Peaceful Purpose

Spiritual Training Cycle: Connection (wk. 4/13)

Reading: Isaiah 52:7-10

Everyone wants to know what their purpose is in life. As a tree is meant to provide oxygen, as the sun is meant to give warmth, as a giggling toddler is meant to share laughter, we are all on a pursuit to find purpose and meaning in our own lives. Our pursuit for purpose won’t be truly realized until we find salvation. Salvation is the work God does to move us from death to life. And when you find salvation, it brings with it a new state of peace.

The biblical understanding of peace is wholeness or bringing together what’s broken. For salvation to be true we must first understand what it is that needs to be restored in our lives in order for us to find peace. When we have peace, we can live according to the purpose we were made for.

Think of this in terms of mobility. I never in my life thought I needed to go to a chiropractor until I started weightlifting. My fitness journey had already come with its share of bumps and bruises, but I thought that was just part of the process. I didn’t know I needed help until one eventful workout called Murph.

If you don’t know what Murph is, you should read more about the story. The workout itself is basically made up of a large volume of pull-ups, push-ups, squats, and the best part of all, running. After that day, I literally could not move my arms (I also decided to wear a weight vest for the first time in a long time which didn’t do me any better). That’s when I knew I needed help.

A week later, I decided to go see a chiropractor a friend recommended to me. After our first session, he brought back most of the mobility I had lost in my arms and my shoulder. Since then, we’ve worked together to bring back mobility in my hips and my knees. I was a complete wreck and didn’t know it! Going to a chiropractor monthly greatly improved my weightlifting and helped me to become injury free. Salvation had come to my body, and I was finally at peace.

Salvation came through recognizing the problem, finding the help I needed, and aligning my body back to the function it was meant for. The truth about the spiritual mobility in our lives is that we often don’t realize we need salvation until we are in pain. And even then, we wait until things get worse to start addressing our issues.

It could be the pain of a strained relationship, the pain of poor work/life balance, or the pain of feeling distant from God and hopeless in our current situation. Salvation in Jesus is like mobility for our soul!

The book of Isiah highlights the nation of Israel’s need for salvation after they turned from the Lord their God. God’s plan for salvation was to restore the relationship that was broken between them. The hope was that one day God would send a Servant whose coming would be the arrival of peace, not only restoring the relationship of God and Israel, but restoring us all back to God. He would carry with Him the peace we were purposed for but fail to grasp on our own.

Just as our relationships weren’t meant to serve us but to serve others, and our work wasn’t meant to fulfill us but reflect a life fulfilled by God, our lives weren’t meant to be without God’s peace of salvation. Jesus is the Servant King who gives us His peace so we can have peace with God. A life that is saved is a life lived on purpose with the purpose of knowing the peace we have with God and revealing that peace to the world.

We need not look any further for our purpose in life. Salvation has already come to the world to bring us back to the wholeness we were made for. Salvation is found in Jesus. And His salvation brings a peace we all want but so many have yet to find.

Questions for Reflection:

Where do you need God’s peace in your life?

How do you know if you’re living into God’s purpose for your life or not?

The Gift

Spiritual Training Cycle: Connection (wk. 3/13)

Reading: Ephesians 2:1-10

The offer shouldn’t have been extended Shortly after getting married, my wife and I moved to Portland where I attended graduate school. Rex was one of my classmates. In addition to struggling through our studies together, Rex and I played some pick-up sports that first year. Toward the end of the school year, Rex asked me if I would be interested in coaching at a local inner-city school in the fall.

At that time, Franklin High was a run-down school with declining enrollment, high drop-out rates, and a host of other problems. The school was challenged to keep teachers at the end of the day for coaching. To address this problem, the district set aside funds for outside coaches – Rex had been an assistant for a year or two, and they were looking for another coach. That fall I joined the coaching staff as the Franklin Quakers’ JV offensive coordinator.

Unqualified The true conundrum about my coaching position? I never played organized football. Not youth football. Not high-school football. Definitely not college football. While I played sports when I was growing up, they were always rec-league games, and I was typically one of the last picks for a football game or the 6th man on the basketball team. I was never a great athlete. If Franklin was looking for someone to elevate their program, this coaching position was a gift I definitely didn’t deserve.

Indeed, the first year I coached at Franklin, I basically just managed to stay a day ahead of the athletes. I learned on Monday how to lead the drills we were doing on Tuesday, etc. And we remained a bad team. We finished my first year with 2 wins and 7 losses: a typical year for Franklin. (We were the team other schools invited to homecoming - we were an easy win for them!)

