My Mission, Should I Accept It?

I can't stand it! I can't stand it anymore!

It's the thing that you complain about most and absolutely gets your blood boiling. When you see it happening, strong emotions well up within you that are difficult to control. This thing has the power to wreck you, take you to your knees and beg God to do something! Mercy is out the window. Pride evaporates. Reputation is worthless.

This is your mission.

For Moses, it was slavery. Growing up in a powerful wealthy household couldn't quench it.

"One day, after Moses had grown up, he went out to where his own people were and watched them in their hard labor." Exodus 2:11. Pharaoh built a thriving economy on the backs of slave labor. People with no rights and little hope for the future were forced to construct monuments to mere mortals exemplifying the ultimate in irony. Monuments designed to honor the achievements of men, stand to this day as a testimony of what evil will do when unleashed within the hearts of unredeemed people.

But, then it happened. Moses had to do something! 

"He saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his own people. Glancing this way and that and seeing no one, he killed the Egyptian and hid him in the sand." Exodus 2:11-12.  When was the last time you witnessed a beating? I don't mean a scripted, staged, beautifully enhanced movie scene. I am asking you, if you have ever experienced a real-life beating? It's something we never forget and an affirmation that broken people live in a broken world.  Our mission is revealed when we painstakingly take the time to sort through our emotions and find it.

Your mission, if you choose to accept it, is to find where your pain threshold meets God's resources and allow it to become your mission to  change the broken world. God has the fuel source to keep your mission white-hot. The greater question is how much longer can you remain in the crowd when God is challenging you to do something?

(For further reading and inspiration read Holy Discontent: Fueling the Fire that Ignites Personal Vision. Bill Hybels. Zondervan, Grand Rapids, Michigan. 2007.)

The Red Sea, Personal Transformation and Me

Personal transformation begins to make more sense if we can integrate the daily life with our faith. For many of us, we attend worship and feel inspired to lead a Christian life. But, driving away from that experience, the avalanche of reality piles onto us. We’re faced with managing careers, homes and families.  It’s almost like we didn’t worship God at all. We head back to the grind of daily living and leave God behind.

What if there was a way to integrate faith and daily living? God often works in practical ways. It’s not always parting the Red Sea or raising people from the dead. Most of Christian living is done outside our small group and the church! It’s in the everyday occasions that we work out what we believe.

Personal transformation is about the person we are to become. As followers of Christ, we want to be shaped into his image and likeness. So asking what Jesus would do in any situation is a great start. But, we have to follow through and do it.  It’s risky to actually do what God prompts us to do. But, you can do this!

Here’s some ideas to get you started:

          Stop for the student who's obviously troubled and ask them how you can help.

          Notice the books people read on the plane or train and ask them about it.

While grocery shopping, encourage someone with a screaming child who looks like they need a break.

Talk to your friends openly about how difficult it is to follow Christ every day.

Personal transformation isn’t an exact science. You may not work your first miracle or walk on water. But you will see results by trying each day to follow Christ in practical ways. By the end of the work week as you prepare for worship on Sunday, you may notice that it’s not so different than what you do during the week. Then God gets the glory and your image looks a lot like his son, Jesus. Ultimately, being more like Jesus is our goal.

Influence

Stop and think for a moment about what influences our next generation. Relationships are a major factor but imagine how much time they spend on social media, watching television and surfing the internet. I found this article to be especially helpful with educating myself about some of the major influences they face.

I felt a sense of urgency as I prepared for this weekend's message. I believe God is challenging us to prioritize leading the next generation. As Christ followers, our personal attempts to live a life that is pleasing to God matter. We must encourage one another to build strong bonds of community within the church. The stronger we are as a team, the stronger our message will be. 

But, it's not just about us. It's about them. It's about those outside that are lost and searching for answers. This week, we focus on the next generation as we continue to discuss our Wheatland ethos. You play a vital role in building God's Kingdom. Come, learn and be challenged.

You Have to be Carefully Taught

Have you seen those AT&T commercials? The ones with the serious guy asking kids questions?
Their answers crack me up. Kids say the darnedest things.

So, why do they say those things? Good question. Human nature.

We have to be carefully taught.
We have to be carefully and lovingly taught NOT to....
     ....have any other gods but God
     ....misuse God's name
     ....work until we're grumpy, crabby & burned out
     ....dishonor our parents or anyone else in authority
     ....murder
     ....have sex with someone else' spouse
     ....take something that doesn't belong to us
     ....lie or embellish the truth in anyway
     ....want things other people have

This is God's baseline. Try working on this list just for today. After all, we're only kids and we say and do the darnedest things.

