September 30th, 2020

September 30th, 2020

by | Sep 30, 2020 | PS from PS

ps from ps… “Form is static.  Movement is fluid.” – Coach

On a run the other day, my Coach asked me to pay attention to my “movement.”  And that was a fairly new request.  Often for runners, coaches will help them pay further attention to their “run form.”  Run form is how your body moves as you are in motion.  Do your heels strike the ground first or your midfoot?  Do your knees drive forward?  Are your arms brushing by your hips and engaging your core.  Run form.  Usually at some point on a run, coaches will ask you to check in on your form.

But during this run, Coach asked me to pay attention to my movement instead of form, because for him, form sounds static.

Movement is about how our body is flowing.  And it’s about how our body adapts to the circumstances around us.  Constantly changing circumstances.  Does our stride shorten as we go uphill?  Do we lean into it a little bit more?  Do our arms drive a little bit harder as we move toward the finish line?

Movement adapts.  

I got thinking about that on the run as I started doing some church planning in my head.  Thinking about how to re-do a Confirmation celebration.  Or how best to offer Advent experiences outdoors for people who don’t feel comfortable inside yet.  The old “form” doesn’t work well anymore.  It was good and solid and successful.  But that form needs to change and adapt.  It needs to move and flow.  It needs to pivot.

I thought about the disciples following Jesus.  Every form they knew of from reading Torah and the church of the day was needing to adapt: reaching more, judging less, feeding all, and forgiving every.  And just when they thought they learned a new form, Jesus would do something new and movement was needed.

Movement adapts.

How are you doing in these Covid times as a follower of Jesus?  Still on the bike path or road or treadmill with the same run form?  Or have you started to adapt and focus on the movement of being a pivoting church and a flowing follower?  

Take time today to pay attention to your movement.

Lord, help me to focus on my movement as I follow you in these times.  Amen

Still in One Peace,
ps
September 23rd, 2020

September 23rd, 2020

by | Sep 23, 2020 | PS from PS

ps from ps… Sometimes you need to turn around.  It might just be that simple, even when the darkness blocks it out.

My good friend and photographer for Fire Church, Chief Billy Major, sent me this shot of some railroad tracks he encountered while recently out on a hike.  You look one direction – and night has fallen, darkness seems to have won out and following those tracks seem intimidating and even scary.

But then he told me that he did something interesting – and actually easy – he turned the other direction – 180 degrees.  And he saw this –



Same tracks.  Same journey.  Just from a different direction and different take on the journey.  

I can’t possibly list all the instances in life and faith when this becomes a crucial pivot to make.  Time after time in Scripture, Jesus turns, invites others to turn, invites others to re-turn, pivots the rules, laws and expectations, shifts people’s focus from lack of light/hope/direction/fears to now hope/peace/beauty/potential.

Maybe you are standing on some tracks today?  Dealing with issues of direction, trauma, memories, hopelessness or what’s next?

I invite you to pivot.  To turn.  To re-turn.  Into a place of light, beauty and potential.  The tracks will hold you.  Those on the journey with you will support you.  And the Lord will go with you.

Lord, help me to turn.  Turn into your beauty.  And to know you will stay on the track with me.  Amen

Still in One Peace,
ps
September 16th, 2020

September 16th, 2020

by | Sep 16, 2020 | PS from PS

ps from ps… When I was a kid, I hated it when it seemed that my sisters had less chores than I did.  Not only that, it also seemed that I started doing mine when I was a lot younger than they were!  Didn’t seem “fair.”

We’re big fans “fair.”  We want it in our jobs, our relationships, our friendships, our rules and laws and even in our calls during football games.  “Fair is fair,” right?

Jesus tells a parable in Matthew 20 about some workers that started their days in the field at different times.  Then when the day was done, they all got paid the same thing.  “It’s not fair” the listeners said.  “It’s not fair” the early workers said.  But Jesus response then, now and in the future, shows us a different lens that God works through: grace.  Grace is God’s undeserved love and favor.  And that’s what Jesus hands out at the “end of the day” to everyone!

We were filming TV Church yesterday and Pastor Julius Carroll used the phrase “God of reversals” to start each of the prayer petitions he shared.  He used that phrase because Jesus mentioned to the listening crowd – the last shall be first and the first shall be last.  A God of reversals.  Turning things upside down and around backwards from the way we think things should play out.  

And it isn’t an isolated incident.

Upon hearing Jesus was going to the cross, Peter said: “Don’t do it.”  Jesus the Reverser said, “Follow me Peter.  I’m giving my life for all.  Grace for all.” 

Upon seeing the outcasts, widows and sick, the Church Leaders said: “Don’t do it.”  Jesus the Reverser said, “Follow me Church and stand with all those who have been cast out.”

Upon seeing the hungry, the Disciples said: “Don’t do it.”  Jesus the Reverser said, “Don’t send them away.  We will feed them all.”

Upon seeing us, the mess that we many times can be, the ones always wanting our version of fair, the ones who complain we started our chores earlier or younger than them, Jesus the Reverser pours out grace and love on us and for us anyways.

