[ No Comments ] Posted on 05.23.10 under Live Your Journey
Yesterday Susie and I celebrated our 16th Wedding Anniversary. It’s still hard to believe that it was 16 years ago that we made our vows before God and our family and friends. I can actually remember it like it was yesterday. I remember the puffy clouds in the sky. I remember a getting out pictures taken outside of the church. And I remember seeing Susie, my bride, coming down that center isle …
A lot has happened in the past 16 years – the two greatest things that happened were the birth of our two kids!
So our anniversary came and Susie had something planned. It was a crazy week to be sure – as busy as we have ever been in our lives. Work is over-the-top for the both of us, then there’s swimming and baseball for the kids, homework, and so much more. So I really had no idea what our plan was for the evening. But what I did know was that the 4 of us were going out together. I know, it sounds crazy, taking the kids on a date on your anniversary, but hang on a minute and hear me out …
Our life has been so busy that it has taken us away from one another. We all experience this at different seasons in our lives. But Jesus has really been speaking to me about this busyness and how it kills intimacy, with Him, with my family, with others. And I have really been seeing how it is hurting our family. We have literally been passing each other as we were coming and going. I’d hurry home from work, change clothes, load up the car with baseball stuff and head out to practice or a game. Dinners together? Not for some time. And all of us have missed it, badly. Susie and I for sure, but we can even tell that the kids are feeling disconnected. So when Susie asked me a couple of weeks ago about our anniversary, she asked if I wanted it to just be us, or if the kids should come. Without hesitation I wanted it to be the four of us!
We got in the car and Susie drove us to a bowling alley – not just a bowling alley, but the bowling alley that we had gone to on our first date, almost 18 years ago! The kids were so excited and so was I. It didn’t take long for me to realize plan for the evening: we were going to do the very things we did and go to the very places we went to on our first date. I loved it; the kids loved it – they’d ask all sorts of questions about our first date.
A couple of lessons learned last night as we celebrated our anniversary:
1. Don’t Keep Score: At bowling alleys these days, the scores all computerized, on a screen for everyone to see. What I noticed was how frustrated our kids got when they’d see the score (we can all be a bit competitive at times in our family). I realize that this “keeping score” destroys intimacy in a marriage and seeing how frustrated the kids became at seeing who was winning and who was losing helped me to see how futile score-keeping is.
2. Be Together: God created us to live in community – we were made for it. Remember, God Himself is in community and always has been (remember the Trinity?), and we are all made in the image of the Trinity. Being with our kids on our anniversary may not sound romantic, but it sure was a lot of fun – and we are made for this: enjoying time together as a family. And the evening was one that none of us will ever forget!
3. Laugh Together: Laughter is a rare commodity these days. There is no doubt that we live in some very tough times. Just turn on the news at any point and you will feel the life draining. We need to laugh, to create intentional times together, as a family, to do things that make us laugh. Our kids need it desperately – life for children these days has become too intense and serious. And life for us (God’s children) has as well. We need to laugh, often.
After bowling we drove to the same restaurant where we had our first date. It was still open and I think the food was about 16 years old. It was awful! But who really cares – the food was not the point. Then we left from there to walk about ¼ mile to where we’d have dessert. This will forever be one of my fondest memories: the four of us holding hands walking down the street together. Something in my heart smiled and still smiles as I think about it.
[ No Comments ] Posted on 05.17.10 under Live Your Journey
As the Gospel of John unfolds we are introduced to a man name John the Baptist. Now as a brief history of who John is, you have to go to the Gospel of Luke. John, as you may remember, is the son of Zechariah and Elizabeth. Now we don’t know the exact relationship between Mary (the mother of Jesus) and Elizabeth, but we do know that they are relatives. We also know that Mary and Elizabeth are pregnant during the same time. Okay, back to John: in Luke’s Gospel we get our first glimpse of John and are introduced to the type of man John will be – and here’s the crazy thing: we find this out while John is still in the womb, seriously!
“At that time Mary got ready and hurried to a town in the hill country of Judea, where she entered Zechariah’s home and greeted Elizabeth. When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit”. (Luke 1:39-41)
Okay, don’t just read that and move on without letting that sink in a bit. The baby in Elizabeth’s womb is John the Baptist, at the voice of Mary, who is pregnant with Jesus, John jumps for joy. This is something that John will do time and again as he hears the voice of Jesus and points Him out to others so they too can know this man named Jesus.
