As we walk through this day that God has given us may our hands do the work of healing and touching the brokenness we encounter as the body of Christ - incarnate - in the world.

May our ears be the ears of Christ as he sat at the well listening to the woman who was empty and searching and SURPRISED that someone would listen.

May the words that roll off our tongues not be words of fire and destruction tearing down and adding to the chaos but words of peace and encouragement as a soothing oil in the midst of the noise and hurtful banter of the world.

May we find the peace of Christ today, bring the peace of Christ to others today, and be the peace of Christ as Children of the Prince of Peace in a hostile and violent world.

By His strength, In His strength, In His name, and for His Glory,
AMEN

Prayer for a difficult person today.

Lord as we wander, run, hike, drive, stumble through this day stop us and remind us to thank you for three difficult people that we encounter. Three because it's a start and a goal we can reach... maybe.
Help us to thank you for them without their noticing, especially if they might have read this too. Three because it will be one for each of you... Father, Son, Holy Spirit.

Father, you have created this person before me and you love them with a depth beyond the love that I can feel for any human being... my children... my spouse... my best friend. You didn't make a mistake when you made this person; you made someone with whom you want to have fellowship and a friendship and who you hope will become an heir of your riches.

Lord Jesus, this is a person for whom you stepped out of glory... this is someone for whom you were willing at every turn and temptation to choose good rather than evil... this is a person for whom you weep when they weep and with whom you rejoice when they rejoice... this is a life for whose healing you paid by the whipping and scourging; the piercing and nailing; and whose sin was taken care of in the moment of the war cry... "IT IS FINISHED!"

Holy Spirit you are the comforter and I ask that you comfort this person who is making my life difficult today. There is probably a deeper hurt in their life than this moment they're having with me, and it might be something only you know, they might not even know it... give them comfort. And you are my teacher and comfort too... give me a spirit that doesn't need to feel offended; give me a heart to hear some truth being told to me, even if it's not being told to me well... and remind me that 80% of what you're teaching me today you're teaching me through the encounters I am having with other people; you're teaching me equally through pats on the back, and slaps in the face.

Remind me that I might be a difficult person for whom someone stops and thanks you today...
Father, Son, Holy Spirit
AMEN

The Worth of Water... River Haus in the Pines

"We never know the worth of water

till the well is dry."

-Thomas Fuller, Gnomologia, 1732

Water is an amazing substance... and it changes things.  Not just the drinking of water, though it's significant beyond argument.  There's nothing like a long cold drink of water on a hot day to take one's dry and thirsty body and bring it alive with refreshment.  We just need water... it's a necessity of life.

Thanks to the generosity and thoughtfulness of our friends at MLCC Sharlyn and I had a bit of time away this weekend at the River Haus in the Pines, in Leavenworth Washington.  If you get a chance to get away... go to this delighful Bed and Breakfast.  The food was fantastic, the room was splendid, Mike and Cindy are just charming individuals with a heart for people (if I was going to build a house in Leavenworth - and not do the work myself - I'd call Mike), and Cooper (the dog) was very friendly and unique.  

But there's more to water than just the drinking.  The sound of the water from our room, we left the window open the whole time we were there, was incredibly relaxing.  There's nothing quite like the sound of water.  The gentle and soothing sound of the water is medicine to the soul in the midst of the noise in which we all seem to live.  To awaken at 3:00 AM and hear the water continuing on its way to wherever it's going... so refreshing... it's a necessity to the soul to stop and just listen ocassionally.

Beyond all that, watching the water flow, is a good reminder that it's the way of things.  The water keeps running, moving, never stopping; there is a constant stream of water moving from up to down and it reminds me of the flow of history.  The stream of the river is like the stream of history... it never stops.  God is writing a grand story, and I'm part of that story... as small as I know I am.  I am reminded of David in Psalm 8, "who is man that you are mindful of him."

There is nothing like a little time beside the water for reflection.  We are so grateful to our church family, and to Mike and Cindy.  It's good to have a new perspective once in a while; and good to just hear the water.

Quote of the Day

The quote of the day is from Leavenworth Church of the Nazarene where Sharlyn and I engaged in corporate worship.  Pastor John Vandel gave us this quote from Samuel Johnson,

"The person who waits to do a great deal of good at once will never do anything."

This is such a challenging idea to me because I have a tendency to want to "get it all done" no matter what it is that needs to be done.  The context was stewardship and sharing our wealth and resources.  His point was that if you're not giving God 10% now we won't give Him a 100% later.  God is concerned with our faithfulness with what we have right now.

To do what's in front of me right now... faithfulness in the moment.  It's a good challenge.



