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Strangers in a Familiar Land

Some folks have been asking about the sermon I preached last weekend. At this time our church doesn't record the sermons on a weekly basis but because of the interest expressed what follows is a close approximation to what I said. It differs in a couple of ways, I have expanded here on the Philippian church and removed a portion of what I said about us being ambassadors for Christ and the sanctuary being God's sovereign ground in the same way US embassies overseas are considered sovereign ground and guarded by Marines. I never follow a precise script when I am preaching so these are not my exact words but they do reflect the intent and passion of my thoughts on this subject.

Strangers in a Familiar Land

Once a year when the 4th of July rolls around I find myself in a slightly odd position. you see the front cover of my passport reads, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and the flag of my country is, well, the Union Jack. So every fourth of July I am reminded once again that we lost the war! Come to think of it we didn't so well in 1812 either.

According to the United States government I am a permanent resident alien. What exactly does that mean? It means that I get to live and work here, it means that I can interact with people who live here, it means that I can travel freely around the country, it means that I have to pay taxes here in the same way that any American does. The one major difference between a citizen and a permanent resident is when it comes time to vote, I can't vote here. When I cast my ballot is in another kingdom, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

While I am a resident alien in the United States and have the accompanying documentation every one of us as followers of Jesus Christ is, as Peter states it, an alien and a stranger in this world.

The Apostle Paul in writing to the Philippians uses a different metaphor as he declares to them that their citizenship is in heaven. When Paul make this statement it is not simply a pleasant allusion to everlasting life in heaven. It is a radical declaration that their allegiances are shifting right here and now from an allegiance to the emperor and the Roman Empire to Jesus Christ and the kingdom of God. The power of this image would not have been lost on the Philippians.

Paul in writing to people of Philippi is writing to a people who were been very proud of their Roman citizenship. Citizenship was a much sought after privilege in the Empire. There were three ways you could become a citizen of Rome, you could receive it as a reward for the service you performed for Rome, you could buy for a large sum of money or you could be born a citizen. For the people of Philippi, a Roman Colony, they enjoyed all the rights and privileges that would come from being citizens of Rome.When we read in Acts of Paul and Silas' visit to the city of Philippi, we find that the accusation leveled against them by the Philippians (Roman Citizens) is that they were "advocating customs unlawful for us Romans to accept of practice." (Acts 16:21) As Fred Craddock notes in his commentary, "Proud of itself as a little Rome, official, patriotic, suspicious of any persons or movements not aligned or loyal to Caesar, probably quite anti-Semitic, this city could and did make it difficult for the disciples of Jesus."

Aliens, strangers, citizens of heaven, citizens of another place, as Jesus reminds us, "My kingdom," Jesus states before Pilate, "is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jewish leaders. But now my kingdom is from another place."

Here's the rub for us, as citizens of God's kingdom we are called to be much more than merely good citizens of this world. We are called to be ambassadors, representatives of God's kingdom to this world.

We are "a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God's special possession." We are here for a purpose, "that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light."

I recently had lunch with the moderator of our presbytery, Jin Kim. Jin is the pastor of Church of All Nations in Columbia Heights. We met at their building and Jin gave me a tour to show me the work they have been doing in renovating the church. As you enter the sanctuary you can see flags of nations from around the world hanging the full length of the room on both sides. African nations, European nations, South American nations, Asian nations, Autralasian nations all hang, nations that are our allies and nations that our enemies hang there together. Jin pointed out to me that they had made a conscious decision to have the Korean and Japanese flags hanging side by side, as a reminder that old enemies can stand together in Christ because they now have a new identity, a new citizenship in the kingdom of God and that they now lived aliens and strangers in the nations of this world.

This stands in contrast to another story I heard about a large congregation in the Twin Cities that began their worship service by having an emotional video presentation on the Pledge of Allegiance and followed this in their worship service by playing the National Anthem and the congregation stood, placed there hands over their hearts (presumably in reverence) and sang pledged their allegiance to flag and country as they worshiped God. When I heard this story I was left wondering how the body of Christ around the world would fit in a service like that?

