Don't Worry.....

These were the first two words of the Reverends message yesterday as I sat in the pew, unemployed for the first time in 15 years! She continued, "Don't worry, Moses started out as a basket case too." Everyone in our small Episcopal church let out a collective laugh, they all related to the funny little joke. The point she said, was that the people who launched Moses down the river were "faithful" to put him in the basket, all kidding aside, they were co-laborers in Gods plan.

God too would be faithful throughout Moses's life, in reading Deuteronomy 34:1-8, where Moses dies and doesn't get to enter the promise land. Now, I must admit I never have liked this story. I have always thought Moses got kind of a raw deal here, but believing God is perfect, and His ways are always just, looking at it from a new point of view couldn't hurt; especially in light of my new circumstance.

You see this story has particular meaning to me because this Friday was my last day of work for Worship Leader Magazine. Not something I thought I would be experiencing today or going through, (and I am not equating myself with Moses), but in many ways we all experience mini-deaths this side of heaven, and the loss of a job, the loss of leading, the loss of a dream, these are all mini deaths we must grieve.

But man, I am thrilled that I am going out in many ways like Moses did. I still have my vision - (not 20/20 eyesight) but I still believe, so many wins, the best issues, a great team, wonderful customers, a great track record; a seven year fantastic run......artists and friends that will last a lifetime, a God that never deserted me in the process.

This was my Reverends message; be faithful, and if you don't get to go where you want or where you thought you were supposed to or were entitled to go - don't worry, because God has a different plan for you - and its infinitely better. If you are truly in the will and hand of God; its definitely going to be better! And you know what, that is where I am today, in the middle of the will of a perfect and just God I simply cannot be worried. Its when I get too far from Him that I start leaning on my own understanding that trouble comes my way.

There are always going to be things that happen to us, because of us, and as a result of our choices that are unfair when we are leaders or even just as believers. We will face things that seem unjust, that is for sure. But in the hands of a just God, He will always, always set things right for those who love and worship Him. That is the justice we must always seek. In this crazy world we live in right now where nothing makes any sense, I want to think about Moses, who was faithful, and I want to think about a God who is always faithful as well.

Not sure what leadership crisis you face right now but I do know God is faithful, and wherever you find yourself He is calling you to rest knowing He will take you the rest of the way, He will not let you down.

Blessings friends.

Recontextualizing Foolishness

You can't Fool Mother Nature! Well you would probably need to be at least 40 years old to be someone who would remember the you can't fool mother nature video you can view on you tube at (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LLrTPrp-fW8)but in essence it was a very catchy advertising campaign that launched margarine into the market over butter. But even though we often like the fruits of what we are fooled with as Mother Nature did with margarine, mother nature doesn't like it when she is fooled though and brings upon a storm when she realizes she has been fooled - and thats where the famous line from the 70's comes from, "its not nice to fool with mother nature."

How do you feel when you get fooled or look like a fool? Maybe its as innocent as a friend not telling you that you've got a bugger in your nose all through a business lunch, or toliet paper on your shoe, you are embarrassed. Or as we see right now in the mortgage crisis, lots of people were fooled. They bought homes thinking they were getting loans they could afford, and then found out later that they couldn't.....or worse thinking they were fixed rate, then they adjusted and they doubled, and now they not only don't have a home, they have bad credit, a ruined life - maybe they are homeless, they may feel like a fool. Some say they should have known better, they got greedy, and yes to a certain extent that is true; but some people were just plain swindled.

Maybe someone invested in a company, poured their life into it, and gave everything they had, but just this past month found out that all their investment was gone because it had been squandered by a boss who was not what he had portrayed himself to be? Hasn't that happened to you or a friend you know? Lehman Brothers, Enron, Wall Street, Main Street, nobody is immune - we are all surrounded by fools, and we all end up as fools at one time or another. Betrayed, abandoned, abused, denied, and needing the healing salve of a wounded savior who completely relates to us in it all.

