Carpe Diem.

"How do you know what your life will be like tomorrow? Your life is like the morning fog—it’s here a little while, then it’s gone." James 4.13 NLT

Today is here; a gift of time, energy and opportunity.

What will you do with it? Will you wish it away; squander the "moments" it will produce, or will you seize it, make it great and do somehting significant; invest it in someone, something, that will outlive you? It's your day, make the most of it.

Today is here, then...

Life is hard, and then...

Life is hard.  Age diminishes us.  Disease ravages us.  Then, we die.

       Or...

Life is hard and softens our hearts.  Age diminishes us and equips us with wisdom. Disease ravages us and empowers us to embrace hope.  Then we die and pass into eternity.

What happens to us, all of us, in the course of a lifetime is simply a variation on the same theme.  What sets apart those not beaten from those that are, is what that "lifetime process" produces in us. 

I've been reminded recently, we are fragile and our bodies will eventually fail--some sooner than others, but for all of us life ends in one final breath.  The ability to see our sojourn as a prelude to "something more" is the key to empowering us to embrace all we experience in "time" with wonder; while anticipating what we can glimpse of eternity with hope.  

Yes, I'm talking about faith.  A specific faith we are given instruction about in the Scriptures; the Second letter to the church in Corinth, written by the Apostle Paul (5.1-5):

"For we know that when this earthly tent we live in is taken down (that is, when we die and leave this earthly body), we will have a house in heaven, an eternal body made for us by God himself and not by human hands.  2 We grow weary in our present bodies, and we long to put on our heavenly bodies like new clothing. 3 For we will put on heavenly bodies; we will not be spirits without bodies.  While we live in these earthly bodies, we groan and sigh, but it’s not that we want to die and get rid of these bodies that clothe us. Rather, we want to put on our new bodies so that these dying bodies will be swallowed up by life.  5 God himself has prepared us for this, and as a guarantee he has given us his Holy Spirit."

This month I've invested time in some weary people...all filled with hope.  They are fragile over-comers.  Their lives are a tapestry illustrating God's grace, love, presence and power.  Paul acknowleges this too (5.18,19, 21)...

"18  And all of this is a gift from God, who brought us back to himself through Christ. And God has given us this task of reconciling people to him. 19 For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, no longer counting people’s sins against them...21 For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ."

I'm ready.  Are you?  

Maranatha
bN

Tilt!#!%!

Time.
Activity.
Stress.
Disstress.

Why don't we say "no?"  Our fear of loosing an edge is ravaging relationships, creating monster expectations, ruining our health and creating distance between us and God.

The fact is we really do live in a "less is more" world.  "White space" is what makes good Art so fetching, great landscape design so dramatic and relationships work.  It gives us permission to breath, to be creative, to recharge and recreate.  

Who "moved the cheese" and convinced Americans that the contemplative life is empty and worth-less?  We did.  

Stop.
Breath.
Listen.
Smile.

"When I grow up..."

"When I Grow Up (to be a man)."  Link to song

This is of course one of the "sounds of summer" delivered to us by, who else, The Beach Boys. It's one of my favorites. When the DJ's at KRLA or KHJ in Southern California spun this selection I'd turn the radio up (even louder) in my 1960 Ford Falcon--and be transported into thoughts of...the future; "how will my life play out?

Today, when I select this tune on my iPod, or hear it on my Pandora "Beach Boys Radio" selection, I'm transported into thoughts of...the past; we all grew up.  I settled down early, married my High School sweetheart 40 years ago and "dig" her more today than ever! Life is rarely fair, but it's always good.

I've grown up, and now, I'm growing old(er) and I think about, legacy.  What will I leave behind that will mark my place in the passage of time?  What will my grandkids carry through their lives that has my fingerprints on it?  Have the lives of people been enriched because they spent a season in close proximity with me?  Have I been an agent of positive change?

