ChurchPlanting.com

I am in the final throes of writing-editing a book with Regal…thus the lack of blogging recently…all apologies for that. The blogging frequency will increase shortly.

A story contained in this book fits nicely with this weekend - Father’s Day (it is now posted on Amazon with a March, ‘09 release date).

Loneliness is perhaps the most intense of human emotions.

This single word might well explain much that is behind the challenges of cultures across the world today.

overeating (compulsive eating cures most voids, right?)

website popularity (the most visited websites have one thing in common - in the words of Grace Slick, "Don’t you need somebody to love… we all need somebody to love… we just want somebody to love")

habitual behaviors rooted in obsessions

When we engage in our lack that may be real we begin to melt down. It is best to look beyond that all-too-accurate reality to what is available to us beyond our resource.

My dad passed away rather suddenly the summer of my twelfth year. This sent me into a major emotional tailspin for months into the school year of junior high. When basketball started up I found playing time a welcome relief to the emotional intensity that was playing in the backdrop of my mind like a calculus challenge 24/7.

The one thing I was desperate to hear was a bit of assurance - the simple signal that all was going to return to stable - that one day clear sailing would return.

The new kid on our team was Ken. He was a tall among humans even at that point - he measured in at about 6′ 8". For giggles Ken could reach up to the basketball netting with no leap whatsoever. By springing just a couple of more inches he could do serious damage to the rim. I loved yelling at our opponents who were not yet aware of our secret weapon, "Did you bring your adult diapers? You may need them!" (Is "taunting" a spiritual gift?)

Our entire strategy was simple:

Get ball.

Dribble ball carefully downcourt - SJOGREN NOTHING FANCY!

Pass ball to Ken. Ken will take care of the rest.

Sure enough Coach Day’s strategy worked. Ken scored the points. Yet we were a team just the same.

In only one game did we fail to more than double the other team’s score! We didn’t just win, we nearly sent them into therapy (all apologies to Kingman, KS Jr. High’s team that year - the quadrupling of your score was not intentional)

Years later when Ken headed up the University of Kansas bid in the NCAA playoffs he took them all the way to the "Sweet 16." His guards and forwards overshot. There were lots of "air-balls" yet Ken persevered and made over 30 points in the last and losing game.

The only thing I could think of as the game proceeded was the simple strategy from years gone by, "Just throw it to Ken and it will be alright."

God shows up to do what no one can accomplish. He fills us / heals us in ways we are not aware we are needy.

Here’s to all the myriad of fatherless fathers who wonder, "What in the world am I doing in this father gig? I don’t speak this language, but I am called to be fluent!"

Fathers, replace the above line "Ken" with "Holy Spirit." Make that our super direct strategy. We are ready to roll.

“Give me a pair of pliers and some electrical tape – we can fix about anything – at least for now!”

– Algot Sjogren

The above are the words of my grandpa’s Swedish brother who farmed wheat in central Kansas all his life. Farming today has changed since Algot’s primetime years, but not entirely. No perfectionist ought to seriously ponder the vocation of farming. Murphy’s Law of “Whatever can go wrong will go wrong, and at the worst possible time, in the worst possible way” tends to be especially true in farming. When one lives on a thin margin, as in farming, where the difference between a season of profit or loss is in the minutiae, living in a ‘Ready for the challenge’ attitude is imperative.

Globally, financial matters are not looking great at the moment. Janie and I recently sold a house that we had owned and greatly improved over a decade of living in. The house did not grow in value one bit – for all of our investments, we took a net loss of one-third of what we put into it. Yet we did this because it was time to move on to the next chapter of what Jesus is up to in our lives.

In the kingdom, this is the ongoing way things work. If we fixate on short-term apparent ‘losses’ or ‘gains’ we are looking with shallow eyes.

I wonder if part of the suffering of Jesus on the cross, when he felt the agony none will ever grasp, was to ponder his apparent ministry ineffectiveness the day of the crucifixion. A week earlier the throngs treated him like – like, well Jesus! That Friday his only remaining friends were a former prostitute, his mom, John the punk teenager of the Twelve, and maybe a few other women at most. Of course he had accomplished all the Father had sent him to do – but perhaps in that time of irrational attack the Enemy whispered in his ear – as he does with us – ‘Just look at what hasn’t happened… nothing has changed a bit… you came, you lived, you have nothing to show for it all…’

We are in the midst of a time when many are thinking and saying limiting words. “No! We can’t afford that” is being uttered by leaders who are caught in the grasp of the fear of not enough. “That’s not in the budget” is a common sentence these days. “We’d better hold off on that until we can afford it” is unfortunately the ‘wisdom’ of the moment.

Respectfully, I could not disagree more.

Now is the time to become creative if finances are an issue. Now is the time to move out and fling our seeds hither and yon like no time before (Matt. 13).

When times are tight (or seem to be tight) we call upon God’s Spirit for his inspired, creative ways to convey the kindness of God to our generation. The best ways for conveying his kindness in your setting are yet to be discovered.

Without God’s profound kindness moving through his people in simple, doable ways, there are countless faces around each of us who perhaps will not open their hearts to Jesus – to hear his invitation to become a part of his family!

We love, we serve, we are ready to give an account of the hope that lies within us. Boy oh boy are people open! The harvest is more ripe than ever folks.

There’s no time like today! Ready or not, here we come!