Birthday Reflections

Well today is the day of my 33rd birthday. By most standards still quite young. I think about the 33 years I have lived, and what has happened. I had by most accounts a normal childhood. In college got into drugs and alcohol, and will forever be a recovering alcoholic. When graduating from college experiencing my parents separation and eventual divorce. Becoming a parent to my dad as he figured out again what life was about. Standing at the altar with by amazing bride. Being by my dad's bed as he died from cancer. Watching the birth of my three precious children. I spend three years as a director of Evangelism for a church and 6 years as a lead pastor.

More than all those events however, I have been learning what it means to walk with God. I would have to say there has never been a time when I have been closer in my walk with God. That is not to say everything is great and I do not have more work to do. I can only imagine what the next few years will look like provided I continue to abide and be obedient.

I cannot help but think about all the things that could have been. Were there moments I missed, undoubtedly. Have I made the most of the life I have been given? It is hard to say. Nonetheless, the future holds great promise. I have my relationship with God. I am still married (almost 10 years) to the most amazing woman. I have the joy of my three girls. There is a family around me offering support and love. God has given me three men in covenant to walk through life and ministry with me. Finally, God has given me a ministry to and with the church of Jesus Christ.

Stepping back, I have a good life. However, the work is not done, and I think it only gets better from here. Not necessarily easier, but I consider it all joy in light of the glory God has shown me to this point.

God in The Raw

I have always been told not to use disclaimers when presenting your opinion and ideas. For the most part that is sound advice. In this situation I think a disclaimer is important, otherwise the views expressed might be confused for something they are not. So here goes the disclaimer, I am deeply thankful to have grown up and live in the United States. There have been and will be opportunities afforded to me that no other country in the world would make room for. I treasure the fact that I do not face governmental backlash for what I am about to discuss. All in all, if one must be a citizen of a country, I think the United States is the best choice.

Now that is out of the way, I want to look at the relationship between the American dream, or American way of life, compared with Christ and the movement he established. Many are the claims about this being a Christian nation, founded on Christian principles and by Christian people. It is not for this time to debate such claims, let's just say I am suspect of those claims. Anyway, what has evolved from those claims is a country where the socio-political scene has been linked to the religious scene. I wonder if in the that linking we have conformed the Gospel to match our ideals and beliefs about life more than we have shifted our ideals toward the Gospel. I am not the first, nor the last, to ponder such things. As long as there have been political structures there has been a delicate connection between politics and religion.,to me that is the problem.

Each of us functions with a set of lenses through which we view life. Our American lenses bring with them some strong helpings of individualism, consumerism, racism and several other "ism"s. The lenses change the way we see the movement of Jesus Christ interacting with our world. In reality we often engage the world around us from the wrong starting point. We start with the ways in which we perceive the world, and then try to shoehorn the message of Jesus to fit. What would happen if we started with Jesus. Now I am not advocating for forgetting about our context, I am not advocating for us to slip back to the too simplistic question of WWJD. I am saying if we are a "Christian Nation" why is there more American value in our religion than God value?

What would happen if we threw away religion, and got back to God in the raw? If we began to tie our lives and hearts to the teachings and life of Christ above all else? What would happen if we began to live lives as an extension of our Abiding with God? The biggest change could be seen in what we are no longer doing, than in what we will begin to do. One more disclaimer, I understand the challenge of defining God in the raw, not because it is elusive. Rather, because we have a hard time peeling away the layers and lenses which cloud our ability to see God.

New Fabric

What would our lives look like if forgiveness was the primary thread to the fabric of our lives? For as long as there has been Christian teaching forgiveness have been at the root of that teaching. We are to forgive others, just as, or so that, through Christ God can forgive us. I am left to wonder if forgiveness has become a action to be pulled out of the closet when it is needed. Better yet, it is one of the bladed on our Swiss Army knife of faith. What would happen if forgiveness was simply the way we lived.

How different would our world be if we were ruled by forgiveness? Usually we are people that function in the world of restitution and revenge not forgiveness. If someone does wrong to me, I deserve the right to pay them back in kind is the common thought. What about as a nation? How many lives could have been spared if forgiveness was the lead thread in the fabric of our lives?

I am left with quite a conundrum, it has never made sense to me that take another life would make up for a life taken, at the same time I feel this deep sense of wanting something in return, or calling it what it is, entitlement. And there we have it, the great barrier to forgiveness, entitlement. It is difficult for us to live as people of forgiveness, because we feel like we deserve something more in return. Additionally, it is hard for us to live as truly forgiven people because we all too often feel like we are entitled to be forgiven.

Oh how much I have to learn about forgiveness. How much I have to learn about denying myself. Lord God help me to make forgiveness the lead fabric of my life.

A New Normal

For most of my life I have been plagued by a question, "What is normal?" It seems as though each individual and group determines what is normal. Serving in the life of the church, I have opportunity to visit churches and learn quickly that there are very different normals at work in different places. Nonetheless we all have a pattern to life, which we consider to be normal.

