Hey all! Merry Christmas! We met Thursday night - yes the night of the ice storm - and had a great time. We began with the question , "What's your favorite place to be in the winter?" We had a fun time talking about it and, as usual, learned some things about each other.
We then spent a little time celebrating how good God is...we brought a cradle with some straw in it and we spent some time talking about how cool it is that the God we talk about and enjoy is willing to give up palaces for the scratchy straw and stink of a manger, much less for the other things He endured in His lifetime, all because of a love for us. We relished that, in a world filled with uncertainty and loss and unhappiness and dissatisfaction, we have an example in our God of unselfishness and caring and wonder. He allows us to be optimistic in the midst of a pessimistic world outlook. That is worth noticing!
After this, we shared our worries and concerns by writing them, either confidentially or not, on paper and placing them in the straw. We then prayed for them and invited God into the problems and then each took one to pray for in the next 2wks. Praying for them simply means that we talk to God about it and ask that He will help with the issues written on the paper and the person/people who are struggling with whatever it is. By doing this, we get closer to each other and to God and our problems become more bearable - plus we have seen some pretty amazing things come from these prayers!
Last we had some learning about something that many Americans run after with all they are - convinced if they can just get enough of it, they will be happy, only in the end to find it to be like smoke in the wind - gone before you can grab it - like it says in Ecclesiastes chapter 1. We have been talking about a lot of these things over the last months - this time?
Acceptance.
We realize that there are people who are convinced that if they can just have enough friends, keep everyone happy and loving them that in the end, they will be happy. What they find is that the friends disappoint or worse yet, use them, their own self dissolving into what other people want them to be. Finally, falling down, exhausted and dissatisfied and declaring that it was all "smoke." This is a trap that has led many people to get pregnant prematurely, to use drugs "to fit in", to sacrifice their integrity "because everyone is doing it," and on and on and on - never leading to a happy or satisfied end point - there is always someone else to "please"
The truth is that in God we find the ability to attempt to try to feed joy and love into other people, but without the burden of having to please them and be accepted by them to make us satisfied with life. He is the one who gives us our value (try a little kids book called You are Special - by Max Lucado) and living for the acceptance of people will never please us or unleash the truth of who we were made to be like loving Him will.
If you struggle with the pursuit of acceptance as the ultimate "more" in your life and it has left you burdened and exhausted, consider beginning a conversation with God - start simply - just tell Him what's up and ask if He will help - if you need help - consider coming 1/8/09 to our next get together at McAllister Center or comment on the blog and we will try to help too!
Thanks and we will look forward to seeing you all then!
Sunday, December 21, 2008
Saturday, December 6, 2008
12-4 A Seasonal Experience
Hi Everyone!
We had a great time last Thursday night - as we seem to each time we meet. If you weren't able to make it, we missed you and will look forward to seeing you 12/18 at McAllister Center - 6:45-8:00 PM!
We began with some time relaxing and talking about music. We started with the topic "What's your favorite song?" and I was quickly put in my place to be informed that that was impossible for most people, and instead we mostly had a really cool time of laughing and discussing the significance of music in our lives - and yes - I even sang a LITTLE bit. It was not pretty and I had to lock the door to keep people in, but - just kidding - i t was a fun and insightful time.
We then spent some time focusing on the amazingness of God - as usual we try to notice the wonder all around us and this time we put our coats back on and took a short walk into the 10 degree weather. This was quite shocking to some of our lungs - especially those with asthma - sorry - but as we returned to the inside and took some time to really direct our minds to the tingle of the cold as it left our faces and the feel of the sharp air in our noses and lungs when we stepped out and then took some time to remember the first warmth of the sun in those late March days and then tidal wave of heat we feel when we leave the air conditioning in late July and the coolness of the air, warmth of the sun and crunch of the leaves under our feet in October, it was really fun and uplifting, in a world of pain and suffering, many of us dealing with it right now, to remember that there is a God who puts that all in play and is in control of it all. What's more, He wants to be part of our lives - to live with us and love and be loved by us. The hands that shape the seasons hold us - that is worth noticing. Many people may say it is all just an accident - that nature and the seasons and wonder of the world happened by some cosmic cloud and millions of years. But it only takes a second in the shock of the cold in your nose, to begin to realize the amazing complexity of life and our responses in it - to us it seems almost ludicrous that there is not a marvelous creator behind it all!
We then had a couple people share some amazing things that are happening in their own lives. It is humbling and exciting to see some of the things that God is doing in people who are coming to More than more and searching for Him!
We then shared some things in our lives that were serious and a concern to us by writing them on a piece of paper, anonymously or not, and then each chose a paper to talk to God about them over the next 2weeks until we meet again. We like this because we feel it draws us closer together, sharing the pain that each of us experiences, and because it invites God into the problems with us - and if He's big enough to shape the beautiful seasons, He's big enough to help, console, and bring peace to, us in the middle of the crap that we often encounter in life.
Next we had some group discussion time about another of the things that many people "run" after in life. We all agree that people are almost all trying to get "more" of something and that these "mores" don't end up satisfying in the end. In past weeks we have discussed money, pleasure, fitness and health, success and this time we discussed Religion and right living. We spent some time discussing the end point of Religion as something that is most important to people and where it tends to lead - to depression and self degradation, because it is impossible to keep every rule all the time - or to self-righteousness and judgmentalism, because we become convinced that we are keeping all the rules all the time and anyone who isn't is inferior to us. We talked about the fact that, in the end, Religion's pursuit has led to Ethnic Cleansing, Crusades of death, Cults, Terrorism and on and on throughout history - all in the name of "god." This is a massive tragedy and a perversion and distortion and even complete destruction of the wonderful world and the story God wants to write in this world. I have no doubt it grieves Him more than almost anything else that mankind has screwed up over the millenia of our existence.
So, if you find yourself trying to follow all the religious rules and doing your best to meet the demands of Religion, but seem to just get discouraged and frustrated at your inability to do it all, all the time. Or, if you find yourself having thoughts of other people's inferiority to you...thinking "How can do that?" "How can they be that way." Feeling that you have all the answers in your religion, and that others are lame, and mentally putting them down because of it. If either of these is where you live, you need to consider that your pursuit of Religion has blocked your pursuit of the God who the Religion was invented to honor. My advice would be that you being asking Him to bring you to a place where you are relying on Him, talking to Him, growing closer to Him, not to the Religion. You may find that the ideas of the Religion make more sense and are much more peaceful and joyful!
One last thought - If you are one of the people who the pursuit of Religion has harmed because people have judged you - rest assured that love is what God and More than more have for you. We are not perfect by any means, but we are striving to create a non-judgmental place where people can be real and find the true God. We hope to see you this Thursday at 6:45-8:00PM at McAllister Center in Lafayette.
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=mcallister+center,+lafayette,+indiana&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=31.564064,73.828125&ie=UTF8&ll=40.441027,-86.874426&spn=0.007398,0.018024&z=16
We hope to see you there!
We had a great time last Thursday night - as we seem to each time we meet. If you weren't able to make it, we missed you and will look forward to seeing you 12/18 at McAllister Center - 6:45-8:00 PM!
We began with some time relaxing and talking about music. We started with the topic "What's your favorite song?" and I was quickly put in my place to be informed that that was impossible for most people, and instead we mostly had a really cool time of laughing and discussing the significance of music in our lives - and yes - I even sang a LITTLE bit. It was not pretty and I had to lock the door to keep people in, but - just kidding - i t was a fun and insightful time.
We then spent some time focusing on the amazingness of God - as usual we try to notice the wonder all around us and this time we put our coats back on and took a short walk into the 10 degree weather. This was quite shocking to some of our lungs - especially those with asthma - sorry - but as we returned to the inside and took some time to really direct our minds to the tingle of the cold as it left our faces and the feel of the sharp air in our noses and lungs when we stepped out and then took some time to remember the first warmth of the sun in those late March days and then tidal wave of heat we feel when we leave the air conditioning in late July and the coolness of the air, warmth of the sun and crunch of the leaves under our feet in October, it was really fun and uplifting, in a world of pain and suffering, many of us dealing with it right now, to remember that there is a God who puts that all in play and is in control of it all. What's more, He wants to be part of our lives - to live with us and love and be loved by us. The hands that shape the seasons hold us - that is worth noticing. Many people may say it is all just an accident - that nature and the seasons and wonder of the world happened by some cosmic cloud and millions of years. But it only takes a second in the shock of the cold in your nose, to begin to realize the amazing complexity of life and our responses in it - to us it seems almost ludicrous that there is not a marvelous creator behind it all!
We then had a couple people share some amazing things that are happening in their own lives. It is humbling and exciting to see some of the things that God is doing in people who are coming to More than more and searching for Him!
We then shared some things in our lives that were serious and a concern to us by writing them on a piece of paper, anonymously or not, and then each chose a paper to talk to God about them over the next 2weeks until we meet again. We like this because we feel it draws us closer together, sharing the pain that each of us experiences, and because it invites God into the problems with us - and if He's big enough to shape the beautiful seasons, He's big enough to help, console, and bring peace to, us in the middle of the crap that we often encounter in life.
Next we had some group discussion time about another of the things that many people "run" after in life. We all agree that people are almost all trying to get "more" of something and that these "mores" don't end up satisfying in the end. In past weeks we have discussed money, pleasure, fitness and health, success and this time we discussed Religion and right living. We spent some time discussing the end point of Religion as something that is most important to people and where it tends to lead - to depression and self degradation, because it is impossible to keep every rule all the time - or to self-righteousness and judgmentalism, because we become convinced that we are keeping all the rules all the time and anyone who isn't is inferior to us. We talked about the fact that, in the end, Religion's pursuit has led to Ethnic Cleansing, Crusades of death, Cults, Terrorism and on and on throughout history - all in the name of "god." This is a massive tragedy and a perversion and distortion and even complete destruction of the wonderful world and the story God wants to write in this world. I have no doubt it grieves Him more than almost anything else that mankind has screwed up over the millenia of our existence.
So, if you find yourself trying to follow all the religious rules and doing your best to meet the demands of Religion, but seem to just get discouraged and frustrated at your inability to do it all, all the time. Or, if you find yourself having thoughts of other people's inferiority to you...thinking "How can do that?" "How can they be that way." Feeling that you have all the answers in your religion, and that others are lame, and mentally putting them down because of it. If either of these is where you live, you need to consider that your pursuit of Religion has blocked your pursuit of the God who the Religion was invented to honor. My advice would be that you being asking Him to bring you to a place where you are relying on Him, talking to Him, growing closer to Him, not to the Religion. You may find that the ideas of the Religion make more sense and are much more peaceful and joyful!
One last thought - If you are one of the people who the pursuit of Religion has harmed because people have judged you - rest assured that love is what God and More than more have for you. We are not perfect by any means, but we are striving to create a non-judgmental place where people can be real and find the true God. We hope to see you this Thursday at 6:45-8:00PM at McAllister Center in Lafayette.
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=mcallister+center,+lafayette,+indiana&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=31.564064,73.828125&ie=UTF8&ll=40.441027,-86.874426&spn=0.007398,0.018024&z=16
We hope to see you there!
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
You are so safe
Good morning. A couple of hours ago I woke to the not quite desperate, but close, voice of Sophia, my 5 year old, “Mommmmmiiiiiieeee!” from her room. Over the years these visits have taken on a wide variety of concerns and conversations, most of which have not been earth shattering so, being always concerned about my wife getting all the bonding time she can with the kids I asked her if she wanted to go. “No, if it’s Sophia, it’d be better if you did.” Ok, so as I rolled out of bed and staggered to her room, I started to ask in my head why exactly it was better for me to go and then reminded myself that it was a chance to see my little one for a precious minute – even if it was 3:00 AM.
I walked into her room, straight to her little princess-like bed (she is, after all, the little princess in the family) and found her eyes WIDE open and her breathing heavy. She pressured out the words, “Daddy,” almost sighing it out, as if the name itself was already bringing her relief, “I had a bad thought.” This to Sophia means any number of things, like bad dream, scary thought, saw a shadow, etc, but none good.
Easing out of my sleepiness, I slowly touched her golden blond hair and looked intently straight into her eyes, “Honey, you are so safe. There is a magical force field of God’s love around you all the time and mommy and daddy are right here protecting you too. God guards you with His angels. You have nothing to be afraid of.” Her fear melted away, her eyes softened at first and then closed, the tightness and anxiety in her body relaxing in trust of me and the words/touch I had brought and great big, loving God who backed me. She may have been asleep before I left a few seconds later.
It was then that I realized, as she relaxed in my presence, that it was very good that I had gone and not Melissa. You see, sometimes I really struggle with “bad thoughts.” I begin to get afraid of what the future might hold. I look around me and see the trouble and pain and loss. I see the circumstances. I see the failure of people. I feel the pressure. I see my own inconsistencies and inadequacies and I begin to doubt God. I wonder if He is there and taking care of all the details or more often if He would do anything in someone as messed up as me. Sometimes I even spiral in these thoughts and they begin to dominate me – threatening to swallow up my faith in storms of worry. I am not excited to admit this to you, but it is real, raw and where I live.
It is at times like this that it is really good to be a dad – my message for my 5 year old, so heartfelt and true – is exactly God’s message for me. I could almost feel him touch me on the shoulder, then pull me into His arms, as I sat on Sophia’s bed. “Jason, you are so safe. I am watching over everything you do and are and are becoming. I have you. Be at peace.” And there, a princess’ room becomes a sanctuary where God speaks to little girls and their daddies and storms of doubt and worry melt away in the protection and magical force fields that our God brings.
In Colossians Chapter 1, the Message version, it says, “I, Paul, have been sent on special assignment by Christ as part of God’s master plan (italics and bold are mine)…” This may seem like something very easy to pass by as you may begin the reading of Colossians, ready to delve into some major, heavy truth. But, don’t let yourself move past it too fast. This is amazing. God has a “master plan.” He has people included in it. I am part of it and so are you and so are all of us, all of creation. I don’t know about you, but that is a peaceful thought to me; that a good God has a plan and has me in it…that is so amazing! You see, He has me…and you…so rest. No, things will not always be easy or perfect. Life is hard sometimes – much more so than little Sophia realizes. But, He has me…and you…and He is the one who made it all and has a plan for it all…so rest, be at peace…let your “bad thoughts” go, your mind relax, your thoughts calm, your worries fade. You are so safe.
More than more will not meet this week because of Thanksgiving (we hope that your time with your families and friends will be awesome!). We will meet again next Thursday 12/4, 6:45-8:00 PM at McAllister Center - see previous posts for links on how to get there.
But this is the kind of thing we relish in More than more. That there is something/someone far more wonderful and amazing in this life than just the running, clamoring, grasping and kicking and screaming after more that our society pushes. You may run after money, toys, pleasure and fun, addictions, fitness, relationships, religion, power and success, education, etc - but none of these will fill you up - they will all end the same - "dust in the wind" At More than more - we look for and enjoy the More beyond the mores - we hope you will join us.
I walked into her room, straight to her little princess-like bed (she is, after all, the little princess in the family) and found her eyes WIDE open and her breathing heavy. She pressured out the words, “Daddy,” almost sighing it out, as if the name itself was already bringing her relief, “I had a bad thought.” This to Sophia means any number of things, like bad dream, scary thought, saw a shadow, etc, but none good.
Easing out of my sleepiness, I slowly touched her golden blond hair and looked intently straight into her eyes, “Honey, you are so safe. There is a magical force field of God’s love around you all the time and mommy and daddy are right here protecting you too. God guards you with His angels. You have nothing to be afraid of.” Her fear melted away, her eyes softened at first and then closed, the tightness and anxiety in her body relaxing in trust of me and the words/touch I had brought and great big, loving God who backed me. She may have been asleep before I left a few seconds later.
It was then that I realized, as she relaxed in my presence, that it was very good that I had gone and not Melissa. You see, sometimes I really struggle with “bad thoughts.” I begin to get afraid of what the future might hold. I look around me and see the trouble and pain and loss. I see the circumstances. I see the failure of people. I feel the pressure. I see my own inconsistencies and inadequacies and I begin to doubt God. I wonder if He is there and taking care of all the details or more often if He would do anything in someone as messed up as me. Sometimes I even spiral in these thoughts and they begin to dominate me – threatening to swallow up my faith in storms of worry. I am not excited to admit this to you, but it is real, raw and where I live.
It is at times like this that it is really good to be a dad – my message for my 5 year old, so heartfelt and true – is exactly God’s message for me. I could almost feel him touch me on the shoulder, then pull me into His arms, as I sat on Sophia’s bed. “Jason, you are so safe. I am watching over everything you do and are and are becoming. I have you. Be at peace.” And there, a princess’ room becomes a sanctuary where God speaks to little girls and their daddies and storms of doubt and worry melt away in the protection and magical force fields that our God brings.
In Colossians Chapter 1, the Message version, it says, “I, Paul, have been sent on special assignment by Christ as part of God’s master plan (italics and bold are mine)…” This may seem like something very easy to pass by as you may begin the reading of Colossians, ready to delve into some major, heavy truth. But, don’t let yourself move past it too fast. This is amazing. God has a “master plan.” He has people included in it. I am part of it and so are you and so are all of us, all of creation. I don’t know about you, but that is a peaceful thought to me; that a good God has a plan and has me in it…that is so amazing! You see, He has me…and you…so rest. No, things will not always be easy or perfect. Life is hard sometimes – much more so than little Sophia realizes. But, He has me…and you…and He is the one who made it all and has a plan for it all…so rest, be at peace…let your “bad thoughts” go, your mind relax, your thoughts calm, your worries fade. You are so safe.
