Archive for the ‘Faith’ category
June 10, 2013
WORDS FROM W.W. June 10, 2013
“Two Year Old Praying”
My two year old granddaughter, Reagan, decided she would pray for our shared meal the other day. She started: “T’ank you, God, fo’ this food! And make Granddad stop eating food. Amen!”
My wife started laughing, and I immediately got a perplexed, shocked look on my face.
“Why did you pray that Granddad would stop eating food, Reagan?”
“Cause he was eating and we hadn’t prayed yet!”
Saying grace before dinner tends to be a bit legalistic for a two year old. Reagan would do well with the Old Testament sacrificial system of procedures and instructions.
“You can’t eat food if you haven’t prayed!”
I was sufficiently reprimanded.
A a few minutes later her brother, Jesse, bonked his head on the back of his chair and started whimpering. His sister reached over and laid her hand on his head like she was praying for healing.
“Were you praying for your brother?”
“Yes! I was praying fo’ him!”
We have a praying granddaughter! She prays for judgment on her grandfather and healing on her brother. I think when I was a kid I reversed those.
And where does her tendency to pray come from? It comes from being a part of a family that prays- prays at mealtime, prays at bedtime, prays in church, prays whenever the situation warrants it, prays just because.
Prayer gets rooted into a kid’s life early on. Yes, prayer for a child becomes an action that reflects what is being practiced in the faith walks of the parents…and even grandparents and teachers…and aunts and uncles.
Just as Reagan caught me sneaking a bite of pizza she already catches on to what is being practiced in the lives of those around her.
Now…I have to be sure she doesn’t catch me sneaking ice cream before dinner! Surely it would bring down the wrath of God!
Categories: children, Christianity, Community, Faith, Grace, Humor, Jesus, Parenting, Pastor, Prayer, Story, The Church, Uncategorized
Tags: dinner, grandchildren, parents, praying, saying grace, table grace
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June 7, 2013
WORDS FROM W.W. June 7, 2013
“It’s Friday, And Sunday Is Coming…Again Already!”
Some people think I’m suspect because I don’t cuss…but I do say “Crap!”
Some people think I’m half a bubble off center because I have a personal “blankie” that I sleep with, and its name is not Carol. Its name is…Blankie! Carol has her personal electric blanket. Its name is not Bill!
And some people think my salvation is suspect because, for one, I preach from a manuscript, and, two, there are some Sundays that are a real struggle to give a word from the Lord. Ask any pastor who is trustworthy and they will tell you that. There are times where the message is about as easy as a root canal. The preparing of it is like being in rush hour traffic where there is no rhythm…stop and go…accelerate and brake.
Years ago Tony Campolo gave a message that he borrowed from an African-American Baptist pastor, entitled “It’s Friday, But Sunday’s Coming!”
Classic! Awesome!
For most pastors there are times, however, when the scream is “It’s Friday, and Sunday is coming again already!”
So soon? Last Sunday might have lifted the roof, but then it’s on to the next Sunday. Pastors are like catchers in baseball. The starting pitchers only appear every fifth game. The third baseman fields four or five grounders or line drives the whole game. But the catcher is in every play. He makes a great stop on a wild pitch, but then it’s on to the next pitch. Catchers don’t take pitches off.
Pastors don’t take Sundays off!
Yes, I know we really do. It’s called vacation, and yet how many times have I heard the joke, “Vacation? You only work one hour one day a week.”
Although said in a teasing way, a lot of people wonder what pastors do between Sunday noon and the next Sunday at 10 A.M. That sense of Baptist guilt stays with me, and so I find myself preaching eight to twelve straight Sundays before I take a Sunday off.
In the Book of Jeremiah (Jeremiah 23) there is a condemning statement made by the Lord towards the false prophets of Jeremiah’s time. A number of them were making claims, or speaking oracles and claiming that they were from God…and God said “No way! That’s not of me!” In Jeremiah 23:34 the Lord says, “I will punish that man and his household!”
