Category: Seeing Extraordinary in the Ordinary

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Have You Thought About Training Your Replacement?

Not long ago I went to an estate sale. I don’t know that I’d ever been to one before. For those who don’t know, when someone passes away and their heirs/loved ones begin the process of emptying out the home, there’s often a lot of “I don’t need this, I don’t want this, or I have no room for this.” The heirs set aside what they want to keep, then hold an event where pretty much everything left in the home is up for sale.

It’s both very interesting, and very sad. On the one hand, you’ve got this eclectic collection of items that tells a story about the person that last lived here. “This lady obviously loved sunglasses, ravens, and hedge trimmers.” On the other hand, you see just how much clutter they lived with, and it’s a little depressing to see crowds of complete strangers coming in, picking through the departed’s belongings, and haggling over already-low prices. “Why in the world would anybody hang onto this, and why in the world wouldn’t the people putting on the sale throw it out before starting the sale?”

A few years back, I chronicled the story of how our family unexpectedly lost my wife’s dad, Lee, to some health struggles. We thought he’d made it past the most difficult part of his health challenges, but it turns out God wanted him to come home more than He wanted him to stay with us. Lee was a devout Christian, and everybody who knew him understood his faith to be an important part of who he was.

As the pastor concluded Lee’s memorial service, he issued a challenge. “Today we’re saying goodbye to a very godly man. I ask you, who here will take his place?”

Today I’d like to talk about the idea of succession.

Think for a moment about the capacity in which you serve the Lord. It could be any number of ways, and none of them need to come with a fancy title. The day will come when you no longer fill that role. My challenge for you today is to think about this: are you helping to prepare someone else to fill the vacancy you’ll one day leave behind?

In some cases you won’t be able to see the transition coming, and you may not be available to offer advice or insight during that chaotic time. In other cases you might still be around to lend your expertise. I’ve written before about how once you complete a task God’s laid before you, there’s often another, larger task waiting for you. I once heard a famous leader say “if you’re still excited about the same thing you were excited about five years ago, you’re not growing.” Part of the reason you should regularly think about training your replacement is because if you consistently demonstrate faithfulness in smaller things, you should expect God to “promote” you into something larger. It doesn’t mean you’re giving up on something; it could mean God’s used you to set up a situation for someone new, it’s time to move you into another challenge, and now it’s time to turn things over to someone else who’s stepping into a larger challenge of their own so they, too, can keep growing. What feels like closing the door on something is actually a profound opportunity for you to demonstrate leadership and expand your Christ-focused influence.

What does that type of preparation look like? The possibilities are limitless. Some of them are on the process and technical side of the house, like CEOs, family businesses, specific ministry work or leadership roles, etc. Others include volunteer roles, or maybe even roles without titles. Some examples include Sunday school teachers, mentoring someone younger in the faith than you, being the person that shovels the driveway of an elderly neighbor, brings meals to a shut in, or drives someone to a doctor’s appointment or to go grocery shopping. “Grandmother” is a title that carries a lot of weight, and being a godly influence in your grandchildren’s lives comes with an opportunity to have a lasting impact years after you’ve taken your last breath. These roles are less about technical skills than they are about willing hearts and people skills, and those attitudes need to be lived out or demonstrated to others before they can learn them.

Think of the Christian leaders in your own life and the influence they’ve had on you. They don’t need to have held an official title. You don’t need a degree or special training to offer God-honoring advice to a friend, neighbor, or co-worker. You just need to use the influence you’ve got to show others around you what Christian living, especially in difficult times, looks like.

Succession planning is a natural part of any endeavor. You can cling to something if you really want to, but are you giving careful consideration to the idea that the thing you’re refusing to let go of may suffer because of your unwillingness to let go, and you may even be preventing someone well suited for a new role from having the opportunity to grow into it? “Today we’re saying goodbye to a very godly man. I ask you, who here will take his place?”

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Consequences Come Whether or not You Know the Truth

The older I get, the tougher it is to maintain the same weight. I used to be able to eat a ridiculous amount of junk food and my metabolism would laugh and say “bring it on!” As I age, my margin of error for staying inside that desired range shrinks smaller and smaller.

I’ve been very fortunate with my overall health. These days, when I know I’m going to be involved in a particularly messy project around the house or in the yard, I’m able to pull on one of my old stained or ripped pairs of jeans I wore when I worked in construction more than 20 years ago.

