What I’m Reading Today: 2 Corinthians 8-9
About a year ago, one of the most special people I ever had the pleasure of knowing passed away. His death didn’t get much coverage outside of the small town in which I was raised. The man who passed away was named Ken Fisher.
Mr. Fisher (as his students called him) taught band and drill team at the local high school for nearly 30 years. During that time he had an amazing ability to bring out the best in his students. When my oldest brother was in high school, for instance, he took the band and drill team to the Rose Bowl parade in Pasadena where they marched. And when my sister and older brother were in high school, he got our band and drill team (from our little old town of 3,000) to represent the entire state of Washington at the Parade of States in Philadelphia on the occasion of the United States’ bicentennial celebration. Those were momentous achievements for our small town.
Individuals who joined the band were often unsure they would have the ability to memorize music or figure out how to march. Within a few months time, however, those individuals became part of a finely tuned machine. And many a girl joined the drill team thinking it would be impossible to master the jump splits for which the school was famous. Fast forward six months and those same girls were part of a drill line that would have made the Rockettes jealous.
So how did Mr. Fisher accomplish all of this?
Well, he had a special talent. He had a way of looking deep inside 14 and 15 year olds and seeing them not simply who they were – but for whom they could become. In other words, he saw the best in others. Many a student got a glimpse of their potential through Mr. Fisher’s eyes and ended up living up to that potential.
I was reminded of Mr. Fisher as I read Paul’s words to the Corinthians in today’s passage. In talking with the Corinthians about their neighbors in Macedonia, Paul explained that he was simply trying “to bring the best out of you.” And guess what? Paul’s words of love and encouragement did just that.
Today I would invite you to think about what sort of picture those around you have of themselves when seen through your eyes. Do your critical observations cause others to feel demeaned and demoralized and see themselves as less than; or does your loving and encouraging perspective help others see themselves as wonderfully talented individuals for whom the sky is the limit?
Til next time…
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Monday, March 8, 2010
What I’m Reading Today: 2 Corinthians 7
If you were to ask me what the “best” thing that has ever happened to me was, you would be surprised at my answer. I would say, “It was when my candidacy for ordination was discontinued by the denomination in which I was raised because of my sexual orientation.”
“Why would you pick something negative or painful like that?” you might think to yourself.
I would choose that experience because it opened an entirely new world to me. You see if my life had unfolded exactly as I had planned, I would have simply taken my ordination for granted. I would have treated it as the next logical step in a life that was devoted to the church (and I probably would have said it just like that). My language would have been very telling.
Getting derailed from my quest for ordination, however, forced me to question everything. It made me question my motives for seeking ordination and made me explore my call in challenging ways. I came through this period of distress with a new understanding of my ministry: I was called to serve God (note the change in language). Through the painful experience I gained a sense of peace and purpose in my ministry for which I am extremely grateful. That’s why I would say that experience was the “best” thing that has happened to me.
Paul seems to be speaking to just this sort of experience when he wrote these words to the believers in Corinth: “And now, isn’t it wonderful all the ways in which this distress has goaded you closer to God? You’re more alive, more concerned, more sensitive, more reverent, more human, more passionate, more responsible.”
Maybe you have had a painful experience in your own life: an experience that might have seemed as if it were the end of the world at the time. In many ways, that experience probably was the end of the world – at least the world as you knew it. As you look back on the experience, however, it might have opened you up to entirely new dimensions of existence and relationship with God. If that’s the case, take a moment and sit with the ways in which your pain became an impetus for transformation; then realize this Lenten season that if that’s the case – you’re in good company. The pain which Jesus experienced was transformative as well.
Til next time…
If you were to ask me what the “best” thing that has ever happened to me was, you would be surprised at my answer. I would say, “It was when my candidacy for ordination was discontinued by the denomination in which I was raised because of my sexual orientation.”
“Why would you pick something negative or painful like that?” you might think to yourself.
I would choose that experience because it opened an entirely new world to me. You see if my life had unfolded exactly as I had planned, I would have simply taken my ordination for granted. I would have treated it as the next logical step in a life that was devoted to the church (and I probably would have said it just like that). My language would have been very telling.
Getting derailed from my quest for ordination, however, forced me to question everything. It made me question my motives for seeking ordination and made me explore my call in challenging ways. I came through this period of distress with a new understanding of my ministry: I was called to serve God (note the change in language). Through the painful experience I gained a sense of peace and purpose in my ministry for which I am extremely grateful. That’s why I would say that experience was the “best” thing that has happened to me.
Paul seems to be speaking to just this sort of experience when he wrote these words to the believers in Corinth: “And now, isn’t it wonderful all the ways in which this distress has goaded you closer to God? You’re more alive, more concerned, more sensitive, more reverent, more human, more passionate, more responsible.”
Maybe you have had a painful experience in your own life: an experience that might have seemed as if it were the end of the world at the time. In many ways, that experience probably was the end of the world – at least the world as you knew it. As you look back on the experience, however, it might have opened you up to entirely new dimensions of existence and relationship with God. If that’s the case, take a moment and sit with the ways in which your pain became an impetus for transformation; then realize this Lenten season that if that’s the case – you’re in good company. The pain which Jesus experienced was transformative as well.
Til next time…
Saturday, March 6, 2010
What I’m Reading Today: 2 Corinthians 6
Each one of us carries some baggage from an earlier experience in our lives. While we can face the early experience and try to move beyond it, the effects of those experiences can sometimes pop up and influence our present thoughts and behaviors - at least that has been the case for me.
