The first line of Psalm 23- “The LORD is my shepherd” hints at this ancient truth for all Jesus-followers: “We are not our own, but belong body and soul to our Lord and savior Jesus Christ…”
We tend to approach life, and the question of God’s call, with another pre-supposition: “I am my own, and I will voluntarily give a part of my life to serving God….isn’t that good of me?”
“So, God, I am all yours: Mondays and/or Wednesdays, (after soccer season), (most) Sunday mornings until 12, three hours of prayer and Bible reading a week, (give or take three hours) and three light relationships of your choice (pending my final approval) with a combination of: tiresome family members and/or needy people who don’t have my cell number.”
I think we make many decisions weighed down by prerequisites we don’t know we have. God calls us on a radical journey of self-emptying, and I see us tentatively starting out on it, but dragging with us a large duffel bag full of these good things which our desire turns into heavy idols:
* Others' expectations, affirmation, recognition. (Do what I “should do”, attain a certain level of career advancement and success)
* “Common” sense- go for recognized results, have “balance” for myself (Don’t be too radical, serve on my own terms, out of my excess time, energy, and resources)
* Need for concrete details (Just how are you going to care for me, God? Show me the money!)
* A home with good resale value in a "safe" neighborhood (Good stewardship, right?)
* An income level that I deserve, have worked hard for, need for my mortgage, or that I am used to, with enough diversion (toys, vacations, entertainment)
* Solid future assured (401, property value, kids' college and inheritance, my legacy and reputation) Obsession with these good gifts can become the idols of fear and lack of trust.
* Comfort. (My best life, now!) Control. (Help me with my life, God)
These can all be good gifts from God, but only if we “seek first God’s kingdom and His righteousness! THEN all these other things will be given to us as well.” Mt. 6:33
Bridge of Life is a uniquely diverse ministry where nothing less than community transformation is God’s mission and our calling. It’s big. How to start? John Perkins says that we must respond to the brokenness around us with compassionate action, the way Jesus did, and we can best do that with our neighbors. Just being in the neighborhood or doing it “for them” will never cut it. He notes in Beyond Charity, “… it is only when we really come shoulder to shoulder with the people at a specific spot … that we can begin to discern ways that the gospel will become meaningful in that context”
At Bridge of Life, we are learning more and more to live the gospel with each other on a daily basis. We are asking questions and praying, sharing lives and drawing closer to God and each other in some amazing ways. Some questions we are exploring together, with brief answers: Who are you? Broken, needing a savior; forgiven and Loved Child of God. Whose are you? All His. Then what is He calling you to be and do?
We have followed God’s call in fits and starts, dragging our bag of idols with us, leaving it at times and running headlong after Jesus, our Shepherd, who provides for us so well….then we fearfully run back to our bag of idols, gaze at them and often set up camp there among them. Will you pray for us in this struggle and continue with us on the journey? Then we can recognize the voice of our graceful Shepherd, and say together, “Surely goodness and mercy will follow us all the days of our lives, and we will dwell in the house of the LORD forever!”
Wednesday, September 7, 2011
Friday, June 17, 2011
c…a…t…
d…o…g…
m…o…m…
d…a…d…
These are some of the first words I read. My mom wrote them down for me. Sometimes there was a long pause between letters because there was a green light. c…a……greenlight……………………….
Red light. Time to learn. t. “Cat!”. “Good, David.” d….o….. green light……. “g? dog?” “Yes, David, very good…you did it yourself! Now I have to merge….go back to your seat” “Mom? Is that a d or a b? It’s melting…” “Yes, that’s condensation on the windshield…”
My mom, the preschool teacher and bus driver, multi-tasking on the way to Vernon Oaks Country Day Care- writing letters on the windshield. I went there for three years, learning phonics (“AE, I O U a kiss”) and to introduce myself to bigger kids with a punch.
I unlearned the punching at some point; perhaps prayer and new cowboy outfit incentives helped.
My earliest memory was when I was three, in the kitchen on Tamarind Drive, staring at a light switch and saying to myself, “I’m three.” I was three when I rode the bus with my mom to preschool, reading my first words in the condensation on the windshield.
