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Welcome to the Kingdom

March 25, 2021 / / 0 Comments

It can be seen all around us. The little everyday moments of kindness and love. Going out of our way to show care for someone in hurting. Being generous with our time or our possessions toward someone in need. Being an ear to listen or hands to help. It’s all around us but rarely do we see it.

The bible is full of references to the Kingdom of God but what does it even mean? It’s kind of an abstract idea. Is it a building? Is it a person? Is it a place? Is it just sometime in the future?

All of these can be where the Kingdom of God is found but they don’t fully represent the kingdom. All of these ideas are great but the kingdom is found in all of them. At the same time.

The kingdom of God is found wherever God is found. It’s found when two people sit down to read the Bible. It’s found in the waters of baptism. It can be found in a church gathering for communion or leaving on a mission trip. It can be found on Easter Sunday or the second Sunday in July. The kingdom of God is present in the phone call to a hurting friend or the prayer offered for a hurting loved one.

The kingdom may seem abstract but when we realize that we carry the kingdom in our thoughts, words and actions it becomes much more visible. Much more concrete.

The video below will explain what the kingdom of God is and where it can be found. It’s intended to help you see the kingdom all around you and even inside you.

Selfishness Is NOT Cool

March 23, 2021 / / 0 Comments

I have to tell you when I hear people that they’re in this whole living life thing to make themselves happy something inside me goes a little crazy. It’s like fingernails on a chalkboard. There are some people that want life their way. They want things handed to them on a silver platter. It just has to be about them.

Have you ever had that person who just likes to find problems in life? I mean you give them a compliment and they somehow turn it to a knock on you? You thank them and they tell you that you’re not doing enough? Or they just want everything to be done their way and if not they’ll let you know all about it?

Well selfishness and self aggrandizement is called out by Jesus in Mark 10. There were a couple of his close followers that wanted to get something from him. They asked Jesus to give them whatever they wanted. Pretty bold I know!

Hearing that passage it’s pretty easy to think well how dare they! I’d never do anything like that… But is that really true? Can you honestly say that personal happiness and having things done your way isn’t driving your decisions from time to time?

I think in the world today, we’re seeing a lot more prominently displayed a self-centered approach to life. We see people who want to be the center of attention and for life to revolve around them. We are seeing people take disagreements as personal attacks. There has to be a better way.

Yes there is. Jesus takes the whole selfish pride outlook on life and flips it on its head. He says that for you to be great you have to be willing to be least. To be first you should be last. To be best you need to be ok with serving other people instead of asking why you didn’t get picked first.

Jesus tells his followers that we need to look different than the world looks. Check out this message on struggling with pride and selfishness.

When We Fall Apart

March 23, 2021 / / 0 Comments

It’s no secret, we all hit that moment in life when we just fall apart. Maybe it’s an illness or a job loss. Sometimes it’s a death in the family or a child moving on and a piece of you seems to be missing. When we hit that place when all we can do is fall to the ground and cry we need to hear someone tell us that it’s going to be ok. Maybe not today or tomorrow but it will be ok.

Today’s MusicMonday is for those of you who are swimming in the quicksand of life. It’s for those of you who can’t seem to get on top of things in life. It’s for those of you who don’t know how you’re going to put food on the table for your family. It’s for those of you who are watching your mom or dad or grandparent slowly fade from your grip and you can’t do anything about it.

There are things in life that we know we can’t change but they’re just plain hard. For the past several years I’ve watched as two of my grandparents have struggle with the debilitating illness of alzheimer’s. They didn’t know who I was or why I was there. The illness drained every bit of recognizable life out of them. Grandma breathed her last over the summer of 2020 and grandpa is still fighting.

Sometimes we laugh about the memories we’ve made but most of the time we just stare and wonder why. We wonder will this ever be ok? We watch the fight and the struggle and while I’m not really a crying kind of guy something inside me breaks as I watch one the strongest men in my life not even be able to bear his own weight anymore.

Sometimes I just want to fall apart, and one day I likely will. But for now I want you to know that falling apart isn’t bad. It’s not a sign of weakness or shame. Falling apart and losing yourself in the moments of grief and pain brings healing. If my grandma were still here she’d tell me that it’s ok to cry. She’d hold me close and remind me that one day it will make sense. She’d tell me it’s ok to hurt but on the other side of hurt is healing.

Listen to this week’s song, even though it’s a day late. Find healing in your tears. Every drop that you let go will be a flood of healing for your soul. It’s ok to cry. It’s ok to fall apart.

