Search Results for: Friends and friends of friends

Where Has Wayne Been?

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I know! I know! I have been way too busy of late and some travel as well as work on a manuscript has left me woefully behind in emails and updating my various websites. It turns out I’m going to be a literary agent for awhile in my spare time, and perhaps be involved with a screenplay and movie production. All of this, because a few days after Christmas last year an unpublished manuscript arrived unannounced an unexpected in my inbox.

That is not unusual. Lots of people send me manuscripts and articles to read and I try to give as much time to them as I can and get some feedback to the authors. So I printed off a few pages to do that when I found myself on the ride of a lifetime. This book captured me in the first few pages and wouldn’t let me go until I finished it. At its end it left me in tears for over twenty minutes overwhelmed by the immensity of a Father’s love in his broken universe. And I didn’t even cry at the end of Ol’ Yeller!

The book is called The Shack and the gist of the story is this: In the midst of Mackenzie Phillips’ great sadness, he accepts a disturbing invitation to return to the shack, the scene of his 6 year-old daughters grizzly murder four years previous. There, he is confronted by a middle-aged black woman claiming to be God and thus begins an incredible weekend that turns his world upside-down.

The book was written by someone I’d only met a year previous. Frankly, this is one of the most absorbing depictions of God in his universe I have ever read. It is clever, colorful, witty, powerful and full of insights about the God I know. And it wasn’t even written specifically for believers! Though believers will find it engaging even as it challenges some of their religious constructs, The Shack will also hold great interest for nonreligious people. It wrestles in a most creative way with the universal question: Where is God in a world filled with unspeakable pain and loss? In that vein, this book and its edgy story will have incredible crossover potential. It has inspired my own journey and I find myself wishing every person I know had already read this book so we could talk about it.

Unfortunately I can’t put a copy in your hands today. I wish I could. This is one of those special books that comes along rarely in a lifetime. The author was raised among cannibals in West Papua, suffered great loss as a young adult and has overcome a host of inner struggles to live a fulfilled life in Christ now into his 50’s. As I got excited about this book, so did a couple of filmmaker friends of mine and we’ve put together a small team that is working with the author to ready the manuscript for publication, seek out a world-class publisher to get it in print, and turn it into a screenplay for a feature-length movie for general release at a budget of $15 million.

This is definitely a journey for me into uncharted waters, but I felt strongly enough about this book to help it find its way into our culture. It presents God in a way that our world rarely sees and rings with authenticity and overwhelming joy. It will help you in your own struggles to sort out God’s love in the midst of inexplicable suffering.

Already God has opened the door to put this manuscript in the hands of some major publishers and has opened conversations with others who may invest in the movie production. I would appreciate your prayers as this process unfolds. I also have no idea who is reading this blog and thought it might be worth asking if any of you have an in to a major publishers of general interest fiction, either Christian or secular. If so, I’d appreciate you helping me make that connection. Though I have many contacts in the publishing industry because of my own writings, there may be other connections God wants to make.

And if anyone has an extra $15 million lying around and would like to invest in an astounding production of this film, we would love to hear from you to.

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What a Happy Anniversary!

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Today Sara and i are celebrating 31 years of marriage. Amazing! As we sat and reflected on that this morning, we were so grateful that God has given us a way to let everything that has happened, good and bad, in the last 31 years draw us closer to each other instead of driving us apart. Today we are better friends than we’ve ever been. We’re partners in each other’s journey at every level and I don’t know anyone I’d rather spend time with than Sara—whether we’re in intense prayer, laughing our bellies to soreness, hanging out with good friends or sorting out some question one of us needs resolve.

She truly is the love of my life, my best friend and most endearing sister in Christ. We have all kinds of private jokes between us no one else shares. Her laughter makes me light up. I love the way she lives her life, loves our kids and treats people around her. I can’t believe the joy Father has led us to together and look forward to whatever lies ahead together.

Tonight we’re not even together, and it isn’t due to my travels. Sara has an awards dinner tonight at the Reagan Presidential Library for some of her seniors. But as I write this I can’t stop smiling. Whether we’re together or apart, she is my joy, and I know she’ll always come home!

