Tag Archives: Spiritual journey

January 5, 2020 · 6:25 pm

Traveling the Spiritual Journey

After more than a year out of the pulpit, I returned this week to fill in for our senior pastor. So as the new year starts, I start a new phase, too. I pray this message helps you. Thank you for reading.

Remember playing hide & seek?  The rules are simple: one closes their eyes and counts while the others run to find hiding places.  Then when the count is finished, the counter must go off and find the hidden ones.  

Posssum with me on the Missouri River at Portland, MO.

Now my buddy Possum has a little twist to the game.  When we brought him home, he loved to be chased.  He would look at me, then take off running and I was supposed to run after him.  He ‘hides’ under the bed, but his tale always sticks out so it is easy to ‘find’ him.

The game continues when I tag him, and he takes off running again.  My job is to chase.  And to add to the picture, he likes to run with a toy or a plastic bottle.  If I throw it, he takes off, grabs it and heads right back under the bed where I ‘find’ him.  

Fortunately, Havanese puppies love to run and play in short spurts.  After about three or four times down the hall and up and down the stairs, he suddenly just stops.  Game over. 

Here is my question:  Is our spiritual journey like a hide and seek game with God?  

Let us begin with prayer:

Open our hearts, Lord, so that we see you in our faith journey and help others find you in their lives, too.  –Amen.ˆ

            We all have a story about our life journeys, and mine landed me in Warrensburg when the Johnson County school districts inaugurated an alternative education program.  This professional move dropped me into a new community where the one thing I knew would be familiar was the Methodist church.  I joined choir, something I had long missed.  I started attending Sunday school and gradually moved into teaching the MeMarCo class.

            The professional move did not begin my spiritual journey, but this church nurtured me and has been instrumental in God finding me.  You see, I had been playing hide and seek with God’s calling and it ended here when I was asked one simple questions: “Why haven’t you been a preacher?”

            Throughout my Methodist life, I have known many ministers, but I had never sat down and shared my story; but something sent me to sit down in this church’s office to share my story.   That conversation led to one simple question, “Why haven’t you been a preacher?”  I was startled and realized I had only one answer, “No one had ever asked me.”  

Each one of us has a story filled with people, circumstances, challenges and successes, but how many of us still are in a game of hide and seek with God.  My story is probably very similar to yours, and I have been blessed that I was raised in a faith-based family.   Still, I know that for years, I played hide and seek with God.

After completing the discernment process, my spiritual journey became more formalized attending the Course of Study.  And what I had suspected about spirituality developed into a clearer picture, especially in understanding John Wesley’s means of grace.

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Our spiritual journey begins with our birth; and for those raised in a Christian family we have the advantage of knowing that God loves us from the  very beginning.  We are born with the Holy Spirit drawing us to God; this is Wesley’s prevenient grace.

As we grow up, our spiritual journey begins.  For myself, I was nurtured by my family and I am thankful for the teaching because it helped me learn how God loves us and forgives us when we make mistakes.  For Wesley, the ability to understand that our sins are forgiven is the means of grace called justification.  

Our spiritual journey develops through the four levels of grace.  For those raised in a Christian environment, the transition from one phase to the next is logical, but for others God uses his disciples (which can be us) or experiences to reach out to them.  Yet we do learn that God is beside us through all the earthly challenges that confront us.  We learn that even when we make a mistake, God is there waiting for us to ask for his forgiveness and return to a faithful relationship with him.

Still, life keeps racing forward and we have a tendency to return to that game of hide and seek with God.  We may walk through the practices of being faithful, but we may not consciously seek him.  Learning to ‘hear’ God speaking to us is often difficult.

            Despite how different our spiritual journeys began–whether born into it, married into it, or forced into it by life experiences bringing–we find God and discover he is speaking to us.  

            When we reach the third level of Wesley’s means of grace, we hear God more clearly.  Sanctification is the point in our spiritual journey that we know God personally and have a love for him that translates into love, unconditional love, for one another, our neighbors. We reach a new level of spirituality that sends us seeking God rather than hiding from him.

