Jesus

The waiting…

I haven’t felt much like writing this past week. As a church, St. A’s is about to enter an exciting new phase. But the problem with that is that we are ABOUT to enter that new phase. Right now, it’s kind of a lot of ‘hurry up and wait.’

I have a friend going through that on a much more personal level as she waits for test results which will determine the course of her life over the next several months.

It occurs to me that waiting is the worst. Really. I say all the time: I can deal with anything once it’s on the table. But I will just about lose my mind waiting for it to be PUT ON the table.

A friend reminded me today of the promise found in 1 Peter 5:7:

Give all your worries and cares to God, for he cares about you.

It’s wonderful advice, and I’d stake my life on the truth of this Scripture. But man, it is hard for me to actually DO. I know better. I KNOW better than to spend my time in worry. I know God’s got my back. He’s proved it to me over and over. And yet…

And yet, I find myself worrying and trying to solve problems that haven’t even fully arisen yet. In a strange way – I am thankful for that. Because it reminds me how desperately I need a Savior. And the wonderful, overwhelming, beautiful, transformational truth is that God has already provided one.

Light for the Lost Boy…

My favorite singer/songewriter is a fellow preacher’s-kid by the name of Andrew Peterson. His songs about faith with their insightful lyrics, soft acoustic style and passion for Jesus, have informed my faith for the past decade.

I have never met the man, but I think of him as a friend. One who has chided and goaded and lead me to a deeper understanding of my faith and of the human condition in general. He has made me laugh, brought a tear to my eye, and sung what I wanted to say better than I could say it.

So I am excitedly looking forward to the release of his new studio album, Light for the Lost Boy, at the end of August. I was delighted to sign into FaceBook this morning and find that his record company has allowed him to share the cover art for the new album.

The art is by Katie Moore who has done album artwork for Ingrid Michaelson and Starfield, among others. I find the art for Andrew’s new album haunting and beautiful:

 

I want to go on that walk with that lost boy and his lantern. I want to breathe deep and take in the woods that surround us, feeling secure by the light of the lantern.

Most of all, I want to hear the songs that inspired this cover. August 28th cannot come fast enough.

 

 

To show it what it can be…

In my last post I mentioned that I would be leading OMEGA contemporary worship at my church on Sunday. I did that. And in my sermon I used a Joss Whedon quote from an episode of the TV show, Angel.

Nothing in the world is the way it ought to be.  It’s harsh and cruel.
That’s why there’s us. Champions.
It doesn’t matter where we come from, what we’ve done or suffered,
or even if we make a difference.
We live as though the world were as it should be,
to show it what it can be.
–Angel, “Deep Down” Season 4, Episode 1

Now I hate to quote my own sermons (feels a little too much like tooting my own horn, or patting myself on the back or something), but I have to admit, I’ve been wandering around for the past few days muttering to myself: “to show it what it can be…”

I am fascinated by the idea that, as Christians, we are called to live differently. To live as if the world were as it should be, to show it what it can be. This is, I believe, why my church’s foodbank doesn’t put any restrictions on its clients. If you show up, we will give you food. We don’t ask how many foodbanks you’ve been to in the month, when you were last here, how much of an income you have or how many mouths you have to feed. We just give away what we’ve got. Because the world SHOULD be a place where only those who are honestly in need, show up for a hand out. We live as though the world is as it should be. We do this because we believe that world CAN be a place where people are honest.

I think this idea has power. That perhaps a whole bunch of people who live as if the world were as it should be, can actually move it towards what it can be. That somehow, by the Holy Spirit at work in us and through us, just by living the way Jesus calls us to live, we can have an impact on the world we live in.

I believe that. I believe that strongly enough that I have given my life to doing all I can to live that way and to inspire others to live that way.

Give it a try this week. May you find ways to live as though the world were as it should be, to show it what it can be.

A different kind of preaching…

Tomorrow I am preaching at our monthly contemporary service. It’s a small and informal service, and I kind of love that about it. Usually preachers stand in a pulpit or on a platform and preach TO or AT an audience. There’s not a lot of give-and-take in your average sermon… Although, most preachers will tell you have the conversations they have after the service/during the week with congregants; and the best preachers will allow those conversations to come out in future sermons and to influence the direction of what they are preaching.

But in our OMEGA contemporary service, after I finish preaching, I sit down and I look at those who have gathered and I say to them: “So, what do you think?” And then we just chat, for whatever amount of time it takes.