I know marriage doesn’t sort out this way for everyone, and it makes us sad when we find couples who haven’t learned how to cling to each other, even in their differences and learn to rely on him together. Sara and I have been through some painful times. There was even a season of pain, I wasn’t sure our marriage would survive. What we enjoy now is the fruit of a lifetime shared and I do think there is a way for every couple, if they will explore it TOGETHER, to find their way into the absolute joy and bliss God had in mind when he made a man and a woman and put them in his garden together. Don’t give up! It’s worth sorting out with Father, and with your spouse!

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Wayne to Appear this Friday on CSPAN

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Tomorrow I’m off to Washington, DC for some venues I’m not accustomed to, nor do I necessarily enjoy. This summer I worked with the First Amendment Center on some guidelines to help public schools deal with cultural and religious conflicts. This one, Public Schools and Sexual Orientation: A First Amendment framework for finding common ground is designed to help schools deal with sexual orientation discrimination and harassment without undermining those parents, students of faith who have moral objections to homosexuality.

I helped Dr. Charles Haynes of the First Amendment Center broker and draft this agreement with representation from educational, gay and lesbian, as well as religious groups. Here’s some of the language from those document:

In recent years, many public schools have increasingly become a front line in the escalating debates over homosexuality in American society. Conflicts over issues involving sexual orientation in the curriculum, student clubs, speech codes and other areas of school life increasingly divide communities, spark bitter lawsuits, and undermine the educational mission of schools.

The advice in this guide is built on the conviction that we urgently need to reaffirm our shared commitment, as American citizens, to guiding principles of the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. The rights and responsibilities of the First Amendment provide the civic framework within which we are able to debate our differences, to understand one another, and to forge public policies that serve the common good in public education…

Under the First Amendment, a school is both safe and free when students, parents, educators and all members of the school community commit to address their religious and political differences with civility and respect. A safe school is free of bullying and harassment. And a free school is safe for student speech even about issues that divide us.

I will appear with representatives of the First Amendment Center, the Gay Lesbian Straight Education Network and the Christian Educators Association at the release of this new publication nationally on Thursday, March 9 at a press conference held at the National Press Club at 9:00 a.m. EST and followed up with a forum discussion on CSPAN’s Close-up, which will be aired on Friday evening at 7:00 EST. (We haven’t gotten final confirmation that it will air this week, so if it doesn’t, check it out next week.)

I am always amazed at the doors God opens to me. After the media activities on Thursday, I’m going to spend the evenings with some friends Sara and I met in New Zealand a couple of years ago who have just moved to DC to work for the New Zealand government. Then on Friday I’m going to meet with a man involved in reconciliation work in Africa before heading upstate Maryland to spend the weekend with some folks near Haggerstown. Then a few dear friends of mine are meeting for lunch in Bethesda before I catch my return flight home to California.

If you think about all of this, pray for me. Just when I think the whole BridgeBuilders things is winding down, God opens some pretty strange doors. I also got a call two days ago to address a convention of school attorneys in Washington state in April. Curiouser and curiouser…

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Finding the Church

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First, let me share a few housekeeping items. I don’t think I’ve notified this bunch that we posted a new edition of The God Journey podcast last week, entitled Removing the Clutter, which re-visits some issues about learning to listen to God’s voice. Also, today we’re hopefully delivering the Jake Colsen book to the printers, so that’s a relief and first thing tomorrow I fly out for five days in central Pennsylvania… Whew! What a crazy week!

But the real reason I’m writing today is to share with you an email I wrote as part of an exchange I’ve had with a brother longing for fellowship and not finding any with others on this journey. This is how I responded to him:

I certainly understand the feelings you’re going through. Of course I have no idea what he might be doing in your area, but I would encourage you not to look for the church he is building as a thing, or group or activity. It will be people in whom he is working and you’ll be able to encourage that work in others as well as be encouraged in his work in you. Over time enough people might connect that will allow it to be a bit more visible to the human eyes, but that is not essential.

