AND GOD SPOKE

As I searched for God the other morning, I heard Him speak. I know that always causes some feelings of angst amongst people. Some don't believe it, others wonder why it doesn't happen to them. I don't have all the answers, but I can share my experience. Maybe He'll speak to you through the words of this email.

I was looking through Scripture and stumbled across this verse, a message from God to His people through the prophet Isaiah...

For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. (Isaiah 55: 9-10, ESV)


As I read, I wonder, "What are His thoughts? What is it that God thinks most about?"

So I look elsewhere in Scripture for the words, "Lord or God" and "thoughts." I find the Psalmist David reflecting on this same thing. He says...

How precious are your thoughts about me, O God. They cannot be numbered! I can’t even count them; they outnumber the grains of sand. And when I wake up, you are still with me! (Psalm 139: 17-18, NLT)

The next day, as I listen to a audio version of one of my favorite books, Steps to Christ, I hear...

"When men go forth to their daily toil, as when they engage in prayer; when they lie down at night, and when they rise in the morning; when the rich man feasts in his palace, or when the poor man gathers his children about the scanty board, each is tenderly watched by the heavenly Father. No tears are shed that God does not notice. There is no smile that He does not mark."

And I conclude what God is trying to tell me. He's trying to tell me that His thoughts are of me. He watches over me and every moment of my life because He greatly cares for me and what happens to me. That thought is not only endearing, it is what I needed to hear. I needed to hear about a higher power who loves me in a way that is deeper and more real than anything I can imagine. That His thoughts are with me and of me. That He is with me.

The good news is, His thoughts are not just of me but of ALL His children...those that know, love and serve Him and those that don't. Regardless of how we spend our days or the things we do, His thoughts are of us because we are His precious and dearly loved children.

I hope that truth can turn your attention to Him for a moment and that in that moment you would realize that He's been with you all along. Courage for the close of the quarter and the journey of the day!

DREAMING AGAIN

In a couple of weeks, my son and I are embarking on what I call, "A Coming of Age Tour." He's turning 10, and when he was born I made a commitment that at 10 years old he and I would go on a long drive, have some fun, and talk about the things that matter most...baseball, relationships (birds & bees stuff), and Jesus. I am humbled by this task and excited at the same time. I pray for the Spirit to guide my words and fill our conversations with excitement, love, and wisdom.

This weekend, as we were planning our trip, I was lamenting over the cost of gas and how I wished the prices would drop before we leave. Ayden began "dreaming."

He said, "Daddy, how much would it cost us if gas was only $1.00/gallon?" I did the calculations and told him we'd save around $600. He didn't stop there. With eyes bulging out of his head, he said, "Daddy! What if gas was only $.01/gallon? What would it cost us then?" Resisting an eye roll, stuck in reality, I mustered out, "I guess that would only cost us about $20.00."

Then he said something that really hit me. He said with a sense of pure joy in a tone that children bleed so well, "It's fun to dream isn't it Daddy?"

You know what? He was right. It is fun to dream and I had been guilty of raining reality on his parade. When I let go and really joined in the fun of dreaming with him, we had a great time.

I don't know what your reality is today. Maybe it's painful and dreaming hurts (my heart sank as I wrote the prayer requests today...reality can really hurt). But I believe that it's in the dreaming that we meet with our Creator; after all, it was His "dreaming" that brought you and I into existence. It was His "dreaming" that saved the human race. His "dreaming" that conjured up an unimaginable plan to become human in order to save us from our sins. It sounded too crazy, too unrealistic. The God of the universe coming down to earth as a baby, wrapped in swaddling clothes, but He did it. He dreamed and His dream saved us.

Maybe today, we all need to dream about what could be. Maybe what could be will be, maybe it won't, but one thing is for sure; A day is coming when our deepest and most meaningful dreams will come to fruition if we can but cling now to the One worth dreaming about.

May we all be able to "dream" with our Lord and Savior. May those dreams wake us up to a new reality on this earth where we live in the joy of the Holy Spirit until the day when His dreams and are dreams are one. Courage my friends! Have fun dreaming!

OVERCOMING FEAR

I'm pretty sure you haven't lived until you've seen a four or five-year old overcome their fear of diving boards.

Last week, I was watching my own children participate in swim lessons at the WWU pool, when I caught a glimpse of a little girl up on the diving board. All week she was frightened of the looming horizontal plank. Her parents had told her that her teacher may ask them to jump off the diving board. This warning inflicted much worry on her tiny heart all week. Little by little, day by day, the teacher scooted her class towards the diving board in hopes that each one would take the plunge. The teacher knew they would be safe, she could see the bigger picture. She also knew that more than likely the child would love taking the risk and would want to do it again after she jumped.

