Quick Route to Fasting

Yesterday (Jan 18), our second week lesson of learning to live into our "single word" for the year was on fasting.

Seriously?  Fasting?  Yuck, right?

It's possibly one of the least popular topics we can imagine, and ranks even lower than making sacrifices because of it's apparent lack of return on results.

Yet Sunday wasn't a drag at all.  Not even because of my preaching, the lesson it was simply powerful and engaging.  Fasting turns out to be a lost art and practice that once was as common as prayer.  Additionally, it's one of the primary components we must practice if we truly wish to see our word for the year flourish in our lives.

Because fasting is so important, it only seems fitting to provide some additional resources and guiding thoughts below:

Fasting Definition:

Fasting is abstaining, for a designated period of time, from a comfort, need, or habit for the sake of renewing or redirecting one's spiritual focus.

Fasting is NOT a practice of morality in which we stop doing harmful or hurtful things.  That's called following Christ.

Fasting simply means interrupting typically harmless routines, regimes, and other habits so that our hearts, bodies, and souls wake up from their slumbers of monotony and remember to focus spiritually.  It is choosing to put prayer, scripture, or spiritual meditation in the holes that are left.

Fasting is NOT giving something up completely (like in the season of Lent).  It is interrupting or altering your use or participation in it for the sake of greater spiritual focus.

Fasting is most traditionally associated with abstaining from food, but can include other things to reach the same goal.

Fasting is NOT a form of dieting or self-improvement.

Fasting may result in physical, emotional, or social suffering.

Fasting in the Bible:

• Deuteronomy 9:9-18
• 1 Kings 19:4-8
• Ezra 10:7-17
• Daniel 1:3-15
• Acts 13:4, 14:23
• Luke 2:37, 5:33
• 1 Corinthians 7:1-5

Fasting Suggestions:

• A meal, consecutive meals, a food or beverage
• Facebook, Twitter, Pintrest, other routine/habit-forming social media outlets
• Candy Crush, Trivia Crack, video games, other routine gaming habits
• Television routines or specific programs
• Recreational/ritualized shopping 
• Over-working
• Worrying patterns
• Over-planning habits

Fasting Examples:

• Drink only water for 1 or 2 meals consecutively per week.  Increase number of meals as practice develops (see resources before beginning).
• Refrain from nightly television habits or phone-game habits certain nights of the week.
• Draw boundaries around amount of time spent on Facebook and at what times during the day
  (i.e. refrain from looking at Facebook first thing every morning)

Fasting Resources:

• http://www.cru.org/train-and-grow/devotional-life/7-steps-to-fasting.html 
• http://www.ihopkc.org/about/fasting-guidelines-and-information/
• http://www.allaboutgod.com/christian-fasting.htm

Be safe in your fasting practices, especially if you choose to abstain from food.  And please, feel free to share your practice or experiences with me at jason@horizonschurch.org.  

More to come!


Jason <><

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Let New Life Begin!

It is now a full, 100%, full-speed-ahead, all engines go, 2015 new year.  The hardest week is out of the way, and life as we know it lunges forward!

To celebrate:

• Sarah and I made it through our first week apart and only missed one devotion!
  
• Even without Sarah's expert leadership, I managed to host all 22 confirmation students and leaders at our home on Friday
  
• Our "One Word" journey is off to a beautiful start; my word is "Confidence" (Jer 17:7)
  
• Our HOME Group is bigger and more cohesive than ever
  
• The Confirmands, parents, and Prayer Warriors have begun their official journey together
  
• 14 families are signed up for Financial Peace University
  
• New Disciple Groups and HOME Groups are on their way|
  
• Several new studies are being offered and a new Healthy Horizons initiative is on its way!

There is such great energy and momentum this time of year it is just about all we can handle.

HERE'S THE KICKER:  If we don't stay grounded and focused, we'll be swept away by the rush.  Wisdom in Proverbs reminds us "The plans of the diligent end up in profit, but those who hurry end up with loss" (21:5, Common English).  

As we were reminded in worship yesterday, without prayer, it's impossible to follow God's leading.  Without God's leading, how can we stay diligent to the right direction?

What often results instead of our diligence is our hurry, or as it's translated in the ESV, our haste.  We say yes to everything, rush like mad to accomplish everything, and burn out of everything by Feb.  

While every option is available to us in the beginning of the new year, not everything is specifically for us.  God knows what each of us needs and is happy to lead us toward the right things.  Here's to a life-filled 2015!

More to come!

Jason <><

4 Rules when Distance Nears

Starting today, for the next 8 weeks, Sarah will be living in Broken Bow with her parents during the week and commuting to Kearney for her third of four clinical rotations.  Thankfully, she'll be home most weekends.  Although the experience will be invaluable for Sarah, neither of us are looking forward to it.

Our lack of enthusiasm is not necessarily because we continue to have a young, fresh marriage and simply cannot bear the thought of being so far, far apart (although that's part of it).  It's primarily because we have poured a lot of time, care, priority, and effort into this thing we call our marriage, to the point we now heavily depend on it.  Our relationship and marriage have become the foundation of how we live--in our faith, our routines, our free-time, and in our hope.  It's simply not in line with the direction we've been heading.

