Pressing On!

Most of my friends are, essentially, atheists. I am surrounded by them and love them. Most likely you’re in the same situation. I know these friends try to understand me, but most of them don’t really. They wonder why I pray, go to church, strive to follow Jesus, and most curiously – why I believe in the “hocus pocus” stuff like Christ’s presence in the Eucharist, spiritual healing, and the power and strengths of God’s Holy Spirit. Stuff that they can’t see or find in a data-set. That’s okay. I accept them as friends on anonymous spiritual journeys; that is, experiencing life through its inevitable ups and downs.

 

They may see me as quaint, old-fashioned, or even irrational (and I thank them for loving me in spite of this). But they see that I press on. I don’t try to tell them what they should do. I only try to do what I believe I should do (and that takes up most of my energy anyway). At this point in my life, changing others is no longer on my “to do” list. And if somehow they find Jesus, well, Hallelujah!

If they are my friends, I am sure they have seen the exciting journey my life has taken the past twenty years since I was “called” to serve God. I hope they have seen how my calling and faith has enabled me to struggle through all kinds of trouble: death of a granddaughter, son’s suicide, Sabine’s cancer, and the agony, loss, and grief that emerges from these troubles.

Could I have weathered these life-events without my faith? Possibly. But I see many others emerge from these events losing their faith and blaming God. For me, the gift of faith is understanding that through tragedy can come learning; a learning that can grow one’s spiritual life and faith in God.

Maybe that’s what faith is – the strength God gives us, through our relationship with Jesus, to be able to take away from big emotional hits, overwhelming periods of grief, something that will help not only oneself, but others as well. A gift that enables us to press on.

Isn’t that the Cross?

The Best Gift You May Ever Receive

Sabine has said basically the same thing to me... How can this be possible? It simply is.

The Whole Enchilada

The Whole Enchilada

I have heard younger folks use the term, “the whole enchilada.” I understand that it means the “whole situation, everything.” I guess this is the same kind of descriptive term my generation used when we said “the whole ball of wax” or “the whole shebang.” When I searched the term I found many references. The earliest appeared to be a comment from the Nixon tapes wherein Herb Kalmbach told John Erlichmann about the “whole enchilada,” meaning the entire thing he was talking about.

This got me thinking, what is the “whole enchilada” of our Christian faith? For me, it is the physical and emotional condition of being open and malleable to God’s influence in my life. It is realizing God’s presence in my life through the Holy Spirit.

I fear that what has caused the diminishment of our faith in the Western world today is because we are just too comfortable, too provided for, too busy, too willing to let others do it, too self-centered to get up from our mat (remember the paraplegic outside the Temple in Acts 3; a beggar who was, perhaps, too comfortable to get up and walk until Peter healed him in the name of Jesus).

In Western culture we have replaced God with our economy, health care, social security and life insurance. Hey, with all this, who needs God?

Well, as for me, I do. And, perhaps, you do, too. Despite living in a Great Society (at the expense of just about everyone else in the world) I need God’s enchilada – the whole enchilada – and not some appetizer bits. I need the whole thing.

I need God to be a better husband, father, priest, and friend. I need constant healing, restoration, and forgiveness. I need God to be the anchor in my life; to hold me fast because I know life itself is about turbulence, loss, and grief as well as joy, happiness, and fulfillment. I need to God fully become the person God created me to be.

So how does that happen? My God-needs get fulfilled when I serve others, worship in community, and study God’s word and what others have said about God. It happens when I pray for others and myself, when I give of my bounty to the “widows and orphans” of today. It happens when I engage in the “warp and woof” of my friendships and relationships. It happens when I am quiet in retreat. It happens when I am no longer afraid of the Holy Spirit’s action in my life and those around me. And it happens when I hear Jesus knock on my door and I willingly open it, step out, and follow. It happens when I submit.

As followers of Jesus, we are the people of resurrection. Henri Nouwen reminds us that "the resurrection does not solve our problems about dying and death. It is not the happy ending to our life’s struggle, nor is it the big surprise that God has kept in store for us. No, the resurrection is the expression of God’s faithfulness…. The resurrection is God’s way of revealing to us that nothing that belongs to God will ever go to waste. What belongs to God will never get lost."

Alleluia! Christ is risen and we with him -- now! Get moving!

What a Difference a Decade Can Make!

            “The Notebook,” starring James Garner/Ryan Gosling was released a decade ago (2004). It was based on Nicholas Sparks’ popular book of the same name. For me, it was the year after Sabine retired and we were thinking of down-sizing and finding a smaller parish to serve.

            I remember reading the book and then seeing the movie; a nice, intense, passionate love story. At the time, I am sure I identified it as a "chick flick" (you know, the movies guys go to with their women in order to demonstrate their love). Okay, a nice flick, time to move on," I thought at the time..

            Now, a decade later, and after much loss and grief in my own life (Sabine’s cancer diagnosis, our son’s suicide) it took on new meaning when I stumbled into the movie last weekend as we surfed for an afternoon movie. Although the film was halfway over we decided to sit back and watch it.

            Wham! How different I found this story and how it impacted me now a decade later. No longer a "chick flick" but a story that could be my story. The man in the story reminisced his life with his now disabled wife; their crazy, wildly-in-love early days were just like ours! Now she no longer recognizes her children -- or him. Dementia has captured her. 

            The man's adult children beg him to leave her and come home, "Dad, she doesn't know you or us anymore, so please, come home!" But he won't. He stays in the nursing home where she now resides. Each day he reads from a notebook he has kept through the years which is the story of their life together. But she only knows it as a nice story about a couple in love. She doesn't know the story is their story, who he is, or the love he still has for her.  

