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“PRAYER ROOKIE”

September 22, 2011

WORDS FROM W.W. September 22, 2011

God has been impressing upon me in recent weeks the urgency of prayer, and also the opportunity of prayer. The more I’m learning the more I feel like a prayer rookie.
It’s similar to my football coaching days. I’m in my seventh year of coaching middle school football. I was the school’s basketball coach (Still am for 10 years now!), and the Athletic Director cornered me in a coffee shop one summer morning and asked me to coach football. I played football through my freshman year of high school, but things were not complex back in those days. Now as the head coach overseeing the program for the 7th grade and 8th grade I feel like such a rookie. Football terminology is like New Testament Greek. It requires a lot of coffee to help in the comprehension.
That’s how prayer has been seeming to me lately. I’ve prayed for almost my entire life, but it seems like God has been teaching an old dog new tricks. I’m having a lot of “a-ha moments”, but I’m also having a lot of “I just don’t get it” moments.
Prayer is a part of the relationship. It’s like the steam coming off a hot cup of coffee. It’s a part of the experience. After a while the steam becomes less, but then the server comes around for a “warm-up.” That’s a picture of the heat and coolness of our prayer. We need continual warm-ups.
So much of prayer emerges out of the wrong motives. I’m aware that I have a tendency to pressure God with my own agenda, not that God can actually feel pressured. It’s like I’m my own lobbying group peppering him with my needs and initiatives.
“God, open the wallets and purses of the people to take care of this budget deficit.”
“God, grow our church!” (Notice the word “our!”)
“God, the lawn needs rain. It’s losing it’s greenness!”
“God, get that nagging person off my back!”

And so I’m learning that I often approach prayer with a wrong mindset, wrong questions, and wrong motives. I’m a rookie trying to understand.
On the other hand I’m not sure if there is such a thing as a “prayer chiseled-veteran.”

Categories: Christianity, Faith, Uncategorized
Tags: Prayer

Comments: 1 Comment

Facebook, Netflix, and Others With God Complexes

September 21, 2011

WORDS FROM W.W. September 21, 2011

It is a common occurrence in our culture that when something gets popular it teeters on the edge of unreasonable. The escalator has been taken to the “exalted floor” of the mall. Quite often many of us get taken with it, or perhaps a better way of saying it in hindsight is “got taken.”
New ideas spark new ways of seeing the world, but sometimes the new ideas come to a point where they believe that are the new deities, above questioning and inspection.
Netflix got that idea a few months ago when they raised their monthly membership by up to 60%. In other words, they were saying “We’re awesome! You can’t live without us! Here’s what you’re going to pay, so deal with it!” When my trash company raises it’s fees by $5.00 every three months I can deal with it. When milk prices jump a quarter I can deal with it. But when a “lay around time” activity thinks my life will not be complete unless I chalk up more money so they can increase their corporate profits, I jump off the escalator.
Just to clarify, I’ve never been a member of Netflix, but the tactics and entitlement seem to be filtering down into our cultural systems more and more.
There’s a difference between leading new initiatives and bleeding constituents.
Like the $62 a seat Nuggets tickets I bought at a silent auction last year for $25 a piece, and then I discover that our seats are at a certain place in the arena where the shot clock on our end of the court obscured our ability to see the basket at the other end of the court. I think I’ll just cough up $10 and go to the Air Force game. Believe me, there are no obstructed view seats there.
Or that mega social media giant “Facebook”, which recently made changes because they just wanted to, and people can’t get along without them…so there! Facebook now determines, in a social networking kind of way, who your most important friends are, and who aren’t that necessary. I don’t understand it, but, of course, I don;t understand Farmville either. When it comes to social networking I’m more like Abraham, “going not knowing.”
I remember hearing a presentation by Tony Campolo years ago about the principalities and powers that oppress people and destroy lives. Campolo at that time was focused on oppressive governmental systems and Gulf-Western, which raised sugar cane in the Dominican Republic. I remember him talking about an orphanage his organization was running in Haiti because of horrific poverty situations that caused me to weep. He would quote Colossians 2:14-15: “…having canceled the written code, with its regulations, that was against us and that stood opposed to us; he (Christ) took it away, nailing it to the cross. And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.” The Cross of Christ showed the tendencies of our culture for what it is- drunk with power, ADD in their concern for the have-nots, selectively tuned-in to the problems of their customer base.
Could it be that the principalities and powers of today are those institutions, corporations, and even individuals who think the world revolves around them; and that you and me can’t survive without them?
Let’s bring it home to the church! As a community of faith I hope we never enter that area called “entitled.” That is, a church that is an expression of the “living Christ” isn’t beyond reach. It never thinks that the community is privileged to have us, even though the community is better because of what we’re about. It’s not a people of privilege, but rather a people privileged to live out the call.
As a people of faith there needs to be an owning up, an acknowledgment that even though we are the community of the living Christ, people have been living without us.
Netflix learned that they weren’t as high and mighty and a necessity as they thought they were. Facebook may find out the same thing (Anybody remember “MySpace”?) The church, the messengers of hope for the one true God, will be more and more vital as it proclaims who the one true God is!

