The past year was such a season in our lives. Unexpected challenges arose in a steady stream, sometimes coming in multiples. As each one neared its end, I found myself believing, hoping, that the season was over, yet there was still more to come. Many important things, including my writing and this blog, were shelved as my energy and attention were focused on what was happening in our lives.

There were difficulties, but there were also numerous blessings. We were reminded again and again that God had his hand upon us, and that we would make it though. I needed several reminders from my wife along the way that our track record of coming through our difficulties with God’s help was one hundred percent. Even so, keeping close to God was challenging at times, and my own relationship with God suffered at some points. I knew that God was the Strong Tower I was meant to run to and be saved, but exhaustion from what felt like perpetually treading water, and my fears about the future, often weakened my spiritual resolve, and my spiritual disciplines occasionally suffered.

Recently, God reminded me of his faithfulness in the past, and I drew strength and resolve from those victories. I realized that my focus was off and I needed to make an adjustment. Just as my annual eye exam often yields a new set of glasses so I can see clearly, I needed the Holy Spirit to assess and adjust my spiritual lens to sharpen that focus as well. I could not sacrifice what was most meaningful and necessary because I was busy, fearful, and tired. In fact, those very realities mean that I needed even greater focus on what mattered most.

Jesus never sugarcoated our reality. In John 16:33, he says it succinctly and clearly, “In this life you will have trouble, but take heart, I have overcome the world.” These were words I needed to hear and apply to my life. Troubles would be a part of life, but my focus was never meant to be on the difficulties, but on the One who overcame the world, so that I could overcome by obstacles. My focus was meant to be on Christ, and Christ alone.

All this, brings me to today. There are still battles to be fought, fears to subdue, and victories to be won. A season of rest may be on the horizon, or the stream of challenges may still continue. Either way, my focus is on the One who will lead me through. It is time to write and blog again. It is time to laugh and savor life. It is time I am given to be with God, and to become who God is making me to be.

Thank you for your patience as I wandered through my desert. I look forward to our continued conversation here at the cafe. I pray that, if you are going through your own challenging seasons, you will focus on Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of our faith. Don’t let another day go by, trading your joy for worry, or exchanging your peace for confusion. Give your attention to the One who overcame for your sake, and who makes you to be an overcomer in every circumstance!

The post Keeping Focus appeared first on Thinking Faith Cafe.

Gravity, it is the weak force of physics that keeps us strongly rooted to the ground and affects everything from the lightest feather to the grandest sun. It is something we depend upon for life to remain ordered, and it is surprisingly difficult to overcome.

We see that difficulty every time we watch a rocket launch. Massive amounts of fuel are needed to create the thrust energy needed to lift the rocket from the ground. At first it barely moves, and slowly develops forward momentum. Still, that momentum would be almost instantly lost if the thrust were cut off. However, once free of the strong pull of the earth’s gravity, very little energy is needed to change direction or increase speed.

Like the rocket that exerts great energy to free itself form the gravitational force pulling it back to earth, we must also exert great energy to break free from the things that pull us back in life. If we stop too soon, or back off from the effort, the pull of the former things will quickly drag us backward.

The Hebrew people were slaves in Egypt. The Bible tells us the lived in subservience for 400 years. Generation after generation being born and dying in slavery. They dreamed, prayed, and cried out for freedom with a vision that one day they would be free from oppression.

Enter Moses, the man God chose to be the tool of God to liberate the Hebrew slaves. The story is lengthy, but as God moved powerfully through him, Pharaoh relented and set the people free. In the process everyone saw the supreme power of God, and rejoiced that they were delivered from their bondage.

Early in their journey away from Egypt they encountered an obstacle, Pharaoh was coming after them and they were trapped. Having seen the great power of God to set them free so recently, you would expect their faith to be high as they called out to God to deliver them again. Instead, the gravity of their previous life took hold and they began to complain to Moses, “Why did you bring us out here to die? We were better off as slaves in Egypt!” It was a complaint spoken repeatedly in spite of God’s continued deliverance.

