Pastor Dana’s blog

On Sunday night I met with a bunch of triathletes from the area at a local eatery.  I had been planning on going to their monthly social since March.  It would be a great opportunity to meet other triathletes, ask questions, find support, etc.  March came and went without going to the social.  In April I was excited to be able to go since it was the day after my first (and to date only) triathlon.  I could go as one of them, a triathlete.  But Sunday evening rolled around and I didn’t go.  May came and went with the same determination to go and the same holding back.  So the other night I was convinced I needed to be there.  I had been looking forward to this for months, I wanted to meet these folks, but about 4:00 in the afternoon I started hesitating again.  Now most of you would not characterize me as a shy person, or one who is bashful, but that is exactly what was happening.  I was afraid.  What was I afraid of?  Acceptance.  I would be in the midst of athletes with great accomplishments, people who had trained for years, who run dozens of miles a week, bike hundreds and swim for hours and hours.  What would they think of me?  I’m not really one of them.  I was afraid?  But I mustered up the courage (actually I asked God for it so I can’t take the credit) and went, and I found a welcoming group of people that wanted to know how I got interested in the very thing they love to do.  I wasn’t judged, I was accepted.

I wonder how many people feel the way I did when they want to start coming to a church.  I ask you to think about that one a bit.  Do people feel they won’t measure up to God, or do they just feel they won’t measure up to us?  Do they worry about being judged?  Do they worry about being accepted for who they are and where they are at?

This group of triathletes known as the Peoria Triathlon Club were warm and friendly and very welcoming to me.  Did I still feel a bit out of my element, sure, but not because of the people there, they did everything possible to make me feel at home among them, offering helpful pointers on an upcoming race in Canton and inviting me to bring Cathy to the next social. 

Thank you to the Peoria Trithlon Club for making me feel welcome.

Triathlon

I just got back from a wonderful week with 20 youth at Camp Emmanuel youth camp.  Some say that we have lost our way and the youth of the world are leading us into destruction. 

Don’t believe them. 

God is working in these young people in amazing ways and we need to open our eyes and see it.

These great young men and women eagerly spent time worshiping, studying scripture, playing and eating, all without excluding anyone.  These youth are from a variety of backgrounds, but they came together.  They spent a week without texting or facebook or malls or television and didn’t complain once.  We might all learn from them.  They came to camp to spend a week with God and with each other and they embraced the opportunity and grew.  They grew in their walk with God, in their relationships with one another, and in their own maturity.

I am blessed to have spent this week with them.

So the next time you think the youth of this world have lost their way, maybe we need to take another look and see if it is we who have lost something; the ability to see with new eyes a world that is changing so fast that it is hard to keep up.  Each of these youth at camp this week is working out their faith and growing in Christ in spite of a world that is trying to lead them away from God.  So I am celebrating what God is doing in these young men and women as He grows them into all that He has created them to be.

To God be the Glory

Youth

I am a triathlete.  I am a TRIATHLETE!!! 

Boy, does it feel good to finally be able to say that.  It’s official.  And it ranks right up there, but not above, “I am a Husband”, “I am a Father”, and the ultimate, “I am a Christian”.  After 4 months of training I can finally say it.  I am a Triathlete.

Now mind you, I am not a good triathlete, but I finished my first race and that means I can finally call myself a triathlete.  I never felt right calling myself that while I was training.  I had never completed a race, I had never completed the distance of all three events on the same day; I was just a guy who was swimming, biking and running every week.  To truly call yourself a triathlete, or an athlete for that matter you need to compete.  Surely you need to train to compete, but if we never enter the arena, never enter the contest, then what are we training for.  I bought the right cloths to race in, I bought the right gear for my bike, I bought the goggles and the Lycra swim suit, (something no one should have to see on a middle aged man).  But again none of these things made me a triathlete.  It was the combination of all these things culminating in that event called a triathlon.

The Apostle Paul talks a lot about training ourselves as Christians.  But is he saying that it is in the training that we show we are Christians, NO.  He is saying that in the training we discipline our bodies so that we may then run the race to win.  The Christian life is not in the training, it is in the race.  We train to run the race.  Just like someone can buy all the stuff, the cloths, the bikes, the Lycra swim suits; we can buy and pursue the things that will make us look and feel like Christians.  We can carry our bibles, we can go to bible studies, we can sing songs and pray prayers, but if we don’t put the things we learn into practice and compete in the race, we are not really doing what Paul talked about.