            When I was asked that one question, “Why haven’t you been a preacher?”, I had to stop and examine my own spiritual journey.  Hear Paul speaking to the Corinthians in his second letter:

5 Examine yourselves to see whether you are living in the faith. Test yourselves. Do you not realize that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless, indeed, you fail to meet the test! 6 I hope you will find out that we have not failed. 7 But we pray to God that you may not do anything wrong—not that we may appear to have met the test, but that you may do what is right, though we may seem to have failed. 8 For we cannot do anything against the truth, but only for the truth. –2 Corinthians 13:5-8 (NRSV)

I challenge you to examine yourself.  Are you still playing hide and seek, or are you in the process of growing in love with God and one another?  The spiritual journey never stops; there is no retirement or aging out along one’s spiritual journey.  We must continue to grow in faith moving toward the final level of grace:  perfection.  Wesley defines perfection as “growing in love for God and our neighbors, and he believed that the kingdom of Heaven could be reached even before death. 

Our earthly journey can challenge us in so many ways that our spiritual journey gets sidetracked or overpowered.  At those times, we need a support system or spiritual practices to weather the storms along the journey.  A Christ-like life takes discipline.  

God challenges us to use our gifts to serve one another in love, unconditional love:

4 Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; 5 and there are varieties of services, but the same Lord; 6 and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who activates all of them in everyone. 7 To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.  –1 Corinthians 12:4-11 (NRSV)

            God gives us these gifts so that we can serve as his hands and feet.  It takes all of us using these gifts to help each other along the spiritual journey support ing one another through relationships, experiences, and learning.  We help discipline each other.

Through my spiritual journey, I can list the people who have guided me in developing my faith.  I can also list experiences that filled my developing years:  the 3rd-grade gift of a mustard seed necklace, a summer youth minister, the United Methodist Women sending me to their mission school, and even being assigned to the religion page in journalism school.  The landmarks in my spiritual journey just kept popping up and I did not ‘see’ them.  I kept playing hide and seek with God.  

Consider the Magi, the wise men of the East.  They saw a star and it called them to follow it to find the baby Jesus in a manger.  They were not Israelites.  Yet they saw the star and decided to go and see what it was calling them to learn.  They were ‘seeking’ God, no longer ‘hiding’ from his call.  They listened; and they followed what God told them, leaving and not returning to Herod with their new knowledge.  

Preparing to lead Rick Warren’s 40 Days of Purpose campaign, I came to that one chapter, the one I call the Wesley chapter (I believe it was chapter 33.).  There was the quote from John Wesley:

Do all the good you can, by all the means you can, in all the ways you can, in all the places you can, at all the times you can, to all the people you can, as long as ever you can. 

The words stopped me cold.  I was a cradle Methodist and I was so surprised that Warren was using it because he was a Baptist minister!  I was preparing to lead the church’s 40 Days of Purpose campaign, and there I sat on the front porch in awe of what God was telling me.

            I knew the scriptures, I attended church regularly, I felt like I was doing what I was called to do—teach alternative education.  I was doing all the good that I could—or least I thought I was.  And then came that question, “Why haven’t you been a preacher?”

Each one of us has a spiritual journey.  We live our lives growing up in families who do or do not attend church.  We go to work at jobs that may or may not be fulfilling.  We go in and out of relationships with family and friends that can be hurtful or enriching.  We can get in our cars and drive from one destination to another without incident or we become entangled in an accident.  

Our lives are journeys, but how we live them makes such a difference in the quality of that journey.  When I finally had to stop and review the journey that I was living, I had to realize that I had been playing hide and seek with God.  He had been calling and I had not heard him.

Today we are closing out the Christmas holiday season with Epiphany tomorrow, January 6.  Our journey continues much like the Magi.  They chose to return to their homes knowing they had met the Messiah.  They listened to God’s direction, not to Herod’s.  

As we continue our own journeys, we must make sure that we no longer play hide and seek with God.  We need to turn around and realize God sees us and is asking us to follow him.  I challenge each of you to seek God rather than hide from him. Examine your practices to see what needs improving in order to move from one type of grace to the next. 

Today, make the decision to improve your spiritual journey.  Decide what you can do so your spiritual journey moves you on to perfection?  Are you able to use your gifts to help others along their spiritual journey as part of sanctification?  Or do you want to improve your own understanding of God’s grace through study and Christian conversation?  

