Code Hope

As I strive to listen deeply, and allow myself to be heard – as I press in to pay as close attention as I can to the whispers of the Spirit of God – it occurs to me that these goals of mine are complicated by how over extended we all are. I doubt it’s possible to over-extend God’s capacity to whisper to our souls – but – something does wane in us when we do not tune in to those whispers as often as we tune into those noises that offer us no solace.

I mean – can you relate? The time change comes and for all the articles, books and experts who declare that you can “adjust your sleep by one hour per night” – a simple one hour time change seems somehow to slam my sleep into a bumpier gear for at least a week. And no one, but no one tells the cat, the dog, the child that the clock that governs every adult’s life is up to its biannual shenanigans. So – you enter another week groggier than before which is just another way to say “even behinder” than usual. And then the whole world we encounter outside of our door is suffering more than usual under the same as well. Tensions seems to be the only thing freely available in unlimited supply sometimes.

So what do we do?

Did you know that almost 20 years ago Dr. Earl Bakken created a new hospital code. You’ve heard of code blue and code red, but have you heard of code lavender? Dr. Bakken named the code after the lavender plant known which is prized for its calming properties. Like the other older codes it is a crisis code – but this one to mental well-being of anyone in the hospital and is often called after a particularly challenging patient/staff event. It’s like a psychological first-aid/crisis response intended to help all affected by the event support one another and find restoration together. It’s led by highly trained staff who offer a variety of means to allow those affected to find expression and give voice to what they saw and experienced.

I had never heard of a code lavender until recently and since I learned about it I cannot stop thinking about it and honestly – I’ll post about it in more depth later on (I’m still researching it at the moment). Code lavender response teams exist in a variety of hospital settings now – and in some institutions, it goes by other names. Regardless of the name, the code connects people to their deeper self and reintegrates them – often via deeply spiritual practices such as group and individual prayer, meditation, discussion and expression via all sorts of creative means.

I want to do a personal code lavender. Not because today itself is so bad – but because there were a lot of hard days in the last year. We laid my dad to rest. We finished emptying out the family home. I started two new programs – then there’s all the things that keep dominating the global and national news … it feels stressful. I’d like to sit with some friends and support one another and ask, when did we stop being able to even numb by scrolling through our phones – now it just hurts to do so. There’s no dopamine rush in it – just irritation. Phone games are no reprieve – they just annoy with endless ads. Too much seems like too much work. And it is no help at all to just turn to whatever flavor of news you prefer and get even madder.

And yet these are the things that are most readily available to most of us. And these things are no help at all.

I refuse to believe that things are hopeless – they are not. I refuse to believe that this is how any of us has to feel. So – I invite you to join me for a Code Hope. This is a crisis code – with potential to become a care-code. To engage in a code hope, put your phone down and grab a steaming mug of something soothing - your favorite tea or cocoa or what have you and sit down and think back to a time recently you got to spend cheering up or helping someone you love. When did you last laugh with a friend? When did you last get to help someone in some way? When did you last get to be creative – and sing, write, draw, dance, experiment in the kitchen, tend a plant, or upgrade an old item? Can you give yourself the gift of some more of that? I know I want to. I want to reflect for a spell that the toxicity of digital everything can’t hold a candle to the power of hugging a neighbor, smiling at an old friend, playing with kids, petting and brushing the pets, gazing with satisfaction upon something you made – and feel pleased with.

And I do take such quiet moments. It’s sometimes much harder than others. But I suppose this is like every really good thing – it will not happen by accident. Patience. Mercy. Generosity. Humility. All these qualities that are the hallmarks of spiritual growth and maturity. They cannot happen on their own. I think back to earlier times in my life when things seemed simpler – and there were my parents – stressed to the moon.

If I don’t slam on the brakes and pause today – when am I going to?

But the risk always feels – really risky.

Surely the answer cannot be, “well, maybe tomorrow? Or, “I’ll start next Monday.” We all know how that goes.

And yet, the more I toss caution into the wind, the more I know that giving myself this permission is me leaning on Jesus, trusting, ignoring the incessant drumbeat, and turning my head so I can more clearly hear the voice of my Shepherd calling me. And the more it makes complete sense that His call leads me toward green valleys and quiet waters.

