For the next three days we are going out to the countryside to meet with believers from this area and beyond who are in various places of learning to live loved and know who the Father is. I thought you’d enjoy reading something they have written about themselves. This is the group I’ll be spending time with here in Russia:

I thought the below might give you a beautiful glimpse into the heart of our gang. It’s a little hand out meant as a reminder to love and respect one another as we gather together….

We are very different!

Among us are those who worship in evangelical churches, and there are those who are more charismatic. Some meet Sunday morning in the walls of an Orthodox cathedral, and others in the Lutheran or Catholic sanctuaries. Some identify themselves as a church community, and others are together in home groups. We sing different songs, say different prayers…

We are so different!

But we have one Father, and we are brothers and sisters, so at our gathering, we will rejoice together in what unites us, and we will respect our differences.

We will appreciate (hey, let’s even celebrate!) the uniqueness of each person and their special relationship with our Father.

We respect the manner in which faith is expressed in one another, even if the form is different from that to which we are accustomed to.

We are indeed very different!

BUT…we have ONE Father who wants His children to love one another (Jn.13: 34.35) and be in unity with one another (John 17: 21).

God loves harmony not sameness. All of us in different places and sometimes by different means are learning what it is to know the Father through the work of Jesus and be transformed by it. If we could all embrace this reality the body of Christ would be a healthier family. We are all different, and we don’t have to be threatened by those differences, nor stake out a claim that our way of doing it is better than someone else’s.

Paul’s words in Romans 14 are powerful indeed. These are from THE MESSAGE translation:

Forget about deciding what’s right for each other. Here’s what you need to be concerned about: that you don’t get in the way of someone else, making life more difficult than it already is. I’m convinced—Jesus convinced me!—that everything as it is in itself is holy. We, of course, by the way we treat it or talk about it, can contaminate it. (v 13-14)

So let’s agree to use all our energy in getting along with each other. Help others with encouraging words; don’t drag them down by finding fault. You’re certainly not going to permit an argument over what is served or not served at supper to wreck God’s work among you, are you? I said it before and I’ll say it again: All food is good, but it can turn bad if you use it badly, if you use it to trip others up and send them sprawling. When you sit down to a meal, your primary concern should not be to feed your own face but to share the life of Jesus. So be sensitive and courteous to the others who are eating. Don’t eat or say or do things that might interfere with the free exchange of love.

Cultivate your own relationship with God, but don’t impose it on others. (v 19-22)

One of the undercurrents to our time was reconnecting with old friends and reconciliation between people who’d been caught up in some painful conflicts. One of the couples that had been part of our painful departure from a fellowship in Visalia, which I’d co-pastored for fifteen years and from which I was “resigned” by what I thought was one of my best friends, while I was speaking at another fellowship elsewhere. This couple had connected with Sara and I before the weekend even began in hopes that their coming wouldn’t be awkward for us. We were able to work through misunderstandings and unresolved issues from over 17 years ago and were able to renew a friendship that had been lost. What incredible joy to find myself once again in the midst of a friendship that had been lost in those confusing days.

One of my favorite conversations of the weekend was on Sunday morning as we talked about betrayal by close friends, and the process by which forgiveness and reconciliation can truly happen.

Betrayal happens when a close friend decides to lay your life down to achieve something they want for themselves. They don’t mind hurting you to get what they want. It happens often in this broken age. When Jesus told us that there was no greater love than one laying down his life for another, he meant our own! Walking all over someone to get even what you think God wants for you is the darkest of deceptions. It is exactly the opposite of how he asks us to live.

Forgiveness is a unilateral process where we can truly take our foot off the throat of those we consider to have wronged us. Forgiveness does not exonerate the betrayer; it frees the victim from the ongoing pain of the other’s actions and opens the opportunity for us to find healing inside and the freedom to move on with what God has for us. But forgiveness is not just a choice of the will; it is a process where we bring out hurt and pain to Jesus and he works us through them to a place of true release and forgiveness. It may take a few months or even years, but don’t stop short of it being complete. Just keep it discussing it with Jesus as he untangles your hurt and leads you into a real forgiveness of others.

Reconciliation, however, is a bi-lateral process that can only happen when both parties are ready to sit down and honestly explore each other’s story with a spirit of compassion and humility. It cannot be forced and can only happen when all parties truly value the relationship over anything else. It recognizes that the most important thing Jesus asked of us is to love each other as we are loved by him.

Reconciliation, too, is a work of the Spirit to prepare each heart to truly listen to each other’s story, laying aside our own assumptions and judgments, admitting our mistakes, caring about each other’s pain, and resolving any outstanding issues by God’s grace and mercy. Reconciliation heals the relationship and allows a friendship to grow onward.

However, neither forgiveness or reconciliation requires us to trust the one who betrayed us. It allows us to love them again, but trust, once violated, can only be won back by the demonstration over time that the person values the relationship above his or her own self-interest. We are never told to trust someone beyond our conviction that they will lay down their lives for us in moments of conflict.

What a weekend this proved to be! When people have asked me if I am reconciled to those who were part of our painful departure from a church we help plant, my answer has been with all but four of the couples who were part of excluding Sara and me. Today, I can say all but three, and Sara and I now have the joy of another friendship, restored even more closely than it had been before those painful days.

Reconciliation is just the best! In the past four months I’ve had the blessing of being part of two reconciliations of important friendships that were cut off in days of pain and betrayal. Both lasted over 15 years and have now come to healing again. I wish it hadn’t taken so long, but this isn’t a process we control. I think broken relationships break our Father’s heart more than anything else that goes on in our world. It is the result of sin and competing for things the Father has not given us. What absolute delight it is to work through the pain, misunderstandings, and confusion that caused the disconnect, and celebrate the grace of God that triumphs in all of us, even in our failures and mistakes.

That’s what God has sought since the fall in Eden with each of us. It’s what he celebrates when his children find a way out of their pain and selfishness to reconnect in a renewed friendship.

Here are some pictures that capture a bit of our weekend in Clovis, California:

More than 50 people gathered with us over the weekend

Conversations that matter with people who care

As always, some of the best stuff happens in more personal conversation–the twos and threes.

Two college students drove me back to Christchurch from Fairlee to catch my flight north. I love it when young people have such a hunger for God’s things. The questions they were asking and the discussion we had warmed my heart. Toward the end, the twenty-one year old medical student leaned forward from the back seat and said, “You know, what I’m beginning to wonder is if living loved seems difficult because it is far simpler than we dare to believe!” Wow! Go down that road. That’s a great one.

In another conversation a world-known documentary film director was telling me about the discipleship program he grew up in. After five years in jail he was walking the streets of a city one night looking for a bridge he could sleep under. Me met a man just walking the street at God’s leading to help rescue someone. That man invited the former prisoner home and told him a bit about Jesus. The next day as he left for work, he said he’d be back later and this man could ask him any question he wanted to. That’s how he came to Christ and learn to follow him, not by anyone’s curriculum, but simply being able to ask questions with someone who cared enough to try to answer them. Loved it! Best discipleship program ever!

One group in a city I overnighted in was trying to form a fellowship around a nonprofit coffee shop they had designed to help the poor in their community and to bless a leper colony overseas. They mentioned that once a year they cancel their weekly meeting for six weeks and always find the things that happen without the meeting to be far more fun and fruitful than anything they do in their meeting. Loved it! Then they started talking about the fact that they had just started up the meetings again. “Whoa!” I said. “Let’s go back a bit to that other road you were talking about. Go down that one and see where it leads.”

Why do we think meetings will bring the kingdom of God. As John Beaumont told me in Rotorua, “If meetings could bring the kingdom we’d have brought it by now. If organizational structures could bring the kingdom we’d have it by now. If seminaries and pastors’ seminars could bring the kingdom, we’d have it by now!” Our generation has seen more of that than any other, and yet many people in those things are some of the most spiritually impoverished people you’d want to meet.

Love it! And if you want to hear some of our larger conversations in Auckland, the group that hosted me there has posted them on line. You can find them here.

This weekend I’ll be in the Central Valley of California meeting with people from all over my spiritual past, including folks I used to “pastor.” Can’t wait to see what kind of journeys they are on today and why they want to meet with me. Then later in April I’ll be off to Russia, for the first time, and a re-visit to Holland.

If I could only figure out how Phillip got around in desert the book of Acts, I wouldn’t have to spend so much time in tiny airline seats.

As we talked the discussion grew as more people joined in. Eventually we started debriefing from the weekend. They wanted to hear Sara’s story and how God brought her into a new place of freedom. It was wonderful and connected with so many. Then we talked about how each of us can relax more into God’s freedom every day.

As is the case with so many stops I make, it is difficult to leave those God knits our hearts to even over a weekend. On Monday our hosts took us to Gibraltar and some time on the mountain with a group of monkeys. On Tuesday we flew to Rome to meet up with our friends from Switzerland to spend some days in fellowship as we explore the city of Rome. Yesterday we saw the Spanish Steps and the area around Trevi Fountain. This morning we wandered around the Coloseum together and explored the Roman Forum and archeological digs on Palatine.

Tomorrow we are headed to the Vatican. I’m looking forward to it, even though it will bring a number of conflicting emotions to bear. Breathtaking art, amazing architecture from long ago, and all of that provided for by an often-oppressive religious institution that accomplished these things with so-called offerings to God. Tomorrow ought to rock!

I sat there amazed, knowing that this was a very special moment in some people’s lives and that it had nothing to do with me, but what God wanted to share with some people. When we dismissed at the end not a soul moved. Finally one person said, “We are undone!”

And it was true. I am amazed that God lets me be part of stuff like this. But we have truly been taught an inadequate view of the cross that makes God the angry judge, rather than the loving Abba. Some people love it that way and will fight to the death to preserve what they believe to be an adequate view of God. The cross was not God crushing an innocent victim, but substitutionary atonement in the truest sense. Jesus took our place in the healing of our sin and shame, so that we could draw near to his Father, our Father, without fear and without shame. It is truly the most amazing story.

Tomorrow we are going to see a bit of downtown Madrid and then Friday morning we will be driving five hours south to Malaga on the south coast. We will be gathering for a weekend Then for the weekend we will be gathering in Malaga on the south coast. If you’d like to join us you can get the details here.

