My Life at 36 vs. Ruby's Life at 92

As I write today I am celebrating my 36^th birthday.  I don’t know about you, but when my birthdays come I end up focus on two things:

1.       All the family and friends that clearly love and care about me and show it in ways big and small.

2.       What my life has counted for and what I hope it counts for in the years ahead.

My first stop this morning was at a nursing home to visit the last surviving founding member of our church.  Her name is Ruby Brown and she is 92 years old and most likely will not be with us on this side of eternity much longer.  There is a big difference between my self-examination at 36 and Ruby’s at 92 and not just because of the difference in our ages. 

Let me share with you what I mean . . .    

Our church began in her garage nearly 60 years ago.  On that first Sunday there were 8 other people meeting in a garage who had been sent out from a mother church in Houston to launch a new work in Pasadena.  There must have been great risk in what they did along with a ton of hard work along the way.  They had no large sum of money, no “expert” pastor to help them get started, no building, nothing.  All they had was their own collective dream of doing something significant for God with their lives and the power of the Holy Spirit working in and through them, guiding them every step of the way. 

There wouldn’t be enough space to account for all the times where Ruby and those other people had to sacrifice for the good of others and for the benefit of the young church they were working to launch.  There wouldn’t be enough time to record all the heartaches that they have experienced over the years, all the disappointments and all the setbacks.  The point is things were definitely not easy for them.  Ministry was not convenient.  It took lots of their time, lots of their talent and a whole bunch of their treasure. 

I wish Ruby could have been with us on our first Sunday together in March as we joined forces with Burke Road.  When I told her the story back then she was so overjoyed that she nearly danced out of her bed.  I wish she could have experienced in the flesh all that we have witnessed over the last two months.

But here is what I know . . .

None of that would have happened if it were not for Ruby and those original people in that garage back in 1953.  How many have come to faith since then?  How many have been called into pastoral ministry or full time missions work?  How many have used their gifts to honor Jesus through one of the ministries and outreaches of our church?  I could go on and on. 

What a legacy she has left!

One more thing . . .

Even though Ruby has been in a retirement home or a nursing home for the entire 10 years that I have known her, she has NEVER allowed her age, stage of life, physical condition or anything else deter her from emanating the gracious love and spirit of Jesus, making the most of every opportunity to share the Gospel with anyone and everyone she comes into contact with.  That means other residents she lives with along with staff and family.  They naturally became the mission field she lived and worked in.  She was never used up, never finished, never useless in the work of Jesus!  She has a legacy because a church was birthed through her life and sacrifice.  But maybe even more inspiring, she has never lacked a ministry or mission because wherever she was, her life was available for God to use . . . and she let Him use it exhaustively!

As Paul writes what is arguably his last letter he says:

For I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure has come.  I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that Day, and not only to me but also to all who have loved his appearing.  (2 Timothy 4:6-8)

Ruby may not see 93 years old, but I hope and trust she can feel and experience all the love and care from so many friends and family around her and that she knows her life counted for something of real, eternal value!

May I be able to be like her some day!

Do you have a case anhedonia?

Christians are coming off the highest, most celebrated day on the calendar – Easter!  So much time and energy is spent, both at the church and family level, to plan and prepare for this special day.  And it is all VERY worth it!  We proclaim the victorious power of the resurrection.  We sing songs of victory.  We revel in the re-telling of the Gospel story.  With so many guests and family members in the crowd, worship attendance swells and there is an air of expectancy and hope.  It’s an exciting time. 

But then there is the Sunday after . . . and worship attendance, even for committed Christians who regularly attend church, craters far below the normal average. 

I wonder if this is a reflection of something much deeper, something that affects our worship life all the time whether we are aware of it or not.

I wonder how many of us are suffering from a case of anhedonia? 

Anhedonia is the inability to experience pleasure from the typical events of life.  People become so addicted to extreme forms of stimulation, that they become bored with the ordinary.  We continue chasing the next big thrill, but in the end never actually experience the pleasure we are seeking.

Archibald Hart says, “The endless pursuit of pleasure is leaving us numb.” 

Anhedonia effects every area of our lives by gearing us to expect and even demand to be thrilled and excited every step of the way.  If we aren’t thrilled and excited then the experience is simply deemed unworthy of our time and attention.  Here is an example: Check out a reality show and how the producers have to do more and more to get us to keep tuning in! 

Even in worship, if the experience doesn’t WOW us we are tempted to think God wasn’t present or that worship had no value.  Here is the problem.  There is nothing wrong with being thrilled and excited in worship.  It is a good thing to have an air of expectancy and openness in our worship.  That is a mature, God-centered posture.  What is dangerous is the temptation to draw an equal sign between our sense of being thrilled and God’s presence.

Here is why . . . I don’t find being convicted of my sin to be very thrilling, but it’s still an absolutely essential part of my worship life.  I also don’t particularly enjoy being challenged to take difficult steps of obedience that require significant risk.  It’s not very thrilling, but I can’t grow as a disciple without it.  Finally, I cannot draw strength and joy from the normal, repetitive and routine aspects of my Christian walk because those things – even if they are important – are just far too routine.

So what do I do to fight anhedonia when it shows up?  I must intentionally alter my perspective to value the small, ordinary and routine aspects of my walk with God and my worship life.  I must engage in disciplines that don’t make me satisfied with the boring, but instead give me the gift of taking great pleasure and joy out the everyday experiences of life with God.

How about you?  Where has anhedonia showed up in your life?  What have you done to combat it?

What do you pray for?

Prayer is such a loaded topic in the Christian world.  It is an indicator of who we are and where we are with God.  The issue isn’t so much how, when or how often we pray, but WHAT we pray for.  WHAT we pray for is really a matter of the heart. 