On Friday, it was her day. With a life-vest on, she slowly crept out onto the diving board, shaking from cold and fear. All of the parents neglected their own children to cheer on this little girl. Slowly, even more slowly, she inched out to the edge of the diving board. The teacher was in the pool, ready to catch her. Her parents were armed with cameras, but barely breathing; I don't think any of the parents at the pool were breathing. She stared down at her teacher, for several minutes, with tears in her eyes. Then finally, she jumped.

The crowd of onlookers erupted in cheers, the parents celebrated, the teacher praised the student, the student could barely believe it herself, and God simply smiled.

Throughout Scripture, one of the most common phrases is "Do not be afraid." Again and again, God has to remind us to not fear. He has to remind us that we don't see the whole picture, only He does, and in His arms we are more than safe. We need to realize that God is standing there, waiting to wrap us up in His arms and whisper in our ear, "Well done, good and faithful servant." All the while the angels are off in the distance cheering.

I'm not sure what fear you may be holding onto today. I'm not sure what it is that scares you; a job transition, a bad economy, an opportunity to witness or reach out to someone, a request, a relationship, a call to serve. But in the words of Mike Yaconelli, I hope you can learn the "joy and abandon of running and jumping and playing hard-without worrying about what "might" happen." For His arms are always long enough to save (Isaiah 59: 1).

Go in peace and joy and trust in Jesus to be there for you, arms wide open, to receive you unto Himself for whatever you face today.

Friend of God

This past weekend, I had the privilege of officiating at my cousins wedding at Belknap Hot Springs in Oregon. The hot springs and the gardens that surrounded it’s landscape were absolutely breath-taking, but what impressed me even more was the friendship and camaraderie shared between my cousin and a group of guys he has grown up with.

These guys met each other playing rollerblade hockey when they were 8 and 9 years old, and they haven’t stopped hanging out since. They have drained pantries and fridges together, gone on dates together, journeyed through high school and college together, and laughed and cried together. Without even knowing this group of gentlemen, one could easily tell that they were close, more like brothers than friends. During the toast, the bride talked about how accepted she was by this band of brothers and how she knew that no matter what the need and no matter what time of day or night, she could call on them and they’d come running. What a picture of friendship!

I think it’s something we all long for; to belong to a group and to know that no matter what happens in life that someone has our back. Done right, it actually sounds like a healthy picture of church.

In John 15, Jesus tells His disciples, “Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command. I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you.”

Jesus calls us friends. The God of the universe calls us friends. The alpha and omega, the almighty, all powerful one calls us friends. And He promises that no matter the need or the time of day, we can cry out to Him and He will be with us (Isaiah 14: 14). He will never leave us. In fact, He’s such a good friend that He even knows what we need before we ask (Matthew 6: 8).

So we belong to the love of the Trinity, but we also belong to this community of faith. Students, teachers, administration, staff, we are all brothers and sisters in Christ. We are a part of His family, we make up His church, and together we bring Jesus to life for this community. If we have a need, day or night, we should be able to call on each other. If we need a shoulder to cry on or an ear that will listen, we should be able to call on each other. If we need to share a laugh, we should be able to call on each other. If we desire to go deeper in our walk with God, we should be able to call on each other.

My prayer is that this community would realize that in Christ we have not just a Savior, not just a Lord, not just a King, but a friend, and that in realizing the power of that friendship we would reach out to all of those around us with the same love and passion that Christ extends to us. When we do that, Jesus comes to life on the campus of WWU!

Belonging

The word, belong, is defined by Websters in the following ways: To be in the relation of a member. To have the proper qualifications, esp. social qualifications, to be a member of a group:

When I was seven years old, I played in little league. In fact, the picture in this email is of my actual jersey. I don’t know why I kept it, other than I loved being on that team. We were a good team of friends, and we had lots of fun. I can remember showing up in a sea of people, but I could pick out my team because we wore the same jesrsey. They were where I belonged. We played together, we enjoyed cream soda after the game together, and we had a great summer together. It feels so good to belong.

I thought about this last week when I woke up with a sense to look up Romans 14: 9. Here’s what it says, “For this very reason, Christ died and returned to life so that he might be the Lord of both the dead and the living.” You may ask the same question I did, “What reason?” Well, verse 8 says, “If we live, we live to the Lord; and if we die, we die to the Lord. So, whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord.” So read that in the correct order and you get the idea that Jesus came so that we might belong.

The book of Romans is full of this type of theme. We are all born with the same jersey filled with the stains of sin. We are all sinners (Romans 3: 23) and we are all justified freely by His grace (Romans 3: 24). Romans 8: 16-17 says that we are all children of God and because of that we are all “heirs of God and co-hears with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.” Romans 10: 12 says that “there is no difference between Jew and Gentile – the same Lord is LORD OF ALL and richly blesses ALL who call on him…”

So it seems to me that sin gave us one jersey, but Jesus came and lived and died that we might have another (Isaiah 61: 10); that we might belong to Him. He left the perfection of heaven, that we might belong. He was born in a manger, that we might belong. He became familiar with hunger, suffering, pain, that we might belong. He wrestled with the powers of darkness that marred Him beyond human likeness (Isaiah 53) that we might belong. And He rose from the grave and conquered sin and death, that we might belong.

