Our True Nature

This year’s big question for VBS was, “What is your true nature”?   They talked about who you think you are and how others really see you.  And that even though try to hide your true nature,  but hard circumstance often reveal our true nature.   The VBS program then had us ask some really great questions that are relevant to all ages.

1.       Where does your Peace come from?  Answer: Psalms 46:1

2.       Where do true riches come from?  Answer: Philippians 4:19

3.       Where do you draw true power from to avoid Temptation?  Answer: 1 Corinthians 10:13

4.       Where do you go to find True Love?  Answer: 1 John 3:16

5.       Where do we find true Hope?  Answer: Psalms 33:20-21

Our true nature is shaped by how we answer these 5 questions.  But it is not only about knowing the right answers but it come to living them as well.  As I think about this I cannot help but compare it to how computers and my smart phone process information.

Whenever I add a new piece of software it changes my technology by adding functions to make it better or more complete. For example, I have an app on my phone to track all my family’s schedules in one place it streamlines my life, it keep track for whom, where and when each event happens.  Then sends me reminders about when everything is scheduled to take place.  What a great tool to have right at my finger tips.  It changes the nature and value of this device.  Kind of like our VBS challenged us to change our nature.

But when you add programs or apps like this to my computer or my phone it involves a two step process.  The first part is the Download.  In this process the phone collects all the information it will need to perform these new tasks.  When we come to Church, read our Bible, or listen to someone teach about the Bible we are in this download process. We are gathering information that can change our lives and impact our nature.  But as we all know, just knowing something is not the same as using the information in our lives.

The second process my phone does is the installation.  It takes the downloaded information and tells the phone what to do with it.  If I installed a game it would tell the phone how I would use the phone to control the game, and what to show on the screen, where to save progress and so on.  Once all the connections are made the app functions correctly.  But sometimes when I go to add a new app, the two steps of the process do not happen automatically.  Then I am frustrated when my phone will not do what it is now suppose to do.  To make the new app work I have to go back and install it manually.  This is much like the Christian life, it takes time and intention to take what we learned about God and make it part of our life. It also takes a willingness to be changed, ever notice how you will try to make a change on your computer a warning will pop up and ask if you really want to do what you just told the computer to do.  How many times do we go to make a change and once we start we stop the process and end up unchanged. Knowing all the right information is not enough, we have to install it into our lives and be willing let it change us.

So for our true nature to be changed we need to listen to God and learn from his word, this is the download.  Then I have to take the information and let it begin to change how we think and act this is the install.  We have to internally let God test us and examine our heart and minds to see if the information is just downloaded and stored.  We do this to allow God to Change our true Nature.

Psalm 26:2
Test me, LORD, and try me, examine my heart and my mind;

Escaping the Routine

            Once again this motorcycle related,  but I do have an hour drive both ways to class and I am alone in the car so it gets me thinking. 

            I drive a scooter and it is different from riding a motorcycle.  I know you are thinking that it is geek ride and yeah that is me.  But it is missing two important controls, and has one in a different place.  On a motorcycle there is a clutch on the left side of the handlebars and a shifter by the left foot peg.  The rear brake is located at the right foot peg.  Unlike a car the front and rear brakes work independently, but are both important to use together when you want to stop.  This is especially important in an emergency stop, if you only use the front breaks in this situation, it is very easy to fly over the handle bars and into traffic. 

            My scooter has no clutch and where the clutch on the motorcycle is on the left side of the handle bars I have my rear break.  And I do not have to shift my scooter; it is more like a three speed automatic.   But last night at class,we were working on emergency stopping, which requires using all four of these controls together. 

            In normally driving situations I have no problems using these controls together to move through the driving courses.  But on emergency stops when I had to rely on my instincts to work the controls, I found I kept trying to stop the motorcycle like my scooter.  I even locked up the breaks once; this is very bad for a motorcycle because if you lose traction it is easy to tip over.  As we did this drill I became more and more frustrated and nervous.  I was falling back to my scooter patterns, because when you drive a motorcycle it is fairly common for people to get in your way and I regularly gain real life experience on my scooter.

            So my thoughts…

Romans 12:1-2

Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is —his good, pleasing and perfect will.

