Ever have one of those seasons — of life — overflowing with defeats, disappointments, and less-than-stellar personal performances? Sometimes those seasons are internal games, not even obvious to those around you… winning on the outside when we are losing one heart battle after another.  Sometimes it isn’t even the losses, it’s just too many hard-fought, give-it-all-you-got-and-then-some victories. Victories that drain you so much it feels like a loss.

In generations past they called it “the school of hard knocks.” Murray Warmath coached the Minnesota Golden Gophers football team from 1954-1971.  In 17 years he had a handful of amazing seasons sprinkled with two handfuls of awful seasons.  During one of the awful seasons, he said about his team’s pathetic win-loss record: “If lessons are learned in defeat, our team is getting a great education.”

I was talking with one of my kids yesterday, talking about some recent difficulties and the first — or maybe second — sentence out of my mouth was yeah but think about all you are learning, we learn most from the hard experiences.  The reply, “What am I learning?” Good question.

Here are a few of the lessons I’ve learned on my way to a hard-knock Phd…

1) In any given season, there is always someone playing better than you — and someone playing worse.  Most leaders that I know compare — I’m not sure we can help it.  The lesson is this — choose wisely who gets your eye in the comparison game.   And choose how you will respond.  Look in one direction and choose encouragement over complacency.  Look in the other direction and choose challenge over discouragement.

2) Practice gratitude.  It is perhaps the single greatest attitude adjustment discipline that I know.  Prayer + Thanksgiving = hears and minds guarded by peace.  (Philippians 4:4-7)

3) Perseverance is the key to the development of character and hope.  Those who give the most hope lead.  Those with great character will develop our hearts as they lead us.

4) Wins and defeats — both — say less about us than we think.

5) Defeats and mistakes analyzed and evaluated develop skill.  Bill Gates once said, “Success is a lousy teacher.”  Defeat is a lousy teacher too, unless we analyze and take steps to grow.

6) Life is a team sport.  That changes everything.  It means that getting better is a team responsibility, going through hard-knocks is a team event.  I learn best from my failures in the context a team that covers my weaknesses, encourages me in my defeats, and holds me accountable to learn from my mistakes.

7) Perseverance.  I know I already mentioned this one — but it’s a lesson learned well at least twice.  One of my favorite proverbs is Proverbs 24:16 — “For though a righteous man falls seven times, he rises again.” In other words righteousness is defined — not as never falling but — as getting back up every time you fall.   Hope is a leadership function and as counter-intuitive (just another name for weird) as it might sound — defeat + perseverance = hope.

8) I will give God my best because He is worth it, not because He needs it.  Sometimes God works his good deeds  from what I think are my greatest failures.  He is not limited by my defeats and I am not the sole source of my successes.

So do you feel like you are aiming for a Phd. in hard-knocks?  Been there and done that.  Actually more like been there… doing that.  It’s an on-going process.   So which of those seven lessons do you need to linger on right now?  I need to push myself to analyze and evaluate my losses, near losses, mistakes and failures.  I have a tendency to move on to the next opportunity… a bit too quickly.

See you in class.

This call to prayer comes from long years past, from the lips of a Baptist pastor by the name of Charles Spurgeon.  It seems remarkably timely.

We need times of refreshing, both at home and abroad. The enemies of the gospel are exceedingly busy and crafty, and we can only meet them by power from on high. The needs of our nation grow upon us, and only One can multiply our loaves and fishes so as to feed the multitude. We ourselves being compassed with infirmities need to be daily girt with fresh strength; and our churches being made up of imperfect men and women can only be kept in healthy, united action by the Spirit of our God. Brethren, all these are reasons for incessant, importunate prayer.’ – Charles Haddon Spurgeon

I’m on a mini-mission to redeem the word “good”. In a culture of superlatives, good has lost ground. Compared to awesome, sick and rad (I know that one is quite as much in use anymore) good is just barely above bad. Good just doesn’t have quite the same ring as off the hook or all that… Right? I mean, “good” is a standard response which means “uh okay.” When my kids come home from school, the standard question is How was school? The standard response is Good. When they say, “Good.” I’m rarely tempted to believe that what they mean is “Dad, school…oh…is there anywhere we could move where they have school –like– every day, because I love school. School is good. The teachers are good. I love homework. The food is so good.

No.  See, “good” simply means I made it through, it didn’t totally stink.

