"I Believe"

Luke 1:37 says, "For Nothing is impossible with God." If you have been around Living Hope anytime at all you know that is one of my favorite verses from the Bible's Christmas account. But you probably do not know that every once in a while I ask myself, "Do you really believe that?" It may sound odd for a Pastor to ask such a question, but the truth is in my position it is dangerously easy to do get so use to saying the right thing that you say it more than you believe it.

When Living Hope began 10 years ago, I had no choice but to believe that verse. I was single, fresh out of college, 25 years old, with no experience. My resume showed several years of janitorial and lawn mowing, but nothing to do with leading a church let alone starting one. I was scarred into believing that verse. But I believed it. Every night, when I would lay there unable to sleep thinking of everything that had to be done that I did not know how to do, I would cry out, "Lord, I believe that nothing is impossible with you." All I can say, is that I watched God do the impossible! He is amazing! Praise Him!

Ten years later, to be honest, I often find myself just as scared. Now, I look back and think I was more equipped to start a church from nothing than to try to Pastor the great church you all are and will become. Now, I am driven to believe in that verse not out of fear, but out of necessity. This verse reminds me to work hard, do my best and then step aside and let God do what no amount of work and my very best could ever do and that is let him change our lives and then let him move through us to change the lives of others in our community, country and world.

I do not know why I am rambling on about this...this is truly some "random thoughts" today. I guess I have just been thinking a lot about the Christmas story and how God's coming to save the world required a few key, but extremely ordinary people like a Priest in the temple and a virgin teenage girl from Nazareth to be willing to believe, "For nothing is impossible with God."

And every Christmas, God seems to ask us again, "Do you believe? Do you still believe?" That is a question you will have to answer for yourself. As for me,all I can say is that the more God gives me the courage to believe that with him all things are possible it is amazing how much more I see God overcome the impossible. Merry Christmas!

"Unfriend"

The publishers of New Oxford Dictionary have deemed "unfriend" as the 2009 new word of the year. To unfriend means to remove someone from your friend list on a social network like Facebook or MySpace. Christine Lindberg, Senior Lexicographer for Oxford's US dictionary program said it is an excellent choice because of the word's, "currency and potential longevity." Now, we not only have a legitimate word for ending friendship, we also have the convenience of doing so simply with the click of a button. "Unfriending" someone in cyberspace is much less messy than having the guts to do so face to face.

And why would we ever unfriend someone? The answer to that question is easy enough. I unfriend someone who sees the world contrary than I, someone rubs me the wrong way or simply annoys me by their status updates. To unfriend someone Facebook or MySpace gives me permission to make friendship all about me. As long as the friendship gives me what feels good, then I keep you on my list, but say the wrong thing and without you even knowing it, I will unfriend you.

Now, I am all about healthy boundaries. And to be frank, there are some "friends" that are so unhealthy that they should have been unfriended a long time ago. However, one has to wonder if our culture has so turned friendship into "what's in it for me" that we are missing out on a key element. The true value of friendship is not just receiving what feels good, but being able to learn to love someone and be loved by someone even though our opinions differ, our personalities clash and view points are polar opposites. It is very interesting to me...in a day that so espouses the value of tolerance, we seem to be increasingly intolerant. Rather than see our differences as something to either work through or to learn to accept and still love one another, we have now created a word to legitimatize only keep friendships that always make me feel good or never challenge what I think.

While they New Oxford Dictionary may name "unfriend" the word of the year, the Christmas story of the Bible tells me that in God's vocabulary there is only one word that ever deserves to be named word of the year...if God was allowed to truly be in control of this world, our lives and of the church, then the same word would be named word of the year every year, "LOVE." The kind of love that loves like this: "You have heard that it was said 'Love your neighbors and hate your enemy.' But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be sons and daughters of your Father in heaven," Jesus in Matthew 5:43-45. Well, when he puts it like that, it does not give us much room to leave the 2009 word of the year in our vocabulary, does it? At least not if we want to consider ourselves His sons and daughters.

