Journey Essentials: No More Fig Leaves

Would you agree with this statement- The largest obstacle in our journey is failure? Why or why not?

I would argue that the largest obstacle that stands in our way from going forward and keeping up with momentum, in our journey is failure. That failure can be mistakes, sin, shame, guilt, you name it, it holds us back from experiencing all that God wants to share with us and do with us.

No doubt the bible is God's love letter to us and it details his pursuit of a relationship with us. But what is unique about the bible is it is also the hall of fame of failure. Throughout the pages, it has names and stories of people who failed, sinned, screwed up, and then had to learn to live with that reality. The greatest of all failures was Adam and Eve (Genesis 2:25-3:13). Take some time and read through their story. And ask yourself these questions:
1. What was Adam and Eve's response to their failure?
2. What is my response to my failure?
3. What was God's response to Adam and Eve's failure?

If you take some time to read through this story and ask those questions, I believe you will be amazed to see how God works.

In most of our failure, we turn and run and hide. We are filled with guilt and shame and so we hide, just like Adam and Eve. But yet, how did God respond? He looked, he came towards, he sought out, Adam and Eve. And he does the same with you and I. We believe that our failure, sin, shame and guilt disqualify us from God's love. But the reality is, God loves us and in the midst of our failure, sin, shame and guilt, he wants to come near us and love on us.

In his book, He Loves Me, Wayne Jacobsen says, "God sees something redemptive even in letting us fail. He seems less concerned about our mistakes than how we respond to them. Do our mistakes lead us away from trusting in our own strength or wisdom and toward seeking what it means to put our trust in him?"

Maybe, from today forward, instead of seeing failure, sin, shame and guilt as an obstacle to your journey. Maybe God wants to use it as a catapult to launch you ahead in your journey, and experiencing the depth of his love for you.

Journey Essentials: His Plan

Have you ever started on a journey, road trip or adventure and at some point during your time you realized you forgot something? Or maybe you realized you weren't prepared enough for the long haul? That happened to me on a trip up the Boundary Waters of northern MN back in 1995. I thought I could do the entire trip on eating ramen noodles and beef sticks. Needless to say, by the last night of our 4 day trip I was hungry and sick of my menu choices. It caused me to resort to some drastic action, but that is for another time or listen to the message online. But the point is, I didn't have a journey essential. It may sound foolish, it may sound naive, but the truth is I thought I could get by with a limited menu.

I believe the same is true in our spiritual journey. I believe that we think we can get by with certain things or survive without certain things and we then at some point gravely wish we made a better decision. Maybe that is where you are at right now. Maybe you are walking on your journey and your stuck? Maybe you are at a crossroads and just don't know where to turn? Maybe you have created a belief of how the journey should be, and its not that. I don't know where you are at on your journey, but I do know there are certain essentials we just need to have.

The journey essential I want you to have with you, like food, is this: know that God's plan for you is to experience the depth of his love. Some of you are like "dah" I know that. Just like I know you should pack more than just ramen and beef sticks. But I would argue we don't live that way everyday. I don't believe we live as though God loves us deeply, because we allow things to get in the way. Then we determine that God must not love me today because of the circumstances we face.

We decide that based upon a certain criteria God loves us or doesn't love us. And we miss the truth that at the core of who God is, HE IS LOVE (1 John 4:8 and 16). I know all of us do this, but if we pray or read the bible, we believe God loves us. But if we curse or lie to save our a*# he doesn't love us. If we get a raise God must love us, but if we get sick or loose a loved one he doesn't love us. If we help someone in need he loves us, but if we are bitter with our children or spouse, he doesn't love us. It is as if God's love is like our first grade school crush, and we pick up a flower and pick the pedals wondering each and every day; he loves me, he loves me not, he loves me, he loves me not, he loves me. It must be a good day.

Folks, our journey doesn't need the added attraction of a roller coaster, up and down with God's love. The Journey Essential you need to have with you each and every day is God loves you period. Not because of anything we do or don't do, not because of anything we say or don't say. Not because of circumstances or failures. He loves you because at the core of who he is, he is love.

Check out this verse:

1 John 4:16, “we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love.”

This is the verse I want you to carry with you this week and the steps ahead on your journey. Print it, write it down, e-mail me and I will send you a laminated copy I have here. Hold this truth, this journey essential close to your heart. This will guide you each and every step and will give you freedom to stop striving to make God's love a reality in your life.

This week, rest in this verse and rest in his love.

Don't Pray For It. Or Maybe You Should?

The dreaded "P" word- patience. Most folks don't want to pray for it because it takes "forever" as Caleb would say, to receive. But maybe it is more about our perspective on patience than it is on how it actually applies to our life.

