Commitment and Reward - Lincoln Marathon and Commitment Sunday

About four years ago I was standing on Main Street in Hopkinton, Massachusetts at ten o’clock in the morning with about 25,000 other people from all fifty states and over one hundred countries. We were waiting for the gun to go off to start the 112th Boston Marathon. A nor’easter was bearing down on New England. It was cold and a forty-mile-per-hour wind would be blowing in my face for the next three hours as I ran the 26.2 miles into Boston. The rain was relentless. 

Just like most other marathons I have run, I finished in about three hours. It wasn’t easy. I actually ended up in the hospital with hypothermia, but the toughest part about the marathon isn’t making it to the finish line, the toughest part is making it to the starting line.

Some of the weRun group from the 2011 Lincoln Marathon

You’ll notice a lot less people in worship today. Over 70 runners from The Water’s Edge are running the Lincoln Marathon or Half-Marathon. Many family and friends will be cheering them on. I’ll be doing the half marathon in Lincoln with Amber. We did her first 5K last fall. This race is ten miles farther than she has ever gone before. 

Each runner has had their own unique journey to get to the starting line. One morning or one evening, each of them had to take a scary first step. Many times each runner had to make the choice between quitting and continuing. They chose to continue. They have run through aches and pain, doubts and fears, heat and cold. The easy part is driving to Lincoln. The hard part was the regular training. 

The marathon at its best is a metaphor for life. The desire to win means nothing without the will to prepare to win. The desire to finish strong means nothing without the will to prepare to finish strong. Talent is not enough. Commitment produces results in all areas of life: running, relationships, and discipleship are no exceptions to this rule. 

You've all been to the stadium and seen the athletes race. Everyone runs; one wins. Run to win. All good athletes train hard. They do it for a gold medal that tarnishes and fades. You're after one that's gold eternally. -1 Corinthians 9:24-25

By next Sunday our finisher’s medals will be hanging on a mirror or tucked away in a drawer. At best it will be an occasional reminder of commitment producing results. 

Next Sunday is Commitment Sunday at The Water’s Edge. We will be asked to commit to pray, to be present, to give, to serve, and to witness. Committing in these areas of life allows us to connect to each other and to God. The result of our Christian commitment is the eternal gold that never tarnishes. 

I look forward to committing with you. 

The best is yet to come… 

Craig

Faith

Most religious words have been overused and misused and maybe even abused. They have either lost their original meaning or nobody seems too interested in them anymore. 

Not so with faith. It still has life to it and always will. Doesn’t matter if it is the stuffy, old preacher looking down at his notes through his reading glasses or the prisoner testifying to his fellow offenders—our ears seem to perk up when we hear the word. 

Faith is the confidence that what we hope for will actually happen; it gives us assurance about things we cannot see. –Hebrews 11:1 

Kierkegaard notes faith is humanity’s highest pursuit. Some make it that far, but none go further. Faith isn't the ability to believe into the distant future. Faith is believing God and taking the next step. 

Faith is best thought of as a verb and not a noun. Something we do and not something we have. A journey and not a destination. And it’s a gift from God – we can’t create it – we can only receive it and respond with it. (1 Corinthians 13:13)

Risk is part of faith. Refusing to take an adventure for something extraordinary is a guarantee for achieving something ordinary. Risking means possibly losing one's footing; not risking means losing oneself. 

Possibility is part of faith. Faith is believing the possibilities and not accepting limitations. Hope is the painting; faith is the painter.

Dependence is the beginning of faith. At times in our life we have been pushed and will be pushed to our limits. Here is the world. Bad things happen and so do terrible things. We’ll discover, sooner or later if we haven’t already, that independence from God doesn’t work out. And dependence is the beginning of faith. 

Trust is the maturity of faith. The trusting disciple just doesn’t believe in God, but also believes God and trusts God. The disciple trusts that God can do more with six of our days depending on Him, than he or she could do in seven days independent of Him. The disciple trusts that things like praying for our enemies makes no sense, but because it’s God’s idea then it is a good idea. 

Redemption is the product of faith. Redemption means a ransom has been paid. Redemption spends less time looking at the brokenness from the past than it does at the possibilities of a blessed future. 

