Because He Cares for You

One of my favorite things to do is to wake up and begin praying even before I get out of bed. I find if I do this, I find I can really be present with God and can start my day the way God intended it to be, rather than try to fit him in after the cares and busyness of the day has slammed into me.

This morning when I woke up, I was instantly reminded of the passage of scripture that says, “Cast all of your cares upon him.” I don’t believe there are any of us who don’t have cares. The past few days especially, the cares I was facing seemed to be swelling and ready to crash down on me like a breaking tidal wave.

I went to 1Peter 5:5b-7 and read the passage: “’God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.’ Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may life you up in due time. Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.”

As I meditated on that scripture, “Cast all your anxiety upon him because he cares for you,” I did just that. I began to tell Jesus all my cares, the things that I was worrying about. Things like where the Chi Alpha ministry was going, how do I help these students see & know God, feeling overwhelmed trying to connect to all of my family & friends, trying to pray for everybody I want to pray for, wondering about money and the future, asking where my family is going and are we fulfilling the dream God has for us.

With each anxiety in my heart that I shared with him, I felt the release and peace of his presence. I began to be aware of his care for me. Humbling myself and saying, “God, I can’t do this by myself!” I understood that coming under God’s mighty hand, his comforting presence and his care, is right where he wants me to be. He knows my cares and is right there in the middle of them desiring me to journey with Him. …Why? Because he cares for me!

Thoughts from the woods

I spent five days in the woods over the past two weekends for the annual deer hunt. I didn't see many deer, but it seemed like everybody around me was. I heard gun shots all day and every day. It was easy to get frustrated and say "This isn't fair!" As I sat there, I felt God speaking to me about fairness and my definition of "fair". Is not seeing any deer a matter of fairness? I thought about how we all feel that we deserve this or deserve that and if we don't get it then life's not fair to us.

I thought people around me who truly had something unfair in their life. Is it fair that their son or daughter was killed in a car accident or in Iraq? Is it fair that their mother died of breast cancer when they were just ten years old? Is it fair that someone was born blind or with down syndrome? What is fair anyways?

I realized how selfish I am so often. I'm worried about getting my fair chance at a deer and there are people around us every day wondering if they are going to eat or if somebody they care about is going to live another day. I asked God to change my heart and my perspective. There is so much more to life than we make of it. I only have one life to spend, I want to spend it on what counts!

...just a little follow up. As I sat in the woods reflecting on my last day out this deer season, God blessed me with the opportunity to get a nice deer. It always amazes me that despite my selfishness, God still loves me and blesses me. I'm so thankful for the opportunity to hunt and get a deer. What a blessing we have to enjoy venison this next year.

Why Does it Hurt...

I recently received this email from a student talking about pain in our lives. It's something I've been thinking about a lot recently, so I wanted to share his question with you and my thoughts about it.

hey jay i have a question for ya... SO I have been kind of discipling a group of kids, i use that crudely. But none-the-less I have been challenging and praying with and for multiple people here. One girl amongst all of them is getting way blasted by God. Her faith is just bounding, but she is really going through this thing where God is bringing up a lot of past hurt in her life. I've put her in contact with some leading women at the Vineyard church we have been going to. But I just realize that I don't know much about why God even does that. I know he does, bc he did it for me. But I don't know how to explain it to other people. Why does he bring up pain? Why does it seem to hurt, ok to be honest why does it hurt? It just seems odd that God who is love and everything seems to hurt us to heal us? Just wondering if you can give me insight and verses to go to to better understand it? Thanks Jay.
"John"


To this email, I replied...

"John",
Great questions! I love it. I've been thinking about this a ton lately. We actually just did some video taping of students sharing the pain they've gone through in life for a series we're starting called "Where was God When..." One of those students is "Erin." She talked about her best friends "Kim" and "Jame's" deaths. "Adam" talked about his parents separating and "Alicia" talked about being raped. Intense and real stuff.

A couple of basic thoughts about pain and why does God bring it up. First, if we don't feel it, we can't recognize it as pain. If we don't recognize it, we can't deal with it. The reason God brings it up is so that he can heal it. Sometimes that is in a moment, but often it is a process over time where forgiveness and healing can come through faith and trusting that God is good.

Second, if we use pain as the gauge of whether something is good or not, we'd be in big trouble. Think about a cardiac surgeon. If they didn't cut you first and open your chest up, they could never fix your heart. Sometimes the immediate pain doesn't seem worth it, but temporary pain is better than a life of pain and disappointment and despair.

Next, perhaps the most incredible thing about pain, is that God himself was not exempt from pain. He feels pain and I would argue even more intensely than we do. Look at Gen 6:5-6, the story of Noah & the flood. God sent the flood as a way to deal with his pain and he said he would never do it that way again. Gen 6:6 says, "The Lord was grieved that he had made man on the earth, and his heart was filled with pain." Think about Jesus when Lazarus died. Jesus wept when his friend was gone and at the hurt of the others who lost him. Also, think about Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane. (Mt 26:36-46) He sweat blood because the upcoming pain would be so intense. At the cross, the intense pain Jesus felt as they pounded nails through his hands and feet and hung him there to suffocate. On the cross, Jesus said, "My God, My God, why have you forsaken me!" (Psalm 22 & Mt 27:46) Jesus felt pain, the entire weight of the world's sin upon him. But through that pain, he brought us life when he rose from the dead.

