Field Notes On The Jesus Way

7 But we have this treasure in clay jars, so that it may be made clear that this extraordinary power belongs to God and does not come from us. 8 We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; 9 persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; 10 always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be made visible in our bodies. 11 For while we live, we are always being given up to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus may be made visible in our mortal flesh. 12 So death is at work in us, but life in you.  2 Corinthians 4:7-12 (NRVS)

Power does not consist of size, great ministry programs, or eloquent preachers.  I am convinced that God let you to invite me to be your pastor almost six years ago.  I don’t think you or I got that wrong.  I am further convinced that God led us to reimagine ourselves from a “church for the unchurched” to a “restoring church” when we changed our vision, values and name about 3 years ago.

All we really want to do is be obedient to what God has called us to do.  And last we checked with God on this it was to “restore His world one heart at a time.”

Henry Blackaby has famously said that “when you are uncertain what God’s specific will for you to do is, do the last thing He told you to do until God tells you to do something different.”  So, as your elder brother and pastor I am here to declare to you that as best as I can discern, God has not changed His mind in what we should be doing.

Power is not found in anything external to us.  True power exists in paradox, the most significant of which happened 2,000 years ago when God in the flesh died. When omnipotence surrendered to impotence.

Jesus, who had the power to call angels down from heaven to destroy His enemies, didn’t. Instead, He endured the shame of the cross, “and while being reviled, He did not revile in return; while suffering, He uttered no threats.” (1 Peter 2:23)

This passage is about power.  But not the kind of power we normally think about.

Power to minister effectively and impact others comes from God. But His power is not displayed as humans would display it. There are no parades of military might. No bold headlines. No press conferences. No flexed muscles, or clenched fists, or angry threats. So how does God display His power?

But we have this treasure in clay jars…  Vs. 7

Earthen vessels. Simple clay pots.  Fragile and flawed. You and me. What a paradox. Power in pots…life in death.

Why would God p[lace His priceless treasure in such pottery?

…so that it may be made clear that this extraordinary power belongs to God and does not come from us. Vs 7b

Like Mary’s expensive perfume in John 12, the aroma of Jesus inside our hearts cannot be experienced by other until it is poured out.  And often, God’s way of pouring out that fragrance is to break the earthen vessel that holds it.

We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed…  Vs. 8-9

But that is not we want in life, is it? We want to be big, beautiful and displayed on some safe shelf.  God, however, wants us to be a fragrant aroma of Jesus.  And that means we have to be taken off the shelf, poured out, and even broken.

The spiritual battle is real, but we don’t want real battles. We want to watch battles in movies or play them in video games.  Things blow up, be we are safe on this side of the video screen.  We don’t want a real battle, we just want a safe thrill.

Life, however, isn’t a movie. It is a war zone with real battles, real bullets, and real blood.  Sickness, disease, heartache, disappointment, crippling accidents, crushing experiences, tears, and death touch each one of us.

Life is not a movie.

But does God put us through all this just to watch us squirm…to make us miserable…to prove that He’s in charge?

No.  Instead, this all points back to the cross.

We come now to another paradox: Experiencing the life of Jesus requires an acceptance of death.

… always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be made visible in our bodies. Vs.10

There is not abundant life without first an abasing death. And this reality should be displayed in our lives not only clearly but continually.

 For while we live, we are always being given up to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus may be made visible in our mortal flesh.  Vs.11

What does Paul mean by “death” here? It includes acceptance of those four painful experiences mentioned before in vs.8-9.

Afflicted…perplexed…persecuted…struck down.

When we accept those struggles as part of the process of releasing our fragrance, we’re not destroyed.  Rather, His power is perfected in our weakness. For when we die, He lives. When we lose, He wins. When we’re weak, He is strong. When we are dependent, He is powerful.  That is the beauty of the paradox. That is the power in clay pots.

“Given up to death.” Doesn’t sound like a Hallmark movie, does it? But there is divine wisdom in the paradox. We are constantly being delivered to the point of death so that God’s message will leak out. Then people who watch us will realize there isn’t anything significant about the vessel—it’s what’s inside that counts.

