Agenda

What agenda are you following?  Your parents’? The coaches’? the teachers’? The kids’? The cultures’? Political party?  More money? More fame? The good life? Stay healthy? Stay employed? Stay married at all costs? None at all, just winging it?

For the first half of my life, my agenda was to make money. Then it was to be liked. The first left me well off and empty. The second made me sick.

We all follow an agenda. Even if we think we are free from an agenda, someone(s) is setting ours in the vacuum we’ve left. The devil would love nothing more than a person with no agenda or a “good but not great” agenda.

Jesus’ agenda was simple, The Kingdom of God. God’s Agenda. If you follow God’s Agenda, everything will work out. Maybe not as we planned but our plans are seldom under our control. It is more important for God’s Plan to work out. Most of us try to fit a few palatable pieces of God’s Agenda into ours. Just enough to Christianize it. Not enough to let God take control from us.

God does not mince words. Your agenda leads to worry and death. Maybe not right away. Maybe slowly. But death none the less. You can be lucky only so far. Trust me. With your life. ALL OF IT.

The Kingdom of God Agenda loves no matter what. Forgives without stopping. Serves the poor even at personal cost. Shares. Does not pass judgment on others. Tames the tongue & refuses to gossip.

Can you dare trust God with your life? Bet your life on it.

But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Matthew 6:33 (NIV) See entire passage

Adopt God’s Agenda whole hog and your agenda will be taken care of. Trust me. (Jimbo Version)

Worship

I was glad when they said to me, "Let us go to the house of the Lord." Psalm 122:1

I loved going to church when I was a child. Worship. Sunday School was a mixed bag but I loved worship. My mom and dad took me every week. We did not miss. Excuses for missing church were as few as those for missing school. My mother taught me about prayer and using the Prayer Book. Cross yourself at the right time. No backside on the pew when praying.  A nickel goes to the church and a nickel goes to mission. We would get to church early and I would mark all the pages we would use and all the hymns. We mostly did Morning Prayer, which had a lot of chanting. God seemed alive in Episcopal worship. Okay, sermons, I didn’t get till I was older.

Maybe you did not have someone to build a love of worshiping God into your life. I am sorry if that was the case. I strive to build God-loving worshipers today. 

More importantly, how are you shaping the worship life of a child? Yes, I know everyone is busy. I suspect sometimes God feels like the parent whose adult child finds them a chore to visit.

I value promises. Most people expect me to keep them. We make a promise to raise up children to know and love Christ each time we baptize a child. We promise this for all children and not just our own. And this love is nurtured by holy habits we impart on children.

You have a lot of choices. I am not sure that is all good. I hope you give priority to raising up worshiping children. Let me know if I may be of help.

Bait

I have a saying I use about once a week. I made it up (or, maybe, stole it.) 

“The only fish on the plate are those who took the bait.”

Time and time again, we take the same “bait” and assume we will prevail. We don’t. Rather than flourishing, we sink. We are caught!

We trust untrustworthy people. We lack boundaries in interactions. We try to win arguments with intransigent people. We get depressed because we cannot change the past. We figure there is a way to success without work. We want Jesus on retainer (no commitments, please) but wonder why we don’t experience him in times of trouble. We remarry the “same” person we divorced. We are tired but “cannot” change a thing; everything is a priority.

 

Paul, in the Bible, claims that we become transformed people when we change our minds. Not just any old change of mind. When we finally stop trying to be god and submit to God. 

How are you doing? Lucky so far? Ready for a change?

Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. ² Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.  Read the rest here… 

 

Freedom

I voted a few days ago. Quite honestly, I wish it all was over months ago. And, regardless of today’s outcome, we will go back to bickering and blaming instead of building.

My prayer for our country is not one of liberal or conservative blather and posturing. It is one of power in working together towards a common end. Not having to have our way but listening to one another in order to achieve a common purpose of the life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness of a commonwealth. Not insisting that we are right. It is a prayer of being vulnerable.

A wise man recently reminded me of the words of Teddy Roosevelt (again, this is not partisan.)

THE MAN IN THE ARENA
from "Citizenship in a Republic" 1910

It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.

Do not settle for anything less than living out your Baptismal Vows today.

Celebrant      Will you continue in the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in the prayers?
People          I will, with God’s help.

Celebrant      Will you persevere in resisting evil, and, whenever you fall into sin, repent and return to the Lord?
People          I will, with God’s help. 

Celebrant     Will you proclaim by word and example the Good News of God in Christ?
People          I will, with God’s help.

Celebrant      Will you seek and serve Christ in all persons, loving your neighbor as yourself?
People          I will, with God’s help.

Celebrant      Will you strive for justice and peace among all people, and respect the dignity of every human being?
People          I will, with God’s help.

Joe

Joe had a photographic memory. He could remember the serial numbers on coal cars as the train passed by. Jack understood mining and miners like no one else. Joe would help when help was needed, even at a great inconvenience to himself. Joe loved his dog, Wolf. Joe loved stamp collecting. I liked Joe.

And Joe was a drunk. Joe lost his job and wife. Joe did not guard his heart and the direction of his life changed forever.

Guard your heart above all else,

for it determines the course of your life.

Proverbs 4:23 NLT

Most of us think we are strong enough to face anything. “It won’t hurt (affect) me!” We go into soul-crushing debt. We are “at work” 24/7. We drink too much with friends in order to medicate the stress from overwork. We let others do all the work as we become spectators of life. We put our families through daily schedules harder that NFL two-a-day’s in the August heat and humidity. We find like-minded people in order to judge others unlike us. We skip church for "important things" on a regular basis. We are less than honest. We refuse to work things out – my way or the highway. We will not share. Sadly, I see myself here. Do you see you?

Today, guard your heart by evaluating the company you keep, human and otherwise. Examine what comes out of your heart. Don’t let “in” that which will hurt the soul. I pray for you the life God wants for you. I pray you follow God’s lead.

(Yes, Joe is real. I change his name, however.)