Category: Christian Spirituality Blog

How to Stay on Track Following Jesus Throughout the Year

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality BlogLeave a comment

paths are made by walking

Its normal to have a head of steam at the beginning of the year.  You have things you want to accomplish – goals you desire to see met.  On that list of things in your head, in your heart, and maybe even written down somewhere on your desk is the longing to know God better, to experience Jesus in a fresh way, to have better discipline with prayer or Bible reading.  Maybe you don’t know where or how to start.  Perhaps you have traveled the Christian road for a long time and its become stale and dull, and you think you’ve exhausted all attempts at following Jesus with enthusiasm.

There is a way, a road, a path for you to travel.  It’s a very well-worn journey that Christians for two millennia have been walking.  If you will walk with them down this road, your desires can spring to life and gain traction and direction.  It’s a path of truly walking with Jesus, to experience his birth, life, teaching, death, resurrection, ascension, and glorification.

This journey with Jesus is not hard in the sense of simply following him.  Yet, it does require getting into a rhythm, just like you do when you walk.  Just as you have a certain gait, picture yourself walking with Jesus down a road.  Maybe it’s a slow saunter with him.  Maybe it’s going on a run.  Perhaps it’s a solitary tromp through the woods, or around the mall with others present.  Whatever it is, in this next year, imagine yourself recalling, retelling, and remembering the life of Jesus with him alongside you.

The Christian Calendar or Christian Year is a delightful and enlightening walk with Jesus throughout the entire year.  The Christian Year is a yearlong calendar that marks time according to the life of Jesus.  It is to live and walk in a rhythm with Christ at the center of your work and worship.  Observing the days and the seasons of the Year will bring you closer to Jesus with a greater awareness of his presence through the Holy Spirit.  It’s what I want, and it is, I believe, what you want, too.

The Christian Calendar is arranged in such a way as to proclaim the good news of Jesus Christ over the course of a year.  Just one of the ways that help you to remember differing seasons is through color:  purple signifies a time for preparation and penitence; white represents celebration, joy, and victory; green lets us know it is time to focus on spiritual growth and mission; and, red helps us recall the Passion of Christ and the fire of the Holy Spirit.

Check-out how the Christian Year is organized and arranged according to seasons to aid you in your walk with Jesus:

Advent – The Christian Year begins not on January 1, but four Sundays before Christmas Day and up to Christmas Eve.  The purpose of Advent is to anticipate the incarnation of Christ and prepare us to celebrate the coming of Jesus.  We are also reminded that Jesus will again return….

Christmas – Yes, Christmas is more than just a day on the church calendar and encompasses the twelve days from December 25 to January 5 (you may recognize the 12 Days of Christmas).  Christmas is a celebration of the birth of Christ.

Epiphany – Epiphany follows Christmas from January 6 to the day before Ash Wednesday.  The term Epiphany means “manifestation.”  This is a celebration of God’s self-revealing, his manifestation to the entire world, not just the Jews, but the Gentiles, as well.  Epiphany emphasizes Christ’s earthly ministry of teaching, healing, and preaching.

Lent – There are forty days in the season of Lent, from Ash Wednesday to Holy Saturday.  Lent is a time to recall Christ’s temptation, conflict, suffering, and death.  It is a season to contemplate being disciples in light of Christ’s Passion, engage in repentance, and put deliberate focus on spiritual disciplines.

Easter – As with Christmas, Easter is not just one Sunday; it is a season of fifty days up to the day of Pentecost.  Easter celebrates the resurrection of Jesus; helps us recognize our new life in Christ; and, includes celebrating the Ascension of our Lord.

Pentecost – This season runs from Eastertide to the Sunday before Advent.  Pentecost celebrates the gift of the Holy Spirit, the birth of the church, acknowledges our spiritual power, and calls us to rejoice in receiving God’s power.

Ordinary Time – Ordinary time refers to the ongoing work of the church to spread the gospel of Jesus Christ, which is the typical, expected, ordinary work of ministry that Christ’s followers are to do.

It’s easy to get distracted and get off track from our desires and goals.  But with observance of the Christian Year, we stay on track with Jesus.  The focus is on him, and not on our own schedules.  To center the year in Christ brings spiritual health, a close walk with Jesus, and a satisfaction to our hungry souls.

May your journey be fulfilling and fruitful.  Amen.

