Makes me think of Paul's instruction for pastors to equip the saints.
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
Kobe and Phil and Leadership
Watching the ESPN docu-drama tonight, I heard Kobe Bryant give a great insight on leadership of winning teams. He said, roughly, that Phil Jackson, Lakers' coach, doesn't draw up plays for the team. "He draws up sequences, he gives us options to follow based on what we see happening on the floor at the moment."
Friday, June 05, 2009
When God Moves Slowly
A friend of mine asked recently if God was ever going to answer a particular prayer. I answered with a quote from Tom Petty that "the wai-ai-aiting is the hardest part" and said something about God moving slowly to create change in our lives. That sounded pithy at the time.
Hours of mindless tasks later, I recalled something I'd read from Frederick Buechner in The Sacred Journey. He writes about the obfuscation of God's speech into our lives, saying, "God speaks to us in such a way, presumably, not because he chooses to be obscure but because, unlike a dictionary word whose meaning is fixed, the meaning of an incarnate word is the meaning it has for the one it is spoken to, the meaning that becomes clear and effective in our lives only when we ferret it out for ourselves."
It took me a while to find the quote, but I finally dug it out. Maybe the search was a kind of metaphor for my own spiritual waiting and searching - part hazy memory, part dim epiphany, part grubbing about in my library. As I consider all my own "waits" and all the "waits" of others, I think the waiting is part of the process of finding meaning in God's speech, the speech that becomes effective "only when we ferret it out for ourselves."
But couldn't God do things in an easier way? Just a little quicker, playing things out nice and clean, like a thirty minute sit-com?
But really, who am I to judge God's speed and efficiency? God's economy holds little similarity with my system of skewed values and prejudices, anyway, and besides that, there is that other little nagging thing that just may be an absolute truth: God's ways are not my ways.
I do hold hope for the future, though. One day there will be a kingdom where things like mustard seeds, yeast, pearls, workers in vineyards, the meek, the poor, those who grieve, all these things, they will come to a place of prominence and the human economy will emulate God's economy. I'm ready for that day.
But since I don't see it on the horizon, I'll simply wait, just like I told my friend to do. And I'll hope for continued dim epiphanies and ghostly memories all grubbed out in the room I call my study while God moves slowly all around me.
Hours of mindless tasks later, I recalled something I'd read from Frederick Buechner in The Sacred Journey. He writes about the obfuscation of God's speech into our lives, saying, "God speaks to us in such a way, presumably, not because he chooses to be obscure but because, unlike a dictionary word whose meaning is fixed, the meaning of an incarnate word is the meaning it has for the one it is spoken to, the meaning that becomes clear and effective in our lives only when we ferret it out for ourselves."
It took me a while to find the quote, but I finally dug it out. Maybe the search was a kind of metaphor for my own spiritual waiting and searching - part hazy memory, part dim epiphany, part grubbing about in my library. As I consider all my own "waits" and all the "waits" of others, I think the waiting is part of the process of finding meaning in God's speech, the speech that becomes effective "only when we ferret it out for ourselves."
But couldn't God do things in an easier way? Just a little quicker, playing things out nice and clean, like a thirty minute sit-com?
But really, who am I to judge God's speed and efficiency? God's economy holds little similarity with my system of skewed values and prejudices, anyway, and besides that, there is that other little nagging thing that just may be an absolute truth: God's ways are not my ways.
I do hold hope for the future, though. One day there will be a kingdom where things like mustard seeds, yeast, pearls, workers in vineyards, the meek, the poor, those who grieve, all these things, they will come to a place of prominence and the human economy will emulate God's economy. I'm ready for that day.
But since I don't see it on the horizon, I'll simply wait, just like I told my friend to do. And I'll hope for continued dim epiphanies and ghostly memories all grubbed out in the room I call my study while God moves slowly all around me.
Quick line
Who was the man behind the mask?
None of us ever dared to ask.
Poetry was Everette's shield and sword.
Line from Everette as sung by Slaid Cleaves
None of us ever dared to ask.
Poetry was Everette's shield and sword.
Line from Everette as sung by Slaid Cleaves
Holy WOW!
