OnFire #306 Lesson for the Body and Soul

OnFire Encouragement Letter
OnFire #306 A Lesson for the Body and Soul

Romans 12:13
“Share with God’s people who are in need. Practice hospitality.”

A few days ago, I reached a new running personal best. I ran for 90 minutes, which was 18 minutes longer than I had ever run before. To back up and put this in context, a year-and-a-half ago my limit was about 2 minutes. Since then I have been building up my endurance so that now I regularly run for about an hour and eight minutes, the time it takes me to finish 10km.

My run on Tuesday was about testing my limits. It felt good to arrive back home with this new personal record. And, even better, I could have continued. But my loop had brought me home, it was time for supper, and I felt satisfied with my new accomplishment.

As I ran along a particular section of road, my mind wandered to some of the times I had seen other runners at the same spot and criticized them. “Wow - does he ever look in pain.” “She’s pretty slow.” “I hope I don’t look like that when I run.” Just as these memories came back to me, I wondered if I looked any different. I was near the end of my run, tired, a little sore, slowing down, concentrating on getting home.

“But that’s not fair,” I thought. “I’m at the end of a good long run, a personal best!”

And then it occurred to me, how did I know it wasn’t that way for the others I had seen? I had no way of knowing how long those others had run, whether it was their personal best, what their history had been. It was a good, albeit humbling, lesson on being careful not to judge by appearances.

What’s the connection to Romans 12:13, sharing and practicing hospitality? The link is in the barriers we find when we think about doing these things. For some people sharing and hospitality come naturally, but I have realized this is not the case for everyone. Finding hosts for speakers and missionaries, billets for youth, or encouraging people to host a small group or take part in a program like “Guess Who’s Coming to Lunch”  have taught me over the years that these things can actually be quite scary.

Sometimes we feel inadequate for the task. Sometimes we worry our place isn’t fancy enough, or clean enough, or that we won’t be good hosts. In a way, we’re prejudging how people will react to us, presuming that they will come away from our places with bad thoughts about us.

And then, sometimes, if we admit it to ourselves, don’t we just fear we won’t like the people? I hope this would not be the case, but I know from my own thoughts and attitudes - as I’ve just illustrated here - that our fallen human nature tends to go there.

This doesn’t mean we just open our wallets and our houses to whomever asks. We still need to exercise some critical thinking. But sometimes we judge things too quickly, on too little. I’m not going to pretend that sorting all of this out is easy. But at least let’s make sure that we’re not prejudging the people and situations.

I went running last Tuesday to get some exercise. I didn’t realize I would find exercise for my soul as well as my body. In any case, I hope it helps. Blessings, and be on fire.

Troy

OnFire is a biweekly letter on faith and character written by Troy Dennis. This letter published Aug 29, 2013. Troy is the Pastor of Next Generations and Connections at Highfield Baptist Church, Moncton NB Canada. New International Version. To subscribe or reply, email onfireletter@gmail.com. Archives are located at  www.onfireletter.com, but I’m a little behind in updating things. Blog located at www.onfireletter.blogspot.com
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OnFire #305 Of Spiders and Gardeners

OnFire Encouragement Letter
OnFire #305 Of Spiders and Gardeners

“Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.” Romans 12:12

From where I write at home, I can look out a window where several spiders are normally working. Some build webs, spinning and weaving their traps designed to catch flying insects. Others wait at the edge, hoping for lunch to land. The other day I watched a spider wrap its prey, rolling it over and over in silk until it looked like a tidy little take-out bundle. Yummy, if you’re a spider.

My neighbour has a garden. I notice his beans are coming along and may soon be ready. There is a saying that no one plants a garden without hope. Each little seed represents fresh produce later in the season, tasty treats on the kitchen table.

Spiders and gardeners are examples of being joyful in hope. They toil faithfully without guarantee that their efforts will be successful. Flies may not be caught. Rain, insects or birds may carry the seeds away. But they do it anyway because they believe it will be worth it in the end.

These three phrases from Romans 12 are all about the same thing. Patience in affliction is the same thing as being joyful in hope. It reflects an attitude of expectation that someday the struggle will end, and so we don’t need to take out our frustration on the people around us. Faithfulness in prayer is about hope and trust in God. When we don’t trust someone, we keep away from them. Its no different with God. There are times when we blame God for our circumstance, or we lose hope that perhaps even God could do something about the situation, so we give up praying. We don’t want to face God.

