Brennan’s Crazy Prayer

            Recently one of my favorite authors, Brennan Manning, passed away.  His writing has always struck me for its honesty and depth.  He was a man of tremendous faith and realistic about the difficulties of living for Christ in this world.  I am drawn towards prayers such as his below, even though they scare me.  Jesus seemed to bump heads a lot with those that used religion as a shield.  Scary prayers like this one pretty much ask God to deal with us face to face, no shield, no hiding.  I’m intimidated by the idea of being face to face with a Holy God, but my heart wants that more than anything.  With that desire burning in my heart, I pray:

“May all your expectations be frustrated, may all your plans be thwarted, may all your desires be withered into nothingness, that you might experience the powerlessness and poverty of a child and then sing and dance in the love of God who is Father, Son, and Spirit… and today on planet earth may you experience the wonder and beauty of yourself as Abba’s Child, the temple of the Holy Spirit, through Jesus Christ, our Lord, Amen.”  

Why in the world would we pray that our expectations and plans not work out in the way we would hope?  Too often we work out our life without consulting God and then end up questioning God’s care for us when everything we participate in isn’t blessed.  In praying a crazy prayer like Brennan’s we begin to move our hearts to a place that recognizes that being a child of God is a greater gift than a life where every situation runs smoothly, or where every outcome works to our benefit.  

Perhaps thinking that life should always work out to our benefit is crazier than actually praying that it won’t.  We know that life doesn’t always work out as we would plan so why do we get so ticked when it doesn’t?  I could tell you story after story of how things haven’t worked out as I expected, how my plans were seriously frustrated, and after the dust settled it turned out for the best.  

Brennan’s prayer isn’t all that different from praying, “Your kingdom come, your will be done...”  However when we lift up Brennan’s prayer it is harder to deny the daring truth behind the words.  His prayer also recognized that if we can let go of the hubris that expects life will always work to our immediate liking we are more able to embrace the trust that can only come by being child-like in our faith.  As this prayer seeks, such trust in God’s love can lead to a joy much deeper than the shallow contentment that comes from getting our own way.  

I find myself at a time of significant transition, that I neither expected or planned.  I pray that I would find joy in trusting God is leading the way.  Will you look for such joy in being led?  Led in the wisdom that is beyond our.  Led as a child whose parent is excited to take her on a trip with a surprise destination.  Instead of worrying about not being in control, can we search for the joy found in taking God’s hand in the moment and finding a love that cares enough about our well being to not always give us our way?

Where Is God When It's Hard?

The scriptures are clear, God is with us when things get tough. But is our first reaction always to lean on that promise when life gets hard? I know that I have had some of my most powerful experiences of knowing God’s presence during times like these. And despite these experiences there are still plenty of times that instead of trusting the God that has always been with me, I find that I get upset that Jesus doesn’t care enough about me to stop the situations in my life that cause me pain.

In Paul’s second letter to the Corinthians, he talks about having a similar experience which he only refers to as “a thorn in his flesh” and says he pleaded with God to take it away three times (12:7). The response that he gets is in verse 9, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” So while we don’t know what it is that troubled Paul we do find out that he went to Christ in prayer about the situation repeatedly, and the pain did not end. Jesus simply affirms that when we are troubled, that if we trust in the grace of God that we will have his power, and that will be enough.

These are tremendous words that we would all do well to store away in our hearts for a difficult time, or if that time is now, to ask Jesus to help his grace be sufficient even in our greatest need. As we start 2010 and look into the unknown of what the year might hold for us, I hope we might all find the grace to not get upset will God when we have trouble. Beyond that, may these be times that we rest in God’s perfect power and not beat ourselves up about our weaknesses, knowing that we have the grace that is more than sufficient to meet all of our needs.

God is with us.

When my grandmother pass away last year I thought a lot about the times I shared with her, one memory in particular kept tugging at my heart. Small in stature, with a fire in her eyes, this Irish-Catholic woman, was relentless when she was passionate about something. As one of her grandchildren I had the privilege of being one of the things in life that she was passionate about. However, I didn’t always see the way she expressed that passion as a privilege.

One of the ways that my grandmother would bestow her passion on us kids was with a kiss. Sounds harmless enough, but her kisses horrified me from a young age. It wasn’t until age five that I finally couldn’t take the cold clammy cheeks that resulted from her sloppy kisses and started to wipe my face with my hand when she would turn away. Over time I grew in my boldness and would no longer wait for her to turn away, and in a mix of wit and affection she would say, “You may think your whipping it off, but you’re just rubbing it in!” This scene played out numerous times over the years, until I finally realized what a gift it was to have my grandma love me so much and as I touched my cheek one day after a characteristically wet kiss, as she exclaimed that I was whipping it in, I remember thinking that was what I was hoping to do.