Can you envision my Adam’s apple (“laryngeal prominence” for the smarter folk) rising and falling
six inches as I gulp deeply?
So, it’s Friday and Sunday is coming again and the folk who show up at 10:00 for worship are expecting a word from the Lord…and I’m saying to the Lord “Can I get a word? It can be short. It can even be Greek! It can even be in the old King James! Lord, just give me something!”
A fresh word, a new word.
Perhaps you think that this is just some affliction that pastors deal with.
No, it is something any follower of Jesus deals with. Some people want a word, but they’re too busy to hear it. A cell phone in one ear and Coldplay rocking it through the ear bud in their other ear. Or some people want a word in a take-out container, quick and easy. Those are two extreme situations connected to our hyper lifestyles.
But many of us who seek to touch the fringe of Jesus’ robe find ourselves from time to time grasping and missing. We deal with moments of indecision as to what direction God went in.
We want a fresh word, but we’re having a hard time forgiving the jerk who cut us off driving to church. We want a word from the Lord, and yet we’re not ready for the next step that word will take us to.
It’s Friday, and for many of us we long for Sunday, a new beginning…a fresh start. And for others, “Sunday” is an approaching time of uncertainty that we hope…we hope…is fresh wind and new wine!
Categories: Christianity, Community, Faith, Grace, Jesus, Pastor, Prayer, Story, The Church, Uncategorized
Tags: A word from the Lord, Baptist, Coldplay, Fresh wind, Friday, guilt, Jeremiah, oracle, sermon, Sunday, Sunday message
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June 6, 2013
WORDS FROM W.W. June 6, 2013
When I first moved to Colorado Springs I was taken back by all the Chinese buffet restaurants. Our family didn’t eat Chinese food in my growing up years. It was too weird for Eastern Kentuckians…didn’t mix well with our grits and Cracklin’ Cornbread. Lo Mein noodles wiggled too much. Fried potatoes were easier to spear.
Coming to Colorado Springs, however, I discovered Chinese food in abundance. You could eat all that you wanted…and then feel like death warmed over for the rest of the day. I started putting on some pounds. And the thing is, most Chinese buffets offer not just rice and noodles, but also whole food rows of fried foods. I was raised with the mentality that if you could eat it we could fry it.
Fried chicken wings, fried shrimp, deep-fried egg rolls and crab rangoon, fried fish, spring rolls! I pigged out, plain and simple!
And then at my annual physical my physician (who happens to be tall, slim, and Episcopalian) told me to knock it off. My cholesterol level had risen as dramatically fuel prices.
I haven’t been to a Chinese buffet in probably six years, but even writing about it makes me consider the possibility…for you, right now.
James wrote these words in his New Testament book: “…You know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.” (James 1:3-4)
Those last three words seem out of place.
“Not lacking anything.”
It would seem that the decline in the number of chicken wings I’ve been consuming would indicate that I AM lacking something.
That goes with American consumer mentality, that if I don’t have it I must be lacking it. We seldom think that not having something could possibly lead us towards fuller lives.
My youngest daughter, who scheduled her life around reality TV shows got rid of cable TV. Moving to Albuquerque and starting a new job where she pays all of her bills opened her eyes to where her money was going. Suddenly the young lady who watched every episode of Say Yes To the Dress went cold turkey…and she has survived. In essence, she gave up something in order to experience not lacking anything.
It is an easy concept to think about, but hard to live by. Persevering in whatever we do isn’t easy. Some weeks we need to persevere in our jobs. Other times we need to persevere in the parenting of our children. Each one of us comes to quitting points in the areas of our life that tax us the most. Every week I pastor has quitting points in it. I realize that some day I’ll be called to step aside and let the journey of my church continue. When that time comes it will not be because I hit a quitting point that I have no desire to persevere through. It will be because it is time, God’s time, the journey has been completed.
Persevering is something not many of us are good at. Our culture tells us that it is all about us…more specifically, all about me…and if there is anything left, it can be all about you. If you don’t believe me just go for a drive on a busy street, do the speed limit, and see how many people get frustrated driving behind you.
