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Your life is unique.

The last couple of weeks I have been reflecting on some challenges that we have faced.  Nothing that any of you haven’t found yourselves in, but challenges nonetheless.  Yet, I found myself reflexively thinking as I look at my oldest son cheerfully running around the house singing, knowing that he too will face challenges.  Instead of meddling in the murky waters of pessimism because of an obstacle, I chose to smile, knowing that in the midst of obstacles, God is present - as I will be for my two boys.  As I look at my boys, who I love more than life itself, I found myself seeing life through their lenses, as maybe God does.

As God is there for me, I will be there for my boys as they run through life’s maze…

to encourage them…

to help pick them up when they fall…

to walk them through painful moments…

to celebrate high moments in life…

to love them when they have made a mistake…

to embrace them when they have been hurt…

and to celebrate their uniqueness as God does.

3 Things to remember:

1.) We have a purpose in life

2.) We have been made with a distinctive touch

3.) In the vastness of God’s creation, your birth and your reach IS something unique

Celebrate life, in the midst of curve balls.  Embrace God’s unwavering grace.

In the end, the very fabric of who you are and who you are becoming is wrapped up in the reality that YOU ARE UNIQUE.

Psalms 19: 1-3
The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork.  Day to day pours out speech, and night to night reveals knowledge.  There is no speech, nor are there words, whose voice is not heard.

Notice what the psalmist really does here.  He speaks of Creation as a language.  Notice what the text is asking us to do…it is enforcing God’s handiwork…it speaks to us in a language of its own!

I found the below description of God found “in” Creation.  I believe a teenager wrote the paragraphs below.

Very Powerful!

“I have been asked by some how I can be so certain in the existence of a good God, and I have asked them in return if they have eyes to see.  God has woven himself irretrievably into Nature; left his fingerprints behind to show us where he’s been.  His signature is smeared into the curls of the Milky Way, forever circling above the rim of the world.  God has scattered fragments of himself about the earth like a father hides eggs in the yard before his son’s very first Easter; hiding behind a tree with laughing eyes and waiting to see which of the treasures his child will uncover first.

God is crying out all around us.  He is present in the breathless silence of the snow-smothered mountains; he is dancing with the sunlight that shatters on the ocean’s waves; he is hiding in the decaying moss and crumbling shale in the old forgotten places in the world.  No jagged mountain throws its sharp weight against the sky that is not a testament to his goodness.  The entire sum of Creation, each private and individual act of nature, is God waving hello.”

N.T. Wright has written some amazing books in recent years.  I was thinking a lot today about a quote from him, as I enter, along with you, a new year…a new chapter…a new story, if you will.

Hopefully it resonates with you, as it has with me.

“Most people want to wake up in the morning with a general at the foot of their bed saying ‘Go do this.’ The problem is there’s somebody at the foot of their bed saying, ‘Once upon a time.’”

Kathryn (my wife) and I were talking about forgiveness this morning.

Do you ever find it difficult to forgive someone else?
•    Maybe someone who is close to you has been less than honest with you
•    Maybe you have been cheated
•    Maybe you have been let go from your job
•    Maybe you have been neglected or abandoned

At the end of the day, all of us, in some way(s) have been given the opportunity to forgive.  The truth of the matter, it’s isn’t always easy to forgive.

Forgiveness, I believe, must be a way of life!

This is what I believe:

1.) When I forgive someone else I give up the right to hurt them back

I choose to stop trying to get even for what someone else did wrong to me.

I remember someone once saying, about this notion of “getting even,” they said: “Even though you may hurt me deliberately, personally, and deeply, I suspend the law of vengeance.  I refrain from the instinctive response of retaliation.  I don’t act on or indulge my desire to see you squirm.  When I forgive you, I set you free from the little prison I have placed in my mind for holding you captive.  I seek to stop entertaining fantasies of vengeance in which you are tortured or fired from you job or suddenly gain fifty pounds.”

2.) Forgiving is a new way of seeing and feeling

Someone once told me “people do what they do because of who they are, not because of who you are.”  Sometimes we have to come to the realization that someone who has hurt us may be dealing with some deep seeded stuff…downright junk – and you became the brunt of that hurt!  Right, wrong, or indifferent…we have to begin seeing the situation differently.

When we hold fast to unforgiveness toward another person, we tend to believe only bad things about them.
•    When we forgive each other, we begin to see more clearly.  We do not ignore the hurts, but we see beyond them.
•    We rediscover the humanity of the one who hurt us.