So what do we do?

Sarah and I both know we have the tendency, like many people and couples, to become very invested in whatever it is we're doing--whether it be work, school, a project at home, vacation, etc.  For both of us, it'd be easy simply to let this time be a "time away and apart," knowing that we'll come back together and pick back up where we left off once we're together again.  Some relationships work that way.  But living in the illusion that although our relationship hasn't thrived that way in the past but will now somehow won't work.

Our best option is to commit to staying connected and hold ourselves and each other accountable to some practices.  These may be helpful suggestions for others in relationships as well:

1. Never be too busy to talk on the phone, any time of the day, even if it can only be a short call.
2. Don't allow circumstances of distance and differing circumstances validate disengagement.
3. Study a Bible-based devotion nightly and pray together.
4. Treat weekends like royal homecoming holidays!

God is good, and so, God willing, we'll grow even stronger in our faith and relationship through these simple practices.  There's even a good chance we'll keep these as rules even when we're NOT at a distance from each other!

More to come!

Jason <><

Never Grumble the Rumble!

It's Monday, the first after a beautiful Christmas celebration and holiday, and I'm at my office, welcoming some bits of routine.  Getting here wasn't the easiest, however, as Sarah and I stayed one more night in Broken Bow to help cheer her dad on during his birthday dinner.  We woke this morning to see that our 20% chance of snow was 100% falling on the ground.  Nevertheless, we decided to forge ahead and try the roads.

As we carefully made our way over snow-covered roads in the dark, snowy expanse of highway 2, I realized on any other day, the sound of the rumble bar under my tires would be a reason to grumble.  On a dry, well-defined road, rumble bars, now in place on both the sides and the median, present themselves as mere annoyances.  For me the rumble bars usually serve as announcement to my passengers that, yes, once again, Jason has decided to pass a vehicle.  Sleepy eyes open wide and spines straighten as if I had just committed to ramping over the next bridge with our vehicle.  The rumble bars also serve as an announcement to my passengers that, yes, Jason has once again taken his eyes off the road to search for a more engaging station.  The bars mostly seem to serve as the first scolding announcement and a handy prompt for more scolds.

I have often thought to myself, why do we keep doing this to our roads?  Is this really a fix to inebriated driving and snow-covered highways?  I haven't really been a fan of the bars in the past.

But this morning, my allegiances changed.  Without any traffic to help light the road and the addition of a moderate snow cover, at times the road lanes were nearly impossible to distinguish from the shoulders during our drive.  The occasional sound of an under-tire rumble and the constant flare of a road-side marker became welcomed (even desired) signs of guidance, protection, and comfort.  I wouldn't have felt nearly as safe or confident without them.

How many times in life when we're cruising along, wanting to get where we are headed, on our own time, in our own fashion, by whatever means we choose, do we begin to grumble when the "rumble bars" of life hum their announcements and warnings.  We want to tell them to mind their own business and quit pointing out all our choices to others.  We want to fly under the radar, insisting we're doing this just fine.

But just like the state of Nebraska felt it was worth the added expense to lay endless miles of studded tracks down the sides and middles of our roads, God also knows the deeper value of the warnings, revealing truths, and gift of accountability He has put alongside our ways.  When we swear we're doing just fine, God seems unfair and a little too controlling or condemning.  But in all honesty, whether the "weather" is fair or not, God's annoying rumble bars and road markers are often the very things that save our lives and guide our ways to safety and good outcomes.  They are there, in the sun and the snow, to guide and care for us.

And so, even when we do grumble, let's remember to give thanks for the rumble bars of life and the roads.

More to come!

Jason <><

Denying God's Gifts

Who would ever, in their right heart or mind, deny God's gifts or blessings?  It seems when God responds to our needs and petitions, it's often after a long wait and a strenuous haul.  That moment of reception is often a sigh of relief and release of pressure that shows itself as the light of a new dawn in our lives.

So who would deny a gift from God?  Why?

Just yesterday I found myself walking down the very road of wanting to hide what God has been doing in my life.  Since coming to Horizons, our lives have been pretty intense, and 60 to 80 hours weekly is a typical week for me.

Yet, as we approach this Christmas season, a.k.a. the "busy" season, I'm finding a clear path before me minus much of the typical seasonal debris.  It's a tremendous gift from God, a moment of rest, of restoration, of building up for a new season.  Amen!

Holiday lights with my parents!

Yet, as I've considered the extra time I have, decisions have come up about how to spend it the most wisely.  My gut reaction is to fill these open hours with new tasks and future work.  My gut responses when choosing NOT to fill my time with those activities are guilt and fear.  Nevertheless, instead of simply filling my free time with other tasks and greater details in the areas I'm already working, Sarah and I have taken some time to be together.  We took any opportunity last Friday to visit my parents and celebrate my father's birthday.  We are anticipating having the chance to spend a little more time with family over Christmas and New Years.  We're genuinely excited and thankful.

