Opportunity

Out of clutter, find simplicity. From discord, find harmony. In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity. – Albert Einstein

This morning I decided to start a new book (like I need to be reading ONE MORE concurrently with the four I’m already reading!) “Jolt: get the jump on a world that’s constantly changing” by Phil Cooke. I read his “The Last TV Evangelist” a few years ago and loved it.

I didn’t know why I had the need to read this until a few pages in. On the 5th page of the introduction, I ran into the quote above. It was exactly what I needed this morning.  I made a sign of it, printed it out and pasted it next to my monitor on my office wall.

“In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity” I’ve read quotes like this before, heck, I’ve made quotes of my own like this for sermons. But the preceding words brought this thought into focus for me. “Out of clutter, find simplicity.” Man is my life cluttered right now. The church is in a state of flux. I have a Masters degree to finish. I MUST finish the graphic novel for Rick Via before the 3rd quarter of this year. My son’s are looking at colleges. Luke gets his full drivers license in a couple months. I have to get his van on the road (and find the money to do the repairs). The shed needs cleaned out. The audio room at the church needs completed. The water system needs replaced there too. Ben starts high school baseball next month (and all the travelling that entails). And I have to loose 80 pounds, get off my blood pressure meds, learn to decompress, write more, draw every day,  pray for my congregation and read my Bible. And I’m trying to read through the Harvard Classics this year.

Clutter in the life of a habitual multi-tasker is an invitation to ineffectiveness. I find it difficult to concentrate on one task long enough to complete it even when I only have one thing to do. The twisted mass of tasks I encounter each day sometimes freeze me. I find myself unable to complete even the simplest job because I am worried about the 100 others that go undone while I work on the first one.

“Out of clutter, find simplicity”

Its time I took Jerry Falwell’s advice to heart. Learn to tell the difference between what’s important and what is merely urgent. Do the important things, don’t worry about the urgent ones. They usually are not nearly as important as they seem.

“From discord, find harmony.”

Man is there discord in my life! Being a pastor, for those of you who do not know, is a series of troubles, sporadically interrupted by moments of total warfare. Everybody gets mad at me at some point. And no one has a clue what its like, or why a pastor does what he does, until they take on the spiritual, emotional and physical responsibility of being a pastor for themselves. Now I take the burden willingly, it is my calling. But to find harmony in the discord, wow, that would be awesome.

So I come to the last part of the quote: “In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity.”

This is hard to accept, but I know it is more true than I can comprehend. Most great advances in human history have come through difficult times. The American Revolution, Edison’s 1,000+ failures making the light bulb, Steve Jobs being fired from the company he created, Lincoln loosing every election he ran in until the presidency, Jesus falsely accused and executed…

But in my difficulties, in the heartache and pain, in the disappointment, uncertainty and fear of loss, there is opportunity. Sometimes God has to shake you violently to get your attention. Two years ago He sent me a medical problem that I am still hesitant to talk about. In November He put my wife in the hospital. Last month He took my friend Rob to Heaven. But I have to admit that though He got my attention, it quickly faded each time. Perhaps because I failed to see the opportunities that each situation presented.

Now I find myself in yet another difficult situation. Personally, professionally, spiritually. Pray for me that I will see and seize the opportunities that arise through my problems. I know, I am convinced that the best days of my life and the life of my church are just ahead. I want clarity to see the opportunities, not just the problems.

R.I.P.

My best friend in the ministry died today.

Rob Dalsing was the Pastor of Birdwell Lane Baptist Church in Big Springs, TX. Before that he had planted New Beginnings Baptist in Rockaway, NJ. I got to know him when he took on a church rescue in Pasadena, MD in 1999 or 2000.

Rob was exactly 367 days older than me. He was born October 20, 1965. My birthday was October 22, 1966. We used to call each other on the 21st.

We hadn’t talked much in the last year or so. Both of our faults. We never took the time. I wish we had. But that’s the way guys are, and we were. Never thought there wouldn’t be enough time later on. Now time, for our friendship, is up.

I don’t even have a picture of the two of us together.

