- When speaking with someone in crisis don't say you understand what they are going through or feeling because you don't. You can't get inside their head and feel what they are feeling. In fact, truth be known, they don't even know what they are feeling. Instead affirm your care and concern for them and express your sympathy at what they are going through.
- Don't try to explain why this tragedy has happened to the person in crisis because it is too soon to fully know and since you aren't God you don't truly understand why it happened. In particular don't ever say it was God's will that this or that person die, or live- you are not God and you don't fully understand what is or is not God's will. Plus there are dramatic spiritual implications to assigning death or life to God in crisis situations... The bottom line is sometimes we don't understand why something has happened. It may take years and years if ever to come to a better understanding of God's role in a crisis.
- Stay off the news! The worst thing you can do in a tragedy is to do an interview with the media. You will inevitably say something that is misunderstood because you or the person in crisis is in shock, the media will invariably change what you said to fit their agenda, and in years to come when you see yourself on the news it will bring flooding back the sorrow and pain that was felt for you or anyone around you.
- Let people talk but don't talk about how they feel, instead talk about facts. Where were you when the tragedy occurred? When did you learn about it? etc... Facts are pretty straight forward and the place to begin. Feelings are elusive and at the beginning of a crisis most people are in some form of shock.
Monday, December 17, 2012
How to Respond to People in Crisis
In 1999 I had a crash course in dealing with people in crisis when I was actively involved on scene with the Columbine High School shooting. The tragic shooting in Connecticut brings back way too memories but it also reminds me of the importance of sharing some of the things I learned.
Monday, December 10, 2012
The Alter
This past week I built two stone altesr on the stage that were used on Sunday morning December 9th during the morning worship assemblies. I love building stuff so about a month ago when Mark Howell asked me to build this alter I was excited. I began chewing on how to build it. Should it be cardboard? Styrofoam? A table with a table cloth?
After I thought and prayed about it for a while it struck me that this needs to be the real deal, it needs to be built out of stone. I did some research about alters from the Old Testament and looked at recreations of those alters and then started looking for stone. I had a limited budget so I was more than excited to find the 'clearance aisle' at a stone store at Kirkwood and Hwy 90. Clearance aisle at a stone store?! That's way better than any Black Friday sale but I digress.
I purchased 3800 pounds of stone for pennies on the dollar and started building the alters. Projects like this are fun because it exercises your brain. It's like a crossword puzzle that requires gloves and a weight belt. It took about 6 hours to put together and I fully spent a quarter of that time praying over the alters and the people who would use it on Sunday.
It's fascinating how there are some things that never occur to you unless you physically do something. Here are a few things that occurred to me in the process of building and using the alter:
Today we have the Holy Spirit dwelling in our hearts but even with the ever present Spirit it is good to have physical reminders of our commitment to God.
After I thought and prayed about it for a while it struck me that this needs to be the real deal, it needs to be built out of stone. I did some research about alters from the Old Testament and looked at recreations of those alters and then started looking for stone. I had a limited budget so I was more than excited to find the 'clearance aisle' at a stone store at Kirkwood and Hwy 90. Clearance aisle at a stone store?! That's way better than any Black Friday sale but I digress.
I purchased 3800 pounds of stone for pennies on the dollar and started building the alters. Projects like this are fun because it exercises your brain. It's like a crossword puzzle that requires gloves and a weight belt. It took about 6 hours to put together and I fully spent a quarter of that time praying over the alters and the people who would use it on Sunday.
It's fascinating how there are some things that never occur to you unless you physically do something. Here are a few things that occurred to me in the process of building and using the alter:
- In the Old Testament when God said to build an alter and sacrifice an animal I had always envisioned those people fretting over locating an animal to sacrifice. It had never occurred to me that they had to locate, move, chisel, arrange, take apart, rearrange, fine tune, and put back together a vast quantity of stone. My alter was hollow and smaller than Old Testament alters and still weighed 3800 pounds. Building an alter was a significant undertaking for God in the Old Testament.
- Everyone that leaned on the alter Sunday morning was marked with some of the white limestone dust. A number of people will continue to remember the alter as they run their clothes by the dry cleaner this week trying to explain why their clothes are covered with white powdery dust. In The Old Testament anyone who worshiped God at the alter likely had rock dust and blood on their clothes. They had a physical reminder of their commitment to God.
- The pile of rocks that was the alter is now in one of the lawns of the church building. In fact the way it is piled looks a bit like a crypt so the pile is going to move before too long. But it is significant to realize that alters, no matter where they were built in the Old Testament, would have been a long term reminder that someone had worshiped God there.
Today we have the Holy Spirit dwelling in our hearts but even with the ever present Spirit it is good to have physical reminders of our commitment to God.
Wednesday, December 5, 2012
It's Time to Panic Part 2
The first church I worked for after I finished my undergraduate degree almost 23 years ago had a number of interesting members who inspired me to make sure my life did not follow in their footsteps. One of these people was an older man who had lost his wife a few years earlier and now spent a great deal of time volunteering at the building. He gave a sizable amount to the church each year which helped a number of people overlook some of his oddities.
He had his own parking space under a covered drop off near the church office doors. I learned the hard way it was a bad idea for anyone else to park in his covered space. When an unsuspecting person did this he would park very close beside their car and bang his car door against the other car.
Since he was at the church building so much during the week he became the energy saving watchdog. If you were in the restroom it was best to take a flashlight. If you needed to make a copy on the Xerox machine you would need to allow an additional 4 minutes for the machine to warm up because he would not allow the machine to stay turned on between copies. He was known to turn off electric breakers to make sure everything was off. On more than one occasion I lost my data on the computer because I could not save to my floppy disk drive fast enough when I would hear him flipping all of the breakers off. He never understood the difference between a computer and a typewriter...
But the most odd thing I discovered about him was why he was alone. He and his wife were married sometime around World War 2 and they decided to never have children because they did not want to bring a child into such a messed up world. The day he told me this I was taken back and was not sure how to respond. In the subsequent years I have time and again chewed on the reasoning for his decision.
Without a doubt the world is imperfect and will be so until God brings this present age to a close and fully reveals his kingdom. We know that I John 5:19 tells us that this whole world is under the control of the evil one. But we also know that God and his forces are actively at work in this world. We know that throughout history God's people have lived by faith as can be powerfully seen in Hebrews 11. So the question becomes, do we trust God to take care of us in an imperfect world or do we panic?
People throughout history have reacted out of panic because they thought things were so bad that they could never get better. The Anasazi who built cliff dwellings in what is now southwestern Colorado are believed to have moved onto the cliff faces out of a perceived threat. At the end of World War 2 much of the population of an island in the Pacific jumped to their death because they believed when the United States liberated their island life would not be worth living.
A lifestyle characterized by panic ultimately misses the point of the Bible. God created the world, sin damaged the world separating us from God, and God began a plan involving his son to redeem all of creation. This damaged world is not our destiny, it is simply our journey. Our destiny is with God. God will bring this present age ruled by sin to an end. We will be resurrected with new bodies just like Jesus was resurrected. We will live on a redeemed and restored earth able to literally walk with God. The kingdom of God glimpsed when Jesus walked the earth will become the norm. There will be no more pain, no more suffering, no more crying, no more sadness, no more hunger.
There is no need to live a life of panic because we can live expectantly with the hope we have of resurrection and eternal life. We can live with confidence if we have received God's precious gift of salvation offered through the blood of Jesus. There is no need to panic about work, school, politics, church or anything else we tend to get worked up over. Instead we can live filled with peace, love, joy, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, and self control- not because anything in this world warrants this type of life, instead we live a life of faithful calm because God is our god.
We panic because we try to control what we cannot control. Faith in God recognizes this world is messed up and we can't fix it, only God can. Relax and trust God, it'll be o.k., it really will.
He had his own parking space under a covered drop off near the church office doors. I learned the hard way it was a bad idea for anyone else to park in his covered space. When an unsuspecting person did this he would park very close beside their car and bang his car door against the other car.
Since he was at the church building so much during the week he became the energy saving watchdog. If you were in the restroom it was best to take a flashlight. If you needed to make a copy on the Xerox machine you would need to allow an additional 4 minutes for the machine to warm up because he would not allow the machine to stay turned on between copies. He was known to turn off electric breakers to make sure everything was off. On more than one occasion I lost my data on the computer because I could not save to my floppy disk drive fast enough when I would hear him flipping all of the breakers off. He never understood the difference between a computer and a typewriter...
But the most odd thing I discovered about him was why he was alone. He and his wife were married sometime around World War 2 and they decided to never have children because they did not want to bring a child into such a messed up world. The day he told me this I was taken back and was not sure how to respond. In the subsequent years I have time and again chewed on the reasoning for his decision.
Without a doubt the world is imperfect and will be so until God brings this present age to a close and fully reveals his kingdom. We know that I John 5:19 tells us that this whole world is under the control of the evil one. But we also know that God and his forces are actively at work in this world. We know that throughout history God's people have lived by faith as can be powerfully seen in Hebrews 11. So the question becomes, do we trust God to take care of us in an imperfect world or do we panic?
People throughout history have reacted out of panic because they thought things were so bad that they could never get better. The Anasazi who built cliff dwellings in what is now southwestern Colorado are believed to have moved onto the cliff faces out of a perceived threat. At the end of World War 2 much of the population of an island in the Pacific jumped to their death because they believed when the United States liberated their island life would not be worth living.
A lifestyle characterized by panic ultimately misses the point of the Bible. God created the world, sin damaged the world separating us from God, and God began a plan involving his son to redeem all of creation. This damaged world is not our destiny, it is simply our journey. Our destiny is with God. God will bring this present age ruled by sin to an end. We will be resurrected with new bodies just like Jesus was resurrected. We will live on a redeemed and restored earth able to literally walk with God. The kingdom of God glimpsed when Jesus walked the earth will become the norm. There will be no more pain, no more suffering, no more crying, no more sadness, no more hunger.
There is no need to live a life of panic because we can live expectantly with the hope we have of resurrection and eternal life. We can live with confidence if we have received God's precious gift of salvation offered through the blood of Jesus. There is no need to panic about work, school, politics, church or anything else we tend to get worked up over. Instead we can live filled with peace, love, joy, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, and self control- not because anything in this world warrants this type of life, instead we live a life of faithful calm because God is our god.
