Practicing Limits

"God's divine Power has given us everything needed for life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness." 2 Peter 1:3

We live in a culture that is in denial of limits. In all likelihood we would not be in a recession if we had practiced limits financially. Easy credit made it easy for us to spend an average of $1.22 for every dollar we made. Today over 70% of us live paycheck to paycheck. And many of us know someone or have ourselves experienced the crisis of that no limit life-style when our job is downsized or terminated.

But our culture denies limits in other ways too. We are obsessed with finding ways to do more in less time. I suppose a big reason for this is related to our lack of limits financially. I'll confess to being enamored with everybody else over the latest electronic devices and social media. They are entertaining and do help make simple communication quicker. But without limits, these gadgets turn the lost art of listening, intimacy and being into something entirely extinct. Doing more in less time may be a value of our culture, but I'm not sure it's a value of the Kingdom of God.

During the last month as my father in law approached the end of his life, it occurred to me that I do not like the reality that our life has limits. While none of us want to see those we love go through prolonged pain, a part of us also wishes for a longer limit on life. I think the intense commitment that our culture has made to find a cure for cancer is an expression of this desire to extend our limits in life. I know that my father in law lived longer because of the cancer treatments he received. I am grateful for that! But I can also tell you that I am equally grateful for the day that he made the decision to limit any more treatment so that he could practice those lost arts of listening, intimacy and being with the time he had left. A life in denial of limits is no life at all. I think he knew that.

I am extremely grateful for the grace of a Church that resists a culture that lives in denial of limits. I don't mean to imply that people in the Church don't struggle with denial of limits. I just mean that I'm grateful for a Church that gives us help practicing limits through things like Sabbath, accountable friendships, worship of the triune God, devotional Bible reading, just to name a few.

At the end of my days, whether that's today, tomorrow or many days from now, I want to be able to say with the writer of 2 Peter, "I have everything I need for life and godliness through the knowledge of Him who called me by His own glory and goodness." I have everything I need, no matter what is left on my "to do list."

I need to keep practicing limits so I'll be able to do that. How about you?

Body and Soul Medicine: Reflection on the Developing Lake Nona Medical City

[I wrote following post a year ago. After attending the "Healthy Community Symposium" at the Lake Nona YMCA this evening I decided to share it.]

I believe the church offers a critical but sometimes overlooked contribution to the story of Lake Nona's developing medical city in Orlando, Florida. The church won't be the engine that fires up new jobs in the medical city, but it must be the conscience of the science. Good work isn't good just because it produces financial wealth for a community. Good work must reflect the work of God, who is actively working to restore justice, relationships, and wholeness to all creation.

The long-term success of any city cannot be based solely on employment rates and profit margins. Success must be rooted in a larger story. The church's job is to remind people of that story.

God has done some amazing things with dirt. He made us for one thing! God gave us an inventive spirit, a desire for justice, and a longing for a healthy world. Remembering all this helps our lives and cities take on an attitude of gratitude, joy and humility.

God knows that we are prone to be impressed with our own sense of self-importance and consequently sabotage community. God knows that we too quickly resent what others have and ignore what we've been given. God knows we will forget that we are the creatures and He is the Creator. God knows we are predisposed to use our power destructively rather than constructively. And God knows His power is all that is capable of restoring all that is broken.

The church is that community of people who are called to be living proof of God's power to restore bodies and souls. To put it bluntly, Christians are really screwed up people who trust a gracious God to help us love our enemies, put others first yet treat our bodies like God's temple, attend to the suffering and restore dignity to the ignored. This is the body and soul medicine that Jesus makes possible through his resurrection from the dead and the power of the Holy Spirit. Though spiritual, this is a real world, earthy calling.

I am reminded of a prayer that Jesus taught his disciples: "Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven." If the church is doing its job, then it should be making a difference on this earth. Because of the church, things here ought to be looking more like God intends them to be. This is the larger story in which this medical city (and every city) can find its true success.

