The Journey

If you received this blog by email
– click on the blog title and go the blog page –
While there subscribe to receive notification of the Blog.
Thanks for taking the time to share this blog.

Before I let you go on and on about the title, let me say that I Googled “Steve, The Great” and came up empty with that search. Can you imagine? Perhaps my understanding of great needs some clarification? Maybe this story will help?

Some years ago St. Paul School of Theology in Kansas City was seeking a new president. Over one hundred candidates applied for the position. The search committee narrowed the list to five eminently qualified persons. Then somebody came up with a brilliant idea: let’s send a person to the institutions where each of the five finalists is currently employed, and let’s interview the janitor at each place, asking him what he thinks of the man seeking to be our president. This was done and a janitor gave such a glowing appraisal of William MacElvaney that he was selected President of St. Paul’s School of Theology.

Somebody on that search committee understood, in a flash of genius, that those who live close to Christ become so secure in his love that they no longer relate to other people according to rank or power or money or prestige. They treat janitors and governors with equal dignity. They regard everybody as a VIP. Children seem to do this intuitively; adult Christians have to relearn it.

How do we grow to the point that we stop measuring people by their successes and start regarding people for their service, for their sacrifices? How do we move from a world’s model which measures value in terms of wealth, fame, and power to a model which measures value in based on Jesus’ teachings? What is greatness in the kingdom of God?

Someone once asked Dr. Albert Sweitzer who was the greatest person in the world. He answered: “Some unknown person, who is doing the work of love.” When Mike Peters won the Pulitzer Prize for political cartoons (1981), he wasn’t expecting the honor. He described his response by saying, “It is like you are asleep and it is two in the morning and you are hugging your pillow and you are in your funny pajamas and somebody bursts through the door and they come over and start shaking you and they say, ‘Wake up, wake up!’ And you say, ‘What is it?’ And they say, ‘You have just won the Boston Marathon!’ And you say, ‘But I’m not running in the Boston Marathon.’ And they say, ‘Doesn’t make any difference, you won.'”

Jesus taught that heaven will hold some surprises. Honor and glory will be granted for behavior that was so natural, so undistinguished, and so noncompetitive. Take the simple illustration that Jesus gives of receiving a child. From somewhere Jesus finds a small child who he stands in front of them. It is interesting that Mark tells us that Jesus stands the child in front of them and then takes the child in his arms. Perhaps he was highlighting how low the child was by comparison. But as he raises the child in his arms he says to them, “Whoever welcomes on of these little children in my name welcomes me; and whoever welcomes me does not welcome me but the one who sent me.” Now, what does he mean? He is talking about having a humble servant attitude, being willing to reach out and help the lowliest of people so that we might show them the love of Christ. Such simple acts will be greatly rewarded.

Yes, many of God’s children will be surprised to find that their faithful simple service has brought them top honors. The servant will be honored; the last shall be first. And if there is one thing in this world that short circuits such simple acts it is self-promotion. You cannot both serve and conquer. So put on your funniest pajamas and get ready to hear from God that you have already won… because of Jesus.

Dear Lord, sometimes I would like to think that I am great. I know that history will not record me as “Steve, the Great.” But I do hope that someone will notice that Steve did seek to let you live through me and that all my brothers and sisters mattered. I pray that you lifted someone’s spirit because I happened to be there with kindness and peace. In and through Jesus. Amen.

Grace and Peace
Steve

Filed under: Faith | Leave a comment »

Have you ever noticed that sometimes breakfast seems much better at night? I recall a “special” night a couple of years ago when Shirley and I went to that internationally known restaurant “IHOP.” It has nothing to do with bunnies, I hope. When asked “Smoking or non-smoking” I replied VERY non-smoking. So they seated us in the second booth on the right… just one aisle away from the smoking section. It was okay though, since no one was in the smoking section. I ordered FRESH coffee and two eggs over medium. That means the yellow is just a little runny. Before the meal arrived they seated someone in the smoking section, just across the isle, who smoked like a coal burner approaching Fancy Gap. At that point all I could do is fan and wait it out.

Next, they seated DIRECTLY behind us a young family with a young child who was having an EXTREMELY loud bad day. They brought my coffee, which must have been two days old… it was that bitter. My two eggs were brown… SOLID brown and my toast was black. To top all that they seated another young couple with a fussy child beside us. We quickly finished our meal, as we flinched from the screams behind us and beside us, and headed for the cashier. I was thinking to myself “I can’t wait for him to ask me how things were. Because I am going to TELL him about the coffee, smoke, two screaming children, burnt eggs and toast. I am going to let them have it.” We got to the cashier and he took my money and did NOT say one word. I just stood there waiting for him to “make my day.”