Today and Time



Sitting in Gustav's in Leavenworth WA earlier today having dinner with Sharlyn.  We've been there a bunch of times over the years, and a few times when our kids were younger.  A young family came and sat at the table next to us... mom, dad, and three little ones under the age of four I'm sure.  It was, as they say, deja vu all over again!  They were a simply delightful young family, but there were just a few moments when you saw that... "Really... we're doing that?" face on mom and dad.  Made me smile.





I remembered suddenly those moments when you're in a restaurant with your little ones trying to keep them quiet so you're not disturbing the old grumpy patrons, you've got the four restaurant color crayons and the kid's menus with the maze, the picture to color and the three kids choices.  Cheeseburger, Chicken Fingers, Mac & Cheese... or if it's the expanded kid's menu there's a hot dog or corn dog on the menu!  Woo hooo!  One of the little ones is trying to climb out of the high chair... another is under the table... the third... eating the crayolas and then, there goes the water!  It's all over the table, the napkins are wet, the coloring pages are coming apart... sop it up... sop it up... quick, get more napkins!



I watched this young family and remembered, and as happy as I am about watching the boys grow into adulthood... I miss those little ones, and the simplicity of those days.  Ok, it's cliched... I know.  Don't forget, and this is profound, cliche's can only become so if they're true so we shouldn't belittle their importance.

Also on the way to Leavenworth we stopped and saw a long-time friend and her little baby girl - priceless - beautiful little life.  First time we've really been with them together, other than large gatherings... she's 6 months old already.

A family with whom we're acquainted finalized the adoption today of their new son... just about 13 years old.  Couldn't be there, but was told it was awesome.  It's his first "full-time family" ever... is it ok to say that?  Not sure how to talk about it, except what he says is, "I can't wait to know that I'm in a family I won't have to leave." 





Ok!  Enough already?  Well it's just this... look them in the eye... take a good look at their bewildered, ketchup covered, water spilling, mac and cheese mess, crawling out of the high chair and under the table little made in the Image of God through and through faces and breathe a prayer of thanksgiving to Him for them.  Then kiss their wet and sticky, snotty, drooling, cheese flavored, mischievous smiling made in the Image of God faces and remind them and yourselves how delighted you are to have them... because in a minute it all changes - and you can't get it back.



 For us... the forward has been good... but there are moments when you miss those bygone days ALOT.

Presence is Incarnational

I am challenged by the idea lately of seeing the face.  Today when I went into Starbucks I came face to face with a person who wasn't having fun, and it was painfully obvious by the look of her face.  I thought of making a joking comment to lighten the moment.  It wasn't a person I knew, but you know the way it works when, suddenly, you're in relationship a little more intimate than just walking by someone, but not to the point of really knowing the person or anything that's going on... it can be uncomfortable... so it's easier to take a cumbersome moment and make it lighter.

But for this one moment it flashed into my mind... don't make light... even if it lightens the moment.  Look into the eyes, slight knowing smile that says, "I can see by your face that it's not all ok" and then move off about your own business.  How quickly we walk through the crush of humanity never really seeing the face of another human... really.

When scripture talks about "the face of God" it sometimes, not always... but sometimes, means "presence."  "Because the face reflects the personality and character of person, the term is frequently translated person, or presence." (Holman Bible Dictionary).  This moment made me think that when someone in scripture says, "Your face I seek Oh God" they are really saying, it's your presence. 

Presence is incarnational - Christ chose to be present in our world.  When I see, really see some one's face, then I am present with them in that moment.  There is little in this world more profound than to be present with someone in the moment, and perhaps there is nothing more difficult. 

Epic stories remind me of the EPIC STORY

I've spent the past few days watching Epic stories.  Two very different stories, and yet really quit the same when all is said and done.  First I watched Lonesome Dove with Tommy Lee Jones and Robert Duvall.  I think by far the best western I've ever seen, with two of my favorite cowboy actors.  Then tonight gathered with some friends watching the extended edition of The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring.  I must admit I fell asleep during part of it... but I did stick out most of it.  It's just Sunday night and I dozed off.  I plan to watch the extended version trilogy of LOTR over the next couple weeks.  It's been a while. 

Those stories move me because they are filled with struggle, victory, loss, evil, overcoming, and friendship.  Most of our stories are less dramatic, but every story seems to involve the same elements and so I'm reminded of the importance of perseverance in trial, the sweetness of overcoming, and the blessing of friendship along the way.

