Prayer

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I Love Flying!

I’m sitting in the airport at Denver, Colorado and they have free WiFi access.  It would be nice if all airports had this feature.  I left South Bend, Indiana early this morning, stopping through Chicago’s O’Hare airport before arriving here in Denver on my way to Tucson.  South Bend and O’Hare both charge for their WiFi access, something like $7 a day — how many ways can you say, “rip-off”!

 Anyhow, even with that side-note, I love flying!  Today has gone great so far.  My flights have been on-time departures and early arrivals.  I had 2 hours in Chicago and 4 hours here in Denver.  Many people read that and think that’s terrible.  Six hours simply sitting in airports waiting to get to a destination.  I don’t see it that way.  I guess that is part of why I love flying.  I even love flying when things go wrong and the schedule isn’t working.  Well, most of the time at least.  There has been an occasion when I really needed to be somewhere else according to a schedule I couldn’t control.  That was a little frustrating, but not normal for me.

I think a lot of it is because of the work and ministry God has called me to.  I see my time as God’s.  He knows before I ever book my flights what the trip will be like. He knows how I can use the time He gives me to either draw closer to Him or be His servant to other people.  The question each time, is what will I actually do?  It is fun to simply walk through the airport smiling!  People evidently aren’t used to that.  I nearly always get a visible response, as well as a verbal greeting from airport employees when they see me smiling.  Many of my fellow travelers will extend a warm greeting — or look around them to see what they must have missed. 🙂

It feels good to be a messenger of cheer.  Most young children have almost always felt an instant connection to me.  I don’t know why.  Maybe they recognize that I am closer to their level in a lot of ways than what most other adults are.  Maybe it’s just the fact that I look goofy!  I don’t think that many of them have anyone smile at them while they travel.

As I sat here in the airport reflecting on that one thought, “I Love Flying!”, I wondered why that is so easy to say?  For me, it really does have little to do with the ease or smoothness of the process.  Yes, that is helpful and very much enjoyed, but it is not required.  Our study theme this week has been, “I Am A Lover of God”.  As I thought about my reaction to walking through the airport, I wondered if I’m that quick to walk through life smiling because I love God. 

I Love God!  That ought to be so much above and beyond the simple statement, “I love flying”, but I’m not sure it always is.  Does my love of God reflect in the life I live?  What would the people I cross paths with each day think?  Do I bring joy and comfort to their life as an outpouring of my love of God?  Does my life look differently when the daily journey goes according to schedule, compared to the days when everything is delayed, behind schedule, and a general mess?  When my life is going like I think it ought to, do I wake up and think, “Wow!  I love God!”  When life is a struggle and and makes little or no sense, can I still wake up and say, “Wow!  I love God!” 

I think that is the start of a lesson God is teaching me today.  It is easy to see some of what God is doing in and through me as I travel and that result of God at work is why I say, “I love flying” or “I love driving”.  If it wasn’t for the work God is doing as I fly or drive somewhere, I don’t really think I would like it all that much.  God is saying to me, “You really don’t love flying, you love Me!” 

And I say, “I Do!”

I am a lover of God!

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All Or Nothing!

This week’s study in the Deer Run “View From The Top: What Does God Say?” series is, “God Says I Am A Lover of God”.

Our texts that we are using for daily reflection and discussion have been great, but here it is Friday and I’ve not yet written about any of them.  If I could blame my schedule, or simply the fact that I am having a hard time re-establishing the habit of writing, it would be easier.  It goes deeper than that.  I’ve sat down at the computer each day as I’ve gone through the daily scriptures and questions, thinking I would write about the truths God revealed to me that day.  Yet, there I sat and nothing was written.

Each day, that question would rise in my mind, “Why haven’t you written?”  I couldn’t answer it.  I’m still not sure.  It may be my inner desire to not write some glib words about loving God simply because that is the study topic this week.  It may be saving me from sounding hypocritical — it’s easy to write about loving God, but am I doing it?  It may be out of an inner wrestling of decision –does God really have all, or does He have nothing?

