Playing it Unsafe

If everyone gets what you do and understands what you are about, you might be playing it too safe.  Sometimes that fact that people don't really get you, or understand what you are about, may be a sign that you are doing exactly the right thing.  I believe that sometimes God calls us into uncharted territory. He leads us to unexpected places. Places we've never been before. Places in life that, at times, we ourselves can hardly understand, let alone explain to others. (Think, Abraham). And I'm not just talking about physical places.

When I was the lead pastor of our church for a few years, I'm pretty sure people didn't always get that.    "What are you doing these days?", I would be asked.

"I'm the Lead Pastor of a church." I would say.

Blank stare in response.  Then, "Nice weather we're having, huh?"

It's amusing to me now. It wasn't so much then.

Here's some examples of people I know that are willing to risk being misunderstood:

• A 17 year old High School girl is giving up excelling in sports and doing all of the usual teenage stuff to start an organization to bless girls in foster care.
• A family with young children moves to another country to provide homes for orphans of AIDS.
• A man who has been a pastor for many years gives up a secure ministry position out of a sense of God's leading.
• An empty nest couple sells their home and possessions and follows a sense of call to build relationships with young artists in the LA area.

I'm quite certain each of these people know what it's like for others to not fully get them or understand what they are about.  But that's alright.

I'm only sharing this to encourage you that sometimes being misunderstood goes with the territory of radical obedience to God.  Are you willing to risk it?

Resistance, Part 2

For quite a long time I have believed that women can use their gifts of leadership and teaching in whatever capacity God calls them to in the church.  I realize we don't all see eye to eye on that and I respect the position of others who feel differently as long as it comes from an honest examination of Scriptures. However, when I was invited to step into the lead pastor role at the church we belonged to, I recall how immediate the  resistance was that came rushing to the surface of my mind from way down deep inside of me somewhere.  It sounded like this: "Can God do that? Call me, a woman, to lead a church?  Is that really allowed?  I can't possibly say 'yes'...what will people think of me?"

That's called a crisis of belief!  What I had said I believed was suddenly being challenged by the resistance from within that came, in part, to ways that I had been conditioned by my upbringing, previous experiences and the messages that I had internalized more than I realized that said, "Women can't do that."

Sometimes the resistance we feel is a clue that there is more work to be done in terms of owning our beliefs, convictions, and sense of call. More work to be done recognizing the subtle and not so subtle ways we've been conditioned to think that then influence our decisions in life more than we realize.  I believe this matters if we are to live out, the best we can, who God has made us to be and what God has for us to do.

The resistance I have had to work through won't look like the resistance you face.  But my hope is that we can be a people who recognize the resistance, name it for what it is, face it and overcome it that we may live lives that are true to who God made us to be.

Detours

The other day we were going out of town for the day, and came to a sign along the highway that said "road closed ahead".  I never believe those signs. Sometimes signs like that have been posted and I have still managed to get through the roadblock.  So, we drove around the roadblock hoping that the sign really didn't mean what it said, only to find that indeed the road was closed.  Literally, a whole bridge was out. No way around that one.  We turned around and made our way back to the designated detour route which took us on narrow, bumpy, country roads.  Eventually we made it back to the highway. I really don't like detours. They are inconvenient, and just plain annoying.

Life has a way of imposing its own roadblocks.  There's been times in my life when I'm going along...everything is going fine and good... just like I've planned...got a good job...making money... relationships are good....I'm on track with my sense of call and purpose... and.then... BAM.  Roadblock.

In some ways, our life seems to be on a bit of a detour right now.  Seems like a season during which God is saying, "lay it all down, just wait, trust me to lead you, I know were you're going even if you don't see clearly right now."

That can be hard.

So here's what I'm learning about the detour times of life:

• My nature is to strongly dislike roadblocks and detours and to do everything possible to get around them.  I don't like things that mess with my plans and sense of where I'm going. Yet,
• Roadblocks are an opportunity to meet God and experience God in a profound way, in ways that I might not have otherwise
• Roadblocks are an opportunity to redeem the time and find meaning and joy in different and new ways.
• Maybe the roadblock isn't even about me so much as it is about someone else and what God is doing in them.
• A roadblock doesn't have to change my life mission... I am still to be about loving God and loving others.  Those things do not change during a detour.
• A roadblock can be for our own protection, keeping us from a painful or devastating situation.

We all experience roadblocks and what feels like a detour.  Maybe rather than fighting and resisting them, we learn to embrace them and ask, "What is it that God wants to do in me and through me during this time?" And learn to see life's detours as the gifts that they can be. And, for me, to see the detour not as a side or alternative path, but to embrace it as the best and the right path.

"Trust in the Lord with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding.  Seek his will in all you do, and he will direct your paths."  Proverbs 3:5-6

Navigating Change

I think that by nature, humans tend towards that which is familiar whether we fully realize it or not.  That's not all bad, except when it comes to making necessary or significant life changes.  The familiar can be the very thing that holds us back if we allow it to.

I think a lot about this because I'm always interested in change dynamics, but also because we ourselves have been in a season of change and transition.

One of my favorite passages in scripture comes from Genesis 13:17.  The story is that of the Isrealites leaving Egypt, their long term place of captivity and oppression, in destination for a better life and place that God had for them so that his purposes could be more fully lived out in and through them.

"It so happened that after Pharaoh released the people, God didn't lead them by the road through the land of the Philistines, which was the shortest route, for God thought, "If the people encounter war, they'll change their minds and go back to Egypt."

So here they are:  the Isrealites have just been freed from Egypt, the very thing they've longed for and desired  and yet God sees that even though this is the very thing they've cried out for for years, their natural tendency, especially faced with difficulty,  would be to turn right back to where they began even though that's not what they really would want.  God intervenes and leads them on a path, while not the shortest and most direct, but a path that would enable them to walk into the promises that God had set before them. God enabled and empowered them to come into their destiny.

This encourages me.  As much as I might like to think I'm not bound to the familiar, I do believe there is an aspect of human nature that gravitates towards familiarity especially when trying to navigate through change. Change can be difficult.  Yet, when God calls us out and moves us out, we have to be able to become free from that which we've  known to move more fully into our destiny.  Fortunately, we serve a God who is bigger than our human tendencies and if we listen and follow, he will lead us along the right path- maybe not the shortest- that will eventually bring us into all that He has for us.