You and I belong to Him that died for that very reason. And because we belong, we can join our hands as brothers and sisters and Christ. We can encourage one another when we stumble and fall because we all know what that’s like. We can pray for one another in any hardship because we’ve all had hardships. We can rejoice with one another when the blessings flow because we all have had the blessings flow.

So let us join our hands together, and with our hands our hearts, and let us seek the one who made it possible for us to belong to the Kingdom of Light, of Love, of Mercy, and of Grace. Amen!

Turn Your Eyes

There we sat, at the beginning of our annual leadership retreat, but instead of giving out instructions and jumping into our schedule of planning activities, we started the way we really should have the previous two years…with prayer.

Around the circle were nearly 40 students that have answered the leadership call this year and will be serving in ASWWU, Campus Ministries, and Student Missions this year. We prayed for each other, for our roles, but then we had some time to simply reflect on the person of Jesus. It’s something refreshing and inspiring to do every day. To turn our eyes from the distractions of this world and onto the Savior. To see his hands-the wrinkles, the calluses, and the scars. To see His smile-the teeth showing through, the lines besides His eyes because He smiles a lot. To feel His touch-against a tear-stained cheek or on your shoulder as He assures you that He’s with you.

As I pictured Him, I saw three distinct images that will drive my ministry this year.
The first was of Him in the garden with His Father. He regularly took time to be with His Father in heaven. It’s what gave Him courage and strength for the day. I hope to spend time each day with my Father in the garden as well.

The second scene involved Jesus reclining at the table with His disciples. These were the few He developed a closer relationship with. The few that He taught. He lived with them, ate with them, taught them, and modeled to them a life on earth, as it is in heaven. My goal is to spend quality time with our Campus Ministries team to help nurture them, journey with them, and continually point them to Jesus.

The last scene had to do with Jesus traveling along the roads of life, meeting people along the way and taking the time to care for their needs. Jesus was a busy man, but He was never hurried. He always took time to care for the needs of those around Him. With the help of my leaders I will be taking time each week to walk the campus and be aware of the needs of those in my surroundings. Feel free to walk up to me and chat.
We can pray, hang out, you can talk and I can listen (I can do that you know ), whatever you need. I just want to be His hands and feet for our campus in hopes that you might go and do the same.

So when you close your eyes and picture the Savior, what do you see? What’s He calling you to do? I hope you’ll pray for me as I try to answer that call, and I hope you’ll know that I’ll be praying for you!

Living Jesus Pictures

Do you remember your first picture of Jesus? Mine was on a thick cardboard slab, about 18’’x24’’, that my parents had bought and put in my room. Jesus practically filled up the picture, but it had a light blue frame, tattered edges, and the universe behind Jesus. His hair was long but not neatly combed like so many other pictures. He wore the white robe and the red sash; he was particularly svelte and he had a slight smile on his face. When I was younger, I was nearly certain that His eyes followed me as I walked around the room. Through His face, you could see some of the stars shining through.

I still see that Jesus when I close my eyes to pray, and it comforts me, but I’ve had other pictures of Jesus. My high school algebra and geometry teacher gave me a picture of Jesus. This picture was full of passion for teaching, was willing to hang out with the bodies and the nobodies, and he was unashamed at the things he love; which included socks with sandals, animal ties, and crows (he did his master’s thesis on crows).

My Grandmother gave me another picture of Jesus. Hers was full of love and devotion for her family. Thirty years after the loss of her husband, she still talked of her love for him. She taught me about Jesus’ tender heart, and how He could love and show discipline at the same time

Then there’s the picture of Jesus my wife has given me. One of amazing beauty and unspeakable love for a fool like me.

Each of us has the opportunity to share a picture of Jesus with our family, our coworkers, and our students. We all need to see Jesus better, and my challenge to you is simply to consider what image you’re portraying and how that image will help others come to know their Savior even better?

It is my prayer that as we prepare for the start of the school year we could each spend time contemplating the image of Jesus through the pages of His word, “for as we do, we are transformed into His image (for the sake of others) with ever increasing glory which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.” (2 Corinthians 3: 18) So go and be Jesus for someone today!

LOVE'S MOTIVE

The other week, I got bit by a bug. I’ll call it the love bug. I was so intent on showering my wife with love that I got this hare-brained idea (love will often cause those kinds of ideas).

You see, Tricia had been talking for a while about how she could get more countertop space in the kitchen. We entertain a lot and we are scrunched for room when it comes to spreading the foot out. Once upon a time she had an idea of getting a smaller microwave and building a shelf above the oven to slide the microwave onto. This would free up a good chunk of counter space which I knew in turn would make Tricia happy and feel loved.

