I wrote my mom this note a few years ago. It’s appropriate to share it with you for Mother’s Day….

Hey Mom,
I’m getting ready to throw a sweatshirt away, and I’m writing because I think you bought it for me many, many moons ago. It’s my old gray insulated hooded sweatshirt that’s been with me everywhere; from 14,000+ feet in Colorado to sea-level at Assateague; numerous wilderness weeks, campouts all over the Midwest, and campfires too numerous to count.

It’s going to that great closet in the sky, where I’m sure that God will sew up the tattered sleeves and other rips in the fabric, he’ll fix the busted zipper, replace the string in the hood, and then he will thicken the spots grown thin at the wrists over the years, and he’ll bleach out the red and yellow and blue paint from the RLCA playground equipment workday, and then he will put it on his “hooded sweatshirt stretcher” that fixes up sweatshirts that their owners have shrunk in the dryer and eventually I will be wearing it again at that great campfire in the sky when we’ll sing “happy birthday” to everyone in 50 different ways and play the rhythm game and tool around on our guitars singing great hymns of the faith and “Afghan” on a cool autumn night with stars wheeling overhead and a full moon coming up late in the night and no one will be too tired to stay up to see it rise at 1:00 in the morning and it will be glorious beyond all compare.

I just wanted to say thanks. I’ve always thought that you were the best gift-giver that I’ve ever known, because your gifts always seem long-lasting, well-suited to the receiver, and “just what I needed.”

So, “Thanks.”

Much love,
Nate

Horace, a Roman poet who lived around the time of Jesus, wrote these famous words: “Seize the day! Rejoice while you are alive; enjoy the day; live life to the fullest; make the most of what you have. It is later than you think.”

The first line of his quote, (Latin “carpe diem”] has been immortalized in American culture through films such as Dead Poets’ Society and The Lion King. But it is the last line that stirs me. “It is later than you think.”

Our church family has experienced sudden loss twice in the past 27 months – one of them a young man just 18 years of age, the other a father of two teenage students. In both cases, it was later than we thought.

“It is later than you think.” This truth echoes down through the halls of history. It trails behind us as we walk, hiding in the shadows, out of sight and yet not entirely out of mind. We hear its footsteps even as we seek to turn up the volume of our lives so as to drown out the pitter-patter of its relentless tread.

Jesus was familiar with this truth, that “it is later than you think.” Jesus heard the footsteps, and He embraced the footsteps. Jesus was not afraid of death, because Jesus knew that there was a deeper truth. He spoke this deeper truth to Martha after her brother Lazarus had died. “Jesus said to her, ‘I am the resurrection and the life.’” (John 11)

Death is an enemy, but the Life of Jesus has engulfed and surpassed and defeated it! The Life of Jesus penetrates into the fabric of our being and we have the privilege of participating in that glorious Life. In the valley of the shadow of death we have found Life. What a mighty privilege it is to share the Life of Jesus Christ with each other and with our friends and neighbors!

Met a guy at a local homeless shelter today – his name is Tim.

Tim spent years working as a sous-chef in northern Michigan. He put in lots of hours working to improve himself as a chef; to get better at his job; to raise his income; to get to a better life for himself; to get to the next level.

Tim had his life planned out, and it included a log cabin in the woods (which, remarkably, was provided free of charge by his church up north). It included a beautiful wife. It included awesome kids.

Everything about his plan was going swell. The land was cleared and the log cabin was built. But six days before his wedding, the engagement to his fiancee ended in an unsavory manner. And that’s putting it mildly. I’m not gonna give you the details, but trust me – it wasn’t pretty. Bottom line – no beautiful wife. No awesome kids.

Tim went from top of the world to the bottom of the dung heap in a heartbeat. He ended up a few months later in the Grand Rapids area, and eventually made his way to our homeless shelter as a client.

He was working in the kitchen tonight, cooking hot dogs, chili, and fries for about 50 homeless guys. He told me his story in between dropping baskets of fries into the Fry-o-Lator. (Yep, that’s really what it was called.) He said, “I was living for myself all those years, and I’m just now starting to realize that I had stuff in the wrong order. Now I’m trying to do my best to make God the center of my life and let all the other stuff take care of itself.”

I hope I see Tim again. He’s planning to be at the shelter for quite a while, working his way through their life-skills programs. He inspires and energizes me to be a better follower of Jesus Christ. I went tonight to serve food and minister to homeless guys, and instead found myself encouraged by a homeless guy. Go figure.

I have a feeling that someday Tim is going to be an awesome husband and a fantastic father.

