Tag: Jesus

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Ministry

When “Mission” isn’t what we’re expecting

It was 2007 or 2008, and I was sitting across the desk from one of the OB/GYNs in the practice I was going to. I’d just had my annual pelvic exam, but really good gynos check out everything, probably knowing that women aren’t great about scheduling annual physicals. All was well “down there,” but the weight was another matter. The doctor said, “Your BMI is way too high [probably around 33 or 34 at the time]. You need to get down to 135 pounds.”

I looked at him and said, “That seems unhealthily skinny to me. I’d feel more comfortable at 150.”

Fast forward eight years to when I started trying to lose weight by tracking my food intake and walking–a lot. One of my goals at the time was to be able–physically fit enough–to be able to do mission work if called. I wanted my body in good enough shape to handle the possible rigors of being the hands and feet of Jesus. Then fast-forward to now. Today I hit 150 pounds, and I feel like I’ve got another ten to go.

I haven’t been called to the foreign mission field. I haven’t gone to Costa Rica or Haiti to help build homes from earthquake rubble or repair a church. I haven’t even been called to do local mission work through a non-profit or with one of a church’s ministry partners. But I have been called to serve.

About two months ago, my maternal aunt died, and my mom is the executor of the estate. She’s under a tight deadline to get everything done, and it’s a lot for her to handle, even with Dad’s help. Last week I told her I’d come up to help. I sat on the floor for about half an hour inventorying my aunt’s extensive CD collection. I climbed up and down off a step-stool cleaning out her kitchen cabinets. I hauled boxes out. I used that same step-stool to bring items in my aunt’s closet down to lower shelves to make it easier for my parents to get to them when they were ready. It was three solid hours of a great deal of movement. Thing is, I wouldn’t have been able to do these things nearly so easily had I not dropped so much extra weight.

And it’s not just a matter of dropping weight. I’ve been practicing yoga since spring 2018 which has given me the flexibility and balance to sit on the floor (and get up) and climb on step-stool. My weekly weight training–much as I hate doing it–enabled me to have the upper body strength to haul boxes loaded with canned goods. The mission work that I envisioned being in foreign and exotic places took place two hours away in a lovely house in autumn. And it was good.

Sometimes we miss seeing where God is putting us because it’s not where we were expecting to go. Mission work, though, is simply being the hands and feet of Jesus, or sometimes the ears and shoulders of Jesus as we move about in our day-to-day.

 

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Podcasts

Ministry in the Grey in its Second Season

There are no coincidences of timing. I’d hoped to complete one more bonus episode of Ministry in the Grey before starting on the second season. Hannah was slated to co-host with me, and things were looking good. Unfortunately, technical issues prevented our launching that episode when we hoped so while she was away I went ahead and moved on to Season 2.

Several people have wondered why I didn’t touch on homosexuality in Season 1 of Untouchables. After all, I make no secrets about my feelings on this topic. I wanted to give a gentle word, an affirming Jesus-word. Only problem is, Jesus had no words to say specifically about those in the LGBTQ+ community. He does have actions, though, and there’s a little saying about actions speaking louder than words. So I invite you to take a listen. Engage with this episode. Imagine. Allow your creative brain to envision Jesus and you experiencing each other and how that feels. I posed this to our small Bible study group, and words like “nice,” “good,” “warm and fuzzy” floated around. My goal is to help others experience Jesus the risen Christ in the same way.

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Mental Health Ministry

“How Can I Love You Through This?” What I’m really saying

My friends have heard me say many times, “How can I love you through this?” It’s an uncomfortable question to hear for some people. This can present another layer of weirdness when the friend I’m addressing happens to be of the opposite sex and may not be used to hearing that question. So many folks limit “love” to romantic or sexual feelings for another person.. In fact, I’ve grown into love being something I throw around quite often. I feel love for people in my life–family and friends–and I want to communicate that feeling to them. It seems I may have started something among even my fellow GenXers because “love” is flying around everywhere!

“How can I love you through this?” encompasses a whole lot of questions.