I can still fit in those pants because I’m at or near the same weight I was back then. The main reason that’s true is because almost every morning I step onto the scale to get hit with the cold, hard truth. The scale doesn’t lie. On some occasions I know ahead of time it’s going to be bad. Sometimes there’s a jaw-dropping “no, that can’t be right!” Monday mornings are usually the worst. Other times there’s a mental fist pump.

The harsh reality is that the scale always speaks the truth, and even though the truth can hurt, I need to know it. Accepting what the scale’s saying has to happen before choosing what to do with the information. What the scale fails to do, though, is speak the truth in love. Christians, while it is our duty to inform others in the world about the truth of their need for the savior, we have to remember the importance of doing it with compassion and love.

Put yourself in a nonbeliever’s place. It’s not easy to hear someone tell you you’ve been living your life in a way that means you’ll miss out on Heaven. It’s even tougher to maintain an attitude open and willing enough to say “what can I do to make it right?” It’s not enough for us to proclaim “you’re a sinner, and you’re destined for Hell.” All that does is turn people off to what you’re saying. God can use any of our botched efforts, of course, but come on, have a little empathy and compassion.

Obviously, presenting the difficult truth of humanity’s shortcomings is important. Coming alongside people and letting them know not just about the bad news, but about the way out of the bad news, allows them to see the hope instead of just the stuff they don’t like thinking about. Speaking the truth in love is going to make all the difference.

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Living Through a Tangible Example

This coming weekend is a three-day weekend for a lot of people, and it reminds me of an annual retreat our youth group participated in years ago (and probably still does). Every President’s Day weekend our youth group went to a nearby Christian conference center for a mini retreat. Many of the other churches from our denomination’s district brought their youth groups as well. It added some excitement to the mid-winter doldrums for a lot of our high-schoolers. It was always a very uplifting time that saw many kids dedicate or re-dedicate their lives to Christ.

One year during this retreat our youth leader, Allen, took part in an annual tradition for the retreat. He arranged to make pizza available for purchase, and our youth group would then meet together (just us in a smaller setting…no other church’s youth groups) for some deep discussions.

As you may be able to imagine, a large number of teenagers can go through quite a bit of pizza. Everyone was told ahead of time to bring some extra cash specifically for the purpose of buying however many slices of pizza they’d want. Allen announced that he’d get a slice count first, then collect the cash afterward. He went methodically through the roster he brought, keeping a record of how many slices each person wanted. Upon tallying all the orders, he asked “okay, last call, does anybody want to make any changes before we call in the order?” There may have been one or two changes to the orders, but it wasn’t long before he tallied up the final count.

As everybody started pulling out their cash, he announced a surprise. An anonymous member of our church was a big fan of the effect this retreat had on our youth group, and had volunteered to pick up the tab for the entire youth group’s pizza dinner. While buying pizza may not sound like much, it was a very real and practical way to love on the kids from our church attending the retreat that year. As jaws fell open, many of the boys, especially, tried to revise their orders higher, but Allen had seen it coming and purposely double checked before announcing the news.

This was a great way to demonstrate to teenagers the concept of having their debt forgiven. While this was an infinitely smaller debt to overcome than Christ’s redemption of our souls, it was an example that struck a chord and brought a tangible joy with it.

For those who have maybe heard of Jesus but might not be real familiar with Him, He serves as the bridge for us to cross an impossible gap. You’ve probably heard of Adam and Eve. For a time, Adam and Eve walked in sinless fellowship with the Lord. It wasn’t until they sinned (went against what they knew was right in God’s eyes) that death became woven into the human experience. Only someone without sin would be able to escape the lasting consequences of death, and only Jesus Christ has lived a sinless life. Since Christ was fully man, He wasn’t impervious to death, but since He was also fully God, He was impervious to staying dead. Since death has no power over the sinless, Christ was able to stare death in the eye and do as He wished. Although His sacrifice created a way to redeem us if we accept it, all of us are still destined to live with the consequences of our past sins. Everyone reading this will one day pass from this life into the next, but only those that have accepted Christ as their savior will spend the next life with Him in heaven.

I pray you’d experience a similar example of having your debt forgiven, and gain an increased appreciation for the gift Christ offers all of us. For those that have been Christ-followers for awhile now, please pray that those who are seeking truth would find it, and that God would move mightily in their lives, and in the lives of the teens gathering for the winter retreat this weekend.

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Annual Performance Review: Be an Overcomer

I’m sure it irritates folks that are hostile toward religion, but there are still some things in our culture that stem from Judeo-Christian beliefs. I like that we still have “In God We Trust” on our money, but at this point I think we’re probably kidding ourselves about its accuracy for the nation. Maybe the one that will stick around the longest is a seven-day week. Those aren’t the only examples though.

