Clay in the Hands

In a few minutes I will get behind the wheel of our people mover and make the 4 1/2 hour trek to Ruidoso, NM.  We are taking our students to youth camp.  As I am hurrying around to get things done before I leave, I can’t help but think about my days at camp when I was a teen.  We spent our summers going to two or three camps normally.  Most of them were at Paisano Baptist Encampment between Marfa and Alpine.

 I have many, many fond memories of camp.  I made new friends at camp.  I strengthened existing relationships at camp.  I sang with friends at talent shows at camp.  But the thing that stands out most in my mind about camps was the spiritual “high” I always came away with.  In fact, I surrendered to full-time vocational ministry at camp.

But without fail, the spiritual high only lasted a few weeks once I returned home.  Now one might be tempted to think, “Then what is the point?”  The point of having these experiences is extremely important.  I may not have grown very wise in my 43 years but one thing I have noticed about life is the constant ebb and flow.  Some days are better than others.  We need the times when we feel close to God to help us through the times we don’t.  But more importantly, the realization that the “high” slipped away with time also helped me realize that my spiritual walk is so much more than a feeling it is a commitment to a growing relationship.

So look for those spiritual high’s – that’s great, but realize that it is in the consistent day to day that real relationship is formed.  Stay strong!

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Today marks some rites of passage for some people close to me.  My oldest son Jared  officially becomes a high school senior and my middle son Ethan officially becomes a high school freshman.  Both of these markers were announced early this morning when Jared got up early to go “kidnap” some incoming freshmen and as a couple of other seniors came to capture Ethan from his bed.  I made sure that Jared knew he needed to look out for his brother.  Other than some lipstick and hair gel, Ethan escaped with no damage.

Another passage is happening today in the closing of a restaurant.  Charlie and Brenda Jordan have been here and served this community for years.  They are closing the business today.  We will miss their home-cooked meals but more drastically will their friendly welcome be missed as we enter to eat.

Life is full of these mile markers.  They serve to show we are moving.  There are two points to this rambling today.  Are the markers in your life marking progress?  The right kind of progress?  And just as importantly, what are you doing with your life between these markers?  We can’t allow ourselves to be duped into not doing what God wants us to do by the excuse that once we reach . . . (high school graduation, retirement, that new job – you fill in the blank) then we can begin to live for God.

Don’t let another life marker come and go without actively pursuing God’s desires for you.

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I was driving back from doing some hospital visits this morning and (yes, I confess) I was feeling like a little rock and roll.  So I had the radio set on a local station for said genre.  At any rate, an old classic Pink Floyd song came on and I began singing along.  As I did, I listened to the words for the first time and began to see how what the song was describing (while most likely a drug induced sense of reality) also described what many Christians experience regularly.

The lines that caught my attention were:

When I was a child I caught a fleeting glimpse,
Out of the corner of my eye.
I turned to look but it was gone.
I cannot put my finger on it now.
The child is grown, the dream is gone.
I have become comfortably numb.

How many Christians do you know that fit this description – better yet, how often do these words describe you?  They fit me all too often.  I get so wrapped up in the day to day that I loose that heart-felt excitement that came when I decided to commit the rest of my life to following Jesus.  As Christians we are called to mature and become more like Christ in the way we live.  But way too often, we lose that excitement as we grow and  what happens is that we become “comfortably numb!”  

What is worse, is that we have begun to define that numbness as maturity!  May it never be with me!  May it never be with you!

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I was reminded today in reading this about the mustard seed, that God works through our willingness, not our abilities.  God can take what little we have to offer and change the world.  My problem is that I often allow myself to have visions of melodramatic grandeur.  I think to myself, “God can really use me to do great things.”  So I sit around waiting for something huge but miss the little opportunities along the way.

Is it possible that in spite of all the gifts and talents God has given us, it is through our insignificance that God does the best work?  I suppose it is really an issue of submission and obedience.  The smallest act of Christian love can spark untold change.  We just have to be willing to submit to the fact that maybe, just maybe, God has called us to be a little less significant than we think.  

What do you think?

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Yesterday, I talked about the fact that in our rush, we often miss God at work.  I want you to know that God challenged me yesterday to look for him in my day to day activities.  In reflecting on the day, I had a conversation with a person whose grandfather has been in the hospital for a few weeks and is now out and doing better.  It may be a small thing, but had  I not stopped to talk to her, I would have missed this visible working of God in our lives.

In a conversation with another person, I was told that God has really been working in the life of one individual in our church as a result of our last mission trip.  He is convinced that taking his family on a mission trip is the best use of vacation he has ever experienced.  Wow!  God is at work!  (and you say – “Well – duh.”)

