Follow-Up To Sunday's Message

I want to pass along a prayer called “Your Most Basic Act of Worship” written by Ruth Meyers in her book called 31 Days of Praise. This prayer comes from the text in Romans 12:1 about offering ourselves to God as a spiritual act of worship. I have begun using this as a way of offering myself to God as a "living sacrifice" each day.

Lord, I’m Yours. Whatever the cost may be, may Your will be done in my life. I realize I’m not here on earth to do my own thing, or to seek my own fulfillment or my own glory. I’m not here to indulge my desires, to increase my possessions, to impress people, to be popular, to prove I’m somebody important, or to promote myself. I’m not here even to be relevant or successful by human standards. I’m here to please You.

I offer myself to You, for You are worthy. All that I am or hope to be, I owe to You. I’m Yours by creation, and every day I receive from You life and breath and all things. And I’m Yours because You bought me, and the price You paid was the precious blood of Christ. You alone, the Triune God, are worthy to be my Lord and Master. I yield to You, my gracious and glorious heavenly Father; to the Lord Jesus who loved me and gave Himself for me; to the Holy Spirit and His gracious influence and empowering.

All that I am and all that I have I give to You. I give You any rebellion in me, which resists doing Your will. I give You my pride and self-dependence, which tell me I can do Your will in my own power if I try hard enough. I give You my fears, which tell me I’ll never be able to do Your will in some areas of my life. I consent to let You energize me…to create within me, moment by moment, both the desire and the power to do Your will.

I give You my body and each of its members…my entire inner being: my mind, my emotional life, my will…my loved ones…my marriage or my hopes for marriage…my abilities and gifts…my strengths and weaknesses…my health…my status (high or low)…my possessions…my past, my present and my future…when and how I’ll go Home.

I’m here to love You, to obey You, to glorify You. O my Beloved, may I be a joy to You!

EXAMEN Your Day

One of the things I believe I have been hearing from God on this Sabbatical is my need to really get centered on Him and to see Him in ALL things. I don't usually have a problem seeing God in the fireworks, earthquakes and tornadoes of life - it's the still, small voice of everyday life where my hearing and seeing is not so good.

Tammy and I have been reading alot about incorporating spiritual disciplines into our daily life in order to stay grounded. One of these is a practice called examen. The Examen is a popular way of praying and was developed by St. Ignatius Loyola (1491-1556) ,founder of the Society of Jesus (The Jesuits). He suggested that his brothers undertake a daily way of praying by examining
their lives so they could better serve God. Here are some ways to daily "examen" your day:

Recall you are in the presence of God.
• Ask the Holy Spirit to help you look at your life with love this day.

Look at your day with gratitude.
• Begin to give thanks to God for the gifts of the day.

Ask help from the Holy Spirit.
• Look at the ways you have responded to God’s gracious gifts and love this day.

Review your whole day
• Notice the details. The context of what happened. How you acted. Your motives. Your feelings. When did I fail? Where you did not feel at your best. How conscious have you been of God’s presence and actions in your life? When did I love? See both the positive and negative. Let yourself become more sensitive to God’s grace.

• Reconcile and Resolve.
• Imagine Jesus sitting beside you. Maybe there is something you did wrong—now is the time to tell Jesus you are sorry and ask Him to be with you the next time a similar situation arises.

Hope for a Broken World

As you may know, I love various types of music. And one thing I particularly love is "tight" harmonies with an acoustic guitar only. Add that to lyrics that move me or speak to me and you've got a masterpiece. Well, here is just such a song. I came across it this morning by Selah. It brought a tear to my eye:

I Don't Always Get It

We had the opportunity to worship in Lincoln this past Sunday. While the setting seemed much more like a rock concert (smoke rising up from the dimly-lit stage as the worship team came up), I did manage to hear a word from the Lord. I was simply reminded that there are many times that God does something (or is doing something) that makes no sense to us in that moment. We question, "Lord what are you up to? I don't get this." But God asks us to just trust Him, to be patient. It's like the story in John 13. Jesus comes to Simon Peter to wash his feet and Peter doesn't get it - at all!. But Jesus says, "Hang in there. You will understand in a little bit." Sure enough, Peter gets it (for the most part. He goes a little overboard, but he gets it).

Here's my point: There are 3 learnings I'm reminded about God's way of doing things -

1. We will understand and see immediately what God is doing.
2. We will simply have to wait (days, months, years) before we know what God was up to.
3. We will never know (in this life) what God was doing because it will have played out in the next generation or maybe even much later.