In the midst of it all, the words of Jesus to Peter, “Do you love me?”, kept standing out in my mind throughout the week.  My answer sounds so Peter-like, “Of course I do!”  And God’s response sounds so Jesus-like, “Then do something about it!” 

Do something!  Do what?

“Feed My lambs.  Take care of my sheep.”

But, I love You!  I don’t particularly like your lambs.  Your sheep — well, they actually scare me.

“So what?  You can’t do the greatest command, love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength, and not do the second — love your neighbor as yourself.”

And then it hit me.  It’s the all or nothing dilemma.  All is so inclusive and exclusive that it leaves nothing out.  I can’t love God with ALL my heart and still have something else taking part of it.  All doesn’t leave room for other things.  All requires absolutely everything — nothing is left out, excluded, or hidden.

So, what about the sheep?  If I love God with the “all” kind of love, there is nothing left for the sheep?  No.  What is left for the sheep is God’s love in and through us.  That is the second greatest command, “Love your neighbor as yourself.”  It is given in conjunction with the greatest command to Love God with ALL.  When God doesn’t simply have first place, He has the only place in my heart, mind, soul, and strength, then the love required to care for His sheep cannot be mine — mine is all given to God.  It must be His!  It is His love that rejoices, cares, cries, ministers, and serves the people around  me.  It is not even the overflow of my love for Him.  That still all belongs to Him.  It is the overflowing grace and mercy of His love for me that is to be poured into the lives of others.

It is all or nothing.  If I don’t love God with all my heart, mind, soul, and strength, I will not experience the fullness of God’s love to express to my neighbor.  If God doesn’t have the “all” of my love, the sheep get left out because I’m tired, selfish, greedy, uncaring, poor, or busy.  True love — God’s love — can only flow accurately from me and be expressed to others if He is all I love.  If I don’t love God with “all”, then the people around me end up with nothing because personally I’m bankrupt in the love department.

I pray that God has my all and your all.  May we hold nothing back so that His love and His Spirit can completely fill all the rooms, corners, and hidden areas of our life.  I am a lover of God.  God, help me to be a faithful lover of you.

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What’s 38.7 Billion Dollars Between Friends?

I know this is way out of my normal range of writing, but two headlines today caught my eye and forced me to investigate them further.

As an individual struggling to raise funds to accomplish the prayer ministry God has called me to, the financial numbers tossed around in our society are simply amazing.  The two headlines that caught my attention were:

“GM Posts Record Loss of $38.7 Billion”

“Stocks Rebound on Buffet and GM News”

My first thought was someone must have really messed up the headlines.  How can an automaker losing a record 38.7 billion dollars in one year contribute to a rising stock market?  And so I had to read the article.  It seems that stocks rose because the GM loss was less than expected!  The financial analysts had been predicting a loss equal to 95 cents per share of GM stock and it was only a 40 cent loss.  Well, that explains it all!  What is 38.7 billion dollars between friends?  There is a whole lot more to it, but this isn’t an investment advice column, just my reaction.  😛

I don’t think too many of us living day to day, trying to keep the bills paid and enjoy the basics of life can truly wrap our minds around 38.7 billion dollars, let alone a 38.7 billion dollar loss.  I know I can’t. 

Have we let things get so big, so inflated, that we have no sense of value anymore?

I don’t know.  Just some random thoughts from some random headlines.

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What Does Your Work Say?

How would someone observing you describe your work?  More importantly, what would they say about the results of your work?  What are you accomplishing?  What does your work really say?

My guess is that most of you reading this have struggled with these questions and others like them.  We want purpose and meaning out of the things we devote our time to.  For most people, the work they do for a living has a tendency to take up the most significant amount of their time.  But deep down, do we really want our job defining who we are?

