I have the best job in the world!  I don’t have to worry about people who have no desire to change their thinking or their ways of the world.  My job in Ministry is not to educate people who demographically, economically and racially have the best advantages in America. Unless they are far from God and they want to change.  I get to call myself a Christian, I am saved, and now I get to try to save as many people from hell as possible, I don’t need to expect someone else to cater to my taste in style of worship and I get to take responsiblity for my own spiritual growth. Through my work I get be be continually reminded that it is not about me. I get to be reminded it is about the people who are far from God, who are so beat down, broke down and hammered by the material world that if they catch a glimmer of hope by hearing about a changed life because they came to church over a seemingly shameless gimmick, so be it. I have the advantage. I denied God for 25 years of my life. I spit in the face of the bride of Christ every day by murdering the reputations of every form of organized religion with my judgments and slander. I know what it’s like to be far from God. Now, by the Grace of God,  I am in the sunlight of the spirit and I get to see the church as the only hope in the entire world. Dang, I’m so lucky.

When I first began attending the church I now work for, the people (the church) met me where I was at; which is difficult for a collective body to do as so many of us returning home to Christ come from very different backgrounds. I was a de-churched procrastinator who never took chances and ran so far away from God I left our world and hid in television and books and fantasies trapped in my own diluded head. I didn’t get into much trouble because I didn’t ‘do’ much of anything.

In our everyday lives, do we practice the concept of meeting people where they are at? Or do we force our point of view on them, attempting to control our surroundings because we know best or we are too scared to do something new. As christians we have the golden ticket of salvation in Jesus Christ, how are we being responsible for this golden ticket? Are we waving it around bragging it up ,”I got it and you don’t! Na-na-na-na-na!” Did we hide it in a drawer worried someone would steal it? Or did we cash in this golden ticket- accept the love and blessings and invest by sharing this love and blessings without fear that if we give it all away there will be nothing left for us? Who will you invest in today?

After putting my nephew down for his nap, I decided to dive into my church’s constitution (yes, I’m a total geek and readily admit it!) I was struck by the vision and purpose statement and realized I needed to delve deeper into the spirit of the words and in doing so came to a greater love and understanding for my church.

“The purpose of Evergreen Community Church is to make passionate followers of Jesus Christ through the transforming power of the Holy Spirit.” My translation is- the purpose of the church is to help people change their lives. Assuming the church teaches them that change is needed and that spiritual growth matters in everyday life, people can have transformed lives through the power of the Holy Spirit. The guiding verses are Isaiah 61:1-3 and Matthew 28:18-20.

Before I was transformed by Evergreen Community Church, and developed a relationship with God, I lived a pretty boring life: hanging with my friends, usually at a club or the local sports bar, going to movies, eatin’, spendin’ and zoning out. No real point to any of it. As much as I like to think I’m special, I don’t think my life was very different than many individuals out there since the average American household has the television on for 6 hours and 47 minutes per day (http://www.csun.edu/science/health/docs/tv&health.html) and the obesity rate in Minnesota is almost 25% (http://www.cdc.gov/obesity/data/trends.html .) Yeah… I think I lived a pretty “normal” life. I still hang with my friends, still go out to eat and hit up a movie but the difference is I don’t do it to zone out, I don’t procrastinate on my responsibilities as a Christian and I don’t fear failure (nearly as much) which allows me a useful and fairly sane life.

“The vision of Evergreen Community Church is to share the story of Jesus with relevance, imagination, compassion and excellence, inviting others to the foot of the cross where we will encounter God in faith, grow together in hope, and learn to live together in love.”

The words which jump out at me are FAITH, HOPE and LOVE. These seem to be the Core Principles of ECC. Just like in 1 Corinthians 13:13 “And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.” As Christians, our greatest responsibility is to love others the way God intends us to…the kicker is that God gave us free will and because of this we have a choice whether or not to love. That is why it is so powerful when we enter into a life of meaning and start practicing loving others through relationships, and for me, a lot of trial and error. In 1 Timothy 1:14 it states, “Grace mixed with love and faith poured over me and into me. And all because of Jesus.” I need to be reminded that as a changed person I cannot judge, that if I call myself a Christian I need to strive toward love. I am thankful and grateful for the patience and grace of my church as I learn to love and grow in faith. To Love and not judge is an easy choice when hanging out with a napping baby.

