the pangs of love

Today I am grateful for the pangs of love.  That is, the hurt that we feel when we are away from those whom we love.

Parents feel it when their children go off to college.  Children feel it when their parents die.  I feel it as my wife is on the other side of the country most of the time.

Do you see the girl in this picture?  I love her.  Still.  Madly.  After all of these years!  I pine to be with her.  I can sit in her presence and nothing needs to be said.  Just being together makes me whole.

I see this love as a gift!  A joy!  I see it as a type of our love for God.  It helps me understand how we will be made complete when we enter his presence in heaven.

I wish that all married couples could feel this love.  I wish that all single people could find it.  Whether in a spouse, a friend, a cousin or even a lowly pastor, I hope that each of you are experiencing the gift of love somewhere on this journey of life.

Love is such a delightful gift.

It's a beautiful day in God's world, be sure to see the good.

thinking

The book Interrupted has caused a number of us to do some thinking about our lives.  Some people don't like to think about their lives, they don't like to be challenged.  Some think, Lets stick our heads in the sand and pretend that life is just the way that I want it to be.

Socrates is reported to have said, "the unexamined life is not worth living."  Oh, well since that comes from Greek thought, we can dismiss it as unchristian right?  Wrong.  All truth is God's truth, whether we find it at the Christian bookstore or not.  Jesus challenged everyone to change the way that they were thinking about life.

And so we come to our annual stewardship drive.  A time when we all consider if and how much we are giving to our church.  Did you know that 50% of the members of most churches give nothing at all to God's work?  This bothers some people but to me this is simply a sign of who our mission field is.  All of us can do something and often the joy of giving is learned a little bit at  time.

An opportunity to consider how we spend our money is an important time of re-evaluation.  It affords us the chance to measure our values and make a course correction if needed.  One of the characteristics that I see in long term Christians is that they do tend to give more.  Sometimes it is because they make more, but often it is because they have asked themselves the questions of value so many times that they are finally seeing that a person can only collect so much to themselves and that the real joy in life is giving to God's purpose.

If you have not already done so, and regardless of where you attend, please prayerfully fill out a commitment card to your church.  Your investment in others may be the first step in a new journey of discovering joy and meaning in this life.  Living life outside of ourselves, we find the life that truly is life.

It's a beautiful day in God's world, be sure to see the good.

lately

Lately, you guys have been writing this blog for me.  I have received so many insightful comments from readers!  It makes me happy to watch your hearts and minds working on life with God!  I got this note from another reader..............

I saw something the other day that has me thinking...... You know the term "go-getter"?  Nothing wrong with that and really no negative connotations associated with it.  However, I saw a license plate that turned my thinking upside down on this. I had never heard this term, but maybe you have.  It is "go-giver".  I have been thinking about the difference between the two and it somehow makes go-getter seem somewhat negative.  The difference between getting everything you can, to giving to others....wow!  Reminds me of the missional type of living that you preach to us.  How great would it be at the end of your life (or now for that matter) to be thought of as a go-giver?  And how many more blessings would you receive by living this way?  How proud would God be of us?  Think about it.  I can't get this out of my mind.....that's a good thing! 

May this kind of thinking get stuck in all of our minds.....

It's a beautiful day in God's world, be sure to see the good.

common ground

I was having a discussion with a friend about an area that we had random views on. I don't think we disagreed, but we were looking for common ground, and I think we found it.

I told them this..........

The older I get, I feel that both the democrats and republicans are both a little bit right and both a little bit wrong.

I think that those on one side or another of discussions about spiritual gifts, baptism and many other topics that we humans disagree on are both partly right and both partly wrong.

We are all doing our best and I suspect that we will get our answers in heaven, or better yet, we will be so consumed with the presence of God in heaven that we wont worry about many things that we worry about here.

Its a beautiful day in God's world, be sure to see the good.

from a reader

 One of our delightful members picked up the book Interrupted in the books store. It is available for $10. That is cheap.

Interrupted is the book I just finished that I have been talking about and posting about. Here are the comments from your friend from church:

I am really enjoying reading the book “Interrupted”. Enjoying might not be the right word. It is hard to confront your own selfishness. But this is a wonderful book. I am really glad you suggested it. My life is becoming too much about me and mine. I need to rearrange some priorities....... I am so proud of what our church has accomplished. But, it is not enough. God didn’t give us these amazing blessings so I can redo my kitchen. I’ve seen “the least of these” both locally and overseas. How can the way my house looks still hold such a big place in my heart? It’s embarrassing. This book will be good for me.

