The Art of the Bounce Back

Setbacks happen. Setbacks happen to everyone. You are not immune to a setback because – I will say it again — setbacks happen and they happen to everyone. The fact that you can have “the best of times” means that you can—and will – have “the worst of times.” Learning how to bounce back from a setback will be one of the most useful tools you possess.

Perhaps I believe this because I happen to be enthralled by baseball. I once heard a commentator call it a game of failure. Willie Stargell, one of baseball’s greats, agreed:

“As much as I was known for my homers, I was also known for my strikeouts. The strikeout is the ultimate failure. I struck out 1,936 times. But I’m proud of my strikeouts, for I feel that to succeed, one must first fail; the more you fail, the more you learn about succeeding. The person who has never tried and failed will never succeed. Each time I walked away from the plate after a strikeout, I learned something. My success is the product of the knowledge extracted from my failures.”

Perhaps I know this because I have experienced many setbacks failures and made many mistakes as a leader and as a pastor. In some instances I failed and was ineffective. I can tell right now, by God’s grace, that I have entered into a season of highly effective and productive ministry. Everything inside of me is awake and poised to make the most of this opportunity. Learning to bounce back from a loss is what catapaults ordinary people into new frontiers they never thought possible. It turns out that “the only complete failure is the mistake from which we learn nothing.” (Jacob Braude)

Here are five things that will help you bounce back from a setback:

• Rest. You’ve just experienced a setback. There is no longer room to hope things will turn around. It is paramount right now to give your exhausted body, bruised spirit, damaged confidence time to recover and renew. You won’t want to do this. You will be tempted to rush into a flurry of activity and try to make something happen. Sometimes doing something is the worst possible thing to do—and this is one of those times. Give your soul during this time of setback the precious gift of gentleness. Rest. Go for a walk. Read a book. Pray. Sit quietly. Everything that happens later hinges on this counter-intuitive decision to rest and recover.

• Reflect. Having experienced a setback, you have entered into the highest learning zone possible. You can learn more from one setback than a thousand successes. But to draw all the possible learnings from your setback, you have to reflect. This takes courage to face squarely your part in the failure. What could you have done differently? Why didn’t you? What didn’t you see? Why didn’t you see it? What pattern does this reveal about you that has to be altered so you don’t make the same mistake twice?

• Reach out. Setbacks and failures are terribly isolating moments. If you’re a leader, the setback is often public knowledge. You know intellectually that others have failed before you, but it doesn’t feel that way. You feel as if no one else on the planet has ever failed or experienced a setback like you have. That is a lie dredged up from some dark place that seeks to trap you in isolation. Recognize it and defeat it by reaching out to a few people you trust. Don’t reach out to people who will help you blame others or circumstances beyond your control. Reach out to people who believe enough in you to help you turn your weaknesses into strength—and will do this without judging you or powering up on you. In other words, reach out to healthy people who are also aware that they, too, have failed and know from experience that your bounce back is just around the corner.

• Revise your road map. The point of resting and reaching out is to allow your creativity, intelligence, common sense and intuition time to redraw your life map. A couple of years ago I was depleted. At first I didn’t follow the two steps above. I pushed hard and kept my depletion to myself. Things changed when, after a period of reflection, I drew into the conversation about my future some trusted friends who didn’t commiserate with me in my dark moment but instead asked me the right questions that allowed me to start dreaming again. I am now in the early stages of that dream becoming reality.

• Resilience. Resilience is not simply a human trait that some have in greater supply than others. It is a spiritual gift given by God. In this time, read 2 Corinthians 4:8-9 over and over. Read Psalm 51 written by David following his moral debacle with Bathsheba. Ask Living God to give you this same indefatigable spirit.

These steps have served me well in bouncing back from setbacks. What other steps would you add?

Lent 2012: Day 31. The Paradox of the Gospel

Journey to the Cross…and the Empty Grave

One of the things I love the most about the cross is the way it stirs things up, instead of merely resolving them.

On the one hand, the cross is said to take away our burdens. On the other hand, we are to take up daily the burden of the cross. Elton Trueblood talks about this paradox in a sermon called “The Yoke of Christ:”

“In many areas the gospel, instead of taking away people’s burdens, actually adds to them. John Woolman’s burdens were multiplied when his deep religious experiences brought him to the realization that slavery was evil and contrary to the will of God. After that he could not rest through the remainder of his life.”

