Cutting Corners

I do this thing.  I think most would agree it's completely unnecessary, but I struggle with making any changes.

A perfect example is taking out the trash.  With just two of us in our house, we produce about one 15 gallon bag of trash per week between all of our cans.  Our dumpster we put out on the curb has the capacity to hold about 20 of those 15 gallon bags.  From this, any rational person could conclude it is only necessary to take the smelliest, fullest trash out to the dumpster, and it is only necessary to take the dumpster to the curb when it's nearing capacity.

Yet I struggle to do it.  In my book, when Tuesday comes around for our trash service to come by, every trash can in every room, whether its had any traffic recently or not, must be checked and emptied.  And when the sweep is complete, regardless of the number of bags and the cavernous space remaining in the dumpster, it must go to the curb.  Most readers are probably agreeing, this is simply unnecessary.  But I've often found myself responding, "that's just how I roll..."

Lately, as Christmas and year-end activities and reports begin to accelerate or accumulate, time becomes far more valuable and "of the essence."  My stress increases and the intensity of my workload grows.  This year Sarah, in her gentle wisdom, has been running a quiet campaign to address and release some of the intensity by promoting a corner cutting practice.

Of course, with my spry wit and accompanying angst, I respond to her suggestions of the idea saying "so you mean you want me to cheat God from getting my best."  If I were a little more head-strong, I could pursue this line and win.  But when Sarah speaks like this, a greater wisdom says shut up and listen.  Winning that conversation would most likely lose the war.  Sarah's advise is keen, precise, and insightful.

I may not be very good at following the rules, but when it comes to doing it "right" and to the greatest detail, I rarely if ever cut corners.  Am I cheating God if I start now?  Not necessarily.  We first need to consider how much we are cheating God by refusing to let any detail out of our control and attention.  How many times is our diligence born out of fear, causing us to worry that if we skip any single part or even just one step, the whole effort will undoubtedly fail?  How many times do we pour so much attention into the little things 99% of the rest world won't notice because we've convinced ourselves they are the only things that matter?  How many times have we put God back on the shelf so we have more time and energy to get our projects done?

Too many times, too often.  My focus verse for this latest season has become Proverbs 3:5-6 "Trust the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding.  In all your ways submit to Him and He will make your paths straight."  I've shared with with many already.  In those simple lines, there is a ton of wisdom telling me to stop manipulating all the details, start submitting all I am working on to our Lord.  Only then will I actually stop cheating God of my best.

In other words, cut some corners.  We'll be blessed to see God taking care of more of the details.


More to come!


Jason <><

Better Get to Playing!

A decorative addition to my office made while I was out one day.

Although it's not necessarily an everyday event at Horizons, I can proudly say a fair amount of "shenanigans" happen in the halls and offices and between staff.  It would be easy to say some of our staff are simply being "childish or obnoxious."  It would be easy to say the jokes, pranks, and laughter are off-task and counterproductive, perhaps even hurtful.  But it'd also be easy to say these things and in the same breath also kill the Spirit of a life-giving, life-sacrificing, out-of-the-box thinking team of life-changers.  No thanks.  We'll stick to playing.

The concept of being playful, even as adults in busy work environments, is not a new concept.  Yet, it has primarily been promoted as a goal for women wanting to "treat, pamper" or provide "extra gentle portions of self-care" to the soul.  To seek or need "play" is often seen as a week or wasteful approach.

But being playful is far more powerful than we make it and should never only be applied to one gender or only to a particular cross-section of our population.  The capacity to cultivate playfulness and engage it is ultimately the freedom we have in Christ to separate ourselves from the pressures, expectations, and doubtful outlooks.

Yet, it's easy to be serious instead.  It's easy to demand excellence and discourage distractions.  It's easy to focus more intently and push for greater concentration on goals and overcoming obstacles.  But the more we do this to an extreme, the less creative, innovative, courageous, and energized we become.  Edwin Friedman, in "Failure of Nerve (Seabury, 2007) suggests that without playfulness, it is difficult to distance ourselves from the things that are not truly us, that we easily become swept away by anxiety, and that we are reduced to operating reactively--like animals.

Paul talked about this quite a bit, encouraging us to no longer by like infants "tossed back and forth by the waves, blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming" (Ephesians 4:14).  We're also reminded not to be of the world and remember who we are and who we are not in 1 John 2:15.

So again today I invite each of us to find opportunities to be playful and cultivate playfulness--at work, in our relationships, families, and with strangers.  It'll do far more than simply make us feel silly.  It will separate us from who and what we are not and give us a chance to re-immerse ourselves in Christ, through whom we came, and through whom we live.