More than more will not meet this week because of Thanksgiving (we hope that your time with your families and friends will be awesome!). We will meet again next Thursday 12/4, 6:45-8:00 PM at McAllister Center - see previous posts for links on how to get there.
But this is the kind of thing we relish in More than more. That there is something/someone far more wonderful and amazing in this life than just the running, clamoring, grasping and kicking and screaming after more that our society pushes. You may run after money, toys, pleasure and fun, addictions, fitness, relationships, religion, power and success, education, etc - but none of these will fill you up - they will all end the same - "dust in the wind" At More than more - we look for and enjoy the More beyond the mores - we hope you will join us.
Thursday, November 13, 2008
Tonight
Tonight we will be hanging out at McAllister,6:45-8:00PM - see previous posts for the link to the place - it's very easy to find.
We are planning on having an unusual time of noticing the good of God around us tonight - I think you'll love it...and hope you have a chance to make it.
Of course, free childcare will be provided.
The discussion time planned is about the Pursuit of Religion and Right Living as something to make life fulfilling and meaningful. It should be spirited.
Looking forward to seeing all of you!
We are planning on having an unusual time of noticing the good of God around us tonight - I think you'll love it...and hope you have a chance to make it.
Of course, free childcare will be provided.
The discussion time planned is about the Pursuit of Religion and Right Living as something to make life fulfilling and meaningful. It should be spirited.
Looking forward to seeing all of you!
Friday, October 31, 2008
Well, last night we had another great time of hanging out and discovering how cool God is. It was really good to enjoy laughing and talking about our favorite holidays and hearing the stories that accompany them.
We spent time celebrating the amazingness of God by noticing how magnificently He has made people. We did this by writing down something about people, or a particular person, that is just really amazing and wonderful and then some decided to share these with the group. It was really awesome to hear some of the things we appreciate so much about others and then to give thanks to the God who made us that way. We decided that if we would go about our days and notice God's wonderful creativity in the people around us (no matter how obnoxious they may be), that our lives and the people's around us, would likely be better because of it and that, even more, we would be closer to God if we went around thanking Him and celebrating with Him, the intricacies of humans!
After our time of celebration, we shared issues, concerns, problems in our lives by writing them on individual papers (optional to attach names) and then drawing someone else's to talk to God about on a daily basis over the next 2wks. This is one way to support and care for each other and to inite God into the problems we face with us. It helps - life is not easy, in fact, it is downright painful a lot of the time - and this a great way to weather some of the storms.
We then spent some time learning about how Americans pursue perfection in their bodies as a "more" that we crave to fill the emptyness inside. We talked about fitness and health and anorexia/bulimia and how many people are obsessed with the perfect body, physique, etc. We talked about how the American culture and media seems to push this on us way more than we realize and it is a very easy trap to fall into. We discussed how hard this is, especially for young women growing up in our land. Unfortunately, at the end of the path to "perfection" there is nothing but "smoke." The grasping after the perfect leaves people feeling emptier than when they began and they often times abandon the things in life that are more important along the way.
The answer to this emptyness is to see that you were wonderfully made and are loved and accepted as you are by God. He is not there to pound you into some perfect little model. He lovingly wants you to simply become all you can be, in Him. My advice, begin by simply talking to Him. Say, "God, I don't know much about all this stuff, but I want to live my life less empty and more with meaning and purpose. Would you please help me?" If you will do that on a regular basis, you will begin a wonderful journey!
Please let us know if we can help in any way...
Until 11/13 at 6:45-8:00PM at McAllister, take it easy!
We spent time celebrating the amazingness of God by noticing how magnificently He has made people. We did this by writing down something about people, or a particular person, that is just really amazing and wonderful and then some decided to share these with the group. It was really awesome to hear some of the things we appreciate so much about others and then to give thanks to the God who made us that way. We decided that if we would go about our days and notice God's wonderful creativity in the people around us (no matter how obnoxious they may be), that our lives and the people's around us, would likely be better because of it and that, even more, we would be closer to God if we went around thanking Him and celebrating with Him, the intricacies of humans!
After our time of celebration, we shared issues, concerns, problems in our lives by writing them on individual papers (optional to attach names) and then drawing someone else's to talk to God about on a daily basis over the next 2wks. This is one way to support and care for each other and to inite God into the problems we face with us. It helps - life is not easy, in fact, it is downright painful a lot of the time - and this a great way to weather some of the storms.
We then spent some time learning about how Americans pursue perfection in their bodies as a "more" that we crave to fill the emptyness inside. We talked about fitness and health and anorexia/bulimia and how many people are obsessed with the perfect body, physique, etc. We talked about how the American culture and media seems to push this on us way more than we realize and it is a very easy trap to fall into. We discussed how hard this is, especially for young women growing up in our land. Unfortunately, at the end of the path to "perfection" there is nothing but "smoke." The grasping after the perfect leaves people feeling emptier than when they began and they often times abandon the things in life that are more important along the way.
The answer to this emptyness is to see that you were wonderfully made and are loved and accepted as you are by God. He is not there to pound you into some perfect little model. He lovingly wants you to simply become all you can be, in Him. My advice, begin by simply talking to Him. Say, "God, I don't know much about all this stuff, but I want to live my life less empty and more with meaning and purpose. Would you please help me?" If you will do that on a regular basis, you will begin a wonderful journey!
Please let us know if we can help in any way...
Until 11/13 at 6:45-8:00PM at McAllister, take it easy!
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
What can I say? I was grumpy...
Well, hello again! It has been an interesting nearly 2weeks for me. I am looking forward to sharing time with you all this Thursday night at McAllister Center - 6:45-8:00PM, as usual.
But, I must admit to you, in spite of the fact that I am supposed to be "noticing God" and leading this group...in spite of the fact that I spend my days face to face with thousands of people who, know it or not, come to me to see the love of God in me...I have been grumpy. Please do not assume there is a reason - I have tried and tried to analyze what it is that has made me grumpy. Why it is that I am behaving in such an unbelievably selfish way. There is no reason. I am just grumpy and selfish and darnitall - I want what I want and I want it 5 minutes ago (or more). This is the way I have felt more in the last 2 weeks than I remember feeling in a long time. It has disturbed my relationship with my wife, made my staff look at me crossways and prompted several of the people I serve to serve me, by noticing that I was just not myself! I have been pitiful! Yet, as I have been behaving this way, in thought and action, I am painfully reminded of something I read recently by Donald Miller - If I want to see the problem with the world, the lostness and pitifulness of the world, I only need to look into the mirror! This is not to say that I do not believe in God or His love for me, or His wonderful world and the joy of it, which surrounds me all the time, and which we spend lots of time talking about in More than more. What it means is that, as Miller says, I think about me most of the time. Most of my actions and thoughts circle around myself. Even after years of noticing God, I tend to often be the most important person to me.
This gets very frustrating to me sometimes, actually more frustrating with the more I grow in God's love...and most of the time I am repeatedly redirecting (or more specifically allowing God to redirect) my thoughts and actions away from myself and to the awesomeness of God or to the needs of other people.
But there are other times, times I'm not particularly proud of, when it is not very frustrating, at least not like it should be. I almost relish my selfishness in these moments and am horrified in a strangely tolerant way when I look in the mirror and see the "problem with the world!" It is almost like watching a really scary movie and you know you're going to have bad dreams, and maybe even not want to go into the woods for quite a while, certainly not to any remote cabins...but you watch with one eye open, enjoying the badness, but angry at yourself for enjoying it at the same time.
So, there I am, grumpy, selfish, and not even having any good reason for being that way, ond one morning I head to St Elizabeth hospital, here in Lafayette, to see my morning patients. This year is different than previous ones in that my youngest, Sophia, is old enough to come along. So, this particular morning, 9 yr old Emily, a little grumpy, 7 yr old Nate, a little grumpy, and 37 yr old Jason, majorly grumpy, were heading through St E with 4 yr old Sophia, not in the least bit grumpy. We walked in the back door and smelled the hospital smell (usually I don't mind, but with the aura of grumpy surrounding, I cringed at it) and began up the stairs to the 1st floor where the doctor's lounge is and where the kids pick up poptarts for breakfast. Me, Em, and Nate all dragged ourselves up the stairs and Sophia bounded up them and that's when it happened:
Sophia, still a "slow-goer" on stairs, paused and looked up. This is one of those old time stairwells with the open center that allows you to see all the way to the top if you look in just the right way. She saw the twisting of the architecture and it just tickled her all the way to her toes! She grinned first, then giggled, and then bubbled all that enthusiasm and joy all over my grumpiness. She said, "Look Daddy, it goes round and round and I can see all the way up from here, Hee Hee Hee!" as she smiled from ear to ear. At that point, I was first thinking of raining my grumpy authority all over her parade of joy, but then paused, looked up with her and relished for a moment how cool it really did look. In that small moment, she washed away some of my grumpies and a daddy saw how an amazing God can use a little munchkin of a girl to change a heart's focus, that I might be able to look in the mirror after that and see a little bit of the "answer to the world's problem
," not in me, but in a God who gives doses of bubbly 4yr olds at just the right time!
," not in me, but in a God who gives doses of bubbly 4yr olds at just the right time!I hope that you don't feel defeated when you feel grumpy - it's normal! Sometimes within Christianity there is a tendency to only focus on and admit to the good things. My friend Tim calls it the "Painted on church face." I have seen it my whole life in church. It was one of the reasons at one point in my life I decided that this whole church and Christian thing was not for me (I know, don't freak out - it's true, but read on!). I was trying to live this life just trying really hard to keep all the rules and be everything that everyone said I needed to be. Yet, it didn't feel true in my heart. I was not always full of joy. I was not always noticing the good stuff. Sometimes God even felt like a taskmaster who expected more from me than I could ever be!
Then I found the real God. Not the one who the church people of my upbringing hounded me with (and I hounded myself with). Not the one who expected me to somehow be more than I was able to be, but the One who wanted to make me more than I ever thought I could be. The one who loved (loves) me (and you) so much that He gave His blood, His pride, His position, His authority, His everything to show us how much He loves us! He did that before I began writing for Him. He did it before I started groups and before I started noticing His wonders around me and before I started loving the people of this world for Him. This can only mean one thing: He only expected (expects) me to be, to think, to feel, what I am able to at this moment, right now, and nothing more. He accepts me totally, as long as I am looking, searching, groping for the way to have the best relationship with Him that I can. That is all I can do - He does the rest. He irons out the grumpies and shows me the wonder of the staircase, through the eyes of a 4 yr old.
Hope this helps!
See you Thursday!
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
How's it going?
How's it going? We hope with you it is good. With More than more, things are going well. Last Thursday we met at McAllister. It was a great time of hanging out - no high pressure - no fanciness...just a time of enjoying time together, and looking at God, who is the best.
We started with chatting and chilling out a little, to the question (posed by my friend Rick) "If you could be a super hero, which one would you be?" After laughing our way through the answers, from mom to superman, we had some time of looking at how cool and big our God is.
This week we spent time looking at how amazing our sense of touch is. We closed our eyes and touched cotton, jello, warm water, rice, sand. We thought about how amazingly our sense of touch is made...and how wonderful each of those feelings is on our fingers. We pondered the memories that arise as we feel sand and all that those conjure in us. We thought about how good it feels to be touched when you're sick...how sometimes it feels better than all the medicine int he world. In the middle of all this, we celebrated the God who gave us such an amazing sense and all the wonderful touches there are in the world - from the skin of babies, to the heat of the shower, to the crunch of the leaves in our hands. Then to consider how life can take on a different view if we notice this every day...this tends to build a friendship with God! It was a fun time.
Then we took some time talking and praying over things going on in our lives. We believe that sharing our concerns with each other and then talking to God (this is praying) about them invites Him into them and into our lives as we live them and that this helps a lot - it does not always make all our issues resolve or problems solve, but when He is in them with us, they are better somehow - hard to explain. This time is always gently done - all shared stays within the group - no one is made to feel they "should" share, but having people around who actually are trustworthy and care for no other reason except that they care, provides a place to share in safety if people want to.
We then celebrated the happiness of being friends with God and hung out and talked for a while, leaving slowly to our homes.
We will do something similar to this again on 10/30 - at 6:45PM-8:00PM at McAllister Center in Lafayette. As always, there will be free/fun childcare. We hope you can make it!
(Here is the google maps link: http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=McAllister+Center+Lafayette+Indiana&ie=UTF8&z=9)
We started with chatting and chilling out a little, to the question (posed by my friend Rick) "If you could be a super hero, which one would you be?" After laughing our way through the answers, from mom to superman, we had some time of looking at how cool and big our God is.
This week we spent time looking at how amazing our sense of touch is. We closed our eyes and touched cotton, jello, warm water, rice, sand. We thought about how amazingly our sense of touch is made...and how wonderful each of those feelings is on our fingers. We pondered the memories that arise as we feel sand and all that those conjure in us. We thought about how good it feels to be touched when you're sick...how sometimes it feels better than all the medicine int he world. In the middle of all this, we celebrated the God who gave us such an amazing sense and all the wonderful touches there are in the world - from the skin of babies, to the heat of the shower, to the crunch of the leaves in our hands. Then to consider how life can take on a different view if we notice this every day...this tends to build a friendship with God! It was a fun time.
Then we took some time talking and praying over things going on in our lives. We believe that sharing our concerns with each other and then talking to God (this is praying) about them invites Him into them and into our lives as we live them and that this helps a lot - it does not always make all our issues resolve or problems solve, but when He is in them with us, they are better somehow - hard to explain. This time is always gently done - all shared stays within the group - no one is made to feel they "should" share, but having people around who actually are trustworthy and care for no other reason except that they care, provides a place to share in safety if people want to.
We then celebrated the happiness of being friends with God and hung out and talked for a while, leaving slowly to our homes.
We will do something similar to this again on 10/30 - at 6:45PM-8:00PM at McAllister Center in Lafayette. As always, there will be free/fun childcare. We hope you can make it!
(Here is the google maps link: http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=McAllister+Center+Lafayette+Indiana&ie=UTF8&z=9)
Thursday, October 2, 2008
A Thankful Night
Well, tonight we had a great time spreading some joy and thankfulness! We went to a local nursing home and then to a fire station down the road to say "Thank you." to some people, like the nurses, kitchen workers and assistants at the nursing home and the firefighters, who rarely ever get thanked for what they do.
It was a joy to share love and kindness with people who were positively stunned that anyone would care about them. Plus, it was lots of fun!
This is what following Christ is all about...caring about people...just because.
If you weren't there, we missed you and will hope to see you in 2 wks (10/16 - see below) at McAllister, 6:45-8:00PM, as usual.
(This took so long to get out because it took me this long to figure out how to attach the picture!)
Wednesday, October 1, 2008
Tomorrow
Hi everyone!
Tomorrow will be our 3rd community reach out night - basically, from the beginning of the idea of this group of people, we wanted to be a group not focused on ourselves...we see that as a problem of its own in our society, this underlying self-focus. So, we planned that we would regularly go into the world around us and do something good for someone else. That is what tomorrow is!
We will meet at McAllister Parking lot, at 6:45PM sharp and go from there...kids and all.
So, plan to be there and have tons of fun!
Tomorrow will be our 3rd community reach out night - basically, from the beginning of the idea of this group of people, we wanted to be a group not focused on ourselves...we see that as a problem of its own in our society, this underlying self-focus. So, we planned that we would regularly go into the world around us and do something good for someone else. That is what tomorrow is!
We will meet at McAllister Parking lot, at 6:45PM sharp and go from there...kids and all.
So, plan to be there and have tons of fun!
Friday, September 19, 2008
More of last night
Hi to all!
Last night we had an amazing time of fun and celebrating, of concern and caring, and of learning. It was really cool. There was no fakeness, no false or trumped up images to portray or keep up. There was tons of laughter, and quite a few tears...real people sharing something More than the more we spend most of our time searching for. It was good.
We began by talking about our favorite restaurants - the answers, as I'm sure you can imagine, were pretty wide, but it was nice to remember and enjoy something light and relaxing. If you were there, please add your restaurant and info to the blog, so those of us who want to go to them can remember!
After settling in a little, we took some time to recognize that there is something amazing and wonderful about this world and life that is bigger than us: God. Our worship, which is the word we use to describe this recognizing, was all about taste. No, not taste in clothes or good sense in color coordination, but the sense of taste in your mouth and the memories that come with it and how amazing and wonderful it is to be able to taste so many things - that the sense is made so cool (I'm sorry, but convincing me that it developed as some accident would seem pretty far fetched) - and even more, how many wonderful tastes there are! It is a reminder, as simple as it is, that the world is full of the wonder and awe of God. Unfortunately, if you're like me, you forget this most of the time and live a life consumed with the ordinary.
So...next time you taste peanut butter, salt, cane sugar, honey, chocolate, maybe it would be better to really pay attention to the sense and the taste and all it brings to your mind if you settle into it for a little bit and then maybe in your own way, have a moment of thanks and smile about a God who is big enough to make it all and yet loves us enough to make it so wonderful!
After being thankful, we shared stuff that we were going through and enjoyed some time talking to God about it. This, we drew 3 crosses on a dry erase board and then gave everyone the chance to come up and write a picture, a symbol, or whatever to show their need. Then we looked around and really tried to see each other clearly for a minute, with the idea of praying for the concerns written on the board while remembering the faces around the room. By the way, by praying for each other, we believe we involve God in our lives and that this really helps even the hardest times.
After sharing for a little (and as corny as it may sound to some of you, the time of sharing and prayer was really cool), we had one of the people who has been coming to the group share about how God has really been changing his life and some of the people around him. It was cool to hear the realness of God in a real person's life.
Last we had some teaching and then finished with some communion bread brought by Becky Livingston, which was fabulous, celebrating our the love God has for us!
