Slow, Still, Wait.

A few years ago my family started taking vacations. Though we had been married almost fifteen years, it was not until that point in our relationship that we had the desire, finances, and ability to align our schedules to take a significant trip together. Since then, we've been all over the United States and twice to Canada. I love to see landmarks and experience once in a lifetime moments.

We've also been working on capturing these moments with photos. I don't want to be that mom who takes pictures of everything their child does (you know that parent, right?), but I don't fully trust myself to remember it all. As I type these words, I look to the corner of my living room where many of these photos are hung.  My mind goes back to those moments when...

My son lost his tooth at a baseball game.

My family got free ice cream.

My son ordered strange food at a restaurant.

We toured a battleship.

My husband and I ate at a restaurant with a fantastic view.

Dee Strange-Gordon picked my son out of the crowd to give a baseball.

Both times my sons pretended to be chased by a dinosaur.

As I approach forty (ten days, and counting), I find myself slowing down.  Not slowing down as if my battery was running out of juice - though that's certainly happening more - but as if I don't want to run through life as fast.  Perhaps that's what happens when you realize it's possible you have fewer years in front of you than behind you.

I mentioned to a friend this week my reluctance to turn forty.  He reminded me that I may want to reconsider my stance; turning forty, after all, is better than the alternative. Point taken.

Yet even in my slowing, I find it hard to be patient. I remind myself that some things just take time. Patience is a work of the Spirit in me (read: here). When Jesus told His disciples to wait, they started asking Him what He had planned (read: here). The disciples weren't the only ones to struggle, think Abraham, Jacob, Joseph, Aaron, and all the Isreaelites in the desert for that fact.

Instead, I seek to live in patience.  To worry less about what is happening around me, and to allow my paitence be a holy act of commitment to God. I will wait.  I will be still.  I will not be upset. I will not allow sin to win.  As the psalmist wrote:

Be still and wait patiently for the Lord to act.
Don’t be upset when other people succeed.
Don’t be upset when they carry out their evil plans.
Turn away from anger and don’t give in to wrath.
Don’t be upset, because that only leads to evil.

(Psalm 37:7-8, NIRV)

FMF: Present

On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. (Matthew 2:11, NIV)

Then Peter said, “Silver or gold I do not have, but what I do have I give you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk.” (Acts 3:6, NIV)

On a table in my living room sit two pieces of art created by kids.  Last year, my older son presented me with ceramic bowls he made in a pottery class, and a few years before that my younger son presented me with a wire sculpture he made. They are both blue, and they were both presented to me as gifts, but they bear no other similarities.

In the old testament, believers were given precise instructions as to what they were to present to God.  Grain, oil, and animals were some of the items presented to God.  But even then, the law made allowances. If a person did not have one thing, another could be presented to God in its place.

Though the way we make offerings to God has changed, He still only expects us to present Him with what we have.  Like my children, God does not compare our gifts to others' gifts.  I would not have criticized my son's sculpture because it was not a bowl any more than I would have rejected my other son's bowl because it was not a sculpture. The beauty of giving to God is that He only asks us to present to Him what He has already given to us.

This post is a prompt from Five Minute Friday and was written in approximately five minutes. For more information, visit fiveminutefriday.com.

The Ever Changing Church

When I stopped working in youth ministry over a decade ago we had just entered into a technological age that would change our future. The question of how to handle teens and their cell phones was a significant, albeit not life shattering, issue being faced. These teens had not grown up with a cell phone in their hands, though they were receiving them early in life, and so techniques like setting a basket at the door where everyone left their phones worked. It was a mostly effective solution to a new problem. As long as there has been a church, there have been problems needing to be worked out.  This is clearly evidenced in Acts 6:

The number of followers was growing. But during this same time, the Greek-speaking followers had an argument with the other followers. The Greek-speaking widows were not getting their share of the food that was given out every day. The twelve apostles called the whole group of followers together and said, “It is not right for us to stop our work of teaching God’s word in order to serve tables. So, brothers and sisters, choose seven of your own men who are good, full of the Spirit and full of wisdom. We will put them in charge of this work. Then we can continue to pray and to teach the word of God.”

