Month: September 2021

Homecoming

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Homecoming

It’s Homecoming Season for most of the local High Schools and Colleges.  Depending on your school experience, or the experiences of your kids this may or may not be a big deal to you.  In our small town, it’s a pretty big event that spreads out over two days. 

Friday night bonfires, Volleyball games, BBQs and games, followed by Saturday’s Parade, Football games and culminating in the homecoming dance.

Our small town experience is very different than my experiences growing up in a large suburban school.  Homecoming was a dance if you were into dances, it was game if you were into football, it came and went, only those directly interested participated.  But here in small town Colorado, I know I will see people of all different ages and interests show up to these events.  Kids that don’t play sports will decorate floats and cheer on games, kids that don’t dance or don’t want a date will hang out with their friends anyway, the volleyball girls will cheer just as loudly as the cheerleaders at the football game, and the football players will probably dress up in some sort of theme and cheer louder for the Volleyball games than anyone else in attendance.

The parade route will run through town and be lined with infants, toddlers, elementary school kids, parents and grandparents; the parade floats will be filled with Middle School & High School students, Band members, Sports teams, and Cub Scouts.  There will probably be a few horses, definitely several tractors and a few of the coolest cars that are stored in barns and rarely come out to play.

It will be a weekend of Community.  And at it’s very core, it will remind our hearts that this is what we are created for.

We are created to gather together, to encourage each other, to accomplish things together, to battle together, to win or lose together,  to cheer each other on.  To share a meal, and dance and laugh, to tell stories around a bonfire.

And because we are blessed to be in small town America, there will still be a prayer offered before the game, we will stand together and sing the national anthem and the noise of dissention and politics will quiet for a while.

This may not be your community’s Homecoming experience, it wasn’t mine.  For most of my life,  I found my weekly homecoming in showing up to Church on Sundays or small groups during the week.  There, people celebrated me, battled with me, cheered me on, stood with me, prayed with me, and set differences aside.

I’ve talked a lot about the value of our circles recently, I guess at the end of the post, that’s what this one is all about too.  Regardless of what season of life you are in, or how connected your city is, I invite you to celebrate your own homecoming this week.

Connect with your community, celebrate, cheer, and encourage… maybe even do it around a bonfire! 

 

 

 

Our Song

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In the Mountain & the Seas

My Journey with Jesus began in California.  Well, that might now be entirely accurate, since with the beauty of hindsight, I can see many God touches over the course of my childhood… but my conscious decision to follow Jesus and my participation in the Journey started in a little community church in Northern California.  From there Jesus took me (via marriage, the navy, and finally civilian life) to Washington, Alaska and finally (at least for now) Colorado.  Throughout that journey there is one reoccurring worship song that surfaces when I pause and sit with Jesus, and take in my surroundings.  I first learned it in that little Community Church in California, I remember singing it again in Washington as I stood on the Ferry between Bremerton and Seattle, and again on a trip to the Olympic Peninsula.  I heard it often, while surrounded by the beauty of Alaska.  Mountain & Seas both in the same place one rising up out of the other.  Finally, here in Colorado it has come to visit at every single mountain retreat I have led or attended.  And even now, over 30 years since the first time I heard it, it still floats thru my mind regularly.

I can’t find it online, google searches have turned up empty, I reached out to a group of people I used to go to church with back in California to see if any of them remembered it, but so far no success.  If this were a video blog and I could carry a tune, I would sing it for you, but alas, you are stuck with my written word.

“As I look to the mountains, I see your beauty.                                                    As I look to the seas, your might is revealed.                                                    And in the solitude of the morning, Lord your peace fills my aching soul.      You are the holy One (you are the holy One)                                                   You are the Lamb of God (you are the lamb)                                                   You are the One that I bow down too.”

I have sung this song in celebration and I have sung it in desperation.  I have sung it in a crowded church and in the loneliest of seasons.  I have sung it smiling, and I have sung it through sobbing tears.  And I have sung it smiling through sobbing tears.  Somehow, over the years, this has become Jesus’ and my song.  I have talked about and written about the fact that I don’t think I appreciate the beauty of nature as much as the average bear, but then God sends a humming bird (another story for another day), or I realize that “our song” is all about seeing God in nature, and I laugh.  Certainly, God has a sense of humor… but more than that, what else to I miss because I don’t pay attention or don’t think it’s “my thing.”

This week I find myself once again staring at the beauty and majesty of mountains and seas.  My parents have invited their 3 adult children and their spouses on an Alaskan Cruise.  I have not been back to Alaska in 20 years, and truthfully have never been in this part of the state, but I am surrounded at all times by seas and mountains.  And I am in another season of change.  And God is speaking to me through our song.

