Circle of Love

I recently received this sermon illustration from Voicings Publications. It describes the opposite reaction to sin in the community than some churches employ.

“Circle of Love”
The lifestyle of the Babemba tribe in South Africa was featured a number of years ago in a TV documentary on Apartheid. Within that community, antisocial or criminal behavior is rare. However, when it does occur, the Babemba have an interesting and beautifully creative way of dealing with it ...

If a member of the tribe acts irresponsibly, he or she is placed at the center of the village. Work stops, and every man, woman and child in the village gathers around the accused in a large circle.

Then, one at a time, each individual, including the children, call out all the good things the person in the center of the ring has done previously. All the positive attributes and the kind acts are recited carefully and at length. No one is permitted to exaggerate or be facetious. It’s serious business!

The ceremony often lasts for several days and doesn’t stop until everyone is drained of every positive comment he or she can muster about the transgressor. Not one word of criticism concerning the accused’s irresponsible, antisocial deed is permitted. At the end, the tribal circle breaks up, a joyous celebration begins, and he or she is welcomed back into the community. Apparently this overwhelming, positive bombardment strengthens the self-esteem of the accused, and causes that person to resolve to live up to the expectations of the tribe. Proof of the success of this creative response to wrongdoing seems evident in the fact that these ceremonies are quite rare. One wonders if, perhaps, borrowing from this technique might be a good idea, at least in certain family situations in which a member has gone astray.

"By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another" (John 13:35).

May we be quick to love and slow to judge and condemn those with us in our journey communities.

Oh, The Places You Could Write

I recently spoke to some graduates at Munday High School's Baccalaureate service and I read to them Oh, The Places You'll Go by Dr. Seuss. My main point to them was that their futures will be full of choices they will face as they Go on their journeys after high school. I told them they would need to remember what they had already learned as they continued learning, to seek advice from trustworthy people, and, most importantly, to pursue God's plan for their lives.

It seems that in all the places I have gone, those ideas--continuing to learn, seeking advice, and pursuing God's plan--have been reinforced to me over and over. Yet, there have been many times that I have acted as if I hadn't learned anything, as if I were going it alone without counsel, and as if I were pursuing my own plan and not God's. It's usually not too long after I wake up in a ditch on my journey, covered in the mud of my mistakes and wrong choices, that I say to myself "I should have known this was going to happen!" or "I wished I had listened to so and so," or "I'm sure God's plan would have been better than this ditch."

Now I have a dilemma: "Where is the best place to write about what's going on along my journey?" Here are the places I write: For years, I have been writing feelings, experiences, and lessons I am learning in my Christian life in my personal journal. Additionally, I have been writing newsletter articles for the newsletters of the churches in which I have served, most of which have been newsy at times but many have had a devotional feel to them. I have also been keeping a daily work-log of activities (phone calls, appointments, meetings, ministry events, etc.) associated with my job as a pastor. And now I have a blog and I feel like saying, "Oh, The Places You Could Write!"

There are things I experience that I want to get off my chest, but I feel no one needs to see them due to the raw honesty of the feelings I am expressing. People may not understand my emotions and jump to conclusions while I am still trying to figure out what the truth is in the situation. So I put these thoughts in my journal, only to be read at the end of the "chapter" I am living.

I love writing the devotional type of newsletter articles I write but I also have to disseminate information about what's going on in the church. The newsletter isn't very long (at this point) and, therefore, I usually have to choose to write more news and less letter.

My work-log is -- well, it is just a log. It's not good reading because it's not good writing. I keep it primarily to keep track of what I spend my time working on as a pastor.

Then there is my blog. Because I'm new to blogging, I am having a hard time posting because I am so busy writing in all the other places. This doesn't even include the time I spend reading and studying in preparation for the sermon(s) I have to preach every week. In that prep time, I write and edit and write and edit before I have a preachable sermon.

I also have a hard time blogging due to the decisions of what to share and what to either keep private or keep as strictly church business. So I struggle with what to write in my blog and when.

Therefore, please forgive me (those of you who read this blog) for being sporadic in my blogging. I am just wondering and wandering on my blog journey.

Chased By A Storm

This past Friday night, my family and I were on our way back home from Abilene as a severe storm was brewing to the north and west. My wife and I were acting like "storm-chasers" on the Weather Channel while our boys were fast asleep in the back seat.

The farther north we drove the more it seemed we might intersect the storm. Pressing on toward home, we watched through our windshield the little fingers of cloud drop down from the dark black monster that loomed out to the front and left of our car. Giant bolts of lightning flashed from the main body of the storm and all around us on the horizon. We were scanning the sky and the ground under the storm for signs of circulation or little houses being sucked off to Oz. Driving past a herd of cattle, we jokingly quoted from Twister, saying "Cow!" and hoped none of them would take flight in front of our car.

We thought we had reached the storm (or it had reached us) with it almost on top of us as we started to feel hail hitting the car. We asked each other, "Should we pull over into Sonic or into that car wash?" But we decided to keep on driving (as fast as legally possible) toward home.

