Spring is here! The weather is getting warmer (thank you Jesus!), the trees are beginning to bloom, the days are getting longer, what used to seem dead is coming back to life. That really is what spring is all about, the dead of winter is leaving and being replaced by life. There is a tree on the side of the highway between Albany and Cordele that I noticed a couple of months ago. When I saw it I thought to myself, “That is the ugliest tree I have ever seen.” It was bare of any foliage, which in and of itself was not strange since it was winter, but its branches were gnarled and dense. The tree looked like it came out of a horror movie. It was the type of tree that says, “Don’t come any closer, you have no idea what lurks beyond this point.” I did not like to look at it.
Yesterday as I made that same drive I noticed the tree again. No longer grasped by the dead of winter the tree was in the midst of a transformation. Brilliant flowers of white and pick hues covered the twisted branches of the monster, and thereby I discovered that it really was not as monstrous as I thought. No leaves yet covered her branches but life had begun to flow in her once more. What before I did not like to look at sang out with a glorious chorus to a God who makes all things new. Where I only saw ugly, God saw the potential of beauty and glory. When I wondered why someone didn’t just cut that tree down, God waited for the right moment to make sure I would never see that tree the same way again.
How often life works in such ways? How many people have we glanced right over, thinking that they had no potential, that their lives were ugly beyond repair, and that it would be best if we just gave up on them since it seemed as though life had given up on them too? Or what about those times when we think such thoughts but the person we are staring at as we think them is in the mirror? Each of us has at some awful point watched our own tears fall as we wondered how little we mattered, and discovered how ugly we were. Yet in any moment we ponder the worthlessness of either someone else or ourselves, God is there too. God sees what we cannot see, potential for beauty and glory. Not only does God see that potential God is ready to unleash it upon the created order!
I believe that in God’s great providence Easter had to coincide with spring, the symbolism was too great to ignore. A bare tree set on top of a mount called Calvary that had nothing but ugliness and death associated with it, overcome by the grand glory of the Almighty One. Flowers bloom and leaves spring forth to announce that the death of winter is overcome once more and we celebrate the event that announced to the world death never wins! The tomb was but a bud that would blossom forth the beauty of the ages, a resurrected Savior.
Too often we have focused our attention on what is, instead of what can be and what will be when God is at work. Perhaps our vision is too narrow. We look at the mess of the world and of our lives and we allow that mess to dictate what is, believing that what is is what will be. What was death on a cross and a tomb enclosed to house the dead One would look to us to be the final word. But that is only what can be seen with a narrow vision. The vision of God being as wide as time itself knew something greater was on the horizon, that nothing but His Word is the final word. God peered upon the hopeless situation where the narrow visions would attempt to spread despair and said, “We shall wait three days, and what was ugly will be beautiful!”
For three months we have gone through winter and the death it brings, but no winter is final, a spring always comes next. Each spring we celebrate a death overcome, and the promise of all death overcome. This spring let us widen our vision to see in the midst of the ugly and worthless places of our own lives and the lives of others, the promise of God’s vision which brings with it potential and hope. Then we will know that God can make everything and everyone become God’s hope and joy!
Riding the Wave of the Holy Spirit,
Garrett
Thursday, March 25, 2010
Saying So!
Let the redeemed of the LORD say so, whom he hath redeemed from the hand of the enemy. – Psalm 107:2 (KJV)
Have you been redeemed? What does it mean to be redeemed? From what enemies have you been redeemed? How have you let others know about your redemption?
At the Flint River Presbytery’s “Celebration of Faith” we had a wonderful time. Lloyd Ogilivie did a wonderful job sharing the Word of God with us the three days he was there. The people there (me included) were inspired, moved to action, able to know themselves as loved, and God knows what else, as Ogilivie’s deep voice shared with us the words God had written upon his heart.
By the final morning of the Celebration of Faith we were prepared for an excellent sermon. That is the thing about excellence, it prepares us for more excellence (there is a sermon in that statement for a later time). We were not disappointed! An excellent sermon came from the mouth of this man of God as he sent us off with a hope that the Spirit of the ever-living Lord imprinted upon our hearts.
