I Was Wrong

I was wrong.
I didn't know that.
That's new information to me.

These are not bad things.
These are words from someone that is learning.

The ability to challenge what we know as a means of finding truth rather than to look for information that shows we are right is a mark of intelligence and essential to learning and growing.
Opinions are not evidence.
However, the opinions (or conclusions) of experts are more valuable than the opinions of non-experts.
Not only should we question what we know; we should question the sources of our information - both new and old.

I've learned that I have been wrong about a lot of things.
I wonder what I know now that I will later learn is wrong.
I've also learned that different perspectives can yield different truths. 

I think my 30 year old self would look at my 60 year old self and say I've gotten soft.
My 60 year old self wonders how often I hurt people because I couldn't see things from their perspective or even acknowledge that there could have been another perspective.

What lessons have you learned that changed how you think or who you are?
What are you learning now?
What do you know that just ain't so?

John

Monday Motivation

 

Changing Routines and Getting Back to Teaching

I don't lead a very structured life. Other than my morning coffee and quiet time, I really can't say that I have much of a routine going throughout each day. But I may be wrong about that. I think that doing nothing or having no routine has become a routine of its own.

I say that because I've noticed that I really seem off when I've worked the night (or a couple of nights) at the shelter. It seems to take me longer to readjust to my normal hours than it used to. I don't know if it's due to age or maybe it's just so different from what I've become used to doing. In any case, I am pretty much back to my daily routine of having nothing planned and doing just that.

It looks like I will be adding teaching a weekly class to my routine in about a month. 
I'm going to be leading a small group study on the Bible as a storybook. I think that I'll be looking at taking stories from different sections of the Bible -- law, history, wisdom, prophets (major and minor), and the New Testament -- and examining them from a fresh perspective. It will only be a ten week class. I don't yet know if I will plan on doing just one story per class and little insight into the Bible itself, or maybe do two or three stories per night. I have a few weeks to figure that out and want to be sensitive to adapting to class expectations, as well.

It has been a while since I've done much teaching or preaching and I have a feeling doing the prep work for each session will be a challenge. I was looking for recordings of my few times speaking at The Venues at 425 (previously known as Barchurch), but only found one still in the archives. We had been studying the effects of change -- how changing our minds affects our brains, the actual physiological changes to our brains and our bodies. My message was on changing our religion or perspective on how we see God.

If you have 30 minutes to spare and want to hear it you can find it here. My part begins about the 27 minute mark.

Storytelling from the Bible is my style, but I don't want this class to turn into a preaching kind of thing and will have to take care that it doesn't. I do hope that people will be encouraged to read the Bible and to find a connection to God and to one another through its stories. I hope that we all have open minds and are willing to change our perspectives to get a better view of what is true.

John

Early to Rise

I didn't make the early to bed part - it was close to 2am for that. But a little sinus drainage had me coughing in the night and awake at 5:30 this morning. Rather than stay in bed and take the chance of disturbing Chris' sleep, I decided to get up and make some coffee. I'll need to grab a couple of hours of sleep this evening before spending the night working at the shelter.

The notable thing about this morning's early wake up was the morning sky. Opening my eyes and looking out the bedroom window I was looking just east of due south and staring at the head of the Scorpion. The constellation Scorpio is a prominent feature of the summer night sky and its presence in the early morning sky is a great encouragement that warmer weather isn't far away.

Our home's location is fairly rural; it is about the halfway point between Springfield and Branson in Southwest Missouri. These are not large cities, but they do dump enough light into the night sky to filter out viewing many stars. The billboard lights alone create a glow that follows the highways between the two cities. Even on clear nights there is an atmospheric glow that diminishes what you can observe in the night sky. If there is any moisture in the air, the obstruction is even worse. Any minute atmospheric particles seem to capture and hold whatever light is available to impede simple star gazing. 
I am glad that we live far enough from town or from city lights that we get to see the stars that we can observe. 
The winter night sky has some great stars, but it is often too cold to enjoy watching them. I'm ready to let them move on their heavenly way and I'll see them again on our next spin around the sun. 

Remaining true to the end of winter, weather in the Ozarks today will slip back to the cooler side of things. We've enjoyed a few days in the 60s (15+C) and will be back in the mid 60s in a few days. Today will be mid 40s (8C) and tonight will be sub-freezing. 
Spring training baseball games begin this weekend.

John

Dust to dust

It's Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent.
This isn't going to be a post about Lent. I don't really observe Lent by giving something up or eating fish on Fridays. I just have a question about Ash Wednesday.

Even as a Catholic kid (that did observe Lent and get the ashes on my forehead) I wondered about the ashes. I mean if they are going to say the "dust to dust" line, why don't they use dust or dirt? They don't say "ash to ash." 
Is it just because the ashes last longer and everyone can see that you are a devout Catholic or whatever?
Maybe Dust Wednesday sounds too much like a day for a particular household chore to be done.

