I think its astounding that the only recorded request the disciples of Jesus actually made was for Him to teach them to pray (Luke 11:1).  Not to heal, not cast out demons, not walk on water, and not turn water into wine (I’d have thought that one would have topped the list!)  It’s as if they understood that Jesus’ prayer life was central to all else; that communication with the Father was the key to all else that happened.

Now, I won’t pretend to understand how Jesus (God the Son) talking with His Father God works.  But I do know that Jesus and His Heavenly Father shared and enjoyed a constant communication.  All throughout the Gospels we’re told that Jesus would get away to be alone and pray (Luke 5:16).  He also prayed publicly, and in the presence of His followers.  He prayed for others, for Himself, and for us to name a few.

In the life of those who follow Jesus today, prayer can be seen as anything from a chore to a delight.  Some view it was a “to-do” they must accomplish in order to stay on God’s good side.  Some see it as a routine, falling in the same category as brushing your teeth.  Some view it was a lifeline to reach for in times of crisis.  Others see it as I have heard it put: “Prayer is to the believer as oxygen is to the lungs.”  No matter where you are (if at all) on the continuum, there is one thing for sure: prayer is essential to the follower of Jesus.

The statement I’d like to make is that we may be in a place where we have idolized prayer, rather than seeing it as an organic result and key ingredient to a genuine relationship with God.  When we say “prayer” we tend to think of heads bowed, eyes closed, fingers interlocked, and solemn silence.  But what would happen if when we hear “prayer”, we think “conversation”.  Most people would say, “Thanks, Captain Obvious.” because we understand prayer to be communication with God and even conversation with God, but I wonder how many converse with God as they do with any other close friend?  What if I spoke with God as frequently as I speak to my wife?  And worse, what if spoke with my wife as frequently as I speak with my Creator, King, and Father?  Imagine going a day and NOT speaking to your spouse or that friend you can’t imagine going more than 24 hours talking to?  I’d dare say that by lunch both of you would be painfully aware that something was not right.  But I confess to you that even as as pastor, I can go much longer than a day without intentionally talking with the One who loves me more than anyone else does.

For the last several days, I’ve awakened with a conscious awareness of God’s desire to talk with me.  It’s as if He’s sitting next to my bed waiting for me to wake up.  My first thoughts after “Ugh, what time is it?” is along the lines of “Lord, I belong to you today. Let’s do this together. Use me however you want to. I’ll stick with you.”

When we view prayer more as conversation than sanctimonious pontification, we end up with a better view of a loving Father who is desperate to hear the sound of your voice…the voice He himself created.

With flowers in my hand and butterflies in my stomach, I stood on the Varner’s front porch. I thought for a minute about the girl on the other side of the door, and how I hope she’d like our date. I reached up my hand and rang the doorbell. The door opened to a bright-faced 13 year old girl that I am totally crazy about. At that moment, the butterflies turned into bricks and my stomach sank to know that this girl would be my companion for the evening. With a slightly cracking voice, I said, “I’m here to pick up Madison.” She let me in and I saw her Mom standing there. “Hello, Mrs. Varner. You look radiant this evening.” As Madison got her coat on, I assured her Mom, “I’ll have her home on time.”
With an approving smile from Mrs. Varner, Madison and I walked out the door and what can I say–the evening was absolute magic. Not because of the movie or that we had the best seats in the theater or that we laughed so hard joking together as we waited in line to get in, but because I think we really do like each other. And as her Dad, I like that a lot.

I’m a Dad to 4 people.  I re-read that short sentence and cringe, chuckle, and almost cry.  I have four lives that are watching mine; first trustingly, then critically, then (hopefully) faithfully following.  I believe that we need to be able to say to our kids more than to anyone else: “Follow me as I follow Christ.”  (1 Cor. 11:1)  Believe me, this is NOT something I have attained but it is always something I’m reaching for.

Tonight, I’ll be taking my oldest daughter (13) out for a date.  As a pastor, I’ve been invited to a special pre-release screening of “Soul Surfer” a movie based on the story of Bethany Hamilton, a teenager surfer who lost her arm to a shark attack.  I’m definitely excited about seeing the film, but I’m even more excited about who I’m seeing it with.

I love my oldest daughter immensely and I love spending time with her.  We laugh a lot and I do my very best to speak God’s truth into her life.  I can see within her a blossoming young woman of God and the only thing I want for her is to be an unashamed lover of Jesus.  The rest of the details of her life take a second place to that one desire.

I think I’ll go get some flowers for tonight.

