Authenticity Re-Imagined

We believe Jesus called people to wholeness. Our mission is to provide space for the development of holistic followers of Jesus. We are intentional about creating avenues for people to bring their true selves into our community. Real spiritual movement is authentic and moves at the pace Jesus sets for each of us. We are here to encourage you, challenge you, coach you, inspire you and learn from you. This week, join us each day at 12:00 pm and 5:00 pm as we pause, come to stillness and prayerfully reflect on how you have experienced increased wholeness this past year, season and week. Continue the conversation here.

Future Re-Imagined

We believe the gospel of Jesus Christ announced God’s reign being extended in the here and now. At Crossroads, we have been invited to enter the Kingdom of God in creative, selfless, life-giving ways. Sometimes this invitation comes in the smallest of venues – a conversation – and sometimes it comes in the biggest of dreams – a city renewed. This week we invite you to join us at 12:00 pm and 5:00 pm as we pause, come to stillness and begin a conversation with God about how you might accept the invitation to enter the Kingdom of God. Continue the conversation here.

History Re-Imagined

Crossroads came to life out of a deep belief in the Hebrew and Christian Scriptures. We believe that the Scripture is a conversation between God and humanity, a conversation that continues to this day, one that all people are invited to join. In many ways, our fellowship, our ministries, our worship are all an expression of how we have joined this age old conversation. This week we invite you to join us at 12:00 pm and 5:00 pm as we pause, come to stillness and prayerfully reflect on how your conversation with God is taking place, how it might be taking place among the people around you, at work and at home. You can join the conversation here.

Broken Resolutions

“Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail.  They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.”  Lamentations 3:22-23

This is the time of year when many of us make resolutions; our New Year’s Resolutions.  Most of the time they are pretty typical stuff.  Someone will say, “I resolve to work less overtime and get more sleep this year.”  Someone else will promise to, “Have lunch with grandma at the nursing home more often.”  There is also the perennial favorite, “I resolve to get more exercise and loose 15 pounds this year.”  All of these things and all the others that people resolve each January are good things.  I am sure that all of us would be better off in our personal lives and as a society if we all made more resolutions and then kept them.

The problem of course is keeping them.  It is relatively easy to start January with an air of excitement.  I leave work proudly at 5 o’clock to go home and have an easy evening before going to bed early.  For a while I put off things at work that I used to stay late to finish.  I leave chores at home undone.  But sooner or later it all catches up with me and then I find myself staying late at work again and going to bed even later.  I wonder if workers at nursing homes see lots of extra visitors during January.  For a while lots of family come to visit with a steady supply of pretty flower bouquets and fresh-baked treats from home.  But it isn’t convenient to visit at the nursing home and so many of them have a funny smell.  Life just goes on and pretty soon it has been two months since the last visit and the time just disappeared.

I suppose some people have just given up entirely on resolutions.  They might say to themselves, “Every year for the last five I have tried to loose weight and I always failed.  What’s the use?”  It is a sad and melancholy feeling to fail.  So instead of failing they just never even start.  I would even say they have given up hope of changing for the better and instead resigned themselves to remaining the same.  Living life without hope makes everything ten times harder.

I think many of us treat spiritual matters the same way.  We have tried to be kinder, or tried to covet less, or tried to remain sexually pure.  We keep failing and sooner or latter consider giving up hope of ever changing.  There was a time in my own life when I had tried and tried to change and was considering giving up all hope.  But God truly is faithful and stands ready to help you and me start over.  You don’t have to wait until next January to make new resolutions.  In fact you don’t even have to wait until the sun comes up tomorrow.  The meaning in the scripture is that God is continuously and every moment standing by to help you and me start over again.  There is never any waiting with God when you want to make a fresh start and try again to change.  There is hope!

