Patience is annoying...

Four years ago, David Kibler and I decided to plant a church in Nicholasville, KY. Well, we didn't really decide it. It seems that God had decided for us long before we ever talked about it. That's for another blog. Today, I'm in one of those uneasy moods. I'm ready for big things; things so big that they would be considered mind-boggling. 1000 people at Catalyst weekly, the ability to hire more staff, and the finances to be able to be the full supporters of several missionaries. I want to see Catalyst Christian Church really be a catalyst for change in our town's culture. I want to see impact locally, nationally, globally.....and I want it now!

I feel like those lawyer commercials that say, "It's my money, and I need it NOW!!!!" I've never been all that good at waiting on God to move. I want to jump the gun, force the issue. I hate waiting. Unfortunately, God sometimes calls us to do that very thing. Psalm 27:13 says, " Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord." That doesn't always seem to be the way I work. The beginning of that chapter states all of these amazing attributes of God, and then it states for us to "wait". Really? God is my "light and salvation", my "stronghold", and I am to hide in the shelter of His "sacred tent", but I have to wait?

I hate to admit it, but it seems like God reveals Himself more often in the "waiting" than He does in the rushing and madness. Every minister I've talked to has some horror stories of an earlier ministry that they were involved in before they finally found that place where things just clicked. The Sistine Chapel took Michelangelo 4 years to paint. Mount Rushmore took 14 years to carve out. The Great Pyramid of Giza took somewhere between 14 and 20 years to construct. Great things, many times, take great amounts of time. For me, though, and many others I know, we want to see great things now.

I'm only now starting to realize that God has literally been shaping my life to prepare me for Catalyst. My father was a church planter in upstate New York when I was a child. My first youth ministry was at a new church in Versailles, KY. I was a part of 4 building programs. I've worked with large budgets and small budgets. I've had large youth groups and small youth groups. I've gotten the opportunity to minister in three different states. My ministry has been 37 years in the making, and I'm understanding now that it's still in the building stages. I can't rush what God is trying to do in my life, and, likewise, I can't rush what He's doing with Catalyst.

Needless to say, I'm learning to be more patient, but patience is still annoying....

The American Dream

Growing up, we're always told that there are certain goals that we should be shooting for; a nice wife, a nice, new car, a nice house, 2.5 children, and a nice job. Lately, those things seem almost ridiculous to me. Not that having those things is bad, but is that seriously what I should aspire for? If it is, I'm a pitiful failure. I'm not married. I drive a used car. I live in a town house, and I have no children. I love my job desperately, but it's far from secure. I'm a church planter. I don't have a portfolio. I don't have a solid retirement plan. If what I said above is the "American Dream", then I must be from some other country.

I've been spending a lot of my time reading lately, and I'm starting to see the contradictions to the "American Dream" and God's plan. Matthew 6:25-34 says,

"Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?

"And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? So do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

I have to wonder if our worries, jobs, possessions, hobbies, even our service can get in the way of relationship with Christ.

I had the opportunity to speak on Sunday at Catalyst Christian Church, the church where I am currently the worship minister. I was given the task of speaking about the presence of God in our lives. It really seems like we get so filled up with the stuff of our "dreams" that we don't always have room for God. Even serving God can get in the way of actually spending time with Him.

I recently did some spring cleaning in my laptop's hard drive as I was beginning to run out of space. I quickly realized that I had a lot of junk on there that needed to be dumped; duplicate files and songs, funny video downloads that I haven't watched in a couple of years, pictures that needed to be archived. I found numerous random folders all over the place, and realized quickly just how complicated I had made my computer. Needless to say, I've started simplifying my system so I won't be wasting so much time searching for things, and spending more time doing what needs to be done.

I have to wonder if our lives have become that. Are we spending so much of our days filling in each hour with something to do, spending important emotional energy on needless things, or giving away so much service that there's nothing left? Our heart's could be in the right place, but an absence of time spent WITH God is still an absence of time. I'm only saying this because it's my greatest flaw. I think it's time we all simplify things a little. Make some time for God. Save some emotion for Him. Serve Christ daily with our lives, not just volunteer projects.

There are so many around the world who can't imagine living like we do here in the US, but, sometimes, I'm jealous of just how simple life could be without all of our stuff.