Catalyst One Day

I spent yesterday with my pastor at North Point Church in Atlanta listening to Andy Stanley and Craig Groeschel speak.  The audience was primarily pastors and other church staff, and I am neither, so my takeaways from the day may be different that most.  These were the “ah ha” moments for me from the day.

In any organization the difference between managers that create systems and leaders that bring innovation is not a problem to be solved but a polarity to be managed.

Delgating responsibility creates followers; delegating authority creates leaders. (This is a restatement of something I’m very, very, slowly learning.   If I tell people what to do they may do it, but that’s not how I capture their hearts.  It’s not about control;  it’s about influence.  If I force control; I lose influence.)

I am too busy and need to change my lifestyle to allow more rest, exercise, time with my family…just get more margin in my life.  I have to DO something about this, not just recognize it as true.

I can’t make people trust me;  I can only be trustworthy.

It’s tempting for even my most righteous acts to be efforts to please people in order to gain recognition, to be liked, to be respected, to validate myself.  That’s just where I end up when I find myself no longer “broken before Jesus,” to borrow Craig’s phrasing.

I’m not easily awed, but hearing Andy and Craig speak is quite an experience.  God has given them a clarity of thought and purpose and expression (I’d just call “wisdom” like in the Proverbs sense) that is exceedingly rare.  They inspire me and give me hope God can use even me.

Side note: I had all this rolling around in my small mind and didn’t sleep much.  My wife is gone to visit her folks, but she left her alarm set, so I got up at 5:30.  A sign from God to get up and get going!

Smite Request

Let the righteous smite me in kindness and reprove me;  It is oil upon the head. …Psalm 141:5 (NASB)

This is David’s prayer.  Instead of a prayer request, it is a smite request.  He is asking God to send a righteous  person to smite him.  NIV translates “smite”  as “strike,” but smite sounds better, doesn’t it?  More ominous and permanent.

David considers the smiting (painful) and reproof  (more painful) of a righteous person to be a kindness….as good as being annointed with oil..which was pretty good in those days.  They annointed kings, but I bet David found it harder to find people willing to smite him.  Smiting a king is dangerous unless the king is up for it.

Anyway, have you ever prayed that a Godly, righteous person would correct you, discipline you, smite you?  Wouldn’t it be great to have our hearts in that kind of place?  Wonder what we’re missing for lack of being smitten?  What’s holding you back?

Rewards Who?

And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to Him must believe theat he exists and that He rewards those who earnestly seek Him.  Hebrews 11:6 (NIV)

Been noodling on the “kingdom of heaven” (see previous post), faith,  and questioning God.  I keep rolling back again and again to the thought that it pleases God when I really search for Him.  That He rewards those who seek.  That the reward is Himself. 

But contrary to the picture of otherwordly serenity that is sometimes advertised as the result of faith, when I read the Bible I see examples of real people struggling to understand life, wrestling with doubt, and questioning what God is up to.  I’m led to the conclusion that is OK.  In fact, I think this verse indicates that it’s more than OK.  I believe God is pleased to show Himself to people as long as we’re really looking, seeking, and searching…however awkwardly we express ourselves in pursuing Truth.

Conversely, I suspect I am least likely to see God clearly when I:  1)  willfully ignore Him and His existance, or 2) assume I’ve got God figured out, neatly packaged and comfortably in my back pocket.

Nothing Compares 2 U

Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking fine pearls, and upon finding one pearl of great value, he went and sold all that he had, and bought it.  Matthew 13:45 (NASB)

Jesus told a lot of these “kingdom of heaven” parables.  Some He explained, others not so much.  My understanding of this one is that the merchant is someone is seeking answers, looking for meaning, trying to figure life out.  Finding the pearl of great value is  when a person encounters and connects with Jesus Christ.   That is, or should be, a pretty overwhelming thing.  It makes one realize the other stuff in life we thought was so great isn’t as valuable as we imagined, that we’d trade it all in for Him.   To borrow the Sinead O’connor lyrics,  ”Nothing Compares 2 U.”

Note that the pearl cost exactly “everything” the merchant had.  It sounds like a high price,  and it is, but the truly amazing thing is that  even when we don’t feel like we have much to offer, our “everything” is just enough.

Young Whipersnappers

I don’t think I’ve ever used that term before, but I’m feeling old enough to begin.  I gave in to the Facebook phenomenon and joined.  I think there are two people older than me on Facebook.  Everyone is young and talented and bursting with potential.  I, on the other hand, feel really weird seeing pictures and words from all these young folks that, in my minds eye, as still like eleven.

But as I said there are some freaky talented youngsters out there.  Here’s a quote off http://devastationandreform.blogspot.com/  This blog is by a high school senior in North Dakota.  I wish I could write like this….

