numb with familiarity

Furthermore, we forget how to tell the story. Since we ourselves have become numb with familiarity our hearers are no longer moved by the emotion and passion for which the story deserved to be told. The numb speaker will become simply a giver of information and his sermons quickly become just passing more fence posts on the side of the road. As we speak of Jesus and are no longer astonished, then our hearers become bored and wonder why all this is worth listening to.

This disease of familiarity doesn’t just infect clergy or those with theological degrees; it infects everyone within body of Christ. As long as we continue to see the Scriptures as merely more information to be gathered and facts to be know and given, we lose the core of what is to be had. The Scriptures are alive and they are moving. They speak; God is not silent. He is still speaking through his written Word. We only need to view it through a different lens and simply slow down enough to let it sit and simmer in our hearts. We need to learn to look and to listen. And as we hear him speak to our hearts in new and fresh ways we will be able to communicate the message of Jesus in new and fresh ways. As we grow up in Christ, we change and life changes. How we speak of Jesus today should be different than the way we spoke of him ten years ago. The view we have of Scripture should be ever changing as well. Jesus does not change but we have changed on the journey; we have become more and more like Christ, the one we seek to be like.

new eyes and ears

I long to read the scriptures as I did at first. Reading the story Mark tells about Jesus calming the storm had me on edge and my imagination ran wild with the encounter Jesus and his small group of guys had with the storm. And to think that all Jesus did was speak into the wind and it was still. There was a great calm and they guys were terrified. They immediately asked each other, ‘Who is this? Who is he that has control over the wind and wave!?’

Now days, when I read it, my brain immediately jumps in and tells me how it all turns out. Oh, you know this one. Jesus commands the storm to stop and it does. Oh yeah. I know that one. Cool. What’s next? Yep, heard that one before too.

When you read the Scriptures for purely informational gathering, it doesn’t take long before it’s all dry and you find yourself numb with familiarity. It’s like hearing a joke for the third and fourth time. You just get to the point where you just don’t laugh anymore. It’s not funny; not as funny as when you first heard it.And when our lives in Christ become like a joke told too many times, we lose our astonishment of Jesus and the Scriptures. God becomes smaller and smaller; we are no longer impressed with it all. Our hearts become hard. Our eyes are blind and our ears our shut up in silence

I am rich. Our level of joy greatly depends on our outlook. If you compare yourself to the rich; you’ll feel like you are always suffering; if you compare yourself to the poor; you’ll feel like you have much and have much to give. You will see yourself greatly blessed. It’s all about the lens in which you view your life

new

Jesus,
Today is a new day; a day we have never seen before. Help us to notice You; help us to see what You want to show us.

our quest for freedom is really just more bondage

This is the way of the Kingdom—

There was a man who had two sons. The younger one went to his father and asked for his inheritance. His father gave it to him and the son left home to seek his fortune in a far country.

The son asked for his inheritance, but what he was really asking for was his freedom, the ability to live life on his own terms, in his own way, and to make his own decisions. Wanting no one to tell him what to do and how to live, he hopped the fence and left. Slipping out from under the authority of his father he actually believed he was attaining freedom. However, what the son viewed as freedom was, in reality, a life of rebellion, captivity, and slavery. And in turn, what he had always viewed as captivity and slavery was really life, freedom, and provision that had always been given freely by the father.

What he failed to realize is that all things had already been given to him. As the father mentioned to the angry older brother, “Don’t you know that all things I have are yours; they have always been yours?”

With being a son, there is an inheritance; all the things of earth have been freely given to us from the One who owns it all. All things were created by him and for him. All things have been placed under the authority of the Son and then, since we are co-heirs with Christ; all things have also been freely given for /to us; they are ours to be had. And Jesus said that if you ask for anything in my name, it will be yours.

The lesson is that the very things we are looking for, we already have. The things that we think we want are merely more captivity and bondage; fake life. I have found the things we think will make us happy never do; the things we never thought would make us happy usually do. Something in us wants to be served and we strive to be in a place of power. However, Jesus said that the greatest shall be the servant of all. To love—to serve—to give oneself away in the name of Jesus is the greatest.

today...i did not climb Everest

Today I didn’t climb Everest. Most times—most days, we strain ahead and yearn to get ahead to some other destination. We, too often, are caught rushing toward some distant goal or wishing to be in the unknown and uncertain future. With eyes on the horizon, the known present right before our lives is not good enough; it does not satisfy. It seems too common and ordinary.

