Christmas Movies

Christmas would not be complete at the Jackson manse without a few “Christmas movie nights” where we change into our most comfortable clothes and settle down to watch Christmas movies together. Our three favorites are White Christmas, Christmas Vacation, and Home Alone. Like all good movies, these films evoke laughter as well as tears as we watch them. They also do something else – they remind us of deeper truths.

White Christmas was mainly written as a vehicle to accommodate Irving Berlin’s song by the same title. And yet, as we watch the story unfold with its forgotten General, broken dreams, and balmy temperatures in Pine Tree, Vermont at Christmas – we are reminded that while things have been, and currently are rough – better days are coming. It won’t always be like this. One day by the grace of God what has been lost will be restored. In fact, before God is finished, “we will be changed,” the Bible says. What we’re experiencing now is not how it will always be. Alzheimer’s will not have the last word. Cancer cannot win in the end. Brokenness will be restored, and sin defeated. The good guy will get the girl, the old General will be remembered, and the snow will come. In the memorable finale to this movie, General Waverly is again honored by his troops, Bob and Betty declare their love, and the background of the set is removed to show the falling snow. Everyone raises a glass, toasting as they sing, "May your days be merry and bright; and may all your Christmases be white."

The star of Christmas Vacation, of course, is none other than Clark W. Griswold. All Griswold wants is to give his family “the most fun-filled old-fashioned family Christmas ever." But everything goes wrong. First Clark can’t get the Christmas lights to come on; then Cousin Eddie shows up. Next the turkey explodes and Uncle Louis burns down the tree. To cap things off, Clark discovers that his Christmas bonus consists of an enrollment into the Jelly of the Month club. The classic line in this movie, for me anyway, is when Clark’s wife Ellen tells her daughter to stop complaining: “It’s Christmas Audrey…we’re all miserable.” In the end the Griswolds survive a holiday season that would try Job's patience, but it’s one that many of us can relate to. And yet Clark's faith never falters through it all. This avowed family man continues to count his blessings and in the end, all is well. This movie reminds us that even though our families often drive us nuts, there are few things in life that are more important than those whom God has put us together with. After all, the first Christmas was about a family too: Mary, Joseph, and baby Jesus. This Christmas as you gather with your family, lighten up; laugh a little. Be present in the moment.

Home Alone is about an 8 year-old boy named Kevin McCallister who gets accidentally left at home when his family forgets him on a Christmas vacation they take. At first Kevin is thrilled to have full run of the house. He eats forbidden junk food, watches forbidden movies, sleeps wherever he wants for as long as he wants to, and even raids his older brother’s room. But after a conversation with an elderly neighbor who is estranged from his family, Kevin realizes how lonely he really is. Being alone isn’t nearly as wonderful as he thought it would be. This movie reminds us how we often think we’d be happier if we didn’t have to answer to God – if we could do whatever we want to do. For a while we would probably revel in our newfound freedom. But in time we would begin to feel the emptiness and loneliness that comes from being isolated and at odds with God. Like Kevin, we’d eventually get homesick, even though we were still at home. Christmas is about Immanuel – “God with us.” We might think we’d like it better without his watchful eye upon us, but we really wouldn’t. The wonderful news of Christmas is that we haven’t been forgotten. We are not abandoned. We will never be “home alone” because God is with us forever.

Blogging - or the lack thereof...

Wow - it has been a long time since I last blogged. Believe me, I have my reasons, and none of them are pretty nor am I proud of them. With everything going on in our lives right now (my family, my church, and so on) honestly, my main goal has been to simply put one foot in front of the other, just trying to "keep on keeping on."

A good friend loaned me a book that has helped a lot in this regard - "Believe That You Can" by Jentezen Franklin. I have to admit that after watching Franklin on television (TBN - the "purple hair people) and after hearing him speak once (at a funeral) I never thought he would "have my ear." But his words have been encouraging me like words straight from the Lord; at least in the way that he has addressed my situation.

I will be back on the blogging bandwagon shortly. Thanks for your patience.

If it Ain't Broke...

I have enjoyed listening to the pundits and wags go on and on about the current global economic meltdown. As everyone who hasn’t been hiding under a rock for the past couple of years knows, we are in the middle of possibly the worst recession since the Great Depression. Regardless of whether you are a Democrat, Republican, Libertarian or something else, the main reasons for the recession are pretty clear: people refused to live within their means; banks got greedy and found themselves with boatloads of bad loans; the housing bubble burst; the stock market crashed; and unemployment rose. Throw in a dash of corporate corruption, a spike in oil prices, and an unpopular war and you have a sure-fire recipe for disaster.