You have a choice and so do I. We can either error on the side of faith or the side of doubt. Choose to receive and respond to God’s gift of faith today and all days. 

The best is yet to come… 

Craig

A Little Bit About a Few Things

Confirmation 

Today is a great day at The Water’s Edge: We welcome our first Confirmation Class. These sixteen students have learned together, worshipped together, and served together. They have been equipped with the tools necessary to help them thrive as a disciple of Jesus. 

Confirmation Sunday isn’t the end of a journey. It is the beginning of a journey. It’s kind of like the kickoff to a football game. All the training has been done and the game has started. We have great big dreams for a student ministry that deeply impacts the lives of our students and students in our community. To the Confirmands: you are not only the future leaders of our church. Your ministry starts today: sharing Christ with the people in your life and the world. 

Don’t let anyone think less of you because you are young. Be an example to all believers in what you say, in the way you live, in your love, your faith, and your purity. -1 Timothy 4:12

Attendance and Giving Report

Our average worship attendance so far in 2012 is 511. This is 100 people higher than 2011 and is 25% growth over 2011. Our average attendance in children’s Sunday school for 2012 is 122 students per week. This is an increase of over 30% which means we continue to reach families with young children. Thanks so much to all the students and adults who work with our children. You are such a blessing! Our giving has also increased over 2011. Last week, the week after Easter, was our largest offering of the year! We will be receiving a detailed financial report in worship next weekend.

Congregational Care Ministry

This is exciting. A congregational care leadership team has formed and is planning ways for us to care for each other. This ministry will be launched in the next few months. You will see details emerge over the next month or two. Two things: 1. I believe God is leading all of us to serve in this ministry. Whether it is delivering a meal to a family that just had a baby, walking beside somebody who just lost a parent, doing a few home repairs for a person who is not able to, or dozens of other things—I believe God is leading all of us to serve in this ministry. 2. Pray for this emerging ministry. It will be one of the most important things we do in 2012.

Land

The leadership team and the land and building team has determined that the Harrison Street property is the best location for our future. Negotiations with the owner are nearly complete. The capital campaign will continue in the fall and the owner is very agreeable to our timeline. Exciting days are ahead of us!

The best is yet to come…

Craig

Gratitude

I'm speaking about gratitude this Sunday. Here are some things I have been thinking about this week:

Gratitude. It’s a choice. It’s an attitude. It changes lives. Your life and the lives around you. 

Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow. -Melody Beattie

We live in a culture of more is merrier and bigger is better. Envy prevents us from being grateful for what we have because we are distracted by what others have and are preoccupied with what we don’t have. It’s not likely that if we are not thankful for what we currently have that we are going to be thankful for what we get in the future. 

Gratitude is a Choice 

The Pilgrims made seven times more graves than huts. No Americans have been more impoverished. Nevertheless, they set aside a day of thanksgiving. When we choose gratitude we will discover a simple truth of life—happiness doesn’t make us grateful; gratefulness makes us happy. 

Gratitude is an Attitude 

Paul writes about this. And let the peace that comes from Christ rule in your hearts. For as members of one body you are called to live in peace. And always be thankful. –Colossians 3:15 

Always be thankful. Have an attitude of gratitude. Give thanks for everything that happens. Know that every step forward is a step toward achieving something bigger and better than your current situation. An attitude of gratitude allows for abundance to appear and fear to disappear. 

For Gratitude to be Gratitude – It Must Be Expressed to God and Others

Feeling gratitude and not expressing it i like wrapping a present and not giving it. God gives us a gift of 86,400 seconds today. How many of these seconds are we offering the simple, yet potently powerful prayer: “Thank you!” Gratitude connects us to God like only gratitude can: our Creator and Provider. Our expressed gratitude connects us to others as well. Expressed gratitude is the spark that lights a fire in another’s life. 

I don’t recall a time in my life when I have been more grateful to God and to others. Amber, Benjamin, David and I offer our thanks to you. You have been God’s instrument of grace in our lives at a time we have needed it the most. 

