Greetings Team Kenya 2012…
I miss
all'y'all soooo much!!
Provided below (and as I promised) is the
responsive road map (plus a little extra) that I suggested at the trip debrief
last Thursday night. Please know that I love all of you deeply, that I treasure
each of you more than you probably know, and that I look forward to seeing how
God continues to invite us to come hang out with Him in Kenya.
Your friend and brother,
Dave
THE MAP
Part A: Scriptures
1 Corinthians 9:24-27: Do you not know that in a race all the
runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the
prize. Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it
to get a crown that will not last; but we do it to get a crown that will last
forever. Therefore I do not run like a man running aimlessly; I do not fight
like a man beating the air. No, I beat my body and make it my slave so that
after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the
prize.
1 Corinthians 10:31: So whether you eat or drink or whatever you
do, do it all for the glory of God.
1 Corinthians 12:4-6: There are different kinds of gifts, but the
same Spirit. There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. There are
different kinds of working, but the same God works all of them in all men.
Philippians 2:12-13: Work out your salvation with fear and
trembling, for God is at work within you both to will and to do His good
pleasure.
Part B: A
Few Ground RulesSuggestions
While strict obedience to
what I provide below is not necessary (or, even, recommend), I do recommend
that you consider the following suggestions as you think of, feel, and pray
through the many things that have arisen within you as a result of the 2012
trip to Kenya:
1. Take all
of these things slowly; please give yourself some time over the next few days,
weeks, months, and (it is my hope!) years to work through these things.
2. Please
know that God is a Perfect Gentleman
and that He is not at all interested in destroying who you are as a person. In
fact, He's so interested in you as you are right now that, even though He does
wish to bring about change in your life, He will do so in what I like to call
an aggressively unaggressive manner. Through the mighty working of His Spirit
within you (within your desires and within your intentions), He will mold you
into the person He intends for you to be without destroying who you are or
overriding your will in any manner. The ability that He alone has to do these
things is truly extraordinary. With this in mind, I urge you to adopt a posture
of surrenderedness, and I urge you also to pursue God with all that’s within
you...just as He passionately pursues you.
3. Don’t
make any significant life-changes (for example giving notice at work or selling
your home) for at least 30 days (before Halloween), okay? Again, please just
give yourself some time with all of this. Relax. God's not in a hurry, so,
chances are, it's probably not necessary for you to be either. :o) Caveat to this suggestion: If you're
engaging in anything you know to be a significant area of flagrant sin or
disobedience, go ahead and make a change today by confessing your sin to God,
by confessing your sin to another person, by asking the one to whom you
confessed to pray with you for your healing (see James 5:13-20), and then by
beginning the process of laying that sin down and walking away from it
completely and forever. Please know, though, that there are some chains of sin
(addictions, destructive/abusive ways of relating, etc.) that can be extremely
difficult to break. If you struggle with an addiction or an abusive pattern of
relating to those around you (note that these two often go hand-in-glove), seek
out the counsel of a godly person skilled in helping others to find freedom and
healing from such things. If you don't think you know of someone, please contact
the church as they maintain a list of godly, professional counselors that may
be able to help you find what you need.
Part C: A Suggested Road
Map for Responding to the Haiti 2012 Trip
Exercise One: "Telling
Your Story"
To aid you in answering
questions like "How was your trip?" and "What did you do?",
I suggest writing out the following:
1. A
one-sentence answer;
2. A two- to
three-sentence answer;
3. A
two-paragraph answer; and
4. A
two-page answer.
By having these answers,
you will, I have discovered, be able to more effectively move from one answer
to a more detailed answer depending on the interest of the person asking you
the above questions (or ones like it). By having such answers already written
out, it will, I believe, help you to be sensitive to and to accommodate (within
your own heart and mind) the varied degrees of interest/disinterest in those
around you. And, through preparing such things in advance, it may also help you
to adopt a posture of forgiving in advance those who will hurt you (through
their interest [or lack thereof]) even before they do so. To aid me in such
things, I adopted a personal slogan a few years ago, which reads "You are
forgiven...even before you act."
I write all of this because
I can guarantee that most of you will experience at least some degree of
emotional pain from those who reject you over the next week or two. Jesus once
said, "if the world hated me, it will hate you as well." He also
urged His followers to rejoice in persecutions (see Matthew 5:11-12). So….with
all this in mind, tell your story with great joy, and allow God to pour His
love through you to everyone you encounter in the coming days and
weeks...irrespective of his or her response.
As you begin to write your story, think
about what you saw. More than likely,
your eyes were opened a little bit more on the trip. In the U.S., it's really easy to live with
your eyes closed. Here are some
questions to ask yourself:
1. What did
you see in the people?
2. Which of
their needs are most vivid?
3. What
aspects of their lives impressed you most?
4. What did
you see in the country that was different from your expectations?
5. Is there
a mental picture that comes to mind?
6. What
keeps you from "seeing" in your world?
"Seeing" is a
discipline. It's the first step in
making a difference in our world.