Out teaching was by a guest speaker. She has had major problems in her life, including drug addiction, being lost to her children, and being put in prison. At the end of her searching for control and pleasure in all the drugs, and finding that the promise of happiness and joy in them vanished like smoke in the wind, she cried out to God to either kill her or allow her to go to prison. After landing in prison, she was introduced to the idea that there was a God who loved her very much and she decided that she wanted to live going after His More, rather than hers, which had lead her to such destruction. Recently, she said to me, now married, with a good job and respected by her children, "I never knew I could be so happy." Translation, the happy, the joy, the meaning in life...the satisfaction and truth...the balance and perspective is found in God...in searching for and trying to get closer to Him. This is not religion for the sake of guilt or because we should. This is not religion to seem better or to convince everyone of how good she is. This is the "I've finally found something that makes everything make sense" kind of thing...and it's what this group is all about.
If you find yourself slamming through your days, spending your time not getting what you feel you should out of life. If the things that you shoot for, go after, strive for, and live trying to get do not seem to ever satisfy you, this good woman's story is speaking to you - consider beginning a search for the amazing God, the More, who puts it all in it's right place and can help you say, "I never knew I could be so happy."
Next time we will be doing our community outreach - where we go and do something nice for someone, just because - I will keep you updated with the details!
Here's hoping that you have a "I never knew I could be so happy" kind of day!
Last night we had an amazing time of fun and celebrating, of concern and caring, and of learning. It was really cool. There was no fakeness, no false or trumped up images to portray or keep up. There was tons of laughter, and quite a few tears...real people sharing something More than the more we spend most of our time searching for. It was good.
We began by talking about our favorite restaurants - the answers, as I'm sure you can imagine, were pretty wide, but it was nice to remember and enjoy something light and relaxing. If you were there, please add your restaurant and info to the blog, so those of us who want to go to them can remember!
After settling in a little, we took some time to recognize that there is something amazing and wonderful about this world and life that is bigger than us: God. Our worship, which is the word we use to describe this recognizing, was all about taste. No, not taste in clothes or good sense in color coordination, but the sense of taste in your mouth and the memories that come with it and how amazing and wonderful it is to be able to taste so many things - that the sense is made so cool (I'm sorry, but convincing me that it developed as some accident would seem pretty far fetched) - and even more, how many wonderful tastes there are! It is a reminder, as simple as it is, that the world is full of the wonder and awe of God. Unfortunately, if you're like me, you forget this most of the time and live a life consumed with the ordinary.
So...next time you taste peanut butter, salt, cane sugar, honey, chocolate, maybe it would be better to really pay attention to the sense and the taste and all it brings to your mind if you settle into it for a little bit and then maybe in your own way, have a moment of thanks and smile about a God who is big enough to make it all and yet loves us enough to make it so wonderful!
After being thankful, we shared stuff that we were going through and enjoyed some time talking to God about it. This, we drew 3 crosses on a dry erase board and then gave everyone the chance to come up and write a picture, a symbol, or whatever to show their need. Then we looked around and really tried to see each other clearly for a minute, with the idea of praying for the concerns written on the board while remembering the faces around the room. By the way, by praying for each other, we believe we involve God in our lives and that this really helps even the hardest times.
After sharing for a little (and as corny as it may sound to some of you, the time of sharing and prayer was really cool), we had one of the people who has been coming to the group share about how God has really been changing his life and some of the people around him. It was cool to hear the realness of God in a real person's life.
Last we had some teaching and then finished with some communion bread brought by Becky Livingston, which was fabulous, celebrating our the love God has for us!
Out teaching was by a guest speaker. She has had major problems in her life, including drug addiction, being lost to her children, and being put in prison. At the end of her searching for control and pleasure in all the drugs, and finding that the promise of happiness and joy in them vanished like smoke in the wind, she cried out to God to either kill her or allow her to go to prison. After landing in prison, she was introduced to the idea that there was a God who loved her very much and she decided that she wanted to live going after His More, rather than hers, which had lead her to such destruction. Recently, she said to me, now married, with a good job and respected by her children, "I never knew I could be so happy." Translation, the happy, the joy, the meaning in life...the satisfaction and truth...the balance and perspective is found in God...in searching for and trying to get closer to Him. This is not religion for the sake of guilt or because we should. This is not religion to seem better or to convince everyone of how good she is. This is the "I've finally found something that makes everything make sense" kind of thing...and it's what this group is all about.
If you find yourself slamming through your days, spending your time not getting what you feel you should out of life. If the things that you shoot for, go after, strive for, and live trying to get do not seem to ever satisfy you, this good woman's story is speaking to you - consider beginning a search for the amazing God, the More, who puts it all in it's right place and can help you say, "I never knew I could be so happy."
Next time we will be doing our community outreach - where we go and do something nice for someone, just because - I will keep you updated with the details!
Here's hoping that you have a "I never knew I could be so happy" kind of day!
Thursday, September 11, 2008
Roads and Tires and Air and Stars
Lord,
You know that I am tired this morning. I am a little discouraged at my inability to do everything as well as as I feel I should, to be all I want to be. My stomach is a little yucky and my head a little fuzzy. My mind is tempted to gravitate toward things that will be a distraction from the concern and pain and frustration I feel inside. Yet, I am certain of Your provision for me...You will provide to me enough money, enough food, enough laughter, enough energy, enough time, enough words, enough peace, etc to live the most wonderful life. AS I look back on the days of my life, You have always been there, providing.
I was reminded of it today as I rode my bike in the neighborhood and wrestled with all this. I rode along on my bike, looking at the ground ahead of me. The streets that we have walked so many times as a family were dark and lit only by the streetlamps and the light on the front of my bike. Round and round the tire went as I prayed to You to re-energize, to re-inspire, to help me with this fatigue that threatens me and my day/life. Flying by under me was the ground, stones and blacktop, dirt and gravel. It seemed boring and apathetic - there was no encouragement in the ground this morning. Then, for an instant I looked up and remembered what was around me. There, spread across the sky, was a tapestry of stars, assaulting my nostrils were the wonderful peaceful scents of the woods, caressing my cheeks was the cool air of the fall morning...all around me the evidence of Your provision...it just had to be noticed and appreciated. My heart began to thank and praise You for the wonder of Your world...of the way You have created it and cared for it and the way You have created and cared for me. It was only to notice and allow my mind to move to Your perspective that was lacking in me.
Lord, if I am tempted in my journey today, or any day, to begin only seeing the road and not the world around me, only the revolution of tires and not the awesomeness of the big picture of how You've made me and the circumstances that surround me...how You work them all together, like the stars in the sky, to make my life full of joy and life and productivity and wonder, please help me to "look up" and take in the whole of it all and place in my heart a voice of thankfulness and trust in You.
I hope my heart's prayer from this morning will serve as an encrouagement to you. In one week we will meet again at McAllister Center at 20th and Schuyler in Lafayette, from 6:45-8:00PM. It will be a great time of shifting our focus from roads and tires to stars and air.
Hope to see you there.
Thanks
You know that I am tired this morning. I am a little discouraged at my inability to do everything as well as as I feel I should, to be all I want to be. My stomach is a little yucky and my head a little fuzzy. My mind is tempted to gravitate toward things that will be a distraction from the concern and pain and frustration I feel inside. Yet, I am certain of Your provision for me...You will provide to me enough money, enough food, enough laughter, enough energy, enough time, enough words, enough peace, etc to live the most wonderful life. AS I look back on the days of my life, You have always been there, providing.
I was reminded of it today as I rode my bike in the neighborhood and wrestled with all this. I rode along on my bike, looking at the ground ahead of me. The streets that we have walked so many times as a family were dark and lit only by the streetlamps and the light on the front of my bike. Round and round the tire went as I prayed to You to re-energize, to re-inspire, to help me with this fatigue that threatens me and my day/life. Flying by under me was the ground, stones and blacktop, dirt and gravel. It seemed boring and apathetic - there was no encouragement in the ground this morning. Then, for an instant I looked up and remembered what was around me. There, spread across the sky, was a tapestry of stars, assaulting my nostrils were the wonderful peaceful scents of the woods, caressing my cheeks was the cool air of the fall morning...all around me the evidence of Your provision...it just had to be noticed and appreciated. My heart began to thank and praise You for the wonder of Your world...of the way You have created it and cared for it and the way You have created and cared for me. It was only to notice and allow my mind to move to Your perspective that was lacking in me.
Lord, if I am tempted in my journey today, or any day, to begin only seeing the road and not the world around me, only the revolution of tires and not the awesomeness of the big picture of how You've made me and the circumstances that surround me...how You work them all together, like the stars in the sky, to make my life full of joy and life and productivity and wonder, please help me to "look up" and take in the whole of it all and place in my heart a voice of thankfulness and trust in You.
I hope my heart's prayer from this morning will serve as an encrouagement to you. In one week we will meet again at McAllister Center at 20th and Schuyler in Lafayette, from 6:45-8:00PM. It will be a great time of shifting our focus from roads and tires to stars and air.
Hope to see you there.
Thanks
Friday, September 5, 2008
Wow!
Well, last night we met together...this unusual combination of ages and backgrounds that we call More than More. We shared a really awesome time together. It was obvious that the time was more than just a day to day thing. It was a time that went above and beyond the everyday. We would love to see you there next time - 9/18/08 at McAllister Center - 20th and Schuyler ave, Lafayette - 6:45-8:00PM.
We started with a silly time talking about our favorite toys from childhood. These ranged from Gi Joe's to Lincoln Logs to Raggedy Ann dolls (that caught on fire) to Winnie the Pooh's (that got puked on) to Mary Kay make up and others. It was nice, after the busy day, to relax and just enjoy being silly with each other.
Next, as always, we tried to find a way to see the bigness of God and give Him credit, notice Him. We have done this in a wide variety of ways, but last night we each got a lump of play doh and toothpicks and were to either make or draw a picture of something that reminded us of how something amazing in the world around us. We had everything from poopy diapers (reminding us of how everything changes in life when you find out your wife is pregnant with your first child) to footprints of babies (reminding us of how each child and the relationships of each child are so wonderful and complex) to the sun (one reminding us of the seasons and the changing that happens in the world around us and one reminding us that God made the sun - and that some people over the years have even worshipped the sun - and one even with the earth and moon - and a little dog and guy - reminding us of nature all around us) to a Bible (reminding us that someone dear to us has been changed dramatically because of the power of God and the Bible in their lives - someone who we were not sure ever would see) to a smiley face (reminding us of the care of friends and family in times of need) to a heart (reminding us of love, and how amazing it is that we can love people so much) to a thumbprint (reminding us of the uniqueness of all people and how amazing they are...and how much they need to know about More in their lives). It was really a humbling and special time together, celebrating God in our worlds and lives. At the end of it all, we were again reminded that, no matter our perspective, attitude, issues, problems, etc, these things have been around us all the time...the wonder and awesomeness of God in them has been around us all the time - He has been consistent. We just don't always notice. We miss out on the uniqueness and awesomeness of the world around us, of people, or relationships and love, and on and on and on because we do not notice. Our perspective is slanted, warped, by the lifestyle of America and a distraction to run after all the things that we spend our time doing every day. Here is the take home message - Begin talking to God and/or us about this change in what you see and how you go about living. Ask Him to help you begin to notice his amazingness all around you every day. This is beginning to changing your frame of reference, your priorities, your perspective on life. This is the beginning of finding More than more.
Next we had a time of sharing things that were going on in our lives. We shared issues going on and bothering us and prayed for them together. We believe that praying for these things helps...it invites God into them with us and eases our pain. It was a good time.
Last we shared communion together over Chris' pumpkin muffins. They were fabulous! We enjoyed them and remembering the celebration of God in our lives.
We talked and relaxed for a little while and then headed home...noticing all the way.
If you were there, glad you came...if you were not, hope you can make it next time.
see you all
We started with a silly time talking about our favorite toys from childhood. These ranged from Gi Joe's to Lincoln Logs to Raggedy Ann dolls (that caught on fire) to Winnie the Pooh's (that got puked on) to Mary Kay make up and others. It was nice, after the busy day, to relax and just enjoy being silly with each other.
Next, as always, we tried to find a way to see the bigness of God and give Him credit, notice Him. We have done this in a wide variety of ways, but last night we each got a lump of play doh and toothpicks and were to either make or draw a picture of something that reminded us of how something amazing in the world around us. We had everything from poopy diapers (reminding us of how everything changes in life when you find out your wife is pregnant with your first child) to footprints of babies (reminding us of how each child and the relationships of each child are so wonderful and complex) to the sun (one reminding us of the seasons and the changing that happens in the world around us and one reminding us that God made the sun - and that some people over the years have even worshipped the sun - and one even with the earth and moon - and a little dog and guy - reminding us of nature all around us) to a Bible (reminding us that someone dear to us has been changed dramatically because of the power of God and the Bible in their lives - someone who we were not sure ever would see) to a smiley face (reminding us of the care of friends and family in times of need) to a heart (reminding us of love, and how amazing it is that we can love people so much) to a thumbprint (reminding us of the uniqueness of all people and how amazing they are...and how much they need to know about More in their lives). It was really a humbling and special time together, celebrating God in our worlds and lives. At the end of it all, we were again reminded that, no matter our perspective, attitude, issues, problems, etc, these things have been around us all the time...the wonder and awesomeness of God in them has been around us all the time - He has been consistent. We just don't always notice. We miss out on the uniqueness and awesomeness of the world around us, of people, or relationships and love, and on and on and on because we do not notice. Our perspective is slanted, warped, by the lifestyle of America and a distraction to run after all the things that we spend our time doing every day. Here is the take home message - Begin talking to God and/or us about this change in what you see and how you go about living. Ask Him to help you begin to notice his amazingness all around you every day. This is beginning to changing your frame of reference, your priorities, your perspective on life. This is the beginning of finding More than more.
Next we had a time of sharing things that were going on in our lives. We shared issues going on and bothering us and prayed for them together. We believe that praying for these things helps...it invites God into them with us and eases our pain. It was a good time.
Last we shared communion together over Chris' pumpkin muffins. They were fabulous! We enjoyed them and remembering the celebration of God in our lives.
We talked and relaxed for a little while and then headed home...noticing all the way.
If you were there, glad you came...if you were not, hope you can make it next time.
see you all
Wednesday, September 3, 2008
9/4 - tomorrow
Hi Everyone!
Tomorrow we will be meeting at McAllister, 6:45-8:00PM, see prev blog pages for links to directions...free childcare.
We will talking about life and having some fun with a whole new kind of experiencing of God - Hope you all can make it.
see you later
Tomorrow we will be meeting at McAllister, 6:45-8:00PM, see prev blog pages for links to directions...free childcare.
We will talking about life and having some fun with a whole new kind of experiencing of God - Hope you all can make it.
see you later
Signs in the Woods
You know that saying that says, “Fool me once shame on you. Fool me twice shame on me?” How about the one that says “The definition of bring an idiot is making the same mistake over and over?” Well, shame on me because I am an idiot…but let me explain, unless you already know me well – because all of you already know I am an idiot!
We like to pack up and go to Grand Haven, Michigan on Labor Day weekend and visit my Uncle Roger and our “cousins” (which includes his kids and their kids and a variety of others). We play on the beach and at the parks and baseball and soccer and everything fun. Grand Haven is an awesome place. It is situated on the Western side of Michigan, right on Lake Michigan. They seem to cater to outdoor life in this town. There are parks all over and, of course, wonderful beaches. There are cute little outdoor touristy shopping areas (we have decided that all towns with the word “haven” in them must be required to have these shopping strips!). Plus, what may be my favorite, biking trails. This whole town is covered in biking trails. Many are even paved and wide, with little miniature stop signs and everything. It is awesome! I love riding my bike and so whenever we come here we bring all the bikes and we truck all over, all five of us. But, early in the morning, when my family is sleeping off the intense playtime from the day before, I am up and biking by myself. In fact, this has become such a tradition that I have my favorite places to bike many of the places we go and Grand Haven is no exception. There, just up the road from Uncle Roger’s house, is Hofma Preserve. This place has great trails, through the woods and, at one point, across a boardwalk through Potawatomee Bayou (I know I thought Bayou’s were just in Louisiana too – so cool). This is a huge marsh, completely untouched and peaceful. I love to ride a while, then sip coffee while I sit on a bench in the Bayou and pray/write/read and allow the wonder of God’s creation to kind of percolate around my soul and mind. That is what I am doing this morning.
As I said before, I have biked these trails in the past, but was so excited to get on them this weekend. So, I began tearing into the trails yesterday just riding round and round all through the up and down of the hills and turns of the forest. After riding all over for quite a while, I decided that it was getting to be time to head back home and tried to find either one of the two trails that would lead me out of the maze of the forest and to the road home. I couldn’t find either. I kept coming back to the same spots, over and over and over again. The interesting thing was that there are a couple spots on the trails where there are maps on posts that say “You are here,” with a red dot marked on it for me. When I would come to those spots I would stop and check out the map, each time leaving quite certain that I knew the way out. But, each time I biked all over and returned to the map, rather than the road! Finally, frustrated ad hungry, I layed aside one of the cardinal rules of manhood and asked someone, “How do I get out of here?” They quickly pointed the way, I followed their instructions, and was out before I knew it. But, here’s what’s funny…and pitiful: I did the same thing today. I rode around and around and was thoroughly enjoying myself and then, when I decided I wanted to go…I couldn’t seem to find my way out, in spite of the signs. (this is the part where many of you will stop reading and decide to read something not written by an idiot – shame on me – and I am totally ok with that, but for those of you who want to continue on here we go) Finally, exasperated, I stopped and really looked at one of the signs. I looked back at the woods, back at the sign, back at the woods and thought about what those kind people with the black lab had said to me yesterday. Then the moment of truth…I looked down. The sign post was broken at the bottom, completely! It was leaning against a tree! Then I looked at the bottom of the sign post, back at the sign, back at the woods and I realized, whoever knocked the sign over and broke the post did not put the sign in the right place! I had been following this sign and it was not telling me to go the right way – it was not true.