I don't really expect an answer. It's just a curious observation.

John

Monday Motivation

 How do we get to be this kind of superpower?

Sunday Thoughts

It's Sunday and I'm thinking about churchy stuff while not actually going to church. 
Weird, huh?

I was just thinking about Rick Warren's Purpose Driven Church from a couple of decades ago. He gave the church five main functions or purposes - worship, discipleship, fellowship, ministry and mission. I was thinking about this as I was wondering why I'm not going to church anymore.

Is it because I've gotten lazy?
Is it because the church doesn't meet my needs or expectations?
Have I just become a heathen or outcast of the church?
All of the above?
None of the above?
Something else?

I don't think that worship is really a main function of most churches today. It's kind of weird because most of them still call their meeting time worship service. Sure, they sing songs but it generally feels (to me) like there is more emphasis put into the production of the service than into the actual worship of God. Maybe that's the reason (or one of the reasons) I don't really feel compelled to go to church any more. 

I checked and it looks like fellowship is actually the second purpose of the church. Fellowship of any kind isn't very high on my personal list of priorities these days. I do enjoy occasionally getting together with some of the people from church and should probably do more of that - either more often with the same people or the same frequency with different people. Fellowship isn't the draw for me that it once was.

My experience has been that most churches pretty much suck at discipleship. I don't know why that is. Maybe it's because people don't really want to learn about living like Jesus taught us to live. If we learn that stuff and then don't actually do it, we're even worse hypocrites. It's way easier to just tell people they need to follow Jesus than to actually follow Jesus. 
Plus not actually doing discipleship saves the time and cost of all that teaching and learning of stuff that we're not going to do anyway.

Ministry is the one thing that really reached out and grabbed hold of me at The Venues. The Venues serves the community around the church better than any church we have ever been associated with. The resources and volunteer hours poured into community service projects are pretty amazing. Through participating in some of those projects, I have found other church communities that also do the ministry thing well. 
I have observed that the church communities that do ministry well are the more liberal, progressive churches. Maybe the more conservative churches are too busy judging to serve.

I honestly don't remember the mission part of the Purpose Driven Church. I imagine that it has something to do with evangelism or sharing the message of the gospel. Today I believe that ministry should be the mission of the church. I believe the message of the Bible is meant to teach me and not for me to tell others what it means for them. I'm not selfish about what I've learned and will gladly share that with others, but I'm no longer compelled to convince others that they need to believe what I believe. 
My faith gives me hope. It gives me peace. And it also gives me purpose.

Why don't you go to church?
or
Why do you go to church?

Just wondering

John

Spring is Coming

There are still more winter weather days ahead, but spring is drawing nearer. The Spring Equinox happens on Monday, March 20th, so it is just over a month away. Already we are seeing less frequent freezing nights and so the crisis cold weather shelters have been open less often. My winter schedule has had me working on Thursday, Friday, and Sunday nights when the shelters are open. Although the crisis cold weather shelter months run from November 1 through the end of March, my staff job was from the beginning of December until the end of February. The other overnight staff person that started November 1st will take the remaining less frequent nights during the month of March. I'll be available if an unexpected streak of cold weather hits, but otherwise my temporary employment is about finished and I can move back into full retirement in just over a week!

I'm not going to lie -- I'm ready for it!
Work at the shelter is both fulfilling and trying. I'm not very equipped to be a counselor of any kind but have found myself talking to couples struggling with a miscarriage, to individuals that are really battling their addictions, providing transportation to treatment, and just negotiating the daily conflicts and struggles that people face when they have so little. 
I may need counseling myself.

Taking the enclosure off the deck, sitting in the sun, working in the yard, or taking the motorcycle out for a ride will do wonders in helping me to recenter my mind. 
But...
I don't want to forget that there are people that just struggle to survive from day to day.

Chris will continue to volunteer at the shelter through the end of the season, and I should probably find a place to volunteer, as well. There is plenty of need.
Tonight I will sleep well and get back to a normal sleep schedule. Next week I'll work a couple of nights at the shelter and (if the warmer forecast holds up) that will bring my temporary employment to an end. 

I am 
#readyforspring

John

Wednesday Wisdom

 

Who gets who?

Sure Jesus gets us, but do we get Jesus?

In full disclosure -- I only watched the last few minutes of the Superbowl so I didn't see any of the commercials on the game broadcast. I have seen several "He gets us" commercials on various internet sites, both before and after the game.
I should also say that there was a time when I might have thought these were pretty cool ads and not given much thought to the money that was spent on advertising Jesus vs. what could have been spent on actually doing good.
WWJD?