My response? Stay faithful. Stay committed. Trust in the Lord with ALL my heart. Don't lose heart. God is good. His steadfast love endures forever.

Catch Your Breath

Our family is totally blessed to be able to enjoy some much needed quality time together. We are so thankful to our Bellwood Faith Family for the opportunity to take a sabbatical and do some things we wouldn't normally get to do.

We recently returned from Colorado. It was a memorable visit. I was taking pictures like crazy trying to capture the beauty of everything, but it's hard to do. Pictures and words just can't describe the magnitude of God's good creation - everything from Pikes Peak to the Garden of the Gods. It was all breath-taking!

One of the unique features of Colorado that will literally take your breath away is the change in altitude. We went from about 1,500 ft in elevation (Milford) to almost 10,000 ft at Rocky Mtn.

Mennonite Camp. It definitely took some adjusting. We had to go slow the first two days. I was ready to go climb Pikes Peak the first day, but that would not have been a smart thing. We did get to drive up the parkway and made it to the summit. Once again, you had to go slow in order to adjust the the new elevation which is 14, 115 feet. (It used to be 14,110 but they said it had "grown" five feet). Once we were there, the view took your breath away. We could see for miles! We could even see the curvature of the Earth.

Wow - God is certainly the Master Artist. We were in awe of His creation.

Am I Really THAT Busy?

We had the opportunity to worship at a church in Lincoln today. One of the things the pastor said that hit home was that "people are not really that busy". I look around at people in my congregation and in my community and say "we ARE busy people". Just 12 days into my sabbatical I've noticed how busy I usually am. We are too busy - with other things; things other than God, but the pastor today said no.

Here's his point: We can always make time for that which is really important to us.

Think about that. Whatever is important to us, we will drop everything to be there. We will put it on the top of our priority list. We will get up early so we don't miss it. We will miss doing or attending other things in order to be part of this thing that is important to us.

We are as busy as we choose to be. I know some people who feel trapped in their busyness. They feel like they have to be so busy in order to please everyone (their spouse, their kids, their co-workers, their pastor...and yes, even God), but the fact is we are not slaves or robots. We have the freedom to choose. You and I have the ability and the freedom to say either yes or no. This is called having boundaries.

So the next time you feel like you are just too busy, ask yourself "what is it about this project or event that is making me feel this way? Is it really THAT important? Is there something else MORE important that I should be doing? Or some other place I should be?"

Strengthening My Soul

I am reading a book entitled "Strengthening the Soul of Your Leadership" by Ruth Haley Barton. She says one of the best things a pastor can say to their congregation is, "It is well with my soul". I hope to be able to say that at the end of my sabbatical. Too often the daily grind of pastoral work starts to eat away at one's soul. Jesus asks, "What does it profit someone to gain the whole world and lose his own soul?" What does it profit a pastor to preach the world's best sermon, build the largest membership, gain everyone's approval and yet lose their soul? Sabbatical is a time for me to receive from God and not have to wonder if "this will preach" or not. Barton says, "Many of us have reached a place where we have acquired a lot of knowledge and accomplished much, but something is missing. We are desperate to find our way back to God that will feed our own souls. I'm tired of helping others enjoy God. "

During my sabbatical I will be intentional about times of solitude and silence in hopes of hearing from God and just being with God. What might God reveal to me about Himself? What might God reveal to me about myself? What will God ask me to change? I'm not sure, but I will try to be open to what God has for me. Barton says that when the pain of staying the same is greater greater than the pain of changing, we are ripe for God to act. Like a sacrifice, I bring myself into God's presence. I offer myself to Him. Most of what happens in solitude is happening below the surface. I will have to trust that even though I may not see it, God will continue to do a transforming work in me. Only those whom God has transformed are prepared to lead others in the transformation they seek.

It is good to remove myself from the arena where I receive so much of my identity from. I have already struggled a bit with feeling like I should be doing something - but sabbatical will remind me to be still and know that God is God AND that my identity is in Him and not in what I do. I look forward to journey on a path of better self-discovery. Like Moses with the burning bush, I hope to pay better attention to God. Too many times I am so busy doing God's work that I totally miss where He is - why? Because I am a fixer, a problem-solver. I am used to pushing ahead with whatever needs doing, but sabbatical is not about fixing, solving or doing. It's about letting go - of patterns and behaviors that no longer serve me well. Barton says, "We live in bondage to that which does not take us forward in the life of grace."

I have experienced much grace in my life - but unfortunately I forget to live out of that grace sometimes. We all need moments in our life to allow the chaos and busyness to settle so we can allow God to remind us of His steadfast love for each of us. This reminder will strengthen my soul.