A new Nooma was released today, the eighteenth in the series. Those of you that heard me speak at Illini Life Summer Church or at the Fall Retreat might find some of the material familiar. This Nooma is a bit of a summary of a couple of life changing teachings I’ve listened to frequently by Rob Bell.
For the next 48 hours you can watch the NOOMA for free on their MySpace page.
It was good to be reminded of these truths today.
This weekend marked our annual Fall Retreat. Each year Illini Life heads off to a little camp near Peoria to get away from the busyness of campus and the chaos of year’s beginning. In the past we’ve brought in a speaker to teach the 4 or so main sessions – this year our teachers were all in-house which aided a more family centric feel to the retreat.
The topic of focus: Insecurities – Physical, Emotional and Social.
I felt the weekend was very accessible and left me with a great deal of hope. Sharing honestly about our insecurities – what is really going on behind tearful eyes, or a joyous smile – breaks down walls and makes me feel less alone. Sharing in others insecurities removes the isolating and crippling power they have over us.
I’d like to try and write a series of posts on this weekend, reflecting on each of the teachings and the things God has shown me through them. I say try because we all know I’m not so consistent with posting.
—————-
Now playing: Iron & Wine – Resurrection Fern
via FoxyTunes
It’s official!
I’ll be returning the wilderness of Colorado for an 8 day trip oriented around connecting with God in a uniquely distraction-free way. We call the program Wilderness LT or WLT. Part of the GCM Network, WLT takes a group out into the wilderness for an extended period of time focused on the spiritual disciplines of Solitude, Silence, Fasting, Prayer, and Simplicity.
There is a strict list of equipment we are allowed to bring – only the essentials, NO Coffee 🙁 The food rations are small for the few days that we will be eating. Five days of complete solitude. No music, TV, or computers to distract me. Just God, me and my issues. It breads intimacy that forever changes how you follow Jesus.
We’ll be returning to the same remote wilderness we stayed in back in the summer of 2005. Pictures of that excursion can be seen here. The dates of this summer’s trip are July 6-14. I’m eager for it to arrive.
After breakfast Jesus asked Simon Peter,
“Simon son of John, do you love me more than these?” “Yes, Lord,” Peter replied, “you know I love you.”
“Then feed my lambs,” Jesus told him.Jesus repeated the question:
“Simon son of John, do you love me?” “Yes, Lord,” Peter said, “you know I love you.”
“Then take care of my sheep,” Jesus said.A third time he asked him,
“Simon son of John, do you love me?” Peter was hurt that Jesus asked the question a third time. He said, “Lord, you know everything. You know that I love you.”
Jesus said,
“Then feed my sheep.
“I tell you the truth, when you were young, you were able to do as you liked; you dressed yourself and went wherever you wanted to go. But when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and others will dress you and take you where you don’t want to go.” Jesus said this to let him know by what kind of death he would glorify God. Then Jesus told him,“Follow me.” Peter turned around and saw behind them the disciple Jesus loved—the one who had leaned over to Jesus during supper and asked, “Lord, who will betray you?” Peter asked Jesus, “What about him, Lord?”
Jesus replied,
“If I want him to remain alive until I return, what is that to you? As for you, follow me.”
~ John 21:15-22
I went to Easter Mass with my Dad when I was home and the priest referenced the passage of John running faster than Peter to the empty tomb only he painted it in the light of John’s young age and put some spin to the effect of John’s youth made him less wise than St. Peter – hinting at worth and spiritual maturity being greater in the older, wiser St. Peter.
So much comparison – measuring one man against another.
The challenging part of this passage comes when Jesus says “What is that to you?” He gives Peter a purpose, tells him what his life is meant for and alludes to how he’s going to die, but Peter is more concerned with what John gets. “What about him?”
This is the comparison game – what steals my joy and my peace – and “the disciple Jesus loved” and the disciple Jesus builds his church on are playing it. It is so far ingrained in my humanity it twists even the simplest things in life. I compare my stuff, my progress at work, my spirituality, how effective I am at teaching and leading, how I pray, how much I read my Bible, how smart I sound, how smart I am, how fast I run, how far I run, what I look like, how much money I make, how much money I give away, how many people read this blog, I’m sure I could type for the rest of the night and still have more to list.
The point is Jesus has given me a purpose (some might call it a calling but that’s too churchy sounding), I shouldn’t be concerned with what everyone else gets. Living like that is being content, it is being comfortable in your own skin, it is being who God made you to be.
He’s given each of us a purpose – we shouldn’t be asking “what about him?” because Jesus’ answer is “What is that to you? As for you, follow me.”
