Fears, Faults, & Failures

            This past week our students continued looking at the series Rhythm that they will be working through over the next month.  Each week includes a discussion question that our parents and their students are encouraged to wrestle through together.  The third week’s question read as follows, “This week students will explore the things that create tension in their own self-perception and learn the ugly truth: Being in rhythm with ourselves and being in rhythm with God go hand in hand. How we view God our Creator affects how we view His creation, ourselves. They will consider the masks they wear and the faults they try to cover up, and they'll receive a challenge to begin to shed those masks and be at peace with who they really are. Talk openly and candidly with your student this week about the things both of you have a hard time accepting when it comes to the faults you see in yourself. How can you better accept yourselves as you are?”

            Honestly, when I first read this and thought about it, I just cringed at the thought on truly evaluating myself in an open and public manner.  Are there faults that I see in myself, yes.  Do I accept myself all the time as Christ does, not really.  As I thought through this I could think of no better example of accepting ourselves, faults and all, than the Scripture that we shared with the students this past week, from John 4:3-30.  Here is a modern day telling of this Scripture.

 

            As you can see from either this video of the Scripture itself, this woman was filled with insecurities and failures.  She was terrified to come to the well with the other women because of what they would say or think.  She was stunned that Jesus, a Jewish man, would talk to her in this context since it was prohibited in their day for men/women to talk as well as Jews/Samaritans.  However, the real shock was when Jesus saw through everything and went directly to the heart of the matter.  He dealt with her in a loving manner by extending grace to her, faults and all. 

I wonder how many times we miss getting to know someone because of their faults.  I wonder how many blessings we miss because we are so preoccupied with our own faults, fears, and failures rather than devoting our time to help someone in need.  My challenge to you today, is to embrace your fears, faults, and failures as they are a part of you.  Work to better yourself by relying on God’s grace and love to assist you in this process of “chiseling” your life to be more loving and accepting of both yourself and others.

Unsung Heroes

            Starting next month our students will hear a new series that touches a spot very dear to my heart.  We will be looking at a series entitled The Invisibles.  Here is a brief series synopsis about this wonderful series;

“We are surrounded by the invisibles. These are people who simply want to know someone cares, someone notices? People who want to know God cares. Some of us would even say we feel that way? Invisible to an entire world, daily passing us by. Whether that feeling is a familiar one or not, the reality is that each one of us has felt invisible at one point or another. But we didn't stay that way. God saw us. He sees the invisibles. And because God took notice of us, we are able to open our eyes to see those around us.”

As I have thought about this series and how to start the conversation I began thinking about “the invisibles” in my life?  Who are those people that are the unsung heroes, who have played a role in my faith journey?  As a youth director, there are several people that I could mention such as my youth pastor and FCA director who both invested in me during my teenage years to help me figure out God’s call on my life.  I could note a couple professors who helped me through college wrestling with the adventure that God has called me too.  There have also been pastors and volunteers who have supported, encouraged, and prayed for/with me during my faith journey as well.  But all of those people are not the unsung hero that I wanted to talk about today.  Sure they are wonderful people, blessed with amazing gifts that they are using for God and without them I would not be where I am today.

However, the unsung hero in my life is someone that I see every day.  It’s someone who embraces me, cries with me, listens to my stories, cares for me, and loves me unconditionally.  Many of you may be thinking I am referring to my personal relationship with God, which is exemplified by all of those traits, but my unsung hero, is my wife Mindy.  Without her by my side over the past eight years (seven of which has been our marriage) I don’t know where I would be.  She is always there supporting me, loving me, and caring for me.  However, how often have I stopped to thank her for the love and care that she freely gives every day?  How often have I truly thought about the sacrifices that she has made so I can pursue the God placed on my life?  How many nights has she stayed at home raising our kids, so I can go to the church, athletic event or concert of a student from the church?  How many sleepless nights has she endured because I was gone to a retreat, mission trip, or conference?

Mindy, truly is the unsung hero of my faith journey (not to mention the youth ministries that I have served in) because of the personal sacrifices that she has made to be loving wife, compassionate mother, youth ministry volunteer, or any of the several other roles that she has filled during our journey together.   She has helped me through so many challenges and celebrated the wonderful joys of ministry along the way as well.

