I've been accused of ignoring my wife, and kids, and parents, etc. Some call it selective hearing and just maybe it's that or as I find myself in the midst of middle age, it just may be the hearing that's going. Although I reserve the right to deny this!
I've had to learn to focus on listening to what she has to say, or more to the point, what she is "really" saying. It's helped our relationship because:
1. She knows I'm listening
2. I hear her.
These two things are critical to building a relationship. Without them I dare say there is no relationship at all! Regardless the type of relationship you are trying to build, friendships, partnerships, marriages, etc. listening is critical.
I remember being in grade school. It's there that I learned how to listen. O sure my parents taught me well how to listen, sunday school teachers and others helped as well. But in school, I learned the skills of listening. It's here that I discovered the difference between sitting in the front or the back of the classroom; next to friends or more independently; leaning into the teacher or leaning back in my chair. It's here that I learned how to learn through my listening posture. (By the way, just because I learned it doesn't mean I always did it! I'm talking about being a kid here!)
But listening to God is a different story, or so I'm told.
One of the most asked questions of me as a pastor is about hearing from God. Have I heard God's voice? Do people hear God speak today? Does God even speak in the same way today? Why haven't I heard God? It is one of our great desires to hear God, like the Biblical heroes of old who heard with loud booming voices and who easliy recognized the voice as the Almighty's. I wonder, though, if it were always so clear. Did these great people of faith really hear God audibly? or was it much more subtle, like a thought that washes over the consciousness? Or maybe it was more like a 2x4 to the side of the head that knocked them faithful (like Jacob who wrestled with God and walked with a limp the rest of his life!).
There are bible references for booming voices, but fewer that we might expect. Most of the times God speaks it is much more like Elijah hearing through the "sheer silence" of the moment. It's not very often that a chorus of heavenly angels come to us to make announcements for God. (now that's something we could do for worship!)
So my answer to those questions: Sure, God speaks, non-stop, 24/7/365, but the message isn't usually preceeded by neon signs or a routine schedule. Instead God just speaks, hoping, waiting, for an opening to get a word in edgewise. The key is to get in the right posture to listen, anxious, ready, quiet.
Trust God from the bottom of your heart; don't try to figure out everything on your own. Listen for God's voice in everything you do, everywhere you go; he's the one who will keep you on track. Don't assume that you know it all. Run to God! (The Message, Proverbs 3:5-6)
You may remember this passage another way:
Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and rely not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and he will make your paths straight.
It's simple, God is speaking in all that we do, work, play, rest, so quit talking, get quiet, focus on Him...
...and listen!
Peace ><>
pc
Thursday, January 03, 2008
Wednesday, January 02, 2008
Resolution Problems
I was thinking yesterday about New Year's Resolutions. Why is it that we often fail to achieve our goals for the year? Is it lack of discipline? Is it lack of faith? Is it lack of motivation?
My son in law cracks me up with his New Year's Resolutions. Every year he begins a Lenten-style fast from something. One year it was chocolate and he vowed not to eat or drink anything with chocolate, even the smallest hint of it! And except for one inadvertant indulgence of a coffee drink that he didn't realize had just a bit of the stuff, he succeeded. For him this is a time of personal discipline, to overcome the cravings of the body and soul. It's what the Lenten fast is really all about, he just takes it to the extreme. But it has some great benefits as many of us lack discipline which is why we so often fail.
I don't have the desire to give up something like this through the year. It' not what New Year's Resolutions are for, but personal change is. It's about meeting goals, doing something different, changing the future, changing our destiny.
Sure there are a lot of reasons why we fail, but the one that seems to plague most of us is simple, we expect a different outcome this year but won't do things differently.
You know that is one definition of insanity? Doing the same thing over and over expecting different results!
Yes, we often go into a new year with new expectations but not significant changes. Yet New Year's Resolutions usually require some change to our behavior, our outlook, our activity......in order to achieve different results by the end of the year.
It's the very same thing with our life of faith. Repentance is this practice, turning around, facing the other direction, walking a new way, towards Christ! But our life of faith will never grow or change without this specific and intentional action on our part. No one can do it for us.
