Something’s Going On

“Spiritual directors are people who have the gift of spiritual friendship. They seek to be present and attentive to others. They listen and look for signs of God in the experiences of others. Spiritual directors aren’t experts on God; in fact, good spiritual directors are very aware of their ignorance, blindness, and limitations in regards to the spiritual lives of others. They trust that God is doing the ministry, so they are satisfied to stand on the sidelines of a person’s life and simply reflect on what they are seeing.”

Now there’s an idea from Mark Yaconelli that’s been a long time in coming. And one that has eluded me for years. My idea has always been that it’s my responsibility to make an assessment and take the initiative if anything profitable was going to happen. What a relief to realize that God has already taken the initiative. As a matter of fact He’s been taking it for years. [Sigh of relief]…it’s not all on my shoulders.

Have you ever walked into a meeting late? Everyone else is on the same page but you are playing catch up. You pull out the agenda to see what topics have been discussed. You’re feeling a bit in the dark but make some assumptions, wait patiently for understanding, whisper to the person next to you to ask for a clarification. Finally you feel informed enough to participate.

It’s an analogy that reflects well how we enter into something that is already happening. Decisions have been made, directions have been set, actions have been taken. It’s God’s work and it’s been in progress for a long time. I enter the scene as a discerning participant when and where I am needed.

God is at work in my children, with the neighbor, that x-treme guy who just walked into the chapel, your spouse and the single gal who brings her two children to the Christmas and Easter services. I may not be able to see it on the surface but something is happening…the faithful prayers of grandparents, empty loneliness, searching for truth among the world’s religions, an unexpected blessing, a childhood Bible class, the loving kindness of a college friend, the sense of missing something in the Christian life, an out of context act of kindness, pain from the past, an unacknowledged conviction. One Christian writer even says God called him back into relationship through three unusual things – the beauty of classical music, the wonder of creation and the mystery of romantic love.

There are other ideas at work here as well. The idea that we serve as interpreters or reflectors in helping others see what God is doing. The idea that we don’t have it all together nor are we aware of all He is doing in the life of another. The idea that we are in this journey together. But most of all that indeed something is going on and our Father is at the bottom of it.

Wear a Tea Cozy Day

This is no joke. Thursday, September 22nd is “Wear a Tea Cozy on Your Head Day.” I learned about it this week when a friend sent us a link to White Stuff, a clothing store in the United Kingdom who is sponsoring the day. (For you non tea drinkers, the cozy is a cover used to insulate the tea pot to keep the tea hot.)

Checking out their website I discovered that there is also a mug shot contest to go along with the day. The winner receives 200£ of White Stuff stuff. Awesome! Enlisting my wife we did a photo shoot in order to send in a prize winning entry. Looking over all of my options I eventually settled on the Teapot Spout in the Ear shot. While reading the terms of agreement it was a real downer to discover that only UK residents could enter the contest. (That’s United Kingdom not University of Kentucky.) I sent in the photo anyway. Along with the following note:

“I wanted to get in on the fun...maybe you could recognize an honorable mention from your international fans. My wife and I take a cup of tea practically every day. Our mottos: ‘Better to be deprived of food for three days than tea for one.’ ~ Chinese Proverb and ‘You can never get a cup of tea large enough or a book long enough to suit me.’ ~C.S. Lewis”

I’m sure there must be a few other tea cozy heads out there who have the courage to be a little crazy, so here and now I’m announcing my own contest for “Wear a Tea Cozy on Your Head Day.” For those of you who would like to enter go to my facebook wall and post your super cool mug. There will be a winner selected and a prize giveaway. (Knowing me it will probably be some sort of book, a blizzard or a beverage.) You have between now and September 22nd to post your photo. This is an international contest and will not be limited to US residents only. Family members are welcome to join in on the fun, too.