When he was finished he began to leave the stage. I thought to myself, “Garrett start clapping, that was great, God has been here, we must acknowledge it!” I looked around to see if someone else would begin clapping. Soon it was too late, Ogilivie had left and we did not applaud the joyous words of God we had heard.
At the Sunday school I was teaching after the service a woman said, “I wished we would have clapped when Dr. Ogilivie was done.”
Another person said with pride, “I almost did!” forgetting that almost means he did not. And so the conversation went for a moment. Here we were, a room full of people wishing that we had acknowledged we had been in the presence of God, and yet we did nothing.
Each one of us knows how good God is to some degree! Each one of us has experienced the redemption of the Lord at one point! Each of us has felt entrapped by enemies of all kinds and felt the hand of God grab onto us and redeem us. Yet there have been too many times we said nothing. Today let us decide to say something, to applaud the God who creates, the Jesus who saves, and the Holy Spirit who still moves everywhere sharing the good news with us! At the end of our Sunday school time that day we applauded, and somewhere God smiled that we learned our lesson. “Let the redeemed of the LORD say so!”
With hope and joy,
Garrett
Have you been redeemed? What does it mean to be redeemed? From what enemies have you been redeemed? How have you let others know about your redemption?
At the Flint River Presbytery’s “Celebration of Faith” we had a wonderful time. Lloyd Ogilivie did a wonderful job sharing the Word of God with us the three days he was there. The people there (me included) were inspired, moved to action, able to know themselves as loved, and God knows what else, as Ogilivie’s deep voice shared with us the words God had written upon his heart.
By the final morning of the Celebration of Faith we were prepared for an excellent sermon. That is the thing about excellence, it prepares us for more excellence (there is a sermon in that statement for a later time). We were not disappointed! An excellent sermon came from the mouth of this man of God as he sent us off with a hope that the Spirit of the ever-living Lord imprinted upon our hearts.
When he was finished he began to leave the stage. I thought to myself, “Garrett start clapping, that was great, God has been here, we must acknowledge it!” I looked around to see if someone else would begin clapping. Soon it was too late, Ogilivie had left and we did not applaud the joyous words of God we had heard.
At the Sunday school I was teaching after the service a woman said, “I wished we would have clapped when Dr. Ogilivie was done.”
Another person said with pride, “I almost did!” forgetting that almost means he did not. And so the conversation went for a moment. Here we were, a room full of people wishing that we had acknowledged we had been in the presence of God, and yet we did nothing.
Each one of us knows how good God is to some degree! Each one of us has experienced the redemption of the Lord at one point! Each of us has felt entrapped by enemies of all kinds and felt the hand of God grab onto us and redeem us. Yet there have been too many times we said nothing. Today let us decide to say something, to applaud the God who creates, the Jesus who saves, and the Holy Spirit who still moves everywhere sharing the good news with us! At the end of our Sunday school time that day we applauded, and somewhere God smiled that we learned our lesson. “Let the redeemed of the LORD say so!”
With hope and joy,
Garrett
Thursday, March 11, 2010
Someone to Trust
“Know therefore that the LORD your God is God; he is the faithful God, keeping his covenant of love to a thousand generations of those who love him and keep his commands.” – Deuteronomy 7:9 (NIV)
Do you know your God as a faithful God? How has God kept his covenant of love in your life? How have you kept God’s commands? When have you called upon God in your time of need? What happened?
While Melinda and I lived in the San Francisco Bay Area, one day Melinda called me when she was in San Francisco working. She had just gotten back to her car and discovered that it had been broken into. The thief had stolen her stereo, and CDs, and whatever else he could get his hands onto quickly. It was the middle of the day and on a busy street with people walking by the whole time. Either no one noticed, or no one cared.
She called the police and she was told that they could not do anything. “Your stuff is gone and we don’t have any resources to devote to that kind of thing,” she was told. It was discouraging, but we accepted such things as the way they were.
