The Dream Factory

David would not/could not wear Saul's armor to battle Goliath. He was not Saul. He was not Saul's size. He needed his own garb and his own weapons. When we realize that we are unique, fearfully and wonderfully made people, we will come to be free to be ourselves. We won't try to fit into someone else's armor or style. We will celebrate our own personalities and unique voices for sharing the message that has been seared into our hearts. We will abandon the need to use boiler plate strategies, jargon, and methodologies. We will awaken to the reality that no one else and be who we are nor do what we can do. We are gifted in our own ways and our giftedness becomes part of God's gift tpo the world.

Do we love and embrace our cities enough to say with Father Damien, "We lepers?"

"Heal the sick."

We were told what to do, not how to do it. All we got was this:

"Freely you have received; freely give."

The big hint, then is, that we have received something that, when we give it away, brings healing, resurrection, liberation, and cleansing to broken people in a broken world.

The Master didn't say to spend endless hours figuring it out. We learn as we go and grow. He said, "Get started on your journey."

So, let's go.

10 Strategies for Making the Most of Every Day

We start each day with hope. At least I do and most positive people I know do the same. There is an occasional "dreaded" day, but it is the exception and is usually combated by positive self-talk and prayer. The rule is that we begin our mornings expecting to exploit our effectiveness and embrace our opportunities. Our "to-do" lists are full and our hearts are ready to meet our challenges until something happens. We don't finish our first task in the time we have allotted. We are now behind.

Then there is another glitch ... and another ...

And we begin to lose hope and heart.

How do we make the most of our days ...

Here are some suggestions. Since the sound of my thinking is sometimes "mmmmmmmm," I will use "m"s to gather my thoughts.

Marginalize - Build margins into your life and into your calendar. Don't overcrowd your day. We just don't allow enough space for the unexpected and serendipitous interruptions of "aha moments" into our time. Allow space in your planner and in your life to wander, wonder, and discover.

Maximize - Accomplish more than one task at a time. Consolidate trips. Listen to books in your car. Think efficiency in your planning. Take work to the coffee shop. Focus on the moment you are experiencing so that you accomplish more in less time. Prepare to use 5-15 minute slots effectively by having some basic tools ready to use and with you. Learn to use time wisely.

Minimize - Be ruthless in eliminating the time and task demands that will not advance your mission, purpose and goals. Set a specific amount of time for tiny and minimally consequential tasks each day. Do what must be done first first. Then, when the time is over, move on and take the list back up tomorrow.

Manage - Take charge of your own schedule. Politely excuse yourself from many good things that are not centered on where you are currently going in accordance with your mission. Give your time to people, but do so with wisdom and set appropriate boundaries. Invest your life where it will bear fruit. Your time is the only space in which you can live your life. Manage it.

Mature - You won't get this all at once. Grow a little in it every day. Keep a journal of what you are learning. Keep track of what is effective and ineffective and learn from yourself.

Minister - It is a word that means "serve." PLAN to serve people some every day. Build service into your schedule. Organize your time so that you have time to do things for others that will not benefit you in any predictable or tangible way.

Master - Master some skills that you will use frequently. Some things you do well take less time because you have eliminated your learning curve. Also, discover who or what masters you so that you will always have a compass to help you decide the direction you will take each day and all your days.

Move - Movement in life is essential. Apply grace as you proceed through the day and move things around in your schedule. Life takes unexpected turns. Have a planner with enough space to scratch through some things and insert new ideas and plans.

Muster - Gather other people to assist you in the days you cannot accomplish at all or accomplish alone. Delegate where that is in your power and enlist when your only power is influence. In order to do this, you'll need to cultivate good relationships daily. People are willing to help friends. So make friends.

Meet and Meditate - Start every day with a meeting. If you meet with God, which I recommend, prioritize that meeting. Prioritize it; don't categorize it or compartmentalize it. Let it envelope everything else in your life. If you are not there in your practice or belief, at least meet with yourself. Focus first on "being" issues, but bring your calendar to the meeting. Sometime, before it is done, go over it with God, your Higher Power, or yourself. Do it devotionally and openly and don't rush the time.

One could go on all day, but then one might start wasting time. What are your strategies?

A Flair for the Dramatic

God stepped out on stage

And every member

of the orchestra

knew it was He.

He took the baton in hand

And breathed forth

UPBEAT.

Down came the baton

DOWNBEAT.

And the pattern was given

With every eye upon Him.

The strings

The horns

The percussionists

The LIGHTS

Yes, the lights!

