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World Cup (unfair and me screaming at the TV)

So I am sitting here watching the World Cup match between USA and Algeria as I write this blog.  For those of you who are not familiar with World Cup, it is possibly the biggest sporting event in the world.  Here in the U.S. it is not a big deal, but many countries live and breathe this soccer (futbol as it is called everywhere else) tournament every 4 years.  For instance, France was just recently eliminated and the headline back home was “The End of the World.”

Anyway, there are 32 teams in this tournament, and they are divided into 8 different groups.  Each country will play the other 3 teams in their group and receive 3 points for a win, 1 point for a tie and 0 for a loss.  The 2 teams with the most points from each group advance to the next round. 

The United States tied their first two matches (in soccer they call them matches, not games) and so now they need a win against Algeria to advance to the next round.  In the first half the United States came up with a big goal to take the lead, but it was called back because of offsides.  I am not even going to try and describe offsides to you here, but in replay it was obvious that the U.S. player was not offsides and the goal should have been allowed. 

The game continued on and the U.S. had some great opportunties.  They had many great plays and hit a couple of shots off the posts and goalie, but never quite got the ball into the back of the net.   It was a difficult and frustrating game to watch, but the most frustrating thing was knowing that the U.S. should have been playing from ahead for the whole game after their early goal was disallowed. 

I don’t know about you, but one of the things that I find most frustrating is unfairness.  I always have.  I can’t stand seeing someone wrongly accused or someone treated unfairly.   If you were with me while watching this match you would have heard me screaming at the television quite often.   Nothing inappropriate, but I was definitely quite vocal about the unfairness I was watching.

But that got me thinking about Jesus.  I know that watching soccer may not usually cause you to think about Jesus, but let me explain.  You see, Jesus endured the most unfair event ever.  He was wrongfully accused, arrested, tried, beaten and murdered on a cross.  But Jesus didn’t yell or scream, he endured it all in silence.  Isaiah 53:7 prophesied about this event saying, “he was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth.”  Jesus endured all of that outrage, humility, pain and suffering and death for us, and he did it without every raising His voice in His own defense. 

There is something that I should learn from that.  I can get pretty worked up about unfair things that are miniscule in comparison to what Jesus endured.  Jesus’ example is excellent for me to remember when I am faced with something that I consider to be unfair.

But beyond that, because of His silent sacrifice, we receive a great victory.  Eternity with Him in Heaven.  What an amazing outcome out of what was a terribly unfair event.  Jesus silently endured a terribly unfair event and turned it into the greatest  victory of all time.   A victory that I should celebrate everyday of my life.

By the way, while I was writing this blog, the U.S. game came down to the final minutes.  Actually, regulation time had run out and the game was into it’s final 4 minutes of what is called “stoppage” time.  And with less than 4 minutes left, the U.S. made a great charge down the field and scored the winning goal.  With that outcome, combined with the result of the other game in their group (between England and Slovenia), the U.S. not only advanced to the next round, but won their group.  After enduring an unfair event (with me screaming at the television), the U.S. team came away with a wonderful victory.  Obviously nothing compared to what Jesus accomplished, but still I was jumping up and down and screaming at the television once again, only this time in a much different way than I had before.  Go U.S.A.!

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Open Wide Your Mouth

Today in my devotions I came across Psalm 81:10, “I am the Lord your God, who brought you up out of Egypt.  Open wide your mouth and I will fill it.”  That is a beautiful and powerful verse.  When I think of it, I get the picture of a nest of baby birds with their mouths wide open toward the sky waiting for their mother to feed them.  They have their mouths so wide open that you can’t even see their face.  They are hungry and they know that food is coming.  So they are straining with every ounce of muscle they have to be ready to receive that food.

Today I had a conversation with a woman whose husband has been out of work for several months and they are not able to pay for this month’s rent.  She has been trusting God and knowing that He has a plan, but she is tired.  She is ready for this to be over.  She is ready for God to come swooping in and give them what they need.  She is waiting and wondering where God is in the midst of this.

And I don’t blame her.  I understand how she feels.  How do those two pictures go together?  God says “open wide your mouth and I will fill it.”  So what’s the deal?  Is her mouth not wide open enough?  Where is the filling?

Have you ever felt like that?  Have you ever wondered where God is in the midst of what you are going through?  Have you ever wondered what God is doing and when He is going to come along and provide what you are hungry for and in need of?  Those are tough times, are they not?  So how do we wait for feeding time?  How do we hang on for God?