We panic because we try to control what we cannot control. Faith in God recognizes this world is messed up and we can't fix it, only God can. Relax and trust God, it'll be o.k., it really will.
Monday, November 26, 2012
It's Time To Panic!
In an online news story this morning the story of a tragedy on the California coast was reported. A family was spending a day at the beach, mom, dad, a son, a daughter, and the family dog. They were throwing a stick for the dog to retrieve when the dog got caught in the surf and was dragged out into the ocean. The teen son jumped into the water and swam to save the dog. The dad jumped into the water and swam to save the teen but the dad was soon swept out and went under the water. The teen boy got back to shore on his own. He and his mother went back into the surf to look for the dad but soon they were swept out and went under water.
Meanwhile on shore the daughter ran to get the park ranger. The ranger's car got stuck in the sand so he had to walk over half a mile down the beach to get to the scene. Once there he located the bodies of the father and mother who had drowned but could not locate the son. A helicopter and boats came out but they were never able to the son's body.
The article ends with this sentence, "The dog got out of the water on its own."
If the son would have waited on shore instead of jumping into the water in a panic everything would have worked out fine. If the father would have waited on shore instead of jumping into the water in a panic everything would have worked out fine.
It is easy to recognize in hindsight what should have been done but there is a lesson we can all learn about panic- sometimes things are not nearly as bad as they seem and our panic'd response is ultimatley what causes the problem.
How many times does our panic response end up being a far larger problem than the initial problem itself? Remember Y2K? We were convinced we would end up back in the stone age when computers changed from 1999 to 2000?
We have this response in politics, religion, employment, families, school...
Sometimes the process of remaining calm can look pretty odd. I remember a story my grandmother used to tell me. She was driving a late 30's Ford down a highway in east Texas right after she got married when a big dog ran out in the middle of the road and stopped. My grandfather had warned her about the danger of flipping the car if she swerved at high speeds and as usual she was going too fast so instead she centered the car on the dog and ran it over. When she got to where she was meeting my grandfather he got upset that she had dented the front of the car until she told him that it was the dog or rolling the car which helped him not to be upset anymore.
I have been full time ministry 22 years and have watched time after time at church after church as groups of people panic about what is 'going on'. They become convinced that the church is about to descend into some sort of spiritual apostasty or that there is something going on that is being covered up. The typical response is to create a firestorm at the church or to flee to another church. What most intrigues me about these situations is that 9 times out of 10 there is no foundation for the panic and the damage done by the panic is far, far worse than what the panic itself was focused upon.
I have seen this same dynamic play itself out in interpersonal relationships at church, work, school, and in the family. At times we connect the dots on things that should never have been connected and we develop a panic'd paranoia. We believe the sky is falling. We believe 'it's the end of the world as we know it'.
I wonder what the correlation is between panic and faith in God. I wonder if sometimes the reason we panic is because we believe if we don't take care of the problem then the world will spiral out of control. That would be a form of idolatry- we see ourselves as a god or even as GOD.
I wonder if Satan uses panic and paranoia as a temptation to get us to act without seeking God first. As I think through what would solve these damaging panic and paranoid responses it begins with seeking God in prayer. Really? Yes, seriously! Somtimes this prayer might have to be quick but think how differently things would play themselves out if we began by seeking God. What if we began by asking God to give us His clarity. What if we asked God to guide our actions, our words, our thoughts, our feelings. What if we asked God to give us wisdom to help us recognize how to respond.
Meanwhile on shore the daughter ran to get the park ranger. The ranger's car got stuck in the sand so he had to walk over half a mile down the beach to get to the scene. Once there he located the bodies of the father and mother who had drowned but could not locate the son. A helicopter and boats came out but they were never able to the son's body.
The article ends with this sentence, "The dog got out of the water on its own."
If the son would have waited on shore instead of jumping into the water in a panic everything would have worked out fine. If the father would have waited on shore instead of jumping into the water in a panic everything would have worked out fine.
It is easy to recognize in hindsight what should have been done but there is a lesson we can all learn about panic- sometimes things are not nearly as bad as they seem and our panic'd response is ultimatley what causes the problem.
How many times does our panic response end up being a far larger problem than the initial problem itself? Remember Y2K? We were convinced we would end up back in the stone age when computers changed from 1999 to 2000?
We have this response in politics, religion, employment, families, school...
Sometimes the process of remaining calm can look pretty odd. I remember a story my grandmother used to tell me. She was driving a late 30's Ford down a highway in east Texas right after she got married when a big dog ran out in the middle of the road and stopped. My grandfather had warned her about the danger of flipping the car if she swerved at high speeds and as usual she was going too fast so instead she centered the car on the dog and ran it over. When she got to where she was meeting my grandfather he got upset that she had dented the front of the car until she told him that it was the dog or rolling the car which helped him not to be upset anymore.
I have been full time ministry 22 years and have watched time after time at church after church as groups of people panic about what is 'going on'. They become convinced that the church is about to descend into some sort of spiritual apostasty or that there is something going on that is being covered up. The typical response is to create a firestorm at the church or to flee to another church. What most intrigues me about these situations is that 9 times out of 10 there is no foundation for the panic and the damage done by the panic is far, far worse than what the panic itself was focused upon.
I have seen this same dynamic play itself out in interpersonal relationships at church, work, school, and in the family. At times we connect the dots on things that should never have been connected and we develop a panic'd paranoia. We believe the sky is falling. We believe 'it's the end of the world as we know it'.
I wonder what the correlation is between panic and faith in God. I wonder if sometimes the reason we panic is because we believe if we don't take care of the problem then the world will spiral out of control. That would be a form of idolatry- we see ourselves as a god or even as GOD.
I wonder if Satan uses panic and paranoia as a temptation to get us to act without seeking God first. As I think through what would solve these damaging panic and paranoid responses it begins with seeking God in prayer. Really? Yes, seriously! Somtimes this prayer might have to be quick but think how differently things would play themselves out if we began by seeking God. What if we began by asking God to give us His clarity. What if we asked God to guide our actions, our words, our thoughts, our feelings. What if we asked God to give us wisdom to help us recognize how to respond.
Tuesday, November 13, 2012
Following God
At the very end of the year 2000 my family and I moved from Colorado to Northeast Texas. We lived in a small town outside Longview for just over 2 years while we adopted 3 children from Russia and worked with a church to help them start a youth ministry. It was obvious within our first couple of months at this small town church that this was not the place we needed to be so we began searching for a new church.
We identified that one of the primary criteria for the church we were seeking was a willingness to be led by God. You might think this willingness to be led by God would be a given at every church but my experience has shown me that all people and even church leaderships are fallen and at best struggle to allow God to be in charge.
Over the course of 18 months we interviewed with around 45 churches scattered around Texas. A common question I had for the leadership had to do with what role God had in their decision making process. I could write a book about the range of responses this question received including one minister that told me God doesn't really have anything to do with our day to day decision making process.
The response to this question is ultimately what caught my attention at Sugar Grove. The answer I received from person after person at Sugar Grove described a passion and a journey at understanding how to hear God's voice and apply that into the direction of the church. The answers I received were not marked with confidence saying 'we've got this all figured out' but instead with humility recognizing it is about God, not about us.
In my nine and one half years at Sugar Grove I have marveled time and again at how the leadership has heard God's voice and responded in faith. Faith responses are characterized by a journey, not by a finished product. Sugar Grove is a church on a journey... a journey of learning how to listen to and follow God.
We identified that one of the primary criteria for the church we were seeking was a willingness to be led by God. You might think this willingness to be led by God would be a given at every church but my experience has shown me that all people and even church leaderships are fallen and at best struggle to allow God to be in charge.
Over the course of 18 months we interviewed with around 45 churches scattered around Texas. A common question I had for the leadership had to do with what role God had in their decision making process. I could write a book about the range of responses this question received including one minister that told me God doesn't really have anything to do with our day to day decision making process.
The response to this question is ultimately what caught my attention at Sugar Grove. The answer I received from person after person at Sugar Grove described a passion and a journey at understanding how to hear God's voice and apply that into the direction of the church. The answers I received were not marked with confidence saying 'we've got this all figured out' but instead with humility recognizing it is about God, not about us.
In my nine and one half years at Sugar Grove I have marveled time and again at how the leadership has heard God's voice and responded in faith. Faith responses are characterized by a journey, not by a finished product. Sugar Grove is a church on a journey... a journey of learning how to listen to and follow God.
Tuesday, October 30, 2012
Heaven, Hell, and Resurrection
Have you ever thought about where your views and beliefs about God, Jesus, salvation, and the church have come from? We can idealistically say our views on spiritual subjects comes from the Bible but the reality is that our spiritual views are shaped by many sources.
A couple of years ago I taught a September through May class exploring the foundations of our faith. The premise of the class was to explore foundational elements of our faith to see how much our view of spiritual subjects was consistent with the Bible. The class turned out to be a massive research project that brought about a transformation in my own personal view on a number of subjects.
When I was growing up I watched Road Runner cartoons every Saturday morning. Inevitably the Road Runner would get squashed, flattened, or obliterated in the cartoon- good wholesome fair for a 9 year old! What happened next? He got wings, he floated up, and ended up sitting on a cloud playing a harp. My Saturday morning cartoon reflected what I had been taught about heaven. Heaven was a non-physical existence that was seperate and apart from this world. In church I would continue to learn intermittently that we would go to heaven after this world had been literally destroyed by fire. I also intermittently learned something about the Baptists's believing in something to do with 1,000 years but I shouldn't believe in the 1,000 years- whatever it was.
As I grew up and entered into ministry heaven was where we were headed after we died but it was something that was not discussed very much. I would teach about heaven in generalities; it is a place where we are with God, it is the opposite of hell... As I continued in ministry I still did not know much at all about heaven or that 1,000 year thing. Then in 1999 I entered Denver Seminary and had a professor encourage us to dig into the word of God. He told us that the Bible is the word of God preserved for us through the power of the Holy Spirit and throughout history God's people have poured through the Bible seeking to understand God. He encouraged us to do the same and gave a personal example of why he had come to the views he had about the 1,000 year of reign of Christ after exhaustively digging through the word of God. He went on to tell us that our view of the 1,000 year reign would not get us into heaven or keep us out of heaven but the importance was pulling our sleeves up and digging through the word of God.
