Wayne Jacobsen

The Sheba Years

3 Comments / Behind the Scenes /

It seems our lives are measured in dog years.  Yesterday morning, on what would have been her thirteenth birthday, we put the remains of our beloved dog to rest in a corner of Sara’s garden.  And we cried, both at our loss of Sheba’s presence and in celebration of the love we shared together for so long.

We’re grateful for all thirteen of those years.  She wasn’t supposed to have so many. At six months of age our vet told us she wouldn’t live past five since she had such severe hip dysplasia. We were shocked at the news. Dogs don’t live long enough as it is, but only five years! As the news settled in Sara took a firm resolve.  “If she only has five years I am going to make sure they are the best five years any dog could ever have.” And she did, so much so that Sheba just kept on enjoying the life Sara made for her for eight extra years.

As we buried her ashes, we gave thanks to God for the gift Sheba was to our family.  She was a friend  to everyone and embraced life with a passion.  At the same time this black lab/German shepherd mix was a gentle soul. She thought fetching balls was a waste of time, but couldn’t resist a stick thrown into the ocean or a mountain lake. Swimming must have felt so good on her damaged hips. Perhaps her favorite thing was going for a ride in the car. You just mentioned a ride and she would go crazy, rushing for the door roiling with impatience.  Even if Sara didn’t have anywhere to go she would take Sheba for a ride anyway almost every day. She was Sara’s constant ompanion when working in the garden until her back legs wouldn’t follow her to get down there anymore, then she would sit on the grass watching Sara’s every move.

When she came into our lives I was still writing So You Don’t Want to Go to Church Anymore, Sara had just earned her Master’s Degree in Guidance and Counseling and was employed by a local high school.  The God Journey wasn’t even a thought yet, nor was The Shack. We had no grandchildren. Sheba saw us through the joy of those years, as well as their challenges. And she fell in love with each grandchild we had and treated them oh so gently loving each grandchild in turn and winning them into her friendship.

On Easter a week before she died, all the kids were packed up ready to leave and were heading for the front door. All of a sudden we heard one loud bark from Sheba laying a rug unable to get up on her own.  That bark said everything:  “Don’t you dare leave this house without saying good-bye to me.” We all laughed at her indignation and rushed back to include her in the good-byes.

Yesterday morning we also reflected on what Sheba demonstrated to us about God’s love and care.  She was always there providing comfort and joy in the best and worst of times. Dogs are faithful no matter what. And you have no idea what adoration really is if you didn’t see Sheba watch Sara walk through a room. Her eyes were fixed on her with a look of wonder in her eye. She thought Sara was the most incredible human being to walk this planet.

We are embracing the grief now that our home is a bit emptier without her. We talk of her in the special places in our home where she used to keep watch. We speak of her often and how much we miss her. We made a video of her life to the tune of You Have a Friend in Me. We reminisce. We cry. We pray. Grief is a glorious process of crying out the pain to reclaim each memory, eventually taking out the sting of her loss and reveling in the joy of her time with us. It takes time, but it will work.

Yes, she is just a dog, but she’s was a beloved member of this family. She was a big part of the past 13 years and will always be a treasured part of our lives.  We miss her and all she represents to us.

But time marches on.

A new pup has already taken up residence in our home.

The Zoey years have just begun.

zoeypup

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Wayne Goes Nomad

1 Comment / Church Life /

During my recent trip to the UK, I was asked to join Tim Nash and Dave Ward on their Nomad Podcast, to discuss Finding Church. I had just arrived in Coventry, England only way from Scotland to Wales.  We borrowed a friend’s office as we sat down to discuss the church Jesus is building. They had some great questions and the engagement was generous and passionate as we discussed the difference between the church Jesus is building and the one humanity has been trying to build for him. I can’t imagine a better summary of how I hope Finding Church encourages and equips other followers of Christ. 

The podcast is titled, What Sort of Church Is Jesus Building?  You can click on the link at left to stream it or use this one to download. It is an hour and 15 minutes long, and the interview begins at the 6:10 mark.

It was posted yesterday and already a friend from Springfield, MO, heard it and wrote me this note:

Absolutely enjoyed your interview/podcast with Nomad. I listened today and will definitely listen again with my husband! Seriously, they asked you every question we’ve all been asked at one time or another as we’re on this journey! Your answers were heartfelt and spot on! Thank you for being such a great representative for those of us on this journey.  I loved it!

 

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

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Sharing the Gospel In the Heart of Legalism

1 Comment / Uncategorized /

On Friday morning I was a guest on Vince Coakley’s radio show out of Greenville, SC.  It’s a political talk show mostly, but they often have a faith focus on Friday.  If you didn’t get a chance to hear the show, they posted a podcast of it here.  We talk about thinking outside the box in a growing relationship and how that often contrasts with our religious sensibilities.