When other people see this death in us, it changes them…

 So death is at work in us, but life in you.  Vs.12

When others see God’s power perfected in our weakness, it dawns on them that maybe God could use them too.

Do you want to make an impact where you work?

Do you want to touch your neighborhood?

Then merely live out the dying message of Jesus. Let it out. Don’t hide the cracks. Let your humanity show.  It’s the cracks in the clay that allow people to see through and focus on the Lord.  You’ll be amazed how often God honors a weak, broken piece of pottery—how seldom He uses fine china.

I want to share with you six practices that will position us so that the best light possible can shine through our cracked pots.  I am going to call you to join me in living a life of brokenness so that Jesus can shine through.

If the clay pot had feelings, how do you think it is feeling right now?  A lot of pain? A little fragmented? Confused? Demoralized?

This month is the 30^th year of me being a pastor and here is an observation based on that experience that I would like to share with you.  Church for many has become something you go to, like you might go to a gym, a sporting event, a gallery, or a show.  Church has become a destination.  But the truth is, while we never want what happens on Sunday’s to be tortuous, it is never to be the destination.  What happens when the body of Christ reassembles on Sunday’s is supposed to do is be a celebration.  A celebration of how the Light of Christ has escaped from the cracked pots that gather here.

You know the old adage that if you want something to change you have to do something different.  Or as Einstein said was the definition of insanity was to do the same things over and over again and each time hoping and that this time it would turn out different.

I am calling you who call this place your church home to go on a journey with me this year.  James says do not be hears only but be doers of the Word.  I am going to call you all to a deeper walk with Jesus and His bride, the Church.

This is going to be an arduous journey.  You might be tired of hearing about the PCT that I went on last year, but here is one more truth that applies to us.  I have been backpacking for 50 years.  I know how to backpack.  But I had never hiked 15 miles a day for 30 days. I did lots of reading.  Watched lots of Youtube videos.  I went as light as I have ever gone in my life.  And yet, ten days in at the first opportunity I started discarding things that at the beginning I thought were necessary for survival.  I had to adjust my plan.

I am going to outline a journey towards being vessels that shine the light of Christ, but that will certainly mean we will have to adjust our plan along the way.

So, with that in mind I want to suggest to you that we, as a bunch of crack pots, covenant together to do something different.  I am calling to you join me in a grand experiment.  I wonder what it would look like if this Church of broken vessels left this building each week to live a life marked by the following:

1 Work it Out 

Every follower of Christ is in fulltime ministry. Our work life is therefore also part of our ministry. The symbol of a clock reminds us that we have the opportunity to ‘work out’ our salvation at our place of work/career.  Our work life is a major part of our spiritual formation. Some of us have become workaholics and we’re invited to rediscover a healthy work rhythm, others are in the wrong career and they can realign themselves with their gifting – calling.

Practical examples of this include:

– Not exceeding 50 hours a week at work (making exceptions for busy seasons)

– Developing a Sabbath rhythm (keeping Sabbath at least once a week)

– Develop a life outside of work.

– Evaluating whether my job is ethically honoring God and is in line with how God created me.

– Be approachable at work.

– Take lunch breaks and spend the time with people at work.

– Use my calendar to book my hours.

– If I have employees under me, negotiate good working conditions for them (hours/pay/environment)

– Start a prayer group at work

– Set reminders to remember God (phone/email/screensaver)

– Evaluate work every 6 months and ask if it’s still honoring God.

– Email my accountability friend on Monday to ask for prayer/thank for aspects in work.

2 Downward Mobility

We live in a culture obsessed with ‘going up’ or ‘climbing the ladder’. In contrast, the Jesus way is one of servanthood and emptying oneself. An orientation towards downward mobility. This is symbolized by someone walking down the ladder. For us this is the decision not to ‘keep up with the Joneses’ but to join the movement in an opposite direction. This involves whole-life stewardship. It was a huge shock to us when we realized that we were the rich Jesus talked about; and we’ve been on a journey of figuring out what the implications of this are. Giving of ‘our’ time, resources and skills is the implied journey of this invitation – it’s a developing of a servanthood-mentality.