How does one make sense of this apparent contradiction between faith that supposedly brings comfort and faith that brings disturbance? Once again, the words of Trueblood offers a solution:

“The great yoke passage, found at the end of Matthew 11, begins with the recognition of the validity of the demand for comfort. We see how tender Christ was with all the broken and the needy when he began by saying, ‘Come unto me all who labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest.’ We naturally expect Christ to say that the heavy-laden must lay down their burdens. But this is precisely what he does not say. In a real shocking paradox Christ offers rest to the burdened by asking them to share his burden. His solution of the problem of those who are tire with toil is to offer them the world’s greatest symbol of toil, namely, the yoke. Christ’s offer of peace was through the acceptance of the voluntary sharing of new toil.”

Seriously? 

Seriously!

“Here we come to the very heart of he paradox of the Christian gospel. The preaching of rest alone is a heresy, and the preaching of disturbance alone is heresy. What we seek is a life in which both rest and disturbance come, and come in a way which is not contradictory, because both arise from the deep commitment to Christ and his kingdom…Comfort comes, but it comes neither lightly nor easily nor quickly. Disturbance we must have, but it is never mere disturbance, because we know that underneath are the everlasting arms.”

So, today, may you find the cross to be both a burden-remover and a burden-increaser. It is the way of the Gospel of Jesus.

Lent 2012: Day 30. Why Jesus-Followers Should Embrace Transformation

Journey to the Cross…and the Empty Grave.

The practice of Lent is empowering me to see more clearly than before the desire of God to continue working in my life after the work of conversion. The goal of this after-conversion work? To transform me into a person who is more fully and more often like Jesus in all of my situations and moments of life. 

There is a category of persons who have an important word for the church. They are a new breed of church leavers. They are leaving the church in record numbers. But what is new is the reason for their leaving. It is not because of dislike of the style of the message or the worship. It is because they are not experiencing any transformation in the church. They did what the church told them to do: they became a Christian. They prayed the sinner’s prayer. They said “yes” to Jesus. They raised their hand. They attended the member seminars and classes. They started serving and giving. But 10 years later they took stock and realized they were essentially unchanged. Their marriage was as messed up as ever. They were tripping over the same issues that had always tripped them up. Addictions, insecurities, and anger was essentially untouched. Seeing that, they said to themself, “I thought I was going to be changed. I’m not.” And they left.

They are right. The work God wants to do is to change them through and through, to make them into an entirely new person. Radical transformation, not just conversion, is the goal. 

Lent 2012: Day 29. Why Jesus-Followers Embrace the Gospel

Journey to the Cross…and the Empty Grave

The practice of Lent has deepened my appreciation for the Gospel of Jesus. It’s exceedingly clear that Jesus is focused on transformation of persons and culture. His ministry and consciousness is void of the “either/or” language that polarizes churches today when it comes to the issue of transformation. Today you see churches focuses on either personal transformation or on cultural transformation. But Jesus was clearly focused on both.

I recently posted a blog about why Jesus-followers should embrace a life of social justice. The biblical evidence for this appears to be irrefutable. 

Today, I want to say one thing: we must be clear that the Bible teaches personal transformation. Biblical fidelity is not a secondary concern; it’s primary. So, you should be aware that the Bible does truly teach that we are to work for transformation of persons everywhere. 

The prophets hit this subject hard. They are brutally honest about our need for transformation and they ceaselessly point to Living God as the source of our transformation. 

• “Surely he has carried our infirmities and carried our sorrows…He was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities, the punishment that brought us peace was upon him. We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way. And the Lord has laid on hi the iniquity of us all.” (Isaiah 53:3-7)
• “The Lord set me in the middle of a valley; it was full of bones. I saw a great many bones on the floor of hte valley, bones that were very dry. He asked me, ‘Can these bones live?’ I said, ‘O Sovereign Lord, you alone know.’ Then he said…’Dry bones, hear the word of the Lord! This is what the Sovereign Lord says to these bones: I will make breath enter you, and you will come to life…I will put my Spirit in you and you will live.” (Ezekiel 37:1-14)
• “Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God…He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak. Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength.” (Isaiah 40:28-30)

