My “Spiritual Day” and Thoughts on the Sabbath

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah…

Today is my monthly “personal spiritual development day”. This is a policy that was implemented by our bosses, the Globalscope Steering Committee, a year or so ago, and it is one of the best things they have ever done for us. They know that we tend to burn the candle at both ends, and so one week day (Mon.-Fri.) per month, each member of our staff is required to dedicate an entire day to, as we like to say, “filling his/her tank”. The spiritual/emotional tank, that is. On these days we are not allowed to work, we are instructed only to do things that refresh us and help us to rest and reconnect with God and with ourselves. And we can do anything we want if it helps to accomplish that goal. Sleep all day, go to the mall, read, skydive … whatever floats your spiritual boat. Overall our team has taken this seriously and done a pretty good job of actually carrying out this assignment, staggering the days so that El Pozo never suffers. I admit that we’ve only done a fair job of sharing with each other how we have been spending these days and what we’ve learned; I hope we can improve in that area.

These days have come to be known as our “spiritual days”, which I don’t like because it sounds like every other day is somehow not spiritual – but I know what people mean and until I can come up with another good, short way to refer to these days I won’t complain. Anyway, today is my “spiritual day” for February, and boy did I need it. Things have been crazy around here and I’m pretty tired. So without further ado here is a little bit about my day, followed by some more general thoughts on the concept of Sabbath…

My day started the way I wish every day could start – without an alarm clock. These days Elsa Lynne is sleeping through the night for the most part, or if she wakes up it’s only once, and her mama takes care of her when she does. (Seeing as how breast feeding continues, rendering me fairly useless, Erin graciously lets me sleep on through.) Today I awoke to baby noises as usual, but it was nice to know that I could return to bed soon if I so desired without the impending beep beep beep hanging over me. Today I thought I would sleep really late, but I actually woke up quite refreshed and went ahead and climbed out of bed around … well I don’t remember what time it was because for once I didn’t look at the clock!

After some quality family time snuggling and laughing and catching the end of the most recent episode of LOST (We fell asleep during the show last night…), I showered and headed out the door on foot toward one of my favorite breakfast spots. Most days lately on my walk to work I prefer to just think and pray and listen to the street sounds, but today I was feeling the music. So I popped on my headphones and headed out. My mp3 player is filled with favorite songs of all types and always on “shuffle”, and before hitting play I asked God to start me off with some really good stuff this morning. He didn’t disappoint. The first song to come up was “Original of the Species” by U2, about which I have written before. Though she doesn’t know it, I consider this to be “our song” for Elsita and me. It was written by U2 for their own daughters and it made me get all emotional once again this morning. Song #2 was “Everything Glorious” by David Crowder, another all-time favorite of mine that brings the tears. I listened to those words as I looked up at a snow-capped volcano, walked next to a campus full of students who need Jesus, and reflected on some trials and temptations I’m currently facing. It reminded me that God is good and in control and framed my day for me nicely.

Upon arriving at my favorite local restaurant (Flavor), I ordered the waffles with compote of “red fruits” and “nougatine” of pecan. Whoa baby. And as with every meal at Flavor I sipped alternately on very good coffee and fresh-squeezed orange juice. While there I read my daily devo (which doesn’t always happen), prepped for my small group later tonight (technically working – oops), and, inspired by my wife, read through part of Ephesians. Erin has been having all of her girls read this great letter because it so powerfully communicates our identity as beloved, treasured children of God. I figured it couldn’t hurt for me to hear that again today, either. At the end of the meal I even made the clutch move of purchasing Erin’s favorite chocolate-filled pastry to go. Booyah! I’m usually the husband who remembers things like this five to thirty minutes too late. Not today, oh yeah!

After a leisurely breakfast, I strolled one block away to our friend Elsa’s (yes, the same one) salon / hair cut place. One of my favorite things in the world is getting my hair cut, and I was way overdue. So for about an hour I had a nice combination of silence and conversation with Elsa while one of her employees cut my hair. It was glorious, and the hair cut turned out nicely. And oh yeah all of this for the grand total of 30 pesos! I gave 50 and still felt like I was stealing from them.

