Tables of Knowledge

It's the end of February and the beginning of March. This is a time of year that, in a way, marks the beginning of spring. Yes, I know that spring technically doesn't begin until about March 21^st. I also know that we can have some terrible snowstorms in March. Still, somehow, once we get past February and start March, it seems like we've passed a significant milestone in the year.

For United Methodist pastors, the end of February marks something else. It marks the date on which the annual statistical tables have to be done. There are three of them, coincidentally named Table 1, Table 2, and Table 3. As you know I'm the pastor of the Wheatland Parish, which is comprised of three churches. That means I have to fill out three of each of these forms, one for each church. Three Table 1s, three Table 2s, and three Table 3s.

This is annoying. I write and talk a lot about how much I love my job, and I do, but I don't love this part of it. I don't know any pastor who does. I have yet to talk to a pastor who enjoys filling out Table 1, Table 2, or Table 3. And I have to fill out three of them. It goes to show that even the best job has its down side once in a while.

It shows something else, though. It shows that, just because we don't like doing something, it does not make that something unimportant. Much as pastors might complain about filling out statistical tables, they are important. They're important as a measure of where we are compared to where we've been.

Now, please understand something. I am not saying that everything about a church can be measured by numbers. There can be and are good things happening in churches that are not measured by Table 1, Table 2, or Table 3. Also, I'm sure, there can be and are bad things happening in churches that are not measured by Table 1, Table 2, or Table 3. Just as you cannot tell everything about a baseball player by looking at his batting average, his home runs, and his RBIs, you cannot tell everything about a church by looking at the statistical tables.

On the other hand, a baseball player's batting average, home runs, and RBIs do tell you some things. And a church's statistical profile tells you something, too. We may not be able to learn everything about a church by its stats, but we should try to learn the things that we can learn from them. If we don't, we'll miss out on a chance to learn, which is something we should never do. We should always try to learn as much as we can. As Linus once told Charlie Brown, learning may not be everything, but ignorance is nothing.

So, I'll keep filling out Table 1, Table 2, and Table 3. I'll probably never love it. But I hope we can all learn from it.

What Do You Expect?

This is the message at the midweek Lent service in Gettysburg.  The Bible verses used are Luke 5:1-11, 27-32.

When you came here tonight, you probably had some idea of what this service would be like. You expected that we'd sing a couple of songs. You expected that we'd read some scripture. You expected that I'd talk to you for a while. In other words, you came here knowing more or less what to expect.

And that's true of most of our lives. When we get up in the morning, we usually have some idea of what to expect out of our day. When we go to work, we know what we expect to be doing. When we go home, we know what we expect when we get there. Sure, sometimes things the unexpected happens, sometimes things come up that we don't anticipate, but even then it's usually not something totally out of the blue. It's rare that we're totally surprised by something, that something happens that we had absolutely no idea might happen and that we did not expect at all.

Last week, in talking about things we can give up for Lent, we talked about giving up control of our lives, and giving that control to God. The thing that makes that so hard is that, when we give control of our lives to God, we don't really know what will happen next. God may have all kinds of surprises in store for us, and they may or may not line up with what we'd like to have happen. When we give God control of our lives, we really don't know what to expect. So, tonight, we're going to talk about giving up something else: giving up expectations.

Have you ever gone into a situation where you had no idea what might happen? That's pretty scary, right? That was one of the hardest things about being a lawyer. Whenever you go into court, you don't really know what's going to happen. You prepare as much as you can, you try to get ready for whatever might happen, but there's almost always something that happens that you did not expect. A witness does not say what you expect them to say. The judge makes a ruling you did not expect the judge to make. No matter how much you prepare, something always happens.

It's all very easy to say “expect the unexpected”, but the truth is that, by definition, you cannot

expect the unexpected. And that's not a comfortable thing. It's hard. It's scary.

And it's what God asks us to do. We read the story of Jesus calling his first disciples. Do you think they had any clue what they were signing up for when they started following Jesus? I don't. I don't think they had the slightest idea what to expect.

It kind of makes you wonder why they did it. You know, sometimes we think of the disciples as sort of this rag-tag band of people who were just sort of wandering around because they really had nothing better to do with their lives, anyway. It's not true, or at least it does not appear to be true. Peter, James, and John had a fishing business, and it looks like they were fairly successful. They were successful enough that they went into partnership and had at least two boats. Levi, also known as Matthew, was a tax collector, and tax collecors made a pretty good living. Peter, at least, was married, and it's thought that at least some of the other disciples were, too.

These were not people who went and followed Jesus because they had nothing else to do. These were not people who were leaving nothing behind when they followed Jesus. They were leaving lots of things behind. They were leaving homes and families and business and money behind. They were leaving behind things that most of us would put a pretty high value on.

And yet they did it. They did it without hesitation. They did not ask Jesus to wait while they made arrangements for an orderly transition for their businesses. They did not ask Jesus to wait while they made arrangements for someone to watch over their families. They did not do things that we would consider to be responsible things to do. Instead, we're told that they simply walked away from their old lives and followed Jesus.

They did that having no idea what would happen when they did it. They did that having no idea what to expect. It's pretty amazing, when you stop to think about it. It's something most of us can

probably not even conceive of doing, to just leave everything behind and follow God, having no idea what to expect when we do.

And yet, as I was thinking about this subject this week, something occurred to me. Why is this so hard? Is it because God makes it hard? Or is it because we, you and I, make it hard?

Think about it this way: how many of you have lives that have gone exactly the way you expected them to go? Think back twenty-five years, or ten years, or five years, or whatever period of time you consider to be a long time ago. Think about how you expected your life to go at that point. How much of it has gone the way you expected it to? In fact, has any of it really gone the way you expected it to?

It has not for me. Twenty-five years ago, in February of 1988, I was the Enforcement Director of the Securities Division of the South Dakota Department of Commerce. I lived in Pierre, and I'd known Wanda for about six months. I had hopes for the relationship, but I did not know whether she'd ever want to marry me. I had no expectation of it, at that time. And whether she married me or not, I expected that I'd live in Pierre the rest of my life.

Ten years ago, in February of 2003, I was a lawyer in Wessington Springs. Wanda and I had been married for thirteen and a half years, more or less, and we'd lived in Springs for about eleven years. My expectation was that I'd be a lawyer until I retired and that we'd live in Wessington Springs the rest of our lives.

