I was locked out of my house Tuesday morning. I left on a run and as I closed the door, turning back towards my son John, I said, "Don't lock me out." Should have kept my mouth shut... too true, too often. John takes off for class and out of habit, turns and locks the door. Trouble was brewing.
Ignorant to situation, I ran, one mile at a time, (no need to run 5 miles when one only needs to run 1 mile 5 times) in the gorgeous warmth of a February heat wave as only Southern California can put out. Run completed, I came up the walk with my day mapped out in my mind, it was a busy one and there was no margin for error... I thought. Holding the door handle- I tried it several times in stunned disbelief -I saw my day beggining to slip away. You know that feeling of being locked out. Try it sometime in just running shoes, shorts and shirt, it's a pretty vulnerable feeling.
Thinking maybe John was pulling a prank, we'd just talked about this moments earlier, I went to the back door. Locked. Blood pressure climbing... panic starting to set in, I went around the entire house checking every window- no luck. I even looked under the door mat and planters, we've never hid a key, but I wasn't going to leave one stone unturned. Reality setting in, I started knocking on neigbors doors, hoping to use a phone. John was in class. Debi flying home from a week in Ohio. Julia was my only hope, calling the office, they said they'd find her and send her my way with a key to get me in.
Time to kill. I had a high school teacher who hated that expression. She was always lecturing me that I needed to be "filling my time! Not killing it!" No patio furniture out. The front of the house was in shade and cold. The back patio was in direct sunlight. I sat on the ground and began to soak it all in. I wanted to have a great attitude. I tried my friend's mantra: "Nothing bugs me. Nothing bugs me." Didn't help. Thought I heard a car, went to walk to the front of the house and the guy who reads the meter came out from behind a bush, stepped into our yard and we scared each other to death. No car.
I resigned myself to waiting. Rehearsed my day to come in my head. The sun felt great but any joy in this forced "quiet time" was still out of reach. I couldn't find the key. Sooner, rather than much later, our daugther Julia showed up and after a brief search, found me sitting peacefully on the back patio. She said, "Hi Dad" I said, well there's no real point in going into what I said. Needless to say, the "Peace that passes understanding" had silpped right by me.
If you read over this blog you'll discover it's all about me: my frustration, my getting locked out, my getting scared. In the midst of it all I learned that: I can count on my staff and family to help me, I can count on my neighbors to be there when I knock, I can depend on God to give me just the right situation for the lesson I need in trust. And maybe most importantly, I learned, that if I want to get back into the house after a run, I'd better bring a key!
What lessons are you learning today?
Thursday, February 8, 2007
Saturday, February 3, 2007
1 Good Idea a Day
I had a great idea today. Started to post it... then felt vulneralbe, what if someone thought it was a stupid idea? What if someone "steals" my idea? Maybe I'll just keep my ideas to myself! The problem with that is you never get to tell anyone about the sweet idea. A pretty lonely way to live.
I went on bike ride this morning through Laguna Beach, up Neport Coast and then down into Corona Del Mar. My riding partner is a real estate expert and as we cruised the coast of Corona Del Mar, he pointed to a house planted on the bluff and said, "The asking price on that house is 75 million dollars!" I immediately started thinking of all the things we could do around the church with a cool $75- mil. Then it hit me, the house is just one way of showing off someone's 'great" idea. Maybe the owners, possibly their parents or grandparents. But someone, somewhere, had a great idea that generated that money. The idea may have gone the way of the slinky, the hoola hoop or the model T, but the money remains and the stuff it purchased is someone's legacy.
What's your legacy today? Is it locked up in a house, a car, a great idea that you've never told anyone? Or have you decided to leave your legacy with The Lord. Our relationship with God is the only lasting legacy we can have. All the rest falter, fade and fail us... even if they're worth $75- million. Our Father paid so much more than that to purchase our salvation. It's more than a good idea to get our heart straight with God. It's The Only idea that matters at the end of the day.
blessings
I went on bike ride this morning through Laguna Beach, up Neport Coast and then down into Corona Del Mar. My riding partner is a real estate expert and as we cruised the coast of Corona Del Mar, he pointed to a house planted on the bluff and said, "The asking price on that house is 75 million dollars!" I immediately started thinking of all the things we could do around the church with a cool $75- mil. Then it hit me, the house is just one way of showing off someone's 'great" idea. Maybe the owners, possibly their parents or grandparents. But someone, somewhere, had a great idea that generated that money. The idea may have gone the way of the slinky, the hoola hoop or the model T, but the money remains and the stuff it purchased is someone's legacy.
What's your legacy today? Is it locked up in a house, a car, a great idea that you've never told anyone? Or have you decided to leave your legacy with The Lord. Our relationship with God is the only lasting legacy we can have. All the rest falter, fade and fail us... even if they're worth $75- million. Our Father paid so much more than that to purchase our salvation. It's more than a good idea to get our heart straight with God. It's The Only idea that matters at the end of the day.
blessings
Thursday, February 1, 2007
February - A Time to Pray
We moved to Riverside 19 years ago this week. Drove through a blizzard for 3 straight days. We'd been living in Indiana, where we served in a wonderful church in a rural community of just 800 people while I went to seminary at Anderson School of Theology.
