Even if the healing doesn't come.

June 28, 2016

"I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us." Philippians 3.14 ESV

Today, life changed. Our 14 year old grandson, Braden, died. He lost a 16 month battle with the Dragon we call Cancer. I don't want to go to bed tonight because it feels like if I can just stay awake, I'll somehow be able to reverse reality; that he'll be there waiting to have breakfast with me on Saturday morning and "hang-out."

I want to reflect on death, life, life-after-death and Braden. It's what he would want to talk with you about, if he still could.

DEATH levels the playing field of life. No one ever gets out alive. Feels capricious and mean-spirited. Yet, not. You see had not death been allowed to efficiently rampage through humankind, with no exceptions, we would be once and forever separated from experiencing the face-to-face relationship God created us for in the first place. It's through this portal that we bound into eternity; it's the portal Braden bounded through today. Without death we would be chained to a relationship of enmity with God; no reverse, no repair--no hope.

God not only provided us with a portal, He provided us with a redeemer. I love the way the Apostle Paul describes how we access this "pass-through" portal to eternal LIFE in his letter to the Church in Rome:

9 If you openly declare that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For it is by believing in your heart that you are made right with God, and it is by openly declaring your faith that you are saved. 11 As the Scriptures tell us, 'Anyone who trusts in him will never be disgraced.' 12 Jew and Gentile are the same in this respect. They have the same Lord, who gives generously to all who call on him. 13 For 'Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.'” Romans 10.9-13. NLT

This two-step process here described in Romans 10 provides us with certitude about LIFE-after-DEATH. It gives us freedom--from guilt, fear, dread AND the righteous judgement of God. Now we have access to God's grace--undeserved favor--and He treats us not on the basis of what we deserve, but with transformitive love. Our part? Openly declare that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, (and) you will be saved. Jesus, our redeemer. He gave us back our freedom to say "yes" to God--His amazing grace, His unconditional love, His sovereign transformative vision for our lives.

My beloved Grandson BRADEN, tapped into God's amazing grace as a very young lad. That didn't make his faith any less real, transformative and powerful. He always had a tender heart for God.  It's hard not to wonder what might have become of this boy who was on the threshold of becoming a man. Broken hearts.  But this disease that ended his life with us, gave him something too, it is a remarkable gift. 

Instead of getting bitter, feeling like a victim and feeling God had abandoned him--Braden used the deprivations, the humiliations caused by the Dragon to go deep and radically trust God. He turned suffering into an opportunity to think about "what's important" and "what comes next" and about God. He began to think God's thoughts, after Him. He said this, responding to a question about "How could a good God allow him to suffer, to die?"

"God didn't give me cancer; a broken world did. God gave me His presence to get me through each day. He gave me His Word to show me how to live the real life, so that death isn't the end; see it's not just that God is good, it's that all good is God, there is NO good without God."  

Even if the healing doesn't come.

As Braden drew his last deep breath and passed into the presence of Jesus, he was surrounded by people who loved him. Early today, drifting in and out of sleep he roused himself and declared, "Tell my family, tell my friends, I love them." So, know this, YOU were loved.

Braden's legacy is really all about a much bigger love--He wanted you to know that YOU ARE loved by God with an amazing, gracious, transformative and redemptive love. He wanted more than anything else for each person he touched to have a face-to-face relationship with the God who fearfully and wonderfully made each one of us.

So Braden has "run" with dignity, grit and abandon--driven by his passion for God and love for people. His legacy continues to be written in my life and YOUR lives; this is what he would say: "So what will YOU do with Jesus?"

Father in heaven, thank you for selecting us to be Braden's family over these past 14 years. He was Yours before he was ours and now, we release any claim--and lay him lovingly into Your arms. May his passion burn brightly in our hearts and through our lives. Use his faith-filled life to inspire us to faithfulness to a "long obedience in the same direction." We ask that Your peace will carry us through the days ahead, Your grace will restore us, Your mercy knit our broken hearts. Through Messiah Jesus, let it be.

bN tGit

Keep your Eye on the Ball.

The cardinal rule of good hitting--baseball, golf, billiards--is of course, "keep your eye on the ball." 