Then next Tuesday we’ll be moving on to Rome, Italy to meet some of our dear friends who will arrive from Switzerland and to sample the sites and sounds of the city, it’s history and nearby Vatican City.

But tomorrow it’s jet time again. It’s been awhile since I was last in Pennsylvania so I am looking forward to hanging out with folks in the Harrisburg/Lancaster area this weekend. If you haven’t heard about it yet and want to join us, you can get the details here.

No I’m not being crucified, at least not in this photo. This was a wonderful time sharing about the cross with the Father Heart Conference in Hannover. It was one of many wonderful and incredible moments hanging out with brothers and sisters in Germany. I can’t believe I spent two weeks in Germany and did not have time for one blog update from there. I’m so, so sorry. It was a whirlwind trip, to be sure, one that pushed me to the limits of exhaustion at one point. But I wouldn’t have traded the times I had with so many diverse groups and people from throughout Germany.

I began in Nuremburg, spending a few days there and then the first weekend at a retreat in Bavaria. From there I went to the area around Stuttgart for the week. Then on Thursday I took a train up to Hannover where I spoke at the Father Heart Conference. The final weekend I was near Hannover at another retreat of free-rangers exploring life in Jesus beyond our religious institutions.

What a fascinating trip! I met people all over the spectrum of this journey, from people deeply involved in and committed to church life lived out in corporate settings, some with 500 year old chalices that the saints have used to celebrate the Lord’s Supper through good times and bad, to those who no longer connect there and are wondering what’s next. The common thread was this—people have a growing hunger to truly engage a relationship with God, not just talk about one. Almost in every locale I was asked about the cross and how God had begun to reshape my thinking there fifteen years ago with some brothers and sisters in Australia.

I talk more about this trip in our recent podcast at The God Journey, but it refreshed me in the knowledge that the most important questions to be answered are not about “church” structures or “church” meetings, but have to do with knowing God as Father and learning to live in his love. If we don’t do that, no matter what we do for “church”, it will become a substitute for our not knowing him. Once we begin to connect with him in a real way, then we can follow him as he leads us into connections he wants to give us with others, in whatever setting best serves his work in us and the world.

Truly there are people all over the world who have a growing hunger for an intimate relationship with God that transforms their lives. As many of you know, I rarely do “lecture” presentations from the front of a room, but enjoy engaging conversations, whether it be two or three of us over a meal or 700 people in an auditorium, though that conversation is a bit more stilted. I loved hear the stories of how God has been stirring the hearts of his people to not settle for religious rituals, but to find their way into a real relationship with him. I love the questions people are asking that deal with real issues of the heart and the confusions brought on by much of their religious training.

At each locale we had an extended time to process a nonappeasement view of what God accomplished at the cross. So many Christians believe that Jesus died to satisfy the anger of his Father, instead of to resolve the sin and shame that kept us estranged from him. Viewing the cross as appeasement presents God as an abusive Father, who lures us into his kingdom under the threat of death and destruction. Instead, he is our Abba who invites us into his house to rescue us from all the ways that sin and shame seek to destroy us. There’s nothing I enjoy talking about more. I even did it in Hannover with a huge cross in the front of the building (see above) that helped people have an image of what was going on in Jesus during those incredible hours. (If you’ve never heard this view of the cross, which I believe to be the primary view of Paul, the apostle, you can listen to it here, and it’s free!)

I hope it was a blessing to those I was with. I can think of so many individual stories of dear, dear people finding their way into freedom and resonating so deeply with some of the things I’d written and some of the things we shared. I am deeply grateful to all those who made my trip so wonderful. I’m thankful to be home now for a delightful Thanksgiving celebration with my family and friends. I hope you have some warm and wonderful days this week with those you love as well.

From Kitale we went to Butere for a four-day conference with people from the Western Region. We were told later that people from America don’t venture out into these places. You could tell by the faces of the people and the children that two white people were indeed oddities here.

Arriving at the conference site in Butere

Wayne sharing with the people at Butere

Kent didn’t do much sharing, but when he did the people really listened. Seeing a hair-dresser talk so freely about his journey and seeing his ministry as one-on-one with his clients really touched them.

It was an amazing time. The people came in deeply oppressed, expressionless, looking like they’d come to a funeral, or at least another person from America telling them how they were failing. But as Kent and I began to share about Father’s love we watched a miracle take place. Oppressed expressions gave way to skeptical looks, then to hope, and finally to embracing God’s love for them and they began to laugh, ask questions and celebrate a rich heritage they hadn’t realized was theirs.

We often has to stop the meetings because the rain pounding on the tin roof was so loud we couldn’t hear each other. That gave us time to engage people individually.

Answering questions and engaging people’s own journeys with God’s love.

Personal conversations during our rain breaks.

After our time at Butere, were off on the infamous Kenyan roads. What a terrifying adventure with really bad roads, speeding drivers, and the twists and turns to avoid potholes, pedestrians, and other traffic. Really crazy, but we had some superb drivers.

Old Faithful, the red car that took us all over the western region of Kenya. It is old and held together with bailing wire. We even had to stop to pick pieces of it up, and more than once it was parked by the side of the road with the hood up.

Standing on the Rock! Michael from West Pokot, Leonard, Wayne, and Kent at a stop by the side of the road on the way to Bongoma. No, we didn’t put that rock up there. We’re pretty sure God did, somehow!

We spent a few days in Bongoma, first a day-long training in a stone building with people from the region as well as Mt. Elgon where tribal violence was horrendous. Watching them struggle with God’s love and the hope of forgiveness in the midst of atrocity was quite a conversation.

This was actually a building under construction in Chewle, with a dirt floor and stone walls. It felt like first century Palestine. We met 60 orphans here and endured a lightning strike nearby that hit a transformer and exploded it.

Sunday we stayed at Michael Wafula’s compound where 22 orphans are living with his family. They wanted us to stay with them a few days. A number of believers came together for a Sunday gathering that was incredible in the way people were touched. A Moslem woman came in part way through to see what the commotion was about. She was just passing by. As she heard about Father’s love, she turned her heart to God. She told people later that she would never return to Mohammed, now that she found Jesus’ love for her. Then we had a late night discussion about God’s working and how the church in Kenya could reflect the Lord’s glory with greater freedom.

Michael Wafula, our incredible host for these days and a man who is embracing the abandonment of religion to help people really engage the love of the Father. He lives what he talks about and we were enriched by his life and his passion to provide homes for the fatherless and widows all over this region where tribal conflict has left so much devastation.

Monday was our last full day in Kenya. We traveled four hours to Eldoret. I spoke in two different places, a church that was devastated by the tribal violence two years ago and an orphanage in a slum. At the first place many had had friends and spouses die in the violence. They have so many displaced widows and children that they are trying to help find housing, find jobs or skills they can use to provide for themselves, and are supporting each other through the losses in their lives. Many of the people had their homes or business burned or confiscated. One told of people who ran to a church building near where they lived and the mob came, circled the building and threw petrol on it and started it on fire. Anyone who tried to flee was forced back in with machetes, and some children were thrown back in through the windows. Many pastors participated in this violence along with their tribe. The rule of law is thin here. Hundreds of people died within a couple of kilometers of where Kent and I slept last night and a week ago, tensions almost boiled over again.

After the service we visited an orphanage in a slum near here. Again, this was incredibly painful. 100 children whose parents died in the violent clashes and had no family to take them in. The conditions they live in are deplorable with open sewage in the back and mud four inches deep everywhere. The kids sang to us and quoted Scriptures and the staff begged for us to find people who would send money to build them finda a healthy place for these orphans to grow up. Also 25 women infected with HIV, many of them because they were raped during the melee by men who were infected. Some of their husbands had been murdered.

The orphan children at Eldoret singing and sharing with us while standing in the mud. They beamed with smiles and were so excited to see some white people among them. They begged for our help.

One little girl told a poem about not knowing who why her parents brought her into the world and then left here all alone. Who is she? Why is she here? Does anyone care? It was painful to watch. At the end the little girl broke down in tears. Two men standing next to me began to sob as well. One of them, my host on this trip sobbed. He turned to me and told me this same story is repeated all over his country. I was undone. My granddaughters had the good fortune to be borne in the US, and these were born in Kenya. They did nothing wrong to deserve their circumstances, and they certainly don’t need to live in the conditions they live in. But there are hundreds of these all over this part of Kenya. The need is overwhelming. Please pray for God to help them find adequate housing. If you have extra money to send, we can channel resources through Lifestream and put it straight at the need without any administrative expenses. See our How To Help page if God moves you to help. You can find a ‘Donate Now’ button at the bottom of the page. We will be sending additional funds here to help with so many needs.

This has been an amazing trip. The stories we’ve heard and seen of personal transformations as well as people exploring what it is to live loved in a land where people have been taught that suffering proves you haven’t done enough to earn God’s love and he is punishing you. We heard it as the ‘gospel of punishment’, which is really no gospel at all. In the midst of our worst moments is where God makes his love known, not when we’ve earned it. We can never earn it, and the moment we think we have is when we lose sight of mercy and try to live by our own efforts, something we don’t advise. We’ll talk more about Kenya, play some audio clips from here on The God Journey podcast next Friday.

Thanks to all of you who prayed for us and the people here. This was a truly remarkable season in Kent and my own spiritual journey. I’m sure we’ve not yet processed all that God wanted to show us in this. But we both come away with a greater compassion for the people of Kenya and the desperate circumstances that many of these people are in. Please keep praying. There is so much we can do to bless them out of our abundance, if God should lay it on your heart.

The real gospel of the kingdom is not best unveiled in the religious straightjackets that we’ve inherited over the last 2000 years. We continue to trade the joy and beauty of a relationship with the Father for a religion we called Christianity, tricked into thinking they are the same thing. As with most countries, religion is rampant in Kenya, but here it is more formally organized in hierarchies of apostles, archbishops, pastors, and elders who compete for influence and control. Unwittingly they subvert the headship of Jesus by taking his place in the lives of believers, rather than seeing their gifts merely as functions to help others learn to follow Jesus.

