Jesus Loves Me Even When I'm Not Expecting It

Wierd title right? Well, this past week has been incredibly, incredibly joyful and stressfull all rolled into one. Glen Rose, Texas is a small Central Texas town filled with wonderful people and a great United Methodist Church which I'm privileged to Pastor. Most small town churches have a small Confirmation class. This has been true for the last two years but this year it was different. We had 20 young people in Confirmation. The church and the staff were ecstatic, as was I. With parental input, we chose Mother's Day as Confirmation Sunday.

With preparations fully in swing for this joyful event, three short days before, a tragedy struck which rocked the foundations of our our church and most of the famlies in the community. My mind, heart and soul as well as those of every family in the community were torn between celebration and grief. We went from the heights of glorifying God to the depths of cursing God for letting such a tragedy occur and trying to figure out why something like this could happen.

To top it all off, with the uncertainty of timelines for funerals and mourning, due to the investigation into the event, it left everything unsettled and tentative. I was scheduled for a week of Continuing Ed at the Homiletics Festival in Atlanta, GA. All that was on hold.

When plans were finally set and arrangements with hotels reconfigured, my wife and I made a mad dash for Atlanta arriving in time for the last two days. Physically, mentally and spiritually exhausted I arrived to soak up as much of God's presence through worship and study as possible. I needed a refill. I wasn't disappointed.

Friday morning worship. I realized how tired and irritable I still was. Sitting in the last pew, I also observed how noisy we clergy are. It was really starting to bug me. More than a couple of people came in and stood behind me discussing where to sit or plans for lunch or whatever. I was still so fatigued and a little ADD that I couldn't focus. And it was making me mad.

I was still in this irritable funk when Karoline Lewis began her sermon. She was talking about the joy of Jesus entering into every abandonment, every hopelessness, every pain, something I needed to hear. But still the noise bothered my soul. I couldn't let go of the irritation. She went on to say that the Resurrection is where Joy truly breaks into the present, now and in what is to come. It allows us to hold together every hard thing it means to be human.

She then began to describe her son's desire to grow up and be taller than she is. She described both the joy and the pain of the actuality of the day it happened. No mother wants to see their baby grow up and yet it is the one wish mothers have for all their babies. It is a time of joy and grief.

Once again, the noisiness of us clergy intruded on my thoughts as a young child in our midst began to make noise and I could hear Mom trying to hush him or her. And then suddenly in this poignant story by Rev. Lewis all those around me realized that this young child was humming "Jesus Loves Me."

I couldn't help but think that somehow God was speaking to me. The irony of my irritation being interrupted by a love song from God was rather overwhelming. In the midst of my funk God was dealing with my junk and I wasn't even aware of it. The words of Rev. Lewis' sermon were being brought to life right before my eyes as the joy of Jesus entered into every abandonment, every hopelessness, every pain I was feeling.

All I can say is Thank You.

Stewardship Thoughts

An article and blog I recently read gave me pause to think. The title of the article was "Preaching On Money" it went on to talk about how difficult it is to preach on money and how most preachers avoid doing so or approach it very timidly and reluctantly. The auther gave some sound advice on how to Help People Find Balance, Create an Atmosphere of Grace, Address Real Life Issues and Draw People to Invest in a Higher Calling.

While I found the article helpful and full of grace filled thoughts, never did the author use the word Stewardship. Never did the author come out and connect Stewardship and Discipleship. Personally, I think it is wrong to "Preach On Money." However, having said that, I do believe we are called to preach about Stewardship. That may sound like straining at gnats but "money" and "giving" is only one small aspect of the Stewardship of Life and Discipleship. I don't believe we can even talk about money without putting it into the context of the whole Stewardship of Life package. Too many people hear the word Stewardship and immediately and mistakenly equate it to exclusively mean money. But they are wrong.

Stewardship is a soul issue. Stewardship is a Discipleship issue. You can't be a faithful Disciple unless you are a good Steward. And you won't be a good Steward if you aren't seeking to be a faithful Disciple.

Stewardship begins with a change in mindset. You see most of us think this life and all we have in it is ours to do with as we please. We look upon all this stuff in our lives and think of it as "Mine." We forget that life and all it entails is a gift from God. God has placed this small part of God's creation (our life and all it entails) into our hands and asked us to be good stewards, good caretakers of God's stuff. We have to get out of this "Mine-set," if you will, so we can grow in our Discipleship; so we can grow more and more like Christ.


So, how's your "Mine-set?" Do your realize it's really not yours? You're really not yours. You belong to God and are called to live a life that glorifies God by being a good steward of the life and the gifts God has given you. How's your "Mine-set?"