Here and Now

One of the most important things in life is enjoying the present moment. I've heard it called the "sacrament of the present moment." There is something sacred and holy about being in the "now", being awake to what is present, and the God who is present in all and through all.

In the present moment, we can hold life gently. We can take it as it comes to us, and appreciate it for the good gift it is. We can slowly become aware of God around us, within us, outside us, holding us, sustaining us.

We can truly be present to others. We can hear others' hearts. We can think. We can create.

All we truly have is THIS. Here. Now. As Jesus said, "Don't worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow has enough trouble of its own."

Work v. Play

I struggle to balance the tension between effort and restful service. I believe the best work comes out of the overflow of the heart. However, I believe that we should also give all we have to what it is that we do. I'm in this period of life where I am feeling incredibly motivated to accomplish a lot, to be fruitful, to make a difference. And every once in awhile, I am wondering to myself: Am I being too driven?

I do believe that it is God's power in me that allows me to live and move and have my being. I believe it is Jesus who sustains me breath by breath, moment by moment.

However, I also believe that I will reap what I will sow. I believe that if I put my "talents" to work, and work hard, that the harvest will yield its fruit.

So I struggle with this. I want a healthy balance between work and play, activity and rest, movement and stillness. And right now, I'm not sure if I'm balanced enough. I'll have to sit with that a little longer, I suppose.

Cheat To Win

Today is a day that I am supposed to blog, but I have lots to do right now, and there is no time. So I am fulfilling my duty as a legaliast in writing this post, but also allowing myself to do other things.

Cheat to win.

End of Office

This week I wrap up this 30-day experiment of praying through the daily office. I have not rigorously kept the schedule [three prayers a day]. Usually I would pray at the beginning of the day and at midday. The prayer I most often missed was the evening prayer. I found myself too tired as I prepared for bed to muster the strength to pray.

I discovered that I do like the rhythm of intentionally returning to God to spend some time in prayer. It helped keep me centered, and allowed me to feel the rhythm of life better. However, I usually didn't love the written prayer. It was difficult to pray the words, and not just read them.

So, going forward, I'll probably keep the morning prayers going, using the book as a guide. But at midday, I will probably spend some time in personal prayer or lectio divina-type prayer and reading. That's the plan!

Connectivity

This morning, I was listening to sports talk radio [as I often do]. They were talking about connectivity between a certain player, and the number of wins he accounted for. Essentially, they were saying that this connectivity gave you a good idea of his worth to the organization.

It made me begin to think about connectivity and worth in an organization. Of course, this has real job application. If you're in sales, then your worth is the connection between you and the amount of advertising revenue you generate.

I think there is application in the church as well for staff people. What is the relationship between any staffer, and the amount of good works done by the church, the amount of ministry "produced", or even the amount of people who begin or recommit to a relationship with Christ.

Futhermore, we should all be able to find our worth in God's economy, by measuring the amount of ministry we are doing. The number of good deeds we do, the amount of love we show to neighbors and family, etc. This will give us an idea of what our current worth in God's kingdom. Not our worth as holy and loved people of God, but what value we're bringing to the Kingdom.

Churches might be able to measure their worth in God's kingdom this way as well. What is the connection between our church's existence and local graduation rates, divorce rates, homelessness, hunger, etc. Are we worth much in the community, when measured this way?

It's a bit of a cold and utilitarian approach, but I think it does have some merit.

Mindfulness

Our worship team was recently talking about the concept of beholding, as in beholding God. Holding God and the world in a meditative, receptive gaze. Being fully alive and fully present in our world, moment by moment.

We talked about how incredibly difficult this can be for many of us in our fast-paced society, where instant gratification is the standard. We drive fast, talk fast, walk fast, eat fast, sleep little, and hurry, hurry, hurry through our lives. We blast through our work week, desperately waiting for the weekend, so we can jam pack as much recreation as we can into our schedules. Then we wake up on Monday and do it all over again. This leaves us, as a people, hurried, distracted, and frantic.

This is not the abundant life offered in Jesus.

One of the biggest ways to combat this distracted desperation is the principle of slowing. One might even call it a spiritual discipline. Slowing is an intentional effort to slow down the pace of life, in order to be more present in the moment, to see the God who is in all things, and to hear God's stilll small voice.

I have found that when I do things more slowly [eat, drive, talk, work], I manage to restore sanity to my soul, moment by moment, bit by bit. I feel more human and alive. I am able to approach everything from the overflow of my soul, rather than forcing my work and life through the fumes of exhaustion. I am able to work restfully, play restfully, minister restfully, pray restfully. I begin to see color and smell aroma and breathe again. I begin to see people's innate goodness and beauty, and see the image of God in others.

