Saving a Place

The best part of my Easter was a post a friend put on Facebook for anyone looking:

Oh joyful day! If ya need a church buddy tomorrow, I'll be at the 10:30 & 11:40!

We all long for  someone to be glad we showed up.  Someone who’s “saving us a place”.  Someone who will miss us if we’re not there. 

It pains me when I see people alone at church, clutching an iphone, checking for messages, avoiding eye-contact, escaping to the bathroom…All in an effort to not feel so conspicuously alone.  Without a place to belong.

And sometimes that person is me.

It was me Saturday night when I got a text from another  friend saying “I’m SO excited to see you again!  I’m saving you a place!”

A place.  For me.  In a space where I felt very out of place and conspicuously alone. 

One of the best gifts we can give each other is a place in community.  Isn’t that kind of what Easter is about?  Jesus inviting everyone to enjoy a place at the table?  A place where they’re valued and loved?

So, inspired by these two friends, I’m trying to stop and notice others looking for a place. 

I’m trying to think of all the ways I can make sure they know they’re invited, they know they’ll be missed, and they know I can save them a place.

Love Wins

Confession:  I’m not good at “gray”. 

I’ve gotten better, but I really like things to be black or white. 

Something is right or it’s wrong. 

There’s a clear answer.  A correct interpretation. 

And also, I don’t like to be wrong. I know that’s a shock, but more about that in another post.

This would be great if everything in life was black or white and I was always right.

Unfortunately it's not and I'm not.

While I love it that there ARE clear rights and wrongs, I have to admit that there are “disputable matters” (Romans 14:1) in the Bible and that makes me uncomfortable. 

Like a kid hopping from boulder to boulder in a stream I like to stick to places where there’s sure footing.

Around the boulders of certainty lately there’s been a swirling eddy of fear, criticism, and accusation regarding Rob Bell’s book, Love Wins.

I’ve read Love Wins and agree with a lot of it, question some of it, and feel some of it is overstated or incomplete. 

My favorite prof at seminary said “The Bible is inspired.  My interpretation of it is not.”

What is the nature of heaven?  What is hell like?  How does God judge babies that die?  Can there be love without justice?  

There are some gray places that make me uncomfortable.

In these gray places I believe we all need to have the humility to say “God’s Word is inspired.  My interpretation is not.  Let’s keep seeking truth together and pray for the Holy Spirit to guide us in love.”

But today, this Good Friday, I’m focusing on the boulders that I believe are the firm foundations for my faith…the ones that are black and white.

God loves us no matter what.

We’ve ALL messed up and are separated from Him through our sin. 

That separation is death.

He’s overcome death and made a way back through Jesus.

We have a choice as to whether we’ll accept that way back and enjoy eternity with Him. 

Starting now.

“For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.”

For me this much is clear.  This is black and white.

Love wins.

Pigs and Transformation

Last week we said good-bye to the girls in Rome and headed back to Tuscany where we stayed for the week at Spannochia, an 800 year old villa that’s also a working vineyard and farm.  Fascinating stuff sitting down to dinner  and talking to the college interns who work here and people from all over the world who visit.  

Besides making wine and olive oil, they also make prosciutto, and salami.  


On this farm everything is in the process of being changed from one thing to something else.  


They literally have a room called THE TRANSFORMATION ROOM where pigs become prosciutto. 

I’m not kidding.

It made me think about Ortberg saying we’re all in the process of being transformed into SOMETHING.  The question is what? 

Are the relationships, experiences, and practices of my life transforming me into someone who looks more like Jesus?

Or something …more pig-like?

Honestly it may depend on the day.  But I’m trying to pay closer attention.

Nehemiah, Presbyterians, and Rob Bell

During this time on Sabbatical I’m doing nothing except meeting interesting new friends, taking some pictures and eating gelato.  John, on the other hand, is still working on some tough church leadership issues from afar.  I want to be any help I can in this which mostly just means listening (between bites of gelato). 

But I also decided to go back and re-read the book of Nehemiah in the Bible – a great book on godly leadership.  I decided I’d read it and just write down anything I noticed about his leadership. 

One thing that stands out powerfully is how completely prayer and action are interdependent components of Nehemiah’s life, (kind of like Jenga blocks).  This guy really knows how to practice the presence of God!  He submits every action to God!  Neh. 2:4 is a perfect example. “Then I prayed to the God of heaven, AND I answered the king…”  How I wish I could be more like him!

And I don’t get the idea that Nehemiah’s prayers were the kind I sometimes pray, basically just telling God what I’m going to do as I’m doing it, like a kid yelling to his mom that he’s going to play baseball as he’s running out the door.  No, Nehemiah really seems to have a submissive ear to heaven.