Five years ago, in February of 2008, I was in my second year of seminary. We still lived in Wessington Springs. I knew we would not stay there, but I expected to stay there until I graduated from seminary in the spring of 2009. Then, I expected to get my first appointment, which I expected to be a traditional church in a small town somewhere in the Dakotas.

None of it worked out the way I thought it would. I did not stay in Pierre. I did not stay a lawyer until I retired. I did not stay in Wessington Springs, not even until I graduated from seminary. My first appointment was in a suburb of what, for this area, is a city. It used all contemporary music and met in an elementary school. There is nothing about my life that went the way I expected it to go.

Now, I don't say that because I think there's anything special about me. My guess is that everyone here could tell a similar story. The details would be different, but I doubt that any of us can say that our lives have gone exactly the way we expected them to go, that we are exactly where we thought we'd be, that we're with exactly the people we thought we'd be with, and that we're doing exactly what we thought we'd be doing. Life never goes the way we expect it to go.

But here's the thing about that. Life may not go the way we expect it to go. But if we let go of our expectations, God can lead us to some pretty wonderful places. I am really, really glad that Wanda wanted to marry me. I'm really glad that I spent some time as a lawyer in Wessington Springs. I'm glad we got to go to North Sioux City, because I learned a lot there, both about being a pastor and about who I am. And I'm even more glad now that we're here and with all of you and doing the things we're doing. I've never been happier, and I don't think Wanda's ever been happier, either. And it's all because life did not go the way we expected it to go.

We're not told what the disciples expected when they followed Jesus. Maybe they did not expect anything. Maybe that walking away from home, and family, and business, was symbolic of something else. Maybe it symbolized walking away from all of our expectations and just following Jesus on an incredible adventure.

Because, when we let go of our expectations, that's what life becomes: an adventure. By coincidence, this week I happened to read a quote from E. Stanley Jones, the great United Methodist missionary and theologian. Here's what he said:

Many live in dread of what is coming. Why should we? The unknown puts adenture into life...The unexpected around the corner gives a sense of anticipation and surprise. Thank God

for the unknown future.

The disciples had no idea what was going to happen when they followed Jesus. They had no idea what to expect. But they did not dread it. I mean, there were times when they got scared. There

were times when they did not understand. There were times when they wondered what was going on. But there is no time in the gospels when any of them threatened to quit. None of them, as far as we know, ever said, “I'm leaving and going back to my old life.” None of them ever seems to have considered it. Through everything that happened, through the ups and downs, the good times and that bad times, they stayed with Jesus. No matter what happened, they decided following Jesus was worth it. They let go of their expectations and embraced the adventure.

So can we. The disciples were just ordinary people, you know. They were just folks, just peole like you and me. If they could let go of their expectations and embrace the adventure of following Jesus, so can we.

I don't know what that means for you. I don't know what it means for me. That's the point. Letting go of expectations means we don't know what will come next. It may be a pretty wild ride, the way it was for the disciples. But following Jesus will be worth it. So, for Lent and for our lives, let's let go of our expectations and embrace the adventure.

Awestruck

This is the message given in the Wheatland Parish Sunday, February 24.  The Bible verses are Exodus 3:1-6 and Romans 11:33-12:2.

Even though it's still pretty cold here, there are places in this country, like Florida and Arizona, where the weather is warm. At this time of year, baseball players gather for spring training to get ready for the upcoming baseball season.

The baseball season is a long one. It starts at the end of March and goes through the end of September, the end of October if you get to the World Series. You can go for three weeks without getting a day off. A player cannot just walk in on the first day of the season and be ready to handle that. 

That's why spring training was invented: to get players ready for a long season of baseball. Players do all sorts of things at spring training. They go through exercises to get themselves in physical shape. They go through a variety of training drills to work on the specific skills they need to play baseball. They also get themselves mentally ready to be able to stand up to the rigors of a long season.

In honor of that, and because I'm a baseball fan, we're starting a new sermon series today called “Spring Training”. You see, it seems to me that, just as a ballplayer needs to train to get ready for a long season, Christians need to go into training, too. Life can be hard. Life can throw us a lot of curve balls. If we're not in spiritual shape, we won't be able to handle it. But if we are, we'll feel better, just like getting into physical shape makes us feel better. We'll be able to handle those curve balls life throws at us, because we'll have gotten ourselves ready to handle them.

So, we're going to look at some of the exercises we can do as Christians to get ourselves into shape. The classic term for these exercises is “spiritual disciplines.” There are a lot of them, more than we have time to talk about in this sermon series. If you want to know more about them, come talk to me sometime. To start us off, today we're going to talk about the spiritual discipline of worship.

Now, some of you may be thinking, well, I'm already doing that. After all, I'm here in church. This is a worship service. Therefore, I must be worshiping. I've got that one covered.

Well, not necessarily. I say that for a couple of reasons. First, no exercise works very well if we only do it once a week. Think about it: can we exercise once a week and get ourselves into good physical shape? I mean, I'd love it if I could. If all it took to get into shape was exercising once a week, I'd sign up for that right away.

Unfortunately, it doesn't work like that. To get into good physical shape, we need to exercise every day. And to get into good spiritual shape, we need to practice the spiritual discipline of worship every day, too.

The other reason coming to church does not cover the spiritual discipline of worship is that it's entirely possible to come to church and not worship God. The chances are, most of us have done that. I have. It's not because we're bad people, but sometimes we come to church feeling tired. Sometimes we come to church feeling stressed out. Sometimes we come to church feeling distracted. We may have the best of intentions, but all this other stuff in life gets in our way. No matter how much we might want to worship God in church, sometimes it just does not work out that way.

That's why, again, this worship of God needs to be an every day thing, so that it becomes a habit. That's the only way I can get myself to do physical exercise at all—if it becomes a habit. If I have to make a separate decision every day to get physical exercise, I won't do it. I'll put it off. I'll think of other things to do. I'll decide, well, I skip exercising, just for today. And then one day becomes two days, and then three, and then a week, and pretty soon I'm out of the habit of it entirely. Getting physical exercise is just not something I do any more. The only way I'll stick at exercising is if it's so much a habit that I don't have to think about doing it in any more.

It can work the same way with worship. We need to make worship of God a habit. We need to make worship something we do automatically, without having to think about it. If we don't, we're likely to start putting it off, “just for today”, until one day becomes two days, then three, then a week, and pretty soon worshiping God is just not something we do any more.

