I Wonder--May 14

Recently I was sitting in my office meeting with a Brazilian missionary, Felipe Mattis. He is bringing God's word for me this week on Pentecost. Felipe has a long history with this church. So this meeting was my chance to get to know him. Needless to say, I surprised him. . . But not in how you expect. 

After about 5 minutes of small talk, Felipe mentioned the passion all Brazilians share: Soccer. It came up because he was telling me about his travel from Sao Paolo to Miami and then on to South Carolina. He was amazed a the large impact that Leo Messi was having on America. 

Little did Felipe know that soccer is a passion of mine: a deep rich passion. 

So for the next hour we spoke about soccer. We spoke about the 1994 World Cup and how Brazil beat my beloved Italy in the final match in a penalty shootout when the best player in the world (Roberto Baggio) missed the final shot. 

We talked about team USA and how they have played over the years. 

Messi came up and how he just won his first World Cup. A proud Brazilian rooted for a Argentinian because he deserved to win one. 

Finally, as a Brazilian we had to talk about the 7-1 loss to Germany in a semifinal game in 2014: a game that Brazil hosted and was favored to win. It was devastating to watch. An old soccer joke is that 'soccer is a game that 22 people chance the ball around the pitch (field) for 90 minutes, and in the end, the Germans win.' On that day that was true. The Germans dominated the match from start to finish. 7-1 in a soccer game is like Clemson losing a national semifinal game 49-7 (oh, and it was 35-0 in the first quarter if you want to push the image further). Hard to watch... 

With my Pentecost this week, and Felipe preaching, my mind was still recalling the conversation as I opened my devotional this morning and read about a German spiritual practice that I wonder about for you: meddachschlop. It means 'a little nap.' And it is a spiritual practice. 

In our lives we are so busy running and 'doing' as much as we can as fast as we can. We narrate the experience on social media and to anyone who will listen. What might happen, and what would our lives become if we followed the Germans again and scheduled a little: meddachschlop? A little time to rest and recover? 

I wonder if you could find that time, even just 15 minutes for the "little German nap?'

I Wonder--May 9

While today has been a rainy day, it has also been a day that has stuck with me. 

First thing this morning I called our Darby's Well Service for help. After speaking with Jimmy last night at our church dinner, it seemed that the pressure switch on the well was going bad (and I do not truly know what that means). The symptoms of our problem were that when we turned the spigot on in the house, the water would run, and then it would cut off suddenly. After a few moments of no water running, the water would come back on. 

I told Jimmy this, and he smiled and explained to me that most likely the pressure switch in the unit was bad and needed to be replaced. He told me I should call the office and have it replaced in the morning. 

So again, first thing in the morning that is what I did. 

Bryan and Jeremy arrived shortly before 9:30am and they got to work. Indeed the switch was bad and together they replaced it without any incident. As they worked it began to rain, then pour on us. But together the three of us had a meaningful conversation that has stuck with me all day. As they installed the switch and wired it back into place properly they told me some stories of their lives and they shared their experiences of previous times at Bethesda with me. 

Briskly walking back to my office in the rain I thought, 'thank you Lord for those few minutes to listen.'

David Brenner, in book Presence and Encounter wrote these that support how I felt after talking with Bryan and Jeremy. He said: 

"One of the surprising things about a transformational encounter is how brief it can be given the magnitude of the changes that can result."

Like I said, it was rainy. The guys worked fast and they never stopped to chat with me. They kept themselves dedicated to the task. But as we talked I felt God speaking to my heart and I wondered if God was, at the same time, talking to their hearts? 

We had a back and forth that touched me. . . I wondered if it touched them? 

Often we do not know how even the briefest of conversations changes us, perhaps be on the lookout for an even a short conversation that you might have today. It might just bless someone's day. 

I Wonder--April 30

I have spent a lot of time collating, editing, and managing my social media and news feeds on my iPhone. This process has take quite a while. This is not because I want to live or function in a 'silo,' but because there are just some topics that do not interest me and I do not want to spend a lot of time with them. 

You see, I do not have a great interest in fashion, or in pop music, and a host of other mainline topics that algorithms suggest that I will like. So I have 'clicked' them away. 

What remains though can be quite painful and polarizing--as it was today when my morning news feed was filled with stories that turned my stomach. Stories of violence. Stories of groups of people from around the world who cannot sit together and talk but choose to 'lob verbal grenades' at one another in passive aggressive threats. 

How does this behavior and choice serve the Lord? Are we not called to be the Church? To be more? 

In the book, "Have a Beautiful, Terrible Day!" Kate Bowler says this to us: 

"The hard truth is that the most basic aspect of our humanity is not our determination, our talents, or whatever we accomplished during last year's resolutions. We are united by our fragility. We all need shelter because we are soft and mushy and irritable in the elements– and we will need so much more than a bank loan, sooner or later we are [all] left exposed."

I could not agree with Kate more. 

We are fragile. 

We are all Children of God who need to remember that truth and come together around it. Rather than shout and divide, perhaps God asks the Church to help facilitate a process of coming together. Instead of yelling and shouting the other person down, I wonder if there is a Christ-like way to sit with someone, to hold their hand, and see the fragility in their eyes, in their lives, and welcome them into communion as Jesus welcomes you? 

I Wonder--April 24

In the rush for productivity, we often rush too quickly. . . We rush to be effective and be thorough. But in doing so, we might just miss the opportunity to Be the Church that Jesus asks us to be. 

