I have to be honest, there is something appealing about that picture and that quote.  There are some days when I long to be unfinished doing nothing.  So I’ve been thinking lately about the supposed dicotomy between “being” and “doing.”  In the American Christian culture we say (I’ve said) things like:

• It’s not about what you can do for God.  He just wants to be with you.
• Are you more involved in activity for Jesus or adoration of Jesus?
• Don’t be a Martha so busy serving Jesus that you miss the Mary moment of sitting with Jesus and listening.

If you are wondering why I chose the names Mary or Martha — it’s from a Jesus-story found in Luke 10.  It goes like this…

³⁸As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him. ³⁹She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet listening to what he said. ⁴⁰But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked, “Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!” ⁴¹“Martha, Martha,” the Lord answered, “you are worried and upset about many things, ⁴²but only one thing is needed.^[a] Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.”

It’s easy to see what draws us into this story.  We are a culture infected with viral hurry-sickness.  We just can’t slow down.  The secret to marketing is make people think your product will give them more time.  Like Martha, worries and troubles, hurry and busyness is the schedule of our days.  We hurry because we are pessimistically hopeful that hurry will buy us more time.

It is easy to understand why we want to be human-beings instead of human-doings.  But I wonder if the attraction of sitting at the feet of Jesus isn’t that we want to listen to Jesus — we’re just too tired to serve?

Not long after moving to Chicago, Jon Ortberg called a wise friend to ask for some spiritual direction.  He described his current situation, the state of his heart, his family life, his job…and then asked, “What do I need to do to be spiritually healthy in my current circumstances?”    Long Pause.

“You must ruthlessly eliminate hurry from your life,” he said at last.  Another long pause.   “Ok..ok…I’ve got that one written down,” John said, “that’s a good one, now what else is there?”  Another long pause.

“There is nothing else.”

Are those words for you today?  If so, let me take what might seem to you to be a 180 degree turn.  Here is the principle on my heart.  The secret to eliminating hurry is not selecting “being” over “doing.”  The secret is found in doing less (none) of the wrong things and more of the right things.  Our problem is not that we are doing too much.  Our problem is that we are doing things that don’t satisfy so we find ourselves trying to do more to satisfy what wasn’t satisfied when we did all that did the last time.  (Don’t read that sentence again — it doesn’t get less confusing.)

Doing nothing isn’t the answer — neither is doing everything.  You can’t just choose anything, but there is something, (maybe even a few somethings) that is the right thing.  Go do that.

This coming Saturday Calvary is doing a one-day seminar for those seriously dating and people married less than 5 years.  It’s called “No Novocain Needed.”  Lynn and I are going to be on a Q&A panel so I’ve been thinking about our marriage.  We’ve been married for 25+ amazing years — not without ups, downs, struggles, and frustrations — but I have loved every year I’ve been married to her.  She is my best friend, my biggest fan, and the one who can always tell me like it is, or at least like she thinks it is.  :)

So anyway I ran across this video — I can’t believe how much it mirrors our relationship, if I could give you six marriage tips from my own marriage, this video would be it.

Watch and enjoy.

Just Kidding.

I have 218 followers on Twitter and 575 friends on Facebook.  I’m not bragging, just saying.  It can’t be bragging because far too often I run across someone who has 10,000+ followers on Twitter and I’m no where near the number of Facebook friends that either of my daughters have.

But I have to say I kind of wish that twitter had picked a word other than “follower” and I wish that Facebook had chosen a word other than “friend.”  It somewhat cheapens both words — doesn’t it?  Of course I’m not sure what the twitter word would be for “people I don’t know but every once in awhile would like to know that they are watching American Idol.”  I’m not sure what what the facebook word would be for “people I knew over 15 years ago who ask to be my friend but never respond to my comments.”

Now I actually appreciate both twitter and facebook, appreciate and use them.  I think they are great “front porch” (See my earlier post “UNfriend“) opportunities.  So this isn’t really about either fb or twitter — it’s about the words friend and follower.

I wonder if we shouldn’t reserve those words for something a bit deeper — at least in the world of faith.  Read John 15 sometime — Jesus takes friendship to a whole-nother level!

What is a friend?  Who are your friends?  What is a follower?  Who do you follow?  If someone is following you — where are you leading them?