What has surprised me is that the people here have been so overwhelmingly enthusiastic in embracing this truth with a willingness to separate themselves from their religious practices. They are so hungry for a real relationship that they are willing to risk and repent of the status quo. I’m honestly shocked watching that process unfold. As I’m speaking I see looks of concern when I’m plowing new ground, and then watch the light bulbs come on as as they realize this really is what Jesus talked about We’ve plowed deeper here in the first week than I thought I would through the whole trip. God has touched so many with a passion to know him and let Jesus be the head of his church, instead of relying on human effort and authority.

What a really freak day today was! Kent wasn’t feeling well, so I went alone to a gathering of Christians in a slum. This was the poor of the poor, people whom God loves deeply. Also many of the people who had been to the conference came as well. The room was a crumbling brick structures with no doors or windows, just openings in the brick. It had a dirt floor and no electricity. Even driving in was a bit freaky because as the only white guy in that area the people were pointing at me and the children were screaming at each other to look. They wanted me to speak to them and God just opened up the heavens and poured out his love on them. I can’t even begin to explain what happened. It was Acts-like. As I spoke God’s glory fell in that makeshift meeting place. People began to weep as their hearts surged with the recognition that they had lost their sense of who he was in all their religious practices. Some of their sharings after were so rich with a change of heart and mind.

I said things I’ve never said before as God just opened up fresh insights into his grace. Writing about it now brings tears to my eyes. As I spoke, I found myself moving through the room and touching people and blessing them in the name of the Lord and speaking words of life and grace and love into their hearts. Little kids and old men responded with passion and joy. It was the most strangely, glorious meeting I’ve ever been involved in. God seem to put some very difficult things before them and they grasped them with joy. I know they don’t have a clue what the implications are of what God has begun, but I was wonderfully touched by these people and their raw openness to something so new to their thinking. It was awesome. And while I was sharing, a sheep appeared at the doorway next to me, peeking in to see what we were doing. Hilarious!

We have finished now in this section of Kenya and are moving further out into a more primitive environment with an even larger group of people. We’ll see what God does there. I am having a hard time, however, convincing them that what is happening is not the work of Wayne or his teachings; it is God pouring out himself on them. They continue to thank me and are begging me to come back for a longer time and do stadium events because so many people in Kenya have no idea about the Father’s love. I keep telling them that their hope is not in a man nor in a teaching, but in them letting Jesus teach them how loved they are by the Father and letting him come out of them.

Our exuberant welcome at the airport in Eldoret

Navigating the streets of Kitale.

Speaking in the Kitale meetings to people from all over this region and Uganda

Kitale is a frontier town in the upper reaches of Kenya. This is the street outside our window

Talking to some of the women about the violence they suffered during the tribal conflicts.

People fellowshipping during a break time outside the Kitale meetings

Who are those white boys in the center? A group shot of the Kitale meetings

The people gathered for our Sunday morning gathering

Children singing with joy, with the brothers from Uganda in the background

But coming alive in these things is not a quick process. Remember, Paul spent 17 years out learning from God before he started teaching others how to live this journey. It must be something we live first before we can ever help others see it. But I greatly admire the faith and resolve with which these people live. They are not like many of our congregations at home that live for their own amusement. In the overwhelming need of the people, they give themselves away to care for the poor, the widows and the orphans. I am amazed at their heart for God, even if they have only known religious ways of applying it. Perhaps God will open a door.

Last night we met some brothers who drove up 9 hours to visit with Kent and I. Johnny and Kate Brooks from Texas are living full-time in Kenya running some orphanages and caring for the poor just as God’s people in the earth. They are not part of any mission and are not planting a church in the traditional sense. They are living out missions from a relational context, simply loving people freely, meeting whatever needs they can, and for those who want to know the God they love, they help equip them. Kent and I have corresponded with them through email, but this was the first chance we had to cross paths. Johnny came up with two of the brothers he works with and will be here the next couple of days. We love what they are doing and how the grace of God is touching Kenya through their lives. If you’re looking for something on the mission field to bless check out their website.

I love that so many of you are praying for us. Much appreciated. Thanks for the encouraging notes. If I don’t answer them at all, nor not real quickly, please know that our time here with email and with the Internet is very limited. Please be patient and if you can hold emails that need a response until I get home on March 4. Thanks….

Kent and I arrived Monday night and are settling in to our two-week visit to Kenya. We spent the first day getting to know some of the people that planned for our coming and mapping out what was ahead. Then they gave us a tour of Nairobi. That’s them above hanging out with me in the city center. Unfortunately Kent took the photo so he’s not in it.

Then we took a flight north to Eldoret, and then a three-hour, sixty-mile drive, that would be impossible to describe here) up to Kitale. Let’s just say it had its scary and risky moments with the traffic, a very rough road, the pedestrians and some malfunctioning equipment on the vehicle. Needless to say Kent and I had some great laughs.

Now we are in the middle of our first conference here in Kitale, and hundreds of their church leaders have come from all over Kenya and some from Uganda to hear about living loved. I am working through an interpreter, which is always a bit more difficult, but I think the message is getting through. Let’s say I’m seeing just about the right amount of people really excited to hear it and some who look like they are deeply concerned that I might be a heretic. The grace and freedom of love sure runs counter to our religious sensibilities and things we think we’re supposed to do for God. But the questions they are asking tell me they are sorting through it. I’m grateful for that.

Unfortunately we’re not having a lot of personal contact with the participants due to language barriers and the way this was set up to deal with some harsh realities of Kenyan life. But I think God is having his way in spite of the limitations. One highlight was hearing from a group of ladies who lost husbands in the tribal violence two years ago. They saw their husbands beheaded and then were forced to carry their husband’s head on a stick through the village. Unbelievable! They sang with passion and joy about the Lord Jesus and the power of forgiveness. The people those areas that were affected by violence are working to bring together people from both sides of the conflict and build relationships they hope will prevent this from happening again should the political coalition collapse. It is still a great concern in this region.

Internet availability is very difficult here. I’m not sure we’ll be able to post very often, so this may be it for awhile, and I don’t even know when I’m going to be near enough an Internet connection to post this. Pray for us if God brings us to mind. We know many of you already are, and we’re incredibly grateful. There is much that makes this trip extremely difficult and I think the enemy has had no small hand in some of what we’re dealing with in the details of this trip and some of the realities of this culture.

It was a pretty honest time about our own journey and our hopes in marriage. It was taped and I’m hoping to put that in the audio library when we get some copies or a link to their site. They also asked me to stay over for three Sunday morning services. Did that bring back some memories! But instead of teaching their pastor and I sat at a table and talked about the challenge to live inside a relationship with Jesus and how some of the religious elements of Christianity do more to undermine that reality than support it. That was pretty cool and the people seemed to eat it up. That was so much more fun than giving a lecture, and I think had much more impact as well. The pastor told me later that CDs ordered after the service was off the charts.

I also want to share some quotes with you. Chalk this up to finding truth in the strangest of places. And I mean really strange.

A few months ago I read a book called Beautiful Lies. It caught my eye in a bookstore and I thought it might be an interesting mystery to read when I needed an escapist novel, like when I’m pounding that exercise bike. I can’t tell you that I love the book. Parts of it were interesting, other parts were more graphic than I enjoy, and a lot of it is more girlie than I want in a mystery, but I paid for it so I was determined to read it. But there were some magnificent observations in there that transcended the plot line of this book and have come to mind often sense. I thought I’d share them here:

When you love someone, it doesn’t really matter if they love you back or not. Having love in your heart for someone is its own reward. Or punishment, depending on the circumstances. (p.51)

Nobody likes people who speak a truth you’re not prepared to hear. (p. 132)

Isn’t it just like a man to pretend that trying to control you is the same as trying to protect you? (p. 134) (I don’t know that women get a pass on this experience either!)

I loved the festive spirit, the humor, and the intense spiritual passion and hunger of the people I met there. This is a very religious country as far as Christianity goes, but most of these were paying a price to live and think outside the normal religious expectations and seek to find meaningful engagement with God and other brothers and sisters. For those that want a taste of my time there, I thought I’d include some of the pictures here. Enjoy.

Friday night through Sunday afternoon we held a retreat for some 200 people, some from great distances, to talk about living loved and loving others. It was also broadcast live on the Internet for those who couldn’t come. (I am in the red shirt with my back to the camera.)




But if you know me, you know I much more involved the interactions with people after meetings, over meals and in quiet conversations. The dialog, question and answer and sharing of insights was always rich with a hunger to know the truth rather than to simply find what was comfortable to believe.






Jalber (right) and Orlanda (left) graciously opened their hearts, home, and their churrasco (bbq) to me and others that wanted to visit when I was there. They have a delightful family and we all shared a farewell feast together the night before I left. Those are their grandchildren in the picture.


Vivian was my mouth and ears in almost all of the conversations I had. She was a delight and had a personality not unlike my daughter’s, which made it really fun to navigate the culture and to work through the language together to help communicate with the people.

Such incredible memories and joy! They all begged me to come back some day. We’ll have to see when that might happen…

We had a weekend retreat where 200 people gathered to talk with me and it was broadcast live on the Internet. They had never heard of He Loves Me or Transitions. Unfortunately most of them do not speak English and I do not speak Portuguese, so I had to work through translators, which makes it a bit more difficult. But I’ve had some wonderful translators, and one young woman who just graduated from a college in the U.S. stays with me all the time to help with personal conversations. It has been wonderful to talk to so many people and hear what Jesus is revealing to them as well as helping them sort through some of their questions.

I’ve been talking nonstop since I arrived, so I’m pretty tired. We had a five-hour meeting last night in a home with scores of questions about how to live this life individually and corporately. I love the hearts of these people, what they already know of him and what he is shaping in their lives.

Let me tell you about one moment that touched me deeply. Saturday night I shared the teaching of the cross, which has had quite an impact. It is a view of the cross that has not been taught in Brazil so many are just processing it for the first time and we had some incredible dialog about all of that since. But it is always difficult to teach that content through translators because it is highly nuanced and I’m never sure how it is being interpreted.