The dancers,

The actors,

The children,

The artists !

Suddenly, the stage was filled

With performers.

And He conducted them.

And every art

And every part

Conformed to the rhythm of His baton.

And someone in the audience remarked,

“He certainly has a flair for the dramatic.”

And all creation applauded.

- Tom Sims

Tiptoes

Standing on tiptoe in expectancy.

Living breathless in the wind.

Waiting with expectation among the voices of boredom.

Living above the storm ...

Hopeful ...

Hope.

Miep Gies and Ordinary People

Miep Gies died last week at the age of 100.

An office secretary in Amsterdam during the Nazi reign of terror, she was impressed to do her part to save the family of her boss and friend, a Jewish man named Otto.

For 25 months, she, her husband, and other employees assisted them with food and necessities. She could have been sent to a concentration camp for this effort.

Eventually, the family was discovered and arrested. Only Otto survived.

Gies went to the apartment where they had hidden to rescue the family's scattered notebooks and papers. Then she locked them in a drawer for her return after the war. Include among the papers were those of Otto's daughter.

Gies never read them. She felt that they were sacred and private. If she had, she said she would have had to destroy them because they would have implicated "helpers" whose lives would have been in danger.

After the war, Otto returned alone and stayed with the Gies family until 1952.

Her efforts later won her many accolades which she considered unfair. She felt others had done and risked far more. She said that if we believed that only extraordinary people responded courageously to their neighbor's needs in times of danger, no one would respond. To her, it was the natural thing to do.

She said that not a day went by in her life when she did not regret not being able to save Otto's family, especially their young daughter who died in the concentration camp at the age of 15.

Her name was Anne - Anne Frank.

Miep presented Otto his daughter's diary after his return.

It has been a treasure to the world of hope and goodwill. Without Miep Gies' courage and compassion, it would have been lost to the generations.

Gies was honored with the "Righteous Gentile" title by the Israeli Holocaust museum Yad Vashem.

She fell shortly before Christmas and sustained a neck injury which took her life last week.

I had never heard of Miep Gie, but without her, I would have never heard of Anne Frank or read "The Diary of Ann Frank."

God grant us more ordinary people who are willing to extend a hand to their neighbors in ways that may seem extraordinary but become so commonplace as to be considered ordinary.

In Memory of Dr. King

Sometimes I have more to say when I reflect on the memory of one of my greatest heroes, Martin Luther King, Jr.

I love Dr. King because of his intellect, faith, imperfections, vulnerability, sensitivity, consistency, and commitment to a cause greater than himself.

I love Dr. King as a fellow believer and brother in Jesus Christ, as a fellow pastor, and as a man who struggled with the meaning of his times in the light of theological realities.

I honor Dr. King as an overcomer who believed that all unmerited suffering was redemptive.

I honor and love him because at the core of his philosophy was a rugged theology of and commitment to love.

I honor and love Dr. King because he demonstrated that peaceful  resistance to evil can be more powerful than violence or force.

He lived out that dimension of Jesus' example meeting external strength with inner strength, accepting the consequences of taking a stand, and offering one's life in the service of God and others.

We live in an era when it is respectable to honor Martin King, but everything he taught and demonstrated is up for grabs. We are drifting into the very old notion that only force can accomplish good and that the only security we can know is that of worldly power.

But that kind of power shifts, waxes, wanes, and changes hands. The strength Dr. King knew and demonstrated was the strength to love.

Martin Luther King, Jr. was a human being, flawed, sometimes troubled, but overcoming in every attitude and action. He was playful and fun-loving and found joy in sorrow and in the work to which he had reportedly been reluctantly called.

In the end he said, "I just want to do God's will." As if he saw his own death, his dream became the dream for a generation to come after him. It was not so important for him to go to the promised land because he saw it. It became a promised land for all people.

It is a good thing that we pause today to reflect upon this great American life, this Christian life, because what he dreamed and lived has significance for all of us. His legacy has freed many of us in ways we do not even realize.

Live loose; live light; live large!

Live loose; live light; live large.

I have been reflecting on an issue that often troubles me. When a crisis occurs in the world, there is an urge to pack up and go, or to at least to write a very big check. Many share that urge. But we are constrained by time commitments, lack of preparation, and enormous personal debt.

As part of the changes in my own life, I am thinking I need to make an effort to live loose, live light, and live large.

Living loose means to take life as it comes and to be able to join Isaiah in his declaration, "Here I am; send me."

