Words from WW Blog

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!

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?

WORDS FROM W.W. June 16, 2011
“Framing The Future”

For Father’s Day a year ago my daughter Kecia surprised me by framing all of the photos I have had of teams I have coached in the last decade or so. She put each team photo into it’s own frame and then arranged them on one of the walls in my home study. Some of the photos are larger and require special frames. Some are situated where the vertical sides of the frame are the longer two sides, and others are just the opposite.
The frames don’t change the pictures, but they do influence one’s perspective of it. For example, one of the teams that I enjoyed coaching the most has their photo in a black frame with thin borders around it. The frame, from my view and memory, enhances the sweetness of the season that I shared with the players in that picture. One of the more difficult teams I coached has its photo centered in a solidly built frame that, for some reason, acts like a memory-eraser of the afternoons I felt like I was trying to get a team of mules to take one step forward.
The wall is about to gain a few others frames of this past year’s teams. In preparation for this I went to a store and looked at new frames to place the photos in. I was amazed at the options! A couple of them seemed to communicate serenity. Others non-verbally said “Strong” and “Loving.” I would describe a few as traditional and others as “adolescent-bound.”
The frames communicated perhaps as much as the pictures.
It occurred to me that our faith experience, or perhaps our faith experience through church, is influenced by our “frame.” What has given us a sense of comfort and peace often becomes the “frame” through which we see the view of the present and our hopes for the future.
In essence, disgruntlement or satisfaction with our church is often connected to how well we have experienced the past. It helps us understand why older generations are so passionate about singing hymns. It helps me understand why I sometimes think of youth ministry being done in a certain way…because that’s how it was done when I was in high school, and how I did it when I was a youth director. It explains why certain things are in specific places in a sanctuary, not necessarily because Scripture instructs that way. It also helps us make sense as to why one church has a weekly calendar that never changes, but other churches are more open about altering the schedule on a regular basis.
Our past experiences help frame the present and future. If someone’s experience in a traditional church was riddled with chaos and hurt, he may never be involved in an organized religious group again, or when he does become interested in a faith journey again it could very well be in a non-traditional setting that is fresh and completely different.
Sometimes people leave churches not because they were offended or angered, but because their frame needs a more familiar picture in it. Who would put a Picasso in a frame that would take the attention away from the picture? Who would put a picture of the 2011 Dallas Mavericks in a 1890 picture frame that once held the photo of my grandparents with “four greats” in front ot their names?
The Pharisees often got upset with Jesus. Their faith frame was being seen with a new photo in it, and it was just a little too much out there for them to be comfortable with.
In a culture that is very spiritual, and decreasingly church-based, there will probably be more and more conversation…and heated debate about our different frames. It’s neither a good thing nor a bad thing. It just is.

WORDS FROM W.W. June 7, 2011
“Jesus told them another parable: ‘The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field. But while everyone was sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and went away. When the wheat sprouted and formed heads, then the weeds also appeared.”
(Matthew 13:24-26)

This is a story about two shrubs, small and young, bought at the store in two of those small shrub containers and carefully bedded down into the ground a few feet apart from each other. The shrubs were cared for, fed and watered, and they slowly took root. Each of them had tiny fragile leaves bursting with potential.
And then something strange happened. One of the shrubs grew at an alarmingly rapid rate, while the other shrub seemed to be barely growing in comparison. The two shrubs were pictures of contrast. How could they have been like twins from birth, who now looked like polar opposites?
As time went on the shrub that was still smaller began to display brightness of color in its appearance. It was stunning to behold. The larger shrub sprouted limbs that gave it a bad hair-day look. Each day that went by did nothing to change that appearance.
And then the oddness of the situation brought forth a solution. The larger shrub had company in it’s beginning carton, for there had also been the beginnings of a weed that was sharing the space with it. Towards the beginning of the growing the weed had given the small shrub a look of vitality, of health, and fully-lived life. But as time went on the weed had taken over the shrub, began crowding it out, drinking all of the water that came it’s direction, and expanded.
The other shrub, though small, was weed-less. It very carefully grew towards strength. After a while it stopped worrying about it’s size in comparison and focused on being what it could be. Each growing season it became steadier and more deeply rooted. It stayed on course with what it had been planted to do.
But the first shrub lost it’s direction. The weeds crowded it out to the point that it couldn’t see what it was any longer. It even came to a point where it couldn’t separate itself from the weeds. It thought the weeds were signs of it’s fruit. Everyone else, however, knew the truth, even if the shrub couldn’t see it.
Finally, a day came when the weeds began encroaching on the other shrub and it could no longer be tolerated. The weeds were pulled out of the ground. The shrub was so entangled in their existence that it was pulled up, also.
But the other shrub thrived and blossomed, and after a while, no one remembered that at one time there had been another shrub.