So I guess I cannot remember a time when my mom wasn’t teaching kids to read.
I have always loved words.
For a while, the lure of outdoor ball games trumped reading for me, but I came back to it, and I remain entranced by words. Some of the letters in my mind may still have ghostly memories of condensation trails chasing each other down the windshield.
I learned a lot about life in preschool.
Letters, words, punching, obeying, and not. ..spanking. I remember sitting in my cubby and thinking, I’m the only one around here getting spanked…. Nobody else’s mom was the teacher…
Maybe I caught the acting bug there. Did we do “The Three Little Pigs”, mom?
I don’t remember that, but I remember being inventive when trying to get out of painting during “easel time”. “What’s that, David?” An aide would ask of my mishmash of hastily brushed colors. “Um, a tornado?” I would offer. “You did a tornado yesterday.” “Um, a hurricane. Can I go play ball now?”
When I was 5, I set off for Kindergarten, and I rode the bus with my neighbor and true love, Julie Ransom.
Ask me one day about the tadpoles…but that’s another story…
In second grade, art bit me again when the 1970’s psychobabble reached into my classroom to wonder at my psyche when I hastily drew a “person”- a blob with two sticks, so I could go out and play ball now. The concerned teachers called my mom to ask about a possible lack of love in our home, whereupon my mom laughed and pulled out her “breast-feeder forever” membership card and explained my disinterest in drawing….
For much of my mom’s career, I lived far away, only visiting now and again to demonstrate soccer skills or read a story to the kids. But I heard the stories. Stories about gardening, cooking soup, making peanut butter, doing silhouettes and hand prints (still?), putting on The Play, and singing, always singing….
“You’re still doing all of that, mom, with the larger classes, fewer aides, over the top reading requirements and the onerous testing, testing, and more testing?”
Here’s a word for you: s…t…u….b…b….o….r….n…..
And another: c….a….r….i….n….g….
And: l….o….v….i….n….g….
and o yeah: w…o….r….k….a….h….o….l….i….c….
So mom what will you do now without your fix? What will you do daily from six to six?
What will all those kids do? Will the right half of their brains shrink or fail to connect the synapses we all need them to have in a left-brain culture?
Oh, sure, I hope the powers that be clean up your room and move forward- a few of your projects may be better left undone… or uncooked (meatsa pizza). But please, please, save her spirit of invention and discovery, of engaging every part of a child, enlivening every sense, coaxing every note.
Read, yes, but paint too, and play ball.
Test, yes, but get dirt under your nails, and huff and puff and blow the house down.
Meet goals, yes, but don’t forget to SING!
Sing while you cook, and while you read, and while you play;
Sing while you learn- greet each part of every day
With a song and a guitar.
Today is Monday, today is Monday, Monday school, Monday school, all you happy children, today is Monday….
I love you, Mom, and I am so proud of you. If they ever make a statue of you, you will be sitting with your guitar in a semi-circle of rapt children. What did they see in you? What word were you teaching them?
Some of us know. Some of us know the Word that starts all words. I think you help kids know who they are because you know who you are and to whom you belong.
G….o…..d.
Imagine
Imagine a single mom trying to get by in this economy, caring for her kids, putting food on the table, and becoming all that God has made her to to be, using the best of herself to serve others.
Imagine a family juggling education, kids’ activities and odd jobs, battling depression and poverty, dealing with mental illness, yet leading others to experience freedom and joy in Christ’s love.
Imagine a lonely sick man, getting older, sicker, and lonelier each year, battling bitterness and the crushing weight of decades of legalism, yet clinging to God’s word and awakening to his grace.
Imagine a couple finding freedom from drug addiction and homelessness, beginning to grow in grace as the gospel penetrates their hearts and moves them to serve God and others radically out of their poverty.
Imagine a young couple, highly educated and skilled, starting a family, burning the candle at both ends to follow God’s call to serve in the kind of neighborhood they have been taught to avoid.
Imagine a lost soul, living in the woods, dulling the pain of lost family and lost hope with alcohol, but finally finding a place where a human touch helps him begin to feel God’s grace in his bones.