So, on a Friday afternoon I told Tricia I had some errands to run, though I wouldn’t tell her what errands those were. I left the house, bought a microwave and cut a shelf to the measurements needed. I put the shelf up, leveled it out, drilled it in, sanded it, primed it, and painted it. I then quickly placed the microwave into its new resting place and went to get Tricia.

She was surprised. Shocked in fact that I went to all that trouble and even remembered what it was that she had requested. Her face, and her heart, were beaming with gratitude and my heart? Oh, I was oozing with love for the one who chose to spend her life with the likes of me. I didn’t do the shelf because I thought I should, but because I wanted to express my love to my wife, pure and simple.

It got me to thinking about all that God does for me and all that I do for Him. Is my motivation for all that I do for God love? Making God smile? Warming His heart? Or is it a false sense of religiosity that is motivated by a sense of obligation and duty? Is it a relationship based on love, or relationship of duty and obligation full of “shoulds” and “oughts” simply because “it’s the right thing to do.”

I wrote the following passage down from a book I’m reading, “If Christ is in you, then the Christian life is not about striving to be something you are not (the shoulds and oughts). It is about becoming what you already are.” And what is that? A child of God (I John 3: 1). The object of His affection (I John 4: 7-10). A new creation (2 Corinthians 5: 17). Saved (Ephesians 2: 4-8). Redeemed (I Peter 1: 17-19) His beloved (Deut. 33: 12), His betrothed bride (Hosea 2: 19-23).

Our relationship with God must be driven by the fact that He loves us and His greatest desire is that we would love Him. Not because it’s the right thing to do, but because when we realize how amazing and pure is His love towards us, loving Him is the only thing we can do.

May you, this week, be caught up in the beauty of the Creator and His amazing, reckless, passionate, never-ending, unfailing, all encompassing love for you! May His love be all you can see – healing you, building you up, dressing your wounds, transforming you into the person you truly already are.

Footsteps

Last week, I had the incredible privilege of spending a couple of days at the beach with my family.

I had some work to do to prepare for a convention I'm helping to plan for next year, but I took a break from that work to take a walk with the kids. We went off to the north side of the beach while the tide was down, and we went climbing and exploring. The algae on the rocks made them very slippery, and my daughter was scared she was going to fall. I was holding her hand, but it wasn’t enough. She wanted me to carry her. I told her something that seemed practical, but it’s implications were huge and didn’t hit me until she began following my direction.

So I told her, “Just step where I step, in my footprints, and you’ll be just fine.” She wasn’t sure at first, but the more she followed my footsteps the more confident she became.

The analogy is obvious. Jesus has gone ahead of us. Hebrews says,

“Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has gone through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet was without sin. Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.” Hebrews 4: 14-16

Jesus IS the Way because He has been there and done that. He has walked the road ahead of us and if we keep a close enough eye on Him and study His footsteps, we can walk even more confidently because we have someone to go to who went through it first. Jesus can empathize, He can listen, and He understands. He also promises us that if we could just stay close to Him and walk in His footprints, we’ll be okay. It may not be easy, but we’ll be okay.

Here’s to hoping and praying that this summer you and I can keep in step with the Savior, and as we follow closely after Him that we will learn to walk even more confidently all the Way Home!

Undignified Passion

Over the last couple of weeks, we've been talking on campus a lot about passion. We talked about it at the Awakening on Sabbath and it was talked about last night at Fireside, so it seems to be a theme right now. Passion can be defined as a powerful or compelling emotion or feeling, as in love or hate, or an outburst of strong emotion or feeling.

I was at my son's little league game this last week, and I got a front row seat to see passion lived out.

One of my son's teammates had gotten a hit. When he got on first base, he celebrated by throwing his arms up in the air and jumping up and down. The next batter got a big hit that would have gotten the first base runner home, but when this same kid got on second base, he stopped, stood on the base, and began throwing his arms up and jumping up and down, AGAIN! He was so excited and so into his celebration dance that he missed the opportunity to advance to another base. This kid was passion lived out; he was so into a moment that he was unaware of what else was happening around him.

I love when I have those kind of moments with God. Moments when I lose track of time and space and revel in His presence. They don't happen all the time, but when they do, it's all I can do to keep from throwing my hands up in the air and jumping up and down for joy. Kinda sounds like King David before the ark of the Lord, doesn't it. When you have time, check out that story in 2 Samuel 6, but here's a favorite quote from that passage: “I will celebrate before the LORD. 22 I will become even more undignified than this” (2 Samuel 6: 21-22). I have seen that kind of joy in God’s worshippers at a Kutless concert as well as at an organ recital, at a time of worship and meditation in Heubach Chapel on a Tuesday night, and listening to Tony Campolo speak on loving others as if my life depended on it (I Peter 4: 8, The Message). It doesn’t happen in the same way for every person, or at the same time or at the same event, but when it does happen it is awe-some!

