A Prayer

Our prayers today go out to all those in Hurricane Katrina's wake and path. May God provide you mercy, protection, and hope.

Lost Backpacks and Little Miracles

There are little miracles that happen all around us.

This past week coming back from vacation in Seattle, I had the sinking feeling when I got home that something was not right. Lo and behold, I realized unpacking that I had forgotten my backpack on the plane. Uggh. And it gets worse. I left it on the first plane of my two plane connection, so it was not in Milwaukee (double uggh.). Then I realized what was in my backpack -- my checkbook, my palm pilot, my ipod, my car/house keys, my prescription sunglasses, the recharger for my camera, the new Harry Potter book, and my favorite Bible. (triple uggh.). Combine that with the airplane having a "Northwest Airlines" logo on the side (whose machinists and airplane cleaners are presently on strike), and I was not hopeful. I spent that night praying for a miracle -- that some good person would turn it in and everything would be there, but my heart sank the next morning when the Northwest Air service agent could not find it and said she was "not hopeful" that I would get it back. I went ahead and filed a lost bag claim anyway and just for fun, asked where the plane went after Minneapolis. Boston. So I dialed NWA Boston baggage claim and left a message about my lost backpack.

I was distrought. My morning was a wash. What was I going to do without all my stuff? MY LIFE was in that backpack, the $$ and the hours it would take to rectify this stressed me out.

But after the panic, there was a convicting silence. For the next few hours, something stirred in me. I figured out that that backpack meant a lot to me -- that is, the stuff IN the backpack. My palm pilot, my ipod, my books, my sunglasses -- all creature comforts that I held on to very closely. These are things I knew I could never afford to go out and replace. If they were lost, they were lost for good. And although I could close my checking account and open a new one easily enough, I saw all the hours I would lose having to update my life with a new account -- auto bill payments, new pin numbers, new checks...Those hours too would be lost for good.

But then I got to thinking, why am I holding these so closely? What is my motivation? Could I live without them? Did I own them or did they own me?

And lo and behold, I came to have a renewed desire for God in those few hours, unlike I had had for a long time. Because without the other "stuff" of life owning me, it turned out there was more room for Him. I realized that being stripped of certain things is a holy event, a window for God to enter in through and brighten up my life.

And I was ok with losing my backpack.

Later that day, Ms. Kirkland, the NWA worker from Boston called and said they had found my backpack (it had stayed in the overhead compartment on the connector somehow!) with everything in it. She even fed-exed it back to me at NWA's expense. Now THAT is a miracle.

But the bigger miracle may be the tiny change of heart that happened in me in those few hours I lived without. And even though I have it back (and am listening to my ipod as we speak!), I hope I don't lose the lesson I found having lost it.

What about you? What do you hold on to closely? What have you lost that may have helped find you in the process?

"All moments are key moments, and life itself is grace." -- Frederick Buechner

j

Thanksgiving

Every night before bed, we sit down with our kids at prayer time and ask them what they were thankful for today. Brennan Manning says, "Thankfulness is the song of the saved sinner." If it's good enough for the kids, it's good enough for me...

Today I'm thankful for...

• the love of Christ and the fact that he knows me.
• the love of a wife who cares for me and wants the best for me.
• 3 beautiful daughters who are so much fun to watch grow up.
• a job and a calling that I still count a privilege.
• a house that didn't burn down while on vacation (!) and is a gift from God.
• good health.
• an extended family who we like to be with and loves us.
• breath.
• our friends the Townes who we saw on vacation with their new baby Ben.
• a computer and new dsl line that cruises!
• Northwest Airlines (yes, I said Northwest Air!) and especially the woman in the Boston luggage finder division who found my backpack on the airplane and is FedEx'ing it back to me!
• an inquisitive mind.
• a knowledge that the world is not as it should be, and a gut sense that I need to do something about it.
• worship that is coming up tonight.
• music.
• the morning.

Lord, I pray that during this day, I might be an aware thanker of you (or thankfully aware!). You are a great gift, and all of life is yours. May I treat it that way.

INFSHSAMEN (that is my shorthand for In the Name of the FATHER, SON, and HOLY SPIRIT, Amen.)

Next week

I'm off to Seattle next week for the Hoff family vacation in Black Butte Oregon. If you want to see what it looks like...

http://www.blackbutteranch.com/

Needless to say, it will be fun.

Blessings.

Potential

"One isn't necessarily born with courage, but one is born with potential."
-- Maya Angelou

Having potential is one of the greatest gifts of life. With potential, anyone can look at a situation, or a person, and see something that isn't there yet, but could be someday. We do this all the time -- with our kids, with our jobs, with the Washington Huskies football team (maybe there is little potential there this year, but you never know!).

In fact, potential is always based in the fact that the seed has already been planted for whatever we think might happen. We catch a glimpse of the glory that could be, and that causes us to have hope in the future, even if we are struggling in the present. It gives us hope -- but not a hope based in nothing, but in Something that we have seen.

Yet, how much of our world lives without potential? I wonder if that is why people buy lottery tickets -- because they need to have something in their life that has potential.

Yet, it is easy for me to look at others, and fail to look at myself. What are the "lottery tickets" in my own life that I look to to provide a shallow potential, instead of the deep potential that God wants for me?

