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Wednesday, 30 December 2009
I am a bad listener.
Maybe you are too?
Or maybe it's not my listening...maybe it's my ability (or inability?) to integrate what I hear into my daily life.
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It's New Year's resolution time. How are you at making and following through with these crazy things? Some people do them. And actually follow them. Some people do them and never even make it through a week!
Maybe they are too lofty....or too long term...or too far out of normal...
Or maybe they just never get integrated into daily life?
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Jesus said to the blind man, "Go, wash in the pool of Siloam" (which means Sent). Then he went and washed and came back able to see. John 9:7
Finally this blind guy listens...and washes...and this healing happens miraculously...through the specific water source? I doubt it. Maybe the healing comes from listening to Jesus?
Maybe the healing comes from one little moment when he finally understood that was something there for him that could bring wholeness and peace and SIGHT! And he finally integrates that into his daily life.
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For me, resolutions usually get bigger and harder than they need to be.
Maybe in 2010, there is a pool of water somewhere near by...and I...you...finally notice it. And we listen to the one who invites us to wash in it.
It's not far off...it's not lofty...it's not complex...it's right there.
Maybe it's just one day. One hour. One moment. Listen for just that long.
Then the next day, listen again. Because there will be another pool...attached to the voice again...and receive sight.
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Are you a good listener?
Have you integrated listening to that voice in daily life?
Maybe in the New Year....or how about just start with January 1st...you can?
Lord, let's take this listening thing slowly. Amen
Pastor Steve Biegner
Tuesday, 29 December 2009
My tradition on Christmas Eve night is to come home from the last service that evening, settle into a chair in the living room next to the Christmas tree, open a Sierra Nevada Celebration Ale and write to my kids...reflecting on the past year and looking toward the next.
This year, Santa must have put our house early in the run because the presents had already arrived under the tree as the movement of the clock launched us into Christmas morning. While I was writing by the glow of the tree lights, I was struck by the beauty of the presents under the tree.
Wrappings. Bows. Bags. Boxes. All illuminated by the white lights on the tree.
I stopped writing for a moment and looked around the room and noticed two things: (1) everything was clean and put away (a rarity for any room my son resides near) and (2) it was silent.
I was experiencing peace. And recognizing it. Another rarity!
And as a neat freak, I was grieving that in about 7 hours, all hell would break loose (wake up) and the "neatness" of this peace would be a mess! Boxes torn into. Paper balled up and thrown around the room at one another, as is Biegner tradition. Bows stepped on while celebrating that Santa and his helpers nailed it again.
What happened to my peace? It turned into.....
A mess.
But isn't this how Jesus stepped in? To a mess?
And isn't this why Jesus stepped in? To a mess?
Engaged and prego? Very messy!
No private birthing room? Very messy!
Ever slept with barnyard animals? Very messy!
Not the power-player king they expected? Very messy!
Loving the unlovable? Very messy!
Having to forgive those who didn't deserve it? Very messy!
Giving up your life...on a cross...being left behind by "committed" followers? Very messy!
God didn't come into the world because it looked nice under a tree. God didn't send his only Son because we've got it all right, or know what to do next, or won't take steps backwards before going forwards, or can answer all the questions that float through our heads while we pray.
No, quite the opposite...God came into the world...into a mess...because we're a mess.
And into that mess...into those unanswerable questions...into those screw-ups and mistakes and sins and issues and futures and problems and smelly stables......
right there...God brought peace. For us!
Lord, help me see your peace in the mess. Amen
Still in One Peace,
ps
Tuesday, 22 December 2009
Friends,
Jesus is sitting right next to me! Right on my desk!
Not big Jesus (cause he might break the desk)...little Jesus. Baby version.
At church, we've got the 18" versions of Mary and Joe on the front lawn waiting out under a wooden shelter next to an empty bed with a timer light that they can't even control themselves. Just keeps coming on whenever it wants to...then doesn't work other times...how frustrating.
And they are just waiting. Waiting for Jesus to show up.
But he's on my desk. Cozy and warm. Smiling up at me with this creepy look that says to me: "Don't make me go out there...it's cold! And besides, someone might steal me!"
8 pound 6 oz. baby Jesus doesn't actually say that...that's just what floats through my head when I've been surrounded by snow for the last three days.
What Dear Lord Baby Jesus actually says is: "I'm faithful! I'm coming. I won't stay on someone else's desk. I'll be on yours. I won't hide in the warmth of comfort. I'll jump into whatever your circumstances are...no matter how cold...harsh...difficult...lonely or tough."
