Search Results for: Friends and friends of friends

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.

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.

I’m blessed and amazed at how much of my writings have been translated into other languages. Of course some of that has been by publishers who want to sell my books, but the vast majority of it has been done by volunteers who have given their time to translate book or articles so that people in their language group could have access to them. Over the last couple of months we’ve added a lot more of our translated versions of our Living Loved articles on our International Translation Page. Check it out if you know of people that might be interested in some of these things and cannot speak English. And please know that a lot of this has been made possible by people who have been incredibly generous with their time.

We’ve also just been able to add some of my Transition teaching in French, German, Portuguese, and Russian because I was in places teaching some of that material where I was being translated and recorded. They are not completely the same material, and not all the recordings are in the best quality, but they are offered freely so people can engage that teaching if they want to. You can access them from the links above, the International Translation page or directly from the Transitions page.

Also, So You Don’t Want to Go to Church Anymore has also been released in an Italian version and He Loves Me will soon be available in a Russian printed version. That should make the Vatican a bit jumpy, eh? We are also working on published versions of He Loves Me in Castilian and American Spanish. The pdf versions have been available for some time, but we’re now looking to print them and offer them by e-book.

Lifestream has also been involved recently in translating and printing 3,000 copies of He Loves Me in Swahili (pictured above at left) that will be distributed free of charge in Kenya, Sudan, Uganda, Congo, Tanzania and Burundi. We’ve completely underwritten the costs for translating and printing this book after repeated requests from our friends in Kenya, who wanted that book to be a resource for that region of the world. They have just been printed and are now being distributed.

The whole process has been quite a story of God’s grace and provision and the process itself has already borne fruit. Here are some of the stories that have been passed back to us:

Thank you very much for the funds you support us for translation and printing. I was chatting with the translators and they reached a point where they started giving testimonies on how the book had changed their life in that short time. On shared about learning the language of God, and said that when you trust God, you will find yourself cooperating with his work going on in you and around you. So these, brother, together with comments from the printers really show what God wants for enhancement of His Kingdom worldwide. Another said that it is true that God never want us to trust others, he wanted us to love others but to trust Him alone. They also noted that grace doesn’t diminish God’s desire for our holiness but clarifies the process.

God has opened another door in prison ministry. One of our IGEM members, who is a senor person in prison, he has taken Jesus lens DVDs and he has shared with me today how God is touching the lives of people. Now he is studying the copy of He Loves Me in Swahili language, which he believes it will be a great blessing for the prison ministry.

Actually brother this book will change the atmosphere of Africa and turn hearts back to what God’s wants us to do.

I am grateful to all of you who have found these materials so helpful that you’ve taken the time and effort to make them available to those who cannot read or speak English. There is certainly a hunger around the world for people to learn to live loved and free in the Father’s life.

Who didn’t send their children off to elementary school Friday, without a second thought that they wouldn’t return home safe that evening? That’s because they always do, at least for the vast majority of people on the vast number of days. But not Friday in Newtown, Connecticut where a seriously tormented soul took gun in hand to not only kill his mother, but also to go to the elementary school he used to attend to slaughter as many people as he could find. He shot six and seven year-old children at point-blank range, and any adult who tried to save them.

The events of this past weekend have stung us with grief, exacerbated our fears, and provoke our anger to do something to end these recurring mass murders. There’s a lot being written and said about those things. I think there are some larger lessons here as well, that I will cover in three parts this week. This is the first.

The immediacy of television the brings the carnage into our own living rooms, displaying images that strike at the depth of our souls, and makes us part of the drama. Who can watch it without thinking of their children or grandchildren and the horrible loss that those in Newtown will endure for the rest of their lives? The tragedy is almost impossible to process and the fear it provokes reminds us how helpless we can be in a world where the destructive actions of one person can have so much impact on others.

Just how do you make sense of the senseless? Obviously you can’t, but people have been trying all weekend. A parade of pundits and politicians have tried to explain the problem, find someone to blame for it, or use it as leverage for their pet political theory. How could this happen? Shouldn’t someone have stopped this? Should we have better security at our schools, laws against violence in entertainment, or more anti-gun laws? Couldn’t the shooter’s family and friends have seen this coming and intervened before it did? Surely there is something we can do to make sure this never happens again to anyone.