Exercise Two:
"Recalibrating, Part 1: Stream of Consciousness Exercise"
Allow yourself over the
next few days to begin to think about the things on your mind and in your heart
concerning changes you’d like to make in your life in response to the trip.
Do you remember
"stream of consciousness" writing from your high school lit classes?
Briefly, to engage in stream of consciousness is to sit with a pen and note pad
in-hand, focus on a specific theme or idea, and then write down (almost
explosively) whatever crosses your mind about that subject. When engaging in
such an activity, it's very important to do your best to turn off your judging
and editing functions so that what's inside you can come out freely. This, of
course, takes a bit of discipline, but, speaking from personal experience, you will
get better at it with practice. The key here is to let your mind think whatever
it wants to think (and not just what you think you're supposed to think or what
you think God wants you to think), and to let your heart feel and want whatever
it wants (and not just what you think you're supposed to feel or want). Let
your hand write whatever crosses your mind and heart, and, as you're writing,
don’t critique, edit, or try to organize it in any fashion. This, I think (and,
yes, this is just me), may be one small aspect of what Jesus meant when He
said, "Don't let the left hand know what the right hand's doing." For
such a thing can lead to paralysis or vanity.
With all that's within me,
I want to encourage you to engage in this exercise for I can almost guarantee
that the experience will be exceedingly illuminating and liberating. I write of
this from my own personal experience. I’ve engaged in this kind of thing many
times in my life, and each time, I was surprised (even shocked sometimes) at
what emerged. When you let come out what's genuinely living inside you it's
hard to argue over its validity. And this is exactly what I want to encourage
you to do: To let out what’s inside you; to let out that which you really want
where developing a surrendered, missional life is concerned. That way, if you
know what you want, even if what you want changes a little along the way (and
it most likely will), at least you’ll know you're heading in a direction that's
congruent with who you are and with the person you wish to be someday.
The
Exercise – Part One (20 minutes)
1. Grab a
pen, a tablet of paper, a small handful of 3x5 cards, turn off your cell phone,
put on some relaxing music, and sit comfortably at a table or desk where you
have room to do some free-hand writing.
2. Before
doing any writing, allow me to urge you to say the following prayer (or
something like it): Lord, I wish to live
the way you desire me to. Lord, it's really You Who's the One working within me
to give me the desire and ability to please You. As I begin to get in touch
with what I truly want in life (basically, what You've already put inside me in
terms of how I wish to live and to conduct myself), I ask, O God, that You help
me to get at what I’m really feeling inside. I ask You, too, to give me a
vision for what living a surrendered, missional life might look like for me. I
invite You, dear God, to come and join me as I explore such things. Again,
please just help me to get at what’s inside me. I give us (You and me!) this
time, Lord. In the Name of Jesus I pray...amen.
3. For the
next ten to fifteen minutes or so, write down anything and everything that
comes to mind with respect to changes you'd like to make in your life as a
result of the Kenya 2012 trip.
4. Do your
best to lay aside any filters or judgments of what comes forth. In fact,
welcome whatever arises with a kind of unconditional friendliness—much the way
you might welcome a dear friend that you haven’t seen for some time.
5. Read over
all that you’ve written.
6. Read over
it again, please.
7. Put
everything aside for a few days or so before engaging in Part Two below. Transformation takes time, so do just that: Take
your time, okay? Please consider that living a surrendered life is a lot more
like running a marathon (in fact, one marathon right after another) than
sprinting the 50-yard dash.
The
Exercise – Part Two (60 minutes)
1. Read
through what you wrote in Part One.
2. Now read
through it one more time, but this time, rank each thing you wrote down in
terms of its value or importance to you. As you do this, use only three rank
distinctions: Somewhat Important (S),
important (I), and extremely
important (E).
3. Go
through everything again, and make sure that the way you ranked things is
representative of how you really feel inside. Make any changes you feel are
needful.
4. Identify
all your Es, and rewrite them again
on another sheet of paper. This time, edit what you wrote, combine similar
items, and expand or expound upon those that you feel need additional
substance.
5. Put
everything aside for a day or so before engaging in Part Three below.
The
Exercise – Part Three (30 minutes)
1. Read
through your rewritten Es, and
identify those that you believe to be the top three in terms of their
importance to you.
2. Using
your stack of index cards, rewrite your top two or three Es as prayers to God. Let's call these your Visioning Prayer Cards.
The
Practice
Over the next three months,
pray through your Visioning Prayer Cards
at least once a day. Praying in this way will put your desires center stage
before you and God. This, my friends, is a little of what beginning with the end in mind is all about.
Exercise Three:
"Seeking the Fruit of the Spirit"
Complete a study on the
fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23), the love passage (1 Corinthians
13:4-8), and the beatitudes (Matthew 5:1-12). Completing a comprehensive study
of the ten Commandments (Exodus 20:1-17) is recommended as well.
Galatians 5:22, 23: But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy,
peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and
self-control.
1 Corinthians 13:4-8: Love is patient, love is kind. It does not
envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not
self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does
not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always
trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails.