The whole group liked the idea, so they chose these seven men: Stephen (a man with great faith and full of the Holy Spirit), Philip, Procorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicolas (a man from Antioch who had become a follower of the Jewish religion). Then they put these men before the apostles, who prayed and laid their hands on them.

The word of God was continuing to spread. The group of followers in Jerusalem increased, and a great number of the Jewish priests believed and obeyed.

(Acts 6:1-7, NCV)

For the church in Acts 6, the problem was more than logistical.  The church was struggling to understand how people of many traditions (here, Greek and Hebrew) could (or if they even could) come together to truly be one body of believers.  So the leaders of the church came up with a simple plan: have some other men oversee the solution to the problem.  They delegated.

If you have ever worked with a person who used "delegation" as a means to pass off anything they don't want to do, please don't think that's what the church leaders were doing.  They were plenty busy with their work - a very effective work by the ways their numbers were growing - and so they thought it would be best to let another group of leaders oversee food distribution.

It's easy to think that leaders might have considered this work beneath them.  Reading that they didn't want to "serve tables" sounds almost dismissive.  However, by looking at who they chose to do this new work, we can see that it was something they considered essential and important.  Of the seven men, two have significant descriptions. First, Stephen is described as "a man with great faith and full of the Holy Spirit."  Why would you chose this kind of man to be a DoorDash driver food server unless it was a faith-related activity?  You wouldn't.  Clearly, the work being done was to feed their spirits as much as their stomachs. Second, Nicolas was Greek.  He would be a familiar face to the widows they served and would be able to resolve any miscommunication that arose.  He was greasing the wheels, in the best possible way. All seven of these men are described as good, faith filled, and wise.

In this case, church leaders didn't let tradition blind them to need.  They responded with How can we fix this? instead of But it's never been a problem before.   As the church grows and as times change, new problems arise that have serious implications; I think most of us have learned that this year.  However, when we've moved past the problems we faced in 2020, there will be new problems we couldn't have anticipated.  In some ways that is encouraging because it allows us to have hope.  We can look back and see that we've overcome many things before, so we can overcome whatever comes before us next.

Seeking Peach Cobbler

It turns out that there is no sexy way to take a picture of peach cobbler.

I bet those aren't words you expected to read today, but it's the truth, at least for this novice photographer. I love peach cobbler, but I almost never eat it.  The reasons abound, the least of which are the dessert's talents as a model.

My husband doesn't like peaches, and I don't really care for them.  Except in cobbler. It's hard to make a cobbler for one, so I don't make it at home.  I don't know of any restaurants that sell it near my home. Last month a local restaurant put up signs advertising "Peach Season." I thought for sure that this would be it; if only seasonally, I'd be able to get peach cobbler lovingly made by a trained professional.  They only offered peach pie.  How unfortunate.  Cobbler beats pie any day.

About two years ago my friend and I volunteered at an event hosted by a semi-local mega church.  We did some work for them, and they allowed us to attend their conference for free. It was a great trade off.  Since this church was about an hour from our homes, we decided to have dinner together on the last night before we left. We had a fine meal, but the whole time I couldn't stop thinking about two words that I had seen written on their menu: Peach Cobbler.  I decided to buy one to go.  That night, I sent my friend one of the most disappointing texts I have ever sent: This isn't cobbler. It a crisp.

There's nothing wrong with a crisp, or even a crumble, but it wasn't what I was looking for. I was seeking something very specific, and nothing else would satisfy me.  Similarly, the Bible is filled with instruction to seek God, to look for Him with the same passionate effort I seek peach cobbler:

• But if from there you seek the Lord your God, you will find him if you seek him with all your heart and with all your soul. (Deuteronomy 4:29)
• If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land. (2 Chronicles 7:14)
• Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. (Jeremiah 29:12-13)
• But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. (Matthew 6:33)
• God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us. (Acts 17:27)

I have tasted peach cobbler in the past, so I desire it when I am away from it too long.  It is the same with God.  But what about those who have never tasted?  Romans 10:14 asks the same question this way, "How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them?" We, who have tasted, are called to share with those who have not. That's what I'm doing here. I hope you find your own way.