But after all of the reflection, the biggest thing I learned yesterday is that I have done a terrible job of conditioning myself to look for God in my daily life.  It was difficult for me to find God working – and not because he is not working all around me but difficult because I am not accustomed to looking.  I am even more resolved to look for God today!

How is God working in and around your life today?

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It’s Monday!  I woke up late and realized all the things I had to do today and immediately began the panic.  But the coolest thing happened before I even got my feet to the floor.  It was as if God spoke to me – no, God did speak to me – and said, “It is in your rush that you miss my best work.”  

Wow!  How true is that!  I get so busy doing “my thing” – rushing kids to school, getting to the office to do “ministry” that I rarely just slow down enough to be sensitive to God’s working all around me.  In that moment this morning, I became overwhelmed with peace and a renewed commitment to look for God today and seek to get involved where God is already at work.

May you slow down and look for God’s best work today – and everyday!

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Most days when I get to the office, I open my web browser and immediately click on a link to a free, online music service.  Throughout the day, the music stops and a little window pops up and asks me, “Are you still listening?”  I then have to click on the little window, and my music starts right back up.

This morning when that happened, it made me stop and think about my prayer life.  I have to admit that often times, maybe even most of the time, my prayer time is more of a drive-by shooting at God with all the things I need him to handle.  I do not sit and listen very often and when I do, it is not for long. 

I wonder if God ever looks at me with the same question, “Are you still listening?”  It is not an issue of God not answering or speaking to me – it is the fact that I am not paying attention.

Take the time today to share your concerns with God but then also give him time to answer – stay and listen.

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I don’t know about you but I tend to stay pretty busy.  I am not complaining.  In fact, sometimes I have to admit I thrive on the rush of “accomplishment.”  Someone on the outside could look at my calendar and see all the squares and be able to say, “if the objective is to fill all the boxes – you’re winning.”

Several years ago I read a book by Ruth Haley Barton titled, An Invitation to Solitude and Silence.  The book is a very good and insightful book but one of the things that has stuck with me to this day is an illustration she uses in that book.

That illustration actually sits on my desk still today – I’m looking at it as I write this post.  It is a baby food jar filled with water and about a 1/2″ of dirt.  The jar represents my life.  If I reach over, pick it up and give it a good shake, the dirt and debris swirl around in the water and the water gets so cloudy I can’t see through it.

But if I let the jar sit still long enough, the dirt settles and the water clears.

Our lives are like that.  When we stay busy, “stuff” is flying around inside us so fast we can’t focus on anything.  But when we sit still and just wait on God, he often blesses us with wonderful clarity.

So when I feel overwhelmed, I look at my little jar and remember, “Maybe I need to slow down, sit still and listen for God.”

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I had the privilege and honor to do a memorial service for very special person today.  Tom had been in our city and our church for over 50 years.  He was all but a living legend in our church – he even has an entrance named after him where he could always be found as a greeter every Sunday morning.

Through the course of putting the service together I heard lots of great stories about Tom.  One of the most meaningful stories had to do with his kids and showing animals for 4H and Ag.  Now if you are unfamiliar with this phenomena, parents purchase sheep, pigs, cows, goats, etc. and then their kids raise those animals and then take them to show.  There are judges who rate the animals on a variety of things.  Then when all is said and done, the animals are taken to auction and sold.

At the risk of letting the secret out as to how this process really works, the folks bid on those animals not so much because they want to pay a lot of money for the animals but rather they do it to support the kids they know and love.

The problem is that there are often those kids whose parents don’t participate or support their kids as much as some of the others.  Consequently, the folks doing the bidding don’t know those kids.  So when it comes to the bidding process, those “less popular” kids don’t get the bids that the others do.

Tom would get the bid sheet the night before the sale and go down the list, checking off those kids that he knew would not get many bidders.  He would then work behind the scenes to get folks together to “bid up” the price until it reached a respectable level and then he would buy them.

What an incredible example of Christ’s love – seeking to impact a life and not even get any credit for it.  That is what I want to be like when I grow up – serving others for the sake of following through with what God has called me to do, not to receive some kind of recognition.

Thanks Tom for reminding us what sacrificial love looks like.  We will miss you!

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I have been thinking a lot about God’s plan for me and our church lately.  The verse that has continued to come up in my mind as I think on what God is doing and wants to do is Esther 4:14.  The time was fast approaching when Esther would have to stand up and do what God needed her to do.  She was told, “who knows but that you have come to royal position for such a time as this.”

I am continually humbled and confounded that the creator of the universe and all that is in it chose to use us, his followers, to carry out his plan of redemption.  Yet, I am excited that we were created for such a time as this.  This is our time!  God created us to make a difference in our world – to carry his love and his message of hope to those around us.

You were created for such a time as this.  There is no other time in the history of the world that you could have been more instrumental in God’s plan than today – NOW!

So what do we do about it?  

I would love to hear your thoughts!

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