Autopilot

Do you ever feel like you’re just existing? Moving along, doing life, sitting in meetings, making dinner, blah, blah, blah…

That’s how I’m feeling lately.

A couple of years ago, I read this book by Donald Miller called A Million Miles in a Thousand Years. It’s a book about story. And it’s a book about life. It’s a book about choosing to live a better story. About getting out of that “autopilot” rut and diving into the things that really matter… the things that really make a difference. Miller says things like:

“If the point of life is the same as the point of a story, the point of life is character transformation. If I got any comfort as I set out on my first story, it was that in nearly every story, the protagonist is transformed. He’s a jerk at the beginning and nice at the end, or a coward at the beginning and brave at the end. If the character doesn’t change, the story hasn’t happened yet. And if story is derived from real life, if story is just condensed version of life then life itself may be designed to change us so that we evolve from one kind of person to another. ”

Maybe it’s time to pick up that book again.

Friday Five: May 11, 2012

Random thoughts from this week:

1. I’m having a lot of trouble getting back into the routine of blogging. I’m not sure why it’s so difficult. I love writing. I’ve just gotten out of the routine.
2. I’ve been journaling over the past month and a half or so (another routine that I had kind of lost in the shuffle of life), and through reflection I’m discovering that I’m in kind of a season of rediscovery. I’m rediscovering some passions–like writing, journaling, playing guitar. And it’s taking me some time to get back into the routine of really pursuing those passions, but it’s kind of a cool adventure.
3. In a few hours, Scott and I are heading out for our first camping trip of the season… and our first camping trip with Hiro (our golden retriever that we added to the family back in December). I’m really pumped to be going off the grid for the weekend to spend some time with my parents and to enjoy nature. It’s good for the soul.
4. This past Sunday was our first Confirmation Celebration since I started at Epiphany. Since I have never really been the one “in charge” of running a confirmation program before I started here, it was a pretty cool thing to be part of, and to witness the fruits of the great labor that this year has included. I’m SO proud of that group of confirmands.
5. This week, we started sort of a “test run” of Peer Ministry Training. The first week went really well, and I’m excited to see how this model pans out for us at Epiphany. It was really cool to see some of those confirmands from Sunday already back in the saddle to pursue leadership just a few days later. There’s always hope for bucking the trend of confirmation-graduation, right?

From Competition to Compassion

I sat down to read from Henri Nouwen’s Here and Now this morning, and was stopped dead in my tracks by an essay titled “From Competition to Compassion”. In the midst of recent circumstances and conversations, Nouwen speaks with an authority that brings conviction. What makes compassion so difficult when it really counts? Why are we so moved to competition instead of compassion? What does this look like in the church? In youth ministry? Nouwen’s essay is worth the read on this Monday morning:

If there is one notion that is central to all great religions it is that of “compassion.” The sacred scriptures of the Hindus, Buddhists, Moslems, Jews, and Christians all speak about God as the God of compassion. In a world in which competition continues to be the dominant mode of relating among people, be it in politics, sports, or economics, all true believers proclaim compassion, not competition, as God’s way.

How is it possible to make compassion the center of our lives? As insecure, anxious, vulnerable, and mortal beings–always involved, somehow and somewhere, in the struggle for survival–competition seems to offer us a great deal of satisfaction. In the Olympics, as well as in the American presidential race, it is clear that winning is what is most desired and most admired.

Still, Jesus says: “Be compassionate as your heavenly Father is compassionate,” and throughout the centuries all great spiritual guides echo these words. Compassion–which means, literally, “to suffer with”–is the way to the truth that we are most ourselves, not when we differ from others, but when we are the same. Indeed, the main spiritual question is not, “What difference do you make?” but “What do you have in common?” It is not “excelling” but “serving” that makes us most human. It is not proving ourselves to be better than others but confessing to be just like others that is the way to healing and reconciliation.

Compassion, to be with others when and where they suffer and to willingly enter into a fellowship of the weak, is God’s way to justice and peace amont people. Is this possible? Yes, it is, but only when we dare to live with the radical faith that we do not have to compete for love, but that love is freely given to us by the One who calls us to compassion.

Nouwen, Henri. Here and Now (Crossroad Publishing, 1994): 134-136.

Friday Five: May 4, 2012

Today’s friday five is dedicated to my little sister in honor of yesterday being her 25th birthday and today being the day that she graduates with her Masters’ Degree. So, without further delay, five things I LOVE about my sister.

