Strap in, kiddos: this is a long one. There is a subset of people that both fascinate and disgust me at the same time. No, I’m not talking about clowns or contortionists—I’m talking about people who jump right to the end. Folks that, when picking up a new book, flip to the last chapter to see how it all pans out. Weirdos that begin a TV series on Netflix by peaking at the final episode. Lunatics that YouTube ending cutscenes before jumping into the tutorial level. Geniuses that begin with the end in mind and steer the ship accordingly.
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God's Steadfast Nature
There’s an idea that David uses continually to describe God’s character: steadfast. God is steadfast in His love for His people. He’s steadfast in His protection of His people. He’s steadfast in His discipline of His people. Over and over, God proves Himself to be consistently God, and David understands that. So in times of trouble, David reaches out for God as a solid rock in the middle of a raging river, knowing that that rock will consistently support him as he fights the current. In the 89th Psalm, David exalts God for His steadfast love and faithfulness, His strength of arm among the nations, and His righteousness. David understood something about God that was said by many but lived by precious few: God’s character doesn’t change and our lives should reflect that. Man's Impatience So, when Ahab—a king of Israel during the period where Israel and Judah were divided and not a part of David’s line—makes moves on a man named Naboth’s vineyard, he is rebuked harshly by Elijah. Elijah promises that the wrath of God will be visited upon Ahab in the same manner that Ahab’s—through Jezebel—was upon Naboth. Jezebel orchestrated Naboth’s death by maneuvering him to a place of prominence at a feast to be publicly maligned and subsequently killed by mob voilence. And the reason? Naboth’s family had a vineyard adjacent to Ahab’s property, and Ahab wanted to purchase it. What began as a conversation about giving—absolutely fair—trade to one of us subjects quickly became a smash and grab ending in Ahab taking possession of the vineyard by default after the death of Naboth. Here was the king of Israel throwing a temper tantrum because his neighbor didn’t want to play ball, and Jezebel was quick to use violence and manipulation to satiate her husband’s impatient wants. Practicing Patience James suggests a different tact. In an accusation laid at the feet of Israel, the brother of Jesus likens Her to a rich man abusing the laborers in his fields in the last days. While the rich man lays aside riches in his storehouses he withholds the wages owed to his workers. By Her impatience and selfishness, Israel has slaughtered the only One who could save Her—and James points out that He did not resist. Where he goes with this, though, is not a treatise on being generous to one’s neighbor or to mourn one’s sin. Instead, he lands on patience. He encourages his readers to be patient as a farmer would with his crops. In the same way a farmer cannot hurry the growth cycle his crops—he isn’t God, after all—a follower of Christ must practice patience and reliance on God’s provision and timing. Then he hammers home an idea that many of us know but precious few of us live out: as image bearers of God we must clothe ourselves in His character. And what character trait does James latch onto for this? Steadfastness. James encourages his people to remain steadfast and to lean into the compassion and mercy of God. He takes the time to point out the huge gap between impatience and emulating God's character in our lives. The moment we begin to lose our reliance on God's character, we subvert and denigrate our identity as image bearers. So what are some examples of the steadfastness of God in your life? What chapters in your story are overtaken by selfish impatience? Where is God calling you to be steadfast? Let’s talk about it! Sound off in the comments below or send me a message. Sincerely, Chaz A lot of people have individually asked me a variation of the same question: how are you and Kate? I’ve been debating holding off on doing this until after next month, but frankly I’m growing weary of having the same painful conversation over and over. So, I’ve decided it’s time. Here ‘goes.
