Hi, my friends,
It’s been an eventful week, filled with reunions, heart conversations, cultural complexity, and, unexpectedly, a form of public shaming. I’ve been embarrassed in public before, that’s for sure. At times through no fault of my own. (I remember proudly wearing new shoes to a high school music night, only to have them slip out from under me, seeing me dive head-first down the stairs. Yup! It happened.) At other times it was from my own stupidity. (“No thanks, I don’t need those,” I said to the woman handing out glasses as I stood in line for a 3-D movie back in the days when this technology was revolutionary. What exactly did I expect to watch the movie with? My sister and cousin laughed long and hard, causing others to join in.) But rarely has it come in a way where I was publicly diminished.
Do I grow angry at the offence? Do I harden my heart? Or do I have the wisdom to discern what to overlook, the humility to not be offended, the grace to quickly forgive? Am I asking God the Spirit to reveal my part in this confusing scenario as I seek to identify with those for whom this is the norm?
It reminded me of the need to continue sifting the responses of my heart and mind - our hearts and minds - before the Lord so that His way emerges and our reactions submit to honouring Jesus.
Monthly Musings: Prayerful Sifting
Growing up as a TCK in the Philippines, we didn’t buy flour and rice, pour it into a container and leave it be. There was always a process of sifting through the rice for small stones and the flour for weevils. We would pluck them out, throwing them aside, ensuring that the rice or flour came away clean and ready to use.
Picture: Nagaland, India
Sifting need not be just a practical or physical exercise. It can, perhaps should, also be a spiritual practice.
What do I mean by this?
You know those times when you are surprised by the thought that skips across your mind, or the emotion that rises to the surface of your heart? Those times when you seem to react rather than respond to a situation? When the circumstance overwhelms you and causes you to stop seeing the fullness of who God is in that particular moment with those particular people? Those times that leave you wondering if you will ever truly look like Jesus?
I remember, years ago now, when a colleague and I were asked to present to a small team of people. They were running late and so I popped my head in to see how they were going. Soon, the team leader said, followed by a few minutes of joking banter. Twenty minutes later they were still at it. My colleague came over to collect me, which I thought meant we had been called, and together we appeared at the door where they were meeting. Not yet, the team leader said, this time with some annoyance. I returned to my desk. The next thing I knew the team leader was behind me. I stood up to see what was going on and he erupted, shouting in my face. How dare I disrespect him before his team? And on he went. I was startled, to say the least. It was a disproportionate response to what happened, and he was shouting at me but not at my male colleague. But even in that moment I wondered, what is really going on with him? What is really emerging right now?
It is easy for us as busy people, busy leaders, busy ministers of the gospel to brush those moments aside and keep going. But is that the best response when we think about growing as wholehearted followers of Christ, even if the moment isn’t quite as heated as the one I just shared? Instead, we can practice the spiritual discipline of prayerful sifting.
“Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting” the Psalmist cries in Psalm 139:23-24.
By opening ourselves up to the examination of the Spirit and welcoming His insight, we can:
Prayerfully sift through our ungodly behaviours and ask why we reacted in that particular way
Prayerfully sift through our emotions and explore their root cause
Prayerfully sift through those errant thoughts and ask where they came from
When we do this, we can have the deeper, more meaningful conversation with God that we need to have, plucking out the stones and weevils in our lives and asking our Father to leave behind unmarred and healthy rice and flour, so to speak, that feeds others in life-giving ways. This prayerful sifting leads us, as God-followers, to live out the great story of Jesus in not just what we do, but in how we do it. Who we are bears gospel witness.
SPCK News
Oh my goodness! What is happening? I wanted to share with you about Form, which is the formation arm of SPCK, but that will have to wait. Because… when I did a search for Form, I found that Shaped by the Spirit is on the SPCK website.
Just to clarify, this is a promo teaser to build awareness about the book. It won’t be released until May 16th, 2024, so you can’t order it quite yet. (But THANK YOU to those who asked and tried to order.)
Have a look!
We are still finalising the book cover, hence the blank box, but oh, this is so exciting, and real, and… just so fun! Ha, ha! I’ll let you know when they are receiving pre-orders. Thanks for celebrating with me!
Hooray for book news! And I really appreciate your word picture about sifting--such a good reminder to both look at myself and why I respond the way I do, but also to think what might be the root as to why another person acts the way he or she does.