This whole thing really makes me think, especially sitting out here on the bayou this morning. I think there are so many of us who ride the bikes of our lives day and after day after day, week after week after week, year after year riding around through the trails, not even looking at the signs, oblivious to what’s going on. At some point we decide that maybe it’s time to move on a little, get on to something else, something bigger and better than we have yet known. The path is not going where we thought it would, or we are tired and want to get out. So, we check out the signs. We look at all we see around us…we look into ourselves, and we see and hear the signs. They are telling us to make more money, to get more stuff, to become famous, to have more sex with more people, to go back to school and get that degree, to run away to some kind of something that will help you have fun, live the good life, and on and on. So, we try it. We follow the signs and, after riding that path all over the place, the signs lead us back to the same places again. We find ourselves seeing the same territory over and over and always coming back to the same signs. We see the broken relationships and losses and addictions and our own lostness in our selfishness and we mourn our inability to read the signs correctly, yet we don’t know anything else, so we try a different direction on the same sign and just end up in a different kind of loss and pain in the end. We feel like idiots, shameful and lost. What we don’t realize is that the signs are broken. All the routes on the signs are not wrong, they’re just really out of place. All the routes, taken together, in the right way, lead us to God; The Sign. He brings perspective to all the others, the money and the success and the sex and the education and all of it and allows us to finally figure things out. If you are frustrated with the path of your life…if you would like to go a direction that makes more sense and is more meaningful…if you would like to start finding the Sign, begin simply saying “Lord, I want to find the right way, but I don’t know how. Please show me the way,” and let us know too – we want to help.
But there’s a second group of people that this whole “sign” talk seems to point to. This is a group of people who look and look and look for some magical “life plan” that God has for you. You are looking for the 365 days per year manual of what you are to do with your life. You are humming through your days, in the American lifestyle, and yet are frustrated with God because He is not laying the sign out there that tells you where all your future is. This has been me. I have felt a “call” on my life for a long time and have been frustrated at not knowing where I am going. I have zoomed through day after day, doing as near as I could what God wanted me to do, but always feeling like there was something more. Well, it turns out I was right, and I was wrong. You see there was more, yet there wasn’t…and this is not intended to be some kind of weird “riddle me this Batman” thing. The problem wasn’t that I was somehow not doing what God wanted. I was on the right path. I was fulfilling the calling. I just didn’t see it. I didn’t rest and have peace in it. The biggest reason I didn’t is that I didn’t slow down enough to see the Sign clearly, interpret Him accurately, and live life from there. I think that many times Christian people are so wrapped up in the lingo of Christianity and all we say about God’s mission and all that that we forget that the prime mission is to “love God with all you heart, mind, soul and strength” and to “love your neighbor…” We are trying to live for God in our ultra fast paced society and placing our guidelines and societal baggage on God. When all He wants of us is to trust Him, the Sign, today, and to rest in Him, knowing that He will give us our mission, at the pace He chooses. When we slow down enough to do this, we interpret the Sign correctly and we live the call every day. It is an unleashed kind of existence I wish for all of you. If you struggle with not knowing exactly where you are to go for God for the rest of your life, I would humbly suggest, to you and to me, that we begin asking Him to simply be our Sign for the next moment and that He would help us trust Him for all the rest of our future.
We like to pack up and go to Grand Haven, Michigan on Labor Day weekend and visit my Uncle Roger and our “cousins” (which includes his kids and their kids and a variety of others). We play on the beach and at the parks and baseball and soccer and everything fun. Grand Haven is an awesome place. It is situated on the Western side of Michigan, right on Lake Michigan. They seem to cater to outdoor life in this town. There are parks all over and, of course, wonderful beaches. There are cute little outdoor touristy shopping areas (we have decided that all towns with the word “haven” in them must be required to have these shopping strips!). Plus, what may be my favorite, biking trails. This whole town is covered in biking trails. Many are even paved and wide, with little miniature stop signs and everything. It is awesome! I love riding my bike and so whenever we come here we bring all the bikes and we truck all over, all five of us. But, early in the morning, when my family is sleeping off the intense playtime from the day before, I am up and biking by myself. In fact, this has become such a tradition that I have my favorite places to bike many of the places we go and Grand Haven is no exception. There, just up the road from Uncle Roger’s house, is Hofma Preserve. This place has great trails, through the woods and, at one point, across a boardwalk through Potawatomee Bayou (I know I thought Bayou’s were just in Louisiana too – so cool). This is a huge marsh, completely untouched and peaceful. I love to ride a while, then sip coffee while I sit on a bench in the Bayou and pray/write/read and allow the wonder of God’s creation to kind of percolate around my soul and mind. That is what I am doing this morning.
As I said before, I have biked these trails in the past, but was so excited to get on them this weekend. So, I began tearing into the trails yesterday just riding round and round all through the up and down of the hills and turns of the forest. After riding all over for quite a while, I decided that it was getting to be time to head back home and tried to find either one of the two trails that would lead me out of the maze of the forest and to the road home. I couldn’t find either. I kept coming back to the same spots, over and over and over again. The interesting thing was that there are a couple spots on the trails where there are maps on posts that say “You are here,” with a red dot marked on it for me. When I would come to those spots I would stop and check out the map, each time leaving quite certain that I knew the way out. But, each time I biked all over and returned to the map, rather than the road! Finally, frustrated ad hungry, I layed aside one of the cardinal rules of manhood and asked someone, “How do I get out of here?” They quickly pointed the way, I followed their instructions, and was out before I knew it. But, here’s what’s funny…and pitiful: I did the same thing today. I rode around and around and was thoroughly enjoying myself and then, when I decided I wanted to go…I couldn’t seem to find my way out, in spite of the signs. (this is the part where many of you will stop reading and decide to read something not written by an idiot – shame on me – and I am totally ok with that, but for those of you who want to continue on here we go) Finally, exasperated, I stopped and really looked at one of the signs. I looked back at the woods, back at the sign, back at the woods and thought about what those kind people with the black lab had said to me yesterday. Then the moment of truth…I looked down. The sign post was broken at the bottom, completely! It was leaning against a tree! Then I looked at the bottom of the sign post, back at the sign, back at the woods and I realized, whoever knocked the sign over and broke the post did not put the sign in the right place! I had been following this sign and it was not telling me to go the right way – it was not true.
This whole thing really makes me think, especially sitting out here on the bayou this morning. I think there are so many of us who ride the bikes of our lives day and after day after day, week after week after week, year after year riding around through the trails, not even looking at the signs, oblivious to what’s going on. At some point we decide that maybe it’s time to move on a little, get on to something else, something bigger and better than we have yet known. The path is not going where we thought it would, or we are tired and want to get out. So, we check out the signs. We look at all we see around us…we look into ourselves, and we see and hear the signs. They are telling us to make more money, to get more stuff, to become famous, to have more sex with more people, to go back to school and get that degree, to run away to some kind of something that will help you have fun, live the good life, and on and on. So, we try it. We follow the signs and, after riding that path all over the place, the signs lead us back to the same places again. We find ourselves seeing the same territory over and over and always coming back to the same signs. We see the broken relationships and losses and addictions and our own lostness in our selfishness and we mourn our inability to read the signs correctly, yet we don’t know anything else, so we try a different direction on the same sign and just end up in a different kind of loss and pain in the end. We feel like idiots, shameful and lost. What we don’t realize is that the signs are broken. All the routes on the signs are not wrong, they’re just really out of place. All the routes, taken together, in the right way, lead us to God; The Sign. He brings perspective to all the others, the money and the success and the sex and the education and all of it and allows us to finally figure things out. If you are frustrated with the path of your life…if you would like to go a direction that makes more sense and is more meaningful…if you would like to start finding the Sign, begin simply saying “Lord, I want to find the right way, but I don’t know how. Please show me the way,” and let us know too – we want to help.
But there’s a second group of people that this whole “sign” talk seems to point to. This is a group of people who look and look and look for some magical “life plan” that God has for you. You are looking for the 365 days per year manual of what you are to do with your life. You are humming through your days, in the American lifestyle, and yet are frustrated with God because He is not laying the sign out there that tells you where all your future is. This has been me. I have felt a “call” on my life for a long time and have been frustrated at not knowing where I am going. I have zoomed through day after day, doing as near as I could what God wanted me to do, but always feeling like there was something more. Well, it turns out I was right, and I was wrong. You see there was more, yet there wasn’t…and this is not intended to be some kind of weird “riddle me this Batman” thing. The problem wasn’t that I was somehow not doing what God wanted. I was on the right path. I was fulfilling the calling. I just didn’t see it. I didn’t rest and have peace in it. The biggest reason I didn’t is that I didn’t slow down enough to see the Sign clearly, interpret Him accurately, and live life from there. I think that many times Christian people are so wrapped up in the lingo of Christianity and all we say about God’s mission and all that that we forget that the prime mission is to “love God with all you heart, mind, soul and strength” and to “love your neighbor…” We are trying to live for God in our ultra fast paced society and placing our guidelines and societal baggage on God. When all He wants of us is to trust Him, the Sign, today, and to rest in Him, knowing that He will give us our mission, at the pace He chooses. When we slow down enough to do this, we interpret the Sign correctly and we live the call every day. It is an unleashed kind of existence I wish for all of you. If you struggle with not knowing exactly where you are to go for God for the rest of your life, I would humbly suggest, to you and to me, that we begin asking Him to simply be our Sign for the next moment and that He would help us trust Him for all the rest of our future.
Monday, August 25, 2008
8/21 update
Last Thursday we met at McAlister and we just really enjoyed a true time with each other and God. It wasn’t fancy or uppity. It was just people, for real people, meeting together and recognizing the depth and amazingness of each other and searching into the amazingness of God. It was really cool, but also fun and relaxed and challenging…all of these things.
We started our time talking about our favorite scent. We laughed and enjoyed the variety of answers from fresh cut grass (not the crappy candle version) to roses (the peach kind are the best) to the smell of [clean] babies. It was a view into who we really are…not who we portray ourselves to be most of our lives.
As always, we prayed and invited God to join us and then we began our time of worship. Worship is simply a fancy way of saying that we notice God and celebrate how cool He is. In keeping with our “smell based” time, this week’s worship was all about smells. We closed our eyes and we tried to focus on God as we smelled things like play doh and cinnamon, chocolate and coffee, perfume and baby powder. We focused our minds on a God who is big enough to make a world that contains mountains and oceans, seasons and skyscrapers, but also loves individual people…like you and me. We savored the idea that there is a wonderful & loving, but still huge & awesome God who can make all these scents and the amazing sense of smell to take them all in. Plus, on top of all that, making the mind and soul in you and me that responds to smells with such gut wrenching passion (like the smell of your child or lover). It was really good.
After our time of worship, we always have a time of sharing things that are bothering us…hurts and issues and needs and concerns. We believe that, in sharing them, we break the power of them and in praying for them, we invite our giant God into them to help us through them. It is always good to share and pray.
Next, we had some learning and teaching. We read in Ecclesiastes chapter 1:
Ecc 1 “Smoke, nothing but smoke…There’s nothing to anything- it’s all smoke. What’s there to show for a lifetime of work, a lifetime of working your fingers to the bone? “What I’ve concluded is that so-called wisdom and knowledge are mindless and witless-nothing but spitting into the wind.” “I said to myself, “Let’s go for it-experiment with pleasure, have a good time!” But there was nothing to it, nothing but smoke.” “Oh, I did great things: built houses, planted vineyards, designed gardens and parks…then I acquired large herds and flocks, larger than any before me…I piled up silver and gold loot from kings and kingdoms, I gathered a chorus of singers to entertain me with song, and-most exquisite of all pleasures-voluptuous maidens for my bed. Oh, how I prospered…everything I wanted I took-I never said no to myself. I gave in to every impulse, held back nothing. I sucked the marrow of pleasure out of every task-my reward to myself…Then I took a look at everything I’d done, looked at all the sweat and hard work. But when I looked, I saw nothing but smoke. Smoke and spitting into the wind. There was nothing to any of it. Nothing.”
We have been talking about all the “more” that we in America spend almost all of our time chasing after; things like money and achievement and fame and fitness and beauty and religiosity and pleasure. We have been talking about them and what they do to us. A few weeks ago we talked about the pursuit of money and how it leads to nothing…smoke. Thursday we moved on to talk about the pursuit of pleasure.
We see people all the time whose pursuit of pleasure ends up in smoke and destruction. We see the 11, 12, 13 year old girls who look into our eyes with an emptiness never there before…their innocence is gone in a fleeting attempt for pleasure in the arms of a boy, and we grieve for what their pursuit of pleasure has led them to…smoke. We cry with the anguish of the abandoned family whose mother or father has left for another lover, or for another hunting trip, or whatever pleasurable thing called to them…mom or dad lost the “pleasure” in the way things were and felt they had to move on “to be happy.” We hurt in our own, well meaning, lives as we look at the times that our families get less than all of our attention and love because we are focused on whatever pleasure is coming next in our lives. We feel the sense of imbalance in our world: something is messed up here. We grope for and run after pleasure with such passion. We are told constantly (either directly or drawn that way by the images portrayed) in ads on TV, internet, and otherwise that we can find pleasure and happiness in this or that or the other. We get unsolicited emails, leading us to web sites with pornography of every kind that promise that “here is fun, here is peace, here is escape.” Yet, deep in our souls, we know this is not true. This is not reality. There must be something more.
We also know that happiness and pleasure are not bad by themselves. We sense them in the purity of the smell of a baby and coffee and cinnamon. We remember them in the honesty and truth of wedding days and hands held in true love and devotion. We savor them in the wonder of deep laughter, not at someone’s expense, but in just the bubbling up of life from somewhere deep inside us. Somehow, we know that we were made to have pleasure and happiness, yet always there, just behind, is the messed up world we live in and the twistedness it has made of this truth.
We begin to ask ourselves, “What is the answer?” Just as money is necessary to live and can be so good and yet can destroy so completely, so with pleasure. The truth is that the “more” of pleasure, just like money, leads to “smoke,” and the only way to find the good, wonderful, heartfelt and true pleasure that we all seek and love about life is to not search for the “more” of the pleasure, but to search for the “More” that gives balance to the pleasure and puts it in the right perspective in our lives…just like He does with money. God is the “More” that provides the balance to all the good things that if overdone, lead to “smoke.” He wants us to have pleasure and joy and happiness and will give these things to us, at all the right times, if we will live our lives running after Him, instead of some other “more.”
It reminds me of dealing with my son, Nathan. Nathan loves to think about the next thing that’s going to happen, always looking forward (and I’m glad for that). The problem is that sometimes Nathan forgets that he has a daddy who loves him very much and wants him to have tons of fun in life. He sometimes manipulates, sneaks, and often doubts…asking things like, “What will we do?” “Will we have fun?” “When will it happen?” “Are we going to do something fun?” “Are we going to be done working?” Sometimes getting himself so convinced that it will never happen that he gets downright distraught and even angry. At times like this I call out to his soul…to his memory of who I have been in his life. “Nate, does your daddy love you?” “Yes” “Does he always shoot for what’s best for you?” “Yes” “Does he always have fun things planned and coming up for you?” “Yes” “Does he sometimes even make the ‘work’ fun?” “Yes,” and a smile begins to cross his face as memories of his life begin to flow. “Does your daddy abandon you and leave you with no fun, no playtime? Does he wish the worst for you and look for ways to make your life boring and yucky?” “No,” and the smile widens into a grin. “Then Nate, trust me. Trust that your daddy will give you tons of fun; Lots of play; Lots of games and laughter and joy. Trust. Don’t try to always make it happen on your own.”
Sometimes when I think about these talks I am plunged into a deep reflection on my own relationship with the “More” I have been talking about above. The God who made me. At these times I realize that I, and humanity in general, so often are like Nate. We look for our happiness and pleasure and fun…we clamor for it…we go after it with so much of ourselves that we destroy others and ourselves in the process. All the time, God, the true “More”, is there all the time, knowing exactly what will give us pleasure, what will make us happy. He is simply waiting for us to call out to Him…make Him the focus of our lives and…Trust.
This may seem simplistic and even silly if you have not had a relationship with this God I am speaking of, but it is not. He really does love you. He really does want you to have pleasure and fun and all the other “mores” that you run after in your life. To begin finding Him all you need to do is begin talking to Him. We call it praying, but it need not be fancy. It is simply talking to Him as if He were right there with you. Tell Him what’s bothering you. Ask Him to be in Your life…to help you begin to sort out all the confusion you find in the world…your world. He will help. Then, please email or comment on the blog. We want to help too.
We finished our time with communion...a celebration of a God who does these kind of wonderful things and we chatted and went back to our own slices of America…hopefully to live them a little differently.
We hope that you will join us next time, September 4th, 6:45-8:00PM. All people are welcome, no matter where you are in this life.
We started our time talking about our favorite scent. We laughed and enjoyed the variety of answers from fresh cut grass (not the crappy candle version) to roses (the peach kind are the best) to the smell of [clean] babies. It was a view into who we really are…not who we portray ourselves to be most of our lives.
