Thursday Meditation - A Bethel Moment

A Bethel Moment

Genesis 28:10-19a

In society today, we hear the phrase, “a senior moment.”  This usually means we’ve forgotten something or someone as we get older year by year.  However, this is one type of moment in lie.  We’ve experience the “Ahha moments”, a sacred moment and regret moments.  Today we will look at Jacob’s Bethel Moment.

His moment is like ours; unplanned and unexpected in the places we’ve journeyed too.  We find ourselves going to a certain place to get away from daily life.  For Jacob he was on the run from his brother Esau, Genesis 27.  That’s a story for another day.  However, when we go to a certain place it is usually a place of rest and peace.  While there we experience glimpse, images and emotions we rarely experience during the hustle and bustle of our days.

Jacob’s Bethel Moment came in a dream.  For this to happen he was lying down, resting and unplugging his mind because he felt safe.  Although the rock with his pillow, he drifted into what we call REM (Rapid Eye Moment) sleep where he could dream 5 to 20 minutes.  He needed the rest and this may have been a familiar place for him. 

As Jacob slept he had vivid dreams and he remembered his dream.  So many times when we dream we barely remember them but there are those we remember and say to ourselves, “God are you for real?!”  Some dreams are so real that we will wake up in a cold sweat and panicking because some of our dreams are tragic.  As we stay on the happy path of dreams, Jacob woke up and was afraid because he may have never dreamed about an encounter with God like this.  He saw a vision and then God revealed his future.  Just as God has spoken to Jacob, God speaks to us and reveal to us our future. 

Jacobs dream gave him hope and peace.  He may have thought the place Luz was the reason he dreamed about the ladder to heaven and his conversation with God.  I would say it was the rest his body needed in order for God to speak with him and remember his Bethel moment.  We may not change the name of a place to have a Bethel Moment, but we can allow God to move us from rapid busy place to a place where we can say this is the House of God and this is the gate to heaven.

Prayer:  Dear God, as we sleep and even nap help us to dream of your images, give us ideas to help those who need help and stir our emotions so w hen we awake we will say this is the Lord’s doing. Amen.

Thursday Meditation - A Checklist Lifestyle

A Checklist Lifestyle
Luke 19:16-22

In life we've created a list for everything. We have a to do list, a bucket list, a wedding list, a list of traits and characteristics for our future spouse, a list of A or B schools and so forth to keep track of what we've accomplished in life.  These checklists can be soooo legalistic that if  we do not accomplish what is set out on the list many of us are devastated.  Often times my friends joke about my educational accomplishments and wanted to know if I was working on an educational checklist.  To be honest I had no intention obtaining the number of degrees I have because the school I wanted to go to didn't accept me.  At that point in life I dropped my checklist and recognized the value of education.

While preparing this meditation, I had to re-read the parable of the young rich ruler.  In the re-reading I recognized he was living a checklist lifestyle.  He told Jesus about all the laws he kept since his youth.  I wonder if he had a scroll to show Jesus what he had done over the years and what he did daily.  This young man was like most of us excited and joyful about his accomplishments.  Then the unthinkable happened, Jesus challenged his checklist life and asked him to give up all he had, what he has done and follow him. He was heartbroken.  Like this young man, we want to keep holding on to our checklist lifestyle so we can say look at what I've accomplished in life. He worked hard to follow the rules and wanted Jesus to be proud of him.

However, there are times in life when our checklist gets pushed to the side in order for the Holy Spirit to guide us and for us to do what God has called us to do.  We need to move away from checking off a list and running through life as a big to do list.  Life is more than a list of accomplishments.  Yes it is wonderful to have our names among the Who's Who's in life but wouldn't it be better to be unique instead of routine. Many of us want the routine things of life power, prestige and position at any cost.  This young ruler couldn't trade his routine life for one that was not on his checklist.  Let us be careful not to follow in this young man's footsteps.  He grieved because he was asked to give up all he had accomplished.  What have you accomplished in life to cause you to walk away from Jesus instead of following Him?

Prayer: God help us to move away from this checklist life and embrace the things we haven't imagined because it wasn't on our list of accomplishments.  Amen.