The Things we Often Skip

Sometimes, in our familiarity with certain passages of Scripture, we miss out on an important part of it. I had that happen with me recently.

Almost all of Philippians 4:4-7 is familiar to us. It's quoted often in many different situations.

Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! Let your graciousness be known to everyone. The Lord is near. Don't worry about anything, but in everything, through prayer and petition with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your heats and minds in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 4:4-7, CSB)

But, we often actually only use verses 4 and 6-7 when we quote it. For some reason, we skip over verse 5. We read the first part about rejoicing in the Lord and then we jump to the part about not worrying. But, in the part we skip, are four words that why it is possible for us to rejoice always and why we don't need to worry.

The Lord is near.

All of this is possible because God is right there. He is near. His closeness is the reason for us to rejoice always. We can count on Him and that is reason to celebrate.

We can also let go of our worries because He is near. We're not praying to a distant God and asking Him to take our worries; we literally get to hand then over to a God Who is right there. He takes them directly from us.

We can pray with thanksgiving because God is there. His presence, His nearness, means that if we take even a moment to look for His activity in our lives, we will see it. And it can result in gratitude.

We also experience His peace because He is right there. It is His presence that changes everything. He peace isn't something we have to try to manufacture. We experience it because of His nearness in the midst of all circumstances.

You may have noticed that I've actually still skipped a part of verse 5 in what I've said. We often skip this part of the verse too. I wanted to start with what we commonly talk about and how it ties together with part we easily skip over, but this doesn't mean the first part of verse 5 doesn't also fit in with what I'm saying.

Verse 5 says, "Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near." Gentleness is not something that comes naturally to us, or even is generally valued or encouraged by our society. The only way we can live it is to be dependent on God's presence with us, empowering us to live out our gentleness in a world that doesn't value it.

The Lord is near.

Really, in many ways, the four most important words in this passage. Yet, part that we too often skip in our focus on what else is said in this passage. They're words we cannot continue to skip, because they are key to understanding and living out all that these verses contain.

An Important Decision for Me

One of the most important decisions I've made happened sitting in my bedroom in the house I grew up shortly before my 20th birthday.

Maybe that sounds a little dramatic . . . One of the most important decisions??? Really?

When I think about it, I don't see those words as being dramatic. I can't think of any other way I would put it. The decision I made at that time was and still is one of the most important I've made.

What was that decision?

The decision to go to Briercrest.

I was getting close to the end of my second year at business studies at a local college. For the most part things seemed to be going pretty well in my life . . . at least to anyone who saw me. I was in my classes. I was at church most weeks. I was involved with the young adults group at my church.

But, on the inside I was wrestling with a lot of questions and the answers from people at school were beginning to sound more appealing than what I'd heard in church all my life. That last semester had not been going as well as I was trying to make it look, and I had made some choices that I desperately wanted to hide from anyone who knew me.

I knew I needed a change. I was starting down a path I wasn't really sure I wanted to continue on, and I wasn't sure how I would change it if I stayed in the same place as I was. That's where Briercrest was appealing. I could go there and still finish my business degree.

And that's the decision I made that night. I started the application process.

And 5 months later, I was pulling into the parking lot of a school in what seemed like the middle-of-nowhere in Saskatchewan. I really had no idea what to expect from any of that year, or the second year that I spent there.

But, looking back, and seeing the way that decision has shaped who I am and how I live my life, it is still one of the most important I've ever made. I learned more about the Bible, theology, and God there than I've learned in 35 years of being in church. I made friends who are still important in my life today. I grew spiritually in ways I couldn't have imagined. And I had more fun living in community with people than I have in any other environment.

It's been a little more than 15 years since I graduated. Everything about that time has been a part of making me who I am today - of shaping how I do my job and how I serve in my church. I don't regret one minute about the time I spent there, or the money I spent to be there.

Obviously, there are decisions you could say are more important than this one. There are, I don't deny that. But, I also know that, as a part of making me who I am today, it was incredibly important. I can't say where I'd be if I had stayed where I was and finished my business degree at the local college. I still could have ended up where I am today, but the path would have looked different. I'm grateful for the way mine went and wouldn't have changed it for anything.

This is what I do know . . . if you ask me if you should go to Briercrest or another Bible college, I won't hesitate to say yes. I'll even go so far as to say that everyone should go if it's at all possible.

Looking Close

Last week, I shared a post about looking for God in the midst of the hard times. I kind of wish I could write in this post, that I'm past the place I was when I wrote that post, but that's not true. I'm still in the middle of the time. And I'm being challenged with what I wrote.

Am I seeing the beauty of God in the midst of something that's still unresolved?

It's a lot harder than I wish it was. I wish it was something that begins to come naturally when we decide we're going to. But, it's not. It's still something we have to do every moment as we walk through the hard times.

Last night at a Bible study I'm part of we were talking about John 15 where Jesus says He is the true vine and we are the branches. In John 15:2, Jesus talks about us being pruned so that we can be even more fruitful. In the teaching last night, Lysa TerKeurst (the author of the study we've been doing, Finding I Am), talked about how a grape vine is pruned.

The prune a grape vine, the gardener has to get really close to the branch being pruned. It's not something done from a distance. It's something close and intimate.

As I've thought about it more, I've come to the conclusion that we often miss God in the midst of the hard times, because we're looking too far away for where He is. He's close in those hard times. And if we're looking in the distance, we miss Him, because we look right past where He is.

And so I'm learning in the midst of my own hard time to look closer when I look for God. To stop looking for Him in the distance and realize He's right there with me in the midst of it.