*If you, like most, are confused by the difference between a cobbler, a crisp, and a crumble, HERE is a great explanation.

Love More

I was recently watching an old reality show. I've never watched it regularly, though I have seen a few episodes.  It featured a cast of women, a few of whom openly professed their faith in Christ. By the second episode, I was cringing every time they showed these believers. I'm sure they thought they were sharing Christ with their cast mates, but all I could do was pray that somehow God had used them. I could not see how.

We read about the apostle Paul facing an equally awkward scene:

Once when we were going to the place of prayer, we were met by a female slave who had a spirit by which she predicted the future. She earned a great deal of money for her owners by fortune-telling. She followed Paul and the rest of us, shouting, “These men are servants of the Most High God, who are telling you the way to be saved.” She kept this up for many days. Finally Paul became so annoyed that he turned around and said to the spirit, “In the name of Jesus Christ I command you to come out of her!” At that moment the spirit left her.
(Acts 16:16-18, NIV)

Let's get this straight, there is a wrong way to proclaim Jesus. It's part of the reason the body of believers is facing some of the challenges we have today. A friend recently told me about an encounter he had with an unbeliever. The unbeliever told him the biggest problem he had with church is the hypocrisy. I can't blame the guy for thinking this way. I, too, have been hurt by believers whose actions didn't match their statements of faith, and I know I have been the one to hurt others this same way. We've missed the proverbial forest for the trees.

What is the answer?  As it so often is, it's Jesus. When we draw close to Jesus we learn the compassion He had for those who were "like sheep without a shepherd" (Matthew 9:36).   We learn the forgiveness He had for people like the woman caught in adultery, and we will say that we don't condemn people as we encourage them to "go now and leave your life of sin" (John 8:11).  The answer is not to judge more.  It is to love more.  More love for those who don't know Christ.  More love for those who've been proclaiming Christ wrong.

If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love,

I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.

(1 Corinthians 13:1, NIV)

May we love more and clang less.

Devoted to Fellowship

As I sit down to write these words, I'm struggling with the thoughts in my head.  It has been five months since we began to address the concerns of COVID-19.  Whether you call it a quarantine, safe-at-home order, or self-isolation, these five months have been filled with challenge and change.  Many have had troubles like they've never had before.  In the early days, unprecedented food scarcity plagued my local markets. I waited in line and hoped to find what I most needed.  I told my sons things I've never heard myself say before: This is what you'll eat because this is what we have.  Almost overnight, it seemed a well had dried up.

Despite the struggles, I'll admit that there have been some welcome changes.  There are some norms I'm glad to be rid of. We don't seem to be in the same hurry that we once were, especially here in California where it seems people are always on the go.  The last five months have allowed us to collectively slow our pace, even halting our pace from time to time.  We've read books, made home improvements, and played games with our families.

There are also things I'm sad to have lost.  My older son was counted in the 1% of our national population who graduated high school this year without the traditions we've held for decades.  I recall my senior year with fondness, and I'm sorry that his ended so anticlimactically.

And then there are those practices that fall in to the grey area.  I find the majority of my life does not fall neatly into black or white, but lingers in the continuum of grey.  Please hear my heart as much as my words.  I miss church.  I do.  But, I've had this feeling for months now that we've desperately needed to let go of some of the things we do, or at very minimum, how we do them. Without the routine of Sunday morning, Wednesday night, monthly specials, I've asked myself why do we do what we do as the church?  Why do I do what I do as a part of the church?  Do our actions entice the common man or applaud the Christian elite? How would God design the church if He were starting it today?  I cannot answer that because He is not starting the church today.  However, I can look at how the early church behaved:

They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles. All the believers were together and had everything in common. They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved. (Acts 2:42-47, NIV)

I've been stuck on the first line of this passage for years: They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship.  I understand being devoted to teaching, but I could not wrap my head around being devoted to fellowship.  I'm starting to wonder if fellowship is one of the things we've been getting terribly wrong in the church.  If other believers are anything like me (and I'm actually praying that I'm the only one), we've made shallow a very deep word.  Too often I've reduced fellowship to gathering.  We are tempted to call every church event that isn't a "worship service" or "Bible study" or "ministry opportunity" fellowship. The Greek word for fellowship is one that I've heard so often it's almost trite: KOINONIA. Lord, forgive me.

