Mental pictures and fictional mentors

In the spring of this year I got away to a place near the mountains to pray for a couple days. I really need to do that more often. Among the things God showed me was a picture of… get this; Jedi. I know – big surprise coming from me. But this picture was a way for God to show me something specific… something that has deepened over the months since that time away. Let me state here that I believe a mental picture is incredibly helpful in understanding and personalizing a profound truth.
My mental picture was a character in Star Wars Episode 1 “the Phantom Menace”, my favorite Jedi; Qui-Gon Jinn.

I feel that God was trying to tell me that He wants me to be more like Qui Gon in my leadership style, but I had been expecting myself to be more like the other Jedi hero of that movie; Obiwan Kenobi. Now if you are a non Star Wars fan – I hope you bear with me.
Qui-Gon is different from Obiwan in a few ways. First, he is older and wiser than his young apprentice. God was telling me I need to act my age, and recognize that I have some wisdom to offer. That it does not have to be prideful for me to step into a role of wisdom and authority in people’s lives.
Second, I was reminded of my calling – not to be the hero necessarily, but to be the one who mentors the heroes. The thought of mentoring and standing behind young disciples, calling them out to be heroes of the faith is humbling and inspiring to me.

Recently I had another thought. I have been really trying to spend time regularly in meditation. I find it is so centering and refreshing to my soul, mind, and body. In doing so I have been reminded by God of the need to be yielded to His Holy Spirit. I want to allow God full access to all of my life – to do as He wishes. In order to do this – God has really spoken to me – that I need to live in the moment, far more than I do. I am the kind of person who over-thinks everything. I plan and scheme, and try to anticipate every possibility. In other words, my mind is painfully aware of everything BUT the present. This leads to a lot of stress in my life. I constantly struggle with anxiety. So God in His love and faithfulness tells me to be “in the moment” – How the heck do I do that?! Well… God reminds me of my picture of Qui-Gon Jinn. Now, only the most nerdy Star Wars fans (of which I am one) will know that Qui-Gon’s philosophy of the fictional “force” was in opposition to the beliefs of other Jedi leaders of His time. They all believed in the “Unifying force” the aspect of this energy binding all, and unifying all. The focus was on using and directing the force in positive ways. By contrast, Qui-Gon believed in the “Living force”, asserting that the energy was somehow alive, and had a will that could be followed and obeyed… moment by moment, with complete trust and abandon. You see where I’m going with this? My living God has a will, and can speak to me! He is calling me to relax into His presence and be directed by Him with complete trust and abandon. I read the book of Acts in scripture - assuming that the apostles followed Gods Holy Spirit much the same way.
If I am successful in allowing God to change my thinking, and my patterns, the result could be a less stressful and more powerful life.
When was the last time you set aside time to give God space to speak to you? Has He given you any mental pictures to better understand and apply his profound truth to your life?

I am a shot

Sometimes a picture comes to mind that helps explain something about life. Just such an occurrence happened to me the other day. Two separate trains of thought collided to help me understand... how our lives are like espresso.

Espresso is different from normal coffee in that it requires the beans be crushed/ground to a finer degree, it also requires alot of heat and pressure. But these things do not guarantee a great cup of espresso. In fact, you could have the best beans roasted in Italy, and a $30,000 espresso machine, and still not achieve a great espresso. It seems that it also depends on subtle little details that affect the result. The fineness of the grind, how compact the coffee in the filter is, the temperature, and purity of the water, and a host of other nuances go into making a great espresso. When you taste espresso made by a master... it is like nothing else.

Just like life – crushing, heat, and pressure are inescapable, but that does not guarantee that I will develop inner character that will enrich the lives of those around me. It depends on subtle attitudes I take daily while in the process that will determine the flavour I become. As I run to God, seek Him, and choose to live by faith even when the darkness and despair of life seem to prove that God is not just, or loving... an aroma begins... then a beautiful product starts to emerge. I slowly and sometimes painfully develop an inner character that shares the greatness of God to whoever “tastes” me.

Next time you have a great espresso beverage, crack open your bible to Hebrews 12: 1-13, and Romans 5:1-5. And choose to trust the Master who is making something beautiful out of your struggle.