How can I support you through this?

How can I care for you through this?

How can I meet some of your physical or practical needs while you’re going through this? (Sometimes “love” comes in a casserole dish or shows up behind a mower.)

ultimately

How can I be Jesus for you as you’re going through this?

My Christian friends understand that that last question is the heart of it all. My nontheist friends haven’t met the same Jesus I’ve met so might not have been shown what Jesus’ love looks like. They know what my love looks like, though. (I try to get it as close to Jesus’ love as humanly possible.) Jesus embodied all the spiritual gifts; unfortunately, mine aren’t as far-reaching. But how cool would it be to be able to touch someone who’s sick, injured, or otherwise impaired and be able to heal them!

When I ask that question–“How can I love you through this?”–there are any number of correct answers. These may include (but aren’t limited to):

“Pray for/with me.”

“Can you mow my lawn for me?” (This is usually hidden as a statement like, “My lawn is really overgrown” or “The HOA sent me a letter about my lawn, but I just can’t summon up the energy to take care of it.”)

“I could use a meal I don’t have to cook.” (Again, may take the form of “I haven’t been grocery shopping” or “I’m nearly out of food.”)

“I don’t know right now.” This can be an invitation to sit in silence with someone and listen to them share their heart.

Sometimes, the unspoken answer tells us that the person just needs someone to be present in silence or to listen, and that’s okay, too.

So tell me… How can I love you today?

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Devotional Thoughts Ministry

Sowing Love

It’s love day. Valentine’s Day, 2022. We go all out, don’t we? We buy the cards, the flowers, the chocolates. Or, if you’re like a lot of the fellas I saw at the mall last night, you’re buying the jewelry and the chocolate chip cookie cake in sheer desperation. (Then there was the guy who I think was buying balloons, flowers, and chocolates for at least five different people.) Why do we save all the love-sharing for one day of the year?

I love how things come together. Yesterday in Bible study, we discussed Mark 4–the parable of the sower (or seeds, depending on how you want to look at it). Then this morning, this cartoon landed in my Instagram feed.

Jesus sowing love
This cartoon of Jesus as the sower sowing love gives me a new perspective on the parable. Art by David Hayward (@NakedPastor and nakedpastor.com).

As David writes:

The sower just throws seed everywhere. Some land here and some land there. He just throws it indiscriminately all over the field and beyond its borders and on all kinds of surfaces and in all kinds of places.

Some places are receptive. Some are not.
Some places are dangerous. Some are not.
Some are hostile. Some are not.

The lover doesn’t care.
The lover sows love everywhere.

I like this idea of sowing love much better than the typically evangelistic idea of spreading the word of God in order to “save souls” (never mentioned in the text).

Growing up around avid gardeners, I know a little bit about how seed is spread. When you garden, it’s different. You till the soil and create neat little rows. You go along behind and drop seeds or plant a seedling, gently and lovingly covering it up or patting the soil around it just so. Then you water it. Being married to a lawn care specialist gives me a different perspective. While the grasses where we live are usually sodded, grass where we used to live is broadcasted. When my husband broadcasted grass seed after preparing the lawn, seed could go pretty much anywhere. It certainly wasn’t unusual for some to land on the sidewalk or driveway, only to be swept or blown into the yard.

Whether you’re a gardener sowing seeds carefully or a lawn care specialist broadcasting seed with a spreader or by hand, you don’t quit or stop when things happen. Click here to go to Mark 4, and this is from The Message. If weeds invade the garden, the farmer doesn’t quit gardening. She doesn’t leave the food to rot, nor does she decide not to garden the following year. Same with the lawn care specialist. So what if some seeds land on the driveway where they’d never come up? He doesn’t quit because of that; he gets the seeds into the yard and goes on to the next account.

