Psalms (for the worship team)

I used to do a lot of songwriting back when Jessica and I were leading worship at the church we attended while in college, but I got away from it when I started at seminary and got into other ministry areas here at Family Church. I've always wanted to get back into it both because I enjoy writing but also because it's such a great way to stay in touch with God and what He's doing/saying.

Today I decided to do something a little different for my daily devotional. I opened my Bible up to Psalm 1, read through it, and decided to write some lyrics based on the theme of the Psalm. I put some stuff down, wrote a little melody, even worked on some of the lead and guitar lines.

Anyway, we've been talking and thinking a lot about doing a Family Church worship album and to do that, we need original songs and music! I think that we have a very, very talented group of musicians and some creative song writers. We could put together an album that would bless our congregation and potentially be a great tool for other churches in our denomination to use in their worship.

So, I would challenge all of you to join with me as I go through the Psalms, one at a time. Tomorrow I'm going to go through Psalm 2. Psalm 3 will be Thursday. I might not write songs every day, and not all (and maybe not any!) of the songs that I write will be worth recording. But, doing this will get us all in the spirit of worship. It will be contagious. It will change the attitude and atmosphere that we see on Sunday morning. I would encourage all of you to join with me as I go through the Psalms, and to start writing down your thoughts and prayers! It's out of our personal experience with God that our best worship will flow and the deeper we go with God, the deeper we'll take the congregation.

Pay Attention, the sequel

Have you read my last blog? Probably not, since I noticed that I have all of 27 views on my blogspot blog so far. (Thanks for clicking, mom!) It dealt with God speaking. I want to indulge this topic further, if that's alright with you.

Tulsa is hot. This time of year (July) the average temperature is in the high 90's. Our air conditioner runs 24/7. We had to put that expensive foil film on our west-facing living room windows just to keep half our house tolerable in the afternoon/early evening.

A couple days ago I was sitting on the couch minding my own business when a rather random and innocent thought passed through my head. "You really should change the air filter." I can't remember the last time I changed it, so it seemed like a good suggestion. I was proud of myself for thinking about it, since I don't normally do a fantastic job of thinking about things like air filters for the furnace.

Of course, I didn't actually change it. Today when I got home from church it seemed a little stuffy, especially since it was a relatively cool 88 degrees outside. I took a nap. I played with the kids. I checked my email. All the while it's getting hotter and hotter. Finally, I wise up and decide there's something wrong with the air conditioner. Apparently (according to the internet) it's possible for the air filter to get so dirty and clogged that it stops air flow within the system, somehow causing the coil to back up or something, and then freeze over. While my house was sweltering, the line from my air conditioner up to my furnace was frozen solid.

What if I had listened to that little, innocent prompting that I had a few days before? "You really should change that air filter." Obviously, my air conditioner never would have failed us. This is just one example of many, many, many others where if I had listened to the little voice inside my head (whether it's God or not) I would have saved myself a great deal of hastle and/or really blessed someone else.

As Christians, we have the Holy Spirit. Whether we chose to believe it or not, God does care about the little things in our lives. Even dirty air filters. So, I'm in process, learning to pay attention and act on those daily, innocent impulses that might just be God tapping me on the shoulder.

It's Going To Be OK

Has God ever spoken to you? I can almost guarantee that He has, whether or not you can identify a specific time/place. I’ve tried to become more conscious of God’s voice in my everyday life. Hindsight is 20/20 and recently there have been situations where I had an impulse or a thought and had I acted on it, I would have saved myself trouble down the road. Here’s one example where I DID pay attention.

You might not know much about me, so let me give you a little background on Jason, the pastor. I went to seminary at Oral Roberts University, graduating in ’03 with my Masters in Divinity. The Church of the Nazarene requires pastors to complete a Course of Study and then appear before a credentials board for approval for ordination as an elder, the highest ministerial order in the denomination. I had two courses to take after graduation, which I completed just this year, and I was all set to appear before the board to be put through the fire and hopefully approved for ordination.

I’ll admit that I was nervous. I had spent a large portion of my life preparing for this interview. I did not want to screw it up. The night before the interview, I woke up at about 4 am when I heard a voice in my head say, “It’s going to be ok”.