I suppose writing Lenten blog posts, some might think it should all be alms giving, fasting, and prayer. As good as these things are I already let the cat out of the bag – they are only as good as our “want to” do them – and if our soul feels a “should” around them then – perhaps they are not what we most right now. I mean – even Thomas Keating – the great proponent of centering prayer says, “If you fall asleep during centering prayer, you must need the sleep. God doesn’t care!” Perhaps a nap is your ticket to successfully implementing your own Code Hope.

Happy napping then if that’s the case. Most importantly – may we turn and rest a breath with our Shepherd and find with Him there all He longs to give us. I will give you grace while you risk your own code hope.

Conversation Fuel - What kind of "normal" do you want?

It’s decision time. Where do you want to go?

As strange as it may seem to think that the pandemic began over a year ago, it’s almost as strange to think that in all likelihood within another year or less our daily risk of contracting COVID-19 will dramatically reduce. It seems likely that crowds, commerce, and communities will largely return to their former levels of activity.

Many of us have had to reduce our engagement - and apart from all the things that have already been said on the matter - most of us had to rapidly adapt to a different normal. Before we know it we can slip back into our old normal

Or - do we want to use this global pause to take a more purposeful step towards creating a life that is more meaningful?

I haven’t finished thinking through exactly how I want to do things going forward, but I can tell you that one aspect of the last 12 months that I have greatly appreciated have been the quiet moments of contemplating, praying, connecting with God, and reflecting on what He’s doing in my life.

If you know me very well at all, you know that I already have a habit of spending time daily engaging in just those activities. But what I’m clear about is that I want more.

But what about you? What have you realized you really miss? What have you realized you’ve really enjoyed? Your answers might be pretty different from mine - but that’s because you’re YOU.

The busy-ness of life has a funny way of using hurry, scurry, and blurry activity to squish us all into a mold, one that’s rarely really reflective of how God made us and how we can best bless those around us.

I’m praying that before this whole thing is “over” and we “go back to normal” you can take a moment and connect with your Maker and find a vision for how the new normal can be your best normal yet. I think this is so important because the next normal will take some breaking in before it really feels normal to us, and even when it is broken in, the repercussions of what we’ve all been through will take time and effort to move past. Moving past will go smoother if we connected with God and got our bearings for the journey ahead with Him.

Conversation Fuel - Why All the Humor?

I’m really grateful for all of you who take a peek at the JC’s Village blog now and again and see what we’ve been talking about. The blog posts generally run parallel to our conversations during our Wednesday night discussions or themes that we’re working to learn as we grow.

The Monday Funday posts are a little different though. I post things I genuinely find funny because laughter - is just such a great great gift and I’m so grateful that God gave us humor. Imagine His sense of humor!!

When trouble rolls my way I pray, and ask Jesus what to do. If it’s a real hum-dinger, I might even journal a bit, meditate, go for a walk, call a friend (or two or three) … but humor often helps too.

Wanna know something? I text funnies to the members of JC’s on Fridays - the students get “Friday Funday” and on Mondays I text them encouragements - usually in the form of Scriptures that I’ve recently read through in my own quiet times and found to be uplifting, reaffirming and all-around encouraging. That means that the students get two “Fundays” per week.

Wanna know something else? I look at funnies every day. Yep. I give myself a Funday every day. I spend time with Jesus Every. Single. Day. Praying, meditating, reading scripture, and more. First meal of the day usually. But nearly every day I end with a laugh. I don’t “have to”. I just like to. I love to laugh. I love to picture Jesus laughing before crawling into bed.

Conversation Fuel - Is Discipleship Synonymous with Evangelism?

The best model for what discipleship looks like is the Biblical model we see portrayed in the Gospels. Discipleship isn’t anything but how Jesus took His followers - a wildly diverse bunch of people - and taught them how to see God and His kingdom the way Jesus did.

If that process took Jesus Himself three years to really communicate what it meant to be one of His disciples, and even then one of them didn’t seem to get it so much, did he? And of course, Jesus’ disciples didn’t quit growing after Jesus’ ascension. They kept right on growing the rest of their lives. I think it’s particularly telling that none of them wrote the books we associate with them for the first Easter Sunday service. What did get recorded came after they’d matured with a lifetime of ministry experience.