The Bible has much to say about fools, foolishness, and the like. In the NT alone there are numerous references but I like how it re contextualizes foolishness for us in 1 Cor 3:18:

Do not deceive yourselves, anyone of you who thinks he is wise by the standards of this age he should become a "fool" so he may become wise. The wisdom of this world is foolishness in Gods sight, as it is written, He catches the wise in their craftiness.

These words definitely cause me to pause - don't be wise by this worlds standards - be a fool so you can become wise! Don't you feel that way sometimes you just can't beat those crafty people at their games? Well, you aren't supposed to! Let God deal with them, His justice is perfect and ours isn't. We aren't meant to rely upon our craftiness, it isn't wisdom.

In Ephesians it says, "Don't be foolish but understand what the Lords will is" so we must always be looking for what the Lords will is, and not conform to the worlds standards for wisdom. God sees right through us and to our heart and motivation.

All of the economic meltdowns, negative politics, social nightmares, and betrayals piled up on after another should cause us to stop and take a moment not to run the other way from God, but to realize that its time to do some idol smashing and fool discovering in our lives. This is a regular part of our lives this side of heaven. I hate to say it but our days between now and the end of our time here on earth are likely to be filled with more sweetness and more bitterness - as we walk this road Jesus will be simply a sojourner but our ever present help in a time of need....that is what He is supposed to be.

May we become fools who seek after God and His kingdom not the riches of this world, may we be wise in the ways that God wants us to be, may we be hungry to know Gods will in our lives, and may we experience His manifest presence in our lives.

He is Here....Psalm 31

Do you ever have those amazing days when you just need a friend and then all of the sudden, God just puts them in your path to minister to you? Well that was me today, and God is so faithful. As I write this blog, I am listening to the latest Crowder CD, and my good friend is doing some artwork to my right. We've had a great day walking on the beach and talking - and just connecting.

Life right now for many of us is filled with anxiety for a multitude of reasons, but this isn't a "new" condition. King David was no stranger to anxiety caused by despair, betrayal, broken relationships, sin, (fill in the blank). As I blog today I must admit, I too have anxiety. The world is at times a very scary place to be, I worry for my kids and their safety - I worry about what will happen to their hearts as they go through life's bitter disappointments. I worry about my own heart being lost to cynicism.

However, there are these days, filled with friends and moments, where God just keeps calling me back to Himself. Where I am reminded not only through my experiences that God is faithful, but in reading this amazing Psalm, that same God is sure to be there for each one us in this time but has been faithful throughout all time to every generation.

I know these blogs aren't supposed to uber-long but how can you edit down something as powerful as a Psalm? Its too rich....soak it in my friends, and remember the same God who created heaven and earth is the one who promises to deliver you from whatever is creating anxiety for you today. Peace be with you.

Psalm 31(The Message)

I run to you, God: I run for dear life. Don't let me down!
Take me seriously this time! Get down on my level and listen, and please
no procrastination! Your granite cave a hiding place, your high cliff aerie a place of safety.

You're my cave to hide in, my cliff to climb. Be my safe leader, be my true mountain guide. Free me from hidden traps; I want to hide in you. I put my life in your hands. You won't drop me, you'll never let me down.

I hate all this silly religion, but you God I trust. I'm leaping and singing in the circle of your love; you saw my pain, you disarmed my tormentors, You didn't leave me in their clutches but gave me room to breath. Be kind to me , God - I'm' in deep, deep trouble again. I've cried my eyes out; I feel hollow inside. My life leaks away, groan by groan my years fadeout in sighs. My troubles have worn me out, turned my bones to powder. To my enemies I'm a monster; I'm ridiculed by the neighbors. My friends are horrified; they cross the street to avoid me. They want to blot me from memory, forget me like a corpse in a grave. The street-talk gossip has me "criminally insane"! Behind locked doors they plot how to ruin me for good.

Desperate I throw myself on you: you are my God! Hour by hour I place my days in your hand safe from the hands out to get me. Warm me, your servant with a smile. Save me because you love me. Don't embarrass me by not showing up; I've given you plenty of notice. Embarrass the wicked, stand them up, leave them stupidly shaking their heads as they drift down to hell. Gag those loudmouthed liars, who heckle me, your follower with jeers and catcalls.

