Friday, January 22, 2010

Worry, Anxiety, and Fear

This has not been an easy week. Perhaps one of the toughest I've had in some time. My old, so-called friends showed up. Their names are Worry, Anxiety, and Fear. I didn't even realize I was hanging around with them again. I've tried making myself conscious of their presence, I know not to associate with them, I've preached about not giving into them, and I counsel people all the time not to put these three in the driver's seat.
Last night at a men's prayer gathering, someone pointed out that worry is something he has struggled with for several weeks now. He has prayed about it. Even though the circumstances have not changed, he is at peace about the circumstances now. When he mentioned this, I realized how much I was letting these three guys into my life again. I need to work on this in the coming weeks.
This morning I have been sitting here thinking about how much of our world is driven by worry, anxiety, and fear. People are voted in and out of office based upon these three things. Those that get elected to office tend to operate under the influence of these three things. Business deals are made or broken based upon them. Even more scary is that marriage decisions, parenting decisions, and church decisions are made under the influence of these three more often than we want to admit.
Why do we keep hanging out with these three? They're bad dudes. They get us nowhere. Jesus made it very clear that none of them add a single hour to our lives. Medically, they've been known to wreak havoc on our physical selves. Psychologically, they've been known to wreak havoc on our mental selves. As Jesus told us many years ago, they mess us up spiritually. That's all three components of our make-up!
Question: If one of your friends was hanging around with someone that was messing them up as much as worry, anxiety, and fear were messing with you, what advice would you give them?...........Yep, that's right. Now let's all heed our own advice.

Friday, January 15, 2010

Who or What Feeds You?

In the 10+ years I've worked in churches as a Youth Pastor, Assoc. Pastor, and now as the guy in the hot-seat (the Lead Pastor) the number 1 complaint that I've observed from disgruntled church members is "I'm not being fed." In every church I have served, I just don't see how this is possible. Every church I have served has numerous classes and groups available that study and discuss the scriptures. Every church I have served had a pastor who opened the scriptures in every sermon and spoke from it. If someone wants to be fed with solid spiritual food, the opportunity is there. Granted, I'm sure there are churches out there that offer fluff and frosting, but none that I have been a part of. The churches I have been a part of had other problems, but the opportunity to be fed has always been there. So every time I hear that complaint, I always try to get to what the "real problem" is. Most of the time, the "I'm not being fed" complaint is just a spiritualized cover people use when they don't want to admit that their real issue is petty and childish. But this isn't the main point of this post. I'm going to get to the main point now.
The truth is that we're always being fed. It's just what we choose as our food that affects other parts of our being. What really aggravates me is that many within the church are taking in a more steady diet of the news media than they are the Bible. Just look at financial giving to churches over the past two years. The economic news in the media has been scary. The spirit of fear has spread all over the government, the market, the banking industry, and just about every other aspect of our society. Sadly, it has spread through the church. Yes, there are many in the church who have fallen into hard times with the economic downturn and haven't been able to financially contribute to God's kingdom like they have in the past (and the church needs to be there to walk with them through these hard times). But there are also many who haven't been hit but have withheld out of fear. I had a conversation with a fellow pastor the other day who was telling me that his church was far behind their budget towards the close of 2009. In November, he proposed a catch-up Sunday where the members were challenged to go above and beyond to catch up on the church's budget. They exceeded their goal on that Sunday and closed the year with a balanced budget. He said that many came to him confessing they had the money to give and knew they should have been giving better throughout the year, but had withheld out of fear of a collapsing economy.
Another example, a couple months ago a lady came by our church office freaking-out about the proposed health care bill being passed through Congress. She was talking gloom-and-doom over this bill and felt that I as the church's pastor needed to drop everything we were doing and call the church to pray about this. Yes, I do agree that we need to pray for our nation's leaders and that they will look to God for the wisdom to make the right decisions. But this particular lady was buying into and spreading fear that she had heard in the news.
Have we forgotten that God is on his throne? Does it not occur to us that the economic situation in our world didn't catch God off-guard? Does it not occur to us that God is well aware of the health-care bill being discussed in Congress? Just from reading our Bibles, we should be very conscious of the fact that God prevails. He has a plan through all of this and last time I checked, he intends to include the church in his plan.
But he can't use us if we buy into and spread fear. When we start serving fear, then we are serving Satan.
It's all about what we go to as our main source of food. Is it what CNN say, FoxNews says, Glenn Beck says, Keith Olbermann says, or is it what God says. Those of us in the church should know it's what God says, but is that really what we feast on?

Tuesday, January 12, 2010

A Waste of Time

How much of our time can we really label as "constructive"? It seems that everyone I know, including myself, are always talking about how busy life is. I can't speak on behalf of others in my life who constantly complain of a lack of time, but from looking at myself, I suspect all of us actually have more time than we know or want to admit to.
Much of my time-problem has to do with me. When I get up in the morning, I have to keep a check on not doing anything else other than what I've already committed my morning to. I decided long ago that I was going to give my mornings to reading the scripture, hearing God, speaking to God, journaling about my faith journey, and anything else possible to building spiritual muscle. Doing so gives me perspective on my day and helps keep on track with those things that are important. I know this, but it's amazing how easily that can go if I talk myself into doing something else "real quick." For example, I may turn on the tv or search the internet "real quick" just to check the weather or check on one item of news "real quick" and before I know it, I've read about 6 or 7 news websites, checked all my e-mail, wrote a few comments on facebook, and started working on church-related or school-related items for the day.
There are many times during the day, I could easily head over to the Y and work-out. Doing so is relaxing, energizing, and can add more hours to my day. Instead, I get caught up in getting work done that can wait and wears me down. Incidentally, that neglect of my physical health doesn't add any more time to my day and there is always more stuff to get done.
These are just a couple of examples of time-wasters or failure to prioritize. The fact is, I know I can carry my full load of being a husband, being a pastor, and being a student among other things a lot better than I am right now. I just have to learn to give the appropriate amount of attention to certain things, learn to say "no" more than I actually do, understand I can't be everywhere at once, and remind myself that I'm not here in this world to please man, but to play to the audience of One.
The amazing this is, we serve a God who lives outside of time. Time isn't going to matter when we get to heaven. Why are we so constrained by it now?
Again, I can only speak for myself, but I know I can accomplish everything God has placed in my life a lot better than I am now with a lot less stress and wear-and-tear. I wonder if you can do the same thing.

Saturday, January 9, 2010

Why the Title?

There is only one Way, one Truth, and one Life. Our lives are to be dedicated to seeking Him. None of us are capable of knowing everything about Him. Our life's pursuit is to try to understand only what He has revealed to us and to follow Him.
None of us see Him or the world through the same lenses. We view everything through our own unique experiences and perspectives. As a result, our perspectives are limited. The trouble is that we view the world and view God through our own limited perspectives and assume that what we see is all there is.
It is disastrous to assume that all we can see is all there is because we are missing out. Just as disastrous is when we try to force our limited perspectives on others. Instead, we should be sharing our perspective on God and the world and have an open-mind to hear another perspective on the same things. This doesn't necessarily mean that you have to buy into everything you hear, but two or more people earnestly seeking the Way, the Truth, and the Life together can really sharpen each other.
This blog is simply about God and the world through my lenses. Feel free to offer your thoughts any time.