Of Straws & Camels

I’ve been thinking about stress. It is both our friend and our enemy. A manageable amount of stress motivates us and causes us to rise to the challenge. It’s invigorating. Too much stress only overwhelms us and is debilitating. When my stress load is manageable, I can actually be funny, engaging and thoughtful. When I am over-stressed with too many deadlines or insurmountable tasks, I quite quickly become irritable (read grumpy), inattentive and generally no fun to be around.  

A while back I got this from a friend:

An instructor was teaching a class on stress management. Raising a glass of water he posed the question, “How heavy do you think this glass of water is?”. Answers ranged from 8 ounces to 20 ounces and after a brief moment he responded to their guesses, “In one sense the absolute weight doesn’t really matter because the word heavy is a relative term; it depends upon on how long I hold it. If I hold it for a minute, that's not a problem. If I hold it for an hour, I'll have a serious ache in my right arm. If I hold it for a day, you'll have to call an ambulance. In each case it's the same weight, but the longer I hold it, the heavier it becomes.”

Then this comment:

“That’s how it is with stress. If we carry our burdens all the time, sooner or later, as the burden becomes increasingly heavy, we won't be able to carry on. Just like this glass of water, you have to put it down for a while and rest before picking it up again. When we're refreshed, we can carry on with the burden. So, as early in the evening as you can, put all your burdens down. Don't carry them through the evening and into the night. Tomorrow is a new day and you can pick them up again then, and when you do, they won’t seem as heavy.”

Now, you might be tempted to think that this isn’t very realistic but it occurs to me that it isn’t too far off the teaching of Jesus on the matter. Check it out:

 

“Do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.”  Jesus

Everyone has burdens to bear but not everyone learns to lay those burdens at the feet of Jesus and go to sleep in peace trusting Him. As for me, I’m still learning. 

Peacemaking

I’m reading a book these days (thanks to Glenn Goode the regional director of our association) called ‘The Peace Making Pastor: A Biblical Guide to Resolving Church Conflict’ by Alfred Poirier. As I’ve walked by glancing at the cover numerous times over the last several weeks prior to diving into it, I have not been highly motivated to pick it up and get started. The Lord has spared our church a lot of conflict. Don’t get me wrong, it is not that we are without conflict entirely but we have enjoyed great unity over the years by in large; something I continually thank the Lord for.

However, now that I’ve read a couple of chapters, I’m hooked. When we think of church conflict, we often think of it on a larger scale, but that isn’t the main focus of Poirier’s work. On page 34 he writes, “… the more typical kinds of conflict that consume a pastor’s time (and which this book particularly addresses) are the run-of-the-mill personal affairs, which Jesus is addressing when he tells us to first get the plank out of our own eye… These are conflicts caused by personal sin that surface in family and marriage disputes, strained friendships, or business/employment conflicts involving church members.”

This makes the book intensely practical so that it’s hard to imagine anything more pertinent. And what’s more, the author grounds his teaching and practice of peacemaking in the solid rock of the gospel. Let me share a few choice excerpts with you:

“The gospel is the engine that drives the train of reconciliation. Unresolved conflicts between Christians have less to do with people being skillful than with them being sinful… peacemaking can be embraced because Christ is the incarnate Peacemaker… He is the first and only true Peacemaker… failure to train our people and our leaders as peacemakers is a failure in Christology, for peacemaking is Christology… Peacemaking is all about Jesus Christ… The gospel of Jesus is the message of peacemaking… God’s cosmic work of reconciling all things in heaven and on earth to Himself is through the person and work of Christ. In Christ, God reconciles all things to Himself…”

Not only is he shedding some new light on my calling as a pastor but he is also helping me to see this whole subject of conflict resolution (peacemaking) in a whole new light as well. Exciting!

Time To Stoop Up

We got a few things done around home this summer during some time off. One of them was this clothesline stoop that Florence has been needing for quite some time. It’s amazing how your mind has time to roam when you work with your hands. Dictionary.com says that a stoop is “a small raised platform, approached by steps”. Yet the same resource says that to ‘stoop’ is “to bend the head and shoulders, or the body generally, forward and downward”. Curious!?

It doesn’t seem to make a whole lot of sense, but then again, the English language tends to be like that:  

Why do ‘fat chance’ and ‘slim chance’ mean the same thing?

Why do ‘slow down’ and ‘slow up’ mean the same thing?

Why do ‘overlook’ and ‘oversee’ mean opposite things?

Why does the word ‘cleave’ mean both to split apart and to stick together?

Did you hear about the couple that adopted a Japanese baby? After a long wait, the adoption centre told them they had a wonderful Japanese baby boy, and they took him without hesitation. On the way home from the adoption centre, they stopped by the local college so they could enroll in night courses.

After they filled out the form, the registration clerk asked, “So, whatever possessed you to study Japanese?”

"Well", the couple said proudly, "we just adopted a Japanese baby and in a year or so he'll start to talk. We just want to be able to understand him."  

DEVOTED

We have chosen the theme DEVOTED for our ministry year 2012/2013. It is exciting to think about what it will be like to take an entire year to intently focus on what it means for us to love God. Of course, we have lots to learn. One of the very first things we need to make sure of is that we understand that our love for God, no matter how devoted we may be, not only pales in comparison to God’s love for us, but also is always only a response to His love for us. We do not have the capacity to love God apart from God putting His own love in our hearts. We must never forget this. According to Jesus’ words, the greatest commandment, and the one upon which all others depend, is to love God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength. But this is not the gospel. Paul tells us that love fulfills the law, but we are not saved by the law. In other words, we are not saved by our love for God, but we are saved by His great love for us which moved Him to act in grace toward us … “For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him will not perish but have everlasting life”…

I am anticipating that this will be a great year.