When we moved to Albany it wasn’t four days before my car was broken into. I blamed myself because I apparently had forgotten to lock the door. Everything had been taken. We didn’t call the police because we thought nothing would happen, but people kept telling us to call the police so we did. And wouldn’t you know it, an officer showed up, finger printed the car, took a report, and a couple of days later the guy was caught and everything was returned.
The moral of the story is just because some people we trust fail us, doesn’t mean everyone will fail us.
A lot of people don’t have many reasons to trust anyone. Many have experienced the heartbreak of watching parents abandon them in various ways, friends not come through on promises, government officials demonstrate more concern about keeping power than doing what is right, and countless other such things, and then decided that they couldn’t trust anyone. But we have a faithful God! A God who keeps his covenant of love! We have all heard testimonies from people who know that God has been their help. It may be hard to take that leap of faith when everyone else has seemed to fail us, but know this, God does not fail those he loves and God loves you!
With hope and joy,
Garrett
Do you know your God as a faithful God? How has God kept his covenant of love in your life? How have you kept God’s commands? When have you called upon God in your time of need? What happened?
While Melinda and I lived in the San Francisco Bay Area, one day Melinda called me when she was in San Francisco working. She had just gotten back to her car and discovered that it had been broken into. The thief had stolen her stereo, and CDs, and whatever else he could get his hands onto quickly. It was the middle of the day and on a busy street with people walking by the whole time. Either no one noticed, or no one cared.
She called the police and she was told that they could not do anything. “Your stuff is gone and we don’t have any resources to devote to that kind of thing,” she was told. It was discouraging, but we accepted such things as the way they were.
When we moved to Albany it wasn’t four days before my car was broken into. I blamed myself because I apparently had forgotten to lock the door. Everything had been taken. We didn’t call the police because we thought nothing would happen, but people kept telling us to call the police so we did. And wouldn’t you know it, an officer showed up, finger printed the car, took a report, and a couple of days later the guy was caught and everything was returned.
The moral of the story is just because some people we trust fail us, doesn’t mean everyone will fail us.
A lot of people don’t have many reasons to trust anyone. Many have experienced the heartbreak of watching parents abandon them in various ways, friends not come through on promises, government officials demonstrate more concern about keeping power than doing what is right, and countless other such things, and then decided that they couldn’t trust anyone. But we have a faithful God! A God who keeps his covenant of love! We have all heard testimonies from people who know that God has been their help. It may be hard to take that leap of faith when everyone else has seemed to fail us, but know this, God does not fail those he loves and God loves you!
With hope and joy,
Garrett
Wednesday, March 3, 2010
Slowing Down
“And why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these.”– Matthew 6:28-29 (NRSV)
What do you worry about? How has the kept you from noticing others things? What all do you think Jesus meant when he said, “Consider the lilies of the field?” Have you ever gone outside and considered a flower? What was it like?
When I was in my church’s youth group in high school, we use to go on an annual backpacking trip in the Sierra Nevada Mountains of California. One year my dad accompanied the group as an advisor. He was a good addition because he knows a lot about backpacking and staying safe in the wilderness.
All of us boys in the group always tried to make a competition out of the trip, trying to see who could get to the next campsite the fastest. While I was almost never the fasted, I tried to go as fast I could. My head would be down watching the trail in front of me. One foot plodding down in front of the other, step-by-step, huffing and puffing with the full weight of all the possessions I would require for a week bearing down upon me. It was work but by golly we got there quick, and we were always so proud of ourselves.
One day we got to the camp much quicker than my father who appeared a couple of hours after we arrived. Like any pride-filled boys we gave him all sorts of grief for taking so long. “Why were you so slow old man?” “What you can’t keep up with us athletic guys?” “If you took much more time we’d have to be getting ready to go again!”
My dad took it all with a smile and then replied, “I could have got here when you guys got here, but then I would not have seen the beautiful waterfalls, or the amazing fields of flowers, or have stopped to watch the water flow in that stream we passed, or took pictures of the tree line where it looks like God put his hand down and said, ‘Trees stop growing.’ I am sorry you guys missed all of that.”
Like I said, he knows a lot about backpacking, and I will never make the same mistake again.
