Not The Journey I Expected

Seven years ago today was my retirement party from Mayo Clinic. I wasn’t exactly retiring, as a month later I was planning to start my new vocation as a pastor, but I was retirement eligible, and so the clinic threw me a party on my last day. My coworkers gifted me with a hat with two coffee cups attached!

When I began working at Mayo I had expected to be there for 36 years. Given that I was just 29 when I began, 36 years seemed to be an awfully long ways away. But on that first day I didn’t envision ever working anywhere else. 27 years in things in my life had changed. You might say that there was a fork in the road and I began to travel a path leading in a different direction.

Seven years ago we arrived in Dulce and I began to serve as the pastor of the Jicarilla Apache Reformed Church. Robin, Kat and I arrived expecting that, if there was a good fit between the church and I, that we would be here for 10 years, when it would likely be time to truly retire.

As they say, that was then and this is now. Robin and I were empty-nesters when we married. A year later and we took in Kat and adopted her. We never anticipated that our family would grow again while we were in Dulce but as I type this we are a family of five, and the three children in the next room have begun watching movies for the sleepover they are having in the living room tonight.

Three children. Ages five, seven and thirteen. Tomorrow I’ll be 63 and one thing I clearly know at my age is that time really flies. Will there be three more years as pastor in Dulce in order to fulfill the original plan of 10 years? That is very likely, and perhaps a few years more. Yesterday I happened to run a few miles with someone who told me “age is just a number.” That may be true, but his number is 41 and mine is a fair bit beyond that. Today 70 does not seem so far away, nor too old to continue to serve in this ministry. This afternoon the possibilities beyond that are too far away for me to consider.

Looking back, to age 29 and my first day at Mayo, to today and 7 years in here in Dulce, this has not been the journey I expected. There have been dramatic peaks, with priceless views, as well as a few deep valleys.

Would I redo some of those earlier moments, if such a thing were possible? That is an interesting question, but the problem is that I probably would not end up in the place where I am today. This may not have been the journey I expected but it has been a journey that has been very good. The experiences of my past have led to the person that I am today, with the family I provide for and the ministry where I serve.

Not the journey I expected, but one in which I can look back and see the hand of God at work time and again. And from that perspective I’m pretty sure that the things are going on today are preparing me for the journey that lies ahead. I’ve even had a small glimpse of just that thing as since beginning this post, as someone stopped at the parsonage, looking for the pastor.

I do not know the course your life has taken. I don’t know what your joys or heartaches have been. I don’t know where the path changed, again and again, from the one you were expecting to travel. But I do know that if you are traveling with the Lord Jesus Christ the destination will be very good, however he happens to guide you there.

Turn And Be Saved

For the past 10 days or so we have been in a weather pattern that is known locally as monsoon season. After a dry spring and a summer that has been very dry we are now getting rain, nearly every day. Some days there has been a little and some days, like today, there has been much more. I took this picture at about 8 PM. It is raining for the second time today and so water is running off down our driveway. The boys love to play in this runoff but they are in bed. Perhaps they will have another opportunity tomorrow.

The clouds are thick and so even as there is a little bit of fading light out as I write there is no visible sunlight, and so there is no rainbow. Yesterday I was talking on the phone with a woman from our congregation and she told me of seeing a rainbow last week while she was outside with her daughter. The rainbow had brought to her mind a sense of comfort in God’s promises.

In Genesis 9 God tells Noah that the rainbow will be a visible sign of God’s promise to never again destroy the world through a flood. While the rainbow is a sign of a specific promise of God’s it also reminds me that God is a God who makes promises, and who keeps them. A god who doesn’t keep promises is not a god worth worshipping. The God of the Bible keeps His promises. Every single one.

As the woman and I were talking the conversation turned to the pandemic. Here on the reservation we are going into a two-week lockdown that will begin Sunday evening. For two weeks everyone is supposed to stay at home. There are a few exceptions, such as to exercise daily, for essential workers and people with ranches, and one day a week where one person per household can leave the reservation to shop. Exceptions beyond those will need special permission. Other than for the reasons I mentioned everyone is supposed to stay home for the next two weeks in order to control the spread of COVID-19 in our community.

The woman said that what is really needed in our community is for people to turn back to the Lord. To which I say “Amen!” One of my favorite promises in the Bible is as God speaks through Paul in Romans 10:9, saying:

“If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.”

The promise that comes in Romans 10:9 is the logical outcome of turning to the Lord. Turn from trusting in your self and your own abilities. Turn from trusting in all manner of false gods, be they your family, your vocation, your hobbies, the culture, whatever. Turn from any and all of those things to place your faith in Jesus.

Turning to Jesus does not make everything in life instantly better. But as you turn to him, and place your faith in him, he will be your bedrock, your anchor, the one on whom you stand as you live, each and every day. Turn from false gods to the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved.

  

Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version® (ESV®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

What Is Truth Today?

We live in a day and age where, if we so choose, we can be bombarded with information.

