The Squat of Faith

Posted July 24, 2013 by wordsfromww
Categories: children, Christianity, Community, Faith, Freedom
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WORDS FROM W.W.                                                        July 23, 2013

 

 

      Carol and I took our daughter, Kecia, and grandkids Jesse and Reagan to the hot springs pool in Glenwood Springs, Colorado recently. We had a great time, marveling at the beauty of the mountains as we drove to and from.

At the pool Jesse was  splashing around under the watchful eye of his Grammie. Reagan, on the other hand, was having a test of faith with her mom on the side of the pool. She was wrestling with what level of trust to place upon the one who gave birth to her.

“Go ahead, Reagan! Jump! I’ll catch you.”

     “I want you to come closer, Mommy!”

     “I’ll catch you. Just take a step.”

      Like me the first time I jumped off the high dive at the pool, Reagan peered over the edge of the pool with heightened doubt and apprehension. It was that moment, that we all have felt in some way, where the tipping point has not quite been reached that will take us from stationary to stepping into the unsure.

I felt that a few years ago when Kecia and my son-in-law, Kevin, convinced me to ride a crazy man’s roller coaster at Cedar Point Amusement Park in Sandusky, Ohio. Top Thrill Dragster was thirteen seconds of insane faith. When they put bleachers beside an amusement park ride it is a bad sign for someone who isn’t quite convinced that the tipping point is worth the risk.

“It’s okay, Reagan! I’ll catch you.”

Reagan looked skeptical of her mother’s catching power, but she started to take the step…but bailed out.

More encouragement, more promises. She started to take the step again, but then at the last moment she went to a squat. Squatting brought her closer to her mom’s hands. She reached out with her own hands, touched the hands in waiting, and then stepped.

A squat of faith. Not quite the same fear factor that a step of faith requires, bit still a moving from dry to wet.

Sometimes steps have to be preceded by squats. For Reagan an hour of faith squats was required before a step of faith happened.

I had to leave the pool for a while, but when I came back the squats had disappeared and the leaps of faith had begun. Sometime in my absence the step of faith had been jumped over.

In church life there are the initiators, those who present an idea or leap into a new direction. Most churches have a few, if that many, people who would be classified in that group. Then there are the early adopters. Those people who take the step after someone else has initiated the idea. The third group is perhaps the largest group. They are the late adopters. They are the ones who need to squat before they step. Getting closer to the outstretched hands is imperative for them before they can take the leap.

My granddaughter taught me that squatting is okay. It’s like the sixteen year old driving the family car with her dad in the passenger seat…in an empty school parking lot when there isn’t a car within sight. It’s the phase she needs to go through to get comfortable with the challenge ahead.

Ultimately, the step has to be taken, but Reagan reminded me that some things don’t need to be rushed into.

Now watch! I’ll say that and she will end up being a ski jumper! Come to think of it, they kind of get into a squat position before they launch!

Scary!

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Camp Building

Posted July 22, 2013 by wordsfromww
Categories: Bible, children, Christianity, Community, Faith, Freedom
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WORDS FROM W.W.                                                     July 21, 2013

 

 

     Yesterday about a dozen of our kids, young people, and three adults came back from a week at church camp. In worship today there were several testimonies from the campers about their experience. There was a heightened level of energy and excitement in worship. The energy may have been fueled by the sharing of how camp had impacted lives, or it was the result of lives that had been impacted…or perhaps it was because the Spirit seemed close and moving in our midst…or all three.

This was the first year in the last five that I didn’t go to be camp pastor at the middle school camp, but I have always felt that the church- not just mine- doesn’t do enough in building upon the spiritual excitement of camp in the weeks that kids come back home. Perhaps that’s because the campers are away…an hour away. Sometimes we miss the momentum because it didn’t occur in the church building or the community. On the other side, kids come back from camp on spiritual highs, emotionally charged and wondering what is the next thing to take place. They encounter parents who have gone to work each day during the past week as usual, people who have gone about their routines and responsibilities.