Jesus’ apostles were not immune to this pull. After all he taught them; after three years with him; after seeing him manifest the power of God and then doing the same themselves, the shock of his death led them to return to fishing, the vocation many of them possessed prior to his call to follow him.

We are not immune either. The Psalmist said, “The name of the Lord is a strong tower. The righteous run to in and are saved.” Yet, all too often, when the struggle hits, we run the other direction, right back toward where we came from. It happens in individual lives, in families, and in churches. When faced with adversity, unknown outcomes, and obstacles that seem dramatically bigger than our abilities, we try to fall back to what we once knew, before we were walking in the Spirit. We try to solve things in our own strength, or we try to run and hide. The pull of what we knew and where we were is a powerful force to overcome.

Of course, adversity, unknown outcomes, and substantial obstacles are also the foundation for great adventures. They are often the source of grand tales and the stuff of legends. It is when we push to overcome the pull of our past and our fears, we break free from what holds us back and are able to soar with Christ! Imagine the possibilities and discoveries that await us when we break free and pursue the adventure of a lifetime with Jesus. Let that nugget sink in and give you a little more hope, and power to persevere.

In my next post we will look at some forces that draw us back. What do you find tends to draw you back from living the adventure with Jesus?

The post Gravity appeared first on Thinking Faith Cafe.

Do you ever feel like you are facing  obstacles with walls so tall and strong you cannot get past them? In spite of the oft-quoted promise that, “God will never give you more than you can handle,” the truth is that we frequently face things that are greater than we can handle on our own, but not bigger than the God who loves us, and wants to lead us to victory.

Many of us grew up believing that we were supposed to be self-made, and that life was about giving it our all. If things got really bad, we asked God for help, but then went on to do our best to overcome our circumstances. Apparently, God’s help was to make us better at what we were already trying to do.

What if God’s plan in those difficult moments was not to make us a little better or stronger than we were before? What if the bigger agenda was to invite us deeper in our relationship with him and to lean into God more? What if God’s goal was to move us away from our efforts to be independent and instead, allow us to be more dependent on him?

Yesterday’s sermon was based on the story of Joshua, and the victory at Jericho, found in Joshua 6 (listen to the message here http://cortlandumc.net/January_12-_2014.mp3). As I worked through the preparation for the message, I couldn’t help but think of how difficult it must have been to accept God’s plan for victory. Marching around the city with priests and trumpets is not much of a military strategy. Faced with an imposing obstacle, God did not ask Joshua to try harder, nor was the answer in better military planning. God’s divine solution was to march around the city in worship for a week, and then shout for victory on the last day. Unexpected, but as it turns out, quite effective.

In the book of Isaiah, God tells us, “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the LORD.” (55:8) God’s perspective is not our perspective. There is no trembling in heaven as God confers with the angelic host to come up with a response to the problem we are facing. There is no question in the heavenly throne room of who is, and will remain, victorious. God does not lose, and never plays to tie. God is the victor, and shares that victory with us.

Rather than trying harder, or focusing on our weaknesses, we are encouraged to press into the love of God and to trust him for the plans for victory. Instead of focusing on the walls before us, we worship the One who can break down the walls in a moment, and send us on to victory. The triumph at Jericho did not come from weapons, it came from worship. The answer can be found there in our circumstances as well.

This is not a passive response, where we sit back and wait for God to do something. Instead, we actively worship God and we activate our faith. We seek God for wisdom and insight, stretching our faith to meet that divine direction. Then, when it is time, we put feet to our faith, doing what God asks us to do, even if it means seven days of walking around a city.

As we trust in the Lord, leaning not on our own understanding, and as we put our faith into action, we discover that, by the grace of God, we are more than conquerors.

The post Overcoming Walls appeared first on Thinking Faith Cafe.

I also bring along two other journals for the team. The first is a group travelogue that includes morning and evening reflections and rotates through the entire group. The second is my favorite. It is a complaint journal.