What I'm tying to get at here is the question of identity. Who are you? What defines you? What framework or paradigm do you see the world through?

You see as Christians we have to learn to see this world and our life in this world as if we are aliens and strangers in this land. This land we call the United States of America, this land that many of us love and have even served, this land that is part of the world that God loved so much "that He gave his one and only Son" to redeem it, is still a foreign land to those of us who are citizens of God's kingdom, for it is not the kingdom of God. It may be a great land by the world's standards, it may have one of the best forms of government and may offer greater freedom than other nations but we cannot and we must not mistake it for being a Christian land or in some way representative of the kingdom of God.

Perhaps you've never thought of it like this before but as followers of Jesus Christ we are called to adopt a way of looking at the world that is different from the way nations of the world see things.

Christian conversion, that is initiation into the kingdom of God brings with it a shift in perspective of the same magnitude that the shift from Ptolemy's view of a universe centered around the earth to the Copernican view that saw the sun at the center with the earth moving round it brought. It was a view that was met with great suspicion and would see Galileo accused by the church of heresy for supporting it.

Christian conversion, initiation into the kingdom of God requires a paradigm shift in how we view the world. It requires us to learn, as the title of the sermon states, to be strangers in a familiar land.

Paul is quite clear about this when he writes to the church in Rome and tells them, "Do not conform to the pattern of this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind..."

"Do not conform to the pattern of this world." Don't conform to the way the world thinks. Don't conform to the way the world reacts and responds to various situations. Don't conform to the values of the world, materialism, prosperity, greed, selfishness, wealth etc.

"...but be transformed..." Be changed, this change is a process. Undergo a metamorphosis (this is the actual Greek word) in the same way a caterpillar undergoes a metamorphosis in becoming a butterfly. A caterpillar sees the world for a perspective that is locked into the gravitational forces of the world as it crawls its way over plants munching on leaves focused on nothing more than eating and having a very limited perspective. Yet that caterpillar is transformed into something completely different, a butterfly that can now throw off the forces of gravity and take to the air. moving through the world in a very different way it gains a whole new vantage point from which to see things. The butterfly can see the whole forest while the caterpillar only saw the tree it was on. The transformation brings with it a new paradigm.

How sad it would be if the butterfly never took the air and spent its entire life in the same tree it had been in while still a caterpillar. Yet so often I find that we, as Christ followers, remained stuck, trapped, in old patterns of thinking and we never stretch our wings and see the wonders of the world from a kingdom of God perspective.

"be transformed by the renewing of your mind." We are to learn to think in a new way, we are to learn to think from a new perspective. We are to have renewed minds, Godly minds, minds that learn to see the world as God sees the world. We are to develop Christ-like imaginations that allow us to dream and envision a different world, a world in which God's kingdom comes and God's will is done on earth in the same way it is in heaven.

This transformation begins with a wholehearted commitment to following Jesus Christ into the world. It's the kind of commitment that allowed Francis of Assisi to see things differently from others in his day and rather than support the crusades as much of the church did he crossed the front lines in 1219 to share the good news of God's love for us in Christ with the sultan.

It is the kind of simple commitment that Shane Claiborne had when he boarded a plane for Iraq in March 2003. Why did he go? In his own words he makes it clear, "I went to Iraq because I believe in a God of scandalous grace. I have pledged allegiance to a King who loved evildoers so much he died for them, teaching us that there is something worth dying for but nothing worth killing for.
    I went to Iraq in the footsteps of an executed and risen God. The Jesus of the margins suffered an imperial execution by an oppressive regime of wealthy and pious elites. And now he dares me and woos me to come and follow, to take up my cross, to lose my life to find it, with the promises that life is more powerful than death and that it is more courageous to love our enemies than to kill them.
    I went to Iraq to stop terrorism... I went to Iraq to stand in the way of war. Thousands of soldiers have gone to Iraq, willing to kill people they do not know because of a political allegiance. I went willing to die for people I do not know because of a spiritual allegiance.
    I went to Iraq as a missionary" (Taken from "The Irresistible Revolution.")

