I am nearing the end of my Sabbatical. I’ve been away from the day-to-day operation of the ministry at the Little Church and Lakewood Grace for almost three months. I am eager and looking forward to getting back into the office. I have greater clarity about the future ministry at the Little Church and Lakewood Grace.

There were two goals heading in to the Sabbatical. I wanted a better understanding of ministering with and to Boomers and retirees, and have clarity about discipleship for the whole of Little Church and Lakewood Grace. Through the readings and studies, I have greater clarity in these two areas and look forward to working these things out with our leaders and staff at the Little Church and Lakewood Grace.

The greatest lesson from the Sabbatical has to do with how awesome and amazing God is.

We all know that, but I’m not talking about intellectually knowing, but personally experiencing God’s grace and God’s amazing faithfulness.

I am astounded by how faithful and limitless God’s love is. I know this because I know God loves me! I have given God so many reasons to give up on me, and yet God is faithful, God loves, God forgives, God renews, God restores, God inspires.

How astounding is that?!?!

In times away, it is so easy to see the grandeur and the majesty of God and his power. The more I read, study, and meditate on God, it is so easy to see God’s infinite love for me and our world. And it is truly amazing. I am astounded by God’s amazing love and grace. It is truly awesome!

It is so easy to see God’s grandeur and majesty when I am literally thousands of miles away from the office, from the nitty-gritty work with messy sinful people like me and the people at the Little Church and Lakewood Grace.

In the midst of the messiness and yucky-ness that sometimes goes with working with recovering sinners, it is easy to lose sight of God’s grandeur and God’s majesty.

And it gets so deadeningly exhausting.

In that exhaustion, God’s grandeur and majesty grows dim. It’s so easy to forget.

And the forgetfulness results in trying harder, and the harder I try, the more exhausting it gets.

Because, you see, ministry and eternity-shaping is not what human beings are capable of achieving. This is all God. God doesn’t ask us to change the world. God asks us to obey and join him in changing the world through us. God does the changing.

I thank God for this Sabbatical. It has been refreshing to bask in God’s grandeur and majesty. It has been good for me to be reminded again of how amazing God’s grace is again.

So a couple of things for leaders and pastors.

1. I hope you are able to get way for a chunk of time regularly from the day-to-day operation of the ministry so you can be reminded of God’s greatness and his calling for you
2. Daily time in the presence of God is essential. You will lose sight of why you do what you do and will burn out. You must spend time with God in his awesome presence. Only his awesome grace and presence can sustain us. Look, if Jesus needed this, we are without excuse
3. This is God’s ministry. God invites us to join him. Do you know where God is leading you and your ministry?

Howard Hendricks used to tell his students at the Dallas Theological Seminary, “The goal of scripture is not to make us smarter sinners but to make us more like the Savior.”

But the reality in too many churches and in too many of our Christian’s personal lives is that there is a whole lot of getting smarter with Bible information while remaining in sin, and not enough of sinners becoming more like Jesus.

So, what’s the problem? Why such discripency?

Let’s set something straight. I write these things as a sinner struggling with becoming more like Jesus thing and not as an expert who’s gotten it.

I struggle with being more like my Savior thing. It’s not because there isn’t enough want to. I have plenty of want to. The problem with me is that the pull and longing of the flesh is so strong. If you don’t struggle with the pull and the longings of the flesh, tell me! How did you do it?!?! But if you struggle with the pull and the longings of the flesh as much as I do, keep reading.

I ache and long for my flesh to submit and surrender to the Spirit. I long for this more than life itself. How I long and ache for the day when without battling and fighting, my flesh just aligns itself to the will of God. What an amazing thing that would be.

The question is, “How?” How does this happen?

I think the key has something to do with how we relate and view the Bible. Again, I remind you, I don’t have this figured out. But, I’m pretty sure it has a lot to do with how we relate to the Bible.

Too often, for too many of us, the Bible is a book that provides us with information. 