Let’s consider this verse from Psalm 81 a little closer.  Notice that first we see a reminder of who God is.  That God is faithful and more than capable of providing for our every need.  We have seen God at work over and over again and we can know that He is able to care for our needs today just like He did for the Israelites so many years ago.

So the first place we need to start is with trust.  We need to trust God.  He knows our needs and actually knows even better than we do what is best for us.  And He is fully capable of meeting those needs.  He has proved Himself faithful time and again and we can trust in Him.  But I believe the second part of that verse carries this concept to a whole new level.  Opening wide our mouths is an action for us to take.  It is us saying that we know that God is powerful, and faithful, and that He will provide, and us actively putting ourselves in the position for God to pour out whatever we need from Him.

Now along with that goes an understanding that we are vulnerable in that position.  Think of the birds for a moment.  They opened their mouths so wide that they couldn’t possibly see what was coming.  They trusted their mother to not only feed them, but to give them what would be good for them.  The mother bird could put anything into their mouths at that moment and they wouldn’t be able to do anything about it.  Opening our mouths wide in expectation puts us in a position of vulnerability before the Lord.  And I believe that vulnerability is key.

When we are in that position we are saying to God, fill me Lord, I trust in you to give me whatever you choose to give me.  When we get to that position we are abandoning our plans and putting ourselves completely in His hands, trusting that whatever He gives us will be exactly what we need. 

Many times we want God to feed us or help us, but only as long as His plan comes into line with what we want for ourselves.  We want Him to feed us, but we want to choose the menu.  But God wants us in this position we see in Psalm 81:10, with our mouths so far wide open that we are completely trusting Him to give us what we need.

I know some of you out there are hurting and hungry.  I want to invite you to open wide your mouths to the Lord.  Remember His faithfulness and power, and trust Him to give you exactly what you need.  Open wide your mouth to the Lord and let Him fill it.

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The Gift of the Willing Heart

So yes it has been several weeks since my last blog.  Actually it has been just over a month.  Sorry about that to all of you out there who have been checking back to see what’s new. I will try to do better.   Things have been a little swamped lately at The River and all my extra free time has gone to getting us transitioned out of our ministry center and into my garage.  We have been in this process for several months, but things finally came to a head over the last month or so and we are finally out.  Praise the Lord!  We will now be saving about $1,300/month.  That is money that we really didn’t have to begin with, so it will be really nice to have that off the books.  God has really provided in getting things taken care of and we are very grateful.

So what has kept me so busy was working on the ministry center to get it back to its original condition and moving out all of our stuff.  For those of you who know me, you know that I am not the most qualified handyman, so that was some experience.  

Before becoming a pastor, I never realized all the different things that I would spend my time doing in that role.  But one of the great things that I have learnedsince becoming a pastor is the imporatnce of saying “yes” to opportunities to serve.  I am not saying that we need to say “yes” to everything, but I believe we have become too good at saying “no.”  One of my least favorite phrases is, “that’s not my gift.” 

Now please understand, I do think it is important for us to be operating in our areas of giftedness and I don’t want to see people overextended and getting burned out because they are trying to do things that they are simply not supposed to be doing.  But we also need to realize that there are some things that just need to be done, and if you are available, then maybe God is wanting you to do it.  Sometimes all God wants is a willing heart.  He is fully capable of helping you do whatever needs to be done.

For instance, I have found myself over the last few months: fixing drywall, painting walls and ceilings, vacuuming, tossing junk, moving office furniture and boxes from one location to another, putting together shelving units, adding a floor to my attic for storage, making phone calls to cancel different services, and all kinds of other administrative and constructive jobs.  None of those things are areas where I am gifted, passionate about, talented in, or even vaguely interested in at all.  But all of it had to be done. 

I am not writing this to complain.  God has been very faithful in helping us get out of the ministry center and He has provided a variety of people over the last few months to help in different ways.  And I am thankful for each and every one of you and I know that many of you were operating outside of your giftedness as well.  But I am writing this to talk about what I have learned over these last few months.  What I have learned is that sometimes things just need to be done and God wants someone who is willing to do it.  Not because they are gifted or passionate or anything else, simply because it needs to be done.  Sometimes the greatest gift is the gift of the willing heart. 

We have a lot of work to do at The River and we need everyone’s help.   My prayer is that both you and I would have a willing heart for whatever God has for us to do.