Africa-Monday

We left Milwaukee forty four hours ago, all went well. I was sure I’d be writing about the trip over, stories of cramped planes, screaming babies, and bad food. We arrived at our hotel exactly 24 hours and one minute after leaving Milwaukee. It was night time here, Nairobi is nine hours ahead of Waukesha, I am actually writing this tomorrow as you read it today. My thoughts of the discomfort we went thru have been replaced by the reality of life in the slums of Marthe Valley (Mar-the, the rhymes with way). Our trip over cannot even be described as an inconvenience in comparison.

Marthe Valley is home to 800,000 people all living in conditions that would be described as criminal in the United States. The valley is divided into ten villages, the valley runs approximately ten kilometers in length, or 6.2 miles. In that small stretch of land there is misery, disease, despair, alcoholism, drug abuse, hunger, fear, death, prostitution, this is where the forgotten people live, this is where people survive, live isn’t the right word.

In Nairobi unemployment runs at 60%, adult HIV rates are over 40%, the social services, the safety nets we have in the U.S., don’t exist in Kenya, people don’t fall through the cracks, the plunge into the abyss. This is their reality, this is the story we never knew.

Thoughts from the slum tour today:
Drug use is rampant, the drug of choice is glue, the epoxy that holds our shoes together, we saw and talked at a thirteen year old boy who will never remember we were there, his mind is gone, for him it seems so is hope. We went into the home of Frieda; rather we went into the shack of Frieda. Frieda is not sure of her age; it’s fifty something, a 12 x 10 shack, made out of corrugated steel is her home. Frieda used to abuse alcohol; she drank so she could do her job, as a prostitute. Today she is a sister in Christ, 22 people live with her in her tiny shack, no plumbing, water, floor, nothing. For the first time today I have seen nothing, until now I always thought there was something I now have seen nothing, yet in that nothing I saw God. Frieda prays to keep her faith strong, that her family would grow in the hope that is Christ and for God to provide for her and hers for one more day. I thought I relied on God and trusted in him; today I met people who just do it, no thinking, just prayers. Raw sewage everywhere, we walked around the corner and saw a young child squatting in front of their house like a dog would, I’d like to say that was odd, it’s the norm. Home distilleries, making alcohol in rivers of filth, drunken men and women, in the midst of all of this there is hope, the church is alive in Marthe Valley.

Busy

Without a doubt, as I write this or perhaps as this is being read, the reader and the writer are both incredibly busy. This fact is no longer even questioned, we are busy. From the time we wake in the morning to the time we retire for the evening, our days are filled with a constant velocity and fury of busyness. In line at the local grocer, I heard this exchange, "Young man, hurry up I am very busy today", the clerk responded "Lady the world is busy."

Sir or madam, for the last time let me tell you now, the world is collectively busy. From this point forward, just as no one walks around and says "I'm breathing", forever more henceforth there is no need to disclose our busyness. We get it, enough said, we are busy. We are busy with things we can control and with things we can't. Declaring our busyness is justification of why we don't do the things we really should. Put another way, when we are too busy to do the things we ought to, maybe we're not busy at all in the sense we've come to expect.

I once heard, busy is short for buried under Satan's yoke. Seems we may not be as busy as we thought we were, instead it seems we're merely distracted. The distraction is deliberate, diabolical, and deadly. Maybe all this busyness is by design. I was going to read my bible today but... I was going to spend time with my kids today but... I was going to stop and see my parents today but... I was to busy. Satan is called the great deceiver, maybe some or most of our busyness is designed to distract us from God and the things God loves. Maybe when we're buried under the yoke of Satan we aren't busy we're simply not focused.

Matthew 11:30 "For my yoke is easy and my burden is light." Jesus offers a different yoke, our busyness keeps us away from him. Maybe it's time to re-focus.

Cow, pig, or chicken?

Think for a minute, what are you having for dinner tonight? What did you have last night, or the night before? Let me guess, you had cow, pig, or chicken. I know there's a chance you had fish, maybe you went the vegetarian route, for most of us though, we ate from the big three. As a matter of fact, most of the time were going to eat the big three. So why don't we get bored with our diet? Presentation, presentation is everything. We've all heard it many times, and it's true. The variety is in the presentation and that is why we can have one of the three over and over again, and say things like this is the best meal I've ever had, when in reality we have eaten the same things literally hundreds and thousands of times. It's the presentation that keeps it fresh, new, and exciting.

