Lead me…

It’s pleasantly quiet on a late Sunday afternoon, and all I can think about is a song by the group Acappella entitled, “Lead Me to Rest.”

In my younger years, I would be thinking, “God, take me to heaven; get me outta here.” Now, I’m not sure that’s what the song is implying. Or maybe it’s that I might actually growing in understanding. I thought this day would never come! HA!

Seriously, I do need rest. I need to rest in the arms of the Savior. I’ve been catching wonderful glimpses of that rest with my wife as we rise early and let God have the first words of the day. And this morning, even though it was a Sunday and I’m a minister, we didn’t get up quite early enough to allow God’s Word to speak into our morning, and I really, really missed it!

That said, I’m inclined to believe there is something else going on inside me, more than just something for today… What I’m coming to realize is that I need something more than this world can offer. When I sing that song, I want God to lead me to a place where I can truly find rest in him thereby renewing my strength to serve a lost and broken world.

I just want God to take over. And I want to stop saying “I just want God to take over.” I’ve been saying that for years, but am I allowing him to take over? Am I allowing him to lead me to rest? I need rest, rest in God.

Crap!

Yes, crap is the correct word here.  I could probably go stronger, but I won’t.

You ever been convicted of something, or put in the “right” by a really sweet person, in a really loving, Christ-like way?  Well, I can tell you, my desire to change my behavior is much stronger than when somebody just lights me up.

Confession time.  You know those things about your personality that you just can’t stand?  One of those for me is the relative ease at which I am able to find fault, lure out negatives and suffocate myself in the mud of pity.  I would venture to say that well over 60% of the posts on this blog are me griping about something.  Now, if you know me, you might be thinking, “well, you don’t gripe about much any other time, much less say anything at all, so this is probably a safe place to vent…”  That may be true, but that doesn’t make it okay for me to hop up on my soapbox and fiddle away whenever I want to.

All this to say, what do people see when they look at Logan (me)?  Do they see evidence of the words of God being written on my heart by they way I live my life?  Do they see something else that is eating away at me that I wish to hide (not saying there is something, at least that I’m aware of)?  Or, the question of the day: do people even see me at all, or am I too wrapped up in “working for the church?”

I’m not sure what the deal is, but I’m on a book kick at the moment, which honestly, has never really happened to me, EVER!  Right now, among others, I’m reading “They Like Jesus but not the Church.”  And when I look in the mirror, I can’t help but wonder, since I am the church, or at least part of it, do folks not like the church because they’ve never seen me outside of a sanctuary or office?

Oh, so much to read in two days…hopefully I’m not turning into a daily blogger…doubt it.

“Is this what Jesus wants us to do?”

Last night I finished a book called “Jim and Casper go to church.” If you haven’t read it, I highly, highly recommend it.

In short, a “professional Christian”/pastor and an atheist travel around the country to visit Christian churches and basically write a honest report of what they see happening in the American church.

One of the questions that our atheist friend Casper asks is, “Is this what Jesus wants his followers to be doing?”  Basically, his question is directed at the very core of Christianity.  Why are we (Christians) here?  What is it Jesus is calling us to?

I have been really struggling with this question as of late.  Especially since over the past two weeks I’ve been reading through Deuteronomy 5-6 and Matthew 9-10 alongside this book.  My feeling is, and I know I don’t have many answers, that we have missed the point.  I’m not even sure Jesus, when he said, “Upon this rock I will build my church,” he was envisioning what we understand church to be today.  Honestly think about the idea.  No matter how we change our language, word our mission statements and rearrange our orders of worship, we are still doing church.

And we can say all day long, “It’s not the building, it’s the people.”  But, what does that mean?  What I’m trying to say is, when we throw around statements like that, we aren’t helping anyone understand what the church is or what it’s supposed to be.  It just becomes this place that we go to, instead of a group of people who join good works to make a difference in the world for the sake of Christ.  Church has to be more than just people.  It has to be people who are committed to making a real, tangible difference in the world, not just catering to each other…

Oh, I’d better get off my soap box before God strikes me down… I’ll see if I can come up with something a little more clear later on.