The following stems from conversations I have had with recent graduates who are attempting to determine where God is calling them. It is meant as a reminder to both myself and others:
If you truly believe you have been called by God to serve in the capacity your in…and…If you truly believe that you are in the place God wants and desires for you…and…If you believe God only ever desires us to be real, authentic and without pretense…then…you must also equally believe you must be yourself and yourself alone. You can’t be anyone else, no matter how great or gifted they might be. It is not only impossible but a worthless exercise that only will end in disastrous disappointment.
This of course is difficult. It is difficult because people often project their opinion of who you should be. However, the only expert, besides God, on you is, well, you. Then I would simply ask: What are you waiting for? Who are you trying to be? Why are you spending so much energy trying to be someone or something you can never be? Why, instead, don’t you just be you and allow God to profoundly use you as the exact person he wants in your present location and circumstance. To be anything else would simply be hypocritical and dishonoring to yourself and, more importantly, to the God who wonderfully and beautifully created you.
My TV Appearance I was recently on TV talking about “The Edge,” our Youth Drop-In Center, at Parkview. It was a cool experience to talk about our church’s vision for engaging our community by meeting practical needs within. It was facinating to have talked for several minutes on camera and then only see two small clips on TV – but there were good clips:)
New Church Website Our church is going through a major website overhaul and are launching our new (very cool) site in a few day. If you get a chance check it out www.parkviewalliance.com. We still have a lot of “polishing” to do and the potential of things we can do through it is amazing.
Renovation Overdrive I been in renovation mode in our house for the last couple months since moving it, but for the next few weeks, I officially move into “renovation overdrive” as I complete our upstairs installing counter tops, new flooring, painting, shelving, lighting, building cabinets and cabinet doors. I like doing it but the pace is a bit much these days.
Mission Re-Think I have been facinated with world missions lately which has trusted my into several books that I will post about together soon. There are:
I had a great conversation with one of our church leaders the other night about the possibility of bringing someone from overseas to do a short-term ministry in our church sometime in the future. In other words, reverse the traditional North American mission’s model – which would be interesting to say the least. In the midst our conversation, I began to realize how much our culture’s colonial roots still exist in my thinking. I talked about the appropriate concern of making sure that this person was ready for a ministry like this and then I thought: Why don’t we assume that when we send a team to a different country that they would have those questions of us? Do we just assume that they should be grateful to have a group of North Americans minister to them? I guess it has just made me think about some of the things we assume when we interact with other cultures – often without even realizing it. Maybe our ancestor’s colonial worldview still lingers closer than we think.
I have been in both community newspapers over the last week and thought I would share the pictures used with a bit of a caption contest. Here they are:
As part of our current sermon series on Haggai, this morning we talked about the idea of RE-Tracing our spiritual journey and how God has worked in our lives (individually and together as a community) so that we can then see our present and future with a new perspective.
As part of RE-Tracing our past, I mentioned the Ignatius Prayer of Examine and so I thought I would include a few links here:
Free MP3 Prayer of Examine that you can listen to with your Ipod, Mp3, media or CD player at the end of your day.
I trust these will be helpful in your spiritual journey as you RE-Trace the work of God in the tapestry of your life, knowing that your situation is not a surprise to God and that God is calling you to something more.
As always, I hope my messages get to the route of what the word “sermon” stems from (conversation) and that they would truly start spiritual conversations. Thus. I would always invite your comments, concerns, stories, prayer requests, etc. as we pursue life together.
