Mind Games

As we continue to deal and heal with the tragic deadly events in the early hours of June 12, in downtown Orlando’s Pulse night club, is there anything left to say?  Humanly speaking, we’ve just about run out of words, emotions, media debates and energy.  

However, spiritually speaking, there is more.  I could go on and on about evil in the world and our role as the community of the church, but I did that in my message last week.  Others will probably say it with more eloquence and profundity, however, I am having some additional thoughts in another direction.

It seems to be that the main agenda of terrorism is to create an atmosphere of fear and anxiety.  No single terrorist’s action can defeat a nation, state, city or town.  So, for the horrific actions perpetrated on innocent human beings to be effective by the terrorist’s standard, they must ripple out into the psyche of a community.

The psychological term for this kind of wounding is called anxiety.  Anxiety doesn’t need the application of physical harm on an individual to elicit it’s horrible ‘dis-ease.’  All anxiety needs is for our mind to be preoccupied with the fear that some immediate or future events may occur.  I suppose terror – the desired effect which is caused by a terrorist – is a synonym for anxiety.  

When we think about the potential future harmful possibilities we begin to feel. 

We feel fear.  It becomes a tormenting cycle of thoughts and feelings of anxiety, more thoughts and more anxious feelings.  This is debilitating even to the point of crippling catatonia.  So, what is our mental response as people of faith, believing the words of Jesus?

In Matthew 6:25, Jesus give us the mental and spiritual antidote to terrorism and its effect on us.  Simply put, He says, “we can’t live tomorrow today and we can’t live yesterday tomorrow.  What we can do is live today.  Don’t surrender your mind and thought-generated feelings to the wrong master.  There can be only one – His name is Jesus.  Join us Sunday as we explore this idea a bit further.

Mind Games

As we continue to deal and heal with the tragic deadly events in the early hours of June 12, in downtown Orlando’s Pulse night club, is there anything left to say?  Humanly speaking, we’ve just about run out of words, emotions, media debates and energy.  

However, spiritually speaking, there is more.  I could go on and on about evil in the world and our role as the community of the church, but I did that in my message last week.  Others will probably say it with more eloquence and profundity, however, I am having some additional thoughts in another direction.

It seems to be that the main agenda of terrorism is to create an atmosphere of fear and anxiety.  No single terrorist’s action can defeat a nation, state, city or town.  So, for the horrific actions perpetrated on innocent human beings to be effective by the terrorist’s standard, they must ripple out into the psyche of a community.

The psychological term for this kind of wounding is called anxiety.  Anxiety doesn’t need the application of physical harm on an individual to elicit it’s horrible ‘dis-ease.’  All anxiety needs is for our mind to be preoccupied with the fear that some immediate or future or immediate event may occur.  I suppose terror – the desired effect which is caused by a terrorist – is a synonym for anxiety.  

When we think about the potential future harmful possibilities we begin to feel. 

We feel fear.  It becomes a tormenting cycle of thoughts and feelings of anxiety, more thoughts and more anxious feelings.  This is debilitating even to the point of crippling catatonia.  So, what is our mental response as people of faith, believing the words of Jesus?

In Matthew 6:25, Jesus give us the mental and spiritual antidote to terrorism and its effect on us.  Simply put, He says, “we can’t live tomorrow today and we can’t live yesterday tomorrow.  What we can do is live today.  Don’t surrender your mind and thought-generated feelings to the wrong master.  There can be only one – His name is Jesus.  Join us Sunday as we explore this idea a bit further.

What Would You Do If You Weren't Afraid

What is your greatest personal fear?  Not what you fear on behalf of others, like potential danger to members of your family or violent political chaos in the world, but what strikes fear in you?  

Can you name the action, which if directed toward you, or a condition forced upon you, would provoke the life-saving, harm-avoidance anxiety we call fear?   Now, take a moment to consider your answer.

I asked a group of Christian leaders this very question recently.  Some said a home invasion; another said the loss of their health care.  

Others mentioned being left alone through the death of a spouse, and being a failure.

However, there was one common answer that seems to be at the root of all the others -- not being in control of our life.

Fear of being out of control, or aspects of our life that may become beyond our control, are for us the archetypal dark unknown of which most nightmares are made. 

In a strange juxtaposition, one of the foundational, if not the primary, truths of the Judeo-Christian faith, is that our life is not our own, and not within our sole control, but God’s. 

