Over the past two days I've received 2 videos on small groups (Life Groups, Growth Groups, Home Fellowship Groups, the names change but the concept of gathering with other believers to interact in the context of faith is the same).  Below is the video that best captures what we won't admit to ourselves.  We don't want to be vulnerable to others.  We want to keep our lives secure behind the walls we've erected.  Our local Life Group is beginning a study of "Emotionally Healthy Spirituality" this week. I think I'll show this video as a way of illustrating those undercurrents in all of us.  We don't want to unpack things we've packed away tightly for very good reasons.  Wouldn't it be super if we could have small groups like this?

My Cup of Tea: The Every

A recent post by my daughter, Kristi, who continues to bless me with her love for Jesus.

My Cup of Tea: The Every: I have been thinking about the “Every” recently. The vision statement of Youth for Christ is, “As part of the body of Christ, to see that...

I Know Where I'm Going...

I've just updated an earlier book I wrote (2004), I Know Where I'm Going, Just Not Exactly How to Get There and it's been published in the Nook and Kindle format. The Nook is available in the NookBooks section of the Barnes and Noble website. The Kindle is available in the KindleBooks section of Amazon. The Nook and Kindle apps are free for your smart phone, PC or Mac.

The book is a look at the 2003 road trip that Sharon and I took that covered 7 weeks, 11,000 miles, 33 states, and 3 countries.  Lessons learned and lives changed.

 The book is only $2.99, but remember you get what you pay for.

Sleeping on the Library Floor

In the summer of 2003 Sharon and I were privileged to piece together a seven-week, 11,000 mile, three country, thirty-three state road trip.  Out of that grew a short book entitled, "I Know Where I'm Going, Just Not Exactly How to Get There."  The following is one of the chapters.

As we arrived in a small mid-western town, we drove through the streets trying to locate the church where we were to stay. Up until now, we had slept in the homes of various friends, strangers, hotels, motels, bed & breakfasts, a KOA Kamper Kabin and, in a few days, we would sleep in our tent. This was the first time we were going to sleep in a church.

We located the church and gave a call to the church secretary to tell her we had arrived. We watched a glorious sunset and looked forward to the quiet of the church and a night on our inflatable mattress. Within 15 minutes the secretary arrived and showed us around the building. It was very nice. There were clean restrooms to use. In the library it was easy to move the chairs to clear a space for our air mattress. We were given access to the church office so we could make phone calls to our children to give them a trip update. We could even plug the laptop into the phone jack to send and receive e-mail. I was feeling fine and looking forward to a quiet evening away from conversations and the sound of the highway. I was content. Until…

Just as the secretary was about to leave, she said, “Usually when we have people passing through, we can easily find a family who will host them for the night, but many people are out of town.” Now as you read that sentence, you may find no reason to raise an eyebrow. We had traveled thousands of miles and, although it was tiring, we had enjoyed the company of friends and strangers. Just a moment before I was perfectly content with my accommodations, but in that one sentence, the secretary had inadvertently and unintentionally raised my expectations. Now instead of looking forward to the quiet and the technological hook-ups, I was focusing on the fact that not a single person in the church had been willing or able to house us for the night. What made matters worse for me is that this woman was obviously not out of town, but wasn’t hosting us. “Why aren’t we staying at your house?” I wanted to ask. Fortunately, over the years I really have grown up a lot (contrary to the opinion of some) and I kept my question to myself.

What this episode pointed out was my own twisted heart. Where moments before I was thankful and rejoicing that we would not have to sleep outside (it was beginning to rain), now I was discontent that I wasn’t staying in someone’s home. Nothing had changed in my circumstances except my expectation. I went from contentment to discontentment in the space of one sentence. How often this same shift has occurred in my life. Most often it is not as dramatic or noticeable, but it happens none the less. I am grateful to God for His gracious gifts and His merciful hand, and then I wonder where He has gone and why He left no forwarding address.

The apostle Paul wrote to the Philippian Christians, “Actually, I don't have a sense of needing anything personally. I've learned by now to be quite content whatever my circumstances. I'm just as happy with little as with much, with much as with little. I've found the recipe for being happy whether full or hungry, hands full or hands empty. Whatever I have, wherever I am, I can make it through anything in the One who makes me who I am.” (Philippians 4:11-13, MsgB)

I can’t say that I have learned (past tense) to be quite content whatever my circumstances. But I am learning (present tense) to be quite content. Paul had to go through the “I am learning” stage in order to reach the “I have learned” stage. It is the only way we grow in our understanding and application of God’s truth. It is that tension of the now and the not yet. Contentment is not something that appears in our life full grown. It is something that, like Paul, we learn through the process of circumstance after circumstance where our contentment is challenged.