"The Lord is faithful; he will strengthen you and guard you from the evil one." 2 Thessalonians 3:3
Would I go into the cold? Would I get distracted by 100 other things on my way? Would I leave my parents...a bunch of shepherds...the world....waiting?
Luckily Mar and Joe aren't/weren't waiting for me...or you. They were waiting for the promise to arrive. The one that would come and make sense of the confusion, overcome the evil, guard them from the cold. And that one arrived.
And that one is arriving.
Are you standing waiting? Are thinking that your "cold" might be too cold for this One? Are you feeling like the Promise is on someone else's desk?
"The Lord is faithful; he will strengthen you and guard you from the evil one."
May you be surprised in your cold, dumbfounded at your desk, overwhelmed in the midst of the evil that surrounds you. Because He has been there. He is present.
"To us a Son is born....to us...a Son is given."
Faithful.
Lord, amaze me again. Amen
Still in One Peace,
ps
(I've got this little thing going on the 24th and then some time off, so I won't be posting devo's until next year. If you don't have a place to celebrate the birth of this Promise on Christmas Eve, I want to invite you to Zion to celebrate with us. Check out www.zionontheweb.com for our worship times. I hope we'll see you!)
Pastor Steve Biegner
Tuesday, 15 December 2009
My mom was up this past weekend from North Carolina so we celebrated the first of our five Christmas present opening sessions this December. It was a solid start to the gift giving season. We're two days removed from the first gifts being unwrapped and nothing has broken yet. I consider that a success.
Usually each Christmas, there are a sampling of gifts that break before the visiting gift givers even leave the house to return home! It's not that the gift givers are buying junk...it's just that the junk isn't "made like it use to be!"
Face it...we don't take the microwaves to be fixed anymore, we throw them to the curb and buy a new one. Shoes rarely go to the shoe repair shop, we just head to the Mall for a replacement pair. This fall, my lawnmower needed a tune up, oil change and some new "make it go forward" part and the guy at the repair shop said I could get a brand new one for $10 more! $10 more! It just isn't fiscally responsible to repair the old when you can start over with the new...and you don't even have to break the bank to do it!
What if our Creator was like this?
What if the stuff we got ourselves into couldn't be handled anymore by the Savior?
What if the direction we needed in our life couldn't be handled by the Holy Spirit?
What if the things we messed up couldn't be forgiven by the loving Father in heaven?
Would we get tossed to the curb? A broken old toy...an old appliance that couldn't...shouldn't be worked on?
"The Lord God will not fail you or forsake you, until all the work for the service of the house of the Lord is finished." 1 Chronicles 28:20
Advent tells us again that God is NOT done with us. God's work with us is not complete. If it were, I would not be typing and you would not be reading.
Christ coming into our world is a clear sign that our Father in heaven wants to continue to work on us...in us..and through us. We're very lucky that God does not treat us like I treat my mower. "Oh I could get rid of Steve, with all his dysfunction and messed up parts and not-going-forward-ness and get a new one...for $10!" says God. "Wahoo! Can I get him in the color blue?"
No. God spends way more than that. To work on us. To forgive us. To love us. To prove to us we are not alone. To show us that he wants to fix us up.
So he breaks the bank...and does the thing that make no fiscal sense...he sends his Son...for us.
Lord, thanks for not kicking me to the curb. Amen
Still in One Peace,
ps
Tuesday, 08 December 2009
"Show me a sign of your favor." Psalm 6:17
Wouldn't more signs be great!
We sang this great song in worship this weekend called "I Wonder As I Wander." Great song, a little tricky to sing, but that first line is a keeper..."I wonder as I wander out under the sky."
It summarizes my day sometimes. I wonder about a lot of things along the journey of faith and would love more of those sign posts to describe what I was seeing, why I was seeing it and what to do about it. And yet, sometimes on that very journey we don't leave any time to do any of that wondering as we are wandering.
That's usually me. I'm a fairly scheduled person as I begin my day so that I can get everything done. Today has not been either...scheduled...or getting "things" done. Everything I scheduled to get in today has changed and nothing I was "supposed" to get done has even really started. (In fact, this is the second time I wrote these devotions because the first time I wrote them on my Blackberry, it deleted them! Yeah, thanks)
I was supposed to do three different things this morning when last night Michelle's car, which I am driving for the week, has started to fully implode, so I had to take it to our mechanic to get it looked at. He, of course, gave me bad news, so I had to drive to another place to get another piece of it fixed. On the way to the second place, I drove past a woman in an SUV pulled over into a parking lot whose engine seemed to be at a gentle boil, smoking like crazy! I pulled in, checked it out and found that it wasn't on fire...her radiator hose clamp let loose and leaked all her fluid on the fairly warm engine causing enough smoke to send the Gettysburg address via smoke signals.
