Altars: God's Preferred Place of Provision

Simple reflection this morning from my hotel room in Dubai.

Have been praying for God's provision and thinking much about his identity as Yahweh Yireh (popularly mispronounced as "Jehovah Jireh"), the God who Provides.

It occured to me as I recently worshipped at Joy Ministries International in Chicagoland (new church plant in our family led by Davies Lombe of Zambia), that Abraham didn't recognize God as Provider until he had abandoned all of his various "Plan Bs".

And then this morning I realized further that actually Isaac wasn't a Plan B. He was Plan A.  So, Abraham had to abandon all his back up plans and also put the divinely revealed plan -- Plan A -- on the altar.  And then ... God provided.

Perhaps you haven't read the story. It's Genesis 22 in the Bible.  Here's the point that is sitting on my chest today as I await my flight.

God provides on altars.

We get all our stuff on the altar -- that means surrender and sacrifice and really abandoning all contingency plans.  And then God lays his provision on the altar.

Sorry, I don't claim to understand this yet.  But, something tells me that I'm going to before too long.

Another Light [Featuring Guest Blogger, Hannah Lorance]

(The following was just sent to me in an email from my daughter, Hannah. It's lovely. I'm biased. Oh ... and she doesn't drive, she's 10.)

Purple and pink clouds bruise the blue sky at sunset. I am driving through the dark street. All at once it is lit up! Lights are everywhere. That's because the city I'm in is never completly dark. I know this is true beacause I'm in Aurora. Aurora is the city of lights. But there is another light in the sky, bigger and brighter than any other. But few people see it. This is because few people believe. God is that light.

PRAY FOR MORE PEOPLE TO BELIEVE. PRAY THAT MORE WILL SEE THAT LIGHT. PRAY FOR THEM.

www.WeAreBorderless.com

Hee-hee, love you.

A Long-learned Lesson

I've been steeped in busyness since Christmas and haven't had time to blog.

Spending a lot of my time these days in fundraising and grant writing as well as trying to make business deals that will result in increased revenue for the work to which God has called us.  Mission is not what I once dreamed it would be.  It's better and it's worse.

It has been now 18 years since I first took a position as Youth and Music Director at tiny Northside Baptist Church in Blanchard, Oklahoma. For the longest time, I did ministry on fumes -- financially speaking.  It was always "for the Lord" and most of the Church seemed very eager for me to contribute my service for pennies or less.

I guess it was one of the hardest lessons for me to learn that if mission and ministry is going to make a long-term impact, it must be sustainable.  It is right for Kingdom workers to expect to be compensated for their labor.  It is wrong for Christians to withhold that payment -- it's actually a kind of theft.

So, I find myself now working out this new paradigm.  I have little choice.  Having recently resigned from denominational work (and it's small but steady paycheck), this new adventure really has to work.

If it does, of course, it will literally change the world.  And that's all I want.

Thy Kingdom come, Lord!

For Example, let's end Rohingya Suffering

Photo courtesy BBC World

So, here is an example of what I'm talking about. http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-32970808

Most people have still never heard of the Rohingya peoples, but for those of us who have been in refugee ministry for a while, we have heard of their plight for years.  I still remember the shock and joy of discovering an entire, large apartment complex totally filled with Rohingya refugees in Ft. Wayne, Indiana.  I don't know them well, but whenever I hear an update about their plight, my spirit groans.

I'm not going to tell their story here but to say that they are the ultimate people without a country.  They are South Asians who have spent the last few generations in Burma thanks to the post-abolition policies of Great Britain who semi-forcibly reshuffled the peoples of the world through their ghastly system of indentured servitude (which alone is enough for the entire world to call the UK to step up and solve the Rohingya problem that their greed is ultimately responsible for creating).

But I digress.

Yesterday, I mused about Grey's Anatomy (which is playing in the background as I read through the morning news and blogs) and how TV series' writers with a vision only as big as the world seem to have great difficulty in writing about changing the world.  It's far easier to write about a great character getting killed off in a car accident than to imagine them actually realizing their potential to make history.  In trying to inspire our newly arrived set of summer interns, referenced this and hoped to convince them that God isn't like this at all.

