Book review: Fearless November 2, 2009

I’ve always enjoyed Max Lucado’s writings, and his most recent book Fearless lived up to my expectations for inspiration and hope. He has a way of sharing his own life experience and connecting it straight to the Biblical story. Sometimes, I admit, I am a little jealous about some of this stories. He got to go in a fighter plane one day…not something I ever expect to do! However, it finds a connection to my own life…when I’m in a figurative downward spiral.

From his experience in the plane sitting right behind the fighter pilot:

Didn’t take me long to figure out where to stare. No more looking down or out. My eyes were on the pilot. If T-Mac was okay, I was okay.
I know where to stare in turbulence. Peter learned the same lesson the hard way. Exchange the plane for a thirty-foot fishing boat, the San Antonio sky for a Galilean sea, and our stories begin to parallel. “But the boat was now in the middle of the sea, tossed by the waves, for the wind was contrary” (Matt. 14:24).

I can think of many times when I’ve felt like I had no where to look in my life without getting nauseated by what I’d see. Until I remembered to just look at Christ, and focus there until the turbulence passed. Max has such a way of reminding us of these simple truths! Thanks, Max.

Everything October 29, 2009

This week we’ve been thinking a lot about giving at the church. Tonight is our annual budget meeting, and our committees and staff have spent a lot of time praying about where to put our funding next year and what we might expect financial giving to be like next year.

This week I’ve had the honor of hearing various video testimonies from people about how giving influences them and their families. A number of people were very clear – the give because everything we have is God’s anyway. I know that I am moved to give because of everything I’ve been given comes from God. When you really think about it tithing isn’t a Christian’s financial goal, but a starting place. God is everything to us and therefore why would we want to give all that we have back to God?

Strong as a triple braided cord October 22, 2009

A verse often read at weddings comes from Ecclesiastes 4:9-12 (NLT),

Two people are better off than one, for they can help each other succeed. If one person falls, the other can reach out and help. But someone who falls alone is in real trouble. Likewise, two people lying close together can keep each other warm. But how can one be warm alone? A person standing alone can be attacked and defeated, but two can stand back-to-back and conquer. Three are even better, for a triple-braided cord is not easily broken.

The point is that the couple is stronger together than they are alone, and strongest together with God they are like a triple-braided cord. I like this verse, and this week it has been in my mind as a reflect on the frequent stories I hear of church members caring for one another.

One man whose teenage son was killed in an accident last year found solace and comfort through prayer at his small group on Sunday morning. A woman who reached out to the daughter of a woman who died this spring and suggested a wonderful way to celebrate her mom’s birthday and honor her memory that day. The many people who visit in the hospital and nursing home so that members of our church will be prayed with and reminded that they are loved by us and by God.

I think one of the greatest gifts of the church is the opportunity to be in community with one another so that when crisis hits we have someone to stand with us, and that we stand together with God in our midst so that we are as strong as a triple braided cord.

The woman at the well October 15, 2009

This week I’ve been thinking a lot about the woman at the well, who went in the middle of the day. Jesus asked her for some water, and instead she discovered the source of living water.

She was there at the well in the middle of the day, in the heat of the day, at a time when there wouldn’t be many others there. She wasn’t welcome because of the choices she’d made in life. Yet, Jesus sought her out.

Think this post captures very powerfully the essence of the story.

Thanks for your prayers October 9, 2009

Thanks to all of you who have been praying for my cousin Jimmy. He died on Monday and his resurrection Mass was yesterday.

I was privileged to do some of the readings for the service, and had forgotten how long it had been since I’d been to a Catholic funeral! The day was filled with lots of tears and laughter. The good news is that this is not a final goodbye, but in the meantime it is still a heart-wrenching time.

Book Review: The Noticer by Andy Andrews September 29, 2009

The  Noticer by Andy Andrews can be summed up by an introduction given by the main character, Jones, “I notice things about situations and people that produce perspective.” The book follows his varied connections to members in a small ocean-side town, and the amazing impact his periodic visits have upon their lives. He pops in and out of their lives over the course of many decades, and truly helps each on to find perspective on their own lives.