That said, my mission as a follower of Christ--to proclaim the truth about God, His love for humankind, His provision for our redemption--does not require me to fear a culture filled with souls who "are like sheep without a shepherd."  It does NOT require me to win the so-called "culture war."

Jesus saw the crowds of distressed people and was "moved with compassion" all the way to the Cross where He crushed the power of sin, once-and-for-all.  God's Word makes it clear who the enemy is..."For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places"  Ephesians 6.12

God's Word tells me what it is I must do to engage these evil adversaries and prevail...

"10 Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might. 11 Put on the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. 12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. 13 Therefore, take up the full armor of God, so that you will be able to resist in the evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm. 14 Stand firm therefore, having girded your loins with truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, 15 and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace; 16 in addition to all, taking up the shield of faith with which you will be able to extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. 17 And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. 18 With all prayer and petition pray at all times in the Spirit, and with this in view, be on the alert with all perseverance and petition for all the saints, 19 and pray on my behalf, that utterance may be given to me in the opening of my mouth, to make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel, 20 for which I am an ambassador in chains; that in proclaiming it I may speak boldly, as I ought to speak."  Ephesians 6.10-24

Note that this passage does not instruct Christ-followers to revile the sinner, legislate a solution that protects my family, leave the Union, or disengage from "life in the world--not of the world."  This is not a political war, not a culture war--it is a Spiritual battle that calls for weapons fashioned by God for taking down, taking back, strongholds.  Our weapons?  See...truth, righteousness, the Gospel of Peace, faith, salvation, God's Word, intercessory prayer, wisdom from God to speak the truth in love with boldness behaving as an Ambassador/Doulos (bond-servant) for the King.

When we allow ourselves to be drawn into a "culture-war" mentality, we lose; people yet to trust Christ and experience spiritual re-birth lose.  We allow the "the rulers, the powers, the world forces of darkness, the spiritual forces of wickedness" to pick the time and place of the struggle; we lay the Armor of God aside--and we are impotent in the face of such evil. It's high time believers figure out "who and where" the enemy is and the rules-of-engagement; then take the fight to the enemy as per Paul's instruction in Ephesians 6.10-24.  Only then will we see the tide of evil begin to recede. 

We will not prevail in the long-term by building higher walls around the spiritual reservations we have fashioned our churches into,  by asking Focus of the Family to lobby our politicians, by finding conservative-too often shrill--politicians to write laws and pack the courts; cursing-the-darkness won't win the battle. 

Choose God.  Love people.  Know who the enemy is and "10 Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might. 11 Put on the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil."  Ephesians 6.10   

Our battle is NOT against flesh and blood.  The stakes are infinity higher than a culture-war; eternity hangs in the balance for those yet to embrace Christ with effective faith.  

For the sake of the Kingdom,  keep your eye on the ball.

bN tGit

Grace Wins

June 23, 2016... I need to periodically remind myself about my mission in life--perhaps you need that too.  So, I repost this from just a few years ago...

"'Huffington Post...'WASHINGTON -- The Defense of Marriage Act, the law barring the federal government from recognizing same-sex marriages legalized by the states, is unconstitutional, the Supreme Court ruled Wednesday by a 5-4 vote.'

'The federal statute is invalid, for no legitimate purpose overcomes the purpose and effect to disparage and to injure those whom the State, by its marriage laws, sought to protect in personhood and dignity,' Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote in the majority opinion. 'By seeking to displace this protection and treating those persons as living in marriages less respected than others, the federal statute is in violation of the Fifth Amendment.'

An urgent letter to my friends who identify themselves as followers of Jesus...

'Yesterday (June 26, 2013) The Supreme Court published its opinion on United States v. Windsor.  The sun came up this morning, as it always has.  A new day.  Here's the reality: nothing has changed.  As believers we are called to love the world as Christ loved the world, unconditionally, and be instruments of grace and healing.  

If history teaches us anything, it's that culture, people, tend to go the way they're going. The Court's opinion simply affirms what history so clearly demonstrates.  As a believer my mission has not changed one bit.  This ruling serves to underscore the urgency (NOT to fall back and counterattack) of what God has called me to do personally, within my spheres of influence, and corporately, through my community of faith; seek to demonstrate the love of God in tangible ways that will move people closer to personal faith in Christ. This means I must do everything I can to make hard lives easier--regardless of the spiritual outcome.  I can sow seed.  The yield is beyond my ability to control.