Why did I want to unload on that cashier? Could it be because everything in that restaurant went against us? We wanted a nice pleasant meal consisting of food prepared the way we ordered it. We didn’t want smoke blowing across our table… I gave that up years ago. The way things were going, I am just glad we didn’t get robbed. I think I stewed about that night, off and on, for a day or so.

Then I had to start preparing for the Romans study I was teaching. The text we were dealing with had to do with how the redeemed of Christ were to behave. We are to offer ourselves as a living sacrifice. We are not to be conformed to the patterns of this world, but transformed in the image of Christ.

When I started studying those verses I couldn’t help but think of how I wanted to VENT to that cashier. Maybe it was a good thing that young man didn’t give me a chance to say anything. I probably would have been conformed to the patterns of this world… the rage world. But what was expected of me, a Christian, was to be transformed in the image of Christ… to act as Christ would have acted in that very same set of circumstances. I am afraid I was not a very good representative of Christ that night. Even though I didn’t get to speak, I was not very Christ-like in my thoughts.

Maybe my example will be an example for you to remember not to follow. Before we get into conforming to the world let us think about being transformed in the image of Christ. In other words, before we act… before we speak, ask ourselves “What would Jesus have me do?”

Dear God, forgive me for being too much like the world and not enough like you. Remind me that the world needs to see examples of Christ in daily living… when his eggs and toast are burned…when his coffee is bitter… when there is smoke in his face and screaming children in his ears… let me be Christ even when on a cross. Amen.

Daily Devotions with Pastor Steve

New Book Preorder Now

Filed under: Faith | Leave a comment »

My heart is certainly with the people of Texas who are in the midst of devastation and loss. But this morning I am also thinking of the people outside Fayetteville whose homes are still uninhabitable from the storm, Matthew, last fall, and then my thoughts (for some unknown reason) turned to the tragedy of Sandy Hook. Maybe I am thinking about this because, for me, it has become the definition of tragedy… children, five and six-year-old children being shot to death in a school,  a place of safety – still chills me to the bone.

On this day, as I remember, when we all are still grieving with grieving parents and holding confused, scared and saddened children in our prayers … when we lament and cry out “How long, O Lord” when we seek answers to such violence in this world, we hear words that God came (and comes) for such days, for mornings such as this, for us all. Please accept the words from the heart of Thom Shuman.

Once again, we are reminded about the meaning of this bleak midwinter we call Advent. For God did not come to create a greeting card industry, nor that we could string lights on houses and trees. God did not become one of us so we might have office parties and give people things they don’t really need. God was not born so songs could be written and sermons preached.

God came for such mornings as this, after the long night of anguished tossing and turning, with visions of horror dancing in our heads. God came to walk with us as we wander the streets of our hearts asking, ‘how? why? when?’

God came to huddle with terrified children in closets where school supplies are stored, and to give teachers the strength not to show their worst fears. God came to cradle the wounded and the dying, so they would know they were not abandoned in that loneliest of moments.

God came to give the first responders the courage to walk into the unspeakable, willing to put themselves between danger and little children. God came to gather the parents and grandparents up into the divine lap of comfort and hope, even as their arms would no longer be able to embrace their child. God came to have that most compassionate heart-broken as many times as ours are, to weep with us even when we have run out of tears, to stand next to us with the same look of horror and disbelief.

God came for mornings such as this, with the same haggard face, with the same questions, with the same anger, with the same sense of loss and hopelessness, but with deep wells of grace from which we can drink, with compassion which will never end, with comforting arms which will not grow weary, with hope which stretches from everlasting to everlasting.

God came, and is still with us… in this disaster, in all disasters, in all times and in all places.

Dear Lord, we know that you in no way cause tragedy to happen so that you could have more angels in heaven… that would be tragic … but we know, as Thom said, you were there in the closets with those children, in the courage of those teachers and in the broken hearts of parents and families who lost their precious little ones. Help us, O Lord, to become part of the healing process with our prayers and actions and thoughts in and through Jesus. Amen.

The Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting occurred on December 14, 2012, in Newtown, Connecticut, when 20-year-old Adam Lanza fatally shot 20 children between six and seven years old, as well as six adult staff members.