Now imagine each of these families multiplied by a couple dozen, and a few dozen more people of many other types, sharing life together, deeply, against all odds, across all barriers, so much so that each of them has family and friends that are taken aback by some of the people with whom they spend time.
Imagine a couple hundred of these interesting people getting together in small groups during the week to pray, study the Bible, share food and life, spend themselves in selfless service with others, working for justice in their neighborhood and the world.
Imagine them inviting their friends to a weekly celebration they call worship, where they cry out in praise to their King with reckless abandon, gather around God’s word to receive and spread His gospel of grace and share how it shapes their life stories, and the whole event is prayerfully designed to best meet the felt and the deeper needs of diverse visitors who ordinarily would not feel welcomed or comfortable in a church.
Yes, you are imagining church. Our church. Bridge of Life.
Can you see it?
It may be difficult to see it when we start in singing with 10 tired voices.
It may be difficult to see when we have a few young kids craving excitement trapped in a sad beige dungeon and told to “ssshhhh!”
It may be difficult to see past the smell. You know, the smell…
It may be difficult to see when some of our leaders have never learned to answer messages or prioritize well.
It may be difficult to see with an A.D.D. pastor who can’t remember things and has been known to have trouble leading his way out of a paper bag.
It may be difficult to see, and we may have a ways to go, but I can see it!
Can you? Describe it. What do you see in the years to come?
Thursday, February 24, 2011
Throne Room of Grace
Picture this scene… You have an audience with the King of Kings, and you find yourself entering his throne room, with high vaulted ceilings, incense, beautiful artwork, rich tapestries, incredible beauty everywhere, and then you see the throne! The throne! You have never seen anything like it! What an honor to be here!
The majesty of it all overwhelms you and you begin to bow your head and then you begin to crawl even before you see The King- and when you see him, in all his glory, you wonder how you even came to be in his presence- he is a blinding light, and beyond all human comprehension, and you know in an instant that you are in the presence of someone who is completely other! Someone whose depth and breadth and power and goodness and wisdom and love are infinite and unknowable. The whole cosmos was made by his hand and every breath taken by every creature who ever lived on earth came only because he himself breathed into them, into you, and me, and you are absolutely undone in his presence, and you can only close your eyes tight to keep from being blinded, and keep your face to the ground and your body stretched out in total submission, and you realize with terror that he sees you, right through you- he knows, he knows it all!
You are paralyzed with fear- your bones seem to melt like wax and you despair of ever doing another thing ever. You know that you are nothing and can do nothing about it. Suddenly, the light shifts, and the warm glow of it compels you to open your eyes. And you see the King, and he still seems terrible, yet, can it be? Familiar. His eyes dance with recognition… He knows you! He smiles and gently lifts your chin…. His Hand that made worlds lifts your face to his, and he laughs as he pulls you to your feet. He throws his arms around you and already he is moving, “C’mon,” he urges without hurry…”there are others!” and you find yourself with him, lifting others’ chins and rejoicing with them as they embrace the King.
The cross is the throne is the cross…. A King who comes from a blood-soaked throne to lift us up means that we can now act to serve him in freedom and joy, not fearful obligation. We don’t look at Jesus on the cross and say, “I feel terrible that my sins did that to him, so I am going to make up for it. Jesus deserves all my best effort to earn his trust back again. You’ll see, Jesus, I will do it for you, you are worth it. I’m so sorry, I’ll be good now. I’ll be sooo good! I will stand up and just do it!” No, true humility means you stay down, and in his presence. And HE will lift you up!
If you are not in his presence, he can’t lift you up! If you jump to your feet yourself, he is not lifting you up. Remember the scene in The Lord of the Rings when Denethor, Steward of Gondor, is on the throne. He plays favorites, he sends his son Faramir to certain defeat and death. “Father, Think better of me on my return…” “That depends on the manner of your return.” That’s conditional love. He is a poor steward and the opposite of the great King Jesus who exudes grace and unconditional love. We don’t trust that, so we try to earn it as if God were Denethor. We ride with misplaced honor to our deaths… either the death of separation from God because we feel unworthy so we give up because it’s too hard, or the death of Faramir, trying to earn our acceptance from our Father in heaven… Rather that we die the death of the cross, die to ourselves, die to our desires, die to our need to control our lives or deserve God’s love. Dying means we stay down until he lifts us up.
