Categories
Relationships

The Need for Community in the midst of COVID and the Loss of a Job

Well, it’s been almost a year-and-a-half since I have posted on my website. For the first three years of my site (2014-16), I was faithful to post multiple times each week. Then my postings became less consistent during the next two years. And in 2019 I took a break from posting on this site, as our church began a Bible reading plan together. During that time, I chose to shift from posting here to posting to our Church Bible reading Facebook group. I planned to get back to posting here in January 2020 after we completed our Bible reading, but then I took on a new job with LifeWay in late 2019. I went through training, “hit the road” with the new work in January, and felt I was just about ready to resume posting, as I felt that I had gotten into a routine.
But then COVID hit.
And routine went out the window.

Fast-forward several weeks… into the “shelter-at-home” work routine, as we have all been struggling to figure out. And just about the time I thought I had a handle on it… on April 29th, our LifeWay Church Partner team was told that our department was being eliminated due to the economic downturn. Ummm…. wait, what?

Wow… talk about an announcement that turns your world upside-down! But of course, this just puts me in a situation like many other people. I can certainly now relate to that feeling you get when you are “let go” from a job.one person in an empty parking lot - pointing out our need for community

So I spent the past week-and-a-half getting my resume together, answering phone calls and emails about the loss of the job (and having such amazing support from everyone!), and praying about what God’s next assignment will be for us. And now that I am through with the 2019 Churchwide Bible reading plan, my late 2019 training for LifeWay, my early 2020 new work routine, my recent job loss announcement, and this last week of resume preparation… What should I do with my time? Well, I think it is time to use some time to get back into posting on the website.

So here goes…
Let me start with something I recently shared with my team that I read from Andrew Peterson’s book, Adorning The Dark, about the need for community with others. Peterson is a song-writer, and these excerpts from his book are about his own “loss of a job” when he got the call that his contract was not being renewed by his recording label.

…I got the fated phone call that I was being dropped.

Oh, how I wished Rich Mullins were still alive, just to have someone to talk to. I didn’t want to be worried about money. I wanted to be a barefoot vagabond musician who laughed his way through trouble and sang about Jesus to whomever would listen. But when you have a wife and three babies, you can’t just not think about money. I needed to pay the mortgage. I needed to pay for diapers, formula, shoes, electricity. And at the same time there was this calling, this vocation, which as far as I could tell hadn’t changed.

…in the moment I was devastated. …I can still remember the brick-in-the-gut feeling I had when the call was over, the eerie, foreboding sense that something significant had just happened which would alter the shape of my life. …I hung up the phone, took a deep breath, wiped a tear from my eye, and walked back into the studio. The guys were probably laughing at something and didn’t notice at first that my face was pale.

“I just got dropped from my label,” I told them. They stopped laughing and offered their condolences. Then after a few moments of silence someone said, “So about this guitar part. Do you want it to come in at the top of the chorus?”
And we were off and running.

…there was no time to wallow in self-pity, but I was surrounded by friends, by community, by people who told me implicitly by their involvement in my life and work that this was still worth doing, label or no label. It felt so good to walk back into that basement, roll up my sleeves, and try to craft an album about Jesus.

That’s community. They look you in the eye and remind you who you are in Christ. They reiterate your calling when you forget what it is. They step into the garden and help you weed it, help you to grow something beautiful.

…[We chose to] stay the course and keep writing the kinds of songs we believed in…. And the only way we could see [this] option working was to lock arms with one another in community. …Suddenly, label or no label, radio or no radio, we belonged to something, and that something was each other. We were no longer alone. Perhaps most important, it meant that whenever I was discouraged, I had friends who gave me courage. If I wanted to quit, someone was there to look me in the eye and tell me my songs mattered….

We all need community. I have it with the team members who are on the same journey with me now that our team has been eliminated. I have it with a group of pastors who have been my co-laborers and friends. I have it with a church family that has grown me over the past 10.5 years and has been so supportive of me now that I have lost this recent job. Who do you have community with? (If you don’t feel connected to community like Peterson talks about, I would me encourage you to connect with a local church family who will hold out both love and truth to you at the same time. They are who have provided me the most consistent community throughout my life.)