In our hurry to be in a future place, the question I want to ask is, “So what will you do once you get there?” The future will then become the present and since we are never satisfied with the present we become focused once again on the unknown and uncertain future. What we don’t realize is where we are now was the future we were such in a hurry to be. The moment we have, which is stares us in the face will always be found lacking. The appetite of man is never satisfied; never satisfied when it fails to embrace the present moment in which we live. This way of thinking will always be a leaky vessel, never able to hold living water.

When you climb a mountain, the top is usually the destination. But what happens when you get to the top? You go back down; you go back down to live life. Life cannot be lived on the top of the mountain. Life is lived on the sides and at the bottom; the top of the mountain cannot sustain life. It is too far above the tree line, there is a lack of oxygen. There are no rivers or streams that flow on top of a mountain; they are in the valley. We must go back down.

Since the top of the mountain, this Everest of our restlessness, cannot sustain everyday life, it cannot be our goal; it cannot be the place we are forever longing to be. And since life is lived on the sides and in the valleys, we must be OK with this. We must learn to live today; in the here and now, where we all spend our time. It is the place in which life is to be lived; where it can be sustained.

Annie Dillard writes, “How we spend our day is, of course, how we spend our lives. What we do this hour, and that one, is what we are doing.”

Right now--what you are doing right now is your life. What you did today is how you are spending your life. Away with our intentions! Our actions today are our lives! If right now, what you are did today is not what you dreamt about doing when you were younger; if it is not what you are most passionate about; if it does not make your soul feel alive, then damn it, go do something else. You are dying!
Life; your life is being lived right this very moment. There are no do-overs.
Lord teach us to number our days that we might gain a heart of wisdom.

mini vans are cool; some thoughts about togetherness and the church

Throwing my credit card down on the counter will cover the dollar-sixty the employee of this coffee shop is demanding. It’s worth it and allows me to participate in the morning ritual called caffeine consumption.

My credit card has a security feature: my photo. It was taken seven years ago on a one hundred degree summer day in Georgia. I remember wiping the sweat off of my face and trying to smile as the bank teller made some joke that only accountants know how to make. Smirking, I made a slight attempt to take a worthy picture.

Three months later, someone stole my card and bought a tank of gas with it. When they caught up to the person, turns out it was a Hispanic girl. I am still perplexed about she was able to use my card to make a purchase. We looked nothing alike.

At the time the picture on the credit card was taken, I was in my fourth year of marriage, had one kid and a dog. Life is ever-changing. One day you decide to take a step back and the world goes flying by.

My biography currently reads: four kids, ranging from eight to two years of age, a 9 year old dog that does nothing but sleep, and am into my tenth year of marriage to a beautiful wife that somehow finds new and fresh ways to put up with me. I have less hair and a mini-van. A mini-van is always the sign of oldness or fertility; either one or the other, or both. I guess there is still the possibility that you Catholic or the alpha male in a polygamous cult.

Handing me a receipt and an empty coffee cup, the girl at the register makes a crack about how I look nothing like the security photo on the card. She is right, but she is not funny. Refusing to laugh, I walk away to fill my cup with coffee. Sitting down I looked at the picture on my credit card. Seven years ago; this picture was taken seven years ago. Has it really been that long ago? Hard to believe, but it is indeed true. Time seems to move faster the older one gets. Perhaps due to the fact that as we get older, there are more and more things we look forward to and anticipate.

We want to hurry and get into high school, then hurry to turn sixteen, then hurry to graduate, then hurry to get to college, then to turn twenty one so we can do something we have been doing for the last six years anyway. Hurrying to graduate, then get a job, then get married, then have kids, then for your kids to get older so you can have some freer time to pursue interests that have been on hold while you were changing diapers, filling Sippy cups, and cutting up chicken nuggets.

Before you know it, the kids are older and have grown up and you find yourself standing in the middle of middle age wondering how it got here so fast. Alarmed and/or frightened, we buy a convertible sports car or a motorcycle. If we survive the shock of the reality of middle age, then we are the wiser and if we are lucky, we start living life a little slower and pay attention a little more to the things that we seemed to have been missing as time moved by so fast.

Working with high school kids for thirteen years now, every year they sing the same song. It’s senior night at the last home football game. The senior players escort their moms onto the field at halftime and are recognized.