And then he always points back to God.  “…because the gracious hand of God was on me, the king granted my requests…”(Those are just two examples.  Check it out yourself for lots more)

But here’s the thing I’ve been thinking about the most.  Nehemiah models, and also talks about the “fear of God.”  In chapter 7 verse 2 he gives his brother a job “because he was trustworthy and feared God more than most people do.”  

This is not a phrase most of us naturally gravitate towards, but it's just “revering” or “standing in awe of” -  seeing ourselves as appropriately small and God as…not.  And it seems to me that it's BECAUSE Nehemiah recognizes who is God, he prayerfully checks with Him on everything, and gives Him credit for everything.

So, I’ve been thinking…Would anyone describe me as someone who fears God?  Would they describe our family that way?  Do we show it in the way we lead in the church? 

While we’ve been traveling we’ve been reading a lot of “prophetic voices” back in the States making suggestions (that sometimes sound more like pronouncements) about heaven, hell, and each other.  They sometimes seem so confident that they’re speaking for God that their tone lacks a fear of God.  Do I do that?  Do you? 

It’s a challenge to be passionate, and have strong convictions, but also remember that there’s one God and we’re not Him.  Nehemiah seemed to get it.  

Distorted Jesus

We loved Rome.  We also wanted to escape it at times.  

CROWDS, animated Italian voices, church bells, piazzas, fountains and gelato.  Colorful images we’ll take with us.  We packed a lot into our few days here.  So thankful we had guides for two days.  What was interesting was that both guides had grown up in the church, and embraced belief, but in this late season of life both had become cynical and were seeking…something.

When we went to the Sistine Chapel at the Vatican we agreed that we couldn’t imagine Jesus there, unless maybe overturning the tables of vendors.  It was an amazing display of art, but (at least to us) not a good place to worship. 

Here’s the thing that was fascinating, and sad to me.  Michelangelo, who painted the magnificent ceiling with scenes from the Bible, was so disgusted by the Pope’s behavior (he died of Syphilis and Gout soon after the completion), that when he was done painting he said he’d never come back to the chapel. 

Up in one corner of the ceiling was a triangle that showed what the ceiling had looked like before restoration in 1994.  Years of soot and dust had dulled the colors and faded the details of the pictures of Jesus.  Yep, just like we, the church, with our pride, selfishness and greed have obscured a loving picture of Jesus for the world.  A Jesus who, even though He was God and deserved the highest place, took the lowest and would graciously welcome us all.

How can we restore that image of Jesus to the world?  To our new guide friends?  Repentance for the damage we've done would probably be good.  Beyond that mostly we just listened to their questions, affirmed their desire to seek truth, and tried to model the love of Jesus.  I hope it was a start.

Michelangelo, even though he said he’d never return, eventually DID.  Years later.  I pray there will be others who will try to restore a loving image of Jesus for our seeking guides and many other disillusioned people around the world, and I pray that they, like Michelangelo, will find their way back also. 

Hiking and Giving Up

We’ve been in Cinque Terre Italy for the past few days, hiking the ancient trails on cliffs between and around five incredibly colorful charming villages that cling to rocks over the Mediterranean Sea like a 6-month-old baby clinging to his momma.  On some parts of the trail there are worn steps that are many hundreds of years old. Other places it’s rocky and as narrow as your foot.  One wrong move and you’ll tumble straight down into the sea.  

The first day as we hiked 1,000 steps straight up, hearing fellow travelers speaking German, French, Italian I thought of the pilgrims of the Bible and the Psalms of Ascent that they sung on their way to Jerusalem.  I wondered if the singing was their way of practicing the presence of God.  Or to remind each other of God’s faithfulness on the tough stretches.  Or if it was to encourage each other – to say to each other “you’re not in this alone!”  There were times along our way that we needed those reminders and so do others.

Then yesterday, Maggie and I hiked from Monterosso up (and I mean UP!) to the ruins of the church Sant’ Antonio.  There were many times along the way that we were tempted to give up and turn around before we reached the summit.  Most of the time hiking we were trudging up rocks through the woods and couldn’t see the Mediterranean.  It was hard to know how much further we had to go and not get discouraged.  We kept thinking around each bend we’d see the end, but nope, didn’t happen.  

 Finally we passed a German girl coming down who spoke enough English to tell us it was about ten minutes more to the top when we asked (panting out our question).  It made all the difference when we knew the end was near.  Totally changed our perspective.  The view was spectacular and we thought, “What if we had given up so close to the end?  Look what we would have missed!”

Many, many people I know are going through challenging, rocky times where the trail just seems too steep and they want to quit.  They don’t know when (or if) the path will ever get easier this side of heaven.  They (we ALL) need each other to call out and cheer each other on. 

Today I want to be the one to call out, “Don’t give up!  Keep going!” And I’m praying for my friends who are out of breath and sweaty, and tempted to turn back.  May there be small glimpses of God’s faithfulness and grace along your way, and may there be fellow travelers to cheer you on today.