I love this guy for a number of reasons. John was pretty eccentric, to put it mildly! He was not particularly worried about what others thought of him (I don’t really know too many people like that!). I mean the guy wore very crazy clothes and had a diet that consisted primarily of grasshoppers and honey. But what impresses me most about this man is that John knew three things and knew them well:
1. He knew who he was …
2. He knew who he wasn’t …
3. He knew why he was here …
Honestly, how many people do we know that are clear about these three things? And these are no small things. To know who I am, who I am not, and what on earth I am here for … that would be amazing.
In the opening chapter of the Gospel of John we really get to find out more about this man. Take in the scene for a moment: John is baptizing people, lots of people – a huge crowd of people are there at the Jordon River. A group of very important people come up to him to ask him questions about who he is. Now it is vitally important that we understand the context that the people questioning him were some VERY important people, the type of people that we would want to impress, the type of people that we would want to think well of us. But John knew who he was, knew who he was not and knew why he was here:
Now this was John’s testimony when the Jews of Jerusalem sent priests and Levites to ask him who he was. He did not fail to confess, but confessed freely, “I am not the Christ”.
They asked him, “Then who are you? Are you Elijah?”
He said, “I am not.”
“Are you the Prophet?”
He answered, “No.”
Finally they said, “Who are you? Give us an answer to take back to those who sent us. What do you say about yourself?”
John replied in the words of Isaiah the prophet, “I am the voice of one calling in the desert, ‘Make straight the way for the Lord.’” (John 1:19-23)
How scandalous this must have been! How refreshing … how rare.
If I were to be honest, I think I would have to admit that I spend more of my time trying to figure out who I think I should be based upon a particular situation and what I think others expect of me. And as for why I am here? Well that’s about as clear as the bathroom mirror after a long hot shower!
I once heard an old preacher say, “Son, you got’s to be who you is, ‘cause if you ain’t who is, you is who you ain’t”.
John the Baptist was authentic (don’t you just love that word): what you see is what you get. And what you get is a man who knew that he was sent to prepare the way for another man, a man named Jesus …
[ 2 Comments ] Posted on 05.14.10 under Live Your Journey
Life, what does that term mean? Have you ever just stopped for a moment and considered what a gift life is? I mean most of us, myself included, try to give thanks to God for our life, for the life of our family and loved ones, and then we sort of pass right on by it as if it were no big deal. I mean we see life all around us, don’t we?
Yesterday my family and I decided it was time to clean up our yards and prepare the flowerbeds for, well, for flowers of course! So all four of us were out there on our knees pulling weeds. Now it is early May in Eastern Washington and the winter that never fully manifested itself this year seems to want to make one last stand. So the new life that spring represents has been slow in coming. However, as we were cleaning these flowerbeds we would begin to see it: LIFE! Some of our perennials were just beginning to break the surface! And after such a grey, lifeless winter it was a very welcome sight.
Here’s what I became keenly aware of in that moment: I often only understand the value and beauty of life by its absence. Put another way, I can identify the lifeless much more easily than I can identify life itself.
So back to the earlier question, what is life? And, perhaps more importantly, where do we find it? Well, like any educator I went directly to the dictionary to find out what life is. And Mr. Webster had many definitions of life that were very scientific, but one definition really hit the mark for me …
Life (pronounced lahyf): the general or universal condition of human existence. (example: too bad, but life is like that).
Well now that really helps put some meat on the bones, doesn’t it? I read that and feel so much better, so alive. Seriously, what a depressing definition – yet, perhaps it is closer to the reality of how we feel and live each day.
Hmmmm, although that may be how I feel – I know deep down that there is more, don’t you? Doesn’t something in you want to fight back when you read a definition like that? I mean it may SEEM true, but doesn’t something in you hope with every ounce of your being that there is more to life – more to YOUR life? Me too! There’s got to be more …
So perhaps it would be good to bypass Webster’s definition and go to the Source, the Author of life.
