A Battle of Wills

I have been learning a lot about patience these last several weeks. For a couple of weeks of August I was determined that my three-year-old daughter would master the art of the potty. She is definitely as strong-willed child and so this has been a learning time for both of us. Who is going to be in control at the end of the day? Well, it turns out that after a week of constant supervision, she finally did master the art and even decided it was proper to go without being asked "Do you need to go potty?" It has been wonderful and in the end she realized that she was more in control by going to the potty than by making me and her mom clean up after her. I am just glad that I lived through it.

My nerves have rarely been as brittle as they were during this period of the battle of wills. This battle has taught me a thing or two about being patient. I am trying to learn to apply this hard-learned lesson to my work in the church. I have the privilege of working with some of the most compassionate and caring individuals I have met. They have made my transition to full-time church ministry much easier. But, I have one situation that continues to rear its head and I have come to a realization: I want to be in control and it bothers me that I cannot control the situation. I usually have a way of diffusing tense situations, but again this is a way for me to be in control. I am having to learn to give those things that I cannot control over to the Lord, rather than trying to work them out myself. And I am good at working them out myself. Again, it is about control. Just like my little one and her potty problems, always wanting to control or dominate situations she finds herself in, I want to do the same, albeit in a much more genteel way. It has to be about letting Him work it out. We spend so much of our time fighting battles, when God asks us to praise Him and let Him fight the battles for us. And we wonder why we don't win these battles or why they keep coming back to haunt us.

The pictures above are ones I took last year in Egypt. The Sphinx is an amazing sight, so old and mysterious and very patient. I guess a rock really is not patient, just stuck in one place. But it has no control over its surroundings or what happens to it. I pray that one day I will be able to give up control of all this mess and allow God to take control so that I don't have to worry about it anymore. Let it be today!

Sticking to the Status Quo

I have three little girls that are definitely the spice of my life. Even though they are young, my daughters love those tween shows that are on Disney and Nickelodeon. Several months ago, the Disney channel had a big hit called "High School Musical." It is cheesy and tweeny and they love it. We have the DVD and watch it all the time. They sing along to the songs in the car. I must admit that I think it is really a good little musical and I personally know most of the songs myself. Embarrassing, but true. I was struck by one of the songs because it hits a nerve with a lot of people in the church these day--the status quo. The song says something to this effect: "Stick to the status quo. It's better by far to leave things as they are." It was unnerving.

We talk a lot about the status quo in the church these days and I am not sure what the main reason for all this worry is. It could be that in America, people have been leaving the church, especially mainline denominations, in a steady stream for many years. I am a member of a United Methodist church, which came into being in 1968. At that time, there were over 11 million adherents in the USA. Now there are closer to 8 million. For many this is an alarm that says the status quo needs to be adjusted. We can't do church as usual anymore. I remember in Bob Sorge's book Exploring Worship that the seven last words of a dying church are: "We've never done it that way before."

But changing the status quo is a major undertaking and requires that everyone in a particular church body is behind the change. It takes vision, which, oftentimes, is lacking in our churches. We are more worried about getting people to church than we are about truly reaching the lost. It is so much easier to sit in church and wait for the lost to come to our church, but how realistic is this? I sit in an office that is right across from the main church office. People in crisis come in four days a week to receive food or monetary assistance. I think this is a wonderful thing the church does and the church in general needs to do more of these things. But I wonder if this is really reaching anyone for Jesus. Maybe it is, I am just not seeing these folks come to church after they have been helped. Maybe our assistance is a seed that will grow into something greater some day. Maybe we are helping the needy keep their own status quo.

The picture above is one I took in the Old City in Jerusalem at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. I was especially interested in the ladder that sits on a cornice above the main entrance to the church. During Ottoman rule, several Christian churches (Greek Orthodox, Roman Catholic, Armenian, etc.) fought over their rights to the church built where many believe Christ died and was resurrected. The Ottomans established a Status Quo for the church and granted ownership to six different Christian bodies. From what I gather, the windows belong to the Armenians, but there is a question as to whether the Armenians or the Greeks own the cornice that the ladder sits on. The ladder belongs to the Armenians, and has sat in the same place for over 150 years because the Greeks wanted them to move it, but they refused--all because of the status quo.

Now, I know we would never argue within our churches about something as silly as moving a ladder, but we do argue about coffee, carpet, and other equally insignificant things. And usually, our arguments end up being a test of the status quo.

Today, I want to acknowledge that I enjoy things as they are and do not enjoy change. However, God has blessed me by not allowing me to keep the quo. If He did allow me to keep things as they are, I would not be writing from my desk in Florida, but from my desk in Texas. It was not a bad situation, just the status quo for me. I am thankful that I can see new and different horizons.

And, by the way, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre is not the most beautiful church in Christendom. The ladder is actually a tasteful addition to the facade.