You might be thinking, so what?   What difference does it make?  Maybe it doesn’t make a difference.   Except when we are talking about God.  When David writes in Psalm 34:8 “O Taste and See that God is good.” He’s not saying that God is just okay. He’s not saying that God doesn’t totally stink. He’s saying that amazing and awesome don’t come close.   When — in Genesis — it says that everything God created was good. It doesn’t mean it was just okay, not bad, or so-so. For God “good” was breathtaking.

So use your imagination with me for a moment. Imagine what happens as we unleash God’s power of good. Imagine cities recruiting congregations to be a part of their community…because although it doesn’t raise the tax base, it reduces the needs that require taxes. Imagine every shut-in getting a visit and every prisoner getting prayer; every student getting a home-cooked meal and every family with a home; every marriage with mentors to walk them through rough times and every struggling student with a tutor.

Imagine atheists sending thank-you’s to the church. Even though they don’t believe in God, they are glad we are in the community, because people with AIDs are getting loved. Teens with out fathers are getting big brothers and big sisters. The food shelf is full.

It’s not just a dream. Jesus said in Matthew 5:13-16

You are the light of the world — like a city on a mountain, glowing in the night for all to see. Don’t hide your light under a basket. Instead put it on a stand and let it shine for all. In the same way, let your good deeds shine out for all to see, so that evryone will praise your heavenly Father.

This is a picture of the church let loose, the church with out walls…providing living proof of a loving God… by doing good in the name of Jesus.  This weekend about 800 people from Calvary, Assembly of God, Discovery Road, New Hope, and Stepping Stones, went out to serve the community — small acts of kindness, reflecting on a big God.   All over the county people were out raking, baking, painting, and building.  It was a “good” weekend.  I love being a part of a church that loves to serve.  I am celebrating do-gooders.

Jesus once said that the Kingdom of God is like a mustard seed. Tiny. Insignificant. Seed. We don’t really like that do we? We like things big. I want a bigger house, a bigger car. More impact. Bigger church. More influence. Bigger dream. We are always looking for the next big thing because if it’s not big it must not be God. The world media doesn’t go around with cameras looking for small insignificant news stories.

“Here we are in Phillipsburg, PA where Mable has just finished knitting a sweater for her cat. Mable tell us how you feel.”

We want God to show up in the big. We are looking for God to show up in the big. But instead God shows up in rural Galilee as a carpenter who picks up a mustard seed and says — this is the essence of something more.  I long for us not to miss this. I long for us to get it. To embrace the significance of small seeds. I long for us to have ears which will hear the still small voice of God in the wind and eyes which will see God@work in Mustard Seed moments.

Andy is a PSU alum. He attended Calvary as a student and last week he sent us an e-mail that included a short God-story. A former co-worker of his has been struggling with a divorce.  When Andy was a student, he had invited her to Calvary a number of times, but she never came. For a variety of reasons and past experiences, she had been turned off by church.  Last fall he visited her while he was in town and while he was at her house, he noticed that the handle from her screen door was missing and she was using a piece of string to open the door.

When he got home, he emailed our director of lifegroups to see if any of the life groups would be interested in the opportunity to go out, be the church without walls, and fix her door handle.  The e-mail was forwarded a man who just happened to have some spare screen door handles in his garage.  :)  He drove over and put it on and had a good chat with her. Andy writes this,

Soon after (she got her new door handle), she went to the small white church on Houserville Rd near her house. I am 95% sure she’s made a decision to follow Christ! I think the show of support by a church where she never even went really stirred her heart..and for her to finally start to pursue God after this… it’s awesome!

Part of me wants to shake my head and say, “For crying out loud, it was just a door handle.”  And then I heard Jesus saying, “Yeah aint it cool, what I can do with a seed.”

This weekend Calvary is joining with a number of other local congregations to go out and plant some mustard seeds — seeds of kindness, seeds of service, seeds of generosity.  We will be baking, raking, painting, cleaning and building.  We will be looking for door handle moments.  We call it CityServe.  It’s going to be a great weekend.

Are death and taxes…  At 11:39pm tonight I was on my way to the State College Post Office.  Last year when I went — a few minutes earlier — the police had pulled over a car right in front of the post office.  My heart immediately went out to him…as I held back the laughter.  It’s just not right to get a ticket while trying to get your taxes in under the deadline.