As always, we prayed and invited God to join us and then we began our time of worship. Worship is simply a fancy way of saying that we notice God and celebrate how cool He is. In keeping with our “smell based” time, this week’s worship was all about smells. We closed our eyes and we tried to focus on God as we smelled things like play doh and cinnamon, chocolate and coffee, perfume and baby powder. We focused our minds on a God who is big enough to make a world that contains mountains and oceans, seasons and skyscrapers, but also loves individual people…like you and me. We savored the idea that there is a wonderful & loving, but still huge & awesome God who can make all these scents and the amazing sense of smell to take them all in. Plus, on top of all that, making the mind and soul in you and me that responds to smells with such gut wrenching passion (like the smell of your child or lover). It was really good.
After our time of worship, we always have a time of sharing things that are bothering us…hurts and issues and needs and concerns. We believe that, in sharing them, we break the power of them and in praying for them, we invite our giant God into them to help us through them. It is always good to share and pray.
Next, we had some learning and teaching. We read in Ecclesiastes chapter 1:
Ecc 1 “Smoke, nothing but smoke…There’s nothing to anything- it’s all smoke. What’s there to show for a lifetime of work, a lifetime of working your fingers to the bone? “What I’ve concluded is that so-called wisdom and knowledge are mindless and witless-nothing but spitting into the wind.” “I said to myself, “Let’s go for it-experiment with pleasure, have a good time!” But there was nothing to it, nothing but smoke.” “Oh, I did great things: built houses, planted vineyards, designed gardens and parks…then I acquired large herds and flocks, larger than any before me…I piled up silver and gold loot from kings and kingdoms, I gathered a chorus of singers to entertain me with song, and-most exquisite of all pleasures-voluptuous maidens for my bed. Oh, how I prospered…everything I wanted I took-I never said no to myself. I gave in to every impulse, held back nothing. I sucked the marrow of pleasure out of every task-my reward to myself…Then I took a look at everything I’d done, looked at all the sweat and hard work. But when I looked, I saw nothing but smoke. Smoke and spitting into the wind. There was nothing to any of it. Nothing.”
We have been talking about all the “more” that we in America spend almost all of our time chasing after; things like money and achievement and fame and fitness and beauty and religiosity and pleasure. We have been talking about them and what they do to us. A few weeks ago we talked about the pursuit of money and how it leads to nothing…smoke. Thursday we moved on to talk about the pursuit of pleasure.
We see people all the time whose pursuit of pleasure ends up in smoke and destruction. We see the 11, 12, 13 year old girls who look into our eyes with an emptiness never there before…their innocence is gone in a fleeting attempt for pleasure in the arms of a boy, and we grieve for what their pursuit of pleasure has led them to…smoke. We cry with the anguish of the abandoned family whose mother or father has left for another lover, or for another hunting trip, or whatever pleasurable thing called to them…mom or dad lost the “pleasure” in the way things were and felt they had to move on “to be happy.” We hurt in our own, well meaning, lives as we look at the times that our families get less than all of our attention and love because we are focused on whatever pleasure is coming next in our lives. We feel the sense of imbalance in our world: something is messed up here. We grope for and run after pleasure with such passion. We are told constantly (either directly or drawn that way by the images portrayed) in ads on TV, internet, and otherwise that we can find pleasure and happiness in this or that or the other. We get unsolicited emails, leading us to web sites with pornography of every kind that promise that “here is fun, here is peace, here is escape.” Yet, deep in our souls, we know this is not true. This is not reality. There must be something more.
We also know that happiness and pleasure are not bad by themselves. We sense them in the purity of the smell of a baby and coffee and cinnamon. We remember them in the honesty and truth of wedding days and hands held in true love and devotion. We savor them in the wonder of deep laughter, not at someone’s expense, but in just the bubbling up of life from somewhere deep inside us. Somehow, we know that we were made to have pleasure and happiness, yet always there, just behind, is the messed up world we live in and the twistedness it has made of this truth.
We begin to ask ourselves, “What is the answer?” Just as money is necessary to live and can be so good and yet can destroy so completely, so with pleasure. The truth is that the “more” of pleasure, just like money, leads to “smoke,” and the only way to find the good, wonderful, heartfelt and true pleasure that we all seek and love about life is to not search for the “more” of the pleasure, but to search for the “More” that gives balance to the pleasure and puts it in the right perspective in our lives…just like He does with money. God is the “More” that provides the balance to all the good things that if overdone, lead to “smoke.” He wants us to have pleasure and joy and happiness and will give these things to us, at all the right times, if we will live our lives running after Him, instead of some other “more.”
It reminds me of dealing with my son, Nathan. Nathan loves to think about the next thing that’s going to happen, always looking forward (and I’m glad for that). The problem is that sometimes Nathan forgets that he has a daddy who loves him very much and wants him to have tons of fun in life. He sometimes manipulates, sneaks, and often doubts…asking things like, “What will we do?” “Will we have fun?” “When will it happen?” “Are we going to do something fun?” “Are we going to be done working?” Sometimes getting himself so convinced that it will never happen that he gets downright distraught and even angry. At times like this I call out to his soul…to his memory of who I have been in his life. “Nate, does your daddy love you?” “Yes” “Does he always shoot for what’s best for you?” “Yes” “Does he always have fun things planned and coming up for you?” “Yes” “Does he sometimes even make the ‘work’ fun?” “Yes,” and a smile begins to cross his face as memories of his life begin to flow. “Does your daddy abandon you and leave you with no fun, no playtime? Does he wish the worst for you and look for ways to make your life boring and yucky?” “No,” and the smile widens into a grin. “Then Nate, trust me. Trust that your daddy will give you tons of fun; Lots of play; Lots of games and laughter and joy. Trust. Don’t try to always make it happen on your own.”
Sometimes when I think about these talks I am plunged into a deep reflection on my own relationship with the “More” I have been talking about above. The God who made me. At these times I realize that I, and humanity in general, so often are like Nate. We look for our happiness and pleasure and fun…we clamor for it…we go after it with so much of ourselves that we destroy others and ourselves in the process. All the time, God, the true “More”, is there all the time, knowing exactly what will give us pleasure, what will make us happy. He is simply waiting for us to call out to Him…make Him the focus of our lives and…Trust.
This may seem simplistic and even silly if you have not had a relationship with this God I am speaking of, but it is not. He really does love you. He really does want you to have pleasure and fun and all the other “mores” that you run after in your life. To begin finding Him all you need to do is begin talking to Him. We call it praying, but it need not be fancy. It is simply talking to Him as if He were right there with you. Tell Him what’s bothering you. Ask Him to be in Your life…to help you begin to sort out all the confusion you find in the world…your world. He will help. Then, please email or comment on the blog. We want to help too.
We finished our time with communion...a celebration of a God who does these kind of wonderful things and we chatted and went back to our own slices of America…hopefully to live them a little differently.
We hope that you will join us next time, September 4th, 6:45-8:00PM. All people are welcome, no matter where you are in this life.
Sunday, August 17, 2008
Last time & Next Thursday
Hello Again!
We had a great time last Thursday, and we have been out of town and working seemingly non-stop since, so this is an update of our time together and a "heads up" for this coming Thursday at McAllister Center, 6:45-8:00PM, 20th and Schuyler Ave, Lafayette, IN (here is the Google maps link - http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=20th+st+and+Schuyler+Ave,+Lafayette,+IN&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=36.915634,78.75&ie=UTF8&ll=40.442522,-86.874475&spn=0.008672,0.019226&z=16&iwloc=addr). As usual there will be awesome free childcare.
Last time we enjoyed getting to know each other over the question, "What one thing do you hate most about your day?" We had a variety of answers including: Shaving and Getting up, among others. It was good to just laugh and relax for a little bit.
Then, as usual, we spent some time worshipping. This is a word we use to describe noticing and celebrating God in our lives and the world around us. It is almost never exactly the same at More than More and this time was no exception. This time we worshipped visually. We looked at variety of pictures and were asked to praise God for how big and wonderful He is using the images as prompts. These pictures ranged from children playing to Ikea stores to wild animals and mountains. It was good to realize again how awesome and giant beyond our usual thinking our God is. It is encouraging to think about the fact that God made all those things and that He wants to still be involved in our lives. We have been learning over the months about noticing God in our every day lives and celebrating the noticing, allowing us to worship anywhere, anytime, and freeing us from "Sunday only" Christianity.
After our worship, we shared some of our concerns and things troubling us...those who felt comfortable with it. It is good to have others care for us and we believe that by praying for each other, we invite God into the problems with us and that helps a ton, no matter how bad the circumstances...and some of us are facing seriously tough circumstances.
We then had some teaching. For this portion, I left our series on More than More and what it means for a week and talked about our recent mission trip to Mexico. I wrote a little essay that tells the story and have included it:
Matamoros, Mexico is one of those “border towns” you read about. Packed with crime and drugs, it is not the typical Mexican tourist destination. On the edge of town lives a little girl named Ashley. Ashley is a 20 month old, who lives in one of the most destitute areas of Matamoros. The roads into her area of town, if they can be called that, are dirt and terribly rutted. Driving in in the morning felt something like one of those virtual reality theater rides where you bounce and jolt every second in some completely unexpected way, jiggling up the last four meals that you have eaten. The houses in the “neighborhood” are mostly 1 or 2 room concrete block or frame structures, very tiny, with clothes lines crisscrossing all over the place in the “yards” and a variety of car parts, mongrel dogs, skinny haphazardly running chickens and old rusty lawn furniture scattered about. The whole area is situated outside of town in a large field. When we arrived, we walked around door to door telling everyone that there were gratis consultos medicos from the United States here if they had any needs. We touched hands, smiled and shared a moment, accepted the at first skeptical, then usually cautiously friendly looks and then went on our way. This day, Ashley came with her momma to my “office” which consisted of 3 or 4 chairs depending on the moment and a piece of plastic draped over ropes to block the sun, depending on where the sun was at that moment, all in an open area behind a soup kitchen. Her mom was young, but not extraordinarily so. She certainly seemed to love Ashley very much. At points during our time together, she clung to the baby dearly, as if someone was going to snatch her away at any moment. Baby Ashley was dirty, with oily hair matted to her head in places but her cautious smile was so sweet, no bath or hairbrush could have improved on her innocent beauty. The problem was that this wonderful little one had not gained any weight in the past 6 months, in spite of eating what sounded like everything in site. Her mom described, through my translator Jessica, a relatively healthy diet, in spite of their obviously desperate financial circumstances. Her mom, concerned, had taken her to local doctors, who knows at what sacrifice, and had been told the baby had asthma and given her some kind of syrup which, since there they sat in front of me, did not work.
We started our time together, Ashley and I, the way I nearly always start pediatric visits: playing. I raised my voice pitch instinctively, and got down on her level (as I undressed from my scrubs at the end of this day, the backside was the color of the brown Mexican soil, from sitting and playing in the dirt like a kid). I showed her my flashlight, smiled and interacted and began gently touching her feet, legs, then head, and face, all the while observing what appeared to be a healthy mom and child interaction and an overall pretty normal appearing toddler. She responded the way that most children of this age who don’t know me do: she was carefully judging me and smiling while clutching her mother closely to ensure that she was safe. Instinctively I knew at this point that, in spite of her circumstances, this was a loved, nurtured and cared for little girl. She was clearly well bonded to her mom. My initial feeling was that she probably just had poorly controlled asthma, which because of their financial situation had not been completely treated. But was I ever in for a shock. I continued my toddler pediatric games, slowly checking ears and head and nose and mouth. She began to cry, varying between little spurts of fussing and major squalls, no doubt fearing this strange, pale man who was rapidly invading her space. Then to her lungs, which sounded fine and then, when my exam got to the front of her chest, I paused. That sound. It was loud and harsh. I had heard it before...a heart murmur, probably a VSD, a hole in Ashley’s heart – this likely making it impossible for the baby to grow and gain weight. I listened long and hard as I have so many other times when I find something that I really don’t want to find and hope that it will just not be there in the next second if I listen long enough. I listened and began looking at her and her mom as I heard the problem in her chest, and they looked the same as they had just a moment before, but in a moment their world would change, because of a sound in her chest, that I could hear and they could not. At times like this I am reminded of the words of a friend and patient of mine, after he was diagnosed with Acute Leukemia, “You know doc, one day I was just livin’ life; Going to work, plenty of energy, no major problems. Then one day I started feeling tired, nothing major. Then I come to you, we talk, I get some blood tests, then some more. And before I know it my life as I knew it is gone; Chemo and tubes and needles and most likely a rapid death…just like that.” This was certainly one of those life changing moments for Ashley and her mom, although her problem should be treatable, in these circumstances, who knows?. I continued to listen to Ashley’s heart and instinctively began praying, “How am I going to tell this to her mom? Help Lord. Bring peace and comfort to her mother. Help them through this.” My heart began to ache for this woman who loved her baby so much, but whose world was about to be changed forever by a gringo medico’s words. I finished my exam, finding nothing else of significance, and continuing to reach out to God for the right words and paths to take to help this mother and baby. I began to feel my own insufficiency, as I do so often at times like this, knowing that I would be gone home in a few days and would not be able to help them through their journey. Through Jessica, I began to explain to Ashley’s mom that the baby had a problem with her heart and at first her mother looked at me in disbelief. She had taken the baby to the doctor before and they had never said anything about her heart, her Corazon, before. As she began to received the impact of the words, like a punch, her face began to melt; At first with gentle tears and then holding Ashley closer and closer, weeping with the words. Her passion and pain was so deep that Jessica, who has a little boy nearly the same age as Ashley, began weeping too. She was unable to even talk through her tears and though she stayed and comforted, we found another translator, a pre-PA student named JoMyra. We continued explaining that this was probably the reason why the baby was not growing well and we began to explain to her momma that Ashley would need to have tests done and that the best would be to have a doctor there in town to work with them. She did not have means to do all this and through the tears, it was easy to see her grappling with the questions circling around how , in this harsh world, she was going to be able to do all this. In fact, when I first asked if she would be able to get the baby to a local doctor, she looked at me in disbelief, as if to say, “Look around you, do you think I can do that? And even more, those are the doctors who told me it was simply asthma.” She even said, over and over again, “I took her to the doctor before. Why didn’t they tell me? Why didn’t they tell me?” through the broken heart and tears. But she slowly gathered her wits to a degree and determined that she would just have to find a way. I could almost see her make the resolution in her mind, “I’m not sure how, but I will have to find a way.” What would she have to do to get her baby to the doctor from this pain-wracked neighborhood?
At the end, calling out to a loving God, who has answers when we don’t, Ashley’s mom and Jessica wept and we prayed and that particular field became Holy ground – at one point I even wondered if this was what it was like to be Moses, standing before the burning bush, but the only thing burning here was the sun and our hearts, and there was no way I was taking my shoes off. The moment seemed to freeze in time. This mom had no job. She barely had a roof over her head. She was the picture of despair. She had no vehicle, she had no money, she had virtually nothing the world would place a value on. Realizing I had done all I was able to, I consulted with a Mexican doctor/pastor from another city who was working with us for the week, Dr. Gilberto. He took a listen to Ashley’s heart and then sat down across from her mom in the seat I had previously occupied. He began gesturing and talking in Spanish faster than I had any hope of keeping up with. By now, Jessica’s husband Wilmer had come over to help with the translation too. Dr Gilberto continued on, earnestly talking to Ashley’s mom about I knew not what…asking her questions and as she wept, she nodded, over and over again and said, “Si,” over and over again. Then, they seemed to come to a climactic point. He asked her a final question, she nodded, and he excitedly jumped from his seat, clasped his hands together, patted me on the shoulder in a half embrace and motioned to Wilmer, who began praying with Ashley’s mom, and her repeating after him. He went much more slowly, and I began to understand. She was giving her life to Christ. She was placing her life and Ashley’s in the hands of the One who made them both. She was trusting in the healer of all time, of all situations, of all heartaches. It was amazing. Now the tears began to flow in my eyes, as I saw the God of the universe descend on a field and bring peace in chaos. Wilmer finished his, and Ashley’s mom’s, prayer with many thanks to God and celebratory words and we all danced in our hearts!
So, what did Dr. Gilberto say? I had to know. I told Jessica, “I want the transcript of that conversation!” The paraphrase? He told her mom “In one month we’ll have the baby all back to normal”, but it was her, her mother, that he was really concerned about. What could we do to help her? What was she going to do with Jesus? He was bringing into focus for her, in fact, placing it directly in front of her, the decision point of Christianity. He was bringing Jesus to her and from that moment on she would never be the same. Sheldon VanAuken writes about it in “A Severe Mercy.” He considers that we are all walking along a path. At the point on your journey that you encounter Christ, there is a space in front of you that you must leap to accept and believe. No matter how much “evidence” there is to support the fact that He is real, at some point you come to a place where you must just decide that He is and cross over the leap. The space can seem small or large – the leap consuming your thoughts or seeming like the most natural thing in the world, but there is always a point of decision – of believing. But once you encounter Him, and face the reality of His existence, and this decision point, you can never go back to believing that Jesus and Christianity is some fake, joke of a “religion.” He becomes the decision point and the path you treaded prior to that point in your life before falls away and becomes a space you must leap to not believe in Him. You must choose then, to believe in Christ or to not – there is no middle ground, as the very footing in the “middle” crumbles with each passing second. There is no escaping. A decision must be made for Jesus as God and the Savior of the World, the resurrected one or against Him. Dr Gilberto offered her a rescuer. He offered her an answer. He offered her peace. He didn’t offer her a resolution of her circumstances. He didn’t offer her all ease and comfort. He did offer her a new family of brothers and sisters in Christ. She needed to make a decision about having Jesus in her life. She needed to make the leap of faith and never look back. She agreed – wanting to become a Christian and our friend Wilmer led her in a simple, then celebratory sinner’s prayer and she was made a new creation! She packed up and came back to the church in central Matamoros with us and via a connection with the pastor, will be getting the care she needs.