The time of de-toxing and learning to look only to Jesus have been important. It sounds like your friends are still going through some of that. I am convinced we keep sorting out our hurts with the system as long as Jesus hasn’t become a real person to live with each day. Once he becomes real to us, those hurts get healed and we can move on to so many other things he has for us. Perhaps God has ways for you to encourage your friends how to know him better and they won’t feel the need to continue to rummage through the brokenness of the system they were in.

So I would encourage you to look for ways God would give you away to people around you (believer and unbeliever alike) and you will see his church emerge as those relationships grow. One of the dangers of people who wander outside the box is that they can become ingrown and look out only for themselves and their needs and not see that God has put them where they are to be a demonstration of his character to people around them. This is a marvelous process and it really pulls us outside of our needs/wants/desires to truly find the freedom to live as he lived in the world. Ask him how he wants to give you away right where you are, to people you already know, and maybe some ways to connect with others you don’t know yet.

I realize it may not look like there is a lot of concrete direction in what I’ve said, but there really is. Getting outside ourselves and loving others is when we begin to see church grow around us. And to that end you have my prayers.

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The Freedom Not to Have It All Figured Out

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Our latest edition of The God Journey entitled The Freedom Not To Have It All Figured Out has just been posted on our sister website thegodjourney.com.

As Wayne and Brad respond to a recent flood of reader comments and letters, they wander into a discussion about the challenge of living in Jesus without having all the details figured out or having the results of our circumstances guaranteed. Our safety is not found in our plans being fulfilled but in our growing friendship with Jesus. When our confidence is vested in him alone we will be able to navigate the ruggedness and uncertainty of the journey with his wisdom and grace.

If you’d like to post comments or questions about this show, please do so on the God Journey Blog so that others can read them there as well. Thanks! I know it is sometimes easier to respond here, but then others on that website don’t get to interact with your comments or questions. Thanks!

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Tree Town – A Parable For Our Times

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By David Hebden* and Wayne Jacobsen
BodyLife • November 2005

There was a town much like any other town, except it had no trees. A disease had wiped them out so long ago that no one living today even remembered they had existed. They had grown accustomed to the barren landscape.

One day a young man went to the library looking for something to relieve his boredom and by apparent chance he came upon the book. The library had been built when the town was new and small, nothing more than a small outpost with a train station. It just so happened that the young man was walking through a dusty section of the library when the noon express train rumbled past vibrating every shelf in the library. The dust stirred and he sneezed as it tickled his nose. And there, sticking out of the bookcase ready to fall to the floor was the book. He reached out to push it back into place, thinking to himself that they should move the library away from the train station for a bit of peace and quiet.

Obviously it was a long-neglected book, which made him curious. He plucked it from the shelf and opened it. There were no pictures, and the pages were old and yellowed. It seemed to be a collection of stories about the life of a gardener. “I may as well have a look at it,” he thought. “I’ve nothing else to do.”

Later that afternoon as he sat outside his home sipping a cool drink in the shade of his porch he began leafing through the book and came across a chapter about trees. This fascinated him, since he had only heard of trees and had never seen a real tree. He knew what wood was, but it always came on the delivery train, not from trees.

As he read he became even more excited about trees and what they provided. Why they make shade and hold delicious fruit to be eaten! They offer windbreaks from the winter storms, and fuel for heat when they grew old and tired. “What a wonderful thing trees must be! Wouldn’t it be great if we had some around here?”

As the days passed he grew more excited and began to talk to his friends about the book and the trees it described. Soon he found others who had heard about trees and one or two who had actually seen them from a distance. The excitement grew in the town as people wanted to have some trees. A town meeting was held and the mayor asked the young man to read about trees from the book. A vote was called and the citizens decided to build some trees. Soon the quiet town was a hive of activity. Committees were formed to design and build the trees, to import the lumber and even to gather the fruit.

