Series of important questions

What is community? If community is who you run into naturally, is the fom your community? Is it mine? I don't know. Perhaps, this is an important question.

Blessing One Another

To bless means to say good things. We have to bless one another constantly. Parents need to bless their children, children their parents, husbands their wives, wives their husbands, friends their friends. In our society, so full of curses, we must fill each place we enter with our blessings. We forget so quickly that we are God's beloved children and allow the many curses of our world to darken our hearts. Therefore we have to be reminded of our belovedness and remind others of theirs. Whether the blessing is given in words or with gestures, in a solemn or an informal way, our lives need to be blessed lives.

These reflections are taken from Henri J.M. Nouwen's Bread for the Journey.

Reflections from El Salvador 01

I'd like to share some reflections from my time in El Salvador, these are personal reflections I wrote in my journal while there. There's a consistent theme I found in my life during that week, and in know way do I imply that this is relevant to everyone, just thought I'd share a few spiritual happenings from the trip.

12 August 2009

And whenever the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to him who is seated on the throne, who lives forever and ever, the twenty-four elders fall down before him who is seated on the throne and worship him who lives forever and ever. They cast their crowns before the throne, saying,

“Worthy are you, our Lord and God,
to receive glory and honor and power,
for you created all things,
and by your will they existed and were created.”

- Revelation 4.9-11, ESV

So many crowns.

So many pursuits, so many things that I must lay at the feet of Jesus.

Some pure and good, some noble and just.

But all fall short of a deep love with Jesus. A communion of divine proportions.

This is what we are made for.

To love Him.

To love him deeply, passionatly, foolishly, recklessly, and dangerously.

Out of this love, from this love comes loving our neighbors, loving each other, out of this love is a fountain of Life, a living water that will quench all thirst.

We will be satisfied.

Today is a great day, so early and beautiful.

Happiness is carried on the morning breeze, joy splashing against the shores with the waves.

Amidst this moment, I feel as if my heart, not even weeks ago, was as hard as stone. Cold and dark.

Yet now, the dark cold winters night retreats from my soul in the warm glow of a sunrise. A new day.

May Jesus be with us today, may his love go with us. Peace, love, and joy in our hearts, gifts to the beautiful people we go out to.

Words That Create Community

The word is always a word for others. Words need to be heard. When we give words to what we are living, these words need to be received and responded to. A speaker needs a listener. A writer needs a reader.

When the flesh - the lived human experience - becomes word, community can develop. When we say, "Let me tell you what we saw. Come and listen to what we did. Sit down and let me explain to you what happened to us. Wait until you hear whom we met," we call people together and make our lives into lives for others. The word brings us together and calls us into community. When the flesh becomes word, our bodies become part of a body of people.

These reflections are taken from Henri J.M. Nouwen's Bread for the Journey.

Wake up, finally

In the past month my life has been flipped upside down in the most wonderful way possible. No matter how many classes we went to, books we read, or advice we got from anyone and everyone...nothing fully prepared me for the moment standing in the delivery room, when one second there were five of us in the room, and the next there were six. I still can't get over it. The best part is, I thought I had a plan. What a fool I am.

For the better part of the last 13 years I have worked with kids...large groups, small groups, one on one, kindergartners to college aged, affluent to needy. In all of that experience I had developed at least a few ideas of what I wanted to be as a parent. Some of ideas came from watching great parents do great things, some from watching kids who couldn't get an adult to give them the time of day, some from child development courses in graduate school, some from sitting next to kids at Wendy's. But in a single moment, all of that experience and time with kids seemed to fade into a mass of nothingness. When everything in me seemed to scream "JASON, YOU HAVE NO IDEA WHAT YOU ARE DOING!!!"

The truth is there are a whole lot of things out of my control. Ellery will grow up to be who she will, and she will experience so many things I can't even begin to imagine for her, both good and bad. But laying heavy on my heart is how to expose her to things that I hope will build compassion, love, honor and responsibility in her. How to let her taste God's love for other people in a way that breaks her heart and molds her spirit. One overwhelming thought has struck me as I have tried to think about how to be intentional about exposing her to a life of compassion...the thing that will make the biggest difference, where she will most see God's heart for his world, is not in special trips or rare events, but in how we choose to live every day, what we talk about when we are together, what becomes common place, not what is extraordinary. Suddenly the Shema means so much more to me.

