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!

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.

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 .

"covenant"

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?

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

Now since we all worked in care ministry together, I was sure that, although the transition time would be hard, we would all get through it relatively unscathed. And even though we were no longer a ministry team, we would easily maintain the same relationships we had enjoyed for years…one-to-one relationships as well as for the group as a whole.

For the first month or two, that was the case. We called, emailed, met for coffee and lunch, planned some group gatherings, just like we always had. For the next couple of months the interaction seemed to slow a bit. I was tempted to think that things had changed, but I knew that couldn’t be the case for the Dream Team.

And then in the last month, some conflict arose. Out of nowhere I found myself in an argument with one of the former team members I was closest to. We were at odds over an incident involving the church where that person is still part of the staff, and where I am not. This person with whom I had once seen eye-to-eye with on so many things, who had faced trouble arm-in-arm with me was now on the other side of the fence from me and we were arguing over who was supposed to trim the overhanging branches.

I’m normally the first one to welcome a conflict, to want to get to the bottom of a disconnect, especially if I’m involved in it. But this time it was different. This person…these people (there was a subset of the team present during our disagreement), were suddenly unable to connect with me. I couldn’t be brought back to center. I left feeling hurt and angry. (And I felt certain my former colleague on the other side of the fence was leaving the same way.)

For the next week I thought of the incident constantly. What was going on? What happened to these relationships that I held so dear? What happened to the Dream Team? Within the second week following the disagreement I was able to get together with that person, at the prompting of another former Dream Team member, and we talked through what had happened. We parted friends and made plans to meet for coffee as soon as we could. But I knew something had changed.

The following week I had a one-to-one meeting with another member of the Dream Team. I shared the basic details of my reconciliation meeting, then I processed the whole thing with this person. I expressed remaining confusion over what had happened, both during that disagreement and since. I just didn’t get it.

But, the person I was meeting with had no trouble hitting the nail on the head. “We were all trying to hang on to something special we had, but it’s over and we can’t get it back.” I wanted to argue, to counter, to prove the person wrong. But I couldn’t find an ounce of energy or a single word to do that. The words rang true. I hated to admit it, but they did.

I’ve spent the last couple of weeks trying to understand how I could have missed it…how I could have thought that the special chemistry, the unique relationships the team had, with one another and as a whole could be preserved. We all knew God had brought us together to do His work. I knew it more than anyone and as their leader, I reminded them of that fact at least every week for years.

I’ve known for a long time that sometimes a thing has to die before a new beginning can be seen. I’ve experienced it, I’ve shared it, I’ve taught it. But sometimes life catches us by surprise. In this case, I was too close to the loss of what had been so special to see it objectively. I’ll always love these people as much as I could love any family member. And I’ll give thanks for the rest of my life that God gave me the privilege of working with them. And now that I’m beginning to accept that the Dream Team as we knew it has to die, I can be on the lookout for the new beginnings God has in store for each of us, not according to our plans, but according to His.

Are there things that you’re holding on to that you know you should let go? Things you’re breathing life into that perhaps you should let die? What are they?

In an attempt to focus energy on something she loves (cooking), Julie decides to cook her way through every recipe in Julia Child’s first book over the course of one year, while at the same time writing a daily blog about the ups and downs of the endeavor. During that year Julie learns an enormous amount about cooking, about Julia Child, and about herself. She spends so much time with Julia via her books and videos that she establishes what to her is a significant relationship with the famous cook. For Julie, it is a relationship with a woman she has never met, but who nonetheless influences her life in a very deep way.

As I reflected on the movie I was reminded of some of the people I would call mentors in my own life. I’ve always been aware that God put people in my life who would direct and guide me in a special way, who would listen and offer feedback, who would share themselves with me. I also know that God has put others in my life to accomplish pretty much the same things, even though I never knew those people personally. And I can honestly say that those people have had nearly as much impact on me as those I’ve actually done life with for a time.

In my early years in business in the ’80s I discovered Dale Carnegie’s books and training courses. This man, who passed away in 1955, did more than anyone else with the exception of my wife in shaving off some of my very rough edges. Sales gurus like Brian Tracy and Tom Hopkins taught me that it was o.k. to bring a sales presentation to a close and actually ask for an order without being pushy or unprofessional.

Zig Ziglar was another author and speaker who showed me a vision of life that I desperately needed. I was never really wired to be a “sales guy”, but that was my profession for a number of years and Zig Ziglar helped me adjust my attitude in ways that no boss ever could. And even though I never met Zig, nor even saw him speak in person, he influenced more than just my work life. He also spoke into my spiritual life at a time when I was very far from God.

