R&R - Rest and Re-Connect with God (and Family)

Not that I've ever set a blistering blogging pace, but I'm taking some time off from my weekly posting.

Just finished a preaching series about rest and reconnecting with God by taking up His yoke and learning from Jesus, so I'm going to take the Lord's command seriously. And I'm enjoying it.

I'm enjoying my 23rd wedding anniversary trip to Pigeon Forge compliments of some dear friends. Enjoying hearing others preach at Crosspoint and looking forward to time with my extended family at North Myrtle Beach in July. Then we'll be ready to send two of my children off to Athens (Jake got notice that his transfer application was accepted) and gear up for another ministry year.

Enjoy your summer.

My Hope-er Broke

Over two cups of coffee this morning I was talking to my friend Chanders about how my heart has been unsettled lately. Trying to talk it out. Trying to preach the gospel to each other. I think my hope-er is broke and I need it repaired.

Some of my restlessness is coming down off the mountain top of a great mission trip to Pearlington MS for Katrina rebuilding. Partly I'm scattered, covered and smothered because I have an important job that requires a lot out of me. Part of the struggle is that this world is very broken.

But mostly I think its from putting my hope in things other than the LORD.

Things I put my (breakable) hope in:
-raising godly children
-preaching good sermons
-getting all the way out of debt
-leading this awesome church to my definition of 'significant in the Kingdom'
-helping people solve their problems
-being friendly and accepted by everyone
-keeping comfortable
-leading my friends to Christ
-having enough time for myself
-developing 'Restore Life' mercy ministry
-one day getting a PhD
-never messing up beyond what I can clean up myself
-not offending anyone so they will a)join our church or b)not leave
-loving my wife and keeping her happy

My Dashboard for Performance
Yeah, I didn't have to think about that list. It's all right there - right on the dashboard of my life. Telling me how well I'm keeping up expectations, how well I'm doing, how significant I am.

All good things. But none of them are the LORD Himself. I need to hope in the LORD alone. Why?

Because HE is worth all my trust (Psalm 131). He is my only deliverer. (Exodus 15) And partly I not business thinking more highly (or lowly) of myself than the LORD thinks!

Good things that I trust in
are just good things (Romans 1:18ff). But an idol is an idol. Putting my hope in even good things will hammer me if I worship and serve them.

Maybe I'm going to trust Him. He's a better God than all those gods. Maybe I will put my hope in Him alone. Yeah, that'd be good, er the best.

Busyness is from Hell

In our series through Exodus, we are beginning to uncover a major theme - rest. Rest and celebration as a product of God's Great Deliverance from Slavery.

Slaves never get to rest. I'm thinking we don't rest because we are functionally slaves. For slaves, busyness is hell.

Paul Tripp is a very wise man to whom we should listen in this problem of busyness.
Enjoy. And slow down. And Rest!

From an interview with Paul Tripp on Desiring God blog

"I read a book on stress a few years back, and the author made a side comment that I thought was so insightful. He said that the highest value of materialistic western culture is not possessing. It's actually acquiring.

"If you're a go-getter you never stop. And so the guy who is lavishly successful doesn't quit, because there are greater levels of success. "My house could be bigger, I could drive better cars, I could have more power, I could have more money."

"And so we've bought an unbiblical definition of the good life of success. Our kids have to be skilled at three sports and play four musical instruments, and our house has to be lavish by whatever standard. And all of that stuff is eating time, eating energy, eating money. And it doesn't promote community.

"I think often that even the programs of a local church are too sectored and too busy. As if we're trying to program godliness. And so the family is actually never together because they're all in demographic groupings. Where do we have time where we are pursuing relationships with one another, living with one another, praying with one another, talking with one another?

"I've talked to a lot of families who literally think it's a victory to have 3 or 4 meals all together with one another in a week, because they're so busy. Well, if in that family unit they're not experiencing community, there's no hope of them experiencing it outside of that family unit.

"We have families that will show up at our church on Sunday morning with the boys dressed in their little league outfits, and I know what's going to happen. They're going to leave the service early. Now what a value message to that little boy! Do I think little league is bad? I don't think it's bad at all. I think it's great. But they're telling him what's important as they do that.

"You can't fit God's dream (if I can use that language) for his church inside of the American dream and have it work. It's a radically different lifestyle. It just won't squeeze into the available spaces of the time and energy that's left over.

"And I'm as much seduced by that as anybody. We have sold our four-bedroom house because our kids are gone, and we've bought a loft in Chinatown, Philadelphia. And we're amazed at how simple our life has become. We're grieving over how we let our life get so complicated.

"Last year, for example, I put almost $2,500 worth of gas in my car. This year, I've put $159 in the first quarter. It's because we're walking places, and that slows our life down, and we're near the people in our church because we're within walking distance of the church. And we've had so many natural encounters with people because of that.

"We're living in a much smaller place. We got rid of most of our stuff. As we went through it, we laughed about how we just collected stuff. All that stuff has to be maintained. It grabs your heart, it grabs your schedule, it grabs your time. It becomes a source of worry and concern and need to pay.

"So we've just been confronted with how all of those things that aren't evil in themselves become the complications of life that keep us away from the kind of community that we need in order to hold on to our identity."
__________________________
To actually rest in Christ is to experience the in-breaking of heaven on earth. I believe LORD, help my unbelief!