Childlike Curiosity

A joy for me this summer was when an 80 year old volunteer at Vacation Bible School asked me, “How many brothers did Joseph have?”

I responded, “I am unsure and haven’t really thought about that question.”

The next day he informed me that there were twelve brothers. Even as a pastor I continue to learn more details. I grow in a deeper understanding of God’s people in scripture and what they reveal to us about God in our life today. Our conversations around scripture continued throughout the week. Each conversation was full of childlike curiosity and mature revelation.

These conversations brought me joy because often after a lifetime of studying scripture and hearing it week after week in worship most think we’ve heard it all. We feel there is no need to read again a story we assume we already know. Yet, as this 80 year old was reminded when he was teaching children. When we continue to read scripture there is always something more the Spirit reveals and new questions, new insights that emerge and in this our relationship with God grows.

My prayer is that we will (no matter our age), through scripture, continue to immerse ourselves in childlike curiosity and find mature revelation. As the Spirit reveals new questions and insights so we can emerge, into the world, living God’s Word in a new and vibrant way!

possibilites

O LORD our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!

Adonai, Savior, Abba, Immanuel, Redeemer, Deliverer, Yahweh, God our Rock, Logos, Counselor, Comforter, Advocate, Sanctifier, Shepherd, King of Kings, Creator, Prince of Peace, Everlasting God, Healer, Bread of Life, Refuge, Holy One, Alpha and Omega, I AM!

O LORD our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! You have set your glory above the heavens. From the lips of children and infants you have ordained praise because of your enemies, to silence the foe and the avenger. When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him? You made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor. You made him ruler over the works of your hands; you put everything under his feet: all flocks and herds, and the beasts of the field, the birds of the air, and the fish of the sea, all that swim the paths of the seas. O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!

Psalm 8 emphasizes the power of the name of God.

We don’t have one name for God – we have many names to describe a God of awe. The different names we speak help us to describe our God – the power of our God – the love of God – the omnipotence of God.

We may not have a perfect way to describe God, but we can recognize the gifts given to us when we consider God’s heavens, the work of God’s fingers, the moon and the stars, which God has set in place. This is a God who has put everything under our feet!

God is so much more than a name! When I look at a star-filled sky or a vast body of water I feel so small. Then in the midst of that smallness there will suddenly emerge a realization of the vast number of possibilities. We are a part of something larger. We are a part of each other. We are a part of the earth. We are a part of the universe. All of these parts lead to an infinite number of possibilities.

My prayer is that God leads us and guides as us we embrace our possibilities!

Cleaning up Leaf's

Every summer since I graduated from college in 99 my college friends and I get together at my parent’s cabin in Michigan.

A few summer's ago when we got together my friend’s child, Alex was with her. He was 3 years old (and now is 7) and has been at the cabin every year since he was in the womb.

And the year he began walking and talking he enjoyed hanging out with my father. Since I haven’t provided grandchildren yet, my father was especially enjoying it. My father, Dale, was spending most of his time fixing the boat. The boat had not been used for over a year because it needed a new gas tank. It was finally fixed and needed to be cleaned. It was full of leafs and dirt. And my father decided to ask Alex to be a big helper and clean out the leaf’s.

I was standing on the sidelines and began to watch this 3 year old begin to pick up the leafs and throw them over the side of the boat into the water. Alex did not do it as I would have done it. I would have complained and then grabbed as many of them in my arms as I could and throw them into the water.

Instead, Alex would get under dash of the boat grab one leaf, climb back up on the seat and took a moment to look at the leaf because each one had a different shape and different color. He would let go of it slowly and then watch it float down to the water and stair at the ripple it would leave on the water.

He would then climb down off the seat, go under the dash, climb back on the chair, look at the leaf, let go, and watch it drop down to the water and look at the ripple it left. At first I was annoyed and wanted to jump on the boat and do the work in half the time. Jodi stopped me and said don’t you think you could use something like this in a sermon someday. So, I kept watching Alex take care with each leaf… I noticed he was smiling and joyful about the task he was asked to do. He was not complaining as I would have instead he was attentive to each leaf and paid close attention to each.

Thanks Jodi… I too needed a reminder.

The reminder of how God cares for us. God does not complain when we make mistakes or don’t take time to listen or talk with God. God cares for each one of us individually. God is watching the unique path that we take and God admires the unique ripple that we leave on the world though our love and actions!

Be Quiet!

Last week I was at junior high camp at Luther Springs. At the very first worship service the kids were over excited and a bit loud. The counselors were trying to get control of the rowdy group so one of them yelled above the noise, “We’re about to start worship and what does that mean.”

A child raises their hand, “It means be quiet.”

“That’s right it’s time to be quiet.”

In the background I lean towards another pastor and sarcastically say, “I thought worship was when we lift praise to God, but I guess we can forget that… worship means be quiet.”

There is truth to the importance of being quiet during worship and taking time to listen to God. However, it is also a time when we open ourselves to the joy of life given to us in God and that is when we dance, sing, and make a joyful noise to the Lord.