You may or may not agree with Shane's actions but can you see how Shane is living his life shaped by a different paradigm? Shane is living his life based on the premise that Jesus meant what he said in the Sermon on the Mount and that he meant it to be applied here and now.

Some people would accuse Shane of being naive, a fair accusation if you are looking at things from the perspective of the kingdoms of this world, in other words from a different paradigm. From the world's perspective it is most certainly naive to think that prayer and non-violence can impact the like of Saddam Hussein, Bin-Laden and other despots around the world. Others would accuse him of being idealistic, I have to say that I've usually found that accusation thrown out by people who simply don't have the courage to live out their beliefs in the world. It is an accusation that is often tainted with a hint of jealousy.

If we were to take the Sermon on the Mount or Luke's Sermon on the Plain and state that they were to normative for follower's of Jesus we would have to acknowledge that the systems of this world would not understand and may even oppose us for doing so. Following such radically subversive teaching may even get us crucified. Let's be honest, from the world's perspective, as Will Willimon and Stanley Hauerwas state in their book, Resident Aliens, "nothing in the Sermon on Mount suggests that the way of disciples is "rational.""

We are strangers in a familiar land.

While we are all works in progress I want to ask how is your transformation into a citizen of God's kingdom coming along. As you grow and mature in your faith are you able to more clearly see and live in this world in a new way, in God's way, from a new paradigm or are you still still trying to see and explain things the way the world does?

May we learn to live faithfully as strangers in a familiar land.

Church Music: Me, My Family, Tradition and the Future

I've been thinking a lot about church music recently. For the first time in my career I have found myself in the position of selecting the hymns for worship as our choir director takes the summer off.

I grew up in a traditional Presbyterian church in Ireland and we sang songs from the hymnal every week accompanied by the organ. The vast majority of those songs were over a hundred years old and represented a long tradition of Christian hymnody going back Isaac Watts, Martin Luther and others. I came to appreciate the best of these songs and dreaded the rest.

As I grew older (around 9 or 10) I came to understand there was a disconnect between the songs we sang on a Sunday and the music of the world in which I lived. This disconnect was heightened in my teenage years as I discovered the music of The Jam, Madness, AC/DC, Deep Purple, Duran Duran, U2, Bob Dylan, Van Morrison and many others. When I became a Christian I was introduced the world of contemporary Christian music, Petra, Stryper, The 77's, Altar Boys, Larry Norman etc. but even though this was "Christian" music it didn't seem to find a place in the worship services I attended.

By the mid-80's I was aware that some Pentecostal churches were now singing new songs in worship and a couple of other churches had started "contemporary" services, in which music born out of the folk tradition was sung.

Today the only place you hear a pipe organ is in a church. It is for me a nostalgic feeling singing with a pipe organ (real pipes or digitized) but it is nostalgia, it is like a comfortable old sweat-shirt that I like to wear once in a while. But it is not the world I live in and more importantly it is not the world my children live in or have any desire to enter. They were not raised in this environment and entering it is like visiting a foreign country in which the language and culture are alien.

Last Saturday our family visited a large church in our area with a very simple service of worship, singing, prayer, offering and sermon. The music was led by a worship leader (we used to call them cantors in the days before church choirs, we have come full circle) and played on guitar, drums and keyboard. The music, while being God honoring, reflected the music of the world in which we live. I believe, Luther, Watts and Wesley would be delighted by this. But more than that my daughter was delighted by this, she lifted her head high, as did Jenny and I, and following the lyrics on the screen we sang our hearts out.

I asked her what she thought of the service and she said she loved it. I realize my children will not end up in what I think of as a traditional church. There will be no hymnals in the church they raise their kids in as the print media gives way to digital media. Many of the classic hymns will be rewritten or consigned to a place in the history books and rightly so as the music of a new generation fills the air in praise of God.