We know there will be more jobs and more money generated (2,900 between the VA and Nemours by 2012), but how will this economic vigor contribute to the reconciliation of people and communities? How will it inspire people to care for the earth? How will it include the overlooked and the ignored in places of honor?

I'm glad to hear the church raising these kind of questions at community symposiums, coffee shops, board meetings, ball games and dinner tables. They are questions that point us toward Jesus' kind of of body and soul medicine. They are questions that will lead toward the kind of healthy community God longs for his creation.

The medical city at Lake Nona will bring new jobs and a much-needed economic boost to Central Florida. Its long-term success, however, will depend on how rooted it will be in God's hope to bring body and soul medicine to a broken world.

For the sake of healthy community, keep asking good questions church!

A Dream for the Team

Every year around this time, football teams across the country take the field for their first games. They all start the season with goals and hopes for success. The long hours of physical training, eating well, and team practices will now be put to use in the game.

I was talking to a football player today and he said the average play lasts about 5 or 6 seconds. And the average player might be part of 40 plays in a game. That's a total of about 4 minutes of intense action per game. And it's usually only about 3 or 4 plays per game that become Big Highlight Plays.

The thing that keeps coming back to me about those 3 or 4 Big Highlight Plays per game is this:
The Big Highlight Plays wouldn't be possible without the regular, routine, repetitious, sometimes boring habits that take hours every day.

No coach worth his sweat would imagine their players being ready for the Big Play without the regular, routine, repetitious and rigorous habits of football practice.

This has wonderful parallels for the Christian life.
It is the regular, routine, repetitious, sometimes boring habits that prepare us for the few Big Plays in our life.

I spoke with a man in our church whose family is facing a "Big Play" right now – unexpected costs to treat a family member's illness. The costs are not just financial. They are emotional, spiritual and even physical costs involved in this "Big Play."

Going through this "Big Play" will be difficult and challenging for this family. That's the nature of Big Plays. But this family is not unprepared for the challenge.

I've known this family for 8 years now, and they have practiced spiritual, financial and physical discipleship regularly, routinely, repetitiously and rigorously.

• They worship regularly.
  
• They have taken Disciple Bible study and other small group studies to grow in their faith.
  
• They served God through mission trips, community outreach, VBS, building the church building etc.
  
• They ordered their life in a way that they were able to give a tithe (10 percent) of their income to the church.
  
• They have no debt except for their house mortgage.
  
• They saved an emergency fund.
  

So this man tells me that he wishes he knew how this "Big Play" was going to turn out, but that their faith and the support of their church family would be more important than ever for them now. He said, "I don't want to do this but we are going to have to stop tithing 10% of our income to the church during this season of treatment. But the good news is that we are not going to go into debt. We're going to be ok."

This man and his family are spiritually, financially and physically ready for this "Big Play" that has come their way.

I dream of a church full of people who are willing to practice discipleship regularly, routinely, repetitiously and rigorously so that they are ready for the "Big Play" that comes their way and extend needed help when they see other families facing their own "Big Play."

That's my dream for the team!

Lesson from Rwanda: Imagining a Different Future

"When they had done this they caught so many fish that their nets were beginning to break." Luke 5:6

As I listened to the story of John Damascene today I wondered how this 17 year old boy's life could ever be different. He never knew his dad and his mother died when he was eight. Since then he has lived with an uncle who abused him until the uncle died. Then John worked every day to try and feed himself and his two sisters Ruth and Jan.

When John joined up with a working group of other orphans through Zoe Ministry he was given training in farming in order to cultivate a small plot of land that his family owned, and he was given some rabbits to begin a small business selling them to make money to support his family. He was so hungry that he missed meetings with his working group to cultivate his land and all but one of his rabbits died. John continued collecting grass for a neighbor's cow in order to get a little food to eat for himself and his sisters.

How could John Damascene imagine a different future than the one he was currently living?

It is a question many have asked about their own circumstances. The disciples who had fished all night and caught nothing couldn't imagine going back out in the same waters and catching fish. But Jesus apparently could imagine it for them. Jesus said, "Put out into the deep water and let down your nets for a catch."

They did this without much expectation and were surprised by hope!

