Tuesday, September 20, 2011

Running for fun...and service!

Early last week I was out doing some jogging on a beautiful fall day.  I thought back to the Gladiolus Days 5K run that I'd run in St. Charles in late August.  I’d started slowly that day and had WAY too much energy for the final ‘kick.’ I knew I could do better!  I wanted another chance to push myself harder, but I assumed that the 5K race season had ended. I felt bummed.

The next morning I received an e-mail from Sheila Mix asking me to sponsor her team in last Saturday’s Lupus Foundation run / walk. Lupus is a long-term autoimmune disorder that may affect the skin, joints, kidneys, brain, and other organs. It’s something that may flare up once and never show up again…or it may keep attacking the body. My mother died of lupus in 1979, with her body basically ‘rejecting’ her kidneys as if they were transplants. There is no known cure. Sheila and her family looked for support for their team of walkers and runners as they worked to raise money for lupus research.

In an instant, two things came together for me: the desire to run another 5K…and the desire to find a cure for lupus. Instead of donating to Sheila’s team, I decided to form my own! Ben and I signed up and had a GREAT time running.  I got off to a good start and held my own throughout the race!  Out of 42 people, Ben finished 4th and I was 9th!   Just as importantly, people signed on to sponsor our running, raising over $100 for lupus research.

I got to do something that I enjoy to raise money for what I care about. Pretty good combination!  I think that’s what’s called ‘using your gifts to serve God!’

No pain…no gain.  When I’m running, a little pain helps!  It shows that I’m pushing my body to grow stronger.   I’ve definitely felt pain in the past 6 months as I’ve gotten back into shape…but it’s been worth it.

No pain…no gain.  Does the same theory apply to a life of faith?  Not always.  God gives us all unique gifts and passions that can be used in God’s service.  Last weekend I took a passion (running) and used it to raise money for something I found very worthwhile.  Every week I take a love of public speaking and use it to preach.  I take an excitement for God’s work in the world and I use it to help African ministries get started.  These things bring energy and joy to my life…not pain! 
Life in God’s service need not be misery!  God has given you gifts, passions, and abilities that you can use in God’s service…to help people in need…to tell people about God’s love for them…to teach the faith…to be a leader.  Use them...and enjoy the results!

Tuesday, September 13, 2011

Pete the African?

My ancestors have been in America for a long time.  The earliest ones, the Owings, came from England in the 1600’s and settled in Maryland.   In the late 1800’s the Reusses came over from Germany to New York and Virginia.  The Englehardts and the Dodds came to this new world from the same countries.  My mother was German and English.  My father is German and English.  I am German and English.  This past week, I was reminded that my family is a bit bigger than that.  I have brothers from South Sudan.  I have sisters from Ethiopia.  I have relatives in Liberia.  I am part of an amazing family.

At the end of last week I travelled to Chicago for the ELCA’s African National Summit.  Most people probably notice that I’m a bit ‘pale’ to be called African, but in my role as Mission Director of the Southeastern Minnesota Synod, I travelled to the event with ten men and women from South Sudan. 

I had an amazing experience.  Worship with people born and raised in Africa is powerful.  The room filled with the thumping beat of drums, the clapping of hands, and the dancing of feet.  I got caught up in the experience as together we praised God.  Even I ‘danced’ in worship.

The stories of the African people broke my heart.   These aren’t people who decided to come to American because it sounded like a great place to live!  They fled civil war and persecution in places like Sudan, Liberia, and Ethiopia.  They told of family members killed before their eyes…tanks and planes wiping out entire villages…machine guns going off in the middle of worship services…hunger…thirst…refugee camps…despair.  The people I met left the African refugee camps for a nation that they did not know and a language they struggled with.  They came to America with only the clothes on their backs and have worked hard to make lives for themselves.  They took the jobs they can find, often very physically demanding ones that pay very low wages (would you like to work in a slaughterhouse for $11 an hour?).  People look down on them for their accents, for the color of their skin, and for their poverty.  I can’t imagine living the life that they have endured. 

As the African National Summit unfolded, I was constantly reminded of the unity that I have with ‘these people.’  On the surface we seem so different.  I grew up on different continent.  I had an easy childhood.  I have not known the suffering that they have experienced.  I’ve never feared for my life or wondered if I would have food to eat.  I speak English with only a ‘Minnesooota’ accent.  My skin is lily white. 

Differences abound, but in Jesus Christ we are one.  The same Lord who died for me also died for ‘them.’  In Jesus there is no ‘us’ and ‘them.’  We’re just ‘us.’  The South Sudanese have welcomed me as one of their own family and work to teach me their languages.  When I hear news reports of fighting in South Sudan, I no longer breeze over it, thinking, “It’s just another war in Africa.”  No, the people being killed are friends and relatives of people I know.  Their suffering now impacts my life.   These are my brothers and sisters in faith.

Our culture tends to separate people based on things that divide us. Christians have a different approach!  We come together around the thing that unites us: Jesus Christ!  It doesn’t matter whether a person is born in Africa, Asia, Europe, or America.  In Christ, we are family.

I am German and English, but I have brothers and sisters in Africa.  What a great family!

Wednesday, September 7, 2011

The 'Kinky' Side of the Bible

How beautiful you are and how pleasing,
my love, with your delights!
Your stature is like that of the palm,
and your breasts like clusters of fruit.
I said, “I will climb the palm tree;
I will take hold of its fruit.”
May your breasts be like clusters of grapes on the vine,
the fragrance of your breath like apples,
and your mouth like the best wine.


This morning I woke up early to read a little before heading off to play basketball (calling ALL players to the D-E High School gym from 6:00-7:00 on Wednesday and Fridays)…and the quote above is part of what I read.  How’s THAT for interesting morning reading?!

No, I’m not into Harlequin novels (ick).  I don’t get into books of love poetry (too sappy).  It’s not a quote from a kinky website (don’t even GO there).  These words, surprisingly, come from…the Bible!  Really!  Look at Song of Solomon chapter 7!  Pretty sensual for scripture, wouldn’t you say?

We come from a culture that has MAJOR hang-ups with sexuality.  On the one hand, sex is all around us.  It sells! How many commercials abound in scantily clad women?  Every time I drive back from the Cities, the strip club in Cannon Falls has a full parking lot.  Pure Pleasure billboards scream for us to come check them out.  Internet porn is quick and easy to access.  Sex…sex…sex…everywhere you look.

On the other hand, we have a puritanical side of our culture that pushes back against such sexualizing of the world.  Churches have been at the forefront of the battle, often bringing a ‘Just Say No’ attitude towards anything sexual, viewing the whole topic as dirty or obscene. 

Yet here, smack dab in the middle of the Bible, we find the Song of Solomon (aka the Song of Songs).  This book tells of two lovers who just can’t get enough of each other.  It’s amazingly explicit…you don’t have to have much of an imagination to understand what they desire. 

This coming Sunday we will read the story of creation from Genesis 1, and we will hear God’s command to the first people, “Be fruitful and increase in number.”  In crass terms, God tells them to “Have sex and make babies.”   That IS the method God created for people increase in number!

Genesis 1 and the Song of Solomon both teach us that sex is good.  Yes, it can be perverted in very harmful way…we see the harmful effects of that every day.  But sex is not inherently dirty or obscene.  In the proper context, it is a beautiful gift of God. It is something to celebrate.

God is good!