Wayne Jacobsen

Despite assurances that we were going to launch our new website this past weekend, I have now been notified by the development team that it will be delayed at least a week due to a catastrophic server failure that resulted in a loss of two weeks worth of work. I’m embarrassed and frustrated that we haven’t been able to deliver to you what was promised to me. Our original date was January 1. That got pushed back to February 1, and now we’re being pushed back even further.

I’m sorry to have given out information that later turned out to be undeliverable. I’m most disappointed that we cannot launch our new video series, Engage! I’ve gotten a lot of email about it but it was designed to fit the new platform. Since the website will be delayed at least a week and possibly two, I am going to check on some other options to add the first episode to our current website on a temporary basis.

Again, please accept my apology. We’re going to try to get all that fixed as soon as we can.

Sometime this weekend, the new Lifestream.org site will launch. It has been in the works for over six months. Most of why we had to redesigned this site has to do with some back-end realities that you’ll never see that will help us streamline many of the things we do on that site. But that gave us a chance to update the look of the site and reconfigure it to be far more user-friendly with the current content we have. With our new back-end features, we will in time be able to help people connect with other folks who resonate with Lifestream content in their own area, but it will still take some time to configure that, and it will only be for those who opt-in to use it.

The reason I’m telling you now is so you’ll understand any delays and complications that will result from this switchover. Hopefully it will be seamless, but since we’re also switching servers it may take some time for everything to get in place. If you encounter that problem, we apologize. The switchover will come over the next few days and will take some time to propagate throughout the web.

We will also be launching next week a new feature at Lifestream called “Engage!” This will complement two of our major free resources—Transitions and the Jesus Lens. It will be a series of 3-5 minute videos designed to help coach and encourage people in the early stages of connecting in their own relationship with God. It is not a curriculum, nor a set of steps to build your relationship with God. In fact, it’s the opposite. This is not how you can build a relationship with God, but learning to recognize how God is building one with you, which is a very different process. Knowing him is not about your effort or achievement, but learning how to relax into the reality of his love and beginning to recognize his whispers in your heart and his fingerprints in your life.

Engage: Recognizing How God Is Building a Relationship With You!

It will only provide a context for people to explore their own connection with Father, Son, and Spirit so that they can find their own unique walk with him. Each video will also include the opportunity for comment, questions and discussion as they process this in their own lives. I realize that the use of video for this purpose is limited, and that it would be far better for them to have someone they could sit down with face-to-face as they explore their own journey. So I’m doing this not just to help people walk with Jesus, but also to give people who want to help others learn how to walk with him an example of the kinds of things that can help people on this journey.

In the end, I’m not at all sure this will be helpful. We’re going to try it. If it is, we’ll continue. If not, we’ll take it down. In any case we will be offering this, like all our best resources, free of charge. How can we do that with the great expense of video production? Because we’ve always had people who find these things helpful willing to contribute to the costs so that others can as well. We trust that continues here so that others around the world can have access to resources like this one.

We’ll announce here when Engage is ready to launch and I’ll look forward to feedback from people who want to utilize that resource.

Here’s a sneak peek at our new look, if you’re interested.

Every day I get new books, manuscripts, DVDs, CDs, and web links from all over the world, many by people I don’t know all of them asking if I’ll help them get a book published, review their work on my blog, or at least post a link somewhere. Unfortunately I get way more of this stuff sent to me than I can possibly process. t try to at least steal a glance at each one to see if there is anything Father is wanting me to do with them, but even that has grown so overwhelming that I can’t do justice to any of them.

So my stack of books just grow and grow so does my sorrow that I simply can’t get to everything sent to me and I don’t have the opportunity to encourage those people that have something wonderful to say into the world. That’s probably why I enjoyed this interview so much. My friend, Kent, pointed me to an interview between Seth Godin, author and Internet marketing guru, and Krista Tippett on her radio show, On Being about The Art of Noticing and Then Creating. There is a lot of good stuff in that interview especially for people who want to bring their art and craft before the world and see if it can find a hearing.

But I especially liked this part, because he also gets tons of books and manuscripts sent his way hoping he will mention it to his audience. Here was his response:

In a media-saturated world, we want to get picked. So like you, every day people show up to me and say, pick me, put me on your blog. If you would just talk about me, then my art will reach everyone I want to reach… That’s not the way (this) works; it’s bottom-up.

So what I say to people is, I’m not in charge of what’s good. I don’t get to pick what’s a purple cow, what’s remarkable — anything. That the world is, the bottom is, everybody, I’m on the bottom too, everyone is. So tell 10 people — there are 10 people who trust you enough to listen. And if you tell your thing to 10 people — if you send your e-book to 10 people — if you do your sermon to 10 people or show your product to 10 people and none of them want to tell their friends, and none of them are changed — then you failed. That you didn’t really understand what was good. But if some of them tell their friends, then they’ll tell their friends, and that’s how ideas spread. So it’s this 10 at a time — 10 by 10 by 10.

How do you put an idea in the world that resonates enough with people if they trust you enough to hear it? That then it can go to the next step and the next step.

