Missions :: An Oppertunity

     “Sometimes there is nothing more exciting than an opportunity, and sometimes there is nothing more frightening than an opportunity.” Every morning we wake, we have the great privilege of deciding how we will choose to view the different opportunities that cross our path. Honestly, I wish I could say opportunities never scared me but the truth is they can, and at times they do. I have a feeling I’m not the only one, and once we all come to the place where we look at the opportunities at hand and choose to get excited about them, we just might live a courageous life.

     Living a courageous life does not mean we have to pick up a long sword, throw on our kilts, jump on horses and dash into battle. That epic act of valor is actually sometimes simpler to perform because it easier to understand. I think living a courageous life means we live out the opportunities we have as bravely as we possible can in spite of danger or criticism or threat. I think that’s one of the many lessons I learn from Jesus when it comes to serving.

     For certain, Jesus’ death on the cross is perhaps the most epic, most courageous thing ever performed or witnessed but it is not the only epic example in the life of Christ. Hours before He heads to the cross, in John chapter 13, Jesus takes the opportunity of a dinner party to show what courage looks like. Against the back drop of deception & betrayal and the end of His life, the bible says that Jesus decides to wash His disciple’s feet. Jesus places Himself in the position of a servant by performing the job of a slave.

     The obvious question is why! Jesus is willing to die for His friends (for all humanity) in a few short hours, why isn’t that enough. Peter is so totally wrecked by this act of service that he missed, and sometimes we miss, the point: 

“The opportunity to show love does not always mean you have to die for someone else, sometimes it means you have to be willing to die to self.”

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     Jesus courageously chooses to humble himself not only to the danger of the cross but also to the danger of living a life filled with criticism and threat by choosing to become a servant. The opportunity to serve may not always seem glamorous or necessary but  if a need presents itself how we respond, excitedly or scared, will determine the results we get.

     Last week I organized a mission’s trip where a group of young adults were given the chance to venture onto the mission field, die to self & serve in Nicaragua. We feed and clothed many, we painted walls and became electricians and we even got to wash the feet of a community of elderly people who have been a banded and forgotten by their family. Honestly we were all a little scared of washing feet but we were more excited about being able to bring joy and peace to hurting lives.

     Opportunities to serve & love present themselves every day, the question is how will we respond?

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Faith :: Questions for God

     I have a lot of questions for God, Honestly. I do not know why God does what He does. I do not know why He allows what He allows. The whole rain falling on the just and unjust sometimes throws me, in my humanity, my understanding falls so short.

But, I do know that He is God...

     And that knowledge becomes the fuel for my faith. In my studies of the Bible, I have come to this conclusion: "God's Love makes a way for Hope, which is the seed that produces the fruit of Faith!"

     It may not make sense to the one suffering, the one hurting or the one lost but I believe the above truth will transform a person's life for the better. If not for God's love, hope would not be in existence. God's love is so perfect that in adversity it is made complete. His love is so awesome that in times of trials it is found to be sufficient.

     David, the psalmist of old, the king poet writes such a majestic description of this love in Psalms 36:5&6 

• God's love is meteoric, his loyalty astronomic, His purpose titanic, his verdicts oceanic. Yet in his largeness nothing gets lost; Not a man, not a mouse, slips through the cracks. (MSG)

So my faith... My faith is in God, the living God and His love for me. God is loyal to His word, and as He has promised, 

I choose to believe. God is so big that he consumes all.

My Hope... My hope is simple, though I may lose my way at times, 

my hope is to always be found in Him.

And I choose to accept God's love for me, though at times I may not recognize it, 

I know it is present!

Focus :: 1st Lesson from a Graduation

It's graduation season and as I am being invited to different commencement ceremonies and celebrations I am reminded of my different graduations. I have been a part of a few graduations, as partaker and guest speaker, but there are two graduations which have been so instructional (believe it or not, important) in my life that i reflect on them often. The two ceremonies caused a shift in my understanding of my life and the way I choose to lead it. The first graduation which helped shape my world view was High School.

To be certain, high school graduations across America are filled with bad cleshaeys and hooky sentiment. I'm sure my high school graduation was a partaker in the above, yet there was a truth shared by my biology teacher that caught my attention. James Gillham quoted from Mark 8:36 "For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?" and for the first time in my buddying young adult mind I was tasked with thinking about not the end of school but the beginning of my life.

I feel the society we live in encourages all to "gain the whole world." Sadly, we all might agree with the above as it applies to others, but we would never be so fooled or duped. I speak from experience, I thought I would never fall in the trap only to come to the place where I didn't own stuff, stuff owned me.

The warning is simple:
1st- Focus on the eternal not the temporal.
2nd- Focus on the internal and not the external.

Jesus makes a way, over and over, for all to come to terms with being lost to self so that we can be found in Him. "If you grasp and cling to life on your terms, you'll lose it, but if you let that life go, you'll get life on God's terms." (Luke 17:33)

I would much rather have life on God's terms!