The writer of some of the world’s greatest spiritual poetry picks up this theme:

• “Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits, who forgives all your iniquity, who heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit, who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy, who satisfies you with good, so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.” (Psalm 103:2-5)
• “Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love; according to your great compassion blot out my transgressions. Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. For I know my transgressions, and my sin is always before me…Cleanse me…and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be white than snow…Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation…” (Psalm 51:1-12)

Transformation of persons is a primary focus of Jesus:

• “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.” (Mark 2:17)
• “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.” (John 10:10)
• “To all who received [Jesus], to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God—children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.” (John 1:12-13)
• Jesus speaking of his mission: “Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Does he not leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it?” (Luke 15:4)

The Apostle Paul turns to this theme over and over:

• “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!” (2 Corinthians 5:17)
• “Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full attention: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am the worst.” (1 Timothy 1:15)
• “We were buried with hi through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.” (Romans 6:4)
• “Because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved.” (Ephesians 2:4)

I suppose it is possible to discount these words. Another way to interpret them is to let them stand on their own merit, to mean what they appear to mean: that human persons are in desperate need of transformation and Living God, through Jesus, is at work to deliver that transformation.

Lent 2012: Day 28. Focus on the Cross

Journey to the Cross…and the Empty Grave

I had a conversation the other day with a guy following Sunday’s message. He told me a story. He had been going in for a surgery. It was a serious moment. There was no guarantee he’d survive the surgery. 

He said that as he laid there, a few moments before the surgery started, he started thinking about all the things he had done that he wished he hadn’t done. It filled him for a moment with regret: “Why did I ever do that?” “What was I thinking of…how could I have done that?”

And then he started to feel despair: “What can I do to undo that thing I did?” 

It was a holy moment for me as i stood there listening to his reflection. Finally, it was right to ask him how he resolved that moment, the regret and the despair?

His face lit up. He said, “I focused on the cross. I remembered that Jesus did all the heavy lifting when he died on the cross. Every one of my sins have been forgiven. When I remembered that, the regret and the despair lifted.”

“I focused on the cross.”

Here are some great words about the cross and death of Jesus written by William Cowper. It’s an old hymn now called “There Is a Fountain.”

“There is a fountain filled with blood, Drawn from Immanuel’s veins, And sinners plunged beneath that flood Lose all their guilty stains.

The dying thief rejoiced to see That fountain in His day; And there have I, though vile as he, Washed all my sins away.”

Beautiful. 

Today, focus on the cross.

Lent 2012: Day 27. Why Jesus-Followers Should Embrace a Life of Justice

Journey to the Cross…and the Empty Grave

Lent makes you think about things. It makes you examine stuff. It gets you thinking about the way things are, and why they have to be. 

Lent has made me think about the rhythm of my life. It’s been slowly but surely sorting it out by making me aware of some of my obsessiveness and my unfiltered instincts to say “yes” too often, both which leave me depleted. I’m in the process of paring back on some good commitments in order to say “yes” to the bigger purposes of my life.

Lent has made me examine the almost magnetic pull of comfort on my life. Lent has exposed my admiration of the cross of Jesus while mainly being unwilling to live a lifestyle fitting someone who follows the One who embraces the cross.

Lent has made me wonder about transformation of our culture and world. I have existed too long in a world of church that hasn’t known how to say the word “and” when it comes to transformation of persons AND transformation of culture. Some churches have focused almost exclusively on transformation of persons. Others have emphasized almost exclusively transformation of culture. The former have been nervous about social justice and the latter have been nervous about the Gospel. Clearly both are taught openly, constantly, and vociferously in the Bible. 

Today, I want to say one thing: we must be clear that the Bible teaches social justice. Biblical fidelity is not a secondary concern; it’s primary. So, you should be aware that the Bible does truly teach that we are to work for transformation of culture and against oppression, injustice, violence everywhere. (Tomorrow, I want to show that the Bible values the Gospel and personal transformation. But, today, I simply want to say that the Bible clearly teaches social justice.)