Our fear and our feelings are sometimes that the pain doesn't make sense. Why is it there? Why is it so intense? Why can't it just be taken away? If God were to just take the pain away, it would leave us paralyzed. Just like a quadrapalegic can't feel there body, it means they also can't use it. If God takes the pain away, the pain is gone, but we are left broken. Pain is a sign of brokeness.

We have three choices. One: to ignore it and stuff it. Eventually it blows up and rots us on the inside. Two: to deal with it ourselves. Often this is done when we acknowledge the pain, but blame God for it. This is putting bandaids on a gaping wound. It can work for a while and dull the pain, but it leaves huge scars and never heals completely or correctly. Three: we can turn to God and ask for his grace and love to heal us. This is the only option that has hope for complete restoration. Read Is 61:1-3 and Luke 4:18-22. Jesus came to bind up the broken-hearted and proclaim freedom for the prisoners.

One last thing, remember that there is a Devil and he is real. John 10:10 tells us the devil (theif) comes to kill, steal and destroy. It also tells us that Jesus came to give life and life more abundantly. I'm going to chose life. I don't have all the answers. The bottom line to all of this is: Am I willing to trust that God is good and that he can heal my hurt?

I hope this helps. Let me know if you have more questions.
Jay

Itching to Get out in the Woods

My friend John & I spent an entire day in the woods a couple weeks ago and managed to scare up a few grouse. It was awesome to take in the sights, sounds and smells together as we talked about life and God. I love walking the woods hunting or sitting in a boat on the lake fishing with John. Somehow the conversation always comes back to God and each of us returns encouraged because we come to understand and know God a little more each time we are out in creation.

It's fall and heading into winter here in Duluth. For me that means getting out in the woods is on my mind. There is just something about being outdoors when the leaves start changing colors until the snow starts to pile up. There's no other place that I'd rather be that out in the woods walking trails for grouse or sitting in a deer stand. The crisp air and autumn woods smell are incredible. I can hardly wait until this weekend when I can spend two days in the quiet solitude of my deer stand, simply being. Being still and listening. There is something about how I was created that connects with God when I'm in the woods. It's a place of refuge and refreshing.

More a Direction than a Location
I spent the last couple of days in Rochester for a pastor's retreat and could say much about our time together. However, I was struck by something Jesse, a campus missionary aide with us in Duluth, said on our ride home. As we talked and dreamed together, he said, "Christianity is more of a direction than a location." I thought of my own life and times I am frustrated with myself because I'm not at a particular point or how often I judge somebody because they aren't at some defined place in life. But is that really what life or being a Jesus follower is about, either in or out? Or is it more about how we orient our lives and the process of moving and aligning our lives with the Jesus life? It's about recognizing and becoming aware of the movement and rhythm of God in our world and our lives. Some of the discord and dissatisfaction we have in our lives is our awareness that our lives are not in tune or sync with God's rhythm. I am not satisfied with standing still, but am moving in a direction of discovering the rhythm. I wish I had it down and new exactly where that direction went, but that is part of the journey. It's my desire that today, I'm closer than I was yesterday.

Sometimes you just have to Smile

Wow, I had no idea creating a blog would be this difficult. On the surface it appears to easy...just follow the steps and they take you through it by the hand. The difficulty comes when the first computer you're working on freezes, the second time you try the server won't upload any files for you but holds them in limbo, and on the third try you're almost ready to post and the power on your block trips for a second and you lose every thing. So, I just smiled and tried again. Well, here I am, it finally worked!

I love to fish, as you may notice from my lunker northern. I have all seven inches of the beast mounted on the wall above the computer here as I type...actually I don't, but I was pretty proud to catch such a little guy.

I also love to think. Most of the the time I'm thinking, thinking about God, how he's working in my life and how he see's the world we live in. This is the primary reason I started this blog. I wanted a place to share my thoughts and hear yours. I will start with my thoughts about the title of my blog: becoming.real

becoming…what or who am I becoming? What does it mean to “become”? Our world is ordered into short, easy to follow plans that don’t always reflect the reality we feel within. What about the process and the pain and the struggle we experience in becoming…becoming what? Life is a process of exploring faith. What do I believe and why do I believe it? How God is real in my life today is hopefully fuller and deeper than it was yesterday. As I move forward in the journey with God I also discover who “me” is. Who am I and what is the purpose in my life? I want to ask these questions as I journey through life with others. I am in the process of becoming...

real…What if people knew “me”, would they like “me”? They’ll think I’m crazy! Nobody will understand. Fear...What is it in me that wants to hide? What am I hiding from? Who am I hiding from? If I could only face these feelings and thoughts and know what is really me and what is not. Discovering life, learning to live, becoming…alive. Naked, honest…real. Learning how to be me, the me God made me to be. Risk. I want to step with others and allow God to help us become…real.

The idea of becoming.real. is challenging me in my deepest parts. I want to walk this road with you. Together, we can walk and grow through the good, the bad and the ugly of our lives. When we fix our eyes on Jesus and become real with ourselves, with God and with each other, God will transform us into the people he has designed and intended us to be. Will you go with me on this journey of becoming.real.?