The best is yet to come… 

Craig

Silent Prayer

Time of Silence #1 - Start with a time of silence. Enter the silence with no agenda. Just listen for hints of God. 

Scattered. Cluttered. Restless. Anxious. Bored. Broken. Overwhelmed. 

I come to You. 

I haul heavy burdens from the past. 

I carry busyness and distractions from today. 

I bring uncertainty and fears for the future. 

The world sends constant messages and keeps littering my life. 

I want to disconnect from the world’s voice and be still with You. 

I want to know You and be lead by you. 

Time of Silence #2 - Be silent. Relax. Enjoy the silence. You probably don’t get a lot of it.

You have created me for You and for You alone. 

Teach me that my heart and my mind will be restless until I find rest in you. 

Time of Silence #3 - Be silent. Give your burdens to God. Meditate what your life would look like if you fully accepted and experienced God’s forgiveness. 

You have created me to know You. 

Not just to know about You, but to know Your embrace. 

Time of Silence #4 - Be silent. You are alone with God. Simply spend time together. 

Almighty God – These things I ask of You: 

Replace scattered with focus. 

Replace cluttered with simple. 

Replace restlessness with harmony. 

Replace anxiety with peace. 

Replace boredom with passion. 

Replace broken with blessed. 

Replace overwhelmed with overwhelmed by Your presence. 

Time of Silence #5 - Close the prayer with a final time of silence. Be open to the work of the Holy Spirit in your life. 

Amen.

Turning Up the Silence

We need to find God, and He cannot be found in noise and restlessness. –Mother Teresa 

Noise is a sound that causes disturbance. Restlessness is constant motion and activity that occurs as a result of anxiety or boredom. 

Disturbances. We don’t like them, but for some reason we live with them. The Boy Scout leaders hourly clog your email inbox with a barrage of clutter instead of communicating systematically and thoughtfully. The neighbor’s car alarm goes off in the middle of the night and the neighbor is out of town. It’s dinner time. The phone rings. The person wants to know your thoughts on healthcare and national defense or at least share with you their candidate’s position on healthcare and national defense. Disturbances are normal and normal isn’t working because God isn’t found in noise. 

Anxiety. It’s a negative feeling about upcoming and imminent events and uncertain and unforeseen outcomes. Kierkegaard calls anxiety the dizziness of freedom. Dizzy is no way to live. Anxiety is the lonely and scary place between “now” and “then.” Anxiety slowly chisels away, piece by piece, at the masterpiece God has created. (Ephesians 2:10) 

Boredom. Kierkegaard writes that boredom is the root of all evil. It is the despairing refusal to be oneself. Jesus says the thief comes to steal and take away but that Jesus comes to give us life in all its fullness. (John 10:10) Boredom is the hidden enemy who slowly and steadily steals the very thing God gives.

Noise. Restlessness. Disturbances. Anxiety. Boredom. This is not God’s plan for your life. (Jeremiah 29:11)

View from the swing

The father and son are sitting on the swing on the dock on the lake. It is dark. The clouds scatter throughout the nighttime sky and occasionally cover the waning moon. A gentle west wind blows over the lake and provides some relief from the southern Missouri heat and humidity. An owl can be heard in the distance. So can the small waves bumping against the dock. An occasional fish jumps out of the water. 

They sit in silence. No noise is present. No restlessness is present either. Only solitude and peace. The nearest connection to the Internet is a couple hundred yards away. The phone is turned off and put away for the night. The moment is as simple as it is sacred. 

The father wonders if he should be talking to the son or if the son should be talking to him. They don’t get many nights like this. They are busy people. One leads a church and coaches a soccer team and carts kids around from point A to point B and is a husband. The other is a student and a soccer player and a Boy Scout and a big brother. 

The father then wonders what they should talk about. The day’s activities: jet skiing and swimming, driving a John Deere Gator through the woods, and a walk through the hills. Or maybe the upcoming school year or the woman and the little boy who are up at the cabin. All good topics of conversation, for sure. 

And then he realizes something. Even though they aren’t talking, they are doing something more useful and more holy: they are communicating at the deepest level. 

