At the beginning of the summer, 40 days seemed like a nice little stretch of time and writing 40 blog entries seemed like a daunting task. Yet, here we are in a flash at the 40th entry and ready or not it is time to go to Uganda.

In many ways I do feel ready to go. I think I have planned and purchased and packed adequately for the trip. In other ways I would never feel completely ready to go. I was that kid who went over my notes for the last 5 minutes before the test was passed out, even though I had all the answers nailed the day before. If there is a second to use, I am tempted to prepare just a little more.

However, one of my goals for these 40 Days of Preparation was to move past “doing” everything I could “do” to be ready to “do” what is expected of me once in Uganda, and on to “being” a person God could use effectively, whatever His plans and purposes may be.

Towards that end, I have recognized that I have “become” a person who has a growing desire to experience God’s POWER. I don’t mean to sound like I don’t have a growing desire to know more of God’s truth, His protection, His forgiveness, His peace, His provision, or any other aspect of His. Instead, I just know that at this moment I am starving to experience His power.

The power of God is a central element of the New Life described in the New Testament. The word for power is used over 100 times. Yet, when I look around at my life and the life of many other Christians, it seems pretty obvious that of the three parts of the Trinity (God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit), our relationship to the Holy Spirit is weakest, and therefore power is absent, or at best weak. I don’t believe it was supposed to be this way.

Jesus whole life and ministry was characterized by power. Then, when Jesus sent out His disciples, He gave them power to drive out demons and cure diseases (Luke 9:1). After rising from the dead, Jesus told His followers they would receive power from the Holy Spirit to be witnesses (Acts 1:8). And,  right before the resurrected Jesus was going to ascend to heaven, He told His followers to wait to be clothed with power from on high (Luke 24:49). Jesus seemed to believe this “power stuff” was central to the lives of His followers.

Throughout the book of Acts, the description of the birth of the Church and the spread of Christianity was characterized by power. The second chapter of the book of Acts describes the power of the Holy Spirit giving followers of Jesus the ability to speak languages they had never learned and that leading to many becoming followers of Jesus. Chapter three in the same book recounts Peter healing a crippled man, not by his own power, but by the power of God at work in him. The rest of Acts is more of the same.

Once churches were formed, their life and ministry were also acts of God’s power.  The church in Corinth had its problems, but it had experienced God’s power. Paul writes of his ministry there, “My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, so that your faith might not rest on man’s wisdom, but on God’s power.” (1 Corinthians 2:4-5) Power was part of their Christian life from the very start. Later Paul described their assemblies as times when, “the power of the Lord Jesus is present.” (1 Corinthians 5:4) Power, power, power, power.

Unfortunately, in our culture and in our churches, there seems to be many more examples of the kinds of people Paul warned Timothy to watch out for, people who have a form of godliness but whose lives actually deny its power. (2 Timothy 3:5) Is that how you describe your Christian life and the lives of others? When was the last time you described an assembly of Christians as a time when the power of Jesus was present? How many other people could tell?

For me, these 40 days have led me to a place where I am starving to God’s power in ways outside my past experiences. I join in with Paul’s prayer for the Ephesians and want to know, “…his (God’s) incomparably great power for us who believe.” (Ephesians 1:19) And, I believe along with the Apostle Peter that if I have God’s power, then, “His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness.” (2 Peter 1:3)

When I think about that last verse, I wonder how we ever got to a place where we thought we could handle life and live in a Godly way without God’s supernatural power at work in us. What about you, have you ever just been overwhelmed by life and a huge failure at living Godly because you were trying to do it with only your own power? It just doesn’t work, does it?

Now, there is one more piece of truth about God’s power that I must face. As much as I say I want to experience it, and as much as I can say I am willing to surrender control and be open to being freaked out by God, there is still one more challenge. Paul illuminates this piece of truth in his letter to the Philippians when he declares, “I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead.” (Philippians 3:10-11)

There it is, “suffering.” Am I so hungry, so starving to know God’s power that I am willing to also participate in the sufferings of Jesus? Those are pretty heavy duty sufferings! I want to experience the power of God in the assembly of believers at the SouthEdge barn in the morning, and every time we get together. What am I willing to suffer in exchange?

I want to get out of my normal life and enter into Uganda and participate in miraculous demonstrations of God’s power. I want to see people be healed on the spot. I want to hear people speak languages they have never learned. I want to feel an enormous boldness to stand for Jesus even in the midst of the most dangerous risks. But, am I willing to suffer? Suffer what? For how long?

What about you? Do you share my hunger? Do you have wisdom to share to help me on my path? I would love to hear from you about this or anything you have read over the last 40 entries! Until then, know that I am praying for you, since you read this entry, a prayer Paul first prayed for the Ephesians:

“I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through His Spirit in your inner being.” (Ephesians 3:16)

Thanks for being a part of these 40 Days of Preparation!

