Overwhelmed

This month at the church where I pastor I have been preaching a series called “Overwhelmed”. The idea is that there are things that seek to overwhelm us in life. Things like debt, stress, expectations that others place on us, the expectations that we place on ourselves, and simply the events and stresses of our daily lives.

            Turn on the TV and watch a little bit of the news. Overwhelmed.

            Talk to your friend who is going through a divorce after decades of marriage. Overwhelmed.

            Listen to the doctor explain the diagnosis and the treatment options. Overwhelmed.

            Look at your checkbook and bank balance. Overwhelmed.

            Think about all that you have to do this week, all that is expected of you by your spouse, your boss, your children, your church, your….Overwhelmed.

            Life can seem to be overwhelming at times. Shoot, life can be overwhelming most of the time!

            But only if we let it. I know, that sounds like a really pat answer when we are faced with the giants that threaten to overwhelm us. But here’s the thing: these are all external factors. I realize how huge the OVERWHELMER seems right now. I know that there is nothing else that

Jesus said to not worry about any of this (see Matthew 6:25) and don’t let your heart be troubled by outside things (see John 14:1). Paul wrote to not worry about anything (see Philippians 4:6).

            There is also a difference is being “overwhelmed” and being “overcome”. To be overwhelmed is to be completely engulfed b something for a time. It may be a circumstance, or an emotion, it could be fear. It could also be an overwhelming of the goodness of God, a feeling of being overwhelmed by his love and his mercy, his grace and his forgiveness. So, not every overwhelming is a bad thing! To be overcome is more sever, when we are overcome something has “come over” us that has weighed us down to the point that we cannot get back up on our own. It feels like Hulk Hogan just dropped an elbow on us from the top turnbuckle and is now pinning us down to the mat. All that’s left to hear is the referee’s three count and the bell to ring. We feel done, like this is the end.

            “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”—Jesus (John 16:33).

            Jesus has already overcome the “world”. That seems a little vague, and to be honest, rather large! The world. The word that John uses there for world is “κόσμος”, or “cosmos”. This word has the definition of the world, the universe, all earthly affairs, principalities, the inhabitants of the earth, diseases of the world, and all ordered things in the earth. That is pretty big, and Jesus said he has overcome all of this already!

            As Christians, we believe that the Holy Spirit dwells in us. That this gift of the Spirit (Comforter, Advocate, Helper) was promised by Jesus to all believers and given by God to us to be in us and to work through us. That’s pretty big too, I must say.

            Bigger, I would argue, than the overwhelming thing that is up against you. Maybe it’s a little about perspective. The more we look at something the bigger it seems. The closer we get to something the bigger it appears. This is definitely true of the overwhelmers, but it is equally true of God. The more we focus on Jesus and his kingdom, the more we seek to be agents of grace and love in a hurting and broken world, the more time we spend looking at God, the bigger he seems to us. Not because he has in any way changed, but because we have.

            At times we will all feel overwhelmed. But we are not overcome. Jesus has already proved to be the Overcomer, now rest in that knowledge. Be overwhelmed today with how much you are loved by the God of this κόσμος. Be overwhelmed that your sins are forgiven (see 1 John 1:9).

            “Cast all your anxiety on Him because He cares for you.” (1 Peter 5:7)

           

"Is God really with us...or not?"

Let’s do this together today. Grab your Bible and read Exodus 17:1-7.

The Israelites are in the desert, and they are thirsty. 

They still are picking up pints of the manna each morning, they are still having quail flown in from God in the evening, but they don’t have water. And water is important. So they complain. Against Moses. It’s always easier when there is someone to blame, after all. And so Moses brought their complaints once again into perspective and told them that they are really complaining against God, that they are testing God.

And what's astonishing is that God doesn't seem to mind in the least. God seems to welcome the challenge. Thomas doubts that Jesus is risen, and Jesus doesn't say, “Be Gone You Doubter!”  He says, “Look, touch, see for yourself, test it out.” We get this idea that matters of faith can't be proven, that the brain and faith are opposite realms, that science and faith can’t coincide. No wonder that kind of spirituality is irrelevant to the real world! God welcomes a sifting of the evidence; God loves hard questions. God revealed his self to Israel and to the world in the person of Jesus. Emmanual means “God with us”. And Jesus answered plenty of questions.

Ironically, that’s the question of the day in verse 7 “Is God really with us or not?”

