There are expectations when we come on a retreat. Some want this. Some need that. Every retreat will never meet all of the expectations.As I asked our retreatants why they came...they came as I suspected. Some were tired. Some are weary. Some are teeter-tottering on burn out. Some wanted to know more. Some needed to de-tox.So, I adjust my own agenda and bow into theirs. I try to slow down. To never make my agenda THE agenda but seek to bend my agenda and combine theirs into what I sense and trust God wants.Based on last night and my own heaviness of heart in listening to three of four of them, I'm going to try something I had not planned. Believing that solitude is always THE way into the ways of Jesus-- we'll start this morning by giving them 30 minutes of quiet and a walk on the beach. Then I'll begin my talk on the Rhythm of Life. I'm trusting this adjustment is what the Soul Care Doctor ordered for us this morning.Stay tuned.
The Anatomy of a Retreat
Over the course of the next few days, I want to offer you an inside look at the anatomy of a retreat.I'll be doing this while leading a retreat.I'll be giving you an inside look at the anatomy of a retreat...confessing my private fears and sharing my observations while the retreat is going on. I'll be a detective of divinity as Barbara Brown Taylor describes. In my off time, I'll be posting to you--letting you know what I think God is up to in me--and in them. It will be your invitation to be a witness of a retreat and perhaps experience a blessing in some way as you make your way through your own weekend in the days ahead.Twenty four people are gathering at this very moment in a beautiful coastal house on a barrier island off the coast of North Carolina. Today, we're prepping for their arrival. Putting food in the 10 bedroom/10 bath house. Stocking the refrigerator. Making gift bags that will welcome people. Buying a Sabbath Candle for each couple and placing it in their rooms with a box of matches.A couple has come with us and their help and work is invaluable. We could not do this without help. I'm so grateful they are here and working as hard as they are. I now have a chance to be alone for an hour before the guests start arriving.A spiritual retreat is an event that has intention, purpose and a rhythm to the time that people will invest.Intention...our intention will be to flow through the new book, The Jesus Life. We'll gather from 6 states across the US at dinner with most people having never met. It will be an uphill climb as we journey together to seek to form a bond--a spiritual link between man to man; woman to woman and couple to couple all being linked to God. The Bible promises that a "cord of three strands is not easily broken."I'm imagining stress in many of the couple's lives as the dropped of their kids; said good bye to their jobs a day early because this retreat begins on Thursday---not Friday and this too was intentional. I felt we needed an extra day to create space and time--a mood of not rushing to get through the material and to allow the retreat itself to become the agenda. It's never about the material--or shouldn't be. The people who come are material enough for God to reform, transform and conform just as the Potter does the clay. The intent of this retreat is for our Divine Potter to do with us as He wills and wants. It is all a process and learning to submit to the process is key and foremost in being a good retreat leader or facilitiator. Don't drive the people like cattle. They've been treated this way all week long. Love them. Serve them. Expect God to do great things in them... in me.Purpose...the purpose of our retreat is to encounter the living Lord Jesus Christ. Nothing short. Right now as I sit on the deck anticipating the first person's arrival. I'm praying for them. For me. For God to show up. There's a strong wind blowing right now and I"m imaginging this to be the Spirit invading this tiny island with great things in store for us. To meet the Living Lord Jesus on the shore where the waves are pounding--pounding the beach will be another Easter morning for us.People will rock in the 15 rocking chairs--yes, I counted them. They will sit by the pool....our beach house has its own private pool. They will wade in the water and some will swim. Refreshing waters will revive our souls. For some who are coming are weary, tired and burned out.Am I prepared enough? Every retreat leader must ask themselves this question and for me, I am probably not prepared enough--even though I know the materiel well and wrote the book we will study. But I'd like another day of quiet---more time of solitude. I broke out into a a sweat as I helped get the house ready and thought..."Oh great, now I have to go put on a new shirt that I wasn't planning on wearing. Did I bring enough shirts? Do I feel comfortable in them? Or deeper---do I feel comfortable enough in my own skin and soul to lead the people to the water---the Living Water? That's a good question as a retreat leader to ask themselves. I need to pause now. Bow low. Come before the Lord. Get my heart right and open my self as a vessel before the Lord and say, "I've done all that I can do. Now, Lord, you must do the rest. It's up to you. Not me."So, as we begin this retreat pray for us. If these 24 people who are here are touched by Jesus, then return home and live out what God has poured into them...then the retreat will have met its goal.What is my goal in this retreat? For those that come to encounter the living Jesus. If that happens then it will have gone well enough. And how will I know if this happens?I will see the prisoner's set free.I will see the lame in body dancing again.I will hear music rise above the waves and it will be glorious praise.I will simply know that Jesus was among us and this, after all is why people want to come to a retreat.