So, we've said that worship is an important spiritual discipline, something we need to keep ourselves in spiritual shape. We've also said it's something we need to do every day, so it becomes a habit. However, we've not yet come to the most important question: what is worship? What does it mean for us to practice the spiritual discipline of worship?

Well, “worship”, according to the dictionary, means reverent honor paid to God. “Reverence” means an attitude of deep respect tinged with awe. So, to worship God means feeling an attitude of deep respect toward God. It means feeling in awe of God.

Now, I suspect that a lot of us, when we think about it, do feel respect toward God. Maybe, when we think of God's power and the incredible beauty of God's creation, we even feel in awe of God.

But the thing is, we only feel that respect and awe when we think about it. How many times, during the course of our average day, do we actually think about God?

I don't know the answer to that. Maybe you think about God a lot, I don't know. But remember, we're talking about this in the context of worship. For what we're doing to be worship, it's not enough just think about God in passing. It's not enough to just say a quick prayer for ourselves or someone we care about. There's nothing wrong with doing those things, of course. It's just that doing them is not practicing the spiritual discipline of worship.

For what we're doing to be worship, we need to take some time. We need to really think about who God is. We need to really think about what God does. Not question it, not criticize it, just think about it.

Because if we think about it, we'll be amazed by it. We'll marvel at it. The incredible wonder of God's creation is all around us, if we just stop and look at it. And God has really helped us with that around here, because this incredible area has so much of the beauty of God's creation to see.

I see it all the time on the drive between Onida and Gettysburg, if I take the time to look at it. The deer. The pheasants. Sometimes eagles. The sunrises. The sunsets. Even the moonsets, if moonset is a word. The endless horizon, where it seems like you can see forever. It truly is amazing. It truly is incredible. When we see that, and think about the creation of it, we almost have to feel awe at the God who made it all.

But as incredible as that is, that's not the most amazing thing about God. The most amazing thing about God is that a God who can do that, a God who can create such incredible beauty out of nothing, loves me. And loves you. And loves all of us.

That's what really should give us that feeling of awe. Because, when we think about it, why should God love us? What does God get out of it? We can see the benefits on our side, but what's the benefit to God in loving us?

After all, there's really nothing we can do for God that God cannot do without us. God created us, created the earth, created the universe. God does not need us to do anything. In fact, I suspect an awful lot of the time we disappoint God. We frustrate God. We even make God angry—if you read the Old Testament, especially, there are a lot of times God is angry with us human beings. And yet, each time we read that, we read about God never giving up on us, God giving us another chance, God forgiving us. Why? Why would God do that?

The most amazing thing about God is that God is love. God is love, and so God wants someone to love. God created us, really, for the sole purpose of loving us. God does not need us, but God wants us. God wants to love us, and so God does love us. Period.

Think about who we are, about how disappointing and frustrating and downright disobedient to God we can be. Then think about who God is, about how powerful and good and perfect God is. And then think about how this powerful and good and perfect God loves each of us disappointing and frustrating and downright disobedient people.

It's amazing, right? It's incredible. It leaves me in awe of God every time I think about it, that the God who created the universe and who does not need me for anything still loves me and always will, no matter what.

So, if you want to practice the spiritual discipline of worship, think about that. Think about who God is, and think about who we are. Think about it every day. Be in awe that God loves you, no matter what. Feeling that awe will get us into spiritual shape. It'll get us feeling better, just like getting into physical shape makes us feel better. Then, we'll be able to handle the curve balls that life throws at us.

Control Trouble

This is the message given at the midweek Lenten service in Gettysburg.  The Bible verses are Matthew 4:1-11.

One of the religious traditions that has sprung up is the idea of giving something up for Lent. How many of you have done that this year? I won't ask what you gave up, but did anybody give something up for Lent this year?

Here's my confession: I did not. I never have. That's not to say there's anything wrong with it. If you've given up something for Lent this year, or if you're still considering doing it even though we're already a week into Lent, I don't want to discourage you. It's just not something I've ever done. I've never really seen how it would help me.

Because that's the reason behind giving something up for Lent, right? It's not just something we do to deprive ourselves. We give up something for Lent because it'll help us be better people. We give up something for Lent because it'll bring us closer to God. We give up something for Lent with the intent that doing it will change our lives in a positive way.

And so, as I was doing some reading and thinking about what to preach on during Lent this year, I saw an idea that really hit me. The idea is that giving up something for Lent can go beyond giving up “things”. We don't have to give up chocolate or ice cream or facebook or anything like that. What we can give up, and what would really change our lives if we did give them up, are the feelings and attitudes and emotions that get in the way of our relationship with God and keep us from being the people God wants us to be.

We're going to start with one of the toughest ones. We're going to start with giving up control of our lives.

Have you ever tried to do that? It's hard. It's really hard. We don't like to give up control of our lives. We always want to be the ones in control.

In fact, think of it this way. Think of a time when you were not in control. Think of a time when other people were making decisions for you and you really had no say in what was going to happen. One example we've all gone through is when we're kids. Other people make the decisions about what time we're going to get up and what time we're going to go to bed, what time we're going to eat and what we're going to eat, when we'll go to school, when we're allowed to go out and where we're allowed to go, and on and on and on.

Maybe when we're really little, we don't mind that so much. The older we get, though, the more it bothers us. We want to be able to decide those things. We want to decide when we'll go to bed and when we'll get up. We want to decide what we'll eat and when, when we'll go out and where. We don't like it that someone else is making decisions about our lives.

I suspect being in the military is somewhat like that. There are a lot of decisions you don't get to make for yourself when you're in the military. When you get an order from a superior, you're not allowed to say “no.” You say “yes, sir” and you do it.

In fact, there's an extent to which all jobs are like that. When the boss tells us to do something, we have to do it. Depending on our relationship with the boss, we may be able to ask questions or raise doubts or have a discussion, but ultimately, if the boss says to do something, we have to do it. We may not like it, but if we want to keep our jobs, that's what we have to do.

Because there are so many times in our lives when we're really not in control, we tend to hold on even more tightly to those times when we are. When we grow up, when we have free time, we want to make the decisions about what we're going to do and when we're going to do it. We want to be in charge of our own lives.

And then God comes along. And God says, “give Me control of your life. Turn things over to Me. Do the things I'm telling you to do. Live the way I'm telling you to live.”

