Many of you know the name, Brother Lawrence. If you have not read his book The Practice of the Presence of God, you have probably heard a preacher or teacher speak of Brother Lawrence. He served in the kitchen of his monastery and said he experienced the presence of God as clearly in washing pots and pans as in the Blessed Sacrament. Though known as Brother Lawrence, his name was Nicholas Herman. He was born into a peasant family in Lorraine, France, in 1611. At the age of eighteen, he awakened to the presence of God in nature by gazing upon a bare tree in winter and thinking about its coming renewal. Later he became a professional soldier but was wounded and retired from the army; thereafter walking with a severe limp that troubled him throughout the rest of his life. Sometime later, he attempted living as a hermit, but failed at that. Then he joined the Carmelite Order in Paris. He was there as a lay brother, serving in the kitchen and as a cobbler. He is best known for the record of his conversations and writings entitled The Practice of the Presence of God. Like many others, Brother Lawrence entered a monastic order believing that he was giving up this world’s happiness to become a monk. He discovered a much deeper happiness than he had ever imagined. Reflecting on this turn of events, Brother Lawrence said to God: “You have outwitted me.”
Isn’t that a delightful phrase? “You have outwitted me.” What a testimony to the providence of God, the working of God’s grace in our lives and that’s what I want to talk about.
The providence of God is an ongoing theme of scripture, and is expressed in such a powerful way in the psalms. Listen to a portion of our text again—Psalm 37, verses 3-6:
“Trust in the Lord and do good; dwell in the land and enjoy safe pasture. Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the Lord; trust in him and he will do this: He will make your righteousness shine like the dawn, the justice of your cause like the noonday sun.”
The word “providence” comes from the same root as our word “provide.” The Christian view of reality asserts there is a power greater than our powers and that power is baptized in love. God’s providence is flavored by God’s grace. So, the Psalmist could be confident: “Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart.” And the apostle Paul could testify of his contentment no matter what his circumstances were. In the midst of plenty or want, whether hungry or well-fed, he affirmed, “I can do everything through him who gives me strength,” and he could assure the Philippians, “My God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus” (4:19). Our God will provide and care for us, and He does it often in surprising ways which makes us echo Brother Lawrence, “God, You have outwitted me.”
Let me share a personal testimony—a portion of which some of you have heard.
I came to be the president of Asbury Theological Seminary convinced that God was calling me. But I came kicking and screaming. It was not what I wanted to do. I was blissfully happy and my life was filled with meaning as a pastor. I didn’t want to give up preaching to the same people every Sunday, being present as pastor in the deepest, most significant times of people’s lives: births, baptisms, marriages, deaths. Besides, the church was growing. Our outreach ministry and mission in Memphis and around the world was expanding and increasing in effectiveness. I had a unique and popular TV/radio ministry called “Perceptions”—a sixty-second message responding to persons’ felt needs, providing encouragement, hope, and challenge. Because of “Perceptions,” I was known throughout the city and enjoyed the positive response of people far beyond my congregation. Hardly a day would pass without a specific affirming response to this special ministry. Not only did I not want to leave “my” congregation, I didn’t want to leave “my” city where twelve years as a pastor had been rich and rewarding. The cumulative influence of those years had given me a great platform for influence and ministry.
Along with that ministry, which was growing daily, and a congregation that challenged me, fed my soul, and gave meaning and indescribably joy, two of my adult children were living in Memphis. I didn’t want to leave them. For six months I struggled with the invitation of the seminary trustees to be their president. They were clear that they were being led by God. Why could I not discern this as God’s call? They were so sure.
I struggled. If this was God’s call, God was asking too much. Finally it came clear. How that clarity came is another story. It is enough to say I felt the job to be God’s will, and I was not pleased at all. I responded reluctantly, even grudgingly. I yielded, but without excitement, anticipation, or joy. My attitude was, “This is what I have to do.”
But you know—God outwitted me. The richness of my life in this community of learning, worship, and prayer is indescribable. Almost every week I have the privilege of hearing the witness of one of you who are passionately in love with Jesus and desirous of pleasing him. I know I am participating in a kingdom enterprise that is sending persons to the ends of the world to proclaim the gospel and spread scriptural holiness. I could not have imagined such joy and meaning as I have had during my tenure at Asbury. And I thought I was giving up something, sacrificing. God outwitted me.