Why Isolation, obscurity and hiddenness matter in a social media crazed world!
We have it all wrong in our culture. We have falsely assumed that the better known we are; the more exposure we have; the bigger the platform we develop that we will live a better life. If that were so, Jesus would have told us to expand our world, make ourselves known and be stand-outs in the crowds. What has happened is that in the world of technology and instant fame, now everyone can have a voice and everyone try to have influence—no matter what kind of influence it is. When you look through the men and women formed through time, faith and God’s hands, we notice a different way about going about our lives. God allowed Joseph to spend years in prison when falsely accused. God wanted Paul right after his conversion to go to into the arid desert of Arabia for three long years. In the hidden places, the obscure places and the isolated places where we live our lives, God is at work. This is an important fact that we cannot neglect or ignore in life. God wants long seasons of development; long times of character forming; long periods where he can teach us, form us and shape our heart. Our heart is shaped more in times of isolation and obscurity than at any other times in our lives. It was in prison where Paul wrote many letters of the New Testament—not preaching in big cities. God used his obscured voice muffled by prison bars to elevate his platform. Jesus spent 30 years in obscurity and only 36 brief months in the public’s eye. Something happened in the soul of Jesus while being formed in hidden places that could not and would not be formed with him in the spotlight. This has major implications for people who serve on a team and not the Chairman; people who are assistants and not the President; people who are vice presidents rather than the one who gets the credit early, frequently and often! In this world of social media rage, instant availability and huge ways to gain influence quickly, we must remember this important point: A shallow life is not a life we are impressed with. A voice not seasoned by times of pain is not a voice that has authority. A platform built by social media rather than the important planks of character, integrity and truth will not endure the tests of time. Think on this important verse and discuss it with a friend today over coffee or lunch: “Be content with obscurity, like Christ.” --Colossians 3:4 ------------------------------------- This entry is drawn from my chapter in The Jesus Life on The Way of Hiddenness, which is Chapter 4 in the book. I am receiving such wonderful feedback about this chapter in particular.
Setting Your Face Like Flint: Professionally
Luke, an eye witness to the life and legacy of Jesus said this about him at one point in his life and work, “When the days drew near for him to be taken up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem.” Another translation says “he set his face like flint to go to Jerusalem. (Luke 9:51). Jesus absolutely knew what he had to do and he set his feet to match his face and he went forward. For Jesus, this meant that he knew deep down what he needed to do and where he needed to go. For Jesus, it was all about going to Jerusalem--that place where his reason for being would unfold for the whole world to see. It makes me wonder if I know what I need to do; what I must do with my life? There are moments in our lives when we think we know what we ought to be doing with our one and only life. We set the course; perhaps choose a major then we go out and try it. But the Bible doesn’t tell us that Jesus tried to do what he thought he ought to do. No, we’re told he set his face like flint. Recently, I sat with a 35 year old man and his wife as we talked about what he ought to be doing with his life. There were many options because this couple was so beautifully gifted for so many courses in life. But through the course of our work together that day, he became galvanized on the one thing he knew he ought to do with his life. He wanted to fly. He wanted to get his pilot’s license and fly airiplanes. This decision and resolve would mean going back to talk to his boss; getting a plan together of who would take over this job and move into the direction of his face and heart—to get qualified to fly airplanes. He said, “I am at a cross-roads with my life. If I don’t do ‘it’ now, I will never be able to do it.” It was the only resolve he needed. Since our weeks together, my friend has recalibrated his professional direction. He told his boss, who was in total agreement and set out on an intentional course to fulfill his boyhood dream of becoming a pilot. As we closed our time together at our retreat, I read to my friend, this verse from the book of Proverbs: “Souls who follow their hearts thrive” (Proverbs 13:9 MSG).
- What do you need to do in the next 30 days to set your face like Jesus did and do what you were meant to do?
- What do you believe God made you to do while on Earth?
- What would it look like for your to follow your heart knowing that God is the one who placed the desires deep within you?