Move, eat, sleep. Today that's all we're going to do. It's all we did yesterday, its all we will do tomorrow. It's all we ever do. Sometimes more of one and less of another, but it's all we do. How do we keep it fresh, how do we keep it exciting, how do we maintain the spark? Presentation, presentation is everything.

Today we can present ourselves to others in many different fashions and manners.We're going to move. We can be the encourager, the discourager, we can be the yes, we can be the no, we can be the go, we can be the stop. The truth is we get to decide how were going to act. We move, we choose. We can move selfishly, we can move for the greater good, we choose. We can't move yesterday, we can't move tomorrow, we can move today. We can control how we move in front of others.

Our movements don't always align with who we are. Like a cook who tries to drown the overcooked cow, pig, or chicken in a sauce. We can hide in a myriad of movements. We direct, and redirect. We cover up and we justify, we blame yesterday, and fear the way we will move tomorrow. We settle for less than we should. We control how we move, we hide how we move. The truth is we move, alone or in groups, we move. Many of our fathers no longer move, they moved their last time.

Today we move, it may be our last time. Psalm 95:7-8 Today if you hear his voice do not harden your hearts. Move in harmony. Psalm 2:7 I will declare the decree of the Lord: He said to me you are my son today I have become your Father. Move in knowledge. Hebrews 13:8 Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.
Presentation is everything. Move in Him.

Thanksgiving

Four days after Christmas and I am writing about thanksgiving, I imagine it would seem I am somewhat behind in updating my blog, or I have my holidays messages mixed up. It's been a busy five or six weeks. Thanksgiving came and went in a moment, seems the next time I looked "T'was the night before Christmas." Now it's a few days after Christmas.

I love this time of year. The mad rush that results in a consumeristic(I made this word up) Christmas is over, and now in the waning days of December we all collectively take a deep breath and let out a well deserved sigh of relief as if to say we've made it. Made it through another year and almost into the next one, God willing of course.

That's why I am thankful, God blessed me with health and opportunities one more time. If I'm not careful (often I'm not) I miss those blessings from God, and I call those blessings and opportunities problems. That's why I am thankful, God sends me reminders throughout the year that he gives all of us blessings. Sometimes the blessings arrive disguised as problems, that's when God seems to say to me "solve this one." I try and I fail, that's when I know he's teaching me to rely on Him.

Philippians 4:13 I can do everything through him who gives me strength.

I can do everything through him who gives. God is the giver, it's rather simple. All I have or am is because he gave. That's why I am thankful, I know in my heart it is the truth. I seldom live it out as I should, but I know the truth, and I know who gives.

As this month and year end, (on the same date) I am thankful to share the truth found in Romans 5:8
But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

While we were his enemy, he gave. That's why I am thankful.

Cadence Part II

It seems when someone else does something there are two reactions, the first is the big deal reaction. As in, big deal I could do that, or so what I did that, or even better yet who cares. The second reaction is the you gotta be kidding me reaction. As in, you did what?!?! Why would you ever do something like that? You must be crazy.

Back to the frogs. Through Ben's sermon I sensed the leading of the Holy Spirit, it was not the first time I had sensed this particular leading, it was though, the first time I acted on it. I was working in a job that regularly required me to work 50 to 60+ hours per week. The quality of all my relationships was at a low. Relationally I had no cadence. God, yep once a week on Sunday, strong spiritual discipline, check. My wife, 30 minutes in the morning while I was getting ready to leave, and another 30 to 40 minutes at night as we drifted off to sleep, good spouse, check. My sons, have you ever heard the expression "parenting by phone"? I hope you never do,good father, check. My job, good money and all that went with it, were my frogs. God, my wife, and my sons, in that order, the most treasured people in my life, my reason for living, and I had no time for them. God said let me shift gears for you.

Two days later I left my job. I don't think it was a big deal, and I don't think I was crazy, all I did was say yes to God, he started shifting and I kept my cadence up. If others thought I was crazy, well that was for them to deal with. God, my wife, and sons now received the best of me, not what was left of me. For the first time in a long time I was in a position where I could say yes to the leadings of the Holy Spirit. I was asked to help in the children's ministry, I said yes. Later I was asked to attend winter camp with the kids, I said yes. The following year I was asked again I said yes. And so I entered a time in my life where I was able to make myself available to God, he kept shifting those gears and I kept working on my cadence and saying yes.