The ascetic who beats his body thinking it will please God, is forgetting that Paul tells us not to train to please God, but to train so we can compete, to train so that when we preach the Gospel, which is what will please God, so we will not be disqualified.  What Paul is telling us is that we need to put the things we train at into practice.  What good does it do to study how we can trust God to provide for us, if we don’t run the race and actually trust God to do the things He promises?  What good does it do to study, to train in the way of peace if we don’t run the race when the opportunity comes for us to turn the other cheek?  What good does it do to study and know how to be humble servants like our Savior if we never actually run the race and serve?  We can learn about love and understand it, but it is in the living it out, in running the race and actually showing it in the way we love that God uses it in amazing ways.  We can study and learn about grace, but it is in the living it out, in running the race and exhibiting  grace that reveals who we are as Christians.

One can read everything they need to know about being a triathlete in books or on the internet.  But having the knowledge does not make one a triathlete.  And training does not make one a triathlete if they never compete.  Crossing the finish line makes one a triathlete.  Being a Christian is no different.

RUN THE RACE.  WIN THE PRIZE

And YES, I am a Christian and I am a triathlete.  In fact I am a CHRISTIAN TRIATHLETE!!!

Triathlon

After a couple of weeks of walking during my Lenten devotional time, I thought it might be good to start running. I need the exercise, and I need the solitude that a lot of people that run seem to find out on the road or trail. So how does one start. Well, I talked to a pastor friend that is training for a half marathon this summer and asked how he got started, and he told me that he found a training plan on a website for runners. So off to Google I go, and low an behold there it is, how to get from the couch to three miles running in 8 weeks.

Now I have a plan, and its time to take some action. After all one does not become a runner by studying about running, by learning everything one can about shoes and technique, but by running. So off to Running Central in Peoria for some advice on and procurement of proper footwear. What did I find? Some of the nicest people ready and willing to help this novice get started with the proper shoes and loads of encouragement. I must admit I had been a little afraid of entering an actual running store for fear that I would be looked upon with condescension as a rank amateur, but my fears were thankfully not realized. Reminds me of how fearful people are of entering churches, fearing the judgment of those who might be known as the “pros” of Christianity. Can we be just as kind and encouraging to those who are seeking a new life running with Christ as these folks were to me as a new runner of the trails? Something to think about.

Anyway, on to the real point of this story.

When I started running my legs would be burning near the end of the one minute intervals of running. Yes, I am really out of shape. I found myself looking at my watch, yearning for the minute to be up so I could once again walk for the next four minutes. I would get so consumed with the discomfort that it was all I could think about and the seconds seemed to go by so slow. Then during my second walk/run a couple of days later, I thought about how I was concentrating on the discomfort instead of the goal and started looking ahead on the path instead of looking down at the ground right in front of me. It was amazing what happened. Now the discomfort didn’t go away, but my mind was on the goal and the burning muscles didn’t consume me. Eureka!! AHHA!! Running lesson, YES! Life Lesson, YOU BET! When we focus on our own discomfort it is really hard to see a way to our goals. When we focus on our own discomforts we find it hard to see where God is taking us. We are pain averse creatures and we will do almost anything to avoid it. But when we focus on the goals, the struggles that get in the way don’t seem so large. It’s not that we don’t notice them, we just put them on proper perspective, as something that needs to be overcome to reach the prize. We see the prize and we press forward. It’s the same when we fix our eyes on Jesus, not on ourselves or our own comfort, and we strive for the prize of winning souls to Christ.

Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart… Therefore, strengthen your feeble arms and weak knees. “Make level paths for your feet,” so that the lame may not be disabled, but rather healed.
(Heb12:1-3, 12-13)

Triathlon

Well, here goes facebook again. This week they changed everything around and I can’t find what I’m looking for.

Actually I am pretty new to facebook and didn’t have to go through the pain of living through the last change, not that long ago. What was interesting about this change was a conversation that I had with a young person of college age that was frustrated about this change. I guess what caught me off guard was that we usually think of old people (relative term depending on how old one is that is saying old people), any way we usually think of old people as the ones who are resistant to change. After all it is the young who always seem to be asking for things to change. So to see this young person frustrated by the change in their beloved facebook interface was a bit of a surprise.

It was a learning experience for both me and for them. Especially when I suggested that this might be the same way that older people (again subjective term) feel when worship style in the church is changed. I guess it shows that we are all resistant when the things we care about are changed, but we need to remember that change is a part of life, and look at what the changes we encounter are really about. Has the change just been about the interface, or has it changed the substance? Is the introduction of new music in worship changing what we believe about Jesus? Is the introduction of video into worship changing what we believe about Jesus? Is the introduction of a new interface for facebook changing the substance of what we use it for, to connect with our friends? Whether the music is traditional or contemporary, or even emergent, we can still connect with God who hasn’t changed. No matter whether we use visuals on screens or in stained glass, the story remains the same that God sent His Son Jesus to show us His love and forgive us from our sin. Nothing we use to present that story has the power to change the truth about God.

