Appointments Set by God

Have you ever had one of those moments where you knew that what was happening in your life at that time was most definitely a God thing?  Have you ever met someone and, after ten minutes you are completely sure that person crossed your path because God wanted him or her to?  I had one of those moments this evening here at Wesleyan Family Camp.

Melissa and I were eating dinner when another pastor on the district came over to introduce himself.  Ironically, his name is Joe.  He pastors in Missouri and is probably at least 20 years older than I am (Joe, if you read this and I'm wrong about that, please forgive me).

Anyway, we get to talking and I started sharing a little bit about my experience of journeying with God over the last several years and how God got the whole process started.  When Joe stopped and asked me what it was that served as the catalyst for God's work, I told him that it all began when I picked up A New Kind of Christian by Brian McLaren.  Joe's eyes lit up and he gave me a high five - apparently Joe is a fan of Brian McLaren.

As the conversation continued, Joe and I began to realize that God had brought us on somewhat similar journeys, at least recently.  Joe is, like me, a not-so-conservative Christian who is living in middle America and trying to figure out what it means to follow Jesus and how we can work together as a church to help people see that the truth of Christ is far more than what is seen on TV.

If this story isn't already unbelievable enough, our conversation continued and I mentioned that I am a Henri Nouwen fan.  Yes, Joe is a reader of Nouwen, so much so that he makes it a point to take an annual trip to a monastery for a week long silent retreat.

At this point, I'm starting to get a little freaked out, like one of those commercials on TV for retirement funds where young people have encounters with older, retired versions of themselves.  I'm thinking, "Is this guy me in 20 years?"  Well, God decided to show off even more by bringing to light that my new friend Joe, who likes Brian McLaren and Henri Nouwen, and who is a more progressive thinker, also happens to use an Orthodox Prayer Rope for reciting the Jesus Prayer and prays the Daily Office each day.

I can't even begin to express how much of an encouragement it is to find another pastor who happens to use the same odd combination of ways of prayer to communicate with God - and one who is successful, at that.  I have been worrying lately that my use of Orthodox prayer ropes and Catholic prayer books would cause issues within the church God has called me to lead here in Oklahoma.  They still may, but at least I know that there is one other guy - named Joe - who has figured out how to be successful with them.

God is sometimes funny, and God is most definitely always good!

We're HE-EERE!

Okay, so it's been a little bit since I've blogged, and I'm sure that there are some people who wish that I would do so.  Forgive me, it's been a little hectic getting everything done and unpacked here in Oklahoma City.

First things first, we absolutely love it here so far.  The city is great, if a little hot, and the church is even better.  God has had his hand in this and we are so thrilled with where he has called us.

We are off today to District Camp and Conference in Bartlesville, OK...so I won't be able to do too much on  here until a week from today.  But at least those few of you who read this are updated!

Peace,

jB

The Necessities of Life?

Just a few minutes ago,  I watched what is probably the single most aggravating and offensive commercial I've ever seen.  I was playing around on the computer and not watching TV too closely when I heard the following voice over, "I'm tired of seeing people suffer for the lack of life's necessities" (Or something to that effect).

I looked up from my computer game, expecting a Red Cross commercial or an ad for some other charitable organization.  Instead, what I got was a commercial for a local retailer of washers and dryers.

Really?  Is that what we're calling "life's necessities" these days?  Are there people out there whose lives are coming to an end because they don't have a matching set of Maytags?  And here I was under the impression that things like food and clean water and medicines for common diseases were life's necessities.  It's a good thing that the guy from the washer and dryer store is there to enlighten me.

Normally I would just roll my eyes at the combination of stupidity, ignorance and arrogance typical of most of us Americans (myself included).  However, I recently started reading a book by noted economist Jeffrey Sachs called The End of Poverty - a book that begins by detailing the appalling numbers of people dying for lack of life's REAL necessities, stories of people dying from malaria because they can't get nets and of AIDS hospitals that have the dying stacked so deep that there are two to a bed and often one on the floor next to the bed.  It makes me so mad!

And you know what the worst part is?  As I mentioned in a previous post, Melissa and I are getting ready to move to Oklahoma City.  The house we're moving to does not have gas, so our gas dryer isn't coming with us.  Which, of course, is a tragedy.  As I said to my wife, we can't just hang up our clothes around the house to dry (as probably the majority of people in the world do, when they get the chance to wash their clothes), we need an electric dryer.

So in the end, I can't be too mad at the guy on TV.  After all, it's me he's talking to...and I can't seem to stop listening.

Wow...has it really been that long?

Has it really been over a month since I posted.  Holy cow, where does the time go.  I suppose that when one is busy it is more difficult to find the time to "blog" about one's  life.  But I like blogging and am actually kind of sad that I went a month without posting...