In the kind of irony that only human brokenness can produce, what we fear – controlling supremacy by another - is one of the pillars of our faith.  Reform theology teaches that God is supreme, powerful and sovereign.  Everything is God’s, everything belongs to God including our own lives!

What happens when people of faith feel fear?  How does our fear fit with our faith in God and Jesus’ call to love one others?  This Sunday, we'll hear some answers as we look at “Fearing Urgency” in our continuing our series “A Season of Urgency.”

A Season Of Urgency

In each of our private world’s there is a direct-dial 911 line which when activated, will cause us to act with the greatest level of urgency we can produce at that time.  

You might identify with some of the “triggers” like: A pleading phone call in the night for help, a sudden life threatening illness of a close family member, a serious car accident, or even a burst water pipe in your home. 

Many stimuli may enter our personal sphere, but nearly all will be dealt with through a pecking order of importance.  The issues on the lower portions of the list may be recognized, but still not get done at all. 

However, the one that is most extreme, most dire -- the one that screams out for immediate attention, will cause us push all other things aside.  Then, like Bruce Banner, a sense of urgency overwhelms us; the adrenaline begins to pump through our bodies like the Incredible Hulk and we will spring into action and immediately respond to the call.   

However, if the issue does not push through the urgency ceiling, it may wait and wait.  As Scarlett O'Hara would say, after all “tomorrow is another day.”  Urgency is not busyness; it’s responding as if a life were at stake.  

You would have no trouble saying that there is this sense of urgency in the Gospel of Mark because everyone and every action connected with Jesus has a sense of urgency and acts immediately! 

In our newest sermon series, we will explore a Season of Urgency for our faith community and as disciples of an immediate messiah – Jesus.  So, what is your urgency?  What does, and should, make it onto your urgency list?  

What part does urgency play for followers of Jesus?  What happens when matters of our spiritual life or less than urgent?  What might happen if we embraced a Jesus-urgency instead of the frantic busyness that overwhelms many of us?  What would happen if a church community began to embrace the urgency of Jesus as a lifestyle? 

In search of some answers through this series, we will be exploring topics like: An Urgent Emergency, The Eyes Of Urgency, Intentional Urgency, Urgency In The 1^st century Church, Urgency In The Making, Healing Urgency, The Urgent Question, Generational Urgency, The Urgent Point, Urgent Fear, The Urgency Of Love, The Urgency Of Kindness, The Urgency Of Speaking Life, The Urgency To Preach Freedom For The Captives.  

Join us “immediately” this Sunday as we urgently seek Jesus’ answers to life!

Have you ever taken a walking talk?

I love wilderness camping and hiking.  I’ve had the fortune to hike in some of the most beautiful and exotic places in the world. 

I have walked the Grand Canyon, explored the rustic beauty of the high planes in New Mexico.  

I have been in the rain forest of Nicaragua and climbed the hills of Haiti. 

I have walked the beaches of Normandy and taken in the scenic lushness of the black forest in Germany. 

I have been to the top of Masada in Israel, and taken the long foot path back down to the Dead Sea. 

I have followed the footsteps of Jesus in Bethsaida and through the Rabbi’s tunnel at the foot of the old temple wall in Jerusalem.  However, what makes these pathways something special goes beyond just what you see.  For me, it’s who I am traveling with on these occasions, and especially the conversations along the way!

I have enjoyed some of the most significant conversations while walking, hiking and exploring nature with my family and friends.   It has been a time of reflection in the sharing of life stories through real friendships. I don’t know if you can have a real friendship, the type of which I speak, without exchanges like “talking walks.”  

We can sort out our questions, share burdens, laugh and cry at life – our lives.  And, we can learn how to walk.

There is something distinctively relational about taking a journey on foot – walking, talking, taking in the sights and surroundings.  

There is a unique conversation that takes place when you journey on foot like this with another person.  “Walking talk” is its own sort of therapy where deep listening and deep hearing becomes possible.  It’s not magic, but it is an environment – an intentional micro climate - that is very human and yet very Divine, very intimate, yet protected.  It’s a moment of safety where you can explore areas of your life that may even have been unknown or unreachable in another setting.

Have you ever imagined traveling with Jesus like this?  I have.  Imagined taking “talking walks” with the rabbi from Nazareth -  who happened to be the Son of God.  I envy the disciples; they spent three years of a talking walks with Jesus.  

Remember, everywhere Jesus traveled, was by foot.  Most of it was with the disciples right by his side.  Many of his teachings came during these talking walks.  Many of the questions and concerns of the disciples where given voice during these long walks.  They kicked up conversation and dust along the way. 