And while there are things society can, and should, do to mitigate the possibility, ultimately there’s nothing we can do to guarantee absolute safety for every person in a free society. There is no way to thwart every destructive soul who wants to take the lives of others into their own hands to serve whatever wicked purpose that’s been nurtured in their soul. Why some revel in the power to destroy others for their own needs is one of the most perplexing themes in human history. We see it play out in school shootings, theater massacres, war, terrorist bombings, tribal violence, and genocide.

In the last few months tens of thousands of Syrians have been brutally killed in the last few months by a dictator only concerned only with his own fading grip on power. Every day hundreds of children die in these power struggles, or just from the inequitable distribution of resources that leave too many without food, safe water, or medical care. Greed and corruption can cause every bit as much devastation in the world as a man with a gun. A twisted soul rapes scores of children as those around him help him hide it. And if you look historically, the amount of senseless violence in human history and the oppression of one people by another is staggering to contemplate.

It’s unfortunate that we forget most of the suffering in the world because they happen too far away from us or because the are so persistent we tune them out rather than ask what we can do to help. Tragedies close to home, however, impact us disproportionately partly because it is such an anamoly to our expectations, and partly because when they happen to people like us in neighborhoods like ours, we feel much more vulnerable and easily taps our worst fears and our deepest anger. But it can also remind us that there is evil in the world, and it delights in destroying others.

Our culture has all but abandoned talk of evil, wanting to believe the best about people and blaming poor behavior on a difficult childhood, psychological problems, or needs beyond their control. Tragedies like this bring us back to a very simple reality. Evil exists in our world and people choose to cooperate with it. Certainly this tragedy points it out in the extreme—the contrast between a calloused killer and innocent little children, the one taking life and those staff members who sacrificed theirs trying to prevent it. But don’t reserve your understanding of evil only for atrocities of this magnitude, or you’ll miss how easily it can infect you. Evil is simply the willingness to force our will on another human being merely because we have the power to do it.

After we watched the news on Saturday night we found these timely words in our evening reading from Proverbs 6:

Here are six things GOD hates, and one more that he loathes with a passion:
eyes that are arrogant,
a tongue that lies,
hands that murder the innocent,
a heart that hatches evil plots,
feet that race down a wicked track,
a mouth that lies under oath,
a troublemaker in the family. (Proverbs 6:16-19)

Obviously the “hands that murder the innocent,” was in sharp focus that night, but then we were struck by what else God hates to the same degree—arrogance, telling lies under oath, and plotting against others. Evil is expressed not just in tragedies too horrible to contemplate, but also in less overt ways that we harm others around us. Anything we do to force our will over another human being is an extension of evil and mars a bit more of Father’s creation. (Of course, I’m not talking about intervening in someone’s destructive behavior to protect others.)

God hates all these things and please be careful how you hear that. He doesn’t hate the person, he hates the act because of what it does to people he loves. Whatever loss you felt by the tragedy in Connecticut this weekend is multiplied a billion times in the heart of God who bears all the weight of how we humans harm others around us. The grief and anger we feel over this incident reminds us that two kingdoms are at work in this world—one to destroy the other to heal.

Each of us by the decisions we make promote one or the other. Every decision we make matters. Perhaps the most perplexing question of human history is, “How can a loving Father leaves us to the whim of the most wicked among us?” I’m going to write about that as a continuation of this theme in my next posting. The fact that he does, however, ought to encourage us to consider how our actions affect others around us. Our actions have consequences. Yes, murdering innocent children is the worst of it, but from God’s vantage point gossip, envy, dishonesty, taking unfair advantage, telling someone to trust you and then using their trust and kindness to abuse them, and a host of other things, also do real damage to people.

I like Paul’s list of the deeds of the flesh in Galatians 5 to be a great reminder of what we do to add more evil to the world, and his list of the fruits of the Spirit in the same chapter will show how we can promote his healing in those around us. And, no, I don’t share this to make you feel guilty in hopes that you’ll act better. I share it so that our passion to be healers in the world grows and so that we can recognize when our actions become destructive so that we can run to him for healing.