Now here's the wrinkle in this story and in our lives that really matters. The Israelites are simply trying to survive. Survival is no small thing; and, in fact, we find ourselves far more intrigued by survival than we care to admit. The movie 127 Hours is about the story of Aron Ralston, who winds up cutting off his own arm in order to escape a canyon in Utah where he is hopelessly trapped. The book Unbroken tells the incredible story of Louis Zamperini, who survived a crash in the Pacific, weeks on a raft battling sharks and Japanese planes, and then months of torture in a prison camp. But we are wired to want more than mere survival.

Not many people want to just survive, we want to thirve.

And so survival is underrated--until you think you might not survive.  The doctor says, "It's malignant; there's a 30% chance of survival" or "You have six months to three years to live." Or if you have ever had a near death experience that in reality lasted a few seconds but at the time seemed like everything was going in slow motion, where people say their entire life flashed before their eyes because they thought this was the end; they weren’t going to survive. Or perhaps it is when you feel so down or broke or alone that you just don’t know how you’re going to survive another day. Now when that happens, your full time business is survival, and you want nothing more than one more time to stick your feet in the ocean or tuck your son into bed or tell that person, “I love you”.

And in the midst of that trying to survive, the question will come up, “is God really with us or not?”

We often don’t ask that question when we are thriving, but it is when we are fighting to survive, trying to make it another day, wondering why this has happened, that the questions come.

And God does not shrink from your questions. I believe he embraces them, he answers them, and then in some way he provides for us day after day after day after day, just like he always has.

“Is God really with us or not?” God was with them in a cloud by day. God was with them in a pillar of fire by night. God was with them during the plagues on Egypt and God was with them when they were liberated from captivity. God was with them when they stood at the Red Sea. God was with them when they were hangry, and he fed them. God was with them when they were thirsty and he gave them living water to drink.

The people of Israel found fault with Moses, with God, and probably, somewhere deep inside, with themselves. God's response? It's all grace, it's all mercy. They survive to live another day to try to grasp the unfathomable, the presence of God that isn't a flashing light or a winning lottery ticket, but the mysterious presence of God noticed in the silence, in manna from heaven, in water from a rock, and in bread and wine at the table.

And that water that the Israelites were thirsting for, it was right there under the rock the whole time, just below the surface of what they could see. The problem was they were only focused on their problem (no water) and they couldn’t see God’s solution (providing in a new and unexpected way).

God’s grace, God’s love, God’s provision was right there, waiting to be set loose.

But the people couldn’t get to it on their own, this was a source of life that only God can give.

               So today, perhaps you are wondering the same thing: “Is God really with me or not?”

               The answer is yes, He is.

Age Well

As I am writing this week’s column I have been thinking about a sermon I will be preaching later this week at a United Methodist senior adult gathering in Elizabethton. This will be my first time speaking at a senior adult event, and I am honored that they asked me, though I have been struggling a little with the invitation. I am not a senior, yet. But the reality is that I am rapidly approaching this stage of my life, and rather than view it with fear or avoidance, I am choosing to embrace it as the gift that it is.

            God has gifted me with this life, and I am enjoying it. And so I have been looking over Scripture passages that might be a good fit for this senior adult event. I thought about Abraham and Sarah, and how God made a promise to them that they would have a child in their old age. Sarah thought this was so unimaginable that she laughed out loud at God. I thought about Moses, who was in his 80’s as we was leading the Israelite people on their trek around the Sinai Peninsula after their exodus from Egypt. I thought about Caleb, who was one of the first spies sent in to check out the land of the Canaan, the “promised land” that God would give to his people, and how at the age of 85 Caleb said that he felt as young and strong as he did when he was 40. And as Solomon aged he looked back on his own life and gave views of life and death.

            There are some great stories in the Bible of aging well.

            One of my favorites is Psalms 71. This was a song written by an older man who was looking back on his own life. Here is something that I appreciate about his perspective: he isn’t focused on regrets. I am pretty sure he probably had some, but that isn’t the focus of his psalm to the Lord.

            “You have been with me from birth, from my mother’s womb you have cared for me. No wonder I am always praising you! My life is an example to many, because you have been my strength and protection. That is why I can never stop praising you. I declare your glory all day long. And now, in my old age don’t set me aside. Don’t abandon me when my strength is failing” – Psalm 71:6

            I think as we get older we can look back at our lives and see that God really was with us through it all, whether we realized it at the time or not. And that is cause for celebration; that is cause for continual praise!

            I pray that when I am 80 I can look back on my life as an example of the love and grace of God. But the beautiful reminder is that I don’t have to wait 40 years for this. I can do it now. I can, by the grace of God, live my life now as an example to my spouse, my children, and my friends. And part of that involves praising God. He has been with me. He is with me. He will be with me.

