Storms

God

likes the storms in our lives. They will come. Not "if" they come but "when" they come...God likes them. He is in the storms. Consider this...

Nick Cash at Teen Advisors gave me a DVD from Nooma (Rob Bell) on "Rain". The story Rob told was captivating. He took his one-year old son for a walk in the woods. The boy was strapped on his back and was enjoying the walk through the woods. As they got all the way on the other side of the lake, it began to rain. Then, it began to pour. As Rob headed back, he covered his son's head but the little boy pulled the head cover off. As they kept walking back, the storm began to rage and was producing a soaking rain. The little boy began to panic and cry. The lightning and thunder kicked in and the little guy was now screaming. Rob stopped and pulled his son off his back and cradled him in his arms - holding him as tightly as possible and trying his best to shield him from the storm. Rob's pace quickened as he tried to hurry back to the cabin. As he carried his son he began to whisper, "It's OK buddy, you're safe with me, we're going to be OK, I love you. It's OK buddy, you're safe with me, we're going to be OK, I love you."

Rob looks back on that event as one of the most significant moments he's ever had with his son. They bonded on that walk and he protected him. He said one day, his son may be in therapy and that event might come up and his son might come to him and say, "Why Dad, why did you put me into that situation...why did you expose me to that?" What Rob would say is "Son, I'm glad you went through that situation because you drew close to me and let me protect you and hold you and get you through it. It was the best time of our relationship."

It's a neat story but here is my take away - God likes storms. He puts them into our lives for a reason. He allows pain for a reason. Because in those times of pain, oftentimes we turn to him, we lean on him and we need him. In that, He is well pleased.

The day before I showed this video to the 8th grade bible study at school, a client came into my office. He said he had something to share - something that happened to him in our office - and he wanted my assistant to join us. He said 8-9 months ago he had come in to see me about something and I wasn't in. So he got my assistant. She gave him the paperwork he needed to fill out and as he sat there filling it out, she began to share with him the recent news in our office of the 15-year old daughter of a co-worker that was recently diagnosed with cancer. The client sat there thinking, "I wish this lady would be quiet and leave alone. I want to fill this paperwork out and get the heck out of this office." He said what she didn't know was that just a few days before that, his 18-year old daughter discovered she was pregnant. The news was devastating to him. In fact, on the way down to my office he was sobbing. He composed himself enough to come into the office and then my assistant started sharing this story about the girl with cancer. And while he was wanting to get the heck out of my office...God was speaking to him.

After he left our office he heard God speak - "Here you are worried about your daughter bringing a new life into this world...when your daughter could be facing death." God put him in my office at the exact right time and put the exact right person in his place to share with him the exact right story to speak to his heart. A thunderstorm was raging around him that afternoon and God wrapped his arms around him and whispered, "It's OK buddy, you're safe with me, we're going to be OK, I love you."

Soar!

The Call
Do you ever get a "taste" of it - a "hint", a "whisper"? We became Christians with much excitement, much anticipation and much relief. Soon thereafter, the excitement and passion of our liberation from eternal jail fades and we fall into a life of religious duty. Teaching Sunday school, serving as deacons, leading the charge for the men's pancake breakfast, etc. We fall asleep in the pews. Our minds drift. Our daily walk falls into averageness.

Eldredge says sometime in the midst of this we sense that "something is missing - there has to be more to all of this." He then says a voice calls out to us saying "Aren't you thirsty for more...Listen to your heart. There is something missing."

As we awaken to this "taste" it is hard to know what to do with it. In my own life, over the past year, this awakening has been calling me and rather than run from it or stuff it down, I have embraced it and in fact, have chased it. (That is why this blog is called "Chasing the Adventure"). I want more of it. I get fleeting tastes or glimpses of the passionate freedom I first felt as a new-born Christian and then it passes. Lately I have been running back trying to taste it again. As I have explored this and shared my observations with other men, I have had times where I've been beaten back. I've been called a "trouble maker" because I am challenging some of what the organized church is telling me.

For example, I heard a sermon where the Pastor said he believes there will be tears in Heaven when we first arrive and review our life. We'll shed tears over all the lost opportunities we had during life. We'll shed tears over eternal blessings we will miss due to these passed-by opportunities. Then, we'll enter into Heaven and take what reward God will give us and clearly, others will get greater rewards than us.

What? You've got to be kidding me. That is what all this about? We'll get our reward but our room in the palace won't be the luxury suite...we'll have to settle for a non-smoking king-sized room? To me, that implies I will spend enternity looking across the table at Mother Teresa or Billy Graham and I will forever and a day lament the fact that they dine on lobster while I eat rubber chicken. To me, it implies I will spend eternity with guilt strapped on my back because of the opportunities I passed by in life. Come on, you've got to be kidding me. What is that all about? That is the "good news"?

To me, it is a "works-based" faith mentality that permeates our churches. Where is the grace, where is the passionate freedom that came when Christ liberated us (equally) from the eternal prisons of our own making? I don't get what the preacher was saying but I do get the message of that still, small voice that calls out to me "there is more to all this...something is indeed missing."

Jesus isn't a warden. He didn't come and die to strap me through enternity carrying shame over the dollars I didn't give to His kingdom. Perhaps He will reward me for what I did give to His kingdom - for the time I invested and the money I returned and the lives I did impact. Jesus is the great liberator and He freed me of the bondage and dilligence that is seemingly required by the modern church. Yes, this is a radical statement and yes, it makes a lot of folks nervous and yes, it is rebellious. So be it. The Lord I love freed me from that and I want to taste all of what He has to give as much as I can.

Soar!