As I meet and speak with the mothers after the game, they cry and come up to me to tell me how much it has meant to them that we have taken the time to befriend their kid. Following soon after this is the highly predictable statement. Grabbing my arm, they look me straight in the eye and say, “It all goes so fast, doesn’t it?” “It seems like just yesterday they were only five years old. Now here they are, graduating and about to leave home. Make sure you take the time to enjoy these years with your kids because before you know it they’ll be eighteen and moving out of your house.”

I always reply the same, “Yes mam, I will be sure to do that.” I am fairly certain there was a person, much older and wiser that gave them the same speech a decade before. The unfortunate reality is that no matter how much I try; there is a great chance that in ten years I will be giving the same speech to a young dad or mom.
They are right, you know? Whether you realize it or not, all the things they said were accurate.

The problem is that we do not listen. We hear what they are saying, but we do not listen. Our ears are too dull to hear the wisdom of those who have walked before us. There are lessons to be learned from those older than we who learned from the school of life and not from listening to a teacher who has never done what they are teaching. It cannot be learned from a book, it must be learned by paying attention to those who have journeyed before us. The requirement is to not only acknowledge this wisdom, but to act on it; to seize the day.

“Teach us to number our days aright, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.” Psalm 90:12 NIV

To carpe Diem; to seize the day, to seize the opportunity, to make use of my time, this is my desire. The target is to live life well; to love well. The aim of our life in Christ is to love Christ and to love others completely and unconditionally out of our love for Christ.

Still, this is harder than it seems. Our days are fleeting and the wise Solomon said that our lives are a mist which is gone with the morning. Time is in no hurry to befriend anyone. Nor does he seem to want to slow down for us. So we will not wait for time, therefore let us focus on living in the here and now, to suck up the life that is right in front of us, to push life into a corner and not let it out.

Life is summed up in how we walk along with Jesus and with others. Life happens with people. Life is relationships. These relationships are where joy emerges and give value to the things we do. The things we do are merely vehicles, sidewalks, and pathways in which to walk with another. Michael Card has a CD entitled Joy in the Journey and that is exactly the message I desire to give. There is joy in the journey.

Furthermore, life is not our work, our job, our possessions. The worth of our life is now made up by how much we know, the degrees we have earned, or the accomplishments of our efforts. Life is not about what we will do or have done. I deeply believe that life is about who we have chosen to take the journey with. Life is relationships.

If we have all the accomplishments in the world and own all of the possessions we could ever want, it will not be sufficient unless there was joy found in the process of the accomplishment or joy found in the use of the possession. The journey is only a place that allows us to be together.

Let us learn to take the time to be with others. Unhurried time when there is nowhere to be and nothing to accomplish. Where the only act required is the act of being together. Life is not an arrival but a journey; a process. Learn to enjoy the process. Let us learn to be more about the journey than the destination. There will always be a destination. Destinations and goals to be met are endless; a chasing after the wind. Be with people. Take the time; find ways to create slow unhurried time with others.

In these places we go; these places we journey, they are put there to help us to be together. Humanity is made for community. We are made to be with another. The Bible is a relational book. It is about the relationship between God and man. Also, it is about the relationship between man and man. God created man because he is relational. Then he created woman because he did not want man to be alone. He gave woman to be the companion of man. Companionship is ingrained in who we are.

If humanity is created to be in relationship with God and others, then to be alone must be the worst of all possible diseases. I heard a man on the radio speak of the history of torture. He went on to describe some of these methods. Immediately, I assumed he would talk of ways to inflict great physical pain, but he most of what he described were methods dealing with human psychology.

To my surprise, he informed the listeners that the most harmful torture is one where a person is placed in a position where they are utterly and totally alone. All senses are removed; primarily sight, sound, and touch. It involves putting someone in a completely dark and soundproof room, then suspending that person in water to mimic weightlessness. The fingertips and toes are taped to take away the sense of touch. As a result, the victim is alone and without physical senses and when left in this position they will go insane.

Mother Teresa, who was a great, humble advocate for the poor and the dying, acknowledged the reality of poverty and lack of material possessions that many in India lived with each day. But, she went on to say, these are not to be pitied. Those in the west are to be more pitied because the west has many possessions but suffer from poverty of life. The west is dying from the disease of being alone. I am not sure that this applies to the entire western culture, but I do know that we live our lives on surfaces and often are in so much of a hurry that we do not know one another. We have many acquaintances but very few deep and close friendships. Indeed, something has to change in our lives if we are to be healed of poverty due to the famine of deep and close relationships.

God did not create us to be alone. He intends for us to have community with one another in him. God gave us the church.