Thankfully I came to a place where I realized the love that was being expressed in her kiss, but there were a number of years when if I could have found a cream or a spray that would have protected me from the messiness of that love I would have used it. As we make our Advent journeys this year, my prayer for us is that we don’t allow the holiday hustle and bustle to be the force field that protects us from the love God wants to express to us in the mystery of this season.

Emmanuel, the name means God is with us. And just as for those connected with that first Christmas, we will meet God in the places we would least expect if make room in our hearts to listen to the Spirit and follow where we are lead. Emmanuel, God is with us indeed, but will we notice or will we just try to wipe off his love? May we recognize God in our midst and take the opportunity this Advent and Christmas to spend some time rubbing the grace of Christ into our hearts.

Politics

As you can tell from the topic, this post was written last fall.  At the time I had a new computer and had issues with copying and pasting from my word processor.  Even with the new baby now here I hope to start posting again more frequently.  Thanks for coming back.

Politics are such a mixed bag for me.  On the one hand I love the way the political process works in our country.  Those who put together our government and how it would sustain itself accomplished one of the most brilliant achievements in human history.  On the other hand I hate how polarizing politics have become in our culture.  I can’t stand the way that folks who would normally get along in almost every other way can end up down right nasty when politics come up.

This is the major reason that I play it close to the vest in terms of my political views.  As a pastor I would hate to think that my position as a spiritual leader may be compromised because of differing political views.  That’s not to say that I lack conviction when it comes to my political beliefs, it’s just that communicating the Gospel that transcends politics is my main priority.  Truth be told, I am usually just as disgusted with both our major parties, and feel that with any major election there is a mixed bag of pluses and minuses with the candidates I have to choose from.  I have also seen this reality play itself out in each of our presidencies that I have witnessed since I started really paying attention in the early 90’s.  Each president has accomplish amazing things while in office, as well as failing in ways that hurt our country and the world we live in.  In fact the only reason that I have keep my registration with the party that I initially picked at age 18 is so that I can continue to vote in the primaries.  I may even rethink that since I have yet to vote for a winner in any primary election that I have participated in.  To complicate the process even further, as a Christian as I try and look at what the scriptures point to as important for a government and society to be about it seems unlikely that there would ever be a legitimately electable candidate that would fulfill all those requirements.

The way that I typically handle political conversations with people from my church is to mostly listen.  Rarely, if I am having a one-on-one conversation will I make a comment about an issue if it does not have a blatant scriptural point of view to be spoken for.  This will often put me in the middle of some interesting discussions.  I think that too often we feel the need to share our opinion on a particular subject that someone has brought up and we miss out on what may be some of the most amusing listening opportunities available in life.  One of the things that I have observed in these situations is how many people will assume that if others agree with them enough to worship at the same church then everyone must also be of similar political views.  You don’t have to see the variety of bumper stickers on peoples cars to realize how funny that idea is.  

Over all, will annoying as this all can be, and as sick of it as I am already becoming (with two more months of joy to come), I am glad that we go through this every four years as a country.  It’s a time to re-examine what is important to us.  It gives us a good snapshot of what is occupying the important priorities in our society.  And it shows us that while we may disagree about somethings with every fiber of our being that we can all still get along and live in a country where the democratic provides a vehicle for the peaceful passing of power from one leader to another at least once every decade.  With all it’s flaws we live in a wonderful country.  My prayer is that this political season results in the type of dialog that regardless of who is elected will lead us to a place that makes our country even better.

When Will I Be a Man?

