Time for Rest...I think God means it!

Last week we headed to Shannon’s folks to celebrate Thanksgiving.  While we were there some strange events unfolded.  I played several games of Hearts.  I joined others in watching Jeopardy (without multi-tasking once).  I slept in.  I relaxed.  I even laughed at REALLY bad jokes (What is green, has 4 legs, and will hurt you if it falls out of a tree on you???  A pool table!  What is brown, has 4 legs, and sees just as well out of either end?  A horse with its eyes closed!!  Yes, my mother-in-law’s jokes!).

I love playing cards with others.  I enjoy hanging out and telling fun stories.   I don’t even mind groaning at really bad jokes.  Shouldn’t these be normal activities in my life?  Shouldn’t they be things I do on a regular basis?  Why did it feel so strange to let my hair down (figuratively, of course) to relax and enjoy life?

Sadly, last Friday was probably the first real ‘day off’ that I’d taken in months.  I’ve been caught up in the myth of busyness!  No matter how hard I’ve worked, the to-do list has not gotten smaller.

It’s been quite a fall: completing and moving into a new building at Peace Lutheran Church, kick-starting a myriad of fall ministry opportunities, working with new ministries throughout the synod, travelling to several overnight conferences from Omaha to LaCrosse to Watertown, SD (in a one month span I slept in 9 beds!).  Throw in some cross country meets, my niece’s confirmation, and the usual ‘need to get done’ home activities and it’s gotten out of control. 

I’ve coped with it all by entering ‘purpose mode.’  I’ve focused on getting things DONE.   Every day felt like a success or failure based on how much I got done.  I became a working machine with no spare minute wasted.  I plowed through an amazing amount of work.  I’m really good at this!  Success, right? 

Not so much!  I didn’t have time for people…I only had time for projects.  I didn’t have time for relationships…I only had time to ‘accomplish things.’  Frankly, life became pretty lonely!  A to-do list is a pretty poor substitute for actual friends and family.

I truly believe that God used the fun and relaxation of last Friday to open my eyes, reminding me that life is not lived to simply accomplish many tasks.  God calls me a life filled with rest and joy…not a life with my nose to the grindstone.  In August on this blog I wrote about the importance of taking time to rest.  Apparently God needs to keep sending reminders. 

I’m looking forward to more games of Hearts…and more bad jokes!  Thank you Jesus!

Time for Thanks

It’s nearly Thanksgiving…time to pause to give thanks to God!

·         Thank you God for this new building for Peace Lutheran Church

·         Thank you God for an office with a door (I’ve never had once since I became a pastor in 1997).

·         Thank you God for such a fun community of faith at Peace Lutheran Church.

·         Thank you God for Dr. Prema Peethambaram of Mayo Clinic and for the drug Avastin.  Together they are keeping my wife’s ovarian cancer at bay.

·         Thank you God for a wonderful son who excels in so many ways…and is just a great guy.

·         Thank you God for warm places to go when it gets cold.

·         Thank you God for Lucy and Abby, my cats who like to sit on my lap while I watch football.

·         Thank you God for good books which help me unwind at the end of the day.

·         Thank you God for the immigrant church leaders from South Sudan who have taught me so much about the faith.

·         Thank you God for reubens…possibly the best food on earth!

·         Thank you God for cranberry sauce to go with turkey.

What do you have to thank God for?

Awesome Reality!

It feels like I’m in a dream…and I’m waiting for someone to wake me up.

I’m sitting at a clean new desk…in a new office.  A new worship space is right down the hall…with new comfortable chairs…with a new keyboard…with beautiful new windows.  The ‘new building smell’ surrounds me.  Can it possibly be true?

A part of me fully expects to go back to the old office tomorrow morning and head off to the gym for worship this Sunday.  It all seems too good to be true. 

This past Sunday over 220 people came to dedicate this place to God’s glory.   We prayed over many areas of the new building.  Bishop Usgaard proclaimed how God works through God’s people in this place.   Young and old raised their voices and instruments in God’s praise.  The kids took up a large collection to support other new ministries in our area.  Tears of joy flowed as the long anticipated day arrived!  We sat down to a Thanksgiving Feast with an abundance of pie!  I could see people busting at the seams, proud that Peace, at long last, has a home base for ministry!

This building did not happen because of the awesomeness of the people of Peace Lutheran Church (though I do think they are quite amazing!).  This building happened because of the faithfulness of God.  It’s crazy to think that a congregation made up of so many young families can put forth the effort and financial support to make a building like this happen.  Many doubted that we would ever build.  God didn’t!  God led the charge, bringing the right people to the right places to make it all happen.  There are so many times when this whole project could have been derailed, but God kept it on track.  At long last, we’ve arrived. 

It’s time to take a deep breath and revel in God’s faithfulness…and let reality sink in.   Praise God!

An Irrational Faith in the Face of Death

On Monday I took part in an entirely irrational event. 

I sat in the front row of the balcony at Pete Stellpflug’s funeral at a packed St. Francis of Assisi Catholic Church in Rochester.  We heard reflections on Pete’s life and the legacy that he leaves behind.  Those words were poignant and meaningful.  I found it helpful to remember Pete’s humor and willingness to serve his community

That’s when the irrationality began.  While Pete’s body lay in a casket in front of everybody, Father Kurt talked as if Pete still lived.  He spoke of Pete celebrating with Jesus and all the saints.  He talked of…eternal life. 

When I stop and think about it for a bit, this all sounds like crazy talk.  In my experience death seems final.  Once people pass away we don’t see them again.  We must learn to live without their comfort and company.  We put their bodies in the ground or scatter their ashes.  I can go to the grave of my mom, Edee Reuss and know, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that her remains lie in the casket beneath my feet.    Death comes as the end of life.  That’s the way the world works.  On my most cynical days, talk of eternal seems like something invented by people to take some of the pain out of death.  “While they SEEM dead…they are not REALLY dead.”  Is this faith thing just a sham?

In the face of such harsh empirical data, Father Curt proclaimed the hope of eternal life through Jesus Christ.   It’s the same hope that I mentioned last week.

Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? ⁴ We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. ⁵ If we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly also be united with him in a resurrection like his. (Romans 6:3-5)

How can we believe something so irrational?  On our own we can’t.  We need God’s help!  A Christians we proclaim a God who has not only come to conquer sin and death…we proclaim a God who works to give us the ability to believe it!   We all have our days of doubt and struggling, but God does not leave us alone.  God never gives up on us or leaves us alone.  God directs us forward in faith…even on days when eternal life seems too irrational to believe.

Today (November 1^st) is All Saints Day.  On this day Christians boldly proclaim that all who have died in Christ still live…and that as forgiven children of God we will live with them.  Nobody can prove that it’s true, but this is the hope that I proclaim for my mom, Edee Reuss…for my grandparents (Jim Bantz, George Reuss, Dave & Esther Meier, Charles Dodd)…for Max Cliff and Marianne Morton…and for Pete Stellpflug.  Jesus has come to be with God’s people in life…and in death.

Father Curt’s message rings true.  Death seems final, but it’s really the gate to life forever with Jesus.   That’s not just wishful thinking…that’s the promise of God!  May God work in your life (and mine) to help you believe it!