Strangely enough, it appears some of our corporate culture is modeled after Jesus Christ’s example.

If you’ve ever spent time in a work role that involves giving or getting formal feedback, you’ve probably seen this firsthand.

If you’ve ever been a supervisor, you’ve probably had to have some uneasy or unpleasant conversations. When I was in the Air Force, practicing this very thing in a class, all of us got to do a hard one. I think I had to sit down with a fake subordinate and let them know that they needed to shower more frequently or something like that. Not such a fun task.

Usually giving feedback isn’t quite so drastic, but there are times when hard conversations need to happen. If you’re dealing with a stellar performer, you want to let them know you see how great a job they’re doing, but you always want to give them some kind of constructive criticism. If you’re dealing with someone that’s barely avoiding a pink slip, the conversation is harder. The model typically followed is:

  1. Start with something positive about their performance.
  2. Call out the ugly.
  3. Chart a path forward for getting back on track.
  4. End on a positive note.

You may ask “this model is in the Bible?” Why yes it is.

The book of Revelation is the last book of the Bible, most famous for its cataclysmic account of history’s culmination. Less flashy is the part early in the book where Christ provides feedback for seven kinds of churches (chapters 2 and 3). These seven churches were actual churches in named cities in the first century, but I imagine most churches that profess Christ as Lord today fall into one of these categories. They are the loveless church, the persecuted church, the church that compromises, the corrupt church, the dead church, the faithful church, and the lukewarm church.

All seven of the churches are initially commended for their works, suggesting that pretty much all churches do stuff that’s looked upon positively. Some of the churches in these two chapters are commended more robustly than others. “I know your works.” “I know your works, tribulation, and poverty.” “I know your works, your labor, your patience, and that you cannot bear those who are evil.”

Five of the seven (not the persecuted or the faithful church), however, have some kind of flaw that needs to be addressed. “Nevertheless I have this against you.” “Nevertheless I have a few things against you.” “But I have a few things against you.”

Then Christ gives instructions for correcting the flaws. “Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent and do the first works, or else I will come to you quickly and remove your lampstand from its place—unless you repent.” “Repent, or else I will come to you quickly and will fight against them with the sword of My mouth.” “Remember therefore how you have received and heard; hold fast and repent. Therefore if you will not watch, I will come upon you as a thief, and you will not know what hour I will come upon you.” “As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. Therefore be zealous and repent.” Repenting is a common theme. In the modern workplace, it’s akin to the person receiving feedback acknowledging that yes, there is a shortcoming of some sort and a correction needs to take place. This blog post isn’t that long, so it seems like I’m glossing over the whole “hey, get your act together and start performing like you know you should” thing. This is obviously where the hard work begins and where the bulk of the feedback actually occurs.

After that, though, it’s very possible, or even likely, that someone’s on the defensive (or if they’re humble and acknowledge the discrepancy, are saddened) and needs a little encouragement. Finally, the Lord ends each session on a positive note. Listen to the emphasis that’s placed on ‘overcoming’ the challenges of life in these seven passages. It’s as if Christ understood that the Christian life, as hopeful as it is, is a hard thing to lead. “To him who overcomes I will give to eat from the tree of life, which is in the midst of the Paradise of God.” “He who overcomes shall not be hurt by the second death.” “To him who overcomes I will give some of the hidden manna to eat. And I will give him a white stone, and on the stone a new name written which no one knows except him who receives it.” “And he who overcomes, and keeps My works until the end, to him I will give power over the nations…” “He who overcomes shall be clothed in white garments, and I will not blot out his name from the Book of Life; but I will confess his name before My Father and before His angels.” “He who overcomes, I will make him a pillar in the temple of My God, and he shall go out no more.” “To him who overcomes I will grant to sit with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne.”

So in all circumstances, you’re facing a charge to correct your actions/thought processes, you’re a little bit broken by the realization of your shortcoming, or you’re gearing up for some challenges ahead. God would have assigned someone else to the task if you couldn’t remain faithful to what you know you’re supposed to do. Don’t be disheartened. Be an overcomer.

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God Already Has All the Money

One morning as I was heading in to work a few years back, I had some cash in my pocket that I wanted to deposit into the bank. Unfortunately, somewhere between when I parked the car and when I got to my desk, I must have dropped one of the bills without realizing it (I think it was a $50). As you can imagine, I was pretty upset about it when I figured it out, but there wasn’t really anything I could do about it.

