Two good choices, right?

“Pleasing God” or “Trusting God”.  If you had to pick between these two where would you land?

That question was raised in material our accountability group was discussing not long ago.  Both seem good don’t they?

The catch comes if we seek to please God by self-effort.  You know what I mean, we work hard at saying the right things, we work hard at doing the right things, we work hard at stopping a bad habit, we work hard at…you fill in the rest.  We’re working hard but it isn’t quite enough we fear, in fact we begin to doubt whether we will ever be able to please God.

Trusting God is different.  It takes my focus off of what I am going to do for God and places it on what God is going to do in me.  Sure I still have the same hang-ups, the same hurts, the same sin issues; but instead of a bunch of self-effort to improve myself, I am looking to God to change me, from the inside out.  As he does that transformational work in me, I begin to live a life that is truly pleasing to him.

What pathway are you on right now?  Pleasing God?  Trusting God?

Role of Man

How do you define masculinity?  What does it mean to be a man?

Matt Chandler, lead pastor of The Village Church, looks at the first three chapters of Genesis and contends that man is wired to be a builder, a cultivator, and achiever and that this distinctive role informs what it means to be husband and father.

Matt was the voice in my head as I ran this past week.  I have no hesitation in recommending these 3 talks: Defining Masculinity, Role of Man as Husband and Role of Man as Father.

Here are a few of my take-aways:

• God has given man the primary (not sole!) leadership role in the family
• Being there and taking initiative are key
• God is committed to who we are right now as men, not to some future version of who we ought to be
• Where our present situation and practice is less than God’s ideal, that is the place where God’s grace abounds

2009 Read thru Scripture

The ESV Study Bible was one of my Christmas gifts (thanks mom!).  Every year at this time I pick a bible reading schedule to guide me, or should I say prod me along in my read through Scripture.  This year I am using something by Navigators, but there is a ton free guides on-line to pick from (here is one site).

If you have used a reading schedule before you might be familiar with a possible down side; reading to complete the schedule rather than to be moved by the truth.  To help guard against that tendency here are some ideas I have gathered to help me (and maybe you) process more deeply what we are reading.

• Underline key words in the passage
• Ask questions of the text: Who? What? Why? Where? When? How?
• Look for application: Ask “So What?” and “Now What?”
• Pray through the text

What ideas would you suggest to dig deeper into God’s Word?

Fable or faith?

Yesterday I decided to try out my newly acquired winter running gear.  The stuff is to keep me warmer as I brave the brisk temperatures common to this time of year.  Water resilience is not a noted design feature of the gear I donned, although that would have been more appropriate, as I managed to time my run to coincide with one of the heavier downpours of yesterday’s freaky wet weather.

While I sloshed through melting and rain-drenched snow I listened to a Christmas sermon from All Souls Church in the UK which a friend had recommended.  One point stuck with me; the story of Christmas confronts us with a choice: to be gullible or to be culpable.

If we choose to believe the creator God donned human flesh and was born a helpless babe we are libeled as gullible by sophisticated society that knows better than to believe such fables to be true.  However, if we, for whatever reason, choose to reject that God became man and dwelt among us, then God declares us to culpable of our unbelief.

Gullible or culpable, what have you chosen?

Responding to the gloom

A scan of the headlines today informed me that the major banks are predicting a shrinking economy, consumer confidence is the lowest in decades and unemployment is projected to rise significantly.  Hmmm, enough there to make one more than a bit jittery and anxious.

Let’s step back to the first Christmas.  The angels announced to a bunch of guys:

Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased! (Lk 2:14)

The declaration of “peace” was good news to the shepherds centuries back and it is good news to us.

How do we avail ourselves of this God-given peace?  The letter Paul wrote to the believers in Philippi gives us two things we can lean into.

First, we read,

Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. (Php 4:6-7)

Projected economic downturn is not a time to wring our hands but to raise them heavenward in prayer, asking our Father who knows what we need to provide our daily bread.

