When we sit down to apply our theology and the vision given to our church and ministry we enter into a theological process called: practical theology. This is a process of taking our theology of God and asking how our understanding of God, within our current cultural context, affects how we run ministries. As vital part of
practical theology is reflecting on God’s work, in us, in the world, and in our students’ lives. It is this reflection that should affect our praxis of ministry. Yet in ministry it is easy to do what is familiar to us, or what we believe is "right," despite how God might be moving.
In doing this we become routine. That is why we need to make sure that we taking the time to reflection on what God is doing and has done in the past. This type of reflective ministry can help us to get out of our ministry routines, and help to bring our ministry back into focus.
In order to do this we need to give time to God to speak to us through Scripture, through prayer, through Church history, and through what he is doing in the lives of students. Seeking God's movement in these ways will help us to ensure that our ministry is root in the right place, God's movement.
March 21, 2011
March 14, 2011
God is the One Who Heals
I have this really bad problem, I like to fix things. Now I am not talking about fixing the pipes under a sink after someone thought it would be a good idea to try to cram a whole turkey down it. I am talking about fixing people who are broken.
Now I realize that we are all “broken,” and in need of being “fixed,” but for some reason I like to think that I can fix people all by myself. So I put people on my back, tie them down, and just start walking in the direction of their problem, bent on making everything better as quick as possible.
I do this partly because I am impatient, because I care, and because I want things to be fixed now. I don’t like to wait. I don’t like the process that healing can be sometimes.
There is this story in the John 9 where Jesus is walking down the street with his disciples. As they are walking, they look over to the side of the street and see a blind man sitting there on the street.
Now Jesus’ disciples ask the typical awkward question the disciples always seem to ask, which ends up with them putting their feet in their mouths, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”
Now I love how Jesus responses, ““Neither this man nor his parents sinned,” said Jesus, “but this happened so that the works of God might be displayed in him. As long as it is day, we must do the works of him who sent me. Night is coming, when no one can work. While I am in the world, I am the light of the world.”
Basically Jesus states, no one sinned the make this man blind. He is blind because he is broken and in need of healing. Therefore, this broken man’s brokenness will be used glorify that God and show others that God is the one that heals.
After Jesus speaks to his disciples, he gets on the ground and spits in the dirt making some mud. After the mud is made. He places the mud over the blind man’s eyes.
I know I am not the only one who thinks that this is a little weird. Yet, as I started to think about why Jesus did this, I realized Jesus was a pure genius. Since this man was blind and he couldn’t see Jesus, so he touched and spoke to the blind man because that is just how the man needed to be touched.
Unlike must healings in scripture, after Jesus touches the man, he sends him on a journey saying, “Go, and wash in the Pool of Siloam.”
The blind man then gets up and walks the distance to the pool of Siloam to be healed. The man wasn’t healed from his blindness just as Jesus touched him; he had to take a journey that Jesus sent him on to be healed.
As I meditated on this passage, I realized that sometime the journey is necessary to be healed from our brokenness.
When I was in elementary school I was hanging out and swimming at my cousin’s house on a hot summer day. As we were all playing by the pool, one of my cousin yelled out, “Last one in the pool is a loser!”
Now I did not want to be a loser, so I jumped from where I was toward the pool. The issue with that idea, was that a large item was in my way: a diving board. As I came down into what I was hoping was the pool, I hit my knee on the diving board.
Now on the surface of the water, I looked down into the now bluish-red pool; I realized I had somehow cut my knee pretty badly in the process of trying not to be a loser.
As I got out of the pool, my mom and aunt found the largest band-aid they could find to cover my hurt knee.
As the weeks went on, my cut did not heal. The problem was that every time I moved my knee the cut reopened, no matter how many band-aids I put on it.
Teens, heck everyone, are really good at putting band-aids over cuts that need deeper healing.
I think the reason that people are so good at doing this is because it is easier to put a band-aid over a cut then to go to the doctor, who might hurt you in the process of healing you. They know that the journey to be healed is not always an easy journey to go on. So people try to heal by getting drunk, doing drugs, looking for love in sex, or shopping until they drop. You see, it is hard walking through town with mud on your eyes, I mean; people might look at your weird?
As youth leaders, volunteers, parents, or pastors, our job is to point students and people toward a journey that brings healing. To point people to the only God who can bring healing, even if he has to put a little mud on our eyes to do it.
Here is the reality, we cannot fix people, we cannot fix ourselves; only God can fix us and redeem us.
Then once redeemed we can cry out, “I was blind but now I see!”
Now I realize that we are all “broken,” and in need of being “fixed,” but for some reason I like to think that I can fix people all by myself. So I put people on my back, tie them down, and just start walking in the direction of their problem, bent on making everything better as quick as possible.
I do this partly because I am impatient, because I care, and because I want things to be fixed now. I don’t like to wait. I don’t like the process that healing can be sometimes.
