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?

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!

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?...

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.

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.

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.

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.