The swing rocks back and forth. The little hand of the ten-year-old boy embraces the medium sized hand of the forty-year-old man. The boy puts his tired head on his dad’s shoulder. The dad moves his nose above the boy’s hair and inhales the comforting, sweaty smell of the boy. 

Occasionally one of them speaks. Usually to share what has been experienced in silence. After a laugh or a thought or a response, silence subtly makes her welcomed return. 

Some things can only happen in silence. Other things best happen in silence. The father and the son learn of such things on this night. 

Then the father thinks of another Father and Son who spent time together. The Bible doesn’t give a whole lot of details about the prayer life of Jesus, but the few details given are more than enough to make the case that connection to God comes not from noise or restlessness nor disturbances or anxiety or boredom, but from solitude and silence. 

Jesus prayed in lonely places. (Mark 1:35) He taught the masses to find a quiet closet, shut the door, and have a conversation with God. (Matthew 6:5-6) He sent the disciples ahead of him and went to the mountain to pray. (Mark 6:45-46) Even in Gethsemane, he told Peter and the brothers they could go so far, but no further. At the moment Jesus needed God the most the last thing he needed was noise. He needed James and John arguing about who was greater just about as much as he needed Peter telling him that Peter would never deny Him. So Jesus took a few more steps, fell to his face, and began his conversation with God. (Mark 14:32-35) 

Culture is full of noise and restlessness. Both are common, expected, and ordinary. But, noise and restlessness prevent us from experiencing God and embracing each other. iPads, iPods, iPhones, fifteen versions of ESPN, Twitter, text messaging, busyness, consumerism, Madison Avenue, email, and eBay provide enough noise to make a jet engine sound like wind chime during a gentle breeze and enough restlessness to turn an exhausted pre-schooler into an insomniac. Being constantly connected to the noise and restlessness of the world ironically and sadly disconnects us from the abundant love of God and the genuine love of others. We confuse busyness with significance, entertainment with joy, and vast connectedness with vital communication. Our basic human needs of genuinely knowing God and others and authentically being known by God and others are being lost in the confusion and complexity of the world. 

God simply says through the Psalmist: Be still, and know that I am God. (Psalm 46:10) 

Unplug. Listen. Say “no” to what isn’t working. Rest. Relate. 

Turn up the silence. Listen to God. Be fully present with others. Discover and embrace your true self. Be still. Be silent.

Hold Me. Purify Me.

Hold me

Sometimes my life just don't make sense at all 

The mountains look so big and my faith just seems so small 

I wake up in the night and feel the dark 

It's so hot inside my soul there must be blisters on my heart 

So hold me Jesus, 

I'm shaking like a leaf 
 

You have been King of my glory 
 

Won't You be my Prince of Peace (Rich Mullins: Hold Me Jesus)

You go before me. You are with me. You won’t leave me. You hold me.
Hold me in your arms, help me not to be anxious or afraid, and give me Your peace. 

(Deuternonmy 31:8 and John 14:27)

Jesus, you held the hand of a little girl and brought her back to life.
Jesus, hold my hand and bring me back to life and new levels of life. 

(Mark 5:38-43)

Hold me 

Purify me 

God, show me Your unfailing love and have mercy on me.
Show me Your great compassion and forgive my sins.

Wash me clean from my guilt. Purify me from my sin. 

(Psalm 51:1-2) 

For I recognize my rebellion; it haunts me day and night. 

I have sinned against you and your children. 

Purify me from my sins, and I will be clean;

Wash me, and I will be whiter than snow. 
(Psalm 51:3-7) 

Bring back joy to my life; You have broken me—now let me rejoice.

Create in me a pure heart, O God and renew my mind with purity.

Do not banish me from Your presence, and don’t take your Holy Spirit from me.

Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and make me want to obey you. 
(Psalm 51:8-12)

Make me pure. Remove all imperfections from my life. Make me holy. 

Refine me like pure gold and silver. Help me live a life that is acceptable to you. (Malachi 3:3) 

Purify my thoughts for my thoughts lead to my words. 

Purify my words for my words become my actions. 

Purify my actions for my actions become my character. 

Purify my character for my character becomes my destiny. 

Purify me 

Amen.