Sometimes the first few days after camp are disappointing for those returning home. That’s why camp is such a great experience! It’s twenty-four hours a day of relationship-building, making new friends, campfires, and getting messy with shaving cream and Cheetos. The campers have been taken out of their usual surroundings and, in essence, they start building a new home with a new family of their peers under the watchful eye of their counselor. My guess is that almost all of the students who were at the middle school and high school camps last week have already been on Facebook with most of their camp friends, sharing pictures, “I miss you” comments, and counting down the number of days until camp next summer.

The church would do well to build on what many of the campers now see as the greatest week of their lives. The church would do well to challenge them at this point in their faith and commitment. If that happens it will help young people looking for a purpose to find purpose. If it doesn’t…if that building on camp doesn’t happen…they will continue to count down the days until next summer, and about 360 days will be lost in their growing season.

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“From Bad To Worse To Incredible”

Posted July 18, 2013 by wordsfromww
Categories: Bible, Christianity, Faith, Freedom, Grace
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WORDS FROM W.W.

     Have you ever had one of those weeks?

You know what I’m talking about! You’re fixing dinner and the oven goes berserk, smoking the baked chicken in the process! Or you’re cooking hamburgers on the gas grill outside and five minutes into the flipping the propane runs out…and you’ve got dinner guests coming!

Or, you forget something back at the house so you turn the car around and head back. But after getting what you forgot you return to the drive and discover that you locked it…with the keys still in the ignition…and the batteries on the garage door opener just died…so you can’t get back inside the house…or into the garage that has the hidden spare keys!

Ever had one of those days?

Or you cut yourself shaving and the blood is flowing out, so you hurriedly reach for the bandage, but in the process tip over your morning coffee cup that is sitting beside your cell phone…that has conveniently soaked up a good amount of the coffee! Do you stop the bleeding first, or clean up the coffee while grieving for the loss of your cell phone?

So…it’s been one of those weeks!

We’ve had the plumber here at church to fix a toilet…only to discover that we also needed a sewer and drainage company to come and “snake” the line. He had to go almost to Kansas before he got to the clog. It became like a cab fare. Every foot further the line went the fare rose higher.

Each one of us has those kind of days or even weeks. We raise our hands and exclaim “What’s next?”…and then the toilet overflows.

You could call them “Jonah weeks.” Just think of it! God calls Jonah to go to the one place he has no desire whatsoever to go to. Nineveh! It was like telling a Broncos fan to go and make peace with the Raiders…like Ronald McDonald having lunch at Burger King.

So Jonah does everything he can to avoid the call. He goes in the opposite direction…and things go from bad to worse. First there’s a massive storm to the point that the ship is about to break up.

Not a good scenario!

But Jonah obviously senses the storm has something to do with him. After a game of rock, paper, scissors, he is pronounced the loser and is then questioned about what is going on in his life.

Confession reveals the secret. Things are so bad that HE tells the ship’s crew to throw him overboard. What could be worse then that?

Getting “fished” is worse then that, and he spends three days squeezed into the belly of a fish. I hate close quarters, so I’m not sure if I could have kept my sanity for one hour, let along three days.

But then he gets spit up on a beach oddly enough a little ways from Nineveh. He ends up doing what God called him to do in the first place and the city of Nineveh is changed.

From bad to worse to incredible! It could be a movie, an inspirational story, a tale of transformation.

Unfortunately the book of Jonah doesn’t end there. Jonah has to write another chapter, and in the chapter that is written after the movie credits have rolled up the screen is of a man who gets angry at the compassion of God. His story was headed for Guideposts magazine, and then he had to go and do that!

What do you do with the bad to worse to incredible…to jealous?

Sometimes we seem to have a hard time living in the blessings of God, or the moving of the Spirit of God. We’ve seen the transformation, the deliverance, but we think we have to write another chapter that takes us back down the mountain.

If there was a Jonah sequel perhaps it ended better than the first one.

But that also tells me that we’re still writing our life script. We can choose to let God be God, or question his forgiveness and grace.

In thinking of this week and overflowing toilets I’m thinking “Ain’t no big thing!” Sadness is seeing a life that is getting flushed with the residue of bitterness, anger, and unforgiveness…a life that desires destruction instead of restoration.

