Yesterday someone said something to me that bugged me. It doesn’t matter who it was or what they said. I know this person cares about me and respects me. I am sure of it in fact. But they did. Said something that got me frustrated with them.
It was such a small comment.
But I felt offended a bit, insulted. I did however apply Prov 12.16 to the situation. It says a fool shows their annoyance at once but the prudent overlook an insult. That is something I try to do when I am frustrated. It helps me to not get into unnecessary arguments when they can be avoided, and many times I have discovered that the person who said the annoying thing didn’t mean anything by it. They meant no offense.
It was the right thing to do.
But later that day I ended up saying something much more thoughtless to someone else. I never meant my words to be hurtful but they were. An off-hand remark that I didn’t even notice at the time, but as soon as I was told about it I hurt for them. The person I said it to very graciously brought it up to me privately later. They offered grace before I even had time to ask for it.
My realization of how easily I can hurt someone with my words makes me desire to offer grace all the more. What I receive I want to give.
Peace, Jim
I am conflicted about the Occupy Wall Street movement.
I can understand the frustration that many feel when they think about our current political system. I feel that pursuit of power and lack of willingness to serve is not connected with any political party. It is a part of who we are as people. So, I get the idea that “Just vote them out,” only replaces one problem with another. We are almost always in campaign mode and the problems of our country and world require more focus than they receive.
I can also understand the frustration of those who look at the ways the OWS movement is getting in the way of the commerce of the regular working class people they are claiming to represent. The excesses, the question of whether it will ever really amount to anything. Who are the 99%, do they really represent me, and what is it that they would suggest that is better?
This certainly isn’t the first to handle that dilemma, but I like it and wanted to pass it along. Thoughts?
Jesus Ween. Let it sink in. Jesus Ween. 
Here is the from Tamara Gignac of the . Please know, it isn’t the heart of what Paul Ade is doing that is the problem as much as the cheese factor of the naming.
CALGARY — Tiny ghosts and goblins hoping for sugary snacks may find something odd in their loot bags this Halloween: a bible.
A Calgary pastor is promoting Jesus Ween, a faith-based alternative to the traditional holiday fare of candy and spooky garb.
Instead of chocolate bars and gummy bears, he’s asking people to shun demonic costumes and instead dole out pocket-sized bibles or other “Christian gifts.”
The idea has caught on in communities across North America, according to Jesus Ween creator Paul Ade. He’s hoping it will bring a new perspective to an otherwise pagan festival, he said.
“I do not associate myself with ghosts, demons, Satan and witches. These are things I want to get rid of,” he said.
“If it’s OK for a child to know about demons, it should also be OK for a child to know about Jesus.”
Jesus Ween has attracted international attention, with media reports circulating as far away as Britain.
The Calgary man’s efforts to reinvent Halloween even prompted parody south of the border, with recent gags from U.S. pop culture satirist Stephen Colbert and late-night television host Jimmy Kimmel. (more…)
I guess I have a few concerns about this whole . I mean, beyond the potential misuse of millions of dollars in endowment
money…
What is clear here is that the church leadership is trying to blend two things that I feel are not good to blend. 1) the scriptural challenge to help one another out – this one I like; and then 2) the cultural value of keeping others away from us – this one I don’t. 
It would seem that the church is so comfortable maintaining distance between the leadership and the members that they don’t see the disconnect. So you get “Please help out by sending over meals – but give them to the limo drivers, please don’t come by our home.”
Am I the only one who is bothered by this?
On this day in 1517, the priest and scholar approaches the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg, Germany, and nails a piece of paper to it containing the 95 revolutionary opinions that would begin the Protestant Reformation.
If you want a brief rundown of the ensuing years, hit .
And so began the Protestant movement, even though it wasn’t called that until a number of years later.
I am a product of that, especially now that I am a pastor of a non-denominational church near Va. Tech. My question is, “do we as Protestants, or better yet, do I as a Protestant, protest too much?” This question comes up as we as a church are in the midst of a series on the Lord’s Prayer. A prayer that many recite weekly in church’s all over the world.
We as a church don’t.
And my question is, is that good? Is it good to include in the general flow of a Sunday gathering time something that can easily become rote and mundane? Or the counter, is it wise to not regularly participate in one of the traditions the church has widely participated in over the centuries?