Trees, trees, trees, and more trees, over the last two days I have spent a bunch of time with a bunch of trees. My daughter and I took an overnight trip to the Hike Inn located in the Amicalola Falls State Park in North Georgia. We left Thursday morning, drove to the park, hiked 4.8 miles up the mountain to the Inn, spent the night, and this morning hiked 6 miles back to our car by way of the Appalachian Trail. It was challenging, but we had a great time.

During our 11 miles of hiking we encountered many, many, many trees. We were amazed at the variety as well as the sheer number that we saw. Not wanting to overlook a single type, my daughter took over 200 pictures of trees, that doesn’t include the other 287 that had trees in the background. I am so glad photography is now digital and we don’t have to develop all of those pictures to find out which ones we like.

A few of the trees made me think about other things. There were a few trees that started off with one strong trunk, but then split into two separate smaller trunks. When we first saw these we talked about how they represented marriage (two becoming one down to their deepest roots). It would probably been more appropriate if the trees started with two trunks and grew together into one, but we didn’t see any of those. 

At one point we saw a large, old “marriage” tree that had been uprooted and fallen on top of other trees. My daughter said, “that marriage didn’t make it.” and we laughed. But, later I thought about some of the marriages I know that “didn’t make it” after being together a long time. When they fell it crushed others. It wasn’t so funny then, but I didn’t share that with her.

Having spotted a few “marriage” trees, it was interesting when we found a large, old “family” tree. This tree strated with one trunk and then split into seven separate trunks all growing in different directions. I wondered to what extent my family will one day look like that tree?

There were brand new trees and trees that had been there for over a hundred years. Some were tall and some were short. Some were thick and some were thin. They were all sharing the same space. And, looking at them I realized they all had a story, really two stories, one inside and one out.

If you took any of those trees and cut them open, you could count the rings and get some sense of age and health. But, if you looked at the outside you could find the story of what had occurred during those years and why they were healthy or not.

Some trees had obviously struggled at different points to get sunlight and had taken sharp turns in their growth in order to survive. Some trees had been beaten by weather or attacked by other plants and had the scars to prove it. Some trees had lived long productive lives and had obviously been responsible for reproducing many other trees of their kind right around them. And, some trees seemed out-of-place, being obviously much different from the trees anywhere nearby.

Every tree seemd to have a story and it reminded me of us, a bunch of people, each with a story. We can tell others how old we are and how we are currently feeling, but if you look closely, you see that each of us also carry outward marks that only our life story can explain. How about you, what is your story? Barbara Walters is famous for asking a question similar to, “What kind of tree are you?” I don’t care so much for what kind, but I would like to know how you would describe what you would look like as a tree. What about it?

As I think back on the trees I saw, there were two main categories, and their distinctiveness led me to the question that most penetrated my heart. The two categories are straight and crooked. There were many “straight” trees. It appeared they knew from the moment they shot through the ground that they were racing to the sky. These were the tallest trees. And the oldest ones would always have access to direct sunlight. The other catagory was crooked. For whatever reasons they veered off course, they changed their mind, they had to work around others. These trees were never the tallest, but some were the oldest. And, they were by far the most interesting.

When I looked at these very interesting “crooked” trees I wondered how many of us have lived lives that were not a singular straight line to the top. Is that you? Do you ever feel guilt or shame because your life had taken a more “crooked” path? Although you may have lost out in the “sprint to the top” against others, I want to challenge you to embrace the fact that your crooked life is much more compelling to look at and your story is much more interesting to others.

Well, there are a few other illustrations I can make with trees. However, I would rather remind you of just how significant trees are in the Bible. My trip up this mountain was partly an opportunity to share an experience with my daughter. It was also an encounter with God. These trees brought me back to the trees I have read about in Scripture and the God of those trees.

Early in the Bible, in the Garden of Eden, we find two trees. Genesis 2:9 says, “And the Lord God made all kinds of trees grow out of the ground – trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food. In the middle of the garden were the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.” There, the story of God and mankind is represented in two trees. God comes to bring us life, but Adam and Eve and everyone since has chosen to eat the fruit of the second tree, to think we know better than God, and the price has been death.

Thankfully the story doesn’t end there. In the last chapter of the last book in the Bible we find the tree of life again. In Revelation 22:2 it says about heaven, “…On each side of the river stood the tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations.” Amazing, that here where we see a picture of a great wedding feast between Jesus the groom and His bride (all His followers) there is a “marriage” tree (two trunks becoming one). And, the leaves of this tree heal the death that came from eating of the other tree.

In between, there are several other examples of trees that are significant in the Bible, not the least of which would be the tree that became the cross upon which Jesus died for our sins. But the trees I want to call to your attention before I am through are found in Isaiah 61:3. There God says that the people described as poor, brokenhearted, captive, prisoners, who have experienced morning and grieving (in other words, the people with lives that look like CROOKED TREES), “…will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the Lord for the display of his splendor.”

