Words from WW Blog

WORDS FROM W.W. August 23, 2009
“Cleaning Off The Layers”

A few years ago I went on a road trip with my friend, Dave Volitis, to San Antonio. It was about a fifteen hour car ride through the heart of Texas. We took our Honda Accord that we had actually bought from the Volitis’s about a year before that. When we got back to Colorado Springs I noticed that I had brought a part of Texas home with me that I had not planned on.
Bugs!
Bugs layered on top of bugs! The grill on the front of the Accord was more crowded than teenage girls jammed against the platform of a concert of the Beetles (Another bug type!) back in the 60’s.
I commenced to washing. The interesting thing, however, was that the first time I washed it the latest arrivals of bugs to the grill got cleaned off, but the deeper “bugs” remained attached. They were shinier, but they were still “grilled”!
I had to wash the grill of the car several times to finally get back to the silver core. Texas bugs are tough…and plentiful!
I got back this afternoon from our church retreat that took place at a camp about 45 minutes outside of town. It was a quick 24 hours that included times of worship, personal time, reflection, fellowship, food, and a heart-quickening zip-line experience.
And I experienced some “cleaning off of some layers” to get back to the core.
Sometimes we add the crud of life to our “spiritual exterior” to the point that our personal experience with the Almighty deteriorates to “acquaintance status.” It’s not that I stopped knowing God. It’s that I had allowed layers of life’s stresses to create distance.
In our retreat I had a happy face on to begin with, but there was some cleaning off that needed to happen.
I could sense it. My resistance was there as well.
The and cleaning of my spirit went through a few more wash cycles. Interestingly enough getting back to the core was much more about observing others than a wet, soapy personal moment of “God-sponging” (Not a word, but I like it!).
The hidden emotions inside me started welling up as I watched people of my congregation going through four hands-on stations that dealt with repentance, cleansing, re-creation, and joy. I was over-whelmed at the pictures that were drawn and clay objects created, the thoughts of young and old alike.
Clean off more bugs! Deeper layers of bugs!
The thing is the deeper you get- or should I say the closer to the core you- the riskier it becomes.
The welling up in my soul continued as I watched a dear couple helping one of our elderly members get around the whole weekend. They got her to the campfire at the end of the evening. They made sure she was safe. They ministered to her in their servanthood and compassion…and in turn unbeknowingly were cleaning off another of my layers.
And then this same elderly woman put the finishing touches on the deepest layers when she sang “He Touched Me” at our closing worship gathering.
Sometimes it takes a lot of cleaning off to get us back to the relationship that God desires with us. Quite honestly, there’s still some bugs on the grill, but you can see patches of the silver shining through.
Pastors are too often viewed as spotless, where in reality we learn over time how to hide. We’ve seen too many examples of genuineness coming back to bite us. So we polish the outside to look nice and bright, but they can simply become nicely polished bugs.
Praise the Lord! Some of the silver is showing!

WORDS FROM W.W.
August 13, 2009
“First Things First”

I’ve never been really that talented in following directions. Cookbooks are like literary minefields that confound me. Happy meal toys that needed to be assembled caused me to cry. Taking tests that required that I read the directions first caused irreparable damage to my GPA…well, okay, it was ONE of the things that caused my GPA to plummet. (My reasoning was if you were close to 0.00 you didn’t have as far to fall! My mom and dad didn’t agree with that reasoning.)
The past few weeks I’ve been speaking on different Psalms, trying to show the different emphases and themes that come through that amazing book in the Bible. This week I’m focusing on Psalm 63. The way it begins makes me think of my lack of following directions.
“O God, you are my God, earnestly I seek you…”
It is thought that Psalm 63 was a meditation song/prayer for early morning.
First things first!
Would it change our perspective on the day ahead of us if we began each morning by saying the first ten words from Psalm 63? Perhaps it could be in rhythm with the movement of your toothbrush. As you scrub your pearly whites you say those words and meditate on them. Or as soon as your feet hit the floor the words become as automatic as hitting the alarm clock with your fist.
The point is not to establish a ritual as much as it is to commit to the focus of a new day. I find myself rushing through a day like it’s a 24 hour sprint- a sort of “Le Mans 24 hour race”! The day begins at a quick pace and it ends in a quick pace. Sometimes my attitude is more along the lines, “If God can stay up with me, that’s okay! But I’m not slowing down my pace just for him!”
“O God, you are my God, earnestly I seek you…”
What if we began the day with God in front of us and allowed him to set the agenda and the pace? It would be much easier, and the words that we mouth would echo in their heart, if our seeking of God would involve more foresight than hindsight. Earnestly seeking something seldom involves my backside. I’m seeking what is in front of me.
Tomorrow morning don’t just say the first two words with a moan as you get out of bed: “O God!” Take a deep breath, brace yourself, and finish the declaration.
“O God, you are my God, earnestly I seek you…”
It’s a good beginning! It may even erase the usual scowl on your face as you’re eating your oatmeal!