Second, Paul writes,

What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me-practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you. (Php 4:9)

Social and employment uncertainty is not a time to stray from God’s truth, but to be doers of His Word, being rooted and ready because He guides us.

As we enter into a new year, headlined by gloomy forecasts, may we encourage one another to experience the peace of God and the God of peace.

The secret to keeping promises

A scene in the movie Fireproof called for a kiss between husband and wife.  The husband, played by actor Kirk Cameron (Growing Pains) had no qualms, as long as the wife he was to kiss was his real-life wife.  Cameron’s convictions prevailed and Chelsea Noble, his wife of 17 years, stood in for the on-screen wife for the tender moment.  Years earlier, the actor had made a promise to his wife not to kiss any woman but her.  He has demonstrated that he is a man of his word.

Few of us are or will be actors, but all of us I believe desire to be men of our word.  We would like to be known as men whom can be counted on to honour their promises and commitments.  Unfortunately many of us know from experience that our resolve to be promise keepers can flounder and even fail.  Hurry, distractions, pressures, and passions can knock us off course, leaving us with good intentions but bad follow-through.

What can be done?  Do we plunge into the New Year with a guilt-fueled list of resolutions, written in bold to impress or at least to fool?  No.  We have ridden that horse before and it is no more alive this year than last.

Author Ken Drury gives us an idea.  He writes, “About a dozen years ago I discovered a group of busy Christian executives who were weary of breaking promises to God and their families…These men discovered a little known secret of commitment keeping — accountability. It is a most powerful secret to rescue you from the cycle of promises-broken, promises- renewed. “

Every week I meet with a group of men.  We read a devotional, discuss it and pray for one another.  It is the praying where accountability begins to show up.  If you are asking other guys to support you in prayer about something then there is a good chance one of them is going to ask how things worked out.  This helps me stay real in my prayer requests; I don’t share something that my heart isn’t ready to be committed to.

There are numerous accountability structures.  What have you experienced and what benefit has it been to you?

God’s Address

My wife was looking for some gift ideas for me so I decided to update my wish list on Amazon.  In the process of doing that I was prompted to add my address so that people who might use my wish list could correctly send their gift to me.

Amazon wish list aside, one’s address is an important piece of information.  In the last federal election my address was very much part of the process of verifying me as an eligible voter.  It was a key piece of info when I went to renew my driver’s license.  Shucks even to get my library card I had to prove where I lived.

What is God’s address?  The shepherds needed to be informed by the angelic host that God-With-Us could be found in the City of David lying as in infant in a feeding trough.

Where do we find God today?  Is there a chance that with the insane level of busy-ness that attends the Christmas season that we lose track of God’s address?  Don’t dispair my friend, in the stress and strain of packing too much into too little and spending more than we have to give, we can yet be confident that we will eventually re-discover God’s address…He can always be found at the end of our rope.

Mercy you, mercy me

Mercy very much can denote an attitude of compassion that reaches out to people who are suffering and hurting.  Blind men followed Jesus and cried out for mercy.  He healed them.  A Canaanite woman sought mercy for her demonized daughter and Jesus delivered her.  Likewise a father pleaded for mercy for his troubled son, and Jesus restored him.

Mercy can also carry a narrower meaning akin to forgiving someone.  We see that meaning in the parable Jesus tells about the servant whom was forgiven a large debt by his master, but then refused to forgive the small debt he was owed by another servant.  The master in the parable says these words to the unforgiving servant,

Mt 18:32 …‘You wicked servant! I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me. 33 And should not you have had mercy on your fellow servant, as I had mercy on you?’

The Message in translating this beatitude does a good job in capturing the scope of this word.  It reads,

Mt 5:7a “You’re blessed when you care…”

The blessing associated with being merciful is that one will receive mercy.  God will bless them by extending to them mercy.  God will bless them by being compassionate to them and granting them forgiveness.