As I navigate the intricacies of a family vacation (pros and cons), enjoy the beauty of the here and now, and ponder the “what’s next” when I get home, I am gently reminded.  The God that created this, and there really isn’t a better word than Majestic to encompass it, is in fact the beautiful, mighty, peaceful, holy lamb of God that I bow down to.  And once again, at the end of myself (you’d think I’d learn that lesson). He is there and so I consciously choose to release it all to Him, knowing that He already has plans for me.  My prayer is that you can too.  Sit at his feet, talk through your worries and concerns, and let Him remind you of his power and glory and His love for you.

Circle

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Who’s in your Circle?

A few weeks ago a former coworker sought me out to talk.  In our conversation he expressed deep pain and loneliness since he had left his position in ministry.  He was only sporadically attending a church and still hurting from his most recent ministry experience.  He said, “I am drowning, and I don’t know what to do.”

He is not alone.  In the midst of ministry and amazing service, we can lose ourselves.  Our work, our co-workers, our boss, our friends, our family, our church, and our employees are all the same people.  When things are good, this beautiful harmony, common vision and mission, and constant contact feels good, powerful even, unstoppable. But when things take a turn, hard seasons, painful relationship rifts, and unwelcome change, can quickly feel like we are losing everything.

I have been in this season, if you work or serve in full-time ministry you have probably been through this season.  It can be so hard.  In my story, in a season of incredible church growth, it became apparent that a good friendship was not going to survive the growing pains of our ministry.  It broke my heart, I held on longer than I probably should have, I turned a blind eye to manipulations and disagreements that ultimately ended up hurting us both more.  I wish I had done it differently, but I was also feeling so alone.  We had been in this together, the two of us against the world in growing a ministry, but in the midst of fierce opposition  when it became apparent that our relationship was struggling, I realized I had made a mistake.  I didn’t have a circle of people, I had one person, and I was losing her.

God, in his infinite wisdom and mercy, intervened.  He highlighted other women, other people who I had kept at a safe distance during our “just the two of us” friendship.  He brought people to speak some truth into my life and to encourage and love.  Some of them spoke painful truth, some of them showed grace and love and understanding that I didn’t deserve, some of them re-engaged friendship.  And in that season, a season of hurt and loneliness, God built this incredible circle of friends in my life.

What I didn’t know then was that He was building a circle that would sustain many hard seasons moving forward.  That five years later this group would be my lifeline as once again significant changes in ministry happened.  They would be my council, my strength, my sympathetic ears, and my hard truth advisors in serious growth and pain moments.  They would be my strongest allies when I stayed to fight, and they would be my fiercest prayer warriors when God began to speak of moving to something new.

I probably could have done it without them, I’m glad I didn’t have to.  

This weekend, I was incredibly blessed to be able to spend the weekend with two woman of my circle.  One of them moved away two years ago, and what was intended to be only a separation of distance but with regular visits,  because of COVID turned into a much longer time.  The other, while still local, changes in our work and ministry callings mean that we don’t see each-other as much as we used to.  A last minute plan to meet up took shape and the three of us spent 2 days reconnecting, talking, and laughing together.  We weaved our way through current events, life changes, spiritual health, healing, and family updates.  We sat pool side and dreamed a little about the future.  We shared tender moments and a hurting heart for the brokenness of our world, and were exceptionally kind to the people we interacted with.  We did nothing and yet everything.  

And I was reminded, we all need this.  I need a circle.  You need a circle.  The former co-worker I started this story with needs a circle.  The good news is God knows that, and He is preparing one for you, but you have to pay attention.  You have to be intentional.  Don’t be like me and wait for the most painful parts of your story, to allow God to bring in your circle, be proactive.

At first glace, my circle wouldn’t all make sense.  I have super sensitive people and tell it like it is people.   Ministry People and Secular Work World people. Funny and serious. Young moms and Grandmas. Sarcastic and gentle.  But beneath the differences, what my circle is, is a group of women genuinely seeking the will of God in their lives.  Committed to being better people, better wives, mothers, employees, friends.  Committed to asking “where is Jesus” in that.  Committed to having hard conversations and staying in it when it get’s hard.  These are my people and I am eternally grateful for them.

Who is in your circle?  Who are your people?  There is no magic number.  I have 8 in my inner circle, Jesus had 12.  Do you have 1? (I might argue that 2 people don’t really make a circle, but it’s a start.)  If you know who your circle is, if you can easily identify the people who will stand with you, fight for and with you, speak truth and love in equal measure, then I applaud you.  Enjoy.  However, if that is not your story, it’s time to seek God, to ask for names, to open doors and conversation.

We are after all created for relationship.  Will you choose today to connect with your circle if you haven’t done so in a while, or to begin to ask Jesus who is supposed to be in your circle.  It will change your life.