After the haircut was a nice 30-minute walk back home, complete with sunshine, more music, and some smiles and waves from several neighborhood friends along the way. At home I played with Elsa (in the middle of the day!), helped Erin put her into her dress (It’s finally warm enough for her to wear dresses!), and then took my girls to the Casa Verde for Pozomida, the Thursday devotional lunch that is our most highly-attended event each week (averaging just under 100 people). It was weird to drop them off and drive away as I looked at so many of the students I love milling around. But I was planning to head to Starbucks to hide out and do some writing.

That plan quickly changed when I realized I was hungry and possibly more tired than I realized and had leftover hamburgers from last night at home. I love leftovers. And hamburgers. So I headed back home, heated up some beef with onion and cheese, and ate a tasty lunch while I caught the end of The Bourne Identity on TV followed by two episodes of Seinfeld on DVD. From there the beef in my stomach convinced me that I was indeed sleepy and I took a wonderful, guilt-free nap mid-day on a Thursday! Then I woke up and finally continued with the original, pre-lunch plan. Now I’m here at what I like to call “my tree house” – a Starbucks across town where I don’t run into anyone from our ministry and there is an upstairs area with comfy seating where I can kind of hide out and hunker down.

Overall, today I have done a below-average job of totally unplugging from work. I got on email early in the day and wrote to some friends – something I have been really wanting and needing to do – but this also kind of sucked me into the work world. That plus the fact that we leave for our beach retreat tomorrow, plus a couple of ministry situations, etc., etc., and I have been a little more connected than I’d have liked. So today has not exactly been a Sabbath. It has, however, been largely spiritually filling and refreshing. It has definitely been just … nice. And I almost certainly wouldn’t have done it if not given the permission/directive to do so by my superiors.

If you are worried about the irony of me posting this blog on this particular day, please know that writing/blogging is therapeutic for me, so I’m glad to get the chance to pound the keys a little bit, too. Later I plan to perhaps watch a DVD talk on leadership (I love that stuff), read some of the biography I’m working on (Buckminster Fuller’s Universe), and maybe take another walk. Dinner is still up in the air – maybe some tacos or Costco pizza? I also confess that I’ll be meeting with my Thursday night small group, which I couldn’t bring myself to cancel. But meeting and talking about the Bible with this particular group fills me more than it drains me, anyway, so it’s all good!

All of that said, here are my favorite thoughts summing up what I believe about the concept and practice of Sabbath:

* God has said pretty clearly “DO IT” all throughout Scripture, from the creation story to the ten commandments to the life of Jesus to the practices of the early Church. There’s really no debate as to the command or the meaning, only the semantics of when and how.

* It just makes so much sense to my heart and soul – and this is partly because it makes so little sense to the world around me and to my own nature. My tendency to control control control do do do go go go more more more spirals out of control without Something causes/calls/challenges me to just … STOP. REST. CEASE. (That’s what the word literally means, by the way – oh yeah biblical Hebrew class!!!)

* Something I read a couple of years ago (by Rob Bell – I think it was in Velvet Elvis) about Sabbath has really stuck with me and helped me to improve my Sabbath rest. Bell said something along the lines of “Sabbath is a day when I ACCOMPLISH NOTHING”. That simple thought, repeated like a swing thought on the golf course, has helped me tremendously. I say it to myself when I’m tempted to drift into work mode during periods of time I’ve dedicated to Sabbath rest, and it reminds me that IT’S OKAY not to constantly be “productive”. This may be easy for some of you; it is certainly not so for me. This thought has allowed me to spend several Saturdays and/or Sunday afternoons recently just enjoying my wife and daughter, resting my mind and body, and just … BEING. (Another helpful thought that I remember hearing from my friend Ben is that we are called human beings, not human doings, for a reason.) For example last Saturday pretty much all we did was watch several episodes of Friday Night Lights, take a walk, and … that was about it. And afterward I was actually okay with that. I am now much more capable than ever before of just sometimes allowing the to-do list to get longer and the work to pile up. Partly because I have come to understand that, especially in ministry, the work ALWAYS piles up! In ministry, there is not nor will there ever be an end in sight, and understanding this, in a strange way, frees me up to observe the Sabbath. I will never “finish” my ministry work, and this is actually the opposite of a defeatist attitude because it calls me to trust in God, the only One who has the power to accomplish the life changes I set out to see in those around me anyway!!!

