This weekend we are beginning a new series simply titled, “Why?”

Over the next three weeks, we will be wrestling with some of the deeper questions of our faith. Along the way, we also hope to affirm the idea that questions are not only normal, they are an essential part of our process of becoming a more deeply committed follower of Jesus. You can see the three questions we will be looking at listed below as well as a video to introduce this series.

I hope to see you for this important series which starts this Saturday night.

Why is it so hard to find God’s will for my life?
Why do my prayers seem to go unanswered?
If God is God, why is there suffering?

Why? from First Methodist Mansfield on Vimeo.

Real Sabbath, the kind that empties and fills us, depends on complete confidence and trust. And confidence and trust like that are rooted in a deep conviction that God is good and God is sovereign.

There’s no rest for those who don’t believe that. If God works all things together for good for those who love him and are called to. His purposes, you can relax. If he doesn’t, start worrying. If God can take any mess, any mishap, any wreckage, any anything, and choreograph beauty and meaning from it, then you can take a day off. If he can’t, get busy. Either God’s always at work, watching the city, building the house, or you need to try harder.

The Rest of God, by Mark Buchanan

Throughout the scriptures, we find two words linked together.

And while we know that each are a part of the human experience, we sometimes fail to acknowledge the connection between these two experiences.

The first word is mourning.

Now in this sense, Mourning is about more than the experience of sadness.

It is acknowledging loss,
naming our mound,
looking head into the hurt we’ve experience or caused someone else.

The second word is repentance.

And like the word mourning, it’s important for us to understand exactly what this word means.

It’s more than just saying, “I’m sorry.”
It’s a commitment to change,
an expressed to desire to live in a new way.
It’s about turning around,
and returning to who we once were and who our best hopes say we can be.

And here is what is interesting about how the scriptures link these words together.

There is this subtle recognition that in order to sincerely repent, you first have to mourn.

Why?

Because something happens within us when we take the time to mourn our sins.

When we mourn the sins that we have committed against others,
we see the damage we have cause someone else,
but we also see the damage within our own lives that enabled or sparked our sin.

When we mourn the sins we have committed against God or our against ourselves,
we see the damage that we have experienced internally,
and we are reminded that God hates sin because God sees the hurt,
God is fully aware of the brokenness.

None of us want to serve a God who does not hate sin,

because a God who does not hate sin cannot fully love those who are victimized by it.

We are not only the perpetrators of sin.

We ourselves are also the victims of it.

Repentance happens when we understand ourselves in both roles… perpetrator and victim.
Because a perpetrator has the ability to change his or her behavior,
and a victim has the desire to fight back.

Our struggle is not with God… our struggle is with our own destructive nature…

When we realize that God is not against us,
rather God is always for us,
we are suddenly aware of a deep well of courage and strength to fight back,
to take a stand,
to declare with our entire lives,
“we will not be made to play the victim anymore.”

And that is why…
before we can repent,
before we can take actions to change…
we must first mourn.

And in that mourning,
allow the power of God’s grace to renew our strength,
refresh our vigor,
and reignite our desire to pursue the good and beautiful life..

Six years ago last Friday I started this blog.

When I started, I had no idea what I was doing other than sharing whatever came to my mind.

I wrote about my job.
I wrote about my family.
I wrote about sports.
I wrote about current events.
I wrote whatever I wanted.

Outside of those related to me, I don’t expect any of those readers from my early years continue to read today.

Because I did not have any idea what I wanted to say.

Six years later, I think I might be finally starting to figure that out.

And so on this six year anniversary of this blog, I’ve decided that I think it’s time for me to hit the reset button and to begin the work of writing like I should have been writing all along…

With a clear focus…
In line with my core passion…
And in a way that represents my unique voice…

That transition begins with a promise…

a pledge I make to you, the reader, that should shape your expectation of every future post you find here.

I promise you, the reader, that I will write for the sole purpose of challenging and inspiring you to pursue the good and beautiful life offered in Jesus.

That is my pledge and promise to you. I appreciate you being here, and I hope I can earn your attention to future writings by making good on this promise.

I’m excited about a fresh start. I hope you are too.

One other note: With this new focus, in the coming daysI will be launching davidsteaching.com, a new blog which will be focused on serving as a supplement to my teaching ministry at First United Methodist Church of Mansfield.

Feel free to stop by if you would like to subscribe and follow along there as well.

“God is working in your life.”

Have you ever heard those words before?

Maybe you heard them from a trusted friend who was trying to offer you a word of encouragement. Maybe you heard a pastor say something similar in the context of our worship service or in the course of another conversation. Maybe you have said them to yourself in the midst of a difficult time or to someone else who you thought needed to hear that affirmation.

I’m guessing you’ve heard it before.

At the same time, I’m going to go out on a limb and guess that at some point in your life you have also wondered, “that sounds great, but could somebody please explain to me how God is currently at work in my life?”

What does it means to say, “God is working in your life,” when…

someone is grieving the loss of a parent, a spouse, a child, a close and dear friend…

When someone feels like they’ve just hit rock bottom because they recently lost their job, their house or their marriage…

When someone is feeling torn apart because of an addiction, a deep season of depression, or an internal struggle to find purpose and value in their life…

“What exactly is God doing?” they might ask… and “how exactly is God doing it?”

As a pastor, let me say, I think it’s a fair question, and it’s a question that deserves a careful response because how we answer that question speaks volumes to how we understand the movement of God in our world.

It reminds me of a phone call I received a little over ten years ago. I was on my first mission trip as a Youth Pastor. I was a few weeks away from my wedding, and the call came at the end of a very long day of work. It was one of my best friends calling to tell me that another dear friend of mine had been killed in a car accident earlier that day.

It was devastating. I could not believe it, and as you might expect, I was very soon overcome with emotion.

My pastor was on the trip with us [probably to make sure that everything went smoothly with the new guy!]. He had actually already gone to bed, but I went to wake him up to share the news. Over the course of the next several hours, he sat with me, he prayed for me and for my friend’s family. He shared my grief.

I don’t remember one word he shared, but I will never forget that he was there.

The next morning when all the kids were gathered at breakfast, my pastor shared the news with them. He sat two chairs in the middle of the room for my future bride and I to sit in and then he invited these kids that I was still just getting to know in my role as their youth pastor to surround us, to lay hands on us in our time of grief as he again prayed for us.

I don’t remember the words of that prayer, but I will never forget that they were there.

That experience reminds me still today of an important truth. Whenever we isolate ourselves from other people we cut ourselves off from one of the primary avenues God uses to work in our life. Often the question of “how” God is working in my life is answered by the simple presence of someone who cares enough to sit with me, to grieve with me, to care for me in my time of need. In that moment, in a supernatural way that is beyond explanation, the presence of Jesus is made known.

Isolation is an enemy of spiritual health because it closes one of the doors that God loves to use to enter our lives.

I hope today you will take a moment to consider again the question, how is God working in your life?

And when you do, perhaps take a moment to give God thanks for the people in your life that God is using in that work.