And we say, “What? No way. I've got people telling me what to do and when to do it and where to do it all the time. Now I'm supposed to give my life to You? Forget it. I'm in charge here. I'm doing it my way.”

And we do. And then we wonder why we seem to struggle so much. And we wonder why we seem to be unhappy so much of the time. And we wonder why, even when things are going well, we never really seem to be fulfilled. We wonder why there's this emptiness in our lives, even when things seem to be going okay.

We wonder about it. Sometimes we even do something about it. Maybe we change jobs, thinking that will make us happy. Maybe we buy more stuff, thinking it'll fill the empty space in our lives. Maybe we take up a new hobby, look for new friends, join some new group. We do all sorts of things to try to find happiness and fulfillment in our lives.

And none of it works. Oh, maybe it does, for a while. It gives us the illusion that we're happier, anyway. Eventually, though, the newness wears off, our enthusiasm wears off, and we're right back where we were. And we start looking for the next big thing, the thing that's going to fill our emptiness and make us happy. And all the time, God keeps saying the same thing. “Give Me control of your life. Turn things over to Me. Do the things I'm telling you to do. Live the way I'm telling you to live.”

Jesus understands why it's hard. We read the story from Matthew about the temptation of Jesus. Think of what Jesus was tempted to do.

“Tell these stones to become bread.” That does not sound like such a bad idea. In fact, it sounds pretty awesome. Think of all the people who could be fed. If we had the ability to turn stones into bread, we could end hunger, right? Think of all the rocks there are. There'd be enough food for everybody. And Jesus could've done it. Think of how tempting that was for him. And all he had to do was stop giving God control over his life, and take control for himself.

“Throw yourself down” from the top of the temple. When the angels save you, think of all the people who'll believe in you. Even the Pharisees would have to believe that. I mean, if they saw angels carrying Jesus to the earth so he would not be hurt, they'd all have to believe he was the Son of God. That had to be a real temptation, too. And all he had to do was stop giving God control of his

life, and take control for himself.

“All this I will give you, if you will bow down and worship me.” Jesus could've had control over the entire earth and everything and everyone in it. Think of the good he could've done. Think of the lives he could've saved. Think of the people he could've healed. That had to be the biggest temptation of all. And all Jesus had to do was stop giving God control of his life, and take control for himself.

Jesus knew that he was not put on earth to be in control of his own life. Jesus knew he was put on earth for a specific reason and a specific purpose. Jesus knew he was put on earth to serve God. Jesus knew he would never be happy, never be fulfilled, if he did not do that. So Jesus knew that meant he needed to give God control of his life, and not take control for himself.

That's true for each of us, too. You and I were not put on earth to be in control of our lives. Each of us is put on earth for a specific reason and a specific purpose. Each of us is put on earth to serve God. We will never be happy, never be fulfilled, if we do not do that. That means each of us needs to give God control of our lives, and not take control for ourselves.

“But Jesus was the Son of God.” Yes, he was. And that made it even harder. Because Jesus knew what giving God control of his life meant. Jesus knew he was going to be arrested. Jesus knew he was going to be beaten. Jesus knew he was going to be tortured. Jesus knew he was going to be killed, and killed in a very painful way. And Jesus knew he did not have to let it happen. He could avoid it. All he had to do was stop giving God control of his life, and take control for himself. He could avoid the pain—but he could not gain happiness or fulfillment.

You and I are children of God, too. But we don't know what know what giving God control of our lives will mean. We don't know what's going to happen to us. We're afraid of what might happen if give God control of our lives. We can avoid that fear if we take control for ourselves. We can avoid the pain we fear—but we cannot gain happiness or fulfillment.

Each of us is put on earth for a specific reason and a specific purpose. Each of us was is put on earth to serve God. We will never be happy, never be fulfilled, if we don't do that. This Lenten season, instead of giving up TV or chocolate or anything else, let's give up control of our lives. That's something we can give up that will change our entire lives.

Avoiding the Ditch

 A couple of weeks ago, the Potter County and Sully Buttes girls basketball teams were scheduled to play each other in Onida. Naturally, I wanted to go to the game. On the other hand, there was a snowstorm forecast for the area that night. The best forecast I could find said it would start snowing at about 8:00 or 9:00. In other words, it was set to start snowing just about the time the game would end, so that I could very well be driving home in a snowstorm.

You all know what a sports fan I am. As much as I love watching sports, though, I hate driving in snowstorms even more. I decided not to go to the game. The thought occurred to me, though, that if someone else offered to take me to the game, I would probably be willing to ride with them.

Now, why should that be? There's no evidence that this other, unnamed driver would be any better at driving in a snowstorm than I am. Why should I be more willing to ride with someone else than I am to drive myself? As I thought about it, I decided that the answer had to do with responsibility and control.

You'd think control and responsibility are things I'd want, and sometimes they are, but not in this case. If I'm driving, I'm responsible for any bad thing that happens on the way home. If we go into the ditch, or spin out, it's all my fault. When someone else is driving, though, I'm not responsible for anything. There's nothing I can do about it. I have no control over the situation. All I can do is just sit there and ride along. If we go into the ditch, well, don't look at me. After all, I wasn't driving.

It seems to me that God would like me to apply that to other parts of life, too. Not that God wants me to be irresponsible, exactly. But I think God would like me to not feel responsible for any bad thing that happens. I think God would like it if I'd give God control. I think God would like it if I'd let God be the driver of my life, rather than wanting to drive myself.

It's not a perfect analogy, of course. Where it breaks down is that, even if I let God do the driving, God does not want me to just sit passively in the passenger seat. God does not want me to just be along for the ride. God chooses to act with us and through us. I need to seek God's will, but I'm still supposed to be an active participant in my life, not just an observer.

Still, I think there's a lesson to be learned from it. When we give control of our lives to God, when we stop feeling responsible for everything, it takes a lot of pressure off. We can then just do what we're supposed to do and not worry about the results. After all, we are not responsible for what other people do. Other people make their own choices, just like we do. We can try to influence people, but we are not responsible for them.

You and I are only responsible for what we do. If we give control of our lives to God, then all we need to do is follow God's will to the best of our ability. If we do, we can trust that God will not drive us into the ditch.

Never Too Late

This is the message given in the Wheatland Parish on Sunday, February 17, 2013.  The Bible verses used are John 11:1-44.