What a stack of blessing you have piled up for those who worship you. Ready and waiting for all who run to you to escape an unkind world. You hide them safely away from the opposition. As you slam the door on those oily, mocking faces, you silence the poisonous gossip. Blessed God!

His love is the wonder of the world. Trapped by a siege, I panicked. "Out of sight, out of mind, " I said. But you heard me say it, you heard and listened.
Love God all you saints; God takes care of those who stay close to him, But he pays back in full those arrogant enough to go it alone.
Be brave. Be strong. Don't give up. Expect God to get here soon.


Here is my parting thought or rather question: what if you just stayed close to God today and let Him take care of the rest? What would that look and feel like for you, would you know peace then?

I think I do today at least for today.

Worship Like College Football?

I've only ever been to one college football game in my life, and that was several years ago. But its entirely different when you are going with your son on parents weekend....it just seems to matter more for some reason.

All the cheering, the game itself has special meaning, the jumbo tron, it all is significant, and to be honest I didn't want to miss a moment. You may not be able to read that sign in the photo but we had our own leader, helping us to know when to raise our collective voices and make "noise" to cheer the team on to success. And we won resoundingly. When we left it was 45 to 7 Grizzlies, and Sacramento State didn't seem to be mounting much of a rebound effort.

It hit me as I surveyed the maroon and silver clad enthusiastic capacity crowd, what if we got this excited on Sunday morning when we got ready to worship our God, or Saturday, or Monday or Tuesday or whenever? Haven't you heard your worship leader lament on occasion how they wished the congregation would get into it a little more?

I mean this crowd was down right excited beyond anything I've ever seen, they surpassed my ten year old at the Hanson concert for sure. I was completely fascinated. Chants, cheers, waves, you name it they had it. And I couldn't help but think, that the enthusiasm of football fans infused into any worship service would really make worship much more exciting.

Think about it, what if we had a few waves for God? What if we cheered a little more for what He did in our lives, or we got on our feet spontaneously without someone having to cajole us into it? Or if we simply expressed our delight at the success we experienced in life, or the setbacks as a collective body?

Here is something truly amazing......every seat was filled in the stadium a full 16 minutes before the game! What if that was church and we were ready before the service instead of coming in late? I am going to give it a try this week. I am going to dress up for church like I did this week for the Griz game, I am going to prepare myself for worship like we prepared for college football, learn the prayers on the calendar of our church that week, and the songs, and come ready...ready to worship.

What if nobody needed to come in front of you with a sign this week that says "noise" and encourage you to sing out, but rather you were to come to church this week already dressed in garments of praise, ready to worship....

I don't know about you but I am going to try it. It might not be exactly like college football, but I know one thing for sure, I will leave that gathering completely transformed!

If you knew you couldn't fail........

I never thought I would feel this happy after my son dropped the bomb on us last night that he is the fourth floor "care rep" part of his psychology major responsibilities, of caring for his fellow students. The role involves counseling students who have been involved in rape, who need condoms, who think they might have an STD, and so on. Honestly, my feelings were ambivalent. I was so proud of his willingness to serve, but I have strong feelings about sex being the best in the confines of marriage, so the distribution of condoms from room 403 is really not what I thought college would be about for my boy. After a lot of dialogue though and reassurance that he feels the same, he explained about his role and how he gets to talk to kids about the choices they are making as well, it was really cool to hear about the difference he is making as the Care Rep....on the 4th floor of his little dorm here at Montana U. Now before everyone starts sending me hate mail, don't.

What I realized last night after he left was that I hadn't really affirmed him because I was very conflicted. So today I had a little repair work to do. You see our kids don't always get involved in what we want them to be involved in, but what I am most proud of is that he is involved. He is a leader. When I was his age I was just too insecure to join or lead anything. He is out there making a difference, in campus crusade, and in care rep, and in working on the carousel here in town doing wood working, he is volunteering his time and talent in a multitude of ways. Things that never would have crossed my mind at his age to do. Things that simply would have seemed so bizarre that I couldn't have fathomed putting myself out there, like he is doing. So yes, I am proud of him, and I had to tell him so today, and that I was wrong to judge the method of his making a difference, because it didn't fit in my "box" I couldn't give him what he needed from me the most last night, a good old fashioned, I am proud of you...just because you are you.....that would have been enough.