Perhaps it is the logical outcome of my evangelical generation's upbringing that we either give in to the numbing influences of the prevailing culture or finally throw off the restraints of small-mindedness -- to rebel against the drop-in-the-bucket kind of thinking and utterly give oneself to actually changing the world.  Those early days of Piper and the Passion Conference Posse must finally take on flesh and dwell as uncomfortably as the Hulk in a china closet in this basically status quo world of trendy protests, je suis whateverisms, and awareness campaigns that never do anything.

So for me.  What I do now when I hear about the Rohingyas is I start to ask myself, "What is the plan to actually solve this problem?  Why can't I be the one who makes it?"  Because I'm sick of assuming that I can only do my part!  If I am content to only do my part, transformation won't come because by now I realized that the vast majority of people will never do their part!  Some won't because they cannot.  Others won't because they simply don't care.  At 37, I know that I must do the part of thousands if things are going to change.  And I know that while I came to the Lord's table empty handed at first, I've been at the table so many times for so long that I can only blaspheme Him by the suggestion that my hands are still empty.

I can change the world.

Indeed, the one who has written in his book all the days of my life before even one of them came to pass intends that it should be.

So, Amen! May it be!

Keep McDreaming! You Won't be Written Off.

Photos Courtesy ABC.com

So, I have to confess now that I am a rather huge fan of Grey's Anatomy.  I have no excuses and some of you will definitely think less of me after having just read that.  I'm okay with that.

Recently, an original character on the long-running TV series was written off in a horrible, fatal accident.  Grey's creator, Shonda Rhimes has gained bit of a reputation for killing off cast members.  This one rather upset me.  I scoured blogs and news articles for an explanation.  Why kill Dr. Derek "McDreamy" Shepherd?  Why?  Yes, I even cried a little.

I was more upset when my favorite character, Sandra Oh's unforgettable Dr. Christina Yang was written off a season earlier.  Fortunately for her, she didn't die.  She moved away to some amazing European medical research center with limitless funding and potential -- to change the world and yet never be heard from again.

And there is my point.

Characters Yang and Shepherd were portrayed for season after season as aspiring to and encroaching upon genuine historic medical greatness.  They were going to print hearts and map brains and otherwise save millions of lives.  And then suddenly, a car accident or a move to Europe and we are asked to forget about them and focus on those mere mortals left behind.

I think true greatness must just be really hard to write about.  Inevitably the explanation comes from TV writers that sounds something like, "We just felt like there was nothing else for us to do with this character."  After several seasons of exploring a variety of relationships, and scenarios and adventures, the writers feel they have done all they can do with that character.  That they've explored every angle.  That they've rather painted themselves into a corner.  The character must die or they must venture into greatness off screen and achieve it in a way that doesn't disturb the little universe we've created.

Read that last line again.

That's what a vision as big as the world will get you -- writer's block after a few seasons.  Eventually you conclude that there is nothing else to be done with Derek or Christina or Frasier or with any of Daniel Larusso's girlfriends (still stings).  Though you may be a screenwriter with a fictional universe of your own creation and though you literally have a blank piece of paper in front of you, when your vision is only as big as the world, it is difficult to write about it changing.  

Photo Courtesy NBC.com

Speaking of Fraiser.  At least they tried.  Some 20 years of stories written about my all time favorite TV character and at the very end, the writers essentially admitted their limitations when they had the beloved Dr. Crane read from Tennyson's Ulysses:

We are not now that strength which in old days

Moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are;

One equal temper of heroic hearts,

Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will

To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.

How glad I am that God isn't like that! He never runs out of stories or angles or adventures or dreams for my life.  He knows how to write about greatness.  He knows how to write about changing the world.  He'll never get to a point with me where he shrugs and says, "Well, I think we have done just about all we can do with you."  There is always another season.  The show is always renewed and every time I think I've just gotten through the climax of the tale he is authoring in my life, he repeats, "That was just the beginning."