The church is the community of believers who decide to live life together as they help each other become like Christ. The church was not created to entertain the attendees or to help them enhance their lives. And surely it was not supposed to be four songs and a forty-five minute monologue.

The church was created to provide a structure for a group of believers to journey together. Additionally, I am not so sure that the church was ever intended to have a physical address, a mail box, and a sign out near the street. Nor was it set up to be a business or to be run like one and it makes me want to throw up when pastors act more like CEO’s and middle management than shepherds of the people God has given them. It probably makes Jesus throw up too. My conclusion, as I have studied the Scriptures, is that the church was meant to be a group of people in Christ who share the journey of life.

The body of Christ is an organism; it is always living, moving, and changing. There is mystery in the connection between each other and with God. We move about on this earth to be light and salt and to reflect the way we love God and each other. Jesus said that people would know his followers by the way they love each other. Unfortunately it seems like the church has evolved more and more into a property to be built and maintained and programs to be run rather than a group of brothers and sisters who journey together and grow up in Christ.

In Matthew 5, Jesus started out many paragraphs like this, “You have always heard that it has been said that...; but I tell you .....” Jesus introduced an opposite way of thinking that the Jewish people were so accustomed to. Some reacted with amazement and astonishment and some were offended and reacted with jealousy. Jesus was seen as a threat to religious and human tradition. Jesus was and is dangerous to any system that tries to trap him or contain him. Jesus entered the world and came face to face with humanity.

We must learn to think differently about how we define church. Begin by changing the way we think, and move to a greater focus on the relationship we have with one another and with Jesus.

the church is not the Messiah

The church is not the Messiah. It is not our Savior, nor is any other ministry or program or twelve step processes. People in ministry are not the Messiah. Pastors, bible study leaders, musicians, authors, or any other Christian are not the Messiah. No, all of these are merely jars of clay; broken, cracked, fragile, and powerless to save. Jesus is the Messiah.

Jesus is the message. Jesus is the Messiah. Nothing else. No one else.

Yet in all of this I amazed how we can so easily stand up and proclaim that this person or that ministry or that program or activity has changed our life. Easily and possibly without giving it much thought, we collect and trade pastors, authors, worship leaders, or speakers as if they are baseball cards. Some have made themselves into heroes and celebrities. Not intentionally, but they do nothing to stop this foolishness; letting it happen.

Or what is more, it is silly how ministries and churches can somehow allow themselves to feel superior to another, as if they have discovered the “right” way or method to do ministry. Similar to Mormons who think that the “real” truth was given to Joseph Smith through crystal ball he found in the woods. This is pure foolishness!

Anyone in ministry whom God uses should exclaim, “Why do you worship me, a mere man!? Are we not people like you who have only encountered Jesus on the road of life and been given healing and redemption? Are we not simply people whom God has touched? Aren’t we all only mere humans still warring with sin and our idols? Haven’t we simply been redeemed by Christ?”

“Who gave man his mouth or the ability to teach or sing or write or serve? God. All of this is a gift given by grace through faith in Christ. This, none of this, is from ourselves and neither does it come from the work of our own hands. We, the church, would be wise in realizing this more and more and in doing so we realize that we cannot boast in nothing except only Jesus.”

When Paul and Barnabas healed the cripple man and the crowd rushed towards them and lifted up their voices saying “the gods have come down to us in the likeness of men!” But when the apostles Barnabas and Paul heard of it, they tore their garments and rushed out into the crowd, crying out, “Men, why are you doing these things? We also are men, of like nature with you, and we bring you good news, that you should turn from these vain things to a living God!” (Acts 14)

The man who was sitting in his right mind sat and begged Jesus that he might be with him and follow him, but Jesus sent him away, saying, ‘Return to your home, and declare how much God has done for you.’ And he went away, proclaiming throughout the whole city how much Jesus had done for him. (Luke 8)

Let us enter and live with the knowledge that Jesus is the Savior of people. He alone is the one who acts and works through and among us. Let us point to Jesus and away from ourselves, our ministries, our churches, and the silly labels we attach to everything within Christendom.

go away i am looking for life

It’s is easy to get so caught up in life that you miss life all together. Life knocks at the door and you say, “Go away, I’m looking for life!” And so it goes away or it stays and we continue to maneuver around it while looking for it. All the while life stands right in front of us.