Jesus and Failure

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality BlogLeave a comment

Alexander Pope quote

Failure is whole lot more common than success.  In his book, Break Open the Sky, Steven Bauman writes: “Despite our near-phobic fear of failure, the facts suggest that it’s a common, almost universal, experience:

  • 75 percent of venture-capital-backed start-ups fail, and 95 percent do not meet the initial expectations.
  • 40 percent of CEOs don’t last eighteen months.
  • 70 to 90 percent of mergers and acquisitions fail to add shareholder value.
  • 81 percent of new hires don’t work out.
  • 99 percent of new patents never earn a penny.
  • 95 percent of new products introduced in any given year fail.
  • 68 percent of information technology projects fail to meet their goals.
  • 88 percent of New Year’s resolutions end in failure.
  • 100 percent of all human bodies fail.

You and I put up our best faces, especially on social media.  Like a seasoned political spin doctor, we take bits and pieces of our lives and paste them into the world for all to see our good points – how witty, or beautiful, or privileged, or wealthy, or whatever is important to us – or, how right we are about everything from creating mouth-watering smoked ribs, to communicating how the economy should really work, to punching-out opinions on others like a boxing glove to the face.

Oh, my, little do we realize this is soul draining activity that only feeds the ego and places us at arms-length to the grace of God which longs for us to be real, vulnerable, and admit our deep need for the love of Jesus Christ.

When Jesus chose to identify himself with lowly failures, the poor, and maladjusted sinners, it was the successful, wealthy, and upstanding people who thought this was a waste of time.  This was not the way to build your portfolio.  The Messiah paparazzi were aghast at what they were seeing.  Jesus was spending time with failures, and he was going to become one, at least in the eyes of those who always kept a clean social media profile.

But Jesus said to them: “Healthy people don’t need a doctor, but sick people do.  I didn’t come to invite good people to turn to God.  I came to invite sinners.” (Luke 5:31-32)

Posturing and preening aren’t practices that get you into the kingdom of God.  In the end, they get you nowhere.

I have failed at a whole lot more things than I’ve been successful at in life.  Truth be told, all of us have a few wild successes at things that we like to highlight, and a house full of failure that we try to cram into that one closet nobody is allowed to open.

We all share the common human condition of failure.  You can’t put the pure living water of Jesus in the cup of your life if its already full of the toilet water that looks clean but is full of nasty bacteria.

What to do?  Empty yourselves.  Pour out the potty water of peacocking your way through life, and simply let Jesus dwell in you through faith.  Sit at his feet.  Drink him in.  Let your plans go.  Let new goals seep into your soul.  Be filled with the kingdom of God and His righteousness.  And you will find yourself full of life, love, and devotion to serve the common good of all people.  Even if you fail doing it, you’re in good company.

How to Know What Your Reputation Is with Others

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality BlogLeave a comment

Eeyore

One day at a parent-teacher conference many years ago when my middle daughter was in second grade, the teacher, as usual for such an occasion, told my wife and I about the things the class had been doing.  The class had been reading some Winnie the Pooh books and the kids were to talk about which Pooh character they liked the most and why.  Since my daughter, Charissa, is a very outgoing and bouncy type of person I was certain that she would immediately say that Tigger was her favorite.  But instead she responded with Eeyore.  Okay.  Not what I would have guessed.  Why?  Charissa explained, “Because Eeyore reminds me of my Daddy.”

Ouch.  I wasn’t ready for that one.  Yet, as I thought about Charissa’s answer I began to see that since I was working as a supervisor in a factory, going to grad school at night, and being a part-time minister in my local church had left me drained to the point that whenever my daughter saw me it was as if I was Eeyore just loping about the house with a pinned-on tail.  Before that parent-teacher conference encounter I never would have described myself as my daughter did.  Obviously, my reputation did not match my own perception of myself.

You and I need to periodically struggle with the question:  What is your reputation with others?  Notice the question is not:  What do you think your reputation is?  The only way to know your reputation is to interact with other people.  And their answers may be very different than what you think they might be.

One way to get at your reputation is who or what you associate yourself with.  For example, whenever I have conversations with people who are not church attenders, I will often ask something like:  “So, what do you know about church?”  “Do you know any church people?”  “What is one word that you would use to describe the church?”  The answers to those questions usually reveal a great deal of what they think of me, a Christian and a Pastor – two major hats that I wear all the time.

What should you do if there is a clear disconnect between what someone or some group says about you, and what you think is true about you?  First, please do not ever dismiss another person’s thoughts or opinions, especially if you don’t agree with them.  Sure, you might not like what they say, but we need to weigh the words and glean as much wisdom as we can from it.  Second, if it is a negative perception, or truly off the mark, use the information to help inspire you toward change.  Third, if there are things that you know need changing, think about what kind of reputation you want to have and begin setting some goals for achieving what you want.  Begin with the results you want, and then focus on the small steps you can do to gain what you’re after.