Moralism is close to grace, but it is back to back. Imagine being flat on our faces in that throne room, and then mustering our strength, jumping to our feet, on our own, so eager to please God that we turn away from his throne of grace and run to do things for him, becoming strong strangers to grace… it must break his heart to see us serving him with such selfish, fearful exactitude. Just like the younger son who came home and said, “Let me be like one of our hired servants” (Let me earn it all back!) The Father says, “No, come to the banquet of salvation, I have paid for it all!”
His grace lifts us up, and sets us free to serve. Then we see that we are all side by side, equal, lifted up together and lifting each other up.
The majesty of it all overwhelms you and you begin to bow your head and then you begin to crawl even before you see The King- and when you see him, in all his glory, you wonder how you even came to be in his presence- he is a blinding light, and beyond all human comprehension, and you know in an instant that you are in the presence of someone who is completely other! Someone whose depth and breadth and power and goodness and wisdom and love are infinite and unknowable. The whole cosmos was made by his hand and every breath taken by every creature who ever lived on earth came only because he himself breathed into them, into you, and me, and you are absolutely undone in his presence, and you can only close your eyes tight to keep from being blinded, and keep your face to the ground and your body stretched out in total submission, and you realize with terror that he sees you, right through you- he knows, he knows it all!
You are paralyzed with fear- your bones seem to melt like wax and you despair of ever doing another thing ever. You know that you are nothing and can do nothing about it. Suddenly, the light shifts, and the warm glow of it compels you to open your eyes. And you see the King, and he still seems terrible, yet, can it be? Familiar. His eyes dance with recognition… He knows you! He smiles and gently lifts your chin…. His Hand that made worlds lifts your face to his, and he laughs as he pulls you to your feet. He throws his arms around you and already he is moving, “C’mon,” he urges without hurry…”there are others!” and you find yourself with him, lifting others’ chins and rejoicing with them as they embrace the King.
The cross is the throne is the cross…. A King who comes from a blood-soaked throne to lift us up means that we can now act to serve him in freedom and joy, not fearful obligation. We don’t look at Jesus on the cross and say, “I feel terrible that my sins did that to him, so I am going to make up for it. Jesus deserves all my best effort to earn his trust back again. You’ll see, Jesus, I will do it for you, you are worth it. I’m so sorry, I’ll be good now. I’ll be sooo good! I will stand up and just do it!” No, true humility means you stay down, and in his presence. And HE will lift you up!
If you are not in his presence, he can’t lift you up! If you jump to your feet yourself, he is not lifting you up. Remember the scene in The Lord of the Rings when Denethor, Steward of Gondor, is on the throne. He plays favorites, he sends his son Faramir to certain defeat and death. “Father, Think better of me on my return…” “That depends on the manner of your return.” That’s conditional love. He is a poor steward and the opposite of the great King Jesus who exudes grace and unconditional love. We don’t trust that, so we try to earn it as if God were Denethor. We ride with misplaced honor to our deaths… either the death of separation from God because we feel unworthy so we give up because it’s too hard, or the death of Faramir, trying to earn our acceptance from our Father in heaven… Rather that we die the death of the cross, die to ourselves, die to our desires, die to our need to control our lives or deserve God’s love. Dying means we stay down until he lifts us up.
Moralism is close to grace, but it is back to back. Imagine being flat on our faces in that throne room, and then mustering our strength, jumping to our feet, on our own, so eager to please God that we turn away from his throne of grace and run to do things for him, becoming strong strangers to grace… it must break his heart to see us serving him with such selfish, fearful exactitude. Just like the younger son who came home and said, “Let me be like one of our hired servants” (Let me earn it all back!) The Father says, “No, come to the banquet of salvation, I have paid for it all!”