I don’t think so!  I mean, my job is directing prayer ministry within an international campus ministry organization and I don’t even want to be defined by that.  It’s not that I pray, or someone changes tires, or someone else teaches school, or raises their family, or whatever else it might be, that holds the real significance.  The real significance comes when we use whatever tasks we face to bring glory and honor to Jesus.

Paul mentions this when he writes to the Thessalonians and lets them know that he is constantly praying for them.  It is their work, labor, and endurance that stand out and get the attention of Paul.  Not so much what they were doing, but what their work said to all who observed.  Paul writes:

“We always thank God for you and continually mention you in our prayers.  We remember before our God and Father your work produced by faith, your labor prompted by love, and your endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ. . . . And so you became a model to all the believers in Macedonia and Achaia.  The Lord’s message rang out from you not only in Macedonia and Achaia — your faith in God has become known everywhere.  Therefore we do not need to say anything about it, for they themselves report what happened when we visited  you.”  (1 Thessalonians 1:3-4,7-9)

The work, labor, and endurance of the Thessalonians became a model for the entire region.  People everywhere could look at them and see how to put into practice the gospel of Jesus that was being preached.  When they turned to God, their lives were transformed and nothing would be the same again.  All it took was watching and listening to them and you would see the change that had taken place and become “infected” yourself.

So how do we experience that kind of a change so that our work , whatever it is, proclaims the transforming power of Jesus?  The key can be found in six words that we are familiar with separately, but rarely consider together.  Work, labor, and endurance are terms we are likely familiar with and don’t really care for or embrace all that willingly.  They are not things that we often rejoice over or long for more of — at least not until they are missing completely from our life. 

Yet Paul takes each of these words and connects it with a word that unlocks the incredible power of transformation.  Faith, love, and hope — words that we are quite familiar with from Paul.  Yet words we rarely connect with work, labor and endurance like Paul does.  The gospel came to the Thessalonians, “not simply with words but also with power” because their work was connected to faith, their labor was connected to love, and their endurance was connected to hope.

What does your work say?  Is your work, labor and love being done with faith, love, and hope in order to unleash the power of the gospel?  I pray that your work and my work says quite loudly that we are workers for God.  May people see our good works and glorify our Father in heaven and say of us, “your faith in God has become known everywhere”.

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You Want ME To Do WHAT!?

I imagine the silence was deafening.  The meal was prepared.  The table was set.  The food was spread before them.  Yet everyone knew one thing was not yet done.  One thing so simple, yet no one wanted to do it.  No volunteer stepped forward and said, “Let me.” 

You’ve been there, right?  In the middle of a group, surrounded by awkward silence because everyone is avoiding the one thing that needs done and no one wants to do it.  To bring it up seems so trivial because all eyes become focused on you with one question, “If it is so important to you, why don’t you do it yourself?” 

And so the waiting game begins.  Who will break first?  Will anyone break at all?  Will we finish what we gathered for and leave — with the one obvious task left unaddressed and undone?  Don’t look at me, I brought the drinks!  . . . Well, I made arrangements for the banquet room!  . . . Is that right?  Well, I’m actually comfortable the way I am so I don’t care if we leave this whole matter undone!

Is it possible for deafening silence to get even more silent?  If so, what happens next had to silence not only the words, but the very inner-most part of this gathering.  Let’s listen in:

“Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power, and that he had come from God and was returning to God; so he got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around his waist.  After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around him.”  (John 13:3-5)

What!  This can’t be!  Someone needed to do this task, but not Him!  I mean, this is Jesus . . . Son of God . . . Messiah!  The one person in the room that I acknowledge as above me and better in every way.  Why is He doing this?  He should have picked someone, I mean, I would have even done this if He had asked and I knew I was doing it for Him!  But do it Himself?  This can’t be right!  Why?

Why?  It had to be the question in each person’s mind around the table that night in the upper room.  In the midst of the silence and questioning, Jesus points that out as He concludes washing their feet and asks the disciples, “Do you understand what I have done for you?”  He evidently knows that they don’t understand, and without an explanation we wouldn’t get it either.  So He explains.

