The Mission Field... Here and Now

I woke up early the other morning and whenever that happens, I hear God speak something so simple to me. That morning the thought of why many people choose to reject God popped into my head. This came out of nowhere... weird. And my half-awake brain immediately knew the answer: a relationship with God, when seen from a distance, is just about a bunch of hypocritical, sanctimonious do-gooders. They see the Church as a group of judgmental people who project their own insecurities onto others. But if we could only get these people, who do not know God, into a church, they would see this isn't the case. Anything seen from a distance does not accurately illustrate the depth and reality of what you are seeing. Put simply, if I did not feel God's Holy Spirit inside of me, I would have walked away a long time ago.  What I have is so real.  And I have such an awakened passion to reach these people "on the outside".

The mission field is now,
the mission field is here.

- Andrew

 

God, Me and the Bear

I was hiking the other day down a mountain and heard some loud leaves rustling to my right. By the weight of what was walking on the leaves, I knew what it was. I looked over out of the corner of my eye to see a giant black bear approximately 50 feet away. He saw me about the time that I saw him. I'll never forget that face -- the look in his deep black eyes. I heard another bear behind him. Only once before have I seen a bear and that was driving down the interstate. I proceeded to freak out. I had walked one mile down the two mile trail and hadn't seen anyone in the past hour. I was alone, in the middle of nowhere and very, very vulnerable. I walked past the bear, staying on the trail and just kept walking. Never run, bears will chase you out of curiosity if nothing else. I didn't turn around because I knew I could do nothing. If the bear attacked me, I would rather not know in advance. I began praying. I have rarely prayed so intensely in my life before. Questions of destiny and fate popped into my head. I even asked myself "is God real?".

The answer was unequivocally, yes. I prayed God protect me, keep me safe, keep me safe. I remembered when God shut the mouths of the lions when Daniel was with them. I remembered the strong feeling that God has plans for my life -- a purpose that I have yet to complete. The scariest part was the first time I turned around a few hundred feet down the trail. I didn't know if he was 10 feet behind me or 100 feet. But thankfully, he didn't follow me... that I knew of. I kept praying. Through this praying, I began to feel a sense of peace. Not full-on, I'm going to waltz out of here, peace, but more of a I'm not going to die today peace. I tried to tell myself that these bears see hikers all the time and wouldn't attack, but that didn't give me peace. Only God's grace gave me peace.

I kept walking... the longest walk of my life. A half-mile down the road I look down and see fresh bear tracks in the mud. I'm not out of here yet! I started a new cycle of praying my heart out. I kept walking and heard someone talking far behind me. It was a couple who was walking a ways behind me the entire time, but I didn't realize it. They saw the bear too and said it was easily 7' tall. They didn't know if anything happened to me, hiking by myself (like an idiot) since they didn't hear me for a while. Walking the last little bit of the trail with them put my heart at ease. At least I wasn't alone anymore. Before I knew it we were at the end of the trail and I was still alive.

Below is a blurry picture I snapped when I walked by the bear. You can see him in the bottom left. All I could think of was, if I live or die today, this is going to be an important picture.

God delivered me, plain and simple. Sure, I wouldn't want to experience that again, but seeing God come through for me and protecting me from a bear that was easily 3-5 times my size and weight, I feel like I can trust Him much more. I have no doubt He heard my prayers that day and kept that bear away from me.

Andrew

A Weird Way of Managing Your Time

I'm reading Craig Groeschel's Weird: Because Normal Isn't Working and usually wait until I've finished the book to write anything about it. But woah, this section on time management slapped me in the face. Craig talks about all the ways Christians are called to be weird and different from everyone else. One section of his book deals exclusively with time management. What an odd thing to talk about, right?

Having Enough

When you kill time, remember that it has no resurrection.

- A.W. Tozer

We have the bad habit of over scheduling ourselves. We think that we can be everything to everyone. But this over-scheduling takes time away from completing the things hat God has called us. I love Craig's statement that you have enough time to do everything that God wants you to do. In 2 Peter 1:3, Peter tells us that God has given us all things to live a godly life... and that includes time. What God has called you to complete, He has given you enough time to complete it. What an incredible way of looking at it! So take a survey of what is important to God (I would venture to stay that this includes building His Kingdom, building our families, and investing in others) and allocate enough time for it. All the other stuff can get done when it gets done. What's most important is often not what seems most urgent. And don't get me started on how our culture tends to look down on people who don't produce visible results by being busy. We equate busyness with importance and that couldn't be further from the truth. When we follow God, we're about His business and not our busyness.

Being Present

You must live in the present, launch yourself on every wave, find your eternity in each moment.
 - Henry David Thoreau

This one hit home for me: being present. How many conversations have you had when your mind was millions of miles away? How many dinners have you eaten with friends and family, trying to carry a conversation while playing on your phone? Multitasking is killing the depth of our life's moments. I am the guiltiest of all on this subject. Always taking my iPhone or iPad with me in case I get bored with the conversation, I can exit the conversation and enter back into my world. I'm still there and that's good enough, right? But when I do this, I don't focus on the people I'm living with. I don't have the courtesy or notion to show (and genuinely have) interest in them. Wherever you are, be all there. Invest more energy into building deeper relationships instead of staying connected with shallow relationships online. And talking of being present in our relationships, ensure that you spend quality time with the Creator of the universe, the author and perfecter of your faith, so that all other things fall into place.