The majority of times this passage is studied and discussed, participants are challenged to think of themselves as either soil or seeds. If we’re soil then we have to choose if we’re hard and unrelenting, rocky, thorny, or good. Of course, we all want to be good soil. Or maybe we’re seeds. We’re seeds that never even take root or seeds that have a burst of life then die quickly. Or perhaps we are seeds that grow well enough but allow thorns [worries] to choke out our joy. We want to be the robust, fruitful seeds, and that’s what we hope to be.

But what about the sower? We don’t often think about him. We are called to sow the Word in this parable. Now, you might be thinking, how in the world do I get from “Word” to “love”? In John 1, we read, “the Word was God.” In I John 4, “God is love.” It’s basic math. If Word=God and God=love, then Word=love.

The sower, Jesus, sows love. Sometimes it lands on hard hearts. These hearts want this love, but just aren’t ready for it. The little persistent voice questions, “What makes you think you deserve this?” The person lets that love go because they don’t think they’re worthy.

Sometimes, the love lands on hearts that are softened and so ready. There’s that moment–and it lasts for a little while. The heart blooms under the warmth of this love, but then somehow it gets convinced that they’re not receiving the love the right way–maybe because of someone else’s religious doctrines–and it withers.

Still other times the love lands on hearts that receive it happily and gratefully. It’s thriving and growing, but then worries creep in. “Is this for real?” “How can he love me like this?” “How do I love him?” “But what about that time in college when…?” The plaguing of their minds and anxieties, doubts about their intrinsic self-worth, keeps the love from blooming to its fullest and makes it hard for the person to sow love themself.

Then the love can also fall on richly fertile, receptive hearts. This is love that takes root and grows. In the parable, Mark tells us that it yields an abundant harvest. That love blooms in our hearts, fills our souls, and pours out of us. It liberates us from all that has been holding us bondage and all that keeps us from loving God, others, and ourselves.

Then something incredible happens. We become sowers ourselves. Now it’s on us to follow the Jesus Way and sow love into the hearts of others. Sometimes the love will fall on hard hearts. Sometimes it’ll get an immediate positive reception then wither. Other times it’ll start growing in someone and their worries and anxieties will choke it out. Then still other times, it’ll land, take root, and grow, and another sower will join us. No matter where the love lands, all we’re supposed to do is broadcast that love everywhere to everyone, season after season.

Categories
Devotional Thoughts Ministry

What Does it Mean to “Make Disciples”?

There are few phrases in church language that make me cringe, but “make disciples” is one of them. What does it mean to “make disciples”?

This idea of making disciples comes from the Great Commission in Matthew 28:19-20:

“Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” (NIV)

But consider also this same passage from The Message:

“Go out and train everyone you meet, far and near, in this way of life, marking them by baptism in the threefold name: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Then instruct them in the practice of all I have commanded you. I’ll be with you as you do this, day after day after day, right up to the end of the age.” (Emphasis mine.)

Many churchy people glom onto that “baptizing them” part and think, Making disciples means getting people into church so they can get baptized. Some people think it at least means getting people to come to church, to put their butts in the pews and their offerings in the plate. For many churches, numbers are important, supposedly indicators of how well the pastor is doing and how well the ministries of the church are functioning.

Making disciples has nothing to do with pew warming and getting dunked. Look at what Jesus says in The Message version. Making disciples means training people in the Jesus way of life and putting into practice all he’d commanded them. What does this mean? Short version, check out the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7) and the parable of the sheep and the goals in Matthew 25. That’s what Jesus had taught them and commanded them–changing one’s attitude, loving and respecting others, loving our enemies (whoah!!!), and taking care of Jesus as he appears in the least of the outcasts of society.

That’s what Jesus had taught them over the course of three years. (The Greek root for “disciple” means “to teach.”) They were disciples; Jesus had made them disciples as he taught them day-in and day-out. Now he’s commissioned them–and us–to teach others what they’ve been taught, or more importantly, what they’ve learned. Jesus never told the disciples to go out and bring people into church; he told them to teach others his ways, and the way of Christ is radical, sacrificial love.