I'm grateful I'm not done. 
I'm grateful I'm not alone. 
I'm grateful He's not finished: 

"Now all glory to God, who is able to keep you from stumbling and 
will bring you with great joy into his glorious presence without a single fault.²⁵

All glory to him who alone is God, our Savior through Jesus Christ our Lord. 

All glory, majesty, power, and authority are his before all time, and 

in the present, and beyond all time! Amen."  Jude 24, 25

Unplugged.

The Church in America is unplugged, it's powerless.  By power I mean spiritual gravitas--authority which is the result of a clear anointing from God.  Most of the country perceives the confessing church to be the most conservative wing of the Republican Party.  I grew up hearing my mom say, "if the shoe fits wear it!"  Unfortunately, we've been tagged with this perception the old fashioned way, we've earned it.  We've chosen to contend for the soul of America using the political process--a grave error.  The shoe fits. 

"But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come. 2  For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3  unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good, 4  treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having a form of godliness, but denying its power.""  2 Timothy 3.1-4 

Last December we came to a "waypointe" called Sandy Hook; a "waypointe--a place on a journey where the traveler can stop and change course."  It's time for the confessing church to change our trajectory and become THE church. The fact is we've settled for sloppy seconds.  Too many of us worship in places that are driven by forms rather than power.  We've allowed popular culture to shape our vision of what Christ's church should be, what it should look like; we have embraced the wrong set of outcomes.

Today we measure the quality and effectiveness of our ministries based on the Big 3: People, Buildings, Revenue.  In fact, it's not difficult to erect buildings and fill them with people that generate million-dollar budgets.  False religions, cults and sects do it all around the world.  Jim Jones did in San Francisco and finally in Guyana.  Jimmy Swaggart did it, then did it AGAIN in Louisiana.  

People, buildings and money won't produce transformational-redemptive power, nor are they the indicators of the anointing of God.  Powerless religion, form-driven religion has a micro focus: it sees "the church" as the end.  Forms--the way we "do church," the things we do or don't do that identify us as "christians," are paramount.  This is the kind of context Jesus came into in Judea; the context the Religious power brokers endorsed and protected.

Form-driven religion becomes a template that blinds us to the brokenness which surrounds us.  Form-driven religion makes us think in "wrong headed ways" about what the world deserves v. what God desires--Us v. Them.  Form-driven religion becomes a tyranny which chokes our vibrancy and shrivels our generosity.

Power-driven godliness sees loving, reaching and changing the world as the end.  It acts without conditions.  It seeks to make hard lives easier.  It understands that wealth, leadership, talent and spiritual gifts are resources graciously given by God for this endeavor.  Power-driven godliness doesn't seek relavance; it is relevant.

Outcomes are critical.  Matthew 9..."35  Jesus was going through all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every kind of disease and every kind of sickness.  36  Seeing the people, He felt compassion for them, because they were distressed and dispirited like sheep without a shepherd.  37  Then He said to His disciples, 'the harvest in plentiful, but workers are few.'" 

We've come to a waypointe.

What joy...

Water flows; silk across rock.

Resounding concert of joy.

Linger, listen.

It comes, it goes.

Course of life it forms.

Reflect, rejoice.

Linger, listen

Reflect, rejoice.

New mercies, every morning.

That's enough!

Difficult days.
News?
Too many dissonant voices.

His Grace. Redemption.
His promise.  Hope.

His character. Strength.

He is able.

I am His.

That's enough.

bN  tGit

If my people...

Many people of faith (I've taken my shots) are piling on this Administration, decrying its polices, arrogance and penchant for demagoguery.   

     

But, let's face the the hard truth: Government shares only part of the responsibilty for the troubled state of our Nation.  The failure of the Church to be the Church has accelerated our decline. The light from "The City set on a hill" cannot penetrate the darkness because The City too often has become an anemic, self-indulgent, impotent place--flirting with priorities, forms and dogma that have no genesis in God's Word.