One of my favorite sequences in the Fellowship of the Ring is the dialogue between Gandalf and Frodo in the Mines of Moria when Frodo says, "I wish the ring had never come to me."  Gandalf's response is profound on the one hand, and so simple on the other.  No one wishes for these times, but in the end all we can do is what is before us.  I am encouraged to be faithful for the moment with the task before me... whether is seems big or small, significant or not.  All we have is this moment, and how we live it.  It seems like we miss a lot either hoping for this moment to pass... or expecting the next one to come.  I want to live present to the moment and faithful to the task at hand.

Faithful yet lacking...

I am always astonished when I read Hebrews Chapter 11 of the faithfulness of the people of God as they awaited the Messiah.  As anyone who has read the chapter knows it's called the faith chapter, but I want to remember what is really astonishing about the text.  The writer details the lives of so many men and women who lived by faith... but then in the final two verses we're reminded... "They all lived by faith without receiving the promise."

They worked hard and well... and never got a paycheck...

They did the right thing... and it never paid off in any material, practical terms in the here and now of their lives...

They stayed the course... and never reached the destination...

Personality styles have been likened to the parts of a sailboat... keel, tiller, sail... ballast.  In this picture my personality is a sail.  It's a critical piece of the sailboat, without which the boat will never catch the wind and get anywhere... however... without a keel and rudder it will go whichever way the wind blows it.  Though there is a sense in which I feel directed, and I have those around me who are the tillers, keels, and... should I say it, anchors, I still  live by the vision of the moment at times.  What is capturing my attention right now is what tends to give me energy and focus.  It makes me appreciate the people who lived faithful lives for their whole lives thinking they might see the promised reward, but never did.  The text says they were persecuted in horrible ways... but stayed the course.  Give me that heart and spirit, and stamina!

It's such an interesting list of people... God is not squeamish about those who are faithful.  I think my favorite in the text is Rahab... she shows up in Jesus genealogy too... amazing who He uses when they are focused on His purpose and plan, even when they never see the reward.

The destination is the journey!

For Chris...

 How about these Chris!  Pictures of your co-teacher, partner in crime and his microwave "Loaded Potato Soup!"  His life skills class is doing a section on cooking, which the boys love anyway!

Geometry is a struggle to get done as homework... but he was fired up to do this homework.  Maybe he has a career ahead of him!

It was quite good! 

All the world's a stage?

The question surging through my mind for the past few days has been, "If all the world's the a stage, and history, in contrast to a string of random events, is a play that God is writing and directing, then what role is He asking me to play?"

I've been enjoying the book by Robert Webber, Ancient-Future Worship, and he makes the following statement, "I once understood the gospel as God asking me to let him into my narrative, to find room for him in my heart and life. But now I realize that God bids me to find my place in his narrative." This is challenging me in at least two ways. First, this concept takes me out of my self-centered view of the world and gives me a theocentric world view. Second, it reminds me that God isn't asking me to be somebody else for Him... He's just asking me to be me for Him.

The first concept had been resonating with me before I picked up the book, and is repeated in other books that I've read, and seems to be on the hearts of others with whom I have community. Rick Warren says in his book, The Purpose Driven Church, that Saddleback (the church he founded) isn't the only thing that God is doing, but what God is doing at Saddleback, others shouldn't work to copy it. He likens it to surfing. You can teach someone to surf, and you can teach them to catch a wave, but you can't teach someone to make a wave, only God is in that business. Therefore we need to be watching for the waves he's making and then ride them. Henry Blackaby in Experiencing God suggests that we need to stop taking up great causes and then asking God to bless them, rather we need to see what God is doing and join Him! Both those ideas caught my attention five years ago or more. Webber is just reminding me again. It seems important to get hold of this idea because, frankly, if I view myself as the one directing the project then I get to take credit for it... I get the pats on the back. There is a significant degree of arrogance in Christianity, and I wonder if some of, or maybe a lot of, it isn't based in our own sense of the "great things we're doing for God" when we ought to be simply giving him glory for what he continues to do in and through us, frail and broken as we are - though made in His image and deeply valued by Him. Paul (the apostle that is) says, "And He has said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness." Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me. Therefore I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties, for Christ's sake; for when I am weak, then I am strong." (2 Corinthians 12:9-10 NASB).

The second concept just affirms the He has made me for something and will use me for that purpose if I'm willing. Many of us live in the shadows of others - I think wishing we could be like them, and do what they're doing. I suspect any one of us has been there, and perhaps will be again. This however challenges me to get back again to Him. He's made me for Himself, I'm His and He's purposeful. If all the actors on the stage play the same part not only is the story not compelling or enjoyable to watch... it just doesn't work.