 

 

 

Categories
Devotional Thoughts Mental Health

Handling Anxiety–Old Testament and New

We think anxiety is a fairly new problem with which to deal. We talk about anxiety disorders and it’s not uncommon to see commercials on television or ads in magazines touting the benefits of this anti-anxiety medication or that one. In short, anxiety is in front of us in a way it wasn’t forty or more years ago.

Yet, anxiety is a timeless condition. Jesus spoke about not worrying in a passage that is quite familiar to me–and, in fact, one I include in Finding Peace. Imagine my surprise when I found another word on preventing anxiety, this time in the Old Testament book of Ecclesiastes.

Ecclesiastes is from the body of Old Testament wisdom literature, presumably written by Solomon. We sometimes joke that the theme of the book is the meaninglessness of everything. Life is meaningless. Death is meaningless. Work is meaningless. Laziness is meaningless. “Meaningless! Meaningless!” says the Teacher. “All is meaningless!”

What isn’t so meaningless, though, is finding joy in the every day. The Teacher says, “Always be clothed in white, and always anoint your head with oil. Enjoy life with your wife, whom you love, all the days of this meaningless life that God has given you under the sun–all your meaningless days” (Eccl. 9:8-9a, NIV). The lesson here is to make the most of each day. Be present in each day. This is a command; “Do this,” the Teacher says.

I love a good three-point argument, and the Teacher doesn’t disappoint. First, he says “always wear white.” Get dressed in clean clothes. Don’t be slouching around in your pajamas and grungy clothes every day. Second, the Teacher instructs his students to anoint their heads with oil. This was a basic grooming and hygiene practice for this time period. It would be the like the modern-day equivalent of washing and styling your hair. In other words, take care of your body. Last, he says, “Enjoy life with your wife, who you love.” Be mindful and intentional of your relationships. Enjoy them, not just life with your spouse but also your children, your grandchildren, your circle of friends who are like family. Live into the moments with them because those moments are so short.

In the New Testament, we encounter a different rabbi, a different but no less wise teacher. We see Jesus and hear his instructions. In the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7), we see Jesus telling his listeners how to live. His teachings have two main foci: Authentic faith living and not being wrapped up in temporal concerns. In the second part of chapter 6, Jesus tells his listeners to look around them, to see the flowers and birds. God takes care of them, so would not God take even better care of God’s own children? The birds don’t stress about working and never go hungry; they always have enough. The wildflowers that are so beautiful–even more beautiful than Solomon in all his royal robes, Jesus says–are tomorrow’s fire fuel. God makes them look that good, so God will also attend to our bodies’ needs for clothing.

Then Jesus gives a command, this time a “don’t.” “Don’t worry about tomorrow,” he instructs, “for tomorrow will take care of itself. Today’s got enough worries of its own for you to deal with” (Mt. 6:34). We don’t feel anxious about what’s going on now because we’re experiencing it in this moment. Anxieties come when we start fretting about some future event or concern. Will we be able to afford that new hot water heater? How will we pay for our child’s college? What if no one at the reunion talks to me? These are legit, real concerns, and many people struggle with them.

What Jesus is saying here is, “Be present to today.” A few verses before this one, Jesus asks, “Who of you can add one inch to his height by worrying?” We can’t. Worries, stresses, anxieties–however you want to label what you’re feeling and going through–do not benefit us in any way and, in fact, rob us of what joy we can find in today. My husband and I are in that “How are we going to pay for that new HVAC system?” season of anxiety. It’s hotter than Satan’s arm pit outside and our air conditioner chooses now to act up. If I were to spend all my time fretting about this very ugly reality, then I would forget to pay the here-and-now bills, feel too overwhelmed to want to shop for groceries, and be completely unable to show up for my girls. These are all of today’s concerns and responsibilities, and they are what require my attention now. As I live into these things, guess what happens? I manage to let go of some anxiety. The HVAC is still an issue. However, by following this simple command of Jesus, I have changed how anxious I feel.

However you choose to live into today, do it. Be present to every minute. Show up for yourself in ways both small and big–everything from getting dressed in the mornings to working out. Show up for others and be present in your relationships with them. Focus on the now instead of the uncertain future. These will all help you beat anxiety.