As Paul told the Philippians, in chapter 4 verse 13:

13 I can do all things through him who strengthens me. (NRSV) 

Do not be afraid because God will make sure you can do all that you can for all you can in any way you can.  God has loved you, loves you, and always will love you.  It is your turn to seek him.

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August 20, 2018 · 8:36 am

Going home . . .

 

Over the weekend, we made a trip back to my hometown, Montgomery City, where the annual Old Threshers was the drawing card.

 

Old Threshers is a trip back to the past.  The old steam engines were on display working like they did when they first joined farmers in the hard work that had to be done—harvesting, cutting logs into boards, and more.

 

And that is not all.  The tractors of my childhood and even before all line up for everybody to review and remember.  I always look for the Oliver 66, which is the tractor Dad taught me to drive and the one I like the best.

 

There are other displays and activities, but there is something about seeing that Oliver 66 and the others from my past.  There is a magic that occurs when the steam whistles sound, the steam puffs up toward the clouds, and not to mention the smell of the freshly cut cedar planks.

 

But Old Threshers, this year, was special.  I visited with old church members, cousins, and neighbors. Recognition had to be awakened. Stories had to be shared.  But most important was sharing the past with the future.

 

For the first time, my grandchildren walked the fair grounds with me.  They saw the equipment for the first time.  They heard some of the stories of my parents and my childhood.  And I felt my heart soar.

 

And the day expanded as we returned to the farm.  I got to share the house with my daughter-in-law for the first time.  I watched the awe as she and her son/my grandson looked at Mom’s piano.  It continues to sit there waiting even though the keys are in bad shape and tuning has not been done in decades.

 

And the grands met their cousins!  Yes, the next generation met for the first time.  My kids with their cousins.  My grandkids with their cousins.  My brother, too, along with me and our cousins.  Wow!

 

I know, the experience was everything to me and not so everything for everybody else. But I am reminded that family is family. I am reminded that when we expand our family by joining in new families, home never really changes.

 

For years, I have thought about why I was so eager to leave home after college.  I have wondered why home always stays with you.  I went home regularly.  I really did not divorce myself from home.

 

But life divorced me from home.  Life circumstances can distance us from the very foundation of our lives. True, I became distanced from home; but I never became distanced from the foundations taught me at home.

 

My parents came from different faith backgrounds.  True they were both Protestants, Mom a Presbyterian and Dad a Methodist.  But when they married, the decision was to be a Methodist family.

 

My faith journey began with their faith journey.  And my faith home remained Methodist, even with a brief visit with a Presbyterian congregation.

 

When I returned home over the weekend, the first face I recognized was a member of that Montgomery City Methodist church.  How warming it was to feel that sense of recognition and to glory in that relationship.

 

The recognition reminded me that we are all of one family.  We may have different parents, different genetics, but the common ground of faith makes us so close to one another regardless of location or distance defined by years.

I find myself thinking about Jesus’ parable of the Prodigal Son:

  • How many times do we walk away from the foundations of our lives thinking we could do better?
  • How many times do we avoid going home?
  • How many times do we ignore what we are taught, esp. about God?
  • How many times does our life decisions risk poisoning our lives?
  • How many times do we think we cannot go home?

 

The parable shared in Luke , speaks to all of us at so many different levels.

 

As a parent, we do our best to raise our children so they know they are loved and will always be loved.  We know we have to discipline them at times.  We know we have to let them grow up.  We know we have to accept their decisions even if we disagree. Yet, we pray they succeed and that they come home; not permanently but emotionally.

 

As a child, we all know that as we grow up, we look forward to living as independently.  We grow up and move on.  Maybe like me, I never wanted to be labeled a teacher, marry a farmer, and stay in my childhood community.  But, I also never expected to face some of the challenges I did.

 

Thank goodness my parents laid the foundation for me life that included God and church.  I fled that farm life, but I never left the church.  My life challenges certainly knocked me down, but with my faith in God, I kept going.

 

The story of the Prodigal Son is as much a story of me leaving and returning as it is as a parent who watches children leave.  God provides unconditional love to all always.  It is us who must find our way home.

 

Going home is tough, true.  But going home warms the heart and the benefits are immeasurable.

