No Rest for the Weary

Jesus left that place and went to the vicinity of Tyre.  He entered a house and did not want anyone to know it…  -  Mark 7:24

Tyre was a town on the coast of Phoenicia.  It was north-west of Jesus’ normal stomping grounds.  From the context of Mark’s gospel this little excursion up north to the coast of the Mediterranean was a break, a get away, a vacation.  Humans were designed for rest from the very beginning.  God rested from his works of creation not as a result of weariness, but for the purpose of delight in what he had made.  Rest, in the biblical sense is not laziness, it is worship. 

Honestly, my day off (Friday for the most part) is filled with non-stop activity.  Weeds and my golf swing both need attending too.  I’m exhausted when Friday evening rolls around.  Part of learning to rest in the Biblical sense means stopping.  It means being still enough to quietly delight in God’s world, in God’s word, in God’s grace, and in God’s presence.  But we live in a manic culture.  Everything has an immediacy of its own.  Rest, true rest, worshipful rest, goes against our every inclination.  Even when we do take rest, it is often void of stillness.  And stillness is where we experience God.  God is the still point in our manic world.  To know Christ, is to walk away from our nets filled with their hundreds of flopping, writhing, attention grabbing  fish to become consumed with the King who calls us to follow him.

Spending a week at the beach in Florida with my wife’s family was a great reminder to me of how poorly it is that I practice true rest.  I went away, had a good time with family and came back tan, but not rested.  I was not still while I was away. 

You see, intimacy with God will always be a struggle.  Adam and Eve took the fruit, they immediately recognized their sin, covered themselves out of shame and hid.  God expelled them from the garden.  Naturally being in God’s presence in the stillness of that perfect garden would never happen again.  We are out of the garden.  We are in the sweatshop of a fallen world.  It will never be easy to steal away and be still.  God had to command “remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy.”  It is our inclination to forget Sabbath, to neglect rest, and to hustle away the stillness. 

Knowing Christ means following him to Tyre.  It means refusing to let our own inclinations for maniacal living to keep us from that abiding stillness with our savior who is our only access back to the garden.  The passage in Mark 7 ends this way: “… yet he could not keep his presence a secret.  In fact, as soon as she heard about him, a woman whose little daughter was possessed by an evil spirit came and fell at his feet.”  That rings true doesn’t it!  Sounds about like my vacation.  True worshipful rest will never be easy.  But it will always be good. 

In Christ - Scott Castleman                  

Momentum and Agility

Wikipedia.com defines agility for the athlete this way, “the ability to change the body's direction efficiently, and this requires a combination of balance, coordination, speed, reflexes, and strength.”

I can’t say I am especially agile, although recently when a car pulled suddenly in front of me I was surprised how quickly I maneuvered my steering wheel to avoid a collision. Agility is a useful concept in leadership and organizations. It speaks to our ability to respond to changing conditions, opportunities, and obstacles.

One of the greatest challenges facing congregational ministries is their capacity to react to the changes in our culture and the needs of people in a way that is fruitful. It is typical for church programs of even the most vital ministry to essentially run last year’s programs over again. As long as those programs and ministries actually facilitate the growth of disciple-followers of Jesus and address human needs, the concept of momentum is a good one. The momentum of the ministry sustains its engagement with people. However, as the culture changes, people respond differently, have different preferences and or lifestyles then our momentum can work against our agility. It's hard to make a sudden right turn when you are going seventy-five miles an hour.

I spoke this week with a wonderful lady in her seventies who was bemoaning the loss of young women in her congregation’s women’s programs. She said, “They just don’t have the time.” The result was a slow decline of programming for women of any age. The momentum of that ministry was clearly centered on doing what they had always done. Now with women working as well has juggling family and other activities, a ministry for them needs agility.  It needs an agility that will allow them to show honor to the way they ministered to women in the past, while seeking new approaches, programs, and formats for today.