"Dirty Windows"

The windows in my car have been dirty for over a year. I am not talking about the exterior, I mean they were dirty on the inside. How dirty were they? They were so dirty that even on a bright sunny day it looked like it was foggy and dreary outside. For over a year now, every time I would get in the car, I would think, "I have got to clean these windows." It was getting to the point that it was actually dangerous to drive at night...Yes, the windows were that dirty. I even told Kimberly, "I have got to clean these windows before it causes an accident."

And do you know what I found? This is very interesting...All my talking, all my promises, all my intentions and even me sharing this situation with my wife did not clean my windows. No matter how much I talked or thought about it, my dirty windows remained dirty. The only thing that cleaned my windows was when I stopped off yesterday to have my car washed and made the decision to have the inside of my car cleaned as well. When I left the car wash it was as though I was driving in a brand new car and seeing the world for the first time. I could actually, clearly see out my windows. I have to say I enjoyed driving a whole lot better, with clean windows. But again, for a year all my talking and thinking about it did not clean my windows. The only thing that cleaned my windows was when I made the decision to do something about it and then did it!

From where I sit, I see a lot of people who want to talk, think and even pray about their "dirty windows." They have dirty windows that they know are ruining their vision and dampening, if not destroying their lives. They are ready to recognize it and talk about it, but then Weeks, months, years go by and 20 years later they find themselves still talking about how they need to clean their windows, but their windows are dirtier than ever. And then, together we cry and say, "I have had dirty windows for 20 years, when is this ever going to change? Why won't God clean my windows?" The truthful answer is, "He never will. He won't clean your dirty windows as long as you are doing what I did with mine...talking, thinking, sharing, but making the decision to do nothing." James 4:17 puts it this way, "Anyone, then, who knows the good he ought to do and doesn't do it, sins." To know that it is time to have our windows cleaned and make a decision not to is simply sin and all sin does is separate us farther and farther from the very one who can do for us what we cannot do for ourselves. To be very honest, this side of ministry gets very discouraging...it is exhausting to see people you care about choose to live with dirty windows even after they have long since realized this is less than God's best for them.

However, what keeps me going is that for every person who chooses to live and perhaps even die or be killed by dirty windows, there are folks every week around here who stop talking about it and make the decision to pull into the car wash and do what they can so God can do what only he can do to clean their windows.

That is what this Friday night is about here at Living Hope as we are invited to gather with Celebrate Recovery for two hours of help and hope. This Friday night is for people like you and me who are honest enough to admit we have some dirty windows and are tired enough of living with them to make a decision to do something about it. And for those who make that decision...interestingly enough...positive change from God always comes...it may not be easy or fast, but those who make a decision to to what they need to do so God can do what he can only do always see God work.

So, how about you? Tired of trying to see through dirty windows. Join me and others this Friday at Living Hope from 6-8 PM (come anytime you can; child care provided). I'm telling you...it is so much better driving with clean windows!

"Give Thanks"

Thanksgiving is not something that comes naturally. I have never heard of a child for whom their first word was "Thank you." That was certainly not the case for my children. No, children have to be taught to give thanks. And so parents, like a broken record, say to his or her young child, "What do you say?" and then the child looks at the parent as though they are from a different planet, speaking a different language and the parents ask again, "What do you say?" Then to save both themselves and their child from further embarrassment, the parents prompt the child with, "Say,'Thank you'." Finally...hopefully...the little one, at least, pretends to mean it when he or she says,"thank you," right before dashing off to the next item on his or her little agenda.

The point is thanksgiving is something we must learn, if we are to learn it at all. In fact, I think it is something that we adults must continually learn and re-learn as we make this journey called life.

You can always tell the difference between the folks who have learned to put thanksgiving into practice and those who have not. Those who have are not optimistic, they are realistic...they see the difficulty and pain of life, but they never loose sight of all the reasons they have to give thanks no matter how small those reasons might seem to others. Thankful people are incredibly resilient people because instead of seeing every challenge as the end of the world, they maintain a perspective that there is more to life than this new problem. Thankful people are just more pleasant to be around...when you leave them you feel like you have been filled up rather than having had the last drop of life sucked out of you.

