You See Dry Bones

Fat Pastor

I wish Mark Driscoll was wrong on this one.

For those of you who do not know, I am in the process of replanting a church. Doing such requires a lot of work in addition to my full time job, being a daddy, and a husband. On top of this, my wife and I just bought our first house and are still settling in and finishing up some of the home improvement projects.

I developed a spasm in my eye.

One day I woke up to a weird little spasm in my left eyelid. It was kind of cool and I did not think much of it. Then it happened again. And again. And I have been getting about a dozen or so a day for the last week. I brought it up to a co-worker who said it might be dust or something irritating my eye. I went home and put in some drops. About an hour later it started to spasm again. More drops, no change.

I looked it up on Web MD and a couple of other eye health websites. Turns out I could have several issues:

• Stress
• Sensitivity to bright lights
• Lack of sleep
• A neurological disorder (which can be relieved via BOTOX)
• Lupus (just kidding, I’m a House fan)

I decided to play Dr. House and try and figure it out on my own (it wasn’t Lupus)

My wife, without my prompting, bought me some sunglasses. This will make sure I am not overly sensitive to light. She actually bought them because I have not had a decent pair in a few years and she is concerned about my eye health. I love her.

I went to bed a little earlier the last couple of nights to try and make sure it was not “lack of sleep” and I got some interesting results from that (maybe I need an MRI).

Finally, I took a stress test on Web MD. I mean, come on, its on the Internet, it must be scientific, right? The results were not good. I apparently have been through many high stress situations over the last six months (graduating college, buying a home, gaining a second job, traveling on a long flight, etc.). So far, stress was the leading cause of my spasm.

Then I realized, I don’t really sleep at night.

I wake up several times (usually between 1 and 4AM) and stair at the ceiling. The funny part is, I often do not want to go back to sleep. I am not tossing and turning, wishing I was back asleep. I am just lying there, thinking.

So now we have to add lack of sleep back into the picture.

However, lack of sleep is also a symptom of stress. That is the diagnosis we will roll with. Stress.

I am going to take an active role in reducing the stress in my life. I have heard from other pastors  (Mark Driscoll especially) that stress kills pastors faster than anything else. It makes us gain weight, sleep less, and have heart attacks. Truth of the matter is, except for one pastor I know, most gain about 20 pounds in the first year due to emotional eating.

How to remove stress 101

There are certain steps one can take to remove stress. Here are a few I want to employ:

• Learn to say “no” when asked to do things.
• Take a weekly Sabbath.
• Exercise (I have an idea to employ for this one)
• Eat plenty of fruits and veggies.
• Surrender your day to God (praying 10 minutes a day has actually been a proven stress reliever)

So, let’s hear it, how do you reduce stress?

Leave it in the comments.

-Don-

Here We Go Again

I am so tired of Christians taking it to the gut every time.

I went to one of the regular sites I visit daily (http://is.gd/I72z) in which the author, John, posted a photo of a bumper sticker which stated:

I’ve got nothing agains God, It’s his fan club I can’t stand.

Of course, I over-reacted.

I left a comment that I thought about repenting for. But the more I thought about it (the fact I am already in a bad mood does not help) the more it irked me. I am getting pretty board of Christians taking the blame for everything. We get satirized, poked, prodded, provoked, lambasted and skewered  more than any group or religion on planet earth. I know, c’est la vie for Christians.

In turn, if we do anything to provoke another group, the double standard comes into play. For example, blame atheism for genocide and you are no longer being “PC.”  Point fingers at the Mormon Church for atrocities committed in 1857 and they will immediately lump the LDS in with the Christians and ignore their cult standing. After all, only the blood-thirsty Christians are bad people.

Draw a cartoon of Muhammad in Turkey, and prepare to surrender your life. Draw a cartoon of Jesus (ala South Park) and it’s “hilarious.” 

I understand Christians have some baggage.

For the record, I get a little upset at Christians too. They drive me up a wall. We impose our own rules because we fail to believe the Cross was enough for our atonement. We fail to use tact when spreading the Gospel. And the majority of us are brain dead. I do, however, feel there are wonderful Christ followers with the best intentions on spreading the Gospel who take the blame for the whack-jobs. Not all Christians protest and carry a sign. Not all Christians fail to allow the light of Jesus to shine through them.

In recent times, most Christians have become harmless. This is not a good thing. Because of the risk of being labeled intolerant, fundamentalist, or exclusive, Christians have become pansies when it comes to spreading the Gospel. We think “cool” churches and relaxed dress codes will bring people to Jesus. Christians have stopped doing their jobs in favor of being hip and trendy. It all stems back to Galatians 1:10. We now want the approval of men and no longer care about our standing before God. We are allowing the sins of our fathers to harm our evangelistic efforts today. Sure, the 1980’s were ripe with false teachers who spread false gospels in Jesus name. A non-perceiving population can only see Jesus get His name dragged through the mud.

We have to stop letting the buffoonery of the previous generations influence us and what we believe. It is time we took ownership of our calling to spread the Gospel. 

-Don-

But He’s Invisible

We often treat God like He isn’t even there.

When planting a church, everyone has an opinion. Some of these opinions are very useful. I read an email this morning from the guy working on our website which was loaded with good insight and ideas. Other opinions are not so good.

Sometimes, I fear the opinion.

I have gotten too far behind in my duties as a church planter and pastor because I have been afraid of what others will think of what I do. What is funny is, I always thought I was rebellious and cared little of the opinions others might have of me. Instead, I have actually been a people  pleaser. Think golden retriever. Beautiful dog who will do anything to please his master. You through the ball, the golden retriever will fetch it. You tell him to sit, stay, roll over, or play dead, he will. Sad how many of us are destine to roll over when told to.

It’s like the old saying you hear among sports coaches, “Do what the fans say, and you will be sitting with them.”

The great Apostle Paul (not the guy from The Beatles) once said;

For am I now seeking the approval of man, or of God? Or am I trying to please man? If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ.

Oh boy.

Here is my modern day interpretation of that verse (Gal 1:10 ESV as it were):

It is not inherently bad to seek out wise counsel and get great ideas from others. However, if we know we have been given a calling by God, confirmed by the Spirit, and we ignore it, than we are living to appease men. We are living to gain their approval. If you look at my above “old saying” we could add to it,

…you will be sitting with them, in hell 

It sounds harsh, but I fear it might be true. When God has called you to something, the adversary (hardly worth mentioning here) will do all he can to derail you from that calling. He will throw all distractions and obstacles in your path. He will try and stroke your ego so the approval of men is attractive. 

Church planters need to be like race horses, without the broken legs.

We need to set our sights toward the prize, Jesus Christ. At that point, we need to put blinders on and run with reckless abandoned toward that prize. God may be invisible to us, but for all who have chosen to follow what He has called us to do, we must stop ignoring Him just because we cannot see Him. Otherwise, we have no use to follow Him at all, much less call ourselves “Christians.”

-Don- 

This Says it All

This has been in my brain today.

“In Christ Alone”
Words and Music by Keith Getty

In Christ alone my hope is found;
He is my light, my strength, my song;
This cornerstone, this solid ground,
Firm through the fiercest drought and storm.
What heights of love, what depths of peace,
When fears are stilled, when strivings cease!
My comforter, my all in all—
Here in the love of Christ I stand.

Amen.

-Don-