You are probably reading my blog for one of two reasons. Either you subscribe and it comes in your email, or it showed up on your Facebook feed and you followed the link. Whichever way it was, you are online and so likely as you read this that there are other links being suggested to you. Being that I am a pastor and generally writing in a theological and devotional line those links may be similarly inclined. But I don’t have any influence over what is being suggested to you and I know through my own experience that some of those suggestions are good and others can be most charitably described as “theologically suspect.” The simple act of being online invites all kinds of information into our lives, in virtually limitless amounts. Such is life in 2020.

It is one thing to take in some information, such as a news story, or my blog post. But then what are we to make of it? Imagine a particular news story. One commentator says that it is the greatest news ever. And another commentator looks at the same story and says that it is the worst news, ever. Same story, but completely opposite conclusions. I can virtually guarantee that you can go online for yourself and within 30 seconds find an example of what I’m talking about.

How do we separate truth from what is not true? What do we stand on as we decide what to believe? In John 18 Jesus is on trial before Pilate and in verses 37-38 they have this exchange:

“For this purpose I was born and for this purpose I have come into the world—to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice.” Pilate said to him, “What is truth?””

We live in world where it seems as if Pilate’s point-of-view has prevailed. We live in a world where it would seem that truth is ultimately unknowable. We live in a world where at day’s end we each decide for ourselves what is true.

In contrast to the view of Pilate, and our world, yesterday I read this definition of truth from Julius D. Twongyeirwe, a pastor in Uganda. Asking if Christians are giving up on truth he went on to say that:

“Truth is that which is consistent with the mind, will, character, glory and being of God. It is the self-expression of God. And because the definition of truth flows from God, truth is theological. Therefore, God is the author, source, determiner, governor, arbiter, ultimate standard, and final judge of all truth.”

Rather than truth being something nebulous and slippery, that truth is whatever I, or you, might decide at any particular point in time, Twongyeirwe points us back to God to ground truth. He points us to God’s mind. His will. His character. His glory. His very being. He grounds all truth in all of God. His definition excludes the possibility of any exceptions.

Are there truths in science? Yes, and they are grounded in God. Are there moral truths? Things that are right, and things that are wrong? Yes, and they are grounded in God. Are there truths that we should seek to understand and shape our culture? Yes, and they are grounded in God. Can we know truth? Yes, as we listen to God speak through His word, which, to carry us back to John 18, is done most clearly as we listen to Jesus, who only, and always, speaks God’s truth.

In our day we are bombarded by information and completing claims about what it all means. But as we turn to God we can discern what is true, and then live according to His truth, and for His glory. Amen.

Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version® (ESV®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Solid Ground

I don’t know how things are where you live but here on the reservation and in New Mexico there seems to be heightened anxiety over COVID-19. In mid-March the state closed all public schools and at the same time our congregation stopped gathering for worship. The leadership of the Jicarilla Apache Nation put some guidelines into effect on the reservation, including wearing face masks, limiting groups sizes and instituting a curfew.

Abut six weeks ago there was community-wide testing, which identified the first active cases. There was a second round of testing and later this week there will be a third round. I believe the total number of cases has increased from just a few to 40, as of this morning. My understanding is that every tribal business is operating with the barest possible work crew, as people are encouraged to stay home as much as possible. Last week our washing machine died and I traveled to Santa Fe to pick up the replacement. It was a more inconvenient trip than going to Farmington, but Farmington is a “hot zone” for COVID-19. Robin packed me a lunch, I made two stops for gas, and only had personal contact with other people at the store, where everyone was wearing a mask and keeping their distance.

This afternoon I was reading Psalm 18, where in verse 36 David writes:

“You gave a wide place for my steps under me, and my feet did not slip"

The whole psalm is testimony from David about the safety, protection and care that he knows in God. Verse 36 gave me pause in light of the pandemic. The various restrictions we have been living with have been going on for nearly four months. Some have been put in place by governments and some we are living with because they seem to make sense in the present circumstances. 

As July was beginning I was hopeful that come August we would make a significant move closer to “normal” for our church. But here, less than a week later, even a single step towards normal seems to be more elusive. As much as I long to gather with and preach to the congregation I’ve been called to serve the “seemingly-never-ending-circumstances-of-the-pandemic” don’t change the truth that David speaks in this psalm, especially the truth of verse 36. 

David speaks in the past tense. God gave him a wide place. His feet did not slip. But having faith in Jesus we can see that David was not only looking back, but also pointing forward. When you have faith in Jesus your place with God is certain. You are standing on a wide place right now. Your feet will not slip. Ever.

It is a truth you can find in other parts of the Bible as well, perhaps most clearly and emphatically in Romans 8. I think God for reminding me of it today through Psalm 18.

No matter what may be going on in your life right now, be it the pandemic, an emergency or crisis, or just the slow grind of hardship that never seems to lessen, know that by faith in Jesus you are always standing on solid ground.

Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version® (ESV®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.