The interesting thing I have noticed while reading about the economic mess is everyone saying, “Had the financial community, the politicians, and even ordinary consumers only realized something was wrong this would never have happened.” Had we known that something was amiss and that we were headed for a fall we would have saved more; we would have been more careful in our decision-making; we would not have bought houses we could not afford or vehicles to impress or taken extravagant vacations. We would have never invested in complex financial instruments we did not understand or “get-rich-quick” schemes. “If only we had known,” the critics claim, “then we could have avoided the pain of this economic downturn.”

I disagree. I am no financial genius, but it seems to me the handwriting was on the wall for years before the actual meltdown occurred. In fact, I vividly remember warnings that the housing bubble could burst at any time as far back as 1999 – that’s ten years ago! I have known since I was a child how important it is to save on a regular basis. Who knew that if you spend more than you make, pretty soon you are going to be in trouble? Did you? Honestly, was this really a surprise?

No, I think we are where we are today because there was a “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” mentality when it came to the economy. Housing prices continued to rise, gas prices were fairly cheap, jobs were plentiful, corporate profits were bordering on the obscene, and the stock market was at an all-time high. Why worry? With things going that well, nobody wanted to hear someone say, “Hey...something is not right here.” But someone should have said that, right in the midst of the 'good times,' and we should have listened. Fact is, someone probably did say that, but they got drowned out because nobody wanted to hear them.

We sometimes face the same predicament in the local church. There are times when things appear to be going swimmingly in the church - they are going great; everybody is happy. But then someone does some in-depth analysis of what is really going on in the congregation, or God gives an insight, and suddenly the realization dawns, “Something is not right here.” But no one wants to hear that, so no one wants to believe it is true. The cry goes out, "Don’t rock the boat! We like it like this – we like the status quo!" "Why change anything?"

In the final analysis this ends up being simply a different verse of that same old song, “It ain’t broke, don't fix it - just leave it alone.” And so pain is sure to follow – or worse, God’s hand of blessing is removed because of that church's failure to obey His leading.

Trust me, someone out there is looking at the bigger picture and they know… they know something is broken. The question is; will we listen?

License or Legalism?

We are holding membership meetings for our upcoming ministry year and I find myself in a familiar conundrum, one I have been in many times before in my role as a pastor; the battle between the opposing poles of license and legalism when it comes to membership in the local church.

On the one hand I am grateful for anyone who comes to Christ and wants to attend our church. I hate to add requirements or rules to being a member of our church such as attending a membership class in order to join, and regular worship attendance, participation in a small group, and service on a ministry team after you do join. Why does it bother me to require these things? Mainly because I remember familiar verses Jesus spoke like, “Come to me all you who are burdened and burdened and I will give you rest” (Matt. 11:28 emphasis mine). Jesus did not add a post script to that verse and say, “Oh, and do this, and that, and the other as well.” I am also haunted by Jesus’ sharp words to the Pharisees who he accused of being “Blind guides who strain out a gnat but swallow a camel” (Matt. 23:24). Jesus told them flat out that they were not only being unhelpful to those seeking to know God, but he said they were actually making it more difficult for people to connect with God because they were placing burdens which were not His burdens upon their shoulders.

I do not want to be legalistic – but it seems to me that in order to be faithful disciples of Christ and in order to accomplish anything as a church we need a clear standard or expectation for our members to live up to.

On the other side of the equation (license) I recall Jesus’ exhortation to “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it” (Matt. 7:13-14). Yes, Jesus is talking about salvation here and not church membership, but he is also clearly saying that not just anything goes. There is a path to follow to get to Him and it is not the six-lane expressway of “anything goes.” I also think of Jesus statement just below that where he says, “By their fruit you will know them” (Matt. 7:20). Believers are supposed to bear fruit; something is supposed to be happening in their lives that gives evidence of their faith. I am probably disturbed most of all by the account of the rich young ruler where Jesus clearly laid down what is expected or required, “Go and sell all you have and give it to the poor…and come follow me” (Luke 18:22) and the young man walked away. When he did Jesus did not chase after him and say, “Oh, I’m sorry, is that too difficult? Is that too much to ask? Then don’t worry about it.” No, Jesus let the man walk away. Jesus set the bar at a certain height and said that is the standard. Is that legalism? I don’t think so.

