Boldness Brings Change...Not Time

I love the words of Martin Luther King Jr. in his letter from the Birmingham Jail to a group of church leaders critical of his tactics: “I hope, sirs, you can understand our legitimate and unavoidable impatience.” His point, we can’t wait until the time is right to fight for right. He believed that true change happens at the intentional decision and commitment of people to take bold action.

And we know the change he brought about through his peaceful, but bold, initiatives. He campaigned and lost his life on the fundamental basis that time would not heal the racial wounds suffered in America.

My kids have quickly figured out that when I say “wait” it usually means “no.” They understand that nothing will happen as long as my answer stays in wait mode. Yes, life moves along, sometimes slowly. The Christian walk often mirrors a limp or a crawl. The process creeps along. But we cannot sit in wait mode. God is on the move.

Don’t wait to join God in the change he wants to make through you. Often, time alone makes no difference. Decide to act; to jump in and meet God in his work of recreation and reconciliation. When it comes to initiating change in the lives of people God seeks to make-over we have a “legitimate and unavoidable impatience.”

Study Partners

I have a lot of people I learn from everyday. The World Wide Web makes this possible for me. It’s like going to school every morning when I fire up my computer. I have instant access to countless ideas and thoughts. I love it!

It has programmed me to think, to question, to probe the voices of others. I have found the courage to put myself out there and face critique. Learning happens. Knowledge swells. Life changes.

People I’ve never met personally have become my friends and teachers. I know that to form relationships in a virtual world leaves doesn’t fill the void of true relationship. That’s the challenge—to move beyond and take the lessons and live them; to bring the virtual world into my world.

I aim to develop more intimate and edifying relationships with a people I can see, touch, smell and hear. But I don’t plan on dumping those teachers I’ve come to respect who teach me from the screen of my computer or that speak from the speakers of my sound system. They’ve grown into wonderful study partners.

Well, I thought things had settled...

As soon as all of the fuss over the house had settled Spring Break rolled in. Along with it, the passing of my wife's great-grandmother and 12 days later, her son, my wife's grandpa. It's been a tough few weeks.

Traveling.

Grieving.

Hurting.

But I've learned a lot and have new insights to life. I hope to kick this thing and get it going again. Stay tuned.

Update...outside and chaos.

Things have settled down at our home. Most of our carpet no longer exists so we're walking on concrete at the moment.

The great thing though... We've taken more opportunities to venture outside. I love it. In fact, families ought to consider canceling their cable or satellite services in a move to force themselves to have to find something else to do. Just a suggestion...

God has ways of causing us to focus through the chaos. He brings us to a point where we can't take it anymore. We stop and realize, with a sigh of relief, life needs simplifying. God is more available when we aren't so busy with ourselves.

But at times we all need life to speed up so that we'll have to bring ourselves to slow it down a bit.

Ewww! Sewer Problems...

So, yesterday I hopped out of the shower into a giant puddle of water—water coming from the bottom of the toilet. Uh oh, I thought, and scrambled to sop up a sop-less mess. I did the best I could to push back the water—thinking how very weird that it didn’t back into the tub very much.

I got out of that bathroom, went out of my bedroom, down the hall and discovered, yep…the other bathroom flooded as well, and worse. Quickly I discovered the water didn’t want to stay in the bathrooms and began traveling along the baseboards into the hall, our room, our closet and the living room. All of it ruined by nasty water…now the pain of dealing with insurance.

Last night, we slept to the peaceful sound of blowers and dehumidifiers. Several chunks of carpet have been ripped up and we’re waiting for baseboards to dry out. Fun, fun. My wife just called and it sounded like she was standing on a runway at Dallas Love Field. Oh yeah, the city came out and removed the blockage in our sewer line—a big thanks to the city of Marshall.

Looks like we’re getting a new floor, which is nice and which we had planned to do in the future. But I would have rather just saved up for it instead of going through the discomfort and insurance hassles.

I can’t believe people would intentionally fraud the insurance company to get something—it’s such a pain. Oh and is it a game! My prayer all night long as I couldn’t sleep—God let me seek you in this situation and not crumble to the temptation to exploit our trouble toward selfish means.

Thoughts on Mission

I'm trying to work through a lot of meditating I've done on God's intentional mission to the world and how it involves us. The following kind of sums up where I'm at...chime in and help a brother out.

God has a mission—a mission to reclaim and recreate a fallen world distorted and shattered by sin. His plan began to unfold through a people selected to live out his mission. Working within the fallen system they sold out to idols and squandered their opportunity to carry out the mission of Jehovah. Using the hope of a faithful remnant, God occupied flesh and pitched his tent on earth in the person of Jesus. Jesus then lived the mission Israel had aborted.

This mission included ways foreign to thinking associated with our fallen world. Instead of forcing people to accept the ways of Jehovah, the mission, which was Jesus, included a path of servitude and suffering (Read Isaiah 40-55). His death defined the mission he lived. This voluntary death put on display for the world the love of God. It paved the way for the restoration of relationships that had crumbled due to the sins of humanity.

Jesus has since left earth. But the mission still plods on. It is up to those who accept the invitation to participate in God’s mission to continue to carry it out—to be the mission; to be Jesus to a world still marred by and enslaved to sin. The church, the body of Christ, must now put on display the love of God as the mission of God. The elements of the mission have not changed either. Those who accept the invitation to partner with God in his mission must also embrace a life of servitude and suffering—they must die to live the mission.