This is the only one I could find on my computer

This is Rob in Times Square back a few years ago. We took a month long vacation (the whole family was burned out) and Rob and Robyn put us up at their house for about a week. We saw his church plant, had some cookouts, visited New york City (a 45 minute drive from his house at the time), just hung out. It was the last time we spent real time together. I’ll cherish that visit even more now.

Keep Robyn and their children in your prayers. 46 is too young for a husband, father, and in the last week, a grandfather to pass.

Rob was the closet I've ever had to a true accountability partner. He had the absolute right to call me to the mat for anything he saw wrong in my life. And on a few occasions, he told me point blank I was wrong. And he was right.

I loved Rob dearly. I regret not keeping in closer contact. I know he could care less about that now. He’s better off than all of us.

I can’t wait till I get to see him again.

 

Half-Way to 90

Today is my 45th birthday. Spent the day travelling through Lancaster county with the family, fruitlessly looking for a pair of cowboy boots both: 1. in my size and 2. that would fit around my calves, which are genetically huge.

Unfortunately, I’ve also been battling a cold for the last few days. So it hasn’t all been enjoyable today.

But all in all a good day. Bought a great “Trick or Treat”  edition of “Batman: The Brave and the Bold” comic based on the Cartoon Network Series.

Great “all ages” comic. Wish there were more like it.

Watched “X-Men Origins: First Class” with my boys as we ate Chinese take out (Pan fried noodles, bad for everything but my mental health!)

Now, at 8:40pm, I’m posting this. next, I’ll shape up tomorrows sermon a bit, and watch Something Wicked This Way Comes (See last weeks post on that). Tomorrow I begin a week-long reading of the book, since the story takes place during this week.

So just a little post declaring that I am certainly feeling my age these days. The waist is thicker, the hair thinner (and silver), the energy levels lower and the patience shorter than it was some 20 years ago when I first met Patty.

but hey, I get to share my birthday with some cool people. Like….

Christopher Lloyd

Great American Painter N.C. Wyeth

 

And best of all…

Few honors as great as sharing my birthday with the incredible Jerome Lester "Jerry" Horwitz better known as Curly Howard!

Happy birthday to all us knuckleheads!

Spooky Stories…

Its October. Best month of the year. Temperature is cool enough for a jacket, not so cold that your feet freeze on the floor in the morning. Leaves changing, corn fields being cut down, and my birthday is this month.

And of course at the end of the month, its Halloween. Now I know many, many Christians who are adamantly opposed to even recognizing the existence of this particular event – its demonic, of the devil, teaches spirit worship to our kids, etc.

I’ll say this much. I DON’T agree with portrayals of the Devil, spirits and the such at Halloween. It does tend to de-emphasize the serious power that we fight daily. One of the best weapons you have against any enemy is a healthy respect for their power- it makes you more aware, and better prepared to do battle.

But I have to admit, I do like a good spooky story. Now since I am a (nominally) mature adult, I can discern between good and evil, and can appreciate why we all like to be scared from time to time. Scary Stories exist so we can face fears, and come out on the other side alive and well. That’s why I like the OLD scary stories where the monster always ends up with a stake in the heart, a silver bullet in the chest, or another unexpected, but lethal ending. I am NOT a fan of modern horror which seems to revel in the trick ending, which inevitably leaves us with the bad guy still alive or otherwise winning the fight.

And by the way, young ladies, vampires are not romantic. Don’t fall for the romantic modern version of vampirism. Besides, when you rip the head off a vampire there should be BLOOD, not a diamond- like substance! Vampires look hungry, not constipated.

If you know me you know I am a big fan of stories. My running joke about movies is that I will not watch a movie without one of four elements present: Guns, Horses, Spaceships or Monsters. I am NOT a fan of much modern Christian storytelling, because in order to maintain a “Christian” atmosphere, most books and movies diminish the power of sin over lives by skipping the details of a sinful act. NOT that I am in favor of Gore or explicit content, but you cannot define an enemy without showing some of the evil he/she/it engages in. A good storyteller can show the sin without being sinful in the storytelling.