Yet, yesterday at church (12/22), as people asked me how I am and how the season is going so far, my first response was to assure my inquirers I am doing well and, yes, keeping very busy in this season--to the point of being slightly, and typically overwhelmed.

But God's voice came very clearly to me in the midst of my responses:  "Really?  I'm giving you this tremendous gift, the one you've been praying for over a year now, and now that it's hear you're hiding it?"  I quickly had to change my tune and tell the truth:  God has been so good to us so far this Christmas.  I have had some extra time to be with family, to care for my wife, to ponder some deep-heart questions about the future of my ministry.  This is good, and I can't feel guilty about it.

BUT in that moment, I saw how easy it is to hide or deny the gifts God gives us.  We do this for many of the following (inappropriate) reasons:

• We feel guilty or undeserving.  It doesn't feel right to be blessed when others aren't, even though God never promised life would be fair.
• We grow afraid others will be upset we aren't using our extra time on them, and that we are being selfish, even though Jesus reminds us we can't be healthy for others if we aren't healthy for ourselves first.
• We get really used to being the victim of overwhelming situations and over-stuffed schedules, to the point it becomes our identity and our reason for needing others' constant sympathy.  It feels quite discomforting to step away from that role, even though Paul reminds us Jesus set us free for freedom, not so we can just pick up our chains again.  

So today, and for however long this season is, I'm going to share about God's work in my life and live as fully into God's gift as I possibly can.  No guilt, no fear, no need to return to my chains.  Amen!

More to come!

Jason <><

Incompetent and Blessed!

It's a rainy Monday morning just 10 days from Christmas day.  Many people I spoke to yesterday were elated to have the "beautiful" weather.  I honestly think gray and soggy isn't too pretty, even if the temperature registers 50+.  But that's just me.  It might snow this afternoon.

Earlier this year I had the opportunity to spend some time with two successful church leaders in our denomination.  Between several of the conversations and questions my peers and I asked Adam Hamilton and Mike Slaughter regarding some of their keys to success, both responded with similar, deflating, and surprising recommendations:  as a leader of a growing church, the quicker you can admit and publicize your incompetence, the quicker you'll be able to grow.

Serious?  It sounds impossible.  Aren't leaders good at what they do?  Isn't that what sets high-capacity leaders apart?  How then can it be good in any situation to parade about in my inadequacies?
Perhaps it's different in the corporate world, but at church, where Christ is truly the head, this kingdom work isn't about weeding out the greats and putting the most powerful on top.  It's about becoming a stronger, deeper, more diversified community of tightly-knit disciples working together as a mass movement, heading in one direction.

That's when the church truly takes shape as an inextinguishable force for life, light, faith, and good.

I was most recently reminded of this yesterday afternoon as I drove out (behind schedule) to guy's home who is part of a great church family and two HOME groups.  Several men assembled yesterday to help him put up Christmas lights on his house in time for his children, grandchildren, and most importantly, his wife, who has been in the hospital with significant health challenges, arrived at the house.

While I was late to the light-hanging party and was feeling sad I hadn't seen the family since Tuesday, I knew it was going to be okay.  Where my incompetence and inadequacies in my time and availability have cropped up, a sea of loving, competent, church family members and staff have come pouring in.

As I pulled up in front of the house, I saw men everywhere, crawling like ants, working like elves, putting lights up everywhere.  I've seen a ton of these moments lately.  It's beautiful.  It's the church, the body of Christ.  It didn't get to this by my special abilities, but rather my single ability to admit and publicize my shortcomings!

Praise God for being inadequate.  That's when God is the strongest!


More to come!

Jason <><

If a Beard Could Speak

When I first started wearing a beard that looked like a real beard a year ago, several asked me "what does Sarah think about that?"

The truth is, my so-called beard grew out of my pursuit for laziness during our 2013 Thanksgiving break.  It's good for my soul to live drastically distant, when on vacation, from my standard regiment.  Additionally, rather than shaving after Thanksgiving, I simply let the beard grow.  The difference is more than wanting or intending to have a beard, I simply didn't stop it from appearing.

How does Sarah feel about it?

Sarah loves my beard, and certainly more than I do.  I don't mind it, but I think it risks me looking more like a pastor that I may want to at times.  So ultimately, I wear a beard because it's more work not to have it and because my wife loves it.

But what would my beard say if it could speak?  I'm guessing it would say the following:

• Moses had a beard.  If it was good for him, it's good for you.
•  It's too late to go back now.  If you get rid of me, people will squirm in the discomfort of how strange/young/less "manly" you look without me.
• You really should learn to love me, I make you look better, and many men would kill to have me.
• Never mind the sparsely, randomly placed white hairs, it's a work in progress.  

So here's to the beard.  I'm learning to love it, and yes, if I didn't want to keep it, I should have considered shaving it off earlier.  

Plus, it's "Christmasy" and season-appropriate!

More to come!

Jason <><