Does the phrase evoke resonance, a response in your own mind and heart—God, “you have outwitted me.”? Think about it.
I.
First of all, the whole of His relationship to us and the expression of His life in the world is an outwitting dynamic: The creator of all that is, the Sovereign God of the universe has become flesh; He has revealed himself as a loving father.
God cannot be less than we are; he must be more. Our understanding is partial and dim, but we know at least that God is greater than we are. We grasp for analogies. Some people are artists, but God is the greatest artist. Some are wise, but He is wisdom itself. When we run out of analogies, we say that God is love, because love is the best thing we know. But then, how do we talk about the love of God? We are not likely to say God loves us like a lover, but rather, God loves us like a parent—like a mother or father. Romantic love is dazzling, but parental love wins the prize for endurance. When we have seen heroic love, it has most likely been the love of a parent for a wayward child. Parents love in the face of contempt; they give despite ingratitude; they keep vigil and hope despite rejection. If fallible humans can sometimes do this, God must do it more. And He does. He outwits us.
The founder of our seminary, Henry Clay Morrison, was a powerful preacher. He had a way of using imagination and painting pictures that gripped the minds of his hearers. He preached one sermon over and over again—a sermon on Abraham’s sacrifice of Isaac. In his imagination he told the story this way. God said to Abraham, “Take your son, your only son, Isaac, whom you love, and go to the region of Mariah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering…” (Genesis 22:2)
Morrison said, “When Abraham lifted that knife and was ready to put it into the person he loved the most—his life, his joy, his pride, his hope—only then did he hear a voice that said, ‘Don’t touch the lad.’
“At that point,” said Morrison, “I think I heard another conversation. “It was a conversation between the eternal Father and the eternal Son. The Son said, ‘Father, this is not the last time we’re coming to this mountaintop, is it?’
“And the Father said, ‘No, Son. In about 2000 years we’ll come back here.’”
‘And, Father, the next time we come to this mountaintop, it will not be one of them on the altar. It will be one of us, won’t it?’
“And the eternal Father said, ‘Yes, Son. The next time we come back, one of us will be on the altar.’
“’I will be the one, won’t I?” the Son asked.
“And the Father said, ‘That’s right.’
“’Father, when they’re ready to put the nails into my hands and the spear into my side, are you going to cry out, ‘Don’t touch the lad!?’
“’No, Son,’ the Father said, ‘We never ask them to do in symbol what we have not done in reality.”
God outwitted us. Instead of exacting payment from us—for all the sins that we commit and all of our going astray and all of our messing up in life—instead of exacting a payment from us—He pays the price. Julian of Norwich was on target when she made the fantastic claim that “it is God’s will that I see myself as much bound to Him in love, as if all that He hath done, He hath done for me alone.”
God outwits us—always. Think about it. God loves me so much that there is a place in God’s heart that only I can fill. Let the reality of that never be absent from your awareness. Say it with me: God loves me so much that there is a place in God’s heart that only I can fill. We can live in the freedom that forgiveness provides and in full awareness of grace when we remind ourselves that all that God has done in Christ on the cross, He has done for each one of us alone.
II.
That’s our salvation, but our salvation would be incomplete if we simply left it at God’s gracious forgiveness for our sin. God outwits us not only by accepting us where we are, but by not leaving us as we are. One of our ongoing failures is that we do not acknowledge our sin—our fallenness. We fail to take sin and its power seriously. Charles A. Spurgeon put it bluntly, “A man might as well hope to hold the north wind in the hollow of his hand as expect to control by his own strength those boisterous powers which dwell within his fallen nature.” (All of Grace, page 33). Spurgeon goes on to say:
Salvation would be a sadly incomplete affair if it did not deal with this part of our ruined estate. We want to be purified as well as pardoned. Justification without sanctification would not be salvation at all. It would call the leper clean, and leave him to die of his disease; it would forgive the rebellion and allow the rebel to remain an enemy to his king. It would remove the consequences but overlook the cause, and this would leave an endless and hopeless task before us. (All of Grace, page 34).