There is yet one more critical question to continually ask:  What is your reputation with God?  The way you answer that question is paramount and requires the utmost honesty.  Your approach is the same:  ask God himself.  Pray.  Read Scripture, especially the Prophets, and the first three chapters of Revelation.  No individual Christian or church congregation can ever hope to glorify God and have effective ministry in their community unless they are genuine and urgent about where they stand before God and what their reputation is with people outside of church.  Resist the temptation of only thinking about or talking the subject to death; and, instead determine to set a plan of action.

Be brave.  Be vulnerable.  Be real.  Don’t assume that others, including your family, think highly of you.  Ask the questions of reputation.  Use them to spawn the kind of interaction that is needed to help address what God wants for your life.  If you don’t want to be Eeyore, do something about it.  For me, it meant completely reassessing my use of time so that I could be more fully present to my family.  What will it mean for you?

From Grieving to Thriving

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality BlogLeave a comment

Mary

Barely any week goes by where I am not face-to-face with someone dealing with some sort of grief.  Whether it is unwanted circumstances like divorce, unemployment, or death; or, chosen situations like moving to a new house and area, having a child, or changing jobs; grief attaches itself to any significant loss or change in life.

You are likely somewhat familiar or aware of Elizabeth Kubler-Ross’s famous 5 stages of grief:  denial; anger; bargaining; depression; and, acceptance.  I think this is a very helpful model of understanding that people do not immediately “get over it” when there is upheaval in their lives.  There is a process that grieving people move through which is common to others, yet, unique to each individual person.

It is natural and understandable for a traumatic event to immediately trigger some sort of denial that this madness is even happening.  Trying to make deals with God or others to get the old status quo back often happens.  Depression and/or anger are logical stages of occurrence when it is understood that there is a point of no return.  Acceptance, ideally, occurs when the person in grief comes to grip with the new reality that this is now the way things are.  This grief process is necessary, but never a clean discerning movement, and always a rather herky-jerky, up-and-down, three-steps-forward-two-steps-backward kind of circuitous route to get to that acceptance.

But there is another consideration to this process of grief.  Acceptance is usually believed to be the end of the grief.  The person comes to acceptance and can now move on.  I want you to consider and think about grief, whether wanted or unwanted, that acceptance is not the end, but only the beginning.

When a parent loses a child, that Mom and Dad can come to the point of acceptance, it can take months even years to do so, but now they have a big reality to face:  How in the world do I now live?  How do I cope with not putting this child to bed at night anymore?  How do I transcend this new reality without my child in it?  How do I live my life in a way that I can thrive and flourish as a healthy well-adjusted person again?

Kubler-Ross’s process is an important part, but it isn’t everything.  That’s because a significant change or loss can be with you forever – and you need to learn how to be not only a survivor, but a person who grows and blossoms.

This doesn’t mean that you forget and do not remember.  Rather, it means you can hold the memory of what once was with fondness, while at the same time progressing into the next day with hope and anticipation of what will come.  Biblical characters in history had to do this – from Abraham leaving his home country behind, to Mary becoming pregnant as a virgin – people have always had to do more than just accept what is.  They have had to discover ways to cope with their new situation and transcend it to thrive inside their newfound reality.

Let’s return to Mary.  She became pregnant – not her choice, but God’s.  It was a good thing, but, this was light years beyond unconventional. It was scandalous, and Mary had to come to grasp this reality in her small Jewish world.  Consider what she did: went to visit her Aunt Elizabeth and gained lots of godly counsel and help; and, crafted a praise to God that we now call the “Magnificat.”  Moving from one reality to another will need to include some combination of wise input and well-considered praise to the Lord.

But also consider the other end of Mary’s reality of sharing her son with the heavenly Father: Mary watched her boy die a horrible death.  If a death of a child is one of the worst realities you can think of, imagine that death being a long and drawn-out torture with you having a front row seat to it all.  Jesus, her son, ever the mindful person even in death, was aware enough to put his Mom’s life in his beloved disciple’s hands, John.  Here is another way to negotiate learning to thrive again, to allow space in your heart for another person.

Accept your circumstances you must.  But this is not the end of it, only the beginning.  To move beyond survival, you must find ways to thrive.  These will typically include such things as not being isolated from others, but seeking out a wise person; crafting and writing and saying out loud a praise to God; and, opening your heart again and taking the risk of love.