Black and White

March 15, 2021 / / 0 Comments

Not sure if you noticed or not but black is not white and white is not black. I know that sounds a bit simplistic but I’m not sure our culture gets that. The world today doesn’t want to do the hard things in life by living with difference. Instead we try our hardest to lose distinctions and blend everything into some form of mush. We love the gray area because it seems to offend the fewest people.

I don’t agree. As a matter of fact, when we draw a clear line of distinction and properly delineate between two sides of an issue or two ideologies, we are less likely to divide than if we try to appease everyone.

There is a push in our society to gray the lines of right and wrong, male and female, racial distinctions and even life and death. The only thing this is doing is creating a greater divide. One would think that an attempt to make everyone equal would make things better, but that’s not how this works.

The problem is when we force someone to lose what makes them unique in life, we devalue everyone. Now I do believe we need to do better at valuing our brothers and sisters despite our differences. You see there are so many things that make you who you are that are valuable and special. Trying to make you into someone else just isn’t right.

In our time together this past Sunday we focused on leaning into our distinct sides. We focused on not blending things together and creating a mess in the mushy middle. There is no gray area. There is a clear right and clear wrong. The more clear the distinctions in life, the easier it is to live with and value those distinctions.

Here’s this week’s message. Jesus didn’t dumb things down, so we probably shouldn’t either.

Stayed On Him

March 15, 2021 / / 0 Comments

I’m always on the lookout for a new song for our Music Monday posts. Some days are harder to find one I haven’t done yet while other weeks there seems to be no trouble at all. Today we’re going to look at one that kind of jumped out in a quick search for top songs for 2021. It’s called Stayed on Him. The song is built around a passage from Isaiah 26:3.

You will keep in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you.

Think about how different life would be if we just let peace reign in our lives. How much different would your outlook on life be if you stepped back from the worry and fear to trust in the one who has everything under control?

The issue we face often is that we let our minds wander to things that are not of God. We focus on the pain and the shame and the hurt and the fear and the anxiety. We let worry creep in and take over our thoughts.

Today’s MusicMonday is really calling us to stay on him. Focus on the promises of God. See his presence in your life today and always. So stop what you’re doing for the next 5 minutes and let this song help bring a smile to your face and comfort to your soul.

Hurry Up And Wait

March 15, 2021 / / 0 Comments

We are a driven people aren’t we? We push and pull and drive and run and force our will in our time. We like to go 100 miles an hour in life, maybe not driving because that’s dangerous but in our decisions and our push to success. We pack our schedules with very little down time. We live in the margins of life. We need to hurry up and wait!

One of my many downfalls in life is that I am a very task oriented, type A, driven person who doesn’t like to sit still and always needs a project. I seem to always need to be doing something. Whether working around the house, going on a walk, working out at the gym, going to work to get a little extra done – for me it’s just hard to stop.

But we all need downtime. And we’ll take that downtime whether we do it voluntarily and mandated to do so. For so many the pandemic has been a forced pause moment. Well at least at first many of us slowed our lives for a bit and stopped virtually all of the extra things. This allowed for more rest, more suppers with family, more walks around the neighborhood with our spouse, more movie nights with the kids, more fires on the patio. Slowing down was a great and much needed relief from the pace of life.

But we’re starting to return to a more rapid pace in life. And if we’re not careful, we’ll soon end right back where we were a couple of years ago. We’ll be running 100 mph through life and miss so many great opportunities, all because we couldn’t rest and wait.

Today’s MusicMonday is titled Hurry Up and Wait. The idea is simple. If we don’t hurry up and find rest in our day to day lives, if we don’t get out of the margins of life and live at a more managable pace then we’re going to be forced to rest in a way we don’t really like or want.

I’m not saying the pandemic was God’s doing, but I am saying that I firmly believe he has used this slowing of our pace to work some good. So hurry up and find the place and time when you can rest before it’s too late!

What A Foolish Bunch

March 8, 2021 / / 0 Comments

It’s no secret what I do for a living. I’m a pastor. That means that everyone thinks I work only on Sundays and I just basically get paid to talk a lot. Well truth be told, I do work on Sundays and Saturdays and just about every other day throughout the week in some capacity or another. And I do tend to talk…a lot…even when no one cares to listen! But there’s more than just that. It’s more than work and talking. It’s about a calling and a way of life for me.

The interesting thing however is that what I do for a living, God has called all of us to do in some form or fashion. We’re all called to be available to help those in times of need. We’re all supposed to be encouraging and uplifting, to challenge and strengthen. But there’s more to it. The heart of what we’re about as followers of Jesus is the message. We call it the gospel.