When I woke up the next morning, those words were still in my head. “It’s going to be ok.” I reflected on the voice and quickly decided that it was God. He was telling me not to worry about the interview. It’s going to be ok. I immediately had peace. My stress washed away. I took a deep breath. I knew that God was with me.

You don’t know how much that assurance means until you start recognizing when God speaks to you. I promise that He is. How aware are you of His voice? How often do you have impulses, thoughts, ideas, etc. that turn out to be exactly what you needed and right when you needed it? Seek out God and when you have random thoughts that pop into your head, don’t just ignore them! Recognize them for what they might be and act on them. Have some faith that your God, living and active, is speaking to you daily!

Back to the story. The interview went just fine. I got some tough questions, and I answered with confidence, convinced that God was with me and “it’s going to be ok.” It was less a trial by fire as it was a validation to me that I was ready for ordination. My work and studies had paid off. The board agreed and unanimously approved me for ordination. And they all lived happily ever after.

Well, not yet. Out on the golf course 5 hours later I got a call from Pastor Jim, our District Secretary. I have some bad news for you, Jason. Bad news? Yup, Jim said. We went back and took a look at your materials and records. The ordination rule changed with the new Manual. You have to hold a district license for 3 years before ordination. You’ve only held one for two. It’s totally our mistake, he said. It was clear that he felt just awful for the oversight and for making me go through the interview process for no reason, and just for everything. Sorry, he said. We’ve looked for all kinds of loopholes, but we just can’t ordain you this year.

My first thought to all this? Was I upset? Did I get mad? Nope. One thought echoed through my mind while Jim was explaining it all to me. “It’s going to be ok.”

I finished my round, got in the car, and God and I shared a little laugh. “It’s going to be ok”. God wasn’t talking about the interview. He knew that I would be fine there. He was talking about this, the oversight that the district made. That’s going to be ok. I had peace instead of anger. I had expectation for next year rather than disappointment. I had the impression, again from God I believe, that this was my real test and I had passed.

So, next year I’ll do it again. I’ll probably have to sit through the interview a second time. I’ll be approved then, and I’ll get my ordination. In my mind, though, it’s already done. God did it in my heart this year. Next year, men will publicly recognize that. I look forward to it.

The moral of the story? Pay attention. You never know when God is speaking to you. Don’t take seemingly random thoughts or impulses for granted. Be mindful of God’s activity in your life. Ask Him to make himself clear to you. Ask Him to speak to you. Give Him permission to interrupt your life, change your plans, and lead you on the long and narrow path. He will. I promise. It probably won’t be easy, but “it’s going to be ok.”

Expectations

We signed my 4-year old son, Jacob, up for soccer. It's just the YMCA league. Small potatoes. Nothing intimidating for such a young guy. I thought he would just love it. He loves activity. He loves playing soccer in the backyard. I had no reason to think that it would be anything other than a fun hour or two every week of kicking balls, giggling, tripping, and little kids meleeing each other.

We did what any first time parents would do. We went to Target. We bought a brand new soccer ball, size 3. We bought shin guards. We bought new clothes. We bought cleats. This kid was outfitted right. His birthday is coming up this weekend, so we made the whole soccer experience part of his birthday present.

When we arrived at practice everything went according to my and Jacob's preconceived plan. He ran around kicking the ball and having fun. Us parental types met together more officially to organize orange wedge distribution at halftime of the first game and callibrate t-shirt sizes for the kids. After that, we got down to business. It was practice time.

Have you seen that new E-Trade commercial where the baby is online trading stocks and he uses some of his dividends to hire a clown? "I really under estimated the creepiness", the baby says. Well, Jacob and I really under estimated the "fail factor".

After showing the kids what dribbling a soccer ball is, Coach Kelly told them to line up, dribble down to the goal, shoot, and hopefully score. Fun first activity, right? Jacob gets all excited. You can see his little mind turning at 9000 rpm. He was going to run down there, dribble the ball perfectly, and then kick it into the goal with such force and power as to wow all us onlookers and God in heaven.

