Will it Ever Stop??

There are many cycles and seasons of pain, loss, and frustration in our lives when we're definitely asking God and others if there will be any end to it.

Yet, we also have to acknowledge the cycles and seasons that bring sustained joy and levity to our lives and faith relationships.  Although it's currently a blustery -5 degrees and a Monday, today's a day for me to do just that.

Here's the seemingly endless list of awesomes in and around my life right now.  Celebrate with me!

 We released and celebrated Horizons' new face and future last Sunday.  It was a total blast and boost to God's presence and energy in our midst!  Connect, grow, lead for life-changed life change.

 Last Wednesday came around and we came together for our annual Ash Wednesday service.  Not only was it a powerful spiritual worship, but we had the honor of Jamie, Pastor John and our intern Jonathan lead us in our time together.

 Friday came around and over 70 women came together for a 2-day simulcast UnWrapping the Bible and digging deeper into their faith lives.  I got to sneak in as Pastor on Friday and was blown away, and I've already heard TONS of life-change stories come from this weekend.  Wow!

 Saturday rolled around and Sarah left early to coach her Young Athletes competitors in their annual Special Olympic basketball tournament.  I joined her later to watch her love on her kids and get into the games.  I also ran into several Horizons families and athletes who bring me joy!



























Sunday showed up, and in addition to an exciting beginning of a new series "All Things New," I was blessed by our second Be Horizons class (formerly VCC) and the mighty facilitators.  I was also blessed by our HOME Group, which we didn't know would take off or not, but has now become a lively, lovely, and honest family for Sarah and me.

Now it's Monday, and our "His Little Feet" children and chaperones will soon be with us!  I get to host a child in our home and am very excited for their performance!








AND... as if that wasn't enough, this Sunday several Horizons people including Sarah and I will be heading to Omaha for our Weekend to Remember marriage retreat experience, and several other families will be joining their 3rd Grade students for the Bible Blitz to learn about the new Bibles they will be receiving!

 I praise God for all these things, and hope they will ALL lead to life-change beyond what we could ask or imagine.  AND, yes, I hope it never ends!!

More to come!

Jason <><

Famous at Home?

Famous at Home?

How Open are Our Hearts?

I am reminded of Jesus' famous words as he reenters society after fasting 40 days in the wilderness.  He has been baptized, he has received the full affirmation and testing of the Holy Spirit, and then he begins his formal ministry among the people.

After entering the temple, reading from Isaiah's scroll, and then proclaiming that those words were being fulfilled in front of everyone there, Jesus responds to their scoffs, gasps, and contentions saying "Prophets are honored everywhere except in their hometowns, among their relatives, and in their own households."

People see us and we see people differently when we know them outside the context of their leadership or notoriety.  While this can be a good thing, I believe Jesus was speaking prophetically to address the unwilling and unaccepting hearts gathered, there is a positive side to this as well.  When we know people in the fullness of their lives, we see all of who they are--their fears and fortunes, their failures and fantasies, their wins and losses, their struggles and their strategies.  For most of us, the fuller the picture gets, the more we struggle to honor the person before us or acknowledge his or her "greatness."

Yet, I was reminded this last week this doesn't need to be the standard.  Jesus was describing how things often are in order to speak truth into others' hearts rather than saying how things should be in order to speak comfort to them.

I was attending both meetings and conferences at my seminary (Iliff School of Theology) in Denver last week.  After our day-long meeting, the school hosted a leadership conference with many of my former classmates as presenters.  In my first appraisal of the lineup, my first thought was whether I'd learn much.  How much more could any of my classmates possibly have learned that I have? I mused.

Yet, preferring to be an optimist, I went to every session.  From minute one, I was blown away.  Here were my classmates, sharing their ministries, their walks, and their results, and I could hardly believe what exceptional leaders they had become.  My new muse became why didn't I think of these things?  These people are brilliant!  Then Jesus' words shared above came into my heart.  I thought to myself, just because these leaders are from my own "hometown" doesn't mean they aren't completely worthy of my time and attention.  I must honor and celebrate them!  I'll grow and learn more if I do!

So I did it.  I humbled myself, opened my heart, welcomed my classmates' teachings and wisdom, and congratulated each after their presentations.  Imagine if those who heard Jesus read from the scroll that day could have done the same.  They could've been on the front-line of the good news and powerful life-change Jesus was bringing with him.  They could've been the first recipients and distributors of Jesus' blessings.

Instead, they closed their hearts and scoffed.  Instead, they were left behind in their unwillingness to get over themselves.

I'm glad I had the chance to respond differently this time.  I hope I continue to respond similarly in the future!  This is my hope for you as well.


More to come!


Jason <><

Silly Forgiveness!

It's one of the things we run from the most, whether in our faith or secular live:  accountability.  We talk about its importance and encourage each other's openness to it, but to be knee deep in the process of accountability can be less enjoying than we imagined.  Yet, I am absolutely convinced we must have it and live by it!

