Drew Anderson - Jeremiah's Vow

The Sirens Of Busyness

The Sirens of Busyness are singing.

Can you hear them?

I can. Very clearly.

[If you don’t remember much from Greek mythology, you likely remember the imagery of the Sirens.

Half-birds, half beautiful maidens, the Sirens were singing enchantresses capable of luring passing sailors to their islands, and, subsequently, to their doom. Daughters of the river god Achelous and a Muse, they were fated to die if anyone should survive their singing. When Odysseus passed them by unharmed, they hurled themselves into the sea and were drowned. You can read more about them here.]

In our culture, and in many other cultures, “busyness” is worn with like a badge. It’s celebrated as an achievement. It’s complained about as “the cross we must bear.” It’s worshipped like a god.

And this past year, first with the quarantine and then with the continued impact of the pandemic, we saw just how much of a god busyness has become.

People felt lost without their packed schedules.

Anxiety set in when there was so much time suddenly available. Many felt like they had to just do something. Anything.

And this quest to remain busy, merely revealed a god we had long been worshipping.

Even above The God.

Maybe you call this god by a different name than “Busy.”

Maybe you call it “Normal.”

Let me confess, that I worshipped at the altar of this god alongside most of you. That why I know it so well. Because this god had become my god too.

And I can hear the Sirens of this god calling back out to me again.

It’s like an enchanting echo. Calling out to me to come back.

And yet, I know what it leads to. The pandemic exposed it for me. Maybe it did for you too?

Anxiety.

Shallowness.

Vanity.

Stress.

Weariness.

Whether we want to admit it or not, the answers we seek for the deep longing in our soul will not be solved by going back to this god.

Going back to busyness.

Going back to “normal.”

How do I know? Because I did. For a couple weeks. About a month ago.

I had a 2 week stretch that “felt” like life before the pandemic.

Breakneck pace.

Laundry list of things to do.

Public attention for what was being done.

It was as if my soul was screaming the whole time: STOP. But I couldn’t. I had already been drawn into the rocks.

If this pandemic has taught me nothing else, it has taught me that our culturally accepted “pace of life” rarely ever matches up with Jesus’ pace of life for me.

It’s certainly not that all of life should be slow.

But I can also say it’s definitely not the opposite as well.

There’s a rhythm to how Jesus lived his life and desires for us to live ours. And for too long we’ve ignored it. We’ve simply opted for the culturally acceptable path of least resistance: busy.

But Jesus has a better plan than busy.

It’s called abundant.

This abundant life is a life of balance. Of boundaries. Of boldness.

And if we want to recover it, it will require a fight. It won’t merely come easily at first. It will require silencing the voices of the sirens.

It will require Sabbath.

Not a day of laziness.

Not a day of “church activity.”

Not a day of catching up on chores.

Not a day of hobbies.

Not a day of “prepping for the week.”

A day of rest. Truly finding rest for our souls. Resting in the presence of God.

A day of relationships. Truly relating on a soul level. Relationships with others who are also resting in the presence of God.

A day of re-creation. Truly re-setting ourselves to the rhythms of God’s creation. Re-centering our lives within the will of God.

A day of remembering. Truly reminding ourselves who God is, who we are in Him, who He desires us to be, and how we are fully satisfied only in Him. Retelling the stories God’s people and the stories of God’s work in our lives today.

I can hear the Sirens of busyness singing: Come back.
But I can feel the Spirit of the living God urging: Come home.
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I can hear the Sirens of busyness singing: Come back.

But I can feel the Spirit of the living God urging: Come home.

The god of busyness will not satisfy. Because like all false gods, it cannot deliver the abundant life it allures me to believe it can.

Only God can do that.

Only God will do that.

And I can only begin to experience it as I begin each week as God designed: with Sabbath.

“and wherever you go, there you are.”

Here’s the longer quote from Thomas á Kempis:

“No one feels in his heart what Christ felt in his Passion, except the person who suffers as he did. So, the cross is always ready and waits for you everywhere. You cannot escape it no matter where you run, for wherever you go, you are burdened with yourself, and wherever you go, there you are. Look up, look down; look out, look in. Everywhere you will find the cross, and you must endure patiently if you wish to have inner peace and gain eternal life.”
The Imitation of Christ

This quote reflects a fascinating challenge in the modern age of “self-awareness.”

Or really faux-self-awareness, if we’re honest – as too many have become only self-aware enough to explain away, justify, or mask their flaws.

Self-awareness is vital in Christian maturity. But it is not an end in itself (like it can become for the world around us).