“Through Him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it.” John 1:3-5
Okay, now we are getting somewhere. There’s something in this that makes me feel a bit more alive – or at least hopeful – rather than depressed. Webster’s definition seemed to define life by stating, “see Survival”. But survival is not life and yet how often do I “live” this passage as if it read,
“… In him was survival, just barely getting by; and that survival was the light of men …”
John uses the term “Life” a record 36 times in this Gospel and the closest contender in the New Testament is 17 times (meaning no other book in the entire New Testament uses it more than 17 times). Whoa! This is a big deal, a major theme to John and to the Jesus that he knew and loved so much.
So, as we move forward in the Gospel of John, I think it would be a really good idea to begin to think about LIFE – not mere survival, but Life. This is the backdrop for this entire Gospel and the backdrop to the LIFE of Jesus. It is all about LIFE!
“Okay Jesus: Life; I want it, I need it. Please, if your offer is an offer for life, than bring it. Begin to move me from mere survival, from getting by and settling, to life – YOUR life. Let your life be the light of this man today, tomorrow, and forever. Amen.”
[ No Comments ] Posted on 05.12.10 under Live Your Journey
I was 8 years old when George Lucas released the original Star Wars in May of 1977. I loaded up in an old station wagon with my friend John Hammond and his mom took us to the movie theater to see a movie that I really knew nothing about. We grabbed our candy bar and popcorn and made our way to the seats. The theater lights dimmed and the curtain opened and the screen came to life. We were in space and all we saw were stars until these words began crawling up the screen:
A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away …
STAR WARS
It is a period of civil war.
Rebel spaceships, striking
from a hidden base, have won
their first victory against
the evil Galactic Empire.
During the battle, Rebel
spies managed to steal secret
plans to the Empire’s
ultimate weapon, the DEATH
STAR, an armored space
station with enough power
to destroy an entire planet.
Pursued by the Empire’s
sinister agents, Princess
Leia races home aboard her
starship, custodian of the
stolen plans that can save her
people and restore
freedom to the galaxy….
Immediately we saw space ships shooting laser beams and then we were on a ship. Next there was a battle on this ship and we saw what appeared to be the good guys, and then some white Storm Troopers (these were obviously the bad guys). Next we met a Princess with cinnamon rolls on the sides of her head and finally, a dreadful black robot-like figure that had a low voice and made really freaky breathing sounds – this was Darth Vader.
Without knowing it, my friend and I were thrust into an incredible story. We were hooked! I walked out of the theater wanting to be a Jedi Knight – I was fairly certain that I looked a lot like Luke Skywalker. I dreamed of having my own light saber and wondered if there would ever really be land-speeders?
Three years later, in 1980, a sequel came out, “The Empire Strikes Back” followed by “Return of the Jedi” in 1983. I saw every one of those in the theater. Each one was better than the first one because we were familiar with the story line and had come to love (or hate) most of the characters.
Looking back to my first encounter with “The Force” and “The Dark Side”, I realize that there was a lot about this story that I really didn’t know. I mean who was Darth Vader and how was it possible that he was Luke’s father? Where was Luke’s mom and how could he and Leia be twins? Why did Obi-Wan Kenobi allow himself to be killed by Darth Vader? I had more questions than answers to be sure. However, the answers to these questions would all come 2-decades later in 1999 when George Lucas released the PREQUEL trilogy – 3 movies that would explain, in detail, the 3 that I grew up with.
So why did Lucas start the story in 1977 halfway through? I mean, why didn’t he begin at the beginning?
For that matter, why does all of this history of Star Wars matter to our discussion with the book of John in the Bible? Because the Gospel of John gives us the PREQUEL to the book of Genesis. Think about the book of Genesis for a moment, just the first 2-3 chapters: we are introduced to the creative personality of a God who has always been; we see man and woman being created in the image of the Trinity; and we are introduced to a serpent who can talk and is so persuasive that he deceives Adam and Eve and gets them to do the ONE THING that God told them not to do – and in so doing, the human race is devastated …
You see, Genesis is the SEQUEL to what had already taken place in eternity past. And what happened? Well there was the beautiful Fellowship of the Trinity: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And there were these majestic beings created by the Trinity called Angels. These were mighty and powerful beings – if you think they are fat little babies with wings and an archery set, think again (just take a look at the Old Testament and you’ll see what I mean).