The prophets hit this subject especially hard, emphasizing the justice of God:

• “…learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression; bring justice to the fatherless, plead the widow’s cause…” (Isaiah 1:17)
• “He has told you, O man, what is good, and what the Lord really wants from you: He wants you to promote justice, to be faithful, and to live obediently before your God.” (Micah 6:8)
• “I the Lord love justice; I hate robbery and wrong…” Isaiah 61:8
• “Thus says the Lord God: Enough, O princes of Israel! Put away violence and oppression, and execute justice and righteousness.” Ezekiel 45:9
• “Let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.” Amos 8:23

The wisdom writers pick up this issue, connecting a life of justice to the gift of wisdom:

• “If you make your ear attentive to wisdom…then you will understand righteousness and justice and equity, every good path; for wisdom will come into your heart.” Proverbs 2:1-10

Justice is a central theme of Jesus’ teaching. At the outset of his ministry, he read from the prophets to define and give shape to his purpose:

• “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” (Luke 4:1-19

I suppose one can spiritualize these words of scripture, and turn them into allegories whose real and only message is about personal transformation. But another way to interpret them is to let them stand on their own merit, to mean what they seem to say, that the Living God’s heart breaks over both the victims of oppression, violence and injustice and over structures and forms and powers of our human cultures that oppress people, do violence against people, injure dignity of people, and create inequities amongst people. 

Lent 2012: Day 26. Suffering

Journey to the Cross…and the Empty Grave.

When the suffering of Jesus is explored, you can’t avoid the fact that Jesus expects his followers to live a life of suffering. Here is what he said:

If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. (Luke 9:23)

Hardly a popular message, one that would most likely drive directors of marketing mad.

Some have had the simplicity of spirit to accept this challenge of Jesus as a practical way of life in their lifetime. One was Amy Carmichael who did much to rescue girls from being sex trafficked for pagan religious practices. Here is a poem of hers that I admire:

From prayer that asks that i may be sheltered from winds that beat on Me, from fearing when I should aspire, from faltering when I should climb higher, from silken self, O Captain, free thy soldier who would follow Thee.

From subtle love of softening things, from easy choices, weakenings, (not thus are spirits fortified), not this way went the Crucified, from all that dims Thy Calvary, O Lamb of God, deliver me.

Give me the love that leads the way, the faith that nothing can dismay, the hope no disappointments tire, the passion that will burn like fire, Let me not sink to be a clod: Make me Thy fuel, Flame of God.

I love some of those lines and phrases:

• from silken self, O Captain, free thy soldier
• from subtle love of softening things
• let me not sink to be a clod

Don’t talk or write like this today…but I get it…and I love it.

What “softening things” dims your spirit, your will, and your view of Calvary?

Lent 2012: Day 25. Suffering

Journey to the Cross…and the Empty Grave.

Lent ultimately prepares one to take in the suffering, death and resurrection of Jesus. There is no way to get to the resurrection without first going journeying through the anguish, suffering and death of Jesus. 

For me, this is a sacred time. To read the suffering, and to accept in faith it was for me, induces reverence.

Here are the actual words of Jesus:

The Son of Man must suffer many things…and he must be killed… (Luke 9:22)

As I think of this moment for Jesus, I am reminded of the words of Thomas a Kempis, who drew our attention more than any other to a life of imitating Jesus:

The higher a person is advanced in spirit, the heavier crosses shall he often meet with; because the pain of his banishment increases in proportion to his love. 

No person is fit to comprehend heavenly things, who has not resigned himself to suffer adversities for Christ.

And, if you had the choice, you ought to prefer to suffer adversities for Christ, than to be refreshed with many consolations; because then you would more resemble Christ.

Our spiritual progress does not consist in having many sweetnesses and consolations, but rather in bearing great afflictions and tribulations.

What would you like to say about the suffering of Jesus? What would you like to say about Thomas a Kempis words?

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How to Start a Spiritual Classics Reading Group

35 years ago I read my first spiritual classic: A. W. Tozer’s The Knowledge of the Holy. It introduced me to a genre of Christian literature that I didn’t know existed: the spiritual classics, sometimes known as the devotional classics. While I have had a number of important formative experiences in my lifetime, few have been as important to me as the simple act of reading, and re-reading, these classics about the spiritual life. Few things I have done as a pastor and leader of spiritual community has had more transformational power in other people’s lives than inviting them to read them with me. If you care about transformation, you will want to start a spiritual classics reading group in your church or community. Here are some steps to take:

• Become a reader of the spiritual classics yourself. Take time to become well-acquainted with the men and women from all branches and ages of Christianity whose description of some aspect of the spiritual journey have stood the test of time and are now counted as spiritual treasures. Find the classics that inspire and kindle your spiritual imagination. My top five favorites, in order? Thomas Kelly’s A Testament of Devotion, Madame Guyon’s Experiencing the Depths of Jesus Christ, A. W. Tozer, The Pursuit of God, Brother Lawrence’s The Practice of the Presence of God, and Frank Laubach’s, Letters by a Modern Mystic. 