Whatever it is that you may be battling, stay strong, pray long, and let your life resemble an ever-evolving new song.
And yes, I know I just did a rhyme!
Categories: Christianity, Faith, Jesus, love, Pastor, Prayer, Story, The Church, Uncategorized
Tags: Buffet, cable TV, Chinese buffet, cholesterol level, crackin cornbread, discipline, eating healthy, egg rolls, fried foods, lo mein, perseverance, persevering, quitting, quitting points
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June 5, 2013
WORDS FROM W.W. June 5, 2013
I used to be a separatist. The peas never touched the carrots on my dinner plate. Although the salad was tossed in to a heap of disarray it was kept in a separate bowl barely in the same zip code as the baked chicken. Gravy was allowed on the potatoes, but only if they were mashed!
And then I discovered mixed nuts- cashews in the same can with filberts, walnuts chumming up with almonds, Brazils cross-culturing with Macadamians. I found out that nuts of different shapes and sizes could be tasty together. This only came after a childhood of salted peanuts. Pecans were something that Georgians had. Our family kept to the basics. If I would have seen a Barzil nut back in those days I would have kept my distance.
Now, decades later, one of the simple pleasures of life is to throw a handful of mixed nuts into my mouth and chew. I feel a little cheated that I didn’t get to indulge earlier in my years.
At a recent meeting of our neighborhood pastors (Lutheran, Presbyterian, Mennonite, United Methodist, Evangelical Covenant, and American Baptist), the idea was thrown around about folks from our different congregations gathering together for conversations on faith questions.
Radical!
The peas were touching the carrots!
Call us radical, but the idea excited us. For most of our weeks we’re in separate “cans”, protected by the “wanna-bes”, and now the possibility of talking with people of other congregations about things of faith was rising to the surface. In the past most of the time that has happened has been because a para-church organization has been having a fund-raising dinner and we rub elbows with the Nazarenes, Episcopalians, and Catholics because we were assigned to the same table.
What might an American Baptist learn from a Mennonite about living out faith? Is the gospel the same for a Presbyterian as it is for a Lutheran? How does the proclamation of Christ happen in different denominations?
So often we have been content to stay in the same can with all the other “nuts” that look like us. Our understanding of scripture is challenged infrequently because we’ve been conditioned to be like one another. “Body life” is important for a congregation, but sometimes we become “body dead” as a result of stagnation. Evangelicals become suspicion of liberals. Pentecostals are leery of liturgists. Caucasian Protestants are nervous about Hispanic Charismatics.
It seems safer to stay in our own comfort zone, where we have a better handle on what is going to happen…so we do!
Over the past seven or eight years our neighborhood churches have gotten to know each other in several ways. The pastors exchange pulpits one Sunday each January. The congregations have loved it, and then we get back to our own “can” again. We’ve teamed together in serving the neighbors in our community two Saturdays each year. This fall we are going to have a recreational volleyball league in our gym, where a devout Mennonite can give a Baptist “a peace of this” in a holy-moly spike.
As pastors, however, we want to take our congregations to the next level of discovering that we’re not that much different from one another, and that we do not serve multiple Jesus’s.
When we can talk about out faith it may bring each one of us to a new understanding as to how to live out our faith.
Pass the pistachios, Merv!
Categories: Christianity, Community, Faith, Freedom, Grace, Humor, Jesus, Pastor, Story, Teamwork, The Church, Uncategorized
Tags: community ministry, faith discussionss, faith journey, Lutheran, mennonite, mixed nuts, pastors, Presbyterians, Protestant, pulpit exchange, separatist
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June 4, 2013
WORDS FROM W.W. June 4, 2013
Working on the staff of Young Life when I was in seminary, and then also being the Youth Minister at a couple of churches, I was trained to “earn the right to be heard’ by the students I worked with. Youth ministry was, and still is, very relational. A young guy struggling with questions about faith needs to know that there is someone he can meet at Starbucks for a chai latte and conversational counseling.