A lot of times our priorities are all messed up. We are more concerned about keeping up with the Joneses, and what we are wearing, and getting to some place faster than everyone else so that we can be considered successful, all the while failing to consider the lilies of the field. Maybe we are stressed out these days because we believe we have so little time to notice how beautiful the world is. Let’s slow down and realize that life is a journey and not a destination. The journey is full of wonder, beauty, and joy we might miss if we keep looking at some destination we may never reach.
With hope and joy,
Garrett
What do you worry about? How has the kept you from noticing others things? What all do you think Jesus meant when he said, “Consider the lilies of the field?” Have you ever gone outside and considered a flower? What was it like?
When I was in my church’s youth group in high school, we use to go on an annual backpacking trip in the Sierra Nevada Mountains of California. One year my dad accompanied the group as an advisor. He was a good addition because he knows a lot about backpacking and staying safe in the wilderness.
All of us boys in the group always tried to make a competition out of the trip, trying to see who could get to the next campsite the fastest. While I was almost never the fasted, I tried to go as fast I could. My head would be down watching the trail in front of me. One foot plodding down in front of the other, step-by-step, huffing and puffing with the full weight of all the possessions I would require for a week bearing down upon me. It was work but by golly we got there quick, and we were always so proud of ourselves.
One day we got to the camp much quicker than my father who appeared a couple of hours after we arrived. Like any pride-filled boys we gave him all sorts of grief for taking so long. “Why were you so slow old man?” “What you can’t keep up with us athletic guys?” “If you took much more time we’d have to be getting ready to go again!”
My dad took it all with a smile and then replied, “I could have got here when you guys got here, but then I would not have seen the beautiful waterfalls, or the amazing fields of flowers, or have stopped to watch the water flow in that stream we passed, or took pictures of the tree line where it looks like God put his hand down and said, ‘Trees stop growing.’ I am sorry you guys missed all of that.”
Like I said, he knows a lot about backpacking, and I will never make the same mistake again.
A lot of times our priorities are all messed up. We are more concerned about keeping up with the Joneses, and what we are wearing, and getting to some place faster than everyone else so that we can be considered successful, all the while failing to consider the lilies of the field. Maybe we are stressed out these days because we believe we have so little time to notice how beautiful the world is. Let’s slow down and realize that life is a journey and not a destination. The journey is full of wonder, beauty, and joy we might miss if we keep looking at some destination we may never reach.
With hope and joy,
Garrett
Minister's Minute from March Issue of the Journal of Hope and Joy
Sometimes people come up to me and have a great idea. I know it is great because they tell me, “Hey, this idea is great!” And often it is a great idea. We all have great ideas at some point. Perhaps they come to us in the darkness of the night. Our hearts and minds are unable to be still because deep within us something is stirring, a great idea begging to be found out, itching to be discovered, hoping to be grasped. Other times they come to us unexpectedly, out of the blue. Maybe while driving down a lonesome highway, and suddenly there it is, a great idea. Or while out strolling around a lake, or down some street, or anywhere else really, and then like a flash of lightning we are overtaken with some great idea.
I love it when people come up to me with their great ideas. “Pastor,” one may say, “I have a great idea!”
“Really? What is it?” And then the great idea is explained to me. Everyone’s great ideas ooze with love and promise, overflow with hope and joy. I have heard great ideas discussed as people explain how our church could become greater yet should we begin doing… well, any number of things. Each person who has come to me with a great idea has been excited to share it with me, and I have been excited to hear what God has put on each of his or her hearts.
I always say the same thing to people who come to me with great ideas, “Make it happen!” It is then I discover something. There are two kinds of people with great ideas. Those who only want to share them, and those who want to make them become a reality. I do not know how many great ideas have died after they left someone’s mouth, but it is always a shame to hear words of promise come crashing onto the floor. It saddens me each time I say, “Make it happen!” and a look of concern goes over someone’s face. We are incredible creatures who can say so much with our faces, using no words at all. I have seen faces say to me, “Wait, I didn’t mean me.” Or, “No I don’t have the time for that, I meant that you should do that.” Or, “I don’t even know where to start, so I won’t.” Or faces that only say, “I am afraid.”