Sometimes we listen to the world as it whispers unbelief in our ears. The result of unbelief is frailty, weakness, pain, and loneliness. It is unbelief that trips us and keeps us from being in the presence of God. Unbelief slithers into our souls like a quiet disease and leaves us spiritually crippled and paralyzed.

“I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!”  Mark 9:24

Listening?

He who has ears, let him hear.  Matthew 13:9 (NIV)

Jesus said a lot of amazing things and told really deep and interesting stories.  Most of it fell on deaf ears, but he kept putting truth, and Himself, out there day after day after day.  With that example, here are some observations and learnings.  They are just mine, not Jesus or anything.

1. When I want to justify what I have decided to do, I can lie very effectively.  After a while, I begin to believe the lie myself.  That’s a very bad place to be. (Credit to Andy Stanley)

2. God is faithful and loves me even when I am weak and unfaithful to Him.  I get stronger and more faithful when my eyes are on Him.  As I mature in Christ, I don’t find that I am becoming a better person,  He just helps me keep that focus a little longer and more often.

3. Faith does not give me an excuse to be lazy and irresponsible and not work hard.

4. I can make myself as miserable as I want by feeling sorry for myself.  And the longer I pity myself and my sad state of affairs, the more comfortable I get living in the trash.  Think Oscar the Grouch of Sesame Street fame.

5. Just because I want a person to be different, and my feelings about them change, it doesn’t mean the other person has changed.  Then see number 1.

6. I am my father and mother’s son.  My  parents’  lifestyle and attitudes and words and habits, for good and bad, are part of me.  God can and does work miraculous change, but the tendency, the raw material is there for “like father, like son” to be true in most areas of my life.  It becomes more obvious as I get older.  So if you’re young, look at where your path in life is leading you.  Look familiar?  “Nobody gets a lifetime rehearsal” (Credit to Indigo Girls)

7.  “He loves us.  Oh how He loves.”  (Credit to John Mark Mcmillan)

Suffering Violence

From the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and violent men take it by force.   Matthew 11:12  (NASB)

I don’t really know what this verse is about, but the idea that the “kingdom of heaven suffers violence” is not comforting.  I like to think that God’s kingdom is unassailable, inpregnable and safe.  One day it will be.  We pray that God’s will be done on earth as it is in heaven.  Christians talk about the peace and comfort God provides, and I believe all that, but it’s not the whole story.  While we’re hear on earth we’re still in a war zone, and it is a dangerous place to be.  There is violence and pain and sickness and death all around, and Christians not immune to its influence on our lives.

The son of  a family friend, young guy in his twenties with a wife and first child on the way, tried to take his own life last week.  Used a gun but missed.  He’s having one of many planned surgeries today to attempt some facial reconstruction.  They are taking bones and blood vessels from his leg to have something to work with.

I struggle to even imagine the depths of Evil that drove him to do such violence to himself.    I shudder to contemplate the depravity of the Enemy that feeds on the pain that he and his family are suffering now.  It’s not something I enjoy thinking about, but this is a reminder of the gravity of our situation, that Satan is alive and active.

You and I are not in need of a coach, a teacher, or an advisor.  We’re in desperate need of a Savior.  All of us.  Now and all day and every day.

If you would, lift a prayer for this young man’s body, and spirit, and family.

Weeds in the Wheat

Jesus told them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field.   But while everyone was sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and went away.  When the wheat sprouted and formed heads, then the weeds also appeared.  The owner’s servants came to him and said, ‘Sir, didn’t you sow good seed in your field? Where then did the weeds come from?’    ” ‘An enemy did this,’ he replied.    ”The servants asked him, ‘Do you want us to go and pull them up?’   ” ‘No,’ he answered, ‘because while you are pulling the weeds, you may root up the wheat with them.  Let both grow together until the harvest. At that time I will tell the harvesters: First collect the weeds and tie them in bundles to be burned; then gather the wheat and bring it into my barn.’ “

Matthew 13:24-30 (NIV)

Confused?  So were the disciples.

Then he left the crowd and went into the house. His disciples came to him and said, “Explain to us the parable of the weeds in the field.”    He answered, “The one who sowed the good seed is the Son of Man.   The field is the world, and the good seed stands for the sons of the kingdom. The weeds are the sons of the evil one, and the enemy who sows them is the devil. The harvest is the end of the age, and the harvesters are angels.  ”As the weeds are pulled up and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of the age.  The Son of Man will send out his angels, and they will weed out of his kingdom everything that causes sin and all who do evil.  They will throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.   Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears, let him hear.

Matthew 13:36-43 (NIV)

I wouldn’t have done it that way.  I would have sent my guys to tackle the weeds right away.  Wouldn’t you?  Makes more sense, doesn’t it.  You don’t let weeds just grow.   Of course the problem here, as I’m realizing more and more, is that the description is of the “kingdom of heaven” and neither you nor I are King.   And God doesn’t seem to need any help or input from me on how to be King. 

Of course, I’m a very slow learner……