His grace lifts us up, and sets us free to serve. Then we see that we are all side by side, equal, lifted up together and lifting each other up.
Thursday, February 17, 2011
Dance, Candice!
I am sad to tell you that our dear Candice Lewis died in the hospital Tuesday night. In my prayer time yesterday, Jesus came to me and his face reflected my own sadness. I asked him, “Why? Why was her life so hard? Why did she have to die the way that she did?” Jesus looked at me and did not answer, but his face said a lot.
He sighed and showed the pain he shared fully with me and Candice and her family and friends… but only for a moment, and then he gave me a look that said, “You don’t know her like I know her… She is lovely, and winsome, and really fun. She enjoyed much of her life, in the middle of her brokenness and pain, and she embraced life with passion and curiosity and courage. Her love for cooking, and soccer, and church, and friends, and her beautiful and simple love for her daughter- all these things shaped her joy, but they did not ultimately define her- I define her! She is my precious daughter. That’s who she really is. I died so that she could live forever!”
And then he shook his head and smiled and said to me, “Believe me, you would want to be her right now! You would give anything to trade places with her right now…you can’t even imagine the joy and the abandon with which she is dancing at this moment…”
We will all be dancing like that someday, along with all of creation, because God will put everything back together in perfect harmony. God calls us to be a part of that work. It can be excruciatingly slow for impatient creatures like us. I am reminded today of the words of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.: “The arc of the universe is long, but it bends toward justice.”
Let’s remember Candice by embracing our lives and our calling! Live to the fullest- become all that God made us to be! And let us renew our efforts to help others reach their God-given potential. God made us to be together, to do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with our God.
God-given potential is different from what the world values and calls success. Jesus reached his full potential- on the cross, sacrificing all so that we can live! He calls us to give sacrificially and he sees potential in our weakness. In the same way that he was perfected in weakness on the cross, he uses our weakness and fills us with a different kind of power, the power of his spirit, which Candice demonstrated. Christ shone through her and the world, much of it, could not see this.
Some of us got a glimpse.
Open our eyes, Lord to the beauty all around us, hidden in the weak vessels, disguised by our frailty.
I read this today: From Listening Hearts by Suzanne G. Farnham et al.
Learning to listen within our hearts may not come easily. We muse, Does God call ordinary people like us? And if so, to what? How can we distinguish God’s voice from all the other voices that clamor at us- those of our culture, peer pressure, our careers, our egos? Amid our secular lives, where can we find support for our calls? And how can we remain faithful and accountable?
Christians have always struggles to understand what God would have them do. In 1835, Soren Kierkegaard wrote in his journal, what I really lack is to be clear in my mind what I am to do, not what I am to know….The thing is to understand myself, to see what God really wishes me to do….What good would it do me to be able to explain the meaning of Christianity if it had no deeper significance for me and for my life?
So I made a short list of what I think I am called to do, in light of who God made me. How about you?
Here’s mine:
Enjoy God
Love my family
Love all others- build bridges in unlikely places
Exude Life and Grace
Communicate God’s Word in Drama and Poetry
Encourage and Teach others
Learn and Grow
Play and Rest
Use Prophetic Imagination
Do Systemic Justice
Make your list today. Let’s celebrate real life, along with Candice, who now knows what life is better than all of us put together!
He sighed and showed the pain he shared fully with me and Candice and her family and friends… but only for a moment, and then he gave me a look that said, “You don’t know her like I know her… She is lovely, and winsome, and really fun. She enjoyed much of her life, in the middle of her brokenness and pain, and she embraced life with passion and curiosity and courage. Her love for cooking, and soccer, and church, and friends, and her beautiful and simple love for her daughter- all these things shaped her joy, but they did not ultimately define her- I define her! She is my precious daughter. That’s who she really is. I died so that she could live forever!”
And then he shook his head and smiled and said to me, “Believe me, you would want to be her right now! You would give anything to trade places with her right now…you can’t even imagine the joy and the abandon with which she is dancing at this moment…”
We will all be dancing like that someday, along with all of creation, because God will put everything back together in perfect harmony. God calls us to be a part of that work. It can be excruciatingly slow for impatient creatures like us. I am reminded today of the words of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.: “The arc of the universe is long, but it bends toward justice.”
