Curious? or Ignorant.

"But they didn't understand what he was saying, and they were afraid to ask him what he meant."

When Jesus told his closest disciples that he was about to be killed and resurrected, this was the confusion that ensued.  They weren't getting it.  They'd missed his point, but the more discouraging thing is that they let their fear keep them from understanding.  How many times had they had to ask Jesus to clarify?

Safe and Sound... or something else?

"I'd rather sail around the world than get my driver's license."

Abby Sunderland is 16 now and could be standing in line waiting to take her driver's exam and get her license... but she's not. Instead, she's about 500 miles west of Cape Horn; alone in a boat, two months into a 6 month solo attempt at sailing around the world! (Which may be safer than learning to drive in California anyway.) She even took her homework with her to avoid having to stay in high school an extra year (she's a Jr.).

I know some people will balk at the notion of letting a 16 year old circumnavigate "this terrestrial ball," but I admire parents who can trust that they've prepared their kids to really live. Too often, we teach so much risk avoidance that the mere survival that ensues hardly seems like living. The Sunderland's sail. Abby's been sailing for years, and apparently hounding her parents to let her sail around the world since she was 13 (even before her big brother Zac sailed around the world last year). So they've prepared her to live her dreams. They've equipped her to do what most people would be too afraid to even try.

"For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands. For God did not give us a spirit of timidity..." -from Paul to Timothy

Abby's Website
Abby's Blog
Check out this video from the Los Angeles Times:

Messes?

Vince Antonucci, on his blog and in his book ("I Became a Christian and All I Got was this Lousy T-Shirt" - which has just been added to my list of books to read) writes that, "Following Jesus should not give us warm fuzzies in our heart, but messes in our underwear."

In Mark 10, the people following Jesus were scared. They had good reason to be. Jesus kept telling them he was going to die. "We are going up to Jerusalem," he said, "and the Son of Man will be betrayed to the chief priests and teachers of the law. They will condemn him to death and will hand him over to the Gentiles, who will mock him and spit on him, flog him and kill him. Three days later he will rise."

He had just told the rich young ruler to go give everything away, then come back and follow him to eternal life. I wonder if we're too comfortable? Are we too used to the way things are to see the victory on the other side of our fear of uncertainty? Have the "warm fuzzies" of the contemporary church deadened our senses to the point where our response to Jesus is to sadly retreat into our comforts?

Imagine... Obstacles Pt. 3

"One of the great dangers of leadership is this: we stop doing ministry out of imagination and we start doing ministry out of memory. We learn how and forget why. We stop creating the future and start repeating the past." - Mark Batterson

A third obstacle to doing ministry out of imagination is Misunderstanding of Leadership.  What is leadership?  Specifically, what does leadership look like in the church?  

If leadership in ministry means preservation of the past, then imagination may be unnecessary and even unhelpful.  But I would argue that leadership is not about preserving the past, but about creating the future.  Imagination is needed to pioneer - but maybe not so much to maintain the status quo.

In ministry, there is a lot of pressure to 'keep the constituents happy'.  Sing the songs that I like... Keep the sermons a little shorter... Play the games we enjoy and make sure we do those same activities that we really liked last year...  

It's a lot like my 2 year old, actually.  "Give me what I want, or I'll cry."  It is completely in my power to give her what she wants everytime.  (Often, it would be a lot easier.)  But as a father, my job isn't to give my kids what they want - it's to teach them to live.  At times, those two objectives are at odds with each other.

Ministry is similar.  Sometimes, what the students in my ministry really need is not even similar to what they want.  My job isn't to entertain them - it's to lead them to life.  But again, the pressures to get a lot of kids to come are sometimes at odds with what it takes to disciple.  The nature of discipleship has a narrowing effect on crowds.

It requires sacrifice that many are not willing to make.

John records a point in Jesus' ministry when, "From this time, many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him."  It was a hard teaching that he had presented.  He was leading to places the people had never been before and they weren't comfortable.  Jesus could have leaned back on his miracles to bring them back around.  He could have done the whole walking on water thing again, that was pretty impressive...  But instead, he indicated to his inner circle that the ride wasn't over, asking them if they planned on leaving too?  It was as if he asked them, "Which tomorrow are you choosing?  The one with me or without me?"

Always the one to speak up, Peter points out that there was no where else to go to get what he has.  "You have the words of eternal life."