An oak is one strong, powerful tree. I pray that although you have joined the rest of us in eating the fruit of the wrong tree, that you will believe that healing and life are possible. And, that you will believe God when He calls you an oak of righteousness that He has planted (right where you have been planted) for the display of His splendor.

Young or old, thin or thick, crooked or straight, tall or short, healthy or weak, live as the oak God already sees you to be and show off His greatness to the world that walks down the path where you have been planted!

My daughter and I are about to go climb a small mountain together. We are not taking on Everest or anything close. Instead, we are driving up to the mountains of North Georgia and hiking a 5 mile trail up a mountain. Once we get to the top of the trail, we will spend the night at a place called the Hike Inn and then we will hike down and return tomorrow.

We have taken this trip once before, along with my oldest son. He isn’t going along this time, his choice, this isn’t really “his thing.” But, my daughter really enjoyed our last experience and is looking forward to this one. Along the trail she is likely to take multitudes of pictures. Last time, we were able to find four unique pictures she had taken, frame them, and hang them on one of the walls of our entry area. She has quite a knack for this.

The stopping to take pictures will be good for me. It would be easy for me to get caught up more in the challenge to get to the top, than to “see” everything on the path. I didn’t really think about this yesterday when I wrote about “seeing,” but God is giving me a great practical opportunity to practice today what I prayed yesterday.

Although I wish our whole family was making the trip, and one day I hope we will, it will be great to have some alone time to invest in my daughter. As I thought about this trip, two passages of Scripture have surfaced. First, and obviously for those of you who are really tuned in to the happenings at SouthEdge, is Genesis 22 where Abraham journeys up a mountain with his son Isaac. Now, the good news for my daughter is I haven’t been given any kind of word from God about offering her as a sacrifice. But, I do pray that we have an encounter together with God on that mountain.

The second passage of Scripture comes from Deuteronomy 6. There, God is speaking to His people through Moses and teaching them how to live. Moses writes:

“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.” (Deuteronomy 6:5-7)

I can’t wait to find out what we get to discuss and how I can use this time to impress on my daughter’s heart everything God is to me and for me, and help her to know that He wants to be that for her as well!

But, I am also excited because God is my Heavenly Father and He will be walking with me up this mountain and speaking to me as we walk along this road and lie down and wake up. I have asked Him to help me see more clearly. I wonder what He will show me.

So we are heading out to be together with each other and together with God. We are not racing, but taking a journey. We are hoping to “see” many things and discuss many things and more than anything else grow more intimate in our relationship because of the experiences and secrets we are about to share.

Where is it that God wants to take a walk or a hike or a climb with you? Where is it that you should take a walk or hike or climb with someone else? I hope that here, near the end of these 40 Days of Preparation that you will find a way to have some type of planned experience where you can meet with God in a different space, and even take someone else along with you. I can’t wait to hear your story!

Today I went to the eye doctor to have my eyes checked and to get some more contacts in preparation for my trip. I need contacts. I can definitely tell the  difference when I get up in the morning and don’t put my contacts in before heading downstairs. Though my sight is not that bad in comparison to others, especially my wife, and although it has not deteriorated that much over the last twenty years, I will need help seeing clearly for the rest of my life. This, of course, is not just true of my physical eyes, but my spiritual eyes as well. I need help seeing clearly.

As I thought about this today, I thought about how often Jesus healed people who were blind. He did it in different ways and had a variety of responses to His actions. But then I thought, really every time Jesus performed a miracle or taught a lesson, He was healing blindness, the blindness in people’s hearts.

In Mark 8:18, Jesus asks the question, “Do you have eyes but fail to see?” Wow, that is a question we all need to sit with for awhile. I wonder what it was today that was right before my eyes, but I didn’t see. I wonder what God has been showing me during these Days of Preparation that I have just not seen. I wonder what is ahead in Uganda to see and whether or not I will see it.

When I was a young child, my eyes were strong enough that no one suggested glasses or contacts. When I reached my late teens my eyes showed some weakness and the doctor suggested I get them, but they weren’t really necessary, I could still see the board at the front of the classroom without them. I mainly wore my contacts to play sports so I could see extremely clearly. And, when I went off to college and didn’t play sports every day, the hassle of caring for contacts resulted in going without them for many days in a row. During those few years, I wore my contacts so infrequently that I didn’t really know what 20/20 vision was like.

I wonder about that now when it comes to my spiritual eyes. I wonder how much better my “sight” would be if I put on the Holy Spirit over my eyes like contacts every moment. I wonder if I am just so used to seeing through blurry spiritual eyes, that blurry is my normal.

Now, I believe my vision will always be a little blurry while I am living in this flesh suit. Paul describes our vision in 1 Corinthians 13 as “seeing through a glass darkly.” But I am sure I could be, and should be, seeing more clearly.

