The other thing that is interesting about bridges is that in order for them to fulfill their purpose, people need to take responsibility to move across them.  The bridge doesn’t take people, or cars, or whatever, and move them from one side to the other.  It provides a way for the person to engage, to move forward under their own power, to get to the other side.  The bridge makes it possible- and yet the “bridge crosser” is responsible.  This is a beautiful thing in that a given in this equation is the ability and strength of the bridge crosser to make it over.  It’s the bridge builder’s responsibility to create a way across.

Bridges require people to give input at various levels in order to be constructed, right?  I can be the project manager, builder, purchaser, quality control officer, and HR dude when I make a bridge across a ditch in my back yard.  And a fine bridge it will be!

However- the bigger the bridge that I am involved in building- the less I am involved in the entire operation.  I am best operating in a specific role and trusting others to fulfill their own specific role.  Some valleys, or rivers, or spans require big time vision- and big time operation.  Might this be your bridge?

Or maybe this is the one that looks more like you:

What I know now is this:  getting in on doing ministry is a beautiful thing.  It is worth being thankful for.  And, there can come times where your purpose is  to build new bridges.

CQ Missional, and our educational projects the CML and GPS Tulsa are bridges.  They are designed to help people who are in a specific stage of life, with specific needs- move from where they are, to where God wants them to be.  Students in Tulsa looking for life direction, for a vocation, for some purpose, for some people to share this search with- get the opportunity to walk across the bridge of GPS Tulsa together.  We get the privilege of creating the context for this discovery.  By the way- this will be a blast to get going!  People who are young adults but a little farther along, perhaps they have graduated college, or have been working a job for a few years, get the opportunity to walk across the bridge of the CML together- serving a community, creating new life in neighborhoods, and taking a chance on their own vocation shift.

Right now we are putting together what looks like a foot bridge, the kind you can wear sandals while walking across, or even go barefoot in the process!  However- the span between where 1000s of 20 somethings are, and where they could be is huge.  I pray for wisdom and community to join in building the right bridge to help you adults figure out their purpose in life.  This is a Golden Gate type of need.

Whats next in the bridge?  Raise more scholarship money, raise awareness of how we can serve young adults, make more friends and offer real support to help our clients make courageous decisions.  In other words, keep moving forward.

I am thankful today to be a bridge builder.  What does your bridge look like today?  Are you walking across one?  Are you in the middle of building one?  What does Ministry look like to you?

ck

One voice says, “Make sure people are ok with you.  Be pleasing, impressive, and set yourself up to be loved and respected.”  Listening to this voice can set a person up to be a “hyphenated” person.  I’m a teacher-counselor.  I am a pastor-outdoor leader. I’m a worship leader musician- leader of a non profit. I’m a Christian-person of the world.  I am not of this world- very much a part of this world.

If you don’t like a part of me that is a big part of me, I usually have another part of me that should be ok with you.  This position in life can curtail the deepest fears that I may not be acceptable, lovable, worthy of relationship.

There is another voice I hear, and I hear it at times when I know it will be loud and clear.  These times include times where I listen, times where I engage the Bible, times in the wilderness, times when I observe the beauty of those I love, times when prayer isn’t asking for things- but is more about listening and loving.  Here’s what the voice says- “Whatever you do, stay close to the heart of God.”  This voice that calls me the son of God, the child of the loving Christ, the target of the Spirit’s support…. it resonates and informs the things I do, whether “hyphenated” or not.

I can work at our new canopy tour in the Buffalo River Valley in the context of staying close.  I can listen and counsel all the while I am staying close.  I am a father, a husband, a musician- who makes his choices staying close to the heart of God.

Friends- as we work together in exciting new projects like GPS Tulsa, ask me what voice I am listening to.  What about you?  Is there a voice that resonates with you as an image bearer of God?  Does this voice affirm your ability to create, to contribute? Or, is there a voice that keeps you on edge to “conform to the pattern of this world” by goading you to continually please, impress, or position yourself for success.  What do you do about that?

He sings: “And the wrens have returned and they’re nesting
In the hollow of that oak where his heart once had been
And he lifts up his arms in a blessing for being born again
And the streams are all swollen with winter
Winter unfrozen and free to run away now
And I’m amazed when I remember
Who it was that built this house
And with the rocks I cry out

Be praised for all Your tenderness by these works of Your hands
Suns that rise and rains that fall to bless and bring to life Your land
Look down upon this winter wheat and be glad that You have made
Blue for the sky and the color green, the fills these fields with praise.”

Rich was created to create, and God’s creation always reflects its creator.

What were you created to create today- or maybe, this year?  May we help each other live in this knowledge and encourage the courage required to be a creator, and not just a consumer.

ck

I’m an assistant. I like to make sure the coffee stays flowing & color-coding spreadsheets & filing & organizing. It’s hard to explain to others why those things are fulfilling for me. And sometimes it’s hard to explain to myself that just because I don’t always thoroughly enjoy talking with people (*gasp*) doesn’t mean I’m a bad person.