But again, thanksgiving is something we learn. Regardless of your personality or your present life situation, thanksgiving is something we can learn. In fact, as followers of Jesus, it is something we are commanded to learn. I Thessalonians 5:18 says, "Give thanks in all circumstances for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus." It does not say give thanks "FOR", but "IN" all circumstances. This is something we can learn to do and we are given good reason to learn it..."this is God's will for you." If you have any kind of genuine relationship with Jesus at all then you know that God's will is not to make you miserable. Jesus said God's will is that we might have life and life abundant. Therefore, the command to learn thanksgiving is one of the keys that unlocks God's promise of abundant life in our lives.

I am grateful that we live in one of two countries in the world that have Thanksgiving as a holiday. Once a year, we are specifically and intentionally reminded that thanksgiving is something for which is worth stopping everything! I encourage you, brother and sister in Christ, re-learn to give thanks this thanksgiving...Be intentional about it...Be out loud about it...Make it personal... Make it real. "Give thanks for the Lord is good", Psalm 136:1.

"The Waiting Room"

The last few days I have spent a lot of time in waiting rooms. Where your loved one is, while you wait in the waiting room, much is being done…medical staff is prepping and doctors are working, but from where you sit in the waiting room you can see none of that. All you can see is the clock’s hands moving painlessly slow. In the waiting room there is nothing you can do for the one you love. You can pray, but by this point all the words you can think to say have already been sent up to God. No, the waiting room is appropriately named because all you can do is wait.

I am no fan of waiting rooms…I am much better at doing than waiting. I am less likely to stop and smell the roses than I am to plant, prune and weed the roses. However, life seems to not care what my personality type prefers. At times, life forces us all to take a seat in the waiting room. Sometimes life forces us to sit in an actual doctor’s office waiting room…waiting to see how things go for one we love or waiting to hear from a doctor what the tests revealed…there we all hope for the best as we fight not to think of the worst. Sometimes life puts in a waiting room that we cannot see, but certainly can feel…waiting for someone to at least acknowledge they received your résumé as you wait in the unemployment line…waiting for your child to see that you don’t exist to make them miserable, but your rules are out of love…waiting for that someone to show up in your life to move you from being alone to being with someone who wants to be with you…waiting to see God answer prayer…waiting for answers, waiting for help, waiting for direction, just waiting…

The waiting room is not an easy place to sit because the rules of the room are clear…in the waiting room the one thing you are suppose to do is wait. Don’t act, don’t think, don’t worry, don’t try to fix anything...just wait…wait in the waiting room and you have done your job. Are you willing to receive that assignment from God? Isaiah 40:31 says, “Those who wait upon the Lord renew their strength; they mount up with wings as eagles...they shall run and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.” Waiting on God is not a waste of time; it is the best use of time. Because the more I learn to wait in the waiting rooms of life, the less I will interrupt what God is doing that I cannot see.

For instance, if you were in a hospital waiting room and grew so impatient that you barged into the surgery room, you would delay if not prevent the surgeon from doing his job. The same applies in our relationship with God. When God tells us to wait, he asks us to trust that he is working even when we cannot see it. If we will be still and wait upon the Lord, eventually we will see God’s work come to completion. But if we jump out of our seat and barge in and try to do what we cannot, could we delay or possibly even prevent God from working? I don’t know, but by his grace, I am learning the very hard lesson of simply staying in my seat and waiting when I find myself in the waiting room.

"Remember"

Today is a day of remembrance. The speaker at Centerville's Veteran's day ceremony put it well when she said, "Veteran's day is not a holiday it is a memorial day." It is a day to remember what others have given to gain and preserve our freedom as a Nation. As we remember the service of our veterans we naturally turn to gratefulness for their service. So, today we remember and thank our veteran's.

On another day, some two thousand years ago, Jesus called his disciples to remembrance. He took the cup, broke the bread and said, "Do this in remembrance of me." Every time we participate in Communion we are invited to remember that Jesus' body was broken and his blood was spilled out so that through his act we can come into and live in relationship with God. Our remembrance then most naturally turns to gratefulness. As Romans 5 says, "God demonstrated his love for us in that while we were yet sinners he died for us." Praise be to God!