* My mentor Dr. Jim Donovan once taught me to think of Sabbath in terms of something done daily, weekly, monthly, and annually. This has been tremendously helpful to me. He said we should, of course, have our weekly Sabbath – which, for him, is really Friday. On a typical Friday he plays golf with his buddies, relaxes, reads, and has a date with his wife. Sundays are one of his busiest work days and Saturdays, at least the second half, often include sermon preparation and last-minute things for Sunday and his share of the pastoral duties such as hospital visits, etc. So Friday works for him. It’s when he communes with God and gets his “tank filled”. But we should also consider a daily Sabbath. Donovan encouraged me to look for those Sabbath moments in each day when we just stop, cease, and rest in God. Maybe five minutes of silence while driving. Maybe during a morning devo time. Maybe creating space between arriving at home and hitting the pillow to sleep. Likewise there is the idea of a monthly two-day Sabbath. For most people this would look something like a weekend away. Or maybe a weekend actually spent at home! Donovan, unable to take Sundays off very often, tries about once a month to take both Friday and Saturday to get away or do “tank-filling” things alone or just with his wife. This means some thinking and planning ahead to make sure the sermon is done and elders are taking care of the flock. Finally, there’s the annual Sabbath, also known as “vacation”. Too many Christians, especially leaders, simply don’t take advantage of vacation and/or don’t use those days wisely! Often, driven by fine motives, we simply let our vacation days go unused in the name of our mission and calling. Other times we use 100% of our vacation days for travel and tourism and such without ever actually RESTING in the process. I’m ashamed to admit that I more often than not return from a “vacation” or a “retreat” more tired than when I left. We see anything else as either selfish or a waste of time, but these are lies that fly in the face of the Sabbath concept. To package it nicely for a sermon series, I once heard this concept described by some other friends as “Devote Daily”, “Withdraw Weekly”, “Meditate Monthly”, “Abscond Annually” (or something like that). It’s a great concept, and really helps me understand how to practice the Sabbath in my life.

* Above I mentioned that Donovan considers Friday his weekly Sabbath. I wonder if that doesn’t offend some folks… At the risk of further offending, I must say that on which particular day of the week one observes the Sabbath is just not that important to me. Maybe it should be – I’m still learning. Some say it should be Saturday. In Spanish, for example, it’s the same word – “Sábado”. So at times one has to explain which “Sábado” to which he/she is referring – the biblical concept or just the day of the week. Saturday is, of course, the Jewish Sabbath and always has been. Others say it should be Sunday. That the early followers of Christ distinguished themselves by changing the Sabbath from Saturday to Sunday. Others, though, argue that Sunday is the “Lord’s day” and actually different from the Sabbath. For example, anyone who works for a local church, or even volunteers to teach Sunday school or help out with parking or whatever, may find it very difficult to consider Sunday a day of rest. I had a friend growing up who was a Seventh-Day Adventist, and his parents kept their family very true to the doctrine of no strenuous activity from sundown Friday to sundown Saturday. This is, in a way, honorable and impressive. It was also very hard on my friend who, as the tallest and fastest kid in our class, was never able to play in any of the rec sports leagues. We are kind of out of touch but I’d love to hear what he says today about that experience. I don’t think he’s involved in the Church today, but I hope I’m wrong about that. When all is said and done, it seems to me that the important thing is to DO IT, whenever possible – with the understanding that it IS and SHOULD BE an interruption, an inconvenience to our lives. Maybe keeping your kids out of Saturday sports leagues isn’t the answer. Surely the answer also is not to fill Saturday with social activities, Sunday with church activities (Think about the word: ACTIVITIES…), and end up never resting at all. One thing is for sure; Sabbath was not intended to be something we schedule into our calendars at our convenience, defeating the purpose. It is something we are to schedule around.

I’ll end with some questions for you, Mr. or Mrs. Reader: Do you need to take a “personal spiritual development day” once a month? If so, how can you arrange for that? And how are you doing on honoring and observing the Sabbath in your life? Food for thought that I hope leads to rest for your body and soul, rest that I suspect you need just like I do, and probably more than you know.

Now if you will excuse me I have some more chai to sip and a few more hours of tank-filling to knock off of my to-do list … I mean … well you know what I mean.

Rant by Anonymous Prophet - "I'm Sick and Damn Tired..."