I confess that by nature I am more of a legalist than a license kind of guy. I am more afraid of the “anything goes” side of the pendulum than the "that's too hard for them." I heard Chuck Swindoll quote Francis Schaeffer on the radio tonight talking about what Schaeffer called the “great evangelical disaster” which is Christianity’s current propensity to accommodate the culture it exists in. Anything and everything goes because Jesus was “full of grace” so we should be too. Yes Jesus was full of mercy and grace, but he also had expectations – He had a standard. As a trophy of that grace myself I understand my life must be different than it was before he changed me and different than those around me.

And so the battle rages on in my heart and soul. Are we placing higher expectations on church members’ lives than even Jesus would? Shouldn’t we just be happy they are attending? Or should we set the bar where we believe Jesus would and then let them walk away if they won’t agree to that standard? It is a tough choice to make, but ultimately someone has to make that choice. What would you do?

Someday

I saw a great T-Shirt today. Here is what it had written on it

Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday
Saturday
Sunday

See, there is no “someday”

I did not purchase the T-shirt, but I agree with the sentiment. Unfortunately many of us spend our lives just going through the motions waiting for “someday” to come. Someday I will get a new job. Someday I will finish my degree. Someday I will deal with my addiction. Someday I will apologize. Someday I will forgive. Someday I will get in shape. Someday I will be happy. Someday I will _____________________________ (you fill in the blank).

The rash of celebrity deaths in recent days reminds us that even for the rich and famous our days may be cut short and we may run out of time before our someday arrives.

Here’s a thought. Why not make today be your someday?

Why put it off any longer?

When I was a child and had a band-aid on that needed to be changed I would try to painlessly ease the adhesive away from my skin. But that never worked. Sometimes you just need to grit your teeth and rip it off and get it over with. It actually hurts less that way. For you see, "Much of the pain of pain lies in the anticipation of the pain rather than the pain itself" (with apologies to Mike Brady).

I don’t know who I am writing this to tonight – it is late and I need to go to sleep. Perhaps I am writing to myself, or maybe I am writing to you. It does not matter. Truth is truth. Someday never comes. Make today be your someday and you won’t regret it. Deal with whatever it is that needs to be dealt with. Pray about it, make a decision, and then step into the pain and move on with your plan. There is no someday... there is only today.

Perceptions

We have all heard it before – "perception is everything." It does not really matter what the reality of any given situation is, people are going to form opinions about what it was really like and oftentimes those opinions are going to be more varied than you can possibly imagine.

How many times have you seen someone listen to a recording of their own voice and then insist the voice on the recording sounds nothing like them? Why is this? It is because we are the ONLY person in the world who experiences things from our point of view. The voice we are hearing does not sound like that to us when we speak, so how could it possibly sound like that when we hear it played back? It is because we all hear and see and experience things from our own unique perspective so we cannot possibly expect others to have the same experiences we do – even given completely identical stimuli.

Look at this picture. What do you see, an old woman with a big nose, or a beautiful young maiden? Look again – look long and hard; do you still see the same thing? What do you see? Beauty? Ugliness? Young? Old?

Perception is how you see the world around you. Every time you look at something, or someone, you are forming opinions. You are observing, processing, and deducing information to form an opinion. The opinions you arrive at may be accurate, or they may be far from the truth. Since we cannot be “inside” someone else’s mind and heart we can’t possibly know what the reality is in a given situation. Truth is, sometimes we do not even know or understand our own motives. And if our motives and perceptions are unknown even to us on the "inside" of life as we experience it, how can those "outside" us have a chance to understand what the reality is in a given situation? We are constantly unconsciously running everything we experience through a set of filters we were born with, or educated into, or we picked up from our generation or from a previous generation.

Why am I talking about this? I am writing about perceptions because of today’s worship service at my church. Depending upon who you ask at our church and certain factors I have yet to completely sort out, today’s service was either, “exactly what a ‘win’ looks like at NewSong,” or else it was “one of the worst services we have had in a long time.”

I know. No one ever said leadership was easy. This evening I perceive it to be very difficult. I am not even sure what step to take next. As usual it brings me back to the old leadership arts of listening, measuring, clarifying and communicating. Perhaps it is even time to retool a few things. But whose perceptions to we retool towards? What do people actually perceive? And what is the correlation between what they perceive and the underlying reality? Is what people were either deliriously happy about or totally disgusted with today even the issue on the table now?

How do we deal with perceptions and whose perceptions matter most (besides God’s, of course). What do you think?

