Being "Okay" With a Limp

For the first time in my life, I have had - just recently - someone from my immediate family to die. She was my oldest sister, and was very dear to my heart. In my memories of our childhood, she seems to have been sick all the time, battling asthma all of her life from a very young age. Somewhere along the way, she stuck to my heart and spirit, and I spent many days as a youth thinking to myself that I’d to anything for my sister just to have her to be able to breathe freely. She bonded with me, too. When I got ready to leave my mom and dad’s house for the last time to move to Houston, TX and begin my life as a husband and leader of my own home, she made her way there, and cried when I got into my car. During one of my last times of being around her, I remember her staring at me the entire time, and though it hurts to think about it now, my guess is that she was probably, then, saying “goodbye.”

From the moment that I got the call that she had gone home to be with the Lord, I wept, and even now, the tears haven’t stopped. People try to console me, and although I know they mean well, I find myself resenting their perspective. It’s almost like they’re telling me that the goal in all of this is to “get over” the pain and grief. Well, I haven’t and quite frankly, I don’t know if I want to. I’ve come to peace with my pain. I’m “okay” with the possibility that it’ll hurt for the rest of my life. …and “no,” this is not inconsistent with my faith.

Grief is part of what it is to be a human being. I remind myself that God calls me to be fully human – what He created me to be. I’m not failing God when I am what He created me to be.

When Jacob wrestled with a God at the placed that he later named, Peniel (Genesis 32), he left that place with a lasting limp. The limp didn’t make him less of a man of faith; in fact, he became more of God’s man now that he had a limp from having experienced the depth of his humanity in the presence of God. His limp was not “crippling.” It gave him a “leap” of faith.

So, I continue to grieve. I’ve wrestled with God over the passing of my sister. I have a lasting limp, and I’m okay with the limp. I know that my limp is lasting signage of unusual grace.

One more note… I certainly should be ready to “leap” with a “limp” because I’ve had the pleasure of witnessing the beauty of my sister’s remarkably inspiring life in spite of her life-long “limp.”

“You finished your course, sis.” Amen!

This Time, Pay Attention!

In spite of all the talk in many Christian circles these days of everything being “pre-determined”, there is plenty of Biblical evidence that somehow, someway, it’s possible to miss a moment of God’s coming to us. I am often haunted by the scene, sketched so beautifully by Luke, in which Jesus enters the city of Jerusalem, riding on a colt, and in spite if the shouts of “hosanna!,” Jesus weeps over Jerusalem’s failure to pay attention. “…you did not recognize the time of God’s coming to you” (Luke 19:41-44, TNIV)

It’s not that we don’t pay attention at all. We are the most attentive culture ever. We are always paying attention to something, and surely there are plenty of things grabbing and jostling for our attention. The problem is that we don’t pay attention to the “right” things. We are immersed in information, yet, we constantly miss the things that make for life. This truth was again apparent to me just recently as I reflected on planting a new church in a suburban area. As I’ve met people and observed their lives (I, too, am a suburbanite), I’ve noticed at how attentive suburbanites are. Cell phones, laptops, CNN, ESPN, satellite radio… the list goes on and on with hundreds of tools at our disposal so that we can stay tuned into what’s the latest and most pressing. Yet, I’ve asked myself over and over again, “As a pastor in this place, how can I get secular-minded, striving-for-success-safety-and-security-minded suburbanites to pay attention to their souls?” How can I get them to “unplug” from their information resources long enough to get plugged into real life and real purpose and not miss God presence and impending blessings?

Like me, you’ve probably missed some special God-moments before. Maybe you, too, “fell asleep” in the details of busyness. God is coming again. This time, pay attention!

Christians DON'T Have All the Answers!

You Don’t Have To Run Away From the Tough Questions About Life and Faith!

Here’s a beginning, at least, of how we can respond to the tough questions that arise when the pieces of our lives don’t fit together in the way the Bible seems to say they should. I wrote this in response to a mother’s request for help when her son asked her a very tough question about the Bible that she thought demanded an immediate answer.