You can’t be a healer in the world, if you are not first being healed by him. Those who know God as Father and are resting secure in his affection have no reason to force their will on another human being, and will instead look for ways to help others who are victimized by the cruel realities of life in a broken age.

Fourteen times in the New Testament we are encouraged to encourage one another. Honestly, I think it is one of the most awesome gifts you can give someone. It doesn’t cost anything, except a bit of space in your life to think about them and what you might say or do that would lighten their load or brighten their day. Though the dictionary defines ‘encourage’ as “to inspire with courage, spirit, or confidence or to stimulate by assistance, approval, etc.”, I think of it simply as putting courage into someone else’s heart.

That takes on added meaning reading some of Dr. Brown’s material that I referred to last week. What people need most in the midst of vulnerability, shame, and uncertainty is to have the courage to be authentically who they are today and know that is enough. I would add that this courage comes best from knowing that we are loved, that God is not distant from us in our pain or brokenness, and that he will work all things out for good no matter what we face.

Encouraging someone is to give them a gift of word or act that helps them have more courage to face what they are facing. You encourage people not by giving them advice about what they should do, nor by pushing them to do what we think best, nor by flattering them with untrue statements, nor by manipulating their behavior to act better. Encouragement does something so much better. It opens their eyes to a greater reality and sets their heart at rest in their unfolding journey

What prompted this thought today? Two things, actually! Last week I received an email from a woman I had met briefly in Germany before one of my teaching times. Just before I got up we had sung the chorus,”There Is None Like You,” addressed to God, course. The thought that hit me while we were singing, is that while this is definitely true of God, do we ever think that God would say such things to us. It’s what I say to Sara, my kids and grandkids, and even to friends. “There is none like you. No one else can touch my heart like you do.”

So when I got up I began to share that and even turned to this woman I’d just met, whose name came back to mind, pointed at her and said, “What if you knew Father was saying to you today, there is none like you?” Unbeknownst to me she had been go through a rough season and was hurt and confused because they had been thrown out of their “church” for asking the wrong questions. This is what she wrote me:

When you said to me, “There is no one like you!”, Father spoke that right into my heart and he kept on speaking to me that he knows my heart and that I shouldnt be bothered be what the church leaders said about me. He made me the way I am and he wanted me that way, and he has put the desires in my heart, that they didn’t like. The message you are sharing, Wayne, is the same message God has put on my heart, and I´m willing to spend the rest of my life to proclaim who God really is, how much he loves us, and how much he wants to heals our hearts! I wanted to let you know how much you blessed me that weekend. God took all pain and confusion and my feeling depressed away…and I´m happy again and know what I´m living for!

I love when God does things through something I’m doing and I’m not even aware of it. To think that little phrase spoken directly to this woman would unleash such a well of God’s light and courage into her heart, blows me away with how big this God is, and how much our words can give someone else courage to continue on the path God has for them. No wonder Scripture reminds us to “Encourage each other daily.” What a gift! And it doesn’t take much. Sometimes it an be an off-the-cuff comment like mine, and sometimes it comes from just holding someone in God’s presence and thinking about what God might be saying to that person to invite them in to a greater confidence in Father’s love for them.

The second reason this came to mind this morning is that while I was preparing Sara’s prescriptions and breakfast this morning, I thought how wonderful it would be for Sara to receive some encourage notes today. She’s been through quite a weekend, and now three days after surgery is where the real work of recovery sets in and she realizes it’s going to take some time away from all the things she normally loves to do. And all of this has come at her in a time where she’s already pretty vulnerable from the surgeries Father has been doing in her heart, that we talked about on the podcast a few weeks ago.

So I would love it if some of you had it on your heart to day to share some things with Sara that you think Father might be saying to her. You can post some of that here on the blog, or on the FaceBook posting, if it pointed you here. I’ll read them to her throughout the day. Or, if you want to address something to her more personally you can write hear at the office email. I’m somewhat hesitant to do that, thinking Sara we might be overwhelmed with comments and postings, and also knowing there are millions of people in situations like hers and worse that may not get any encouragement today.