Author’s Note: This story, that Jesus first brings out in Matthew, was re-lived in our front yard this past year. There is still a bare spot where the weeds and shrub got pulled up, but the shrub beside it is doing well! Read into it however you want. To me it is a vivid illustration of the Christian life. Sometimes a person’s language and outward appearance fool others in the short-term. A steady walk is only noticed after it has been shown for a long, long time.

WORDS FROM W.W. May 30, 2011
There’s all kinds of studies and research available today on a variety of subjects. Mice are used to provide a number of findings to us about high cholesterol, the effects of too much of “whatever” in people, and on and on.
Here’s a couple of findings that I bet you didn’t know?
Only one person in two billion will live to be 116 or older.
Wolves are capable of traveling over 100 miles in a day, and to go days without food. They can also eat 20 pounds of meat in a single sitting.
Nutmeg is extremely poisonous if injected intravenously.
I’m amazed at all the research that educates me.
Here’s another research finding. Being a Christian does not make a person smarter.
Some in the thinking community believe that being a Christian actually shows how unintelligent a person is. I couldn’t disagree more, but I also know that being a follower of Jesus does nothing for my IQ either.
Spiritual wisdom is written in a different book than mental capabilities. Maturing spiritually is in a different zip code than understanding algebra.
In fact, the longer I’m a follower of Jesus I realize how little I do know. It’s not a God-guilt trip that has been inflicted on me, but perhaps a clearer picture of my intellectual limitations. My commitment to Christ will not get me closer to being a Jeopardy contestant. I know as little about 19th Century Art now as I did several years ago.
Most importantly, there is a difference between “Biblical knowledge” and “understanding how the Bible impacts my life and guides me on my daily path.”
My grandfather might say something like this: “Intelligence got nuthin to do with not being stupid.” As we walk with the Lord, let’s hope that our being led by Spirit will magnify our wisdom! That our spiritual maturity will be less about facts and figures, and more about faith and faithfulness.

WORDS FROM W.W. May 28, 2011
It’s almost five weeks since Easter and Jesus is still risen!
I’m using the lectionary as the scriptural reading texts for the Sunday sermons this year. One of the elements of it that I’m appreciating is the flow of the readings, especially the Gospel readings, that allow me to travel a spiritual journey through the Lenten Season to Holy Week to the Cross and Resurrection, and now heading towards Pentecost Sunday. It’s discovering what I already knew, that there is a connectedness to the story.
Sometimes, especially in the Baptist church, as well as several others, there’s a loss of the continuing story. Easter Sunday becomes something we market, giving away chocolate bunnies or, as I remember happening many years ago, chocolate crosses. (There was something unsettling about eating the Cross!). And then after Easter, the incredible story of the open tomb seems to get lost, and we revert back to focusing on church budget deficits, the peeling paint on the window sills of the educational wing, and who is going to volunteer for VBS.
There’s just something deathly about how many believers act after Resurrection Sunday. That is meant to be a general statement, on an all-encompassing stroke of the truth-brush! There are a number of stories of life after death, like people seeking to help the ripped-apart community of Joplin, Missouri.
I can’t figure out, however, why all of the followers of Christ slide back into believing in hopelessness? It’s as if the resurrection never happened. That’s the rub! It’s because of the resurrection happening that we have hope for there to be restoration of broken lives and broken communities; and reconciliation of fractured relationships, and recovery for the disheartened.
I confess that my Monday is often a step back from my Sunday. I don’t quite understand myself, and by Carol’s frequent head nods she doesn’t quite understand me, also.
Perhaps allowing myself a little grace is a step in the right direction. Grace, there’s another subject the church is the expert on, but doesn’t practice very well.
For now as I head towards Pentecost I’m going to keep looking in my rear-view mirror to make sure I haven’t rolled the stone back in front of the tomb.

