Prodigal Expressions

You wouldn’t think that attendance at a business seminar would be a spiritual experience but God revealed Himself to me today at the Microsoft Conference Center.  I was an attendee at the Women Entrepreneur’s Vision to Venture Day in Redmond along with countless other women from various backgrounds.  The majority of the women were in business already.  I met women who were realtors and bankers.  I met owners of yoga studios and a woman who was spent eight years in a zen buddhist monastery and now has a business teaching people how “to focus.”  Clearly there is a market for just about anything you can imagine.

Just as God had created each of those women with different finger prints, He also had created them with different gift mixes and different talents.  No two women looked at lift through the same lens and they each had a unique  and contemporary idea or an incredible innovation to an old one.  I am in awe at the care of a loving God who would give us such purpose and drive in a fallen world.

Many of these women, such as my zen buddhist friend, do not know Him and yet He has given them everything necessary for life.  Our loving Creator has bestowed gifts and talents on us all as we move forth in the exercise of those gifts and talents, we can find joy and ultimate fulfillment as we move towards Him. 

I experienced God today as He spoke to me through the women I met today.  He truly is a creative and amazing God!  His tenderness, grace, and mercy were evident today as He proclaimed Himself as Creator!  I am so grateful I had eyes to see.

You know those laws they say are still on the books but make no sense at all?  It is illegal to fly your cow in a hot air balloon in one state.  In another it is illegal to leave your alligator tied outside of a business.  How about the one in Washington State that says it is illegal to carry a concealed weapon that is over six feet in length?

A friend called to tell me of these laws after she heard them being discussed on the radio and we had quite a laugh over these and others but it does give me cause to wonder.  There had to be a reason someone felt the necessity to enact these laws and it made me want to know the story behind them.  Wouldn’t you just love to know the story behind the law about the cow and the hot air balloon?

Maybe it is the prodigal spirit in me that makes me ask “why” but I found myself asking “why” on these laws.  Why would anyone feel it necessary to enact legislation on these things?  Obviously someone felt that these laws, at one time, would make their community a better place, but sooner or later, someone had to recognize that the time for the law about the cow or the alligator had past and yet they are supposedly still on the books!

I wonder if I approach life that way.  How many things do I do the way they have always been done without questioning the why?  Maybe it is time to reflect and ask a few more questions; not merely for the sake of the question but because there might be a better solution or a more practical approach or perhaps I am doing something that doesn’t need doing any longer. 

It gives me cause to wonder.

Two blondes and two brunettes go into a bar. 

Sounds like the classic set up for a joke, doesn’t it?  Actually, it was the set up for a transforming conversation between two groups of people who had never met before.  Who besides an omniscient Heavenly Father would have anticipated that a bar on a Friday night would be host to a conversation of such import?

I accompanied three young women out on the town one Friday night and we ended up sitting at a table near two couples from Montana.  As the conversation flowed we found out that one of them was a pastor who was grappling with the issue of truth.  It seems he had taught some erroneous doctrines earlier in his life and he was guilt ridden and struggling to come to grips with real truth in his life.

It was a joy to see these young women quickly usher this gentleman into the presence of Jesus.  How quickly they responded to his plight by empathizing and listening to him!  How easily they understood his predicament!  One of the young women even shared with him a similar experience that she was going through at this time and there was a definite connection in that moment.  Jesus was in that bar. 

As the evening went on this man’s eternal security and that those with him was not in doubt.  They all had a living and vital relationship with Christ.  It became clear that their struggle were with peripherals, not in the absolutes.  Pilate, centuries before had looked Truth right in the face and asked, “What is truth?” Then he turned from the very one who could answer him.  In the bar that night, Truth was with us and while we may not have come up with all the answers, we all left satisfied and fully knowing that we had encountered the Living God.  

The Word became flesh and blood, and moved into the neighborhood.      ~John 1:14a  (The Message)

It was a simple task of baking brownies.  As I baked brownies to take to a class that evening, I had no idea that the Lord was preparing to show me something spectacular. In class the night before, one of the gentlemen suggested that brownies sounded good.  That sounded tasty to me as well and doable.  I decided that I would contribute to the snacks for class the next evening and that I would indeed bring a couple batches of brownies.    