We share the question with John Damascene and the disciples. How can we imagine a future other than the one we are currently living?

Maybe we aren't worried about when our next meal will come from, but maybe we are worried about what life will be like after a loved one dies.

Maybe we wonder if we will ever know anything other than sadness after our divorce.

Maybe we wonder if our world will ever know a time without war.

Maybe we wonder what life will be like after foreclosure, bankruptcy, oil spills, cancer, hurricanes, economic crisis and job loss.

Is God at all a part of that future for you? If you want to have the capacity to imagine a different future from the reality you are currently living then God must be involved.

After hearing John Damascene's story someone asked, "Is there anything that Zoe Ministry can do for him?"

The answer began as 25 other orphans in John's working group showed up and joined him that day weeding his garden and helping him gather grass for his neighbor's cow as a show of support and hope that a different future wasn't all that far away.

Lesson from Rwanda: Bang For the Buck

I tend to be cheap. Some of you know that. Other words I'd use to describe myself are thrifty and glad to make a good deal. I also know that God has created me and all people to be good stewards of God's things. This is one reason I am drawn to this ministry of empowering orphans in Africa that Zoe Ministry is doing. Doing the most good with the resources God has given to us seems to me to be a faithful act.

There are many orphans and vulnerable children in the world. And followers of the risen Christ are rightly concerned for them since Jesus tells us that as you have done it unto the least of these my children you have done it unto me.

Now you could adopt an orphan for $20 a month for 18 years or so. That would be $4320 to help feed, clothe, and teach an orphan child. Say you decided to do that for 80 orphan children. That would be $345,600. But if you adopt the sharing hope empowerment method that Zoe Ministry is using then you would help those same 80 orphans with $18,000 over three years because at the end of three years the children are equipped to provide food for themselves, have reliable income, provide for their own shelter and have the dignity that comes from not only providing for their family but giving generously to help empower other orphaned children.

This is the principle of empowerment and multiplication and generosity. It has great "bang for the buck!" But because it is rooted in the gospel of Jesus it also has a tremendous bang for the kingdom of God.

Now the empowered orphan children of Africa are challenging me to think about how I am doing this (or not) in my daily activity.

Lesson from Rwanda: Empowerment

Empowerment. I like how that word sounds. But I have little understanding about how to do it. My time in Rwanda is allowing me the opportunity to witness empowerment in action.

Maybe you've heard the saying: "Give a person a fish and they will eat for a day. Teach a person to fish and they will eat for a lifetime." This is empowerment.

It is a step (or two) further than most of us go in our service to God. I know that is true in my life. It is easier for me to give somebody who is hungry a fish (or money). I feel good about myself when I do that. And there is nothing wrong with that, by the way. However, God invites us to get a little more involved. God gave us the best example of this involvement when He became flesh and dwelt among us in Jesus Christ.

God entered into the messiness of our lives to show us how to live with self-giving love. He said as much to the disciples after having washed their feet - modeling a life of self-giving love. Jesus said, "I have set you an example, that you should do as I have done for you." Jesus empowered his disciples to serve like him.

Imagine if you can that you are orphaned because your parents died of AIDS or they were killed by genocide. You are stigmatized and isolated from your community and treated like garbage to be thrown away. You have no home and no one wants to take you in. You don't know how to prepare or cook food. So you either steal food from someone's garden or you work for someone who exploits you by paying you very little. This is the typical life of an orphan child in Rwanda before they get involved with Zoe Ministry (www.zoeministry.org).

Today we met Burnadette who is 15 years old. On top of experiencing all of those things above, she was born with a medical condition so her bowels were not working properly. She smelled really bad. Not even her family wanted to be around her and she wanted to die.

Was Burnadette hopeless? So it might seem.

But a working group of orphans was being put together by Zoe Ministry in Burnadette's villiage. She began to realize she was not the only one who felt like she did. Through help from Zoe Ministry she was able to get medical treatment to repair her bowels so that she wouldn't smell anymore. Through the help and support of other orphans in her working group, she was able to learn to farm and breed rabbits to provide food and income for her and her sisters and brother.