Here's to a good play!

More to come!

Jason <><

Passion More or Less?

One component of a dynamic, magnetic person is his or her passion for life.  In terms of faith, passion for life fully immersed in the grace and life of Jesus.  The energy that comes from a person's passion is enough to change any situation from gray to great.

But how do we recognize passion?  How do we cultivate it in our lives?

Often we end up equating passion with enthusiasm, heightened emotions, and flowery words of confidence, assurance, and commitment.

But Asaph, a lesser known contributor to the Psalms, brings about a different notion of passion as he writes:

"Yet I am always with you; you hold me by my right hand.  You guide me with your counsel, and afterward you will take me into glory.  Who have I in heaven but you?  And earth has nothing I desire besides you.  My flesh and heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever"
(Psalm 73:23-26).

While we still find words of assurance and commitment within this psalm, we can also see gentle shifts in how this passion is put together differently.

In today's world, if you're looking for someone with passion or hoping to find passion within yourself, look for:

• Commitment:  not just in a person's words, but in the duration of his or her endurance.  Time measures best our steadfast hearts.
• Humility:  not just in how a person puts others before him or herself, but also in how a person rarely makes an effort to be noticed, needs to be consoled, or seeks for reaffirmation regarding his or her choices and direction.   
• Joy:  not just in someone's energy at any moment, but also in his or her gentleness, ability to smile when no one's looking, and willingness to share with others for the simple sake of a blessing. 
• Compassion:  not just compassion that breaks his or her heart, but compassion that is willing to see to the depths of an issue and still know it is God who is being served and who has planted the seed for that particular passion.  

And so, here's to passion.  In some ways the bar is still set rather high, but in other ways, we've been released from superficial notions into the depths of passion that lives a long life.  

More to come!

Jason <><

The Art of Inadequacy

Workaholics, overachievers, and narcissists have a least one commonality between each of them.  Not only do we wish to do and be it all, we sincerely believe we can and are.

I sit in on the Vital Christianity and Covenant classes at Horizons and thoroughly enjoy the conversations, learning, and new relationships that form.  Part of our time together is spent taking a Spiritual Gift inventory.  Although I had already taken it in the Spring VCC, I decided to give it a second try.  It blew my mind and heart.  Last spring I found myself breezing through the questions responding with 4s and 5s (which are high or highest) to most things.  Full of ego and confidence I said to myself of course you're good at most of these things.  You're a pastor, and good pastors are uncharacteristically good at most things...  But it was a little embarrassing later in the class filling in my gifts chart graph and mostly just coloring in a black box.  To a degree, because nothing stood out in contrast to the rest, it still looked like I really didn't have any heightened gifts.

So this time, I chose a new approach.  Honesty.  I forced myself to be realistic and put 1s or 0s by those activities that challenged or didn't fit me.  I was far more conservative with my 4s and 5s as well.  I was terrified as I went through the assessment.  What will people think if they know I'm not really gifted in that?  Shouldn't every pastor have a gift and a heart for that?...  It was also life-giving.  For the first time, I saw the difference between what God had given me in gifts and what God had not.  I caught a glimpse of how God very specifically had certain things in mind for my life--that I wasn't just some willy-nilly random mix of abilities for whatever.  Instead, I was given a unique mix of strengths and weaknesses that shape the entire character of my life and future.  It was a cool moment with God and His Spirit, where I could more clearly see into the depths of what He is doing in my life.

While I was once terrified of being anything less than everything, I'm starting to see the power of inadequacy.  A couple weeks ago I had the chance to be around some pastors leading congregations of 7-12,000 in attendance.  It was astonishing to see each of them pronounce their weaknesses and inadequacies and encourage us not to do it all, but continue to build teams of people who have gifts we don't.  It was brilliant.  God was bringing it all together.





So now, I simply need to live in to my inadequacies and love them.  They'll lead me into a better insight of who God is and give me a chance to see the strengths in others thrive.  Can't wait!


More to come!

Jason <><

Forgetting to Laugh

They say the heart is a muscle that only performs better the more its exercised.  Sarah reminds me often this is the case for nearly every muscle and many of our organs in our bodies.

Maybe it seems like a no-brainer (no pun intended) in the context of this conversation, but in reality, we often fall into a mode of thought that if we overuse something, it may eventually wear out.  While it is true we can overuse our bodies by flooding them with drastic changes in activity or overwhelming them with harmful substances or habits, it still remains true that if we don't use it, we risk loosing it.