• Do not call it a spiritual classics reading group in your community! While that is what you are doing, inviting people to read some “classics” will be too intimidating for most. In our community, we call this opportunity Spiritual Treasure. I’m sure you can do better. 

• Hand-select an initial group to read a book or two with you. While the activity is intended for every person within the community, in most communities you will need to build momentum. This initial group will be instrumental in building community-wide interest, acceptance and energy. 

• Lead the initial group discussions. That way you will learn first-hand the reading pace most people can handle and you’ll see first-hand the impact of the books. In our community, we invite people to read one new spiritual classic every month, or four a year and we meet one time per month to discuss what we are reading.

• Choose the most readable translation possible. This is no time for intellectual snobbery, selecting an ancient text simply because it it ancient. Most likely the archaic language will turn people away and they’ll miss the chance of a lifetime: journeying with a spiritual master. So find a text that is instantly readable.

• Remember that the primary value is reading; the secondary value is discussion. In our community, many more people read the books than discuss the books. We do provide two ways for people to engage in dialogue about what they are reading: face-to-face guided discussions and an avenue for online dialogue. But the main value, for me, is simply that people are reading the books. 

• Don’t get discouraged. Inviting people to read a spiritual classics will be revolutionary in many spiritual communities. Living in our instantaneous culture, many churches have been providing “Three Steps to a Better Marriage” and “Five Ways to Be Happy” and so forth. These spiritual masters lead us into different terrain. Not everyone will quickly go where they lead. But stay encouraged because person by person and book by book you will see lives being transformed. 

What are your favorite spiritual classics? What would add to my list of ways to start a spiritual classics reading group?

Lent 2012: Day 23: Preaching and the Cross

Journey to the cross…and the empty grave.

I like to give titles to moments as a way to stay focused and remember what I am about. This year I’ve named my practice of Lent the “Journey to the Cross…and the Empty Grave.” As a follower of Jesus, I want to stay centered not only in my theology but in my lifestyle on the cross…and the empty grave. Lent leads to the cross…and beyond.

Here is an amazing statement about the cross. It points out that death is actually the doorway to life. It comes from Robert Capon. While it’s written in a text for preachers, it is highly usable for any person. Read it two or three times. Return to it. Its impact increases with each reading.

For my money, the root of preaching for our time remains what it was for Paul: a passion for the Passion. Like him, those who stand up to preach in the church must decide to “forget everything but Jesus Christ, and him crucified” (1 Cor 2:2). However macabre it may seem to hold up death and not life as the instrument of salvation, any other proclamation than that is rootless and withered. However foolish or weak such preaching may sound, it celebrates the only wisdom or power that has anything to do with the desperate case of the human race. A passion for the Passion then: A passion of the preacher’s heart for Jesus himself—a wild romance with the Person of the incarnate Word  who reigns in death at the roots of the being of every creature, bar none. A passion of the preacher’s soul for the divine Vulgarity that stands caution on its head and takes all the riffraff of the world home free by making the one ticket everybody has the only ticket anybody needs. And a hilarious passion—a bright fire in the preacher’s belly—for the sheer fun of shocking the troops awake with the astonishing news that God has torn up his membership card in the God Union, that he has stopped counting the world’s trespasses, and that to be raised up into the new creation, we don’t need to be good, holy, smart, accountable or even faithful: we need only to be dead.  

from “The Foolishness Of Preaching” by Robert Farrar Capon

Many great phrases here: 

• “God has torn up his membership card in the God Union…”
• “The divine Vulgarity that…takes all the riffraff…home free by making the one ticket everybody has the only ticket everybody needs.”
• “A wild romance with the Person of the incarnate Word who reigns in death…”

I like best this statement: “To be raised to a new creation, we don’t need to be good, holy, smart, accountable or even faithful: we need only be dead.”

Wow!

Your reaction?