            And so we pray that God does not set us aside, or abandon us in our old age. The reality is that there are people that will. As we get older we just can’t do all the physical activities that we once could, we can’t run as fast or as long as we could when we were younger. And sometimes it seems that society values the young and the strong more than the wrinkled and the wise. But that is not true in God’s eyes.

            The psalmist prays, “Don’t set me aside”. And God won’t. And neither will His church. It takes all of us together to live abundantly in this Christian life. We can do it together, and we can finish well, until the day we all stand before our Lord, and then may we hear “well done, my good and faithful servant”.

            Praise Him today for the gift of today, and age well, my friends.

A Kingdom Eclipse

               Yesterday was the day of the eclipse. #Solareclipse2017. The hype and preparation and warnings had abounded for months. Moon pies and Sunkist drinks were the snacks of the day. Companies tried to all get in the marketing frenzy of this event by altering their items in a way to appeal to the eclipse theme, Denny’s offered all-you-can-eat pancakes for $4 (since pancakes are round like the moon and sun), and Krispy Kreme put out their one day only eclipse donut (their traditional glazed covered in chocolate). Of course, I also heard the doomsday predictionists, that this celestial event was God’s sign to America, our need to repent and an indicator of His coming judgement and imminent arrival. I read more than a couple articles that stated that Jesus would step out from behind the moon as it passed in front of the sun so that when the moon moved the Son would be in place of the sun.

                I don’t doubt or deny our nation’s need to repent. I know full well my own need of repentance on a daily basis, but I don’t think that this eclipse was sent by God as a sign of our need of repentance. The sings of our need to repent and turn to God are right in front of us every singles day.

                I know that one day Jesus will return and that the “sky” will be the avenue in which he comes. After Jesus’ death, resurrection, and ascension, His disciples were standing looking up into the sky because they had just seen Him taken up into heaven right before their very eyes. While they were gazing upward, an angel appeared among them and said, “why are you standing here staring into heaven? Jesus has been taken from you into heaven, but someday He will return from heaven in the same way you saw Him go” (Acts 1:11).

                I also believe that when the masses of people are predicting that this is the day Jesus will come to judge the nations, that it probably won’t be. Jesus was pretty clear that His return would not be announced and expected, but that it would rather be like “a thief in the night” (1 Thessalonians 5:2), and that only God knows when this will happen (Matthew 24:36).

                So, yesterday I stood with hundreds of others in downtown Jonesborough as we all looked up into the heavens as the moon passed in front of the sun. Amazing shadows were created, the temperature dropped about seven degrees, there was a stillness and quietness around, and I was reminded of some other words of Jesus.

                                                         

                “The kingdom of heaven is near”.

                The gospel writers record this as a common saying of Jesus. When He was preaching and teaching, when He was sending out his disciples to share this good news of God’s reign, and when He was healing physical and emotional pain. The kingdom of God is one of wholeness, where there is no sin, no pain, no tears, no hate, no death. In this kingdom God reigns as king, and we live as His people in peace. Jesus said this kingdom was near, and at times said this kingdom was “at hand”, and in response to being questioned about this at one time said the kingdom is “among (or in) you” (Luke 17:20-21).

                One of my favorite books on the concept of this “kingdom” is Announcing the Reign of God by Mortimer Arias. In this book Arias says the kingdom that Jesus talks about is like an “eclipse”. What he means is that the kingdom of God is partially already visible to us, the arriving of this kingdom was ushered in when Jesus came (John 1:14) in flesh and blood, so we can see glimpses of this now. We see these glimpses when we see people love rather than hate, give rather than take, help rather than hurt. This is the Kingdom Eclipse.

                The Kingdom is coming, in fact the Kingdom is rapidly advancing. Just remember to not stand around staring up the sky for too long, there is work here to do today. Work of justice, mercy, love, reconciliation, repentance, forgiveness, and grace. So be full of these because we don’t know when His Kingdom come, but it will. And right now it’s just an Eclipse of the Kingdom.

HOPE

            Today I awoke to news of another suicide. A friend of wife had a young family member who took her life yesterday. Unfortunately, this is not a rare occurrence. Saturday I sat with my brother in law and three of my children and talked about Chester Bennington, the lead singer for Linkin Park, who committed suicide by hanging in his Los Angeles home July 20. We talked about Chris Cornell, singer for Sound Garden, who took his life May 18 after a show in Detroit. We talked about Curt Cobain, of Nirvana, who ended his life April 5, 1994 in his home with a cause of death by self-inflicted shotgun wound. All of these men seemed to be living the life that many musicians only dreamed of. They seemed to “have it all” on the outside.
            The accounts of suicide are not limited to the rich and famous, and the reasons are as varied as people themselves. Over the last two years several high schools in our area have been devastated by suicides of teenagers, often those who appeared to have so much going their way and living a happy life.
 The truth is that there is so much that is going on under the façade that we portray to others. Often times depression and doubt is damaging these persons, who ultimately feel a sense of hopelessness in their lives.