I was intrigued because this was the first time in my life I had ever heard anyone talk about the 1,000 years and end times. My antennas were up! However for the next few years life and ministry stayed fast furious as Michelle and I raised 5 and then 6 kids while we both worked full time jobs. But the spark of interest about end times and rapture and heaven and hell were still on my radar which was one of the primary passions leading me to develop a class exploring the foundations of Christianity.
Through the course of research I was turned onto a New Testament scholar named N.T. Wright. His background is the last place I would have thought to find a New Testament scholar, the Anglican Church of England. As I read more of his writings I was startled to discover that his teaching was most consistent with what my Biblical research was producing so I asked a friend of mine who is a Greek/Hebrew/ Old Testament/ New Testament scholar and he affirmed that N.T. Wright was in fact the real deal and in his view spot on with his understanding of the New Testament.
His views on heaven were radically different than the Bugs Bunny cartoons I had grown up on. But then it occurred to me... maybe it's a problem that my theology of heaven and hell was primarly shaped by Bugs Bunny cartoons instead of the Bible.
Here is a link to N.T. Wright talking about heaven... Enjoy.
A couple of years ago I taught a September through May class exploring the foundations of our faith. The premise of the class was to explore foundational elements of our faith to see how much our view of spiritual subjects was consistent with the Bible. The class turned out to be a massive research project that brought about a transformation in my own personal view on a number of subjects.
When I was growing up I watched Road Runner cartoons every Saturday morning. Inevitably the Road Runner would get squashed, flattened, or obliterated in the cartoon- good wholesome fair for a 9 year old! What happened next? He got wings, he floated up, and ended up sitting on a cloud playing a harp. My Saturday morning cartoon reflected what I had been taught about heaven. Heaven was a non-physical existence that was seperate and apart from this world. In church I would continue to learn intermittently that we would go to heaven after this world had been literally destroyed by fire. I also intermittently learned something about the Baptists's believing in something to do with 1,000 years but I shouldn't believe in the 1,000 years- whatever it was.
As I grew up and entered into ministry heaven was where we were headed after we died but it was something that was not discussed very much. I would teach about heaven in generalities; it is a place where we are with God, it is the opposite of hell... As I continued in ministry I still did not know much at all about heaven or that 1,000 year thing. Then in 1999 I entered Denver Seminary and had a professor encourage us to dig into the word of God. He told us that the Bible is the word of God preserved for us through the power of the Holy Spirit and throughout history God's people have poured through the Bible seeking to understand God. He encouraged us to do the same and gave a personal example of why he had come to the views he had about the 1,000 year of reign of Christ after exhaustively digging through the word of God. He went on to tell us that our view of the 1,000 year reign would not get us into heaven or keep us out of heaven but the importance was pulling our sleeves up and digging through the word of God.
I was intrigued because this was the first time in my life I had ever heard anyone talk about the 1,000 years and end times. My antennas were up! However for the next few years life and ministry stayed fast furious as Michelle and I raised 5 and then 6 kids while we both worked full time jobs. But the spark of interest about end times and rapture and heaven and hell were still on my radar which was one of the primary passions leading me to develop a class exploring the foundations of Christianity.
Through the course of research I was turned onto a New Testament scholar named N.T. Wright. His background is the last place I would have thought to find a New Testament scholar, the Anglican Church of England. As I read more of his writings I was startled to discover that his teaching was most consistent with what my Biblical research was producing so I asked a friend of mine who is a Greek/Hebrew/ Old Testament/ New Testament scholar and he affirmed that N.T. Wright was in fact the real deal and in his view spot on with his understanding of the New Testament.
His views on heaven were radically different than the Bugs Bunny cartoons I had grown up on. But then it occurred to me... maybe it's a problem that my theology of heaven and hell was primarly shaped by Bugs Bunny cartoons instead of the Bible.
Here is a link to N.T. Wright talking about heaven... Enjoy.
Saturday, October 13, 2012
Sticking In There
I just finished riding the first day of Bike Around the Bay. This is a 180 mile bicycle ride that completely circles Galveston Bay. Today I rode 94 miles. That's all good until you realize that all but about 10 miles had either a 17 mile per hour head wind or cross wind. That's what you call challenging conditions.
My favorite kind of riding is a tail wind going down a hill. You can go fast without much effort. It's fun. Riding into a strong wind for 84 miles is not always alot of fun.
One positive thing about the tough day of riding into the wind is that it gave me alot of time to pray and talk with God. I spent time praying about me, my family, alot of people, and Sugar Grove. As I prayed God gave me a thought. We like things to be fun. We like things to be pleasant. We don't like to be challenged. We don't like a strong head wind in our life, our marriage, or our church.
When our life gets tough there is a temptation to find a way to escape to something that makes us happy- for a litle while. When our marriage is not alot of fun there is a temptation to seek out something that makes us happier- for a little while. When church does not make us happy we are tempted to switch churches to find one that "fits us better".
However true Christian character is developed through endurance, not through seeking out something that makes us happier. Happiness is about us. It is what makes me feel good. Endurance is seeking what God desires. Instead of simply assuming that unhappiness or disatisfaction means we should switch to something that makes us happy we should start by seeking God's guidance.
As I was riding it was so tough I started singing a song... "In the name of Jesus I can do this. In the name of Jesus I can do this." Sometimes its good to be in a situation where the only option we've got left is the power of Jesus. Not pleasant, but good.
My favorite kind of riding is a tail wind going down a hill. You can go fast without much effort. It's fun. Riding into a strong wind for 84 miles is not always alot of fun.
One positive thing about the tough day of riding into the wind is that it gave me alot of time to pray and talk with God. I spent time praying about me, my family, alot of people, and Sugar Grove. As I prayed God gave me a thought. We like things to be fun. We like things to be pleasant. We don't like to be challenged. We don't like a strong head wind in our life, our marriage, or our church.
When our life gets tough there is a temptation to find a way to escape to something that makes us happy- for a litle while. When our marriage is not alot of fun there is a temptation to seek out something that makes us happier- for a little while. When church does not make us happy we are tempted to switch churches to find one that "fits us better".
However true Christian character is developed through endurance, not through seeking out something that makes us happier. Happiness is about us. It is what makes me feel good. Endurance is seeking what God desires. Instead of simply assuming that unhappiness or disatisfaction means we should switch to something that makes us happy we should start by seeking God's guidance.
As I was riding it was so tough I started singing a song... "In the name of Jesus I can do this. In the name of Jesus I can do this." Sometimes its good to be in a situation where the only option we've got left is the power of Jesus. Not pleasant, but good.
Wednesday, October 10, 2012
So Who Are You Voting For?
So who are you voting for? This is a charged question that has enough emotion attached to it to get even the best of friends in a fight. Have you noticed that there are Christians on both sides of the political aisle? A news article recently ran about 2 people from my undergraduate alma mater, ACU, who were both serving in Congress- one was a democrat and one was a republican.
When you speak to Christians on both sides of the political spectrum you will discover each person has a distinct reason growing out of their faith for the position they take. But how can Christians be on both sides of the political spectrum? Don't the Christians on one side have to be correct and the Christians on the other side have to be wrong? It is easy to pick a side and say my side is right and the other side is wrong or even evil. It is much more difficult to consider the possibility that both sides of the political spectrum have some truth.
Did you know that prior to the civil war the prevailing political attitude in the United States was that the compromise that was worked out between the two sides was the correct position- not the position held by one side or the other? It was assumed that together we produced a perfect unity.
That's tough to comprehend in our current political environment where so many are out to make sure the other side is obliterated. However it's not too hard to make a connection into church.
What is church but a varied collection of people who span the spectrum brought together by the blood of Jesus Christ? Are any of us perfect? No. Do any of us have all of the right answers and ideas all of the time? No. Together we are transformed into the bride of Christ.
What would happen if we began to consider that God can use anyone he chooses to accomplish his purposes- not just 'us'? What would happen if we began to watch for the hand of God at work regardless of where it might be?
When you speak to Christians on both sides of the political spectrum you will discover each person has a distinct reason growing out of their faith for the position they take. But how can Christians be on both sides of the political spectrum? Don't the Christians on one side have to be correct and the Christians on the other side have to be wrong? It is easy to pick a side and say my side is right and the other side is wrong or even evil. It is much more difficult to consider the possibility that both sides of the political spectrum have some truth.
Did you know that prior to the civil war the prevailing political attitude in the United States was that the compromise that was worked out between the two sides was the correct position- not the position held by one side or the other? It was assumed that together we produced a perfect unity.
That's tough to comprehend in our current political environment where so many are out to make sure the other side is obliterated. However it's not too hard to make a connection into church.
What is church but a varied collection of people who span the spectrum brought together by the blood of Jesus Christ? Are any of us perfect? No. Do any of us have all of the right answers and ideas all of the time? No. Together we are transformed into the bride of Christ.
What would happen if we began to consider that God can use anyone he chooses to accomplish his purposes- not just 'us'? What would happen if we began to watch for the hand of God at work regardless of where it might be?
Friday, October 5, 2012
National Night Out Follow Up
This past Tuesday evening October 2nd the street I live on had a National Night Out Gathering in the park across the street from my house. It was a great deal of fun. The mayor of Missouri City came and spent time with us. A ladder truck from the local fire station showed us around their fire fighting apparatus. And then a pair of policemen on bicycles spent time with us.Between these appearances all of the people from our street had a good time interacting with each other. I met the 3 families who have moved onto our street in the last few months. I was able to catch up on the health problems my next door neighbor had earlier this year. I learned the stories and backgrounds of many of my neighbors. We all talked about what an amazing diversity of people our street has. We literally have people from all over the world; China, Philipines, India, Indonesia, Russia, Turkey, Germany, England, Jamaica...
I helped organize this event because it is good to know our neighbors and as a Christian it is a great opportunity to be a light for Jesus on the street where I live. Our goal as Christians is not to isolate ourselves from anyone else in the world but instead to live among the world without being of the world. When we sequester ourselves from the world we become focused on ourselves and what we do. When we live as a light in our community we don't have time to be self focused but instead must continously listen to God and recognize how he desires to use us at any given time.
We are already planning for National Night Out 2013!
Tuesday, September 25, 2012
National Night Out is Tuesday October 2, 2012
Do you know your neighbors? Quiet often we are so busy that we don't know who our neighbors are. However there are a number of reasons why it is good to know our neighbors. Yesterday evening I spent a couple of hours with some of my neighbors knocking all 62 doors of everyone on our street inviting them to National Night Out which is Tuesday October 2nd. It was alot of fun meeting all of our neighbors and welcoming 4 new families who have recently moved to the street.
