ipod challenge!!!!

What! It can not be so! You mean that I can not find my ipod...before I am boarding a 9 hour flight and before entering into a season of 6 month intensive and intrusive learning and ministry where personal space will already be little to none. Now....not being able to find my ipod almost is insult to injury...the only little device that allows me to plug into worship through music, to tune into God and tune out every other noise and person around (we all know how we “need” to do this at different points in the day – something we like to call “space” or “time to ourselves”.) And hey – when living in a community setting (I mean the only private space is a 1 X 1 room that houses the toilet!!) every buffer of personal space is welcomed and used as a tool to connect with Jesus and disconnect with people, even for an hour....to simulate solitary time and allow a vacuum of the Presence of God in a personal meeting space.


Yes, you might be thinking what God is thinking!! Ha ha ha ha...and He was letting me know some of His thoughts, as I was on the way to the airport and asking Him about this fiasco! Firstly, one of His thoughts was this : “Do I need to plug in an ipod to “tune out the rest of the world”? One of my classic crutches for using my ipod (let me clarify, I rarely use my ipod....mostly to connecting with Jesus in the midst of an airplane ride, to encourage sleep, in devotions and worship, on runs and walks at times...and you know...the rare occation to separate myself from the others around me that I might not “feel” like talking to and can’t physically get away from!) Back to the crutch - and it is this – to keep garbage from entering my ears. Most times, I would rather not hear the conversation my neighbours are having about the neighbour who does this and that....or the curse words exchanged in “normal” conversation that I am not a part of. I know my heart motive is pure, and as I write this is all starting to sound a bit like insulation.

Fire can’t start in a vacuum!

The next thought that God shared with me was relating to this very fact. God hears the just and the unjust. He has listened to every vile song, every curse riled against His own name, every degrading thing, every slander, every gossip, He HEARS IT ALL. Does He tune it out to regain His holiness? Does He need to keep His ears plugged with His own praises in order to do His mighty works in the heavens and earth? Nope – His holiness is settled in heaven, His heart is secure and fixed....and yet He is grieved, His heart breaks and He weeps and stirred to powerful love when He hears His creation entering into anything that is not faith. His compassion is the filter that takes sin and defilement and translates it into the burden of the Cross and the power of the resurrection that He is waiting to be received by every heart.

So....obviously, I can see Jesus probing my heart to teach me a lesson in this all. Admittedly, for convenience sake, I would really love to have my ipod with me...I mean – 6 months in different languages and cultures...some English solice of anointed worship at my fingertips seems greater than gold in this moment...and will seem as such a couple months into this thing!!

But there is a greater solice that the Lord is trying to open me up to receive. Jesus didn’t tote an ipod. He lived in constant fellowship with the Father – IN THE MIDST OF A PERVERSE AND SINFUL GENERATION. Jesus must have heard all kinds of ungodly conversations in passing, and we all know that He wasn’t afraid to be the light in those dark places. He lived in close community with the 12 disciples for 3 solid years. His “tune out” was the hidden place of prayer and the rest of the time it was the secret place of abiding in the Father’s presence and love by Holy Spirit’s constant help and presence.

This is it. This is the goal. This is the Father’s desire for me, for us. To not rely on anything but Him. So even an ipod, used for godly things, can become a crutch, and a means of disconnect from the very people God is desiring us to share deeper community with, even in the kaos of kosmos and defilement of the world. What would we do if faced without having the “normal” helps in our relationship with Jesus. We could call them conveniences, because they are that.

Take away my solitary place of prayer. Take away my “buffer” of personal space as manifested in my ipod. What will You find Lord?

My prayer in and through this learning time is that with or without the things and cultural expressions of worship and devotion there would remain ABIDING. You would remain, Jesus, constantly present and speaking and making holy. There would remain the love of God, burning deeply and passionately for Jesus and for others. There would remain heaven and earth and the two colliding through my life.

It’s time for the test!