So, here’s what I thought of. If you’d like to send something to encourage Sara today, please do, especially if you know her. And then maybe you could let God show you someone else near you who needs encouragement today. You could send either the same encouragement to them, or even something different that’s on your heart. And then, why stop with one! Who around you can use some courage, and what might you simply say that could be a turning point for them today. Then do it. Send a email, or leave a note for your spouse or co-worker. Call someone up just to say, “I’ve been thinking about you and just wanted you to know that Father…”

Filling the world with encouragement today, might ripple through the cosmos in ways we’ll never fully appreciate in this life. But that would only make it more fun!

I’m happy to report that Sara is out of surgery and in recovery at the moment. We received so many prayers, encouraging emails, and expressions of love from so many of you. Thank you so much. I spoke to her two surgeons and they both couldn’t be more pleased with how the process went and are hopeful that she will have a smooth recovery. She has to stay overnight in the hospital and gets to go home tomorrow morning! Yeah! I’m going to stay with her tonight because Sara’s family has a long-standing tradition that no one should have to spend the night alone in a hospital. I’m going to honor that tradition and hang out with my Babe! That should be fun since neither of us slept well last night——Sara because she was concerned about surgery, and me because Sara was concerned about surgery and didn’t want to be alone!

Love is not letting someone go through pain alone. I have been often blessed by that definition of love. It started back when I was going through a painful betrayal by a colleague in ministry. One of my best friends dropped out of the fellowship about that time, but suddenly reappeared as the process reached it’s most painful. When I asked him where he’d been, he told me he could see the handwriting on the wall and knew the conflict was coming. Having been through it himself he said he just couldn’t bear watching me go through it. “But you came back,” I said, “for the worst of it.”

“I know,” he answered. “As much as I couldn’t bear to watch you go through it, it was worse to think of you going through it alone.” So cool. That’s what come passion is: “to come to passion”, in the Old English sense——to rush into suffering to help alleviate the pain.

I’ve already hired to grandgirls to do dog-sitting for us tonight so Sara won’t worry about them either!

Well, we’re back from my third trip to Europe (and Sara’s second) this year. I had an amazing time with some of my friends in Germany and then did it all again in Switzerland with others. Though I don’t love travel per se, I have enjoyed all the people God has graced me to meet over the years in countries all over the globe. You’ll hear more about this trip next week at The God Journey as Silvio, my Swiss friend, and I reminisce about my last trip to Europe.

Coming home, however was a weird experience for me. This is the first time in 18 years that I have come home from a trip without any other trips ahead on the schedule. I didn’t realize how much I’ve come to live my life in blocks between trips. On the way home, I’m usually talking to God about what I need to get done before the next departure. Sometimes that has been a matter of days and at other times a few weeks. But I have not come home in the last three years with nothing on the schedule, not this year, not next, and not any time thereafter. I even found myself wondering, “What if this is my last trip?” Weird… But, I’ve got to be honest, it sounded so good.

Why haven’t I scheduled any travel? It’s not because I lack invitations, in fact I’ve got more than a hundred from people who have enquired about my coming. The reason I haven’t booked any is because I haven’t sensed Father’s direction or timing in any of them yet. I don’t travel for me, or even for “the ministry.” I only travel when I sense God has a purpose in it. But not all his purposes are fulfilled in my travel. I am freshly being drawn to spend some time at home in his purpose, both as part of his work in Sara and to take on two important writing projects that have been on my heart for some time.

Do I really think I won’t travel again? No, not really. In fact, at the moment I’m actively in discussions and prayers about returning to Brazil, South Africa, and Australia in 2013, as well as visiting some people in the States. But none of that is certain yet, and I’m not rushing to fill up a schedule. I’m going to let this season play out as long as Father wants it to, and move on only when that is clear.

When I was finishing one of my last two books, In Season: Embracing the Father’s Process for Fruitfulness, I knew I was in a winter season, as God had slowed down my life as he was pruning off some of those things that had grown up around my life that he no longer wanted me actively engaged in. No one wanted that more than me, and if you asked me at the time, I’d have thought I’d be well-past that season by now. But over the last few months he has continued to empty my life and bring me back to a simpler place and time. And I love him for it.

