Recalculating Route

The GPS (God’s Positioning System) strikes again. As I wrote about in my first blog post here (April 2009: Isaiah Speaks GPS), the words “recalculating route” coming out of my little directional device this week sounded like a personal message from God to me. This past Monday I began work in my new role as Executive Director of Love, INC. Lake County Southwest (a new affiliate of the national ministry organization Love, INC. INC by the way, stands for “In the Name of Christ”). And as I tried to find the office where I would work on my first day, I once more needed the help of my GPS.

As has happened so many times, I took a wrong turn and needed help to get back on track to my destination. And hearing the words, “recalculating route” from the GPS reminded me that God is continually directing and redirecting my steps. Last spring when I felt God leading me to leave my church staff role, He told me little more than, “It’s time to go. I’m done using you in this assignment.” He also said, “I’m preparing another assignment for you. I’ll let you know when you can begin.”

I’m so blessed to say that I believe God has redirected my route again, as only He can do. (I’ll tell the story of how God lined this all up another time.) But for today, I can only say that I’m incredibly thankful that He shined His light at my feet and brought me to this ministry, which I believe is the next assignment for me. My prayer now is that God will use me in any way He sees fit to help churches in our area work together to spread His love, in the name of Christ! Will you pray with me? Thanks!

And God Sent Alice

One of the biggest blessings my wife Cheryl and I have received in the last couple of years is our shared adoration for Nashville TN. Cheryl went there to a conference several years in a row, then convinced me to bring our daughter Kate down down to check it out. Cheryl had been singing the praises of Nashville since her first trip. But all I could imagine was cowboy hats and the Grand Ole Opry…and maybe some good barbecue. What I found was a town that I quickly came to love. The incredible array of music (of all kinds), restaurants, cool places to shop and especially coffee shops (we’ve been on two Nashville “coffee shop tours” this year) spoke to my heart in a huge way. And then there are the people – who have been awesome all around.

During the first trip Cheryl and I made to Nashville without Kate, God gave us a triple blessing through Merridee’s Breadbasket, a fabulous bakery and restaurant, which is actually in Franklin (15-20 minutes from Nashville). Amid the welcoming atmosphere, the great coffee and some of the best baked goods we’ve ever had, there was Alice. Her charisma leapt across the counter as she greeted us. Even though we had never met Alice before, she instantly made us feel like we had lived on her block for at least thirty years.

The gravitational pull Cheryl and I had felt toward the Nashville area quadrupled immediately on meeting Alice. Within three minutes tops, we knew how long she had lived in Franklin, how much she loved it, why she had moved there from Michigan and what her husband did for a living. In addition, Alice had found out where we were from, what we did, and that we were interested possibly moving to the area. She was so excited to hear it that she wrote her name and her home phone number (Remember, she had never met us before!) on the back of one of Cheryl’s cards. We also touched briefly on churches and Alice assured us that, if it was the Lord’s will, we would be moving to Nashville. Oh yea, she took our breakfast order too.

The breakfast was on par with the rest of the stellar Merridee’s experience. A half hour later we left, filled to satisfaction with great food, carrying a bag full of hand-kneaded joy, and talking about Alice. On our next visit a few months later, we enjoyed all the same things. Except for the fact that Alice was off that day…a major disappointment.

But on our recent trip, back to the Administrators of Gospel Music conference which had brought Cheryl to Nashville in the first place, all was once again right with the world. Alice was back when we went to Merrridee’s for breakfast. As we expected, she seemed to recognize us instantly and she remembered our situation without reminder, even though Cheryl had never taken her up on the offer to call and talk Nashville. This time we briefly shared that we were trying to figure out the next leg of God’s journey for both of us: Cheryl trying to discern if God still wanted her to serve the world through copyright, and me focusing for the moment on weddings and funerals. Once again, Alice was warm, welcoming, positive and encouraging. She seemed to especially tune into my work officiating weddings. She once again took our order, then we thanked her for being such a wonderful presence in our brief encounters with her and we went to wait for our food. Ten minutes later, Alice really took on the role of “jesus with Skin.”

We were sitting on the opposite side of the restaurant finishing up another great Merridee’s meal when I felt a hand on my shoulder. A second later Alice was in front of me, telling me that she thought it was totally God’s plans for me to be doing what I’m doing. Once again, she particularly focused on weddings, but this saying even more enthusiastically that God was in it, that there was a need for people like me to perform meaningful weddings and to serve couples with a Godly heart. Alice looked me in the eye, touched my shoulder and called me by name. And, she spoke the words my heart needed to hear. I’m as confident as I can be that God sent Alice to affirm me in this ministry, at the time when I really needed that affirmation.

