I wrote this a while back and just came across it:

I am incurably restless.

Where did all the prophets go?

Dear Father,

Help me be a good father.  Thanks for my dad.  Teach me to be a good one.

-Dan

Going to start a little series called “Lessons Along the Way”

These are just the little lessons God teaches us/me as we walk with him.

#1.  Today I was at the Chiropractor.  (I have been there a lot lately).  I had to watch a video about keeping my back healthy.  Though I texted during most of it, one thing caught my attention.  The video stated that bad posture, over time, can have just as damaging effects on the back as getting into an accident.

God seemed to whisper that this was also true of our walk with Him.  Sometimes all the small ways in which we “slouch” in our walk with Christ can have just as damaging effects as a huge failure in our faith.  I have not gotten in any (serious) car accidents.  I am much more prone to bad posture.  God whispered that I must be much more intentional in the little things.

God does not call us to love the world. He does not command us to love everyone. (yes, I just said that) God, the Bible says, loves the world. God loves everyone.

But the second greatest commandment is to “love our neighbor.”

The question, for thousands of years has been, “who is my neighbor?” Jesus himself got asked this question. And yes, Jesus greatly expanded who we are to think of as our “neighbor”- pagans, enemies, the poor, the unclean, etc.

But I would like to ask a different question. Not, “who is our neighbor?” But, “why neighbor?” Why not just command us to love the world, love everyone? If that is the nature of God, why not command us to do the same?

We do not have the capacity to love the world, to love everyone. God does. But we do not. The command to love our neighbor is a profound statement about what our love is to be like. Our neighbors are the people that God has placed in our lives. They are real, and tangible, and close. They have names. They are our family, friends, co-workers, and literally neighbors.

I think we have made a huge mistake in expanding the word neighbor to mean “everyone.” When we do this, we turn our love into an emotion without much content. Love becomes a feeling we are supposed to have, but a feeling that is incapable of changing the world. I believe that God called us to a much more powerful and tangible kind of love.

God calls us to love our neighbors. To love the people he has placed in our life… but to love them well. This is a tangible sort of love, expressed in action- time, meals, visits, phone calls, prayers, play, shared experiences, and so much more.

God does not call us to love the world. But He has called us to love our neighbors- the people He has placed in our life. But He has called us to love them well.

Our energy is not meant to be spent on trying to love more and more people. Rather, it is best spent on loving the people in our live better- in a way that changes things.

Tis’ the Season

It is the season of stress, busyness, chaos, and the pressure to buy a bunch of things you do not need.  I guess this is always true of American lifestyle, but it is certainly heightened in the month of December.  I was reminded of this while driving TO Thanksgiving with my wife, seeing tents lined up outside shopping centers.  How sad that people were choosing to get a good spot in line to buy something over spending the day with family and friends.  You cannot tell me that consumerism does not shape our souls.

Here are some thoughts that I think might make you holiday season deeper:

1) Give presence, not presents. Giving gifts to loved ones is not a bad thing.  But remember then greatest gift you can give to people is your time and love.  It is sadly ironic that we give so many presents over the holidays, but spend such little quality time with the people we give gifts to.  Love is better measured by how much time you spend with someone, not how much money you spend on them.

2)  Do things that energize you, not drain you. Most people get to the end of their holiday season exhausted.  This is because they give in to the pressure to say “yes” to everything.  Most of the activities around the holidays drain people.  Say no to the things that drain you so you can say yes to the meaningful things.  Find your salvation in quietness and rest (which holidays can provide).  And when you are rested, you will enjoy the relational part of the holidays more.

3)  Remember God. I will be frank: the holiday season in our culture has nothing to do with God.  In fact, it is remembering God that will give you the strength to resist the holiday season.  Prayer, presence, remembering Jesus, are the spiritual practices that allow us to resist the holiday practices of shopping, busyness, and freaking out about all the things we “need to do” to have a good holiday season.

I truly hope you all have a deep, rich, and restful holiday season.  May it be filled with the love of God and the love of people!

On August 1st I resigned from my position on staff at a local church.  This was the 4th church I have been “on staff” (getting paid to perform a ministry job).  There are many benefits, comforts, and good things about being on a paid church staff position.  However, from experience and talking to others, it has a dark side.  As a friend said recently, the danger becomes when we only read our Bible or pray, as a part of what we are hired to do.  As most pastors know, reading scripture to prepare a teaching is not always the same thing as reading scripture to hear God’s voice and to grow in the faith.