Soon trees began to spring up everywhere in that small town. Well, at least what they thought were trees! They stayed as true to the book as they could. For roots they dug holes and buried old rope because they sounded closer to roots than anything else they had. They nailed these roots into the large timbers they imported for tree trunks. They nailed ‘branches’ to the trunks and the ladies cut leaves out of their finest linen, painted them and glued them on the branches. They also gathered fruit and tied them onto the trees so they could pick them whenever they wanted.

Eventually the streets were lined with trees. Though they looked similar at a distance, up close you could see their differences. It seemed that different people had interpreted the section of the book on trees quite differently. The branches jutted out at different angles. The colors of the leaves were different colors and they only used the fruits they thought best.

Visitors came from far and wide to see trees for the first time in their lives and marvel at the hard work it had taken to build so many. By popular vote it was decided to change the towns name from Prairie Town to Treetown. The book that started it all was enshrined in the town hall under glass. A new industry sprang up to satisfy the growing number of visitors. The townspeople set up tours, opened gift-shops and Treetown T-shirts became all the rage in that part of the world.

But as time went by the excitement over the trees faded for many. They grew weary of building and maintaining the trees and wondered why they hung fruit on them at all, insisting that the fruit stayed fresher when stored inside. Some even began to question if these in fact were real trees. The experts – those who had memorized the chapter on trees – quickly attacked those with questions. Of course they are real. Look at all the time and money we’ve spent on them and how many people it drew to their town. Could so many people be so wrong?

And even when the spoiling fruit seemed to make people sick, the people themselves were blamed for not believing that the trees made the fruit better. Soon a law was passed to require that fruit could only be eaten straight from a tree and no one was allowed to store any in their homes anymore. People grew disillusioned and discouraged with the endless work that brought so little return. “We just have to work harder to make it better,” became the refrain of the town fathers.

Most people fell in line afraid that they would be shunned as troublemakers and ridiculed for not putting the town’s prosperity ahead of their own ideas. But there were a few who just couldn’t fit in. They stopped working on the trees and stopped eating their fruit. At first people tried to convince them how wrong they were, pointing to the phenomenal growth of the tree industry in the town. “Why we even send our experts to other cities and they too are building their own trees!” This worked with some, who had grown too tired to fight the status quo and decided it was just easier to fit in.

Those who continued to question the townspeople’s obsession with trees, however, found it difficult to stay. Some of those working on the trees would throw sticks or fruit at them in anger as they passed by. They called them ‘treeless ones’ and would tell them, “If you don’t like our trees you should leave our town. But then you’ll never know the joy only trees can bring.” Then they would look at each other and smile. “It’s for their own good you know. They need the food.” Finally a few moved out of town, rather than endure the continued abuse.

One day the young man who had discovered the book was walking by the resplendent, new city hall that had been built with all the money drawn to Treetown. He sat down on the plaza beneath the trees, gazing at the gilded glass case on the front of the building. Locked inside was the book that had caused so much division. He was heartbroken that what had seemed to hold such promise had caused such trouble, and he cursed the day that he’d pulled the book off of the shelf.

Soon he found a stranger sitting down beside him on the bench. “Are you okay?” the stranger asked. “You don’t look well.”

The young man looked up at the stranger and was captured by the caring look in his eyes. “I once was a ‘treefolk’ but now I am a ‘treeless one’,” sighed the young man. “I thought the trees would bring us great joy, but it all turned out to be more work and trouble.”

“What trees?” the stranger asked.

“Look around,” the young man said pointing to the trees that lined the plaza.

“Good heavens! Are those things what you’re calling trees?” the man exclaimed pointing to the towers of wood pieces, painted linen and apples hanging from string.

“That’s what they are. We built them using a book I found in the library and …”

“Wait a minute,” interjected the stranger. “What was the name of this book?”

“Uhmm… The Gardener and His Garden. It was an autobiography, I think… something like that anyway.”

“Ah, I see. So you have never seen a real tree?” questioned the stranger as he looked around the plaza.

Puzzled the young man looked at his new friend. “Aren’t these real trees? We built them as best we knew.”

“That’s not a tree! Just how much of the book did you read anyway?”