After wrestling with this thought for the past week, I started thinking about the students, parents, and families that I have served during my ministry career.  I wondered how many students felt “invisible” to their parents and friends?  I wondered how many parents felt “invisible” to their spouses or children despite all of their hard work and sacrifice?  I wondered how many families felt “invisible” to the church or that they couldn’t share their hurt and pain for the fear they would be judged?

My challenge to you today is simply to start looking for the “unsung heroes” in your lives, families, and faith journey.  What can you do to say thank you to those people who have helped shaped who you are today?

Where is Your Wonder?

            This past week our students continued looking at the series Rhythm that they will be working through over the next month.  Each week includes a discussion question that our parents and their students are encouraged to wrestle through together.  The second week’s question read as follows, “This second week, students will be challenged to look at God in new ways. Many times we find that we are so familiar with “churchy” descriptions of God that we forget who He really is. And when we forget who God is, how awesome and surprising He can be, then we are tempted to turn our attention and affection to other things and our lives fall out of tune. In week two students will be challenged to discover a God who is bigger than our attempts to define Him. Discuss with your teen ways that God has surprised you and your family with how big He is.”

            This particular thought is something that I have often wrestled with throughout my faith journey.  As I was going through this lesson with our students this week, I began to find myself wrestling with this theme again.  As we read the familiar passage of Adam and Eve falling into temptation in the garden, we discussed how crazy it was that they traded their “wonder” of God for a measly piece of fruit?  But don’t we do the same thing so often?  We trade our wonder and sense of awe that should be directed at God for something as small as the latest Facebook post or tech gadget.  We surrender what should be an amazing sense of wonder towards our Creator for so much less.

            In my own life this is most evident in my love for the Boston Red Sox’s.  As a freshman in college I chose to start following this team, simply to spite my best friend who is a Yankee’s fan.  However, this passion quickly evolved into following a team that I grew to love.  It has become my passion which is evident by walking into my office or taking a glance in my closet.  I am proud to wear the various Red Sox attire that I have acquired over the years, even in challenging seasons like this one, and cheer them on no matter what.  I was thrilled a little over a year ago to go to Fenway Park for the first time and see a Red Sox’s game this year for the first time as well.  It has been an amazing journey that has demonstrated the joys and frustrations of life. 

 

However, as I thought about my passion for the Red Sox’s I began to think about my own passion for God.  Do I get as excited when I open my Bible, sing praises to God, or hear a message about His love for me, as I do when I watch the Red Sox play?  Do the words of the Bible impact my heart the same way I feel when one of my favorite players has an outstanding game?  Do I expect the same kind of miracles when I pray for those I love as when I “pray” the Sox’s get a win?  In all honesty, I find myself falling extremely short in this area.  If I really examined my heart and you too, I think we could admit that there are several things that steal our “wonder” of God.  We are quick to place the wonder that should be solely reserved for Him on other things, dreams, or wishes.

God desires to surprise us by demonstrating how big He actually is.  The problem to me seems to be that we fixate on things that are smaller, temporary, or have an expiration date rather than the vastness of God’s love for us.  What would your life look like if you truly embraced the wonder of God in your daily life?  What would your outlook be if every time you opened your Bible you were amazed at the stories in a new and fresh way?  What if you began to pray for miracles that seemed impossible to us, but were simple for God?  I challenge you this week, to truly start to celebrate the wonder of God and celebrate how big He truly is!

Finding Rhythm in the Song

          This past week our students started a new series entitled, Rhythm.  “The first week of the Rhythm series is designed to help students understand that in the beginning, God established a rhythm. They unpacked the story of creation and the harmony that existed between Adam and God, Adam and nature, and Adam and Eve. They entertained the idea that from the start, that everything worked together in perfect harmony like a beautiful song. But then Adam and Eve made a choice that destroyed the song and threw the rhythm off. They also looked at God’s response to Adam’s sin, and saw that God continues to seek a relationship with us even after things have fallen apart.