Below is a rant from a wise person who accepted my offer of an anonymous (and low-traffic, haha) forum in which to do some venting - but venting from which I believe we can all learn a thing or two. Enjoy. Comments welcome. And no, I will not reveal Anonymous Prophet's secret identity to you, so don't even bother asking.

---

I’m Sick and Damn Tired . . .

I don’t know about you – but I’m pretty damn tired of the hoops they (and sometimes me) say we have to jump through in order to get to Jesus. At every turn, it seems, Christians gather to stand in long lines in order to add one more level of protection to a Jesus who apparently mistakenly thought that “all power was His,” thus not in need of our protection. For a prophet who seemed to relish hanging out with people who didn’t know what the hoops were, much less have any interest in jumping through them, we apparently relish taming Him beyond recognition.

Let me tell you why I that is so true.

If you happen to be trying to living out your faith in a middle class, suburban neighborhood, or are trying to discover a faith to live out in such a neighborhood, it helps a whole lot if your voting record is littered with candidates whose names have (R) after them. It makes no difference that those names with (R) after them may be talking “family values” out of one side of their mouths and planning their next tryst out of the other – they are saying all the right “Christian stuff,” whatever that is at the moment, and voting for them is a fast track to Jesus in the suburbs.

But if you happen to be trying to live out your faith, or discover a faith to live out, in a more urban, ethnically diverse neighborhood, make sure that the litter is made up of names with (D) after them, not (R). But like their double-first cousin (R) friends in politics, these people find it easy to offer platitudes about hope and change, while marching to an agenda that is mostly about getting power and keeping power. Why is it wrong, unchristian if you please, for a middle-class suburbanite tolerate a politician who is unfaithful to his or her marriage, but at least is against abortion; but okay for the urban church go-er to tolerate a politician who is sensitive to urban issues, but is willing to allow the near genocide of a generation of black babies whose lives never make it out of the abortion clinics of urban medical centers?

I’m not suggesting that one hoop is to be preferred over the other. Not at all. I’m sick and damn tired of these kinds of hoops and it is high time the church that truly belongs to Jesus have the courage to stand up and say “No more.” Take down the hoops – it is about Jesus. Jesus, period.

Despite the fact that we gather together as believers around Jesus for worship – at least Matthew 18:20 would suggest that is why we gather – we sometimes miss the connection between who this Jesus is and why we gather around Him. Think about how odd it is that we gather to worship a Jesus who told at least one rich, young man to sell all he had, give it to the poor, and then follow Him; but in so much of modern evangelical Christianity, non-capitalists need not apply. Though He said some things that motivated Karl Marx to be a Marxist – and though his earliest followers seemed to take him seriously about those things – we have found a way to make capitalism a pre-requisite to finding Jesus.

And were that not bad enough, there is a whole movement among Christians these days – a movement born in American televangelism but now circling the globe at warp speed – that puts this same hoop on the other side of Jesus, but we put it there none-the-less. “Come to Jesus and get healthy and wealthy!” How in hell’s name can we get that kind of heretical theology out of a Jesus who said “foxes have holes, birds have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head”? (Luke 9:58) But we’ve allowed it to be another hoop that somehow, some way, you’ve got to jump through if you want to be tight with Jesus.

I’m sick and damn tired of the “stuff” we keep putting in the way of lost people bound only for hell and a saving relationship with Jesus. Somehow the church has to find courage to stand up and say “No more!”

I’m sick and damn tired of the fact that for so many white people, who stand on the roof top to proclaim that they aren’t racist at all, more than a few black people in a given place is a sure sign of “this is not a safe neighborhood.” “Lock your car doors.” And I’m equally sick and damn tired of the fact that unless we carefully count and work the percentages and get everything at least balanced, black people can’t be blessed by the circumstances. How could a white person say anything that would bless a black person?

I’m sick and damn tired that those same white people will sit with folded hands and condescending glares if the worship music is “too black,” or the preacher is “too wound up”; while those same black students will only offer encouragement to the music leaders and preachers if they are black. For God’s sake – aren’t we told that if we have been baptized into Christ, we are clothed with Christ, and therefore there is no longer distinctions characterized by ethnic identity, gender identity, or socio-economic identity. (Galatians 3:27,28) To make it even more offensive, both sides of this coin can get real smug very quickly when they perceive their own “rights” aren’t being respected. How nauseating can it get?