Let’s remember Candice by embracing our lives and our calling! Live to the fullest- become all that God made us to be! And let us renew our efforts to help others reach their God-given potential. God made us to be together, to do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with our God.
God-given potential is different from what the world values and calls success. Jesus reached his full potential- on the cross, sacrificing all so that we can live! He calls us to give sacrificially and he sees potential in our weakness. In the same way that he was perfected in weakness on the cross, he uses our weakness and fills us with a different kind of power, the power of his spirit, which Candice demonstrated. Christ shone through her and the world, much of it, could not see this.
Some of us got a glimpse.
Open our eyes, Lord to the beauty all around us, hidden in the weak vessels, disguised by our frailty.
I read this today: From Listening Hearts by Suzanne G. Farnham et al.
Learning to listen within our hearts may not come easily. We muse, Does God call ordinary people like us? And if so, to what? How can we distinguish God’s voice from all the other voices that clamor at us- those of our culture, peer pressure, our careers, our egos? Amid our secular lives, where can we find support for our calls? And how can we remain faithful and accountable?
Christians have always struggles to understand what God would have them do. In 1835, Soren Kierkegaard wrote in his journal, what I really lack is to be clear in my mind what I am to do, not what I am to know….The thing is to understand myself, to see what God really wishes me to do….What good would it do me to be able to explain the meaning of Christianity if it had no deeper significance for me and for my life?
So I made a short list of what I think I am called to do, in light of who God made me. How about you?
Here’s mine:
Enjoy God
Love my family
Love all others- build bridges in unlikely places
Exude Life and Grace
Communicate God’s Word in Drama and Poetry
Encourage and Teach others
Learn and Grow
Play and Rest
Use Prophetic Imagination
Do Systemic Justice
Make your list today. Let’s celebrate real life, along with Candice, who now knows what life is better than all of us put together!
We Have a Dream!
(Standing on a plastic chair under the 12th street bridge, January 30, 2011)
We stand here today together under a bridge of our great city.
A city with a grand history, two grand rivers, and some days, grand views of grand mountains on both sides of this fertile valley.
A city with a holy name- Sacramento. A sacred city, set apart for God’s purpose. And a city that is broken- part of a broken world with broken people, all of us, breaking the heart of God.
Sacramento is a city divided. By race, by culture, by money, by rivers…and freeways.
By people, like you and me, with divided hearts. Each one of us knows that the world is broken, and that our choices, yours and mine, have contributed to that brokenness.
The good news is that the One who made us is putting us, and our city, and the world, back together!
The One who knows us inside and out…and loves us anyway! Loves us enough to be broken himself, on a cross, so that the world can be put back together! And it’s happening!
God’s dream of healing everything will be reality some day, and that dream has become ours.
So, in honor of Martin Luther King Jr., We have a dream today…deeply rooted in God’s dream for all.
We have a dream that one day we will rise up and live out the true meaning of these words,
“All people are created equal and are dearly loved by God.”
We have a dream that one day by the shores of this great river home-owners, home-leasers, and home-lessers will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood and sisterhood.
We have a dream today.
We have a dream that one day those locked up by an unjust prison system, locked out of future opportunity, and those locked up in a prison of their own addictions, will be set free to live and love and serve the One who fashioned each of them with his own hands and in His own image!
We have a dream that one day in this neighborhood, the children of Norteños and the children of Sureños, and all the other eños, will take off their colors, lay down their weapons, and join hands at the foot of the cross of Jesus Christ!
We have a dream today!
We have a dream that one day church-goers would stop their self-righteous self-salvation projects that isolate and insulate themselves from the pain of others, and that the followers of Jesus Christ would come down off their high horse, get their butts off their pews, roll up their sleeves, and get to work loving their neighbors in Jesus’ name!
We have a dream that this part of Christ’s body, Bridge of Life, will be an oasis, a place of peace and rest from the storm, and a training ground, sending those who love Jesus out into a hurting world.