Stewardship :: I am a Gardner

I was interviewed by a student for their Earth Ethics Class Recently. Below is the answer to the question: How does your faith and philosophy view the relation between humans and the natural world? Where do we fit and why? (Our conversation earned the student an A-.)

As a Christian I believe that all things were created by God, purposefully ordered and fashioned by His creativity but not just as an example of His artistry. In the book of Genesis God creates Adam to have relationship with Him, and he experiences a relationship of un-equals where God is superior. With Eve, Adam experiences a relationship of true equals and with the totality of creation, Adam experiences a relationship of Un-equals again where he is superior. In all three instances a partnership of sorts is present. (Gen: 2) But what informs my philosophy towards the natural world is the understanding that before God would allow man to experience the gift of  Eve and the ability to partner with an equal in life, God first allowed Adam to exhibit the God shared attribute of a relationship of un-equals.

God appoints man as “caretaker” of the garden and “steward” to the earth. The example of Genesis is clear, man has been given authority over creation by his creator, God, but this authority must always be tempered by our understanding of the partnership between un-equals.  The manner in which God chooses to treat humanity, as valued and important ( though completely inferior to God ) becomes the bench-mark by which humanity should treat Gods creation. Man’s duty than is to manage the affairs of this planet not on his own behalf but on the behalf of the greater partner, God.

Genesis 8:22 sums up my philosophy toward issues of the environment: “For as long as Earth lasts, planting and harvest, cold and heat, Summer and winter, day and night  will never stop." I truly believe, regardless of wither or not humanity is contributing to climate change, God has ordained the length of time the Earth will last. In as much as I can, my mandate is to then live as the best steward of God’s creation as I can.

Nepios or Paidion :: Childish vs. Child Like

I’m impressed by the power of hero’s, their ability to captivate and inspire the imagination. I don’t think it chance or happenstance that causes a little boy to dream of the day when he is able to run in to a burning building and rescue a family, or follow the clues to track down a bank robber. A hero, for a little boy, is like experiencing Christmas every day. To raise our hands above our heads as we win the race, conquer our opponent, maybe fly into space is the fuel of a heart that has yet to be jaded by the word impossible.

I wonder why is it that, as an adult I forget the gift of fearlessness and selflessness that I had as a kid. When was it that I began to let go of those truths I intuitively knew as a child; that I could do anything, that nothing was impossible, that Faith & Hope & Love was all that I would ever need. Who was it that convinced me otherwise, why was it that they felt they needed to “help me see reality”?

I attended a Men’s Conference March the 21^st -24^th and I was able to see shadows and glimpses of the little boy that had dreams of designing the tallest building in the world. In fact, as a result of the Goodfellas Conference, I was able to see many men rediscover a treasure they had lost. For a precious moment, an instant, pride & ego surrender to humility & meekness and men were fine with that because they were at peace with themselves. I tweeted how I was in awe of God’s work in the hearts of the men that surrounded me. For a few days men became boys and nothing was impossibale.

At this men’s conference were real heroes; a Police officer who rescued a man from a burning car, a Special Forces Colonel who puts his life on the line during war time to secure our freedoms, an 8x Mr. Olympian a Light Weight Boxing Champ and a world class sharp shooter who all had dreams as a child that helped shape their adult lives. These men reminded all the men in the room that boy hood dreams can and do become reality!

My mind was able to capture the power, and majesty of Christ’s exhortation in Luke chapter 18 vs. 16 & 17 when Jesus called the children to him and said, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. Truly I tell you, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.” There is a principle that we adults often miss, and in doing so we do an injustice not only to ourselves but to the kingdom of God. We confuse the power of being “child-like” with the crippling nature of being “childish” and in doing so limit the potential of God to work in us.

I believe I Corinthians 13:11 has a lot to do with why we forget and forgo being child-like, “When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things.” Here is the rub; Paul in I Corinthians uses a very different Greek word than the word Jesus uses in Luke. Paul’s word is nēpios, which means an infant or baby. Jesus’ word of choice is paidion, which means a little boy or girl. Could it be that Paul simply wants us to stop being big babies and Jesus longs for us to believe in the imposable which for Christ is the literal?

With that in mind, I choose to believe the following;

1.      Hope is the seed, faith is the fruit!

2.      Hope is more powerful than fear, children live this out & adults forget.

3.      A dream is a destination God has given you, faith is the road.

4.      Wither you believe you can or can’t, you are right!

Authority :: Trusting the Doc

   For most of my adult life I've gone to my doctor for a yearly check up. A little maintenance is a good thing, but sometimes maintenance leads to a little more follow up. Now here is one of the most interesting aspects of my relationship with my doctor, I don't always understand him: it’s as if he speaks what seems like a foreign language and though he writes in English, his prescription pad needs a Rosetta stone to be deciphered.  But I am in awe of him, how some words on a piece of paper will cause a response in so many differnt people.