A few weeks ago in the course of talking about the stories that God is writing in our lives, I made the comment that we don’t know the whole story.  We don’t know the whole story that God is writing in the life of the person sitting next to us.  We don’t even know the whole story that God is writing in our lives.  Because He isn’t through yet.

I’ve had so many opportunities in the last few weeks to talk to people who were encouraged by those words — God isn’t through writing your story.  Jesus hasn’t put down the pen.

I think when we are in those wilderness times, one of the great issues is trust isn’t it?  That’s one of the values of telling each other our God-stories, it builds trust which gives hope.

Anyway I love it when I come across great God-stories (great God and great stories) that are somehow connected to Calvary.  Lois Abdelmalek shared one with me this week.  It’s about her grandparents who were followers of Christ in Egypt.  They started churches, even an underground seminary.  Very cool stuff.  Here is a story from their life.  Let it encourage you — as you walk through your wilderness time.  Sometimes God leads us into an impossible wilderness to show us the tenderness of his care.  You can trust Him.

Click The Gift of Impossibility to read the story.

This last week — Wednesday to be exact — I was walking out of the local breakfast eatery, the Waffleshop; an S4 comfortably in my belly and I saw it.  A smudge of black on someone’s forehead.  Then I remembered, it’s Ash Wednesday.  To be honest, one of the things I appreciate about the Catholic faith is their wise use of ritual.  Rituals remind us and sometimes it’s good to be reminded.  Rituals mark us and sometimes it’s good to be marked.

It reminded me of an Ash Wednesday story I ran across a few years ago.  Pastor Rich Starr — the previous year — had decided that he wanted to keep the leftover plam branches from the Palm Sunday Service and use them on Ash Wednesday.

He’d read that some churches did that, and then burned them the following year for the Ash Wednesday Service.  When Ash Wednesday arrived, Pastor Starr grabbed his palm branches and placed them in his charcoal grill.  They didn’t want to burn, so he crumpled up some newspaper and laid the branches on top. That did the trick, but the ashes came out very chalky gray.  He was disappointed. He had expected the ashes to be darker. “This will never do,” he frowned; “When I make the sign of the cross on people, it won’t show up. They need to be darker.”

He walked into the church office to look around.  “Ink, wouldn’t work.  But toner! That’s it!  I’ll add some copy toner to the ashes.  They will show up good and dark.”  The service went well that evening at Prickly Pear United Methodist Church. It ended with everyone receiving their mark, the ashes in the sign of the cross.   It was a new experience for the people, but they were good sports.  Anyway, tomorrow the cross would be gone — washed off their foreheads.

Now, I don’t know if it was this particular brand of toner, or if it was a chemical reaction between toner, newspaper and palm ashes, but Thursday morning, United Methodists got up, showered; and when they looked in the mirror to shave or apply make-up, the cross was still there!  They took wash cloths and soap. They scrubbed and rubbed. The cross was still there. They tried fingernail polish remover, but the cross was still there.   They were marked for life!

So on the day after Ash Wednesday, all over town, while Catholics and Lutherans and Episcopalians merged once more into the ordinary world, United Methodists stood out, black crosses boldly marked on each forehead. Everyone who encountered them that day, on the street, in the café, in the stores, knew a United Methodist when they saw one!

It made me think.  What marks me?  Sometimes we stand out in the crowd for all the wrong reasons.  Sometimes we didn’t choose to stand out in the crowd, it just happened, circumstances beyond our control.  But what should it look like — if I am truly marked by the cross for the rest of my life?

In the last post I shared part of an e-mail I received from Pastor/Businessman Ernso Jean-Louis.  His daughter Christina is a student at PSU and also comes to Calvary.  So when I wrote the post, I wanted to put in a picture.  I thought — who knows I’ll google Ernso.  Wasn’t really expecting to find anything — a picture on the internet of a pastor/businessman in Haiti?

But not only did I find a picture, but I found a bit of Ernso’s story — very cool story of vision, creativity, sacrifice and God.  I will be honest, when I first met Ernso’s daughter and realized we had an opportunity to help this church and pastor in Haiti, I felt a bit of pride — big American church helping the poor Haitian church.  Then I heard that his church had 500+ people and the leader in me thought — hmmn this is good, big American church partnering with a pretty big Haitian church — we can make a bigger impact for God.  Then I read Ernso’s story.  I went from a bit of pride to an excitement for partnership to a posture of humility.  I just want to serve them and learn from them.