 

Categories
Ministry

If America’s First, Who Isn’t?

I love logic grid puzzles. Maybe you’ve played around with these for fun (Brainzilla.com has a lot of them). If you took the Graduate Record Exam general exam to get into a graduate program, these made up the entire Analytical sections. Besides being good brain exercise, these puzzles reinforce one basic truth: Only one item (or person) can occupy a single ordinal space at a time. For example, if Alice is the fourth person in line, she cannot also be the first in line. Additionally, if that fourth space holds Alice, it cannot also hold Stephen. Only one thing, person, or value can be first.

Jesus says this. He says in Matthew, “You cannot worship both God and money because you’ll end up loving one and hating the other.” One or the other has to be first. If you look at the history of the Israelites, they got in trouble as a nation and with God when they tried to, what I call, “hedge their bets.” This was when they followed the law–sort of–and observed the high holy days but also enjoyed some Ba’al and Asherah worship, just to ensure they’d get the rain they needed for a good harvest. (Plus, the Asherah worship came with sex, so not exactly a hard sell for the Israelites.) They tried to give both Yahweh and the Canaanite deities equal footing, tried to put them both in first place.

Just like you can’t worship both God and money, you can’t worship both God and, well, anything else. Maybe you don’t think of it as “worshiping” something else, but there’s an awful fine line between “liking” something and idolizing something. I may like watching soccer, but when I skip church to be able to watch that particular match, then my enjoyment of the game has replaced my worship of God. Perhaps it’s “for the kids.” They love playing soccer, but what am I teaching them when I allow them to miss church to follow their passion? I’m teaching them that worshiping God within the community of believers isn’t that important.

If someone were to say, “I should always be number one! I should always get what I want before everyone else!” we’d likely look at them with the side eye, thinking they’re selfish. And they would be acting selfishly. The Word of God speaks against this type of mindset. In First Corinthians 11, Paul instructs the people of that church there not to take more than they need at the fellowship meal, to leave some for those who are less well off. There was a pecking order, where the higher class members got to go first through the line. If they took what they felt was their “right,” then there wouldn’t be any left for their brothers and sisters in Christ who were in line behind them.

The Bible teaches that it’s not about being first. God’s got that place already locked in. Jesus says that if anyone wants to be first, then they must be last of all. It takes humility to let others go first. Within community, we each take just enough to ensure that everyone has what they need.

So what does all this have to do with “America First”? The idea is selfish. If we are going to tout that we’re a “Christian nation” (we’re not, so don’t worry about that), but we’re acting in a way that blatantly violates the Word of God, then we are nothing but a nation of hypocrites. And if you’re saying, “America first,” guess who’s not first for you? That’s right. God can’t occupy a spot that you’ve placed something else into. Just like with a logic puzzle, only one value can occupy each ordinal spot, and if America is first, then God isn’t.

What I’ve observed the past few months is that a policy of “America not-first” has actually strengthened us as a nation. That big guy in the church community who thinks he’s all that and more and acts in selfish ways, believing he doesn’t need anyone, actually ends up suffering for the lack of community and interdependence. Sure, he may look tough and independent and strong, but he’s living apart from how God created him. On the other hand, the guy who is vulnerable and leans on people in his community may look weak by worldly standards but actually emerges as strong because he has the backing of all these other people.

We looked silly as the big nation that tried to act like it was all that. Trying to be independent means not being interdependent. Not only were we not helping other nations, we also weren’t accepting help from other nations, and this left us vulnerable. Yet, they didn’t forget us. Our allies waited and wondered. They wondered what happened to our little experiment in democracy and waited to see if we’d come back to the community. And, thankfully, we have. We don’t want to give of ourselves to our own detriment, but we also have to realize that we do need the help and support of our allies from time to time. It’s the same on the global scale as it is in each of our small communities. I, for one, feel better that we have rejoined our global community, for it is in community that things get done that hastens the coming of the Kingdom of God.

 

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