There is this story in the John 9 where Jesus is walking down the street with his disciples. As they are walking, they look over to the side of the street and see a blind man sitting there on the street.
Now Jesus’ disciples ask the typical awkward question the disciples always seem to ask, which ends up with them putting their feet in their mouths, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”
Now I love how Jesus responses, ““Neither this man nor his parents sinned,” said Jesus, “but this happened so that the works of God might be displayed in him. As long as it is day, we must do the works of him who sent me. Night is coming, when no one can work. While I am in the world, I am the light of the world.”
Basically Jesus states, no one sinned the make this man blind. He is blind because he is broken and in need of healing. Therefore, this broken man’s brokenness will be used glorify that God and show others that God is the one that heals.
After Jesus speaks to his disciples, he gets on the ground and spits in the dirt making some mud. After the mud is made. He places the mud over the blind man’s eyes.
I know I am not the only one who thinks that this is a little weird. Yet, as I started to think about why Jesus did this, I realized Jesus was a pure genius. Since this man was blind and he couldn’t see Jesus, so he touched and spoke to the blind man because that is just how the man needed to be touched.
Unlike must healings in scripture, after Jesus touches the man, he sends him on a journey saying, “Go, and wash in the Pool of Siloam.”
The blind man then gets up and walks the distance to the pool of Siloam to be healed. The man wasn’t healed from his blindness just as Jesus touched him; he had to take a journey that Jesus sent him on to be healed.
As I meditated on this passage, I realized that sometime the journey is necessary to be healed from our brokenness.
When I was in elementary school I was hanging out and swimming at my cousin’s house on a hot summer day. As we were all playing by the pool, one of my cousin yelled out, “Last one in the pool is a loser!”
Now I did not want to be a loser, so I jumped from where I was toward the pool. The issue with that idea, was that a large item was in my way: a diving board. As I came down into what I was hoping was the pool, I hit my knee on the diving board.
Now on the surface of the water, I looked down into the now bluish-red pool; I realized I had somehow cut my knee pretty badly in the process of trying not to be a loser.
As I got out of the pool, my mom and aunt found the largest band-aid they could find to cover my hurt knee.
As the weeks went on, my cut did not heal. The problem was that every time I moved my knee the cut reopened, no matter how many band-aids I put on it.
Teens, heck everyone, are really good at putting band-aids over cuts that need deeper healing.
I think the reason that people are so good at doing this is because it is easier to put a band-aid over a cut then to go to the doctor, who might hurt you in the process of healing you. They know that the journey to be healed is not always an easy journey to go on. So people try to heal by getting drunk, doing drugs, looking for love in sex, or shopping until they drop. You see, it is hard walking through town with mud on your eyes, I mean; people might look at your weird?
As youth leaders, volunteers, parents, or pastors, our job is to point students and people toward a journey that brings healing. To point people to the only God who can bring healing, even if he has to put a little mud on our eyes to do it.
Here is the reality, we cannot fix people, we cannot fix ourselves; only God can fix us and redeem us.
Then once redeemed we can cry out, “I was blind but now I see!”
March 7, 2011
Through Tears, God Heals
Today you can’t turn on sport’s radio or a sport’s channel without hearing details and commentary related to the Miami Heat’s Coach Erik Spoletra’s comments that team members of the Heat were “crying” after a tough loss to the Chicago Bulls yesterday afternoon.
As I listened to some of the commentary and repots, I was struck by the fact that many people were laughing, and for lack of better term, making fun of the Miami Heat player who were crying. Saying things like, “if there is no crying in baseball, then there is definitely no crying in the regular season of basketball.” (Spinning a line from the movie “League of Their Own.)
In most commentary I have heard on the matter, there is one overwhelming theme: men aren’t supposed to cry unless…(fill in the blank with some dramatic event).
Rewind to my Saturday night, I am standing outside after a spiritual experience at a local Christian camp in Southern California. From the direction of the bathroom, two of my high school guys emerge, arms on each other’s shoulders in tears.
As I began to talk to them, quickly it became obvious that God was breaking open some deep hurt that they had tried to push down. As tears came from their eyes they both tried hard to mask them, even saying things like, “I hate crying” or “I just have to stop.”
I finally looked at both of them and said, “It is okay to cry.”
If either of these teens were to turn on a sports channel or radio station today they would hear a much different message about what is or not okay for a “man” to do.
As I processed all of this, my mind could not help but drift to scripture’s shortest verse, “Jesus wept” (John 11:35).
Standing outside of Lazarus’s tomb, Jesus cried over the loss of a friend.
Now I know you can’t emotionally compare the loss of a basketball game, a deep spiritual response from teenagers, and the death of a friend. Yet, all these experiences share one element: tears.