The Train

I had a thought... the church is like a train that transports soldiers to the front lines of a war. The church is designed by God to disciple every nation (Matt. 28). To transport people to spiritual maturity, Godly character, and Christ likeness. We ship people to the front lines of ministry, life, art, culture, leadership, and servanthood. The Church exists to take people from where they are (wherever they are) to a life of meaning and effectiveness as a disciple of Jesus... to bless all people on earth (Gen. 12:3), and serve those people’s journey toward Christ.

Theory number 268473

I have theories about everything. For instance, I spend time with people who WANT to be more acquainted with the teachings of the bible. They want to be the kind of person who digs in and studies the Word of God as an individual... someone who has at least a sense of what scripture teaches about the issues of life. BUT... they don’t do anything about it. They continue on unsatisfied, in a church culture where most people expect to be told what scripture teaches on Sunday morning. We want to be a person of the Word, but we don’t want it enough to live a little differently.

My theory is this;
...that we are actually too intimidated by the Bible to even try to dig in and understand it. For some reason we allow ourselves to be discouraged by fears of the bible being boring, or impossible to understand, or that we are too busy. None of these are true. The bible is not boring when we begin to grasp what it says. If there was ever a culture in the history of humanity that had a leg up – in interpreting the bible, it would be us. We have biblegateway.com, commentaries, and modern translations!!! And finally – no one is too busy to eat. At least daily. It’s all a matter of what is most important to me... and the reality that - I get to CHOOSE what is most important to me.

Wanna help me test my theory? If you do... try this: Don’t allow yourself to be intimidated – but for 3 weeks - actually read the bible – even study it a bit – just try. I suspect that if you try you will discover it is not as daunting as you feared. Perhaps it will even bring life! If you feel like you’ve tried that already and it didn’t work... try again. What do you have to lose?

What if we became a generation of people who were into the Word PERSONALLY, DAILY, DEEPLY. How could the world not be changed by such a generation?

Who IS the boss of me?

So it’s been awhile. One of the reasons I want to blog is to discipline myself to write and record what is going on in my head and heart. I find it helps me process what I am experience when I write about it. That said, I have neglected this discipline of late. I’m back!

Over the last year, especially the transition of coming to Edmonton, I have been consumed by a single repeated question in my walk with God, life, and ministry. That question is:

“How do I know that I am in total obedience to God?”

As I read the scriptures – I am more and more aware of how huge obedience is. I see it everywhere in scripture, every time I see the word “LORD” spelled with all capitals. God is LORD and master of all. He is the LORD of my life – so my primary responsibility to Him is obedience.

Now, on any given day I don’t believe that I am disobedient. I mean – I’m not burdened by any big scandalous sins at the moment. I have not said “no” to God that I am aware of. I know I sin daily, and try to repent just as often, but am I “totally obedient”? Am I ignoring a subtle voice calling me to change something, to sacrifice something? Am I unaware of God convicting me, inviting me? I believe God is often speaking (not always), but am I listening when He speaks? In the same way I can get a ticket, even if unaware of the speed limit on that road – so I am responsible for what God is calling me to, even if I am unaware of it. Being aware only makes me slightly more responsible.

I am referring mostly to God’s personal communication with me. But what of all the things revealed in scripture. Not merely rules and regulations, but principles and values. In a moment the question of obedience becomes overwhelming.

So... How do I know that I am in total obedience to God? Can I even possibly hope to know? Is it a never ending, insurmountable question of achieving perfection? I don’t think so... here’s where I’m at right now...

God says "Be holy (perfect), because I am holy." (1 Peter 1:16). But we also know that God is patient and merciful – and all about the process. So I ask myself – “Am I in the process of becoming Holy-er?” Rather than be consumed by my failure at perfection (which is the whole point of the law - Romans and Galatians), I am inspired by His voice calling me to be Holy – ONE THING AT A TIME. In other words...

“LORD, what is the one thing right now which I need to hear from you, and be obedient in?”