Peter recognized that Jesus wasn't there to coddle them and make them feel good about their fine (or not so fine) Jewish upbringing.  He was there to teach them to live.  That is leadership in the church, and it requires us to look past what is and see what could be.

When we look back

"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover." -Mark Twain

I pulled this quote from on of the chapter openings of "In a Pit...". As we look back, we'll regret the good we didn't do more than the mistakes we've made. Don't let the fear of mistakes keep you from taking a risk that could have great results.

"When Opportunity Roars..."

I finished reading Mark Batterson's "In a Pit With a Lion on a Snowy Day" recently. The book recounts the Biblical story of Benaiah, mighty warrior/lion chaser/bodyguard/military commander. The gist is that Benaiah seized an incredible opportunity that most sane people would have run from - he chased a lion into a pit on a snowy day, killed it, and was greatly rewarded in life as a result. Instead of running from difficult circumstances and seeking safety at all costs, we can learn "how to survive and thrive when opportunity roars" - the subtitle of the book.

One part of the book that really stuck out for me (besides the title) was the chapter on "Unlearning Your Fears". Batterson pointed to psychiatric research suggesting the only two fears that are inate to man are the fear of falling and of loud noises. Every other phobia is learned - AND can be UNlearned.

Lion Chasers (those who are able to turn difficult circumstances into rewarding experiences) have learned to face their fears. The key to this unlearning is to have a renewed mind, retooled into the mind of Christ (which is brought about through a consistent diet of Scripture). When I find my security and my very identity in Him, what is there to fear? When I know that I am acting on His thoughts and dreams, what circumstances can shake my resolve?

I like books that ask "what if?" questions. This is one of those books.

"What if the life you really want, and the future God wants for you, is hiding right now in your biggest problem, your worst failure... your greatest fear?"

Injured...

A couple weeks ago, we hosted the students from Central Church of Christ in Gering, for a night of worship and focus on our response to the pain of life. After tacos and chips together, we watched a short film about Bethany Hamilton called Heart of a Soul Surfer. She's a competitive surfer who uses her life as a platform to lift up Christ - despite losing an arm to a shark.


We talked about how if you're going to live a life that really amounts to much, chances are you're going to be hurt at some time or another. It's how we respond to our injuries that reveals our character and opens or closes a lot of opportunities. God often uses our injuries to point people's attention (ours and others) to Himself.


In response to the message of hope despite pain, I asked the students to offer their injuries to God and allow Him to work through them. I had them write down their injuries and leave them there. Some of them got stuck on the physical pain part of being injured, while others brought out some pretty heartbreaking stuff. As a youthworker, it hurts me to see students being hurt. But it doesn't do any good to pretend we don't.


Here's a sampling of the injuries listed:

-"My arm broke when I was 5. When I was 3 I got stitches."

-"Girls always talking about you... Boys are a hurt, too in my life... God, take this HURT!"

-"Everyone holding stuff that I have done in the past still against me. People thinking I should be perfect and always happy, to never have a bad day"

-"I broke my arm playing football and sprained my ankle wrestling"

-"I have done many bad things in my life. God I thank u for dying on the cross for my sins. I love you."

-"Boys tell me I'm fat. I used to be bulimic and I started cutting this year, but trying not to. I'm giving it to God."

-"I have been abused both sexually and physically by a boy I thought was my friend. But I didn't tell anyone about it & still haven't. I need help! (*She's getting some now.)"

-"I need your strength to help me be stronger."

-"One of my best friends was raped. She is broken and seeing her melt down like that kills me... I don't know how to be strong for her when I'm not strong myself."

-"Had to use my left hand to write in 6th grade."

-"Having mono and not being able to play my favorite sport for a whole season."

-"This is gonna sound weird but I think he uses me because I'm blonde, because a lot of people are always like, "You're such a blonde" and I just say "Well, I don't care that's how God made me and He loves me!" Just by saying that I've opened doors for someone to come to Christ."

-"My parents split up and my dad doesn't pay attention to me and it feels like he doesn't love me any more."

-"I broke my collar bone."

-"I was taken away from my parents and went back to live with them and got taken away again and they move and I'm in foster care."

-"I guess feeling left and rejected. It's been hard without a good Christian influence in my school system."

