Can You Fix It?

Today I was asked to share the two most important lessons I have learned over the last twenty-eight years of ministry. The more I thought about the question the more I realized that the most important lessons that I have learned, I have learned in just the last few years, maybe even the last few months.

The last class I took in my masters program was a course in Crisis Counseling. The final was a mock counseling session with the professor being my client. After going through all the things I could think to ask and listen to I suggested some steps to deal with the imaginary crisis in her life. Later as we reviewed my exam the professor looked at me and said, "You are never going to be very good at this." How do you respond to that? Thank you maam, may I have another? Instead after the initial shock, I asked the pressing question "why?". She looked at me and said, "because you want to fix everything and some things just can't be fixed."

My beautiful wife had been telling that for years, when rather than just listening to what she was upset about, I started calculating a plan to fix it.

Over the last few years, I have been forced to deal with a lot of things I just couldn't fix. Even though I said the words, I kept trying to fix things. When I did give those things over to God, it wasn't very long until I started taking them back. I am finally getting it.

So when I was asked what the two biggest lessons were, I thought for a moment and said the first one has been a long hard lesson. Lesson one was "I can't fix everything."

Lesson two has just hit me in the last couple of days, "I can't fix anything!" Not the kind of things I have been trying so hard to fix. That's why Jesus had to die. He died to fix me, and everyone of us with sin debt so big that only he could fix it.

Eddie Carswell and Michael O'Brien have written a song that says, "So before the day slips away and want to stop and say I love you and be still and know that you are God!"

So now I am trying so hard, not to try so hard.

The Basement or The Penthouse Vol.2

Joshua said, "Make a choice today who you will serve, but as for me and my house we will serve the Lord." So we are back to choices. Imagine you are in the "elevator of life" and you have 100 buttons in front of you each representing a level of life from the basement to the penthouse. Which button are you going to push?

You might think the choice seems obvious, but not for everyone. It seems that although there are more rewards the higher you go, there are also more expectations. So what will you choose? You can have the best that this has to offer, but there will be expectations. Many choose to settle at this point. So what will you choose?

Have you ever been on a real elevator and thought you were going up only to have the doors open and realize that you had gone in the wrong direction? Or maybe you have just not been paying attention and when the doors opened you hop off only to find out you are on the wrong floor. I have done all those things on real elevators and on that imaginary spiritual elevator as well. Sometimes I mean to make the right choice, but I make the wrong one.

Then the hardest thing is when you make the right choices and still things don't go as you plan. Thieves tend to want to break into penthouse homes more than they do basement apartments. Jesus said that we face a thief that wants to steal from us, kill us and ultimately destroy us. The reality is that there will never be ultimate peace until we are in the ultimate penthouse of heaven at the feet of the Father.

I want to make the best choices I can until I get there. I never met Sharon, but I know her grandparents and I sat in their kitchen this morning listening to great stories of the choices she made to live in the penthouse with Jesus. This morning at the age of twenty-four leukemia took her life here, but allowed her to move into the penthouse permanently. Some will say it is a tragedy. The real tragedy is for those who come to the end of life at whatever age without choosing to live with Jesus. I am so sad for Bill and Wanda and their family, but Sharon chose the penthouse and she only had to wait twenty-four years to get there. What are you going to choose?

The Basement or The Penthouse

You are moving into a new high rise apartment and the manager says you can have your choice of a basement apartment or the penthouse for the exact same price. Which apartment would you choose? The choice may seem obvious, choose the penthouse. But not everyone would make that choice. I wonder why would someone choose to live in a dark gloomy basement, when they have the opportunity to live on top of the world with a bright great view.

In an interesting translation of John 10:10 we might hear Jesus say, "There is a gloomy slum lord that wants you to live in the basement of this world so that he can steal from you, kill you and ultimately destroy you, but I have come to move you into the penthouse so that you can see forever and keep on reaching higher." It's your choice! What are you going to choose?

I struggle sometimes to keep on reaching higher. Sometimes Satan wins the battle and I find myself settling for the life that he wants rather than the life that Jesus came to give me. The abundant life that is available in the penthouse! Abundant life! Jesus wants you to live life abundantly, to the fullest, in the penthouse!

Where do you want to spend your life here on earth? In basements or in penthouses? It's your choice!