What was encouraging to me is that my discontent following the secretary’s statement lasted only the briefest of moments. And I’m content with that.

Vulgar and Tasteless Externals

In his thought-provoking and status-quo disturbing book, Earthen Vessels, Matthew Lee Anderson quotes G. K. Chesterton who, in the early 1900's, described the coming peril to Western Culture when he wrote about “the intellectual, educational, psychological and artistic over-production, which, equally with economic over-production, threatens the well-being of contemporary civilization. People are inundated, blinded, deafened, and mentally paralyzed by a flood of vulgar and tasteless externals, leaving them no time for leisure, thought, or creation from within themselves."


Think about Chesterton's description and then multiply that effect by the myriad "over-productions" since then.  No wonder we don't know who we are or why we're here.  We are buried in "vulgar and tasteless externals" which have pushed us ever more into being consumers rather than creators of art, literature, conversation, music, relationships.  We live in a mediated culture in which we spend much of our time in situations (internet, e-mail, smart phones) in which we don't really have to be present to another.  In these mediated circumstances we decide how much of ourselves to reveal rather than being in the risky situation of actually sharing the same space where you can't hide the rolling of your eyes or the expansion of your waistline or the impatience reflected in your restless leg. The fact is that even when we're with "real people" we're often checking our text messages, e-mail or posting on Facebook and therefore not truly present to another.


I'm not a Luddite. I own a smart phone (obsolete the moment I walked off the sales floor), I am using a Toshiba laptop I purchased just months ago to type this blog, but I am becoming more aware of how disconnected I've been especially over the past 5 years as my sphere of ministry has expanded to parts of 5 states with more than 200 churches.  "By necessity" I do much of my communication in mediated situations.  No wonder I hate traveling but love it when I actually arrive and get to spend time with people.  It's because that's the way were were made.  It's not good for us to be alone.  We are created in the image of the triune God who enjoys eternal fellowship within the Trinity.


So as a way to begin, here's my conscious choice to slow the flow or short-shrift the drift.  I'm going to stop checking my phone for e-mail when I'm home.  It can wait until morning.  I need some time for "leisure, thought, and creation from within myself."  My wife, children and grandchildren will probably benefit too.

Thank You

As many of you know I have two above average grandchildren, both girls.  The oldest, Raya, has been talking since she was an infant but recently she has begun to condescend to use words we recognize so that we can respond dramatically to what she is saying.  It does my heart good when I realize the words we can understand are “Hi”, “go”, “no”, “yes”, “yeah” and my personal favorite “thank you” (spoken very much like Brenda Lee Johnson on The Closer).  What thrills me as a grandfather and a follower of Jesus is that these words are, for the most part, cordial, respectful, and grateful.  I know Raya will eventually pick up other words (and attitudes), but for now I’m enjoying a granddaughter who is cheerful and grateful. I think I'll work on being like her.

Cataracts and Faith

A couple weeks ago I went to my ophthalmologist to have my eyes examined.  (Even though I think the suggestion from someone is that I should have my head examined.)  It’s been getting more difficult to read road signs and with all the travel I do, that has been a challenge.  It’s not that I can’t see to drive; it’s just that I want those letters to be crisp and easy-to-read.

After the usual puffs of air into the eyes and the “Which is clearer, this or this?” the Doctor told me that he could write me a new prescription but it wouldn’t help the clarity much.  He then showed me the difference.  He was right.  It wasn’t worth the expense to hardly notice a difference.  What he told me at that point is that my vision was being affected by cataracts, particularly in my left eye.

What has been rolling around in my head since then is my expectation that since I went to the Doctor he should have the technology to make it better.  To be fair, he did say I could have cataract surgery in a few years and that would dramatically improve my vision.  This visit for a simple eye test has been a reminder of how much I am a product of my culture.  I assume that since we have made such strides in medicine and technology, there is no problem that cannot be solved by simply applying what is available.  “We can rebuild him. We have the technology.” I heard that for 4 years in the early 70's and I still must believe it somewhere deep inside me.

