God

Where is God on Monday morning? These are my posts where I examine that question, trying to find God in the every day.

That old suit…

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There are a lot of people who live in fear of their phones. Doctors, EMT’s, firefighters, and pastors all know that in a moment, their phone could change their day or week. Maybe it’s a car accident they need to get to quickly. Maybe it’s the hospital calling them in for an urgent case. Or maybe it’s a family member calling to let you know that someone died. I received one of those phone calls on Memorial Day, laced with tragic irony – a soldier had killed themselves, and now I, as the chaplain have to “do my thing”.

The thing that frightens me, the thing that I want to process “out loud”, is just how comfortable I am with these situations. People tell me all the time that they have no idea what to do or say in these moments. That’s not my problem. My problem is that it begins to feel scripted or rote. My problem seems to be how comfortable I am talking about death, grief, and suicide. It feels strangely familiar. Continue reading →

Ace in the Hole…

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The phrase ‘ace in the hole’ comes from stud poker. In stud poker, as opposed to the more well know draw poker, each player is dealt their hand with some of the cards face up and some face down. In 5 Card Stud Poker, you only have one card in your hand that is face down, which is referred to as ‘the hole’. That means that everyone at the table can see four of your five cards, but they can’t see the hole. The best card to have there, the card that will turn the tables the fastest, is an ace. That’s why ‘ace in the hole’ is used to describe something designed to guarantee success.

I think God uses you and I as ‘aces in the hole’ for each other. Continue reading →

God as our Mr Miyagi…

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maxresdefaultOne of the most iconic movies of my generation is ‘The Karate Kid’. It’s not just a good martial arts movie; it’s just a great film. The film shows us the life of Daniel, who is a kid who finds himself in a new high school, which comes with a new breed a bullies. Daniel’s situation grows so bad that the maintenance man of his apartment complex, Mr Miyagi, offers to take Daniel-san under his wing and train him in karate.

Daniel shows up excited to learn. His excitement quickly dissipates when he finds out that his training will begin after he does some chores. Daniel’s would-be mentor has him sand his back deck, wash and wax his car, and paint his fence. After three days of hard work and no training, Daniel has had enough. He confronts Mr Miyagi about the lack of training. Just as Daniel is about to walk away from everything, the wise old mentor asks Daniel to do all of the motions that he had over the last three days; painting the fence, sanding the floor, and famously wax on, wax off. With little warning, Mr Miyagi begins to throws kicks and punches at Daniel-san, who instinctively begins to throw near perfect blocks, deflecting the attacks.

Turns out, he had been training this whole time.

I think God is a lot like Mr Miyagi some times. Continue reading →

10 Things I Learned About Revitalizing Churches (Part 1)

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It’s appointment season in the United Methodist Church, which means many pastors are finding themselves in new churches, and they are hoping to revitalize their congregations. While I am passionate about it, I’m by no means an expert on the subject. So I took the outline from a recent workshop I attended, lead by Ron Edmonson. He happens to be a guru on the subject (my words, not his) who has demonstrated how to effectively add new life to established churches.

So, here are five things he shared as important to know, with my insight added. Part two will come next week.  Continue reading →