Categories: Christianity, Faith, The Church, Uncategorized
Tags: Facebook

Comments: 1 Comment

Important Lessons At Three Year Old’s Soccer Games

September 14, 2011

WORDS FROM W.W. September 14, 2011
I took in my three year old grandson’s first soccer game last Saturday morning. The men’s bible study group I lead extended some grace to me and pushed me out the door so I could catch the second half of a delightful time.
Three year old soccer isn’t about the game, as much as the experience and the post-game snacks. My grandson had a hat trick- two goals in the other team’s net and one in his own. He was all smiles no matter what. As long as there was a net on the back of the goal he was all giggly.
I learned a few things as I watched and savored.
It’s okay to have fun playing a kid’s game, even though adults are watching. Kids have fun playing when there aren’t any adults watching; and sometimes kids have no fun when adults are watching. It’s possible…just possible…if the parents can allow it…for the kids to have fun even when mom and dad are there. Sometimes the church needs to become more child-like and less childish, more laugh-filled and less demanding.
It’s okay to pull to the side for a moment even when the game is still going on. Our grandson, as well as many others, would take a tumble, get up and run over to mom or dad to get some consolation about the fact that he had some grass stain on his “waist high” socks. After his parents assured him that it would be okay, he was back at it. It was more like a pit stop during a NASCAR race. The race went on, but it was okay for him to stop for a brief intermission. It made me think of how infrequent my own pulling to the side happens.
In 3 year old soccer there is no “Them and Us”. If the ball is going towards the other team’s goal there was a fifty-fifty chance that the team on the defense will keep kicking it in that direction. Three year old’s aren’t as aware of the right direction as they are of their right foot. Right and wrong have been defined in different ways. “Right” is stopping and helping someone back on his feet, or saying how nice his shoes look. “Wrong” is pushing or hitting another player who has fallen on top of the pile; or saying something mean. In other words, right and wrong have not been defined by the white line boundaries, or which goal to shoot on, or even refraining running onto the field to help stop the ball even though you aren’t in the game. A soccer game with three year old’s is more about grace than law, freedom than constraints.
In a soccer game played by three year old’s there is joy. One of the coaches had tied a smiley face balloon to the top of their goal. The result was that both teams were often heading towards the smile. Three year old’s are attracted to joy. I need to learn that as a principle of life: Aim for joy. Detour away from scowls and disgruntlement. I need to consider the question: What really brings joy to my life?

And so it ended! The game was over. Not one of the three year old’s knew what the score was. I’m sure a few parents probably did, but most of the observers also saw life lived on a smaller field with excitement, delight, and laughter.
May the adult generation get a sense of that as we play on our larger fields!