In a couple of weeks the fuss over facebook will die down and people will be used to the new format. We will once again be able to find our stuff and make it give us the information we crave. And maybe, just maybe, we will be able to take these life events into context and examine where we are in the midst of them and discover something about ourselves. Yes sometimes life is frustrating and we find comfort in the stability, but it is also in the stability that we can so easily find stagnation and complacency.

Anyway, just some random thoughts on living this Christian life.

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SPOILER ALERT and CONFESSION, I am about to do the very thing I am going to complain about.

You know what really bugs me…. Oh, sorry Andy Rooney, I stole your line.

I read a number of blogs and I have found one thing that many (not all) have in common. Blogs tend to be negative. They/I can have a habit of using the blog as a place to vent about pet peeves. On one hand, it is in the examination of these areas that we often find dysfunction in ourselves as well and find a growth edge to become more of who God has called us to be. On the other, we do use this platform to just plain complain about the things that bug us. And I have to admit, many of the things that bug other bloggers (I use the term lightly for myself since I don’t post enough to be a real blogger), many of the things that bug other bloggers bug me too. But I wonder how much we gain by griping about every little thing in life, and where does it take us in life. In other words, do we gain by giving voice to these things, or does breathing these words and thoughts take us into a negative spiral of a personal nature where we stop creating.

In the Movie “High Fidelity” with John Cusak, his character is a constant critic, making various lists with his employees about the best music in eclectic categories that are designed to show how much smarter they are than the average music lover. One day he hears a tape of a local group of teenagers and offers to produce their demo. When he gets scared of being the DJ at the groups debut party, his girlfriend reminds him that he has always been a critic; now he is a creator and its time to step up.

It’s easy to be a critic because a critic never has to create. But we always have to remember, without the creators, there is nothing to critique. I think I want to be a creator more than I want to be a critic. My greatest desire is to know God, the first and best creator, and to always be open to what He is doing so I can cooperate with the Holy Spirit in being part of bringing forth the Kingdom of God. I know that I will still get bugged by stuff, but maybe I can remember Viktor Frankl who in the midst of suffering in a Nazi concentration camp, discovered that he couldn’t control how he was treated, but was able to chose how he responded to that treatment. We always have the choice of how we respond. Do we respond in ways that are destructive or constructive?

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Yah, I know this is the question that everyobody is pondering today. In the context of the current climate in the world, these are important issues. Well, actually it is. When did it ever become a rule that just because times are tough, that no one is allowed to have fun? And where did we get this idea that just because the mission of Jesus is deadly serious, that He never had fun. After all He went to wedding parties, and children flocked to Him. Jesus always went to the folks, rather than making them come to Him, literaly and figuratively. Jesus meets us where we are, and I believe that would mean playing Kick-Ball.

Last night was a blast at First Church of the Brethren of Peoria. A bunch of kids of all ages had some pizza and played some Kick-Ball. It was good to laugh and play together. I can’t wait till next month. BTW – if you have ideas for the family fun night once a month, let me know.

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I should have started with this post yesterday, but I got thinking during the Rose Bowl and jumped the gun without giving a welcome at the front door. Well, better late than never.

Welcome to my blog. Nothing formal or fancy, just a bunch of random thoughts as they come to me about living this Christian life. Feel free to comment on any of the posts. Anyone (and I mean anyone) is open to join the discussion. I just ask a couple of favors from anyone that wishes to comment. Please keep it civil so we can have a fruitful discussion. Also if you have any problem with anything on the site, let me know. I’m new to much of this and probably don’t have everything adjusted correctly yet. My info is available on peoriabrethren.org

Thanks for stopping in. Hope to hear from you soon.

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I’m sitting here watching the Big 10 lose another Rose Bowl. Oh well. Pac Ten folks are celebrating right?

I wonder why we get so wrapped up in finding our happiness in the success of OUR team. Frankly it’s a bit unfair to force that burden on a group of young athletes, asking them to succeed so we can feel good about ourselves. It’s a burden we should ask of no one. No other person on the planet should ever be expected to provide for our happiness. After all there is ONE who has already taken on the burden for our life, and He is the only one who is capable of providing the joy we seek. Jesus has already provided all that we need to live life to the full, even in the midst of our burdens.

Those who know me know that I’m not big on New Years resolutions. Anything worth doing is doing now! And now is always the time for each of us to count only on Jesus for our Joy. He is the only one who can carry that burden and the only one who should ever be asked.

Oh ya, Congratulations USC.

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