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I’m Giving Up

February 17, 2010 in church, Daily Life, marriage with 1 Comment

The church we attend (and where I serve) is an independent, non-denominational church that does not practice a lot of traditional liturgy.  However, I was raised in the Methodist church so I’m somewhat familiar with it.  If you’ve seen people today with ash crosses on their foreheads like I have already, that’s your clue that today is Ash Wednesday, which marks the beginning of the Lenten season.  That makes yesterday Fat Tuesday. (I was going to Tweet “Hey, hey, hey….It’s faaaaat Tuesday” but I didn’t think of it until 11:00 last night and I missed my window of opportunity).  If you didn’t know, Mardi Gras is french for Fat Tuesday.

Anyway…So, what, again, is Lent?  Basically, Lent is the season leading up to Easter and kicks off on Ash Wednesday.  Here’s a pretty good description of the purpose of Lent from www.churchyear.net:

The purpose of Lent is to be a season of fasting, self-denial, Christian growth, penitence, conversion, and simplicity. Lent, which comes from the Teutonic (Germanic) word for springtime, can be viewed as a spiritual spring cleaning: a time for taking spiritual inventory and then cleaning out those things which hinder our corporate and personal relationships with Jesus Christ and our service to him. Thus it is fitting that the season of Lent begin with a symbol of repentance: placing ashes mixed with oil on one’s head or forehead. However, we must remember that our Lenten disciplines are supposed to ultimately transform our entire person: body, soul, and spirit. Our Lenten disciplines are supposed to help us become more like Christ. Eastern Christians call this process theosis, which St. Athanasius aptly describes as “becoming by grace what God is by nature.”

My wife and I always take this opportunity to identify some things in our life that are not helping us mature spiritually.  We then abstain from it entirely, or mostly, for the season of Lent.  It’s usually involves dessert or sweets, or TV or something like that.  One year we actually went 40 days with no TV (give or take an hour).  That was pretty awesome.  One year I went without coffee (I had some decaf). That was hard.  Last night we decided what it would be and we are trying to figure out how to bring the kids into it with us.  It always results in a new awareness of the things that are hindering the growth in our relationship with Jesus.

In the Bible we see that fasting was once commonplace.  I don’t remember any teaching on fasting from all my years growing up in church (no offense to my church).  It seems like fasting still remains a mystery and is missing in the lives of many Christians.

Fasting is difficult.  Our flesh desires are very strong and for those of us who have the means to feed them, fasting is a very good spiritual practice.  Try it sometime – just skip lunch – on purpose.  Don’t tell anyone – just don’t eat lunch.  You’ll be hungry.  Let that remind you to pray.  Think about what you really need to live.  Think about what God provides for you.  Ask yourself how much you rely on God.  Consider how materialism and consumerism may be creeping into your life.  Consider how material things might distract you from relationships with your family – your friends – and God.  Consider the reasons you might seek material things, or to eat junk food, or to watch TV.  Are you medicating a deeper issue?  Are you bored in life?  Are you just lazy?

I’d love to take this opportunity to invite, for the first time, an intentional discussion right here on the blog.  Here are some questions to ponder and discuss.  Just click on the comments link and leave your thoughts.  You can also subscribe to the post comments.  You then get an email every time a new comment in this post is added.

  • Have you ever fasted before?  If so, what was your experience like and what resulted from it?
  • Do you understand what fasting is all about?
  • Are you giving up anything for Lent this year? What is it and why?
(above cartoon from http://www.cartoonchurch.com)

Peanut Butter & Jesus

February 11, 2010 in church, Daily Life, Missional Living with 1 Comment

This catchy title is not my idea, nor is this about me (directly). This is a link to a video. The video gives a peek into the ministry of a man in our church who simply followed God in helping out some people in need. The video does well to capture the experience. I went along and shot the portion of the video in the city and got a taste for something I want more of. The video is on our church website and can be seen here:

http://www.beavercreekchristian.org/tp40/page.asp?id=118966

Small Things with Great Love

February 5, 2010 in Daily Life, Missional Living, Pastoring with 1 Comment

The other day when I left the coffee shop and headed back to the ‘burbs, I drove through the neighborhoods of the city.  It was like being in another world, yet it was only miles from where we live and work.  Today I just felt compelled one more time to drive through.  I figured out if you go up to one of the main roads that borders my neighborhood, it is a straight shot to the city (and incidentally leads directly to that same coffee shop) So I took the long way to work.

I am beginning to see the value in having your eyes opened to the ways and places that others live.  It broadens your perspective on the human experience.  Being a Christian and one who has been set apart to encourage and equip other Christians, seeing thousands of homes makes me feel overwhelmed.  There are so many people in need.  How can we possibly make a difference?  And it’s not just folks in low economic areas.  As I told my boss the other day – the only difference between folks in these lower-income neighborhoods and our own communities is people in our communities have nicer houses.  Who knows what is really going on behind the front door.

