The last post for 2008

The first Christmas Kim and I were married I gave her a “Family Christmas Book.” Inside were blank pages to record the memories of 25 Christmas celebrations. This year when I opened the book I realized that there was only one Christmas left. – this was our 25th Christmas as a family. My favorite present under the tree was another copy of the same book for the next 25 years.

Reading through the last 25 years has perhaps made me even a bit more reflective as 2008 draws to a close. There are about 9 hours remaining and I’ve spent much of today thinking back over the past year.

January began busy (a hint of the year to come). I returned to coaching basketball and the Grace Lady Gators had a nearly perfect season (just one loss that gratefully didn’t cost us the league championship).

The month ended with a trip to Ecuador to discover first-hand the work of Compassion International – which was both a humbling and inspiring experience.

February brought Grace the gift of a new Executive Pastor, David Leestma.

In March we said “thank you” and “good bye” to Bob Poteet after 20 years of service to Grace and 40 years of service to the church. "Well done good and faithful servant" has never been more appropriate!

We then said “hello” to Katie Cummings as our new pastor for adult ministries and later to Keeke Hartis to direct our pre-school ministries as well as Mayda Mendiola, David Powers and Katelyn Erickson.

In May Jennifer graduated from Houston Christian High School. It was the first significant family event since my mom died and she was definitely missed. I had the added joy of getting to give the commencement address and presenting Jennifer her diploma.

Jamie got her driver’s license and for the first time in 20 years we are no longer solely responsible for the transportation needs of our daughters (although it seems that now I manage a fleet of cars).

In July I visited long-time Grace mission partners, Barbara and Steve Johnson in Budapest. It was such a blessing to see what God is up to with their coffee house ministry and thanks to Steve, see what God is doing across Hungary and Romania.

A family vacation to the Caribbean was a summer highlight. I’ll never forget toasting Nana (who made the trip possible) on her birthday!

In August as Jennifer and Kelli headed off to college we welcomed Katelyn (a new member of the Grace staff) into our home. The size of the “nest” is definitely not downsizing.

Unfortunately budget requirements necessitated a slight downsizing of Grace staff.

In September Hurricane Ike changed Houston forever.

Kelli was elected president of her sorority. While that alone is a great honor the really cool part is how it’s a culmination of ways God has been working in her life and answering prayers.

Fears of insufficient funds in a downward economy inspired a Kingdom Assignment that on Christmas Day resulted in God being glorified on the cover of the Houston Chronicle - and more importantly in a lot of lives being blessed.

Along the way I made a renewed commitment to staying in shape (it’s a slow and painful process), began getting ready for next April’s MS 150, rebuilt following Ike and survived the ups and downs of another Clemson football season (at least we beat USC).

2008 brought challenges and blessings – so many blessings. I am grateful to pastor such an amazing church, to partner in that task with dedicated leaders and the most amazing staff who love Jesus Christ more than anything.

I am blessed beyond expressing with the gifts of Kim, Kelli, Jennifer and Jamie. Their love truly sustains me.

Most of all I am humbled and amazed by how much God loves me.

2009 begins in just a few more hours and everything tells me that it will be a year to “run with horses.” (see what Jeremiah says about that)

I can hardly wait to get started!

Pigs Get Fat - Hogs Get Slaughtered

In Monday’s edition of the New York Times there was an article in the Science section titled, “For Good Self-Control, Try Getting Religious About It.” (thank you Chip for sending me the article)

The thesis of the piece is that those who are devout in their faith beliefs demonstrate greater self-control. I especially loved this one line:

Researchers around the world have repeatedly found that devoutly religious people tend to do better in school, live longer, have more satisfying marriages and be generally happier.

So if all those benefits are true (and everyone seems to agree that they are) why are so many so reluctant to pursue matters of faith? You might think that for no other reason than successful marriages, academic careers and long life people might be open to give faith a try.

Totally random thought: At breakfast this morning a friend used the phrase:

Pigs get fat, hogs get slaughtered.

I have no idea what that means – even after he tried to explain it. But I really like the way it sounds.

It may well become my standard answer to difficult questions:

Q. What will happen for the Houston economy in 2009?
A. Pigs will get fat, hogs will get slaughtered.

That's as good an answer as any other I've heard.

Change Me

Earlier today our Executive Pastor, Dave Leestma, shared with me a great article by Richard Foster in this month’s issue of Christianity Today. One line in the piece captured something God has been whispering to me for weeks:

Everyone thinks of changing the world, but where, oh where, are those who think of changing themselves.

It reminded of a prayer that my home church pastor used often at the end of worship:

Lord, let there be peace on earth and let it begin right here, right now, with me.

I can get so caught up in the excitement of “world changing” ministry that I can lose focus that at the very heart of the matter is the heart – and that begins with my heart and then the heart of our leadership and the heart of our community.

Unless hearts, our hearts (my heart), are being changed (transformed) then the most successful, world changing, things we do won’t really matter much.

Five (very familiar) things change my heart:

Prayer. The longer I serve the church the more I realize how dependant I am on prayer. One of my growing places lately has been a realization of how important it is for me to spend time praying with others.

Worship. Last Sunday I had the rare opportunity to come to Grace simply to worship (and not to lead worship). It turned out to be this amazing gift to share in worship with a community of people that I love. While I can easily imagine (and enjoy) a Sunday off from “work,” I can’t imagine missing time spent in worship.

Time spent in God’s Word. John Stott (one of my heroes) reminds us that we are called to be “stewards of the mysteries of God.” Time spent in that sort of stewardship always changes my heart.