Practical examples of this include:

– Being honest about your finances by disclosing it to one other person or family (in detail)

– Determining with your family what a sustainable lifestyle is and commit to keep it (giving room for inflation) then giving the rest away; work out a budget.

– Start with a rhythm of giving 10% away.

– Redistribute educational skills and life experiences.

– Make a habit of comparing downward instead of upwards (check out http://www.globalrichlist.com)

– Make resources available for use in the community chest (exercise your sharing capability).

– Making friends with people lower on the organizational chart.

– Not always accepting promotions.

– – Stop being obsessed with name-brands.

– Give extras away (to a person you know) – (clothes/cutlery/electronics etc.);

– Fasting from restaurants/luxuries/expensive foods and give money away (or tip 100% or whatever percentage would stretch you)

– When buying something new, give something else away

– Get out of debt

3 Incarnation

God became man through the life of Jesus. The technical phrase for this is incarnation – literally meaning ‘in the flesh’. We are also called to live like Jesus in the context where we find ourselves. This is symbolized by two shoes. We ask, ‘how would it be to walk in your shoes’? In a post culture wars that are going on in our country and the way many socially progressives feel about the evangelical church lets be creative to show equal parts grace and truth.  (John 1:14) All they are hearing now is TRUTH shouted at them and it sounds like hate.  Jesus wants to liberate both groups. For us this has evolved into developing friendships between the rich and the poor. I found this quote but have lost who said it, “The rich and the poor need each other to rediscover their humanity … The rich need to realize that they’re not God and the poor that they are also made in the image of God and has something to contribute”.

Practical examples in our community:

– Developing a friendship with someone who is other – gay/black/white/poor/rich/famous/atheist/agnostic/other religion etc.

– Commit to a monthly cross-cultural experience (Walk or support an AIDS awareness walkathon or race, find something else that forces to deal with strangers  and pray with them and then join them in the work they’re already doing).

– Learn people’s names and learn their stories (security guards / tellers / baristas / workers in garden / baggers).

– Walk into relationships of reconciliation where we confess past hurts and reconcile (one on one).

– Buy groceries in bulk to give away.

– Learn a new language.

– Visit someone in jail/hospital.

– Get involved with the homeless ministry.

4 Puzzle Piece

Every person is uniquely gifted. This is symbolized by a puzzle piece. A puzzle piece is nothing on its own, the puzzle cannot be completed without every piece.  Instead of discovering our spiritual gift and thry to find a place to serve, how about we think of each of us as a gift and offer ourselves to Christ and His body in what ways make the most sense for the gift? (charismata)/talents/personality/experiences and passions.  Ask the question ‘where do I fit?’ Or more pertinent – ‘how am I a gift’? instead of ‘what is your gift’? This may reduce the lay/clergy divide as far as ministry is concerned.

Practical examples of this include:

– Serve with what you are good at (the skills you use at your work is a good place to start).

– Participate in group activities (say what is on your mind) come to services with a servant attitude.

– Put your name on the chore list at church: (cleaning, landscape, nursery, serving, etc)

– Discover your gifts/talents/personality by doing an inventory and discussing it with people you know.

– Look the Everett Gospel mission and ask what the needs are and see which ones are within you capability to fulfill.

– Live out your passion within RCM; listen to needs and see how you can help with them.

– Be real / don’t think that your piece is not ‘spiritual’ enough – admin/using your hands/ making meals/ writing / locking and opening the facilities are as spiritual as teaching/ preaching / praying.

5 Re-Member

Loving others cannot happen in the abstract it happens during face-to-face encounters, we symbolize this invitation with bread/eating. Reclaiming hospitality and eating meals together have been a huge journey for us. Jesus constantly developed communities around eating and drinking in houses and continually diversified the people coming together. This diversity included different races, classes, and religions. Every member in our community commits to breaking bread with their neighbors.

Practical examples out of our community:

– Gather together on a Sunday.

– Pray with others at least once a week.

– Get together at least once a month with accountability partner.

– Meet at least once a week with other Christians in order to share life.

– Have at least a monthly meal with someone who is not a Christian.

– Combining events (movies, sport, shows, games nights) with fellowship. (Especially with people who are outside of your affinity).