And so we come back to Spooky Stories. Every year at this time I break out “Something Wicked This Way Comes” by Ray Bradbury (It used to be a well-worn, dog eared edition, now its an e-book) It’s a fall tradition. A great Morality Play that takes you to a simpler, scarier time. You can smell the cigars from Mr. Tetley’s shop, hear the leaves rustle down the street, feel the cold wind slap you across the face. It’s that well written, and it just seems to usher in the Autumn for me. I read it every fall for about 7 years as a young boy, and just picked up the tradition again about 10 years ago.

The Movie was good. The book way better.

Yes, I love a good spooky story.

Over at Jim Shooter’s blog he posted a few days ago about ghost stories and asked readers to chime in with their own paranormal experiences. As I say in the first lines of my response, I don’t believe in ghosts, monsters, poltergeists, etc. But I do believe in the existence and influence of demon’s on the affairs of men. And as a minister, I have encountered events and people I am convinced were influenced or even controlled by demons. Here, in its entirety, is my story submitted to Shooter’s Blog:

Ghost story? Can’t help you there. As you can tell by my title, I have a certain theology that defines my life. But though I don’t believe in ghosts, I certainly do believe in a spiritual world populated by good and evil forces.

I have had several experiences with what I define as Demonic activity.

Before I entered the ministry I was employed as a Deputy Sheriff. For the first five years as a deputy, I worked at the County jail, much of that time on the midnight shift. One night I was on what is called a “constant watch” – basically sitting outside of an isolation cell and keeping my eyes on an inmate the medical staff deemed was in danger of causing self-harm or attempting suicide. The prisoner I was watching was notorious for getting us to watch him just so he could manipulate the system. Never tried to harm himself, just liked tying up a sorely needed staff member for 8 hours at a time.

About 3 hours into my shift a new prisoner was brought in and placed in the isolation cell next to the one I was sitting in front of. He had been discovered in his house holding his wife, who he had doused in gasoline, to the ground with a knife to her neck in one hand and a bic lighter in the other. He was telling her they would both burn in hell together. Thankfully the wife was rescued and he put in jail. He was placed in the cell naked and I was told to move to between the two cells (they were only separated by a block thick wall) and keep an eye on both. We were extremely short-staffed and this was a common way to accomplish several goals at once.

The new, naked guy is pacing around the cell, smacking his head with his hands, mumbling mostly incoherent babble. I situated myself so I could see him, but the best he could see of me was my left shoulder and my head when I leaned over.

About an hour into this he starts talking intelligently. Crying, begging for forgiveness, asking to see his wife. Then suddenly his eyes would bulge, and a voice somewhat akin to Sauron in Lord Of The Rings would come from his throat, cursing, shouting, and talking back to the man as if he were another person or personality. He would reply in his own voice, and then rebut in the Sauron voice, speaking to me, telling me that he would drag me to hell, fillet my children, etc.

Then the weirdness started. A voice came from this man, a third voice. The sweetest, prettiest womans voice. Like the voice of the bubbliest high school cheerleader you ever met. And the voice said “David, David I know you…” I had not spoken to this man, nor had he hear anyone speak to me all night. He did not know my name.

The Demon/Sauron voice quickly returned. I prayed for him the whole night, prayed for myself too. This wasn’t the spookiest encounter I’ve had with a Demonic force, but it was close.

I wish I could tell you the spookiest story of all, but I would hurt some people close to me, even if I changed names. It would be figured out.

Just know that I have come face to face with person(s) demon possessed and had the demonic force speak, and retreat as I prayed in the Name of Jesus and by the power of His Blood. Quite unusual for a conservative, independent Baptist!

Experiences like this are spooky, yes, but at the same time they are incredible learning experiences that have actually strengthened my faith. Soon I’ll tell a few stories of my Dad facing what others would fear. His example has been a great encouragement and strength to me as well.

It may seem to some that I am a braggart when I declare that I don’t allow myself to fear external forces, but what do I have to fear? Greater is He Who is in me that he who is in the world.