The next evening before class, I prepared the brownies and put them on plates with plastic wrap over them and hurried off to class.  I pulled up to a drive-though for something to drink and was greeted by a burly young man covered in tattoos with his hair pulled back in a pony tail.  He took my money and caught a glimpse of the brownies in the front seat.  Suddenly his demeanor changed.  He smiled at me with a gleam in his eye and asked, “Where are you going with all of those brownies?” 

I smiled back at him and told him that I was on my way to a class that I was taking.  He leaned forward in the window and giving me a full dose of his charm, asked, “What kind of class?” and then quickly inserted the comment, “Brownies are my favorite.”  

How fortunate we are to have a God that will go to extraordinary lengths to show His love for us!  It so happened that besides the two plates of brownies that I had prepared for class, I had a sandwich bag with two brownies sitting right on top of one of the plates.  I had intended this bag for the man in class who had requested the brownies in the first place but God had other intentions.  I happily gave the young man in the drive through these brownies and he happily accepted.  

This young man is being pursued by a God who loves him.  In the class that I am taking, we are discussing how the stories of our individual lives intersect with God’s story all throughout our lives as He lovingly pursues us and seeks to reveal Himself to us.  This young man did not just happen to be working when a woman drove through his window with a plate of brownies, he had a God encounter and God lovingly orchestrated the events in a way that would cause his story to intersect with God’s much larger, all encompassing one.  And I got to be a part of this remarkable God event through the simple task of baking brownies!

He (Jesus) came closer to the city, and when he saw it, he wept over it, saying, “If you only knew today what is needed for peace!  But now you cannot see it!”                                                                                           Luke 19: 41, 42 (TEV)           

Most often Jesus went about in His ministry doing what needed to be done: preaching the kingdom, healing the sick, showing grace and mercy to the sinner, etc.  However, there were times when our wonderful, gracious Savior became overwhelmed by the emotion of it all.  Luke 19:41, and 42 gives us a glimpse of such a moment.  Jesus, knowing what lay before Him, and knowing the pain of those who were held captive to sin, wept.         

I am having one of those moments today and I am comforted by the fact that my Jesus had them as well.  It is good to know that I am not alone in this momentary despair.  It has been one of those weeks.  Our family found out this week that someone one of my daughter’s knows was found dead on the bathroom floor by his fiancé and her teenage brother.  The fiancé and the brother seem to be handling the situation okay.  According to the brother they are just “drinking the pain away.”         

If you only knew today what is needed for peace!  But now you cannot see it!         

Last night my junior high school son was informed that a class mate of his was planning to bring a gun to school today after he had taken a beating in a phys. ed. class yesterday. Students were anxious, parents went into action contacting the school district and the police, and prayers were offered in our home at least.  I heard there were many productive discussions between parent and child last night.         

This morning some students stayed home, some arrived late and the campus had a different feel to it.  Sheriffs were there to greet the students as they arrived and after everyone was there the campus was essentially locked down with security guarding the open entrances.           

I know my son went to school this morning a bit more anxious just because of the heightened tensions and the new awareness of what could have happened.  And he is wondering what makes another student say such a thing and possibly mean it.  What emptiness or brokenness leads to such a threat?         

If only you knew today what is needed for peace!  But you cannot see it!         

This morning after I dropped my son off at school, I passed a man in a car in oncoming traffic.  It was 7 a.m. and he was stopped at a construction area.  As I glanced in his direction I noticed that this man in his car at this time of the morning was sobbing.  He was a middle-aged man and when he saw that I noticed him, he grabbed a tissue and immediately put it up to his face as if to hide.  I have no idea what was going on in this man’s life.  What would make a grown man sob so profusely?           

If only you knew today what is needed for peace!  But you cannot see it!         