WORDS FROM W.W. July 29, 2009
“The Thrill of Being Pied”

Years ago I remember people lining up, paying a quarter, and getting three chances to throw a baseball and hit a target. And if they hit the target the high school principal, or football coach, or band director, got plopped into the water of the dunk tank. I don’t know how much money the school booster club made at the whole carnival experience, but at least half of it had to have come from the dunk tank. There was a heightened sense of glee over seeing an adult take the plunge.
Why? Because it had been deemed “okay.” If you threw a water balloon at the same person causing a fraction of the drenching you would have been suspended from school, decked, or charged with assault. BUT…put someone in a carnival dunk tank and say it’s okay…and the fun begins!
I don’t fully understand it, but I remember throwing that baseball with all my might to knock Mr. Camp off his perch.
This week has been day camp week at my church. We’ve been emphasizing perseverance and persistence as they relate to faith and Jesus. As a day of supporting the theme we challenged the campers to bring their pennies, nickels, dimes, and quarters and putting them in a big plastic water bottle. The money collected would be used to help feed impoverished families in different places around the world that the mission organization, VisionTrust International, was working with.
And then we decided (because I don’t think it was my idea!) to tell the campers that if they collected at least $150 I would get a pie in the face. We told them that the first day of day camp on Monday. Tuesday morning a number of these boys and girls arrive with BAGS of coins. By Wednesday my face was “pie-bound”. For an added incentive I said for everyone $50 over $150 I would take another pie in the face.
What can I say? I got lost in the moment!
This morning when they arrived I knew I was “doubly-pied!” One young boy named Darien brought $45 in change! He was beyond excited. He was shaking in delight!
These kids brought enough money to feed 13 families for a week in some of the poorest areas of the world. Kids! And to do it while getting to see a pastor’s face get “creamed” was satisfying in a number of ways. Perhaps some of them wanted to see the pie face a little bit too much, but they also knew that some children their own age were going to be able to go to bed not on an empty stomach.
I suggested perhaps doing a similar project with my congregation. I wonder how much we could increase our mission-giving if I’d take a pie once in a while? It could be the solution to the mission funding crisis of the American Baptist Churches. Not just me taking a pie in the face, but all the pastors of all of our denomination’s churches.
Like the dunk tank picture, there’s just something about a “moment of splat” that causes people to give.
Go figure. Excuse me while I lick my fingers.

WORDS FROM W.W. July 4, 2009

“Life Summations”

The past couple of weeks have included several deaths of celebrities. Farah Fawcett . . . Michael Jackson . . . Steve McNair . . . the headlines have focused on the tragedies and the details.

Farah Fawcett will be remembered for “Charlie’s Angels” and a poster. The poster, which I admit I bought one of in 1976, sold 12 million copies.

Michael Jackson will be remembered for being “the King of Pop,” and exhibiting strange behavior from time to time.

Steve McNair will be remembered for taking his Tennessee Titans football team to the Super Bowl, but also for being shot to death by his girlfriend as he was sleeping.

The story of our life, no matter who we are, gets summarized by people in a few words or a couple of mental images. The funeral and “the wake” may include much more – the retelling of stories, flattering oratory, and accomplishments and achievements – but afterwards people will compact all the things that have been shared into just a few words.

It causes one to pause and consider what message is being spoken by our life. I ask myself, if people only had space in their mental memories of me for five words, what would they narrow it down to? It makes me think of the woman whose husband passed away and she wrote a three page obituary about him to go into the paper. When the person in charge of the obituaries told her that the newspaper charged on a per word basis, the widow was taken aback by the astronomical amount her late husband’s tribute would cost. She thought about it for a while, stood at the counter making corrections and subtractions, and finally after a long time she handed the obituary back to the employee. The tribute had been substantially altered. Now it simply read: “Fred dead. Corvette for sale.”

Our lives get summarized in a few brief words. What we’ve invested in, or been consumed with, is what will stand out . . . or stain . . . the picture of our lives. It’s a sobering thought in a lot of ways, but it’s sobering in that we too infrequently think about what is going on in our life. We tend to be people who live for the moment instead of wise for the whole journey. (I thought about this after being persuaded by my two daughters and son-in-law to ride something called “Top Thrill Dragster,” a 17-second experience of insanity, at Cedar Point Amusement Park in Sandusky, Ohio. I bowed to their pressure and gave no heed to the warning signs at the entrance to the ride about not riding it if you had heart problems, were pregnant, were afraid of heights, had a fear of death, got nosebleeds, bladder control problems, had eaten in the last two days, etc.)