In May, my wife moved out. It was sudden, it was surprising, and it was incredibly painful. I won’t go into details here because it’s inappropriate, but two things need to be made known: there was no abuse, and to my knowledge there was no other person. There was simply a lack of love. The months that have followed have been a rollercoaster. I removed myself from a handful of pastoral opportunities, I sought counsel from my mentors and close friends, and I began working for Regions Bank in Lincoln. I spent a lot of time unintentionally alone because I was living in a city that I was unfamiliar and full of people I didn’t know.It was depressing, but I spent time trying to prepare myself for a return to the way things were. It didn’t come. So, I instead spent time thinking and praying on what it would mean to be a divorced man. For years I’ve used “husband” as more than just a title that I carry: it was a tangible and critical part of my identity. Now I needed to wrap my head and heart around what it would mean to remove that part of me. So I mourned. I mourned the loss of my companion, and I mourned the assumed loss of my identity. And it sucked. I have a handful of friends who I credit with keeping me alive and above the water this summer. To you who have constantly checked in on me, forced me to work through my stuff, and who have loved me far beyond deserving: thank you. From the bottom of my heart, thank you. You are God’s gift to the hurting. Here’s the deal: I’m not writing this for sympathy. If you care about me and want to reach out, great! I appreciate you. But I’m not fishing for that. I’m also not writing this because I want you to take a side. That doesn’t help anyone. It takes a hateful person to try and draw battle lines in friendships like that. Some of you have gravitated one way or the other in support and have been a great help to us both, but I would ask that you not allow that support of the one to become disdain for the other. Finally, I don’t write this to throw Kate under the proverbial bus. Neither of us are innocent in this, and both of us have suffered a loss. Throwing mud helps no one, and I would ask that you respect that. Ok, so there you are: in a couple of weeks our divorce will be final. What I’m feeling now isn’t what I was feeling months ago, but that doesn’t necessarily make it easier. What I do know is that while the past is concrete, the future is malleable. So I’m focusing on healing and making certain that this situation can’t happen again. To my former students—some of which are husbands and wives themselves, and some of which are still young adolescents—I’m sorry. I’ve always tried to be as transparent with y’all as I can by making it clear that I will one day fail you, and in this I haven’t been transparent. I’ve kept it away from you for fear that you’d have to walk into a situation that you frankly don’t deserve to walk into. But what I’ve actually done is failed you in the worst way. Not only have I failed to model what it means to be a healthy husband, but I’ve failed to show that I’m capable of hurting. I would hope that that doesn’t cancel out what I’ve attempted to teach you over the years, but I would certainly understand—and appreciate—if you’re angry with me. To whoever is still reading this: if you want to talk about what happened to lead to this, I’m happy to talk. But be warned: you aren’t going to get he said she said. You aren’t going to get a sob story about how I was wronged. What you’ll get instead is a cautionary tale of how mistrust and resentment can creep into love in the worst way if it’s allowed. Again, thank you to those who have gone out of their way to keep me afloat. I love you and am honored to call you friend. Sincerely, Chaz While Bealer's The Myth of Balance is a quick read to be sure, the principle that he drives home is invaluable for pastors: if you don't plan for exceptions to your schedule they will rule you, your ministry, and your family. While that might sound like a "DUH!" statement, the way that Bealer suggests dealing with these exceptions is quite ingenious when kept to. However, he loses points for dragging the concept out across 60+ pages when the same could have been done in a tight article. But hey, he's gotta eat! Have you come across a productivity hack that works well in your ministry and family lives? Drop me a line and let's talk about it! Key InsightsBalance Isn’t Real
Sincerely, Chaz For me, followthrough follows accountability. So if I commit to posting about the books that I'm reading I'm more likely to continue to read them. I'd read Sustainable Youth Ministry in college, but I hadn't picked it back up since. I'm embarrassed to say that I merely skimmed it then and I've paid the price for not taking it seriously. This is a phenomenal book for youth pastors who feel stuck and for search committees looking to replace the stuck pastor they canned. There's no sense in re-writing the book, so below are some of the key insights that I personally took away from the book. If you haven't read it, I highly recommend it! You can learn more about Mark DeVries by checking out ministryarchitects.com Fair warning: if you don't like analogies and metaphors, it might not be for you.. Have you read something recently that has impacted you? Let me know about it! Leave a comment below or contact me: I'm looking for more books this year! Key InsightsTo Gamble or Invest
Sincerely,
Chaz As I think about the amount of Scripture that I read throughout the year, it would be clear to anyone that I get a fair amount of Bible in my diet. However, the grand majority of that Scripture reading tends to be related to either lesson writing or classwork. An embarrassingly small amount of it is dedicated to strictly personal development and alone time with God. So, last year I started journaling through Scripture. What I mean by this is that I read a couple chapters of Scripture—highlighting and marking in my Bible as I go—and then write a handwritten page about what I just read. I’m strict about not making this study time, so what I write is normally filled with personal insights or questions that I’d like to study and research later. The results have been interesting. What I end up with is a “bird’s eye view” of a book, filled with starting points for sermons, papers, and further study. It’s been really invigorating, and I get more and more excited about opening my Bible because it’s like reading it for the first time again! Below is an entry from John 11 and 12. I’ll periodically add these as I go if I find that they’re particularly interesting or helpful. Do you journal through Scripture? Comment below with some techniques you’ve used to make it enjoyable and personal! John 11-12This is such a packed couple of chapters, so many questions… First, why does John write as if we are supposed to know that Jesus and Lazarus are close? Is this an indicator for who the original audience would have been? On that topic, why would John break sequence and talk about what Mary had not yet done? The whole narrative points to Jesus’ love and our proper response, but these are odd details.