The end for Christians is becoming like Jesus. And so we must take another path alongside the quest for self-awareness (at the very same time really), and that’s the road of self-crucifixion.

We can only die to ourselves when we actually know ourselves. Ironic isn’t is?

Many people have been taught to live very well within the façade of an idealized false self. Unfortunately, religion can many times cause people to become entrenched in that false self even more if they aren’t careful.

It looks like presenting a version of oneself to the world that isn’t completely true. It’s modified. Typically enhanced or exaggerated. And unfortunately something people can get so used to presenting that they lose themselves completely in it, and usually require a jolting of sorts to finally deal with the reality of who they have become…

For the Christian, our calling is to become fully aware of ourselves (the good, the bad, the ugly) and to own those aspects of who we are, so that we might be able to crucify the things in our humanity that must give way if Jesus is going to take precedent in our lives.

And this practice of self-awareness requires us to be fully present.

Right where we are.

With who we are.

In view of those around us.

Which is where the quote comes into play:

“and wherever you go, there you are.”

Sounds very profound, doesn’t it?

Yet, ironically, it is very simple.

Simple, and yet very hard to live out.

Why? Because we are experts at distracting ourselves from being fully present.

With work.

With TV.

With music.

With social media.

With hobbies.

With vacations.

With religious entertainment even.

The list is endless of that which we can use to perpetuate distracting ourselves from who we are so that we can go on pretending we are the false self we’ve become accustomed to.

Popularity.

Money.

Power.

Titles.

And more only make it harder in this process as well.

But we chase after such things. Not even realizing that what can be seen as a blessing externally can internally quickly become a curse.

Those things can cause us to puff up our false self and thicken the barrier to genuine self-awareness, which keeps us from truly being present.

And what changes when we become fully present? We can become fully aware of God’s presence with us.

And what changes when we become fully present? We can become fully aware of God’s presence with us.
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Which allows us to be tuned into the Spirit.

Which allows us to become more like Jesus.

Without disciplining ourselves to be present, we will find ourselves merely participating in the grind of life.

Reacting.

Pressing.

Crashing.

That’s pretty much the cycle of an unfulfilling life, isn’t it?

I’ve lived it.

Maybe you have too.

Maybe you still are…

We can choose to keep running the race of life like most of the world around us. Burning ourselves out and burning thru relationships with those around us.

Or, we could look to the life of Jesus for another way.

A better way.

The way we were created to live.

An eternal life full of inner peace.

But the only way to get there is the pursuit of being fully present.

And that only comes as the stream of self-awareness and the stream of self-crucifixion merge into the river of life that Jesus has been offering us this whole time.

I Am Deeply Hurt. And I Am Very Angry.

A reflection on how I’ve experienced God dealing with evil, inspired by Hosea’s experience with God in Hosea 1.

I am deeply hurt. And I am very angry.

The results of evil I see in this world stir these emotions in me.

Initially I just see the evil the other has caused. I can’t believe how a person who calls themselves by God’s name could do such things.

But quickly I realize what’s also there is the shame of the evil I’ve overlooked.

It’s not one or the other. It’s both.

The hurt. The anger. It’s resulting from all of it.

They failed me. They failed us. They failed God!

But I’ve also failed.

So it’s all wrapped up together as I immediately call out to God: What are you going to do about this? How can this be?

I want to look away from the evil. It’s too much to bear. The devastation it has caused me. The destruction that has been caused to so many.

God, I want you to deal with it.

But He directs me to turn my face toward it. To see what has been done. To feel what has been caused.

He is asking me to deal openly with the evil in front of me.

The evil of unfaithfulness.

The evil of lives ruined.

The evil of withholding love.

The evil of broken trust.

Why God? Why must I know these evils? Why must we experience them firsthand? Why would I willingly allow myself to enter into such difficulty?

And then He gently shows me. The wounds. His wounds. How the evil that’s been done has wounded him.

And He reminds me that it’s in the shared hurt. It’s in the shared anger toward the evil. It’s in the shared wounding. That healing can be found.

And He reminds me that it’s in the shared hurt. It’s in the shared anger toward the evil. It’s in the shared wounding. That healing can be found.
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It’s in that space. In the aftermath of the destruction. In the complete awareness of evil. That He can rebuild. That He can restore.

That He can construct what was always meant to be.

Oneness.

Belonging.

Intimacy.

It’s there. Where transparency is the only way forward. Where integrity is the only thing that matters. Where sacrificial love is the only power someone wields.

It’s there. Where God will bring beauty from the ashes. Where God will bring order to the chaos. Where God will make me whole in the midst of my brokenness.

I am deeply hurt. And I am very angry.

