“Just because the tomb is empty doesn’t mean your life has to be.” That is the phrase a pastor friend used to end his Easter sermon. These words have been rattling in my heart and brain ever since I have heard them. I guess I have been thinking about this a lot lately because I have been with some of our church families recently as they said goodbye to their loved ones.
These times remind me acutely again of how short life is and how very fast it goes. This one sentence seems to me to go very well with what I am reading now.
I am reading Thomas A Kempis’ “Imitation of Christ” as part of my daily devotion time. This is a neat little book – a devotional classics - written by a 14th century German monk. It reads a little like the book of Proverbs. Great wisdom to be found there. The book is divided into four “books” covering various aspects of the spiritual life. In the first “book”, there is a short chapter called “Meditation on death” (chapter 23.) Certain sentences leaped from the page for me and made me stop and think:
“What good is a long life if we do not use it to advance spiritually?” “Many count the years of their conversion, but often there is little to show for it.”
“How happy and wise are those who try now to become what they would want to be at the hour of death.”
“Time is precious now, and now is the day of salvation, the acceptable time. But alas, that you spend the time so unprofitably! The time will come when you will wish that you had one more day – even one hour – to put your life in order, but there is no assurance that you will get it.”
“Attend to those things that are to God’s honor and glory. Honor the Saints and follow their example and you will have friends waiting ‘to receive you into everlasting dwellings’ (Luke 16:9) when you life here is ended.”
Easter is a time to not only remember that the tomb was empty but that it is empty still and for us this means Life! Not only Life on the other side of Heaven but Life here and now! In his life, death and resurrection Jesus is calling us to Life abundant. A life of service and giving of ourselves to others…
Do you have some things you need to attend to? Someone to forgive or ask forgiveness from? Some unhealed placed in your heart? Is there someone who needs to hear that you love them? Who needs to see that you love them?
How is your soul? What’s going on with you and Jesus?
Wednesday, May 12, 2010
Friday, January 29, 2010
Stories of our lives
This article was written for our February issue of our church newsletter, the Beacon.
I have been thinking about stories a lot lately. Actually I think about stories pretty much all the time. I think this is because I am a pastor and a preacher and I make my living in part by telling stories, stories of the Bible in particular. But I don’t tell stories just to tell stories, I tell stories in order to help folks (including myself) come to know God, through Jesus, better and hopefully help them form an enduring relationship with Him. That is how I came to belief in Christ and how I became and, am becoming still a follower, because folks have told me stories of Jesus. But also, and maybe most importantly, I came to faith because, not only did I hear the stories, but I saw the folks who told me those stories, actually live them out. These people were my grandmothers, a few pastors, certain people in my small groups at church, etc… We usually never come to faith on our own, but instead through people and stories.
We are all surrounded by stories. Our lives are a series of stories. Some are good stories and some are not so good stories. When we adopt not so good stories and allow them somehow to dominate our life (not usually consciously at first), we often get in trouble. There is a form of psychotherapy called “narrative therapy”. I am not a trained psychotherapist but it seems to me that some of the stories we believe and follow really have a negative impact in our lives. I am pretty sure we all have some of those stories in our lives – some have been spoken out loud and some have been somehow “understood” without being verbalized. Some of us have heard, “you are stupid”, “you are fat”, “you’ll never amount to anything” etc… early on and we still live with that deeply hurtful legacy. It often translates in an almost “self-prophesied” way” “I am stupid therefore I am helpless and nothing in my life is good and nothing in my life will ever change…” type scenario… I have seen a few folks coming to the church office to talk with me who seemed to live out this scenario. They remained in life-draining, abusive situation and nothing I offered - which from my standpoint could help – made a difference. They seemed to expect me to change their circumstances without any change or involvement on their part.
Jesus confronted a man who seemed to live out this “helpless scenario” in John 5:1-15. I love Jesus because he cuts to the chase. He tells the man stuck on the edge of the pool: “Do you want to get well?”
Not only some people live out negative stories but organizations – churches - do also. Churches – these communal organisms, these groupings of people, adopt negative stories which they end up living by – we are too old, too small, too this or not enough that – with predictable results of decline and even death. “Do you want to get well?” Jesus asks.
What I want to tell you, to remind you of – if you are stuck in a negative, sad, story, which saps the life and joy out of you - is that Jesus is the Way, the Truth and the Life (John 14:6). He came so that we could have abundant life (John 10:10) and he can help you rewrite your story and get unstuck. Trust in Him and give Him your life! And really follow Him!
I have been thinking about stories a lot lately. Actually I think about stories pretty much all the time. I think this is because I am a pastor and a preacher and I make my living in part by telling stories, stories of the Bible in particular. But I don’t tell stories just to tell stories, I tell stories in order to help folks (including myself) come to know God, through Jesus, better and hopefully help them form an enduring relationship with Him. That is how I came to belief in Christ and how I became and, am becoming still a follower, because folks have told me stories of Jesus. But also, and maybe most importantly, I came to faith because, not only did I hear the stories, but I saw the folks who told me those stories, actually live them out. These people were my grandmothers, a few pastors, certain people in my small groups at church, etc… We usually never come to faith on our own, but instead through people and stories.
We are all surrounded by stories. Our lives are a series of stories. Some are good stories and some are not so good stories. When we adopt not so good stories and allow them somehow to dominate our life (not usually consciously at first), we often get in trouble. There is a form of psychotherapy called “narrative therapy”. I am not a trained psychotherapist but it seems to me that some of the stories we believe and follow really have a negative impact in our lives. I am pretty sure we all have some of those stories in our lives – some have been spoken out loud and some have been somehow “understood” without being verbalized. Some of us have heard, “you are stupid”, “you are fat”, “you’ll never amount to anything” etc… early on and we still live with that deeply hurtful legacy. It often translates in an almost “self-prophesied” way” “I am stupid therefore I am helpless and nothing in my life is good and nothing in my life will ever change…” type scenario… I have seen a few folks coming to the church office to talk with me who seemed to live out this scenario. They remained in life-draining, abusive situation and nothing I offered - which from my standpoint could help – made a difference. They seemed to expect me to change their circumstances without any change or involvement on their part.