We have a dream that one day “every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight,
and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together!”
Amen!
We stand here today together under a bridge of our great city.
A city with a grand history, two grand rivers, and some days, grand views of grand mountains on both sides of this fertile valley.
A city with a holy name- Sacramento. A sacred city, set apart for God’s purpose. And a city that is broken- part of a broken world with broken people, all of us, breaking the heart of God.
Sacramento is a city divided. By race, by culture, by money, by rivers…and freeways.
By people, like you and me, with divided hearts. Each one of us knows that the world is broken, and that our choices, yours and mine, have contributed to that brokenness.
The good news is that the One who made us is putting us, and our city, and the world, back together!
The One who knows us inside and out…and loves us anyway! Loves us enough to be broken himself, on a cross, so that the world can be put back together! And it’s happening!
God’s dream of healing everything will be reality some day, and that dream has become ours.
So, in honor of Martin Luther King Jr., We have a dream today…deeply rooted in God’s dream for all.
We have a dream that one day we will rise up and live out the true meaning of these words,
“All people are created equal and are dearly loved by God.”
We have a dream that one day by the shores of this great river home-owners, home-leasers, and home-lessers will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood and sisterhood.
We have a dream today.
We have a dream that one day those locked up by an unjust prison system, locked out of future opportunity, and those locked up in a prison of their own addictions, will be set free to live and love and serve the One who fashioned each of them with his own hands and in His own image!
We have a dream that one day in this neighborhood, the children of Norteños and the children of Sureños, and all the other eños, will take off their colors, lay down their weapons, and join hands at the foot of the cross of Jesus Christ!
We have a dream today!
We have a dream that one day church-goers would stop their self-righteous self-salvation projects that isolate and insulate themselves from the pain of others, and that the followers of Jesus Christ would come down off their high horse, get their butts off their pews, roll up their sleeves, and get to work loving their neighbors in Jesus’ name!
We have a dream that this part of Christ’s body, Bridge of Life, will be an oasis, a place of peace and rest from the storm, and a training ground, sending those who love Jesus out into a hurting world.
We have a dream that one day “every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight,
and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together!”
Amen!
Into the woods
There is an ever-shifting maze of tents and campsites in the woods a couple blocks from our church, and not far from the tent city that became national news on Oprah a year or two ago. I know some people who live there, moving every week or two when they get notices from the park rangers. They don’t move far- just to another site in the woods. The only difference that I can see between this situation and the tent city is that this one is hidden in the woods, whereas the tent city was more visible in an open field. Out of sight, out of the news…
There are many different and fascinating people who live in this way, and although several of them seem very happy and self-sufficient, choosing to live in the woods, the vast majority of people here seem to live lives of difficulty and resignation. I have sensed a pervasive feeling of desperate sadness and despair; as well as a longing for healing and a remarkable attitude of sharing and caring among neighbors here.
There is addiction, theft, violence, trust, prayer, and neighborly love here in perhaps equal measures. It can seem a strange mix, until you think about how all those things may also exist in equal measures in other neighborhoods but just be hidden better, behind closed doors…
I often bring friends with me when I go to the woods, and my kids are learning their way around the place too. My buddy Roy came on one of my recent trips to the woods to bring groceries and visit with some friends. There were a few more dogs than usual, including some pit-bulls and one that looked remarkably like a wolf. “What’s his name?” I asked with some apprehension. “Wolf.” What kind of dog is he? “Wolf.” Gulp. Well, he was gentle enough, but not at all prone to tail wagging or used to any petting.
A woman that I had met a month or so earlier at our worship service came up to me and drew me aside. She whispered, “I don’t want anyone here to know my business.” She proceeded to tell me about her childhood as a Lutheran, her master’s degree in Philosophy, and her agnosticism as an adult. “If there is a loving God” she said, “He won’t condemn me just because I don’t believe in Jesus.” Then she said to me, “I want to tell you something- when I came to your church and you said you were going to preach on that one part of Psalm 29- the one about ‘The LORD is my shepherd’, I thought, ‘Oh, this is going to be boring.’ But you broke it down and made it interesting, like I had never heard before. I liked it. But what really blew my mind was that you showed up here in the woods later that week. I couldn’t believe it. I blinked- I swore that I saw a rod and a staff in your hand, and you were going after your sheep, just like you said on Sunday. You were actually doing what you talked about, going after your sheep! I really appreciate what you are doing here to care for the people here in the woods, and if I ever go to a church, it will be yours.”