In Matthew 13, Jesus is teaching the powerful Parable of the Sower (we all need to ask ourselves regularly what kind of soil we are being) and explaining to His disciples why He teaches using parables. His answer, in short, is that parables allow Him to teach everyone and have some understand and others not understand. Not surprisingly, Jesus talks about it in terms of sight. He describes some people as, “Though seeing, they do not see.” (Matthew 13:13) He goes further and quotes Isaiah, saying:

“You will be ever hearing but never understanding; you will be ever seeing but never perceiving. For this people’s heart has become calloused; they hardly hear with their ears, and they have closed their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts and turn, and I would heal them.” (Matthew 13:14-15)

Again, WOW! So when I have an eye problem it is really a heart problem. And, my eye/heart problem can be the obstacle to my turning (repenting) away from me and toward God. And, that can be the obstacle to my healing.

I don’t want to be okay with or used to blurry spiritual vision. I am praying that God will soften every calloused place that still remains in my heart so that I can see clearly and turn quickly and heal fully. I am praying this for the people of SouthEdge, for the people who read this blog, and for the people of Uganda I am about to meet. Will you please join me in that prayer?

In the very next two verses of Matthew’s Gospel, he records Jesus saying to His disciples, “But, blessed are your eyes because they see, and your ears because they hear. For I tell you the truth, many prophets and righteous men longed to see what you see but did not see it, and to hear what you hear but did not hear it.” (Matthew 13:16-17) You and I have the privilege of being alive at this moment in history. We have come after Jesus has lived and died and risen. We have come after the Bible has been written and made easily available in our language and our culture. And, we have lived long enough to see God for ourselves. We have gotten to see things many only dreamed of seeing.

We have the chance to see. Will we see what we can see? I end with part of a prayer the Apostle Paul wrote to the people who lived in Ephesus. It is my prayer for me and for you and for the people I will encounter in the next couple of weeks:

“I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is like the working of his mighty strength.” (Ephesians 1:18-19)

Heart, eyes, hope, power, repentance, and healing, I want to see it!

This past school year God helped me connect several dots of interest and what became of it was a monthly breakfast meeting for dads and their kids at our local elementary school. With the structure and suggestions of a national organization and the support of the school’s administration, I had the chance to create a space once a month where “the hearts of children could be won to their fathers, and the hearts of fathers won to their children.” (a loose translation of  Malachi 4:6)

At the meeting each month dads and their children would gather at the gym, grab a biscuit and something to drink, sit on a blanket and have breakfast and a brief discussion based on the theme of the day. About half-way into our time, we would break into groups of about 5 families and dads would introduce themselves, their child or children, and share some way their child made them proud. It was a very simple yet powerful time. Following that, I would give a brief illustration about our theme and we would give away some raffle items to the kids before hugs and on to school and work. It was a fast 45 minutes each month.

I really enjoyed the experience and I really believe that what happened during those moments made a difference. I am so convinced, that this year I am attempting to start a similar group at our middle school, while keeping the group going at our elementary school, even though we won’t have any kids of our own at the elementary school.

Doing something like this dads’ group is not easy. There is a huge cost of time and energy and money. And, like most things, it is difficult to know if it is worth it and you open yourself up to all kinds of criticism. But, when I have one of those moments when I know I have made a positive difference in someone else’s life, it fuels me to keep going.

Tonight after dinner, Sheri wanted us to take a family walk. We live in a large neighborhood with a park area that sits on a reservoir and provides a great place to see the sunset. So, we set out for the park. While there I bumped into a dad who had participated in our monthly breakfast meetings at the elementary school. After some small talk about the summer and our vacation experiences, he told me that the other day his daughter asked him if they could get up early the next morning, get out a blanket, and have there own dad’s breakfast like we had at school. I smiled and thanked him for telling me. Later I cried.

If you aren’t currently finding a way in your life to significantly invest in the people in your community, I want to encourage you to get started now! I know you are busy. I know that lots of people will criticize or not participate. I know that it may take a couple of misfires to find something that fits you and fits the situation. But please, do something now!

There is nothing like the feeling of experiencing that kind of surprising encouragement. There is nothing like having someone tell you a story of how you added something to their life. Don’t miss out on that experience!

If you don’t have any idea where to start, I am happy to help. E-mail me at jay@southedge.org and I will brainstorm with you until we find a place to start. You can do this!

One other challenge I want you to hear: If you have been blessed by the efforts of someone who has taken the time and risk to invest in you, please find a way to encourage them! Please tell them your story of how what they have done is making a difference! Please fuel those who maybe wondering if what they are doing, or have done, is worth it. They need to hear it! It made a difference in my heart tonight to read Walter’s most recent comment from the blog entry ”The Jacket” where he did just that for me!

When I go to Uganda next week, I will have another chance to make a significant difference in the lives of people. But, so will you, right here where you live! Do something! Don’t miss out! I am here to help! Let’s get started!

