Happy New Year?

New Year’s resolutions are overrated. Here we are at the end of another year and we reflect on the events, we watch the countdown shows to see if we agree with who they say were the most influential, fascinating, impacting, beautiful, etc. Then comes the all important moment when we say, ” I will (not) . . .” The idea of making a resolution is not a new one. The day of atonement, an Old Testament ceremony where the people of Israel would come together and the priest would go into the most Holy Place to atone for the sins of the people and they would “resolve” to be free of sin thus re-establishing right relations between them and God (Lev. 16:23-32). I think that’s where we go wrong with all this resolving to be and resolving to do stuff. There can be no resolutions in us if we are not willing to make the sacrifice. It is only by the renewing of our minds can we really see our resolutions come to pass.

I like the idea of being grateful for each day. Every morning provides us with the opportunity to sacrifice self on the altar, to be better than we were the day before. So rather than wait til the end of the year, I resolve at the beginning of every day to be better than yesterday and set myself toward being a better example, disciple, father, and servant.

Tears of a clown

Do you know that old hit from Smokey Robinson? It just came to my mind as I contemplated a word I learned while reading  a devotional from Charles Spurgeon. The word is lachrymatory. It means having to do with tears. I find this word utterly fascinating! Spurgeon was talking about God’s closeness to us when we cry in prayer. Psalm 56:8 says, “you have put my tears in your bottle” and “Are they not in your book?” Not only does God catch my tears, but he keeps record of each tear that I cry!

Tear #86: when Mommy was late with a feeding;

Tear #1,457: I stubbed my toe;

Tear# 601,853: I feel alone

Consider all the personal space protocols that must be broken in order for anyone to be close enough to you or me in order to catch our tears. Yet here is God, Potentate of potentates, King of kings, Lord of lords, Master of the universe condescending himself to serve me in the retrieval of my lachrymatory secretions(tears).

Smokey sings, “If there’s a smile on my face, it’s only there to fool the public; Cuz when it comes down to fooling you, now honey that’s just a different subject” David was singing a familiar tune because on the one hand he was running for his life from King Saul, and on the other hand, living with his opposers. His world was so turned around that he could find no where to feel safe except in the land of his enemies. I imagine that somewhere reflecting on his interesting turn of events David was frustrated. He was confused. He was angry, and what do we do when we are frustrated, confused and angry?  We cry. What comforted David then is what comforts us today. Even when we have no answers, when we are stuck between the devil and the deep blue sea, when we are lodged between a rock and a hard place, that God is close enough to catch our tears, and best of all, do something about it.

Separation Anxiety

I am a stay at home father. As far as possible, I have stayed home with my 2 children. I was home for Micah’s first four years and for Matea’s first 3. As a result, I am used to having my kids around me for the most part. We spend idle time together, play time together, work time together. They accompany me to the office. They have come with me to workers meetings. They have had to spend time in my office while I did Bible studies with young people. We spend a lot of time together. It’s to the point where it takes me a few minutes to acclimate to situations where my children aren’t present.

As I write this I’m on a plane headed to Atlanta, where I will board another plane to Lagos, Nigeria. I will be there for 2 weeks, and my wife will be with me for most of that time. This morning as I dropped my kids off at school (Micah), and preschool (Matea), I got that familiar pang in my heart and throat as I said goodbye. I had prepared them for this day; that mom and I would be gone for a little while, but we would be back. In worship, my son said, “Daddy, I’m going to miss you”, and I responded, “I’m going to miss you too, son.”

You see God was a stay at home Father. He co-mingled with other persons of the Trinity for eternity, then He stepped out into time to create this world that we inhabit. Perfect man became imperfect. Sin had entered in, and now this world would need a Savior.

Can you imagine that conversation in the Heavenly of heavenly’s? God the Father sending his Only Begotten to this world, to be separated for a little while, because Jesus would return to work on preparing places for us. How the Father had to have a pain in his heart so great, and the Son would say, “Daddy, I’m going to miss you” and His response, “I’m going to miss you too, Son.”

The Bible talks about God being familiar with all of the issues of this life. There is no more familiar emotion or feeling than loss. He understands what we feel when we lose a loved one, or if we have to move away from our family, or when we have to break up a relationship. He knows that feeling all too well. He sent His only Begotten so that we could be made whole again. So that we won’t have to live with that pain always, but that feeling would push us, compel us, drive us to be prepared for Jesus’ return. You see He’s prepared you for this day, for this moment, and He expects that you would face it like He knows you can. He suffered separation anxiety to make sure that we would never have to be separated again.