Funny how we can wallow in that. We don’t always want to be convinced that someday things might be different. It doesn’t matter that the choices are limited. We can give up hope and remain frustrated and miserable, or we can take hope and experience joy. I don’t see any other options, and put like that it seems silly to remain frustrated. And yet I know from my own experience that sometimes I would rather swim in my own self-pity.

I feel this challenge. This is a real temptation in my mind, to think that because things have been difficult in the past that things won’t always be so hard. I argue with myself all the time over this.

There are some people, however, a good number of them I might add, who are not this way, and I really admire them. I think about all those visits I have made in the hospital with people who face tremendous affliction. Chronic pain. Persistent maladies. Cancer. Terminal illness. I want to be like the people I have met who experience these tough things, but yet they remain hopeful because of their trust in the Lord. Many times I have left a patient’s bedside having been far more encouraged than encouraging. I have often said that if I am stricken someday with that kind of burden, I hope I will be able to be like them.

The thought hits me, why wait till then? Are there not other burdens we bear? Difficulties and setbacks? We don’t escape life without them, and indeed, if we let the Lord shape us, they actually strengthen and improve our character and our trust in the Lord. We only learn how strong the Lord is when we come to the end of our own strength.

Hope is a choice. Not an easy one. But it is a choice we make, a thought we cling to. Soon all this will be over, and it will be worth it in the end because God is good.

I hope this helps. Be on fire. Keep up hope!

Troy

OnFire is a biweekly letter on faith and character written by Troy Dennis. This letter published July 27, 2013. Troy is the Pastor of Next Generations and Connections at Highfield Baptist Church, Moncton NB Canada. New International Version. To subscribe or reply, email onfireletter@gmail.com. Archives are located at  www.onfireletter.com. Blog located at www.onfireletter.blogspot.com

OnFire #304 Pick Up Those Heels

OnFire Encouragement Letter 
OnFire #304 Pick Up Those Heels

“Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervour, serving the Lord.” Romans 12:11

A few weeks ago I made a discovery while jogging on our city’s walking trails. I took about 30 seconds off my time for a kilometre just by picking up my feet. I found that lifting my heels a little higher and stepping a little further took only a little extra effort, but the payoff was big. Like I said, I took about 30 seconds off my time on a kilometre. A real measurable difference, just by picking up my feet.

Let me go back a little to explain something. Jogging is not my favourite form of exercise. Actually, I really don’t enjoy it. It is hard, intensive work, but I do like the benefits it brings to me - fitness, weight control, good blood pressure. The first fifteen minutes are the toughest until my body gets into a rhythm. After 30 minutes, my lungs feel great and I really like that, but until then I just keep reminding myself it will be worth it.

As you might appreciate, attitude in this is everything, and sometimes mine is not helpful. My body is often more capable than my mind tells me, especially if I’m mentally tired. That’s how I started shuffling a little more, not lifting my heels, not stretching my step. “Let’s just get this over with” does get the job done, but not enthusiastically. Picking up my heels didn’t take much energy, but it boosted my running and the difference was notable. All it took was putting a little zeal into my step.

This brings us back to the passage. I don’t know about you, but my zeal goes up and down. Sometimes I’m enthusiastic to serve the Lord, to keep up my spiritual disciples like Bible reading and prayer, and serve others. And, sometimes I don’t feel like it so much.

There are times I need to pick up my feet spiritually, and what I’ve found is that my feelings often follow my actions. I don’t feel like putting a little more into it, but as I get going, I feel better, and put more into it, which increases both my zeal and my energy.

Someone is likely going to write to me saying something like this. “But Troy, surely you realize that our spiritual life is about more than just striving, more than just our effort. You make it sound like we’re  trying to earn God’s love.” Point noted. We shouldn’t think that somehow God will love us more if we do more. God just loves us. No more, no less. However, scripture reminds us many times that we have a responsibility to follow faith with action. If we believe stealing is wrong, then we shouldn’t steal. If we believe God is love, then our actions (and reactions) ought to be kind and loving. That’s faith followed by action.

This is about faith and action. As I ran that day and reflected that my running time improved just by picking up my feet a little, I wondered (running does give me lots of time to think...) if perhaps there are times I drag my feet spiritually. I concluded, yes, there are times my zeal lacks, I’m not putting my best into things, I’m not acting like I really believe in God’s goodness, and I need to lift my spiritual heels.

I hope this helps. I would never want to think that I increased someone’s burden by writing about the “Himalayas of the human condition.” Rather, by talking about these things together I hope to encourage us. I have often seen that, spiritually speaking, we get out way more than we put in. As so Paul says, “let us keep up our spiritual fervour.”

Blessings, and be on fire.

