Vacation?

I'm researching Psalm 22, which begins, "My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?" While I know God neither slumbers or sleeps (psalm 121) I wonder if God takes a vacation?

I know as my family prepares to camp this summer, I make plans to vacate several of my identities: mom, pastor, chief complainer and put on a new one: camper. But sometimes I think I try to take a vacation from being a child of God. I forget who and whose I am. Well sometimes, to be honest I set aside my values and jump headfirst into self-centered hedonism. Isn't that how we define vacation?

Does God do the same? At the beginning of this psalm, the author certainly feels the absence of God's presence. This is a LAMENT! The psalmist is picturing God off having an iced tea under a perfect sky while dressed in bermuda shorts and attended by bikini clad angels, rather than saving him from his current predicament. (wow that's just wrong) Where is my constant companion? Where did God go?

True to form the psalmist cries out in frustration to God and expresses the dire nature of the present situation in gripping (griping?!) detail and then remembers God's faithfulness, the blessings of the Holy Spirit and the sacrifice of Jesus.

While this psalm may remind one of the saying "If you feel that God is far away, guess who moved?" it isn't that simplistic. Upon further review the psalmist stands. It is because of his faith in God's deliverance that his suffering is increased by the mocking of his enemies. It isn't a lack of faith or unrighteous living that has created this feeling of distance from God. It is a difference of vision. We are not always in the same rhythm as God. We do not see as God sees and we expect that God's success in human history will be equivalent with our success.

People who are acting on faith sometimes make assumptions about how God will act. then we act on that belief whether or not it is accurate. When we find ourselves alone and unsupported we lament because we feel that God has not lived into God's part of the bargain. It is then that we think that God must be on vacation.

I found my answer in Isaiah 40:31. I have that scripture on a ring that I wear as a daily reminder: "Those who wait upon the Lord will renew their strength. They will mount up on wings and soar as eagles, they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not grow weak." Instead of ditching my christian identity this summer, perhaps I will wait upon the Lord. I will serve.(get it "wait" upon the Lord) I will rest. I will prepare to fly. I will condition myself to run the race set before me. I will walk with God and not grow weak. (Wow I think I mixed about 5 scripture references in there) Then if (when?!) the world gets abusive and I feel that God is no longer by my side, I will remember that my vacation is in the Lord. If I simply wait, God will save. And generations will know God's grace through the stories we tell of God showing up whether we work or vacation.

Living in the Poverties of Lent

This is the season of Lent. Often we religious/spiritual types seek to give something up for 40 days as a sign of our devotion. Our act of sacrifice is rarely that, a sacrifice. It becomes almost a sport or contest rather than an offering to God. I am not saying that our sacrifice is meant to be some kind of payment for future grace, but it is supposed to cost us something significant. However, I have been chewing on a different piece of cud this season.
What if we live in a season of poverty to better identify with Christ who came to serve the least and the last and the lost? Jesus asked the young ruler to leave all of his riches and follow him. I am no Jesus, as I've often said, so I am not asking for us to put on ashes and sackcloth and martyr ourselves to impress the public or to make ourselves worthy to follow Jesus. Let me get to what I am saying.
Let us not livein our abundance but each week let us live in a different mode of poverty. The partial poverty list includes a poverty of:
clean, plentiful water
fellowship
spirit
material goods
cultural acceptance
freedoms
In a small group decide to live in one of the poverties in some way. The group could research how the world lives or experiences that poverty. They could choose to experience the poverty for themselves for the week. I think an example will help. Your group is working on the poverty of clean, plentiful water for the week. Two people are doing research: one on how people survive without clean, plentiful water and the other on how different groups have worked with indigeonous (sp?) to help provide their communities with adequate clean water. Two other people in the group are recognizing how much water they use. One is calculating how much water in all its forms he uses each day, while his partner is trying to see if she can survive on 5 gallons of water a day. Other people in other groups have other ways of experiencing this poverty, so at a predetermined time groups meet to share their research and experiences. After sharing and worshipping God and thanking God for the Spirit's presence, it is time to choose how to live and learn regarding the next poverty.
Spending Lent in poverty will help people develop networks of communication, help people find God working amidst the poverty, help people quiet the noisiness of this world to hear the voice of God and help people live amongst the people Jesus came to save. In this season of repentance, forgiveness, atonement, discipline, humility and sacrifice the people of God need to evaluate their relationship not only with the Trinity but with the people whom God wishes us to love. I think that the time has come to try something new this Lenten season. While giving up coffee or chocolate may fulfill what the culture thinks is necessary, living in the poverties of Lent may fulfill what Jesus has called us to do in order to be his disciples. Good LUCK! Let me know if you take on this challenge. I am writing the curriculum resource for this idea during this Lent so I can present the finished idea next year (2011). I would love to add your experiences. Look forward to hearing from y'all.