The end of a bike race is called the sprint, the cyclist pour every ounce of remaining energy into the last 300 yards in a desperate attempt to be the first to cross the line. It's pretty cool, if you win you get to stand on top of the podium. Neat stuff if your a cyclist. As I kept saying yes, opportunities to say yes kept happening. In '04 I was asked to go on the Jr. high mission trip, I said yes, with out realizing what I was saying yes to. One Sunday in July I, a father of two boys, found myself in a van of seven screaming seventh grade girls. God was shifting, I just kept pedaling. That week God gave me the chance to discuss salvation, baptism, his plans for all of us and the importance of saying yes. The end of that week, we were standing waist deep in the Rock river baptizing four of the girls. The following year I said yes, and found myself waist deep in Lake Superior, five students were baptized. God was shifting, I kept pedaling and discovered God wanted me in the sprint.
End Part II

Cadence Part 1

Biking, a passion I have. To live is to bike, and to bike is to live. Okay, I'm not that much of a fanatic, but I am a fan. Last June 7Th, we all remember that day, it's the day it rained in biblical proportions, I was riding in the Trek 100 with Lance Armstrong. Well, more like he was there and so was I, but since it's my story, me and Lance, yes, Lance and I were riding together. The day was simply beautiful, the rains wouldn't come until hours after Lance and I finished. Okay, he finished well before I did, I won't mention him again.

Cadence is the term that refers to your rate of pedal stroke. No matter how the terrain changes, small hills, steep hills, long hills, the goal is to keep that pedal stroke constant. The easiest way to accomplish that is by shifting gears up or down, steeper hills shift into lower gears, straight aways higher gears, simple really. Keep your effort constant, when it gets hard to pedal, shift gears, and keep working on that cadence.

For me cadence is a metaphor. No matter what is going on in my life, or yours, we are required to keep our effort efficient and constant, its the only way we can move forward. Some hills we need to zigzag up, some we just have to stand out of our seat, and some we may have to stop pedaling all together and push our bike up. Sometimes we also need to be reminded to shift gears.

In 2003 I listened to a sermon entitled One More Night With The Frogs. The setting was in Egypt, Pharaoh and his people were enduring the plagues because Pharaoh was to stubborn to let the children of Israel go.
So the frog plague hits, frogs everywhere, in your hair, in your soup, in your bath, in your yard, in your house, everywhere. Moses tells Pharaoh, say the word, I can pray for you and the frogs will go away. To me, Moses says, I can shift gears for you, say the word. Pharaoh does, he says come back tomorrow. Egypt is riding up a hill, their cadence has dropped to almost nothing, Moses volunteers to shift gears for them, Pharaoh chooses to spend another night with his problem.

I took that sermon to heart. I recognized God's voice saying I can shift gears for you, if you let me. The hill I was on was to steep, my cadence had no rhythm. I knew it was time for me to leave the frogs behind, and let God select the gears. I still had to pedal, I just gave up shifting the gears.

End Part 1

Being Still

Be still. In my elementary school days at St. Mary’s those words or variations of those words were frequently directed at me. Like the majority of grade school boys I knew instinctively I was not wired to be still, or remain in my desk, or able to remain contained in any way at any time. The funny thing was I was the only one who seemed to know how I was wired. Being still seemed like a logical request from the majority of teachers I ran into during those long ago days.

Be still. Today I see it more clearly. The act, or command to be still indicates something of importance is about to occur and I must be ready to absorb that moment. In the daily commotion of life, one task at hand, interrupted by dozens of more and equally pressing tasks, followed by a myriad of other distractions, makes being still elusive. Being still has become obsolete in our present day.

Be still and know. If I ever can be still for long enough I will know. How can I ever be still? The car needs a lower ball joint, I have to work, I need to see the doctor, someone needs to be dropped off, and someone needs to be picked up, dinner, shopping, mowing, laundry, exercising, cleaning, phone calls, emails, bills to be paid all need to be responded to. Be still and know what? I don’t have the time to be still, does that means I will never know?

Be still and know I am God.
Only in the stillness of my heart, only in the stillness of my soul will I know God. The magnitude of being still only occurs in stillness. I know my wife will proof read this and tell me the last sentence doesn’t make sense, I will leave it in anyway. In the cacophony of our days stillness is drowned out, knowing is replaced by wishing, wanting, and hoping. It doesn’t have to be this way. The psalmist teaches stillness, in the quieting and calming of our selves, we can know God. Stillness is deliberate, knowing is the blessing that follows obedience. Be still and know.


A random thought has been chasing me this week; no one ever denied the tomb was empty.