Categories: Faith, Parenting, Teamwork, Uncategorized
Tags: children, play

Comments: 1 Comment

Polar Opposite Closeness

September 9, 2011

WORDS FROM W.W. September 9, 2011

Carol and I went to see The Help on Labor Day. Loved the movie! Extra butter on the popcorn! It was an enjoyable afternoon!
We arrived at 3:10 for the 3:10 showing, but when you arrive at the time of the showing guess what you watch? About 20 minutes of “Coming Attractions!” At least the theater no longer has the dancing candy box waltzing with a hot dog and a Coca-Cola cup across the screen, but most movie previews now don’t really get me excited.
What I noticed was the wide differences in the movies that were previewed, and I especially noticed this. There was a preview about the film Courageous. It’s a faith-based film from Sherwood Pictures, the movie-making ministry of Sherwood Baptist Church in Albany, Georgia. It’s the same group that produced Facing the Giants, and Fireproof. The new film, which arrives on September 30, is about four law enforcement officers, who are highly effective on the job, but struggle in the roles as fathers at home. It focuses on the urgency for fathers to invest into the lives of their kids, the vitalness of loving relationships between parents and their children.
The theme of the movie is clear.
The next movie preview that blasted onto the screen after that was the polar opposite. It was about one night stands, the non-commitment to another person when it impacts my personal comfort and convenience, and rapidness with which many people move from one relationship to another.
Don’t get me wrong! This is not about the moral decline of Western Civilization, or a lashing out at the brevity of present-day loving relationships. No, this is about the closeness of polar opposites that I sense is meshed into our culture today. Many of the same people who go to see Courageous, will go to see the other film the week after that.
There will be little recognition of the conflicting life perspective and values between the two films. Many in the audience will take in both films, remembering a touching father-son scene in one and a mad dash for the bedroom in the other.
It is perplexing, but also troubling to see the fluidness of our beliefs. It seems that we’ve become more and more flexible. We can sing praise music in one moment, and think like hedonists the next.
I’m not bitter, or even trying to be judgmental. I’m just a little bewildered.

Categories: Christianity, Faith, Parenting, Uncategorized
Tags: Movies

Comments: 1 Comment

Messy Conversations

August 31, 2011

WORDS FROM W.W. August 30, 2011

I’m speaking this coming Sundays on “Messy Conversations”, and I have to tell you…I’m a little anxious! I’m praying that God will work through me to not create a mess, but to proclaim the possibilities “in our messes.”
There’s a a growing chasm in our culture between “opposites.” They say that opposites attract. Maybe with magnets that’s true, but in regards to our belief systems, values, and opinions, recent history has shown the…”opposite!”
The ongoing political campaigns are an example. What we see on TV, and the internet, is usually people on opposite sides of the canyon throwing rocks at one another. Everyone seems to think they are right and the opposite side is wrong that very seldom do you hear of the possibility that each side has some of the right.
Messy conversations are those situations where my need to make you see the error of your ways is not as important as hearing what you are basing your belief on. Our conversation is somewhere in the middle of the mess.
Jesus didn’t feel a need to be right. Well, okay…he was always right, but it’s not what drove him. He showed a consistent habit of giving value to those who had lost their voice- a woman dragged to him under a charge of adultery, a tax collector of minimal stature, a woman who had a feminine condition that caused her humiliation.
There aren’t too many families that have not been touched by either an unwanted pregnancy, a drug-dependent relative, an alcoholic uncle, a “prodigal son” child, a job-terminated kin, or a marriage gone south. All of us have messy conversations that we are connected to.
It would be nice to think that walking closely with Jesus keeps our lives feel of such pain, but each of us knows that’s not true. The messy conversations of life often cause us to rush to the feet of Jesus in our grief and pain, and seek his leading when we have no words to say.
If our walk with Jesus created a force field around us protecting us from the chaos of this world, perhaps our congregations would all require parking lot attendants to help with the overflow.
One of the telling points of a church is whether or not it can be a community of grace in the midst of the messy conversations. Rigidity tilts the slide towards legalistic righteousness, which is okay until you’re the one needing grace.
Some might be concerned that I’m hinting that there are no absolutes. There are absolutes. There are absolute truths that I am firmly committed to, but I am also firmly committed to the uncomfortable conversations with my opposites.