I confess! In those days there was a need to look cool and be cool. It was a part of earning the right to converse about God. Now in my final year of the fifties “cool” is a term I only use to indicate the last of heat in the house. We have more blankets folded and ready on our couch than Bed, bath, and Beyond has in the entire store. “Overheated” for our household now refers to laying on top of the electric blanket.
It seems that the emphasis with most evangelicals, myself included, is on having a personal relationship with our heavenly father who has his son be crucified on the cross out of love for us.
There is nothing incorrect about that. It’s scripturally right on. John 3:16 makes that intimately clear. The struggle is that we so often make the mystery of the holy absent from our faith. We like to snuggle up with God, like a comforter blanket. God-cozy is more to our liking than divine mystery.
One of my friends recently said that the only place we see veils anymore is on Arab women to hide their faces, and on surgeons to protect them from our germs. Veils hide, and we are people who are used to the Freedom of Information Act. We are accustomed to full disclosure.
Scripture includes a number of verses that tell us about the mystery being revealed…and the mystery that is. Paul talked about “the mystery made known to me by revelation” (Ephesians 3:3) and “the mystery that has been kept hidden for ages and generations, but is now disclosed to the saints.” (Colossians 1:26)
But he also talked about the mystery of Christ (Ephesians 3:4, Colossians 4:3)!
The contrast of the gospel is that we can now approach the throne of grace with confidence (Hebrews 4:16), but the will not ever in this lifetime understand the ways of God. Revelation is partnered with mystery. The veil was torn away from the Holy of Holies, and yet are eyes do not fully see the moving of God.
And we shouldn’t! Mystery is what keeps drama in the story. If life was void of mystery our little ones would no longer ask the question “why?” Why questions lead them along the path of discovery.
Why do we have two ears and one nose?
I don’t know. Perhaps it has something to do with Mr. Potato Head. He would look weird with two noses and only one ear.
Why are some people scared of spiders?
Because they are…including me.
Why do women put make-up on, but men just put on deodorant?
Because men are in a hurry in the morning, and women…never mind, don’t tell Mommy I said anything about that!
Why does bacon taste so good?
Ahhhh….
The longer I walk with God the more comfortable I am with the Mystery. I also have a sense of peace knowing that I am always able to cry out to him, and he will embrace me. Perhaps that’s “cozy’, but I see it as evidence of the God who comes near.
Categories: children, Christianity, Faith, Freedom, Jesus, love, Pastor, Prayer, Story, The Church, Uncategorized
Tags: blanket, Colossians, comforter, cool, Corinthians, Cozy, Ephesians, evangelicals, Faith, holy, Young Life, youth minister
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June 3, 2013
WORDS FROM W.W. June 3, 2013
One of the toughest things for a Christ-follower to struggle with is when someone he knows well…someone who has been a follower of Christ, comes to a time when he doesn’t seem to be following anymore.
It is quite convenient at that point for the committed follower to hold to the belief that someone can lose their salvation. It’s the easy way out. He’s in, now he’s out. He’s saved, now he’s not saved. There’s a bad odor present in that. It smells of judging someone’s spiritual condition on the basis of their actions and attitude.
Granted that the Bible talks about faith and actions, but I’ve witnessed a number of followers who can speak the Godly language, quote scripture like an attorney quotes the legal code, testify to God’s provision…and then hold to racist beliefs or a coldheartedness towards the poor.
I believe it is much more difficult, but scriptural, to hold to a faith that is immersed in grace. Grace doesn’t race to condemnation, but rather stays the course with the follower who has seemed to adopt an attitude of apathy.
So what does a Christ-follower do?
It begins with prayer. Cry out to God! Prayer is the seeking of divine intervention and interaction. Sometimes we fall victim to the idea that we have to fix someone. We strategize and come up with a three step plan. Prayer becomes an addendum to the plan.