After a couple of minutes the hail stopped and the storm was behind us. The sky lightened in front of us and the rain lessened the closer we got to home. When we pulled into Munday at about 7:45 p.m., the rain had stopped and it was still light outside. However, behind us it was as dark as midnight except for the ocassional lightning flashes. We had missed the storm--by only 10 minutes according to the news which reported circulation and tornadic activity in the very cloud structure we were chasing or which was chasing us. But we were safe at home.

Okay, you may think we're just plain crazy for endangering ourselves or bad parents for endangering our boys while driving through a storm. But we had no idea really how bad the storm was until we got home. Because of where we live and the age of our car (I guess), we couldn't pick up any radio stations to tell us the amount of potential danger the storm presented. It looked bad, but not where we were on the road. So we kept driving toward home. And by the time the storm started to get bad, we drove out of it. Thankfully, the storm was never bad over our car.

We all will face storms on our horizons. Some may seem to suck the life out of you or blow you down and some may just make you wet. Some may make you have to seek higher ground or go running to the cellar. Some storms you can drive through, while others cause you to get stuck in traffic as the storm approaches from behind. The storms will come, some with plenty of warning and some very suddenly.

Just like meteorological storms will come, sometimes spiritual storms also pop up on the horizon. What are these storms and how should we face them? First, some storms we face may come suddenly and without warning. Sometimes these storms come to test our faith and display God's power. In Matthew 8:23-27, Jesus and His disciples were in a boat when a sudden storm came upon them. The disciples panicked but Jesus just slept. How did Jesus sleep through the storm? Soundly, because He could control the storm. We need to trust God to help us through the storms because only He can calm them and us.

Second, we face some storms because we ignore the warnings. The destructive power of the some of the storms of our lives could have been avoided if we would have just steered clear of the storm when we had the chance. In Acts 27, the apostle Paul was a passenger on a boat headed to Rome in late Fall--the wrong time of the year to sail--when he warned them they would face disaster if they traveled further. They ignored him and, sure enough, they were hit by a "northeaster," they ran aground on an island, and the boat was broken to pieces in the process. By God's grace, no lives were lost. But Paul said in verse 21, "You should have taken my advice ... then you would have spared yourselves this damage and loss." How often does God warn us about impending danger due to sin and disobedience and we find ourselves in a storm we could have avoided? Prayerfully in those situations we only face minor or temporary damage and not lose our lives in the storm. By God's grace we can still be rescued.

Finally, sometimes we face storms as the innocent victims of someone else's storm. This scary storm is the fault of someone else's sin. We didn't cause these storms, yet we still face the terrifying forces of the storm. We need God to protect us during the storm while He deals with the guilty party. While running from God, Jonah put his shipmates at risk of being destroyed by a storm which God was using to get his attention (Jonah 1). Once the sailors were finally convinced by Jonah to throw him overboard and after he was off the boat and in the water, the storm was calmed. The men in the boat showed reverance for God and made "vows" to Him, and then God dealt with Jonah. Even then, the whale or giant fish wasn't a punishment for Jonah but a rescue submarine sent by God. And Jonah praised God for rescuing him from the storm his sin caused.

Only God can rescue us from our storms, whether they are caused by us or someone else, or whether they happen for some other "God-only-knows" reason. When storms seem to be chasing you, I hope you remember these two verses:

Psalms 55:8 (CEV) "... quickly find shelter from howling winds and raging storms."

Isaiah 25:4 (NIV) "You [God] have been a refuge for the poor, a refuge for the needy in his distress, a shelter from the storm ..."

May God bless you and protect you on your journey.

A Sojourner By Faith

I have been wanting to start a blog for a while but life has been very busy. So here we go.

The Bible refers to Abraham as a "sojourner" in Hebrews 11:9 (KJV), meaning he lived like a foreigner in temporary housing even though he was in the promised land. Why not settle down? It was because Abraham believed by faith that even though the promised land to which God had led him was great and all, God had designed and built a better place for him (v. 10), a heavenly country (v. 16).

I have been in search of my place in this world for years only to find I will never be satisfied with any place this side of heaven. So I just need to live and serve by faith wherever God leads me.

I read this great explanation of a "sojourner" on a website for The Journey Church of Anchorage, Alaska where Toby and Ellen Stevens serve. I have never met them but I like this description.

"As people travel through life, they often find themselves seeking for fellow travelers along the way; people of like minds and common goals. Sometimes the search is quiet; sometimes active ... nonetheless they look. They look for people with similar passions and desires. In the midst of an upside-down world, they search for fulfillment, for peace, and for purpose in life as they strive to find their place in God. And along the journey, they search for fellow sojourners." http://www.thejourneyanchorage.org/GetConnected/Sojourners.html

So why read my blog? Well, I like to say, "We're all in this together!" and therefore, I thought it would be cool to dialog with others about what we are learning on our journeys. I want to share what I'm learning and observing and I want to hear what you are experiencing. My hope is that in some way I can help and encourage you along life's journey.

Do I have all the answers? No. But even though I have learned some of the answers by faith, I am still learning. Let's learn and journey together.