Blog entries in "Faith & Life"
Surviving The Holding Pattern
Many times in our lives as Christians, our relationship with the Lord is marked not by exciting peaks and valleys of experience, but by periods of apparent limbo—-months, sometimes years between the time one door of opportunity has closed and before the next door has opened. Long ago, I heard a preacher refer to such periods as “the hallway.”
Recently, I’ve come to see these seasons more like holding patterns. According to Wikipedia, “In aviation, holding (or flying a hold) is a maneuver designed to delay an aircraft already in flight while keeping it within a specified airspace. The primary use of a holding pattern is delaying aircraft that have arrived at their destination but cannot land yet because of traffic congestion, poor weather, or runway unavailability (for instance, during snow removal).”
During a hold, we are not cleared to land, we are not redirected, and we are not allowed to leave the specified airspace. Rather we are instructed by the Holy Spirit to continue to fly indefinitely until further instruction. Rarely does He give us an indication of the expected duration of the hold. Often we are not made privy to the reason for the hold. We cannot see…
Continue Reading | Published: June 09, 2010 | 3 Comments
Remembering Who We Are
A little more than a year ago I started taking a close look at the book of I Peter. A family friend, who happens to be a Christian counselor, drew my attention to the first 3 chapters of that book as a guide for appropriate conduct in our interpersonal relationships—-with family, with friends, with significant others.
She talked to me for a while about those chapters, with great passion and certainty. Most of what she said went over my head; but because I trusted her track record for wisdom, I embraced what I could, putting a bookmark in the rest of it.
This month, while I was taking a much needed Sunday nap, the Holy Spirit began to speak to me about those chapters again. Tired as I was, I had to get up and see what He meant.
It is interesting to me that I Peter chapter 1 and parts of chapter 2 spend so much time talking about our specialness to God and our unique place in the universe. Peter refers to his audience of readers as the “elect,” the “chosen.” He declares that God “has given us new birth into a living hope.” Then there is that…
Continue Reading | Published: March 28, 2010 | 1 Comments
The Gift Of Compassion
This month I have been amazed at the outpouring of money, volunteer efforts and prayers from people in the United States in response to the tragic earthquake in Haiti. A recent fundraiser, which aired on multiple television networks in prime time, raised nearly $60 million…and that was after a segment of CNN”s Larry King Live had already raised nearly $9 million in only one hour of televised solicitation.
In my own city it seems I hear about another church fundraiser every week. I’ve also been receiving eblasts and emails from colleagues and friends raising money for last-minute missionary trips or food drives.
All of this at a time when unemployment in our country is at 10% and when each new day brings news of another major company closing or laying off a significant percentage of its work force. So many people I know are hurting—-suddenly unemployed, underemployed or dreading layoff—-and yet the spirit of giving is so high. How can we explain that?
The college students I have the honor of teaching in my Introduction to Sociology class wrote papers on the similarities they saw between the earthquake in Haiti and the devastating aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in our own…
Continue Reading | Published: January 29, 2010 | 0 Comments
My Top 3 Lessons Of 2009
A recent issue of TIME featured as its cover story “The Decade From Hell,” along with a photo of a toddler—-presumably Baby New Year—wearing only a diaper and a pointy birthday hat, surrounded by party favors. He appeared to be crying at the top of his little lungs.
Although the media has been doom-focused for much of this year, I was surprised to read such an in-depth look at the series of tragedies and catastrophic events that have marked this first decade of the 21st century. From Hurricane Katrina to 9/11, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan to the global economic downturn, the article listed, year by year, large-scale events that have shaped the decade of the 2000s. It was kind of depressing.
I started to think about my own life during that same period of time and I realized that I could easily point to many personal tragedies and catastrophic shifts. So why didn’t I feel worse about my life? Perhaps it has to do with the process of reorientation in which I’ve found myself this year.