The most incredible thing I’ve been involved in this summer is watching God transform Sara and set her free to be more the Sara God created her to be before other people intruded on that gift by using her for their own ends. I told her the other day that I’ve never had more fun with her than I had this summer being inside this process with her. It’s been amazing, and though the work is not done yet, it has opened a door for us to love each other differently and more deeply than we have before. It’s the greatest thing I’ve ever been part of, and I don’t want to miss any more of it.

I’ve met with a lot of people of late frustrated that God doesn’t seem to be answering their cries for wisdom in desperate times. Almost in all cases they were looking for God to give them a strategy that they could pursue. I find God doesn’t often work that way. If he gave us grand strategies, we’d only end up trying to fulfill them ourselves. I am convinced now that God’s will unfolds each day as we simply love the people he’s put before us and do the things he nudges our heart to do. The fruit and consequences of those decisions will open and close doors that will allow us to make other decisions, as we lean into his life and freedom. I like that. I don’t have to know the whole process, but simply wake up tomorrow and pursue what’s on my heart. I’m content to let the grand strategy be his.

So Sara and I arrive at this moment in our lives with a clean slate. We are not just going to keep on doing things that have gained a momentum of their own. We have laid all that down——the travel, the podcasting, the writing, even our hopes and expectations, so that we can sense more freely where the wind of the Spirit wants to blow us for this next season of our lives. We find ourselves immensely grateful for all that he’s allowed us to be part of over the last twenty years and the people we’ve gotten to know all over the world. At the same time we are alive with anticipation at whatever pleases him for this next season.

When I saw this picture (taken by a friend last week in Switzerland) it captivated me as a metaphor of where we’re at spiritually now. We rest content on the mountain of all God has done in us, drawn more closely together by his grace, and looking out across an future still shrouded in clouds, but confident that God’s purposes will continue to unfold in days to come.

And we wouldn’t want to be anywhere else…

On La Chasseral outside St-Imier in Switzerland looking over the low-lying clouds to the majestic Alps in the distance.

I saw this in a small article in this month’s edition of Reader’s Digest:

Over a 30-year period, University of Illinois researchers asked nearly 120,000 people how income, education, political participation, volunteer activities, and close relationships affected their happiness. Reported Newsweek’s Sharon Begley on the findings, “The highest levels of happiness [are found] with the most stable, longest, and most contented relationships.” (Reader’s Digest, October 2012 p. 126)

Imagine that! The most important determining factor in one’s personal happiness is the quality and quantity of long-term friendships. If you’ve read this blog at all, you know I extol their virtues all the time. It is certainly true in my life, that what brings me the greatest joy in life is meaningful friendships. While I enjoy new ones that are just beginning to connect, I treasure those that I’ve had over decades, many tracing back to my high school and college years. And the ones I share with family——Sara for 40-plus years, and my adult-children now in their early-30’s.

Friendships of growing affection, mutual respect, humor, honesty, and integrity are among the greatest wonders we get to enjoy in this age, and are probably a taste of what is to come in the next. It’s no wonder then that the enemy has so many tools in his arsenal to shatter friendships, and why so many of our fleshy pursuits actually sabotage the relationships we desire. Greed, jealousy, hatred, the quest for significance, self-focus, immorality, shame, faithlessness, dishonesty, arrogance, rage, ambition and countless others not only impact the person dealing with these deeds of the flesh, but the also all destroy friendships.

A good friend who has watched my life over 35 years wrote me recently with his insight that a lot of what I talk about always comes back to relationship——between us and God, and between ourselves and others. He saw that reflected in Ephesians where the purpose of God is to transform the world by creating people who can live in his love, and who by loving others become a powerful and subversive force in a self-focused world. This has been God’s purpose from the beginning, to restore a priority of relationships that are full and free and through those relationships to demonstrate his reality in the world. It’s too bad most of Christendom has missed that and been far more preoccupied with building an identity in their programs, institutions, and doctrines that has given us a reputation more for division than a growing unity.

