Greetings,
We've all heard the saying, "absence makes the heart grow fonder," and I have found it to be true lately. Of course, I have always been fond of you all. But I don’t often tell you how fond I am of you all. I love our Way of Life family!
I want to thank Tim Walter, Leslie Edleblute and my lovely wife Yvonne for writing the church letters while I was in Africa. I want to also thank Craig and Sergio for preaching. We are so blessed to have these great men of God in our body who proclaim the truths of scripture so boldly and powerfully. Thank you also to all who led in worship. What a great group of talented musicians and worship leaders we have around our body. Thank you to Mary, Randy, Phil, Susan, Amanda and Zane--you all are so great! Thank you to Joel Weddle who lead the Sunday morning Bible study on John and all of those that came to set up and tear down each week--thank you! I would love to highlight all of those that helped Yvonne and my kids while I was gone. Most all of you know how vital Elizabeth Jones is to our ministry and I want to publicly thank her for all she does for me and our fellowship. Our fellowship is truly becoming such a close family. We are blessed to have, what I think are the greatest group of elders that I have had the privilege to serve with.
Being away for a few weeks really helped me to realize what a tremendous blessing we have here in South Salem! I came home energized and ready to see what the Lord is going to do through us. I am convinced that He is going to continue to build a truly unique and great thing through us.
West Africa is a tribal society. We are nothing like a tribal society here. We could try to synthesize this tribal society here, but, in general, we would fall woefully short. The tribal society naturally honors people in position of authority and builds people up with words of affirmation. If your love language is words of affirmation, you would love Sierra Leone. My sarcasm, ribbing and humor became very evident to me in the light of this honor culture. They genuinely appreciate people and I realized that the way that I appreciate people is careless and haphazard. I use humor and ribbing to show that I care for people. I tease and crack jokes instead of using the words that reflect what I genuinely feel about people. It became clearer and clearer to me as the days went by as I began to write to Yvonne about how I feel, rather than assuming she knows how I feel about her.
For this lack of communication of my genuine appreciation to my family and all of you, I want to say that I am sorry. I will try to do a better job of communicating my appreciation. Forgive me if it takes me some time to adjust. I am sure that I will still tease and rib, but I hope that I can clearly communicate how important each person within our fellowship is to me.
"Gracious words are like a honeycomb, sweetness to the soul and health to the body." (Proverbs 16:24)
Love you all so much!
Chris
Greetings,
Control is an interesting concept. In the realm of controlling people and things, we regularly use words like coach, manage, repair, restore and maintain. Each of these words insinuates a conflict, a fight or a battle. In coaching, you prepare someone for a competition or event, and in the process you have smaller conflicts of will, mind and body. Managers are constantly arranging and re-arranging schedules, personnel, inventory and customers. Repairing, restoring and maintaining anything is a battle against nature itself--a battle with gravity, oxygen, moisture and general wear and tear and decay.
We were designed by God from the beginning to desire to subdue the earth and make it obey us. That desire is still in us and will remain until we see the Lord face to face. In that moment we will realize the fruitlessness of our efforts and endeavors to control the world around us.
Let me be clear--I am not speaking of self-control or the ability to subdue your own impulses. That is a spiritual discipline and should be developed throughout our lifetime. The kind of control I am referring to is the desire to influence someone’s decisions and behavior--the kind of control a parent demands from a child once the parent is exasperated, or the control of a lord over his subjects.
The Lord God alone is truly sovereign. That simply means being in total control. The highest level of control rests in His supreme hands.
I have tried to control many things in my life, and so far, my success in maintaining control is abysmal. I can’t fully control anything. My dog listens to me most of the time but I am definitely not sovereign over him. My kids say that they respect me to my face, but do a good job demonstrating to me that I am by no means sovereign in their lives. So why is it that I strive, strain and sometimes demand control?
In the book of Isaiah, we are told that when we wait for the Lord, things happen that wouldn’t otherwise happen. There is a renewing and an endurance that we don’t have when we trust in our own understanding and lean on our own strength. That is so counter-intuitive to what we do in trying to control things. Wait!?
Isaiah 40:31 says, "But they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint."
Why is my first response to capture and cage the eagle? Why do I want to say, "Stop! Hold on! Do you have the proper attire? Are you sure you are an eagle? What if your wings aren’t fully developed?"
Why do I desire this control? I crave a world that I can wrap my arms around. If I crave that type of a world, that is the world that I will receive. A small, controllable, sad, crippled eagle sitting in a small cage that I can manage.
This freedom in Christ depends upon where we put our trust. Waiting on the Lord is actively waiting for the expert. There is a responsibility for believers to be a wise stewards of what the expert has entrusted us. However, we must always trust in the Lord’s sovereignty, not only in word but in action, not only when we don’t know what to do but when we think we do.
Do you trust that the Lord is going to do something great? Do you trust that this trial will be used for your personal growth? Do you trust that the Lord will provide your every need? He is, He will, He does--every time. It often makes no sense in our logic. We shouldn’t ever be able to wrap our arms around it. It is alright if we can’t wrap our minds around it. But still we trust. Trust that He will make sense of tragedy and loss. Trust that He will provide when there seems to be no way. Believe that He will protect on journeys far from home and that He will use us to fulfill great works in Salem and around the world for His glory and His name. How is He going to do it? I don’t know and that is the fun of trusting and losing control.
May you “lose control” this week to the One who existed before anything else, and holds all creation together (Colossians 1:17).
Love ya,
Chris
Greetings,
I like a lot of different styles of music, but the style I lean toward when I am relaxing is usually a blues/jazz mix. A song by Duke Ellington came to mind as I was thinking about the difference between isolation and solitude. The song is called "Solitude" and I like a version performed by the late Dr. John. In the song he sings about despair and loneliness--which really isn’t solitude, but more of a self-imposed isolation.
Isolation and solitude are only similar in that they both are done alone. Other than being alone, the two concepts can be quite opposite. Solitude is usually something that a person actively seeks and is a personal choice that comes from a desire internally. Isolation is usually actively avoided and is forced from the outside. A monk desires to be disciplined in the art of solitude, a prisoner has no choice but to be in isolation.
We are living in the most connected era in the history of the world, yet the number of people complaining of living in loneliness and depression is overwhelming the counselors and mental heath professionals. It isn’t a new revelation that phones and screens aren’t bringing people together as much as driving people toward a strange sort of self-imposed isolation.
Matthew 6:6 tells us to pray in solitude. Jesus often demonstrated that he valued solitude to have time alone with His father. But He never isolated himself. The discipline of solitude is all about soaking in the presence of God, as the psalmist writes, "Be still and know that I am God" (Ps. 46:10).
Let me encourage you to examine your life and ask yourself how much time you spend soaking in the presence of God compared to how much time you spend worrying, distracting yourself, silently and stealthily isolating yourself from the very thing you need most--the healing, powerful, loving presence of the God of the universe that loves you desperately.
Love you,
Chris