More and more and more and more of the programming on TV is what we call Reality Shows. It used to be that the news was our reality TV. But, that was just reporting on real life, almost always after-the-fact, and not showing real life as it happened. Then we had talk shows, where the conversations about real life may also reveal real moments between people. Now, we have TV shows that by design record people living life. Many of the shows create the situations, so they are not really real. Still, we get the chance to see people respond at an instant to the challenges of life, we get to see real responses.

If you watch TV, and if you watch many Reality Shows, I bet you would find it hard to identify more than one or two people you thought were benefited from being on the show. Now, I’m not talking about whether or not they won the show and any money or prizes. I am also not talking about whether or not their appearance on a show translated into more fame. What I am talking about is whether or not you think more highly of them having watched them respond in front of the cameras. Most the people I have seen on Reality TV are trainwrecks.

What about you and me? Would we be more or less attractive and impressive to a watching world if we had the cameras rolling 24/7? What if all our alone time was on tape, what would people be surprised to find us doing? What if all of our internal conversations were given a voice? What if everyone was aware of our secret evaluations of others and not just the nice words we actually say outloud? How would we fare as Reality Stars?

As I have been thinking about this, I have concluded that I am the star of a reality show, one with a very small but significant audience. The cameras may not be rolling, but my wife and kids are watching and listening 24/7. I wonder how I am faring with them?

I am also the star of a less intimate show with a larger audience. There are people who know me. they may be friends, they may attend SouthEdge, they may intersect with me because of school or sports or shopping or something else, but they know who I am and they are watching and listening. How am I doing with them?

This must be one of the greatest challenges to living a sold-out Christian life. If we take the Bible seriously, we will live our commitment to Jesus more and more publicly and more and more transparently. How big a challenge is that for you?

I know a few people who are willing to talk about it and many more who just express it with their life choices, that they are unwilling to be public with their Christianity because they know it will mean that more people will be watching and likely finding inconsistencies. In an attempt to avoid public scrutiny, they keep their relationship to Jesus undercover and hope to fade into the woodwork. So much for being a light in the midst of darkness.

In addition, being a follower of Jesus also means becoming increasingly transparent with more and more people, sharing your hurts and doubts and failures. The New Testament even teaches us to confess our sins to one another. Now outside the Bible, there isn’t anyone who is going to try to sell that advice as a life strategy. Why would you ever give others ammunition to take you down?

So here is this crazy way of life: Live as publicly as possible and live as transparently as possible. Choose to put a camera on you 24/7 and then try to get the biggest audience possible in order to point people to God. This is the way of Jesus and it is unbelievably threatening, unless you have been set free from having to prove your worth to others, or having to create an image to impress others, or having to hide your flaws for fear they will be your ultimate undoing.

That is exactly what Jesus has promised to do, to set us free. We are the stars of a Reality Show and God is the audience that sees ever second of the footage, even what is going on inside of us. Yet, He has found us valuable anyway, valuable enough to pay the price of His Son. He is not impressed with our image, instead He is constantly at work shaping us into His image. And, He already knows all our flaws. He loves us inspite of them, not because He is unaware of them.

I am about to go to a country where I will stand out every second of every day. I am preparing to teach and I hope Ugandans will listen. But, I know they will all be watching how I live, how I interact with people and respond in the face of difficulties. I am sure I won’t be perfect before them. That’s not the challenge. The challenge is to live free and when I blow it to deal with that in a Godly fashion as well. They really don’t need me to be a perfect man, then how would they relate to me? They have Jesus for perfection, they need me as an example that God could love them because He could love someone as messed up as me.

Still, my time there will be brief. It will be unlikely that I will be in a situation during those few days where I would display my worst self. It is possible, but really unlikely. Instead, displaying the worst of me is a greater challenge right here in my real life where people will see me over and over and over.

What I have learned is, contrary to popular opinion, you can’t really avoid being a Reality Star if you are living a real life. So, I want to encourage you to take the crazy advice of the Bible and on purpose go more and more public with your relationship to Jesus. I also want to encourage you to become more and more transparent with others. Don’t wait to feel free before you get started. Once you get started, you will begin to experience a freedom you have never known before.

There will be challenges. Some people will judge, and judge harshly or even wrongly, but you will survive. Someone you trust will probably hurt you deeply, but you will survive. This is a threatening lifestyle, but worth it! And, as a result, not only will you experience freedom, so will oothers who will fall in love with the God who loves you. Don’t miss out!

When I wake up tomorrow morning, I will have just one week to be ready to go to Uganda. I have just one week, just seven days. I have read that God can accomplish a great deal in seven days, even allowing for rest, and at this point I feel like He is going to need to do something miraculous in me for me to be ready.

Over the last month of preparation I have been challenged by many things. I have had numerous memorable experiences. I have felt pretty clear direction in my preparation to teach. I have watched my family connect and fall in love with Ugandan children. I have purchased almost everything I think I will need. And yet, in many respects I wish I had another month to prepare myself.