Categories: Christianity, Faith, The Church, Uncategorized
Tags: grace

Comments: 2 Comments

Saltines and Sandies

August 25, 2011

WORDS FROM W.W. August 24, 2011

“Taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the man who takes refuge in him.” (Psalm 34:8)
“How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth.” (Psalm 119:103)

My favorite cookie has always been the Pecan Sandie. It’s not that I don’t like others; it’s just that I have history with the Sandie. My Aunt Irene used to have a stash at her house in a cookie jar. Aunt Irene had no children, so I could feast on cookies the whole time I was there. A Sandie has good memories for me.
But cookies in our house growing up were up high. It demanded that a little guy, like me, had to do a bit of cabinet scaling to obtain one.
On the other hand, the lower shelf that I could reach with no effort had the Saltine cracker box on it. Saltines were there for the taking.
Perhaps you think differently, but my thinking was “How many Saltines can a kid eat?” I’ve never heard a parent say, “You’ve had enough crackers! Now put them away!”
If you go into a restaurant and request crackers, they will bring you a basketful, but if you ask for a chocolate chip cookie check your bill. Restaurants give crackers; some even give pickles, peanuts, and popcorn…but no one brings a plate of cookies to the table for free.
In terms of the leadings of God in our lives, are we munching on Saltines or reaching for the Sandies? In other words, do we obey the God-leadings that never demand too much, or allow ourselves to stretch to reach what demands all of who we are?
Another way of saying it is, do we “dull-ify” the things of God in order to not risk being disappointed? I can remember reaching for the cookie jar, pushing the “in peril meter”, only to discover that it was empty. It was disappointing!
And there were the Saltines! Multitudes of them, easily within my safe reach!
A follower of Jesus is always settles for the Saltines will never taste the richness of God’s calling.
There are times when a Saltine is what we need. It’s usually when we’re in the midst of some kind of stomach illness. We’ve overextended, and we need to settle for a time. Think of it as a sabbath rest, a centering experience.
Honestly, though, how many of us are reaching for the hand of God so often that we need a “Saltine break?”
Personally, it occurred to me this week that most of what I’m about, and most of what I’m leading my church in, is cracker-based instead of cookie-reaches.
“Lord, I pray for power to reach for the Sandies, the sweetness of Your favor as I pursue the risks of Your calling!”

Categories: Christianity, Faith, Uncategorized
Tags: cookies, Discipleship, ministry

Comments: 1 Comment

Different Languages

August 18, 2011

WORDS FROM W.W. August 18, 2011
On a recent flight to Chicago, Carol and I witnessed an interesting language situation. Across the aisle and one row up there was a little girl about 7 years old sitting in the aisle seat with an open seat beside her. We couldn’t quite understand why she was by herself, but, of course, “not understanding”is a key term in this story.
A good-sized man in his late twenties came up the aisle as people were finding there seats, and when he got to the aisle that the young girl was sitting in he looked up at the sign that tells which seat is which, looked down at the young girl, looked back up at the seat, and then asked the young lady “Excuse me! Is this your seat?” She looked up at him with a seven year old’s confused eyes, but didn’t say anything. The young man, who was about 6’2”, 230, was very patient and he sat down in the open seat behind her and waited until a flight attendant might happen to wander by.
About a minute later a young woman came up the aisle and the young man realized that he was in her seat, so he unoccupied it and stood in the aisle…with great patience. (Yes, where are the flight attendants when you really need them?)
Finally one of the attendants happened to come by and the young man asked him about the young girl. With a bit of frazzlement the attendant said to the 7 year old, “Miss, this is his seat.” And then the attendant fled the scene! The young lady didn’t say a word, and continued to sit and play with her teddy bear.
The football player continued to be very patient. He got the attention of another flight attendant who came by, said something similar to the young lady, and then proceeded on.
A minute later as the plane has filled and the man is still standing in the aisle, another attendant came by and talked to the girl. Finally, it dawned on someone that the child didn’t speak English. She only spoke Spanish, and her grandmother was in the row ahead of her, and her mother was four rows in front of her.
Enter a flight attendant who spoke Spanish, and the situation got easily solved. And let me say it again, the “Hulk” was patient the whole time. The young girl was simply one seat away from where she was suppose to be, but the language of the airlines was foreign to her. She simply sat in the first open seat.
I thought of how people who aren’t familiar with church sometimes brave a visit. We need to ask ourselves how much of what we say is like a foreign language to them. It’s not that we should not use terms like “atonement” and “blood sacrifice” and “Pentecost.” But, perhaps, we must be willing to slow down enough to explain them. How comprehensible is the message that we proclaim about the gospel of Jesus Christ? How clear is the pivotal truth of the grace of God in a culture that believes more in earning one’s way?
When I receive a blank stare from someone who happens to navigate what the right entrance is into our building, find the sanctuary, and join our congregation in a gathering of worship, are there other things I should be considering to bridge the “language gap?”
In the confusion of the situation with the seven year old there were statements that dictated, and questions that weren’t understandable. Finally the right question was asked that provided clear direction about what should be done next.
Sometimes the people of God ask the wrong questions. Asking someone is they have been filled with the Holy Spirit makes no sense whatsoever to someone who then is wondering “What is the Holy Spirit?” Jumping over “A” to get to “B” doesn’t work very well.