On our last trip to Brazil, I described the journaling process to the team. When I came to the complaint journal, there were many puzzled faces and the obvious question, “What’s a complaint journal?”

I shared how a good friend who led the first international mission trip I participated in taught me the value of this tool. It is a place vent frustration and concerns so that they stop weighing you down in your ministry. “Who reads the Complaint Journal,” they asked, and I replied, “no one.”

The point of this journal was to give a tangible way to express inner turmoil without burdening the entire team with negativity and without trying to keep such corrosive feelings bottled up inside. Here was a place to whine about the food, the lack of hot water, and the snoring in the next bed. It was a safe place to vent feelings of helplessness and loneliness, all mixed with a little homesickness. It was a means to honestly address what we felt and thought without the destructive results other forms of expression could have.

I still keep a complaint journal. Now it is most likely found in my freewriting, as I seek to limber up my thoughts, mind and skill. Occasionally, it seeps over into my daily journal as well. Life is hard and hurtful, and it is important to have a place to address those challenges openly, to say what is really on our mind and “lay it all out” before ourselves and God. Once we do, then we can begin to seek solutions. I often use my venting as the foundation for my prayers so that I can listen for God’s answer to speak life into challenging moments.

One of the most powerful words in our faith vocabulary is “redemption.” God likes to redeem things. It is the message of our faith history and we see God’s acts of redemptions time and again throughout the biblical story, culminating in the redemption brought by Jesus Christ. It is the power of this redemption that allows us to speak wholeness and healing into places of brokenness and pain. It is the knowledge of redemption that keeps us grounded, knowing that no person or situation is too far gone for God to do something beautiful and amazing with them. It is the source of our hope, and the hope of the world.

No one needs to hear our words of frustration; they need to hear God’s words of redemption. People do not need our expressions of anger and death; they need God’s gift of peace and life. The world needs hope and God chooses to use us to give it to them. It is easy to join the masses drowning in negativity, but there is such joy in being a prophet of hope; a messenger of life though Christ.

The Gospel really is “good news!” It is not just the story of Jesus, nor is it just the promise of heaven. Instead, it is the proclamation of hope, life and peace available to all who will receive it, even now. The good news is that God is present and powerful and nothing in heaven or on earth can separate us from his great love. Redemption is real, and it is available now.

The world needs good news. The world needs the Gospel, and we have the joy and privilege of being the means by which God shares this blessing. It is a great responsibility, but also the greatest honor we will receive. We can keep the complaint journals to ourselves, but let’s write the redemption journal on the lives of others and see the true power of the Gospel.

The post Redemption Journals appeared first on Thinking Faith Cafe.

Watching nature transition from the luscious life of summer to the vibrant beauty of autumn, it is hard to miss that a deeper beauty is revealed in the process of letting go. As the nourishing light begins to diminish, trees struggle to keep their foliage, but even as they lose the battle again, a palate of colors is revealed. Each day loses more sunlight, but that light becomes more dramatic at the same time. Even the composting leaves and grass become richness for the future.

Too often, as we face obstacles in our lives we lose sight of what is on the other side of the challenge. Lost in the drama of the moment, we miss what beautiful thing is being created in us. The test we face is producing a testimony that will bring light to dark spaces and color the gray places.

I do not believe that God causes evil in our lives, but from the painful moments, God can create something wonderful. During an especially difficult time in my life, I shared my challenges with a dear friend. As I poured out the issues before me, he replied, “Just remember, God does his best work in chaos.”

What a wonderful truth. The biblical story even begins there, as the Spirit hovers over the chaos and God says, “Let there be.” In a moment, at the word of God, the disorder begins to take on the order and the beauty of creation. As the story goes on, we find places where Israel’s chaotic experience becomes the setting for God’s recreation. We read of people, great and small, who God leads out of their challenges to new beginnings. Even in the death and resurrection of Jesus we see God redeeming darkness and death to bring forth light and life, and the promise of his future return is the expectation of the ultimate re-creation.

