skip to main |
skip to sidebar
Its a little past 2:00am right now. I should be in bed sleeping so I can get up tomorrow and finish my lecture. I actually did some work tonight before meandering in here. I don't feel too bad that its so late, though I'm going to hate myself in the morning.
So much time has passed since my post. Much has happened in those few short weeks. I've said goodbye to one of my co-workers who moved to a different Sr. ministry. Our church has had 3 funerals, 2 special services, and one bonfire. Thats in addition to the normal church stuff like Sunday AM services and Wednesday night programming, and Thursday night rehearsals. Oh, I guess I could throw in Monday night prayer meetings and a monthly elder's meeting.
I'm tired. I'm weary. I'm a bit anxious about the next 4 or 5 months as I help lead South in the absence of a Sr. minister. I'm excited about what is to come, about the possibilities that lie in front of us, though. I simply don't want to go through the time between now and then.
Why is it that we as humans always want something, but yet don't want to go through the work to get there. We want to lose weight, but we are too lazy to really work at it. We know we should eat better, but we lack the disipline to do so. We really should save our money to buy that shiny new laptop, but we "need" it too badly. We need to address these things with so and so, and the hope is that when all is said and done, life won't fall apart. Even greater, we need to ask forgivness from so and so, but we are too prideful and ashamed. So we sit there and act like nothing has happened. We are driven by greed, pride, lust, laziness, and a whole bunch of selfishness. When will it ever stop?
I wish I could say that the church has made itself immune to these things. I wish, but I can't. What really draws the line between church people and the world? I believe its the willingness to get up on Sunday and go to church. Does that really mark church people differently? I don't believe it does. The church is still filled with messed up people who are too sick to want to change and get "healthy" and the church is too neutered to challenge them to get well or help them get well for that matter. Some may think that because they darken the door they are ok. Others might go because they feel guilty about the previous 6 days of life and they feel obligated to go be "spiritual".
Are we ready for a change? What would that change look like? Can we overcome the previous neutering and live with moxie again? Can we actually step away from the mirror and know who we are? Can we live the kingdom lives God has called us too without grumbling and moaning about what I want or need?
I guess I am at a point where I'm ready to live driven by hope and love. I want those things to shape and grow my faith, even when having faith and sticking my neck out is a dangerous thing. I want to put God in a place where he has to move. I don't want to be held back by what we've already done and by fear. In my life right now, fear is the one thing that grips me the most, closely followed by insecurity. (At least those are things that will keep me humble!)
My question to you is this: Are you ready to stop talking and live? Are you ready to stop waiting for what is yet to come without any drive for the now? Let's get busy and live.
It's been a good, long day. This morning I got up and played a little more with my new Macbook. I'm still learning my way in a new operating system. From there I headed to Great Lakes Christian College for Alumni Fest. I got to see some old friends, listen to some good Christmas music by the Alum Madrigal Singers, and hear a great message from Sam Wrisley. Sam talked about being a church that was focused on touching the untouchables rather than being a church that touches the comfortables. Very challenging thoughts to chew and act on.
After the morning worship time, I headed back home to spend the afternoon with my girls and play with my new computer a little more. I took a little road trip in the middle of the afternoon--I needed a 000x sized screw driver to install some new ram into my Macbook. I needed a simple, tiny screwdriver. I ended up spending $10 on a screwdriver pack because that was the only thing that anyone had. Why is life always that way?
This evening I had the priviledge of leading worship for our Solemn Assembly. A solemn assembly comes from Isaiah 1 and Joel 2. It was a time in the life of Israel where the people would fast and reset their lives to what God wanted. Our solemn assembly focused on the confession of sin and prayer for our church. It was a moving time in my opinion. The only issue was there were only a few people there. Certainly not the amount of people a church of our size should have. There are too many issues that bubble up out of this to discuss here, nor is this the place to really chew on pointed items.
What I do ask for, as I did in my last post, is multitudes of prayer. Pray that God will move around us at South. Pray that we will be the people that God wants us to be and that we will stay faithful to Him in every inch of our lives.
In my quest to find a new coffeeshop home, I headed back to the Dragonfly this morning for a second visit. However, they weren't open at 7:00am. How is a coffeeshop not open at 7:00am? So, I headed to Cornerstone for a second visit there. I had a brewed coffee and a strudel (I had the strudel because I felt bad debit carding $1.50 for a coffee). Coffee is good. Strudel was very good. The atmosphere is still lame, but I might just have to get over that.
Life is busy now. I'm in week three of teaching at GLCC. It is a lot of fun, but more work than I anticipated. I'm not teaching difficult stuff. Yet, I still put in 4 or 5 hours of study and prep for each lecture. At South, Ron's time is winding down. The fall kickoff went very well. Tonight is the kickoff of our Building U Wednesday night program. This weekend is the prayer seminar with Dean Trune. There is also the clothing drive for Masters Provisions this weekend. I started teaching a young adult Sunday school class this week and I will begin teaching our 101 class for Building U next week. Balancing all that with planning worship week to week, rehearsals, search committee meetings, prayer meetings, and everything else is a little challenging.