This is the last in our sermon series “It's a Miracle!” We've talked about some pretty miraculous things Jesus did. He turned water into wine, he walked on water, he gave sight to a blind man, he fed a crowd. He even drove demons out of a man. And, of course, these are only a few of the miracles Jesus performed while he was on earth.

Today, though, we're looking at what might be the most amazing miracle of all. Jesus raised a man from the dead. Jesus took a man who had been dead for four days and brought him back to life.

When we look at this, we can see there's one major difference from the other miracles we've looked at. The way the Bible presents the other miracles, they don't seem to be things Jesus planned out in advance. They look more like Jesus just kind of responding to a situation. This one is different. In this case, it looks like Jesus deliberately and intentionally waited around for Lazarus to die before he went to where Lazarus was. It looks like Jesus planned all along to wait for Lazarus to die and then bring him back to life. And Jesus tells the disciples why. He says, “For your sake I am glad I was not there, so that you may believe.”

Let's think about that for a second. Lazarus is really sick. He's suffering. Then he dies. And Jesus says he's glad it happened that way, because that will help the disciples believe.

Does that remind you of anything we've talked about in this sermon series? The blind man, right? Jesus said then that the man had been born blind so that the works of God could be displayed. Here, Jesus says Lazarus died so the disciples could come to believe.

That seems awfully tough on the people involved, you know? The man born blind spent years and years not being able to see. He had to beg to support himself. Lazarus not only suffered, he actually died. And yet, Jesus says it had to happen this way, so the works of God could be displayed and people could come to believe.

When we read these stories, it can be fairly easy to accept that, because we know how the stories come out. We see that there's a happy ending. It's a lot harder to accept it when one of these stories actually happens to us, and we're right in the middle of it. We things are going badly for us, when we have a serious health problem, or a serious financial problem, or a disaster happens to us or someone in our family, it's pretty hard to think that this might be happening so the works of God can be displayed and people can come to believe.

It was probably pretty hard for Lazarus, too. Did you notice that we're not told anything about how Lazarus felt about any of this? We're not told any of his words. We're not told any of his thoughts. But he surely had some.

Lazarus was a good friend of Jesus. He's lying there in bed, suffering. Maybe he knows he's dying or maybe not, but he knows he's very sick. But he also knows that Jesus can heal him. His sisters know it, too. So, his sisters send word to Jesus, telling him that Lazarus is sick. They probably told Lazarus, “Don't worry. We've sent word to Jesus. Don't give up. He'll heal you. Just hang in there. Jesus is coming, and things will be all right.”

But Jesus does not come. A day passes, and Jesus does not come. A second day passes, and Jesus does not come. And Lazarus does not understand why. He knows Jesus could come and could heal him, but Jesus does not come. Finally, it's too late. Lazarus cannot hold on any longer. He dies.

Lazarus' sisters, Martha and Mary, don't understand it either. They know Jesus could've healed their brother. In fact, that's the first thing they say to Jesus when they see him. Each of them says, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” Now, though, they think it's too late. They don't come out and say it, but you have to think there's a question implied by their statement. It's the question we're told other people did come out and ask: “Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying?”

When we read this story, we can see that Jesus is right. The story had to come out like it did to help people believe. When we read this story, we can see that none of the people involved in this story thought Jesus would or could bring Lazarus back to life. They did not even consider that one of the options. They thought it was too late.

The disciples certainly thought so. They thought Jesus was crazy for going to Judea at all. The people there had already tried to kill Jesus once, and now Jesus wants to go back. Thomas speaks for all the disciples when he says that by going to Judea, they're going to their deaths.

Mary and Martha don't get it, either. Maybe Martha got it a little bit. After she says that if Jesus had been there, Lazarus would not have died, she goes on to say, “But I know that even now God will give you whatever you ask.” Still, when Jesus tells her Lazarus will live again, her response is that Lazarus will live in the resurrection on the last day. She does not seem to even consider the possibility that Jesus might bring Lazarus back to life now. It's the same when they go to the tomb. When Jesus says to take the stone away from the entrance, she warns him that there's going to be a really bad smell, because Lazarus has been there for four days. Again, the possibility of Jesus bringing Lazarus back to life at this point does not seem to have occurred to her. She thinks it's too late.

All these people went through all this suffering. They went through all this pain. They went through all this anguish. The disciples thought Jesus was leading them to their deaths. Mary and Martha went through the pain of watching their brother die and not being able to do anything about it. In fact, they thought the one thing they'd tried to do about, sending for Jesus, had failed, because Jesus had not come. And, of course, Lazarus actually died, not understanding why his good friend Jesus had not come and saved him. Now, they all thought it was too late.

As I said, it can be easy to accept these things in Bible stories, because we know there's going to be a happy ending. While it's actually happening in our lives, it's a lot harder to accept. We don't know that there's going to be a happy ending. That's when we have to decide whether we really believe what we say we believe. That's when we have to decide whether we really trust Jesus.

The disciples thought they believed. They thought they trusted. Mary and Martha thought they believed. They thought they trusted. And they did, to a point. But when Lazarus died, they all thought the story was over. They thought it was too late. They thought there was nothing Jesus or anybody else could do.

And if we put ourselves in their place, we understand exactly how they felt. Almost all of us have been there. We've seen bad things happen, either to ourselves or to someone else. We know Jesus could do something about it. We ask Jesus to do something about it. And Jesus does not seem to notice. Jesus does not seem to respond. Jesus waits, seeming to do nothing. And then, it seems like it's too late. The thing is over, and there's nothing Jesus or anyone else can do.

This miracle happened so that we could come to believe. We can believe even when it seems like Jesus does not notice what's happening. We can believe even when Jesus does not seem to respond. We can believe even when it seems like Jesus is doing nothing. We can believe even when it seems like it's too late for Jesus or anyone else to do anything. Because the thing is that it is never too late for Jesus to do something. This is what Jesus said:

Anyone who believes in me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in me will never die.

Even death does not make it too late for Jesus to do something, because even death is not permanent. Jesus has more power than death itself. Jesus showed that by bringing Lazarus back to life. Jesus showed that through his own death and resurrection. And Jesus shows it through the resurrection of everyone who believes in him, because anyone who believes in him will never die.

With Jesus, it's never too late. If we can believe that, and trust it, we can be confident even when the situation seems hopeless. Because we know that we can survive even death itself through God's great love and through our belief in Jesus Christ as our Savior.

