What's your gut reaction?

When Jesus came ashore, he saw a large crowd. He felt deep concern for them. They were like sheep
without a shepherd. So he began teaching them many things...

He went into the villages, the towns and the countryside. Everywhere he went, the people brought the
sick to the market places. Those who were sick begged him to let them touch just the edge of his
clothes. And all who touched him were healed. (Mark 6:34, 56 New Reader’s International Version)

Have you ever reacted to something so deeply that your skin crawled or the pit of your stomach got queasy? I’ll tell you when that happens to me. A kid will come to youth group with some obvious injury—wearing a cast or both knees scraped up and they’ll tell me what happened:

“Well, Pastor Randy, I was skateboarding on the street and I was gonna jump the curb, but I didn’t get
high enough so the skateboard stopped and I didn’t and I landed on my knees.”

So my brain adds the sensation of concrete scraping the skin off of MY knees to the story . . . and my guts react like it happened to me.

If you can relate to that kind of gut reaction, than you can understand the experience Jesus had that day. Jesus, seeing the needs of the people around him, has a gut reaction of concern for them. He responds by teaching and healing . . . meeting the needs of the crowd that had gathered. Jesus, our great Teacher, showed us by his example, what true spiritual leadership looks like. It’s an important example to pay attention to as we live into our calling to make an impact for the kingdom of God in our community and as we continue to work out what it means to be a caring and fruitful family of faith.

Often times when we are confronted with people in need we are hindered by a sense of inability. I find that happening when I encounter a situation where the need is great or when I don’t believe I have the resources to meet the need. Productivity expert David Allen has some important advice for moments like this—pick a next action. You may not be able to resolve the situation completely…you may not have all the resources necessary to provide complete assistance…but you can take an action that begins the process of meaningfully meeting the need. Jesus’ heart was broken by deep concern for others. He took action to meet their need. We have no better role model than him! Consider these questions to inspire your next compassionate action:

• What person in your life have you felt deep concern for? What situation in our community have you strongly reacted to? What “breaks your heart?”
• What’s the next action YOU can take to address that need or situation?

May you be blessed and be a blessing this month!

Leading people to a fuller life

9 I am the gate. Whoever enters by me will be saved, and will come in and go out and find pasture. 10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.
--John 10:9-10

Imagine for a moment that you have been put in a town carrying a valuable message that will give anyone who knows it a peaceful and satisfying life. Along with this valuable message you have been given a special sense that reveals to you the people who need it. As you walk through the town, the people seem to have pretty normal lives. Most of them have decent jobs. The children in the town enjoy good schools and like to play when their time is free. On the weekends people have friends over or watch football on TV. It seems to be a nice, quiet town. You are shocked, then, to discover that over half the people you encounter trigger your special sense that they are enjoying neither peace nor satisfaction in their lives. They desperately need the message you have.

One problem. People in this town don’t learn very well when you simply try to tell the message to them. They have settled for life as it is now. They don’t have a vision for what life could be. Their best hope for embracing your valuable message is to see you experiencing the peace and satisfaction they could also have.

As a believer in Jesus YOU are the person carrying the valuable lesson! People enter into the abundant life of peace and satisfaction as they become Jesus’ disciples. According to statistics, 60% of your neighbors, co-workers, and friends don’t have a meaningful relationship with Christ. They may know who he is, but they haven’t “entered the gate.” They have a life, just not the abundant, transformed life that Jesus promises through a relationship with him.

I am reading the diary of an American missionary named Frank Laubach right now. Laubach was a missionary to an illiterate Muslim tribe in the Philippines during the 1930s. In his diary, Letters by a Modern Mystic, I have been challenged by his perspective that he had no right to convert Muslims to Christianity unless it led them to a fuller life in God than they had before. Here’s an excerpt from his diary dated 9 March 1930:

“Clearly, clearly, my job is not to go to the town plaza and make proselytes, it is to live wrapped in God, trembling to His thoughts, burning with His passion. And, my loved one, that is the best gift you can give your own town.”

Ultimately what will lead people to a satisfying, life-transforming relationship with Jesus Christ is speaking the message with your life. I invite you to take some time this month to reflect on your life as it is right now. Ask Jesus to refresh your spirit, give you His thoughts, and energize you with His passion. Perhaps you might read through one of the gospels this month and connect more deeply with Jesus and his life. The best gifts we can give our town are lives wrapped in God…lives full of God.

Taking the high route

Being on sabbatical gives me more opportunity to sit in the back yard and ponder basic truths. The opening prayer from my devotional book today was:

Loving God, clothe me in yourself and enable me to live and serve after the pattern of Jesus. Amen

--A Guide to Prayer for Ministers and Other Servants.

As I pondered the pattern of living and serving Jesus lived out, I noticed the behavior of our backyard squirrels. Wherever the go they almost always choose to travel above ground, even when walking on the ground would get them there quicker and easier. There are two trees in our backyard that are far enough apart that the branches don't intermingle. Rather than walk from one tree trunk to the other, the squirrel chose a longer route along the top of our chainlink fence to get from one tree to the other. It seems to be deep in their character to choose the high route, even when a little longer and more involved.

There is a spiritual metaphor in this for me. That choosing the high route . . . Jesus' pattern of living and serving . . . become deep in my character. I pray I get to the place where the high route becomes my default choice . . . and that it happens so naturally I don't even notice it any more . . . I just do it.

I can't get to that place, none of us can, without God enabling us. I don't make high route choices on my own that often. The key, for me, is to stay consistently alert to God's voice and the Spirit's leading. Perhaps that is my greatest challenge on the spiritual journey.