Even more challenging to me is this deep sense that I want to figure out how to display compassion and love more in the everyday fabric of my life. I am excited for what it can mean for my family, for me, and for my daughter. But to be honest, I am a little saddened. Because I know that my daughter is not the only one that my life should be communicating God's love to. Why is it that it has taken me being father before I decided it was time to get intentional about things God has entrusted to me my whole life? So in the joy there is a sense of regret. I am thankful to wake up, but know God has been calling me to wake up for some time, and it took the lifeshattering joy of my daughter's birth for me to finally respond.

The Cupid Shuffle

I've been in Mt. Ida Arkansas for the last week working with Camp Ozark on launching a camp blog, and various video and creative projects. 

Each night there is a camp wide special activity. Last night the activity was 'Pump it Up", which includes several large inflatable obstacle courses, games, loud music all wrapped up with some group dancing. 

At some point they began to play the song the cupid shuffle, and Scott Torn turns to me and says, "Asher, its time for you to Cupid Shuffle." 

So Cupid shuffle I did. 

There I am, out in the middle of a field with several hundred young people, in the cool summer evening, dancing. 

At Camp Ozark there is freedom to do the cupid shuffle. 

I'm not usually one to dance, but this was a LOT of fun, and to be honest, for me it was the peak of the experience you get when you are at Camp Ozark. 

The experience that you can come to Camp Ozark and you are free be who you are, and that is a lot of fun. 

Free to be yourself.

You're not the athlete. 

You're not the star. 

You're not the bully. 

You're not the bullied.

You are you and you can experience joy and excitement. In this you experience a freedom, a joy, a connectedness to a deep part of us that I think God created and put in us. 

Later that night, heading to bed, I began to think about the world outside of Camp Ozark and the freedom we may or may not experience in it, and I began to think about how can I make the world around me, a place of joy. 

A world free to dance. 

A world connected deeply to its Maker.

Jesus' Compassion

Jesus is called Emmanuel which means "God-with-us" (see Matthew 1: 22-23). The great paradox of Jesus' life is that he, whose words and actions are in no way influenced by human blame or praise but are completely dependent on God's will, is more "with" us than any other human being.

Jesus' compassion, his deep feeling-with us, is possible because his life is guided not by human respect but only by the love of his heavenly Father. Indeed, Jesus is free to love us because he is not dependent on our love.

These reflections are taken from Henri J.M. Nouwen's Bread for the Journey.

Your Horses Cannot Save You

Isaiah 31 – Doom to those who go off to Egypt, thinking that horses can help them.
Within a single year, God has reminded us that our little god is of no help.

In the late summer, we experienced a devastating hurricane and weeks without electricity. There was no amount of affluence that would have restored your electricity sooner or caused roofers and contractors to fix your house quickly. In early May, about 1/3 of the homes in my neighborhood flooded as ten inches of rain fell within 1.5 hours. Some people did not have flood insurance and are only left with the option of selling their home for the value of the land. Your money god is not strong enough to save you from natural disaster.

In November, we began to realize the symptoms of a deep economic recession, with home values dropping across the country by as much as 50%, banks and credit seizing, the stock market decline of more than 30% and the highest unemployment rate in decades. No amount of affluence could keep the creditors at bay, your home from losing value, your 401K from devastating declines or your company from cutting payroll. Your money god is not strong enough to save you from economic collapse.

In the spring, world health officials began to give warnings about a global pandemic. A new highly contagious strain of flu had the potential to cause death and there was no immediate vaccine. Schools in poor and affluent neighborhoods alike began to close their doors as students were found to be infected by the virus. Your money god is not strong enough to save you from sickness and disease.

How long will we continue to serve this little god? It cannot save us from natural disasters, economic collapse, disease, and loneliness.

Mexico

Mexico is not a volunteer.  But that's where I am.

Jim Kelley

This is Jim Kelley. Jim Kelley is an all around renaissance man here at the FOM. Jim is known for his wide range of knowledge in bible and biology. He is also the rhythm behind all of the FOM worship time.

Jim can tell you a lot about lots of things. Give him just a few minutes and you will know more than you ever thought you could about one particular subject. He is a smart man. Jim is authentic in faith in a way few have seen. He accepts the challenge to wrestle with the angel, and God meets him there each time. He engages God in relationship, plain and simple.

Jim is a volunteer. Like others he leads because he loves God and people. He fills holes where he is skilled. He is an asset as a hands on builder, a drummer, a set up guru, and he does it all selflessly. He never complains, countless times have I wished for a loving and grateful heart like Jim's. Jim Kelley. Friend. Role Model. Authentic. Humble. Loyal. These are words that describe Jim Kelley. Thank you, Jim.