But much of life is beyond the reach of a technological solution.  And I've had to ask myself, "Is God any less present or faithful or merciful or gracious if there is no wonder cure available for what ails me?"  What about all those millions of people throughout the world who do not live in a world where technology is so readily available?  Do they have to live by faith, but I get to live by faith and technology?  I don’t think so.  And it took my ophthalmologist to remind me that I have this treasure in a jar of clay so that it can be shown that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to me.  I got more from that appointment than I expected.  And while I wish I could see better, I'm glad I went.  The lesson was worth it.

More Questions for and about Rob Bell

Justin Bieber made me miss my stop

About 3 days a week I take the bus to work. Sharon and I have been down to 1 car in Southern California (a cultural anomaly, I know) for more than a year.  This morning I was reading USA Today on my phone when I happened across a headline about Justin Bieber's faith and how explicit it is in his new film (which, for the life of me, I can't understand being made, let alone in 3D, but that's a blog for another time).  When I glanced up I saw a McDonald's on the left side of the bus.  There is no McDonalds on the left side of the bus on the route to my office until you are past my office.  Yep.  That would be it.  I had missed my stop because I was reading about Justin Bieber's faith (and the fact that Katy Perry is the child of two pastors, as I understand it).  So I had a wonderful 15 minute walk BACK to my office.  Good exercise, but I kept muttering, "I missed my stop because I was reading about Justin Bieber?  What does this say about me?  What would my friends think?"

So I decided to be proactive and tell you how this incident relates to the book of Ezekiel.  In chapter 18 Ezekiel is addressing the Diaspora's objections to God judging Judah.  "Isn't it true, Ezekiel, that if God judges Judah, He's doing so because of what their father's did?"  Ezekiel responds to the question with a story about a godly man who fathers a child who grows up to live an ungodly life.  In turn, that ungodly man fathers a child who grows up to live a godly life.  In each case Ezekiel points out that ultimately the decision to follow, in this case YHWH, is a personal choice regardless of who the parent is.  (Obviously Ezekiel had never read the promise in Proverbs that says if I just train a child to be a Christian I can't lose.  Oh wait, that isn't a promise?  It's a proverbility?  Oh....)

Anyway, it turns out that Justin Bieber is the child of a single teen mom who came to faith in Jesus. Justin shares that faith with his mom.  Now he wants others to know Jesus.  And then there is Katy Perry who comes from parents who are both pastors who didn't let her listen to secular music. She attended Christian School and camps.  She grew up to record "I kissed a girl" and "Ur so gay."  (I want to point out these songs were not recorded by the Christian record label she had signed to earlier in her career.) She recently was married in a "traditional Hindu ceremony."  It's a sobering reminder that we who know Jesus need to parent in a way that honors God, but we don't get guarantees on how that will be lived out by our children.  I don't know about you, but I keep praying for my kids.

And all this because I missed my bus stop...

We have sinned and grown old...

Raya, my above-average granddaughter, is at that stage where almost everything is worth doing repeatedly.  In his book, "Orthodoxy," G.K. Chesterton writes, "A child kicks his legs rhythmically through excess, not absence, of life. Because children have abounding vitality, because they are in spirit fierce and free, therefore they want things repeated and unchanged. They always say, 'Do it again'; and the grown-up person does it again until he is nearly dead. For grown-up people are not strong enough to exalt in monotony. But perhaps God is strong enough to exult in monotony. It is possible that God says every morning, 'Do it again' to the sun; and every evening, 'Do it again' to the moon. It may not be automatic necessity that makes all daisies alike; it may be that God makes every daisy separately, but He has never got tired of making them. It may be that He has the eternal appetite of infancy; for we have sinned and grown old, and our Father is younger than we."


Here is a video which, so far, I have not grown tired of.  Maybe it's because she belongs to me.  Maybe it's because she is so cute.  Maybe it's because I am getting younger.

Crossing the Abyss

My daughter, Kristi, shared this piece by Dan Wolgemuth, president of Youth for Christ USA:

December 3, 2010
"Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men."  ~ Philippians 2:4-7 (ESV)

Mary had reluctantly agreed to be a part of a skit that I had prepared for the Youth for Christ/USA Christmas program. The platform was set with two overstuffed chairs that were located center stage. A substantial jazz band with five vocalists was immediately behind us. The script included three interspersed worship songs and a surprise guest just after the second song.