Its’ a pretty cool and unusual experience for a preacher to get to have a conversation about what they are preaching. And I have to say that there is a richness to it. It is a beautiful thing to sit with the people of God and listen as we struggle to express our faith together. That happens sometimes in small groups, in Bible Studies and in workshops. But it doesn’t often happen in corporate worship…at least, not in the church where I serve.

I like to think of this as more akin to what Jesus did – having conversations with the 12 disciples and with individuals from the larger community who crossed his path. I love the relation-ality of what Jesus did in ministry. So often he is having a conversation at the dinner table with friends. Sometimes he’s teaching as he and his friends move (read: walk) from one ministry point to another. In the life of Jesus, conversation is a way of teaching, a way of preaching and it happens naturally.

So I am excited to get to preach the OMEGA service tomorrow. And if you have a moment and prayer to spare, pray that God uses me and my words to touch the hearts of those who have gathered.

The good and the bad…

I’ve been struggling with my fitness routine lately. I’ve had some bad binge days when it comes to food and some malaise when it comes to exercising. But tonite I fought my way through the second bootcamp class of the week, and I am pleased with how I feel. I am pleased that I worked hard today – at exercise, at eating well and at my vocation.

Some days are bad. Some days are really hard. The trick, I think, is to not allow those days to be overwhelming. To not allow them to be the end of the story. Bad days definitely come, but so do good days. So do days when it is easy to work hard and live up to the goals you’ve set for yourself.

I saw this on pinterest this evening and it made me smile:

I admit, I am not usually thinking of Jesus during my workout. I’m usually thinking of oxygen and the need for more of it. But I like this picture. I believe the words written here.

And when the bad days come, I need to remember this. Because in this statement of purpose, I find hope. And all that is needed to change a bad day into a good day is hope rightly placed.

Be weird…

A friend posted this on Facebook today, and I just had to steal it:

 

I am convinced that if the people of Jesus’ time spoke in our vernacular, they would have called him weird and random. Sometimes he answered the questions he was asked, but a lot of the time he went in a totally different direction. A lot of the time he used story and metaphor to get at the thing behind the thing he was being asked about. A lot of the time he chose to do what didn’t make sense to others and to teach lessons that went against the grain of society.

I like that about Jesus. Whenever I read the biographies of his life (aka Matthew, Mark, Luke and John), I feel like we’re seeing a real person. Not one who presents himself in a way that will be most palatable to those around him. I struggle with this sometimes. I am a people pleaser, though I think God is slowly curing me of that tendency. I could learn something from Jesus’ ability to just be who he was.

And who he was, was so very wonderful. The Son of God, the Word that was spoken at creation, the lamb who laid down his life for our sin, the love of God in flesh and blood.

So my friends, be weird, be random, be who you are. Because God made you and you are loved just as you are.

Messing up…

It’s been a tough week for me Weight-Watchers-wise. On the one hand I’ve had awesome success with Weight Watchers over the past year. On the other hand it has been a frustrating game of one-step-forward-two-steps-back since about January. If I have lost anything since then (and whether or not I have is arguable, because I have been up and down a lot), it’s been a very minor amount. Recently, I’ve found that I am letting myself get away with extra tastes and “just a pinch” of this or that.

This is not good. On the one hand, I am sticking to very healthy eating most of the time. My diet has improved leaps and bounds over this time last year. On the other hand, I have been sabotaging myself with all these little extras. This week, especially has been difficult. To the point that tonite I decided to pretty much scrap this week, understand that the scale may say something very nasty to me on Sunday, and start fresh after weigh-in on Sunday morning.

Sometimes we mess up. There’s no great reason for this slip-up on my part. I have kept my exercise up this week, I have been planning healthy meals, I have been enjoying my work and loving the weather. Perhaps this is just a culmination of some stress that has been piling up over the last several weeks. Maybe it’s emotional-jet-lag from a truly terrible week I had a few weeks back. Whatever the reason, I’ve decided to show some grace to myself.

After all, that’s what Jesus would do. That is what God has always done with us, his children. The Old Testament is full of moments when Israel messed up. When they turned away from God. When they lost the plot. And though God warned that turning away from Him meant turning away from love and life and goodness and turning towards the opposite of those things, He never stopped taking them back. The people of Israel never got to the end of God’s grace. God was always ready to take them back one more time. And when they got to the point where it might look like God was finished with them, God changed the rules of the game.