It is my hope and prayer that this week you will experience that kind of passion for the God of Wonders, the God of all creation, the God in Heaven and the God on earth…the God who is now in the room with you. And as you do, may you not hide your passion for the Lord but may it bubble out of you and into the lives of those living beside you

Growing Pains

About six weeks ago, my wife and I dug up a section of our yard that was becoming bare of grass. We prepared the soil and replanted grass with a special mulch to help the grass grow faster and come in thicker. According to the instructions on the back of the bag, we planned on having thick green grass to walk on in two to four weeks.

Like an expectant child, I watched for that grass to come in. One week went by, no grass. Two weeks went by, no grass. Each day, Tricia and I watered the grass and did what we were supposed to do, but with no results. I went away for a conference and came back 1.5 weeks later, no grass. I started to think we bought a defective bag. But then after another week, I started to see just a shade of new grass starting to pop up. It was thicker on one side of the patch than the other, but it was coming. And now, ever so slowly, the grass is starting to fill in.

The analogy is obvious. Waiting for something to grow can be frustrating. We live in such a microwave society of 30 minute answers to all of life’s major problems that we hate to wait for anything let alone growth and change in our own lives. When will we stop getting so angry? When will that temptation no longer have a hold on me? When will I be more consistent in my walk with Christ? When will I stop taking my relationships for granted? We think we should have life figured out by now, or we see someone else growing and we think, “Why can’t we be more like them?”

Well, the truth to this dilemma comes from Mark 4: 26-29. Jesus is teaching and shares this parable:

"This is what the kingdom of God is like. A man scatters seed on the ground. 27Night and day, whether he sleeps or gets up, the seed sprouts and grows, though he does not know how. 28All by itself the soil produces grain—first the stalk, then the head, then the full kernel in the head. 29As soon as the grain is ripe, he puts the sickle to it, because the harvest has come."

The good news is, when we accept Christ as our Shepherd we lack nothing (Psalm 23). We have everything we need to grow built right in to us, just like the seed has all the components it needs. Yes, it needs water and time, as do we (Acts 3: 1-9). We need to be nurtured, cared for by the Spirit, by our community, and in full view of the Son. But the rest, the growth part, comes in its own time. You can’t rush growth, it happens over time as it is already laid out in our DNA.

So the next time you’re impatiently waiting for growth in your own life or in the life of someone you’ve been praying for, remember to take a deep breath and try to be patient. In God’s time, not ours, He makes all things beautiful (Eccl. 3: 11). And hopefully, over time, we’ll come to see ourselves the way God does…as His precious and dearly loved children in whom He is well pleased.

PUDDLE-JUMPING FAITH

Imagine a silhouette of a man, fully robed, jumping off a boat with the water below him and the shoreline in front of him. On the shore, you can see a small fire and the image of a man standing to the left of it with his arms open, as if to receive a friend. The sky behind him is just beginning to light up with the golden beams of light from the sun as it peaks it’s head above the horizon behind you. The man who has jumped appears to be heading straight for the man on the shore, but not in typical fashion. No, this man has come to realize what it means to abandon everything to follow the man on the shore. He no longer cares if he gets wet or what may happen to him along the way, for the man who has jumped off the boat wants nothing more than to love and be loved by the man on the shore. For the man on the shore is Jesus, and the man who has jumped is Peter, but it can also be you and me if we are willing to leave the boat.

You see, Peter had been through the full spectrum of emotions. He had believed with all of his heart that he would follow Jesus straight into battle. He had believed he would be willing to lay down his life and die by the sword if he must. Ahh, but the battle was not a physical one, it was a spiritual one, and the laying down of his life had much more to do with trusting in Jesus no matter the circumstances, than it did with a physical death (though that would come later). Peter had to let go of what he thought life was all about, and cling to what Jesus told him it was all about…which turns out to be one in the same; life is all about Jesus (the WAY, and the TRUTH, and the LIFE).

Once Peter realized this, his life began to change dramatically. So many things started to make sense. That night of fishing was a night of soul searching for Peter. Was he going to cling to the life he had known before Jesus, or was he going to chase after the reckless, unsafe, unpredictable, passionate, amazing, rewarding and fulfilling life he came to know with Jesus?

When Jesus called out to the boat and told them to throw their nets on the other side of the boat, Peter didn’t recognize his voice. Peter was still deep in thought, what was he to do? But when John recognize that it was Jesus and exclaimed, “It is the Lord!” (John 21: 7), Peter knew in that instant what he wanted. He wanted Jesus more than anything. As he leaped off that boat, he forever left the life he once knew, for the life he now had in Jesus Christ, and that leap made all the difference in the world and to the world, for Peter’s testimony still rings in our ears…

“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade.” I Peter 1: 3, 4

Peter knew what it was to be given a new birth into a living hope. Once he claimed that truth in Jesus Christ, he never looked back.