When I finished, I sat down next to a young woman I know understands English. I leaned over to her and asked if she thought all that made sense. So much theology in so short a space, I wanted to make sure it had communicated through the translation.

She turned to me and her eyes were filled with tears. She whispered to me in the most awed, grateful, overwhelmed in a good way, and breathless voice, “I have never heard that before,” as if she just discovered a tender Father she’d never known before. And she cried.

And so did I. It moved me deeply to see how God had made himself known to her in such a simple yet profound way. If people ask why I travel around the world, crawling into cramped airplanes for hours on end, sleeping in beds that are not my own, eating strange foods I don’t always enjoy, missing Sara, my children and grandchildren as well as the comforts and joys of home, moments like this are the answer. That one moment would have made this entire trip worth it for me if nothing else had happened here. A daughter meets the Father she never knew she had.

And she cried tears of great joy as if she had just discovered a father she never knew she had. It moved me deeply to watch her new found joy

So, yes, I guess he communicated. It has been so transforming for her and so many others. Person after person came up to me at the end and told me how much this had shifted their thinking about God. Others have struggled to grasp it, as I did when I first heard it. You want to believe its true but so much religious tradition has taught us otherwise.

One man asked me why I to the risk to share that. Because I believe it the foundational reality on which all else is built. Most people see God as the tormentor of Jesus, rather than the Father who was in Christ reconciling the world to himself. Because of that so many Christians live our lives trying to appease a demanding, angry God instead of living in the affection of a gracious Father. If we don’t get that right, we’ll never learn what it means to grow in him, share life with his family, or love the world with the same compassion Jesus did. (If you haven’t heard some of this teaching you can listen to it free on our Transition page.)

One more day here, and then I fly home for the holidays with my family.

Sara and I have been home three days now and this has been my fastest recovery from an international trip. I have slept well through the nights and seem to be back on Pacific Standard Time.

Many have asked how our time went there and I’m going to post some of my reflections from this trip. Sara and I wandered across the breadth of South Africa meeting brothers and sisters from all over the spiritual map. Many of them I had met on a previous trip four years earlier, but we also met so many new ones to meet as well. What I loved throughout all the places we visited was the fresh and unbridled hunger to know the Father, Son, and Spirit and the passion to learn how to follow them in the simplicity of their daily lives.

What encouraged me most on this trip was seeing the progress that people had made in their own spiritual journeys since I was in South Africa four years ago. Nothing brings greater joy to my heart than seeing in practical ways the transformation God works in hearts who follow him. What frustrated me most about the old religion I used to observe is that no one seemed to change. Come back two years later and people were still in the same place, faithfully performing their religious rituals, but without a transforming relationship with Jesus. I loved seeing how he had moved people further down the journey since I was last in South Africa.

I also saw great progress in the culture as a whole. South Africa is in the midst of an unfathomable transition. Those who held power over the last 150 years of the region’s history have paid a huge price to expand opportunity and share power with all the people’s of South Africa. It has not been easy, but I constantly marveled at the hopeful and gracious attitude of those who have given up so much to find a fairer way forward for those who have so little. It is still a work in progress, and great tensions still exist in working all that out, but overall I find people working hard to get it right.

And I loved the hunger we saw in new people we met. We met some wonderful brothers and sisters, some just starting out on this journey and others who’ve been on it for years, not knowing there were others with similar hungers. Many been reading some of my books and listening to The God Journey podcasts and we’re finding increasing freedom from the rigidity of religion to embrace a real and enduring relationship with the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. We had some incredible discussions and conversations, some of which we were able to record and will make available at a future date when I can work through all of that.

From Pretoria we journeyed down to a three-day retreat in the Drakensberg, a majestic mountain range. Here over 100 believers gathered for the weekend. Then we went to Pietermaritzburg for an evening where we met in former prison now being converted to a community care center. The next morning we left for Durban, stopping at the Tala Game Reserve where we took the picture above and those below. Such amazing wildlife in Africa!

Three zebras out for lunch, and a rhino getting his share as well.

Then it was on to Durban to see the AIDs outreach that our friend Penny Dugan of New Jerusalem Ministries is facilitating in that region. We have been long-time supporters of this work and I have done lots of training for them in helping people to live loved. It has a wonderful place in our hearts and is shining the light of Jesus in a very dark corner of the world where the need is overwhelming. Their primary mission is to reach out to those infected with AIDs and provide care for the, but they also reach out to all kinds of needs to the people in that township and critical needs for food and medical care among so many of them. They also care for widows and orphans who have no where else to turn.

The Ukukhanya Life Care Centre that Sara and I have been involved with in the township of Ntzuma opened while we were there. The team there has converted an abandoned building into a care center to help with those living with AIDs and meet other needs in the township.


The township of Ntzuma, 500,000 people, 47% HIV positive. Numerous children here have no parents because they have already died from AIDs.


One of the staff puts the finishing touches on one of the newly refurbished rooms.

If you are looking for a place to share some of your abundance in the world with those who have so little, please give this place your consideration. The money is put to great use not only in South Africa but in the development of an AIDs care center near Wichita, KS as well. They have an amazing gift to reach into this area with the grace and light of Jesus.

Then it was on to our final weekend in the Cape Town area, where we met with three different groupings of believers over three days to share the journey and encourage people to follow that which Father had already put in their hearts. Cape Town is a beautiful area with overwhelming views and incredible people.

Wayne sharing the journey with brothers and sisters that packed into a home in West Somerset near Cape Town on our final day.


Sara and I at the end of the trip, windblown at Cape Point where the Indian and Atlantic Oceans converge.

All in all this was an incredible trip. Our hearts were knit with many people in that area who are learning to live loved and to love others. We were graciously received and cared for throughout our stay. We pray that God will continue to shine his light into their hearts and show many more people how to live in the fullness of his life and freedom.

Sara and I visited Constitutional Hill last night, which has the prisons from the old apartheid regime and the new Constitutional Court that protects the rights and dignity of all South Africans now. Interesting juxtaposition, with the promise of the future set right in the horrors of the past. It was done intentionally as a reminder of the inhumanity people can do to each other all in the name of grabbing power and security for themselves. Sobering and enlightening!

We had a delightful meeting with some hungry hearts in Pretoria last night. I loved their hunger and the courage of their journey to discover how to live loved and not just conform to the religious rituals they were raised in. How I wish we’d had more than just two hours to be together. I would have enjoyed knowing many of them so better and hearing their stories of life and freedom, but that is all we had this trip.

Thus, our offices will be closed from October 20 through November 3. We will have someone coming by to fill out orders for those who order via PayPal. We will also try to monitor phone messages as best we can, but we probably won’t return any until November 4. I’m sorry for any complication that causes you, but we’re just a couple of people trying to help others on this journey as best we can. Our Internet access and time to spend dealing with email will be severely limited during this time. If you can at all wait until we return to send us email, it will be much appreciated. If you send it anyway, please be patient as we try to respond. This is a very intensive trip to spend as much time with various people as we can. Some of my books are just releasing in Afrikaans and The Shack has been going strong in South Africa for over two years in English and was recently released in Afrikaans as well.

If you think of us while we’re away, please pray for us and the purposes God wants to unfold in the lives of the people we’ll be spending time with. Thanks.

Bo’s Café was released last week. It was written by the authors of Truefaced, John Lynch, Bill Thrall, and Bruce McNicol. This amazing story chronicles a young man whose life is being torn apart by his own anger, and confronts the reality of grace that unfolds in a way that takes him by surprise and makes him face the darkest corners of his heart. It’s available everywhere at the moment.

This is NOT a marriage book, but I still want to offer this warning. Guys, read this book before your wife does. If she reads it first she’s going to beg you to read it. If you don’t she’s going to put it on your nightstand and threaten not to have sex with you again until you do!

OK, that might be a bit overstated and I don’t sanction anyone holding sex expression hostage to getting their own way, but if you let the content of this story sink into your heart. You’ll be a better husband, or wife, or friend, or colleague, or brother or sister. Grace can change us in ways that law and performance never will. God knows that. He wants you to know it too!

Pick it up. You won’t regret it. We did an interview about the book four our podcast last week with the authors. If you haven’t heard it, you might want to give it a listen.

I’m even more convinced today that hacking, virus-creating and spamming ought to be capital offenses. They cause no end of time, expense and hassle, all because people want to make mischief, mostly for their own amusement or ranking in the dark side of the Internet.

The Internet is an environment that is totally man-created, not subject to any of the sicknesses and disease that wage war against our bodies. And in this pristine environment some have found joy in creating diseases, hacking people’s efforts, and trying to hijack other people’s work for profit or amusement. Makes you wonder, doesn’t it? If sin hadn’t brought sickness into the world, then surely we would have done it to ourselves. Doing harm to others, exploiting people’s vulnerabilities, and creating hardship for self-gain is where the seamier side of human nature sinks.

So the next time you’re tempted to blame God for all the evil, sickness and pain in the world, maybe you might want to consider that it isn’t God’s doing at all. This is what human nature allows and what it thrives on. We don’t always do it in such overt ways as the Internet junk squad, but every time we think of ourselves above the people around us, treat our needs as more important than the person next to us, or wittingly or unwittingly create hardship for others we add to the brokenness of our world.

Conversely, whenever we put others above ourselves, act in kindness toward another person or seek to heal the brokenhearted we participate in God’s unfolding kingdom in the world. See Luke 4:18-19, where Jesus reads from the prophet Isaiah. There’s two very opposite spirits at work in the world. He is not the destroyer; he is the redeemer.

Two weeks before I was near Anderson, Indiana and did an interview with a pastor whose congregation has also been reading He Loves Me and So You Don’t Want to Go to Church Anymore. You can hear the. interview at Ovid Community Church here.

Also, I was interviewed by Forbes magazine a couple of weeks ago (as was Paul and Brad) about the publishing phenomenon behind The Shack. It was an interesting interview and the reporter seemed to keep coming back to the fact that we haven’t done all the things normal publishers do to maximize their profit. It’s supposed to be in their June 8 issue, which is the one-year anniversary of The Shack appearing as number one on the NY Times Bestseller List. I’m not sure if that’s going to be an how-did-these-idiots-not-exploit-this-work-for-all-they-could, or here’s-what-it’s-like-when-people-are-passionate-about-a-mission-instead-of-serving-mammon. It should be interesting. (Note added later: Just checked the June 8 issue at the airport and it’s not in there. Maybe it will be in the June 15 issue?)