I'll share some practical ideas on this subject in upcoming blogs.

Reflections on the Daily Office

So I'm about a week into this daily office praying, and so far, it has been going well. Certainly, since the prayers I'm saying are mostly written down, and I'm just praying through them, there is a tendency at times for my mind to wander. Probably no more than when I just pray spontaneously.

There are two things I am enjoying about praying at specific intervals throughout the day. The first is the rhythm. I am enjoying bringing my focus back to God three times a day. Beginning the day and ending the day are especially meaningful to me. It makes the whole day feel more enveloped in God's presence. Also, the return at midday to a focus on God and on my heart, and our relationship, etc. That has been good as well. I'm also finding myself more mindful of God's presence throughout the day, and am therefore communicating with God more frequently during the day. Most of these prayers are sentence prayers, or "flash" prayers, but they are also good for returning my focus to God.

The second things I like about this kind of praying is the priority it takes, if one is going to practice it faithfully. I have to take time out from my morning, my time in the office, and stay up a few minutes longer, in order to pray these prayers. And something about that feels right. I am forced to pray regularly.

All in all, a good first week for praying the daily office.

The Daily Office

I am doing a 30-day experiment. I have read a lot about praying the daily office, and have even done it from time to time, but never for an extended period of time. However, I have decided in the month of August to pray the office every day. For those unfamiliar with the practice, it is essentially periods of prayer [typically about 10-15 minutes] that are set at regular times or intervals throughout the day.

For example, each day, I will pray through scripted morning prayers, midday prayers, and evening prayers. It is a very liturgical approach to prayer, but I think these structures might help me to embrace more rhythm in the spiritual life.

I will not be a stickler about doing the prayers at specific times [although that might be additionally helpful]. Instead, I'll start each day with morning prayers. After lunch [whenever lunch happens], I will have midday prayers. Then before bed each night, I will pray my evening prayers.

The resource I am using is Common Prayer: A Liturgy for Ordinary Radicals, by Shane Claiborne, Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove, and Enuma Okoro. I like it because it is justice-centered and Kingdom-of-God-focused. It is also contemporary, has special insights on each day, and schedules time for praying for others and silence for meditation within its structure. All in all, it appears to be an awesome resource.

I know some don't like the recitation of prayers, because it feels stiff or formal, or insincere, but I've never had a problem using these prayers. In fact, I have found that they often give voice to longings and emotions, and thoughts that I struggle to convey to the Lord.

I am committing to it for 30 days, and will report on my experiences here on my blog. We'll see!

30 Days

I recently watched a Ted talk by Matt Cutts on the power of trying something new for 30 days. The speaker talked about his decision to live life in 30-day blocks of time, and try something new each 30 days. In one month, he jogged. Another month, he took up mountain climbing. In another, he wrote a book. You can view the talk here.

His point was that the next 30 days will come and go whether you like it or not. Will you use it to get better? Or will you let it slip away?

I love that message, because it has a certain playfulness about it. This guy attempted things he never would have otherwise done. He got healthier. He had fun. He found new hobbies. He did amazing things, based on this philosophy.

I think we should treat life like a big playground, a big experiment. I am too driven by my task list, my schedule, etc. I stay within my comfort zone too often. Instead of trying new things, I stick with "If it ain't broke, don't fix it."

Instead, I want to live life, try things, go places. This 30-day idea might be something to bring into my world, and try it out. I could use it for fitness, creativity, spiritual growth, fun, hobby...the possibilites are endless.

Hmmm....

The Problem of Heaven

In the new heaven and earth, beyond this life, beyond this world, there will be some things now that simply cannot stand. Injustice, greed, laziness, judgment, unkindness, etc. will be exposed, called what they are, and destroyed.

It has made me consider what is inside me now that will not stand in the economy of God's new kingdom. As a sort of confession, I offer these attitudes and actions that must be redeemed, if I am to be a part of God's kingdom:

1. My desire for comfort, which often comes at the expense of other.

2. My laziness when confronted with the need to work in God's kingdom. [For example, when someone in need comes to me, do I put in the least amount of effort I can get away with, and then usher them away, or do I really invest my time, energy, and resources into getting to know them, and helping them along their way?]

3. My sarcasm and cynicism. [Yikes. Will words even come out of my mouth, if all the sarcasm and cynicism is taken away? Sad to see the true state of affairs in my inner world.]

