Lenten Love #14

“Then he went a short distance farther and feel on his face and prayer, “My Father, if it’s possible, take this cup of suffering away from me. However – not what I want but what you want.” (Matthew 26:39 CEB)

This is probably a strange passage to find comfort in.  Here our Savior is at his most vulnerable, as human as human can be, and it brings me strength.  You see, I appreciate that I worship a God who is not distant and far removed from my situation in life.  That he faced life and said, “Why does it have to be this way?” just as I do and just as many of you do as well.  And where many of us stop, at the crying out part, he set the stage for us to us take the next step and say, “but not what we want, rather what you want God.”

I firmly believe that when we become less selfish, the world will improve.  When we stop insisting on always getting our way, when we actually sacrifice a little bit, like Christ talked over and over about, I believe the world will start following suit.  And day by day, the world will start looking a lot more like what God wants it to look like.  That is my hope.  That is my dream.  That’s what keeps me going. So when my mind says, “if possible take this cup,” my heart follows up and says, “Not what I want, but what you want Lord.”

Blessings,

Brad
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Lenten Love #13

“But what if I was wrong?
Oh what if I was wrong?
But hold on to what you believe, in the light
When the darkness has robbed you of all your sight”

-“Hold On To What You Believe”, Mumford and Sons

            I’ll admit, it’s easy to let doubts and fears creep into our hearts and minds.  God knows the headlines alone are enough to cause us great distress and worry.  Of course, those are the things that cause newspapers, television shows, and websites to succeed.  We let those fears get the best of us, and like a hungry child starving for food, we feed them, by reading and listening to more and more. The next thing you know, we have forgotten about the Good News altogether.

            I think Lent is a great time for us to turn down the cacophony of bad news, to realize that the worst word is never the last word, and to refocus our hearts and minds on the Living God.  I love the fact that spring is just around the corner when it comes to this challenge.  Soon we will begin to see signs of life re-emerging from its winter slumber and as that new life springs up around us, we can be reminded that God is still moving in this world. 

            In the meantime, like the song says, we ‘hold on to what we believe, in the light’ that we know as Jesus Christ.  Thanks be to God for the Good News, even when we forget about it at times.

Peace,
B

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Lenten Love #12

“…Yet my people have exchanged their glory for what has no value.” –Jeremiah 2:11b (CEB)

“They exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images that look like mortal humans: bird, animals, and reptiles.” Romans 1:23

These passages remind me of the story that Rob Bell tells in one of his NOOMA videos.  He and his sons were walking on the beach one day collecting seashells when they spotted this massive starfish floating in the water a little ways offshore.  One of his sons takes off running to go get it, stops part way out and turns back.  They yelled to him, “Turn around! Go, get the starfish!”  And so he does with more enthusiasm.  Again, half way out this time, he stops and turns back around to come in. They yelled again to him, “Turn around! Go and get that starfish!”  With even more excitement and vigor he splashes out, only to stop and run back in.  The young boy finally gets back to the shore with his brother and dad, tears flowing down his face.  Bell says to his son, “What’s wrong?”  And his son replies, “My hands are too full with shells to be able to pick up the starfish.”

The point he tries to make is that we settle so often for the ‘good enough’ in life that we miss out on the ‘really great’ stuff.  While Jeremiah and Paul are little harsher in their tone, to me the point is the same.  I’ve long thought that we just settle for things in our lives.  Remember, we were created in the IMAGE of God.  That’s powerful stuff.  God wants desperately to do great things in this world through us and for us.  Why settle for good, when we can celebrate, enjoy, and be great!

Blessings as you seek to see the Greatness of God!

B

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Lenten Love #11

“We can be encouraged by the faithfulness we find in each other, both your faithfulness and mine.” Romans 1:12b

“When the path is daunting

And every step exhausting

I'm not alone, I'm not alone”

-‘Carry Me to the Cross’, Kutless

I find that nearly all of life is a balancing act.  We walk this fine line in a lot of what we do.  For instance, many of us desperately want to be different from the norm.  We spend our life asserting our independence, trying to be different from every one else.  And I think that sometime this is a good thing.  We are unique.  Each of us are special and unique because God made us this way.  There is not another ‘you’ or another ‘me’.