So I’m on vacation for a couple of weeks, and this first week I am local because Angie is working. I decided about 10:30 last night that I was going to wake up wicked early and go fishing today on Hemlock Lake. It required me to do a little work before bed since I didn’t want to have to load the canoe and gear come morning. This was a good call, because when the alarm went off at 5:10am I was looking for excuses to crawl back into bed. Instead of excuses not to go, as I contemplated how comfortable my bed is, two thoughts hit me. The first was if I get back into bed after my alarm going off this early Angie will most likely kill me. The second was that I already strapped the stupid canoe to the top of my car so I might as well take it somewhere.
I stopped near the lake for some gas station coffee and because there was a sign in the window that read, “bait.” While gas station coffee is a serious affront to my coffee snobdom, it just didn’t seem like a real man morning to brew Starbucks before fishing alone. I thought it a good idea to get some live bait since all my other attempts at fishing this year have led to me losing the lures I had on my line. I’ve always found it kind of gross that a place that primarily sells people food also sells fish food, but I guess most of what a gas station sells doesn’t really qualify for people food (I would like to see Morgan Spurlock live off that fare for a month). I felt good about the worm purchase because of the reassuring writing on the container. It told me that they were genuine “Canadian Nightcrawlers.” I’m not so sure why they are better than worms from the states, but if they came all the way from the Great White North it must have been worth the trip. The other thing that I liked about the packaging was the disclaimer, “Not meant for human consumption.” Since I wouldn’t be drinking on my aquatic adventure I didn’t need the warning, but I’m glad it was there.
Hemlock Lake is amazing because there is no development around the lake because it is owned by the City of Rochester for a water supply. For this reason they also only allow hand propelled boats, and very small motorboats. All this leads to the sensation that you’ve stepped back 200 years in time because you hear almost nothing from other humans and rarely see anyone out there. As you can see from the view, not a bad place to spend your morning. It’s kind of hard to have a bad time when you have this lake as the backdrop for your prayer time, even if are technically there to fish and haven’t caught a darn thing.
Which brings me to the question at hand: If real men are supposed to be able to do things like fish, do I officially have to have caught a fish to be a fisherman? I do think that I came as close as I have yet this morning as it’s possible that a fish or two chewed my worm off the hook without getting caught. But seriously, how hard can this be? I just want to catch a fish. Something, anything, I’ll be happy with a goldfish at this point. Well, fishing aside, I kind of took a step further toward manhood last night when I actually crawled under Angie's car and used my drill and those plastic pull ties to connect some shielding that had come loose. So I am making some progress, but keep me in your prayers.

Economic Stimulus

Even though we’ve bought and sold a house in the last couple of years I guess there are still some things in life that are blatant reminders that we are definitely, really adults now. Sure we’ve bought furniture before, but a piece here and a piece there, in fact we didn’t even buy our mattress and bed frame at the same time. So when we went out tonight in search of two matching couches, I guess I wasn’t prepared for the sense of responsibility that would come with the decision. Seriously, when you buy two couches that match you are committing long term to large pieces of furniture; furniture that will require me having to remember that the color of our living room for years to come. And if I am ever asked about my opinion on a different color for the walls in the living room in the next 15-20 years, I better have darn well thought out the implications of how that color matches with the couches (not because I really care, but because I am maritally challenged). That’s a lot for a man like myself to get a hold of.
The thing that I can appreciate most about this adult purchase is the way that it expands our ability to comfortably host larger groups of people. That is a real plus, since the small couch and two chairs made it uncomfortable for entertaining even two other couples at the same time. Besides, it would be un-American to not go out and spend our Economic Stimulus Package immediately, right? Come on over some time after delivery and have a sit down on the new couches. They are rather comfortable (and they sure do match the blue walls nicely as well ;-) ).

Who You Are (No, not you)

“Lord Jesus, thank you for who you are.” If you have even heard me give the children’s message at church you have heard me pray these words with our kids. You may have even wondered if you’ve heard me lead our children to pray like this week after week, “why can’t he think of anything new to start that prayer with?” Since I’m realistic enough to realize that it is unlikely that any child that comes up on a Sunday morning will remember the specific substance of a children’s message into adulthood I am intentional about teaching them to pray in this way. Maybe, just maybe, after starting prayer with their pastor each week in this way (I pray a short phrase and the kids repeat after me), that this will be ingrained in their prayer life for all their days.
So with all the ways that one might attempt to teach children to pray, why “Lord Jesus, thank you for who you are?” Acknowledging who God is and our gratitude for that is to recognize what prayer is really about. Jesus promised as he left his disciples that the Holy Spirit would be with us always. So let us not think that in prayer we are summoning a far off God who comes close at our beckoning, or getting the attention of a God who is distracted by many chores and voices, and needs us to say, “Hey, God listen up, I need your attention right now!” Author Henri Nouwen has reminded us that all prayer is answering prayer. Meaning that God is already active and present in our lives (weather we recognize it or not) and in prayer we are answering what God is already doing. God starts the conversation, and when we slow down enough to pray we are simply joining in that conversation with the One that longs to share time with us.
Starting prayer with thanking God for who God is also reminds us that our relationship with God is not that of an ungrateful child that always has a hand out looking for more from God. When we understand that the God of the universe wants to have relationship with us, that he loves us with more care, tenderness, and intimacy, than even the most perfect human parent ever could, we should not be able to contain our gratitude. Particularly as we realize that this relationship isn’t based on who we are or what we do, our good deeds or our eloquently crafted prayers, but simply on the fact that God loves us and has done everything possible to make sure there are as few barriers between us and him as possible. So to remember with gratitude who God is as we begin to pray is to acknowledge all God has done, will do, and is doing, and how that affects all we have done, will do, and are doing. Prayer is not about having the words exactly right, or saying them with a certain inflection, but the words should reflect the attitude of our hearts as we join in conversation with God. Perhaps if we start our prayer with gratitude for who God is that we will connect with what the deepest part of our souls already knows, that God is completely different from us and yet desires to be with us more than we could desire anything in our hearts. May we be filled with gratitude at such a God and never stop thanking Jesus for simply being who he is.