First, we don't know the whole story and we don't know everything. If we knew everything we would be God!

Secondly, we walk by faith not by science. That is to say, faith is not an exact science. So you can’t “put it together” the way you would logically solve a science or math problem. God is too "great" and "big" to be "solved". That's one reason why He is worthy of worship.

Thirdly, we should keep asking questions because that's at least one pathway to deeper faith and discipleship. There are questions that can't be answered by our little "Sunday- school-packaged" answers. When we allow ourselves to think outside the boxes, we get revelations that can deepen our faith and understanding. Now, these answers won't contradict the Bible, but they will help us to see things in the Bible that we have overlooked or ignored before because they didn't fit into our neat little doctrinal and theological boxes.

Finally, the primary way to deeper faith and understanding is not through knowledge and information. To really plunge deep into God's worldview, we have to be in relationship with the Lord. Abraham learned more about God as he walked with God, and the same could be said of every saint in the Bible. When we are "in" Him and He is "in" us, as Jesus said, we will be connected to His being in such a way that we will be better able to see the world as He sees it!

Finally, we must remember that we are walking by faith and not by sight. So, we follow the Lord, love Him, and obey Him, ultimately, because we trust Him and not because we have all the information.

So, tell ___________ to keep on reading, keep on asking, keep on reflecting, and most of all - keep on "being" in Christ!

Pay Attention! A New World is approaching.

Nothing to Give?

The Blessing of NOT Being Able to Give Something

This morning, as I was going through my morning prayer, I was thinking of the many people whom I love… how much I desire that they be whole and well in every way, I thought of the some of the people whose lives would be better if they had more money or better health. I prayed and asked the Lord to bless me so that I can go to my loved ones with those kinds of needs and just say, “what do you need. I’ll take care of it.” In fact, I felt a little proud of myself. I thought to myself, “dude, what a noble and righteous desire. You’re on it Rob!”

But as I continued to think and pray, the Lord helped me to realize something about myself. Whenever I’ve been able to just give people something to solve their problem, I didn’t invest nearly as much of my heart, spirit, and emotions into their suffering. I was able to kind of say, “take this and move on.” On the other hand, when I don’t have the money to give, or when my prayer doesn’t immediately bring healing, then the situation actually costs me much more in terms of emotions, time, heart, energy, and my spirit. When I don’t have the money to solve a person’s problem, or when I can’t “pull” a miracle with a simple, quick prayer, my love for the person demands that I do something else, which usually means spending time with the person… being a friend… listening… relating… sympathizing… connecting… sharing the pain… bearing a share of the burden. Helping on this level is a prolonged effort, and so much of the time, I don’t want to be “bothered” that much.

Maybe that’s why God doesn’t always “set us up” in a way that helping people comes easy and quickly. Now, let me be very clear about the fact that having financial resources - or the spiritual resources to command healing - costs, too, but those strengths don’t force us, nearly as much, to build relationships and give of our time in listening and caring. When we don’t have “something” to give, or when we can’t “give” a healing, we give all we have – ourselves. When we can’t easily solve another’s problem by giving something, it’s harder to dismiss the person as a problem to be solved.

So, I’ve adjusted my prayer, a bit. Now, I still desire for the Lord to bless me to solve my loved ones problems. I want their suffering and discomfort to end, immediately. But if it doesn’t happen, then I know that the Lord is calling me to go deeper into relationship. Maybe that’s what’s most needed by the other person – a real, genuine relationship.

After thousands of years of other methods, when God decided to finally and decisively act to make us whole, He came to us, became like us, reached out to us, loved us, reconciled us to Him. By overwhelming us with His Person and Presence, He has made new life possible!

Pay attention. A New World is approaching.

Unfulfilled Promises?

Unfulfilled Promises?

I cross paths with a lot of Christian believers these days who seem to be fighting off disappointment while desperately waiting for some perceived Divine promise to be fulfilled. Many of these people are even at a point of beginning to believe that maybe God has failed them. A quick glance at a televised worship service on one of the religious television broadcast will show a display of emotional outbursts from people who are hoping that the preacher is right and that the “thing” that they believe God has promised them is “on the way.” “Your breakthrough coming,” is echoed over and over again in many of these worship gatherings.