But on the flip side, in that desire to be different and unique, we begin to believe that all that we go through in this life is unique to us as well.  So we struggle and face hardships and we think to ourselves, “No one will understand what I am going through.”  This leads us down the dangerous road toward isolation and loneliness.  

God’s word helps us to find balance by demonstrating our uniqueness as created as individuals, but also our dependence and communal nature in being created in the image of God.  It provides us with the encouragement that we do matter and are special in God’s eyes, but also with the reminder that we cannot do this thing we called life alone, nor were we ever meant to.

So on this rainy and dreary (at least in Charleston) Monday, know that you are unique and that you are also a part of a pretty special group that is never by yourself, no matter what you go through.

Blessings,

B

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Lenten Love #10

As I put the kids to bed last night, I pulled out one of my favorite books to read to them.  It’s called God’s Dream and it is co-written by Archbishop Desmond Tutu.  It’s more of a poem really.  Even though it’s a little long, I thought I would share it with you today.

Dear Child of God, 

What do you dream about 

in your loveliest of dreams?

Do you dream about 

flying high or rainbows

reaching across the sky?

Do you dream about 

being free to do what 

your heart desires?

Or about being treated

like a full person no 

matter how young you

might be?

Do you know what God dreams about?

If you close your eyes and look with

your heart, I am sure, dear child,

that you will find out.

God dreams about people sharing.

God dreams about people caring.

God dreams that we reach out and

hold one another’s hands and play one

another’s games and laugh with one

another’s hearts.

But God does not force us to be

friends or to love one another.

Dear Child of God, it does happen 

that we get angry and hurt one

another. Soon we start to feel sad

and so very alone.

Sometimes we cry,

and God cries with us.

But when we say we’re sorry

and forgive one another,

we wipe away our tears and 

God’s tears, too.

Each of us carries a piece

of God’s heart within us.

And when we love one another,

the pieces of God’s heart are

made whole.

God dreams that every one of us will

see that we are all brothers and sisters-

yes, even you and me - even if we have

different mommies and daddies or live

in different faraway lands.

Even if we speak different languages

or have different ways of talking to God.

Even if we have different eyes or different skin.

Even if you are

taller and I am

smaller.  Even if 

your nose is little 

and mine is large.

Dear Child of God,

do you know how to make

God’s dream come true?
It is really quite easy.

As easy as sharing, loving, caring.

As easy as holding, playing, laughing.

As easy as knowing we are family

because we are all God’s children.

Will you help God’s dream come true?

Let me tell you a secret...

God smiles like a rainbow when you do.

May God smile like a rainbow on you today!

B

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Lenten Love #9

So we have this one flower around our mailbox that refuses to go quietly.  With the warm weather from a few weeks ago, this daffodil believed it was time to pop out and bring a little color to the world.  And in spite of the rain, cold temperatures, and even frost from the last few weeks, it has remained upright and proud.

I find encouragement and hope from this little flower.  It greets me each morning as I leave and it welcomes me home as the sun is setting.  I love its unexpectedness. I love its resiliency.  I love that very soon, come springtime, it will be joined by other daffodils along with all sorts of other flowers and new life.

I’ll be honest, this little flower reminds me that I need to stand up straight and hold onto the promises and hope found in God.  Lord knows I see enough brokenness and darkness around me, in my own life and in the life of others, to easily be led down a path I shouldn’t go.  So even as the dreary days of winter drag on, much like life sometimes, we trust and carry on, knowing that color and life are waiting just below the surface to break forth and bring beauty and love.

