Listen & Love

A pastor that I introduced recently to a local church shared his philosophy of his first year at the new church. "I'm going to listen and love." I was impressed. I've heard of pastors that come into the church with a plan or plans without having made time to listen and love. Someone once compared that to a doctor walking in to the examining room and prescribed treatment or meds without having touched the patient. Truly listening is a gift one can share with others. To not listen is an offensive posture. Yes, we get distracted, but as a leader in a church setting, we must listen. The common statement used by many is "God gave you two ears and one mouth so that we would listen twice as much as we speak." We can show love by listening. Listening leads then to processing and reflecting, certainly to prayer to discern with God's listening ear that which we have received.

We are also to show love. This was the new commandment that Jesus gave so that the world would know we are indeed His disciples. How we show love varies and depends on personal preferences, but generally, respectable demonstrations of genuine love. People who share with us many times just want us to listen. We may not have anything profound to share with them but we share love. To have spent time listening to them also shows them love.

Listen and Love. Build on that foundation for the relationships that matter to you.

Shared Journey

There are sacred places in all our journeys. For many of us here in this area of Texas it just might have been Mount Wesley. For my children, it was Sacramento. For you, some other place where during the summer for a week you spent getting to know God a little better, making new friends, avoiding old ones, and getting to know yourself a little better. It was at Mt. Wesley that I came to sense my call into ordained ministry. My faith was always confirmed there and I enjoyed the company of those who wore the Methodist brand proudly. We didn't all agree, but we had fun. It was the shared journey. If all were still alive and could be called back for one hour I know the journey for each of us had taken us in different directions. The shared-ness would be our destination, still the same and shared with all humanity; the certainty of leaving this earth. The purpose of those weeks during those summers was to teach us how to live better lives and to know of the love of a God who wants to see us return home. I pray that we have not lost that part of our destination.

Whatever bumps or obstacles have come along your journey, think back to those days for the inspiration and charge you might need to go just some more miles forward, and with God's help, upward. Lend a helping hand, open a loving heart, and speak loving and encouraging words to each other. This journey from ashes to ashes is best traveled with deep love for God, self, and neighbors.

Jumping to Conclusions

Last night I got a FaceTime call from our oldest granddaughter, Saraí Evangelina. As soon as her image came on the screen she was crying. "Grandpa, something terrible is happening!" My mind is thinking the worst! "My tooth is really loose and it's about to come out and Mommy's trying to trick me!" Whew! It is the worst thing for a seven year old to lose a tooth and I heard her cry and say that she believed her mommy was trying to take it out before its time. I said, "If Mommy ties a string to your tooth and then to the door, then she is tricking you!" Her eyes showed the horror of that thought. I could hear her mommy laughing behind her, and Grandma says, "Grandpa's going to say a prayer for you so that you can be okay." I start thinking about what to say to God about a 7 year old and a loose tooth when I hear Sarita say, "Oh, something wonderful is happening! My tooth just came out!" Indeed, wonderful. She held it up so that Grandma and I could see it. I had already prayed silently and then we all said, "Thank God, mijita!"

Our mind has the incredible capacity to run at lightening speed to the worst possible scenario which usually ends up with nothing coming true as we expected. And usually we have to say, Thank God! The same is true about jumping to conclusions without having all the facts or having time to think and reflect on what is best for all concerned. In the movie Office Space, a man stuck in what he believed to be a dead-end job kept thinking he would get rich with a game called "Jump to Conclusions" in which a mat had a list of possible conclusions on which one could jump. We know it isn't that simple. Our mind usually takes care of that if we're not careful.

The antidote for fear is faith. The outcome of all life according to the Bible is God wins. And if we're believers of God, we're on the winning team. Paul, who suffered and endured much wrote, "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." (Phil. 4:13). We can do the same through Christ.

Initiative

I don't know when I learned the word bored, and still can't remember when I first used it. As a child I always had something to do and always found "toys" in what was around me. I was like most kids, one who could imaginatively use the box of a stove or refrigerator as a big toy. I will never forget coming home from school one day to hear how my new bride had enjoyed a day babysitting a fellow seminarian's daughter. The girl was tiny and not even four, but Nellie said, "She said she was bored!" Bored? asks I. "Yes! Had you ever heard a child say they were bored?" No. I had by then used the word more than I needed, but to hear a child use it at that time astounded me.

In my career I have heard pastors say they are bored. And like hearing it from children, I don't like hearing that. It indicates to me that something is either wrong with the individual or his/her perception of the place where she or he is serving. As I was becoming a superintendent, a mentor who had twice served as DS said he once heard a dear friend and longtime colleague complain to him that the church had never appointed him to a place of opportunity. The mentor was sitting in his office and right across the street was an elementary school. He couldn't resist and said, "Look across the street, what do you see? I see opportunity that you're not taking advantage of!"

Initiative defeats boredom. Boredom, like being in a rut, indicates stagnant vision that has drained creativity and energy from a person. The child, like the pastor, that cannot see joy and fun possibilities in all things, needs our prayers. The person of initiative looks beyond the usual, sees possibilities and turns them into opportunities, and with passion, starts something new. Initiative sees a school and imagines children's ministries starting, with adult tutors and readers deployed to help impact lives, all the while calling attention to the spiritual background from which these new leaders and helpers come.

Initiative is hitting the piñata with eyes open, seeing the candy inside as yours!