I understand people who think that if they can just find the right promoter or platform, who will push their writing/art/songs/thoughts out onto the stage they would have the success they crave. But that’s not how it has ever worked with me. No one ever promoted my stuff that didn’t also want to turn me into a commodity for their own success and financial return. God has been gracious to not let that happen for me, and my books and podcasts have simply found their way into the world because other people enjoyed them and talked about it with their friends.

I have lots of people want me to “pick them” and their project, thinking that I can promote it into the space they desire. But I’ve never sought to promote anything, including my own stuff. My desire has been to make things available that impact me and let God do with it what he will from there. But I have felt the pressure to “be in charge of what’s good,” even though I haven’t had the time or perspective to do it. These words really spoke freedom to me. I’m not the one who can decide after all! Yeah! I actually knew that. Some books I have recommended have found a huge reading audience. Others, I have recommended similarly have not. And it isn’t always the better books that resonated with the larger audience. In this age of diffused media no one gets to choose what’s good. Advertising and endorsements are not near as effective as simple word-of-mouth.

The one departure I have from Seth’s approach above, is that if ten people don’t get as excited about your project as you are, you’ve failed. I don’t think all things worthy in our culture find the largest audience. And those that do find the largest audience almost always get twisted in the acclaim. If you can simply do what God asked you to do, simply make it available as he asks you to make it available, then you can trust him with how far it goes in the culture. And if our God puts wildflowers in the hidden places of the mountains that no one can see but himself, does he not delight in our writing, or art, or thoughts even if he is the audience of one that enjoys them? And the creativity on our part does wonder for us.

The world doesn’t value what God values. When we get attached to the outcome, our art gets twisted, our relationships will get twisted, and in the end we’ll get twisted. God’s way of putting things in the world is far more organic than the way the world lusts after success. So if you have something to share, share it. Worry less about getting it to someone famous to be your champion, and simply share it with ten friends who trust you enough to give it a chance. If it’s going to catch on, it will from there. If not, you may want to rework it or simply realize this was a gift to God.

And by all means, when you read something, hear something, view something that has touched your life, pass it on in whatever way you can. Tell people about it, recommend it in a blog or in social media. I know hundreds of people who have done that with some of my things, not as a favor to me, but because they were genuinely touched with something they wanted to share it with others.

That’s how ideas spread. Don’t wait to be discovered. Don’t be self-promoting, it’s obnoxious. Simply share freely in the space you’re already in let it grow from there.

One moment, she was a healthy student beginning life at the university with plans to study medicine. In the next, she’s completely bed-ridden have been struck down with Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (M.E.), which means inflammation of the brain and spinal cord. The only way she can write is via her iPod Touch, a couple of sentences per day.

I told you a bit of Jenny Rowbory’s story two years ago, because she sent me a copy of a book of poems she wrote dealing with God in the midst of her intense struggle. I found them incredibly uplifting and insightful, and we arranged to have some sent to the U.S. so we could make them available here. We still have a few copies left if you’re interested, but that’s not why I’m writing this.

She is now marking her eighth year dealing with this horrible disease, made all the more complicated by the fact that many doctors don’t regard her condition a true physical problem and think of it has a psychosomatic disorder. She has been thwarted in her attempts to get medical attention, and getting funding for research in this area has been difficult. She is now hoping to use her condition to raise awareness of M.E., and fight back against a health-care system that has been unresponsive to her needs, and to many other cases like hers. She’s written a blog to increase this awareness, by also including a video of her first 18 healthy years. I hope you can take some time to get to know Jenny a little bit and pray for her, and for the cause she carries on her heart. She has not only been the victim of this disease, but also the injustice of a medical culture that won’t take her disease seriously. And yet, she continues to embrace a vibrant and growing trust in who God is. You can read her blog here and see the video.

If you don’t have time to go there, this is the crux of her mission:

There are M.E. patients who have been campaigning for decades and they say that nothing has changed in 20 years; they are still treated with the same derision and ignorance now as they were back then. The situation needs to change right now. If you, dear reader, are looking for something worthwhile to dedicate your life to, this could well be it. Patients are suffering and dying so don’t tell me to be patient and that things will change for the better ‘in time’ or ‘soon’. Nothing will change unless someone does something. Now is the time to act. If you have any power or influence at all, please use it. Help us. Fight injustice. Be a hero.

Today marks the day eight years ago when my life changed. I have spent several months writing this post, a sentence or two per day, by wiggling my thumb to jab out letters on my iPod Touch and it has very nearly killed me. It has been worth it though because today, I refuse to let doctors make me feel so small inside. Today, I refuse to let them strike the type of terror into my heart that makes me cower at the very word ‘doctor’. Today, through this, I have stood up to them. Today is the day their power dies. Today, hear me roar.

Hers is a compelling story, not only of dealing with a debilitating illness, but also doing so with her feet firmly planted in a Father’s care for her, in spite of the fact that she has not healed her in the way she’s wanted and prayed for earnestly. Her story will change you. Her faith in the midst of the unthinkable will embolden your own trust in a loving Father, who doesn’t wave his magic wand and make our lives the way we want them. I’m including one of her poem’s here that display not only the depth of her struggle, but also her playfulness with God about it.

