The Tip of the Scepter

"Now it happened on the third day," the ancient Eastern story goes, "that Esther put on her royal robes and stood in the inner court of the king's palace."

Chances are you are very familiar with the story. You know what has transpired up to this point. You know that Esther's life (certainly), and the lives of her family (most probably), and even the future of her entire nation (quite possibly), hang in the balance. You know that it is unlawful to enter the king's presence without an invitation, and that there is only one punishment: death. Unless, of course, the king extends the royal scepter.

Remember the moment you stood on the edge. That moment on the bridge, or the ledge or the edge of the cliff. It takes your breath away. Your body backs away of its own volition. Your stomach is in your throat. Maybe you didn't physically stand on the edge; you were on a different edge. The car hydroplaning or sliding on ice. Or any of a thousand other situations where danger is imminent.

Esther felt it. She walked right to the edge. Then she stepped off. The Bible does not say how Esther felt at that moment, but I have tried to imagine it many times.

There is no way to know for sure, but I do know how Esther felt when the king extended the royal scepter to her. I know what Esther felt as she walked across the throne room, as she looked into the eyes of the king and placed her hand on the tip of the scepter. I know because I have felt it too. I too have known the sentence of death for breaking the law. I too stood condemned, no recourse and no appeal. No hope save one, the favor of the King. I know the relief, the overwhelming joy, the gratitude from the deepest part of the soul, the desire to express something for which there are no words.

I know because I too have touched the tip of the scepter.

The King of Heaven has extended the royal scepter to us in Jesus Christ. Sometimes when my life is busy and my mind becomes consumed with other things, I do not remember. But I remember now. I am so very thankful to God for His love and His grace to me. So freely given, at such great cost to Himself, how can I not give my life to Him and live for Him each day? There is only one refreshing, and everything else is a picture of it. Come with me this morning to say thank you again. Come with me today to touch the tip of His scepter.

Wait for it...

Dark house. The only sounds I hear are a few crickets outside and the occasional random sounds of a coffeemaker that just got done. There is something about the early morning, a sense of expectancy for the day. Maybe our hearts know the dawn is just on the way.

Refreshing. Renewal. The dawn. A new day. Here in the dark and the quiet, I am waiting for it all to happen. Waiting and watching. Hoping. Expecting. Believing.

Sometimes our hearts need a moment with no external demands. Sometimes the heart needs to just be. It is a way of acknowledging God. I embrace humility, quietly seeking God's face.

Waiting, if done right, has good results. "Wait upon the Lord," Isaiah said, "and you will renew your strength." I am waiting to see His goodness. He will renew my strength. A new dawn impends... what does this new day hold? I wait to see what the Lord will do for me.

Beauty on a stick

I'm still thinking about refreshing. I was recently on a trip which was thankfully refreshing. I was outdoors a lot in a wild and beautiful place. Being in touch with nature does something very good for the soul. It is refreshing to view God's handiwork on display, to stop and reflect that our days are few and the only things that really matter have a lot to do with how I treat others. It is refreshing to come to the end of the day exhausted with honest effort and to appreciate God's handiwork displayed in you. It is good to lay down the accumulated cares of the day, and to never take them up again.

One thing that struck me as I was away from my daily routine: I and the members of my party took a lot of pictures. The setting was visually stunning - towering mountains, rushing waters channeled by boulders and cliffs, alpine meadows, forests with wild flowers and fauna. (Including wild trout. I am happy to say I saw a lot of wild trout, but not all of them were as happy to see me.) All recorded with the touch of a button, immediately saved on my camera's memory stick. As I thought about it, I came to realize something deeper was going on.

More than the impressive visual display, we were trying to capture the moment. I didn't so much want to record the view as to record the feeling the view created in me. I wanted to capture the beauty, and I wanted to experience again (when looking at the picture later) the feelings that beauty stirred deep within me. I wanted the beauty on a stick (ok, my camera's memory stick) so I could take it out and feel that feeling again and again and again.

Sounds kind of funny when I say it like that, being so open about something so private. I guess that's the power of a blog. You can bare your soul to another without looking into their eyes. God's creation is a masterly display. Our souls respond to beauty. True beauty refreshes. It's like our eyes have taken something in and, having communicated everything they have seen, they tell us that there are truths they comprehend beyond this material world. In honest and quiet moments we can hear our hearts agree.

All longing for beauty, and all longing for refreshing, are echoes of our hearts crying out for God.

The Big Three

The most famous Christian thinker must be a man named Paul. Paul was not content to simply mull things over, he was a man of action. He had concluded that the early followers of The Way were not only wrong but a danger to his society. He actively opposed their belief and way of life, working diligently to stop them.



Paul tells about an experience he had which changed his life and caused him to reconsider everything he believed. As Paul tells it, Jesus appeared to him in a blinding light. Ironic, isn't it, that as Paul's physical sight was taken away his spiritual eyes were opened. He later wrote: "To be physically minded is death, to be spiritually minded is life and peace."



Paul taught about Christian virtues, finishing with the big 3: faith, hope, and love. As I've considered what he said, and about the life of Jesus, here is how I think about these big three.


Hope sees it



Faith grabs it



Love gives it away

Lord, may I grow in these virtues. May I become more like Jesus.

