Postmodern Mystic

I have been traveling all summer and so blogging inconsistently–when school starts in a couple of weeks I will try to blog at least a couple of times a week. I am off to Brazil later today to help conduct an Elder-Link program.
Since i will be talking to leaders I thought I might share some interesting things from Scott Bessenecker’s book “How to Inherit the Earth”.
scott says if you put “leader” in a book search at amazon you get 29000 hits! For “Follower” you get 1000 hits and many of those are things like “how to lead so others will follow”
But in the Gospels the wrod lead occurs only 21 times and most of the references are negative.yhe word follow occurs 86 times and most of the mentions are positive.
I cant help wondering if we arent more interested in leadership than Jesus is.The best leaders are those who have learned to follow radically. After all, the invitation is not to “come lead” but to “follow me”.

In Amish life the cows have to be milked everyday.I have a few cows in my days also but not nearly as many as I often think. All the work doesnt get done and life goes on perfectly well. How do we evaluate if we have had a good day? Most of us base it on how much we got done. But I wonder if it is as simple as this: Did i practice the presence of God and the following of Jesus in each moment of my day? If I did, it was a good day no matter what did or didnt get done and if I didnt do this it was a bad day no matter how much I accomplished.As long as I milk the cows and live the present moment fully in the Divine presence, I can go to bed at night content that all is well. It just might be the way, after 52 years of almost constant anxiety, of finding that most elusive fruit of the spirit:peace.

People are often curious as to what I read(I have no idea why) and lately I have been on a great roll-a whole series of wonderful books–so for what it is worth here it is for the last month or so:
The Good Soldiers–It will be to the Iraq war what “the things they carried ” was to the vietnam war–the single defining book.It is raw and painful.
Columbine-10 years in the writing, again will likely be the defining book on that tragedy–unbearably sad and most illuminating and demythologizing.
Amish Peace—READ IT–short little vignettes on Amish life-I was totally convicted-more blogging on this later.
The Forgotten Ways Handbook–If i were going to plant a church tomorrow or renew an existing church this is definitely one of the books i would want under my arm. READ IT!
Predictably Irrational–behavioral economics and deep meditation on what we are really like–I cannot begin to tell you how much I learned from this book.
Zeitoun–Dave Eggers–need i say more?
And of course that doesnt include the fiction but that is for another post.

Constant travel has made posting a challenge this summer.I had a great time witht he brothers and sisters in Singapore and today begin guiding the program to train spiritual directors under the auspices of Lipscomb’s Institute for Christian Spirituality. The first rule for spiritual direction is this:you aren’t going to be anyone in the direction relationship that you aren’t otherwise.So since it is your task to attend to God for the other person in the direction relationship the best preparation for that task is to constantly attend to God in all of life. Indeed, the greatest threat to the spiritual life of most of us is not besetting sin,but forgetfulness.Cultivating a deeper God-mindfulness in the mundane things of life is THE task of Jesus-followers.

A quote from “The Forgotten Ways Handbook” by Alan HIrsch:
“The dangerous stories of Jesus are alive in his people, and in a very real way,we must actually become the gospel to the people around us.When we look at the phenomenal movements,we find that these groups found a way to translate the grand themes of the gospel into concrete life through the embodiment of Jesus in ways that were profoundly relational and attractive. This embodiment cannot be passed on through books:it is always communicated through life itself, by the leader to the community, from teacher to disciple,and from believer to believer.”

As churches continue to invest enormous resources into seminars, classes and technology maybe we need the gentle reminder that discipleship grows from flesh and blood incarnational relationships which have as their intention, leading us deeper into Christlikeness.Are we ready to get about our real task? Let me hear what you think.

I want to share with you one of my favorite short stories in its entirety.It is written by the Russian absurdist Daniil Kharms.
“Now one day a man went to work and on the way he met another man, who having bought a loaf of Polish bread, was heading back home where he came from.
And thats about it, more or less”
Is that a great story or what?
You see, Kharms understood that our life is not a story as some contend.It is not full of action and sometimes the plot is meandering or totally non existent.Most of life is utterly mundane.To expect life to have the neatness of a well written story is bound to lead to disappointment and even anger. What the mystic asks us to see is that all of those mundane moments are filled with the presence of God-and that is the ultimate meaning of our lives–not the story as we would have it.

