The Divine Crash

That deep sigh after a great vacation! What a great time. But now it is back to the grind. I love what I do and I love being a pastor but there are times it is important to get away, disconnect, and recharge. I got to attend worship where I was in charge of nothing and spend the time with my wife. That was worth the whole vacation.

I don’t know how often you rest, but I would recommend that whatever your vacation time is you should use all of it!

Human Beings were not created as robots to work forever. We need to rest.  When we don’t rest we can’t function to the best of our ability.

So, take a break, and connect with the God who takes a day off.

Recently I was diagnosed with Arthritis in my ankle. It turns out that years of martial arts and a few extra pounds isn’t good for my joints and so at 29 I have constant pain in my ankle.  While my doctor figures out what she is going to do I am stuck trying to live with this achy joint that reminds me of how weak I am every time I move. I wonder if this is the Thorn in the flesh that Paul talks about, in 2 Corinthians?

I wonder if I pray enough if God will take it away?

Which brings questions about why God answers some prayers and not others? Why does God heal the convicted killer of cancer but ignore the child with leukemia?

Why does God do the things that God does?

Some see these issues as reasons to not believe in God. Still others see this has the mystery of God.

Me, I just look at it and say “that miracle must have been from God.” and I really don’t have an answer as to why God does what God does. All I really know is that my ankle hurts and I want a miracle.

What miracle do you need? The Bible says that God is close to the broken-hearted, so how are you broken-hearted? How do you need God to move in your life?

I don’t know if God will, but I know that God can and often does. I also think that, too often we don’t see God moving because we aren’t looking.  That sometimes God uses the doctors to do the impossible but because we aren’t paying attention we think that the Doctor just did it instead of God doing it.

Maybe I’m wrong. People far smarter than me have written thousands of pages about God and still don’t have all the answers so a simple blog post will never capture all there is to capture about God.

2 Chronicles 20:12b says this “We don’t know what to do, and so we are looking to you for help.” (CEB)

This shows up at a time when Jehoshaphat is about to be attacked and everyone is looking to him to lead. Jehoshaphat calls a fast and goes to God and pleads with God to punish their enemies or at the very least do something because he doesn’t know what to do.

As a pastor this is typically how I feel before I preach, counsel, attend a committee meeting.  (more…)

Sorry this is late, dealing with the internet all week made this take forever.

Today, I took my son to his first movie.  We spent the day together getting his hair cut and opening his first savings account.  Then we went to dinner and then we saw Cars 2.  It was a cute movie but what really got me was the amount of firsts that we had today.

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Today, I was packing my boxes for my upcoming move and I found a journal I kept before I started seminary.  I was never good at keeping journals and have even gone months between entries (I am amazed at how well I have done with this blog).  As a result I sat down to read some of my writings from this journal.  I found entries I wrote shortly before starting seminary and the arguments I would have with God about my becoming a pastor.

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Today we are starting a new and fresh look at Genesis 1.  For the month of May we will study only 3 chapters of Genesis.  Feel free to listen and download on iTunes.  I would encourage you to listen because some of it is not in the notes.

Genesis 1:1

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In the last few weeks I have had about six conversations regarding whether or not I would ever kick someone out of church, deny them communion, or refuse to do their wedding/funeral.  I don’t know why this keeps coming up and the people who bring it up seem to be across the spectrum of Christianity from seminary students to congregation members to other pastors.  I have been kicked out of church, it sucks.  Why would this even be a question or an option?  I think there a few reasons why people would want to kick others out of church. (more…)

For some reason my son has been waking up at about 6am.  This isn’t bad, as long as he stays in his room.  However, he has some radar that knows if I move.  It doesn’t matter how quiet I try to be.  If I move he runs into the room and jumps on the bed.  This means no going back to sleep and no relaxing.  It means I have to get up and get him dressed, brush teeth, and get breakfast around (and coffee).  I wish I had that radar.

I wish I had a radar that noticed when God moved, that as soon as God blinked I could sense it and run to God, jump both feet into his presence and giggle like a three year old.

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