Today was great though, he explained why this is an important part of what he is learning in his psychology class, and listening to people, and confidentiality and all of that good stuff.

To the best of my ability I am working to listen with out judgement and just listen to what is over there. What if my son was able to keep someone from getting a disease that would take their life, or change their life forever by being a care rep on his floor? I don't know I still have a lot of conflicting feelings, but about him I am just amazed at his courage to step out and take risks. To go on paths his dad and I never did or would, to be a little trailblazer.

I pray he will never lose that. I wonder when I did? What in life keeps me from stepping out into new areas that God would have for me - maybe not passing out condoms :) but maybe passing out food to the poor, or starting a new venture, or adopting another child.

I have a little paperweight in my office, and it reads like this:

If you knew you couldn't fail, then what would you do?

Well, what would you do?

Stillness in the midst of complete destruction?

Verse 10 and the whole of Psalm 46 seems particularly apropos for this time in our history, and in my life. "Be still and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth. "

Earlier, infact right before this beautiful instruction the psalmist describes desolation, destruction, and what seems like a description of the past several weeks of headlines in our world.

"Nations are in uproar, kingdoms fall." That is what its been like as I have watched the late night news only to see markets around the world fall as our markets here have fallen. The news seems so much more bleak and depressing. Yet God is with each one of us in such a profound way, in spite of everything we see, feel, fear, experience, and are subjected to in this time. That He instructs us to be still, and know....HE IS.....what a profound way to recenter our own hearts and minds regardless of what we are facing or living through today.

These are scary times, hard times, difficult doesn't begin to explain some of the true suffering that many people are experiencing everyday with their health, finances, jobs, and families. Yet the God who created heaven and earth is with us. That is rocking my world in a good way today.

I have no control over world markets, or even the local market for that matter. But I can control my remembering that God is God, and to truly apprehend the Truth of that reality, being still is the best posture for my heart in the midst of great anxiety.

Not sure what you are facing today, but I pray Psalm 46, that God "would be your refuge and your strength, an ever present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear even though the earth give way." Can you imagine? No fear in the midst of mountains falling into the sea? In the midst of the waters roaring and mountains quaking. I can't. I am afraid over too many trivial items according to the Psalms, because in the midst of this type of high drama, I can be still and know that God is God, and He is with me.

Have you ever really been that still?

Blogworthy or Praiseworthy

Tonight I was going to blog on something having to do with politics. I know, crazy. I am sure I would have received many comments. And it would have stimulated some great conversation, but really at the end of the day, what good would have come of it? I would have been able to whip everyone up real good, and I would have been able to get a bunch of traffic to this little blog of mine, but I would have had a bunch of hateful comments to deal with because we've seemingly lost the ability to dialogue with each other. Things are black or white, right or wrong, good or bad, left or right.....

I didn't post what I really wanted to because I knew I would be falling into what I really don't like about blogs; they often become negative and become forums that encourage gossip. Because of my last post and my current scripture reading through Philippians - I just couldn't. So I probably won't even get one comment, but here is a place where we can fix our eyes on Gods goodness Paul helps us to do that, and its really a cool section of scripture; where Paul states, "finally my beloved, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things."

There is so much in this small amount of scripture to focus on even in the midst of all the fear and uncertainty that we are going through in our world right now. Tonight as I crossed the street with my little african princess there was the most beautiful almost full moon. It was stunning. How beautiful creation is. God is the most awesome of artists, and looking up at that beautiful moon I was quickly put in my place. That moon is so big, and I just thought wow, God, thanks for making that amazing moon, and this awesome day, and my little african princess, and all the cool things that fill my days, but most of all thank you for you.....

He is praise worthy.
What are you praising God for in these extraordinary times?