I do pray my children will end up in a worshiping community that honors the tradition of the church to proclaim the gospel in a culturally appropriate manner.

Two quick questions on "classic" hymns...

1. All Hail the Power of Jesus Name - without resorting to a dictionary, what is a "diadem'?

2. All People That On Earth Do Dwell - what does "serve him with mirth" mean?

Making people homesick

This morning as I was reading Oswald Chamber's devotional, "My Utmost For His Highest" I was struck by these words,

"You can never give another person that which you have found, but you can make him homesick for what you have."

I began thinking about evangelism and the proclamation of the gospel and wondered how well we were doing at making the world "homesick" for what we have? When I talk with people who do not know Jesus I often learn that Jesus's followers make them sick, rather than homesick, with their approach. 

Ever since the fall of humanity as recorded in Genesis the great story has been one of trying to get home. To get back to that harmonious relationship with God, creation and one another. We have been a people in exile searching for a way back home. Unfortunately many of us have settled for life on this planet as all there is, but we, Christ's followers, know better.

May we learn to live in this world in such a way as to make others homesick!

Training

Today I started my eighteen week training program for the Twin Cities Marathon. It's the first training program I've been on since running the JFK 50 last November. Yet over the last six months I've logged well over 600 miles.

What were those miles if not training miles? They were maintenance miles, they were miles logged in order to keep my fitness level up, to keep me prepared to start my next round of training. There is no way I could expect to perform well, if at all, if I stopped running altogether between my times of training.

Yet there is a real tendency to neglect our relationship with God and then expect that it will be there when we need it, only to find out that its not. Daily times of prayer (talking with God and listening to God in the Scriptures) are a critical part of mainaining a healthy life.

The Church Dance

I asked the question, "How would you describe your favorite song to a person born deaf?" One of the answers I received was that they would communicate the emotion and passion of the song through dance.

For those of us who enjoy full use of our haring faculty seeing someone dancing and not hearing the music might appear strange to us. Not long ago we might have immediately assumed some form of mental illness, today we look to see if they are wearing an i-pod! If they are dancing beautifully we may find ourselves drawn into the moment wondering what music is playing in their head as they bob and weave to the rhythm of the sounds they hear. If the dancing is ugly and poor we will, no doubt, quickly pass by and move on our way dismissing them as being a little crazy.

For the spiritually deaf, for those who have never heard the gospel, whose ears have not yet been opened by the Holy Spirit to the wonderful music of God's movement in the world, what does the dance of the church look like? Is is appealing and attractive, full of grace? Are the movements graceful and not forced, does it convey the beauty of love, joy, peace, patience... or is it an aggressive angry dance full of judgment and condemnation?

Does the dance of the church connect with the people around them or is it a quaint memory of a largely bygone era? Like the morris dance in England, quaint, great to see at folk festivals but not exactly connecting with life in the 21st Century.

I am not a dancer, but I pray that the dance of my life would reflect the beauty, power, majesty and love of our God for the world to see.

Dance well!

Lukewarm?

I'm enjoying Francis Chan's work, "Crazy Love." I particularly enjoyed the chapter in which he addresses the dangers of being lukewarm. Here's his lukewarm list...

Lukewarm people attend church fairly regularly. It is what is expected of them, what they believe "good Christians" do so they go...

Lukewarm people give money to charity and to the church ...as long as it doesn't impinge on their standard of living...

Lukewarm people tend to choose what is popular over what it right when they are in conflict...

Lukewarm people are moved by stories about people who do radical things for Christ, yet they do not act...

Lukewarm people call "radical" what Jesus expected of all His followers...

Lukewarm people rarely share their faith with their neighbors, coworkers or friends...

Lukewarm people gauge their morality or "goodness" by comparing themselves to the secular world...

Lukewarm people say they love Jesus, and He is, indeed, a part of their lives. But only a part...

Lukewarm people love God, but they do not love Him with all their heart, soul and strength...

Lukewarm people love others but do not seek to love others as much as they love themselves...

Lukewarm people will serve God and others, but there are limits to how far they will go or how much time, money, and energy they are willing to give...