If we live loose, we plan and implement our plans, but we do not become so attached to our plans that they take precedence over our purpose for living. Strategies are vital to our goals, but they change. They must not rule us. Calendars represent commitments to be honored, but there must be some flexibility built into our rigid lives.

Living loose means living in a state of readiness to respond to God's call through the suffering of the world.

Living loose may mean having a passport ready at all times. I don't have that. It may mean having contingencies plans and back up prepared for our routine commitments.

Mostly it is an attitude.

I need to live light. Too often we are guided by our limitations. We have created many of those limitations through compulsive spending, mismanagement of credit, consumer greed, and appetites out of control. I have wasted thousands of dollars for which I have little to show.

What do we really need? What is interfering with our ability to give when a need arises?

How can we lighten our loads and live simpler, more rewarding and satisfying lives?

Not only debt, but possessions and expectations of comfort and pleasure can tie us down.

So can mismanaged health and wellness. We are often just too out of shape to be ready to respond. I, for one, have abused my body through years of eating too much of the wrong food and failure to push myself beyond my comfort level in exercise.

These are seemingly innocent sins, but they have effected my availability.

I am just being honest here - I have not lived light. Yet, in recent weeks, I have been experiencing an emptying of myself before God. It has been obvious on the physical level, but it has informed my soul and my spirit.

The sad consequence of the past, however, is that barring a miracle, I could not financially, physically, or professionally get on a plane tomorrow and fly to Haiti.

Neither do I have the money in the bank to write a big check. I will write a check, but it will not be what I could have written if I had lived more wisely and lightly.

There are skills I ought to require, but there is the ever-present excuse: When can I find the time?

Where does anyone find time? We make time.

Living large means we take the world into our hearts and let it expand us beyond ourselves. It means growing toward a God-sized concern for the pain of humanity. It means weeping with those who weep and rejoicing with those who rejoice. It means thinking globally and eternally.

Living large means loving our neighbors as ourselves.

We love ourselves. We pamper ourselves, indulge ourselves, and fatten ourselves. In the process, we destroy ourselves for usefulness. We need to find a new way of loving ourselves that embraces the whole world. We need to transform our love of self into something that feeds a new self, a servant self, a more fulfilled and joyful self that is available to God and others.

As we change ourselves and love ourselves that way, we can love and change the world.

Live loose; live light; live large!

By Bread Alone

"Man shall not live by bread alone ..."

That is a good thing. I haven't had any bread for five weeks and I have seven or eight more to go.

I really haven't wanted any. Did you know that they put some pretty good stuff in between those slices?

"... but but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God."

We don't live by food alone. I realize I need some of that ... a lot less that I used to or every thought I would need.

And ... every bite counts, so I need to make it count. Junk food means there is no room for what is essential ... so why waste the chewing and the space?

We live also and more so by WORD ... that which flows from God ... written word, spoken word, Living Word.

Words can be junk food too and they can take up valuable capacity. If we digest too much junk, we become satiated and unable to receive what is life-giving, life-affirming, and truly nourishing.

We must allow room in our lives to receive what we must have to live.

We cannot digest every idea or bit/byte of information that bombards us today. At the buffet of words and ideas there are tasty treats with empty spiritual/intellectual calories; there are foods with potent nutritional value; and there is much in between.

They told us in nutrition class before my surgery that because we could only have two ounce meals, to be sure we ate our protein first. Otherwise we would lose our muscle mass ; (and hair and health).

When we come to the spiritual and intellectual buffet of words and ideas, it might do us well to eat the protein first. Otherwise, we lose muscle. Once you have taken care of first things first, you can have a piece of candy ... or you may begin to discover how sweet and satisfying the WORD can really be.

Belief 101

I thought I might post my sermon outline for tomorrow. The text is formidable. Matthew, Mark, and Luke all record this excerpt from the ministry of Jesus, each with a slightly different twist. Read them here.

All include and conclude with Jesus' reminder of His own death. The one who can do anything must die.

The disciples are bewildered, confused, and afraid to ask more. Matthew says they were filled with grief.

In the meantime, a little boy has been healed and restored and faith has been affirmed.

A father has confessed his weak and feeble belief and asked for help with his unbelief.

The frailty of the disciples' faith has been rebuked, but the man who admitted his frailty and asked for help has been affirmed.

Jesus says it really doesn't take that much faith to do remarkable things. Just the size of a mustard seed will accomplish much, but limited faith will limit possibilities.