Paige and I are so very grateful for so many of you who God has placed in our lives to “lock arms” with and travel this journey called life together. Thank you for reminding us who we are in Christ, for giving us courage and support when we are discouraged, and for looking us in the eyes to remind us that our calling from the Lord matters.

Thank you for being a part of my community during this time!
Much love my friends,
Brian

Categories
Worship

Are you trying to “get the feeling again” during worship?

man standing with uplifted hands during a sunset - symbolizing our search for a feeling during worship

Sometimes (maybe even too often) when we come to worship, we have come looking for an emotional experience… some aspect of having a specific feeling. Is that what worship is supposed to do – to give us an emotional high? Are you coming to worship in an attempt to have your heart-strings pulled?

Alistair Begg discusses his thoughts about those who say to him something along the lines of: “I’m just trying to get the feeling again.”

…I meet with people every week who think this is the answer to their spiritual impoverishment – if only they could get the feeling again.

…If you come to church on a Sunday for the feeling, I guarantee you that 9 Sundays out of 10, you’re going to go away disappointed. We have to acknowledge that we come to worship on the Lord’s Day in all kinds of conditions of heart & life.

…If you came hoping for your favorite instruments to get the feeling back again, then you might be disappointed; If you came hoping to sing your five favorite songs, you might be disappointed; If you came for anything other than truth to transform, then you may wait for a long time. And only the truth transforms and stays, because the feeling goes as the music dies.

When you attend worship with your church family, is it to experience some elusive emotion or feeling again, or is it to meet with God’s people as a family and hear the truth that has the power to transform your life? As we grow in our maturity, we should realize that our primary concern in worship should not be to have our emotions stirred, but for us to better know the truth of God’s Word. And what we will find is that if we better know God’s Word and embrace the truths there, then worship will automatically affect our emotions because we will be in awe at the grace of Jesus to rescue sinners like us. God’s truth is sufficient to impact us powerfully and to transform our lives.  

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Categories
Worship

Awe Problems Are All Around Us

“You don’t have to look very far to see awe problems everywhere around you.”

photo of person standing on mountain looking into a lush valley symbolizing the fact that our awe problem can cause us to find delight in the wrong things

My last two posts were connected to Paul David Tripp’s book, Awe. (You can read them by following these links: Post 1 and Post 2.) Today, I want to share what he says about Awe Problems – how looking for awe in the wrong places will lead us into sin:

In the heart of a sinner, awe of God is very quickly replaced by awe of self. This is the great war of wars. You don’t have to look very far to see awe problems everywhere around you.

Adultery is an awe problem. To the degree that you forget God’s glory as the Creator of your body and his place as owner of every aspect of your physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual personhood, to that degree it is easier to use the members of your body to get whatever pleasure your heart craves.

Debt is an awe problem. When your mind is blown away by the thought that God provides everything you have, that every good gift really does come from him, you are predisposed to be a good steward of the things he has provided.

Obsession with the collection of possessions is the result of an awe amnesia that makes you ask of things what you will only ever get from the God of glory, who alone can satisfy your searching heart.

Living for power and control is an awe problem. When you live with the rest and peace that come from keeping the power, authority, and sovereignty of God before your eyes, you don’t need to work yourself into control over the people and situations in your life.

Gluttony and obesity are awe problems. When you forget the glory of the satisfying grace of the Redeemer, you are susceptible to letting things like food and drink become your temporary replacement messiahs.

Fear of man is an awe problem. When I forget that God’s glory defines not only him but who I have become as his child, I look to people to give me meaning, purpose, and identity.

The awe war is everywhere. So I know that in ministry I will be preaching, teaching, and encouraging people who are awe forgetful, awe discouraged, awe empty, awe deceived, awe seduced, awe kidnapped, and awe weary. My job is to give them eyes to see the awesome glory of God—his glorious grace, wisdom, power, faithfulness, sovereignty, patience, kindness, mercy, and love.

I hope that today, your eyes will be open to see how awesome God is, so that you can replace your own awe problems by looking at the glory, grace, and might of our wonderful Savior!

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Categories
Worship

Awe Shapes the Direction of Your Life

Where you look for awe will shape the direction of your life.

My last post indicated that the awesome things of this earth are signposts pointing to our awesome Creator.
grand teton mountain range at sunset to symbolize awe-inspiring things that provide direction as to what we care about
Today I want to share a bit more from Paul David Tripp’s book, Awe.