National Night Out exists to help neighbors meet each other to help reduce crime by building community bonds. But events such as National Night Out are also an opportunity to live out our walk with God outside the walls of the church building. It is an opportunity to be a light for Jesus through our actions and attitudes right where we live. It is a chance to allow God to connect us to someone who is seeking Him.
I am a data nut and it can be seen statistically that many of us don't know our neighbors and consquently don't have much impact for Jesus Christ upon our neighbors. An analysis of guests to Sugar Grove during 2011 revealed that most of the guests attending a Sunday morning worship assembly did not live where most of the Sugar Grove members live. In other words we are not connecting with those who live around us.
Is it easy to connect with those who live around us? No. Of course not. We live in a multi culturual community that represent faiths from around the world as well as people whose 'faith' is an active belief that belief in anything is a waste of time that is causing all of the problems seen in the world today. This means that being a light for God is not simply a straight forward invitation to come to church next Sunday but a much more spirit-led effort that involves a continous devotion to being a vessel for God in all situations and all places in our life.
Do you know your neighbors?...
Are you offering yourself as a vessel to be used by God?...
National Night Out exists to help neighbors meet each other to help reduce crime by building community bonds. But events such as National Night Out are also an opportunity to live out our walk with God outside the walls of the church building. It is an opportunity to be a light for Jesus through our actions and attitudes right where we live. It is a chance to allow God to connect us to someone who is seeking Him.
I am a data nut and it can be seen statistically that many of us don't know our neighbors and consquently don't have much impact for Jesus Christ upon our neighbors. An analysis of guests to Sugar Grove during 2011 revealed that most of the guests attending a Sunday morning worship assembly did not live where most of the Sugar Grove members live. In other words we are not connecting with those who live around us.
Is it easy to connect with those who live around us? No. Of course not. We live in a multi culturual community that represent faiths from around the world as well as people whose 'faith' is an active belief that belief in anything is a waste of time that is causing all of the problems seen in the world today. This means that being a light for God is not simply a straight forward invitation to come to church next Sunday but a much more spirit-led effort that involves a continous devotion to being a vessel for God in all situations and all places in our life.
Do you know your neighbors?...
Are you offering yourself as a vessel to be used by God?...
Thursday, September 6, 2012
Prayer Triggers
In previous posts I have mentioned how I have situations that trigger me to pray such as when I can't sleep at night and when I am riding my bicycle. Lately I have been chewing on developing objects as prayer triggers. Triggers? Something that reminds you about something like a string tied around your finger or a song you sing.
Prayer is an invitation for God to work in our world. A lack of prayer is a hand held up to God saying "Stay out, I've got this, I can do this on my own"- which is generally not a good thing. Consequently inviting God to work in and around us is very important so discovering things that promote time spent with God in prayer is good.
What if we associated things we see in every day life to prompt us to pray for specific people or situations?
The last few weeks I have been playing with this idea and have found it rather productive in my prayer life. For example every time I see a bag of sugar I am reminded to pray for a specific person who has been upon my heart for a while. The power of prayer triggers is the capture of what might have been wasted time and transforms it into a time to pray. Pushing a grocery cart down the aisle at a grocery store can be a mundane task until a bag of sugar comes into view and BAM! I am reminded to pray.
Try it out. Figure out something you will see from time to time that is associated with the person or situation that needs prayer. Then every time you see that item let it be a reminder to briefly lift that person or situation up in prayer.
Prayer is an invitation for God to work in our world. A lack of prayer is a hand held up to God saying "Stay out, I've got this, I can do this on my own"- which is generally not a good thing. Consequently inviting God to work in and around us is very important so discovering things that promote time spent with God in prayer is good.
What if we associated things we see in every day life to prompt us to pray for specific people or situations?
The last few weeks I have been playing with this idea and have found it rather productive in my prayer life. For example every time I see a bag of sugar I am reminded to pray for a specific person who has been upon my heart for a while. The power of prayer triggers is the capture of what might have been wasted time and transforms it into a time to pray. Pushing a grocery cart down the aisle at a grocery store can be a mundane task until a bag of sugar comes into view and BAM! I am reminded to pray.
Try it out. Figure out something you will see from time to time that is associated with the person or situation that needs prayer. Then every time you see that item let it be a reminder to briefly lift that person or situation up in prayer.
Tuesday, August 28, 2012
Committment
When I was in ministry in Colorado there was a couple who I grew to love and respect as they taught me by their example about committment to the body of Christ. When I arrived in Colorado they had just retired and had begun to 'winter' in Arizona and 'summer' in the Colorado mountains while keeping an apartment in Denver. This couple was hospitable and loving to everyone at church. And whether in town or out of town they were supportive of the church and made sure that their contribution check made it to the church office each week.
As the years went by and I got to know this couple better I realized their theological views very rarely matched the views of the leadership of the church. The husband came from a background that viewed paid ministers and buildings as an addition to the Bible that was not always beneficial. The wife came from a background that was rich in the heritage of reuniting the Christian Church and the Churches of Christ. The church I was ministering at had a building, employed ministers, and struggled to view anything other than a Church of Christ as acceptable. However you would not know how significant their differences were with the leadership of the local church unless you sat down for an extended conversation and pulled this information out of them.
One day I finally asked them why they continued to consider the church we were at together as their home church and be both financially and emotionally supportive of the church and its leadership when the church quiet often violated their theological understanding of the Bible. Their response started me on a journey of transformation. They explained how that they had committed years earlier that this would be their church home. They explained how that committment is not something to be taken lightly- if they jumped from church to church looking for a perfect match in all areas they would demonstrate to their children and all around them that they were committed only if they got their way. And they explained how that if God placed the leadership of each local church in place then whether they agreed or disagreed with the leaders their integrity in following God demanded that they respect and follow the spiritual leadership of that church.
And you know what? These two people are some of the happiest and most content people I have ever known. They decided it was their job to committ to the local church, develop deep Christ centered relationships at church that continued through thick and thin, and continuously seek how God desired to use them.
Through the years it has occurred to me that their committment to the local church we were together at in Colorado was an example of how God loves us. God does not break his fellowship with us when he disagrees with us. God does not move on to someone else when the relationship is not all that he had hoped it would be. God continues to provide and bless us even when he should withhold everything and starve us until we get it right. And above all God sticks with us through thick and thin, through good and bad... We would do good to imitate this kind of committment.
As the years went by and I got to know this couple better I realized their theological views very rarely matched the views of the leadership of the church. The husband came from a background that viewed paid ministers and buildings as an addition to the Bible that was not always beneficial. The wife came from a background that was rich in the heritage of reuniting the Christian Church and the Churches of Christ. The church I was ministering at had a building, employed ministers, and struggled to view anything other than a Church of Christ as acceptable. However you would not know how significant their differences were with the leadership of the local church unless you sat down for an extended conversation and pulled this information out of them.
One day I finally asked them why they continued to consider the church we were at together as their home church and be both financially and emotionally supportive of the church and its leadership when the church quiet often violated their theological understanding of the Bible. Their response started me on a journey of transformation. They explained how that they had committed years earlier that this would be their church home. They explained how that committment is not something to be taken lightly- if they jumped from church to church looking for a perfect match in all areas they would demonstrate to their children and all around them that they were committed only if they got their way. And they explained how that if God placed the leadership of each local church in place then whether they agreed or disagreed with the leaders their integrity in following God demanded that they respect and follow the spiritual leadership of that church.
And you know what? These two people are some of the happiest and most content people I have ever known. They decided it was their job to committ to the local church, develop deep Christ centered relationships at church that continued through thick and thin, and continuously seek how God desired to use them.
Through the years it has occurred to me that their committment to the local church we were together at in Colorado was an example of how God loves us. God does not break his fellowship with us when he disagrees with us. God does not move on to someone else when the relationship is not all that he had hoped it would be. God continues to provide and bless us even when he should withhold everything and starve us until we get it right. And above all God sticks with us through thick and thin, through good and bad... We would do good to imitate this kind of committment.
Thursday, August 16, 2012
Spiritual Disciplines
Do you have a time laid out when and where you commune with God? This time is important for your spiritual health. For me personally I have a few things in my life that are triggers to remind me to spend time in prayer with God. (When I say prayer I mean a time where I do part of the talking and I spend part of the time being quiet and listening to God.)
One trigger for me to pray is when I can't sleep at night. Instead of fretting over sleeplessness I have learned to simply accept sleeplessness as an invitation from God to commune with him. It is actually an ideal time because there are no distractions and all is quiet. Another trigger for me to pray is when I ride my bike. This presents an ideal time to chew things over with God as the miles roll by. Perhaps my longest standing trigger for prayer is beginning the day in conversation with God.
For me waking up in the morning, waking up in the middle of the night, and riding my bike are 3 constants in my life that are constant invitations for me to stop and spend time with God. In fact some of the most significant conversations I have had with God have occurred in the middle of the night- God revealed his plans for me to adopt 2 of my children during these middle of the night prayer times.
Every so often I will commit to God a specified period of time for prayer. In August of 2000 I committed three days of time with God in prayer. In February of 2007 I committed one day of time to God in prayer. On both of these occasions my time in prayer was an odd combination of walking, driving, praying, questioning, listening, and crying. And on both of these occasions the result of time committed to God profoundly changed my life.
I took a picture during my 2007 prayer time that to this day brings back a flood of thoughts.
God is good and will transform us when we open ourselves to him. Find times to commune with God. You'll be glad you did.
One trigger for me to pray is when I can't sleep at night. Instead of fretting over sleeplessness I have learned to simply accept sleeplessness as an invitation from God to commune with him. It is actually an ideal time because there are no distractions and all is quiet. Another trigger for me to pray is when I ride my bike. This presents an ideal time to chew things over with God as the miles roll by. Perhaps my longest standing trigger for prayer is beginning the day in conversation with God.
For me waking up in the morning, waking up in the middle of the night, and riding my bike are 3 constants in my life that are constant invitations for me to stop and spend time with God. In fact some of the most significant conversations I have had with God have occurred in the middle of the night- God revealed his plans for me to adopt 2 of my children during these middle of the night prayer times.
