RUMINATIONS OF A REVEREND

I woke up to the news that Vladimir Putin authorized “special military operations” in Ukraine. I am no geo-political expert but from my simple viewpoint that sounds like Russia invaded Ukraine.  The ramifications of this act are significant yet not fully known. I do know there are immediate consequences for border countries like Poland. Poland has already begun receiving refugees. I know some missionaries working in Poland, who will be housing those displaced because of the military action. They will need extra financial resources to provide for the refugees fleeing the chaos. I would encourage you to consider how you may help, and if you don’t know how you can help, message me and I’ll put you in touch with them.   But even before this invasion, I could have accurately written the same title to my blog. The news headlines sink deeper in slime every day. You read about a “four-year-old boy found dead in a freezer,” “Elderly Chicago couple are beaten senseless by a stranger i...

Anyone with children has likely heard the appeal, “Look at me!” Maybe the child is spinning in a circle or standing on one foot or throwing a ball in the air, but the petition begs for attention. He wants his mommy to focus on him and watch his antics, whatever they may be. “Look at me!” I remember such a plea booming from my lips while I practiced wheelies on my bicycle as a child. I had sped down our black top multiple times, yanking on the handlebars and elevating the front wheel off the pavement (even if only for a couple of seconds) and was ready to show off to mom. “Watch me, mom!” I implored. Mom graciously stopped in the yard and turned in my direction while I zoomed down the drive. Halfway down I yanked on the handlebars- lift off. The front tire rose from the ground for a couple of seconds and landed perfectly in front of fist-sized rock in the middle of the drive. My bike stopped immediately but my body embraced Newton’s first law of motion to the fullest. I soared over th...

You failed. Welcome to the human race! Spoiler alert: you will fail again. That’s the reality of being human in a broken world. The biblical list of people who failed would exceed the space I have in my blog. From Adam in Genesis 3 to John in Revelation 22 who fell down to worship at the feet of an angel you find scripture filled with people who failed. But that’s life as human beings. Our society, however, has conflated failing with being a failure. We rush to tag a person with that label once they fail. The result: paralyzing fear of failure. Such fear stifles drive and minimizes risk taking. In such a climate, nothing of great value is accomplished.  Heaven forbid we should fail! Imagine if the disciples decided they couldn’t pull off the whole “make disciples of all nations” thing so they didn’t even try. Maybe they could just stay in Jerusalem with the people they knew and pat each other on the back and that would be good enough. They could succeed at that endeavor. No nee...

Values. You’ve heard the term. Maybe you’ve written some down. Maybe you’ve helped craft some for an organization. But do you own yours? It’s not an issue if you have values, we all do (good and bad), but do you know your values and own them?  One of the most helpful exercises I’ve found to help narrow down what’s truly important to me is found in Stephen Covey’s book “7 habits of highly effective people.” He instructs you to picture your own funeral and visualize what you would want people to say about you. You’ve heard tributes given at funerals about the deceased, “He was so optimistic,” “She was such a caring person,” “He could make anyone laugh,” etc. Now if you were the one lying in the coffin and your time on this earth was done, what would you want people to say? Perhaps the more probing question is “What would they say?” Pause and think about that for a moment.  The answers to those two questions will tell you whether your ideal values match your real values. And the ...

How rough has the last two years been on the church? Here are some headlines from 2021 for you to consider. U.S. Church Membership Falls Below Majority for First Time (Gallup, March 2021) A Gallup survey indicated that membership in houses of worship (churches, synagogues, and mosques) dipped below 50% for the first time in the 80 years of tracking. In 1999 it was 70% but in 2020 it dropped to 47%. Churches Changed During the Pandemic and Many Aren't going back (Wall Street Journal, November, 2021) Here is a quote from that article: “ In-person church attendance is roughly 30% to 50% lower than it was before the pandemic, estimates Barna Group, a research firm that studies faith in the U.S.” About Three-in-Ten US Adults Are Now Religiously Unaffiliated (Pewforum, December 2021) Pew research indicates that Christians now make up 63% of Americans, but the religious “nones” (who claim no religious affiliation) comprise 29% of Americans—barely more than a 2 to 1 ratio. ...

Hold on! This isn’t exactly what you may be thinking. I’m not talking about the body mass index of believers in the American church and the need to get into physical shape. Though I will mention that January has more gym membership sign-ups than any other month. Maybe this New Year you even told yourself, “I’m going to get into shape this year.” That’s not a bad resolution. You might not be going for the look of a Greek god, but you at least want to lose a few extra pounds and increase your health. Those are great goals! And many join a gym to achieve those goals. Unfortunately, one study found that 80% of individuals who join a gym in January will quit within 5 months. 80%! I’ll mention a simple practice to overcome those odds later in this blog, but for now let’s shift to this matter of spiritual obesity. What is spiritual obesity? There is a parallel between spiritual obesity and physical obesity. Now let me pause and acknowledge the struggle many face trying to maintain a healthy...

Here we are at the brink of a new year. Does it really mean anything more than a digit higher when you write the date? Well, it does mark a new journey of the earth around the sun. It does result in the conclusion of another tax year. And for many it feels like a fresh start. There’s something about looking at a clean slate of months from January to December and wondering what those months will bring. Certain events are already etched in those months like birthdays, anniversaries, and holidays, but there are plenty of dates still waiting to have their history written. What will be written? Let’s be honest, after everything we‘ve experienced in the past two years, many don’t want to find out. Some may even say they don’t look at the new year with anticipation but trepidation. What will this new year hold? Scripture provides a clear answer for us when we embark on a new God-assigned task with trepidation. We see a few examples of this in scripture. The most prominent example is Joshua. M...