It is not that by showing mercy to others I cause God to show mercy to me.  Rather my showing mercy to others is the occasion that demonstrates that I have received mercy from God.  Or as the Message puts it,

Mt 5:7b “At the moment of being ‘care-ful,’ you find yourselves cared for.”

Recent economic news may have us tightening our belts, but mercy is something we can still afford to give this Christmas.  In fact I don’t think we can afford not to give it.

the discipline of self-management

“Great leaders are great managers-not just managers of projects or other people but mostly of themselves.”

Self management is the second discipline of extraordinary spiritual leaders that author Reggie McNeal addresses in his book Practicing Greatness.

McNeal catalogues some particularly problematic emotions (e.g., anger, hostility, fear, bitterness) that a leader needs to manage, rather than be managed by.  His section on “Grief and Loss” caught my attention. I am working through a vocational change and a ‘death of a vision’.  I thought that an acceptable approach would be to replace what was lost with something new.  The author cautions against such a simplistic approach and advises that appropriate grieving involves expression, reflection and processing in community.

Managing expectations is also part of healthy self-management.  In talking about the expectations others have for a leader, McNeal says, “A leader who shapes expectations remains healthier than one who is primarily shaped by them.”  He is not calling for leaders to be completely unmoved by the expectations of others, but over the long haul a leader should be influencing people’s expectations in a way that is in line with the organization’s goals and the leader’s personal strengths and convictions.

Self management also includes staying healthy in body, mind and soul.  The author covers some expected health tips but surprised me when he advocated carving out and protecting time to muse about items bigger than the daily to-do list.  I recognize that the urgent and the mundane often misplace the strategic and the creative.  The author fills this section out by urging leaders to avoid negative people, disorganization, second guessing past decisions and environments that tempt us.

McNeal concludes this chapter identifying two things that if left unmanaged by the leader could sabotage his effectiveness.  The first is his mood and outlook; a positive and upbeat mood will have a positive ripple affect, whereas pessimism and anxiety will lead to negative repercussions.  The second is money; mismanagement of personal assets tarnishes and impedes a leader’s ability to manage the assets of others.

Previous posts in this series.

Sabbath…unloaded

Poor self management was warning sign #5 given by Mark Sanborn, in his recent article “Why Leaders Fail”.  Mark is a Christian who works in the field of leadership coaching.  He writes, “Leaders who fail to take care of their physical, psychological, emotional, and spiritual needs are headed for disaster.”

Mark’s caution applies to all men, regardless of their formal roles as leaders.  We are not going to lead our wives, our kids, our peers, or ourselves for that matter, if we perpetually disregard the need to replenish our reserves.

Sabbath is a God-given life rhythm intended to restore us in our relationship with God, others, and self.  God modelled this rhythm when on the seventh day he rested from all the work of creating the material world (Ge 2:1-3).  He enshrined this rhythm into the fabric of Hebrew society (Ex 20:8-11).  However, this restorative rhythm was corrupted and over time became a burden of man-made “do not’s”.

Jesus challenged that legalistic view of keeping Sabbath.  Instead he called people “to do good on the Sabbath” (Mt 12:12).  The “good” is to engage in that which will rejuvenate self and restores our relationship with God and with others.

This is not a one-off emergency pit stop, but a weekly interruption of our worries and busyness.  It is an intentional disengagement from our employment.  It is a setting aside of the tools of our trade, tangible or technical, so that we might be refreshed — margins re-established that we might once again bear the responsibilities that are ours.

What does this look like in practical terms?  I can’t nor should I give you a “one-size-fits-all”.  For me, it means designating an email-free day.  Emails regularly bring reminders and requests associated with my vocation.  Sabbath is about intentionally taking a break from that, so that I can be rejuvenated.  I am also learning that I need to purposefully engage in activities that refuel me.  Time with spiritual friends, reading, running and Café Misto at Starbucks are some that renew me.  What about you?  What chorus of activities restores your soul?