Lukewarm people think about life on earth much more often than eternity in heaven...

Lukewarm people are thankful for their luxuries and comforts, and rarely consider trying to give as much as possible to the poor...

Lukewarm people do whatever is necessary to keep themselves from feeling too guilty...

Lukewarm people are continually concerned with playing it safe; they are slaves to the God of control...

Lukewarm people feel secure because they attend church, made a profession of faith at age twelve, were baptized, come from a Christian family, vote Republican, or live in America...

Lukewarm people do not live by faith; their lives are structured so they never have to...

Lukewarm people probably drink and swear less than average, but besides that, they really aren't very different from your typical unbeliever...

So where are you lukewarm and what are you going to do about it?

Scared of Change... So we talk about it instead!

In the 1996 movie, 'Michal Collins' Michael and Harry are having a conversation about Eamon de Valera in whichMichael says,

"He's scared Harry. We might achieve that Republic he wants to talk to the world about."

It's a line that's stuck with me over the years as I've reflected on the amount of time we take to talk about change in the church but how little change we have actually seen. I wonder how many churches have made the necessary changes for effective ministry in the 21st Century?

Eamon de Valera was a great politician and Michael Collins was a man of action (freedom fighter/terrorist depending on who you ask). In the church we have many great politicians, people who talk a good talk, say all the right things, are politically correct and keep the membership feeling good about themselves. But the kingdom of God is not about talk, it is about action... "whoever here's these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house upon a rock...", "faith without works is dead."

We need more Michael Collins type figures in the church. People who, without regard to personal wellbeing, lay it all on the line for the sake of the kingdom of God.

Offering Blunder - "Only Human"

It was my first Sunday leading worship at First Presbyterian, White Bear Lake.Everything was running smoothly and we were on track to get done right on time if not a couple of minutes early! Then it came time for the offering.

In the same way I have done it for years, I stood up, announced the offering and invited the ushers to come forward to take up the offering and then I went and sat down. Nothing happened, no one moved, the choir director stood up to lead the offertory but the choir didn't start to sing and the ushers didn't come forward. Then Philip, the choir director called out to me as he waved the offering plates in my direction... I was supposed to have waited at the front for the ushers to come and get the plates.

Now, that I had the plates I took my place and the ushers came forward, all four of them. But  I only had two plates? I made a quick joke about not being able to perform miracles of multiplication and wasn't sure how to divide two offering plates between four ushers when one of the choir members graciously handed me the other two plates. The congregation let out a good laugh and on we went. Rookie mistake.

The most common comment after the service was that it was good for people to see that I was human. I know I carry a resident alien card, but I promise you its not like Men In Black, its not a disguise, I really am part of the human race!

Historically we have tended to put our pastors on a pedestal. Some pastors put themselves on a pedestal. We are one of the few groups left in society who are frequently given a title with our name, Pator... Rev... Father... We are at times given an elevated position in the Body of Christ that we may not deserve.

As for me, my mother named me Neil and that's good enough for me, I don't need or want any other title. I'd like to be known as a man of God, a passionate follower of Christ who inspires others to follow Christ as well, but there's no need for a special title.

A life of luxury!

A week ago today the moving truck pulled up to our home in Virginia and all our worldly possessions were loaded onto it for the the move to Minnesota. Today all that "stuff" is sitting in boxes or stacked in the garage and basement of my in-laws as we wait to get into our new home on May 27th.

When I moved to the United States in 1992 I brought with me all my worldly possessions, two suitcases and one box. Three years later when I moved into the apartment that would be the first home Jenny and I would share I managed to get all my possessions in one car load and that car was Geo Metro! My how times have changed. We still don't have a lot as the average US home move averages 15,000lbs of stuff and ours topped out at 11,000lbs but its still a lot of stuff.

One of my children tried to tell me how we needed all this stuff and when I tried to explain that it was almost all luxury she wasn't convinced. But luxury it is virtually nothing we moved was a necessity to living and some of what we moved won't have a place in our new 2200 square foot house!