Daily Devotions with Pastor Steve

Filed under: Faith | Leave a comment »

When we were serving Pleasant Garden UMC we had an early Sunday morning contemporary service. In that early service we used contemporary music and songs to convey the same basic message that is expressed through the words, music and hymns of the eleven o’clock service. It is a message that is not complicated, like some would imagine. It is simple and straight forward. In fact, it is so simple that one Sunday, after church, Carla (the music director) was helping her triplets sing about it. They sang “Jesus loves me this I know. For the Bible tells me so. Little ones to him belong. They are weak but he is strong.”  

In that early service there was a song that became special to me, especially since I know that it has spoken to a friend in a healing kind of way. It says; “I believe in Jesus. I believe he is the Son of God. I believe he died and rose again. I believe he paid for us all. I believe he is here now – standing in our midst. Here with the power to heal now and the grace to forgive.”

Both expressions of a simple faith that says God loves me, and even in my weakness I belong to him. That belonging came about because God loved us enough to allow Jesus to be born in human form and die on the cross. Because we belong to him, and through the grace of God, he stands among us ready to heal and forgive.

Life challenges me to really know personally that I believe in Jesus. And that in all my weakness, hurts and sin he is standing here to forgive and heal me. What a wonderful gift God gives me. And the beautiful thing is that it is easy to unwrap and use.

Dear God, help me to know you…really know you. Come to me and forgive me of all my sins and heal all my weaknesses. Wrap me in your blanket of love and grace. Amen.

Daily Devotions with Pastor Steve

Filed under: Faith | Leave a comment »

The night was dark and lonely as I sat there waiting for people to find out what I was supposed to have done. I was afraid people wouldn’t understand. They would judge me, talk about me, look down on me, and write me out of their lives. People whom I thought were close friends will now have nothing to do with me. My cousins and nephews will lose all respect for me. How can I look into the eyes of my parents and see their deep disappointment in me. “Woe is me, I am a man of unclean lips.”

I can’t help but think of the movie “Trading Places” when Dan Aykroyd, a very successful Wall Street trader was framed as a crook by a couple of his bosses to prove a point that a street bum (Eddie Murphy) could be trained to do his job. When the news of Aykroyd’s supposed stealing and drug abuse got to his so-called friends, colleagues and old college friends, they turned their backs on him… would not have anything to do with him… and made fun of him.

In other words, they convicted this man before it was proven that he was guilty. But even worse than that, when given the opportunity to care for someone in need… innocent or guilty… they blew it big time. Adam Hamilton has a book entitled “When Christians Get it Wrong.” When we do we bring shame on ourselves and the Church. We are not about pointing fingers. We are about healing. We are not about accusing. We are about forgiving. We are not about throwing stones. We are about standing up to block the stones from hitting any of God’s children. We are not about joining the pack of dogs to tear the flesh off someone we have known. We are about lifting someone above the raging pack and setting them on the safety ground above. Each of us can choose how we will act and react to news like this. We can join the pack and tear someone apart. Or we can do the Christ-like thing, take the high road and embrace a brother in need. When given the opportunity be the Church. Everyone wins when we do.

Dear God, remind me that when I point my finger at someone else three of my own fingers are pointing back at me. I am guilty of sinfulness and therefore have no right to accuse another. Help me to forgive and heal and restore. Help me be the Church. Amen.

Grace and Peace
Steve

Filed under: Faith | Leave a comment »

The fringe of Jesus’ cloak that the people touched was no ordinary fringe.  It wasn’t just the place where his outfit ended; it was his tzitzit, the tassels worn then and now by observant Jews, like Jesus.

These tassels have at least a couple of meanings: first, they are a way of marking oneself as Jewish; second, they remind the wearer of the commandments of the Torah. But Rabbi Arthur Waskow gives tzitzit yet another meaning. The strings of the tassels are, he says, an extension of the person who wears them, reaching out like so many fingers into the universe. The spaces between the strings are the universe itself, reaching in toward the person. The fringe as a whole is made up of both the strings and the spaces; it is the powerful place where the person and the world meet and overlap, like two intertwined hands.


It is appropriate, then, that it is Jesus’ fringes that heal the people in this story, for Jesus himself is not so different from tzitzit: he is the place where heaven and earth overlap, where God and humanity intertwine, where the Realm of God reaches into the world and the world reaches into the Realm of God, and the two become forever linked. And it is exactly in that place that God’s most powerful work is done.

Dear Lord, grant me the grace to meet and intertwine with your world ever more fully, so to be open to you and your grace in the every day, present moment. In and through Jesus. Amen.

Grace and Peace

Steve

Preview my new book
1st Four Chapters
Thank you

Filed under: Faith | Leave a comment »