Presby-Musings

  “There is nothing so useless as doing efficiently that which should not be done at all.” —Peter Drucker I did some calculating the other day; as near as I can figure, I've officiated at nearly 250 funerals over the course of my career as an ordained minister.   I can't recall a single funeral I've officiated where the eulogy included phrases like:   "They were the most productive person I've ever known." "They loved spending more time at the office than with their kids."  "They would always take work calls, even in the middle of a family vacation."  "They were a workaholic and proud of it." Those descriptions are definitely not the way any of us want to be eulogized.  But far too many of us know that if we shuffled off this mortal coil right now, our friends and loved ones could use those phrases at our big send-off.   Asking "What Would Jesus Do?" about how we spend our time definitely would be a sobering exercise, b...

  “When we honestly ask ourselves which person in our lives means the most to us, we often find that it is those who, instead of giving advice, solutions, or cures, have chosen rather to share our pain and touch our wounds with a warm and tender hand.” —Henri Nouwen Scripture: John 15:9–17; Mark 1:35–38 Years ago, I facilitated a study at the church I was serving on creating and maintaining healthy boundaries using the work of Dr. Henry Cloud, who has written extensively on the topic.   As I worked through the leader guide and class materials, it quickly became apparent that I needed the lessons more than anyone else in the room.   There is a great quote from Henry Cloud that began my journey toward creating better boundaries:  Boundaries define us. They define what is me and what is not me. A boundary shows me where i end and someone else begins, leading me to a sense of ownership. Knowing what I am to own and take responsibility for gives me freedom....

  “The place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world's deep hunger meet.” —Frederick Buechner Scripture: Colossians 3:12–17, 23–24 Whenever I preach or write about what it means to be a Jesus-follower at our places of work, I will often get a response from folks that goes something like this:  "It's so easy for you, man.  You're kind of a 'professional' Christian."   To begin, I'm not a professional at following Jesus.  I stumble harder than most at doing it.  But I get it.  My workplace is kind of conducive to talking about faith.   But I spent years working outside the church, including time on the corporate side of both entertainment (Disney World) and retail (Best Buy), so I understand how hard it can be to follow Jesus faithfully without becoming some annoyingly overly-Christian person everyone at work avoids.   The fact is, most of us will spend or have spent far more time working than we eve...

  “The world asks, ‘What does a person own?’ Christ asks, ‘How does a person use it?’” —Andrew Murray I've known what it's like to not have enough money to make ends meet.   I've lived paycheck to paycheck, and realized that there was more month at the end of my money than money at the end of the month.   When I was a kid, we shopped at thrift stores for my toys, books, and clothes.  Out of necessity, not because we wanted to be trendy.   I remember more than a few times when I was a young man, living on my own, having to steal crackers and salad dressing from the salad bar at the Disney employee cafeteria for lunch because I was broke.   Thankfully, I had a friend who worked the register and let me slide because she felt sorry for me.    I've also known abundance to the point where I could buy whatever I wanted without worrying about my checking account getting emptied.   I went on fantastic vacations, ate at expensi...

  “If we have no peace, it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other.” —Mother Teresa This week, our Daily Devos will approach the question, "What Would Jesus Do?" from a different angle, and we'll explore practical ways to apply that question in our everyday lives.   We'll think about what it means to act as closely as we can to what we believe Jesus would do when it comes to loving others, spending money, using our time, and more.   Hopefully, these devotions will offer some ways to truly take what we've been learning over the past couple of weeks and put it into practice.   Today, we'll begin with what it means to show compassion to the people we encounter, and begin showing Jesus to them as we do.   Compassion isn't something we think about very often.   Most days, we go about our lives, running errands, doing work, navigating the chaos of family life, managing calendars and schedules, and it's hard to lift our g...

  What Would Jesus Do? Reclaiming a Christ-centered Faith   This series will help us rediscover what it means to follow Jesus—not the Jesus we’ve created in our image, but the Jesus revealed in Scripture.   Today we’re going to explore how asking “What Would Jesus Do?” impacts our relationships with others.   We live in a culture where it's far too easy to cut people loose when they wrong us, offend us, insult us, etc.  I've been guilty of this in the past when I unfriend or unfollow someone on social media after they post things that make my blood boil.   It's either that or start an argument online where all kinds of other people get involved, taking sides and hacking at each other with hard words typed from a safe distance.   It's a good thing that Jesus doesn't treat us like that.   Our culture cancels and shames.   Jesus restores.   Christians ought to measure success by reconciling broken relationships, not by bein...