As I’m sure most can imagine we sing a lot of songs at camp. We sing when we wake in the morning. We sing before meals. We sing as we are walking down the path in the woods. We sing around a blazing campfire in the evening. One thing I enjoy about all this singing is that it becomes a part of the norm. The kids will begin to make a joyful noise to the Lord during an everyday task without even noticing.

Giving praise to our God can manifest in many different forms. When we give praise to God in all we say and do – when we find ourselves lifting a joyful noise to the Lord even outside of the formatted worship service. The Spirit weaves into our lives in new and abundant ways. As a result in that quiet time with God, we are able to hear God more clearly.

Psalm 100:1-5
Make a joyful noise to the LORD, all the earth. Worship the LORD with gladness; come into his presence with singing. Know that the LORD is God. It is he that made us, and we are his; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture. Enter his gates with thanksgiving, and his courts with praise. Give thanks to him, bless his name. For the LORD is good; his steadfast love endures forever, and his faithfulness to all generations.

How to Come and Go with God

by Johanna Johnson

“The human mind plans the way, but the Lord directs the steps.” (Proverbs 16:9)

I am a planner in the first degree. I really like to be prepared, and to know what’s going on – or if things are to be left open, I like to know that we are planning to leave them open. “The human mind plans the way,” the wise author of Proverbs writes. And this is a condition my human mind knows quite well.
And yet, the sage goes on: “but the Lord directs the steps.” Ah, now there’s the trick. Looking back on my life, some wonderful experiences have come from planning. But the most fruitful and important experiences of all have come when all my logic said, “No, don’t do that,” but I let the Lord direct my steps anyway. They have come when I have leapt out in faith, telling my fear to take a hike. They have come when I simply ride the wave of God’s will, rather than reason my way out of it. God’s will took me 2000 miles from my California home to a little private college in Minnesota. God’s will took me 6000 miles from home to a village in Slovakia. God’s will took me to an Ivy League divinity school I never had any intention of attending. And God’s will took me to SW Florida for an internship that has proven an essential experience for me in my growth in ministry. God knows what God is doing, it seems.
Is it easy to ride this wave? Nope, not at all. But is it exhilarating? Absolutely! The most wonderful thing about the Lord directing our steps is that we know that with God as our navigator, we’ll end up in the right place. Maybe that place is far from home and everything familiar. Maybe it is exactly what is home and familiar. But it is always right – right where God intended.

Listening

An English professor, once shared an experience of a teacher who changed her life during high school. She says the classroom in which her teacher was teaching was located on the side of the building where a main thoroughfare of the city ran. Traffic was constant, including the sound of emergency vehicles, throughout each day. At the beginning of each class, the teacher would complain to the students about the noise from the traffic. The emergency vehicles especially annoyed him with their sirens.

After one weekend, the teacher addressed the class at the beginning as he usually did. This day he said he wanted to apologize to the class. He told them that this weekend his wife had an emergency situation. The service that the ambulance provided saved his wife's life and his baby's life. He told his students, "I want to apologize because I was listening to the noise instead of thinking about the lives."

In his external world, the teacher heard noise. The experience with his wife and child caused him to inwardly see that lives were being cared for by those noisy vehicles.

We are called to listen differently to all of creation and God. There is no doubt that noise has invaded our lives. Some can’t shower without music or go to sleep without the TV in the background. All this noise is simply noise. We must go deeper we must go inward. That is where we will find truth.


NOTE: The story about the English professor was shared by, Rev. Dr. Isaiah Jones Jr.

Fear or Sanctuary?

There are times when sharing the Word of God comes easily, others not so much. I’ll never forget the first time I was asked to preach about death. It wasn’t at a funeral. It was at a service of remembrance around Christmas time. Since the holidays are especially difficult for those who have lost a loved one we offered a service for them to come together to mourn, and hear some good news about God’s love in the midst of loneliness and grief. I was nervous and unsure if what I had to say could even begin to provide comfort.

Honestly, to this day I don’t remember what I preached but I do remember what happened afterwards. I finished preaching. Sat down and took a deep breath and prayed that God’s comfort was revealed. In this time of silence the organist began to play a song and I noticed a woman running to him. This woman must have just walked in because she wasn’t there for my sermon and she was frantically in need of help as she was carrying what looked like a paper towel.

As she disrupted the organist the pastor walked over to calm the situation and led this person into the narthex. After the service was over I asked the pastor what happened. She said, “It was urgent because she believed there was a demon in the paper towel.”

I responded, “How did she catch a demon in a paper towel?”

“I don’t know how and that was not the important question. It was important that she believed she had one.”

“So, what did you say?”

“I said we need to do with this demon as we need to with all of them, and that is, throw them in the trash.”

I don’t know whatever happened to this woman nor if she has been able to deal with the demons in her life. The truth is, our theology about demons may differ but the reality is when she was dealing with something that was a true threat and frightening she ran to the church. She ran to a place that was safe. She ran to place of comfort. She ran to place that represents a God who protects, comforts, and cures!

While I was busy worrying about a sermon on grief and death. God was busy opening the church doors to new life not lived in fear of demons, but in sanctuary with God.