 Pick up your copy today!

It's a beautiful day in God's world, be sure to see the good.

videos

Thanks to the recent advancements in our technical abilities, we are able to store and offer various teaching videos now.  All sermons are available to watch on www.woodschapelchurch.org scroll down and look for the button/box that says "watch and listen."

Also there are a number of my favorite videos that we have posted to my personal web page.  If you go to www.jeffbrinkman.com you can click on the left hand side: teaching videos.  This will bring up the following list:

• revelation and the second coming
• leadership
• permission giving
• history of woods chapel and the umc
• membership- prayers, presence, gifts, service and witness.

If you watch them, I hope that they are a blessing to you.

It's a beautiful hi-tech day in God's world, be sure to see the good.

help with a problem

Good Morning, I need help with a problem that I am having at church.  Or as my friend Peggee says, not a problem, but a challenge. Ok, I need help with a challenge.

In some ways it is a good problem.  We have a very casual culture, and our members love each other.  The result of this is that we like to talk.  That is all super and fine, but sometimes it plays out in ways that are not very helpful.

First of all, please remember that there is not an airlock on the back of the sanctuary.  There is only one layer of doors.  If you are talking in the foyer, please move to the east away from the sanctuary doors.  Even if they are closed, voices travel into the sanctuary and can be heard.

I wish that was all there was to the challenge.

Let me pause and say that I love you.  I love you.  I LOVE YOU GUYS.
But.....

I have noticed over the last month that there is too much talking in the back of the sanctuary.  Ushers, Hospitality team members, and worshippers in the back rows need to be very careful please about visiting during worship times.  It is fine to want to talk with someone.... just take it out into the foyer.  Most people do not realize how far even their "quiet voice" will carry.  If you are talking to your friend during a song, your voice may carry up into five rows in front of you.  You may think you are being quiet, but really 40-50 people are being disrupted.

And there is another issue.  Everyone is always very polite and quiet when I give the welcome.  But when the singing starts, some visit instead of singing.  Friends, even if you don't sing, this is a time for worship.  Our musicians have worked very hard to prepare the songs and they do it so that you can enter into worship.

So, to sum it up.... I love you guys.  You are awesome.  Please help maintain an atmosphere of worship in our sanctuary by keeping your talking to an absolute minimum.  With this small request in mind, our hearts and minds are more able to lean into God in worship, and that is the goal of us gathering together.

Thanks for listening and thanks for understanding.

It's a beautiful day in God's world, be sure to see the good. 

My world

I feel the need to clarify before you read this post, that this is not from my friend Jeff :-)  I am Jeff's friend Ami and volunteered to post for two days in his absence. 

"My World"

Yes, I am a woman.  I push doors that clearly say PULL.  I laugh harder when I try to explain why I'm laughing.  I walk into a room and forget why I was there (a lot). I count on my fingers in math.  I hide the pain from my loved ones.  I say it is a long story when it's really not.  I cry a lot more than you think I do.  I care about people who don't care about me.  I try to do things before the microwave beeps.  I listen to you even when you don't listen to me.  And a hug will always help. 

PS.
I try to live this way everyday, but do me a favor.  When you are out and about today living and doing "your life", think about others, treat them the way YOU would want to be treated if you were standing in their shoes.  Smile others, look them in the eyes and say Hi!  Find something about them and compliment it.  "I love your jacket" or "You look so nice today".  More than anything, please be kind and considerate.  You never know the type of day someone else maybe having and maybe just maybe your kind words and sweet gestures will make the difference in a ho-hum day to a very nice day.  You'd be surprised how much kindness sticks to the ribs.

It's a beautiful day in Gods world.  Be sure to see the good.

Your friend always,
Ami

Limits

Always remember......there is no limit to the amount of good a person can do if they don't care who gets the credit.

two halves

"One cannot live the afternoon of life according to the program of life's morning; for what was great in the morning will be of little importance in the evening, and what in the morning was true will at evening become a lie." Carl Jung

This quote reminds me of the book Halftime by Bob Buford. It seems to be true for most people that I know that we spend the first part of our life collecting and the second half of life giving. Or as Buford says, the first half is about success, the second half is about significance. Its not that young people cannot give, many of them do, especially in the current generation of young people. But my generation seemed to want to gather to itself while young. More TV's, a higher salary, more toys, a bigger 401k, it seems like we just could not get enough.

Thank God we turned 50! Many people that I know now are looking to reduce what they have. They are generous, not just to the church and its work, but generous to everything. We are starting to realize that you can't take it with you. And I am meeting so many young folks who are on this journey as well. Oh if I had only been that smart when I was young.