I know deep inside that even if I had another month, I wouldn’t think I was ready then either. So instead, tonight, on the Fourth of July, I am content with one more week. I am not sure exactly how I will spend it. What would you do? Really, I want your advice. If you had one week to get ready to travel to the other side of the earth, to have the attention of hundreds of people, and to have the opportunity to teach them about God, how would you spend your last week?

I mentioned that tonight was the Fourth of July. The two words that stood out for me today, and I shared at SouthEdge this morning, were “freedom” and “independence.” As I look ahead to this final week of preparation, I am praying to experience freedom from my own expectations and freedom to dive in to this opportunity without fear of doing it wrong. In addition, I am praying that the feeling of never being fully prepared would help drive me to the place I need to be, living in dependence on God and not me.

I ask you to please join with me in prayer for this week ahead. I ask you to please pray for me while I am in Uganda. Specifically, I ask you to pray with me that I would get the privilege of experiencing the supernatural work of God in a way I have never experienced before. And, I ask you to pray for my family and my church and their lives while I am away.

During this last month I have witnessed many wonderful changes in my life and the lives of my family. One of the coolest was highlighted tonight in the answer my two oldest children gave me to a pretty standard question. We were sitting, waiting for a fireworks display to begin and I asked them what one thing would they like for me to bring each of them from Uganda. The first response out of my 14 year old son and 11 year old daughter came almost in unison. They both said, “a little brother.” I am so glad God has made this trip possible!

My daughter and I share many personality traits, some good and some not so good. Today she is in the process of losing her last baby tooth and watching her reminded me of me. Maybe it will remind you of you as well.

Near the end of dinner tonight my daughter cried out that her loose tooth had broken. She calmly removed that part of her tooth from her mouth, and then the world began to fall apart. My wife immediately responded with, “let me pull the rest of it out.” Instead of those words comforting my daughter, it moved her to tears. The last thing she wanted was her Mom pulling her tooth, or what was left of it. That is where I saw myself.

When I was a kid, I held on to every baby tooth until it fell out on its own. My desire for control and fear of the potential pain and bloodshed made any argument in favor of “pulling” seem totally ridiculous. My logic was completely irrational, but it was also totally consuming. You would have had to knock me unconscience to get at a loose tooth in my mouth. My parents yelled and threatened and even punished me, but I never gave in.

Here I was, all these years later, watching it happen again and trying to move my daughter past that horrible place in her mind that I knew so well. We reminded her that if there was any pain, it would only last for a second. We reminded her how freakishly skilled her mother is at pulling teeth.  We warned her against infection. We reminded her of the many times in the past that we had gone through hours of tears and conflict only for her Mom to end it in a flash after she had stopped fighting us off. All of it to no avail. At this point, late Saturday evening, there is still a little piece of her last baby tooth in her mouth.

Now, in the heart of the emotions that swirled immediately following the break of the tooth, we reached a point where we gave our daughter a choice. She was crying and complaining that it hurt, but would not let us help and so I said something like this to her, “If you are really hurting and you want to get better, we know what to do and can do it, you just have to let us help. But, if you aren’t going to let us help then you need to stop crying and complaining because you are choosing to keep the pain.”

I know that God is a much better father than I am, and I don’t feel comfortable assigning these words to Him (this isn’t a quote from the Bible). But, at least when it comes to His relationship with me, I wonder how many times God could have said these words to me. Are these words what you need to hear right now?

Again, I am not comfortable saying that God is saying these words to to you. He may never speak this way. But, there are times in every one of our lives when we need a good friend to say these words to us. You may be reading this blog and not know me at all. You may know me and not consider me a good friend. We may know each other, and yet I have no idea what is going on with you, what is your “broken tooth” today?

If you have a “broken tooth,” please hear me say this in love: If you have an area in your life that is broken and you are going through pain, there is a Heavenly Father who wants to go through it with you and knows exactly what to do to help you heal and move forward. Yes, there may be pain in the process. Yes, you are going to have to give up control and replace fear with trust. Yes, it may get bloody before it gets better. But He knows what He is doing and it will be the fastest way to get past the brokenness and to the other side!

The other half of what I want to say may be more difficult to hear, but I also say it in love: You may be able to push your Heavenly Father away and deal with it yourself. It will take longer and it be more painful and be more dangerous, but you may be able to resolve it yourself. But, if you choose that path (and take responsibility for the fact that you are choosing that path) then please don’t continue to cry and complain to others when you don’t really want help.

Even though you are reading this, I can’t say for sure that I know you or you consider me a friend. However, I am confident that  just as it is true that the moment my daughter is ready for us to help her with her tooth, we will be there, it is also true that when you are ready for help God will be there. I also believe that for everyone reading this blog there are also people who will be there.

The greatest thrill I have in life is joining with someone who seriously is ready to deal with their brokenness, trust God, and do whatever it takes to heal and move forward. One of the greatest challenges is watching hurting people refuse help over and over while continuing to cry and complain.