“Well just the section on trees actually. I glanced through the rest of it but it all seemed a bit boring, except the part about trees. We didn’t have any trees at the time and they sounded so incredible.”

Chuckling, the stranger stood up. “Follow me. I think I have some news for you.” Intrigued by the stranger the young man got up and followed him over to the glass case. “So you never really read the book, eh? No wonder this town is so strange.”

“What do you mean, strange?”

“The book was not about gardens or trees, but about the gardener who grows them. Real trees cannot be built; they can only be grown.”

“Grown?”

“Yes, you plant seeds in the ground, keep them watered and they will spring up into a tree that will really bear fruit.”

“Trees grow?” the young man sighed in shock. He’d never heard of such a thing. “I thought you had to build them?”

“I know my friend, but you have never seen a real tree. They cannot be built no matter how clear the description or skilled the craftsman. You can only grow them. If you had read the whole book you would have known that. You would have gotten to know the gardener and how he does his work to make beautiful trees out of the smallest seeds. There were even some seeds glued to the back of the cover so that you could plant them and watch them grow. Didn’t you see them?”

The young man had a very sick feeling in his stomach. “There were some little, round specks of some kind.”

“That’s them.”

“I thought they were just specks of dirt and cleaned them out before we enshrined the book.”

“Only those who would have taken time to read the book and get to know the gardener would have recognized them as seeds, since they were so small and look so insignificant.”

“I guess I’ve made a real mess of things.”

“Messes can be fixed,” said the stranger.

“But I’ve thrown out the seeds and now I can’t even read the parts about the Gardener.”

“Sure you can,” said the stranger, pulling a copy of the book out of his back pocket and handing it to the young man. “You see I know the Gardener who wrote this book.”

The young man took the book in his hands and his face lit up with a smile. “You do?”

“He’s my father, and I’d be happy to show you everything you need to know about him.”

“That would great!” Then flipping open the book he ran his hands across the inside of the back of the cover. “They’re here!”

“That they are! Now that you know what they’re for, let’s go plant them and watch what happens!”

“A real tree? Won’t the others be surprised!”

“That they will, my friend. That they will…”

_____________________

*David Hebden of Vancouver Island, BC helped write the last article in BodyLife and first wrote the tale that became Treetown.

Continue to our second article, Breaking Free

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Living Under Father’s Care

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Our latest edition of The God Journey entitled Living In the Father’s Care has just been posted on our sister website thegodjourney.com.

Join us for a trip to the land down under as we offer another in our continuing series of interviews with people all over the world who are living this journey with great freedom and joy. Wayne interviews Kevin Smith of Lancefield, Victoria in Australia as he shares the lessons a group of believers have experienced over the past 20 years of living as a relational community of God’s people. “Kevin has been an older brother to me in this journey and has encouraged me and confirmed so many of the things God has put on my heart over the ten years we’ve been friends and brothers.” says Wayne. As Kevin shares their story and the transitions Jesus took them through, he touches on our growing trust in Father’s care, their freedom from institutional expectations, the community it has spawned, and its effect on their children.

If you’d like to post comments or questions about this show, please do so on the God Journey Blog so that others can read them there as well. Thanks! I know it is sometimes easier to respond here, but then others on that website don’t get to interact with your comments or questions. Thanks!

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People You Know Not Of

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I love the way God connects people and that is not nearly so difficult as we all imagine. Over the last two days I’ve received two emails that illustrate that better than I can say it. The first is in response to a recent blog on When the Falseness of Religion Succumbs to the Reality of Relationship. Jason from Iowa wrote me to describe how he is moving from the falseness of religion to the reality of relationship in finding fellowship where he lives:

I really enjoyed reading your blog by the brother that stated, “Father said, ‘You know, the problem is that all along you’ve viewed the Scripture from the perspective of ‘must do’, ‘must perform’, ‘must make happen’. All along the Scripture has been intended to be viewed from the perspective of discovery of who I am and who you are and all that I have for you and intend to work in you but only in the context of relationship with me.’”