There’s an odd story in Matthew chapter 17. Back in Bible times, adult males over 20 years of age needed to pay an annual “Temple Tax” for the upkeep and maintenance of the temple. In verse 24, some tax collectors came to Peter and said (paraphrased) “Hey, uh, so does your teacher pay the tax?” “Yes he does,” came the reply.

Peter then went into the house, where Jesus was. Jesus, knowing what was going on, threw in a little object lesson, but then said “well, we don’t want to offend anyone, so we’d better pay it.” I don’t know if Jesus was short on cash or exactly why He did this next thing, but He took an unorthodox approach.

“Go to the lake, throw in your fishing line, and take a closer look at the first fish you catch. In its mouth will be a coin that’s enough to pay the temple tax for two people. Give it to them and pay the tax for both of us.”

This is a famous story in the Bible, and you’ve probably heard it before. By all means, it’s miraculous. Jesus had no way of being able to make such an audacious prediction and have it come true, outside of being God incarnate. Let’s take this a step further, though. Do you think He just conjured a fish with a coin in it?

While Jesus certainly has the power to do that, I don’t really think that’s how He rolls. If these events were to happen today, I think there’d be bills with verifiable serial numbers on them. These events probably involve the story of some guy whose experiences didn’t make it into the Bible. This guy, or maybe this kid, I don’t know, was probably goofing off near a dock or in a boat, playing with a coin a little too close to the water. Fumbling the coin, he dropped it into the water accompanied by a cuss word muttered under his breath as he watched it sink into the water. If it was in shallow water, he probably thought about jumping in after it. “It’s not that deep, I can get it!”

Starting to take off his sandals, he kept an eye on the coin fluttering to the bottom, only to see a fish swim up to the shiny object, gulp it down, and swim off. I imagine the guy then slumped onto a seat in the boat, dejected, wondering about what he was going to tell his dad, or his wife, or somebody else about the bonehead move he’d just lived through.

If that’s what really happened, I feel like I can relate to the guy. While I doubt that the money I lost was used for anything so noble as it was in the Bible story, God has control over even the small details of daily life. Whether the cash I dropped was squandered or used for something great after it left my possession, it happened exactly the way He wanted it to. When God miraculously provides for someone financially, it usually comes out of someone else’s pocket. I’m not thrilled about it and it’s probably not the way I would’ve chosen for things to happen, but I still got to eat that day and I didn’t have to move out of the house I was living in because of it. I’ll bellyache about it, but I survived the “hardship” of that loss just fine.

You may have experienced similar things in your life. Our gut reaction, and sometimes even our reaction even after we’ve had time to cool off, is to be upset. Try to think of it this way, though: it’s all God’s money. He can do whatever He wants with it. Everything we have is on its way to where He wants it to go.

I don’t know that it will be in my top 10, but I think one of the questions I’ll have for God when I get to Heaven is “Whatever happened to that $50?”

24 After Jesus and his disciples arrived in Capernaum, the collectors of the two-drachma temple tax came to Peter and asked, “Doesn’t your teacher pay the temple tax?”

25 “Yes, he does,” he replied.

When Peter came into the house, Jesus was the first to speak. “What do you think, Simon?” he asked. “From whom do the kings of the earth collect duty and taxes—from their own children or from others?”

26 “From others,” Peter answered.

“Then the children are exempt,” Jesus said to him. 27 “But so that we may not cause offense, go to the lake and throw out your line. Take the first fish you catch; open its mouth and you will find a four-drachma coin. Take it and give it to them for my tax and yours.” –Matthew 17:24-27

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What if Gravity Worked a Little Differently?

Let’s enter the imaginarium for a few moments here. Suppose that you were around to witness God’s drawing board when He was designing the universe.

To put some scale to the level of God’s creativity here, imagine just for a moment that you were going to write a short story about landing on an inhabited alien planet where no human has ever set foot. What would that planet look like? What kind of life would be there, and what governs the way they live their lives? Don’t be shy or hold back, be as creative as you possibly can.

You’d probably imagine things you’ve already seen or heard from movies, TV shows, or books. Taking something you’re already sort of familiar with, then tweaking it…we can call that one degree of separation. Now think about God creating this planet. He made it out of absolutely nothing, and He did it without anything to borrow inspiration from or to model after. That’s at least two degrees of separation, and it’s something we as humans have a hard time wrapping our minds around.

Back to God’s workshop. Some people might envision sketches of antelopes, clay models of whales, and a scale model of a sparrow in a wind tunnel. While that would all be pretty cool to watch unfold, I’m more fascinated with the way He, once again, from nothing, laid out the rules of physics, chemistry, and biology.