Think about it for a moment. Do I really have to make a call on the “Don’t ask/Don’t tell” issue in the United States military these days in order to be on Jesus’ side of things. Yet on both ends of the Christian theological spectrum – how you answer that question seems to have implications about whether or not you can get to know Jesus.

In one little city in the metro-Atlanta area right now, Christians seem to be making it abundantly clear that you can’t get to Jesus in a town that allows serving alcoholic beverages in restaurants on Sunday, the Lord’s Day. Honestly now. I mean the little town is in a county that permits such sales. It isn’t like this is some huge moral issue for the residents of that little town. It simply is a group of politically motivated Christians who somehow see whether or not a pagan restaurant owner can sell a cheap margarita to a non-church-going patron on Sunday afternoon. That will surely make the pagans want to jump through a hoop or two to discover this Jesus.

I honestly think that if Jesus were here in the flesh right now, he would probably try and arrange a Sunday lunch with the head-honcho of anti-Sunday drinking group in the restaurant where most of the hoop-making religious people were eating lunch. He would order water to drink, surely impressing His host, only to suddenly turn it in to the best glass of red wine ever served in Georgia. Or maybe if He ordered Mexican, a nice cold Corona, lime included!

For God’s sake, aren’t there enough “hoops” already without our having to make more of them?

I don’t dislike Tim Tebow, and in fact appreciate the fact that he seems to genuinely take faith in Christ as an important part of his identity as a human redeemed by the blood of Christ. I’m certainly not a rabid pro-abortionist who thinks that abortion is permissible before God at any point from conception to the birth of a healthy, normal baby. But if one more person tells me to pray for Tim and his mother and this Super Bowl commercial fiasco, I think I will have a stroke. I feel sorry for Tim, that no doubt unbeknownst to him, he was being suckered in by one of the most aggressive hoop builders of the hoop building class of Christians.

Does it really require that I have the right view of abortion in order for you to welcome me around the Table of our Lord for fellowship? Most people will quickly say “No,” but the truth is that most of the pagan world that is on the proverbial freight train to hell because they don’t know the Jesus who came to redeem us are convinced that it does. No wonder that the church in our age has less and less influence and is viewed more and more as an insignificant little gnat trying to sting the royal rump of the world.

At this very moment war is raging all over the world – and our own country is either responsible for or fully engaged in much of it. In many Christian circles, support of Israel is an essential hoop you have to jump through in order to know Jesus. If you don’t believe that, ask Jimmy Carter, who is among the few politicians – and Christians - with the courage to say that Israel’s unjust treatment of Palestinians at least contributes to the struggles in the Middle East. And it is those struggles that, one way or the other, seem to be at the heart of all the struggles around the world.

Why is it that the most strident voices in our culture about the issue of immigration, closed borders, and the like are from evangelical Christians who want those nasty Hispanics packed up on a bus, train, or plane, and sent back to wherever it is they came from. I don’t know who will dump our trash cans, mow our lawns, lay our sod, roof our houses, and do all the other “dirty jobs” that nearly everyone in our culture – white and black – see themselves as being too good to do – but by God they won’t be using up our emergency rooms for health care anymore.

Does it not strike you as a bit strange that we are worshipping a God who orchestrated what might very well be the world’s first mass immigration (we call it Exodus) yet we are so anti-immigrant that it is embarrassing for me to call myself an evangelical Christian. What if God is orchestrating another exodus, to bring people to a “land of milk and honey,” where He can be worshipped in freedom and in the Spirit? After all, we haven’t gone and told these people about Jesus, maybe God thinks He has to bring them here. How embarrassing as well that Catholics, who are often excoriated to the point of heretical by so many evangelicals, are doing much more to minister to immigrants than any evangelical group I know of.

While I’m at it, I might as well admit that I’m sick and damn tired of people who think saying yes to Jesus doesn’t have an impact upon everyone of these issues that are before us. But the impact is a result of a relationship with Jesus, not the basis for a relationship with Jesus.

I think Paul may have faced the same struggle in Corinth. Maybe you remember that there were these demands about how Paul marketed his preaching about Jesus. Some were saying “show me a miracle” while others were demanding “a message consistent with their worldview.” In other words, we’ve put up all these hoops – and “Paul, if you can create a Jesus who can jump through them successfully, we will believe.”