Troy

OnFire is a biweekly letter on faith and character written by Troy Dennis. This letter published July 13, 2013. Troy is the Pastor of Next Generations and Connections at Highfield Baptist Church, Moncton NB Canada. New International Version. To subscribe or reply, email onfireletter@gmail.com. Archives are located at  www.onfireletter.com. Blog located at www.onfireletter.blogspot.com

OnFire #303 Reflections on Courage

We continue to look at the “Himalayas of the human condition” in Romans 12:9-21. These verses are the high peaks of character transformation.

“Hate what is evil; cling to what is good. Be devoted to one another in love. Honour one another above yourselves.” (9-10)*

Love is more than a feeling. It is active, and looks out for other people. It does all it can to stop evil from coming upon the other person.

One of my great lessons in this happened at a ball game with our youth group in Boston. When we arrived to take our seats at the Green Monster wall, we found that some of our seats were taken. Since there were other seats available just across the aisle, we encouraged the youth to take what seats they could. The game wasn’t a sell-out and so this was not a problem, but our group was not sitting together as we had originally planned.

As the leader, I evaluated things. I was worried about creating a confrontation in a strange city, and while the arrangement was not ideal, it was not bad either. I elected to leave things as they were.
One of my youth leaders, however, a young university student, took it upon herself to gather the tickets from the affected youth. She walked over to the people sitting in our seats, showed them our tickets, and moved them. It was an amazing piece of work. It was brave and just, and I learned a lot that day about taking courage to stand up for others.

“Hate what is evil; cling to what is good. Be devoted to one another in love. Honour one another above yourselves.” (9-10)*

To hate evil and cling to what is good means we need to overcome our own inertia. To do something means we have to change what we were planning to do. Hey, let’s face it, it is usually easier not to get involved. But being devoted to one another is about putting ourselves aside.

We must face our fears for what might happen as we stand against evil intention. It has been said that courage is not the lack of fear, but rather action despite fear. We feared the unknown which a confrontation might bring, but my youth leader took courage anyway.

It takes determination: “I will NOT let this thing happen. I WILL do everything I can.” This is hating evil and clinging to the good.

This is an area where stereotypical markers of courage do not matter. We think of size, strength, age, and position as advantages, but they are not necessary. I have seen some really big guys who lacked moral courage, and some pretty tiny ladies who could make a king cringe. As I write, Nelson Mandela lies in a hospital bed in South Africa. For many years he led people against the forces of apartheid from a prison cell.

Some lessons are hard. I was ashamed of my inaction that day, but what a lesson it was. Better to learn from a mistake than not to learn at all. And perhaps, I hope, I am putting the lesson into practice each day.

I hope this helps. Be on fire. Let us take courage and act, even when we are afraid.
Troy

OnFire is a biweekly letter on faith and character written by Troy Dennis. This letter published June 27, 2013. Troy is the Pastor of Next Generations and Connections at Highfield Baptist Church, Moncton NB Canada. * New International Version. To subscribe or reply, email onfireletter@gmail.com. Archives are located at  www.onfireletter.com. Blog located at www.onfireletter.blogspot.com

OnFire #302 Two-Sided Tape

OnFire Encouragement Letter

OnFire #302 Two Sided Tape

Out of curiosity, I recently looked up the tallest mountain peaks in the world. According to Wikipedia, every one of the tallest 100 mountains are in the Himalayas. Not surprisingly, this range also contains some of the toughest climbs. Everest, Lhotse, K2, and Annapurna are well-known names in the climbing world. To reach their tops takes training, skill, ability to learn from mistakes, and determination.

There is something in the human spirit that sees a mountain, and wonders what it would be like to stand on top. That’s why, the song says, the bear went over the mountain - “to see what he could see.” This is the drive which inspires us to take on new challenges and to do hard things.

My own devotional reading recently took me into Romans 12, a passage I call the Himalayas of the human condition. Verses 9-21 are some of the toughest character challenges we face, to overcome pride, selfishness, ambition, deceit, grudges, revenge, and lack of faith. They are the tough mountain peaks of human interaction and take no less determination.

We’re going to make camp in these verses for a little while. My hope is that we look at these verses in the same way we look at a mountain and wonder what the view is like at the top, or the same way we gaze into space and dream what it would be like to stand on the moon. Imagine the kind of families in which we live, the relationships in which we interact, and even our communities and churches if we were to do the hard work of character transformation to which Paul calls us.

So, let’s start in verse 9. “Love must be sincere.”