But in sharing in our woundedness together, I am healed.

Commentary:

In recent years, we’ve continued to see the public failures of popular Christian leaders. And we see the path of destruction it leaves.

This is how it typically goes: A leader has a charismatic personality and tons of gifting. God seems to use them in impactful ways and tons of people start to “follow them” or look to them. An organization is started around them, mostly by those who are looking to this leader to continue to be the one used by God.

So a two-sided complex emerges. The leader begins to see themselves thru the eyes of their followers (as the person God works thru). And the followers (sometimes board members and employees of the organization as well) begin to treat the leader as having a different level of relationship with God.

The Deceiver sneaks into this and convinces the leader to do evil. The leader is eventually “found out” and may even be confronted. But usually they deny the evil, sometimes play the role of the victim, and then crucify those who come against them. And the destruction that the evil causes is widespread. To all those involved.

But it’s not just happening in contexts with well-known leaders. My story includes this same sort of thing happening in a small church I served in. I was an employee who challenged the inappropriate behavior of the leader. My wife and I were crucified for it. The leader’s “followers” defended him (most of the board were followers). We soon had to leave, terribly wounded. Later things would come to light that were far worse than what we even could have imagined. And we will always wonder if they could have been stopped if someone just would have listened.

I almost walked away from ministry because of this experience. It was devastating. And I honestly understand when people walk away from church altogether because of them. I get it. I really do.

So when these recent situations come up, I’ve begun to realize that I re-live all of the emotions of what I went thru all over again. All of the personal hurt. All of the anger toward the leader. All of the distrust toward the ones around the leader. All of the not understanding where God is. All of the pain for those who are the victims of the horrendous evil.

Over time God has shown me that though I will not be able to escape the evils of this world, He can in a miraculous way use what was meant for evil to accomplish some sort of good (as in the story of Joseph in Genesis). It doesn’t take away the pain caused by the evil. The scars are still there. But the wounds can be healed.

And that happens when I enter into the wounds that evil has actually cause Him, me, and others. God himself has been wounded. And it’s thru His own wounding that God begins to rebuild what was always His purpose: people filled with love for one another.

The good God can bring is genuine love for one another as we recognize our own brokenness (both by the evil we’ve caused and the evil that’s been caused to us), and lean into the miraculous love He has shown us by taking all of that upon Himself.

This sort of thing is only experienced among people who fully surrender to God’s plan as they turn from their own participation in evil -via transparency and owning their own personal sin – and the receiving of love from those around them who are reciprocating that same level of surrender.

My hope in sharing my own struggles with these things is that maybe someone else will also find healing in the midst of the deep hurt and anger.

Give Us Ears To Hear Ep. 4 – Toxic Relationships

In this conversation we are talking about the cultural phrase “toxic relationships.” It’s something that we hear used and something maybe you have used – but have we thought about what it actually applies to and what it doesn’t? If you’d like to continue the conversation, leave a comment or send a message. I would love to hear from you!

My hope is not to condemn people in how they’ve used the phrase. But to simply reorient ourselves to how we can take seriously the unhealthy things in our life while at the same time looking to live like Jesus. Check out the video:

Give Us Ears To Hear Ep. 4 - Toxic Relationships

In The Pain, God Is There

A reflection on how I’ve experienced God meeting with me, inspired by Elijah’s experience with God in 1 Kings 19:8-18.

I feel alone sometimes.

At times it feels like wandering.

Other times it feels like running for my life.

On the outside I can accomplish something big for God. People see it. God shows up. It proves my faith. Right?

Except on the inside I’m still not sure where He is when the big thing is over. Will I still be alone? Wandering? Running for my life?

And so I hide. From others. But mostly from God.

But then He comes and invites me to meet with Him.

And so I go to meet Him where I think He will be: in the big church event. The band. The choir. The singing. The preaching. The altar. It’s the place where people come to meet with God. Right?

But that’s not where He wants to meet with me.

And so I go to meet Him where I think He might be next: in the conference, the concert, the retreat. All the people. The unique setting. The exciting or heavy emotions. This is where big things happen in my life for God. Right?

But that’s not where He wants to meet with me.

And so I go to meet Him where He’s surely got to be: in the mission trip, the outreach, the doing. That’s where people need me. That’s where important things are accomplished. This is where God wants to work in big ways thru me. Right?

But that’s not where He wants to meet with me.

And so I’m unsure where He wants to meet with me.

Then the pain comes: death, sickness, loss, broken relationship, anger, anxiety, confusion, loneliness.

And in the pain. A voice. His voice. Quietly speaking:

You

are

not

alone,

I AM

here.