Though there are times when the world, and its story, look like a random string of unrelated events, there are too many things in my own life, and in history in general, that point to a plot - there is a writer and director who knows all the parts and all the actors and how the plot turns out. I'm hoping to be attentive to my role which is not to be in charge, or play someone else's part.

"All the world’s a stage,
And all the men and women merely players:
They have their exits and their entrances..."
-Shakespeare

"... remember your baptism, pray in the spirit, flee to the Eucharist."

I've been reading a new book on Kindle of PC... Kindle for PC is an aside of course, but I have resisted the urge to get a Kindle. There's something about a book in your hands... touching it... smelling it... experiencing it with your physical senses as well as your mental faculties. In any case I thought to give it a try since I think it was free to download it from Amazon. I downloaded Ancient-Future Worship by Robert Webber. I'm nowhere near all the way through it, but so far it's been stimulating, challenging, and encouraging. It was the last book that Robert Webber penned before his death from pancreatic cancer. That alone, and the fact that he acknowledges that this will be "the last book before my death" make is worth the read. He died only a few weeks after the manuscript was finished.

I was struck by this ancient statement of worship in the book: "remember your baptism, pray in the Spirit, flee to the Eucharist." I cannot be sure why this trinity of thought so hit me in between the eyes like an ice pick to the brain, but it did, and it's been stirring me for a few days.

Remember your baptism... that moment at which by faith your old like passed away like so much chaff and the new life began. In the life of faith there are times when I forget that I've been made new; whether I feel like it or not. I think back to the fourth grade year, I guess I must have been 9 or 10. My grandma had been taking me to church - my parents didn't go to church in those days. When summer camp came up grandma encouraged me to go and so I did. It was a mixed bag at best - I loved it and hated it. Being away from home for a week for the first time I struggled with sleeping. Made a new friend, and got in trouble and got the privilege of cleaning the bathrooms. Tons of fun during the days, pretty girls, playing outside, swimming in the lake. When, inevitably, the end of the week came and the culmination of all the teaching and preaching and worshipping reached my soul I accepted the invitation to enter God's story... not that it was the first time my life intersected with its... but when I said I wanted to journey with Him. I knew so little of what that meant, and it seems at times I still remember little of it. And yet, it was for me an end and a beginning. The old had passed away - then new had come, and is still coming it seems sometimes in fits and jerks - but coming none the less. I have not taken much time to remember that time frankly, and Webber's words reminded me that at the right time and place I heard His invitation and took the fork in the road that has made all the difference. So whether life always works out in just the way I want - I can return to that moment in my mind and remember that God has made, and is making, me new. The job's not done... but it is well begun and he'll finish it!

Pray in the spirit... I find myself wanting to understand this statement. What does it mean? How does it work? I have done a bit of reading in the NT since reading this statement but realize that I may not knew exactly what it means, other than, as His Spirit is in me and I cry out to God His Spirit is leading me in that praying and drawing me near to the Father with the ancient cry of Abba. I doubt very seriously if this is some type of "charismatic" statement - though I'm sure some would like to put that spin on it. It's not that I run from that teaching... it's just unlikely to me. I want to recall the simplicity of the reality that when I call out to Him His Spirit is involved... needs more study... needs more experience. I'd love to hear your comments on it.

Flee to the Eucharist... I do not think that we have clearly understood in the evangelical church the importance of this, or other, sacraments. Outward and visible signs of inward and spiritual graces. To be sure the evangelical church is short on sacrament... but if only Marriage (which we've completely missed as sacrament), Baptism, and Eucharist then perhaps we're at least on some track of understanding. If a sacrament is an outward and visible sign of a real, not pretend, inward and spiritual grace, then something at Eucharist, Baptism, and Marriage, is actually happening on the inside when the rite is taking place on the outside. When we come to the Eucharist we experience afresh God's grace and presence in taking away our sin. It has been resolved once for all in Christ, but there is a need to return week in and week out to this experience of God's love and grace, and the one thing that keeps us connected to our Father, without regard to our ability to "measure up." We fight a continual battle to "measure up" in our daily experience with others - who for the most part only accept us as we act according to their, sometimes twisted, sense of what we should be up to. In the Eucharist we come again to the unconditional acceptance of our Father who embraces us as our hearts come pure - at least as pure as we can keep them - the sacrifice that He made for us in the person of His Son Jesus Christ... I really need that refreshing presence.

I need this constant reminder that the point of my journey with Him, the one who made me, is not that I have invited him "into my life" as a compartment, but that he has invited me to into His story with all my life. He's the one recreating me in Baptism... He's the one praying through and for me in the Spirit... He's the one who has done the work of saving me in the death of His son, who chose it fully, which comes to me powerfully in the Eucharist.