 

Going home this weekend was a delight.  My family that remains in Montgomery were there.  My family who live outside of Montgomery, were there. My heart was warmed by all the memories, all the relationships, and all the promises of the future.

 

My prayer is that all of my family and friends from my childhood, from today, and from the future know that they are loved.  There is enough unconditional love from God to accept all the mistakes we make, but we may not know it until we stray away.

 

Thank you, God, for all the love and all the grace and all the forgiveness that you provide.  I hope I model it for others, too.  –Amen.

 

Luke 15:11-32:  Parable of the Lost Son

11 To illustrate the point further, Jesus told them this story: “A man had two sons. 12 The younger son told his father, ‘I want my share of your estate now before you die.’ So his father agreed to divide his wealth between his sons.

 

13 “A few days later this younger son packed all his belongings and moved to a distant land, and there he wasted all his money in wild living. 14 About the time his money ran out, a great famine swept over the land, and he began to starve. 15 He persuaded a local farmer to hire him, and the man sent him into his fields to feed the pigs. 16 The young man became so hungry that even the pods he was feeding the pigs looked good to him. But no one gave him anything.

 

17 “When he finally came to his senses, he said to himself, ‘At home even the hired servants have food enough to spare, and here I am dying of hunger! 18 I will go home to my father and say, “Father, I have sinned against both heaven and you, 19 and I am no longer worthy of being called your son. Please take me on as a hired servant.”’

 

20 “So he returned home to his father. And while he was still a long way off, his father saw him coming. Filled with love and compassion, he ran to his son, embraced him, and kissed him.21 His son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against both heaven and you, and I am no longer worthy of being called your son.[a]’

 

22 “But his father said to the servants, ‘Quick! Bring the finest robe in the house and put it on him. Get a ring for his finger and sandals for his feet. 23 And kill the calf we have been fattening. We must celebrate with a feast, 24 for this son of mine was dead and has now returned to life. He was lost, but now he is found.’ So the party began.

 

25 “Meanwhile, the older son was in the fields working. When he returned home, he heard music and dancing in the house, 26 and he asked one of the servants what was going on.27 ‘Your brother is back,’ he was told, ‘and your father has killed the fattened calf. We are celebrating because of his safe return.’

 

28 “The older brother was angry and wouldn’t go in. His father came out and begged him,29 but he replied, ‘All these years I’ve slaved for you and never once refused to do a single thing you told me to. And in all that time you never gave me even one young goat for a feast with my friends. 30 Yet when this son of yours comes back after squandering your money on prostitutes, you celebrate by killing the fattened calf!’

 

31 “His father said to him, ‘Look, dear son, you have always stayed by me, and everything I have is yours. 32 We had to celebrate this happy day. For your brother was dead and has come back to life! He was lost, but now he is found!’”

 

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July 30, 2018 · 8:22 am

Reading for fun once again

 

Somewhere along the line, I discovered I had lost fun reading in my life.  I know where it started over 11 years ago when I stepped into the Course of Study to be better equipped to serve as a local pastor.

 

At that time, I was working full time in a public school alternative program, trying to take the required courses, preparing for Sunday worship services, and so forth.  Time to read?  Only for the course work or the sermon.

 

Reading opened the world to me as an elementary student.  Raised in a small rural school setting, the books available usually lined a couple of shelves in the classroom.  Going to the library helped, but one book led to another book.  At that time, teachers expected us to read and to make book reports. I did.

 

I could not get enough. I read everything I could from my classroom’s library.  In the summers I read from the local library.  And I learned so much.

 

Thank goodness Mom and Dad approved, in fact I learned that if I had a book report to do, the chores took a back seat—now if that did not encourage me to read.

 

Quite a memory, I know, but when I left fun reading about a decade ago, I left out an important piece of my learning.  Therefore, I am reading again:  fun reading; not required for a class or a sermon.

 

I had picked up a book several years ago, The Yada Yada Prayer Groupby Neta Jackson.  I thought it sounded like fun to read with my college girlfriends—and it was on sale.  But I did not get it read.

 

Over the next few years, I found the book had spun out into a series, so I started collecting them—always on sale.  After reading the book, Talking with God, I knew I needed to read.