Days of Small Beginnings

Some days I wake up and everything about planting a church seems overwhelming. We have been at it for nine years now at NewSong and we’re still averaging less than 200 people in worship on any given weekend. Each week it seems like we have to reinvent the wheel about some facet of our service as though it has never been done or thought of before. Even the simplest things, which should have been worked out years ago, still cause us to stumble around as though we are caught unawares or unprepared.

I recognize church-planters don’t have a monopoly on discouragement. Anyone can get discouraged. The hill looks too high to climb. The ditch seems too broad to jump. The odds seem too overwhelming. The finish line seems too far off to even matter.

The book of Zechariah tells us that this is exactly how some of God’s people felt as they went about a task that seemed too big and too difficult for them to accomplish. Zechariah, a prophet of God, was with his fellow Israelites back in Jerusalem after the temple Solomon had built was destroyed.

The Israelites had already rebuilt the walls around the city, but the rebuilding of the temple was still incomplete even after many years of fits and starts. Zechariah struggled to encourage the people to get the temple rebuilt, but progress was slow. The work was inconsistent, and the people’s motivation seemed to come and go. Inner discouragement hindered their ability to consistently follow through with a slow-and-steady building plan. They wanted their efforts to produce more immediate, noticeable, "bigger" results. Boy does that sound familiar!

In the midst of these events, God asks, “Does anyone dare despise this day of small beginnings?” (Zech. 4:10). The question reveals the cause of the Israelites’ discouragement: impatience and short-sightedness. The truth of the matter is, as we have known since the days of Aesop, “slow and steady wins the race.” Building a church involves far more slow, “tortoise” days than fast, “hare” ones. The perception that all you need to do is to get a good praise band together and some cool media and you’ll be the next Northpoint in six months time is simply not true. In fact, the statistics that are regularly quoted indicate that 80 percent of church plants don’t even survive their first year. Church-planting is a day-in, day-out, “grind it out” undertaking. Church-planting is a “two steps forward and one step back” proposition. Church-planting is not for the faint of heart or the weary of step.

And so today I choose to refuse to despise these our days of small beginnings. Today I commit to stay at the wheel, believing our small beginnings will someday produce a great ending. I will choose to hold on to God’s Word even when it seems as though what we’re doing is not making

It Don't Come Easy

Some weeks the Sunday sermon comes easily. Other weeks, well….it’s tough. This week has been one of those tough weeks for me. I have probably already invested over ten hours of time in a twenty-five minute sermon and I’m still not sure exactly what I’m going to say. That is ridiculous. Worse, I am not really quite sure why it happens. I suppose there are a variety of reasons. Some weeks it is because the text I believe I am supposed to preach is a difficult one. Other weeks there is stuff going on in my own life or in the life of my church which makes preaching like walking through a minefield; every step must be taken gingerly. Some weeks my well is just dry; my creative gauge is on zero, especially after I have been preaching for 6-8 weeks straight without a break.

More often than not the problem is what is called “paralysis by analysis.” I read, meditate, and pray over a text so long that it starts saying a whole bunch of stuff to me; far more than I could ever cover in one sermon. Then there are the times I find myself thinking more about how to actually present the sermon, worrying about my illustrations, PowerPoint slides, etc…more than the content of the message itself. Tons of stuff is going on between my two ears, but little of it will actually make it out of my mouth come Sunday.

Usually when I get in these modes I do one of two things. I do a brain dump and write down everything I am thinking (usually pages worth) and then I eventually get on a track that I can sustain and which is logical and comprehensible. The other thing I do when I get “stuck” is I just get up and walk away from the task for a while. These times I believe God is telling me I'm just not ready to write the sermon yet. When I come back to the task, usually after sleeping on it, it comes into focus more clearly.

The Bible is a great book and its depths will never be fully plumbed by preachers; not in a million years. Still, crafting 45-48 sermons worth listening to a year is a daunting task. I thank God for His inspiration and pray He will always find me a willing vessel.

Book Revew: A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man

I just finished A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce. What a struggle to read! I don’t know why I have this thing about finishing every book I start, but I do. It is as if there is some great ghost professor somewhere who has assigned me any book I pick up to read; somehow I feel like failing to complete a book I start means that I am a failure. I read a lot of classics so sometimes when I find a book difficult or boring, I research the story, either online or in a couple of books I own. Then I just charge on through it; at least after reading the summary I know what I am reading and why it is supposed to be so important. That is exactly what I did with this 246 page book. I knew about 20 pages in it was going to be a tough read, but I carried on. Why I'll never really know.