What is So Amazing About Grace

I received an email this week that asked me for some thoughts about grace and "Why" its even available. I so love sharing grace with people, mainly because I love having received it and continuing to receive it from a loving God that understands my shortcomings. However, like most people I really struggle with the why sometimes. When I see what a mess we have made of God's love for us I sometimes wonder how long He can put up with it. Without sounding too cliche-ish I guess that is why they call it AMAZING. None of us in our human selfishness and pride would ever come up with the concept and definitely couldn't pull it off. Yet, the creator of the universe says I don't care where you have been or what you have done or who you have done it with I still love you enough to give you my son. After wrestling with the concerns of a parent for a struggling child for the last four years I am even more amazed by a God that would give up a son for people who seemingly don't care on most days. The thought of losing my son is almost paralyzing and I surely can't imagine giving him away without a fight. How did Abraham have the faith and courage to trust God on Mt. Moriah. I haven't been able to completely lay my Isaac down yet, but God is teaching me about faith, and grace and HOPE! Romans 5:8 has become my favorite verse of scripture as God has taken me through the journey of the last few years. "And this is how God showed his love for us, in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us." That part "while we were still sinners" is what comforts me and perplexes me. We don't have to become perfect and can't become perfect on our own. That's what makes grace so amazing, in fact that's what makes it grace.

Screened In Porches and Cool Summer Nights

It's nearly midnight and I find myself in my personal sanctuary reflecting on the day. It was just a routine Monday, which happens to be my day off. Nothing really special about today, but I have spent quite a bit of time here in my personal sanctuary, working on my sermon for Sunday, writing some articles and beginning the early stages of a couple books and potential business ventures. Now at the end of the day I find myself looking over my schedule and to do list and realizing how peaceful it is in my personal sanctuary.

My personal sanctuary is just a simple screened in porch in back of the house. The couple we bought the house from had it built and even wired it with cable (Thank You Ed). I've made a couple of revisions and added some lighting, but it is nothing that impressive. It will never make it onto HGTV or Cribs or anything like that, but it is my place, my personal sanctuary. It is amazing how calm and quiet it is, even in the middle of the day, but especially at midnight.

So as I sit here in the quiet I found myself thinking about how lucky I am to have it. Life is hectic. Some days seem almost unbearable at times, but then I can go to my sanctuary and most nights it's just me ... oh and God.

I find myself writing or at least developing most of my sermons here during warm weather months. Some of the most intense times of prayer in my life take place in my personal sanctuary. Other times I just sit and think in my personal sanctuary. I sure am glad I have this place.

What about you? Do you have a personal place where you can meet God at the beginning or end of the day? I'd love to hear about it.

John Wooden and Other Legends

As a child I remember watching John Wooden lead UCLA to records in college basketball that will live forever. All I knew was that he was the best basketball coach ever. Later in life I found out about the person John Wooden. He was a great coach, but it is the person John Wooden that will be remembered as the legend.

I had a great trip to California a few years ago to spend some time with Coach Wooden's pastor and some other ministers. Unfortunately there was a personal emergency of someone close that took Coach Wooden out of town at the last minute and prevented him from attending the dinner he was supposed to come to with eight preachers to talk about life. Instead he sent autographed books, that just became more of a treasure. I read one of them on the flight home. When we went to church at Shepherd of the Hills on Sunday, there he was, where he was every week he was in town. I was fascinated listening to Dudley tell stories of the legend. One story I remember was about Dudley walking into a Sunday night youth service full of hundreds of teens and modern worship music and seeing Coach Wooden on the back row. Dudley ask him why he was there and Coach said that he was out of town that morning and he just needed to be in worship. Oh by the way, he was 91 at the time! WOW! I sure wish that I had gotten to meet him.

So this morning I am thinking about life and the end of life and what attributes make someone considered a legend. I would love to hear about some other people that you have met (or almost met) who you would consider to be legends and why you feel that way about them.

Would You Be Interested?

Kim and I are considering a new ministry opportunity to parents. We are now transitioning to the empty nest stage of life and feel we have learned many lessons about parenting over the last ten years. If we started a daily blog just for parents and dealt with lessons learned both good and bad and advice from the school of hard knocks, would you be interested enough to follow a blog like that.

Secondly, what are some questions / issues you would be interested in interacting about?