The motive?

As a pastor it’s pretty common for me to talk to someone who has come to me to confess a sin or some kind of ongoing struggle. There are often tears as he or she admits the truth. I know it’s a difficult and humbling thing to do, because I’ve been there as well. But one of the questions I’ve learned to ask is, “Are you confessing this to me because you got caught?” That is almost always the case.”—AHA Student Edition electronic edition

<idle musing>
Ouch! If that is the case, then is the confession one that leads to repentance and new life? or does it just assuage the conscience? I suspect that in most cases it is the latter...that's why we have repeat offenders—I would say it is cheap grace, a license to sin even.

That's the final excerpt from this book. I highly recommend it; as I've said multiple times, reading it has answered my long-time question of why some people repeatedly run through the same cycle of awakening but never really break free. In my experience it is usually step three—do something now that is the stumbling block.
</idle musing>

Regret?

There’s a big difference between regret and repentance—the actual turning away from our wrongs. Too often we have an awakening and regret the way things have turned out—but we won’t turn away from our part in it. We hate that someone found out. We regret that we’ve been caught. But we’d still rather deceive people and cover things up instead of fessing up to the truth.—AHA Student Edition electronic edition

<idle musing>
Yep! That about sums it up...
</idle musing>

Step 2

But if we try to get away from honesty, we will short-circuit any real change that AHA may bring. When there’s recognition but no repentance, AHA doesn’t happen. The awakening must lead to honesty.—AHA Student Edition electronic edition

<idle musing>
This is step 2 in making AHA moments stick. You can't/won't repent of something when you minimize it. You have to see it as it really is—as God sees it—in order to repent of it.
</idle musing>

The wake-up call

Have you had some moments like this with the truth? You realize something you have never realized before, and it wakes you up.

You realize you’ve been trying to live a Christian life through your own power and strength rather than through the power of the Holy Spirit.

You realize you weren’t actually following Jesus—you were just following a list of rules.—AHA Student Edition electronic edition

The social factor

I am pleading with you to come to your senses. There’s a storm brewing, and there is no time to waste. Don’t fool yourself into thinking that those closest to you will be able to escape the devastation of your storm. Your journey to the Distant Country doesn’t affect just you; it affects all those who share life with you.

When Jonah ran from God, the sailors were terrified. Their lives were at risk. Jonah’s running led to the near destruction of the people around him.—AHA Student Edition electronic edition

Always pursuing us

Both sons were in the wrong, and it was really their responsibility to seek out the father. The younger son did, and the father was waiting. As soon as he could see his son on the horizon, he ran to him. He didn’t sit back and wait. He didn’t make his son sweat out each last step. He didn’t posture himself as most patriarchs would have back then, full of pride and indignant about any disrespect. No, he ran to his son.

And when the older brother was in the field, the father left the celebration to find him. He engaged his son even when he didn’t have to.

What do both of these interactions tell.—AHA Student Edition electronic edition

<idle musing>
As Augustine said, the Holy Spirit is the hound of heaven (I know, this post is about the Father!). And I praise God that he is still pursuing me—despite my many stupid, selfish mistakes/sins...
</idle musing>

What are you portraying?

Jesus knows that most people base what they think about God on His representatives. In that day, people viewed God based on how the Pharisees and teachers lived and behaved. Think about it: Our interactions with employees shape our view of a company. I mean, if you walk into Target and a sales representative is rude and cusses at you, you’re not going to be happy. You might complain to him personally, but more likely, you or your parents are going to say, “I’d like to speak to the manager, please.”

That’s what’s behind Jesus’s challenge to these Pharisees. These older brothers lived and worked in the Father’s house. They told the people how to follow the Father. Jesus knew the people were looking to them as a reference point of what the Father is like. And He knew there were a lot of older brothers totally misrepresenting the heart of God. (There still are.) These older bros were portraying God as a Father who is unreasonable, unpleasable, uncaring, and unmerciful. And it’s often the older brothers’ portrayal of God that sends prodigals to the Distant Country in the first place.

But that’s not the kind of Father Jesus described.—AHA Student Edition electronic edition

It covers us all

The Pharisees listening to Jesus were about to learn what they had forgotten—and what we often forget: the followers of Jesus aren’t on earth to assign blame; we’re here to free the trapped, bandage the wounded, help the hurting, and celebrate homecomings.

AHA.

But the older son didn’t get it. He stayed angry and offended, despite his father’s pleas. This older bro may have worked hard and faithfully tended the fields, but he was lost in his father’s house.

There was no awakening.

There was no honesty.

There was no action.

The truth is, he, too, was a prodigal son. He, too, had a heart that was far from his father. He, too, was lost—but he didn’t see it. Pastor Tim Keller puts it this way: 'The bad son was lost in his badness, but the good son was lost in his goodness.’—AHA Student Edition electronic edition

Who's the subject of the sentence?

We think, It’s too late now. I don’t have time to get cleaned up. I don’t have time to get my life together. But it’s not too late—the Father wants you just the way you are. When you finally act, your heavenly Father comes running with arms wide open. He loves you just as you are, but He doesn’t leave you that way. He puts His best robe on your dirty body. He puts the family ring on your hand. He kills the fattened calf.

Meat was a rare delicacy during Jesus’s time. It might get served at a party, but nothing was more extravagant than killing a fat calf.

Do you see how quickly the focus of the story shifts from the action of the son to the action of the father? We make the story all about us, and it feels too late. But the story is really about the Father. And it’s never too late.—AHA Student Edition electronic edition

Hang it up! There's not a chance...