[PhotoCredit:Optical illusion & tchuntfr & Harveer]

A Small Reminder

“From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live. God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us.” Acts 17:26-27

My first memory of a hummingbird comes from my childhood. My paternal grandparents had two hummingbird feeders on their back porch. I can remember standing in the kitchen and watching my grandpa make the sugar solution for the feeders. He would heat up a small pot of water and add the right amount of sugar, plus just a bit of red food coloring. Then he would wash out the two feeders and refill them with the fresh solution after it cooled. I would walk out on the porch with him and watch as he hung the feeders up. Back inside it wouldn’t be but just a couple of minutes before a couple hummingbirds would show up at each feeder.

It was always pretty hard to see a hummingbird away from the feeders on the porch. There was a wilderness park along the river near their house. Our family would take walks there and I would look for the hummingbirds. I would look and look for them, but rarely saw any. A hummingbird is a very small bird and very hard to see way up in a tree. Sometimes I would catch a glimpse of one flying, but even that was pretty rare. They dart about so quickly that they would be gone before my eyes could even focus on them. I knew there had to be hummingbirds around because they would come to the feeders back on the porch. Yet based on the number of times I actually saw a hummingbird out in the park, I might have concluded they were a rare bird in danger of extinction.

Some time later I learned the sound a hummingbird makes. It isn’t a sing-song kind of call like a warbler or a bluebird. It sounds more like a chattering buzz. Learning to recognize the sound of the hummingbird changed my walks with family out in the wilderness park. The hummingbirds that I suspected must be around somewhere really were everywhere. I would hear the telltale buzz call and then strain my ears in the direction of the call. I would try to train my eyes on the spot to see the tiny little bird that was making so much noise. In all my efforts I still rarely saw a hummingbird, but I knew they were there. I could hear one or two every time I went walking.

I suppose it is easy to think about God in the same way I first thought about hummingbirds. When I depend on my eyes it is pretty rare to see Him working in the world. From time to time I hear about a friend of a friend who survived cancer with no good medical explanation; a miracle apparently. I hear a story from a missionary in a distant country, a story about lives spared in impossible circumstances. They are fleeting glimpses of God at work in the world. But the reality is that every day you and I are alive is another miracle of God’s grace and mercy. This is easy to forget when I get busy with work and relationships and hobbies. What I need is a reminder that God is present even when I don’t see Him working in a physically visible way.

Just recently I was out doing some shopping, and walked out of a store to return to my car. Right there as I was walking through the parking lot I heard the sound of a hummingbird. I didn’t even try to figure out exactly where the little bird was sitting. But that experience got me to thinking about God’s work in the world. I decided that every time I hear a hummingbird I am going to remember that God isn’t rare or distant. I realized that I just have to learn how to hear Him. And once I learn how to hear God, I am sure that I will begin seeing Him all around me in everything I do and experience.

[PhotoCredit:Noël Zia Lee & seanmcgrath & khsolomon]

My Own Unique Color

“Then God said, ‘Let the land produce vegetation: seed-bearing plants and trees on the land that bear fruit with seed in it, according to their various kinds.’ And it was so. The land produced vegetation: plants bearing seed according to their kinds and trees bearing fruit with seed in it according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good.” Genesis 1:11-12

The road in front of my home has a row of maple trees on each side. During the summer they all look pretty much the same. They were all planted the same year so they are all approximately the same width and height. During hot summer months they are all the same dark shade of green. Now that fall has arrived they no longer look the same. A few of them have just a little color showing on top, a nice shade of red. A few more are turning color all over, but it looks more the leaves are fading to a light green. One tree has all of its leaves turned a uniform dark red.

The last place I lived was an apartment that looked out on a courtyard. In the courtyard were elm trees that were all the same species. They also started turning color at different times during the fall. What is more, each one turned a different color. A couple would fade from green to a bright gold or a cheery yellow. Several more would turn shades from orange to amber. The last couple of them would darken to a deep red. Each year I was amazed all over again that nine trees could create such a wonderful variety of different fall colors.

I am really glad that God made so many different kinds of trees and flowers and animals. The world is just more interesting to live in when it is full of such splendid variety. To see a flower that I have never seen before. To see a bird do something I have never observed before. The variety spices up life, and if I keep my eyes open, the variety keeps each day from being exactly like every other day that has come before. I would have to say that I have embraced the idea that God must be a God of variety when I consider all that He created.