If you know me, you know I’m serious about rest.  Let’s be clear: that’s NOT the same as being lazy (which to my knowledge I haven’t been called since my teen years).  Rest is critical for every living breathing human being (and most animals) because that’s the way God made us.  (This post will be a simple snippet on the topic of rest, but if you’d like a beefier stew, check out “The Rest of Us”; a post I did nearly 3 years ago on the issue of rest. You can go right to it by clicking here.)  It just amazes me how rest gets tossed aside as a victim of our circumstance, as if its not one of the ten commandments.

The church I serve (Southside Church) is a fantastic ministry that cares well for its staff.  That being said, I get a certain amount of vacation days per year.  Last month, I found that I had 13 days of vacation time remaining with no real plan for how to use those days; no big family trips coming up, no major surgery planned etc.  So, I decided for the most part to pepper my vacation days over the landscape of the next few months.  And in the month of February, I’ve taken the “every Monday off” approach.  Today was my first.  As suspected, I loved it.  My wife doesn’t work on Mondays, my kids are in school, and so its just The Hotness and I doing what needs to get done or whatever we feel like doing.  Pretty sweet.

For the next 3 Mondays, I’m looking at days just like today–days of “Idunnowhatdoyouwanttodo?” with my favorite person on the planet.  I’m sure we might conjur up some actual plans at some point, but what a nice thing its going to be every Monday in February.

When I have some time on my hands, my mind typically thinks these thoughts in this order:

1. What NEEDS to get done? (A closet to organize? A Goodwill dropoff run to make? A repair in/around the house that’s been waiting?)

2. What MUST get done?  (A kissing cousin of #1, but this might be of a more urgent nature, such as “If I don’t get those videos back to the library, I’m going to pay a fine. And I’ll be darned if I’m paying the library anything!”)

3. What WANTS to be done? (This is the stuff that has virtually no purpose but sheer enjoyment. I walk around Short Pump with my wife, sipping coffee and window shopping while chatting about anything & everything.)

And today we landed squarely on #3.  We drove where the wind blew us, strolled around, bought nothing but socks for our youngest and vacuum bags (oops, I guess there’s a little #1 in there), and ate Mexican for lunch.

Oh, and I broke my Dollar Tree “back-up” pair of shades.  I was using my back-up pair because I can’t find  my regular expensive pair of Dollar Tree shades.  Other than that, it was just another day in paradise.  And I’m already looking forward to next Monday.

I’ve been thinking recently about goal-setting.  Let me say at the outset that I’ve never really been a huge goal-setter; at least not in the purest sense of the term.  I’ve done fine with lists and tasks and accomplishments and generally getting things done, but goals to me are a different matter altogether.

And while I have known that statistically speaking, those who write down their goals represent those who are generally the most successful, I have honestly neglected this most basic of disciplines.  That is, until now.

I believe the most achievable goals are the simplest and near-future goals.  While “run an Ironman” might be an admirable goal (to some), it’s not one that has a ring of sensibility–at least not to me and not now.  In the interest of simplicity, I’d like to share 3 goals in 3 different areas: spiritual, physical, & developmental.  And in order to keep it in front of me, I’d like to attach these goals to the month of February.  So, by the end of February, I’m setting as my personal goals…

Spiritual: Re-read/study/share what I learn from the book of Romans (I started it this morning and could easily spend all month in chapter 1).  This blog will undoubtedly be a clearinghouse for some of those thoughts this month.

Physical: Lose 5 pounds of fat in the month of February.

Developmental: Meet with 2 of the people I admire (be it online, by phone, or in-person) who are doing/have done what I’d like to move my ministry toward.

Certainly there are more areas than these in which to establish goals, but like I said I believe that simplicity is a key factor in goal-setting and more importantly goal-getting.

With these goals staring me in the face this month, I’m excited (and nervous) to keep you updated on how I’m doing in each of these areas.

Evangelism is reaching a 4-letter-word status in America today, I’m afraid.  Say the word to any Joe or Jane on the street and they’ll likely retort with descriptive images of greasy pulpit predators who, with eyes flowing with glycerin tears, look into the camera, pleading for you to ensure the blessing of God on their ministry (and your life) by picking up that phone right now–not later because later is too late–and pledging your bank account number and your commitment to monthly payments.

That’s evangelism?  No, not at all.  Today, “evangelism” has become synonymous with “televangelism”.  But in reality there is one big difference.  The first is commanded in Scripture.  The other is a sham world of scam artists who are themselves headed toward a Godless eternity, I’m afraid.  In reality, most Christians are laughing at those idiots on TV right along with non-Christians.

The word “evangelism” shares its Greek (“euangelos”) roots with the word “angel” (found nicely in the center of the word).  And the word “angel” simply means “messenger”.  Read the stories of angels in the Bible and you’ll find that by and large, they’re primary job was that of messengers.  And that is the glorious burden of Jesus’ followers to this day.