But the message of the gospel is not all that easy. Don’t get me wrong. It’s simple but not easy. It’s simple because the message is really all about what Jesus did for us. He did the work, we get the benefit. But that’s exactly what makes it hard! We like to do things ourselves. We like to know we’ve done enough or completed a task. We need to check the box when a to-do list item is finalized.

To say that the message of the gospel to some in our world is foolish is an understatement. The message of the gospel put as plainly and completely as possible is that Jesus is the Son of God who became a man at the time of his birth, what we call Christmas. Then he lived a pretty normal life for the first 30 years or so. The only thing was he didn’t sin. He did no wrong. He wasn’t some goody goody kind of character but he just legitimately did the right thing, like all the time! Then when he was about 30 years old he really came into his own. He gathered crowds. Taught messages. Did some pretty cool signs and miracle things. Then one day was accused of having the wrong intentions, which he didn’t. He ended up being tried, beaten adn killed for his way of life. Then after he was buried, he was raised up. Yep came to life again.

The message of the gospel is built on the belief that Jesus did all of this to show God’s love for you and me. He didn’t do it to get anything from us or make us go through some weird ritual of some sort. He did it so that one day you and I could see him for who he is and live with him forever in heaven. That may sound absurd to you. And if so, that’s ok. You’re not alone. The bible even warns about that one. But what might sound foolish to some is actually the source of all that we are as followers of Christ. Our identity is wrapped up in this very reality of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection.

So there you have it. Foolish? Maybe but not for believing in Jesus. That’s the only wise thing about many of us, ok well about me anyway. Check out the full message on this topic in the video below.

Help Is On The Way

March 8, 2021 / / 0 Comments

When trouble hits we want help right here and right now. We don’t want to wait. We don’t want to look for our hero to come save us. We order our food expecting it to come out fast. We text someone and hope for a reply immediately. Everything about our world is immediate and expected on our timeline. We are very much an instant gratification society. Today’s MusicMonday is about knowing that help will be here just in time.

When I was in college I worked for the Honda Manufacturing plant in my hometown. I was amazed when I first toured the facility. I expected to see stacks of containers with extra parts for the cars and motorcycles they were building. I thought the factory would have had racks and racks of frames, fenders, door knobs, anything and everything needed to build these vehicles. But to my amazement there was nothing!

They didn’t have tall storage racks like you see in the pick up area of IKEA. They didn’t have stacks upon stacks of extras of anything. They operate as what’s called a just in time company. That means the parts arrive just in time to get a new batch of 60 parts to the line to keep things going.

Just in time. That’s what today’s song is all about. God shows up just in time. It might be at midnight or midday but he’ll always be there. He won’t be late and make you fall. He won’t be early to keep you from the challenges. He’ll be there. Help is on the way. But it will show up when the time is right.

Interruption or Disruption

March 2, 2021 / / 0 Comments

Ok so let me just throw this out there. I am 100% totally and completely over what covid has done to the lives of so many people. We’ve all been impacted by either the virus or the way it was handled. Some have tragically lost their lives due to complications of the illness. Others were slowed down for a time because they got it. Still others lost jobs, homes, loved ones, livelihoods, and the ability to just function in normal life.

I’ve heard so many times I want things to go back to normal. But do we really? I mean do we really want life to just magically snap back into place like a rubber band after being stretched. If we really just one day snap back to life as it was in 2019, what was the purpose of all of the struggle of 2020? If we just go back to the glory days of the past, then we essentially wasted what looks to be close to two years of our lives. No one wants to waste their life away!

So I want to encourage you to see this portion of life not simply as an interruption to your normal routine but as a disruption to the flow of how things were. An interruption is temporary and allows things to return to how they were previously. It’s like a blip on a radar then it’s gone. A disruption is a roadblock that forces us to take a different path. Sometimes a disruption can be negative but other times it can breathe new life into a situation.

Are there things about this whole new way of living that aren’t convenient or even good for that matter? Absolutely! Masks and distance are not how God created us. We were created to live in community. So much of communication is nonverbal and masks completely mess that up! I’ve had to repeat myself more times than I care to admit because someone can’t hear my clearly through a mask. Distance is not healthy either. Isolation easily leads to depression and can be deadly. The suicide rates are skyrocketing not just in our country but around the world.

I guess when we look at this way of living as an interruption we just want to get it over and go back to our comfort zone. But that’s just a tad selfish if you ask me. If our lives are more about what make us comfortable than what makes life better for others, then we have our priorities all screwed up.

But if we look at the past year or so as a disruption, we’re allowed to look back and learn form the past so that we can be more intentional moving forward. Intentional. That’s a power word. The focus of intentionality is that we live our lives with an intended purpose. Going back to the way things were means our purpose was already fulfilled, but that’s just not true. Living for the past gets us nowhere and it’s exhausting.