For a long time I have thought that people must be a lot like the rest of God’s creation. There are people from Africa, and from Asia, and from Europe. There are tall people and short people. People with lots of hair and people with almost no hair. I would look out at a crowd of people and measure variety by hair color, skin color, height, and a half dozen other measures. But I am beginning to think that God’s idea of variety goes far beyond what I can see when I look at another person.

I am beginning to see that God intends for me to grow up and mature in a way that is unique to me. He has planted specific spiritual strengths in me that don’t exist in the same way inside any other person. For a long time I thought that I was supposed to become like this pastor or that church leader. Now I see that I am supposed to become who God planned for me to become before I was even born. It is an idea that has brought much freedom to my life. I am now free to become who God intends me to become instead of trying to fit into the mold of someone else. I know God is offering you that same freedom too.

[PhotoCredit:Ctd 2005 & blakeimeson & Grantsview]

The View From Up High

“So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view.  Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer.  Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!”  2 Corinthians 5:16-17

Fall is one of my favorite times of the year.  A good cup of coffee tastes even better when it is enjoyed on a crisp morning.  It is nice to take a walk on a warm afternoon and feel the sun on my face a few more times before winter descends.  Fall is a time to get out my sweaters, find the flannel sheets for the bed, and rediscover my love of persimmons.  I will even admit that I like driving down a street with lots of fallen leaves on the ground, then looking in my rearview mirror to see them swirling in my wake.

By far the best part of fall is seeing all the trees turn beautiful colors.  There are maples turning red, oaks fading to ocher, and ginkgos becoming a lively yellow.  I like trees in fall colors so much that I have a picture hanging above my couch of Quaking Aspens in splendid autumn gold.  A few weeks ago I went to the mountains to take a walk through some Aspen groves and came home disappointed they were still mostly green.  If I could I would go every day just to watch the trees slowly fade from green to yellow to gold before finally falling to the ground.

A row of maple trees stands in front of my home.  During the summer the leaves are a wonderful shade of deep green.  Even now as I walk down the sidewalk to the mailbox, all I can see are green leaves everywhere above my head.  It seems the trees haven’t gotten the message yet that the days are shorter, the nights are cooler, and good trees should be turning colors for fall.  When I go upstairs to my bedroom though, I can see something more.  From my bedroom window I look down on the maple trees.  From that view I can see red leaves on the top of each tree.  You would never know it standing out on the sidewalk and looking up through the branches.  But nevertheless the red leaves are there on top even if they can only be seen from above.

I was looking down at the maple trees a couple of days ago when my thoughts started wandering to something else.  Sometimes I have days or weeks or even whole months when I feel like I am not making any progress at all in my spiritual life.  I may even start to feel like I am loosing the growth I had previously obtained.  It is easy for me to get discouraged if I don’t see regular progress.  I can even start to get self conscious and wonder if other people at church or at work can see what I sense inside, that my spiritual life is slipping.

Looking at those trees from high up at my bedroom window got me to thinking about what God sees when He looks down at me.  I realized that God doesn’t see me the way I look at other people or the way I look at myself in the mirror.  God looks at me from up high.  Is it possible that even when I don’t think my spiritual life is doing very well, that God looks down and doesn’t see that at all?  Maybe the only thing God chooses to see is the bit of growth I have managed to eek out.  The longer I do this spiritual life, the more I realize that I am my own worst enemy.  God loves me and He loves you too.  He sees the best that I am, and the even better person I am becoming through His grace.  Now I just need His help to let that idea change how I see myself.

[PhotoCredit:Unsharp Mask & jondejong & jpctalbot]

Not What I Expected

“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control.  Against such things there is no law.”  Galatians 5:22-23

This last week I used a half day of vacation to stay home from work.  My home builder was scheduled to send out workmen to repair several items that were just not quite right.  I was expecting a carpet layer to come and fix the carpet in the living room where it had come loose on one side.  I was expecting a painter to come and fix a problem on a wall.  Finally, I was expecting a cabinet installer to come and either fix or replace one of my cabinet drawers.  I lay in bed a little longer that morning relishing the extra time to start my day.  I finished my breakfast expectantly, knowing the workmen could arrive anytime after 8am.  Soon it was mid-morning and none had arrived.  Then it was time to make lunch and still none had arrived.  I finally left for work at noon, with not one of the workmen arriving as promised.

