Endurance

My wife and I took our boys up to the local YMCA today and I learned a valuable lesson about endurance. My 12 year old son decided to swim 50 laps in the lap pool. That's right - 50! And he's not even a teenager yet. I tried to swim a coupel with him and was completely obliterated! He's amazing. I have no idea how he does it. I told him he needs to be on a swim team somewhere. He doesn't even take any lessons, he's just really started to get into swimming lately. And just watching him reminded me that I need to stick with a few things in my own life as well. I need to push through the pain and endure. Good things come to those who keep going. What do you need to "keep going" with in your life right now? Maybe it's something at work or a certain relationship. Maybe it's your spiritual journey. Keep going. Finish the course. Complete the task at hand. Anything worth doing is worth doing right. Thanks for the encouragement son.

Family

I'm spending a few days at home in Cleveland, Ohio with my parents and my sister and her family and I'm reminded about how important family and tradition really is. I'm surrounded by people who love me - no matter what. I'm surrounded by people who have been with me for the long-haul. I'm surrounded by people who have seen me at my best...and at my worst - and they're still around. I feel safe in this community. I feel loved. And because I feel this way, I feel more ready than ever to reach out to others who don't have this type of community. I want to include them. I want to help them. I want to see if what has worked so well for me will work the same way for them...

More Thoughts on Community

So I've been involved with full-time Christian Ministry for 16 years now...but I just put something together this past Sunday as I stood in the lobby of my church observing people and listening to their stories. It seems to me as though the people who are not involved in any form of Active Biblical Community are the ones who are struggling through trying to figure out where to turn when life starts closing in on them. They come to one of the pastors asking for prayer. They come and ask for help with certain situations they're going through...sometimes they just need someone who will listen to them or encourage them. And don;t get me wrong - as a pastor, I love the opportunity to minister to people and try to meet some of their needs. But I wonder how much I'm genuinely helping them and how much I'm actually enabling them to continue living life as an individual...a lone ranger...all on their own? Wouldn't it be better if...when they needed someone to pray with them and for them - they went and sought out someone who knew them well and met with them on a regular basis? When they needed an encouraging word, wouldn't it be better coming from someone who was intimately involved in their life and could speak those words out of a depth of knowledge of their particular situation? When someone neede to kick their butt and challenge them to push in deeper, I think it would be best coming from a close friend who was "doing life" with them.

So what's my responsibility in all of this? Here's what I came up with this past Sunday: Of course I need to be available for people as thei pastor. But I also need to be pushing them to dig in deeper into a genuine Biblical Community that they're regularly and actively involved with first! We all need a place where those 5 Aspects of Genuine Biblical Community I mentioned in an earlier blog are being pursued and practiced. Where are you experiencing it right now in your life?

Rhythm and Rest

Just got back from some time away on vacation with the family. Here's what God taught me: I need to make rest a regular part of my yearly rhythm of life. I come home re-energized with a fresh outlook on life. Sometimes you can get so caught up in the "daily-ness" of life that you begin to miss things. You begin to miss all that God is doing around you. One o fthe things I discovered on this vacation was that I need to take shorter stints away more often! Not to work or plan or brainstorm or anything else like that...but simply to do what I just got back from doing: sitting on a beach and watching the waves come in, playing in the sand, walking along the shore with some people you love, watching a magnificent sunset that you felt God may have painted just for you!

God Himself took one out of seven days to simply rest. Not becasue He was tired, but becasue it was important. I need to do that same. Thanks for the example God!

Freedom

I'm so thankful for the opportunity to celebrate The 4th of July today. Many brave men and women before me fought to give me this freedom and I never want to take it for granted. I'm proud to live in this great country. I know there's lots of room for improvement, but today I'm choosing to be thankful and celebrate!

Five Aspects of Real Community

We recently had Mindy Caliguire (www.soulcare.com) in to speak to our group and she identified five elements of real community that I found extremely helpful to think thorugh. They are:
1. Prayer
2. Self-Disclosure
3. Giving and Receiving Grace
4. Mirroring
5. Celebration

We were created to live in community with other people. The problem is: We live in a society that values individualism...which inevitably results in loneliness and isolationism. If we're really going to live the way we were designed to live, we have to engage with other people. And admittedly, finding the right people can be a very intimidating process. So how do you go about it? I start by praying and asking God to lead me to the right people. I ask Him to MAKE ME THE RIGHT KIND OF PERSON! Sooner or later that means I'm going to have to take a risk and open up my heart. I'm going to have to practice vulnerability - self-disclosure. When I do that, I'm going to need lots of grace...becasue I'm pretty messed up. The good news is: I'm ready and willing to give as much or more grace back at you. That's what mirroring is all about: Having someone else whom I've given permission to call me a butt-head when I deserve it. In fact, I insist on having these people in my life. People who will care enough to tell me the truth...in love. Becasue when that's done in a Godly way, it gives me plenty of reason to celebrate all that God's doing in my life!

We (Christ-followers in general) need to get better at celebrating! It's about time to loosen up and learn to really celebrate! No one shoudl be better at this than Christians in whom God is actively working and molding and shaping to be more like Himself! God, please make me into the kind of person who can live in real community!

Its Been Awhile

Okay, so I'm not the most active blogger. No excuses - just life. I keep thinking things slow down in the summer, but in reality everything just seems to speed up. The kids are home and I want to spend time with them. The days seem longer - the sun doesn't go down around here until almost 10PM these days, so no one's in bed until much later. There are summer camps and community events and trips to the ice cream store that quickly fill up my day. So the challenge for me these days is finding space in my life to simply do nothing. I have this burning desire to be alone and just listen, but our society fights me on it at every turn. I must pursue it. I must make it my passion. That's the only way I will ever find it. But I also realize that's the only way I'll ever survive!