Tonight I'm going to be moving some 25 boxes of books into my new office space! There are pastors in this world who don't even have a complete copy of the Bible.

I live a life of luxury. I'm writing this as I sip on a latte at Caribou Coffee. I spent more on the coffee than one billion people make in four days of work!

So what's at stake here? Everything is at stake here. Luxury can lead to complacency and half-hearted devotion to God (check out the Church in Laodicea). It can lead to apathy and a sense of entitlement, but God hasn't blessed us because we are good (we are all broken) but rather, if we are blessed with material resources, it is to be a blessing to others.

How much do you need?
How can you be a blessing to others?
KIVA
World Vision
International Justice Mission
Amnesty International

These are just a couple of places to get started.

Lessons From Long Distance (ultra) Running #5 Easy on the Downhills

More often than not we find it easier to run downhill than up. Gravity is at work and we can take longer strides, it can be a great opportunity to make up for lost time so we press on hard.

The problem with running downhills hard is that your quadriceps take a terrible pounding and over the length of an ultra-marathon this can cause real problems. Downhills are definitely easier and more fun to run than uphills and we should learn to enjoy them for what they are... easier sections of the course rather than places to try and make up for lost time.

In life we will have uphill sections in which every step feels like a strain. We will have flat sections where everything is an even effort and we have downhills, times in which everything just seems that bit easier. When we are blessed with downhill running in life we should learn to enjoy them for the next climb might be just around the corner. Let's not wreck ourselves but pushing hard on the downhills leaving us with nothing to battle the next uphill and tired soar legs that will cause us to stumble on the next downhill as well.

Perhaps the lesson is to pace yourself for life and know that some sections will be easier than others.

My First Sermon!

I was looking through some old files today and came across the first sermon I preached on November 26, 1989. As I read through my notes (handwritten) I realized that while my thoughts have been refined over the years my passion has remained largely unchanged.

What was the title of that first sermon? "The Kingdom of God."

Let me share a couple of quotes from my first sermon...

"Joining God's kingdom means accepting his sovereign rule in our lives... Christ calls for 100% loyalty to Him and His kingdom, he doesn't expect loyalty to be shared... Christ expects us to live for Him and His glory alone."

"Being a disciple of Christ has never been easy... As David Watson says, "The vast majority of western Christians are church-members, pew fillers, hymn-singers, Bible-readers, even born again believers or Spirit filled charismatics - but not true disciples of Jesus."

"True obedience to Christ could lead to anything, even death... The essence of true obedience and what is required of it is to be found in the Sermon on the Mount."

"God's kingdom is a present reality which is seen wherever God is given authority in people's life."

So there you have it, my passion for Christ, the kingdom of God, and the Sermon on the Mount has been present throughout my entire ministry!

Sunrise Service

How cool is it that we get to celebrate the resurrection in a cemetery that lies on the outskirts of the Manassas (Bull Run) Battlefields! It was 6:30am and 38 degrees and our worship team, myself and some 360 others gathered to celebrate the resurrection bright and early this morning.

This is the fifth year I have preached at this service and it gives me chills (not because its cold) every time! As the people arrive to worship they don't simply gather near the front to hear but rather they scatter all over the hill as they sit beside the graves of loved ones and celebrate the resurrection. As Paul says, "Oh death, where is thy sting?" Certainly this morning the sting of death was clearly defeated by the celebration of Christ's resurrection!

I'll miss this service after we move to Minnesota in two weeks time.

It's just stuff

My world is slowing being packed away into boxes for our big move across country to Minnesota.

 

Today I finished packing up the books in my home office taking the count to about 16 boxes of books. I have about another 15 to come home from my office at church and probably a couple more from books that are scattered around the house. I also packed some pictures today and my CD and DVD collection are also sitting in boxes. Several weeks ago we packed up about half our kitchen stuff to clear away some clutter before we listed the house for sale. 