Today while we were meeting and talking with Burnadette a group of 30 members of her family group were busy at work putting up a fence around her home and building a small kitchen garden by her house. Next week Burnadette will go to the home of someone else in her working group to help them too.

Burnadette has been empowered. She has been given dignity. She has been given hope. She is becoming the person God has created her to be - passing on to others what had been given to her.

With this empowerment model of ministry with orphans, the ratio of paid Zoe Staff to orphans is about 1:900. This is because the orphans are caring for one another. And when they graduate from the 2 to 3 year program they are then sponsoring new working groups of orphans themselves - passing on to others what they have received.

I wonder who you are empowering?
Are you just a disciple? Or are you a disciple maker?
Are you just doing good things for other people or are you teaching others to do good things?

The children of Rwanda have challenged me with these things.

Seeing God's Kingdom in Rwanda Africa

I have the privilege of spending this week in Butare, Rwanda Africa with Zoe Ministry (www.zoeministry.org) whose purpose is to share God's hope with AIDS orphans through the ministry of empowerment. Many good ministries to AIDS orphans offer aid/relief through financial gifts, but what happens when the giver of that aid quits? Often the orphans are left in the same place that they began - poor, hungry, isolated.

I'm learning about a new model for ministry to orphans in Africa that is so simple, but seems so revolutionary. It's basis is in the concept of empowerment and is deeply rooted in the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Rather than a traditional orphanage model, this ministry finds orphans and vulnerable children in villiages and groups them together in what they call "working groups." These working groups might be 20 to 25 families (around 60-75 children altogether). At the beginning of what is often a two to three year process the working group is "coached" by a indiginous social worker who helps them decide on leadership and goals for their group.

Often the first goals are "food security" and finding "income generating projects" that will help the children who are currently eating once every 3 to 4 days to start eating once a day. Indeed in a period of a month or two the group goes from being sick, hungry and homeless to eating food that they grow and purchase from money they make through selling food they grow. What the Zoe Ministry gives them is the support and tools the orphans need to do this work for themselves.

What we've seen are children who were once homeless, hungry and isolated now with the dignity that comes with providing for themselves and others who are in the same spot they are.

One really cool story happened today. After members of three different working groups finished sharing with us some of their stories they expressed their thanks to us by singing and processing toward us with several bags of vegetables full of things they had grown. They said, "Because of all that you have given to us we want to bless you with a portion of what we have been given." Keep in mind that these children are now eating once a day and they are giving us enough food that would likely feed them for a week! We received the food with humble and grateful hearts knowing at that moment they were giving us far more than we could ever give to them.

It was the extravagant generosity of the Kingdom of God embodied right before our eyes!

I can't wait to be able to share more pictures, video and stories upon our return. Thank you for your prayers for Lonnie, Kathy, myself and the rest of our team as we travel. And thank you also for your prayers for the orphans and workers with Zoe Ministry in Rwanda!

Holy Week

It's Holy Week and here in Orlando even the pine trees know it.

The Shape of Things to Come

We've been doing a message series in our church's worship services on The Lord's Prayer. Praying "Thy Kingdom Come" is a prayer that will change us. It is clear from reading just a little of what Jesus said about the Kingdom of God that he is talking about a way of life that is different from what we're used to in this world. Jesus said to Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor in his day, "My kingdom is not from this world. If my kingdom were from this world, my followers would be fighting to keep me from being handed over to the Jews. But as it is, my kingdom is not from here." John 18:36

Author, Donald Kraybill puts his finger on how different the Kingdom of God is in his book entitled, The Upside-Down Kingdom. He suggests that the kingdom of God points to an inverted way of life that contrasts with the established social order. In this inverted kingdom, the first shall be last and the last shall be first, the exalted will be humbled and the humbled will be exalted, sinners are forgiven and welcomed while the self-righteous are punished, the poor are blessed and the rich are condemned, the lost are found and the dead are brought back to life, the lion lays down with the lamb and spears are beaten into pruning hooks.