I know that intentionally inviting “homeless addicts” to attend one’s small church plant is not recognized as a brilliant growth strategy. Yes, many of these folks can be off-putting to others, to say the least, especially when they are high, or bringing dangerous dogs around. (The dogs are not allowed in our worship space- we had to make an explicit policy)
But if we really believe the Gospel of Jesus Christ, we must live the truth of His grace among all of our neighbors, and not just talk about it. So we go into the woods. The woods are right down the street and in another world. We all have woods in our neighborhoods. Where are yours? The neighbors you dare not try to get to know? The students in your school who are in a very separate group from yours? The co-workers who seem hostile to matters of faith? The ones on the street you have learned to look right through? Jesus is crystal clear in his call to all who would follow him: “Go into the woods.” Let’s go and pray that God’s grace will help us when we can’t see the forest for the trees.
There are many different and fascinating people who live in this way, and although several of them seem very happy and self-sufficient, choosing to live in the woods, the vast majority of people here seem to live lives of difficulty and resignation. I have sensed a pervasive feeling of desperate sadness and despair; as well as a longing for healing and a remarkable attitude of sharing and caring among neighbors here.
There is addiction, theft, violence, trust, prayer, and neighborly love here in perhaps equal measures. It can seem a strange mix, until you think about how all those things may also exist in equal measures in other neighborhoods but just be hidden better, behind closed doors…
I often bring friends with me when I go to the woods, and my kids are learning their way around the place too. My buddy Roy came on one of my recent trips to the woods to bring groceries and visit with some friends. There were a few more dogs than usual, including some pit-bulls and one that looked remarkably like a wolf. “What’s his name?” I asked with some apprehension. “Wolf.” What kind of dog is he? “Wolf.” Gulp. Well, he was gentle enough, but not at all prone to tail wagging or used to any petting.
A woman that I had met a month or so earlier at our worship service came up to me and drew me aside. She whispered, “I don’t want anyone here to know my business.” She proceeded to tell me about her childhood as a Lutheran, her master’s degree in Philosophy, and her agnosticism as an adult. “If there is a loving God” she said, “He won’t condemn me just because I don’t believe in Jesus.” Then she said to me, “I want to tell you something- when I came to your church and you said you were going to preach on that one part of Psalm 29- the one about ‘The LORD is my shepherd’, I thought, ‘Oh, this is going to be boring.’ But you broke it down and made it interesting, like I had never heard before. I liked it. But what really blew my mind was that you showed up here in the woods later that week. I couldn’t believe it. I blinked- I swore that I saw a rod and a staff in your hand, and you were going after your sheep, just like you said on Sunday. You were actually doing what you talked about, going after your sheep! I really appreciate what you are doing here to care for the people here in the woods, and if I ever go to a church, it will be yours.”
I know that intentionally inviting “homeless addicts” to attend one’s small church plant is not recognized as a brilliant growth strategy. Yes, many of these folks can be off-putting to others, to say the least, especially when they are high, or bringing dangerous dogs around. (The dogs are not allowed in our worship space- we had to make an explicit policy)
But if we really believe the Gospel of Jesus Christ, we must live the truth of His grace among all of our neighbors, and not just talk about it. So we go into the woods. The woods are right down the street and in another world. We all have woods in our neighborhoods. Where are yours? The neighbors you dare not try to get to know? The students in your school who are in a very separate group from yours? The co-workers who seem hostile to matters of faith? The ones on the street you have learned to look right through? Jesus is crystal clear in his call to all who would follow him: “Go into the woods.” Let’s go and pray that God’s grace will help us when we can’t see the forest for the trees.
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