a fishing story

This morning, I woke up early as to get a head start on the day.  The seminary load (with church, family, marriage, and all that jazz) can seem to get in the way from effective ministry at times, so I woke up early to pound out some reading.  The book I had to read this morning was called The Shaping of Things to Come by Frost and Hirsch.  Now, I've never done this before, but I thought a great place to do some reading would be at the local dam sitting beside the water.  When I arrived, no one was there.  It was quiet, peaceful and perfect for reading.  As I got into the text, it was talking about being a missional-incarnational church.  Instead of being attractional (extractional - come to us), Christ calls us to be incarnational (go to them).  I was fascinated and totally in to this book!  All of a sudden, two loud mouthed, middle-aged, scraggly looking guys with mouths like sailors showed up at the dam to fish.  My first thought, unemployed people who fished for their food every day.  Great, I thought, now these hobos are going to distract my time and my reading and my plans for the day.  Whatever, I thought with determination, I'm going to stay here and focus.  After a while, I found myself glancing up to see what they were catching.  They seemed as happy as could be!  What were they catching?  Small blue gill!  Haha.  Can't they catch anything bigger or better?  I was sort of amused by the whole situation, but still, I was quite irritated by their lack of respect and their loud-as-can-be mouths. 

Soon enough, they noticed that I occasionally would glance over and watch them fish.  The older guy asked if I'd like to try.  After I said, "Maybe in a little while" and really thinking that I wasn't going to, I heard them laugh a bit - I could tell they thought I had never fished before.  I HAVE fished before, I just don't go fishing and have such a great time catching small blue gill.  But the guy kept asking me.  I was busy.  I didn't want to.  I had a bunch of stuff to read.  Plus, I don't normally associate with people like that.  So, there I was sitting on my rock having a pity party about my luck, when it finally hit me.  While reading about the church's flaw in its come-to-us mentality and how it should have more of a go-to-them mentality, I realized that I was doing the very thing the book was warning me about.  I was seeing them as outsiders, outcasts, not-good-enoughs or people who were simply interrupting my time.  As soon as I realized this, I was convicted.

I immediately put down my book and coffee and walked over to where they were sitting.  They introduced themselves as Ron and Cam.  They handed me a pole, some worms, and soon we were laughing, catching fish and sharing fish stories together.  What a blast!!!  We were catching small blue gill and it was awesome.  Soon though, Cam had to leave.  It was just me and Ron.  I sat by the rock next to him and he continued forward by telling me about the prostate cancer he's struggling with, about his beautiful wife, about his love for fishing and his cabin in Tennessee, and about how he refuses to sit and watch T.V. while cancer erodes his life.  I quickly realized that he needed to vent.  And I was there to listen.  I was enriched by his positive attitude.  I feel like I developed a friend today - a fishing buddy.

I was ministered to this morning.  So often, I can be into theological concepts with seminary, having to articulate leadership in church circles, and all the while I'm forgetting to be someone's neighbor.  Today, this morning, I was Ron's neighbor.  It was a beautiful morning and God taught me a little bit through that experience. 

Praise the Lord for his unfailing love and his incarnation.  May I take his example and have more fishing experiences like I did this morning in "going-to-them."

a beautiful thank you

Church is a movement and it includes you.  It's so easy to become disillusioned with the idea that church is about them, those people, that structure, or the building; it's not.  Church is about you.  It's about us.  It's about the connection that exists between you and God.  It's about you and those who follow Jesus beside you.  Church is about pulling yourself up by the boot-straps and letting God work through you for the movement of his kingdom.  Church is a kingdom outpost that is built and maintained by your circle of influence.  Church is a movement, and it includes you.

The church is beautiful!  This past Sunday, I was overwhelmed by the time and energy and sacrifice that goes into making our gatherings happen - you are beautiful.  I don't often get the chance to thank and encourage you all, but I truly think you are beautiful.  Whether you serve Frontline, Kidzone, Set up or tear down, whether you serve through tech or praise on the worship team; it's people like you that make the movement of the church shine with a blissful beauty.  Perhaps you don't serve on any formal ministry platform; perhaps you serve your neighbor by having them over for dinner, maybe you pour life into that person at work, or maybe you are fostering a Christ-centered environment at home for your kids - you are beautiful!   

Let us continue our beautiful shine for those that need the hopeful and redemptive gospel message in Saranac.  As we continue to create, foster, build and maintain our koinonia gatherings in Saranac, let's continually be reminded of what we're doing this for.  We are learning the way of Jesus.  We are not only learning the way, but we're striving to live the way as well.  We're not only going to settle for learning and living the way either, we're going to share the way of Jesus with our family, friends and even our enemies.  May we continually remember the power that exists in the gospel of Christ.  This power is life-altering.  It's earth-shattering.  The message of Christ changes everything.  May the LORD give us the power of his Spirit to be witnesses that continue to shine God's beauty and love into every moment.  