This is a wonderful experience in my life. Both Ashley and her mom were given the gift of new life this day! They both had serious heart issues…both are on the path to complete healing. Ashley’s mom, who seemed so much more peaceful after her prayer, will continue down the rode to more and more of God in her life. Ashley will get to the right doctors, likely get the financial assistance of the state, and will be fine, plus this night, she will go to sleep with a Christian momma….
It is very easy for me to talk about and believe in the dramatic life changing power of God in the lives of individuals, but I sometimes really struggle with getting it past that. After all the pain and degradation I see in the world, it is hard sometimes to believe that God is also the power, life changing force of all that ever existed. As we sat as a group the night after meeting Ashley and thought/talked about our day and then prayed for little Ashley, I nearly heard an audible voice, certainly a deep speaking in my soul asking me, “Do you have the audacity to believe that I can change the world?” It was clearly Christ. This is the fundamental problem with how far reaching my faith has been to this point – a lack of belief in a God big enough to solve Ashley’s heart and her mom’s and the other 100 patients we saw today and the thousands I see at home and the problems in my church and town and state and country and on and on and on. It’s not that I don’t know it in my head. It’s that I don’t own it in my heart. I haven’t the audacity to believe it and then to attack it with all my energy. Talking with the leader of the group about it afterwards he said to me, “There was a time when I was so overwhelmed with the pain and problems around me that I simply prayed each day, “Lord, show me at least one person who needs to hear from You today, help me to notice them and give me the message for them.” He said that simply – the changes in the world happen one person at a time.
This is exactly what More than More is. Having such an amazing audacity to believe the best of God in every situation. The lack of it, or a full acceptance/understanding of it is what lies behind the silent tears/rage/hurt/seriousness that I carry with me sometimes. Do I dare now to live victorious – even in the midst of the odds? Do I have the audacity to believe in a God big enough to change my world? Dare I take Him at His word? As I look into the much more peaceful eyes of Ashley’s mom I find the answer.
On top of all this, if you are in Ashley's mom's situation. If you have thought about this God thing and danced around it. If you have come to the decision point, the point of "leaping" and choosing to believe, now is the time to choose. Just tell God that you choose to believe in Him. Ask him to be the ruler of your life. You can never go back now without leaping away from God over a gap to not believe...you know too much. He is too real. There will never be anyone who you can trust with the control of your life as good as Him. He is the More than More. If you do choose Him, let us know. We want to help you in your journey, just like the church in Matamoros will help Ashley's mom!
We then finished out time together with communion and enjoyed some time together talking.
We had a great time last Thursday, and we have been out of town and working seemingly non-stop since, so this is an update of our time together and a "heads up" for this coming Thursday at McAllister Center, 6:45-8:00PM, 20th and Schuyler Ave, Lafayette, IN (here is the Google maps link - http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=20th+st+and+Schuyler+Ave,+Lafayette,+IN&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=36.915634,78.75&ie=UTF8&ll=40.442522,-86.874475&spn=0.008672,0.019226&z=16&iwloc=addr). As usual there will be awesome free childcare.
Last time we enjoyed getting to know each other over the question, "What one thing do you hate most about your day?" We had a variety of answers including: Shaving and Getting up, among others. It was good to just laugh and relax for a little bit.
Then, as usual, we spent some time worshipping. This is a word we use to describe noticing and celebrating God in our lives and the world around us. It is almost never exactly the same at More than More and this time was no exception. This time we worshipped visually. We looked at variety of pictures and were asked to praise God for how big and wonderful He is using the images as prompts. These pictures ranged from children playing to Ikea stores to wild animals and mountains. It was good to realize again how awesome and giant beyond our usual thinking our God is. It is encouraging to think about the fact that God made all those things and that He wants to still be involved in our lives. We have been learning over the months about noticing God in our every day lives and celebrating the noticing, allowing us to worship anywhere, anytime, and freeing us from "Sunday only" Christianity.
After our worship, we shared some of our concerns and things troubling us...those who felt comfortable with it. It is good to have others care for us and we believe that by praying for each other, we invite God into the problems with us and that helps a ton, no matter how bad the circumstances...and some of us are facing seriously tough circumstances.
We then had some teaching. For this portion, I left our series on More than More and what it means for a week and talked about our recent mission trip to Mexico. I wrote a little essay that tells the story and have included it:
Matamoros, Mexico is one of those “border towns” you read about. Packed with crime and drugs, it is not the typical Mexican tourist destination. On the edge of town lives a little girl named Ashley. Ashley is a 20 month old, who lives in one of the most destitute areas of Matamoros. The roads into her area of town, if they can be called that, are dirt and terribly rutted. Driving in in the morning felt something like one of those virtual reality theater rides where you bounce and jolt every second in some completely unexpected way, jiggling up the last four meals that you have eaten. The houses in the “neighborhood” are mostly 1 or 2 room concrete block or frame structures, very tiny, with clothes lines crisscrossing all over the place in the “yards” and a variety of car parts, mongrel dogs, skinny haphazardly running chickens and old rusty lawn furniture scattered about. The whole area is situated outside of town in a large field. When we arrived, we walked around door to door telling everyone that there were gratis consultos medicos from the United States here if they had any needs. We touched hands, smiled and shared a moment, accepted the at first skeptical, then usually cautiously friendly looks and then went on our way. This day, Ashley came with her momma to my “office” which consisted of 3 or 4 chairs depending on the moment and a piece of plastic draped over ropes to block the sun, depending on where the sun was at that moment, all in an open area behind a soup kitchen. Her mom was young, but not extraordinarily so. She certainly seemed to love Ashley very much. At points during our time together, she clung to the baby dearly, as if someone was going to snatch her away at any moment. Baby Ashley was dirty, with oily hair matted to her head in places but her cautious smile was so sweet, no bath or hairbrush could have improved on her innocent beauty. The problem was that this wonderful little one had not gained any weight in the past 6 months, in spite of eating what sounded like everything in site. Her mom described, through my translator Jessica, a relatively healthy diet, in spite of their obviously desperate financial circumstances. Her mom, concerned, had taken her to local doctors, who knows at what sacrifice, and had been told the baby had asthma and given her some kind of syrup which, since there they sat in front of me, did not work.
We started our time together, Ashley and I, the way I nearly always start pediatric visits: playing. I raised my voice pitch instinctively, and got down on her level (as I undressed from my scrubs at the end of this day, the backside was the color of the brown Mexican soil, from sitting and playing in the dirt like a kid). I showed her my flashlight, smiled and interacted and began gently touching her feet, legs, then head, and face, all the while observing what appeared to be a healthy mom and child interaction and an overall pretty normal appearing toddler. She responded the way that most children of this age who don’t know me do: she was carefully judging me and smiling while clutching her mother closely to ensure that she was safe. Instinctively I knew at this point that, in spite of her circumstances, this was a loved, nurtured and cared for little girl. She was clearly well bonded to her mom. My initial feeling was that she probably just had poorly controlled asthma, which because of their financial situation had not been completely treated. But was I ever in for a shock. I continued my toddler pediatric games, slowly checking ears and head and nose and mouth. She began to cry, varying between little spurts of fussing and major squalls, no doubt fearing this strange, pale man who was rapidly invading her space. Then to her lungs, which sounded fine and then, when my exam got to the front of her chest, I paused. That sound. It was loud and harsh. I had heard it before...a heart murmur, probably a VSD, a hole in Ashley’s heart – this likely making it impossible for the baby to grow and gain weight. I listened long and hard as I have so many other times when I find something that I really don’t want to find and hope that it will just not be there in the next second if I listen long enough. I listened and began looking at her and her mom as I heard the problem in her chest, and they looked the same as they had just a moment before, but in a moment their world would change, because of a sound in her chest, that I could hear and they could not. At times like this I am reminded of the words of a friend and patient of mine, after he was diagnosed with Acute Leukemia, “You know doc, one day I was just livin’ life; Going to work, plenty of energy, no major problems. Then one day I started feeling tired, nothing major. Then I come to you, we talk, I get some blood tests, then some more. And before I know it my life as I knew it is gone; Chemo and tubes and needles and most likely a rapid death…just like that.” This was certainly one of those life changing moments for Ashley and her mom, although her problem should be treatable, in these circumstances, who knows?. I continued to listen to Ashley’s heart and instinctively began praying, “How am I going to tell this to her mom? Help Lord. Bring peace and comfort to her mother. Help them through this.” My heart began to ache for this woman who loved her baby so much, but whose world was about to be changed forever by a gringo medico’s words. I finished my exam, finding nothing else of significance, and continuing to reach out to God for the right words and paths to take to help this mother and baby. I began to feel my own insufficiency, as I do so often at times like this, knowing that I would be gone home in a few days and would not be able to help them through their journey. Through Jessica, I began to explain to Ashley’s mom that the baby had a problem with her heart and at first her mother looked at me in disbelief. She had taken the baby to the doctor before and they had never said anything about her heart, her Corazon, before. As she began to received the impact of the words, like a punch, her face began to melt; At first with gentle tears and then holding Ashley closer and closer, weeping with the words. Her passion and pain was so deep that Jessica, who has a little boy nearly the same age as Ashley, began weeping too. She was unable to even talk through her tears and though she stayed and comforted, we found another translator, a pre-PA student named JoMyra. We continued explaining that this was probably the reason why the baby was not growing well and we began to explain to her momma that Ashley would need to have tests done and that the best would be to have a doctor there in town to work with them. She did not have means to do all this and through the tears, it was easy to see her grappling with the questions circling around how , in this harsh world, she was going to be able to do all this. In fact, when I first asked if she would be able to get the baby to a local doctor, she looked at me in disbelief, as if to say, “Look around you, do you think I can do that? And even more, those are the doctors who told me it was simply asthma.” She even said, over and over again, “I took her to the doctor before. Why didn’t they tell me? Why didn’t they tell me?” through the broken heart and tears. But she slowly gathered her wits to a degree and determined that she would just have to find a way. I could almost see her make the resolution in her mind, “I’m not sure how, but I will have to find a way.” What would she have to do to get her baby to the doctor from this pain-wracked neighborhood?
At the end, calling out to a loving God, who has answers when we don’t, Ashley’s mom and Jessica wept and we prayed and that particular field became Holy ground – at one point I even wondered if this was what it was like to be Moses, standing before the burning bush, but the only thing burning here was the sun and our hearts, and there was no way I was taking my shoes off. The moment seemed to freeze in time. This mom had no job. She barely had a roof over her head. She was the picture of despair. She had no vehicle, she had no money, she had virtually nothing the world would place a value on. Realizing I had done all I was able to, I consulted with a Mexican doctor/pastor from another city who was working with us for the week, Dr. Gilberto. He took a listen to Ashley’s heart and then sat down across from her mom in the seat I had previously occupied. He began gesturing and talking in Spanish faster than I had any hope of keeping up with. By now, Jessica’s husband Wilmer had come over to help with the translation too. Dr Gilberto continued on, earnestly talking to Ashley’s mom about I knew not what…asking her questions and as she wept, she nodded, over and over again and said, “Si,” over and over again. Then, they seemed to come to a climactic point. He asked her a final question, she nodded, and he excitedly jumped from his seat, clasped his hands together, patted me on the shoulder in a half embrace and motioned to Wilmer, who began praying with Ashley’s mom, and her repeating after him. He went much more slowly, and I began to understand. She was giving her life to Christ. She was placing her life and Ashley’s in the hands of the One who made them both. She was trusting in the healer of all time, of all situations, of all heartaches. It was amazing. Now the tears began to flow in my eyes, as I saw the God of the universe descend on a field and bring peace in chaos. Wilmer finished his, and Ashley’s mom’s, prayer with many thanks to God and celebratory words and we all danced in our hearts!
So, what did Dr. Gilberto say? I had to know. I told Jessica, “I want the transcript of that conversation!” The paraphrase? He told her mom “In one month we’ll have the baby all back to normal”, but it was her, her mother, that he was really concerned about. What could we do to help her? What was she going to do with Jesus? He was bringing into focus for her, in fact, placing it directly in front of her, the decision point of Christianity. He was bringing Jesus to her and from that moment on she would never be the same. Sheldon VanAuken writes about it in “A Severe Mercy.” He considers that we are all walking along a path. At the point on your journey that you encounter Christ, there is a space in front of you that you must leap to accept and believe. No matter how much “evidence” there is to support the fact that He is real, at some point you come to a place where you must just decide that He is and cross over the leap. The space can seem small or large – the leap consuming your thoughts or seeming like the most natural thing in the world, but there is always a point of decision – of believing. But once you encounter Him, and face the reality of His existence, and this decision point, you can never go back to believing that Jesus and Christianity is some fake, joke of a “religion.” He becomes the decision point and the path you treaded prior to that point in your life before falls away and becomes a space you must leap to not believe in Him. You must choose then, to believe in Christ or to not – there is no middle ground, as the very footing in the “middle” crumbles with each passing second. There is no escaping. A decision must be made for Jesus as God and the Savior of the World, the resurrected one or against Him. Dr Gilberto offered her a rescuer. He offered her an answer. He offered her peace. He didn’t offer her a resolution of her circumstances. He didn’t offer her all ease and comfort. He did offer her a new family of brothers and sisters in Christ. She needed to make a decision about having Jesus in her life. She needed to make the leap of faith and never look back. She agreed – wanting to become a Christian and our friend Wilmer led her in a simple, then celebratory sinner’s prayer and she was made a new creation! She packed up and came back to the church in central Matamoros with us and via a connection with the pastor, will be getting the care she needs.
This is a wonderful experience in my life. Both Ashley and her mom were given the gift of new life this day! They both had serious heart issues…both are on the path to complete healing. Ashley’s mom, who seemed so much more peaceful after her prayer, will continue down the rode to more and more of God in her life. Ashley will get to the right doctors, likely get the financial assistance of the state, and will be fine, plus this night, she will go to sleep with a Christian momma….
It is very easy for me to talk about and believe in the dramatic life changing power of God in the lives of individuals, but I sometimes really struggle with getting it past that. After all the pain and degradation I see in the world, it is hard sometimes to believe that God is also the power, life changing force of all that ever existed. As we sat as a group the night after meeting Ashley and thought/talked about our day and then prayed for little Ashley, I nearly heard an audible voice, certainly a deep speaking in my soul asking me, “Do you have the audacity to believe that I can change the world?” It was clearly Christ. This is the fundamental problem with how far reaching my faith has been to this point – a lack of belief in a God big enough to solve Ashley’s heart and her mom’s and the other 100 patients we saw today and the thousands I see at home and the problems in my church and town and state and country and on and on and on. It’s not that I don’t know it in my head. It’s that I don’t own it in my heart. I haven’t the audacity to believe it and then to attack it with all my energy. Talking with the leader of the group about it afterwards he said to me, “There was a time when I was so overwhelmed with the pain and problems around me that I simply prayed each day, “Lord, show me at least one person who needs to hear from You today, help me to notice them and give me the message for them.” He said that simply – the changes in the world happen one person at a time.
This is exactly what More than More is. Having such an amazing audacity to believe the best of God in every situation. The lack of it, or a full acceptance/understanding of it is what lies behind the silent tears/rage/hurt/seriousness that I carry with me sometimes. Do I dare now to live victorious – even in the midst of the odds? Do I have the audacity to believe in a God big enough to change my world? Dare I take Him at His word? As I look into the much more peaceful eyes of Ashley’s mom I find the answer.
On top of all this, if you are in Ashley's mom's situation. If you have thought about this God thing and danced around it. If you have come to the decision point, the point of "leaping" and choosing to believe, now is the time to choose. Just tell God that you choose to believe in Him. Ask him to be the ruler of your life. You can never go back now without leaping away from God over a gap to not believe...you know too much. He is too real. There will never be anyone who you can trust with the control of your life as good as Him. He is the More than More. If you do choose Him, let us know. We want to help you in your journey, just like the church in Matamoros will help Ashley's mom!
We then finished out time together with communion and enjoyed some time together talking.
Coming up this Thursday, we will be worshipping in an entirely new way and talking more about the meaning of More than More. We really hope you all can make it!
Tuesday, August 5, 2008
What's behind us - What's ahead
Hi everyone! Sorry the blog has been kind of short on entries, but we have been in Matamoros, Mexico for the past week, with limited to no access to internet. It was a wonderful time for our family...we certainly ministered in some of the most desperate circumstances I have ever seen.
Almost 2wks ago, we met at Becky's house and the group just really was cool to her by helping out cleaning up her yard/house. We pulled weeds and trimmed bushes and even washed windows. It was easy to see the gratefulness in her eyes and the sense of God's love in us, as we shared the time with her. We don't do these things out of guilt or because we "should." We do them because we want to show the love of God in some real way to someone who needs it. The thing is, we don't need any special "event" to share God's love with people who need something. All we really have to do is pay attention and be willing to trust that God will provide the words, the time, the peace at the moment, and the opportunity to share. I have the most wonderful joy and peace in my life, through all kinds of dificult circumstances, all from love of God - it's nothing I do to deserve it - anyone can have this. Sharing that love with other people is one of the greatest things about living! If you know God already, ask Him for a chance to share this love today.
This Thursday, we will be back at McAllister Center again - 6:45-8:00PM. It will be a great time of hanging out and enjoying each other and God. You will not find judgmentalism there, only love. You will not find nastiness or self-righteousness. You will find real people who care about you, no matter your race, speech, clothes, habits, past, present, future, finances of lack of them. You need to be there. As always, there will be free childcare, and directions to McAllister Community Center are on previous blogs. We hope to see you there!
Thursday, July 17, 2008
What's going on - Part 2
Next Thursday is our second community outreach night. We are meeting at McAllister and going to Becky Livingston's house. This is a really cool somewhat older (sorry Becky)lady who hs had an absolutely tough year. She lost her husband and then got flooded from the river. She has now moved and could use some serious help getting her house in order. It will be a great time of hanging out and helping Becky - hope you can make it!
