Eternally Present

Recently, I have been listening to the dramatized version of  “Screwtape Letters” produced by Focus on the Family.  There is one scene that hit me and seems to play in my head over and over again. Screwtape is encouraging Wormword to keep his patient thinking of either the past or the future but never the present. The present is the only point the patient can be in contact with the eternal. Screwtape directs Wormword to tempt his patient to think of the future and all the hypothetical possibilities he may face; in this the patient will attempt to stand up under pressure from events which will probably never happen. Screwtape makes it clear that the present is the most dangerous place for the patient to settle his thoughts because there he connects to God.

I have been seeking daily to live in the present and enjoy the day God has given me…whether it be filled with laughter of children, crying of children, smiles around the office, frowns around the office, hard work or leisure. Whatever the day may bring I am seeking to live in the present because it is the only place I can connect to all the resources God has given me to thrive in the world. There are lots of challenges to living this way; everything is pointing us to tomorrow or next week or next year. As I practice daily living I am filled with an overwhelming sense of Christ. Christ meets me in my daily need and daily anxiety…and promises to be with me if tomorrow should ever come.

If I am ever to be a person who is fully selfless and loving my neighbors it will be because I have died to ‘tomorrow’ and live fully in the present with the Christ. I can only love with the love of Christ and he gives me his daily manna of love to share with Mari, Madi, Ava, Claire, Adler, and you.

Be good to your sons and daughters

Of all the good works God prepared in advance for his people , the work of parenting children is paramount (Eph 2:10). If we do unbelievable feats in ministry or in a profession and do poorly at parenting we have done nothing worth discussing. It has been said, “parenting is hard”.  It demands focus for the long distance and attentiveness for the day to day challenges like running noses, boo boos, fevers and playing. Obviously, there are great parenting guru’s who can talk more about the principles and strategies needed to raise healthy children. Although the principles and strategies the experts teach can be productive for effective parenting, they will never give us all we need for the good work of parenting.

Parenting is a good work which God prepared in advance for us to do, and God promises us he will equip us for all good works. Paul encouraging Timothy in 2nd Timothy 3:16-17  reminds him of the origin and usefulness of scripture. In verse 16 he writes that scripture conveys truth about what to think and how to live. Then in verse 17 Paul writes through this truth we are “thoroughly equipped for every good work.” The Bible contains the truth we need for life and that truth gives us the tools we need for all good works. The temptation here is to think, “O the bible must be full of parenting advice so I will search it to fix my kid.” The Bible does have great parenting advice, but the equipping we need does not necessarily come by memorizing those parenting principles found in scripture, although that can help.  Instead the equipping we need for the good work of parenting comes through knowing our Father in Heaven and discovering how he parents. It is growing in intimacy with him that we find the equipping for the good work of parenting. In other words, becoming Godly parents is not about knowing the right verses in the bible, but knowing God through the scripture.  The pursuit of God is a long arduous process, but it is well worth the work due to the benefit our children receive.

We learn in Proverbs 14:26 (ESV) fearing and revering the Lord produces two outcomes. The first is strong confidence because we are coming to know the One who watches over us so we are able to move more freely knowing we are safe. The second is about our children and the benefit they receive from our pursuing God. The Proverb reads that our children will have a refuge when we fear or revere the Lord. Fearing God has more to do with knowing him intimately than knowing about him from a distance. When we seek God through his word and through prayer, he reveals his majesty and glory leaving us in awe, astonishment and fear. That attitude towards God creates for our children a place for them to be safe. It produces a shelter from the danger, storms and rain of this world. Our submission to the God of heaven gives our children a safe place to grow emotionally whole and spiritually informed.

Good parents may read parenting books which can be beneficial, but Godly parents will also pursue God through scripture thereby being thoroughly equipped for the good work in the bedroom down the hall.

 

 

waves

I grew up near the ocean and spent many child hood hours playing at the beach; I loved playing in the waves at the beach and actually do still. The bigger the better I say!  I especially liked the night after I spent an unreasonable time in the ocean. Do you remember?  You would crawl in bed exhausted and as you lay still your body had those internal motions like you were still in the ocean. I can distinctly remember enjoying that sensation.  

I recently read Mastery by George Leonard which is a great read and taught me much about myself and how to persevere through difficulties. One of his primary points is that to become good at anything, to master anything, you will spend the majority of your time on a plateau experience. He explains on the road to mastery you will experience little blips of progress followed by long periods of non-progress. He uses anecdotes from his experience as a martial artist to explain that if you become emotional about trying to advance you will lose ground, or, worse, you may get hurt.

Mastery has been an eye opening book for me in relationship to my desire to follow Jesus. His book is not written for Christians and in reality it is opposed to much of what is called spiritual growth. I grew up believing and teaching that spiritual growth is about peaks and valleys. We have heard the sermon about Peter being on the mountaintop with Jesus at the transfiguration but he had to go down the pastor will say because life cannot be lived on mountaintop experiences. I like many American teenagers of my day accepted that following Jesus was about these extreme valley and mountaintop experiences. I would go from camp, to conference, to retreat experiencing such great highs.  Then August, school and real life would come with the inevitable valleys. Having just turned 34 and still relatively young in this disciple thing, I am finally beginning to realize that Jesus’ earliest followers did not live this way. From reading their words there are minimal emotional appeals, and surely the emotional appeals which exist are not combined with high sugar diets, adolescent relationships and campfire songs.  