Today I am weeping for such as these who have yet to find peace.  I pray that I will never stand in their way of finding the way to peace but that I will lead them to the Giver of Peace.  Today I weep but even in my weeping may I be like Jesus and continue heading closer to those who need Him most.

I was speaking at an event where one of my daughters was in attendance.  I was a little apprehensive that evening because in preparing for the evening I had determined that I was going to be sharing a part of my story that I had not shared publicly before and I hadn’t shared this particular portion with my daughter either.  I warned her that she might be hearing from me things we hadn’t talked about before.  Don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t anything earth shattering or tragic but it was personal and for me sharing anything personal in a public forum is a big deal.

However, the girls and I had a great conversation and they responded as I had prayed they would to my story.  Unfortunately many of them empathized having been in similar circumstances and all of us found common ground in having shared the same emotions of the teenage years.   What I could not have anticipated nor even have hoped for was the response of my own daughter. 

After I was done speaking, she came up to me and thanked me for sharing what I had shared and then she said, “Now, I know that you ‘get me.’”  It was a priceless mother/daughter moment and one that I will remember forever.

It got me to thinking about what our Heavenly Father did for us.  He sent His only Son down to this earth to live life in the flesh.  While here Jesus experienced joy, sadness, and every temptation known to mankind.  Jesus suffered, died and was buried.  Our amazing God did this so that we could say to Him, “Now, I know you ‘get me.’”

My heart goes out to pastors who have been called to pioneer new churches.  In talking to several such pastors recently it seems that the pressure from supporting organizations to focus on numbers and statistics is unreal.  Recently Ed Stetzer released some statistics that were a relief to some involved in church planting because they flew in the face of commonly held beliefs. 

In his article Church Planting Survivability and Health, Stetzer challenges the often repeated claim that 80% of church plants fail in the first year.  Stetzer has good news for church planters in every denomination.  Look at the following chart:                       

The number of churches that survived the first year in this study was 98% with 68% surviving four years later.  Pretty good news for some. 

I know that as a church our goal is to survive.  We want to be found doing the work of Christ not only a year later but many years later.  None of us go into planting a church thinking, “We are going to fail.”  Nor do we wish to be among the 2% that cease to exist in the first year.  I am not saying that we shouldn’t be aware of the factors that worked in the churches that ‘made it’ past the first, second, third, and fourth years either.   

My concern is that we emphasize the survivability statistics and the processes and forget Who it is that causes these churches to survive.  I was reading Acts this week and was reminded of what Gamaliel said before the Council in Acts 5 when Stephen and the apostles had been jailed for proclaiming Christ.  He stood up in the Sanhedrin and reminded them they should not harm the apostles, “For if their purpose or activity is of human origin, it will fail.  But if it is from God, you will not be able to stop these men; you will only find yourselves fighting against God.” 

If our purpose and activity is from God and certainly if we are planting a church we should be sure that we are proceeding under God’s direction, then we need not fear survivability.  We will be unstoppable because our God is unstoppable.  It is when our processes and our dependence on statistics get in the way that we are in danger of failing.  I know that there are practical things that have to be attended to when planting a church.  I am not naïve.  However, when our focus is on the practical we are risking the very survivability we are focusing upon.

After Jesus’ death and his resurrection, the disciples had gathered together in Jerusalem as Jesus had instructed them to do.  They asked Him the question that must have been on their minds since He had risen from the dead, “Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?”  I wonder if at that moment Jesus wanted to laugh or to cry.  I cannot discern from the text His reaction but His response to them is recorded in Acts 1:7-8, “It is not yours to know the times or seasons which the Father appointed by His own authority but you will receive power – the Holy Spirit having come upon you and you will be my witnesses – both in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and as far as the last place of the earth . . .” And then He left them rising gloriously into the clouds.

I get the feeling from the text that they all stood there with their mouths hanging open staring into the sky wondering, “Now what do we do?”  Maybe they glanced at each other occasionally with expressions that said, “Is He coming back?  Should we stand here and wait?”  After all, He had left before.

It wasn’t until that appearance of the two men in white clothing that and their assurance that Jesus would return that the disciples actually were roused toward some kind of action.  They returned to the Upper Room where they had been staying and remarkably to me, Peter rises to the forefront as the leader among leaders.