There is so much joy in life when the race to have more starts to wind down. It is then that our hearts can begin to focus on the real work of life, the real work of the soul, and we find again, the joy of caring for others, and living outside of ourselves.

Which half of life are you in? Do you hear a life of generosity calling to you? Lean away from the rat race and begin to find the joy.

It's a beautiful day in God's world, be sure to see the good.

We still have too much stuff

In response to a post last week, a friend sent me this note....

         On a trip to Africa several years ago we saw a re-sale shop whose name translated to "white man is dead" because in their society only white folks have clothes that are good enough for re-sale.  The native people literally wear their clothes until they become rags.  

I think I was in high school the first time I heard the phrase "live simply so that others may simply live."  Back then, I thought it was a bunch of tree hugging mush.  In my later years, I have come to love trees and I think about less stuff all the time.  Everything that we own, owns a piece of us.  Less is more.

It's a beautiful day in God's world, be sure to see the good.

I was glad

I was glad when they said to me, "Let us go to the house of the Lord."  Psalm 122

Today is Sunday.  It is the Lord's day.  I look forward to being in God's house.  There are many reasons why.

1.  Being in church gives me a little respite from the busy busy world.
2.  Being in church allows me to be a part of something that is bigger than I am.
3.  Church keeps me grounded.
4.  Some of my, all of my best friends go to our church.
5.  I feel closer to God when I am at church.
6.  I enjoy the way that my heart and mind is stretched by the ideas of others.
7.  I find strength to face the week ahead.

I hope you have many reasons to attend church as well.  And, I hope to see you in God's house today.

It's a beautiful day in God's world, be sure to see the good.

Giving

We talk about giving at church very sparingly.  I don't want church to sound like it is all about money.  But one thing is clear:  how we spend our money tells us everything about what we think is important.  Run a quick audit of your checkbook and you will find out what you love.

We love to spend on vacations, eating out, shopping, a nice home, maybe on our children.  How much do we give to God's work?  If that question makes you nervous, then I want to ask you to relax because you are all alone, and no one is holding out a hat in front of you.  Relax.  Just think about it.  How much of what we have was given to us by God?  How much do we give back to him?

Another interesting thought to me is this:  after we give what ever we are going to give to God, do we act like the rest of it is now ours to do with as we please?  What would happen if we came to believe not just that we should give to God's work, but also understand that how we spend our money every day should reflect a love for God and his people.

Giving.  Think about it.  How we do it says everything about what is really important to us.

It's a beautiful day in God's world, be sure to see the good.

too much

How many shirts do I have in my closet? How many pairs of socks do I have? How many pairs of shorts? Pants? Oh my gosh I actually own furniture with drawers that go in and out to hold extra shirts and shorts. Sometimes I think about getting rid of the old furniture and replacing it.

Most people of the world would love to have our old furniture- and our used socks and clothes.

[by the way, the picture here is not my closet......]

I'm thinking about other people in the world that have one shirt one pair of shorts one pair of socks or no socks and flip-flops or barefoot. And I ask myself this question. What am I doing with my money why do I spend it this way? What am I doing with my family's money? Is it ours - is it mine? Or is it Gods- and if it's God's shouldn't I spend some of the immense amount of what we have to give to others?  Why do I think that having more will make me happy?

What if I only had three pairs of shorts, four pairs of shoes, and six pairs of socks. What if I gave the rest away and I looked at all the things that I have as on loan from God.

Maybe we would use our money, I mean God's money, differently.

It is a beautiful day in God's world, and we can take steps to make it a better day for others. Anytime we do that, we are sure to see the good.

too simple

Someone complained that just seeing the good is not enough.  Jeff makes it all too simple.  Just see the good- that's all??

To this comment, I say, yes.  Just see the good.  What else is there?  Will you be controlled by circumstances?  Then you are always at the ebb and flow of what happens to you- dominated by outside forces.

But when a person chooses...  Yes chooses to see the good, our outlook changes.  All of life changes.
We all know rich people who are miserable.  And we also know folks that have tons of problems but are happy.  What is the difference?  A conscious decision to choose to see the good.

Try it.  keep at it.

It's a beautiful day in God's world, be sure to see the good.

A new friend

I met a new friend yesterday.  Well, we have known each other for a few years, but we had never talked before.

