Greetings,
I am happy to say that last night's Ash Wednesday service went very well. We had close to 60 in attendance. Communion and the imposition of ashes was a very powerful and prayerful experience. Our praise team sounded beautiful! So, our "Journey In Prayer" continues this morning with a Lenten Prayer Coffee and our nightly service tonight at 7:00 PM.
Tonight I have the opportunity to share my prayer journey with those in attendance. Sometimes it can be a little scary laying your life out there for all to see and hear. My Journey Home has been a wonderful tool for me to share my thoughts, ideas, struggles, and triumphs with all of you. The reason it is so easy is because I don't have to look you in the eye and try and discern the emotions that I might be evoking within each one of you. That being said, it is also frightening to think that anyone who might stumble across this blog could be privy to some of my most intimate feelings and writings.
However, I think that it is good to share our stories. Scripture tells us to go out and preach the gospel. I think God put in each one of us a desire to share what He has done in our lives. I believe that in the sharing of our stories we help others live out their stories. This can be a frightening thing to do for some. My encouragement to each of you would be to share your life stories with people in your lives. Whether it be spoken or written there is value to the life you have lived.
I am confident in saying that each one of your lives have some bit of wisdom hidden away inside the day to day chaos we call "life". There is "stuff" in your life story! That stuff could be the very thing that someone else needs to learn so that they might grow in their own lives. Don't be afraid to tell your story! If you think about it it is the only story that you know for sure! You can't mess up the story because it's yours!
My Journey Home has been about telling a story. It is a collection of experiences, ideas, tragedies, and triumphs that have been written down for anyone who chooses to read them. My life is far from perfect. It has had its fair share of ups and downs. Yet, in sharing my story I feel as if I am adding to the "fabric of history". My mother makes quilts. She is also a great at crocheting! It is her quilts that remind me of my story and your story as well. Quilts are made up of individual pieces and when those pieces are stitched together it becomes something greater than its individual pieces, it becomes whole!
Our life story are the pieces and history is the whole! It is that old adage that says, "the whole is greater than the sum of its parts". Let us be a people that add to that to the fabric of our world. Go out and share what you have experienced. Stand up and proclaim the stories that make you who you are. Don't be afraid to tell people how you have triumphed over tragedy and lived through loss. Your story is unique! You are writing your story each day, so, share it with the world!
Wish me luck tonight!
Blessings,
Derek
Thursday, February 18, 2010
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
"A Journey In Prayer"
Greetings,
For those who have read these blogs in the past might recall me telling you about a prayer event that is taking place between three churches in the Las Animas community. My church happens to be one of them. For 5 months I have been a member of the core group that has been planning this event. Well, it started last night with our Shrove Tuesday pancake supper. The supper went well and fed close to 100 people. Tonight, we begin our services with an Ash Wednesday service. Our "Journey In Prayer" has begun!
I tell you all of that information to say this, I am scared to death this thing is going to be a giant flop!
That's the way we are though, isn't it? What I mean to say is that many times in our lives we find ourselves planning some major event and then, right when it's getting ready to start we freak out! It might be a vacation, a sporting event, or a class reunion. No matter what the event is we expend so much energy worrying about whether it's going to be a flop or not that we forget to enjoy the event we planned. I find myself doing the same thing. Instead of giving this event to God and letting Him direct the show I take it upon myself to judge whether or not it is a success based on my standards. My fear is that we will go through the entire week and I will be so worried about whether it is making an impact on other people that I will not let it have an impact on me.
On my journey home I have found that things go much smoother when I let God take care of the details. "Gotta have brain surgery God, I need it to go well, you take care of the details". "Crap! Gotta have another brain surgery God, need this one to go well also, you take care of the details". People say that the "devil is in the details", that's a bunch of hoohey! I have found God in the details of more in my life than I have ever found the devil!
I think God wants it that way. I think He wants to know that He can take care of the little things in our lives as well as the big ones. So, let me encourage you to do the very thing that I am having trouble with...trust God in the little things in your life. It's when we are able to trust God with the little things that we find out He is also the God of the big things! Remember, God is in the details!
Blessings,
Derek
For those who have read these blogs in the past might recall me telling you about a prayer event that is taking place between three churches in the Las Animas community. My church happens to be one of them. For 5 months I have been a member of the core group that has been planning this event. Well, it started last night with our Shrove Tuesday pancake supper. The supper went well and fed close to 100 people. Tonight, we begin our services with an Ash Wednesday service. Our "Journey In Prayer" has begun!
I tell you all of that information to say this, I am scared to death this thing is going to be a giant flop!