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Extended Grace

Posted July 10, 2013 by wordsfromww
Categories: Bible, Christianity, Faith, Freedom, Grace
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WORDS FROM W.W.                                                          July 10, 2013

 

                                           “Extended Grace”

 

I met yesterday with a group of pastors that I journey with half a day once a month. It’s a intimate group of five. We begin each session with a time of reflective reading of scripture, reading through it three times, and noticing something that speaks to us in the text each time it is read.

Yesterday the text came from James 4:1-10. The text could justifiably be summed up with the words “Get your act together!” It’s a little on the lecture side…lecture, as in standing in the midst of the principal’s office and being told the deeds just committed will not be tolerated.

Frequent words used in the scripture include “don’t”, “do not”,  and “can’t”. 

But in the midst of the reading of the holy riot act, these words appear: “But he gives us more grace. (James 4:6a, NIV)

Our group noted that our tendency, which the text hints at, is to be selfish and self-centered. The foot washing act of service by Jesus in the Upper Room is uncomfortable for most of us if it is not planned ahead of time. If we know it’s coming we’re able to rev up our piousness enough to lower ourselves to our knees. But when that opportunity for surrender and humbleness comes unannounced the reception is often cooler than Saskatchewan in early December.

It seems from the text that our God knows of our tendency to yield to no one. He knows that we can talk the walk. We can even walk the walk with others, but walking the walk at the pace of others is another thing. A couple of weeks ago I was walking in an airport terminal and I came upon an elderly woman being pushed in a wheelchair by an attendant. The terminal hallway had narrowed. My first thought was to speed by, but then I thought “I’ve got four hours until my flight leaves.” So I strolled slowly behind them…but I was taken back by how many people rushed to get by the lady who could no longer rush. Perhaps some people were rushing to get to connecting flights, but, honestly, I’m sure most were rushing because the wheeled occupant was slowing down their self-absorption.

And the amazing and even perplexing thing about God is that he knows our selfish ways…and he gives us more grace!

I would think he would set a grace limit. We would! We would be willing to ride grace for a while, but pretty soon we’d put that pony back in the barn. Like a pair of shoes that don’t fit snuggly, we’re only willing to wear grace for so long.

But grace is a garment that God never discards. It becomes a representative feature of who he is, like whenever I see or smell a pipe I think of my Uncle Bernie.

Could it be that when we think of grace we automatically think of God? Of course, whether we think of it or not, God will continue to extend it. He doesn’t need our approval. He just would like us to accept it!

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Walking With Reagan

Posted July 8, 2013 by wordsfromww
Categories: children, Community, Freedom
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My two year old granddaughter, Reagan (Not named after the President!), is a talker. She can talk the feathers off a rooster! She says more words in a minute than I do in a day.

The other night I went for a walk with her around the block. We covered more ground than Ripley’s Believe It Or Not. Here’s a sampling of our dialogue…all within the boundaries of one city block.

“I’m hopping like a kanga-woo, Granddad!”

“Did you see a kangaroo at the zoo?”

“No…we saw a giwaffe! It has a long neck and is wiwwie tall!”

“Do you like going to the zoo?”

“Yes! A kanga-woo is a jo-wey!”

“That’s right! Sometimes they call kangaroos joeys.”

“Grammy hurt her leg. Grammy has a hurt on it, wight there!” (Pointing at her right calf muscle.)

“Ah huh!”

“I don’t have a hurt on my leg! Grammy does!”

“Look the sky looks a little dark over there.”

“I’m not scared, Granddad. It’s dark at night, but I’m not scared anymore.”

“That’s good! Sometimes it can be scary in the dark.”

“But I’m not scared. Do you like wata-mewon?”

“Yes, I love watermelon! When I was growing up we had watermelon in the summer. It was my favorite!”

“I like it! Did Grammy have watt-mewon?”

“I believe she did.”

“There’s a little girl that bwoke her arm.”

“Broke her arm. Who broke her arm?”

“This little girl! She fell and bwoke it, and she cried because it hurt.”

“I hope you never break your arm.”

“I won’t! Now I’m hopping like a bunny rabbit!”

We turned the first corner, but she had already pretended to be two animals. It’s hard to put into words a conversation with a two-year old, but I guess you could say it was “wundaful!”