“You call me ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord,’ and rightly so, for that is what I am.  Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet.  I have set you an example that you should do a I have done for you.  Very truly I tell you, servants are not greater than their master, nor are messengers greater than the one who sent them.  Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them.”  (John 13:13-17)

Jesus wanted His disciples, and us, to understand that living the life of a servant was mandatory for His followers.  If Jesus would humble Himself and become obedient, even to death on a cross — and to serving His disciples — how willingly should we imitate His example and serve others?  We’re not greater than our master, are we?  We’re not above the one who sent us, are we?  As workers for God, how much more should we adopt the attitude of Christ who came not to be served, but to serve? 

I pray that the next time that you or I are in the midst of a group, or even by our self, avoiding something because no one wants to do it, we would remember the example of Jesus and step forward to serve!

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The Power of Habits

Today is February 1 and for many their New Year’s resolutions have already come and gone.  Why do we have such a hard time keeping a resolution — a resolution that we willingly made and eagerly want to keep? 

I think many times, it is due to what I call “The Power of Habits“.  Keeping our resolutions, and our promises to God, generally requires us to change.  Change means that we are going to do things differently.  We must step out of our pattern of life — out of our habitual way of living — and chart a new course.  Unfortunately, that sounds a lot easier than what it is.

For many of us, even in the simple things of life, the power of habits keeps us from doing what we want to do.  I had a good friend who opened a restaurant in town a year ago, or so.  It recently closed after a year in business.  I’m sure there were a lot of factors involved, but I suspect that one of them was this “power of habits”.  They had good pizza and it was a comfortable place to stop in and enjoy a good meal.  Yet as much as I liked my friend and wanted to support his business and as much as I enjoyed their pizza, my established habits of eating out always seemed to take me to other places.  I would be out somewhere eating and all of a sudden it would cross my mind, “I should have gone to Jim’s place!”  Well by then, it was too late.  I would tell myself that I would remember it and go there next time, but unfortunately rarely did.  I suspect that is part of why so many restaurants — especially independent restaurants — do not experience the success that appears should be theirs.  The power of habits keep people doing what they’ve always done, even if they desire to do something else.

Another example of this power is seen in this very blog.  I love to write and was shocked to see it has been the middle of December since I have written with any consistency.  It was partly the power of habits that kept me writing on a consistent basis.  Then when my schedule kept me from writing for a few days, it became easier not to write and before I knew it, the few days has turned into 6 -8 weeks.  Even during that time span, I would realize I needed to write but realizing it and doing it were obviously two different things.

I think Paul understood that the power of habits was at least partially a spiritual battle taking place in our minds.  When he would write of his anguish in doing the things he did not want to do and not doing the things he wanted to do, I believe that he was addressing the battle that takes place as the power of habits seeks to control us and keep us from being completely transformed into the likeness of Jesus.  We may call it our “flesh”, our “human nature”, our “draw toward sin” — whatever we call it, it is us living life controlled by the natural rather than the supernatural.  It is replacing the natural habit with a supernatural spirit that allows us to overcome the power of habits.

Paul writes in Ephesians 4:25-32:

“Therefore each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to his neighbor, for we are all members of one body.  ‘In your anger do not sin’:  Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, and do not give the devil a foothold.  He who has been stealing must steal no longer, but must work, doing something useful with his own hands, that he may have something to share with those in need.
Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.  And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.  Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice.  Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.”

Paul instructs us that to overcome the power of habits in the areas of falsehood, anger, stealing, unwholesome talk, etc., we must replace those sinful habits with the supernatural habits of speaking truth, resolving conflict, generosity, encouragement, kindness, compassion, and forgivness.  The “power of habits” does not have to be a bad thing.  If we allow our habits to be transformed by the “Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption”, they will become a transforming power in our lives and in those around us. 

I pray that “the power of habits” no longer keeps you and I from allowing God to accomplish His will and purpose through us.  Rather that we would be transformed by “the power of Godly habits” into servants who live supernaturally because we live and walk according to the Spirit, not the flesh.