Remember to tell someone how beautiful their life is.  As we do life together, it's important that we recognize the sacrifice and energy and time that we each are pouring into the kingdom's movement.  Encourage someone.  Thank whoever you see laying their life on the line.  Support those who continually create and maintain a Spirit-led momentum.  I pray that we all cultivate a culture among koinonia that identifies one another's servitude.  I challenge you to take five minutes and call someone tomorrow and thank them for their faithfulness to Christ's church.  Do it, seriously.  We all need encouragement don't we?  Take this opportunity to lift someone up.  Your life is beautiful...make sure you let someone know that theirs is as well!

And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.  ~Colossians 3:17

Whatever you do, do it in a way that shines the beauty of God to the world.  

Thank you for being beautiful!!!!

eyes to see

The reason I'm beginning a blog at 12:30am?  My wife and I attended an outdoor wedding during a 55 degree rainy evening.  And before you think too much on that, I'd like to say it was one of the most beautiful weddings I've ever been to!  But to be honest, when we got home, we looked forward to having a hot cup of coffee.  I had two.  Drinking two cups of coffee at 10pm is the kind of thing that can keep you up at night.  Thus, my reasoning for being up at this time.  Trust me, I want to go to bed, but I can't.  My mind keeps racing and I'd like to share some of the things that it's thinking about.

I love weddings!  I could honestly attend a wedding every day.  There's something beautiful about a man and a woman coming together in the divine sacrament of marriage.  The electric-like anticipation generated as the guests wait for the wedding party to make their way up the aisle is something I can't get enough of.  And then there's the bride.  Some people cry, some people smile and some stand in awe as the beautifully prepared bride walks with her dad to the alter.  Personally, I like to take a couple glances at the groom and see his reaction as he sees his bride-to-be walk down the center row.  Then, there's the way the bride and groom look at each other as the pastor does his thing.  Sometimes you can see nerves and sometimes you can see humor between the two, but the thing that gets me is the love that you can feel as man and woman stand there holding hands and gazing into one another's eyes.  I love watching their every move, listening to every word and trying with all my might to catch every detail about the ceremony.  Oh, how I love weddings and everything they stand for in the eyes of God!  There's so much symbolism and so much to learn from.

If there's not enough beauty in the wedding ceremony between the bride and groom, there's more in the people being inspired by the divine union.  And it's these thoughts that have been keeping me up tonight.

One of the things that caught my eye tonight was a scenario that I observed take place between a husband and wife.  The husband was sitting up front with the wedding party and the wife was sitting somewhat near me.  As the microphone was passed around for various toasts, this particular husband took the mic.  I happened to glance over at his wife just in time to see eyes gently shut and her head slowly bow - she was praying.  She was praying!  It hit my like a freight train.  Could she be praying for her husband who was soon to speak into the mic and toast the bride and groom?  That must be it!  And it was so subtle, I don't think anyone noticed but me.  She kept her head down for a few seconds, opened her eyes and glanced up as her husband began the toast.  How amazing, I thought.  She was praying for her husband's speech.  What a beautiful scenario.  What beautiful people.  Only a pure and gentle and supporting wife's heart would do such a thing.  How pure.  How caring.  How intimate.  I may have been the only witness to this, but I left a better man for seeing what I saw.

Another thing that caught my eye was the pride and love of a father.  I like to watch people in their subtle moments.  This might sound weird, but in doing so, one's able to observe the thoughts of a person in action.  Tonight, I was able to observe the father of the bride.  He was an emotional man that wore his emotions on his sleeve, and again, I left a better man for seeing this in action.  Throughout the course of the night, you could almost see him stick out his chest in pride as he greeted the wedding guests.  I noticed his caring and heartfelt interactions with his other daughter's husband as well.  You could see him look at his new son-in-law with a confident love and acceptance.  You could see his affectionate heart glisten with a radiant kind of love as he addressed both of his daughters.  His voice cracked and his composure broke as he gave his toast; but it was one of the most touching things I had ever seen.  Oh the love of a father.  For once he had two daughters and now he has two sons.  What a beautiful family he has!

There must have been a hundred other moments that I saw tonight that I found to be beautiful.

The crew of friends and family that made the wedding and reception take place.  Everything from friends who ripped paper for decorations to friends that served and managed the food; all to serve the bride and groom in love.

The pastor's joy of the ceremony's completion.  This is something I can relate to.  After the ceremony was over, the pressure of not screwing up the wedding was gone.  The pastor's laughs, cheer, and confidence poured life into all he interacted with.

The glances I took at the several tables around me was incredible.  People sharing laughs, drinks, stories and life is something I never want to take for granted.  The general buzz created from the mass commotion of people talking created an euphoric energy in the room that I think I'm sometimes addicted to.

Tonight, I was graced with the opportunity to realize that people are beautiful.  I don't always have the eyes to see it, but when I do, I'm blown away at the greatness that God pours into his creation.  Lord, thank you for giving me eyes to see tonight!

It's now 1:30am and I've been writing this thing for an hour, I'm going to try and sleep now, but I thought I'd take some time and share my perspective.  Before I go, I'd like to make four final statements about the night...

People are beautiful!

Weddings are beautiful!

Joy is beautiful!

God is beautiful!