– If REALLY busy, set aside at least one day for fellowship, and make that day count.

– Meeting others at work.

– Engage in hobbies together like running, hiking, sports, jazz shows, reading groups, etc.)

– Have at least a daily God conversation with someone (not the same person).

– Hang out with biological family.

– Make space for single people in married couples’ lives.

6 Plugged In Daily

As followers of Jesus we want to develop a rhythm of plugging in daily. This rhythm is symbolized by a plug. Just as all our gadgets (phones, laptops, toothbrushes) need charging – so do we. This rhythm links one with the classic spiritual disciplines (what traditionally has been called a quiet time). This is an invitation that keeps people in conversation with God. The classic disciplines as described by Richard Foster and Dallas Willard are of great help here. We encourage people to engage for at least 15 minutes a day with a formal discipline, and then some other informal plug-in’s for the rest of the day

Practical Ideas for this discipline:

– Bible reading (books/chapters/www.project345.com))

– Memorizing passages

– Prayer (Psalms, Praying the hours)

–  Develop a group of people in the church and designate a certain day— call it ‘Discipline Tuesday’ where someone chooses one of the classic disciplines (silence, meditation, solitude, fasting, celebration, confession) and everyone practices it and then give each other feedback).

– Reduce the time watching TV and spend that time in prayer and Bible study.

– Couples read books to one another . (Just before or after supper is a good time.)

– Listening to the Bible/radio/worship CDs in your car while you travel

– Coins in pockets (or anything for that matter) which serve as prayer/ any sort of reminders.

– Journal

– Read a dead guy/gals devotionals  (Oswald Chambers, Hannah Hurnard,)

– Read/pray through sacred space

– Read the lectionary readings for Sunday

– Use trips in the car as a retreat space

Conclusion:

I wonder if you will join me on this great experiment.  Join me in a covenant for one year. What would our church look like if over the next six months we took one of these rhythms and concentrated on learning about them, practiced them and came on Sunday and heard stories of victories and defeats about how living as Cracked Pots worked during the week?

My dream is that we happy few, we band of brothers and sisters, learn about these practices, then go out and practice the practices and come back on Sundays and celebrate what happened the week before, then learn some more on how to live the practices, and go and practice and come back and tell the story and celebrate victories and failures.

I wonder if you will join me in letting Jesus light so shine before men that they may see our good deeds and glorify our Father in Heaven?

If so I am asking you to come and take a shard of this broken clay and take it home.  Spend a week asking God if he wants you to go to this level of community and soul training commitment. Then take a Sharpie or pencil and write a prayer on your piece of broken clay, bring it back with you next week and we will reassemble the earthen vessel and glue it all back together.

We will put a candle inside it and light it to represent the light of Christ inside of us and let the beauty of diffused light shining through our brokenness remind us that this is about Jesus and not about us.

One more thing.  By doing this I am calling you to enter a covenant.  Covenants in the Bible were when an animal was sacrificed and separated in two sections and the two parties that entered the covenant walked between the two sections of the carcass.  I’m just asking you to come take a shard of broken pottery.  And while we are not sacrificing an animal; we don’t need to because Jesus died once and for all for our sins, I am calling you to enter into a covenant with me that you will practice to the best of your ability these rhythms for one year.  Then the week after Easter next year we will all enter into a month of prayer and discernment and ask God if He is leading us to stay together as Church for another year.  Each person will pray and ask God to reveal if they are to remain with His portion of His body called Restoration Church Mukilteo.  If God says, “Leave and start this, or leave and attend that.” Then you are released and go with blessings.

But during the year when it gets tough and you get discouraged, don’t leave.  You are entering a covenant.  You can leave but keep your promise to stay until the month of prayer and discerning and if God still says go, then go.

The Light is ready to shine.

Let’s shine.

 

 

All theology, like all fiction, is at its heart autobiography.~~Fredrick Buechner

When I was a kid my parents told us a joke that was not funny. The point of the joke was to see if a person would join in the laughter if they didn’t really get the joke. Then one by one my parents would lean over and tell one of us confused kids that the joke is not supposed to be funny, but just laugh when you hear the punch line: “Radio.” The fun was watching to see who would start laughing just because everyone else laughed.