Prayer

I was with some folks at lunch and we were talking about all sorts of things. When there was a lull, one person declared that they had a theological question for me. Through that question we got to talking about the dark times in our lives and the response of another present was that we should pray during these times. And while I certainly believe in prayer, everyday prayer, during the good and the bad, I had to acknowledge that in the dark it is sometimes hard to find the switch that would give us the resolve we need to be able to pray. There are times that the pull of the darkness is so heavy, there is no way to get our souls in a place that they can look to heaven and talk to God, even when God is right there with us. I would also agree that these are the times that we especially need to pray, that prayer needs to come from a place of obedience and not just because we feel like it, or feel that we are heard. But more than anything, what I heard God saying to and through me today was that during these times of darkness that is what the church is for. When we are not able to lift ourselves up to God, then we must trust others to lift us up to him for us. I know that this is hard, to admit that we can’t find the switch on our own, but we must. And we must consider the alternative, what if we didn’t have anyone to pray for us. If you read that and think, I don’t have anyone to pray for me, am I missing out? I would tell you yes, yes you are certainly missing out. People sometimes like to get down on church, the politics, the ornery people, and the very unJesuslikeness that it is sometimes. And yes, those things suck, and those things maybe shouldn’t be, but they are and the alterative is much worse. To have no one to pray for us, that is not an enviable place. As best as is possible, I pray that for you, you are able to let the church be the church.

Eulogy

(This post was actually written in mid-August, just getting to post it now)
I obviously haven’t posted lately. That’s a product of a couple things. Between getting the house ready for sale and transitioning into pastoral ministry at a new church there hasn’t been much time. I am also debating on the best use of my blog now that life circumstances have changed so much. Still working on that.
I had both a wedding and a funeral this week (two completely separate events, although the groom did come close to passing out from the heat). The funeral was my first and in talking to people about it this week I got to thinking about eulogies and wondering if they will last in my generation. I guess what I mean is that it just seems so odd to have a pastor that may not have known a person very well give the defining statement of who that person was and what their life amounted to at the end of life. While I wouldn’t mind having a pastor that knows me well, which in my case there might be one or two, give the eulogy, it just seems rather unauthentic to have someone that didn’t know much about me have such a task. I certainly understand why it is the norm, often those that are closest to the deceased are very emotional at the service and it is a fitting way to honor that person. I do wonder with my generation’s premium on authentic relationship if the pastoral eulogy will be a thing of the past, in exchange for emotional loved ones sharing from the heart.
So here’s my request for an eulogy: I would like someone (or more than one) to share about the real me. Don’t get up there and make me sound all saintly. Tell about the time that I really made you mad, hurt your feelings, didn’t make it any better when I could have. Tell about the times that I changed your life for the good, made you laugh, scratch your head, about how strange I could be. I hope that this person might also share that they saw Christ in me. Despite all the crazy, messed up, broken parts of me, I hope more than anything to be defined by Christ’s light shining through me.
I guess that last part is something for me to work on while I’m still alive.

Welcome New Comers

Welcome and greetings to those of you from Honeoye Falls UMC that have found my blog. I wasn’t planning on advertising that I had a blog because I was curious if it would be found. I was informed last night that at least some folks have found it and have been reading up. Angie and I had a good laugh about that as we talked about it. I think it is really funny, strange, and slightly disturbing, that those that have read some of my thoughts here will already have formed some mental images about me (or Angie) because of what is here. I give you my assurance that there will not be a follow up sermon to the post “Would God Pick Up Your Poop.” For churchgoers to HFUMC this is probably a relief. For those of you that have expressed interest in stopping in some Sunday to worship with us because of my blog, you might be a little disappointed by this. However, I will do my best to be witty and insightful in my preaching, even without any references to poop.