Have a great Friday!
Peace,
B

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Lenten Love #8

“Fix It!” - Oscar Rogers, Financial Adviser 

Okay, so Oscar Rogers is not a real person.  He was a character on Saturday Night Live several years ago that came on the ‘Weekend Update’ segment.  With the country in a financial crisis, the character played by Kenan Thompson just yelled, “Fix It!” over and over again.  Check it out online if you have the time.

What I am finding in my own life and in the life of many people I know is that we want to do the same.  We want to ‘fix it!’.  We busy ourselves, moving from one thing, to the next, to the next, all in an effort to ‘fix it!’.  All the while, more problems and issues keep coming up.

I believe that Lent offers us a respite from the rush to try and fix all that is wrong with the world. By spending some time to think about our lives in light of Christ’s sacrifice, we find that in Jesus Christ, God did what we so desperately try to do as humanity.  God ‘fixed it!’ by conquering death once and for all.  And in the Resurrection we find our hope.

When we realize, like someone I know often says, ‘the worst word is never the last word’, we are given the strength to carry on.  Sure our issues still exist, but when the light of Christ shines upon them they begin to lose the strangle hold they have on our lives. We begin to breath a little easier and the next step becomes more manageable.  May we walk together in the light of Jesus Christ this day, in the days ahead, and into a future that is filled with hope.

Blessings on your journey, wherever that may be this day!

Peace,
B

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Lenten Love #7

“But Jesus didn’t trust himself to them because he knew all people.  He didn’t need anyone to tell him about human nature, for he knew what human nature was.” (John 2:24-25 CEB)

I think it is our human nature that we want to impress others.  All of us want to be thought well of by other people.  Even Jesus experienced this. The above verses from John follow a time in which Jesus was performing miracles which gained the people’s approval.  And while John doesn’t give us a temptation story like the other Gospels, we might view this as Jesus’ battle with temptation.

Pride could have easily gotten the best of him if he had started to believe ‘his own press clippings’.  Instead, John tells us that he didn’t ‘trust himself to them’.  In my mind, that means he did not allow them to define him.  He was defined by God.

I think the thing I like most about these verses is that fact that John tells us that Jesus ‘knew what human nature was’.  To me that means that Jesus walked in our shoes and felt our struggles.  How amazing is it that we serve a God who has been every place we have been? So no matter what we go through this day or the next, we know that God has been there, and is still there walking along side us.  Thanks be to God for that mysterious presence that has always been, is, and will always be with us.

Have a great day!
B

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Lenten Love #6

Today has been one of those days that began in a rush and has not really let up.  With a meeting later tonight, it will be a completely full day.  I’m sure more than one of you can relate to these kind of days.  They come around at fairly consistent rate.

The temptation when we have these kind of days is to call them busy.  I struggle with this response.  When someone asks me, “How are you doing?” I’m tempted to say, “Busy.”  It’s as if I want someone to think that I am of some great worth because I am doing ‘so much’.  I’m realizing that a response like that is catering to my need to be needed.

I think the reality that we discover within the Gospel is that we are of sacred worth, not because of what we do, but rather because God created us in God’s image.  Sure, I need to love and to do stuff because that’s answering God’s call.  But I do that ‘stuff’ in response to God’s love, grace, and forgiveness in my life, not to earn God’s love.  

So let’s think of it in a slightly different way.  What if God called to check in with us one day.  Would we respond, like I often do, with a simple ‘busy’? My hope and prayer is that  you and I begin to see the joy and blessings that await each day and to realize that some days hope more joy and blessings than other.  And as we reframe our ‘full’ days, may we more and more become the people God wants us to be, people of sacred worth.

Lenten Love #5

“And it's nice to know

When I was left for dead 

I was found and now I don't roam these streets 

I am not the ghost you want of me 

If you're lost and alone 

Or you're sinking like a stone 

Carry on 

May your past be the sound 

Of your feet upon the ground 

Carry on”

"Carry On" by Fun.