Let 'er Rip

Below is the message given in the Ash Wednesday service in the Wheatland Parish.  The Bible verses used are Joel 2:1-2, 12-17.

           If I was to ask everybody here tonight what your favorite religious holiday is, I doubt if Ash Wednesday would get very many votes. Most of us would probably say either Christmas or Easter. There might be a few people who’d go with something like Palm Sunday or Thanksgiving. Maybe one or two would even say something like All Saints Day. But I suspect very few of us, if anybody, would say our favorite religious holiday is Ash Wednesday.

           

           My guess is also that, for most of us, the reason for that would be one of two things. The first one might be that we really don’t understand what Ash Wednesday is all about. I mean, the whole service for Ash Wednesday is different. We read different Bible verses—I mean, when else do we ever read from the Book of Joel? Some of us probably forgot there even was a Book of Joel. We get more serious on Ash Wednesday—we don’t have any choir, we don’t have any children’s message, we don’t have a weekly recognition where we celebrate some goofy holiday. We don’t have the kind of upbeat, joyful service we have on Sunday morning.

And then, of course, there’s the big thing, the thing that’s coming up, where people come forward and I put some ashes on your forehead. What’s that all about? If you don’t know, that probably seems pretty strange. Kind of weird, even. I mean, you’d get that, when it’s called Ash Wednesday, ashes are probably involved, but why? What does that mean?

Well, the ashes are a sign of sadness. They show that we realize how very far we fall short of what we should be. They show that we’re sorry, not only for what we’ve done, but for who we’ve been and who we are. They show that we know we need to change, and that we need God’s help to change.

And that brings me to the second reason Ash Wednesday might not be our favorite religious holiday. It’s not because we don’t understand what Ash Wednesday is about. It’s because we do understand. We understand exactly what Ash Wednesday is about, and we don’t like it very much.

Most of us, including me, don’t like to think about how we fall far short of who we should be. We know it, but we don’t want to admit it. And even if we’re willing to admit it, we don’t really want to do much of anything about it. We may be sorry for some things we’ve done, but we’re not really sorry about who we are. Or if we are, we’re not sorry enough to really want to change. We might be willing to change a little bit, to make a few changes at the margins of our lives, but that’s about as far as we want to go.

Ash Wednesday is not about just changing a little bit. It’s not about making a few changes at the margins of our lives. That’s why we read from the Book of Joel on Ash Wednesday. Let’s look at what Joel says.

Joel says that the day of the Lord is coming. That may sound like it’s a good thing, but Joel says it’s not. He describes it as a day of darkness and gloom. He says there are going to be earthquakes. He says the sun and the moon will become dark and the stars will lose their brightness. He says no one can endure the day of the Lord. Basically, what Joel says is the reason the day of the Lord coming is bad news is that we’re not ready and we’re not going to be ready.

Joel tells us what to do about that. He tells us we need to return to God. And the way we can do that, Joel says, is to “rend our hearts.”

Let’s think about that word, “rend”. What does it mean to “rend” our hearts?

We talk sometimes about how we need to open our hearts to God, but you know, we probably put that too mildly. Rending our hearts is not just gently opening our hearts to God. It’s not something that’s easy and clean. Rending our hearts means literally to tear open our hearts. It means to rip our hearts open. That’s not an easy thing. That’s hard. That’s messy. That can be painful.

And Joel does not give us any guarantee that it’ll do any good. Listen to what he says, “Who knows if God will relent, and leave a blessing behind?” In other words, we’re supposed to tear open our hearts, rip our hearts open to God, go through all the pain that’s involved in that, without even knowing whether God will actually do anything after we do it.

That’s hard for us. Most of us are used to life being a series of exchange, a series of deals. I do something for you, you do something for me. I go to the store, I give them money, I get something in return. We do our jobs, we get paid. That’s the way life works.

We try to do that with God, too. We say, “Okay, God, I'll be faithful to you if you'll do good things for me. I'll come to church and worship you if you make sure my family and I stay healthy. I'll give to the church if you make sure I have enough money. I'll treat other people well if you make sure nothing bad happens to me.”

But with God, it does not work that way. We cannot make deals with God. God does not say, “You do this for me and I'll do this for you.” That may be the way life on earth works, but it’s not the way life with God works. God tells us to be faithful, but God does not promise us a return on earth for that. We're supposed to do what we're supposed to do and then accept what we get, which may or may not be what we want or what we think we should get.

That's hard. It's hard enough, really, to go before God and confess our sins and try to change if we do think God will reward us on earth. To go before God and confess our sins and try to change and not know if doing that will even make any difference to our lives on earth, well, that's really hard. It may not even make sense to us sometimes. Why should we do it?

Joel gives us the answer. We should do it, and we can do it, because of who God is. Joel tells us that God is “gracious and compassionate.” God is “slow to anger, and abounding in love.”

When we try to make a deal with God, when we say, “I'll do this if you do that,” what we're doing is saying that God owes us something. That's the wrong way to look at it. God does not owe us anything. When we act like God owes us something, we are not doing what Joel tells us to do. We're not tearing open our hearts. We're not admitting to having done anything wrong. We're not saying we're sorry about anything. What we're doing, really, is acting selfishly. We're saying we'll only change if there's something in it for us. We're saying that if we change, then God owes us something, and if God does not pay up, then we'll go back to being the people we were before.

Doing what Joel says, tearing our hearts open, is different. Tearing open our hearts means going to God with no expectations. It means going to God in complete humility. It means going to God knowing that we have no right to go to God at all. It means asking for God's forgiveness knowing that God has no obligation to forgive us at all.

But it also means going to God because we trust God. It means going to God because we know who God is. It means going to God because God is compassionate and abounding in love.

Do you ever think about that word “compassionate”? We use it in church a lot to describe God and to describe Jesus, but we don't usually talk about what it means. It means feeling deep sympathy and sorrow for someone who's suffering, and feeling a desire to get rid of their suffering.

When we go to God with hearts ripped open, that's what God feels for us. God feels compassion. God wants to get rid of our suffering. And God will get rid of our suffering. Not our physical suffering, necessarily, although God may do that. But our emotional suffering, our spiritual suffering. God will take that away from us. Not because God owes it to us, but because God loves us.

Ash Wednesday may not be one of our favorite holidays. But when we think about it, it really should be. It's a chance for us to get rid of the suffering in our lives and to become the people God wants us to be. We can do that at any time, of course, but Ash Wednesday is the day set aside specifically to do it. Let's take advantage of that. Let's come before God with hearts torn open, confessing out sins and trying to change, trusting in our loving and compassionate God to take away the suffering in our lives.