Yesterday we sat down and talked.  Sometimes, it takes time for people to trust each other.  And I am a firm believer in the idea that you have to earn the right to be close to someone.  You have to be invited in.  Christians can't just run around out there and barf their stuff on others.  If you want to be close to people and hope to touch them for God, you have to be patient and kind and the door will open at the right time.

Anyway, my new friend confided in me that they had had moments of, thoughts of hurting themselves.  Some years ago, I had such thoughts too.  Thankfully, they have been getting help and are in a much better place.

I reminded them of what I remind myself of every day:  Life is good.  There is so much good.  We just have to see it.  We just have to lift up our eyes and see that life is amazing.  It is such a gift to be alive.  

If you are depressed or despondent, please remember that God loves you!  The sun came up today.  Did you see it?  It was beautiful!  In spite of what you may be going through, life is still good.  It's ok, you are not alone.  You are deeply loved by God.

It is a beautiful day in God's world, be sure to see the good.

ambiguity

I am thinking about this more and more lately.  In a world filled with ambiguity, humans prefer certainty.  We would prefer black and white but so often in life there are gray areas.

Ambiguity is that movement in life that causes us to feel like things are just a bit out of kilter.  Change brings distress.  Complicated lives rob us of peace.

We want things to go back to the way that they were.  Remember when so and so was president?  Remember when everyone went to church?  Remember when the stock market was good?  We wish for the old days, but I suggest to you that the old days had their moments as well.

Life is fluid.  Life is moving.  Our society is big, complicated, technical and mobile.  Literally, before we can acclimate to one change, another is coming along.  And so I keep reminding myself and others:  we prefer certainty, but there is going to be ambiguity.  Learn to be comfortable in a world that is not static.  Learn to be comfortable with change.  Learn to be comfortable with lose ends.

Our comfort in this life cannot be based on everything going and being just the way that we want it to go and be.  Our comfort must be found in trusting in God.  Keep the big picture in mind.  Stay focused.  Stay on track.  Everything is OK.

It is after all, a beautiful complicated ambiguous day in God's world, be sure to see the good.

emotions

Emotions are fickle.  we are happy one day and sad the next.  And why?  Sometimes we can point to circumstances, but sometimes we just don't know.

I was reading a man the other day who said that the soul/mind is at rest.  The soul/mind in it's natural state is at rest.  When emotions come along, they can pull the soul towards happiness or sadness, but it's natural state is peace and rest.

We can choose to bring the soul back to a place of rest by refusing to be blown by the wind of emotions.  Ecstatic? Depressed?  This too shall pass.  We don't have to ride every roller coaster of emotion up and down the hill.  It is all good.

I find help to do this by thinking of God when I face a struggle.  Since our soul is the part that connects with God, thinking of him is the best tool to bring my mind to peace when the emotional winds of life start to blow.

You are a soul.  You are at rest.  Make a conscious effort to resist the winds of emotion by resting in God.

It's a beautiful day in God's world, be sure to see the good.

world view

Today is world communion Sunday.

In Jen Hatmaker's book Interrupted, she says, It's one thing to acknowledge a different world view- it's another thing to absorb it. 

I find this to be quite profound. Many people understand that there are opinions and life experiences out there that are different than theirs. But few people really listen and try to understand how other people think.  Few people really try to take in the world view of another person. 

Until we learn to do this we are stuck.  We are doomed to continue to repeat the patterns of our own lives, insisting that we are right and everyone else is wrong and we deserve what we have in America.  

Until we open ourselves to really understand and empathize with how others live, it is hard for God to reach us and teach us. 

It's a beautiful day in God's world be sure to see the good.

more from Hatmaker

In Jennifer Hatmaker's book Interrupted, she talks about a tipping point. This is the notion that we can learn a lot of things and think about a lot of things but often they go in one ear and out the other. 

Hopefully there comes a time when we have digested a thing long enough and we begin to tip toward the other direction.  We can finally, after a while, begin to sway in another direction and our lives actually begin to take on the characteristics of what we've been learning.  Finally after thinking about an idea, we tip over and real change can come to a person.

Of course this is the hope of every pastor- that you teach and preach and invite people to change. And then one day they tip- they lean over to the other side- they change- away from a selfish life and more toward a generous life, a selfless life.

For a pastor there is this constant invitation of pulling us away from what comes naturally to us and inviting us into a new kind of life. This is certainly what I hope and pray for in me and you.   I pray that you find tipping points on a regular basis and that you are constantly moving away from what comes naturally to us and ever more toward the life that God calls us towards.  Think about change for a while, sure, but at some point, we actually have to tip on over and make the change.

It's a beautiful day in God's world be sure to see the good