Every so often I will commit to God a specified period of time for prayer. In August of 2000 I committed three days of time with God in prayer. In February of 2007 I committed one day of time to God in prayer. On both of these occasions my time in prayer was an odd combination of walking, driving, praying, questioning, listening, and crying. And on both of these occasions the result of time committed to God profoundly changed my life.
I took a picture during my 2007 prayer time that to this day brings back a flood of thoughts.
God is good and will transform us when we open ourselves to him. Find times to commune with God. You'll be glad you did.
Thursday, August 2, 2012
Expectations
For the last few months the concept of expectations has made itself apparent
to me time and again. Expectations? Yea, you know. What you expect...
Expectations like someone writing something would done know how to use good
grammer. Or expectations of how well
your car works.
When I was in high school my dad bought a 1981 V6 Chevrolet Caprice. It was really pretty. It smelled really nice. It had a great ride. But it absolutely never worked. Something was always broken. And if you drove it on the highway for more than 30 minutes it got really tired and would barely go. It was in reality a pathetic car.
For the last couple of years I have driven a GMC Yukon after completely wearing out 3 minivans. 38,000 miles into my GMC it has had only 1 problem of any kind- the dashboard cracked at one side and was replaced under warranty. Other than that it has been an absolutely flawless vehicle.
What is really funny is that in 1981 and 1982 if you asked anyone about the Chevrolet Caprice they would have said it was a great car. But today if you ask anyone about a Yukon they will tell you it's ok. How does that work? An awesome car is o.k. and a pathetic car is good.
Somewhere along the way our expectations have gone through the roof. Maybe it is symptomatic of our times- more, more, more... better, better, better.
But as things have improved our expectations also seem to have increased. We live in a time where we are having trouble finding people who will serve as an elected official because there is an expectation that only people who have no flaws need apply. The problem being that we all have flaws and quirks.
Heightened expectations have also produced an odd byproduct. Christian traits such as patience, mercy, and forgiveness are overrun with expectations of perfection. We expect perfection of our children, our schools, our spouses, our family, our employers, our government, and even our churches.
Perhaps we are demonstrating a type of idolatry because we are expecting god-like perfection of everything but God himself. Placing our expectations of perfection in anything other than God is going to bring frustration and a desire to be critical of everything. Misplaced expectations also encourage us to live by our own ability instead of through faith in God.
What is the solution? Maybe we just need to chill out and lower our expectations!
Seriously!
Maybe we need to offer mercy, grace, peace, patience, kindness, and gentleness to everyone around us. Maybe we need to expect less of others (and ourselves) and be excited when we get more. Maybe we need to raise our expectations for God. Maybe we need to tell others about God instead of about our GMC.
When I was in high school my dad bought a 1981 V6 Chevrolet Caprice. It was really pretty. It smelled really nice. It had a great ride. But it absolutely never worked. Something was always broken. And if you drove it on the highway for more than 30 minutes it got really tired and would barely go. It was in reality a pathetic car.
For the last couple of years I have driven a GMC Yukon after completely wearing out 3 minivans. 38,000 miles into my GMC it has had only 1 problem of any kind- the dashboard cracked at one side and was replaced under warranty. Other than that it has been an absolutely flawless vehicle.
What is really funny is that in 1981 and 1982 if you asked anyone about the Chevrolet Caprice they would have said it was a great car. But today if you ask anyone about a Yukon they will tell you it's ok. How does that work? An awesome car is o.k. and a pathetic car is good.
Somewhere along the way our expectations have gone through the roof. Maybe it is symptomatic of our times- more, more, more... better, better, better.
But as things have improved our expectations also seem to have increased. We live in a time where we are having trouble finding people who will serve as an elected official because there is an expectation that only people who have no flaws need apply. The problem being that we all have flaws and quirks.
Heightened expectations have also produced an odd byproduct. Christian traits such as patience, mercy, and forgiveness are overrun with expectations of perfection. We expect perfection of our children, our schools, our spouses, our family, our employers, our government, and even our churches.
Perhaps we are demonstrating a type of idolatry because we are expecting god-like perfection of everything but God himself. Placing our expectations of perfection in anything other than God is going to bring frustration and a desire to be critical of everything. Misplaced expectations also encourage us to live by our own ability instead of through faith in God.
What is the solution? Maybe we just need to chill out and lower our expectations!
Seriously!
Maybe we need to offer mercy, grace, peace, patience, kindness, and gentleness to everyone around us. Maybe we need to expect less of others (and ourselves) and be excited when we get more. Maybe we need to raise our expectations for God. Maybe we need to tell others about God instead of about our GMC.
Tuesday, July 24, 2012
Seeing With God's Eyes
The challenge this week for the Summer of Blessing is to begin each day in prayer asking God to help you you see what he needs you to see. I just received a note from someone expanding on this prayer:
"...we need to pray unceasingly for the "vision" of the heavenly host in order to see with our transformed minds and not our eyes when we look upon the cloudy images right in front of us."
Seeing with God's eyes? We don't naturally see with God's eyes. We often see what we want to see. It takes practice and focus to learn how to put God first and what we want second because usually it is the other way around.
Imagine how incredible it would be if all of Sugar Grove's 950 people spent every day wherever they are seeking to see what God needs them to see.
Try it out. Start your day asking God to help you to see what he needs you to see. And know that I realize none of us will do this perfectly. In fact my day yesterday started kind of crazy and I realized this morning that yesterday I had never asked God to help me to see what he needed me to see... I did today!
"...we need to pray unceasingly for the "vision" of the heavenly host in order to see with our transformed minds and not our eyes when we look upon the cloudy images right in front of us."
Seeing with God's eyes? We don't naturally see with God's eyes. We often see what we want to see. It takes practice and focus to learn how to put God first and what we want second because usually it is the other way around.
Imagine how incredible it would be if all of Sugar Grove's 950 people spent every day wherever they are seeking to see what God needs them to see.
Try it out. Start your day asking God to help you to see what he needs you to see. And know that I realize none of us will do this perfectly. In fact my day yesterday started kind of crazy and I realized this morning that yesterday I had never asked God to help me to see what he needed me to see... I did today!
Thursday, July 19, 2012
Summer of Blessing Stories
I am having so much fun hearing some of the Summer of Blessing stories! But even more than just fun it is neat to realize all the tons of ways God is working and active and leading people.
In the last post I mentioned about the group of people setting up a canopy in their front yard and inviting their neighbors to get together and pray and their neighbors came. I have heard stories about people writing notes to all of their neighbors and beginning a chain reaction of neat events on their street. I have heard stories about people greeting neighbors who moved onto their street.
But I know there are lots more stories out there. When those stories are shared with other people it is encouraging and exciting to hear all the ways God is working and leading. We want to hear the stories. Post your story on the church facebook page , shoot a note to me, or grab a pen and paper at the Grand Central cart in the back of the church auditorium, write it down, and pin it up so others can be encouraged.
In the last post I mentioned about the group of people setting up a canopy in their front yard and inviting their neighbors to get together and pray and their neighbors came. I have heard stories about people writing notes to all of their neighbors and beginning a chain reaction of neat events on their street. I have heard stories about people greeting neighbors who moved onto their street.
But I know there are lots more stories out there. When those stories are shared with other people it is encouraging and exciting to hear all the ways God is working and leading. We want to hear the stories. Post your story on the church facebook page , shoot a note to me, or grab a pen and paper at the Grand Central cart in the back of the church auditorium, write it down, and pin it up so others can be encouraged.
Monday, July 16, 2012
Fun Stuff About Sugar Grove
There are a bunch of fun things about Sugar Grove... like the youth minister coming home from camp with huge chops, or the ability of an undisclosed person who works in Live Wires to put on a tacky chartreuse colored jacket and become a totally new person. However what is even more fun about Sugar Grove than some of the characters that inhabit its hallways is the expectation and atmosphere that God will move and work in each and every person.
Somewhere along the way in the church world an expectation developed that God only worked and moved in the leadership of churches and the rest of the members simply did whatever it is that members are supposed to do. However this goes against some basic foundations of the church such as the reality that every person is filled with and gifted by the Holy Spirit.
I was attracted to Sugar Grove 9 years ago by the desire of the leadership to let God be in charge. This passion to let God be in charge is what continues to drive Sugar Grove and at the core of the Summer of Blessing. The goal of the Summer of Blessing is to encourage everyone at The Grove to open their eyes to what God desires to do with them in their daily walk. There have been some neat stories that have come out already this summer. Here is one:
The fun thing about Sugar Grove is the expectant atmosphere that God will work and lead every person in unique ways.
How is God leading you?
Somewhere along the way in the church world an expectation developed that God only worked and moved in the leadership of churches and the rest of the members simply did whatever it is that members are supposed to do. However this goes against some basic foundations of the church such as the reality that every person is filled with and gifted by the Holy Spirit.
I was attracted to Sugar Grove 9 years ago by the desire of the leadership to let God be in charge. This passion to let God be in charge is what continues to drive Sugar Grove and at the core of the Summer of Blessing. The goal of the Summer of Blessing is to encourage everyone at The Grove to open their eyes to what God desires to do with them in their daily walk. There have been some neat stories that have come out already this summer. Here is one:
- A few of our members in Meadows Place got together and set up a canopy in their front yard and spread the word on their street that they were going to get the neighbors together and pray about anything that might be a need. Eight of the people who showed up had no connections to Sugar Grove and 4 of them had no connections to any type of church. They had planned to end this time of prayer at 7:30 PM and the neighbors did not leave until 8:30 PM.
The fun thing about Sugar Grove is the expectant atmosphere that God will work and lead every person in unique ways.
How is God leading you?
Friday, July 6, 2012
The Body of Christ..
1 Corinthians12:12 Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ. 13 For we were all baptized by one Spirit so as to form one body—whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free —and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. 14 Even so the body is not made up of one part but of many.
My family and I just returned from Colorado where we were able to spend a couple of weeks on vacation in the mountains. One of the things I like to do every morning while in the mountains is get on my bicycle and ride. Cyclemeter Log
Riding in the mountains is both torture and awesome. No humidity. No Oxygen. But the beautiful views and wonderful smells compensate for chapped lips and burning lungs.