It is my prayer that all of us would have the courage to leave the boat, our lives before Jesus, and cling desperately to the living hope we now have in Him. Because He was resurrected and is now alive, we may have a walk with Him that is rich, that is real, and yes at times is reckless, unsafe and unpredictable, but that is also amazingly passionate, rewarding, and full.

May God bless you and keep you, and may you be willing to take a leap of faith into the puddle of His mercy, love, and grace.

INNOCENCE LOST

As I sat next to my daughter, tears began to fill my eyes. Her innocence was slipping away, but it gave me a chance to explain to her God’s greatest desire.

Yesterday, our families Golden Retriever gave birth to puppies. We had been awaiting the moment for the last two months and we knew that she was getting closer. She was walking around less, starting to pant heavily, and she was trying to make a bit of a home for these new little guys. The kids were at school when the first puppy was born, and when Tricia picked them up from school they could hardly sit still on the ride home. They couldn’t wait to see the puppies (see attached picture).

My daughter is 5.5 years old, and she is such a tender heart. Whenever anyone gets hurt, she is very quick to comfort and console them, telling them that everything is going to be okay. How does she know these things? J

But then it happened. The fourth puppy that came out wasn’t moving. We tried to stimulate it to breath and come to life, but after several minutes we knew that wasn’t going to happen. The puppy was stillborn. It was the first girl to be born as well, and my daughter has an affinity for the girls. She held that puppy for so long, caressing it’s body as it lay in a towel. She even took her over to Anney so that, in her words, “Anney could say good-bye.” It was so sweet and yet so heart-breaking at the same time. She was losing her innocence; that sense that everything in the world is okay. She was realizing that everything in the world was not okay.

As hard as this was for me, her father, to watch (no Father wants their child to be said), it did give us a chance to talk about how sad death is to Jesus. We talked about how Jesus never wanted us to experience hurt and pain and loss. Ally seemed to grasp this idea well. She said, “I know Jesus doesn’t like it when we hurt. But Adam and Eve disobeyed God and then we had hurtness and sadness and painness in the world.” I smiled and nodded my head, but then I talked about how this world isn’t our home. We talked about the day when there is no more hurtness or sadness or painness in the world anymore (Revelation 21-22). We talked about the day when all things will be made right, when the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever. Therefore, encourage one another with these words.”

When a horrible earthquake devastates a country, encourage one another with these words. When your best friends parent’s divorce, encourage one another with these words. When you fail a class, when you get dumped, when you lose a loved one, when you experience great hurtness, sadness, and painness, encourage one another with these words for the Lord is coming, He is on His way, and His reward is with Him. He longs to take us to the life He created for us, to the life where we are with Him forever.

My prayer is that you would know just how much Jesus desires to take you there. He desired it so much He gave up His life, He changed His essence by taking on Human skin, He walked this earth and experienced greater hurt, sadness, and pain than we may ever know. He did it all for us.

Please, come soon Lord Jesus, and thank you for giving us the hope that you are on your way and that this life, as great as it can be at times, is only temporary. The life to come, the one with you, that’s eternal. PRAISE GOD!

A Life Monitor

When my wife was in labor with our first born, I had very little to do. My job was to be the support while my wife went through the most horrific pain she had ever experienced. Not really a fair trade, but it wasn't like I could have the baby, despite the wishes of 5 out of 5 American women.

One of the ways I tried to help was to read the monitor on the side of her bed that tracked her contractions. I would watch until it peaked, telling her to hold on and hang in there, then when the intensity of the contraction began to fade, I told her the worst was over for now.

I thought about this last week while I was huffing and puffing on the stair-stepper watching the seconds click down until I could advance to a less strenuous level. Twenty seconds seems like an hour when you feel like you could faint.

Don't you wish life had a monitor like that at the side of your bed or beside your computer at work? Like you could look at a scale and see that it’s not going to get any worse than it is right now and that tomorrow you’ll be feeling much better.

I reflected on Psalm 23 in light of this. It starts out beautiful...green pastures, still waters, restored soul. So peaceful. Then it moves into the valley of the shadow of death. YIKES. Sounds tough. But it quickly rebounds to being guided and comforted by His rod and staff, preparing a banquet, being anointed with oil, and having goodness and joy following you all the days of your life. What a way to end a story.

Life isn’t so much about mountains and valleys, as it is about a roller coaster ride where you’re holding on for dear life. At times it’s thrilling, other times it’s downright frightening. So how do we endure to the end of the story?