Parents, talk with your teen about how he or she sees the brokenness in the rhythm around them. Feel free to share your observations as well.” (Orange curriculum Parent Cue-Rhythm-Week One)

As I thought about this question of where I see brokenness in the rhythm around myself, several thoughts began to creep into my mind.  I recently have been thinking about several issues surrounding poverty, hunger, and other social justice issues.  I have wondered if in “dealing” with these issues if we are simply “throwing money at the problem” or really seeking a solution to the issue.  As we seek to combat the “evil” in the act are we doing so with grace and love in our hearts?  Are we trying to equip those affected with a process of rehabilitation or just get them out of the situation currently?  All of these thoughts have really challenged me lately.  However, the most obvious example of this came to me on Monday evening while watching a television show.

On Monday evening my wife and I were watching The Voice, as they started their competition with the blind auditions.  The second girl featured came out and sang an amazing song with her incredible voice that got the attention of the judges.  A couple turned around but when they started the conversation with her was when it got interesting.  They asked her about her story and she shared that her father was a pastor and when she started to question her identity, as all teenagers do, the church began to shun her because she was “different.”  She stated that her parents still loved her and supported her but that the church refused to allow her to sing within their building.  I felt my stomach start churning as I wondered how many other people had been “turned off” to Christianity because Christians told them they were to “different?”  What ever happened to grace, love, and mercy?  Shouldn’t we as Christians be seeking to embrace others in love, caring for them, and seeking to introduce them to a relationship with Jesus, rather than condemning/judging them? 

What would it look like if we as Christians sought to embrace the hurt and pain in our world while seeking to be like Jesus was with the woman at the well or the woman caught in adultery?  What would it look like for our lives to be in rhythm with God’s heart in this way?

Slacking in Service?

            This past week I have been thinking a great deal about people who are “servants” or “members in ministry” in the church.  As we approach the start of our fall programming at Faith UMC, I am encouraged by the great number of individuals who are Falling Into Faith and serving in their local church.  These individuals are willingly giving of their time, energy, and resources to be a blessing to someone else, for which they need to be commended.  Serving others is sometimes a challenging thing to do as it may make us uncomfortable, present challenges, or cause us to simply sacrifice our time.

            With that in mind I was thinking about a story I heard one time from a great speaker.  He shared a story about how an individual went into different levels of schools asking the same question.  They started their experiment by walking into a kindergarten classroom and asking the students “Who of you can draw?”  Every student in the classroom raised their hands.  “What can you draw?” was the next question.  Every student began shouting out their answers, excitedly claiming that they could create the largest masterpiece.  “How many of you like to sing?”  Again every student raised their hands and eagerly tried to outdo the other students with what they could sing.

            Next this individual traveled to a third grade classroom, asking the same questions.  When the question arose about who could draw, he noticed fewer hands were raised.  When asked what they could draw, specific answers were given, such as, “I can only draw horses.”  The question about singing rendered the same results, as students stated they could only sing a certain style of music.  This raised a level of curiosity in the individual asking the questions who then traveled to a high school classroom.

            He asked the students the same two questions, “Who can draw?” which seemed to fall on deaf ears as only a couple of students in the classroom raised their hands.  When asked about what they could draw their answers were extremely specific limiting their creativity.  The question about singing rendered the same results as only a couple of students acknowledged that they could sing. 

            After thinking about this for a great deal of time, the individual surveying asked the question, at what age did we stop believing we could do the impossible?  At what age did we lose our creativity?  At what age did we die?  Thinking about these questions causes us to question, why is it that the older we get the less we are creative and able to dream?  Thinking about this I think the same is true with where we serve.  As young children we believe that we can accomplish anything, serve anyone, and do anything.  However, the older we get the more limits we put on things based on our own level of comfort. 

            I know that I have been guilty of this throughout my life as a youth director/pastor.  I often times find myself thinking that I can only work with teenagers and their parents, however recently I was presented with an opportunity to work with the parents of younger children, which caused me a little discomfort at first, but then I thought of this story.   Why do I limit my area of service to one specific category?  Could I not be used in another avenue with more people?  When did I stop dreaming about the impact that I could have?  Am I willing to be stretched and used in this way?

            As you think about your own life and the ways that you are serving, I challenge you to dream “God-sized” dreams and think about the numerous ways that God desires for you to be utilized in serving His Kingdom!