I’ve been reading Ephesians again taking note of how important this is in Father’s heart and how deeply it lies at the heart of the Gospel. It’s not what we achieve that defines us, but how we love that makes us successful in God’s eyes. Isn’t it interesting that social scientists are coming to the same conclusion? We were created for relationship and are most happy in those that are long and enduring. Sin destroys our capacity for relationship by making others our competitors for attention, money, or status instead of drawing us into relationships as friends who can struggle together in the brokenness of this age.

I love the excerpt above because I know there is nothing that will bring you more joy than becoming one who can love freely, without expectation, and end up with friendships rich and deep. That doesn’t mean everyone you love will love you back. Not even close. But in your loving, you open doors for others to come out of their self-focused prisons. And some of those will become close, life-long friends with whom you can share your life.

I’ve known Janna LaFrance and her husband for the past ten years, having met them in Stratford, Ontario during a trip there with my wife and continuing through over the years. They have been on an interesting journey to say the least, through pain and disillusionment with organized religion, the tragic death of their firstborn, and numerous other challenges. But through it all they have continued to find their way into the healing and freedom that only Jesus can give. I’ve been blessed to watch that story unfold.

A few years ago she started to write a book to illustrate the power of grace in the midst of tragedy. It has just been released. The title is, “A Girl Named Grace” and tells a powerful tale of tragic loss that only grows more painful as more facts come to light. As she descends into overwhelming darkness she thinks she hears a voice, but has no idea whether she’s going mad or finding hope. In the midst of it all, grace she wasn’t even looking for finds her and opens a wide door into a world Grace never knew existed.

I don’t recommend books just because someone I know and appreciate has written it. To be true to my readers, it has to bee a book I think you’ll care about. This is a compelling read and rings with the authenticity of someone who has known the pain and been transformed by grace in the midst of it herself. Janna has lived these realities, and has now put them in print to encourage others who are looking for a voice of hope in the midst of great loss. Though women will probably relate more to this book than men, there is a great story here for everyone, and some powerful images of love and forgiveness. I’ve had the joy of peaking over her shoulder for the past couple of years as she was crafting this story and getting it ready for publication. Here’s what I wrote as an endorsement on the back of her book.

“Grace finds herself in the mind-numbing despair of an unfolding tragedy, only to discover that help comes in the most unlikely way. A Girl Named Grace is a compelling story of personal transformation in the midst of incredible pain. As Grace sorts out her story, you may just find yourself sorting through your own.”
—Wayne Jacobsen,

And here are a few excerpts from her book:

It was as though she had known Him her whole life and was more comfortable with Him than she had been with anyone she had ever known. He had no secret agenda or intention of taking anything from her that she did not offer. He would not hurt her or force her to do anything she did not want to do. In the deepest sense of the word, He loved her.

“This happened because life simply took its course. That humans will fail you is inevitable. How they fail will vary tremendously, but they will fail. They were never meant to replace Us. When a man or woman replaces Us as the source of life for you, it is only a matter of time before the well dries up and you are left disappointed, or worse, and are forced to go elsewhere…”

“Again, rather than her anger pushing Him away, He seemed to somehow come even closer. “Grace, I am the source. I love to flow through My children. I love to flow through fathers to their children and through husbands to their wives and through friends and strangers and children. What must change is your perception of where the life-flow is coming from. If you know that it is Me, even when others fail you, you will simply see through them and into My eyes. You will begin to recognize My voice when others speak My words to you. You will begin to sense My heartbeat in the actions of others, when they are being inspired by Me.”

My friend, Dave Fredrickson of Family Room Media also had a chance to review it. This is what he said:

“This is one of the very few novels that have captured my heart and brought tears to my eyes. Each page unveils a love story that lured me far beyond the shallows of romance into the depth of the Father’s heart. The timeless theme skillfully weaves itself around an engrossing plot like poetry on a mission to shatter false illusions and reveal true identity.” —David Fredrickson, author of When the Church Leaves the Building and helped write and produce the video series Church Outside the Walls.

Janna will talk more about her book on the October 19 podcast at The God Journey, but the book is available now. You can find it on Janna’s website, and at Amazon.com. You can also read the first chapter if you like, on Janna’s blog.