If you've been to the beach you've seen this happen, so this story won't surprise you.

A little kid was building a sandcastle on the beach. I'm sure it was a sandcastle because in spite of its appearance, he told me: "I'm building a sandcastle."
I believed him.
Under the watchful eye of his mother, his work progressed until some bad boys walked over and stomped his sandcastle, grinding it underfoot until all of the little boy's efforts were wiped-out and reduced to nothing. 

The kid with the stomped-on dreams sat there in disbelief. The kid's mom said all the things mothers say when bad boys stomp on their kid's sandcastles. The bad boys ran off to do mischief elsewhere. I refrained from entering the fray - a very good decision as I look back on it - choosing to hold firmly to my life-long conviction that adults shouldn't physically discipline children while they are feeling great anger. Everyone survived but I can't stop wondering about the little dreamer who got his sandcastle stomped.

Maybe you can help me with this one.

It wasn't ten minutes later when I looked over to see the little boy back at work, digging in the sand, building another sandcastle.

Why would he do that?
What did he have that enabled him to begin building all over again?

Some dreamers see their efforts come to naught, their victories overturned, their progress blocked and their success undone. They see the marriages they built fly apart. They see their businesses fail, their investments turn to dust and their health annihilated by cancer and disease. They watch as a trusted friend and teammate abandons the mission and walks out, leaving them alone to fix the mess that's left behind. They see their dreams stomped so thoroughly that any evidence they've been working is completely obliterated. 

So, they quit.

They pick up their bucket and shovel and go inside to eat some lunch and play video games. In other words, they leave their old life of productivity, effort and industry. They quit. Heartbroken and overwhelmed, they go hunker down and do their best to enjoy what they have while they have it. No more crushed dreams for them because they stop working to make their dreams come true. 

• Bad boys can't ruin my dreams if I stop trying to make my dreams come true. 
• Bad boys can't stomp on my heart if I don't attempt to do anything "with all my heart."

But others are different. They don't quit. 

Other dreamers experience all that pain and disappointment, then they shrug their shoulders, take a deep breath and look around for their little shovel so they can start building another sandcastle. It's as if they're unfazed by the brutal and merciless destruction of their dream. It's like it doesn't occur to them that if they dream a new dream, and work to make that dream come true, they could end up building another sandcastle and the bad boys might destroy it too. In the back of their minds, they know that, but it doesn't stop them. They choose to try again. They start digging, joyfully piling up the sand as if their next sandcastle will last forever.

Stomped-on people respond to smashed dreams, betrayal, cruelty, loss and heartbreak differently.

• Some give up and quit. 
• Some start over and begin to build again.

Why is that?

Romans 12:21a  -  Do not be overcome by evil.

Alan Hirsch was reflecting on the astounding potential resident in the Church when he quietly offered a bit of insight at the conclusion of our sessions today. He mentioned the monumental movements we consider remarkable in our history and said, "Look at history and note the times when a few leaders got together around an idea and changed the world. It doesn't happen often. Trust what God is doing. It's happening now."

I pray he's right.

Acts 26:19-20  -  I couldn't just walk away from a vision like that! I became an obedient believer on the spot. I started preaching this life-change — this radical turn to God and everything it meant in everyday life — right there.

This afternoon, Jeff Vanderstelt (Founder of the SOMA Communities) said,

"We need to define the Church in light of:

1. Who God is and what God has done,
2. Who God made the Church to be and what God saved and created Her to do.

We aren't defined by what we do. We're defined by what God has done in the person and work of Jesus Christ. What we do is based upon, and motivated by, what God has done and who God has made us to be."

Church is not an event; it's a community. Mission is not an event; it's a lifestyle.

I long to be faithful to the community of faith and God's mission for my life, so I'm going to bed this evening with two questions on my mind: "Where did I resist Jesus today?" and "Where did I cooperate with Jesus today?"

Romans 1:16  -  It's news I'm most proud to proclaim, this extraordinary Message of God's powerful plan to rescue everyone who trusts him ... 

Psalm 50:11  -  Every creature in the forest is mine, the wild animals on all the mountains.  

 

I looked up from my book during the Superbowl Half-time show. Why not? I've seen Madonna perform since I was a kid in elementary school, so I assumed it was safe to look away. In fact, I figured it was actually safer to look away.

Anyway, the sun was setting and I thought Mt. Rainier looked pretty cool, so I balanced my camera on the widow ledge and grabbed a quick shot.

What was I reading? Probably today's best explanation of "liminality" and its essential role in our missional quest. In The Faith of Leap, Alan Hirsh says,

"It (liminality) is composed of any or a combination of danger, marginality, disorientation, or ordeal and tends to create a space that is neither here nor there, a transitional stage between what was and what is to come. As a result, it is experienced as a place of discomfort and agitation that requires us to endure and push into what is to come.  ...  It is the true context of a quest."

J.R.R. Tolkien understood that a quest is never a matter of one's own desire, but rather of one's calling. It is as if we are chosen, which of course, is the truth. We are chosen. We are called. 

If you're feeling the "liminality" of these days, and you're sensing God's mission will require nothing less than everything, I encourage you to "push into what is to come" and engage The Tangible Kingdom.

Sign up now.

Our quest begins Monday.

1 Peter 2:9  -  But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.

 

It's Sunday. I'm sitting alone in my room, a couple of time zones west of home. I've got work to do here - but not yet. This morning I'm looking out the window of my hotel, watching my Father spin the planet around to offer us another day of life. Off in the distance, Mt. Rainier stands sentinel as the darkness gives way to the dawn. 

Watching the sun come up over the city of Tacoma moves me, but not as much as this weekend's service at GCC moved me. 

Jason's message this morning was inspired. Trace's monologue was astounding. The sacrament took the message out of the realm of theoretical possibilities and placed it squarely in the middle of our reality. 

Jesus is Lord.

The Light of HIS Kingdom is coming.

Your apprenticeship in HIS Kingdom is available here.

Psalm 65:8  -  The whole earth is filled with awe at your wonders; where morning dawns, where evening fades, you call forth songs of joy.

Ours is a world in need, a nation in need, and a community in need. 

You may ask, "In need of what?"

I think I know: "Apprentices of Jesus, that's what."

In Chapter Seven of Hugh Halter's Tangible Kingdom, you'll find these words.

"If you would have asked some of the first disciples what it was like being one of Jesus' students, they probably would have responded with, 'He always tested our faith and our motives. He always took us to places we wouldn't have gone ourselves. We became friends with people we would have hated before. Looking back, it was the most wildly transforming process I could have ever imagined. I'll never be the same.'"

Hugh goes on to write,

"Discipleship for the disciples was different from our idea in one major way. It actually involved following Jesus where he went and doing what he did."

The world is standing on tip-toe, looking for disciples of Jesus who are trained in action, not just in theory. Our world, and our lives, will change when our discipleship becomes apprenticeship again.

Become a world-changer. We start this Monday.

Matthew 5:1  -  When Jesus saw his ministry drawing huge crowds, he climbed a hillside. Those who were apprenticed to him, the committed, climbed with him. 

I was trying to write the words that would help Sheila understand how I'm feeling right now, when I remembered, "A picture is worth a thousand words." So along with this picture I took last year, I gave her a note that read, "If only I could, I'd bellow."

Sheila looked at me and said, "Not yet, Mark. No talking, no shouting and no bellowing. Shhhhh."

I feel like bellowing, but apparently I can't do whatever I want to do right now.

Maybe later.

I'll let you know.

Jeremiah 4:5  -  Blow the ram's horn trumpet through the land! Shout out—a bullhorn bellow!