We must acknowledge and stay aware of our fallenness.
A second ongoing mistake is our failure to believe in the transforming power of the Holy Spirit. Again, God outwits us! We can’t change our own heart or cleanse our own nature, but God can.
There is a jolting word in the epistle to the Hebrews, Hebrews 12:15:
See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God…(NRSV)
What a challenging exhortation! Another translation has it, “See to it that no one misses the grace of God.”(NIV) That’s a shocking thought—that we might miss the grace of God. By our thoughtlessness, through our lethargy, because of our procrastination, we may not keep ourselves in the stream of God’s grace. But that is our fault and our responsibility. God is faithful. While we cannot, in our own power transform our fallen nature and reverse the direction of our desires, God can. To the degree that we are willing to yield ourselves to God’s transforming grace, God will outwit us. He will subdue and alter our nature, and continue giving us new life.
Again, let me share personally.
During the early sixties I had a shocking realization: I am as holy as I want to be. I was a young Methodist preacher in Mississippi, organizing pastor of a congregation that had known amazing growth and success. My involvement in the civil rights movement splintered the fellowship of that congregation. There was nothing radical about my involvement, but many folks in the church could not understand my commitment and participation. I couldn’t understand their lack of understanding. The gospel seemed clear.
The pressure, stress, and tension wore me out. I was physically, emotionally, and spiritually exhausted when I went to a retreat (a Christian ashram) led by the world-famous missionary-evangelist E. Stanley Jones. I will never forget going to the altar to have Brother Stanley “lay on hands” and pray for my healing. He knew my story, and as I knelt, he asked, “Do you want to be whole?” That was one of those sanctifying experiences of my life, changing the direction of my ministry. It was the beginning of my serious commitment and discipline to be alive in Christ—to allow Christ to minister through me, rather than a do-it-yourself struggle to minister for Christ.
Through the years I have changed the final word in Brother Stanley’s question, though the meaning is pretty much the same. I am constantly asking myself, “Do I want to be holy?” and constantly reminding myself that I am as holy as I want to be.
Do you get it—God outwits us! To the degree that we’re willing to yield ourselves to Him—to the transforming work of the Holy Spirit—He will subdue and alter our nature, and continue giving us new life. He not only outwits us by accepting us where we are but by not leaving us as we are.
III.
Let me express it just one other way. God’s grace is always sufficient, but He outwits us by giving us far more than we ask, think, or even imagine.
Karl Barth, the eminent theologian, once preached a sermon entitled “Six Words Are Enough.” His scripture text was, “My grace is sufficient for you” (2 Cor. 12:9). He said it was the briefest text he had ever preached on and added, “The wonderful spice of it lies in its brevity.” Then he gave this powerful testimony:
Some of you may have heard that in the last forty years I have written many books, some large. I will freely and frankly and gladly admit that these six words say much more and much better things than all the heaps of paper with which I have surrounded myself. They are enough—which cannot be said even remotely of my books. What may be good in my books can be at most that from afar they point to what these six words say. And when my books are long since outdated and forgotten, and every book in the world with them, these words will still shine with everlasting fullness: “My grace is sufficient for you.” (in Classics Devotional Bible, 1367)
Let me tell you about a person who has dramatically proven this is so. In September of 1998, as we began our school year, one of our students, Tanya Woodham, and her fiancé, Daryl, were in an accident. Daryl was killed; Tanya was injured and near death. She was hospitalized for weeks and in intense physical therapy after that. She returned to school and graduated in May 1999.
Two weeks before commencement day, we have Graduates Week at the seminary, with three chapel services. Our graduating students preach, and in each service there are two testimonies. In one of these services, Tanya gave her testimony. This is what she said:
“I came here three years ago to learn how to be a Christian counselor that I might help others. I had no idea what God would teach me. The last nine months have been my greatest teachers. It hasn’t been through a classroom lecture, a book, or a paper. It has been through life experience. In case there are those of you who aren’t aware, nine months ago I was involved in a car accident that almost took my life and did take the life of my fiancé, Daryl.