I certainly believe in Divine promises. And if God said it, you can count on it. But it is also true that too many believers are “stuck” on some personal, selfish desire that they have projected as a promise from God. Unfortunately, these believers have been taught that, to some degree, God’s “business” is to tend to their self-fulfillment. They believe, in some way, that God is all about helping them get the things they want. In fact, that’s the essence of their walk of faith – God providing the next item on their personal attainment or accomplishment list.

I won’t question anybody’s discernment of God’s promises, but I do challenge the assumption by anyone that your personal wish list is worthy of being at the center of a Divine plan for your life, not to mention the Kingdom of God. And you will be forever disappointed if you have taken the Gospel of the Kingdom to be about getting Divine help to complete your personal wish list.

Jesus did come that we might have abundant life. The first step towards having that life is to “lose” the one we have.

So, are you REALLY ready to live?

The Tragedy of Violence

The Tragedy of Violence

Like many of you, I find myself grieving, today, over the recent tragedy that took place on the campus of Virginia Tech University. I am hurting for the students, the victims, and the victims’ families. It’s all so senseless and twisted.

We can’t change what has happened, but we can do something about how we participate in violence. No, we don’t all use guns, but we do “kill”, destroy hope, and dismantle dreams with our words, our gossip, our dishonesty, our manipulation, and all of the other tools at our disposal that are so often used against others.

A young woman recently wrote me a note describing how she had been hurt… by church people… by their gossip, their mean looks, their suspicious gazes, and rejecting glances. The weight of all of this had finally taken its toll. On a Monday, in the middle of the day, she was still in the bed… crying and broken with depression. On the same day that an “insane” sniper took the lives of over 30 people through an act of senseless, random violence, church folk had taken the hope and joy of this woman through senseless, silent acts of spiritual violence. Both break the heart of God.

As I pray for the Virginia Tech family, I also pray for the people of God, that we will not be spiritual snipers, but that we will practice being catalysts of hope, life, and joy!

“He who testifies about these things says, ‘Yes, I am coming quickly’. Amen! Come, Lord Jesus” (Rev. 22:20)

Where to Talk about God

A friend of mine recently told me that on occasion he was having a conversation with a Muslim about God and when they both had to go to the restroom, the Muslim ordered him to stop talking about God in the restroom, because the restroom was too unholy a place to even mention God’s name!

Now, I certainly understand the need to honor and respect the holiness and sacredness of God and Divine things, but I suggest to you that the most unholy of places are exactly the places where we should talk about God the most. No, I’m not referring to restrooms, but places where people are suffering, broken, poor, deserted, dejected, and dismissed. Maybe the problem with our world is that God’s people keep God’s name and God’s witness in the “clean” places and we end up leaving so much of humanity starving for signs of Divine love.

We don’t need to protect God. God can handle that job! Furthermore, if God needed to protect God’s holiness from the “stains” of human vulgarity, God would have never come to earth – as Jesus of Nazareth – in the first place! In fact, God came in the flesh just to “touch” our humanity… all of it!

Make an intentional effort, everyday, to look for God everywhere, and wherever you go, no matter how broken or “unholy”, be sure to talk about God!

See Through the Fog!

I am seriously irritated about the all of the attention that's being given to the matter of radio host Don Imus calling black women of the Rutgers' basketball team "nappy-headed hos." Of course, this is a downright ignorant, offensive, and unacceptable comment and Imus should be held accountable for his comments. But let's be clear about this… the overwhelming damage to the psyches, self-esteems, and self-concepts of young black women has not been done by Imus or other "twisted" white radio hosts. Most of the damage and danger comes from the culture that's created by certain music forms that arise out of black community. This music - when it denigrates and dehumanizes black women - should be denounced and defeated with the same fervor that we denounced and defeated Don Imus. If we don't do this, then by act of silence, we're all just as guilty as Don Imus of engaging in the dehumanization of black women! Be not deceived!