The Dreaded Day: Thursday of Every Week
In talking to thousands of leaders, I've discovered that the vast majority speak of a dreaded hour of the day that begins to roll in on their minds like an unwanted tide.For marketplace leaders it is somewhere between 4:00pm and 5:00pm on Sunday afternoon. This is the precise time where their minds begin to surface back into a sobered reality about work. In just a few hours, this weekened will all be over. In just a few hours, all that I have done that was fun, life-giving and extra-ordinary will now, for sure, morph into my work. Work is the place where they most do NOT want to be on a Sunday afternoon when the family is around and the sun is still shining and there's still time to call a friend over for a quick grilled hamburger.Yet it is work that calls.Maunday Thursday is a day of mourning because for Jesus, his work was calling him. The Bible biographers all agree that they witnessed Jesus, himself slipping away into what may have been a forlorn star; a far off country that he was thinking about; all that he would have to endure in the next 24 hours. He sweated his most dreaded day out. He could not sleep. His companions became something less than desirable companions--because they could not enter his agony. They slept and Jesus wept; begged God for something different; even desired a different outcome all together. But in the end, he did what working people do. He set his face like flint and finished his work.Thursday of Holy Week reminds us of the dread that is ahead. The dread of an unfinished life; the scorn of ridicule; the unjustices of our lives that will go unnoticed and even untouched. The Thursdays of our lives are when we face our most dreaded moments: the doctors pathology report which will come tomorrow--not today. We will have to remain under the pressure--get the nerve up to face this day and face tomorrow--no matter what the outcome.No matter what the outcome... That's a Thursday for us. And it was the same for our dear friend Jesus. No matter what the outcome he lived into Friday when the worst would happen. But deep down he knew something that every working person must also know: the worst is never the worst.
In the Middle of Holy Week: Wednesday
Wednesdays are the days that are in-between the ones that have passed before and the ones that are yet to be. It’s the hump day of the week. Often, I will say, “If we can just through the hump day, the rest of the week is down hill. I doubt that Jesus felt this way, though. Down hill for Jesus in the middle of Holy Week meant the march to death and utter rejection. But on the Wednesdays of such weeks we pause, catch our breath before we move on and so forth.Wednesdays are the days we are caught in the middle. It’s the twenty year mark of the forty years spent in the wilderness. It’s how you feel when you’ve fed 2000 of the 5,000 waiting to be filled. You’d had a good start but you have a long, long way to go to finish. On Wednesday, there’s no getting around it, you’re in the middle of something. It's the day of your vacation that you finally can breath--finally know that all the work, all the packing, all the hassle might have been worth it. But, in the midst of it all you can also look up and feel like it's going to be over all too soon. The in-between days are days that can be monotonous and long. The in-between days are the days that right, smack dab in the middle of a long week and you know you’re not leaving on your trip yet for a couple more days. They are days of endurance. Like Jesus in the midst of what we now know is Holy Week, nothing really happened important on this Wednesday. But tomorrow, everything changes as it often does. Thursdays bring new challenges that only the weekends can forgive. Wednesdays are days to hang in there…not to go back because there is nothing in the past for us—only what lies ahead in the rest of the week. It is in the in-between times of our lives that so many of us fight with great fervor. In- between jobs; in-between houses, in-between churches and in between relationships. It’s a long, long day that has little stretch, give and significance. Wednesdays are like the middle child. Always accepting of the others and knowing one’s place the family of the other days of the week. It’s not a solid beginning nor does it have the drama of a last born day of the week or child. It’s a gentle day that can often go overlooked. I think it was one of those in-between days when David slept with Bathsheba, his mistress. When he was tired, bored and looking for love in all the wrong places. I think it was probably a Wednesday, when the disciples fought over who’d replace Jesus and who would be the greatest in the kingdom---the weekends would have brought responsibility, mission and focus. But Wednesday conversations allow us time to ponder what we would not ponder on other important days of the week—like on Monday morning when we’re headed out after the long, good weekend. Or some other really good time of the week that you find yourself looking forward to as the week unfold. As far as we know, the Wednesday before the Thursday of Holy week just may have been the day when Jesus went to the home of Mary—when she anointed him with oil. Jesus could have used that mid-week refreshment knowing that was lying ahead in wait for him. Go ahead. Sigh that deep breath out and take a break. It’s Wednesday—a long day to catch your breath and to eagerly look forward to what is going to unfold tomorrow. Because when tomorrow comes—when Thursday arrives—everything is going to be different—really different.On the Wednesday of Holy Week, we have a break before the intensity begins. Today, we stop, pause and sigh because we know what it's going to be like. It's going to be intense. Cruel. Vile and ugly and one needs a day like a Wednesday in order to prepare.Wednesdays begin the long vigil of waiting for the redemption. The redemption comes on Sunday but for now we have to just wait.