ROCK STAR

How I wish I could be a rock star. There is this video of me when I was four. It has been a while since I have seen it because it is on one of those old film movies that you need a projector to watch. But in this video I’m dancing around singing “Rock and Roll, Rock and Roll, Yeah!” I would watch that and think, “this is really cool one day when I’m a rock star this will end up Entertainment Tonight.” Well, I can kinda play guitar, mostly rhythm, I’m not a very good singer, and while I’m not ugly I’m not going to end up in some band just because I’m good looking. So while my childhood dream will never be realized I have picked out pieces of the dream that I can still connect to.

I don’t know exactly what it was that at the age of four made me want to be a rock star so bad. It wasn’t that I was in preschool wishing I could be drinking JD out of the bottle and enjoying the other perks of stardom. I am sure that I would be reading too much into my post-toddler fantasy to come up with a motivation behind that dream, but I know that as I grew up the act of creating something that would affect groups of people became very attractive. I remember the first time that I was asked to speak in front of a really big group. I’m not talking raising my hand in class, or giving an announcement at youth group, I was asked to share what God had done in my life to those at a youth conference numbering 1,000. While I was a little nervous I found the experience to be electrifying. I had a number of people come up to me afterwards and tell me how it had impacted them, and it wasn’t really an ego thing, but I really enjoyed being able to affect so many people at once.

I’ve had the privilege of preaching sermons plenty of times in my life. As a youth pastor most weeks I was teaching classes and giving short messages to the students. The act of crafting and creating something that other people will listen to (hopefully) and might have an affect on their life is a sobering responsibility. It is one that I love though and I am very excited about being able to preach every week. I’ve had a few tell me this excitement will wane, and like them I will be scrambling on Saturday night to throw something together, but I don’t really see that happening. Can’t wait for this Sunday, hope it goes well.

Question, Answer?

One of the problems with how Christianity has been lived out over the past several generations is that people think that they can come to this religion as a place for answers. Which to the extent that Christianity is a religion makes sense, but if you step away from the institution and look at what it is really meant to be, and the teachings of Jesus, to come to the Christian faith for answers is absurd. Sure there are answers to the right questions in scriptures, but if we honestly look at those answers we find that they often lead to other questions, and if we are really honest we often find that our original question wasn’t what we really wanted to know anyway.

The Christian faith is about relationship. Our relationship with God, and our relationship with each other. Relationships seldom leave us with answers. Relationships are hard, messy, and complicated, because they deal with two different beings with different values, interests, and concerns. To find the common ground in relationships questions must be asked, and then more questions, and then some more. It is always a process of digging deeper, of finding out more, and eventually getting to the point once you have learned a lot about another you realize that there will always be more to learn and adapt to because just as you are not standing still in your life, neither is the other that you are in relationship with. It is a Truth that God never changes, however since he is in relationship with us and we are ever changing, the way that God relates to us as individuals, as well as the way that he is relating to our current place in history, means that God can be unchanging yet not static at the same time.

I find it interesting that Jesus almost always answered a question with another question, or a parable, but not usually an answer. Seriously, check it out. So why would he do that? Was he trying to be confusing? Did they not ask the right questions? I think that the answer is that this life isn’t about having all the answers; it is about going deeper with each other and our God. That comes from spending time being together, not from having a list of all the right answers to a bunch of questions that actually have very little importance.

My Buddy Martha

Some baristas wait a lifetime for the experience I had today; I guess I’m just lucky. One Ms. Martha Stewart came by to see me at work today. So we’re pretty much BFFs now. She and her entourage stopped in for an afternoon pick-me-up on the way to the airport after a day in Rochester.

I saw the previews for that made for TV movie about Martha a few years ago and I have to say she not anything like that. She actually was really nice, joked with me for a few minutes, and paid for her whole group (yes, I held the credit card of a woman once estimated to be worth over a billion dollars). My fellow baristas and I provided the group with the same legendary service that we would anyone at Starbucks, but we certainly weren’t falling all over ourselves to make a big deal about her. After I told her, “no, we don’t have any ice cream to pour your latte over,” one of her peons hinted that maybe I could go to the ice cream place two doors down and get some, and the others then made it a point to call her “Martha” a lot. She was fine with me not fetching her some ice cream and even gave me some suggestions about what I might do with the extra espresso. This is more or less the recipe that she suggested for me.

It was surreal to have some one so well known in front of me, engaged in friendly conversation for a good ten minutes, but I certainly didn’t wet myself or anything. I’m having a lot of fun telling people about it and I our regulars get a kick out of it.