This leads to an interesting paradox in fruitful leadership – the ability to develop the momentum that sustains fruitful ministry while simultaneously having the agility to respond to changing needs and opportunities for ministry. When Jesus set out with his disciples on retreat, as described in Mark 6:30 and following, clearly there was a momentum, a energy about getting away. Yet when the people showed up, and Jesus saw they were sheep without a shepherd; he showed himself to be an agile leader and shifted from his original plan to address the present needs before him.

Some questions to consider:

How agile are you personally? How responsive are you to change how you do things in order to adjust to changing circumstances?

How does your church or ministry balance momentum and agility – the ability to keep it going versus the ability to adjust and change direction? How can you develop both?

With Joy - E. Stanley Ott

Follow

Building One Another - Vol. 10 No. 10

Dear Friend, As we approach the celebration of Palm Sunday I love to reflect on what happened as Jesus left Jericho, his final stop on the way to the trial awaiting him in Jerusalem. The story in brief: “They came to Jericho. As he and his disciples and a large crowd were leaving Jericho, Bartimaeus…, a blind beggar, was sitting by the roadside… Jesus stood still and said, ‘Call him here…’ So throwing off his cloak, he sprang up and came to Jesus.” Mark 10:46-50* When Jesus calls you go! And he is calling you – right here, right now – so go to him – open your heart to his voice. “My sheep hear my voice. I know them, and they follow me.” John 10:27 Bartimaeus’ story continues: “Then Jesus said to him, ‘What do you want me to do for you?’ The blind man said to him, ‘My teacher, let me see again.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Go; your faith has made you well.’ Immediately he regained his sight and followed him on the way." Mark 10:51-52 Bartimaeus is healed and Jesus says, “Go,” not to get rid of him but to send him back to a life of sight, light and joy. Bartimaeus was a free man and could have gone anywhere. He decides to follow Jesus. I love that! While Bartimaeus is not mentioned again in the New Testament, one can only assume he was a witness to the unfolding events from Palm Sunday, the teaching of Jesus in the temple to his betrayal and ultimate resurrection. When Bonhoeffer spoke of discipleship he used this language: “When Jesus calls a person to follow, he bids him come and die.” Bartimaeus would have seen first hand and early in his following of Jesus the deep suffering and highest joy that would follow.  May you and I love the Lord who loves us and follow him wherever he would lead.
With joy - E. Stanley Ott Copyright 2011 E. Stanley Ott *Scripture from the NRSV

Wonder - Building One Another, Vol. 10, No. 7

Dear Friend,


Every now and then when reading the Gospels, the good news story of Jesus, I come across a sentence I have read many times that just leaps off the page as if I had never seen it before.
 
That happened to me this week when reading the ninth chapter of the Gospel according to Mark.

Jesus has had a dazzling meeting with God, his Father, and the story resonates with the astonishment of Peter, James and John who were with him. 
 
Jesus famously walks off the mountain to discover his disciples in a squabble with the scribes and the sense of awe experienced on the mountain seems to quickly dissipate until these words:
 


“As soon as all the people saw Jesus, they were overwhelmed with wonder and ran to greet him.” Mark 9:15 NIV
 


When is the last time you reflected on the life and love of Jesus – as recorded in the Bible and as you have witnessed in your own life and simply marinated in a sense of “wow” – and been overwhelmed with wonder?
 
Think of the times you have marveled with awe at some wonder?  I think of the birth of my children, of watching a total eclipse of the sun, of the beauty of the Hawaiian waters.  Such natural moments in life are God-given clues to the wonder our Lord may inspire in us.


When I think of the forgiving grace of Jesus, when I think of the embrace of Jesus in every single situation I have ever or will ever face, when I think that the God who adopted us as God’s children loves us as much as God loves Jesus, I am overwhelmed with wonder.
 
May you reflect on the presence and love of the Lord who embraces you, be overwhelmed with wonder, and as Mark reports what the people in his day did, run to greet Jesus.  He loves you! 

With joy - E. Stanley Ott


Copyright 2011 E. Stanley Ott
*Scripture from the NIV

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