I love these words that appear in the song “Carry On” by the band Fun. They seem especially fitting during the season of Lent, the time in which we have a renewed focus on all the ways we fall short from living into what God wants for us as humanity.

If we aren’t careful, we can fall into the trap of letting our shortcomings define who we are.  Instead, God wants to define us.  God wants us to know that we are good and that we are created in the very image of God, made to be a reflection to the rest of the world.  

So when things come our way, decisions that we make or are made by others that affect us negatively, we simply must carry on, believing in and trusting in the grace that God grants us.

So friends, especially on this Monday, may we trust and obey, and ultimately ‘carry on’.

Blessings,

Brad

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Lenten Love #4

“Weeping may stay all night, but by morning, joy!” 

(Psalm 30:5b)

As a pastor, I get to hear a lot of tough stuff.  Many people in my life, people who I dearly love, are going through some really hard times. Whether it is as an individual, within a relationship, or even whole groups of people like a church, the struggle and difficult are the same.  We, as people, are broken and hurting.

So when I come to piece of scripture that gives a voice of hope amidst the pain, I celebrate it.  We need to be reminded that all the junk in our lives is only temporary, as a friend of mine says, “the worst word is never the last word”.  

In two ways, I believe this to be true. First, we are going to die.  So in that kind of ‘keep life in perspective’ way, the pain will one day end and what lies ahead is believed to be reason to celebrate.

But I also believe this to be truly in a very ‘here and now’ kind of way.  I believe whole-heartedly that a lot of the struggle and suffering that I see all around me will one day subside.  Now, life may never look like it once did, probably much different in fact, but the people who are now sitting in the ashes and dust of life will one day throw that aside and celebrate again.  I have to believe that.  Some may call me naive for that, but I can’t help it.  I trust and believe just like that Psalmist did so long ago.

So to all of you who might read this who are struggle with something, either big or small, (i.e. ALL OF US BECAUSE WE ARE SINNERS) I say again, “Weeping may stay all night, but by morning, JOY!” (Emphasis on joy is mine.) 

Have a great Saturday and I’ll write to you again on Monday. (That’s right, I take the Sundays of Lent off from this adventure.)

Blessings and Peace,

B

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Lenten Love #3

“Trust the Lord and do good; live in the land, and farm faithfulness.” (Psalm 37:2 CEB)

This passage translation just jumped off the page to me the other day when I was reading.  Like many, one of my favorite commercials during the Super Bowl was the Dodge Truck commercial entitled “God made a farmer.”  It really was amazing.

While I know very little about the farm life, I love the idea of ‘farming faithfulness’.  In life, we plant seeds, tend the crops, care for animals, and provide for others.  It really does make a lot of sense if you think about it.  And then Jesus’ own words, “you will know them by their fruit.”  This means that we should be very careful to make sure that we are taking care of the gardens and farms that have been entrusted to our care.

Farming is hard work. Farming is life consuming. And farming is an honorable and noble profession, actually probably the ‘original’ profession.  I hope that as the Lenten season goes along, you may think of yourself as a farmer and with God’s help, may we produce a good crop for God, in whatever form that may be! Blessings and peace this day and every day.

Lenten Love #2

“So then let’s also run the race that is laid out in front of us, since we have such a great cloud of witnesses surrounding us. Let’s throw off any extra baggage, get rid of the sin that trips us up, and fix our eyes on Jesus, faith’s pioneer and perfecter.” (CEB Hebrews 12:1-2a)

I read this passage the other day and thought, “What a great Word to start the Lenten journey”.  For several reasons in fact.  

First, it is a race, sort of.  We have started and there is a finish line, both in Lent and in life. 

Secondly, we are not at this alone.  We have a bunch of people around us, cheering us on. (Note to self, surround yourself with people that will cheer you on, not bring you down.) Faithful people to lean on, fellow sojourners when we struggle, bright & gifted people to pick us up when we fall. 

Thirdly, Lent is about dropping some baggage and letting go of some ‘stuff’ that causes us to stumble. This kinda makes it easier to run.