To such heretical, moronic, asinine thinking, Paul simply said, “We preach Christ, and Him crucified.” The issue certainly isn’t that there weren’t issues in Corinth to deal with. Read the rest of the epistle – it sounds like a modern day narrative about life in the church in the western world. But those issues aren’t the starting point. The starting point is Jesus – “we preach Christ and Him crucified.” Period. That’s it. That’s the message.

We don’t preach “stop having abortions and come to Christ.” We don’t preach “be sure to vote for the Democrat or the Republican and come to Christ.” We don’t preach “be a capitalist, make lots of money, come to Christ and give him your money.” No. We preach “Christ, and Him crucified.”

I’m sick and damn tired. But it isn’t because such narrow, shallow, sometimes heretical thinking about Jesus hurts my feelings. It isn’t because I want more people to have abortions, or more immigrants to use up our medical care, or more whatever. It is because most of the non-believing world in which you and I currently live, have turned a deaf ear to Jesus.

Not because they don’t like Jesus. They haven’t had the chance to get to know Jesus. But because you and I have put up so many hoops to jump through that they don’t have a snow ball’s chance in hell to ever get to know him!

For that, my friends, I am sick and damn tired.

Baby Update - 14 Feb. 2010

Happy Valentine's Day, everybody. Time for another baby update. As I type this Elsa is sitting next to me in her mommy's lap, left thumb in her mouth, smiling and jabbering away as she stares unblinkingly at me and grabs my attention with those big blue eyes. In fact, I just snapped this photo...

I have two Valentines this year, and I couldn't be more in love with the both of them.

Things are going well. The weather is finally warming up here in Puebla and the Spring semester at El Pozo is in full swing. We are very busy and a little tired but also happy and challenged and thankful to be a part of all of the great things God is doing down here in so many young lives.

Just finished up a great visit with the grandparents (Edwardses). Those two weeks flew by and it was so fun to watch them goofing off with and loving on their granddaughter.

Still no real words yet, but a couple of weeks ago she did say "mama" very clearly, and then a few days later she looked me straight in the eye and said "dada" - then ten seconds later she said it again! We're pretty sure she doesn't know what she's saying, but she sure does talk a lot, and we feel like real words are just around the corner.

Elsa's fuzzy hair is growing in steadily, but she still looks bald from ten feet away or more. Chewing on her toes is a new favorite hobby. At her last doctor's visit, three weeks ago, she weighed 7.2 kilos and measured 69 centimeters. Overall, she's healthy and happy and growing fast, and we're just trying to enjoy every moment.

Here are the latest photos.


Possibly my favorite photo so far. Love those eyes!


Tasty toes.


Tasty left thumb.


Tasty toes.


Fun with Anna and Mommy.


Swinging with Anna.


Fun with Anna.


Fun with Anna and Mommy.


Hanging out with Carlos.


By chance the three of us ended up wearing purple one day. Then Bego stopped by and she was wearing purple, too! Had to take a photo.


Baby mullet hanging in there. This is the swept left look.


Amazing quilt that Anna is making for Elsa.


Hanging with the grandparents in Mexico City.


After lunch at our favorite little French restaurant in Mexico City.


Blue for boys, pink for girls.


Snack time with Mommy at the Museo de Antropologia.


Snoozin' at the amazing breakfast buffet at the San Angel art market.


Good times outside of the Palacio de Bellas Artes.


Daddy is hilarious!


Slow rollin' in a Mexico City taxi - before...


Slow rollin' in a Mexico City taxi - shot...


First shoulder ride!


Woohoo!


The first of many minutes logged on Daddy's shoulders.


Grandma and the new jumper.


Only one foot could reach the ground, but that only lasted a few days! Now she's all-out jumping.


Mirror fun.


Mirror fun.


Mirror fun.


Brunch at Flavor, oh yeah.


With Grandpa and a cool old car.


Tummy time with Grandma.


YouTube videos with the grandparents.


YouTube videos with the grandparents.


Good times with the Edwardses.


Only the best for our little girl.

Also, last but not least, here are the first two photos of "the Bo Bo Babies" - my brother Britt and his wife Candace's two little buns in the oven:


January 14th.


January 29th.

Please keep all of these little ones in your prayers. And their parents, too. Thanks!