Category: Uncategorized

Here we go again with another “Five Minute Friday” post!  To learn more about “Five Minute Friday” (FMF), check out the linked image here.  Basically, each week there’s a word given for you to write about.  You start writing, no back-tracking, editing, etc.  At the end of 5 minutes, you stop.  Then you post it, and share in the community of words that were birthed during these 24-ish hours.  It’s cool stuff.
So here’s this week’s response to the word: “ beloved  ”

“Dearly Beloved” – the words I speak at the beginning of some very important moments.  A few months ago, at the beginning a marriage ceremony, uniting two as one.  Tomorrow morning, at the beginning of a funeral service, gathered with friends and family to mourn and celebrate a life together.  Moments that bring me to a place of awe, and humility as a pastor.  I love what I do.

I love these moments of illustration.  These moments wrapped around something divine.  These specific times, of marriage and mourning, do not guarantee those in attendance love God.  But these occasions of marriage and approaching the topic of death together – are incredibly important to the life of the body of Christ.

We are the bride of Christ.  We are frail humanity in need of something beyond ourselves.  We are joined in life and love to Him, and are called to be faithful.   Our bodies are limited, prone to disease and eventually to death itself.  But God has promised there is a wedding feast yet to come.  There is a resurrection in store that has taken away the powerful facade death itself once held.  We scoot a little closer to each other in the pew.  We invite our neighbor over for coffee, and our kids run together down the sidewalk.

We have hope, and live out this loving hope in the midst of an anxious world where there is no guarantee of what will happen tomorrow.  And why?

Because we are a community that is “Dearly Beloved”.   We live out as God’s beloved, proclaiming to a world unaware that they, too, share this identity.  May our lives, and the out-going of our family into the world this week declare to those we live with….YOU are dearly beloved…

Done.  I like it. 🙂

Today starts another season of preparing to celebrate Easter.  Over the years, we’ve built into our family an atmosphere of “Easter Week”.  We let each person pick a day, and then pick something special/celebratory for our family to do on that day the week after Easter.  But so far, we’ve not done a ton for the Lent season beyond having them relinquish a toy that they usually forget about by the time Easter rolls around anyways.  I love the season of Advent, as our family prepares together for celebrating Christmas.  So this year, we’ll be going through “A Family Journey With Jesus Through Lent” by Angela Burrin.

So far it looks pretty cool.  There are stories from scripture for each day of Lent, and they’re told from the perspective of children nearby.  The only downside is the fact that it seems to be written with a catholic (faith, not “world-wide”) audience in mind.  So there are bits I’ve read about Mary being everyones’ mother, Mass, etc…but with a little pre-reading/editing, it’s definitely still very usable.

You may especially like it if you’re hip to the “Jesus Calling” books.  Each days devotional thought ends with a few words from Jesus to your child.  Now you’re probably all like “Dang, Chadwick….why didn’t you tell me this a month ago?”  Well, it’s because we just got the books today, and I just not checked it out a bit.  So….maybe get it for next year?

Another book we’re using as a guide (though I’m trusting my wife to handle this one on our behalf) is one on the “Daniel Fast”.  Not that we believe God sent a prophetic word to us, guiding us toward such a thing.  But we both could use (me mainly) healthier eating habits, and it’ll be nice to submit to a season of self-denial together – as it draws us to remembering our need for Christ, and self-control.

Last year I did a water-fast, and only lasted 12 days…although it was definitely a rewarding experience on many levels.  This year will hopefully run all the way to Easter, and connect me not only to my Savior, but to my wife as well – always a bonus. 🙂  Who knows, I may also try to add a short jog to my Lenten routine….once a week enough to count? 🙂

Sidenote: I meet regularly with a young woman and young man in jail, awaiting trials.  In conversations with them about Lent (both have a Catholic background), they struggle to know how to handle it.  There aren’t a lot of things they can still “give up”.  It’s been an interesting and thought-provoking reminder of why we make sacrifices, and the heart of humbling ourselves before God – confessing our brokenness, and our need for Him.