Tensions that Work For Us

Interesting conversation today at Starbucks. Thinking with a friend
about how God works and why i stumbled into this moment of "Ah ha!".
The question, "How can God be punishing people when He is love?"
Then it hit me. There is a tension, a good tension between justice
and mercy. Those can seem juxtaposed, working against each other.
Mercy taken to extremes ends up with nothing matters for in the end
consequences are wiped out. "I can always be forgiven so who
cares." Further in the extreme is the accusation against God, "How
can he love and send people to hell?" No justice means no boundaries
and no reason to change.

No mercy has the opposite effect, not a heart of unconcern but a
heart never at rest and always full of anxiety. No mercy makes us
want to hide, not "confess (tell the truth) so that we can be
forgiven (I John 1:9). No mercy will eventually harden the heart and
stiffen the will.

Justice and mercy seem to lie in tension, especially from our short
view and especially for those frustrated with who God is and how we
has shaped the life. Funny how we can accuse God over decisions that
we make. How can God be at fault for justice? Isn't justice right?
How can we accuse God of anything, even not being loving when we
choose to walk past the offer of forgiveness? Isn't it merciful when
God, knowing we were caught in sin, offered us a way out? And
justice? It's still there. The death of Jesus was the expression of
justice, one man dying for all.

Justice and mercy, two tensions that work for us, two tensions that
keep us in balance, two tensions that take us into the heart of a
perfect and holy God.

The Down Sides of Creativity

Creativity does have down sides. On the upside creativity reflects
the heart of the Lord and opens hearts and minds of people in ways
previously locked. But down sides there are for sure. One is the
drain. Creativity is emotional energy that requires full involvement
of the heart and mind. The euphoria of creating can be met by the
bottom moment of expending energy. People who are creative need time
to think, reflect, and see life from other vantages. As the
scripture says, there is nothing new under the sun. That means
creativity is often the connecting of dots that were previously
connected and thus bring new possibilities, new insights, new ways,
new hope.

Another down side of creativity can be that we can lose the point.
Every creative avenue will not get us to the goal. Often in our own
team gatherings we have to work to stay on focus or we will shift
into being creative and forget the point of the creativity and end up
with another point all together. Even that is a challenge because to
cut the dreaming and scheming too fast may lose the one idea that
will fully help people to catch God's heart.

Creativity must be fed. Wild reading, travel, arts, learning from
all walks of life stir creativity. In The Medici Effect (a really
cool book) the author says that key Islands that cross pollinated
people gave rise to some major breakthroughs. Without that continual
inflow, creativity dries up. Without interaction with a team,
creativity typically becomes a rut.

Creating is fun. Designing experiences for people to intersect God's
heart is off the charts coo. If you have some creative types in your
circle know that they need the time, space and opportunity for
regular infilling!

Behind the Scenes

Spiritual Warfare is multi-faceted. It encompasses strategy at all
levels, emotion, physicality, spirit and mind. This past Saturday I
could not go to sleep. Getting up at 5:30 to begin the day isn't so
hard for me but when I am watching the clock turn from midnight to 1
AM I realize I'm on the short side of the sleep number. What I had
not realized is how that would set me up for the battle of the day.
When the body is tired the heart is vulnerable. When the body is
tired, the soul is at risk. Leaving the day everyone was moved by
the experience of Jesus last days. But I couldn't fully enter that
joy. My heart was fried partly because my body was over tired. Like
a kid going without rest, my lack of physical energy was a set up.
The same is true for Elijah. Following his encounter with the
prophets of Baal he is threatened and runs miles. In his exhaustion
his persistence is worn out and he is ready to give up.

I was surprised at the experience this past weekend. I was set up
big time and didn't even see it coming. Now for some rest this week
so I'm not set up again like that.

Doormats for Jesus

From time to time I am a part of an assessment team that assesses
church planters. It is always an eye opening experience and I learn
much more than I give. I learn about myself, people and the Lord.
One of the areas we assess is conflict management. Conflict is a
part of life and a big part of leadership. Somehow in the Christian
culture we have come to an understanding that we must be door mats,
allowing everyone and anyone to walk on us. On the surface it smacks
of love and kindness. We may even have scripture to back it up in
that Jesus went like a sheep to the slaughter without a word. That
is a word from Isaiah 53:7 and it is true. But what if we have
misunderstood it? What if Jesus did actually speak in the moments of
the lies being told about him? What if he non-violently turned the
light on to the darkness that was working to destroy him? John
18:19-23 is a different story. When Jesus is struck by one of the
officials he challenged the one who struck him. That challenge
turned the light on in the darkness. That challenge revealed the
heart of the one who hit him.

What if we could find a non-violent way to call out evil? What if we
were not called to be doormats? What do we do with Jesus words that
those entering the Kingdom of God take it by violence? Could it be
that we should re-think how to live in conflict? This I do know, if
we are always living as doormats we may one day rise up and unleash a
furry of negative energy. No one is made to "take it" all of the time.

One of the gifts we hope to give those moving toward spiritual
leadership is the gift of standing in conflict and knowing that they
are following Jesus when they stand up for themselves. We are called
to lay down our lives but we are not called to be doormats. No we
are not!

Catalytic Questions

Questions are catalytic. Even if we do not know the answer simply
posing the question opens the heart and mind to other possibilities.
Questions can be life transformational and pivotal. Questions can
get us to see what we missed and dream again. Questions may be the
leaders best friend. The past 2 weeks I've had a few opportunities
to meet with people and out of each of those meetings I've asked a
question. For one person it was, "Have you thought about pursuing
ministry?" Two others it was, "What would you like to lead at GR?"
Those questions have opened doors of conversations and possibilities
I would have never seen nor imagined. The leadership base of GR is
expanding simply because of those catalytic questions.

Leaders do not need to know all the answers. In fact if they had to
choose between knowing the questions or the answers the questions
would be more catalytic, more formative, more directional and open
more doors. Perhaps the best leaders are the best because they keep
asking the questions and know which questions to ask. "Where do you
want to lead at Graceriver?" has become a catalytic question with far
reaching answers.

Puzzle Pieces

A while back I was part of a group of guys that were speaking into
each other's life. Hearing one guy's story we began to group think
and to speak that he was in transition, meaning would move locales.
Later we discovered that he was in transition, within his current
context. We took puzzle pieces and tried to put them where we
thought they belonged. But we were wrong! Good thing he was willing
to move slowly and even look past our infinite wisdom.

How do we make sense of the parts of life? How can we know God's
leading and direction? It can seem as if we are holding pieces of a
puzzle and then try to put them into the picture as we would know it,
want it or wish it wasn't (that one is called anxiety). I Samuel 23
Saul is pursuing David and when he hears he is in a certain town he
says, "God has handed him over to me." Really? You are about to
kill an innocent man and now that he is in a town that you feel you
can trap him in you think God is behind it?

Funny how we can put pieces together and be sure that God is on our
side when in fact we have been contradicting God's patterns and
laws. We do have to put the pieces of life together to make a
puzzle. We do have to make sense of things and put them somewhere,
bring some order, some chaos. But when we assign God's motive to an
incident we may be stepping a bit to far. Perhaps that is why James
warns us to live each day at a time and say, "If the Lord wills we
will.... ".

I'm trying to be more discerning in putting puzzle pieces together,
to live in the truth that His ways are higher than mine and to be
wonderfully surprised at what the Lord can do. I still have to put
pieces in some order but I do so now a bit more asking and willing to
admit that the piece may not belong there. God may be doing
something very different and very good.