But we’re slow to get after it.  That’s because we as Christians are painfully aware of the baggage that evangelism has carried.  Here are a few words spoken to me over years from those I’ve tried to speak with about Christianity/God/faith/the Gospel:

“Don’t shove your beliefs on me.”

“I’m glad your truth works for you, but I have my own truth.”

“Faith in God is for the weak. You Christians just need a crutch to lean on that logical people don’t need.”

“I’m so sick and tired of you Christians who think you’re so much better than anybody else, when in reality you’re all a bunch of bigots and hypocrites.”

“Go to hell.”

“No. No. No. No. No. I don’t want to talk about that and I don’t think you should talk to anyone about your so-called ‘God’.”

 

We live in a world of  “tolerance”, where no one is wrong unless they dare say that someone might be wrong.  And many Christians today have given into the fear of being misunderstood, grouped with “those guys”, ostracized, cut off from current relationships, or even persecuted for opening their mouths to speak “the Truth”.  (By the way, 180,000 Christians lost their lives last year for simply following Jesus.  So much for “tolerance”.)

What must happen is for Christians to shake off the chains of fear and step into their God-given responsibility to share the Good News of the Gospel to anyone they can, relying on God for the opportunity, for the words to speak, and most of all for the outcome.  In essence, we need to return to our role of “messenger”.

Jesus told His apostles in the book of Acts that “you will be my witnesses…”  What does a witness do?  A witness is called to simply speak what he/she knows; nothing more, nothing less.  To “witness” to someone is to tell your story, to tell what you know, what you have seen and heard.

So, while I’m not “bible-thumper” who’s going to pounce on every person I see at the grocery store, I do take seriously the call of God on me and on all followers of Christ to invite others to follow Him as well.  I love the story found in the Bible about a man born blind that Jesus healed.  When crowded around by those seeking answers as to what happened to him, and who healed him, and what were the details, the man could only give this answer: “I don’t know if He [Jesus] was a sinner or not. But one I thing I DO know: I was blind, and now I see!” (John 9:25)

Now that’s evangelism.

I started this blog a few years ago.  Every once in a while, I’ll look back through the “archives” just to see what I thought, lived, and wrote about.  Feel free to do the same.  If you do, you’ll get to know me better.

Through the years of blogging, I’ve had one major ache: not being consistent in how regularly I write.  It’s definitely not daily, its rarely weekly, and heck–sometimes it falls to monthly.  Lame.  Really lame, I know.

And today is another day that I’m not blogging.  Well, actually I TRIED to write a blog post and its still sitting there, undone in my “drafts” folder but for whatever reason, it just felt too contrived, or forced, or missing that certain something any blog post of mine has to have before I click “Publish”.

So, here I am, NOT blogging again.  If you’re not me (and I’m guessing you’re not), you might be thinking, “What’s the big deal? Why can’t Varner get it together and just make it a habit. Geez, set an alarm. Stick up a post-it note to remind yourself. Do something to remind yourself, Lame-o.”  Well, of all the reasons I haven’t blogged, forgetting to doesn’t even rank on the list.  The truth is I’m very often thinking about writing.  So, why doesn’t that translate into blog posts that are more than bi-weekly, weekly, or dare I say it–daily?!?  Let me take a stab at some guesses as to why that is:

1. As I alluded to, I need to “feel” like I’ve got something quality to convey (even if its just to myself, as weird as that sounds).  I think this comes from reading too many blogs that are just plain boring.  If it feels like I’m trying too hard, I’ll click “Save Draft” and shut it down.  I currently have a long list (28) of half-baked blog posts just sitting in that draft folder.  And that’s likely where they’ll stay…and die.

2. Very often it happens that I’ll have what I think is a great idea for a post, or a situation I live through that lends itself to being written about.  But by the time I get to my computer, either the thought is gone or I’ve lost some critical piece of it that keeps me from making it work.

3. I often psyche myself out.  Let me share something with you. I’m a guy who’s susceptible to “head games”.  I can lay in my bed in the middle of the night and out-of-the-blue start to feel ill.  Just as quickly as that happens I can take my thoughts out of that line of thinking and feel much better.  How does that relate to blogging?  I don’t know, but the fact remains that I can sit down at a keyboard with every intention of rolling out a blog post, and then sit and stare at the screen.  It just happened again.  See what I mean?  Probably not.

Well, I hope to blog again soon.  But if it ends up being longer than you’d like to wait, may I suggest that you simply subscribe to my blog?  That way, whenever I do post, you’ll be notified.  Sounds like a plan, doesn’t it?

Thanks for coming by, but I’m sorry to say that there just won’t be a blog post today.