There is an interesting play on the word light between 11:8-10 and 12:35. The first reads like a rebuke, the second a warning. In both instances, Jesus is clear: walking with Him is the most important thing we can do. Another play on words comes in 11:24-25 with resurrection. In all of this, Jesus’ authority is on display. My biggest question for these chapters, though, is regarding the intention of Caiaphas and the crowd as Jesus and His disciples entered the city. The way that John describes Caiaphas’ thinking suggests he knew why Jesus needed to die. If this is the case, that changes the tone of Jesus’ trial and execution. A lot. That would mean that God revealed His plan—something well within His character—and that the Jewish response was a righteous attempt at saving the world. More likely, this is a Pharaoh-and-the-hardened-heart situation, with God influencing the situation without necessarily enlightening the one being influenced. And with the crowd, their reaction--“Hosanna! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord, even the King of Israel!”—is often taken as positive, but the words they use are quite volatile. Again, there are two logical scenarios: they were so excited that they forgot themselves and used language that they wouldn’t otherwise use out loud or they intentionally called Him king in order to incite the Romans. Again, the normal reading is probably the correct one, but fun thoughts all the same! Sincerely, Chaz I recently had breakfast with a high school senior. As we talked about the transition from high school to college, I asked him two questions that I ask literally every student that I talk with who is going through any sort of life transition—what are you most afraid of, and what are you most excited for? These conversations are often met with grins, tears, or both. This time it was the former. The young man gave me a sheepish grin and said, “I’m afraid I’m going to forget where I’m supposed to be!” This was funny, because we had set the appointment the day earlier and he had written down the wrong time. He was embarrassed when he arrived late and apologized, but it was also a school holiday and I had planned on him taking the opportunity to sleep in a bit. So when his answer had to do with schedule, we both had a good laugh. What followed was a healthy conversation on time management—something I have always struggled with—and I shared with him something that has helped me tremendously over the past couple of years: the Bullet Journal. It’s hard to both be a person who reads blogs and at the same time not know what Bullet Journaling is, but for those few people who are unfamiliar, I encourage you to check out the video on the front page of bulletjournal.com. In quick terms, a Bullet Journal is one part journal and one part calendar that is designed to help organize an aspect of your life. For me, it has really helped increase my personal productivity, focus, and calm. Reasons I Bullet JournalProductivity
First and foremost, keeping a Bullet Journal has helped me take hold of my work week and organize my life. As a pastor, my week isn’t driven by clocking in and out and my home time is often blurred with my office time. As such, my meetings, appointments, game nights, double dates, and doctor visits end up all getting rolled into one very messy calendar. For these reasons, my calendar has to be as flexible as my schedule, and this does it for me. Not only that, but I’ve found that I’ve been much more productive on days that I take the time to inventory my tasks and thoughts on paper. I’ve gone back and forth between several calendar methods over the years, be them analog or digital. I’ve used web based schedule trackers and to do lists, Covey planners, wall calendars, and what I affectionally call the “sticky note wallpaper.” But none of those things stuck with me. None of them were able to both keep my attention and keep me organized. None except for my Bullet Journal, that is. It’s been the perfect mix of kinesthetic and visual to be the singular tool I need to keep my productivity in order. Focus A huge benefit for me in regards to journaling has been focus. Where before I would try my best to juggle my schedule in my head—while also trying to give counsel to a student and also keeping my lesson-writing thoughts collected enough to use them for a sermon later—using a Bullet