When did you last say, “WOW!” and really mean it? Was it a sunset, an amazing vista, or a summer shower? Was it an unexpected phone call from an old friend, a smile from a stranger, or the breath of an infant on your neck? Whatever it was or whenever it happened, each and every large and small “wow” in life is a gift from God.
You might even call such moments a “Holy Wow!”
Isaiah experienced a “holy wow” during a vision where he saw the angels before God’s throne singing “Holy, holy, holy.” He recognized the holiness of the moment. He saw the distance between his humanity and God’s perfection. He heard God’s question of “Whom shall I send?” and responded in the moment with the heart of a true volunteer, “Here am I; send me!”
Which leads me to believe that a “Holy Wow!” moment calls for a response from me. At minimum it’s a word of thanks. Ideally it becomes a question of “What should I do now?”
What do you do with the “Holy Wow!” moments of your life? How do you respond? What do you do in reaction to God’s presence in your life? Those are the questions I’m pondering in advance of this Sunday’s sermon on Isaiah 6.1-8. It’s called Beyond Wow. If you’d like to share some of your “Holy Wow!” moments, I’d love to read about them...jot me a line back at glong@fbcgaithersburg.org.
Holy cow!
Pastor Gary
Long Story, Short is a Friday email I write to get you thinking about church on Sunday. You can read more of my writing at Life to the Lees. You’re invited to worship at First Baptist Church of Gaithersburg this Sunday at 10:30 am.
Isaiah 6:1-8
A Vision of God in the Temple
6In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lofty; and the hem of his robe filled the temple. 2Seraphs were in attendance above him; each had six wings: with two they covered their faces, and with two they covered their feet, and with two they flew. 3And one called to another and said:‘Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts;the whole earth is full of his glory.’ 4The pivots* on the thresholds shook at the voices of those who called, and the house filled with smoke. 5And I said: ‘Woe is me! I am lost, for I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips; yet my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!’
6 Then one of the seraphs flew to me, holding a live coal that had been taken from the altar with a pair of tongs. 7The seraph* touched my mouth with it and said: ‘Now that this has touched your lips, your guilt has departed and your sin is blotted out.’ 8Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, ‘Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?’ And I said, ‘Here am I; send me!’
You might even call such moments a “Holy Wow!”
Isaiah experienced a “holy wow” during a vision where he saw the angels before God’s throne singing “Holy, holy, holy.” He recognized the holiness of the moment. He saw the distance between his humanity and God’s perfection. He heard God’s question of “Whom shall I send?” and responded in the moment with the heart of a true volunteer, “Here am I; send me!”
Which leads me to believe that a “Holy Wow!” moment calls for a response from me. At minimum it’s a word of thanks. Ideally it becomes a question of “What should I do now?”
What do you do with the “Holy Wow!” moments of your life? How do you respond? What do you do in reaction to God’s presence in your life? Those are the questions I’m pondering in advance of this Sunday’s sermon on Isaiah 6.1-8. It’s called Beyond Wow. If you’d like to share some of your “Holy Wow!” moments, I’d love to read about them...jot me a line back at glong@fbcgaithersburg.org.
Holy cow!
Pastor Gary
Long Story, Short is a Friday email I write to get you thinking about church on Sunday. You can read more of my writing at Life to the Lees. You’re invited to worship at First Baptist Church of Gaithersburg this Sunday at 10:30 am.
Isaiah 6:1-8
A Vision of God in the Temple
6In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lofty; and the hem of his robe filled the temple. 2Seraphs were in attendance above him; each had six wings: with two they covered their faces, and with two they covered their feet, and with two they flew. 3And one called to another and said:‘Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts;the whole earth is full of his glory.’ 4The pivots* on the thresholds shook at the voices of those who called, and the house filled with smoke. 5And I said: ‘Woe is me! I am lost, for I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips; yet my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!’
6 Then one of the seraphs flew to me, holding a live coal that had been taken from the altar with a pair of tongs. 7The seraph* touched my mouth with it and said: ‘Now that this has touched your lips, your guilt has departed and your sin is blotted out.’ 8Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, ‘Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?’ And I said, ‘Here am I; send me!’
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