Yet, with God, everything is possible.

Here are the bullet points:

LITTLE FAITH IS LIMITING.

IT ONLY TAKES A LITTLE TO DO BIG THINGS.

EVERYTHING IS POSSIBLE WITH GOD.

BELIEVING BEGINS WHERE WE ARE.

EXTRAORDINARY PRAYER RELEASES BONDAGE.

EVERYTHING HINGES ON A TRUTH THAT IS HARD TO TAKE.

If you want to see how this develops, come to the Fellowship of Joy tomorrow at 11:15 and join us for worship. Or, for a condensed version, join us tonight at THE EDGE.

Wrong Door - Wrong Store

I had a pretty good lesson in humility and pride yesterday. It was a moment of internal embarrassment and readjustment in my thinking.

It was one of those outdoor shopping centers with a Best Buy and an Office Depot spaced with several other stores in between. I was comparing prices on laptops and calculating insurance reimbursements in light of a recent burglary. It is the upside of getting ripped off.

But that is not the story.

I had taken note of the order of the stores from the parking lot and calculated that I could get a nice walk in just by moving between them and within them.  I left Best Buys and began to walk toward Office Depot when a man crossed my path looking a bit dazed and confused and heading toward the Target Store.

When he was unable to open the door because he was attempting to enter through the exit, I mentally prepared to point at the entrance to help him out. I may or may not have actually pointed. I am a little fuzzy on this point because the real work was going on inside me. There was a flash of smugness and superiority. "I can read signs."

That was short lived.

At the next shop, I entered through the correct door - without a hitch. How proud of myself, I was. "I can read signs." I looked around and, in a moment of bewilderment, observed racks of clothes.

"Why are they selling clothes at Office Depot?"

They were not. They were selling clothes at T.J. Maxx.

Tom Sims, the great sign reader-adherer, had entered the wrong store while basking in the glory of in his ability to use the right door.

 "Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall." - I Corinthians 10:12 (Read it in THE MESSAGE and check out this day's "My Utmost for His Highest" reading for uncanny overlaps.)

So, which was worse, the wrong store or the wrong door?

Somehow, as I chuckled inside at my own fallibility and silly pride, I knew I would have to confess this in my blog and hang it out like dirty laundry for all the world to see.

There was also some mention of a speck in your brother's eye and a plank in ones own as I recall ...

Eyes Bigger than Stomach

I cannot imagine how many times I have heard and said, while staring at an insurmountably challenging plate of food, "My eyes were bigger than my stomach."

Simply put: We put too much on the plate because it looked so good --- and manageable.

So last night at my birthday-stone-soup-fund-raising-potluck bash, I found myself staring a a much smaller collection of vittles on my plate and, after a few bites, thinking, "My eyes were bigger than my stomach."

Then, before actually uttering the words, I began to chuckle.

That attracted some attention -- a grown man chuckling to himself while staring at a miniature hot wing.

I was chuckling at the thought, "My goodness, my eyes really ARE bigger than my stomach now ... without question. Lay them on the table beside each other and that is the reality."

So I shared the insight and others joined me in the chuckle which gave me permission for a long and hard belly laugh.

Just a little post-bariatric surgery humor.

Swimming in grace.

Growing Stronger

And the child grew, and waxed strong in spirit, filled with wisdom: and the grace of God was upon him. – Luke 2:40

Jesus grew.

He was not born strong, wise, and full of grace.

He was born who He was: the Son of God, but the Son of God, God the Son had emptied Himself and taken on Himself the form of a servant.

Therefore, it was required that He submit to the process of maturation physically, emotionally, relationally, intellectually, and spiritually.

We, when we were children, often wanted the privileges of adults. When we became adults, we longed for the care free life we enjoyed as children.

Seldom have we relished the gut-wrenching, humiliating, submissive, and painful experiences that are sometimes associated with growing up. In the quest to avoid some of these, there are among us those who have never grown up or have failed to do so in some selected areas of life.

Jesus grew. He became strong, wiser, and more gracious. He did it in stages and through steady progression. He did through challenges and changes, and choices.

He embraced the opportunities to grow and cherished the wisdom that was available through the synagogue and temple and the teaching of His parents.

Jesus grew.

Are you growing? You cannot stay where you are. You will either be spiraling up or spiraling down in the strength, wisdom, and grace.

You can become weaker by not growing stronger. You can indeed become less wise by refusing to grow wiser.

You can become colder and more indifferent by not becoming a channel for God’s grace to flow through you.

