From Pulpit to People

Whether your a pastor or not we all preach. We talk about how we see life and see people and see circumstances. Too often however we live something contrary to what we say. We look at other kids and protest, "If I were there parent..." or "If I was them.."  Then we have kids, or find our self in their shoes with a shoe in our mouth, eating our own words.

Today, I experienced the joy of practicing what I preached and in that moment experienced God in an amazing way. I just spoke Sunday about the "Helpers High," that feeling you get when you serve someone and how that feeling is a God feeling. In my message I left GraceRiver with a challenge. Look for doors God opens to serve others and then do it. Also, to pray for God to put someone on your heart you could serve this week and then go serve them.

Today I was in line at Subway to get sandwiches to go have lunch with my kids at school. In walked some teachers from the school whom I recognized. As I was standing there talking to them briefly I heard God's voice say "here is your chance." I walked up to the counter and
when ready to check out I informed the clerk that the teachers sandwiches were on me. It was simple and it was good. My voice became his voice and those teachers, in that moment, experienced the delight of God over their work with kids.

I walked out experiencing the 'helpers high.' And you know what? They did too.

Phillip Woody
phil@ridetheriver.org

When Can You Take Off The Hat?

In the area of leadership, when can you take off the hat? When is it
that you don't have to act like the leader? For many of us this is
hard. For us who are wired to lead, it seems that every environment
we step into we experience a rising desire to lead there. Whether
that is because a situation lacks any leadership so we step up, or we
feel like we can lead better than the person already leading. Either
way we have a desire to lead. That is not wrong. It is a God given
desire.

So when is it O.K. to take off that hat and just relax? Here is the
answer my lead pastor suggested..."When your out of town!" It is
unhealthy to always have to be the leader. That is why leaders need
to have regular times they are off duty. That means getting away.
The reality is that once your the leader, your the leader. People
expect it from you and the organization requires it. The only way to
take off the hat is to change your environment. That means getting
the heck out of dodge.

Leaders like anyone else need to breathe. Look at how many times
Jesus changed his environment in order to breathe. He would go "away
form the crowd" in order to not be the leader, rather the student. He
would sit at the feet of his Father and breathe. If your a leader,
and your not breathing, chances are you are not leading that well.

Surrender the fear!

In my quiet time I was faced with the picture of Jesus we find in Revelation chapter 1. This picture of Jesus is in my estimation the purest single picture of Jesus we have in scripture. The scary thing about this picture of Jesus is that it reveals Jesus as anything but "safe." Safe is not "eyes like blazing fire," a sword for a tongue, or face of blinding brilliance as that of the Sun. Our reaction to this Jesus, like John who wrote the account, is loss of consciousness; overwhelmed. And now we understand what scripture constantly refers to as "the fear of the Lord."

Yet the presence of Jesus in the same moment is completely satisfying, "holding the keys of death and hades," who's method of operation is grace and wisdom and motive is pure unadulterated love. So our response to this Jesus is one of complete surrender to the God of the universe. Our response is fear.

Those who argue this have reduced Jesus to a rabbits foot on a key chain in their pocket they rub in blind hope when any whimsical desire comes fluttering by. Their God is one of convenience not authority, of occasional delight not of complete surrender. Ouch! Is that mine. Every time I don't move forward out of fear I make the decision to treat Jesus as a rabbits foot and not as the fearful God he is. Fearing God means surrender to the blade, surrender to the surgeon who's motive is my heart and who's M/O is grace and wisdom. When God wants to move us forward our proper response is to "surrender the fear." "Then he placed his right hand on me and said: Do not be afraid." (Rev. 1:17b)
Phillip Woody
phil@ridetheriver.org