From There to There

Today I sat in my usual haunt at the Starbucks down the street from my house. There are only two tables with outlets and I try to get the one near the back. If I don't, I've only got about 90 min of computer life. If I get to sit here (yes, I'm here right now actually) then I get to enjoy this hard chair and multiple cups of coffee.

This, my dear reader, inspires these caffeine-fueled rants that I hope get you from where you are to where you are going...or, at least, a step or two closer.

Which is actually the topic of today's reflection; helping each other get from there to there.

As I sat with my open laptop and a pile of papers that will, hopefully, turn into life, someone I hadn't seen in years walked in. A lot of life has passed since I last saw her, but her enthusiasm upon seeing me planted at my post made an invitation to sit the natural, and welcome, consequence.

We spoke of the usual suspects when two people are catching up on their lives. Kids, jobs, and mutual acquaintances all spent their due being spoken over the steam rising from our coffee cups. We would have spent the 15 min she had before picking up her daughter staying here if not for the topic of transitions.

It seems to be a theme right now. Everyone seems to be in a hallway of change. For her, it was considering a career-change. For me, it's trying to figure out a new rhythm of life as a solo act. Last night I celebrated a dear friend who has "retired" from 10 years in professional ministry and is now in the wide-open expanse of possibility. There were tears of celebration and tears of loss as everyone is quite aware that it will never be the same again.

It can't be. That's what transitions are all about.

Change is the one constant of life.

I've been reflecting on our job of getting people from there to there. I've become aware of a simple human truth...

...it's all of our job.

Every single human on the planet is in the transportation business. We are people-movers. I'm a pastor, it's a job that gets clearly identified as one that moves people from there to there. I help people understand themselves and their faith in a very complex world. They are somewhere and want to get somewhere else. I help them find their way by getting them in the right vehicle with the right luggage...the luggage that fits them. My quarter-hour coffee companion is a physical therapist; helping people's bodies get from a position of non-movement to movement. There to there.

We spoke (as all people in our position find themselves doing at some point) of how tempting it would be to work at the coffee shop in which we sat. A "simple" job that ends when we push through the glass door at the end of a shift. We would be the best employees this company has ever seen, making better every detail of the environment in which we are given responsibility.

But our job wouldn't change.

We will still be in the people-moving business.

People would come from there (wherever "there" is) and our job is to get them there (a whole new "there") with something good for their time with us.

They don't stay long.

No one really stays long.

But we can make them better for having been here.

We can act as good guides

Love well

Leave good behind

Help them as they travel through our lives

Because they are also in the same business.

Everyone we guide will go from us and help another traveller. Our hope is that everyone guides with love and carries other humans well.

Though we know that they do not always do so.

Bad information, broken hearts, failure, rejection, disappointments, and outright abuse can make it hard to carry each other well. In those times we rely on healers to help us get better so that we can get back to the business of being part of this human family.

No man is an island.

Yes, it can be a lonely business, but every so often someone stops on our stretch of road and shares the space with us. The best ones are when it's unexpected; when we are simply doing the best work we can do and someone notices, puts their hand in ours, and works our spot with us. Those moments are blessings from God and should not be taken for granted.  Mistreating these rare moments or making it all about them will cause us to lose them.

Jesus' words come to mind as I consider these ideas: "Look for the Kingdom of God first...then all the rest comes naturally".  Some have taken these words and made them into a call to be detached in our religious life. Truth is, I think Jesus is simply saying the same thing; namely, our job is to work to create the kind of world where we carry each other well. As we carry well, we find that what our heart needs is carried to us.

So, my fellow bus drivers, engineers, pilots, and piggyback ride-givers...ours is a noble and high calling. It's the call of humanity.

Hop in...I'll do my best to get you a little farther down the road.

Amen.

Listening for Love

I’ve been in youth ministry for over 20 years. It’s really all I’ve ever done. I’ve studied it, practiced it, and taught it.  A friend recently described it as “my heart”. I couldn’t argue. We all have something that drives us. In christian circles its often called our “calling”, or more simply put, that thing inside of us that keeps us doing that thing we do. Or, putting it another way, youth ministry is how I set out to change the world.