It is also an option to meet there, for those of you who might want to. She lives at 10 Kenosha Court, Lafayette, 47909
Here is a link to google maps
http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&ie=UTF8&msa=0&msid=104664840198049025171.0004524273690944e51e8&z=15
We will probably get there about 7:05PM or so. Please bring your kids.
It is also an option to meet there, for those of you who might want to. She lives at 10 Kenosha Court, Lafayette, 47909
Here is a link to google maps
http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&ie=UTF8&msa=0&msid=104664840198049025171.0004524273690944e51e8&z=15
We will probably get there about 7:05PM or so. Please bring your kids.
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
What's been going on?
Well, here's the scoop,for those of you who weren't able to be with us last week and for those of you who are up for hearing what is coming up next week.
Last Thursday we had a great time. We like to begin by sharing something of how great God is with each other. It is fun and encourages us all a lot to celebrate how huge and awesome our God is. So, we began by taking 5 minutes to find something that appeared insignificant to everyone else, but was an object that, upon thinking about it for a little bit, produced a voice of joy for how great God is in our hearts. One of my examples was a charred plastic safety plug from my son Nathan's room. You see, our house was struck by lightning last week and Nate's plug was blackened, and it blew a hole in our gas line, but no one was hurt, there was no fire, nothing serious (only some seriously fried electronics). So, this simple plastic plug, while seeming insignificant, made my heart want to sing for joy at the way God protected my family and, particularly, Nathan! We shared around the group a wide variety of simple, seemingly insignificant things that raised our wonder and awe of a God who is so big that He can be praised in the smallest things! You should try it at home sometime. Find something that is entirely insignificant and think about it for a little...begin to notice the wonder of God in the everyday things. If you begin to do this regularly, you will find that living a Christian life all week long comes much more easily.
After our time of worshipping, we had a time of sharing things that were bothering us. We think it is really good and helpful to share, in some way, the problems we are facing. We care about each other, and God cares about all of us and when we share our issues, God hears. Plus when we pray for them, it invites Him right into the middle of them. We believe that praying for each other really helps! So, this time, since we all knew each other pretty well (and this is not something we will do every time, by any means) we exchanged the concern, written on a piece of paper, with someone else, with the committment that we would be praying for that for the next 2 weeks.
Next, we had some time to discuss, in our continuing on the topics of the "mores" that we as Americans, spend our time and energy going after, the pursuit of money in our lives. You see, it is clear that many of us are not obsessed with money. But, at the end of the discussion, it became clear that we often place ourselves in "prisons" by our overbuying, overextending, over using our credit cards, etc. - this is pursuing money and stuff past what it should be and it destroys other areas of our lives. The prisons are our inability to spend more time with family, establish deeper friendships, care for those around us, serve the needs of our neighbors and communities, etc, etc, etc because we must work unbelievable hours to just make sure that everything is paid for. American logic says we are just "trying to get ahead" but the truth is, we are walling ourselves in. I see people often in my office who are middle aged and doing well financially, but regret the overpursuit of the American Dream. The wonderful thing about learning to pursue the Christian God is that He can bring focus to our money and help us balance all the things in life,releasing us from our prisons.
If you find yourself hemmed in by your extention financially, consider simplifying. Begin talking to God about the priority of money and stuff in your life. Ask Him to help. He will. And, don't forget, we care about you too - you can ask us to help. We will.
At the end we listened to a song "American Dream" by Casting Crowns
Here are the lyrics
“American Dream”
All work no play may have made Jack a dull boy
But all work no God has left Jack with a lost soul
But he's moving on full steam
He's chasing the American dream
And he's gonna give his family finer things
“Not this time son I've no time to waste
Maybe tomorrow we'll have time to play”
And then he slips into his new BMW
And drives farther and farther and farther away
Cause he works all day and tries to sleep at night
He says things will get better;
Better in time
[Chorus]
So he works and he builds with his own two hands
And he pours all he has in a castle made with sand
But the wind and the rain are comin' crashing in
Time will tell just how long his kingdom stands
His kingdom stands
Well his American Dream is beginning to seem
More and more like a nightmare
With every passing day
"Daddy, can you come to my game?"
"Oh Baby, please don't work late."
Another wasted weekend
And they are slipping away
'Cause he works all day and lies awake at night
He tells them things are getting better
Just take a little more time
[Chorus]
So he works and he builds with his own two hands
And he pours all he has in a castle made with sand
But the wind and the rain are comin' crashing in
Time will tell just how long his kingdom stands
His kingdom stands
He used to say, "Whoever dies with the most toys wins"
But if he loses his soul, what has he gained in the end
I'll take a shack on the rock
Over a castle in the sand
Now he works all day and cries alone at night
It's not getting any better
Looks like he's running out of time
[Chorus]
'Cause he worked and he built with his own two hands
And he poured all he had in a castle made with sand
But the wind and the rain are coming crashing in
Time will tell just how long his kingdom stands
His kingdom stands
All they really wanted was you
All they really wanted was you
All they really wanted was you
We ended with communion. It was Melissa's homemade zucchini bread - a great way to celebrate the wonderful love of God!
Last Thursday we had a great time. We like to begin by sharing something of how great God is with each other. It is fun and encourages us all a lot to celebrate how huge and awesome our God is. So, we began by taking 5 minutes to find something that appeared insignificant to everyone else, but was an object that, upon thinking about it for a little bit, produced a voice of joy for how great God is in our hearts. One of my examples was a charred plastic safety plug from my son Nathan's room. You see, our house was struck by lightning last week and Nate's plug was blackened, and it blew a hole in our gas line, but no one was hurt, there was no fire, nothing serious (only some seriously fried electronics). So, this simple plastic plug, while seeming insignificant, made my heart want to sing for joy at the way God protected my family and, particularly, Nathan! We shared around the group a wide variety of simple, seemingly insignificant things that raised our wonder and awe of a God who is so big that He can be praised in the smallest things! You should try it at home sometime. Find something that is entirely insignificant and think about it for a little...begin to notice the wonder of God in the everyday things. If you begin to do this regularly, you will find that living a Christian life all week long comes much more easily.
After our time of worshipping, we had a time of sharing things that were bothering us. We think it is really good and helpful to share, in some way, the problems we are facing. We care about each other, and God cares about all of us and when we share our issues, God hears. Plus when we pray for them, it invites Him right into the middle of them. We believe that praying for each other really helps! So, this time, since we all knew each other pretty well (and this is not something we will do every time, by any means) we exchanged the concern, written on a piece of paper, with someone else, with the committment that we would be praying for that for the next 2 weeks.
Next, we had some time to discuss, in our continuing on the topics of the "mores" that we as Americans, spend our time and energy going after, the pursuit of money in our lives. You see, it is clear that many of us are not obsessed with money. But, at the end of the discussion, it became clear that we often place ourselves in "prisons" by our overbuying, overextending, over using our credit cards, etc. - this is pursuing money and stuff past what it should be and it destroys other areas of our lives. The prisons are our inability to spend more time with family, establish deeper friendships, care for those around us, serve the needs of our neighbors and communities, etc, etc, etc because we must work unbelievable hours to just make sure that everything is paid for. American logic says we are just "trying to get ahead" but the truth is, we are walling ourselves in. I see people often in my office who are middle aged and doing well financially, but regret the overpursuit of the American Dream. The wonderful thing about learning to pursue the Christian God is that He can bring focus to our money and help us balance all the things in life,releasing us from our prisons.
If you find yourself hemmed in by your extention financially, consider simplifying. Begin talking to God about the priority of money and stuff in your life. Ask Him to help. He will. And, don't forget, we care about you too - you can ask us to help. We will.
At the end we listened to a song "American Dream" by Casting Crowns
Here are the lyrics
“American Dream”
All work no play may have made Jack a dull boy
But all work no God has left Jack with a lost soul
But he's moving on full steam
He's chasing the American dream
And he's gonna give his family finer things
“Not this time son I've no time to waste
Maybe tomorrow we'll have time to play”
And then he slips into his new BMW
And drives farther and farther and farther away
Cause he works all day and tries to sleep at night
He says things will get better;
Better in time
[Chorus]
So he works and he builds with his own two hands
And he pours all he has in a castle made with sand
But the wind and the rain are comin' crashing in
Time will tell just how long his kingdom stands
His kingdom stands
Well his American Dream is beginning to seem
More and more like a nightmare
With every passing day
"Daddy, can you come to my game?"
"Oh Baby, please don't work late."
Another wasted weekend
And they are slipping away
'Cause he works all day and lies awake at night
He tells them things are getting better
Just take a little more time
[Chorus]
So he works and he builds with his own two hands
And he pours all he has in a castle made with sand
But the wind and the rain are comin' crashing in
Time will tell just how long his kingdom stands
His kingdom stands
He used to say, "Whoever dies with the most toys wins"
But if he loses his soul, what has he gained in the end
I'll take a shack on the rock
Over a castle in the sand
Now he works all day and cries alone at night
It's not getting any better
Looks like he's running out of time
[Chorus]
'Cause he worked and he built with his own two hands
And he poured all he had in a castle made with sand
But the wind and the rain are coming crashing in
Time will tell just how long his kingdom stands
His kingdom stands
All they really wanted was you
All they really wanted was you
All they really wanted was you
We ended with communion. It was Melissa's homemade zucchini bread - a great way to celebrate the wonderful love of God!
Monday, July 7, 2008
Thursday 7/10
Hi everyone! We will be meeting Thursday night at McAllister Center, see previous posts for directions. It will be a great time to figure some things out about God and learn to notice and worship him in new ways! We hope you all can make. As always, there will be free childcare!
Hope to see you there!
Hope to see you there!
Friday, June 27, 2008
Last Night
We had a great time together last night!
We began by briefly talking about the grossest/worst place we had ever slept. It was interesting and at points disgusting, but fun.
Then, continuing our attempts to find different ways to notice God and celebrate how awesome He is, we enjoyed "worship on the move" by walking outside. There, outside the McAllister center, we noticed some of the many things around us...like the songs of the birds, the blessing of living in a town like Lafayette, the feel of the wind, the sound of the harley on the street nearby, among others. In these we celebrated the awesomeness of a God who gives us such wonderful gifts and is so big that He makes everything else in life come into better focus. As we begin to live lives noticing things like this and thanking God for them, our worship becomes less and less of a "Sunday only" thing and more and more of the way we live every day.
After this time of worship and thankfulness, we spent some time sharing needs together and then praying for them. We do this because we really believe that God cares about the things that we care about and that talking to God about our concerns invites Him to join us in them. We also beleive that God responds to our praying for each other by helping us in the middle of our concerns. We do not understand this completely, but we have seen it happen time and time again that people's lives change for the better when other people pray for them.
After prayer, we followed up on the last teaching we had from Stephen Murphy by talking about how pursuing the "more" of money in our day to day lives can be so very destructive and how having God in your life can help bring balance to everything, including money. This was illustrated using the song Cats in the Cradle,by Harry Chapin
Cats In The Cradle Lyrics
My child arrived just the other day
He came to the world in the usual way
But there were planes to catch and bills to pay
He learned to walk while I was away
And he was talkin' 'fore I knew it, and as he grew
He'd say "I'm gonna be like you dad
You know I'm gonna be like you"
And the cat's in the cradle and the silver spoon
Little boy blue and the man on the moon
When you comin' home dad?
I don't know when, but we'll get together then son
You know we'll have a good time then
My son turned ten just the other day
He said, "Thanks for the ball, Dad, come on let's play
Can you teach me to throw", I said "Not today
I got a lot to do", he said, "That's ok"
And he walked away but his smile never dimmed
And said, "I'm gonna be like him, yeah
You know I'm gonna be like him"
And the cat's in the cradle and the silver spoon
Little boy blue and the man on the moon
When you comin' home son?
I don't know when, but we'll get together then son
You know we'll have a good time then
Well, he came home from college just the other day
So much like a man I just had to say
"Son, I'm proud of you, can you sit for a while?"
He shook his head and said with a smile
"What I'd really like, Dad, is to borrow the car keys
See you later, can I have them please?"
And the cat's in the cradle and the silver spoon
Little boy blue and the man on the moon
When you comin' home son?
I don't know when, but we'll get together then son
You know we'll have a good time then
I've long since retired, my son's moved away
I called him up just the other day
I said, "I'd like to see you if you don't mind"
He said, "I'd love to, Dad, if I can find the time
You see my new job's a hassle and kids have the flu
But it's sure nice talking to you, Dad
It's been sure nice talking to you"
And as I hung up the phone it occurred to me
He'd grown up just like me
My boy was just like me
And the cat's in the cradle and the silver spoon
Little boy blue and the man on the moon
When you comin' home son?
I don't know when, but we'll get together then son
You know we'll have a good time then
Obviously, the dad in the song valued money and success more than his son and that is the sadness of this song. It is easy to see here, and if we look, all around us, that in American society, we talk about "the important things" like family, etc, but more often spend most of our time and energy getting enough money to pay for what we want, instead of living investing in the "the important things" with our time and energy. Serving God allows us to be free from the tendency to overspend and search for opportunities to get wealth. He brings perspective on the money or lack of money in our lives, as Stephen so perfectly spoke about last time.
We ended our time together with communion. We shared some of Melissa's home made southern pound cake and juice!
It was a really good time together. We will be meeting again at McAllister Center in 2weeks - 7/10, 6:45-8:00PM. We look forward to seeing you there!
We began by briefly talking about the grossest/worst place we had ever slept. It was interesting and at points disgusting, but fun.
Then, continuing our attempts to find different ways to notice God and celebrate how awesome He is, we enjoyed "worship on the move" by walking outside. There, outside the McAllister center, we noticed some of the many things around us...like the songs of the birds, the blessing of living in a town like Lafayette, the feel of the wind, the sound of the harley on the street nearby, among others. In these we celebrated the awesomeness of a God who gives us such wonderful gifts and is so big that He makes everything else in life come into better focus. As we begin to live lives noticing things like this and thanking God for them, our worship becomes less and less of a "Sunday only" thing and more and more of the way we live every day.
After this time of worship and thankfulness, we spent some time sharing needs together and then praying for them. We do this because we really believe that God cares about the things that we care about and that talking to God about our concerns invites Him to join us in them. We also beleive that God responds to our praying for each other by helping us in the middle of our concerns. We do not understand this completely, but we have seen it happen time and time again that people's lives change for the better when other people pray for them.
After prayer, we followed up on the last teaching we had from Stephen Murphy by talking about how pursuing the "more" of money in our day to day lives can be so very destructive and how having God in your life can help bring balance to everything, including money. This was illustrated using the song Cats in the Cradle,by Harry Chapin
Cats In The Cradle Lyrics
My child arrived just the other day
He came to the world in the usual way
But there were planes to catch and bills to pay
He learned to walk while I was away
And he was talkin' 'fore I knew it, and as he grew
He'd say "I'm gonna be like you dad
You know I'm gonna be like you"
And the cat's in the cradle and the silver spoon
Little boy blue and the man on the moon
When you comin' home dad?
I don't know when, but we'll get together then son
You know we'll have a good time then
My son turned ten just the other day
He said, "Thanks for the ball, Dad, come on let's play
Can you teach me to throw", I said "Not today
I got a lot to do", he said, "That's ok"
And he walked away but his smile never dimmed
And said, "I'm gonna be like him, yeah
You know I'm gonna be like him"
And the cat's in the cradle and the silver spoon
Little boy blue and the man on the moon
When you comin' home son?
I don't know when, but we'll get together then son
You know we'll have a good time then
Well, he came home from college just the other day
So much like a man I just had to say
"Son, I'm proud of you, can you sit for a while?"
He shook his head and said with a smile
"What I'd really like, Dad, is to borrow the car keys
See you later, can I have them please?"
And the cat's in the cradle and the silver spoon
Little boy blue and the man on the moon
When you comin' home son?
I don't know when, but we'll get together then son
You know we'll have a good time then
I've long since retired, my son's moved away
I called him up just the other day
I said, "I'd like to see you if you don't mind"
He said, "I'd love to, Dad, if I can find the time
You see my new job's a hassle and kids have the flu
But it's sure nice talking to you, Dad
It's been sure nice talking to you"
And as I hung up the phone it occurred to me
He'd grown up just like me
My boy was just like me
And the cat's in the cradle and the silver spoon
Little boy blue and the man on the moon
When you comin' home son?
I don't know when, but we'll get together then son
You know we'll have a good time then
Obviously, the dad in the song valued money and success more than his son and that is the sadness of this song. It is easy to see here, and if we look, all around us, that in American society, we talk about "the important things" like family, etc, but more often spend most of our time and energy getting enough money to pay for what we want, instead of living investing in the "the important things" with our time and energy. Serving God allows us to be free from the tendency to overspend and search for opportunities to get wealth. He brings perspective on the money or lack of money in our lives, as Stephen so perfectly spoke about last time.
We ended our time together with communion. We shared some of Melissa's home made southern pound cake and juice!
It was a really good time together. We will be meeting again at McAllister Center in 2weeks - 7/10, 6:45-8:00PM. We look forward to seeing you there!
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
Thursday Night 6/26
Well, Thursday we will be meeting at McAllister 6:45-8:00Pm as usual - see previous posts for directions. We will be planning on a whole new type of noticing for our time in worship. Then we will have time to pray for each other (I have been praying for these 2 weeks for the things you asked me to pray about). Then we'll be jumping off from where Stephen finished last time for our teaching. It will be an awesome time - we hope you can make it!