This thing we call fellowship is part of our sacred experience.  It is so much more than potlucks or picnics.  Fellowship has to do with sharing, participating, contributing, and unity.  As I think about this idea, I'm realizing my local church recently shared fellowship by passing out these communion baskets to the families of our church.  More than just the teamwork of purchasing supplies, assembling baskets, and distributing to 40+ homes, I can't help but think about the fellowship of communion.  These glass cups are decades old and, before being shelved away in favor of their disposable plastic versions, offered the chance to unite with God to countless believers. When we take communion we remember Christ and celebrate His sacrifice.

Like these communion cups, have we traded the long lasting means of sharing Christ for a cheap, disposable version?  Have we hidden away something of value for something easier?  I've asked a lot of questions today. In my heart I feel that these questions aren't for me to answer, at least not at this time.

Costa Rica and Morning Worship

When we traveled to Costa Rica in 2018, one of the things I loved most is also found at Christian

retreats, conferences, and summer camps: daily morning worship.

A clown in worship...
you don't see that everyday.

Since my first summer camp experience, I have loved corporate worship. I had grown up in church, but I have never known worship like that before. To this day I love seeing people lift their voices and hands in praise to God. I love seeing how God speaks when we are willing to listen. I love seeing differences dissipate, sometimes even our spoken language, as we focus on God. Yet in my personal life I struggle to develop the same daily habit.

If we model our faith life on scripture, there is no denying that God wants a daily relationship with us. Over the two decades we have been married, my husband has often worked night shifts. In our early years, we were like ships passing in the night; I'd come home from work and he'd hand me our son so that he could leave for work. If I worked late, he'd leave our son with his mother, and we wouldn't even see each other. Our relationship suffered, and still suffers, when we don't have time together every day, even if only for a few minutes.

When Jesus taught His disciples to pray, He asked that God would "give us today daily bread" (Matthew 6:11). When the Israelites wandered through the desert, God literally gave them daily bread called manna. It was no good the next morning, "it was full of maggots and began to smell" (Exodus 16:20). Moses was angry with those who didn't trust him, or, more accurately, didn't trust God.  Maggots and stench revealed the hearts of the Israelites who lacked faith; when we lack faith, it's not quite as obvious. Too often I think the faith I had yesterday will be sufficient for today, but it never is.

In Proverbs 30:8, Agur prayed that God would not give him poverty, and not give him riches - ever prayed that before? - but only his daily bread.  In Job 22, as he defended his faith to Eliphaz, Job says that that he has valued God's words more than his daily bread. In Acts 2, we read about the Holy Spirit coming to believers.  The crowds did not understand and made fun of them. Peter defends the believers' actions, and he uses the opportunity to teach many about Christ.  

Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.

(Acts 2:46-47)

They met together every day.  Every day.

The power of "every day" is not in checking something off your to do list.  I love to do lists; they show what I have accomplished.  I can get a lot done when I make a list. No, "every day" is not about what I have done.  It is about God.

The first few chapters of Leviticus outline the offerings that should be presented to God, but in Leviticus 9:24 we read that the fire that burned the offering came from God.  Not even our offerings are acceptable without God's help.

The fire on the altar must be kept burning; it must not go out. Every morning the priest is to add firewood and arrange the burnt offering on the fire and burn the fat of the fellowship offerings on it. The fire must be kept burning on the altar continuously; it must not go out.

(Leviticus 6:12-13)

Even though the priest added to the fire every morning, the fire burned continuously.  The same is true with our faith.  Daily prayer, worship, and Bible study are only opportunities to add to the flame that God has placed in our hearts. As believers, we must tend the fire of our faith.  It must not go out.

Heart and Hands

Several years ago, a thought entered my mind that I couldn't shake for several weeks: What God lays on your heart, pick up with your hands.  Set that aside for a minute.

