An Invitation

Lately I've had on my mind this whole idea that God's inviting us to be a part of something bigger than ourselves. I haven't really written much about it on here but it's been coming up for me on a pretty regular basis. Most recently I preached a sermon about it this past Sunday so I thought I'd share it with you. You can hear it here if you like, or you can read a rough text here. I'm not usually a fan, but I kind of enjoyed it this time. It's easy when you're preaching from your heart. The Sunday after we got back from Namibia, I stood up and shared a little bit about what I'd been learning. When I was done I realized how easy and natural it was (compared to my previous preaching ventures) because I was just sharing my heart. So this time around I decided to prepare a little differently and just speak from my heart. And like I said, I enjoyed this so much more, and from the feedback I got, so did everyone else. I hope you do as well. Peace

There and back again

Well I'm back from Namibia, and gone and back from TLC and now getting ready to leave for Soulfest later this week. It's been pretty wild, all this traveling, but every time I seem to learn something new about myself or ministry or something else. The Education of Life, I think they call it. There's no way to explain or summarize everything I've been processing through so far this summer in one blog post so I'll hit some highlights and leave the rest for the ongoing conversations.

Probably the biggest thing I've been interacting with is the sovereignty of God. God sovereignly arranges the events of our lives to bring about His desired ends. This much I know in my mind and I've even begun to base my life on it, but as I continue this journey with God I continue to discover to an increasing fullness the true extent of His sovereignty. While the choices and decisions of the immediate moment seem to be mine, God has ordained them all. God put together our team, planning a unique experience and purpose for each person. God designed the relationships we would develop and the people with which each of us would enter into conversation. God foreknew the pain and emotion those relationships would cause, as well as the lessons that can only be learned on the other side of pain. God uniquely chose me and the 5 others in my Kombie to be in a death-defying car accident and walk away virtually unharmed. God ordained it all, before any of it came to be. Why? Well, that answer I will never know in it's entirety so long as I am still enslaved to time, but I can see some good. I can see a student experience for the first time the peace that God's in control. I can see another student share a testimony and interact with people she never would have met if she had stayed on her original team. I can see a hesitant introvert break down walls by risking to love and refuse to rebuild them after hurt and pain. I can't see it all, but I can see just enough to sustain me so that when I see absolutely no good, like sitting next to John Burke in hospice care thinking of his 16 year old daughter who just lost her brother to the same brain tumor, I can still trust that God knows what He's doing, that all this is for a reason, and that there's some good buried in all this pain.

A few people have expressed to me how much they enjoyed my final post on our Namibia 2006 Blogsite (Reflections). Apparently it's helped some people or maybe they just liked the style or something. Some even said I have a talent and should be a writer. I don't know about that, but I am glad it's helped some people. Ultimately I just chase down some thoughts running around in my head and scratch them down on paper. How God has it all worked out that the circumstances He uses to make me think certain things to make me write certain things to make somebody else find and read them and then use them in their heart, that's all a mystery to me. But then, who would want to follow a God they could fully understand and explain anyway.

It's Namibia time again

Well for the next two and a half weeks I will be living what many only dream (except for the 18 hour flights I suppose). There's just something about Africa that you can't get away from. They say the African sand mixes with your blood so you have to keep going back. For me, it's more like a calling home, a sense that this is how life should be lived without all the distractions and nothing more than the goal of loving on people. What seems so important to me today will fade to the back of my mind, waiting to be reawakened upon my return. Perhaps Africa is my calling, perhaps America is my calling. But one thing I know, wherever I am, to love is the greatest calling.