Passing the Sniff Test

Maybe its because I've been reading books like UnChristian, or because I have recently gone through a betrayal by a christian friend, but I am fairly sensative to those people who claim to be christian but act in ways that are truely unchristian. These two recent events and even the uncertainty in our world have had me doing a lot of self examination and questioning of my own life, and values- and really digging into the Word in a new way. I am hanging out a lot in the Psalms, Romans, and in Pauls amazing letters - which make new sense in the midst of lifes crisis's and challenges.

And why not feel terrible when we experience a betrayal, or even something as benign as a mis-step from a fellow brother or sister? We are all guilty of this, we all fall short. But think about it, It's really quite un-natural for us to say we are one thing and then act in ways that are completely opposite, or atleast it ought to be. After we become believers, we honestly should really feel uncomfortable when we betray our friends, or lie, or stab others in the back, or cheat, or bear false witness, or divide each other, or hurt each other, or act unkindly, or gossip, or do things that are simply counter intuitive in the christian life. It should feel really odd, wierd, uncomfortable - though we still sin - we have been redeemed, we should become more and more sensative to the heart of and ways of Christ the longer we walk with Him, and more and more we should become uncomfortable when we fall back to the ways of this world. Now I know I am shoulding a lot on you....for that I am sorry, but really there isn't a better way to say it.

But my question to you today is do you pass the sniff test? Where in your life do you line up, and where do you need to be realigned with the word? If you were being observed by an outsider, what would they say? Would they even think you were a Christian? The big ah-ha moment for me in Unchristian is that there is a sniff test for outsiders, and we aren't passing it as a church.....we are not making that grade......by and large the church is viewed poorly by outsiders, we are seen as hypocritical - not as loving.

This weekend in our church service we sang this song, and I must confess that I long for these words to be true:
The Church of Christ in Every Age - WLP 779

The church of Christ in every age, beset by change but spirit led, must claim and test its heritage, and keep on rising from the dead. Across the world, across the street the victims of injustic cry for shelter and for bread to eat and never live until they die. The let the servant church arise. A caring chruch that longs to be a partner in Christs sacrifice, and clothed in Christs humanity. For Christ alone whose blood was shed can cure the fever in our blood. And teach us how to share our bread and feed the starving multitude. We have no mission but to serve in full obedience to our Lord, to care for all without reserve, and spread Christs liberating word.

Author Unknown

The church is always changing, always renewing through the spirit, the blood and redemption of Christ, we are the church.....I long for us for me to be the kind of Christian who will serve in full obedience without reserve! What a beautiful hymn!

Today I pray that we would be a beautiful fragrence, and pass the sniff test - I am encouraged by this reading:

Philippians 4:1-9 read it, and give me your thoughts this week as you stand firm in the Lord!

Julie

Random Acts of Kindness

Last night we were at Disneyland - and we experienced a random act of kindness that made our night terrific. We were there for Gigi's 6th birthday, with 3 of her best friends (see photo below)That is saying a lot already when you think of crowds pushing, pulling, crazy moms and dads all trying to get their kids a spot at the front of the line to see Minny and Mickey - imagine what it is to have two adults, out numbered by four kids....and then try to get to the front of the princess parade.....

Our day started bad, when we got caught in 2 hours of traffic, and missed our dinner with the princesses. But our 4 princesses in the car were so flexible, they were totally okay! And God made up for it in rapid fashion by granting us many favors in the park with one kind person after another....

We had second row seats at the parade, two ladies who had waited a long time - moved just like that and allowed our 4 girls to take their seats. Wow....they sat behind the girls. Random acts....I loved it. Well let me just say it was better than the dinner, every princess stopped and blew kisses to the girls, goofy, donald duck, the seven dwarfs, peter pan, everyone was taken by the four princesses all dressed and full of charm.....it was a magical night.

Sure those ladies could have held their ground, literally, but they saw a chance to do something nice, and they took it.....why? What can we do today not because we are Christian, but just because it is a nice, kind and good thing to do for another person......what if you never told another person you were a Christian? What if they knew it by your love, your kindness, and the good you were about on behalf of others......

They will know you by your love......