Matthew 5:1-12: Now when he saw the crowds, he went up on a
mountainside and sat down. His disciples came to him, and he began to teach
them, saying: "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom
of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. Blessed are
the meek, for they will inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and
thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. Blessed are the merciful,
for they will be shown mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see
God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God. Blessed
are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the
kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and
falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad,
because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the
prophets who were before you."
Exodus 20:1-17: And God spoke all these words: "I am
the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.
You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself an idol
in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the
waters below. You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD
your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the fathers
to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing love to a
thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments. You shall
not misuse the name of the LORD your God, for the LORD will not hold anyone
guiltless who misuses his name. Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy.
Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath
to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your
son or daughter, nor your manservant or maidservant, nor your animals, nor the
alien within your gates. For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the
earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day.
Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy. Honor your father
and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the LORD your God is
giving you. You shall not murder. You shall not commit adultery. You shall not
steal. You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor. You shall not
covet your neighbor’s house. You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his
manservant or maidservant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your
neighbor."
Exercise Four:
"Reacquainting Yourself with Yourself"
Ask yourself (and answer)
the following questions:
1. What were
your dreams as a child?
2. Who were
your heroes as a child?
3. What are
your dreams now?
4. Who are
your heroes now?
Take a spiritual gift
inventory. If I recall, newhope church still offers one on the newhope website. There are, though,
several offered on-line that I think will be very beneficial to you. One such
inventory can be found at http://www.kodachrome.org/spiritgift/.
Exercise Five:
"Recalibrating, Part 2"
Ask yourself (and answer)
the following questions:
1. Where are
you now?
2. Where do
you want to be a month from now? And what will you do to migrate toward that
place?
3. Where do
you want to be in three months? And what will you do to migrate toward that
place?
4. Where do
you want to be in twelve months? And what will you do to migrate toward that
place?
Exercise Six: "Beginning
with the End in Mind"
Ask yourself (and answer)
the following questions:
1. Where do
you want to be in five years?
2. How do
you want to feel in five years?
Allow the revisioning of
this part to draw you like a huge magnet toward the fulfillment of what you
envision.
Part D: A Few Things I'd
Like to Learn from the Samurai
Provided below is something
I wrote a couple of years ago…
A Few Things I’d Like to
Learn from the Samurai
For most of my life, I’ve
been fascinated by the warrior classes—especially, by the ancient Samurai of
feudal Japan. To say they were a paradoxical people is a bit of an
understatement.
The Samurai trained in the
arts of life and death: they studied and practiced haiku and swordsmanship…the
tea ceremony and field applications of archery...gardening and submission
grappling. They prepared for the future, but didn't wait for it to happen; they
lived in and for the moment as though tomorrow didn't exist—because, to them,
it didn't. They had children, and yet raised them to live as though Mom and Dad
might not be around an hour hence.
Theirs was a way of life so
utterly simple, and yet incomprehensibly complex. They cultivated an almost
unnatural naturalness in nearly every aspect of life, and they lived by an
ancient, internal code that simply reminded them...be present and devoted completely to your
current experience...for there really is nothing else.
I recall a story I heard
many years ago about a martial arts instructor, who posed the following
question to his adult students: "If you discovered that you had only
twenty-four hours left to live, what would you do with the time you had
left?" The answers he received were varied, as one might expect. Some spoke
of how they would spend their time with their families; others of how they
would visit places they’d always wanted to see but never did; and still others
of how they would devote themselves to some form of service to humanity.
After listening intently
for a few minutes, the teacher beckoned his students to stillness and then
spoke of his disappointment with the answers they’d all given. "No one
answered with what I would consider the best answer possible," he began.
"And that's this: I wouldn't live any differently than the way I'm living
right here, right now."
In the United States alone,
more than two million people died last year—many from things unexpected. Just
like some of us will, too, someday. Perhaps, even, today or tomorrow.
I’d like to ask you the
very same question the instructor I mentioned above asked his students so very
long ago...
If you had only twenty-four
hours left to live, and knew it, how differently would you live that last day
than the way you'd lived, say, the previous 365 days?
Take some time, and really
give it some thought. Perhaps, even, write your answers down, and then go and
live mindful of the possibility that tomorrow may never come.
Part E: Some Final Thoughts
The purpose of the above
exercise conglomerate is to provide you with a road map for responding to the Kenya
trip in a way that's generative, life-affirming, and life-giving. I believe
with all my heart that if you really do work at it…prayerfully…you and the
kingdom of God will benefit greatly. I speak of this from my own personal
experience.
Part G: One Last Thing
As I wrote above, aside
from making a decision to pursue Jesus with all your heart (and to lay down
your participation in grievous, know sin), don’t make any significant
life-changes for at least 30 days (specifically, before Halloween 2012). If,
though, there are significant life-changes that you think you’d like to make,
add them to your list of recalibrations, and let them marinate with all the
others. :o)
Peace out, y’all, and have
fun with all of this (for having fun is, I believe, half the point!).
Also...please, please,
please let me know if I can be of any help or service to any of you in any of
the above (or anything else, for that matter). Again, I love you all so much
that it hurts inside.
CU...
Daver