   The doc orders test and exams and though he does not perform them, he receives the results and is able to discern an aspect of me that is hidden, something to be brought to light. He takes that which was hidden, but now known, and makes a decision on what I need to be made well. My doc picks up his prescription pad and writes a script which though I can read, I don't necessarily understand. I take that script to the pharmacy and wonder of wonders, it becomes filled.

Why?

   The authority of the doctor causes nurses to listen and pharmacist to fill the script. The reputation of the doctor brings confidence. Though I value the authority of the doc and his reputation, it is my trust in the doc which leads me to action. I trust him because I believe one simple truth, that the doctor wants me to be better.

   I trust the doctor; I trust the authority of the doctor. I trust that my doctor knows more than I do and knows how to resolve my issues. But here is the thing; I place my faith not just in his authority but also in his ability! So though I may not understand his means or his methods, I'm willing to act on his means and methods because I have faith that my doctor is able to do something others cannot do.

    As a result of my time with my doc, I have a new found insight into so many of the interactions of Jesus, many of the miracles of Jesus.  Matthew ch 8 is a brilliant example of one, a Roman centurion comes to Christ and testifies to the power found in authority   "For I am a man under authority, having soldiers under me: and I say to this man, Go, and he goeth; and to another, Come, and he cometh; and to my servant, Do this, and he doeth it." Clearly this Roman is setting up the paradigm of Jesus’ authority. But Jesus does not commend the centurions understanding of Christ's authority but his faith in Christ's ability.

   We can know something to be true and still not be operating in faith. “Faith is sometimes as simple as acknowledging the authority; believing in the ability, and operating in that reality.”

Here are three questions that I’ve come to ask myself regarding my faith in Christ & would challenge you to ask them of yourself:

1.      Do I believe that Jesus has Authority?

2.      Do I trust that he wants the best for you?

3.      Do I have faith that He will do what only He can do?

If you answered yes to all three, than why not remove the “do” and turn those questions into declarative statements & start Trusting the Doc of Doc's today!

Seven Practices :: The Gift of Time

   Recently I had a conversation with a friend about the liturgical calendar and the nature of time. The importance of remembering it and the need we have to mark it.  That conversation as well as the celebration of my father’s 70^th birthday caused me to remember a song & the wisdom of King Solomon. In October of 1965 the book of Ecclesiastes became part of popular culture as the folk rock band, The Byrds, arranged Ecclesiastes chapter 3 into a hit single. In their words:

To Everything (Turn, Turn, Turn)
There is a season (Turn, Turn, Turn)
And a time to every purpose, under Heaven

Solomon wrote in Ecclesiastes vs. 1, “There's an opportune time to do things, a right time for everything on the earth…” Think about it, God has orchestrated time and has designed it with purpose and forethought. We have the ability to experience time and have it inform the way in which we live out our lives. Sadly, all too many miss the preciousness of this gift and rather than using it soberly, waste it on vain pursuits or selfish ambitions.  

The ancients of the faith had a fantastic understanding of God’s gift of life! It was because they chose to maximize the inherent potential found in time by practicing disciplines that would govern the observance of time. I would submit that there were at least seven of them:

   1. Meal with God, Reflects our Communion with God

   2. Offering to God, Reflects our Union to God

   3. Fasting from the natural, Reflects our Dependence on God

   4. The Day is governed by fixed hour prayer, Reflecting our Reliance on God

   5. The Week is governed by The Sabbath, Reflecting our Trust in God

   6. The Seasons are governed by The Feasts, Reflecting our Belief in God

   7. Our Life is governed by a great Pilgrimage, Reflecting our Commitment to God

   How different would the life we lead be if the above governed our every moment? The first two deals with our relationship with God, the third deals with personal space and reflection, numbers 4-6 deal with our personal use of time and the seventh is the ultimate litmus test of our life. The use of the above seven practices have the intended outcome of creating a life dependent, not on the lack of time but the need to worship throughout time. There are many inequities in this world, but one thing we all have in common is the amount of time each day presents.

God desires us to know that there is:

A right time for birth and another for death,
            A right time to plant and another to reap,
            A right time to kill and another to heal,
            A right time to destroy and another to construct,
             A right time to cry and another to laugh,
            A right time to lament and another to cheer,
             A right time to make love and another to abstain,
             A right time to embrace and another to part,
             A right time to search and another to count your losses,
            A right time to hold on and another to let go,
            A right time to rip out and another to mend,
             A right time to shut up and another to speak up,
             A right time to love and another to hate,
             A right time to wage war and another to make peace.

I think it is so interesting that twice a day time actually resets itself, making way for things to be forgotten and new decisions to be made. 2 Corinthians 5:17 would encourage us to forget the ills of the past for the promise of a present with Christ; “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!”

Yet the remembrance of significance throughout the bible is actually encouraged, men and women moved to mark moments. In some instances God commanded and in others, the offering of a joy filled heart. I believe we are called to be stewards of all that god has entrusted us with, this then must also include Time! I love the exhortation of Galatians 6:9, “So we must not grow weary in doing good, for in due time we will reap, if we do not give up.” I pray that your due time be as near as the new day.