God the Reverser, help me to go into this day and see the world, the chores, the relationships, the outcast as you see each of us, with Eyes of Reversal, with actions and words and presence of your grace.  Amen



Still in One Peace,
ps
September 9th, 2020

September 9th, 2020

by | Sep 9, 2020 | PS from PS

Sometimes, even when things get torn apart, good can still come from it.

Michelle and I have lived in our current house for about 15 years now.  Over that time, it seems like we’ve been through the entire house with a round of renovations in each room.  Paint changed.  Walls removed.  Lights added.  Flooring switched.  I’m pretty sure we’ve hit every room at least once now.

When we moved in, the first room we tackled was the family room.  After the kitchen, it’s the room we are in the most.  So for 15 years, we’ve been looking at the same walls, colors and floors as we’ve relaxed, talked with the kids, watched them grow, watched Bills games, celebrated Christmas, birthdays and the like.  Routines were created and viewpoints were solidified in that room.  So when the walls started coming down and the pile of trim, molding, old paneling and drywall piled up in the driveway, I had a brief sense of loss, grieving the change a bit.  And yet, I know something good, brighter and newer is coming….. but it’s hard getting there.

I wonder if Jesus disciples felt that way at all?  As he came and taught them a “new” way and direction and boundary and reach and grace of God, how did they feel about this change?  We hear from Peter time after time that he’s stuck in his old ways.  And yet each time Peter clings to the old, Jesus gently redirects him to “follow him” and learn this new way.  Something good and newer and different is coming.  

I’ve felt this way many times during this pandemic with all the changes we have been forced to go through.  I grieve the loss of so many things that we aren’t able to do now and might not be able to go back to.  But as with Peter, I have to believe that God is about to show us a new, better thing.  As with my family room, I look forward to the new, brighter and better thing coming.  

Jeremiah reminded the people: “For surely I know the plans I have for you” says the Lord “plans to prosper you and not harm you, plans to give you a future with hope.”

Last night, I went out in the driveway and started sifting through the remnants of my “old” family room and pulled out all the pine trim and molding.  I grabbed the saw and starting cutting it up into small pieces.

There’s it was: kindling for the upcoming winter.  Small pieces of wood that will help me light the fires in my fire place to warm and heat the house.  Old walls, trim and molding now repurposed as we move forward.

As we continue to transition through these challenging times with changes in church, school, and family routines, don’t forget to name the grief/loss that is involved in these changes.  It’s ok to do that!  It’s important to do that.  With our health situations, family traditions and relationships, what parts are important to let go of and what parts are important to hang onto?  What changes are we in the middle of that could be a blessing?  And what parts of these “pandemic renovations” can we take, change and repurpose to bless our lives in new ways in the future?

We may not be named Peter, but how is Jesus inviting you and me to “follow him” and more deeply trust him during these times of change?

Lord, help us through the traditions and redirect us toward the blessings coming.  Amen

Still in One Peace,
ps

June 24th, 2020

June 24th, 2020

by | Jun 24, 2020 | PS from PS

It’s time for summer breaks and rest!  This will probably be the last “ps from ps” that I write until the fall.  I usually take a couple months break over the summer due to travel and camps and resting my fingers from typing.  

It’s not that we “shut down” over the summer in 716 and don’t do ministry, it just looks a lot different.  More conversations, celebrations, prayer and relationship building happens around fire pits, pools, bike paths and golf courses (especially prayer on the golf course for me, as the club strikes the ball at a high rate of speed).

It’s a different shape.  But ministry and mission are still happening.  Needs don’t disappear.  And neither do our spiritual gifts and ability to share talents and resources.  

All through Matthew’s 10th chapter, Jesus is instructing and sending his disciples into the world.  He’s getting them out of old routines and placing them into conversations, celebrations, relationship building spaces and probably a few conflicts too.  He’s making them ready to share grace, hope and love that he will soon demonstrate in person on the cross.  Toward the end of the chapter, he tells them two basic things: welcome everyone and be ready to share a cup of cold water with the little ones.  

Welcome everyone.

Be ready to share a cup of cold water.

I hope your summer is filled with incredible experiences, some old patterns and some new offerings due to the effects of the pandemic.  And I hope that wherever you go, you might take these simple instruction from Jesus: welcome everyone and be ready to share a cup of cold water.  I’m not sure what the “cold water” will look like and I’m not sure who “everyone” might turn out to be.  But I do know that wherever we end up this summer, you might encounter an “everyone” and they might need “cold water” that you might already have the ability to share.

Many times in the fall, I restart online devo’s by asking that great elementary school first essay question: “What did you do over the summer?”  How will you answer that a couple months from now?  When you reflect back on July and August, what will have happened when you encountered “everyone?”  And did you offer up any “cold water” to the “little ones?”

Enjoy your summer.  Allow God to break into your life in new spaces and places.  Look for and anticipate it happening.  Be smart about your return to churches.  Don’t return until you are comfortable and you know your church is being safe for you and the community around you.  God’s going to be with you wherever you are.Lord, I’m ready.  Help me have the water ready for everyone this summer. Amen

Still in One Peace,
PS