Personally, I think it’s because they wrote and ministered and evangelized with increasing maturity that they and their work still ministers to and matures Jesus’ followers today.

If looking at the first disciples’ lives teaches us anything, it has to be that discipleship is NOT for the faint of heart. The world has not grown simpler but never fear. The world will never be “too much” for God to reach.

So - what was it that they did to keep growing their understanding of just what it means to follow Jesus year after year, long after Jesus was no longer leaving literal sandal prints across Judea for them to follow in?

Well - they told us, but it’s easy to miss. They continued spreading the good news, and they engaged in raising up the next generation of disciples. They continued to grow their walk deeper and encourage those who follow Jesus to grow their walks deeper too. They continued to love God as much as they could, and love His people as much as they could, and love those who had not yet heard and believed as much as they could.

That same formula: Love God, Love the Church, and Love Others still produces stunning growth today.. It’s a daunting challenge though, and once you start to pursue growth through it, the ease with which you can write that formula out belies the complexity of living it out. We just CANNOT do it without leaning on Jesus heavily. But, the reward of diving in and submitting ourselves to Jesus’ formula is THE WAY to enjoy a life of purpose, connection with God, growth in wisdom.

Following Jesus will challenge us constantly to put our egos down and walk in more and more humility. Living by Jesus’ formula for spiritual maturity is how we experience the “easy yoke” and “light burden” He mentions in Matthew 11:28-30, the fruits of the spirit and the abundant life and the rest of Jesus’ promises.. It’s a peace-filled, heart-expanding, and mind-blowing adventure. It’s a tremendous gift that He invites us into such an existence with Him.

So - to answer that question, clearly evangelism and discipleship are related. You can think of evangelism as disciple-birthing, and the rest of our lives as the baby-hood, childhood, teen-years, and on and on through all the stages of life - but for our spirits. Or at least this is available if we will engage it.

Here’s praying that you can follow Jesus to wonderful wisened maturity, full of ministry-gifts, obedience, peace, grace and love!

Conversation Fuel - More of the Good Stuff

How do you see grace?

I had a conversation with a friend the other day and wanted to share a way to think about just how huge and amazing grace is.

Justice is - say if you intentionally smash into your friend’s car with your own car and the law protects your friend and requires you to repair or replace your friend’s car.

Mercy is - say if you intentionally smash into your friend’s car with your car, but your friend tells the law, “I’m going to let it go.” even though the law would require you to repair/replace your friend’s car.

Grace is something different altogether though.

Grace is, say if you intentionally smash into your friend’s car with your car, but not only does your friend say to the law, “I’m going to let it go”, but they also declare, “I’m going to replace the offender’s smashed-up car. But I don’t want to just repair the damaged car, I’m going to replace the damaged vehicle with a brand new one - a good one, a nice one. 100% at my own cost.”

whoa.

I think we don’t let that reality - the HUGENESS of grace sink in often enough.

If our sin-problem, which separated us from God were easy enough to be solved with more justice or more mercy, Christ would not have needed to die. But justice and mercy - in all the years before Jesus were never enough. So Jesus came and offered us not only His grace but the power of Grace to “walk in newness of life.” (Romans 6:4)

A person who demands justice - we usually think of as reasonable. Someone who offers mercy - we might admire them, but all too often we call them “soft”.

But what could we call a person who offers grace the way God offers it to sinners - that is to us? “Maniac” maybe.

It’s one thing if our friend forgives us - they’re our friend. Scripture says we were actually hostile to Him (Romans 5:10). And yet, despite that, Jesus suffered and died on the cross for you and me - without any sort of prior guarantee that we would follow Him, or try to follow Him well. Yet His incredible gift is already given - waiting only to be accepted.

Incredible.

Conversation Fuel - May I give your cup a warm-up?

Continuing on from last week’s conversation kick-off - here’s a little more fuel …

• The lessons God’s taught you - what purpose did they serve? Sometimes we make a distinction between “positive lessons” and seasons of trial or some such. Seems unlikely though that God defines His lessons this way.