            I have known several people who have attempted suicide, but have survived, often by the quick responding of a family member who finds them and acts quickly.

            In 2016 the National Suicide Prevention Network estimated that 44,193 Americans took their own lives.

            That is 121 suicides per day just in our country alone.

            There is reason for concern here.

            If you are reading this and you have had suicide affect your family, I want to encourage you that there was nothing you could have done or said to prevent it. I have talked with and counseled individuals who feel like they should have “noticed” something more, or “said” something or “done” something more.

            This is regret, there was nothing that you could have done.

            I have talked to individuals who have said that they should have shown more love to their family member or friend who took their life. But again, there was not “more” love that you could have shown that would have prevented this tragic action.

            And I have talked to individuals who were concerned about the eternal security of their loved ones, believing that all suicide victims go to hell.

            Let me say this loudly, I don’t believe that. In fact there is so much that could happen between a person and God in their final moments of life that none of us can even possibly grasp or understand.

            Suicide is a tragic and needless loss of life, but is a very real epidemic that we as a culture are facing. And we cannot be silent about it.

            We must talk about it. We must learn to not look the other way. We must learn to be able to let others know when we are not OK. We have to be in relationship together.

            There is hope!

            And taking your own life is not the answer.

            Jeremiah 29:11 says “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”

            And I believe this. Hope and a future. That is God’s plan for us. But we have to be here for each other, to love, to listen, to encourage, to cry with, to just do this life together.

            It’s not hopeless. There is hope. There are people that love you.

            Call this number if you need to talk, or give this number to someone you know:

                        1-800-273-8255  National Suicide Prevention Hotline.

                        Or text “TALK” to 741-741

There is Hope. And His name is Jesus.

Planes, Pink Floyd, and Polity

As I write this column I am really feeling the effects of jet lag. I guess I had never experienced this before, but 2 weeks ago my daughter, Emily, and I went to the Czech Republic to lead a Vacation Bible School in Brno, the 2^nd largest city in the Czech. This was my first time out of the country and an amazing experience with some wonderful people. 
 As I sat on the airplane from Amsterdam to Atlanta, I was thinking about the VBS we had led. I was wondering if we did enough, if I said what I should have said, if I should have done or said more? This was an amazing week with the children and parents in the Czech, but I felt like there may have been something more for some reason. So I resigned that seeds had been planted, and perhaps we cultivated others a little bit, and I settled into my seat for a 9-hour flight.

            A man with a unique accent sat down beside me, introducing himself as Luis, from South Africa. Luis was on his first trip to the US, headed to Atlanta and then to Miami to a Roger Waters concert (Roger Wasters from Pink Floyd). He said his wife had bought him the ticket when it went on sale over a year ago, but only bought the one ticket as she was battling leukemia and didn’t expect to be here when the concert came. Luis told me as teared rolled down his face, that she had died a few months ago. He was lost without her, and tried to fall back on the little faith he knew when he was younger but couldn’t. His children had encouraged him to make this trip to Miami, and he had reluctantly come.

            “Maybe will God will actually show up somehow,” Luis said.

            Yeah, you can count on that.

            We talked about life, death, faith, marriage, and Pink Floyd.

            As we talked, Luis asked what book I was reading. Actually, I hadn’t been reading, but I did bring a book with me that I need to read for an August UMC class I am taking this fall. The book was “Polity, Practice, and the Mission of the United Methodist Church, 2006 edition” by Thomas Edward Frank. Dr. Frank is a great writer of all things Methodist, but our Church polity is not exactly a blazing fire of interesting excitement unless you are directly related to it.

            Again, tears welled up in Luis’ eyes as he told me he had grown up Methodist, and was baptized as an infant in a Methodist Church in South Africa.

            “A pastor is sitting beside me at the exact time of my personal faith crisis. Did Delta make this seating arrangement, or did God?” Luis asked.

            OK, no pressure now, I thought.

            Surely God gave me the words to say to Luis, because I can’t even remember everything I said. I listened a lot. I listened to stories of his love for his wife, his marriage, his questions, his concerns.

