The People God Uses

I wrote yesterday that I had lunch with a pastor friend last Friday. It was a good chance to get caught up on mutual pastor buddies and acquaintances. These are all pastors I really admire but as I thought back over the conversation I was struck at just how human us pastor-types are.

One is a high control freak (yes, that describes me, too, but I'm thinking of someone else). Another has no training or theological background at all and has built an amazing congregation. One has few if any real people skills and has built a massive church. One has incredible physical challenges and has a global ministry. One struggles with an anxiety disorder (yours truly). One can't organize anything let alone spell the word but still has been used to build a significant mission. And the list goes on and on.

Not unlike the group Jesus put together--a foot-in-the-mouth Peter. A traitor to the Jews tax collector--Matthew. Two brothers with hot tempers--James and John. A thief and betrayer--Judas. And yet Jesus used them all (he could have even used Judas--Jesus chose him after all) to bring his grace to the world.

Jesus uses every day people, with foibles and challenges and glitches and idiosyncrasies, in their every day lives as teachers and realtors and mechanics and husbands and wives and parents and gardeners and bank tellers, etc., to bring his amazing grace to a world filled with people with foibles and challenges and glitches and idiosyncrasies.

Wednesday Musings

I've been working on my sermon for Sunday. We're in a series called, Get in the Game. It's built around our mission statement of following Jesus on the bold, daring, reckless adventure of bringing grace to the world. To be more honest, the series is based on Jesus' call to us to live missionally--to see our daily lives as moments in which we serve Jesus. This Sunday we're looking at The Great Commission--to make disciples of all nations--and how the Great Commandment--to love God and neighbors--helps us carry out the Great Commission. It's an exciting series in that living missionally, seeing our jobs/lives as sacred callings, is really where the rubber meets the road for Christians. It's a simple concept, really. But hard to live out in the moment by moment rhythm of life.

The upside of such a series is the thrill of seeing our lives through new lenses--to see how living in "Jesus' name" can re-focus and re-energize everything we do. The downside for me is that I'm not a real person. I live in the church world. I don't spend most of my work day in the "secular" marketplace, in the mission field, so to speak. So I'm learning along with our community of faith what this following Jesus Monday-Saturday really looks like.

It's been great biking weather the last few mornings! Finally!

The new TV season has started. So far we've checked out The Big Bang, Chuck, and Heroes. I really enjoyed all three. We got hooked on Heroes last year.