Who are you going to be?

When I was around 15 my dad asked me if I remembered what I said I wanted to be when I was, like 5 or something. Of course I didn’t remember so he told me. I wanted to be a fireman. I actually don’t remember ever saying that and to this day cannot figure what I would have ever liked about the position except that firemen are always looked at as heroes. No other emergency organization runs into situations when everyone else is trying to get out. Firemen (and now women) are uniquely trained to deal with the heat of fire, the pitfalls of flames, and the dangers of falling structures. For this reason many of us have a lot of respect for the men and women of the fire departments in our local municipalities. We don’t actually see ourselves doing what they do, but we like the fact that someone is trained to do what they do, God forbid, we ever have need of their services.

We all have people that we have wanted to pattern our lives after, whether it was because we want to be like them, or learn to perform in their vocation. These people become vicarious mentors for us as we set goals for ourselves in our schooling, in relationships, in our physical development. We see what they have done, and we try to follow in their shadow. Last week, I asked in Facebook, “What music star did you secretly want to be like when you were a kid?” and the responses were pretty funny considering what many of those who responded are doing today. We see people all the time and want what they have without, many times, considering what it would take to get there. Are you ready to deal with the fire of rejection, the pitfalls of bad decisions, and the dangers of crumbling relationships?

Ephesians chapter 4, verse 15 & 16 says “

But speaking the truth in love, we must grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, ¹⁶ from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by every ligament with which it is equipped, as each part is working properly, promotes the body’s growth in building itself up in love.

We must grow to be like Christ. Make Christ your goal. He will give you (us) what we need to be able to grow into the people he has created us to be. You (we) have been given gifts and talents to be able to work in this world and make a positive impact for Christ; but it is you that has to make the decision to go after him fully. For many of us, that decision doesn’t come until after we’ve been burned, or had to deal with our lives falling down all around us. I thank God for a Savior who would run into the burning building that is my life just when I was ready to give up because I couldn’t see my way out. I thank God for a Savior who would put on the flesh of humanity and feel the flames of human hatred when I felt like giving up. I thank God for a Savior, who, when everything around me was falling apart knew how to keep my safe.

Today make your decision to grow up.

A City to be excited about

A Small Story Visual – Discipline

 

And the work out continues . . .

It’s been a while since I’ve been here in the blogosphere. It seems blogging at times takes so much time, and I feel like I can get my thoughts out in 140 characters or less making the need to blog as often almost unnecessary. But there is an analogy that has really resonated with me this year, my year of living fearlessly, and it is the analogy of the gym. I have gained new insights toward worship and toward God as I have been attempting to be more diligent in getting my physical body in order. So since the beginning of the year I have hitting the gym 3-4 times a week, concentrating on a different muscle group each time, and taking 1 day to just do cardio (read play basketball).

While I was in the gym one day, it occurred to me that everyone who enters the gym comes for different reasons, but all want the same result: a better body. Within the group of us that are there, you can almost tell why they are there based on what they are doing. Young men, spend time on the weights, to build muscle to enhance their physique. Older men (like me) no longer care about how big our muscles are, but are more concerned with health, and burning fat. Older men  want to make sure they are not dead!! It’s a joke, I’m kidding. But you get it, we all work out for different reasons.

Well so it is with our spiritual walk, we all go to church for different reasons, but we all want the same result, or do we? Do you really want a closer walk with Jesus? Are you ready to put in the necessary time to learn all the exercises and lift the proper amount of weights? It takes a special kind of courage and willingness to be able to see the results afforded by working out in God’s gym.

Talking to the weights will not build muscle or burn fat. You have to lift the weights. As a matter of fact, you have to lift them repeatedly in order to get the desired result. God will continue to put you through exercises (faith building opportunities) to develop you into the person He knows you can become. So I continue to work out, in the physical and spiritual realms getting ready for the day when my entire workout regime is just spending time at the feet of Jesus.

Let’s go!

What about a system reboot?