Categories: Christianity, Faith, The Church, Uncategorized
Tags: Language Barriers

Comments: 1 Comment

“Vacation Diary”

August 10, 2011

WORDS FROM W.W. August 10, 2011
My wife and I returned from two weeks of vacation on Monday in the Midwest. I thought I would summarize the experience.
Day 1- Left home at 6:30am to travel to DIA (Denver). Vacation started with standing in lines at airport. I thought I was at Cedar Point Amusement Park, but instead of standing in line for a roller coaster I realized I was standing in line to meet a TSA agent.
Day 2- In Michigan. Hot and humid.
Day 3- In Michigan. Hot and humid. Carol and I get reintroduced to something called a mosquito, and his friends! We become “blood relatives.”
Day 4- In Michigan. Hotter and more humid. Instinctively I start to pull off my sweater, and then I realize I’m not wearing one. It’s an invisible “humidity sweater.” Not a fan!
Day 5- In Michigan and then traveling to Ohio. Hot and humid. Humidity has decided to follow us down I-75. We stay with my “best man” and his wife. Good to see them again. He proceeds to humiliate me in ping-pong!
Day 6- In Ohio. Weather forecast calls for increasing hotness and widely uncomfortable humidity.
Day 7- In Ohio. My armpits feel like perspiration fountains. Longing for a blizzard, and I don’t mean from Dairy Queen!
Day 8- In Ohio. It’s raining! Praise the Lord! We celebrate by going to Long John Silver’s for lunch. Mistake! The rest of the day I feel like there is a fish swimming inside me.
Day 9- In Ohio and Indiana. Hot and humid, but we’re in our rental car so we are oblivious…until we stop for gas. It’s so hot that I’m afraid the fuel might ignite. Humidity lower, however. Only about 75%!
Day 10- In Illinois. Hot, humid, and considerably miserable. But on the positive, we get to be in bumper to bumper traffic!
Day 11- In Illinois. Family golf outing. Eighteen holes at a nice golf course. I notice that Carol’s cousin is sweating profusely and we haven’t even teed off yet. After teeing off I realize he just got a jump on us. Each of us (Ten of us in all!) proceeds to “sweat like a pig”, as my grandfather used to say. After my tee shot on the first hole I’m counting down how many holes are left before I can shower!
Day 12- In Illinois. Hot and humid as we trudge through our last day before flying back to Colorado. The highlight is meeting with some old college friends that evening. It rains as a sign of God’s blessing on our gathering together.
Day 13- Back to Colorado. We arrive at the airport extra early so we can get the full effect of waiting in lines again. I feel like a steer that is being led to a place I don’t really want to go to. At O’Hare the TSA agents make you feel a little bit like you are a criminal who is being processed through to a holding cell. The full body scan is a trip! And, of course, since we arrived extra early we discover that our flight is delayed. Arrive back home at 1:15am.
Day 14- Back to work and it’s hot…but it isn’t humid! Praise the Lord!