The religious professionals cornered Jesus because he was not following the customary practices of the Law. He replies, “You have your heads in your bibles constantly because you think you’ll find eternal life there. But you miss the forest for the trees. These Scriptures are all about me! And here I am, standing right before you, and you aren’t willing to receive from me the life you say you want.” (John 5, The Message)

Our attention must be on Jesus alone. Aware of his movements and clinging to his presence, our minds must be willing to accept that he may at any time act against our worldly common sense or wisdom. Jesus may move left when we think the obvious move is to the right. He may do this when we think he will do that. He may speed up or keep moving when we are tired to teach us to rely on his strength instead of our own. He may stop when we think we should keep moving and he may rest when we desire to remain active to teach us that his timing is perfect. (I guess we should throw away the “What Would Jesus Do” bracelets.)

Through following him as he leads us and how he reveals himself in the Scriptures, we begin to understand that all things are under his control and created for his purpose. In Jesus, all things hold together. Whether we sleep or are awake the seed of the kingdom is grows. Thought we may not see it or know it now, the hidden, smallest, and most obscure seed will become the greatest of all the trees.

We cannot always use common sense and logic when following Jesus. I am not too sure Jesus is concerned about making sense. I think he acts according to the will of the Father and just as it perplexed and confused the religious leaders of his day; it may occasionally confuse our human, finite minds as well. To follow Jesus demands that we intensely focus on him and him alone; nothing and no one else.

20Where is the wise man? Where is the scholar? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? 25For the foolishness of God is wiser than man's wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man's strength. 27But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. 28He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, 29so that no one may boast before him. (1 Cor. 1:20, 25, 27-29)

having nothing yet possessing everything

“Dear parents, Susi just left the parcel for me again. I’m very grateful to you and to her for it. I would have asked you much earlier not to take so much trouble over me and above all not to curtail your rations, short as they are, in order to send me something. Of course, each time, it is a great delight…” Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Letters and Papers from Prison.

To lack something or things makes you more thankful for what you are given. When you have very little, you find yourself more grateful for everything you get. The longer you have nothing, the more grateful you become.

Few of us know what it means to have absolutely nothing. Yet some of us know what it means to live with little. I do. Yet even in the worst of it all, I have TV, heat and air, termite control service, life insurance, car insurance, two cars… I still have a comfortable life.

If you had $10,000 and I gave you $100 you would not be thankful, because you could not be thankful. If you had nothing and someone gave you $100, you would fall down and call the giver ‘blessed’ and consider it a clear and definite gift from God. To have nothing and then be given something is everything.

“Do not wear yourselves out to get rich; have the wisdom to show restraint. Cast but a glance at riches, and they are gone, for they will surely sprout wings and fly off to the sky like an eagle.” (Solomon)

Many of us wear ourselves out to get rich; no maybe not. Not so much to get rich but to be secure, to be safe, to be comfortable, or to maintain a lifestyle we want to have. We are a tired people here on this earth throwing all of our energies into solving problem after problem; attacking challenge after challenge. There is no shortage of problems and troubles. We go from one to another to another. Always is the presence of a challenge to be dealt with. We solve one problem and then there is another one to be solved. "All our days are filled with trouble and then we are gone—a chasing after the wind; vanity and meaningless and a chasing after the wind. Even at night our mind does not rest. " (Solomon)

How much does peace of mind cost? What is she worth? Can you even buy it or do you even have to strive for it? Could it possibly be that peace is given by the one who freely gives all things? Could it be that peace is there to be had, yet we choose to always be striving and toiling after safety, lifestyle, and challenges to be solved?

Perhaps we should have less, live on less, expect less, and not want as much. Could we be happier if we had only a few things and threw our lives into one or two pursuits?

“We are poor, yet making many rich; having nothing, yet possessing everything.” (Paul)

the lonely writer

Writing is indeed a lonely life. To be a writer; to write you must go to places no one else will go. Not that they will not, but that they cannot. It is not their choice to make; it is the writer’s choice. If you are to write, you must leave the presence of others. Choosing to write means that you choose to be alone, it must be done; it is a necessary task.

Writing, real writing cannot be done in a coffee shop or in a café full of people cackling on and on about the latest gossip or having to listen to the one visible side of a two way cell phone conversation. No, writing that comes from the inner most part of a person must be done in solitude. Solitude; who can find her? She is indeed the most difficult person to find.

However, when you lead a life that revolves around being with others it is difficult to spend the necessary time writing. The written word is an adulteress, she begs for your attention and no matter how much attention you give her, it is never enough. The problem is that the further you follow her, the deeper into it you get, the more you find words made of gold. Words are found that do not linger on surfaces.