I’m a person who is used to change, but still resists it when it seems like the change is too quick or might make me into something I don’t want to be. The funny thing about that is if I don’t change, ultimately I cease growing, becoming, expanding. When things don’t change, or at least update,  like building and such, we notice that paint begins to chip, weeds and things can grow up and around. They no longer have that “new car” smell or the gleam of being new. There is value to unchanging things. They provide strength, consistency, resilience, anchoring, and roots. I’m not speaking against things that don’t change, I’m not sure that that is the way people are supposed to live however.

Christians regardless of denomination live everyday with the hope of a change that would come soon in the event of the 2nd Coming of Christ. While we look forward to that day, we live in world that is rife with technological and social change. It seems natural then, that we would change too. The Bible in many places speaks of changes that can occur in the life of the believer. We are admonished to be transformed (Rom 12:2), be new creations (2 Cor. 5:17), and to get rid of the old man (Rom. 6:6). Each of these situations signal a change, a turning point, a place where we have to do something different. By virtue of that, ultimately we are different. Sometimes the systems that we are involved in are so entrenched, we forget that they need to be updated, changed, revisited, otherwise we risk being taken over by weeds, mold, and moss of traditionalism

There is a need for a change in the system, the way we do church and church organization within Adventism. I don’t claim to have all the answers, and like I like to say, I’m only good for one good idea a day. And that idea, may not be original!

Democrats and Republicans like to espouse that our system of government is broken and that their self serving system of reform is what the country needs. I make no such assertion. I know I don’t have it all together, in fact, there is very little that I do have together! I would like to suggest a system reboot. As we’ve got GC folk travelling from constituency to constituency to hear from the people, I pray that there are enough people who are willing to say we need a change that we can believe in. Just some stuff I was thinking about.

It’s been a while

So I’m chilling at home on a Sabbath afternoon and I have alot of my family with me this weekend. It feels good to be around my Dad, his wife, and my sister. Haven’t been around them in about 5 years. I was supposed to play guitar for church today and I bowed out because I wasn’t ready. It got me thinking about when I really started to play guitar, the 5th grade. I remember at that time my Dad had moved out to “pursue his education” in another state. He would call occasionally to see if I was practicing, and I would dutifully say, “yes”. It would be a decade before I would pickup a guitar again. When I went to Seminary I decided I would start learning guitar for real, that didn’t last long either. Now I’m in California and this year among other things, I’m committing to practicing guitar more diligently. You would think by now I would be able to play more than the few chords that I currently can play.

It almost seems like I’ve come full circle. I’ve got my Dad hanging at my house restoring the years lost when he was missing in action, and I’m back practicing guitar. I’ve learned that as long as we are willing to admit that we don’t have it all together, we can be lifelong learners. Of course, there is a lot more to the theory, but there’s no need to go into it today. I’m just enjoying the Sabbath with my family . . . . and my guitar.

Namaste!

Wednesday’s Word – No Strings Attached

How many friends do you have? In a social media complex world with many of us having lots and lots of friends, and you know most of those friends are just acquaintances that like to look at your pictures. I’m talking about real friends, people who support you when they disagree with you, who tell you the truth whether you want to hear it or not, people who’ve seen you in every state of mind and still hang around.

We sometimes make deals with people in our lives and we say, “no strings attached” when what we really want is for them to return the favor/deed/money in the near future. The truth is we don’t do any thing with “no strings attached” because everything we do has a consequence, and some of those consequences are unintended. We didn’t know how we would feel after sacrificing for you. I didn’t know there would be an unexpected bill after I gave you the money. I didn’t think you would really take the gift. More often than not, we want the strings attached so that we can get back what we gave up or  get that money we gave away. What strings do you think should be attached if you give your life on the behalf of someone else?

Church people like to sing “Jesus paid in all” and we ignore that ” all to Him I owe” part. There’s always a string attached, even with the Savior. The difference is even if you never give Him your life, He doesn’t stop loving you. That’s a real friend, a person who would love you after they have given everything for you and you ignore them. Most of us would just cut them off and move on (Forget You), but not Jesus, He just keeps on loving. I hear that He’s long-suffering that way.

My challenge nowadays is to try and live that “no strings attached” sort of existence. Doing for others expecting nothing in return and then not being upset when that is exactly what I get. To be satisfied with sowing good into the world and not being caught up in what the world owes me. It’s not easy, but it is necessary.

It’s time to go check on a few friends.

It’s been almost two weeks since my last post, so I have to do better, right?