Time spent serving others. Whether its part of a church-wide project or a small unnoticed act of kindness – serving someone always expands my heart – especially if it requires some cost from me.

Time spent in community. Increasingly, I am discovering the importance of authentic friendships – places where I can live with an “unveiled face.” These are rare treasures that perhaps rather than change me – simply allow me to be the “real me.”

Practicing the disciplines of prayer, worship, study, service and community has become almost too familiar a recipe and yet they remain the most effective.

I wonder what difference it might make to begin 2009 by replacing a vision of “changing the world” for a vision of changing myself?

Jesus Action Figure

Yesterday we went to a wonderful exhibit at the Houston Museum of Natural Science. The Birth of Christianity: A Jewish Story was filled with 2,000 year-old artifacts from the area around Jerusalem. My favorite part was a collection of ancient manuscripts including a portion of Isaiah found among the Dead Sea Scrolls at Qumran, pages of New Testament Epistles and Gospels.

Among the manuscripts was the oldest known copy of Luke’s Gospel and the pages displayed were the Christmas Story. There was something powerful about viewing an 1,800 year-old document that tells the same story we’ve been celebrating over the last several weeks. It’s a story that has become so familiar for so many of us – Linus even shares it with Charlie Brown – but those that first held that parchment were likely hearing it for the very first time.

The museum gift shop actually has some wonderful items in support of the exhibit, especially a collection of Ethiopian crosses and a book on the crosses. I discovered these beautiful and unique crosses on a trip to Ethiopia a few years ago. I’m glad I brought several home – they are a bit pricey in the gift shop.

The gift shop also had, for $14,95, a Deluxe Jesus Action Figure. The action figure comes with two jugs for turning water into wine, five loaves of bread and two fish (for feeding thousands) and glow in the dark hands (I’m not sure why the glow in the dark hands). I’m not making this up!

I suspect that we will be back at the museum soon – there are some in our family who can’t wait to visit the Body World 2 exhibit. I suspect I’ll opt to visit The Birth of Christianity again – but I’ll probably skip the gift shop this time.

Lornhorns

Last Saturday morning I continued what’s become a weekly bike ride in preparation for next April’s MS 150. This is my first real experience with a road bike and so each week I am learning how to shift gears, avoid traffic, unclip my shoes from the pedals and fall with a minimum of damage to me and to the bike.

This week I got to practice my falling technique again (narrow bridges are a challenge for me) and I learned how to change the tube of a flat tire – potentially important lessons on a ride from Houston to Austin.

I also discovered that negotiating traffic can include cows.

We came around a turn in the trail to discover a half dozen or so longhorn cattle blocking the path. I wasn’t exactly sure what to do next – the horns are really big up close. Hardie (my friend, biking companion and “instructor”) suggested that we just proceed slowly. It seems to be that both ends of a longhorn are “business ends” and both should be approached with equal caution so with his encouragement slowly maneuvered around the herd (I’m not sure how many cows are required to constitute a herd – but it seemed like enough).

I can’t think of many other places where a morning bike ride might be interrupted by longhorn cattle. That’s another reason why I love living in Texas!

On the front page

Just before our first (of 6) Christmas Eve Service, one of our elders told me that he hoped that instead of it being a long night that it would be a long blessing.

That’s exactly what the next nine hours became – a long blessing.

The blessing continued the next morning when I opened the Houston Chronicle to discover their story about our Kingdom Assignment Adventure on the front page. It’s a little odd to find your own face on the cover of the newspaper. I wasn’t sure how to get additional copies without it seeming like I was buying my own picture (so I sent the girls).

I wish the Chronicle could have covered all 55 stories – each one is amazing in it’s own way. I also wish the Chronicle had mentioned that the idea began with Denny Bellesi back in 2000.

What I loved most about the article is that God got all the glory – not Grace and not even the Kingdom Adventurers.

If you missed the article you can still find it at http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/6181253.html

N. T. Wright on Prayer

Over the weekend I read again some marvelous thoughts on pray written by N T Wright in his book “Simply Christian.” His words both encouraged and convicted me as I’ve been praying in preparation for Christmas Eve:

For the pantheist prayer is simply getting in tune with the deeper realities of the world and of oneself. Divinity is everywhere including within me. Prayer is therefore not so much addressing someone else, who lives somewhere else, but rather discovering and getting in touch with an inner truth and life that are to found deep within my own heart and within the silent rhythms of the world around. Pantheistic prayer has certain stately nobility about it. But it isn’t Christian prayer.

For the Deist prayer is calling across a void to a distant deity. This lofty figure may or may not be listening. He, or it, may or may not be inclined, or even able, to do very much about us and our world, even if he (or it) wanted to. All the Deist can do is send off a message, like a marooned sailor scribbling a note and putting it in a bottle, on the off-chance that someone out there might pick it up. That kind of prayer takes a good deal of faith and hope. But it isn’t Christian prayer.

Living as a Christian means living in the world as it’s been reshaped by and around Jesus and his Spirit. And that means Christian prayer is a different kind of thing – different from both the prayer of the pantheist, getting in touch with the inwardness of nature and that of the Deist, sending out messages across a lonely emptiness.

Christian prayer is about standing at the fault line [between heaven and earth], being shaped by the Jesus who knelt in Gethsemane, groaning in travail, holding heaven and earth together like someone trying to tie two pieces of rope with people tugging at the other ends to pull them apart… No wonder we give up so easily. No wonder we need help. (pg 163, 164)