AHHHH Chooooo

I'm sidelined. I need to stay quiet and rest. If you know me at all you know how hard this will be. I can not seem to get important stuff done. THe medicines do not seem to be rejuvenating me as I hoped. I started prayer twittering to focus me on God and prayer instead of focusing on wahhhhhhh poor me. If you are looking for me on twitter my site is jodester32. right now Erin and ANdy are my only followers. gotta go Jodi

Doves

Our morning doves have returned! Their call who-WAH-who, who-who greets me in the morning and annoys me at night. I was worried that they wouldn't return because of what happened last year. They had nested on our propane tanks. When the tanks were removed the nest was disturbed. I didn't think they would return, after all their eggs had been destroyed. I guess I could pontificate about resilience in the animal kingdom or God's peace suviving the odds. The doves simply represent that tried and true classic, the hope of spring.
Their feathers are a silver grey that matches the sky or our mood on those overcast days that threaten rain, snow or fog. Their grace reflect gentle breezes that whisper warm promises. Their dedication to rebuilding a home is similar to the perseverance of green that relentlessly creeps the slopes of the horizon. Their playful hopping and teasing games break winter's silence with the joy of new creation.
Can you avoid the God in this metaphor? Physically this time of year is difficult. My body doesn't handle weather changes well. So I look forward to any sign that God is still creating in this world, that promises are still being kept. I hear talk that the end is near but obviously it is not today. I can get up and praise God regardless of the storms in my life. This is what Paul is talking about in IICorinthians. This is resurrection talk. In the midst of lenten atonement and connecting to God through sacrifice, my eyes are on the prize, Easter Sunday. I guess the dove of peace is not just for baptism anymore. These doves are for resurrection. Can you hear their call? WHO-WAH-WHO, who-who They're calling you too!

Listening

I just spent an hour with the most amazing young woman. My job was to listen to her. JUST LISTEN. I did ask some questions to keep her talking. I listened to her face and body language. I listened to her tone and attitude. I listened to her eagerness and reticence. I feel guilty because I was so blessed by her story. I was there to help her and once again God blessed me. By listening I was able to let God's light shine into her darkness.

I just spent an hour with the most amazing young woman. My job was to BE with her. JUST BE. She had come through surgery with flying colors. The painkillers made her drowsy and she needed to keep her heavy lids closed. So I sung songs and told stories. She listened. I put a cool compress on her forehead and said healing prayers with her. She listened. I held her hand as she slept. She listened. I was blessed. The restful look in her mom's eyes and the quick smile made all the difference to me. When I hugged my friend the patient goodbye I could feel how grateful she was that God had been brought into her recovery room.

Listening is the skill that will always be in need of improvement. The skills of knowing when to shut up and knowing what to say, at the right time and the right way constantly escape me when they are needed most. But today I spent time with two amazing women who taught me how to listen and how to be listened to.

How do you listen? Who listens to you? What do you have to say? What do you need to hear?