The difficult places of life are never enjoyable and they can feel like they have no end, but God, who declares the end from the beginning, not only sees where our challenges are taking us, but is personally invested in seeing that we get there. When things get tough, it is easy to throw our hands up, sit down and give up, but that is precisely the time when we need to press into God, draw strength from the Spirit and push through the dark valley to the hidden beauty beyond.

Whatever you are facing today, God is more than big enough, more than able to redeem it by using the tough moments to reveal the hidden beauty within you. Have patience. Have hope. The God of all creation is with you, loves you and is speaking words of creation over your life even now.

The post Hidden Beauty appeared first on Thinking Faith Cafe.

Recently, I sat with another pastor who I just met. We were sharing ministry stories, especially discussing our favorite authors and resources. The conversation moved to our sources of inspiration and we began to talk about what motivates us, not only for ministry, but for living the Christian life.

My new friend told me of someone he knew. This person had been through the fire in many ways and certainly had reason to be depressed and discouraged, yet I heard how infectious his joy was and about the impact his happiness had on others. My colleague said to me, “How many pastors do you know, who in their 40’s and 50’s became bitter because of the many wounds they took in ministry? Yet, here is a man who had every reason to feel bitter and he was full of the joy of Christ instead.”

Since that conversation, I continue to reflect on where real happiness comes from. Too many times it seems we connect our happiness with someone or something else. A challenge comes along and we become unhappy. Someone hurts us or speaks against us and we lose our joy. An unexpected event comes along and we throw away our happiness, exchanging it for fear, frustration and anger. Because we tie our happiness to changing and transitory things, our joy is tossed to and fro by every little wave that comes along.

Jesus said, “In this life you will have trouble.” (John 16:33) We should not be surprised by obstacles and opposition, nor should we lose heart in the face of these challenges. Rather, we should hold fast to Christ, celebrate his presence and believe in where his Spirit is leading us, for he also said, “take heart. I have overcome the world.” When our happiness is connected to God, the One who is the same yesterday, today and forever, our joy can be God’s joy and it can remain unwavering in the face of adversity.

One of my favorite verses comes from Psalm 34:19, “Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers him out of them all.” What an amazing promise! It does not deny the reality of our human struggle, but reminds us that, in spite of our challenges, our hope is in the Lord. We may feel overwhelmed, but God is not. There is no terror or timidity in heaven today, no question of what to do. God is seated on the throne and speaking forth the creation of life.

What, then, does it take to be happy? Our answer is found, not in external things, but in an unwavering trust in the Lord of Life. We do not look to our circumstances to determine our attitude. We do not look to the opinions of others to determine the state of our soul. We look to Jesus, the Author and Perfector of our faith. With our soul at rest in him, we can find unspeakable joy.

Life is too short to be unhappy, especially when the joy of the Lord can be our strength. May our faith rise up and give us joy today as we hold fast to God and know that, in him, we will not be moved.

The post Be Happy appeared first on Thinking Faith Cafe.

I struggled with this for years and still have to bring these thoughts under control. I convinced myself that once I graduated from college, I would feel secure in my position and ready to lead. Following graduation, I revised the plan with a new necessary accomplishment. However, no matter what stage I completed, those feelings never completely took hold. It was not until a good friend encouraged me to look at what I was doing, that I realized that lasting feelings were not ever going to be the result of an accomplishment. Life would always offer challenges and there would always be something waiting in the future with the false promise of secure feelings. My answer was not in my accomplishments, but my attitude.

That is not always easy to hear. We like to believe that our feelings and perspectives are the result of the actions of others or situation we are in. These may influence us, but ultimately, our experience will be shaped by our beliefs and our attitudes.

There is a wonderful story in the book of Acts. The Apostle Paul and Silas are imprisoned for stirring up trouble. It seems that their preaching about Jesus made some people quite upset and the disturbance landed them in jail. This was not just a night in a cell with the promise of, “leave town and don’t come back.” The morning held the real possibility of torture and maybe even death.