One day my six year old grandson Oren told me a joke.

Oren: Knock, knock

Me: Who’s there?

Oren: Iva.

Me: Iva who?

Oren: I’ve a sore hand from knocking!

After hearing his joke I said. That’s not very funny, Oren. He said, “Yeah huh. All jokes are funny.”

I said, “You think so?”

“Yes, Grandpa all jokes are funny. That’s why they are jokes, grandpa.”

“How about I tell you a joke my mom and dad told me when I was a kid you tell me if it is funny?” I asked.

“Okay.”

“Once there was a polar bear, a walrus, and a penguin all floating on an iceberg in the middle of the ocean and one of them yelled, “Radio.” And they all jumped off! Get it? They all jumped off!”

Long silence.

Finally Oren said, “I guess I was wrong about all jokes being funny.”

There are some jokes that are not funny. I find this story about Jonah like a joke that is not funny. I struggle with the ending.

Jonah was sent by God to warn Nineveh that because of its wickedness God was going to destroy it. And by God’s grace they listen to the eight word sermon and repented and God relented. The greatest response to a sermon in history so that the largest city in the world came to put their entire trust in the living God. You would think that the preacher, Jonah, would be elated, but he is not. He was angry and stomped out of the city and sat down on a hill to pout. Now, I’ve pouted after a sermon but not because it went so well that thousands were saved and hundreds were healed. What is going on with this strange preacher?

This was an unwanted and dangerous assignment. But Jonah reminded God that he didn’t desert his post because he thought the mission would fail or be dangerous. No, the reason Jonah fled to the other side of the world was because he was afraid the mission would succeed.

Better preachers than me have done it and a few lesser ones. You see this kind of argument in Robert Duvall’s movie, The Apostle. In one scene, Sonny, a preacher who has a hot temper and a criminal record, stomps around in an upstairs room kicking furniture and yelling. A neighbor calls to complain about the noise.

“Sounds like you have a madman over there.”

Sonny’s mom smiles and explains that’s just Sonny. “Ever since he’s been a little-bitty boy my son’s been talking to God. Sometimes he talks to the Lord and sometimes he yells at the Lord, and tonight he happens to be yelling at God.”

Jonah is quarreling with God about his mercy towards the sworn enemies of the nation of Israel. Frustrated, he stomped out of the city, sat on a hill, and waited at a safe distance for what he hoped was another opportunity for God to change his mind and nuke Nineveh. And while pouting out there east of the city, God decided to mess with Jonah a little and create a one person Play with Jonah both the central character and the audience of this little play.

Read how Eugene Peterson describes this one person play:

God arranged for a broad-leafed tree to spring up. It grew over Jonah to cool him off and get him out of his angry sulk. Jonah was pleased and enjoyed the shade. Life was looking up.

But then God sent a worm. By dawn of the next day, the worm had bored into the shade tree and it withered away. The sun came up and God sent a hot, blistering wind from the east. The sun beat down on Jonah’s head and he started to faint. He prayed to die: “I’m better off dead!”

Then God said to Jonah, “What right do you have to get angry about this shade tree?”

Jonah said, “Plenty of right. It’s made me angry enough to die!”

God said, “What’s this? How is it that you can change your feelings from pleasure to anger overnight about a mere shade tree that you did nothing to get? You neither planted nor watered it. It grew up one night and died the next night. So, why can’t I likewise change what I feel about Nineveh from anger to pleasure?

And so God showed Jonah the false narrative that drove his life. And if I don’t pay attention to my thinking it drives my life as well that God loves good people and God punishes the bad people.

In the Jonah story the pagan and awful Ninevites were too bad to get in God’s favor by moral performance. They were people outside of the love-range of God; the drug dealers, the war mongers, the strip club owners, the prostitutes, the Oakland Raider fans. But they weren’t the only ones in this story that are standing in need of God’s grace. Jonah, the Israelite, the member of the chosen people, the prophet, the bible scholar, and the church attender—-this preacher was in need of God’s grace as well.

The true narrative of God is that everyone is hot mess and everyone is loved by God. Everybody is broken and everybody is loved.