So even while the Kingdom of God is not of this world it is not "other-worldly." In other words, this isn't a reality that we will only experience after we die. Jesus also teaches his disciples to pray, "Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven." What type of matter the new creation, the new Jerusalem, the kingdom of God will take is yet to be determined, but ever since the resurrected Jesus ate fish with his disciples on the beach and Thomas touched the risen savior's nail scarred hands and pierced side, Christians have anticipated a kingdom of God that involves bodies and earth rather than ghost-like spirits and clouds. Any type of disembodied notion of the kingdom of God was condemned by the early church as a heresy called "Gnosticism."

So when we pray "Thy Kingdom Come" we are speaking of the shape of things to come on earth as it is in heaven. Indeed, Christians are called to live into the Kingdom of God right now. After all, Jesus said, "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe the good news" Mark 1:15. That means we should be seeing glimpses of the Kingdom of God on earth all around us. Those glimpses may seem small or insignificant (such as a mustard seed, Matthew 13:31-32) but Jesus insists they are the shape of things to come.

This week a member of my church dropped off her daughter for preschool and she was driving a different car than usual. Turns out she had rented this one while her car was in the shop for some repairs. She came in after the drop off and shared with me that her 3 year old daughter had been exploring all the compartments in this rental car and found a bag of bullets. She shrugged her shoulders and said, "I have no idea what to do with a bag of bullets? I've got no use for them. What am I supposed to do?"

Reflecting later on that conversation it occurred to me that her reaction to this bag of bullets was a glimpse of the inverted way of life in God's Kingdom. According to the Biblical prophets who speak of turning spears into pruning hooks (Isaiah 2:4, Micah 4:3), we are all headed in the direction of the day when we find a bag of bullets and shrug our shoulders. We will simply have no use for them in God's Kingdom.

What ways are you seeing glimpses of the Kingdom of God coming on earth that reveal the shape of things to come?

Changed By Pain

Recognizing the necessity for suffering I have tried to make of it a virtue. If only to save myself from bitterness, I have attempted to see my personal ordeals as an opportunity to transform myself and heal the people . . . . I have lived these last few years with the conviction that unearned suffering is redemptive. Martin Luther King Jr., A Testament of Hope, p. 41

Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God – what is good and acceptable and perfect. Romans 12:1

This week it occurred to me that the transforming work of God happens in our lives when we aren't comfortable. Perhaps you've noticed that times when you have felt most uncomfortable, least self-sufficient, and even powerless, you have been most open to change and trust in God.

One of my sisters in Christ moved away this week to be with her daughter in Tennessee. I met her 13 years ago at Church. Over the years she grew to know God's love and saving grace through worship and studying the scripture. She had good friends and a supportive family. She was happy.

But God must have been messing with her because not long after I met her she made a decision to do something pretty uncomfortable. She became an advocate for homeless families in central Florida and went out recruiting other pastors and churches to form what would become the Interfaith Hospitality Network of Central Florida (a network of churches to help homeless families find dignity, get employment and back into a home).

What makes her decision even more surprising is that she was a retired nurse and had never stood in front of pastors and churches to make speeches before. That was really hard for her, made her really uncomfortable. But as it turns out, she wasn't the first person to ever find in her personal ordeals an opportunity to transform herself and heal the people.

Apparently this is the way God has chosen to transform the world . . . through a cross. God's desire isn't to serve us as a kind of divine genie who grants our wishes if we're good enough. God looks at us in love and longs to make us new. God sees for us a new reality which we aren't capable of seeing apart from sharing in the suffering, death and resurrection of Jesus. This is what leads Christians to say things like this:

But rejoice insofar as you are sharing Christ's sufferings, so that you may also be glad and shout for joy when his glory is revealed.
1 Peter 4:13

It took a long time for the Interfaith Hospitality Network to gain momentum and get started. There were days when it looked like it might not happen. But even if it hadn't, Shirley was being changed, deepening her trust of God and concern for the poor. Her discomfort had revealed God's glory.

In what ways might God be using your discomfort or inviting you into it in order to transform you?

How have you noticed the way God uses discomfort to bring transformation?