James Joyce is one of modern literature's most important authors, yet I’m not alone in finding his work difficult to grapple with. The main character of this book, Stephen Dedalus, in my mind is a highly flawed person with a very sad life. He has problems with bullies, with people who do not understand him or like him, sexual issues, “mommy and daddy” issues, teacher issues, spiritual issues, and more. Life for Stephen appears to be a random succession of cruelty, isolation, injustice and anger. He only finds escape through a few short-lived personal victories, most of which he later regrets deeply.

The way you learn all this is from inside the main character’s head. Using a stream of consciousness technique, Joyce presents the thoughts, impressions, emotions and reminiscences of his protagonist, often disregarding their logical sequence. This is intended to mirror the complexities of the subconscious mind. The book is also highly autobiographical. Joyce, like Dedalus, grew up a Catholic, and even studied briefly for the priesthood before renouncing his faith at age twenty spending the rest of his life living in Paris, Trieste, Rome, and Zurich as a poet and a writer.

Metaphorically speaking (and you can’t read a classic without speaking metaphorically!), the book is a proto-typical coming of age story. It is about how to forge your own identity and to make your own way. Like Icarus (son of Dedalus in the Greek myth) the reader watches as Stephen tries to fabricate wings of his own so he can fly above the tribulations of his life and establish his own life elsewhere. In doing so he rebels against the religious beliefs he inherited, his family and friends, and the deeper, and more complex struggles he faces in society as a whole. He concludes that if he is ever going to find his true soul (in his case, the soul of an artist), he must sever all bonds of faith, family, and country and then spread his wings and go follow his dream.

To be honest with you, I do not recommend this book unless you want to be confused and depressed – or, unless someone assigns it to you to read like my “ghost professor.”

Book Review: Here's the Story

I stopped by the library with Donna recently and looked in the “new books” section and found the 2008 biography of Maureen McCormick titled Here’s The Story: Surviving Marcia Brady and Finding My True Voice. I love to read biographies and usually pick more, shall I say, "historical” characters, but I could not resist reading a book about one of the Brady Bunch. Because I’have always been a big Brady Bunch fan – I’have also probably seen every episode at least two or three times. At our house the girls have a running joke about me because they think my deep sayings often sound like Mr. Brady; things like, “You have to be a friend to have a friend, kids.”

But I digress; the book only takes a few pages to cover the “Brady” years. I believe Barry Williams wrote what is considered the definitive “Brady Bunch" book. Instead McCormick’s book is more of a personal memoir covering the ups and (honestly, mostly) downs of her life.

McCormick was born the same year as me, 1956, and grew up in Southern California (where she still lives with her husband and daughter today). She began her career at the tender age of six after winning the Baby Miss San Fernando Valley beauty pageant. She then appeared in numerous commercials for great sixties brands like Mattel Toys, Kool-Aid, and Mr. Bubble (to name a few). She also appeared in early episodes of some great sixties shows like Bewitched and My Three Sons before landing her role as Marcia Brady on The Brady Bunch, which aired in prime time from 1969 to 1974.

McCormick clearly had her share of troubles, especially after the show ended, and she writes candidly and courageously about them. It seems most child-actors end up going down the road of drug abuse, rehab and multiple marriages. Honestly though, McCormick seems to have had an even more difficult time than most. In addition to the usual stock of downfalls McCormick also survived depression, an eating disorder, and more. Of course, all this makes her more human, and thus easy in some ways to relate to. I could see how women my age who idolized Marcia Brady could gain a sense freedom in the fact that prim and perky Marcia Brady struggled like we all do.

After kicking her drug habit, McCormick battled depression, reconnected with her mother, whom she nursed through the end of her life, and then found herself in a pitched battle for her family with her weird brother. McCormick also chronicles her faith experiences in the book. She admits that she was “not an easy or quick convert” (pg. 146). She also recounts her conversion experience where she was walking down Westwood Boulevard in LA when, suddenly and without warning, she was thrown to the ground by God. Then she saw two hands reaching down from the sky towards her; “it was Jesus,” she said (pg. 148). After that McCormick began attending a Vineyard church, but she still seems like more a a seeker to me.

The “story” has a relatively happy ending, although not everything is resolved. What's more, since “Marcia” is still alive, her story continues. This biography is definitely worth reading. I consider it a good, but not great, read. Reading the book held my attention but I did not feel as though I lwas reading a barn-burner.