“As I struggled with what to say this morning, God told me that my life was a testimony of his grace. Everyone could see the miracle God performed on my body. Instead God wanted me to tell you about my heart and spirit. The following prayer is one that I believe God wants me to share with you.
Lord, you told me if I delighted myself in You, You would give me the desires of my heart (Ps. 37:4). Then why is my heart broken?
Lord, you told me that you would be near to those who have a broken and a contrite spirit (Ps. 34:18). Then why do I feel so alone?…
Life seems unfair and all I can do is ask, “Why?”…
I’ve been told that your ways are not my ways and your thoughts are not my thoughts (Isa.55:8).
I’ve been told that all things work for good (Rom. 8:28)…
But how can I trust when you allowed these struggles which have broken my heart in two?
It is so hard to trust.
But as I continue to look at Jesus’ life, I feel especially drawn to Him.
I feel that I understand some small piece of what suffering is all about and how much he must have really loved me.
And even though it is hard to trust and I’m sad and I’m angry, I know deep within me that one day my trust in God the Father will return greater than it was nine months ago. I long for that day when my faith under fire will be the strongest it has ever been.
But until then, I am unable to carry myself.
I need for you and your servants to have the trust for me.
(The Workbook on Keeping Company with the Saints, page 117)
She left it there—and left us there—to live with her honesty, her unwillingness to claim a “total victory” that was not yet hers. She was clear about the past that God had miraculously restored her broken body, and that God’s grace had been sufficient, sustaining her through the ordeal through which she had gone. Yet, the persistent and rending question Why was still slinking around the edge of her awareness, and challenging her confidence in God’s providence and grace.
With her permission I shared Tanya’s testimony in my book Keeping Company With the Saints. I sent her a copy when it was published. Let me share a portion of a letter she wrote:
Thank you so much for your kind letter and copy of your new workbook. I am so humbled that you were able to use my testimony. It is always encouraging to see how God can work evil for good.
Things are going well with me. Since my return to Alabama, God has opened so many doors for me to share His love, grace and healing power. I completed physical therapy in September 1999. In December 1999, I accepted a position as Director of Programs and Children’s Ministries at First United Methodist Church in Andalusia, Alabama. God has blessed me and given me many people with whom to minister.
I have also been writing a book about grief…specifically concerning my unique circumstances…
…God continues to bless and heal me with all His goodness. I am so very glad that Asbury was part of my healing journey.
Tanya has found that God’s grace is always sufficient, but He outwits us by giving us far more than we ask, think, or even imagine.
Students, God’s grace is sufficient:
§ for you as you plod through your studies here—wondering how you’re going to make it—are you going to be able to complete your work—support your family—maintain emotional balance. Will there be a place for you to serve when you graduate? Are you going to find a mate with whom to share your life and ministry?
God’s grace is sufficient, but more, God will outwit you. He will surprise you all along the way by giving you far more than you can ask, think, or even imagine.
Here is a word from Teresa of Avila that we need to hide in our hearts and claim on those dry days, when our way seems like a desert, when we feel empty and alone, and are wondering how we are going to make it: “Never fear that the Lord who invites us to drink of the fountain will allow us to die of thirst.” Let me say that again: “Never fear that the Lord who invites us to drink of the fountain will allow us to die of thirst.”
Rehearse what I’ve said. God outwits us.
One, the whole of His relationship to us and the expression of His life in the world is an outwitting dynamic.
Two, God outwits us not only by accepting us where we are, but by not leaving us as we are.
Three, God’s grace is always sufficient, but He outwits us by giving us far more than we can ask, think, or even imagine.
I close with the first lines of a poem that not only says the same thing, but suggests the stance that is to be ours for God to do His work in our lives. Interestingly, especially these days, the poem is by Rumi, a Muslim spiritual teacher of the 13th century:
He begins his poem, “Zero Circle” with these lines:
Be helpless, dumbfounded,
Unable to say yes or no.
Then a stretcher will come from grace
to gather us up.
--(Ten Poems to Change Your Life, page 43).
That’s enough to go on. More, that’s enough to be excited about, to live on the edge of surprise, know that God outwits us.