I am praying that as a result of this blog someone would finally let God “pull their tooth.” And, my request to you, is please be a good enough friend to me that if you catch me crying and complaining while refusing help, point me back to this blog so I will move forward and be healed.

From the very earliest days of our lives, we are taught to share. As soon as we are old enough to grasp a toy tightly, pull it to our chest, and say the word “mine,” there are adults responding with the word “share.” Sharing is a very good thing. From children to adults, most people like us better when we are willing to share what we have with them.

Of course, there are times when sharing is not such a great gift. Whenever a toddler wants to share a food item they have been working on for awhile, you may wish he was a little more “selfish” and would keep it to himself. Whenever a sibling wants to share a chore and your parent thinks it is a good idea, you may wish they had forgotten you are part of the family. And, when an adult wants to share too much information about a personal, maybe even gross, aspect of their lives, you may wish she didn’t consider you such a close friend. Still, for the most part, sharing is a desirable activity.

But then why is it that when it comes to “sharing our faith” both the one doing the sharing and the one on the receiving end can experience so many negative emotions? Since my earliest days of being a Christian, I have been taught that I ought to “share my faith” with others. The big challenge for me was that the practical definition of that activity was very narrow and for me personally very negative.

I am absolutely sure that the people who were trying to teach me to “share my faith” had good motivations. I am sure they cared about me and about other people. I am sure they believed they were just doing what God would want them to do. And, I am sure that what they said was probably much more broad and loving than what I heard. But, what I heard was that if I really loved God and loved people, I would memorize a bunch of Bible verses and a bunch of questions and answers that would form an argument that people could not defeat, and then I would go to strangers and confront them with this information, ready or not.

As a new Christian, I wanted to please God so I went to the classes that were supposed to train me to “share my faith” in this fashion. These classes always included being taken to neighborhoods where we would pratice what we had learned on complete strangers. The whole time it made me want to vomit.

Unfortunately, this wasn’t just my experience at one church. I grew in my faith and we moved a couple of times. At each stop along the way, I had to return to this experience of “sharing my faith.” I had to go because I was a Sunday School teacher. I had to go because I was a deacon. I had to go because I was in a seminary class on evangelism. I had to go because someone thought it was the best way for a church planter to start a church. I hated it every time.

I hated it because it didn’t fit my personality, but I also hated it because of the way I was sure it must make the other person feel. Moving a handful of times meant we changed churches with each move. Often a visit to a church in a new town was followed by one of these visits from church members who were planning to “share their faith” with me. I was already a Christian and yet I would have preferred to not answer the door. I always felt like I wasn’t going to have the right answer, or the right enough answer, and that one of us had to win and the other lose, it was so weird!

But the experience in my life that this “sharing my faith” most felt like, took me back to the early days of my marriage. One of the first vacations Sheri and I took together came when we had almost no money. We found an ad for some cheap accomodations near Gatlinburg and went there for just a couple of days. While there we were handed this flier about a great deal. All you had to do was listen to this brief presentation about a vacation property and get a gift certificate to a nice restaurant. Are you smiling yet? Have you been down this path? We were young and poor and naive.

So, motivated by a meal we couldn’t afford, wanting to cap off our vacation in a special way, we headed to the place for the “brief” presentation. We had no money, so we were never going to be tempted to buy anything. We told this to the man who made the “brief” presentation for the next several hours. We would have left, but once we got to the property they put us in a small bus and drove us a few miles before getting to the sales center. We were trapped!

I am sure this man had a good heart. I doubt he lied in his presentation. But, he was not going to let us go until we said yes, and we were not going to say yes. It didn’t matter that he offered us snacks. It didn’t matter that he did magic tricks (no kidding). It didn’t matter that Sheri and I were in our early 20′s but looked like teenagers who had eloped and obviously didn’t have the money to buy a vaction time share. And, it didn’t matter that my beautiful, sweet wife slowly began to burn with such anger that I was sure this guy was not going to live to sell another day (I kind of enjoyed that part). All that mattered is this guy knew what was best for us and had an argument that surely we couldn’t defeat and he had been trained to not take no for an answer. Sound familiar?

We finally got out of there. We got our gift certificate and went to the restaurant. But neither of us enjoyed the meal. We were so sick to our stomachs that nothing tasted good. We promised to never do that ever again.

Now, back to “sharing my faith.” I am not that guy and I don’t want to ever learn to be that guy. Not only that, I don’t ever want to make someone else feel like we felt that day. So, time after time when someone has pushed me to be “time share in heaven salesman for Jesus” I have endured it as long as I have to and then quit and felt like a failure. I know now there is another way.

Tonight at our summer small group meeting we talked about other ways we can “share our faith” and here is some of the options: Share our personal stories; Share our attention; Share our stuff; Share our help (serving, supporting); Sharing our words (encouraging, praying, comforting, and providing wisdom); and, Sharing experiences. “Sharing our faith” is really about sharing ourselves and sharing our lives. It should be something others are glad we are doing. We are sharing Good News!

