Clay in the Hands

When it comes to ministry, and serving a local congregation particularly, there is rarely a routine day. That may have been the biggest learning curve I had to deal with almost 25 years ago. I have heard multiple pastors use the same comment through the years – “One of these days I am going to write a book . . .” This statement is normally made after encountering things that make us scratch our heads in amazement. Some of those experiences happen when God moves in amazing ways. And sometimes the statement follows times when people are just being people.

Several years ago, one of the churches I served decided to bring on a person from within the church to be the Children’s Minister. This particular lady had been a member of the church for many years. We were in a small enough town that everyone knew each other. So she knew the church and the people in the church (as well as those outside the church). For the first year, every week she would come to my office shaking her head and say, “I had no idea, I just had no idea.”

Ministry can be a challenge. We have the privilege of walking with individuals and families through some of the best days of their lives and in the same week, have the responsibility of walking with others through some of the darkest of days. As ministry leaders, we see the side of people that no one else sees.

The truth is, ministry is a calling. I do not know of anyone who survives ministry apart from the divine calling God places on our lives. It is a calling.

This week Kristi and I celebrate eight years of serving along side the First Baptist Church of Corpus Christi family! It has been quite an adventure to date! We have walked through the highest of highs and the lowest of lows together. And through all the joy and pain and growth and tears, God has been and continues to be faithful!

I am so grateful for this calling. The last few years have been exceptionally difficult because of all the things going on in the world. But ministry is never easy. However, it is always an adventure with new challenges weekly – sometimes daily. The calling to ministry is one in which we hear God say, “Hold on and enjoy the ride.”

What a ride indeed!

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I am not much of a bread eater. I like bread and will eat it, but I don’t have to have it with every meal. In fact, it is unusual for us to even have it in our pantry. So when I arrived at Christ In the Desert on April 10th, I was not overly excited to find bread to be a primary staple. In fact, the first couple of days I did not indulge.

But on Wednesday, after my Shredded Mini-Wheats, I thought I would have a piece of buttered toast. I have mentioned in other posts, that the experience of time at this particular monastery is one of solitude and silence. No one is supposed to talk. So sitting at meals offers time to think and pray and be fully present with what is happening.

As I took my first bite of toast, I was taken back by how good it tasted. Granted it had been a long time since I had eaten toast, but I could not get past the thought that this was the best toast I had ever eaten. As I sat there slowly enjoying each buttery bite, I prayed, thanking God for His goodness and His provision. I thanked him for how good the toast tasted.

I did not hear an audible voice but I definitely sensed God’s response. God impressed on me that what I was experiencing with the flavor of the toast was how toast should taste all the time. And what’s more, all of life’s goodness should be experienced the same way. As I thought about what God said, and took another bite of toast, I realized that the only reason I rarely have such an experience with things is that I am always moving too fast.

In the last few posts, I have talked about being still so that things become more clear. Another benefit of slowing down is really being present and able to take in the beauty (and flavor) of God’s creation.

God does not always communicate something so profound in something as simple as buttered bread, but occasionally He does if we are paying attention. God created life to be experienced and enjoyed for it’s goodness. We know that sin takes what God meant for good and twists and distorts it. But this lesson about toast reminded me that there is still so much good in life to be enjoyed, we just have to slow down and experience it.

So today, slow down and savor the toast.

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I haven’t really written much about my experience a few weeks ago (in fact, I haven’t really written much at all in the last few weeks). I am the type of person that needs time to process things – especially big, life changing experiences. And so, I think I am still in the processing phase.

The week after Easter, I spent the better part of a week at a remote location in New Mexico. I had read about Christ In the Desert Monastery almost 20 years ago during my doctoral work and thought to myself, “some day I want to go and experience time in solitude and silence there.” Through the pandemic, I began to realize that not only did I want to give it a try, I actually needed to do so.

On Monday after Easter, I made my way to the Chama river in northern New Mexico. I did not realize, until I arrived, that the location is the most remote monastery in North America. After driving over an hour north of Santa Fe, I turned onto a dirt road and drove another 40 minutes into the desert to finally arrive at a monastery that was built in 1964.

Turning off of the pavement also meant leaving civilization – cell service ended within the first quarter mile. I have to say, I was intimidated to be doing something so out of my comfort zone. I am a very “connected all the time” person. My To Do list is current minute by minute through the day. I watch email incessantly. And any little red dot on my phone notifying me of some, most likely trivial information, steals my attention nearly every time they appear on my screen.

Being disconnected for four days with no work to do was one of the hardest things I have done in a long time. But I must say, it was life-giving. I arrived on Monday afternoon late, but it wasn’t until Wednesday afternoon that I began to notice my mind had slowed down and I could focus more clearly on God’s word and hearing His voice.

I intentionally took only a notepad and my Bible – no work, no computer – nada! I spent time in the Psalms and just listened for God’s voice. I also read through most of Romans, taking time to really think about what I read there and to listen for what God would have me take in.