 

The first book I picked up was The Yada Yada Prayer Group Gets Rolling.  I thought it was number one, but in reality it turned out to be number 6.

 

The point I am making is that I read.  And the reading is still connected to my faith journey.  The books share all the real life experiences that the members of the diverse prayer group deal with and how the prayer group keeps the focus on God.  I needed that reminder.

 

Therefore I am fun reading with a recharged sense of faith.  The inner thoughts of the main character sound terribly familiar.  The experiences of the women are just the same as so many I have experienced or know of others who have experienced them somewhere along their lives.

 

The amazing thing, though, is that through scripture, shared prayer, and worship—especially praise worship, one grows in faith.  I know that John Wesley struggled to understand whether or not he had enough faith, but I remember that his brother Charles told him to live like he did.

 

Sometimes we make Christian living sound so difficult, but in reality it is simple.  Love one another in the same way you want to be loved. Accept that bad things happen, but God never leaves your side.

 

Just stay the course (pardon the cliché), because as long as you continue to follow the scriptures, practice, practice, practice living the Golden Rule and praying.

 

Those inner nudges that you hear really are instructions from God.  Listen to them and check them against the scripture you know.  Check them with others in a small group—yes, a small group setting is Wesleyan and is proven to be a key part of one’s spiritual practices.

 

I may be in a season of recharging, but I have to say that reading for fun is fuel for the future. I am finding rest as I sit and read. I am finding confirmation in understanding the Holy Spirit.  I am encouraged that there is so much more to do.

 

Sunday morning’s sermon at Sedalia’s First UMC with Rev. Jim Downing reminded us that Paul told us to put on our armor.  That armor, outlined in Ephesians 6:10-20, may sound old fashioned, but continues to defend us from evil:

 

The Whole Armor of God

10 A final word: Be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. 11 Put on all of God’s armor so that you will be able to stand firm against all strategies of the devil. 12 For we[a] are not fighting against flesh-and-blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places.

13 Therefore, put on every piece of God’s armor so you will be able to resist the enemy in the time of evil. Then after the battle you will still be standing firm. 14 Stand your ground, putting on the belt of truth and the body armor of God’s righteousness. 15 For shoes, put on the peace that comes from the Good News so that you will be fully prepared.[b] 16 In addition to all of these, hold up the shield of faith to stop the fiery arrows of the devil.[c] 17 Put on salvation as your helmet, and take the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.

18 Pray in the Spirit at all times and on every occasion. Stay alert and be persistent in your prayers for all believers everywhere.[d]

19 And pray for me, too. Ask God to give me the right words so I can boldly explain God’s mysterious plan that the Good News is for Jews and Gentiles alike.[e] 20 I am in chains now, still preaching this message as God’s ambassador. So pray that I will keep on speaking boldly for him, as I should. [NLT accessed at biblegateway.com]

 

Thank you to Rev. Downing for reminding us how important it is to read, to pray, and to worship in order to defend ourselves from the challenges of living in our secular world.

 

He provided the following prayer starter for this week:

 

Lord, I want to know what it means to be overtaken by your promises. Grant me the grace to remain obedient and faithful to you, never wavering in my faith in what you have promised.

 

We all need recharging in order to live in a world filled with evil and unexpected challenges or temptations.  We need to read—scripture, yes, but sometimes messages come in other forms such as The Yada Yada Prayer Group.

 

If you are unsure what to read, maybe the reading from this week’s lectionary will help:

  • 2 Samuel 11:1-15 or 2 Kings 4:42-44
  • Psalms 14 or Psalms 145:10-18
  • Ephesians 3:14-21
  • John 6:1-21

 

Whatever you do, find what arms you the best for your spiritual journey.  There is no telling what words God is speaking to you.  Just know that he is with you and wanting to talk to you.

 

Here is my prayer:

 

Dear God, The Word,

Thank you for speaking to me through words

   even when I am reading for fun.

Thank you for all that I can learn through words

   whether in scripture, in studies, or in fun.

Let my words help others in their faith journeys

   so they may experience your words in their lives.

Words of armor, words of guidance, words of fun

   are your words speaking to us.  –Amen

 

P.S.  I finished book one and started book 2 in the series. Sure is fun.

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