This has been a crazy week here, meeting with some wonderful people and checking out some new doors that God seems to be opening. Yesterday we met with some executives from Walmart who want to take on “He Loves Me” and “So You Don’t Want to Go to Church Anymore” as titles they want to promote in their stores. Who would have guessed? They said “So You Don’t Want to Go to Church Anymore” has bounced around between #10 and #6 on the religious fiction bestseller lists for the last few weeks. I had no idea.

I have noticed that my email load has ramped up tremendously with the increase readership brought to these two books because people enjoyed THE SHACK and wanted to see what else Windblown offers. Honestly, I wasn’t initially thrilled with “So You Don’t Want to Go to Church Anymore” being so prevalent in the culture. That book was written for a very specific audience, not so much for the general public. But maybe God knew better than I did. (Imagine that!) I’ve been shocked at how many people have resonated with the message of that book. I even know congregations whose leadership are studying that book and rethinking how they view church. Pretty amazing! Oh, yes, a few folks hate it, but what are you going to do?

I got this the other day from a Christian church pastor in Texas:

I just wanted to say “thank you” for your book, “So You Don’t Want to Go to Church Anymore”. God has been moving me on a journey for several years, and I am coming to a point in my journey of a transition (but am waiting and trusting God to be clear of timing and opportunity). I wanted to thank you not only for the book, but also for the way in which it was written and the Spirit behind it. It has been a God-send for me, and especially at a time where I had many of the same questions. Several books I’ve read just seem to wreak of bitterness and control in another form. Yours, however, was easy to read (well, in some ways), but also got to the heart of the issue for me and opened my eyes to things that I wasn’t even aware of. I so appreciated it and will recommend it to people as God leads. It’s amazing how God does connect you to people on a similar journey as you are moving through your own.

In any case, those books are gaining a wider reading and our publishing partner has made arrangements for a publicity campaign that will go on for the next couple of months to help people be aware of those books. I am thrilled with the opportunity to make God more widely known in our culture. I’d love your prayers about this, not so much for the success of the books (what does that mean anyway?), but for people to find them who need them most at this moment of their lives.

I’m just finishing editing work on two other titles that Windblown Media will release this fall. One is a novel called “Bo’s Cafe” by the men who wrote Truefaced, and it is as amazing a story about a man confronting grace as I’ve ever read. His marriage is in trouble and his attempts to fix it is only driving his wife further away. Will he learn to embrace the only thing that will save his marriage and himself—God’s extravagant grace? We’re also doing “The Misunderstood God: The Lies Religion Tells About God”. It is a remake of Darin Hufford’s book, “The God’s Honest Truth.” Those will be out this fall and I can’t wait for some of you to read them.

OK. Gotta run. Bags to pack. Family to say goodbye to. Blessings on you all.

I’ve also planned trips in the next couple of months to Knoxville, TN and to Atlanta, GA. So I guess I’m back on the road again.

I also recommended this book on a recent podcast of The God Journey and wanted to make sure you’ve heard about it if you’re looking for a children’s Bible for kids in the 3 – 7 age range. A friend recommended it to me and it has become my granddaughter’s favorite book. She loves it, and what’s even better is that all the stories are framed in grace, with a relational God wanting to reconnect with his fallen children. It’s called The Jesus Storybook Bible by Sally Lloyd Jones with art by Jago. It’s tag line is “Every story whispers his name” and then makes the loving God part of every story. This is a great resource to share the Scriptures with your young children… And maybe even your older ones. I loved it and can’t wait to read more of those stories to Aimee.

Finally, I got this email the other day. I love the heart and spirit of it, so I wanted to pass it along to you as well. It captures the simple freedom of just living in grace.

I just wanted to write to you to tell you how much your book So You Don’t Want to Go To Church Anymore, the story of Jake Colsen, has meant to me. It was six years ago that we left a church where I had served as the children’s pastor. I thought I was there to help children become followers of Jesus, but the “power” of the church had other ideas. I have lived with the pain of the situation for so long thinking that God didn’t love me or have a plan for me and had no place for me in his kingdom.

In the six years since leaving, I have begun a totally new career and have really started to see how ministry seems much more fruitful and more satisfying not being part of anything organized. All my years of theological training though seem to make me feel that it was not adequate if it was not done through the church. Your book was like it was written specifically to me. Some of the things that Jake said is exactly how I had felt and was feeling. I now am starting to see such a different way of looking at the journey that God has for me.

One phrase that I have continued to recite to myself all the time from the book is, “You need to follow him, even when it creates conflict. Always be gentle and gracious to everyone, but never compromise what is in your heart just to get along.” This quote has given me so much strength to realize that it was okay to create conflict because of what God was doing in my heart and telling me to do. Going forward, I know I need to just keep tender towards God and his word and be strong in what He is telling me to do. God will need to take care of the conflict.

Thank you so much for writing this book and what it has meant to so many people. Someone recommended the book to me, and I have certainly recommended it to many other people since reading it last weekend. I can tell the people who are not ready to read it as they look at me with a blank stare when I give them the name of the book. I can not fully express to you the freedom that I have felt since reading the book.

How do we follow him? Live loved. Live free. Live gently with others and let Jesus take care of the fall-out. If we live only to avoid conflict, we may find ourselves avoiding him. I liked what Martin Luther said: “Peace if possible, but truth at any rate.”

Canadian residents can order the video directly through Crown Video.

Also, tomorrow I leave for a ten-day trip through Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota. Find out more on our Travel Page. It’s hard to believe we’re in the waning days of summer. It has flown by here!

One more picture! This was the view from our chalet last night in the village of Rougemont in the Swiss Alps.

Sara and I just returned from two days in that area with our hosts Silvio and Dominique Viotti. We have had a great time with this dear brother and sister and their family. We have laughed ourselves silly more times than I can count. A couple of years ago Silvio translated SO YOU DON’T WANT TO GO TO CHURCH ANYMORE into French and is just finishing up on HE LOVES ME. They have been warm and gracious to us and have showed us the incredible beauty of their country. They have also introduced us to a number of their friends on Sunday as we had a bbq out in a park and shared about Father’s life together.

Tomorrow Sara and I board a Swiss Air jet from Geneva for the flight home. I’ve been gone 3 weeks, traveled hundreds of miles and am looking forward to a night or two in my own bed at home.

Finally, we just found out that the NY Times published an article today on THE SHACK, which has now had four weeks at #1 on their Trade Fiction list. Christian Novel Is Surprise Best Seller traces the rise of THE SHACK by William P. Young, calling it “the most compelling recent example of how a word-of-mouth phenomenon can explode into a blockbuster when the momentum hits chain bookstores, and the marketing and distribution power of a major commercial publisher is thrown behind it.”

On Friday we hiked up to the rocky nob of the hill that you can see on the picture from my last blog. It is to the left above where we are staying. The view was breathtaking. The picture above is the view to the south and the picture below the view to the north of the small village where we have been staying. The weather has been fabulous, if a bit warm. Sunny every day and the landscape is green and luscious.

Today we are off to the Alps for a two-day expedition! This should be fun. Then, it is home on a big Swiss Air jet.

Sara and I left Germany this morning and arrived in Switzerland. The previous day we trained down to the southern border of Germany and were taken on a beautiful drive through the Black Forest. What a great time we had! Then this morning we took a train into Switzerland. That’s us outside the capital city of Bern before we spent the midday touring the city. We climbed to the top of the Cathedral tower in the background for a breathtaking, if not queasy, view of the area.

I had such a tremendous time in Germany. The ‘Jake’ book has become a huge seller there and most people I met with had already read it and were ready to interact with me about its content. I was so blessed by the people I met, the hunger they had, and their openness to follow Jesus instead of the rituals or demands of religion.

I love it that Jesus is stirring a common passion all over the world. It is not being led by any person, but the Holy Spirt is disillusioning people with the emptiness of our religious dogma and practice, to invite us into a real relationship with him. The only frustrating part of the trip was being unable to speak the language and not spending enough time in each place to get to know people as well as I hoped. But I was warmly and graciously received by people all over the country.

Now we are holed up in the village of Vallorbe along the French border west of Lausanne. This is the view out of the home we’re staying in. And what’s more, we actually get five nights sleeping in the same bed! How fun is that?

Today I had a bit of a break and went down to see the parade ground where Hitler held his public rallies. We toured the museum there and learned how he built his power over people by marginalizing, excluding, and even exterminating anyone who didn’t show a passion for his rule or tactics. It was sobering. So much of the language we heard was similar to what’s going on from those inside organized religion who want to challenge anyone who dares to question its authority, methodology or effectiveness of teaching people how to live in Father’s love.

What I have enjoyed about the trip is not only those in their 50s and 60s who have found fresh life in Jesus, but also the number of young people here who are passionate about a greater life in Jesus. They are not so much burned out by the rituals of religion as much as they are hungry to know an authentic life in Jesus that they didn’t find there to begin with. In every meeting I’ve been to there has been young, hungry, engaged men and women who are looking for what life in Jesus is really all about. It has been so encouraging. The Spirit is calling to a new generation to come to him in the freedom of simply learning to live as the Father’s children in the earth and not get lost in the religious activity of generations that preceded them. Amazing!

This is what we must encourage not discourage. If you care about God’s church in the earth you will discourage them or try to bring them into conformity with our tired religious practices. Interestingly enough, I received this email over the last couple of days from Becky back in the States that seemed to address this very thing:

I’m a 23 year old Christian who left “the box” 2 years ago. I was raised in church and after witnessing 3 pastoral affairs and 2 church splits, I threw up my hands and walked away. If that was God, I didn’t want Him. I didn’t know what to do. My decision to leave the church was against everything I’ve been taught here in the Bible Belt, but at the same time it was a decision that felt as right as choosing God in the first place. Interestingly enough, I had my first real and authentic conversation with God after I left the church. Although it was mostly filled with anger, it was the first time I allowed myself to be real with God. I spent my entire life in this passive aggressive state because all the formulaic prayers and activities didn’t lead to the life the Bible talked so much about. It seemed no matter what I did, I couldn’t feel alive and whole like the Bible said….