This reminds me of myself and how I approached God, but it also reminds me of how I used to approach relationships in general. I went out of my way to try and have relationship with other believers. I felt that if I used the right ingredients, then a great Christian relationship would be the result. However, that was just not the case. No matter what I did to try and orchestrate a great relationship for my wife and I with other believers, it simply did not turn out how I envisioned.

I remember writing you to complain about Christians that would rather read about relationship in the Bible than actually live it out. You gave me some advice that I was not ready to accept at that time. You told me something really crazy. You stated to simply trust Father and accept what He puts in front of you. That was the last thing I wanted to hear and so I did what any hardheaded knucklehead would do—I continued to try and orchestrate relationships with other couples. After a while, we finally had enough and burned out trying. We completely shut down over the summer as far as trying. We had had enough of trying to manufacture relationship.

I am so glad we burned out. It was the best thing that could have happened. It would have been better if we accepted your advice from the beginning, but at least we finally stopped trusting ourselves to create what we were longing for.

Once we stopped, God seemed to start. We are currently meeting every few weeks just to hang out at another couple’s home on Sunday afternoons into the evening. No agenda, and no pressure. If we want to go, we go. If not, then we simply won’t. They and another couple are the same way. It is not some fancy event. We are all trying to keep it as simple as possible. We are just enjoying each other’s company, including the kids. The chats are wonderful. We do not have to, but we find ourselves talking about God in so many different ways. It is truly refreshing. I do not know how long Father will keep us together, especially since they may be moving back to Michigan next summer, but it does not matter. Father knows what we need and He is able to provide it no matter what, even if it does not involve other Christian couples.

On a side note, I stand in awe how God works. I remember two summers ago reading an article you wrote on why house church isn’t the answer. It really opened my eyes. Then I started to correspond with you while you were in New Zealand. After several emails back and forth with you, I talked to my home fellowship about reading your articles and the email exchanges between us. Many of them have read some of your writings.

After a few weeks, we decided to see if you would come and visit with us in Iowa. You did and our fellowship has not been the same since, and that is a good thing. We got out of the let’s make more house churches mentality. We really saw how we were limiting what God wanted to do. I know you know all this but I am building up to what God is doing now.

This past summer, I received an email from someone that saw my email on your site. They had recently moved into the area where I live and wanted to get together. I met a couple of brothers and we hit it off. Then we met a few times over the summer, but nothing big. We were all so busy. Then this fall, one of the brothers and his family invited my family over for simple fellowship at his house. The other brother and his wife were there too. It was a blast. They stated a desire to get together every few weeks or so. However, they did not want it to be something that has to take place. If we needed to not be there for whatever reason, then that was perfectly OK. The opposite is true too. Our families have so much in common. We all love the Lord!

I still have my other friends too, Wayne, but for some reason God must have opened up this time for some whole family fellowship. Regardless of how long this will take place, I have truly seen that God does know what he is doing and that he knows best. The friendships that He has provided are better than any we could have manufactured. I also want to thank you because He definitely used you throughout this whole process—not only with advice, and friendship, but literally your website. It is awesome to see how he allowed you to touch all of our lives back here in Iowa. You were simply obedient to Father and the result is much fruit.

Then, today I got this:

I had been feeling rather desperate at times desiring to be involved in house churches but, not knowing of any… and thinking that there weren’t any going on in our area… kind of an Elijah complex… “I’m the only one” syndrome — he found out later that there are thousands. Well we found out that one fellowship, within walking distance of our house, had been going on for over a year. And just the other day, I found out that a man I work with has a house fellowship in his home. I just found out that the man that cuts my hair is a Christian and is involved in a house church… all this in a town of 39,000 people. The moral of the story is… I was way behind the Lord… and what He was doing… and I’m sure He is doing much more than I know. Isn’t Jesus just great!

I hope that encourages you who think you have to DO something to make fellowship happen. You only need to be responsive to him. He has more stuff going on than we can conceive, and he is really good at what he does. So, relax! Listen to him and follow him and in his time he will set you in his family just as he desires…

Well I’m off to Canada tomorrow and 5 days hanging out with some believers on Vancouver Island…

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Koinonia Killers

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Our latest edition of The God Journey entitled Koinonia Killers has just been posted on our sister website thegodjourney.com.