Benjamin Franklin was one of the first to put death and taxes together.  He wrote, “‘In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.”  But I disagree…there are other things just as certain as death and taxes… for example.

1. 1) If a woman in a crowd gets up to go to the bathroom, she will not go alone.
2. 2) Joe Paterno will say the football team is average…sometime before the Blue/White game.
3. 3) You can trust God.
4. 4) If you are a male public speaker, the first time you forget to check your zipper…
5. 5) If it is at all possible, the top of my jeep will not be on my jeep.
6. 6) When I ask Josh what he learned in school, he will answer, “Nothing.”
7. 7) A man doesn’t really care what’s on (tv).  He just wants to know what else is on.
8. 8) I married up & I love watching my kids grow up.
9. 9) If you tell a guy that something really smells bad, he’ll check for himself.
10. 10) The death and resurrection of Jesus is the single most important event in all history.

Those are just a few of the things of which I am fairly certain.  By the way,  if #10 is certain,  it means that loopholes exist — not just for taxes but also — for death.

Nope not a blog post on tithing, stewardship or staffing budget ratios — something a bit more macro and perhaps a bit more important.  Last week Visioneering — an architectural firm that loves to inspire — was here to help us discern the Master’s Plan for our Harvest Fields site.  In the process Mel spoke about the changing economy — from a macro view.

Let me use food to illustrate.  I grew up on a farm, we grew, raised, and killed a good portion of our food for ourselves.  The agricultural economy dealt mostly in raw materials.  100 years ago, everyone dealt in raw materials.  In this economy our country was birthed, but then came the Industrial Revolution and we moved to a production economy.  Millions of people moved from the fields to the factories.  Families started to buy canned corn at the grocery store rather than grow corn at home.  This economy was based on the production of goods.

In the next big shift we went from an economy of production to a service economy.  To continue with the food theme, we no longer bought our can of corn at the grocery store to take home and prepare a family meal, now we go to Kelly’s Steak and Seafood restaurant where the chef puts the corn into an incredible shellfish chowder — but I digress.  In this economy of service, the average American eats out 4-5 times a week.   The next economy upped the ante on service as we have moved into an experience economy.  This is not only more than service, it is also more than entertainment.  It is an immersion into the experience that requires participation.  You are not just being served, you are having an experience.  Think Rainbow Forest Cafe or a meal with Disney characters.

One more economy shift — from experience to transformation.  We are now in the process of moving to an economy of transformation. While experiences are memorable for a time, transformation is inspirational through time.   In this economy of transformation we want our investment of time and money to matter.  We want to make a difference.  We want to leave a mark on world.  We want to transform the world and be transformed as we do it.  The transformation economy is on the rise and showing up everywhere — from Ethos Water at Starbucks to Toms Shoes to adoption to a U2 concert.

Okay, so what.

I can’t help but think — the church should be leading the way in a transformation economy — but we aren’t.

Entrepreneurs who want to make a difference should be studying the church.  Transformation should be our domain — it’s Kingdom of Heaven on Earth stuff.  But instead too many of us (churches) are still hanging out in a goods and services economy, while a few of the best of us have gotten really good at designing experiences.

Good News.  For those of us with ears to hear, God is still in the transformation business.  It’s always been his economy.  Nobody does it better.  It goes by many names, redemption, creation, sanctification, revival, renewal, born-again, abundant life, and salvation.  It’s life in the Kingdom of Heaven on Earth.  It’s life in the Kingdom of Something More.

Good News, Church.   We don’t have to catch up, the economy of serve me, entertain me, has been found wanting… transformation is the new black.  Jesus do everything in us that you have to do, so that you can do everything through us that you want to do.

For anyone who has followed the last couple of blog posts regarding my rental car woes…  It would be wrong for me to withhold this information.  I was contacted by Alamo.  Apparently Heidi from Alamo read my blog post.  She offered her apologies AND took responsibility AND offered some future free car rentals.  AND in the process they regained a customer.  (Now Priceline that’s a different story.)

Now I’m not really sure how Heidi ended up reading my blog — my first guess is a simple google search — but what I appreciate is that when she read, she responded, and she responded with something more than words.  The last few times I have encountered different customer service moments, it has seemed to me that the current training program for customer service agents might go something like this —

1. 1) Apologize at every opportunity.
2. 2) Take responsibility for nothing — but continue to apologize.
3. 3) Offer to do nothing — but continue to apologize.
4. 4) Ask if there is anything else you can do to help.  (That’s the one that I love :)  And then apologize one more time.