Anyway, the quick update on my life is that Melissa and I have accepted a call to pastor May Avenue Wesleyan Church in Oklahoma City, OK.  We are extremely excited about the opportunity and looking forward to ministering together with the wonderful people of the church.  The interview went so well that I can hardly even describe it.  The people made us laugh and made us feel as if we'd been a part of the church for 20 years.  With that kind of welcoming attitude, it is a pretty safe bet that God will cause them to reap the benefits.

Well now I have to go get my daughter up and get her breakfast...perhaps it will not be longer than a month before I post again.

Why I love history...

I started reading a book just a few minutes ago - a book about the Battle of Little Big Horn, written from the perspective of the Lakota people.  In the introduction to the book, author Joseph Marshall offers up the following:

"Where are you from?

We all have heard that question more than we probably realize.  More often than not we respond with the name of the place where we were raised or where we were born or raised. That is, of course, the most obvious and seemingly logical answer.

Yet there is one place where we are all from, no matter our race or ethnicity or social status.

We are all from the past.

Who and what we are is shaped not only by the blood of our parents, grandparents, and ancestors, but also by their values, traditions, customs, and attitudes - and by the events they witnessed and experienced.  How we view the world today, as well as our individual, racial, and societal circumstances, depends on what happened to our ancestors, what they did or did not do, and on what they suffered or perpetrated.  Therefore, in order to understand ourselves, we must endeavor to understand who and what our ancestors were.  We must understand our past." (emphasis added)

That is why I love to read history so much.  I love the stories, not just of people who may have been my own ancestors, but of the ancestors of the people around me.  It's why I enjoy sitting down with the elder statesmen and women of the church and listening to them tell their stories.  Who they were has shaped what I am and what I become.  And of course, that truth extends to the future as well - who I am will shape what my children become; and my grandchildren; and my great-grandchildren; and on and on it goes.

Return of an Old "Friend"

I feel kind of like the hero in some bad spy movie sequel who, upon meeting the bad guy, says: "So, we meet again."  It seems like my old nemesis is trying to rear its head yet again.  I have had some issues with minor depression in the past and have been, for the most part, pretty good at fighting off the problem when it tries to come.

But for some reason it's harder this week than the last.  It feels like a battle that I can never fully win - like depression will always be with me.  Almost as if Jesus looked at me and, instead of saying, "The poor you will always have with you," has said instead, "The depression you will always have with you."  And I've got to say that I am not pleased by that.  To be fully open, I hate it.  I want to be "victorious" over it.  I don't want to continue to hear well-meaning, pious folks ask me if I have prayed about it or if there's any sin that's causing my issues.  I don't want to continue to have to spend every waking hour on the watch for that unknown trigger that will start the downward spiral, hoping that I can catch it in time.  Most of all, though, I don't want my issues with depression to be the reason that I never get a chance to pastor a church.

I know that I am God's beloved...at least intellectually.  Now if I could only learn to accept it in my heart.  I cling to the hope that, like my hero Henri Nouwen, I can find a way out of this depression and through it to a complete ministry to others.

Where's the Outcry?

Over the course of the last two weeks, there have been two major natural disasters in our world.  In Myanmar, as many as 125,000 people were killed and millions more left homeless by a cyclone.  In China, there was an earthquake that is being said to have claimed as many as 50,000 lives.  That's 175,000 lives that may have been lost in the last two weeks...just in natural disasters.

When I read about these two things - especially the cyclone - I couldn't help but think back to when Hurricane Katrina hit the gulf coast of the US in 2005.  And as I thought about it, one thing stood out to me - where is the outcry and the outpouring of support for the victims in Myanmar and China?  To be sure, relief agencies such as the Red Cross are doing their part for the cyclone and earthquake victims.  However, when Katrina hit, there was a massive outpouring of support for the city of New Orleans and other hard hit areas.  Some churches were able to raise millions of dollars to offer help...and this for a disaster in which less than 2,000 people lost their lives.

Now, I don't intend to minimize the deaths of 2,000 people.  Katrina was a national tragedy and the outpouring of support was admirable and amazing.  However, I can't help but question the church in particular when we can raise millions of dollars for our own cities and our own people but not others.  Where are the fundraisers being run for Myanmar in cities across the country?  Where are the churches sacrificing to raise millions of dollars to help earthquake victims in China?  Where are the people organizing trips to dig and to feed and to provide other support?

I think it is fair to say that all of the money that could - and arguably should - be going from our churches to Myanmar and China is staying right in the pockets of the people who sit in the pews.  After all, Myanmar and China are so far away - and there's nothing we can do anyway - that's what the Red Cross is for...

There are all kinds of excuses, and all of them are crap.  Period.  I simply refuse to believe that the same people who, three years ago, gave selflessly and sacrificially to Katrina Victims suddenly don't have the resources to sacrifice for an international tragedy that, at least in terms of lives lost, could end up being more than 500 times worse than Katrina.  We Americans are self-centered and bigoted and prejudiced...if we deign to give at all, it is only for our own kind.

I guess it suffices to say that this is one of those times that I am ashamed to be a part of the church in America.

jB