I’ve recently come across a song by Trace Adkins entitled “All I Ask for Anymore.” The chorus in the song says: “But when I bow my head tonight, there will be no me, myself and I. Just watch my wife and kids please, Lord. That’s all I ask for anymore.” As we become wiser for the journey, I’m convinced that we realize more and more that our life is about God and others instead of what feels good at the moment for me, myself, and I.

If the summary of 80% of our life would be the five words, “me, myself, and I,” that would be a tragedy.

Lord, help us not to make it the reality!

WORDS FROM W.W. June 23, 2009
“Sometimes the Student, Sometimes the Teacher, Always The Learner”

Recently I was at a camp for basketball officials. We don’t stand around a campfire late at night singing “Kum Ba Yah”, but we also don’t have to eat camp food. This camp is about learning what to do to elevate your basketball officiating. (One of the instructors reads my blog each week…and he’s Methodist! According to a line in the film A River Runs Through It, a Methodist is just a Baptist who can read!)
At this camp I’m able to hear some focused critiquing of how I officiate certain situations in a basketball game; how to not get myself into a fix; what coaches look for in terms of consistency in officials; what the different philosophies of officiating are, and on and on and on.
I’m a student in these situations as I edge towards being a senior official.
But I also find that I am now increasingly a teacher! As I head towards my tenth season of blowing whistle I find the number of times that I am with someone who is less experienced being more than the times I am with someone with more experience. It occurred to me at the camp that many of the things that I have been taught I’m now teaching newer officials.
It’s not a heady moment. It is rather a moment of awakening. I’ve crossed, ever so slightly, to the side of teacher.
It’s something very few of us think about. Who knows when the transition happened? It’s not as obvious as crossing the state line and being welcomed to Kansas. It just suddenly hits you that it’s happened.
And then you recognize that this transition carries with it new responsibilities. People look to you for guidance. They look to you for a word of clarification or instruction. They look…up to you! Being a teacher or a mentor can’t be shrugged off as an every other Saturday occupation, or even something I am when I feel like it! It’s an opportunity that is.
In some situations I am a student, and some situations I am a teacher, but I am always the learner. There is no point this side of glory where “I have arrived”. I am always learning.
From my point of view, a lot of people stop learning at some point in their life, but also they no longer seek to be a student nor a teacher. They enter and become accustomed to a sort of living lukewarmness that just is. Life no longer fascinates them. I believe that is one of the greatest tragedies, equal to someone having the resources to help another in need but avoiding it with committed apathy. When someone becomes a “drop-out of learning”, there life becomes a wasteland of nothingness.
Still a student; still a teacher; always the learner.

WORDS FROM WW June 18, 2009
“Conveying Our Bad Side”
Las Vegas has a pretty effective, as well as sleazy, ad campaign that uses the catch phrase “What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas.” The idea is that you can come to “Sin City,” get caught up in some activities that you wouldn’t dare be involved in back home, and word of those activities will never leak out or back . . . to your bosses, spouses, or kids. Vegas is promoted as being a place where you can allow your “bad side” to live freely before returning to the real world.
Conveying our bad side has never been so popular! Taking care of our cravings has climbed the list of what seems to be acceptable behavior. I realize that there are many as well who try to hide their addictions and obsessions, and therefore don’t live authentically. That’s another situation for another article. “Bad sides,” however, in many people’s eyes are in!
But there’s a catch! What seems cool for the moment is beginning to have repercussions a little later on. For instance, employers are starting to ask potential new employees whether or not there is anything on their social networking communications (MySpace, Facebook, etc.) that shows bad decisions or inappropriate conversations. I’ve been amazed at some of the communications and photos that people put on Facebook. In other words, are there evidences of our “bad side” that could cause embarrassment to the employer down the road? Even “sexting” decisions are coming back to haunt young adults.
A report that came out last week from the U.S. National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism said that binge drinking in on the rise amongst college students. Dr. Marc Galanter of the New York University School of Medicine says, “The heavy drinking during college not only results in severe consequences at that time, but it also primes college students for later alcohol addiction. Heavier drinking at this age is a predictor of later alcoholism and is likely a major causative factor.”
During the college years, however, throwing down a few beers is conveyed as being the natural thing to do.
I think we’ve come to that point in our “freed” civilization where exhibiting a bad side is applauded and high-fived. It’s affirmed in the immediate without regard to the future.
Which brings me to another disturbing question! Is it becoming more acceptable, or should I say more encouraged, to promote one’s bad side than it is to be a person of high values and morals? Don’t misunderstand my question here. None of us are without fault. We all have checkered pasts and errors in judgment in the present, but are our errors being lifted up just short of exalted? I’m as “bad” as anyone else, but I guess I don’t trumpet it as a sign that I’ve arrived. Is “being a person of faith” something that now comes toward the bottom of a resume in small font? I fear that it is. The Bible talks a lot about persistence and perseverance. These days perseverance gets applauded in the Olympics and also the two-minute human interest stories at the end of the nightly news. It rarely makes the cut in the daily tough decisions of a person’s life.
We’re edging closer and closer to being a society that thinks it’s cool to live on the edge.
Speaking of edges and ledges and mountain tops, I think I’d like to write a book on how Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount might relate on a culture focused on our “bad side.” The problem is that it might show up at Barnes and Noble in the “humor” section . . . even if it wouldn’t be intended for that!
Pastor Bill
Highland Park Baptist Church