Book Review: The Principle of the Path

I just finished Andy Stanley’s latest book, The Principle of the Path. I love this book. Stanley never ceases to amaze me at his ability to lay out deep spiritual truths in easy-to-understand ways. He does this in a way that makes you think, “How could I have missed that?” or, “How did he see that? I have read that passage a hundred times.”

The essence of this book is the “principle” Stanley wants to get across. Again, it is so simple, you wonder how come you haven’t picked up on it before. The 'Principle of the Path' says that the direction you are currently traveling – relationally, financially, spiritually, and so on – will determine where you end up in each of those respective areas. This principle is true regardless of your goals, your dreams, your wishes, or your wants. In other words, “The principle of the path trumps all these things. Your current direction will determine your destination” (pg. 15).

This principle explains why so many seemingly smart people – people with good intentions – often end up far from where they intended to be. They start out with a clear vision of where they want to be in five or ten years, but then they miss that destination by a mile. Why? Because the path they chose was not headed in that direction despite their best intentions. Stated positively, if you want to arrive at a certain destination, you must choose the right path. The problem, of course, is that we have a propensity for choosing paths that do not lead in the direction we say we want to go. This disconnect happens because “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?” (Jeremiah 17:9). Most of us actually do know what is right and true, and honorable; the problem is we are not on what Stanley calls a “truth quest.” Instead we are on what he calls a “happiness quest.” We want to feel happy - now - and our quest for happiness often overrides our appreciation for what we know is true; what we know we should do. In our pursuit for immediate happiness we refuse to delay gratification for the greater good that will come later. The answer to this problem, Stanley says, is to pursue truth; to stare it right in the eye and then pursue it, because as Jesus said, “You shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free” (John 8:32).

The good thing about the principle of the path is that even though it often works to our detriment, it can also be leveraged to our advantage. Like the law of gravity it works all the time. That means just as there are paths that will led us to places we never intended to be, there are paths that will lead us away from those places as well – and paths that will lead us exactly where we want to go – the key is acknowledging the truth, and then getting on the right path to begin with; and then sticking to that path.

Most of the biblical wisdom in the book comes from Solomon and the book of Proverbs. Solomon was the wisest man who ever lived (besides Jesus) and much of his wisdom is written down for us in Proverbs. Like I said above, the great thing about Andy Stanley is he takes things a step or two deeper than many teachers and he really points out places of application where we can apply these truths. One of my favorite features of the book is the questions he suggests we ask ourselves along the way to analyze why we have chosen a particular path. Questions like, “Why am I doing this, really?” And, “If someone in my circumstances came to me for advice, what course of action would I recommend?” And, “In light of my past experience, my future hopes, and my dreams, what is the wise thing to do?” This last question is probably the best one of all.

My prayer is that the next time I find myself standing at a fork in the path I will use my head more than my heart and choose wisely. After all, the direction does determine destination, every time.

Thanks Andy!

Recovered Post: Ups and Downs

Here is the post from yesterday that I deleted this morning trying to get rid of a weird comment. On re-reading it I find I'm not as down this afternoon as I was last night when I wrote this; looks like God is winning the battle!

Ups and Downs

Posted Yesterday at 10:25pm

It has been one of those up and down kind of days.First, the “up” part: I was able to get my “Monday” stuff done at church today and even got my message ready for Good Friday. The message is a meditation on one of Jesus’ sayings from the cross: “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit” Luke 23:46. It was good to have some quality study time meditating on the cross. I hope to have more of these special times with God this week.

The down part is that I struggled with disappointment today over the small crowd we had on Sunday. I knew it was coming; spring break means we’re going to have lots of people out. But even though I was prepared for that, the crowd size disappointed me. I confess I have a unhealthy preoccupation with numbers. I know the true measure of success for every church is how well they are fulfilling their God-given mission. But still, when 22 families are out in a church our size it hurts.

God was good to me though. After church when I walked out to my car I noticed one of our communication cards stuck under my windshield wiper. A child had written on it, “Pastor Steve, You are appreciated and loved. Thanks for all you do." Thanks my young friend. And thanks God for the encouragement.

The lesson in all this, of course, is that it is God’s church and not mine (Matt. 16:18). Furthermore, the battle itself is the Lord’s, not mine (1 Samuel 17:45-47). It does not matter whether the battle is “out there” or “in here" (in me),” because the battle is the Lord’s. David knew that when he faced Goliath, Joshua knew it as he circled the walls of Jericho, and Peter and Paul knew it as they faced their challenges too.

Perhaps in this special week where God overcame even something as debilitating and as final as death, God can teach me and change me too.

Lord, hear my prayer.