Prayer is surrendering the person and our thoughts to the Lord. Perhaps God has someone else who will step into the gap…and it isn’t you.
A second step is having dialogue with the person to discover what it is that he believes. What does he believe about faith, how God interacts with us, and his purpose for this life? There’s a lot of weird stuff out there. Most of us have “customized faiths” that we’ve formed around us that best suit our lives. I may have strong beliefs about being stewards of the environment because I do a lot of hiking and backpacking, but doubt that God desires intimacy with me because I’m not comfortable with a faith that involves my emotions. Each one of us, whether we know it or not, has shaped our faith to embrace what we don’t struggle with.
To dialogue with someone who seems to be more interested in NASCAR than he is in having a God thing happen may reveal things that can be slowly pursued. (I want you to notice that I used NASCAR as the example because I have no interest in it. I can not say the same at certain times about Michigan State basketball, fried scallops, and Sunday afternoon naps.)
A third step is guiding conversations with the person about the faith journey. Instead of asking a lot of questions that begin with the words “Why don’t you…” start conversations, or at least the thinking about, with words like “Did you ever think about…” or “Has God seemed to be quiet lately?” or “Do you ever wonder if God is really interested in us?”
Our well-founded concern for the person sometimes causes us to chase him towards the throne of grace, or “guilt him” towards God. Guilt works well in getting out kids to eat their cooked spinach, but does very little good in having someone rediscover the intimacy of God.
Finally, we must stay the course. We see the immediate, but God sees over the next hill. Perseverance is as much a part of running our own race as it is a part of walking alongside someone who is on a different pace. Remember, there are plenty of people who abandon, but few who are willing to stay the course with the person.
Pray long. Be grace. Stay the course.
Categories: Christianity, Community, Faith, Freedom, Grace, Jesus, love, Pastor, Prayer, Story, The Church, Uncategorized, Youth
Tags: apathy, condemnation, conversations, following Christ, fried scallops, losing your salvation, Nascar, perseverance, Prayer, Salvation
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June 3, 2013
WORDS FROM W.W. June 2, 2013
There is something about our mindset that is strange. We often long for, and pray for, the touch of God upon our lives in such powerful ways, and yet when someone proclaims that he has experienced a powerful encounter with the Lord we are, more often than not, suspicious.
Perhaps it is because we aren’t quite sure God would present himself in such a way.
Or it could be that we are a bit jealous that someone else gets to experience the hand of God instead of us. Kind of like getting new underwear for Christmas while our sibling gets new Legos. Who would be happy about that?
Or perhaps it is because we’ve gotten burned for believing that such things happen too many times. Someone tells us how God has appeared to him, and then we find out a while later that it was all a hoax. We wanted to believe. Believing is risking, but like the boy who cried “Wolf!”, too many false alarms has left us leery of trusting in the real holy moment.
Let’s be honest! Sometimes people use our tendency to be gullible towards spiritual matters to pull the wool over our eyes.
The tragedy is that God still is working, and moving, and healing. He is still the God of the burning bush and closed lions’ mouths.
Facebook and Youtube have made us instant celebrities, but also immediately doubtful. As our culture becomes less familiar with the Bible it becomes prone more to being swayed by the spectacular. What if God, however chooses to be in the calm, the gentle whisper? At that point do we become visually-impaired to his hand?
I’ve witnessed a person be overwhelmed by the singing of a praise song. God was doing something in her life. I’ve also experienced the moving of God in the midst of a conversation with one other person. But I’ve also felt the uneasiness over the sharing of what was perceived as being a great moving of the Spirit.
It is confusing.
When talking to the Corinthian church about their worship issues, Paul said something that applies to this spiritual suspicion we feel. He writes, “When we worship the right way, God doesn’t stir us up into confusion; he brings us into harmony. This goes for all the churches- no exceptions.” (1 Corinthians 14:35, The Message)
If it is confusing, perhaps it needs further inspection, further contemplation and prayer. God is not a God of confusion, but he is the God of people who are quite often confused.
