Wanting More

So I’ve spent a fair bit of time today thinking about us as Christians and the risks (or lack of) we take or the creativity (or lack of) we are open to.

I know I am painting with a very broad brush here but it seems like a large majority of the time I hear believers talking about risks  and the need to take them it’s usually in the context of a short term missions trip or looking at financing a building project.

Not that there is anything wrong with those two things but we have a faith based on a God who sent His son to earth to die on a cross. He then rose from the dead so that we could be reconciled with God and live life to the full.  We then usually live safe little lives where we take very few risks. We sit nicely in our pews then go out into the world and blend right in. Large groups of us may raise our voice to complain about something we’re unhappy about (usually the government) but won’t allow God to speak into our lives beyond dealing with some surface level sin.

A lot of these thoughts come from my reaction to an interaction I had earlier today.  It was with a leader in a local church and there was just no excitement. There was no willingness to change anything from the status quo. There was no willingness to risk anything.  Everything is just fine the way it is and there is no reason to look at anything other than what they’re currently doing and how they’re doing it.

I’m not a fan of change for change sake but I believe we need to be open to God’s calling whenever it comes.  We need to be creative in our thinking as we seek to share the gospel.  We should be full of a holy mischief. We should make people a little uncomfortable because we live as people who have a hope. A hope that is worth dedicating our lives to and giving up everything for.

Again I know I’m painting with a very broad brush. I know there are people of faith who are taking huge risks for the kingdom of God.  I know there are believers who are creating beautiful art and others who are thinking and wrestling with the realities of living a life a faith. So I ask for your forgiveness as I gripe about the way we as Christians often settle for a bland way of living.

Tweet This Post

Hi all

I’m posting this from my phone. I’ve never done this before so I’m hoping this works and is viewable.

I’m out doing some song writing and came across two fantastic definitions for the word “guide” that I wanted to share.

Guide
1) implies intimate knowledge of the way and of all it’s difficulties and dangers

2) to put or lead on a course or into the way to be followed

They’re nothing profound but I was really struck with the beautiful picture of God as our true guide. That in the struggles and realities of life He alone has an intimate knowledge of the way to be followed.

May God guide you!

Tweet This Post

Every church talks about how the ministry they are doing is “not about building up our church” and that it’s about God’s Kingdom. For the most part that may be true but quite often (in my experience anyway) most churches usually function on their own and separate from other congregations in the same community. That it’s about God’s kingdom but we would never help that other church over there.

Tweet This Post

Well I’ve been thinking more and more about where I’m at in my spiritual journey.  In a post last week I talked about my desire to have a greater impact on non-believers around me. As I’ve been wrestling with it I’ve been reminded continually that it all starts with me.  

The big picture is that I want to see the world and lives changed for God. I think most believers would say that as well. The problem is that we’re so busy trying to change the world around us that we forget that the change starts with us.  If we want to see God work in our community and the people we interact with we need to first allow Him to work in our own lives. We cannot expect to have a real impact until we have been really impacted.  

This isn’t just a one time thing I’m talking about. We need to continually allow God to change and reshape us.  The changing of the world starts with the change in ourselves. So I’ve been trying to allow God into my life more and more to show me what still needs worked on. Unfortunately that’s never going to stop.  So the other thing that I need to remember is I can’t wait for me to have everything perfect (cause that’s never going to happen). I’m trying to find that balance or tension between allowing God to prepare me to go into the world and knowing that He’s with me and I’m capable of going out into the world.

Tweet This Post

So I was spending some time practicing and a thought occurred to me. (“Wow Charlie, you developed a thought.” Pretty surprising I know).

We as Christians have serious troubles with listening. This applies to many different contexts but I’m referring specifically to listening to God. 

We spend lots of time doing Christian activities (that is a good thing) and hopefully lots of time in God’s word and prayer. We strive to find God and meet with Him. We try to follow where he is leading because we know that is what He wants and is best for us. 

But how good are we at listening?