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Learning Apple

Posted July 5, 2013 by wordsfromww
Categories: Christianity, Community, Freedom, Story
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I broke down and bought a new MacBook this week. “Broke” describes the before and after- “broke” as in my old computer was “over the hill”; and “broke” as in describing my bank account a month from now when my credit card bill has to be paid with attached “new laptop” as one of the itemized expenses.

I knew it was getting to be that “time”, as a result of the computer tech’s bemused facial expression the last time I took my old Dell in for service.

“Don’t see too many of these any more!” was his quote. Laptops are like cats, they don’t have nine lives. My old Dell was the ripe old age of seven.

 

So I went for the Apple! More expensive, but my shoulder problems will soon be disappearing. I didn’t realize how heavy my Dell was until I picked up the MacBook. Good Lord! I should have taken my Dell to Weight Watchers!

Yesterday I went to my first one-to-one training session at the Apple store. For thirty minutes I kept saying one word: “Wow!”

I didn’t realize all the things this little machine can do. If it had an app for a “burner” it could cook dinner. I got home and Carol asked me what I had learned. 

“I don’t remember! All I know is that I kept saying “Wow!”

It’s like learning a new language. “Thingamajig” and “Do-diddy” have been said quite often the last two days. If there’s a need for a verb that is “appleistic” in usage I just pause and look dumbfounded.

Pausing…I’m good at!

Why did I buy a MacBook? Actually Carol and I went to Best Buy, but after standing around for fifteen minutes and no one taking a hint that there were two clueless consumers in their midst, we left! Upon entering the Apple store we were immediately welcomed by “Jordan” who guided us to the laptop that fit my needs, and then handed us over to Sammie to talk about data transfer and training. It was seamless!

It has made me ponder how we welcome people at church who are guests for the first time. A few Sundays ago a visiting young woman had to use the restroom in the middle of the service and didn’t know where the ladies’ room was. She went out an exit door to the outside and after ten minutes navigated herself back into the sanctuary.

She and her husband filled out a visitor form with all the information. I wrote them a nice note, but they never came back for a second visit. I’m assuming here, but I think the hunt for a restroom did her in.

Apple stores are marvels to visit. They take much of the apprehension about technology out of the equation and entice you to come deeper. Pretty soon you’re hooked…and they know it! They expect it. They plan on you entering their world and being so infatuated that the old Dell look’s like your Dad’s old Chevy!

I didn’t do very well in Hebrew class back n my seminary days, but this week I’m taking a stab at another new language.

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The Last Sprint

Posted June 30, 2013 by wordsfromww
Categories: Christianity, Faith, Jesus, Pastor, Story, Teamwork, The Church, Uncategorized, Youth
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WORDS FROM W.W.                                                                  June 30, 2013

 

“The Last Sprint”

 

Back in high school and college I was a distance runner…one mile, two mile, and the hardest race of all the half-mile. As a miler I had a very good kick at the end of the face. If I could be close to the other runner, or even ahead, with 300 yards to go I knew I had a good chance to win. The last sprint had the finish line in sight and I was usually able to put it in a different gear.

This last month I’ve written a “Words From W.W.” each day. June 1 started with the challenge, filled with anticipation, but also a little anxiety…kind of like the beginning of the mile run. It proceeded through the first week. I established a kind of  “expected pace.” If I needed to write a post in the evening the TV was off and the headphones on. There were a few days where the energy level was low…and as a result, probably the quality of the writing.

But I stayed with it. Some of you gave me ideas for blog postings. Some had questions that they wanted some words of wisdom about, or at least, words from WW.

The last week of the month was spent in the Dominican Republic as part of a mission team. Usually the biggest hurdle in terms of that was to try to take one happening from the day and write about it. I could write a book about the experience…literally!

And now today is Day 30 of 30, the final sprint.

Some people ask me why I do it, why I write? After all, people are more visual now. Newsweek bit the dust in terms of hard copy. The Gazette newspaper is almost small enough to be a newsletter now. So, why write?