The choice, as always, is yours. What will it be – growth or decline?

Reflecting on 55

I am reflecting a bit - not too much, but some. Fifty five years once seemed like a lot of time. Now it doesn't. Different people have used that much time with varying degrees of effectiveness. Some have puttered along. Some have frittered it away entirely. Depending on the day of the week and the season on my life, I am somewhere in the continuum.

Tomorrow, I turn 55. It is a double matching digit birthday and I want to celebrate my gratitude for the opportunity of living. I have decided to give it away to three of my favorite local causes: The Fellowship of Joy (the church I've pastored for 4 months shy of 14 years), Mid Valley Christian Women's Job Corp, and Fresno Interdenominational Refuge Ministries (FIRM). I serve on the boards of the later two.

We are having a party!

I announced it and it is sort of a stone-soup party. I am bringing some meat, some song sheets, and myself. Whatever else happens, whatever else ends up on the table to eat, whoever comes, is all up to others.

My life has been sort of a stone soup life. I drop a little bit of something and others have added to it and made something of it.

In today's reading from "My Utmost for His Highest," Oswald Chambers quotes from Hebrews 11:8: "He went out, not knowing  whither he went."

I especially gravitated toward and related to this quote:

"One of the difficulties in Christian work is this question - "What do you expect to do?" You do not know what you are going to do; the only thing you know is that God knows what He is doing. Continually revise your attitude towards God and see if it is a going out of everything, trusting in God entirely. It is this attitude that keeps you in perpetual wonder - you do not know what God is going to do next. Each morning you wake it is to be a "going out," building in confidence on God."

So, I really don't know what this celebration is going to be or if anyone will come or contribute to the whole ... but I am going to show up.

And showing up is a pretty big deal in life.

My birthday presents are for the causes I mentioned because these are a few of the places where I would like to see some good soup brew. These are places where I am currently investing my life in a small way.

If you are in town, stop by the party. It should be fun. It is always fun to get together. It will be at 4141 N. Fresno St., Fresno (93726) from 4-6 PM. It is not about me.

If you cannot come, but wish to contribute to some really wonderful causes, visit my BIRTHDAY ON PURPOSE web site. It is a small "stone-dropped-in-the-pot" initiative that may or may not grow into something bigger.

It really is not about me.

That is something I am learning about my life. It is not about me, but I am responsible for the choices I make inside my skin and exercise through it.

I am glad to be alive. I look forward to many years. I know 55 is not old even though I'll be able to get "senior coffee" at McDonalds and order off the senior menu at Denney's. However, I have less time now than I did before - more wisdom, but less time to use it. It would be presumptuous to count on what is not promised to the neglect of what is. I have not been promised unlimited days. I have been promised unlimited grace and countless opportunities for each day I live.

I (we) have also been promised that as we make small investments in others, those investments can and will multiply through the efforts of those who add their own to the pot.

So, the adventure continues and this is but a milestone. I invite you to celebrate with me by celebrating the life you have been given and investing it in living on purpose and in encouraging other people to become all they can be.

The Long Road Home

And when they had performed all things according to the law of the Lord, they returned into Galilee, to their own city Nazareth. – Luke 2:39

They did what they had to do and then, the adventure began.

It was an adventure which Matthew elaborates upon, but about which, Luke chooses to remain silent. It would lead through Egypt, a detour that would save the life of Jesus. It was a long road home.

It would lead back to Nazareth to a period of silence that would be punctuated only by a visit to Jerusalem when He was 12.

But the long road home would continue because Nazareth was only a temporary home. He was progressing on for the glory set before Him.

Our lives take twists and turns and move through mountains and valleys, over rough seas and through caves and along the streets of cities. We are going somewhere and it is not always an easy road.

Necessity is only a starting place. When we have done what is required, the journey begins. Then we start to learn and grow and exercise faith. That’s when it gets messy and mundane.

People don’t write stories about all of those details. We skim over them.

It is not that the gospel writers left out anything God wanted us to know. It’s just that there is so much more about the journey home to glory than we can recount or account for.

The journey of Jesus began when the necessities were done.

We sometimes take a “what can I get by with” attitude toward life. We want to do the minimum and quit, meet the basic requirements, get a pat on the back, and sit down in our easy chairs.

We get saved and collect our ticket to Heaven and think we are done. We haven’t even started. There is a journey ahead of us, an adventure, a plethora of unknowns, and a lifetime of wonder.

When we’ve done what we have to do, the adventure begins.