Let me explain why this thought came to my mind.  This might seem quite odd to some of you but I’ll do my best to explain. Quite often when someone is trying to learn an instrument they learn “how” to play that instrument. Let’s take the piano as an example. They have an understanding of how it’s suppose to sound and how to make it sound that way. So practice time is spent trying to manipulate the piano to sound the way it’s suppose to. 

Here’s the odd part that most people don’t realize. When most people are playing an instrument they don’t actually listen or hear what they are playing. You may be thinking  ”that sounds funny, how do they not hear it?”. When playing most people can hear when they hit a wrong note or make a big mistake but don’t hear the sound of the instrument and or the musc they are playing. A popular (and excellent) exercise that many people do is to record their playing to hear it back and listen to how it sounded.  That is a great exercise but did you catch that? We have to record ourselves to hear how we sound! Very few people learn how to listen to their instrument as they are playing. They don’t hear the flow and the movement, the expression, the subtle harmonies or how the sound is filling the room. They are too busy learning how to manipulate their instrument instead of hearing what they sound like and adapting to it. Best example I can give is someone absolutely reefing on their instrument.  It’s loud but it sounds like garbage. Every instrument has a volume where it “sings” and we need to learn to listen for that.

In the example of classical pianists that’s what separates a good player from a great one. With the great ones you don’t just hear a lot of notes played really fast, you hear harmonies and textures and emotion. Yes they are playing fast and fancy but it’s about so much more than the notes. 

When I look at people of faith whom I admire and have been great examples to me they have that listening quality. Yes they do lots of things but it’s about so much more than those things and it’s not done with the intent to (for lack of a better word) manipulate  God. They are in a relationship with Him and when they spend time with God it is a two way street. They are listening to and in tune with God.  They aren’t doing it just to get everything right, they are doing so they can hear God, see how He meets with them and fills the spaces in their lives.

Tweet This Post

So yesterday morning I had very cool and annoying experience.  

It was about 6:30 in the morning and the kids had actually let us sleep a little but I was in and out of consciousness singing in my head a verse from the hymn I Have Decided to Follow Jesus.  I looked it up the following morning and it was verse 2 I was sing over and over. 

“The world behind me, the cross before me;

The world behind me, the cross before me;

The world behind me, the cross before me;

No turning back, no turning back.”

It was annoying because it was 6:30 and the only chance I’ve had to sleep-in for a very long time. But it was cool because that was exactly what I needed to hear that morning. Life around has been quite crazy, a little scary and not going as smoothly as we’d like. I mentioned our car troubles last week. Well the night before we had made a decision on what we were going to do. We decided we’d fix our car even though we found out there was much more to fix than we originally thought. 

I’ve had some shoulder problems in the past but it has been feeling great. However since last Tuesday I’ve had a horrible pain in my low back. Unable to bend over very far, play piano or do much with the kids. Found out our accountant and bookkeeper is not going to be able to work this year due to some circumstances in her life. Add on some usual daily stress and it’s been a fairly trying time. Just can’t seem to get the momentum going in our direction right now.  That can make me struggle with some of our recent life decisions and cause unnecessary struggles.

But through all of this my wife and I have been praying more as a couple and have been very close which is of the utmost importance in stressful times. Our kids continue to bring us great joy and make us laugh. And most importantly we have been feeling close to and lead by God. Knowing that our decision to follow him and leave the world behind is the right one. That the difficulties we are facing right now are minor in the grand scheme of things and that God does want good things for us. 

So waking up singing a song I can recall only hearing once and declaring in my spirit the world is behind me and the cross is before me is a great way to start the day.

Tweet This Post

So yesterday was an interesting day. 

My car has been making some funny noises so I was taking it into our family’s mechanic.  Unfortunately that’s three quarters of an hour away in Kitchener. But I get a call from my pal asking if I want to go to Toronto with him and get a private demo on some gear we’ve both been looking at. I figured the car was going to be a while so we made arrangements for him to pick me up and we went.  

We had a great time. We always do. The demo we got was a lot of fun and it was a great time hanging out with the guy who showed us the gear.  The problem is you always leave those sorts of things wanting more stuff. 