Being the mechanic that I am (ha!!), I grabbed a screwdriver, replaced the clamp, tightened it up and refilled the radiator with fluid that happened to be rolling around in my car that I just put in for Michelle. While I was playing Mr. Goodwrench, the woman and I got to talking. She was almost in tears because she had to get to these tests at the hospital and couldn't wait for a tow truck to show up.
As my schedule for the day (the so called "important things") was also melting down before my eyes, it was then that I wondered why I wandered into this woman's story. I don't think it was to fix her car, despite my mad mechanic skills. I think it was to listen to her hurts and worries. She needed someone to listen to her concerns about her health....her future...her stress. She was wandering...and very much wondering. I told her I'd keep her in prayer this morning as she had her tests.
I finished up, closed her hood, got her back in her truck and followed her to the hospital.
Nice sign God.
Are you wondering and wandering today?
Are you looking for a sign of God's favor for you? For the world around you?
Are you clinging to your schedule, trying to hold it together?
I wonder if Mary and Joseph had a schedule? A plan? When did they fully "get" this sign and understand that God had broken in?
Do you get it? Do I?
Well maybe your schedule doesn't allow for it? Maybe your ministry is too focused on one thing? Maybe, if you're like me, you try and micromanage God and tell him what you are going to accomplish in your day today?
Although, I think...if you look around as you are wondering and wandering, you might see some smoke...you might need a screwdriver...or maybe you might be needed to just listen..or pray.
Maybe your smoke looks like a friend who needs you? Or a person who loves you that is missing you very much and would love to talk? Or a neighbor that you think might be struggling during this holiday season? Or maybe a stranger...in a parking lot...with a hood up?
I thought I was watching my schedule dissolve today...the "things" I needed to get done. I was actually...and it was a good thing.
Because it let God show me another sign as I wandered.
Could you let that happen too?
Lord, thank for your signs as I wonder and wander. Amen
Still in One Peace,
ps
Wednesday, 02 December 2009
Friends,
We're on Day 2 of Biegner Winter and it started with a bang again yesterday! Wahoo. Snow. And more coming Friday! So if someone asked me how I was doing today...I would say this with a smile..."I'm SteveBiegnerful. Thanks for asking!"
Some English teacher will have to help me out here, but by adding a "ful" to the end of our names...does that make us an adjective? Or a modifier? Or some other grammatical thinger I don't know?
I was starting up another YouTube account yesterday (I have three or four but can never remember my name or password) and I put in stevebiegner as the suggested user name. When it prompted me to ask if that name was available (you'd think it would be, but there is another Steve Biegner out there in Massachusetts...Shout Out to Steve in Mass..Heyyyy), it said it was taken. But it offered these as possible substitutions: "stevebiegnerful"...and even "stevebiegnerable!"
I thought, "How great! I do feel SteveBiegnerful today! So there it is." (SteveBiegnerable will be another devo's for another day!)
How are you today? (insert your name)ful, I hope.
What does it mean to be SteveBiegnerful? It means I'm trying to be me today and live today out with life...with God!
"Now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how can you turn back again to the weak and beggarly elemental spirits?" Galatians 4:9
Paul was encouraging the people who lived in Galatia to live their lives out to the fullest...in God...the way that God intended. Now is this the first time he's telling them? No...we assume that he was there in person and with some of his preacher-helpers, but now he's writing to encourage them again. To live out their lives as loved children of God, turning from the garbage of life and living out fullness.
Maybe at the end of his letter it didn't get written down that Paul asked them....so really, how are you?...and maybe they replied..."You know Pauly, I'm DudeThatLivesInGalatiaFul" The good news of God in our midst has the potential to change us, fill us...ful us!
Maybe we all need to be reminded today...written to...that there is some fullness in THIS day to live out. There is some godliness to follow through with. There is some forgiveness to offer today. There is some conversation to share. There is some food that needs to be presented to another who is hungry. That there is....today.
And this day won't just unfold by itself, like some wind through the trees. It presents itself through me. And you. Thus, making me SteveBiegnerful and you...Youful.
So if you haven't already, restart your account today and make your name "ful".
Lord, help me live out today to the fullest!
Still in One Peace,
ps
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