Asher Castillo

This is Asher Castillo. Asher cares about church. A lot. I have had countless discussions with Asher about the church and about the FOM. He shares his frustrations as well as his happiness with our little church. Asher loves coffee, and Jesus, and good looking women. Three admirable qualities that any single girl would like. Wait, I'm going off topic.

Asher has been designing graphics for the FOM for no charge, for a long, long time. He hits the cultural target for branding design for bands, churches and video production graphics. There are people who are half as talented as Asher and have gotten paychecks for what they do. Asher volunteers.

Here's to my friend Asher. An artist who has come through in the clutch for churches, past, present and future. An unselfish guy who loves Jesus and asks the community around him to only do the same. Asher, thank you for all you are doing and what you have done for the FOM. I see Jesus in you.

What I learned from Tom

I had a miserable time working at HFBC. However, I love the man in the photo above. His name is Tom Mosley. Tom was worship pastor at the church. He was an inspiration as a leader and as a mentor. One thing he taught me, that gratitude is a discipline. He taught me to love and appreciate the volunteers I was in charge of. Volunteering is satisfying, but not always enjoyable. Churches look favorably on those who donate cash more than those who donate time. Time has been and always will be money, but you can't write it off, so the church has consistently overlooked the importance of volunteerism, then vounteers get burned out and then the church finds itself in its most comfortable poistion, up a creek. This week I will highlight 1 voluteer from the fom each day. I will lend my voice to appreciate those who devote obvious time to our little church.

Friends and Their Limitations

We need friends. Friends guide us, care for us, confront us in love, console us in times of pain. Although we speak of "making friends," friends cannot be made. Friends are free gifts from God. But God gives us the friends we need when we need them if we fully trust in God's love.

Friends cannot replace God. They have limitations and weaknesses like we have. Their love is never faultless, never complete. But in their limitations they can be signposts on our journey towards the unlimited and unconditional love of God. Let's enjoy the friends whom God has sent on our way.

These reflections are taken from Henri J.M. Nouwen's Bread for the Journey.

Growing Into Our True Freedom

True freedom is the freedom of the children of God. To reach that freedom requires a lifelong discipline since so much in our world militates against it. The political, economic, social, and even religious powers surrounding us all want to keep us in bondage so that we will obey their commands and be dependent on their rewards.

But the spiritual truth that leads to freedom is the truth that we belong not to the world but to God, whose beloved children we are. By living lives in which we keep returning to that truth in word and deed, we will gradually grow into our true freedom.

These reflections are taken from Henri J.M. Nouwen's Bread for the Journey.

The Temptation to be only Relevant

This past Lenton season we started a discussion about the connection of Lent and the 40 days Christ fasted in the Desert. 

At the end of His fast, Christ was tempted. 

Accourding the Matthew 4.3-4

The tempter came to him and said, "If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread." Jesus answered, "It is written: 'Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.'

The first temptation was a temptation of being relevant to the situation at hand. 

You're hungry, others are hungry. 

Feed them. 

Meet the need. 

Christ responds by saying no. 

I think at a first glance, thinking on this, I was taken back. 

Isn't being relevant important?

Yes.

I think the answer is in His answer. Christ answers with,

Man does not live on bread alone, 

but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.

Jesus understands something at a much deeper level. Something deeper than a social mission, a hand out, something that connects people. I think many times I am tempted to let my commitments stop with an hour of volunteer time, or my checkbook turning  stones into bread.

Skipping a deeper commitment  to creating space to speak the words that come from the mouth of God.

I forget to speak the words that make some one matter. 

Words that heal.

Words that liberate. 

Words that love. 

I think we live under a lot of pressure to give to needs. To jump into every social awareness trend or cause. The rise in creating a common good, and social justice are incredible, needed, and welcomed.

 However, we must find the unique need where we are to be fully present. A place where we not only meet someone's need, but a place to speak words that heal.

Words that liberate. 

Words that make someone matter.

Words that are from the mouth of God.

Reading Spiritually About Spiritual Things

Reading often means gathering information, acquiring new insight and knowledge, and mastering a new field. It can lead us to degrees, diplomas, and certificates. Spiritual reading, however, is different. It means not simply reading about spiritual things but also reading about spiritual things in a spiritual way. That requires a willingness not just to read but to be read, not just to master but to be mastered by words. As long as we read the Bible or a spiritual book simply to acquire knowledge, our reading does not help us in our spiritual lives. We can become very knowledgeable about spiritual matters without becoming truly spiritual people.