Of Life, Death, and Cadbury Creme Eggs

In what may become an annual tradition, I reprint a blog post I wrote last year about one of the most perfect foods known to mankind.

           I saw an article the other day that had good news.  Cadbury crème egg season will be here soon!  Of course, this is a season that is also known as “Easter”.  I realize that, as a Christian pastor, I should value Easter for the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ and all that signifies, and I do, but I also value it for Cadbury crème eggs.  They are close to being nature’s perfect food, just above Double Stuf Oreos and just behind mom’s chocolate chip cookies (hi, mom!).

            I saw another article the other day, too.  This one was about health.  Here’s a question for you.  Do you know what the number one risk factor associated with cancer and heart disease is?

            Unless you saw the story, I’ll bet you got it wrong.  It’s not weight or diet or lack of exercise or stress or any of the things we normally think about.  It’s age.  That’s right, age.  The older we are, the more likely we are to get cancer or heart disease.  In other words, the number one risk factor associated with these diseases is one that we can do absolutely nothing about.

            Last time, I wrote about our need to take care of ourselves.  I still believe that, of course.  We should do all we can to stay healthy for as long as we can, so that we can better serve God.  Still, this article was a reminder that no matter what we do, none of us is going to live forever.  No matter how much we eat right and exercise and get our rest and do all the things we’re supposed to do, at some point we’re all going to get old, and at some point we’re all going to die.

            Which brings me back to Cadbury crème eggs.  Each one has six grams of fat and twenty-one grams of sugar.  Each has 24 grams of carbohydrate and 150 calories. There’s a reason these things are not sold in the health food section of the store.  No one would reasonably make the argument that Cadbury crème eggs are good for you.

            But you know what?  We can deny ourselves all the pleasures of life, we can eat nothing but oats and nuts and berries, and we’re still going to die sometime.  I’m not suggesting that we make Cadbury crème eggs the chief staple of our diet.  On the other hand, eating one once in a while is not going to particularly hurt us, either.

            We should do all we reasonably can to stay healthy.  On the other hand, life is not meant to just be endured.  It’s also supposed to be enjoyed.  So use your head, get your rest, and keep yourself in shape.  But eat a Cadbury crème egg once in a while, too.

Good-Bye to Law

 As most of you know, I was a lawyer for over twenty years before I became a pastor. For a couple of years, while I was acting as a part-time interim pastor and going to seminary, I continued to practice law part-time as well. I gave up the active practice of law when I got my first full-time United Methodist appointment in the summer of 2008. However, I retained my membership in the South Dakota Bar Association. That means that I was still technically a lawyer, and could legally practice law in South Dakota if I chose to do so.

No more. I did not renew my law license for 2013. I am no longer a lawyer.

Just in practical terms, this was an easy decision. I have no desire to ever practice law again. I enjoyed being a lawyer while I did it, but my life as a pastor is far more enjoyable and fulfilling. Besides, it costs nearly five hundred dollars a year to retain my law license. I can think of a whole lot better ways to use five hundred dollars instead of spending it on a license that I have no intention of ever using.

In emotional terms, though, it was a lot harder. For some reason, giving up my law license was a hard thing to do. It was harder than giving up the actual practice of law was. In fact, there's a part of me that's still tempted to call up the bar association and see whether, if I sent in my check, they'd reinstate me.

I've been trying to figure out why this is so hard. At first, I thought it might be pride. After all, I had worked hard to become a lawyer. Despite all the lawyer jokes, I was always proud to be one. I took some of my status in life from it. It's hard, now, to say that I'm not a lawyer any more.

That may be part of it, but I don't think it's the main reason. Another thing I thought of is related to what I wrote about a couple of weeks ago: we all like to feel that we're doing things out of choice, rather than out of necessity. As long as I was a lawyer, I could tell myself that, after all, I don't have to be a pastor. I could go back to being a lawyer any time I wanted.

I don't think that's it, either. While it was true that I could go back to being a lawyer, it was also true that, as I said above, I have no desire to do so. That was a choice in name only, because I would never have gone back to being a lawyer unless I somehow was no longer allowed to be a pastor, and even then it would have been a very hard thing for me to do.

I think what it comes down to, ultimately, is that giving up my law license marks a stronger commitment to being a pastor. I felt like I was committed to it before, and I was, to an extent, but now the commitment becomes stronger. I cannot go back to being a lawyer now, at least not easily. I've closed the door to the past. I can still look through the window and remember the past, but I cannot go back to it. I can only move in one direction now, and that's forward.

That's a good thing. There's no sense in keeping a door to the past open when we don't want to go through that door. All keeping that door open does is hold us back. At best, it keeps us from focusing on where we are and where we want to go. At worst, it makes us dissatisfied with the present by keeping a nostalgic longing for a past that never really existed, at least not the way we remember it.

So, I'm not a lawyer any more. I'm a pastor. That's okay. In fact, it's better than okay. It's great! It's awesome! I'm happier than I've ever been in my life. I finally know what I want to be when I grow up. I firmly believe I am where God wants me to be, and I'm doing what God wants me to do. Ecclesiastes says that finding satisfaction in our work is a gift from God. I'm getting that gift now, and I don't think there's a better feeling in the world.

Is there a door to your past that you need to close? If so, close it. It's hard. I know it's hard. But it's worth it. The past may be a nice place to visit once in a while, but you don't want to live there. Don't let it hold you back. Focus on where you are and where you want to go. Keep moving forward.

What Possessed You?

This is the message given in the Wheatland Parish on Sunday, March 3, 2013.  The Bible verses are Luke 4:31-37.

We’re nearing the end of our sermon series on the miracles of Jesus. The miracle we’re looking at today has to do with Jesus healing a man possessed by a demon.

The subject of demons and people being possessed by them is not one we talk about a whole lot. Most of us are probably aware that the Bible talks about demons. We’re aware that it talks about people being possessed by them. But we don’t really talk about it much or think about it much. The idea of someone being possessed by demons is kind of a foreign concept to a lot of us. Even if we consider it possible, most of us have never known someone we thought was possessed by a demon. Because of that, a lot of us are not sure just what to do with this story.