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
6/12 - Last Thursday
Last Thursday's time together was really a good time, worshipping, praying and then learning. To begin, we got to know quite a few new people by talking about and around the topic: My favorite cartoon - I know it sounds kind of silly, and it was, but it was tons of fun!
After settling in a little, we worshipped to the theme "Things that are free." We basically either talked about, or drew pictures of or wrote about things in our lives that we wanted to thank/praise God for that cost absolutely nothing. It was a really good time of praise - it was amazing how many things we were able to come up with!
Then we had a time of prayer with everyone who wanted to writing things they are feeling worried/stressed/bothered, etc by and handing them to me to pray for for the next 2 wks and we shared prayer together.
Then, we were blessed to have Stephen Murphy talk to us about his life. I will let him give you the full story sometime, but the end summary was kind of like this: "I have lived a successful life grappling for money and success, and in the end it was all for nothing. My joy now is in God and that is fulfilling all the other areas of my life and giving me joy beyond what I have ever had." This is my paraphrase - please post Stephen if this is not accurate!
It was a powerful time of learning real-life lessons from a real-life hero!
If you were there, we're so glad you shared the time with us, if not, we hope you can make it on on June 26th at 6:45-8:00PM at McAllister Center - see the previous posts for directions!
After settling in a little, we worshipped to the theme "Things that are free." We basically either talked about, or drew pictures of or wrote about things in our lives that we wanted to thank/praise God for that cost absolutely nothing. It was a really good time of praise - it was amazing how many things we were able to come up with!
Then we had a time of prayer with everyone who wanted to writing things they are feeling worried/stressed/bothered, etc by and handing them to me to pray for for the next 2 wks and we shared prayer together.
Then, we were blessed to have Stephen Murphy talk to us about his life. I will let him give you the full story sometime, but the end summary was kind of like this: "I have lived a successful life grappling for money and success, and in the end it was all for nothing. My joy now is in God and that is fulfilling all the other areas of my life and giving me joy beyond what I have ever had." This is my paraphrase - please post Stephen if this is not accurate!
It was a powerful time of learning real-life lessons from a real-life hero!
If you were there, we're so glad you shared the time with us, if not, we hope you can make it on on June 26th at 6:45-8:00PM at McAllister Center - see the previous posts for directions!
Sunday, June 8, 2008
Thursday 6/12
We hope you can make it this Thursday for a great time. We will be expanding on the last discussion about the failure of so many of the "mores" of our society- the things we work for and search for in life. We will be having an interview/discussion with Stephen Murphy who is going to be talking about his searching for money, where it led him and where he is now!
If you have this feeling that there must be more to life than this...or maybe you are wondering what the point of it all is anyway...or maybe just are curious about God, but not into church, or had bad experiences in church, or with church people, you should come - we think you'll love it!
It will be at McAllister Center in Lafayette 6:45-8:00 PM - see previous posts for maps/directions and there is, as always, free childcare.
Hope to see you there!
If you have this feeling that there must be more to life than this...or maybe you are wondering what the point of it all is anyway...or maybe just are curious about God, but not into church, or had bad experiences in church, or with church people, you should come - we think you'll love it!
It will be at McAllister Center in Lafayette 6:45-8:00 PM - see previous posts for maps/directions and there is, as always, free childcare.
Hope to see you there!
Saturday, May 31, 2008
Last Thursday
Thursday night we had a great time together at McAllister Center! We enjoyed worshipping God together and praying for our burdens together using our imaginations. After all, God designed us with imaginations and we too many times use them for nothing important, or less than admirable purposes!
So, we began with imagining many things in our pasts to thank God for, then things in our present and then things in our future that He might do in us and we praised and worshipped for all that God has done, is doing, and will do in our lives. Then we took a few minutes to give anyone who wanted to a chance to praise God out loud for how great He is.
We have learned through the weeks that in many things we can worship. This week it was obviously about using our imaginations and minds to give thanks to God and to talk to Him. In past weeks we have worshipped to simple things like how marvelously He created our hands, to using crayons and paper to worship Him with writing and pictures and paper, to listening to the sounds around us to worship and noticing how wonderful the things we hear can be, to singing praise songs to Him. The truth is, this is all an attempt to do two things, 1) to help people worship God who are not as “into” the songs and worship type that we see in most churches – this being a point to our group, to help people find God who have not found church to be the best place for them to do it and 2) to begin to help people see that we can worship all the time, if we begin to simply notice the things around us and how wonderful God is that He has made all this earth and all the things in it!
After our rather unorthodox worship time, we took some time to pray to God for our hurts and burdens, our fears and losses, our concerns and worries. We imagined Jesus, in all His glory in heaven, and then imagined Him looking down at us. We then imagined our pain or hurt or issue in our hands and turned our hands out to Him to give Him the problem – which the Bible says He wants to take from us – and then we opened our hands like cups to receive His blessing, forgiveness, peace, joy, love, etc. in the place of the problem we had just given to Him. It was a nice time of quiet imagining and thinking about God. I left the time feeling much more free in my spirit…
Having spent time worshipping and praying, we had some teaching. This week’s teaching was really the first for what will be several months of teaching and learning along the topic of What is More than More? What do we mean? The teaching began and ended with the same questions.
Why do you get up in the morning?
What is your motivation for living?
What lights your fire?
What are you passionate about?
What is your reason for all you do?
The scripture we used was from Ecclesiastes, which is a book in the Old Testament of the Bible, and we used the Message translation, which is simply the way someone interpreted the Bible into modern language.
Here is the passage:
Ecc 1 “Smoke, nothing but smoke…There’s nothing to anything- it’s all smoke. What’s there to show for a lifetime of work, a lifetime of working your fingers to the bone? “What I’ve concluded is that so-called wisdom and knowledge are mindless and witless-nothing but spitting into the wind.” “I said to myself, “Let’s go for it-experiment with pleasure, have a good time!” But there was nothing to it, nothing but smoke.” “Oh, I did great things: built houses, planted vineyards, designed gardens and parks…then I acquired large herds and flocks, larger than any before me…I piled up silver and gold loot from kings and kingdoms, I gathered a chorus of singers to entertain me with song, and-most exquisite of all pleasures-voluptuous maidens for my bed. Oh, how I prospered…everything I wanted I took-I never said no to myself. I gave in to every impulse, held back nothing. I sucked the marrow of pleasure out of every task-my reward to myself…Then I took a look at everything I’d done, looked at all the sweat and hard work. But when I looked, I saw nothing but smoke. Smoke and spitting into the wind. There was nothing to any of it. Nothing.”
“The smart and the stupid both disappear out of sight.”
“We work to feed our appetites; Meanwhile our souls go hungry”
This seems an awful lot like American Society. Granted, not many people are really working these days at acquiring large flocks and herds, but some people definitely are acquiring large flocks of electronics and large herds of sexual conquests… The question is where does all this pursuing of more lead? The author of Ecclesiastes suggests that it is all “smoke.” We run and run and run after stuff – often times with the stuff in the end simply controlling us as our credit card bills pile up and we work from early to late to simply make the minimum payment.
With much thought and prayer, I came up with a list of general categories that I think Americans run after – the “more” we pursue. These things are not bad by themselves, but when they control us and become our reason for living, for getting up in the morning, the thing that we think most about, dream most about, work most for, they end up in…well that’s where we’re headed in the next meetings.
Here’s the list (if you have any to add, please let me know!):
…money & wealth – “If I could only win the lottery! Think of what my life would be like. If I could just work hard enough, train hard enough, maybe I can make tons of money and have it all.”
…fun & pleasure, “I’d quit my job and just play, have fun all day, party and party and party all day, all night. Girls/Men, fine food, the finest hotels, fanciest clothes, whatever my heart desires”
…family & children, “I’d give my children and family the best. Quit my job, invest in them totally, the best schools and education, the best clothes, the best teeth (we’re working on orthodontics now!), playing with them and helping them grow and become.. I’d invest in my relationships, my husband, my friends, grow them all strong.”
…fame and achievement, “I’d become the best in my area. I’d rule the company, the town, the country. I’d be a great race car driver, the best in my field. I’d publish studies or books, change the face of the world with my greatness. I’d prove to my dad, my mom, those people who picked on me, to everyone that I really am somebody”
…fitness, strength, and beauty, “I’d be the strongest, toughest, most powerful, leanest, most beautiful, most perfect body, most sensual, most sexy, the most defined, ripped, cut. I would fit the mold of everyone’s perfect woman or man. Everyone would desire me and want me.
…religion and right living…”I’d be the wisest, holiest, most starched, never swearing, never grumpy, never miss a church service, always read my Bible every day, always have my private prayer time, always control my temper, never make a mistake, totally sanctified, and make sure everyone else knows how they fall short too,”
The truth is that I run after these things far too much of the time. When I look at where most of my time is spent, it is in the pursuit of one of these way too much. It grieves my heart.
We are going to be looking at each of these, one by one, over the next several get togethers (the next will be 6/12 at 6:45 at McAllister Center – see previous posts for directions) to see where they lead in the end. We will even be having some guests join us who have pushed one or more of these roads to the end of the line and they will be sharing their experiences with us. The great news is that even as all these “more’s” (again although none are bad by themselves and in the right perspective) in the end seem to lead to smoke, or in another word to nothingness, if they are the main drive to our lives, there is a More that truly is satisfying and wonderful and makes all these others come into the right perspective in our lives. He is the More that is More than the more that we chase! Jesus is More than more! You see, you were made to be something so awesome and great, and in Him, all the things in this life fall into their correct place. Money, instead of ruling us, becomes a tool to life fully. Achievement becomes something that can be part of something much larger than just “being the best” and on through the list we could go. You see, all of the things on the list above have value, they just are not meant to be the ultimate value in our lives.
We concluded with a song, “My Generation” by Starfield. I have tried to attach the mp3, but can't seem to - sorry
Here are the words:
There is something more
Hello, we're going down the hallway to the door
We know there's something more
Our soul has a got a hole
We know but what's it waiting for
Scattered in the street
Like dreams and destiny
The things we wanna be
Are scattered in the streets
If we're coming clean
We've seen to know we're incomplete
Chorus: How do we feel, how do we feel
My generation is aching for real
Dyin for love cryin for truth
My generation is aching for you
Country of our own
Is all we're asking for
A place to call our home
A country of our own
We know it must be close
Our souls are searching through the cold
The cold, the cold
Chorus: x3
How do we feel, how do we feel
My generation is aching for real
Dyin for love, cryin for truth
My generation is aching for you
And so, the questions…
Why do you get up in the morning?
What is your motivation for living?
What lights your fire?
What are you passionate about?
What is your reason for all you do?
Be thinking about it and we’ll hope to see you on June 12th!
So, we began with imagining many things in our pasts to thank God for, then things in our present and then things in our future that He might do in us and we praised and worshipped for all that God has done, is doing, and will do in our lives. Then we took a few minutes to give anyone who wanted to a chance to praise God out loud for how great He is.
We have learned through the weeks that in many things we can worship. This week it was obviously about using our imaginations and minds to give thanks to God and to talk to Him. In past weeks we have worshipped to simple things like how marvelously He created our hands, to using crayons and paper to worship Him with writing and pictures and paper, to listening to the sounds around us to worship and noticing how wonderful the things we hear can be, to singing praise songs to Him. The truth is, this is all an attempt to do two things, 1) to help people worship God who are not as “into” the songs and worship type that we see in most churches – this being a point to our group, to help people find God who have not found church to be the best place for them to do it and 2) to begin to help people see that we can worship all the time, if we begin to simply notice the things around us and how wonderful God is that He has made all this earth and all the things in it!
After our rather unorthodox worship time, we took some time to pray to God for our hurts and burdens, our fears and losses, our concerns and worries. We imagined Jesus, in all His glory in heaven, and then imagined Him looking down at us. We then imagined our pain or hurt or issue in our hands and turned our hands out to Him to give Him the problem – which the Bible says He wants to take from us – and then we opened our hands like cups to receive His blessing, forgiveness, peace, joy, love, etc. in the place of the problem we had just given to Him. It was a nice time of quiet imagining and thinking about God. I left the time feeling much more free in my spirit…
Having spent time worshipping and praying, we had some teaching. This week’s teaching was really the first for what will be several months of teaching and learning along the topic of What is More than More? What do we mean? The teaching began and ended with the same questions.
Why do you get up in the morning?
What is your motivation for living?
What lights your fire?
What are you passionate about?
What is your reason for all you do?
The scripture we used was from Ecclesiastes, which is a book in the Old Testament of the Bible, and we used the Message translation, which is simply the way someone interpreted the Bible into modern language.
Here is the passage:
Ecc 1 “Smoke, nothing but smoke…There’s nothing to anything- it’s all smoke. What’s there to show for a lifetime of work, a lifetime of working your fingers to the bone? “What I’ve concluded is that so-called wisdom and knowledge are mindless and witless-nothing but spitting into the wind.” “I said to myself, “Let’s go for it-experiment with pleasure, have a good time!” But there was nothing to it, nothing but smoke.” “Oh, I did great things: built houses, planted vineyards, designed gardens and parks…then I acquired large herds and flocks, larger than any before me…I piled up silver and gold loot from kings and kingdoms, I gathered a chorus of singers to entertain me with song, and-most exquisite of all pleasures-voluptuous maidens for my bed. Oh, how I prospered…everything I wanted I took-I never said no to myself. I gave in to every impulse, held back nothing. I sucked the marrow of pleasure out of every task-my reward to myself…Then I took a look at everything I’d done, looked at all the sweat and hard work. But when I looked, I saw nothing but smoke. Smoke and spitting into the wind. There was nothing to any of it. Nothing.”
“The smart and the stupid both disappear out of sight.”
“We work to feed our appetites; Meanwhile our souls go hungry”
This seems an awful lot like American Society. Granted, not many people are really working these days at acquiring large flocks and herds, but some people definitely are acquiring large flocks of electronics and large herds of sexual conquests… The question is where does all this pursuing of more lead? The author of Ecclesiastes suggests that it is all “smoke.” We run and run and run after stuff – often times with the stuff in the end simply controlling us as our credit card bills pile up and we work from early to late to simply make the minimum payment.
With much thought and prayer, I came up with a list of general categories that I think Americans run after – the “more” we pursue. These things are not bad by themselves, but when they control us and become our reason for living, for getting up in the morning, the thing that we think most about, dream most about, work most for, they end up in…well that’s where we’re headed in the next meetings.
Here’s the list (if you have any to add, please let me know!):
…money & wealth – “If I could only win the lottery! Think of what my life would be like. If I could just work hard enough, train hard enough, maybe I can make tons of money and have it all.”
…fun & pleasure, “I’d quit my job and just play, have fun all day, party and party and party all day, all night. Girls/Men, fine food, the finest hotels, fanciest clothes, whatever my heart desires”
…family & children, “I’d give my children and family the best. Quit my job, invest in them totally, the best schools and education, the best clothes, the best teeth (we’re working on orthodontics now!), playing with them and helping them grow and become.. I’d invest in my relationships, my husband, my friends, grow them all strong.”
…fame and achievement, “I’d become the best in my area. I’d rule the company, the town, the country. I’d be a great race car driver, the best in my field. I’d publish studies or books, change the face of the world with my greatness. I’d prove to my dad, my mom, those people who picked on me, to everyone that I really am somebody”
…fitness, strength, and beauty, “I’d be the strongest, toughest, most powerful, leanest, most beautiful, most perfect body, most sensual, most sexy, the most defined, ripped, cut. I would fit the mold of everyone’s perfect woman or man. Everyone would desire me and want me.
…religion and right living…”I’d be the wisest, holiest, most starched, never swearing, never grumpy, never miss a church service, always read my Bible every day, always have my private prayer time, always control my temper, never make a mistake, totally sanctified, and make sure everyone else knows how they fall short too,”
The truth is that I run after these things far too much of the time. When I look at where most of my time is spent, it is in the pursuit of one of these way too much. It grieves my heart.
We are going to be looking at each of these, one by one, over the next several get togethers (the next will be 6/12 at 6:45 at McAllister Center – see previous posts for directions) to see where they lead in the end. We will even be having some guests join us who have pushed one or more of these roads to the end of the line and they will be sharing their experiences with us. The great news is that even as all these “more’s” (again although none are bad by themselves and in the right perspective) in the end seem to lead to smoke, or in another word to nothingness, if they are the main drive to our lives, there is a More that truly is satisfying and wonderful and makes all these others come into the right perspective in our lives. He is the More that is More than the more that we chase! Jesus is More than more! You see, you were made to be something so awesome and great, and in Him, all the things in this life fall into their correct place. Money, instead of ruling us, becomes a tool to life fully. Achievement becomes something that can be part of something much larger than just “being the best” and on through the list we could go. You see, all of the things on the list above have value, they just are not meant to be the ultimate value in our lives.
We concluded with a song, “My Generation” by Starfield. I have tried to attach the mp3, but can't seem to - sorry
Here are the words:
There is something more
Hello, we're going down the hallway to the door
We know there's something more
Our soul has a got a hole
We know but what's it waiting for
Scattered in the street
Like dreams and destiny
The things we wanna be
Are scattered in the streets
If we're coming clean
We've seen to know we're incomplete
Chorus: How do we feel, how do we feel
My generation is aching for real
Dyin for love cryin for truth
My generation is aching for you
Country of our own
Is all we're asking for
A place to call our home
A country of our own
We know it must be close
Our souls are searching through the cold
The cold, the cold
Chorus: x3
How do we feel, how do we feel
My generation is aching for real
Dyin for love, cryin for truth
My generation is aching for you
And so, the questions…
Why do you get up in the morning?
What is your motivation for living?
What lights your fire?
What are you passionate about?
What is your reason for all you do?
Be thinking about it and we’ll hope to see you on June 12th!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