I’ll be writing more of my experience in the days ahead, but the point of me sharing this today is that it is so important for us to take time to put ourselves into situations where we can be still and simply be. I challenge you to find 10 minutes today to “turn off of the pavement.” Find time to completely disconnect and just be present to Jesus. It will certainly make it easier to recognize His voice.

You will not regret it.

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Since October, our church has been focused on creating moments – sacred moments. We continue to challenge one another to take time to have moments in God’s word, moments in prayer, moments in community and moments in giving and serving. The idea is that when we string moments together, they create habits and those habits lead to changed lives.

Yesterday, I challenged our family to grow spiritually. Each one of us needs to take seriously our responsibility to strengthen our faith. To be clear, God does the strengthening but we must do our part to be open and receive that transformation. A crucial aspect of sensing God’s movement in our lives is simply being still and listening for His voice. It is extremely hard to discern what God is saying if we cannot hear his voice over the chaotic roar that is our lives.

A passage that has my attention today is John 10. In this passage we find two different “I Am” statements of Jesus. He uses the illustration of sheep and a sheep pen and says “I am the gate” – the protector. He also says, “I am the Good Shepherd.” He is not the hired hand that neither knows the sheep nor even cares for them, but rather, He is the true shepherd that knows the sheep by name and truly loves them. Verses 3 and 4 say, “He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice.”

As I have read these verses over and over, the question I keep asking myself is, “how well do I know His voice?” Can I hear His voice over all the others? My experience has been that He rarely shouts. So it is imperative of me to do my part to listen and grow accustomed to his voice so that I recognize it when I hear it.

Do you know His voice?

Each of us must train our ears to hear His voice. One of the best ways to do that is to spend moments just being still and listening for His voice as we read His word and as we pray. Prayer is a conversation but we rarely wait around to hear the other side.

Take a minute to make a moment right now – just being still and listening.

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For the first several years of my tenure as pastor here at First Baptist Church in Corpus Christi, there was a member of the church, a doctor, who loved to give me a hard time. It was all in fun and there was no doubt on either of our parts that we loved each other deeply. He was in his 80’s but still involved in his medical practice, and still teaching a Bible study class on Sunday mornings in our church. Joe would often invite me to his class on Sunday morning and I never knew what to expect. One Sunday he might surprise me with demanding that he and I sing a duet of an old hymn or it might just be a question he wanted to try and stump me on – which is not hard to do.

One particular memory is special to me. Joe called early in the week and asked if I would pop into his class on Palm Sunday and explain why we call the Friday of Holy Week, “Good Friday.” As we visited on the phone, he asked the obvious and legitimate question – “Why do we call it Good Friday when we know it is the day that Jesus was beaten and tortured, when he was nailed to a cross and died. What’s so good about that?! It seems, maybe we should call it terrible Friday.”

While I appreciated the heads up, the answer is very simple. Yes, all the things that Joe described are true. Jesus endured unimaginable suffering on that day. He was ridiculed, beaten, scourged, nailed to a cross and abandoned by all. He died on that cross for the sins of the world. And that was, in no way, good for him.

But we call it Good Friday because of what it means for us. Because of the sacrifice Jesus endured for us, we can have the hope of a future. We have been given the opportunity to be free from the fear of death and forgiven of all our sins. We have been given the chance to have a personal relationship with the Creator of the universe. Jesus’ unimaginable suffering brings the ability for life changing grace and a life of joy and peace for all who will accept it. And that is Good News for us!

So today, as we look forward to Easter Sunday and the celebration of the empty tomb, give thanks for the sacrifice. What Jesus did for us is truly good!

Joe is now with Jesus and all his questions have been answered. For me, Good Friday is now a day I remember Joe. But more importantly it is a day we remember the sacrifice Jesus made for us and the goodness that sacrifice offers.

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In my last post, I reminded each of us not to rush past the cross on the way to the empty tomb. We have that tendency during the Easter season. But we need to pause at the foot of the cross and truly take in the weight of what happened there. It was my sin that put Jesus on that cross – it was yours.

When I spend time looking into the face of the suffering Messiah, my heart fills with gratitude and that gratitude turns to thanksgiving. His willing sacrifice compels me to offer something in return. The problem is, the very best I can offer equates to what the prophet Isaiah calls filthy rags.

Isaiah 64:6 – All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away.

All our righteous acts – on our best day, with our best behavior and our best intentions – the most righteous act we can offer falls flat. So what do we do?

The answer: WE WORSHIP. We own the fact that we are unworthy to be loved by Jesus but that does not stop Him from loving us. And so we offer the only thing we can back to Him – ourselves. Worship is ascribing worth. We acknowledge that only Jesus is deserving of our best and we offer it to Him as a way of thanking Him for His sacrifice – as a way of trying to return the love to Him that He so powerfully shows us.

So today, take some time to worship the only One who truly deserves your best.

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The last couple of weeks have taken me out of my routine. Between being under the weather, attending a pastor’s conference in Waco and having the opportunity to go see our grand baby (who is perfect by the way), nothing about my normal day to day has been “normal.” And honestly, I think we all need the disruptions from time to time to shake us awake.