It’s a hard question for me to answer. I think I write because it makes me think and ponder. In terms of my spiritual journey, without sounding arrogant, I grow the most as I write. My blog might be my version of journaling, although I never really liked doing that in the usual way people think of. As I write I slow down to meet God. I hope…I pray…that his hand is guiding my fingers over the keys of my laptop, that when I’m struggling for a word he draws it out of me. That when something doesn’t feel right he takes me to the delete key and begins me again.

So now I come to the end of a month. Perhaps someone has heard some words in a way that has made them think, or laugh, or even cry. I think of the Apostle Paul as he was closing his second letter to his young charge Timothy. He wrote, “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.” (2 Timothy 4:7)

The last sprint.

I’m not seeing this as a final post, but it is the final stretching for the finish of this race. As July enters I’ll look to write more, perhaps more than one day in a row, but I’ll also give the reading eyes of those who have taken the time to ponder brief breaks from the “Words.”

Thanks to all who have encouraged and told me to keep pressing on. Time to cross the line and take a warm-down lap.

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Turning Churches Into Cathedrals

Posted June 29, 2013 by wordsfromww
Categories: children, Christianity, Community, Faith, Grace, Jesus, love, Pastor, Prayer, Story, The Church, Uncategorized
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WORDS FROM W.W                                                                  June 28, 2013

 

     In Santo Domingo today we visited the oldest church in the Americas, the Cathedral of Santa Maria la Menor. It was built between 1512 and 1540 under the leadership of Bishop Fray Padilla. Being in a five hundred year old church is quite an experience, especially considering the age of church in our own country.

    But Cathedral of Santa Maria la Menor is now more like a museum than a church. Tour groups come in, pay their admission fee, and then receive headphones and a transistor player that guides each of the group members through the church. There are a number of small side chapels, most of which are closed off to keep the tourists at a distance. The church is ornate and massive. Groups are told to be quiet because there may be people there who are trying to pray.

     Bottom line, however, the church is now a tourist destination because it’s old!

     It hit me that centuries ago people wouldn’t have thought about taking a tour of it. They would have gone there to worship, to pray, to be a part of a spiritual community, to receive words of hope and instruction, and partake of the Eucharist.

     My fear is that the church today will be a museum years from now. That we will slowly be transformed into a destination for people who are looking for a aide trip instead of people looking to be close to God.

     It is a turning point time for the church. And what has hit me this week is that people are looking at a church to see which it is and will be. In working with children here in Santo Domingo we know that they are looking to the people of God for a hand up; that is, to help them reach up to a life that doesn’t just talk about hope, but becomes “realized hope.” They are looking to the people of God not just to say the words, but to live the words.

     When words are lived churches continue to be beacons of light and people of mission. Tour groups don’t visit to take pictures of dead saints; people visit to see the living saints.

     This week a few of our mission team became first-time sponsors of some of the children of Herrera. The children will see in the coming year that the church is active and loving. Why else would someone from Colorado want to see a little boy from Santo Domingo live a full, healthy, and purpose-filled life?

Museums don’t care about the visitors; they just take care of the exhibits.

     The people of God care for the visitors and those who even live far-away, as they exhibit the grace of God, and the hope of life lived for the Lord.

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Promising Basketballs

Posted June 28, 2013 by wordsfromww
Categories: children, Christianity, Community, Faith, Grace, Humor, Jesus, love, Pastor, Prayer, Story, Teamwork, The Church, Uncategorized, Youth
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WORDS FROM W.W.                                                                      June 28, 2013

 

On our first day of basketball camp at Grace School in Herrera (an area in the inner city of Santo Domingo…kind of like saying “The Bronx” as a part of New York City), I made a promise to the kids. At our first session that first day we only had eight children. We had planned on a hundred for each session (although, in hindsight, we are somewhat thankful that didn’t happen).

A couple of our VisionTrust bags on our trip down were filled with deflated basketballs that had been donated. We brought seventy-five balls with us and spent a good deal of time putting air in them after we arrived. So on Monday I opened my mouth and inserted tennis shoe, and said that we would give a basketball to each child on Thursday, our last day of camp.

Many basketball camps in Colorado Springs do that. I had just helped at a camp at the Classical Academy a couple of weeks ago and each of the fifty campers got their own basketball.

So…no big deal, right?