The question everyone has asked me is “What does Martha Stewart drink at Starbucks?” Well, I’m reluctant to tell you, because honestly we probably wouldn’t do this for anyone who wasn’t Martha, so you have to promise me to not go in and start ordering it all the time. Ready??? She had us make her a tall cappuccino (one shot of espresso, half steam milk and half milk foam), and then she had us pour it over ice in a grande cold cup. (Originally she first asked for it to be poured over coffee ice cream.) I helped her refine exactly what she wanted (I didn’t want to be the one responsible for messing her drink up), and Mike made it to order so perfectly she was actually really excited and told him that it looked wonderful.

I'm not really one for autographs (except for the time in sixth grade when I went to the House of Guitars to get Poison to sign my cassette tape of their album Talk Dirty to Me), but I do wish I had her sign my green apron. That would be really cool to have. Oh well, it is a fun story about my time at Starbucks anyway. If you would like to touch the hand that touched Martha, it will cost you $1.00. Leave a comment and we'll work out the details. All proceeds will benefit the Angie iPOD Fund.

The Land of In-Between

From time to time we find ourselves in times of transitions, times when we know that a significant part of our experience of life is coming to an end with a new one about to begin. We enter into the land of the in-between when the reality of the new sets in while we are still firmly planted in the present. As we wait for the yet to be we find it very difficult to be fully present to the place that we are currently in.

Jesus was the master of being fully present, yet most of his life must have felt like this strange place, the land of in-between. He was always aware of how his life would end, how much the love he had for his disciples would cost him, and amazingly he was able to live fully in each moment. To try and live our lives out into the future, to ignore the opportunities for life that God has gifted us with today, is to be poor stewards of the things entrusted to us.

I find myself in this place now. I am doing a poor job at being present to the day-to-day, specifically in my work at Starbucks. I value the time I’ve spent there this year, the people I’ve built relationships with the things that I’ve learned to do, the time has not been wasted, but I’m counting down the days. I dread going to work, making another blended coffee beverage, putting up with rude and uppity people, I long for it to be over. But I know that this is not the attitude that God wants me to face the day with. If only I could embrace the moment and look at each day as a chance to continue to be salt and light, to live in such a way that makes the day all that it was meant to be. The day is not meant to be wished away. Our experiences with others are opportunities to get and give grace, and when we can get over our whininess long enough to realize that it is not all about us we can see God at work in places we wish we didn’t have to be.

Jesus, may I have the grace to be where I am and in doing so may I realize that it is there that you are with me, because it is there that you have me to be. Amen.

On the Edge

I’m on the cusp of something big here. I realize making the jump from barista to pastor is an obvious big step, but I have a deep sense that this is going to be good. It’s one of those rare times in life that many things come together in a way that it is obvious God is working in a number of people that all seem to be listening and moving in a common direction. Now as the paths of Angie and I and the Honeoye Falls UMC come together it is amazing to see all that Jesus has been doing in my life to fall into place in this way.

If my life where a movie the ending credits would be about to roll, with a slow but intense Coldplay song playing underneath. It is definitely the end of a chapter, but it’s the kind of ending that you know really isn’t an ending, there is more to come, and its going to be good. I almost feel silly even talking like this, since I haven’t spent a lot of time with anyone from the church, and I’ve only met a small handful. But the excitement and anticipation that I feel in the deepest parts of my soul is the stuff of celebration that only comes when you have walked through fire and come out stronger on the other side.

Will there be days that the task of pastoring a diverse group of people seem overwhelming? Sure. Might I be disheartened at times as it seems that I care about the spiritual health of individuals more than they do? Very possibly. Will there be days that I wish I would have drank a little more coffee, or stayed in bed a while longer, went for that run, anything but doing what this calling has me doing on that day? Hey, it is still a job, and I’m still human. But to finally get to be doing what it is that God has been readying me for for so many years now, that is plain awesome. What a ride.

Would God Pick Up Your Poop?

So I was out in the back yard tonight doing what seems like an every other day occurrence lately: picking up Molly’s poop (just for the record Molly is my dog, please refer to the post “ANGIE” if you thought Molly was my wife). This particular act, and the frequency there of, got me to thinking about how much I really do love my dog. This was an easily arrived at meditation because as I did the “dirty work” Molly played with her new toy. This new toy consists of a fairly heavy-duty 9’ tire (think mini-Big Foot tire) that has one of those dog chew ropes with the knots attached. Well it was easy to love her despite the poop because she had the business end of the rope in her mouth, whipping it around as hard as she could, which meant the rubber tire was beating against her head with loud thumps. Great stuff. Since I’ve paid big money for a theology degree I’ve allowed myself to be brainwashed to the point of when ever I’m thinking about love I try and relate it to God’s love. Sometimes this intellectual exercise leads to wonderfully enlightening sermon illustrations that make the old ladies giggle with glee over how much I help them understand Jesus better, and make middle school kids spit on themselves because they try to hold in the laughter, because they think it is bad to laugh in church. Other times I just think of really odd or lame illustrations that I used to just inflict on my wife, but now I can just blog about them.