I think I like Pastors

The past two days, I've been crashing some networking meals that our state Baptist convention has organized for Chicagoland pastors.  Lunch yesterday mostly with Korean pastors.  Dinner last night with a bunch of (mostly) Hispanic pastors.  Today was lunch with about a dozen African American pastors.

As I drove home today, it just occurred to me that I really enjoyed the gatherings.  There was something kind of sweet about the time together.  You know, I've actually been in ministry for 16 years now.  That's not much compared to some, but neither is it anything to sneeze at.  And really, I only bring that up to say that I've been around a lot of pastors and I know that a lot of them are real jerks.  And, I can say that because I know that I am sometimes a real jerk.  No kidding, sometimes I'm very difficult to be around.

But, well, I am just saying ... I've enjoyed being with these Chicagoland leaders during the past couple days. I like the old guys who have put in decades of service and who look confused when you talk about "retirement plans".  I like the young guys who feel pretty sure that God can do anything and probably will through their new ministries.

One guy today mentioned that he had just turned 40 and had two sets of twins.  Another had to leave before the meal so he could be at the hospital when one of his church members was taken off life support.  Another said he retired at the age of 80 but began pastoring again at 83 because a church essentially begged him to take the pulpit.

These are kind of remarkable people.  I'm not talking about the crooks with the mansions and the bling.  That's not most of them.  And, I don't know where I'm going with this.  Just rambling, reflecting . . .

Darshan: The End of the World and Modern Pessimism

Photo by Tom Godber

I've been studying this morning about optimism and it has led me to reflecting upon our present day fascination with apocalyptic themes in our films and TV shows.  A quick glance at the following Wikipedia list shows that we've produced more more apocalyptic films since 2010 than during the entire decade of either the 80s or 90s. And this isn't even considering TV shows like Revolution or Walking Dead.  What's going on? Does it matter?

List of apocalyptic films - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:

My gut tells me that it matters at least somewhat and maybe it matters a lot.  For example, does this suggest that for all of our renewed awareness and interest in "engaging" issues such as human trafficking, world evangelism, climate change, poverty and hunger, HIV/AIDS, global terrorism, immigration justice, racism, and more that we are actually engaging in a rather pessimistic and hopeless way?  Do we engage as those who wish to do something good but who do not actually believe that good can reign?

With Nelson Mandela perhaps nearing the end of his life, I remember growing up in the 80s and being told in school and even by TV sitcoms that the racial walls of Apartheid could be defeated.  I remember watching President Reagan calling for Mr. Gorbachev to "tear down this wall"! And I remember watching people climb all over the Berlin Wall soon thereafter with sledge hammers tearing that thing down.

We see walls all over the place today.  And we raise awareness.

We see intimidating walls rising up around the world.  And we call people to become engaged.

But do we no longer believe that they can actually be torn down?

Darshan: Ministry Sanctuaries

["Darshan" is a Sanskrit term that can be translated as "viewing with devotion" or "lovingly reflecting". It is a form of meditation. But enough about that. I'm going to use it to mark out posts on this blog that are simply quick reflections. Different from news clippings or missiology posts. Do you get what I mean?]

This summer has been a tremendous challenge. As some of you know, health problems, busyness, etc. have been slowing me down.  In ministry and missions, indeed things can get overwhelming. Sometimes it becomes difficult to know what to do next. Often, I find myself doing one thing only to begin quickly doubting myself, thinking that I should be doing something else. Or perhaps ten other things.

This past week, I have found myself talking about the need for ministry sanctuaries. By that, I mean refuges in ministry that protect you from the clouds of doubt and the voices which tell you that you should rather be doing something else.  These are ministry activities that are so pure, so simple, so Biblical that doing them removes you from the worry of all that you are not doing.

Prayerwalking is one of those things. As is visiting and ministering to the sick. For me, blessing and dedicating babies is another.  When I engage in these things, I feel it doesn't matter what I am not doing. They are sanctuaries.  If you are in ministry or missions, you also need these kinds of sanctuaries.  And you need to visit them often.

Here are the two Nepali babies I conducted naming ceremonies for during the past couple weekends: