It May Be Harder Than You Think

My daughter Becca is an athlete. She has been playing soccer for a long time which means she is used to the training. She has run in the off season, lifted weights, done countless drills and endured long practices in the blazing heat. She understands what it means to be an athlete. This is her senior year and for whatever reason she got it into her head to try out for the Spring musical at school. She likes to sing and I think thought it would be a fun thing to do and besides how hard could it be? Well, amazingly enough she made it. She is part of the chorus and a cabaret girl in the musical The Beauty and The Beast. She came home after finding out she made it and she was ecstatic. She hadn't realized how competitive the whole tryout was going to be. The day they started rehearsals she came home and plopped the script book on the kitchen table. She was absolutely flabbergasted at how much work went into a musical. She watched a musical on tv the other night and it was like she was watching the Olympics. She has complete and utter respect for anyone and everyone who has ever been in a musical. It has been a great thing to watch. As an athlete I think she would have rolled her eyes at anyone who would have said how difficult rehearsal was for a musical. Not now. She is the staunchest of advocates. I think I see some of myself in Becca. I look at people's lives from a distance and make judgments. I am reminded of a saying I had on my desk for quite a while. It read something like this,"Be careful how you speak. Everyone you meet is fighting some kind of battle". The old saying is "walk a mile in someone else's moccasins". My dear daughter is learning it is just as difficult to walk a mile in dancing shoes as it was to run many in cleats.

Soup, Candlelight, and God

The clouds continue to gather for an economic storm of epic proportions. Every day it seems a little more of the iceberg rises above the surface and we all catch a glimpse of the enormity of the challenge before us. I gathered our ministry staff together yesterday for an emergency meeting. I needed to let them all know about the next round of budget cuts. In our church every indicator is good except that of our finances. We continue to grow and my guess is we will grow even more during this time of uncertainty. I explained where we were right now and where we will likely be 6 months from now. We have never experienced anything like this in the nearly 20 years I have been at the church. I sat with most of the ministry leaders after the meeting and explained the cuts that were coming for next year. We talked about how it might be a good thing. We would be like a family that gathers around for soup on the floor with candle light. We are going to find new ways to do things and we will find new things out about ourselves and about God. The whole group responded the way I hoped they would. There was a sense of adventure and challenge. Some of the staff even said that this was going to be the best year ever because this is the kind of year God really does spectacular things. I think they are right. I believe that is true for our church and it is true for you. I have heard it said that God cannot give anything to hands that are full. Our hands need to be empty before God can really do what He wants to do. This year we may get to see what He does with rows of empty cupboards. But for now we have soup and candlelight and friends who are anxious to see the God of the universe work like never before.

Stories They Will Tell

I did a funeral today. Whenever I do a funeral I spend some time talking with the family. We have a large church and I don't know everyone as well as I would like. But even when I know someone really well I still get together with the family because no one knows someone better than the family. No one knows you better than your family. Anyway, I sit with a legal pad and a pen and ask the family members just to talk about the person who has passed away. It usually takes a little while but people finally start talking and the stories start to spill out. I have been doing this for a while so I don't need to hear too many stories before I get a real flavor of the person. The stories people tell at that time are usually pretty revealing. It struck me that some day someone will be sitting with my family and asking them to talk about me. The same thing will happen to you. What kind of stories will they tell? Will they talk about how much you worked or what a terrific Cavs fan you were? I hear stories that make me sad about how a life was lived. I also hear stories that are absolutely inspiring. I heard a daughter say,"Every one who knew my mom loved her". I want my family to tell stories about how much I loved them and how much I loved Jesus. Stories that combine those two would be the best. It was a sobering day to do a funeral today. Barbara was a wonderful woman and they told spectacular stories about her. If a funeral can be easy then that is the kind of thing that makes it easier. I want to make a preacher's job easy.
Lord, let me live a life that is easy to tell. Let it be a string of little love stories told by those who know me best. And may the stories themselves make both of us smile together while we watch from heaven.

