Keep Thinking Spring

So we got past the weekend without snow!
It was a good, but very busy weekend. I got to finish off the weekend by preaching at Upendo and that was a great time.
Upendo is the Swahili service that is happening at our church on Sunday afternoons. Just for the record I preached in English not in Swahili. The music and singing was all in Swahili and that was a great time of praise and worship even if I didn't know what was being said. I knew that it was praise to God and that was enough for me. It will probably be a couple of months before I get back there again, but I'll be looking forward to the opportunity as well as taking advantage of any chance that might come up to make connections with the people attending that service.

Spring?

We can at least hope that spring is finally here. The flowers are out and the trees have begun to bud and flower and the last few days have been in the mid to upper 70's. It seems like it has been a long time coming and it looks like there will be some colder weather headed our way again and some rain here and there, but can we finally say that there won't be more snow until at least November?

The Earth Moved!

No it really did. The earthquake in Salem, IL early this morning moved things around a little. Even though I'm about 300 miles away I felt things move. In fact the water bed began to shake and the water moved. Now my wife sleeping next to me woke up this morning and said, "What earthquake?"
My friends in the west would probably say, "That wasn't even worth noticing." But hey in this area it isn't something that we are used to or think is something that should happen on a regular basis.

Couldn't Put it Down

Last week I used a coupon and gift card to pick up The Shack. It was recommended while I was in San Diego by Brian and TL and thought ok I haven't read any fiction for a while and I'll give it a shot.

Well I started reading it around 9:30 and by 10:00 p.m. I was into it when my wife went to bed. Finally I turned the last page at 2:00 a.m. and thought wow I haven't done that in forever.

I'll be talking about this book for a number of reasons in the coming weeks and would encourage you to go out and get a copy, read it and pass it on then talk about what it might be like to really have that kind of a relationship.

The only thing I would suggest is that you start it earlier in the day, I'm just beat this morning.

Pulling up a Chair

I've been blessed lately with several people who have pulled up a chair next to me and entered my life in a very special way. Growing up I never really had friends that lasted a long time as we moved fairly often. The longest we ever lived in one place was 6 years and then we would move again. Those moves meant making new friends while at that same time not knowing how long they would continue to be apart of my life.
I'm now at a different place in my life and enjoying some stability that allows friendships to grow in ways that I've really never known before.
So I just want to say thanks to all those special people that are pulling up a chair beside me and sitting for a spell. I hope that I'm returning the favor to you as well.

Marriage or a Christian Marriage

This weekend we will be focusing upon how faith impacts marriages. With all the statistics that are out there about the divorce rate and how little difference there is between those who attend church and those who don't people might wonder if it really does make a difference. I'm not going to get into the whole statistics question about 1/2 of the people married ending up divorcing because I just know that isn't correct. I've been doing weddings for over 20 years and averaging probably 10 a year and out of those approximately 200 weddings I only know of 2 that have been divorced. Now I haven't kept up with all those whose weddings I have performed but still there is no way that I'm getting even close to a number that is going to be half.
Moving on.
As I ponder this question I think there is an issue that many Jesus followers don't understand when it comes to marriage. To many people enter a marriage without knowing that the scripture that should be guiding their relationship is not 1 Cor. 13 "The greatest of these is love." but rather Matt. 10: 39 "Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it." Until one or the other and eventually both parts of the couple figure this one out there will be tension. Sure love is great, even the selfless love of Jesus. But the love of Jesus was what led him to the cross and that is what we are called to in a marriage relationship as well. To give up our lives, to lose our wants, needs, and priorities for the benefit of a relationship in which Christ becomes visible to others.
If we all get this one figured out then the divorce rate would go down and the satisfaction level will eventually go up.

Prayers for Don and Karen

This weekend Don and Karen will be in the Phoenix area confirming a call to accept a ministry position in a church in that area. Why is that significant you might ask? Well outside of my wife and children Don is the friend who I have had the longest regular contact with on a personal basis. Don and I have met on a fairly consistent basis twice a month for coffee and conversation for the past 20 years. There have been a few breaks along the way during sabbaticals that we have both taken but we have always picked pack up and jumped right back in to our regular gatherings.
We have gone through the ups and downs of ministry together. For me the struggle of changing churches twice and for Don the struggle of making the decision to leave his current church after serving there for 20 years. We have prayed through our children's struggles and joys of growing up and starting out on their own. We have shared the hard times of wives illnesses and the joy of God's presence in the midst of things. I have had the joy of being witness to the healing in Don's life after a divorce and the joy in officiating his and Karen's wedding a few years ago.
Don has challenged me to be not just the minister but the man that God wants me to be and for that I'll always be grateful. He has been a steady influence in my life and one that I will miss greatly.
So today I just say thanks Don! My prayers area with you and Karen this weekend, may the calling be confirmed and may our friendship remain even with the 1882 miles that will be between us.

Living Vicarously

So I know that as parents we aren't supposed to live through our children, that it isn't healthy for them or for us. But reading over Kacie's spring break adventure just brought back a lot of good memories and gladness that she has been able to be in England and see some of Europe on her own this semester. I just can't tell you (or her) enough of how proud I am of her and how excited I am to see who she continues to become.

Only 40

Happy Birthday Eric.
Boy it sure seems like a long time ago when I turned 40.

Boundry Lines

I remember as a kid how important it was before starting a game that everyone knew where the lines were. If it was baseball you had to make sure that everyone knew that if you hit the ball over the fence along the first base/right field area it was a foul ball, but if the ball landed in the irrigation ditch you were automatically out. Then if you were playing basketball the question would be did you step out of bounds and thus turn the ball over or were you just close. Interpreting the boundaries were sometimes clear and other times not, but in almost every game you could count on their being some energy and time spent on arguing over who could call the boundaries in or out.
At the age of 47 now I'm wondering what boundaries are really worth arguing about. Is it possible that the boundaries we set in our lives are not always the best or most logical place to draw the lines? Is it possible that we might find God present in the "out of bounds area" even more than within the set boundaries? I don't know but it doesn't help when I read books like this one by Steve Taylor.

edit: As I'm reading this again it strikes me that I had better clarify just a bit. Yes there are very clear boundaries in life when it comes to relationships, etc.
What I'm thinking over and pondering are the spiritual / church boundaries that we establish of where and how the Holy can be encountered. Do we make artificial boundaries in life and expect God to only show up within those "safe" areas? Would Moses ever have expected God to show up in a burning bush? Maybe the bush had been burning for a long time and no one else had seen it because it was outside of their religious boundaries and so they weren't able to see the living God there.
I don't know, just some random thoughts that have been floating around my head for the last couple of days.

It was worth the time

I got a letter yesterday saying that the article that I wrote last week was accepted to be presented at the Leadership Round Table at Regent University in May. For all those folks who do this on a regular basis I'm sure it isn't a big deal but I don't think of myself as an academic kind of person, more as a want-to-be rather than as a real scholar, so I'm excited about it. I'm really looking forward to sharing what I found in the relationship between fasting and the growth in servant leadership tendencies.
Maybe no one else will be, but it is a small sliver of something that I think I'll be able to add to the discussion of servant leadership which is the whole point of a dissertation I guess.