This disrupted schedule has certainly sidelined sharing here and for that I apologize. But today, let’s focus our attention on what is coming in two weeks. On April 9th, we will observe Easter. This day is the day on our calendars when we celebrate the resurrection of Jesus from the dead and the life his resurrection offers us. In one act of divine mystery, Jesus conquered sin and won the victory over death.

I often say, as powerful and eternally life changing the empty tomb is for us, it would not exist had it not been for the cross event. And it is also true that without the empty tomb, the cross event would have been just another gruesome and horrifying execution. The two events are inseparable.

So here is my challenge as we move through the next 14 days: Pause at the cross. We have a tendency to rush to the empty tomb just as the disciples did that resurrection morning. We want to be reminded that Jesus is alive. We want to celebrate the victory. It’s difficult to pause at the foot of the cross and look at the torture and pain. Even standing at the cross, we have to force ourselves to look up and see the sacrifice that Jesus made for us.

But this Easter season, pause at the cross. As much as you want to rush to the empty tomb, take time to stop and think about what Jesus has done for you.

His willing sacrifice was an act of self-less love and that love changes everything.

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Have you ever noticed how easy it is to slip into spiritual amnesia? It happens so subtly that we don’t even think about it. When things are going well, we rarely think of God’s provision. It is not until we run into difficulty that we turn to God and ask for help. And when we do turn to Him for help, we do so in desperation and panic – as if He has never been there to provide for us in the past.

Spiritual amnesia is the subtle forgetting of God’s continual provision. It is normal because it is human, but it is not what God wants for us and it is certainly not what He deserves from us.

For many, many years I have used a podcast prayer and devotional tool called, Pray As You Go. Each offering is about 12 minutes long which gives me time to listen and pray as I make my way to the office each morning. Today’s reading came from Deuteronomy 4. In the passage, Moses tells the children of Israel to pay attention to the commandments that God has given them. He encourages them to remember them and teach them to their children. And then he says something that really struck me in verse 9:

Only be careful, and watch yourselves closely so that you do not forget the things your eyes have seen or let them fade from your heart as long as you live.

Do not forget the things your eyes have seen or let them fade from your heart. He is reminding the children of Israel (and us) that we must be diligent to remember how God interacts in our lives every day. Moses cautions us that it is easy to let these things “fade from your heart.”

In the closing moments of the prayer time today, the comment was made that we should “widen our vision.” It is so easy for us to have a myopic view of our circumstances and see only what is right in front of us – forgetting how God provided just yesterday.

So today, remember how God has provided for you in the past. Set those memories in stone so that the next time you feel anxious, you can look to the past faithfulness of God and be encouraged that He will show up again.

Be blessed today!

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This Sunday, I will be preaching from Matthew 7:9-11. In these verses, Jesus teaches us that God’s gifts are the best. He points out that we are fallen creatures and even we know the difference between good gifts and gifts that leave much to be desired. So how much more does God know how to give the best gifts!

As I reflect today on the goodness of God, I think about grace, salvation, love, joy and peace. These are all gifts He offers to those who want them. God knows our needs and He is ready and able to meet them. We just need to remember that there is a difference between need and want. It is so easy to take His goodness for granted.

When I think of God’s goodness, I now have a little different perspective than I did just a few months ago. Just over a month ago, I was introduced to a very special person who is a living and breathing example of God’s goodness.

Meet Harper Louise.

Some of you have been wondering why I have not posted about my grand daughter before now. Here is my first of many posts I am sure. God has blessed us in so many ways as a family. And now we have a new blessing. When I held Harper the first time, I was reminded of the miracle of birth and life. I was reminded that God has a plan and that we are invited into that plan in whimsical and fascinating ways. It is a part of the journey.

When I look at Harper, I am reminded that God is good. His goodness can be found in every direction we look. The key is to look.

So, in the words of Jesus, “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.” (Matthew 7:7)

The Father’s goodness is all around us. Where will you look for it today?

I know one place I will find it and I’ll get to hold her at the end of this week!

God is so good!

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Have you ever set aside time for a bit of solitude, only to be interrupted by someone or something.  Solitude is such a rare thing these days.  We are bombarded by constant interruptions – information coming at us from every direction. 

I realize everyone is wired differently and many would say some of my circuits are crossed, but I am a relational person who loves people and being in community.  But I am also one that must have solitude on occasion to recharge.  In solitude, my inner churning can settle.  In solitude, I can spend time with Jesus.  Solitude is important – it was for Jesus and it certainly is for us.

In the first chapter of the Gospel of Mark we find that, “Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed.” (Mark 1:35)  For us, being alone with God allows Him time to work on us – and work in us.

In my position, solitude is hard to find.  So when I do have a few minutes of time alone, I get frustrated with interruptions.  Having someone decide for me that their time is more important than mine is just part of the calling but a bit frustrating none the less.

But recently, the Father reminded me that it is possible that time with Him can be found in the interruptions.  Solitude is crucial to our spiritual walk, but Jesus can also use the interruptions to speak to us as well.  

So the next time you are frustrated with an interruption, pause and look for Jesus in the middle of it.  You might just find He orchestrated the whole thing. 

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