Unfortunately, his mind failed to communicate effectively that vision to his feet. He started dribbling and of course the ball got away. That didn't seem to deter him. He chased after it, still kicking, this time further away from the goal. Eventually he realized what was going wrong, righted himself, and started back toward the promised land. Immortality was still in his grasp.

He dribbled once more. Then twice. He was right by the goal. Victory was near. He reered back, kicked with all his might. He missed the goal by three feet.

It was all just a little too much for him. Missing the goal. Dribbling awkwardly. The new clothes. The fancy shin guards. The new shoes. The shiny ball. It was supposed to go in! It was supposed to be perfect! His little mind turned and turned. He passed 9000 rpm, heading straight for the red line. Warning! Warning! A blown gasket was a real possibility at this point.

He gathered his ball, on the edge of tears already, then turned and beelined back toward the other goal. He dribbled. He veered. He lost control. He missed again.

This time, he couldn't contain his emotions. He had failed. He was a miserable soccer player. It wasn't supposed to be like this. He cried. He sat down on the field. He threw his ball in disgust. He put on a nice show.

Expectation. It's a magical word. In many ways it defines how we experience life. Jacob expected to be a soccer pro at age 4. He expected his new shin guards, cleats, clothes, and ball to magically provide him with advanced soccer skill. He expected to do well and score and make me proud. When he couldn't do that on his first attempt, he didn't know what to do except cry and give up.

Expectation. I expected Jacob to have fun. I didn't expect him to get upset and cry over one missed goal. I didn't expect him to think that his new equipment would give him ability that he didn't have and probably couldn't have at that age. I expected him to fail, and, unfortunately, I expected him to expect that.

This post isn't really about Jacob's failure, but my failure. I prepared my son for soccer physically. I didn't prepare him emotionally. We should have talked about what to do when you fall down. I should have told him weeks in advance that he was going to miss. He was going to fail. He was going to have the ball taken away. He wasn't going to bend it like Beckham at his first practice.

We all face crappy circumstances. There are times when what actually happens doesn't match our expectations. That's why it's so important that we see ourselves from God's perspective. We need to make our goals God's goals. We need to expect of ourselves what God expects of us, nothing more and nothing less. Then, we can trust that God will be with us, helping us, preparing us in advance for trials and opportunities.

Yesterday I took Jacob outside and we talked about soccer. I showed him all kinds of new things. I told him what to do when he falls down. I told him what the other kids are going to do to him at his game on Saturday. After we do this a few more times, Jacob is going to be mentally and physically prepared to play ball on gameday.

God won't send you into a situation that He hasn't prepared you to face. He's not like me, just a simple dad. That doesn't mean it will be easy. Far from it. Still, He will be there to help. He will put people in your life that can help you succeed. God has not forsaken us. We can rely on that. Failure is often just the first step toward success.

Green Screen

Ever have one of those weeks where you're not really feeling spiritual? You just go through your day, doing your thing, and God's there somewhere, just not making himself obvious to you? This video blog hits on that, and maybe gives you a little inspiration on how to connect with God when you're not really feeling "it"... whatever "it" is.



We have all kinds of other videos at http://www.familychurch.tv/skits.htm. Check them out sometime.

What is "The Stomp Box"

What is "The Stomp Box"? It's a place where I'm going to write my thoughts, prayers, and ideas. There's something magical about taking an idea, a thought, or an insight and working it into an interesting, logical, and hopefully humorous string of words. I'm a creative writer. I have a novel that will hopefully reach publication soon (if the publishing company will get moving). Hopefully some of my writing ability will show itself here, and you'll get something slightly better than the average blog. Maybe not. That's for you to judge. Regardless, I'm glad that you're reading, and I hope to provide you with content that will at least make you think, and at most take a couple minutes out of your week.

Check back often! I'll try to blog once a week or more. Sometimes I might try video blogs just to mix things up.

If you are a FamilyChurch attender, please reply! I want to know that you're reading. I want to hear from you. We will also have more blogs coming up from other staff members, including David, Buddy, and Pastor Brett.