I’ve been thinking about this learnt behavior I have. It came to me sometime over the course of my Christian life and I’ve been trying to unlearn it for quite sometime. Maybe you can relate. It looks like this:
I’m talking to someone about their faith and there are basically two outcomes, either they claim Christian as their label or non-Christian. The latter is the easier case in a lot of ways. I say that because when someone tells me they do not consider themselves a Christian we continue to talk about life and faith and the like – in essence the conversation doesn’t shift or change. God remains the focal point of the conversation but in the practical, real ways He exist in my life and theirs. The more cumbersome case proves to be when a person claims Christian as their label. Seemingly immediately my heart enacts the learnt behavior of faith detective – the conversation shifts to checking for religious speak. What my heart is really listening for – the secret pass-phrase if you will – ‘accepted Jesus as my Lord and Savior.’ Once I hear it I then have to answer questions. Did they just grow up in the Church and know the secret words, what does their heart really believe?
This is wrong. This is backwards.
The problem here lies in a disconnect in how I am listening to each person. It would seem I take a person who doesn’t consider themselves a Christian at their word, while someone who does requires detective work. I believe completely that to follow Jesus is to accept Him as Lord and Savior – only I think we measure that like Jesus suggests, by the fruit of the tree. If a person has a desire to follow Jesus and are trying to do so we see evidence of such. You see it in how they talk about others, how they talk about themselves, how they talk about God. To understand someone’s heart requires commitment and desire to know them – not just looking for conformity to religious speak.
I believe understanding if a person is a Christian to be a vital part of shepherding and caring for people, only I think in a lot of ways I’ve learned to do it the wrong way. I’ve learned to make sure they conform their vocabulary to that of Christian normalcy. I like the why Eugene Peterson translates Jesus words in Matthew 7:21-23:
Knowing the correct password—saying ‘Master, Master,’ for instance— isn’t going to get you anywhere with me. What is required is serious obedience—doing what my Father wills. I can see it now—at the Final Judgment thousands strutting up to me and saying, ‘Master, we preached the Message, we bashed the demons, our God-sponsored projects had everyone talking.’ And do you know what I am going to say? ‘You missed the boat. All you did was use me to make yourselves important. You don’t impress me one bit. You’re out of here.’
Loving people is not letting them just recite some magical incantation – Jesus is far more interested in your heart, in you being obedient, in you following Him. My gripe though is that in an effort to see if that is the case for a person I’ve learned to check their password instead.
I don’t think I’m alone in this…
I’ve taken the better part of the week off. This was out of necessity as this summer has found me in a rather stressed-out, emotionally down state indicative of a long battle with joblessness. The wearisome hunt for a full-time job has wrung my heart dry of lifeblood. Rest has been the goal of the past several days, the theme carrying on today and the next, in an effort to restore my heart. So I sit here now, some familiar tunes fill my room, me on my couch with laptop under finger, talking to my God, tuning my heart to the song He is playing, that He has been playing for all time.
It crosses my mind that some might refer to this as the calm before the storm. Students return to campus in a few short days kick-starting illini life into ‘the short fall.’ We’ve been through quite a few of these, my heart and I – this will be the sixth. Soon there will be meeting after meeting discussing the events we have planned, our vision for the coming year, our hopes, expectations and desire to be unified with our Lord as we pursue it all. Then the first week of events – Quad Day, Follow-Up, The Rally, Adventure Race, First SNG, Crash the Pastors, I-Team. Follow-Up will continue as we move to the familiar routine of I-Team and SNG each week with meetings sprinkled around. The Storm being this line up, this pace.
This Pace…
That rings more true with my heart. This week, this summer, the past years – to me they have all been the training runs, the preparation for the big race, for going the distance. The Storm – that sounds dark, scary. The Race – that sounds true. My heart stirring with excitement and adrenaline as it pumps life to my legs and body, whispering “here we go again, you’ve trained for this, He’s prepared you, your heart is reflecting His.” The pace is always a shock at first, warming up after a mile or so the legs are loose, the breathing smooth, the mind focused and the miles fly past. It’ll be December soon – the aid station for a campus ministry – snow on the ground, trees bare, mumblings of final exams and students tired from a long sleepless semester. Not long after that will be the finish line in May. We’ve done this before, my heart and I, remember.
You are currently browsing the archives for the Ministry category.
Greg Van Nada
VERY COOL Love you, Dad
On Mission in Haiti and Memphis / nicknamy.net
[...] some of you may have noticed in our last update letter Illini Life sent off two different missions teams
Desiree
Ahahah! Such a funny commercial!
Support Raising: By the numbers / nicknamy.net
[...] back I posted giving a brief rundown of the process of raising support most missionaries go through. It’s a
nick
Generousee seems a fitting word, surprised we made it this far without it. :-) Thanks for the prayers and kind words