     

The Church has embraced popular culture and been absorbed by a pursuit of a reworked (secularized), dumbed-down (sequestered) version of the "abundant" life; by a quest for "relevance" in the name of Christ.  She has a vital role in culture: to be the watcher on the wall, the harbinger of Good News; a conduit for God's love given without regard for conditions or behavioral change. instead, she slumbers, points her finger at others and cries "foul."  The Church need not quest for relevance; when she behaves as The Church, she is relevant.  Instead...  

    

Apathy, division and moral compromise have ravaged the fruit of the Spirit.

Reaching out with the Good News has become an unfunded mandate.

Codependence has swallowed up courageous leadership.  

Sound teaching has been replaced by pop pyschology.

Relevance has pushed reality to the back of the bus. 

Sacrifice is considered a synonym for weakness. 

Integrity is open to interpretation.

Godliness just isn't hip.

         

This isn't the first time the people of God have lost their moral and spiritual compass... 

      

"If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sins and restore their land."   2 Chronicles 7.14   

      

It ended badly for Israel.  But, it need not end badly for this nation; there is hope.

Hope springs from humility 

Humility leads to repentance 

Repentance produces healing

   

 This, is change we can believe in.

The Word... still becoming flesh.

As believers we have been "gifted" to add value to the lives of people. We've been called to love people--the best and the worst--with a love that looks past what they are and sees WHOSE they are.

Whether or not they come to effective faith in Christ, is not my responsibilty. That is the work of God; He uses me, but it's not a head thing, it's a heart thing. When I selflessly serve people in a way that adds value to their lives, I reflect Christ--no, I flesh-out Christ--and they wonder, "Why, what's in this for you?" This testimony is powerful becasue the reality of Christ in me has manifested itself in an "incarnational" way; they have seen Christ through me. That reflected image is intense and compelling. God uses that kind of "vision" to transform hearts, minds and lives.

This needs to inform our outreach effort, the way we see people; it needs to inform the way we see their sin. When our efforts at outreach do not wholistically address the felt needs of people and work toward their spiritual needs, we diminish the Gospel at best, and erect substantial barriers to faith, for people without hope.

This is especially relevant given the the world we live in today. God does not need us to defend Godly values. They stand on their own. What He desires from us is to love "the lost sheep, the lost coin" the Way He does. He isn't finished yet, Matthew 25.34-40 makes this point very clear...

"34  Then the King will say to those on His right, ‘Come, you who are blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. 35  For I was hungry, and you gave Mesomething to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me something to drink; I was a stranger, and you invited Me in; 36  naked, and you clothed Me; I was sick, and you visited Me; I was in prison, and you came to Me.’ 37  Then the righteous will answer Him, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry, and feed You, or thirsty, and give You something to drink? 38 And when did we see You a stranger, and invite You in, or naked, and clothe You? 39  When did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?’ 40  The King will answer and say to them, ‘Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine, even the least of them, you did it to Me.’"

 Friends, the Word is still becoming flesh, through you and me. 

The President speaks...

I appreciated our President's honest, frank and poignant comments about race in America.  We want leadership from the Oval Office; he delivered that to the Nation yesterday.

I urge white America, don't be dismissive of what the President said to us.  That's the knee-jerk response; don't own that.  Reach down, find the empathy to put yourselves in the place of our citizens who are people of color.  Have a conversation with yourself--about that time you clutched your purse, or locked your door or whatever it was, JUST because you saw "color" and that produced irrational fear.  

Crime, violence, rage, and bitterness are all a part of the fabric of our culture--but they come in all colors; not just blood lines from Africa, Latin America, Asia and Native America.  Those flaws of character that create so much chaos in the "American Experience" also find significant place in the color White.

President Obama calmed the Nation; he affirmed our due process and charged us to embrace the outcome.  But, he did much more; he reminded me that people of color deal with "death by a 1000 cuts" every day.  Humiliation is such a strong negative message that diminishes its victims in profound, permanent ways.  My President helped me get past my frustration over seeming unreasonableness, to understanding; to empathy and softness.  For me, that's leadership.

We can only pray that this becomes a significant next step to healing the self-inflicted wounds of Slavery and Manifest Destiny.  

bN