If we were to give the straight up, no-frills paraphrase of this verse, here’s what I think it might look like. “Love is not two-faced.” We can’t be all smiles and kindness to a person’s face, and then go around bad-mouthing them.

It says a lot about people when someone leaves the room. Will conversation go on as normal, or do we talk about the person who left? We have to be careful here. This is a real character issue, that we treat people the same whether they are in the room or not. This is not an excuse to treat someone badly in their presence, obviously, but rather a call to improve our behaviour when they are not around.

This is a matter of trust. When we’re kind to someone, people shouldn’t suspect our motives. They should be able to trust that we’re being kind for kindness’ sake, not because we want something in return, not because we’re hoping for some kind of information we can use as a weapon later. That’s not right. We hate it when it happens to us, and we shouldn’t do it to other people.

While visiting friends one time, they asked me to pass the “Baptist tape.” This was new to me, and I didn’t have a clue what they were asking.

“Yeah, the double-sided tape.” The puzzled look on my face told them I still didn’t understand the reference.

“Double-sided tape... it’s two-faced...”

That stung. I’m a Baptist. Follower of Jesus first, but still Baptist in polity. I trust they wouldn’t have used the reference if they thought it applied to me, but it seemed obvious they had been victims of the someone’s hypocrisy. Someone not unlike me. We think no one notices our duplicity. We need to think again.

Why is gossip so interesting, to listen to and to tell? We’re a little voyeuristic that way, we want to see into someone else’s life. Perhaps also, we might admit that we feel better about our own spiritual condition if we know someone who is worse. We secretly compare our lives and hope that we come out a little ahead so we can feel better about ourselves. I admit it is sometimes the case in my heart. I can’t be the only one.

“Love must be sincere.” I can’t hope that people will be sincere with me, and then be less myself. I cannot somehow be the exception in this. The kind of world I hope for, the kind of character transformation to which Paul calls us, starts with me.

I hope this helps. Be on fire.

Troy

OnFire is a biweekly letter on faith and character written by Troy Dennis. This letter published June 14, 2013. Troy is the Pastor of Next Generations and Connections at Highfield Baptist Church, Moncton NB Canada. To subscribe or reply, email onfireletter@gmail.com. Archives are located at www.onfireletter.com. Blog located at www.onfireletter.blogspot.com

OnFire #298 Something I Never Thought I Would Do

OnFire Encouragement Letter
OnFire #298 Something I Never Thought I Would Do

Hi Folks:

Tomorrow is Palm Sunday, where we celebrate Jesus' ride into Jerusalem. While he would teach during this week, scripture also records significant moments with his disciples, and with the Father in prayer.  And, of course, on Friday we remember that he died to save us. While we love Easter Sunday with its resurrection because it speaks of life, it was never be possible without the pain and suffering of Friday.

I sometimes wonder about Jesus' faith. It was, unlike ours, a perfect faith. It is hard to imagine because we struggle so much with trust. But think about this. Jesus had to trust the Father that his suffering and death would be worth it. Lest we think it was easy to go to the cross, remember his prayer while in the garden, "Take this cup from me..." It was not easy to go to the cross, but he decided he would trust. "...but if not, your will be done." (Lk 22:42)   There was no other way, but it would be worth it in the end.

Blessings for your Holy Week.
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I did something the other day I never thought I would do. Don’t worry, there won’t be an awkward confession. I’m not talking about something secret or shameful. Rather, I looked online for some half-marathons in the area which might fit my schedule this summer.

To be clear, a half-marathon is a long way to run, just over 21 km. As a result, there is a part of my brain which suggests I may have lost touch with reality. However, I always say the question of my sanity is another matter entirely. Moving on...

I started going to the gym in January 2012 because I was getting tired of being sore from sitting at my desk. While only 44 at the time, and in decent shape (I thought), it wasn’t reasonable to be sore from doing nothing. And, it was a little stressful at church without a senior pastor, so going to the gym would help burn off a little stress.

The trainer was helpful and we set up a program for me to follow which included 15 minutes on the treadmill. 2 minutes was about all I could run and I walked the rest. Eventually this became three and I challenged myself to a longer distance each time. It wasn’t easy, but my time for a mile improved and that was encouraging.

By the time summer arrived, I mustered up enough courage to enter a 5km fun run, which I wrote about in OnFire #283, “Lessons from the Treadmill.” It was actually the first time I had run that far. Since then, 5km has become a regular part of my exercise routine and 7.5km is not unusual.