We’re so set on the constancy of what we know as physical laws that the idea sounds absurd, but God could just as easily established different rules and had them work out fine and still be in harmony with all the other naturally occurring laws He set in place. Imagine if instead of what we’re used to, the following things hold true:

Materials with greater densities float above those with lesser densities. Water boils at 50 degrees Fahrenheit at sea level. The speed of light is the same speed as the speed of sound. There are bugs that combine grains of sand to form volcanic rock. Zebras give birth to aardvarks. Visible light is not the only visible portion of the electromagnetic spectrum. Space is hot, not cold. The sky is yellow, not blue. The earth spins not west to east, but south to north, and it takes 33 hours instead of 24 to make a complete rotation.

According to what we know and understand, any single one of these things simply cannot happen. If He wanted to, God could have made all of these “absurd rules” work together simultaneously, and have it make sense. He could have made them the physical and scientific laws we abide by, but He didn’t. The laws we observe and rely on are the ones He gave us, and they provide context for our understanding of the universe.

I’ve studied physics, chemistry, and biology to some degree, and it can be especially frustrating to get the math wrong and not be able to figure out where you went wrong. It’s very helpful, however, in getting some insight into just how creative God is; imagine being so creative that you come up with physical laws that work in harmony with all other physical laws and living things on the planet, and you nail it on the first shot. You even get the nuances and exceptions right! Just one example: there are three basic forms of matter…gas, liquid, and solid. Ordinarily as a molecule moves from solid to liquid to gas, it takes up increasing amounts of volume. On the flip side of that coin, a cloud of gas takes up less room as a liquid, and even less room as a solid. You’re fitting the same amount of mass into smaller amounts of volume, so it becomes more and more dense. Here’s the kicker – water doesn’t behave that way, and continued life on Earth depends on that fact. Water actually expands as it moves from liquid to solid form. (Ever freeze a full container of water? I hope you weren’t too attached to it.) This single concept changes everything, and getting it wrong meant we’d have a really hard time surviving. If water behaved like most other forms of matter, ice would form at the surface and then settle to the bottom, making room for more ice to form at the surface and subsequently settle. Eventually the whole body of water would freeze solid, (probably) killing anything living in it.

Or what about the fact that Earth’s core is a big glob of slowly spinning molten iron? This gigantic dynamo produces a magnetic field that extends beyond our planet and protects us by diverting the crippling charged particles that the sun is constantly emitting. If this magnetic field didn’t exist, the sun’s particles would relentlessly strip Earth of its atmosphere, creating two major problems for us. First, there would be nothing left to breathe. Second, the reduction in atmospheric pressure would cause all liquid water to boil off and escape into space, even at low temperatures. Our planet would become a lifeless dry rock with no significant atmosphere (like Mars), but because God set things up so that the science would work together to maintain a habitable environment, we’re still able to walk around without wearing pressure suits.

It’s mind-blowing! The logic and creativity is without parallel. Yes, God is a God of love, of compassion, of power, of emotion, of so many “touchy-feely” things, but He’s also the God of logic, of order, of completeness, of “yeah, I considered all of those things when I set the universe in motion.” In the military I heard about the importance of weighing the “second- and third-order effects” of an event. God considers the twenty-sixth and twenty-seventh order effects of an event, and then some.

That’s the God we serve. He’s not some aloof buffoon sitting on a cloud somewhere, eating grapes and throwing lightning bolts. He’s alive and well, and He’s actively involved in what happens every day in the life of His creation’s masterpiece: you. The next time that you feel your life is nothing more than an accident or that nobody even knows you’re there, remember that the God of all things had you in mind when He created this world, and when He went to the cross. The creator of the world decided He would rather die than live without you. He sees you, you matter to Him, and He has a plan for your life.

Oh God, the more we learn about science, the more it points to you. Some students of science will go to great lengths to avoid acknowledging the evidence of a designer, but thank you so much for revealing yourself through it! May You be glorified through it!

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What I’ve Learned so far…

I’ve been blessed to have a good number and variety of experiences in my life. I’ve accomplished difficult feats, I’ve worked with excellent colleagues, and I’ve worked with terrible colleagues. I’ve taken part in audacious things, I’ve failed at some of them, and I’ve learned a lot about dealing with people in general. Here, in no particular order, are 15 life lessons I’ve picked up so far:

Your physical and mental limits are often self-imposed. If you believe you can’t do something, you’ll probably try to prove yourself right. Give it an honest try before deciding it can’t be done.

