Year: 2020

Categories
Christian Living

Is there hope for reconciliation in our polarized situation?

“What’s on your mind?”
The image above shows you the default question that I see before I start typing a new post. And due to the polarized discussions that are taking place these last few weeks, my answer to that question is “too much!” It seems that my mind is swimming through ideas; my thoughts are racing in so many directions. I know there are some things I want to say, I believe there are some things I need to say, but I’m not really sure how to say them. Maybe you find yourself with similar feelings.

The death of George Floyd is terrible. It grieves my heart that a man was killed in such a horrendous manner. It is a great tragedy that has once again brought out the fact that injustice is still very real in our nation, specifically for our fellow black and brown citizens.

The rioting that has followed has also been tragic. While the peaceful protests have shown that people can shine the light on injustice in a helpful way, the violence committed by others on people and property is terrible. These specific tragedies point out truths we already knew – that…

  • Our nation contains injustice.
  • Our nation contains prejudice.
  • Our nation contains violence.
  • Our nation contains sin.

But our nation also has within it an amazing resource for healing and reconciliation… Jesus and the people who follow Him. And those of us who are followers of His are called upon by our Lord to be salt and light in these difficult days. Don’t miss this truth that as Lord, Jesus is our Commanding King. And as such, He has called us to serve as His ambassadors – sharing His message of peace and grace with others.

But many of us have felt trapped on how to proceed as His ambassadors. We know that we are in a watershed moment. We know that we need to speak up for the ones who are facing injustice (the Bible tells us to). We know that we need to speak out against the evil of prejudice and racism that is still so prevalent in our nation today (the Bible tells us to).

And yet, as we watch and listen to so many others, we struggle to know what we should say, how we should say it, and when we should say it. The Bible tells us to be quick to listen and slow to speak. It seems that we are seeing too much of the opposite taking place – people who are quick to shout their opinions without doing the hard work of listening to those who are distraught.

The Bible tells us that Jesus, through His work on the cross, has torn down the dividing walls – removing the barriers. Yet we find that we often put them right back up. As His followers, we are to be ministers of reconciliation. And therefore, I’m wondering why the conversations that are being sparked from these tragic situations have to be as ugly as what I am seeing. For example:

  • I have seen family members attack one another on social media over the issues that are being discussed.
  • I have seen church members post comments on social media that are inconsiderate and polarizing.
  • I have even seen posts and messages from pastors that are inappropriate and unhealthy in seeking to bring any type of reconciliation.

These things also grieve my heart.

Brothers and sisters, we must do better.
In fact, because we have the Holy Spirit dwelling within us, we can do better.

It grieves my heart that so many who are supposed to be ministers of reconciliation are not listening, but instead are adding fuel to the fire. I wish more of us would pause before speaking (or posting) to reflect on the truth that “just because I have an opinion, doesn’t mean I need to share it.”

Christian brother or sister, before you share anything on social media, please ask yourself, “How will what I am sharing bring reconciliation and healing?” Follower of Christ, before you say anything to a neighbor or friend, you need to ask, “How are my words going to show that I love all people, just as Jesus commanded me to do?”

God gives us some easy-to-understand commands about dealing with other people. And though they are easy-to-understand, they are not always easy to live out:

  • Love your neighbor as yourself.
  • In humility, consider others as more important than yourself.
  • Look not to your own interests, but rather to the interests of others.
  • As far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone.

These aren’t my ideas; these are quotes from the Bible. They are the King’s commands to His followers. How well are you following? Let’s use these as our guides. If we will allow these words of God to be our guides, remembering to listen more than we speak, then we will find that we have a much better chance at being the peace-makers and the ministers of reconciliation He has commanded us to be.

Jesus said, “Blessed are the peace-makers.” How are you working to bring peace to a hurting nation right now? How are you working to bring peace to your hurting neighbors right now? One of Paige’s favorite verses states: “Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you should answer each person.” How about we try following that command for a change? I believe that if we obey God’s Word, then God will be faithful to honor our obedience to Him and give us opportunities we never had before to foster healing in the midst of such division.

Today, instead of worrying about what group or symbol or idea you need to defend because someone said or posted something you didn’t like, how about we worry more about how to serve Jesus by bringing words of peace, healing, and reconciliation to the table as He has commanded us?

two hands grasping one another with words like serve, unite, and assist - showing that we are better together and need reconciliation
Better Together

I believe that because of Jesus – His work on the cross and His work in the lives of His followers – that there is hope for reconciliation in the midst of our polarized situation. I pray that we will have patience with each other as we work through what to say with each other with grace, compassion, and empathy. And I do know that for me…

I am going to ask God to help me continue to listen, continue to understand, and continue to grow in my compassion and empathy. I am going to ask Him to help me only use words that will bring healing and reconciliation. I am going to ask Him to help me stand up for and care about those around me who continue to face injustice and who live in fear. I am going to ask Him to help me be a peace-maker.