Our next Parent’s Huddle is Saturday, March 17! It’s for EVERY parent in our church, and we hope (and sort of expect) that you will be there! The Huddle is so valuable for all parents. It will help you get resources to lead your children spiritually. I can’t think of a better way to spend a Saturday morning twice a year than to be at the Huddle. See you in a couple of weeks!

Check out promo video below.

….which explains the dearth of posts on this blog over the last 8 months.

Yikes.

Nate

What is a small group?  Sometimes people call it a “home bible study.”  I can’t speak for anyone else, but that term just doesn’t cut it for my small group.

My small group is about more than a “home” – it’s about being a family.  In a home, it’s possible to cover up the foibles.  When I know someone is coming to my home, I take time to pick up the toys, to sweep the floor, to clean the bathroom, to tidy up.  So when my visitor arrives, they see a house in order – but it’s not really real.  It’s a façade, a show, a pretending that I have it all together.  By contrast, when you are in a family, you get to see everybody up close, warts and all – and you love them anyway!  That’s what a small group provides – the opportunity to love and be loved, to know and be known, in all of our imperfections.

My small group is about more than the Bible – it’s about a safe place.  Let’s face it.  In some ways, the Bible is a hard book to understand.  It can be confusing.  And it’s easy to say, “I’ll just leave that stuff to the experts, I’ll never be able figure it out.”  By contrast, a small group is a safe place where we are encouraged to interact with the Bible.  But we aren’t left on our own.  By sharing our own experiences of how God impacts our lives with the rest of our group, we find more understanding of the truths of the Bible than we would ever figure out on our own!

My small group is about more than a “study” – it’s a place to experience fellowship.  In a study, many times the material studied will make it into our mind (intellectually), but it never makes it into our heart where it can flow out through our actions.  By contrast, a small group is a place where fellowship happens.  A healthy small group provides opportunities to put your study into practice through service.  It provides opportunities to connect on levels other than simply the intellectual; where social, physical, emotional, and spiritual needs are also met.

Sometimes a small group is called a “home bible study”.  But it’s about so much more than a home bible study – it’s where life happens together.  Regardless of what we call it, a small group is a place where we do life together with people who desire to follow the same path that we are journeying – a path that leads to life in Jesus Christ.

I absolutely LOVE our small group!  It is my favorite time of the week, period.  My small group has been a lifeline for me more than once.  I hope everyone who reads this gets the opportunity to be a part of something like it.  It’s amazing.

Sorry for the lack of posts recently!  If you didn’t know better you’d think this blog was dead.  :-/

I will get back to it eventually here.  Still have to post about CIY, camp, SummerSalt, and a bunch of other topics I’ve had on my mind over the past 6 months.

Bear with me….

What creeps me out is how fast the bear moves when the thunder hits. It’s as fast as a cat!

I came into work humming the tune to O Holy Night, the crystal-shattering Christmas carol that has mesmerized audiences and carol-singers for since 1847.

Yikes.  (I mean, in regards to the above link…)

O Holy Night! The stars are brightly shining,

It is the night of the dear Saviour’s birth.

Long lay the world in sin and error pining.

Till He appeared and the soul felt its worth.

But was it?  Was it really a holy night?  And what, exactly, does it take to make a night (or a day for that matter) holy?

I suspect it takes a lot more than a bunch of brightly shining stars to make a night holy.  And it would probably even take a lot more than a company of angels in a shepherds’ field.  Would the birth of the Christ-child suffice to make a night holy?

I’m just thinking out loud here, but if it was a holy night due to the presence of Jesus, then wouldn’t the next day have been holy too?  And why aren’t there any songs written about that?

The presence of God makes things holy; I suspect that there is no doubt about that.  But the presence of God was with humanity all the years of Jesus’ earthly life, then gone for 50 days, then back for a return visit via the Holy Spirit on Pentecost, and that same Presence has been changing lives for the last 2000 years.  If every day is holy, then is any day really holy?  Or any night for that matter?

I’m not ripping the carol.  Really, I’m not.  I’ve never written any songs, and certainly never will write anything that will last 163 years and counting.  But O Holy Night is probably bad theology, that’s my best guess.

Oh, and the magi weren’t at the manger either.  Verse two isn’t any better than verse one…..

It’s been a long time since I’ve highlighted some quotes from my preacher.  Heck it’s been a long time since I’ve posted on the blog, period!  Been busy with other endeavors, I guess.

Anyway, here’s a few good ones from some recent messages, starting with one that’s super-applicable at Christmas time…

“What if you lived as generously as possible while still meeting the needs of your family?”

And here’s one from the message yesterday entitled “Jesus is the Truth”…

“The religious leaders and Pharisees hated Jesus, but not because they caught him in a lie.  They hated him because he embodied the Truth.”

And here’s one for fun from several months ago…

“If you sit on the fence for too long, both cheeks get sore.”