One thing I do when I ride my bike is spend a lot of time communing with God. Sometimes I talk. Sometimes I listen. One day while riding God helped me to notice how interesting the mountains are. Any part of the mountain environment taken on its own is not that remarkable- a dusty rock, a plant with a few flowers... But combined together in just the right way and all of the unremarkable individual pieces form together into an environment that bears the powerful fingerprints of God.
God reminded me that this is like the church. Each of us on our own is impressive as a human being created in the image of God but, like all of humanity, we are flawed and fallen. However when God places us together in just the right way as the body of Christ we become a collection of unremarkable individual pieces that are formed into a remarkable whole that bears the powerful fingerprints of God.
That's pretty incredible!
Don't forget who we are and why God has put us together!
My family and I just returned from Colorado where we were able to spend a couple of weeks on vacation in the mountains. One of the things I like to do every morning while in the mountains is get on my bicycle and ride. Cyclemeter Log
Riding in the mountains is both torture and awesome. No humidity. No Oxygen. But the beautiful views and wonderful smells compensate for chapped lips and burning lungs.
One thing I do when I ride my bike is spend a lot of time communing with God. Sometimes I talk. Sometimes I listen. One day while riding God helped me to notice how interesting the mountains are. Any part of the mountain environment taken on its own is not that remarkable- a dusty rock, a plant with a few flowers... But combined together in just the right way and all of the unremarkable individual pieces form together into an environment that bears the powerful fingerprints of God.
God reminded me that this is like the church. Each of us on our own is impressive as a human being created in the image of God but, like all of humanity, we are flawed and fallen. However when God places us together in just the right way as the body of Christ we become a collection of unremarkable individual pieces that are formed into a remarkable whole that bears the powerful fingerprints of God.
That's pretty incredible!
Don't forget who we are and why God has put us together!
Monday, June 18, 2012
Seeing With God's Eyes
Have you ever noticed the way you look at something can transform your attitudes and actions toward a particular situation or person?
Quiet often we view situations and people around us in a way that benefits us the most. That is a kind way to say we view things in a selfish way. We tend to look at situations and people in ways that would benefit us.
But what would happen if we viewed situations and people through God's eyes? What would happen if instead of thinking about our own needs or wants when interacting with other people we simply attempted to see people the way God sees them.
I'm sure that perhaps there are a few scriptures that affirm the viewpoint of seeing people the way God wants us to see them.
For Summer of Blessing we are supposed to be meeting our neighbors? Why? That seems so ridiculously simple. Wouldn't it be better to develop some elaborate plan with detailed follow up for connecting with people around us?
Well...
Perhaps learning to simply view the people around us with God's eyes is where we all need to start. How amazing would it be if every time we interacted with anyone around us our first response was to quickly pray and ask God to help us see this person with his eyes. The results might amaze us. We might discover ourselves generously showing patience, mercy, and kindness to some. We may discover ourselves taking a few moments to interact with others not because we have the time but because God needs us to take the time. We might begin to recognize people who are seeking God and need someone to talk to. We might encounter someone who simply needs a word encouragement. And we might even be surprised to discover that God has brought someone into our lives tnot so we can bless them but so that they can bless us.
Have you been a blessing to someone this week?
Quiet often we view situations and people around us in a way that benefits us the most. That is a kind way to say we view things in a selfish way. We tend to look at situations and people in ways that would benefit us.
But what would happen if we viewed situations and people through God's eyes? What would happen if instead of thinking about our own needs or wants when interacting with other people we simply attempted to see people the way God sees them.
I'm sure that perhaps there are a few scriptures that affirm the viewpoint of seeing people the way God wants us to see them.
For Summer of Blessing we are supposed to be meeting our neighbors? Why? That seems so ridiculously simple. Wouldn't it be better to develop some elaborate plan with detailed follow up for connecting with people around us?
Well...
Perhaps learning to simply view the people around us with God's eyes is where we all need to start. How amazing would it be if every time we interacted with anyone around us our first response was to quickly pray and ask God to help us see this person with his eyes. The results might amaze us. We might discover ourselves generously showing patience, mercy, and kindness to some. We may discover ourselves taking a few moments to interact with others not because we have the time but because God needs us to take the time. We might begin to recognize people who are seeking God and need someone to talk to. We might encounter someone who simply needs a word encouragement. And we might even be surprised to discover that God has brought someone into our lives tnot so we can bless them but so that they can bless us.
Have you been a blessing to someone this week?
Friday, June 8, 2012
Summer of Blessing
This summer Sugar Grove is doing the Summer of Blessing which is a week by week challenge to help us be a light for Jesus Christ where we live.
Earlier this week I was reading through a couple of Paul's letters with someone and it really struck me how wildly different his attitude and lifestyle were from our typical American Christian lifestyle.
We tend to put our 'Christian' effort into church related things and then work somewhere, go to school somewhere, live somewhere, go to eat somewhere etc...We give very high value to being happy. We want to be happy and we don't want to do anything that would cause anyone around us to be unhappy. Our happiness is typically determined by how much things are going our way in life. Our attitude is typically dependant upon how happy we are.
Paul lived out his walk with Christ wherever he was. His focus in life was to make sure everyone around him heard the news of Jesus Christ- no matter where he was. He was more concerned about Jesus Christ than he was about happiness. However his attitude was not determined by how much things were going his way. His attitude was determined by the incredible hope of life in Christ. It did not matter what was going on in life, whether shipwrecked or in prison, because his attitude was shaped by Christ. He was not concerned about making sure his life was happy or about making sure those around him were happy. Instead he showed love and peace to those around him, even his guards in prison, and made sure everyone around him knew of the incredible news of Jesus Christ- even if learning about Jesus Christ would make others unhappy.
As I thought through Paul's life as compared to my life I realize I am just about a 180 opposite from Paul. How did that happen?! I love God and I want to live for him and I want others to know about Jesus Christ but somewhere along the way I have devised my own plan for what it means to live as a Christian and that plan sure does look different than Paul's plan.
So tomorrow I will change and start living just like Paul! Great. Except changing in one day just doesn't work very well. It takes weeks and weeks and months and months to change. So how do I change to be more like Paul.
One step at a time.
I have to learn that letting my light shine isn't something I do at 11600 West Airport Blvd and no place else. I have to learn to listen to God's Holy Spirit every step of my day. I have to change what I am doing which means spending a little less time doing my Christianity at the church building and a little more time living for God where I am. I need to learn to see the people around me with God's eyes and not with my eyes.
Summer of Blessing is an incremental challenge to pay attention and act with the people who I am around every day.
Earlier this week I was reading through a couple of Paul's letters with someone and it really struck me how wildly different his attitude and lifestyle were from our typical American Christian lifestyle.
We tend to put our 'Christian' effort into church related things and then work somewhere, go to school somewhere, live somewhere, go to eat somewhere etc...We give very high value to being happy. We want to be happy and we don't want to do anything that would cause anyone around us to be unhappy. Our happiness is typically determined by how much things are going our way in life. Our attitude is typically dependant upon how happy we are.
Paul lived out his walk with Christ wherever he was. His focus in life was to make sure everyone around him heard the news of Jesus Christ- no matter where he was. He was more concerned about Jesus Christ than he was about happiness. However his attitude was not determined by how much things were going his way. His attitude was determined by the incredible hope of life in Christ. It did not matter what was going on in life, whether shipwrecked or in prison, because his attitude was shaped by Christ. He was not concerned about making sure his life was happy or about making sure those around him were happy. Instead he showed love and peace to those around him, even his guards in prison, and made sure everyone around him knew of the incredible news of Jesus Christ- even if learning about Jesus Christ would make others unhappy.
As I thought through Paul's life as compared to my life I realize I am just about a 180 opposite from Paul. How did that happen?! I love God and I want to live for him and I want others to know about Jesus Christ but somewhere along the way I have devised my own plan for what it means to live as a Christian and that plan sure does look different than Paul's plan.
So tomorrow I will change and start living just like Paul! Great. Except changing in one day just doesn't work very well. It takes weeks and weeks and months and months to change. So how do I change to be more like Paul.
One step at a time.
I have to learn that letting my light shine isn't something I do at 11600 West Airport Blvd and no place else. I have to learn to listen to God's Holy Spirit every step of my day. I have to change what I am doing which means spending a little less time doing my Christianity at the church building and a little more time living for God where I am. I need to learn to see the people around me with God's eyes and not with my eyes.
Summer of Blessing is an incremental challenge to pay attention and act with the people who I am around every day.
Wednesday, May 30, 2012
Learning to Recognize God's Amazing Work In Our Midst
In March, April, and May of 1999 I had the unique experience of getting to experience the hand of God at work. The events I am going to describe occurred so rapidly that it took awhile before I put the pieces together to realize how extensive the work of God had been. The events I am going to describe also completely transformed my understanding of how God works, the importance of prayer, and the importance of listening to God.
The story begins in late March, 1999 when I responded to an email sent by a woman from Paducah, Kentucky named Karen. I was working as the Youth and Family Minister at a church in Denver, Colorado and handled all the church’s email correspondence. She sent the email to a group of churches in Denver saying she was going to be in town doing a conference and was looking for a church to attend on Sunday April 18, 1999 that was close to her hotel near the old Stapleton airport. I responded to her email and told her we were the farthest church from the old airport but we were the best so she should visit us. She sent back a thanks and I didn’t think much more about it.
About six weeks later after the Sunday morning worship on Sunday April 18, 1999 I was walking through the church foyer which was almost empty. As I walked past a woman on the phone at the guest booth turned around and asked what the address of the church building was so she could tell a taxi where to pick her up. I told her the address and then asked, “Are you Karen?” She said “Yes”. I told her “I’m Tim, it’s my fault you are here so forget the taxi and let us take you to your hotel.” She argued for a moment and then said o.k.
Michelle and I gathered up our two children, got in our minivan, and headed for her hotel which was about 25 minutes away. As we drove we asked why she was in town. She explained how she was in town doing a school safety conference and then she went on to tell how she had coordinated the aftermath of the school shooting in Paducah, Kentucky for both her school district and her church. When we pulled into the hotel parking lot around 1:30 PM she said, “If you ever find yourself in a situation where one of the students in your youth group is involved in a school shooting these are the 5 things you do on the first day.” She proceeded to tell me the five things I should do and then said “If you ever need me here is my business card.” I said thanks, threw the business card on my dashboard thinking I will never need that and we drove home for lunch.