So this is where He wants to meet with me.

This is where He wants to speak to me.

This is where He wants to tune my heart to His.

In the stillness of my pain.

I was so busy looking to meet with Him in all the places I was told He would be. All the places I knew He should be. All the places outside of my pain.

But He was waiting. To meet with me. Right where I was. Right in the midst of my life. Right in the middle of my pain.

But He was waiting. To meet with me. Right where I was. Right in the midst of my life. Right in the middle of my pain.
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Commentary:

I am not saying God has not “shown up” in my life, or doesn’t show up in people’s lives, at things like church events and retreats. I’m saying I never understood what truly being with God (and more accurate what God truly being with me) was like until I finally experienced Him meeting me right where I was at. It has been my experience that many of us go looking for God “out there,” instead of experiencing Him being with us “here” – right where we are.

I spent so much of my young adult life “looking for God in all the wrong places” (if I can play off a popular music lyric). I’m not sure it was taught to me more than caught. But I had grown up believing God was out there somewhere. In the religious experiences. In the displays of worship. Even in the miracles or on the “mission field.” I would have never said such a thing theologically. But practically it’s how I lived.

And then something shifted. Years ago really. But this COVID season has solidified it in a way that is actually changing my life.

It’s the very truth of the incarnation: He is not out there. He is right here.

With me. With us. Right where we are.

In our homes. In our workplaces. In our schools.

In the store. In the hospital. In the counseling session.

In our playing sports. In our vacations. In our gathering with friends.

And once I found Him here with me, it didn’t change the pain. The pain was still there. But I didn’t feel alone in the pain anymore. And I didn’t run from the pain anymore. Because God met with me in the pain.

You are not alone. God is with you.

He wants to meet with you in the pain.

Give Us Ears To Hear Ep. 3 – Jeremiah 29:11

In this conversation we are talking about Jeremiah 29:11, and how we must listen & learn to what God has to say thru a Scripture that may have lost some of its power as its been popularly applied. If you’d like to continue the conversation, leave a comment or send a message. I would love to hear from you!

My hope is not to “rain on anyone’s parade” in how they’ve used the verse or the verse has been shared with them. But to simply reorient ourselves to what God was saying to His people thru it at that time, and then what He could be saying to us. Check out the video:

Give Us Ears To Hear Ep. 3 - Jeremiah 29:11

Give us ears to hear Ep. 2 – Racial Reconciliation

In this conversation we are talking about racial reconciliation, and how we must listen & learn when it comes to issues of differences. If you’d like to continue the conversation, leave a comment or send a message. I would love to hear from you!

You will hear about a few of my thoughts on racial reconciliation, as well as how to base the entire conversation in relationships. In my years of working toward multiethnic ministries and working again racial injustice (specifically within church contexts) I have seen that the greatest key to successfully navigating this conversation is listening and empathy. May we grow in those areas as we seek the good of our communities and our world. Check out the video:

Give Us Ears To Hear Ep. 2 - Racial Reconciliation

Give us ears to hear – 2 Chronicles 7:14

This is the first conversation of the Give Us Ears To Hear series.

In this episode we are listening to what God has to say thru 2 Chronicles 7:14 and learning to pay attention to context and to ask questions.

Please comment or message me, and share it with others, to keep the conversation going as we walk thru this series!

Give Us Ears To Hear Ep. 1 - 2 Chronicles 7:14

Give us ears to hear – An introduction

This will be a video series about listening – both listening to God and others – and learning to think reflectively – both about Scripture and culture. This is meant to be an on-going virtual conversation, so please interact with each video whether it’s through comments or direct messages. Others will likely join me along the way in the videos to have conversations with me, and the goal is really that we might have ears to hear what God is saying to us in our lives and in our world today.

Here is the introduction video:

Calm Down and Shut Up, Listen and Live.

Stressed, depressed, busy, angry, anxious, tired.

I bet you identify with one or all of those, or have gone in and out of them for the last 6 months. I have.

And in the last month God has clearly spoken similar words to my soul as the brother of Jesus wrote in James 1:19-27…except this is how I heard it: Calm Down and Shut Up, Listen and Live.