Malia, our granddaughter who is nearly three years old, was the surprise. I had written her into the performance knowing the inherent risks that such a step might introduce. I wanted her to join me on stage, to sit in my lap, to listen attentively as I read to her… and then to join a chorus of singing Holy, Holy, Holy.

I had talked her through the flow, but there was no way to prepare her for what it would be like to execute the plan with 150 strangers in the room and a significant crowd on the stage. Andrew and Chrissy (Malia’s parents) found two empty seats about thirty feet off of the left side of the stage.

I moved through the script until the moment when I would deliver my cue… "Hey, Mary, did you hear somebody at the door?" And with that, Malia was to enter. What I hadn’t counted on, or prepped her for was THE WALK; the thirty feet between the reassuring arms of her father and the familiar and welcome lap of her Pops.

Andrew released her and with focused resolve she began her march in my direction. She was invisible at first… her tiny frame hidden among the tables, chairs, and adult bodies. Her eyes locked on mine as she moved. She walked without official invitation… there was no coaxing; I had to remain in character and on script. For thirty feet; thirty very, very long feet.

Yes, I scooped her up. Yes, she sat tenderly in my lap. Yes, she attentively listened as I read to her in the oddest of situations. And yes, she even pushed out some of the beautiful lyrics of the first verse of "Holy, Holy, Holy."

But it was the thirty feet that I will remember. The thirty feet without companionship. The thirty feet of silence. From safety… from comfort… from familiarity… into the void. To be part of a story. A powerful and beautiful story.

Across the abyss. Into the wilderness. From heaven to earth.

Jesus left the throne room… He left the arms of His Father to bring the embrace of grace. He walked the thirty feet. For us. For hope. For love.

It was Malia’s first Christmas program… and little did any of us know that she would play the role of Jesus.

From June 1996

Having to recently replace my hard drive and restore backed up files, I unearthed this article from 1996.  Especially for those of you who are still parenting children who have not yet "launched," you may find some encouragement in this piece.

There are moments in our lives that serve as markers of the passage of time. As I anticipate my firstborn crossing the platform on Friday night and becoming a high school graduate, I am struck again with the pace at which life flies.

It seems only a few years ago that we were bringing her home after her birth. Only a few years ago she was in kindergarten, playing with her Playskool toys and lighting up the room with her smile (which she can still do). Only a few days ago she was being pushed down the street on her bike by her grandpa in an attempt to teach her to ride her "two wheeler". Only a few moments ago she going to her first Junior High dance, learning to drive, going on a summer-long missions trip. The days turn into weeks, the weeks turn into months, the months turn into years and suddenly (it seems) she is an adult with plans to have a life all her own.

It becomes increasingly obvious that whatever imprint Sharon and I had hoped to have in her life has already been pressed into her character. When she looks back on her childhood and her adolescence, only she can determine how good a job we did as parents.

My prayer, like generations of parents before me, is that when she looks back, she'll look back in kindness. Like generations of Christians before me, I pray that she will realize that above all else we loved her and what we most desired is that she fall in love with the Savior.

It is at moments like this that I ask the question again, "What does it profit a man if he gain the world and lose his family?" (Schliep paraphrase of Mark 8:36) I don't regret the late night walks around the living room with my baby girl trying to get her to sleep. (I don't miss them either.) I don't regret the nights at "open house", the concerts, the plays, the awards ceremonies, the disagreements over "matters of consequence". I don't regret being unable to buy her a car for graduation. I don't regret the trust I gave and the way she kept that trust. I don't regret what an amazingly balanced adult God has made her because of, and in spite of, me.

I do regret how often I jumped to conclusions. I do regret not asking more questions about how she was doing, really. I do regret that I couldn't model Christ more clearly to her.

One of the things I've learned in my role as a parent is that, as Christians, we need never parent alone. God has given us His wonderful family to keep us balanced. I am eternally grateful for the many adults in this fellowship who have invested their lives in the lives of my children. They have learned from you things they would never have learned from me.

As Kristi launches out into this new season in her life, may she find that, like those young adults who have gone before her, the things she has learned and the things she has seen modeled are those things which have lasting value no matter where her Lord may lead her.