Free At Last

I recently watched the mini series entitled "John Adams". It chronicles the birth of our nation through the life of our second president. I read the book as well. Each time I take a closer look at our history as a nation I am amazed. The idea of a new nation founded on freedom and justice for all is absolutely astounding. Our nation was birthed against all odds. When I was watching the mini-series, every once in a while something would pass in front of the screen that seemed completely out of place. It was the sight of a black slave. Right there in the midst of a nation founded on the purest ideals a blind eye was turned toward a whole race. There is a scene where John and Abigail Adams ride up to the White House. It is under construction but the vast majority of the labor force are slaves. John and Abigail look terribly uncomfortable but also look fairly helpless. It took another fourteen presidents before Abraham Lincoln led our country into a civil war to begin the process of making the ideals of our country available to all. This past Saturday I watched the most famous speech of Dr.Martin Luther King. It is called the "I Have a Dream" speech. The speech was a call for the nation to look again at what the founding fathers had written. He called on America to make good on the promise of the rights of all men to be free. Today I watched as our 44th president was sworn into office. He is Barack Obama and he is of African descent. He and his family will move into the White House that was built in large part by African slaves. It has been a long time in coming but maybe now America can say with conviction that the freedom that John Adams and his countrymen held so precious has now come to all. I think today is a day that along with John Adams, Abraham Lincoln, and Dr.Martin Luther King, all of us should smile that the dream is truer today than it ever has been.

Here and Now, Then and There

I have a friend who used to pastor a church twice as big as Hudson. He now has ALS and is in the process of dying. He is in the very small percentage of people who have the slow moving type of ALS so he may live several more years. He is still a relatively young man but is now pastor emeritus. We were talking and it was one of those moments when someone opens up when you don't expect it. He told me about how his father used to call him and want to not just talk about the Bible but read the Bible to him over the phone. He said his dad would read 2 or 3 chapters sometimes and the whole time my friend would be checking his watch and waiting for his dad to finish so he could get back to work. I could understand. He was the pastor of a church of 6000. He had a lot to do. But not now. Now he was sitting next to me and all his responsibilities were gone and he was missing his dad. He got choked up when he told me he missed his dad reading the Bible to him over the phone. Yesterday a plane traveling from New York to Charlotte had birds fly into the engines and the plane ended up in the Hudson river. When I saw the image on television I was sure no one had survived. Miraculously, everyone did. I found out today one of my friends was on that flight. His name is Rick and he is a very busy, very successful man. I like Rick a lot. We have had many talks about faith and Jesus but Rick hasn't ever responded. He will talk and discuss but he hasn't really felt the need for Jesus. I wonder if this event has changed that. I am sure it has made him think about priorities, about balance, about his family. I hope it has made him think about the long distance future. Anyway, two friends. One who regrets not paying attention to the present. One I fear has not thought enough about the future. Life, real life is lived right in between don't you think? Today I want to live with one eye on the present and one eye on the future. I don't want to be so busy that I will one day regret the things I felt were inconveniences. But I don't want to be so wrapped up in the present that I fail to see that the end is coming some day and that day is always sooner than people expect. So, spend time today looking in the eyes of those around you and loving them for all you're worth while breathing a prayer to the God who loved you so much He even now prepares a place for you at His table.

Money

Money has got to be one of the weirdest things ever. I received my financial updates today. A lot of my money has disappeared. It was there just a couple of months ago and now it is gone. It is like I was hit by an invisible burglar. There must have been a time when things were simpler. If we still bartered then it seems like it would be harder for my cows or your big pile of corn just to vanish. I have been in many places in the world where people have never had money vanish because they never had money accumulate in electronic piles. This past weekend I was in a very opulent part of the country. People had vacation houses and yachts and all kinds of things. Lots and lots of money had disappeared but they still had a ton of stuff. I am somewhere in the middle so it makes me a little bit of a commentator. The people with all the stuff lost the most and they feel it the most. But they still have a ton and yet they are talking about it and fretting about it and it seems like they are in quite a bit of pain. The poor people I have known have not lost anything. They never heard of the stock market. Their happiness or potential for happiness has not really taken a hit. I was talking to a friend about a prenuptial agreement a couple of years ago. He was very much into it since he was wealthy. It seemed to me that since the percentage is the same then the risk is the same for everyone. One half of a little only leaves you with half of a little. If you lose half of a lot you still have half a lot. But none of us feel like that. Years ago I thought I would be really lucky to have what I have today. Today I feel like I have a lot less than I should have. When was I better off? When I think of the people with the boats and the vacation houses and then I think of the people with a couple of chickens and three sets of clothes I have trouble deciding who the lucky ones are. Maybe that is why Jesus talked about money so much. Money is something I find myself wanting more of all the time but I am not convinced in the least that it has made me any happier in the long run. Money seems to break more promises than any lover I have ever had. So today, I am going to eat my dinner and be thankful for what God has given me today. If God chooses to take the rest of the money then I will be grateful there is nothing in the world that can leave me with less of Him.

I'M BACK

As you might have noticed, I took a little break from blogging. I am coming back. My plan is to blog every Tuesday and Friday so you will know when it is coming. In the future I will also let you know how long a break will be. No hard feelings? I may see you later tonight.