I can’t promise that you’ll see Alice if you go to Merridee’s, nor that God will give her a word to share with you. But I can promise that God will put people in your path who touch your heart the way Alice touched Cheryl’s and mine. And since Jesus said he wanted us to experience life in all its abundance, I can also say pretty confidently that you’ll find a little bit of heaven in Merridee’s cinnamon rolls.

Read My Tattoo pt. 1

Yesterday while driving I heard an interview with former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright on the radio. She was talking about her new book, Read My Pins. Apparently while she was SOS under Bill Clinton, she became known for the costume jewelry she wore to major international negotiations. The pins she donned reflected her feelings about the issues at hand, often making a specific commentary on the events of the day.

For example, she once wore a snake pin in reference to Saddam Hussein calling her a serpent. On another occasion Albright attended a meeting with Vladimir Putin sporting three monkey pins signifying Russia’s human rights violations in Chechnya and by association, Putin’s attitude. Albright’s simple explanation for illustrating her feelings through pins was as simple as, “It’s who I am.”

On a Sunday morning several years ago, one of the teaching pastors at the church I was attending came on stage to deliver his message and then told us he had “news.” He said he had made a big decision – one which might surprise us. He assured us he had cleared it with the church’s Elders, then he pulled up his sleeve to reveal a tattoo on his forearm. His message that day was on the topic of covenant – particularly the covenant God makes with us. He stressed the importance of understanding that entering into a covenant means that one agrees to follow-through on their end, no matter what the other party does. That of course, is how God covenants with us. No matter what we do, He lives up to what He promised. And as a way of reminding himself of that, our pastor told us he had the Hebrew word for “covenant” tattooed on his arm.

Then he told us the punchline. It was a temporary tattoo used to illustrate his point. He even gave everyone in church that day their own temporary tattoo just like his. But something inside me was so intrigued by his gesture (and by the tattoo itself) that I told myself I would one day get that tattoo on my arm, but that it wouldn’t be a temporary. I didn’t know what would need to happen to tell me the time was right, but I knew it would be something personal between God and me.

Last summer, I began to get the sense that the time to get inked was approaching. My daughter was nearing eighteen and she had decided she wanted to get a tattoo as soon as she was “legal.” I still can’t say exactly how I knew it was time to publicly display my covenant with God, but I knew it felt right. I was in the midst of a spiritual wrestling match as I tried to discern God’s will for the next phase of my ministry. As I reflect on it more than a year later, I think it may have been a gesture of trust on my part. Even though I sensed God was going to take me in a new direction, He had given me no glimpse into where He might send me next. But, I knew two things: First, I trusted Him to know what was best for me. And secondly, I knew he would reveal His plan at exactly the right time, according to His plan and not mine. And I knew He would keep those promises. So, I decided to be the family guinea pig and I went under the needle in August of 2008.

I went to the tattoo parlor with my wife, my daughter and my daughter’s friend in tow. I gave the artist the temporary tattoo I had gotten in church a couple of years before and asked him to duplicate it on my forearm. Interestingly, that one was too small to be copied exactly in the form of a real tattoo. The artist said the detail of the lines would be muddy if he made it as small as the original. As it turned out, the tattoo I got was approximately two and a half times larger than the temporary. I guess God wanted me to be BOLD in expressing my covenant with Him! Oh well…He has certainly been bold in showing His covenant with me.

I love that tattoo and what it stands for. I had hoped that many more people would ask about it than actually do. I thought it would be a great evangelism opportunity to explain how I got the tattoo and what it means. But so far, God has not chosen to use it that way very often. But just like Madeleine Albright, I feel very comfortable saying to those who do ask, and knowing deep inside myself, that it’s who I am – with God. (In future posts I’ll explain my other tattoo, and my earring .

My 2001 Prayer Revisited

My wife Cheryl and I had another couple over for dinner last Saturday. After eating we took our friends down to our family room, which happens to be where I keep many of my books. The husband looked through the shelves (something I love for guests to do) and pulled off the workbook edition of Experiencing God by Henry Blackaby. I was introduced to this great book by one of my mentors in 2001. Cheryl and I each worked through our own copy together back then. God worked in each of our lives in major ways through Blackaby’s words. We have both taught from and led groups through Experiencing God over the years. (Incidentally, both Cheryl’s and my copies were on the shelf, but my friend just happened to extract mine.)

After flipping through the pages for a minute, my friend opened the book to a particular page, handed it to me and said, “Read the comments in the margin, out loud.” In truth, I wasn’t exactly thrilled that he had pulled that book off the shelf to read through, since it was a workbook study I had actually completed. Translation: he was looking at all my personal comments! Not that I had anything to hide. I just felt suddenly vulnerable. And now, he wanted me to read one of those personal thoughts out loud!