It just makes sense that your source of awe will control you, your decisions, and the course your story takes. For example, if you live in awe of material things, you will spend lots of money acquiring a pile of material stuff. To afford your ever-increasing pile, you will have to work a lot. You will also tend to attach your identity and inner sense of peace to material possessions, spending way too much time collecting and maintaining them. If material things are your awe source, you will neglect other things of value and won’t ever be fully satisfied, because these material things just don’t have the capacity to satisfy your awe-longing heart. Yes, your house will be big, your car will be luxurious, and you will be surrounded with beautiful things, but your contentment in areas that really count will be small.

Awe stimulates the greatest joys and deepest sorrows in us all.
…When you say, “If only I had _______,” how do you fill in the blank?

What are you willing to make sacrifices for, and what in your life just doesn’t seem worth the effort? Look at your highest joys and deepest sorrows, and you will find where you reach for awe. Take anger, for example. Think of how little of your anger in the last couple months had anything at all to do with the kingdom of God. You’re not generally angry because things are in the way of God and his kingdom purposes. You’re angry because something or someone has gotten in the way of something you crave, something you think will inspire contentment, satisfaction, or happiness in you. Your heart is desperate to be inspired, and you get mad when your pursuits are blocked. Where you look for awe will fundamentally control the thoughts and emotions of your heart in ways you normally don’t even realize.

Therefore, we need to stop looking for awe in the created things, and allow the wonder of the created things to lead us to look for awe in Him.

What are some things that create a sense of awe in you that point you toward the Creator?

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Categories
Worship

Developing Your Heart Involves Increasing Your Awe

To follow up on my previous post about developing your heart, I want to share with you a few excerpts from Paul David Tripp’s book, Awe. I find that I connected with his introductory remarks about himself, as it well-described both where I am and where I need to be:

I wrote this book for me because, at this point in my life, I am more aware than ever that I have a fickle and wandering heart. I wish I could say that every moment I enjoy some created thing initiates in me a deeper worship of the Creator, but it doesn’t….

I wrote this book for me because I am aware that I need to spend more time gazing upon the beauty of the Lord. I need to put my heart in a place where it can once again be in awe of the grandeur of God that reaches far beyond the bounds of the most expressive words in the human vocabulary. I need awe of him to recapture, refocus, and redirect my heart again and again. And I need to remember that the war for the awe of my heart still wages inside me.

I wrote this book for me because I came to see that I was wired for awe. …But I wasn’t just wired for awe. I was wired for awe of God. No other awe satisfies the soul. No other awe can give my heart the peace, rest, and security that it seeks.

…The war that rages in my heart rages in yours as well. Things in the creation not only capture me, they capture you too. Like me, you need to spend more time gazing upon the awesome beauty of your Lord so that your heart will remember and, in remembering, be rescued.

God intentionally loaded the world with amazing things to leave you astounded. The carefully air-conditioned termite mound in Africa, the tart crunchiness of an apple, the explosion of thunder, the beauty of an orchid, the interdependent systems of the human body, the inexhaustible pounding of the ocean waves, and thousands of other created sights, sounds, touches, and tastes—God designed all to be awesome. And he intended you to be daily amazed.
sunset over lake to point out that awe of creation should point to the Creator
But remember – Every created awe is meant to point you to the Creator.

…No awesome thing in creation was meant to give you what only the Creator is able to give. Every awesome thing in creation is designed to point you to the One who alone is worthy of capturing and controlling the awe of your searching and hungry heart.

As it is true of a street sign, so it is true of every jaw-dropping, knee-weakening, silence-producing, wonder-inspiring thing in the universe. The sign is not the thing you are looking for. No, the sign points you to what you are looking for. So you can’t stop at the sign, for it will never deliver what the thing it is pointing to will deliver.

Created awe has a purpose; it is meant to point you to the place where the awe of your heart should rest. If awesome things in creation become your god, the God who created those things will not own your awe.

Horizontal awe is meant to do one thing: stimulate vertical awe.

May you “deepen your awe of your Redeemer, and may your heart be rescued, satisfied, and glad.”

May this become true of me – that I deepen my awe of my Redeemer!

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