            I am a creature of habit and patterns, I have even found myself driving to work on days off, when I am suppose to be going somewhere else.  I get in the car and the autopilot engages and off I go following my routine.   Transformation takes time and remolding, that is the purpose of the motorcycle class you do these frustrating routines over and over again so it to becomes a pattern.

            In the Christian life it is the same thing, many times we want instant change and we can for times change patterns, but then when we are stressed or frustrated we revert to our known way of doing things.   So how do we create new patterns, we follow someone that knows the right pattern.  We watch what and how they do things.  I think this is why Jesus said this,

Luke 9:23-25 (NIV)

 Then he said to them all: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me.  For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will save it.  What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit their very self?

           The reason patterns are hard to break is because we often hold them dear, they meet felt needs.  Changing patterns means that we have to accept loss, in the case of Christianity it may be loss of instant gratification to gain long term blessing.   But the only way to do this is to focus on His pattern and imitate it in our lives. 

Riding in Circles

                In my last blog I noted that I am currently taking a motorcycle riders course.  The class is divided up into two parts the classroom and hands on riding motorcycles.  Since, I last talked about the book side of the class last week, today I will talk about my reflection on the riding portion of class. 

                I was really excited to be part of the riding portion of the class; I love the opportunity to learn by doing.  So last Wednesday I rode for three and half hours.  I think I traveled maybe a mile or two in slow circles.  The class is made up of many different people with different experience levels.  I have had my permit for 3 months if you subtract the winter, and have driven over 1000 miles on my scooter.  Some of the others in the class were sitting on a motorcycle for the first time.  So at times the riding was very slow paced and boring and I didn’t not feel the challenge the way first time riders were challenge. 

We spent the first half of the class learning how to use a clutch.  My first 3 cars were stick and using a clutch is really the same on a bike as a car.  Others in the class had never even driven with a clutch in a car.  For you who have driven stick you realize that it is about getting the feel of the clutch and the friction zone, although challenging at first it over time it begins to feel like second nature.  So we rocked back and forth over and over again to get the feel.  This first half of class was boring, I was not being challenged.  Ever feel like you have already heard it all before?  That was the feeling I was having at this point.

The next part of class we started to weave though cones and practice driving skills. This part of the class was great!  I had opportunity to practice shifting up and down through gears.  I drive a scooter and my scooter does not have gears or a clutch, but for the class we use regular motorcycles.  Most people drove around in first gear.  But this was my opportunity to practice shifting through the gears.  This part of the class flew by, and we were done in no time.  I left feeling confident in my ability to shift a motorcycle.  This was a skill I knew I needed to learn.

As I thought about my experience, I realized that we can trapped in these same kind of situation in life.  And I think this can also play out in the church, we can get stuck in circle of learning and study then what should be life-giving sucks the life from us.  We go from service to service or Bible study to Bible study without first putting in to practice the new things we have learned.  Could it be that what we lack is forward motion?  We have the fuel we just have to get our hearts in gear!

Many times in Church we are tempted to put in the minimum, we do not want to busy up our lives.  I could have done the same thing if I just rode like my peers in class, and stayed in first gear.  But, then the second part of class would have been as disappointing as the first.  When we put in minimum effort we get minimum results and quickly lose interest.   Listen to Paul’s Challenge. 

1 Corinthians 9:25-27 (NIV)

 Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last, but we do it to get a crown that will last forever.  Therefore I do not run like someone running aimlessly; I do not fight like a boxer beating the air.  No, I strike a blow to my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize.

                Paul is talking about maximum effort and focusing on purposeful development, “Strict Training” and “not aimless”.  In church do you find yourselves repeating steps over and over again, failing to take the challenges we face whenever we are confronted with God’s Word?  Is the time we spend between Bible studies and sermons time we are training ourselves or are we just coasting?    When we allow God’s word to live in us and work in us, I believe we truly understand what it means to live.  When we follow God’s word we put in extreme effort and see extreme results.  Because knowing God’s word is only important if we do what is say.

