Holiday Reflections

I love Christmas Eve. For me, that’s when all the busyness stops and I have to reflect and enjoy.
After coming home from Christmas Eve services (I actually went to two very different churches), I put on the Christmas lights, lit candles all over the house, poured a glass of wine and gathered all my gifts from other people. As I opened (or in some cases, reopened) each one, I spent time thinking about that person or people and thanking God for them. I thought about all the groups of people they represent in my life. I also thought about all the cards and emails and text messages wishing me a Merry Christmas. I savored each relationship as I thought about it. It actually took me a long time to get through all the gifts and the glass of wine!

God has blessed me with so many amazing people in my life. I am thankful for each one. I’m thankful for where we intersect in the Kingdom.

God’s blessings on you. May this upcoming year be a season of Peace and Rest and Grace!

Thanks!giving

Tis the season to be Thankful!

For some odd reason I was thinking about last year. I’m usually present-future, focused on where we’re going, what God has spoken, etc. etc. But something caused me to think about how much my life with God has changed since last year. To be honest, I was stunned. There are some big things that happened, to be sure. But just overall, where I am now compared to where I was a year ago, six months ago, at the end of summer is amazing.

When is the last time you stopped to look at the before and after pictures? Not of your circumstances, those are fleeting. How much has your identity in Christ grown? How much has your understanding or comfort level with that identity grown? What aspects of God do you know more intimately than you knew a year ago? How have you responded to challenges in new ways?

I’ll give you a concrete example of the last point. After 13 years of teaching college in the traditional way, I’m now developing online courses. At first I was panicked, because the classroom strategies weren’t going to fit in the box very well. But then suddenly (sounds like the Holy Spirit showed up, eh?) I started thinking about how we always run out of time with the traditional lecture method and all the wonderful internet resources that would augment students’ learning experience. And now I’m all excited about new strategies for teaching and learning.

I’m doing something similar with life as a whole. I’m asking, “What doesn’t fit in the box very well and what could you do if you looked at it from a different framework?” Honestly, I don’t have all the answers yet. But the questions are on the table and Holy Spirit has a way of dropping off answers in interesting ways.

I hope you have some time as we enter the holidays to think about how different you have become. If you have even five minutes more than that, I’d love to hear from you.

Blessings,
Lori

Meetings Where God Shows Up

I once heard a CD from a conference in which the speaker was saying that the reason people go to conferences is because something is missing in their regular “church” gatherings. So they go to conferences to get what’s missing. To illustrate his point, he asked how many people had been in 10 meetings in the past year where God showed up. Not a single hand showed.

Ironically I remember thinking, “God shows up every Saturday night where we worship.” Since then I’ve connected with a couple of other small groups where He’s a regular attender. Sometimes we even end up at His house. And I have no problem finding him at my house.

I think the speaker’s point is well taken. From my own experience, I’ve been less inclined to run around from conference to conference since I know God is going to show up in my own living room or our small local corporate gatherings. I know of other folks who report the same thing. Maybe, just maybe, God doesn’t need to wait for a gathering to reach a critical mass of 800 people before He can show up. Maybe 2 or 3 (including Himself) gathered in His name…

New wineskins – the Net

For a long time we’ve been hearing about new wineskins. I knew they were coming, but I didn’t know what they looked like. I finally discovered that the “big C” Church was moving into a new season with a new structure. It was not just a matter of having a new style within the old structure of how we do church. What I’m seeing is a network of people connected on lots of different layers. As I talk to people all over town, I’m finding that they have had the same vision. It goes beyond congregational or local church walls, beyond denominations, beyond spiritual gifts or styles. For every different aspect of how God has wired you, there is a network that you are part of.

Our physical brains are designed with these patterns of networks. Given that we are the Body of Christ, it would totally make sense that our spiritual Body is designed the same way. It’s much more complex than just thinking of oneself as the toe or the ear. Each of us is a living, vibrating cell in the network of the living Christ.

It’s important to belong to a group of believers. But passive belonging by showing up at a building once or twice a week is not going to cut it any more. Active belonging in multiple groups, whether they are at work or the coffee shop or a functional small group, is increasing. Quite frequently I’ve heard people say that these networks are more like “church” than church. Hmm, what a concept.

So I would challenge you to expand your horizons. Where is God showing up in your life through your networks? Yesterday I went to have lunch with a friend and ended up meeting a new person that was really interested in things I’m interested in. I wasn’t “doing ministry.” I was just being in relationship and it bore fruit in my life and in the Kingdom. Maybe we could use some more of that.

Love to hear more of your stories.
Lori