Jesus and the Church: What's gone wrong?
The Jesus Life: The Church Life is Not the Jesus LifeA response to the Newsweek Article/Cover StoryBy Stephen W. Smith April 3, 2012 The church is in crisis but being a follower of Jesus is not. This week’s cover story in Newsweek correctly documents our dilemma. Let me explain.You might find it interesting to note that Jesus spoke the word “church” only two times in his entire life that we have documented. While Jesus came to offer us the way to follow God and the way to experience life as he envisioned it, what’s true is this: we’ve lost our way that leads to life and the church has actually helped us lose our way rather than follow Jesus.Let me explain. While the Bible is seen and held to be authoritative and expresses God’s ways for us, the church has been the guardian of these ways and for many of us, seems to have hijacked the words of Jesus and held them hostage unless we get involved, get committed and follow the church more than we follow Jesus.I once heard a preacher say while pointing to the floor of his multi-million dollar sanctuary, “This is what matters. This church and this building.” It’s not surprising that his tenure did not last and that his church split several times. We have to have a greater reason to live, to be and to act than the church and the property that the church owns. Perhaps it owns far, far too much stuff. The stuff can get in the way of the message and perhaps this is what has happened. We’re tripping over the stuff the plethora of doctrinal statements, creeds and strategies for church growth and have lost our reason to exist at all.While Paul, Peter and John, the authors of much of the New Testament, described what Jesus meant by his words and ways, we know that the people who followed Jesus got involved in power struggles, debates and arguing that even began the night Jesus was arrested, tried and hours before his death. John describes the vivid scene on the last night Jesus was alive. He gathered his followers for an intimate dinner and what resulted was a sad power struggle with arguments over who would be the greatest—and Jesus overhead the whole sad plight. While the Bible is true, people are somewhat less than trust worthy. That is why it’s important to trust the Bible but to hold people at arms length sometimes.As in insider—one who has spent the majority of my life inside the church—and not outside the church, I’ve come to the conclusion that it’s people who have screwed up the intent of Jesus—not Jesus himself. Like the very disciples who argued the night Jesus was arrested about power and controls issues, we have not really changed all that much in 2000 years in the church business. Jesus had another idea and we have twisted his intent and desires to meet our own need for power, authority and the need to be needed. If we want the life that Jesus promised, we will need to follow the ways that he lived. You can’t have one without the other. But you can have church and you can have church without the Jesus ways. This may just be where we are today: church without the Founder’s values and insights is like the United States without the Constitution.Jesus spoke more about the church of two or three than he did about the institution. He spoke more of following him that leading the throngs; than he did of organization, strategy and hierarchy. We’ve gotten a lot wrong in the thousands of years that Jesus offered us his message. We’ve tried to understand and implement Jesus’ intent, yet when the facts are in and you look at the statistics about the church, it’s in jeopardy.The way of Jesus is not the way of the church. It can be but when church promotes itself more than Jesus; when we speak more of the church than we do Jesus and we are per-occupied with denominations, splits and doctrine more than the words of Jesus, we only give witness to ourselves that we have lost the way—the way that leads both to Jesus and to life itself.Having pastored churches in North America and Europe for more than 25 years, what is clear to me is this: We cannot have the life of Jesus—the life he promised and described without following the ways of Jesus. When a church helps you on the way, then it’s good, right and blessed. When, however a church hinders someone from following God; when the church becomes the place where the wounded are shot rather than healed; when the sins of our fathers continue on to this generation and beyond and there is little to no transformation, then we have to ask ourselves the really important question: Why didn’t Jesus speak more about the church than he did? Have we missed something? These are good questions that need to be addressed.In working with church leaders all over the world, one of the reasons that has become obvious to me that the church is in trouble is because the leaders of the church are in trouble. Leading busy, over-committed and running on empty lives, how can a leader find the way back to Jesus again? Surely the answer lies in more than going to more meetings and attending more functions.The answer is by returning to the very way and ways that Jesus lived his life. We cannot have the Jesus life without the following the ways of Jesus. We’ve replaced these ways with doctrinal debates, power struggles and activities—something Jesus himself disdained evidently because of his sharp words to the religious leaders of his own day—the Pharisees and other religious folks.It’s not about being religious or playing the games of religion. It’s about following the way and ways of Jesus. Being a follower of Jesus is in—now more than ever before because so many are finding the life he promised by following his ways. The church will need to also become a follower—to discover again what Jesus actually meant.While I can not go as far as Thomas Jefferson did in cutting out words of the Bible he did not agree with, I could buy myself a “red-letter edition” of the Bible and focus on what Jesus actually said and did—thus finding the way—the way that will lead to life!____________________________________________________________________________________________Stephen W. Smith has written a new and exciting book, The Jesus Life: Eight Ways to Re-Discover Authentic Christianity published by David C Cook. Released April 1, 2012. Smith’s views here are drawn from his most recent book in reaction to Andrew Sullivan’s cover story in Newsweek Magazine (April 2, 2012).