God had used our time in Indiana to grow us closer together as a family and deeper in our walk with Him. Now we were coming home to California to accept our first pastorate... didn't dream of all God's given us at Central Community. Our children have become adults who love The Lord and serve Him with their whole hearts. I have the opportunity to work with each of them as Julia has stepped up to at first fill in at the office after I'd been sick and lost staff to not just filling a gap but helping us see how much we were missing. John has accepted God's call on his life into the full time ministry and is in his third year of growing a dynamic ministry to students at Central Community. Debi and I have been blessed beyond measure.
It's been said that it's not adversity that challenges us but success. I believe it. It's easy for us to get lazy in our little victories and lose sight of God's great challenges. John Maxwell says that "when we DO SUCCEED it's time to try something harder." We've built much of our lives and our ministry on this philosophy. God continues to stretch us... and it's been good.
From our first month in Riverside, a lifetime ago, I realized my need for prayer to guide and sustain me in our work. February has become a time of personal renewal for myself and many others at Central Community and throughout Riverside, as we've given ourselves over to the discipline of prayer. The early years, when the buildings seemed strange and the neighborhood so new to me, I began to make the short walk from the parsonage to the sanctuary, where I'd open the doors to the world, extending an invitation to anyone that might happen by and then get on my knees and pray in the sunrise. Some mornings I'd hear the inner doors of the building open, foot steps fall quietly up the center aisle, the cushion at the altar gush out air as knees joined me in prayer... only to open my eyes and discover that I still appeared to be alone.
It frightened me. I questioned my hearing, pre-sunrise awareness, even my sanity. I'm a slow learner. It took numerous visits before I realized that God was making Himself known. That in a work where I often felt young, ill prepared and on a fools errand, I had not been abandoned, His Spirit knelt beside me. More times than I can count, I've looked back on those very real visitations and drawn comfort from God's presence.
This morning, February 1, 2007, so many years, I knelt again and prayed, long before sunrise. After a time at the altar, I sat to read my Bible, soon, the familiar, early morning sound of the inner doors of our sanctuary touched my spirit. Footsteps moved towards the front. I snapped my head around and there was Rosie Weir, a long time February prayer companion. We shared morning pleasentries, then, returning to prayer, I smiled and thanked God, incarnate, this morning in Rosie. It's been a long time since I've felt alone in my work. God's sent His Spirit in His children to move and work along side me. He's better than I deserve. I realized as we shared communion, it's going to be a great month. It's been an amazing 19 years. No blizzard could have kept me away. The adventure at Central Community is just beginning. Our best work is still ahead of us!
God had used our time in Indiana to grow us closer together as a family and deeper in our walk with Him. Now we were coming home to California to accept our first pastorate... didn't dream of all God's given us at Central Community. Our children have become adults who love The Lord and serve Him with their whole hearts. I have the opportunity to work with each of them as Julia has stepped up to at first fill in at the office after I'd been sick and lost staff to not just filling a gap but helping us see how much we were missing. John has accepted God's call on his life into the full time ministry and is in his third year of growing a dynamic ministry to students at Central Community. Debi and I have been blessed beyond measure.
It's been said that it's not adversity that challenges us but success. I believe it. It's easy for us to get lazy in our little victories and lose sight of God's great challenges. John Maxwell says that "when we DO SUCCEED it's time to try something harder." We've built much of our lives and our ministry on this philosophy. God continues to stretch us... and it's been good.
From our first month in Riverside, a lifetime ago, I realized my need for prayer to guide and sustain me in our work. February has become a time of personal renewal for myself and many others at Central Community and throughout Riverside, as we've given ourselves over to the discipline of prayer. The early years, when the buildings seemed strange and the neighborhood so new to me, I began to make the short walk from the parsonage to the sanctuary, where I'd open the doors to the world, extending an invitation to anyone that might happen by and then get on my knees and pray in the sunrise. Some mornings I'd hear the inner doors of the building open, foot steps fall quietly up the center aisle, the cushion at the altar gush out air as knees joined me in prayer... only to open my eyes and discover that I still appeared to be alone.
It frightened me. I questioned my hearing, pre-sunrise awareness, even my sanity. I'm a slow learner. It took numerous visits before I realized that God was making Himself known. That in a work where I often felt young, ill prepared and on a fools errand, I had not been abandoned, His Spirit knelt beside me. More times than I can count, I've looked back on those very real visitations and drawn comfort from God's presence.
This morning, February 1, 2007, so many years, I knelt again and prayed, long before sunrise. After a time at the altar, I sat to read my Bible, soon, the familiar, early morning sound of the inner doors of our sanctuary touched my spirit. Footsteps moved towards the front. I snapped my head around and there was Rosie Weir, a long time February prayer companion. We shared morning pleasentries, then, returning to prayer, I smiled and thanked God, incarnate, this morning in Rosie. It's been a long time since I've felt alone in my work. God's sent His Spirit in His children to move and work along side me. He's better than I deserve. I realized as we shared communion, it's going to be a great month. It's been an amazing 19 years. No blizzard could have kept me away. The adventure at Central Community is just beginning. Our best work is still ahead of us!
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