-"Asthma and still being able to play baseball and basketball."

-"Uncertainty."

-"I have broken my arm 3 times and I'm glad that was all that happened. I know God was watching over me."

-"A friend of many years took things from me that can't be replaced."

-"I'm very uncertain what God wants me to do. I feel like I've been hurt so many times that he has made me strong so I can pray for and help my friends. I'm not sure how or what he wants me to do."

-"Focusing more on boys than Christ. Being selfish. Thinking of myself as better than others and sometimes doing the opposite and thinking worse of myself."


I wish I could identify which students went with which anonymous comments to sit and discuss some of these very personal issues. So much pain for young people to know how to handle. But they've been trained to hide it well, and so often never allow themselves to be healed. Pray for young people today.
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I had written this post last week, and planning to post it later. In light of the shootings in Colorado over the weekend, please pray with me that God will bring healing and hope to those involved. I can't imagine any injury like losing a child to such random senselessness.

Need for Music...

A professor at seminary got me interested in a blog done by Dick Staub. He writes about different elements of culture and creativity and interaction between the church and the world we live in. This morning, I was reading this post about the Necessity of Music. He has some great quotes from Rich Mullins.

In a letter to his label, he once wrote,

I want to be involved as much as possible in church work. I want to work in settings that are specifically designed to challenge people, to encourage people to seek their life in Christ. I would like not only to sing but to teach…to "hang out" with people, to be accessible, to model faith [to] them, to be with people, not as a performer, but as a practitioner of the faith.

I saw Mullins 'perform' a few times, but after reading that I know why I never felt comfortable calling it a performance. He didn't perform with his music, he worshipped His Creator through it and drew the audience into participation in worship as well. Another time Mullins said,

You don't write because the world needs your music; you write because you need to make order, to organize things.

Just the other day, I was talking to a former student (who is a musician) about some music I'd written several years ago. We'd used the songs in worship there in Auburn and at camp, and I've used a few of the songs out here as well. But she asked me about what I'd written lately...

Not much. Somewhere in our move a year and a half ago, I misplaced the box where I kept my creativity. (I think I left it next to the one full of security and confidence.) I've missed it. Thanks Megan for challenging me to unpack that box again... I needed it.

Be Led to Lead

I just finished reading again a book that was suggested in connection with my last class. I don't read books more than once very often, but I was looking for a quote to use in my last paper and got wrapped up in the book and wanted to soak it in again. It's "In the Name of Jesus: Reflections on Christian Leadership" from Henri Nouwen - a brief book sharing some lessons learned as Nouwen moved from a Harvard professorship to a community for mentally handicapped people called Daybreak. (For more about Nouwen, check out this website from Wil Hernandez - who incidentally was the teacher for my class.)

He points out a lack of spiritual depth in much of Christian leadership today and blames the pursuit of relevance, popularity, and power (though his description of relevance is a bit different than I'd always thought of relevance) and prescribes prayer, confession/repentance, and theological reflection. He ends "with the image of the leader with outstretched hands, who chooses a life of downward mobility. It is the image of the praying leader, the vulnerable leader, and the trusting leader. May that image fill your hearts with hope, courage, and confidence..."

He uses Jesus' comments to Peter about being led where you do not wish to go to draw this picture of servant leadership. Really made me think of my own image of leadership. How I've defined it for myself and what I've aimed for as a leader. I've got to say, I've allowed myself to be distracted by managing things ("Don't mess up.") to the point of no longer being led and leading.

But it's risky to be led by Jesus. If we're going to be able to lead the emerging generation to have any depth of relationship to God whatsoever - it's a risk some of us must take.

Faded Memory???

Saw an article today from a 60 Minutes show about a drug that reportedly decreases the pain associated with memories of traumatic events. It's actually a drug that's used to lower blood pressure, assuage migraines, and slow down hearts that beat too rapidly. Apparently, it does this by isolating or decreasing the amount of adrenaline in the brain. (note: don't read this like a medical research item, because I'm not a medical researcher and the terms I'm using aren't meant to be technical) The theory is that this decrease in adrenaline response will in turn decrease the strength at which the memories are 'inked' into our brains.