So the thought progression went something like this: 1) I must really love my dog to put on gloves, get out a plastic bag, and scour my yard hunched over for poo, 2) I sure wouldn’t do this for anyone else (with a brief mental sidebar about if I do love Angie enough to pick up her poop, but I’ll save that for another blog), and 3) (here’s were the big money for the Master’s of Theology really pays off) I wonder if God loves me enough to pick up my poo. Of course initially the question was literal, but that’s a dumb question because when I was a kid I remember hanging out with this other kid in a field and he was telling me about how he had to poop in the woods once when he was camping and had to clean up his business end with leaves from a tree and the phobia I already had about not knowing what poison ivy looked like immediately linked with an aversion to camping, so I would never be pooping somewhere that needed picking up anyway. So then I started considering the question metaphorically, which also allows me to use my B.A.which is in philosophy, and I realized that God does love me enough to pick up my poop. But I think it makes him sad.

You see how often do we make messes in our relationship and then beg for God’s help in cleaning it up? And even when we don’t ask for help, when we do crappy things to other people, I think God cares more about restoration of relationships than we do and goes farther than we realize in helping to rectify the situation.

Over all that’s all I got. Not all that profound, and if I thought that any of my professors read my blog I would apologize, but if nothing else I sure got to type “poop” more than I ever have before.

Pastors Are Dorks

Pastors are dorks. Did I seriously need to tell you this? Unless you already are a pastor, or married to one, did you disagree with this statement? Well, I’ve never been on a crusade about letting the world know this, in fact I never really gave much thought to it. However, there must be something really ingrained deep within me that witnesses to this truth. How do I know this? Because the overwhelming thought that kept going through my mind (besides the emotion of excitement) when I found out that I would be pastoring a church is that I’m not nearly dorky enough to be a pastor. Mind you, I have no illusion that I’m not already dorky. I’m very clear on the fact that I am a big dork. Even with that being said, I have a hard time getting over this deep seeded stereo-type about not being dorky enough to be a pastor. I suppose in theory I am ready to give up some things that might define my coolness until now. I mean it is probably time to stop buying funky colored sneakers. As I shop for a new car I will resist getting something fast, and lean more towards practical, although I refuse to get a minivan. It may be about time to retire the disc golf, but I’m not so sure about that. I don’t plan on giving up going to the Little Cinema for interesting thought provoking movies (that may be borderline on the cool/dork scale anyway), and I actually hope to see more live music than I have recently, but in club settings as good music was meant to be heard not some big arena. I have also been giving very serious thought to pulling the trigger on a new tattoo of late.

Overall I imagine that I won’t change much in this new switch. In my high school years I was definitely on a crusade to show that Christians could be cool, but I’ve been over that for a long time now. In fact, if I somehow got to be known as “the cool pastor” I think I might puke. If coolness or dorkiness are what define me as a pastor, or even as a Christian for that matter, than I have failed in living a life that points others to Jesus. But in defense of many of the younger pastors I know, very few are total dorks. Maybe it’s something that comes with time. Something to look forward to!

Big News

Alright, so Bishop Fisher has appointed me as the pastor of Honeoye Falls United Methodist Church. Angie and I are both really excited about this and feel like it will be a great fit for everyone. We’ve known for a week now, but have had to keep quiet about it until it was publicly announced at the church first. In that time excitement has been my main emotion, I’m sure the weight of the responsibility will hit me soon, but for now I’m just going to enjoy it. I’m resisting jumping in with both feet for now. My start date is July 1^st and from that point on it will consume a large part of my life. While I will be using the time between now and then to prepare some things and start meeting more people from the church I won’t be devoting all my non-work time to church related issues. I will definitely spend a lot of time between now and then with Jesus and making sure that my heart is inline with his and seeking his face for the sake of the congregation that I have been called to serve.