However, should God put onto your heart a great idea never let it go! It is yours, it is your calling, your vocation, your baby that you must nurture and allow to grow into adulthood. The only one who will stand in the way of your great idea becoming a reality is you. Remember that last time you had a great idea? Do you recall the joy that surged through your being as you considered the implications of seeing your great idea realized? That was none other than the Holy Spirit moving within you, letting you share in the joy of God while telling you that you have a reason to be here at this point in time.
Have you let a good idea fall to the wayside? Have you considered the work too hard? Have you let the flame of potential burnout within? I do not care what reasons we each possess that provide us the explanations for why we do not carry forth our great ideas. Reasons for inaction are as worthless as ideas that never bear fruit.
The moment we were created in the heart of God, choirs of angels burst forth songs of praise to the glory of God, for each of us was created with all of God’s glory pouring forth. We are fearfully and wonderfully made! We are miracles of grace and love. There are not enough words in all languages of humankind to explain the glory of our creation, and depth of God’s love for us. We cannot imagine our potential when the Spirit of God moves within us. The doubt we have in ourselves is evil at work in the world, telling us we are much less than we are.
If you have a great idea, make it happen! You have no idea the power of the flame that grows within you, for it is the power of God at work in the world. You have simply been chosen as the vessel for God’s work to be done. Rejoice in the opportunity and do not let it pass. You never know, your idea may change the world through the power of the Gospel of Jesus the Christ! Make it happen!
Riding the Wave of the Holy Spirit,
Garrett
I love it when people come up to me with their great ideas. “Pastor,” one may say, “I have a great idea!”
“Really? What is it?” And then the great idea is explained to me. Everyone’s great ideas ooze with love and promise, overflow with hope and joy. I have heard great ideas discussed as people explain how our church could become greater yet should we begin doing… well, any number of things. Each person who has come to me with a great idea has been excited to share it with me, and I have been excited to hear what God has put on each of his or her hearts.
I always say the same thing to people who come to me with great ideas, “Make it happen!” It is then I discover something. There are two kinds of people with great ideas. Those who only want to share them, and those who want to make them become a reality. I do not know how many great ideas have died after they left someone’s mouth, but it is always a shame to hear words of promise come crashing onto the floor. It saddens me each time I say, “Make it happen!” and a look of concern goes over someone’s face. We are incredible creatures who can say so much with our faces, using no words at all. I have seen faces say to me, “Wait, I didn’t mean me.” Or, “No I don’t have the time for that, I meant that you should do that.” Or, “I don’t even know where to start, so I won’t.” Or faces that only say, “I am afraid.”
However, should God put onto your heart a great idea never let it go! It is yours, it is your calling, your vocation, your baby that you must nurture and allow to grow into adulthood. The only one who will stand in the way of your great idea becoming a reality is you. Remember that last time you had a great idea? Do you recall the joy that surged through your being as you considered the implications of seeing your great idea realized? That was none other than the Holy Spirit moving within you, letting you share in the joy of God while telling you that you have a reason to be here at this point in time.
Have you let a good idea fall to the wayside? Have you considered the work too hard? Have you let the flame of potential burnout within? I do not care what reasons we each possess that provide us the explanations for why we do not carry forth our great ideas. Reasons for inaction are as worthless as ideas that never bear fruit.
The moment we were created in the heart of God, choirs of angels burst forth songs of praise to the glory of God, for each of us was created with all of God’s glory pouring forth. We are fearfully and wonderfully made! We are miracles of grace and love. There are not enough words in all languages of humankind to explain the glory of our creation, and depth of God’s love for us. We cannot imagine our potential when the Spirit of God moves within us. The doubt we have in ourselves is evil at work in the world, telling us we are much less than we are.
If you have a great idea, make it happen! You have no idea the power of the flame that grows within you, for it is the power of God at work in the world. You have simply been chosen as the vessel for God’s work to be done. Rejoice in the opportunity and do not let it pass. You never know, your idea may change the world through the power of the Gospel of Jesus the Christ! Make it happen!
Riding the Wave of the Holy Spirit,
Garrett
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