My concern with the former is that we can easily mishandle very sacred things. A bit like eating on the good china everyday somehow reduces the specialness of it. But my concern with not engaging in its reading and reciting is that I am pushing away something very valuable just to show that we are different.
To be fair, to me and the elder team I lead with, we have thought about this a great deal. We aren’t just pushing away tradition for the sake of pushing away tradition. But, on the anniversary of this moment in time that truly created a fork in the road, I do wonder if there are areas I simply protest for reasons less well thought out. How much of my decision making is influenced by the fact I am a Protestant, who is in ministry primarily among generations that are much more comfortable determining what they are against than what they are for.
So… thoughts?
Peace, Jim
So… what did you learn over your sabbatical? I mean, the question itself is tough. But I do feel that God showed me
a couple of things… One of the things that I have been reflecting on for the past number of months is my posture. Not my physical posture, although that is something I have been trying to be more aware of. My spiritual posture. My emotional posture.
I think that God is calling me to focus on a posture of grace and receptivity in this next season of life and ministry. Just before my sabbatical started, I had the opportunity to be a part of a coaches’ training time through Ecclesia. A was leading it out. Overall great stuff, fairly Jungian (in a good way), listening stuff. The leader, Brian helped me to bring together the discipline of asking good questions and through doing so, helping someone hear God’s voice.
What struck me was how difficult it was to not insert my own.
In his fantastic book, , Malcom Gladwell hits on that very thought. “The key to good decision making is not knowledge. It is understanding. We are swimming in the former. We are desperately lacking in the latter.” (p. 265) His point is that we have the capacity to, in areas that we feel competent and experienced in, to make blink judgements. Draw conclusions in two seconds. The longer I walk with God, I grow both more comfortable and less with that.
I am probably more comfortable, challenged, and clear on what God wants me to do than I have been in a long time. I am seeing fruit from my efforts – it is working. In the way I have asked God to make it work, on the timeline that I have asked for it to work. It doesn’t always happen that way, so I love the ride. That gives me a sense of confidence. (more…)
Whew… As they say where I grew up, it has been a bit of a while.
They would be right. My last posts were in the buildup to my sabbatical in May. It does beg the question, how has the cyber-world managed without having me dropping quality content a couple of times a week? :)
I’m back. And I have been reflecting on my reflecting.
Last February marked the start of my 15th year with [nlcf]. Last April I turned 40. Last August, Emma, our youngest started at Blacksburg Middle School and our oldest, Noah, started High School. In September I developed my first knee issue.
Many things that remind me that I am getting older. Don’t get me wrong, overall I like getting older. I like the wisdom that God is giving me as I walk through life. I love the experiences that I am acquiring, love seeing our kids get older and take on new challenges, inlcuding the always overlooked middle child, Seth (I should know, I was a middle too). If I have to grow older, God has given me the greatest woman that I could ever hope for to grow old with.
But, it begs the question, if 15 years, likely 1/3 of my work life is already in the books, is there anything that God would like to say that I haven’t been willing to hear, able to hear, ready to hear? In Romans, Paul was led by God to write a very simple statement that is quite a bit more complex to live out than it seems.
“Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is — his good, pleasing and perfect will.”
Rom 12.2
Seems fairly straightforward, no? But that was just my question to God. Am I being more conformed to the pattern of this world, or more conformed to the pattern of the kingdom of God? It would seem the difference would be obvious, but it isn’t, at least not to me.
I really wasn’t sure about any of these things. But I knew God was walking me into a time where he could bring much or all of that into clarity. Sometimes its great to get answers, and other times, the scariest thing God could do is give us a strait-forward answer to our question.
Over the next few weeks I’ll share some of the thoughts I came across. I don’t claim that they will all help anyone else. My hope is that they will, but the main purpose of this is to reflect on my reflection.
Peace, Jim
Just checking in to update that my sabbatical is going very well. If anything, it is going by too fast!
I am sensing God’s voice in a few areas, have done some very prelimary work on the next book, read ten others, and have been able to study a number of scriptural areas in great depth. All this while our family planted a garden, traveled a bit, took a few naps and have had a lot of family time!