Long time visitors to this site won’t find much new there, but if you’re new to Lifestream, you’ll find a good summary there of the passion I take into the world.  Since Greenville is in the heart of legalistic Christianity, not everyone was happy, to say the least!

 

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My Favorite Book

3 Comments / Encouragement /

Saw this quote the other day, and it rings so true for me:

The most familiar books reveal more about themselves when we attend to them anew. And our growing experience allows us to approach our favorites from different angles. In a sense, rereading the same book produces new insights because the reader is a different person. Indeed, a good book is very much like a mirror: The glass is the same year after year, but the reflection in it changes over time.

Christopher Nelson, President of St. John’s College

And if it’s true than our favorite books are an incredible guide to what God is doing in our hearts.  My favorite book is the Bible. I’ve been reading it for over 50 years, nearly every day and it marks well the course my journey has taken. Initially I was absorbed in the story of Jesus and then came upon a long stretch where I read it as a demanding rule book and came way from it either condemned by how far short I fell of its aspirations, or falsely convinced that i could live up to it on my own. Over the years, however, I’ve come to read it not as a rule book, but an unfolding revelation of God’s true nature and how it took thousands of years for us to even begin to see how good and gracious he is. That’s why when you read it you’ll notice that not everything humans thought of God turned out to be true. Jesus came to show us what he was really like and that made all the difference. In him we see the reality of the Father.

Now as I read though this amazing book I see continual insights about God’s passion for humanity, the process by which he changes us and that I don’t have to clean myself up for him. In fact my own best efforts can thwart what he really wants to do in me. And I love how each time I read it, even in the most familiar passages, something new comes into focus I hadn’t seen before. Just the other day Sara and I were reading a well-worn passage in my Bibles, Matthew 6, and we stumbled upon something we had never seen before about why God works in secret and why we might want to help others an unobtrusively as he does.

As I read the Bible now I not only seen humanity growing up to recognize who God really is, but I see my entire journey waking up to that same reality. What a journey it has been!  The pages remind me of past misinterpretations that led me down dead ends, and newer insights that have allowed me to increasingly live in the beauty of his work in my life. I’m more patient with passages I don’t understand and refuse to get caught in speculations that we just don’t know yet. I’m relaxed about the fact that what is important in the Bible is very clear, and what is unclear isn’t that important.

It is a grand mirror indeed and a faithful companion on this journey of knowing him.

(Note:  Wayne prepared a video series years ago to help people with this process of interpreting Scripture.  It is free on line at The Jesus Lens.)

 

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Live Radio Tomorrow!

2 Comments / Uncategorized /

As many of you know I’m in North Carolina hanging out with lots of people exploring this amazing life of Christ and how we can live more deeply in his love and grace. I’ve had so many great conversations already and so many more to come in the last four days here.

On Friday at 11:05 Eastern time (8:05 Pacific Time), I’m going to join a good friend of mine, Vince Coakley on his daily radio show.  Vince is a talk show host on 106.3 in Greenville and covers political events and current affairs. He was the Republican Nominee for the House of Representatives last election for one of the districts here.  We have been friends over the last eight years and I appreciate his heart and passion, though we don’t always agree politically.  He is a wise and generous-hearted man.

You can find out more about the show here, and if you want to listen in it streams life using the button at the top right of that page.  I’m not sure what we’re going to talk about but it might include the current controversy in North Carolina about bathroom use by transgendered people.  That could be fun…

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Let Fruitfulness Overtake You

14 Comments / Helping Others /

I get this question a lot, from people who are growing a bit dissatisfied with their job and hoping to find a way into what they think is ministry and they hope a more fulfilling life.  Here is what someone recently wrote me:

I believe that the Lord wants to use me to help others to discover their destiny and identity that He has for them, and how to live in community. To be real honest, I’m still trying to figure all of this out myself. I find it very interesting that I was given Finding Church just a few days after I had received some clarity about what it is that the Lord is calling me into. I have been de-institutionalized for some time. I think that after reading your book I will be even more so.

I’m not real interested in serving anyone’s vision anymore. What I want to do is serve the individual according what the Lord wants for the individual. I’ve never been in “full time” ministry, so to speak. I’m a carpenter by trade, who has been able to travel the world some with mission work. We are in the process of becoming ’empty nesters’, and seeking the Lord about what it is that He would have us pursue. I have never been very happy about being a carpenter. I’m good at it and it pays the bills, yet it’s not what I want to do. I want to devote my life to bringing the kingdom of God to the Earth. This is a struggle for me right now. Having God use me to bless others is so much more fulfilling.