An Ordinary Tuesday in the Midst of an Extra-Ordinary Week!
This is the Tuesday before Easter. Perhaps just a day embedded between so many other significant days—another ordinary day.
In the week before Easter, the cadence changes on Thursday when Jesus focused on the last time he’d have dinner with his twelve friends. But on Tuesday, we don’t know of anything major or life altering that happened. Perhaps this was the ordinary day when Jesus simply loved on some neglected children on his way somewhere that we might think is more important than doing such a menial task as this. The ordinary days of our lives are often neglected as we await the life-altering days It’s precisely how some days are in our lives. Another day. Uneventful. Plain as vanilla ice cream. How we live our lives on Tuesdays, though helps determine how we will live our lives on Easter Sunday. As you awaken to this very ordinary, uneventful day on this Tuesday or any ordinary day, try to remember these life shaping thoughts!
- Though ordinary, today may be your last day on earth or the last day of someone you love. Don’t take anyone for granted on the days that you take for granted.
- Ordinary Tuesdays give us the opportunity to successfully practice the presence of God as much as try to do on Easter Sundays. God does not value one day above the next—except perhaps for the Sabbath days of our lives.
- A long list of Tuesdays make a long journey in the same direction possible. The journey towards our home in heaven is not always filled with drama, superlative language and miracles. It takes many ordinary steps to make the journey meaningful. Celebrate today as one day forward in your journey towards Easter!
----------------------------------------------For more on this theme, please read the chapter in "The Jesus Life" titled, The Way of Dailiness. It's perhaps one of my favorites in the entire book. One that is helping a lot of people as they discover it.----------------------------------------------- Here are three things you can do to help The Jesus Life gain a grass root movement: 1. Order TODAY a few copies on Amazon and have them ready on Sunday--this Easter Sunday to give to a few friends!2. Email 5-8 of your friends TODAY and ask them to read The Jesus Life with you as a small group and if you don't live in the same city, start an email chain where each of you can post your reactions and insights.3. Buy a copy of the book for your Church Library! Here's the Amazon Link to help you get started!https:/www.amazon.com/The-Jesus-Life-Authentic-Christianity/dp/143470064X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1333454660&sr=8-1
Easter: Why do you really need it?
In this week before Easter, each day I’ll post a few thoughts and a reflective question to sit with and reflect upon prior to experiencing Easter. For Monday, here’s the thought and question: Easter is about second chances and a new beginning. Nature is showing off these days that winter’s woes did not kill off nature’s glory. The Dogwoods bud; the Azaleas blossom in glorious hues of springs arrays; the daffodils buds are in full blossom. All nature is calling us to remember that death gives way to life. Easter is much more than flowers though. It's about someone who was dead coming back to life. It's about second chances to really live before you really die! It's about the power of God over the power of dead-end situations that you might be facing this week before Easter. In just a few days, we will be celebrating this fact on what is really the hallmark of this important lesson: There is a new beginning in every death. Today, sit with this question and see where you go in your heart: What in me is waiting for the second chance? What in my life needs the touch of Easter upon it cause if it doesn’t touch this place, I will for sure stay dead? --------------------------Here's an amazing review of The Jesus Life.https:/beccawithpeninhand.blogspot.com/2012/04/jesus-life-book-review.html Paste this into your browser and see what's being said about the book and why you need to read it!Amazon just released the KINDLE version. You can have it in just a few seconds right now!