Create it again

Sometimes you have the luxury (as I think of it, though many would disagree) of focusing on one thing at a time. Personally, I really enjoy it when you're doing something and get into the zone. You know what I mean, that place of concentration where you have pushed past the distractions and your whole self is focused on _______.

Fill in the blank with the objective of the moment - making the putt, finishing the painting, printing the tax return (ok, maybe not that), presenting your dry fly so well that a wild trout actually believes it's a bug instead of a feather-covered hook on a string.

Think about that last example. Of course it is more fun when you actually catch the fish. And that's the part everyone asks you about. But that's the external part, the physical part, the measurable result. Losing yourself in the pursuit of the goal is in some ways more deeply refreshing than attaining the goal. (So is the true refreshing the art of thinking about something other than myself? My pastor might say yes - I need to think about that part some more.)

When we think of refreshing, we tend to think of recreation. Recreation certainly is important, most would agree. After all just look at the word. Re-create, or literally, "to create again". Nothing wrong with refreshing the body, ought to be done. Probably much more often than most of us actually do it.

But I think God has been better to us than we realize. True refreshing is available all around us, every day. We don't have to go anywhere or buy any equipment or tickets. Refreshing has more to do with attitude, reorienting our internal equilibrium. An important part of refreshing of mind and of spirit, for me at least, is somehow tied to concentration. Getting to the level of focus that alters my experience of time. All of a sudden you come back to earth and realize you don't know what time it is because you have been so focused on _______. You're not sure if it has been 3 minutes or 30. To me, this brings refreshing.

The best is when our whole body, and mind, and spirit are unified in the chase. This is the ultimate place of refreshing. Interesting that God's word teaches us to live every moment like this, fully focused on loving God with everything that we are.

I would like to think about this some more, and truthfully have enjoyed the earliest moments of the day here by myself. It has been refreshing. The house is dark and I have a steaming mug of coffee. But upstairs I hear 2 year old Jack, out of bed early and embracing the day. My moments of focused concentration at an end, it is time to focus on the needs of others. Let me take this refreshing and share it with others today. Time to lay down my own agenda, time to embrace my son.

Lookin' good

This morning I'm thinking about Jesus. Not a bad place to start. Jesus is such a paradox. Fully God, yet he laid it all down. Our natural tendency is to constantly strive and work, trying to grow, to increase, to get more, have more, be more. Jesus had it all, and He laid it all down. That constantly challenges me.

Apparently it challenged Luke as well. Luke was a doctor, well-educated and presumably in the upper class of his time. Somehow Luke's attention got arrested by Jesus. Whatever plans Luke had for himself evaporated like steam from the tea kettle. Our own strivings are like that- lots of heat and energy, insides boiling, making lots of noise and demanding attention from others. But it all just evaporates as soon as it's out the door. No lasting results, nothing of value produced.

Luke records a dinner conversation Jesus had with some up and comers (Luke 11), Pharisees and experts in the law. These were good people to know. They were like Senate staffers today- maybe not the people making the speech, but the people writing the speech. Some of these people will be making the speech soon. Important people. People you would want to impress.

Jesus did make an impression on them. His words have made an impression on me. He scolded them and corrected them. These people loved to give it out, but it stung them to be on the sharp end of the stick. Jesus pointed out that they majored on things other people notice but left their own hearts untouched. They gave a tenth of their herb gardens to God but, Jesus said, neglected justice and love.

Here's what gets me: "You should have practiced the latter without leaving the former undone." Imagine this- you're riding in the front seat, your friend is driving. Suddenly you notice that your friend is no longer checking the road but has her nose glued to the dash board, completely focused on the speedometer. What are you doing?? "I don't want to go over the speed limit." Jesus was saying, "Hey guys, you're only watching the speedometer but you're about to drive into a bridge!"

"Keeping the rules" is fine and necessary, absolutely ought to get done. But it is the result, the by-product of a heart on fire. These guys were doing it because it was required to advance, because it would hurt their cause to be seen as not doing it. They were practicing only those things that others would notice. Jesus challenged them give their heart and attention, their full energies - to practice - something much deeper.

All too easy to focus only on those things that make us look good. Esse quam videre.

What grows?

"What you give attention to grows."

Not today, but years ago in the early morning I heard these words whispered in my heart. I began to consider, wondering about experiences I have had which would either confirm or deny the proposition. The more I considered, the more settled I became that they are true.

Is our own experience important? Absolutely. But there is a higher measurement.

The Bible says what we give our attention to is very important. Our internal state is to a great extent governed by where our attention is directed. "Stop listening to instruction, my son, and you will stray from the words of knowledge." Proverbs 19:27. Our financial affairs will flourish or fail based on the attention we give them. "Be sure you know the condition of your flocks, give careful attention to your herds..." Proverbs 27:23

The apostle Peter considered attention one of the most important aspects of ministry. He learned ministry from paying close attention to Jesus, devoting years of his life to be with Him. Give attention to Acts 3: "And fixing his eyes on him, Peter said, 'Look at us.' So he gave them his attention..." Then "all the people saw him walking and praising God.

Consider: (1) Peter focused laserlike attention on the man he was ministering to; (2) Peter commanded the attention of the man he wanted to touch; (3) others paid attention to the miracle.

What commands our attention today? Is that something I really want to grow in my life?

Attention is the sun, our thoughts the plants. What we give attention to grows.