With that fine introduction, you can continue sharing in the journey by reading the stories, browsing the pictures, watching the videos, and more on our blogsite dedicated to the trip. Feel free to leave me comments there. I will get them eventually. Hope you enjoy the ride!

http://namibia2006.blogspot.com

Concerning cultural idolatry

I have been enjoying a recent conversation with a friend on his blog about how much our Christianity has been shaped by our American culture, particularly our materialism. I was reminded of this conversation while reading about the kings of Israel in the Old Testament. After Solomon died, two tribes followed his son, Rehoboam, but the other 10 tribes split off to follow Jeroboam. Now Jeroboam was no moron and began to realize that if all his people kept going down to worship at the temple in Jerusalem then their allegiance would return to Rehoboam. So he made two golden calves so the people could stay in Israel and worship. Well, after Jeroboam died and other kings came along, they kept the calves around so people wouldn't have to return to Jerusalem. Some of them tried hard to follow God, they tore down Asherah poles and altars to Baal. They killed prophets to other gods. But none of them got rid of the golden calves. It says each of them "followed in the idolatry that their father, Jeroboam son of Nebat, had caused Israel to commit." They allowed their culture to shape their behavior. Rather than follow what God told them to do, they filtered what God told them through what their culture told them. In other words, they followed their culture first and God second. Unfortunately, that sounds real familiar. How often do we follow our culture before we follow God. God's commands and character is very important to us, quite a high priority, but only to the extent that our culture allows. For example, from my previous conversation about materialism, in response to the question of how to receive eternal life, Jesus tells a rich man to sell all his possessions and give them to the poor, then come follow Him. We tend to focus more on saying a prayer to be "born again" rather than actually following Christ. We've allowed people to continue in their cultural idolatry by simply adding God to a list of gods to be worshiped. Like Jeroboam and the kings of Israel, we follow the commands that fit our culture, but we don't have courage enough to follow God first no matter what culture would say. Imagine what would happen if we did.

Row 11 Seat C

Yesterday I found myself sitting in the airport waiting for my flight on Southwest. Now Southwest doesn't assign seats so the trick is to get in seating order 'A' and get there early so you can get a good seat. So I got there plenty early, in fact, there were only a few others in the waiting area when I arrived. After about a half hour or more, still before the plane even arrived, I saw this couple walk up and plop themselves down in front of the gate so as to be the first in line. Now I thought to myself, "How arrogant of them to think they can pass by all these people who've been waiting here ahead of them to get a seat on the plane." As soon as that couple sat down as if "in line", it started an onslaught of others rushing for a spot in line lest they get left with a middle seat, like the first drop of water that breaks through the dam. As the lines continued to get longer I kept thinking, "The nerve of these people to think they have any more right to get a better seat then me cause they stood up in line. I've been waiting here longer than all of them", which naturally gives me more of a right than them to get a better seat. "It's not like they're going to run out of seats before you get there. It's a huge plane, just get over yourselves and wait like all of us have had to." Fortunately, from where I was sitting close to the gate, the line extended backward pretty far, so my mind concieved a plan where I would just stand up and make my way to the gate as if there was no line and these presumptuous people were simply standing there for no particular reason. But the longer I sat there I began to actually listen to what I was thinking, that it really is just a seat on the plane and it's awful selfish to think that I should force my rights on them who actually think they have more rights because they've been standing and I sitting. I began to think of Paul talking about yielding his rights and that it's better to be wronged than to make a big deal about it and take someone to court like the world. So I decided it would probably be better of me and more Christlike to make my way back to the end of "the line" and allow the presumptuous people on the plane ahead of me. Afterall I would still get a pretty good seat because I was in the 'A' line. Eventually the plane arrived and people began shuttling off and my mind was fighting with itself over where to get in line. Then the little red 'A' light came on and we were called to board. I watched myself stand up, collect my things and make my way straight to the gate.

Why is it that our selfish desires carry so much more weight than our desire to love? Why is it that my heart tells me it's not that big a deal but my mind is so much more concerned with my comfortable seating preference? Why do I cling so tightly to what I consider to be my earthly rights? This whole process of becoming less and less earthly minded is a tough battle, especially when what I want is in such contradiction to what I know. And since it's my mind that chooses my behavior I'm pretty much screwed, huh. Oh how I long to just 'get over myself' and love people with selfless abandon.

I ended up with a phenomenal seat, an aisle seat in the exit row, couldn't ask for more. But as the guilt poured on and the eyes of those behind me bored holes in the back of my head I kept wishing I could take it back. I pulled out my book, Seizing Your Divine Moment by Erwin McManus, and read about how the choices we make define the moments in which we live. He writes, "If a moment is the gate through which your divine journey begins, then choice is the key that unlocks the adventure." Figures.