Do you find yourself more anxious, upset, tired or irritable than normal? Chances are you’re longing for the past. You’re trying to run down the up escalator. It’s exhausting to try to fight every day for something over which you have no control. Don’t give up. But change perspective. Be intentional about your day. Look at the person you are called to be. Chances are the disruptions of the past 12 months have very little impact on the person God created you to be. It’s time to pivot and make the necessary adjustments to serve those around you best.

In his book Good to Great, Jim Collins says that the greatest enemy of great is good. We settle for good all the time. Good isn’t bad. It’s good afterall. But is there something better than good waiting right around the corner? Is the good thing of yesterday that we want back, keeping us from the great thing we can experience tomorrow?

I’ve done a lot of thinking about this lately. As a pastor I look at what this disruption has brought about. I’ve met so many new people through this time that I never would have met had we not been in this mess. I’ve connected with new faces at church. I’ve had conversations with people at the gym that I’ve never talked to before. We’ve expanded our reach albeit virtually to many more than we ever would have. The way we were doing things before was good. I do miss seeing some of the people around church that we haven’t seen in months. And one day I hope they’re back again!

But I also see the countless opportunities that God has given me by making me slow down and spend more intentional time with family. Reorganize my calendar to better reflect my priorities. Value the expressions on people’s faces that I often took for granted. There are so many great things that I have learned through this pandemic by just changing perspective.

So while I want some things to change, I don’t want them to go back to normal because normal isn’t the life we’re supposed to life!

Looking Back Doesn’t Move You Forward

March 1, 2021 / / 0 Comments

When I was child I had a telescope. I put it in my window and looked up at the stars. I positioned the tripod on my tall dresser and pointed the one end out the window and up at the sky. I positioned my eye close to the smaller end and looked up at the stars. I was amazed at how close things were! When used properly a telescope is a truly amazing tool!

But one day for grins and giggles I turned it around and looked at the stars backwards. I rotated the telescope 360 degrees and looked again. The stars were unrecognizable. They were smaller than without a telescope. When used properly the telescope can really help us gain a healthy perspective on space but when turned around it’s pretty much pointless.

The same is true for how we view events in life. It’s easy to use the events in our lives as turn around points and reflect on how things used to be. But that’s no more healthy than using a telescope backwards. Here’s an example…

The year 2020 probably caught you off guard a bit. Going into the year we were all doing the corny Perfect Vision in 2020 or seeing clearly in 2020, but then February and March hit. To say that March came in like a lion would be an understatement! All of our plans for Easter and summer were pretty much trash by the end of March.

Many people in my circle took time to throw pity parties of how things used to be, myself included. We looked at Easter plans and VBS plans and all the thought and effort that went into preplanning much of our calendar year. So it was healthy to reflect for a second. Pausing to regain focus is never a bad thing. For us that lasted for about 3-4 weeks. We temporarily canceled all of our plans for the foreseeable future. No egg hunt, no vacation bible school, no in person worship, no gatherings, no family get togethers, no vacations and the list went on and on.

After we pumped the breaks on all of our plans and took a few weeks to catch our breath, we came to the conclusion that we might be doing this whole thing all wrong. We were looking at the way things were currently and complaining about the inconvenience of it all. We were dreaming about the good old days of four weeks ago. We were using the telescope to look backward.

We weren’t looking forward to life as we now know it. We couldn’t get past the inconvenience of the new hurdles. We longed for better days, but for so many better days looked a lot like the good ole days of the past. But that’s just not productive.

Now don’t get me wrong. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with remembering and celebrating the events of the past. There’s nothing wrong with learning from mistakes and changing our approach to life. But we can’t keep looking over our shoulder at how life used to be. You don’t drive that way. You don’t walk that way. You don’t look through a telescope that way. You can’t do life that way either.

So we quickly and without much notice, took a hard and abrupt turn. We planted our foot firm on what we knew was non-negotiable in our area of life. We know family was important and community was critical. We knew that there had to be a way to use this moment in life to establish a new set of rhythms. While we didn’t know exactly what the future held, and for that matter still don’t have a clue, we knew we had to stop looking backward and start looking forward.

As you go through life changing and traumatic moments, take time to pause for healing. But don’t stay paused for too long. Use the trauma, the set back, the interruption as a means to help you reevaluate what’s in front of you. Don’t look through the lens of the best days are behind us or getting back to how we used to do it. Use the disruption to truly change course and set a new path to get you to an even better promised future.

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