"But now thus says the Lord, he who created you, O Jacob, he who formed you, O Isreal: Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine." Isaiah 43

As God followers, we believe that God has claimed us and redeemed us. Somewhere, in the depths of our soul he has written his name on our hearts. He has called us by name, and claimed us as his own. We as Christians even believe that God saw so much potential in us that he sent his Son to live and die on our behalf. In other words, God saw potential in us. He has given us meaning and purpose because of he saw potential in us. And in him, we have been given hope.

That hope is not static, but active and growing. And when I ground myself in seeing me as God sees me, it gives me courage.

For courage comes when I am confident that I can face the scary tasks ahead -- that there is a good chance that I will come through.

Lord, help us all to see in ourselves the potential that you see in us. AMEN

Submission or Surrender?

"Christians often speak of the necessity of submitting ourselves
to God. But there is an essential difference between submission and surrender.
The former is the conscious acceptance of reality. There is a superficial
yielding, but tension continues. I say that I accept who I am, but I do not
accept it so fully that I am willing to acutally act out who I am.
It is halfhearted acceptance. It is described by such words as resignation,
compliance, acknowledgment, concession. There remains
a feeling of reservation, a tug in the direction of non-acceptance.
Surrender, on the other hand, is the moment when my forces of resistance
cease to function, when I cannot help but respond to the call of the
Spirit." -- Brennan Manning, The Importance Of Being Foolish

I've got to admit something -- I am living in fear of this week. Not because there are monsters at my door, or that I have any person in particular to fear. I don't live in a country where my faith is in danger of getting me harrassed or harmed (in fact, it is quite to opposite).

So what am I fearing? The to-do list sitting on my desk! My family and I are heading to Seattle to see our family this Friday, and I am quite certain the list I just made this morning is NEVER going to get done. I am fearful that I will be so far behind by the time we get back from some R&R that all the plates I am trying to spin (like on the old variety shows) will slowly wobble and fall to the ground.

Yet, ultimately my fear is not of any list (I guess I could burn the paper up and show it who's boss!). My fear is that I will fail,. And ultimately, behind that fear, resides another, deeper fear -- that God will think I'm a failure.

I have this fear that if I don't get these things done, my "failure" will create a displeasure in God of myself. In fact, I would argue that all performance fears are linked to this theological premise --am I loved by God and does he find pleasure in me?

It's not that God can get my to-do list done for me. It's not that He doesn't care what I do (for he gave me a life to live and be a steward of). But I don't think that is his greatest concern. His greatest concern is for me to know that I am loved by him. "For God so loved the world that he gave..." (John 3:16). His desire to show us his love caused God to give up his Son. Yet here I sit worried about what he thinks of me.

That is where submission and surrender comes in. Am I simply submitting myself to God against my will, trying to just convince myself that he will love me regardless, or am I willing to surrender myself to him, and jump off the preverbial cliff into his loving arms?

I don't have the answer to that. My gut says that I am a mixture of submission and surrender (or lack thereof) at every stage of the game. My prayer is that more and more, I might be able to surrender to God, rather than just submit to the plan that seems laid out before me -- like trying to complete a task list! Surrender involves trust and risk.

How are you doing on the submission/surrender continuum these days?

I knew my to-do list would be good for something!

Jeff.

wisdom from Starbucks...

When Starbucks came out with the "The Way I See It" program on their to go cups, I thought it was sort of strange. I liked reading them but never found anything that breathtaking that I couldn't hear on NPR.

Until yesterday when, lo a behold, on my tall coffee I recieved a piece of Light:

"All humans realize they are loved when witnessing the dawn: Early morning is the triumph of good over evil. Absolved by light we decide to go on." --Rufus Wainwright #32.

John 1:5 says, "The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it." Each of us as humans blessed with recognizing the Light of the world realize that Wainwright has it right (no pun intended). Light shines. Light overcomes. Even in the darkest of situations. The Psalmist says, "My soul waits for the Lord, more than those who watch for the morning." (130:6). Like a night watchman, we have sure hope that the light will come when the night is over. The dawn triumphs over darkness. And the Light of God, Jesus, has triumphed over the darkness of our lives.

What are you watching for? What areas of darkness in you need to see Christ's light?


And who ever said Starbucks wasn't good for anything?!

Jeff

foto of the fam

Here is a picture of my family last April at the church's "All High School Prom". It was taken about 9:30 p.m. (thus the cute kids in jammies). This is my favorite picture ever!

Ready, Set...

GO! That is the favorite thing my 1 1/2 year old daughter Dayle says right now. You say "Ready, Set," and she yells out the GO! much to everyone's delight. It makes me think of this new year in ministry. We've just finished a busy summer around the church, and I can hardly imagine it, but the GO! call has gone out once again, as we are preparing for the fall. My hope and prayer for myself is that I might listen to the right "starter" and not give into the temptation of busyness. Each of us needs to take the time to say GO! to our life of faith first and foremost. GO! to time with Jesus. GO! to listening to our lives. GO! to intentionally involving ourselves in the things of true value. As I begin this journey, that is my prayer. Maybe it is for you as well? Blessings, Jeff