At that time I took Tuesday’s off and kept Madison and Matthew at home with me. On Tuesday April, 20, 1999 I was planning to lay sod in the back yard of my house in Highlands Ranch. However when I got up I discovered my yard was covered with a few inches of fresh snow so I canceled the sod delivery and changed my plans for the day. I decided to take the kids with me and go into the church office on my day off to get a few things done. On the way I ran through the drive through at a Burger King to grab the kids and I something to eat. While I was waiting in the drive through a news bulletin came on the radio that a shooting was reported at Columbine High School. I bristled up and immediately brought to mind which students in my youth group attended Columbine- 3 students, 2 of whom were on my Leadership Team which was a group of students I was mentoring as leaders of the group.
I drove to the church office which was about 3 minutes away, got Matthew and Madison set up eating, and turned on a radio. A few minutes later a buddy of mine, Alan, who was the youth minister at the Littleton Church of Christ called and asked what I had heard about the shooting. We decided to call some of our families who had kids at Columbine to see what we could find out and then talk to each other again. I was not able to get in touch with any of my families but he was able to get in touch with one person who said it was bad and we should get over there. We agreed we would head over there immediately. I got the secretary to watch my kids, grabbed the church van and headed for the school.
The trip there was surreal. The roads were jammed from every direction with emergency vehicles, fire, police, SWAT, bomb, ambulances, fire, sheriff, plus other unmarked cars with lights flashing. In addition to all of this was a jam of adults rushing to the school to retrieve their kids. The radio began announcing that all adults coming to pick up children should go to an elementary school just down the street from Columbine so I got out of the traffic jam and took a maze of back roads to get to that school. When I arrived it was pandemonium. There were hundreds if not thousands of adults swarming the elementary school along with a rapidly expanding group of news media trying to interview anyone they could get their hands on.
Within a few minutes of arriving I had found the youth ministers from Littleton and Lakewood along with the parents of my students who attended Columbine. No one knew what was going on or where the students were. Slowly a few students were trickling in who had walked and the rumors rapidly spread of the chaos that was going on at the High School. This created a panic on the part of all of the adults to locate their students. Before too long school buses started showing up filled with students who looked like they had just come through a war. Shirts were ripped, faces were terrified, and some students had blood smeared on them! As the students would get off the buses the adults would locate students they recognized and began asking if they had seen their student. This process went on for a few hours with each bus bringing students who showed more and more signs of something horrible having happened at the high school.
It occurred to me that Karen had told me what to do in a situation like this. The instructions were specific things to do in the immediate aftermath of the shooting. Keep the kids away from the media. Don’t ask how you feel, only ask factual questions such as where you were when the shooting occurred... So one by one I grabbed the youth ministers and told them what we needed to be doing. They said great and we all headed back out on our search for the kids.
Eventually we got word that one of the students from my group who was on my Leadership Team had been shot and was on his way to Littleton Hospital. However there was another student also on my Leadership Team who we had not located so we continued doing all we could to figure out where she was. Finally she showed up on the next to the last bus to come from the high school. She got off the bus barefooted and glassy eyed and saying very little other than how horrible it had been.
Once I knew she was o.k. (meaning alive) I headed to the Littleton Hospital. The evening at the hospital was non stop. There were a number of injured students at the hospital along with all of their friends which meant there were well over a couple of hundred students at the hospital. When my student who had been shot came out of surgery he asked for me. At his side I hugged him and just let him talk. Half sedated he described how horrible it had been in the library and some of what had happened. He also told me how he had prayed and recited Psalms because he was so scared.
As the evening wore on I talked with one student after another who were struggling with all that had happened. I simply implemented the five things Karen told me to do. After midnight one of my youth ministry workers arrived and asked what he could do to help. I handed him the church van keys and my minivan keys. I told him to take the church van back to the church, get my minivan, bring it back to the hospital, and grab the business card laying on the dashboard. Sometime after 2 AM he returned business card in hand. By that time my cell phone was dead so I got on a pay phone in the reception area at the hospital and called Karen in Paducah, Kentucky. I knew it was after 3 AM in Paducah and thought there is no way she would answer but I had done all that she had said to do the first day and needed to know what to do the next day.
The phone rang and was eventually answered by a woman speaking in Spanish. I asked for Karen and she responded “si, un momento.” In a few moments a groggy Karen answered the phone. I asked her what she was doing there so late and she said “This is the only number I gave you so I knew I had to wait until you called.” I was floored but immediately asked her what to do the next day. Without hesitation she walked me through what to do the next ending the conversation with the open ended invitation that she would be there to help.
I knew a series of wild God events had occurred that day but I was so tired when I finally arrived home around 4 AM that I did not have time to process what it all meant.
The next day, Wednesday April 21, 1999, was a non stop day of interacting with students and wrestling with all that happened. It became apparent very quickly how deeply this had impacted my youth group since two of the students were a part of my eight member Leadership Team. At this point it was not known how many students had died but we did know that my student who was shot in the library witnessed many others being shot and my student who was trapped in the building until the end of the day had been locked in a closet with 35 other students and their teacher who had passed away. It was with this backdrop that my youth group got together on Wednesday evening for our normal Wednesday evening class but there was nothing normal about this class. We simply sat in a circle and asked each student to share where they had been when the shooting happened or when they learned about the shooting because there was not a single person in the youth group or for that matter in metro Denver who did not know about the shooting.
My student who had been shot was still in the hospital Wednesday evening but my student who had been trapped in the building was able to participate in the Wednesday evening youth group gathering so we let her talk. There was not a dry eye. We hugged, we prayed, and we told her how thankful we were that she was alive. Then when it was time for another one of the 8 students in my Leadership Team to talk she stammered around and finally said she must be some kind of freak because before the shooting had occurred on April 20 she kept having an image in her mind of our student who had been shot- being shot. She went to another local high school that was put on lock down once the shooting began but the vision in her mind was without a doubt before they had been put on lock down and learned about anything going on at Columbine. All of a sudden it was on my heart to ask her what she did with the image she had in her mind when they announced at her school that there was an incident going on at Columbine and they were being put on lock down. She told me that she left the class she was in, snuck around the school to gather up her Bible club, and went to the auditorium to pray and specifically to pray for the student she kept seeing in her mind. As we put the timeline together it became very apparent that she and her Bible Club were at another local high school praying for God’s hand of protection upon Columbine while the shooting was still occurring.
The story of this student is even more significant when her spiritual passion to follow God is taken into account. A challenge that I had given to all of the students in my youth group but particularly to the students in my Leadership Team had been to start off every day making themselves available to be used by God however he needed to use them that day. Most of the students thought this was a good idea and would occasionally do that but this student would faithfully start off every day asking God how he needed to use her that day. And not surprisingly there was something always happening. It was not uncommon for her to call me and say someone was asking her questions about God that she couldn’t answer so she would ask me to talk to her friends. Through this process she already had a couple of friends who had accepted Christ. And it is significant to realize this was in an environment in Colorado where Christianity was viewed as a crutch for weak minded people.
I wasn’t sure what to do with her vision and prayer but was blown away by the reality that it was so important that God be invited into the situation of the shooting at Columbine that the Holy Spirit had intervened by giving a vision to a young woman who was willing to listen and do what was needed. In subsequent years I began to read the Jefferson County Sheriff’s report from the Columbine shooting and I am convinced the Bible Club at a nearby High School played a significant role through prayer in minimizing the number of students who could have been killed.
These series of events alone would have been enough to transform my understanding of the importance of prayer and listening to God but there was more to come!
It came to light sometime in the next few days that a young man who had been shot in the head in the library next to my student only had two memories from the shooting; waking up realizing he had to get out of the library and word for word the prayer my student had prayed while the shooters were wandering through the library killing people.
Toward the end of the week it was announced that a large memorial service would be held Sunday morning in the parking lot of the mall near the high school. This event required security clearance through the governor’s office for injured students, their families, and the families of those students who had been killed because dignitaries from Washington D.C. would be on hand to offer their condolences to everyone. The dignitaries included Al Gore and Colin Powell. My student who had been shot wanted to attend but he also did not want to miss Sunday morning worship since this would be the first time our entire church had been together since the shooting so we worked out a plan that I would drive he and his family in the church van to the service and then take them home afterwards.
The Sunday morning worship assembly was a tearful time for our church to draw together and try to comprehend what had happened and celebrate the fact that God had intervened to protect all that he had protected. After the worship assembly the student who had been shot, his parents, older brother, and younger sister all drove to the mall. Once we arrived at the mall we were met at the edge of the parking lot at a security checkpoint where a representative from the Colorado governor’s office gave everyone their security clearance tag which was a large silver sticker that was placed on the chest. I did not receive a sticker and was told that I could help get my student to the door but at that point the Secret Service would instruct me where to go since I did not have a badge.
My student was in a wheelchair and required assistance out of the church van and up the steps going into a side door of the theatre. At the top of the steps were two Secret Service officers wearing a black suit, sunglasses, guns popping out from under their jacket, and wires running from device to device all over them. But instead of steering me away the Secret Service officers sternly instructed me to hurry and assist my student who had been shot into one of the theatres. So I did.
Once inside the theatre another set of Secret Service officers instructed us to sit down and within a few moments the governor of Colorado entered the room and went down front to offer his sympathy for all that had happened and explained the process for meeting dignitaries from Washington. Once the governor finished speaking I turned to the older brother who had graduated from my youth group a couple of years earlier and asked him what I should do since I didn’t have one of the large silver security clearance stickers. He looked back at the officers near the doors who had all eyes trained on the crowd and suggested I should probably just sit still and not draw attention to myself. So I did.
We were then dismissed from the theatre to meet Al Gore and Colin Powell in a black velvet tent which was set up in the concession area. Exiting the theatre I realized I had now passed 4 sets of Secret Service officers who had all looked me over as I passed and were not concerned that I did not have a clearance badge.
Standing in line in the hallway of the theatre I began looking around and realized everyone present was an injured Columbine student, their family, or the family of a student who had been killed. I knew who everyone was because I had spent the day at the elementary school waiting with all of the families for their student to arrive and then had been in and out of all of the hospitals throughout the week. I was the only non family member who was present and I didn’t have a security clearance badge! That is when it struck me that there was something weird going on that was beyond human error so I began to pray asking God why I was there and if he needed me to start ministering to everyone present since I was the one person not grieving the injury or loss of a family member. When I stopped praying there was suddenly a message shouted at me that was like a large wave crashing over my head at the beach. The message was simple and to the point. “Shut up and pray. I put you here so you can pray.” I stood there dumbfounded and wondering what had just occurred.