Where's The Place Where God Is Not?

There is no place where God is not. Okay, that's a quirky, "jumbled-up" way of saying, God is everywhere? Yes. Everywhere. In fact, there is no "place" that could exist without God because, according to the Bible, all things exist in, by, and through God! And if I really take this wisdom seriously, then as a "missionary" for the Kingdom of God, my job is not to bring God to people, but to point to the signs of God's presence that's all around them!

In the gospels, when Jesus sent out the missionaries, two-by-two, he told them that whenever they enetered a house, they should announce, "The Kingdom of God is here!" But the Kingdom didn't arrive just when they got to a place. It was already there. What changed was that in their arrival to the scence, witnesses had come who could help people recognize the presence and power of God.

As we share our faith with others, we must remember that we are not pioneer of God's presence. We are more like a tour-guides. We don't have to "create" Divine prsence, rather, we simply have to do as Jesus did: announce that "God's Rule is here", and then help people to see, respond, and celebrate the new life that's possible.

The Kingdom of God is here. Give me a moment, and I'll show it to you!

Middle Moments

Middle Moments
Never forget that Jesus was just as much “Jesus” - our Savior and our Deliverer - on the 2nd of those three days as he was on the first and the last. In the “middle” of doing his destiny-changing work of redemption, he did not lose his identity, significance, status, or anointing.

Furthermore, Jesus didn’t go straight from Deliverer (Good Friday) to Victor and Conqueror (Resurrection). The “middle day” happened, and it’s just as important as the first day and the third!

Too much of the modern Christian teaching and preaching focuses only on celebrating our final victories. But, if we only see value in the “high” moments, we start to believe that God is missing or careless during the “middle” of our journeys. If we feel “alive” only on the “first” and “third” days of our trials, then we’ll start believing that we are less than conquerors on the “second” days. We tend to despise the processes of our deliverances, and often fall into the trap of feeling and thinking that during the processes we are all alone and that our lives are void of meaning, purpose, and power.

God was God all three days of Jesus’ trial from crucifixion to Resurrection, and because God was still God, even during that cold, vague, non-eventful day in the grave, Jesus – not even for a moment – was never anything less than God’s Son, our Savior, our Redeemer, and our Lord!

…In a “middle moment”? See and celebrate the power, meaning, mystery, and purpose of where you are, now!

Good Friday

God allowed, in fact He ordered from the foundations of the world, the crucifixion of Jesus! That's good news, which is why it's good that we celebrate the memory of that event every year as Good Friday.


Most Christians celebrate Good Friday because in the crucifixion of Jesus, God was redeeming the world, defeating sin and slavery to sin, and "reconciling the world back to Himself" (in the words of Paul). I agree that these are reasons to rejoice, but this time, I rejoice for another reason.


This time around, I celebrate the crucifixion because I like the fact that God allowed it to happen, period. A lot of "stuff" happens in this world and in our lives that defy explanation and contradict our childhood Sunday School belief that life is a simple line of cause-and-effect; suffering is due to sin and people who suffer are paying the penalty of disobedience. This explanation works sometimes, but so many followers of Christ cling to this simple reasoning even in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary. The assumption is that all suffering is "bad", and that if we would just do the things that the Bible commands our suffering would be eliminated!


Six months ago, I suffered three strokes! One of my sisters is waiting for a lung transplant and has to use a breathing machine to survive as she waits! My father was just diagnosed with prostate cancer! I'm sure that there are some "believers" who would hear this and want to call our family together for a session of confession of sin and repentance… arguing that "surely our suffering is due to disobedience and rebellion against God!" One reason why some people force this reasoning is that they think that if the suffering isn't deserved then God is unfair, and worst, not trustworthy.


On the contrary, I rejoice in knowing that Good Friday happened. I don't need to explain it or understand it. "Good Fridays" are not contradictions to the goodness and trustworthiness of God, and I am convinced that "nothing shall separate me from the love of God, not even my failures. So, I embrace the mystery. I live confidently through my "grave" experiences. I wait for a resurrection!