Now, “sharing our faith,” even in these diverse ways will not necessarily be easy. We may not be appreciated. We may not get the results we hope for. There is great risk of being rejected or of someone taking advantage of us. Still, it is an activity, a lifestyle, that fits every personality and every situation and I believe is at the center of a life that really comes to understand every good thing we have in Jesus.

If like me you have been discouraged by what others have considered “sharing your faith” to the point that you just quit and felt guilty, I want to encourage you to join me and try again. Find the ways you share best and share, and share, and share, and share! If someone asks you, be ready to tell them about what Jesus has done in your life, don’t chicken out. But start with sharing and see if when that moment comes, you are not ready for God to use you to do something you never thought possible.

It is my prayer that everyone who reads this blog will get the chance to see someone else fall in love with Jesus, because they shared!

Today I took two of my kids and one of my daughter’s friends to see the remake of the movie, “The Karate Kid.” I saw the original many times in my childhood, the benefit of being part of the first generation of kids with cable TV.

If you are a child and you see a movie like this, you come out of the theater ready to sign up for a martial arts class near you, or at least ready to try out a few moves on a sibling. Whether people are religious or not, everyone loves to see David beat Goliath, the little guy conquer the bully, and good triumph over evil.

Today I watched the movie with different eyes than I did back then. This version is not identical, but it is pretty faithful to the original, so there were no surprises in the storyline. Instead, what surprised me was how I was impacted by the story of Mr. Han (the Chinese maintenance man/Kung Fu teacher) and by the new version of the old teaching technique that was central to the boy’s training.

In the original, Daniel was trained by Mr. Miyagi. In this version, Dre was trained by Mr. Han. In both movies, the unexpected martial arts guru experiences the horrible anniversary of losing his spouse and the redemption that comes from pouring his life into the boy.

When the words, “when you get knocked down, you have to choose to get back up” are cast against the backdrop of real adult loss and pain, the message is different for me now.  As I sat there (with a few tears) I could think of a number of people I wish could hear those words in just the right way so they would finally believe them and move forward with their lives. I wondered, how many of them would get that message and get their lives back if only they poured themselves into the lives of others instead of being paralyzed by their past and completely self-absorbed in their present. Thinking of those people made the scene both hurtful and hopeful to experience.

The second unexpected moment for me came from the new twist on Mr. Miyagi’s strange teaching methods from the original. If you saw the old version of “The Karate Kid,” and even if you didn’t, you probably are familiar with the phrase “wax on, wax off.” It speaks to the manner in which Daniel learned his first lessons in karate, painting a fence and waxing a car.

In the original, Daniel did all these “meaningless chores,” to the point of utter frustration, only then to find out that his teacher had been training his muscles in the exact motions essential to execute karate moves. In this new version, Dre learns the same lessons by repeatedly putting on, taking off, dropping, picking up and hanging his jacket on a hanger.

For me, although I was expecting it from the second the movie began, that moment when Mr. Han magically revealed to Dre that all his monotonous jacket hanging was not killing time and was not punishment, but was actually the very preparation he needed to become everything he desired to be, that moment made my heart skip a beat and the tears flow.

I am a guy that hates all types of maintenance or routine work, so maybe this is more powerful for me, but haven’t you ever reached the point of utter frustration with the fundementals of something? Maybe you played sports like me and wondered why you had to practice throwing and catching and dribbling, or whatever, long after you thought you already did it well. Maybe you are a musician and wondered when you were going to finally outgrow the need to do scales. Maybe you are a Christain and you are challenged by the routine of prayer and bible reading and asking forgiveness and going to church and serving and giving and on and on.

I am a guy going through a heightened time of preparation as I look forward to this trip and I struggle when I am not sure doing the same little things over and over are really going to make a difference. Then, I sit in this movie, and in that moment I hear God gently whisper, “this is what I am doing in you.”

Today I want to encourage you to join me in trusting our Teacher. He knows that we don’t understand why it is necessary to do the basic, the fundamental, again and again even after we think we have it down. He knows we even think it is just some form of punishment for our past failures or strange entertainment for Him. He knows this and it doesn’t faze Him.

Instead, He continues to point us back to the fundamentals until our spiritual muscles have acquired such memory that in that moment of great battle we will not only know what to do, we will be able to do it in an instant and do it well!

Today, in the middle of a movie, God told me to keep “putting the jacket on the hanger” and trust Him that more is going on in me and with me than I can imagine. He knows exactly what He is doing and exactly what I need and all I must to do right this moment is keep “putting the jacket on the hanger.”

This is what God told me, and this is what I want you to hear as well. I don’t know what thoughts or practices would be included in your “jacket,” but whatever they are, don’t give up! Just keep exercising those spiritual muscles! Trust your Teacher!