Good stuff — if  you have the time, read a bit of the story here:  Bearing Much Fruit.  It’s actual a chapter from this book.

The last few weekends at Calvary we have been making our way through the gospel of Mark.  As we have looked at the life of Jesus and what it truly takes to leave a mark on the world, I have used phrases like…

• – God will not give you a life-changing, world-impacting ministry if you have never suffered.  Misery precedes ministry.
• – God loves you and has a difficult plan for your life.
• – I’ve stopped praying for my children to be safe, now I pray for them to be dangerous.
• – God expressed his love and appreciation for Jesus and THEN drove him into the wilderness.  If God loves you, there is wilderness in your future.

It’s a different look at the life and call of Jesus. 

This week someone shared a blog post from a young man who is living those words out in a powerful way with a holy, righteous, courageously real attitude.  His name is Greg Boros.  A few years ago, he was a PSU student who also joined us on occasion at Calvary.  In 2006 he had a traumatic health problem — heart and head trauma.  Many people prayed for him and he came through it.  Quite a few people at Calvary know him and still pray for him.  Recently his health has led to a life and death situation.  He is currently on the heart-transplant list.

This blog post comes from his heart as he and his wife have walked through this wilderness.  It challenged me.  It encouraged me.  God used it to speak to me.  It has the ring of truth to it.  I will encourage you to read it and pray for him — but perhaps just as importantly, pray for us.

None of us can choose when we die, but God does give us the opportunity to choose how we live.  Thanks for that reminder Greg.

Click Greg Boros to read his post.

Our new Calvary totals for giving to our Hope for Haiti fund are nearing $23,000.  Seems like there is a little bit more each week.  A couple of weekends after the earthquake, I met Christina Jean-Louis.  She is a PSU student who attends Calvary.  Her father is a pastor in Port au Prince. Ernso Jean-Louis pastors a fairly large Haitian church filled with young people.  Their facility has been destroyed — but their church is alive and well!

Here is a bit of a recent e-mail he sent me:

Dear Pastor Dan

Thank you for answering my e-mail so quick. After the earthquake we have a big increase in our membership, so many people have accepted the Lord as their personal savior. It is  a big move from the Lord. We have more than 120 people who accepted the Lord during the three days fasting this weekend. If God put in your heart to help financially for the time being, that is great we need to have a temporary place to worship with more than 500 people.   I will let you know by thursday how to transfer the fund to us here in Haiti.

Keep us in your prayers as the Lord continue to do his will in this place. More than 120 voodoo priest accepted the Lord in the Country also, that is the greatest news christian people around Haiti have heard so far. God is at work indeed! We thank you and may God bless you and your church.

I have to tell you.  My heart was beating and my adrenaline pumping as I read that e-mail.  Buddhists turning to Christ in Myanmar and voodoo priests turning to Christ in Haiti and God is giving us these little opportunities to be bit players in epic dramas.

Do  you realize that the history of Haiti is in the process of being re-written and from great tragedy God’s love will prevail.  I love it when God sets up connections in advance for us to serve Him and bless others!

If you want to give to support Pastor Ernso, everything given from here on, will go to help them be the church in their city.

This weekend at Calvary we took a few moments to celebrate generosity.   The last few years we have challenged each other to take a Christmas offering for people in need around the world.  The challenge is to give 1% of your annual income to make a difference in the lives of those in need.   If you add up all the numbers — in December and January, you gave $150,000+ over and above your regular giving.  It’s one of the reasons  I love being a part of the Calvary family.  So watch the video and tell God thanks for what he is going to do with what has been given.

One of the legends about the start of Valentine’s Day says that under the rule of Emperor Claudius II Rome was involved in many bloody and unpopular campaigns. Claudius the Cruel was having a difficult time getting soldiers to join his military leagues. He decided it was because men did not want to leave their loves or families, so he outlawed marriage and cancelled engagements.

Saint Valentine was a priest at Rome who believed so much in the community of marriage that he secretly married couples.  Claudius found out, apprehended Valentine….and had him beaten and beheaded.  He died on February 14, in the year 270.

You know what? Men have been dying on Valentine’s Day ever since!

Interesting though isn’t it?  If the story is true, Valentine died for the dream of community.  Sounds a bit like another man/God we know.

So what are you willing to die?