Jesus confronted a man who seemed to live out this “helpless scenario” in John 5:1-15. I love Jesus because he cuts to the chase. He tells the man stuck on the edge of the pool: “Do you want to get well?”
Not only some people live out negative stories but organizations – churches - do also. Churches – these communal organisms, these groupings of people, adopt negative stories which they end up living by – we are too old, too small, too this or not enough that – with predictable results of decline and even death. “Do you want to get well?” Jesus asks.
What I want to tell you, to remind you of – if you are stuck in a negative, sad, story, which saps the life and joy out of you - is that Jesus is the Way, the Truth and the Life (John 14:6). He came so that we could have abundant life (John 10:10) and he can help you rewrite your story and get unstuck. Trust in Him and give Him your life! And really follow Him!
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
The practice of the presence of God
This originally was written for our January 2010 newsletter
There is a magnet on the metal file cabinet in my church office that I had never really paid attention to. It was there when I was appointed to Bethel.
I noticed it last week when I was sitting at my computer, looking around the office, out the window and as I was trying to slow down a bit to catch my breath. The last few weeks have been going at “warp speed” (if you are a Star Trek fan you know what that means.)
The magnet reads,
“Every Day, Find a Way, Practice the Presence of God”
This magnet reminded me of a classic devotional book bearing the same name, “The Practice of the Presence of God” which was compiled from conversations and letters, after Brother Lawrence died.
"My most usual method is this simple attention, an affectionate regard for God to whom I find myself often attached with greater sweetness and delight than that of an infant at the mother's breast. To choose an expression, I would call this state the bosom of God, for the inexpressible sweetness which I taste and experience there." This is how "Brother Lawrence" describes his constant practice of speaking with and reflecting upon God amidst the mundane tasks of life. Nicholas Herman (c. 1605-1691) was born in Lorraine, France, and served as a cook and shoe repairer at a Carmelite monastery. He was only a lay member of the order, and walked with a limp from injuries incurred as a soldier, yet his private thoughts provide a wellspring of devotional insight and refreshment.”
“His method was to cultivate at all times a consciousness of the presence of God. According to Brother Lawrence, wherever we might find ourselves, whatever the task at hand, we should perform our duties with a consciousness of God’s loving presence. With such an awareness all our activities were hallowed; we would thus find ourselves in a state of continuous prayer or conversation with God… Brother Lawrence made no distinction between great works and small. As he liked to observe, God, ‘regards not the greatness of the work, but the love with which it is performed.”
I don’t usually make New Year resolution because by February, they usually peter out but my wish for all of us would be that we would cultivate “the practice of the presence of God”, that we would be ever more mindful that God is with us always. In order to do this, I believe we need to hear/feel God. For more introverted persons like me, this means I need to slow down (Elijah heard God in the still small voice - a gentle whisper - not in the wind or the earthquake or the fire – 1 Kings 19:11-13); for the more extroverted among us, this may mean something else but I suspect we all need to slow down daily. I believe that without this awareness we will not follow God’s guidance well because we won’t know what that guidance is.
May we be ever more open to God’s guidance this year, not only as individuals but as a whole church.
There is a magnet on the metal file cabinet in my church office that I had never really paid attention to. It was there when I was appointed to Bethel.
I noticed it last week when I was sitting at my computer, looking around the office, out the window and as I was trying to slow down a bit to catch my breath. The last few weeks have been going at “warp speed” (if you are a Star Trek fan you know what that means.)
The magnet reads,
“Every Day, Find a Way, Practice the Presence of God”
This magnet reminded me of a classic devotional book bearing the same name, “The Practice of the Presence of God” which was compiled from conversations and letters, after Brother Lawrence died.
"My most usual method is this simple attention, an affectionate regard for God to whom I find myself often attached with greater sweetness and delight than that of an infant at the mother's breast. To choose an expression, I would call this state the bosom of God, for the inexpressible sweetness which I taste and experience there." This is how "Brother Lawrence" describes his constant practice of speaking with and reflecting upon God amidst the mundane tasks of life. Nicholas Herman (c. 1605-1691) was born in Lorraine, France, and served as a cook and shoe repairer at a Carmelite monastery. He was only a lay member of the order, and walked with a limp from injuries incurred as a soldier, yet his private thoughts provide a wellspring of devotional insight and refreshment.”
“His method was to cultivate at all times a consciousness of the presence of God. According to Brother Lawrence, wherever we might find ourselves, whatever the task at hand, we should perform our duties with a consciousness of God’s loving presence. With such an awareness all our activities were hallowed; we would thus find ourselves in a state of continuous prayer or conversation with God… Brother Lawrence made no distinction between great works and small. As he liked to observe, God, ‘regards not the greatness of the work, but the love with which it is performed.”
I don’t usually make New Year resolution because by February, they usually peter out but my wish for all of us would be that we would cultivate “the practice of the presence of God”, that we would be ever more mindful that God is with us always. In order to do this, I believe we need to hear/feel God. For more introverted persons like me, this means I need to slow down (Elijah heard God in the still small voice - a gentle whisper - not in the wind or the earthquake or the fire – 1 Kings 19:11-13); for the more extroverted among us, this may mean something else but I suspect we all need to slow down daily. I believe that without this awareness we will not follow God’s guidance well because we won’t know what that guidance is.
May we be ever more open to God’s guidance this year, not only as individuals but as a whole church.
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