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Steve's Musings  One of the major projects I am working on these days is leading up to our proposed transition with a new worship serivce at Asbury. As part of that process, we needed to install a video projector in their worship center, so guess who got the honors !!! It is 21 feet from the floor to the peak where the projector was to hang. That may not sound like a terrible height. But we only had a 16 foot ladder, and you can't stand on the top. The first time I went up was just to measure the angle of the beams so I could make an angled spacer to mount the bracket to. 21 feet started to feel very very high about halfway up the ladder. I was seriously considering paying someone else to do this craziness. But I made it. The next time I went up the ladder it didn't seem quite so scary. Over the course of the day, I was up and down a dozen times, but by now I don't even think about it. What made the change? The ladder is just as rickety as it ever was. The ceiling is no lower and the floor no softer. But my perspective changed based on my experience. I've been there and lived to tell about it, so it's easier to go back. I think experience always feeds faith. I may have a hard time trusting God for the huge issues in my life. But He has come through before in some things, and I know I can trust Him with that. So faith gets easier as time goes by. Trust God for things which seem a little bigger than possible. When He comes through, they will seem much smaller, and it will be easier to trust Him for something else the next time. Maybe it's a result of getting older, but I think the pace of the universe has speeded up. I could swear Monday was yesterday, but my calendar tells me it's Thursday already and another week is slipping into the past. Things are happening fast. Aldersgate is moving toward a new level of partnership with our sister church, Asbury UMC in downtown Lubbock. We are proposing to begin a new worship service there on Sunday mornings beginning in September. I will be deeply involved with that and I'm feeling a little overwhelmed. And we are leaving on our mission trip to Berriozabal, Mexico over Spring Break -- which at this pace will be here tomorrow. I'm trying to keep focus and calm. It's not all that easy. I had an iteresting experience last week. I was driving home, kind of tired and grumpy after a long day. Going down the loop access road beside Trinity Church, I noticed their new lighted message sign (I kind of envy that sign - wouldn't that be great at our church!!). Anyway, the message on the sign said in great big letters "Don't Give Up." That's not the kind of message they usually put up, and I wondered about it. Thing is, I mentioned it to several people and no one else seems to have seen it. It was saying something else the next morning. So, did somebody program that message into the sign for the few minutes I was driving by? Or did God change the letters just for me? Or what? Either way, I think I get the message. OK, God, I won't give up. Thanks for the sign. A lot has happened since I logged in last. I am resolving to be more regular, but things keep coming up. My son Josh has gone to Italy to study in Florence for the Spring semester. I'm excited for him, but I really miss him. We are going to have to get used to one less person at the dinner table. Things are going really well at church. We had about 85 people from the neighborhood at Fiesta last night. It's amazing how many really poor people there are in Lubbock, and how much they appreciate a good meal and a safe place to come on Sundays. I think God has exceeded all our expectations with this ministry. I had a frustrating day on Thursday last week, and it kind of put me in a bad mood. I was helping a coworker try to fix her computer, and didn't make much progress. I discovered something about myself: I HATE to fail. At anything. I guess I don't experience failure all that often. Partly because I don't usually try anything I'm not pretty sure I will be able to pull off. Partly because I'm too stubborn to quit most of the time and keep bothering with things until I get them done. I failed with the computer, and that really frustrates me. So what do I learn from this? Do I have to suceed at everything I do? At one level, I think I do. At another level, I realize that's stupid. I think I need to learn how to fail better. Ohmygosh -- I have failed at failing! The news has been full of the story of the congressman who resigned after it became public that he had taken bribes in office. Millions of dollars over several years. He had publically denied any wrongdoing this summer, but finally got caught. The trouble is, this man is supposed to be a Christian. How can you take money illegally, publically deny it, and go on living as if everything is normal? Sure, now he has apologized and said he will make amends as long as God leaves him here. So does that make it all OK? I want to be forgiving and all. But I can't bring myself to let this go as if it doesn't matter. What happened to the concept of integrity? Whre are our values? And perhaps more to the point, what lesson do I need to take from this to help me become a better person? I have a lot of things going on these days. Yesterday I left home at 6:30 to drive to Clovis and preach. Then when I got back to Lubbock I went straight to Fiesta and worked hard with our homeless ministry. When I finally got home about 7:30 that night, I was feeling a little strained. I'm not complaining really. All this stuff is good stuff to be doing and I feel I am right where I need to be. Things are changing here at Aldersgate with new software, new ways of doing things -- I'm even getting ready to move my office next door. Change is always hard and stressful. But God is big enough to handle it. God, make me big enough too. I recently got a new cell phone which works as an MP3 player. I had never done much with MP3s, but I've been playing around with it. I think I may be able to get a lot of good out of it as a spiritual growth tool. I got a copy of the Bible in MP3 format and have been listening to it. What I think I'll do is listen to a chapter over and over again until I have it pretty well memorized, or at least so familiar that I can know what it's about kind of automatically. How cool is that? We are also thinking about putting a scripture for the week on our website so people can listen to it - maybe going along with the sermon. Might as well use technology for the Kingdom when we can. Like everyone else I know, I've been mega-busy. OK, I've been mega-lazy too. And I've missed posting for an embarrassingly long time. So I've made a new resolution to start up again. If you're reading this, hold me accountable. We are going through some exciting times here at Aldersgate. God is opening doors for us to expand our ministry and go to a significant new level of outreach. The staff is moving toward more of a team approach to planning sermons and worship services. God is cool! Thought for the day: Jesus came to make us whole. So what parts of my life are not whole yet? Where am I only part of what God intends me to be? What does Jesus want to heal in me today? And what about you? One thing we talked about on our staff retreat is the need to constantly keep God's vision for Aldersgate in front of people. We can't allow ourselves to settle into complacency and apathy -- we must keep moving forward. As my own responsibilities begin to focus more on outreach and care, I have been trying to sharpen and formulate a vision statement for my area. In the area of outreach, I visualize Aldersgate to be a place where people constantly look out for their friends, neighbors, and associates who do not have a meaningful relationship with Jesus, and help them discover His power to change lives. That has to start with our own circle of influence, then extend to other parts of our city (for example the Asbury ministry) and around the world through the missionaries we support. But the vision is to help people discover Jesus' power to change lives -- that's the heart of it. I'm still working on how this all fleshes out. It's an exciting journey. |
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