Just follow the Recipe!

2 Timothy 3:14-17

But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it,  and how from infancy you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.  All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.

             Working in the Church I can see that so many of us can relate to Paul’s description of Timothy.  My son’s first real song he sang was “Jesus Loves Me”.  He liked it so much he would walk up to people and say the “THE BIBLE TELLS ME SO!” They would ask him what the bible told him? I taught him to say, “Obey my mommy and daddy.”  Everyone was amazed at his wisdom.  Most of us in the church probably have similar stories about our kids and/ or can say the same thing about how we were raised.

            As I read this passage I am caught up with the simplicity of God’s plan.  Then I think about the complexity of ministry in the church.  All the things we do to build up and eventually get to the simple truth of learning God’s word, applying it to our lives, and teaching to others.  This week I was watching a youth promotional video, the youth in the video say, “I loved this conference because I could see that Christians can really have fun!”  This is a common way youth events and many other church events are promoted.  But, are all the complexities, the lights, music, and entertainment what it takes to convey God's simple truth?

            The Celebrity Chef, Emeril Lagasse’s catch phrase, “Bam! Kick it up a notch!” was used frequently to explain how he made simple recipes mouthwatering good.  We see this same idea applied just as freely to how we live out our Christian faith and shape our ministries.  Bam! We take God's simple truth wrap it in amazing new ingredients and now we have finally made God fun.  Like God actually needs us to help him rewrite his plan for humanity.  We traded the amazing message that the God, who made the universe, loves us and went to great lengths to win us back… with a flashy plan to make Christianity fun, and filled with counterfeit joy.   We trade cheep fun for the life changing message of Christ.

            I have had tons of “Christian fun” as Youth Pastor, I saw the best concerts, and I love whitewater rafting, it is about my favorite water sport.  But, in reality nothing is better than talking to a High School friend who gave his live to Christ as a teen and the joy of seeing God breathe new life into him.  Or speaking to a former student, who is trying to figure out how he can use his gifts and talents to reach homeless people! He is now teaching me!  We may laugh about the time he shot me in the back with a paintball, but the really joy that surrounds our relationship is result of God’s word thoroughly equipping him for every good work.

            As we look at our upcoming ministries this fall I wonder, what if we just focused on allowing God's word to breathe in us and equip us?  What would God call you to do this year?  Who has God laid on your heart to share his amazing message with?  What truths have you know from Childhood that God want to use to shape your life?
 Just following the Recipe sometime is all the “Bam!” we need!

Breaking the Chain

I am currently attending a motor cycle rider’s course.  In the first class the instructor explained to us the concept that every accident is avoidable.  What he was saying was this: accidents are really based on a series of links in a chain, you break the chain, you can avoid accidents.  Some links in the chain are within our control, like taking care of yourself,  your equipment, and others we have little or no control over like bad or inattentive drivers.    His point was, if you can take the controllable bad links from the chain it gives you the ability to limit risk.  If you take the time to be in control of the controllable, like being attentive and aware, you can create space between yourself and others.

As I was riding to work today I was thinking that this really applies to all of life.  And in terms of my life it and where I am at, I could really see how this applies to parenting.  As I think back over my recent parenting failures, I think what links were in that Chain.  I was tired, we had issues with inconsistency, and I became angry.  I believe, we my son and I both, walked away frustrated and did not resolve the real issue.

So what are the links that are out of our control?  I believe work related stress can be an obstacle to my parenting success.  Depending on the ages of your children fatigue can be uncontrollable, but as our kids age we have more control over this area.  School issues, many times our children come home from school after a bad day and a conflict happens at home as well.   Our kids can be stressed out as well and as parents this can be outside of our control, and kids do not always have the skills to work past the stress yet.  I even let it get the better of me at times, I have should have lots more practice.

But there are many self care areas that we can choose to have control over.  Money, our personal finances, has a large impact in our home and marriages.  Time, are we giving ourselves enough time to rest? Did I have to stay up that late and watch a movie or should I have said no to that activity?  I realize that I am the worst driver when I am short on time; I bet it impacts our parenting as well.  Are we attentive?  I notice in my home many times large conflicts are the result of small issues that are not dealt with.  After school our children normally go and play with their friends, after homework and before supper.  They have to ask, and I almost always say yes… But, what do I do when they do not ask?  Even if I would have said, “yes”.   At the time it was not a big deal I would have said yes anyway, but then it gets to Saturday morning chores and they run off to go play without asking and now it is a conflict.  Are we being consistent, and giving real consequences?   Being consistent is like giving yourself space when you drive.  And giving real consequences is like taking care of preventive maintenance.  On a good day my bad driving may not matter, until I meet another careless driver.

What we learned in class was that we always are at risk for accidents, as we are always at risk of bad parenting moments.  What are we doing to manage the risks in your life?  When I ride a motor cycle, we were told that just taking care of one of those areas significantly reduces our risk.  What link do we need to learn to manage better in our own lives?  How can you better care for yourself so you can better care for your children?

Luke 6:42 (NIV)

 How can you say to your brother, ‘Brother, let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when you yourself fail to see the plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.