Every Saint Has a Past and Every Sinner Has a Future

In his novel, Father Elijah, author Michael O’Brien puts these words into the mouth of his lead character, “First of all, you let yourself be drawn away from prayer. You weren’t distracted by evil things, for the enemy knows that you have been converted from them. He drew you away by legitimate pleasures… The second temptation is of a more sinister nature. The temptation to hate yourself because you have not lived up to your ideal. That is pride, and it is very dangerous. It opens the door to much worse things.”

That quote could take this column in two directions.  The first would be a monologue about how easily it is to be drawn away from prayer by “legitimate pleasures.”  With the Christmas season approaching there would be plenty of examples I could use from my life or yours.

But it is the second part of the quote that I would like to focus on because as we move into the new year we are probably already looking back on this year and despairing of how little we accomplished or bemoaning the changes we were going to make, but didn’t. This is one of those tensions that must be held by Christians if we are going to be faithful to what God has revealed about what it means to walk with Him.

We are not what we should be.  We are not what we were.  Peter writes, “So you must live as God’s obedient children.  Don’t slip back into your old ways of living to satisfy your own desires.  You didn’t know any better then.  But now you must be holy in everything you do, just as God who chose you is holy” (1 Peter 1:14-15 NLT).  John writes, “If we claim that we’re free of sin, we’re only fooling ourselves.  A claim like that is errant nonsense” (1 John 1:8 The Message).  Paul writes, “Because we have these promises, dear friends, let us cleanse ourselves from everything that can defile our body or spirit. And let us work toward complete holiness because we fear God.” (2 Corinthians 7:1 NLT)  Eliphaz, in the book of Job asks, “Do you think it’s possible for any mere mortal to be sinless in God’s sight, for anyone born of a human mother to get it all together?” (Job 15:14 The Message)

While we cannot give ourselves permission to sin, neither can we hate ourselves because we have failed to live up to either to God or our own ideals.  As Chuck Leckie used to say (and maybe still does) we need to have our noses pointed in the right direction.  Paul said something similar in his letter to the Christians at Philippi: “I don’t mean to say that I have already achieved these things or that I have already reached perfection.  But I press on to possess that perfection for which Christ Jesus first possessed me.  No, dear brothers and sisters, I have not achieved it, but I focus on this one thing:  Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us.” (Philippians 3:12-14 NLT)

Oscar Wilde was right when he wrote, “Every saint has a past and every sinner has a future.”  In Christ, that past is forgiven and that future is secure.  So, like the apostle Paul, let us forget the past and look forward to what lies ahead, pressing on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us.

Sweet Spot

A pastor recently mentioned working in his "sweet spot."  This got me thinking again about this concept in American business (and therefore the American church, but, as usual, about 5 years later).  I agree that I don't want my auto mechanic doing brain surgery because he feels that's his "sweet spot."  There is something to be said for functioning in areas where you have training and experience.  What is usually meant in these conversations among pastors and church staff is that they are working in ministry areas they enjoy.  The measure is not "Am I working in ministry for which I am equipped?"  The measure is, "Do I enjoy working in this aspect of ministry and can I avoid the aspects of ministry that I don't like?"  If you don't believe me, ask yourself about the rise of "teaching pastors".  I know I'm painting with a broad brush, but has anyone else noticed that most of these teaching pastors are guys who have reached middle age and don't want to deal with the messiness of shepherding a congregation.  They want to preach and run.  O.K., I'm exaggerating a bit, but it strikes me as suspicious that a "sweet spot" is often used as the rationale for not doing things that we don't enjoy doing.

(By the way, I just double-checked using my WordSearch 9 software and there is not a single verse using the phrase "sweet spot."  I found verses with the word sweet and some with the word spot, but none of them had to do with using gifts, abilities or talents in ministry.  I should probably provide this caveat:  I only searched the ESV.  I did not search The Message or New Living Translation, so maybe I narrowed my focus too much.  I know the word Trinity doesn't appear in the concordance either, but I can't even find the concept of "sweet spot" in Scripture while I can point to passages that indicate the existence of the Trinity.)

Consider, if you will, the ministry of some of the people whose lives are mentioned in Scripture.  Noah obviously worked in his sweet spot.  He spent over 100 years building a boat and preaching.  I'm sure that brought him great joy.  It might have been a downer that he only had 8 converts, but at least he was working in his sweet spot.  Then there's Isaiah who obviously had a naked fetish since God asked him to walk around naked for three years.  I'm sure he was glad God called him into his sweet spot.  Or Elijah's call to confront Ahab and Jezebel.  Who wouldn't feel like that was the best use of their gifts and abilities?  And what about Jonah?  If God only calls us to our sweet spot, then what was Jonah's problem anyway?  Why wouldn't he want to go preach to those living in Nineveh? Just because they might repent and avoid the judgement Jonah wanted God to execute on them.  Or how about Hosea who God told to marry a wife who God knew would be sexually unfaithful to Hosea and would bear children Hosea wasn't even sure were his?  That's some sweet spot.

Maybe sweet spot is a New Testament concept.  The apostle Paul certainly lists the results of being in his sweet spot in his second letter to the Corinthians.  Being in his sweet spot resulted in "far greater labors, far more imprisonments, with countless beatings, and often near death."  Paul goes on to list his other "sweet spot" experiences.  ^"Five times I received at the hands of the Jews the forty lashes less one. Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I was adrift at sea; on frequent journeys, in danger from rivers, danger from robbers, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers; in toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure. And, apart from other things, there is the daily pressure on me of my anxiety for all the churches." (2 Corinthians 11:23-28)  So much for Paul taking a position as a teaching pastor.

And then there's Jesus.  You remember his sweet spot prayer in the garden of Gethsemane.  "Father, this ministry has been great fun.  I'm really looking forward to what comes next.   In fact, it's so much fun, I'm thinking maybe I don't deserve to participate, so if you want to do this some other way, I'm open to that."

Maybe our problem is in our definition of sweet spot.  I do think there is a biblical concept of sweet spot, but it is that spot where God's will and my obedience come together.  Noah builds a boat. Isaiah walks naked. Elijah says what needs to be said to Ahab. Jonah goes to Nineveh, however reluctantly.  Hosea marries Gomer.  Paul preaches the good news.  Jesus goes to the cross.  Sometimes our sweet spot may be the place where our strengths, passions and enjoyment come together.  But not always.  In fact, looking at Scripture, maybe not often.

Don't Believe Everything You Think

At church last evening my pastor began his sermon on the Lord's Prayer saying that we've all heard "Don't believe everything you read" and "Don't believe everything you see"  Then he said something that continues to rattle around in my brain.  He said, "Don't believe everything you think."  


How easily we deceive ourselves and how desperately we need to take the things we think and run them past the truth found in God's Word.  I know this is true.  I have said things like this to others in my more than 35 years in ministry.  But there was something about the way he said it that caused me to stop and consider again the importance of the Bible as my North Star. (Some of these thoughts may also be fueled by seeing "Inception" twice.)  How quickly I assume that my understanding of reality is the correct one.  How wrongly I assume that my thinking on issues is accurate.  How often I am wrong.


I did listen to the rest of the sermon, but his opening was worth the price of admission.  I'm off to spend to some time in the truth, asking God to show me what is real.

Full Maturity

In my personal life, my ministry, my church and my Home Group, the issue of maturity keeps rising to the surface.  What is it?  How do we know when we get there?  What do we do with those who claim to be mature (or others make that claim for them) but who are emotional basket cases or who inflict emotional and spiritual harm to others by their words, attitudes or actions?  

I would abandon ever defining or seeking to achieve maturity, seeing all the evidences of spiritual immaturity, but then I run into passages like the one from Paul's letter to the Christians at Colossae which says, "Him [Jesus] we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, that we may present everyone mature in Christ. For this I toil, struggling with all his energy that he powerfully works within me. Colossians 1:27-29 (ESV)  Paul was putting a lot of energy (provided by God) into doing things that would be used to present EVERYONE mature in Christ.

In Paul's letter to the church at Ephesus he writes, "And he [God] gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love. Ephesians 4:11-16 (ESV)

So while me may never be able to say this:

I do think we can get to the place where we can recognize in ourselves, and in others, the maturity that God calls His children to.  Why else would Paul insist that maturity was an attainable goal and especially so when looking for leaders in the local church?