As all this stuff finds its way into boxes I realize that it really is just stuff. Nothing I have packed away has any lasting value. Certainly some of it has sentimental value, like the photo of grandpa on his horse in WWI, certainly some of it has a monetary value, but none of it has any relational value, none of it makes me a better or lesser person.

Certainly its useful stuff and its nice to have a couple of sets of dishes and a large library of books. It's wonderful to be able to enjoy a large screen LCD TV in high definition, but a what price? To what extent do these material possessions enhance our lives and is there a point of diminishing return or perhaps even a negative return on material possessions?

The answer is that material possessions have been shown to have a high level of diminishing returns in terms of emotional happiness once a basic level of happiness has been achieved. And Barry Schwartz notes in his book, "Paradox of Choice" that having to many choices is a negative over only having a limited number of choices.

As we prepare to move we have become a lot more conscious of our material and housing needs. Perhaps we should all take some time reevaluate our approach to or possessions and think about how we can make the world a better place rather than just make our own lives fractionally more comfortable.

Lessons From Long Distance (ultra) Running #4 The need for rest

As I ran the Appalachian Trail section of the JFK 50 I followed the simple formula of run the downhills and flat (not that any of it is flat) and walk the uphills. The idea is that you want to rest your body enough on the uphills so you can maintain good forward momentum for the whole race.

As we dropped off the Appalachian Trail around mile 16 the rest of the race is relatively flat so at that point it was time to use a new run/rest system. I decided, for no good reason, to go with a 6:1 ratio of running to walking. I figured that walking every seventh minute would allow me enough recovery time to keep on pushing forward. I have to confess that there were times during the race that I took significantly longer breaks, I considered them my "jubilee" times!

One of the keys for success in an ultra-marathon is taking the necessary breaks that will allow your body to recover enough to keep the forward momentum going. The same is true in life. There is good reason that in God's top ten things that concern him resting is number four on that list.

Learning to take a Sabbath break, a time of stopping serves a number of purposes. One it allows you to rest from your work and undergo some recreation. Two it reminds you that you are not in charge, the world will get along just fine without you for 24 hours. Three it reminds you that God is ultimately in charge and gives you time to worship. Four, it is the best antidote to chronic busyness. Five, it requires surrender, we surrender our agendas, to-do lists and needs to God.

You will not run the race of life well without proper times of Sabbath.

Did He Mean It?

Did Jesus mean it when he told us...

You are the salt and light of the world

Don't be angry
Protect Relationships
Be a person of your word
Love your enemies and don't resist the evil person

Give to the needy but don't boast about it
Be prayerful but keep it simple
Fast not for show but for growth

Serve God and God alone
Don't worry about things beyond your control
Don't judge others before taking a long hard look at yourself

Know that God has good gifts to give you

Go through the narrow gate for it leads to life

Its not simply words that matter, action will reveal your heart

Why then don't we live this way? Why don't these issues form the basis for Christian Worldview studies?

Lessons From Long Distance (ultra) Running #3 Refueling the tank

In many shorter races people may eat a little before the start and then run the race and not eat anything until after it is over. Not so in ultra-distance races.

If you are planning to run all day then you are going to need to eat and drink in order to maintain your energy levels, in particular the glycogen levels in your muscles. If your glycogen levels run too low you will run out of muscle energy and bonk, fatal for a long distance runner as the only way to recover is to stop, eat and rest. In the course of the JFK 50 I put away, 4 Packets of Clif Shot Blocks, 3 Bananas, 1 Potato, 5 Smuckers PB&J sandwiches, 1 Cup of Soup, 2 cups of chips, 2 Pretzel sticks, 2 cups of Gatorade and plenty of water.

Of course I didn't sit down and eat it all at once, I ate little and often over the course of 50 miles to help keep myself fueled to complete the race.

Many people I know think they can fuel their spiritual lives with one big meal a week on Sunday morning. They can't! Time in prayer and the Scriptures should be a part of our daily routine if we want to grow in our faith and knowledge of God as revealed through Jesus Christ.