I grew up in a very troubled local church that was full of conflict. No one in the church ever wanted to face it, however. As a result, the community was dominated by either the overly aggressive behavior of some, or the extremely passive aggressive behavior of others. This meant that church was not always a warm and fuzzy place to be.
From that experience I learned to be cautious when I was in all types of community. Even when things seemed to be going well on the surface, I always prepared myself for the possibility that there was trouble brewing below the surface. I could never relax and simply enjoy myself.
Because of this, I learned to think in very “small” ways when I was part of a community. In today’s passage Paul challenged such an approach to life when he wrote these words: “The smallness you feel comes from within you. Your lives aren’t small, but you’re living them in a small ways… Open up your lives. Live openly and expansively!”
Thankfully my relationship with God has helped me overcome the smallness of my thinking. I have grown to feel increasingly safe in community and realized not all communities are like the one in which I was raised. If I don’t stay on top of my spiritual life, however, it is very easy for me to slip back into the smallness of my previous thinking.
So what about you? What experience in your early life has strongly shaped or influenced your thought processes? What experience has boxed you in and made you prone to smallness inside?
Whatever that experience is, continue to follow Paul’s admonition to “open up your lives” and “live openly and expansively”. May Paul’s words come to pass in the context of each of our lives.
Til next time…
Each one of us carries some baggage from an earlier experience in our lives. While we can face the early experience and try to move beyond it, the effects of those experiences can sometimes pop up and influence our present thoughts and behaviors - at least that has been the case for me.
I grew up in a very troubled local church that was full of conflict. No one in the church ever wanted to face it, however. As a result, the community was dominated by either the overly aggressive behavior of some, or the extremely passive aggressive behavior of others. This meant that church was not always a warm and fuzzy place to be.
From that experience I learned to be cautious when I was in all types of community. Even when things seemed to be going well on the surface, I always prepared myself for the possibility that there was trouble brewing below the surface. I could never relax and simply enjoy myself.
Because of this, I learned to think in very “small” ways when I was part of a community. In today’s passage Paul challenged such an approach to life when he wrote these words: “The smallness you feel comes from within you. Your lives aren’t small, but you’re living them in a small ways… Open up your lives. Live openly and expansively!”
Thankfully my relationship with God has helped me overcome the smallness of my thinking. I have grown to feel increasingly safe in community and realized not all communities are like the one in which I was raised. If I don’t stay on top of my spiritual life, however, it is very easy for me to slip back into the smallness of my previous thinking.
So what about you? What experience in your early life has strongly shaped or influenced your thought processes? What experience has boxed you in and made you prone to smallness inside?
Whatever that experience is, continue to follow Paul’s admonition to “open up your lives” and “live openly and expansively”. May Paul’s words come to pass in the context of each of our lives.
Til next time…
Friday, March 5, 2010
What I’m Reading Today: 2 Corinthians 5
One of my role models in ministry and life is my mother. She has one of the strongest faiths I’ve ever been around. She is also a tremendously principled person who uses those principles as bridges to others (instead of as walls to cut herself off from those who fail to live up to them – as some people do).
There is one area – however – where she and I don’t see eye to eye. That area has to do with our view of people in the church. When I was younger and people in our local church would start to act badly, my mother would shrug and say: “Well, the church is made up of people just like any other institution – so we’re bound to have people who act badly.”
I don’t see it that way at all. You see I believe what should make the lives of our local churches different from other groups is what we are aspiring to be: the body of Christ. That’s a very different blue-print than most institutional entities. As such, it’s very clear what values we are called to embody: values like love, grace, mercy, and justice. When some lose sight of that goal, our call is to remind them of that.
I strongly believe that our local faith communities should be the one place on earth we come closest to experiencing the reign of God. I know it might be impossible to achieve such lofty status 24/7. Nevertheless, it’s a goal I constantly keep before me. And in both faith communities I have been blessed with the opportunity to serve, I can honestly say that’s been true for me. I couldn’t imagine devoting my life to a community where that’s not the case.
Paul wrote about the way one’s faith in God should be reflected in your relationships with others. “All this comes from the God,” Paul wrote, “who settled the relationship between us and him, and then called us to settle our relationships with each other.”
So how does your relationship with/connection to God affect your relationships with others (both inside and outside of your faith community)? Something to think about today.
Til next time…
One of my role models in ministry and life is my mother. She has one of the strongest faiths I’ve ever been around. She is also a tremendously principled person who uses those principles as bridges to others (instead of as walls to cut herself off from those who fail to live up to them – as some people do).
There is one area – however – where she and I don’t see eye to eye. That area has to do with our view of people in the church. When I was younger and people in our local church would start to act badly, my mother would shrug and say: “Well, the church is made up of people just like any other institution – so we’re bound to have people who act badly.”
I don’t see it that way at all. You see I believe what should make the lives of our local churches different from other groups is what we are aspiring to be: the body of Christ. That’s a very different blue-print than most institutional entities. As such, it’s very clear what values we are called to embody: values like love, grace, mercy, and justice. When some lose sight of that goal, our call is to remind them of that.
I strongly believe that our local faith communities should be the one place on earth we come closest to experiencing the reign of God. I know it might be impossible to achieve such lofty status 24/7. Nevertheless, it’s a goal I constantly keep before me. And in both faith communities I have been blessed with the opportunity to serve, I can honestly say that’s been true for me. I couldn’t imagine devoting my life to a community where that’s not the case.
Paul wrote about the way one’s faith in God should be reflected in your relationships with others. “All this comes from the God,” Paul wrote, “who settled the relationship between us and him, and then called us to settle our relationships with each other.”
So how does your relationship with/connection to God affect your relationships with others (both inside and outside of your faith community)? Something to think about today.
Til next time…
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