Needless to say, this is a tough position to be in. Adversarial. Hostile. Behind enemy lines.

We have a lot to learn. About love.

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Do you ever wonder if even Jesus can put you back together again?

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Check out my books and my gallery.

By now it is no secret to you that I abhor visionary thinking for the church. I’m not against visionary thinking for individuals, businesses, and other organizations. But when it comes to the church, I claim the healthiest church communities lack visionary thinking and goal setting from their DNA.

I’ll have more to say about this in the near future.

I argue this at length and with a number of cartoons in my newest book, Without a Vision My People Prosper, available on Amazon (click on the title!).

I was talking with my counselor yesterday. (Yes, I’m going through therapy like anyone going through major transitions should. In fact, I endorse having someone you can talk with on a regular basis no matter how healthy you think you are.) After a while she pointed out that I still have a lot of disappointment and maybe even some anger about the church. She suggested that I’m still “infected with the virus” and that I still have more work to do.

I know. This older cartoon points that out. It isn’t easy leaving something we are so enmeshed in. Plus there are powerful forces at work, not just our own, attempting to keep us enmeshed.

To want to break free is the first step. To finally break free is the next. To heal from the years of atrophy is the longest work.

Just email me if you want to talk. My fees are reasonable and adjustable.

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What do you do when you are in your darkest hour? What do you say when you see no way out? What can be done when you find yourself crying, “God, I’m dying here”?

Like Jesus on the cross, I can only see three things to do:

1. First, admit that you are dying. You finally see the factual finality of the death that has slipped over you. Something is certainly coming to an end. It is not necessarily a momentary trial to test you and tomorrow everything will be back to normal. A death of some kind has entered your door. You’ve been left hanging, fastened securely to some kind of cross from which there is no escape. You finally realize that there is nothing you can do but accept it, take it in, and submit to it. You are dying. And you know it.
2. Second, say, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” The god you believed before is not rescuing you. There is nothing but silence. No one is answering. Any help you get is just small and momentary reliefs, like a small sip of water or a brief recognition of your pain. But that’s it. You feel forsaken because perhaps you actually are! No one understands. No one can help. And there seems to be no help forthcoming. Your idea of who your god is must undergo the most radical and disturbing of metamorphoses. The god you used to believe is now gone forever, forsaking you finally. Admit it.
3. Finally, say, “Into your hands I commit my spirit.” This is surrender. That’s all we have left. We can at last surrender our spirit, in weakness and humility, to the overwhelming forces at work. This does not mean giving up. This does not mean spiritual suicide. What it means is that we finally realize, in our humanity, that there are some things we are powerless to change. It is a subtle but crucial transference of our spirit from our own grasps and from our now bankrupt version of who we thought our god was to the Mystery of That Which We Know Nothing Of.

I know this may sound depressing. But I didn’t want to beautify a very grim reality of our human existence. This part of our journeys must be respected. Taking up the cross and dying daily is not a pretty sight. It is not a pleasant experience.

But this is the only way we make ourselves eligible for new life. This is the only way we become poised to become new creations.

We hope that the metaphor of resurrection communicates a certain power that is at work in the world. This is what we die for. This is what we live for.

In Philippians 2, when the writer encourages the community to be like-minded, he immediately launches into a hymn about the emptying of God and the humiliation of Jesus. The Pauline writings reveal the intense focus on this theme.

By their fruit you will know them. Knowledge is important, but it must stem from humility and love. If the fruit of a certain theology is arrogance, hatred and division, then it should be obvious that its roots are planted in bad soil.

Do you want to invite me to speak? Or do you just need to talk? Just email me to set up a time. My fees are reasonable and adjustable.

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There’s always a way out.

There have been many crucial times in my life when I have felt completely trapped. Those have been the most distressing times, depressing, hopeless and despairing. No matter which way I looked, I could see no light, find no door or window, detect no other alternatives.

Then suddenly, usually in a dream, a way is opened up to me. And in every case, this is what it looked like:

I am not trapped! Simple as that! I went to bed imprisoned. I woke up a free man. Nothing externally had changed. But internally everything changed.

Just like Sophia here, she discovers a route that has been there the whole time, right under her feet. All it took was an ounce of courage, determination and a little bit of planning to make her escape.

I would wake up from these dreams realizing that the greatest jailor of my entrapment was my own fear… my fear of making a difficult choice of walking away from my prison and its guardians and into my own liberated future.

I receive emails every day from people feeling trapped. I read their stories that are so similar to mine. Their fears are identical: the fear of unemployment; the fear of losing community, friends and even family; the fear of rejection; the fear of not being adequately educated or trained for a new life, vocation or job; the fear of losing their faith, backsliding, or even becoming an atheist; the fear of going crazy; the fear of the unknowable future; the fear of innumerable things.

As one who has experienced this many times and walked, I can testify that it can be done. I escaped. I am a free man.

You can do it.

Do you want to invite me to speak? Or do you just need to talk? Just email me to set up a time. My fees are reasonable and adjustable.

Check out my books and my gallery.