I have watched with great sadness as well meaning Christians have simply run out of steam because they have been running hard doing lots of good things all the while forgetting the importance of stopping to refuel. When this happens they sometimes drop out of everything or become angry and bitter about not getting things done their way.

If you reach this point in your life, take the time to recognize it and stop, rest and refuel.

We all need to feed ourselves with a steady diet of prayer and Scripture reading and reflection.

Lessons From Long Distance (ultra) Running #2 Fatigue Will Set In

When running a long distance you can be sure of one thing, fatigue will set in. There will come a point in a fifty mile race that when you will be tired and will want to quit. You will ask yourself if it really is worth carrying on to the finish.

This is the point at which you have to remind yourself why you began the race in the first place. You didn't begin with the thought that you would drop out at some point on the course. You began with the goal of completing the race and receiving the finishers medal, plaque, belt buckle or whatever other award is given to the finishers. So when the going gets tough you remind yourself of why you are in the race and you push yourself forward to the next aid station where you can refuel for the next leg of the race.

So it is with our spiritual lives, we may begin strong but there will come a time when we feel tired, fatigued, worn out. Anyone who tells you that following Jesus is easy is wrong. Just ask Paul what he went through... "I have worked much harder, been in prison more frequently, been flogged more severely, and been exposed to death again and again. Five times I received from the Jews the forty lashes minus one. Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked, I spent a night and a day in the open sea, I have been constantly on the move. I have been in danger from rivers, in danger from bandits, in danger from my own countrymen, in danger from Gentiles; in danger in the city, in danger in the country, in danger at sea; and in danger from false brothers. I have labored and toiled and have often gone without sleep; I have known hunger and thirst and have often gone without food; I have been cold and naked. Besides everything else, I face daily the pressure of my concern for all the churches." 2 Cor. 11:23-28

There will be times of spiritual fatigue in our lives but that's when we need to remind ourselves of why we are following Christ and heed Paul's words, "I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus."

Oh and one final thought on spiritual fatigue... Jesus reminds us that His yolk is light and his burden is easy in comparison to earthly matters! 

Lessons From Long Distance (ultra) Running #1 The Start is only the start

Over the next couple of weeks I plan to write a series of posts on some of the faith lessons I have learned, or been reminded of, through ultramarathons.

Lesson #1 The Start is only the start

At the start of the race there is always a certain excitement and anticipation about all that lies ahead. Adrenalin is flowing through your body at the expectation of starting this great adventure. You are (hopefully) fully rested and full of energy. Your clothes are fresh and you smell good (this is about to change).

When the gun goes off, or they just say "go!" everybody starts with a jubilant attitude. Over the first couple of miles everyone seems to be happy and carefree, enjoying each others company as fresh legs carry you up and down the hills. Even at the JFK 50 where the first couple of miles are uphill everyone seemed to be enjoying the race, that would soon change.

So it is when we begin our walk with Christ, it is all new and full of great promise and expectation, we often think that this "high" will last forever. We even have the audacity to tell people that if they start following Jesus everything will be OK and he will solve all their problems.  I sometimes wonder what planet people who say this are living on because its simply not true. God has a great plan for your life, but its his plan and it probably won't be easy!

The start is the easiest part of the journey, but it doesn't last forever. Before long fatigue will set in... 

Left or Right?

Here's a crazy optical illusion. The silhouette can be seen to be spinning in both directions... don't believe me just watch long enough and you'll see it (you may have to focus on the shadow the shadow to see it change direction.)

Is she spinning clockwise? YES! Is she spinning anti-clockwise? YES! Can she be spinning both ways at the same time? NO! But two people could argue rightly for hours over which way she is actually spinning.

Hmm... makes me think about how important it is to listen to others who may see things from a slightly different perspective.

I joined, now what?

I was browsing some Facebook groups, and on several occasions I came across this phrase, "I joined, now what do I do?"

Isn't this statement indicative of the membership issues that many churches face? What if we got people doing the work of the kingdom of God and allow that to be their "joining" in the ministry that Christ has called us to.