Which brings me to the past 2 months…

I did not realize how refreshing it would be to continue in ministry (and following God’s call) with no paycheck attached to it.  In many ways, this is a very trying time.  I am unemployed, Natalie is working to keep us afloat, the process will be slow, fund raising is just starting.  I am learning to walk by faith in new ways.  I would not say that our sacrifices have been overly dramatic (we are blessed).  But there is a very significant difference in ministering as a job (with pay and benefits), versus ministring out of calling (with no pay and at personal sacrifice).

My point is not all that profound.  It is simply re-energizing to work hard at something solely because God has called me to this thing.   As I have experienced and others have confided in me, those who get paid to minister usually are called, but often confuse their calling at times with job responsibilities.  Sometimes it gets so bad, that some of us minister solely because it is a job that pays the bills and we can do it (superficially).

I wonder how many ministers/pastors would continue to do their daily work if the paychecks stopped.  Are these pastors ministering out of calling, or job responsibilities?  (this has all sorts of implications when brought into Jesus’ teaching on the good shepard verus the hired hand).

For me, I got confused along the way.  Somewhere in the last couple of years, I started doing a job versus obeying a call.  And I am grateful that after the paychecks stopped and the job ended, the call was still there.  The call will always be there.  And I will have to obey and follow it whether there is pay or not.  Of course, I pray there is.  And I know I am called by the One Who Provides.

It has been a while. Sorry about that. The last month or so has been filled with taking kids to camp, a mission trip to New Orleans (pre-Gustav), and filling in on some preaching responsibilities.

Can’t say that I have a ton of stuff on my mind, but here are some things that have been floating in and out of my mind:

1) Finding peace in God. I am utterly convinced that the world we live in is designed to kill our peace and “shalom” in Him. I also pray that our church communities can be people/places of “shalom”, as it is all to easy for churches to fall victim to the demands, and busyness, and pressures that we place upon ourselves.

2) The blessing of family and friends. Sure, not all people have this blessing. But I have been thinking a lot lately about how blessed I am in this regard. This year I have barely seen my family and friends, and that is my biggest regret this year.

3) Sunday morning church services. While I am absolutely convinced that geterhing weekly to worship is essential to healthy Christ-centered community, I am beginning to wonder if Sunday services are killing our community. What I mean by that is Sunday is often responsible for worship, discipleship, evangelism, community, communication, and the list goes on. My fear is that we do too much on Sunday mornings and not enough the rest of the week.

4) Community. What does a living, breathing, community look like? Living in a suburban type setting, I am not sure if I am “in community” or not.   How social should church be?

Okay, just ramblings letting you know what is happening and on my mind. I hope to be posting some more stuff soon.

Shalom

I came across this quote the other day:

“We inoculate the world with a mild form of Christianity so that it will become immune to the real thing.” – E. Stanley Jones

What do you think? I would have to agree that the world seems to be rather immune to Christianity in America today. Why do you think this is?

Does the church offer the world a mild form of following Christ (if so, is there such a thing)? What then, is the “real thing”? Why does it seem that a being a Christian or not being a Christian makes very little difference in the overall direction of one’s life in American society?

A friend of mine (Andy) asked me to write a post on some practical things we can do to be “more green.” It would probably be best if you all could share some of your tips, experiences, and suggestions on the issue. Here are a few of mine:

1) Get outside!!! Wendell Berry writes, “we seriously underestimate how much the Bible is an outside book.” For me, at the heart of being Green is experiencing the beauty of creation and the One who created beauty. Camping, taking a walk, gardening, etc. are all things I think are tremendously healthy for our souls. Why care about the earth if we spend most of our time sheltered from it, in front of our TV’s and computers? Let’s not kid ourselves- being “green” has become a fad. Fads fade because they have no substance. Unless we realize the “being green” is ultimately rooted in God and His call for us to take care of creation, I have little hope for this current pop-culture fad. I think the ultimate longevity of the “green movement” rests in our ability to get outside and re-connect with nature (and God).

2) Be aware. This is a constant battle for me. Even as someone who cares about this issue, most of the time I am unaware of how my lifestyle effects the planet. Throwing out trash, taking showers, turning on the lights, buying certain light bulbs… it is easy for me to simply be unaware how all these daily things effect then planet.