And lastly, and most importantly of all, we focus our attention on the one who did this thing we call life the best, Jesus Christ.  And we try with everything we got to follow his example.  It’s like dancing (which I am great at, don’t let my wife tell you otherwise), when we allow Jesus to lead and we follow, life is truly beautiful.  And when we mess us and step on his toes, well, that’s where grace comes into play and we start again.

So run hard, let go, and learn some new moves!

Lenten Love #1

One of my favorite stories in the Bible is that of Jonah, and not because he gets swallowed by a big fish.  I love Jonah because it is all about forgiveness. Just a quick nickel and dime version.  Jonah gets called by God to go and preach to people whom he would consider his enemy.  He runs away, God pursues him, he changes his mind (because God can be pretty convincing), does as God asks, sees amazing results, and ends up really mad.  Go spend 15 minutes reading it and see how my version matches up.  

In the past, I’ve always read that story and placed myself in the character of Jonah, as one being called by God to go and preach. But as I read it this morning, with my mind and eyes on Ash Wednesday, I realized I have some commonalities with the people of Nineveh as well.  

Obviously the Ninevites were not living the way God wanted them to, hence the reason Jonah was called to the scene. Lent, especially Ash Wednesday, reminds us of our own brokenness and that we too do not live up to God’s expectation of us.  

Then we read that the king of Nineveh repented, using the sign and symbol of ashes to demonstrate that repentance.  Many of us will where ashes on foreheads today, not to point to our own piety, but rather to acknowledge that we came from dust and knowing we are finite beings, we will one day return to such a state.  Because of this, we remember our reliance upon God.

And lastly, like the Ninevites, we have been spared.  Sin and death no longer have the last word.  Through the journey that Jesus took, as he turned his face to Jerusalem and began the long walk to the cross, and because of his self-sacrificial love for all humanity in which he laid his life down, we have been offered grace that defies logic.  (Remember, Jonah couldn’t understand why God would forgive ‘those people’.)

During this Lenten season, I hope that we begin to experience all the ways God loves us in this world and that we would maybe lay aside our need to understand everything and live into the illogical grace that is God’s love.  God loves you.  Never forget that.

Blessings,

Brad

Here we go again...

This year, Lent comes early.  It feels as if we just got through celebrating Christ’s birth and now we shift our focus to his trip to Jerusalem. And mind you, it’s not a trip that he looked forward to. He knew the end result. Christ’ faithfulness in making that arduous journey in which he will be betrayed, denied, beaten, and killed, gives me hope, in a strange sort of way.

I’m looking forward to Lent this year, maybe more so than any previous Lenten seasons.  Since we’ve moved to Charleston, it has taken every ounce of energy just to keep afloat.  Things are not bad, it’s just been tough.  We’ve been displaced from home, from family, learning the small nuances of new churches, the ebbs and flows of a new community, new driving routes, and the ever pressing issues related to constant traffic.  Alone, this would have been tough enough, now mix in a 1 year-old and a precocious 4 year-old, and you can just feel the chaos that is often life.

So this Lent, I’m hoping to make some changes to the way in which things get done.  I’m looking to spend more time praying and listening, and less time fixing and yelling.  I want to spend more time in the Word, not just prepping for Sunday.  I’m going to try noticing life a little more, and not simply running from destination to destination.  My head will hit the pillow a little earlier, so that my routine in the morning may include some more exercise, namely running.  I want to spend more time noticing my wife and how amazing she is and less time worrying about myself.  I’m sure over the next 46 days I will lose my way and fall into old routines, but that’s where grace comes back into the picture.  If Jesus made the arduous journey, that was immensely more difficult that anything I am trying with God’s help, to accomplish then surely something will good come from all of it.

So here we go, time to jump in and begin, or begin again and again and again, to actually start living into being the person God wants me to be and the man my family needs me to be. May God bless this journey and whatever journey you are starting or continuing.