I took a quick glance at what I had written, to make sure it wasn’t about lustful thoughts or something else not fit for mixed company. Just above my note in the margin there was a pull-quote in bold type from the text of the book that said, “You cannot stay the way you are and go with God.” After jogging my memory as to the relevance of that statement to the book, I read aloud these words, which I had written on October 18, 2001:

My prayer: Lord, you have just spoken the words above into my heart. [referring to the pull-quote] You have been trying to mold me and I have resisted. You have invited me and I have gone my own way time and time again. Please make this the day, the hour, the minute, the second, the moment that your will takes hold in me and over my life. Give me the strength to do what I cannot do alone, but only through you! Amen

In October of 2001, graduation from seminary was still nine months away. I had not started to look for ministry staff positions, partly because I thought I knew what I wanted to do after graduation (emphasis on “I”). In less than two months I would complete my internship in the Small Groups area of an organization that existed to equip church leaders to do ministry more effectively. Having worked in (and having felt very comfortable in) the business world for more than twenty years, as well as having worked for three years training pastors and small group leaders to start and lead groups in their churches, I thought that my staying on and working for that organization was the perfect path for me. In my loving and compassionate way, I knew that rather than working in an actual church, I wanted to travel around the country “kicking leaders’ butts and showing them how to do small group ministry right.” (I often used those very words.)

Thankfully, I had prayed that prayer in October. Because when my internship ended that December, I was surprised to feel like a chapter in my ministry was closing. Despite how clearly I had seen my own path to the future, I found myself in my final meeting with my internship supervisor. The conversation went something like this: “Hey, it’s been great working with you. You’ve been a good student and you’ve done a good job here. But I don’t really see that this area of ministry is exactly making your heart race and keeping you up at night.” My response was something like, “You’re right. You’ve been great and I’m really glad I got to work with you. But I don’t feel like this is the plan for me in ministry.” After leaving his office I was soon asking God, “What’s the deal? You’ve been telling me to trust you and you would reveal your plan along the way. I thought that was it! Now what am I supposed to do?”

Again, I reference my 10/21/01 prayer. God was answering it before my eyes. He had closed the door to what I thought was my ministry future. (Even though I was so good at it, and it matched-up with my skills, and I was so comfortable with it! Go figure!) God had been molding my heart and filling it with compassion (which it had been sadly lacking for most of my life). Very soon after the end of my internship, God led me to a ministry I knew little, if not nothing about, and in which I would not have foreseen myself working, ever. On December 24th, 2001, I showed up in the Pastoral Care ministry at Willow Creek. I needed to complete one more piece of field work and this was one of the few places in the church where I could do that.

I wouldn’t begin to realize it for another month or so, but God had done just what I had prayed for. He had now brought me to a place that lined-up with His plan and not mine. And without a doubt, this was a place where I would need to rely on him every single day! And God in fact showed up, day after day for the entire run of seven years I served in that ministry. I started as a student, then stayed on as a volunteer because I couldn’t imagine serving anywhere else, and shortly after that they made me part of the staff because they could see I wasn’t leaving, no matter what.

And now, eight years later I realize that I need to pray the same prayer I prayed in 2001. I need God to show up again, to change me as He sees fit, to give me his invitation to the next leg of my ministry journey. I believe that once again he will answer my prayer and “give me the strength to do what I cannot do alone,” but only through Him. Amen!

Do you need to pray that prayer, or one like it? Has there been a time in your life when you asked God to have his way in you and with you, and He did just that? What happened?

It is not good…for Joe to post alone!

Hello to all who so graciously read some of my posts. My heart is warmed when I hear from friends and colleagues that they have read something I’ve written here. I’m also hearing second hand that people have read the posts on this site. It’s fabulous! Thank you!

But I’m finding that I don’t work all that well in a vacuum. I’ve probably had at least fifteen different people tell me they had read some of the posts here and another dozen who have said they know of others who mentioned they also had.

And yet the number of comments readers have posted after reading a blog post (not counting the few friends who cheered us on in the first week after I got the site up) is hovering around…oh…one! Only one person has posted a comment to anything I’ve written.

I need you. I need your feedback. Answer one of the questions I post. Tell me what you liked about what I’ve written, or how God has spoken to you through the experiences I describe. Even if you think what I say is misguided or irrelevant! I need some feedback to stay connected. I also would like to make new connections.

So, please use the little box at the bottom of the posts to let me know you’re out there. Thanks!

Pastor Joe

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