So, with all that in mind, I come to you with a prayer request. Pray that God keeps me sane, focused, and movitvated. Pray that I will make space for my family, who is the real victim in all the fall programming that I'm involved in. Pray that I have stamina and energy, and most of all, a passion to show God and His Kingdom in all that I am doing.
Also pray that the new coffeeshop opening west of me, Elven Bay Coffee, might be my new sanctuary. Peace to you!
Well. It has been some time since I last made a post here on this site. It's not that I don't have anything to write. I have tons of stuff in my head. Tons of observations and reflections that are bouncing around in my head. I simply have not had time to sit down and dump out my head. I'm going to attempt to do that today.
Over the last week, my family and I did some traveling. Last Wednesday we drove to Ohio to see family and friends. It was a great time at home. Hannah got good grandparents time and slept in a big bed. That was a first for her. We were a bit concerned about her falling out of bed, because she flops around like a dead fish when she sleeps. She did ok the first night. The second night she fell out of bed at 3:30am. It's not a good thing to be woken by a screaming baby and a frantic wife.
On Friday we got to hook up with my best friend from my high school years. We had lunch with his family and my brother. Then, that evening, we had dinner with my family and waited for my sister and her family to drive into town. That evening was probably my favorite of the trip. My dad was his normal ornery self, tormenting grandkids and giving my mom a hard time. That week he had been trying to catch a groundhog. He had a trap from my uncle that he had baited with corn. About every 1/2 hour he would go out and check it to see if he caught it. At one point he thought he caught it. He came in exclaiming he had it, with a big "I've overtaken the world" type of smile. I went and checked the trap--there was nothing. We figure he got close enough when looking at the trap with his flashlight that he thought he saw something and didn't want to go any closer. He's afraid of animals like that.
The biggest highlight for me was playing Euchre. Euchre is always a loud and wild time at my family's house. When you add my brother, my dad, and me to the mix, it gets even crazier. We giggle and laugh and chide one another constantly. It's the activity with my family that really helps me realize and feel at home. I know, you may call that crazy. That's what it is for me.
My sister and her family finally arrived at 10:30pm. They had a long drive from Virginia through a tropical storm and the hills of West Virginia. It is always good to see them. We don't get to see them as often as we would like. But, that's the way things are.
Saturday we had breakfast with my family. My family knows how to eat. There were doughnuts, biscuits, sausage gravy, eggs, ham, sausage patties, and fresh fruit. No one goes hungry at a Lowman feast and there is always left over food. (I continually tell my mom that she and my family's eating habits are the main reason I've always been bigger than I should). After breakfast, I headed to Dan Johnson's Custom Guitar Works. He is currently repairing a Gibson 12 string I recently acquired and my Larrivee. He is the step brother of my brother-in-law. He's toured with numerous groups as their guitar tech. He's been repairing and building guitars for at least 15 years or more. He does great work. Plus, his shop is a guitar treasure chest. There are no less than 50 guitars in various states of repair there.
Saturday night Steph, Hannah and I drove to Detroit, Michigan. We needed some time to ourselves to relax and unwind from the last few months and to rest up for the next few. We found a hotel with a pool close to Macomb Christian Church and settled in for the night. The next morning we went to Macomb to worship with Eric and Mary. It was very nice to be a participant and not a leader. It was also good to reconnect with a couple people I hadn't seen in awhile. From there we had lunch with Eric and Mary and then headed to the Detroit Zoo. The zoo was great. It's much bigger than our zoo here in Lansing. Hannah was running on low sleep because of our vacation and the fact that we were at the zoo during her naptime. She did exceptionally well and really enjoyed herself. It was cool to see all the animals. My favorites were the bird sanctuary and the baby monkey. I definite favorite would have been the butterfly room, but they locked us out of the building before we got there. That gives us a reason to go again sometime. From there we found another hotel with a pool, got some dinner at Cosi, and relaxed some more. The next morning we hit Great Lakes Crossing for some shopping and worked our way back to Lansing via another outlet mall, Walmart, Target, and Kroger.
Though we were constantly busy, our time away was relaxing and refreshing for me. Being at another church always gives me good perspective for where I am at in my ministry at South. Driving in the car with my wife is always a fun time. We always end up driving around to find things that sometimes we don't find. It always gives us time to talk, giggle, and dream. Reconnecting with our families is always enjoyable. It helps me to remember where I came from and who I really am. It helps me to remember that I am unconditionally loved and supported by those I don't really see that often. That brings me much comfort. It also makes it hard to leave sometimes. Being in the place where you grow up is always refreshing to me. Why there is comfort in driving up over the hill and seeing the Apple Barrel, I will never know. Maybe its because it is a place of familiarity and memory. Maybe its because it reminds me of the past and the wonderful falls northeast Ohio always has. Maybe its because its only a mile or so from my home, and it symbolizes another journey close to an end. I don't think I need to completely understand. I simply need enjoy and bask in its comfort.
Speaking of comfort, I think I might have found my new office away from the office. The Dragonfly is a coffeeshop in a tiny plaza by the highway. It's small, quaint, with decent coffee and wifi. It doesn't feel stuffy like the last place I visited. The music is good and the people working here seem to be friendly. We'll see how it goes over the next couple of weeks.
Thanks for reading my ramblings.