3.) Forgiveness is when I began to wish others well

The truth is…we can forgive others, because The Great Forgiver has forgiven us!

So, maybe a question for you is this: Do you wish the person who has hurt you well?  Regardless of what they did?  Don’t get me wrong…I imagine you will have moments, backsliding moments, where you struggle with what someone else did to you.

Forgiveness is the revitalization of relationships!  It is a practice as frequent, sometimes, as breathing.

TRUE forgiveness isn’t cheap.  Sometimes your hurt runs deep.  Sometimes you want to hurt someone back.  BUT the alternative of NOT forgiving is that it will cost you your heart.

Fredrick Buechner who was a Presbyterian minister during WW2, said about not forgiving and holding on to resentment:
“Of all the deadly sins, resentment appears to be the most fun.  To lick your wounds and savor the pain you will give back is in many ways a feast fit for a king.  But then it turns out that what you are eating at the banquet of bitterness is your own heart.  The skeleton at the feast is you.  You start out holding a grudge, but in the end the grudge holds you.”

When we begin to let go of unforgiveness we allow the grace and peace of God to reign in our hearts and minds.  It isn’t easy, but the alternative of not forgiving is the imprisonment of your heart.

• What if…this week you made that call to the one who hurt you?
• What if…this week you decided to look beyond the anger and allow God’s grace to reign in your heart?
• What if…you modeled the way for your kids, so they can see a parent who exemplifies forgiveness?

How would life look different?  How would your world look different?

I DARE you to forgive…it may be the narrow path, but that path is liberating!

Psalms 46: 10 Be Still and know that I am God.

Isn’t it hard sometimes to just sit and be still? I don’t know about you, but it is very hard for me.

Today we continued our series called Becoming, at The Orchard. The message was on meditation and the importance of getting quiet in our intensely fast paced society. Scott Hodge did a great job applying biblical truth, while allowing us the time to practice the discipline of silence.

Consider your own life. How much noise surrounds your life?

Do you have a cell phone?

Do you have a TV?

Do you have the radio on all the time?

Do you email?

Do you wonder why silence is so difficult? Are you addicted to noise?

Why are we attracted to NOISE?

Maybe a better question is this: Does my schedule, my time, or my life look like that of a person who wants to hear God’s voice?

Maybe a challenge for you this week, is to get away to a place where it is quiet. A place of solitude. NO noise. NO interruptions. NO cell phone. NO TV. NO distractions.

I love what Henri Nouwen wrote:

“In solitude, I get rid of my scaffolding. Scaffolding is all the stuff we use to keep ourselves propped up, to convince ourselves that we are so important or okay. In solitude we have no friends to talk with, no phone calls or meetings, no television sets, no music or books or newspapers to occupy and distract the mind. Each of us would be, in the words of the old hymn, ‘just as I am.’ Neither accomplishment nor resume nor possessions nor networks would define me.”

Well said Mr. Nouwen. Well said.

I am sitting here watching the Olympics thinking of the sheer joy of being a part of a worldwide sporting event. I heard someone say the other day that athletes around the world, GREAT athletes, don’t focus on the goal (being in the Olympics, going to the Superbowl, World Series, etc…) when training, they focus on the process. The process of becoming a GREAT athlete is more important than the goal itself. It’s who they are becoming in the midst of the training that is paramount.

That being said, someone said to me the other day that it is important to “follow” God’s plan for your life. I have found some seem to look at God as the master puppeteer, almost paralyzed to make any decisions for themselves, because they are afraid it isn’t in God’s master plan.

Do I think God can speak into one’s life? Give direction? Give guidance? Sure. But I don’t think God speaks to us mainly about “moving here or there”…I think God is more interested in who you are becoming wherever you live, than some specific destination.

Some wait around for direction from God, while there are dozens of commands in the ancient text that we could spend a lifetime living out. Are these not directions from God? Are these not compasses on how to live well and become the person he wants you to be?

You see, I think we believe that God only guides us down roads which are easy and safe. I think we are so capitalistic that we believe if God is in something that everything will work out fine. Is that true? For example, have you ever had this strong urge to go for a position that you know God was leading you to apply for, then you didn’t get the position? Or, maybe you got the position and you told everyone that God gave you this job. A month into the job, you hate it…in fact, secretly you regret telling everyone that you felt this job was from God.