• It tells us things about creation
• It tells us things about how God rescued Israel from Egypt
• It tells us things about the kings of Israel
• It tells us things about Jesus

It’s a book with lots of information. Most of it quite helpful and interesting. But it is just data. And, as Howard Hendricks used to tell his students, as data, it has little power to transform and only succeeds in making us smarter sinners.

You see, I don’t think God is as concerned about our heads (data and information) as he is about our heart (character, integrity, will).

The problems you and I face aren’t solved by knowing more things, but by being changed from within. The issue isn’t knowledge and information but changed hearts and changed beings.

Jesus pointed out over and over the problem with sin wasn’t about deeds. The source of sin lie in the hearts of men and women, and until we deal with that source, we will continue to manifest what’s in the heart.

• “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart” (Matthew 5:27-28)
• “For out of the heart come evil thoughts – murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander” (Matthew 15:19)

So, instead of seeing the Bible as a source of information, what would happen if we began viewing the Bible as a source of “IN-FORMATION”? That the primary purpose of the Bible was to change the insides of us by transforming the inside?

And should we see the primary purpose of the Bible as the source of “IN-Formation” how would that impact our lives?

• First, I would read it as if my life depended on it. And wouldn’t you know it, my life – the quality and the tenor of it – really do depend on it
• Second, I would read it constantly. I wouldn’t want to take any time off or away from the Bible. For these words are the source of “In-Formation”
• Third, the Bible wouldn’t be just information but the blueprint for “In-Formation”. Do you see the difference? I wouldn’t be reading it for gaining more knowledge and data. I would be implementing and doing what the Bible says

That’s what Paul had in mind when he wrote to the Colossians, “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God” (Colossians 3:16).

It is my sincerest prayer for God to change my insides, my guts, my heart so that it would align itself with the heart of God. I commit to “Let the word of Christ dwell in me richly.” I need a gut/heart transformation.

In hindsight…

How many times have we found ourselves saying things like, “In hindsight…”:

• I would never
• I would have
• I would never would have said
• I should have said

It’s amazing how clear things are in hindsight. In hindsight, it was so obvious that we never should have done such and such, that we should have known better than to have said such and such.

Things are so clear and obvious in hindsight.

All the pain I could have avoided, the devastation averted, the opportunities I could have made into realities…only if I had known.

In hindsight…

Only, if I knew then the things I know now…life would be amazing…if only.

There are things we can only know after the fact. Unfortunately, this is part of what it means to be human.

Hindsight is 20/20. Things are absolutely clear…in hindsight.

The problem with our desires, wishes, and yearnings are the unintended consequences, the myriad of circumstantial realities that we are incapable of knowing at the present because we are human. In the moments of desiring and making decisions, the future is fuzzy at best, and at worst, is completely hidden from us. That’s why so many of our desires, yearnings, and dreams turn into nightmares.

Because we just don’t know.

But what if I told you I know a way to make foresight as clear as hindsight? What if I told you, you could avoid every heartache from every bad decision? That you don’t have to do those things that devastate the people you love? That you could take advantage of every opportunity that comes your way?

What difference would that make in your life?

Wouldn’t you want that? Wouldn’t it be crazy to miss out on such an offer?

Here’s the deal. For God, foresight is as crystal clear as hindsight.

That’s the reason why Christians “Trust and obey, for there is no better way”.

God already knows. God already knows what is best. God already knows the unintended consequences of every desire and every decision.

Not only does God know what is best, but God absolutely loves us and wants what is best for us.

Isn’t that amazing? Isn’t that wonderful?

So while the future will always be dim and fuzzy for us, we have a God for whom the future is crystal clear.

“Trust and obey, for there is no better way”

And, yet, I continue to choose my own will at my peril. I’m dumb like that.

Listen, everything I’ve said is for me. I am on a journey to trust more fully on God than trusting myself. I am no expert when it comes to trusting and obeying God. But I am getting better at it.

So, I re-commit to getting better at this trusting and obeying thing…

• Even when I don’t feel like it
• Even when the very thing I desire and want so much is the opposite of what God is asking me to do
• Even when God’s will doesn’t make any sense to me at the moment

I choose to trust and obey.

Now, how about you?