As I have been reading the book Amish Grace, I have been reminded that the Amish are a people who have a historical normal. Unlike many groups there seems to be an understanding, even if flawed, of what is normal for the Amish. When the shooting happened at Nickel Mines school in October 2006 what was normal was no longer possible. No longer was is possible for this community to completely remain removed from a public eye. No longer could this normally cloistered community continue in their normal ways. Their life, and normal have been forever invaded.

I do not for a moment suggest we all need to experience a tragedy such as the Nickel Mines school. I do however suggest that we need to on a regular basis have our normal invaded. A synonym for normal is ordinary. Now there are some differences between the two, still they are the same in they note a regular pattern of thought and action in our life, collective or individual. Those who follow Christ are not called live normal or ordinary lives. We are called to live extraordinary lives, lives of abundance, lives of passion and intensity for God.

There are times when our follow of God becomes routine and normal. Those are the time we need to have our normal invaded. We need to have the ordinary challenged. If we do not, we begin to lose site of who is in charge in our lives. Hint, it is not you or me.

Season of Hope

As I read through the book of Ezekiel and the book of Revelation in the midst of some strange images and complicated happenings, I find hope.I know that while the beginning of Ezekiel and throughout Revelation there is not a whole lot to be excited about. Scene after scene is filled with destruction and death. Yet there is hope, God promises these things will not last forever. Further, those who remain faithful, will experience the day when God will make right all the injustice of the world.

Here is Cortland this is our kickoff Sunday. The education programs for all ages get geared up for the new year, and we begin a new sermon series on community. I know the struggles are not over. I know that there will be some difficult days ahead for the church, yet I am hopeful. It feels as thought the Lord is leading us around the proverbial corner. The atmosphere of the church is charged with anticipation of what God is about to do.

It is a real joy to be a part of what God is doing. Perhaps this will be the season when God opens the floodgates and the glory comes rushing in. This I know for certain, after this season, we will never be the same again.

I invite you to pray with me
Lord God as this new season is entered I ask we would sense you presence in deep and abiding ways. Lord, that we would be a church that you could use for your great plan of redemption. Teach us to follow you, and give us hearts that long to be connected with you. I invite and give permission to you to shape and mold us as you need to. No matter what happens Lord we will praise you. In Christ, Amen.

Nickel Mines

I have just begun reading the book Amish Grace by Donald B. Kraybill, Steven M. Nolt and David L. Weaver-Zercher. The book is based on the Amish response, or reaction to the school shooting in Nickel Mines pa, on October 2, 2004. I have always been intrigued by the simplicity of the Amish people. They work hard in their lives, yet the simplicity of their lives is often attractive to me. Even more attractive is their deep and abiding connection with God. Their entire life is an act of walking with God.

Some would say that October day was an end to innocence for the Amish people, but I do not think that to be true. If anything it was a realization, or even a justification for the way they live their lives. There is a knowledge of what can corrupt the soul of a person, and that those things are to be avoided. The aversion to technology and 'modern convenience' are not out of a simple preference. The aversion is because of a deep understanding of the profound impact those modern things have on our lives. That day was no lose of anything but the lives of 5 dear children of God.

I am not about to give up my technology, my phone, computer, car, television, etc... I do however think it is time for us to do a real good examination. What are the impacts these modern tools of life have had on our souls. I know my life is at a higher pace than need be, but more than the physical. How much of God am I missing because of the way I live, aided by those modern tools?

Making it Stick

This is the last installment of the leading change blogs. At this point in the change process many things are beginning to look different. The changes are no longer reserved to small things, and the people around the organization have begun to adapt to a culture of change. For the individual at this point changes have taken place and there is already tangible evidence of your transformation as a person. So what more could possibly need to be done?

The final step is putting measures into place which ensure the changes last. For the organization this means leadership. As Jim Collins would put it, having the right people on the bus, and in the right seats. Not just current leadership however, there must be a plan to develop more leaders. Organizations cannot have enough quality leaders. Please note the qualifier there, quality. Too many leaders can be akin to too many cooks in the kitchen if the leaders do not really understand the role and life of a leader. If leaders are only positional leaders, see John Maxwell 5 levels of leadership, they are not always willing to follow at the right times. Quality leaders are developed intentionally, and the organization which invests in developing leaders will endure, and be a culture if change.

For the individual, steps must be take to keep the changes in place. This often takes the form of habits and regular activities. The most important tool to making change stick in our lives is accountability. Most of us do not have the capacity to hold ourselves accountable on every front, we need help. This is where the group that helps initiate and encourage the change comes in. They also need to be the people who hold you accountable to the ground you have already covered. For me this is my covenant group which meets monthly as a minimum, other times as needed.

Change is inevitable. The question is whether the change will move toward life, or toward death. Remember, death is a change. Change which produces life is not happenstance, change which brings life is intentional and must be thought through carefully. I think John Kotter has given us an excellent outline of how to work through change. I encourage all of you to read his words in Leading Change