Nick’s Walk

I just finished reviewing the “Our Beliefs” page on my church’s website. It has nothing unusual for a mainline Christian church. I didn’t find anything to which I couldn’t give a hearty “Amen.” Each statement is backed up by bible verses. Yet, upon a complete reading of the page I didn’t come away with a good sense of what Christianity really is. I guess that’s because Christianity isn’t really a set of beliefs. We make a mistake, I believe, when we cut our faith to a list of beliefs and then dare the world to disagree. I’m not saying our beliefs are not important. They surely are. What I’m saying is that you can’t give someone the list of beliefs and tell them, “If you believe these, you are a Christian.”  I believe Christianity is much more like a trust exercise. You know the ones. Someone falls backward and “trusts” that a group behind him will catch him before he hits the ground. We become a Christian after we decide that what we are doing isn’t working. We put our trust in Jesus and stop trusting ourselves. It’s like the trust exercise. We probably become willing to do it […]

We continually ask God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives, 10 so that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, 11 being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, 12 and giving joyful thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of his holy people in the kingdom of light. Colossians 1   The glorious totality of a life in Christ begins with knowledge of his will. We read in the bible of men hearing directly from God with clear specific instructions and directions. We are envious. The will of God seems so mysterious. When things are dark and confusing, we look desperately for the will of God, at least some hint, some nudge in the right direction. Most of the time, the sense of being lost and confused isn’t caused by not hearing from God, but from not following his last direction. If things seem to be going well, we don’t want to hear about a change of direction. If all seems […]

We all have a leadership role. We have spheres of influence. We impact the lives of others. We may feel unimportant if our spheres of influence are small. We may feel ineffective if we don’t seem to be impacting those with whom we come into contact. We need to act differently if we are to fulfill our roles. Here are some tips. Spend at least 15 minutes listening. Every day, spend at least 15 minutes listening. One of our great frustrations, especially as we age, is that the ones we love don’t seem to listen to us. We don’t want others to learn lessons the hard way. They don’t seem to believe we have anything to give to the issues that they face. The only way to turn this around is to stop talking and start listening. Listening is a fantastic gift. Almost everyone feels that no one listens to them. The person who is willing to listen suddenly becomes a very important person to someone else. If you know you’ve not a very good listener,  here are some great tips. Say, “Tell me more.”  When the person you are listening to stops talking, don’t fall into the trap of thinking, […]

Are you suffering from indigestion or insomnia or back pain? You are not alone. It’s going around. It’s not a virus. It’s stress. It’s a spiritual thing that manifests itself in our emotional and physical life. There are some preventive measures you can take. Reflect. I find when I walk into a room, I turn on the television. When I climb into my  truck, I turn on the radio. We live in a busy and noisy world that will suck the life out of us if we let it. How about some quiet to pause and reflect. Rest. Some of us never seem to stop. We need rest. We need time when we are not struggling with the problems of life or dashing about to do all we feel we need to get done. Sometimes a better use of our time is to stop and, for a brief period, just do nothing. Catch a breath. You will come back with new focus and enthusiasm. Rest can be time well spent. Recreate. One of our problems is that much of what we do, doesn’t produce anything satisfying. Do something that creates in a way that’s a bit different and totally satisfying for  you. For […]

Tonight and early tomorrow we could be experiencing a “wintry mix.” I guess that means we could have freezing rain, sleet or snow, or nothing. I remember my first “snow.” I was in elementary school and our mom and dad woke us up saying there was a “surprise” outside. There had been about a two-inch snowfall. It was wonderfully unexpected. Instead of school we had a fun day playing in the snow. I remember my grand daughter’s first snow. We had taken the train to Chicago. We walked around downtown Chicago. There was snow everywhere. We stopped in a park and she played in the snow. The folks from Chicago passed with strange smiles on their faces. They had become so use to snow that it was no longer a delight, but an inconvenience. Tomorrow may end up being just another winter day, but could very different for us. We may have ice or snow. Traveling might be difficult. We should all act in a safe way. Maybe more importantly we should act a bit like kids. Let’s not get to the point that God’s little surprises don’t delight us. That would be really sad. Be delighted and be blessed, no […]

I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Psalm 139:14 There has been much written about the “wonderfully made” part of this verse. The human is certainly a “wonderful” creation. From microscopic cells to complex connected systems, we are miracles of God’s hand. But what is “fearfully made” all about? As wonderfully we are created, we are not created perfectly. Our bodies have a limited life. They are subject to deterioration and disease. Each person has flaws. We have skin imperfections, character flaws, and emotional traps. We are spiritual imperfect and incomplete as well. It seems our perfect Creator chose to make us with imperfections, built-in weaknesses. Why? I believe we are created to be in relationship with God. Our relationship with Him completes us. Every weakness is an opportunity for God to show His strength in our lives.  It’s a favorite ploy of interviewers to ask about weaknesses. These questions tend to trip us up. We are not used to considering our weaknesses to be positive things. If the power of God is made perfect in our weaknesses, should we not focus on these weaknesses? Should we not glory in our weaknesses and look with hope on the opportunities they […]

I spent much of Sunday afternoon and evening watching NFL’s Championship Sunday. The winners of Sunday’s two games will compete in a couple of weeks in the Superbowl. It was Manning versus Brady and Kaepernick versus Wilson. Those weren’t the teams that were playing, just the quarterbacks. There are over fifty players on each NFL team plus coaches and staff, but if you listened to the sport’s press there were only four players that matter – the quarterbacks. The winning or losing all was up to them. Deep inside we know that just isn’t so, but it doesn’t stop us from talking that way. Those guys get the big bucks, the glory or the blame. It’s kind of like that in church. Ask someone about their church and you will probably mostly hear about the pastor.  If  you ask someone why they left a church, same story. . . it was all about the pastor.  Except for the big bucks, he’s a lot like the quarterback. We seem to believe that the success or failure of a church rests on the pastor, the quarterback. It’s just not so. Just like a football team, if we expect the quarterback to do all […]

Yesterday I left a word out of one of the sentences in my post: “Stop talking tithe and start spreading excitement.” There’s a big difference between encouraging someone to stop spreading excitement and calling for them to start spreading excitement. One word can make a huge difference. How often do we leave out one word and get a completely wrong understanding of something? How often do we act without all the words, lacking crucial information? How often do we view a list of sins and blank out the one that trips us up most? How often do we consider a list of good deeds and can only focus on the one we occasionally do? When we speak to others, how often do we leave out one word, often the important word, the hard word, the word that conveys the whole point of our conversation? Do we try to convey the Gospel and leave out sin or repentance or even Jesus? There’s probably a conversation you know you need to have. You have gone over it in your mind. Trying to find just the right words. You want to convey an important message with the minimal amount of pain and […]