 In these first four chapters of Acts we see him leading them to find God’s man to replace Judas, explaining Pentecost and the Good News of the Kingdom of God to those in Jerusalem, participating in the healing of a lame man and all the while witnessing and pointing them back to the Christ whom they crucified.  None of this occurred until after Peter’s transformational crisis beginning at the third crow of the rooster.

I am not downplaying the role of the emboldening of the Holy Spirit that was promised by Jesus when the Holy Spirit came upon them with tongues of fire at Pentecost.  This is evident in the lives of all of those present.  However, the contrast in Peter’s life is especially poignant as he goes from denial of the Christ to testifying boldly of Him and also becomes a leader among those who will also lead the Church.

In Matthew 16 when Jesus asked the disciples who men said that He was, Peter had exclaimed to Him, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”  (Matthew 16:16)  Jesus told Peter that he was blessed because flesh and blood had not revealed this to him but His Father in heaven had revealed it to him.  Jesus then told Peter, “And I also say to you that you are Peter a rock, and upon this bed-rock I will build this church – and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it.”  I wonder if Jesus was picturing in His mind those moments when Peter would stand before men boldly proclaiming His name – moments yet to happen for Peter but already accomplished in the mind of God. 

There are a couple of leadership principles that I see encompassed in this discourse.  The first is that God chooses leaders.  Without getting into a lengthy theological discussion over what is meant by ‘the rock’ I believe that we can see that Peter was chosen as a leader in the Church by God.  This is demonstrated by the compilation of the Matthew Scripture and his rising to leadership. 

Secondly, leaders do not always lead.  Peter had a definite crisis in faith when Jesus was on trial denying being a follower of Christ and yet Jesus did not deny Peter.  Having a crisis of belief or what others may call a transformational crisis does not preclude a person from leading.  As a matter of fact, this may be the very thing that propels them to leadership and qualifies them to lead.

The third and final point that I will make is that those who are faithful in a few things will be put in charge of many things.  Sound familiar?  It should.  It is from a parable in Matthew 25.  For Peter it was probably redemptive to proclaim the truth in the very place in which he had denied being a follower of Christ.  I think the same is true for each of us.  I wonder if that is why Jesus began by saying that we shall be witnesses in our local cities before taking the circle wider.  How important is it for our spiritual well-being to live in demonstration of the Good News and proclaim it before those whom we have lived and spoken in denial of that very truth before we venture out to the regions unknown?  Is it wise to send others out to Judea and
Samaria and as far as the last places on earth when they have not demonstrated the ability to witness in their Jerusalems?  I believe that there is a biblical principle that demonstrates that it is not.

I was recently talking with a friend of mine who had been in a snowboarding accident. His face bore the marks of the accident and his eye was still blood red from the ensuing damage. Someone approached who had not heard of his accident and when she saw his face she exclaimed, “What happened?” At this, my friend quipped, “I had to pull a log out of my own eye.”

For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye. Matthew 7:2-5 (NIV)

Just the other day I had to pull a log out of my eye and I have to tell you, I would have preferred the damage of the snowy hillside.

After attending a leadership event, I was debriefing with a co-laborer in Christ. We were discussing the ins and outs of ministry and an area of concern in the ministry came up in our discussion. As we were discussing this concern, this blessed co-laborer related a conversation she had with some of the very people with whom I was concerned.

To make a long story short, it turns out that where I had attributed hard-heartedness and lack of concern there was indeed no such thing.

I was called up short because I had mis-judged them. I was thinking they were being hard-hearted and it was my heart that was hard towards them. I was thinking they had no concern for others and yet here I was showing no concern for them. These beloved ones had shared with my co-laborer that the root of their apparent lack of concern was a very real fear and I had judged them for it. I had been the one who was hard of heart.

I truly would have preferred to have fallen on a snowy hillside than to have suffered the pain of dislodging this log from my eye but I have learned a valuable lesson and one that will last me much longer than any lesson learned falling off a snowboard.