WORDS FROM W.W. May 22, 2011
This is going to be a stressful week! I wasn’t suppose to be here. May 21 was suppose to be it! Beam up! Blue jeans left behind! All of that!
I’d been saving up all of my new credit card offers that came in the mail, and then last week I went on a Best Buy, Dick’s Sporting Goods, Sears, Jared Jewelers, Barnes & Noble buying binge. Since I was being “taken” I wouldn’t be around when the credit card bills came.
Might as well go out living like a king!
Might as well give in to my consumeristic temptations for the last couple of days of earthly existence! After all, I knew I was on the exit launch.
But then Harold Camping’s prophecy that he said was guaranteed didn’t happen! Was he simply off by a week? Will I still get the sudden flash experience BEFORE the credit card bills arrive? I’m in limbo here…no, better not use that term. I think a certain Christian church still teaches about it.
I’m in an in-between place. Am I coming or going? Am I freely exiting, or am I staying in the midst of newly-incurred debt?
Will Dick’s Sporting Goods take back my slightly used and abused monster-head driver? Does Best Buy mind is I opened and used all of the 30 new PS 3 games that I bought?
Like I said, I’ve got so much stress to deal with, now that I’m still in the here and present.

I probably should have made the house payment also…for the past few months.
And then there’s the car. Lucky I didn’t pay that Firestone bill for the four new tires yet, since I won’t be having the car much longer anyway.
I probably could have gotten by without the facial plastic surgery, but, hey, I wasn’t sure if I’d be jetted up in this body, or some other physical outfit, so I had a few nip and tucks just so I’d be looking good when I got welcomed into glory.
So, as you can see, Harold has caused me a lot of grief. Someone needs to take the blame for my irresponsibility and self-serving actions!
I can’t be!

WORDS FROM W.W. May 17, 2011

Last weekend I went camping with six young adult guys I’ve been meeting with since October. When I invited each one of them to be in the group I was leading one of the stated requirements was to go on an overnight retreat a few months after we had started meeting. Unfortunately, I wasn’t clear enough on where the overnight retreat would be! I was thinking “conference centers” or camps with indoor plumbing or, at the worst, a mountain cabin. I was thinking the place might not have wireless. They were thinking “wires-less”, as in no wires…phone lines, electricity outlets, cable.
So we went camping. No, not KOA camping. Off-road camping! Like in, no one even knows this place exists!
It was good! We enjoyed being together, talking, laughing, sharing. Most of them actually said it was the best camping experience they’ve ever had. I was surprised, since we were eating scrambled eggs out of red plastic Dixie cups, and couldn’t make a early morning Starbucks run.
But you see, I have no basis for an assessment on what is great camping versus Neanderthal Remembrance Day. The last time I went tent camping was in 1985, and that was with 12 Junior High age boys on a week-long bike camp. Camping with a dozen 12 year olds for a week is not really camping. It’s like a seven day episode of “Fear Factor.”
So, was this camping excursion good or bad? I have to believe in the camping veterans that gave it “A’s”. All had all experienced a lot of camping. I’m not sure how to even light a Coleman lantern. Some of them had cool looking little lights that they hung around their head. I had my iPad, which is cool, except when you’re shivering by a campfire. They had sleeping bags that could protect you up to thirty degrees below. I had a borrowed sleeping bag that I couldn’t figure out how to zip up.
I came away believing it was good. I just had nothing to compare it to.
There is a hint of a correlation between that and being a new follower of Jesus or a seasoned disciple of the faith. When someone enters into a relationship with Jesus there is no basis for assessing how good this new journey is except for an inner sense of hope. That inner sense, dependent on the person, might seem peaceful, or joy-filled, or exciting. Whatever simple analysis you might give you it, there is a sense that one is in a different place.
The tendency is for someone who is new to the faith to look at other Christians and assess his faith experience on the basis of theirs. Whereas spiritual mentors are invaluable in helping us navigate the journey, nevertheless each person’s faith shape is different. One of the critical discoveries we can take from the Scriptures is the diversity of transformational experiences that people had. How Levi came to Jesus is different than how the woman at the well came to Jesus. The way Levi came to Jesus is even different than how Zacchaeus did, even though they were both tax collectors!
Coming to Jesus is “gospel”, good news. It’s just that how that good news is heard and understood is different.
The interesting thing is that I now have a picture of what camping is, and it is good…except for numb feet and “bear paranoia.”
I’ve also had 44 years of a picture of being a follower of Jesus…and it is good…no exceptions!