I love that people have a hunger to help others embrace a more relational journey and be fruitful in the world especially when they are serving other people’s visions and not their own. That’s a desire God has for all of us, for the fields are still ripe for harvest and God’s kind of laborers are few. Turning that into a vocation, however, can be problematic in many ways.  (See my recent blog on Monetizing Ministry.)

In the end I don’t think we help people live in community by giving them a set of guidelines and motivating people to fulfill them. Instead we help them know the love of the Father and that allows them to live in community.  People who are loved well, love well. And you can help those around you right now in whatever field you’re already in. Most of this is done person-to-person in our spare time among friends, family, work contacts or people we know. It is best if we don’t try to make it vocational and and create the opportunity for others.  Remember, Paul made tents, even as he was helping others find a way to live in the Father’s fullness.

I understand why people want to be available full time to help others on this journey. It seems incredibly rewarding and more fun that most jobs will provide, but that is more mirage than fact. If God is calling you to something, you’ll already be doing it in whatever time you have available in whatever relationships he has already given you.  I’ve known many people who grow unsettled in their job and think that it is God leading them into “full time” ministry.  Often it is laced with a need to find fulfillment and feel significant in his kingdom.  They quit their job and jump into a ministry and then struggle financially trying to figure out a way to do it and pay the bills. They try to raise support from their friends, or create some kind of product to sell to others, hoping it will finance their dreams. It rarely does. Instead of serving others, they will spend significant time getting others to serve their vision.  Real ministry gets flipped on their head before they start. (If you want to see what ministry can look like unhinged from a need to make money at it, listen to this week’s podcast: Living as an Elder-at-large.)

I’d ask God if this is what he is truly putting on  your heart or if it results from some kind of frustration due to the fact that you’re empty-nesting, a bit bored, and needing “ministry” to lend a purpose to your life. If he is truly calling you then you will already be doing that what he desires simply for the love of it, not for income.   In time you may find a growing surplus of people wanting your help and a way God will resource you so that you can do it freely.

In other words we are better off letting the fruitfulness of your life overrun our need to work, not the frustration of our job leading us to try and create a ministry enterprise we hope will will pay the bills. Sharing the life of his kingdom is a way of living first, not a vocation. When the opportunity is there, so will the resource be.

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Life Happened Here Once

15 Comments / Church Life /

It’s an amazing moment when a butterfly hatches from her chrysalis, flexes her wings until they dry, and then takes flight discovering what it is like to be a butterfly instead of a caterpillar.  We get to enjoy this little miracle in Sara’s garden almost every year. But it never happens at the same place twice.

Sometime next month thousands of people are set to gather in a stadium in Southern California on the 110th Anniversary of the beginning of the Azusa Street Revival in hopes of gathering 100,000 people to   call down a great, last-day revival.  This is only the most recent of numerous attempts to get God to act, all driven by “words from the Lord” and interpretations of dreams in hopes that some day “stadium Christianity” will take over the world where gatherings of Christians will replace sports contests in our largest stadiums.

Everywhere I’ve gone on this trip I’ve been asked what I make of all this and if I’m involved.  I’m not. Honestly, I don’t find the prospect very engaging for a number of reasons. Jesus seemed to want us to make prayer a private matter not a public display. He seemed to indicate that praying with 100,000 people has no more power than two or three agreeing in his name.  I also find it strange that the 110th (really, not 100th?) anniversary of a past moment of God’s visitation would be significant to God in any way.  I also find a large crowd of people trying to “call down” revival seems more reminiscent of Baal’s prophets trying to call down their false god, rather than Elijah’s simple proclamation that God simply make himself known as the one, true God. (I Kings 18)

Jesus never indicated that praying in large gatherings would usher in a world-wide revival. He said that when we were loved enough by him to love others in the same way the whole world would come to know who he is. That’s where I want to invest my time and attention.

Thus I am not looking for some great revival as just another “event” that will have it’s day in the sun then fade away like all the others. In fact, I see revival happening all over the world right now.  I see spiritual hunger emerging and tens of thousands of people that I know, opening to God in a fresh way, learning to live in his love and share it with others freely.  Something amazing is already happening that is not controlled or promoted by humanity and yet is filled with the richness of the Living Jesus. I find that much more engaging.  So, no, I’m not involved nor do I have any hope that this event just won’t be another in a long line of prayer meetings, summits, and rallies that smell more of human effort than the fresh wind of the Spirit.