I am convinced that greatness lives inside of all of us. There is a unique calling on our lives…a place where we know we are exactly where we are supposed to be; with a head at peace with who we are. We all want to leave a legacy, to have walked this planet and left behind a footprint deep enough for the generation behind us to follow. If I were an architect, I’d build a building where people could feel safe, creative, and where good things happen. I might even name it after you. If I were a musician, I’d right you a song that would make you feel like the centerpiece of creation and that lovers could use for generations (not to mention look really good in some rocker clothes). If I were a writer, my books would inspire my readers to new heights of love and wonder. If I were a firefighter, I’d come home smelling of ash, but knowing I made a difference because I saved a life. As a police officer, I’d know that you were safe tonight because I was awake. As a programmer, I’d giddily design software that would make the world better and support those I hold most dear. 

I’m a pastor…a pastor of the next generation. It’s my calling. It’s the voice I hear in my soul. 

Recently, I’ve been asking myself about my calling. It’s not been an easy road. Quite frankly, it’s been one hell of a tough one. There is not a lot of glamour in the job. No one is making prime-time dramas or blockbuster movies about guys like me. There are many sacrifices and a ton of questions.

But, you see, none of that really matters…if I’m listening to the right voice.

If I’m honest about what drives me in my calling, it’s the Voice. I work hard every day to clear enough real estate in my chaotic soul to hear that Voice and if I’m asked to define what I do in this job I have elected to pursue, it’s to help others know how to hear that Voice in their own lives.

Life is noisy and voices are many. I watch as the people I serve are tossed all around by the information they are taking in. There is a non-stop assault of input about how one should look or live or believe about themselves. I see too many beautiful hearts crushed under the weight of bad information and I feel like I’ve been given the job of clearing away the piles so that all of us can hear the Voice of Love more clearly.

Not to say I’m immune. I want the same things that every one else wants. I want to be loved, I want to feel attractive and witty. The thought of financial security is quite appealing.  Every guy wants to be a rock star-firefighter-cowboy-pirate and I’m no different. I have also found myself, at times in my journey, believing bad information about myself and, at times, even adjusting who I am made to be in order to get love or security or a few dollars. 

Every time I do I find that I’m not who I want to be and am missing the things I set out to obtain in the first place. Instead of running free in the sunshine, I’m clinging to fences afraid to step out into the good gifts that are within my reach.

In other words, I stop listening.

Jesus has often been called “The Good Shepherd”. He uses that term for Himself in John chapter 10. His point is that when it comes to sheep, not everyone has their best interest. There are thieves in the temple, as it were. They are so committed to the use and abuse of the sheep that they are climbing walls. They go the cheap and easy route because if they went through the gate, they would have a much larger problem:

The Shepherd.

According to Jesus, Shepherd’s aren’t about walls, they are about gates. Walls aren’t about keeping sheep in, walls are about keeping pain out so that sheep can get some rest so that when the day comes, they can run in the warmth of the sun. 

Those who would do harm can only use walls because they aren’t about freedom, they are about control. Walls that trap make a robber feel powerful, and they use them to make sheep run scared.  

It happens all the time. Lies that tell us we are only good for one thing or that we simply aren’t that good at all keep us clinging to those things that limit us. We hear the voices that say if we only do this or that then we will be valuable…so we stop at a fence and go with a thief. Words that people have said to us play over and over in our head and change what’s true…causing us to stay in a corner and making it hard to hear the other Voice coming over the night air:

“Come, this way, run toward my voice…”

It seems illogical. Leave the safety of the fence? If we run out into the field we are sitting ducks! 

Little to we understand that if we follow the right voice, the wrong ones aren’t strong enough to contend with His.

He says it right here. “The Good Shepherd lays His life on the line for the sheep”.

It’s His calling. 

He is the one who tells us who we are. He is the one who lays Himself in the gate…not to keep us penned in, but to keep the unworthy out. 

We are safe if we stay close to Him during the darkness of the night.

We can rest if we listen for Him.

You and I aren’t people designed for fences. Fences are about fear. Our shepherd is all about love. We can lie close because we know that when we are near Him, thieves wouldn’t dare risk it. All of their shouting at the wall simply doesn’t matter.

See…we know something better than what they are telling us. We know that when the dark night passes we will open our eyes and He will be standing there, smiling. He will guide us to green pastures so we can get what we need. We will know the warmth of the summer and the taste of cool water. We get to run because we chose to listen to the voice of the One who loves us.

“Ready to go play, little sheep?”