I wonder when was the last time you interrupted your well-laid, well-thought out, plans to reach out to someone and share good news with them? When did you last put aside productivity and to choose to dwell with the other person?

On each Wednesday at noon I have a zoom meeting with a group of ministers. We meet for 1 hour to discuss the sermon text for Sunday and talk about general worship plans that we are making. During that meeting my iPhone rang on the table next to me. I saw the call and I read the transcript of the voicemail sit came in. The transcript told me that there was good news waiting for me--but it never said what the good news was. It was up to me to call back. 

The meeting ended at 12:50pm and I got back to work while forgetting the voicemail which I imagine is a temptation that you might fall into. After all there are things to do, and tasks to work on. Yet something in the back of my mind kept reminding me "check the voicemail. Make the call."

It was only when I did that I heard the good news--and it was well worth it! 

I felt my heart swell and my spirit lift during that call. The entirety of the call was less than 2 minutes. But I had a choice to make. I did not have to call back. I could have waited; I was busy. 

Perhaps you have the same choice running through your mind today as you read this post. 

But I encourage you to resist that temptation. You are not too busy to interrupt your day and let God break in and change you, and by extension change the other person. Make the call. Listen to message. Be the Church. 

I Wonder--April 15

As I was reading today I came across the following entry that made me stop and think. 

Yes, today is Tax Day. And yes, I do not enjoy today either. It is a day that I too complain about. But perhaps these words that I share with you below might give you a reason today to pause. They might give you a chance to think differently as you seek to live out your faith as a member of the Body of Christ. 

While thinking about Tax Day, Ryan Holiday wrote:  

"Everything we do has a toll [or price] attached to it. . . Rumors and gossip are the taxes that come from acquiring a public persona. Disagreements and occasional frustration are taxes placed on even the happiest of relationships. Theft is attack on [the] abundance and having things that other people want. Stress and problems are tariffs that attached to success. And on and on and on [this goes]. . ."

There are many things we can complain about in life and many things that we cannot escape. Instead of just complaining or bemoaning them, as we are tempted to do. Perhaps today, we have the chance to notice where our energy rests, where our attention lies. 

And as we notice this could we focus our attention away from poor choices and back toward living and acting as God intends for us? Maybe the price that we need to pay is one of following the cost of discipleship? 

I Wonder--March 27

Last night Bethesda had the opportunity to care for their community. We served our community in faith and in love by providing food to any needy individual who came to the church until we ran out of food. 

It was a night of community building and communal ministry. And I wonder if it was also a night of worship? 

James K.A. Smith says this: 

"Worship that restores us is worship that restories us." (You might want to read that again.... it is not misspelled). 

As we met with members of our community last night and as we listened to them we heard stories of their lives that they felt comfortable sharing with us. We heard stories that they were comfortable sharing--and we never pressed them for any details. 

We heard stories about their families. Stories about their Easter plans. We heard stories about teenagers just learning to drive and stories filled with the hope that families would come together around the Easter table.

We heard stories about the how Jesus would bless the community on Resurrection Sunday but that particular stories was interspersed with stories about the loss of work and the struggles of health and the struggles to make ends meet. 

As I listened to so many stories that were shared with me, and heard the accounts of stories that were shared from other church members, I worked if together, in our act of service, were we not worshipping God? Was this act of worship not something that was re-shaping the story of Bethesda, and the people of Bethesda, who gathered in the parking lot and offered a word of encouragement and blessing to their neighbors? 

We know that stories come in all shapes and sizes, perhaps as you listen to one today, it might become an act of worship that changes you because it is an act of worship. Take some time today in Holy Week to share one today. 

 

I Wonder--March 19

Many aspect of our Christian faith are just the way that they are. The practices of faith resemble what tradition taught us that they were and they are. 

But sometimes, when we linger around Christ, when we watch, and wonder, and study God's word, the Lord might just break through and ask us to look at things from a different perspective that challenges us to grow and widen our faith and gaze.  

As an example, let me tell you a story from this year's confirmation class. 

To set up the story, let me also say that I have used this process three times in confirmation. 

Previously I have handed out the same exercise and asked the students, and their mentors, to consider "The Church." I want them to 'build a church.' They are asked to make certain decisions and choices and then talk about why and how they made those choices. From there we enter into a group discussion about what a church looks like and how 'The Church' is formed and established and sustained. 

The process is straightforward and I have never had any issue with it... until I handed the assignment out this last time and one of the students remembered the passage of scripture that talks about how Jesus lives in our hearts. This student wondered: if Jesus lives in their hearts, and if Jesus walks with them everywhere they go, then does it not stand to reason that the church is not a building, but isn't the church 'me?' Am I not the church, this person reasoned? 

Now while you might roll your eyes at the teenage logic that was presented. The student was correct. 

The church is not a building. Frankly building-centric logic is what got the Pharisees into trouble with Jesus and His message. Since God lives in each of us, and God walks with us each day, wherever we commune with God can be, and should be, an active place of worship where we are molded and shaped by God. 

From a teenage question came a meaningful pause for the group. And the adults who sat among the students felt the pause grow in us as we noticed that God was breaking in.

Some things in our faith are just the way that they are. But there are also places in our faith to draw close to God and wonder if more is possible? I wonder if you can find something today in your faith and in your relationship with God that can be broadened and expanded? What might God be telling and showing you?