WORDS FROM W.W. June 3, 2009
“The Tendency to Talk To Ourselves”
There are occasions when I talk to myself. It’s usually when I’m confused by something that I don’t understand; or perplexed by something someone else is doing.
Most of the perplexing moments happen in the midst of driving down the road.
“Go ahead! Obviously you’re more important than anyone else on the road!”
“Ma’am, there’s two lanes. Pick one!”
“If you’d get the cell phone out of your ear maybe you could not be so clueless about what is happening around you.”
I can be obnoxious when I’m talking to myself. Let me control the conversation and I can sink to new lows. Of course, the people I’m talking to don’t know I’m talking to them or about them…and probably don’t care either! By focusing on their wayward ways I can feel a little vindicated and self-righteously elevated.
There’s a tendency in churches to also talk to ourselves, either at the exclusion of others or with the complete unawareness of others.
We exclude others by using language that is known to us, but foreign to others. I’ll always remember the story of a church in New York that was situated by the main route that led people to the beach. In the summertime the road was a constant congested line of vehicles heading for the sand, sun, and water. The church put up a sign out in front of their building and along the road that read “Have You Been Washed In the Blood of the Lamb?” The meaning was fairly clear to the people from the church, but was completely misinterpreted by many of the beachgoers that drove by.
Think about it. If you were unfamiliar with Christian terminology and beliefs, what would you think about being asked to wash yourself in a young animal’s blood?
The challenge of the church is not to de-mystify the gospel, while conveying truth in understandable ways.
We also talk to ourselves when we think we’re speaking to unbelievers, but both sides “have their windows up.” It’s like bemoaning the low turn-out for a church event by asking those who ARE there why there aren’t more? Sometimes we talk about the need to Jesus to those who already know him and stay away from those who don’t know him, and are unaware of not knowing him. After all, a vast majority of the American population list themselves as “Christian.” If all they need to do is check a box on a census survey what else do they need to know?
“They need to know Jesus!” we tell ourselves. “If they knew Jesus like we know Jesus they would have a lot less problems,” we keep saying…to ourselves.
When we talk in “we” and “they” statements the windows are rolled up and no one is listening.
Talking to ourselves convinces us that we’re spiritual, and others aren’t. We’ve decided who the goats are and who the sheep are. Who’s going to burn and who isn’t?
And if we can convince ourselves that someone else is eternally doomed, it’s somehow easier to not have to look at our own relationship with Jesus.

WORDS FROM W.W. May 27, 2009
“Blessed Apathy”

I find that it is increasing rather than decreasing. The root causes are as numerous as the dandelions in my front yard. It seems that when I spray one dandelion three others pop up their heads a few feet away.
Apathy is alive and “weedy” in our society.
But, there are exceptions!
Go to a professional football game.
Watch the body language of a parent whose son’s is sitting on the team bench during crunch time.
Be outside Walmart at 5 a.m., on the Friday morning after Thanksgiving. (Last year an employee got trampled to death when the doors opened!)
Have your connecting flight cancelled. (There are no apathetic passengers on Southwest Airlines, especially at any gate of Southwest Airlines!)
Apathy diminishes as personal inconvenience increases. It’s a “social new math equation.”
Second social new math equation: Apathy increases as a person’s understanding of being blessed by God decreases. In other words, the more a person believes the world revolves around himself or herself the more apathetic that person becomes about the blessing of God in his or her life.
Apathy moves in when passion moves out. Apathy is the curse of a church that has lost its passion. It is also the by-product of a group that has lost its voice, or perhaps more accurately, has been given no voice.
There are many reasons why a new wave of churches are being raised that are comprised mainly of young adults, but one of them is that the apathy of the church towards what they are saying has created an apathy in the “twenty-somethings” towards what the “mother church” is doing.
There’s a lot of finger pointing and hypothesizing, and yet none of that recognizes the fact that we have been blessed in so many ways.
The comment may now be stated by many readers: “Well, you don’t understand….”
I agree. I don’t understand. How can we be so apathetic about being blessed?