Giving you my DIGITS, an article in the making

When I was growing up the most common way to "see" the pastor was face-to-face. I saw him/her from the pulpit or during a pastoral visit at my home (very rare). Occassionally the pastor would call. Those calls were not for pastoral care but for information. "Would my mom bake, could my mom take?" I was never called. I assumed, (I know dangerous ground here) that I was not old enough to have anything to offer.



Now I am the pastor and things have changed! Communication and Care are very different. The personal call is only one tool in my arsenal. Phone calls, book readings, emails, snail mails, text messages, instant messages, blogs and face-to-face are all methods to reach people for the Kingdom. This is the world I occupy. Teaching, preaching, caring, and daring are immersed in this digital world. Now I am not even beginining to talk about evangelism, these people already attend my church. I see them almost every Sunday but my primary relationship is at some other time in some other format.



My readers and I exchange books and give reviews of both the writers and the ideas. I choose books that will help them along their journeys and also prepare them for what lies ahead. I have given them fiction and training books. They understand what I am preaching and teaching becuase they have previewed it in the texts I am using.



The people I call often need the facelessness of the phone in order to bear their soul. They also need the immediacy of the interaction the phone calls allow. There is something about the soothing sound of the human voice that cannot be captured or manufactured by anything else but the phone.



Emails and Snail Mails harken back to the age of "Pride and Prejudice." I can create an image with words that is physical. A person can literally hold on to my words and I, theirs. I can reread and brood over these words and tease out every level of meaning. On dark days I can bring sunshine by revisiting a compliment or success story. Yet this medium asks for brevity and a smart use of words to keep up with the busy-ness of today's world.



Texting and Instant messaging are alike since they give brevity and immediacy. These mediums weed out those pesky emotions that often cloud an issue. That quality makes my job even harder, because I need to be specific and check my inferences. However, I should be doing that all the time. I hone my communication skills using this new foreign languages of abbreviations and icons.



But does my ministry change based on the medium? Am I reaching a different demographic with different mediums? Are people less cared for? Where is all this speed taking us? I don't know. This is the world we live in and I think the conversation needs to begin with the medium. I am lucky, as my more "vintage" colleagues remind me, I can use all of these forms. Yet, I am not the model of what every pastor should be. That is why a church needs to develop how it will communicate with this new world. What abundance the Lord has afforded us! Let us not be poor stewards of our words or the WORD.

"In the beginning" God created

What God created was formless and shapeless, a void. Doesn't sound much like the God I've seen create. John Wesley describes it as: 'Twas shapeless, 'twas useless, 'twas without inhabitants, without ornaments; the shadow or rough draught of things to come.' I love the idea of God's rough draft. How often do we think that in God's perfection, God didn't need a rough sketch, an outline, a rough draft of what was to come? In my hurry to get to what God was creating, I overlooked what God started with.

I am praying for several people right now regarding health issues. Some may be family issues, fear issues, strength issues, grief issues, transition issues, but all are spiritual issues. I have been looking towards what God will do. I have forgotten to look at what God has already done. What seems to me to be a wasteless void, a chaotic confusion, and a formless mess is really God's rough draft of what is to come.

My friend who fears going to the doctor will show how restoring a relationship with health care will lead to health regardless of the diagnosis. But right now, she is relying on God to lead her and protect her as an act of faith.

The family that is in crisis will learn how to listen to each other and communicate their needs and independence to each other. But now they are looking outside the family and asking for God reconciling power to act.

The women who are dealing with grief and grieving issues will see how God will unite them and use the gifts of the Keepers of the Faith that have gone on before to bring forth the Kingdom. But now they are living one minute at a time and living it with raw emotion and sharing the stories of these legends.

The church that is dealing with a pastoral change will show how they are the body of Christ that can never be defeated. But right this very moment they are cementing relationships through outbursts and forgiveness. They are fighting and making plans with God.

How could I have missed all that? I was in such a hurry for God to get to the part where light was created and a happy ending became possible, that I forgot the beauty that is, was, and will be contained in the struggle. I threw out the rough draft because I forgot that it was the foundation for what was to come. I hope you can learn from my mistake. I know I did.