• Often, when first staring in the face of challenges my joy over what God had prepared for the road ahead was … well, not abundant. A change of perception usually comes after I parked my attitude, my ego, and my pride and knuckled down. On the other side these less welcome lessons frequently “magically” morph into treasured growth points.

Can you relate? You probably can. We may come from all over - but we have the same Heavenly Father and He is eager to teach us how to see Him, hear Him, experience Him - the real Him, in truth, every day.

And why is this? Because just like you might go out of your way to shout out to someone about to get into their car and drive off with their freshly purchased latte still parked on the roof - God is not eager to see us careen off without His full truth on the situations we’re about to walk through.

When God brings something to our attention though - usually much more than some deliciously decadent latte is at stake.

If you’ve endeavored much to grow wiser, stronger in your faith - you already know these things.

But I want to talk about these things because today I want to remind myself that perhaps - hidden in some of the discomforts I feel nowadays is not only the blessing of the Lord’s correction - but the blessing of seeing God’s goodness - His gracious parenting - His wonderful training at work in my life again. I don’t say this because I have a clue in the world how to solve the world’s troubles right now - or even my own - but because if He has taught me anything it is that painful circumstances perceived and then put into His hand precede a bit more of His wisdom learned, more of His love felt, more fellowship with others of His family who are walking the same path.

And - I don’t know about you, but experience also teaches me that a discomfort invariably also stems from my not quite practicing all His disciplines as He intended, and rather over-practicing one of my, ahem, favorite weaknesses … see where others could improve their practice of His disciplines. Sigh.

And this seems as good a time as any to sit down and do a gut-check and make sure that I’m living as fully obediently as possible. We are not encouraged in Scripture to practice some of God’s ways. They are not buffet items - but rather critical components of a cure - a sin cure. The whole thing together is God’s formula for humbly experiencing His grace and life-abundant. It’s a beautiful and powerful way to walk before Him, full of opportunities to serve Him and bring honor to His Kingdom. It is His salvation we experience in this life before we go onto the next and experience His Salvation in full.

It is good to come to Him already cognizant of the reality that the problem isn’t “them” - it’s me and my need for more of Him. So let’s check our car-roof for a forgotten latte, or as Scripture calls it - a log in my eye. There’s always one there. That’s what’s so humbling. If we can’t see it though - He is merciful and will help us.

Conversation Fuel - Kick Off

I don’t know about you but I am plenty ready for a different conversation than the ones that have been floating about the “meme-O-sphere” online lately. There’s probably a need for quite a few different conversations than what we’ve had lately - but being a campus minister for a long enough time to have a plethora of embarrassing anecdotes that make me sound “old-timey” (*sigh*), I can’t think of anything better to talk about than how to grow our walk with God deeper and stronger than ever before.

Frankly, I can’t think of a better aspect of our lives to work on right now. There’s plenty of stress to go around for all of us in all of our lives … in all likelihood for several life-times.

I don’t know the answers to all the things that cause stress, or doubt, or just seems always right there - ready to suck the life out of us - but I do know that God has something to offer us that’s better than a multivitamin for all of that.

There’s a lot of theology that I take on good faith and I haven’t personally rummaged through back all the way to the beginning of all time, but one area of faith I’m really good at - is leaning on God in the day-to-day battle. I’m not boasting, there’s no boast at all in that. I got that way through some really difficult situations. Some of you know some of those situations.

Leaning on God didn’t take all those situations and “win” them. There are some situations where that is what happened, but mostly it got better because God used those situations to change me. Those changes were often significant and at significant cost to some supposedly treasured aspect of my ego, esteem, or public persona - and while that sometimes didn’t feel too good, God used all of that to heal me from wounds and problems I had no idea how to see or deal with, and those were the real problem for me spiritually. Those problems and sins that were invisible to me were obvious to God and He mercifully determined to free me from them.