My church (the community of Christ-followers regardless of religious tradition) must understand that it is not about us; about making the world bend to what makes us comfortable and secure.  It's about the world.  We should expect that people who have not embraced the reality of God's love, will choose to live in ways that do not reflect that reality.  This fact should not repel us, it should compel us to resolve to love those not like us in the same way that God loves them--generously, redemptively, graciously. This is faithfulness to God's vision for His church, and His world.'"

GRACE WINS.

bN tGit

Weary.

Weary.  So very weary of the "if you criticize this President you must be a hater and racist" narrative.  It's time people stop crying wolf--it's hurting the Presidency, it's hurting relationships across racial and political lines, and it's hurting the Nation.

We can't control the racist vanguard; we can't control the haters...what they say or think; we don't need to.  We can force them to the margins of culture and make them irrelevant by refusing them a place "at our tables."

That said, the "loyal opposition" plays an enormously important role in shaping the Nation and the future--regardless of weather that opposition is conservative or progressive.  Any attempt to silence that voice is tyranny, and a threat to us all.  So let's all straighten up, act like adults, and cut-out this non-sense--regardless of what drives it.

Ideas matter.  Not all ideas are created equal.  Live with it.

bN tGit

Note to my Younger self

Today, I write to my younger-self, FOR my grands--Braden, Kellen, Gabriella and Grayson.

I know you will all make choices about the way you live your lives, how you will invest your energy and what kind of legacy you will eventually leave behind. I'm writing because I love you all and don't want to leave these words unsaid.

It's taken me a few years to figure this much out.  Were I able to send a note to my younger-self, this is what I'd say... 

Know, Trust and Serve God.
Follow Christ.
Be kind.
Think noble thoughts.
Read and reflect on history.
Be inclusive.
Love people.
Never mistake tolerance for love.
Be generous.
Teach yourself to say "I do not know."
Think God's thoughts after Him.
Be patient.
Stand up to be heard, sit down to be appreciated.
Cultivate quirky, life is more fun in the quirky lane.
Be a leader, willing to follow.
Invest in your family, you don't get do-overs.
Work hard to make other people successful.
Be humble.
Make mistakes. Learn from them, then celebrate them.
Wake up every day with a hunger to grow.
Be accountable.
Trust that loss isn't the end of life.
Believe that death isn't the end of eternity.  It's a portal, not a wall.
Be grateful.
Learn that God meets us in the stillness.
Embrace the things you fear. You may never master them, but then again, you might.

Finally, I pass on to you my life verse, Micah 6.8.  In it God provides us with an amazing guiding principle for your lives:  "With what shall I come to the Lord...He has told you O man what Is good; and what does the Lord require of you?  But to do justice, to love kindness and to walk humbly with your God."   

Your choices will shape your character. Good character will empower you to be the kind of people God uses to make hard lives easier.  Making hard ives easier is a legacy that will transform your world, one needy--and often underserving, person at a time.  This is the miraculous power of grace.

I love you all more than life...Pop

bN tGit

Thank GOD it's today

Today, Now what?

Horizon indigo-blue, dawn.

Sweet slumber, my retreat.

Moments with God, my hope.

Today, wished away?

Sundance East.

Love's gentle touch, my confidence. 

Grands smiles, my delight.

Today squander, make great?

Sun blazes zenith, Noon.

Disapointment, my challenge.

Sweet fragance, my respite.

Today spent, invested?

Moon reflects suns glory, sublime beauty.

Kind word, my comfort.

Quiet reflection, my strength.

Today, a legacy?

Here, gone.

All I have, all I need.

I will rejoice and be glad.

bN tGit

Whisper Their Names

Taps begin.
Time adds little perspective.

Death in a hostile place, a time not chosen.
Cities hard to pronounce; countries hard to find.
Cause, clarity clouded, confused; hard to recall.

Whisper their names.

Taps begin

Time dulls memory. 
Pace pushes people on.
Space vacated, empty, gone.
Place dissolves, no trace; so it seems.

Whisper their names.

Taps begin.

Time stands still; this I remember. 
Their laughter, their scent.
First smile, first step, first word, first love.
A Friday night; life was simple.
The future, a certain dream, bullet proof, not.