So, where are you today? Has this been the best day of your life or the worst or just another ho-hum day of routine. I urge you to stop and remember. Remember Jesus. Remember his sacrifice. He loved you so much he received a punishment for which he was not guilty, he experienced pain he did not have to go through and he died so you could live. Receive his love for the first time or for the 1000th time as though it is the first. Then let your remembrance turn to thanks. Thank God out loud for his love for you. Thank God for his faithfulness in your past. Thank God for the fact that he will make a way for you in your future. Thank God for being with you and promising to never leave.

When we make time to remember it leads us to gratitude and where we find reason to give thanks we remember what makes life worth living!

"The Town's Spring"

Once upon a time, a long time ago, there was a town that sat along a natural spring. The town was a nice place to live and its natural spring made it beautiful. A path was created along the spring so that the people could enjoy the view of the spring with a stroll, a bike ride or a jog. Everyone loved their town and everyone enjoyed the spring. Of course, everyone also knew that the spring was poisonous. Decades ago the town's founding father's recognized that even animals did not drink from the spring and when one of them drank it to find out why, he soon grew very sick. Had he drunk more, he most certainly would have died. Nevertheless, what the spring lacked in function it more than made up for in beauty.

However, one summer grew hot. It was hotter and dryer than even the oldest citizen of the town could ever recall. It was a drought like none other. Farmer's fields shriveled up, the ground was parched and cracked and worst of all their drinking wells were quickly growing shallow. It was a desperate situation. People were hungry....people were thirsty...everyone wondered what they should do...how would they survive?

Oddly enough, the spring, still ran deep and cold...The local Mayor said, "It was a reminder that this too shall pass."

As it normally happens at times like these, leaders emerge form the background to the foreground. In this town, two well-respected men came to the town meeting each with a different plan.

The first man stood and said, "Fellow citizens these are difficult times. The drought is hot, long and the end seems to be far off. I suggest we all pull our resources. We collect our water and ration it. Instead of every farmer trying to save his own farm, we count them all a loss, but one and from its land have food for our families. The times are tough but together we can get through it."

The town people nodded their heads in agreement. "That makes sense," they said, "Together we can get through this drought."

Yet, one man disagreed. He stood and said, "My friend is right. The times are hard. The drought is hot, long and the end seems far off. But we are overlooking the most obvious solution. The spring. The spring has plenty of water to fill our wells and irrigate our farms. Even in this drought our spring has proven faithful. Let's turn to the spring and let it bring to our town all that we have lost."

The other man was quick to respond, "What are you saying? This is crazy. The spring is poison. Even animals know better than to run to it to quench their thirst. Not even grass survives where the spring flows. It is a beautiful, but it is deadly. Have we forgotten the lesson of our grandfathers?"

The other man rebutted, "Fellow citizens. Now is no time to hearken back to the days of superstition. Let's be realistic. Without the water we are all going to die any way, at least this water can get us through. If we are careful and we monitor how much we drink, any damage will be far outweighed by the benefits." And to make the point, the man drank a small glass of the spring water himself.

The towns people had quite a discussion, but in the end they believed the best option was to drink from the spring. The man who voiced the idea became the local expert. He created charts and measurements for how much a person could drink based upon their weight and size. And so, in the hot, dry drought, the people found a cool, refreshing supply. The truth was the water tasted good. People laughed and said, "Why did we go so long without drinking from our beautiful spring?" And so it seemed all was well.

Until about a month later a cry broke forth in the midnight sky. A cry of anguish. A cry of a mother whose little boy had died. "Its the water she cried...the spring killed my boy..."

The people were sorry for her loss, but no one could believe that the spring had killed her boy and if it had then it was her fault for the good man with the idea carefully prescribed how much was too much.

But then another grew sick and then another and then another until one after another the good people of this good town by this beautiful spring watched the spring prove not to be their savior but their murderer.

Disillusioned, heart broken and physically weak, the people of the town came to the man with the other idea and said, "You were right. The water is poison. The end did not justify the means. Tell, us friend, is it too late, can we turn back."

The man with the other idea, looked down. his eyes filled with tears. Though he wanted to give the people good news, he had none. It was too late to pull their resources for everyone but him had filled their wells with the poisonous spring water and everyone but him had water their fields with it. So, what they had to offer was poison and what he had to offer was not enough.

Now many years later, there is a beautiful spring where once sat a nice little town.