Women are crazy. Especially mothers. Especially Grizzly mothers. They will defend their young to the death, protecting their environment and mauling anyone who may stand in the way of their safety and the safety of their family. As noted in recent news, even innocent hikers don’t have a chance against a Grizzly mother.

I am proud to say my own mother is a Momma Grizzly. So are the women at my church. Our women don’t mildly sit by or cower away when defending their environment. They stand up, they fight for what they believe in, and they voice their strong opinions. Our Momma Grizzlies take to heart the teachings of Jesus and work hard to apply the principles to their own lives.

They remind me of two verses in Philemon: 6-7 :
“I keep hearing of the love and faith you have for the Master Jesus, which brims over to other believers. And I keep praying that this faith we hold in common keeps showing up in the good things we do, and that people recognize Christ in all of it. Friend, you have no idea how good your love makes me feel, doubly so when I see your hospitality to fellow believers.”

Yet, sometimes…our Momma Grizzlies forget we are all fighting for the same cause, on the same side of the war with Satan and that we ALL fight tooth and nail for our environment, our fellow Christians and fellow Humanity alike. We can also forget that Satan uses friction within the ranks to harbor hate by getting us to fight over coffee or how to usher in a newcomer. Before we know it, we are harboring an unhealthy spirit of resentment and competition over whose ideas get chosen and who is receiving accolades and applause this week. Instead of rallying around our leaders and around each other, we mope and complain and leave over small details. We end up playing right into Satan’s hand when we react negatively to any sort of change, in church or in life.

When we carry a message of faith in unity and understanding under one vision, we not only help others but we also gain a fuller understanding of what our relationship to God means to us. We become strengthened in our own faith. I am continually strengthened and protected by my Momma Grizzlies and I am blessed to have them in my life.

Who will be the greatest? In Luke chapter 9:46-48 “An argument started among the disciples as to which of them would be the greatest. Jesus, knowing their thoughts, took a little child and had him stand beside him. Then he said to them, “whoever welcomes this little child in my name welcomes me; and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me. For he who is least among you all-he is the greatest.”

Children were considered the least among the masses in Jesus’ time. I won’t get into whether or not I believe if society has changed all that much or if we have gone the extreme and spoiled our kids. I don’t get into politics and my opinion means little to anyone other than myself. What I want to press upon is the humility factor when I am blessed to be around kids. I love their ability to make friends quickly. I love their flexibility to let change happen in their surroundings and in the plan they wanted for their day. I love that even in a dirty, grungy old church basement kids can light up when around each other, can shine that positivity by showing respect and grace and love to each other in any setting. There is magic that happens when kids get together, when they are lead by positive teachers for a positive message in Christ and given a chance to be themselves and figure out their identity in Jesus.

I am humbled by the hard work of leaders and teachers who make serving the lives of children their top priority. I am humbled and a bit shamed when I think of my sometimes attitude, stress levels, and judgments against my fellow adults. I am grateful to see, appreciate and learn from the children in my life. Thanks Evergreen Kids!!!

Faith is akin to electricity. We cannot see it but we can see what it can do. We cannot see the Holy Spirit but we see how lives are changed through it. When we are in tune with God’s will for our life the changes can be recognized and then examined as truth. As I celebrate four years of back to back abstinence from my drug of choice, sugar, I am so grateful that I believe. Not only that God is here but that he wants to work through me. This gives me peace and hope and purpose.

Why is it then that I can still have emotional binges and freak out at the enormity of a task unmanageable or a fear projected? And why in tarnation must I revert back to reacting rather than responding to trials and hiccups in my day? Proper time and energy into daily scripture and prayer helps to solidify the intention for each day, just like pushing myself to bike into town rather than drive, we need to push ourselves to look beyond ourselves in order to grow. Often I find myself in the catch 22 of feeling too busy, thereby foregoing morning exercise-physical or spiritual, which creates less productive time because I waste it worrying instead of praying.