“You need a song, a passage of scripture and a paragraph from a book to sustain your ministry.”

Everyone knows some passages of scripture are more important than others. If you dont believe this, I have a quiz on II Chron. for you.

The most obvious text I could give as the center of my ministry would be Mt 5-7, the Sermon on the Mount. I do believe it is one of the centers of gravity in scripture, and it is the text I try to build my life around. I have committed it to memory and require all my freshmen ministry students to memorize it. The Living of this Sermon occupies almost all of my attention.

And everyone who has heard me preach knows I think the most compelling presentation of the gospel in all the Bible is II Cor 1:20:

“For no matter how many promises God has made, they are “Yes” in Christ. And so through him the “Amen” is spoken by us to the glory of God.”

But if I had to choose the passage that sets the theme for my ministry (and has for years), it would be II Cor 5:14-19, with its themes of dying to self, seeing the world in a different way, becoming a new creation and practicing reconciliation. Talk about a loaded few verses!

“For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again.

So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation.”

Maybe some readers will share the passage around which they center life and I would love to hear from some ministers about which passage sets the theme for their ministry.

“You need a song, a passage of scripture and a paragraph from a book to sustain your ministry.”

Now for the Song…

The song that has been the theme for my ministry usually surprises people. Those who know my love for classical music assume it will be a classic hymn, but it isn’t quite that. It is a song seldom sung in those churches that have gone totally contemporary but nonetheless I hang on to it. Published in 1875, “All the Way My Savior Leads Me,” is a product of Fanny Crosby and Robert Lowry.
All the way my Savior leads me;
What have I to ask beside?
Can I doubt His tender mercy,
Who through life has been my Guide?
Heav’nly peace, divinest comfort,
Here by faith in Him to dwell!
For I know, whate’er befall me,
Jesus doeth all things well;
For I know, whate’er befall me,
Jesus doeth all things well.

All the way my Savior leads me,
Cheers each winding path I tread;
Gives me grace for every trial,
Feeds me with the living Bread.
Though my weary steps may falter,
And my soul athirst may be,
Gushing from the Rock before me,
Lo! A spring of joy I see;
Gushing from the Rock before me,
Lo! A spring of joy I see.

All the way my Savior leads me
O the fullness of His love!
Perfect rest to me is promised
In my Father’s house above.
When my spirit, clothed immortal,
Wings its flight to realms of day
This my song through endless ages—
Jesus led me all the way;
This my song through endless ages—
Jesus led me all the way.

You See, for me, faith is difficult. There are days when I don’t much believe in God. But when faith is weak I have found a way to keep my balance. Everyday when I get up I know what I am going to do that day- follow Jesus- I am going to follow the one who has won my heart even when I don’t have aything else to hang on to that day. He has led me all the way. And it has been very good.

Can I doubt his tender mercy?

Though my weary steps may falter…

And I cannot hear the ringing affirmation at the close without tears coming to my eyes.

This is my song through endless ages-

Jesus lead me all the way.

Would any readers like to share a comment or song of their own?

“You need a song, a passage of scripture and a paragraph from a book to sustain your ministry.”

First the book paragraph, from Henri Nouwen’s Way of the Heart:

Let me conclude with one more desert story.

“Three Fathers used to go and visit blessed Anthony every year and two of them used to discuss their thoughts about the salvation of their souls with him, but the third always remained silent and did not ask him anything. After a long time, Abba Anthony said to him: ‘You often come here to see me, but you never ask me anything,’ and the other replied, ‘It is enough to see you, Father.’”

This story is a fit ending to this book. By the time people feel that just seeing us is ministry, words such as these will no longer be necessary (94).

This is my goal- a ministry of presence- where more than anything else, I have cultivated the presence of God in my life so deeply that just being with people will somehow bless them. Now that would be ministry!

Allelon Community

I want to introduce you to some special friends- the allelon community. 4 ACU students living in intentional community. More about them later, but check out their blog.