Of course, I could be wrong about this. God might actually be leading them and something significant will happen that day. I’ll be the first to apologize if I’m wrong, but I’ve never seen this kind of thing fulfill the promises of its organizers. It may feel spectacular while people are there, but they will go back to their homes and wonder what it was all about. This is not the way God seems to work.  And by that I am not casting aspersions on the hopes or motives of those who feel inclined to plan or attend these events. For the most part I know them to be well-intentioned people who sincerely want God to do something in our day.  But I am not hopeful that this is the means to the end that they want, or even that the revival they are looking for is very different from what he is already doing in the world to draw people to himself without named celebrities on the stage.

I don’t chase these things around any more than I hang out beside a spent chrysalis hoping another butterfly will emerge. Life happened there once and it will not do so again. When another butterfly hatches it will come from another place, at another time.

Maybe our traditions are simply hanging around old places where God worked once, hoping he will work there again rather than following him to see what he is doing now. How much energy and effort is wasted by those who hope God will do something he did once again and again in the same way and come away disappointed and disillusioned when their efforts bear little fruit?

Maybe God has moved on and life is happening somewhere else. Because, as Jesus said, “My Father is always working.”

Maybe we’re just looking in the wrong place.

cocoonempty

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For the Next Couple of Weeks…

5 Comments / Uncategorized /

For the next couple of weeks I’ll be overseas. I’ll touch down in Dublin on Thursday and connect with some dear friends there. Then, I’ll begin a quick swing through the UK, stopping in Northern Ireland  •  Dumfries, Scotland  •  Coventry, England  •  Newport, Wales, and finish up in London.  It’s quite a quick loop before heading home again.  If you’re in the area we still have some room in most of the venues.   Get all the details here. We’ll be talking about the themes hat matter most to be—living in the Father’s affection, exploring relational expressions of community, and finding our freedom in his work in our lives. If you think about me during those days, please pray for me and for Father’s work among the people I’ll be with.  It will be much appreciated.

If you’re looking for more of a thought-provoking blog, I posted a new one over at FindingChurch.com.

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Living Loved in North Carolina

4 Comments / Uncategorized /

In early April I’ll be in North Carolina for 10 days, meeting in a variety of places and venues. If you haven’t got the word yet, here is our schedule.

I’m excited to include a weekend retreat up at Lake James for those who would like a more prolonged opportunity to meet others and process what it means to embrace God’s love in our own hearts, and to share it freely through our every day lives.  If you have the time, and even want to visit from out of the area, you’re welcome to join us.  The contact information is included below if you want to run into me on this trip.

April 2-3 – Charlotte, NC
I’ll be in Birkdale Village the first few days with an open gathering from 1:30 pm to 8:00 pm on Sunday, April 3.  Contact Jeff for the details.

April 4 – Huntersville, NC
Home group meeting that’s already full. Sorry.

April 6 – Charlotte, NC
An evening drop in fellowship near downtown Charlotte from 5:00 – 9:00, including dinner for purchase if you wish. Contact Francie for details and to sign up.

April 7 – Winston-Salem, NC
Small group meeting. Contact John for availability.

April 8-10 – Lake James, NC
For those who would enjoy a more concentrated time processing the journey of living in the Father’s affection we’ll be holding a three-day retreat at Lake James. Space is limited but there are hotels in the area if others would like to joins us. We’ll be meeting Friday evening, throughout the day on Saturday and Sunday morning.  You can come for all or part of our time there.  Contact Francie for details.

April 10 – Rock Hill, SC
Open meeting with a Vineyard fellowship at the Charlotte Avenue YMCA  •  402 Charlotte Ave.  •  Rock Hill, SC 29732  Contact Jason for details.

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I Hope to Lose, Too!

8 Comments / Encouragement /

Someone posted this little story on our God Journey blog this past week. I’ve not heard this story before, but I love what it says and found my heart screaming, “Me too!”

A wise man was once asked, “Do you wrestle with God?”

The wise man replied, “Yes.”

Then he was asked,  “Do you hope to win?”

“No”, said the wise man, “I hope to lose!”

The best things I’ve discovered on this journey have come out of deep wrestlings with God, often in my own selfishness or ignorance hoping he’ll come to see it my way and give me what I think is best.

It’s in the wrestling with him through my own frustrations and disappointments, fears and anxieties, often over significant chunks of time that the light finally dawns and I see into a wider world where I come to see the folly of my own thoughts and ideas and come to rest in his.

And that is always good. Losing is good when it happens with a Father who loves us more than we can possibly conceive.

Don’t despise the days of wrestling with him in the deepest part of our soul. It is part of the process and can be a portal to great freedom.

____________

I tried to resource this little story and could not find it posted this way anywhere else on the Internet. If you know first said this, I would enjoy knowing. Thanks.

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