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June 2010 

     Anyone who has a yard to mow knows what it means when you wait too long between cuttings. The grass is simply harder for the mower to deal with. Motors bog, bags get backed-up with clumped grass and the whole process takes more time and attention. Of course, sometimes these delays are unavoidable. Maybe it rains for a few days, the mower (or you) are in need of repair, or some other exigency crops up. Sometimes, however, we simply put it off. We know we need to do it, but we find ourselves avoiding the task. After all, what will another day hurt? Maybe tomorrow will be cooler or I won’t be so tired. Grass does not show favoritism. If you own it, you must care for it.

    Getting behind yard work (housework, homework, relationship work, health work AND spiritual work) is addressed by the teachings of Jesus. For example, we know He uses agricultural imagery (seeds, soil, weeds, etc.) to teach us the importance and power of the spiritual world and the way it operates. Yet other lessons are evident: timing, effort and size. Just as He expresses the importance of knowing the time of God’s visitation and the windows of opportunity we have to hear Him, there is also a call to understand the movements of life. People you love will not always be here. Doors of opportunity may not always be open. There truly is a season for everything. So pay attention and do, love, listen and be with while you can.

    Effort too is taught. The Bible doesn’t anticipate positive results for the sluggard. Jesus teaches us to come to Him. He reminds us our relationship with Him will cost us more than is comfortable. We are to be on the alert for Satan’s predations and the sins that so easily best us. Doing and being (even in our stillness) requires effort.

    Size is also taught as being deceptive. Jesus says a mustard seed grows up to be a helpful gift to nature. Even a little on our part can be blessed and multiplied (the fish and the bread, for example).

    So how do yard work and the teaching of Jesus go together? Easy.

1. Don’t take for granted the time you have to trim the bushes or get your spiritual house in order. The man who wanted to build bigger barns the next day was challenged by Jesus with the truth of his imminent demise (“Tonight your soul will be required of you”). Don’t put off what you know you need to address! Yards, health, relationships, money and bills all gather into one unmanageable mess when they aren’t cared for consistently and watchfully. Most tragic of all is missing God’s gift of grace in Christ. Now is a good time to hear Him.

2. Put forth the effort to be the person you are called to be. Jesus taught us    we would have trouble in this world (as disciples). It is not easy to be faithful in all our tasks God has given us to do under the sun. It is especially challenging when we think all we have to do is sit and let God do it. An old man once quipped to a person wondering about the power of prayer, “ Like a man caught in a storm with the safety of land in sight; PRAY, BUT KEEP ROWING.”

3. Just as grass grows imperceptibly to the human eye, a little bit of any-    thing can make all the difference. That saying is true: you take the first step, God takes the second step, and by the time you take the third step you’ll know it was God, who moves and empowers us, who took the first step. God asks us to recognize the power of little things because God Himself can, and does, take the “weak and beggarly elements” and uses the small and inconsequential to do great, abiding things.

    Now, cut your grass, say “I love you”, forgive, pray, laugh the laugh of the redeemed, on and on. Today, right now, maybe the perfect, little moment of God empowered time to be a light in the world of broad, deep darkness.

Pastor Mark

My mother called me not too long ago with laughter in her heart. She read the April Pastor’s Corner and noticed that I must not know the difference between a hyphen and an apostrophe. OK,  perhaps there was a tinge of concern, as she raised us to pay attention to the proper use of English. Admittedly, I was mortified at my mistake. I do know the difference in the two and, I think, my Mom believes, hopes, trusts, prays I do know. Nevertheless, it was out there. The word was spreading throughout the land and the nations raged. Well, at least I feared they would.

What I discovered was, in spite of the educators, speakers, and preachers in my family, I simply misspoke (wrote!). How can such a grievous wrong be redressed?

1. Own it. I wrote it (though I knew better). Don’t make excuses.

2. Address it. Speak out and fix it if possible.

3. Learn from it. Pay attention to the details.

Within a Biblical framework I see it unfolding this way. God tells us we have a proclivity to evil, sin, missing the mark, failure, selfishness, etc… You get the point. He teaches us that we are to pay attention to our walk (with Christ). We are to be aware of the deceitfulness of sin, the lure of the flesh and the predations of the Wicked One. He also has given us great and precious promises. We have the help of the Holy Spirit and a sure hope that He has birthed in our hearts. He also brings people into our lives that can help us stand, teach, and encourage us. For example, this Mothers Day, remembering the loving, constant, patient Mothers in our lives who have nurtured us for years.

We should be reminded that auto-pilot is a bad way to live life. We should pay attention, engage, and interact with those things and people God has allowed into our lives. Don’t assume we can blindly, thoughtlessly do or say, believing it will always be right or helpful. We should be intentional Christians. We should remember our high calling to love and our charge to speak words of hope into the lives of others. We should pay attention to Jesus’ reminders that tomorrow is not promised to us. Remembering how important it is to love those in our lives while we have them. Seeing, moment by moment, opportunities  to reflect Christ’s light into those around us and the world God has given us.

So, pay attention. Life is quite brief and the times and places we have to be the aroma of Christ in word and deed are known only to God.

Love deeply and obviously. Listen carefully and thoughtfully. Speak warmly and helpfully. And let Christ be present, even in the small stuff.   

Pastor Mark 

April’s fool? April fools? What’s the difference? None beyond the apostrophe. Yet we all know what apostrophe’s do. They create contractions and statement’s of ownership. (For you English majors, cut me some slack on this one, I’m doing the best I can.      ) If as a contraction, then could we say April is (for) fools? Not really, I know. Yet maybe we could say be fools for Christ’s sake in April, May, June... on and on. It’s a stretch, but why not? We’ll get back to this thought in a minute.

What if we speak of April possessing us? We belong to April. We are owned foolishly by that which has no right to own us. Matter-of-fact, like much of life, giving power (over us) to anything is a constant battle. Things, people, ideas, memories… What is it that has you in its hollow embrace? To whom have you given power? What has set boundaries on your dreams and taken your freedom? This points us back to the first thought about “April is for fools”. What if you and I actually let silly thoughts of freedom, forgiveness, hope, change, and power percolate inside? I know we shouldn’t let such thoughts bother our made-up, wise, adult minds. Trouble is, Jesus doesn't let us off the hook that easily. He invited the broken and stuck, the powerless and oppressed, the very old who have been religious all their lives and the young who have not yet to fall into sacred rites, to come and dream with Him. I know. This does once again make us think of an idea that seems like a dream for the naïve,  a story for children or a blissful thought for the ignorant. It’s just as hard for me as it is for you. I too, know the wearying path of running uphill in the sand. One step forward, and I feel that step lose its grip as I focus on the next step.

Still, even if I didn’t tell you it’s still what Jesus invites us to. Even it I fall and fail to dream, the message does not change. The Bible is full of people trying to be the dreamers, the fools for God, while falling hand over foot into religious structures and cold-heartedness that numbs them to God’s wooing. They became captive to self and others who had no claim on them.

For us in 2010, we must always choose to be fools for Christ’s sake. If you don’t choose Him you will be the fool for something. This world, our minds, the impulses of the flesh, the blistering reality of pain and deep suffering will be trying to capture your attention and blind you to the Dreamer, the One who is our hope. Choose again, and again, and again, keep choosing the One who has chosen you. Be His fool this April and beyond.

 Pastor Mark