The other day I had the privilege of having accountability gently practiced with me.  Being the sensitive soul I am, I still had that twinge of defensiveness and momentary hurt.  Luckily, God's Spirit quickly reminded me of the rare and beautiful gift I was receiving--this guy's not trying to hurt you, demonstrate his superiority, or attack others out of his own anxiety, he's loving on you and living by God's leading.  Breathe it in!

This particular accountability partner asked out of the blue in the midst of a larger, casual conversation whether I'd had found a place to forgive a brother we're both connected to yet.  For whatever reason, God had been laying on his heart to ask me.

FORGIVE him?  I forgave him publicly, I prayed forgiveness of him to God, and I asked God to forgive him.  Easy answer:  Yes.  I'm a pastor.  I don't not forgive.  How dare you ask. The more challenging/honest answer:  apparently not entirely.  I still have ill feelings about the situation, avoid interactions with this person, and every once in a while get a twinge of pleasure when this person struggles.

Busted.   ...and THANK YOU!

See?  We need accountability.  Otherwise, I would have just continued in my half-forgiveness and let a partial sliver slowly fester into an infection causing greater issues later on.  Thank God for accountability.

So, previously believing I had the forgiveness thing mastered, I am now caught in a minor confusion of just exactly what forgiveness is.  I thought I had done a pretty good job, taken care of all the major components.

Paul tells us in Ephesians 4:31-32  to "Put aside all bitterness, losing your temper, anger, and slander, along with every other evil.  Be kind, compassionate, and forgiving to each other, in the same way God forgave you in Christ."

There's a lot of work to be done in forgiveness.  It's not only about going through the VERY CRUCIAL steps of lifting it up to God and professing the words of forgiveness to the other, but also about ridding one's self of all the additional muck (bitterness, slander in my heart, etc.).  It's just like the flu I had 3 weeks ago.  The virus is long gone, but I'm still coughing out the muck.

The work I need to do, that many of us need to do for FULL forgiveness is:  turn my heart from lingering bitterness to sincere concern, hope, prayer, and petitions of blessings and growth for this person.  It means moving on from being hurt to living into healing, learning, and growing.  It means genuinely saying, "I love this person."  I may not be close friends with this person again, but if I forgive him as Christ forgave me, at the very least, I am called to walk with him still and offer my compassion and support whenever he may need it.  I may even be called to reach out to him and offer continued support on his growth and transformation.

In the end, I'm thankful for accountability and the challenging gift of learning forgiveness's deeper process.  My hope is that this challenges and blesses you as well!


More to come!

Jason <><

Strangely Glad for the Patriots

A week ago, partially because of having a mind-numbing flu virus, I had forgotten the Superbowl existed and I had absolutely no idea who would be starring in this ultimate playoff.  It's pretty safe to say I didn't have a true "dog in the fight" or "horse in the race."

But as the game came to an end last night, I felt strangely thankful.  It wasn't because I was siding with the underdog.  It wasn't because I am secretly a Patriots fan if the Broncos aren't playing.  It wasn't because a sworn enemy of mine was deeply infatuated with the Seahawks and I wanted to feel avenged in his/her misery.  Truth be told, the Patriots have won enough championships lately, their players have often been involved in sketchy activities, and the whole deflated ball issue, while a little far-fetched, could have some truth to it.

I was happy because it wasn't supposed to happen (which is different from them being the underdog).  It has everything to do with how smart we believe we are becoming in the world.  It was announced last week before the game that a new project had been completed promising capability to predict the Superbowl outcome.  Hundreds of thousands of statistics, including player performance, time of day, location of game, weather, player health, past team performances in various scenarios, pre-game drama, coaching performances, projected fan composition, etc. were plugged into a complex set of algorithms.  The outcome, according to the statistics, was that regardless of how many played-out hypothetical game scenarios, the Seahawks were likely to be victorious 60% of the time.

Am I happy just because the geniuses got it wrong?  Yes, but ultimately no.  It's bigger than that.

In a world where we truly believe there is increasing power behind the monstrous amounts of information we can gather and compute, we become information/statistic junkies and begin to put our security more and more in its lap.

The ultimate outcome?

We're killing the human and the Holy Spirit.  Do we really think either care anything about data, statistics, and likely outcomes?  Since day one God has been proving them to be a farce.

We've created a new power drug:  an anti-anxiety serum concocted of data promising to give us more control over the unknown.

The problem with dependency-forming drugs is we scarcely know how to function in our world without them.  And given the fact we haven't yet learned to calculate the outcome of EVERY step we take in our lives, our general ANXIETY only increases.  Controlled environments simply reinforce our inability to respond in creative, non-anxious ways outside of their protection.

The truth is, we still live in a world that will always be far more unpredictable than predictable.  We should, therefore, quit treating our lives and the outcomes of our faith and efforts as mere statistics.  When a doctor says a person has a 30% chance of surviving cancer, forget the statistics.  When we plan the next several days of our lives because Accuweather says it is 90% likely to be snowy, don't live by it.  

Live instead by God's Spirit and the human spirit henceforth.  Live instead by what is wanted and hoped for, not what is likely or predicted.  Live here instead and LIVE.

More to come!

Jason <><