I think in my second half, I will view following Jesus more like a long plateau where I will be constantly learning the same lesson over and over followed by a blip then some progress and a new lesson that will be learned repeatedly until the next blip. I love the emotional charge just as much as the next guy. I mean it can be fun, but it is dangerous to think it produces real lasting fruit. It is much like the waves of our childhood…they are fun and they even last into the night, but in the morning they have departed and we are left with the reality of being on land!

The Apostle Paul speaking said something similar. Philippians 3:13-14 reads, “Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.” So we press on and enjoy the slow process of becoming like Jesus one blip at a time.

moving quickly

I am thankful I am part of a church that knows how to make decisions quickly and move forward especially in matters where lives are at stake. In roughly 24 hours we were able to make a decision about what our first response will be to the tragedy in Haiti. We believe this is the best way for our community to help in a tangible way.

New Community will be putting together hygiene kits for the people of Haiti. We are partnering with the United Methodist Committee on Relief to accomplish this. (Just a side note we are not a Methodist community and I love the fact that denominational lines do not stop the move of God.) UMCOR will be handling all the logistics of putting the kits in Haiti which makes doing this project so much easier.

So here is the deal, Sunday there will be Zip-loc style bags placed in the auditorium on each seat. The bag will contain a note that basically says “each kit costs $12.” You can give as little or as much as you like to help purchase the supplies for a hygiene kit. Literally we are asking people to put the money in the bag and at the conclusion of our gathering someone will collect the bags from you as you leave.

All money placed in the bag will be used for the hygiene kits. Volunteers will go out next week and purchase all the supplies. I know you may ask, “can I just bring in some ____________ (insert hygiene item)?” We specifically did not want to ask people to bring in hygiene items, because inevitably we will not have enough of certain items to make complete kits. By asking you to fund the kits a few volunteers will be able to buy enough of the items to ensure we have complete kits. In addition, we have already begin to get retailers in the local area to partner with us in discounting the product…which is awesome.

Once all the items are purchased those who are interested in helping put the kits together will have an opportunity. More information will follow about that soon.

I am praying for a pouring out of generosity. I cannot imagine what our Haitian brothers and sisters are facing. Losing all they have, facing the death of loved ones, and realizing it will be years before they recover. There is so much they need and a hygiene kit will not even begin to scratch the surface. However, I love what Karen Slappey said to me earlier today. “If we do nothing else but provide a band aid to a mother who is desperately trying to comfort her child…then so be it.” I know when Madi has a ‘boo boo’ a band-aid seems to make it all better.  So by providing a band-aid we can comfort both child and mother.

I pray you and your family will find 12 bucks each so that we together can be the hands and feet of Christ serving a hurting people…with something simple like a hygiene kit.

A great talk for anyone who leads a team

Questions to consider

• Can you lead with less control or a different kind of control?
• Must “control” be a zero-sum game?
• Is there joy in leading by helping other people tell their own stories?
• Is leadership only about technique or is it more about meaning?
• Are we using team members, employees, or students as instruments for our own ends or are they viewed as partners, where their development is a central consideration for us?
• Is not leadership also about creating the processes, structure, and conditions that allow team members to perform autonomously? Can you still be “in control” and let people be/feel free? Can the structure create the conditions for that freedom?

**Questions taken from presentationzen.com.

enzymes and such

Over the past few weeks the men’s group I lead has been discussing a few verses in 1 Peter 4:12-19. It seems that much of Peter’s letter to the brothers and sisters in Asia Minor is about suffering and standing up under persecution. It is clear that Peter is echoing the words of Jesus in this letter, particularly Matthew 5:10-12. In studying scriptures like 1st Peter I grow even more convinced of God’s inspiration of the scriptures. As Peter is encouraging these early Christians to stand up under the persecution they were facing he uses a strategic word to awake them to God’s detailed involvement in their lives. In verse 19 he writes, “So then, those who suffer according to God’s will should commit themselves to their faithful Creator and continue to do good (emphasis mine).” He could have referred to God as the “faithful Father” or “provider” however, I believe he chose “creator” on purpose. Could it be that Peter, living in the first century and with his limited education, knew through the Holy Spirit that the world around us was designed by a creator who was in the details? With modern science we know that the created order sits on razors edge. It is the culmination of countless details falling right in place to make our bodies survive and our planet habitable. Peter draws upon the image of a creator to encourage these followers of Jesus to trust that creator and continue to do good. It is our inclination to believe in the midst of suffering we have been abandoned by God but this strategically chosen word reminds us that He is right in the middle of all our suffering working and leading us to do good. 

What might it be like?

Ava and Claire will be here Wednesday April 22nd at 12:30pm. As I am standing on the brink of this life altering moment it is a simple thing for which I am thankful. Madilyn’s birthday is August 22nd and I can never remember that. There is a long story behind why I cannot remember or why I just refuse to remember. However, now with Ava and Claire coming on April 22 all my children (so far) will have been born on the 22nd. I am thankful for this because I usually allow more into my life than I can possibly handle so something being simplified like everyone’s birthday being on the 22nd is a help.