I am torn between the two.

who do you say that i am?

Hard times make us think about the question “who do you say I am?”

As Jesus walked along with them, he asked, “Who do the people say I am?”
“Some say ‘John the Baptizer,’” they said. “Others say Elijah.” Still others say ‘one of the prophets.’”
Jesus then asked, “And you—what are you saying about me? Who do you say I am?”

When life gets tough and winds and waves rain down into the small and shaky boats of our life, we find that all the cliché’s and phrases we have picked up from cultural religion will not suffice. They will not do; they lack and lack completely. What others have said about Jesus will not be sufficient when the question is turned on us. The answers others have given have nothing to do with the way we think; they cannot.

So, the question comes to you and into the depths of who you are: “Who do you say I am?” “What do you say about me?” “Who am I?”

How we answer this question means all things and all things hinge on our reply. If he is indeed the Messiah; the Nazarene, God with skin and bone in whom all things are created, then we must trust in his name and ability to save. His hand is indeed mighty to save even when our faith cannot lift a feather much less a mountain; and we cannot even come up with a mustard seed.

The saving news is that there is a God who looks past our unbelief and intercedes for us even while we cannot find strength within ourselves. When we do not have the words to say or pray, the Spirit of God is right there alongside of us bracing and embracing our shaky knees. If we don’t know how or what to pray, he is right there alongside of us praying in and for us, making a prayer out of our wordless sighs and lack of words. Jesus knows us far better than we know ourselves. He is working and involved in every detail and area of our lives even when we cannot see it. He is present; Emmanuel---God with us.

unawareness

Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem, but his parents were unaware of it.

I walked out the door on my way to our Leadership gathering for Young Life. Opening the door to the truck I glanced back to see Delaney, my two year old daughter, with her face pressed up against the window. Her small face searched intensely into the outside darkness. Looking for me I could read her lips as she called my name over and over again. “Daddy, Daddy, Daddy!”

Her searching immediately grabbed my heart. She could not see me, but I could see her standing there with her face pressed into the glass. For an instant, it crossed my mind to ditch leadership and stay home, but I had to go.

Leaving the house, I did not make an announcement. There was no warning or alarm; I simply walked out the door. None of my other three kids noticed my departure. They were distracted watching television or were playing games on the computer. Only Delaney noticed and I think it was because she was paying attention. She was watching and as soon as I left, she chased after me.

An entire day had passed before Jesus’ parents realized that he was not with them. He was not with friends or relatives. Coming to this frightening realization, they left the company of travelers and hurried back to Jerusalem to look for him. (Luke 2) Fortunately, it had only one day had gone by before they discovered Jesus’ absence or became aware of their own leaving. Perhaps Jesus was where he was supposed to be all along. Perhaps it was the parents who left the presence of Jesus and not the other way around.

For some of us it has been longer than a day since we last saw Jesus. For some of us it has been days, months, years, or even entire lifetimes.

My own tendency is to pay so much attention to myself and my plans that I fail to notice the fact that I no longer search and look for Jesus. In pursuit of my own life I miss his leading. Too frequently, my calendar is so packed with activity that there is no possible way I could ever follow Jesus. My plans are set up so that I can only do a good job of following me. My own busyness, noise, and hurry keep me from the only thing really necessary: the pursuit of Jesus.

How long has it been for you since you last noticed the presence of Jesus in your life? Perhaps we should leave and hurry back to Jerusalem and search for him. Run!

slow enough to look for rocks

Landon and I walk around the lake near our house. It is anything but wild or adventurous. This neatly manicured path that holds this lake hostage is safe and convenient, lined with flowers, perfectly spaced bushes and trees, and the grass leading down to the water equals a fairway on a golf course.

Walking, I notice that Landon is no longer with me. I turn around and realize that he had stopped walking fifty yards back. I never even noticed.

“Let’s go. Come on!” I holler back at him.
“You’re walking to fast. There is not time to look for rocks!” he replies.

Then I remember that the goal is not to complete the walk around the lake, checking it off, as a task to be completed. There can be no measurements for progress and success here. The walk is about being together. It’s about the journey and today the journey is about looking for rocks.

All along in my mind it was about finishing a walk around the lake. In Landon’s mind we were taking our time to look for rocks so we could throw them in the water. He could care less about actually completing the walk.

If the journey is at a pace that is so hurried that doesn’t allow fellow travelers to come along, then the journey isn’t worth taking. Life is more about the process than the end product. Life is more about the journey than being in such a hurry to finish.