As we read spiritually about spiritual things, we open our hearts to God's voice. Sometimes we must be willing to put down the book we are reading and just listen to what God is saying to us through its words.

These reflections are taken from Henri J.M. Nouwen's Bread for the Journey.

A Place to Start

Over the last few weeks we have been exploring the season of Lent, which is a season of preparation leading up to Easter. Lent lasts for 40 days, signifying the 40 days Jesus fasted and was tempted in the desert.  

According to the Gospels, Jesus was baptized by  John the Baptist in the river Jordan, he experienced a divine affirmation, and from there went into the desert to fast, and then to be tempted 3 times. 

And that's the beginning.

The place where one of the most compelling, polarizing people in the history of the planet begins, not with temptations in the desert, but a "moment heaven was opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and lighting on him. And a voice from heaven said, "This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased."

The moment that He begins is the moment heaven claims him as its beloved.

This is a big thing, I think, at least it is for me. Actually I think, for more people then we'd think. 

I read a posting once from an individual in New York. It read,

"Lunch...with friends. Dreaming and talking about how we could make the world a better place. Everyone wants to matter."

Reading this, I realized how much of our lives tend to pursue to matter, we pursue to become beloved.

The irony is,

We already do matter.

We are beloved. 

Our pursuit is no longer to matter, or to be loved, but to love, to express to one another how each of us matters.

This is the start. This is the beginning.

To be honest, I'm not really what my life is supposed to look like being beloved, no longer pursuing to matter. 

So far it seems liberating. 

Free from impressing.

Free from status.

Free to give.

Free to love.

Free to serve.

Liberated from slavery to my sins, struggling to gain what has already been freely given. 

An Exodus.

The beginning of movement. 

This is Easter. 

Christ died, because we matter. We matter despite sin and failures.

Embrace liberation. 

We've been given what we struggle for.

  

And that's only the beginning.

Making Time for the Important

Someone told me once that "we make time what what's important to us." This phrase jumps into my head every time I tell myself or someone else that "I don't have time for that." I guess, if we were completely honest, we would more often say, "I'm not making time for that." This is because if we break our standard modern weekday schedule down, it would go something like the following:

• 8 hours sleeping
• 8 hours working
• 8 hours for the other things that are most important to us
  

If I've got 8 hours per day for the things other than working and sleeping, how should I spend it? Too often we let the immediate things replace the important things. If we were to plan the extra 8 hours per day for the important things, it might look something like this:

• 1 hour with God, who granted me the grace of life and forgiveness
• 1 hour ensuring I am fully available to anyone in my family
• 2 hours eating, and especially among family and friends with the purpose of community
• 1 hour serving the vulnerable and needy
• 1 hour reading to improve my mental health and life discovery
  
• 1 hour exercising my physical body to care for the temple that God has granted to me
• 1 hour in daily chores, errands and tasks to maintain my existence
  

Now that would be a satisfying weekday, and fully aligned with what's important. This is a weekday that I would not regret having wasted.

I'm wondering whether a wasted life is the culmination of wasting the extra 8 every day. Maybe a wasted life is attending perpetually to the immediate without regard for the important. What would it look like if we all began to schedule the important into our lives, not letting them get pushed out by the immediate things? I"m up for trying.

Living Faithfully in an Ambiguous World

Our hearts and minds desire clarity. We like to have a clear picture of a situation, a clear view of how things fit together, and clear insight into our own and the world's problems. But just as in nature colors and shapes mingle without clear-cut distinctions, human life doesn't offer the clarity we are looking for. The borders between love and hate, evil and good, beauty and ugliness, heroism and cowardice, care and neglect, guilt and blamelessness are mostly vague, ambiguous, and hard to discern.

It is not easy to live faithfully in a world full of ambiguities. We have to learn to make wise choices without needing to be entirely sure.


These reflections are taken from Henri J.M. Nouwen's Bread for the Journey.

A Still Place in the Market

"Be still and acknowledge that I am God" (Psalm 46:10). These are words to take with us in our busy lives. We may think about stillness in contrast to our noisy world. But perhaps we can go further and keep an inner stillness even while we carry on business, teach, work in construction, make music, or organise meetings.

It is important to keep a still place in the "marketplace." This still place is where God can dwell and speak to us. It also is the place from where we can speak in a healing way to all the people we meet in our busy days. Without that still space we start spinning. We become driven people, running all over the place without much direction. But with that stillness God can be our gentle guide in everything we think, say, or do.

These reflections are taken from Henri J.M. Nouwen's Bread for the Journey.