One thing that I have thought a lot about in the last week is all that God’s Grace has done to and for me. I just keep thinking back to how I was as a middle school kid and the pain I was to pretty much everyone and how God so chased me down that I finally said yes to him and have been chasing him back ever since. It still amazing me the depth of the change that God has worked in my life, the way that Jesus takes that which is seemingly valueless and busted and says, “This is my treasure and I will use it for great things.” By the standard of the world I really should have ended up fairly messed up from the experiences I had as a kid and the path I was heading down as I began to make my own choices about life in adolescence. But that was not God’s plan, and while it somewhat oversimplifies it to say it this way it really is true, all I had to do is say yes to that plan again and again. Jesus has wrecked my life past the point of recognition since I agreed to be caught by his love and I wouldn’t trade that for the world.

Jesus, thank you for never giving up on me and for calling me to help others find you in the depths of this messiness that we find ourselves in. May I be true to you, may my heart be your heart, and may I find myself among those willing to have you wreck their lives too. Amen.

ANGIE!

Angie my wife, who is a woman all unto her own, is so much more than just a girl that married me. Angie is one of the most amazing people that I have ever met, and I am honored to share this life with her, as we both uniquely contribute to what make us an “us.”

You see, Angie was a little upset with me that I refer to her in my blogs only as “my wife.” As if I view her spousal role as the only thing that defines her, which I know she knows isn’t the case in reality, but she felt that way because of my references to her by her marital title. This has been a conscience choice of mine, to not use her name that is, but mostly out of fear of some weirdo on the web knowing more than he needs to about the woman I love so much. But the reality of it is, unless it is an extremely unintelligent weirdo, it would probably be easy to put two and two together and figure out that the link to Angie on my blog is to the woman I am honored to be the husband of.

So just to put her mind at ease, I want to let her know and the whole world (or the half-dozen or so that read my blog) to know exactly what I think of Angie. Angie is truly one of the most unique and spirited people I have even met in my life. She truly is my soul mate, which among other definitions I would agree with Robin Williams’ character in Good Will Hunting where he describes a soul mate as “someone who challenges you.” Among Angie’s considerable talents are that she can read really fast and cares for others far more deeply than she likes to acknowledge or let be known. She can be very funny, often gruff, and enjoys the finer things in life such as Starbuck’s Mochas and my cooking. As tough as she is inside and out she has a very tender, one might say squishy, soul. This is most readily seen in the love she has for her good friends, siblings, extended family members, dog, amazingly handsome husband (who doesn’t at all mind not being referred to as Matthew), and Jesus.

Forrest Gump said the he and Jenny where like peas and carrots. I think Angie and I are more like gum and long hair on a hot day. There are very distinct things about each of us, and there is no mistaking which is which, but if you think you can separate the two, forget it. Angie is most certainly a she and a we, and any future mention of her in either category is not meant to be limiting to any extent.

Give and Take

"Naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked I will depart. The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; may the name of the LORD be praised." Job 1:21

These are Job’s words as his world starts caving in around him, as he loses most of his children in a tragic accident. I’ve been talking with friends lately about weather or not God causes the bad things that happen to us or not, and generally we are not comfortable in saying yes to that. However, I do think that God takes away things that are important to us from time to time to help us remember that it is he that we want. It’s not that I think God takes away things like children or friends, that would be God directly causing catastrophic tragedy, but I do think he will remove us from positions, jobs, relationships, in order to help us keep our eyes fixed on him.

That is where I’m at in life right now. While I was in agreement with God on many levels that it was time for me to step back from my position as a youth minister, it still has been an earth moving change in my life to not be doing fulltime ministry right now. And as I head back on the path leading me once again to fulltime ministry I find the thought of being employed as such in the next year or two as the comforting thought that gets me through tough days. And that puts me in the position of putting my trust and hope in something other than God, and one of the reasons that I think it was important for me to step back from professional ministry for a time. My hope, my trust, my consolation should come from God and God alone.

So in awareness of where my heart is from time to time, I ask myself if I would be okay if I was never employed as a fulltime pastor again. Sure I can come up with all kinds of reasons as to why that would be stupid if it happened, some of them even fairly spiritual. One of the bigger reasons is that God has gifted me as a pastor and I wouldn’t be a good steward of his gifts if I were to never do it again. But then I read the words of Job, and I realize that this calling and these gifts are from God. And as much as it would break my heart to never again do the duties of a pastor, a role that I love for so many reasons, ultimately my purpose in life is to be God’s child and God will go to great lengths to remind me that his love for me is what defines me, not my professional title.

Do I think that I will be a pastor again sometime in the future and that is what God has ordained my life for on this earth? Yes, I fully believe that. But God wants my heart to be in a place that is okay if that were to never happen again. He wants to know, wants me to know, that I would still be as wildly in love with him and trust him in every way even without using my gifts for pastoral ministry. Let it be.