What if it was a good move? Maybe God wants you to learn some things in the process of becoming. What if God wants to work on how you treat others? Maybe your love walk. Maybe your ability to connect with those who you hate. Maybe you are addicted to impatience.

What if…what if God is less concerned about your geographic (where I move) location and more concerned with the greatest good you do? What if becoming who God wants you to be: loving your spouse, kids, and your cousin Frank (who you swear is the cousin of the anti-Christ) is part of the process God intends for you to go through?

Is God’s divine guidance important? Absolutely. Is God concerned with your “specific” geographical location? Sure, maybe. But maybe God is less concerned with the “what”…”where”…”who”…”when”, and more concerned with the “how.” It’s more about how you are living that is essential in God’s economy.

Are you allowing the process to be an important factor in your life’s journey, or are you more concerned with where you need to be?

Tonight was an exceptional night, as The Orchard held its annual BBQ and Baptism.

One word describes the event for me: UNBELIEVABLE.

Here are just a few reasons why it was unbelievable:

• I remember 6 years ago how many we baptized (18 people) and was overwhelmed several times this evening watching as the waterpark was filled with families (many of which I have never met), and realizing that following Jesus is the best decision anyone can make.
• Being able to celebrate with those who are taking that next step in their spiritual journey
• Watching the tears of joy streaming down the faces of parents, as their kids get baptized
• Hearing the life stories of many who were impacted by The Orchard (directly or indirectly)
• Being able to baptize next to my wife
• Still taking this journey together with our dear friends, Scott and Amanda Hodge

Here are some pictures from the event.

Scott instructing a room full of people ready to be baptized

Prayer right before we head to the park for baptism (these are all the people getting baptized!)

Friends who got baptized

The Jones family

Scott with the team that captured it all on video

Stay tuned to more pictures here or here.

Enjoy!

This weekend I am teaching at The Orchard.  (Join us Saturday at 5.00 or Sunday at 9 or 10.45 a.m.)

One of the things that I will be touching on is this notion of significance.

Some excerpts from the message: 

…What if you are exactly the way God wanted you to be?

…What if everything about you is a part of God’s tapestry?

…God wants to be a part of your everyday life, even the mundane and boring.

…What if the greatest thing you ever did in life you will never know about until you get to heaven?

See you tomorrow, or Sunday!

I heard a speaker several years ago pose the question, “Is God safe?” I thought to myself back then when I heard it, and even now, that it was a loaded question.

I am reminded of a great theologian and writer that lived decades ago, who wrote the Chronicles of Narnia, C.S. Lewis. He best captured this idea of “God being safe” in his epic story of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.

In C.S. Lewis’s Narnia Chronicles, one of the characters hears a description of the Christ figure in this book, Aslan, and it occurs to her for the first time that she might be a little nervous, if she were to come before this magnificent being. And her teacher and guide says, “That you will make no mistake. Anybody that could appear before Aslan without their knees knocking is either braver than most, or just plain silly.”

The little girl says, “then he isn’t safe?”

(I love the next line.)

“Safe! Haven’t you been listening at all!? Who said anything about safe? Of course he isn’t safe. But he is good. He is the King I tell you.”

At the literally mundane level, Jesus knew how to transform the molecular structure of water to make it wine. That knowledge also allowed Him to take a few pieces of bread and some little fish and feed thousands of people. He could create matter from the energy He knew how to access from the heavens right where He was. He knew how to transform the tissues of human body from sickness to health, and from death to life. He knew how to suspend gravity, interrupt weather patterns, eliminate unfruitful trees without saw or axe. He only needed a word. Surely He must be amused at what Nobel Prizes are awarded for today.

In the ethical domain He had an understanding of life that has influenced world thought more than any other. Death was not something imposed on Him by others. He explained to His followers in a moment of crises, He could at any time call for 72,000 angels to do whatever He wanted. A mid sized angel or two would surely have been enough to take care of those who thought they were capturing and killing Him. He plainly said,

“Nobody takes my life. I lay it down by choice. I am in a position to lay it down and I am in a position to resume it. My Father and I have worked all this out.”

All these things show Jesus’ cognitive and practical mastery of every phase of reality – physical, moral, spiritual – He is Master only because He is maestro. Jesus is Lord can mean little in practice for anyone who has to hesitate before saying Jesus is smart. He is not just nice. He is brilliant. He is the smartest man who ever lived. He is now supervising the entire course of world history while simultaneously preparing the rest of the universe for our future role in it. He always has the best information on everything and certainly on the things that matter most in human life. — Dallas Willard