Paul's thought was, keep fixed on Jesus, His life, His testimony. “I have learned to be content in all things,” Paul said, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” What if our lens to life was Christ? What if we remembered that often times, some of the best gifts come after the most difficult of circumstances (i.e. labor brings baby/life, working out brings health benefits)? What if we accepted the truth of the Bible over how we’re feeling right now? What if we could always remember that no matter how bad our circumstances get, that our days here on earth are but a blink of an eye and what happens next is our forever (teach us to number our days, O Lord, that we may gain a heart of wisdom…Psalm 90: 12)?

I don’t know where you’re at today on Life’s Monitor. I don’t know if you’re at the top of the pain peak and life seems to be too much to handle, or if you’re so relaxed and calm that you’re not even registering on the scale. Either way, we are all in need of the prayer and support and encouragement of this community, and we are all in need Jesus. Students need God. Faculty & Staff need God. Administrators need God. And by praying for each other, lending an ear, encouraging one another, we bring Jesus to life to a world in need. We are His hands, His feet.

I pray that you would endure and I hope that all of us would pray regularly for this campus that we would all persevere and endure, drawing ever so much closer to our Savior until He comes to take us home. May God bless you and keep you this week!

The Ride of Patience

My son is an early-bird. It doesn’t matter what time he goes to bed, he is almost always up no later than 6:30am. And here’s the even more amazing thing; he’s happy. He sings, he plays games, he reads. Because of this, he goes over with me to the gym in the mornings to get in some exercise before the day starts. When the weather is nice, we ride our bikes.

This morning, Ayden wanted to lead us home. I told him that was fine as long as we were always heading in the direction of home (he likes to take lots of circuitous routes). Now, don’t get me wrong. I’m all for an adventure, but this morning I had (and have) lots to do at work and needed to get ready. He agreed, but with the typical “7 year-old short term memory syndrome” it wasn’t long before we were twisting and turning in all sorts of directions except for the one that leads us home. I immediately became frustrated and said in a tone reflecting my emotions, “Ayden, daddy has to get home.“ I saw his head drop in disappointment as he began to turn us in the “right” direction.

No sooner did those words come out of my mouth that I wished I could have taken them back. I stopped Ayden and repented. In my mind, God impressed these words, “The LORD, the LORD, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness…” Exodus 34: 6. I knew in that moment that I needed to have patience. I knew that I needed to learn a lesson from my Father, who goes with me on all sorts of circuitous routes and is ever so patient with me; and tender, and gracious, and abounding in love and faithfulness. For you see, Ayden will see the Heavenly Father first through me. That is an incredible an humbling responsibility that can only happen by the grace of God. I needed His grace that morning, and I needed to change my attitude.

After that, it took us a little while to get home. We rounded a few extra bends in the road, stopped to take pictures of horses, and clocked how fast Ayden could go down the hill by Davis. And you know what, it was all good. My guess is, at the end of this day I am sure I will be far more pleased that I had an adventure with my son than I would be if I accomplished everything on my to do list.

So it is my prayer for you that today, you can have an adventure of some kind. Take a walk during your lunch break. Call your grandchildren on the phone. Skype your BFF who’s at work on the other side of the globe. Do something just because and see what you can learn about your Heavenly Father today. Remember, He came to give us LIFE and LIFE ABUNDANT. If you’re not experiencing that abundance, it’s not because of Him.

Love, Pure & Simple

I have to admit that I’ve been selfish lately. Several weeks ago I had a special moment with God that I thought about sharing, but I’ve been keeping it to myself as if sharing it would take something away from that moment. But then I realized, through several moments over the weekend, that someone else in our campus family needs to hear this message.

It was a month ago and I had escaped the valley for two days for a Spiritual retreat. I needed to take the time months ago, but I had been ignoring that inner voice calling me to come and rest awhile. So I finally did it, and I’ve vowed to make it a regular thing.

Though much happened during this time, one of my most special moments involved climbing up to the top of a nearby mountain (it was really a hill but that sounds less exciting) and asking God what message He had for me. And here it is, clear as can be, “This is my Son, whom I love, with Him I am well pleased.” Matthew 3: 17

Now, I hadn’t read that verse in a long time, but it was right there, plain as day, in my mind, and it was EXACTLY what I needed to hear.

One week later, having returned to the Valley, I was pouring my heart out to a mentor as I was struggling to remain grounded in my experience of the week before. As we prayed together, I was blown away by the first words that came out of his mouth. He said, “Father, remind Paddy that he is your son, whom you love, with Him you are well pleased.” Now, I hadn’t told my mentor anything about my mountain-top experience, and yet he quoted those exact words and I knew it was God telling me that whether you’re on the mountain-top or in the valley, I am in love with you. What a powerful message and one I needed to hear. What about you? Do you need to hear those same words from your heavenly Father? “This is my daughter, my son, whom I love. With him/her I am well pleased.”

I am always amazed that when I challenge students to sit and listen for God’s voice, those that hear it often hear the same types of things. Even if I asked them to pray for a vision for their ministry this year, or pray for direction in a situation, or pray for healing, they almost always come back with, “God spoke, and you know what He told me.” And I sit on the edge of my seat and say, “What?” With a smile as big as Texas they say, “He told me He loves me.”