Growing in faith, learning to pray, understanding the Bible, meeting new goals and resolutions for this year takes one simple thing to make them successful...
...Our success really depends on us doing something...different.
Peace ><>pc
My son in law cracks me up with his New Year's Resolutions. Every year he begins a Lenten-style fast from something. One year it was chocolate and he vowed not to eat or drink anything with chocolate, even the smallest hint of it! And except for one inadvertant indulgence of a coffee drink that he didn't realize had just a bit of the stuff, he succeeded. For him this is a time of personal discipline, to overcome the cravings of the body and soul. It's what the Lenten fast is really all about, he just takes it to the extreme. But it has some great benefits as many of us lack discipline which is why we so often fail.
I don't have the desire to give up something like this through the year. It' not what New Year's Resolutions are for, but personal change is. It's about meeting goals, doing something different, changing the future, changing our destiny.
Sure there are a lot of reasons why we fail, but the one that seems to plague most of us is simple, we expect a different outcome this year but won't do things differently.
You know that is one definition of insanity? Doing the same thing over and over expecting different results!
Yes, we often go into a new year with new expectations but not significant changes. Yet New Year's Resolutions usually require some change to our behavior, our outlook, our activity......in order to achieve different results by the end of the year.
It's the very same thing with our life of faith. Repentance is this practice, turning around, facing the other direction, walking a new way, towards Christ! But our life of faith will never grow or change without this specific and intentional action on our part. No one can do it for us.
Growing in faith, learning to pray, understanding the Bible, meeting new goals and resolutions for this year takes one simple thing to make them successful...
...Our success really depends on us doing something...different.
Peace ><>pc
Tuesday, January 01, 2008
Nuovo Anno Felice (Happy New Year!)
Okay, so I don't speak Italian, but I did want to get your attention. It's a new year and you know what that brings don't you?
New possibilities! (like learning a new language?)
These possibilities are for all of life, too. They can be personal, spiritual, familial, professional, and many others. The big question is whether you will seek new possibilities or just continue in the status quo, stick with the same old program, live in the rut your life has already formed...
...or you can change.
I don't have a long list of resolutions, but I do have some goals for this year; some things that I want to accomplish, to experience some things that I've never done before. But to accomplish them I need some new disciplines. So in essence, I've made some resolutions.
First of all I have taken Wesley's Covenant Renewal to a new personal level. That means that I will be focused more completely on my own spiritual enrichment in this year. I've struggled personally at times this past year as I have studied much, but with an agenda to teach/preach instead of grow. My focus this year is to become a more fully functional Christian who also happens to teach Bible, preach Gospel and pray continuously!
I want to push myself physically this year. I swam on a triathlon team a couple of years ago and did very well (even though I was much more out of shape than I realized!). This year I may rejoin a team in the Valparaiso Triathlon and just maybe do the whole thing myself! Beyond this I'd like to run in a race or two with my ultimate goal in running a marathon sometime in the near future (the next 10 years, no sense pushing myself!). That means I've got to get in shape. I'm not dissatisfied with my weight, nor my body shape, I'm just out of shape. So, I'm going to fix that.
I'm going to make the most of every opportunity with my family this year. I'm going to be a grandfather some time in February, I'll be teaching my youngest daughter to drive (starting yesterday if she has her way), we'll take a nice vacation this summer and steal as many days as possible to just be together and enjoy one anothers' company. It's critically important because it will be a crazy, busy year. I'll be traveling more than ever, going to Fort Worth in April for 2 weeks for UM General Conference, to Grand Rapids for Jurisdictional Conference in July and all of the driving in between for meetings and such. We're still building at COFS, so there are the details and meetings that are required for all of that, plus all of the normal meetings, visits and events required for shepherding a large church. That makes my family time all that more important.