Whisper their names.

Taps begin.

Time release; tears flow freely.
Pride in lives well lived.
Grieving for lives given, invested and gone.
The loss, the pain; broken plans, broken hearts--shattered.

Whisper their names.

Taps begin.
Soldiers, Sailors, Marines, Coastguardsmen, Airmen.

Duty, honor, country.
Last full measure, their devotion.
No greater love, their sacrifice.

In peace, now rest.

Whisper their names--and remember.

bN tGit

A work in PROCESS

The cause/effect relationship between the way we think and the outcomes we achieve is uncanny.  

A "mind," even a poorly developed one, is a powerful force.  God blessed us all with beautiful minds; having been fashioned in His image gives us access to resources beyond the natural, built right into our DNA.  

Our minds are, of course, the most unique aspect of our beings.  So...what are you doing with yours?  It's "the first day of the rest of our lives," May 21, 2015--nearly at the mid-point of this year;  a wonderful moment to look back at what was, then gaze into the second half of the year at what might be.  

Here's a perpetual list I use to keep my life compass oriented, "true North." Quite frankly, this is a "three steps forward, two steps back" process much of the time; but even one step at a time is progress!   We are on the cusp of the half-way mark in the year; finish strong in 2016...

• Go to and get out of bed earlier.  
• Be active, body and mind, with the extra morning time.

• Give up painful thinking.
• Don't throw others "under the bus."

• Refuse to think like a victim.
• Seek balance in my life.

• Look for the best in people.
• Find ways to add value to the lives of others.

• Give generously to a cause you feel great passion for.
• Volunteer and serve in some fashion, some place.

• Don't be a cynic.
• Refuse to associate with negative people.

• Spend time in dialogue with people who don't think like me.
• Make the effort to grow my intellect and expand my perspective.

• Transform obstacles into opportunities.
• Begin something that makes me feel challenged.

• Mentor someone younger and/or less experienced.
• Find someone to mentor me; be accountable to someone.

• Read and listen to good books that make me feel enriched.

• Journal: keep it simple and short; then watch that discipline begin to expand.

• Leverage the dearth of resources available on the Web.
• Use technology in a way that prevents me from becoming its slave.

Finally, most significantly...

"...do JUSTICE,  love KINDNESS and walk HUMBLY with your God."  
                                           ....Micah 6.8  ESV

For me, it starts by asking God (again) to empower me to resolve and retool the way I think and as result, the way I experience life:

"Father in heaven give me clarity to know myself; give me desire to reflect Christ; give me discipline to lean-into You; give me focus to remain on task; give me wisdom to make 'best decisions.'"  

Through Messiah Jesus, let it be.   



bN  tGit

Better than Beethoven.

Many of my friends express concern about the fact that "God is being forced out of the public square." It's become a favorite pastime for People of Faith (yes I'm guilty)--lamenting the "sorry state" of the Nation.

What concerns ME?  It's this: People of Faith have come to embrace the notion that the symbolic presence of God is the same thing as the authentic presence of God.   Here is a short list of "hot-buttons," not intended to be exhaustive--but illustrative.

• Do we want God in our schools--disciple your children to know and love Jesus. 
• Do we want our Nation to understand that marriage is a beautiful metaphor, designed by God, of a much bigger relationship--and for this reason it is a sacred estate? Love your wife selflessly and trust your husband implicitly.
• Do we want values to govern our economy, greed to be disdained--choose simplicity and invest our resources on behalf of the poor, widows, orphans; be seekers of justice for all the disenfranchised.  
• Are we befuddled by the National obsession with abortion, perplexed by the disdain modern cultures have for human life, and high regard they show for endangered species?  Find your voice and speak passionately-forcefully for the little Ones, consider... adoption, Foster parenting, Mentoring programs.

For too long, too many of us who profess to be followers of Jesus have routinely "phoned it in."

• We've been content to build private school sanctuaries, teaching Bible courses, that will disciple our children for us.
• We've turned a blind eye to the failure rate of marriages in our churches.
• We've justified selfish ambition and the boastful pride of life as "what's ours is ours" and left justice to government inefficiency and the dehumanizing impact of its one-size fits all insanity.
• We've ceded the heavy lifting for protecting the lives of unborn-children, the quality of life for born-children to others "called" to missional living.