I am nervous about raising three girls. A close friend of mine has helped me understand how the world is not all that fair to women and growing up as a woman can be very difficult. I hope I can communicate daily their amazing worth and value to both their mother and I and their Creator. Of course making this decision is easy and probably overrated, what is difficult is managing the decision daily.

I think we all invest our energy on a wheel of activity that will not in the end satisfy us like the energy we invest in our children. The energy we invest in our children actually creates an energy source for our lives later. As I pour my life into Madilyn, Ava and Claire, yes, it makes me tired but memories are generated and stored and later they become fuel for me as an old man to know I lived well. In addition, and this is even better, they become fuel for the girls to help them make the best decisions, to live confidently and trust the God of heaven.   

So the decision is made but then making decisions is overrated…managing and following through with that decision for the duration is the key.

A ‘Moment’ In Twenty09

I wonder what the the Father thinks of all our new year promises each revolution around the sun? I spent some time this morning thinking of last years ‘promises’ or resolutions for 2008 and sadly they did not get far beyond January. For some reason though that will not hinder me from sitting down at some point today or tomorrow and making some goals for ’09. There is something about us as humans that keeps us convinced that the future can be better than the present. We are always hopeful for tomorrow. If you were to ask us for some evidence as to why we are hopeful for tomorrow, our best evidence would be circumstantial and something along the lines of a hunch. I mean we can point to coming things and know that at their coming our lives will be better, for example, this year Mari and I will have child number two and three at the same time. We have good evidence that leads us to believe that life will be better in the future. But most of the time we have no strong evidence that our lives will be better in the future. And even our evidence of Mari’s growing belly and numerous ultrasounds is dependent on God’s continued protection of our little ones.

The reality is most of us spend the majority of our lives in the past reflecting or in the future dreaming. We look to the past and reflect which causes either joy over happier days or guilt due to poor decisions and maybe a little of both. We look to the future with hope of better days, or of things working out the way we wish them. Wherever we spend most of our mental living, either the past or the future, while we are there we miss the place life is actually happening. Maybe this year, we will not think about the year, and only think about the day. I am learning about myself that I am most happy when I am not looking backward or dreaming forward too often, but instead just enjoying the moment that is grace filled.

You see our pasts are full of forgiveness, and our futures do have hope because God has promised good to us, but our present is where his true riches are…right now in this moment. see them….?

twins

I have not sat down and wrote for a while because the greatest news that I could ever imagine has taken place in our lives and it has not settled in yet. Marianne is pregnant with twins and that is amazing. When we lost the last pregnancy due to it being tubal I had great pain and we both were not sure we ever wanted to go through another pregnancy but God had other plans. Don’t get me wrong we played a part in it as well but his sense of humor is truly amazing. I am working steadily on pushing anxiety and stress out of my life over this pregnancy because I do not want to be living inconsistently with what I preach and believe. So we are enjoying this ride God has placed us on because he is the author of our lives.

It is amazing what the Father is teaching me through this. Central is in a bad way with finances and it is going to take courageous and massive faith based leadership to lead her to healthy place. I would think this would have me stressed to the end but for some reason I got very little personal anxiety over the church. I guess it is like our lives…he is the author of Central’s story and I am a character in her story and will play my role in the way he leads. I know that the coming weeks and months will be hard as we restructure as an organization but anything worth having or doing is going to be hard. I am praying for my own leadership and fortitude and toughness so I will be able to withstand the challenges which face us. Truly what a crazy world our world has become but none of this has caught the father off guard and could it be possible that for this reason I was called to Lawrenceville…I hope so and that hope is enough…for now.

Thanks for reading.

no hotdog for him

How can it be that much of what we do in Christ’s name and for God’s glory we do as if God is a spectator in our little screwed up world we are trying to manage? I am growing convinced that as we lead in a local congregation we do so without really believing that God is active in all situations. Don’t get me wrong when something good happens in our ministry we are quick to say this is God moving in our lives and in our ministries but when negative things happen we somehow think God is absent or just watching us flounder in our efforts. This is weird but I think pride for me is more of a problem when things are not good as opposed to when things are good. When something truly incredible takes place I am quick to say, ‘this is God and it has nothing to do with me’. But, as soon as things take a negative downturn I am wondering how I can control it or fix it. Immediately my pride kicks in through the avenue of worry and anxiety causing me to believe that somehow I am responsible for the outcome. The fact of the matter is, if the positive things in God’s church are not about me or because of me then the negative things that inevitably happen are not either. If God is sovereign then he is sovereign over all or nothing. If he is in control then he is moving and working in all things for his glory. Whether it is comfortable, enjoyable or even painful for me does not figure into the equation.  As in all situations I am simply responsible to show up and pursue living like Jesus with a reckless abandon. I am learning that God is not in the stands with a foot long hot dog watching me try to lead His Church. No he is our captain on the field leading us to victory for his glory, honor and fame.