I’ve never described myself as an optimist. In purely secular terms I consider myself a realist—-at times to a fault—-a seeker and…
Continue Reading | Published: December 22, 2009 | 6 Comments
Truly Recession-Proof
The past year has been a pretty challenging period for almost everyone I know. While the country is experiencing the impact of a truly deep and widespread recession, my industry—-the music industry overall—-is facing a financial downturn unlike anything we’ve ever seen. It seems that each week brings news of another longstanding company scaling back or closing, and soon after, personal emails or confirmed rumors of dear colleagues being laid off.
I’ve learned to limit the amount of time I spend listening to or reading headlines of economic doom in the media, but it’s a bit harder to avoid the numbers in my own checkbook register. On one particularly challenging day, I found myself driving around my neighborhood, listening to praise and worship music and talking to the Lord. I needed answers and I needed them quickly.
After nearly 30 minutes of vigilantly beating back anxiety, while focusing on the truths of God’s character, I heard this quite clearly from the Holy Spirit: “God is not your provider. He is your provision.”
I let this sink in and began to revisit my recent prayers. It seemed that almost daily in my talks with the Lord I found myself begging and…
Continue Reading | Published: November 23, 2009 | 2 Comments
Receiving The Promise
For most of my adult life, I have had the great pleasure to live and work among creative visionaries. Whether as a student in campus ministry, in my professional years in the Gospel music industry, or in my service in the local church, I have repeatedly found myself in close contact with talented and passionate people in the early stages of vision.
It took me a while to come to terms with my own gifts enough to know that God had equipped me for such places. He, in his infinite wisdom, had a knack for strategically placing me in partnerships with pioneering people at the beginnings of their journeys. While those are suitable environments for intercessors like me, they are also painful places for a person with my ability to empathize with visionaries.
How do you find new ways to encourage and support someone through the great discouragements and failures that often precede the birth of a God-given dream? I’m still discovering the answer to that question, but I have learned a few things along the way. Among those lessons, the Holy Spirit has taught me this: Sometimes we, as people of vision, can become desperate for the blessing of…
Continue Reading | Published: October 21, 2009 | 5 Comments Lately the Holy Spirit has been speaking to me to an unusual degree on the topic of suffering. Now, if your walk with the Lord is anything like mine, that kind of talk from God can make you a bit nervous. What in the world could He be planning for me? What in the world?? And when I dwell upon that thought too long, nervousness becomes anxiety and before long I feel the familiar pangs of fear. Those of you, who have had the opportunity to read my book, The Beginner’s Guide To The Gospel Music Industry, are aware of the significance of Jeremiah 29:11 in my personal understanding of calling and purpose. At one of the scariest moments in my life, when God was challenging me to submit my hopes and dreams to His will for me, He revealed a scripture I had not yet seen: 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. (NIV) In perfect Fatherhood, God comforted me with His intentions toward me even as he challenged me through crisis. That period, nearly 20 years…
Continue Reading | Published: September 18, 2009 | 3 Comments For the past 16 years it has been my pleasure to make the Gospel music industry my primary livelihood. I came to this marketplace quite unexpectedly, leaving a planned career in journalism, due to an overwhelming burden to serve Gospel artists. Although Gospel music was my longtime passion, the notion of a career in the industry was not a personal ambition. I simply felt a pull in my spirit to pray for the people whose music had so richly blessed my life. Those times of intercession developed into a ministry calling, and step-by-step God built a career for me. Looking back, it amazes me that God would reveal this burden to me at the time in my life when I was the most focused on my own aspirations. At the end of my college career, He came to me in the quiet of my prayer closet and upended my table of ambitions. He completely unsettled me, forcing me to examine the foundation of my professional hopes. Then, like a loving father, He began to point me in a new, more meaningful direction. In the year before I landed my first job in the Gospel music industry, God worked on me…
Continue Reading | Published: April 09, 2009 | 5 Comments
The Value Of Suffering
The Posture Of A Servant