There was one particular angel whose name was Lucifer, which means “Morning Star”. Lucifer was the head of the angels and he was radiant and beautiful beyond compare. However, Lucifer made a decision that he wanted to glory for himself. He didn’t like playing the role of “best supporting actor” to the Trinity so he convinced a third of the angels to join his rebellion, his mutiny or coup against the Trinity. A battle ensued and Lucifer and his angels (now fallen and referred to as demons) were defeated. BUT THEY WERE NOT DESTROYED …
And there was war in heaven. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought back. But he was not strong enough, and they lost their place in heaven. The great dragon was hurled down – that ancient serpent called the devil or Satan, who leads the whole world astray. He was hurled to the earth, and his angels with him. (Revelation 12:7-9)
So why does this all matter? Because like in most stories, there is a whole lot more going on here than meets the eye. And knowing the prequel to Genesis gives context to our story. And it is no small thing to begin to grapple with that one little sentence in Revelation 12:9 that says, “He (the Devil) was hurled to earth, and his angels with him”.
Consider that one little sentence for a while and it will begin to give context to our lives – there is a whole lot more going on here than just me and God trying to do what I need to in order to get to heaven – there is a villain, hurled to the earth … we need to do serious business with this reality. However, there is good news; really, really Good News …
[ 1 Comment ] Posted on 05.10.10 under Live Your Journey
Remember Sgt. Joe Friday in Dragnet? I’m glad that show isn’t on TV anymore because the guy drove me nuts. His approach to a situation is absolutely maddening. Picture the scene: a woman is there crying, tears staining her cheeks and blood staining her blouse. There is a man lying on the ground his shirt and right pant leg are stained with blood and he is barely breathing, but musters enough strength to speak softly to her as she embraces him. The patrol car pulls up to the scene and out steps a man in khaki pants, button down shirt and tie, and a hat. As he approaches the scene he reaches not for his weapon, but for a pen and pad of paper. As he approaches where the two are embracing, she looks towards him and begins crying hysterically and frantically tries to explain what happened. Friday holds up his hand to silence her and says, “Just the facts, ma’am”.
Just the facts? You have got to be kidding me. Now think about this scene for just a moment: do you really want JUST the facts? Not me! I want to know the story; the whole story, from start to finish. If I approached the scene my first thought would be, “What on earth happened here?” And if they started sharing what happened by saying, “… and then all of a sudden he was gone.” My response? Well, my response would be just what yours is: “Whoa! Wait a minute, I can see how this story ends, I want to know how we got here; please, start from the very beginning”.
Once upon a time …
When you hear those 4 words doesn’t something stir in your soul? Aren’t you thinking to yourself, “Ooh, this is gonna be good!” Don’t you immediately go back to the best stories and fairy tales you knew so well as a child? And don’t you find yourself wanting to pull up a comfy chair and settle in for a really good story?
Think about it, don’t all REALLY good stories begin this way: “Once upon a time …”? Or as our Bible has it, “In the beginning …”. Now believe it or not, there are actually two times that this phrase is used in the Bible. Most of us immediately go to the first page of our Bible. We open up to the book of Genesis and read, “Once upon a time God created the heavens and the earth” (Gen. 1:1). But there is a second time that this phrase is used and even though it comes later in our Bible, this “Once upon a time” actually comes first.
Once upon a time was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through Him all things were made; without Him nothing was made that has been made” (John 1:1-3).
Now John’s “Once upon a time” is actually the original “Once upon a time” that took place waaaaaay before Genesis. Seriously! Genesis is our beginning, but Genesis IS NOT God’s beginning. Let that truth sink in for a minute …
It’s easy to think that everything begins when God began creating the heavens and earth in Genesis, but the amazing truth of the matter was, er um, is, that God was, is, and will be! Take a look at how God describes Himself in Revelation (I know, confusing as heck, now we are looking at the last book of the Bible? Yikes!)
“I am the Alpha and the Omega.” Says the Lord God, “who is, and who was, and who is to come, the Almighty” (Revelation 1:8)
So why does all of this matter? Well because many of us, myself included, have made some assumptions that have sort of become our reality. Think about it this way: we would never read a 200-page novel by starting on page 104, two-thirds of the way down the page, on the 6th word in the 2nd sentence. The story, no matter how good it is, simply makes no sense unless we know the context. And to know the context we have to start at the beginning. In the case of the Bible, there is a WHOLE LOT OF STUFF (good and bad) that happened before Genesis 1:1.
So what on earth happened? Well, nothing on earth happened, but something in the heavens happened – some things that help us to make sense of this story we are living in …