But sometimes the words of apology are empty without the actions of responsibility.

So I just wanted to say thanks to Heidi and Alamo — for the words and the actions.

If you haven’t already read my blog post about my reservation-confirmation-negation at Alamo, read it first, (Not My Responsibility) then come back and watch this video.  Thanks to Kyra and Chad for the video!

The movie, The Matrix describes a world where the nature of reality is put into question.  It’s a world taken over by computers that keep humans in bondage by creating a false reality in their minds. People think they’re living the life of their dreams, but it’s all illusion.   A few humans have crossed over — they see the truth — in one scene, Morpheus, the leader of those who see the truth, has contacted Neo, a man still deceived…

“Let me tell you why you’re here,” says Morpheus. “you’re here because you know something. What you know you can’t explain…  But you feel it. You’ve felt it your entire life. That there’s something wrong with the world.  You don’t know what it is, but it’s there, like a splinter in your mind, driving you mad. It is this feeling that has brought you to me.”

Isn’t that what Easter is all about?  We come to church because we know something.  We can’t explain it, but we feel it.  Something is wrong with the world.  There has to be something more…

It’s the rumors of hope whispering on the winds of your soul.

But Jesus isn’t interested in letting us settle for rumors of hope.  2000 years ago, a group of people put all their hope in a rabbi named Jesus. He was filled with truth and life and joy, an unshakeable faith in his father that was so real, it was contagious… they began to believe that they could trust in him, put their hearts in his hands, let him guide their lives and fix their hearts.  And people began to hope.  As John Ortberg writes,

Lepers started to hope that they could be cleansed and prostitutes began to hope that they could be pure.  And crooked tax collectors, who were despised, started to hope that they could be honest. And the blind started to hope that they could see. The lame started to hope that they could walk. Sinners started to hope that they could be right with God. And lonely people started to hope that they could be loved. And weak people started to hope that they could be strong. Because you cannot get around Jesus very much… and not start hoping.

People started following this hope-filled Jesus…but the religious leaders didn’t like this and eventually in desperation they had Jesus arrested, fixed the jury, and hung him on a cross to die. And when he died, those who followed him thot their hope had died with him. They thought the tomb had been shut on their hope forever… But then one day, Jesus showed up on a seven mile stretch of road from Jerusalem to Emmaus.   (Luke 24). I think he did it to remind us…that he will chase us for as long as it takes — till we recognize him as the giver of hope…

If you want to hear the whole hope message, click

Even if you haven’t read the story, you’ve heard the phrase — Good Samaritan. The story is found in Luke 10:25-37.  Four  men are on a trip…traveling from Jerusalem to Jericho — 17 miles of road through a wilderness of rocks and ravines.  In the twists and turns and caves, bad guys lie in wait for travelers. This road was called “The Way of Blood.” For one person on this day, it became more than the name of a road, stripped of all his clothing, he was beaten, bloodied, and left to die.

Two people pass-by.  One stops.  The good Samaritan.  Martin Luther King said that Good Samaritan moments are defined by the questions we ask.

Those who pass by are those who first ask, “What will happen to me if I stop?”  Those who stop are those who first ask, “What will happen to him if I don’t stop?”

Good Samaritans rarely say, “That’s not my responsibility.”

When Jesus told the story of the Good Samaritan, it came as an asnwer to the question, “Who is my neighbor?”  That question was asked in response to an answer that Jesus gave to another question, “How do I find life?”

So when Jesus was asked, “How do I find life?”  He answered, “Love God with all your heart and love your neighbor like you love yourself.”  That led to the question, “Who is my neighbor?”  In other words, for whom am I responsible?  Jesus said, that’s not the right question.  The right question is not, “Who is my neighbor?”  The right question is, “Am I a good neighbor?”

If I want to find life, I must love God and be a good neighbor — and if I understand Jesus parable, a good neighbor doesn’t define neighbor by proximity alone but also by need.  A good neighbor loves to serve.

So on April 17-18, we are going to go out and find life.  CityServe.  We are canceling church and we are going to go out and serve our neighbors.  Don’t say, “It’s not my responsibility.”  On the one hand, it’s not true.  On the other hand, you’ll miss life.

If you haven’t signed up yet, go to CityServe and register online.