Moving West

Here’s the moving truck in front of our house on what proved to be a beautiful, crisp winter day in January here in South Carolina.  It’s on to the next chapter in Boise, ID after spending the next day or two visiting with good friends we’ve made over the years here in the Charlotte area as the kids finish out their school year.

Upside down

I have set aside my typical diet of devotional and theological reading for more practical family life material of late.  (Actually devotional and theological works can be very practical if they are practiced!)

Anyhow, I came across one resource that spoke of the need to create and nurture a family culture that tis characterized by beauty.  Beauty in the way the each member relates to the other in grace and truth.  The author spoke of the need for a continual movement among the various members of the family from a “ME” to a “WE” mentality.  And that got me thinking…

The only difference between the word ME and the word WE is the fact that one letter is upside-down.  Which letter that is depends on your frame of reference I suppose. 

If you are a ME-centered person, then the W is upside down for you – which means you probably think it is odd that anyone could find pleasure in making others happy.

If, on the other hand, you are a WE-centered person, then the M is upside down for you – which means you probably think it is odd that anyone could find pleasure in seeking their own happiness while ignoring the needs or feelings of others.

So which letter is upside down to you?

2 Wrights don’t make a Wrong

It occurred to me today that my life has been strongly influenced by two Wrights.

The first is Frank Lloyd Wright.  I grew up in a home where a large picture of FLW was on the wall in the guest bedroom.  I always thought it was a picture of a distant relative or something.  Turns out FLW was my dad’s mentor when he [dad] left high school and became an apprentice to the great architect at the young age of 17.  I grew up in a house that was the product of my father’s years studying under the master.  I have always stood in awe of my father’s ability to design and am currently taking steps to pursue working with him and carry on the tradition of organic architetcure that he began in 1953 when he incorporated as Architectural Enterprises, Ltd.

The other Wright that has greatly influenced me is N.T. Wright.   He is one of the world’s foremost scholars of the New Testament in this generation.  He has helped me to better understand the kingdom of God and the origins of my personal faith and encounter with Jesus Christ in the greater context of human history (His Story).

Both Wrights are (were) visionaries who help(ed) us “see the bigger picture”.  One in the realm of architetcure, and one in the realm of God’s redemptive work in history.

It has been said that “two wrongs don’t make a right”; well, in this case, two Wrights could make a Wrong if we succombed to the temptation to wrongly idolize great men and their works.  We need to be careful to receive God’s grace that comes to us through men in a way that ulimately gives all glory to God Himself and places the contributions of men in proper perspective – as agents of the manifold grace and blessings of the Creator God.

So consider the following passage of Scripture from 1 corinthians 3 in light of these thoughts and ask yourself if there is any place in your own thoughts where you are giving men (pastors, teachers, preachers, artists, musicians, etc…) a seat of honor that is intended by God for Christ alone to occupy?

So then, no more boasting about men! All things are yours,  whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future—all are yours, and you are of Christ, and Christ is of God.

                       1 cor 3: 21-23

Leading and Leaning

I was praying with a good friend this morning. 

We have been getting together for a couple years now every Wed or Thurs morning to talk about God, what He is doing in our lives, and to encourage each other as husbands and fathers.  This is true fellowship, a place where we can really grow as followers of Christ…a place where can know and be known at a level where true growth in character can take place as we speak truth to one another in love. 

Anyhow, as my friend prayed this morning, he was asking the Lord for His LEADING in our lives. 

This prayer comes from the heart that is surrendered to do the will of God, to follow Christ wherever He leads.  We don’t ask God to bless what we do as much as we ask God to lead us to go where He would have us to go – to do what He would have us do – to become the kinds of people He wants us to be (only in reverse order than what I just listed!).  We seek to follow God’s initiative in our lives rather than ask him to follow ours.  Sometimes it seems like these words would carry more weight if I served the poor in some third world country, but alas, I do not.  Right now I am an affluent software developer living in the luxury of a suburban neighborhood in a thriving US metropolis.  However, I am no less on mission to know Christ and make Him known right where I am than when I was with sugar cane farmers in the Fiji islands a few years back.  I hope that I can be content whether I keep my clothes in a walk-in closet or a suitcase! (I think our closet is almost as large as a room that a Hindu family of four was renting in Fiji!)

Breakthroughs

In the last couple weeks, we have experienced some real breakthroughs in regards to answered prayer.  For some time now, I have felt the Lord leading me to “liquidate” our lives here.  I understand this to mean we are to posture ourselves for change.  It doesn’t mean we are leaving the area necessarily, but it does mean that we will be postured to do so. 

Why would God lead us to do this without telling us where we are going you ask?  I believe the answer is simply that obedience without understanding demands more trust than getting all the details up front.  God wants us to trust him.  It is called FAITH, and without it we can’t please Him.

 What is God asking you to do today that requires your trust and faith? 

Winter

I am beginning to blog again after a period of silence.  Silence is a good thing.  It weans us from the need to be relevant, noticed by others.  It is a spiritual discipline that helps us to decrease so that Christ might increase in us.

In fall, the trees shed their leaves and they enter a season of barreness.  They offer neither the nourishment of their fruit nor the beauty of their foliage to the world.  Rather, it is a time for them to sink their roots deeper into the ground.  Hidden from the eyes of the world, a growth is taking place that increases their capacity for future fruitfulness.

It is only for a season though, for when winter has past, spring will come and they will begin the process of budding and displaying the beauty that lay hidden to the eyes of men.  And yes, they will once again offer their fruit to the world to nourish the hungry.

My journey with Jesus Christ has found me in times of fruitfulness and times of barreness.  I have tended to resist the seasons of barreness becuase my mind was still shaped by the value system of this world which defines our worth by what we do.  I am learning to embrace seasons of barreness as a natural part of life with God and to find my worth in who I am before Him, not only in what I do.