Consider this: God's plan has always been to "show-up" via the beautiful music being played through lives well-lived by those who are His devoted followers--the Scripture makes clear that no law can stand against such purposeful, selfless living, "...the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law." Galatians 5.22,23 NASB

Lives lived this way will produce a breathtaking symphony that will bring relevance back to our Mission as His Church--no longer engaged in managing the kingdom (small ''k") but compelled to build HIS Kingdom (big "K"). 

WHEN we take seriously our empowerment, from God, to add value to the lives of people, to make hard lives easier, to speak the truth of the Gospel into the brokenness of life without Christ, to model the transformational reality of the Gospel through the choices and investments we make--with our lives and resources, THEN they won't be able lock God out of the public square. There is no law that can stand against this kind of authenticity.

"Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us, 21 to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen." Ephesians 3.20,21 NASB

I hear a symphony.  Through Christ, let it be.

bN tGit

The NOT post-racial Presidency

So much for "the first post-racial President in our history." Sounded hopeful, sort of like "hope and change" and "change we can believe in."  This Presidency certainly will not be described as post-racial by any perspective of history. 

 Not because it couldn't have been.

You see, the "we think it's cool" crowd doomed that possibility almost from that night in 2008, at Chicago, when a sea of well-wishers gathered to celebrate this President's first election. That certainly was a moment in history. But it didn't produce a post-racial result. You see, from that "moment" almost anyone who dared question this President's intelligence, fitness for office, ability to lead or wisdom in approaching the challenges facing the nation--has been tarred as a racist puppet of the Aryan Nation.

As I reflect back, all Presidents during my lifetime have been the subject of a national pastime geared toward laughing at their quirks, questioning their intelligence, reviling their politics and counting the days till the next election cycle. In this modern era, virtually nothing has been out of bounds. Now, let me state for the record, I don't believe what we subject our Presidents to is good for the nation; that said, it's become the norm, not the exception. It's mean, but it's not racist.

So, when this President stepped up to become the focus of the electorates ire, it's decried as racism. That is non-sense. Are there racists in America? Certainly. Is some the what we hear about this President racist? Certainly...just like some of what we heard about George Bush was hate-speech.

This is America. We need to be able to speak our minds, thoughtful or otherwise, because that's a treasured right here. It's part of what makes us, us. My concern as we turn the corner to the home stretch in this 2016 Presidential election cycle, is that we'll forget who we are and what makes this nation great. I pray for a civil discourse. But I also expect it to be a spirited and opinionated discourse, as it should be. "Ideas" do that to people. People must feel safe stating what they think about the candidates and believe to be the best course for the nation...regardless of their agenda.

We make judgments about the ideas placed before us by politicians and the people that support them; then, we VOTE!  This election cycle should be no different than those that came before it...but as we're seeing almost every night on our favorite news cast, some seek to prevent this process from playing out that way.

It appears that the election to determine the next President will be characterized by class warfare, race-baiting, vitriol, violence and a "take no prisoners" commitment to win at any cost. Now is the time to brace for just such an election. 

Prepare now to be driven to a decision by the facts and your conviction about what you believe is the best course for our nation going forward. How can one do that?

1. Critically consider your values and then ask, which set of ideas best represent those values. 
2. Become thoroughly familiar with who the candidates really are...not who they, or their handlers, simply say they are.
3. Go deeper than the talking points. Think through policy and how it effects the nation going forward.
4. Engage big ideas. Read, study, pray and reflect on the politics of the 21st century, then measure the ideas of those asking for your vote against your own understanding and perspective, born from that "due diligence."
5. Refuse to be an ideologue.
6. Measure twice and cut once.
7. Seek guidance from God; Seek His agenda. Be willing to embrace it.
8. Exercise your right, privilege and responsibility to vote.

We missed an opportunity to get it right under the leadership of the POTUS Obama, and, frankly, one has to wonder, what could have been?

The good news...while we don't always get it right the first time, Americans keep working at it until we do. No, this isn't the first post-racial Presidency, but it's taken us one step closer to that vision of Dr. Martin Luther King.  Sweet Dream.

bN tGit