Locked in their cell and guarded by the jailer they faced a challenging night. Who could blame them for fear and concern, maybe even a little anger at the people or God for allowing this to happen? This was unfair and not likely what they were expecting. It was exactly the type of situation that leads to discouragement and depression. Yet, that was not their choice. Here, in the face of danger and death, they were singing.

Paul and Silas made a decision. They put their trust in God and lifted their eyes to a bigger picture than their circumstances, to a God who was larger than anything they faced. They allowed their spirits to take the lead and so, looking squarely at their dark reality, they chose to believe, to sing, and to praise in their prison.

The result was not only their spiritual freedom, but their physical freedom as well, and the blessings did not stop there. This witness to their faith changed the lives of others in prison with them, including the guard. Their willingness to rejoice in their unpleasant circumstances changed lives, and continues to do the same as their story is told 2000 years later.

We face prisons of many kinds in life. Some are made with concrete and bars, while others we fashion brick by brick within our minds and spirits. In those confining moments and seasons, we can lament our circumstances, bemoan our misfortune and give up on our future, but there is another choice. We can decide, like Paul and Silas, to offer our praise in spite of our circumstances. We can declare God’s goodness and his divine possibilities in the face of pain and fear. We can believe with action in the presence of the temptation to doubt. We can praise in our prison.

When we release our faith in these moments, cell doors open, we find freedom and the people around us get changed. I once heard a youth speaker say, “People are waiting on the other side of your obedience.” Maybe, they are also waiting on the other side of our praise. May we find the strength in God to praise in our prison and break free in our faith.

The post Praising in Your Prision appeared first on Thinking Faith Cafe.

About a mile into our journey, we ran into the worst fog I’ve ever seen, and certainly the most challenging I’ve ever driven in. I could barely see anything beyond the hood of the car. I could not see the road, with all of its twists and turns, there was no way to turn around, and no way to identify any traffic around us. I did not know what to do.

We ended up driving another six miles in the fog to the next available exit from our now obscured scenic drive. My wife diligently watched out the window for any sign of traffic and I, with my door open, slowly navigated the trip by following the yellow dividing line that was just to my left. It was challenging and frightening, but we made it through.

I think of that story often, because there are times when life feels like that trip along Skyline Drive. Things are not always clear. Sometimes it is difficult to know where to go, when to turn, or what to watch out for. We know that the path before us has curves and potential obstacles, but we cannot see them. With no ability to turn around, we know we must find a way to move forward in spite of our limited view and our fears.

The Psalmist wrote, “Your word is like a lamp to my feet and light to my path.” (Psalm 119:105) When life is challenging and frightening, when we do not know what to do next and the path seems impossible to find, it is then that the light of God shines the brightest on our way. Through the written word of God and the living Word of Jesus Christ, we can see enough to take the next step.

Like my driving experience, we may not be able to see more than the very next step and our guide may seem like nothing more than a small yellow line by our side. Yet, we know that God is with us and that his directions will bring us safely through if we will follow his path. With the light of Christ and the light of the Scripture, we place our faith in God and take the step that we can see, and with God’s help, we do it together.

Looking back, my trip through the fog that day was one of the most challenging parts of our honeymoon, but is also one of the favorite stories of my life. Remembering, and sharing, how my wife and I faced a difficult situation and made it through together still makes me smile and reminds me of the wonderful adventure we share together.

So it is with God. As we look back, we too can tell the stories of how we overcame challenges and confusion with God’s light on our path. Our faith is strengthened by the memory of God’s provision. Our testimony is stronger as we share the story with others, and in the end, we can celebrate the awesome adventure that comes from sharing life with God.

The path is not always clear, but the journey is worth it. As we share the adventure with God, we can put our trust in the Word to light our way.

The post LIght on the Path appeared first on Thinking Faith Cafe.