Wouldn’t you love to have a walking

talk like this with Jesus?  Think of the topics, the laughter, and the wonder in hearing His words.  And, at last, you could ask Him the questions you’ve longed to have answered.  But like any walk with a friend, you may have a few questions come back in your direction too!

This Sunday we will step on the path to Jerusalem with Jesus as we begin a new Lenten sermon series: “Talking the walk with Jesus.”   I encourage you to join us at Markham Woods this Lent for your own personal talking walk with the one who not only changed the world, but continues to change the hearts and lives of people like you and me! 

Does God Work In Mysterious Ways?

“God works in Mysterious ways” sound good, even spiritual.  It’s great because it gives us a way to explain the unexplained or the incomprehensible.

In our humanness, it's also is a way to cover or soften our own doubt and fear when life happens in undesirable ways - “Oh, I know it was devastating to you, but, God works in mysterious…” 

Of course, it can also be a way sideways method of given God credit when something really-good, or unexpectedly-good happens.  So, is God really all that mysterious?  

The simple answer is a socking no!  We know more about God and God’s purpose in this world than just about anything else mankind can “discover.” 

The acts of God in our world are the most documented, commented on, studied and followed than any other topic.  

So, why do we purport that God works in “mysterious ways?”  It’s actually funny because that statement itself does not even occur in the Bible!

This week we will continue our new series on Phantom Biblical Passages by exploring a classic – God works in mysterious ways.  Well, does He or doesn’t He?  

He’s a hint.  In large part, phantom wisdom that “God works in mysterious ways” is to deny the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. We call Him Yeshua, the Messiah.

Christmas From God's Side?

My dad used to say, “Never criticize the Indian, ‘til you walk a mile in their moccasins.”  It’s an old saying, but the invitation behind it contains great wisdom, especially in a world that seems to reinforce self-centered perspectives on how we should be living life.  The meaning behind the old proverb is simple; until you can live and experience life as if you are inside of another individual’s head and heart, you will never know how they feel or think, nor why they do what they do.

For example, my old surfing buddy is ten years my junior.  One day, after a heavy day of surfing, I remember telling him, “just wait until you’re 40!”  Then, ten years later, on another surfing occasion, I said, “just wait until you’re 50!”  It’s funny how our perspectives can get turned back on us.  Now, as I near 60 years of age, and complain about the years of wear and tear on my body to those with a few more years under their belt, they often reply with the same phrase, “just wait!”  

What these more mature citizens mean is that when I reach their status in life I will begin to see things from their perspective and understand from a first person experience what it is like to be them and walk in their shoes.  In other words, my complaints are relative and only a glimpse of some others experience in a more profound way.

We are by nature, egocentric.  This is not a criticism, but more a testimony that we see the world through our eyes, our ears and our experiences.  It is very hard to step into someone else’s “shoes,” and gain an empathetic sense of the world and someone else’s life experience.  When these rare opportunities do come our way, we become open to epiphanic-type manifestations. It is in these moments that we may experience extraordinary empathy.

Take Christmas for example.  We all experience Christmas in a general way.  Yet, each of us also experiences Christmas in a subjective way through personal perspective.  In the real world this means living the season with both positive and less positive feelings based on your personal interaction with the influences that bear on your life. 

Christmas is lived and experienced for our side, with the perspective of humanity in all shapes, conditions, level of faith or sense (expectation) of the season.  No matter what our individual interaction and emotional response – even for people of faith in God through Jesus Christ – it’s always from our perspective.

I invite you to join me in a guided experiment. Let’s step outside of ourselves for just a moment. Now, I want you to imagine Christmas not from your experience, your history, your hurts and not even your expectations, but imagine Christmas from God’s side. What do you think or feel Christmas is like from God’s perspective?  If you did know, how might your experience of Christmas change or even deepen? 

I know it seems an impossible task given our nature to see life from the subjective side of things. However, we do have some solid evidence as to how God views Christmas.

During Advent, I am offering a sermon series exploring this idea of Christmas from God’s side.  Many of us have longed for Christmas to be not so much about us, but about what God did and is doing through Jesus’ entry into our world and our humanity. It’s a fair exploration, because if God, through His incarnation in the person of Jesus Christ, was willing to “walk a mile in our moccasins,” in order to reach us in our humanness and bring wholeness, why shouldn’t we be willing to see “Christmas from God’s side.”