Monday, December 7, 2015

Bored With Your Faith???

I have to confess that I do not understand this. I was reading a couple of articles on the Relavant website which is an online Christian magazine that seems to have an unusual fascination with things of the world. If you have an interest, please click on this.

There were two articles that immediately caught my eye. The first was "Confessions of a Drunk Worship Leader" and the other was, "What Do You Do When You Are Bored With Your Faith".

Really? A drunk worship leader? How does this happen in a large church without everyone knowing? I'm not sure. I suppose it does though. We all have our obsessions and struggles and leadership is not immune to the allure of sin or addictions that can destroy. This is unfortunate, but we are a broken people in search of a solution. Sometimes those solutions involve self medication. I understand that part. I am addicted to nicotine. I do not smoke, but I do chew. I apologize if you did not know that. I have to say it sharpens my mind when used in conjunction with caffeine. If I'm in church, I chew nicotine gum. In the 19th century there were spittoons in the church building. That is no longer the case.

I hope that this new information has not destroyed my witness with you. If it has not, just add it to the list of things you know about me and deal with it accordingly. If it gets me any points, I quit drinking five years ago. By this time, I think I will probably give up nicotine when they lower me into the cold, dark ground of the cemetery. We will see.

Being bored with my faith though is not something that has ever happened to me. God and I have spent much time together and while much of it has been instructive to me and the result of misplaced anger, I have never been bored with Him. I know He loves me and I rejoice in that everyday. We have been close because of some not so positive things, but we have been close nevertheless, even when we were arguing. He is (has been) so patient and loving with me. He is, to me, a new adventure everyday. Whatever else you might call our relationship, it is not boring.

If you find your faith walk needs constant stimulation to stay lively, maybe you need to look closer at where you are with Him to begin with. He is constantly putting things in my way to see what I will do with them. I'm kind of like Jonah. I have to get swallowed by life before I get motivated and God is always supplying the whales. I complain. He laughs and says to do whatever it is anyway.

I love Him. He is so much fun.   

Ministry To Same Sex Attracted People

One of the things, maybe the thing, that everyone had hoped would come out of my coming out was ministry to same sex attracted people. I know that it's only been a short time since these events, but what I am finding is that any ministry, at least early on, is going to be all the straight folks that have gay or same sex attracted people in their lives, be they sons or daughters, husbands or wives or what ever other combination you care to mention.

I have already been approached by two concerned people that want to talk. I do not yet know what their situation is or who it is that they would like to talk about. I know that both of these people are women that have families and husbands and children. If they are reading today, we need to set up a time to talk. Maybe I will call you here this week sometime.

I will say this to you now. There are no magic bullets that will "cure" the situation. Whatever is happening will take time to play out and you may not like the immediate result, but you need to take the long view in all this. It's hard to do that, but it is what God does with all of us. When He wants to save someone, He will use time, life events and even a person's psychological framework to pull them back into His family. Even if there is no behavior, the person dealing with it may not have a submissive attitude that God can work with. Time is the biggest factor here. When God is breaking someone, it takes time. I will tell you from personal experience as one of His most stubborn cases, that His methods are effective.

I know I have said this before, but my immediate advice to you is to pray and to love whoever it is. If it's you, it's imperative that you learn to love and respect yourself. Whether you know it or not, you belong to God and He loves you despite whatever you may think about His "oppressive restrictions". If it is another in your life, then offer them the same advice. Become Jesus to them. 

So hang in there. God is for us. Who can possibly be against us? Psalm 27