And it doesn’t mean I should completely shy away from the things that are hard (or at least the things that don’t come naturally). Those things are important to my growth as a person. But I think there’s a freedom that comes with allowing yourself to do what truly makes you happy, regardless of the way that might look to the world.

I don’t personally know John Acuff. But I often find myself passing along things I find on his site. Some of it’s funny. Some of it’s challenging. This one was interesting-and goes along with our work of helping people live into the gifts they have been created with.

http://stuffchristianslike.net/2008/06/271-being-afraid-to-use-our-gifts/

If you’re like me, you probably have some aspirations unrealized. It’s not that I’ve fallen short of who I thought I was going to be. It’s more like the plans just kind of changed somewhere along the way. I’ve adapted to life. In many ways, I’m much more than I thought I would ever be. I am a faithful and devoted father and husband, something that has brought me more joy than I could ever imagine. In so many ways, I have been blessed beyond belief with the things that matter most in life. Some changes or adaptations have been better than I imagined…others, less. With the many realized, beautiful blessings in my life, I have also fallen short. I’m not a successful writer. I’m not a noted musician. I’m not a professional baseball player and I can’t jump buildings in a single bound.

As I reflect on my path, and how I’ve come to the place I find myself today, I wonder how much I’ve actually been proactive in my life versus how much I’ve simply reacted to the life that’s going on around me. I’d like to say that I’ve planned out every step of the way and it’s turned out exactly like my plan. Success! But that’s just not true. Life has happened to me. Bad things have happened despite my best efforts to avoid them. Good things have also happened to me, despite my efforts to sabotage myself. I think this is how God works. We have a plan and He has a plan. Sometimes they mesh and sometimes they don’t. Sometimes we listen to Him and sometimes we don’t. Sometimes God takes me places I’ve never dreamed of, sometimes I run the other way, and sometimes I just find myself reacting to the circumstances unfolding around me without actually being proactive either way.

In turn, like the life lived on auto-pilot, I wonder also how much our faith is acted on and how much is reactive. Do you practice your faith? To practice something implies action. To work at something, hone it and sharpen it. Are you active in your life? Do you have a plan? Are your dreams and aspirations God-inspired? Does your life reflect the glory of God? 2 Peter 3-11 gives some good advice for aligning your faith with your actions, for being intentional about living the life that God created you to live.

What do you practice? Guitar? Writing? Parenthood? Do you practice being a good spouse? A good listener? Do you practice your faith? Do you practice living life or do you find yourself reacting to your environment more than creating it? Too many questions? What’s your reaction?

I’m spending with week with about 85 young adults on staff of a summer camp and we’re asking this question.  What do you think?

The question that comes up, though, is huge.  Can people in their searching to discover “their thing” forget about what we would call in church “God’s general will” for people?  Is it possible that people miss the boat in their search and “journey” and forget that there is a way of living out of gratitude for what God has done- that is characterized by a life of thankfulness, taking responsibility, and integrity?

Tony Campolo was speaking to students and faculty at John Brown University when I was doing some adjunct work there and he asked students to fill in the sentence they would hear from time to time from mom or dad.  It went like this:  ”I care more about you than about what you do for a a living.  I just want you to be ______________.”

Whats the answer?  The crowd in unison shouted back:  ”HAPPY!”

True.  This is what we tell our kids, and what many of us have been hearing from those who love us most.

Tony, on the other hand, heard a different word from his mother, and in fact many of his classmates heard the same word.  It went like this:  ”I just want you to be __________.”

Whats the answer?  Students didn’t know.  His answer was:  ”GOOD.”

“I just want you to be good.”

Good people are humble, they know there is a God (and they aren’t Him), they look out for others, they stay married, they stay engaged in their faith community, they are nice, and they make a habit of telling the truth- even when its hard.  Not that they don’t mess up, or even do bad things… because good people are just, well, people.  But for them, goodness is a little more important than happiness, and contentment and joy flow from pursuing what is good.

Terry Ewing told me (among others) that people who seek after their own happiness first and foremost are the most miserable people he has met.  He knows- his counseling practice has been full of people who are hurting, and have sought happiness above all else.

So my question is, since we are in the business of helping people find “their thing”; Can people find their thing, their unique role and ignore general ways to live that have been prescribed for all men?  Can people really find their true identity, and not be true to an identity made for humanity,  first?

I have some ideas- but I’m curious what yours are…

ck

I want to remind you today that you are known, and you are not alone.  You are, in fact, completely known and people can give us a “dim reflection” of this beautiful truth that is much bigger than you or I.  Don Chaffer writes some straight forward words about his experience in the ground breaking solo work “You were at the time for love.”

And I used to bathe in tears at night

Cause I felt like I was on my own

I used to think I would never be

Completely known

I used to hold on tightly

To the sorrows that I owned

But they were all I knew

They had run me through

And they had left me

All alone

I used to pray every day

That God would mend what’s torn

Now I see the only way is to die…

To die…

And be reborn

I have finally found a way to live

In the presence of the Lord

- Don Chaffer “Completely Known”

Being known by another human being is a gift, its rare these days, more rare in our culture, and it resonates with our deepest image bearing self.

What do you think?