Lastly (well not really, I'll be seeking new possibilities wherever they might come this year!) I am going to write something. I've been working on several book ideas, Study ideas, classes to teach, sermon series. I work on several of these each year, but this year I'm going to complete at least one of them preparing to try and publish it. While I'm at it I also will be doing more of this...blogging. I didn't do very well last year. It was to be devotional in nature and I let too many people down. So I'll be writing often and seeking feedback. I pray you will read and write back.
So, I choose to change!
It will be a new year filled with lots of stuff! Yet it will all be good stuff, the right stuff. (Plus all of the things that life throws in along the way.) They're all possibilities, not probabilities. They are not guaranteed, nothing is. But it's the possibilities that makes life exciting. Sure I enjoy my life just as it is, but with a few changes here and there (and there are always changes) I will find even more joy in it, as long as I keep Christ first!
Feliz Año Nuevo llenado de los possiblities nuevos del dios para usted. (spanish)
Il nuovo anno felice si è riempito di nuovi possiblities del dio per voi. (italian)
(Happy New Year filled with God's new possiblities for you.) (english, in case you didn't get it.)
Pace/Paz/Peace ><>
pc
New possibilities! (like learning a new language?)
These possibilities are for all of life, too. They can be personal, spiritual, familial, professional, and many others. The big question is whether you will seek new possibilities or just continue in the status quo, stick with the same old program, live in the rut your life has already formed...
...or you can change.
I don't have a long list of resolutions, but I do have some goals for this year; some things that I want to accomplish, to experience some things that I've never done before. But to accomplish them I need some new disciplines. So in essence, I've made some resolutions.
First of all I have taken Wesley's Covenant Renewal to a new personal level. That means that I will be focused more completely on my own spiritual enrichment in this year. I've struggled personally at times this past year as I have studied much, but with an agenda to teach/preach instead of grow. My focus this year is to become a more fully functional Christian who also happens to teach Bible, preach Gospel and pray continuously!
I want to push myself physically this year. I swam on a triathlon team a couple of years ago and did very well (even though I was much more out of shape than I realized!). This year I may rejoin a team in the Valparaiso Triathlon and just maybe do the whole thing myself! Beyond this I'd like to run in a race or two with my ultimate goal in running a marathon sometime in the near future (the next 10 years, no sense pushing myself!). That means I've got to get in shape. I'm not dissatisfied with my weight, nor my body shape, I'm just out of shape. So, I'm going to fix that.
I'm going to make the most of every opportunity with my family this year. I'm going to be a grandfather some time in February, I'll be teaching my youngest daughter to drive (starting yesterday if she has her way), we'll take a nice vacation this summer and steal as many days as possible to just be together and enjoy one anothers' company. It's critically important because it will be a crazy, busy year. I'll be traveling more than ever, going to Fort Worth in April for 2 weeks for UM General Conference, to Grand Rapids for Jurisdictional Conference in July and all of the driving in between for meetings and such. We're still building at COFS, so there are the details and meetings that are required for all of that, plus all of the normal meetings, visits and events required for shepherding a large church. That makes my family time all that more important.
Lastly (well not really, I'll be seeking new possibilities wherever they might come this year!) I am going to write something. I've been working on several book ideas, Study ideas, classes to teach, sermon series. I work on several of these each year, but this year I'm going to complete at least one of them preparing to try and publish it. While I'm at it I also will be doing more of this...blogging. I didn't do very well last year. It was to be devotional in nature and I let too many people down. So I'll be writing often and seeking feedback. I pray you will read and write back.
So, I choose to change!
It will be a new year filled with lots of stuff! Yet it will all be good stuff, the right stuff. (Plus all of the things that life throws in along the way.) They're all possibilities, not probabilities. They are not guaranteed, nothing is. But it's the possibilities that makes life exciting. Sure I enjoy my life just as it is, but with a few changes here and there (and there are always changes) I will find even more joy in it, as long as I keep Christ first!
Feliz Año Nuevo llenado de los possiblities nuevos del dios para usted. (spanish)
Il nuovo anno felice si è riempito di nuovi possiblities del dio per voi. (italian)
(Happy New Year filled with God's new possiblities for you.) (english, in case you didn't get it.)
Pace/Paz/Peace ><>
pc
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