Balance

Dear Loved Ones,

   Have you ever sat at a table with unbalanced legs?  It is rather annoying as we try keep food and drink unspilt.  We oftentimes live our lives in the same manner trying to keep up the balance, or the appearance of balance, as we lurch to and fro trying to keep all our stuff on the table.  I've been thinking about this concept of balance this year as I try to balance the physical, spiritual, emotional, familial, workical (OK, I just made that word up for literary assonance-this is a real word-) recreational and social areas of my life.  The picture of a plate spinner is more apt than the picture of a gymnast on a balance beam.  

  Then I look at Jesus.  Always engaged, yet never in a hurry.  Purposeful, but not frantic.  Serving, but not busy.  How do we find balance?  I think J.P. Moreland is on to something in his new book "Kingdom Triangle."  He says we need to "Recover the Christian Mind, Renovate the Soul and Restore the Spirit's Power."  

  What a perfect picture of the Balance.  Let us Recover the ability to think critically!  Let us allow God to Renovate our Souls.  Let God's Spirit leak out of us.  (I guess we have to be filled if we are going to spill over!) We should be Thinking, Growing and living with power.  Three legged tables are rarely out of balance.

Grace and Peace,

Pastor Ron

Don't Get Plutoed!

Dear Loved Ones:

 Recently I came across this article.  “In January 2007, the American Dialect Society chose "plutoed" as its 2006 Word of the Year, defining "to pluto" as "to demote or devalue someone or something", "as happened to the former planet Pluto when the General Assembly of the International Astronomical Union decided Pluto no longer met its definition of a planet."

 Society president Cleveland Evans stated the reason for the organization's selection of "plutoed": "Our members believe the great emotional reaction of the public to the demotion of Pluto shows the importance of Pluto as a name. We may no longer believe in the Roman god Pluto, but we still have a sense of connection with the former planet."”-  Associated Press (Jan. 8, 2007).

 Have you ever been plutoed?  We live in a society that so easily devalues us if we don’t have the look, or the smarts or the “gravitas”  to be seen as “successful”.  Often times we “Pluto” ourselves by devaluing our selves and see ourselves as less than what God sees us.  Truly being “In Christ” gives us a true sense of who we are.  

Actually it is all we are.

Take a moment and look on The Well’s web site.  Under the grow section you will find a box to look up scripture verses and phrases.  Look up “In Him”, and “In Christ”.  That is who you are.  God will never “Pluto” you!  In him you walk and breathe and find your very being.  You will find your place in the Solar system when you put the “Son” in the center of your universe.

Grace and Peace,

Pastor Ron

Preventive Maintenence

Dear Loved Ones,

   Happy new year to you all.  Like most of you, beginning a new year tends to make me focus on what kind of changes this new year will bring.  Each year, there tends to be two kinds of events we encounter, those we can influence or control, and those things which are beyond our ability to predict, control or even sometimes manage.  I have found that in many events the one thing we have the ability control is our reaction to those events.  And that control comes from personal preparation, the cultivation of the "Soul Life" that enables us to view life's challenges from God's perspective.  Our reaction to the storms of life are forged in quiet hours we spend in God's presence, where our character is forged by the hand of our loving Father.  

   This week I had surgery on my great toe (They don't call it the Big Toe any more I guess!)  As I am recovering I am thinking of this procedure called a Cheilectomy, where they went in and shaved off a piece of my toe bone, and carved off a few bone spurs that have been forming.  This surgery, minor as it was, was a little painful, but it is intended to prevent some serious complications later on in life.

   Thus it is in our spiritual journey.  As we enter into the task of Growing in Christ, we must allow the Great Physician to carve away those "minor sins" and to help us to conform to character of Christ that is forming within us.  The Formation of "Christ in us, the hope of Glory" is precisely the thing that will enable us to face whatever 2008 brings.  Attend to your quiet times.  Read the Scripture.  Pray a lot. Serve each other.  God will build that character which will prevail in this coming year.

Grace and Peace,

Pastor Ron