Yesterday…Thursday, after our first session…the one that had eight children the first day…thirty-seven basketballs were handed to kids as they left the 8:30-10:00 session. By the end of the day we had given out all of our basketballs…plus the fifteen that the school had…plus we have the names of the eleven boys who did not receive one yet.

I need to buy the eleven plus replace the fifteen! It is an expensive lesson on making promises to kids…who have cousins…who have cousins!

In essence, about a hundred basketballs, or the promise of a basketball, exited the building yesterday. And I was the one who did the training session for our team about the American tendency to treat the problem of poverty with the solution of “giving people things.” Poverty is really brokenness…brokenness in terms of a person’s relationship with one or more of the four foundational relationships: with God, with myself, with the rest of creation, or with others.

We often treat the symptoms of poverty without acknowledging the core problems.

So today there are many children in Herrera who have a new basketball, but they still returned to the same situations of brokenness in their homes and communities.

I guess my hope is that as they hold their basketballs they will think about the week they had at camp, the hope of Christ that we shared with them. That as they think about some of our daily lessons of jumping, shooting, and shooting an impossible shot, they will think about the lessons we taught concerning grace, forgiveness, and the love of Christ.

Last night we met two exceptional young people who are graduating from high school- Pamela and Delton- who come from very difficult situations. Pamela taught herself English. She spoke to us last night more clearly than many of us talk. She volunteers with VisionTrust two to three days a week, and wants to major in tourism. Delton, who looks like a six-foot Kobe Bryant, and plays like Kobe, grew up in an orphanage, Remar. He is heading to the University next year, but wants to help the children who are still living at Remar. He wants to major in computer engineering.

Both Pamela and Delton were redirected in the course of their lives because, first of all, God loves them, and secondly, because God grabbed hold of the heart of some people and made them realize that he had a purpose for the lives of a little girl and a little boy, but that purpose could not be realized without someone being obedient to God’s beckoning.

It makes me wonder how many children are lost because someone didn’t heed the calling of God to come alongside.

A new basketball will not change any of the lives of those hundred children, but perhaps it will help them to know that there is a way of hope, a place of grace, and a plan for their lives that will lead them to make a difference.

I still have to get twenty-six more basketballs! I’m okay with that!

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Meeting The Children

Posted June 28, 2013 by wordsfromww
Categories: children, Christianity, Community, Faith, Jesus, love, Parenting, Pastor, Prayer, Story, Teamwork, The Church, Uncategorized, Youth
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WORDS FROM W.W.                                                                        June 27, 2013

This week, if you have been reading my blog, you know that I’ve been in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic as a part of a sixteen person mission team doing basketball camps and construction projects. The construction crew painted all of the classrooms and the hallways so that when the 400 students come back to school in August they will be greeted with a fresh look, a new beginning.

Today many of us were able to meet the children that we sponsor through VisionTrust. Carol and I have been sponsors for several years, but today was the first time I was able to meet our two Dominican children face-to-face. Alexa will be in sixth grade. I can tell that she loves to laugh and talk. She is cute as a button, and shared that she loves all food…even veggies!

I found myself getting emotional as I met her and talked, through our translator, with her. I’m not sure why my eyes got a little misty, but I think it was probably because today was a connecting point- connecting the sending of our financial sponsorship each month with who it is helping. I have to admit that Carol and I have sponsored children for so long that it has become easy to see it as a monthly bill to be paid instead of a gift to help someone in a different country. Just send the bill in with a check along with the utility bill and car insurance bill.

Today, however, gave me a completely new appreciation.

And then I met Johan, a third grader, who was shy and much as expansive in his answers to my questions as Alexa was. I’m sure it was a little intimidating for him to meet an old guy for the first time who kept asking a lot of questions about him and what he liked and didn’t like, favorite school subject, how many siblings, etc.

Alexa and Johan, two children who I will pray will be held in God’s hands, protected and growing each day.

It was a good day! A day of firsts. Perhaps tomorrow I will write about how I put my foot in my mouth on the first day of basketball camp this week and ended up giving away 91 basketballs.

 

P.S. The Cunfer family is awesome! They met the child they sponsored today also. Like me they connected to points that gave them a new perspective.

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