My sabbatical ends Aug 6 and things will be nuts for a while. I should be back in the blogging groove by early Sept.
Peace!
Jim
So, a number of people have contacted me and asked about why my postings have dropped over the past few months.
Fair question with an easy answer. Since May 15th I have been on sabbatical, and for the roughly month and a half before that, I was getting ready to go on that sabbatical. It got a little nuts.
The first six weeks of my sabbatical is intended to be a writing sabbatical where I would be able to do some very preliminary work on the next book; very preliminary. I also want to continue some things to help promote the first one. The second six weeks would be straight sabbating. Some focused reflection in the morning and then just enjoying whatever we as a family wanted to do, by ourselves or with friends.
A bunch of people have asked what the point of a sabbatical is.
To the second question. No. Certainly God has the ability to guide us wherever he chooses to, but, no indications that we are leaving the area or [nlcf] anytime soon.
Now for the first question, is this just another word for a vacation? The simple answer is, kinda. The word we get vacation from is actually vacationem (nom. vacatio) “leisure, a being free from duty. It also means freedom or release from an occupation or duty. So, in that way, it does fit. This summer I am not doing the things that I have spent the last 15 years doing in my ministry work as they relate to my job. No teaching, no coaching of staff and leaders, no meetings, no planning, no assessing, no networking or helping out with any of the churches, congregations, and non-profits [nlcf] has started or helped to start. I certainly continue to live my life as a follower of Jesus, I just don’t do certain occupational activities I have been doing for [nlcf].
That is certainly a release from my occupational duties. And it has been great!
However, it doesn’t fit most people’s idea of a vacation in other ways. The term sabbatical comes from the Mosaic code of the Old Testament. It meant, the 7th year where the land was to remain untilled, slaves were to have been released, and debtors relieved of their debts. If you look at the Mosaic code, you get the intent of the sabbatical or Sabbath year. It wasn’t just do take a random break, it was to take a reprieve from the demands of yearly planting so the ground could actually be more fruitful in the future. It was to stop doing some things to remember more fully who God created them to be.
That is very similar to what I am trying to do. I have been on staff with [nlcf] for 15 years. I started as a staffer who had never led a small group and who was still a pretty new follower of Jesus. Think of where I started as the equivalent of the corporate mailroom. As the years progressed I have had just about every job in [nlcf] you can have. I even led worship one pitiful Sunday.
The reason I think God guided me to ask for the sabbatical this summer, and the reason I think he guided my co-pastors, friends and Tracy to encourage it, was that I needed to take time away and let the ground remain untilled. Get away from the demands of helping to guide a church and all that requires and take time to allow the ground to soak up a few extra nutrients. Step back a bit and reflect on whether I am becoming more fully the man God has created me to be.
I have already had more time to spend with my family, and that has been wonderful. God speaks to me so much through them. I have already read five great books and look forward to many more. I have been able to sit down and read Leviticus in a sitting (not everyone would say that is a good thing) I have had more time than normal to pray and more time than normal to reflect. We have had a few neighbors over, with plans for more. We have had the opportunity to help a few people that needed it. We have planted a garden for the first time ever and I am getting to some yard and house work that has been long overdue. (more…)
I remember the first time I read Job. I remember reading the wild account of God and Satan interacting. I remember the tension of a real Satan that was seeking to harm humanity in real ways being allowed some freedom to work by God, while at the same time being contained beyond a certain point as well. I remember Job’s life being ripped to shreds by Satan. I remember Job’s very visceral suffering, his understandible anguish at the loss of so much in his life. I remember Satan’s claim that Job would eventually curse God and I remember wondering if he would.
And I remember his friends.
11 “Three of Job’s friends were Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite. When they heard of the tragedy he had suffered, they got together and traveled from their homes to comfort and console him. 12 When they saw Job from a distance, they scarcely recognized him. Wailing loudly, they tore their robes and threw dust into the air over their heads to demonstrate their grief. 13 Then they sat on the ground with him for seven days and nights. And no one said a word, for they saw that his suffering was too great for words.” Job 2.11,12
So, Job’s friends hear that he is suffering and decide to come and comfort him. When they got there, his pain is so overwhelming they just sit with him for a week. Just spend that time with him. Amazing.
Then they started to talk. (more…)