3) Care. Even when I am aware, sometimes it is hard to care. I like the conveniences of being able to buy bottled water, or shower twice a day, or buy the cheap light bulb. I think being green also comes down to putting the care of our planet above our selfish desires and spoiled lifestyles. Truthfully, this is where the rubber meets the road… and I am still a work in progress here.

4) Produce. By produce, I mean contribute something good to the world. One of the reasons we are in the predictament we are in, is because all we have done with the earth is rape it for our consumption. Even now, we are simply asking questions that basically ask “How can we rape the earth less?” I hope we can begin to ask more questions like, “How can we heal the earth?” Plant a tree. Clean a park. Ask your company to donate to a “green” organization, or switch to soy-based ink (I really don’t know what this is, but I knowShaklee uses to conserve water- It sounds cool, but if anyone knows why it is not cool, let me know). Watch the movie Bio-Dome with Pauly Shore.

Practically:

Use energy efficient products (lights, laundry, microwaves, etc), bike and walk more, recycle (obviously), plant stuff (trees, gardens), grocery shop with cloth bags (they hold more groceries anyways), have my friend Randy convert your car into a hydrogen-gas hybrid using a mason jar (he just told me about this today at church).

Share your concerns and passions with others. Alone, the task seems overwhelming. However, I believe we are beginning to see the power of people working together for the same cause. Ultimately, we will need everyone to make better decisions- this requires people to demand different products (cars, cleaners, factories, etc), business to operate and produce things differently (greener), and everyone to have new priorities (think of the shift from truck toprius ). Share with people the benefits of energy efficient bulbs, or that they do not have to use harmful cleaning products, or how cool cloth shopping bags are (?… Natalie is the grocery shopper).

Just ideas and ramblings…

What do you guys do???

This is something I have been thinking a lot about lately:  “Where do we do life?”
1) Solitude/Individually. In many ways, I think many of us have forgotten how to live in solitude. By that I mean we live in a world of noise. We are constantly surrounded by people, entertainment,advertisement , etc. And in the process our identity becomes wrapped up in all of these things, most all of which are superficial. Rare are the people who can go beneath all of these things and become familiar with their soul, the soul of God, and see the souls of others.

At the same time, we live in an individualistic world. Isolation and loneliness are commonplace for most modern Westerners. Though most of us have many relationships, few of us have true community. There seems little doubt in my mind that this is largely due to our selfish and individualistic priorities. So, we have people that rarely are alone, but also rarely in meaningful community.

How do we re-learn how to do life in solitude? Do you do life here? Does this enhance your communal relationships or make them more awkward? Do you find your identity more so here, or in your relationships with others?

2.) Community. As stated above, having relationships is not the same thing as being in community. We live in a world in which relationships are plentiful, but community is rare. Of course, many of us mistake human interaction as community. I do not use this word that way. Updating facebook pages, chatting for a few minutes after church, or making an occasional phone call is not community in my opinion. All of these things probably occur in community, but they are the by product of sharing life together. This by its very nature cannot be superficial. It requires large amounts of time and energy. It certainly is not efficient. And I believe it requires proximity.

To my point: How many of us do life in community? Again, I see tension. For many, sharing life looks like a series of relationships that continually begin, end, and begin again. Even our “closest” friendships are broken by distance, busyness, work, “growing apart”, going our own way, etc. We do life first as an individual, probably bouncing between many “communities”. I think this can also be true of the church. How is this also true of church? Our our church communities marked more by scatteredness, busyness, and going our own ways? Or, are they more readily described as a “sharing life together”?

3.) Mission (communitas). How many of us, as individuals or communities, do our life in missions? By that I mean, how many of us live our life in the context of the brokenness of others. How many of us “do life” with people who are hurting, forgotten, in poverty, etc.? For those of us who have discovered solitude and community, what about mission? Is mission “where we live” or is it more an activity done by an individual or community (at a specific time)?  And can community take us out of mission?

Rarely do I hear people speak of missions as a way of life. Mostly, I hear of it spoken of as a project or activity for an individual or community. As a project, mission becomes “out there”- separate from everyday life.

I believe that we can, and should, be living in solitude, community, and missions. These things, in my opinion, should support each other. Too often times, solitdue is drown by noise, community superficial, and missions a program (or lost to a non-missional community). Then we find ourselves often alone but busy and surrounded by people, unfamiliar with our soul, and though involved in church, too often far from both community and mission (again, community and mission are “out there”).

Just thoughts. Maybe because I am seeking more of all 3 (solitude, community, and mission). Where are you all at?