“What is the secret of your life?” asked Mrs. Browning of Charles Kingsley; “Tell me, that I may make mine beautiful too?”
He replied, “I had a friend.” -William C. Gannet
It was 18 years ago this month that I came to this place… this place of tumbleweeds and dust and amazing sunsets and more amazing people.
It was nothing short of surrender. I had given up on me – the “me” of my own making or imagination, that is.
My friends in Atlanta asked, “Where are you moving?”
“To hell,” I replied. “If the world was flat, Lubbock would be on the edge of it.”
But oh what I discovered when I showed up as a shell of the man I once was. Most importantly, I discovered that God was here all the time, waiting so patiently for me to get here. [click to continue…]
“You yourselves have seen what I did to Egypt, and how I carried you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself” (Exodus 19:4, NIV)
Here is a place.
An experience.
An image used to describe the powerful grace of a loving God.
Here is a birthright.
An invitation.
A metaphor for flying swiftly above the dangers and dead-ends into the loving arms of a Heavenly Father.
And where you can’t go on your own and when you lack the strength to survive, that’s when He meets you where you are and brings you to Himself… on eagles’ wings. [click to continue…]
You can get yourself in serious trouble for using the “B” word in some places. Easy girls, I don’t mean that one. I’m talking about balance.
I know several people, in ministry of all places, that come out with guns blazing when people start talking about the search for life balance or balancing the demands of ministry vs. family and all that. “It’s compromise!” they declare. “You give all you’ve got to everything that’s important,” or something like that.
I know some other people who sincerely are trying to keep all the plates spinning. They’ve given up on excellence (sadly) – they’re just looking for survival at work, avoiding bankruptcy, and keeping their kids out of Juvenile Detention. “Balance” for them would be to somehow crawl out of those holes and get back to ground level.
Soon after I wrote that last post on diligence in leadership, I was reading some assignments for a class I teach, the subject of which was life balance. About 90% of them lamented something to the effect of “I stink at this!” Some of what I read broke my heart. Most of these people are mid-life, mid-career professionals who are in – or are headed for – ministry. They have kids, parents, congregations, a full-time masters-level school load, and usually a full-time job to go with it. And here, on Easter week, for crying out loud, we were asking them to write about balance.
All that has my wheels turning and my mental oven preheating. When something’s still in the oven I like to advertise it, so consider yourself warned. What follows is half-baked and still in the oven. But if you’re struggling to find some balance to your life and its multiple demands or feeling guilty because you just can’t seem to keep all the plates spinning, then call a time out.
Stop.
Put these ideas in your oven and let ‘em bake for a while and tell me what comes up. [click to continue…]
The language of a Judge is to execute and liberate.
“knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin; for he who has died is freed from sin” (Romans 6:6-7).
The language of a Father is provision.
“God will provide for himself the lamb for the burnt offering, my son,” (Genesis 22:8). [click to continue…]
Love…
Such a simple word in English,
made complicated by the fact
that it can mean and refer to so many things.
It’s often cheapened
by reducing it to something resembling selfish pleasure…
It often generates cynicism
among those who gave their hearts to someone or something,
and were crushed by the experience…
It creates confusion
because the same word can be used for
Readers Digest,
Mom’s lasagna,
old movies,
and your newborn infant.
Yet even in the face of the frustration of finding the right way to express ourselves,
I still believe in the promise and the reality of a Perfect Love… [click to continue…]
We’re in an interesting season and it has me thinking a lot about – and working a lot on – home. In a couple of months we’ll be moving from this…
To this…
At times the process has felt a lot like David’s famous whine: “How long, O Lord?” At other times we’ve found ourselves wondering how in the world we’ll get it all done.
All the details.
All the work.
All the thinking and buying and selling and meeting and planning and more meeting…
To prepare a place called Home.
In between all those details, plus the daily joys of work and service which go on regardless, I’ve been thinking about another kind of Home. One that’s more lasting. One where I have a place, but don’t have the task of preparing it… I just have to partner with the Lord to prepare me for the place.
Sometimes, like the Whiner-in-Chief, I look at this hope and ask, “How long, O Lord?” And sometimes I get this sense that it’s sooner than I think. [click to continue…]
How alone would you stand against a threatening environment or a hostile world to embrace someone who doesn’t stand a chance against it? I’ve met Someone who loves you like that. And He’d go to the ends of the earth to show it.
How patiently would you wait while shadows lengthen and sorrows deepen to hold someone who has nothing left to offer but brokenness and tears? I’ve experienced Someone who loves you like that. And He’d go to the ends of the earth to show it. [click to continue…]
(Get Out of the Boat, Part 3)
(Note: Today is a very special day for me. It was 40 years ago today that the Lord made it clear to a young high school sophomore’s heart that He had a call and gifts for vocational service for me. All I had asked for is clarity, and on this night He did that in no uncertain terms. There are many things I wish I could have done differently in the last 40 years. But if I had one thing I could say – one lesson learned that surpasses all others during this time – what follows is a pretty good expression of it. Hope you enjoy…)
How long are you going to wear that?
How long are you going to treat that uniform as if it’s a tattoo?
How long are you going to assume that past results are a guarantee of future disappointment?
How long are you going to treat failure as if it is a person – namely you – and not an event?
How long will you believe that people who love Jesus never blow it? And people who blow it could never love Jesus again?
How long – how long – will you assume that forgiveness couldn’t possibly mean restoration?
Maybe you’re the one who needs to get out of the boat. [click to continue…]
To a world He referred to as dark, and to people He said were distressed and dispirited, like sheep without a shepherd (that’s you and me), the Son of God appeared on the scene, moving at what must have appeared to some at times to be the speed of light. Unlike any preacher or prophet, rabbi or rabble-rouser they had seen before, He came with a different call – a different invitation.
“Join me,” He said. “Follow me.”
This was not a call for religious people to be more religious. It was not an invitation for unrighteous people to behave righteously. The stakes were and are far higher than that. The deep, abiding happiness He offers (“blessed” He called it) are an invitation to move from time Into Eternity. [click to continue…]
In his famous poem Desiderata, Max Ehrmann cautioned, “…neither be cynical about love, for in the face of all aridity and disenchantment it is as perennial as the grass.”
I think he was right.
But I also think I know what makes people cynical about love.
Having stood on the solo side more than 200 times as a man and woman use the most famous words in promise-making – “’til death do us part” – then assemble plenty of substitutes for “death” as the reason love goes awry, it’s hard sometimes not to get a little jaded.
But on this day that we set aside to celebrate love, apparently in all its manifestations, I am thankful to be part of a Kingdom that still speaks of love with the language of forever. And God didn’t blink, cough or shuffle side to side when He talked about love.
Love is as powerful as death; passion is as strong as death itself. It bursts into flame and burns like a raging fire. Water cannot put it out; no flood can drown it. But if anyone tried to buy love with his wealth, contempt is all he would get (Song of Solomon 8:6-7 TEV).
See that? God gets passion. But He also understands that Forever Love is more than pleasure, and it’s oblivious to wealth or other distractions. So what’s so different about this Love that Lasts Forever? [click to continue…]