I was traveling somewhere in the U.S. and my long-distance mentor was speaking in Chicago. Since I could not attend, my wife Cheryl went to see him in my place. Afterward Zig was signing autographs and Cheryl approached him with my copy of his best known book, See You at the Top. She didn’t say anything about my spiritual condition, rather she simply told him that he had been a big influence on her husband’s life and that I was out in the field putting his teaching into practice. Without further conversation, he took the book from her and wrote, “Joe, I’ll see you at the top! Zig.” And for no rational reason I have ever been able to figure, underneath his signature Zig Ziglar wrote, “Eph 2:8-9.” Cheryl stepped aside and watched him sign more books for people, but she didn’t see him write that verse for anyone else. Apparently God wanted to use Zig to clue me in to the fact that there was only one way I could be saved.

But the most significant flesh-and-blood mentor God has put in my life is someone I have seen speak in person many, many times and whose taped messages I’ve listened to endlessly for nearly twenty years. In addition, I have actually met him and shaken his hand. In fact, I worked on his church staff for nearly seven years.

One particular summer, going back maybe nine years, I was a volunteer leader at this man’s church and I was working through a leadership study with two other leaders. One was a volunteer like me and the other a staff member. Approximately halfway through the study we came to the chapter on mentors. The key question for that lesson was, “Who has been the most significant mentor in your life?” All three of us had the same answer: “The most significant mentor in my life has been Bill Hybels.”

Even though I no longer work on Bill’s staff at Willow Creek, even though I only interacted face-to-face with him a few times (the longest interaction lasting maybe five minutes), I can still honestly say that no individual has been more of a mentor in my life. A series of his messages helped me reconcile my head and my heart, which brought me across the line of faith in 1991. His teaching on leadership helped me greatly to co-lead the company Cheryl and I used to own. His concept of the “Kingdom Dream Team” gave me a vision for the power of like minded individuals working together for a common purpose, which was a huge part of the equipping I needed to build and lead both volunteer and staff teams at Willow. He taught me to be a coach of others, because of the way he coached me from the stage at Willow and through his message tapes. And most importantly, more than anyone else, Bill taught me what it meant to be a fully devoted follower of Jesus Christ.

Who are the mentors in your life? Are they people who you have actually “done life” with, or have they influenced you long distance? Either way, I encourage you to thank God for putting those people on earth, and for using them to help shape who you are and who you are becoming.

But since leaving my staff position and heading out with my buddy Rev. Eaton, I’ve realized that everything we’re doing as “independent pastors” is about being Christ. Whether we’re calling on funeral homes to tell them how we can serve families who have lost a loved one, or actually serving those families, or meeting with couples to prepare for their wedding ceremony, or working with churches to train their congregations to care, we’re representing Christ. (And sometimes equipping others to do it too.) We’re doing the same in every setting: listening carefully, responding honestly, looking for opportunities to bring Jesus in the conversation whenever we’re led.

How about you? I’d love to hear from others who happen upon this post to share how they see themselves as Jesus with Skin when they do the things they do in their everyday life (work, home, leisure).

The verse for the day was Isaiah 51:11 – But now, all you who light fires and provide yourselves with flaming torches, walk in the light of your fires and of the torches you have set ablaze. This is what you shall receive from my hand: You will lie down in torment. Having just gone through a year-long process seeking God’s will for the next phase of my ministry and life journey, and having ended that process by following what felt like a very clear leading to leave the church staff position I had held for nearly seven years (a very hard leading to act on for many reasons), I felt God’s hand of affirmation on my shoulder. I needed that affirmation from God. But I also needed (and will always need) the reminder that the only clear path to walk is that which is lit by His light. (Part of what was interesting about that piece of the story is that I discovered the next day that I had actually read the devotion for the WRONG DAY! I read the March 30 devotion on March 31 by accident!)

Finally, in addition to my staff farewell booty, I was for the first time accompanied by a GPS housed in my new phone. I’ve never had nor used a GPS before. But since I wanted to find the hotel without struggle, as well as finding a spice store and a few other somewhat obscure locations, I gave the thing a try. I immediately realized that I would have faced a fair amount of frustration had I relied on my own instincts to get to those places. A map would have helped a little. And MapQuest would have been a good option, but I’ve been misled by that before. But the little voice coming out of my phone was incredible. It knew the names of tiny little obscure streets, it immediately recalculated my route when I foolishly second-guessed it and a flag popped up on the screen when I reached my destinations.

On my second morning in Madison, when I went back to reread the devotion from Isaiah 51 and realized I had read the wrong day, I pondered both the verse and the GPS experience. And I found that God was using both to speak to me. And He was saying the same thing through His Word and the GPS. “Follow me.” “I know the plans I have for you…” “My paths are straight and I’ll shine a light at your feet always.”

Now if I can just keep my ears open for the voice that says, “Recalculating route…make the next legal U-Turn and proceed in the opposite direction,” I might stay on course just a little better and avoid some of the turmoil that comes with providing my own torch!