Can’t You Be A Magician, God?
© Copyright 2009 by Jennifer Karen Rowbory – Used by Permission

Can’t you be a magician, God,
if only for one day?
Forget about being wise and good
and do exactly what I say.

Can’t our prayers be spells, God,
if only for one day?
The right words in the right order
and bingo! We’ll have our way.

Make me better now, Lord
please no more delay.
I want to force your hand, Lord,
to make my illness go away.

If you live in England or outside the U.S., please order directly from Jenny’s website, so that she benefits the most from the sale of her book. If you live in the United States, you can use the link below to order through Lifestream. The money from sales here will also go to Jenny’s medical treatment.

In a conversation almost twenty years ago, someone asked me how I thought the church should function. At the time I was still enjoying how much the Father’s love was reshaping my relationship with him and with others. I remember responding, “The church? Honestly that’s not my priority right now. I’m still exploring what it means to live loved and may not even get back to the church for another ten years.”

Well, it took me a bit longer than that. At the time, I thought everything had to do with the church. I had been in leadership positions in various institutions for twenty years, convinced that if we could just get church right, people would have the relationship with God they wanted. But that didn’t happen, especially because all of my experience with church had to do with conformity-based environments. Someone had a vision or a program and community only rose out commitment to that task. But as I was soon to find out, when you’re no longer on that task the “church” relationships evaporate.

That’s not to say I didn’t have numerous fruitful and endearing relationships within this groups, but they were still influenced by our need to believe the same things. That’s what’s wrong with conformity-based environments, people try to fit in often by trying to say and do the right things, rather than being open, honest, and real about their spiritual lives. And a conformity-based environment has to be controlled by some kind of leadership structure that has unquestioned authority. What has amazed me is how many of those relationships reconnected years later and with the corporate structure was no longer between us how freely and quickly the friendships deepened in our passion for Jesus.

For the last fifteen years, I’ve been able to taste of community with other believers all over the world who, when they are deeply related to God as Father can share community without conformity and collaboration without control. Of course, that only works where Jesus stays at the center of each heart and where people are not going to bully others to get what they need. That sometimes happens when weaker brothers and sister seek to exploit the community or collaboration for their own agenda. So maybe true community can seem transient at times, particularly with the failures of people, but I’ve also known community friendships that have transcended decades and their is nothing richer and more engaging than that.

So now I find myself contemplating community again. How can we share vibrant, growing friendships and share the life of Jesus together without someone having to impose their plan, vision, or program? And I’m excited at how subversive love-based relationships can be in revealing Jesus to the world. We cannot create real community by human effort, but we can cultivate the environment around us in which real relationships can connect and grow as we follow Jesus. We can watch him knit friendships together in larger networks freely and joyfully and watch what kind of amazing collaborations can unfold from that. It’s what he’s about in the world, “to bring unity to all things in heaven and on earth under Christ.” (Ephesians 1:10) His church is not expressed in the man-made institutions that have co-opted the terminology, but in the lives of those who have been drawn into relationship with him, and the growing conversation and unity of heart and spirit that comes from walking alongside others who are also growing in that relationship.

Can you imagine a growing network of people who simply love and care about others enough to walk together without demand and expectation? There’s nothing more incredible than warm friendships sharing a relationship with God and for the next season I’m want to explore that more, especially with seasoned saints around the world who are tired of man-made illusions of community and want to have a conversation about how we cooperate with what God is doing to break down the dividing walls of that shatter relationships, and learn to truly live in love. The current podcast at The God Journey, A Greater Gathering, unpacks this desire to help people participate in that greater gathering Jesus is calling out of the world, beyond the limitations and abuses of our religious institutions into authentic connections and real friendships.

If you only listen to one podcast this year, this is the one you will want to hear. There is a greater gathering going on in the world that transcends whether or not your part of a regular congregations, that’s not based in your attendance at a meeting or your faithful cooperation to someone’s program. Rather, it is based on the deep and engaging friendships of those whose lives are being transformed by Jesus, so they don’t have to live protectively and defensively in the world, but generously and sacrificially because they are at rest in Father’s care for them. The conformity and control won’t be the issue, but growing relationship with him. I want to have that conversation with all kinds of people around the world and see what Father has been seeding in the hearts of those who’ve been learning to live in his love for decades, that may help us see how he is gathering his flock together.

I don’t know of a person whose passionate for God who doesn’t yearn for real and fruitful community. Jesus put the desire for connection in the human heart that only he can fulfill and then we can see it reflected in friendship with others as well. It may have often been disappointed by those who only wanted to use it for their own gain, or those who tried to pressure us to serve their agenda. We’ve confused our church institutions, for the reality of the church itself. But I’ve seen the firstfruits of that real community all over the world and I want to be part of a growing conversation that explores how we can engage these kinds of friendships and help others do so as well. This next week a local group of people are going to begin that conversation here, and I hope the podcast spurs on a wider conversation that will help others see the church Jesus is building and engage it with him, without the need to control people, or prod them toward a conformity that subverts the transforming power of Jesus in the human heart.

It’s not ours to do, but it may be ours to see him more clearly what he is already doing.