Later in the week my car was at the auto detailer for a complete cleaning inside and out.  It is something that I get done once a year since I never have figured out how to properly wax a car.  The steam cleaning inside gets out all the dirt I get in when I am camping or just hauling things around.  I dropped my car off in the morning before work.  As the afternoon drew to a close I was looking forward to seeing it all clean and shiny again.  When I arrived to pick it up, the man in charge very directly reported that a piece of trim in the front seating area has been accidentally destroyed during steam cleaning.  I was disappointed that now two things had gone wrong during the week.

In both cases I had to make a decision about how to respond.  In the first case I felt like I had wasted four perfectly good hours of vacation time sitting at home waiting for workmen that never came.  I could have used that time to go hiking or visit family or take a vacation.  I had every right to be angry about the lack of respect for my valuable time.  In the second case I had a hard time understanding how simple steam cleaning could lead to a piece of broken trim.  The men cleaning my car just needed to show a little care and concern for what belonged to me.

I could have responded by getting mad, demanding to talk to a manger, and yelling a little until I got what I wanted in each situation.  I sure am glad that I didn’t do that.  I later received a phone call from my home builder apologizing profusely for the workmen never arriving.  He explained that he had written my work items in the wrong month on his calendar.  He rescheduled for one week in the future, and promised to call two days before to confirm.  What is more, he made an unsolicited offer to come and personally supervise the workmen scheduled to complete the repairs.  When I picked up my car, the man in charge showed me my clean car, and pointed out the broken part.  It was partially hidden and I probably wouldn’t have noticed for days or even weeks if he hadn’t mentioned it.  But he did mention it and without my asking, offered to order a replacement and get it to me within a week.

I must confess that I have become pretty jaded from all my past dealings with home builders, auto mechanics, travel agents, and salesmen.  I often go into a business transaction assuming the other person is trying to rip me off and make an extra buck for himself in the deal.  I am on high alert for anything that looks like me getting less than I deserve.  This last week was not like that at all.  To my shame, I was treated more than fairly as two different people did everything in their power to make it right when I got less than their best.  Next time I make a mistake or cause an accident I will have to try and follow their example.

[PhotoCredit:sparktography & iboy_daniel]

Fortune Cookies From God

“ ‘For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.’ ”  Jeremiah 29:11

I think that one of the best things about living in California is the chance to enjoy so many varieties of ethnic food.  I especially enjoy the variety of foods we have from Asia.  I truly am a sucker for a good Vietnamese spring roll.  I like all kinds of Thai food, so long as it has a peanut sauce or a red curry drenching it.  On a night when I need something light, a nice Japanese Maki roll can sure hit the spot.  My favorite neighborhood place is a Chinese restaurant around the block.  The combination of always-fresh vegetables from local fields and recent emigrants eager to share tastes from their home country is very satisfying indeed.

Perhaps the most interesting part of the meal is the very end when the fortune cookies arrive.  I don’t know exactly who invented the fortune cookie, but I think it must have been a person who was a better entertainer than chef.  There is nothing quite so fun as finishing dinner with a group of close friends and then going around the circle.  Each person cracks open their fortune cookie and reads the little paper out loud to the group.  Usually the fortune is so general that every one just laughs at it.  “Good luck will arrive unexpectedly.”  “You will soon meet a new friend.”  The fortune is so broad that it is guaranteed to come true.

There are times that speaking with God feels to me like cracking open a fortune cookie.  I remember one time when I had been praying about something particularly important to me, something that I had prayed about many times.  A few hours later I had a fleeting sense that God was going to grant my request at some time in the future.  Years later I was still praying about the same unfulfilled request.  I reminded God of what I thought He had told me so long before.  I asked how much longer I would have to wait for it.  I had a sense that the answer was “soon.”  It is probably the only time I have laughed during prayer because I remembered that Jesus told His disciples that He would return “soon.”