So why was Jonah so angry? Jonah was mad because he thought he deserved his mercy and Nineveh didn’t. But the funny thing about mercy is that you can never deserve it. The God of grace, the God who shows us his face in Jesus, never says, “Good people are in and bad people are out.” God says, “Humble people are in and proud people are out.”

There is not one way to run from God, there are two. Some of us run from God by breaking all the rules and some of us run from God by keeping all the rules.

In Flannery O’Connor’s novel Wiseblood she has a character named Hazel Motes who typifies this. Near the beginning of the novel she describes Hazel Mote’s this way, “’There was already a deep black wordless conviction in him that the way to avoid Jesus was to avoid sin.”

Jonah didn’t want a devotional relationship with God, he wanted to use God for his own purposes. He wanted the assurance that if he obeyed the rules and did the right things then God would to do what he thought God should do. In other words, Jonah wanted God to be a Jennie in Aladdin’s bottle; which, in effect, made Jonah God. He was blind to how much mercy he has been given and that is why it was really hard for him to show mercy. And what I am learning is that when I am running low on mercy for people it is because I have forgotten how much mercy I have received from God.

So, God asks, “Should I not be concerned about your community?” The more I think that question I wonder if God is asking me just how concerned I am about my Ninevites.

As it turns out, there is a Presbyterian, a Catholic, and a Baptist are sitting, not on an iceberg, but in Church on a quiet Sunday morning and God says “Mercy!”

And they all______________________.

The joke is on us.

I am with you always, even to the end of the age. – Jesus

(This is written by my wife, Lynette Chambers)

Like many of your life stories, my journey has been one down a broken trail. Up until 1999, I had a pretty uneventful life. I was married to a pastor with three wonderful boys. I lived in Denver where I grew up, with all of my immediate family nearby. Life was pretty good. However, in the fall of 1999, because of the sinful choices of my husband, my marriage was in crisis and my husband resigned his church. (If you want to read his story click here )

Heartbroken and confused, I asked God what I should do. I asked, “Lord, should I forgive him? Should we stay married? My heart was filled with such mixed emotions! I wanted to work on our marriage, but at the same time, I was so hurt that I didn’t want to be with him. Here is what God said to me, “Whether you leave him or forgive him, I will be with you and bless you.” I decided against bitterness and chose instead to forgive and work toward restoration.

We made a move to Washington in November of that year. My brother-in law’s little church in Sumner, WA, opened their arms and hearts to us. They used the money they were raising to build a new building and paid for our move and counseling for a year. They raised some more money to pay for our oldest son to attend a Christian high school. They gave Joe a job tearing down a condemned house next door to the church for $10.00 an hour.

They loved us back to life as a couple and family. It was a very hard year, yet God was faithful in restoring our marriage and mending our family.

When each of our three sons turned about thirteen years of age, Joe shared with them his story. Asking each of them to forgive him. They each responded in their own unique ways. All very forgiving. I want to share with you how one of our sons responded.

Joe took our youngest son, Caleb, backpacking and while they were in the wilderness, he told him his story of failure and repentance.

When they got home from the wilderness, I was getting ready for them when I heard them drive up and come in the front door. Caleb came into the bathroom where I was curling my hair and said, “Mom, I need to tell you something.”

“Okay,” I said. Continuing to curl my hair.

“Mom put the curling iron down and look at me,” Caleb insisted.

I put the iron down and turned to him.

“Mom, I just wanted to say thank you for forgiving Dad and saving our family.”

I felt the presence of God in that moment. God was with me.

And Caleb.

Our life from that point was never the same. God gave me a husband and a relationship like we never had in the 20 years prior. And on December 29, 2021, we celebrated our fortieth wedding anniversary in New York City. My oldest son married the girl he met in that little church in Sumner when he was just 14, and now we have four beautiful grandchildren. And now Caleb and Mindy have a little girl named Cora Lee who is our little bundle of joy.

After seven years away from ministry, God gave Joe an opportunity to serve the Church again. God led us to a small church plant in Mukilteo, WA, first as a supply preacher over the course of a few years where we quickly grew to love the people, then later as executive pastor.