Making the most of it But we got better. My second year I moved up from JV to varsity. I worked hard to make the most of it, and worked with some exceptional new coaches who were committed to doing their best. Fast-forward three years to my final year coaching: Franklin went 7-2 and made the state playoffs – we turned the program around! And it changed forever my view of myself: this gift of an undeserved coaching position impacted how I viewed myself as a leader and as an athlete.

By Grace through Faith In his letter to followers of Jesus in the city of Ephesus, Paul reminded them of the free gift they were given by God. Salvation – being made right with God – is never earned by our good works.

“But God, being rich in mercy because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ – by grace you have been saved.” “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing, it is the gift of God.” — Ephesians 2:4,5,8

Our works follow God’s work In the same way I was unqualified to coach, none of us are qualified for God’s grace. This misunderstanding about earning God’s grace vs. simply receiving it has confused many well-meaning people for thousands of years. Paul makes it very clear: our works don’t earn us God’s salvation – He offers it to us as a gift.

Any good I accomplished at Franklin was in response to the opportunity I’d been given. In the same way, followers of Jesus need to understand; their relationship to God is based on His gift, not their efforts. Any work they accomplish on God’s behalf is in grateful response to the gift He gave them.

Questions for Reflection:

When have you received a gift that you totally didn’t deserve? How did that make you feel? How did you respond?

Where are you regarding God’s gift of salvation: his no-strings-attached offer to make things right between the two of you through the death and resurrection of Jesus?

In light of all the good things God has given you, how can you give back to Him as a “thank you” for His grace?

Understanding Output

Spiritual Training Cycle: Connection (wk. 2/13)

Reading: Romans 6:15-23

In my adult life, I had never been a runner. For a decade, I focused solely on making my body as muscular as possible. Athletic performance was not a primary focus. Or even a secondary focus. Cardio machines? No thanks, treadmills kill gains. But when all the gyms closed in 2020, sidewalks, however, were available. I was forced to choose a new challenge, so I started my first half marathon prep. I weighed 255 lbs. and my pace was impossibly slow. Every stride felt awful. If my knees were going to survive, I had to relearn how to run. This kind of output would make my half marathon slower than even the worst full marathon runner. I had to break down the process of running if I was going to improve. By analyzing my output, I could deconstruct the ways to get better.

In our physical fitness, analyzing our output is usually the first step in determining our faults. If our output is not ideal, we must break up the exercise. When we deconstruct an exercise, we look at the fundamental components and techniques. With my running, I started with these fundamentals: posture, head position, cadence, stride length, “foot strike”, and core engagement. By looking at each part individually, I was able to develop more strength in specific areas.

Our spiritual output is also based on the structure of fundamental components. I reflect on the output of my life before I developed a relationship with God. I think about how unstable my life felt. Analyzing the output of my actions showed me how spiritually dead I was. My relationships weren’t healthy, my time alone didn’t reflect my values, and my self-worth relied heavily on external praise. Looking at the output of my life showed me that there were spiritual components I was lacking and even failing altogether. I needed to get spiritually stronger. Getting spiritually stronger required me to deconstruct what it meant to live righteously.

Getting spiritually stronger required me to deconstruct what it meant to live righteously.

What I needed first was salvation. Salvation is the work God does to move us from death to life. Salvation is the route to greater spiritual output, which we refer to as righteousness. By understanding salvation, we can deconstruct what it means to live righteously. The Apostle Paul provides a framework which teaches us the path to righteousness.

Romans 6:15-16 says, “What then? Are we to sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness?”

Then later in Romans 6:22-23, “But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Paul is saying that the output of a life of sin is death, or eternal separation from God. But the output of receiving salvation is righteousness and eternal life with God. These are the structures or components of our salvation: faith, receiving grace, identifying and removing sin, obeying God’s word, then moving forward in righteousness. A weakness in any of these structures can lead to a decrease in our spiritual output. Righteousness is the output of building up strength in each of these components.

Analyzing the output of our running stride gives us a look at the weak components. Analyzing the output of our spiritual life gives us an understanding of the need for salvation in order to move forward in righteousness. If there is no salvation, then all attempts to live a rich and satisfying life will fall short. When we move forward in faith and receive grace we are no longer separated from God. Spiritual everlasting life comes from God’s saving grace through Jesus.

Questions for Reflection:

What does righteousness look like for you?

What are some of the outputs of your life that aren’t rooted in righteousness?