It is assumed that all Christians pray, but even this assumption is not a very safe one to make.  Unfortunately, many people who call themselves Christians simply do not pray at all and some pray prayers that are quite misguided. 

Here are some of those misguided prayers:

• Get out of a jam prayers – We have no desire to obey God or live lives His way.  We just want to avoid the consequences for our sinful choices.
• Prayers to mask disobedience – Sometimes we pray in such a way to divert attention from the basic and straightforward obedience God is calling us to.   
• Fancy word prayers – There are times when we think using fancy words or repeating certain phrases will merit God’s attention more when all He really wants is our heart.
• Prayers boasting about how much God owes us – These kinds of prayers are really boasts about all the good things we have done in order to somehow make a deal with God and remind Him how much He owes us.
• Stalling prayers – Sometimes we use prayer as an excuse for inaction. 

Let’s be honest . . . All of us have prayed prayers like that at one time or another.  However, as we grow in our relationship with Jesus our understanding of prayer changes and our attitude about what prayer is even about changes.

We instead become people who pray not in misguided ways and not just to bombard God with our to-do lists.  We become people instead who pray for our heart to be merged with God’s heart and for our mind to be conformed to His mind.  Indeed, while we still make requests to God for personal needs, we also find that our prayers become more focused on the needs of others than they do on our own. 

At what point did your prayer life begin making this transition from misguided to more mature? 

What lessons did you have to learn along the way to make this move?

What lessons is God teaching you now that will move you further down the road in your walk with Him?

What do you pray for?

Why is radical so rare?

As many of you probably know by now, our church is joining forces with another congregation in our community to become one, united church family this Sunday.  It’s a pretty amazing thing to see all that God has done in and through both congregations throughout the entire process.  God has clearly been at work from beginning to end. 

Over and over again, as we have gone through this process, I have spoken to other pastor-friends and Christians from all different backgrounds.  One thing that most everyone has in common is this question:  How did something like this happen? 

People seem to be genuinely amazed that two churches – especially two churches that are not dying, in great financial trouble or with some other big problem – would ever think of a move like this.

At one level questions like this make sense, but at another level I wonder if they reveal something really disappointing at the core of our Christian and church experience.  How often do we simply miss taking steps in our personal and corporate lives that would honor God and expand the Kingdom simply because they are too radical or too others-centered that they never even get on our radar?

I have always been moved by the attitude of John the Baptist when Jesus came on the scene and many people, including his own disciples, were leaving him to join Jesus.  His disciples raised the alarm bell to him.  Jesus was taking market share and his ministry spotlight was fading.  That NEVER concerned John.  He knew what his purpose was and he never forgot it.  In the Gospel of John, his words are recorded this way, “You yourselves bear me witness, that I said, ‘I am not the Christ, but I have been sent before him.’  The one who has the bride is the bridegroom. The friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly at the bridegroom's voice. Therefore this joy of mine is now complete.  He must increase, but I must decrease” (John 3:28-30).

I think that kind of selfless and sold out attitude should be the mark of every follower of Jesus and ever church that bears His name.  If it was, I think things would be markedly different in our personal lives and in churches across the world.  Would more mergers happen?  Probably.  Would more ministry partnerships occur?  Yes.  Would the spirit of self-centeredness and competition die off for good?  Absolutely!

Yes . . . a John the Baptist spirit is radical.  So is following Jesus.  It is also rare.  And maybe that's the problem we need to address.  A radical discipleship to Jesus is just too rare!

What do you think?  What tends to keep Christians and churches from thinking, speaking and acting in the spirit of John the Baptist?  What can be done – by us and by local churches – to change this norm into the exception rather than the rule?

Why "Edits" Don't Work

Our staff had our pictures taken today for the website.  Being married to a photographer, I have learned a few things about photography.  Of course, getting good shots is critical.  You can’t have a good picture without having someone know how to position people to take good photos.  However, even though the shoot took about 30 minutes for all of us the photographer still has a lot of work to do.

You see, there is this wonderful computer program called Photoshop.  They load all the images they take into the computer and then edit them with Photoshop.  You know what that means?  It means they can do some edits and make us look better.  Have some hair not right?  They can smooth that out.  Have some skin blemishes?  That can be softened too!  All kinds of things can be made to look so much better though some well done and strategically placed edits! 

Don’t you wish you could do some strategic edits on your day sometimes!  I sure do.

That thought I wish didn’t enter my mind.  That anger that got the best of me.  Those words I wish I could take back.  That time wasted on unimportant things.  That things I wish I didn’t do.  You get the point.  It would be nice if we could edit those things out at the end of the day.  But we can’t.  Life doesn’t work that way.

Do you know one of the reasons I wish I could edit things?  I would never say this and I am probably not even conscious when I think it, but here it is.  I think there is a part of me that wishes I could edit my life because then I would still be in control and I wouldn’t have to admit how dependent I continue to be on God’s grace, mercy and forgiveness. 

In other words, if I can edit out the bad then I can somehow make myself good on my own power.  But life doesn’t work that we either.  There are no edits we can do to clean ourselves up, but there is an inexhaustible amount of grace, mercy and forgiveness we have access to!

Here are two pivotal scriptures we need to latch onto:

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. – 1 John 1:9

Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. – James 5:16

It’s not easy.  In fact, sometimes it’s quite hard.  However, this is God’s way to really and truly be made clean in Him.  Edits don’t work, but the good news is you don’t need them.  Instead, through the grace, mercy and forgiveness of God you can be remade new.  What a blessing!

How about you?  What tempts you to try and edit things out instead of trusting in the grace, mercy and forgiveness of God?