Lord, teach me. . . .

The Love in your heart wasn’t put there to stay. Love isn’t love till you give it away. –Oscar Hammerstein It’s that time of year when we start to receive  even more  requests from groups like St. Jude Children’s Hospital and National Wildlife Federation, groups whose very existence depends on the generosity of strangers who believe these groups matter. Their actions make a difference. They can change the world. A lot of folks don’t think churches should ever, ever talk about money. That’s the stuff the world cares about. Didn’t Jesus say we cannot serve God and money? He did ( Matthew 6:24 ). But—in context, what Jesus is telling his followers (that’s us) to do is to take the things the world finds valuable and use them for the advancement of Christ’s Reign , rather than for our own personal wealth and glory. During his brief three-year ministry, Jesus spoke about money more than any other single topic. The rich young ruler went away sad after Jesus told him to giv...

Happiness is finding peace with ourselves and ensuring a sound haven for our dreams, and at the same time, acknowledging our nothingness in front of nature’s splendor. –Erik Pevernagie   A mother walks into a room and finds her child rummaging through a drawer, pushing and pulling the contents every which way. What are you looking for? She asks. Quickly slamming the drawer shut, he hides his hands behind his back. Oh, nothing. . . . The wise mother, with a twinkle in her eye, asks: And did you find it? Some days (weeks), this is my life. I have no idea what I am looking for. I toss and turn at night; I search endlessly through articles and passages, certain that whatever it is my soul is seeking, if I just keep looking, I’ll find it. . . . And sure enough. Most days, what my heart is really looking for—is nothing . That space of quiet emptiness, where the mental traffic stops whizzing past at breakneck speed. Where the sound of silence erupts and insists I pay atten...

  Did I offer peace today? Did I bring a smile to someone’s face? Did I say words of healing? Did I let go of my anger and resentment? Did I forgive? Did I love? These are the real questions. I must trust that the little bit of love that I sow now will bear many fruits, here in this world and in the life to come. –Henri J. M. Nouwen The internet is simultaneously one of the greatest and one of the worst inventions of our time. On the one hand, in the blink of an eye, we can access so much helpful information! It can help us find our way when we are lost, and locate a gas station when the tank is almost empty. We can find answers to important questions—and trivial ones, as well. Amazing! But on the other hand, there’s social media. Twitter, Facebook, Instagram—and more. I have friends in corners of the world that I have never met—and I have had to unfriend people I have known for years, because the casual distance created by the internet seems to give some folks permission ...

  A grateful heart is a beginning of greatness. It is an expression of humility. It is a foundation for the development of such virtues as prayer, faith, courage, contentment, happiness, love and well-being. –James E. Faust   It happens to everyone, Sometimes it feels like prayer just ain’t happenin’, no matter how badly our heart yearns to pray. Maybe our brains feel all jumbled up, a Word Search where the letters are all scattered every which way. All the news lately may feel like an assault, and this is the result. Maybe our lives are just so busy we haven’t time to think things through the way we’d like. Maybe—maybe we never really thought about what it means to pray, so we have some crazy expectation of ourselves. Truth is, prayer is exactly whatever we believe and expect it to be. And it’s also true that sometimes, we need guidance. Help. This week, I offer you something different. (At first, it might sound like it will take more time than you have to giv...

  There is no one who is insignificant in the purpose of God.  –Alistair Begg   We spend a lot of time talking and wondering about what (or who) God is. In Exodus, for example, God’s own self tells us: The L ORD, the L ORD , compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness; maintaining love to thousands and forgiving wickedness and sin.   But have you ever stopped to recognize and ponder what God is not ? This can be a tough place to wander. After all, from the time we are little, we learn that God is everything . So how can God not be something? John’s epistle, for example, tells us the in God there is no darkness at all; yet within the darkness, we can find God. So to avoid the darkness limits our relationship with God. Confused? Here are some other things God is not :  God is not One who kills children through war, disease or famine. God is not a God of hatred and destruction. Or neglect. Or poverty. Or annihilation....

  Deadlines aren’t bad. They help you organize your time. They help you set priorities. They make you get going when you might not feel like it. –Harvey Mackay   How full is your plate right now? How many things do you absolutely have to get done before bedtime/ tomorrow/ next week?  And how much of that stuff is life-or-death important? Some people don’t feel like they’re doing their job if they’re not really, really busy. All the time. The longer the list, the more successful the world thinks we are. The more we check off, the better we (ought to) sleep at night. Life is short. None of us knows how many days we have left, how many beats our heart will offer before giving out. All those lists of Stuff To Do become pretty irrelevant in light of our own mortality. So what really matters? Here’s what I think: What really matters is how well we have loved. Not how many hands we have shaken or how many books we have read or written. How many people, at the end...

  A seminary student asked to shadow me for two days to see what my life as a pastor was like. At the end, he said, “Oh, my gosh, you’re basically a person for a living.” –Nadia Bolz-Weber   Like so very many professions, people don’t really have much of a handle on what it means to be a pastor. There are still some who think we only work one day a week . . . but not much anymore. I think the reason you might not understand what we do is because, at least sometimes, we don’t understand what we do. Many pastors will tell you: I never, ever saw myself going to seminary or pastoring a church . What was God thinking? Put my name on that list. Some days, I still feel clueless as to how I got here—and yet. And yet the “fit” of my flock and my Call is undeniable. The visible aspects of ministry, beyond Sunday morning worship, are clearly baptisms, marriages and funerals, all those touch points in life where one’s soul is experiencing something but you may not be sure ...