As I listened to a local sports radio show during lunch today, an interview with Lakers’ star Kobe Bryant came on. Of course, only three questions in, the Miami Heat’s crying came up. Bryant responded to a pointed question by the interviewer by saying something wonderful, “all people respond differently.” Adding, "If guys are crying in the locker room, guys are crying in the locker room. That doesn't mean they're chumps. That doesn't mean they're soft. It doesn't mean anything."
While, Bryant admitted that he would not of cried over a basketball game, he added, “That is just not me.”
Bryant knows something that some guys forget, we all respond differently to situations and that doesn't make us less of a man.
When dealing with teenage guys we need make sure that we do not communicate to them that a “real man” pushes down his emotions and does not cry. We have to remember that all people react differently and that crying is not bad. Crying is an emotional response to a feeling. When we push down that response (tears), we end up having to push down what is causing that response (the hurt). Not only is this psychology not good for the students, possibly leading to anger, but also it can lead to deep hurt later.
I was meeting with one student who noticed they started crying over what they called, “little things” and was having trouble sleeping. As we continued to talk, what emerged was that they were pushing down deep hurt for so long, that their body was now reacting in order to try to deal with their hurt they had pushed down for so long.
Revelation 21:4 states, “He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”
This verse shows us that we have a God who is in the business of healing, not only physically, but also emotionally. The reality is that the God does not “wipe away tears” and do away with crying, because crying is “bad.” Tears aren’t a part of the heavenly reality, because there is no need for them anymore, because at that point in the story all of creation is healed. In fact, it is through the wiping away our tears that God heals us.
Therefore tears are not bad, they are a part of the healing process. That is why Jesus wept, because through crying he was healed (not that his divine side of Jesus needed to be healed).
In the same way, when we cry, we are healed. And maybe, just maybe; in those tears, God is in the process of healing us.
As I listened to some of the commentary and repots, I was struck by the fact that many people were laughing, and for lack of better term, making fun of the Miami Heat player who were crying. Saying things like, “if there is no crying in baseball, then there is definitely no crying in the regular season of basketball.” (Spinning a line from the movie “League of Their Own.)
In most commentary I have heard on the matter, there is one overwhelming theme: men aren’t supposed to cry unless…(fill in the blank with some dramatic event).
Rewind to my Saturday night, I am standing outside after a spiritual experience at a local Christian camp in Southern California. From the direction of the bathroom, two of my high school guys emerge, arms on each other’s shoulders in tears.
As I began to talk to them, quickly it became obvious that God was breaking open some deep hurt that they had tried to push down. As tears came from their eyes they both tried hard to mask them, even saying things like, “I hate crying” or “I just have to stop.”
I finally looked at both of them and said, “It is okay to cry.”
If either of these teens were to turn on a sports channel or radio station today they would hear a much different message about what is or not okay for a “man” to do.
As I processed all of this, my mind could not help but drift to scripture’s shortest verse, “Jesus wept” (John 11:35).
Standing outside of Lazarus’s tomb, Jesus cried over the loss of a friend.
Now I know you can’t emotionally compare the loss of a basketball game, a deep spiritual response from teenagers, and the death of a friend. Yet, all these experiences share one element: tears.
As I listened to a local sports radio show during lunch today, an interview with Lakers’ star Kobe Bryant came on. Of course, only three questions in, the Miami Heat’s crying came up. Bryant responded to a pointed question by the interviewer by saying something wonderful, “all people respond differently.” Adding, "If guys are crying in the locker room, guys are crying in the locker room. That doesn't mean they're chumps. That doesn't mean they're soft. It doesn't mean anything."
While, Bryant admitted that he would not of cried over a basketball game, he added, “That is just not me.”
Bryant knows something that some guys forget, we all respond differently to situations and that doesn't make us less of a man.
When dealing with teenage guys we need make sure that we do not communicate to them that a “real man” pushes down his emotions and does not cry. We have to remember that all people react differently and that crying is not bad. Crying is an emotional response to a feeling. When we push down that response (tears), we end up having to push down what is causing that response (the hurt). Not only is this psychology not good for the students, possibly leading to anger, but also it can lead to deep hurt later.
I was meeting with one student who noticed they started crying over what they called, “little things” and was having trouble sleeping. As we continued to talk, what emerged was that they were pushing down deep hurt for so long, that their body was now reacting in order to try to deal with their hurt they had pushed down for so long.
Revelation 21:4 states, “He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”
This verse shows us that we have a God who is in the business of healing, not only physically, but also emotionally. The reality is that the God does not “wipe away tears” and do away with crying, because crying is “bad.” Tears aren’t a part of the heavenly reality, because there is no need for them anymore, because at that point in the story all of creation is healed. In fact, it is through the wiping away our tears that God heals us.
Therefore tears are not bad, they are a part of the healing process. That is why Jesus wept, because through crying he was healed (not that his divine side of Jesus needed to be healed).
In the same way, when we cry, we are healed. And maybe, just maybe; in those tears, God is in the process of healing us.
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