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=H3R-rtWPyJY

The Importance of the Right People

We are creatures of habit. Once we are trained, we can complete extremely complex tasks without even thinking. Driving. Cooking. Making love.

Like water, we gravitate toward the path of least resistance. We naturally look for the easiest route, the shortest distance, or the road with the fewest delays. Think Mapquest.

Scientists and sociologists spend entire careers studying this phenomenon. Imagine the fascination of a neuroanatomist as she peers into a microscope and studies slide samples of your brain. Carefully trained, she writes down copious notes about the brain architecture that supports your behavior, memories and thought processes.

Now, imagine there's only a short paragraph written about you. Why? Habit.

Great leaders, entrepreneurs and explorers find new ways of doing things. They continuously innovate and create. They are notorious risk-takers. They discover patterns and use them to their advantage. To borrow a famous marketing phrase, "they never stop exploring." (Thanks, Northface.) Neuroanatomists tell us our brains physically reflect how the mind works as we learn and assimilate new information. 

The way I see it, we have a choice to make. 

1.  We can choose to live within the safety of our established habits and we can actually be happy doing this. We can live in the same neighborhood, eat the same food, work in the same job and love the same people our whole lives. Life is predictable and relationships are automatic.

2.  We can choose to live a life of constant frustration and challenge. Learning new things is difficult, often painful and requires us to sacrifice what we know now for something we may eventually discover in the future. Some relationships will be intense, passionate and short-lived. Other relationships will change because we constantly develop and grow. Few things stay the same.

3.  Or, we can choose some hybrid of the two.

Here's my challenge: be sure you have the right people in your life that can show you the benefits of both worlds and invite God to play a larger role in your daily living. Give God permission to weigh in on your decision making process. Allow for failure and practice forgiveness. Resilience is the best weapon against the onset of the mundane. Thank God for that brilliant idea, 'aha' moment or confirmation that all will be well. Eventually, you'll notice how seamlessly God integrated people, purpose and meaning into your life. There will be far more than a paragraph written about you. There will be a book. It'll be an extraordinary tale of an original life and it will be yours.

Old Things and Relationships

He said it so succinctly. "You like old things and relationships."

His simple declaration caught me off guard. 

The successful-educated-accomplished Me wanted to jump up and prattle on about what I've done, where I've been and who I know. But, the humble-authentic-imperfect Me embraced this awkward revelation and responded, "You're right! I like old things and relationships."

Old things. The older the better. 

My experiences in the Middle East changed my definition of old. The first time I saw a 5,000 year old altar, I was hooked. The addiction rooted deeply within me as I stumbled through the streets of the Old City of Jerusalem, choked on the dust and sand of archaeological digs and sweated in the mid-day sun at the Dead Sea. A whole new world opened to me. God was more real. So, I began to explore the rich history of the Bible and discover how God knit us together in a whole new way. 

Yes, I like old things.

Relationships.

Before I was 30, I didn't pay much attention to my own hurts, habits and hang-ups. So, relationships were more like train wrecks. It was easier for me to blame others for relational failures than to take responsibility for my own relational health. After all, growing up in the 80's taught me that it was all my parent's fault, right? Wrong! Healthy relationships require a lot of hard work. But our investment in becoming better at being relational reaps huge rewards!

Yes, I like relationships. 

But, I like learning most of all. 

After picking up the pieces from a relationship disaster, I did some soul-searching and made the decision to get a dog from the Humane Society. She was a beagel and her name was Mulligan. I needed to learn how to become more relationally responsible with less wreckage. Over the years, I learned a lot about myself as I stumbled around my own Old City, choked on the dust my own personal excavation and sweated through my own relational Wilderness. 

A whole new world was revealed to me. God opened my heart and unveiled a wide new vista that demanded a commitment of life-long learning. I made a personal commitment to follow Jesus when I was 13. But, at 30 years of age, I began to explore more deeply what it meant to be in relationship with Him. I set out to learn how to value what He valued and I discovered something I didn't expect. 

He valued me. 

God valued me? 

Me. 

God valued me! And that, my friend....has made all the difference.

Take a few minutes and look around you. What would my friend succinctly say about you? What do you value?