James 1:22-25 (NLT)

 But don’t just listen to God’s word. You must do what it says. Otherwise, you are only fooling yourselves.  For if you listen to the word and don’t obey, it is like glancing at your face in a mirror.  You see yourself, walk away, and forget what you look like.  But if you look carefully into the perfect law that sets you free, and if you do what it says and don’t forget what you heard, then God will bless you for doing it.

To escape the circle we get caught in we need to:

… Know where you need God’s impact on your lives and make the most of any opportunity you have to hear God’s word. Look in the mirror and get to know yourself and be real about where you need to be changed.  Then like I did in my class take advantage of the time you find yourself in the circle to think through and prepare for the change you need to make.   Then even if you find yourself in the circle, you are prepared to take time to listen to what God is telling YOU. 

… Put ourselves in situation where we can be stretched.  Find opportunities to serve God that are out of the routine.  You know the routine you have been living.  Paul challenges us to train like an athlete.  For the average person this means a change of routine, couch potatoes and athletes have significantly different lifestyles.  Take that step respond to God in your life and see what happens.  James calls the results a blessing! 

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.

Skunk Watching

            This Sunday evening while returning home from my parent’s house I spotted a skunk on the road.  This skunk was not just running across the road like you see most of the time, but it was taking a slow stroll up the other lane walking away from the van.  I wanted give my kids the chance to see this wild animal up close, normally this is the last kind of animal you want to encounter at a close distance but we were in the safety of our van.

            I slowed the van and pulled carefully alongside the skunk.  When I got even with the skunk I told my kids to look out the window of the van.  At about this same time the skunk noticed us, its tail popped up and I slammed on the gas.

            We were lucky because skunks will normally flip their tales up to give a warning first.  And once we drove away the skunk dropped his tail and walked off the road.  I was disappointed that the skunk was hostile toward us, getting a close up view of a skunk is rare opportunity, especially without the risk of getting sprayed.  If the skunk understood that my intentions were to only look and not harm it, we could have had a great close up inspection of this animal.  But the skunk was interpreting our behavior as harmful.

            This is really something that people deal with on almost a daily basis.  When we interact with others we have to try to interpret what they are saying and what they are trying to tell us.  The end result is sometimes we are misunderstood or misunderstand others.  What we intended to say and do are interpreted wrong and feelings get hurt.  And our experience dictates how we interpret our world around us.  Just like with the skunk, even though I meant no harm to the skunk it warned me to get way, because most times when cars and skunks interact, it ends badly for the skunk.  But my family and I were only curious not dangerous.  Like the skunk we can take a kind word by another person to mean the complete opposite because of hurt that has happened in our past.  How many times have you been surprised when you have unintentionally hurt someone else’s feelings?

Romans 12:17-19 (NLT)

¹⁷ Never pay back evil with more evil. Do things in such a way that everyone can see you are honorable. ¹⁸ Do all that you can to live in peace with everyone.

¹⁹ Dear friends, never take revenge. Leave that to the righteous anger of God. For the Scriptures say,

“I will take revenge;
I will pay them back,”^[a]
says the Lord.

When our interpretations of other actions or words ruffle our feathers, it is our choice how we respond. I believe Paul makes a great point here because of the many times we misinterpret the actions of other as evil, when in reality they may just be insensitive.  Our response then puts us in the wrong, creating a cycle of evil for evil.  Forgiveness lets us off the hook from the negative feelings we have for others.  In most cases the people we hold grudges against never even realize how they hurt us, they were insensitive not intentionally evil.  When we forgive others we can once again, try to live in a way that shows God’s love to others. 

The Right Tool for the Right Job

            As some of you may know I love working on projects around the house and really like to make things with my hands.  But it seems with each new project I find it would be easier to complete if I had a more specialized tool.  Recently I tiled a tabletop and found that the grout float I was using was just falling apart or clogging up.  After I completed the project I discovered that I was using the wrong tool for the job, it was for un-sanded grout and I was using sanded.  I basically wore it out by sanding it down and it did not last like it should have.

            Using the right tools and using them correctly makes all the difference in the world, and sometimes using the wrong tool just destroys the tool.  I have broken several screw drivers using them as pry bars, and several shovels using them to pry big rocks out of the ground, notice a pattern (Maybe I need some pry bars?).  These tools where not the right tools for the job, and in the end just caused me stress and cost me money. 

