Parenting

Yesterday Pam and I moved our oldest daughter, Amanda into her third-floor dorm room at UVA to begin her first year in the nursing program. Three floors of stairs, no elevator, no air conditioning, just me, a pile of boxes and suitcases, and my own thoughts. If you’ve ever dropped a child off at university, you know the mixture of emotions as you trudge up and down the stairs. Where did the years go? Wasn’t it just yesterday she and I were playing “pretty, pretty princess” together and making her stuffed animals talk? And who is this strong, confident woman? Now that she is emerging from underneath our parental umbrella will she stand on her own? I am so glad she loves Jesus. But why does she have so many bottles of hair product?

We are so proud of Amanda and are confident that God has led her to UVA. She knows who she is in Christ and God has given her a big heart for others. She is a caregiver, a lover of justice, our poet who has a passion for those who are ignored. Before we left, Pam and I wrote little notes for her to find in her pillow. On one of them I wrote a paraphrase of Micah 6:8- “He has shown you, O [daughter], what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly, to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.” And right before we left her on campus, Pam and I laid our hands on her and prayed this over her. She is just learning to spread her wings and fly and will no doubt make mistakes (just like her dad) but with Jesus as her center I know I will always be one proud papa!

Politics

While down at UVA and Charlotteville, I was curious as to how the town and campus were recovering from the white supremacist rally. I had watched a disturbing documentary in which a journalist had (with permission) embedded in with a neo-Nazi group. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RIrcB1sAN8I To see fellow Americans walking the streets of a Virginia town screaming obscenities and talking about taking back the country from Jews and African Americans was jarring. Down on campus I saw lots of hastily made signs denouncing violence. There was also a strong police presence on campus. But no one seemed to have a solution. It’s pretty obvious that standing on separate sides and yelling at each other has no power to change hearts, only the Spirit of God can do this.

Our ministry team just returned from the Global Leadership Summit which highlighted the many ways the church, the body of Christ is making a difference around the world- through economic opportunity, clean water, the gospel of Jesus and loving one’s neighbor. My favorite Bill Hybel’s quote is “the local church is the hope of the world.” Not violent marches, not political processes, not Facebook rants… only Jesus. Last week during the sermon, I shared a bit of my heart on this, but this week, our elder chair Tom Gordy will be sharing a joint elder statement that we worked on together this week. The church is the hope of the world… and as the old hymn goes, “They will know we are Christians by our love!”

Pastoring

This past week the elders became aware of a situation where some of my actions and words were inadvertently creating some division among the body. And you know what? I was completely unaware and never saw it coming. The elders called a meeting to gently and Biblically confront and encouraged me. For me, it was a complete surprise; I certainly had not intended to create hurt or offense, but there is was. Good people, godly people were confused and had misunderstood my intent. And the enemy was trying to use this to distract us from the unity of the gospel. I am so thankful that God has given us a process to handle our differences and to love each other courageously. Thanks, guys (elders). For me, it was humbling but good. But if I can’t model owning a mistake or offense, how can I ever expect others to own theirs? As elders we all agree that the devil will use any and every opportunity to divide the body. Praise God we have the Spirit of God within us and greater is he that is in us than he that is in the world!

Thanks for reading my thoughts this afternoon. God continues to teach me so much. It is a privilege to share life together with you. Tomorrow, Lance Utne is sharing a great message on spiritual warfare. I am sharing all of this because we have the key to Spiritual Victory. As we resist the devil, he will flee from us! Serving together with you,

P. Steve