I was reminded of this in regard to smiles and the deeper presence of joy this last week.  If we don't find chances to laugh, to smile, to play on a regular basis, we risk atrophy of joy in our lives.  Not seeking and finding joy in our lives has the potential to kill our relationships, our ministries, and our faith in a living, life-giving God,

So just like the heart, we also need to exercise our smiles, our laughter, and our ability to appreciate and enjoy our lives and what we've been given as part of our faith lives and our connection to Jesus and His Spirit in the world.  A friend once told me in an effort to share his best wisdom with me "never take yourself too seriously."  It seems like petty advise, but it has the capacity to hold us accountable in significant ways in regard to laughing for life!


More to come!


Jason <><

Words Living When Embodied

David includes a meditation in one of his psalms asking for all that came from his mouth and heart to be sincere as he says, "Let the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be pleasing to you, Lord, my rock and my redeemer" (Psalm 19:14).

At Horizons we encourage each other to speak plainly, be authentic, and don't try to be someone you're not.  Don't put on a show, and simply do what God is leading you to do--nothing more, nothing less.

But sometimes it's not that easy.  Sometimes we're challenged to let our words, our actions, and our singing voices be more a reflection of the future than of the present.  If we only allowed ourselves to be where we already are, we won't grow.  C.S. Lewis coined this notion in the phrase "fake it 'til you make it" (Mere Christianity), emphasizing the placement of our hearts in the future of our faith and belief we desire until Jesus completes this as reality within us.

Within this then, we see a contradiction of our Christian lives.  How much do we live authentically and how much do we live ideally?  Both have value and merit.

But this weekend as Sarah and I witnessed the joining of Chris and Lenore Berger in marriage on the grassy lawn of Country Bible Church in Bennett, I watched as words and actions, futures and realities all lined up for a moment.  At least for a moment there was holy resolution.

As Chris and Lenore signified their new unity by pouring sands into a single jar, Jamie Brown, friend to the couple and Horizons' lead worship pastor, let out words from Gungor (the band) about how Jesus makes things new, makes beautiful things out of us, out of dust.

In that span of time I saw a man with his own life, his own pain, his own past embodying the words of truth we each desire to be true in our own lives as he breathed out words for us to hear.  Those words became true because his life is true.  And not only that, but he sang those words to a couple who in the midst of their most beautiful moment of being made into something new recognized that they too came from dust and broken things.  They too were living into a truth because they were embodying it.

Ultimately, we're not always in control of when we can embody the truths we seek to live into.  But we can at least be honest about what we hope to see Jesus do in our lives and look for the moments when what He is doing lines up perfectly with what we are hoping.  They are sweet moments!


More to come!

Jason <><

THIS Church Does!

We are currently in our fall campaign for next year's ministries and life-change work.  I'm sure we often sound like broken records as we proclaim how the Horizons ministries are changing lives and making a difference in the world.  Yep... heard it before.

Sure, it's easy to say.

Ultimately, the ministry at Horizons will ALWAYS be about leading the world to Jesus and our crazy cool God.  Our top story will always be about how good God is.

But, in our efforts to do so, God gives us plenty of reasons to know and say He is good with proof and truth.  God is not only good, but God also continually shows us His goodness.

While it's often difficult to put into words and specific instances w
hen God is changing lives at Horizons, this last weekend has shown me just a couple glimpses.  They are worth sharing.

Sarah and I bought a new vehicle over the weekend to replace my former vehicle damaged from a collision with a deer.  The beauty is we bought it with CASH.  We've been saving ardently, and now we own the car.  We have no car payments, no increased burdens, no growing debt.  A year ago, we walked onto a lot and bought Sarah a brand new car for her school commute we'll be paying off for a while yet.  But thanks to the Financial Peace class at Horizons last February, we won't go through the same thing again.  Was our latest purchase new?  Not by any means.  But it's ours and we love it!

This last Sunday (10/05) a young family shared their struggle with a mental illness in their midst.  Mackenzie Agnew shared her pain, her struggles, and the foundations that brought her through her deepest, darkest hours.  Her references to scripture, her mentions of how her family and friends carried her through, and her insistence that God's power and mercy lifting her out of her bleak choices were what I would call "soul-blowing."  God's story and the work He does through Horizons gets very real very quickly when we realize that real lives are at stake.

That's it.  Two stories.  Yet, this is only one weekend, and these are only two among many stories and instances that I don't even know about yet.  

At the end of the day, I am very grateful to know that when I say this church exists to give glory to God and His work in the world that this church DOES see it in our very midst.   

More to come!

Jason ><>