Reading The Shack last year changed a lot. I have never felt such a sense of relief after reading something. If that God is who God really is, THAT’S a God worth worshipping! I no longer had to be someone I wasn’t in order to love Him. What a relief. And although I feel confident in my decision now more than ever, I still often struggle with it. If this mindset is true, then why is it a 23 year old in 2008 was the first to figure it out? And that’s where you come in…. I’m starting from the beginning on your podcasts and plan to listen to them all. I just have to say thank you. It’s nice to know people older, with much more wisdom, education, and experience feel the same way.

I hear this so often from people. Who am I to think that these systems might be leading us astray? Wouldn’t those who are more intelligent or more experienced see it before I do? And if people don’t put that on themselves, those who set themselves up as leaders will do it for them. I can’t tell you how many people have faced a dismissive attitude from an elder or pastor with the same comment: “Who are you to think you can hear God better than me? If God were speaking those things today, wouldn’t he say it to me first?”

My answer to Becky would be, “Why not you?” Why not a twenty-three year old girl who simply wants to know Jesus? When Jesus was here he was excited when the simplest people captured the vision for his kingdom. He greatly rejoiced before God at such moments, grateful that God had revealed himself not to the wise and learned who were so busy trying to keep people under their authority, but to common people and children.

Wouldn’t we want to ask ourselves why our so-called leaders discourage what Jesus so blatantly affirmed? I wonder.

So, why not Becky? She is his—beloved daughter of the Most High God. He knows where she is and how to bring her along to where he wants her to be.

Why would God show her what others have missed?

Maybe it’s because her simple heart is unclouded by the need to build a group of people into an efficient organization. Maybe it’s because she doesn’t draw her salary from the success of her program and ideas. And maybe her vocational success isn’t tied to corralling a group of people under her control. If the truth be told most of those leaders who discourage people like Becky one day began with a heart just like Becky’s before it got confused by the obligations of building a Christian organization.

I don’t know about you, but I’d rather rejoice with Becky and encourage her to keep going. Keep coming to him and follow him as best as you can see him. Feel free to make some mistakes in the process and he will teach you how to live in his freedom and his glory.

Why not her?

Why not you?

Every morning I’ve been here, I’ve been able to take a long walk in the woods while Jesus and I get to sort some things out. One morning three of us slipped some kayaks in the lake and wound our way upstream enjoying the turtles sunning on the logs, the beaver slinking on the bank and the herons and hawks overhead. What a beautiful quiet morning!

Last weekend I spent three days in Connecticut with a bunch of Lutherans who are as alive in Christ as any I’ve met. We had a fabulous time, sorting through the life of Jesus and how to live beyond the rules and rituals to embrace the fullness of his life. They are asking some intriguing questions and seem to be on an incredible journey. I love finding hearts like that in more traditional settings. God is inviting all kinds of people into an engagement with his transforming love. What a great time!

Then I headed north into Fitchburg for a Sunday night BridgeBuilders presentation to a group of home schoolers at a regional debate and speech tournament. That’s a pretty broad swath to cut in the body of Christ in one day—from a Lutheran high-church liturgy to a home schooling convention. I almost got spiritual whiplash. This usually is not the core audience for my BridgeBuilders passions, since these groups often have a more adversarial posture with the world than I think effectively communicates the gospel. But I was warmly received and the adults and children listened intently when I talked. I even had some good interactions with many there, so they didn’t seem to fit the same mold I’ve experienced elsewhere.

Then I settled in Central Massachusetts for the week. I have many dear friends here and have enjoyed catching up with many of them this week as well as meeting some of their friends and relatives. For the next three days I will be meeting with believers who are gathering in Whitinsville, MA from a eight different states here in the Northeast. This was supposed to be a small gathering of family and friends to talk through some of the Transitions material, but it has grown over the last two weeks. We even had to rent wedding tent and set it up on a farm to accommodate the crowd who are headed this way.

It should be a pretty amazing weekend. A lot of those coming are wonderful friends of mine and many of their friends. I can’t wait to see how this plays out. But I do hope people are drawn to greater reality in him, and make connections with each other that will nurture the work of God in the world!

All the while I’ve been following a number of developments on the publishing front and the movie possibilities that I will report in a future blog… But for now there are more people to see and more fellowship to have. Blessings!

I was going to share a bit about Sara and my weekend in Stratford, Ontario a couple of weeks ago, but instead I’ll let the folks there do it for me. The photo at left captures a conversation out by the barbecue that I had with Brad, a brother who joined us for the weekend. A couple of days ago I received wonderful surprise in my email—a document where a lot of the folks who gathered with us had shared their reflections of the weekend. There’s some cool stuff in here about God’s working among us, in their own words. It’s amazing how many different things he can do over the same weekend with so many different people in the exact same locale. If you want to hear my thoughts on the weekend, you can check out today’s podcast, which covers a bit of it.

Here are excerpts of their reflections. I’ve left off names, because they didn’t write these for publication and some are wonderfully personal and I didn’t want to take advantage of that. Thanks to all who contributed their comments. Sara and I were deeply, deeply touched.

You served as a ‘flagpole’ providing an opportunity to allow us all to come together and make contact. It was neat to hear of such similar journeys. The Lord is calling us closer and closer to Himself and that means that we are bypassing all the things that made up ‘our life’. It’s the Lord who takes it from here. We love your part in this.

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Our weekend together was a special blessing to us to reconnect with a few old friends we haven’t seen in years and to hear some of what the Lord has been doing in their hearts. Then to meet quite a number of others face to face with whom we have communicated by email in the past but never met in person was also a thrill. And then on top of all that, to meet so many others for the very first time who are also on the same journey was such an encouragement to our hearts. We were truly blessed and encouraged by you all! “Thank you” Wayne and Sara, and “Thank you” to everyone else who shared a bit of yourselves with us in Stratford last weekend!!!

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I guess for me it would be that God is bigger than I had anticipated. He’s bigger than my lack. He’s bigger than my mind can fathom. He’s bigger than my doubts and fears. He’s bigger than my failures and He’s bigger than my “triumphs”. This past weekend with Wayne & Sara just made me want Him all the more. The desperation/angst/longing resides in me. How He’ll answer that is yet to be seen. But He’s bigger than that isn’t He?

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

A thought came to my mind as I observed Wayne and Sara… a long way from California…and family… on hard chairs all afternoon… with people they do not know… sharing a message that is hard to both grasp and live out because of our propensity to (performance) … this is a couple that has certainly given up a lot in their journey with Father… in order to (be with) us. I feel humbled, honoured touched and thankful.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

The short time I was with everyone was a nice relaxing time of yakking with others. God continued to impress upon me the privilege of listening to Him and making decisions to step out on what I believe is from Him.”

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Meeting Wayne and Sara was a delight…. I was able to catch a glimpse of what body life just might be like while we were gathered together over that weekend. The rippling effects of so many hearts being connected is a treasure that continues to enrich my journey with Him.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

The most powerful message that I heard throughout the weekend with Wayne was that we really can trust God with our life, with the lives of those in our circle of influence and in the lives of the people we will meet in the days to come. He is more than enough for all of us.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

For me (besides the joy of getting to spend time with Wayne and Sara), the most delightful aspect of the weekend was interacting with others. Reconnecting with people we knew from our past life in the institution and meeting new folk on journeys similar to our own was exhilarating and eye opening. Despite the diversity of our backgrounds, I was struck by how much we had in common in our desire to know the Lord as life – and not as a dead religion. I also realized how much I need to learn to relax, but that’s another story!

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

It was great to be able to meet with many new people spread about South-western Ontario. I enjoyed the conversations and just “being” together with others on similar and unique journeys. Wayne and Sara, you are wonderful members of this great family of Christ and I am enriched by knowing you a little more than (just) through the books and podcasts. You are a great encouragement to me and to so many others that I know.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

I have been overwhelmed by what the Lord did in my heart last weekend! Something was broken that had held me in bondage for far too long. You may find this hard to believe, but not only did I enjoy a wonderful stress-free workweek. I was even able to joke with a troublesome male co-worker—and he joked back! I was so unlike my former self. Instead of focusing on my troubles as you suggested, I began to ask the Lord expectantly, “What do you have in store for me today?” and He certainly has not disappointed—quite the opposite, in fact. The most wonderful thing that happened has to do with my relationship with my adult daughter. It has often been strained. Yesterday, we went shopping and had the best time we’d had in many years! We laughed, had fun and talked meaningfully about things that were bothering her. I believe she sensed my new ability to relax and accept her for who she is, and that made all the difference. I honestly haven’t felt this free in years!

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It was a delight to meet with other believers and share in their journeys as we find greater and lasting intimacy with our Father apart from the framework of religious obligation and legalism. Wayne, I love how you avoid becoming “entangled once again” even in these newfound liberties. I am loath to trade institutionalism for ‘out-of-the-box-ism’. Somehow it strokes pride in me to think that I’m on the ‘cutting edge’ and I know I don’t want to go there again! In this regard, I’m glad you did not encourage any of those attitudes but rather exposed that thinking for what they are; arrogant and divisive.

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We just had the most fun today! (One of the couples) we had never met prior to the weekend (visited our home. They arrived at 2 PM and we talked non-stop about the Lord for over three hours. Then they treated us to dinner at your favorite restaurant and we fellowshipped for another two hours! What a joy it was to hear their stories and to gain two new friends in the process. It’s as if we’d known them for years! In August, we’re planning to visit some of the people we met on the weekend who live two to four hours away. For most of us, leaving the institution meant embarking on a very lonely and isolated journey, but as a direct result of our weekend together we’ve discovered a gold mine of wonderful, like-minded brothers and sisters we never knew existed. How cool is THAT?

For those Canadians further west, it looks like I’ll be in Alberta during the middle part of September. And the weekend of August 17-19, I’ll be up in the Tahoe area hanging out with some fellow-travelers as well!