But when we think about maturity, we would all do well to look for biblical definitions of maturity rather than those handed to us by our church culture.  The church cultures tends to be skewed toward the amount of biblical information one possesses in one's memory while, by contrast, Jesus and Paul looked at other measurements such as loving God and loving people or not being tossed around with every new idea but growing up into Jesus.

As usual, I have no definitive answer about what maturity is, but I'm getting clearer on what maturity is not.

The Help

I am almost finished with the book, The Help, by Kathryn Stockett.  (Already I highly recommend it to you.)  The story takes place in 1963 in Jackson, MS.  It recounts life in white households with black househelp, particularly those women who helped raise the white children.  The question that keeps coming to mind as I read is "What would my own response have been to white/black relations if I had lived in the 1960's South?"  I'd like to think I would have been one of those who would have treated blacks as equals, created in the image of God.  But there were institutional and societal barriers in place that made this complicated.  Would I have been willing to cross those barriers?  What is the equivalent barriers today that I have been unwilling to cross to connect to people who are unlike me?  I don't have answers, but I do have lots of questions.

Playing in the Shallow End

Robert Campbell, the pastor of Santa Margarita Community Church, posted a quote on his Facebook page from Dick Keyes, the Director of L'Abri Fellowship in Southborough, Massachusetts: 

“If we avoid life’s complexity and confusion, if we can’t face pain in ourselves or others, if what we feel most deeply always references ourselves, then sure enough, we have already become –deep down– very shallow.”

Ecclesia Americana

Ken Myers, host and producer of Mars Hill Audio Journal writes an insightful article in the latest Touchstone Magazine entitled, Ecclesia Americana.  You can read the article at Ecclesia Americana.  Touchstone is the only magazine produced by Christians for Christians that I read through each issue.  It always forces me to think more carefully of my theology and my life.  You can subscribe by going to Touchstonemag.com.  Subscribers now have access to an electronic version of the magazine.

It's Only Fair

Let's be honest.  Most of us function on a daily basis like Lucy VanPelt.  Oh we say we believe something else, but our theology has not caught up with our internal wiring.  My wife recently re-read one of our favorite novels, Peace Like a River, by Leif Enger.  On the whiteboard in the hallway just outside our bathroom, she wrote a quote from this novel.  "Fair is whatever God wants to do."  I agree with that statement on the meta level, but what about the daily-ness of my life?  I find myself agreeing more with that great theologian Calvin than I do the character in Enger's novel:

I want life to be fair as long as it is fair in my favor. As long as things go along in a direction I desire, I think life is fair and I trust that God knows what He is doing.  But just let a circumstance come into my life, or a season of life take turns I hadn't planned on, and suddenly I am in Lucy and Calvin's camp.  It's only fair when my life turns out the way I wanted and it's unfair when life isn't unfair in my favor.

This tendency in all of us is one of the many reasons why God keeps repeating Himself throughout Scripture, "You're going to have to trust me, I know what I'm doing."---SLP version (Schliep loose paraphrase version)  This does not come naturally to me or to you.  It comes super-naturally.  It is something that is "above natural."  Jesus perfectly followed the will of God and yet it is appeared that, as he hung on the cross, God must have forsaken him. If ever things were happening that were "not fair" in light of the character of the person involved, it was this event in the life of Jesus. It is, in fact, this apparent unfairness that prompted Jesus' quotation from Psalm 22, "My Elohim [strong God who is able to deliver], my Elohim, why have you forsaken me?"  What the psalmist goes on to write (and what I think Christ was pointing to by using the opening phrase) is that God had not, actually, forsaken him.  In fact, God was very much present, even in the suffering. Part way throught his song there is a shift from a prayer for deliverance to an acknowledgment that God has delivered, or at least will deliver.  "...You have rescued me from the horns of the wild oxen! I will tell of your name to my brothers; in the midst of the congregation I will praise you: You who fear YHWH [the promise-making, promise-keeping God who is to His people all that He is], praise him! All you offspring of Jacob, glorify him, and stand in awe of him, all you offspring of Israel! For he has not despised or abhorred the affliction of the afflicted, and he has not hidden his face from him, but has heard, when he cried to him."---Psalm 22:21-24 (ESV)

I don't know what this season holds for you, but I believe, deep down and contrary to the apparent evidence, that Leif Enger's character got it right.  "Fair is whatever God wants to do."  Now if I could just trust Him enough to live like I believe it...  Lord I believe, help my unbelief.