Humility is a valuable attribute. If you’re the cat’s pajamas at something, that doesn’t mean you 1. can’t get better at it, 2. can’t become the cat’s pajamas at something else, and/or 3. can’t empower somebody else with the knowledge/experience you’ve gained.

You don’t need to formally hold a position of leadership to demonstrate it.

When you meet someone new, you probably have no idea what kinds of things, good or bad, they’ve lived through. Enter the relationship without assumptions, and allow your opinion of them to form based on the interactions you have with them. People are defined by more than what happened to them on their worst or their best day.

Married life – Without having unrealistic standards, be very choosy about who you’re willing to marry. If you take the time to choose well, it will pay off in spades.

You see things differently than I do. I don’t look at that as a reason to cancel you. Please reciprocate.

Life as a kid – When you’re young you see everything in terms of black and white, of right and wrong. When you grow up, almost everything is some varied shade of gray. Try to live your life as high contrast as you can, in the process making it easier for others to do the same.

There’s a time to laugh and a time to be serious, but the former should outweigh the latter.

When you look back at your life, you’ll regret the things you didn’t do more than the things you did.

Adventure sports where there’s risk to life/limb (skydiving, rappelling, whitewater sports) – there are three things most important when risking your life or someone else’s: the quality of your team, the quality of your gear, and the quality of your preparation (including the caliber of your instruction). Skimp on one or more of these at your peril.

Air Force – You’re facing big challenges, you’re pressed for time, and there are more challenges knocking on the door. You can go the fast/easy route, but if you get brutally honest, the best way is probably going to end up being the most painful one. Save effort where you can, but if you wouldn’t be willing to do it all over again a second or third time, don’t cut corners.

Parenting – Little kids, little problems. Big kids, big problems. Whatever stage of parenting you’re in, enjoy the here and now, because it goes by quickly, and they (and their problems) are getting bigger right in front of you.

Aging and losing the ability to do things you formerly could – Know the difference between griping about it and moping about it. Your toolset changes over time; maintain enough mental agility to always leverage your current strengths.

Professional analysis – If you genuinely want to be objective about something, gather lots of information while waiting as long as you can before forming an opinion about it. Once you’ve formed an opinion, it takes a surprising amount of slap-you-in-the-face evidence to sway you from it, even if it’s wrong.

Just because I’m right doesn’t mean you’re wrong (and vice versa).

Any of these stand out to you? Which one strikes a chord?

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Our Peace in the Chaos

Merry Christmas to you all! Today’s post comes courtesy of a guest author, my wonderful wife! I wish you all a wonderful time of celebration commemorating the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ!

“For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. ​Of the greatness of his government and peace there will be no end. He will reign on David’s throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever. The zeal of the Lord Almighty will accomplish this.” Isaiah 9:6-7

God accomplishes what we cannot. Peace. How our world needs this. We see chaos, disorder, fear, disagreements, and anger. This is what the plans of man get us. On our own and in our own flesh we are selfish creatures seeking our own way. Only Christ in us can help us set aside our agendas and ask “what would Jesus have me do…in my world, in my day, in this situation, in this very moment, what should my response be?”

As believers and followers of Christ we are called to be His hands and feet to the world around us. But if we don’t fall on our knees, see our need for our Savior, and ask Him to open our eyes to the WHY that He came, until we understand our hopelessness apart from Him, we will skim over the need and just keep bustling around this season. We try to do it in our strength and get wrapped up in to-do lists, cookies, presents, trees, decorations, plans, and schedules. Then, instead of feeling peace and joy as we serve those we love, we feel stress in the midst of our striving and controlling what we think Christmas needs to look like and be like. We lose sight of why we even celebrate it.

But see, that’s what it is, isn’t it?​ Our striving is this need for control, for as the world around us spins by, we long for order in our chaos. We need to see that in our need for peace, we tend to grasp at control, and instead of releasing and looking to God we put it on ourselves to find the peace and we try to control the outcome. We try to make it all okay. We try to give our kids and loved ones security and peace as much as we can through our striving, and the things we do and plan. Now the wish for that in and of itself is not wrong; it is normal. We all long for security and peace. We know deep down we were created for more than this and Heaven beckons to show us the need for our Savior. We see this world as fallen, broken, and not as it should be; we long for peace, but the more we seek to control things ourselves and grasp at peace in our own strength, the further we get from the one who actually does control it all, and who offers us true peace in Him.