Categories: Christianity, Community, Faith, Freedom, Holy Spirit, Jesus, Pastor, Prayer, Story, The Church, Uncategorized
Tags: 1 Corinthians, Bible, burning bush, Confusing, discernment, harmony, Spiritual, Wolf, Worship
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June 2, 2013
WORDS FROM W.W. June 1, 2013
People have often told me that I write good…I mean, well!
Although I have a hard time remembering when to use “it’s” and when to use “its”, I seem to be able to peck on my laptop…well.
Thus I’m beginning a challenge that may cure me from ever wanting to write again, or give me the urge, like I have for a cup of dark roast coffee in the morning that now seems strangely natural.
The challenge is to write a post for my blog each and every day for a month. Thirty days…from the first to the last, or thirtieth.
To do that will require creativity on days when creation seems to have disappeared; and discipline on days when I hate the thought of the word.
It will require that someone cares.
That would be you.
To help me out a little bit I encourage you…I beg you…to send me some ideas as to what you would want me to write about. I don’t care whether it’s (there’s that word again) about peanut butter, or dental floss, or the New Orleans Zephyrs. (Google it!)
Whatever you ask me to write about I will try my utmost for his highest to bring in a spiritual principle.
I will, however, not surrender editorial powers of veto, knowing that some people are already thinking of something that would make me cringe just sitting in front of the computer and writing about.
Perhaps you have a spiritual question…or concern…or confusion…or even a confusing question that is a concern.
Let the challenge begin! I need coffee!
Categories: Christianity, Community, Faith, Humor, Jesus, Pastor, Story, The Church, Uncategorized
Tags: blog, Challenge, coffee, June, New Orleans Zephyrs, Thirty, writing
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May 27, 2013
WORDS FROM W.W. May 27, 2013
“Would Jesus Defriend Me?”
I was doing some cleaning house today. Facebook friend cleaning, that is!
Something had to give. I was starting to feel like an extreme Facebook friend hoarder. And it isn’t that I’m that popular. I don’t want you to think that “I’m all that.” I can’t even remember what LOL stands for! I don’t even play Farmville, or whatever the new games are that some of my Facebook friends keep requesting me to try.
It’s just that I’ve continued to accumulate friends like books. My personal library includes more books that I’ve never read than books that I have read…and I keep buying more. Amazon makes it too easy!
So today I started making the “friend cuts”, like it was an NFL free agents camp.
Too weird? Cut!
Can’t remember who she is? Cut!
Too many requests to play Bingo Blitz? Cut!
Bad memories of? Sliced!
Tendency to say stupid things? Gone!
Michigan State hater? Cut, cut, cut!
Facebook gangsta’ picture poses! Tossed!
Infatuated with “Bridezillas”? Hurled!
Snooki followers! Fried!
In a matter of a few minutes I was able to shave away some excess friend-age. I almost felt like I was in Washington, deciding on what stays in the budget and what gets the ax.
It wasn’t that I was ruthless. I still have two Ruth’s in my friend list,and, coincidentally, I was reading the Book of Ruth this morning.
Go figure!
I discovered that defriending with Facebook is almost as easy as friending. It didn’t involve heated conversations, or physical violence. All I had to do was make my way to the appropriate list, point the finger (the one next to the thumb, mind you!) at “defriend” and click.
See ya!
And then I got to thinking, like a good guilt-ridden Baptist would, whether Jesus would ever defriend me? Would me cut me from his list if I hadn’t IM’ed him for a while? Would he scrutinize my posts and block me like a Halloween movie? Would he become disinterested in what is going on in my life? Would I not make his “A” list and get tossed in a holy cut-back?
Would Jesus be my friend until someone better came along?
And, of course, the answers to all these questions would be that Jesus would never defriend me…regardless! No matter how much time I gave to Farmville instead of him…no matter how many instant messages I didn’t reply too.
Even…no matter how many rumors I circulated about him!
Jesus would never defriend me…no matter what!