Fear is disloyalty to God. When I fear, I am not trusting that I am really being cared for, that I’m loved by our Father, that the feeling and troubles will be worked out. We need to work in the natural for God to work in the supernatural. I used to pray to wake up one day thin. Due to my action in the natural, by following a plan and program to have clear boundaries with sugar, God has provided the supernatural of honest relief from the obsession of the tasty morsel of a hot fudge brownie atop a mound of ice cream. This is a miracle I have seen, felt but have absolutely no idea how it happened. Not by my own volition that I know. There must be a current running through me that I need to honor by taking care of my life; physically, emotionally and spiritually. This is how I learn grace and gratitude.

Letting go of defects of character is not easy. The coping skills, no matter how unhealthy they are now, served the purpose of survival while being formed and the safety of familiarity is often tempting to stay in. But the teachings of Jesus reminds us on more than one occasion, in more than one verse, how to live and why the new way of life.

Ephesians 4:22-24 reads: “You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.”

It’s easy to slip into the old habits and ways of thinking. I can certainly justify a snide remark or allow my greed of time to prevent me from helping others. Even forgetting to smile at the clerk during checkout on the busiest weekend of the summer will let the old ways creep back in and the habit of a new life is jarred.

Ephesians continues to outline specifically how to turn our habits around; speaking only truthfully because we are all one under the body of Christ; work usefully so you have something to share with those in need; speak only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen. Snapshots of wisdom not only fill the Bible in every paragraph but the miracles abound when we learn how to apply this wisdom.

“Show me our ways, O Lord, teach me your paths; guide me in your truth and teach me, for you are God my Savior, and my hope is in you all day long.” Psalms 25:4-5

Why do I continue to beat myself over the head with the club I had intended to use on others? Resentments skew my perception of reality by overpowering the peace and serenity God has given me and replaces it with pride, self-pity, fear or all of the above all at the same time. When was the last time you became angry at a co-worker or secretly hoped your ex would beg you to come back (but only after you had that rich gorgeous fiancé.) Perhaps a minor irritation from an inattentive driver throws your morning into a tailspin, creating the day that never ends and you need happy hour at lunch to make it through the rest of the day.

The old ways of reacting to life do not work when you reach for Jesus and commit your life to his teachings. Where before you may have judged, most certainly justified and probably blamed others for the hardships or excuses for inactivity or flat-out failure, the goal now becomes growing up the capacity to love, no matter what the circumstances warrant.

“Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is-his good, pleasing and perfect will.” Romans 12:2

To pick up a new life, a new way of reacting, it takes intentionality on our part…daily thoughtfulness of God’s word. How can you say you are following God’s will if you are not taking the time to read, pray, listen, experience? The blessings in life cannot happen unless we accept them and accept that we need to work for it.

“With this in mind, we constantly pray for you, that our God may count you worthy of his calling, and that by his power he may fulfill every good purpose of yours and every act prompted by your faith. We pray this so that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you and you in him.” 2 Thessalonians 1:11-12

I recently confessed to a group of women how extreme my ego-centricity was growing up. As a senior in high school we had to perform 200 hours of community service during the school year to graduate. I worked a total of 25 hours and forged signatures for the remaining hours. I was consumed with the idea that my time was too valuable for anything outside myself, not realizing the opportunities I would gain and the knowledge I could obtain from trying new things and meeting new people while providing service.

Our time is not our own. We are responsible for managing it well and that is all we control. We can’t save time like vacation hours at work. One of the Greek words for time is kairos, “a passing instant when an opening appears which must be driven through with force if success is to be achieved. We have to be intentional on how we spend our time. Kairos also means the appointed time in the purpose of God. It is up to us to live the life God intended so the time we have is well spent. If we see time in this regard think of how much better our work, our relationships and our community could be. Let us live a life of exceeding abundance, beyond what is expected, imagined or hoped for.

Christ came so that we could live an above-the-ordinary life…an abundant life. In today’s language it means more than enough, ample. We assume this idea of having more than enough means we need to strive for this “abundant” life by getting more, more, more. More cars, bigger meal portions (who doesn’t go to a buffet and “eat their money’s worth”?) We often try to obtain the most praise at work, giving into the competitiveness rather than the compassionateness of relationships.

Look at the word abundant in its Greek origin, perissos. It means superior or beyond measure. The word in this context it isn’t so much as more, more, more but better. Once we accept Jesus Christ as our savior our lives can be superior. Not in comparison to those around us, but to our life before.

“I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.” John 10:10. Why would we spit in the face of Jesus by refusing this abundant life?