The Balance

You will never find time for anything. If you want time you must make it.
 - Charles Buxton

The following is an excerpt from the book when Craig goes to see a therapist at the behest of his church's leadership. They were worried about him facing burnout; here is what his therapist said: The biggest reason that people live a "normal", overwhelmed, overly driven, unsustainable pace is because we don't have faith. We don't honestly believe that God is on His throne and that he can, and will, handle the details of our lives, that He wants what is best for us, and that His way of doing life is truly better. We're afraid that if we don't run nonstop and try everything this world has to offer, that we're going to miss out on something. We're afraid that we're going to miss that one thing that turns out to be the elusive piece of our puzzle that fills the void we feel so deeply. But nothing will. That sent chills down my spine -- I am guilty of this too. I'm impatient and have to spend each and every moment doing something to make me feel like I am living my life to the fullest. It's an addiction and I need to rest peacefully in God's grace that He is in control and has given me all the time that I need to do His Will.

Too many of us don't truly rest or enjoy the Sabbath. Knowing when and how to rest is knowing when and how to acknowledge our dependence on God. If I didn't take Sundays to go to church, to spend time with family, to read the Word, to listen to the Holy Spirit teach me as I write this blog, etc., then I would quickly find myself sucked into the black hole of me. Being caught up in what is going on in my world, my schedule, me, me, me. But when I take the Sabbath to enjoy who God is, I find myself focused on Him throughout the week. Just like my body needs sleep to keep moving, my soul needs time with God.

Conclusion

When we run around at a break-neck pace like everyone else, when we are too distracted to build deep relationships with the people we love, when we are too busy to spend time with our God, then something needs to change. We (I, more than anyone) need to realign our priorities so that they line up with God's. We need to say no to the urgent and yes to the important. We need to manage our time better and be present in all situations. This book is a wakeup call for me to live differently and since reading it, I have made more of an effort to build deeper relationships with friends and family, being present and not distracted, resting in God's presence as often as I can, and learning to say no. Doing this, I have begun to find a richer quality of life -- a more God-centric quality of life.

Andrew

In The Middle

I was listening to Judah Smith preach a while back online and he hit on a topic that I don't think a lot of people like to focus on. We love to hear about the victories in struggles and the excitement of beginning a new journey; however, we never like to focus on the part in the middle, when nothing is happening.

In Mark 4:35-41, 5:1, and Mark 6:45-53 the disciples struggle crossing the Sea of Galilee. After much despair, Jesus calms the storm and they make it to the other side. This begs to question, how do you deal with being in the middle -- in the meantime? It can be as stressful as a storm or a as boring as a lull, but either way you're not where you want to be. We don't talk much about the meantime, because that doesn't make the headlines.

God is calling you (me too) to do something great -- your heart is pounding and your palms are sweating. But here to there can be years. There is value and significance in the meantime. We have the misconception that only the spiritually elite get through situations. We look to people who have had a breakthrough spiritually, relationally, or financially and compare ourselves to them. They must do more than I do, pray more than I do, fast more than I do, give more than I do. And after much frustration, we turn it into whoever knows the secret password. What combination of efforts must I do for God to break me through this leg of my journey? We treat God like a vending machine and this creates a shallow relationship with Him. We feel like we'll never be able to make it to where God has called us. But in Mark 6:52 we see that the disciples' hearts were hardened. Jesus took the hard hearted all the way across -- the disciples weren't praying, meditating, or at peace that they would make it to the other side. They were freaking out. So where does that leave you and me, the "not so super-spiritual"?

The key is staying in the boat. God wants to see the desire of your heart that He planted there in the first place. There will be days where behind you seems bright and before you seems dark, but stay on course. The longer you stay around Jesus, the more significant just staying around Him becomes. In Galations 6:9, Paul tells us not to grow weary because we'll reap a harvest in due season. But when is due season? I honestly don't know. But we know that God is in our boat and will never leave us nor forsake us.

I can't tell you how important this message is to me right now. I'm in the middle. One day I will start my own non-profit business to help people. I don't know who and I don't know how, but it will happen. And as of present, nothing has happened. I feel like I'm wasting time waiting and settling for a life short of my dreams. I needed to hear this message because I need to remember that God doesn't need me to hurry up His plan for my life and that I'm not in jeopardy of missing it because I'm not spiritual enough. I've found a new peace that God will lead me to where He has called and I will draw close to Him in the meantime.

- Andrew

Word Tree

I created this piece in Photoshop after seeing the cover for Jon Foreman's Limbs and Branches album. It's a cool concept, that words take the place of leaves on a tree. The leaves that I chose are the 23rd Psalm.

Enjoy.

- Andrew