I'm ALIVE!!!

Okay, so I took a hiatus from blogging and when I did start, I only had three entries. Don't judge me. I can see your eyes rolling from the other side of the computer screen and I just don't like your tone very much :-).

But seriously, I am committing to adding to this blog weekly and directing people from my weekly emails so that I can tell, in the words of Paul Harvey, "The Rest of the Story."

Incidentally, tomorrow I hope to be writing about a special moment in my life this summer where God spoke, loud and clear. I've been keeping it to myself out of fear that if I share it it won't be my special moment with God. However, I think the message is relevant to us all and I am finding out that the one thing God is most clear on when we need to hear from Him is this, "HE LOVES US, HE'S WITH US, HE WANTS TO HOLD US AND HE HAS BEEN LONGING FOR US MUCH LONGER THAN WE HAVE BEEN LONGING FOR HIM." He's such a good and a gracious God and I am finally beginning to learn what it is to come to Him out of pure joy in worship instead of obligation.

Have a great rest of your Sunday.

Blessings, Courage, JOY!!!

The Death of Paddy McCoy

This is a work in progress, but the main idea that God has been leading me through lately is that I'm dying. And I gotta tell ya, dying hurts. I'm not looking forward to it at all, but here's the even stranger thing; it's only when I die that I'll begin to live. Now, I don't mean dying in a physical since and being raised at the resurrection. I mean, dying to self. I'll write more on this later.

Ouch! That's Going to Leave a Mark.

It was 4:15am, and I was up again for the fourth morning in a row. I just couldn't get back to sleep. My mind was racing at a million miles a second. What was I thinking about? Everything from my personal finances, to my next sermon, to all the unknowns of my new job, to meeting people's expectations, to the fear of failing God.

And then He hit me like a Mack truck ramming into a matchbox car. I opened my Bible and it practically jumped off the page at me. "Where were you when I laid the foundations of the world." (Job 38:4). OUCH! That one hurt.

Why? Because I was trapped in this thought process that said that what happened in my life was all up to me, and I had better figure out a way to solve it. I had made my self the center of the universe. I wasn't thinking about others as much because I was consumed with my own problems. And as I was consumed, I worried about what in the world I was supposed to do.

Then God took a moment to remind me that I am dust (Psalm 103: 14), vapor (James 4: 14), something that's here today and gone tomorrow. He is not only bigger than all my problems, He is the center of the drama in our universe. This is all about Him. The great controversy, our daily struggles, it's all about Him and whether or not He is truly good, truly love.

Then He reminded me that He could make the rocks cry out (Luke 19:40) if I'm too scared to go forward. He could do that. He doesn't want to, but He could. He wants to use me, and have me trust in Him. He sure is one crazy God, but He's mine and I wouldn't have Him any other way.

So tonight, I'm a little soar but I'm thanking God for the reminder that He is Him, and I am not.

What A Ride!

If you've found your way here, CONGRATULATIONS! I can't even find my own blog most of the time (especially since it didn't exist until moments ago).

The purpose of this blog is to share inspirational ideas and stories from my life of devotion to Christ. I'm starting this during a summer of transition here at Walla Walla Unviersity. Transitioning from a Student Life position, to the Campus Chaplain.

I am excited, I am humbled, and I'm a little freaked out to take on this new charge. But I've learned that being "freaked out" is actually just where God wants me to be. Why? So that I may learn to rely on Him and not on myself (check out 2 Corinthians 1: 8-11). Too many times in my life I have taken the road more traveled because I knew I could navigate it. I knew I had just enough skill and ability to stay on the path. But now I'm in uncharted territory, not sure what it is God wants me to do in this new position and I'm learning to rely more on Him.

What I've taken away from this journey so far, in my summer of great anticipation, is summed up well in a quote from one of the early leaders of the Seventh-day Adventist faith, Ellen White: "Success is not dependent upon talent or learning, but on your connection with the Living God." Our job is to spend time with God. That is our ministry. From that everything else flows (John 7:38).

So as I look to this new year, new position, and new blog my other inspirational quote comes from one of my spiritual heroes, the late Mike Yaconelli, who writes in his book, Dangerous Wonder: Saying yes to Jesus is the thrill filled, bone rattling ride of a lifetime where every moment matters and all you can do is hang on for dear life. Mike hoped that at the end of his life he would have just enough breath left in his lungs to be able to say, "What a Ride, What a Ride!"

That is my prayer as well, as well as my prayer for each of you reading this blog. That you'll have the courage to say yes to Jesus enough times in your life that you won't regret a second of it. And at the end of your life, you'll have just enough breath left in your lungs to be able to say, "WHAT A RIDE!"

God bless you and keep you this week...