Where is my focus?

Looking at the story of Moses' interaction with Pharoah this week, I was again amazed at the guts of both of them. Pharoah had guts to continue to defy God. Moses had incredible guts to face not only the manipulation and scorn of Pharoah, but also the wildly vacillating emotions of the Jews.

How did Moses do this? How did he stay focused on what God called him to do.

I think there are two reasons.

The first has something to do with his burning bush experience. That visit and conversation with God was so impressed on his mind, that in the days ahead, when he was tempted to doubt, he could look back and KNOW the God he served. It allowed him to maintain his focus on God's voice, and not be distracted by the voices around him.

I believe the second was he emotional endurance, as Mark Batterson talked about in his blog. Here are two quotes:

• "You have to manage the fear and the discouragement and the anxiety. If you can't, you won't make it. But if you allow the challenging situations to build emotional endurance, you'll be prepared for even bigger challenges."

• "One of the things that has helped me deal with criticism and stress is my perspective. I don't particularly like criticism or stress, but I see it as building emotional endurance. And if I'm going to do bigger and better things for God, then I'm going to need more emotional endurance."

Emotional endurance is not emotional ignorance. I used to ignore emotions and pretend they didn't exist. That may temporarily appear like my emotions are under control. But they are only being stuffed and will eventually explode.

God had taken Moses through a series of experiences to build his trust and confidence in God. He had emotional endurance, so that he could see past the immediate voices of doubt and maintain his confidence in "I AM".

In the New Testament, it tells us to "fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith". This is another member of the trinity, who Moses called "I AM".

God allows stress and difficulty in our lives to build emotional endurance, so that our confidence can be in him.

I recently read a great book by Craig Groeschel called IT: How churches and leaders can get it and keep it. The premise is based on an observation that some leaders and some churches are prevailing, and others aren’t. And when you analyze all the factors, it is not obvious why. When you are with a leader with IT, you know it. When you attend a church that has IT, you know it. (You’ll have to read the book to find out what IT is.)

Then this week, Paul had us listen to a talk given by Craig at Catalyst. He talked about three prayers to pray when you realize that you don’t have IT but you want to get IT back.

GOD, RUIN ME!

GOD, HEAL ME!

GOD, STRETCH ME!


The day after hearing Craig’s talk, I was reading from Genesis 32 about Jacob and his prayer to God when he was getting ready to meet his estranged brother, Esau.

In verse 5, he says “you told me...”. It is obvious that he knew God had CALLED him.

In verse 10, he says “I am not worthy...”. God had taken him through a process of RUINing him.

In verse 11, he prays “Please rescue me...” He turned to the God would need to HEAL him.

In verse 11, he says “I am afraid…” He knew that God was STRETCHing him.

Then in verse 12, he reinforces he restates his TRUST in God. “But you promised…”

I have seen this process at work in my life in the past year. I have gone through a process of being RUINed by God—of realizing that in my own strength, I am not worthy-I am nothing. I am experiencing the balm of His HEALing grace, and now am realizing that God wants to STRETCH me to be used by Him in ways I never imagined. And I am daily surrendering to TRUST His promises.

So, I believe this pattern is followed in each of our lives (the first and last steps are my addition)..

CALL
RUIN
HEAL
STRETCH
TRUST

We can abort the process by refusing to submit to God’s CALL, God’s process of RUIN, HEALing, and STRETCHing. But if we surrender, the end result will be to TRUST in a God who will do “exceedingly abundantly beyond anything we can ask or think.”

Memorial Service

Tomorrow I get the privilege of sharing at a memorial service for a 20 year old who was tragically killed in a car accident last week. His adoptive sister attends at RiverTown.

It is one of those interesting families, and people who would not normally be together have been brought together by this tragic event. Also, people who would not normally sit around and talk with a minister seem to hang on every word I say.

One of the coolest things was to hear the family member who goes to RCC "brag" on her church to the rest of the family. Her description of RiverTown as "a church different than any other" and music that sounds like heavy metal with a great message brought expressions of surprise from the family. To my knowledge, no one else in the family goes to church at all. This lady was definitely seizing on this tragic situation to get her family to experience God's love and truth through the body of Christ that she is a part of.

It reminded me of when I first met her. She had brought her boyfriend to drop him off for community service. That continued weekly, and our brief interaction over those months gradually seemed to soften both of their hearts toward God and church.

In talking to the family this week, I am again reminded of the brevity of life. Our days on this earth are numbered, and as Rick Warren says, "Life is preparation for eternity." And then the question occurred to me, "What did I do today that prepared me and others for eternity?" But then the better question is:

What does God have in store for me tomorrow so that I can prepare for eternity?

Sobering, and thrilling thought. I can lay my head down tonight expectantly.

New Year

I took a few weeks off from blogging, mainly because we traveled for 10 days to see family. We spent a few days visiting Lisa's family, and enjoyed spending time with them and even got to see snow. For 4 days, I had no internet, cell phone, or TV. Talk about disconnected--I started to have withdrawals! But then I realized the relaxation that can come from not worrying about the phone ringing, my inbox filling up, or missing the latest show. Lisa's family loves to play table games, and being in a cabin surrounded by mountains and snow, with a fire in the fireplace, plenty of food, a book to read, and games to play--it was really relaxing.

Then we traveled to NC to join my parents and siblings at a cabin there. Again no internet. I did have cell phone, but kept it off much of the time. I got to reconnect with my 3 brothers and meet my 3 week old niece.

In those ten days, I was again reminded of the impact of a family in shaping our beliefs. Mine and Lisa's famlies are totally different. Each has strengths and weaknesses and, to a large degree, we are products of our family systems.

In the past year, I have come to understand in a new way how my family system has shaped who I am today. I have had to be brutally honest in identifying lies that I believe that were passed down to me. I have learned how to reframe those lies with the truth from my Father God. As I have become honest, it has given me a new appreciation of my family. In future blogs, I hope to share more about this.

Question: Am I shaped more by the family system of my earthly father; or am I shaped more by the family system of Father God?

One of my goals for 2009 is that when people see me, they will recognize that I have been with Jesus. Luke 4 :13.