Life2gether

I’m sure you’ve been there as a parent.  You’ve told your child what to do and she won’t budge.  She wants control.  She wants what she wants and won’t let go. 

I was in that place last night.  We were at a stand still.  Just me and my oldest daughter.  But instead of getting angry and demanding that she obey me, I realized that I needed to help her see what was going on in her heart.  After talking to her about it for awhile, she didn’t seem to understand.  In fact, she told me that I was the one who didn’t understand her — which was probably true!  By the grace of God, I stayed calm as she grew more and more emotional.  Finally, I thought it was best to leave her on her bed as I went to pray and ask God for wisdom. 

Of all things, he led me to pick up a ball laying on the carpet right outside her bedroom door.  I looked at it and I thought, “God, would you help me and my daughter to understand what’s going on here?  I don’t know what to do.”  Then, I just opened the door with the ball in my hand believing that he would come through as I sat next to my girl on her bed.  I showed her the ball and said, “Emie, this ball represents what Emie wants.”  And so I gave it to her and told her to hold it close to her chest.  I explained to her that there are many things that she wants, but she can’t always have what she wants.  She needs to let go and let her daddy help her with these choices.  I looked at her and said, “Emie, this is hard, isn’t it?  It’s hard to let go of the control.  It’s hard to let go of the ball.  We want to hold onto it, don’t we?”  Then I told her that I’m the same way.  I want what I want and I don’t want anybody taking that away. 

At this point she seemed confused and asked a great question.  But Daddy, “You always get what you want.  You always have the ball.  How come I don’t get to do what I want, like you do?”  I paused for a moment then looked at her and said, “Emie, God gave you a Daddy who loves you and wants to help you understand what it is you really want.  And as you keep growing up you will be able to make more choices on your own.  But I want to tell you something.  If you keep holding onto what you want you will end up sad and frustrated.  But if you are willing to let go and trust Daddy you will be happy.  You know why?  Because as you willingly give me the ball, we’ll meet in the middle (I put the ball between us) and you’ll see that what I want for you is really what you want too.  Do you know why?  Because we’re actually both taking what we want and lifting it up to God and asking him what He wants.  (We lifted up the ball together).  You see, Emie, we’re giving up control and letting him have the ball.” 

Emie smiled.  By God’s grace I think it clicked.  We hugged and asked God to help us let go and give up our control.  Emie loved the little activity and asked if she could write about it in her journal.  This is part of what she wrote (she gave me permission!) in her own words:

Emie’s Journal Entry — March 15, 2010

Ball repersents: What I want

If I kept holding on to what Emie wants I would get sad but if I say here you go Daddy and give him what Emie wants then it’s like we stick together with what Emie wants and we be happy and God is happy too.

2nd Grade, page 26.

Well said, Emie.  Little did you know that you’re the one teaching me to let go and trust God.

This story of a father’s love for his disabled son made me weep and return to the cross.

(HT: Z)

As a pastor for children and families, sometimes it’s hard to see if you’re really making a difference.  But once in awhile God gives you a little glimpse.

On Tuesday I met with an 8 year old boy in my office.  He had been eager to set up a time to talk with me.  I always enjoy talking with kids and their parents and leaving them with a prayer and a piece of candy from Pastor Doug.  But little did I know that on this particular day, I would be the one who was handed the greater gift.

After a few minutes, his mom finally coaxed him to say what he had come to talk to me about.  So sitting there with a big smile on his face, this little boy looked right at me and said, “I want to be a Children’s Pastor when I grow up!”  I smiled big.  In fact, I’m sure it was bigger than the smile on his face.  Then I asked him WHY he wanted to be a Children’s Pastor.  And his simple answer was basically this: “I love God.  I like kids.  And I want to teach them.”  Cool.  How great is that, huh?!  Needless to say I was happy.  But thankfully God showed me this was also a golden opportunity. 

Instead of thinking so much about his future dreams (sounds funny to say it that way!) that obviously could change, I’m focusing on the present.  So, with his mom and dad’s blessing, we’ve decided to set up a discipleship time twice a month to get together and talk about how to grow in our understanding of the gospel.  I look forward to these conversations and the HOMEwork assignments that follow.  And I thank God for this little glimpse of the gospel at work in children.

See why at my wife’s blog.

Last night I asked one simple question that opened the doorway to closer community with a few people in our church.  All I asked was, “What’s your faith story?” and the Holy Spirit led us into joyful humility and awe at the redeeming work of Christ on our behalf.  It was a sweet time remembering the grace of God in each of our lives.