Christ alone is our security, our hope, and our peace in the midst of all our chaos. He who came as a baby into our world knows just how much we long for peace and how much we need Him. So let’s take a minute to be still, to reset, and to seek Him alone for that peace.

Acknowledging our need for Him is the first step to that peace. We need to see our sin, brokenness, and hopelessness apart from Him and turn to Him for salvation. He came to save and to bring us back into relationship with the Father. We now have access to the throne room of God through prayer because of Christ! He is where the peace is.

So this Christmas season, may we look to Christ for our peace. May we remember He loved us so much that He gave up Heaven to come for us. He came and poured into the world His love and forgiveness and only in Him can we now go and pour out into those around us. Our desire to give peace and order isn’t wrong, but it becomes wrong when we take it on ourselves to bring it apart from Christ. For He is the true reason and gift of Christmas and through Him alone can we have that peace that passes all understanding, (Phil 4:7) and spread that joy, peace, and hope to others.

Merry Christmas all, from our family to yours. May you feel His peace over you no matter what your circumstances may be.

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All the Fun You Need, in a Convenient Engine on Your Back

Late November and early December in Northern Virginia are characterized by people cleaning up the fallen leaves littering their yard.

I went for a walk last week. Walking through one neighborhood, I went down a dead-end road with three cul-de-sacs branching off of it. As soon as I turned the corner onto this road, I could see a guy walking around outside with one of those backpack leaf blowers. Although we have lots of lawn care companies in this neck of the woods, this guy wasn’t working for one of those companies. He appeared to be a homeowner that had his own backpack leaf blower.

Now, if you’ve got one of those, that’s cool. This guy, though, seemed to be lovin’ this thing! I’m guessing he got some kind of Black Friday bargain or something. The leaves in his yard weren’t enough of a challenge for him, I guess, because when I first saw him, he was out in the middle of the street blowing leaves toward the pile he had started. In fact, he couldn’t even hear the car sneaking up behind him, just waiting for him to turn around and get out of the way. Once he finally did, he waved the car through, like “Oh yeah, c’mon through, busy guy here, big stuff happening!”

It was also a breezy day. Leaves that he blew into a pile were soon replaced with new ones. I walked through all three cul-de-sacs, and when I passed him on my way out, he was still out in the street, blowing what was probably about seven leaves around. If one of his neighbors had come out and asked him to just kinda clear off their front walk a little bit, he probably would have grimaced while taking a deep breath, made a show of being willing to do it this one time, and then proceeded to clear off not only the front walk, but also the driveway and front yard, and since there was no clear boundary between that front yard and the front yard of the next house over, he’d just go ahead and do that front yard too.

When was the last time you were that excited about something? How about in your Christian walk? For those of you that are Christ followers, remember back when you first became a believer? Maybe there was some other spiritual high when you felt like you were on fire for God. Has that excitement faded, or are you still just as enthused now as you were then?

A lot of times people make the unfortunate mistake of judging something’s importance by the emotions it evokes. It’s unfortunate because for things like your faith, there are going to be numerous ups and downs. Sometimes there are going to be a lot more downs than ups. Through it all, you can’t rely on your feelings to tell you the value of Christ in your life. There will be hard times! Spend time in the Bible to learn, to grow in Christ. Spend time in prayer, deepening and strengthening your relationship with Him. When you hit low points, a stronger faith will help you persevere.

I don’t know the leaf blower guy at all, but I’m guessing that in a year or two, when the excitement and newness has worn off, he’s not going to be out blowing leaves around quite as much as he is these days (although I could see him trying to use the leaf blower instead of a snow shovel this winter). If your relationship with Christ has grown stale, maybe it’s time to try to jumpstart it again. What initially attracted you to faith in Christ, and what made you excited about it? What would it take to revive that excitement?

It’s been almost 20 months since the world first went into lockdown mode. Although we’ve had several iterations of “the new normal,” fellowship with other believers is something that, for many, has not fully returned to what it once was. If you’re someone who’s felt like their faith has stagnated or faltered, I’d challenge you to do something that increases the amount of time you spend with Godly peers. Maybe you need your own Barnabas. I realize there may be some who are still unable to return to pre-COVID practices, but can you find ways to raise your level of interaction? For others, maybe you haven’t physically returned to church. Think it’s time yet? If you’re back in person but think you’d benefit from additional fellowship, how about joining a small group or a Bible study? If there aren’t any you’d want to join, how about starting one?

