Making It Personal

This past week I was preparing some statements for the "State of the Church Address" a part of our annual Society Meeting at the church.

When I began to review some of the numbers from the 2013 year I was encouraged by many, and I was discouraged by a few. You see, 2012 was an exceptional year in our church - we saw numerical growth in almost every area and every ministry, and we experienced significant relational and spiritual growth as well.

But as I looked at  the reports from 2013 I felt differently. One particular area was baptisms. We were blessed to baptize 15 individuals in 2012 - 5 adults,6 teens, and 4 children. However in 2013 we only baptized 3 - 1 adult, 1 teen, and 1 child.

15 baptisms versus 3 baptisms, these numbers spoke for themselves. Or did they? See, it only took me a minute to realize that one of these three baptisms was my 7 year-old daughter. And, it occurred to me that numbers are discouraging, but only when we are not giving it our all. And that numbers no longer matter when it is personal.

This is not to say that I don't desire to see many more hearts and lives committed to Christ and that I don't desire to see many more baptisms in 2014. This is simply to say that I will aim to make every commitment, every life, every baptism personal. And I will rejoice - I will celebrate with each as if it is my own son or daughter that is making this life-changing commitment.

At least your soul is covered

Our son, Zion, just turned three. He is at that independent stage where he doesn't want help and gets upset if we notify him that he has made a mistake.

He is consistent in putting his shoes on the wrong feet and for the most part this does not bother him. Bit, as we just finished our summer vacation to the lake, when he puts his flip flops on the wrong feet, it bothers him very much. Likewise it bothers us. He walks slower, he complains more, and he grows tired quicker. Yet, in his pride and independence, he refuses to change his way.

The other day he put his flip flops on the wrong feet yet again and I wanted very badly to point it out to him. But, knowing what his reaction would be I simply said, "at least your sole is covered".

That 's when it struck me, a lot of us are walking around with our flip flops in the wrong feet. And, knowing that we have our soles (souls) covered we keep going. Yet, we journey through life at a slower pace than God desires for us, we complain more about the things we see and experience, and we grow tired quicker and give up on what God desires for us to achieve. And then, when we realize our error, we refuse to change our ways out of pride and independence.

Let me just say, God wants more. God wants us to change our ways, to switch out shoes, and live life the way He has created us to live, doing what He desires of us.

begging and pleading

The other day I was driving to Bloomington with my son in the back seat. We had stopped at McDonald's for breakfast and he could see my Coke cup in the cup holder. He started to ask for a drink and I handed him his cup of milk. He didn't want the milk and so he threw it to the floor and began to point, whine and ask for my drink.  The problem was that I could not give him my drink, I couldn't reach him, he couldn't reach me and I was driving and could not pull over to get the drink to him. Besides that, he did not need coke at 9:00 in the morning (whether I needed it is a separate matter entirely) and I knew that he would end up spilling it all over himself and I did not have any other clothes for him.

Needless to say, there were plenty of reasons NOT to give him my coke at this point. So I began to explain this all to him...

Have you ever tried to reason with a two-year old? The best reasoning, the most thought-out responses or explanations mean nothing! It is very difficult to convince a two-year old that you are right and that you have their best interest in mind.

I imagine that this is the same way with God as we pray for our "needs" and ask "why", "why not", but, but, but...

Back to my son, after some asking, whining, and a bit of a fit, he pulled out the "p" card, "please daddy, please".

When we begin to beg God, to plead with Him on our own behalf or the behalf of another person, what does He do, what does He say, what does He feel?