In Jesus’ time, though, the idea of someone being possessed by demons would not have been a foreign concept. It was something the people of his day believed in as a present reality. The people of Jesus’ time would’ve said that only someone who was divine would be able to drive demons out of someone. So, the people who first read or heard about this story would’ve been really impressed by Jesus being able to do that.

What I want you to remember, though, as we look at this story today, is what the purpose of our sermon series on miracles is. Our purpose is not to debate fine points of theology, or even demonology. Our purpose is to think about why these miracles are in the Bible and see what we can learn from them. So, with that in mind, let’s look at the story of Jesus healing a man possessed by a demon as given to us in the gospel of Luke.

Jesus is teaching the people, and a man comes up who’s possessed by a demon. The man basically tells Jesus, “Go away! I know who you are and I don’t want anything to do with you.” Jesus orders the demon to come out of the man, and it does. And the people around them are amazed at what they’ve just seen.

Now, again, this story loses some of its impact on us because it seems like such a foreign thing to us. Still, I think there are things we can learn from it.

Think about what happens at the start of this story. Jesus sees a man possessed by a demon. The man sees him, too. And the man basically tells Jesus to go away. He knows who Jesus is and what Jesus can do, and he does not want Jesus anywhere near him. Think about that. Jesus has the power to take the demon out of this man, and yet the man does not want Jesus to even come close to him.

Now, maybe you’re thinking, wait a minute, Jeff. The reason the man said that is because he was possessed by a demon. It was the demon talking, not the man.

Well, yeah, but think about it. Yes, the man was possessed by a demon, and it was the demon talking, but what does that mean? What does a demon actually do?

It seems to me that what the demon was trying to do here is what demons always try to do. A demon tries to keep us away from God. A demon tries to get in the way of our relationship with God.

Think of the story of Adam and Eve. At first, they had a great relationship with God. God walked with them in the Garden of Eden. They talked all the time. God had told them not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, but Adam and Eve were fine with that. Then the serpent came along. What did the serpent do? The serpent got in the way of Adam and Eve’s relationship with God. The serpent got them to disobey God and drove a wedge between them and God.

Think of the story of Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness. In Luke, that story comes shortly before the one we read today. It’s in the same chapter. What did the devil try to do to Jesus? He tried to get in the way of his relationship with God. He tried to get him to disobey God. He tried to drive a wedge between Jesus and God.

If we think of it that way, as a demon being something that gets in the way of our relationship with God, then the idea of us being possessed by demons is not as foreign a concept as we might think at first. We may not be possessed by demons in the sense of something physical, something that can control our movements and change our voices, something everyone can see. But all of us have things in our lives that threaten to get in the way of our relationship with God. In that sense, all of us have demons that we need to fight.

When we think of demons in that way, when we think of demons as anything that tries to get in the way of our relationship with God, we can see that demons can take a lot of different forms. We tend to think first of the obvious ones: anger, violence, that sort of thing. Or maybe we think of things like drug or alcohol addiction. Those things can be demons, of course. Those things can get in the way of our relationship with God. But there are a lot more forms our demons can take than that.

For example, selfishness can be a demon. We can get so wrapped up in doing the things we want to do and only caring about the things we care about that we don’t stop to think about all the people God wants us to help. Laziness can be a demon. We all need a little time to ourselves, but we can come to treasure our leisure time so much that it gets in the way of our relationship with God.

Sometimes the things that get in the way of our relationship with God are not necessarily bad things, but they can become bad things if we make them more important than they should be. An example of that in my life is my love of sports. Now, there’s nothing inherently wrong with being a sports fan, and in fact I think there are ways God can use that for good. But if sports become too important to us, if we give them a higher priority than we should, they can get in the way of our relationship with God. If I’m not careful, sports can become a demon I have to fight.

That can be true even of things we normally think of as good things. I said a little while ago that laziness can be a demon. Well, so can hard work. Now, most of us were raised to think that hard work is a virtue, and, in its proper place, it is. But if we focus too much of our energy on our work, if we start neglecting our families and our friends and our church because we’re so focused on our work, then it can stop being a virtue. It can become something that gets in the way of our relationship with God. Hard work can become a demon that we have to fight.

Whatever our personal demons are, whatever those things are that get in the way of our relationship with God, we are just like the man in our reading from Luke. We cannot fight those demons by ourselves, any more than the man in our reading from Luke could. We need to have Jesus help us.

Jesus wants to help us. Jesus wants to get those demons out of our lives. But too often, just like the man in our reading, we don’t want Jesus to help us. We tell Jesus to go away. We know who Jesus is and what Jesus can do, and we don’t want Jesus to come anywhere near us. We know Jesus has the power to take our demons away from us, but we don’t want Jesus to come too close so he can actually do it.

We do that for the same reason the man in our story did it. Our demon, that thing that has gotten in the way of our relationship with God, has taken us over. We know Jesus could take that demon away, but we really don’t want Jesus to do that. We’d rather stay the way we are than to have Jesus change us. We may know that we should change, but deep down, we’re a little afraid to.

See, a lot of the time, we’re pretty comfortable with the way we are. We may know we’re not perfect, but we’re used to our imperfections. Our demons really don’t bother us all that much. If we got rid of them, if we let Jesus take those demons away from us, if we had a really close relationship with God again, well, we don’t know where that might lead. What if we got close to God and then God told us to sell a bunch of the stuff we have and give the money to the poor? What if we got close to God and then God told us to go on a mission trip to half-way around the world? Or, what if we got close to God and then God told us to go spend time helping the Native Americans who live not very far from here at all?

It takes courage for us to let Jesus come close to us. It takes courage for us to let Jesus take the demons away from us. But notice one other thing. Frankly, until I was writing this message, this part of the story went right past me. I did not even notice it. But look at what our scripture says. When Jesus ordered the demon to come out of the man, it says, “Then the demon threw the man down before them all and came out without injuring him.”

Luke goes out of his way to tell us that the man was not hurt when the demon came out of him. You and I will not be hurt when we let Jesus take our demons away from us, either. Getting rid of all those things that are getting in the way of our relationship with God will not hurt us. Getting close to Jesus will not hurt us. Instead, we will be the people we should be, and we’ll feel the joy that comes from being close to God and living the way God wants us to live.

You and I may not be possessed by a physical demon, but we all have things in our lives that are getting in the way of our relationship to God. Let’s let Jesus get close to us, and let Jesus get those things out of our lives. Then, we can be the people God wants us to be.