But getting back to the overwhelming sense that there’s no way we can help all these people, I’m reminded of what I read in Irresistible Revolution. The following is from Shane Claiborne talking about his summer serving with Mother Teresa.

Sometimes folks with medical training would come by and be overwhelmed with frustration because we had so few medical supplies, and the sisters would hastily explain that our mission was not to prolong life but to help people die well.  As Mother Teresa would say (telling the old story about throwing starfish back into the ocean even though they continue to line the beach in thousands), “We are called not to be successful but to be faithful.”  That sounds good but it was the beginning of my years of struggling with the tension between efficiency and faithfulness.  I remembered Gandhi’s saying that what we are doing may seem insignificant, but it is most important that we do it.  So we did.

While the temptation to do great things is always before us, in Khalighat I learned the discipline of doing small things with great deliberation.  Mother Teresa used to say, “We can do no great things, just small things with great love.  It is not how much you do, but how much love you put into doing it.”  Just as Andy would reprimand people for using too much soap when washing dishes (we mixed ashes with the soap to multiply it), I also heard many a volunteer scolded for not putting enough gravy on the rice, since the plate was being served to Jesus himself.

So with that, I’m reminded to love those who are already around me.  If we all love a few people, then it’s not so overwhelming.  And those few people will soon enough begin to love others as well.

Two Front Doors

February 3, 2010 in Daily Life, Missional Living with 6 Comments

I’ve been immersed in stories about this movement that I’ve been calling Ordinary Radicals. (Incidently, this is the title of a film my wife and I watched redently – check it out here) You can get lost in blog after blog and story after story about this stuff. This is the movement of Christians who are actually living out Jesus commands about helping others. They are doing many little things with big love. I’ve been inspired and made aware of these missing things in my family’s life. And I’ve been wondering what God wants us to do with all this stuff.

I was going to meet my friend at Panera for our weekly breakfast but he had to bow out. We meet down in the city because it’s equal distance for us each. In stead I headed to this other coffee shop downtown that I had found online. I wonder if God wants my family to move to the city in order to have more opportunity for community.  So I came down here to put my feelers out.

Well, I feel God confirmed in my heart that He brought my family to Beavercreek, not downtown Dayton. He brought us to the suburbs, not the city. I think my heart is yearning to meet new people and find out who they are and what they think. I think I have all these theories about who non-Christians are and what they think but I don’t know any, really. One quote I heard once said something along the lines of “Churches are offering answers to questions that nobody is really asking”.

Maybe someday we’ll move to the city – my wife and I would do it in a second. I think the idea of living in the city and loving and serving the poor sounds good. The problem is, I’m not really that great at loving people. I’m pretty sure God wants me to learn that first. I think reaching out in love in the suburbs may prove to be more challenging because there are two front doors blocking the way to relationships. There’s my front door which keeps us safely sheltered in the comfort of our home – and keeps people out. And there’s my neighbor’s front door which I have to either get past or convince my neighbor there is a good reason for him to leave the comfort of his safe shelter.

I’m writing this from a coffee shop in the city – a place where one can just walk down the street to and there is a group of neighbors already congregated. No so on my street. So therein lies (lay?) the challenge before me. Get past the two front door and start reforming and re-imagining community.

So stay with me. If we have the courage, we will follow where God leads us. I’m convinced He will open doors and show us the people He’s been pursuing – people He’s been waiting for a Christian to come along and be His hands and feet. Then maybe you can be encouraged to do the same. And little by little lives will be made whole again and people will get to know the real God and realize how amazing He is.

35 Driveways

February 1, 2010 in Daily Life, Missional Living with 2 Comments

This morning I was running the half mile loop in which our house happens to sit at the beginning and end of. The other day I counted 35 driveways on this loop. That has no point to the story but made for a catchy post title. On the other street over a young teen came running out of his house to catch the bus which was turning the corner and heading up the street. It started to come to a stop at a house as he ran and his older sister came out the door. When the boy got to the bus he stopped and started heading back telling his sister it was the wrong bus.

The point of this post isn’t to tell you that story but to share what goes through someone’s head who is on the looking for ways God may be creating opportunities to connect with others. I started wondering if these kids would need a ride to school.

Could I be the one to take them? I would have to run home to tell my wife. Would she be ok with that? Is that weird to take two strange teenagers to school? Are their parents at work? Would that be weird for them for me to take their kids to school? Would they be grateful? Would they say, get away from our family you freaky stalker? Would I have to talk to them on the phone?

But when I came around the second time it looks like they were warming their car up. Someone must have been getting ready to take them. Here’s my whole point. Isn’t it interesting what goes through our mind when a potential opportunity arises to help someone? All these “what ifs” pop into our mind. “What if he spends all that money on alcohol” “What if I stop to help the stranded man and he pulls a knife on me” “What if the guy with the sign is just a scammer” “What if I’m late to work” “I’m sure someone else will stop and help” And on and on.

I bet this kind of mindset has created millions of missed opportunities. Here’s a what if. What if we didn’t stop to talk ourselves out of it and just did something.

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