But before I had too long to ponder it was our turn to go into the black velvet tent. Inside the tent dignitaries were lined up on each side of the tent with Secret Service standing behind them. Each dignitary would give a personal hug and offer words of condolence. When it came my turn Colin Powell hugged me in a Mufasa like bear hug and then I turned around to be greeted by Al Gore.
Before Al Gore said anything to me he put his hands on my shoulders, stretched me out at arms length, looked at my chest, and asked who I was. When he said this the Secret Service officers stepped forward and had a look of surprise as they realized I did not have a security clearance sticker on my chest. At that moment my stomach dropped like I had jumped off a cliff and I thought, ‘this is where I die!’ Time seemed to stand still. I replied that I was his youth minister and was here to help him out. But what happened next was amazing. Al Gore pulled me up into a close embrace and then pulling me back face to face told me how wonderful my commitment to serve and care in the name of God as his youth minister was.
I stepped out of the tent with my mind swirling. I was guided with everyone else down a side hallway and out an exit door of the theatre to a secured area of the parking lot where the family would sit for the memorial service. The secured area was a section fenced off with chain link and razor wire that was at least 10’ high with a line of Secret Service officers standing watch all around. Beyond the fence and razor wire was a crowd estimated to be around 80,000 people that ran to the edge of the parking lot in every direction and even surrounded buildings near the street.
We were seated and the 2-3 hour long memorial service began. I looked around at all of the families seated and realized I knew all but a small handful of people present so I began one by one praying by name for each and every person there. Throughout the service everyone was crying and wiping away tears. The families cried for their loved ones. I cried because I was overwhelmed that God chose me. He chose me to pray and see deeper inside the crazy ways in which he was working in a horrible situation. I was overwhelmed with this God who I was beginning to realize I knew very little about.
In the coming weeks and months more and more information slowly came to the surface. And more testimony to the significance of prayer also began to surface.
When my student’s backpack was recovered from the library it was full of bullets from the semi automatic gun the shooters had used. These bullets are what killed people. My student had been shot in the legs with a sawed off shotgun. When the shooting began my student immediately knew he had to pray and watch everything that went on and he had to put his backpack on his chest. His backpack had all of his books so it was thick and made a bullet proof vest. If the backpack had not been on his chest he would have been shot in the chest and killed. If he had not kept his head up watching everything while he prayed the bullets would have hit his head instead of lodging into his textbooks. When I learned of this story I immediately thought back to the girl from my Leadership Team who had been praying while the shooting was going on.
It has taken me years to process all of this. And quiet honestly these are only the highlights. The story, if told in full, would be a book! But this series of events forever altered my understanding of God, how he works, the incredible significance of prayer, the importance of listening to God, and how important it is to be willing to be used by God.
Wednesday, May 23, 2012
Praying
So what does prayer look like in your life?!
When I was in college I did an internship at the Lakewood Church of Christ in Lakewood, Colorado with 5 other interns. A requirement of that internship was that once we arrived at the building we had to spend from 8-9 AM in prayer- no Bible reading, no journaling, just prayer. At first that was a major challenge but after 4 months I had become addicted to interacting with God through prayer.
However even now, 23 years later and oh so much more spiritually mature, I still struggle to consistently pray. I have discovered that events and activities in life that push me out of my comfort zone push me to pray. That may be one of the reasons I have enjoyed adopting children from Russia because it is such an out of control situation (sorry to scare you if you are in the midst of an adoption!) that I've got no choice but to pray.
For the last couple of months I have been experimenting with praying the same prayer- Lord, help me to see what you need me to see. What has been really funny about that is that there have been many days that my mood was such that I didn't want to be bothered with what God wanted me to see so I would avoid talking to God so I didn't have to see what he wanted me to see. But there have been lots of other days where God answered my prayer and helped me to see things with his eyes.
A few months ago I heard someone speak who said prayer is not talking to God but listening to God- our talking to God is responding to what he told us. That is revolutionary! Prayer is listening to God?? Hmmm...
So this week at Sugar Grove we are supposed to be praying about someone who is not a part of this church family. As I started focusing on this I realized I was having a really hard time nailing down who this would be so I have shifted my prayer to asking God to help me to recognize who he wants me to pray for. I asked and am now having to listen and wait for what he says.
Another thing I started doing a number of years ago was when I couldn't sleep I would take it as a sign from God that I needed to pray. I have done this for so many years now that when I am half awake in the night I just start praying. This morning around 4 AM I woke up and started talking to God about the day and about who I should be praying for and interacting with him about who I should be praying for. I can't believe this is so challenging...
...just telling God what I need and what I need him to do is so much easier than listening to him.
When I was in college I did an internship at the Lakewood Church of Christ in Lakewood, Colorado with 5 other interns. A requirement of that internship was that once we arrived at the building we had to spend from 8-9 AM in prayer- no Bible reading, no journaling, just prayer. At first that was a major challenge but after 4 months I had become addicted to interacting with God through prayer.
However even now, 23 years later and oh so much more spiritually mature, I still struggle to consistently pray. I have discovered that events and activities in life that push me out of my comfort zone push me to pray. That may be one of the reasons I have enjoyed adopting children from Russia because it is such an out of control situation (sorry to scare you if you are in the midst of an adoption!) that I've got no choice but to pray.
For the last couple of months I have been experimenting with praying the same prayer- Lord, help me to see what you need me to see. What has been really funny about that is that there have been many days that my mood was such that I didn't want to be bothered with what God wanted me to see so I would avoid talking to God so I didn't have to see what he wanted me to see. But there have been lots of other days where God answered my prayer and helped me to see things with his eyes.
A few months ago I heard someone speak who said prayer is not talking to God but listening to God- our talking to God is responding to what he told us. That is revolutionary! Prayer is listening to God?? Hmmm...
So this week at Sugar Grove we are supposed to be praying about someone who is not a part of this church family. As I started focusing on this I realized I was having a really hard time nailing down who this would be so I have shifted my prayer to asking God to help me to recognize who he wants me to pray for. I asked and am now having to listen and wait for what he says.
Another thing I started doing a number of years ago was when I couldn't sleep I would take it as a sign from God that I needed to pray. I have done this for so many years now that when I am half awake in the night I just start praying. This morning around 4 AM I woke up and started talking to God about the day and about who I should be praying for and interacting with him about who I should be praying for. I can't believe this is so challenging...
...just telling God what I need and what I need him to do is so much easier than listening to him.
Sunday, May 20, 2012
Stories
Stories are powerful! Jesus taught through stories. Stories pull us into real life. My grandfather who worked in the field for Texas Electric Service Cooperative from the 40's to the 70's was the ultimate story teller. Every time I was around him he would tell story after story. They would make me laugh. They would draw me in so that I was a part of the story.
It seems like most of the stories he told always involved a friend of his named Peg. After years of listening to the stories of he and Peg one of the grandkids asked him why his friend was named Peggy. He wheezed, the result of emphysema from years of smoking hand rolled cigarettes (which by the way he taught me how to roll when I was in 1st grade! but that's another story...), laughed, and said
'He wasn't named Peggy, he just lost his leg and walked on a peg."
This was typical of his stories, raw, real, and funny.
Perhaps the most powerful stories that can be told are the stories of how God has interacted with humanity. What is the Bible but the ongoing story of how God has interacted throughout history? Sometimes we try to take Christianity out of the streets and into the 'cathedral' peeling away everything except a few important things we should know and do.
The problem is that a religion dictated by a list of what to believe and do is removed from the reality of what God is up to. The reality is that God is a God of story who works in the story of my life. In fact God's goal is to bring my story and his story together into a single story.
As I think about my life I realize the high points of my life have been when God changed my story:
So what is God up to in your life?
It seems like most of the stories he told always involved a friend of his named Peg. After years of listening to the stories of he and Peg one of the grandkids asked him why his friend was named Peggy. He wheezed, the result of emphysema from years of smoking hand rolled cigarettes (which by the way he taught me how to roll when I was in 1st grade! but that's another story...), laughed, and said
'He wasn't named Peggy, he just lost his leg and walked on a peg."
This was typical of his stories, raw, real, and funny.
Perhaps the most powerful stories that can be told are the stories of how God has interacted with humanity. What is the Bible but the ongoing story of how God has interacted throughout history? Sometimes we try to take Christianity out of the streets and into the 'cathedral' peeling away everything except a few important things we should know and do.
The problem is that a religion dictated by a list of what to believe and do is removed from the reality of what God is up to. The reality is that God is a God of story who works in the story of my life. In fact God's goal is to bring my story and his story together into a single story.
As I think about my life I realize the high points of my life have been when God changed my story:
- When I prayed and asked to give me faith in college and he did.
- When God brought a campus minister into my life to say "Shoulders, God is calling you into ministry and you are not paying attention."
- When I met my wife, Michelle, the very first day at my new college with my new major in Bible.
- When God began allowing a series of problems to occur that he used to steer me in a specific direction.
- When God led Michelle and I to Russia so that HE could pick out 6 children for us.
- When I watched God do things during the Columbine High School shooting I had always been taught he couldn't or didn't do.
So what is God up to in your life?
Thursday, May 17, 2012
What's This Blog About?
I have many passions I would have alot of fun blogging about; adoption, home remodeling, bicycling, family, weather, landscaping, or travel. However the core of my life has always revolved around God and His church. God has created within me a passion for Him. He has taken my life on a unique journey that has given me experience after experience where I am confronted full on with His power and majesty. I want others to know and chew on who our God is, what He is up to, and where He is going.
However I am a pathetic mess. I would love nothing more than to get everyone around me to say "Hey, Tim is amazing and so impressive." I am an incredibly shy introvert that loves to draw attention to myself. Yea... welcome to my world of bizarre contradictions. So from the start I have to put in a footnote (so that I can remind myself) that I want to bring glory to God, not myself.
With that it begins...
However I am a pathetic mess. I would love nothing more than to get everyone around me to say "Hey, Tim is amazing and so impressive." I am an incredibly shy introvert that loves to draw attention to myself. Yea... welcome to my world of bizarre contradictions. So from the start I have to put in a footnote (so that I can remind myself) that I want to bring glory to God, not myself.
With that it begins...
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