            And then we talked about hope. Hope that we have in what Jesus said is true. Hope that God is with us through each and every day, and will be with us for eternity. Hope that helps us get out of bed when our best friend, life partner, and soul mate has been buried. Hope in tomorrow. Hope in our faith.

            “I need this hope in my life now,” Luis said, “would you pray with me so that I can recommit my life to Jesus and start fresh when I land in Atlanta?”

            At about 40,000 feet up in air at a speed in excess of 500 mph over the Atlantic ocean a lawyer from South Africa and a pastor from Telford held hands and prayed together.

            Then we both took out pictures of our wives. Luis listened to their favorite music on his phone, hoping that one day he would see her again. I just looked at this image of my favorite person, my partner in life, and thanked God for every experience we had shared together, and asked for His help to focus my love more fully on her and on Him.

            Once again our God has amazed me. As I sat on a plane wondering if I had done enough or done it well enough, God showed up. And He even used a Methodist book on polity and a Roger Waters concert in Miami to do it.

           

            

High Tide Prayer

Prayer has been a focus for me lately. Perhaps that sounds odd to you coming from a pastor, you might think we pray all the time…for hours on end. And though we are all called to “pray continuously”, the reality is that sometimes my prayer life is more God-focused than it is at other times. Of course, I pray every day, but the act of truly being in communion with God during this focused and uninterrupted private time has been a priority for me. I realize now how far I was from this ten years ago, and perhaps ten years from today I will look back and realize how far I am from it now. That is part of the beauty of growth in our Christian life, and the never-ending aspect of relationship with our God.

                As I am writing this I am sitting on the balcony of our condo at the beach. This is my family’s annual vacation week to Oak Island, NC. The beach is one of my favorite places. People keep telling me that if I lived here I would miss the mountains and want to be back in East Tennessee…maybe, but I’d be willing to give it a shot. The beach is also one of my favorite places to pray, well, actually, in the ocean is one of my favorite places to pray. Because sometimes praying in the ocean is hard.

                                I like praying in the ocean because of the sound. I am an easily distracted person. It took me 15 minutes to write the paragraph above because I was watching a seagull. My wife likes to say that she doesn’t have ducks and they’re not in a row because she has squirrels and they’re at a rave….that’s another whole story though, and I think I once again have been distracted.

Back to the ocean. The sound of the ocean helps drown out the other sounds that constantly seek my attention. I need this when I pray. I need the other sounds quieted so that I can focus on and be with my Lord. The ocean is my prayer closet.

                There is also a rhythmic sound to the ocean. It is soothing to me, and there is a beautiful repetition that helps me focus on the eternal and unchanging qualities of the One I am spending this time with. This is soothing to me. There needs to be a rhythm to our lives, not a monotony, but a sacred rhythm of who we are and how this life all makes sense. There will be plenty of things that happen that seek to upset this rhythm; death, unemployment, natural disaster, terrorism, illness, disease, injustice. So a sacred rhythm to life is important. If you don’t have this rhythm yet, talk to someone you know who does. It will make all the difference when interruptions come. The rhythm of the sound of the ocean reminds me that there is a rhythm to my life, even if it may seem chaotic at the time.

                I also like praying in the ocean because of the water. This may seem rather obvious, but the water splashing over me is a prayerful reminder of God’s grace. As I begin my prayers I first ask God to forgive my sins, both known and unknown. I think this is important for me to take care of the elephant in my spiritual room so that my Lord and I can get on to our time together. But the importance of this is paramount to me. Sin is what stands in between me and God, and I know that when I ask for forgiveness that He is faithful and just to forgive me because Jesus has already paid the price for my sins, both those I have committed in the past, and those that will be committed in my future, both those sins of commission and those sins of omission, all my sins of thought, word, and deed. So during this time I let the waves just wash over me. Cleansing me. And I praise God for this.

                But sometimes praying in the ocean is hard. Yesterday I went down to the beach about 5:00. It was high tide, so there were not many people on the beach, since there wasn’t much beach to sit on at that time of the day. The ocean waves had made their way as close as they were allowed, sneaking up to the edge of the dunes for the second time of the day. They weren’t going to come any further than that today, their journey  onto the beach had been limited by their Maker. And so I waded into the waters, and there began my prayer. During high tide the waves are a little rougher, they crash a little harder, they move you around a little more, and it’s harder to keep your balance and stay in the same spot. This is a good reminder for me of all the things distracting me, and my need to stay focused and stand firm in my prayer, in my faith, and in my life.

                Today be strong in your prayer. Hold on. Stand firm. And if you are getting knocked around a little by the rough waves today, just remember that high tides don’t last forever.