Deep

As I was reading my friend's excellent blog, all of a sudden I had a "I should've had a V8!" moment and realized, wait, ohmygosh, I HAVE A BLOG TOO!

After ten days away during the Christmas holidays, I just put my head down and got to work when I got home. I plowed through hundreds of emails, and dove into several projects on the docket for this semester:

• preparing to interview candidates for the third year of our Free Methodist Summer Interns Project;
• facilitating our Wesleyan Theology course for lay leaders and new pastors;
• serving on the steering committee for the Santa Barbara Mission Conference;
• taking another class at Azusa Pacific seminary in preparation to start a doctorate in ministry.

Suffice it to say, I got in the zone. Before I start down the road to burnout, I let myself sleep in this morning in order to catch up, breathe, rest and reflect.

The first song that came to mind as I rested was one that we sang last week in church: How Deep the Father's Love for Us. Being steeped again in theology through the Wesleyan theology course and the seminary course (which is on the Pentateuch -- one can never tire of studying that!) made me pay closer attention to the lyrics, the great gift being that the truth and power of the gospel washed over me again in joy and wonder. So many lines spoke to me:

How deep the Father's love for us,

How vast beyond all measure...

Ashamed I hear my mocking voice,

Call out among the scoffers...

Why should I gain from His reward?

I cannot give an answer

But this I know with all my heart

His wounds have paid my ransom.

I was then reminded of something I had read earlier in the week from the Gospel of Matthew. In Chapter 13 we are given several of Jesus' parables regarding the kingdom of heaven. Each one is equal parts life-giving and head-scratching for me. I love the images and truths expressed, but the longer I follow Jesus, the more I know how much I still don't know.

This particular parable hit me most this time:

He told them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and planted in his field. Though it is the smallest of all seeds, yet when it grows, it is the largest of garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds come and perch in its branches.” (verses 31-32) I cook with mustard seeds occasionally. They are tiny, beady, and non-descript. That is how the church in the world feels to me sometimes -- a tiny voice in a din of naysayers, especially as waves of violence and suffering keep washing over our world. Yet these pithy parables remind me to persevere, be patient, keep moving forward, all the while leaning into God's strength and not my own. Because in surprising ways, the kingdom keeps moving forward. I just need to open my eyes a little wider, and look for it with what John Wesley calls "spiritual senses." As the Father's deep love continues to press in upon us as "vast beyond all measure," may we grow in our awareness of what the Spirit is doing every day in our worlds. And more importantly, may we then join in! 

That realization helps me understand more as to why I haven't posted much here lately... I've been caught up in the party happening around me. Glory to God. May your 2013 be one full of the Father's deep love.

Let's Get It Right

With a name like Kelly, St. Patrick's day has always been a fun one for me. Green is my favorite color, and my eyes are green too, so I have always been able to get through St. Patty's day unscathed (and un-pinched!)

Yet it's only in the last few years, as I have seen the holiday reduced to yet another reason for the world to get roaring drunk ~ this time on green beer ~ that I have tried to find out the real meaning behind St. Patrick's Day.

Rather than rehearse all the history here, feel free to spend a few minutes surfing around the internet. But these three things stand out to me:

Do you know that according to legend, Saint Patrick used the shamrock, a three-leaved plant, to explain the Holy Trinity to the pre-Christian Irish people? I mean, WOW.

That the story of Patrick is that of a brave missionary? This is what I read this morning in my devotional:

At the age of sixteen, Patrick was kidnapped from his home by Irish marauders and taken to Ireland, where he was sold as a slave to a chieftain and forced to herd livestock. After six years of slavery, Patrick escaped to his native Britain. Because he believed that his captivity and deliverance were ordained by God, Patrick devoted his life to ministry. While studying for the priesthood, he experienced recurring dreams in which he heard voices say, “O holy youth, come back to Erin and walk once more amongst us.” He convinced his superiors to let him return to Ireland in 432, not to seek revenge for injustice but to seek reconciliation and to spread his faith. Over the next thirty years, Patrick established churches and monastic communities across Ireland. When he was not engaged in the work of spreading the Christian faith, Patrick spent his time praying in his favorite places of solitude and retreat.

Finally, there is an absolutely lovely prayer attributed to Patrick. I'm going to memorize it:

Christ be with me,

Christ before me,

Christ behind me,

Christ in the heart of everyone who thinks of me,

Christ in the mouth of everyone who speaks of me,

Christ in every eye that sees me,

Christ in every ear that hears me.

In a recent prayer I memorized during Christmas and the New Year, once sentence hit me over and over:

"Dear Jesus, help us to spread your fragrance everywhere we go."

St. Patrick is a stunning example of that, and we have collectively lost sight of that faithful, historic, world-changing witness. On this St. Patrick's Day, let's put St. Patrick back where he belongs, and look for ways to gently inform others of the meaning behind this true "holy-day."

Featured Article - YAY

I'm grateful for YM Today, who is featuring one of my articles in their newsletter this week. YMToday is produced by the Center for Youth Ministry Training, which partners with Memphis Seminary.

The best part is that THEY contacted me for my articles. I have had to pound the pavement pretty hard these past few months to get my writing looked at, so it was pretty cool when they found me. I like that better :)

On another note, yesterday I started back officially at Providence Hall High School as the Campus Pastor. This week the faculty and staff are having in-service meetings all week. Our new student orientation is this Friday, our Back-to-School BBQ for the entire Providence Hall community is this Saturday, and Convocation is next Tuesday, Sept. 1.

So my "new life" juggling several ministry projects is in full swing. I'm grateful and very excited. Thank you to each of you for your care, interest, prayers and support. It's been sweet to hear already from several recent youth group graduates as they get going in college, and also from some of the current Providence Hall students as I prepare to be with them weekly again. I have a great life!

Article Published on "Two Whom"

Another article related to youth ministry has been posted online with Fuller Youth Institute (FYI), an excellent research institution connected to Fuller Seminary, its School of Theology and their program in Youth, Family & Culture. I met with the Executive Director Kara Powell last month to talk through future projects we might work on together, and she asked if they could post my story about our "Two Whom" project.

I care about the Two Whom event because it was my best attempt to help students learn how to live out their faith in the midst of their everyday life. Kara and I really connected on a passion of FYI -- to work with students in understanding "deeper justice" issues. In other words, when we take that summer missions trip to Tijuana or Costa Rica or the inner city, it's easy to dive in and work with the poor when that is all that we are doing. We have both found that students are energized to serve and sacrifice for the next few days or weeks after such an experience, but that it is difficult for them to sustain that commitment because the trip was so... "other."

Two Whom was a step forward because it asked students to grapple with poverty, injustice and our faith right in their world -- heck, right in their kitchen! May we keep seeing ways to live out kingdom values in our lives and relationships, bringing grace, justice, humility, love and peace to those we see daily.