A spirit of defeatism can be expected if everything depends on us. If it’s up to our actions to save ourselves, then, yeah, it’s too late—way too late. A spirit of defeatism comes because we don’t accurately take into account how the Father will respond when we come home.—AHA Student Edition electronic edition

<idle musing>
Amen to that! This is not a self-help book! This is a "obey the Lord and he will live it through you" book. It is all about the presence of the Holy Spirit convicting (the AHA moment), enlightening (the brutally honest moment), and empowering (the obedience step). If you carry through with the second and third steps, God will transform you...and watch the subject of those sentences: it's always God.
</idle musing>

Right now!

If there’s an awakening and you come to your senses and you know something needs to be done and you think to yourself, "Tomorrow I will…" or, "Next week I’m going to…," that’s not the Holy Spirit. This was actually an awakening for me a few years ago, an AHA moment that came as I studied the Bible. I came to the startling realization that the Holy Spirit always says today. He never says tomorrow.—AHA Student Edition electronic edition

Two-thirds isn't the point

When our AHA experience finds its fulfillment in immediate action, Jesus is ultimately glorified. Most of the non-Christians you know are probably aware of what you say and believe. And I bet they would say that most Christians don’t experience AHA; they just experience AH. But if Jesus is really in our lives and His Spirit is truly inside us, that should make the difference between AH and AHA.—AHA Student Edition electronic edition

<idle musing>
Wesley used to say that he pitied the religious man—he had enough of God that he couldn't enjoy sin, but not enough of God that he could enjoy God. I would say that sums up the person who settles for AH instead of AHA...
</idle musing>

KISS

The son’s plan of action wasn’t complicated. It was pretty simple. Get up, go home, talk to his father. He didn’t plan a pit stop to get cleaned up. He didn’t plan a way to earn a little money so he wasn’t going home broke. He didn’t complicate the plan with any unnecessary steps.

Keeping it simple can be hard for us. But when you try to tie up every possible loose end, you just end up frustrated and convinced you need to work harder at the solution instead of actually reaching the solution. Sometimes we need a simple—not perfect—plan of action to cut through the knots.”—AHA Student Edition electronic edition

Good advice

[W]hile it may sound a little cold or trite, the truth is we need to obey God even when we don’t feel like it. When we obey God even without feeling motivated, eventually our feelings will catch up with our actions.—AHA Student Edition electronic edition

Yep!

Don’t miss this: our passive approach to the action God has called us to shows that we care about something else more than we care about Him.—AHA Student Edition electronic edition

Thinking of doing ≠ actually doing

Here’s something I’ve learned: we sometimes get stuck between honesty and action because we confuse our feelings with actually doing something. We trick ourselves. We believe that because we feel differently about something, we are actually doing something—even though we haven’t actually done anything yet. So we spend our lives with good intentions and strong feelings, but we never actually get around to leaving the pigpen.—AHA Student Edition electronic edition

<idle musing>
I've seen this many times over the years in various people—and I've been there myself far too many times! Lord, don't let us settle for thinking about acting instead of acting! Light a holy fire under our butts!
</idle musing>

Step 3

Maybe this is a helpful picture: Think of AHA as a door that swings on three hinges. The first hinge is a sudden awakening. The second hinge is brutal honesty. The third and final hinge is immediate action.

In Jesus’s parable of the prodigal son, there’s a simple phrase that changes the story: “So he got up …” (Luke 15:20).

The Prodigal Son took immediate action. He saw that it was time to get up. It was time to do something. And unless our stories read, “So he got up” or “So she got up,” then nothing really changes. But this is where AHA stalls out for so many of us. We have an awakening moment. We even find the strength to be brutally honest. But we never get around to actually doing anything different. We spend much of our lives stuck between honesty and action.—AHA Student Edition electronic edition

<idle musing>
As I've said before, this 3-step view lines up with the reality that I've seen in dealing with people. The second step is difficult, but the third step seems to be the real stumbling block...If you can get people to actually act on the conviction that God placed on their hearts, most of the time the awakening sticks.

Lord, soften our hearts; enable us to be honest with ourselves and others. And then don't guve us reast until we act on what you have laid on our hearts!
</idle musing>

Facing reality

Denial is refusing to acknowledge the reality of a situation.

Projection is acknowledging the reality of the situation but denying any responsibility.

Minimization is acknowledging the reality of the situation and even owning responsibility for it—but denying its seriousness.

Instead of being brutally honest, we tell ourselves half-truths that we can feel better about. “It’s not that bad” is the favorite saying of minimization.—AHA Student Edition electronic edition

<idle musing>
And if we minimize it, or deny responsibility, or deny its reality, there is no way we can ever be delivered from it. It it doesn't really exist, then we are OK, right? Right?

Really, God, how can you be so insistent that we need deliverance. I mean, come on, we're only human, right? Right? I mean, what's a little sin here and there? It can't be that bad, can it? Can it?

So goes the logic. The logic that will keep us entrapped in our blindness and sin. Bring it to the light! Let it be burned away by the light of God's power and love. Let him embrace you in his freeing and purifying holy love!
</idle musing>

The buck stops...over there!

“God rarely gets credit when things are going well, but He often gets the blame when times are tough.”—AHA Student Edition electronic edition

Step two

“Our society is expert in blaming others for our own stupid choices. Instead of being brutally honest with ourselves, most of us want to place the blame on someone else. The word for this is projection. Denial is refusing to admit the reality of an unpleasant fact, but projection is admitting reality without taking responsibility. We just blame someone else.”—AHA Student Edition electronic edition

<idle musing>
This is step two of making an "AHA" moment stick in our lives. You can see the other two steps here.
</idle musing>