I am bugged by me, and some more like me

I know that I know better. Yet, this loving people thing is giving me trouble. I get overwhelmed sometimes at how I chose to respond to an opportunity to love someone. What seems to happen to me more though is that I just blow right past a loving opportunity. That one little moment when one unselfish act on my part could have made a huge impact didn't happen. No excuses, I just didn't love.
What's my problem? Me. I just can't get my focus off what affects me and my world and get it on the humans around me. I am so trained not to see people as people, I have been so accustomed for so long. It is not a consolation, but I see that I am not alone.
Of course it is easier for me to spot in others, but I cringe sometimes when I see people act towards others in ways that are so unlike Christ. And the worst offense is when I see people do it with no sense of a lack of love on their part. But then I have to remember that I am not responsible for any other person than me and I am a handful.
It is so inconvenient to love people, it often throws me off schedule. But the worst part is the internal changing that I have to do in order to offer the respect that goes with love to people that I have prejudged and failed to respect. It is not a matter only of my doing loving things for them, I have to alter my inner landscape so that I can even think the right thing about them before I can offer them love.
But you know what I am finding? I am finding more satisfaction in my moments of conquering me so that I can actually love someone than any other achievements of my life. Jesus laid the challenge out there, if you love the ones who love you, what is the big deal. Anyone can do that? But not just any one can love the ones who do not love them and in fact love the ones who would seek to harm them. That is the real test of the realness of you as a person. That is the fruit of the experience of a personal relationship with Christ. If I can love, God has done a work in me, I have been able to bring me under the control of the Holy Spirit.
Would you join me in the effort to become one who can love?

The Church going door to door

This past Saturday I was blessed to be part of a group of folks from the Winterville Church that conducted a door to door blitz to invite folks to an upcoming Block party and VBS. I know that the idea of church folks going door to door lurks somewhere near the dinosaur section of life, but it was a fresh reminder of the power of presence.
The group knocked on over 500 doors with a good number of folks at home. I only heard of one instance where a door was closed to the visitors. Every other experience was met with a grateful expression. In my own encounters, numbers of folks said how they appreciated someone thinking of them.
I have always been an advocate of keeping a presence in the community and am even more convinced that it helps in two very important ways. Both of which was very clear last Saturday.
One is that the people of the community get the idea that the church is alive and open for business. It also gives the visitors a chance to demonstrate the nature of he church by their behavior at this persons door. A kind spirit and graciousness is easy to understand and attach to the while congregation.
Secondly it keeps the church folks aware of what life is really like in homes other than their own. It keeps faces in front of the people in a positive way.
Find a reason, but get your folks out in the community, it will do you good.

Prayer, so how is that working for you?

It has been my joy to be in a retreat for a couple of days with John Franklin and Chris Schofield. Two men who have invested much into prayer, particularly in North Carolina.
They have been used of God to make me aware in a fresher way how deeply frustrating prayer can be for some folks and how wonderfully rewarding it is for others.
I hope that I will not reveal someone's personal secret, but there are a lot of folks who live under their breath in frustration in regard to their prayer life. They won't say it but you can see it. I could rattle on about causes and effects and the like but the real issue is, in my mind, pretty simple. It all revolves around understanding what prayer is and what it is not.
Prayer is not meant to "get you stuff" or "make things happen". For most folks who find prayer frustrating there might be a "what do you mean by that?" right about here because they have been led to believe that this is what prayer is about. Thus the frustration. Prayer is the journey to arrive at the mind of God. Along that journey we praise Him, we ponder Him and we even struggle with Him as He adjusts the issues in our life that prevent us from getting to the destination, which is the revelation of His mind.
Jesus modeled it clearly for us. The cross did not go away, the suffering did not lessen, but the prayer journey was completed when He arrived at the mind of God concerning the matter. In truth it is not necessary for God to spend all His time "fixing the stuff in our lives. It is absolutely necessary and quite enough if I can understand what His mind is on it. He said that He would give perfect peace to the one whose mind was steadfast on the Lord. That then is the prayer destination, thanks be to God that He is the destination and the answer.

It is in how you look at it.

Our family has always enjoyed watching fireworks on the fourth of July. This year we got to all be together and enjoy them together for the first time in a few years.
At the particular one we attended several thousand people had gathered and spent the afternoon in various activities waiting for the big show after dark. One of the newest churches in this area, Discovery Church had seen the event from different eyes. They showed up in full force with hand wipes, other sanitary items and genuine acts of help that touched over 5,000 people in a single afternoon. An unexpected act of kindness in Jesus' name opened door after door for conversation and thoughtful reflection after the folks went home.
It was not what was up in the sky that was the real main event, it was what was happening down on the ground. Heart after heart was being invaded from heaven by the genuine love of Christ. Now that is a real freedom celebration!!