I wish I’d had more time during this brief stay at home to put down more of my thoughts from my time in Ireland. I’m sure that will filter out in articles and blogs to come, but being home only a few days has only allowed me to keep some of the correspondence and paperwork at bay. It’s amazing all the stuff that has to be done just to keep available the resources we do. Our podcast at The God Journey for this Friday, July 20, will be all about the Ireland experience and include some recorded observations from others who were there. I think you’ll enjoy it. It will be called “Friends, and Friends of Friends”.

For some other perspectives of our time in Ireland, you can check out these two blogs from two others who participated and wrote of it: Stephan Vosloo of South Africa and David Fredrickson from Sacramento, CA.

We are so blessed at all the emails and comments we’re receiving on The Shack since it’s May 1 release. People from all over the world have been captured by this little book and we’re hearing it is being recommended in some incredible places. Eugene Peterson has recommended it in writing workshops, a former FBI profiler is recommending it to people who’ve lost children in traumatic events, counselors are recommending it to clients who are dealing with conflicts about God’s reality in the midst of tragedy, and a number of influential writers are also excited about the book and recommending to their readers. We have added distributors in the U.K. and will have one soon in South Africa. I’m so blessed that others are finding this book as rewarding and powerful as I did when I first read it.

This week we also launched our new Windblown Media website to handle distribution of that book and future reprints of my own. We are currently putting the finishing touches on a second edition of He Loves Me, since we’ve only got a few books left here from the first printing. If you want to check out the new cover design, click here. I’ve revised it a bit and added a new final chapter to help people who are captured by the message of the book, but unsure how that becomes real in their own life. We should have those available by September 1.

Here’s a quote from an email I received today… I love the focus of it, especially the concluding comment:

Three years ago we became facilitators for a home group in our church—this was the high point of our spiritual lives, so to speak. We have absolutely loved every minute of it. A few days ago the Lord said to step down and let another couple take over. I was heart broken.

I prayed and prayed, I cried, I asked God what could possibly replace this. One hour later a neighbor whose husband ran out on her came over devastated that she couldn’t pay her brother to cut her grass and her dogs wouldn’t go out to “potty.” I quickly told her I would be glad to do it. Afterwards, I told her we understood how tough things were for her and said that if she need to, she could talk to my wife. The poor thing just broke down crying and said thanks. Later while seeking God again, I asked what I was going to do after home group. It is like I could see Him smiling as he said, “You’ve already started what is next!” WOW! What a marvelous God.

I guess I was still looking for a ministry, but God called me to a relationship

Well, that about does it. I hope you’re getting some rest and relaxation in this summer if you’re in the northern hemisphere, and enduring a not too brutal winter if you’re down south! We are always blessed by the wonderful email we get from people who are on this journey, from experienced veterans and from those just starting out with a bit of trepidation at moving away from some comfortable forms with the disapproval of friends. May God grant us all the grace to keep our eye on him and live in the reality of his incredible affection for each of us.

I fly home tomorrow into the arms of the love of my life, for which I can’t wait. But also into jaws of trauma and pain that some of our dearest friends are going through. I’m not sure when I’ll update again, but your prayers, should God put us on your hearts would be most welcome.

I’ll leave you for now with this. I ran across this quote the other day in the manuscript of a friend. It describes an awesome place of freedom:

The pleasure of pride is like the pleasure of scratching. If there is an itch one does want to scratch; but it is much nicer to have neither the itch nor the scratch. As long as we have the itch of self-regard we shall want the pleasure of self-approval; but the happiest moments are those when we forget our precious selves and have neither but have everything else (God, our fellow humans, the garden and the sky) instead.

C.S. Lewis

Religion is trying to stop the scratching in the midst of the itch.

Life in Jesus is losing the itch so there is no desire to scratch.

And how do we lose the itch? Only as we come to recognize and live in the reality of Father’s love do all our itches fade away to nothingness. Ask him! He’ll show you!

Some have been at it with this bunch for 30 years or more, some 10 or 15 and some just showed up in the middle of a bunch of friends celebrating their life in Christ and jumped right in to participate in those relationships as well. So did it just happen? In one sense, it did! In another sense, however, this is the fruit of something he has been doing for some time as people following him have given themselves to the relationships Jesus provided for them. Connecting his body this way is not a quick process, but it’s fruit is awesome!

I can think of hundreds of people I wish were here and their probably hundreds of others who wish they were here. I can understand how powerful this would be for those who feel isolated and hunger for more Godly connections. But this is just one connecting point that is bringing together a lot of different pools of relationship. It is not the end of anything, but just part of an ongoing process of Jesus knitting his family together. Rarely does that process take on the expression it has here, but when it does it is the fruit of a work he has been doing for some time. Let me point out some bits of that process to you, that I see reflected in this occasion and which might put you at peace with where he has you in this process.

First, Connect with Jesus

It all begins here. Remember body life does not produce the life of Jesus, only Jesus does that. The church can never be our source of life, it is the fruit of that life being borne in us. Let your relationship with him grow. If you don’t know any others, just lean in close to him and keep your eyes open. He may just want you to himself for a time so that he is the only one you’ll be dependent on. In time he will begin to connect you in the simple joy of—

Twos and Threes

The heart of body life is not found in large gatherings, believe it or not. Just as Jesus said it is perhaps best expressed wherever two or three gathering in his name. That can happen by scheduling time to share a meal or an outing together, or it can happen just because you cross paths in a store and decide to hang back for a moment and enjoy each other’s company. Relationships grow best in small conversations where people just get to know each other. Trying to form groups is a poor substitute for this, and often they subvert the process of true relationships growing.

Those who’ve had a role to play in facilitating what is happening in Ireland are people who have given themselves to these kinds of relationships for years. They are not about building groups or fulfilling ministries, but simply letting God connect them with others and investing time in those relationships, whether it be over the Internet or face to face. In time those pools of twos and threes find themselves with—

Growing Connections

Someone once said you know you’re truly someone’s friend when they share their other friendships with you. There are some intersecting people here, who have helped bring their relationships alongside other relationships. What a glorious thing it is as God begins to let us see a network of friendships locally, regionally or globally that have interrelationships with each other! I love seeing some of my dear friends becoming friends with some other of my dear friends. They can sit down to a meal together, focus on some growth together or help others meet that will be of mutual benefit.

When I was in Bournemouth last week, I met a lovely young couple that had just immigrated to the UK from South Africa. They knew a couple I’d spent some time with in South Africa who in turn knew an elderly couple living near them outside London. They made that connection. That couple connected them with another young couple in Bournemouth who let them know I was coming a few weeks later. They came down to meet me as well as the couple in Bournemouth. This week I am in Ireland with the couple from South Africa who started it all and the elderly couple from London, whom I will introduce to you all in a future podcast. And the only reason I knew the family from South Africa, is because the people here in Ireland commended them to me when I was headed to South Africa. And that happened because in a trip long ago to the U.K. some Irish folks invited me to visit here. Do you hear the knitting needles bringing together—

The Wider Family

Now a hundred of us or more are spending some days together in Ireland representing about a dozen countries. Those from out of the area or staying in the homes of people here who have maintained contact with each other over 30 years without trying to manage an institution to tie them together, which is most probably why they are still together. We are spending a week together in and out of each other’s homes, one day meeting for a picnic and fellowship under a marquee in a field, and on another day jumping in a tour bus together and tasting a bit of the history and culture of this part of Ireland.

All along relationships are still connecting and growing. Even in these expressions of the wider family that encompasses the whole world, those moments of twos and threes or eights and tens are still where people really get to know each other as the family continues to grow. And threaded throughout those conversations is what Jesus is doing in our lives and what he has shown us of himself.

One can’t help but wonder how many other of these networked relationships scatter our globe, and how easy it will be for Jesus to connect them when he is ready. Only two people have to cross paths for separate bits of the family to connect. What a joy it is to be with people who have no desire to manage God’s working or to manipulate others with their pet theologies or need to control others for their desired outcome. Living loved and sharing that love is really more than enough to give expression to this incredibly family.

And it all begins when people simply connect with Jesus and learn to live in the reality of his love. As they give time and attention to those relationships he puts before them and the connections that follow will dazzle us all!

One of the joys of this trip, too, is that I’ve had a lot of wireless connections, so that Sara and me have had regular video chats via Skype. And last night I got to talk to and see y daughter and granddaughter as well. Wonderful! But right now, I’m sitting in my upstairs room in the countryside with a lovely view of green gardens and trees all around. It is quite peaceful and I’ve had a blessed morning connecting with Jesus, catching my breath and working on some backlogged computer things. And how I’ve needed that this morning!

The last week is a bit of a blur. Sometimes I cram too much into my schedule and last week might have been a good example. I was a night in London before coming down for three days in Bournemouth. Then I flew to Holland for two quick days and then back to Bournemouth for two more. Each day has been quite full whether I’ve been sharing with people, doing a bit of touring, or connecting to planes and trains. That’s me above on Wednesday morning seeing a bit of Amsterdam before flying back to the UK. Fred, a wonderful brother showed me the city. We even got a chance to take a boat through the canals and catch the beauty and flavor of the city. The day before I’d toured an old fortress in the Dutch countryside with some other people I met here. I even got to play around of golf in England. And all of that was filled with conversations about Jesus and his work in our lives. It’s all been grand, but it has finally caught up to me.

I have met with folks form all over the continuum of spiritual journeys, from those who wanted to defend their systems, to those freshly disillusioned, to those who are well on this journey learning to live deeply in God without all the bondage of religious obligation. I’ve enjoyed everyone I’ve met and we’ve wandered into some fascinating and sometimes hilarious conversations.

One of the themes that has been consistent in this trip that Jesus wants to show each of us how to follow him and disconnect our dependency of following another man’s methods or models. Whenever we are following a strategy, we are not following him. Whenever we look for someone else to tell us what we should be doing, we are not following him. When we try to implement a model of discipleship or church life, we are not following him. It’s not at the example and words of others can’t be helpful in sorting out our own journey, but they dare not become a substitute for the gift he has given us all to love him, listen to him, and to follow the Lamb wherever he goes.