Then I go to get my car. It hasn’t been fixed.  I owe them $45 for the diagnosis. You have to realize I love this mechanic and trust them they have been very good to our family. The diagnosis………We need a new bearing in our transmission. The estimate………$2000-2500! 

I knew going to the gear demo that I wasn’t going to be buying anything any time soon but to now have to pay that much for my car was a little like salt in the wound. 

I got home and shared the news with my wife and we were pretty stressed. We’ve been happy with our car but it’s on the small side and we have two kids now so it doesn’t really meet our space needs. So we wrestle with fix this car and committing to it for another year or two or getting a newer car that would suit us better. We decide it’s better to fix the car rather than take on a car payment. 

Needless to say our evening was ruined. We were grumpy and stressed. We’d have to put off getting new windows in the house and this bill was going to put us seriously behind where we wanted to be financially.  As the evening went on though I kept having that nagging feeling of “what the heck do I have to complain about?” Yes it’s frustrating that I have to pay to fix the car. But I own a car. I had dinner with my healthy family. We slept in a bed kept warm by the working furnace in our house without fear of attack or war.  And for the most part those are just superficial or materialistic things. Never mind all the other blessings God has given me. 

I woke up this morning determined to be thankful with the mindset that I have it all. Because I really do.  So much of the reality of our lives is based on our reaction to our circumstances. Sometimes we make situations more than they actually are just because of our mindset and attitude.  Nothing in my situation had changed but my day was so much better just by thanking God for what I do have. 

The interesting thing after all that. I call the car dealership today to get a second quote on the car. They haven’t seen the car yet but have quoted the same job for $1000-15000. My day keeps getting better and better.

Tweet This Post

In a couple of previous posts I talked about my lack of devotion times the last little while.  Last night I had a bit of a ah-ha moment.  While I’m not trying to make excuses (just gain insight) I realized why things haven’t been that great in the spiritual discipline department and while things aren’t great they aren’t as bad as I was thinking.  

Let me explain. I’ve spent the last 3 or so years in ministry. When you’re planning services or teachings, preparing to meet with people or do long term planning it’s very easy to stop and take time to pray right there in that moment. After all you’re planning worship of God and ministry for people.  You want every aspect of it (including the planning) to be God honouring. 

I’m not currently planning services or things like that. This morning I’m trying to decide if I start my day by doing some drum tracking or doing some piano practicing.  In this context it’s very easy to forget that God has an interest in each of these details. He knows what the plan for today should be.  He wants the best for me and is willing to lead me there if I just ask Him.  Just because it’s not help with a specific ministry doesn’t mean I shouldn’t go to God for help with each aspect of my life. 

I need to be turning to Him more and more with each part of my day. I haven’t been doing that and I am feeling the affects spiritually. I feel like I’ve been failing spiritually when really God is just revealing some areas of my life that I need to turn over to Him.  I can’t let the enemy try and convince me that things are worse than they are or create a feeling of guilt in me. 

On Sunday we heard a great sermon on Hebrews 10:19-25. This includes the passage on needing to spur each other on. The speaker shared very passionately how we as believers and churches need to take this passage much more seriously than we do. So with this post I wish to spur you on in your walk with God. May you trust Him with each and every detail of your day.

Tweet This Post

So a little confession.  My devotion times haven’t been that great the last week or two.  Sometimes that’s the reality of life but it’s incredible the effect not spending time focused  just on God each day has on me. I haven’t had my typical sunny disposition (ha) and have been short on patience and joy.  

After a great discussion with our small group last night I made sure I took the time this morning that God deserved. Wow.  The reading that I had planned on doing before my “little slump”  was just what I needed to hear from Him today. Challenging, thought provoking and fresh. 

Man it’s cool how God works sometimes.

Tweet This Post

Just thought I’d share this with you. One of my favorite blogs is the Naked Pastor.

It’s just great honest stuff that I resonate with. I love today’s post  (specifically his explanation at the bottom).  Me sharing this is not a reflection of what I think about my church but part of my larger struggle with wanting to be fully alive spiritually and how the Christian world and Christian culture cause me difficulties at times. I made a reference a few weeks ago to my Christian Identity Crisis  here   and  here.

Tweet This Post