            In the church it is the same way so few people take the time to find out what their gifts are.  Then often times we just fill spots with the most willing person.  Then end result is that we burn people out or just destroy them and they disappear from our Churches. The pressure to perform in unnatural ways can be just as destructive to a person as it is a using a wrench like a hammer.  

            So, what do we do?  Just not serve?  Of course not we have to try a few things out, get our feet wet.  We need to pray that God directs us to where we are gifted to serve.  As difficult as it is to complete a project without the required tools or the wrong tools, the church does not function unless everyone is doing what only they can do.  What kind of tool are you?  How are you unique?  What gifts and passions do you have?

My challenge:

 Read 1 Corinthians 12 which is followed by 13 the love chapter Paul ties together love and understanding your place in the Body! Also Ephesians 4

Then ask God how he wants to use you?

Check your passions what things really grab your attention and get you exited?

If you have kids, Watch “A Snoodle’s Tale”  by Veggie Tales.  It is a great starter to begin a conversation about what God has made you to do!

Just Stocked

I love going fishing in the spring with my son at this little pond near my home.  Each spring this pond is stocked with a bunch of little rainbow trout.   We can run over to the pond in the afternoon and many times we catch our small limit of three fish each in no time.  It is fun easy fast action fishing, and then we enjoy eating our fresh catch together.   Sometimes,  We wish fishing was always this easy, these young trout are hungry and lost, so it is really just about getting the hook in front of them.

As a hobby fisherman I enjoy when Jesus talks about fishing, and challenges the disciples to be fishers of men.   It is great that fishing is a sport passed down from father to son, most of the time.  I also love how contagious fishing becomes when you are with a great fisherman.  I have a friend, a music teacher by trade but he is a truly gifted fisherman.  You cannot spend an afternoon fishing with this guy and not have the time of your life.  When he is catching fish it is like being with a child on Christmas morning.   His energy pulls you in and drives you to keep your line in the water, knowing any minute you will be able to share his joy, and catch some fish.

Is this what Jesus was thinking when he challenged his disciples, the fact that this occupation was passed down from father to son.  Or was it the joy of pulling nets up from the unknown full of fish.   Maybe he also realizes how frustrating fishing could become when you are not able to get on the water due to weather.  I would think he even knew how a great day to be out on the water can be ruined when you cannot find fish. 

Luke 5:4-9 (New Living Translation)

⁴ When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Now go out where it is deeper, and let down your nets to catch some fish.”

⁵ “Master,” Simon replied, “we worked hard all last night and didn’t catch a thing. But if you say so, I’ll let the nets down again.” ⁶ And this time their nets were so full of fish they began to tear! ⁷ A shout for help brought their partners in the other boat, and soon both boats were filled with fish and on the verge of sinking.

⁸ When Simon Peter realized what had happened, he fell to his knees before Jesus and said, “Oh, Lord, please leave me—I’m too much of a sinner to be around you.” ⁹ For he was awestruck by the number of fish they had caught, as were the others with him.

But This is not Fishing with Jesus

Jesus filled the nets with fish for Peter, and Peter was astonished as I would be too.    Jesus shows Peter what He can do with fish then calls Peter to do the same thing with people.  It is interesting that Jesus used ideas like this; his ideas at the same time could be incredibly simple and yet incredibly amazing.   Read this and really listen to the words.

Matthew 9:36-38 (New International Version)

³⁶ When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. ³⁷ Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. ³⁸ Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.”

As I was beginning to get excited about fishing in this little stocked pond, this passage you just read popped into my mind fresh and new.  Earlier I told you how easy it was to catch these fish, because they were lost.  This is the reality of the world surrounding followers of Jesus; we build up great evangelical strategies and programs.  Sometimes I wonder if these just distract of from the harvest.   But, Jesus is telling us to get the nets in the water there are lost people  all around us.  Be Fishers of men!

So if Jesus is telling us the truth, we should expect that the world around us is teaming with people ready to be harvested into a life with Him.  We just need to cast our nets, by sharing our stories and God’s Truth.  Good Fishing!