That's the way we are though, isn't it? What I mean to say is that many times in our lives we find ourselves planning some major event and then, right when it's getting ready to start we freak out! It might be a vacation, a sporting event, or a class reunion. No matter what the event is we expend so much energy worrying about whether it's going to be a flop or not that we forget to enjoy the event we planned. I find myself doing the same thing. Instead of giving this event to God and letting Him direct the show I take it upon myself to judge whether or not it is a success based on my standards. My fear is that we will go through the entire week and I will be so worried about whether it is making an impact on other people that I will not let it have an impact on me.
On my journey home I have found that things go much smoother when I let God take care of the details. "Gotta have brain surgery God, I need it to go well, you take care of the details". "Crap! Gotta have another brain surgery God, need this one to go well also, you take care of the details". People say that the "devil is in the details", that's a bunch of hoohey! I have found God in the details of more in my life than I have ever found the devil!
I think God wants it that way. I think He wants to know that He can take care of the little things in our lives as well as the big ones. So, let me encourage you to do the very thing that I am having trouble with...trust God in the little things in your life. It's when we are able to trust God with the little things that we find out He is also the God of the big things! Remember, God is in the details!
Blessings,
Derek
Monday, February 15, 2010
Yeah for Change!
Greetings,
For those of you who have been following my blog for a while will realize that I have changed the template of my blog. What that really means is that it looks different! I like it! Change is good, sometimes! If you are like me there are some things where change is not acceptable. I don't think it's that some people like change or don't like change. I think it has a lot to do with how the change makes us feel.
I am a pastor and so I hope that many of you will understand when I say that change is hard for people. In most churches the "c" word, as we like to call it, can be a deal breaker. I don't know what makes us able to accept change outside of the church but when it comes to even the little things of our church we immediately run from any type of change, oops, I mean the "c" word.
I have come to find out that change in a church has a lot to do with memories. Many people, and understandably, want to reminisce about the "way it used to be". There is absolutely nothing wrong with that. I think God made us that way. I think when He was deciding how we were to be created He knew that remembering the past could be a positive in our lives. Again, there is nothing wrong with us remembering the past with loving hearts. The problem is that we, sometimes, spend so much of our time remembering the past we don't live in the present. Or, we it's not hat we long for the past it's we just refuse to believe that what ever the change might be could actually be better than what we used to do.
Change is inevitable. We live in a world where things change all the time. I experienced this very thing last week. If you remember reading one of my recent blogs in which I discussed dropping my cell phone in the toilet you will know what I am talking about. If you haven't read that one you should go back and do so. It's always nice to have a good laugh at someone else's expense. Go ahead...it's OK!
I mention that incident only to say that the new phone I got to replace the dead one was sooooo different. It was a touch phone. I soon realized that what it really meant was that it was "don't touch" phone. I found out that just picking the thing up the wrong way could immediately dial the White House, the Kremilin, or the switch board of the missile silos of the Chinese military. I also learned that my phone can take pictures, shoot video, access the internet, and can, if need be, be used as a lantern in a dark and stormy night. Unfortunately, the one thing I couldn't get it do was dial a number!
You see, the technology had "changed". Seemingly overnight technology had not only passed me by I believed that it had lapped me a couple times. I realized that I had become one the people that I have had so many disagreements with, I became an opponent of the “c”" word. So, after going in the bathroom (I wanted to go back to the scene of the accident) I tried to come to grips with the idea of my cell phone changing! It's not that I particularly liked it, it was just that I knew that if I was ever going to be able to call someone on this stupid phone I was going to have to change as well.
You see, on my journey home I have had to deal with change. After my brain surgeries I was not allowed to do some of things I had taken for granted in my life. At times I wasn't allowed to drive. I had to come to grips with the fact that I wasn't allowed on my roof anymore. For those of you who are wondering if I was a frequent visitor to my roof to sit and ponder the universe I, simply, meant that I couldn't change my swamp coolers pads. Now, for those of you who are reading this and living east of the Mississippi, a swamp cooler is a type of air conditioner that is prominent in areas that are not blessed with the hair straightening, shirt soaking, God awful, humidity that some of you experience on a daily basis in the summer. Suffice it to say, I had to embrace change.
After doing so I realized that change wasn't so bad. Heck, there were some changes that were good. The great thing that I realized was that embracing these changes didn't mean that I was saying the way I did things in the past were wrong. It simply meant that I had to do things different if I was going to succeed in living "post brain surgeries".
I want to let you in on a secret! God enjoys change. If this were not true then no one would ever have accepted Christ in their lives. The ability to recognize that our lives are empty without God cause us to embrace change. So, I challenge you to look at your journey home and to see where changes can be made. Remember it doesn't mean that the old way was bad. It simply means that, here in the present, there might be a better way.