4. My desire to put myself first, think of myself first, accomplish my agenda first, and get my task list done first.

The other problem is this: The Kingdom of God is at hand. Meaning, if I am to partner with God in the ongoing work of His redemptive and creative purposes, these things cannot stand NOW. Not some day, sometime in heaven, but NOW. When I display these behaviors and think these thoughts, I am outside the Kingdom of God NOW. I am working at odds with the good, beautiful, powerful, saving efforts of God NOW.

Heaven is here. Time to act like it.

What Have I Done?

I will be making my debut [for better or worse] in the pulpit, when I deliver the August 7 message at FCC. A friend poignantly asked, "How did that happen?"

Combination of factors:
1. Need. Our regular senior pastor will be on vacation for a few weeks.
2. Development. This will be a growth opportunity, as I tackle a challenge that I never have.
3. It's just time. I am the only other full-time staff at FCC, so I probably should be involved in speaking when our senior pastor is out.

I have no idea what I'm gonna speak about. I have no idea how it's going to go. I asked some people if I should go warm and fuzzy, or if I should be a little more confrontational. They said, "Go confrontational. Warm and fuzzy isn't really you."

They're probably right. Sigh. I'm nervous already.

Takeaways From Hillsong United

As I mentioned in my last blog entry, I went with several people from FCC to see Hillsong United on Monday night. It was, of course, awesome. As with just about any high-quality artistic expression, there were several takeaways. Here are the biggest things that I took away from the concert:

1. Vocal compression: Without getting too technical, the compression on the voices was excellent. Rather than just being their voices but louder, the compression kept the voices from covering up the instrumentation, or from getting buried by it. Instead, the vocal compression kept the voices in a range where they could be a stable piece of the overall puzzle of the sound.

2. Supplemental instrumentation: Hillsong used additional percussion, additional guitar, additional synth, additional vocals, etc. to enhance their sound. Many of these small supplements would be difficult to pick out if you weren't paying close attention, but they add important details and support of the overall arrangement of the songs.

3. New arrangements of familiar songs: While keeping melody lines intact and familiar, the chord progressions or rhythms or instrumentation of familiar songs was changed to keep them fresh and new.

4. Attention to detail in arrangements: Often there were very minute things that a specific team member would play here or there. No one would ever notice if these pieces weren't in the mix, yet the fact that they were there added something to the overall. As mentioned in point number 2, these are things you would never miss in a song, but the addition of these parts of the whole make the whole better.

5. Excellence in execution: You could physically see how each team member gave deep focus to getting their part right. "Good enough" was not good enough. Even in the body language of the team, you could see how much they cared about bringing their very, very best execution of their part.

6. Customized weekly approach, rather than system-based approach: These last two points are just things I gleaned indirectly from Hillsong that have application to our team. Rather than creating a system with interchangeable parts, and it not mattering who plugs in where, I want to focus in a more customized approach to each week on the team. Rather than having systems where any person can do anything we do, I would rather look at the team each week, and say "Here is what we have this week. Let's leverage these specific talents in these specific ways." This will lead to more arranging on the fly, and collaborative experimentation, I think.

7. Apollo 13 motto: At one point in the movie Apollo 13, they are discussing whether or not fuel cells will burn in a specific way to correct the spacecraft's course. The engineers say, "They weren't designed to do that." Then the flight director says, "I don't care what they were designed to do, I care what they CAN do." Hillsong used singers for percussion, guitarists for synth players, etc. So rather than saying, "You're the rhythm guitarist today, that is all you will do," in certain situations, my motto might be "I know you are the rhythm guitarist today, but I could use you on the shaker for the first half of this song." I know what the team members are scheduled for, but there are more ways to tap into the skills the team members CAN do.

Energized

I have greatly enjoyed my time off. The family and I went to Holiday World and to Indiana Beach. Both trips were REALLY fun, and the kids did great. We all had a blast. I am convinced that I have the most wonderful family in the world.

I am returning to work energized and rested. I am excited to hit the ground running. I love my work, and am excited to do it better throughout the summer. Get excited with me!

Also, as a bonus, I get another shot in the arm tonight, as several members of our team will be at the Hillsong United concert in Indy tonight. So I'm pumped already, and getting more pumped! God is good!

Time To Get Silly

No blogs next week, because I will be on vacation. I have some time planned with friends and lots of time with the family. It's gonna be awesome! I am looking forward to getting some sun, hanging out with the family, and general happy-making for a week.

I know I will come back rested and re-charged...just in time for VBS! Have a great week next week!