Strange…it’s been a strange year.

The third heart procedure was a tremendous success. I feel better than I have in years. I had forgotten what it felt to feel good again. It’s amazing to wake up rested. I love that my head is clear and I am able to concentrate.

Because I had three heart procedures this year, and since each of them required a hospital stay and at least a week of rest at home, I have missed about 4 to 6 weeks of work. And it wasn’t as if I had 4 to 6 consecutive weeks. It’s been a sputtering of surgery, hospital stay, recovery, and get back to work for a couple of weeks and then another surgery, hospital stay, recovery. And we did that three times this year! So it’s felt like a constant getting back to work and trying to get caught up with stuff I’ve missed.

And now that the third procedure was a success, and now that I am feeling better than I have in years, and now that I am fully back at work….I am preparing to leave for my Sabbatical!

It’s been a strange, funky year.

Having said all that, I am so thankful!

• I am alive! And I am feeling better than I have in years! I love waking up and not feeling tired. I had forgotten what that was like. I have so much more energy
• Even with all the time I have missed work, the church and the ministry hasn’t missed a beat! The ministry at the Little Church and Lakewood Grace is going strong. We are reaching more people, serving more people, impacting more people than before. It’s never been about James and this year is the clearest example of that
• I am surrounded by a phenomenal staff and church people. We would not be where we are today if it weren’t for the amazing staff and leaders at the Little Church and Lakewood Grace.
• I get to go on a Sabbatical! How awesome is that? I have been given space, time, and the resources to rest, recreate, read, and reflect. I am so blessed!
• My amazing family! I am blessed with a loving wife, awesome kids.

What more can a guy ask for?!?! I am so blessed.

What a strange, awesome year 2018 has been thus far.

I have been concerned about the Cambridge Analytica scandal. So like many people I downloaded the information Facebook has about me…and it’s pretty spooky.

Facebook has a record of everything I have ever posted, everything I’ve ever clicked on, everything that I’ve liked…pretty much anything you’ve ever done on Facebook. I get that.

But what I don’t like is that I don’t have rights to my information. Once I click, watch, listen, save, post on Facebook, it is no longer my information, but that information belongs to Facebook. And this is what Facebook uses to charge advertisers and such.

I get that Facebook has to do this to make money.

What I don’t like is I don’t trust Facebook to protect my information…hello? Cambridge Analytica?

So, since I have some time to chill out at home, I’ve gone through and deleted pretty much all information about me on Facebook as I can…it took over 2 hours…I know you don’t have that kind of time…it’s a lot of time unless you’re resting after a heart procedure like me.

I got to the point where it was so frustrating deleting things that I actually cosidered deleting FB altogether.

But here’s the reason why I didn’t.

Facebook is a fantastic tool. It is a wonderful way of staying in touch with people. If I were to delete Facebook, I really would miss our interactions. Because Facebook for me is really about relationships.

That’s the reason why I am no longer going to “Like” any of your posts!!! And I invite you to do the same. Here are two reasons why I will no longer “Like” any of your posts.

1. I don’t appreciate having my information used by anyone else for their purposes – Facebook, Cambridge Analytica, advertisers, etc
2. It’s lazy. “Like”ing something requires almost no thought. And my friends are more important than that. I use Facebook to interact with you because I value you. Therefore, I will make time to comment on items rather than clicking “Like”.

So will you join me in using Facebook as a tool to help us stay connected?

Compassion – has its roots in Latin, where the compound word literally means “to suffer with”.

Patience – has its roots in Latin, where the word literally means “long-suffering”.

Retard – means to delay or hold back in terms of progress, development, or accomplishment.

We live in a mobile world. It is not uncommon for people to move multiple times in one’s life time. It is a true rarity to find someone who lives where they were raised.

This mobility not only applies to homes and neighborhoods, but also how we form communities and congregations. It is inevitable that people move for jobs, marriage, divorce, and a host of other reasons.

But this mobility comes at a price.

When we move, we naturally look for people we like and get along with to form our communities and congregations. And when we don’t like the people we’ve been hanging out with in our communities or congregations, the temptation is to find another community and congregation where there are more agreeable people. And pretty soon, the only people we surround ourselves with are people we agree with and people we like and people who like us…at least for the moment, until we don’t.

All this hopping around has damaged us. It has delayed and held back our progress and development as a people.

For Christian community and fellowship develops and matures when there is a commitment to grow deeper with the same people and same place. It requires constancy. It requires a commitment to work through differences. And sometimes, it requires a commitment to love people we don’t agree with and people we may not even like.

That’s how communities grow. That’s how we mature. It’s the entire working through difficulties and differences that allow communities and Christians to mature and grow.

Deep communities are patient and compassionate. They are communities made up with people who are willing to enter into the pain of those who are suffering, and suffer as long as those who are hurting are suffering.

Deep communities are made up with people who are committed to one another, to work through disagreements and dislikes for the greater good.

Deep communities are hard. Deep communities take time…lots of it. Deep communities are messy.

Community and meaningful relationships is what we were created for.

Compassion – has its roots in Latin, where the compound word means “to suffer with”.

Patience – has its roots in Latin, where the word literally “long-suffering”.

Retard – means to delay or hold back in terms of progress, development, or accomplishment.

Genuine community and Christian maturity is shaped through compassion and patience.

Our culture is developing a generation of Christians who don’t know how to suffer with and long-suffer with a community of people. Our mobile, consumer-based, happiness-based Christianity is developing a generation of retarded Christians.