It got me thinking, as followers of Christ we need to share our stories more often.  Why?  Not only does it build community, it strengthens our faith in a God who can do the impossible.  He is not restrained by our sinful rebellion.  He is sovereign.  He can save.  And he can do it in a multitude of ways.  No one is beyond the reach of God’s saving grace.  We need to remind ourselves of that as we pray and seek the salvation of our friends and family members.

And perhaps most of all, we need to share our stories because our stories help us to see that the gospel is alive.  It carries us and lifts us even now.  It awakens us and amazes us today.  We never get used to the gospel.  Indeed, Christ is our ever-present Savior who is acting on our behalf and shaping our stories until that final day when our journey comes to an end (or should I say beginning) in heaven.

This is one of my favorite events: short track speed skating.  Amazing how they train!  Made me think of the verses in 1 Cor. 9:25:

Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training.  They do it to get a crown that will not last, but we do it to get a crown that will last forever.

Here’s a little sermon illustration for children (and adults):

There are some things you never forget.  I’ll never forget the time when my brother and I held the Winter Olympics in our basement.  We were 6 years old and we had been watching the Winter Olympics on TV.  We got so excited as we looked at the people going on the bobsled rides zooming down really fast.  And we loved watching those guys go off the huge ski jump.  So we decided that we were going to hold the Winter Olympics right there in our basement.  Now we had some steps going down to our basement.  So what we did for the ski jump was to simply take a running start off the top of the stairs and see how long we could jump down below.  It was kinda dangerous but thankfully we didn’t get hurt.  For the bobsled, we had the idea of taking my mom’s laundry basket and both of us sitting in it and sliding down the stairs as fast as we could.  I must admit, we wiped out a few times! 

Now, were we really in the Olympics?  Were we really Olympic athletes?  No, we were pretending to be something that we were not. Do you know that many people in this world and many people who go to church are pretending to be Christians but they are really not.  They say all the right things, but their lives are no different than those who are not Christians.  Their words don’t match their actions.

Jesus told us that this is really serious.  In the Bible, he spoke to his disciples one day and told them three pictures of what it means to be a true Christian.  Mt. 7:13-14 (Two Ways), Mt. 7:15-20 (Two Trees), Mt. 7:24-27 (Two Houses).

Just like Kurt Warner and Ashton Kutcher I’m from Iowa and I worked at the Hy-Vee Grocery Store!  Kurt was a night stock boy in Cedar Falls, Ashton was a deli guy in Coralville, and I was a checker/stocker in Marion.  Like Ashon Kutcher says, “This supermarket, I tell ya, produces superstars!”  Well, two anyway.

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly.  That’s the name of our upcoming series on the Life of David beginning this Sunday at LBC.  Here’s what my senior pastor Tony Rose says about this series: 

Beginning February 7 we will begin a study of the Life of David, the Old Testament king of Israel. We will follow his story as it is recorded in the books of I and II Samuel. David’s story is truly one of the good, the bad and the ugly. If we take this story at its true value it will have a considerable shocking effect on us. When God told David’s story he did not sanitize it, God told it as it was. Most of us tend to sanitize the stories of our own lives, for ourselves and for others, but God does not. Following David will help us to truly know God in our real life situations and with our real life selves.

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CNN reports:

THE TOLL

150,000: Latest estimate of the death toll, from the Haitian Health Ministry. The European Union and the Pan American Health Organization, which are coordinating the health-sector response, have estimated the quake killed 200,000 people.
194,000: Number of injured
134: Estimated number of people rescued by international search teams since the quake

THE EFFECT

9 million: Population of Haiti
3 million: Estimated number of people affected by the quake
1 million: Estimated number of displaced people
800,000 to 1 million: People who need temporary shelter
235,000: People who have left Port-au-Prince using free transportation provided by the government. The number who left by private means is undetermined.
At least 50: Aftershocks of magnitude 4.5 or higher that have hit Haiti since the January 12 quake

THE CHILDREN

300,000: Children younger than 2 who need nutritional support
90: Percentage of schools in Port-au-Prince that have been destroyed
363: Haitian orphans who have been evacuated

THE RESPONSE IN DOLLARS

$1.12 billion: International aid pledges
$783 million: Funds received as of Tuesday
$317 million: U.S. assistance as of Monday

THE RESPONSE IN MANPOWER

17,000: U.S. military personnel in and around Haiti
8 million: Meals the World Food Programme has delivered to nearly 400,000 people
300: Aid distribution sites that are up and running
130 to 150: Flights arriving every day at the single-runway Port-au-Prince airport with aid

EFFECT ON FOREIGNERS

12,000: U.N. workers in the country at the time of the quake
53: U.N. workers still missing
At least 82: U.N. workers dead
27: U.N. workers injured or hospitalized
11,500: Americans and family members who have been evacuated
4,800: Americans unaccounted for