I used to get frustrated with God because I felt like I was praying and He wasn’t listening.  As I have grown in my relationship with God and in my ability to pray, I understand now that I only felt He wasn’t listening because I didn’t hear Him speaking back to me.  Today there are times when I sense His voice… at least I think I am hearing His voice.  Then I start to get doubts.  I begin to wonder if I am turning my own desires into words from God, kind of like reading a fortune cookie and forcing it to fit current events in my life.  I suppose that wondering if I am hearing God is progress since I used to think He wasn’t even listening.  Now I know that God is listening.  Instead of hearing His voice, more often than not I have the sense that He is trying to speak to me but I just don’t get it.  From time to time my heart gets into just the right alignment with God and a few words from Him break through into my consciousness.  Perhaps in a few more years my ears will be better tuned to hear His words to me.

[PhotoCredit:Greencolander & bingbing & zzzack ]

Flashing Lights

“When tempted, no one should say, ‘God is tempting me.’  For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone;  but each one is tempted when, by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed.”  James 1:13-14

This last spring I had the good fortune to travel to upstate New Hampshire on a business trip.  It was an absolutely gorgeous week and nature was truly thriving in late spring weather.  Every day the sky was clear blue with big, puffy clouds bumping along.  The breeze was gentle and there wasn’t a hint of raindrops.  Everywhere there was the smell of green grass and the sound of insects buzzing.  A walk at lunch was the most I got to experience the wonder of nature in spring, since the rest of the time I was holed up in an office, working hard away.

One evening I had a chance to get out of the town where I was working and instead visit one of my colleagues at his home.  He and his wife lived about 20 miles out in the country in an old farm house.  The drive out gave me a chance to see rural New England for the first time.  On arrival we enjoyed a drink in the back yard and came inside when the mosquitoes got too bad.  She made a lovely dinner and after eating we relaxed until long after the sun went down.  As I got into the car to leave, his last words were to be careful of my speed.  He said the police in each little enclave between his house and town would certainly be actively looking for speeders.

So I headed out, a little unsure of myself.  The curving road was unfamiliar and I had to concentrate just to see which way it turned at the end of my headlights.  I was constantly on the look-out for speed signs.  It seemed the road was just a continuum of different speed zones.  First it was 55mph, then slowed to 45mph approaching a tiny village, then 25mph in the village.  Then the speed was up again until the next village.  Around every corner I was worried there was a speed limit sign I wouldn’t see in the enveloping darkness.  I passed one police car hiding behind a tree with his lights off.

I was coming out of one village where the speed limit had been 30mph.  I was looking carefully for the sign increasing the speed limit but hadn’t seen it yet.  I could see at least three cars in my rear view mirror so I slowly eased down on the accelerator and brought my speed up to 40mph.  As soon as I did I discovered the car directly behind me was a police car.  I pulled over and waited for the inevitable speeding ticket for going over 30mph.  Then things got worse.  I couldn’t find the contract for my rental car, and there was nothing in the glove box to help.  What’s worse, the speed limit was actually 45mph and I was stopped on suspicion of drunk driving because I was going so much less than the speed limit.  In the end it turned out fine after I explained my situation to the officer and he found that obviously I had not had anything to drink.

Some people live their life as if God were the police officer of the universe, hiding behind every rock and tree, waiting for each of us to make a mistake.  They go through life they way I drove that night, gripping the steering wheel in fear of making a mistake, sure that any infraction will be immediately punished.  They assume God has a thick ticket book and is trying to fill it up every day with as many citations as possible.  They might even think it is hopeless to try and live a life with God, since sooner or later they will make a mistake and God will be there to haul them off to some kind of spiritual jail.  The reality is that God is on my side.  I do make mistakes every day; “sin” to use an old fashioned word little spoken anymore.  What gives me hope every morning is that when I choose to live my life with God, it is like driving around all day with Him in my passenger seat.  Oh, and He’s my lawyer.

[PhotoCredit:davidonscott15 & sam t. s.]

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