Categories: Christianity, Community, Faith, Freedom, Grace, Humor, Jesus, Story, The Church, Uncategorized, Youth
Tags: Baptist, Bingo Blitz, Bridezillas, cleaning, cut, Facebook, Farmville, guilt, guilt-ridden, hoarder, Snooki
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May 22, 2013
WORDS FROM W.W. May 22, 2013
Hitting 59 has made me more conscious of my slowness, morning aches, evening exhaustion, and the multiplying of pill bottles. When I look in the mirror I notice a couple of warts that weren’t always there, but have grown in prominence as I’ve clicked off the years.
The last year of your fifties makes you think of what has been and where you have been. When I was growing up in Winchester, Kentucky I was graced with some freckles on my face. I was actually cute, especially when I was missing a few teeth in the midst of freckled cheeks. Freckles were signs an imaginative childhood. I played with imaginary friends, or even played football against an invisible defense, scoring touchdowns on two yard dives in my backyard. Freckles were child-like, not childish.
A few years later, about the time when it was no longer cool to be cute, pimples started sprouting up on my face like mysterious dandelions in spring lawns. I discovered Clearasil and other products that were suppose to ease the uncomfortableness of adolescence.
Zits were a sign of not knowing whether I was still a child or had emerged into the beginnings of adulthood. It was that time when I wasn’t sure what was going on in my life. I wanted parental closeness, while at the same time keeping some distance. My dad lost some of his intelligence. I insulted my mom’s fried chicken. I wanted to be somebody, and yet I often felt like a nobody. I had a humorous streak about me, but I also was painfully short. Dreams of who I might grow up to be were being shattered. I missed the days of being a child, but knew that I was speeding towards a time of more responsibility.
And now, years later, I look in the mirror and only see trace of the freckles and a couple of little scars from the effects of teenage zits. The warts now stand out. I’m suppose to now have it all together. Experience echoes through my facial imperfections. Although people tell me that I don’t look my age, no one is approaching me to go to a rock concert at Red Rocks, or inviting me to watch Monday Night Football at Buffalo Wild Wings.
I am now a picture of maturity, and I’m about as comfortable with it as I was with youthful blemishes. Oh, it isn’t that I don’t want to be responsible. It is more that I often feel burdened…weighed down by the expectations of others. I want to be able to make mistakes, but I’m often viewed as someone who isn’t allowed to make mistakes.
And yet my warts also tell me that I’m in that phase of life when people want to know what I think, where they will often take their lead from me. There is some sense of gratification that goes with that sprinkled over the mass of responsibility.
I’m just around the corner from the next phase called “age spots.” Sometimes they appear like someone took a red marker to the face. Other times they emerge as little pre-cancerous spots. In fact, I’ve already had a few frozen off by my physician. My dad has undergone two sets of radiation treatments for cancerous spots on his ear and nose.
Age spots are a sign that I’ve gone from being a learner to a leader to a mentor. More of my time will be spent in coffee conversations and quiet reflection. I’ll start collecting letters, photos, and other indications of a lived life. I feel valued as a result of people asking me what I think, as opposed to pressing my opinions. There is soundness in “elders” being respected in the church.
Freckles, zits, warts, and age spots. It seems that there are many parallels between those facial stages and a person’s spiritual development. Dare I also say there are many parallels also with a church’s life stage.
We go from childlike energy and optimism to youthful uncertainty; living out our faith responsibly to passing on the soundness of our beliefs to the next generation.
Chaos appears when we confuse life phases; when a pimpled church tries to pretend it is certain and unyielding in it’s statement of belief, or a warted congregation is childish in it’s actions and attitudes.
A church that is healthy is one that is allowing each of it’s participants to live in the period of faith that they are in.
Categories: children, Christianity, Community, Faith, Grace, Humor, Jesus, Pastor, Prayer, Story, The Church, Uncategorized, Youth
Tags: adolescence, age spots, childlike, confusion, Faith, freckles, maturity, pimples, warts, wisdom, youth, Zits
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Words from WW Blog 