In this edition Brad and I discuss koinonia killers. Christian fellowship isn’t rocket science. People passionate about Jesus who get near each other find themselves sharing his life without much work at all… unless something gets in the way. And believe us, things can get in the way. We call those koinonia killers and Brad and Wayne not only discuss the kinds of things people can do that sabotage, even unwittingly, but also what others can do to turn those moments into doorways of growth instead of barriers to body life.

On a personal note, today is Sara’s birthday, so we’re celebrating that. The fires in Southern Cal are unbelievable and many have called to make sure we’re out of harm’s way. The big one is about 10 miles from us but moving away. We had one behind our development yesterday, but a quick response got it out in two hours. In addition to the podcast, I put up a new chapter in the Jake saga.

First thing tomorrow morning I head to Visalia, California to do a staff and elders retreat for a Mennonite fellowship there and then speak at their weekend services. Yes, this is a strange invitation for me, but I’m excited for the hungers I hear coming from those folks, and to be reacquainted with many of my friends from that region.

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A Weekend in Kalispell, Montana

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I’m finishing up my weekend with some believers in and around the Kalispell, Montana area. This area is awesomely gorgeous, though it has rained three of my four days here. On the Friday, however, I got to go for a hike on a mountain above Flathead Lake with some old friends from the YWAM base near here. What a beautiful hike and we fouind a rock at the top fo the hill where we could look almost 300 degrees around at the lake and mountains and the landscape was as awe-inspiring as any I’ve seen. I love the mountains and forests, so this is like heaven to me.

I arrived here not ever having met the folks that invited me. We had corresponded a bit on the ‘net, but that was all. But in the plans to come up here, many others emailed me to find out where I was going to be and expressed surprise that there were others in the Flathead Valley thinking outside the box. God is definitely stirring a large number of people in this area and freeing them from religious boxes that have distracted them from knowing him.

What a weekend! We did nonstop yakking from Friday afternoon through Sunday evening sharing this incredible journey, affirming the things God’s been teaching his people and celebrating our unity in Christ. A couple of things really stand out from the time this weekend.

First, Father has already been speaking into our hearts the things he wants us to know. For many people here the things I shared weren’t brand new to them, but there were many ‘Ah! Hah!” moments where people recognized that the voice that had been whispering similar things to them all along, but they hadn’t really thought it was God’s voice because it ran so counter to the religious things they’d been taught all their lives. That is so fun! What God is doing to draw people to himself today is a work of the Spirit in the hearts of those who long for him, it is not a movement initiated or controlled by any author, speaker or organization. Leaving people freer to follow the Shepherd’s voice is the greatest joy of doing what I do.

Second, God is preparing people all around us to live more fully in his life. We may not know them yet, or know what God is doing in them, but it is easy to see how easy it would be for God to connect a few dots and we would see how incredibly whole and healthy his family is in the world. When people get together who are on the journey of knowing God more deeply and being transformed in his image, fellowship is so easy and so inspiring. I love the connections that happen in an area simply because people who’ve found their way to my website, get to meet others who live near them who hunger for similar things. Many who thought they were all alone in their passions, find they are not and that there are others around them with whom they can connect.

And as I was finishing this, Eugene Peterson returned my phone call of yesterday. He lives near here and we had met years ago at a small writer’s retreat that Leadership Journal hosted near Chicago. There were only a dozen of us that got to know each other over four days. Even so, I was shocked he remembered me. I just wanted to bless him and tell him how much I have appreciated his translation of the Scriptures and his other writings. Even though we are a few miles apart in how we view the Church, we are kindred spirits in the Father we love and the journey we have walked to live in him more deeply. He’s as genuine a human being as I have ever met and it was icing on the cake to have a chance to reconnect with him today.

I’ve got a few more folks to visit with today and then have a late afternoon departure to head home. I get in pretty late tonight, but there is nothing like the trip home! I always love getting home to Sara and those crazy pups of ours!

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