This is how James says it:

19-21 Post this at all the intersections, dear friends: Lead with your ears, follow up with your tongue, and let anger straggle along in the rear. God’s righteousness doesn’t grow from human anger. So throw all spoiled virtue and cancerous evil in the garbage. In simple humility, let our gardener, God, landscape you with the Word, making a salvation-garden of your life.
22-24 Don’t fool yourself into thinking that you are a listener when you are anything but, letting the Word go in one ear and out the other. Act on what you hear! Those who hear and don’t act are like those who glance in the mirror, walk away, and two minutes later have no idea who they are, what they look like.
25 But whoever catches a glimpse of the revealed counsel of God—the free life!—even out of the corner of his eye, and sticks with it, is no distracted scatterbrain but a man or woman of action. That person will find delight and affirmation in the action.
26-27 Anyone who sets himself up as “religious” by talking a good game is self-deceived. This kind of religion is hot air and only hot air. Real religion, the kind that passes muster before God the Father, is this: Reach out to the homeless and loveless in their plight, and guard against corruption from the godless world.
[The Message Paraphrase]

I’m not sure what you gather from those passages, but for me it boils down to 2 essential rhythms: Listen & Live it out.

Seems simple enough, right? Except it obviously isn’t as evidenced by the roller coaster of our spiritual lives that COVID has revealed.

Our Lives Need To Be Broken

One thing I have realized during this time is that the gardening and farming analogies used by Scripture are very intentional. In order to have the “good soil” of healthy rhythms in your life, the “hard soil” you’ve likely created (or at least allowed to form) needs to be broken up…

And that starts with the first 2 things I heard: Calm Down (both your emotions and your schedule) and Shut Up (both your mouth and your mind).

Many Christians simply go throughout our weeks trading the busyness of one thing (maybe work) for the busyness of another (likely kids activities), the distraction of one thing (likely social media) for the distraction of another (maybe sports), and the consumerism of one thing (usually materialism for most Americans) for the consumerism of another (usually a religiosity that touts itself as Christianity but really looks only partially like Christ).

What COVID has revealed is a disturbingly ugly truth about many Christians in America: we actually live very little like Jesus did.

Jesus was calm and never hurried. Jesus listened and had compassion.

We are anxious & stressed and always in a hurry for one reason or another. We can’t stop long enough to actually listen, let alone have compassion.

Many in the American Church seem to be worried about many things today, mostly concerning COVID: masks, whether the numbers are accurate, gathering in person, government overreach, and so on.

And while those are not unimportant things, they are certainly not the better portion. The better portion is what Jesus said Mary chose – sitting at Jesus’ feet as a disciple – when Martha was worried about so much (Luke 10:42).

Rebuilding Our Lives To Look Like Jesus

If COVID was a test, I’d say the American Church has widely failed it if I had to be honest. I’d say most have still missed what Jesus has been trying to say, because we haven’t really sat at His feet. We’ve been afraid (of the disease or of the economy) and we’ve been rushing to get back to some semblance normal (which clearly wasn’t working anyways).

What if Jesus wanted to use COVID to get us to Calm Down and Shut Up, Listen and Live like He lived? To change the rhythms of our lives and our churches which continue to produce rampant spiritual and relational immaturity? To make us more compassionate, more connected, more Christlike?

There’s a line in one of my recent favorite songs: “So don’t tell me God is silent when your Bible is closed.” [“Enough” by Social Club Misfits]

Have you been listening to God? Are you even stopping long enough to?

Or are your thoughts and your actions keeping you so busy you can’t hear Him? Are social media and the voices of others creating so much noise that you can’t even hear His voice?

Maybe we’ve missed the opportunity to hear from God. Or maybe the opportunity is still here.

For us to learn to listen.

Listen to Jesus.

Not to ourselves.

Not to others.

Just to Jesus.

Will you Calm Down and Shut Up, Listen and Live like Jesus?

Listening Is An Intentional Act

So go ahead and make plans to do it. Not a “one off” period of listening. But a consistent, daily (throughout the day) & weekly rhythm of stopping your busyness, resting in His presence, calming your mind, and slowing down long enough to actually hear His voice.

Make these rhythms a priority in your life, but especially in this season more than they’ve ever been.

Listen in the morning, in the middle of your day, and in the evening.

Once a week, set aside a half day (or even better a whole day – a Sabbath), to listen more closely and with others.

Figure out simple ways you can hear from Him and live like Him: reading Scripture (alone and with others), spending time in prayer (alone and with others), recreating & eating (definitely with others), showing compassion toward those who are hurting by listening to them (definitely with others), and engaging in meeting the physical needs of those around you (also definitely with others).

It’s these rhythms of life that like a plow running through the ground will actually break up the hard soil that has been there. Plowing is intentional, it takes action, and its hard work. So will living in healthy ways during a season that could only harden you more, make you more busy, and make you less likely to listen (to anyone, let alone Jesus).

Calm down.

Shut up.

Listen.

Live.

It’s not just good advice. It’s how you will tend for your stressed, depressed, busy, angry, anxious, and/or tired soul.