He sent his Son, to live and to die, to teach and to rise again, to break the bonds of sin and death forever and for everyone. I love that about God. This is the the thing that keeps my faith going even when I’m in a dry spell or  struggle. Because I know, no matter how badly I mess up, Christ has already paid the price for my mess-ups. God’s grace is THAT big.

So I am having grace for myself. This week, I have messed up. I recognize it, I own it, and I am sorry for it. I will be careful over the next two days and I will begin fresh with Weight Watchers on Sunday. And I will remember to be thankful that in Weight Watchers, as with God, it is never too late for a new beginning.

 

Anchored…


This has been a strange week. All my routines are out of whack. I’ve been very tired and not able to do much more exercise than the morning’s hour-long walk with Koski and our walking-partner. I had an all-day conference today, which meant I took Thursday off and worked today. My folks are in town. Things are just a little left-of-centre in my house right now.

There is nothing particularly WRONG with any of that, (well, the exercise thing upsets me, though I am feeling good about getting out to Outdoor Bootcamp tonite) but as I have said before I’m a bit of a creature of habit. When you mess with my routines, you mess with me. My blogging has also suffered this week. Call it out-of-sorts-itis.

Sometimes weeks like this come. There’s no sense in getting really bent out of shape about them when they happen. But I will admit that when a week like this comes along, I feel a little anchor-less…adrift. And it is with that sense of needing something to anchor me that I found this little passage in Hebrews extremely touching today:

…we who have fled to him for refuge can have great confidence
as we hold to the hope that lies before us.
This hope is a strong and trustworthy anchor for our souls.
It leads us through the curtain into God’s inner sanctuary.
Jesus has already gone in there for us.
He has become our eternal High Priest in the order of Melchizedek.
Hebrews 6:18b-20 NLT

Weeks like this come. Other weeks, ones in which the burdens of life seem almost unbearable, also come. There’s no sense worrying about them before they arrive. But when they do, it’s really good to have something to tether yourself to – something to hold to, as an anchor.
The Bible tells us that the hope we have in Christ – the hope that weeks like this will never have the final word – is a strong and trustworthy anchor.
All I can say to that is: Amen.

Rest…

Tonight is one of those nights where I feel like I can HEAR my bed calling my name. It hasn’t been a particularly stressful day, I am just weary. It happens sometimes.

Didn’t Jesus say something about this? Oh yes, it had to do with yokes and rest and weariness. Personally, I like how Eugene Peterson re-framed those famous words of Jesus:

“Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion?
Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life.
I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it.
Learn the unforced rhythms of grace.
I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you.
Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.”
Matthew 11:28-30

I especially like that line in the middle that I highlighted. These are good thoughts, and with them echoing in my ears, I will answer the call of my bed.

I need a hero!

Tonite I took myself out to the movies. As a single person, I learned to go to the movies by myself a number of years ago. It’s easy to miss the good big-screen movies if you are trying to find someone else to go with. I love going to the movies on my own. It’s a treat.

The Avengers is one of the most-anticipated movies of the summer season. Even though it is early in the season and I am sure there will be other must-see-on-the-big-screen films to check out. I wouldn’t say that this is one that I was anticipating (unlike The Dark Knight Rises for which I am super-duper stoked!). So I may have missed it all together, since I don’t go to the movies that often. But then I heard that Joss Whedon wrote and directed it, and my interest spiked. I’ve been a fan of Whedon’s since back in the early days of Buffy The Vampire Slayer. I love the way he forms characters and he has a knack for witty banter that is unparallelled.

I have to say, The Avengers did not disappoint. But what struck me as I enjoyed this crazy, funny, explosive, popcorn-fest of a movie, is how much we love heroes. The villain in the movie is Loki, and he likes to pontificate about the fact that humans love to be ruled, that we have tendency towards being subjugated. But I think we have a tendency towards hero worship. We love to come up with stories where someone must save the day. We love to come up with characters who have the powers to save the day.

I admit – I love hero stories, too. But as much fun as Iron Man and Thor and Captain America are – and as cheesy as it might sound to some for me to say this – they cannot hold a candle to Jesus Christ. Sure, he didn’t have a hammer or magic shield or a rocket-suit. But Jesus had wisdom, and courage and most of all, a depth of love that is unsurpassed. Jesus isn’t my homeboy, he’s my super-hero. He’s my saviour. And I wouldn’t want to face a world without him.