Maybe you could too?

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Categories
Relationships

Our neighbors keep showing us love during the COVID crisis

What a change we have encountered these past few weeks. A loss of gathering together due to COVID-19. And though we can’t gather, our neighbors have continued to show us love and care through this crisis.

The “art of neighboring” seems to be a lost art in so many areas, but in our little community of Newton, some still know how it’s done. I was recently asked to write something about how church members should care for their communities during this time, and as I came up with my ideas, they were all obtained from how my neighbors have cared for Paige and me these past two months.a picket fence and a neighbor's house to think about how to interact with our neighbors

Jesus calls all of His followers to be salt and light to those who live around us. We should take that command seriously. But how can we do this effectively right now in the midst of quarantines and “sheltering in place”?

First, you need to love your community. Pastor John Knox prayed in the 1500s, “Give me Scotland or I die!” I believe that same type of prayer should be the your heart’s cry for your community. God has placed you in your neighborhood “for such a time as this,” and here are some ideas of how our neighbors have been salt and light to us (and how we should now be salt and light to others):

1. Pray for your neighbors.
Even before I found out I had lost my job, we had neighbors who were praying for us. And since learning of my new situation, those prayers have been increased. The most important action you can do for your neighbors is to pray for them – to lift up their names and their needs to the Father. I am so thankful that my neighbors continue telling me how they are praying for us. Of course, for you to pray for your neighbors by name, you will first need to know their names. If you have not yet met your neighbors, then start praying that God will give you an opportunity to meet them! One of our neighbors continues finding ways to meet the people who live around us and she tries to bless them in many different ways. (Thank you, Apryl!)

2. Look for opportunities to interact face-to-face.
I read of one person who made sure to go to her mailbox everyday at the same time as her neighbor, just so she could begin a conversation. That’s a great plan, but one which requires intentionality. Like a neighborhood missionary, look for when your neighbors are outside, and make it a point to go out at that time to strike up a conversation. People are hungry for relationships right now! For example, another one of our neighbors has used this time to build an outdoor seating area where she has invited several of us over to sit and visit while “socially distancing”! (Thank you, Amy!) And when another one of my neighbors recently got a drone stuck in the tree, we all stood around and visited together while some other friends got it down. (Fun times with Zach, Amy, Lewis, and Brian!) And when Paige and I were visiting with a friend outside, several other adults who saw us visiting, walked over to join in the conversation. (It ended up being us, Georgia, Jan, Abby, Carl, Seane [and bulldogs Rudy and Bella!] – as we were watching Ellie, Mabry, and Aimee ride bikes!) We had a great time visiting. And if you don’t know about your neighbor’s relationship with God, then just start simple and work toward gospel conversations, such as asking how you could pray for them.

3. Serve your neighbors.
For example, my across the street neighbor who we love to eat steaks with recently called me one morning. He said, “I am going to the store. Do you need me to pick up anything for you while I’m out?” That was so simple, yet it meant so much during the time of quarantine. (Thank you, Carl!) But why stop serving one another just because we stop “sheltering-in-place”? Call your neighbors to ask if they need anything. And if you don’t have their phone number, then when you intentionally meet them at the mailbox, tell them you’d like to get their number so you can check on them!

4. Show your neighbors that you are “For” them.
Bless your neighbors in unlooked-for ways. For example, if you go purchase some plants for the garden, purchase a few extras, and share them with your neighbors. Or hand-write a brief note of how you appreciate them and how you are praying for them. I had a friend do this for me just the other day after learning of my loss of a job. (Thank you, Gary!) We all still love getting hand-written notes – though this is also a dying art! Or make a little extra when you prepare a meal in order to take some food to them (we have neighbors that do this for us – and it is fantastic! Thank you Carl, Seane, and Amy!). These are all small gestures that have a huge impact.

I agree with Rosaria Butterfield who says, “God never gets the address wrong.” God has placed you at your address to be salt and light to your neighbors. He didn’t get your address wrong. God wants you to meet and minister to the people He has placed around you so that you can impact your neighbors with His light and love. I’m so glad my neighbors have been salt and light to Paige and me!