I want to get away from this “master of our fate”, toxic-positivity, Christianity as a faith in which the most meaningful practices are outward and numerical. I’m craving conversations on those aspects of our walk with God too. So very much. I can’t hardly tell you how much I want to have those conversations. I want to talk about why in the world there seem like there are more people than ever before who are so incredibly hungry for something - anything - spiritually. And yet so many have written off having those conversations with Christians. And yet I know for a fact that being a Christian and falling in love with Jesus more and more so that now I crave time with Him - and connection more than ever before - and my life is more full of joy and peace and love and happiness. Jesus’ words of “my yoke is easy and my burden is light” means as much to me as “In my father’s house are many rooms”. But this is no glamorous existence, it’s humble, dependent, and prayerful.

And yet - I’m certain that I only have a bit of “fuel” for this conversation. You have some. And so do some others - and I think that’s pretty beautiful and encouraging too.

I don’t know when the next post will happen - hopefully sooner than later. This is a strange semester on campus … a strange semester everywhere actually. Pray for me - and I’ll get it out as soon as God makes it clear.

2 Famous Sermons, 6 Key Chapters

The longest recorded sermon Jesus gave - the Sermon on the Mount, as recorded in Matthew 5, 6 and 7. And the longest single sermon Paul gave - as recorded in Romans 6, 7 and 8. This fall in our Sunday night meetings in the UW-L Student Union JC's Village is going to cover these two sermons. Jesus' sermon of course - is His longest teaching on how as citizens of the Kingdom of Heaven we can live. Paul's sermon, is one of his most complete discussions of just how salvation and grace changes everything. The whole testament teaches both of these - but so much of the entire New Testament's teachings on these two crucial topics is crammed into the chapters that cover these two sermons - that the better we can under stand just these few chapters - the more we can understand the big picture. Our discussions on these invaluable chapters - some of the most quoted and most familiar passages in all the Bible - focus on practically understanding what it really means for our lives that Jesus said what He said - and that Paul preached what He preached. These two sermons are barely longer than the Constitution of the United States - and yet though they were first spoken to so few - they've had a far wider impact on the entire world.

7 Steps to Spiritual Strength

Here are 7 ways to really grow and strengthen your faith this year

1. Group up.  If you haven’t joined a campus ministry or fellowship group on campus – do it. The staff who run these groups are dedicated people who have devoted their lives to ministering students. Being a part of a group like this will teach you more about living out your faith in less time than anyone could learn on their own.  
2. Bible up.  Read it as many times as you like. Start studying your favorite parts. Allow yourself to get curious about the other parts.  Hungry for still more - then go ahead and study it with all sorts of great tools: concordances, maps, culturally and historically relevant information, meditate on it.  Still hungry for even more?  Ooooh!  Look at your bad self!  Go ahead and memorize the bits that speak to you deeply. 
3. Pray up.  The strongest Christians have long viewed prayer as the "breath of a Christian."  Prayer is the most natural thing in the world - until it gets complicated by lots of "shoulds" and "coulds".  We work hard in JC's to demystify prayer make prayer a refuge and meeting place between our busy daily lives and our loving Father in heaven.
4. Align.  This is the shortest way I can think to say “learn to do the Godly things that Godly people do the way Godly people do them.”  Besides reading your Bible and developing your prayer life, – be baptized, pray to receive the Holy Spirit, practice the spiritual disciplines, invest your time and talents on behalf of the group that feeds you. Model your life after your spiritual heros in Scripture, in history and around you in real life.  
5. Be authentic.  Commit to being authentic about your ups and downs, your lessons and your trials, your strengths and your weaknesses along the way.  Christians are fond of saying “walk your talk” … I think it’d actually work much better if we all just talked our walk.  Be honest.  Be real.  There is great power in a real, honest, authentic walk.
6. Become a "Let-it-Go-Pro".  Strategically hang on to what will help you - and that's it.  Letting go is trickier for some at first than for others - but the more you practice it - the easier it becomes - and the easier it will be to really enjoy the things you hang on to.
7. Stay humble.  Even if someone were to “get” this whole list – they would find that a truly mature faith encompasses so much more than these self-evident basics.  However much we learn – there is still more available.  Faith in Jesus is worthy of our life-long pursuit -  there are no "masters" of lists like this - only those who are more aware through experience of just how blessed by Grace they really are.
8. BONUS!  Have some fun along the way ... sometime Jesus tossed His posse into a boat and went fishing ... because they liked boats, and fishing, and relaxing.