You might just find out that, like me, new cell phones aren't our enemy but our friend. You might find out that , like I did, it's ok to call someone on the same phone that you can take pictures with. That is, as soon as I found out how dial my phone! Brothers and sisters don't fear change, embrace it. Make change for the better not change for change sake. Be truthful as you look at your life and then decide where change is needed. If it works don't mess with it. If it's broke figure out how to fix it. Finally, if you do need to change something in your life realize that it's not forgetting the past it's trying to make a better future.
Until we meet again may the peace of God guide you this day and everyday!
Blessings,
Derek
For those of you who have been following my blog for a while will realize that I have changed the template of my blog. What that really means is that it looks different! I like it! Change is good, sometimes! If you are like me there are some things where change is not acceptable. I don't think it's that some people like change or don't like change. I think it has a lot to do with how the change makes us feel.
I am a pastor and so I hope that many of you will understand when I say that change is hard for people. In most churches the "c" word, as we like to call it, can be a deal breaker. I don't know what makes us able to accept change outside of the church but when it comes to even the little things of our church we immediately run from any type of change, oops, I mean the "c" word.
I have come to find out that change in a church has a lot to do with memories. Many people, and understandably, want to reminisce about the "way it used to be". There is absolutely nothing wrong with that. I think God made us that way. I think when He was deciding how we were to be created He knew that remembering the past could be a positive in our lives. Again, there is nothing wrong with us remembering the past with loving hearts. The problem is that we, sometimes, spend so much of our time remembering the past we don't live in the present. Or, we it's not hat we long for the past it's we just refuse to believe that what ever the change might be could actually be better than what we used to do.
Change is inevitable. We live in a world where things change all the time. I experienced this very thing last week. If you remember reading one of my recent blogs in which I discussed dropping my cell phone in the toilet you will know what I am talking about. If you haven't read that one you should go back and do so. It's always nice to have a good laugh at someone else's expense. Go ahead...it's OK!
I mention that incident only to say that the new phone I got to replace the dead one was sooooo different. It was a touch phone. I soon realized that what it really meant was that it was "don't touch" phone. I found out that just picking the thing up the wrong way could immediately dial the White House, the Kremilin, or the switch board of the missile silos of the Chinese military. I also learned that my phone can take pictures, shoot video, access the internet, and can, if need be, be used as a lantern in a dark and stormy night. Unfortunately, the one thing I couldn't get it do was dial a number!
You see, the technology had "changed". Seemingly overnight technology had not only passed me by I believed that it had lapped me a couple times. I realized that I had become one the people that I have had so many disagreements with, I became an opponent of the “c”" word. So, after going in the bathroom (I wanted to go back to the scene of the accident) I tried to come to grips with the idea of my cell phone changing! It's not that I particularly liked it, it was just that I knew that if I was ever going to be able to call someone on this stupid phone I was going to have to change as well.
You see, on my journey home I have had to deal with change. After my brain surgeries I was not allowed to do some of things I had taken for granted in my life. At times I wasn't allowed to drive. I had to come to grips with the fact that I wasn't allowed on my roof anymore. For those of you who are wondering if I was a frequent visitor to my roof to sit and ponder the universe I, simply, meant that I couldn't change my swamp coolers pads. Now, for those of you who are reading this and living east of the Mississippi, a swamp cooler is a type of air conditioner that is prominent in areas that are not blessed with the hair straightening, shirt soaking, God awful, humidity that some of you experience on a daily basis in the summer. Suffice it to say, I had to embrace change.
After doing so I realized that change wasn't so bad. Heck, there were some changes that were good. The great thing that I realized was that embracing these changes didn't mean that I was saying the way I did things in the past were wrong. It simply meant that I had to do things different if I was going to succeed in living "post brain surgeries".
I want to let you in on a secret! God enjoys change. If this were not true then no one would ever have accepted Christ in their lives. The ability to recognize that our lives are empty without God cause us to embrace change. So, I challenge you to look at your journey home and to see where changes can be made. Remember it doesn't mean that the old way was bad. It simply means that, here in the present, there might be a better way.
You might just find out that, like me, new cell phones aren't our enemy but our friend. You might find out that , like I did, it's ok to call someone on the same phone that you can take pictures with. That is, as soon as I found out how dial my phone! Brothers and sisters don't fear change, embrace it. Make change for the better not change for change sake. Be truthful as you look at your life and then decide where change is needed. If it works don't mess with it. If it's broke figure out how to fix it. Finally, if you do need to change something in your life realize that it's not forgetting the past it's trying to make a better future.
Until we meet again may the peace of God guide you this day and everyday!
Blessings,
Derek
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