Curious about 10km races I might enter, I went looking online and discovered that it is not a far stretch to go from 10km to the half-marathon. This was surprising to me since it is a lot longer, but writers were encouraging and there are lots of suggestions about how to prepare for that distance. And thus it was that I was looking online for races close to home which fit my schedule.

That’s when the thought hit me that all this fitness work has been worthwhile. It felt horrible to begin, but then improved. I won’t say I enjoy running now, but I do like how it makes me feel when I’m done, and not just because I have stopped.

I think there are many things like this, where there is a lot of hard work and we wonder if we’ve made any progress at all. But then one day we realize how far we’ve come and it makes the hard work seem worthwhile. And not only that, but because of that hard work, we now envision new dreams we never thought possible before.

I don’t know if I’ll make the half marathon. A lot of people do, but I don’t want to presume. Here’s the thing. I won’t know until I try, will I?

That’s my thought for this week. I hope it helps. Be on fire.

OnFire is a biweekly letter on faith and character written by Troy Dennis. This letter published Mar 23, 2013. Troy is the Pastor of Next Generations and Connections at Highfield Baptist Church, Moncton NB Canada. Scripture taken from New International Version, 1984. To subscribe or reply, email onfireletter@gmail.com. Archives are located at  www.onfireletter.com. Blog located at www.onfireletter.blogspot.com

OnFire #297 But Do We Pray for Timing?

OnFire Encouragement Letter

OnFire #297 But Do We Pray for Timing?

This week we’ll turn our clocks ahead. It’s a good thing it happens on a Sunday and not a Monday. We might arrive at work at the wrong time instead of walking into church in the middle of the sermon. What a feeling to realize that we’re out of synch with the rest of the world. We got up, prepared, and planned to arrive at church with a little time to spare, only to discover we’re an hour off.

Timing is important. I hate it when I’ve got a good joke, and then blow the punch line. In skeet shooting, it is important to lead the target or the timing will be off. The shot will go ahead of, or behind, the clay instead of hitting the mark. When my boys became teens I had to learn when it was the right time to talk to them. Too early in the morning, and the response is a grunt. I usually wait for them to say something first.

Timing is important in both temporal and spiritual matters, and Jesus was the master. After his mother told him about running out of wine at the wedding in Cana, Jesus responded, “My time has not yet come” (Jn 2:4). When his disciples wanted Jesus to go up to Jerusalem and show himself as a public figure, he delayed because “...the right time has not yet come” (7:6-8,14). Later, the crowds tried to seize Jesus to kill him, but they were hindered because the timing wasn’t right (7:30; 8:20). When a group of “Greeks” arrived asking to see Jesus, it was a sign: “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified” (12:23; 13:1). On the night before his crucifixion, he prayed, “Father, the time has come” (17:1).

It is a scary thought that the best of ideas – the redemption of all humanity through the death and resurrection of Jesus – could have been deflected and derailed because of bad timing. If it was so for Jesus, how much more so for us....

Good timing makes our intentions possible, while poor timing can turn even a good idea into a disaster. We might not be ready. The proper preparation may not have happened. The right conditions might not be present. The necessary resources and support may not be in place.

As I write, Jan is away with Mark for the March break, and it is very tempting to start some of the work we hope to do in our kitchen this year. We want to take out a wall and replace the old plywood cupboards, along with fixing the holes in the ceiling from our plumbing repair last fall. I’m itchy to open up the wall, but I know I’m not quite ready to do the job and we won’t have the money until after our tax refund. We’d have a big mess for months, which would frustrate Jan, and I don’t want that for her.

While this is a relatively simple example, I can think of more critical situations which require the best possible timing – when to launch a new program, tackle a tough issue, or have a difficult conversation with someone. Definitely, we should wait to discern God’s timing for when (and if) we ought to speak with someone if we are upset or hurt.

This is where prayer comes in. We often (I hope) pray for God to lead us and bless us in our plans. But less often, in my experience, do we pray that we understand God’s timing.

Last fall when I was hunting, I got a shot off on a duck that sprang from the bank. Water sprayed and I was sure I had hit my target, but when the air cleared the bird was heading for the skies. Because my timing was off, all I had done was make a lot of noise. I don’t want the same thing to happen with my plans. Timing is everything.

I hope this helps. Be on fire.

Troy

OnFire is a biweekly letter on faith and character written by Troy Dennis. This letter published Mar 7, 2013. Troy is the Pastor of Next Generations and Connections at Highfield Baptist Church, Moncton NB Canada. Scripture taken from New International Version, 1984. To subscribe or reply, email onfireletter@gmail.com. Archives are located at www.onfireletter.com. Blog located at www.onfireletter.blogspot.com