1. Spunk & Humor. My sister is probably one of the spunkiest people I know, and I love it! Does she drive me crazy sometimes with her attitude? Sure. But really, I secretly love it. In addition to that spunk, she makes people laugh, usually without even trying. Need proof? There’s a little video floating around on Facebook called “Sisterly Love.” Her humor crushes my lack thereof.
2. Adventure. Kristen likes to grab life by the horns and adventure. She was the first of the two of us to go on Spoke Folk. She’s spent summers in Minnesota and Colorado, and right now she’s exploring and planning her next great adventure.
3. She tells it like it is. There’s no beating around the bush with this girl. She just thinks what she thinks and then tells you how it is.
4. Driven. Once this girl knows what she wants, she goes for it. Case in point, today she will graduate with her Masters’ Degree in College Student Personnel (or something like that) after two years of ridiculously hard work, putting up with the craziness of university residence life, and everything else that goes with it! She’s a champ!
5. Love. When Kristen loves you, you know it. She loves like there’s no tomorrow, and she has one of the biggest hearts I know. I’m gonna miss her if and when her next great adventure takes her far, far away from Ohio.

Wednesday Wisdom: Henri Nouwen on Fatalism and Faith

I’ve been soaking in these words this week. What do they say to my attitudes in life? In ministry? In relationships? Henri Nouwen is a wise, wise man.

“Fatalism is the attitude that makes us live as passive victims of exterior circumstances beyond our control… The opposite of fatalism is faith. Faith is the deep trust that God’s love is stronger than all the anonymous powers of the world and can transform us from victims of darkness into servants of light… It is important to identify the many ways in which we think, speak, or act with fatalism and, step by step, to convert them into moments of faith. This movement from fatalism to faith is the movement that will remove the cold darkness from our hearts and transform us into people whose trust in the power of love can, indeed, make mountains move.” (Nouwen, Here and Now, pp. 105-106)

Friday Five: April 27, 2012

Random thoughts from this week:

1. I think I’m going to try blogging more regularly again. This thing always seems to go in seasons for me… sort of a cycle of “hey, I’m gonna blog every day!” to “oh, crap. I forgot about my blog for the last 3 months.” Maybe I can find a healthy balance between the two. There’s a lot in my brain that maybe, just maybe, is worth sharing with the world.
2. I’ve been soaking up some wisdom from Henri Nouwen recently with a leisurely read through his book Here and Now. If I had to choose a handful of writers who have served as my spiritual directors over the years, Nouwen is one of them. His words cut to the soul, and speak into my life exactly what I need to hear. It’s just plain good.
3. A few weeks back, I was inspired by some of what Jon Acuff is doing in his 2012 project called “Finish Year.” While the whole New Years’ Resolutions thing didn’t really happen for me this year, and I wasn’t quite ready to make a list of 5 or 6 things (maybe this year is my “Lazy Year”)–but I’ve been really intrigued by one of Jon’s projects for the year. He is hand writing the book of Proverbs into a Moleskine notebook. So, a few weeks ago I started working my way through the book of Psalms. Hand written. Sometimes I sit down and write through 4 or 5 in a day, sometimes I’m lucky if I get through a couple in a week. But it’s been a really cool spiritual discipline. I’m excited to see the ways that God continues to reveal himself through this.
4. Jumping back to #2 and speaking of Nouwen, these words are really hitting home from my reading today: “I am constantly puzzled by my eagerness to get something done, to see someone, to finish some job, while I am fully aware that within a month or even a week I will have completely forgotten what it was that seemed so urgent… Why is it so difficult to be still and quiet and let God speak to me about the meaning of my life? Is it because I don’t trust God? Is it because I don’t know God? Is it because I wonder if God really is there for me? Is it because I am afraid of God? Is it because everything else is more real for me than God?” (Here and Now, pp. 100-101)
5. In less than 2 hours I’m heading over to Interfaith Hospitality Network of Greene County with a small group of middle school youth to hang out with, serve dinner to, and be Jesus for, a group of families who are temporarily homeless. We’re going back again tomorrow (with another group of students) to serve another meal and to pass out some homemade quilts to the kids from the quilting ladies at our church. There’s never a better time for us to love Jesus by serving others than now.

Music Monday: “Beautiful Things”

It’s a Gungor kind of day.