The book can be read in one brief sitting and will inspire hope and motivate those who themselves need to have an encounter with Jones and find perspective for their own situation. Most likely someone’s story will intersect with the reader’s own life.

However, after page 36 I found myself becoming increasingly frustrated with the book. Suddenly Jones’ wisdom was clearly cleaned from other authors, and from there his wisdom devolved into trite Christian culture clichés

At first, I enjoyed the wise sayings espoused by Jones, thinking it was a non-fiction story. Instead, The Noticer turned out to be a pseudo-spiritual story with a small town messianic figure named Jones. If it were an allegory for orthodox Christian theology I would have found it satisfying, but by the end I was once again disappointed by the perpetuation of American Folk Religion disguised as the Truth.

What God can accomplish September 24, 2009

Today I’ve spent the whole day listening to a variety of theology lectures and enjoying the company of other provisional elders from the southeastern jurisdiction of the UMC! I’m at the Simpsonwood Conference Center in Atlanta. Not currently underwater, but there are still many homes recovering from the flooding!

In one of our reflection questions a table-mate shared that in his church he has really had a “ministry of expectation.” In the 4 years he has been there the church has learned more about praying and expecting God to act. When we serve a Living God we can rely on the power of prayer to actually make a difference in this world! That doesn’t mean we “get what we wish for” but prayer changes us, and it impacts this world through God’s grace.

Last month I read a quote that asked me, “What am I going to do today that the smartest atheist in town can not?” Some ministers make the mistake of thinking they’re a social worker, or something other than a person who serves a Risen Lord and proclaims a Gospel of Good News! I know that every day no matter what else I have on my schedule, because I am able to pray and that makes an impact in my life and in this world then I have opened myself up to letting God use me and do something through my ministry that could never happen if I were simply a smart atheist!

Live Like You Were Dying September 13, 2009

It struck me this morning during John’s sermon that we’re starting this “live like you were dying” sermon series right at the same time that my cousin Jimmy actually is dying. He’s had cancer and lived almost two years longer than the doctors thought possible. Now, he is in hospice care and he knows he’s dying. He hasn’t eaten in over a month, and when I visit him he looks visibly thinner by the time I leave some hours later. Yet- he is still talking and laughing and praying and caring. He is blessed with the most amazing spirit of paying attention and caring about other people.

When a new nursing assistant comes into his room he always asks their name, and he remembers them. He thanks all of his caregivers by name. When I think of the people who I see every day – store clerks, postal employees, cashiers at Panera, I know only a few of their names. Yet the ones I do know appreciate that I stop and use their name when I thank them. It is an easy thing to do when they wear name tags, it only take a few seconds, and yet it reminds them that I appreciate them as a person.

This isn’t a gift of mine like it is for Jimmy, but it is something simple that I’m going to keep practicing. And maybe, many years from now when it is my turn to prepare to leave this earth I’ll have the sounds mind to thank each and every one of my caregivers by name.

By the light of a silvery moon September 4, 2009

Last night I stood and gazed at the full moon. The power and beauty of a full moon always seems so calming.
Suddenly it struck me- the moon itself has no light. The moon simply reflects the light of the sun. When the moon turns in just the right way, and is at just the right spot in the sky (relative to me) the light is brightly reflected. Other times when the moon is turned differently I can only catch a glimpse of the power of the sun by way of reflection.

So it is with human beings. There are times when people, with no grace or love of their own to offer, almost fully and completely reflect the love and light of Christ to all the world.

Other times we turn slightly, and offer only a small reflection of the light of the Son.

I wonder if the change is cyclical like it is with the actual moon or if there is a way to always be in place to completely reflect the Son?

The Idea Camp! August 28, 2009

I’m at The Idea Camp today, and I’m so excited!