The “shiny newness” of stuff can wear off quicker than you might want. Think of your relationship with God as a fire. If you don’t feed it, it’s not going to stay lit. If you feed it only small stuff, it might flare up brightly, but it will burn out quickly. If you give it stuff that’s too big or too dense, it’s just too much for the flame to catch. You need to find the right mixture of materials. What are you using your “active” mind for (what are you reading, what podcasts or radio shows are you listening to)? On the flip side, what are you doing with your “passive” mind (what are you soaking up when you’re watching a screen)? I’m not saying you need to be watching sermons and listening to hymns in all your free time, but I do think you should be doing something to actively grow in your relationship with Christ. It will help keep you excited about being a follower of Christ, and that excitement and enthusiasm can win souls for God’s kingdom.

I don’t often drop hints about my upcoming posts, but tune in this coming Thursday to see what happens when you combine two adventure sports. (Spoiler alert: you’ll see that sometimes it’s better to just focus on doing one at a time.)

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Pastors: A Force Multiplier

I recently had the privilege of seeing a young pastor’s ordination.

For those that aren’t familiar with the term, it has to do with the roles that Christians play within the Body of Christ. While every Christ-follower possesses spiritual gifts and talents, there are some that are charged with a special kind of ministry.

Things like mowing an elderly widow’s lawn, feeding the poor, and other acts of service are obviously good things to do, but they’re things that don’t generally require a whole lot of involvement from the church leadership to accomplish. If you look a level or two higher, you’re looking at the people that are trying to enable others to perform the service God called them to perform. Everyone filled with the Holy Spirit can contribute to the Kingdom of God, but each congregation needs guidance from its church leadership. A calling to be a pastor or teacher in church comes with more accountability than most other callings.

Here are a few verses from the book of Ephesians. Take note of the roles it mentions and the purpose behind those roles:

So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. – Ephesians 4:11-13

The people filling those roles are there for the purpose of equipping other Believers to go and do what they’ve been called to do. Because of the importance of those roles, they demand a higher standard of the people that want to fulfill them. James 3:1, for example, says Dear brothers and sisters, not many of you should become teachers in the church, for we who teach will be judged more strictly. They’re dealing with a heavy responsibility, and it’s not one to be taken lightly.

An ordination, then, is a special time in a preacher’s career when others in the church leadership are essentially endorsing the person being ordained…saying “after getting to know this person’s character and views on Christian doctrine, we are willing to support their desire to enter into this role that bears an awesome responsibility.” I’ve got to imagine that it’s an incredibly humbling but also exciting time.

I fully recognize that these roles require an added level (or two) of scrutiny, and I think it’s important to ensure that candidates are fully aware of the gravity of what they’re undertaking. It reminded me, however, that those people who are ordained are not the ones charged with rolling up their sleeves and getting dirty; that’s our job. Believe me, church leaders have all kinds of stress and challenges with which they must contend, so they’re not getting off the hook easy by any means. It’s the rest of us that are to be Christ’s hands and feet. Our collective reach and social circles go much further than what the pastor’s does, so when church leaders help equip us, they are multiplying our collective reach further.

It struck me, though, that there may be some out there that feel they would benefit from some form of commissioning. Please understand that I carry no authority other than the fact that I’m a fellow Christian who believes in your ability to follow God’s calling (and would spur you on in doing so), but I am DEFINITELY willing to pray for you as you follow faithfully on the path with which God’s charged you. Let’s pray:

Dear Lord, You are holy and worthy to be praised! I thank you for the person reading these words right now. This reader is capable of being used greatly by You, to do things through You that they never thought possible or ever dared to hope for. Even those that are reading this and haven’t really thought about it lately, I pray that You’d awaken a fire and passion within them for something specific that You’d have them do for the glory of Your kingdom. You’ve charged us all with specific things You want us to do in this life with our gifts and resources; I ask that You’d grant patience to those that don’t yet know what those things are and encourage them until the time comes for You to reveal it to them. For those that are blessed enough to know Your purpose for their life, please help them to be relentless, even in the face of obstacles, discouragement, or no apparent progress. You will place the right people and things in our lives that will be there at just the right time; help us all to have the faith and boldness to jump when You need us to, even when we can’t see what’s on the other side. If this reader is a Christian, please give them the confidence to realize whose they are, to help them walk by faith and not by sight, and to know that the gates of Hell will not prevail against the Church. You haven’t given us a spirit of fear, but of power, of love, and of a sound mind. Help this reader to live their lives assured of this principle, to realize that our time on Earth is short, and to live in light of eternity. In Jesus’ name, amen.

Also, a special “thank you” to all our veterans out there. Happy Veteran’s Day!