My husband turned to me one evening this week and asked if I had heard of a certain person, a Christian celebrity. Eek, Christian celebrity. I don't like writing that, but I don't have a better description. I told my husband that I had heard of this particular person, to which he responded, "I guess he doesn't believe in God anymore."

I asked him why, and he told me that he had read that the celebrity couldn't understand why an all loving God would allow bad things to happen, or something along those lines.  The conversation was pretty matter of fact. In part because my husband hadn't heard of the person, and I think in part because it seems to be happening more frequently these days.

Then my brain started turning.  To me, more concerning than a God who would allow bad things to happen are the 2 billion Christians who would allow those same things to happen.

From the very beginning we were meant to play a part in God's story. Genesis 2:15 (NASB) says, "Then the Lord God took the man and put him into the garden of Eden to cultivate it and keep it."

As we continue reading through scripture, we come to the story of God in Nehemiah's time.  Leroy Eims shares great insight about Nehemiah's faith in his book Prayer: More Than Words.  He points out that, in addition to prayer, we must do our part.  Or, as we read in Nehemiah 4:9 (NASB), "but we prayed to our God, and because of them we set up a guard against them day and night."  They prayed for God to do His part, and then they did their part.

God's word continues to tell the same story in Acts 2:42-45 (NASB) when we read that, again, the believer prayed and took care of each other:

They were continually devoting themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone kept feeling a sense of awe; and many wonders and signs were taking place through the apostles. And all those who had believed were together and had all things in common; and they began selling their property and possessions and were sharing them with all, as anyone might have need.

Is your heart breaking for the millions of people who don't have access to clean water?  Do you think we we should do something to end homelessness?  Are you distraught by the spread of HIV/AIDS?  Do you cry when you think about orphans? God has called you to be like Adam, or Nehemiah, or the believers of Acts 2.  Turn your concerns over to God, and then turn your attention to problem.  What God lays on your heart, pick up with your hands.

Alphabet Robot

Today the Alphabet Robot came to our church's Wednesday night children's class. If you are not familiar with him, the Alphabet Robot likes to dance, but he needs to eat letter-batteries to keep up his energy. He starts with an A, dances for a while, then announces he needs the next letter. It's the children's responsibility to tell him the next letter. The two four year olds that were feeding the Alphabet Robot found it easy at first, but somewhere around E or F it became challenging for them to recall the next letter.

That's when one of them began singing the alphabet. I had learned in a language class that kids know the alphabet song long before they know the actual alphabet. It sounds strange, but think about any child you know who is learning the alphabet. Almost all are taught to sing it before they are taught to recite it. Singing worked very well for us tonight except that each time they needed another letter they had to sing the song from the beginning.  However, the Alphabet Robot is patient, so he waited for each next letter. Surprisingly, this impromptu game lasted until the letter "elemenopee." You know, the letter after K.

Songs play a special role in God's story.

• After making it through the sea on dry land, the Israelites praised God by singing “The Lord is my strength and my defense; he has become my salvation. He is my God, and I will praise him" (Exodus 15:2, NIV).
• In Deuteronomy the Israelites were instructed to sing this song as a witness: "I will proclaim the name of the Lord. Oh, praise the greatness of our God! He is the Rock, his works are perfect, and all his ways are just. A faithful God who does no wrong, upright and just is he" (32:3-4, NIV).
• The book of Psalms is filled with songs; this one was recorded in 2001 by the band Third Day almost verbatim: "Sing praises to God, sing praises; sing praises to our King, sing praises. For God is the King of all the earth; sing to him a psalm of praise" (Psalm 47:6, NIV).
• In Acts 16, Paul and Silas were praying and singing to God when an earthquake strong enough to break the prison hit them, eventually leading to a midnight baptism.

I've felt some powerful things while worshiping, but never a physical earthquake. (I've also never attended an impromptu midnight baptism. I have seen an impromptu baptism, but it wasn't at midnight. Can you image if that were our tradition?) I have felt and seen earthquakes of the heart, when an impossible chain is broken and the doors of freedom are opened. Maybe that's the power of singing, it aligns us with God in a way nothing else can.