Dad and sis, breathe peace. Live well. Rejoice in the God who is Lord even on Good Friday!

Divine Polarity - Sacred and Secular

This morning, during my six-mile run at about 5:00 a.m., I had an experience of God's "polarity" - that is - His capacity to contain or be expressed through things that we tend of think of as polar opposites. In this experience, His polarity was expressed as His capacity to express Himself through what WE refer to as sacred and through what WE refer to as secular. This is how it happened.

As I was running, I was listening to my ipod, as I always do. Two songs played, back-to-back and they brought me that moment during my run that I'm always waiting for... when the voice of the Lord speaks to my spirit and gives me my encouragement and direction for the day ahead.

The first song was a "church" song, "Our God Is An Awesome God". It's one of the great praise songs of the last decade or so, and as I listened, it lifted my spirit, and I was reminded, in the deepest reservoirs of my being, that God is beyond all of my challenges, problems, agendas, ambitions, and even fears. Although I was running, in my spirit, I knelt down in humble adoration before my God who "was, is, and is to come"... the Alpha and Omega... the God who - as the old folks used to say in my childhood, "sits high and looks low".

When the first song finished, the second song broke my moment of meditation...at least that what's I thought at first. It was a secular song...downloaded simply for the burst of energy that I hoped it would give me during my moments of extreme fatigue. But I waited, because I heard these words: "hold on, I'm coming"! Wow! My spirit seemed to explode out of my very body to the heights of Divine joy! I can't justify this to my "holy" Christian friends; you must forgive me; but when I heard those words, "hold on, I'm coming", I knew it was God speaking to me, giving me my encouragement for the day.

Yea! God first came to me as the sacred God... Holy, Awesome,...Transcendent! But He also spoke to me through a secular song, written by people who probably didn't even have God in mind when they wrote the song. First, he overwhelmed me with His glory, and I humbly surrendered, and when I surrendered, He used an "earthen vessel" (as the Apostle Paul would put it) to thrust me forward into my day with a WORD of power, peace, and passion. "Hold on," He said. "I'm coming"

By the way, he also gave me my direction for the day... He told me to tell you that He says to you, too, "Hold on, I'm coming."

"Amen. Come, Lord Jesus" (Revelation 22:20)

*(If you want to hear the song, check it out on itunes. There's a good version by Dave & Sam, and I particularly like Michael Bolton's version.)

Is God sacred or secular?

God is so "secular", present, tangible, and immanent, that "the whole earth is full of His glory" (That's the vision that's given to the prophet Isaiah when he makes a visit to the temple one day to ponder the lost of Israel's last king). And if this is so, then every morning when I awake, from the moment that I take my first conscious breath, I can inhale with as much of a sense of the sacredness of God as if I were kneeling before the altar of some great cathedral. And when get up out of the bed and take my first step, as with the ground that Moses stood on in the shadow of the burning bush, I, too, am standing on Holy Ground.

As I move through my day, I can choose to remain conscious of God's "everywhere-ness" and "everyplace-ness", and even in the places, people, and problems, and things that seem to be the ugliest, most defiled, most unholy, and most hopeless, some how and some way, God is "around" working His plan to redeem, deliver, and transform. And if I watch closey, and patiently, I just might catch a glimpse of the Mystery.

Is God sacred or secular?

I believe that the whole earth is full of the glory of God. I rejoice in God loving the world so much that He gave His Son for it. I am amazed that the eternal Divine became human flesh and lived among us as one of us. So, while I know that God is NOT US, is beyond us, transcends us... I also embrace that God is making His home in me and you. I know that I can't seperate God-filled stuff from God-less stuff because God sustains everything. The distinctions between sacred and secular are most often too far beyond my understanding, so I embrace the whole world, and with a Biblical perspective and a heart surrendered to Christ, I relentlessly pursue moments that reveal the loving, revolutionary presence of God.

Does the Holy God live in you?