I was overjoyed for my husband, but at the same time, (because I am a person who does not like change) I did not want to go. After all, I had a wonderful job that I loved very much. Great teachers and dear friends I had grown to love …I just did not want to start all over again. But again, I had a choice to make. Do I dig in my heels and stay where we were with my secure job, or do we take a leap of faith and trust God with this new venture and begin working in ministry again? Either way, I was confident of His presence.

Well, again, we made the choice to trust God and dive into yet another new beginning. Little did we know that within a year, the lead pastor would resign and move on to another church, and this church would consider my husband to be their next pastor. We had a wonderful ministry in Washington, then God called us to again make another move. This time back to our home state of Colorado and to our wonderful congregation here at Mountain Heights Baptist Church.

Throughout our journey, I have learned that God is a God of restoration, faithfulness, and grace. He doesn’t promise us it will be easy, as many of you well know, but he promises never to leave us and that if we will trust him, he will give us what we could never imagine.
Throughout this time, the verse that gave me a lot of hope was Jeremiah 29:11:

For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.

I have been confused, hurt and scared in my life, but because Jesus promised to never leave me, I know that he can take what we mess up and use it for his good. So, if you are struggling with forgiveness, I highly recommend it. I have never regretted my decision to forgive and am proof that he can take that choice and honor it, restoring a broken life and using it to fulfill His purpose.

Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.  Matthew 5:16

It’s Sunday morning and I am sitting in my chair, nursing a cup of coffee, and waiting for the day to catch up and join me.  I put the music on that I listen to when I write sermons during the week and then pray them back to God on Sunday mornings.  Nette is still asleep and Bella the Wonder dog is curled up on the rug at me feet.

As I reflect on this routine, I thought of yesterday—Saturday.  Lynette and I eat breakfast together and I read a book and she looks at Facebook for an hour or so in the morning.  We talk about our coming day and make it a day of errands that are not burdensome.  They are not heavy chores because we enjoy doing them together.  We reward ourselves with a lunch at our favorite sandwich shop.  We often talk about going to a movie, but never do.  We usually end up at Costco.

Saturday is my favorite day of the week by ten.  And the reason is subtle and simple. It is the steady, predictable rhythms of ritual with someone I love that makes the other days tolerable.  I enjoy Saturdays because I get to cease the striving of the week and relax in the presence of someone who loves me no matter how unproductive or accomplished I was the previous week.  On Saturdays we rest in the soft presence of our “old love.”

I realize it sounds sappy to the less sentimental, but I can’t tell you in strong enough language how deeply the restoration these unhurried moments have upon my soul. We drive from errand to errand with NPR on the radio; listening to Radio Lab and Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me —and she holds my hand.  We sit in the car in the parking lot of a store waiting for a segment to end.  There is nothing hurried and rushed about our Saturday. And all of the failure of the previous week and the anxieties of the coming week are suspended in a Saturday stasis.

We have earned this oasis of rest.  We have raised our kids and given them to the world.  We have found our way into this repose together through decades of moving in the same direction. We have ceased striving to achieve and have transitioned into a relaxed state of being when it comes to our weekly vocations.  It is a better place.  Every mundane task is transformed into a light-hearted step in dance we have created.  And no one hears the music but two old lovers who have determined to delight in each other’s presence.

Recently we have added and element to our Saturdays.  I suspect it has been there all along but we are just now bringing it to conscience awareness.  We are inviting God to be present in all that we do on Saturday. We have determined to do all of our silly rituals, errands, and radio shows in the invited presence of the Lord of Rest.  We are finding delight in this triune dance.  We sense Him riding with us, enjoying our sub sandwiches, laughing along with us as we listen to our shows, and we feel him in the room as we close our eyes at the end of the day.

We light a candle and let it represent the presence of the Lord and remind us that we are living the With-God life every moment of every day and yet on Sabbath we celebrate Him, and let Him illumine our day.

In this hurried and harried culture let two old lovers testify to you that we have found delight and take great comfort in ritual. This ancient practice has helped souls of yesterday find their way home—into the bosom of God.  Perhaps it can guide you too.

My presence shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest.  Exodus 33:14