Journal is like a sort of pensive, if you’ll excuse the Harry Potter reference. The idea is simple: there are too many things going through my head at once to be able to focus on what is in front of me most of the time. To compensate for my inability focus on one thing, I find myself starting ten different projects and not finishing a single one of them. This has gotten me in trouble academically, professionally, and personally for years. Enter: Bullet Journal. I make a conscious effort to dump any fleeting thoughts into the journal, when I think them, and then allow myself to forget them and continue the task at hand. It’s taken me a while to get there, but it’s absolutely freeing and a huge game-changer when it comes to focusing on what needs my focus. Calm More than the other reasons, this is the most subjective reason that I Bullet Journal. There is simply something soothing about putting literal pen to paper. My penmanship was terrible when I began, and it was almost a reason I stopped before I really got started. However, as I’ve kept at it I’ve noticed that when I’m stressed more and more I reach for a pen rather than a controller/phone/cheeseburger. A big part of this is that I have been journaling through my quiet time as well. As I study Scripture and/or pray, I journal. Because my handwriting isn’t great, I tend to journal slowly. Because I want to get as much bang for my buck regarding expensive journals, I write as small as possible. Put all of these things together and the result is an activity that is easily one of the most calming parts of my day. So there you go. Are you having trouble with your productivity? Are you curious how a Bullet Journal can help with your walk of life? Do you want to compare methods? Leave a comment below or send me a message, I’d love to talk about it with you! Sincerely, Chaz New year, new me… Right? I know this isn’t being posted on January 1, but consider this a beginning all the same. Speaking of which, here are some things that I’ve decided to begin this year. Have you started new things in 2018? If so, let me know! My 2018 Goals50 Books Last year I told myself I would read “more books than last year.” While I managed to meet that goal, I’m embarrassed to give the actual number of books I got through last year. So, this year I’m putting a number to my goal: 50. Jon Acuff—if you don’t already read his stuff, you really should!—taught me that when you set a goal, you set the terms. What counts as a book? Whatever I feel counts as a book. I’ll get through 50 books this year, and they’ll be a mixture of philosophy texts, novels, graphic novels, and audio books. 50 Pounds When I was a freshman in college, I weighed 180lbs. That’s a good weight for a man of my build. By the time I finished college, I weighed 230lbs. That’s a significant difference. That’s an adult boxer. That’s a bale of hay. That’s a recliner. I’ve been carrying a recliner around on my person at all times for the last 7 years. Well, it’s time to clean house and get rid of some furniture. I’m attacking my weight-loss on several fronts, but I’m starting with diet. First thing’s first, I need to get this party started. I’m not good at new diets mostly because the shadow of the old one can normally be found in my fridge. So because I can’t trust myself not to fall right back into eating whatever I can find, I’m restricting myself to nothing but resistant starches for the next couple of weeks. I’m going to shock my system into being ready for a new diet. For info on resistant starches, head over to marksdailyapple.com and check out Mark’s research. I think you’ll be surprised. 50 Posts This one should be easy, right? Would you be surprised if I told you I’d started three blogs before this one? It’s true. I’ve started and stopped so many things at this point that it’s comical and depressing at the same time to try and list them, so suffice to say that I’m itching to come through on this one. My goal is simple: between now and December 31, 2018, I will have written at least 50 substantial posts. What will those posts be about? They’ll be broken up generally into four categories: family, ministry, writing, and gaming. Does that sound like something you’d be interested in? If so, then let’s take this journey together! I look forward to it. Sincerely yours, Chaz |
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