My wife Theresa shared in her blog this past week about our son Caleb and gave a great life example of patience. She said, "My little guy turns 6 today. We spent years trying to have another child. Years of heartache and loss. Years on our knees praying for a sibling for Jayda. In God’s perfect timing, He gave us Caleb. Though it was not my timing or the road that I wanted to walk to get him, it was ALL worth it. Caleb amazes me daily." There is no doubt patience was what was needed during that period of time. In our grand scheme of things we wanted 4 kids- two boys, two girls. But God had other plans and allowed us to have 2 beautiful children who are filled with life and love. As I have seen and as Bill had preached about this past weekend, maybe patience is more about waiting on God than it is to have patience with another person who annoys you.

Bill gave a new definition of patience which I think is valuable and necessary as we walk through our journey,

"Patience is waiting expectantly for something of much greater value to happen with God's involvement than you could of achieved by your own intervention."

How true it is. How many times do we "run out of patience" because it isn't going the way we expected it or wanted it or dreamed it? How many times, do we try and crawl up on God's throne and say, "no, I meant life to look like this?" As Bill shared and reflected on David's writings in Psalms, we can grow in patience when we are willing to climb off the throne and trust that what God wants to do is greater than anything we could ever dream or imagine.

This week I would encourage you to look back through Psalm 40 and share with us how you have seen this passage and God's directive, of trusting and waiting upon him, has worked in your journey. Thanks for sharing and I look forward to interacting with you.

Billie Jean is definitely not my lover by Jim Parker

I played trumpet in junior high band, sort of. I'll never forget those September nights, marching around on the freshly cut grass of the high school football field. I still remember the feel of my mouth piece bumping against my lips with every step I marched. And, how that plastic music holder bounced around atop my trumpet like a bobble head in an old station wagon.

I was never any good at the trumpet. I guess I didn't have the lips for it or something. When Michael Jackson's song Billie Jean was big our band chose that as one of its songs for our half time show. The trumpets all had this solo we were supposed to play. It was the melody to the chorus of the song. I remember struggling through that solo in the junior high band room trying my best to get it down and failing ever more with each puff on the trumpet. Then it happened. This girl who also played trumpet, I don't remember her name, but her face is still clear in my mind offered me some much needed but little wanted advice. She said, "just play it like it sounds." That statement sent me into a bout of nervous pre-teen angst the likes of which would accompany me through most of my formative years.

I grew up in a really conservative family. We had very little music in the house and what we did have was my Mom's old gospel quartet 78 records. I knew that day that my problem was not that I couldn't hit the notes, master the pitch, or keep the tempo of Billie Jean, it was in fact that I'd never heard the song. Here I was, a teenage boy, and I had never heard this Michael Jackson classic. I assumed at the time there were probably people living in caves in the most remote parts of the Dark Continent and that even they knew this song. I felt like such a loser. It was like I'd try to fake who and what I was all year long and suddenly this girl had grabbed at a loose thread and completely unraveled my persona in one tug.

You know a lot of days I still get that same feeling I had that day in the junior high band room. I've come a long ways since those days of red and white polyester band suits and feathered plastic band hats. The last few years I've really begun to discover who I am and what I'm here for. But when I get around the right people and feel someone tugging at that loose thread those same old feelings of insignificance come right back to the surface. Vision is being able to look into your future and see what God MIGHT do if we are willing to let him. Don't let people make you feel that you can't, that you are less, that you don't fit the mold. Vision is figuring out you can't but that God can. Vision is believing something bigger is ahead on the road of life. Vision is you being all God made you to be and understanding that under every persona there is a scared junior high boy or girl waiting for his world to crumble. Don't be intimadated. Go after the dreams God is dreaming with you and for you. It really won't matter if you know what Billie Jean sounds like or not.

4th Dimension Vision

What would life be like if we all lived with a blindfold on? Can you imagine doing life with a blindfold on? We know that wouldn’t make sense, it would cause all sorts of problems. So why do we insist on doing life without a vision.

Proverbs 29:18 says, “Without vision people will perish . . .” Vision in the Hebrew means to mentally perceive, gaze at, to have a vision of. What would it look like to have a vision for your life? What if you had a vision for your family, career, relationship, spiritual journey?

Take a look at this passage again in the Message version- “If people can’t see what God is doing, they stumble all over themselves; But when they attend to what he reveals they are most blessed.”

We want to introduce a new dimension of vision, it’s called the 4th dimension vision. The 4th dimension, as you know, consists of seeing, feeling, and experiencing the movie, as though it was happening. Similarly I want this to be true in our spiritual journey. 4th Dimension vision is this: Seeing God and joining His activity.

What would it be like to see God in your family and join Him in what He wants to do?

What would it be like to see God in your career and join Him in what He wants to do?

What would it be like to see God in your relationships and join Him in what He wants to do?

What would it be like to see God in your journey and join Him in what He wants to do?

Let's share
Take some time to recognize where God is . . . Can you see Him? If so, share it with us, reflect on it. If not, why? What is blocking your vision? What is getting in the way of seeing God? Encourage you to share that as well.