Rest

I was invited this weekend to tag along with a friend on his trip to Ft. Worth. After not being able to go to Florida (see the post “Delayed” for more), I still wanted to get away for just a little bit of time to refresh and renew. My expectations have yet to bemet. No slight to my friend who has been more than hospitable and no fault to the circumstances and conditions of my accommodations; plenty of opportunities exist.

What I have truly realized this morning is that my failure to disconnect stems from my “addiction.” My addiction to the adrenaline rush! The constant activity, planning and execution, rarely taking time to celebrate because there is another hill to climb or something else to do. This has been such a reality of the last year and half of my life (and longer) that I now find myself “unable” to truly rest. I can get away, but I can’t turn it off.  

Funny thing is that it is not from lack of knowledge. Last year the best book I read for me personally was The Rest of God by Mark Buchanan. In one place he writes “In a culture where busyness is a fetish and stillness is laziness, rest is sloth.” Our culture expects us to work constantly.”

This is my confession! Inwardly, I truly want to learn to rest; to establish rhythms in my life so that there is health.. So for me it is like an addiction. I know what I should do, but find often that I don’t really know how or, even scarier, don’t really want to know how to change.

If you have been here and found “rest”, please share.

No Chili

I went to lunch yesterday with two of my compadres at work and when it came time to order our soups and salads one of them asked for chili instead of soup. To which our waiter replied, “I am sorry but I don’t have any chili.” The would have been so bad except that the item my friend desired also happened to be the name outside on the marquee! My friend smiled and sarcastically retorted “Hum, a place with “chili” in its name doesn’t have chili at all.”

I couldn’t help but see the parallel about church-life. Do we really serve what we advertise? 

A church right down the road from my campus had on their marquee the following statement “Don’t let worries kill you, let the church help.” I couldn’t believe what I read and even had to turn around to make sure that what I saw was true. Gratefully, they removed the “let the church help” part off a day or two later.

Are we really serving what we call say we are, or is this simply an ideal of who we want to be? How deeply and agressively do we look within to see if our product matches our ideal. For instance, if Grace or Hope is in our name, would the person enter our place find that we have that in excess, in fact, it is our speciality? Does the church that I work for really offer life to our people?

I think the words that Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 1:12 say best what I want for my life and ministry. He writes, “We can say with confidence and a clear conscience that we have lived with a God-given holiness and sincerity in all our dealings. We have depended on God’s grace not on our own human wisdom. That is how we have conducted ourselves before the world, and especially toward you.”

Modern translation…”Yes, we have chili!”

 

Keep Short Accounts

I read a great quote today from Bill Hybels new book, Axiom, on the critical importance of keeping short accounts in our relationships. Here is what he said.

“When high-capacity people work in close proximity to each other, there will be friction. To expect otherwise is naive because inevitably something is going to be said or done by someone and someone else’s feelings are going to get hurt. What matters is what you do immediately after the infraction occurs.” (emphasis mine)

I still find Jesus’ statement in Matthew 5 hard to live out. You know the one about being in worship experience and realizing that that you are not right with someone and then leaving the venue to go reconcile before you to try to worship. Honestly, is this such a struggle? The norm is to delay, excuse, shift blame…anything but act in the way that Jesus said.

Funny thing about this is that when we do keep short accounts with others there is such a release. For a period, all is well in the world again. You know inside that you are right with another person and somehow there is confirmation that you are right with God.

So here is the question…why is it so hard to do what Jesus said the next time we have a relational debt to pay?

Me for President?

Much to my great surprise I woke up this morning to find out that I have been nominated to run for the Presidency! Don’t believe me check it out for yourself!

http://www.news3online.com/index.php?code=38qp190yG79ZDy28VGu0 

I will comment on this more later on, but for now…Let me say, if I am elected, I promise that I will…blah…blah…blah.

Delayed????!!!

I don’t really know to many people who are fond of delays. Honestly, I don’t handle them very well. A least not like my beautiful bride, Tami. Her approach to life is one of acceptance. Even if she doesn’t really like something her response (key word here) is one of acceptance, at times even embracing the change. Mine is typically a reaction (note the difference) which is often negative and down right childish…pouting, tantrum, and whining.  God is allowing this area of my character to be developed and it hurts. It began last Friday with the postponing of a root canal. Don’t get me wrong, I am not eagerly counting down the minutes with anticipation to enjoy this experience. Quite the opposite. I want it done and over. But after a two week waiting period for my insurance to give the go ahead, I discovered that they “never received the electronic request sent in by my dentist”…so two more weeks…delay.

I must have not passed the first test, because today I confirmed another potential delay. I am scheduled to fly out tomorrow for Florida; a week of diving, fishing, family and rest. It has been a year and a half since I have been home and I can’t express my excitement…well…I think Fay is going keep me here…especially since I am flying stand-by…again DELAY!

I Thessalonians 5:17-18 tells me “Be cheerful no matter what; pray all the time, thank God no matter what happens. This is the way God wants you who belong to Christ Jesus to live.” (emphasis mine)

This is way that God wants me to live. I accept that and even desire to live this way. But how do you re-tool your mind to accept and even embrace the delay?

Welcome!

I woke up this morning with a wonderful epiphany…”what the world needs is another person to create a blog!” So here it is! Born from my complusion to be heard…I mean read. I see that someone needs to know what is rattling around in my head and I must add my whitty banter and the to the collective consciousness.

Okay, not really. I just wanted to create a space for reflection, ranting and rambling and I trust that you will find content worth discussion.