As I saw the article, my synapses were flooded with questions. What memories would I want to erase? What did I learn from bad experiences that would also be lost along with the pain? How would I know I'm not going to erase the good memories? What if someone used this to mess up a 'witness' so they no longer could remember to what they need to testify? Is there a 'desktop trashcan' somewhere in my brain's hard drive where I could recover memories I wish I hadn't deleted?

But it also got me thinking about the great lengths we'll go to in order to avoid pain. We'll drink the pain away. We'll work so hard or so much that we don't have time to think about it. We'll indulge in more destructive patterns of behavior in order to 'normalize' the pain. And maybe in the near future, we'll be able to take a little pill that makes whatever memory that's causing us pain virtually disappear.

Two problems I see: 1) This never deals with the issues causing the pain - it just covers them up. 2) When we spend so much of our lives and selves trying to avoid (or alleviate) pain from our lives - we also cease to experience the joy of living. We spend so much time and energy trying to find ways to avoid getting hurt that we in effect avoid living at all.

"Whoever wants to save his life will lose it..." Peter had the same pain aversion that we do. When Jesus said, "I'm about to go to Jerusalem and suffer and be killed." Peter protested forcefully. Then Jesus told Satan to get out of the way, told His disciples to stop thinking of their own well being and follow, and headed for His death in Jerusalem. Jesus knew the rest of the phrase. "But whoever loses his life for me will find it."

I think we'd do well to heed Jesus' words. We must lose our lives to Him if we are to have any hope for living a life that matters eternally. A life not dulled but full. There was a movie back a lot of years with this bipolar ski guy. (Someone must have slipped me a propranolol because I can't remember the title of the movie.) That guy was a wuss - whiny, scared of everything, hypochondriac... Then he'd turn into this crazy, fear-nothing ski-slope daredevil. As he'd wrestle with himself he kept repeating the phrase, "Taste death, live life."

I always liked that guy.

Who's It?

Haven't written in a long time, but leave it to something stupid to get me back here. There were reports yesterday about schools banning tag like that one. This is as bad as the whole dodge ball thing a few years ago. Why can't kids be kids without living in a glass (no wait, better make that non-breakable plexiglass - or better yet, memory foam lined rubber) bubble? WE CANNOT KEEP THEM SAFE FROM EVERY BUMP AND SCRATCH! Nor should we.

I live in an area of the country that's known for a little less hectic pace, wide open spaces, and common sense type of people. But just a couple hours away in Cheyenne, the buffalo may roam, the deer and the antelope can play, but kids can't play tag at recess. Seriously? It's been 40 some years since you were supposed to be able to pray in school, and now you can't play there either?

I have a solution. Let's get over the idea that someone else is responsible and teach our kids to do the same. Fell down and scraped your knee? You'll be ok. Fell out of the tree and broke your arm? Hurts, doesn't it... as opposed to "Let's sue Johnny Appleseed and the asphalt company."

I could go on... but I've gotta go pick up my daughter from school - where she can still play tag and hang upside down on the monkey bars. Then I'm taking her home to her brothers and I'm going to chase them around the house for a while!

"You're it."

No Fear...

Several years ago we all thought it was cool to wear stuff that said "No Fear". (I know, I know, I'm getting old...) As if screaming our claim to courage made it more real. The truth is we were all full of fear. Afraid to fail, afraid to fall, afraid to be shunned or ignored or forgotten...

I was reading Psalm 23 today and noticed something I've never noticed before. (I kind of feel dumb that I didn't see it there one of the hundreds of times I've heard this verse before.) Maybe it's the way the verses are broken up by numbers, or the way the verse is usually reserved for funerals and memorials, but for whatever reason I never noticed this before: (now forget about verse numbers & funerals for a second and read this)

"He guides me along the right paths for His name's sake. Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I will fear no evil, for You are with me..."

I've kind of always known this (counter to what some people think of their Christian religion), but I've never noticed it in this Psalm before - if I follow God, He may lead me to and through dark places. Sometimes church people live as if God is always making them "lie down in green pastures" next to still waters. But don't ever forget that the path of righteousness leads us on a rescue mission right through the middle of the valley of the shadow of death! (Picture Frodo & Sam approaching Mordor.)

Two Things
:: Real Courage isn't wearing a No Fear t-shirt as you soar over a fun box; it's following your creator into the depths of your "Mordor" knowing that He's there with You.
:: If your life is all about still waters and green pastures, you may need to stop grazing and figure out where the Shepherd went.