Let’s get out of the saltshaker!

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Categories
Relationships

The Need for Community in the midst of COVID and the Loss of a Job

Well, it’s been almost a year-and-a-half since I have posted on my website. For the first three years of my site (2014-16), I was faithful to post multiple times each week. Then my postings became less consistent during the next two years. And in 2019 I took a break from posting on this site, as our church began a Bible reading plan together. During that time, I chose to shift from posting here to posting to our Church Bible reading Facebook group. I planned to get back to posting here in January 2020 after we completed our Bible reading, but then I took on a new job with LifeWay in late 2019. I went through training, “hit the road” with the new work in January, and felt I was just about ready to resume posting, as I felt that I had gotten into a routine.
But then COVID hit.
And routine went out the window.

Fast-forward several weeks… into the “shelter-at-home” work routine, as we have all been struggling to figure out. And just about the time I thought I had a handle on it… on April 29th, our LifeWay Church Partner team was told that our department was being eliminated due to the economic downturn. Ummm…. wait, what?

Wow… talk about an announcement that turns your world upside-down! But of course, this just puts me in a situation like many other people. I can certainly now relate to that feeling you get when you are “let go” from a job.one person in an empty parking lot - pointing out our need for community

So I spent the past week-and-a-half getting my resume together, answering phone calls and emails about the loss of the job (and having such amazing support from everyone!), and praying about what God’s next assignment will be for us. And now that I am through with the 2019 Churchwide Bible reading plan, my late 2019 training for LifeWay, my early 2020 new work routine, my recent job loss announcement, and this last week of resume preparation… What should I do with my time? Well, I think it is time to use some time to get back into posting on the website.

So here goes…
Let me start with something I recently shared with my team that I read from Andrew Peterson’s book, Adorning The Dark, about the need for community with others. Peterson is a song-writer, and these excerpts from his book are about his own “loss of a job” when he got the call that his contract was not being renewed by his recording label.

…I got the fated phone call that I was being dropped.

Oh, how I wished Rich Mullins were still alive, just to have someone to talk to. I didn’t want to be worried about money. I wanted to be a barefoot vagabond musician who laughed his way through trouble and sang about Jesus to whomever would listen. But when you have a wife and three babies, you can’t just not think about money. I needed to pay the mortgage. I needed to pay for diapers, formula, shoes, electricity. And at the same time there was this calling, this vocation, which as far as I could tell hadn’t changed.

…in the moment I was devastated. …I can still remember the brick-in-the-gut feeling I had when the call was over, the eerie, foreboding sense that something significant had just happened which would alter the shape of my life. …I hung up the phone, took a deep breath, wiped a tear from my eye, and walked back into the studio. The guys were probably laughing at something and didn’t notice at first that my face was pale.

“I just got dropped from my label,” I told them. They stopped laughing and offered their condolences. Then after a few moments of silence someone said, “So about this guitar part. Do you want it to come in at the top of the chorus?”
And we were off and running.

…there was no time to wallow in self-pity, but I was surrounded by friends, by community, by people who told me implicitly by their involvement in my life and work that this was still worth doing, label or no label. It felt so good to walk back into that basement, roll up my sleeves, and try to craft an album about Jesus.

That’s community. They look you in the eye and remind you who you are in Christ. They reiterate your calling when you forget what it is. They step into the garden and help you weed it, help you to grow something beautiful.

…[We chose to] stay the course and keep writing the kinds of songs we believed in…. And the only way we could see [this] option working was to lock arms with one another in community. …Suddenly, label or no label, radio or no radio, we belonged to something, and that something was each other. We were no longer alone. Perhaps most important, it meant that whenever I was discouraged, I had friends who gave me courage. If I wanted to quit, someone was there to look me in the eye and tell me my songs mattered….

We all need community. I have it with the team members who are on the same journey with me now that our team has been eliminated. I have it with a group of pastors who have been my co-laborers and friends. I have it with a church family that has grown me over the past 10.5 years and has been so supportive of me now that I have lost this recent job. Who do you have community with? (If you don’t feel connected to community like Peterson talks about, I would me encourage you to connect with a local church family who will hold out both love and truth to you at the same time. They are who have provided me the most consistent community throughout my life.)

Paige and I are so very grateful for so many of you who God has placed in our lives to “lock arms” with and travel this journey called life together. Thank you for reminding us who we are in Christ, for giving us courage and support when we are discouraged, and for looking us in the eyes to remind us that our calling from the Lord matters.

Thank you for being a part of my community during this time!
Much love my friends,
Brian