Now THAT question is simple, and freeing. It is just like all those stories in scripture where God asks one thing at a time. Look at the life of King Saul; “...go wipe out the Amalekites”. “But Lord – I kept stuff to sacrifice to you...” “But you didn’t do the one thing I commanded of you”. Then the famous passage “...to obey is better than sacrifice” (1 Samuel 15:22). If I can take care of the one thing God has put His omniscient finger on, then I can know that I have been obedient.

I am cultivating this need; at the end of the day – I need to lay my head on the pillow and know that I am obedient to my King. I’m not actually looking for the voice of God saying – “You are finally perfect”. Instead – I am looking for my heavenly father to say. “I am pleased with your obedience today my son.”

“... because by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy.”
Hebrews 10: 14

Building a Young Adults ministry

As a rule in ministry – I stick to the time honoured leadership adage; “I don’t really know what I’m doing” (Moses, Gideon, Jeremiah, etc.) I guess I know some things, but ultimately I want to stay dependant on God for all I aspire to do. Speaking of aspirations, I am presently trying to build a thriving young adult community that is characterized by a hunger for God, passionate worship, deep relationships, belonging for people of any kind, and a mind to change the world outside the church walls, as well as within.
So how is that done exactly? Well, I’ll share a little of what I am doing and we’ll see how it goes... I guess one of my ambitions is to “build it right” – like Mike Holms. I’ve seen too many Young Adult ministries get really big, and THEN try to add quality, and values to the community, with mixed success. I’d rather start small, KNOWING who we are and what we’re about – so that as we grow – we can fight to maintain and deepen that identity, that quality. For instance, the way we worship – with freedom. I ask myself; “what kinds of things are okay in our worship times? What do we value?” Then we talk about those things all the time, and act on them. In our case, values like, passion, risk, creativity, and intimacy have come up as we prayerfully form our gatherings. I guess the question is “who are we in worship?”
That question can be applied to a lot of key things. Who are we in reaching the lost? Who are we in following Jesus as disciples? Who are we in relationship with each other? I feel that, as we begin to answer these questions – THEN we have what we need to build our gathering. Instead of inviting people to an event – we can invite people into an identity. Be it an invitation to Thursday night, or lunch on Sunday, or a social event on Saturday, but it is all the same identity, the same family. We call ours “facechurch”. This thinking equips us to bring church to a friend – rather than just bringing a friend to church. In other words – we can take these values, this identity with us to work or school, or the mall!

To this end I have prayerfully looked for partners. Not just leaders, because I expect to have a good number of leaders. Partners are leaders who share a bond, demonstrating by their example – the kind of deep relationships we want to build. Partners share more than the work load, they share the spiritual and emotional burdens of life and ministry. They also share the joys and victories. With these partners I have formed a “Vision Team”. This is my cell group, my key leaders. Next, I hope to form a core group of people who believe in the vision, and own the identity. This, more than anything else, will be what draws people into fellowship with us. I hope that this core group will commit to radically follow Jesus. They can lead cells and reach out to friends. People will feel drawn to the love we have for each other (John 13:35).

Imagine a coffee house full of people, live music in the corner, and the sound of an espresso machine in the background. Fragrance and conversation fills the air. You’re a visitor – don’t really know anyone yet. Now imagine that this group embraces you – draws you in, but they’re unrelenting in their personal passion for God and their devotion to Christ. These people are the real deal, not perfect – but authentic... and they want you to journey with them. This is the kind of identity I hope to be a part of.

Pressure

It’s so easy to get wound up real tight with all that is going on in life these days. I’m amazed at the amount of stress most of us carry around and think its “normal”. When I stop for a moment, I realize that much of the pressure I’m under comes from the expectations of other people. Sometimes these expectations are figments of my imagination. In other words – I allow myself to be stressed by things which may not even exist. I submit to expectations or opinions that no one has actually placed on me. Maybe they spring from my personal fears and insecurities. Or perhaps they are fashioned by that crazy human tendency... the one where I find ways to beat myself up in a misguided attempt to be better. Can anyone relate?
Well, if you are like me, then it’s worth remembering that I am performing for an audience of one. There is only one opinion that ultimately matters most. And I have it on good authority that His yoke is easy and His burden is light (Matt. 11: 28-30).