Recently I began attending a large Bible Study at a church in my community. It was the usual format for a study these days; do a portion of the study written by the author at home, gather together to discuss ‘the homework’ and then watch a DVD of the author as she expands on the topic with teaching. I enjoyed the discussion and found that we were able to get beyond the surface a few times. The ladies at my table were fun and willing to dive deep.

As we settled in with our coffee and pastries for the DVD, pens and paper in hand, our well-known teacher began to tell us about the context of the passage that we were studying for that day. We were studying the Beatitudes and to set the scene she took us to Matthew 4 to the end of the chapter reminding us that right after choosing his twelve, Jesus had subjected these twelve men to scenes of great suffering and tremendous pain within humanity as He went throughout the region teaching, preaching, and healing. Our teacher, for the moment, had given us the ‘establishing shot’ for the scene we were getting ready to see. She had shown us what was happening at the time, what may have been going on in the hearts and minds of those surrounding Jesus as they came onto the mountainside to hear Him deliver the memorable words we were about to look at in length. She began to teach what I have often heard and most likely you have too – this life on earth is hard; harder on some than others. Those who are in extreme poverty and have a relationship with Jesus will not live eternally in poverty because as the Scripture says, “theirs is the kingdom of God.” (Matthew 5:3 NIV)

This teacher used an example of going into India and seeing the most beautiful women that she had ever seen but they were living in abject poverty. Her heart went out to them and she was moved to speak to them and tell them how beautiful they were to Jesus. These beautiful women pushed in around her to hear the message of how much Jesus loved them and to be touched by her and she says that some came to faith in Christ that day but . . . when she left them they were still in dire poverty with starving children and no food for themselves.

She went on to say that Jesus was teaching that this world is not fair and that we are to live as salt of the earth and then began to tell us what it meant to live as Christ on earth by expounding on Christ’s admonishment not to judge in verse 37 of Luke 6. It was a message well delivered and one worth hearing however, my heart was crying out to hear something different. In saying that, please know that I am not critiquing her teaching at all. My comments reveal my heart and nothing about her or my opinion of her. I hold this teacher in high regard.

As I was sitting there listening to her speak, I noticed that she went from the ‘establishing shot’ and setting the scene to what a cameraman might say was a medium shot or maybe even a close up. I wanted her to stay with the establishing shot. I noticed as she read the passages around the Beatitudes that the Holy Spirit was showing me something completely different than what was being spoken through her. The whole context of the message that Jesus delivered was summed up for me at the end of chapter six in Luke with the story of the wise and foolish builders. Jesus told them that the builder who hears His words and puts them into practice is the one whose house is standing at the end of the storm. In choosing His twelve and then teaching, preaching and healing along the way, Jesus had demonstrated to them what He wanted them (and us) to do. He wants us to reach out in a tangible way to the poor, the hungry, to those who weep and those who hate us because in this we are demonstrating His blessing to a world searching for a king. Offering them an introduction to the King is important but if we do not minister to their physical needs we have left them dry and parched and fertile soil for the enemy to snatch the word from the soil of their hearts.

Reality says to us that there are those in this life that are going to suffer, going to be poor, going to weep due to the cruelty of others. Sin is rampant on this earth. I accept that as a fact. I am unsettled with the suggestion that this passage would teach that we are to be content with that. Jesus was a revolutionary. He came to defeat death! He came to transfer me from the dominion of darkness to the kingdom of light! I don’t see Him letting His disciples sit on their haunches while others are suffering and patting them on the heads saying “Blessed are you someday.” (I know that is an oversimplification.) The point is, if you read through that whole passage (Luke 6:12-49) you will see that Jesus is saying, “Don’t just sit there. Follow me. Do something about it. Do as you see me doing. Get involved.” Jesus was a man of action and He demonstrated through His life and death what He wants from us. He fed the hungry, he had compassion, He loved those who hated him, He didn’t judge, He loved the unlovely. Jesus told us that each tree is recognized by its own fruit. I am wanting my tree to have tangible fruit.