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30 Hours of Prayer in Review!

(I originally titled this post, “Where Have I Been? (part 1)”) 

It seems like forever since I’ve written with any consistency in my schedule.  My schedule is still busy, so I probably won’t finish this update, thus the “part 1” in the post title.

I was so blessed, encouraged, and challenged by the 30 Hours of Prayer God led through me at the Deer Run Church of Christ leading up to the midnight strike of the clock welcoming in 2008.  Going into this, I had no idea of what God might do with this time of prayer.  I was very anxious to see how many people God would call into participating and how “full” the schedule would become.  This was a new approach for the church and I wasn’t sure how receptive people would be to coming out at all hours of the day and night to pray.  To add to my worry, heavy snow was being forecast to begin sometime during the day on New Year’s Eve.  How would people respond to never having done anything like this and then be faced with potentially extreme weather conditions?

The 30 Hours of Prayer actually began for me with the opportunity to preach during the morning service at Deer Run.  It scares me to death most times, but I love to preach!  I’ll plan to write more about that message later.  By the time the church service was over that morning, the list of 1 hour time slots had nearly filled for the entire time between 6 PM on Sunday, December 30 and midnight on Monday, December 31.  Sunday afternoon was then spent setting up a prayer room at the church so people would have a more intimate setting to spend with God during their hour of prayer.  As I set up the room, I was in constant communication with God — examining my attitudes and mindset, knowing that I would be there at the building greeting, welcoming, and helping people for the next 30+ hours.  My mind began to doubt.  I love sleep, how would I manage to do what God had called me to do over the next 30 hour+ block of time?

And then it began!  6 o’clock came and with it the first person for their hour of prayer.  After some very brief instructions and guidance, I left them in the room to spend their hour with God on behalf of Deer Run.  7 o’clock came and a couple ladies came to pray together.  It was then that God said, “I’ve got this taken care of!”  The first participant wasn’t done . . . wasn’t ready to leave his communication with God on behalf of his church and the people in it.  As he came out after two hours, he wanted to see the list and find out if there were any times still un-taken.  Sure enough, I had a couple of hours that were open, so he signed up to come back for another of the hour time periods.  He did come back the next day and again spent two hours instead of the expected one!

All through the night, the next day, and into the next night people came and were reluctant to leave.  They had longed for something like this but didn’t know what “this” was.  As Monday progressed, the snow began to move in.  I would periodically check the weather radar and many times our location was completely surrounded by heavy snowfall and we were getting none.  Finally around 8 PM on Monday evening, the snow did begin.  It was a beautiful, fluffy snow that added a look of cleanness and purity to the surroundings.  As it fell, it added up quickly and I began to wonder if people would continue to come out and finish our 30 hours.  Without fail, they kept their appointments and as the time for our hour long group concert of prayer came — 11 PM to midnight — people began to show up and laugh about the craziness of being out in such a snow storm.  As we gathered and reflected on what God had been doing over the previous 30 hours, it began to thunder.  I’ve experienced a couple of “thunder snows” in my life, but this one was incredible.  It was as if God was saying, “Amen, and Amen!”  We broke into small groups and prayed for each person that was there.  As we finished, the clock said 12:04 AM and we welcomed in 2008 with a closing prayer circle and singing “The Doxology”.  We left the building praising God for all He had done and wondering how we were going to get home in the foot of fresh snow!

So much for “part 1”, my schedule calls me away from the computer.  Hopefully, I’ll be back and add more before too many days pass. 

God is an incredible God and He works in mighty ways through people who are fully surrendered to Him!

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30 Hours of Prayer

I will be leading a 30 Hours of Prayer event to “pray-in” the new year at the Deer Run Church of Christ in South Bend, Indiana.  You can find out more about it at the Deer Run Church of Christ web site, or from the Deer Run blog post, 30 Hours of Prayer.