But we do have 1800 years of Christian religious history that argues against that hope and freedom, convincing people to passively follow another, instead of learning to listen and follow him! Nothing more divides between religion and reality, than whether Jesus is the one we’re following, or whether we’re trying to find his life in an institution or another human being.

I pray you have an increasing hope in his ability to teach you how to follow him and to live deeply in his life while he takes shape in you!

We’re also designing a new cover and inside format. That is all being copy edited over the next few weeks and then we’ll go into production. Hopefully this one will have fewer errors in it than did the first one. The errors in the first one have always been an embarrassment to me. It resulted from a printing error on the part of the publisher. Though we had corrected it one final time, the wrong file ended up being sent to the printer, which meant there were 47 errors in the first edition.

When I discovered it, I wanted it reprinted to take out all of the errors. But that would have cost the typesetter significantly, one who could least afford to pay it. I felt at the time that God wanted me to just leave things as they were and that he would be honored in it. Part of that I know meant a bit of my own dying to have the book as perfect as it could be. I felt it every time someone wrote me to point out all of the errors. I always thanked them and went back through it again to make sure they didn’t catch anything we always caught. Some were quite upset about it, but I trust God worked through that, too. It must be hard for them to go through life always expecting perfection and being frustrated when they see mistakes her and there.

Despite that lesson, we’re paying a professional copy editor to get this one as right as we can. At least it won’t have the glaring mistakes of the old one. The new books should be ready about mid August, or so we hope. We also hope we have enough of the first edition to get us to August…

Also, in a few hours I head for the airport for an overnight flight to London. From there I’ll be spending 5 days in Bournemouth, UK, then fly over for two days in the Netherlands, then back for two final days in Bournemouth and then on June 22 I fly over to Dublin, Ireland for a 10 day stay.

So many folks have been in touch with me about this trip, that I am excited about the folks around Bournemouth where we’re going to talk about the cross. Then it’s on to Holland where I’ve never been before to meet some people I’ve only corresponded with on the Internet. In Dublin, 40 or so people from all over the world (Australia, South Africa, New Zealand, Zimbabwe, Europe, and the U.S.) who have been on this journey of living in Christ relationally have been drawn to come to Dublin about the same time to just hang out together and see what Father might show us. Many of these I’ve met before, though most haven’t met each other. I am excited about the things Jesus might show us while we’re together.

As always, your prayers are greatly appreciated. Also, your patience, since I never have as much time to keep up with email while I’m on the road.

I promised you a picture from my home-away-from home near Palmer, Alaska last weekend. What an amazing time with folks in various seasons of their journeys from religious obligation into the freedom of the life of Jesus! It made for some interesting large-group large-group discussions and even more wonderful bits of personal time with various people couples, and families. These were wonderful days and the weather was even perfect for them! It was sunny every day, but being from Southern Cal, I would have prefered more clouds and rain! But they were happy as could be!

But the flight home was my worst trip ever. I caught the flu somehow and came down with it as my flight left Anchorage. Alternating between sweating fevers and freezing chills with nausea and aches I made my way home to Denver then to California. I got home as sick as I’ve ever been in the last 15 years or so, and have been wiped out ever since.

I’m recovering now, but weak and woefully behind on just about everything lining up for my attention these days. So if you’re waiting for me to respond to you, please be patient. Also a dear friend and his wife from Australia arrived a day earlier than we’d anticipated, but we’re so blessed they are here and looking forward to a weekend of fellowship with them. It’s a holiday for us in the States, so I am looking forward to relaxing and sharing life with our friends and others who’ll come by to join us.

Many of these have connected with me through the podcasts. I’ve had a ball. Now I’m in Anchorage for the day and fly out on a red-eye tonight. So, think of me when you put your head on a pillow tonight… I’ll be coveting a more horizontal sleep configuration.

Yesterday I got this email and know it is a question many others have as well. It fit in so well with so many things we’ve all been talking about this weekend:

I’ve been enjoying listening to the Transitions teachings and over the last couple of days have been pondering the parable of the prodigal son. The things you said strike a chord in my heart and it’s what I really believe about God, but I was reading John 15 and came to verse 10 (“If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love…) and was wondering what your thoughts on it were. Sounds a bit conditional, doesn’t it? Some versions actually say, “If you keep my commandments. I will keep loving you.” Could this just be one of those translation leanings, do you think? I did read the Amplified Bible which said something about “remaining in the intimacy of my love” which I thought perhaps made a bit of a difference. Is that the sense of “abide”? Not that God doesn’t continue to love even if someone isn’t keeping his commandments, but that those who do enjoy a greater intimacy with him?

Yes, on first read it does sound conditional. But in the context of the entire upper room discourse (John 13-16) and John 15 itself, we know that’s not what he’s saying. He’s not saying we earn his love by keeping commandments. That goes against everything else he’s been saying in this passage.

So, what could it mean? I think the context gives us the answer. He’s inviting us to remain in the love he’s already given us. He made the disciples clean by his word and asks them to simply remain in him. So they didn’t earn their place there and neither do we. But what Jesus is saying about obeying his commands, is that we live in the reality and fruitfulness of his love by following his ways. So it doesn’t mean he loves us more, it just means we live in the fruit of that love by following him. So if I’m in a situation and Jesus gives me wisdom as to how to deal with it, but I refuse that wisdom and do what I think is best, I’m going to end up in a bigger mess. He will still love me the same, still offer me the same relationship, but I will not live in the fruit of that love because I’ve gone my own way.

It’s just the prodigal story. The son goes his own way and by doing so doesn’t live in the Father’s love, even though the Father still loves him completely and the same offer of relationship is always there. He’s just not living in its reality because he has chosen his way over the Father’s way. But his rebellion works its own way in him until he comes to see the love the Father always had for him.

So keeping his commandments doesn’t earn us more relationship, it just allows us to live in the fruit of his love. And that command remember, is not following a list of rules, but living loved—experiencing his love for us and then loving others around us the same way. It really isn’t rocket science. It’s so much easier and more freeing than that.

Two more meetings today, then I’m off to the airport…

Now I’ve moved on to Washington, DC and yesterday toured the Holocaust Museum (pictured at left) for a gut-wrenching, moving and eye-opening experience. We came away overwhelmed by what had happened, how easily an entire society was manipulated into such atrocity and the absolute devastation of so many lost lives. Unbelievable! And the exhibit touches some of your deepest emotions. Everyone on the planet would do well to live through that unspeakable time of our planet’s history and the reality of how one group of people could be so systematically targeted for torture and death.

Then last night we met with some networks of believers in the DC area that were most fascinating to say the least. I wish I could speak more about it here, but I just don’t have any idea what to say or how to process it yet. We went from one of the high-end office/restaurant areas of DC to a smoke-filled basement with half a dozen young men who were sharing a hookah as they were asking real questions about life in Jesus and how they could live it more authentically.

I’ll finish here this weekend with Friday night, Saturday and Sunday meetings with friends of Lifestream and The God Journey, and friends of those friends. I’m looking forward to seeing some folks I’ve met before and meeting new ones. And then on Saturday afternoon I’m doing a presentation as part of my BridgeBuilders portfolio to the leaders of 17 of the most influential government lobbying groups on public education about how we can deal with sexual orientation discrimination and harassment without undermining people of faith.

You just never know the places God will ask you to go. I treasure each of those environments and what he is doing in the midst of them, though so many coming at me in rapid succession, has worn me down pretty well. Today has afforded more rest and a chance to catch up on the office stuff that has built up.

As I spent some time in Matthew this morning, however, one phrase put perspective to so much of what I’m involved with during these days. I read the story of Jesus coming to the disciples in the midst of the storm as their boat is being swamped on the Sea of Galilee. Jesus has just endured the news of his cousin’s beheading by Herod, dealt wiht 5,000 people who wanted to hear from him and spent an all night session alone with his Father. The disciples saw Jesus coming to them over the waves and their hearts are struck with fear.

“It is I!” Jesus spoke to them, though they hardly believed it in their fear. I love that simple expression. Honestly it doesn’t matter to me where God asks me to go or who I might be asked to touch on any given day, as long as I can identify him and the work he is doing in those things. I may only have a hint of it, but when I hear, “This is I,” my heart comes to rest. It doesn’t matter if I’m stretched way beyond my comfort zone, or if the waves are crashing over the bow. It only matters that he is there and his purpose is unfolding in the way I live alongside him. Then, I really don’t mind being anywhere he wants me to be!

I loved the comments on my last blog, especially from those who were part of our times there and wanted to share what they learned with others. Evan added some comments about the weekend on his blog and Brent shares some of the rewriting going on in his heart on his 12/04 blog.

And for those hoping for a trip to Nashville, you may get your prayers answered. I’ve just been invited to attend a small-group working session with the First Amendment Center, the ACLU and the Council on America’s First Freedoms to see how public schools are dealing with issues of religion and religious liberty, and what can be done to address the remaining issues. That happens the first week of March, so I may come in early and hang out with some Nashville folks…

I read this the other day in Colossians, and it just rang in my heart. For the past 12 years I have been part of an international dialog with people about what life in Christ and what life in the body can truly be in our day. Hundreds of books have been written. Thousands of web pages have been added to the dialog. I’m one who appreciates intellectual study and discussion, but it’s good to be reminded that such things are incredibly limited. The only way to learn to live this life is to (how do I say this?), live this life!

My counsel for you is simple and straightforward: Just go ahead with what you’ve been given. You received Jesus Christ, the Master; now live him. You’re deeply rooted in him. You’re well constructed upon him. You know your way around the faith. Now do waht you’ve been taught. School’s out; quite studying the subject and start living it! Colossians 2, the Message

I love that. Of course, if you’re new to this dialog and don’t yet feel rooted in him, don’t take this the wrong way. There is a season to learn to live in him and get let him switch our priorities around. But for those who just keep reading and studying and discussing, hoping to find an answer ‘out there’ somewhere, don’t forget this is a life to be lived, not a life to talk about endlessly. The Way and the Truth and the Life already dwells in you. Follow him day by day, step by step.