What’s a Pastor to Do? Eugene Talks About It

Funny how someone you initially and judgmentally dislike becomes someone who becomes influential in your life. Eugene Peterson has been that kind of person for me. It’s not that there was any personal reason to dislike him; I just didn’t particularly care for his work in The Message Bible. Amazingly his writings have none the less intersected my path in a very helpful way. They have become instrumental in shaping my thoughts about what it means to be a pastor.

The first encouragement came from a Leadership Journal article a decade ago just before a leadership retreat. As I recall we had been talking about keeping the plates of ministry spinning, and I read portions of this article in which Peterson contrasts caring for souls and running the church. “In running the church I use language that is descriptive and motivational. I want people to be informed so there are no misunderstandings. And I want people to be motivated so things get done. But in the cure of souls I am far more interested in who people are and who they are becoming in Christ than I am in what they know or what they are doing.”

As we tried to get our bearings in Mexico, The Contemplative Pastor gave direction. “If pastors become accomplices in treating every child as a problem to be figured out, every spouse a problem to be dealt with, every clash of the wills in choir or committee as a problem to be adjudicated, we abdicate our most important work, which is directing worship in the traffic, discovering the presence of the cross in the paradoxes and chaos between Sundays, calling attention to the ‘splendor in the ordinary,’ and, most of all, teaching a life of prayer to our friends and companions in the pilgrimage.”

In the Tattered Cover Bookstore in Denver, Diana and I browsed through the books for a snowy afternoon of reading and walked away with Subversive Spirituality. It was yet another reminder of the work of a Pastor. “I had supposed that my task was to teach and preach the truth of the scriptures so that they would know God and how he works their salvation; I had supposed that my task was to help them make moral decisions so that they could live happily ever after with a clear conscience. I had supposed that my task was to pray with and for them, gathering them into the presence of a holy God who made heaven and earth and sent Jesus to die for their sins. Now I was realizing that more than accurate learning was at stake, more than moral behavior was at stake, more than getting them on their knees on a Sunday morning was at stake. Life was at stake. People can think correctly and behave rightly and worship politely and still live badly – live anemically, live bored and insipid and trivial lives.”

And finally, “Being a pastor is an incredibly good, wonderful work. It is one of the few places in our society where you can live a creative life. You live at the intersection of grace and mercy and sin and salvation. We have front line seats and sometimes we even get to be part of the action. How could anyone abandon the glory of that kind of life to become a management expert? We are artists not CEOs. The true pastorate is a work of art – the art of life and spirit.”

Flying Gameday Colors

Living In the Present

For as long as I can remember I have been given to anxiousness. By personality and circumstance it has shaped my thoughts for a lifetime. I can remember all too well the grief stricken fear of being left with my cousins to play for the day at granny’s house. And the sick stomach feeling of entering the first grade. I must have been the only student in the history of the school who cried every day through the first half of the year and started in again entering the second year. Even embarrassment did not keep me from crawling up in Mrs. Ola’s lap for a bit of consoling. Fear tracked me down throughout my childhood.

It’s ironic how childhood problems can follow a person into their adult years. As adults we are much better at covering up but our undealt with issues have a way of resurfacing. So for me it seems that no matter how much I mature, my default is to fall back into the anxious mode.

“Anxiety is the inability to live in the present.” This statement by Mark Yaconelli sounded a chord with me this week. Isn’t that the truth of it? Our worries are almost always about what is happening in the future or probably more accurately about what we perceive might happen in the future. Even our concerns from the past tend to create anxiety over how they might affect our future.

Such a life robs us of being fully alive. It causes us to grow old without having lived. And more often than not it leads us to grab control of people and circumstances in the hope of ordering our world. It’s deadening and unattractive.

Do you ever find yourself in this sinking boat? Jesus comes to us in the storm with words of calm and peace and confidence. "Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life…Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?...But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well…Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself."

Jesus’ words remind us to live trustfully in the present not worrying about tomorrow. After all He cares about sparrows and lilies and even grass in the fields. If He is so mindful of such small insignificant matters, how much more His beloved children? Jesus reminds too of where to place our attention. On the heavenly Father...seeking His kingdom and His righteousness. With Him we find our source for living in the present.