Although I once traveled to churches and church camps with the message of turning to Jesus and accepting him as your Savior, I no longer feel compelled to convince others that I have that whole life-after-death/eternity thing all figured out and that everyone should believe what I believe. I'm pretty sure that most self-proclaimed Christians don't even believe what I believe when it comes to actually following the teachings of Jesus or about heaven and hell or any number of faith related topics.

Today I am much more likely to follow the teaching of James (show me your faith by your works) than to tell you what I believe in sermon or in simple conversation. And it is extremely unlikely that I will try to convince you to "turn or burn" or to tell you what you need to do to attain eternal life in heaven when you die.
As much as I might try to follow the teachings of Jesus, I have to admit that it is a struggle. I mean - would Jesus sleep in late and then spend a quiet morning sipping coffee and typing out a blog that will only reach a few dozen people while there are a thousand people nearby that are looking for a place to stay dry on this cold, rainy morning? 
Probably not.

But I think that Jesus would be okay with me doing it. Afterall, "he gets us," right?
I think that Jesus is okay with us living our lives as we seek to follow him or as we seek out how to best live in this life. There is an often spoken thought about being so heavenly minded that you're of no earthly good. I think that fits many Christians today. 
I think it fit me not too far in the past. Maybe it still does.

In any case, here's what I think about the He gets us ad campaign:
*Using the Superbowl platform to get people to think about Jesus/God isn't a bad thing.
*Although I do believe that there are better ways to spend all that money, the simple truth is that it's not my money and I don't have any say-so in how it gets spent.
*In my own past, I spent plenty of time (and got paid for it) telling people about Jesus. 
*I agree -- He gets us.
*Figuring out the John/God relationship is more than enough for me. I don't need to spend too much time or energy sorting out how anyone else is relating to God.
*I'll stick with the struggle I have of just trying to be more like Jesus and understanding the struggles of others to the point that I can get them, too.

John

Monday Motivation

 

The Bible as a Storybook

I was recently asked about teaching a small group at our church. I was told that I could pick the topic, time length, and place. I'm not sure if I'm going to do this, but I was thinking -- If I did, what would I teach?

There are a number of reasons not to do this. First of all, teaching in a small group forum really isn't my thing. I'm not a teacher. Moderating or leading a book study isn't my thing, either. Writing my own curriculum for a class most definitely is not my thing. And I'm not really much of an expert on any given subject, especially in matters of theology or churchy stuff.

But...
I've been thinking.
What if I were to examine The Bible from a storybook perspective?
What if we were to look at the stories of The Bible from the perspectives of history(why they were written when they were written) and what they can teach us (if anything) today?

Personally, I love the stories of The Bible. And naturally, I have my favorites. I have my favorite stories that I like to hear, and I have my favorite stories to tell. I also have my favorites based on what they have to teach us, or at least - what they have to teach me. 

What are your favorite stories to read, hear, or tell?
What stories do you think I should include in a class of teaching The Bible as a Storybook?
And why should I include them?
They can be well known stories or they can be stories that are obscure or often overlooked.

Whether or not I teach such a class is still a pretty big question, but I do think I'd like to write about the topic and include some of my favorites as well as a few of your favorites. 

What do you think?
Would that kind of teaching interest you?
Just wondering...

John

Going out

Wow!
It's been more than a week since I've posted here. I should write more often. There have been plenty of days that I've thought about writing, but just put it off. I need to be more disciplined about making myself write. It's pretty therapeutic. 

Last night we were out for a small birthday celebration for one of the guys at our church. He's a guy that volunteers A LOT! He's a pretty quiet and unassuming guy, but he's always available and willing to help and serve the community in any way that's needed. If you were to ask random people at The Venues about lay leaders, chances are that his name wouldn't come up. But in my own mind, he is the face of what The Venues is all about. If there was an award called "Mr. Venues," he'd win it - hands down!
I was glad that we were thought of and invited to this small birthday gathering.

Not only was it fun to celebrate our friend, but having dinner out with a small group was pretty enjoyable, as well. In fact, I mentioned to Chris that we could do that with a small group of people anytime, maybe on a monthly basis - different friends, different restaurants. 
Yeah, I know - it's weird for me to think of this, but here I am.

So how about indulging me and participating in an imaginary dinner party. You and your significant other or guest will have dinner with me and Chris and a couple of your choosing and one of my choosing. Last night we were at a quaint little neighborhood Italian place. It was pretty good, so let's do something like that - nothing fancy, small, quaint, ethnic. How about Greek? I'm going to invite AOC and her guest. I'd be interested in hearing her on a personal, conversational level. And as interesting as the political conversation might be, I'd also like to know her personal likes and dislikes - favorite foods, does she have pets, favorite music, movies, actors, etc. And I don't know why, but I think she'd be funny and have a great laugh, too.
Who would you invite? And why?

John