Categories: Uncategorized

Comments: 1 Comment

When We Just Get Out of the Way

July 21, 2011

WORDS FROM W.W. July 20, 2011
I’m writing this in the midst of a week where I am serving as pastor for middle school church camp. Call me crazy! Just don’t call me Shirley!
Last night at campfire I was asking the campers what it was that God might do in each of their lives that could only be explained as being of God? I was using the story of Gideon, and how God reduced his army from 32,000 to 300, in God’s words, so that “Israel may not boast against me that her own strength has saved her” (Judges 7:2). The campers weren’t quite getting what I was saying, despite my careful exegesis of the scripture passage, good Biblical terminology, and pastor-ly voice with deep feeling and awe whenever I said “GOD!!!!!”
Then one of our counselors felt led to share a personal story from her life that “put feet” on what I was trying to say.
Then one of the campers shared an experience of pain from her life in which she felt the love of God…then another camper shared about the recent death of her mother…then another camper shared about the struggles his dad was having…and another about the deployment of her mom…and another about a dreadful accident his brother had recently, and had just gotten the word that day that his sibling was going to make it.
It went on…and on…and on, but whereas, some adults might have been uncomfortable with all the sharing that these eleven to fourteen year olds were in the midst of, God took the point I had so futilely try to make, and he made it! In his way! In the language of twelve year olds!
He used the bond of shared pain to break down some walls of guarded emotions. The campers recognized that. They left that campfire with a deeper level of love for one another, and trust in the ways of God.
Sometimes our multitude of words inhibit the moving of the Spirit of the Lord. What we hope for, what I hoped for, is able to occur if we just get out of the way.
That’s a hard lesson for a preacher to learn because if we don’t use our voice we’re afraid we’ll lose our voice. Sometimes we need another Zechariah experience!

Categories: Uncategorized

Comments: 2 Comments

“Somewhat Committed”

July 5, 2011

WORDS FROM W.W. July 5, 2011
I’ve been reading James McPherson’s extensive history of the Civil war, entitled Battle Cry For Freedom. It’s about a 900 page lap-buster that I gladly paid $7.99 to have downloaded to my e-reader.
I’ve learned an enormous amount of information about the events that led up to the Civil War. One of the issues that McPherson goes into detail about is the number of bordering states that could have gone one way or the other. They could have just as easily supported the Confederate, as they did the Union…or vice-versa. In those states there were a multitude of people who also could have gone one way or the other in terms of their allegiance. For instance, Robert E. Lee, the commanding general of the Confederacy, was troubled by the thought of having to choose for the South, because he had spent his entire military career in the U.S. Army, graduating second in his class from West Point in 1829, and serving in the army in the Mexican War. Lee spoke against secession from the Union. But when his home state of Virginia voted to secede from the Union, he had to make a decision, and he decided, through much agony that he had to stay with his family’s roots.
His story was played out in thousands of other people’s lives as well. The further away you got from the Mason-Dixon Line, the more committed the people were to one side or the other. Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana were like fighters in the corner of the ring pointing their fingers at New York, Massachusetts, and Michigan.
But the citizens of Kentucky, Virginia, and Maryland were divided in terms of their loyalties. Thirty-five counties in Virginia voted against secession.
Whereas, numerous people’s passions were evident in support of their side, North or South, just as many people were grieved by having to choose a side.
(A side note, it is amazing to read of the number of preachers during that time that would use the Scriptures to justify their commitment to slavery.)
The tragedies of our nation’s history has made me contemplate a great deal about the struggles of our choices in today’s living. Most of life, it seems, is not lived in the “Upper North” or the “Lower South”, but rather in the borderlines in which we could go either direction.
For me it seems that much of my life emerges out of the compromises I make. Some of them I’m pulled, not with great enthusiasm mind you, towards the decisions of God; but, on the other hand, many of them take me slowly in a drift towards the convenient choices of our culture.
It may be in the borderlines of my life that I most appreciate a God who is gracious and forgiving. It’s the struggle with decisions and choices that Paul talked about in the last half of Romans 7. (“So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me.” Romans 7:21) It’s the decision points where I am somewhat committed, but not totally committed. To use another Biblical story, it’s the Israelites bowing down to a golden calf because they didn’t sense that the Lord God Almighty was around. They were nudged to go with the naysayers.
How often are we nudged to move away from the things of God? How much are we moved by the extending of his grace?