 

            Then there was the poignant candlelight dinner scene when some of her memories of him returned. It was a special evening supported by the nursing home staff; reminiscing and dancing to old tunes. No longer strangers. Now she remembers – now she doesn’t. Suddenly, "Who are you? Help!" she cries out.

            Then the ending. He wakes up during the night, steals past the nursing staff into her room, He carefully and quietly lies on the bed with her, holding her hand. In the morning, the staff finds the two of them, together in bed, joined in death.

            I sat there, frozen, with tears streaming down my face remembering our “crazy, wildly-in-love years,” raising children and spoiling grandchildren, Now growing old together. There is a deep and lasting message: none of us knows the end which awaits us -- only that one day there will be one. 

            Yes, my friends, this is the life God has given us. The only one we will ever have. And, yet, still full of blessing, cherished memories, and an ability each of us has to love in a way that “passes all understanding.”

            For many of us, our children are entering middle age -- a "half-time" for them. A time when they, too, will reflect on the first half of their life and decide if they are going to make any changes in their "game plan."

 

            Many of us are in our fourth quarter. It doesn't matter what the score is. There is no scoreboard. It's only about how we play the rest of the game-time we have been given. Still time for life, love, joy, and relationship. Use it. What exists for us in the last quarter is the opportunity to get it right and play it right.  It's never too late to be a person of integrity, honesty, and faith.

            Sitting there on the couch with Sabine, watching this story of passionate love and bone-numbing loss, I deeply sensed God. I know God through Christ will keep his promise in Matthew's Gospel, "I am with you always, to the end of the age." The promise is good and true. It's really all I need.

Training to Be a Disciple

Boston Marathon, 1978

Once in a while I get together with other clergy. Invariably, we talk about how our life in Christ is going which involves sharing new ideas, things that appear to be working, developing new ministries and strengthening the old ones, attracting newcomers, and trying to see where God, through Jesus, is leading his Church. Needless to say, this discussion is often marked by scriptural “gnashing of teeth and rendering of garments.” Being a disciple of Jesus is hard enough – leading others to him is, well, challenging.

From time to time, you have heard me talk about having a spiritual “checklist;” a method to remind us about the important things in life and a way not to fall too far behind. It is also a list for those folks who say they want more – they want to move from being simply an admirer of Jesus to becoming one of his disciples.

It’s not an easy journey. If it was, the world would be a lot different, a lot better. Jesus asks much of those of us who wish to step up. Remember? “Unless you take up your cross…” What would you say to a person who asked you what a disciple of Jesus is? In reality, it’s like a weekend jogger deciding to run a marathon. It can be done, but not without a schedule of discipline – a lot of effort, and, yes, some pain. When I decided to run the Boston marathon a number of years ago, I couldn’t just tell people I was a marathon runner because I was going to run one, I had to start training. And running more miles in that year of preparation than I had ever done before.

This is what I think this is what needs to happen to those who say they are Christians. Sure, it’s easy to say I am a marathon runner or a Christian. But doing it is another thing.

Here’s a program that those who are willing to move from admiration to discipleship: The program involves seven vital action areas (listed in alphabetical order, not importance):

1. Examining. Periodically and regularly take a good, hard look at your life Asking the important people around you, “How am I doing?” (Try Galatians 5:19-23 for a template). Then deeply listening and acting on what you hear. Where you have fallen down, you confess, ask for God’s forgiveness, and act on eliminating the negatives in your life. All of us who say we follow Jesus should work to continuously improve all aspects of our lives and relationships.
2. Giving. Most of us in North America have too much stuff. Giving is not only about ourselves, but also our stuff. The biblical standard is the tithe. Ten percent of your income should be given to others who are in need. It doesn’t have to all go to the church, but at the end of the year, you should note that ten percent of your income went to help others less fortunate than you are.
3. Praying. If you aren’t taking time to pray each day you will fall behind your spiritual goals. John of the Cross said this about prayer: “You say you have no time to pray, then double it.” We all need time in quiet, with God, giving first thanksgiving, then supplications our families, church members and the world. Pray like your life depended on it.
4. Serving. This is what comes “out the spout.” Christians serve others. A spiritual life without service is not a life to be lived. It’s what a Jesus-followers does. Engage in an activity that serves others. It’s a wide-open field.
5. Studying. In order to grow in your faith you need to know about it. Study involves the Bible (what God has revealed to about himself) and books (what others have said, and are saying, about God.) When you study God you must always be open to listening what God may say in response. For example, the Benedictine practice of Lectio divina (meditative reading) is digesting a passage or two from scripture, meditating on it, praying, and then silently contemplating what you have heard.)
6. Solitude. We live in a busy, often frenetic, world. Spiritually questing people simply cannot find what they are looking for being engaging in today’s society. Since the earliest times, men and women have gone into the quiet of the desert to find God. Scripture tells us God often speaks more clearly there. To grow, you need to find time alone – not in loneliness, but in solitude with God. No excuses.
7. Worshipping. Much of our spiritual growth as a disciple of Jesus can be done alone except for two of them – serving and worshipping. Being with Jesus is not a solitary discipline, it is what you do with others, building relationships among other disciples, serving and worshipping with others. A Jesus man or woman does both, just as Jesus did. Growing in Christ is a life process of engagement-retreat-engagement. That is how we find strength and it is also how we grow – and, most importantly, finish the race.

What do you think?

Are there other things a disciple of Jesus should be doing?

What is your growth plan?

If Jesus Was the Pastor At Your Church, Would You Still Attend?

I was deeply moved by Francis Chan's talk to a number of pastors in which he shared the concern many of us have who say we follow Jesus.

It is a 50 minute video and worth your time.

Take a look at it and then let's get a discussion going about what he has said.

CLICK HERE for the video.